As part of the drive to remove illegal encroachments from Railway land, the Indian Railways has issued notices to several religious structures built on the land owned by the Agra Cantonment railway board. On Wednesday, the Agra office of the North Central Railway zone issued a notice to remove an illegal Mazar of Bhure Shah Baba from the Railways land.
In the notice issued to one Sajjada Nashim, the Railways has written that the Mazar of Bhure Shah Baba has been constructed on the land owned by the Agra Cantonment railway board and 182.57 square meters of the land has been illegally occupied”, the notice dated April 25 read. It added that any document that would defend the construction of Mazar shall be presented before the Board by May 13. The notice instructed Nashim to prove ownership of the land and summoned for a hearing on 13th May. It further added that if the Mazar caretaker is not available on that date, the officials and the court will issue orders after hearing only one side.
Official letter by the North Central Railways
In this regard, another notice was issued to a mosque build illegally on Agra Cantonment railway board land in December last year. That notice was issued to the imaamof Noori Mosque, saying that it has been built on Railway land, and it needs to be removed. The notice asked the Imam of the Noori Masjid to shift the Mosque to some other place and free the government land. The notice added that several temples, mosques and mazars have come up illegally on the Railways land, and all olf them are being removed.
The North Central Railway office of the Agra Cantonment had given 8 days to the Masjid for removal of the Mazar. “If the Mazar is not removed within 8 days, strict legal action will be taken against the Masjid”, the notice stated.
India’s Minister for External Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar has emphasised that India needs to engage with the world with its own identity, rather than pondering over how it is perceived in the geopolitical arena. Jaishankar was speaking at the annual Raisina Dialogue, a summit hosted by the Observer Research Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.
That panel discussed a wide range of topics concerning India’s actions that will shape the 21st-century world. From responding to climate change and humanitarian crises, from global peace and security to technology and digital frontiers, India is set to play a strategic role in shaping the geopolitical puzzle.
“In terms of how we are perceived, it is better to engage the world on the basis of who we are, rather than try and please the world as a limitation of what they are,” Minister Jaishankar said when asked about India’s role in the current geopolitical scenario. He further added, “This idea that others define us, that we need to get approvals of other quarters, I think that’s an era we need to put behind”.
Jaishankar asserted that when it comes to the Ukrainian crisis, India has not taken any side, but its own side. “The idea to get approval for our own decisions, we should get back to that era,” Jaishankar said.
“When we are looking at India at 75, it is not about looking back at what we have done or not done in the past seventy-five years, but it is about what needs to be done in the next 25.” Jaishankar responded to Moderator and ORF President Samir Saran’s question on how India sees itself while celebrating 75 years of its Independence. “What we needed to do after our independence was a focus on our social indicators, realising the need to promote manufacturing, and exercising hard security when it comes to foreign policy. What needs to be done in future is a focus on Capability while being fixated on outcomes, being practical, and leveraging the geopolitical environment,” said Jaishankar while assessing India’s goals for the future.
.@DrSJaishankar: It is better to engage with the world on the basis of who we are rather than try to please the world as a pale imitation of who they are. The idea that others define us and we need approval, is an era that we need to put behind us. #Raisina2022pic.twitter.com/9jLbWswYsy
When the panel was quizzing over growing bipolarity when it comes to America and China in the post-globalization world, Jaishankar, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat wittingly commented, “A fellow Foreign Minister the other day told to me that ‘Gujarat is ahead of globalization’. He highlighted that we should not be at the world with a sense of entitlement, but we should earn our (rightful) place. “In the 25 years to come, we need the right kind of globalization which is not weaponised,” he added.
When Jaishankar was asked about India’s plans to have a permanent seat in the United Nations, he said, “On the security council, we have our plan. The problem is we need to have other people to have a plan which is similar to our plan,”
Speaking on India’s contributions to Democracy, he said, “There has been more democracy in South Asia than there was 75 years ago. Now, we would like to see more prosperity in South Asia in the next 25 years. In a sense, if India has been a promoter of democracy in the region, we would now like to be part of a larger lifting tide so that the rest of South Asia grows with us.”
How the World sees India
Jeff M. Smith, Research Fellow covering South Asia at The Heritage Foundation, USA, said that India has become an important geopolitical actor and has risen the geopolitical ladder quite swiftly since its Independence. “India is not a destabilizing geopolitical actor. It’s not bullying its neighbours, while it is settling its historical issues peacefully,” Smith highlighted. He added that India is defending the rules-based order while promoting regional and global stability in the current scenario.
Jeff Smith added that the US understands India way before today. “We need to understand that Western criticism is not unusual. There is a difference between government policy and media press. Even India’s rivals want to do business with India,” he commented.
Stephen Harper, Former Prime Minister of Canada said that India’s government is creating the nation’s own identity. “India is defining itself and it’s definition is changing according to its economic transformation, global trade, support in medical issues and its nature of being a free and democratic society,” he added. “As China rises as a disruptive power, India pushes itself to play a greater role,” Harper added.
On the issue of biased and targeted reporting against India by the Western press, Harper added that the Western centre-left media uses India’s issues as a proxy for domestic commentary since it has emerged as an important player. “What happens in the US left media is similar to what happens in Britain and Canada. The commentary on India is a tap on conservatives in their own countries. These are philosophical disagreements the people have with their own country. India is just an instrument to judge a domestic rival,” he added.
“India’s definition in the world is increasingly being shaped by the nature of India itself,” the former Prime Minister of Canada, Harper added while being a Conservative politician himself.
João Gomes Cravinho, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Portugal said that India’s availability to shape the world, and its consciousness about the need to do so has risen drastically in the last decade. “It is thinking about international governance and hence its proximity with the European Union has increased,” he added.
Velina Tchakarova, who heads a think-tank in Austria added that Europe’s perception of India has changed ‘gradually positive’ over the years. “There is an understanding that we need to do more with India on bilateral and multilateral terms. Amidst the new bipolar tussle between America and China, there can be a third way for Europe and India to play a role. Both can build their own centre of trading power,” Tchakarova added while emphasizing the need to sign the bilateral FTA between India and Europe as early as possible.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh accused the Bharatiya Janata Party members of allegedly hiring poor Muslim boys and paying them to throw stones at the Hindu processions. He said that he has received a few unverified complaints which note that the attacks on the Hindu processions are allegedly sponsored by the BJP.
“I have received a few complaints, which I have not verified yet, but as per these complaints, some people from BJP themselves pay poor Muslim boys to throw stones. I will check the facts and will raise the issue then”, the Congress leader was quoted at Nemmuch, Madhya Pradesh.
This is especially after the Khargone violence that disrupted the peace and harmony in the state of Madhya Pradesh. On April 10, a Ram Navami procession that began in the Talab Chowk area of Khargone was abandoned midway after it came under a volley of stones. Riots escalated as several vehicles were set on fire injuring more than 24 people, including six police personnel.
The day after the riots, the Khargone administration took strict action against the miscreants and bulldozed their illegally constructed properties. Five JCB machines were deployed for the task. Also, the administration arrested close to 77 people in the case.
However, the Islamist attacks continued on the Ram Navmi procession in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. Also, the Hanuman Jayanti processions were attacked in several parts of India on April 16. In one such recent incident, a Hanuman Shobha Yatra was attacked by the Islamists in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. The miscreants threw beer bottles at the idol of Lord Hanuman and abused the Hindu Gods.
It is important to note that Congress leader Digvijay Singh has made several attempts in the past to propel the theory of ‘Hindu terror’. In the 2019 elections, when the Bharatiya Janata Party had decided to field Sadhvi Pragya against Singh from the Bhopal constituency, he had created the bogey of ‘Hindu terror’ as a political strategy. He had labeled the rich Hindu civilization as ‘terrorists’ and had blamed Sadhvi Pragya for the 2008 Malegaon Blasts.
Singh had also later launched a book in which he had accused that the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai was executed by the Hindus and the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Singh had reportedly attempted to link Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s death during the 26/11 terror attack to some alleged threats he received from a Hindu outfit.
“Two hours before the terrorist attack, Karkare told me that he was receiving threats from ‘Hindu extremist’ groups who are opposed to the ATS probe into the 2008 Malegaon blast”, he had said. The book ’26/11 RSS ki Saazish’ which was launched by Digvijaya Singh was written by Aziz Burnet.
On Tuesday (April 26), US Senator Josh Hawley wrote a letter to Elon Musk, asking him to reveal details of past censorship attempts made by Twitter. He has sought an independent, third-party audit of the platform and demanded that the audit report be made available to the public.
The development came hours after the Tesla CEO acquired the micro-blogging platform for a 44 billion dollar bid. In his letter, Hawley said, “Your commitment to free speech is rare in the world of social media. and I am hopeful you will indeed help Twitter become a platform that values and protects it.”
“Twitter has largely evaded public accountability over the past several years. Since I’ve been in the Senate, I’ve sent a number of oversight inquiries to the company. These letters cover subjects as diverse as content moderation policies. viewpoint discrimination, suppression of content, and Twitter’s own security. Twitter, not surprisingly, has effectively ignored these requests,” he further added.
Screengrab of the letter by Senator Josh Hawley
Senator Josh Hawley informed that he urged Twitter in 2019 to conduct a third-party audit and release the details of the report to the public. He expressed hope that such an audit could be possible under the leadership of Elon Musk.
While accusing the micro-blogging platform of being ‘partisan’, the US Senator pointed out, “Algorithms didn’t make those calls; employees did. And at this point, the American people deserve to know the truth about what went on at Twitter for years behind closed doors.”
He listed 5 questions for Twitter to probe during the said third-party audit.
Who was responsible for deliberately suppressing the New York Post’s now-vindicated reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings?
How many Twitter users have had their accounts suspended and why?
How many Twitter users have been shadowbanned and why?
Do Twitter’s shadowbanning and suspension patterns evince a consistent political bias?
Have Twitter employees, since news of your acquisition of the platform became public, made changes to the platform or deleted records of their time at the service?
”A public audit like this will prove essential, as you start to rebuild a culture of free speech and open discourse at Twitter, to determine where exactly things went wrong on the platform and who is principally responsible. No doubt the results will be illuminating for all of us,” Josh Hawley concluded.
Elon Musk slams Twitter censorship of Hunter Biden story
On Wednesday (April 27), Elon Musk slammed Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde over the ‘incredibly inappropriate’ censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop story. Vijaya Gadde is the chief legal officer and general counsel of Twitter. She had played a vital role in terminating ex-President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter.
In a tweet, Musk wrote, “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.” He was talking about the 2020 New York Post report on Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate
Initially, the left and liberal cabal deemed the story fake, but later it was proven true that the content of the laptop indeed belonged to Hunter Biden. After the ban on NYP, Twitter justified the move by saying its regulations prohibit the distribution of hacked material.
Truth Social was announced by former US President Donald Trump after he was deplatformed from Twitter following the Capitol Hill siege last year. In the screenshot shared by Elon Musk, who just recently acquired the social networking giant, one can see Truth Social is top downloaded free app followed by Twitter and TikTok.
As per reports, ahead of the deal, Truth Social was ranked 52nd on chart while Twitter was 39th. Between April 18 to 25, Trump’s Truth Social’s downloads reached 75,000 for the week, registering a rise of 150%. Since its launch in February this year, Trump’s Truth Social has been downloaded about 1.4 million times. The app is not yet available in Indian market on Apple Store. However, it is available on Google Play Store for Android phones.
Trump, however, has said that he will not be returning to Twitter even if his account is reinstated after Elon took over the company and said he would stick to his own platform, Truth social.
The Congress’s Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government has started attaching properties of the four absconding accused in the Karauli violence case. The incident took place on April 2 during Nav Samvatsar when stones were pelted by a Muslim mob on a bike rally organized by Hindu groups. Karauli Police has started the court proceedings of attaching the properties of four accused in the case who is absconding.
The four accused have been identified as former City Council Chairman Rajaram Gurjar, Hindu Sena State President Saheb Singh Gurjar, Anchi and Matloob Ahmed. As soon as the court issues warrants in the case, the proceedings to attach the properties of the accused will begin.
A total of 41 FIRs were registered in the case. The first FIR was registered by the Police, and the other 40 were registered based on the complaints filed by both sides. As per reports, over 144 people have been identified by the Police using various evidence, including CCTV footage and mobile location. Out of the identified accused, 29 have been arrested by the Police, including two minors who were sent to a correction home.
District Collector Ankit Kumar Singh approved financial assistance worth Rs 1 crore 41 lakh to 45 people who were injured and 69 people who suffered the loss of property during the violence. Rs 18 lakh 25 thousand will be distributed among the injured. Those who were seriously injured would get Rs 2 lakh per person. Those who sustained minor injuries would get Rs 25 thousand each. Rs 1 crore, 23 lakh and 55 thousand will be distributed among those who suffered a property loss.
Karauli Violence
On April 2, communal violence broke down in the Hatwara Bazaar area of Karauli when miscreants pelted stones at a Hindu bike rally while more than a dozen shops and three bikes were set on fire.
As per reports, 43 people, including police personnel, were injured in the mob attack while the rally that was celebrating ‘Nav Samvatsar’ (Hindu new year) passed through an allegedly Muslim-dominated area. All were admitted to the district hospital. The condition of a person named Pushpendra was said to be serious. He was referred to Jaipur.
Four policemen accompanying the rally were also injured in the stone-pelting on the bike rally. The reports said that there were knife marks on the body of the injured who reached the hospital.
On April 26 (local time), Billionaire and Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk slammed Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde over the ‘incredibly inappropriate’ censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop story. Musk was replying to a post where a report by Politico was shared claiming Gadde had cried during a virtual meeting with the policy and legal teams that she oversees.
Vijaya Gadde is the chief legal officer and general counsel of Twitter. She had played a vital role in terminating ex-President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter.
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate
Reports suggest that a meeting was called on Monday by Gadde to update the team on the possible implications of the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk. Politico said in its report that during the conversation with the team, Gadde broke down in tears. She expressed her concerns about how the company could change in the coming days.
Those familiar with the matter said she had acknowledged there were significant uncertainties about the company’s future under Musk. Twitter Spokesperson Trenton Kennedy was quoted by Politico saying that Gadde got emotional during the discussion. During the conversation, she spoke in length about how she felt proud working at Twitter all those years and urged her teammates to keep up their “good work” at the company.
Gadde has been associated with Twitter since 2011. She oversees trust and safety and legal and public policy functions at the company. Gadde is often tasked with handling sensitive issues like dangerous speech and harassment on the platform. Reports suggest she also played a leading role in finalizing the deal between Twitter and Musk.
Politico also quoted a Twitter employee who said, “I think everyone at Twitter, regardless of how they feel about the news, is feeling reflective and emotional. We’ve gone through a lot in the past two years, and I think it’s generally instigated a lot of reflection. I think this was more of an acknowledgement of the uncertainty everyone is feeling right now.”
Gadde’s role at Twitter is considered to be one of the most controversial of all. It is her team’s work to decide how to moderate content on the platform. The two cases where she faced the maximum criticism were the termination of ex-President Trump’s account and the blockade of distribution of a New York Post article about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in 2020.
During the meeting, she informed her team that their jobs would be safe for six months as the takeover process would take that much time.
Elon Musk criticized Gadde over the news portal’s suspension
Though Elon Musk is yet to speak on the possibilities of the return of ex-President Trump, he had talked about the suspension of the New York Post over Hunter Biden’s story. In a tweet, he wrote, “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Musk was mentioning the NYP report in 2020 on Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s laptop. Initially, the left and liberal cabal deemed the story fake, but later it was proven true that the content of the laptop indeed belonged to Hunter Biden.
After the ban on NYP, Twitter justified the move by saying its regulations prohibit the distribution of hacked material.
Musk bought Twitter
Recently, Twitter accepted Elon Musk‘s offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash. Since the announcement, the liberal section showing signs of severe meltdown as they believe Musk’s thinking over “free speech” does not match with theirs.
On Tuesday, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan issued revised admission guidelines for the academic year 2022-2023 discontinuing the MPs’ discretionary quota in recommending the admission of students to Kendriya Vidyalayas.
This is after the MPs demanded that the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan should either do away with the discretionary quota or should allow more than 10 recommendations in every academic year. Recently in the Budget Session of parliament, senior Congress leader Manish Tewari and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sushil Kumar Modi, had demanded that the MP quota to Kendriya Vidyalaya admissions be either scrapped or its limit be increased.
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan scraps discretionary quota of MPs for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas as per revised admission guidelines which’ve no mention of quotas for MPs for admission into KVs
Earlier this month, KVS had put on hold discretionary quotas for admissions to KVs pic.twitter.com/kpFKq7dukp
According to the reports, the MP quota at the Kendriya Vidyalayas, also known as KVS Special Dispensation Admission Scheme allowed a parliamentarian to recommend a maximum of 10 students from their respective constituencies for admission in classes 1 to 9 of Kendriya Vidyalas.
The revised guidelines also stated that those children who have lost both of their parents due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be considered for admission over and above the class strength under PM CARES for Children Scheme. “The admission of such students will be done based on the list given by the District Magistrate of the concerned District, subject to 10 children per Kendriy Vidyalaya and a maximum of two children per class”, the official statement by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan read.
“These children will be exempted from payment of fees (Tuition fee, Computer fund, and VVN) from Classes I to XII,” it added. Meanwhile, some new provisions have been added in the revised admission guidelines which include 50 seats for the wards of group B and C central police organizations such as CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, CISF, NDRF, and Assam Rifles based on a list provided by the ministry of home affairs.
Further, 60 admissions in Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country can be utilized exclusively for children returning from abroad along with their parents after their posting in current or previous years, and they would be considered for admission up to November 30.
In addition to the changes in the MP’s quota, the Sangathan has also raised the age limit for Class 1 admissions to 6 years. Earlier, the lower age limit for Class 1 admissions was 5 years but with the coming of the National Education Policy, NEP 2020, the age limit has been increased to 6 years. However, for the remaining classes, the age limit remains the same.
The KVS Special Dispensation Admission Scheme was introduced in the year 1975 and since then a total of 7880 admissions every year were possible against this scheme across 1,248 KVs in India. The scheme was scrapped in 1997, but it was reinstated within a year. It was also suspended briefly in 2010 under the UPA-II government. Reportedly, after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan took over the charge last year, the government scrapped the MP’s discretionary quota for admissions in the Kendriya Vidyalayas.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hit out at the cabal of left-liberals after they had a prolonged meltdown on Twitter, following his acquisition of the micro-blogging platform in a 44 billion dollar bid.
In a tweet on Tuesday (April 26) night, the billionaire entrepreneur wrote, “The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all.”
The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all
In a follow-up tweet, Musk reiterated his commitment to free speech. “By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law,” he emphasised.
The Tesla CEO further added, “If people want less free speech, they will ask the government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
On being pointed out that the top lawyer of Twitter, Vijay Gadde, has been provoking the company’s employees during meetings, Musk responded, “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story (about Hunter Biden by New YYork Pst) was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Gadde has been at the forefront in cancelling podcast host Joe Rogan and censoring the story on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was later found to be accurate.
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate
CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, Aaron Levie, had suggested that Musk might be summoned for a Congressional hearing on 63 different topics. The new owner of Twitter responded with a smiling face (with hearts on the eyes) emoji.
Elon Musk, who was already the largest individual shareholder of Twitter holding 9.2% of the company, had earlier stated that he had no faith in the current management and couldn’t fulfil Twitter’s true potential under them. He aimed to make the company private so that he could have full control over it and could direct Twitter to fulfil its full potential.
Twitter’s board had tried its best to resist Elon Musk’s takeover bid, including trying to trigger the poison pill strategy. However, the price Musk offered coupled with the mood of the majority of Twitter shareholders eventually forced the Twitter board’s hand.
Elon Musk, who is already the CEO of electric vehicle giant Tesla and SpaceX, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI as well as the founder of The Boring Company, is now the owner of the social media giant Twitter. Following the takeover, Twitter Inc. has also locked changes to its source code to prevent disgruntled employees from making unauthorised changes to the platform.
On April 26, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) claimed that the idea of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) was unconstitutional and against the minorities. It further added that UCC was unacceptable to Muslims.
— Khalid Saifullah Rahmani (@hmksrahmani) April 26, 2022
In the press note, AIMPLB’s General Secretary Hazrat Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani said that the Constitution of India has allowed the citizens to live according to their religion as a part of fundamental rights. “Under the same right, separate personnel laws have been granted for minorities and tribal classes according to their customs, beliefs and traditions, which does not interfere with the constitution in any way,” he said.
He added that the personal law board helps in maintaining mutual trust between minority and majority communities. Blaming the state governments and central government for using UCC to divert attention from the “real issues”, he claimed, “The adoption of the Uniform Civil Code by the Uttarakhand or Uttar Pradesh government or the central government is just a timeless rhetoric, and everyone knows that their purpose is not to address issues such as rising inflation, falling economy and rising unemployment.”
He said that the idea of UCC would not be acceptable to Muslims. “The Uniform civil code issue has been brought up to divert attention from real issues and promote an agenda of hatred and discrimination. This anti-constitutional move is not acceptable to Muslims at all,” he added. Rahmani further condemned the talks on UCC and urged the government to refrain from any such plans.
The statement by AIMPLB came at the time when the Uttarakhand government under Bharatiya Janata Party had already constituted a committee to prepare a draft on UCC in the state. Apart from Uttarakhand, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has also hinted that the state was seriously considering the implementation of UCC. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had said the state was considering UCC.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during a party leaders meeting in Bhopal, mentioned UCC in his statement. He said CAA, Ram Mandir, Article 370 and Triple Talaq have already been resolved. Now the government would focus on the Common Civil Code.
