Ram Navami this year saw several incidents of stone-pelting on Ram Navami processions by Islamists across the country. From Gujarat to Bengal, Odisha to Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh to Jharkhand, several incidents of stone-pelting on Hindu religious processions were reported across India. While some blamed Hindus for entering Muslim areas, others straight out called the stoning of Hindu processions a Muslim genocide.
In between all that, Congress leader Salman Nizami tried to portray himself as an apostle of peace by putting out a tweet that even though he is a Muslim, he doesn’t hate Hindus.
While it was very charitable of Nizami not to hate Hindus, netizens were quick to expose his hypocrisy by sharing his old hate-filled tweets against India.
Nizami had not only posted hate tweets against India as a country, but he had also expressed open support for terrorists like Afzal Guru. When did this hate-filled Congressi leader turn into this loving version is anybody’s guess, but even the Muslims of India were not amused by his fake declaration of love.
Ramzan main jhooth nahee boltay Salman, naughty boy.
Apart from ranting against India and cheering terrorists, this colorful Congress politician had also made sexist remarks on Union Minister Smriti Irani in several tweets.
However, now that he is saying he loves Hindus, maybe soon he will say that he loves India as well.
On April 10, Hindu devotees came under attack by an Islamist mob while a Ram Navami procession passed through a lane adjacent to a mosque in Khargone in Madhya Pradesh. The Shobha Yatra had to be abandoned midway after Islamists indiscriminately pelted stones, and set several houses and vehicles ablaze. After the attack, many leading media houses alleged that the clash erupted after provocative slogans were raised and songs were played in Muslim areas and in front of mosques. Media outlets like The Cognate went further to term the incident as ‘anti-Muslim’ violence.
Amidst these allegations, an old video has surfaced wherein a mob is seen dancing to Islamic songs in front of a Hindu temple. Swati Goel Sharma of the Swarajya shared the video with the caption, “This is Khargone, where a Ram Navami procession has been stoned for playing music outside a mosque. This is happening right in front of a temple. Notice the man with a pistol in hand”.
This is Khargone, where a Ram Navami procession has been stoned for playing music outside a mosque. This is happening right in front of a temple. Notice the man with a pistol in hand pic.twitter.com/EftcSMPVHk
In her subsequent Tweet, the journalist clarified that the video is likely from 2018.
As can be seen in the video, a huge mob is seen passing through a narrow lane that also houses a temple. The mob can be seen singing and dancing to Islamic songs being played on the loudspeakers mounted on a truck. In the crowd, while one man can be seen brandishing a pistol another is seen dancing to Islamic songs with a sickle in his hand. The procession makes its way through the narrow alley, where locals gather on the corners of the street to watch the celebration.
Going by the video, one can safely presume that the Islamic procession was passing through a Hindu-dominated area. One can see saffron flags displayed on balconies and rooftops of the houses adjacent to the temple. The shops are also named after Hindu Gods and Goddesses, as evidenced by one of the hoardings seen in the video, which reads “Maa Bhagwati Doodh Dairy.” Bhagwati is another name for Hindu Goddess Durga.
According to Swati Goel Sharma, the video is from Khargone, the same district in Madhya Pradesh, where on April 10, a Ram Navami procession had to be abandoned midway after it came under a volley of stones. Several vehicles were set on fire.
OpIndia reported how the cops had to resort to firing tear gas shells to bring the situation under control. During the orgy of violence, a total of 24 people were injured, including six police personnel. Even the Superintendent of Police (Khargone) Siddharth Chaudhary has sustained bullet injuries. Keeping in mind the volatile law and order situation, a curfew was imposed in the area.
Media houses allege Hindus raised provocative slogans/songs that triggered the violence
Many media houses like The Indian Express, for example, reported that the clash broke out near Talab Chowk mosque when some people opposed the provocative songs being played during the procession. The Cognate went on to term the incident as “anti-Muslim violence”.
According to a report by The Hindu, when Sumer Singh Mujalda, Additional District Magistrate of Khargone was asked if the procession had the required police permission as allegations have been raised that provocative slogans were raised near the mosque, he said, “It is a traditional route for Ram Navami celebrations and the members had police permission. The procession was suspended for the past two years due to COVID-19. The situation is under control now.” Ten persons were injured in the violence.
Meanwhile, Congress held the state administration accountable for the incident of arson and stone-pelting carried out by an Islamist mob. Ravi Joshi, the Khargone MLA from the Congress was quoted by The Hindu as saying, “Khargone is a communally sensitive place. We had earlier also requested the administration to deploy an adequate police force, but the request was not heeded. It is police failure.”
SP who sustained bullet injury narrates the mayhem unleashed during Khargone violence
Earlier in the day, OpIndia reported how SP Siddharth Chaudhary, who had sustained bullet injury during the Khargone stone-pelting incident, had described how things had unfolded and the predicaments faced by him his officers who were targeted by these radical elements.
The SP recalled how a miscreant wielding a sword had dashed toward the Hindus devotees. A police team of 12 to 15 officers attempted to apprehend the sword-wielding miscreant and were initially successful, but he soon managed to escape and flee. Then, as the SP attempted to catch up with him by running behind him, someone shot at his leg from behind. Chaudhary stated that at first, he thought someone had struck him with a stone. But one of his officers realised that the SP had been hit with a bullet. Despite suffering a head injury himself, the officer rushed the blood-soaked SP to the hospital.
According to Siddharth Chaudhary, the procession was slightly delayed because the main tableaux could not arrive at the scheduled time. By then it was time for the Muslims to offer Namaz. The situation deteriorated soon after that. He stated that the police were trying to move the tableaus forward, but some people from behind began throwing stones. Within no time some other miscreants barged the narrow lane and began setting vehicles and houses on fire. SP Siddharth Chaudhary recalled how, despite great difficulty, the policemen rescued the people trapped in the narrow lane.
The SP stated that even the fire vehicle was attacked by some arsonists and the narrow lanes in the area made it extremely difficult for the police to escort the vehicles.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of Gujarat Congress’ working president Hardik Patel in a court case involving rioting and vandalism during the Patidar quota agitation in Visnagar, Gujarat, in 2015.
Patel was sentenced to two years in jail in July 2018 by a sessions court in Visnagar, Mehsana district, for rioting and arson in Visnagar town during the Patidar quota demonstrations he spearheaded in 2015. The Gujarat High Court stayed his sentencing but not his conviction in August 2018.
Supreme Court stays conviction of Congress leader Hardik Patel until the appeals are decided, in rioting and arson during the Patidar quota stir, saying that concerned High Court should have stayed the conviction
In April 2019, Hardik Patel petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse the Gujarat High Court’s ruling, demanding that the conviction be stayed so that he may participate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Patel was prevented from contesting in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections because a criminal serving a sentence of two years or more is not eligible to contest polls.
Senior counsel Maninder Singh, who represented Patel before the Supreme Court, maintained that denying his client the right to contest elections violates his right to free speech and that the state government is abusing its police powers.
On the other side, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta emphasised that the case must be determined in accordance with criminal law standards. He further stated that there is one very severe case against Patel under Section 395 of the IPC.
As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to stay his sentence, Patel is now able to compete in the Gujarat Assembly election of 2022. The tenure of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly will end on February 18, 2023. The previous assembly elections took place in December of 2017. The next term’s elections will be held in December 2022 to elect 182 members to the Assembly.
AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) president Asaduddin Owaisi made a contentious comment in response to the Madhya Pradesh government’s action against miscreants who threw stones at the Ram Navami procession in Khargone. Owaisi has claimed that the bulldozing of the rioters’ and stone pelters’ homes is a breach of the Geneva Conventions.
He said, “This is clearly a state complicit violence & grave violation of the Geneva Convention. Under what law the govt of Madhya Pradesh has demolished the houses of the Muslim community?. It clearly shows CM’s biased attitude towards Muslim minority.”
“The governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Goa failed in controlling and stopping the violence during the Ram Navami procession,” he further added.
The governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Goa failed in controlling and stopping the violence during the Ram Navami procession: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi pic.twitter.com/IEoePdK9Hc
It is interesting to note that the Geneva Conventions are a body of Public International Law enacted that originated in 1864 and finally updated in 1949 after World War II. It is often known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts, whose goal is to provide protection, basic humane treatment, and a fundamental guarantee of respect to people who become victims of international armed conflicts.
The conventions are a set of four laws that are detailed and must be obeyed by all signatories. During a conflict, the First Geneva Convention shields injured and sick soldiers, medical and religious staff, medical units, and medical transportation on land. The Second Geneva Convention safeguards injured, ill, and shipwrecked military troops at sea. The third is for prisoners of war and the fourth safeguards civilians, including those in occupied territory.
All of these conventions are to be applied only in case of international armed aggression except Article 3 of the fourth convention. Article 3 of the Fourth Convention applies in the event of a ‘non-international armed conflict’ happening within the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties.
Therefore, the statement made by Owaisi does not align with the actual body of the Geneva Conventions. There is only one article that applies in a ‘non-international’ scenario and that too only in case of an ‘armed conflict.’ even though the stone pelters have committed a serious crime, they are not armed aggressors and hence do not invite the application of the Geneva conventions.
Also, the action was taken on the illegal possessions of the perpetrators. On Sunday, miscreants threw stones during the Ram Navami procession, prompting the Khargone authorities to take harsh action. The authorities bulldozed the unlawfully constructed buildings.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) failed to win even a single seat out of the 36 in the Uttar Pradesh MLC elections that went to poll on Tuesday, giving a huge victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which bagged 33 out of the 36 seats. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that this victory has once again established that the people of the state have faith in Prime Minister Modi’s leadership.
Taking to Twitter, he said that the BJP’s victory in these polls has once again made it clear that under the leadership of PM Modi, the people of the state are with nationalism, growth, and good governance.
आज उत्तर प्रदेश के स्थानीय प्राधिकारी विधान परिषद चुनावों में भाजपा की प्रचण्ड विजय ने पुनः स्पष्ट कर दिया है कि आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री जी के कुशल मार्गदर्शन एवं नेतृत्व में प्रदेश की जनता राष्ट्रवाद, विकास एवं सुशासन के साथ है।
According to the reports, out of 36, BJP had already bagged 9 seats unopposed, while voting for the remaining 27 seats was held on April 9. The nine seats were Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri. While Congress and BSP did not field any of its candidate for the elections, the poll this year was a straight fight between the BJP and SP.
Samajwadi Party prominently lost the seats of Ballia, Rae Bareli, Faizabad-Ambedkarnagar, Sitapur, Barabanki, Deoria-Kushinagar etc. SP’s Arvind Giri lost the Ballia seat by 1981 votes to BJP’s Ravishankar Singh Pappu and SP candidate Shankar Yadav Singh lost Rae Bareli seat to Dinesh Pratap Singh of BJP.
In Ayodhya, BJP’s Hari Om Pandey defeated Heeralal Yadav of the SP by 1,680 votes and Pawan Kumar Singh of BJP won over Arunesh Yadav of the SP by 3,692 votes in Sitapur. The most humiliating defeat faced by the Samajwadi party in the election was Kafeel Khan‘s defeat from the Deoria-Kushinagar seat at the hands of Ratanpal Singh of the BJP. Khan had earlier shown mistrust in the election system and had guarded the ballot box for 72 hours from April 9 to April 12.
However, BJP lost it’s Varanasi seat to local strongman Brijesh Singh’s wife and Independent candidate Annapurna Singh. According to the Election Commission of India the polling percentage recorded in the state was at 98.11. While Rae Bareli registered the highest voter turnout at 99.35 percent, Gorakhpur recorded the lowest at 96.50 percent.
Following a resounding victory in the UP Assembly elections, BJP has recorded history by attaining a majority in the Legislative Council for the first time in nearly 40 years. Addressing BJP workers a week ago, CM Yogi Adityanath had said it was important for the party to win the 36 seats to advance his government’s growth agenda without any hurdle. “Of these 36 seats, the BJP has won nine unopposed. If the party wins all the 36 seats, you can assume that it will have a two-third majority in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and have no problem in taking forward the development schemes expeditiously.”
This is the first time in decades that BJP will enjoy a clear majority in both houses of Uttar Pradesh.
As the discussion over European and Indian purchases of Russian energy continues, an older story concerning the Congress party’s role in a global oil scam during an energy crisis deserves to be highlighted. We are talking about the Iraqi oil-for-food scam.
What was the oil-for-food scam?
During Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq, the oil-for-food scam involved illegal oil deals. The United Nations Security Council introduced the Oil-for-Food programme in 1996 to allow Iraq to sell enough oil to pay for food and other essentials for its population, which was suffering as a result of strong UN sanctions imposed following the first Gulf War. Saddam Hussein, on the other side, benefitted from the initiative, amassing $1.7 billion in bribes and surcharges and $10.9 billion in fraudulent oil smuggling.
According to the Volcker report, which was published in October 2005, roughly half of the 4,500 participating firms paid bribe money and unlawful surcharges to secure significant contracts, allowing Saddam Hussein to accumulate $1.8 billion at the expense of Iraqis suffering under UN economic sanctions.
Since its inception in April 2004, the Volcker committee released four interim reports. According to the report, Kojo Annan, son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was also involved in the scam indirectly. Between 1995 and 2004, Kojo got $400,000 from Swiss-based Cotecna Inspections SA. The final report also stated explicitly that “India’s Congress party” and Natwar Singh’s family were non-contractual beneficiaries of the Oil for Food programme.
How was Congress involved?
The Volcker Committee report cited Kunwar Natwar Singh, former External Affairs Minister, and the Congress Party as “non-contractual beneficiaries” of Iraqi oil sales under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme scam in 2001.
Singh, who was then the head of the Congress’ international affairs cell, led the Congress delegation to Baghdad through Jordan in January 2001, while the party was in opposition. Former Union Ministers P. Shiv Shankar and AR Antulay, as well as Aniel Matherani, joined him. He was joined by two other people: Jagat Singh, his son, and Andaleeb Sehgal, a Delhi exporter who is also linked to the family, a detailed report in India Today stated.
This journey was followed by a series of illegal oil transactions to Natwar and the Congress under Saddam Hussein’s regime’s oil-for-food program, as detailed in the Volcker Committee Report.
Matherani, who became the Ambassador to Croatia after the Congress Party took power in 2004, stated that Singh used the 2001 trip to lay the groundwork for Jagat and Sehgal to secure deals under the oil-for-food programme.
He added that the planning began on November 27, 2000, when then-Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan visited India and invited a Congress delegation to Iraq. Natwar, according to Matherani, then planned for his son to accompany him because “it would be a difficult journey” for someone of his age.
Matherani said that when they met with Ramadan and Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s then-deputy prime minister, Jagat and Sehgal followed them and were introduced as members of the delegation. He said that by having them in the meeting, Natwar signalled to the Iraqis that they were his representatives and could be lent whatever commercial favours given to him by the regime.
Sehgal and Jagat then negotiated with Iraqi officials to register Sehgal’s company Hamdan Exports to do business in Iraq. Following that, Hamdan registered with the Iraqi Grain Board to supply wheat on January 30, 2001, and Sehgal continued to visit Iraq to follow up on the wheat tenders.
However, interestingly, Sehgal was never given a wheat tender by the Iraqi government. Nevertheless, according to the Volcker Report, Sehgal initially paid what seems to be an advance surcharge of $60,000 (Rs 27 lakh) for a transaction to lift two million barrels through Masefield AG, a Swiss oil trading business.
Natwar and the Congress were both mentioned as “non-contractual beneficiaries” of the Saddam government’s illegal oil allotments in the Volcker committee’s 630-page report. Natwar is said to have got four million million barrels of oil, while the Congress party received the other four million.
Also, nearly three million barrels were lifted, including two million of the four million barrels allotted to Natwar and one million barrels from Congress allotments. On the records of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization, Sehgal’s firm, Hamdan Exports, was shown as having paid the premium levied by the Iraqi government for transferring such oil allotments in both cases.
What followed next?
When the Congress Party assumed power in 2004, Natwar Singh was appointed as the Minister of External Affairs under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. However, following the publication of the Volcker report, he was compelled to resign from his position as minister and was subsequently suspended from the party. Two committees were appointed to investigate the Volcker report and all of the allegations: a judicial inquiry led by former Chief Justice of India RS Pathak and a fact-finding mission led by former diplomat Virender Dayal.
In August 2006, the RS Pathak Committee delivered its report to the Prime Minister, in which Congress was cleared of all accusations. The Enforcement Directorate slapped summons on Natwar Singh and his son in September 2006.
Image via: India Today
The Enforcement Directorate, which probed Natwar and Jagat under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), continues to maintain that shreds of evidence point to the Singhs and Sehgal’s connection. As per a report by India Today in 2014, ED found Natwar received foreign money totalling $898,027 (Rs 5.4 crore) in violation of FEMA.
Natwar Singh claimed innocence in the Oil-for-Food scam that ended in his shameful political departure in his autobiography, One Life is Not Enough. Singh argued that if one looks at the Volcker report’s annexure, it indicates that the Congress was named in 1997 and that the name was inserted in March 2005 because Sonia Gandhi said he needed to be ‘fixed’. He further claimed that Justice RS Pathak, who investigated Volcker’s charges, cleared him in the report of the investigation committee. However, the report, which was presented to then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has not yet been made public.
The Haridwar police have arrested a youth named Sadiq who posed as a Hindu to befriend a minor girl and raped her thereafter. According to the FIR filed in the case on April 10, 2022, Sadiq had introduced himself as Ratan Tyagi to lure the Hindu girl. He then threatened her with her intimate pictures and sexually assaulted her.
According to the FIR, the incident took place in Vishanpur Kundi in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. The girl said that Sadiq, who introduced himself as Ratan Tyagi alias Raja, followed and harassed her when she used to return from school. This, she said, was happening for quite some time.
Copy of the FIR
The FIR further stated that Sadiq lured the girl and then clicked various pictures of hers. He then began to threaten her using those photographs. Whenever she refused to talk to him, he blackmailed her by threatening to leak the photos on social media.
Since the school was closed, the girl mostly stayed at home while her parents went to work. Taking advantage of the situation, Sadiq frequented the victim’s house and harassed her.
Sadiq went to the minor girl’s house about 4-5 days ago and threatened to kill her parents as well as make her pictures viral on social media if she did not accompany him.
The victim’s parents confirmed that the accused had been going by the name Ratan Tyagi alias Raja all along. It wasn’t until the investigation began that it was revealed that the accused was actually Sadiq, a resident of Chandpur village in Lansdowne Tehsil of Garhwal district in Uttarakhand.
In a humiliating loss to the Samajwadi Party in the biennial elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council or upper house, SP’s candidate from the Deoria-Kushinagar seat Kafeel Khan suffered defeat at the hands of Ratanpal Singh of the BJP on Tuesday.
Congratulating Ratanpal Singh on his win, Khan accused Singh of offering money to him to withdraw from the elections. He also claimed that whatever votes have been attained by the SP are genuine votes and not purchased ones. “I have attained 1031 votes and these are despite BJP’s dominance, UP Police’s dominance in the state. I thank all these 1031 voters for trusting me”, he said with a flop smile on his face.
On March 16 Samajwadi Party had named the controversial doctor Kafeel Khan as the party’s candidate for the Deoria-Kushinagar legislative council seat. Earlier, he had shown mistrust in the election system and had declared that he would guard the ballot box for 72 hours i.e from April 9 to April 12. He complained that the BJP workers had allegedly threatened the SP workers outside the booth and didn’t allow their agent to enter the booth. He also alleged that the BJP workers were distributing cash to purchase the votes from the voters.
“Voting is on 12 – 72 hours. This is the guarding of the ballot box – no trust on them”, Khan had tweeted on April 9. Khan in yet another video on April 10 stated that he and his associates were continuously keeping a watch on the ballot box. “We will definitely win. Today was Ram Navmi and Iftar and we are still here guarding the ballot box. We will continue for more 48 hours”, he tweeted expressing confidence on April 10.
According to the reports, out of a total of 5513 voters, 1031 people voted for Kafeel Khan, heading a big win for the BJP which is leading in more than 30 seats. While the MLC election results decided the fate of 95 candidates, more than 33 seats have been secured by the BJP.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the victory has once again established that the people of the state have faith in Prime Minister Modi’s leadership.
Taking to Twitter, he said the BJP’s victory in the polls has once again made it clear that under the leadership of the PM Modi, the people of the state are with nationalism, growth, and good governance.
आज उत्तर प्रदेश के स्थानीय प्राधिकारी विधान परिषद चुनावों में भाजपा की प्रचण्ड विजय ने पुनः स्पष्ट कर दिया है कि आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री जी के कुशल मार्गदर्शन एवं नेतृत्व में प्रदेश की जनता राष्ट्रवाद, विकास एवं सुशासन के साथ है।
Dr. Khan is presently suspended from his job over medical negligence charges leveled against him in 2017 after 72 infants had died in BRD medical college in Gorakhpur due to a lack of oxygen supply. In January 2020, he was arrested for his speech at Aligarh Muslim University on December 10, 2019, during anti-CAA protests.
Khan had also made some inflammatory remarks in his speech delivered during the anti-CAA protests at Aligarh Muslim University. He had reportedly remarked against Home Minister Amit Shah that he was a murderer whose clothes are foul with blood.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has recently courted controversy after she tried todownplay allegations of brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl as a ‘love affair’ gone wrong. The insensitive behaviour toward the plight of a deceased child by the Head of a State has drawn the ire of civil society.
The incident, in question, took place on April 4, 2022, in the Shyamnagar locality in Hanskhali Block Number- I in Nadia district of West Bengal. The accused has been identified as one Brajgopal, the son of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Gajna Gram Panchayat member Samar Gowla.
Reportedly, the accused had invited the victim to his house under the pretext of birthday celebrations. The girl became unwell, following which she was rushed to a local doctor. She passed away the following day.
According to the family members of the victim, the girl died due to excessive bleeding. They alleged that she was raped by the son of the TMC leader. The family members also claimed that the TMC leader Samar Gowla and other party workers forcibly cremated the girl’s body at a local crematorium.
The incident had created political upheaval in the State, with the TMC supremo and incumbent CM Mamata Banerjee trying to trivialise allegations of rape and murder made by the victim’s family.
While speaking at the inauguration of the revamped Milan Mela on Monday (April 11), she claimed, “As a layman, I am saying where would someone get the evidence whether the girl was actually raped or pregnant. Or was there any other reason, like someone beat her up or she died of some illness?”
“There was a love affair for sure, her family knew about it, and their neighbours also knew about it. Now if a girl and a boy love each other, I cannot punish them”, alleged Mamata Banerjee.
Legality, statutory rape and ignorance
Although the investigation in the case has not yet been concluded, the West Bengal Chief Minister went on to insinuate that the allegations of rape and murder are nothing but a ‘love affair gone array.’
For the sake of argument, let us assume that the deceased victim had a ‘love affair’ with the accused in the case. A mere relationship, even if a committed one, does not imply an irrevocable implied consent to sexual activity.
As such, brushing off allegations of ‘rape’ as ‘consent borne out of a love affair’ is a travesty of justice. In a desperate bid to defend the son of a Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee forgot one key concept of the Indian justice system.
Minors do not have the right to consent. The victim was 14 years old and as such the West Bengal Chief Minister’s insinuation of ‘consensual sexual activity’ does not hold true. This is clearly stated in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 375 (6).
The law says that a man is said to commit ‘rape’ if he engages in a sexual act “with or without her consent when she is under eighteen years of age.” As such, sexual activity with a minor is by definition an act of ‘statutory rape.’
“In this kind of rape, the adult will get punished if he had any kind of physical interaction with a woman/girl, in the age of 18 or below, no matter if she has voluntarily participated in the act or not. The consent of the minor is immaterial and will not be considered any defence to the accused,” wrote Himanshi Srivastava in Ipleaders.
“Statutory rape law is violated in circumstances where an individual engages himself in sexual activity with a person under the age of 18. The age of consent lowers to 15 years old in case if the couple is married,” she further added.
It must be mentioned that the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) was brought into effect in June 2012 for the sole purpose of safeguarding children from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Mamata Banerjee, TMC and contentious remarks on rape
This is not the first time when Banerjee has tried to insinuate that allegations of rape committed in the State are motivated by political vendetta. The TMC supremo has been a habitual offender in this regard, at times accusing victims of lying and staging a ‘rape’ to defame her government.
An Anglo-Indian woman, by the name Suzette Jordan, was raped in a moving car by five men on February 6, 2012, when she was returning home from Park Street in Kolkata. Soon after the news surfaced, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had absolved the accused of all charges. She had dubbed the incident as ‘shajano ghotona‘ (concocted incident) that was allegedly ‘designed to malign the government.’
Rape survivor Suzette Jordan, image via Livemint
While speaking to a news channel, TMC MP Kakoli Ghose Dhastidar had cast aspersions on the character of the victim and also ruled out the rape angle. She had stated, “If you are referring to the Park Street case, see that’s a different case altogether. It’s not at all a rape case. It was a misunderstanding between two people in a professional dealing between the lady and her client.”
At the same time, the then Transport Minister had also questioned the victim’s character and called the complaint fake. 3 years later in 2015, a Kolkata Court upheld the rape charges in the Park Street case and found accused Nasir Khan, Ruman Khan and Sumit Bajaj guilty.
During another rape case in Burdwan’s Katwa in the same year, Mamata Banerjee again dismissed the rape allegations, even before the investigation was concluded. “A political party is doing all this, shouting rape. They are playing this drama. Harmader diye natok shajachhe jatey Banglar nam kharap hochhe (They are staging an act to give a bad name to West Bengal)”, she was heard as saying.
In 2013, during a debate in the West Bengal legislative assembly about the rising cases of rapes in the State, the CM had insinuated that it was due to an increase in the population of the State. She had also blamed modernisation, an increase in shopping malls and multiplexes for rising rape cases.
While her recent remarks have stirred a hullabaloo in political circles of West Bengal, there is nothing surprising given that Mamata Banerjee has a stellar record at trivialising rape and victim-blaming. The West Bengal Chief Minister stooped a bit lower when she tried to legitimise ‘statutory rape’ as a consensual affair between a minor victim and accused.
On April 12, several leaders, including Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, former Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh and others, accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of holding a meeting with Punjab Bureaucrats in CM Bhagwant Mann’s absence on Monday. Ex-CM Singh called CM Mann a ‘rubber stamp’ and said the worst that was feared had happened.
In a tweet, Punjab Lok Congress leader Capt Amarinder said, “Worst was feared, worst happened. Arvind Kejriwal took over Punjab much before it was expected to happen. That Bhagwant Mann is a rubber stamp was a foregone conclusion already, now Kejriwal has proved it right by chairing Punjab officers’ meeting in Delhi.”
Worst was feared, worst happened. @ArvindKejriwal has taken over Punjab much before it was expected to happen. That @BhagwantMann is a rubber stamp was a foregone conclusion already, now Kejriwal has proved it right by chairing Punjab officers’ meeting in Delhi.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa questioned in what capacity Delhi CM Kejriwal held the meeting and wondered if Punjab CM Mann was aware of it. “In what capacity did Arvind Kejriwal, CM of Delhi, take a meeting with Punjab Government officers in the absence of CM Punjab? Was CM Bhagwant Mann aware of this meeting? If yes, both he & Kejriwal should apologise to Punjabis for surrendering Punjab’s respect & stature. This is unacceptable.”
In what capacity @ArvindKejriwal CM of Delhi took a meeting with @PunjabGovtIndia officers in absence of @CMOPb? Was CM @BhagwantMann aware of this meeting? If yes; both he & Kejriwal should apologise to Punjabis for surrendering Punjab’s respect & stature. This is unacceptable pic.twitter.com/ue7LCkKExW
In a follow-up video message, he said, “CM Kejriwal held a meeting with Chief Secretary and officers from Power Department of Punjab in Delhi. It is unconstitutional. There is an elected government in Punjab. Punjab CM or Power Minister were not present in the meeting. In what capacity did he hold the meeting? Does he think of himself as super CM? Or does he want to prove that 92 elected MLAs of Punjab are worthless? Or CM Bhagwant Mann is worthless?”
Meeting taken by @ArvindKejriwal with Punjab gov officers in absence of @CMoPb is totally unconstitutional & disrespectful towards Punjab & Punjabis! Does Kejriwal consider @BhagwantMann incapable of running Punjab? They both shd apologise for challenging Punjab’s federal status pic.twitter.com/ihPFUAiGr5
He further added, “It is a challenge to the self-respect of Punjab. There are a lot of issues that Punjab has with the Centre. One day Kejriwal would take some decision, and CM Mann would say he was not aware. It has been over 24 hours since the meeting was held neither CM Kejriwal nor CM Bhagwant Mann said anything about it. The MLAs of Punjab are saying they know nothing about it. They both should apologise.”
Former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu called it a clear breach of federalism. He said, “Punjab’s IAS officers summoned by Arvind Kejriwal in CM Bhagwant Mann’s absence. This exposes the Defacto CM & Delhi remote control. A clear breach of federalism, an insult to Punjabi pride. Both must clarify.”
चलने दो आंधियाँ हकीकत की, न जाने कौन से झोंके से बहरूपियों के मुखौटे उड़ जाएं Punjabs IAS officers summoned by @ArvindKejriwal in CM @BhagwantMann’s absence. This exposes the Defacto CM & Delhi remote control. Clear breach of federalism, insult to Punjabi pride. Both must clarify
Punjab CM was scheduled to meet Delhi CM and AAP National Convener Kejriwal on Tuesday in Delhi. Reports suggest the two leaders would discuss welfare schemes to be implemented in Punjab, including free 300 units of electricity every month to every household in the state.
