A court in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi has on Monday, March 7, granted Congress scion Rahul Gandhi exemption from appearing in person during the day’s hearing in the 2014 ‘RSS killed Mahatama Gandhi’ defamation case filed against him. The court granted Rahul Gandhi the exemption after his counsel informed the court that the Congress leader was busy with polls in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
On Monday, the court was set to record the evidence of complainant Rajesh Kunte in the defamation case, but the court of FCJM JV Palival postponed the hearing after Gandhi’s counsel Narayan Iyer sought exemption from appearance for his client, citing his busy schedule.
The court will now hear the case on March 22.
The ‘RSS killed Gandhi’ defamation case‘ against Rahul Gandhi
It may be recalled that an RSS activist namely Rajesh Kunte had filed a defamation case against Gandhi in 2014 after watching Gandhi give a speech on TV in which he accused the RSS of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. It was alleged by the RSS activist that the Congress leader had said at a rally during last year’s Lok Sabha poll that a worker of the saffron outfit killed Mahatma Gandhi.
At that time, the Supreme Court had slammed then Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his remark that RSS is behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, while prima facie indicating that he will have to face trial for criminal defamation and prove his innocence.
We had reported how in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, an aggressive Rahul had made some rather controversial statements. Later during the trial, Rahul Gandhi made a U-Turn. He told the Supreme Court that he did not blame the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on the RSS. He further said his remark had been misinterpreted by the RSS worker who filed the initial complaint against him. His U-Turn came as a rude shock to his social media warriors who had backed Rahul’s decision of not apologising and settling the case.
‘Temple run to peddling lies to vacations’: how the polls have kept Congress scion ‘busy’
Probably, Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer has correctly claimed his ‘busy schedule’ as a justification for his absence from the court hearing. As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections near their conclusion, the Gandhi scion has actually gotten tangled up in a last-ditch effort to grab some residual votes by lying through his teeth and dragging in Hinduism to make his lies sound intricate.
While the Uttar Pradesh Elections are on, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are already on a temple run. Hours before PM Modi was supposed to pray at the Kashi Vishwanath temple, Rahul and Priyanka reached there as a part of their seasonal-Hindu program.
After the temple run, Rahul Gandhi spoke in Varanasi only to peddle a long-debunked lie against PM Modi. To make his lie more impactful the Congress leader went on to drag in Hinduism in his speech.
While Rahul Gandhi has lately been very ‘busy’, it is important to note that he had been missing in action during the campaign for the first two phases of the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections despite his name being there on the star campaigners list for the first two faces of the Uttar Pradesh polls. The campaign had then been led by his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Moreover, when all political parties were gearing up on campaigns and rallies for the upcoming Assembly elections in five states, Rahul Gandhi had left India for a ‘short personal trip’, reportedly to Italy. Gandhi was scheduled to kick start the campaign in Punjab with the party rally in district Moga on January 3. The rally had, however, gotten postponed. Reports had then suggested that Congress would not start its campaigning in Punjab before Gandhi’s return to India.
The Bombay high court has nodded to hear a PIL seeking a stay on the release of the film ‘The Kashmir Files‘ on 8th March 2022. The film is based on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus in 1990 and it is directed by National Film Awards winning director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri. This film is scheduled to release on 11th March 2022.
A PIL was filed against Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s upcoming movie The Kashmir Files by a resident from UP named Intezar Hussain Sayed seeking to stall the release of the film. The PIL was mentioned for urgent listing before Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Vinay Joshi, who agreed to hear it on Tuesday at 4 PM. After the trailer of the movie was released, the petitioner had alleged that the trailer hurts the religious feelings of the Muslim community. However, Vivek Agnihotri had denied the allegations and said that his movie only shows the truth.
In this plea, it is said, “The film will not only hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community but also ignite emotions and inflame members of the Hindu community with a clear possibility of triggering violence in all parts of India.”
It further said, “his movie, as can be seen from the trailer released, has scenes which hurt the religious feelings of the people of India, more particularly the Muslim community and has a very potent mixture of inflammatory scenes which are bound to cause communal violence in the prevailing circumstances in the country.”
The plea also mentions, “The dialogues as can be seen in the trailer are discriminatory, defamatory and against the principles of the Constitution of India. The dialogues are violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 15 of the Constitution of India, being inflammatory in nature.”
The petitioner also pleaded to immediately take down the trailer of this film till the hearing is done.
When Intezar Hussain Sayed had initially alleged the film of hurting religious sentiments, OpIndia had spoken to Vivek Agnihotri about this matter. Determined to showcase the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus on-screen through The Kashmir Files, Agnihotri while speaking to OpIndia had remarked, “I can prove in any court or any platform of their choice that every frame, every word in my film is truth. Nothing but the truth.” On the news of a PIL being filed against the film, he had said, “They can create as many hurdles as they want but I can’t be silenced.”
Even before that, members of the Shia community were angered over the portrayal of the religious leader in Shia Islam, Ayatullah Khamenei in the film. Maulana Kalbe Jawad from Lucknow had remarked that The Kashmir Files shows the Shia Supreme leader Khamenei in poor light. He had alleged that the film connects Khamenei with terrorism. Writing to I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, Maulana Jawad had said that the film conspires to harm the relations between Iran and India, and hence an inquiry should be done.
Responding to a question about this, Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri had commented, “The producers of the film will deal with notices through the legal means. All I can tell you is that in any court of the world, on any platform, forum or gathering, I can take responsibility for each and every dialogue, scene, and character portrayed in the film. I can prove myself with hundreds of references, videos, visual sources, etc.”
The trailer of Vivek Agnihotri’s upcoming multi-starrer film ‘The Kashmir Files’ has caused a storm on the internet with 9.5 million views in 10 days on Youtube alone. While the film is set to release on March 11, 2022, in the theatres, you can watch Vivek Agnihotri’s conversation with OpIndia CEO Rahul Raushan here.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday undermined India’s evacuation mission, stating that he would have appreciated Operation Ganga if the Indians were rescued from Ukraine.
The bizarre statement was made by the former UP CM while talking to ANI on 7th March 2022. Yadav called the evacuation mission by the Indian government a failure after thousands of Indians were brought back home safely from the strife-torn Ukraine.
Akhilesh Yadav called this operation a mere political stunt staged for gaining some advantage in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. He said, “Don’t know which international recognition they are boasting about. They (BJP-led central government) failed to evacuate Indians. They named the evacuation as Operation Ganga because of the polls in Varanasi. Had they rescued our people directly from Ukraine, I would have appreciated it.”
Don’t know which international recognition they boast about. They (BJP-led Centre) failed to evacuate Indians, named evacuation op ‘Operation Ganga’ because polls in Varanasi too. Had they rescued our people from #Ukraine directly I would’ve appreciated it:Akhilesh Yadav, SP#UPpic.twitter.com/RoF0oWyNCM
He further said, “The Centre was unsuccessful in helping Indian students stuck in Ukraine and their families. We should always stand with those who have suffered injustice. The Indian government would talk about strength. These people would say that India is being recognized in the world. But they couldn’t evacuate the Indians stuck there.”
Taking a jibe on naming the operation after the holy river Ganga, Akhilesh Yadav said, “To hide their failure, they named the evacuation mission ‘Operation Ganga’. They did so because the election is in Varanasi. Ganga is in Mirzapur too.”
This statement by Akhilesh Yadav has come three days after the Indian government had successfully moved 13000 Indians out of Ukraine and brought them back home safely.
Jharkhand has experienced a surge in religious conversion by Christian missionaries over the years. The state’s strong Christian missionaries, active in small towns and villages, threaten the impoverished and vulnerable locals, particularly those from the Scheduled Castes, with severe consequences if they do not comply with their demands. Many eventually succumb to the pressure and convert to Christianity. Recently, a new controversy over unlawful religious conversion had emerged, in Jharkhand where local Hindus and Sikhs have accused one Ravi Singh, a Christian pastor of running a mass conversion racket in the state.
On February 27, members of various Hindu organisations and Sikhs staged a protest against Ravi Singh’s ‘Changai Sabha’ (‘Changai’ means supposedly curing ailing people through prayers recited by a pastor) in Nanak Nagar in Tinplate under Golmuri thana in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
The protesters accused Ravi Singh and his wife of holding the so-called ‘faith healing service’ on Sundays at their house and converting gullible tribals. They demanded the immediate arrest of pastor Ravi Singh, who they said had been targeting vulnerable tribal people and luring them into religious conversion.
People from Hindu and Sikh communities accused the police and the JMM/Congress government headed by Hemant Soren in Jharkand of failing to take action against the accused pastor despite several complaints. Reports suggest that owing to the rising protests, the police had briefly detained Ravi Singh, however, released him later in the evening.
Incidents of conversion have risen dramatically in Jharkhand
The conversion incident in Golmuri is not the first. The Sikh community had visited DC and SP earlier in September 2021 in the same Golmuri and sought action to stop the conversion incidents. According to Sardar Shailender Singh, head of the Jharkhand Gurdwara Management Committee, the administration gave no attention to the complaint lodged by them against the looming issue of mass conversion in the area.
Similarly, in December 2021, there were reports of the conversion of 30 tribal families in Gumla, Jharkhand’s Gadtoli block. Families who did not convert reported receiving social boycotts and death threats. Reports further stated how these two families had particularly been tortured to bow down to the demands of these Christian conversion gangs. One family belonging to that of a person named Salik Gop was reportedly ostracized by the Christian villagers for the last 6 months for not concurring with the demands of religious conversion. Speaking to the media, Salik Gop’s family claimed that, despite being a family of cowherds, they are constantly pressured to eat beef.
Likewise, in 2020 a Santhali tribal man identified as Ramesh Hansda, a resident of Sopodera village in Parasudih district, Jamshedpur had confessed how a Christian pastor had pressurised him not only to embrace Christianity but to also cook and eat cow-meat. “Only after my wife vehemently refused to indulge them did those people leave”, said Ramesh. He said that the priest kept nagging him for almost two years, saying that he would help him financially if Ramesh agreed to embrace Christianity. In this case, too, no concrete action was taken by the Jharkhand police.
In November 2021, in Ganjudih Tola in the Kuju OP area of Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, villagers held six people, including a woman who had come to convert, and handed them over to police. The conversion gang had reportedly lured a family into embracing Christianity by saying that they would be blessed with a son if they convert.
It may be recalled how in the month of September, OpIndia reported about a woman health worker of Jamdih village of Gumla district of Jharkhand approached the police with a complaint against the Christian villagers, accusing them of torturing her family members to accept Christianity. The complainant, who belonged to a Scheduled Caste, had also alleged that the assailants even sexually abused her daughter to mount pressure on the family to adopt Christianity. She had also said that accused persons instigated the villagers against her family.
It is shocking that the majority of the events have occurred in the presence of police officers, who did little to prevent them.
Illegal religious conversion had also been a thriving clandestine activity in Jharkhand during the Covid crisis. In June 2020, two dozen families under Jharia, Dhanbad, were converted in the pretext of rehabilitation. Hindu organisations staged a ferocious protest in response to the incident. Then, the BJP MLA from Sindri Inderjit Mahto had claimed that missionary activities intensified ever since the JMM/Congress government headed by Hemant Soren came to power in the state.
यह कैसी राजनीति है ?? राष्ट्र विरोधी ताकतों द्वारा लोगों की मजबूरी का फायदा उठाकर उनका धर्मांतरण कराया जा रहा है और हेमंत सोरेन सरकार उनके सामने नतमस्तक है।#हेमंत_हैं_तो_हिम्मत_हैpic.twitter.com/5vvcPDuSOd
— Subodh Kumar Singh Guddu (@subodhguddu) July 17, 2021
‘Religious conversion has gained momentum in Jharkhand under the Hemant Soren govt, police turning a deaf ear’
In Jharkhand, though conversions are officially illegal, the Christian missionaries have been taking advantage of the administration’s complacency. On February 27, OpIndia contacted ADM Jamshedpur to inquire about the Golmuri incident in Jamshedpur, but we were asked to speak with the DC or SP instead.
On February 28, the SP City of Jamshedpur told OpIndia that there had been no progress in the case. According to the SHO of the Golmuri police station, a total of four cases have been filed in this matter. In these four cases, both sides (Ravi Singh and those who accuse him) have filed one case, each, against each other. The rest of the two cases have been filed by the administration. No one has been arrested yet.
According to a report, a young man committed suicide in Pannatand Ravidas Tola of Hunterganj Panchayat in Chatra district of Jharkhand in February 2021 after his mother converted to Christianity. The police had ruled out the incident as a suicide, according to a local portal.
According to a report published in August 2021, the police and government took no action after being informed about the criminal activities of Christian missionaries in the Daru area of Hazaribagh. The missionaries were then accused of enticing more than 200 tribes to convert.
‘Chief Minister Hemant Soren is an admirer of Christian missionaries’
It’s worth noting that in Jharkhand, a coalition government is currently in power, led by Hemant Soren. This government also includes Congress and the RJD, in addition to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Their government was formed in December 2019. Following the creation of the administration, BJP officials claimed that conversion activities increased dramatically in the state.
झारखंड में लगातार घट रही आदिवासियों की जनसंख्या का प्रमुख कारण धर्मांतरण है, @dasraghubar जी ने आदिवासी बंधुओ के हित की रक्षा के लिए धर्मांतरण के ख़िलाफ़ मोर्चा खोला था जिससे धर्मांतरण में कमी आयी थी।
— Shashi Shekhar Singh (@S_ShekharSingh) July 11, 2021
In fact, in November 2021, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren lauded Christian missionaries for their contributions towards education, particularly for tribals and the downtrodden in the state.
Addressing the inaugural day of the two-day golden jubilee function of Gossner College in Ranchi, as the chief guest on Wednesday, Soren said: “If we look at the level of education and work done in the academic sphere in the state, the missionaries have contributed more than 50 per cent. There was tremendous cooperation for tribals, backwards, minorities and poor in the missionary schools.”
The chief minister continued its praise by claiming, “Missionary school and college impart education with discipline with a thrust on social values. The result can be seen from Gossner College which has had 27 departments and thousands of students representing the state across state and country.”
During the Covid crisis too, Soren went on to praise the missionaries’ efforts on behalf of tribals, backwards, minorities, and others.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren pays tribute to Urban Naxal Stan Lourduswamy, compares him with Birsa Munda
Hemant Soren has also been quite vocal against the arrest of Stanislaus Lourduswamy, popularly known as Stan Swamy on terror charges by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in October 2020 in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
Stan Swamy, an Indian Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, had been involved in anarchic activities for quite some time. However, his anti-India activities came to the fore after his role in the Elgar Parishad in 2018 surfaced during the investigation.
According to the NIA, Stan Swamy was a key conspirator in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case of 2018, which witnessed violence, stone-pelting, and arson at Shaniwar Wada in Pune.
Not only this, in October 2021, Soren had paid his tributes to Naxal sympathiser, and Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence accused Stan Swamy, saying his alleged sacrifices and “invaluable contribution” to society will always be remembered. Paying his tributes, Hemant Soren compared the deceased Naxal sympathiser to tribal legend Birsa Munda to claim that Jharkhand never lagged behind when it comes to making sacrifices, whether it was Birsa Munda or Father Stan Swamy. The Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said people like Stan Swamy would be remembered for their “invaluable contribution to society”.
In fact, on December 25, 2021, on the occasion of Christmas Eve Hemant Soren had visited the Archbishop’s House, Purulia Road, Ranchi and the two had together cut a cake and prayed to Lord Jesus for peace and prosperity for all the people of the state.
Chief Minister and Archbishop Felix Toppo together cutting a cake on Christmas eve in 2021
Chief Minister and Archbishop Felix Toppo together cutting a cake on Christmas eve in 2021
Archbishop demands inclusion of Christian minister in Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand
Interestingly, in 2020, Ranchi Archbishop Felix Toppo had urged Soren to appoint a Christian minister in his cabinet to look after the interests of the minority community. He had made this demand as a Christmas gift. According to the bishop, the Christian minister could better understand the feelings of Christians. At that time the BJP had called it a hidden agenda of the Hemant government.
Hemant Soren with Ranchi Archbishop Felix Toppo
BJP and VHP accuse Soren government of promoting and encouraging Christian missionaries, allowing conversions
OpIndia spoke to Jharkhand BJP State General Secretary Pradeep Verma regarding the rampant religious conversion by Christian missionaries in the state. Verma said, “Christian missionaries have grown unmanageable since Raghubar Das’s government left and Hemant Soren’s government came to power. Previously, permission to convert someone to a different religion had to be obtained from the District Magistrate. However, no one is now abiding by the law. Conversion to Christianity is now taking place under the protection of the state. Complaints are no longer investigated by the police administration. Previously, religious conversion occurred in secret in remote areas, but it is now occurring publicly in towns such as Jamshedpur. The missionaries do not fear anyone now,” said Verma.
In the aftermath of the protest held against pastor Ravi Singh, an emergency meeting of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Jharkhand Province was held in Ranchi on March 2, Wednesday, in the presence of the National Spokesperson of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vinod Bansal.
Addressing the meeting, Bansal said that the vicious cycle of dividing Jharkhand is being run by the anti-national conspirators and enemies of tribal culture.
He said that in many districts of the state including Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Latehar, Pakur and Sahebganj, religious conversion activities are being carried out by illegal churches. In the name of a healing assembly, efforts are being made to divert the innocent people from their ancient Sanatan Hindu religion and culture.
Earlier on February 28, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal accused the Hemant Soren government of turning a blind eye towards the rampant incidents of illegal conversion taking place in his state. He said that “Healing congregations, which these hypocrites call prayer meetings, have become unauthorized centres of relgious conversion across India, including Jamshedpur. Applying breaks to such illegal practices is necessary,” Bansal wrote in his Tweet.
चंगाई सभाएं, जिन्हें ये कपटी पादरी प्रार्थना सभा का नाम देते हैं, जमशेदपुर सहित सम्पूर्ण भारत में हिंदुओं के धर्मांतरण के अनाधिकृत अड्डे बन चुकी हैं। विराम ज़रूरी है।
In April 2021, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das accused the incumbent Jharkhand Soren administration of dancing to the tunes of the Christian missionaries’ in the state. Claiming that Hemant Soren was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, Das had accused him of supporting missionaries, which he described as “anti-national forces”.
झारखंड के मुख्यमंत्री हेमंत सोरेन जी के उन्नीस महीने के कार्यकाल में धर्मांतरण का तेज़ी से ‘’विकास’’ हुआ है।
एक साल में पाँच लाख बेरोज़गारों को नौकरी देने वर्ना राजनीति से संन्यास लेने की लोकलुभावन सौगंध लेकर सत्ता हथियाने वाले सोरेन जी धर्मांतरण विकास रोकने के सवाल पर चुप हैं? pic.twitter.com/iL6UJtBUpi
— Sunil Kr. Tiwari (सुनील तिवारी)?? (@itssuniltiwari) July 17, 2021
“There has been a rapid growth of conversions during the nineteen-month tenure of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren ji,” Jharkhand BJP leader Sunil Tiwari wrote on July 17, 2021, while sharing some newspaper clippings. “Soren ji, who came to power on a populist promise to create five lakh jobs in a year or go down from politics, is silent on the issue of conversion development,” said Tiwari.
Who thought ‘sanctioning Russia’ would become the new cool. The latest manifestation in the bandwagon is from the Communist Indian state of Kerala wherein a cafe has decided to de-table a dish called ‘Russian Salad’ amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The move came after the cafe decided to remove the Russian dish from its menu in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Russian salad off the menu too. This appears to be from the Kashi art cafe in Kochi, Kerala. A really nice place that I’ve been to many times over the years. Sincere, perhaps, but totally ridiculous. (via @VJ290481) pic.twitter.com/6TgBy1xhOj
If you plan to take a stroll through the alleys of Fort Kochi today, you are most like to stumble upon a board outside the famous ‘Kashi Art gallery and Cafe’ saying, “In solidarity with people of Ukraine, we have removed ‘Russian salad’ from our menu,” The move most naturally made wave on social media with photographs of the message board creating a buzz overnight.
While sanctions on Russia have been calculated as cancelling everything Russian, the move to de-table the ‘Russian Salad’ serves as an Indian variant to the ‘Russian Vodka’ being pulled out of supermarkets in the US and Canada. What went equally out of the park was owner Edgar Pinto’s justification for this move. “It wasn’t any kind of publicity, we simply wanted to say no to war. Being art lovers, we believe in freedom of expression and this was one way we thought we can show our support to people in Ukraine.”
According to Pinto, his cancelling of ‘Russian Salad’ came under the guise of Freedom of Expression. “We just wanted to take a stand where we wanted humanity to prevail and condemn the monstrous attacks being carried out on innocent people by Russia,” he said while talking to the Indian Express about his decision.
The absence of sense while boycotting Russia is yet another pandemic that has groped the world. In a similar sentiment, A Pub that was originally named ‘Putin’ in Isreal’s Jerusalem changed its name ‘Zelenskiy’ after the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
There was also news of Russian cats being banned from pet competitions across the world. From lighting monuments in the colours of the Ukrainian National flag to banning everything and everyone remotely related to Russia, the solidarity for Ukraine in the woke world, will not be expressed in real hard-power but rather in political self posturing.
Dainik Bhaskar group, one of the widely circulated newspaper groups of the country is in the middle of a controversy as it is summoned by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes for illegally grabbing the land meant for the scheduled tribes. The commission has issued the summon on 28th February 2022.
The income tax department had raided various offices of the Bhaskar group in July 2021. At that time, the group has called it to be an attempt to crush and curb the freedom of the press, but what has appeared to the surface now is far different than this claim. The offices of the Bhaskar newspaper group were not raided. These raids were meant for other sectors the Bhaskar group operates in.
Big Breaking : Dainik Bhaskar Group is accused of illegally grabbing land meant for Scheduled Tribes in Janjgir of Chattisgarh. National Commission For Scheduled Tribes to look further into this matter. pic.twitter.com/EeeIjD5jqR
It is notable here that the Dainik Bhaskar group is not limited to just the newspapers but is involved in some other sectors as well. These sectors include real estate, textiles, and the power sector. The investigations after these raids have revealed that the Dainik Bhaskar group has illegally grabbed land for the power plant whereas the land was actually of the scheduled tribes. The national commission for scheduled tribes had also received a complaint regarding the same.
The summons is issued by the NCST.
According to a report by Asia Net News Hindi, the company of this group that operates in the power sector is called DB Power Limited. This company is accused of fraud in the purchase of land for setting up a power plant in the Janjagir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh. Dainik Bhaskar group had employed a local agent for land purchase. He first purchased the land from the tribal people at cheap rates.
According to the regulations, when a tribal person purchases land from another tribal person, he need not take any permission. But if an outsider wishes to buy any land from a tribal person, it is a must for him to take permission from the district collector.
It is reported that the Dainik Bhaskar group first asked the employed agent to buy the land from the tribal people at cheap rates. He later sold the land to the Dainik Bhaskar group. In between, the Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation acquired a major part of the land which it later gave to the DB Power Limited. This was the extra land needed for setting up a power plant here. Who else was involved in this land deal is subject to further investigation.
The national commission for scheduled tribes received a complaint regarding this. The commission then issued a notice to the revenue secretary of the Chhattisgarh state and the managing director of the Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation. None of them responded to the notice. The SP and DM of the Janjagir-Champa district were also given the same notice. But they did not satisfactorily respond to the commission. The commission has now summoned the SP and the DM of Janjagir-Champa district to be present on 8th March 2022 and furnish their explanation.
On this day, sixteen years ago, one of the holiest cities of Hindus, Varanasi, came under the attack of Islamic terrorists. A series of bomb blasts took place in the city on 7 March 2006, leaving at least 28 dead and over 100 injured. A Pakistani terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahab, took responsibility for the attacks.
The first bomb blast took place at the hallowed Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir that is located in the vicinity of the Banaras Hindu University. The location of the attack was specifically chosen presumably to inflict maximum damage and send a message to Hindus given that it was Tuesday, an auspicious day regarded by Hindus to worship Lord Hanuman. Hundreds of devotees had gathered in the temple in the evening to offer prayers when the bomb went off.
The explosives were planted near the temple’s gate, where women usually sat for worship. At 6:20 pm in the evening, when the temple was teeming with devotees, the bomb exploded, causing the death of 10 people while causing grievous injuries to at least 40 others.
A few minutes later, another blast took place at Varanasi Cantonment railway station, claiming 11 lives and rendering scores of people seriously injured. As per reports, the explosive had been packed inside a pressure cooker and left inside an unremarkable bag. Here again, it was conjectured that the timing of the bomb blast was decided meticulously, to coincide with the large number of passengers waiting for the Shiv Ganga Express.
After the two blasts, police swung into action, launching a widespread search operation across the city to locate more explosives planted by the terrorists. Consequently, they found six explosives—three live bombs from a temple complex and three from other parts of the city—averting what could have been an even deadlier and catastrophic attack.
In the aftermath of the bomb blasts, a call originating from Pakistan claimed the responsibility for the attacks. A caller who identified him as Abu Feroz contacted a private news organisation to claim that he is a spokesperson for a terror outfit named Lashkar-e-Qahab who had carried out the attacks in Varanasi. Feroz threatened to carry out similar attacks unless the Indian government stopped its operations against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, preliminary investigations into the blasts revealed that the call from Abu Feroz could have been a hoax as the role of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the same terror outfit that carried out Mumbai terror attacks two years later, in 2008, began to emerge in the Varanasi bomb blasts. It was also reported that the bombs were made in Bihar and the explosives were procured from Nepal, which was then smuggled into India via porous Indo-Nepal border. Shamim Ahmed, a HuJI worker was one of the accused in the case, who was claimed to have planted a bomb, which remained unexploded. The UP special task force had arrested one Waliullah, an imam of a mosque, for playing a pivotal role in the execution of the bomb blasts.
Protests erupts across India against US president’s visit in 2006 and against depiction of Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers
While the investigation centred around the perpetrators of the dastardly bomb blasts that roiled Varanasi, one of the oldest cities in the world and the foremost cultural centre of the Hindus, what is often glossed over is the turn of events that transpired before the attacks. The bomb blasts were treated as an isolated incident, carried out by terrorists based out of Pakistan, who harboured a deep hatred for India and were brainwashed with supremacist Islamic beliefs.
However, it is worth noting that the fateful bomb blasts in Varanasi took place just weeks after the widespread protests that broke out in India against the publication of cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers. The protest had touched off after a Danish newspaper had published a caricature of Prophet Muhammad, triggering massive protests across the globe, including in India.
Thousands of Muslim protesters who felt aggrieved at the depiction of their Prophet, something which is banned under Islam, took to the streets in cities across India, shouting slogans, carrying placards denouncing European newspapers for publishing the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. While they claimed the protests to be peaceful, they were marked with riots, vandalism and arson as protesters hurled stones at cars, clashed with law enforcement officials and torched vehicles that came their way.
The protests against the depiction of Prophet Muhammad were spurred by the visit of the then US President George Bush. The former US President was on his visit to India in the first week of March 2006, just days before the ghastly bomb blasts in Varanasi. Several Muslim organisations, nursing hatred for America, hit the streets in many cities around the country, most notably Mumbai and Delhi, where rioters went on a rampage protesting against Bush’s India visit.
As Bush was having lunch with India’s then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, tens of thousands of protesters gathered at Mumbai’s iconic Azad Maidan, demonstrating against the US president. The crowd gathered burnt American flags and stepped on them. A young boy named Shoaib, who was in third grade, who also accompanied the protests, urinated on the flag after being spurred by the demonstrators.
According to a report published in New York Times, a dozen men who participated in the protests in Azad Maidan held a banner declaring that they were ready to become suicide bombers. “Bush is here. If I get a chance, I will bomb him to death,” said Sajid, a protester who was resentful of America’s actions to eliminate Islamic terrorists.
Scenes on the streets of India’s capital, New Delhi, were not too different. As per reports, thousands thronged the protest against American President, with many of them carrying placards calling for Bush to return. The protests were also attended by several Indian politicians, including Prakash Karat of the CPI, a party that has been pushed into the abyss of political irrelevance in the one and a half decades since the Varanasi attacks.
However, in 2006, Prakash Karat defended the protests that were taking place across the country against the visit of the US President. “George Bush is the guest of the government of India but not of the people of India,” Karat had reportedly said then, even though CPI was supporting Singh’s Congress-party led UPA government at the Centre.
2020 anti-Hindu riots in Delhi: How protesters under the pretext of opposing CAA unleashed violence against Hindus
Interestingly, 14 years later, a similar protest preceded and accompanied the visit of American President Donald Trump in 2020, when thousands of anti-CAA protesters ran riot on the streets of New Delhi, in a bid to draw America’s attention to their concerns and build international pressure on the Indian government to revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act, a bill that sought to grant swiftly the citizenship of India to persecuted minorities from the neighbouring three countries, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
And just like the protests against US President George W. Bush and the depiction of Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers culminated into the bomb blasts that targeted Varanasi, one of the holiest cities of Hindus, similarly, the anti-CAA protests following the visit of US President Donald Trump reached a crescendo, touching off a horrifying bout of anti-Hindu riots in Delhi’s northeast region.
Muslim mobs, be it those who reportedly lynched IB officer Ankit Sharma after allegedly dragging him inside AAP leader Tahir Hussain’s house or the one who attacked Dilbar Negi, who was burnt by a Muslim mob after being cut off with a sword during the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots in the national capital, were on a murderous rage against what they perceived as injustice committed against them.
The stark resemblance between what led to 2006 Varanasi bomb blasts and 2020 anti-Hindu riots in Delhi
There is a stark resemblance between the events that led to the Varanasi blasts in 2006 and those that took place before the horrifying anti-Hindu riots in Delhi in 2020. In both cases, the carnage was preceded by protests carried out by Muslim organisations and protesters on account of perceived injustice committed against Muslims. In 2006, it was the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and the American action against Islamic terrorists. Fourteen years later, it was against the naturalisation of persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries.
An uncanny symmetry between the two cases illustrates how protests are just a smokescreen, used as a means to mobilise susceptible Muslims by drumming up the hackneyed trope of “Islam is in danger” or “Discrimination meted out against Muslims” so that thousands of Muslims are galvanised into hitting the streets, protesting against what they assume to be against their faith and rights. As protests start taking place, the local authorities are compelled to shift their focus on maintaining law and order rather than deploying their resources to avoid terror attacks and outbreaks of riots.
The distraction caused by such protests is then exploited by rabble-rousers to realise their nefarious designs. For instance, during the 2006 Varanasi blasts, the terrorists planted explosives inside Hindu temples with the express desire to cause Hindu casualties. Similarly, during the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi in 2020, Hindus and their places of worship were specifically targeted by frenzied Muslim mobs that were purportedly carrying out protests against the CAA.
Thus, a pattern emerges out of these two incidents, which shows protests that have borne out of perceived Muslim resentment usually ends up bearing cataclysmic consequences for the Hindus. They are a prelude to something much more sinister and dangerous, threatening to not just disrupt the peace and tranquillity of the country but also cause grave human loss and deepening societal fissure. It demonstrates that “peaceful” protests carried out in the name of ‘Discrimination against Muslims’ and ‘Islam is in danger’ are nothing more than a ruse designed by Islamists to disguise their real intentions, which include unleashing violence against Hindus and throwing the country into chaos and disorder.
A video of a wedding is going viral on social media for the last couple of days. A groom, visibly drunk and barely able to even sit straight, is threatening that since the bride’s side has not given him the dowry he demanded, he is going to walk away, calling the wedding off.
It is not known where is it from or when it is from. But there is something in that video that hurts more than the shameless impunity that the loser of a groom displays in the video. The bride, a girl decked up with jewellery and fineries, pleading with the groom that her family has arranged whatever they could and they will eventually fulfil his demands, maybe over instalments.
The girl, like the ‘good girl’ stereotype in our societies, takes repeated insults against her family, herself, forgets her dignity and ‘pleads’ with that drunk piece of sh*t to not call off the wedding, and allow her family to fulfil his demands instalments as they are unable to do it now.
This is saddening because it is not a rarity, it is the norm, even though we refuse to accept it. The ‘good girls’ are expected to put up with absolute crap behaviour not just from the prospective husband, in-laws and random relatives, but even within their own family. Yes, there are stringent laws against dowry, yes, there are cases where anti-dowry laws are being misused rampantly. But take a moment to reflect, has this social evil been banished yet? Flip through the fourth, fifth, sixth pages of your local newspaper and you will find dozens of women still being burned, strangulated, ‘found dead under mysterious circumstances’, committing suicide over domestic issues and much more.
In 2020, 6966 women had become victims of dowry related deaths in India, at the average of 19 deaths per day.
The stereotypes that a ‘good girl’ should be as the patriarchy around her demands her to be, is widely reflected in the movie and entertainment industry too. We are in 2022, but our TV serials still show that the illiterate, cowering, demure, never arguing, dumb bahu is the good bahu and the good daughter, but the educated, smart, assertive, confident woman is the villain, whose only goal in life is to scheme and try to steal the husbands of all the good bahus.
Bollywood and its pathological obsession with prostitution, far from the realities of the flesh trade
Bollywood has a strange, pathological obsession with prostitution. The problem is not that Bollywood focuses on prostitutes, the problem is that Bollywood, for decades, has been making obscene efforts to glorify the profession, by completely washing over the rampant sexual exploitation, kidnapping, rapes, child abuse, trafficking and a score of other crimes that the profession enables, uses and depends on.
In Bollywood’s depiction, prostitutes are the glamourous, rich, talented, queen-like ladies of charm who only perform dance numbers in extravagantly decorated halls. They are the masters of art forms like singing and classical dance and the world rushes to admire them.
In reality, the prostitutes who are often very young girls kidnapped, or sold into the profession against their wishes, suffer years of abuse, live in stinky mohallas with scant sanitation and healthcare, and die early from diseases. They do not look like Madhuri Dixit or Alia Bhatt dancing away in abandon and swinging in ornate ‘jhoolas’, they look like beaten, broken, helpless women with deep sunken eyes who sell their bodies to survive.
One would think the old Bollywood stereotype of a super-rich, super-beautiful, super-talented super-dancer ‘Kothewali’ has become cliched and the Hindi movies industry has moved on. But no, ‘Kalank’ was released in 2019, and Gangubai is playing now.
TV Serials: The toxic mix of all that is wrong in our societies
TV serials in India clock hundreds of millions in viewership. Sadly, there is some compulsion among the makers to never get out of their respective cocoons, their imaginary worlds where the ‘good’ bahu should be an illiterate dumb simpleton (preferably poor) who has no idea how the world works, she has no agency, no choice over who she will be married to, and she just obeys what her parents tell her.
The good dumb illiterate bahu then becomes the tragic victim of schemes hatched by educated, smart vamps. The good bahu takes insults, abuses and even violence with a smiling face. She obeys her monstrous saas, evil aunts-in-law, and even accommodates the extramarital affairs of her husband because that is what an ‘adarsh naari’ should do, as per serial makers.
In the rare case when she gets a job, it is only because she is coaxed into it by wellwishers, only to help her family or children, not because she loves it or wants it. She never calls out the abusive behaviour of her husband, never objects to the torture and insults, never tells her in-laws to shut up and stop their mean behaviour, never objects to anything. She never asks for a divorce, she is only forced into it. Even if she accepts the divorce, she never accepts the alimony or child support because she must be the one to uphold the fake moral grandstanding. And all through this, she is always dressed like an adarsh naari, not a hair out of place. Also, her ‘happiness’ only has to come through a man, who will be her saviour and her hero.
“I started the catering business only because I needed to at that time. Normally, a woman should only focus on caring for her household and her husband,” declares the protagonist Babita in ‘Patiala Babes’.
In Anupama, the woman spends her life smiling through repeated insults and abuse, and the affair of her husband, because she is the ‘adarsh bahu’. She then takes the tough decision of divorce, because she has to let her husband live with his girlfriend, and like every adarsh bahu, she still comes back to live in the same house “to care for her in-laws”, because that is her “duty’ as an adarsh bahu.
Tropes like bigamy, infidelity, domestic violence, mental abuse, psychological torture, humiliation and toxic emotional exploitation are normalised in these serials and the female characters are made to endure it, even enable and endorse it because that is what the so-called ideal women has to, as per serial makers.
Even if the serial starts with the promise of a free-spirited, independent girl, it has to soon fall into the ‘bahu’ stereotype. And the ‘good bahu’ just has to endure, go through endless humuliations and abuse, to finally ‘win everyones’s heart’.
The hero has to be savior, the woman has to be ‘saved’
Portrayal of women in our movies and almost the entire entertainment industry, irrespective of the region or state, is just about reducing them to objects of sexual desires, or the usual dumb, incapable victims who have to be saved by the hero every time. Sadly, even in 2022, we have not evolved enough to write stories about women who take their own decisions and who are not force-fitted into the conflated ideas of what the patriarchal society wants them to be.
In Allu Arjun’s 2019 superhit Ala Vaikunthapuramulo, the female lead is a successful entrepreneur, but she still needs the hero to ‘save’ her from everything in her life, from hostile business deals, to forced marriages. There are episodes of Kapil Sharma’s comedy shows where he insults actress playing his wife for being the daughter of a poor man who brought nothing, and the audience laughs at it. Pick up any movie of any superstar, of any language, the most common message is that the women can only be the victims, and when they are not victims, they are the ‘good wife’ or ‘good bahu’ stereotype who does everything that every ‘ideal woman’ is expected to do, to make a perfect case for the the hero’s heroism.
In movies where the makers claim to portray the so-called ‘independent’ women, the so-called ‘independent’ are apparently the hot-headed bombshells whose idea of independence is being sexually promiscuous and the so-called ‘independence’ is depicted by smoking or drinking, not by showing that the women are smart and savvy, can take practical decisions and become successful on their own.
Some exceptions, but a long way to go
There are some rare exceptions to the toxic stereotypical depictions of female characters in the stories we watch. Shefali Shah’s character of the DCP in Delhi Crime does not need top notch make-up, not made to look glamourous in every shot. She looks, and acts what a DCP is supposed to, tough, no-nonsense and sometimes tired. There are few other examples, but these cases are rare. For some reason, we, as a society, as an audience and as even consumers, are yet to accept women as persons first, away from the idealism and fake romanticisations of false stereotypes.
Women are persons first, and like any person, there are shades to their characters. Most importantly, the female characters need not follow the age old stereotypes at all. In a rapidly evolving socio-econmic scenario, as is the case in our country, the expectations from women, (which ultimately reflects in the female characters shown on TV) to walk the tightrope of 19th century stereotypes is both dishonest and problematic.
The change cannot be brought by one side, shows exist because the audience want them to, and the audience gets used to what they are shown. There is a need in our entertainment industry to break this toxc cycle and tell stories of women that are more realistic, stories that do not shy away from the ugly side of life, stories that do not put silken drapes and make up over the scars of real women who live real lives.
While India announced on Sunday that it has begun the final leg of Operation Ganga, an evacuation attempt for Indians stranded in Ukraine, distressed Chinese citizens stranded in Ukraine have been sharing snippets of their lives. They are blaming their own government for failing to help them in their time of need.
Chao, a 25-year-old Chinese student, recounted feeling helpless and abandoned after being told to fend for himself by the Chinese embassy in Ukraine. Chao is one of the 6000 Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
“The embassy told us to find a way to solve the problems we’re facing by ourselves,” Chao told AFP from a small town outside Chernihiv, where he has taken refuge with a local family.
Chao took to WeChat, the Chinese messaging app to criticise the communist government back in China for shrugging off its responsibility. “They said that fighting is everywhere, they aren’t able to do anything… Shouldn’t this be a nation’s responsibility?” asked Chao.
He added, “We want to leave, but there are no cars. I’m afraid I’ll be killed if I attempt to walk several hundred kilometres.”
Chao isn’t the only Chinese national who has publicly chastised China’s Xi Jinping administration for abandoning its people and leaving them to fend for themselves.
Indeed, social media images have been circulating depicting large groups of Chinese students still stranded in Ukraine, crammed into rooms to be alive amid the fighting and shelling, with some running out of food.
One student posted, “There are still 138 people here in the Sumy region of Ukraine who haven’t been evacuated yet. Please can the relevant departments coordinate and let us go home.”
Fang Lei, a Chinese national stranded in the southeastern city of Melitópol, claimed he tried to make similar calls on Chinese social media but was blocked.
“There are a lot of people trapped in Kharkiv, and this piece of information will be covered up immediately,” Fang said.
“Comments and likes are not allowed. Those of us who cannot evacuate from the war zone don’t get a mention,” Fang said adding, “If I get blown up, then at least I have left a note … I want the world to know what it feels like to be left behind to die.”
“Chinese students are getting bombed in Ukraine, and the embassy hasn’t been very proactive in protecting them, nor offered any aftercare service,” another Chinese national Wang Longde was quoted as saying.
Chinese nationals stuck in Ukraine condemn embassy’s conflicting advice
In fact, many Chinese nationals trapped in Ukraine have criticized the embassy’s conflicting advice since the Russian attack began.
At the outset of the invasion, the Chinese embassy in Kyiv advised citizens to place Chinese flags on their vehicles to avert attacks. However, less than 48 hours later, it changed its mind and advised expats not to reveal their nationality.
According to The People’s Daily, a state-run news outlet, several Chinese students in Ukraine have said that they are feeling unsafe because of the perceived strong ties between China and Russia.
China pursuing trade with Russia, opposes sanctions posed by the US, EU against Russia
Notably, China has been carefully playing with words ever since its strong ally Russia has launched an attack on Ukraine. President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia’s offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow. The government has offered to act as a mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia.
In fact, according to the reports, China has opposed the sanctions imposed upon Russia by the United States, European Union and has said that it will continue to carry out normal trade cooperation with Moscow. It has, in fact, reverted back to its own currency in pursuing trade with Russia. “China and Russia will continue to carry out normal trade cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit”, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
He added that economic sanctions are not a solution to the problems, instead, they create new ones. He also demanded that the US should not harm the legitimate rights and interests of China and other parties when handling the Ukraine issue and its relations with Russia.
The US shared intelligence with China on Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine, China shared the info with Moscow
In the last three months, the United States officialsmet high-level Chinese officials over half a dozen times in a bid to use China’s influence to convince Russia not to carry out military attacks on Ukraine. Senior Biden administration officials held urgent meetings with the Chinese diplomats and presented them intelligence showing Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine.
The Biden administration was desperate to stop Russians and thus shared intelligence with China on Russia’s troop buildup in hopes that President Xi Jinping would step in. The officials privy to this information said that the Biden administration shared high-level info with its adversary to gain support from China to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine.
However, the Chinese government repeatedly rebuffed the efforts and instead turned over the intelligence data to Moscow.
Advocate Vineet Jindal has written a letter to India’s Attorney General, KK Venugopal, requesting permission to commence contempt proceedings against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for vilifying and defaming the Indian judiciary in his recent video.
The letter addressed stated that Kamra has been misusing his freedom of speech and expression and intends to defame the Indian judicial system. The letter stated that “He has passed derogatory and scandalous statements about the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India while he was already undergoing a trial for his contempt against Court.”
It further added that Kamra “intends to develop mistrust among Indian citizens by challenging the secular nature of the judicial system and questioning its constitutional authority by calling it “Brahmin Baniya” affair and that it did not represent different cultures.”
In addition, the letter requested AG Venugopal’s permission to begin criminal contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra under the Contempt of Courts Act 1971.
Another suit was also filed against ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra for intentionally denigrating and tarnishing the image of the Supreme Court of India. Advocate Ashutosh J Dubey, a practicing legal attorney at the Bombay High Court and the legal advisor to the BJP-Maharashtra, released a copy of the complaint he filed against the comedian on Twitter.
I have requested to Hon’ble Chief Justice Of India and Supreme Court Of India to initiate proceedings against Alleged Comedian “Kunal Kamra” for criminal contempt under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. https://t.co/FGF9tZsDfKpic.twitter.com/boZ6uOTKss
— ADV. ASHUTOSH J. DUBEY ?? (@AdvAshutoshBJP) March 5, 2022
In the letter, he stated that the constitution protects freedom of speech and expression, but Kamra had intended to exploit this right in order to intentionally tarnish the whole legal system.
It should be noted that Kunal Kamra made disrespectful statements about the Supreme Court in his newly published video ‘Be Like’ on his YouTube channel. In response to the contempt of court suit brought against him in the Supreme Court, Kamra replied, “Dear SC, kal ki baat bhul ja, l*vda pakad ke jhul ja (forget yesterday’s talk, come swing on p*nis)”.
In the video, Kamra further stated that he had more respect for the food court in the shopping mall than the Supreme Court and that the SC is a ‘Brahmin Baniya’ affair that does not represent other ethnicities.
All of this has occurred while Kamra is already on trial for making disparaging statements about the Supreme Court in his tweets. In one of his tweets, he showed the middle finger to CJI Arvind Bobde, and in another, he painted the Supreme Court in saffron to claim that it had become a puppet of the NDA government. Kunal Kamra was served with a contempt of court notice on December 18, 2020, under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for his insulting tweets towards the judiciary.
