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US Professor who was seen endorsing paedophilia barred from interacting with students, entering college campus

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US Professor who was seen endorsing paedophilia barred from interacting with students, entering college campus

Days after a Philosophy Professor named Stephen Kershnar was heard supporting paedophilia in a viral video, the New York State University at Fredonia has barred him from interacting with students and entering the college campus.

In a statement, the university President Stephen H Kolison informed, “We will continue to investigate this situation. In the meantime, effective immediately and until further notice, the professor is being assigned to duties that do not include his physical presence on campus and will not have contact with students while the investigation is ongoing.”

He further added, “Please allow me to reiterate my earlier statement that I view the content of the video as absolutely abhorrent. I cannot stress strongly enough that the independent viewpoints of this individual professor are in no way representative of the values of the SUNY Fredonia campus. I appreciate your patience as we make every effort to resolve this matter as expeditiously as possible. “

Earlier on Wednesday (February 2), the State University of New York at Fredonia acknowledged a viral video wherein Professor Stephen Kershnar was heard supporting sexual relationships between underage children and fully grown adults.

“The views expressed by the professor are reprehensible and do not represent the values of SUNY Fredonia in any way, shape or form. They are solely the professor’s views,” remarked President Stephen H. Kolison. An internal investigation was launched by the varsity into the matter.

New York State University Professor supports paedophilia, says he finds nothing wrong in adults having sex with children

In a video shared by popular Twitter handle ‘Libs of Tik Tok’, Professor of Philosophy Stephen Kershnar was heard not just defending paedophilia but instead questioning as to why the heinous crime was wrong in the first place.

“Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she’s a willing participant. A very standard, very widely held view is that there’s something deeply wrong about this — and it’s wrong independent of it being criminalized,” he was heard as saying.

“It’s not obvious to me that it’s in fact wrong. I think this is a mistake. And I think exploring that’s why it’s a mistake will tell us not only things about adult/sex and statutory rape and also fundamental principles of morality,” he added.

Stephen Kershnar made the objectionable comments during a podcast with historian Thaddeus Russell in December 2020. The Philosophy Professor did not find anything wrong in 8 or even 1-year-olds ‘willingly’ engaging in sex.

“One is even if you are looking for a threshold. Let’s say there’s a threshold. I’m making this number up, but let’s say it’s at age 8. Still, that tells you that some adult sex is permissible. Second, the notion that it’s wrong even with a 1-year-old is not quite obvious to me. There are reports in some cultures of grandmas fellating their baby boys to calm them down if they’re colicky,” Kershnar said.

He further added, “I don’t know if this is true but this is sort of widely reported as occurring in at least a foreign culture — and it working, that the grandmas believe that this actually works…If this were to be true, and again, I don’t know it to be true, if this were to be true, it’s hard to see what would be wrong with it.”

He also went on to claim that there are benefits to sexual relationships between underage children and grown adults.

According to his university profile, Stephen Kreshnar specialised in applied ethics and political philosophy. He had also written more than 100 articles and book chapters on abortion, pornography, adult-child sex, hell, punishment, most valuable player, sexual fantasies, torture and slavery.

Centre approves renaming of two cities in Madhya Pradesh: Hoshangabad becomes Narmadapuram while Babai changed to Makhan Nagar

OpIndia Staff
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Centre approves renaming of two cities in Madhya Pradesh: Hoshangabad becomes Narmadapuram while Babai changed to Makhan Nagar

Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has informed on Thursday 3rd February 2022 that the names of two cities in the state have been changed. Hoshangabad will now be known as Narmadapuram while Babai will become Makhan Nagar, both fall under Hoshangabad district. Shivaraj Singh Chouhan has posted this update on Twitter on Thursday night. This change will officially take place on the occasion of Narmada Jayanti (Ratha Saptami) which is on 7th February this year.

The chief minister has informed that the state government had sent a proposal to the central government for this name change and the union government had nodded to go ahead with this change in names. He has also expressed his gratitude towards the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accepting the proposal.

In his tweet, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said “On the auspicious occasion of Narmada Jayanti, the Hoshangabad city situated on the banks of the holy river Narmada will be renamed as Narmadapuram. Narmada is the lifeline of the state. The division has already been named as Narmadapuram after the name of this river.”

He further said, “Babai, situated in Hoshangabad is the birthplace of the revered poet, journalist, and great writer Makhanlal Chaturvedi. He is the author of many great poetic verses like ‘Mujhe tod lena banmali, us path par tum dena fenk, Matrubhumi par sheesh chadhane jis path jaave, veer anek’ (which means Oh Gardener, pick me up and throw on the path taken by the braves to sacrifice their lives in service to the motherland). His hometown will now be known as Makhan Nagar.”

The Madhya Pradesh CM has also thanked the central government and the Prime Minister for accepting the proposal to change the names. He has said in his tweet “The Madhya Pradesh government had sent the proposal of renaming Hoshangabad as Narmadapuram and Babai as Makhan Nagar to the central government. The proposal is now accepted. I express my gratitude towards the central government and honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this pleasant decision taken in cohesion with the people’s aspirations.”

Makhanlal Chaturvedi was born on 4th April 1889. He was an eminent poet, writer, journalist, and playwright. He was also called Panditji. He had participated in India’s freedom struggle. He is remembered for his phenomenal contribution to the Neoromanticism movement in Hindi literature. He was awarded the first Sahitya Akademi award in Hindi literature in the year 1955. The government of India had conferred the Padma Bhushan award on him in 1963. He passed away on 30th January 1968.

Independent probe reveals financial irregularities at BharatPe, founder Ashneer Grover and his family’s involvement surfaces: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Independent probe reveals financial irregularities at BharatPe, founder Ashneer Grover and his family’s involvement surfaces: Details

Ashneer Grover, the founder of BharatPe, who took a “voluntary leave of absence” until the end of March after the abusive phone call controversy, is now again caught in the eye of the storm as allegations of financial fraud as surfaced against his wife and brother-in-law.

According to Live Mint, a risk advisory company Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) was hired by BharatPe to look into the alleged financial irregularities. The law firm had delivered its investigation report to the BharatPe board on January 24th. On the 30th of January, Mint reported that the board had decided to terminate Grover’s services based on the preliminary assessment, despite the fact that it had commissioned a complete inquiry.

The preliminary investigation by the law firm had highlighted that there are two key grounds for the claims of financial malfeasance. The first concerns anomalies in recruitment, while the second concerns paying non-existent vendors. Madhuri Grover, Ashneer Grover’s wife and her brother, Shwetank Jain are reportedly linked to both the financial wrongdoings.

Madhuri Grover had been serving as head of control at BharatPe since incorporation and headed procurement and admin departments.

The report by A&M, interestingly mentions a “Panipat connection,” with all of the vendors listed in the invoices generated as being from Panipat. Madhuri Jain is also from Panipat, according to the report.

The recruitment scam masterminded by the wife of Ashneer Grover

BharatPe used to pay HR consultants fees for employees that were hired through them. The company was recruiting employees but falsely paying a network of staffing companies that had nothing to do with the employment and appeared to be tied to each other as well as Madhuri Grover, according to the inquiry.

The invoices for fees paid to these consultants were examined by A&M. Employees validated the date on which they began working, as stated on the vendor invoice. They, on the other hand, denied being recruited by the alleged consultants or having any knowledge of them.

According to the investigation, Madhuri Jain, the wife of BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover, received at least three of these invoices and passed them to the company for payment. According to the study, Shwetank Jain, Jain’s brother, had prepared these invoices. These consultancy companies were mostly sole proprietorships.

Furthermore, the firms involved commonalities such as similar email addresses, physical addresses, formats, and bank branches and most importantly, they were all based in Panipat. The A&M report notes that Madhuri Grover is originally from Panipat. 

The sum paid by BharatPe for undelivered services was estimated to be close to Rs 4 crores based on an analysis of just two of the vendors, as revealed in the report.

According to reports, BharatPe is also conducting a probe into alleged frauds by its founder Ashneer Grover who is on voluntary leave till April 1. Grover has meanwhile hired a legal firm and there could be a likelihood that he along with his wife (who was overseeing recruitment operations) may have to exit the firm.

The Grovers and BharatPe are yet to respond to the controversy.

BharatPe pays penalty to avoid being served show-cause notice

According to the investigation report, searches were conducted by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) at BharatPe’s head office in October 2021. DGGI had issued summons to the company’s authorised signatory to appear before the authority on November 1, 2021.

The summons required the company to present purchase invoices for various businesses as well as bank statements showing payments to these vendors.

The company informed the DGGI in writing that they were non-existent vendors and that BharatPe did not want the DGGI to issue a show-cause notice with a request to waive the notification.

The letter was, interestingly, signed by “Deepak Jagdishram Gupta”. The Alvarez and Marsal report says Gupta was responsible for procurements at the company and is Madhuri Grover’s brother-in-law.

According to the audit, the company lost Rs 10.97 crore due to fraudulent invoicing, whereas the total spending related to 30 suppliers was Rs 53.25 crore.

The company reversed the claimed input credit of Rs 9.54 crore and paid a penalty of ₹1.54 crores.

A&M recommended to the board that this requires deeper investigation as to why the company was dealing with ‘non-existent vendors’.

BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover and the abusive call controversy

It may be recalled that last month, BharatPe had released a statement in which it stated that Ashneer Grover had gone on a “voluntary leave of absence” till the end of March, which the company maintained was in the best interests of the company, employees and investors. It was then speculated that Grover’s leave of absence was linked to the audio clip of him abusing an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank that had surfaced on social media platforms a couple of weeks ago.

On January 5, an anonymous person tweeted a link to a now-deleted audio clip from Soundcloud, an audio hosting platform. In the audio clip, a bank employee was heard trying to calm down the two customers over the call. The customers could be heard using abusive language. When the audio was made public, it was alleged that the bank employee was from Kotak Mahindra Bank and the customers were Ashneer Grover and his wife, Madhuri. The customers not only used alleged abusive language but also threatened the employee.

After the audio went viral on social media platforms, Grover had issued a statement on Twitter alleging it was fake audio. However, things had turned sideways when on January 9, Kotak Mahindra Bank issued a statement in the matter and said they were pursuing legal action against the couple over the abusive language they used during the conversation with their employee.

Interestingly, after his audio had gone viral, netizens had also widely discussed Grover’s alleged toxic culture at BharatPe and his caustic behaviour on the reality show Shark Tank India.

Tibetans in Delhi stage protests against the Beijing Winter Olympics, burn Chinese flags and demand freedom

OpIndia Staff
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Tibetans in Delhi stage protests against the Beijing Winter Olympics, burn Chinese flags and demand freedom

On Friday, a group of Tibetans in Delhi staged protests in front of the Chinese embassy against the Beijing Winter Olympics that begins later today. ‘Boycott, boycott Beijing Olympics’, the protesters cried as they stepped on the Chinese flags with full force and burned them.

The protesters blocked the main road leading to Delhi’s Diplomatic enclave where the Chinese embassy is located. The Delhi Police is said to have detained the protesters after they broke the perimeter while they demanded ‘freedom for all’ and yelled ‘Boycott Beijing Olympics’.

This is after around 500 Tibetans marched outside the International Olympic Committee headquarters to protest against Beijing hosting the Games. The activists were seen dragging the Chinese flags on their skis.

According to the reports, Tibetans across the globe are demonstrating protests against China demanding freedom and are of opinion that the Chinese are mass murderers and dictators. The protesters at IOC HQ also raised the slogans of ‘Boycott Beijing Winter Olympics’, ‘Stop human rights violations in Tibet’ and called Bejing Winter Olympics a ‘Game of shame’.

The demonstrators also chanted ‘No rights, no Games’ and ‘Beijing Olympics: genocide Games’ as they climbed up on the roof of IOC entrance read ‘No Beijing 2022’.

The Tibetan protest in Delhi also comes after India boycotted the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing as China chose Qi Fabao as torchbearer, a soldier who fought in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley against the Indian troops in 2020. MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi regretted that the Chinese side had chosen to politicize an event like the Olympics.

“India will not be attending the opening nor the closing ceremony of the Beijing 22 Winter Olympics”, he said in a media briefing yesterday. It is pertinent to note that Qi Fabao is a regiment commander in the PLA who sustained head injury during the fighting. China has picked him up as one of the 1,200 torchbearers in the Games terming him as a ‘hero’.

The United States has also asserted that it stands with India against Chinese aggression for the Beijing Winter Olympics. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday said, “When it comes to the India-China border situation, we continue to support direct dialogue and a peaceful resolution of the disputes”.

“We’ve previously voiced our concerns on Beijing’s pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbors. We stand with friends, we stand with partners & allies, to advance our shared prosperity, security, & values in the Indo-Pacific”, he added further.

The 2022 Games are subject to various concerns and controversies as well as diplomatic boycotts due to the ongoing Uyghur genocide and human rights abuses in China. Reports mention that the US, UK and Canada have already declared a diplomatic boycott of the Games, along with Australia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Belgium, Denmark and Estonia.

Karnataka: ITI student Shashank beaten up by Taufiq and 3 others for speaking to a Muslim girl

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: ITI student Shashank beaten up by Taufiq and 3 others for speaking to a Muslim girl

In a shocking incident, four men brutally attacked a youth inside a bus for speaking to a Muslim girl in Karnataka. The incident was reported from Kundapur taluk in Udupi district on Thursday morning.

According to the reports, a 19-year-old youth identified as Shashank, a first-year student at ITI of Bidkalkatte, was assaulted by a gang of four men.

Shashank was travelling by bus with his friends Prajwal and Ganesh, and a Muslim girl who is a B.Sc student. When the bus reached Halady, a gang of four attackers confronted Shashank for speaking with a girl from the Muslim community and assaulted him. They also allegedly warned the victim and his friends and asked them to stay away from the girl.

The police said that three out of the four attackers got down from the bus on the way while only one travelled to Kundapur. Shashank is seriously injured, and he is currently being treated at Kundapur Government Hospital in the city. He has also lodged a complaint against the four at the Shankaranarayana Police Station.

As the news of moral policing and subsequent attacks on the youth spread, activists from pro-Hindu organisations gathered at Shastri Circle of the city to protest against the attacks. DySP Srikanth K, CPI Gopikrishna and PSI Sadashiva Gavaroji visited the spot.

The police have now registered a complaint against the attackers under IPC sections 323, 341, 504, 506 and 295 (A). The police have identified 31-year-old Taufeeq as the main accused, and a search is on to nab all the four attackers. The police also informed that the accused had threatened Shashank against speaking to his friend a few days ago.

This is not an isolated incident, as such incidents of moral policing are regularly reported from Karnataka where Hindu boys are assaulted or threatened for talking with Muslim girls.

‘There is more that can be done’: White House asks Spotify to take ‘further’ action against podcaster Joe Rogan

OpIndia Staff
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‘There is more that can be done’: White House asks Spotify to take ‘further’ action against podcaster Joe Rogan

On Tuesday (February 1), the White House directed audio streaming platform Spotify to take ‘more’ steps in censoring podcast host Joe Rogan for allegedly spreading Covid-19 related misinformation. The development came a day after Spotify announced that it will add a content warning to Covid-19 related discussions and podcasts on its platform.

While speaking about the matter, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had stated, “Our hope is that all major tech platforms — and all major news sources for that matter — be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19.”

She further added, “That certainly includes Spotify. So this disclaimer, it’s a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinformation while also uplifting accurate information”

She also claimed that an unvaccinated Covid-19 infected individual is 16 times more likely to be hospitalised and 68 times more likely to die than someone who has taken the jab. “That’s pretty significant. We think that should be the basis of how people should be communicating about it,” Psaki concluded.

Spotify is an online streaming behemoth with more than 300 mn monthly listeners, including more than 170 mn who pay for subscriptions to the service.

Joe Rogan and the controversy surrounding Spotify

TV personality Joe Rogan has been in the midst of controversy for claiming that young Americans were not at risk of contracting the Wuhan Coronavirus and therefore did not need to take the vaccine. He has also been at the receiving end of criticism for interviewing an infectious disease expert Dr Robert Malone, who in the podcast episode streamed on December 31 had opposed COVID-19 vaccines for children.

Since the podcast raised aspersions about Covid-19 vaccines for children, a large number of people had slammed Rogan for sowing disinformation about vaccination among the public. It must be mentioned that Joe Rogan was roped in by Spotify in 2020 at a whopping $100 million for the exclusive rights of his popular, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast.

The programme is among the top podcasts on Spotify and is reportedly downloaded by over 200 million times a month. As per The Independent, the TV personality had not uploaded any new episodes since the controversy.

Canadian-American musician Neil Young had threatened the audio streaming platform to choose between him and Rogan. Spotify responded by pulling down the former’s music from the platform. Several media outlets, PhD candidates and medical professionals had written to the audio platform to take action against Joe Rogan.

Meanwhile, Rogan had tendered an apology and vowed to maintain a ‘balance’ in views in his future shows. He emphasised, “I’m not trying to promote misinformation. I’m not trying to be controversial,” he said. “I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations.”

Interestingly, Spotify announced that it has a critical role to provide a balance between allowing the creators to express their opinions and ensuring the safety of the users on the platform. On Wednesday (February 2), Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had also responded to the controversy by siding with Joe Rogan.

He said, “We don’t change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change it based on any media cycle or call from anyone else. I do believe they’re right for our platform. And while Joe has a massive audience — he is actually the No. 1 podcast in more than 90 markets — he also has to abide by those policies.”

Uttar Pradesh police detain 2 for firing on the car of Asaduddin Owaisi, govt provides him Z category security cover

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh police detain 2 for firing on the car of Asaduddin Owaisi, govt provides him Z category security cover

A day after bullets were fired at the car of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi after a poll event in Kithaur, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, the police have detained the second suspect. The first suspect was nabbed yesterday itself, while the second one had managed to flee, who was caught today. Though the inquiry is ongoing, Superintendent of Police Hapur, Deepak Bhuker, stated that the assaulters attacked Asaduddin Owaisi because they were offended by Owaisi’s “anti-Hindu” statements.

Prashant Kumar, ADG (Law and Order) informed that the arms used in the crime have been recovered, and the accused will be produced before the court. According to the police officer, an illegal 9 mm pistol was recovered which was used in the crime. Five teams have been formed for the investigation.

After the attack, Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi has been provided with Z category security cover by the government. This he will get a security detail of 22 personnel, including four to six NSG commandos and the rest from the police or CAPF personnel. Earlier today, Owaisi had said that he has never sought security cover and he never would, because it is the responsibility of the govt to protect his life.

Owaisi and his brother’s statements have hurt our faith, said one of the accused detained

The police officials confirmed that the two accused were present at Owaisi’s meeting in Meerut. The police added that both of the accused have been pursuing Owaisi for some days and have attended his meetings. The incident was not a spur-of-the-moment occurrence but meticulously planned.

One of the accused, Sachin, stated that he was enraged by Owaisi and his brother’s remarks. Both accused believe Owaisi and his brother are hurting their beliefs.

Meanwhile, the AIMIM chief has said that he will be addressing the Parliament about a security breach and attack on his convoy on Friday, February 4. Asaduddin Owaisi will reportedly meet Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to discuss the issue.

AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi attacked in Uttar Pradesh

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had alleged that four rounds of bullets were fired on his car after a poll event in Kithaur, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. The incident reportedly took place on Thursday afternoon when Owaisi was returning to Delhi in his car after a poll event in UP.

Images posted by Owaisi showed two holes on the two doors of his car apparently created by the bullets fired at the car. He also said that the tyres of his vehicle were also punctured in the attack. Reportedly, a total of four bullets were fired aiming at the bottom of the car. Nobody was injured in the incident.

NCP MP Supriya Sule mocks DRDO; makes false claims about vaccines in Parliament: Details

OpIndia Staff
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NCP MP Supriya Sule mocks DRDO; makes false claims about vaccines in Parliament: Details

Supriya Sule, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) made false statements regarding vaccine manufacturing and ridiculed the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on the fourth day of Parliament’s Budget Session on Thursday. A video of her speaking in the session was shared on Twitter by another NCP MP Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Supriya Sule mocked DRDO, adding that despite being the leading scientific institution, they are now manufacturing masks and sanitisers. Sule went on to say that the vaccines are made by the Serum Institute of India, not by the government. She clarified that this is not what is meant by the phrase “Make in India.”

She was, however, factually wrong in all of her comments, as numerous individuals on social media pointed out. Prominent scientist Anand Ranganathan took to Twitter and wrote “Ms Sule is factually wrong on ALL counts. 1. She mocks DRDO. Fact: DRDO invented novel UV & mist sanitisers 2. She says govt hasn’t made the vaccine. Fact: ICMR has made Covaxin along with BB 3. She says SII has made vaccines. Fact: Oxford, not SII has made Covishield.”

Another Twitter user named Sagar (@sssaaagar) pointed out the achievements of DRDO in a tweet. He wrote, “DRDO made mask, Sanitisers, OOG of Tejas repurposed to O2 plant, 2-DG for fighting Covid, while they made indigenous AIP, HSTDV, Launched slew of missiles etc. MH state government had 1 job, Convert Haffkines lab into BSL3 for Covaxin prodn. 9 months after approval is still zero.”

It should be remembered that the DRDO has been a benchmark organization for many years. Today, the DRDO is a network of more than 50 laboratories dedicated to the development of defence technologies, life sciences, training, information systems, and agriculture. DRDO has played a major role during the Covid-19 pandemic. DRDO has worked diligently whenever it was necessary, from building a 500-bed specialized Covid facility in Delhi to creating the effective medicine 2-DG for the treatment of coronavirus infection. The DRDO’s Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) in New Delhi collaborated with Hyderabad-based pharma giant Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to produce 2-deoxy-D-glucose or 2-DG.

Mahua Moitra makes false claims in Parliament, says Govt ‘replaced’ Urdu with Hindi as official language of Jammu and Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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Mahua Moitra makes false claims in Parliament, says Govt ‘replaced’ Urdu with Hindi as official language of Jammu and Kashmir

On Thursday, February 3, TMC MP Mahua Moitra was seen creating a ruckus in the parliament by accusing the ruling BJP government of ‘altering history’. In her speech on the Motion of Thanks to the President, the Trinamool Congress leader said that the BJP government wants to ‘alter the history’, they fear the future and mistrust the present.

She termed the ruling government as ‘hateful forces’ and said that the mention of freedom fighters in the President’s address is nothing but a ‘lip service’. Moitra also spoke blatant lies and spread false information regarding the languages of Jammu and Kashmir.

Moitra claims Central govt ‘replaced’ Urdu with Hindi in Jammu and Kashmir’s official language

She alleged that the government had made attempts to remove Tipu Sultan from the history books whose springing tiger was insignia of Netaji’s Indian National Army (INA). Connecting the Urdu link to her page, she claimed that the government had removed Urdu and imposed Hindi as the first and official language of Jammu and Kashmir. “INA’s motto was three Urdu words – Etihaad, Etmad and Kurbani (Unity, Trust and sacrifice). This is the same Urdu language that this government is so delighted to replace with Hindi as the first and official language of Jammu and Kashmir,” she noted.

The false claims by Moitra went viral over the internet with netizens terming it as a ‘plethora of lies’ she has peddled against the government. Political commentator Sunanda Vashisht sharply criticised the TMC MP, especially for her ‘Urdu replaced with Hindi in Jammu and Kashmir official language’ comment.

Vashisht, who has her roots from Jammu and Kashmir slammed Moitra saying that Urdu was never their language and that it was imposed upon the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “Our languages are primarily Kashmiri, Dogri and many other languages and dialects. Urdu is not our language. Ask yourself why Urdu was imposed on us?”, she said.

Further in the series of tweets, she added that the Hindi language has not replaced anything, rather the Kashmiri language was given recognition officially after 7 decades. “Urdu is not the mother tongue of anybody in J&K”, she reiterated.

‘Urdu was imposed on the people of Jammu and Kashmir, nobody in the state spoke Urdu’ says Kashmiri journalist

Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul stated that Hindi was not being imposed on J&K but in fact Urdu was. In his tweets, he suggested the TMC MP learn the history of Jammu and Kashmir and some basics about Kashmiri and Dogri before making embarrassing claims in the Parliament. “Illiteracy is common among a section of Indian politicians. But such blatant confidence in spreading lies is a new one”, he tweeted.

Government in 2020 had declares Hindi, English, Urdu, Dogri and Kashmiri as the official languages in J&K, Moitra was lying in the Parliament

The Loksabha had introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill in 2020 to declare certain languages as official languages of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The bill declared Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, Hindi and English as the official languages to be used for the official purposes of the union territory. In reality, Urdu was never ‘replaced’ with Hindi, as Moitra claimed, but Hindi, English and the native languages of the UT that are Dogri and Kashmiri were added as official languages.

It is nowhere mentioned in the bill that Urdu is being removed and Hindi is being added instead as an official language of the union territory. The bill sought to keep both the languages along with English, Kashmiri and Dogri in Jammu and Kashmir. The bill further green signalled the continued usage of English for administrative and legislative purposes in the region.

In fact, the commonly spoken language Kashmiri was recognised for the first time in 2020.

According to the reports, Hindi is the second most spoken language in J&K after Kashmiri, also known as Koshur. Dogri is the other widely spoken language and is used mostly in the Jammu region.

Earlier the day, she was had mocked the BJP government by speaking the language of Pulwama terrorist. Ahead of her Lok Sabha speech, she took to Twitter to make the Hinduphobic ‘gaumutra’ jibe.

Tagging the wrong handle to address the BJP, Mahua Moitra tweeted, “Am speaking this evening in Lok Sabha on President’s Address. Just wanted to give early heads up to @BJP to get the heckler team ready and read up on imaginary points of order. Drink some gaumutra shots too.”

As reported, the ‘gaumutra’ jibe is used by Islamists and their apologists, including the Pulwama terrorist Ahmed Dhar who had said he killed the CRPF soldiers to kill those who ‘drink cow urine’, to spread hatred against Indians, especially Hindus.

Operation Desert Storm: Customs and DRI joint team seizes 23kg gold from Kerala airport, 23 arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Operation Desert Storm: Customs and DRI joint team seizes 23kg gold from Kerala airport, 23 arrested

On Wednesday, the Customs Preventive department seized 23 kg of smuggled gold at Karipur international airport in Kozhikode, Kerala.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, a team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the customs department carried out a joint operation named ‘Desert Storm’ to seize the yellow metal on Thursday.

During the operation, launched after credible intelligence, passengers from seven different flights were searched. The joint team seized nearly 23 kgs of smuggled gold and arrested 23 smugglers, making it the largest single-day haul of yellow metal in recent times in the country.

The arrested smugglers arrived in Kozhikode from various Gulf countries. The joint team also arrested some people who came to receive gold from these passengers.

Kerala – the hotspot of gold smuggling

Kerala has become the main gateway for gold smugglers in the last two years. The customs officials have seized 232kg of yellow metal from the smugglers in recent times.

The customs officials have seized gold at various airports across Kerala. In August last year, customs officials arrested a person from Kannur international airport after finding that he was wearing double-layered jeans.

In addition, smugglers are using novel ways to smuggle gold into the country. Belt buckles, wigs, clothing layers, and various elaborate methods are used to smuggle gold.

Similarly, in Kozhikode, a passenger was arrested for smuggling gold in his face mask. As per the HT report, a woman passenger carrying a baby was found holding a water bottle made of gold. Hiding gold inside the rectum is one of the most common methods.

According to the data tabled in Parliament, Kozhikode airport remains second in the country in terms of the quantity of gold seized. Until November last year, the gold seized at the airport was 128.170 kg, next to Chennai airport, where 130.10 kg was seized. Kochi airport stands third in gold seizures at 62.281 kg of smuggled gold, while Kannur airport recorded a seizure of 28.939kg of gold.

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