The infighting in Punjab Congress seems to have intensified with Congress leaders indulging in poster wars. Days after ‘Sidhu is missing’ posters popped up in Amritsar, separate posters of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu have surfaced in Patiala and Amritsar in the run-up to the 2022 assembly elections in the state.
Separate hoardings with CM Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on them, come up in Patiala in the run-up to the 2022 Punjab election.
The CM’s daughter, Jai Inder Kaur says, “My father will contest from Patiala and I will campaign for him.” pic.twitter.com/TfwI0CdTKw
Extending support to her father, Captain Singh’s daughter Jai Inder Kaur stated, “My father will contest from Patiala and I will campaign for him.”
While posters of Navjot Singh Sidhu emerged in Patiala which is Captain Amarinder Singh’s constituency, the CM’s posters have surfaced in Amritsar East, which is the constituency of Sidhu.
Committee formed to address the grievances of Punjab leaders
Former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Jalandhar Cant MLA Pargat Singh have waged a war against Amarinder Singh in the 2015 sacrilege case. A group led by the duo has also demanded a change in the state leadership.
This forced the AICC to constitute a committee to address the grievances of the Punjab leaders. The panel headed by senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge met at a party war room at GRG road to discuss mitigating the crisis. Kharge informed that the committee which comprises himself, Congress’ Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat and former MP JP Aggarwal will submit its report in three or four days on the matter.
However, according to reports, the committee has dismissed the idea of removing Captain Amarinder Singh and has instead recommended revamping the cabinet in the state and accommodating Siddhu suitably in the govt. Reportedly he may be made the Deputy Chief Minister in the Punjab government. A final decision in the matter will be taken by party president Sonia Gandhi.
They added that Congress is trying to appease Sidhu and looking for ways to keeping him in the party by making some minor adjustments.
Captain Amarinder Singh who appeared before the three-member Congress panel said, “The meeting was to discuss the preparations for the Assembly Elections scheduled early next year. These are our inner-party discussions and I don’t propose to share them with you.”
“Sidhu is missing posters”
Early this month, posters claiming ‘Sidhu is missing‘ surfaced in Amritsar (East). A reward of Rs 50,000 was also promised to anyone who ‘finds’ the missing MLA. The posters suggested that Sidhu forgot the promises made to the people after winning elections in 2017.
Similar posters were plastered in 2019 in his constituency by a Shiromani Akali Dal leader. The leader had offered a reward of Rs 2,100 and a trip to Pakistan to anyone who finds him, presumably after Sidhu’s trip to Pakistan.
Sidhu conducts a secret meeting
A couple of ministers and some MLAs led by Sidhu held a secret meeting in May to devise strategies to mount pressure on the CM to resolve the 2015 sacrilege case and the subsequent police firing cases of Kotkapura and initiate a clampdown on the alleged drug mafia, reported Indian Express.
These two issues had been the main poll promises of Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections. Last month, the politician had demanded a new SIT probe in the sacrilege case.
Now, Sidhu has been joined by the Cooperation and Jails Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and Technical Education, Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Charanjit Channi. MLAs Partap Singh Bajwa’s brother Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa, along with Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon, Balwinder Laddi and Barindermeet Singh Pahra were also said to be present during the meeting.
On June 9, an audio of Clubhouse conversation between the alleged social media’ influencers’ started to make rounds on Twitter where the speaker normalised ‘hate sex’ with ‘sanghis’ because women are ‘hot’. In the undated conversation, that happened on the Clubhouse app in a room titled “sex with your ex” on the topic “Do you only date hot people”, one speaker identified as Neeraj Kadamboor (Instagram ID kadamboorneeraj) made a derogatory remark on women who are opposed to his political ideology.
Neeraj essentially said that he finds “sanghis” “hot” and would like to have sex with them. Right at that time, his fellow “influencers” chimed in, saying that “Sanghis are not hot” because of their political ideology. At this point, Neeraj Kadamboor says that he would want to have ‘hate sex’ with Sanghis.
Interestingly, one person who was involved in this entire episode was one Aishwarya Subramanyam.
When Aishwarya Subramanyam, one of the moderators of the ClubHouse room, asked Neeraj if he dates only hot people, he responded, “No, I date all kinds of people but on the dating apps, I do sometimes thirst for these very hot Sanghi types, just for fun.”
To this Aishwarya responded that Sanghis are not hot, but Neeraj nevertheless defended himself saying he finds them hot. Neeraj further adds, “Just like the opposite of paper bag sex….”, to which a lady in the group remarked: “It is like having hate sex”.
Later, of course, the defence mounted was that Neeraj was talking about ‘gay sex’ and since he himself was gay, he can talk about his own community like that. That argument too, would appear to be an attempt to whitewash the vile comments made. Men or women, nobody really deserves to be humiliated physically and mentally for their political opinions. But the attempt to whitewash the comments by claiming that it was only about gay men, also could be an attempt to escape scrutiny by ensuring that the ‘woke’ crowd can cry ‘homophobia’ when the problematic statements are called out. A strawman argument was perhaps being constructed, but even if the ‘gay community’ explanation is taken on face value, no part of the comment can be considered acceptable.
Dehumanisation of a partner and the subsequent emotional and physical exploitation won’t be ok when the individuals involved are of same sex and the arguments being made by these individuals can just as easily apply to partners belonging to either sex.
Aishwarya Subramanyam has now taken to Instagram to justify what was said, in no uncertain terms.
Instagram post Aishwarya Subramanyam
The argument being made by Aishwarya to justify her extremely problematic is quite disturbing.
Essentially, Aishwarya says that “hate sex” can also be consensual. But she conveniently appears to ignore the fact that in most cases, it isn’t. Furthermore, as per the definition she has herself cited, the sex turns into a “form of micro-aggression and even retaliation and revenge.” Thus, it is bizarre that she is attempting to defend the usage of the term.
Hate sex is defined as intercourse with someone one dislikes or hates. In simple words, a physical relationship between two people where there is no emotional connection between the two and at least one of the partners hates the other who is completely unaware of it. Such experiences often lead to permanent scars for one side. In many cases, such instances even lead to major crimes.
The underlying assumption being made by Aishwarya here is that the other person involved, the ‘Sanghi’, would have no issues here at all with a liberal individual taking out his/her hate and disgust against him/her using sex as a tool. One could safely say the situation is unlikely.
Now let us assume the following scenario:
Sinha, who wishes to have “hate sex” with Sanghis, meets a woman or a man on some dating app, who he finds physically attractive. They then end up in a physical relationship and Sinha, to act out his “hate sex” fantasies with the “Sanghi” he despises, crosses lines during the act of intimacy. Dehumanizing them, mocking them, getting physically rough with them and worse.
To assume that this scenario has any element of consent is justifying physical and mental torture of the women and men one disagrees with ideologically. Does consent to get intimate automatically mean that the said person consented to be dehumanised and hated? The assumption that any form of physical and mental torture can come with an element of consent is in itself problematic and rather shocking when it comes from those who consider themselves “feminists” and “liberal”.
The same argument that he was apparently making for homosexual men can be extended to women as well, if we are to take that defence at face value.
What is essentially being justified here is the use of sex as a tool to vent out anger and hatred against another individual. In that sense, the mentality here is not much different from the ones that motivate crimes against women.
In many cases, rapists subject women to sexual violence in order to assert their dominance over them. In other cases, rapists attack women to humiliate and emotionally damage her husband and other men in the family. In the current ‘hate’ sex justification, a similar mentality is on display.
The liberal here gloats over the fact that he is ‘f*cking’ someone he hates, exercising domination over an object of hatred and showing the individual his or her place beneath him. That’s the mentality at work here. It is essentially the weaponisation of sex against political adversaries.
This mentality is also one of the defining aspects of Grooming Jihad. As a part of Grooming Jihad in India, Hindu women are entrapped by the assailants who pose as imposters, intending to have a sexual relationship, marrying them and later manipulating them into eschewing their beliefs and faith.
Historically, sex has also been weaponised by armies and invaders as a means to subjugate natives. During medieval times, Mughal kings kept Hindu women in their harems as sex slaves. They were raped and tortured, only because their belief was at variance with the Mughal kings. More recently, ISIS codified sex slavery and its fighters extensively used it against their non-Muslim captives.
It does not need the IQ of Einstein to realise why the weaponisation of sex is so problematic. It only leads to more crimes against women and dehumanises political adversaries. Once adversaries have been sufficiently dehumanised, all manners of crimes against them are justifiable.
So when someone ‘thirsts’ for ‘hate sex’, where you have forceful, sometimes rough (read rape) sexual intercourse with someone you hate because of political ideology, one is actually perpetuating the long cycle of victimisation of women. Perhaps this is why the ‘liberals’ do not accept the concept of Grooming Jihad as real despite innumerable examples of sexual exploitation, rape, forceful religious conversion and sometimes even murder of Hindu women by Islamists.
Days after imposing a ban on microblogging website Twitter in the country, the government of Nigeria has joined the Indian made micro-blogging site Koo.
On Thursday, the Federal Government of Nigeria opened its account on Koo and posted several posts on the platform. The account has been made with the account @nigeriagov.
Nigerian govt account on Koo
Aprameya Radhakrishna, the CEO and co-founder of the Koo platform, welcomed the Government of Nigeria on the Koo app for making its debut on the platform. He said that the platform wasspreading wings beyond India now. The Koo app is being touted as the replacement for social media giant Twitter in many parts currently.
Earlier this week, Koo – the Made in India microblogging platform, had announced that their site is now available in Nigeria, and they were keen on adding new local languages for users in the West African nation. There are over 500 native languages spoken in Nigeria, including Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.
In a post on Koo on Saturday, its CEO and co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna, had officially confirmed that the platform is now available in Nigeria.
Speaking to the media, Radhakrishnan said, “We are thinking of enabling the local language there as well. He further added that they are considering introducing a local Nigerian language into the Koo app.
He had earlier said, “Nigeria is similar to India in terms of language diversity. It has hundreds of regional languages. Koo has a global outlook and will enable micro-blogging in countries that need it the most. We have built a scalable platform, and while we are still enhancing the product, it’s already available for use in multiple countries today.”
The Koo founder has also said that the platform is available in Mynamar, Nambia, Nepal, Senegal, Rwanda, Philippines, Peru, Paraguay, etc.
Early this year, when the Indian government was in a battle with Twitter over censoring anti-Indian contents, an Indian-developed Koo was launched. The micro-blogging platform, which shares several features is hoping to replace Twitter in many countries, was originally designed specifically for Indians as it offered its services in multiple local languages.
The decision of the Nigerian government to move to Koo came after they had announced an indefinite suspension of Koo’s rival Twitter in the country.
Nigeria indefinitely suspends Twitter
Last week, the Nigerian government announced that it has indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities. The move came after Twitter had deleted a Tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari warning against secessionist movements.
The social media giant had deleted a tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that the tweet had threatened secessionist groups in the Biafra region.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” Buhari had tweeted, referring to the Biafra Conflict, which killed 1 million people between 1967 and 1970.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the tweet read.
In addition to deleting the tweet for violating its “abusive behavior” policy, Twitter had brazenly suspended President Buhari’s account for 12 hours.
Following the suspension of Buhari’s account, Nigeria Information Minister Lai Mohammed had acted swiftly to indefinitely suspend Twitter’s activities in the country.
An audio clip has gone viral on social media in which a Bhim Army worker can be heard blatantly hurling abuses at Brahmin Rajputs and the upper caste people. The Bhim Army worker is not only heard using extremely offensive and crude language against the upper caste people but openly threatening to rape their girls.
Warning:( Extensive use of vulgar terms against Brahmins, Rajputs, and Baniyas) Bhim Army worker caught threatening @AzadSenaChief. He was also threatening to rape UC girls and slaying the community on roads. The amount of hate he was spreading is enough to understand… pic.twitter.com/w77EMyCHDs
Shubham Sharma (@Shubham fd), a Falana Dhikana journalist, uploaded the audio clip on Twitter. According to the report by the media outlet, the audio is from the night of June 8, when one Deepu Kumar of Bhim Army called Abhishek Azad, the founder of Azad Sena Sangathan. In this profanity-laden 2.18 min audio clip, Deepu Kumar not only demonizes but threatens to kill all ‘upper caste’ people.
“Sarkar badalne do, uske baad Pandito ko keench ke maarunga” (let the government change then we will drag and kill all the pandits) says the Bhim Army member during the phone call. Deepu Kumar not only bats for the mass genocide of Brahmin Rajputs and all the people belonging to the upper caste but also openly threatens to rape their girls.
It’s appalling how the Bhim Army member expresses his deep-seated hate for the Brahmins and the Rajputs without fearing any repercussions. He says that his people do not fear law and order or the judiciary. He boasts that he was recently jailed for the murder of a pandit. “Only two months ago, I was released from prison for the murder of a pandit, exclaims Deepu Kumar, also threatening to kill Abhishek Azad, the founder of Azad Sena Sangathan.
During the conversation, Deepu Kumar not only brags about being associated with the Bhim Army but also about his affiliation with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
“Pata hai na Samajwadi Party kaun si hai? Deepu Kumar questions Abhishek Azad. When Azad asks him whether he is talking about Akhilesh Yadav’s party, Deepu acknowledges: “Haan wohi” (yes, that one only).
Deepu Kumar furthers: “Arya samaj ke logon ne pandit kaate. (People belonging to the Arya Samaj have killed pandits). We have killed Pandits and Thakurs. We have raped your girls. And you can literally do nothing. We have lured your girls. My friends are raping your girls every day.”
“Y’all are 3.5 per cent of the population but have corrupted the country. Y’all have separated Hindus and Muslims. Y’all incite riots between Hindus and Muslims. We won’t spare y’all”, the Bhim Army member is heard saying in the viral audio clip.
After the audio was shared on the microblogging site, Netizens outraged. Tagging Uttar Pradesh police and the state government, they demanded immediate arrest of the Bhim Army worker who brazenly issued threats to the upper castes in the profanity-laden audio clip.
महोदय प्रकरण के संबंध में वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधीक्षक इटावा द्वारा संज्ञान लिया गया है आवश्यक वैधानिक कार्यवाही प्रचलित है
Meanwhile, the Etawah police have responded, saying that the Senior Superintendent of Police has taken cognisance of the matter and launched an investigation. They assured that the necessary legal action would soon be taken against Deepu Kumar.
Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad called out for his sexist and abusive Tweets against women
Interestingly, last year, a compilation of screenshots of Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad’s abusive tweet from the past had gone viral on the micro-blogging site. Most of the tweets dated back to the year 2018, where the Bhim Army chief had used extremely derogatory and cheap Hindi slangs to insult women with a different ideological bent.
Chandra Shekhar Aazad in almost all his tweets has called these women, who are seen as supporting the Prime Minister, “Dallas” (pimps) and “prostitutes” and abused them for supporting the latter.
After his sexist and disparaging tweets went viral on Twitter, Netizens had demanded Twitter India to remove Aazad from the micro-blogging site. They questioned how Twitter could verify such a vile person by ascribing a blue tick to his twitter account.
The chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Rekha Sharma, had then tweeted that she has taken cognisance of the vile and abusive tweets of Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation to announce free Covid-19 vaccination for all above 18 years of age and also to declare that the country would revert to a system of centralised procurement of vaccines against Covid-19, where the centre will procure vaccines from manufacturers and provide it further to states for free.
During his address, PM Modi slammed the politicisation of the vaccination drive, especially by the opposition-ruled states, who constantly altered their policies on vaccination drive, thus creating added pressure on the centre to liberalise the vaccine procurement. In his address, PM Modi had mentioned how some states had earlier pressured the centre to decentralise vaccine policy and explained how the “decentralisation” process as demanded by the opposition states had utterly failed, thus prompting them to reconsider the decision.
As PM Modi spoke about the constant politicisation of vaccine derive in the country, the opposition parties, especially the Congress party, seems to have taken an offence. It seems that the Congress party has unleashed their propaganda portals to mislead the public by putting out misinformation on their earlier push for a decentralised system of vaccine procurement.
As PM Modi highlighted how opposition parties’ constant push and demand for decentralised vaccine procurement had hurt the country’s vaccination drive, the propaganda portals and social media proxies of those opposition parties are now trying to portray that the opposition parties had never demanded decentralisation of vaccine procurement in the first place.
The notorious propaganda website Alt News, which often works as an extension of Congress IT cell, has come up with a so-called fact-check of Prime Minister’s recent speech where he had asserted that the states, especially the one ruled by the opposition parties, had pressurised them for a decentralised vaccine procurement policy. In his speech, PM Modi had said thatseveral state governments had asked him to decentralise the vaccine work and leave it to the states.
As expected, Alt News, which has a history of peddling misinformation to save the face of the opposition parties, came up with a lousy fact-check of the Prime Minister, claiming that he was lying about the decentralised vaccination procurement system as no opposition leaders have demanded the same, instead claiming that they had asked the government to centralise the vaccination process.
In defence of the same, Alt News presented selective information to claim that the state governments had never asked for a decentralised vaccination programme in the first place.
Alt News uses selective data to claim that Mamata Banerjee did not demand for decentralisation of vaccine procurement
To ‘fact-check’ PM Modi, Alt News amusingly cites a letter written by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. According to Alt News, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had written a letter to PM Modi on February 24, requesting that the state be allowed to purchase vaccines for inoculation ahead of the assembly elections.
In the letter, it can be clearly seen that Mamata Banerjee is asking the centre to allow them to procure the vaccines directly ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
West Bengal CM @MamataOfficial writes to PM @narendramodi for initiating a rapid vaccination process in West Bengal before elections are held. Letter says, the West Bengal Government wants to provide vaccine free of cost to all the people. pic.twitter.com/2lyIgbBw8s
However, according to Alt News, Banerjee’s request was not mandated and hence it cannot be considered as a demand for decentralisation.
Further, Alt News, in their hurry to bury the truth, forgets to mention the two other letters written by Mamata Banerjee to the Modi government demanding decentralisation procurement of the vaccines. Alt News conveniently ignores to provide details of another letter written by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to PM Modi at another instance on 18 April, demanding to allow the state to procure vaccines themselves.
“You may recall that I had written to you on 24 February to allow the state to purchase vaccination doses directly with state funds and launch a massive free vaccination campaign in the state covering the entire population,” she wrote in a letter on 18 April.
Mamata Banerjee’s letter to PM Modi on April 8 demanding decentralisation of vaccine procurement/ Image Source: Ankur Singh
In fact, Alt News themselves mentions how Mamata Banerjee had said thatthe announcement of decentralisation was “much-delayed” and appears to be “hollow, without substance and a regrettable show of evasion of responsibility” in a letter, after the centre had decided to liberalise the vaccination drive to allow states to procure the doses directly from manufacturers.
Strangely, the alleged fact-checkers have exposed the opposition parties in their so-called fact-check report by putting out all the relevant facts to show how opposition states were demanding the decentralisation of vaccine procurement.
In addition to the above, on May 12, Mamata Banerjee had written to the Prime Minister urging him to expedite the procurement of vaccines and suggested a franchise-based model for vaccine manufacturers. In the letter, Mamata Banerjee said the centre should work on a “franchise-based” model in states to ramp up the production of vaccines in the country.
Mamata Banerjee had requested the Centre to push for the manufacturing of vaccines under the “franchise” route. Essentially, through the “franchise” route, the West Bengal government wanted to decentralise vaccine procurement.
Despite, Mamata Banerjee openly batting for the decentralise procurement of vaccines in the country, not once but thrice, Alt News tries to invent a lie that she had never demanded any such decentralisation.
Alt News lies on Maharashtra government:
Further, Alt News cited letters from the Maharashtra government to claim that they had never demanded decentralisation in the first place as suggested by Prime Minister Modi.
According to Alt News, the Maharashtra government did not bat for decentralisation on their own, but they only began to demand the same after the centre had announced the process of decentralisation of vaccine procurement. Alt News cites a letter written by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on May 8 to claim that his request to decentralise the vaccine procurement came only after the centre had announced the decentralised plan.
CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray wrote to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi regarding the supply of vaccination, technical glitches on the CoWin App & developing a state-level app for citizens’ vaccination registration. pic.twitter.com/oMOX7kfdrA
In the letter, Thackeray had written stating, “The State of Maharashtra is willing to procure the requisite stock of vaccines in a single procurement if possible, so as to safeguard our citizens and to give a boost to India’s vaccination program.”
According to Alt News, the demand only came after decentralisation was announced. However, it is not entirely true.
Much before the centre eased vaccination procurement owing to pressure from states, the Maharashtra government had already decided to import vaccines from other countries and had allocated funds to other departments to procure vaccines directly to Maharashtra.
On April 20, 2021, right after the centre had announced its plans for decentralisation of vaccine procurement, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state was planning to directly bid for Sputnik V, Pfizer and Moderna if they are available. On April 19, 2021 a meeting chaired by Modi decided to allow vaccination for all above the age of 18 from May 1.
“We have decided to cut the expenses of all the departments and divert the funds for vaccine procurement. We will not limit our plans only to the two vaccines that are manufactured in the country (Covishield and Covaxin),” he had said.
Yet again, Alt News conveniently ignores these details to claim that states ruled by opposition parties never insisted on decentralisation of vaccine procurement and instead indulges in peddling misinformation in the name of ‘fact-checking’.
Alt News comes to the rescue of the Congress party
Alt News, which has a rich history of peddling misinformation on behalf of the Congress party, was quick to come to the rescue of the grand old party. In its alleged fact-check, Alt News claimed that it looked at the demands made by the states and found out that none of the states/ UTs demanded that they should be allowed to purchase vaccines.
According to Alt News, the states governed by opposition parties had criticised the centre’s decision within days of the PM announcing the decentralisation of procurement. However, Alt News fails to provide any source as it makes such wild claims.
Further, Alt News claims that neither the Congress party nor the state governments led by the Congress party had demanded the decentralisation of vaccine procurement.
However, P Chidambaram, who recently got caught peddling lies on decentralisation of vaccine procurement just like Alt News and was made to apologise for his lies.
Alt News also tries to mislead the public on the letter written by Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi demanding a greater say for states in the procurement of vaccines.
In a letter to Prime Minister Modi dated 8th of April, 2021, Rahul Gandhi had demanded that state governments have a greater say in Covid-19 vaccine procurement.
Rahul Gandhi said in the letter, “Centralization and individualized propaganda are counter-productive. Even though Public Health is a state subject, our states have been bypassed right from vaccine procurement to registration.” Consequently, he demanded, “Give State governments a greater say in vaccine procurement and distribution.”
However, for Alt News, which spends a considerable amount of its time on whitewashing the misinformation peddled by the Congress party and its ecosystem, Rahul Gandhi only demanded “greater say in procurement”, which did not mean state purchase. Further, Alt News claims that Gandhi’s statement is open to interpretation as he merely said that state governments should have a “say” without implying that they should purchase vaccines.
Image Source: Alt News
For Alt News, both Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi do not represent any state and hence their push for decentralisation of vaccines should not be considered as serious suggestions.
Alt News also tries to bury Congress leader Anand Sharma’s open call for decentralisation of vaccines by saying he is not part of any government in any state. On April 16, Anand Sharma had said that state governments must immediately be allowed to enter into contracts to procure vaccines.
For Alt News, MK Stalin is not an opposition leader:
Alt News also conveniently ignores MK Stalin’s letter to PM on April 18 demanding to lift restrictions on direct procurement. Even though he was not an elected Chief Minister when he wrote the letter to PM Modi, the chief of DMK who eventually became the CM a month later, had said that it was equally important to allow independent procurement of drugs, vaccines and medical equipment by the state governments.
Perhaps, Alt News thinks DMK is not a legitimate opposition party and its constant effort to pressurise the centre to decentralise vaccine procurement is not a reality for the alleged fact-checkers.
In its hurry to peddle misinformation against the Modi government on its vaccine policy, Alt News selectively puts up facts to claim that the opposition party-ruled states had never demanded the centre to decentralise the entire process of vaccine procurement. However, the above facts presented speak for themselves and highlight how Alt News has yet again a done a terrible job in whitewashing the mismanagement by the state governments in handling the vaccine procurement in the country.
Instead of questioning the state government on their constant flip-flop, Alt News yet again comes up with a lousy fact-check to blame PM Modi for speaking untruth about the state government’s decentralised vaccine policy. In fact, Alt News, just like it did in the “Congress toolkit” controversy, has ended up exposing the constant u-turns that state governments, especially opposition-ruled states, took when it comes to deciding on the procurement and distribution of vaccines in their respective states.
After sharing fake news and morphed images to mock the Prime Minister, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took the liberty to mock divyang people just to poke fun at Narendra Modi’s supporters.
In a poor and distasteful Tweet, Tharoor copy-pasted in all probabilities what looks like a WhatsApp forward to suggest that Andhbhakts (a term used to mock Modi supporters) should donate their eyes so they can continue to seek ‘Acche Din’ even after their death.
Received from a friend, tweeted without comment on #EyeDonationDay 10 June:
अंधभक्तों नेत्र दान अवश्य करें ? ताकि आपके मरने के बाद भी आपकी आँखे “अच्छे-दिन” की प्रतीक्षा करती रहें!#NationalOrganDonationDay 27 November
Tharoor did insert a nonsensical disclaimer of “tweeting without comment” to dust off his hands of the tasteless joke made as a member of Lok Sabha.
It is not sure if his Tweet was to motivate people to opt for eye donation to help the blind or to accomplish his daily quota of blind hate towards Prime Minister Modi. But his tweet mocks the BJP supporters who might opt to donate their eyes, as he suggests that even after their death, their eyes will remain blind supporters of the BJP.
Netizens react to Tharoor’s Tweet
Twitter users were quick to remind Shashi Tharoor of his utilization of eye donation to attack BJP supporters.
शशि जी, आप भी नेत्रदान जरूर करें ताकि आपके जाने के बाद भी आपकी आंखें वही करती रहें जिनके लिए वो जानी जाती हैं। pic.twitter.com/wZ2zh1EL7c
— THE SKIN DOCTOR ?? (@theskindoctor13) June 10, 2021
After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Dakshina Kannada opposed the Karnataka government’s move to pay allowances as Covid relief to Imams of 41 Mosques and Madrasas from the funds of the Hindu religious endowment department, the state government has put its decision on hold.
A relief package of Rs 3,000 each to imams and muezzins along with the temple priests serving in the ‘C’ category of temples under the Muzrai (Hindu religious endowment department) department was announced recently by the Karnataka government.
ಹಿಂದೂ ಧಾರ್ಮಿಕ ದತ್ತಿ ಇಲಾಖೆಯಿಂದ ಮಸೀದಿಯ ಮೌಲ್ವಿಗಳಿಗೆ ತಸ್ತಿಕ್ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ! Tastik/Monthly Salary for Masjid Maulvis is released from Hindu Endowments Department in Karnataka! Governments change, Appeasement continues! Temple Money is used to pay Salaries of Maulvis. pic.twitter.com/8dnCPCfqkf
Taking objection to temple funds being allocated elsewhere, the VHP in a memorandum submitted to state Muzrai Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary stated, “The money received from Hindu temples should be utilized for the temples and the welfare of the Hindu community.”
Muzrai Minister Poojary later assured the leaders that the decision will be withdrawn. Issuing an official statement, Poojary informed, “After the requests received from various Hindu organizations, I have instructed the officials to hold all the packages to other religious institutions immediately from the Religious Endowment department.”
Karnataka govt shelves Covid relief to Muslim clerics after VHP’s opposition. Govt also ordered that the 'Tasdik' allowance being given to 764 religious institutions be stopped.
— Darshan Devaiah B P (@DarshanDevaiahB) June 10, 2021
“A total of 764 other religious institutions in the state were provided financial assistance by the Hindu Religious Endowment department; the package to these institutions will be put on hold,” he added, as per an Indian Express report.
“Bring mosques and madrasas under the Karnataka Wakf Board to allocate relief funds”
Speaking to Indian Express, VHP divisional secretary Sharan Pumpwell said that additional provisions must be made by the government if they wish to allocate relief funds and allowances.
The #VishwaHinduParishad in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district opposed the government’s decision to pay allowances to Imams of Mosques and Madrasas in the district as #Covid lockdown compensation from the funds of the Hindu religious endowment department. @IndianExpresspic.twitter.com/YH2fCG34xj
— Darshan Devaiah B P (@DarshanDevaiahB) June 9, 2021
The VHP divisional secretary suggested that if the government wants to pay Muslim clerics, it should bring the mosques and madarsas of the Wakf Board under its own control and utilise their funds to benefit Imams.
Pumpwell informed, “Through Hindu Religious Endowment department, the government is providing the relief package to more than 150 mosques and their imams.”
Days after the Indian government issued a final notice to Twitter seeking compliance under the country’s new IT rules, the social media giant has written to the government saying they are in the advanced stages of finalising the appointment to the role of the Chief Compliance Officer.
In the letter written to the Indian government, Twitter has announced that they would be appointing a Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, in line with India’s new Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 Guidelines.
Twitter added that they will provide additional details with respect to new IT rules in a week.
Image Source: Republic TV
Earlier, Twitter had opposed to complying with the new digital rules notified by the government of India. Even though other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp had complied with the new laws, Twitter had last month asked the government for an additional three months for the same.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, which came into effect from May 25, mandates the social media intermediaries with more than 5 million users and providing messaging services to identify the first originator of problematic content that may harm the country’s interests. The companies should also appoint an Indian grievance officer to deal with the complaints.
As Twitter failed to comply, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had warned the social media giant that such non-compliance with India’s new IT rules would lead to unintended consequences, including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2020. The centre had sent three notices demanding Twitter to respect Indian laws.
Twitter to appoint Chief Compliance officer soon
After several warnings from the centre, Twitter seems to have fallen in line as they have now started to comply with India’s new IT rules.
“We are in advance stages of finalising the appointment to the role of Chief Compliance Officer, and we plan to provide additional details to you in the next several days, and at the latest within a week,” Twitter wrote to Centre, according to sources.
“In order to comply with underlying intention behind guidelines, we’ve appointed Nodal Contact Person and Resident Grievance Officer on contractual basis as we recruit to fill position on permanent basis,” Twitter wrote in its response to the government regarding compliance with IT rules.
Social media platform Twitter has also written to the government that it is in the advanced stages of finalising the chief compliance officer as per the new IT rules and sought another week to furnish additional details regarding the same. In its reply to the Ministry of Electronics and IT on June 7, Twitter said that it is making all efforts to comply with the new guidelines but has been unable to do so because of the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A 16-year-old girl’s body was found hanging from a tree in Lalimati forest in Jharkhand’s Palamu district on Wednesday. As per reports, the girl’s right eye was gouged out before she was killed and hanged on the tree.
The girl was the eldest of the local BJP leader’s five children and a resident of Budhabar village. Her body was cremated at the local crematorium on Wednesday evening.
The body of the 16-year-old girl found hanging from a tree on Wednesday. Image Source: indiatoday.in
The initial investigation led to the recovery of a mobile phone from the crime scene. An analysis of the call data records (CDR) of the phone has led to the arrest of one Pradeep Kumar Singh Dhanuk (23). As per reports, Dhanuk is a married man. Police suspects the involveent of multiple people in the murder.
Girl was missing since June 07
According to the family, the girl had left home at 10 am on June 7 after which she went missing. A missing complaint was filed on Tuesday, informed Ashok Kumar station in-charge (SI) of Panki police station.
While the police’s search for the girl was on, some locals found her body hanging from a tree in the forest near Budhabar village, Kumar added.
The distressing details revealed that the girl was beaten mercilessly before the culprits killed her and hung her body from a tree using a cloth, with her right eye gouged out.
The girl’s family also alleges that she was sexually assaulted before being murdered. However, it is yet to be confirmed.
The body was sent to the Medini Rai Medical College in Medininagar on Wednesday for a post-mortem.
Matter being probed from all angles
Informing that the police is investigating the matter from all angles, SP Kumar revealed the possibility of the victim being involved with the man as per preliminary evidence.
However, the girl’s family has taken strong objection to this. “There is information about a heated exchange of words and scuffle between the family and the victim a few days back, after which the victim went missing,” added SP Kumar.
Meanwhile, Palamu Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjeev Kumar has informed that the post-mortem report will establish whether this is a case of rape followed by murder.
Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo has assured that the party would demand an independent probe if the girl’s family is not satisfied with the police investigation.
On Wednesday, India recorded 6,148 deaths due to Chinese coronavirus within 24 hours on Wednesday. This has been the highest ever deaths recorded in single day in India since the beginning of the pandemic.
India reports 94,052 #COVID19 cases, 1,51,367 discharges & 6148 deaths (highest in one day) in last 24 hrs, as per Health Ministry
Total cases: 2,91,83,121 Total discharges: 2,76,55,493 Death toll: 3,59,676 Active cases: 11,67,952
However, the the unusually high number of deaths did not happen on one single day.
Bihar reconciles deaths due to COVID
Bihar government on Wednesday reconciled its actual death figures after a 20-day audit and added 3,951 deaths to the tally. This led to an increase of 72.8% in total deaths, where most were attributed to fatalities at private hospitals, homes and post-COVID complications which were not recorded earlier.
Deaths recorded in Bihar
As can be seen, there has been a sharp spike in deaths in Bihar on Wednesday.
In May this year, the Patna High Court flagged irregularities in death figures in Buxar. Subsequently, an audit was conducted and after 20 days of exercise the figure of deaths were reconciled.
Earlier too such reconciliation exercises were carried out because of which there was a spike in single day deaths.
