Republic day celebrations were not even over completely when the Prime Minister’s Office called for an urgent high level meeting as a national crisis befell upon us. In the meeting, along with PM Narendra Modi, HM Amit Shah, RM Rajnath Singh, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, NSA Ajit Doval, R&AW Chief, IB Chief, the Cartoon Network chief was also present. The agenda of the meeting was the fact that Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter followers were stuck and not increasing.
The meeting lasted till wee hours of morning the next day. At around 2 AM, the PM received a call from President Kovind to enquire what necessary steps have been taken on this matter of great urgency. PM informed him that in the next parliament session they will bring an ordinance that will force every Twitter user to follow Rahul Gandhi else Mukesh Ambani will disconnect their Jio numbers. However, the President told the PM that next parliament session is far away and asked him to pass ordinance by today evening itself. He informed Lok Sabha speaker to call urgent joint session under article 78(6).
On the other hand, right wing trolls were mocking Rahul Gandhi for crying about Twitter followers. It’s a fact that RW trolls are not aware of importance of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account and what it means for the nation’s security, economy and meme industry.
In January 2020 when world was going through massive unemployment, Rahul Gandhi hired 5 lakh Twitter warriors and these 5 lakh warriors created employment for million memers.
Rahul Gandhi, through his twitter account, keeps exposing China. He was the 1st one who informed the world about Coronavirus even before WHO. In fact, it was he who had kept a tab on the progress during his top secret visit to Wuhan a few years back.
Further, only people in revenue intelligence could crack what Rahul Gandhi meant when he said “ek taraf se aaloo dalunga and dusre taraf se sona niklega”. It was a hidden intel to find gold hidden in rectum. He went all the way to Kerala to get elected as an MP from Wayanad to let the world at large know that rectum gold will be found in Kerala.
Rahul Gandhi is so hardworking that even when he was holidaying in undisclosed foreign location he didn’t forget his duty and wrote a letter to Twitter about his follower count going down. He even spent time drawing up colourful graphs and compared his follower count with other ladykiller like the charming Shashi Tharoor. Even Tharoor got thousands of followers these past few months while Rahul Gandhi lost his followers.
Sources close to Congress tell us that Rahul Gandhi had actually planned a visit to Ajmer and visit the Dargah to pray for increasing his followers. But he was reminded that he should not trigger Sachin Pilot, the only loyalist left in Congress otherwise even the Gehlot govt in Rajasthan will topple and one more state will be lost along with Twitter followers. So as precautionary measure he visited Punjab to make sure at least Sidhu sticks around instead of crossing over the border.
PM Modi has assured that for next few days at least no new Congress leader’s job application to the BJP will be accepted.
On Thursday, TV Actress Shweta Tiwari landed up in a huge controversy after making derogatory, sexual comments on Hindu Gods. At the launch event of her upcoming new web series ‘Show Stopper’, Shweta in Bhopal said that her bra size was being measured by God.
According to the reports, the web series stars Rohit Roy, Digangana Suryawanshi, Kanwaljit Singh and Sourabh Raaj Jain in lead roles. Sourabh Raaj Jain who had played ‘Lord Krishna’ in Star Plus TV serial Mahabharat, will be seen playing a ‘bra fitter’ in the web series ‘Show Stopper’, as per reports.
In a clip from a promotional event in Bhopal, the actress is seen saying “Mere bra ka size bhagwan le rahe hain” (The God is sizing my bra), and then giggling with her co-worker. The statement was meant as a jibe at Saurabh Raaj Jain who is quite popular for his portrayal of Lord Krishna in the Mahabharat show.
The derogatory remarks by the actress have caused controversy as many social media users have slammed the useless sexual innuendo that dragged the name of Hindu gods.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Minister Dr Narottam Mishra has taken cognizance of the matter and directed the Bhopal Police to submit a detailed report in this regard. Condemning the comment, Mishra said that demeaning Hindu culture and Gods was a shameful act.
एक्ट्रेस #ShwetaTiwari का भोपाल में दिया गया बयान निंदनीय है।
भोपाल पुलिस कमिश्नर मकरंद देउस्कर को 24 घंटे में तथ्यों और संदर्भ की जांचकर रिपोर्ट देने का निर्देश दिया है, जिसके आधार पर निर्णय लिया जाएगा।@DGP_MPpic.twitter.com/76IzK9lqDt
Shweta and Sourabh had appeared together in the reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi 11. Sourabh had earlier shared that he has been a fan of the actress since his childhood days.
An illegal racket of cow slaughter has been busted by Maharastra Police in Tarapur in the Palghar district of Maharashtra on January 26. The police have registered FIR against 11 persons after the accused attacked the police after being caught red-handed.
The Maharashtra Police has registered an FIR against eleven people over illegal slaughtering of cows and selling cattle meat in Tarapur, Palghar. The Police on Wednesday morning received information about the illegal slaughter of cows which is prohibited under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 2015 which restricts the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and calves. A team of police from the Panchmarg Naka Police station set out to Tarapur where the accused Mohommed Joher Sheikh was running a cattle shed afront his home beside an Urdu school in Tarapur.
It is reported that Ansari Damanwala and his two sons – Atique Ansari and Abdul Hamid Ansari were involved in the illegal cow slaughter and beef trading. It is learnt that the Ansari trio used to smuggle stolen beef from illegal traders which were then brought to Mohammed Johar Sheikh’s slaughterhouse. Among the people involved in illegal storage and cutting of cow meat were Sheikh’s wife Rubina, Sulieman Zubair and Faizal from Patni Mohalla Ramzan, Khalid from Teliwada and a person named Thakur whose details are unknown.
According to the FIR, when the police reached the slaughterhouse in Tarapur, they found cow meat being sliced with sharp knives and bladed tools. When the police tried to enquire about the ongoings, the accused hit out at the policemen with knives in a life-threatening attack. According to the police, Ansari Damanwala came forward and threatened, “You go back or else we will all kill you with what we have in our hands.”
Inspector Ramesh Hadal describes in the FIR, “When we caught them red-handed, Ansari Damanwala came forward to threaten us with knives. When I moved to get hold of him, his sons attacked me with knives and tried to obstruct the operation. A person named Shoaib attacked me on my left shoulder, in which I was injured”. Inspector Hadal received severe injuries in the attack while his shirt was torn. He further describes, “When Sub Inspector Jadhav got up to nab Suleiman, he too was attacked on his right knee.”
After a small clash with the accused, the police got hold of the people involved in the business. It was reported that Cows, other cattle and activities related to the slaughtering of beef were found by police during their sudden raid on Mohd. Joher Sheikh’s cattle shed. A case was registered against 11 accused over the coordinated attempts of cow smuggling and storage of slaughtered cow meat under sections 5A and 9A of Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 2015 and section 3,11 of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. An offence against hoarding of cattle with the intent of killing was registered under sections 307, 332, 353,269,424, 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR also mentions action against violation of sections 25(1-C) and 4 of the Arms Act of 1959 for possession of sharp knives and life-threatening tools.
Incidents of illegal smuggling and slaughtering of cows have risen in Maharashtra over the years. In June last year, 41 animals including cows were rescued during a raid on an illegal slaughterhouse in Raigad. On December 18, 2021, the brother of a Shiv Sena leader among two were arrested for transporting 40 kgs of beef in Mumbai.
In Punjab, Congress seems to be heading towards another huge crisis ahead of the assembly election. Five of the eight Congress Lok Sabha MPs from Punjab are boycotting Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the state on Thursday, according to reports. Citing sources, reports say that the five MPs do not find Rahul Gandhi’s leadership reasonable and unless Rahul Gandhi relinquishes his unofficial presidency, these MPs have threatened to leave the party.
WATCH | Rift in Congress as 5 Congress MPs openly reject Rahul Gandhi’s leadership
Jasbir Singh Gill, Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, ex-Union Minister Manish Tewari, Congress’ Lok Sabha top whip Ravneet Singh Bittu, and Mohammad Sadique are among the disgruntled MPs, according to a report in Republic.
Rahul Gandhi, along with the Congress’ 109 candidates for the Punjab elections, paid obeisance at the Golden Temple earlier in the Day. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal downplayed the accusations of a “boycott,” saying they were “baseless rumours” and “not true.”
Congress won 77 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly in 2017, while Shiromani Akali Dal only managed to win 18 seats. The politics of the state has been in chaos since Navjot Singh Sidhu was appointed chief of the Punjab Congress. Captain Amarinder Singh resigned as Chief Minister, saying that the party had humiliated him and labelling Navjot Singh Sidhu a national security threat. Captain Amarinder Singh afterwards formed his own political party in preparation for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections.
Punjab’s 2022 Legislative Assembly elections will take place in a single phase on February 20, 2022, with results announced on March 10.
January 27, 1944, is the day when the prolonged siege of the Russian city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) by Nazi Germany finally ended. The city was under siege, blockaded from all sides by the Nazi forces, not for a month or two, but for 872 days, that is nearly 2 and half years.
It is one of the darkest and most violent phases in the history of World War II. While the Nazi forces surrounded the bustling city, its citizens starved to death, languishing in the freezing cold and waiting to be rescued.
?#OTD 78 years ago, 24 volleys of festive fireworks thundered over the Neva River.#Leningrad celebrated the end of Nazi’s blockade, which lasted 8️⃣7️⃣2️⃣ days. People did not hide their jubilation – the nightmare was finally over, they have persevered.#WeRememberpic.twitter.com/4XZWYExZJL
Among the countless stories of suffering and bravery during World War II, there is a tale of unmatched valour and dedication, lived not by soldiers or leaders, but by a group of scientists, botanists who worked in a seed repository.
The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry
The story of the sacrifice by the scientists of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry had remained unknown and unacknowledged for a long time. In the early 1990s, two scientists of the institute named SM Alexanyan and VI Krivchenko had written about it in the journal Diversity. A report on the story was published in 1992 by the Washington Post.
citizens of Leningrad during the siege, image via Daily Mail
The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry was located inside the city of Leningrad. A premier institute of crops and plant research, the Institute housed seed samples from 187,000 varieties of plants. It was a priceless repository of plant genetic diversity where scientists worked to preserve food crops, develop new hybrid crops and collect data on planting, climate, pest resistance. Between the walls of the institute was one of the world’s largest collections of plant genetic data in the form of seeds.
As the Nazi forces surrounded Leningrad, the institute’s scientists became concerned about its safety. The seeds needed not just proper storage, but the samples needed to be planted and harvested periodically for the research to continue. About 40,000 of the 187,000 varieties of seeds were food crops.
As the Red Amry and Hitler’s Nazi forces engaged in shelling and confrontations, the city was blocked from all sides, cut off from the world, its citizens slowly running out of food and fuel. The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry was facing not just destruction from bombing, but because of the sacks of rice, potatoes and wheat it had stored, there was the possibility of loot by the starving citizens and enemy soldiers. The research work, the result of years of hard work had to be preserved for the future too.
As the siege continued, and shelling happened relentlessly, the botanists at the institute had boarded up the windows and shut themselves inside to protect their seeds. The potato collection was the most vulnerable, the Washington Post article says, because of the freezing winter and the starving people all around. The institute was unheated, and there was no firewood or coal to be used.
The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, image via Wikipedia
The botanists burned furniture, papers, boxes, cardboard and debris from neighbouring buildings to stay alive as the winter set in and the temperature dropped to several degrees below freezing. They divided themselves into groups and guarded the seed storage vaults all 24 hours.
Working non-stop, the botanists also devised plans to preserve their collection. Parts of the collection was smuggled out, over the frozen, desolate landscape to another storage facility place near the Ural mountains. Woking inside the dark, damp place, the scientists had to save the seeds from hungry rats too. They poisoned rat holes and used shattered glass.
While facing starvation, the botanists refused to eat from their seed collection. Rice crops researcher Dimitri S Ivanov had died of starvation while guarding several thousand packs of rice. A peanut specialist Alexander Stchukin had starved to death while the samples under his care remained intact.
A modern-day photo of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, image via amusingplanet
As the siege continued over the months, the botanists faced another challenge. Some of the food crops needed to be replanted and harvested for their long term preservation. The rural areas outside the city were swarming with Nazi forces, so the botanists managed to find a small place in the outskirts of the city itself. They had no tractors, no fuel or no horses, so they tilled the plot by hand, planted the seeds and managed to harvest fresh samples.
The botanists of the institute worked relentlessly while facing death from all sides, starving themselves while guarding a priceless collection of food crops.
Nine of the Institute’s scientists had perished due to starvation, as per the article in Washinton Post. Apart from Ivanov and Stchukin mentioned above, the others were Liliya M Rodina, M Steheglov, Georgi K Kriyer, G Kovalesky, N Leontjevsky, A Malygina and A Kozrun.
The botanists had starved themselves to death while being surrounded by food crops, to preserve the collection for scientific research.
How the siege ended
The siege of Leningrad had started on September 8, 1942, when the Nazi army had taken over the last road to the city. The Finnish army had joined them. Though the Red Army of Russia had managed to open a small land path in January 1943, they did not manage to lift the siege till 1944.
Nazi soldiers outside a burning Leningrad, image via Wikipedia
Leningrad was the centre of the Russian Revolution, it had numerous arms factories and was the main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Its siege was crucial for Hitler. Hitler had wanted to raze the city to the ground. The city had a population of over 3 lakhs prior to the siege. As Hitler’s forces looted, killed and bombed, the citizens perished in large numbers. Over 1.5 lakh people had died in the 872 days. In the annals of war history, the siege of Leningrad is mentioned as the worst, one of the most lethal and destructive. Some historians even peg the number of direct and indirect deaths to a million people.
After over 2 years of multiple battles and relentless efforts by the Red Army, the siege was finally lifted on January 27, 1944.
Who was Vavilov?
Nikolai Vavilov, who had headed the Institute of Plant Industry, was a prominent Russian scientist who worked to form the world’s largest seed bank. He was a plant genetic researcher. He was asked by Lenin to deal with the 1921 famine and find ways to preserve and develop new food crops. He had travelled to the USA in 1921 to study advanced agriculture methods and had returned with 61 boxes of seeds. Over the next several years, Vavilov had travelled around the world to collect seeds, study plant genetics and had continued crop research, leading to pioneering works in the field. His contributions to the field of plant breeding are considered priceless.
Nikolai Vavilov, image via Beginenglish. ru
A brilliant scientist who wanted scientific research to work for the betterment of people around the world, Vavilov fell out of favour of the communist leaders of Russia. Some communist leaders had accused Vavilov of trying to sabotage ‘Soviet science’ and colluding with enemy countries. Joseph Stalin had ordered his arrest in 1940. In a sad tryst of fate, while the world’s largest seed bank that Vavilov had built in the city of Leningrad lay under siege, the scientist himself was languishing in the Gulag, sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Suffering from lung infections, neglect and starvation in the harsh Russian prison in Saratov, Vavilov died in January 1943. Long after his death, the subsequent governments in Russia ‘pardoned’ his sentence and tried to restore his name and contribution to science. The seed bank in Leningrad is still one of the world’s premier institutes of plant diversity research. Russia had named a crater in the moon after the scientist in later years. Numerous novels and books have mentioned his life and works.
On the 26th of January, former Vice President Hamid Ansari made contentious remarks on a virtual program hosted by several American organizations. He said that intolerance in the country is on the rise.
He made the comments in an online event titled ‘Protecting India’s Pluralist Constitution’, which was organised by The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). The online event which was touted as a ‘Special Congressional Briefing’ also included Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts, Rep. Jim McGovern, Rep. Andy Levin, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Former President of Mauritius and Nadine Maenza who chairs the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) among several others. Swara Bhasker was also one of the speakers.
The organiser of the event, The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), is alleged to be linked to the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and behind a plot to foment riots in India. From the platform of this institution, Ansari took a shot at the Modi government. In India, he claims, efforts are underway to replace civic nationalism with cultural nationalism. According to Ansari, religious intolerance is encouraged in India by portraying the religious majority as a political monopoly.
“In recent years, we have experienced the emergence of trends and practices that dispute the well-established principle of civic nationalism and interpose a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism,” said Ansari.
“It seeks to present an electoral majority in the guise of a religious majority and monopolized political power. It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness, and promote disquiet and insecurity,” he added. “Some of its recent manifestations are chilling and reflect poorly on our claim to be governed by rule of law. It’s a question that has to be answered. These trends need to be contested and contested legally and contested politically,” Ansari further said.
Along with Hamid Ansari, four US lawmakers and the Archbishop of Bangalore also expressed views on India’s current human rights situation.
Senator Ed Markey alleged that as the Indian government continues to target the practices of minority faiths, it creates an atmosphere where discrimination and violence can take root. “In recent years, we have seen an uptick in online hate speeches and acts of hate, including vandalised mosques, torched churches, and communal violence,” he said.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the union minister for Minority Affairs, responded to Ansari’s comments by saying that the frenzy for Modi hate is evolving into a plot for India hatred. Such voices can be expected if one goes into India bashing while criticizing Modi, according to Naqvi.
‘The rush to bash Modi is turning into India bashing; they don’t miss an opportunity to malign the image of India; that’s why they are getting isolated’: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Hamid Ansari’s controversial remarks
The event organised by The Indian-American Muslim Council was co-hosted by 17 American groups in Washington, including Amnesty International US, Genocide Watch, Hindus for Human Rights, New York State Council of Churches and others.
In its brief to the Supreme Court, the Tripura government has blamed IAMC for the state’s communal riots. Not only that but this group is suspected of having ties to the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Aside from that, it has ties to a number of other terrorist organizations. The IAMC, on the other hand, has refuted these charges though.
IAMC has often taken stands against the governing Indian government in order to battle ‘civil rights and liberty concerns in India’ and to reassert the ‘rights of religious minorities.’ However, contrary to its assertion, the organization was seen lobbying against India in 2013 as well — a year before the current BJP government came to office in 2014.
On January 25, Elle India distanced itself from Rana Ayyub’s brother Arif Ayyub after his tweets attacking the Saudi government went viral on social media. In its statement, Elle said, “Ogaan Media would like to inform that Mr Arif Ayyub is not an employee of Elle India. He had resigned from his services as the Publisher w.e.f. August 2019 itself and has not been associated with the company in any possible manner.”
Further, Elle India said the tweets published by Ayyub were in his personal capacity expressing his individual opinion and perception, and those tweets had no link to Elle.
Arif Ayyub’s anti-Saudi tweets went viral
On Tuesday, it was reported that Ayyub, former Elle India Publisher and brother of controversial journalist Rana Ayyub, had gone on an unhinged rant against the Saudi and UAE royal families. He had spewed a lot of hate after the Saudi-led coalition retaliated against the Islamist Houthi movement in Yemen for carrying out a deadly drone attack in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a tweet, he alleged that dissenters in Saudi Arabia, Israel and India were being put behind bars. “Dissidents in SAUDI ARABIA are languishing in jails, political activists like Sharjeel, Umar, Khalid and countless others are languishing in INDIAN jails, thousands of Palestinians are languishing in ISRAELI jails. The USA is the biggest ally of them all. It supports tyrants,” Arif Ayyub wrote. Ayyub has a history of posting anti-Saudi tweets.
After his tweets went viral, many netizens, including prominent people from the UAE asked if Elle India stood by the tweets of Ayyub. Many netizens at that time had pointed that Ayyub was employed by Elle India. However, it now seems that he had resigned from the organisation two years back.
Ayyub’s Facebook profile says he is publisher of Elle India
Though Elle India said Ayyub resigned from the post in 2019, Ayyub’s Facebook profile still mentions him as publisher of Elle and Elle Décor.
Screenshot of Arif Ayyub’s Facebook Profile. Source: Facebook.
His LinkedIn profile, however, mentions he left the Elle in 2019.
Screenshot of Arif Ayyub’s LinkedIn profile. Source: LinkedIn
Arif Ayyub’s sister Rana Ayyub also went on a rant against Saudis and blamed PM Modi for the hate he was receiving for indirectly supporting Houthi Movement.
On Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) handed over 19-year-old boy Miram Taron to the Indian Army, who had gone missing after crossing the LAC at Arunachal Pradesh. Confirming the return of the young boy, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the procedures and Miram’s medical examination were being taken care of.
The Chinese PLA has handed over the young boy from Arunachal Pradesh Shri Miram Taron to Indian Army. Due procedures are being followed including the medical examination. https://t.co/xErrEnix2h
Kiren Rijiju informed that Miram Taron was handed over to the Indian Army by PLA soldiers at the WACHA-DAMAI interaction point in Arunachal Pradesh today.
This is exactly a day after the Indian Army had exchanged hotline discussions with the Chinese PLA on the matter on Republic Day. The PLA had responded positively and indicated that they would repatriate Toran to India at the suggested place of release after completing necessary formalities.
The Chinese PLA handed over the young boy from Arunachal Pradesh Shri Miram Taron to Indian Army at WACHA-DAMAI interaction point in Arunachal Pradesh today. I thank our proud Indian Army for pursuing the case meticulously with PLA and safely securing our young boy back home ?? pic.twitter.com/FyiaM4wfQk
On January 18, Miram Taron of Siang had gone missing from the state of Arunachal Pradesh after he was allegedly kidnapped by the Chinese military. Taron’s friend Johny Yaiying, who managed to escape, had informed the authorities about the kidnapping by the PLA, state MP Tapir Gao had said.
Hotline exchanged on Republic Day by Indian Army with Chinese PLA. PLA responded positively indicating handing over of our national and suggested a place of release. They are likely to intimate date and time soon. Delay attributed to bad weather conditions on their side. https://t.co/CX7pu2jIRV
While there were reports of alleged abduction by China, the Chinese PLA denied the allegations and later confirmed that a missing boy was found on their side of the border.
After the course of action initiated by the Indian Army, the Chinese side on January 20 sought details of Miram Taron to confirm the identity and later agreed to evacuate him back to India. The Indian and Chinese armies yesterday had finalized the time and place for Taron’s repatriation.
It is worth noting that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had corneredthe government over Taron’s disappearance. Tweeting in Hindi he had said, “Just days ahead of Republic day the Chinese have abducted an Indian citizen, we are with the family of Miram Taron, and we will not lose hope and will not accept defeat. But Prime Minister’s silence is his statement that it does not bother him”.
The allegation of forced conversion in the case of a girl who died of suicide in Tamil Nadu has shaken the nation. But at the same time, the media is trying to whitewash the case by finding non-existing loopholes in the dying declaration of the victim. Recently, The News Minute has published a report in which they said there are four videos of Lavanya, and only one of them mentions conversion. The report tried to whitewash the entire case of forcing the girl to convert to Christianity just because she talked about conversion in only one video.
TNM claimed Lavanya took her life as hostel warden gave her extra work
In the report, TNM alleged that Lavanya ended her life because the hostel warden gave her extra work that resulted in her falling behind in her studies. Lavanya, who lived in a boarding house of Sacred Hearts Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti in Thanjavur, died of suicide at the hospital. Before dying, she had recorded a statement where she alleged the school administration forced her to convert, and had forced her to do chores for refusing to convert.
Only of the videos recorded by VHP’s secretary talked about conversion
TNM specifically mentioned in the report that the videos were recorded by Muthuvel, who is Ariyalur district secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It further pointed out that there were four videos on Muthuvel’s phone that he recorded on January 17. Out of these videos, TNM said the Police believed one of the videos was deleted but later recovered.
TNM’s report read, “However, the investigating agencies have managed to retrieve the video from his phone as he had received it as a forward from another person. The Police are investigating if Muthuvel forwarded the video to someone else before deleting it, and it eventually came back to his phone as a forward.”
It further asserted that as only one of the videos mentioned conversion, there was a possibility she was tutored to talk about the conversion angle. It said, “Since, in the newly leaked video, she even denies that she was forced not to wear a bindi. The Police are investigating this angle too.” It is noteworthy just because the conversion angle was talked about only in one video and not the others, it does not mean that she was not forced to convert.
The media has downplayed incidents earlier in a similar way
This is not the first time media tried to downplay the incident by using videos of the deceased. In June 2021, a man identified as Mukesh was burnt alive at the Tikri border, one of the sites of farmers protest. Initially, it was reported that he had set himself ablaze in protest of the three now-repealed agriculture laws.
However, later, more videos of the incident came out in which Mukesh gave a statement before succumbing to injuries. In his statement, Mukesh said that the farmers at the Tikri border, specifically a man in a white kurta, had set him on fire. When the police official asked him specifically if he set himself on fire or it was the farmers who set himself on fire, to this, he clearly said that it was the farmer and he did not set fire to himself. However, the media used the vague videos posted by the Kisan unions stating it was Mukesh who had burnt himself.
In yet another attack on the minority, the Pakistan Islamist radical on Sunday razed to ground the construction of Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Tharparker district of Sindh province. According to the reports, the temple construction has been attacked 10 times before in past 22 months as Islamists in Pakistan are upset over a new Hindu temple.
The Pakistan Hindu Mandir managment condemned the attack and said that the Islamist radicals were not even afraid of the Pakistan Supreme Court and the Pakistani Government. The local residents also protested against the episode and portrayed their fear of losing Hindu culture.
We should not have let this area go in 1947. It geographically and demographically made sense to incorporate this border area, and you could take out districts from Sindh; it need not be entire provinces. May Hinglaj Mata forgive us. And may she destroy Adharma with her Shakti ?? https://t.co/EDmRRjC0Jf
It is important to note that in 2021, the Pakistan Supreme Court had slammed the authorities for failing to stop the demolition of a Hindu temple in a remote town of Pakistan. “A Hindu temple was demolished, and just think what they must have felt. Imagine what would have been the reaction of Muslims, had a mosque been demolished,” the Chief Justice had said when hundreds of people with sticks had attacked a Hindu temple in Bhung of Rahimyar Khan district and the authorities had backed it by saying ‘it was to protect the Hindu families staying around the temple’.
The International community has also repeatedly slammed Pakistan for not taking stringent measures to protect its minority communities, despite the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan vowing to protect them on numerous occasions. Khan had called the act of attacking Hindu temples as ‘unIslamic’ and had said that he would allow religious freedom to minorities and protect their places of worship. However, continuing attacks on minorities narrate a different story.
According to the reports, the minorities’ rights commission in Pakistan has revealed the dark side of the country. The paper published by the commission has held the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) responsible for the ailing condition of Hindu temples and asked them to maintain the ancient sites of the minority community.
The report submitted to the country’s Supreme Court last month presents a general picture of decay and obliteration of two of the four most revered evacuee sites in Pakistan. According to it out of 365 temples, the statutory body was managing only 13, left 65 with the Hindu community and abandoned the rest of temples.
Hinglaj Mata is worshiped by Hindus and is the Kuldevi of Kshatriyas. The main old temple of the goddess is located in Pakistan where its survival is a challenge since for years now. In 2012, the Islamists had abducted the chairman of the temple committee two days before the annual Hinglaj Yatra. He was kept in captivity for 73 days and later released. The Pakistan Hindu Council had then strongly criticised that his kidnapping was to warn the Hindus residing in Pakistan.
Also, in year 2020, during Navratri, the unidentified miscreants had damaged the head of the idol of Hinglaj Mata, besides smashing the face of Her Vaahan.
