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From evacuating 11 lakh Indians to ensuring LPG supply, navigating blockades and daily inter-ministerial briefings: Read how Modi govt is managing West Asia crisis

Shriti Sagar
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From evacuating 11 lakh Indians to ensuring LPG supply, navigating blockades and daily inter-ministerial briefings: Read how Modi govt is managing West Asia crisis

In the face of the intensifying conflict in West Asia, the Modi government has adopted a high-intensity, “war-footing” approach to ensure that the ripples of the crisis do not disturb the lives of ordinary Indians. One of the most visible signs of this seriousness is the frequency of high-level inter-ministerial meetings. Senior officials and ministers are gathering on a daily basis to review the situation in real-time. 

These aren’t just routine discussions; they are strategic sessions designed to reassure the public that the nation is safe and that essential supplies, ranging from food to fuel, remain untouched by the chaos in the Middle East. By maintaining this constant rhythm of oversight, the government is sending a clear message: every potential risk is being monitored, and every contingency is already in place.

The Inter-Ministerial response

The complexity of the West Asia crisis requires more than just diplomatic statements; it requires a synchronised effort across the entire machinery of the state. The union government is conducting daily inter-ministerial press briefings to inform about the government’s response to the crisis and also to answer questions on the issue. The briefings in New Delhi are being conducted by representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Ports and Shipping, and other ministries.

These briefings serve a dual purpose: they streamline the government’s internal response and provide the public with transparent, factual updates to prevent panic and misinformation.

The latest of these crucial briefings took place on Wednesday, 22nd April. This particular meeting served as an important checkpoint as the region approached a critical juncture in the geopolitical timeline. The central theme of the session was unwavering: the safety, security, and welfare of Indian nationals living and working in West Asia remain the highest priority for the Prime Minister. 

With the security situation evolving rapidly, the government utilised this meeting to fine-tune evacuation routes and support systems. It was emphasised that no Indian would be left behind, and the state’s resources are fully committed to protecting the millions of expatriates who form the backbone of India’s diaspora in the Gulf.

The massive evacuation effort: 11 Lakh passengers returned

Perhaps the most staggering achievement of the government’s intervention is the successful movement of over 11 lakh passengers back to India. As the two-week ceasefire window in West Asia draws to a close, the government has scaled up flight operations to a massive degree. 

Aseem Mahajan, Joint Secretary (Gulf) in the MEA, confirmed that approximately 11,30,000 passengers have travelled from the region to India since late February. This wasn’t a simple task; it required navigating closed airspaces and shifting routes daily. For instance, while some airspaces remained restricted, the government coordinated with airlines to run over 110 flights from the UAE in a single day. 

Similar efforts have kept channels open from Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar, ensuring that families are reunited despite the regional tension.

Navigating blockades and ensuring safe passage

The government’s strategy has been remarkably flexible, finding ways through even the most difficult diplomatic and geographical terrains. In Iran, where airspace has been partially restricted to cargo, the Indian Embassy in Tehran has been working tirelessly to move citizens, including over a thousand students and hundreds of fishermen, through Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

In Israel, where the situation is particularly volatile, India has facilitated travel through Jordan and Egypt. Even in countries like Kuwait, where the local airspace was closed, the government successfully coordinated with airlines to fly passengers out of nearby Dammam in Saudi Arabia. This level of granular, ground-level coordination shows that the Modi government is looking at every individual’s safety as a personal mission.

Diplomacy in action: NSA Doval and the MEA’s outreach

Beyond the logistics of evacuation, the government is engaging in high-stakes diplomacy to protect India’s long-term interests. MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal recently highlighted the strategic travels of India’s top leadership. 

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia focused on regional stability and the strengthening of bilateral ties during this period of “geopolitical realignment.” This follows visits by the External Affairs Minister to the UAE and the Petroleum Minister to Qatar. 

By maintaining active contact with all stakeholders, including Israel, Palestine, and Iran, the Modi government is ensuring that India’s voice is heard and its strategic and economic interests are shielded from the fallout of the conflict.

Fueling the Nation: Ensuring LPG and petrol stability

For the average Indian household, the most pressing concern during a Middle East conflict is the price and availability of fuel and cooking gas. The government has addressed this head-on. During the recent briefing, Sujata Sharma from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas confirmed that the supply of oil and gas remains completely uninterrupted. 

On a single day recently, over 45 lakh LPG bookings were registered, and a massive 51 lakh cylinders were delivered to doorsteps across the country. This indicates that the domestic supply chain is not just surviving but thriving. Despite the wild swings in global crude prices, the government’s proactive management has prevented any shortages of petrol, diesel, or PNG at the local level.

Protecting the vulnerable and the workers

The government has also gone the extra mile to look after those who might be most affected by supply disruptions. Awareness camps and an expanded distribution of 5 kg cylinders have been rolled out specifically to support migrant populations who might not have permanent gas connections. 

Furthermore, the welfare of Indian seafarers, the individuals working on the merchant ships in the Gulf, has been given high priority. Indian missions are in constant touch with local authorities to ensure these workers are safe and have the consular support they need to return home if they wish. The successful repatriation of 12 stranded seafarers from Iraq recently stands as a testament to the fact that no group is too small for the government’s attention.

Stabilising the seas: The ₹12,980 crore insurance shield

One of the quietest but most effective moves by the Modi government has been the stabilisation of shipping operations. When the Strait of Hormuz, an important passage for global trade, faced threats, the government didn’t just wait for things to settle. 

The govt approved a massive ₹12,980 crore Maritime Insurance Pool on 18th April. This move was important because it lowered the skyrocketing insurance rates that shipping companies were facing due to the conflict, ensuring that goods continued to flow into Indian ports without a massive spike in freight costs. 

Today, port operations across India are functioning normally, congestion has been cleared, and the flow of trade remains steady, proving that the government’s economic planning is as robust as its rescue operations.

A 24/7 safety net for every Indian

At the heart of all these efforts is a dedicated, round-the-clock infrastructure. The MEA has set up a special control room that never sleeps, coordinating with missions and posts to answer every query and provide timely advisories. 

Whether it is through the 120-plus flights running daily from the Gulf or the stabilisation of LPG prices at home, the Modi government’s response to the West Asia conflict has been defined by action rather than just words. 

The Wire questions SIR process in Uttar Pradesh over deletion of over 2 crore names: Here is how there is no “Riddle” and the voter list is now cleaner and stronger

OpIndia Staff
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The Wire questions SIR process in Uttar Pradesh over deletion of over 2 crore names: Here is how there is no “Riddle” and the voter list is now cleaner and stronger

An article published by The Wire on April 21, 2026, has raised questions about the massive deletion of nearly 2.05 crore names from Uttar Pradesh’s electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The piece suggests doubts over whether more than two crore ineligible voters had cast ballots in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, or if large numbers of genuine voters- especially women-were wrongly removed. It also highlights concerns regarding population growth, the declining sex ratio in the voter list, and the non-public availability of certain internal formats.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, the SIR exercise was neither a mystery nor a political conspiracy. It is a routine yet essential constitutional process under Article 326 of the Indian Constitution aimed at making electoral rolls pure, accurate, and error-free. The sole objective is simple and non-negotiable: no eligible Indian citizen should be left out, and no ineligible, duplicate, deceased, or shifted person should remain on the list.

Here is a point-by-point response to the main arguments in the article, based on the Election Commission’s official position and facts:

1. In 2024, there were 15.44 crore voters in UP. After SIR, the number dropped to 13.39 crore (about 2.05 crore names deleted)- Does this mean over two crore ineligible voters had voted in 2024?

The Election Commission’s answer is clear- no. The 2024 elections were conducted on the basis of the electoral rolls as they existed at that time. The SIR in 2025-26 involved intensive door-to-door verification to remove long-accumulated irregularities from the old lists. The main reasons for deletions were:

  • Permanently shifted or absent persons- nearly 2.17 crore
  • Deceased persons- nearly 46 lakh
  • Duplicate entries- nearly 25.5 lakh

These names had been lingering in the rolls for years without proper verification. Booth Level Officers carried out field checks using death certificates, transfer records, and other documents. This was a genuine cleanup exercise.

During the claims and objections period, as many as 70.69 lakh Form-6 applications (for inclusion of names) were received, with more applications coming from women than men.

2. The population of people aged 18 and above is increasing (around 15.58 crore in 2024 and 16.12 crore in 2026), so why did the number of voters decrease?

Population projections are only estimates. The SIR was based on actual ground-level door-to-door verification. Old rolls had accumulated a large number of dead, shifted, duplicate, and untraceable entries. Once these were removed after proper verification, the accurate figure emerged.

Moreover, in the final list, 84.28 lakh new names were added, taking the total to 13,39,84,792 voters. The total number of names deleted from the roll was actually 2.89 crore, and the net deletions became after the addition of 84.28 lakh new names. This means that youths who became voters recently were added to the voter list.

The Election Commission involved all political parties, appointed Special Roll Observers, and conducted verification through Booth Level Officers. The qualifying date was set as January 1, 2026. The entire process was carried out strictly as per Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and Article 324 of the Constitution.

3. There is no significant immigration from Bangladesh, so why were so many names deleted?

Deletions were primarily due to death, permanent migration to other states or districts, duplicate registrations, and failure to submit forms during verification. The Election Commission never targeted any particular community. Across the second phase of SIR covering 9 states and 3 Union Territories, there was an average reduction of about 10 percent, depending on the level of irregularities present in each state’s old rolls.

4. The sex ratio in the voter list is very low (834), while the estimated population sex ratio is 943- Does this mean large-scale deletion of women’s names?

In the draft roll, the sex ratio was 824, which improved to 834 in the final list. Women now number 6.09 crore, accounting for about 45.46 percent of the total voters. During the claims period, more women applied for inclusion than men.

Deletions were carried out only after issuing notices and proper verification. If any eligible woman was left out, she can still apply through Form-6. The Election Commission’s clear directive is that no eligible voter should be excluded. The gap existed in previous rolls as well; the SIR has taken steps to correct it.

5. Formats 1 to 8 (elector-population ratio, sex ratio, deletions, etc.) are not publicly available for Uttar Pradesh – Is something being hidden?

These formats are internal analytical tools of the Election Commission as per its Manual on Electoral Rolls 2023. They are not mandatorily required to be made public in every state. The entire SIR process was conducted with full transparency under the Commission’s supervision. Political parties were actively involved, and a complete window for claims and objections was provided.

The Election Commission has repeatedly stated that the SIR is a constitutional duty and that “no eligible voter should be excluded, and no ineligible voter should be included.”

Uttar Pradesh’s Special Intensive Revision is not a riddle. It was a 166-day massive door-to-door verification drive involving enumeration forms, lakhs of claims and objections (over 70 lakh for inclusions), and due process. After the exercise, the final electoral roll with 13.39 crore voters has been published. Removing irregularities that had built up in the 2024 rolls was the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission.

If any eligible citizen’s name is still missing, they can immediately apply online at voters.eci.gov.in or through the local election office or Uttar Pradesh CEO portal using Form-6. The Election Commission’s process includes full transparency and safeguards.

Keeping electoral rolls clean and accurate strengthens democracy — it does not harm anyone. The SIR is an important step in that direction.

Language, art, food and more: The Economist glorifies Mughals for bringing culture to India, as if nothing existed before Babur. Netizens mock the bizarre article

Rukma Rathore
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Language, art, food and more: The Economist glorifies Mughals for bringing culture to India, as if nothing existed before Babur. Netizens mock the bizarre article

Amitabh Bachchan’s character in a scene of the 1992 Bollywood flick “Bemisal” declared, “The British discovered all the hill stations in India, except for Kashmir, which was found by the Mughals,” to a highly impressed Kavita, portrayed by Rakhee Gulzar, who commended the Islamic imperialists for their “magnificent music, paintings and architecture,” insisting that they had no equal. He then playfully retorted that their greatest offering was “Mughlai food.”

The clip resurfaced and went viral in 2022, with people calling out how the film industry, notorious for its anti-Hindu propaganda, consistently distorts the truth to glamorise the invaders. Fast forward to 2026, and “The Economist” has produced a print version of that movie sequence, crediting the dynasty for “language, food, architecture, music, art and syncretism” while sarcastically adding that it even brought the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in 2014.

The article titled “What have the Mughals ever done for us?” was published on 19th April (Sunday) accompanied by the tagline “How India’s greatest Muslim empire built its most powerful Hindu party.” It is a eulogy extolling the Muslim rulers for enriching India, a civilisation that already existed for millenia, as one of the oldest civilisations in the world with a flourishing economy, historical significance, artistic and scientific achievements, literary contributions and a socio-cultural heritage, without the influence of Mughals.

Babur, who laid the groundwork for his empire, was drawn to the immense wealth and resources of the nation after being uprooted from his ancestral home in Ferghana (currently in Uzbekistan) due to regular conflicts with his family members and repeated losses in battles. All these invaders, from the Islamists to the White colonisers, chose India for its vast, famed treasures. They aimed to pillage and exploit the land, which they successfully did, and sought to convert the natives by any means necessary. The Mughals had a similar objective.

Mughals enriched Indian civilisation: The formulation of a bizarre argument

“The Mughals were the longest lasting of those. April 21st marks exactly 500 years since the Battle of Panipat, when Babur, a Central Asian descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan (hence Mughal, from Mongol), defeated the last sultan of Delhi. The empire he established was, at its height, one of the world’s richest and most powerful. Its rulers adopted customs of Indian kingship, married locally and in effect became Indian (unlike the Britishers). Their achievements are Indian,” The Economist states.

The Mughal empire’s wealth and authority were sourced from the Indian territory it had ravaged for centuries. They capitalised on the country’s thriving ancient customs and traditions to erect new structures, constructed by local workers with indigenous resources only to be promoted as “monuments of synchronisation.”

They could not transport their looted fortune to their homeland as they were driven out of there by their own kith and kin and were never allowed to return. Babur made several efforts but faced continuous failures. As a result, they remained in India out of compulsion, not affection. Their love for India is further demonstrated by the reinterment of Babur’s remains in Kabul, in accordance with his wishes, because he regarded that place as his actual home.

The left-liberal brigade usually applauds the condemnation of invaders, but not when the atrocities are perpetrated against India or Hindus. Such actions are then ignored, justified and celebrated as seen in this column. Thus, The Economist also ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for referencing India’s history of subjugation at the hands of foreign

Economist admitted that the Mughals destroyed temples but claimed that this cannot be construed as an insult to them. The imposition of “jizya,” the massacre of Hindus and the forced conversions highlighted by the Islamic rulers in their own writings were conveniently disregarded by it.

However, the cabal that labels trivial incidents as “provocation” against the Muslim community does not regard the attacks on the most sacred places of Hinduism as humiliation, insinuating that these should not be viewed as an assault on the faith, effectively normalising the profoundly anti-Hindu conduct. Afterwards, the author expressed, “They took everything India had. And what, the ideology asks, did they ever give us in return,” and initiated lauding the Mughals in the field of language.

‘India was exposed to Persia via the Mughals who contributed to Indian language’

The piece stressed, “Of the 28 words that made up the original of his quote above, a quarter entered India via Persian, points out Richard Eaton, a historian of Muslim India. The language of the Mughal court infuses the vocabulary of most northern Indian languages. Indeed, Hindi and Hindu both come from Hind, the Persian name for the river known in English as the Indus (thus India). But what, apart from putting the Hindu in Hindu nationalism, have the Mughals ever done for us?”

India houses one of the most diverse collections of languages which has continued to evolve with time, and a similar episode unfolded with the Persianised Mughals. Languages impact each other and progress over time. Likewise, Hindi, which is rooted in Sanskrit, shares a common ancestor with Persian in the Indo-European language family. Therefore, the addition was more related to these origins than to the influence of the Mughals.

Moreover, if this reasoning is to be applied, then the English language should be attributed to the English people, but it would be incorrect, misleading and historically inaccurate, akin to the present argument. More importantly, language, art and literature do not require oppression as a means of dissemination. Many countries can communicate in foreign languages without being subjected to enslavement.

‘Mughals added refined taste to Indian cuisine and architecture’, claims the Economist

The Economist shifted to venerating the Mughals for culinary delights, often termed as “Mughalai,” including tandoori food items and biryani.

“The tandoor, a clay oven from which emerge flaky naans and charred kebabs, came from the Persianate world, as did samosas, sherbets, various desserts and biryani, India’s most-ordered dish on delivery apps for ten years straight. The party-pooper wing of the BJP frowns on meat and eggs, but even vegetarians enjoy a good tandoori paneer (from the Persian panir, a kind of cottage cheese that probably came via Afghans),” it contended.

The tandoor was invented in the Indus Valley, and Harappan civilisations, and Babur’s kingdom in Central Asia did not engage in rice cultivation, which is a key component in biryani. Spices, for which the Indian peninsula was famous, were also present. But for the idea that rice cooked with spices and meat may become a great dish, apparently, the Mughals have to be thanked. Indians might have been struggling or relying on rudimentary meals, as they purportedly lacked knowledge and expertise in creating delectable dishes until the Mughals entered the picture, according to the article.

Afterwards, it revered them for the lavish projects produced by Indian labourers and resources. The piece pointed out, “Four of India’s ten most popular ticketed historical sites for local tourists, and six among foreigners, were built by Mughals. The Taj Mahal tops both lists. Every year the prime minister delivers an Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, a Mughal monument in Delhi so central to India’s self-image it features on the back of the most common banknote.”

Ironically, these were built while common Indians, predominantly Hindus, continued to endure the brutality of the dictatorial policies and behaviour. They are symbols of the indulgently luxurious lifestyle of the Mughals and were designed to represent their affluent empire. Furthermore, they did not have the option to take this wealth to Central Asia as mentioned earlier and consequently took advantage of it for their own interests as they pleased.

However, these complexes are entirely Indian property, and the elected government is fully entitled to utilise them for currency or for other applications. Nevertheless, this does not erase the history tied to them or the decayed legacy of the Mughals. Urdu, interestingly, has its foundations in the Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, yet this cannot be outlined as it would contradict the agenda of exalting Muslim monarchs.

‘Mughals are responsible for Sherwani, Sitar and BJP juggernaut’

The Economist raved about the Mughals over Sherwani and Sitar, which were developed between the 16th and 18th centuries. It quoted “historian” Jadunath Sarkar and stated, “The popular religions of medieval India, Sufism, the Urdu language, and Indo-Saracen art were the common property of the conquerors and the conquered and tended to blend them together.”

Thereafter, it peddled the nauseating trope of “secularism” practised by Akbar, who commissioned the translation of Hindu epics, completely ignoring his violent campaigns against the community. As if this glorification were not enough, the article, in a derisive bashing of Hindu beliefs, proclaimed that the saffron party would not have risen to power in the absence of the “Babri mosque” at the Ram Janmbhoomi.

It stated, “In 1990, when the party held just 16% of seats in parliament, it launched a national campaign demanding a temple on the ground said to be the birthplace of Lord Ram, the protagonist of the Ramayana. At that site stood a mosque built during the reign of Babur, the first Mughal emperor. In 1992, a mob demolished the mosque under the gaze of BJP officials, sparking a nationwide conflagration that forged the party’s base, eventually propelling it to office. By early 2024, when Modi consecrated the promised temple, his party held 56% of seats. It has spent the past decade renaming Mughal cities, rejecting Mughal cuisine, and writing Mughals out of history books.”

The Ram Mandir, which is at the heart of the Hindu religion, was diminished to an election ploy because the BJP stood for the cause. Babar is painted as a protagonist by the media house despite demolishing temples, whereas the party is demonised for championing the rights of Hindus.

“It is one thing to raze an edifice of brick and mortar. It is harder to eradicate a culture that has, for over five centuries, permeated India’s blood and soil. That, then, is the best answer to their question of what the Mughals have ever done for them. They gave political Hinduism its eternal, indispensable villain,” it concluded.

The netizens react with astonishment

“Stating that Mughals brought Narendra Modi’s party to power is a bit like saying Hitler and Nazis created the state of Israel,” a user remarked, emphasising the absurdity of the statement.

“While the traumatic experiences of these regimes(Mughals in the case of Hindus and Nazis in the case of Jews) catalysed a defensive response that led to taking steps aimed at self-preservation by the two aggrieved groups, attributing the success of these movements to the tyrannical regimes as though it was some gift from them would be absolutely atrocious,” the person conveyed in a pointed denunciation of the effort to inappropriately edify them.

Another netizen noted that the Fergana Valley lacked in agricultural produce and such products, but the dishes prepared from Indian resources have been acknowledged as “Mughlai” food.

Varun asked the media platform to expand their scope beyond just art or music and also commemorate the Mughals for creating the sun, moon and the Himalayas.

The Economist, similar to other mainstream media outlets, tends to create narratives that credit foreigners for Indian achievement, whether related to the past or the present, thereby detaching it from its core, which is in Hindu Indian society.

Special NIA court sentences 7 accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba member T Naseer, in Bengaluru prison radicalisation case: Read what the NIA court said

Aditi
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Special NIA court sentences 7 accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba member T Naseer, in Bengaluru prison radicalisation case: Read what the NIA court said

A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi sentenced 7 accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) T Naseer, in connection with the Bengaluru prison radicalisation case. In a press release dated April 22, 2026, the accused, T Naseer, Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani and Salman Khan have been granted 7 years rigorous imprisonment. A fine of 48,00 has also been imposed on all the accused, excluding T Naseer.

The verdict comes after the seven accused pleaded guilty before the special NIA court in March this year. “The accused had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges filed by the NIA in the case RC-28/2023/NIA/DLI- relating to a LeT-linked terror conspiracy hatched inside the Parapanna Agrahara Central Prisons, Bengaluru, by Naseer,” the NIA press release stated.

According to the NIA, the accused had conspired to identify, recruit, train, convert and radicalise gullible youth lodged in prison to execute terror activities in India. They planned to carry out strikes in Bengaluru, Karnataka, as part of the anti-India agenda of the Pakistan-based terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The conspiracy came to light after a case was registered by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) in July 2023 following the seizure of arms, ammunition, hand grenades and walkie-talkies from the possession of seven of the accused persons. The seizure took place when all seven accused were present in the house of one of the accused.

Later in October 2023, the investigation into the case was taken over by the NIA, which led to the exposure of a larger conspiracy to facilitate the escape of Naseer, a life convict in several terror cases, while on his way from the prison to court. Naseer was an under-trial prisoner in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blast cases at the time.

A total of 12 individuals, including LeT terrorist T Naseer, were chargesheeted by the NIA in the terror conspiracy case. While 11 of the accused were arrested by the NIA, one of the accused, identified as Junaid Ahmed, was declared an absconder. One of the accused, named Salman Khan, was arrested after being extradited from the Republic of Rwanda after coordinated efforts of NIA and the agencies concerned in Rwanda. The NIA agency has been working to track and arrest Junaid Ahmed.

Details of the punishment granted to all the accused

The details of the sentences awarded to the accused by the special NIA court are as follows:

For conviction under Section 120B of the IPC, the accused (numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8), T Naseer, Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, and Salman Khan are granted 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of 2000 each. In case any of the accused fails to pay the fine, he will have to undergo an additional rigorous imprisonment of 2 months.

All seven accused were also convicted by the special NIA court under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and were sentenced to 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of 5000 each. On failing to pay the fine, they will have to undergo a rigorous imprisonment of 2 months. They were also convicted under Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years and are liable to pay a fine of 5,000/- each, for the default of which, they will undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 2 months.

The special NIA court also convicted T Naseer, Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, and Salman Khan under Section 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and sentenced them to undergo 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed 5000 fine each. On failing to pay the fine, the accused will have to spend an additional two months in rigorous imprisonment. They were sentenced to 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of 5000 each for committing an offence punishable under Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. In default of payment of the fine amount, the accused will have to undergo 2 months’ rigorous imprisonment.

The court convicted (accused 3,4,5,6,7, and 8) Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, and Salman Khan under Section 23 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years and pay a fine of 5000 each. In case of default of payment of the fine, the accused will undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 2 months. They were convicted and sentenced to undergo 5 years’ rigorous imprisonment along with a 3000 fine each under Section 25(1B) of the Arms Act, 1959. On failing to pay the fine amount, the accused will have to spend another 2 months in rigorous imprisonment.

The court also convicted the accused Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, and Salman Khan under Section 6 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and sentenced them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years and imposed a fine of Rs. 3,000/- each. On failing to pay the fine, the accused will undergo 2 months’ rigorous imprisonment.

Accused T Naseer was convicted by the court under Section 201 of the IPC and was ordered to undergo 2 years rigorous imprisonment and pay a fine of 2000. In case of default of fine, he will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months. He was also sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 07 years and is liable to pay a fine of 5,000/- for the offence punishable under Section 18B of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. In default of payment of the fine, he shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months.

The NIA court convictedMohammed Umar and Zahid Tabrez (accused 4 and 5 under) Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and sentenced them to 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of 5000 each, in default of which, they will have to undergo 2 months of rigorous imprisonment.

The court convicted (accused 5) Zahid Tabrez under Section 5 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, sentencing him to 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposing a fine of 3000. On failing to pay the fine, he will have to undergo 2 months of rigorous imprisonment.

The NIA court said the substantial sentences imposed on T Naseer, Syed Suhail Khan, Mohammed Umar, Zahid Tabrez, Syed Mudassir Pasha, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, and Salman Khan will run concurrently. The period of detention undergone by them in judicial custody will be set off against the term of imprisonment imposed, as provided under Section 428 of the Cr.P.C. Regarding T Naseer, who has already been undergoing a life sentence granted by the Karnataka High Court, the court said that the sentence granted by it to him will run concurrently to his previous sentence. The court added that the fine imposed on the accused shall be used in defraying the expenses of the prosecution.

How the terrorists met in prison and hatched terror conspiracies

As per the NIA investigation, the accused met one another in 2017 when T Naseer, who was involved in multiple blast cases, came in contact with the other accused when they were all lodged in Bengaluru Prison. Accused Salam was in jail for a POCSO case, and others were in for a murder case. Naseer assessed the potential of all the accused for the purpose of radicalising and recruiting them into the LeT and managed to get them shifted to his barracks. Initially, he radicalised and recruited Junaid and Salman to further the agenda of the LeT, and subsequently, he conspired with the two of them to radicalise and recruit others.

After being released from jail, Junaid reportedly fled the country after committing some more offences. He sent funds to his co-accused from abroad to promote LeT activities within and outside the prison. He plotted with Salman to deliver arms, ammunition, hand grenades and walkie-talkies to the others as part of a plot to carry out a ‘fidayeen’ attack and help Naseer escape from police custody en route to court. Junaid also instructed his co-accused to steal used police caps for the attack and to commit arson on government buses as a practice run. The plot was foiled with the seizure of the arms and ammunition by the police.

The Wire’s Arfa Khanum claims the term Love Jihad is ‘insult’ to choice and autonomy of Hindu women: Here’s how she is gaslighting Hindus for opposing Islamist predatory crimes

Shraddha Pandey
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The Wire’s Arfa Khanum claims the term Love Jihad is ‘insult’ to choice and autonomy of Hindu women: Here’s how she is gaslighting Hindus for opposing Islamist predatory crimes

‘Love Jihad’, this term has, over the years, transitioned from being an alarm against an Islamist conspiracy, dismissed by Islamo-leftists as a BJP-peddled hoax, communal propaganda, and whatnot. In a fresh bid to whitewash this widespread menace, Arfa Khanum Sherwani of the leftist propaganda website The Wire has come up with a shrewd form of denialism that shields the perpetrators of serious sexual crimes and radicalism, and gaslights Hindu victims.

In an X post published on 21st April, Arfa Khanum Sherwani described the term Love Jihad as “a profound insult to the dignity and intelligence of Hindu women”. She framed the issue as “communal propaganda” meant to “control women” and strip them of their autonomy.

“The idea of “Love Jihad” is a profound insult to Hindu women-their dignity&intelligence. It assumes they’re incapable of making their own choices &need saviours. It is a direct attack on women’s autonomy. More than communal propaganda,its abt controlling women not protecting them,” Sherwani wrote.

On the face of it, it might seem that Arfa Khanum Sherwani is defending the autonomy of Hindu women; in reality, however, she is providing intellectual cover for a documented pattern of deception, grooming, rape, blackmail, and coerced conversion to Islam, colloquially described as Love Jihad.

Arfa, whose own religion does not allow Muslim women to travel without male Mehram or ‘saviour’, knows this very well that the issue is not about Hindu men forcing themselves as saviours of Hindu women or adult women’s choices but about refusing to acknowledge when those ‘choices’ are engineered via predatory tactics of the Hindu-hating Islamic fanatics who at individual and organisational level feign love and even fake their religious identity to trap Hindu women.

With one post, Arfa flipped the entire narrative around Love Jihad to cast doubts on Hindu women instead. This essentially amounts to victim-blaming and emboldening rape jihadi predators, and not defending the autonomy and dignity of Hindu women.

While Arfa Khanum Sherwani decorated her post with terms like ‘dignity’, ‘intelligence’, ‘choice’ and ‘autonomy’, she has used a twisted logic that is in the realms of “,Murderer toh crime Karega hi tum kyun apni body lekar baahar ghoom rahe (Murderer will commit the murder, why are you walking out with your body).

Arfa, who forgets to preach about ‘choice’ when Muslim girls, even those as young as five years of age, are made to wear Burqa and Hijab to appear ‘modest’, attempted to frame the issue of Love Jihad as Hindu men restricting Hindu women from making the ‘choice’ of entering a relationship with Muslim men. Basically, she villainised Hindu men as disgruntled control freaks in an issue wherein Muslim men use predatory and deceptive tactics to lure Kafir women, manipulate them, sexually abuse them and force them to convert to Islam.

The Wire’s Islamist propagandist is now pretending to care about the dignity and autonomy of Hindu women, however, not too long ago, Arfa attempted to cast aspersions on the integrity of Hindu women who accused their six Muslim colleagues at a BPO unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Nashik, of workplace harassment, constant insulting commentary on Hinduism, sexual abuse, coercion to convert to Islam, offer namaz and eat beef. 

“A new wave of targeting Muslims- not the paan vendor or street hawker this time, but the educated, skilled, employed. The aim is clear: make even the few who’ve secured jobs in this majoritarian system unemployable,” Sherwani posted.

Arfa essentially insinuated that the Hindu women who came forward and filed complaints against their Muslim colleagues over workplace harassment and coercion for conversion to Islam were lying. She suggested that Hindu women working at the TCS Nashik office are so hateful towards Muslims that they ‘targeted’ Muslim colleagues to ensure they become “unemployable”.

An Islamist woman who shoves the Muslim victimhood bogey in a crime as serious as sexual harassment and coercion for conversion to Islam by discrediting the harrowing accounts of Hindu women, can be anything but someone who genuinely cares about the dignity, autonomy and choices of Hindu women.

Where did the term ‘Love Jihad’ come from? Not from Hindus, but from Christian church in Kerala because girls were being targeted and brainwashed to join ISIS

While Arfa and her Islamo-leftist ilk conveniently frame Love Jihad as a Hindu hardliner-peddled ‘conspiracy theory’ to villainise Muslim men and extract electoral benefits for the BJP out of it, the term ‘Love Jihad’ itself was not invented by ‘Hindutvavadis’. It was first flagged by Christians in Kerala.

It was in the late 2000s that the Syro-Malabar Church and Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council raised alarms after Muslim men were found to be luring Christian girls into their love and manipulation trap, converting them to Islam and in some cases even trafficking them to Syria and Afghanistan to join the Islamic terror group ISIS as sex slaves or jihadi recruits.

Later, several Christian outfits came forward and echoed the concerns raised by Hindu organisations, which said that there are forces active in Kerala that are targeting young women, brainwashing them in the name of ‘religious studies’, forcefully converting them to Islam and then shipping them off to serve for ISIS as sex slaves. Back then, Fr Varghese Vallikkatt, the spokesperson for the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), had stated that the government ignoring the cases of Love Jihad and not taking action is nothing but a ‘silent sanction’.

In 2016, cases of systematic love jihad were reported in the media. In July 2016, Mini Vijayan, a military official, alleged that her daughter Aparna had been forcefully converted to Islam. Aparna was traced to Sathyasarani, or the Markazul Hidaya Educational and Charitable Trust in Malappuram. Aparna later appeared before the court and claimed to have converted to Islam and that she did not wish to go back to her mother. It turned out that Aparna had married an auto-driver named Aashiq from Malappuram. Investigations revealed that the literature from fugitive Islamic hate preacher Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation was widely used to brainwash and radicalise Hindu girls.

In another case involving a Hindu girl named Nimisha, in 2011, Kerala police arrested two persons named Sheena Farzana and Naser, two alleged ‘handlers’ who were recruiting young girls in Kerala to go and ‘work’ for ISIS in Yemen. They were both from Sathyasarani, an organisation run by the now-outlawed Islamist jihadist outfit PFI. Investigations led to the discovery of several other targeted conversions. Nimisha, alongside 21 other Hindu girls, converted to Islam and married Muslim men who were recruited by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

The Islamo-leftists like Arfa Khanum Sherwani and the Muslim-appeasing political parties have long been trivialising the menace of love jihad/rape jihad/grooming jihad as a ‘hoax’, ‘fiction’, and ‘BJP-RSS conspiracy theory’ despite there being ample evidence and thousands of cases across the country. Apparently, that it is why films like The Kerala Story are dismissed by them as ‘Islamophobic propaganda’.

Beawar exploitation scandal and Ajmer case

In February 2025, a disturbing case of sexual exploitation of minor Hindu girls by a Muslim grooming gang in Rajasthan’s Beawar district was reported. The Beawar police busted a gang of illiterate Muslim youths, Rehan Mohammad (20), Sohail Mansuri (19), Lukman (20), Arman Pathan (19), Sahil Qureshi (19), and two minors who were trapping school-going Hindu girls, raping them, and forcing them to convert to Islam. These men were teaching Hindu girls about namaz, roza, and reciting the Kalma (Islamic declaration of faith). Furthermore, they were pressuring the girls to wear burqas, perform namaz, observe Roza (fast), visit Maulvis and brainwash them for conversion to Islam. 

One of the Hindu victims even revealed that the rape Jihadis had rate cards for Hindu women based on their caste, with Brahmin girls fetching the maximum amount. “They (Muslim perpetrators) once told me that a Brahmin girl would fetch ₹20 lakh if sold, and you (a Dalit) would get ₹10 lakh,” she said.

This grooming Jihad scandal was a redux of the 1992 Ajmer rape jihad, one of India’s most infamous grooming gang cases. Over several years, a group led by Farooq Chishti and Nafees Chishti, who were members of the Khadim families of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, preyed on 100s of school and college-going Hindu girls aged 11-20. The Khadims claim to be the descendants of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The perpetrators, some of whom were Youth Congress leaders, took the victims to remote farmhouses under false pretences, raped them and photographed them to further blackmail and exploit them. The Muslim groomers used the explicit images of their victims to blackmail the girls into bringing in more girls, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of abuse.

In the recent months alone, multiple Muslim conversion rackets have been busted by the police. In 2025, a Muslim Maulana Jalaluddin, aka Chhangur Baba, was found to be running a vast Islamic conversion racket across Balrampur and neighbouring districts in Uttar Pradesh. Receiving foreign funding, Chhangur and his Jihadi gang were brainwashing and forcing Hindu girls to Islam through torture and other tactics.

More recently, a sexual exploitation and conversion jihad gang operating at a TCS office in Maharashtra’s Nashik was exposed. The grooming jihad syndicate comprised of six Muslim men and a woman named Nida Khan, who systematically harassed Hindu female colleagues, constantly insulted and ridiculed the Hindu faith, hurled sexual innuendos, raped, force-fed beef, and threatened and forced them to convert to Islam. OpIndia reported earlier how not only Arfa Khanum Sherwani but the entire Islamo-leftist ecosystem came forward to whitewash the TCS grooming jihad scandal, coming up with a Muslim victimhood narrative, ‘it’s a case of relationship gone wrong’, victim-blaming, and other such evasive propaganda.

Hindu women have been exploited by Islamic jihadi perpetrators from Amravati to Ajmer and Beawar to Bhopal, Kerala to Nashik, through coordinated conspiracies that also offer substantial financial rewards to the perpetrators. Despite this, Arfa and her ilk have the audacity to evoke the dignity, intelligence and autonomy of Hindu women while essentially casting doubt on their dignity, intelligence and autonomy. Arfa shrewdly planted doubt about the integrity and character Hindu women while also villainising Hindu men in a widespread and systematic sexual abuse and religious coercion crime wherein Kafir-hating Muslims are the perpetrators.

While Islamo-Leftists keep whitewashing cases of Love Jihad, the pattern of systemic targeting and sexual exploitation of non-Muslim women is not limited to India alone.

Grooming gangs of UK: Where vulnerable non-Muslim underage girls were targeted, raped and exploited for years by Pakistani gangs

In the United Kingdom, Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs have been targeting White Christian and other non-Muslim girls, especially minors, for over three decades. In the late 90s, young girls, some as young as 11, were picked up, raped, beaten, sold, and even killed by grooming gangs or rape gangs for a full forty years. In Rotherham alone, it was found that 1,400 children had been sexually abused over 16 years by British Pakistani Muslim men. From Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, to many other cities in the UK, Muslim rape jihadis operated on the same modus operandi as reported in the grooming Jihad cases in India’s Ajmer, Beawar, and Kerala, etc.

If India has Arfa and the Islamo-leftist coterie to downplay, whitewash, segregate grooming or rape jihad crime from its Islamic drivers, blame victims, the UK has its own London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who covered up grooming gangs run by his coreligionists in the city. The fears of appearing Islamophobic and racially insensitive prevented UK authorities and even courts from effectively acting against Pakistani Muslim groomers/rapists for years, and the Muslim-appeasing political parties of the United Kingdom also ensured that the Muslim community remains sacrosanct to criticism, even as members of this community, especially those of Pakistani origins, continued to sexually abuse White and other non-Muslim girls.

OpIndia has documented hundreds of cases wherein Muslim men faked their religious identity by pretending to be Hindu to cover up their Islamist motives and employ drugs and sextortion tactics to force their religion on Hindu women.

Vanishing maids of Gurgaon and Bengal election connection: Read about the strange phenomenon which hints at how a desperate TMC is playing its cards

Nupur J Sharma
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Vanishing maids of Gurgaon and Bengal election connection: Read about the strange phenomenon which hints at how a desperate TMC is playing its cards

For the past few days, social media is fraught with reels of tired, distressed women talking about the fleeing maids of Gurgaon. “Where are the maids of Gurgaon”, “where have the maids of Gurgaon gone”, “there are hardly any Swiggy, Zomato pick ups, what’s going on”, “Pronto, Urban Company – why are there no slots for Insta Maids” – these are some of the exasperated questions which one is reading everywhere. In fact, even Instagram is full of reels with women and men alike discussing the issue.

These are only some of the videos ruing the loss of their prized househelps.

So, where have the maids of Gurgaon gone? Does it have anything to do with 2026 West Bengal Elections?

We spoke to several maids who were leaving Gurgaon and women employers who were suffering the consequences of the househelp fleeing. The revelations were shocking.

The first obvious pattern was that most of the maids fleeing were natives of West Bengal, speaking in chaste Bengali and broken Hindi. In fact, it would not be a stretch to say that some of them were possibly from Bengalis from West Bengal, but Bangladesh, a fact evident from their different accents.

The second obvious pattern was that an overwhelming majority of the maids fleeing Gurgaon were Bengali Muslims.

The two unmissable patterns emerged only a few days before the West Bengal Assembly Elections, the first phase of which is set to be held on the 23rd of April 2026. In conversation with OpIndia, the househelps leaving Gurgaon revealed that they were leaving for West Bengal to vote in the ongoing Assembly Elections.

Are Muslim maids of Gurgaon leaving to vote in West Bengal Elections out of their own free will? Are they being threatened by TMC?

The expected reasoning to explain thousands of people leaving to vote in the West Bengal elections would be that they were conscientious citizens who believe in fulfilling their constitutional duty and exercising their right to vote. But as is with most things concerning West Bengal, there is more than meets the eye.

Several househelps fleeing Gurgaon to vote in the Bengal Assembly Elections revealed to OpIndia that they were all getting calls from their local TMC party worker impressing upon them the need to vote in the ongoing elecctions. “Voting this time is important, even if you can’t vote next time. You have to come this time”, the maid claimed she was told by her area’s TMC worker.

They claimed that the local TMC worker had told them that if they don’t vote in these elections, their land could possibly be taken away and their house could be demolished. The local TMC workers further told them that if BJP came to power this time in Bengal, they would be taken to the Bangladesh border and either be shot or pushed into Bangladesh.

A maid, distraught, told us that they were Bengalis and not Bangladeshis, but the TMC was scaring them that they would meet the same fate because they were Muslims.

“I don’t know why they are so desperate this time, didi. They are scaring us and forcing us to come back”, one woman working as a househelp said. “They are saying if they come to power, they will not let NRC happen. If BJP comes, NRC will take place and we will all be killed”, another said.

Out of the several women we spoke to, a handful had a different take.

“They are scaring us to vote for BJP. But we will vote for Modi uncle. What has TMC done for us? We called her ‘didi’, but there is no water, no work. If she had done something for us, we would not be working in Gurgaon”.

OpIndia’s ground reporters did confirm that women and men from Delhi and Gurgaon were landing at the Sealdah and Howrah Railway stations in the hundreds and thousands.

The poor men and women fleeing to vote in mortal fear refused to be interviewed on record. “Didi, you know what TMC does to us. We cannot show our face. Please record us”, they said.

What about the Hindu maids? Why are they leaving?

OpIndia spoke to several Hindu househelps as well. While the exodus is not as severe, but most Bengali Hindu maids are also leaving Gurgaon to vote in the West Bengal elections.

But are they being threatened by TMC too? Not quite. They do, however, feel threatened by TMC.

When asked if they received calls from TMC or any other party, including BJP, they flatly denied. Nobody had called them and nobody had asked them to go vote in the Bengal elections.

“So why are you going”, we asked.

“This is our last chance to save Bengal. See how the Muslims are going in thousands to vote for TMC. We have to go too”, a group of Hindu househelps said.

“If they come back, we will never be able to go back. Do you know what they did to us in Sandeshkhali? Do you know how they treat us”, another group asked.

“Bengal will become Bangladesh, that is what they want. This is why these Muslims are going to vote”.

The palpable desperation of TMC

The testimony of the househelps fleeing Gurgaon tell its own tale of the palpable desperation of TMC. The desperation of TMC was first obvious with the highpitched opposition to Election Commission’s SIR exercise. When the Supreme Court shut down TMC’s judicial stunt and upheld the SIR exercise in Bengal, TMC coordinated an attack against judicial officers, threatening them, attacking them and holding them hostage for hours.

A Supreme Court bench comprising CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipin Pancholi took sou motu cognisance of the Malda violence after being alerted by the Calcutta High Court CJI. The apex court came down heavily on the West Bengal government and the Malda district administration.

The court noted that the incident was not routine but a “calculated and motivated move” to demoralise the judicial officers and to stop the ongoing process of adjudicating objections in the left-out cases. The court described the incident as a challenge to its authority.

Moreover, the court observed that the targeting of judicial officers, who are, in essence, an “extension of this Court”, is a “brazen attempt not only to browbeat judicial officers, but also amounts to a challenge to the authority of this Court. This incident certainly cannot be construed to be a routine occurrence and, ex facie, appears to be a calculated, well-planned and deliberate act intended to demoralise judicial officers and obstruct the ongoing process of adjudication of objections in the remaining cases.”

The Bench further observed that such attempts to create psychological fear in the minds of judicial officers to prevent them from discharging their duties, by disrupting law and order, will not be permitted. The court dubbed the gherao and harassment of judicial officers in Malda as a case of “criminal contempt”.

“We have no hesitation in observing that we will not permit any person to take the law into their own hands so as to create a climate of psychological fear in the minds of judicial officers who are discharging their duties. Such conduct, undoubtedly, amounts to criminal contempt within the meaning of Section 2(cl of the Contempt of Courts Act, L97L,” the court said.

The court further noted that the Malda incident “reflects a complete failure on the part of the civil and police administration, in so far as the law and order situation in Maldah District is concerned.” The Bench also took note of the information provided that the judicial officers were deliberately deprived of even essentials like food and water.

“We are informed that the situation was so dire that even food and water were not permitted to be supplied to the judicial officers. The Hon’ble Chief Justice further pointed out that neither the District Magistrate nor the Superintendent of Police had reached the BDO office where the officers were gheraoed,” the Court stated.

The Supreme Court highlighted the failure on the part of the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Director General of Police, the Collector and the Superintendent of Police in taking effective measures to safely evacuate the gheraoed judicial officers despite receiving information.

“It also pains us to observe that the manner in which the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Director General of Police, the Collector and the Superintendent of Police have acted is highly deplorable. They owe an explanation to this Court as to why, upon being informed that the judicial officers had been gheraoed at around 03:30 p.m., no effective measures were taken to secure their safe evacuation,” the court said,

“It was incumbent upon the State administration to immediately inform the Election Commission of India and seek deployment of central forces, wherever necessary, safety of the judicial officers,” it added.

Orally, CJI Suryakant said that West Bengal is the “most polarised state” where “everyone speaks in political language”. The court also lamented that it was expected that everyone would welcome judicial officers, since they are court-appointed neutral agents; however, even “they were not spared from attacks”.

Beyond the SIR violence, the statements by Mamata Banerjee herself tell her a tale of sordid desperation, perhaps the same desperation CPIM felt in 2011.

Recently, Mamata Banerjee said, “If TMC remains, we will meet again”.

Will TMC remain? Only time will tell. For now, only two things are evident – One, that TMC is desperate. Two, that 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections is now a battle for Bengal’s soul.

This day last year: How the gruesome Pahalgam attack unfolded, when Pakistani terrorists gunned down 26 men after confirming they were not Muslims

Shriti Sagar
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This day last year: How the gruesome Pahalgam attack unfolded, when Pakistani terrorists gunned down 26 men after confirming they were not Muslims

On this day last year, 22nd April, 2025, the nation was shaken by one of the most brutal terror attacks in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistani terrorists, in a calculated and cold-blooded operation, gunned down 26 civilians after specifically identifying them as Hindus. Today, as India remembers the victims, the latest updates confirm that the wounds of that afternoon remain deep, but the country’s resolve to dismantle the infrastructure of hate has only grown stronger.

The attack unfolded at the popular Baisaran Valley. It was a typical afternoon filled with tourists enjoying the scenery until a group of Pakistani terrorists, belonging to the TRF (The Resistance Front), ambushed a group of unarmed visitors. According to survivors and eyewitnesses, the assailants didn’t just open fire randomly; they conducted a “religious screening.” 

The terrorists forced them to prove their faith. They were asked to recite the Islamic Kalma, and also the terrorists pulled their pants to confirm their religious identity through circumcision markers. Those identified as Hindus were executed at point-blank range while their wives and children were forced to watch.

PM Modi’s tribute: “India will never bow to any form of terror”

Marking the first anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a unified India in honouring the 26 lives lost, stating that the country’s resolve against terrorism remains “unshakeable.” 

In a poignant post on X, the Prime Minister wrote: “Remembering the innocent lives lost in the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack on this day last year. They will never be forgotten. My thoughts are also with the bereaved families as they cope with this loss. As a nation, we stand united in grief and resolve. India will never bow to any form of terror. The heinous designs of terrorists will never succeed.”

PM Modi further emphasised that India has moved beyond mere condemnation to a doctrine of “decisive and proactive justice,” assuring the families of the victims that they are not alone in their grief.

The haunting proof of hate against Hindus

In the days following the attack, a heart-wrenching video surfaced online that captured the sheer scale of the horror. The footage showed tourists frantically calling out for help as dead bodies lay scattered across the green meadows. 

Eyewitnesses heard in the video confirmed that the attack was entirely religiously motivated. One of the haunting pictures of the attack that has gone viral on social media is of a grief-stricken woman helplessly sitting beside his dead husband. According to reports, the woman was recently married and was on her honeymoon in Kashmir when the terrorists attacked and killed her husband.

Image via X

The myth of ‘Terror has no religion’ 

The Pahalgam massacre reignited a fierce debate over the phrase “terrorism has no religion.” Critics and survivors point out that the terrorists themselves explicitly use religion as their primary weapon and motivation. By meticulously checking IDs, demanding the recitation of the Kalma, and even using circumcision markers to separate Hindus from others, the attackers made their intent clear.

Asavari Jagdale, who survived the ordeal, recounted the trauma of watching her father and uncle being killed simply because they failed to recite the Kalma.

While some “secular liberals” continue to claim that terror lacks a religious identity, such denials only facilitate more violence. The Islamic terrorists involved in this attack openly boasted of their Jihadi beliefs, yet many cheerleaders of secularism seem to ignore the terrorists’ own justifications for slaughtering “Kafirs.” This denial of the ideological fuel behind such attacks is seen by many as an insult to those who perished specifically because of their faith.

India’s decisive response: Diplomatic and strategic 

Following the attack, the Modi Government did not settle for diplomatic protests. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met and took several historic decisions to squeeze Pakistan. India took the unprecedented step of suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, a decades-old agreement, stating that “blood and water cannot flow together.” This suspension remains in place until Pakistan ends its support for cross-border terrorism.

India also shut down the Attari border checkpost, a key route for trade and travel between the two countries. In addition, Pakistani military advisors in New Delhi were expelled, and visa exemptions under SAARC for Pakistani nationals were revoked, giving them 48 hours to leave. These steps marked a clear shift from earlier diplomatic approaches to a more assertive stance.

Operation Sindoor

Within two weeks of the massacre, on 7th May, 2025, the Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor. Named as a tribute to the “Sindoor” (vermillion) wiped off the foreheads of the newly widowed women in Pahalgam, the operation involved precision missiles and air strikes.

Over 100 aircraft were involved in targeting nine major terror launchpads and infrastructure facilities deep within Pakistan-administered territory. The operation successfully neutralised facilities used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). 

These terrorist groups have been provided with infrastructure concealed in government facilities to carry out their operations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK). Several training camps (Markaz), and Launch Pads of these terror outfits are currently being run near army facilities.

While Launch pads are extensively used for staging/arms training activities, religious indoctrination and other support activities such as funding, propaganda, expansion, etc., are being carried out with the backing of the Pak Establishment in larger facilities that are located well inside Pakistan.

By hitting these targets, India sent a clear message: every act of cowardice will be met with a response that hits the enemy where it hurts the most.

Operation Mahadev: The final reckoning 

While Operation Sindoor targeted the infrastructure, Operation Mahadev was launched to hunt down the terrorists responsible. On 28th July 2025, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the success of the operation in the Parliament. He confirmed that the joint operation of the Indian Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police successfully eliminated India’s enemies before they could escape to Pakistan.

The three terrorists killed in the encounter were identified as Hashim Musa (alias Abu Suleman), Hamza Afghani, and Zibran. They were high-category LeT operatives. Suleman, a former Pakistani commando, was identified as the mastermind behind the Pahalgam massacre. The security forces used advanced sensors to track their signals in the Lidwas forest area near Srinagar. Their elimination brought a sense of closure to the families, as forensic reports confirmed that the rifles seized from them were the same ones used to gun down the tourists in Baisaran Valley. 

‘Bhim Army’ chief Chandra Shekhar Ravan bats for separate electorate for Dalits: Read how Ambedkar himself had abandoned it and Indian Constitution explicitly prohibits it

Rukma Rathore
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‘Bhim Army’ chief Chandra Shekhar Ravan bats for separate electorate for Dalits: Read how Ambedkar himself had abandoned it and Indian Constitution explicitly prohibits it

On Friday (17th April), Chandra Shekhar Aazad, also known as Chandra Shekhar Aazad Ravan of the Bhim Army (Bharat Ekta Mission) and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), incited a fresh controversy during his problematic speech in the Lok Sabha. He alleged that if the government genuinely aims to strengthen backward communities, women and Dalits, then it should implement separate electorates.

He maintained that reservations have not succeeded in empowering these groups and are merely a slogan. To achieve social justice, he argued, it is imperative to shift towards complete, courageous and direct remedies to the issues rather than relying on half-hearted slogans.

The Lok Sabha MP from Nagina referenced Bahujan leader Kanshi Ram and his book “Chamcha Yug” (Age of Stooges) to claim that representatives elected from reserved seats are compelled to operate within the system and tend to be more loyal to their party than to their community. “Therefore, a separate electorate is the only feasible solution,” he declared.

It is evident that his comments in the Parliament are not only unlawful but also contradict the essential tenets of the Indian Constitution and the “idea of India” as envisioned by the founders of the republic. More importantly, Article 325 categorically dismisses such recommendations built on religion, race, sex or other factors.

What is stated in Article 325 of the Constitution of India

“There shall be one general electoral roll for every territorial constituency for election to either House of Parliament or to the House or either House of the Legislature of a State and no person shall be ineligible for inclusion in any such roll or claim to be included in any special electoral roll for any such constituency on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or any of them,” Article 325 of the Indian Constitution clearly stipulates.

The 1948 Draft Constitution did not include Draft Article 289A, which was subsequently enacted as Article 325. On 16th June 1949, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee introduced this provision. It specified that each constituency would have a single electoral roll for polls in state legislatures and Parliament.

Furthermore, no person would be left off the list due to their sex, caste, race, or religion. According to the chairman, the intention was to strike out the possibility of a separate electorate. It was unanimously approved the same day without any debate.

Image via constitutionofindia.net

The definitive support for one of the foundational principles of the Constitution, as articulated by Dr Bhimrao Ramji (BR) Ambedkar, reveals that the country invariably stood for fair and just electoral equality for every eligible citizen, without providing a conducive environment for the seeds of communalism and separate electorates sown by the British. The decision gained even greater significance against the backdrop of a violent partition proposed by the All-India Muslim League and endorsed by the colonisers.

Ambedkar specifically rejected separate electorate during the Constituent Assembly debates

The architects of modern India underlined that democracy must be centred around universal adult suffrage and the concept of “one person, one vote,” instead of communal divisions throughout the Constituent Assembly debates, which were held between December 1946 and January 1950.

Ambedkar, the brain behind the Constitution, exemplified the same during the discussions over the aforementioned 289A “with reference to amendment number 110 of List I (Fifth Week)” which was tabled in the presence of Dr Rajendra Prasad, who was the permanent President of the Constituent Assembly, on 16th June 1949.

The former highlighted that “the object of this is merely to give effect to the decision of the House that there shall hereafter be no separate electorates at all. As a matter of fact, this clause is unnecessary because by later amendments we shall be deleting the provisions contained in the Draft Constitution which make provision for representations of Muslims, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians and so on.”

Image via Constituent Assembly Debates (Volume 8) (Source: constitutionofindia.net)

Ambedkar added, “Consequently, this is unnecessary. But it is the feeling that since we have taken a very important decision which practically nullifies the past, it is better that the Constitution should in express terms state it. That is the reason why I have brought forward this amendment.”

When asked if the objective was to pass the amendment, Ambedkar replied that he wanted to express the reasoning behind his submission, pointing out how firmly he believed in the cause of disallowing separate electorates.

Image via Constituent Assembly Debates (Volume 8) (Source: constitutionofindia.net)

Afterwards, Article 325 was adopted to prevent separate electoral records defined by religion, race, or caste, to guarantee equal political rights for all nationals and to foster national unity and social integration through a common electoral procedure.

The roots of the separate electorate

The origins of the separate electorate can be traced back to British India, when the foreign regime acquiesced to the demands presented by the Islamists to facilitate their communal agenda. The British Parliament’s Indian Councils Act 1909, also referred to as the Morley-Minto Reforms, proposed the creation of distinct electorates for Muslims.

This formalised sectarian divisions in the political landscape by enabling the community to elect their representatives solely on religious grounds. The system, which endured for many decades, fostered religious rather than national identity, prompting the Muslim League to advocate for a separate state, ultimately leading to the bloody division of the nation in 1947 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.

The Indian Council Act marked the first time that seats in legislative bodies were distributed according to identity. Thus, “Depressed Classes” (Scheduled Castes) also received some seats in 1919 before experiencing a rise in 1925. This matter later turned into a point of dispute between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Ambedkar, who desired a special electorate for the Dalits before relinquishing the demand.

The disagreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar

The “Communal Award” of August 1932 attempted to provide Depressed Classes, Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians and others with separate electorates for the election of members of provincial legislative assemblies during the 1931 “Second Round Table Conference.”

Gandhi rejected the notion of a separate electorate for the Depressed Classes but not for other groups, perceiving it as a ploy by the British to split the Hindu population, perpetuate social divisions and reinforce their faltering grasp on power. The decision, in his opinion, suggested that Dalits were not part of the Hindu community as he began a fast till death while incarcerated in Yerwada Central Jail in Poona.

On the other hand, Ambedkar wanted a separate electorate for the Depressed Classes he spoke for during the “First Round Table Conference” in 1930. However, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress (INC) regarded it as a scheme to weaken and fracture Indian society.

He witnessed the British employing their notorious “Divide and Rule” policy to protect their interests and expand their power with the award. His rigorous fast put public pressure on Ambedkar to intervene and eventually the hunger strike concluded when the two sides reached an agreement.

The Poona Pact: The resolution of the conflict

The “Poona Pact” was inked between Dr Madan Mohan Malviya on behalf of Hindus from higher castes and Ambedkar in the name of the downtrodden sections on 24th September 1932. It increased the number of reserved seats within a framework of shared electorates, and the earlier clamour in relation to Depressed Classes was effectively abandoned.

Interestingly, Ambedkar campaigned for communal representation since his appearance before the Franchise (Southborough) Committee in 1918-1919. He had, however, raised serious doubts about the communal electorate’s suitability as an instrument of achieving representation, reported The Print.

Ambedkar promoted adult suffrage, which would determine voting rights based on age rather than income, prestige, or education, during his appearance before the “Simon Commission.” He mentioned that there should be a mixed electorate with allocated seats, otherwise the Depressed Classes should have representation similar to Muslims amid the cross-examination.

The Muslim League representatives, princely states and others opposed his request for universal adult suffrage. The British government was also hesitant to grant universal adult suffrage to the country. This could be attributed to the alteration of his stance and insistence on a separate electorate.

However, Ambedkar’s primary focus was on pushing for representation for the scheduled castes within the political structure of the country rather than on the concept of a separate electorate for them.

Conclusion

India has already borne the brunt of partition, which was instigated by the demand for a separate electorate for the Muslim community. This not only has its beginnings in radicalism and extremism masquerading as justice and representation.

However, it is also harmful to the social and cohesive fabric of the nation, which will be exploited by malicious and vested interests to exacerbate the fault lines and widen the divide in society. It will derail India, its developmental trajectory and undo the progress made over the years.

Separate electorates hold no relevance in contemporary India, nor will they in the future, nor did they in the past. The conspiracy intentionally devised by the invaders to dominate the country cannot be reinforced under the guise of “empowerment,” when in truth it just acts as a mechanism of division, undermining national unity and a major hindrance to the advancement of India and its people.

Of course, the problems or concerns encountered by the people should be highlighted and resolved, but this cannot be accomplished at the expense of the country, mangling its Constitution. Ravan needs to grasp the simple fact that his political aspirations cannot be allowed to forge ahead while risking the present and future of the nation.

Delhi HC’s surgical strike on Kejriwal’s recusal plea drama: Read how the AAP chief’s allegations were dismissed point-by-point by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma

Divyansh Tiwari
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Delhi HC’s surgical strike on Kejriwal’s recusal plea drama: Read how the AAP chief’s allegations were dismissed point-by-point by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma

The recent judgement by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court, dismissing Arvind Kejriwal and his associates’ recusal applications, is more than just a legal victory for the Bench; it is a scathing exposé of a calculated political strategy designed to manage rather than receive justice. While the public has focused on the dismissal’s superficial headlines, a closer read of the 115-page judgment reveals a series of arguments that have largely gone unnoticed, arguments that paint the Kejriwal incident as a systematic attempt to undermine judicial integrity, making it a suitable case for contempt.

Catch 22: A win-win for the litigant

The Catch 22 scenario that the applicants painstakingly created is one of the Court’s most nuanced point that has not received much public attention. The recusal request, according to Justice Sharma, is a tactical move that benefits the litigant regardless of the verdict. If the judge recuses, the litigant effectively selects their Bench through intimidation, establishing a troubling precedent that any judge can be removed simply by casting aspersions. The litigant can use the judge’s reluctance to recuse as justification for pre judged bias in any subsequent unfavourable judgement, tainting the proceedings in the court of public opinion. The dignity of the judicial system is directly attacked by this ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ strategy.

The trial of the institution

The judgement marks a transition from a legal conflict between parties to the judge’s personal trial. In a moving statement, Justice Sharma said that a litigant was testing the institution’s resilience itself in this case and that her silence as a judge was being tested. It is an unprecedented insult to the constitutional oath to require a judge to go through what she called a Agni Pariksha (trial by fire) to demonstrate her fairness. Requiring a judge to defend her impartiality against wild, irrelevant, or imaginary allegations essentially puts the entire system on trial in a system where judicial integrity is a fundamental tenet. This reversal, in which the accused tries to judge a judge in the absence of relevant facts, is an obvious instance of selective targeting that transcends a valid legal justification.

Calculated contradictions

Kejriwal’s inherently inconsistent and contradictory stance on the judge’s family is a very telling argument that has gone unnoticed. Kejriwal asserted in his written arguments that recusal is not warranted just because a judge’s family members are appointed as government counsel. But he also claimed that there was a conflict of interest because the Solicitor General, who is representing the CBI, had authority over how much work is assigned to those relatives. The Court revealed this as a constructed story, observing that Kejriwal was taking contrary stands in his own affidavits to suit the situation. The applicants attempted to utilise the professional careers of a judge’s children as a tool for strategic character assassination by insinuating a nexus where none existed.

Selective memory: Conveniently ignoring past relief

The judgement throws light on the petitioners selective perception, which established a narrative of bias by spotlighting a single stay order while conveniently ignoring countless instances in which the same Court gave them interim relief. Justice Sharma noted that in other sensitive cases, the Court has upheld Kejriwal’s and his political party members rights. By focusing solely on a stay that the Court deemed appropriate because the trial court’s conclusions were prima facie erroneous, the applicants attempted to create a theatre of perception. This purposeful omission of the Court’s balanced history demonstrates that the apprehension was not reasonable but rather manufactured to interrupt a specific proceeding.

Why the incident is fit for contempt

Perhaps the most daring grounds for contempt listed in the judgment is the attempt to remove a judge on the basis of imagination and misbeliefs about a Union Home Minister’s television interview. The Court noted that the applicants provided no precise quote or description of the alleged statement. Relying on an external actor’s alleged political commentary to question a judge’s impartiality is a reckless disregard for the legal system. It shows a desire to transform the courts into a battleground for political narratives, with aspersions, insinuations, and doubts replacing proof. As Justice Sharma warned, a politician cannot be allowed to cross the boundary and pass judgment on the competence of a constitutional authority.

Finally, the decision states that justice is not achieved by bowing to pressure. The systematic attempt to coerce the Court into recusal using familial ties, political rumours, and selective judicial history is a mala fide attempt to dictate the composition of the bench. When a litigant attempts to make the justice delivery system vulnerable to unfounded allegations, they are targeting the credibility of the institution itself rather than merely a judge. Justice Sharma, by standing firm and refusing to take the easier path of recusal, safeguarded the judiciary from political manoeuvring. 

This occurrence, marked by strategic character assassination and an attempt to manage rather than receive justice, is a textbook example of why such conduct must be punished with the full force of the law to prevent the floodgates of mistrust to ever open.

Vaishno Devi offering scam: Govt Mint exposes fake silver sold to devotees; Only 5% silver, rest cadmium and iron

Divya Bharti
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Vaishno Devi offering scam: Govt Mint exposes fake silver sold to devotees; Only 5% silver, rest cadmium and iron

A massive discrepancy has come to light in the silver offerings made by devotees at the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, raising serious concerns about the authenticity of items being sold in the temple’s vicinity. According to a report by The Economic Times, a large portion of what devotees believed to be silver has turned out to be mostly low-value and even toxic metals.

Shocking findings at the government mint

The issue surfaced when the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board sent around 20 tonnes of accumulated offerings to a government mint for melting and storage. Officials conducting the assay were surprised to find that the metal contained only about 5-6% actual silver.

Instead of pure silver, the remaining composition was largely cadmium and iron. While silver currently trades at around Rs 2,75,000 per kilogram, cadmium is worth only Rs 400-500 per kilogram, making the offerings far less valuable than expected.

Based on earlier estimates, the shrine board was hoping to recover silver worth nearly Rs 500-550 crore from these donations. However, with the low silver content now confirmed, the actual value may be closer to just Rs 30 crore.

In one specific instance, a batch of about 70 kg of offerings yielded only 3 kg of genuine silver. Mint officials had to spend nearly three months separating usable metal from the rest, highlighting how deep the problem runs.

Health risks and processing challenges

The presence of cadmium has made the situation more serious. This metal is not only cheap but also hazardous. It is banned in consumer goods under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms due to the harmful fumes it releases, which are known to be carcinogenic.

Mint officials initially refused to process the material because of these risks. Only after putting safety measures in place and arranging specialised equipment were they able to proceed. Even then, identifying higher silver content required advanced handheld devices costing around Rs 25 lakh.

Officials also pointed out that handling such contaminated material poses risks not just to workers but also to the environment, including air and water pollution.

No action taken so far

Despite repeated warnings, there has been no documented action from authorities. The mint has formally raised the issue several times over the past year, including writing to the office of Manoj Sinha and the shrine board.

In its communication, the mint clearly stated that such practices are unfair to devotees who purchase these items in good faith, unaware that they contain harmful and low-value metals. It also stressed the urgent need to stop the production and sale of such adulterated silver articles.

However, as of now, neither the Lieutenant Governor’s office nor the shrine board has publicly responded or taken visible steps to address the issue.

Possible source of fake silver

What makes the situation even more concerning is that no similar contamination has been reported at other major temples in India, such as Tirupati, Siddhivinayak, Guruvayur Devaswom, or Srikalahasti.

This has led to a strong suspicion that the problem may lie with local jewellers and vendors operating around the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage route. These shops are believed to be selling items that look like silver but are actually made from cheaper substitutes like cadmium.

Since cadmium closely resembles silver in appearance, it becomes difficult for ordinary buyers to tell the difference. This puts millions of devotees at risk of being misled every year.

Devotees unaware of reality

Every year, lakhs of pilgrims climb the Trikuta hills carrying coins, ornaments, and other items as offerings to the goddess. For most, this is an act of deep faith and devotion. However, the latest findings suggest that many of these offerings are not what they seem.

The discovery not only questions the quality of items being sold but also raises broader concerns about trust and regulation in religious marketplaces. With the mint repeatedly flagging the issue and highlighting both financial and health risks, the lack of action so far has only added to the urgency of the matter.

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