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Netizens break into meme fest after India admits to accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan

OpIndia Staff
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Netizens break into meme fest after India admits to accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan

India on Friday said it accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan stating that a technical malfunction during the course of maintenance caused the incident. The Ministry of Defence issued a statement, expressing its ‘regrets’ over the incident and informing that a high-level court of inquiry has been ordered.

However, the occurrence, unprecedented as it is, tickled the funny bones of many social users, who took to social media websites to share hilarious memes and videos to mark the incident.

Social media platforms were awash with a meme fest as netizens shared funny posts over India’s admission of accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan.

Netizens share memes after India says it accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan

A social media user shared on Twitter a snippet from the popular Bollywood movie ‘Ek aur Ek Gyarah’ wherein actors Sanjay Dutt and Govinda, perched inside a battle tank, indiscriminately press the buttons that lead to the firing of missiles and bullets at the villains.

A Twitter user shared an image of PM Modi allegedly involved in some experimentation, to insinuate that the missile was fired by him and to poke fun at Pakistan.

Another social media user shared a popular meme from the movie Hera Phera to insinuate the accidental firing of a missile was intentional.

Yet another social media user shared pictures of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and PM Modi engaging in repartee over the firing of the missile into Pakistan.

‘Missile accidentally fired into Pakistan during maintenance’: India

India on Friday issued a statement acknowledging that on 9 March 2022, in the course of routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile that unfortunately landed in an area of Pakistan. Fortunately, there has been no loss of life due to the accident.

The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry, said the Defence Ministry in a statement.

The Ministry also added that while the incident was “deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident”.

The acknowledgement came a day after the Pakistani Army claimed that a ‘missile’ from India was launched from Hisar, violated the Pakistani airspace and fell in Mian Channu city in Khanewal district of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The incident allegedly took place on Wednesday (March 9) evening.

As per the Pakistani army’s DGISPR, the missile was without a warhead and had come close to civilian airlines, and had come over 124 km inside Pakistan. General Major Babar Iftikhar stated “It was a supersonic flying object, most probably a missile, but it was certainly unarmed. When it fell, it damaged civilian properties.”

DG ISPR alleged that the ‘flying object’ travelled 124 km from Sirsa in India to land in Mian Channu city of Pakistan. Genera Babar, however, made it clear that the flying object was not shot down and that it fell on its own.

Bolivian soldier who had shot dead leftist fighter Che Guevara dies at 80 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra

OpIndia Staff
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Bolivian soldier who had shot dead leftist fighter Che Guevara dies at 80 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra

The Bolivian soldier Mario Teran who is credited to have shot dead the leftist fighter Che Guevara has died at the age of 80 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on Thursday 10th March 2022. After his retirement, Mario Teran was living in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He was ill and hospitalized for the last three weeks. He is survived by his two children and his wife.

Leftist leader Che Guevara had fought in the Cuban revolution that won power in 1959 under Fidel Castro by toppling the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara had worked for some time in the Cuban government as an official and later moved his focus to African and South American countries to needlessly incite the people in those countries for insurrections against their own state.

Mario Teran had shot dead Argentina-born Guevara on 9th October 1967 in the eastern Santa Cruz province of Bolivia during the cold war. According to a report by WION News, Gary Prado, who is a former Bolivian soldier and also who helped capture Guevara 54 years ago, has said, “He died. He was ill and nothing could be done.”

A Twitter user Chitrangada has posted in her tweet, “Dear Mario Teran, thank you for your service and ending the life of this miserable wretch Che all those years back. RIP! Bolivian soldier who shot dead revolutionary Che Guevara dies at 80.”

After Bolivian soldiers had tracked down Che Guevara, Mario Teran was chosen to kill Guevara as per the orders to execute had arrived from the Bolivian capital.

Minor girl gangraped by ‘boyfriend’ Biki Ali and his 4 friends in Guwahati, case filed after they uploaded video of the crime on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Minor girl gangraped by ‘boyfriend’ Biki Ali and his 4 friends in Guwahati, case filed after they uploaded video of the crime on social media

Guwahati police is looking for five youths named Biki Ali, Faizur Ali, Puna Ali, Pinku Ali, and Raja Ali for gangrape of a minor girl, all of whom are absconding. After committing the crime, the youths led by Biki Ali had uploaded the video of the same on social media, which had gone viral.

According to reports, the class ten minor girl was in an alleged affair with Biki Ali. On February 16th, he took her to his home along with a friend and both of them had raped her together. They had also recorded the act. They threatened that they will upload the images and the videos on social media if she disclosed about the incident to anyone.

While the 16-year-old girl kept quite due to this threat, it emboldened Biki Ali to commit the crime again. On 19th February, he blackmailed her to accompany him to an Oyo hotel, threatening that if she does not agree, the visuals will be made viral.

In the hotel room, Biki Ali was joined by four other friends named Faizur Ali, Puna Ali, Pinku Ali, and Raja Ali. They gangraped the girl together, and again made video of the same. This time, they also uploaded the videos on social media.

After keeping mum for some days, the girl informed her family about the incident, and immediately her parents registered a complaint at the Panbazar Women Police Station in the city. Based on the complaint, a case under POCSO has been registered against the five named by the victim.

While the girl is aged 16 and thus a minor, all the accused are adults as they are in their early twenties. The police have launched a manhunt to nab the five accused, as all of them are on the run at present.

India accidentally fires missile into Pakistan during maintenance, says it ‘deeply regrets’ the incident

OpIndia Staff
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India accidentally fires missile into Pakistan during maintenance, says it ‘deeply regrets’ the incident

India on Friday issued a statement acknowledging that on 9 March 2022, in the course of routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile that unfortunately landed in an area of Pakistan. Fortunately, there has been no loss of life due to the accident.

The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry, said the Defence Ministry.

It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan. While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident, added the statement.

Pakistan claims unarmed Indian missile landed on its soil

On Thursday, March 10, the Pakistani Army claimed that a ‘missile’ from India was launched from Hisar, violated the Pakistani airspace and fell in Mian Channu city in Khanewal district of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The incident allegedly took place on Wednesday (March 9) evening.

As per the Pakistani army’s DGISPR, the missile was without a warhead and had come close to civilian airlines, and had come over 124 km inside Pakistan. General Major Babar Iftikhar stated “It was a supersonic flying object, most probably a missile, but it was certainly unarmed. When it fell, it damaged civilian properties.”

DG ISPR alleged that the ‘flying object’ travelled 124 km from Sirsa in India to land in Mian Channu city of Pakistan. Genera Babar, however, made it clear that the flying object was not shot down and that it fell on its own.

There were no human casualties. While there were no sensitive installations in the area where it landed, a wall did fall, the Pakistan military said.

Karnataka: Mohammad Ijaz stabs his wife Apoorva Puranik turned Arfa Bano 23 times after she discovers about his first marriage

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: Mohammad Ijaz stabs his wife Apoorva Puranik turned Arfa Bano 23 times after she discovers about his first marriage

In a gruesome incident of the Love Jihad case, one Mohammad Ijaz in Karnataka brutally stabbed his wife Apoorva Puranik, alias Arfa Bano, for seeking a divorce after finding out that he was already married and a father of three children.

According to the reports, the 30-year-old Mohammad Ijaz stabbed his second wife, 26-year-old Apoorva Puranik, 23 times with a machete as revenge for leaving him. The incident took place in the Gadag district of Karnataka on Thursday. The victim is in critical condition and is battling for her life at a local hospital in the city.

The accused – Ijaz, who works as an auto driver, was in a relationship with Apoorva Puranik, an MBA graduate. Ijaz had lied to Apoorva that he was pursuing his education and used to work as an auto driver in his free time. In 2018, the couple got married against the wishes of the girl’s family.

After the marriage, Apoorva converted to Muslim, changed her name to Arfa Bano, and followed Islamic traditions such as wearing a burqa, hijab, etc. Apoorva even started consuming meat and completely abandoned Hindu traditions after Ijaz forced her to convert to Islam. Apoorva’s family also reconciled with her daughter and began to have a cordial relationship with the daughter and Ijaz. The couple also had a son.

A few months later, Apoorva, who comes from a very respectful Brahmin family in the city, found out that Ijaz had concealed information about his first marriage. Reportedly, Ijaz had already married a Muslim woman before his wedding with Apoorva and had fathered three children. As she learned about Ijaz’s first marriage, Apoorva left Ijaz and shifted to her parent’s residence in Gadag district along with her two-year-old son. She had also filed for divorce at a local court after Ijaz began to torture her.

Almost four months after she left Ijaz to stay with her parents, on Thursday, the accused chased and stabbed his estranged wife nearly 23 times before she collapsed to the ground. Apoorva had gone to the ground to learn to ride a two-wheeler with one of her neighbours.

She was immediately shifted to a local hospital in the city. In the meantime, Ijaz has managed to escape from the spot. The Gadag police have launched a manhunt to nab Mohammad Ijaz.

Earlier, it was reported on social media that the victim had died due to severe injuries. However, sources confirmed to OpIndia that she is alive but very critical.

RBI bars Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers, orders IT audit

OpIndia Staff
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RBI bars Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers, orders IT audit

In a major blow to Paytm, the Reserve Bank of India has directed Paytm Payments Bank to stop onboarding new customers with immediate effect. This direction came in a press release by RBI today. The RBI has also directed Paytm to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of its IT systems.

The Reserve Bank took action against Paytm under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

The notice reads, “Reserve Bank of India has today, in the exercise of its powers, inter alia, under section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, directed Paytm Payments Bank Ltd to stop, with immediate effect, onboarding of new customers. The bank has also been directed to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive System Audit of its IT system.”

“Onboarding of new customers by Paytm Payments Bank Ltd will be subject to specific permission to be granted by RBI after reviewing report of the IT auditors. This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank,” it further added.

Further details about the reason behind the action are awaited.

According to reports, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm Payments Bank was expected to seek a small finance bank (SFB) license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by June this year. However, this doesn’t seem to be the reason for the action taken by RBI. Paytm Payments Bank commenced operations on May 23, 2017. Paytm Payments Bank’s metamorphosis into a small lending bank, according to specialists monitoring the company, would allow the company to build a business model that is protracted.

Paytm went public on the stock exchange in November of last year. The initial public offering, which was one among the largest in India’s capital market history, caused quite a fuss.

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma began his ambitious quest with the Paytm app in 2010 and was gradually gaining users’ interest, however, demonetization provided a lion’s share of the boost in the success of Paytm’s development, as a massive spike in online payments was observed. Following the demonetization in November 2016, Paytm became a popular cashless payment option for many customers and retailers. Paytm took the opportunity and ramped up to establish itself as a prominent player in the digital transactions ecosystem, branching further into areas such as Payments Bank, UPI, E-Commerce, Movie ticket booking, etc.

As Russian oil sector faces financial issues due to sanctions on banks, Russian Deputy PM speaks to Indian Petroleum minister, invites Indian investment

OpIndia Staff
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As Russian oil sector faces financial issues due to sanctions on banks, Russian Deputy PM speaks to Indian Petroleum minister, invites Indian investment

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak talked with the Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri over phone yesterday. The discussion was cantered on bilateral collaboration in fuel and energy, as well as education, amid the sanctions against Russia by western countries following its invasion of Ukraine. They addressed present and prospective collaborative initiatives in the fuel and energy industries, noting that current projects are being implemented smoothly.

As per a Russian statement, Deputy PM Novak said, “What we have is a particularly privileged strategic partnership; the leaders of our countries maintain regular contact. Mutually beneficial cooperation is actively promoted, including the Arctic LNG 2 and Sakhalin 1 projects. Gazprom supplies LNG to India, and Rosneft continues its systematic work with its Indian partners.”

The Deputy PM added, “We are interested in further attracting Indian investment to the Russian oil and gas sector and expanding Russian companies’ sales networks in India.”

Large Russian firms, according to Mr. Novak, are actively involved in projects in India, such as the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of oil, natural gas, and coking coal.

“Russia’s oil and petroleum product exports to India have approached S1 billion, and there are clear opportunities to increase this figure. We expect to continue cooperating in the development of peaceful nuclear power, in particular, in building the nuclear power units at Kudankulam,” the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia added.

Alexander Novak and Hardeep Puri also discussed a bilateral educational partnership, with a focus on increasing opportunities for Indian students to study at Russian universities.

Official statement from the Indian side is yet to come.

Russia’s invitation to Indian forms to invest in Russian petrochemical sector is significant in the current scenario, as the Russian Deputy Prime Minister has informed his country is facing difficulties in the sector due to sanctions. He told the Russian parliament that the contracted volumes for March will be delivered as planned, but that there are problems affecting exports of crude oil and refined products to be delivered in April.

“Here we are currently facing certain problems, primarily related to financing,” he said. However, the minister added that Russia has maintained full production of both oil and gas so far.

He said that the sanctions imposed on Russian banks have caused problems for all market participants, including “suppliers, buyers and traders.” He had added that specifically there were problems witg availability and issuance of letters of credit. Apart from financial issues, Russian oil companies are also facing difficulties in obtaining tankers and insurance.

Notably, ONGC Videsh has failed to get bids for its tender to sell 700,000 barrels of Russian sokol crude. The overseas arm of ONGC has a 20% stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project and sells its share of oil through tenders. However, for the tender that closed on Thursday, all the parties that had shown an interest withdrew their bids.

While US, UK and Canada has banned import of Russian, it is not expected to effect Russian export much as European countries, the major buyer, have not stopped buying Russian gas and oil yet. Even though EU nations have imposed other sanctions on Russia, they are so heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil that they can’t stop it immediately without securing alternatives. However, due to sanctions in the financial sector, Russian oil industry is facing problems.

Russia-India Cooperation

Russia has traditionally been an important partner for India. Since the signing of the “Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership” in October 2000 (during President Putin’s visit), India-Russia relations have taken on a qualitatively new character, with increased cooperation in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship, including politics, security, defense, trade and economy, science and technology, culture, and people-to-people ties. 

Amidst the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia has played a key role in ensuring the safety of Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine. The Indian government repeatedly pressed Russian authorities to set up a safe path for Indian students who need to be evacuated. Also, according to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian soldiers to safeguard Indian students with “every possible effort.”

‘EU laws over national laws’: European Union hits Poland and Hungary with sanctions while they deal with over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees

OpIndia Staff
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‘EU laws over national laws’: European Union hits Poland and Hungary with sanctions while they deal with over 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees

The European Union has decided to impose economic sanctions on its two member states, Poland and Hungary, even as the two countries deal with the influx of over 1.5 Million Ukrainian refugees in the last 2 weeks. European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of these sanctions on Poland and Hungary in the middle of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

In a press release, European Parliament stated that it was high time for the Commission to protect the EU budget from violations of rule of law. It also mentions that EU funds must be protected from countries that undermine the EU’s “liberal democratic values”. As per European Union laws introduced in January 2021, EU member countries that bend the rule of law are not eligible to receive funds from the EU.

478 MEP (Members of European Parliament) voted in favour of these sanctions, while 155 voted against.

“EU laws are above national laws, even above the constitution of respective member states”

In October 2021, Poland’s top court had rejected the supremacy of EU laws over some judicial matters. A constitutional tribunal in Poland had stated that some EU treaty articles were incompatible with Poland’s constitution.

The European Commission had taken major objection to the Poland top court’s ruling and had stated, “EU law has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions. All rulings by the European Court of Justice are binding on all member states’ authorities, including national courts.”

As per European Union, Poland and Hungary are not respecting these common EU laws, and are accused of curbing the freedom of courts, media and academics. In addition, they are accused of depriving LGBTQ+ people and migrants of their rights. The two countries had appealed against these European laws in the European Court of Justice but their plea was dismissed in February earlier this year.

With Billions of Euros at stake, this decision is bad news for both Poland and Hungary, particularly for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who faces an election next month.

While the timing of this decision is just a coincidence, since the process was in the works since last year, still the decision to rob these countries of funds in the middle of a refugee crisis has been met with widespread derision. During the ongoing war in Ukraine, Poland has taken close to 1.5 million refugees, while Hungary has received nearly a quarter of a million refugees. Now with this humanitarian crisis on their hands, they also know that there won’t be any help coming from the EU.

In addition, Poland has been pushed as the first line of defence against Russian aggression, but while they were focusing on Russia, they got sanctioned by the EU from behind.

European Union’s detractors have for long complained about the EU’s meddling in a member country’s internal affairs, one of the main reasons for the Brexit vote in Britain. Now, with the EU holding money from its member countries, in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, those complaints about the EU are only going to grow.

The Hindu ties itself in knots trying to downplay BJP’s victory in 4 states, including Uttar Pradesh: Here is how

S. Sudhir Kumar
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The Hindu ties itself in knots trying to downplay BJP’s victory in 4 states, including Uttar Pradesh: Here is how

Today’s editorial in The Hindu, “The winning formula”,  begins with us being emphatically told that the BJP won despite accumulating “fatigue and popular disenchantment” over the past 5 years in 4 of the 5 states that went to the elections. Now, if there was “popular disenchantment”, then it is but natural for you to wonder how did the BJP end up winning the popular vote in the first place? To understand this, we must thank the editorial page team of The Hindu. Their editorial and articles today put forth some fascinating insights into the minds of the English language media “analysts” and “experts”. 

We are told that “In Goa, the BJP retained power, though the Congress put up a spirited fight.” We are not told that the BJP retained power even after being in power for 10 years. Instead, we are told that the BJP won because it was “helped by a division of votes” and with the “strategy of selecting candidates on the basis of ‘maximum winnability’”. 

We are told that “Manipur did not escape the general trend in the northeast, where people tend to vote for the party or coalition in power at the Centre since the States are dependent on Delhi for funds.” In fact, the editorial enlightens us that the Manipur election “was bereft of emotional issues, and the BJP gained from its development rhetoric.” Notice the choice of the phrase – development rhetoric – indicating that there was actually no development but there was only sweet talk related to the development and the voters of Manipur simply fell for this!

We are told that though the BJP retained power in Uttarakhand “the defeat of its Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, is a serious embarrassment for the BJP.” I was immediately reminded of the fact that Mamta Banerjee had also lost her election while the TMC won a handsome majority in the West Bengal election just about 10 months back. The editorial in The Hindu on May 3rd doesn’t tell us that the defeat of Mamta is a “serious embarrassment” for the TMC. It still beats me how the loss of Pushkar Dhami can be a “serious embarrassment” but the loss of Mamta Banerjee is not even a normal embarrassment.

The best analysis was reserved for the biggest victory – Uttar Pradesh. In fact, there were two very long articles on the Editorial page today trying to understand how the BJP won there. The editorial tells us that the voters of UP had “appeared anguished with inflation, stray cattle menace, poor COVID-19 management, and unemployment”. You are of course left wondering why the voter would then choose the same party with which he/she is anguished with. Seema Chisti attempts to provide an answer to this in her article – Five State polls, their messages and implications.

The focus of her article is to analyse “the implications of when the voter does not factor her/his own well-being when making electoral choices.” The ease with which arrogance oozes from the pens of our “experts is simply mind-blowing! When you begin your article with an assertion that crores of people have made a choice despite knowing it is wrong, it simply exposes the vacuous depths of intellectual hollowness in your brain. The article continues its predictable rants on how bad the economy of UP is; how bad the CM Yogi Adityanath is; how bad Hindutva is and so on. The people have given a resounding response to these rants. So it is now time for Seema Chisti to be more concerned as to why she lives far away from reality and be less concerned about why voters are making their own choices. 

The second article “A demonstration of a durable political phenomenon” by Asim Ali also gives a great insight into the confused minds of the “experts” and “analysts”. Asim Ali tells us that there was “economic security” but that alone didn’t win it for BJP. He tells us that there is a lot of welfare but that alone didn’t win it for BJP. Asim Ali tells us that there was better “physical security” but that alone didn’t win it for BJP. Asim Ali tells us that the major reason for this victory is because “Mr Adityanath had framed this election as an 80 versus 20 elections”. Asim Ali quotes Yogendra Yadav and concludes that voters did not bother about their own “material suffering and misgovernance because they wished to stay on their ‘own’ side”

Why would the voter be undergoing “material suffering” if he/she has economic security, physical security, welfare security etc as mentioned by the author himself? Why would all these experts and editors assume that crores of people will choose to live under harsh circumstances even at the cost of their own well-being? Simply put, why would the authors assume that crores of people in this country are as stupid as they are?

I’ve reserved their best argument for the last. We are told that “AAP, which has been in power in Delhi for seven years, has built a reputation for its welfare schemes, particularly in health and education — two sectors that voters care a lot about. That reputation stood AAP in good stead in Punjab”. They spent so much ink and space to explain that things like health, education, security, welfare etc didn’t matter to voters of 4 states that voted BJP. But to the one state that voted AAP, it was health and education that mattered. How can Malini Parthasarathy and her team not see their hypocrisy in their arguments, just with today’s examples?

Insulting the voters, for voting for the BJP, is a favourite pastime of the “experts” and “analysts” community. The editorial must be taught in journalism schools for being a perfect case study in ambiguity and hypocrisy. In fact, the entire editorial page in The Hindu serves as a great case study to understand the dangerous thought process of this whole community. 

The crash and burn of Jai Bheem Jai Meem: Islamists and liberals abuse Dalits for ‘making BJP win’

OpIndia Staff
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The crash and burn of Jai Bheem Jai Meem: Islamists and liberals abuse Dalits for ‘making BJP win’

In the 2022 Assembly elections that concluded with the results yesterday, i.e on the 10th of March 2022, BJP won 4 states, including Uttar Pradesh where the party created history by becoming the first party in over 35 years to have returned to power. In 4 out of these 5 states, BJP increased their vote share significantly, cementing their march towards political dominance.

BJP’s historic win in the 2022 Assembly elections came as a jolt for the Modi detractors. As the results of the high-octane elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won 255 seats with a 202-seat majority, began to trickle in on Thursday, March 10, Islamists and left-liberals took to Twitter to vent their rage at Dalit voters. They abused and cursed the Dalits for ‘making BJP win’.

So enraged were these Islamists at Dalit voters, whom they saw as the main catalyst for the BJP’s return to power in Uttar Pradesh, that one Twitter user, @marasim135, went on to label all Dalit and OBC voters in Lakhimpur, Hathras, and Unnao who voted for the BJP as “greedy pests.”

Going by their proclivity to brand themselves as victims of ‘growing Islamophobia under BJP’s Hindutva regime’, another Twitter user Malik brothers (@MalikT1232) claimed that the Dalits voted for the BJP as the party engages in ‘genocide’.

Twitter user @MogalAdil denounced the Dalit voters for voting BJP to power ‘even after Covid, Migrant crisis, unemployment, rapes’, under their regime.

Another Twitter user mocked Dalits who voted for the BJP, implying that the BJP exploited the backward caste and the Dalits to retain its supremacy and that they are not inherently Dalit supporters but rather upper-caste Hindus supporters. He claimed that “BJP is a Brahmin baniya party.” “Let BJP announce that in 2024 PM face will be a Dalit. It can never do that. Making President is just to get Dalit vote,” Tweeted one @SmartHaider2244.

In a now-deleted Tweet, one Seema Rizvi cursed the Dalits who voted for the saffron party in the 2022 Assembly elections. She wrote, “Dalits are die-hard fans of BJP…I am waiting for a Hindu Rashtra…manusmriti will put them where they were lifted from”.

Islamists attack Dalits for siding with the BJP
Source: Twitter

“Siddique Kappan was on his way to Hathras to report on the heinous rape and murder of a Dalit girl. Today he is still in jail for the last 1.5 years. While Hathras has elected and voted for BJP”, tweeted another enraged social media user @drunkjournalist.

Another Islamist claimed that BJP retained power in the 4 states because Dalits have shifted away from social justice-based caste assertion and toward Hindutva-based Dalit Politics.

As expected, the BJP’s resounding victory enraged not only Islamists but also left some liberals baffled. A Congress sycophant, @shalluchandla, went on to dismiss BJP Dalit supporters altogether. She claimed that India’s Dalits are the biggest ‘myth’ because they are the most communal from within.

BJP’s inexorable rise in the assembly elections

Regardless of how much these Islamists and liberals burn, the BJP has proven its mettle in the recently concluded Assembly elections. Despite the massive efforts undertaken by the Left, BJP pulled off a stunning victory, racking up an impressive 255 seats out of the total 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

It is the first time that a government has returned to power in Uttar Pradesh in over 35 years—a significant achievement, given the challenges faced by the Yogi Adityanath government in the wake of the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Not just that, while the number of seats of BJP has declined, there is an increase in BJP’s vote share in the state from 2017 to 2022. In 2017, according to the Election Commission data, BJP secured a 39.67% vote share in the state with 3,44,03,299 votes in total. In 2022, according to Election Commission data, BJP’s vote share went up significantly, up to 41.3%.

Interestingly, while addressing BJP workers after the party’s thumping victory in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand PM Modi had congratulated the voters of Uttar Pradesh of choosing development over caste-based politics of the oppositions parties.

Taking a dig at the opposition in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said that UP chose ‘vikas,’ proving everyone wrong who said the state votes on caste. He said the people of UP had been divided by casteism earlier, but now the people had chosen development in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022. “I’d also say today that, following the 2019 election results, some political experts claimed that the 2017 results determined the 2019 results. I believe they will say again this time that the results of 2022 will determine the results of 2024,” he said.

As the MP for Banaras, I can say that the people of Uttar Pradesh have realised that it is now necessary to avoid those who engage in caste politics and defame the community, and prioritise the development of the state, added Modi.

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