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The indomitable Lokmanya Tilak: His political activism, activities in Mumbai, camaraderie with Swami Vivekananda and legacy

Devendra Pai
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The indomitable Lokmanya Tilak: His political activism, activities in Mumbai, camaraderie with Swami Vivekananda and legacy

Chronicling Mumbai’s Tryst with Lokmanya Tilak

2020 was the year of Lokmanya Tilak’s centennial death anniversary. The prefix “Lokmanya” meaning “accepted by masses” comes from the fact that Lokmanya Tilak was modern India’s first mass leader who was looked up to by the masses. His following was unparalleled at that point of time. He was one of the first leaders to give a call for “sampoorna swaraj”, a paradigm shift from “partial rule” which was being demanded by the leaders then.

A good amount of Tilak’s lifetime was spent in Mumbai but unfortunately, the city appears to have forgotten this great son of Mother India. It is unfortunate that Mumbaikars don’t take pride in owning up Lokmanya Tilak as much as people from Ratnagiri (Tilak’s birthplace) or Pune do. There is a reason why Mumbai has a railway station in Lokmanya Tilak’s name and that is because Mumbai has a lot of memories of Lokmanya Tilak.

Lokmanya Tilak and Swami Vivekananda

In 1892, (before the World Congress of Religions), Lokmanya Tilak was returning from Bombay to Poona from Victoria Terminus (CST) when he first saw Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda also came and sat in the same compartment. A few Gujaratis who had come to see off Swami ji introduced Swami ji and Tilak. They hit it off very well and after reaching Poona, Tilak invited Swami Vivekananda to come to stay at his house, an invitation which Swami ji obliged and went to stay for 8-10 days.

Mumbai’s Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav

In those days, the British had decided to refrain from interfering in religious affairs of Indians after the 1857 war of independence. At a time when political meetings and gatherings to promote the idea of India’s independence were under scrutiny of the British, Lokmanya Tilak saw festivals as an opportunity for the people to come together (indirectly) for the cause of independence.

Till this point, the only recorded religious processions in Bombay were Moharram processions (Tilak had participated in one or more such processions). Tilak saw Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations which then were confined to Brahmin households as not just an opportunity to get people to come together for the cause of India’s independence but also an opportunity to grow a sense of pride among the Hindus and break the shackles of casteism which plagued Hindu society at that time leading to Hindu revivalism.

After Lokmanya Tilak made an appeal to people to have public celebrations of Ganeshotsav, in 1893, his followers, Raobahadur Limaye and Naraharishashtri Godse, started the festival at their chawl – Keshav ji Naik Chawl which was perhaps the city’s first sarvajanik Ganeshotav Celebrations. Lokmanya Tilak visited the Ganeshotsav in 1901 and also made a speech.

Shantaram Chawl

Till 1939 Shantaram chawl’s massive compound hosted public meetings and rallies of freedom fighters right from Lokmanya Tilak to Mohammed Ali Jinnah. These meeting drew crowds of 10,000-12,000 people. The chawl was the central-point of the Home Rule Movement started by Lokmanya Tilak with Annie Besant and others. On 16 June 1918, Tilak addressed a huge gathering alongside Jinnah which was presided by Mahatma Gandhi against the British Governor Lord Wellington to protest against his provocative statements against the Home Rule League.

101 days in Dongri Prison

Lokmanya Tilak was the first editor of Mahratta while his friend Gopal Ganesh Agarkar was the first editor of Kesari. After writing scathing pieces criticising the British for conspiracy to declare the young prince of Kolhapur, Shivaji IV as mentally unstable; both Tilak and Agarkar saw their first brush with prison when they were sentenced for four months and sent to Dongri Prison.  It was here during this stay that Agarkar wrong his book “101 days in Dongri Jail”

Sedition Trials

During his lifetime, Lokmanya Tilak was tried three times on sedition charges – 1897, 1908-09 and 1916. All these trials were fought in the Bombay High Court. In 1897, after his first trial, Tilak was sentenced 18 months’ imprisonment for inciting speech (Tilak had written on Shivaji killing Afzal Khan a week earlier) leading to assassination of Rand by Chapekar brothers in the backdrop of plague which was cut short after the British realised that Lokmanya Tilak’s arrest had made him a hero and gained momentum amongst the freedom fighters.

After his bail please getting rejected twice, Tilak’s lawyer Dinshaw Dawar secured bail for him (with Dwarkadas Dharamsey who arranged a sum of Rs 50,000 for bail bond, a big amount in those days in just 4 hours) a year later with appeals were made by several Indian and Europeans leaders including Rabindranath Tagore and Max Mueller to reduce his sentence.

This trial was significant as it was the first ever case of sedition and Tilak was the first ever freedom fighter to be convicted for sedition. During this time Tilak was sent to Dongri prison and to Byculla prison before eventually being moved to Yerwada jail.

In 1908, Tilak saw his second trial for sedition for defending Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki who attempted to bomb and kill the British Judge, Magistrate Kingsford. This time Lokmanya Tilak was initially defended by the young barrister Mohamad Ali Jinnah but after the bail claim was rejected decided to contest his own case. Tilak lost the case and was sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment by Justice Davar same man who has secured bail for Tilak 10 years ago sentenced Tilak to six year’s prison term in Mandalay (Burma).

After the sentence, Tilak responded, “I maintain that I am innocent. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of things and it may be the will of Providence that the cause which I represent is to prosper more by my suffering than by my remaining free.” A marble plaque still exists outside room no 46 of Bombay High Court with Tilak’s words etched on it. Court room no 46 has been kept preserved and is not used for regular hearings but used only on special occasions and events.

In 1916, Tilak had another run-in with the law when he was charged with sedition for a series of lectures he has addressed. It was Barrister Mohammmad Ali Jinnah who now wasn’t a rookie and a known leader of Home Rule League’s Bombay chapter yet again appeared for Tilak and this time won the case for Tilak.

The Bombay (Swadeshi) Store

Lokmanya Tilak wasn’t just a strong advocate of swadeshi but tried his bit to promote Indian entrepreneurs, businesses and industries (‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’?). In 1905 with Ratanji Jamsetji Tata and Dwarkadas Dharamsey as Directors alongside him Lokmanya Tilak founded “The Bombay Swadeshi Co-operative Stores Co Ltd” – a company to promote Indian products.

The first store was opened in what is today the times of India building and was inaugurated by Dadabhai Naoroji. This store is said to have been visited by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawharlal Nehru.

Ironically after the Dalal family brought majority stake in the company, this up-market store dropped “Swadeshi” from its name in 1995. The outlet where “The Bombay Store” stands today is operational since 1938.

First Political Strike of Bombay

After Tilak was sentenced rigorous imprisonment to Burma in 1908, Bombay witnessed the first ever political strike by the working class; the textile workers of Bombay which included Hindus of all castes as well as Muslims. All markets in Bombay lay shut on July 22. The textile factories and railway workshops remained closed for six days, one day for every year of the sentence. The army was called in which saw the death of 16 workers and over 50 injured.

Sardar Gruha

Sardar Gruha is an old building (built in 1898) located on Lokmanya Tilak Marg, just opposite the famous Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Market (Crawford). It started off as a guest house and was well known to prominent Indians like Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel who preferred staying here as several British hotels in the area did not allow Indian guests.

Sardar Gruha was Lokmanya Tilak’s place to stay whenever he travelled to Mumbai. Because of his stature and his frequent visits, he was given a permanent room in the guesthouse. It was on the 4th floor of this building, flat no 198 that Lokmanya Tilak stayed for nearly three weeks before his death and also the place where he took his last breath.

Since then this room is used by Kesari as its regional office. Tilak’s pagadi, his chair and writing table have been preserved with a bust of Tilak installed in front of the building and the road being renamed to Lokmanya Tilak Marg.

Girgaum Chowpatty

Lokmanya Tilak was the first person (and last) to have been allowed (forced to by his followers) a public funeral in Bombay. After Tilak’s sudden demise, as the news spread across, people from Bombay as well outside thronged outside Sardar Gruha to get a last glimpse of their favorite leader.

Initially it was planned that Tilak’s body would be cremated at the nearby small Chandanwadi Crematorium but looking at the large crowd of people who were full of anger, disappoint and grief due to the untimely death of their revered leader, and lobbying by influential persons of Mumbai, the administration caved in, and granted special permission to have the cremation at Girgaum Chowpatty but with a caveat that this will be the first and last such permission to have a funeral in a public place and there would not be any memorial built on the site.

But eventually after Vithalbhai Patel (Sardar Patel’s brother) and Barrister KF Nariman (after whom Nariman Point is named) were able to convince the Bombay Municipal Corporation to grant permission to build a memorial. In 1925 a committee was setup with Sarojini Naidu has its head to raise money for the Tilak memorial. 13 years after his death, on 1 August 1933 the statue of Lokmanya Tilak was unveiled at Girgaum Chowpatty.

The final journey was said to have attended by a million people including prominent names like Mahatma Gandhi (who walked barefoot throughout the antim yatra), Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Shaukat Ali, a prominent leader of the Khilafat Movement.

It is unfortunate that most of the dwellers of Mumbai hardly know about Tilak’s association with the city – be it Ganeshotsav celebrations, Tilak’s Mumbai address – Sardar Gruha or Tilak’s Samadhi at Chowpatty. This write-up is my tribute as a Mumbaikar to one of the greatest leaders of India, Lokmanya Tilak, the first mass leader of modern India and his tryst with Mumbai.

So next time when someone wonders why was the Kurla Terminus renamed as Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in 1996 by the then Union Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani at the request of the then Minister of State of Railway Ram Naik, we hope this article helps people understand why.

BSP MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari and wife booked by CBI in Rs 750 crore bank fraud case

OpIndia Staff
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BSP MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari and wife booked by CBI in Rs 750 crore bank fraud case

On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked BSP MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari and his wife Rita Tiwari for their involvement in an alleged bank fraud of Rs.750 crore. Several teams conducted searches at premises linked to Tiwari at Gorakhpur, Lucknow, and Noida. Tiwari is the son of former minister and strongman Hari Shankar Tiwari. Tiwari is the sitting MLA from Chillupar, Gorakhpur.

Statement by CBI

In a press statement, the CBI said they had registered a case on a complaint from Bank of India against two private companies named Gangotri Enterprises and Royal Empire Marketing based at Lucknow and Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The directors and unknown others have been named for alleged misappropriation, cheating, and causing loss of Rs. 754.24 crore (approx.) to the consortium of banks. Ajit Pandey, the director of the company Gangotri Enterprises has also been booked.

The private company (Gangotri Enterprises) is involved in the construction of roads, bridges and flyovers. It availed credit from a consortium of banks led by Bank of India. The company did not route the transactions through Trust and Retention Account as per the regulations. There were irregularities in their financial statements. “Searches were conducted today at the premises of the accused/company at Noida and Lucknow which led to recovery of several incriminating documents,” it further added.

CBI has said that bank officials who cleared the loans will be called for questioning. 

A forensic audit revealed diversion of money

As per the reports, the FIR stated that the company took loans worth Rs.1129.44 crore between 2007 and 2012. In 2015 it was declared NPA. In July 2019, the Debt Recovery Tribunal had summoned Tiwari and 33 others after banks complained about loans turning into NPA. In a forensic audit done by the Bank of India, it was found that the loan money was diverted through investments and unsecured loans to related parties and entities. The bank declared the account as a fraud and reported it to RBI and CBI.

Times of India spreads fake news about PV Sindhu quitting national camp due to fall-out with family and coach: Here is the truth

OpIndia Staff
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Times of India spreads fake news about PV Sindhu quitting national camp due to fall-out with family and coach: Here is the truth

Badminton world champion PV Sindhu has left the national camp meant for young Olympic hopefuls and travelled to London to work on her personal recovery and nutrition. On Monday, PV Sindhu had taken to Twitter to announce that she was in London working on her recovery with Rebecca Randell of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI).

As PV Sindhi travelled to London, Times of India began to spread ‘source based’ rumours about the reasons for her leaving the national camp and travelling to London.

In an article published on the 20th of October by Times of India, sports reporter Manne Ratnakar wrote that his ‘sources’ had informed him that PV Sindhu has been in the UK for the past 10 days already.

Times of India wrote, “Sources told TOI that Sindhu has left the country in a huff, apparently after tensions in her family. Before she left Hyderabad, Sindhu informed the coaches at the Pullela Gopichand Academy that she will not return to India for the next eight to ten weeks”.

The article by Ratnakar on Times of India further quoted sources to insinuate that she had left after a tantrum and a fall out with her family and “efforts were on to bring her back”. The source was quoted as saying, “She was upset with a few things. Efforts are being made to convince her to return home, she is unlikely to return anytime soon. At this stage of her life, she wants to be on her own and not be controlled. Maybe being at home during the lockdown took its toll and she wanted some freedom. We hope she enjoys the break and comes back”.

Times of India quoted another ‘source’ to claim that Sindhu will be training with English players for a while ‘otherwise her game will be affected’, insinuating that Sindhu had a fall-out with her coach Pullela Gopichand.

Soon after the article by the Times of India, PV Sindhu took to Twitter to issue a stern warning to the publication and the journalist and called the article fake news.

In a statement, PV Sindhu said, “I came to London a few days back to work on my nutrition and recovery needs with GSSI. In fact, I have come here with the consent of my parents and absolutely they were no family rifts in this regard. Why will I have problems/issues with my parents who have sacrificed their lives for my sake. Mine is a very close knitted family and they will always support me. I am in touch with my family members everyday. Also I do not have any issues with my coach Mr Gopichand or the training facilities at the academy. Mr M. Ratnakar the sports reporter of TOI who is spreading false news should know the facts first before writing them. If he doesn’t stop, I may have to resort to legal proceedings against him”.

Threatening to take legal action against the sports journalist and Times of India, PV Sindhu rubbished the article by TOI and said that she has no issues either with her family, who have sacrificed everything for her career, or with her coach Pullela Gopichand or his training facilities.

Not the first time Times of India has spread fake news about PV Sindhu

This is not the first time that Times of India has resorted to spreading fake news about world champ PV Sindhu. In a report published in July 2019, TOI had asserted that PV Sindhu had urged the Indian Olympic Association not to shun CWG over the exclusion of shooting.

Expressing her disappointment with the same journalist who is spreading fake news about her now, Mr Manne Ratnakar, Sindhu stated that he had patently misquoted her and that she had never asked the IOC not to shun the CWG. Sindhu said that as players they all want to participate in any sports event but she would always support what the Indian Olympic Association and the government decides. Another badminton player, Jwala Gutta had responded on Sindhu’s tweet, claiming this wasn’t the first time the journalist had twisted someone’s statement.

UK: Conservative party’s Israel body condemns BBC’s attempt to portray convicted Hamas terrorist as a victim, asks to apologise

OpIndia Staff
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UK: Conservative party’s Israel body condemns BBC’s attempt to portray convicted Hamas terrorist as a victim, asks to apologise

Soon after the family of one of the child victims of the 2001 bombing in Jerusalem by Hamas terrorist criticised the BBC for giving a platform to advocate for one of the convicted terrorists, condemnation and criticism over the BBC’s attempt to whitewash terrorism have gained strength.

Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) officer and MP Bob Blackman has written to the BBC to remove the content projecting convicted Hamas terrorist as a victim. Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced for killing 15 Israelis in the 2001 Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing in Jerusalem. She was featured on the BBC Arabic TV service in a segment of the program ‘Trending’ where she had appealed to King Abdullah II of Jordan to intervene so that she can reunite with her husband. Her husband is also a convicted murderer.

Blackman urged BBC to apologize to the families of victims

In his letter, Blackman has urged the BBC to remove all the content from its Youtube channel where it gave space to Tamimi. He also stated that the BBC should apologize to the families of victims of the 2001 bombing. He mentioned that the UK’s Foreign Development Office (FCDO) has a policy of non-engagement with Hamas in its entirely. UK recognized Hamas as a terror group as a whole, which is subject to UK Terrorism and Terrorist Financing Sanctions.

He said, “Tamimi masterminded the 2001 Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing in Jerusalem and escorted the suicide bomber to the pizzeria. Giving a platform for Tamimi’s appeal to be reunited with her husband (also a convicted murderer) is understandably deeply distressing for the families of her victims, who will never be reunited with their loved ones.”

He has urged BBC to seek to remedy the situation by removing the videos. He also asked for clarification on the BBC’s editorial guidelines for such coverage. He further added, “Dedicating more coverage to the ongoing extradition attempts by the US to bring Tamimi to justice would be a welcome step.”

The family of Malki Roth, who was killed at the age of 15 in the Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, has condemned the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for providing its platform to her remorseless murderer.

The 2001 Sbarro Pizza parlour bombing

In August 2001, Ahlam Tamimi provided support to a suicide bomber to execute a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. She gave the guitar-laden with explosives to a suicide bomber, who detonated the bomb in the shop, killing 15 people, 8 of them children. The remorseless terrorist was convicted and sentenced to 16-years of rigorous imprisonment after her role in the bombing came to light. However, she was released after ten years of incarceration as a part of a prisoner exchange deal for captured Israeli Defense Forces’ soldier Gilad Shalit between Israel and Hamas.

She is currently living freely in Jordan. Her husband Nizar Tamimi was released in the Shalit prisoner exchange. He was convicted of terrorism after he murdered an Israeli student in 1993. Nizar Tamimi was pressurised by the Jordanian authorities to leave the country for Qatar on October 1. Tamimi is on the Most Wanted list of the US; however, Jordan denied extraditing her, stating the 1995 extradition agreement with the United States that has not yet been formalized by Jordan’s government. The US has offered a bounty of $5 million for her capture and conviction.

Twitter first says Leh a part of China, then, they say technical glitch, gets it horribly wrong even after fixing it: Read how

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter first says Leh a part of China, then, they say technical glitch, gets it horribly wrong even after fixing it: Read how

Two days after Twitter labelled the Indian territory of Leh in Ladakh as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the microblogging website has now embroiled in yet another controversy.

During a live session on Twitter on Sunday, a national security analyst and founder of Strat Times, Nitin A Gokhale, had found that the microblogging platform displayed the ‘Hall of Fame Leh’ area as part of the PRC. The screengrab of the live video read, “Nitin A Gokhale was live. Jammu and Kashmir, People’s Republic of China.”

Twitter issued a clarification, called it a ‘technical glitch’

Following a social media outrage, Twitter issued a statement claiming that the error was the result of a technical glitch. The microblogging platform emphasised, “We became aware of this technical issue on Sunday, and understand and respect the sensitivities around it. The teams have worked swiftly to investigate and resolve the concerned geotag issue.”

Nitin A Gokhale was however not satisfied with the response of the social media giant. He shared Twitter’s statement on the geotagging controversy and emphasised, “Reposting: Meanwhile this is Twitter’s response to the geotagging issue. Would have liked an apology/acknowledgement that it was a mistake. Will test it again today.”

Twitter fixes ‘technical glitch’, gets it horribly wrong, yet again

On Tuesday, Nitin A Gokhale went live on Twitter yet again but this time from the Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport area in Leh. He discussed the hustle and bustle in one of the busiest military terminals along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). He informed how the airport served as a military terminal for soldiers, departing for their official leave and arriving from temporary postings and leave period.

However, to his surprise, the national security analyst found that the microblogging platform had not fixed the technical glitch, despite being well aware of the sensitivity around it. Even though Twitter did not include Leh as part of the People’s Republic of China anymore, it, however, labelled the region as part of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Constitutional amendment and the status of Ladakh

On August 5 last year, the Indian government abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and bifurcated the State of Jammu and Kashmir into two separate Union territories. While Jammu and Kashmir was designated the status of Union territory with a legislative assembly, the region of Ladakh has been converted into Union territory, directly administered by the Central government. Leh, which falls in Ladakh, is, therefore, a part of the Union territory of Ladakh and not Jammu and Kashmir anymore.

It is pertinent to mention that Twitter did not choose to update its geolocation tagging feature, despite being more than a year to the above mentioned constitutional amendments. Recently, it was also found that default weather apps of Chinese phones in India do not show reports for cities that China considers as ‘disputed. When OpIndia tried to make search queries, it found that the default weather app on Xiaomi phones did not provide results for districts including Itanagar, Pasighat and Longding.

Anti-Trump legal analyst of CNN and The New Yorker contributor suspended after masturbating on Zoom call

OpIndia Staff
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Anti-Trump legal analyst of CNN and The New Yorker contributor suspended after masturbating on Zoom call

In a rather strange incident, chief legal analyst of CNN and a The New Yorker contributor, Jeffrey Toobin has been suspended by The New Yorker after he was caught masturbating on a Zoom video call with co-workers earlier this month. Soon after news spread about Toobin’s suspension “Zoom Dick” began trending on Twitter in the United States of America.

Vice reported that “the call was an election simulation featuring many of the New Yorker’s biggest stars: Jane Mayer was playing establishment Republicans; Evan Osnos was Joe Biden, Jelani Cobb was establishment Democrats, Masha Gessen played Donald Trump, Andrew Marantz was the far-right, Sue Halpern was left-wing democrats, Dexter Filkins was the military, and Jeffrey Toobin playing the courts. There were also a handful of other producers on the call from the New Yorker and WNYC.”

Jeffrey Toobin has offered an apology for masturbating on the Zoom video call and said that he thought he had put the video and audio on mute. “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers … I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video”, Toobin said.

Jeffrey Toobin is a prominent anti-Trump voice and has been seen often on CNN talking, at length, about the impeachment of President Donald Trump. He has been working with The New Yorker for 25 years and is also a senior legal analyst at CNN.

While The New Yorker said that Toobin has been suspended pending an investigation, CNN was far more ‘circumspect’ in its statement. CNN said that Jeffrey Toobin had asked for some time off to deal with personal matters and that, the channel had granted it.

New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote an email to his staff clearly stating that Toobin had been suspended following the “incident” last week. He wrote, “Dear All, As you may have read in various news reports today, one of our writers, Jeff Toobin, was suspended after an incident on a Zoom call last week. Please be assured that we take such matters seriously and that we are looking into it.”

The New Yorker’s tryst with India and multitude of lies

In December 2019, Dexter Filkins went on an anti-India rant for The New Yorker in a report titled ‘Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi’s India’. The report was littered with every manner of conspiracy theory under the Sun and indulged in the complete distortion of historical facts. For instance, the ‘journalist’ said that Pakistan was created because Muslims of pre-partition India were too scared to live in a Hindu majority country. This is a shameless genocide denial of the highest order.

The ‘report’ also gives air to fantastical theories such as ‘The legend of Ram Janmabhoomi grew after independence’. Given the nature of such lies, it was safe to say that the report was a complete work of fiction, not journalism. We have published a comprehensive report detailing all the lies that Filkins has spread in the report but even then, we cannot say for certain that we managed to capture all of them. It can be read here.

ABP News team attacked, stones pelted at crew in RJD held constituency of Arwal

OpIndia Staff
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ABP News team attacked, stones pelted at crew in RJD held constituency of Arwal

An ABP News team deployed in Bihar to cover upcoming Assembly elections got attacked by miscreants in Arwal. There was an attempt to get into a scuffle with the anchor too. The incident took place during the channel’s program ‘Kaun Banega Chief Minister’ in Arwal. During the program, some miscreants in the crowd tried to target anchor Akhilesh Anand, who was hosting the show.

As per reports, workers from BJP, JDU, RJD, and other parties were present in the crowd. They were raising slogans in favour of their respective leaders. When the scuffle started, Anand and his team rushed towards their car to avoid the attack. The miscreants started pelting stones on them that damaged the car too.

Anand in a tweet said he was attacked during the program in Arwal, Bihar. He was chased down, and miscreants pelted stones on his team. “I know to which party these goons belong to. I will keep telling the truth. It does not matter if someone likes it or not,” he further added.

ABP News’ senior journalist Sumeet Awasthi shared on twitter that not just attack and assault on the news team’s journalists. some political leaders were threatening them over social media and messages too. He shared the screenshot where a Youth Congress leader has threatened ABP News journalists, saying that they deserve to be beaten up black and blue.

RJD’s Ravindra Singh is the sitting MLA from the Arwal constituency.

Bihar elections 2020

Assembly elections in Bihar for 243 seats will be held in three phases from 28th October to 7th November. The results will be announced on 10th November. The election commission is taking additional precautions keeping Covid-19 regulations in mind. 7 lakh hand sanitisers, 46 lakh masks and 6 lakh PPE kits will be supplied by the commission for election officials to protect them from the pandemic. 6.7 lakh units of face shields and 23 lakh pairs of gloves will also be arranged.

Hyderabad: Hindu woman confronts boyfriend Syed Mustafa over marriage promises, stabbed to death by him and his brother

OpIndia Staff
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Hyderabad: Hindu woman confronts boyfriend Syed Mustafa over marriage promises, stabbed to death by him and his brother

A 24-year-old Hindu woman was brutally stabbed to death by her boyfriend Syed Mustafa and his brother on Saturday night at Rein Bazar neighbourhood of Hyderabad, said a report published in The Hans India.

The incident came to light when the city police found the woman’s body near a hotel in Rein Bazar. The woman was a daughter of one Raj Kumar, who originally hailed from Karangutti area of ​​Nagalgidda Mandal in Narayankhed constituency of Sangareddy district and came to Hyderabad just a few years ago and was living in Dattatreyanagar in Asifnagar.

The woman was pursuing her LLB from Mahatma Gandhi Law college and was an active volunteer for People’s for animal society. It is here that she met Syed Mustafa, who was also a volunteer of the society. The friendship between the two slowly turned into a relationship and they both decided to get married.

Heated altercation with Syed’s family led to the woman’s murder

However, then Mustafa started avoiding the girl and reportedly stopped receiving the calls from the woman. The heartbroken woman decided to go to Mustafa’s house to confront him for being away from her. An altercation broke out between Mustafa’s family members and the woman.

Mustafa’s brother, Jameel, also got embroiled in the quarrel which continued till 4 am in the morning. Syed Mustafa tried to placate the woman and offered to drop her to her home. Later, Syed Mustafa, along with his brother, in a fit of rage, reportedly stabbed the woman to death and left the body abandoned near a hotel in Rein Bazar.

A case has been registered against the accused under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) concerning murder and SC/ST Act. The dead body was shifted by the police to Osmania Hospital for autopsy. The police are probing all the possible angles in the case.

Days after an Islamist brutally beheaded a teacher, France Govt prepares to expel 231 religious extremists from the country

OpIndia Staff
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Days after an Islamist brutally beheaded a teacher, France Govt prepares to expel 231 religious extremists from the country

Two days after a teacher was beheaded by an Islamist amidst chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Paris, the France Government has decided to come down heavily on suspected Islamic extremists in the country. In a massive crackdown, France is now preparing to expel 231 radicalized foreign nationals, Reuters quoted a police union source as informing on Sunday.

It is being reported that more than 850 illegal immigrants are registered to the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Terrorist Attacks (FSPRT). Out of 231 fundamentalists in the FSPRT who will be deported, 180 people are currently in prison and 51 were due to be arrested in the next hours.

France defines extremists as “people who, engaged in a process of radicalisation, are likely to want to go abroad to join terrorist groups or take part in terrorist activities”. 

Teacher beheaded amidst chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Paris, France

Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin said that France plans to carry out the expulsion swiftly in response to the recent brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher. The gruesome attack was executed by a Muslim teenager of Russian origin, Abdoullakh Abouyezidovitch A. He stabbed the 47-year-old teacher in his throat, right outside the school, while shouting “Allahu Akbar” for showcasing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed to his students at College du Bois d’Aulne.

He was later shot dead during an encounter with the police. The Muslim youth, born in Moscow, had come to France as a refugee and was out of the radar of the anti-terrorism police. He had earlier been to courts for minor offences. French President Emanuel Macron has condemned the barbaric attack and had dubbed it as ‘Islamist terrorist attack.’

Online doxxing by Islamists, role of a local Mosque in probe

It was revealed that the beheading of the teacher had taken place in the backdrop of an online campaign by the father of a female Muslim student in the class. As per reports, the local mosque (La Grande Mosquée de Pantin) had also joined the online campaign to get Samuel Paty fired. While sharing the video address on Facebook, it had urged fellow Muslims to contact Brahim Chnina, the father of the 13-year-old student.

Although the mosque did not give away personal details of the deceased teacher, it was allegedly a part of the mobilisation campaign that eventually lead to the gruesome crime. Since Friday, the French police have arrested a total of 10 people in connection to the case. 

Congress, media target Varun Gandhi for unwillingness to speak to a stranger late at night: Here is who the man was and why he had called

OpIndia Staff
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Congress, media target Varun Gandhi for unwillingness to speak to a stranger late at night: Here is who the man was and why he had called

The Congress party has decided to go after BJP MP Varun Gandhi after a leaked version of his conversation found its way to the media. In the leaked conversation, Varun Gandhi could be heard telling the caller that 9.30 p.m. is not the proper time to call him and he would listen to his grievances the morning after.

The caller tells Varun Gandhi that he is from Pilibhit to which the elected representative from the constituency says that he should call him the next morning if he has any work. At one point he says, “I am not your father’s servant that I would talk to you at 10 p.m. in the night. If you have work at midnight or 10 p.m., then I am sorry, I cannot speak to you at such a time.”

Ishita Yadav, Parliamentary Secretary of Varun Gandhi, meanwhile, has said on social media that the caller in question was actually someone who had been arrested for selling spurious liquor to underage children. “Varun Gandhi is not going to help shady people like this. He chose to protect the people of Pilibhit instead,” she said while responding to Rohini Singh of The Wire who decided to jump into the scene to pile up on the BJP MP.

Ishita Yadav further stated that the audio of the leaked conversation had been cut and edited. The Week has also reported that the caller is one Sarvesh, a resident of Shivaji Colony in Pilibhit’s Sunghadi area. The police had recovered 20 bottles of country-made liquor and he was let off after furnishing two bail bonds worth Rs. 20,000 each.

Thus, Varun Gandhi’s decision to not entertain the caller appears to be the ethically correct one too. It is quite obvious that Sarvesh had called Varun Gandhi for help with the police. While the media appears bent on creating a controversy, it is entirely legitimate that even an elected representative to the Parliament would not be available to receive calls at odd times during the day. Furthermore, Varun Gandhi says repeatedly that he is willing to hear his concerns the next morning.

Even so, the expectation that politicians should be available to speak to their constituents at all times during the day is rather unjustified. Politicians are, after all, humans and it is only natural that thy may not b willing to speak to strangers after a certain point at night.

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