On Thursday, a senior BJP leader named Harish Sharma committed suicide by jumping into the Delhi parallel canal on Gohana road near Binjhol village in Panipat, Haryana.
As per reports, Sharma was under mental stress after the Panipat police filed a case against him and his daughter Anjali Sharma for openly selling firecrackers and supposedly misbehaving with police on Diwali night. A case was registered against the duo and 8 others under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 186, 188, 201, 323, 332, 353, 379 A, 506, 511 and 34 and Explosive Act Section 9B.
The family of the former BJP councillor has alleged that the police was pressing for his arrest on Wednesday night. It forced Harish Sharma to spend the night at the residence of his friend Rajesh Sharma. He did not return home that night. The victim had made calls to his brother Satish and other family members, stating that he was going to commit suicide.
On Thursday, Harish Sharma reached the Delhi parallel canal at 9:30 am in the morning, removed his clothes and jewellery, and jumped to his death. His friend Rajesh also drowned while trying to save him. Reportedly, Satish had also tried to save Harish by jumping into the canal but failed. He was rescued by another eyewitness Sonu Saluja. Following the tragic incident, BJP MLA Pramod Vij, Congress leader Virender Shah, councillors Lokesh Nagroo, Dushyant Bhatt and ex-transport Minister Krishan Panwar reached the spot.
Body of BJP councillor yet to be recovered
BJP MLA Pramod Vij, former transport minister Krishan Panwar, councillors Lokesh Nagroo, Dushyant Bhatt, and senior Congress leader Virender Shah also reached the spot. According to DSP (Headquarters) Satish Vats, the search for the BJP leader’s body is underway. The water level of the canal was reduced and the divers have been searching for the body of Harish. Rajesh’s body was reportedly recovered from the minor canal in Samalkha area near Burshayam village. His body was then sent for post-mortem at the general hospital.
Police officials suspended after BJP leader’s death
On Friday, the Panipat Superintendent of Police (SP) Manisha Chaudhary suspended sub-inspector Baljeet Singh and Assistant sub-inspector Mahavir Singh of Tehsil Camp police post over negligence in the investigation of the case against Harish Sharma and his daughter Anjali Sharma.
At the same time, a three-member committee has been constituted under ADGP Sandeep Khirwar, on the directions of Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij. The team had reached Panipat to probe Harish Sharma’s death on Friday and also met his family.
A man was reportedly shot dead at the flat of Samajwadi Party MLC from Shahjahanpur Amit Yadav last night. The incident took place during a birthday party that was going in the flat late in the night. According to reports, five friends had organised a birthday party at the flat belonging to Yadav in La Place Apartments at Hazratganj, Lucknow.
Gunshot hit the victim in the face
A man named Rakesh was shot dead during the party. Some reports claim that a person named Vinay who was present in the party was testing his gun when the shot was firs by mistake and hit Rakesh. Some other reports say that there was a tussle between few people present there including the victim and the victim was hit when he was trying to snatch the pistol. The victim was rushed to KGMU hospital where he died during treatment. His body has been sent for postmortem. All the persons were under heavy influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. Police found 20 cans of beer at the flat.
Vinay told two versions of the story
Police received the information about the incident around 2 AM in the night. The people present in the party have been identified as Vinay Yadav, Gyanendra Kumar, Aftab Alam and Pankaj Singh apart from the victim. According to police, all five people reached at the flat around 8 pm yesterday. Pankaj Singh, who is the brother of the MLC, has been living in the house for five years. Vinay had called at 100 and 112 numbers in the night informing that Rakesh was accidently hit by a bullet while he was showing the pistol to someone else. He again dialled 112 later and said that the shot was fired by him by mistake. He told that Rakesh was taken to the trauma centre.
Pistol belonged to Pankaj Singh
Police have arrested all four people. During initial interrogation, police were told that the pistol was brought by the victim himself who then handed it over to Vinay. The shot was fired by mistake when he was testing it. On further interrogation, the police found that the pistol belonged to Pankaj Singh and it was already kept at the flat. He also had two magazines. Under the influence of alcohol Pankaj Singh brought the pistol from other room and Rakesh started to examine it. Vinay asked Rakesh to give him the pistol and in the ensuing tussle a shot was fired by mistake that hit Rakesh.
Statement of the MLC
Samajwadi Party MLC Amit Yadav said that Pankaj Singh used to live in the flat and that the incident took place during a birthday party yesterday. He said that he did not have further information as he was at his house in Shahjahanpur. DCP Central Somen Verma informed that a magazine and two cartridges have been recovered and the investigation was underway. Victim’s family have been informed about the incident.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been accused of supporting Tigray rebels TPLF in Ethiopia. Army chief of staff of Ethiopia, General Birhanu Jula, made the accusations in a televised statement on Thursday. He called Tedros a ‘criminal’ and called for him to be removed.
“He himself is a member of that group and he is a criminal,” the General said, accusing Tedros of trying to procure arms for the Tigray state’s dominant political party in addition to providing diplomatic support. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is currently engaged in a military conflict with federal forces.
“He has been doing everything to support them, he has campaigned to get the neighbouring countries to condemn the war. He has worked to facilitate weapons for them (the TPLF),” the General said. It is pertinent to mention that Tedros served as the Health Minister and the Foreign Minister between 2005-16 under a coalition headed by the TPLF.
Tedros, meanwhile, has denied the accusations. He said, “There have been reports suggesting I am taking sides in this situation. This is not true and I want to say that I am on only one side and that is the side of peace.”
The conflict in Ethiopia
Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, ordered a military offensive against the TPLF after an attack on one of its military bases early in November. Ahmed accused the rebels of being responsible for the attack which resulted in the capture of the military base by the rebels. A state of emergency has been declared in the country for six months.
Ahmed said that the attackers “tried to loot” military assets, asserting that “the last red line had been crossed”. “The national defence force that has been in the bunkers for the past 20 plus years defending its people and the country by paying heavy sacrifices with its blood and flesh, has been attacked, this evening in Mekelle and many other places, by traitors and the force they organised,” he said in a televised address.
During its initial years, the TPLF had a Marxist ideological bent but later, it moderated itself and claimed to be pro-democracy. In May 1990, a top US diplomat commented, “My own view is that the military success of the TPLF has gotten far ahead of its political agenda. These guys woke up one day and said, ‘My gosh, we may win!’ They have said they are strict Marxists, but I think they realize that they need to present themselves and their cause in a better way — not only within Ethiopia, but to the West. They are trying to broaden their base.”
Since 1991, after overthrowing what it labelled as a dictatorship, the TPLF and others formed a coalition government that ruled Ethiopia until 2018. In 2018, however, another coalition, the Prosperity Party, assumed power after the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front Chairman unified the constituent parties into a new coalition.
The TPLF did not accept the merger and called it illegal. As things currently stand, the Ethiopian government has claimed that it has taken control of two key towns from in Northern Tigray from the rebels.
Tedros, himself, has quite a shady past. He was accused of covering up epidemics in his home country Ethiopia even while he was the health minister in the government days before he became the director of the WHO. Tedros was Ethiopia’s health minister between 2005-12 and outbreaks had occurred in 2006, 2009 and 2011.
He had said these were only “acute watery diarrhoea” in areas where testing is “difficult”. However, in 2007, the UN and other aid agencies insisted that laboratory tests showed that the deaths were due to cholera. Ethiopia was also accused of covering up a cholera epidemic in 2017. New York Times reported that the Ethiopian government was saying the same thing in 2017 what Tedros had said on previous occasions.
Conduct of Tedros during the Coronavirus pandemic
The WHO found itself at a tough spot in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. It has been accused of ‘siding with’ the Chinese government by none other than the president of the United States himself. WHO and its director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have come under severe criticism for their conduct since the pandemic broke out in China. The organization took long enough in declaring it a pandemic, leading to countries not being vigilant enough on time.
In January, WHO had endorsed the conclusion of Chinese authorities that the Novel Coronavirus does not spread from person to person, and stated that it does not recommend any specific health measures for travellers to and from Wuhan. WHO also ignored Taiwan which had informed them that it has evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Taiwan wrote to WHO on the 31st of December, but WHO kept denying human-to-human transmission till mid-January. Experts are of the view that this laxity and callousness is responsible for the catastrophe that has struck the world and that the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, like China’s Xi Jinping, should be held accountable for recklessly managing this deadly pandemic.
The Nagrota encounter in Jammu on Thursday where four Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists were killed has turned out to be a major breakthrough in terms of exposing Pakistan’s link with terror activities in India. Some material recovered from slain terrorists directly proves that they came from Pakistan. A digital mobile radio made by a Pakistani company, medicines other products with Pakistani markings were found with the terrorists, proving beyond doubt that they belong to Pakistan.
But now with additional analysis of the radio set carried by the terrorists, it also shows how the terrorists have the active support of the Pakistani military. The Digital Mobile Radio carried by the terrorists, a two-way radio communication device used mainly by the military, carries the model name MPD 2505, and the brand name Micro. This device is manufactured by Micro Electronics International Pvt Ltd, a Pakistan based company.
The website of the company informs that MPD 2505 is a Walkie Talkie type Micro Secure DMR VHF Handheld Radio. The website also features the product brochure of the DMR made by the company, which mentions its technical and other specifications. The specifications made it clear that it is a military-grade product.
In fact, the about us page on the website of MEI makes it clear, as it mentions that the company is serving the military/government sector by providing radio systems. The company’s major clients include virtually every arm of police and defence establishment in Pakistan. It lists Strategic Plans Division, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Rangers, Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary KPK, Police, Airports Security Force, Security agencies etc as its major clients, apart from other government and private organisations.
But the ties of the company with Pakistani military establishment goes beyond just a manufacturer-consumer relationship. In 1981, the company’s radio making facility was acquired and leased by the Ministry of Defence in the Pakistan government, to support the production of military radios. Till 1991, the company ran as a public-private partnership, before it was sold to private owners.
Major Manik M. Jolly, a gallantry award-winning Indian army veteran, also cybersecurity and renewable energy expert, pointed out several aspects linking the company with the Pakistani military, and its questionable ownership. He noted that the company’s Lahore office is located inside the Lahore Cantonment, a military-controlled municipal area, which serves as the headquarters of 4 Corps of Pakistani Army. It shows that the company has deep ties with the military, and can maintain a constant touch with the Army and the ISI.
Major Jolly also tweeted that the distance from Lahore to launching point near Nagrota is not very much, which could mean that it is possible that the terrorists were being handled from the military base.
banned in India, this making tracing the communication within India nearly impossible.
3. One of their offices is INSIDE Lahore Cantt. If they were equipped there, the distance from Lahore to launching point near Nagrota is much of a stretch. This also can link how the company pic.twitter.com/v76Hk0nlas
Apart from the Lahore office, the company’s Rawalpindi office is located in Pakistan Military Accounts Officer Colony inside Rawalpindi Cantonment, and its Karachi office is located in the Services Club Building. Most importantly, the company also has a factory inside the Lahore Cantt in Lahore.
This shows that even though Pakistan govt no longer owns the company, it is still mostly operated from military bases.
The Indian Army veteran also pointed out that the new owner of the company is a person that seems to be fake. The owner is Muhammad Nauman, and his LinkedIn Profile says that he owns the company since 1997, 6 years after it was ‘sold’ by Defence Ministry. There is no other experience, education or any other detail of Nauman on LinkedIn, and Major Manik M. Jolly noted that he looks to young to be owner of the company for more than 23 years. He concluded that it is definitely a fake profile.
23 years and 5 months. All other experiences are same. No education, nothing much. For the young guy he looks, it’s impossible for someone to be owner since 1997 ! Definitely a fake profile.
There’s much more to this and it’ll take a while to uncover. But we have the phone.. pic.twitter.com/X5WWE3AJYy
A Google search also reveals no information of the owner of such a high-profile organisation, indicating that Major Jolly’s conclusion could be correct.
The LinkedIn profile of the company says it has 11-50 employees. For a company involved in multiple lines of hi-tech products, with offices located in multiple cities in Pakistan, this is a surprisingly low number. This indicates that most of the details of the company are secret, and it may have personnel from the military working with it, which are officially not listed as employees of the company.
Apart from the Digital Mobile Radio, a large number of arms and ammunition were recovered from the terrorists killed in the Nagrota encounter. This included 11 AK-47 rifles, pistols, grenades, grenade launchers, RDX and other items. For four terrorists, these was a large inventory, which means that other terrorists were going to accompany them at a later state. The terrorists were also carrying very little food with them, which points towards the possibility that they were on a suicide mission.
Therefore, it was a major success of Indian Security Forces, who prevented a major terror attack by Pakistan based terror organisation JeM.
The residence of comedian Bharti Singh has been raided by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the most recent instance of its continued crackdown on the Bollywood Drug Racket in the aftermath of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. Sources with knowledge of the situation informed us that although Bharti Singh resisted quite a bit initially, she soon offered her full cooperation once she realised that the NCB was treating her far better than her colleague Kapil Sharma ever did.
Narcotics Control Bureau conducts a raid at the residence of comedian Bharti Singh in Mumbai: NCB#Maharashtra
In her haze, Bharti Singh broke out into an impromptu jig, elated that she could finally count herself as a Bollywood celebrity now that she has been raided by the NCB. She also insisted that the ‘acid’ the NCB was trying to seize from her was actually acid that she had purchased for cleaning purposes at her residence. But Dr. Salunkhe from the CID, who was present at the scene, quickly tested the contents and confirmed that it was ‘acid’ acid and not acid ‘acid’.
Meanwhile, we approached Kapil Sharma for a comment. He said, in no uncertain terms, that he always ‘suspected she was on some pretty good sh*t’ because ‘no one in their right mind’ could possibly have dealt with the ‘sh*t’ he threw at everyone only for a few hundred thousand more bucks. He advised us to tip off NCB about Archana Puransingh as well because of her tendency to laugh even at terribly unfunny jokes.
Recognising he was in a good mood and was unlikely to get abusive and attack us with the broom lying in the corner, we decided to carry on the conversation. On questioning why Navjot Singh Sidhu should be let off by the same metric, he told us that wasn’t the affect of drugs. Sidhu got hit on the head one too many times by those nasty bouncers, Kapil Sharma said justifying his reasoning.
According to him, Sidhu’s decision to quit the BJP in favour of Congress and his antic since then are a consequence of those ‘nasty bouncers’ as well. “It’s like someone quitting IPL to play for the Pakistan Super League, going from Mumbai Indians to Lahore Qalandars… Man, the bouncers did him good,” Kapil Sharma said on Sidhu’s political career.
The NCB is surprised as well at the widespread prevalence of drug use in the entertainment industry as well. Reliable Sources (who are as reliable as CNN Doofus Brian Stelter’s) told us that at first, the NCB officials were hesitant to raid Bharti Singh as her ‘good health’ did not indicate extensive drug use. But in the end, seniors made the call that if Bharti Singh too was in the grips of it, then pretty much everyone was in the loop.
The NCB suspects that the widespread use of drugs also explains how movies such as Student Of The Year 2 was ever made. It is also suspected that drugs could potentially explain the questionable casting choices that have been made in recent times. Someone must have been under the influence of some potent drug to enlist Bobby Deol, a luminary of the Bollywood Hall of Fame for flopstars, for Housefull 4, we are told.
However, we can confidently say that Ram Gopal Verma is not under the radar. We were astonished by the decision given that the Twitter feed of RGV and his movies such as ‘Aag’ (the Sholay remake) could not possibly have been made by someone in complete control of their mental faculties. But we were reliably informed that RGV has always been this way, having been dropped too many times on his head as a kid.
In other news, we have learnt that Deepika Padukone is furious with her hubby Ranveer Singh. She believes that she found herself on the NCB radar because Ranveer’s fashion statements were a dead giveaway. Dino Morea, meanwhile, is extremely grateful to the NCB because finally, his name was taken in the same breath as Shahrukh Khan. However, his biggest crime remains participating in the abomination titled ‘Pyaar Impossible’ featuring Uday Chopra in the lead.
The NCB suspects that the Bollywood Drug Racket has been operating in the film industry for years and years now. Officials admitted that they should have spotted the warning signs when movies such as ‘Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani’ and ‘Rudraksh’ started hitting the theatres. Now, the problem has gotten much worse.
We were also told Himesh Reshammiya’s amazing transformation from an average looking Gujarati man to an Indian version of ‘The Undertaker’ (if he were a singer instead of a WWE superstar) and finally to a pirated Justin Bieber has nothing to do with LSD. NCB officials told us that as further evidence of Reshammiya’s clean record, he has been calling everyone in the movie industry to tell them, ‘Mujhe tere ghar me roti chahiye, LSD nahi!’
Note: The above article is a work of satire and should be taken as humour
The residence of comedian Bharti Singh was raided by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the drug racket in the entertainment industry.
Narcotics Control Bureau conducts a raid at the residence of comedian Bharti Singh in Mumbai: NCB#Maharashtra
Since then, according to reports, Bharti Singh and her husband, Haarsh Limbachiyaa, have been detained by NCB for questioning.
Maharashtra: Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducts raid at the residence of comedian Bharti Singh in Mumbai.
"She and her husband both have been detained for questioning by NCB about possession of narcotics substances," says Sameer Wankhede, Zonal Director, NCB Office, Mumbai pic.twitter.com/omht7fNXOj
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had recently summoned film producer Firoz Nadiadwala in connection to the probe in the high-profile drug scandal surrounding the Hindi film industry. Consequently, his residence in the upscale western suburbs of Mumbai was searched by the narcotics team in connection to the case.
Earlier, it was revealed that NCB has initiated a probe into Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal and Dino Morea for alleged drug abuse. Till then, the names of only actresses like Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan had come up in the drug abuse probe.
Previously, the NCB officials had impounded mobile phones of Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh and Deepika’s manager Karishma Prakash. During the interrogation, the NCB officials had confronted Deepika Padukone with the digital evidence gathered from Jaya Saha’s phone that showed the actor’s chats about procuring ‘maal’ for her. However, as per a report, Deepika had claimed that by ‘Maal’ she meant cigarettes and ‘Hash’ referred to the different brands of cigarettes.
The utter failure of Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to tackle the coronavirus pandemic has now resulted in the rising number of fresh cases in the national capital. It has become a daunting challenge for the authorities to manage the health crisis and are now hoping that the Modi government at the centre would come to their rescue just as they did by intervening in June by setting up emergency health care facilities in the national capital.
At a time when Delhi government is under severe criticism for its mismanagement of the pandemic, certain self-proclaimed ‘journalists’ are now trying hard to cover up for the Delhi government’s failures by blaming the citizens of the national capital for the increasing number of cases in the city.
Rohini Singh, who calls herself a ‘journalist’, on Friday, attempted to shield the Arvind Kejriwal-led government from any criticism for mishandling the coronavirus crisis and instead pushed the blame on the citizens of Delhi for the rising number of fresh cases in the national capital.
Taking to Twitter, Rohini Singh, known for sharing a good working relationship with Samajwadi Party leaders, claimed that till citizens did not co-operate with the government, they would lose the battle against the pandemic. It must be recalled that just after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, Rohini Singh had taken a long sabbatical from Twitter since she had actively batted for Akhilesh Yadav winning the state.
“The price we pay for not wearing one is not worth it,” said Rohini Singh on Twitter.
Rohini Singh’s lecture on the importance of masks on Twitter came after Delhi Chief Minister had tweeted about his meeting with traders in the national capital to assure them of not imposing another lockdown in the capital and also helping the people to understand how it was necessary to wear masks to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Tweet by Rohini Singh on 20th November 2020
It is important to note that the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s theatrics on the streets of Delhi, to promote the use of masks came only after Delhi High Court slammed AAP government for its inability to tackle the pandemic. The Delhi High Court had severely criticised the Kejriwal-led government for the rising number of cases in Delhi and had said that the fines imposed by the Delhi government are not working either as they seem to have failed to set a deterrent.
Following the Delhi High Court observation, the Delhi government had decided to impose a fine of Rs 2,000 for not wearing masks and flouting social distancing norms in the national capital.
Rohini Singh, who claims to be a ‘journalist’, rather than questioning the failure of the Delhi government to tackle the pandemic in the first place, blamed the citizens of the city for the rising number of cases. Instead of holding Arvind Kejriwal accountable for his ineffective policies, the likes of Singh, in a class act of victim-shaming, held the citizens responsible for the mess.
While the citizens have an important role to play in controlling the pandemic, and that fact cannot be denied, it is the sheer hypocrisy of Rohini Singh and her u-turns to shield Arvind Kejriwal from blame that is rather interesting, and negates her phony concern for the raging pandemic and the control of it thereof.
Rohini Singh credited Arvind Kejriwal for ‘successful’ fight against pandemic
While today, Rohini Singh is blaming the citizens of Delhi, ironically, ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh, a just a few months back, was hailing Arvind Kejriwal for showing exemplary leadership in his fight against the pandemic in Delhi. Praising the so-called effective strategy of Arvind Kejriwal in tackling the pandemic, Singh in June had said hospitals were not overcrowded as corona cases were coming down in Delhi.
Claiming that the testing is being easily available in Delhi, Singh said that Arvind Kejriwal had achieved to win over the Chinese pandemic without even imposing a ‘nonsense of partial lockdowns’ like many other states. Well done Arvind Kejriwal, she said.
Tweet by Rohini Singh in July 2020
Interestingly, Rohini Singh, who is eager to blame common citizens for rising cases in Delhi, did not even care to praise them in July when she had made such absurd observation. For Singh, the credit for the so-called effective handling of coronavirus crisis in Delhi in June, which itself is a factually incorrect claim, was because of Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership and not because of the citizens.
However, with second wave of cases hitting the national capital, Rohini Singh is now conveniently blaming citizens for the rising number of cases.
As we speak, the coronavirus cases continue to rise in Delhi. On Friday, Delhi recorded 6,608 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the total tally in the national capital to over 5 lakh. Delhi saw 118 new fatalities, pushing the death toll to 8,159.
If Arvind Kejriwal, as falsely claimed by Rohini Singh had indeed taken any effective steps months in early months of April and June, perhaps Delhi would have been in a recovery phase by now.
Rather than speaking truth to power, the ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh shows all her bravado against common citizens of Delhi, knowing fully well that these powerless citizens will not seek accountability from her.
The Facebook Oversight Board has been a cause of much consternation ever since it was proposed. Ultimately, when the board to regulate content on the social media platform was set up, it created quite the stir after it was revealed that 18 of the 20 members were linked to the American Billionaire and prominent Democrat donor, George Soros.
Since then, another revelation has come to light. One of the members of the Facebook Oversight Board is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist outfit banned in multiple Arab and Western countries, in addition to being a Nobel Peace Laureate. The Nobel Peace Prize does not carry much meaning at this point given the fact that Barack Obama, another winner, went on to bomb Libya into slavery apart from plunging the entire Middle-East into further chaos.
But membership of the Muslim Brotherhood does carry a lot of meaning. The Middle-East Online (MEO) reported in June that Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakkol Karman, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, is a member of the terrorist outfit who was awarded a place in the Facebook Oversight Board in order to regulate the platform’s content.
According to the report, Tawakkol Karman was formerly a member of the Islamist Yemeni Islah Party (YIP) that was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood. She called the MB “one of the victims of official tyranny and terrorism in the region.” The MB acknowledged their ties with her and proudly congratulated her after she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
A MEMRI report quoted one of her interviews on BBC Arabic on September 15, 2013 as saying, “The most important achievement of the January [2011] Revolution [in Egypt] was the abolishment of the emergency law. Unfortunately, the July 3 [2013] coup reinstated that law. The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, who oppose the military rule, are engaged in a legendary struggle, which they are waging with their blood, their resolute steadfastness, and their belief that they will restore the revolution to its true path.”
The Arabs were incensed by her nomination to the Facebook Oversight Board. “Tawakkol Karman does not deserve to be on an international council to supervise Facebook content. Hate speech and Karman are just like branches on a tree,” prominent political science professor Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said. “This news is a major catastrophe, because her appointment to this position enables her to pass judgment on Facebook policies regarding the region,” commented Emirati writer Ola Al Shaikh.
Egyptian activists launched a campaign against her as well. Dr. Hani Raji said, “This means granting the supervision of Facebook in Egypt directly to the Muslim Brotherhood. She is an explicit enemy of political regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, either she will be removed from the committee or Facebook will be closed!”
“Karman was considered a symbol of the Yemeni revolution against the rule of Saleh, but over time she has become associated with intolerance, discrimination and lack of neutrality,” Hani Nasira, a terrorism and extremism expert, told Arab News. It was also reported that following her Nobel Peace Prize win, she was invited to Doha and personally congratulated by Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf-al-Qaradawi. The preacher is known to call for suicide bombs and praise Adolf Hitler for “punishing” the Jews.
The man on the right(Qaradawi) was banned from entering the UK, France, the US & many other civilised nations for extremism. The lady next to him is Tawakul Karman, which @Facebook appointed to its Oversight Board! Facebook has made itself an institutional promoter of extremism pic.twitter.com/wX32IVCpQZ
“Karman’s loyalty to, and association with, governments that flout all norms of democracy, such as Qatar and Turkey, deprives her of any claim to neutrality and objectivity,” she stated further. “Her political rhetoric encourages extremism, divisiveness and shunning of those who disagree with her current loyalties.”
The conduct of social media platforms has come under intense scrutiny, especially in light of the presidential elections in the United States where tech giant have regularly censored the sitting US president, based on grounds widely perceived to be frivolous. Under such circumstances, the presence of an Islamist on the Facebook Oversight Board is likely to attract further scrutiny for the social media platform.
Furthermore, questions regarding whether platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are legitimately a threat to Democracy will have to be answered as well. Without a shadow of a doubt, such tech giants have disproportionate influence over the control of information and when the self-appointed oversight boards have Islamic extremists on them, such questions cannot be disregarded completely. Democracy relies heavily on the communication of information and it is well past time that India has this discussion as well.
Responding on the Karachi Sweets controversy, former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis pitched for ‘Akhand Bharat’ and said that one day Karachi will be a part of India. Fadnavis made the statement to PTI when asked about his reaction on the Karachi Sweets controversy where a Shiv Sena worker had threatened the owner of ‘Karachi Sweets’ shop to remove Karachi from his shop’s name as it was a Pakistani city.
“We believe in Akhand Bharat and we believe one day Karachi will be part of India,” Fadnavis said.
Shiv Sena leader issues threat to Karachi Sweets owner to change its name ban
An owner of a sweets shop named Karachi Sweets in Mumbai had to hide his shop’s name with newspapers after a Shiv Sena leader named Nitin Nandgaokar threatened him to change it and use some other name in Marathi.
In a viral video of the incident, Nandgaokar can be seen asking the owner of the Karachi Sweets shop located in Bandra West to change the name of his shop to something in Marathi. He said that he hated the name of the shop and that he would give him time to change the name. As per the conversation in the video, the forefathers of the shop’s owner used to live in Karachi before partition which is currently located in Pakistan. They moved to India after partition and named their shop as Karachi Sweets in memory of their former homeland.
Fadnavis says attacking and abusing Hindus has become a mark of being secular
The BJP leader also commented on the raging controversy of ‘Love Jihad’. When asked about Congress leader and Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot accusing the BJP of ‘manufacturing’ the term Love Jihad and disrupting communal harmony, Fadnavis said that some pseudo secular people believe that attacking and abusing Hindus is secular.
He also added that ‘Love Jihad’ is happening across the country and it is recognised in Kerala as well where BJP was not in power.
The Indian Consulate in Canada is drawing flak from social media users for enlisting controversial ‘historians’ such as Devdutt Patnaik and William Dalrymple for three-day JLF Toronto Literary fest to be held on November 27, 28 and 29.
A tweet about the details of the sessions conducted by various personalities was shared by the official Twitter account of the Consulate General of India to Canada. Pattanaik is scheduled to speak on “Mahabharata: Adapting Ancient Myth for Modern Theatre” on November 29.
“Experience conversations between some of the greatest authors, poets, historians, journalists of our time on @JLFLitfest from Nov 27-29,” the tweet said.
Furious netizens express their disapproval over litfest invitation to abusive ‘historian’ Devdutt Pattanaik
However, soon after the tweet was posted, scores of furious netizens took to Twitter to call out the Indian Consulate in Canada for providing a platform to individuals like Devdutt Pattanaik, who has a history of abusing people on social media websites for having views at variance with his beliefs and is often found concocting lies.
One of the Twitter user replied that Devdutt was one of the most abusive ‘expert’ she had interacted with. She added that Patnaik made her sick and condemned the Indian Consulate in Canada for providing a platform to someone who uses despicable language for women.
Devdutt is one of the most abusive ‘expert’ I have ever interacted. The language he uses for women is despicable. Shameful that he is given the platform. He makes me sick
One Twitter user responded to the tweet put by the Indian Consulate in Canada by sharing an instance when Devdutt Pattanaik had posted an abusively nasty tweet to a social media user.
Twitter users wondered whether Indian government considers the Mahabharata to be a myth, because that is what “Anti Hindu Mythologist like Devdutt” thinks.
Is Indian Government consider Mahabharata as Ancient Myth ??? Oh yes that's why you are inviting Anti Hindu Mythologist like Devdutt. Its shocking to see such Anti Hindu person is given such platform. Not acceptable…
The general consensus on social media is that Devdutt Pattanaik is anti-Hindu, serial abuser, mis‑interpreter of Hindu texts, and slammed the officials of the ministry for inviting him to the JLF Toronto Litfest.
Devdutt Pattanaik-A fountain head of abuses, distortions and lies
Devdutt Pattanaik has a chequered history of abusing people who do not conform to his worldview. There have been myriad instances when the so-called historian has resorted to crass remarks and vile abuses on social media websites. Pattanaik had also made fake assertions about the Citizenship Amendment Act and routinely indulges in ridiculing and abusing Hindus and Hindutva. Because of his chronically abusive behaviour and anti-Hindu antecedents, social media users have expressed their displeasure for having him invited for an event sponsored by the Indian government.
According to Nityanand Misra, an IIM graduate working in the finance industry, the self-proclaimed mythologist’s writing is not based on stories in Hindu Puranas. He also reveals that the author might be misinterpreting Sanskrit words.
Nityanand claims that Devdutt has been inventing his own stories and selling them as Hindu mythology. In addition to this, Misra says that the Pattanaik has a special hatred for Brahmins and doesn’t accept genuine criticism of his work.
Invitation to historian William Dalrymple to an Indian government program draws netizens’ ire
Besides Pattnaik, the invitation extended to another controversial figure, historian William Dalrymple, by the Indian government for JLF Toronto Litfest had drawn the ire of netizens on the social media websites. Several of them wondered as to why an “India hater and breaker” such as William Dalrymple, who also opposed the abolition of Article 370 and CAA was invited in a government-sponsored program.
Seriously abusive Devdutt & India hater & breaker Dalrymple?? @narendramodi@AmitShah@DrSJaishankar what is happening in @MEAIndia? @PMOIndia will be held responsible for this hypocrisy of inviting ppl who oppose 370 & CAA in same govt sponsored program.
Many other social media users were so miffed with the Indian Consulate in Canada’s decision to have Devdutt Patnaik and William Dalrymple as speakers in their organised event that they started tagging External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to express their disapproval for inviting the abusive ‘historian’ to speak on Hindu epic of Mahabharata.
One social media user wondered why the Indian Consulate was providing a platform to William Dalrymple, known for halting the publication of Bloomsbury India’s book on Delhi Riots. “Does @IndiainToronto work for Indian interests or for their personal ones?” the user questioned.
William Dalrymple credited for halting the publication of Delhi Riots 2020 book
Historian William Dalrymple is believed to have played an instrumental role in getting the Bloomsbury India to withdraw its publication of the book on Delhi riots. After publishing bouse Bloomsbury announced that it is withdrawing a book titled ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ due to pressures from the Islamists and left-liberal lobby, Islamist Aatish Taseer had taken to Twitter to inform that Scottish historian William Dalrymple was behind the effort to prevent the book from being published.
Besides Taseer’s confession, Dalrymple himself had also tweeted about working to stop the publication of the Delhi Riots 2020 book. Responding to a request by Congress troll Saket Gokhale to somehow stop the book, Dalrymple had replied, “I’m on it. As are several other Bloomsbury authors”.
The book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ is authored by Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. The book, which is a factual account based on investigation and interviews conducted by the authors, was to be released in September. Bloomsbury India buckled under the pressure from the Islamists, including William Dalrymple, and withdrew the book even as the authors were attending a virtual event to launch the book.
