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SP leader ST Hassan trivializes violence against Ram Bhakts, says BJP is paying Muslims to pelt stones on Ram Mandir donation rallies

OpIndia Staff
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SP leader ST Hassan trivializes violence against Ram Bhakts, says BJP is paying Muslims to pelt stones on Ram Mandir donation rallies

Samajwadi Party MP ST Hassan had recently courted controversy when he remarked that the ruling BJP might get some sell-out Muslims to pelt stones at their workers seeking donations for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. According to Hassan, the BJP would attempt to polarise the society by getting some Muslims to throw stones at the Ram Temple donation seekers ahead of the state assembly elections.

While addressing the party workers during a program organized on Thursday at his residence, Hassan accused the BJP of playing politics over the Ram Mandir. He has alleged that BJP would take advantage in the state polls by flaring up communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh and provoke the Muslims in the state to attack the Hindus.

“The Ram Mandir issue is settled, but when the BJP workers would come out to collect donations, some sell-out Muslims will attack them with stones. You have seen in Madhya Pradesh what happens after the stone-pelting. Through this conspiracy, they will be sending a dog whistle to Hindus to unite and vote for the saffron party. It is a ploy by them for the upcoming state assembly elections,” Hassan said.

“These are the same people who throw stones as well as vitiate communal harmony. It is important to understand BJP’s politics. For how long this politics will continue? Hindu-Muslim politics doesn’t help in providing livelihood to people,” Hassan added.

Cornering the government on the newly introduced agriculture laws, Hassan said the Centre has broken the heart of the largest population of the country by enacting the Bills. He also spoke against the removal of Article 370 and the need for the government to legislate a law to ban triple talaq.

While Hassan accused some Muslims of colluding with the BJP for their strategy for the upcoming state assembly polls, the Moradabad MP’s insinuations have not sat well with the district’s Muslim community, who have expressed their resentment following the SP leader’s controversial remarks. They have questioned as to whom was Hassan intending to please with his contentious statements.

ST Hassan’s controversial remarks likening actresses to ‘tawaifs’

It is important to note that ST Hassan is the same Samajwadi leader who stirred controversy in 2019 with his remarks equating actresses with prostitutes. During the Zaira Wasim controversy when the Dangal actress had announced that he is quitting showbiz for Islam, ST Hassan had said there was no difference between a ‘tawaif’ and an ‘actress’.

Endorsing Wasim’s decision to quit films because it interfered in her faith, SP leader said, any work which includes displaying a woman’s sex appeal or skin show is against Islam. “She could always go for ‘pure’ acting,” he added. He further said that Meena Kumari and Jaya Bachchan did ‘pure’ acting. “Earlier Nawabs had ‘mujra’ at their places and a tawaif (courtesan) would come and perform and entertain people. Nothing wrong in it. If ‘tawaif’ may be an unparliamentary word so we could remove it and use the word ‘actress’ instead’. Tawaif is not a sex worker. She entertains people. Earlier they were called ‘tawaif’ now they are called ‘actresses’. Earlier it (entertainment) used to happen in front, now it happens on screen.

Large scale survey conducted in Prayagraj, 50 sites of archaeological importance found along the Ganges: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Large scale survey conducted in Prayagraj, 50 sites of archaeological importance found along the Ganges: Details

A team from the Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology in the Ishwar Saran PG College have marked and documented 50 sites of archaeological importance in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi, has licensed the college for conducting the archaeological survey in this area.

The team conducted a village-to-village survey on foot in the vicinity of the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers of Prayagraj, from Jhunsi to Shringverpur and from Daraganj to Kali Paltan in Kaushambhi district on both sides of the Ganga river.

The survey stretched for 70 km on the ground surface and 3-5 km, in width, on both sides of the river.

According to reports, the principal of the college and head of the department and project director, Professor Anand Shankar Singh and the project deputy director and Assistant Professor Jamil Ahmad, along with his team had given directions to carry out the survey.

This was, probably, the first time that an archaeological survey in such a large scale has been taken up in this area.

Talking about the development, Professor Singh said: “The survey was conducted in more than 80 villages on both the shores of the river Ganga which fall under the Phoolpur, Sadar and Soraon tehsils of Prayagraj district and the Chail tehsil of Kaushambhi district. Nearly 50 sites of archaeological importance have been marked and documented, from where, a large number of archaeological remains from Chalcolithic period (around 3,000 to 2,000 BC when copper was the dominant metal) to the Mughal period and later, have been found,” said Singh.

Reports suggest that the remains consist of various types of potteries, terracotta and semi-precious stones, microlith (1cm to 8cm long stone tools), beads and tools of stone and iron and materials made of bone and ivory.

These antiquities obtained from the Gangetic area have been kept for study by the researchers in the newly built Archaeological Centre of the College.

The team has sent a detailed report of the survey to Indian Archaeological Survey, New Delhi for publication in their annual journal, ‘Indian Archaeology – a Review’. The college is now working on sending a proposal for further excavation of selected archaeological sites near Kaurihar to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi.

Ministry of Truth soon? The United States might soon go the China way as AOC discusses plans to ‘rein in’ the media

K Bhattacharjee
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Ministry of Truth soon? The United States might soon go the China way as AOC discusses plans to ‘rein in’ the media

US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC as she is popularly known, has said that the Congress is “looking into” ‘media literacy initiatives’ in order to “rein in” the media to combat the spread of ‘misinformation’. The revelation came in the wake of the riots at Capitol Hill in Washington DC where supporters of Donald Trump stormed the seat of the US Congress.

AOC said during an Instagram session, “We are going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation. It’s one thing to have different opinions but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false. So that’s something we are looking into.”

The answer came in response to a question by a user regarding whether the Congress was considering any “truth and reconciliation or media literacy initiatives” to help in ‘healing’. AOC said, “I can say, there is absolutely a commission being discussed but it seems to be more investigatory, in style rather than truth and reconciliation, so I think that’s an interesting concept for us to explore, and I do think that several members of Congress, in some of my discussions, have brought up media literacy because that is a part of what happened here,” before speaking on the media.

From the Congresswoman’s record, it appears pretty clear that the media will not have to suffer any consequences for its dangerous rhetoric calling Americans Nazis and Donald Trump fascist. It does not appear likely that the media will have to be ‘reined in’ for calling violent protests by left-wing mobs ‘mostly peaceful protests’.

On the other hand, it appears certain that the media will have to ‘reined in’ for airing opinions which go against the leftist dogma. A crackdown is most likely to be expected against Fox News and alternative media such as Daily Caller that take a conservative editorial line. Thus, what the efforts will tantamount to is a crackdown on political journalism that Democrats find inconvenient.

It appears ridiculous almost but the United States of America might soon have its own Uddhav Thackeray and the Congress party. The Mumbai Police has launched a crusade against Republic TV and initiated state sanctioned persecution against Arnab Goswami for his journalism. As it is in India, the mainstream media are unlikely to bother in the United States as well as they are unlikely to be affected by the diktat.

Western media have largely been apathetic towards Julian Assange as well, the most consequential journalist in the world as of this moment. Therefore, for all of its talk of independence of the media, the western media is merely a puppet at the hands of its Democrat masters. Thus, it is much more likely that the likes of CNN, MSNBC and others will be cheering the inquisition against Fox News and other conservative media outlets.

If the measures proposed by AOC indeed become reality, then we will have what Orwell called the Ministry of Truth. Combined with the Big Tech which seeks to censor opinions that violate the Leftist dogma, the US Government, too, will have mechanisms to punish dissidents in the media. It is unlikely to become a reality in the immediate future but as the storming of Capitol Hill demonstrated, unlikely events are happening too frequent in the age we are living in.

Furthermore, leftists have always wanted to censor media critical of them. None of the Communist regimes was especially known for independence of the media. China, too, exerts complete control on the media and the media is akin to propaganda machineries for the Chinese Communist Party more than anything else.

The Capitol Hill riots are already being used by vested interests to enforce a regime of censorship. It is also being widely suspected that it will be used to unleash a new ‘War on Terror‘, this time on American citizens. Therefore, under such circumstances, the comments made by AOC certainly cannot be dismissed as whims of a deluded leftist. Especially since Democrats control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency.

The first-ever non-Halal restaurant opens in Kerala, Ernakulam district: Here are the details

OpIndia Staff
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The first-ever non-Halal restaurant opens in Kerala, Ernakulam district: Here are the details

In a first, a restaurateur in Kerala named Smt Thushara has opened an exclusive non-halal restaurant in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. Twitter user Pratheesh Viswanath shared the news on the microblogging site. Smt Thushara’s restaurant serves only non-halal food. 

The restaurateur has also placed a banner outside her eatery which reads “No Halal, Halal Bakshanam Nishidham” (Halal food is banned here)

Banner of the ‘No Halal’ restaurant

Smt Thushara revealed that since inception, many Muslims have taken offence to her idea of running a non-halal restaurant. “Muslims keep saying that it is not correct. Whenever Hindus start any business, Muslims try to intervene”, opined Smt Thushara, who has been running the restaurant for a year and a half now.

The restaurateur said that many customers come to eat at her restaurant without any issue. “So the ones who are okay with the concept of me selling non-halal food are welcome to come here and those who are not can choose not to enter”, said the lady, furthering that there are many who want to eat non-halal food and nobody has the right to force them to eat halal food. “Keeping a non-halal board outside the eatery does not have to be made into such a big issue”, vociferated Smt Tushara.

Four arrested for opposing halal notification in a bakery

The state of Kerala has been marred by a controversy over halal meat. A bakery in Kerala, called ‘Mody’, was allegedly forced to remove the ‘Halal’ sticker notifying the availability of Halal food following opposition by Hindu Aikya Vedi activists. As per reports, the matter began after the organisation’s Parakkadavu unit president Arun Aravind and a few others visited the bakery for food and insisted on non-halal food. However, they were informed that only halal food was served.

The notice went viral on social media following which the police stepped in and arrested Aravind and three others. A case has been registered against the four and according to Times Now, they have been released on bail.

Now the organisation has decided to intensify its campaign against halal branding. The activists are planning to approach authorities demanding a ban on such products and services.

Christian groups in Kerala call for a boycott of Halal meat

Ahead of Christmas, Christians in Kerala called for boycott of halal meat. Kochi based Christian group Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) urged Christians not to buy Halal food anymore. Hindu groups also extended their support for the call to boycott stating that they are forced to sell Halal meat in the state.

The Indian Union Muslim League had termed the campaign against Halal meat as a controversy to target Muslims. The CASA had announced that Christians would hold protests a few days before Christmas. For the protest, they were planning to pool in money for buying and cutting the animals in a non-halal manner to oppose halal meat.

What is Halal meat?

Halal can only be performed by a Muslim man. Thus, non-Muslims are automatically denied employment at a Halal firm. There are certain other conditions that must be fulfilled that makes it quite clear that it is intrinsically an Islamic practice.

Guidelines are available at the official website of a certification authority of Halal in India which makes it clear that non-Muslim employees cannot be employed in any part of the slaughtering process. The guidelines of the certification authority of Halal in India expressly mention that people employed to carry out the process of Halal must be Muslims. The guidelines clearly mention that animals slaughtered by a non-Muslim will not be Halal.

Apart from halal meat, halal certification is also available for other products.

Vaccine not to be administered to people below 18 years, pregnant and lactating women kept out of COVID vaccination drive

OpIndia Staff
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Vaccine not to be administered to people below 18 years, pregnant and lactating women kept out of COVID vaccination drive

A day ahead of the launch of massive nationwide vaccination drive against the Covid-19, the centre has now come up with new safety regulations saying Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine will not be administered to people below 18 years of age.

According to the reports, a letter from the office of additional secretary at the union health ministry carrying a comparative factsheet for the two approved vaccines under emergency authorisation rules revealed that the government has “not recommended” their authorisation to people below 18 years of age.

Earlier, it was approved for children above the age of 12 years by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The DCGI, after approving Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for EUA, had allowed its authorisation to children above 12 years of age. Similarly, another Corona vaccine, Covishield developed by Serum Institute of India (SII), was permitted to people above 18 years of age.

However, the CDSCO officials have now clarirfied that the earlier provision was soon withdrawn and revised by the drug licensing authority. The officials said this certain condition approved for Covaxin was flagged to the drug regulatory authority and soon it was rebuked.

“We were flagged about the provision and soon it was revised with a condition that the vaccines would only be administered to beneficiaries above 18 years of age,” a senior official said.

No interchangeability of vaccine, pregnant women will not be administered vaccine: Health Ministry

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry on Thursday said that interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines will not be permitted and the second dose of the vaccine inoculated should be the same vaccine injected as the first dose.

In a letter to all states and Union territories, the Health Ministry also stated that under the emergency use authorisation, coronavirus vaccination is indicated only for 18 years and above. If required, COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines should be separated by an interval of at least 14 days.

“Interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines is not permitted. The second dose should also be of the same COVID-19 vaccine which was administered as the first dose,” the letter written to states said.

Addition to that, pregnant and lactating women will also not be administered the shots as they have not been part of any anti-coronavirus vaccine clinical trial so far, the health ministry said.

“Pregnant and lactating women have not been a part of any COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial so far. Therefore, women who are pregnant or not sure of their pregnancy and lactating women should not receive COVID-19 vaccine at this time,” the letter stated.

The ministry has also listed precautions and contraindications for Covid vaccination along with a comparative factsheet for both the vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) which contains information on vaccine platform, physical specifications, dosage, cold-chain storage requirements, contraindications and minor AEFIs (adverse event following immunization).

The Health Ministry has advised states to disseminate information to programme managers across all levels and through them to cold-chain handlers and vaccinators for ready reference.  

Health Ministry asks to follow proper protocol, issues caution

Listing the contraindications, the Health Ministry also cautioned against the administration of the vaccine in persons with a history of an anaphylactic or allergic reaction to a previous dose of COVID-19 vaccine.   

According to the letter, in case of persons having active symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, coronavirus infected patients who have been given anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma and acutely unwell and hospitalised patients due to any illness, the COVID-19 vaccination is to be deferred for four to eight weeks after recovery.

The vaccine should be administered with caution in persons with a history of any bleeding or coagulation disorder (like clotting factor deficiency, coagulopathy or platelet disorder, it said.

“Following conditions are not contraindicated for COVID-19 vaccines: persons with past history of SARS-CoV-2 infection and or RT-PCR positive illness, history of chronic diseases and morbidities and immuno-deficiency, HIV, patients on immune suppression due to any condition,” the letter stated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India’s massive Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 via video conferencing. The centre has delivered adequate doses of Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’ and Serum Institute’s ‘Covishield’ vaccines to all states and Union territories ahead of the vaccination drive.

Twitter, Facebook pays the price for banning Donald Trump, ends up losing $51 billion in market cap in two days

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter, Facebook pays the price for banning Donald Trump, ends up losing $51 billion in market cap in two days

Days after social media giants Facebook and Twitter permanently banned incumbent US President Donald Trump from their platforms, the companies lost a combined market value of whopping $51.2 billion over two trading sessions.

In the aftermath of the US Capitol riots, Twitter and Facebook resorted to ‘political censorship’ and banned Trump for allegedly inciting mobs and making provocative remarks. The social media giants soon faced the brunt of censoring the US President.

Fearing that users might desert the platforms, investors bailed out on Facebook and Twitter and dumped their stock. As such, Facebook plunged by 4% on Monday and 2.2% on Tuesday, resulting in a dip of $47.6 billion below what it was on Friday (January 8). Facebook traded at $245.64 per share as of 4 pm on Thursday.

Dip in Facebook’s stocks via Yahoo

Meanwhile, Twitter dipped 6.4% on Monday and further fell 2.4% on Tuesday’s close, resulting in a drop in market cap by $3.5 billion. Twitter traded at $45.79 per share as of Thursday at 4 pm, compared to the closing price of $51.48 on Friday. Interestingly, analysts have not lowered the median price targets for stocks, emphasising that the drop in market value was a knee-jerk reaction and that it would improve over time.

Decline in market cap for Twitter via Yahoo

Other tech companies such as Apple and Google have seen a marginal rise in their market cap. At the same time, Amazon’s shares went up by 1.6% after it too engaged in censoring conservative platform, Parler. Googler owned YouTube has also suspended the account of Donald Trump for a week.

On Monday, CNN reported that incumbent Donald Trump might take action against tech giants for banning him from Facebook and Twitter. However, with just 5 days from the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, it is unclear whether any form of retaliation will actually materialise.

Political censorship against Donald Trump

The suspension of Donald Trump by social media platforms has taken the world by storm. Leaders around the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have condemned the suspension by Twitter and called it ‘problematic’.

There is a growing consensus that the actions were motivated by political bias rather than any objective criterion. Amidst such a scenario, Twitter stocks stumbled by as much as 10% on Monday. Under such circumstances, the precise justification offered by Twitter for suspending Donald Trump from the platform went largely unnoticed.

And as it turns out, the justification cited by Twitter is absolutely bizarre and even Twitter does not say that they have interpreted Trump’s tweets as incitement to violence. Twitter does not say that at all. Instead, the social media platform claims that two of Trump’s tweets are being “interpreted” to mean an endorsement of violence. That is, Donald Trump has been banned from the platform because how others, unnamed in the statement, are interpreting his tweets.

Tutoring to give false testimony and more: Delhi Police exposes Mehmood Paracha, says Prashant Bhushan has no regard for law

OpIndia Staff
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Tutoring to give false testimony and more: Delhi Police exposes Mehmood Paracha, says Prashant Bhushan has no regard for law

After Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Bhushan raised questions over the raid by Delhi Police against ISIS ‘poster boy’ lawyer Mehmood Pracha, Delhi Police has released a point-wise rebuttal of Bhushan’s allegations. On January 13, Prashant Bhushan had held a press briefing regarding the search carried out by Delhi police special cell at Pracha’s office and residence in December last year.

Bhushan termed the court-ordered investigation against Pracha as “malafide” and raised certain objections over the investigation and the intention of Delhi police. Bhushan alleged that the police wanted to seize the hard discs of Pracha’s computer which was not authorised in the search warrant. He also said that the police threatened Pracha using the name of Home Minister Amit Shah. In their rebuttal of Bhushan’s claims, Delhi police alleged that Bhushan was making another attempt towards contempt of court by not respecting the order of the court.

Here are the objections raised by Bhushan against the search and the corresponding rebuttal of Delhi police:

  1. According to Bhushan, the email the police was looking for was already sent by Pracha to various authorities including Commissioner of Police. He alleged that the search was conducted in order to get access to Pracha’s personal and private information and the conversations between him and his clients which are prevented from disclosure under the law. Refuting Bhushan’s claims Delhi police said that intent behind conducting the search was to present all the evidence present in Pracha’s computer before the court to prove the allegations against him.
  3. With respect to Bhushan’s allegation that Delhi police wanted to access the details of the conversation between Pracha and his clients that are protected from disclosure under the law, the police quoted the court order that said that any such conversation that happened as part of some criminal conspiracy are excluded from the protection of the law. This is irrespective of whether the advocate was aware of the criminal conspiracy. “Law does not offer any protection to act committed as part of a criminal conspiracy, even if it is committed by a friend Prashant Bhushan”, the statement read.
  5. Bhushan had said that the Investigating Officer should have issued a summon or notice to Pracha under section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) requiring him to produce the concerned documents. Responding to Bhushan’s remarks the police said that an accused is provided ample opportunity to present his side of the story.

In their statement, Delhi police also called out Bhushan for raising questions over the court order saying that court did not provide reasons in the order for carrying out the search at Pracha’s office and residence. Taking a veiled dig at Bhushan Delhi police said, “The truth is that it becomes difficult for some people who play their tactics in courts every day to accept that no one is above law”. The police said that Pracha used all his connections and power to avoid the search by Delhi police. They further said that instead of cooperating with the police in the investigation of the matter, Pracha obstructed the investigation and tried to intimidate the independent public witnesses.

The Delhi Police have also stated that Pracha had tried to project accused as ‘innocent victims, and colluded to frame innocents as accused under grave offences. He is also accused of trying to mislead the legal process by creating false statements and produce false witnesses. They added that it is not a lawyer’s job to advise its client as to how to commit a crime or forgery.

On Bhushan’s question over the necessity of a search warrant and alluding that it was ‘illegal’, the Delhi Police stated that it is another attempt by Bhushan to display his disregard for the Apex Court and its orders and it only shows that Prashant Bhushan has no respect for the Supreme Court and the rule of law.

The investigation against Mehmood Pracha

Delhi police special cell had conducted raids at the office of Advocate Mehmood Pracha who is accused of forging an affidavit and tutoring the victims of anti-Hindu Delhi riots of giving false statements. The police was looking for incriminating documents and metadata of the outbox of the official email id of Pracha’s law firm. Pracha was booked under section 182, 193, 420, 468, 471, 472, 473, 120B of the IPC.

During the raid at his office Pracha allegedly misbehaved with the police personnel and obstructed the raids conducted by the Delhi police. An FIR was filed by the Counter Intelligence Unit of Delhi Police Special Cell under sections 186, 353 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at Nizamuddin police station against Pracha allegedly for obstructing a public servant from discharging public duty using criminal force.

TMC govt will fall if I let them join BJP: Kailash Vijayvargiya makes stunning claim about 41 TMC MLAs

OpIndia Staff
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TMC govt will fall if I let them join BJP: Kailash Vijayvargiya makes stunning claim about 41 TMC MLAs

Ahead of the upcoming state assembly polls in West Bengal, BJP Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya has made a stunning claim, stating that he is in touch with about 41 MLAs from the incumbent TMC who are ready to jump the ship and join the BJP.

Talking to media reporters on Thursday, Vijayvargiya said the Trinamool Congress government would collapse if he lets the MLAs join the saffron party. However, he added that only with clean image will be allowed to join the party.

“I have a list of 41 MLAs who want to join the BJP. The Bengal government will collapse if I let them in. We are exploring their background and only leaders with a clean image would be allowed to join. Everyone believes that the Mamata government is going out,” Vijayvargiya had said.

Vijayvargiya’s statement comes days after the Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick boasted that 6 of BJP’s 7 MPs would soon join the TMC. Mallick had said that several leaders who joined the BJP recently are willing to come back to Trinamool. But the final decision rests with Mamata Banerjee. They will be taken back only if she allows, Mallick had said.

Rumblings within TMC ahead of WB assembly elections

It is pertinent to note that the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is hit by a series of defections and rebellions in recent times. Last month, party heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari tendered his resignation from the party. Five other TMC MLAs also submitted their resignation in December 2020. Days later West Bengal sports minister Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigned from the Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet.

The rumblings with the TMC continues as another party leader Vaishali Dalmiya opened the front against the party. A few days back, Dalmiya, perturbed by Shukla’s resignation, stated that the pervasive corruption is eating up the party from within and lamented that party members are involved in stonewalling of work carried out by the fellow members.

West Bengal is slated to go to polls in April/May this year.

Not just about Trump, and the censorship won’t stop: Leaked video of Jack Dorsey reveals plot of continued political censorship

OpIndia Staff
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Not just about Trump, and the censorship won’t stop: Leaked video of Jack Dorsey reveals plot of continued political censorship

A day after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey conceded that the platform’s decision to ban incumbent US President Donald Trump limited the conversation, divided people and ‘set a dangerous precedent’, a secret audio tape has now revealed that Twitter has no plans to stop its censorship drive only with President Donald Trump, but plans to continue the witchhunt.

Project Veritas, a conservative activist group focussed on exposing corruption, had shared a secret recording wherein Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey could be seen discussing the platform’s long term policy in terms of political censorship. The tape now released by Veritas was reportedly leaked by one employee of Twitter.

In the recording dated January 8, Jack addressed his employees saying, “The focus is certainly on this account (Donald Trump), and how it ties to real-world violence, but also we need to think much longer-term around how these dynamics play out over time. I don’t believe this is going away any time soon.”

The Twitter CEO divulged that the attempt to silence and ban conservative opinion-makers is not just limited to Donald Trump. He pointed out that the censorship will continue, well past the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden on January 20. “We know we are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, the next few weeks, going on beyond inauguration. We have to expect that. We have to be ready for that.”

Twitter CEO admits long term censorship plans

After Twitter removed more than 70,000 accounts for supposedly peddling QAnon conspiracy theories, Jack Dorsey admitted that the micro-blogging platform intended to banning more such handles. He added, “The moves that we’re making today, around, you know, QAnon, for instance, is one such example of a much broader approach that we should be looking at and going deeper on.

Reiterating the need for a team effort to focus on the ‘bigger picture’ in an ‘extremely divided United States, the Twitter CEO cautioned, “The team has a lot of work and a lot of focus on this particular issue, but we also need to give them the space and the support to focus on the much bigger picture because it is, it is not going away. The U.S. is extremely divided. Our platform is showing this every single day. And our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that.”

While speaking about the revelation, conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson concluded, “… Jack Dorsey admitted out loud what the rest of them are still denying. This is not really about Donald Trump. It never was. It is definitely not about what happened last week at the Capitol. It is about controlling you and the country you thought was yours forever. Sorry! There is a national crisis going on and we have no choice.”

Twitter bans Donald Trump, suffers backlash

The suspension of Donald Trump by social media platforms has taken the world by storm. Leaders around the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have condemned the suspension by Twitter and called it ‘problematic’.

There is a growing consensus that the actions were motivated by political bias rather than any objective criterion. Amidst such a scenario, Twitter stocks stumbled by as much as 10% on Monday. Under such circumstances, the precise justification offered by Twitter for suspending Donald Trump from the platform went largely unnoticed.

And as it turns out, the justification cited by Twitter is absolutely bizarre and even Twitter does not say that they have interpreted Trump’s tweets as incitement to violence. Twitter does not say that at all. Instead, the social media platform claims that two of Trump’s tweets are being “interpreted” to mean an endorsement of violence. That is, Donald Trump has been banned from the platform because how others, unnamed in the statement, are interpreting his tweets.

Real Kashmiriyat: Muslim RJ targeted for getting a picture clicked with film-maker shooting a movie on Kashmiri Hindu genocide

OpIndia Staff
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Real Kashmiriyat: Muslim RJ targeted for getting a picture clicked with film-maker shooting a movie on Kashmiri Hindu genocide

The famed ‘Kashmiriyat’ that we have all heard about for the past several decades essentially is touted to be a ‘sentiment’ that stems from the intrinsically inclusive society of Kashmir. The trope was created to essentially whitewash the Kashmiri Hindu genocide of the 1990s when thousands of Hindus were brutally murdered and millions had to leave Kashmir because the majority Muslim population of Kashmir could not tolerate the presence of Hindus. An example of this famed Kashmiriyat was seen recently when a Muslim RJ (RJ Rafia) was targeted on Twitter for getting a picture clicked with a film-maker (Vivek Agnihotri) who is currently working on a movie showing the plight of Kashmiri Hindus who were murdered, raped and driven away from the valley.

On January 13th, Vivek Agnihotri, a film-maker who is shooting in Srinagar for a movie that is reportedly about the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus, posted a picture having dinner with his crew and several other local artists at the Lalit Hotel.

Seen in the picture was also a Muslim RJ called RJ Rafia. Rafia Rahim is from Charar e Sharif township, a 2016 pass out of Media Education and Research Centre, University of Kashmir. She had risen to fame and earned quite a lot of praise from several quarters, including The Quint, for being the first woman RJ from Budgam.

As soon as the picture was posted, several Islamists from Kashmir and even elsewhere started calling her a traitor and hurling nasty abuses at her for being pictured with someone who they consider an ‘outsider’.

Aside from being branded a traitor, Muslims from Kashmir also alleged that the movie that was being filmed was against Muslims of Kashmir and talking about Kashmiri Hindus was branded as the ‘Hindutva Genocidal Agenda”.

Hilariously, branding fellow Islamists as ‘sane’ one Muslim urged every other “sane Muslim” to unfollow RJ Rafia.

And, of course, the famed Kashmiriyat made an appearance.

We also realised that not jus Khalistanis ‘born and raised in Canada’ but Islamists too had an opinion on what Indians can do and say in India.

After the relentless trolling, RJ Rafia tweeted a clarification that she was not a traitor and in fact, rather committed to the cause of Kashmir. She said she had absolutely no idea who the Director was and what movie he was planning on making. Presumably, she meant that if she did know that a film-maker had shown the temerity to actually talk about how Kashmiri Muslims raped, murdered and drove away Kashmiri Hindus, she would not have got clicked with him.

Meanwhile, the film-maker who had sparked the row by talking about ‘vegetarian Wazwan’, deleted the tweet and said that he did not want to endanger any of his local friends since, after his post, several of them were getting threatened and abused.

Reportedly, Vivek Agnihotri’s movie could only be shot under strict security and thus, we realise what the nature of true ‘Kashmiriyat’ really is.

For decades, Indians have been told that Kashmiri Muslims are falsely vilified and conspiracy theories are floated about why Kashmiri Hindus actually “left” the valley. They blame the then governor and journalists like Barkha Dutt even give the Muslims a free pass by claiming that the Kashmiri Muslims harboured animosity against the Hindus because of purely economic reasons and not because they wanted to wage Jihad and murder Kafirs. The slogans of La illaha Illalla, Allahu Akbar and ‘Kashmir main rehna hai to Allahu Akbar kehna hoga’ slogans are whitewashed. The fact that there were announcements made from mosques to kill kaafirs were completely ignored. That Hindu women were raped, men were murdered and Hindus were asked to either convert, leave or die is pushed under the rug.

While genocide of Hindus took place on our own land, the famed sham of ‘Kashmiriyat’ was foisted upon the rest of India, to make us believe that Kashmiri Muslims were ‘inclusive’ and Hindus simply up and left on their own, for no fault of the Islamists.

This recent incident is just another indication as to how that facade of Kashmiriyat drops every single day, with Islamists wanting to exclude even Muslims who they view as ‘traitors’. Even sharing a meal with those who don’t agree with the current generation of Islamists, who purport that they are only trying to uphold secularism, is something that can make a Muslim RJ go from being an ally to being a ‘Mukhbir’.

While politicians and those with a vested interest in keeping Kashmir a festering wound repeatedly tell us that Kashmiriyat is the sentiment of being a Kashmiri, which is essentially about preserving their own culture and welcoming everyone else with an open arm, it is rather evident that Kashmiriyat is insular, intolerant and has violent Islamism at the core of it.

While it is rather tragic that even after a genocide of Hindus one needs such examples to talk about the truth of ‘Kashmiriyat’, perhaps every such incident gets us closer to the truth. It is said that without truly understanding and accepting the roots of the problem, the problem itself is impossible to solve. The root of the conflict in Kashmir is the underlying Islamism that is embedded in a large section of the Kashmiri Muslim population and perhaps unless we acknowledge that stark reality, a solution to the problem would be impossible to find.

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