A 2-year-old girl was kidnapped by a 35-year-old who raped her and left her bleeding in a school’s toilet. The heart-wrenching incident is from Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district where the accused lifted a two-year-old girl sleeping outside her home.
When the villagers went in search of the girl, they nabbed the accused who was strolling out the school to check the situation. He then revealed that he had hidden the girl in the school’s toilet. The accused was immediately handed over to the police. However, since he made an attempt to flee from custody, he was shot at by the police and sustained injuries.
Bahraich Police in an update on Twitter informed that Mangre had kidnapped the girl at around 1 am on June 22. The girl while being treated at Bharaich Medical College succumbed to her injuries.
“The accused has been arrested under POCSO Act and NSA. However, while being taken to the court for remand after a medical check-up, the accused tried to flee and ran towards a forest. When the accused did not stop after air-firing, he had to be shot at to be taken back into custody,” the police note added.
Update by Bharaich Police on Nanpara crime. Image Source: Twitter
The villagers initially thought the girl must have been picked up by a wild animal and went in search of her. When found in a school’s toilet 100 metres away from home, the minor was rushed to the Nanpara community health centre. Owing to her critical condition, she was then referred to the district hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.
SP Sujata Singh arrived at the spot to inspect the situation and talk to the victim’s family and the villagers. Owing to the tense situation, a police force from five stations has been deployed in the village. Singh also informed that considering the gravity of the crime, the police will invoke NSA against the accused.
On June 22, Vishwa Hindu Parishad issued a press release demanding the enactment of central law to stop illegal conversions. The demand was raised by VHP on the pretext of the recent case of conversion racket busted by Noida Police.
Press statement of Dr. Surendra Jain, Joint Gen. Sec.-VHP: VHP demands enactment of central law to stop illegal conversions pic.twitter.com/iZ53qvh85j
— Vishva Hindu Parishad -VHP (@VHPDigital) June 22, 2021
Dr Surendra Jain, Joint General Secretary VHP, said in the statement that with the recent arrest, it has become clear how deep, widespread, disgusting, sickening and nationwide the trap-web of conversion is. Calling such conversion mafia ‘conversion-jeevi,’ he said, “Till now, these conversion-Jeevi elements used to target and victimize the general unsuspecting and innocent people. Now they are committing the inhuman cold-blooded crime of targeting even the deaf and dumb children! Many children are missing. They are suspected of having been engaged as canon fodders to be expended in terrorist activities.”
He further added that such a conversion mafia gets funding from abroad and a section of Muslim society also supports them. He said, “This conspiracy of theirs is not of today. With the entry of Islam in Bharat, the vicious cycle of conversion by force, fraud and allurement had begun. The trap-web of this conspiracy is nationwide, and many more wicked, atrocious and monstrous varieties and types have come to the fore. That is why a court of law had said that “love jihad” is the most heinous form of conversion.”
In a video statement, Jain said that it is because of conversion that Jihadi terrorism exists. It is because of such conversions that there are no Hindus in the Kashmir region. “It is time to free India from the evils of conversion.”
Jain said that during the Corona pandemic, while the entire country was mobilizing to help the Covid-19 victims, the agenda-led ‘jihadis’ were busy finding ways to attract more funding. Recently, OpIndia reported how Islamic organizations were collecting funds on the pretext of supporting India during Covid.
Praising the anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, he said that the gang could be grabbed because of the said law. However, in the states where such law does not exist, the conversion mafia “get an open terrain to creep around and convert.” Attacking the toolkit gang, he said, “The tool kit gang is always ready to help them.”
VHP urged the government to form a commission of inquiry on the lines of the Niyogi Commission mandated with jurisdiction to cover the entire country. “The Niyogi Commission and the Venu Gopal Commission had recommended the enactment of a central anti-conversion law,” VHP added.
The case of mass conversion
On June 21, UP ATS arrested two men identified as Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jehangir involved in illegal religious conversions. According to police, women and physically challenged children were their targets. The duo was arrested from the Jamia Nagar area in Delhi. Reports suggest that Umar Gautam, a convert himself, has so far aided in the conversion of 1,500 children at school for the deaf and mute in Noida. They would convert anywhere between 300-500 people every year with the help of the Islamic Dawah Centre, an organization located in Delhi with the main function is to convert people to Islam. CM Yogi Adityanath has ordered to invoke NSA against the accused.
A man with the Peter Pan Syndrome was granted bail by a Mumbai Court on Monday in a case of kidnapping and sexual assault of a 14 year old girl. Advocate Sunil Pandey, representing the accused, said that he was suffering from the syndrome and that the relationship between the two was ‘consensual’.
“The victim’s family knew about their relationship. But, her family didn’t like their relationship due to the boy’s illness and poor background and also had a grudge against his family members,” the advocate told the court.
The court also observed that the victim’s statement “prima facie shows she herself left her parents’ house and joined the company (of) the accused”. The Mumbai Court also concluded that the girl had sufficient knowledge and capacity to know what she was doing, despite being a minor.
What is Peter Pan Syndrome?
“Peter Pan Syndrome in layman’s language can be called an overgrown child. But it is far more complicated as people suffering from Peter Pan Syndrome can be insensitive towards others’ needs, doesn’t want to work or make concrete long-term plans and want to live for the moment,” Gurgaon-based clinical psychologist Maanwi Sharma told India Today.
She said, “This syndrome can be confused with narcissistic or antisocial behaviour as they can’t express empathy and are impulsive in behaviour, can be addicted to alcohol. They can be aggressive and can act in an inappropriate way. But they can be dealt well in a playful way to conduct their daily routine.”
The syndrome takes its name from Peter Pan, a fictional character depicted as a mischievous young boy who goes on adventures.
Is the syndrome a real disorder?
The Peter Pan syndrome is widely recognised as a pop-psychology term and is not recognised as a disorder by the World Health Organisation. In the current case, there in no material record to suggest that the accused was suffering from a mental illness.
Some psychologists have furthered the usage of the term but it is still considered a pop-psychology subject. Signs of the syndrome include neglecting responsibilities, both in professional life and personal matters, emotionally vulnerability and an inability to hold on to jobs among others.
Such people often tend to have emotional outbursts, lack of interest in personal; growth, a pattern of unreliability and often narcissism and substance abuse.
Atul Agarwal, the editor-in-chief of the Hindi Khabar news channel has been allegedly looted and assaulted in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida Extension on the intervening night of May 19 and 20 (Saturday-Sunday). According to reports, the owner of the Hindi news channel, who was travelling in his SUV car, was intercepted by five masked bike-borne assailants, in Sector 49 police station area and robbed of Rs 5000-6000 cash at gunpoint.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Harish Chander said that Atul Agarwal was going from Noida to his house in Greater Noida late on Saturday night. He suddenly realised that there was some problem with the music system of his car. He stopped his car some 300 metres ahead of the Rise police chowki and started fixing the music system when five miscreants on two motorcycle surrounded him. They beat him up and looted cash and other items at gunpoint.
“It has come to our notice that a senior journalist was attacked by a group of men on Saturday. We have taken cognisance of the issue even though the victim has not informed the police of the incident. Teams have been formed and we will soon arrest the accused,” said Harish Chandar.
According to reports, no police complaint has been filed yet, however, Noida Police has started probing the case after the news of the incident started doing rounds on social media, following the journalist’s Facebook post where he has shared his ordeal.
In a subsequent post, the journalist wrote that out of fear he did not file a complaint after the purported incident took place on the intervening night of May 19-20, but the Noida police have taken cognisance and started investigating the incident.
“Assailants left when they saw a press sticker on the windscreen of his car”, Atul Agarwal
According to the journalist, the assailants not only looted him but at one point also tried to physically assaulted him. They, however, spared his life when he told them that he had a small son to raise.
“The miscreants asked me to withdraw cash from the ATM. I too them that I do not have my ATM card and told them that I could transfer them the money through Paytm. As soon as I said this, the boy behind me started choking and abusing me”, the journalist wrote in his Facebook post.
He also added that the assailants took his phone and also made him unlock it but eventually threw his phone in the backseat after they saw a press sticker on the windscreen of his car and appeared to have recalled him.
“When they took away my phone, I mustered some courage and showed them my card and told them that I am a government-accredited journalist and if they take my phone away they would get tracked in no time. I don’t know what came to her mind, they threw my phone in the backseat and left”, informed Atul Agarwal adding that they threatened him with dire consequences if he spoke about the incident to anyone, and sped off on their bikes.
No arrests have been made in connection with the case so far, said police.
Days after AIIMS Director Dr Rajeev Guleria warned that the third wave of coronavirus is inevitable, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference in which he released a ‘white paper’ created by the Congress party on how to manage the third wave of COVID-19.
While Gandhi claimed that the aim of the press conference was not to pinpoint the government but to help the nation prepare for the third wave of infection, he ended up peddling misinformation and misleading claims to attack the Centre and cast aspersions on its COVID management. What should have been a document presenting the way forward to the government and the country, turned out to be a propaganda instrument for virtue signalling and using the pandemic to revive the party’s dying political fortunes.
The suggestions made by Rahul Gandhi in the press conference and those listed in the white paper do not jibe with the Congress’ party’s stand during the pandemic. Incidentally, the white paper is prepared by the Congress Research team, headed by Rajeev Gowda, who is accused of developing the toolkit that was released by BJP leaders last month. The latest white paper seems like an extension to the alleged Congress toolkit, which suggested its leaders and supporters exploit the COVID-19 outbreak to the hilt and cast a dent in PM Modi’s popularity.
Here’s how the claims made by Rahul Gandhi and his deputy Randeep Surjewala during the press conference and the Congress white paper on COVID management is replete with flaws:-
Rahul’s deputy Randeep Surjewala disregards 86 lakh+ vaccination in a single day by citing 70 crores pulse polio vaccines in Feb 2012
Earlier yesterday, India jabbed more than 80 lakh people with COVID-19 vaccination. While the achievement is something to be proud of, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tried to belittle the feat by comparing it with the single day vaccination of pulse polio done in 2012 during the UPA-II regime.
Taking a swipe at the Modi government, Surjewala said while 80 lakh+ vaccination is good and desirable, India’s largest single-day vaccination took place on 19 February 2012 when 17 crore people were vaccinated with pulse polio. “Unfortunately, at that time PM Manmohan Singh did not boast about the single-day vaccination like the current PM does,” Surjewala said.
It is worth noting here that Randeep Surjewala is comparing apples with oranges when he compares polio vaccination with COVID-19 vaccination. The made in India vaccines were developed in December 2020 and within six months, more than 28 crore people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of either of the two vaccines developed locally. Moreover, vaccines from abroad have also been ordered and is currently on the anvil for them to be used for India’s vaccination drive.
In contrast, it took decades for India to completely eradicate polio. The vaccination of polio was introduced in the United States in 1960 and it took another 19 years for its introduction in India. Furthermore, for years India imported Polio vaccines from abroad since its IPV was not licenced for manufacturing in India till 2006. The polio vaccination was started in 1979 and India was polio-free only in 2012. Perhaps, this was the reason why then PM Manmohan Singh did not boast about the vaccination. It took more than 32 years for India to be polio-free.
When India became Polio-free officially in 2014, only three countries in the world still had the virus, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it was the Congress party’s government at the centre for most of the years in that period.
Congress white paper says vaccination is the only tool to fight COVID while its leaders promoted vaccine hesitancy
The white paper released by the Congress party focuses on the need to vaccinate people to fight the subsequent waves of COVID-19. It included a laundry list of measures the centre should have taken to procure more vaccines and effectively distribute it among the states.
One of the measures said, “Placed orders globally for vaccines as soon as India faced the first wave”. India faced the first wave of coronavirus outbreak in mid-March 2020. At that time, the process for the development of vaccines was in a nascent state, with many pharmaceutical companies yet to start their research. However, the Congress party, in its bid to attack the Modi government, says it should have placed an order as soon as India faced the first wave.
Source: Congress whitepaper
Though the Congress party now pontificates on what the government should have done to procure the vaccines commensurate with the population of the country, it cunningly hides the treachery of its leaders, who promoted vaccine hesitancy when the Modi government launched an ambitious vaccination drive for the country.
Several senior Congress leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh, Manish Tewari and others actively raised questions on the government’s decision to approve emergency use of indigenously made vaccines. However, Congress expediently skips the vaccine hesitancy part in its white paper. The Congress party has been so brazenly promoting vaccine hesitancy and engendering fear among people about the ingredients used in the vaccine. Recently, Congress leader Gaurav Pandhi shared misinformation that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin contained calf serum.
It is also noteworthy to mention that it was Rahul Gandhi who had suggested the Centre to decentralise the vaccination policy and provide the state governments a greater say in procuring vaccines. The Centre heeded to the suggestion and allowed the states to issue tenders individually to meet their vaccine requirements. However, shortly later, they realised that the decision yielded no significant results as the pharma companies refused to deal with individual states and said that they will only talk with the federal government. But this failure of the opposition party was also swept under the rug as the aim was to criticise the government’s handling of COVID-19 outbreak.
The white paper says the Centre should have postponed election rallies even though Rahul Gandhi continued attending them
With the wisdom of hindsight, Rahul Gandhi now suggests that the government should have postponed the election rallies even as the coronavirus was priming itself for another wave of outbreak. However, it is notable to mention that the Gandhi scion was himself seen campaigning for the elections in various states and union territories before the elections. In fact, in a PR exercise, Rahul Gandhi also swam with the fishermen on the hustings in Kerala.
Source: Congress white paper
Gandhi also attended election rallies in West Bengal and called off only after it was speculated that the Wayanad MP was down with symptoms of COVID-19. This demonstrates that the suggestions made by the Congress party in the white paper released today were not followed by their supreme leader. He was busy campaigning for Congress before the elections.
Amusingly, a journalist recently ended up revealing that it was not due to concerns over COVID that Rahul Gandhi may have cancelled public rallies but it could be because he himself had tested positive for the virus.
As Rahul Gandhi claimed in his press conference that he has been cautioning the government about the subsequent waves of the coronavirus, he could have skipped the election campaigns and send out a powerful message to the country that Congress would not participate in ground campaigning in the view of the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyway, Rahul Gandhi’s campaigning has hardly been effective for the Congress party and they could have called off their election campaign to assume the moral high ground.
However, the Congress party, which now claims that the government should have postponed the election campaigns, gleefully participated in the campaigns leading up to the assembly poll elections. With the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak wreaking havoc, it conveniently pushes the blame on the Centre for going ahead with the election campaigns.
The white paper drew a sharp correlation in the spike in the number of cases in the states where the election campaigns were conducted. However, it did not explain why the states such as Maharashtra, Kerala and other states where there were no elections saw a dangerous surge in the COVID-19 cases. As Congress has been one of the coalition partners in the Maharashtra government, there was no mention of the high mortality rate and an increasing number of hospital mishaps reported across the state amidst the second wave of coronavirus outbreak.
Congress’ flip flop on India’s vaccine maitri initiative
In a bid to strengthen India’s diplomatic missions across the globe, the Indian government launched ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative, where in it sent a token amount of vaccines to countries across the world to help them in taming the coronavirus outbreak in their respective countries.
The COVID-19 outbreak has been a pandemic and there has hardly been any land untouched by the scourge of the contagion. In order to eradicate it from the face of the earth, it is important that the entire world is vaccinated against coronavirus. India being the “pharmacy of the world”, several countries looked towards New Delhi for fulfilling their vaccine requirements. India heeded their expectations and provided a host of countries with a nominal number of vaccine doses, with the promise of providing more doses after the manufacturing scales up. India is also a part of COVAX programme, which obligates it to provide a certain number of vaccines to the global vaccine forum.
However, when India was struck with the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, it promptly stopped all vaccine exports and concentrated on vaccinating its own people. Congress’s message in this regard has been profoundly confusing and inconsistent. In its white paper, Congress has slammed the government for taking credit for exporting vaccines to countries across the world.
Congress leaders have also added to the confusion on the party’s stand on Vaccine Maitri. At the time when India was overwhelmed with the second wave of COVID-19, Shashi Tharoor posted a tweet accusing the Modi government of sending vaccines abroad which were meant for Indians. A few weeks later, when the second wave subsided, Tharoor accused the government of letting down the countries that were looking forward to the vaccines supplied by India.
It is worth mentioning here that when India was hit with the brutal second wave, the countries across the globe had come forward to help India get over the wave. Help poured in from countries like Israel, Singapore, France and many others who stood by India and sent us relief material like oxygen cylinders, ventilators and other critical equipments amongst many other things.
After a long time, the BJP had an absolutely perfect day yesterday. Over 86 lakh vaccinations in one day left supporters celebrating and opponents fuming. The all important political constituency, those in the middle, seemed almost wholly to go with Modi. That is why folks like Ravish Kumar seemed so frustrated yesterday.
Let us dissect exactly what made the day so perfect. The first part was how it started. There was no big announcement, no bombast, no PR build up towards this day. The only thing people knew is that starting June 21 the Central government is taking charge of the vaccination program. They did not know what to expect. They did not what or how much of a difference this would make.
It is true that state governments had prepared targets for this day. Madhya Pradesh had set a target of 10 lakh, Uttar Pradesh had set a target of 6 lakh per day starting June 21. Gujarat was opening 400 vaccination centers all across Amdavad so that 1 lakh doses could be given in the city each day. This information was in the public domain, but only technically. It was mostly hidden in corners of various web portals. You would have to be a true news junkie to have known about these targets in advance. Because no major newspaper or news channel had a consolidated list. Most didn’t even mention it.
The ‘stealth’ feature of this operation was outstanding. Karnataka pulled a rabbit out of a hat with over 10 lakh vaccinations. The target must have been set internally at some level. If it was reported somewhere in advance, let me know.
This means opponents had no time to prepare their attacks. They were not mentally prepared to go on the offensive. They had woken up on Monday morning ready to begin their usual bellyaching about this or that. Rahul Gandhi began the day with an inane tweet about “It’s Yoga day, not hide behind Yoga day.” What was he even talking about? I have no idea.
But as the day progressed, the opponents realized that something big was happening. First they thought it would be 40 lakh vaccinations. By afternoon, the Cowin dashboard had gone way past that. People began speculating about whether it would go past 50 lakh. By 5 pm, we had exceeded that and the data was still pouring in. By evening… it was 60 lakh… by late evening 70 and the 75 lakh. By late night, it had crossed 80 lakh.
All day, the government kept people guessing and speculating. As if the government itself had no idea what would happen. On their part, the opponents did not know whether to ridicule or to applaud. They did not want to be seen as going against people when they are happy. They did not want to walk into the trap of applauding the government and therefore neutralizing themselves. This kept opponents off balance the whole day. Nobody was watching them. Everyone was watching the scoreboard.
One interesting feature was that NDA ruled states accounted for 70 percent of the vaccine doses given. Surely, there was some planning involved. The opposition and their media surrogates got no wind of it.
This is what an innings defeat for the critics looks like. By evening, the critics emerged, hissing and spitting venom. Ravish Kumar has been a shadow of himself lately. He had invested a lot of mental capital into the ‘farmer’ protest thing. Ever since that protest became an overall farce, he has not been able to get his rhythm back. Yesterday, when he came out cribbing about how 80 lakh vaccinations per day is too less compared to the Pulse Polio program, he just looked ridiculous.
Incidentally, only a few weeks ago, when PM Modi had spoken about how the India of old would have to wait decades for vaccinations, Ravish Kumar had produced one of his self-satisfied monologues about why you can’t compare polio vaccination to Covid vaccination. Yesterday, Ravish Kumar just looked like he had worms in his brain.
Rahul Gandhi would have done well to stay quiet today and let the storm pass. That’s one of the basic rules of politics. Take cover and hold fast when your opponent is on a roll. But if he ever knew the basic rules of politics, he would not be Rahul Gandhi, would he? So he just had to go out there today and “expose” the Modi government with what he thought was a blistering address to the media. And again, he went down the rabbit hole of comparing Polio vaccination rates to Covid vaccinations.
Rahul Gandhi has done the BJP a favour, as usual. While we are all relieved about India finally being polio free, our record on polio eradication is disastrous to say the least. The US became polio free in 1979 and most of the developed world had eradicated the disease by the 1980s. By the turn of the century, most of Africa had done so as well, including Somalia by 2002. When India became polio free in 2011 (the official declaration came in 2014), we were the fourth last country in the world to do so. Behind us were only Nigeria (which became polio free in 2016) as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the disease is still ongoing.
Suffice to say that this kind of record won’t impress anyone, let alone young India. For the last one year, Congress and its surrogates have been saturating social media with questions about why India is behind USA on this parameter or behind Canada, Norway or New Zealand on that parameter. If Congress had stuck to the context free, unfair comparisons, it would have been better. Trust Rahul Gandhi to remind people of a time when India was in the bottom five in the world. And now Rahul and Sonia Gandhi have to answer for this.
Rapper Vastavik Muhfaad who runs a YouTube channel by the name ‘Be a Muhfaad!’ repetitively abused Hindu god Krishna while dissing fellow rapper Krsna. In an attempt to call the fellow rapper a liar, Muhfaad sings, “Tu matki ka saara maakhan kha gaya makhanchor, aww Nandlala ki fat gayi kya.”
Abusing and mocking Hindu gods and religions has almost become a measure of success in today’s time. Muhfaad who enjoys a following of almost 4 lakh subscribers on YouTube, in almost all of his 30 videos has made unwarranted and disparaging remarks against Hindu gods.
In the latest rap song full of expletives and sexual innuendos, Muhfaad sings, “Ban jau Indra dev faad ke aa jau andar.” His other ‘high on abuses’ song refers to Hindu gods Ram and Sita in a similar depreciative manner.
Screengrab of Muhfaad’s Kali Zuban video
Muhfaad’s blue tick Instagram account too has a huge following with 134k followers.
Who is Vastavik Muhfaad?
Muhfaad, whose original name is Gaurav– is a resident of Delhi who in 2012 left his education midway to become a rapper. Gaurav since then has been working on his alleged “music” and made his debut in 2016 with ‘Sach Too Much”.
Gaurav rose to fame in 2018 with his rap song ‘Saare karo dab” which was in collaboration with Indian rapper and lyricist Raftaar and Punjabi singer Sonu Kakkar.
Gaurav who raps in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Haryanavi says his songs are loved by the younger generation. He feels songs that sound weird and hard to understand are accepted much more by the audience.
Gaurav’s father is a school teacher while his mother is a homemaker.
Rapper MC Kode abuses Hindu text
We had reported earlier how a rapper by the name MC Kode’s videos insulting Hinduism and holy scriptures of Hinduism during a ‘rapping’ battle had gone viral on social media. Netizens had demanded action against him for his provocative raps. After receiving a huge backlash, Kode had gone missing on June 03 after putting up a cryptic message on Instagram.
While his mother filed a an official missing complaint and pleaded his son to return, Kode was found from Madhya Pradesh a few days later.
On June 7 (local time), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that he would be going to space with his brother. In an Instagram post, he wrote, “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of travelling to space. On July 20, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.” Being the richest man on Earth, it is not difficult for him to grab the opportunity to become the person who would be remembered as the first ‘tourist’ to space.
The flight will take off on July 20, marking the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing. The winner of an auction who would be paying $28 million to be on the trip to space with Bezos will also accompany him on the flight beyond Earth. The amount will be donated to the “Club for the Future”, an organization that aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM.
The organization is part of Bezos’s Blue Origin, the company responsible for the first tourist flight to space. Blue Origin is currently working on partially and fully reusable launch vehicles for spacecraft that would cost-effective and safe. Apart from Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also developing such launch vehicles.
‘Jeff Bezos should stay in space’ – Petitions with over 75,000 signatures
Soon after Bezos announced his space trip, several petitions have surfaced on Change.org demanding Jeff Bezos must not be allowed back to Earth after his trip to space. In one of the petitions titled “Do not allow Jeff Bezos to return to Earth”, the description reads, “Billionaire’s should not exist…on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter, they should stay there.”
Petition on Change.org
In another petition, the description reads, “Jeff Bezos is actually Lex Luthor, disguised as the supposed owner of a super successful online retail store. However, he’s actually an evil overlord hellbent on global domination. We’ve known this for years. Jeff has worked with the Epsteins and the Knights Templar, as well as the Free Masons, to gain control over the whole world. He’s also in bed with the flat earth deniers; it’s the only way they’ll allow him to leave the atmosphere. Meanwhile, our government stands by and lets it happen. This may be our last chance before they enable the 5G microchips and perform a mass takeover.”
Petition on Change.org
This particular petition is even more hilarious as it compared Bezos to a fictional villain, mix myths and invoked conspiracy theories against 5G technology at the same time. And there is flat earth theory too! One can only hope the organizer of the petition and over 21,000 people who signed it are just joking. But, on the other hand, if someone has followed these conspiracy theorists even for a short span, the text of the petition falls in sync with what these flat-earth theorists and conspiracy theorists believe in.
The hate against Jeff includes ‘eating’ him
Bezos did not have a difficult life, and there are reports that criticize his business practices. However, how far would it be correct to call for eating him? In 2020, he became the victim of the hate-filled campaign “Eat The Rich”. There is a petition on Change.org titled “Eat Jeff Bezos” that reads, “Jeff Bezos does not need a trillion dollars. Eat the rich and redistribute the wealth.”
In reality, the phrase represents standing up to those who are rich and powerful. It represents holding them accountable on behalf of the less fortunate. However, when it made a comeback in recent years, it seems to have taken the literal context rather than the metaphoric one as the ‘angry’ Gen Z is often ready to attack those who have money.
‘Eat The Rich’ – the infamous quote from 18th century
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century socialist and philosopher, had said in the context of the French Revolution and its aftermath, “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” The ‘sentiment’ made a comeback in 2019-2020 and became popular among the millennials who are often against the rich and lean towards the left-politics. Associated with socialism, it is used in reference to opposing wealth inequality. The phrase can be seen and heard in political rallies, online videos and protests.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has opposed the bail plea of Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah, currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody in a Delhi court.
While opposing the bail application in the terror funding case, the law enforcement agency informed the court that the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, Shabir Shah conspired with Pakistan to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.
ED: Shabir Shah was involved in generation of huge proceeds of crime from various countries including Pakistan to create unrest in #Kashmir; was in touch with JuD’s Hafiz Saeed. pic.twitter.com/iBEUm2gjZN
The ED in its reply filed in response to the bail petition, stated: “Shabir Shah was also involved in terror financing activities as terrorists need money to sustain themselves and to carry out terrorist acts.”
“Money-laundering is the method by which criminals disguise the illegal origins of their wealth and protect their asset bases, so as to avoid the suspicion of law enforcement agencies and prevent leaving a trail of incriminating evidence,” the law enforcement agency said, adding that “he was involved in the generation of huge proceeds of crime from various countries including Pakistan to create unrest in Kashmir.”
While opposing the bail plea of Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah, the ED also informed the court that the Kashmiri separatist leader was in regular touch with the 26/11 mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed.
The first case against Shabir Shah was registered in 2007 for his alleged role in a money laundering case in 2005 for the purpose of terror financing. He was arrested by the ED on July 25, 2017, in connection with the 2005 case.
In another case, the NIA took Shah in custody in June 2019 in connection with its probe into a separate terror funding case involving the UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
Besides Shabir Shah, the NIA had taken Masarat Alam Bhat, the alleged kingpin of stone-pelting into custody along with Asiya Andrabi who heads the women’s secessionist group Dukhtaren-e-Millat. All the three had been taken in for questioning for their roles in terror funding.
A dissertation paper submitted by a student of TISS, Hyderabad as part of her academic propgramme stirred a significant controversy for blaming domestic violence in Kashmiri society on the Indian Army. The paper, authored by one Ananya Kundu, repeatedly called the region “India occupied Kashmir”.
The paper sparked calls for the Indian Government to stop funding the institute. But as it turns out, it is not the only controversial paper submitted at TISS. Scholar Abhinav Prakash has shared snippets from another study where the author makes extremely controversial comments.
The ‘pro-Azaadi’ paper was authored by one Sreyasi Mukherjee and submitted at the Guwahati campus of TISS. In the paper titled ‘Poetry of Resistance’, the author admits to developing a romantic relationship with one of her subjects apart from eulogising Islam.
Image Source: Abhinav Prakash
The author writes, “It is almost blasphemous to be romantically involved with people on your field, possible subjects. To become friends even. But I was, and I learnt more from observing my partner, who also at times became my subject, than I did from observing Kashmir from a clinical point of view.”
She also writes in the paper, “Some reading would leave me disturbed for days, and in these moments, I took refuge in sermons and short lectures on Islam that said a few things that have stayed with me. The knowledge that Allah would never put me in a situation that I will not be able to come out of, the knowledge that his judgment will always be fair and verily, with hardships come ease, and that to bare my sorrows to Allah to give in to him will actually, always soothe my troubled heart, that gave me a sense of purpose that not too many other things could.”
Image source: Abhinav Prakash
She adds, “And if I as someone who has repeatedly shunned religion as excessive could take to it at the mere attempt of writing a thesis situated in a protracted conflict, why would not people who have lived there their entire lives not take their strength from Islam?”
Her pro-Azaadi thesis is “one that is a critique of existing power structures as reminiscent of the Westphalian nation states, to fight for what could be, a new world order.” The paper was published in 2017.
There are other such controversial papers published as well. TISS Tuljapur published a paper titled, “State’s Coercive Apparatus: A Study of Military Occupation in Kashmir”.
Source: @BBTheorist/Twitter
Another paper was titled, “Violence As A Form of Resistance A Study of Post 1989 Self Determination in India-Controlled-Kashmir”.
Source: @BBTheorist/Twitter
Another paper, this time from TISS Tuljapur, openly speaks in support of war against the Indian State and ‘Free Kashmir’.
image Source: Abhinav Prakash
The ‘rationale’ section of the research paper states that the conflict in the valley is a “result of the forceful occupation that Indian did on the 27th of October, 1947 when the then Maharaja Ranbir Singh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of India (GOI) with Lord Mountbatten acting as a mediator between the princely state and India to provide armed resistance against the invading Pakistani army and the tribal.”
The author procceds to add that Kashmir has seen “subjugations”, “suppressions”, “tortures”, “disappearances” and “mass graves” of the “worst kind”.
Image Source: Abhinav Prakash
Ananya Kundu in her research paper had written, “Sexual violence was used as a strategic tool against both men and women to break the resistance among individuals and communities and also as a punishment for going against the Indian state (Batool, 2018). With laws in place to provide impunity to security forces for such violations and the larger lack of effectiveness of judicial institutions, such crimes remained hidden under the heavy blanket of silence and justice was never served.”
Since Abhinav Prakash first shared Kundu’s research paper, TISS has issued a statement wherein they said that the institute does not endorse the title and that “Necessary action has been initiated for fact finding”.
However, it begs the question how were such papers published if there was no institutional support for the torrent of such studies. Kanchan Gupta, recently appointed senior adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said that he wondered if “Tata Institute of Social Sciences, set up in 1936 as ‘Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work’, has mutated into ‘Tata Institute of Subversive Separatism’.”
Given recent developments, it remains to be seen whether anyone is held accountable for the support of separatism observed in the papers published by its campuses.
