On 12th December, former MP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra was reportedly issued a notice to vacate her official bungalow.
As per a report by Financial Express, the Housing Committee of Parliament forwarded the notice to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, asking Moitra to vacate her official residence.
The decision was reportedly taken after expulsion from Lok Sabha in a cash-for-query case. She was expelled based on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha on 8th December.
A notice has been issued to Mahua Moitra to vacate the bungalow as she is no longer a member of Parliament.
Earlier, expelled Mahua Moitra moved the Supreme Court against her expulsion.
Moitra has already approached the Supreme Court to challenge her expulsion from Lok Sabha.
Mahuagate: TMC MP Mahua Moitra faces allegations of ‘cash for query’
On 8th December, Lok Sabha expelled Trinamool Congress’s MP Mahua Moitra based on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee in a cash-for-query case. Moitra was expelled hours after the Ethics Committee report was tabled in Lok Sabha.
On 14th October, the Indian political scene experienced a major tremor as BJP MP Nishkant Dubey wrote to the ethics committee seeking an inquiry against TMC MP Mahua Moitra in the ‘Cash for Query’ matter. He based his complaint on the letter written by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who alleged that most of the questions asked by the TMC MP in Lok Sabha directly or indirectly benefit businessman Darshan Hiranandani. Dehadrai also accused Moitra of “kidnapping” his pet dog Henry, adding another layer of complications to Mahuagate.
Moitra filed a case against Dubey and Dehadrai but never denied accepting gifts. Interestingly, she has also been accused of sharing her Lok Sabha credentials with Hiranandani so he can post questions independently. Hiranandani has reportedly turned approver in the case and submitted an affidavit suggesting the allegations against Moitra are true.
The Ahmedabad Police have arrested Gujarat Congress leader Hiten Pithadiya for sharing an obscene picture of a porn hero, projecting him as the priest of the under-construction Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The Uttar Pradesh police have also initiated action against the leader for malicious posts against the Ram Mandir priest.
On 11th December, Congress party leader Hiten Pithadiya shared some inappropriate photographs on social media and claimed that the person in the photographs was Mohit Pandey from Ghaziabad, who has been recently appointed as the priest for the Ram Lalla Temple being built in Ayodhya. Notably, since Pandey’s appointment, a malicious campaign has been running against him on social media.
Source: X
Apart from Pithaidya, several other X handles shared the same fake photos.
Source: X
Source: X
Pithadiya is the head of the Scheduled Caste Morch of Gujarat Congress. In his post on X, he posted photographs of a person seen in an objectionable position with a woman. He wrote, “Is this the priest of Ayodhya Ram Temple?”
The assertions were made based on the fact that the person in the photographs was wearing tilak and sandalwood. Earlier, real pictures of Pandey were shared on social media where he was wearing tilak and sandalwood. Pithadiya and others made fake claims based on the common factors of tilak and sandalwood. In reality, the person in the photograph was not Pandey.
Following the controversy, Hindus on social media shared screenshots of the objectionable tweets. They urged police in Ayodhya and Ahmedabad to take strict action against those spreading the disinformation against Mohit Pandey.
प्रभारी निरीक्षक साइबर सेल को आवश्यक जॉच व नियमानुसार विधिक कार्यवाही हेतु निर्देशित किया गया।
It was evident that Pithadiya shared the photographs because of his bias against the Ram Temple and the newly appointed priest Mohit Pandey. Following the backlash, Pithadiya deleted his tweets. However, by that time, the damage was done. Both Ayodhya Police and Ahmedabad Police initiated action against Pithadiya.
Journalist Janak Dave said in a post on X that Ahmedabad Cyber Cell arrested Pithadiya under Sections 469, 509, 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant IT Act.
The Cyber Crime Branch of the Ahmedabad police apprehended the Congress leader on charges of disseminating manipulated images featuring a woman and the Ayodhya priest on various social media platforms.
Verifying the information, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime, Ajit Rajian informed Deccan Herald that Hitendra Pithadiya has been arrested on charges of sharing deepfake images of the woman. The charges include 469 (forgery), 509 (intending to insult the modesty of a woman), 295 A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), and relevant sections of the Information and Technology Act.
Who is Mohit Pandey
Mohit Pandey is a young priest selected to serve at the Ram Lalla Temple built in Ayodhya. Pandey studied at the Dudheshwar Vedic University in Ghaziabad for seven years. He earned his Shastri degree, equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree, from Shri Venkateshwara Vedic University, associated with the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in Tirupati. He completed his master’s degree while studying Samaveda. Furthermore, he is also a scholar of the Ramanandi tradition and has expertise in Vedas, Shastras and Sanskrit.
“Narendra Modi and Uddhav Thackeray met in June 2021. At that time, Uddhav Thackeray had promised Modi that he would leave the Mahavikas Aghadi and form the government with the BJP,” revealed Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar, the Shinde faction MLA while the Shiv Sena MLA disqualification hearing was underway. Deepak Kesarkar was cross-examined after Uday Samant in the Assembly on 11th December. He brought up the behind-the-scenes events that took place to form the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance at that time.
The hearing of the Shiv Sena MLA disqualification case is underway before Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar. Uday Samant was cross-examined on Monday morning (11th December) and after that, Cabinet Minister Deepak Kesarkar was cross-examined.
“I raised the issue of Shiv Sena Party’s objectives and ideology. I had changed Uddhav Thackeray’s mind by saying that BJP is a like-minded party and we should go with the alliance,” Kesarkar said while in the Assembly.
As per the Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, the then-chief minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on 8th June 2021. Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister, and Ashok Chavan, a Cabinet Minister, were both present. The three leaders’ meeting with Prime Minister Modi came to an end. Following that, Modi and Thackeray had a meeting.
Uddhav Thackeray was going to join hands with the BJP and leave the Maha Vikas Aghadi. He had also sought 15 days after his meeting with Prime Minister Modi. However, he arranged to send a message to Prime Minister Modi through me to ask for more time. He wanted some time to explain the decision to the alliance members. I arranged for his message to reach Delhi. Most of the Shiv Sena leaders wanted to be in alliance with BJP, Kesarkar revealed.
Kesarkar further asserted that Uddhav Thackeray took a lot of time in making the decision and hence, he disclosed the information to some senior party leaders including Subhash Desai, Anil Desai and Eknath Shinde. “I asked them to request Uddhav Thackeray to decide at the earliest”, Kesarkar said in cross-examination.
The Supreme Court on 30th October ordered Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide on the disqualification petitions against Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and MLAs supporting him by 31st December. Earlier to that, the court had pulled up Narwekar for delaying the adjudication of the disqualification petitions. The court said it would fix a timeline if the speaker fails to submit a revised schedule expediting the process.
The court also issued a warning that a decision on the disqualification pleas should taken before the next assembly elections, otherwise, the whole process would become pointless.
After Shinde and 39 MLAs broke away from the parent party and sided with the BJP to form the government in 2022, the Sena factions filed an abundance of disqualification petitions against each other.
In July, the speaker summoned 40 MLAs from the Shinde-led Sena and 14 from the Thackeray faction to respond to disqualification petitions filed against them. A total of 54 MLAs were served with the notices.
On May 11, this year, the Supreme Court determined that Shinde would remain as Maharashtra’s chief minister. It also stated that it could not reinstate Thackeray’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government because he chose to resign without facing a floor test in the aftermath of Shinde’s rebellion.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) however accused Narwekar of purposefully delaying a decision on the disqualification petitions.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea filed by former Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah against a family court order denying him a divorce from his wife Payal Abdullah.
Delhi’s Patiala House Court on August 30, 2016 dismissed his petition seeking divorce on the grounds of cruelty. He filed the plea in 2013.
They got married In September 1994 but have been living apart since 2009. The couple has two sons.
The division bench, comprising justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Vikas Mahajan, upheld the family court order and dismissed the appeal challenging it.
While dismissing the appeal, the division bench said it found no infirmity in the family court order denying divorce to him.
The high court also said the allegations of cruelty by Omar Abdullah against Payal are vague.
The bench noted further that the appellant failed to prove any act of cruelty, whether physical or mental, by Payal Abdullah.
The high court dismissed the appeal, finding it without merit.
The family court had dismissed his petition, stating that he failed to prove the claims of cruelty or desertion. (ANI)
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
A day after The Washington Postcarried out a hit job on Indian OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) handle ‘Disinfo Lab’, it has come to light that some of the outlandish claims made by the American newspaper bear an uncanny resemblance to conspiracy theories peddled by a Pakistani website.
In an attempt to de-legitimise ‘Disinfo Lab’, The Washington Post claimed on Sunday (10th December) that the OSINT handle is run by an Indian Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer named Lt. Col. Dibya Satpathy.
Although it relied on word salad, insinuations, ‘source-based’ allegations and dubious ‘experts’, the American newspaper failed to provide any empirical evidence that could dispute any claims of ‘Disinfo Lab.’
Screengrab of the article on ‘Pakistan Defence’ website
Interestingly, a large part of the purported ‘investigation’ by The Washington Post on the Indian OSINT handle appears to be based on conspiracy theories peddled by a website named ‘Pakistan Defence.’
In an article titled ‘Disinfo Lab – A Disinformation Project of Indian RA&W’, published by the website in February 2022, a staff writer Amaa’n relied on outlandish claims made by ‘journalist’ Aveek Sen to draw links between ‘Disinfo Lab’ and Indian Intelligence.
The ‘Pakistan Defence’ article made references to Lt. Colonel Dibya Satpathy, Ajayendra Tripathi, and BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga – all of whom appear prominently in the propaganda piece of The Washington Post.
Screengrab of the propaganda piece in The Washington Post
Aveek Sen – The primary source of disinformation
The Pakistani website presented the accusations of Aveek Sen, an abusive troll, as the ‘gospel truth.’
In the tweet from 2013 that went viral, Aveek Sen was seen quoting TimesNow, saying that Mamata Banerjee had called the Barasat rapists ‘CPIM supporters’. To that, Aveek Sen had responded saying “Its high time these cpm supporters rape Mamata!”
Aveek Sen makes disgusting comment
Prior to deleting his account, Aveek Sen had made several dergatory comments targeting women. A few of his archived misogynist tweets can be seen here –
Screengrab of the tweets
Screengrab of the tweets
In several of his tweets, Aveek Sen was seen referring to women as ‘prostitutes.’
Screengrab of the tweets
Source: Twitter
Despite his questionable character and dwindling credibility, Sen’s misleading tweets on ‘Disinfo Lab’ became the primary fodder for both ‘Pakistani Defence’ and ‘The Washington Post’. Interestingly, he had also collaborated with the likes of propaganda outlets such as Newslaundry.
The uncanny resemblance between claims by ‘Pakistani Defence’ and The Washington Post
“And the making of Indian fake disinfo lab, copying the famous eu disinfo lab that exposed hundreds and thousands of fake Indian websites (By author Aveek sen),” read a line from the article on ‘Pakistan Defence.’
Coincidentally, a similar language is used in the report published by The Washington Post. “Another person, a former employee, said the Disinfo Lab named and modelled itself after groups such as the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and the EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based nonprofit that researches disinformation targeting Europe,” it claimed.
It claimed, “Some of the fronts, setup by Colonel Dibya Satpathy, per Aveek Sen’s revelation, include: Root N Wings Media, situated at B-3, Bali’s, Near BSES Office, Arya Samaj Mandir, Lajpat Nagar 2, Delhi. Flat A-20, Lajpat Nagar 3, near Ring Road, Delhi.”
Screengrab of the tweet by Aveek Sen
Interestingly, the claims made it to the report of The Washington Post as well. “The Disinfo Lab, which at one point consisted of about a dozen private contractors working out of a four-story whitewashed building on a leafy street in New Delhi,” the leftist newspaper wrote.
In another paragraph, it said, “The office operated under the name Root and Wings Media.” Based on Aveek Sen’s tweets, the shady Pakistani website alleged that Lt. Colonel Dibya Satpathy had been campaigning against the country on the behest of R&AW and BJP.
Both websites targeted a social media company
OpIndia found yet another uncanny resemblance in the report of The Washington Post where it said, “The Disinfo Lab itself was headed by Satpathy, whose work has focused mostly on countering Pakistan.”
“The Disinfo Lab’s activities show how the online propaganda campaigns waged by the BJP and its allies have been expanding beyond their traditional, domestic aims of shoring up popular support and denigrating opposition parties — and now seek to influence attitudes far beyond India’s borders,” the American newspaper claimed in another part of the article.
Both The Washington Post and ‘Pakistan Defence’ made specific references to ‘Root Wings Media’ and characterised it as a ‘social media marketing company/ campaign agency.’
“The company has no more than ten employees, typical of an intelligence front,” the Pakistani website said. And this is what the American newspaper claimed – “The Disinfo Lab, which at one point consisted of about a dozen private contractors.”
Washington Post and Pakistan Defence ‘fixated’ on USCIRF criticism
Both The Washingon Post and ‘Pakistan Defence’ targeted targeted the ‘Disinfo Lab’ for exposing the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and its biased reporting on India, which is often used to cast aspersions on Indian democracy.
“Some of the investigative reports published by this website include one aiming to discredit the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,” wrote ‘Pakistan Defence.’
“The Disinfo Lab often cites publicly available U.S. lobbying and campaign finance records and produces complex flowcharts to illustrate alleged relationships. But the group draws tenuous connections, claiming, for instance, that a USCIRF commissioner was influenced by Islamists because she once worked on a conservative fundraising committee alongside a lobbyist who went on to represent Muslim American groups,” claimed The Washington Post.
In February this year, OpIndia reported in detail about the ties of former USCIRF Commissioner Anurima Bhargava to far-left billionaire George Soros. We also exposed how the controversial body has relied on the dubious ‘Tek Fog’ story to make insinuations about India.
‘Pakistan Defence’ goes one step ahead
The Washington Post ensured to not include all conspiracy theories to set its ‘investigative article’ apart from that of ‘Pakistan Defence.’ The Pakistani website had even dubbed popular member and dermatologist Neelam Singh aka ‘The Skin Doctor’ as an aide to R&AW officer Lt. Colonel Dibya Satpathy.
“The Evil nexus of Col Dibya Satpathy Indian ex-military intelligence officer and bjp troll farms. To (sic) manufacture and spread propaganda and misinformation with the help of Major Neelam “Neel” Kumari alias “The Skin Doctor”, Major Gaurav Arya,” it claimed.
‘Pakistan Defence’ accused ‘The Skin Doctor’ of carrying out the ‘evil nexus’ of supposed ‘Disinfo Lab’ founder and Indian Intelligence officer
Other ‘sources’ of Washington Post
The Washington Post did not copy-paste the outrageous claims about ‘Disinfo Lab’ only from ‘Pakistan Defence’ but another Pakistani-based website named ‘Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research (CSCR).
Interestingly, CSCR published another misleading piece on ‘Disinfo Lab’ a year before that of ‘Pakistan Defence.’ Habitual fake news peddler and anti-Hindu activist CJ Werleman had made similar insinuations about the Indian OSINT handle in February last year.
First, the claim of our association with Govt agencies/ RAW. The report is essentially a recycle of previous reports published by Pakistani ISPR/ Info-war machinery. The report is periodically recycled, last by known fake news peddler CJ Werleman.
In November 2021, CJ Werleman had appealed to boycott Indian products to supposedly ‘save’ Muslims in India and Kashmir. Before that, he had tweeted a video of Pramod Muthalik, the chief of the Hindu activist group Shri Rama Sene, to allege that he called for violence against Muslims and the demolition of a mosque in Karnataka.
Earlier, he claimed Indians had destroyed a Muslim graveyard in Himachal Pradesh, which was also fake news. In August 2021 when the Islamist group Taliban took over Afghanistan, Werleman was caught spreading Taliban propaganda. In September 2021, he called for ‘regime decapitation’ strikes against India.
The Print, run by Shekhar Guptahad eulogised Werleman in a profile describing him as a ‘bigot-turned-crusader against ‘Islamophobia’ who is taking on the Indian state’.
Since every anti-India propagandist is a potential source of The Washington Post, there will surely be no dearth of more anti-India hit pieces ahead of the 2024 elections.
Response of Disinfo Lab on the Controversy
While hitting out at The Washington Post, ‘Disinfo Lab’ pointed out that the only difference in its article and past hitjobs against it is the addition of unnamed sources.
“The only ‘upgrade’ the WaPo did was to make this Pakistani allegation ‘anonymous’. And whatever is in addition to that is again attributed to ‘anonymous’ sources. Hence, literally, every fact claimed is ‘anonymous’. The report has more than 10 anonymous sources,” it added.
As pointed out earlier by OpIndia, The Washington Post failed to refute any assertions made by ‘Disinfo Lab.’ It also noted, “While, in their questions to us and other people, WaPo journalists have themselves noted that our claims are factually correct! (thanks for acknowledgement), they alleged that we make ‘tenuous claims’, and cited a few examples.”
While calling out the bluff of the leftist newspaper, Disinfo Lab concluded that The Washington Post is overrated. “It is not surprising that people who don’t understand OSINT are baffled by our reporting. It is especially hard for legacy media journos – Indian and foreign alike, who have known journalism only as handouts from sources. Agencies are overrated. OSINT is underrated,” it emphasised.
Three policemen have been killed and 16 injured as terrorists rammed an explosive-laden car into a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, ARY News reported on Tuesday.
ARY News is a Pakistani news channel.
According to the police, the rebels rammed a car full of explosives at the main gate of DI Khan’s Daraban police station. As a result, three cops named Havaldar, Riyasat and Sepoy Zulfiqar were killed.
Meanwhile, the police also shot two terrorists during an exchange of fire as they tried to enter the premises.
The police station’s roof collapsed as a result of the attack.
The injured were shifted to DI Khan Hospital, the police said, adding that Daraban Tehsil has been completely cordoned off. Heavy contingents of police have reached the spot, as per ARY News.
Scheduled papers at schools and colleges in Tehsil Draban have been cancelled following the terror attack.
As per ARY News, this is not the first time that a police station in Dera Ismail Khan has been attacked. Earlier in October, a police station in KP’s Dera Ismail Khan district came under attack in which terrorists also used hand grenades and rockets.
An attack was carried out on Dera Ismail Khan’s Hathala police station from two sides, leaving two cops wounded. However, the police repulsed the attack and forced the attackers to flee.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
In an interview published by The Red Mike on 12th December, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr Raghuram Rajan, gave a bizarre “context” to the unaccounted cash recovered from Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu. Dr Rajan claimed that the opposition parties are “forced” to use illicit money because electoral bonds provide an unequal playing field favouring the ruling party.
In his question, Sanket Upadhyay asked Dr Rajan about his views on electoral bonds, citing the statement given by former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg at Idea Exchange. Garg thoroughly explained why electoral bonds were introduced and what the ill effects of removing them from the system would be. Sanket asked Dr Rajan about his views on the statement where Garg said that if electoral bonds are removed, it will be cash on the streets yearly in the political process.
Dr Rajan asserted electoral bonds are an utterly non-transparent way of financing. Parties receive funds, and what they get is not known to anyone. In case an industrialist gives 1,000 crores to a party, the public can never know. He further called it a “bad way of financing elections” as the only people who know who donated what are the State Bank of India. He claimed that in India, it is hard to maintain secrets, and the ruling party can find the information of the business houses that donated to the opposition parties.
Dr Rajan speaks on the Dheeraj Sahu cash recovery in the context of Electoral Bonds. Do listen to his views below.
Dr Rajan said, “I do not say it happens, but the ruling party can call up the people who gave money to the opposition parties and ask them why they donated to so and so party.” He further claimed that this is why opposition parties must use cash instead of electoral bonds. “Elections are fought on money,” he added.
Furthermore, he said that for the elections, the ruling party could use agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department, and the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct raids against the leaders of the opposition parties. For example, in the recent attacks against Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, Dr Rajan asserted that the money could have been used to fight elections.
What is notable here is that even the Congress party could not develop this bizarre theory. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh categorically stated the party had nothing to do with the money recovered from premises linked to Sahu. While the Congress party distanced itself from the controversy, Dr Rajan felt it necessary to explain why so much cash was stored at premises linked to Sahu.
There was no progress because UPA 2 lacked a majority
Dr Rajan, who joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra last year on the economy, came out in defence of UPA-2 and claimed that the country did not progress much during 2009-2014 because UPA-2 was not in the majority. He said that Goods and Service Tax (GST) was introduced during UPA-2 but could not be implemented as opposition parties opposed it. UPA-2 was not in the majority, so it could not be made a law. Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in opposition then.
Can you believe?
Raghuram Rajan now says policy paralysis of UPA 2 was fault of opposition!
He is crying that UPA did not have big enough majority
LOL… Nehru dynasty had big majorities for 40 years… they took India's economy DOWN from 6th to 12th largest! pic.twitter.com/XlLfXhz9xJ
In a way, he blamed the BJP for the “policy paralysis” during UPA-2. Rajan said, “Parliament was not allowed to function. You can’t solely point a finger and say nothing happened. There was partial paralysis; that was was opposition-led also.”
Who is Dhiraj Prasad Sahu
Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is a Rajya Sabha MP for Congress from Jharkhand. His family has been associated with the Congress party since independence. He became Rajya Sabha MP in by-polls in 2009 for the first time. In 2010, he was re-elected as RS MP for the second time; in 2018, he was re-elected for RS by Congress for the third time.
Dhiraj Sahu actively participates in parliamentary proceedings. Sahu was also part of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. In recent raids at Odisha-based Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd, where Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is a partner, the Income Tax Department recovered over 400 cr of unaccounted cash. Congress Party has distanced itself from their own MP after the recovery of the cash.
Students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University can face a fine of Rs 20,000 for resorting to violence, holding dharnas, and hunger strikes on the campus and a fine of up to Rs 10,000 for raising anti-national slogans and inciting intolerance towards religion, caste or community.
The JNU Students’ Discipline and Conduct Rule has been issued following the approval by the highest decision-making body of the university on November 24.
A Chief Proctor Office manual listed the “rules of discipline and proper conduct of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University”.
The document accessed by ANI said, “It was strongly felt to review the existing disciplinary rules and regulations of the office of the Chief Proctor. There are no substantially approved rules and regulations on proper conduct and discipline of students by the statutory body (i.e Executive Council) of JNU in vogue.”
The pamphlet mentioned that a student (repeat offender) would be expelled if he or she was awarded 5 (five) or more punishments during the entire duration of the study.
Punishments have been listed for 28 types of “misconduct”, including blockage, indulging in gambling, unauthorised occupation of hostel rooms, use of abusive and derogatory language and committing forgery.
For hunger strikes, dharnas, group bargaining and any other form of protest by blocking the entrance or exit of any of the academic and/or administrative complexes or disrupting the movements of any member of the University community, a fine of up to Rs 20,000 will be levied.
Students can be fined up to Rs 6,000 for holding events without prior permission, and/or they may have to carry out JNU Community Service.
For printing, circulating or pasting posters/pamphlets (text or picture) carrying derogatory religious, communal, casteist or anti-national remarks and any activity that incites intolerance towards religion, caste or community and/or anti-national in nature which disturbs the peaceful atmosphere on the campus, a student can be fined upto Rs 10,000.
The JNU Students Union has condemned the new manual saying it is aimed at stifling the vibrant campus culture that has defined the university for decades.
“Such excessive regulations are intended to discourage open discussions, dissent, and intellectual exploration, which are fundamental to the spirit of our university. According to the new manual, protests before any academic building can lead to rustication, eviction from the hostel and a fine of Rs 20,000. Moreover, a student who commits any act that the JNU Admin considers to be of moral turpitude can be fined up to Rs 10,000,” the statement read. (ANI)
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
On Monday (11th December), the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested 3 persons identified as Satyam Mishra, Suhail, and Mohammad Aslam for gangraping a 22-year-old daughter of a former state government official. The arrest was made within 12 hours after the girl filed a police complaint at the Wazirganj police station.
According to the reports, the incident is said to have happened on 5th December in the Barabanki region of Uttar Pradesh. The police arrested the accused from near Sunni Inter College in the Bazarkhala area around 12:45 am on Monday (11th December). An FIR under IPC sections including 376D (gang rape), 342, 323, 504, 506 against the three accused Satyam Mishra (22), Mohammad Suhail (23) and Mohammad Alam (31) has also been registered at the Wazirganj Police Station.
Rahul Raj, DCP (west) confirmed the horrific event. He said that the incident happened last week when the girl had arrived at the King George Medical University (KGMU) for her therapy session. She was undergoing treatment for depression at the University’s Psychiatry Department.
“She was acquainted with Satyam who owned a tea stall near the Unversity. On the fateful day, when she was at the tea stall, the woman asked the latter to get her phone charged. Taking advantage of her medical condition, Satyam suggested that he would get it charged in an ambulance that was parked nearby. On his suggestion, the woman put her mobile phone on charging and waited for it to complete,” the DCP said.
Meanwhile, the driver of the ambulance took away the vehicle from service to transport a patient. When the woman inquired Satyam about her phone hours later, he informed her that the ambulance was at Daliganj. Satyam went to Daliganj with the woman and called an ambulance operator who was at the IT crossing by then.
When the woman and Satyam arrived at IT crossing in an e-rickshaw, the latter returned her phone. However, the girl was forced by Satyam and the other two accused including the ambulance operator and two tea vendors who were present at the IT crossing to sit in a silver car. According to the DCP, Satyam and his aides then force-fed her intoxicants and liquor.
The accused then brutally gang-raped the woman in the vehicle between the IT crossing in Hasanganj and Safedabad in Barabanki. They are also said to have shot derogatory videos of the woman and also filmed the entire incident.
“Satyam and his aides threatened to throw me out of the car if I did not follow their order. He filmed the act…I touched his feet and pleaded to delete the video and asked them to drop me at the house of my friend in Sector 9 Indira Nagar. They dropped me at Munshipulia and fled the scene,” the woman stated in her complaint.
Police confirmed that the accused kept driving the car around the city for hours while they raped her and filmed the incident. FIR under sections 376D (gang rape), 342, 323, 504, and 506 of the IPC has been registered against the accused Satyam, Mohammed Suhail, and Mohammed Aslam. The Police also recovered the Wagon-R car which was used by the accused to execute the crime along with two mobile phones and cash around Rs 19,830. Further probe is underway.
Harvard University President Dr Claudine Gay who is barely out of one controversy is now facing a new charge. A report has alleged that Dr Gay plagiarised parts of her 1997 Ph.D. thesis.
City Journal writer Christopher F Rufo, along with contributing editor of American Conservative Magazine Chris Brunet, released parts of the thesis and contrasted it with another paper.
EXCLUSIVE: @RealChrisBrunet and I have obtained documentation demonstrating that Harvard President Claudine Gay plagiarized multiple sections of her Ph.D. thesis, violating Harvard's policies on academic integrity.
The duo alleged that Gay has lifted an entire paragraph “nearly verbatim” from a paper by Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam’s, while passing it off as her own paraphrase and language. They substantiated this by sharing an image of the part in question and contrasting it with the study they claim Gay copied from.
First, Gay lifts an entire paragraph nearly verbatim from a paper by Lawrence Bobo and Franklin Gilliam’s, while passing it off as her own paraphrase and language.
This is a direct violation of Harvard's policy: "When you paraphrase, your task is to distill the source’s ideas… pic.twitter.com/t6enHp3dN9
In the thread post on X, Rufo and Brunet alleged that Gay had violated Harvard’s policy on plagiarism throughout her thesis document “using the work by Bobo and Gilliam as well as passages from Richard Shingles, Susan Howell, and Deborah Fagan, which she reproduces nearly verbatim, without quotation marks”.
Gay repeats this violation of Harvard's policy throughout the document, again using work from Bobo and Gilliam, as well as passages from Richard Shingles, Susan Howell, and Deborah Fagan, which she reproduces nearly verbatim, without quotation marks. pic.twitter.com/K75YPeZwky
They pointed out that at some parts Gay has not used quote marks while copying language from material published by Carol Swain. The appendix, they alleged, is taken directly from a book by Gary King.
Later in the paper, Gay also uses identical language to Swain, without adding quotation marks, as required. "Since the 1950s the reelection rate for House members has rarely dipped below 90 percent," reads Swain’s book, which is the same, excepting an added comma, to the language… pic.twitter.com/p6aM8776Hh
Rufo said that Harvard’s policy states that “students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College.
These are flagrant violations of Harvard's plagiarism policy, which states that students who commit plagiarism will suffer "disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College." The same standard should apply to the university president. pic.twitter.com/Q2UviANylT
“Students who have been found responsible for any violation of these standards will not be permitted to submit course evaluation of the course in which the infraction occurred,” the policy states.
Rufo demanded that the same policy should be applied by Harvard to the university president too just as it does to the students.
Gay’s thesis advisor has reportedly called the accusation “absurd”. “There is not a conceivable case that this is plagiarism. Her dissertation and every draft I read of it met the highest academic standards,” said Professor Gary King.
This is the second such controversy in the past week that has plunged the credibility of Harvard University as well as its President.
Calls are being made demanding the removal of Dr Claudine Gay from the position of President of Harvard University after she refused to give a yes or no answer at a house committee hearing on antisemitism on campuses.
On 5th December at the congressional hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism” in Washington, DC, Congresswoman Elise Stafanik confronted the Presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT.
She asked, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the university’s code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment” demanding a yes or no answer.
Dr Claudine Gay responded saying that it “depends on the context”. She laid down the context when asked saying, “targeted as an individual, targeted at an individual”.
She added, “Antisemitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct, it amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct and we do take action.”
The Congresswoman reprimanded Gay and asked the latter to resign. She also said that the answers were unacceptable across the board owing to the similar replies given by the President of University of Penn Liz Magill and President of MIT, Sally Kornbluth.
Penn President Liz Magill was forced to resign from her position where as Gay has only issued an apology so far saying, “I am sorry. Words matter. When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret.”
“I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures. What I should have had the presence of mind to do at that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged. Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth,” Gay said.
However, as per reports, Harvard faculty members have put their weight behind Gay. A petition has been signed by more than 600 Harvard faculty members asking the governing body to not sack the President.
