Responding to criticism from BJP leaders on quitting the NDA over the projection of Nitish Kumar as the Bihar CM face, Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan today described himself as the ‘Hanuman’ of PM Modi, saying that he doesn’t need PM Modi’s photos for his election campaign and that he lived in his heart.
In a dramatic declaration, Chirag Paswan said, “I don’t need photos of PM Modi. He is in my heart. Some day I will cut open my heart to show that PM Modi resides in it.”
#WATCH I don’t need to use PM Modi’s photos for campaigning. He lives in my heart, I am his Hanuman. If needed, I’ll tear open my chest and show it: LJP chief Chirag Paswan#BiharElectionspic.twitter.com/KhVPG4w2J2
Chirag Paswan scoffed at Nitish Kumar, saying it is the JDU leader who needs PM Modi’s photos more since he is “insecure”.
Paswan’s impassioned assertion came after the 37-year-old LJP leader drew the ire of BJP leaders for fielding candidates against Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United (JDU) and declaring support to the BJP.
Earlier today, Paswan declared that Nitish Kumar will not return to power in the state and that his party will form a government in the state in an alliance with the BJP. He added that the people of the state were angry with Kumar’s governance and want a change.
The Jamui MP, in mourning after his father and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s demise last week, claimed that Nitish Kumar had slighted his father and not expressed his condolences to him even once.
BJP warns LJP against using PM Modi’s photos for election campaigns
Chirag’s response comes in the wake of BJP leader Prakash Javadekar’s allegations that the LJP leader is trying to mislead the people of Bihar by taking up names of PM Modi and called his party as “vote-cutter” party.
Paswan has been extolling top BJP leaders such as PM Modi and Amit Shah while criticising the key NDA partner JDU and its chief Nitish Kumar, giving rise to the speculations that of a tacit understanding with the saffron party.
The BJP has issued a stern warning to the LJP against using PM Modi’s photo during the election campaign to garner votes. The party has also pledged to take up the matter with the Election Commission if non-NDA party is found using PM Modi’s photo for their election campaigning.
A day after a woman in southeast Delhi had claimed that she was assaulted and abused by her landlady for being a ‘Kashmiri’, more details are emerging in the case exposing her dubious claims.
On Friday, various media outlets had reported a story of an attack against a Kashmiri woman named Noor Bhat. The media reports suggested that the Kashmiri woman was assaulted and abused by her landlady and a man in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.
Noor Bhat, who belongs to Srinagar in Kashmir, had taken to Twitter to claim that her landlady entered the house with a man whom “she had never seen before”. She alleged that the landlady called her a ‘terrorist’ because they were from Kashmir. Further, Noor Bhat claimed that the incident took place in front of cops and accused the landlady of stealing her belongings from the house.
“So my landlady enters my house along with a man, that I have never seen in my whole life and starts to call me and my friends ‘TERRORISTS’ just because we are from KASHMIR that too, in front of a police official. They trespassed, broke in and our money, furniture (sic)” the Kashmir woman, Noor, said on Twitter.
Noor Bhat’s tweets making allegations against her landlady.
“The man literally pushed me and the landlady as well tried to attack me, all in front of Delhi Police,” Noor Bhat claimed.
Reportedly, the house was rented to two sisters and one of the sisters, who is claiming to be a victim in the case, stated that her house lock was broken and valuables were stolen from the place.
As Noor Bhat took to Twitter to put her story, the ‘liberal-secular’ media latched onto the story of the ‘aggrieved’ Kashmiri woman and aggressively reported on the same. As the story went viral, many social media users took to Twitter to express their solidarity with the Kashmiri woman and condemned the landlady for attacking and abusing the Kashmiri woman by referring to her as a ‘terrorist’.
With the alleged victim being a ‘Kashmiri Muslim’, the left-liberals and the Islamists too joined to severely condemn the landlady and also attempted to weave a narrative around the issue.
Image Source: Aisha Khan
Image Source: Anoo Bhuyan
Not just left-liberals and Islamists, even the Delhi Commission for Women, managed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Swati Maliwal jumped into the scene to take cognizance of the matter. “This is shocking & shameful. DCW team is in touch. We’ll ensure action,” she said.
DCW Chief Swati Maliwal also took a suo-motu cognizance of the matter and issued a notice to Delhi Police to look into the alleged attacks against the Kashmiri woman in Delhi.
However, days after Noor Bhat made strong allegations against her landlady by claiming that she was attacked and assaulted by her landlady, more details and evidence are emerging which completely contradicts the allegations made by Noor Bhat.
OpIndia speaks to landlady of the house
Speaking to OpIndia over the phone, Taruna Makhija, against whom the allegations of attack and assault have been made by the Kashmiri woman said that the allegations made by Noor Bhat were a blatant lie. In fact, according to Makhija, Noor Bhat is not even the real name of the Kashmiri woman.
The passport details accessed by OpIndia revealed that the name of the woman is Fiza Manzoor Bhat, who also goes by the name Noor Bhat.
According to Makhija, a residential space managed by their firm ‘Femstay’ was rented to Kashmiri youths named Shayaan Mohammad Nazir, Fiza Manzoor Bhat aka Noor Bhat. According to the agreement accessed by OpIndia, Bhat along with her sister Yuhanna Manzoor and Shayaan had occupied the residence from June 2, 2020, for a monthly rent of Rs. 55,000.
Makhija alleged that two sisters were staying in their residence from the past four months and were extremely irregular in paying the rent. The landlady alleged that the Kashmiri women behaved in a most atrocious manner and also created repeated nuisance in the housing complex.
She also alleged that once the women didn’t pay salary to their maid falsely accusing her of theft.
Taruna Makhija also informed that her tenants have not paid their electricity bill for months, and around Rs 70000-75000 is due to be paid. Due non-payment of the bill, the power connection to their house was disconnected, after which they illegally established a connection and were stealing electricity, she said.
Repeated complaints by RWA against Kashmiri residents
Taruna Makhija also revealed that she has been receiving several complaints against these two Kashmiri women ever since they occupied the apartment. She also added that the two Kashmiri women regularly created disturbances in the housing society by playing loud music at the night.
“We have received several complaints from RWA alleging that several friends of these Kashmiri women visited them and played loud music at their residence. Some of her friends used to brandish guns and fired bullets in the air,” said the landlady.
Not just that, we have accessed complaints by other residents of the housing society, alleging how these two youths had damaged the bicycle of one of their maids.
Here are the screenshots of a complaint raised by one of the other residents against the two Kashmiri women. According to the complaint made by the residents to Taruna, the Kashmiri girls, who are the residents of the fourth floor had broken their property and also a bicycle belonging to their maid.
Screenshots of complaints made against Yuhanna alias Noor Bhat by fellow residents.
Kashmiri women did not pay rent regularly
According to Taruna Makhija, the two Kashmiri women were extremely irregular in paying their rent. When asked to pay rent in August, one of the two sisters – Yuhanna had threatened to file a harassment case against the landlord.
In one of the conversations, Yuhanna, the sister of Noor Bhat had not only abused the landlady for asking the rent but had also threatened to sue her for allegedly ‘harassing’ and asking her to pay rent.
Screenshots of conversation between landlady and one of the Kashmiri sisters
In fact, after receiving numerous complaints against these Kashmiri women, the landlady had asked them to vacate the house after clearing all their dues. Speaking to OpIndia, Makhija also said that she had even lodged a complaint in Amar Colony police station.
However, the Delhi Police did not take the matter seriously and asked us to settle the issue matter amicably as it was a ‘civil issue’, said Taruna Makhija. Taruna Makhija also shared details of complaint registered against the Kashmiri youth in the Amar Colony police station asking them to help to vacate the unruly Kashmiri residents.
Kashmiri residents had not paid their electricity bills, attacked BSES operator
In addition to these, the Kashmiri residents had even refused to pay the electricity bills of the residence. The landlady said that the tenants had to pay an outstanding balance of Rs. 62,360 to BSES. Despite requesting the two Kashmiri ladies to clear the electricity dues, they had not paid it, following which BSES officials had cut the electricity supply to their residence.
Shockingly, the two women had even attacked and manhandled the BSES officials for disconnecting the power supply to their residence following the non-payment of the due.
In the below video, one can see how the Kashmiri sisters – Noor Bhat alias Fiza and her sister Yuhanna are manhandling the BSES operator for disconnecting their connection. One of the Kashmiri sisters can be heard hurling abuses and threatening the BSES employee for carrying out his duty.
No evidence to substantiate their claims of being attacked
Interestingly, the allegations put up against the landlady by Noor Bhat, claiming that she was attacked and abused as a ‘terrorist’ falls flat as there is no evidence to back her claim.
However, another video accessed by OpIndia contradicts the whole claim made by Noor Bhat in which she alleges the landlady of calling her ‘terrorist’ for simply asking to pay their bills.
In the above video, the landlady can be heard confronting the Kashmiri woman for allegedly attacking the BSES operator. In reaction to that, one Kashmiri youth reacts to her aggressively by making false observations. “Are you calling Kashmiri students a terrorist?,” the Kashmiri youth asks.
In reality, no one in the video uttered any such words calling the Kashmiri youths as ‘terrorists’. Moreover, the Kashmiri woman has not produced any evidence to substantiate her claim even if the landlady has allegedly made such remarks off the camera.
In another video, one of the Kashmiri sisters along with her friends can also be seen mocking the landlady for asking to vacate from the residence for failing to pay the bills.
The Kashmiri woman had also claimed that she was physically attacked by their landlady. Showing some injury marks on her neck, the Kashmiri woman had alleged that her landlady had attacked asking them to vacate. She had also alleged that the landlady had taken away their furniture.
In response to these allegations, Taruna Makhija said that they never attacked the Kashmiri residents and challenged them to come forward and appear for a medical test. The Kashmir lady Noor Bhat is yet to appear for a medical test.
According to Makhija, the furniture belongs to their firm and they had rented a fully-furnished apartment to the Kashmiri women in June.
“Cat died due to non-availability of water and electricity, be happy that we are paying at least some rent”
In another video, the two Kashmiri women along with her friend Shayaan can be seen creating a ruckus on the streets. The Kashmiri residents were seen shouting at the landlady claiming that her cat had died because of non-availability of water and electricity.
In the below video, one of the Kashmiri sisters can be seen arguing with the landlady over the issue of payment of bills. The Kashmiri woman claims that her cat had died due to the non-availability of water and contends that the landlady should be happy that they were paying some rent to them.
The above images and videos indicate that the claims made by Kashmiri woman are bereft of truth. In fact, the serious allegations made by other residents and the documents accessed by OpIndia suggests that the two Kashmiri sisters and their friends have not only misbehaved with the residents of the housing society but also harassed the landlady by delaying the payment of rent and electricity dues.
Instead of clearing their dues, the Kashmiri women seems to have created a ruckus to falsely accuse the landlady of harassing them. The ‘liberal-secular’, who are often desperate for stories which depicts Kashmiri as ‘victims’ seems to have latched onto it without even verifying facts of the matter.
Taruna Makhija can be seen talking about her tenants in the video given below in an interview given to a media house.
(We at OpIndia tried reaching Noor Bhat. However, we have not received her response yet. The story will be updated once Bhat responds to us)
Chief of Editor’s Guild and Editor-in-Chief of The Print, Shekhar Gupta, called journalists a ‘different kind of vultures’ during the 15th October episode of Cut The Clutter on the media outlet’s YouTube channel. During the episode, he was discussing the controversy revolving around New York Times journalist Rukmini Callimachi.
Speaking of Rukmini Callimachi, Shekhar Gupta said, “She rose as an international star and you know what happens? When you rise as a star anywhere, a lot of people, particularly those who get left behind start sharpening their knives. And I can tell you something. There is no place more perilous for a successful professional than a newsroom. Because reporters have to compete all the time in a cut-throat manner.”
He continued, “And we are worse than vultures, most times. The vultures usually only eat up what somebody else killed or what died by itself naturally. And vultures usually perform a useful job by cleaning it up, by scavenging it for you. But we are different kinds of vultures. We are always waiting, I am not saying all of us, there are always exceptions, we are always waiting for some reporter, particularly a star reporter to get something wrong.”
“Even a little thing wrong. Then, if the person is down, then you go after the person and kill the person, then you clean up the person, pick the person’s flesh off her bones. So the newsroom is a very tough place,” said Shekhar Gupta. He called them vultures later in the show as well. It may be recalled that Rajdeep Sardesai has admitted in the past that journalists are like vultures.
At another point in the show, Shekhar Gupta expresses surprise that “civilised countries” have hoax laws and tells his audience, “Can you imagine if we had a hoax law in this country? I think a lot of people will be in jail.” The implication appears to be that India is not a civilised country and that is why India does not have hoax laws.
The Rukmini Callimachi Controversy
Rukmini Callimachi is one the dock for her podcast ‘Caliphate’ which sought to provide an insider perspective into the macabre word of the Islamic State. ‘Caliphate’ relied heavily on the account of one Abu Huzayfah al-Kanadi. He claimed to be an ISIS fighter and provided a vivid description of executions he had carried out.
The only problem was that he was arrested recently by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under the hoax law of the country for allegedly lying about the crimes he allegedly committed in the Middle-East. The supposed ISIS fighter has been identified as on Sheroze Chaudhry with origins in Pakistan. On her part, Rukmini Callimachi claims that she has explained in an episode what she can and cannot confirm about his claims the conflicting strands in his story.
2. Below is a link to Chapter 6, which exposes both what we know he lied about, explores the conundrum of what to do when you discover that a source has lied, and lays out for readers what we know to be fact and equally the many things we still don’t knowhttps://t.co/tKJWGqt02D
Despite her clarification, Rukmini Callimachi has come under intense criticism from those on the Left who appear to believe that her podcast fuels Islamophobia.
Days after the civil court in Mathura had dismissed the plea seeking the removal of the Idgah mosque allegedly built over Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, the district court in Mathura has accepted the plea today. The court of district judge Sadhna Rani Thakur on Friday accepted the petition and posted the matter for the next hearing on November 18.
The Plaintiffs had approached the district court in Mathura on October 12 (Monday) after a civil court had dismissed the plea on September 30. While hearing the plea today district court judge had summoned a record from the lower court.
The petition was filed by advocate Ranjana Agnihotri, the “next friend” of Shri Krishna Lala Virajman and seven others in Mathura district court. The petitioners also appealed to the court to get 13.37 acre land of Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi vacated.
“Next friend” is a legal term for a person who represents someone directly unable to maintain a suit.
Mathura civil court dismisses plea seeking removal of Idgah Mosque from Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi
It may be recalled that senior civil judge Chhaya Sharma had dismissed the petition earlier on September 30. It had dismissed the petition citing the bar under the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991. The plea was filed last month in the court of Civil Judge Division Chhaya Sharma in Mathura district. Under the petition, the land on which the Shahi Idgah is erected adjacent to the Krishna temple at Katra Keshav Dev in Mathura was claimed. The plea had sought the “removal of encroachment and superstructure illegally raised by Committee of Management of alleged Trust Masjid Idgah with the consent of Sunni Central Board of Waqf …at Katra Keshav Dev city Mathura belonging to deity Shree Krishna Virajman.”
Pertinently, the Places of Worship (Special Provision) Act, 1991 was enacted the by the Congress government under the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, which fixed the status of all the places of worship in the country as they existed on August 15, 1947.
The petition named the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board; Shahi Masjid Idgah Trust; Shri Krishna Janambhoomi Trust; and Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan as defendants.
Movement to reclaim Krishna Janmabhoomi
The Shahi Idgah Mosque stands at the Krishna Janmabhoomi in the city of Mathura. The Islamic invader Aurangzeb had destroyed the ancient Keshavnath temple and built the Shahi Idgah Mosque on its plinth in 1669.
The movement around the liberation of Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura had gathered steam, especially following the historic Supreme Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi case. Earlier in August, in an effort to liberate Mathura, Hindu sadhus had formed the ‘Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Nirman Nyas’ on the lines of Ram Mandir trust. The 80 Hindu Sadhus who had come together to set up the new trust had said that a signature campaign would be launched to connect other saints and seers for the ‘liberation’ of the Krishna Janmabhoomi.
Social media giants Twitter and Facebook are facing lots of heat for censoring a report by NY Post investigative report alleging Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s links with Ukraine. As lots of articles have been written on how the social media sites are trying to influence the US elections by restricting the spread of anti-Biden reports, US President Donald Trump shared a satirical report by popular right-wing satire website The Babylon Bee on the attempts by Twitter to censor the explosive report by the New York Post exposing the rampant corruption Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden indulged in during his vice-presidential tenure.
The satirical report claimed that Twitter had decided to shut down its entire network to prevent the spread of negative coverage of Joe Biden. In a tweet that appeared to convey the impression that Donald Trump had fallen for a satirical news report believing it to be true, the US President said, “Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T”.
Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News https://t.co/JPmjOrKPcr via @TheBabylonBee Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T
A lot of people came to the conclusion that Donald Trump had fallen for fake news but that appears rather unlikely as The Babylon Bee is one of the most popular right-wing outlets and gains a lot of traction on social media. Therefore, the assumption that someone such as Trump who engineered his 2016 electoral victory relying greatly on social media traction is not aware of one of the most popular satirical websites does not ring true.
The tweet appears to be another occasion where Donald Trump is just basically being Donald Trump and resorting to thinly veiled trolling to ensure that the news about Joe Biden’s corruption continues to attract attention.
Twitter has been suppressing all attempts to share authentic news about the corruption and going out of their way and even suspending major accounts to prevent the news from spreading.
Twitter had gone so far as to suspend the account of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for tweeting about Joe Biden’s corruption. The official Twitter account of the Trump Campaign was also suspended. Thus, Donald Trump’s tweet sharing The Babylon Bee report appears to be driven by two factors. First, to avoid having his Twitter account getting suspended and second, to ensure that the attention continues to remain on Joe Biden’s corruption without sharing the actual report.
While it is natural to assume that Donald Trump actually fell for the satirical report, it has to be conceded that over the years he has mastered the art of trolling. And his ability to manipulate the media has also ensured in the past that he receives billions of dollars of free media coverage. Therefore, it is far more likely that the tweet was an attempt to attract media attention than it is that he is just too stupid.
New York Post ‘expose’ on Joe Biden
In the investigative report, the New York Post had asserted that they had accessed material from a damaged Macbook Pro, which revealed that Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, had introduced a businessman from Ukraine to his father while the latter was Vice President of the United States. It is pertinent to note here that Hunter Biden at the time was appointed to the Burisma Board and received a salary of $50,000 per month.
The report had published several documents and mentioned a video that proved that Joe Biden met Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, where the extent of the Biden family’s involvement, and the sacking of a prosecutor, allegedly after pressure from the then VP Biden, is now under scrutiny.
A few days back, reports had suggested that there are chances that Biden had helped his son Hunter using his influence as the VP of the United States in his business in Ukraine. The Biden Camp has categorically denied all the allegations.
A Special Court in Delhi took cognizance of a complaint filed by Enforcement Directorate against absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. In an order passed yesterday, the CBI special also asked to expedite the process of extradition of Robert Vadra’s close aide Bhandari from UK.
The court issued summons to Sanjay Bhandari and others named in a case under section 44 and 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and directed ED to expedite the process of extradition of Sanjay Bhandari which is pending before UK Authorities, so that he can be brought to India for trial in accordance with the law.
On June 1st this year, ED had filed a prosecution complaint, which is equivalent to a charge sheet, against Sanjay Bhandari and other co-conspirators, including various companies floated by Bhandari in foreign locations for the purpose of money laundering case.
Earlier, a complaint under Section 51(1) of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Act, 2015 [Black Money Act] was filed against accused Sanjay Bhandari by Income Tax authorities. It was revealed that accused Sanjay Bhandari stashed black money abroad with the assistance of his accomplices to evade taxes, causing huge financial loss to the national exchequer.
Since the offence under Section 51 of the Black Money Act is a scheduled offence under PMLA, investigation was handed over to ED. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that Sanjay Bhandari owned assets in various foreign jurisdictions, incorporated various entities in UAE as owner / beneficial owner and also had financial interest in entity incorporated in Panama. It was also revealed that all those foreign assets and entities were not disclosed by Sanjay Bhandari to Income Tax authorities in India.
Apart from the money laundering case, Sanjay Bhandari is accused in several other cases in India, like the Pilatus Aircraft scam and the ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) case. A FIR filed in July this year by CBI had alleged that that Bhandari acted as a middleman and helped M/s Samsung Engineering in approaching unknown public servants working with ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) to show “undue favor” to the company.
In the Pilatus Aircraft scam, CBI had registered an FIR in 2019 against notorious arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, unknown officials in the Indian Air Force and Swiss aircraft maker Pilatus over alleged irregularities and corruption to the tunes of 339 crores. Kickbacks were allegedly given during the procurement of 75 basic trainer aircraft for the IAF in 2009. CBI’s inquiry had found that in 2009, Sanjay Bhandari’s company had received the kickback amount through his Singapore based bank account. From there the money was laundered to Bhandari’s company in Dubai and then, it was allegedly used to purchase properties in London.
Robert Vadra was also named in the Pilatus Aircraft case by ED. The agency had stated Robert Vadra was linked with the bribe paid by Pilatus to influence the Rs.2900 crore deal for basic trainer aircraft. Bhandari was also named as acting on behalf of Vadra for the purchase of properties in London.
On June 1st this year, ED had filed a complaint against Sanjay Bhandari and other co-conspirators, including various companies floated by Bhandari in foreign locations for the purpose of money laundering.
Earlier, a complaint under Section 51(1) of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Act, 2015 [Black Money Act] was filed against accused Sanjay Bhandari by Income Tax authorities. It was revealed that accused Sanjay Bhandari stashed black money abroad with the assistance of his accomplices to evade taxes, causing huge financial loss to the national exchequer.
Since the offence under Section 51 of the Black Money Act is a scheduled offence under PMLA, investigation was handed over to ED. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that Sanjay Bhandari owned assets in various foreign jurisdictions, incorporated various entities in UAE as owner / beneficial owner and also had financial interest in entity incorporated in Panama. It was also revealed that all those foreign assets and entities were not disclosed by Sanjay Bhandari to Income Tax authorities in India.
Apart from the money laundering case, Sanjay Bhandari is accused in several other cases in India, like the Pilatus Aircraft scam and the ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) case. A FIR filed in July this year by CBI had alleged that that Bhandari acted as a middleman and helped M/s Samsung Engineering in approaching unknown public servants working with ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) to show “undue favor” to the company.
In the Pilatus Aircraft scam, CBI had registered an FIR in 2019 against notorious arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, unknown officials in the Indian Air Force and Swiss aircraft maker Pilatus over alleged irregularities and corruption to the tunes of 339 crores. Kickbacks were allegedly given during the procurement of 75 basic trainer aircraft for the IAF in 2009. CBI’s inquiry had found that in 2009, Sanjay Bhandari’s company had received the kickback amount through his Singapore based bank account. From there the money was laundered to Bhandari’s company in Dubai and then, it was allegedly used to purchase properties in London.
Robert Vadra was also named in the Pilatus Aircraft case by ED. The agency had stated that Robert Vadra was linked with the bribe paid by Pilatus to influence the Rs.2900 crore deal for basic trainer aircraft. Bhandari was also named as acting on behalf of Vadra for the purchase of properties in London.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has been subjected to relentless attack by the left-leaning media organisations and individuals. There have been constant attempts to hound his government over issues that the same entities blissfully ignore in other states, especially non-BJP ruled ones. When he became the CM, they had mocked his saffron robes, his open, and vocal support for Hindu causes and his proud adherence to his role of Peethadhishwar in Gorakhpeeth.
A 3-year-old video of the UP CM shutting up NDTV’s Prannoy Roy on casteism, Ram Mandir, Hindu identity and other issues is doing the rounds on the internet.
Many social media users have shared a clip from an interview in March 2017 during the Uttar Pradesh election campaign when Prannoy Roy and the President of the Editors’ Guild of India, Shekhar Gupta, interviewed Yogi Adityanath before he was anointed to lead the state following a resounding BJP victory.
NDTV’s Prannoy Roy and Shekhar Gupta interview BJP’s Yogi Adityanath during the UP election hustings
With an unmistakable air of patronising superiority, Prannoy Roy and Shekhar Gupta posed a plethora of questions ranging from the Hindu identity, casteism, construction of Ram Mandir and several other issues, which were cogently and calmly responded to by the current Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
Hindu and India are two meanings of the same identity: Yogi Adityanath
When asked if he is a Hindu or an Indian first, Yogi Adityanath sedately responded that Hindu and Indian are synonymous. He added that Hindu represented the cultural manifestation while Indian was a geographic identity and therefore there was no difference in being a Hindu and an Indian.
On being asked if Hindus and Muslims can live in peace in the country, Yogi said, “Why not? Absolutely. They can live in one nation, under one constitution. If they believe this, there won’t be any problems.”
Yogi Adityanath says caste is fine but casteism is not
Yogi was then asked his views on the ubiquity of castes in Hinduism. To this, he said that castes play the same role in society as land dividers do in farms, keeping things orderly and organised. “Caste is fine, but not casteism. We are against casteism perpetrated for furthering one’s political interests,” Yogi responded.
Subsequently, Prannoy Roy asked Yogi Adityanath whether he and his party would wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict on Ram Mandir or would find other means to accomplish their desire. Yogi had then said that he and his party would appeal to the Supreme Court for a quick resolution of the matter but if there is a delay in the decision, they would try to find an alternative way to address the problem.
Shri Ram and India are complementary to each other: Yogi Adityanath
Roy then put forth a cunning question in a bid to decouple nationalism with chanting of Jai Shri Ram slogan. Roy asked if one has to love his country first or chant Jai Shri Ram. However, Yogi, being prepared for such tricky questions, did not take the bait and answered back that chanting Jai Shri Ram and loving the country are complementary to each other.
“Shri Ram and country are complementary to each other. Ram is the embodiment of the nation, an extensive form. The boundaries of the nation have been defined by Lord Ram himself. Lord Ram and India cannot be separated,” Yogi said.
The Print’s Shekhar Gupta then threw a curve at Yogi Adityanath with his question on whether the caste system in India is right or wrong. Yogi Adityanath calmly responded that the Hindu religion does not acknowledge the caste system that pigeonholes people based on their birth but it categorises people on basis of their deeds.
“The Sanathan Hindu religion has never recognised the birth-based Jati(caste) system. Here we are categorised not on the basis of birth but by our vocations and deeds,” Yogi said.
In this short article, we will provide a series of data points that will help break down the nature of foreign funded non-profits in India. This is intended to serve as a reference for all discussions on the subject.
Basic Facts
A total of 21918 entities filed FC4 returns for the financial year 2018-2019
10336 reported having received no funds from abroad at all
16557 reported having received no funds from other FCRA NGOs within India.
5361 NGOs received some funds from other FCRA NGOs within India.
5033 relied on transfers from other FCRA NGOs within India for more than 30% of their foreign fund inflow.
3341 reported having spent more than 20% of their total inflow on administrative expenses.
NGO distribution by size
We have categorized NGOs in these four categories
634 Mega NGOs – Total foreign income (including interest income and intra-India transfers) above 10 crore
599 Medium NGOs – Total foreign income of 1 to 10 crores
11168 Small NGOs – Total foreign income of 5 lakhs to 1 crore
6323 Micro NGOs – Total foreign income of < 5 lakhs
3788 Not receiving funds – No foreign income at all
Graphical representation of the proportion of each category of NGOs
Admin Expenses and Size
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of Mega NGOs
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of mid-sized NGOs
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of small and micro NGOs
Dependency on Local Transfer
A total of 2879 NGOs depend upon transfers from other FCRA NGOs in India for more than 20% of their total income. Of these
69 are Mega NGOs
66 are medium sized NGOs
2744 are Small and Micro NGOs
FDs and Cash in the hands of NGOs
We categorize the ratio of FD and cash in hand to the total inflow of foreign funds for the year in this segment. As can be seen, the large hoard of cash above Rs 13000 crores is concentrated in the mega NGOs
634 large NGOs hold Rs 9576 crores in FD and cash – an average of Rs 15.1 crores
599 Medium NGOs hold Rs 1349 crores in FD and cash – an average of Rs 2.25 crores
17491 Small and Micro NGOs hold Rs 2189 crores in FD and cash – an average of Rs 12.5 lakhs
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of the FD/Cash ratio of Mega NGOs
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of the FD/Cash ratio of Medium NGOs
Graphical representation of the admin expenses of the FD/Cash ratio of
State Wise distribution
All NGOs
Mega NGOs
Medium NGOs
Small and Micro NGOs
Names of NGOs – word clouds
Wordclouds indicate the frequency at which a particular word appears in a list of names.
This has the names of NGOs with common words like A, An, The, Of, For removed:
All NGOs
Mega NGOs – Total foreign income above 10 crore
Medium NGOs – Total foreign income of 1 to 10 crores
Small NGOs – Total foreign income of 5 lakhs to 1 crore
Micro NGOs – Total foreign income of < 5 lakhs
Conclusion
The above mentioned charts demonstrate that a significant portion of NGOs will be affected by the FCRA Amendment passed recently by the Indian Parliament. Two provisions that will have the greatest impact are the amendment that restricts administrative expenses to 20% of fund inflow and another that requires all NGOs to utilise the funds themselves and not transfer them to other NGOs.
A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that has been investigating the Hathras case has reportedly recovered clothes having stains of blood-like colour from the house of one of the accused in the case named Luv Kush Sikarwar. Sikarwar is one of the four accused in the Hathras case. The CBI team is staying in the village since the past few days probing the case. The team found the clothes while conducting search at the house of the accused. It is suspected by the CBI team that the colour stains on the clothes are that of blood. The family of Sikarwar has, however, refuted the claims of the CBI.
According to reports, the family on the accused has claimed that the colour on the clothes was not blood but paint. They said that the elder brother of the accused named Ravi Sikarwar works as a painter in a factory and therefore the clothes had the stains of paint. Lalit Sikarwar, the younger brother of the accused said that CBI searched their house for around a couple of hours and took along the clothes stained with red paint. “CBI stayed for two and half hours and kept on searching material in our house. They found clothes with red colour on it and took that along”, he said. Lalit reportedly claimed in a video message that the clothes belonged to his elder brother who worked in a paint factory and that the stains on the clothes were that of paint and not blood.
CBI had re-summoned victim’s brothers
The CBI team had re-summoned the Hathras victim’s brothers two days ago for questioning. One of the brothers of the victim was interrogated by the CBI team a day earlier after inconsistencies were found in his statement. He was also taken to the crime scene by the team and was asked to recreate the scene. The family of the victim has sought CRPF protection and the transfer of the case outside Uttar Pradesh. The Supreme Court reserved the decision regarding their demands yesterday.
After India, now allegations of promoting love jihad has emerged in Bangladesh also. Minority Hindus in the country has sent a legal notice to the producer, director and actors of an upcoming teledrama named Bijoya, which was scheduled to release on the occasion of Durga puja. Lawyer and Bangladeshi Hindu activist Suman Kumar Rai sent the legal notice on the behalf of one Litan Krishna Das alleging that the show promotes communal disharmony and religious conversion.
The notice has been sent to actress Nusrat Imroz Tisha, actor Irfan Sajjad, writer Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and director Abu Hayat Mahmud Bhuiyan on Monday. Suman Rai said that if the makers of the drama do not announce the withdrawal of the same withing seven days, they will take strong legal action against them.
Talking to media, Suman Rai said that from the trailer of the drama released on social media, it is evident the show hurts the sentiments of Hindus. He said that the show does character assassination of Hindu women depicting them as immoral, and the Hindu men are presented as alcoholic, cruel, worthless and heartless people. It has been alleged that the show encourages adultery and religious conversion of Hindu women.
As per trailers of the drama produced by Crown Entertainment, Tisha is seen enacting the role of a Hindu woman married to a Hindu man at least 20 years elder than her. Her husband Haridas is a cruel alcoholic man, and this pushes Tisha’s character to an extra-marital affair with a Muslim man in whom she finds love and protection.
After the trailer was released, it attracted strong criticism from Hindus in Bangladesh on social media. Many social media users targeted the actors and makers of the show on social media, with reportedly some of them even issuing threats. Following the backlash, the promo of the puja special show has been suspended, which is to be aired on BanglaVision.
Director Abu Hayat Mahmud Bhuiyan wrote on Facebook informing that they have suspended the publicity of the drama due to protests by Hindus and legal notice sent to them. “We have taken a decision by talking to the production organization a little early, as the Sanatan Hindu religious brothers and sisters have not seen the drama, we have suspended the publicity of the drama to color the festival of Durga Puja and so that you do not have any pain in your mind for any reason,” he said.
Bhuiyan also announced that he has also decided not to create any television drama in the future on the occasion of Puja
The makers of the show have rejected the allegations that it promotes adultery and love jihad. They have said that some people are spreading misinformation about the show even before its release.
