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Oxford University students say no to beef, lamb in campus eateries, ask authorities to implement order to combat climate change

OpIndia Staff
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Oxford University students say no to beef, lamb in campus eateries, ask authorities to implement order to combat climate change

Oxford University may soon remove beef and lamb from its campus eateries. The Student Union has passed a motion by a two-thirds majority to ban them from menus in a bid to combat climate change. Student Union executives will lobby the university to implement a ban at campus canteens. Though unions do not have the power to change the policy, they can represent students in decision-making.

The university colleges will individually decide if they want to introduce a ban. As per reports, the Union has around 22,000 students as its members. Though it will not be able to change the policy, it can influence decision-making as students’ representative due to its strength.

Details of the student motion to ban beef and lamb

The Oxford motion has suggested that the Union should ask the university authorities for fortnightly meetings to advocate the adoption of policies that will reduce and later remove meat from the canteens. It further added that this should be “especially in respect of beef and lamb (and to campaign for) the university to issue advice to faculties, departments, and colleges on how they may follow suit in removing beef and lamb from the menu in the campus”.

The students have argued that the ban is necessary as meat production has a considerable impact on climate emissions. The motion said as Oxford is UK’s premier university, the nation looks at it for leadership, but the university has lacked in leadership while addressing climate change. Banning meat at university-catered events and outlets is possible and will help meet the university’s revised 2030 goal to ban meat.

Student Union said that if the policy is implemented at the university level, it will be easier to implement similar changes at the college level. The motion also argued that greenhouse gases disproportionately affect developing countries. As the university is committed to anti-racism, minimizing greenhouse gases should be the priority.

Other UK Universities’ stand on beef ban

Goldsmiths University in South-East London and Cambridge University have already imposed a beef ban on the campus. However, at Edinburgh, the London School of Economics and the University of East Anglia passed such orders but had to overturn the decision due to revolt.

Pro-AAP vlogger Dhruv Rathee makes an insensitive remark on death of an eight-year-old girl, ‘liberals’ rejoice

OpIndia Staff
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Pro-AAP vlogger Dhruv Rathee makes an insensitive remark on death of an eight-year-old girl, ‘liberals’ rejoice

In a shocking insensitive act, pro Aam Aadmi Party propagandist Dhruv Rathee on Tuesday used the death of an 8-year-old child to mock at Hindus for celebrating the festival of Deepavali.

Displaying his blatant hatred for Hindus and its cultures, pro-AAP blogger Dhruv Rathee took to Twitter to share a news report that stated that the 8-year-old granddaughter of BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi died after she caught fire from a diya. Sharing this news report, Rathee made an insensitive mark on the death of the child saying that he observed a two-minute silence for all crazy idiots who promote using crackers.

Image Source: Dhruv Rathee

In his hurry to target Hindus for celebrating Deepavali by bursting crackers, the likes of Dhruv Rathee went to an extent of ridiculing the death of a child to attack Hindus for bursting crackers to celebrate the Hindu festival. Essentially, Rathee wanted to make a point to Hindus by highlighting the death of the child due to a mishap which was not even caused by firecrackers in the first place.

As soon as Rathee put out his sadistic remark on Twitter, several AAP supporters and liberals cheered the death of the 8-year-old grandchild of BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi. Using the tragic death of the child, these so-called ‘liberals’ targeted Hindus for celebrating the festival and claimed that Hindus were willing to sacrifice the lives of their kids for the sake of Hindu pride.

Another wanna be a liberal and follower of Rathee mocked Hindus by saying that ‘Bhakts’ will accept the death of the 8-year-old child as an offering from Lord Rama.

Pradeep Agarwal, another AAP supporters, even celebrated the death of the child, saying, “God is great”.

A social media user who goes by the name Alfa Feku said that Hindus celebrating Diwali by bursting crackers will result in millions of people dying in coming years and added that the 8-year-old child was a victim of the same, insinuating that ‘Hindus celebrating Diwali’ are to be blamed for air pollution in the country.

The sheer hatred for Hindus from the likes Dhruv Rathee and his AAP followers is not a new thing. However, it is rather shocking to see that these so-called ‘liberals’ can go to any extent, including the act of celebrating the death of an eight-year-old to claim some sort of ideological victory against Hindus.

Rise of Owaisi in Bihar – What it means for the Congress party and Indian politics

Priyank
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Rise of Owaisi in Bihar – What it means for the Congress party and Indian politics

When PM Modi talked about a Congress-mukt-Bharat, many took it to mean the literal dissolution of the Indian National Congress. That day may or may not be far away but the Bihar 2020 election marks a key milestone in Bharat ridding itself of what the Congress stands for, or to put simply, ridding itself of Congressism. That milestone, ironically, is the establishment of the AIMIM as the apparent voice of Indian Muslims.

There has been much hand wringing about the rise of the AIMIM outside their Hyderabad stronghold, including many opinions on social media on why this is an ominous sign for India. However, there is more to this than what meets the eye.

One should first understand what the Congress is supposed to stand for. Since it is devoid of an ideology today, we can look to history to guide us. There were three general principles Congress claimed it stood for. While the first two have been quite demolished, they are still worth revisiting.

Welfare for all / pseudo socialism

The Congress shouted the ‘garibi hatao‘ slogans even back in 1971 but it was the NDA governments that have looked past the empty promises to deliver key benefits into the hands of intended beneficiaries. As a bonus, the Modi government has dried up the trough of state funds that political parties fattened themselves on for generations. This blatant corruption has been so engrained in the Congress DNA and modus operandi that it sees corruption in any large government spending, e.g. the Rafale purchase. The Bihar election was another vote of confidence and trust of the common man in both Modi’s intent and capability to deliver state benefits with no discrimination or dilution. 

Pride in the nation

The Congress had successfully weaved a tale of the party taking pride in the nation as a civilizational state. It positioned itself as India’s liberator from the British Raj, and the nationalist image got a big boost through the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971. It’s a different matter that today’s Congress would be unrecognizable to the freedom fighters and even to Indira Gandhi. From being a party of the Mahatma who advocated for a complete ban on cow slaughter to youth congress workers slaughtering a cow in full public view, it has been quite a fall for India’s Grand Old Party. No one in their right mind sees even a speck of nationalism / pride in the country within the Congress.

Secularism

The above two can be thought of as pillars of Congressism but secularism is truly the foundation. To understand how the Congress took ownership of this word and horribly disfigured it, it helps, as always, to go back in time. During the Indian independence movement, the Congress was generally seen as a party of upper caste Hindus, while the Muslim League represented the Muslims (read creating a new Medina for a comprehensive view of the happenings leading up to Independence).

The Congress tried hard to rid itself of this ‘stigma’ of being a Hindu party by bending over backward so much that Gandhi even extended support for the Khilafat movement. However, the Muslims did not see themselves as a single nation with Hindus and got their wish of Pakistan.

The Congress interpreted this failure to mean after independence, Congress would not just have to bend but also crawl. This applied for both the Muslims in India as well as the party’s dealings with Pakistan. This gave birth to countless peace conferences between two countries while Pakistan-backed terrorists attacked Indian cities at their pleasure.

Congress never had the intellectual clarity to understand that the root cause for Pakistan was not a threat of Hindu rule but Muslims viewing themselves as a separate nation and people from Hindus. Unfortunately for Indians, the Congress party had itself as the party of ‘secularism’ when it practiced blatant minorityism in the form of prejudiced laws and views against the majority community.

It is this sham of secularism that the AIMIM has demolished Congress by taking a foothold in several Muslim majority areas of the country, including Bihar. They have rightly pointed out that the Muslim community continues to vote for soft-minorityism in the form of the Congress, while the AIMIM promises blatant minorityism (after all, it’s in their name). The counter to this Muslim consolidation towards Islamist parties like the AIMIM is the lifting of the fog over the eyes of nationalist Indians of all religions and types. It is easy to fool yourself into thinking you are voting for the party of Mahatma, Nehru, Indira, Sardar Patel and many other stalwarts when you are instead voting for the continuation of blatant discrimination against the majority community and fundamentalism among the Muslim community. 

A weaker Congress ceding ground to regional caste-based outfits such as the RJD, ideologically empty parties such as Shiv Sena and blatantly separatist (at least in mindset) parties such as the AIMIM clarifies the political chessboard. A voter can vote for any of these alternates but can no longer lie to himself on who and what exactly he’s voting for. To put it simply, the Congress practiced Islamism behind a veil, the AIMIM throws off the cover to reveal the true nature. Assuming the AIMIM corners the ‘Muslim’ vote, there are two outcomes, both positive.

The first is that the party in some future flavor can be partnered with to bring about a genuine reformation within the Muslim community, and help with national integration efforts. That is least likely to occur. Instead, as it gains power, the AIMIM and those of its ilk will try to create additional fissures and separatism within India.

And to that end, is it not better for that kind of politics to be tackled head-on, and earlier, versus waiting until it has metastasized and grown in power under the patronage of the Congress?

As a practical example, we saw this in a different context during the anti-CAA riots in Delhi where the opposition such as Yogendra Yadav tried to paint a picture of a rainbow of opposition representing all forms of society. That mirage quickly faded as the Islamist movement that was the true driving force behind the protests and subsequent riots took center stage. Those riots have clarified the CAA position in the eyes of many nationalists and you can bet that any subsequent agitations will only attract the hardcore Marxists and Islamists, along with a few ‘useful idiots’ Hindus.

The problem is not the AIMIM or any other political party – the problem is the feeling of separatism that exists among a certain set of people. Wishing it away or having it be hidden under the umbrella of the Congress party is a ticking time bomb. 

Islamist group executes close to 30 people en masse in Democratic Republic of Congo

OpIndia Staff
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Islamist group executes close to 30 people en masse in Democratic Republic of Congo

Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) eastern region has left several people dead as informed by officials. Interior Minister of North Kivu province, Jean-Bosco Sebishimbo told that twenty-nine bodies were found in the Virunga Park after being executed en masse. He said that that during an armed attack that took place in Kokola village on Tuesday, around six civilians were killed. The number was confirmed by the United Nations’ Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), however, the local sources spoke of seven casualties.

The officials have held the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is a Ugandan Islamic rebel group that originated in 1990s, as responsible for the killings. “The first indications about the perpetrators of these vile acts point towards ADF fighters, who are very active in the area”, said Sebishimbo. The ADF did not take responsibility for the attacks. “The horror of this macabre new discovery cannot leave anyone indifferent”, said Marc Chataigner, the European Union’s to the DRC.

According to Kivu Security Tracker, both the attacks took place in North Kevu’s Beni territory where 811 civilians have been killed so far since October 31, 2019. On the same date, DR Congo’s army had launched a large operation against the ADF leaders and their bases in the jungle around Beni. Subsequently, the militia reportedly intensified a campaign of massacres in rural areas in order to discourage civilians from collaborating with the military.

Around 21 people were reported to have been killed by the ADF in October last month in the north-east region of the DRC. The group first attacked a rival group of the Congolese militia before killing civilians in the village of Lisasa.

Islamists beheaded 50 people in Mozambique

Earlier this month, terrorists affiliated to the ISIS had burnt down houses and fired shots at innocent people in Nanjaba village. Several women were abducted, two people were beheaded by the terrorists. In a separate incident, more than 50 people were decapitated by another group of terrorists in the Muatide village. In a press conference held after the incident a police official said that eyewitnesses had testified that the terrorists had abducted several villagers, including women and children, to a football filed and used it as an execution ground to behead the victims.

UK: PoK-origin MP Nazir Ahmed, who organised ‘Black Day’ protest against India, quits House of Lords facing expulsion on charges of sexual assault

OpIndia Staff
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UK: PoK-origin MP Nazir Ahmed, who organised ‘Black Day’ protest against India, quits House of Lords facing expulsion on charges of sexual assault

Pakistani-origin British Member of Parliament Nazir Ahmed was facing expulsion from the House of Lords for breaching the Code of Conduct when he offered his resignation on the 14th of November. Ahmed who was born in Mirpur city in the Mirpur district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is under illegal occupation of Pakistan, is charged for failing to act on his personal honour.

“Lord Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords on 14 November but the report, which was agreed by the committee and seen by Lord Ahmed before that date, recommends that he should have been expelled,” the nine member conduct committee said.

Nazir Ahmed who is a member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom was found to have used his position to sexually exploited a woman named Tahira Zaman under the pretext of helping her. Zaman was reportedly put in contact with Ahmed to assist her to make a complaint to the Metropolitan Police regarding exploitation by a faith healer.

Ahmed offered to help her but used his position as a member of House of Lords to sexually assault her on March 2, 2017, lying to her about his intentions to help her in filing a complaint with the Metropolitan Police regarding the faith healer and emotionally and sexually exploiting her despite knowing that she was vulnerable.

The Commissioner for Standards who conducted investigation into the allegation against Ahmed noted, “I find that Lord Ahmed exploited Ms Zaman emotionally and sexually even though he knew she was receiving treatment for anxiety and depression. This exacerbates the seriousness of his breaches of the Code”. Recommending the sanction of expulsion of Ahmed from the house the Commissioner further noted that that Ahmed persistently gave deliberately inaccurate and misleading accounts to conceal his behaviour towards Zaman and failed to co-operate with the investigation.

Ahmed had made an appeal to the House of Lords Conduct Committee against the findings of the Commissioner and recommended sanction. Upholding the findings of the Commissioner, the Committee noted that Ahmed did not show any remorse or take any responsibility for any aspect of his conduct towards Zaman. The Committee headed by Lord Menace and comprising of four external members dismissed Ahmed’s appeal. The report of the Committee will now be put for approval before the House on November 19 without a debate.

Ahmed’s India Hatred

During the 69th Republic Day celebrations at the office of High Commission of India, Ahmed had organised a ‘Black day’ protest in which Indian flags were torn by hand and shredded under foot by Pakistani protesters. Ahmed had also hired five private billboard vans showing ‘Free Kashmir’ ‘Free Khalistan’, ‘Free Assam’, ‘Free Nagaland’ and ‘Free Manipur’.

Lord Nazir Ahmed who was appointed to the House of Lords by former Birtish PM Tony Blair has a tainted track-record. He was suspended from the Labour Party after several controversies. He was awarded a jail term in relation to a fatal car crash in 2007. He had termed his prison sentence, which was later reduced to a court of appeal, a ‘Jewish conspiracy’.

In 2018, it was reported that Nazir Ahmed had backed an anti-India campaign by Kashmiri and Sikh separatists during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the United Kingdom.

China: On this day, 55-year-old Hubei resident became patient zero for the pandemic that has brought death and destruction across the world

OpIndia Staff
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China: On this day, 55-year-old Hubei resident became patient zero for the pandemic that has brought death and destruction across the world

Exactly one year ago, a 55-year-old Hubei resident was believed to be the first person to be struck down with coronavirus, the contagion that has since then been on a relentless march across the globe, affecting more than 55 million people and leaving 1.33 million dead in its wake.

Though China never really acknowledged the patient zero and would perhaps never admit to it in future as well, a report published in the South China Morning Post in March this year attributed the coronavirus infection to an unnamed 55-year-old Hubei inhabitant. The South China Morning Post accessed Chinese data which revealed that every day for the following month five new cases of coronavirus were reported.

Chinese officials turned a blind eye to the growing number of “mysterious new pneumonia cases”

Around this time last year, as China’s bitter winter swept the country, several people in the Hubei province started reporting mysterious pneumonia cases of unknown cause. Chinese social media apps, most notably WeChat was rife with rumours of a strange new flu and common pneumonia akin to “SARS” taking root in the province capital, Wuhan.

However, the CT scan images revealed that the symptoms exhibited by a growing number of people in Wuhan were characteristics of neither of the diseases. With increasing number of people reporting lung abnormalities, their CT scan images and blood reports confirmed a new kind of “viral infection” that doctor speculated was “probably infectious”.

But the Chinese authorities continued to remain in denial, showing eager alacrity to quell any discussion over the new mysterious disease that was gaining hold in Wuhan and surrounding areas, even as people kept reporting being down with a range of inexplicable symptoms including high fever, coughing and respiratory complications. Several hospitals in Wuhan began reporting a large number of cases of this mysterious new disease even as Chinese authorities turned a blind eye to the rising caseloads.

It was only weeks later that China realised that the virus was more resilient than it had imagined and that there was no other way but to acknowledge the dangerous new infection. On December 8, 2019, it grudgingly reported the first case to the World Health Organisation. However, even then China did not acknowledge the possibility of a human-to-human transmission of the disease. It took them about 40 more days, until January 21, to report that the coronavirus was susceptible of human transmission.

China muzzled Scientists and virologists from making public discoveries related to coronavirus

China has also reportedly gagged scientists and virologists who had tried to sound the alarm regarding coronavirus and made path-breaking discovery in treating the contagion.

Virologist Shi Zhengli, an expert based at the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and her team made an incredible discovery of the coronavirus gene sequence but they were reportedly “muzzled” from making it public.

According to Chinese journalist Gao Yu, who interviewed Shi during her incarceration in Wuhan, the institute had finished gene-sequencing and related tests as early as January 2 but were prevented from releasing it. Shi had identified the novel coronavirus and developed its gene sequencing within three days, finding that it was 96 per cent similar to a virus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan. The information about the gene sequencing wasn’t made public until a week later.

A whistleblowing Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the outbreak, was among the first few to flag the emergence of a new kind of respiratory illness that had overwhelmed the hospitals in the city. He had warned about the disease to his fellow doctors’ group on WeChat. However, the Chinese authorities reprimanded him for sharing “illegal and false” information about the coronavirus. A few months later, Li died of the coronavirus.

Initial mismanagement and lack of transparency by China propelled the global journey of coronavirus

The initial mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis by China, coupled with its efforts to suppress transparency in the identification and treatment of the disease proved catastrophic for the entire world. On January 12, China released the genetic sequencing of the COVID-19, almost 2 months after the first novel coronavirus case was reported in Hubei. A day later, coronavirus was reported to have gone global after Thailand reported its first case.

Since then there has been no turning back. The coronavirus outbreak has galloped at an unprecedented pace across the world. From the United States to Australia, from Brazil to Italy, the coronavirus pandemic had ravaged several hundred countries, crippling their economies due to the virus-induced lockdowns imposed in the affected countries and strained public health systems.

Many countries in the world had gradually emerged out of these lockdowns, only to be hit by the second wave of coronavirus that had forced them to once again impose the restrictions. Others, which are not in a position to reimpose the lockdowns, are helplessly bearing the brunt of the virus at the cost of avoiding an imminent financial disaster. A year on, the pandemic continues to rage, leaving the world as vulnerable as it was when it was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in November 2019.

‘As a conscious Muslim man, I would never inaugurate a Kali Puja, I should not have visited it’: Shakib Al Hasan apologises after death threats

OpIndia Staff
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‘As a conscious Muslim man, I would never inaugurate a Kali Puja, I should not have visited it’: Shakib Al Hasan apologises after death threats

Star Bangladeshi cricketer Shakib Al Hasan has been forced to issue a grovelling apology after photographs of him attending a Kali Puja in Kolkata went viral on social media. He said that as a ‘conscious Muslim man’, he would never do such a thing as inaugurating a Kali Puja and profusely sought forgiveness from his fellow citizens for attending the event.

“I was on the stage for barely two minutes. People are talking about this and thought I inaugurated it,” Shakib Al Hasan said during his apology. “I did not do this and being a conscious Muslim I would not do this. But, maybe, I should not have gone there. I am sorry for this and apologise,” he said. “As a practising Muslim I always try to follow religious customs. Please forgive me if I have done anything wrong,” the cricketer added.

Shakib Al Hasan receives death threats

A Bangladeshi youth named Mohsin Talukdar in Sylhet, Bangladesh, went live on Facebook to threaten all-rounder cricketer Shakib Al Hasan to hack him to death over allegations of inaugurating a Kali Puja program in Kolkata, India. On Sunday, little after midnight, Mohsin went live on Facebook and threatened to hack Shakib to death.

On Monday morning, Mohsin again came live on Facebook and apologised for threatening Shakib Al Hasan. He said that after offering Fajr prayers, he realised threatening to slaughter someone was not right. “I apologise for that,” he said. Mohsin further added that he has prayed for Shakib’s salvation for having inaugurated Kali Puja program. “I prayed that Allah may guide him. Although I said a lot of things out of excitement, it was not right. I apologize for that,” he said.

Hindus attacked in Bangladesh following terrorist attacks in France

The Bangladeshi authorities on the 1st of November arrested two individuals, Shankar Debnath and Anik Bhowmik, over charges of hurting religious sentiments of people after an Islamist mob ran riot. The mob went burning and vandalising houses of Hindus in Comilla district after a man reportedly shared a Facebook post on the controversy surrounding the publication of a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed in French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Uttar Pradesh: CBI arrests junior engineer for sexually exploiting over 50 children, selling videos to paedophiles in India and abroad

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: CBI arrests junior engineer for sexually exploiting over 50 children, selling videos to paedophiles in India and abroad

A junior engineer of Uttar Pradesh irrigation department has been arrested by the CBI for sexually exploiting and abusing over 50 children and selling the video recordings to paedophiles in India and overseas for over a decade. The accused is a resident of Chitrakoot and was arrested from Banda. According to reports, the accused is said to have victimised over 50 children in the age group of 5-16 years in the districts of Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh. The CBI will soon be producing him before a concerned court to seek his custody.

“Apart from the physical abuse of these children, the accused also allegedly recorded their acts using mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices. It was further alleged that these photographs and video films containing child sexual abuse material were published and transmitted by the accused using the facility of the internet,” said the CBI in a statement.

CBI revealed the junior engineer was in constant touch with paedophiles in India and overseas

During the raid, the CBI recovered eight mobile phones, approximately Rs 8 lakhs in cash, sex toys, laptops and other electronic devices containing a large amount of child sexual abuse material.

It is being alleged that the accused sexually abused the children, recorded the depraved act using mobile phones other electronic gadgets and sold it over the dark net to paedophiles across the globe. Using darknet, the accused was in touch with paedophiles in India and overseas. He used the dark web to sell and share CSAM content, said the CBI. A detailed analysis of his email revealed that he was in constant touch with several people for sharing CSAM.

The CBI revealed that the accused often lured children by offering them mobile phones and laptops.

Kerala police crack down on paedophiles sharing child pornography over dark net

Earlier, the Kerala Police had in June this year, teamed up with the Interpol to crack down on paedophiles sharing child pornography. 30 people involved in circulating child pornography through a WhatsApp group had been identified and three persons, including the group administrator, were arrested in connection with the case.

Last year too, cases had been registered by the Kerala police against as many as 58 people for sharing child pornography with others through various social media platforms.

The crackdown was a part of operation ‘P-hunt’ (paedophile hunt) initiated by Cyberdome, a wing of the Kerala Police on June 11, 2019, wherein Kerala police, to curb the menace of cybercrime involving sexual attacks on children, joined hands with the Interpol, Crimes against Children Unit and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Journalist Patricia Mukhim resigns from Editors Guild of India, accuses the Guild of defending only ‘celebrity’ editors and anchors

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist Patricia Mukhim resigns from Editors Guild of India, accuses the Guild of defending only ‘celebrity’ editors and anchors

Displeased with the Editors Guild of India’s silence over the Meghalaya court’s recent ruling over a Facebook post against her, journalist Patricia Mukhim has tendered her resignation from the journalists’ body, alleging the organisation defends only star editors and anchors.

Mukhim submitted her resignation letter to the Guild chief Seema Mustafa on Monday, lamenting that the organisation was silent on the High Court order against her but showed eager “alacrity” in extending support to Arnab Goswami following his arrest earlier this month.

In her letter, Patricia Mukhim, a Padma Shri Awardee and editor of The Shillong Times, rued that despite Arnab being a non-member, the Guild issued a statement in his favour after he was arrested in a case of abetment of suicide and not in connection with his journalistic pursuits. She said that she had shared a copy of High Court order with the Guild hoping that the organisation will issue a statement condemning the order.

“I see this as a classic case of the Guild playing to the gallery to defend celebrity editors/anchors whose voices matter while choosing to deliberately ignore a plea (unstated) from one of its members. Clearly, this is also a case of prejudice and a deliberate attempt to push those in the margins even further away so that they disappear completely from the national discourse (since the Guild is a national association of editors) and leave them to deal with the matter in their personal capacity,” Mukhim bemoaned in her resignation letter. 

Patricia Mukhim further continued, “It is no longer possible for me to continue to be a part of this hallowed group of editors who are loyal to those who occupy a certain elite space. In fact, I feel completely out of place; almost an outlier in the Guild.”

Meghalaya High Court finds Patricia Mukhim guilty of inciting communal disharmony

Mukhim is currently facing charges of a criminal case against her over a social media post where she outlined incidents of violence in the state of Meghalaya. On November 10, the Meghalaya High Court dismissed Mukhim’s petition seeking to quash an FIR filed by Dorbar Shnong, the traditional local body in Meghalaya against the editor’s Facebook post.

Earlier in July this year, Patricia Mukhim had taken to Facebook to condemn the attack on nine “non-tribals” by a group of alleged tribals at a place called Lawsohtun. Mukhim had claimed that non-tribals were attacked with iron rods for playing in a “tribal majority” area. Mukhim had raised questions of the Dorbar Shnong of the area and tagged Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma seeking action against the attackers.

However, the High Court found Mukhim guilty of creating communal disharmony, a crime under Section 153 of the CrPC.

Chinese journalist faces up to five years in jail for reporting on COVID-19 and criticising the government over handling of the virus

OpIndia Staff
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Chinese journalist faces up to five years in jail for reporting on COVID-19 and criticising the government over handling of the virus

A Chinese journalist, Zhang Zhan, who is under detention since May for reporting on the Wuhan virus outbreak has been formally indicted on charges of spreading false information. Zhan is facing up to five years imprisonment. 37-year old Zhan is a former lawyer accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” that is said to be very commonly invoked against critics and activists in China. She is kept in a detention facility in Shanghai.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), she went missing on May 14 and a day later, it was revealed that she was detained by police in Shanghai. She was formally arrested on June 19 in Shanghai and it was after three months of detention that she as allowed to meet her lawyer. The indictment sheet released on Monday stated that Zhang Zhan had spread false information through text video and other media such as WeChat, Twitter and YouTube.

She is also accused of accepting interviews from overseas media Free Radio Asia and Epoch Times maliciously spreading information on Wuhan virus. Zhan is reportedly on a hunger strike since September and one of her defence lawyers has dropped out of her case. Zhan went to Wuhan in February this year where she reported on a number of stories including detention of other independent journalists and the harassment of families of victims who sought accountability.

Zhang Zhan was earlier detained on two occasions

Zhan was detained in 2018 on similar charges. In September 2019 she was summoned by Shanghai police and was later criminally detained and arrested on suspicion of “picking quarrels” for supporting Hong Kong as stated by the CHRD. Before being released in November 2019, she was made to undergo psychiatric examination twice.

Other journalists who were detained

Zhan is not the only one to be arrested for reporting on Wuhan virus, many other journalists have been arrested in this year. Chen Quishi, a former lawyer turned journalist, was arrested in January. Li Zehua was arrested in February after he went to Wuhan to report on the disappearance of Quishi. He was released in April. A Wuhan resident Fang Bin went missing around the same time but has not been heard of ever since.

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