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Propaganda outlet Alt News ties itself up in knots while giving clean chit to Congress over the toolkit

OpIndia Staff
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Propaganda outlet Alt News ties itself up in knots while giving clean chit to Congress over the toolkit

Propaganda website Alt News, which had come up with an alleged ‘fact-check’ on Wednesday to give a clean chit to the Congress party in the latest Covid-19 ‘toolkit’ fiasco, has now ended up exposing themselves and as well as the Congress party.

On Wednesday, the so-called fact-checker Alt News had come up with a ‘fact-check’ to whitewash the allegations against the Congress party in the toolkit controversy. The toolkit document, allegedly linked to the Congress party, had got leaked on social media recently, which entailed a detailed plan of action for the Congress leaders and supporters to exploit the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in the country and target the Modi government.

The instructions issued in the Congress toolkit are all-encompassing and extensive to launch a formidable attack against the Modi government when they are engrossed in defeating the raging pandemic. From maligning the Kumbh Mela as a ‘super spreader’ event to unwarranted attacks against PM Modi for the Central Vista project, to collaborating with ‘friendly’ journalists and international media to defame the Modi government, the toolkit prepared by AICC Research Department had detailed instructions to the Congress leaders and supporters to milk the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and mount an anti-Modi propaganda blitz.

The toolkit expose had created a storm across the country, fuelling massive anger against the Congress party. Several people accused the grand old party of indulging in such cheap politics, especially during a national crisis, to further their political agenda against the Modi government. As accusations against the Congress party grew louder, the party entailed the services of the propaganda website Alt News to give a clean chit for themselves.

Alt News comes up with a flawed ‘fact-check’

Alt News hurriedly came up with a ‘fact-check’ report on Wednesday to call it a forged document and blamed BJP and its supporters for spreading misinformation against the Congress party. However, it seems like Alt News has done a very poor job in whitewashing the allegations against the Congress party as they came up with some dubious analysis and ludicrous arguments to claim that the document allegedly prepared by AICC Research Department is a forged one.

Here is a detailed report exposing how propaganda outlet Alt News came with a flawed and laughable logic to wash the sins of the Congress party. In its so-called fact-check, the Alt News gave a clean chit to the Congress party and blamed the BJP and its supporters for pushing misinformation against the BJP.

The lies of Alt News have now fallen like a house of cards as most of their claims are now being debunked. It is important to note that the documents to verify the authenticity of the toolkit was provided to Alt News by the Congress party, demonstrating a close association between the two entities. In response, the Alt News gave a clean chit to the Congress party and declared the toolkit to be fake, albeit based on flimsy arguments. 

Alt News peddles fake news, edits their report after getting caught

Hours after Alt News published its so-called ‘fact-check’ to give clean chit to the Congress party, several social media users began questioning their irrational theories in support of the Congress party and highlighted how Alt News used facts selectively to save the Congress party from the heat.

Realizing their mistake, Alt News has now silently altered their earlier ‘fact-check’ to put out more selective facts to defend their earlier argument. According to activist Ankur Singh, Alt News initially argued that the toolkit suggested responding to SoS calls for Covid-19 only when the users tagged the official handle of the Youth Congress (IYC) and shared a screenshot of the one user who did not tag the IYC and yet received help. 

However, as it turned, Alt News used a tweet by a person named Sakshi to declare that she was helped despite not tagging the IYC handles. In a hurry to give a clean chit to the Congress party, Alt News deliberately chose only those tweets that did not tag the IYC handle, omitting the ones where the user had tagged the handle.

As Ankur Singh exposed the lies of Alt News, the propaganda website has silently edited their so-called ‘fact check’ to delete the reference to Sakshi’s tweets that were used as evidence to prove that the Congress party had indeed helped people who had not tagged the IYC social media handles.

To substantiate their claim, Alt News replaced Sakshi’s tweets with journalist Aditya Raj Kaul’s tweets in its edited report.

In the edited report, Alt News claimed that IYC had helped Aditya Raj Kaul despite him not tagging the IYC handles or seeking any help from the Congress party. As per Alt News, the toolkit is a forged document as IYC had indeed helped people who had never sought help from the Congress party.

However, by altering their report, Alt News has actually exposed the Congress party further, rather than saving them from the latest accusations. In its report, Alt News shared a screenshot of Aditya Raj Kaul that was put out on 11:00 PM, May 18, to claim that Congress had helped the journalist even though he had not tagged them.

The response by IYC chief Srinivas to Aditya Raj Kaul came hours after the tool kit was exposed/ Image Source: Ankur Singh

Alt News’s correction exposed Congress further, validated the claims that toolkit is genuine

Amusingly, Alt News uses a tweet put out by the journalist hours after the toolkit was exposed. Alt News’s latest blunder only proves that the propaganda website and the Congress party are working in tandem. It seems like the Congress party was trying to cover its tracks by allegedly helping people to prove that they were indeed helping those people who have not asked them for any help during the crisis.

Perhaps, in her hurry to absolve the Congress party from accusations of creating a toolkit, Alt News seems to have failed to read the entire toolkit document. It is clearly mentioned in the Congress toolkit that the party workers must help journalists, media professionals and other influencers on a priority basis.

Congress toolkit

Following the protocol mentioned in the toolkit, the Congress party descended on Aditya Raj Kaul’s timeline to consider his request. It is worth mentioning that the request and help came hours after the toolkit was exposed on Tuesday. It seems like the Congress party was using media influencers to cover its tracks.

The tweet by Aditya Raj Kaul calling for help and the immediate response by the Congress party only proves that the Congress party was religiously following the protocols put out in the ‘toolkit’. To simply put, by adding Aditya Raj Kaul’s tweet, the Alt News has now exposed the modus-operandi of the Congress party, who were eager to help the journalists and media influencers despite no request from them.

‘If friendly media does not publish, send it to Caravan and National Herald’: Congress’ modus operandi as per toolkit

OpIndia Staff
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‘If friendly media does not publish, send it to Caravan and National Herald’: Congress’ modus operandi as per toolkit

As the so-called fact-checkers are busy fact-checking the first four pages of the ‘toolkit’ that has rattled the opposition, the fifth page of the document is now doing the rounds on social media completing the propaganda machinery loop.

The fifth page which is in continuation to point VII of the document recommends using media organizations such as ThePrint, The Wire, Scroll, The Quint and Outlook to highlight and publicize all Covid related stories.

It is interesting to note that the document also suggests passing off stories that cannot be published in these media houses to the likes of “The Caravan” and Congress party mouthpiece “National Herald.”

Page 05 of the alleged ‘toolkit’. Image Source: Twitter

Well here’s a snapshot of the Covid coverage by the aforementioned media publications.

Coverage of India’s Covid situation in some outlets mentioned in the alleged ‘Toolkit’

Moving on, the next point recommends mobilizing like-minded creative people from Bollywood to share tweets, memes, videos, cartoons and other viral posts targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

PIL filed in SC to probe the toolkit

As the debate on the authenticity of the documents continues, a Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking NIA probe into the “toolkit”, allegedly created by Congress’ research team to defame India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst the ongoing pandemic.

The PIL filed by lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha has made the Indian National Congress a Party to the petition while making the Union of India and Election Commission as respondents before the Apex Court.

The petition also seeks the suspension of the Congress party if the allegations made against them of creating the “toolkit document” are found to be true.

Fact-checking the documents

On the other hand, the fact-checkers have taken it upon themselves to probe the matter. A day after social media was awash with a toolkit document the so-called fact-checker Alt News has descended to declare the toolkit ‘fake’.

An article published on Alt News, notorious for peddling propaganda and fake news, gave a clean chit to the Congress party by declaring that the ‘toolkit’ a forged document, because the Congress said so. According to them, AICC Research Department chairman Rajeev Gowda gave documents and statements to Alt News to proclaim the toolkit to be fake.

Pro-Palestine Islamists march on British streets, call for a united attack on Israel by Muslim nations

OpIndia Staff
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Pro-Palestine Islamists march on British streets, call for a united attack on Israel by Muslim nations

Amidst ongoing tension between Israel and Gaza, pro-Palestine Islamists are holding protests across the world against Israel. Many videos have surfaced recently in which they were seen attacking Jewish people in the US, Canada, and the UK. On May 19 (local time), Jake Wallis Simons, Deputy Editor, Jewish Chronicle, shared a video on his Twitter account in which an Islamist was seen calling for Islamic countries to initiate Jihad against Israel.

In the video, the man said, “The reason why we are here is that we are Muslim. Those brothers in Palestine are our brothers. That’s our blood. Our war is one. Our deen is one. Our Usool is one. The solution is very simple. Jihad. We have armies. We have tanks. We have soldiers. What are they waiting for? This goes out to the Muslim armies. What are you waiting for? Jihad is the responsibility of you. Wipe out that Zionist density. How dare they? How can they occupy [our place]. The Muslim youth here, we the Muslim in the west, we are with you. We will make dua for you. Make Jihad. Remove the Zionist.”

The man further said, “You have these armies and tanks. What for? Remove them. We make dua for you. Inshaallah very soon, very soon, you will see when we remove these dictators, these tyrants, and we replace another Hazrat Umar, and we send you another Salahuddin. And you Zionist entity will be no more. We don’t fear anyone but our Allah. We don’t fear United Nations, British Government. We don’t give a damn. We only fear Allah. Jihad hasbinallah by the armies.”

It is notable here that lakhs of Muslims, and supporters of the Palestinian cause have been taking out protests marches in many countries like The UK, US and several Europian nations. Recently, protest marches in London and Belgium have seen hundreds of thousands of people joining in, calling for assault against Israel and condemning Israel’s action against Hamas rocket attack.

Who was Salahuddin?

The man mentioned sending another “Salahuddin” in his provocative speech. Salahuddin or Al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was a Sunni Muslim Kurd ruler and the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. He was the one who led Muslim military campaigns against the Crusader states. During his time, he ruled regions that are now known as Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, western Arabia, Yemen, Palestine, parts of western North Africa, and Nubia. In 1187, he had captured Jerusalem.

The Israel-Gaza conflict

The long-standing territorial-control issues between Israel and the pro-Palestinian forces have once again escalated, resulting in large-scale violence and attacks. The fresh violence in the region took place after the eviction of Palestinian tenants from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in east Jerusalem. Hamas, the terrorist organization, has fired thousands of rockets on Israel. Most were intercepted by Israel’s state-of-the-art defence system, popularly known as the Iron Dome. In retaliation, Israel has destroyed several buildings, including key Hamas operation sites, and command centres.

UP: Fruit vendor Md Farman caught spitting on cut watermelons, arrested by Muzaffarnagar Police

OpIndia Staff
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UP: Fruit vendor Md Farman caught spitting on cut watermelons, arrested by Muzaffarnagar Police

Several incidents of food vendors and sellers deliberately spitting on the food has come to light in the recent past. Despite arrests, the incidents seem to continue. In yet another incident, a man named Mohammad Farman was caught spitting on watermelons being sold by him in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.

A local resident caught Farman spitting inside the cut made on the watermelons being sold by him on a cart after which he filed a complaint on May 17. The act was also caught on a CCTV camera after which Farman was nabbed by Muzaffarnagar police. A case has been registered against Farman and is currently in police custody.

A series of similar such incidents were reported from Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and UP.

Series of spitting incidents 

Gurugram Police in April had filed a case against a Dhaba owner and cook for spitting on Tandoori rotis. 

In March 2021, a person named Mohsin was arrested in the Ghaziabad district for spitting on rotis. During interrogation, he revealed that he had been spitting in social events of non-Muslims for the last several years.

In the last week of March, another man named Mohammad Khalik was arrested from the national capital after a video of him spitting on the dough while preparing rotis in a tandoor had gone viral on the internet.

In another case of a cook spitting on rotis, Delhi Police had arrested two persons named Mohammad Ibrahim and Anwar after a video of them spitting on rotis had gone viral on the internet. They were working in a hotel in Seelampur. In the video that had gone viral, one of the two men was seen spitting on the rotis before putting them in a tandoor.

On February 20, Meerut Police arrested one Naushad alias Suhail for spitting on the food while working as a cook at a wedding. His video had gone viral on February 18, in which he was seen spitting on uncooked roti before putting it in tandoor.

Another video went viral on the internet that shows a man spitting on the dough as he prepares to make Rotis at Shamli in Uttar Pradesh. Shamli Police said on Twitter that the accused had been taken into custody and appropriate action under the ambit of the law will be taken. The name of the accused was not revealed.

From Gouri Amma to KK Shailaja: The patriarchal Left-wing political parties have no space for women at the top

OpIndia Staff
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From Gouri Amma to KK Shailaja: The patriarchal Left-wing political parties have no space for women at the top

Kerala’s former health minister KK Shailaja, popularly referred to as Shailaja Teacher by her supporters, was dropped from Pinarayi Vijayan’s new Cabinet as the communist party decided to induct new faces including Chief Minister-designate Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law and DYFI national president Mohammed Riyas. The former health minister was instead named as the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s chief whip.

CPI(M)’s decision to not include KK Shailaja in the cabinet despite her popularity and contribution to Kerala’s struggle against Covid and Nipah outbreak has come as a shock to many, who have been criticising the leftist government since the state committee announced its decision.

Many social media users who voiced strong protest against the party’s decision to drop ‘Shailaja teacher’, reminisced how it was the Pinarayi Vijayan’s government that had sung accolades for her during the Kerala assembly elections for leading the state through many crisis situations.

KK Shailaja and her contribution to Kerala’s public health system

KK Shailaja was the health minister in the first term of the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala. In the recently concluded Assembly elections, Shailaja was elected from the Mattannur assembly seat with a margin of around 60,000 votes. During her term as the health minister of the state, Kerala had witnessed an unprecedented growth of the public health system, particularly at the grassroots level. This development has ultimately played a vital role now helping Kerala fight the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, at one time, party circles had even highlighted Shailaja as the successor to Pinarayi Vijayan. And now, surprisingly, she has been denied a cabinet post this term.

Leftist parties anti-women culture

Though this decision by Kerala’s left government has been receiving widespread condemnation, it does not come as a complete surprise for those who are aware of the party’s patriarchal and misogynistic character. Well, this decision is being seen as another example of the anti-women culture of the Left parties.

Despite the Left parties rhetorics of often equating Left-wing politics with feminism, the fact is that women have never been welcomed in their political space.

And while talking about the hypocrisy of the left parties towards women’s participation in politics, it becomes important to remember the legendary Marxist firebrand and former minister KR Gouri, popularly known as Gouri Amma.

Gouri Amma, Kerala’s ‘iron lady’ and ‘architect of land reforms’ died on 11 July 2021, 9 days after the results of the Kerala assembly elections were declared. She was the lone surviving member of the first Kerala legislative assembly headed by legendary Communist leader EMS Namboothiripad in 1957 and the only woman in the first state cabinet.

The woman leader served as a member of various communist governments — 1957, 1967, 1980 and 1987 and was also a member of AK Antony and Oommen Chandy governments from 2001-2006. She was the longest-serving MLA after late K M Mani.

A report by the News Minute states that during the 1987 elections, though she was projected as the Chief Ministerial candidate, she was allegedly sidelined by the Marxist party which preferred E K Nayanar for the top post.

Likewise, Susheela Gopalan, a communist leader and minister in LDF Government was also believed to be sidelined by the party because of her gender.

Interestingly, KK Shailaja’s political journey with the leftist party in Kerala has been quite similar to that of Gouri Amma and Susheela Gopalan. Shailaja has also been sidelined at a time when it was being believed that in future she would prove to be the most powerful contender for the post of Chief Minister in the state.

Though the leftist government in Kerala has a history of dumping women politician, this has been a tradition with leftists parties all over India. CPM, the largest of the Left parties in India, which is also the parent party of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a major force in JNU campus politics formed its highest executive body called the politburo.

In 2005, Brinda Karat became the first woman politician to become a politburo member. It cannot be a coincidence that the same year her husband Prakash Karat was made the party general secretary when Brinda Karat was inducted in the party. Brinda Karat disappeared from the political scene as soon as Prakash Karat too went out of the spotlight.

Similarly, if we look at the CPI(ML), the parent party of AISA, the largest political organisation on the JNU campus, its politburo is a 17-member body, of which only one is female.

In short, there has hardly been any woman controlling these parties. This proves that the decision making power in these leftist parties have always primarily lied with men, with zero or token representation for women.

CPI-M, whose decline from the India political scenerio began in 2009, fielded just two women candidates (out of 42) in West Bengal in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Likewise, in the 2014 parliamentary elections, it fielded only 11 women candidates across the country, of whom only one could secure her seat.

In the last Assembly elections in Kerala, Left Democratic Front (LDF) fielded 17 women candidates in a 140-member assembly. Out of this, 12 were fielded by CPM and four by CPI. Moreover, after forming the government, the LDF government in Kerala allotted only two cabinet seats out of 19 to women.

The leftists have, basically, never considered women capable of running a party or government and taking any decisions on the party’s behalf.

Though the Indian political perspective towards women changed when the country got its first woman Chief Minister in 1963 and the first woman Prime Minister in 1966, the leftist parties attitude towards women’s participation in politics remained unchanged. It should also be noted that women have never been elevated to the position of chief minister or home minister by these leftists parties.

Amidst all this, what is worse is that these shunned women politicians such as the likes of KK Shailaja are expected to ‘welcome’ the decision of their master, however, unfair it may be. According to reports, after the announcement of her exclusion from the cabinet, Shailaja told Malayalam news channels that she will “abide” by the party call.

“Everyone worked hard in their depts. But it doesn’t mean that only I should continue. There are so many other people like me, they can also work hard. It’s very good decision”, Shailaja told media.

The second Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala will be sworn in on May 20, with 21-member cabinet. The ceremony has already sparked a row after Pinarayi Vijayan’s announced 500 participants will attend his oath-taking ceremony.

There was widespread criticism that the government should avoid extravaganza while the capital is under triple lockdown in the wake of a Covid surge.

Brazen Hinduphobia of Unacademy: Online education platform paints Hindus as anti-Muslim bigots, blames third party after outrage

OpIndia Staff
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Brazen Hinduphobia of Unacademy: Online education platform paints Hindus as anti-Muslim bigots, blames third party after outrage

Online education technology platform Unacademy has sparked many controversies. In the past, a video of an Unacademy tutor calling for students to pick up AK-47 had gone viral on the internet. Subsequently, another video of an Unacademy tutor going on a rant against Brahmins had surfaced on social media websites. Today, the online platform courted yet another controversy, reinforcing its Hinduphobic tendencies.

A social media user, Prakhar Bansal, who goes by the handle @PrakharBansal14, recently posted a screenshot that highlighted how the platform was peddling a dangerously anti-Hindu narrative through its online test module.

One of the questions on the platform’s Law Test Module read: “In a city named X, a group of Muslim people were carrying out their rally on the occasion of Eid. They were chanting their slogans and were celebrating their festivals. When they were passing through the streets of a Hindu dominated colony, the Hindus of the area started pelting stones at them and claimed that they outraged the religious feelings of Hindus. Is the claim correct?”

Unacademy toes left-liberal propaganda of demonising Hindus

Even if one assumes that the objective of the question might have been to sensitise the exam takers towards the menace of existing religious intolerance in the society, the explicit mention of the names of the religions in the question, with the negative portrayal of one religion, signified that it was only meant to fan further communal discord in the society, and hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

The negative portrayal of Hindus as the aggressors and the Muslims as the victims in the question by one of the test modules on Unacademy is unmistakable. In fact, it is in line with the left-liberal propaganda that tries often to demonise Hindus and whitewash the intolerant inclinations exhibited by Muslims.

When the online education platform used a figurative name ‘X’ to denote a town where the supposed incident took place, what stopped it from using abstract names to describe religions? The company could have surely used letters of the alphabet for religions similarly if its real objective was to explore the legitimacy of resentment felt by the members of one of two sparring communities. Instead, the real names of religions were deliberately used to project Hindus as an intolerant lot that harboured irrational hatred against Muslims.

The fact that the entrance exam questions are also inherently Hinduphobic in nature reveals how the entire system is rigged in perpetuating hatred against Hindus. Be it the opposition political parties, or the mainstream media, or the academicians and intellectuals, and now the technology platforms, the Hinduphobia is all too pervasive and systemic. A concerted attempt is being made to depict Hindus as villains while sweeping under the rug the hateful proclivities of the minorities, including Muslims.

Religions reversed to portray Hindus as aggressors and Muslims as victims

Besides, Unacademy shamelessly reversed the religion of the victims and the aggressors from real-world scenario — another trick out of the ‘liberal’ playbook — which entails interchanging the identities of victims and aggressors when the victims are Hindus and aggressors are non-Hindus. This is done to perpetuate the propaganda that Hindus are culprits while non-Hindus, including Muslims, are innocents.

While Unacademy would want us to believe that Hindus attacked Muslim devotees with stone-pelting, in the real-life world, exactly the opposite happens regularly. This has been the leitmotif of various communally charged-up skirmishes in various parts of the country. A mob of violent Muslims attacks Hindus for celebrating their festivals, or for taking out a religious procession in a Muslim majority area, which sometimes leads to clashes between the two communities.

Recently, a case of Muslim intolerance against Hindu festivals came up in the Madras High Court. Some Muslims in the district of Perambalur in Tamil Nadu have been objecting to the conduct of Hindu processions since 2012. They had consistently tried to stop and laid impediments to stop Hindus from carrying out their processions through Muslim-dominated regions. The community had dubbed the Hindu festivals as ‘sins’.

A petitioner had therefore approached the police for providing protection during the conduct of rituals and processions. The same was provided by the law enforcement authorities with restrictions.

When the matter came up for hearing before the Madras High Court, a 2-Judge Bench of N Kirubakarn and P Velmurugan noted that religious intolerance is detrimental to the secular fabric of the country. The Court noted that if such a ‘resistance’ to the conduct of religious festivals is reciprocated by another religious group, it might lead to riots and chaos.

While reading out the affidavit presented by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, the Madras High Court observed that objection to temple processions was raised from 2012 onwards. The Judges observed how no such problem existed prior to 2012. The Court pointed out how objections were raised by the Muslim community despite the Court granting permission to the Hindus to carry out temple processions (in accordance with Section 180A of the District Municipalities Act 1920).

In December 2020, Muslim mob pelted stones at Hindu groups for carrying out yatra near Begumbagh in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. According to the reports, several Hindus had taken out a Ramnidhi Sangrahan rally in Ujjain to collect donations for the Ram Mandir constructions at Ayodhya. The rally was scheduled to start from the tower area and end at Bharat Mata Mandir in Mahakal area.

As the rally reached the Muslim-dominated area of Begumbagh, a mob targeted the rally and pelted stones at them from the rooftops. The Hindu activists saw themselves surrounded in heavy stone pelting and escaped towards safety. However, they left their vehicles on the spot.

In February 2020, four separate incidents of attack on Hindus during the Saraswati Puja celebrations by Muslim mobs were reported from various places in Jharkhand. According to Jagran report, in Jharkhand’s Vidyasagar, Muslim mobs attacked Hindus who were carrying out a procession of Goddess Saraswati ahead of idol immersion. As they crossed locality dominated by Muslims, the local residents objected against Hindus playing religious songs near Karmatar area.

Unacademy apologises, blames third party for the question

After the widespread outrage on social media over the Hinduphobic question, the educational technology company announced that they have taken down the mock IPC examination paper containing the controversial question. They said that any hurt or offence caused is deeply regretted, and said that they unconditionally regret the reference to religions.

Unacademy added that the question paper was prepared by a third-party, and they have started efforts to tighten their internal review and quality process. The company also said that the future test papers will be scrutinised and modified to ensure that they are religion, community, and race agnostic.

Shahenshah Khan poses as Brahmin to marry Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh, later assaults her after identity is revealed

OpIndia Staff
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Shahenshah Khan poses as Brahmin to marry Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh, later assaults her after identity is revealed

In another case of alleged Grooming jihad, a Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh has filed a complaint against her Muslim husband on May 18 (Tuesday), for marrying her posing as a Hindu. She has also accused him of rape and assault. On the basis of the charges, the police have registered a case against Shahenshah Khan, a resident of Sarkahi village, under relevant sections of the anti-conversion law and other sections of the IPC.

The complaint was filed at Visheshwarganj police station, in which the 22-year-old Hindu woman, Sita, said that Shahenshah Khan married her posing as a Brahmin. Later, when his identity was revealed he forced her to have physical relations with him. Two members of his family have been abusing and beating her since then, alleged the woman in her complaint.

The Muslim man drugged and raped her after his identity was revealed, alleges the Uttar Pradesh woman

An investigation is underway and the husband is being questioned in the case, informed Additional Superintendent of Police (City), Kunwar Gyananjaya Singh.

The woman, who is a resident of Maharajganj district in the Visheswarganj area of ​​Bahraich, alleged that Shahenshah Khan lured her into marriage by posing as a Hindu. His identity was only revealed when the victim reached her in-law’s house after her wedding.

When the girl protested, the accused drugged her and forcibly raped her. The victim further alleged that she was administered high doses of drugs and was held hostage for several consecutive days by the accused. She furthered that two members of his family abused and assaulted her when she put up resentment.

During the investigation, it was found that the woman used to talk to Khan on phone and the two got married about three months ago. They used to have frequent fights and often approached the police, who use to sent them home after reconciliation. On Tuesday, however, the woman made these serious allegations against her husband.

Prima facie, the charges under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance seem suspicious, said the Additional Superintendent of Police (City), Kunwar Gyananjaya Singh, furthering that an investigation is underway and the husband is being questioned.

Uttar Pradesh: Monitoring Committees prove their effectiveness in combating Covid-19, conduct over 2 lakh tests in rural areas in a day

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Monitoring Committees prove their effectiveness in combating Covid-19, conduct over 2 lakh tests in rural areas in a day

While India has been hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Uttar Pradesh, the largest state by population has fared better in managing the situation compared to some other states. The state has around 1.2 lakh active cases, less than other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal etc. The Yogi Adityanath government has taken various steps in handling the situation, and one of them is the constitution of Monitoring Committees.

The Monitoring committees are playing a vital role in the ongoing battle against coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uttar Pradesh, as they are getting more than one lakh tests done in the rural areas of the state everyday. The tests are being conducted by the Rapid Response Teams (RRTs).

Representatives of civil society groups such as Asha, Anganwadi and ANM, who have been part to the committees, act as a shield to protect people from the disease by identifying suspected cases, expediting tests and facilitating treatment as fast as possible. They have been given oximeters and infrared thermometers to identify people with symptoms.

After identifying the suspected cases of Covid-19, the representatives pass on the information to the RRT which visits the residences of the suspected cases and conducts the tests. Subsequently, tests are conducted on the family members of the suspected cases also.

The monitoring committees are following the Yogi Adityanath Government’s mantra of ‘test, trace and treat’ against the novel coronavirus religiously. Apart from identifying all suspected Covid cases from door to door on the instructions of the Chief Minister, they are getting more than a lakh tests conducted daily through the RRTs in rural areas alone while the total daily tests are more than 2.50 lakh in the state. “Today UP has the unique distinction of being a state that is committed to eradicating Covid-19 from every village of the state”, a state govt release said. It added that thanks to the committees’ efforts, out of total 2.99 lakh tests conducted today, more than 2.19 lakh tests were conducted in the rural areas.

It is worth mentioning here that the members of the monitoring committees have visited 79,512 villages as part of a Covid-19 screening campaign launched by the Yogi Government on May 5. The members detected infections in 28,742 villages, following which targeted efforts were made to contain the spread of the virus in these villages. Today, 68 percent of the villages in UP are free from the virus, thanks to the timely efforts of the Yogi Government.

With the help of more than four lakh members of 60,589 monitoring committees, the Uttar Pradesh Government is inching closer every day in terms of flattening the curve of Covid infection.

Meanwhile, the state government has also started a special sanitation campaign in rural areas to prevent the virus from spreading. UP is the first state in the country where a sanitation drive has been undertaken on such a large scale in rural areas. The Government’s efforts to prevent infectious diseases before the rains have also paid off.

Furthermore, the members of the monitoring committees are also reaching out to rural population to raise their awareness of the importance of hygiene and social distancing in guarding against coronavirus. Awareness campaigns are also being run continuously on the importance of washing hands with soaps and wearing masks regularly. Members of the monitoring committees keep track of all the people arriving in villages in order to identify suspected Covid cases and facilitate testing and treatment of patients. They also distribute medical kits to patients in home isolation. The committees are also facilitating quarantine for suspected cases that can’t afford home isolation in schools, community centres and health centres in villages.

The monitoring committees have played crucial role in rapid management of Covid in the countryside of UP, earning the CM worldwide acclaim. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also praised the state government’s efforts to tackle Covid. The WHO, on its website, has praised the UP Government for speedy control of the disease.

Barabanki: While Muslim organisations protest demolition of 100-year-old illegal ‘mosque’, residents of the building had fled after receiving notice

OpIndia Staff
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Barabanki: While Muslim organisations protest demolition of 100-year-old illegal ‘mosque’, residents of the building had fled after receiving notice

A controversy has erupted after the administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district pulled down a 100-year-old illegally constructed ‘mosque’ in the area. Ever since the demolition process was carried out, Muslim organisations like the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and Samajwadi Party, the primary opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, started crying foul.

While they are slamming the local authorities for demolishing the 100-year-old Garib Nawaz ‘mosque’, the authorities maintained that the structure they demolished on court orders was indeed an illegal residential structure that encroached on the government land.

Officials confirmed that an illegal residential structure situated inside the ‘tehsil’ premises in Ram Sanehi Ghat area in the district, which the outraging Muslim organisations and opposition is claiming to be a ‘mosque’, was demolished on the orders of a sub-divisional magistrate’s (SDM) court in Ram Sanehi Ghat.

They said that a notice was served on the people, who had been residing there, asking them to produce documents in support of their claim but they fled after serving of the notice.

District Magistrate Adarsh Singh also confirmed: “A notice was served on people concerned on March 15, giving them an opportunity to put forth their views over the ownership but those residing there fled after receiving the notice”.

Singh furthered that the tehsil administration got the possession of the structure on March 18.

He said the the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had disposed of a petition filed in this connection on April 2, which proved that the construction was illegal.

A case was filed in the court of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ram Sanehi Ghat, and its orders were complied with on May 17. Joint magistrate Divyanshu Patel also termed the construction as illegal and the building was brought down on court orders, he said.

The Barabanki police also responded to a Tweet by the Samajwadi Party, wherein the party shared its Facebook post which condemned the UP government’s decision to ‘demolish a hundred-year-old mosque’.

Muslim organisations and Samajwadi Party rage over the demolition of Barabanki illegal residential structure

After the incident, the Samajwadi Party, in a Facebook post, slammed the BJP government in the state for “doing politics by spoiling the country’s Ganga Jamuni culture”.

The party spokesperson wrote that the “former Chief Minister Shri Akhilesh Yadav said that BJP wants to spread religious hysteria through hate politics. Demolishing a hundred-year-old mosque is a misuse of power”, wrote Rajendra Chaudhary adding that “Shri Akhilesh Yadav has demanded the investigation of the Barabanki incident from the Hon’ble High Court sitting judge and rebuild the mosque”.

The District President of Samajwadi Party Maulana Ayaz Ahmad also called it an embarrassing incident and said that the authorities took advantage of the Corona curfew to bring down the century-old structure registered in the name of the Waqf Board.

Meanwhile, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) working general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani said in a statement: “The century-old Garib Nawaz mosque in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil was demolished by the administration without any legal justification on Monday night in the presence of police”.

Accusing the authorities of pulling down the ‘mosque’ without prior notice, Rehmani furthered: “There was no dispute relating to the mosque. It is also listed with the Sunni Waqf Board. The SDM of Ram Sanehi Ghat had asked for papers of the mosque from the mosque committee in March against which the mosque management committee had approached the Allahabad High Court.”

Saying so, the All-India Muslim Law Board (AIMPLB) working general secretary demanded a judicial inquiry into the case by a sitting High Court judge and also asked for the suspension of officials responsible for the action.

Muslim organisations threaten legal action, ask for reconstruction of ‘mosque’

The AIMPLB also demanded that the process of removing the debris from the spot should be halted. The general secretary said that assurance should be given to them that no other structure will be allowed to come up on the land.

“It is the duty of the government to construct the mosque at the place and hand it over to the Muslims,” he said.

Adding to the controversy, the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board also threatened legal action. Condemning the incident and terming it as a blatant misuse of power, the Waqf Board chairman Zufar Farooqui said: “The mosque near the tehsil premises has been demolished by the Ram Sanehi Ghat SDM in the name of removing encroachment. I strongly condemn this illegal and arbitrary action”.

Propaganda outlet Alt News ends up exposing itself, shows how they work with Congress to attack BJP’s political moves

OpIndia Staff
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Propaganda outlet Alt News ends up exposing itself, shows how they work with Congress to attack BJP’s political moves

A day after social media was awash with a toolkit document, allegedly linked to the Congress party, which entailed a detailed plan of action for the Congress leaders and supporters to exploit the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country and target the Modi government, the Congress party used the so-called fact-checker Alt News to declare the toolkit ‘fake’. The party gave documents to the propaganda website to make its case, and the site made some dubious analysis to claim that the document allegedly prepared by AICC Research Department is forged on a real letterhead.

An article published on Alt News, notorious for peddling propaganda and fake news, gave a clean chit to the Congress party by declaring that the ‘toolkit’ was created on a forged document. According to them, AICC Research Department chairman Rajeev Gowda gave documents and statements to Alt News to proclaim the toolkit to be fake.

Alt News declares toolkit ‘fake’ because the font on its letterhead differs from the Congress document it received

In its article, Alt News said the letterhead of the Central Vista document it received from the Congress party did not match with the one on the party’s COVID-19 toolkit and therefore the document was fake.

Source: Alt News

Just because the font on the header and footer of the two documents were different, Alt News declared that the toolkit was a fake document and not created by the Congress party. In all likelihood, the fonts could have deliberately been kept different for plausible deniability by the Congress party, which means to keep an opportunity open to distance from the document if it becomes public.

The Alt News argument claims that all the documents published by the Congress party have to use the same typographical style. This is a completely laughable argument, as even the same person can use different fonts in different documents. For a large organisation like Congress, it is normal if various documents published in different times use different fonts and style. It is not logical to declare a document fake just because the font styles are different.

Alt News claims since the strategies suggested in toolkit were already implemented, it is a fake document

Alt News then comes up with a ludicrous explanation to discredit the authenticity of the toolkit. It says the toolkit is a document to lay down strategies for the future course of action, adding that most of the things suggested in the toolkit had already taken place and therefore it not genuine. What Alt News fails to factor in is that though the document might have been just a day old for the general public on social media, it might as well had been in use by the Congress IT cell for some time, providing time enough time to implement the strategy listed in the toolkit.

Source: Alt News

As such,  if events that preceded the toolkit expose are considered, it can be inferred with reasonable certitude that there was an uncanny symmetry between the past incidents and the plan of action suggested in the toolkit. The Congress party’s own behaviour, the responses of the leaders and the ecosystem in general dovetailed perfectly with the set of instructions issued in the toolkit.

The maligning of the Kumbh Mela as ‘super spreader’ event, the unwarranted attacks against PM Modi for the Central Vista project, international media’s attack against the Modi government and its COVID handling, there have been various incidents in the recent past that suggest that the Congress supporters were acting in accordance with what was asked of them in the toolkit. Yet, the Alt News article states that no social media strategy was implemented.

‘Fact-checker’ Alt News used factually incorrect data to declare the document to be fake

Twitter user and Consultant Ankur Singh, who goes by Twitter handle @iAnkurSingh conclusively debunked this shoddy attempt by the Alt News to help Congress dissociate itself from the toolkit. Alt News relied on peddling fake news to declare the toolkit to be a forged document. It argued that the toolkit suggested responding to SoS calls for COVID-19 only when the users tagged the official handle of the Youth Congress (IYC) and shared a screenshot of the one user who did not tag the IYC and yet received help. However, as it turned, the claim made by the Alt News was fake and the user had indeed tagged the official handle of the IYC. While the user had posted multiple tweets, Alt News deliberately chose only those tweets that didn’t tag the IYC handle, omitting the ones where the user had tagged the handle.

Next, Alt News said the toolkit is fake because the term ‘Modi Variant’ was used by people who were not Congress workers, as directed in the document. It argued that the ‘Modi Variant’ was used by the likes of Sonia Faleiro, Aparna Jain and Seema Chisti, and since they are not bona fide Congress workers, the document is fake.

However, as per the document, the term “Modi Strain” was meant to be used by “friendly intellectuals and opinion-makers” and not for the Congress workers. Considering the political inclinations of Faleiro, Jain and Chisti, one can assert that they are inspired by the Congress party’s ideology.

Additionally, it must be brought to the notice here that the left-leaning propaganda website branded people like Anand Ranganathan as “BJP supporter” in the so-called fact-check article while insisting on people like Faleiro being ‘neutral’ because she has no Congress membership.

In another instance, Alt News defends the Congress party saying the ‘Super Spreader Kumbh’ was used only 15 times on social media websites and therefore, the toolkit is fake. However, the truth is that ‘Super Spreader’ adjective has been used hundreds of times by Congress supporters and sympathisers to describe the Kumbh Mela. It’s just that on many occasions, the users simply used different spellings, like using ‘Spreaders’ instead of ‘Spreader’. Just because Alt News didn’t check with all the possible variants of spellings people may use, they declared that the term was not used much.

The close association of Alt News with the Congress party was evident when one of the spokespersons of the party said that the authenticity of the toolkit would be ascertained by the ‘fact-checkers’. During a news debate yesterday, Congress leader Gaurav Kapoor said that whether the document is fake or not will be determined by ‘fact-checking’ websites.

It must also be noted that the documents to verify the authenticity of the toolkit was provided to Alt News by the Congress party, demonstrating a close association between the two entities. In response, the Alt News gave a clean chit to the Congress party and declared the toolkit to be fake, albeit, based on flimsy arguments. The fact that the so-called fact-checking website was working closely with a political party and actively assisting it to extricate itself from the political quagmire it has found itself also raises questions on organisations like IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) that had certified it.

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