A 42-year-old web series maker was honey-trapped and looted of Rs 1.6 lakh allegedly by an actress and her three aides. According to the reports, a web series maker became the victim of a honeytrap after a gang of four, including a struggling actress, extorted Rs 1.6 lakh from him on the pretext of not pressing rape charges against him.
The four had accused him of raping the actor on the pretext of casting couch and extorted money. However, the web series producer said that it was consensual sex between him and the actress.
Reportedly, the victim was approached by an aspiring actress for a role in his web series. Later, the producer had called her for an audition on March 6, and the two got intimate.
Threatened to file rape cases, robbed money from victim
A few days later, the actress’s boyfriend accused him of exploiting her and threatened the series maker of filing a rape case against him. The victim said that the actress had given her consent. However, the boyfriend disagreed with the victim.
The actress then invited the producer for a settlement at Ghatkopar. Four people, including the actress and her boyfriend, met the victim and demanded an extortion amount of Rs 10 lakh. As the victim refused, the accused took his phone and transferred Rs 1.4 lakh to herself using UPI app. Later, the victim was taken to Wadala and Sion, where again he was forced to withdraw Rs 20,000 in cash, which they took away.
After robbing him, the accused let him go, alleged the victim in his complaint. Meanwhile, Pantnagar police have registered a complaint and have begun a probe into the incident that took place on March 10. No arrests have been made yet.
As per Law Minister Pratap Jena of the BJD-led Odisha government, the state has initiated a process to sell 35,272 acres of land that belongs to Shri Jagannath Mandir in Odisha and six other states. While giving a reply to a question of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Mohan Charan Majhi, Jena said that the state had formed a committee under the chairmanship of then-Governor BD Sharma. The Committee recommended the sale of temple land. The government is taking the necessary steps to sell 35,272.235 acres of land properties of the temple.
Jena further added that the Shri Jagannath Temple of Puri owns 60,426.943 acres of land on 24 of the 30 districts of Odisha. Out of this land, the temple administration could prepare the final Record of Rights (RoR) over 34,876.983 acres. The minister said, “In accordance with the recommendation of the commission, steps are being taken to sell out the land as per state government’s approved Uniform Policy (Saman Niti).”
Temple land in six states marked for sale
The Law Minister further said that the government has already sold out 315.337 acres of temple land that included the Bharati Matha building in Cuttack. Rs.11.20 crore was earned from selling the said land that has been deposited in the corpus fund of the temple. The government has identified 395.252 acres of land in six states, including West Bengal (322.930 acres), Maharashtra (28.218 acres), Madhya Pradesh (25.110 acres), Andhra Pradesh (17.020 acres), Chhattisgarh (1.700 acres) and Bihar (0.274 acres).
The minister said that approx 100 acres of land had been identified in the Bagha area. The government collects a share amount of paddy on the said land from the sharecroppers. A Khamari has been engaged at Bagha and another at Dochhian to take care of the temple properties in those areas. Around 582.255 acre of land in the Khurda district is under Odisha Cashew Development Corporation’s possession on lease. The government gets Rs.3 lakh every year for the said land.
Encroachers will be asked to pay for the land
As per the government’s decision, those who have encroached temple land for more than 30 years can take possession of the land by paying Rs. 6 lakh per acre. Those who encroached the land for less than 30 but more than 20 years will have to pay Rs.9 lakh per acre. Those who have encroached the land less than 20 years but more than 12 years will have to pay Rs.15 lakh per acre to take possession of the land.
Two Chinese nationals were caught with fake Aadhaar cards and other documents, while boarding a flight from Bagdogra airport, Siliguri to Hyderabad. The fake Aadhaar card bore Uttar Pradesh’s address.
As reported by the Hindustan Times, the two men, identified as Zhang Jun (39) and Kaileng (42) were detained by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel. As per reports, they were boarding an IndiGo flight to Hyderabad and were scheduled to travel to Tirupati.
Fake Aadhar card recovered from the duo. Image source:timesnownews.com
Initial investigation reveal that they entered India through Nepal border at Panitanki in North Bengal. As per their passports, they had visited Pakistan in 2018 and 2019. They exited Nepal on January 13, 2021 and were since staying in India even after their visa expired. The hotel they checked into in Siliguri was booked in the name of two Nepali nationals who were travelling with them. However, the Nepali nationals have since left for their country.
Even though the first phase of the assembly elections is just 10 days away, the exodus of leaders from Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has not stopped. The latest to leave the Mamata Banerjee led ruling party to join BJP is going to be veteran leader Sisir Adhikari, the father Suvendu Adhikari, who had joined BJP in December.
#NewsAlert | Battle for Bengal: TMC MP Sisir Adhikari, Suvendu Adhikari's father says he will go for PM Modi's public meeting in Contai. He also assures that he will campaign for Suvendu Adhikari in the upcoming elections.
Ending speculations about his father joining BJP, today Suvendu Adhikari announced that Sisir Adhikari will be present in a rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Contai (Kanthi) in East Midnapore district on 24th March. It is being reported that Sisir Adhikari will officially join BJP in the presence of PM Modi at that rally. It may be noted that Sisir Adhikari is Lok Sabha MP from Kanthi. Speaking at an election rally at Chandipur today, Suvendu Adhikari added that he will ask his father to attend Amit Shah’s rally as well.
Earlier Sisir Adhikari had said that he will campaign for his son Suvendu Adhikari if he is asked to do it. He had said he has no problem attending a BJP rally for his son, giving an indication that he may join BJP. It may be noted that campaigning for Suvendu Adhikari means campaigning against Mamata Banerjee, as she is contesting against Suvendu from Nandigram.
Even after his two sons had joined the BJP, Sisir Adhikari had chosen to stay in TMC. But this changed after Mamata Banerjee chose to contest against his son Suvendu from Nandigram, changing her seat. Sisir Adhikari has said that the CM has changed her seat only to end the political career of his son.
The move to induct the senior MP into BJP gained momentum after BJP MP Locket Chatterjee visited him recently. She had gone to Sisir Adhikari’s house to invite him to attend Narendra Modi’s rally.
He has also said that he has come under attack from fellow TMC workers for his sons. He has been insulted, termed as Mir Jafar, for the acts of his sons, angering the veteran leader. Due to these reasons, he has finally decided to join the BJP.
Interestingly, in December after Suvendu Adhikari had joined the BJP, TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee mocked Suvendu Adhikari for failing to shift his father and two brothers from TMC to BJP. “You have failed to bloom the lotus in your own house. How can you make the lotus bloom in the entire state?” he had said.
Suvendu Adhikari’s father and Kanthi MP Sisir Kumar Adhikari, his brother and Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari and another brother and Chairman of Kanthi Municipality Soumendu Adhikari were still leaders of TMC at that time. However, In January this year Soumendu Adhikari also joined BJP. Now with Sisir Adhikari set to join BJP, Dibyendu Adhikari will be the only member of the Adhikari family to remain in TMC.
Amidst the shocking revelations in the Antilia bomb scare, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh has been transferred and posted as DG Home Guard. Singh is replaced by Hemant Nagrale, who will be the new Commissioner of Police in Mumbai.
सरकारचा मोठा निर्णय श्री हेमंत नगराळे होणार नवे मुंबई पोलीस आयुक्त श्री रजनीश शेठ यांच्या कडे पोलीस महासंचालक महाराष्ट्र राज्य या पदाचा अतिरिक्त कार्यभार श्री संजय पांडे यांच्या कडे महाराष्ट्र राज्य सुरक्षा महामंडळाची जवाबदारी श्री परमवीर सिंह यांच्या कडे गृह रक्षक दलाची जवाबदारी
The transfer comes in the midst of an ongoing investigation in the Antilia bomb scare in which the role of Mumbai Police Sachin Vaze has come under the scrutiny of investigative agencies. Vaze was recently arrested by the NIA in connection with the Antilia bomb scare case. It was also reported that Vaze had sought the CCTV footage of his own society, presumably with the purpose of destroying the evidence. It was also revealed that the explosives-laden Scorpio car found outside the Ambani residence was never stolen and was used by Vaze.
Yesterday, in another sensational disclosure, it came to fore that the vehicles—Scorpio and Innova—were driven by drivers who were employed with the police force. Subsequently, Vaze got a Mercedes with a fake number plate inside the Mumbai Commissionerate precinct without getting its details registered at the entrance was also revealed.
It is pertinent to note that it was the Param Bir-headed review committee that reinstated Sachin Vaze after 16 years despite a court order against the controversial cop.
Speculations of Param Bir Singh resigning from his post were rife after revelations in the Antilia bomb scare
Earlier today, an Indian Express report claimed that Sachin Vaze stage-managed the planting of a bomb outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia on instructions of Mumbai Commissioner of Police, Param Bir Singh. The report says that an unnamed Maharashtra Minister made these allegations. The report further states that Mumbai CP Parambir Singh may be fired soon. The same is believed to have been discussed in the meeting held on Monday between Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
An unnamed Maharashtra minister reportedly said that Parambir Singh instructed Sachin Vaze to plant the bomb to show that the richest man in India is also not safe from threats to their lives and that they needed Z plus security. He further claimed that because of loopholes, the plan flopped. However, it is unclear whether the plan was the discovery of the explosives or they were meant to go off at some point, subsequently causing loss of lives and property.
Continuing his attack against PM Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tried to discredit the electoral mandate won by him by stating that Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi used to win elections as well.
“Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. It wasn’t like they weren’t voting but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote,” Gandhi said in online interaction with Brown University professor Ashutosh Varshney, faculty and students.
Rahul Gandhi tried to draw a false equivalence between democratically elected PM Modi and authoritarian dictators Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi to allege that even autocratic rulers conducted elections to establish their legitimacy.
“An election is not simply people going and pressing a button on a voting machine. An election is about narrative. An election is about institutions that make sure that the framework in the country is operating properly, an election is about the judiciary being fair and a debate taking place in parliament. So you need those things for a vote to count,” he said.
While Gandhi raised aspersions on the legitimacy of the Modi government and insinuated that the institutions in the country are not free to work independently, it is an opportune moment to revisit the time when former Indira Gandhi, dubbed by many as India’s first dictator, had gone to pay a visit to Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi and was admired by Iraqi tinpot autocrat Saddam Hussein. Indira Gandhi is Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother.
Saddam Hussein was a great admirer of Indira Gandhi: Former Indian Foreign Secretary
The former Indian diplomat Romesh Bhandari in an interview with The Hindustan Times in 2003 recollected a meeting he had with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein when he was posted in Baghdad as India’s Ambassador. Bhandari claimed that Hussein was a great admirer of Indira Gandhi and held her in high regard.
It is important to note here that the meeting between Hussein and Bhandari had happened in the wake of the Emergency imposed in India by Indira Gandhi. In June 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency in India, allowing elections to be suspended and civil liberties to be curbed. Freedom of expression was suppressed and those who dared to denounce the Emergency were summarily put behind the bars.
Indira Gandhi with Saddam Hussein(Source: Nayi Duniya)
Mrs Gandhi had also visited Iraq in 1975 when Saddam Hussein was its ruler. According to many reports, Saddam Hussein had picked up Mrs Gandhi’s suitcase during her visit. It is alleged that when she lost her Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in the 1977 elections, Saddam offered Indira Gandhi permanent accommodation in Baghdad. Speculations are also rife that it was Indira Gandhi who named Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay.
Indira Gandhi visits Libya to meet Muammar Gaddafi
In the light of Gandhi’s reference to Muammar Gaddafi, it is notable to mention that the former Indian Prime Minister and Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi had visited Libya to meet with the autocrat leader. In fact, Mrs Gandhi remains the only Indian prime minister to date to have set her foot in Libya.
In 1983, Mrs Gandhi was miffed with the Libyan representative who was in India to attend a seventh non-aligned summit under her leadership. Muammar Gaddafi, the ruler of Libya sent Maj. Abdel Salam Jalloud, his closest friend from their days at the military academy of Benghazi, to New Delhi to represent Libya.
However, during his visit to Charminar in Hyderabad, Jalloud disregarded the diplomatic protocols, abruptly started dancing on the roof of the car. Mrs Gandhi was visibly rattled and furious at Jalloud’s impertinence and the relations between India and Libya took a nosedive. She thought Jalloud was trying to influence Indian Muslim voters
Indira Gandhi with Muammar Gaddafi and his family(Source: Twitter)
But Gaddafi was determined to win back Mrs Gandhi’s support back. In his attempt to please Mrs Gandhi, quietly sent his second wife and mother of seven of the eight Gaddafi children, Safia Farkash el-Brasai, to New Delhi to apologise to Indira Gandhi for Jalloud’s behaviour and to invite the Prime Minister to Tripoli. Gaddafi’s charm-offensive worked and in less than a year, Gandhi was on her visit to Libya.
A year after the Wuhan coronavirus ravaged the world causing millions of deaths, the People Republic of China has now announced that it would resume international exchanges under strict epidemic prevention measures.
According to the reports, the Chinese embassies in at least 20 countries have announced an ‘eased visa policy’ to allow foreigners to visit China, provided that they have been inoculated with any of the Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines. The Chinese administration has liberalised its visa regime a year after shutting its borders for international travel due to Covid-19.
Multiple Chinese embassies worldwide, including those in the United States, United Kingdom, India, have issued notices on Monday suggesting the procedures to apply for visas to enter China.
However, one has to be fully vaccinated using Covid-19 vaccines made in China and have the vaccination certificate to prove it before applying for the Visa.
Those people with valid residence permits can enter China without new visas. However, persons who have do not have residence permits can also apply, but they need to have stronger reasons or specific documents to meet the requirements. This would apply from this week to all the persons visiting the Chinese mainland for work resumption, business travel, or for “humanitarian needs”, such as reuniting with family members.
Each embassy has issued its own notice that differs in wording. However, the general regulations are that foreigners from certain countries who have been fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines require fewer documents to apply for visas.
Need Covid-19 negative certificates, quarantine compulsory
The Chinese embassy in India has also issued a similar notice saying the country will open visa applications to select people who have taken a China-made jab. However, there is no Chinese-made Covid vaccine available in India.
“Foreigners who are the family members of Chinese citizens or holders of Chinese Permanent Resident’s Permit, such as their spouse, parents, children and the kinship of brothers, sisters, grandparents and grandchildren living in the same household, with the purpose of family reunion, providing filial piety for the aged, visiting relatives and other relevant humanitarian emergencies, are allowed to submit their visa applications through Chinese Visa Application Service CenterVFSto Chinese Embassy or Consulates in India following the same way as before the epidemic occurred,” read the notice issued by Chinese Embassy in Delhi.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, persons need to submit certificates of negative results from Covid-19 nucleic acid tests along with IgG antibody tests before they board the flight.
In addition to that, foreigners travelling to China should follow the regulations and undergo the necessary quarantine by the Chinese local authorities upon their arrival in China for up to 21 days. Applicants should also wait for 14 days after receiving a Chinese-made vaccine before seeking a visa to enter China.
Interestingly, the Chinese vaccines have been met with some suspicion as serious questions are being raised against the efficacy of their Covid-19 vaccines. Also, there is very less information available compared to those produced by other major powers.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Pradip Bhattacharya wrote a letter to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, expressing his concern over both the heavyweight leaders possibly campaigning for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress for the upcoming West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections. Bhattacharya, a 2nd term Rajya Sabha MP representing West Bengal, speculates in his letter that the presence of “Star Campaigners” like Sharad Pawar and Tejashwi Yadav will “create confusion among West Bengal voters”.
Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya writes to NCP’s Sharad Pawar & RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav over campaigning with Trinamool Congress, for #WestBengalElections2021
“Your presence as Star Campaigners will create confusion among West Bengal voters. Avoid campaigning for TMC,” he said
In his letter, Mr. Bhattacharya explicitly requests both Sharad Pawar and Tejashwi Yadav to not campaign on behalf of Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. In the run up to these elections, multiple Congress allies, whether at the Central level or in state governments, have distanced themselves from Congress, choosing to support the Trinamool Congress instead. The foremost reasoning of Congress’s multiple allies seems to stem from the fact that Mamata’s TMC, which is presently governing West Bengal, is the strongest bulwark against the so-called “communal forces” of the BJP.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an ally of the Congress in Bihar’s Mahagathbandhan and Jharkhand’s UPA government, has already backed TMC earlier this month. After meeting Mamata Banerjee, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav at the time said, “This is a battle for values. Laluji ka nirnay hai Mamataji ko full support karna hai (Laluji has decided that we should fully support Mamata ji). We will stand by her wherever we can. This is a larger fight to stop communal forces from dividing our nation.” Mr. Yadav further went on to add, ““Bengal has a lot of Hindi-speaking people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. I would appeal to everyone to back Mamata Didi with all our strength to ensure her win. We support her in her fight for Bengal’s language, culture, literature.”
The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections are scheduled to be held between 27 March to 29 April 2021 in 8 phases. These elections are a three-way political battle between the coalitions of the Trinamool Congress along with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the NDA with BJP at its helm along with five hill based Gorkha parties and All Jharkhand Students Union, and the Sanyukta Morcha with the Congress party at its helm along with its once arch-rival Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Islamist Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF).
According to reports from Myanmar, the Myanmar military regime has seized the bank accounts of George Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF) in the country. The military regime in Myanmar accuses OSF Myanmar of violating multiple financial restrictions on the activities of organizations like OSF.
The Military regime on Monday announced the arrest warrants for 11 staff members of OSF Myanmar through Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV). These arrest warrants include the top management of the foundation, with reports revealing the Finance Manager of OSF Myanmar already in detention and going through interrogation since at least Friday.
The Myanmar military junta accuses OSF Myanmar of multiple financial improprieties. The most prominent accusation is a failure to obtain approval from the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM)’s Foreign Exchange Management Department for depositing US$5 million (7.04 billion kyats) with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank (SMED) in Myanmar in 2018. OSF Myanmar is also accused of illegally withdrawing $1.4 million from its account at SMED a week after the military junta takeover in Myanmar at the beginning of February. The Military has also seized OSF banks accounts in the private banks of Myanmar, collectively amounting to the tune of $3.81 million.
OSF is accused of providing financial support to civil disobedience movements against the military rule.
Military regime accuses Aung San Suu Kyi of meeting George Soros
On March 12th, the Central Bank of Myanmar notified all international and domestic NGOs that all financial transactions since April 1st 2016 involving international organizations or individuals from abroad are to be reported to the CBM. This is seen as a move to investigate the finances of organizations like the OSF since the civilian government of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, rose to power in early 2016. The Military junta also accuses Aung San Suu Kyi of meeting with George Soros four times between 2014 to 2017 and OSF deputy chair Alexander Soros six times from 2017 to 2020 in her capacity as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to Prime Minister).
The Union Solidarity and Development Party, a Myanmar political party known for its close ties with the military, have accused the Open Society Foundations of attempting to manipulate Myanmar’s politics through its activities in the country. In 2017, a Myanmar lawmaker objected to a ministerial appointment by the NLD government, citing the appointee’s failure to disclose his previous work for George Soros.
OSF responds, calls for the immediate release of staffers
The Open Society Foundations responded to the Myanmar military junta on Tuesday, calling for the immediate release of the OSF staff member currently detained by the junta. “The Open Society Foundations are deeply concerned about reports that an OSM (Open Society Myanmar) staff member has been detained in Myanmar. We call for her immediate release. We are alarmed by reports that authorities are seeking to interrogate other staff members,” Open Society Foundations said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
The OSF has also rubbished the Military junta’s allegations of financial impropriety on the part of OSF Myanmar. “Claims of financial misconduct, including that OSM acted illegally by withdrawing their own funds in local currency from the SMID bank, are false. Claims that OSM used these funds for illegal purposes are false. These funds were used for purposes fully within the objectives of OSM.” the Open Society Foundations told Reuters.
The Myanmar Army is in control of Myanmar after staging a coup in the early morning hours of 1st February 2021. According to reports, the Myanmar military’s intervention came after weeks of continued friction between the country’s military, which ruled the country for over five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of irregularities in the 2020 Myanmar General Elections.
The Trinamool Congress Party has long been accused of harbouring perennial hatred for Hindus and Hinduism. Be it Mamata Banerjee’s objections to the Jai Shri Rama slogans or the state government’s imposition of restrictions on the Hindu festivals, the TMC, has time and again, manifested their contempt for Hindus in the state. Recently, this disdain for Hindus, Lord Rama and Hinduism was writ large when TMC MP Mahua Moitra attempted to take a swipe at UP Yogi Adityanath after he addressed a rally in Bengal’s Purulia.
Ahead of the upcoming polls in West Bengal, UP CM Yogi Adityanath was in the state as a star campaigner for the BJP. Yogi, in his characteristic demeanour, promised to establish a UP-like culture in West Bengal, should the BJP gets elected in the state. He added that the culture of violence that has been endemic to the TMC rule will be over, and all the goons patronised by the party will be punished.
Yogi’s assertions evidently grated on the TMC MP’s nerves and she was quick to issue a riposte. Perhaps, Yogi’s remarks on the culture of violence fostered in West Bengal under the TMC regime had set Moitra’s teeth on edge. However, in a bid to run Yogi down, Moitra ended up insulting Hindus and their culture.
In a tweet shortly after Yogi’s rally, Moitra tweeted that his “thok do culture” from his “vanar sena commune” wouldn’t work in West Bengal. “So Yogi CM comes to WB today, says he will kill “TMC goondas” one by one, Gudduji – listen up – your thok do culture may work in the vanar sena commune you ruled, doesn’t work here,” Moitra tweeted.
Source: Twitter
With her tweet, Moitra insulted the vanar sena or the army of monkeys that accompanied Lord Rama and his brother Lakshman on their way to Lanka and which also played a pivotal role in defeating Ravan’s humongous army. Not only did Moitra insult the vanar sena, but also the sentiments of Hindus who venerate the army of monkeys for assisting Lord Rama in the pursuit to find his abducted wife. Hindus hold the army of monkeys in high regard, especially for their leader Lord Hanuman, who is revered as Lord Rama’s supreme devotee and is also worshipped as a god.
While pious Hindus living in Uttar Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath would not be bothered by Moitra’s reference to the state as a vanar sena commune, considering that the army of monkeys was incredibly disciplined, manifestly courageous, and fought from the side of dharma. However, it is not lost on the Hindus that the comment by Moitra was made in a pejorative sense. It once again brought to fore the disdain and the contempt that TMC harbours for Hindus and their dearly-held beliefs.
TMC’s disdain for Hindus, Lord Rama and Hindu festivals
It is also worth noting that this is not a single-off incident where Hindus and their gods have been insulted. Recently, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee took offence at the chanting of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Glory to Lord Rama’ slogans. Banerjee, who was sharing the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial for Netaji birth anniversary celebrations, lamented of “being disrespected” because she could not stand the slogans of Jai Shri Ram, Bharat Mata ki Jai, etc when she was invited to address the event.
Lashing out after hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans, Mamata Banerjee lamented before walking off the stage: “Inviting people and then disrespecting them does not behove the government. This is a government programme, not a political party’s programme”.
Also, in TMC’s West Bengal, Hindus are reduced to second-class citizens, relying on the mercy of the state government to celebrate their festivals. When festivals of two faiths converge on the same day, it is inevitably the Hindus who are told to stop their celebrations while people belonging to other faiths are free to do as they wish on their festivals. In 2017, the Mamata Banerjee-led government banned Durga idol immersion on October 1 to make way for Muharram. Hindus were told to celebrate their festival some other day because it clashed with the Islamic festival of Muharram.
Pot calling the kettle black: Moitra disparages UP for “thok do culture” while turning a blind eye to political violence in WB
Besides, it is also a bit rich coming Mahua Moitra when she slams Uttar Pradesh as a lawless state with pervasive “thok do culture”. It is West Bengal which has become a touchstone of a dystopian state under the rule of TMC. The state has witnessed increasing levels of crimes and widespread incidents of violence, and yet Moitra has the gall of accusing other states of being unruly.
TMC, which has allegedly institutionalised the use of violence against their political opponents in West Bengal, should be the last party to criticise others on the condition of law and order in their respective states. For far too long, political violence has been used by TMC as an instrument of state policy to suppress dissenting voices.
There have been umpteen incidents of violence reported in West Bengal when people not conforming to the TMC worldview are harassed, hounded, and subsequently killed. Some of these killings have happened in broad daylight, others have been in the dead of night. In most of these cases, the victims have been vocal critic of the TMC leaders and their rule and had paid the price with their lives for speaking against the state government.
There are numerous allegations that the wet-work to eliminate the dissidents is often carried out by goons that enjoy special patronage from the TMC. On some occasions, the TMC government had even been accused of using the state police force for inflicting violence against their opponents. Let alone grassroots workers, even senior opposition leaders were not spared the wrath of the TMC supporters and goons. A few months back, the convoy of BJP president JP Nadda was attacked in West Bengal. Many leaders, including senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, had sustained injuries in the attack.
So, before mocking and hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and ridiculing Uttar Pradesh’s culture as “thok do culture”, Mahua Moitra should read up on the pervasive culture of persecution of Hindus and the prevalence of violence in West Bengal. Perhaps, that would bring a sobering realisation to the TMC MP about why is there an air of parivartan flowing in Bengal.
