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Sister Lucy was dismissed from Church by the Vatican for writing poems, driving a car: Read the startling claims made

OpIndia Staff
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Sister Lucy was dismissed from Church by the Vatican for writing poems, driving a car: Read the startling claims made

Days after the dismissal of Sister Lucy Kalapura from the Franciscan Christ Congregation (FCC), an exclusive report by The Times of India revealed that she was removed by the Vatican over frivolous charges. Sister Lucy had supported the nun, who accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal in a rape case. And this drew the ire of the Apostolica Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church.

The former nun had joined the FCC at the tender age of 17. According to the Church, she has committed a long list of ‘crimes.’ It includes buying a car and publishing poems without permission. Despite being served a summons for supposedly breaking her ‘vows’, Sister Lucy remained undeterred. In an act of defiance, she shed her nun’s habit for a salwar kurta. Pointing out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, she said priests were allowed to wear normal attire, unlike the nuns.

The Vatican was also miffed after the former nun wrote a memoir, hinting at sexual abuse with the Church clergy. Sister Lucy had sought permission to buy a car but it was turned down. She however went ahead to purchase a white Alto and learnt driving from a woman, who ran a driving school. “Sisters travel day and night in hired cars with male drivers. Wouldn’t it be safer for nuns to drive?” Sister Lucy had argued.

Screengrab of the report by The Times of India

She pointed out that owning a car was useful during the Coronavirus pandemic in providing emergency services and assisting the police in managing the lockdown. However, the rationale behind owning a car could not convince Franciscan Christ Congregation (FCC). As such, the Church dismissed her from the Congregation and the appeal was too turned down by the Vatican last week.

But, a determined Sister Lucy is unwilling to give in to the Church’s coercion tactics. She remarked, “Other than my room, they have denied me access to all the other areas in the convent. They don’t talk to me. Still, I will continue my fight and I won’t be leaving this convent.” The former nun lamented that she faces ‘extreme isolation’ from her fellow nuns. Sister Lucy, however, received the support of the joint-convenor of the ‘Save our Sisters’ forum Rijju Kanjookkaran.

Sister Lucy receives support of activists and Church reformers

The activist emphasised, “The ‘Vow of Obedience’ doesn’t mean that one should obey anything and everything. There is a difference between obedience and slavery Action against her was sped up only after she attended the nuns’ pro-test. The irony is that Franco Mulakkal, who was arrested for rape, and Sr Sephy and Fr Thomas Kottoor, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Abhaya murder case by a CBI court, are all still Bishop, nun, and priest respectively.”

Rijju Kanjookkaran pointed out that there is a huge support base for Sister Lucy among the laity and the public. Church ‘reformer’ Indulekha Joseph said that not many nuns have the courage to fight the system from within, unlike Sister Lucy. While speaking about the upcoming challenges for the former nun, Joseph added, “If a nun decides to come out of convent life or if she is expelled, she is not eligible for any benefits through her service lasted for years. Also, there is a lot of stigmas associated with nuns leaving monastic lives.”

Sister Lucy has to leave the convent: Church activist

Following the dismissal of Sister Lucy from the Franciscan Christ Congregation (FCC), several people have raised objections to her continued stay within the convent premises. One activist named Kennedy Kartmbinkalaytl alleged that the former nun had smeared the name of several priests and nuns in her memoir on the basis of ‘unfounded allegations.’ He claimed, “She is connecting her indiscipline with the Franco issue to politicise it. She was given several show-cause notices before the said protest and what has happened now is only a natural conclusion to this process.”

How Sister Lucy became a target of smear campaign

It’s worth noting that the Church has waged a smear campaign against Sister Lucy since she supported the protest against rape suspect Bishop Franco Mulakkal. Sister Lucy was expelled from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) in August 2019 on grounds of indiscipline and failure to provide a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle ‘in violation of rules’. A few days later, Sister Lucy filed a complaint to the Vellamunda police in Kerala against a convent in Karakkamala at Mananthavady in Wayanad district.

She had accused the convent of illegal confinement. Sister Lucy in her complaint had said she was not able to attend the holy mass in a nearby church because of the illegal confinement. She found that the gates of the convent locked from outside on Monday after which she called the police, who helped unlock the gates. The convent later forced her to withdraw two cases she had filed against it and tender an unconditional apology if she wanted to continue living there. In January 202, the 52-year-old nun accused the authorities of denying food but she said she will remain at Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s convent even if she was starved to death.

Calcutta High Court rejects Mamata Banerjee govt plea, NHRC to investigate post-poll violence in state

OpIndia Staff
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Calcutta High Court rejects Mamata Banerjee govt plea, NHRC to investigate post-poll violence in state

On June 21, Calcutta High Court rejected the Mamata Banerjee government’s plea to recall the order directing the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate post-poll violence in the state of West Bengal. On June 18, the court had directed the chairperson of NHRC to form a panel to examine the cases of alleged human rights violation during post-poll violence.

West Bengal government had applied to the court to recall the order passed by the court while hearing a bunch of PILs alleging physical assault, destruction of property, sexual assault, displacement of people from their residence, murders, and ransacking of houses and places of business during post-poll violence in the state. A five-judge bench rejected the state’s plea clearing the way for NHRC to form a committee and investigate the cases.

In its plea, the state government had urged the High Court to recall or modify the order of formation of a committee to probe the complaints and report back to the court. The court had asked NHRC to include the details of the offenders and officers who did not act on the complaints against the offenders. The state also requested the court to expunge the remarks it made against the state.

Home Secretary B P Gopalika said in the petition that the state government should get a chance to probe and report on 3,423 complaints provided to the High Court by the West Bengal Legal Services Authority of June 10. The government further mentioned in the plea that the allegations made against the Superintendents of Police that they did not act on many complaints need to be verified.

The state said, “[It] did not get any opportunity to peruse the report or to look into the complaints mentioned in the report of the WBLSA and verify the allegations made in the complaints as referred to in such report and assist this hon’ble court.”

Post poll violence in West Bengal

During post-poll violence, over two dozen BJP karyakartas were reportedly killed. In a report submitted by the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), it was mentioned that those who suffered the wrath of TMC workers after winning the elections were from marginal sections of Hindu society who had voted for BJP. They said, “The victims primarily belong to the very marginal sections of Hindu society which have voted for the BJP in the assembly elections. The report says, “The main modus operandi of the TMC is to debilitate political opponents by targeting their bodies, economic resources and their psychological wellbeing. This involves physical and sexual attacks, destruction of living spaces, property and means of production however small they are.”

Amarnath Yatra cancelled amid Chinese coronavirus pandemic, devotees can do darshan online

OpIndia Staff
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Amarnath Yatra cancelled amid Chinese coronavirus pandemic, devotees can do darshan online

Amarnath Yatra stands cancelled for second time in a row amid the raging Chinese coronavirus pandemic. As per reports, the temple will organise online darshan for the devotees from 28th June onward.

Amarnath Temple is a Hindu shrine located at altitude of 3,888 mtrs in a cave in Himalayas in Jammu & Kashmir, India. It is one of the holiest shrines in Hinduism and is one of the 51 Shaktipeeth. The pilgrimage was cancelled in 2020 as well due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Official announcement expected shortly.

Last week, agencies had increased security after social media messages threatening terror attack on Amarnath Yatra had gone viral. The Yatra, holy pilgrimage for Hindus, has often been a target of terror attacks in the past.

Pakistan: Father of four abducts and marries 13-year-old Christian employee after forcefully converting her to Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: Father of four abducts and marries 13-year-old Christian employee after forcefully converting her to Islam

Religious minorities continue to face discrimination and persecution, such as misuse of the anti-blasphemy law, kidnapping, rape, forced conversions and enforced disappearances of non-Muslims girls, in Pakistan. The forceful conversion programs have always been unleashed against the minorities Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs living in Pakistan with utmost brutality. There have been many such cases reported in the recent past.

In yet another case of religious persecution and sexual crimes against children, a 13-year-old Pakistani Christian girl Nayab Gill was abducted from Gujranwala Division located in Punjab, Pakistan, forcibly converted to Islam and married to an already married Muslim man who is a father of four girls, last month.

Now, a video clip of her shattered and helpless parents is doing the rounds on social media, where they narrate their plight and plead for justice. The clip was shared by the Twitter handle Voice for Pakistan Minority, today (June 21).

In the 2.16-minute video clip, the distressed mother and the father narrate how a man named Saddam deceived them on the pretext of offering their minor child a job and abducted her. He then brainwashed and converted her to Islam. Saddam, who already has three wives and four children, thereafter performed ‘Nikah’ with the 13-year-old Nayab Gill.

The Pakistan court, on the other hand, without hearing the victim family’s plea or looking into the victim’s birth certificate, which clearly indicated the Nayab Gill is a minor, sent the teenager with her abductor. Now, the parents are pleading that justice is provided to them.

In the video, Nayab Gill’s father Shahid Masih Gill rued that Saddam had sworn by the Quran that he would treat their daughter like his own when he tried to convince the parents to send Nayab to work with him, but he cheated them.

Shahid Masih Gill recollected how Nayab, who worked in a salon, had lost her job due to the pandemic. The family was going through a financial crisis when Saddam approached him and asked him to allow Nayab to work for him as he was short of staff. Saddam promised to treat Nayab as his 5th daughter and assured him that there was nothing to worry about. “But I didn’t know that he was planning to take my daughter away from me,” Gill lamented.

He added: “They brainwashed my daughter – she was a good Christian, but I don’t know how she was trapped by them.”

On May 20, 2021, the minor went for her work but did not return home. The family members started searching for her. They approached Saddam to inquire about their daughter’s whereabouts, but he refused to know anything about it. Disquieted by the sudden disappearance of their minor daughter, the family approached the police with a missing complaint. The police, which started investigating the case, later informed Nayab’s parents that she was in Darul Aman and she has converted to Islam and married Saddam.

The girl’s father says in the video that he could not meet his daughter and does not know whether she is alive or had been killed.

In the video, the mother laments that Saddam and his family brainwashed their daughter to such an extent that when the mother asked her to return, she refused. Insisting on living with Saddam, Nayab asked her mother to think she was dead.

According to reports, Saddam and his family started preaching about Islam to Nayab during the free time when there were no customers in Saddam’s palour. They gradually brainwashed her into believing that Christianity is an irrational faith and the only true one is Islam.

Nayab was convinced as several people were working hard to change her mind and thoughts about Islam, and slowly she started taking interest in Islamic teachings. Nayab was given some Islamic gifts like Jah-e-Namaz (a small piece of carpet on which Muslims offer their prayer) and tasbih (Islamic Rosary) and books. She was taught how to offer prayers five times a day as per the Muslim faith. 

According to Nayab’s father, she was gradually and secretly brainwashed by her employer Saddam Hussain and his family without their knowledge or consent.

Nayab’s birth certificate clearly mentions that she was born on October 16, 2007, that is she is a minor. However, the conversion certificate which was later produced by Saddam in the Pakistan court mentioned Nayab’s age as 19, which means Saddam lied about Nayab’s age in order to convert her to Islam and thereafter marry her.

Screengrab of Nayab Gill’s birth certificate (image credit: www.davidalton.net)

Gujranwala court rules in favour of abductor, allows him custody of the girl ignoring birth certificate

On May 31, 2021, police produced Nayab in the session court of Gujranwala. Judge Qaiser Jamil ruled in the favour of her abductor based on a statement from the minor, which stated that she converted and married Saddam willingly. The court reportedly did not even consider the birth certificate which clearly stated the Nayab was a minor.

It is pertinent to mention here that the conversion of any underage child to Islam or to any other religion without their parents’ consent is illegal, a phenomenon that is extremely common in Pakistan, with the police and courts, unfortunately, defending the perpetrators.

This incident gained a lot of traction on social media. Taking cognisance of the incident, the European Union (EU) threatened Pakistan of renegotiating its trade deals owing to persistent issues like human rights violation and the plight of minorities in the country.

Minor Hindu girl in Pakistan made to recite Kalma while getting raped, rapist ‘demand custody’ as she can’t return to ‘kafir parents’

Sadly, Nayab Gill’s case is one of the many cases of religious persecution and forced conversion (most going unreported) which are being carried out unabated in Pakistan. On May 5, a Pakistani Hindu rights activist Rahat Austin had shared the ordeal faced by another victim on Twitter. As per Austin, she was gang-raped constantly over four days by one Muhammad Tanveer and his aides in Goth Ghulam Muhammad in Karachi in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

In a video shared by the rights activist, the accused could be heard demanding the custody of the victim. “She recited Kalma (Islamic oath of allegiance) during rape, she’s Muslim now. She can’t live with infidels (Kuffars). She must be handed over to us,” they demanded. Unfortunately, the victim had to re-live her horror as she was confronted by her perpetrators in the presence of her family members.

International Yoga Day: How ‘a way of life’ argument is used to peddle ‘Yoga is not Hindu’ propaganda

K Bhattacharjee
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International Yoga Day: How ‘a way of life’ argument is used to peddle ‘Yoga is not Hindu’ propaganda

As the world celebrates the International Yoga Day, it is another occasion for motivated individuals to attempt to appropriate Yoga and disassociate it from Hinduism. While ‘Yoga is not Hindu’ has become an acceptable slogan for significant sections of the ruling elite regardless of their ideological orientation, there are some of a particular ideological bent who are more enthusiastic about it than others.

Simultaneously, the opposing camp embraces the slogan of falsities because they do not want to be perceived as ‘communal’ by any means. They would much rather permit Yoga to be disassociated from Hinduism. On the International Yoga Day, it was the official mouthpiece of the Congress party that led the assault on the cultural ethos of the country with sermons declaring that Yoga is not Hindu.

Source: Twitter

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, another senior leader of the Congress party, peddled the same narrative and argued that chanting Om would not strengthen Yoga and neither would chanting the name of Allah weaken the practice.

Source: Twitter

In Kashmir, students performed the Surya Namaskar with Kalima. The Surya Namaskar is performed to pay respect to the Sun Deity. It is unclear how can something be called Surya Namaskar when the practitioner is reciting incantations that deny the existence of the Sun God.

Surya Namaskar with Kalima?

The fact of the matter is Yoga is intricately related to Hinduism. It is essentially a Hindu practice. Yoga is conceptualized as a spiritual practice through which one can attain divinity. Yoga is not merely performed for physical and mental benefits, which there are many, its core objective is spiritual.

Too many people are willing to concede the point that Yoga is not Hindu because they consider it to be a gesture of goodwill which they expect to be reciprocated in other areas. What they do not realise is that the ulterior motive behind such proclamations is to deny any positive contribution by Hinduism to the world.

Anything good about Hinduism, materialists, secularists and Islamists will claim that it has nothing to do with Hinduism. In doing so, they will reduce Hinduism to casteism and oppression and intolerance and everything evil that exists in the world.

Such antics are not only limited to Yoga. Secularists and Islamists have gone to the extent of declaring that even Lord Ram is not a Hindu God. Their argument is that Indian Muslims consider Rama ‘Imam-e-Hind’ and therefore, Rama does not belong to Hindus alone.

What they did here is that they stripped Lord Ram of divinity, from a God he is reduced to being an Imam. From being the God of an idol-worshipping multiethnic pluralistic religion, He is reduced to being the ‘Imam’ of an iconoclastic faith. And yet, they expect us to be grateful to them for it.

It is the same thought process that is applied to Yoga. They strip Yoga of divinity and then expect us to be grateful to them for it. A couple of years ago, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, accused others of trying to mislead people by claiming that Yoga is Hindu. He said that none of the postures are connected to any religion.

Unfortunately, he is not the only one. It is much better for everyone involved if people do not perform Yoga at all if they believe practicing asanas of the Hindu fait goes against their religious tenets. The Constitution of India does guarantee freedom of religion to everyone after all.

Why should Hindus have to go out of their way to relinquish their claim to their ancestral heritage just to accommodate those who do not wish to have anything to do with Hinduism? Our ancestors made great sacrifices to protect our traditions and pass it down to their descendants. And here we are expected to sacrifice them all at the altar of the false promise of secularism.

Then there are those who claim that if Yoga is Hindu, then gravity is Christian. First of all, one is an invention while the latter is a discovery. So there cannot be any equivalence between the two. Since that rebuttal is only too obvious, the National Herald claims that if Yoga is Hindu, then Kung Fu is Confucian and Taekwondo is Buddhist.

Kung Fu and Taekwondo are not core religious practices to attain divinity. So that argument falls flat as well. It is pertinent to note here that the attempts to disassociate Yoga from Hinduism come from the same camp that denies Lord Rama’s Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya or that there are numerous other Mosques built on the site of major Hindu Temples. They are not friends of Hinduism who make such arguments, and Hindus should avoid falling into their trap.

Hinduism is not only a way of life

The fountainhead of all such disastrous ideas lies in the claim that ‘Hinduism is a way of life’. Motivated individuals float the claim that Hinduism is not a religion so that they can then proceed to impose restrictions on Hindu religious practices and traditions and disassociate Hinduism from it.

For instance, apart from the attempts to secularise Yoga, attempts were made to violate the traditions of the Sabarimala Temple and the justification that was used is that there is no scriptural sanction for such a tradition.

But that argument fails to appreciate that Hinduism is intrinsically different from monotheistic religions. While the latter relies on texts for the basis of their practices, Hinduism is primarily dependent on actions, that is, rituals, festivals and traditions.

The logical conclusion of such an argument is that nothing is essential to Hinduism and it is basically a rootless faith. Once that argument is accepted, everything else follows.

‘Kejriwal go back’ hoardings emerge in Amritsar even as infighting within Punjab Congress intensifies

OpIndia Staff
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‘Kejriwal go back’ hoardings emerge in Amritsar even as infighting within Punjab Congress intensifies

Amidst the ongoing crisis within the Punjab Congress, several hoardings surfaced on Saturday in Amritsar asking the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to ‘go back’. Kejriwal is scheduled to visit the city on Sunday (June 21), ahead of the upcoming State Legislative polls next year.

“Kejriwal go back,” read the hoarding. While speaking about the development, Congress leader Saurabh Madan remarked, “He will reach at 12 pm, his visit is a political stunt. How many times has he come here in the last 4 years? He should pay a visit to Harmandir Sahib and go back. He (Kejriwal) is not needed in Punjab. AAP MLAs are joining Congress. No leader will be inducted into their party (AAP) tomorrow, I have come to know about an officer, but no leader.”

Madan had described the Delhi CM’s visit to the state as a ‘political stunt.’ Earlier this month, two rebel AAP MLAs namely Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Pirmal Singh Khalsa defected to the Congress party. Sukhpal Singh Khaira, the legislator of the Bholath Assembly segment, also joined the Congress. This has added to the electoral woes of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab. It must be mentioned that the party had won 20 seats in the 2017 State Legislative polls.

The ongoing crisis within the Punjab Congress

Ahead of the 2022 Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections, infighting has begun within the state unit of Congress. The party headed by Captain Amarinder Singh in the state is facing stiff opposition from fellow party leader Navjot Singh Siddhu. The former cricketer Had accused the Punjab CM of having ties with the rival Badal family of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Siddhu also received the support of Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and several other MLAs.

This promoted party supremo Sonia Gandhi to constitute a committee headed by Mallikarjun Kharge, which then submitted a report to her to resolve the ongoing crisis. The committee had heard over 150 party leaders as well as Captain Amarinder Singh and recommended that the party give a suitable post to Navjot Singh Siddhu. It had also called for the reorganisation of the party structure. The resentment against the Punjab CM began shortly after he formed the government.

He had announced a farm debt waiver to farmers and transferred ₹5000 crores to their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The rebel Congress faction was miffed that they could not take enough credit for the scheme and alleged that the administration was being run by bureaucrats. Allegations had also surfaced that Captain Amarinder Singh has dossiers on his party legislators, which allegedly expose their role in the sand mining business, transport business, liquor trade, and land-grab cases. The last nail in the coffin that further escalated the infighting was the Punjab government’s loss in the High Court in the Behbal Kalan and Kot Kapura firing cases.

Umar Gautam and Jehangir received funds from Pakistan’s ISI for illegal conversions, arrested by UP ATS

OpIndia Staff
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Umar Gautam and Jehangir received funds from Pakistan’s ISI for illegal conversions, arrested by UP ATS

The Uttar Pradesh ATS has 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.

Prashant Kumar, Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order), said that the arrested were running a conversion racket that was being funded by Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, as per a report in India TV.

Umar Gautam who is a convert himself revealed that they converted around 250-300 people every year. During the interrogation, Umar also informed that they targeted people from the economically weaker section of the society including women, children and the disabled. They were also getting the women married so that they do not return to their original faith. 

ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar informed on Monday, “He (Umar Gautam) has converted 1,000 persons till now. Was acting at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI.”

“The accused were using enticement, provocation and deceit to convert people apart from creating distrust and promoting enmity among different communities,” he added.

Kumar further informed that the Institution Islamic Dawa Center in Jamia Nagar was created with the sole purpose to convert unsuspecting people to Islam in an organised manner and sought funds for the same.

Gautam confessed to having converted around 1,500 children at school for the deaf and mute in Noida after the school management was enticed with promises of employment and money.

Moreover, the converted children were being sent to a Southern state. The police approached the parents of such children.

“The case was found to be true. Children were tight-lipped out of fear instilled in them. The accused used to radicalise the victims and tell them that Islam is a better religion and lured with promises of money, employment and support,” Kumar said.

Others accused in the case are being traced by the police. 

Bombay HC grants transit anticipatory bail to Rana Ayyub for spreading fake news in Ghaziabad incident after advocate argued ‘spine injury’

OpIndia Staff
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Bombay HC grants transit anticipatory bail to Rana Ayyub for spreading fake news in Ghaziabad incident after advocate argued ‘spine injury’

Propagandist Rana Ayyub has been granted 4 week of transit anticipatory bail by the Bombay High Court over the Ghaziabad fake hate crime case. The Uttar Pradesh police had registered an FIR against her and others, including Twitter, for provoking enmity between groups and other charges.

“In the event of arrest during the period of four weeks, the applicant be released on executing a PR Bond of 25,000 with one or more sureties,” the Bombay High Court ordered. Senior advocate Mihir Desai, who represented Rana Ayyub over the matter, said that she had recently undergone a spinal surgery and therefore, required 3-4 weeks to approach the appropriate court in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier this month, Ayyub had tweeted that her tests for her spine surgery have come clean and her ‘spine is intact’.

Consequently, she has been given a period of 4 weeks to approach the appropriate court.

Ghaziabad fake hate crime: FIR against Rana Ayyub and others

OpIndia reported on June 16, that the UP police had registered an FIR against Alt News cofounder Muhammed Zubair, The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Twitter and others for trying to stoke communal tension by making false claims that an elderly Muslim man was beaten up and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

While Zubair, Rana Ayyub, The Wire, Salman Nizami, Maksoor Usmani, Sama Mohammad and Saba Naqvi have been booked for spreading misleading and fake news, Twitter was booked for the lack of action against these seven and allowing usage of its platform to spread fake news.

Samajwadi Party leader arrested

Samajwadi Party leader Umed Pahalwan Idris, who appeared in a Facebook Live video alongside Ghaziabad assault victim Abdul Samad, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in Delhi on Saturday.

Addressing the media, the Ghaziabad Senior Superintended of Police (SSP) said they arrested the Samajwadi Party leader Umed Idris near Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital in the national capital.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren fails to meet Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi despite 4-days wait: Details

Jinit Jain
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Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren fails to meet Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi despite 4-days wait: Details

With the crisis unfolding in Rajasthan, Punjab and Maharashtra, trouble seems to mount for the Congress party in the eastern state of Jharkhand as well after Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who camped for four days in Delhi, could not get an audience from either Congress chief Sonia Gandhi or senior leader Rahul Gandhi.

Interestingly, while Soren was waiting for a meeting, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul found time to meet the new Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, the chief of DMK, which is an ally of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu. This has not gone down well for the JMM chief, sources quoted by The Daily Pioneer claimed.

“Hemant returned to Ranchi on Saturday. He had been repeatedly making attempts to call on Sonia and Rahul but failed. The snub has not gone down well with the JMM. Moreover, their meeting with Stalin has only rubbed salt to the wound,” the Daily Pioneer reported.

Hemant Soren is the chief of JMM, a regional party that is in power in Jharkhand in alliance with the Congress party. Hemant had sought an audience with the members of the Gandhi dynasty, presumably to discuss the positions to be filled for the vacant cabinet berths, a possible reshuffle in the Council of Ministers, appointments to corporations, and other things.

“Such developments do not augur well for the coalition when there has always been an air of mistrust among the two major coalition partners. Particularly, given the buzz of a possible BJP-JMM alliance, that keeps the Congress and the RJD on their toes. Or for that matter, the BJP getting a sizeable MLAs of the JMM and the Congress to resign just as it did in several States,” sources further said.

Besides the Jharkhand CM, Jharkhand Congress chief and Finance Minister in Hemant’s government, Rameshwar Oraon, was also in Delhi to “discuss” party affairs with the Gandhi dynasts, along with deliberating on appointments in corporations and commissions etc. It is worth noting that both JMM and Congress state unit have staked claim to the vacant 12th cabinet berth in the Hemant’s government in Jharkhand.

Along with the CM, the JMM has five ministers while the Congress has four, and the other ally RJD one ministerial berth. Hemant and Oraon were supposed to have participated in the meeting with the top Congress leadership to iron out the differences on all pending issues.

While sources claim Hemant is aggrieved about Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi not taking time to meet him, it is notable to mention that he is not the only one who has been slighted by the mother-son duo. In the past too, there have been a host of Congress leaders who were snubbed by the Gandhi family members by denying them an audience, inevitably forcing them to leave the party.

Congress MLA in Assam Rupjyoti Kurmi leaves Congress, cites Rahul Gandhi as the reason for his departure

Earlier yesterday, Rupjyoti Kurmi, a 4 times Congress MLA from Assam’s Mariani constituency, expressed his disgruntlement with the Congress leadership. In a scathing attack against the Gandhi scion, Kurmi said that Rahul Gandhi likes the company of dumb people and his dog. On June 18, Kurmi resigned from the Congress party, saying he is “frustrated and disillusioned” with the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

Kurmi later joined the BJP in the presence of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma who had himself resigned from Congress in 2015 under similar circumstances. Sarma tweeted that Kurmi is a prominent leader from the tea-tribe community in Assam and will be a welcome addition in the BJP.

Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned from Congress after he was sidelined by the Gandhi family

In March 2020, Jyotiraditya Scindia was expelled from the Congress party just minutes after he tweeted his resignation to Sonia Gandhi. Scindia tendered his resignation after he had grown weary of the Congress leadership’s inaction to the demands raised by him. Scindia had written to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi about the party reneging on its promises as per poll manifesto in Madhya Pradesh among other things. However, despite flagging issues to the Gandhi family, the Congress party leadership reportedly dragged its feet and showed little gumption to address his concerns.

Another factor was the Congress top brass snubbing Scindia for a leadership role in Madhya Pradesh. Scindia was also reportedly promised by the Congress leadership of a Rajya Sabha seat but it did not materialise. With his demands being sidelined and him being treated badly, Scindia finally took the plunge of resigning from the party and joining the BJP.

Himanta Biswa Sarma left Congress due to Rahul Gandhi’s behaviour

Former Congress stalwart Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is now the Assam chief minister in the BJP government, had resigned from the party citing the prevailing dynastic culture in Congress. In September 2015, when he parted ways with the Congress party, Sarma said that “family-centric” politics and “lack of democracy” in the Congress forced him to quit.

Two years later when Rahul Gandhi shared a video of his pet dog on Twitter, Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed how the Gandhi scion was busy feeding biscuits to his pet while he and others wanted to discuss pressing issues in Assam.

While the deluded Congress supporters believe that the Gandhi family has a salutary effect on the party, it does not seem like the party leaders share similar sentiments. Most of the disgruntled Congress leaders, especially those who resigned from the party, have held the Gandhis responsible for the terrible fate that the Congress finds itself in. Congress seems to be circling the drain as it confronts crises in Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra among its own party cadre and alliance partners.

As per recent reports, in Jharkhand, Congress may as well have another disgruntled alliance partner.

South Korean conglomerate Samsung completes shifting display manufacturing unit to Noida from China

OpIndia Staff
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South Korean conglomerate Samsung completes shifting display manufacturing unit to Noida from China

On June 20, South Korean multinational conglomerate Samsung announced that it had completed the construction of a display manufacturing plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The company has shifted the plant from China to India. A delegation of the company led by Ken Kang, Southwest Asia President & CEO, met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

In the official press note, the delegation said that Uttar Pradesh has a better industrial environment and investor-friendly policies. The company decided to establish the Display Manufacturing Unit here. The press note also mentioned that the construction work shows their commitment towards India and made UP a manufacturing hub.

‘A classic example of the success of Make in India’

During the meeting, CM Yogi Adityanath said that the Noida factor is a classic example of the success of the “Make In India” Program. The manufacturing unit will employ the youth in the state.

CM Yogi assured that the state government would extend help to the company in future as well. The delegation thanked CM Yogi for permission to continue industrial work during the pandemic.

The plant was announced in December 2020

In December 2020, Samsung had announced that it would shift its display manufacturing plant to Noida from China. Reports suggest that the new plant is the first high-technique project, which is being set up in India after relocating from China. The new project is likely to generate 1,500 direct employment and thousands of indirect jobs.

At that time, a spokesperson of the UP Government had said, “The unit intends to invest Rs 4,825 crore. It could be made possible by the sustained efforts of the UP government to create an eco-system in NCR in sync with the intent of the Centre to make an export hub in view of the ever-increasing demand for mobile and other gadgets in the country and abroad.”

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