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Kerala: Airport employee dismissed from job for criticising CM Pinarayi Vijayan. Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: Airport employee dismissed from job for criticising CM Pinarayi Vijayan. Read details

In the latest act of curtailing freedom of expression, a staff member of the Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), KL Ramesh, was fired from his job after he made critical remarks against the incumbent Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan in the comment section of his Facebook post.

As per reports, the development came after he criticised the Kerala CM and the state government in connection to the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Padmanabhaswamy Temple on November 20. KIAL took cognisance of the matter after several ‘complaints’ were raised against his Facebook post. The authorities had ordered an inquiry and issued him a show-cause notice over the post which was allegedly seen as a violation of disciplinary norms. It is notable here that CM Pinarayi Vijayan is also the chairman of the KIAL.

KIAL was not ‘satisfied’ with his explanation and Managing Director V Thulasidas issued a termination letter to Ramesh, who worked as the assistant manager of the Fire and Rescue Wing of the airport.

Ramesh alleges vendetta by KIAL authorities

Ramesh said, “I had told the committee that I am a Hindu and from Thiruvananthapuram and the post in question was not in connection to KIAL and as a citizen have the right to express my views.” However, he believes that his termination came at the backdrop of the several irregularities at the Kannur Airport, which were brought to the notice of the authorities by him. Reportedly, Ramesh had removed his Facebook post and tendered an apology but it was of no avail. The inquiry committee nevertheless proceeded with the termination.

SC verdict on Travancore Royal family over Padmanabhaswamy temple row

The Supreme Court of India has ruled against the Kerala government’s attempt to bring the historic Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram under its control. The apex court overturned the 2011 judgment of Kerala High Court that granted the power to the state government to take control of the temple, its management and assets.

The verdict, passed by a 2-member bench of Justices Indu Malhotra and UU Lalit, stated that the death of a king of the Travancore family shall not affect the rights of the family and the temple, perceived to be the world’s richest, will continue to be managed by the family.

Communist govt in Kerala passes ordinance to arrest ‘critics’

The communist-led Kerala state government had brought the controversial amendment to the Kerala Police Act by adding Section 118-A to the law that was originally passed in 2011.

The new section empowers the police to act against media and register cases on the event of detection of a cognisable offence under the relevant section. The amendment proposes five years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 for those convicted of producing, publishing or disseminating derogatory content through any means of communication to intimidate, insult or defame any person through social media.

The newly introduced provision says, “anyone who produces content, publishes or propagates it through any means of communication with an intention to threaten, insult or harm the reputation of an individual will be punished with an imprisonment of five years or a fine of Rs 10,000 or with both”. 

Signature scam: Has Punjab farmers’ protest created an opportunity for Congress to commit yet another scam? Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Signature scam: Has Punjab farmers’ protest created an opportunity for Congress to commit yet another scam? Read details

A comical development is occurring within the Congress party. A day before Gita Jayanti, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi met President Kovind and claimed to have submitted a memorandum with 2 crore signatures seeking his intervention on the matter of newly passed farm laws. There appears to be a minor issue with the signature campaign, however.

Jagran has reported that Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar have no idea how the campaign was run, when it begun and when it ended or where the signatures came from. There was no coordination between different units of the party either but, somehow, against all odds, the party managed to conjure 2 crore signatures against farm laws.

The story in Bihar

State leaders in Bihar do not seem to know much about the signature campaign. Madan Mohan Jha, Bihar Congress President, said that the campaign was launched some time ago but then, the Assembly Elections occurred and the growth of the campaign was stalled. According to Jagran, he did not appear to know much else, including when the campaign began and ended.

Ajeet Sharma, leader of the party in the Assembly, said that such a campaign never even happened. Spokesperson Rajesh Rathod insisted that the campaign went on for a long time but he, too, could not provide specific information regarding the duration of the campaign.

Nobody could answer who precisely submitted the collected signatures to the national Congress leadership at Delhi or when was it submitted. When pressed for more information, Rathod said that he will provide answers once he has more knowledge of the matter.

The story in Haryana

The story was pretty similar in Haryana. Neither or citizens of Congress karyakartas appeared to be aware of when the signature campaign took place. Jagran reports that the Congress party managed to fill entire trucks with bundles of signatures. But where the bundles of signatures came from, Congress does not appear to have an answer to that. In fact, Congress workers in Haryana are themselves astonished as to when and how the signatures were collected.

Meanwhile, the organizational structure of the party is in complete disarray according to Jagran and nobody was willing to comment on the support lent to the campaign by former CM Bhupendra Singh Hooda and his supporters. Units of the party such Mahila Congress, Youth Congress or NSUI were not seen in any prominent role either.

Signature Campaign in Yogi’s UP

Jagran reported that of the 2 crore signatures submitted to President Kovind, 50 lakh were from Uttar Pradesh. And all of this was achieved without any visible campaign on the ground and without support from even the different units of the party. Kisan Congress, for instances, had no clue about the signature campaign.

Spokesperson Brijendra Kumar Singh said that the Youth Congress must have conducted signature campaign and he needed to confirm the information before conveying it. Kanishk Pandey, president Youth Congress eastern zone, said that Youth Congress did not participate in the campaign and the state unit of the Congress party must have run it.

Another Congress spokesperson took about one and a half to come back with some information. The campaign apparently took place from August to November. Kisan Congress leader Tarun Patel, however, denied having any knowledge of it. Another Kisan leader did acknowledge the signature campaign but had no idea how many signatures were collected. In the end, the person compiling the data said that the signatures were meant to be submitted before Diwali but were being submitted now.

Congress Dalit leader Dr Udit Raj’s fans hack into IT cell zoom meeting. Here is what they demanded

OpIndia Staff
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Congress Dalit leader Dr Udit Raj’s fans hack into IT cell zoom meeting. Here is what they demanded

Very few politicians manage to inspire support and love like Congress leader Dr Udit Raj does. It is widely known that Dr Udit Raj commands a huge following and is massively popular among his supporters, who are better known as Uditians. His fans have displayed, time and again, their unswerving loyalty and devotion for their cherished leader, often going the extra mile to make their support known.

With the Congress party marred with a leadership crisis, the loyal fan base of Dr Udit Raj has been fervently demanding that their leader be anointed as the President of the party. On several occasions, Raj’s fans have taken to Twitter, trending hashtags in support of their leader and demonstrating the massive support that Raj enjoys on social media.

Uditians hack Congress zoom meeting to demand Dr Udit Raj be made national party president

However, the Uditians went a step ahead when they recently hacked into a Congress IT cell zoom meeting. After raiding into the Congress Zoom meeting, Uditians reiterated their demand of giving the mantle of Congress Presidentship to Dr Udit Raj. The meeting was also attended by Congress Dalit leader Dr Udit Raj, where one of his supporters hacked into the meeting and raised the demand of appointing Raj as the President of Congress.

On his part, Dr Udit Raj modestly tried to play down the request made by his fans, terming the intrusion by his supporters as an attempt made by the BJP IT cell workers to disrupt the Congress Zoom meet.

“The entire BJP IT cell is employed in running a propaganda demanding that I should be made the national president of the Congress party,” Raj said even as one of his admirers raised the demand of appointing him as the Congress President.

However, this did not sit well with loyal supporters, who were disappointed with their leader crediting the BJP IT cell and not acknowledging their efforts to promote him for the Presidency.

Congress leader Dr Udit Raj commands a massive following

The support for Dr Udit Raj is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, it has only risen precipitously in recent times. Earlier in November, a day before the US Presidential elections results were to be announced, Uditians stormed Twitter by trending ‘DrUditRajForPOTUS’. They argued that even the post of POTUS would not do justice to the abilities and characteristics embodied by Dr Udit Raj.

Earlier in August, after 23 Congress leaders wrote to the interim President Sonia Gandhi for a complete overhaul in the party, speculations were rife that Congress would finally be selecting a non-Gandhi to head the party. Since then, hashtag #UditRajForCongressPresident started trending on Twitter. With rumours of an imminent churning within the Congress party, Uditians have only intensified their efforts to make their demands known to the Congress leadership.

Though Raj has downplayed the growing demand of him being elected as the party’s national president an attempt by the BJP IT cell, his fans claim that it’s their genuine demand and they are not paid by any political party. Shri Udit Raj Ji has been vocal about people’s issues with real and justified substance in his demands, which isn’t seen in Rahul Gandhi’s statements, a digital activist and a hard-line supporter of Dr Udit Raj said while talking to OpIndia.

Is Sourav Ganguly joining BJP? Here is the cryptic answer he gave when asked by media

OpIndia Staff
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Is Sourav Ganguly joining BJP? Here is the cryptic answer he gave when asked by media

A day after former Indian captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly met the West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, speculations have been rife in political circles about him joining the BJP.

While speaking to the media, Ganguly gave a cryptic answer when quizzed about his political ambitions. On being asked whether he or his family members would join the saffron party, the former Indian captain replied, “If the Governor wants to meet you, you have to meet him. So let us keep it like that.” It must be mentioned that Ganguly joined Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah in unveiling a statue of late Arun Jaitley at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on the occasion of the former finance minister’s birth anniversary today.

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh speaks about Sourav Ganguly

While speaking to the media over rumours of Sourav Ganguly joining the saffron party, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said, “I have nothing to know about what he would do or he wouldn’t. He is a respectable man and has been the captain (of the Indian cricket team).”

He asked, “Why do we have these rumours going around after Sourav Ganguly met the Governor?” Dilip Ghosh added that politics in Bengal is in tatters and therefore ‘good people’ are always ‘welcome’ in the BJP. “Successful people such as Sourav Ganguly must join politics”, he further hinted.

Sourav Ganguly and his political ambitions

Sourav Ganguly himself is known to share a cordial relationship with Amit Shah and his son Jay Shah, who is the Secretary of BCCI. Dona Ganguly, the cricketer’s wife who is a well-known classical dancer, was seen performing at BJP Mahila Morcha’s Durga Puja in Kolkata.

Due to the political nature of the BCCI appointment, and the cordial relationship between Ganguly and senior leaders of the party, there are speculations that the popular former cricketer may BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly Elections in West Bengal.

But it has also been reported that Sourav Ganguly has conveyed his disinterest in joining politics to the BJP. Home Minister Amit Shah, on the other hand, has been remarkably nonchalant about the prospects of him joining the party. Last year, he denied that the party had made any attempts to recruit the cricketer but admitted that ‘it would be good’ if he joined.

Congress will lose Rae Bareli in 2024 just like they lost Amethi, challenges Union Minister Smriti Irani

OpIndia Staff
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Congress will lose Rae Bareli in 2024 just like they lost Amethi, challenges Union Minister Smriti Irani

A day before senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took off for a vacation to Milan, Union Minister Smriti Irani who emerged as a giant slayer, defeating the Gandhi scion from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 2019 General Assembly elections, warned of a similar fate awaiting another Congress pocket borough, Rae Bareli, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Smriti Irani on Saturday accused the former Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi of using foul language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and resorting to spreading lies and deceit to sow confusion. “At this rate, Congress will end up losing Rae Bareli’s Lok Sabha seat too, a seat currently held by the interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in 2024 elections,” Irani said.

The Union Minister was on a three-day visit to her parliamentary constituency starting Friday. She also made a quick visit to nearby Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency held by Sonia Gandhi since 2004. The cabinet minister has also visited Lucknow to meet with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath before travelling back to her constituency.

Stepping up attack against the Gandhi family, Irani dared Rahul Gandhi for a debate on the farmers’ issue and described Priyanka Gandhi’s proposed Kisan Yatra in Uttar Pradesh as a publicity stunt.

The Union Minister also quoted a tweet posted by BJP President JP Nadda to question Rahul Gandhi’s opposition to the newly introduced Farm Bills, stating that the Amethi’s farmers were fed up with the Congress party and therefore voted him out of power in the last Lok Sabha polls.

During her visit to Amethi, Irani also spoke of projects rolled out for her parliamentary constituency since she became the MP in 2019. Other BJP leaders also highlighted how the Yogi Adityanath government had passed several projects for Rae Bareli too. Besides AIIMS-Rae Bareli, the Ganga Expressway, which would connect Meerut to Prayagraj, and pass through Rae Bareli, pacts with private investors for fabricators and feeder factory for rail coach, a spice park for research on mint have also been authorised for the only remaining Congress enclave in the state, party leaders said.

Rahul Gandhi flies to Milan amidst rumblings within the Congress party

Smriti Irani’s biting remarks came a day before Rahul Gandhi left for vacation to Milan. According to reports, the Wayanad MP left for Milan, Italy early Sunday morning on a Qatar Airlines flight. His vacation to Milan comes a day before Congress’ foundation day where there was the party had decided to take up the nationalism pitch.

Gandhi’s vacation also comes amidst rumblings within the Congress party of making sweeping operational and leadership changes in the party, in a bid to arrest their declining political fortunes. In August this year, 23 dissident Congress leaders, including 5 former Chief Ministers, many Congress Working Committee members, incumbent MPs, and several former Union Ministers, wrote a letter to interim Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, calling for a complete overhaul of the party, from top to bottom.

The appalling performance in Bihar Assembly elections last month led to a fresh flare-up within the party, with the senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal publicly commenting that the time for introspection is over. Following Congress’ disappointing performance in Bihar, 23 senior Congress leaders had reportedly written a letter to interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi demanding that an immediate CWC meeting be called to discuss the poll debacle in Bihar. They have reportedly also demanded organisational elections for the party president’s post be held at the earliest in the view of the electoral drubbing. They had also raised questions on the vacation by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra.

Man booked for posing as member of ‘right-wing’ group and collecting money in Ram Mandir’s name

OpIndia Staff
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Man booked for posing as member of ‘right-wing’ group and collecting money in Ram Mandir’s name

A man has been booked in Uttar Pradesh for posing as a member of a right-wing outfit and collecting money as donations for the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. He has been booked under forgery and provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

A complaint was filed by BJP’s Moradabad district chief Rajpal Singh Chauhan and on the basis of it, an FIR has been registered at the Majhola Police Station on Sarturday. Chauhan told reporters, “As soon as I came to know a man who was collecting funds for the Ram Mandir by posing as the president of a new outfit, I immediately informed the police and lodged an FIR against him. We want to alert the public that they should not donate money to anybody without verification. We demanded immediate arrest of the accused and his aides and strict action against them.”

SHO Avadhesh Kumar said, “We have registered an FIR against Premveer Singh under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the IT Act.” “We have also learnt from Premveer Singh’s social media posts and donors’ receipts that he belongs to the Vishwa Hindu Mahashakti Sangh. He will be arrested soon,” he added.

Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had earlier announced that a nationwide Mass Contact and Contribution Campaign will be launched in January and it has been insisted that the Ram Mandir will be built through donations collected from devotees. It appears that the man who has been booked was attempting to take advantage of the noble initiative to dupe people.

From ‘water metro’ to ‘lite metro’ PM Modi charts out future of public transport as he flags off India’s first-ever driverless metro in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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From ‘water metro’ to ‘lite metro’ PM Modi charts out future of public transport as he flags off India’s first-ever driverless metro in Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated via video-conferencing India’s first-ever driverless train operations on Delhi’s Magenta Line connecting Janakpuri West and Botanical Garden along with the fully operational National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) services on the Airport Express Line.

According to an official, the driver-less trains will be fully automated, eliminating the possibility of human error. On the other hand, the National Common Mobility Card, an inter-operable transport facility would allow users to pay for travel, toll duties, retail shopping, and withdraw money using one card.

Besides PM Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also attended the virtual event.

PM Modi virtually inaugurates the driverless operations of Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line

Speaking at the event, PM Modi asserted that the start of the driverless train operations in India is an important milestone that underscores how far the country had progressed in assimilating smart systems and new-age technology.

“The first metro in the country was started with the efforts of Atal Ji. When our govt was formed in 2014, only 5 cities had metro services and today 18 cities have metro rail service. By 2025, we will take this service in more than 25 cities,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also asserted that the central government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative is extremely crucial to the development and expansion of metro services since it helps in reducing costs, saving foreign exchange and providing more employment to citizens of the country.

In a scathing attack against the former central governments, PM Modi said that the previous regimes paid no attention to the future and half-hearted work was done amidst persisting confusion. He added that unlike the past, the modern thinking says urbanisation should not be viewed as a challenge but as an opportunity, an opportunity in which country’s infrastructure can be built and ease of living be improved. This difference of thinking is seen in every dimension of urbanisation, said PM Modi.

In the last six years, the country’s metro rail scenario has seen a massive transformation. When PM Modi came to power, only 248 KM of metro lines were operational in five cities. Presently, 702 km are operational in 18 cities in India and plans are underway to have Metro rail connectivity in 27 cities across the country. By 2022, when the country celebrates its 75th Independence Day, India will have a combined metro network of over a thousand kilometre which will carry more than a crore passengers every day, the statement released by DMRC said.

Delhi Metro enters an elite league

With the induction of these new trains, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation would enter into the elite league of 7 per cent of the world’s Metro networks that can operate without drivers, the official statement said. A senior Delhi Metro official also informed that the commercial operation of these trains will begin later today, following the event.

“The driverless trains will be fully automated which will require minimum human intervention and will eliminate the possibilities of human errors. Delhi Metro has been a pioneer in introducing technology-driven solutions for passenger comfort and this is another step in the same direction,” the statement said. 

“The driverless trains, set to be a major technological feat, will herald a new era of traveling comfort and enhanced mobility for the residents of Delhi and other cities in the National Capital Region,” the official statement further added.

Following the start of the driverless services along the 37-km Magenta Line, another Delhi Metro corridor, the 57-km Pink Line(Majlis Park- Shiv Vihar) is expected to be soon upgraded for the driverless operations by mid-2021. After the driverless services are operationalised on the Pink Line too, the Delhi Metro will have a driverless network length of about 94 km, which will be roughly 9 per cent of the world’s total driverless metro network.

Driverless trains to be equipped with a ton of advanced features

The driverless trains having six coaches will be a touchstone of the modern mobility solution. Each coach would accommodate a maximum of 380 passengers, which means each train will carry 2,280 passengers.

The trains would be equipped with several advanced features such as better regeneration of energy during braking, energy-efficient subsystems like LED lighting and air conditioning systems. They are designed for a maximum speed of 95 kmph and operational speed of 85 kmph, the Delhi Metro had said.

Initially, drivers will be deputed for operating the trains but they would be gradually withdrawn to move to Unattended Train Operation (UTO).

Future plans of metro in other cities

PM Modi said that RRTS metro system when operational will reduce the time of Delhi-Meerut commute by at least an hour. Similarly, Metro Lite is being implemented in cities with lighter metro-using population at just 40% cost of original metro development costs. Further, Metro Neo is being developed in cities with even fewer metro-using population and uses just 25% of the original cost. Cities with major waterbodies will also have water metro, the PM said.

Punjab: ‘Protesting farmers’ steal generator set from Jio tower and ‘donate’ it to Gurudwara. Watch video

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab: ‘Protesting farmers’ steal generator set from Jio tower and ‘donate’ it to Gurudwara. Watch video

Amidst the ongoing agitation against the historic farm laws, ‘protesting farmers’ in Punjab were seen stealing generators connected to Reliance Jio telecom towers, and ‘donating’ it to a Gurudwara.

In a video that has now gone viral on social media, protestors were seen dragging a generator set on a tractor to the gurdwara after dislodging it from the Jio Tower. The other protestors were seen following the tractor on its way to the Gurdwara. The video has now gone viral on social media.

(Video Courtesy: Youtube/Opindia)

The ‘protestors’ have been targeting Reliance Jio towers because Congress politicians have been spreading rumours and misinformation that “Ambani and Adani are about to exploit farmers”. Earlier, the protestors at Delhi border were seen urging people not to use Jio sim.

Captain Amarinder Singh appeals to protestors

While the Congress party has been a vocal supporter of the anti-farm law agitation and has remained a mute spectator to the inconvenience caused to the public over the last few months, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had a sudden ‘change of heart‘ on Friday. The Punjab government, realising the dangerous situation, appealed to the protestors to not disrupt connections or manhandle employees and technicians of telecom companies.

Protestors destroy 150 telecom towers

Despite Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s appeal, the ‘protesting farmers’ have destroyed 150 more telecom towers overnight on Saturday and Sunday alone. This takes the total number of telecom towers damaged to 1,388. News agency PTI citing sources said that site managers were slapped and abused for trying to stop the protestors from destroying the infrastructure.

Power lines are snapped and attempts to axe towers were undertaken by the ‘protesting farmers’. The attacks have impacted telecom services and operators who are struggling to maintain services in absence of action by the state police, the report said.

It is notable that at present, telecom operators do not own the towers where their antennas are placed. The towers are owned and operated by separate tower companies, and telecom companies place their antennas on the towers by paying rent for the same. Due to this arrangement, a single tower may contain antennas of several mobile phone companies. Therefore, although the protestors are targeting Jio, they may accidentally damage telecom operations of other companies also as they share resources on the towers.

France: Muslim man, the son of police officers, attacked and assaulted by Islamists for attending Christmas lunch

OpIndia Staff
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France: Muslim man, the son of police officers, attacked and assaulted by Islamists for attending Christmas lunch

A bunch of Islamist radicals attacked a fellow Muslim for posting photos online of a Christmas party he had attended. The incident occurred in the northeastern city of Belfort, France, where a 20-year-old man was assaulted by Islamists for participating in a Christmas party, a report published on RT.com said.

Soon after the victim uploaded photos of Christmas party he had attended, he was threatened by an acquaintance, an Islamist fundamentalist, who was reportedly angry about the man attending non-Muslim festivities. The 20-year-old victim is the son of law enforcement officers.

The acquaintance reportedly rebuked the 20-year-old victim as a “dirty son of a white, son of a snake, son of police” and vowed to show him what a “real Arab” should be. Even though the tone of the conversation was rather belligerent, the young man still agreed to meet his accuser in-person to sort out their differences.

French authorities condemn the violence, speak against Islamist separatism

As per the RT report, the incensed man showed up with four other men, who beat up the 20-year-old man and threatened him with dire consequences if he reported the violence to the police. Despite the threat dished out to him, the young man lodged a complaint against his assaulters and his mother has promised to bring the culprits to book. “He walked right into an ambush”, she said as quoted by the local media.

With France already reeling from an extremist Islamism, the incident did not escape the notice of top French officials, prompting many to condemn the violence and reaffirm their commitment to continue fighting the Islamic “separatism”.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed that the attack had taken place and informed that a probe has been launched in this regard. He denounced the anti-police sentiments apparently exhibited by the suspects and called Islamist “separatism” unacceptable.

He also took to Twitter to condemn the violence meted out on the 20-year-old for merely attending a Christmas party and sharing pictures of the same on his social media. “In Belfort, a young man was assaulted because he celebrated Christmas and was not a ‘good Arab’. ‘Aggravating’ circumstance: being the son of police officers,” the minister wrote on Twitter late on Saturday.

The victim, a 20-year-old man, is reportedly the son of a Muslim mother of Arab origin. His step-father is a non-Muslim man. Both his parents are law enforcement officers. The man had shared photographs of a Christmas lunch he had enjoyed with family members.

France continues to reel under a spate of Islamist terror attacks

France is recently grappling with a bout of terror attacks by Islamist radicals, including the gruesome beheading of the teacher outside Paris. Samuel Paty, the teacher who was decapitated by the rabid Islamists, had shown his class the infamous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Following Paty’s beheading, another attack rocked France in which three people had died, of which at least two were reportedly beheaded in a terrorist attack at Notre Dame Church in Nice. As per local French media, the Islamic terrorists who carried out the attack frenziedly kept shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while carrying out the attack.

In the aftermath of Samuel Paty’s beheading, French authorities launched a severe crackdown against extremist Islamists across the country, closing down mosques considered as centres of indoctrination and deporting individuals with suspicious credentials. French President Emmanuel Macron also took a hardline against the menace of Islamism bedevilling France and Europe which triggered outrage from several Muslim-majority nations.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted a poem to exploit farmers issue, kin of poet demands apology

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi tweeted a poem to exploit farmers issue, kin of poet demands apology

A day after Congress scion Rahul Gandhi distorted the 7-decade-old iconic poem ‘Veer Tum Badhe Chalo’, written by Dwarika Prasad Maheshwari, for furthering his political agenda amidst the ongoing farmer protests, the kin of the poet has demanded an apology from him.

In his tweet on Sunday, Rahul Gandhi had changed three lines of the poem to suit the current political narrative surrounding the historic farm laws. “Be it water guns or a thousand jackals, farmers must go ahead (with the movement),” he distorted the poem.

Screengrab of the tweet by Rahul Gandhi with the distorted poem, via Twitter

As per reports, the family members of the celebrated poet criticised Rahul Gandhi for mocking the true spirit of the poem and demanded an apology. This included Dr Vinod Kumar Maheshwari, son of Dwarka Prasad Maheshwari and former principal of Agra College. He said that a generation of Indian citizens have been inspired by his father’s poem. “The distortion is an injustice to the soul of the late poet,” Dr Vinod said. He added, “Rahul Gandhi has made fun of such an iconic poem. It is highly condemnable and you must apologise for this.”

At the same time, Dr Pranjal Maheshwari, the grandson of Dwarka Prasad Maheshwari, also criticised Rahul Gandhi’s act and corrected him. He said, “It is high time that you learn the poem by heart. The lines you have added are not correct.”

The family members of the poet have stated that by sharing the distorted version to further his political goals, Rahul Gandhi has mocked and insulted the spirit of the poem.

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