The Hathras incident has become more of an event the political opponents are milking to score political brownie points. A day after Congress prince Rahul Gandhi’s iconic ‘fall’, TMC leader Derek O’Brien followed cue. Derek, who was on his way today to meet the family of the Hathras victim, almost identically found himself a clean spot to ‘fall’ as the cops tried to stop him from proceeding.
A 29-second clip tweeted by ANI, which has now gone viral on social media, showed a woman leader of the party being turned away by a person in plains clothes as O’ Brien comes into the frame. In what looks like an argument which ensues between the police personnel and the TMC leaders, Derek O’Brien is seen losing his balance and going ahead with curious stumbling steps.
#WATCH हाथरस में पीड़िता के परिवार से मिलने जा रहे तृणमूल कांग्रेस के डेरेक ओ ब्रायन हाथरस बॉर्डर पर धक्का मुक्की में नीचे गिरे। pic.twitter.com/1n5Kv72EOe
Taking a cue from Congress the TMC delegation, led by Derek O’Brien was en route to Hathras to express solidarity
Taking a cue from Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, despite Section 144 still being in place, a four-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress, led by senior party leader Derek O’Brien was en route to Hathras on Friday to express their solidarity with the victim’s family when they were impeded by the police from going to the village.
“He was pushed to the ground. Maybe he is injured too. He was attacked. How can they do it?” ANI quoted Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, another TMC leader who was a part of the delegation as asking.
A delegation of Trinamool MPs have been stopped by UP Police from entering Hathras. The delegation had travelled about 200 km from Delhi. The Trinamool MPs were on their way to the village in Hathras, travelling separately, to express solidarity with the grieving family and convey their condolences,” the TMC said in the statement.
“At this moment, we are just 1.5 km from the victims home in Hathras, explaining to police officials that we will walk the 1.5 km to the victim’s house in Hathras,” the statement said.
Rahul Gandhi’s legendry, almost identical ‘free fall’
In almost an identical situation yesterday, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi had embarked on a journey to Hathras to meet the victim’s family. Enroute, since the restrictions are in place, their convoy was stopped. The brother-sister duo then got off their airconditioned car and decided to walk the remainder of their 150+ km journey. On their way when the cops tried to stop, Rahul Gandhi tried to run away. Amit the confrontation with the police Rahul Gandhi found himself a clean spot to ‘fall’.
Like a domino effect, another Congress worker also ‘fell’ on Rahul Gandhi, to save the former Congress President and son of current interim Congress President from any injuries.
Rahul Gandhi’s legendry free fall invited a meme fest on Twitter. The creative minds on Twitter came up with hilarious memes and jokes. From dance moves in legendary Bollywood movies to the comparison between the Congress prince’s fall with that of famous footballers, Twitterati just couldn’t stop gushing about the act.
For a long time now, Twitter has been accused of having in place lax regulation policies that empower users and allow them to initiate unpleasant exchanges. However, this time around, it was the former CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, who used the social media behemoth’s inadequacies to post comments supporting violence on its platform.
Responding to a conversation regarding whether the tech company elites and business leaders should involve themselves in social justice issues, Costolo made a contentious remark saying some capitalists “are going to be the first” to be “shot in the revolution”.
“Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution. I’ll happily provide video commentary,” Costolo tweeted.
Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution. I’ll happily provide video commentary.
Costolo’s tweet, suggesting that he would like some of his peers and colleagues face a firing squad comes amidst the turmoil in the American society in the wake of the coronavirus-induced recession, racial reckoning sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody this May.
CEOs and business leaders are caught in a quandary as to what role they should play in the movement, with their apathy towards participating in the revolution engendering a sense of disgruntlement among their employees.
The debate about the American business leaders partaking a greater role in the social upheaval was doing the rounds for some time now. However, it was triggered anew after the Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted in a blog that his company would not take part in the social justice movement roiling the United States. He asserted that the company doesn’t engage in issues which do not lie at the core of their mission and cited the internal rife within organisations such as Facebook and Google to allege that it adversely impacts the productivity of the organisation as a whole.
Twitter does not initiate any action against Former CEO despite his tweet violating company policies
In response to Armstrong’s post, the former Twitter CEO castigated the Coinbase CEO, saying that it is akin to asking the employees to “shut up and dribble”. In the ensuing conversation, Costolo was seen making a case for leaders to engage in upholding social contract with the employees and not just economic relationship. However, when one of the Twitter users responded that those seeking an activist role in a tech company might as well join a non-profit organisation, Costolo replied that he sees Business leaders being lined up against the wall and fired at for not participating in an effort directed at bringing about the social change.
While Twitter has of late shown an unusual alacrity to label tweets or remove them altogether citing violation of the company policies. Twitter’s violent threats policy reads that tweets “threatening to kill someone” and “threatening to seriously hurt someone and/or commit another [sic] violent” act that could result in injury are not permitted on the site. However, the company has so far not initiated any action against Costolo’s tweet.
One of the frequent disagreements I have with the editorial team of OpIndia – and yes, I am liberal enough to allow them to publish stuff I don’t agree with (thank you, accepts the award) – is about criticism of Mahatma Gandhi. OpIndia has a bunch of articles that dissect his views, and one article, which proved to be quite controversial, also talked about his assassin Nathuram Godse and his motives.
Today I lost my liberalism a bit and killed one article idea that aimed to highlight the weird ideas Mahatma Gandhi had, especially around his extreme pacifism, which were suicidal, to be honest. After killing the idea, I felt bad because criticism of such ideas is totally valid. I killed it because I thought that why should it be done on his birthday today. However, I must accept that it was not really a great reason to kill an article idea.
Therefore, out of guilt, I’m writing one article myself so that content plan doesn’t suffer. And more importantly, the editorial team doesn’t get an excuse to blame it on me, saying traffic was low on a day because I killed an article.
On a serious note, I do earnestly believe that that the right-wing, or rather the Hindus, don’t have much to gain by attacking Mahatma Gandhi. This stand of mine is purely in terms of strategic communication and I’m writing this article to help people debate this idea. I could be wrong as well, but let me explain my position.
Mahatma Gandhi is not your next door Hinduphobe
I’m a paranoid Hindu. I believe that if Hindus don’t realise the threats to their religious and cultural identity and if they don’t pushback in whatever capacity they can, their identity will be sullied beyond redemption in a matter of a couple of decades. Each and every Hindu will be forced to disown that identity, and the last surviving ‘pagan’ religion will vanish. Yes, what the Mughals or the British couldn’t do, can indeed become a reality in modern times with modern psyops.
Even if you don’t share my alarmism and pessimism – and not everyone should get this paranoid because it can also make one depressed and defeatist – you’ll have to agree that Hinduphobia is a clear and present danger. There are entities and ideologies that simply hate Hinduism. They talk about the need to achieve the annihilation of Hinduism.
Some are very honest and say that in as many words – such as Periyarites or the neo Ambedkarites – while some are deeply dishonest and scheming and hide this hatred for Hinduism by creating false narratives about Hindutva vs Hinduism or Brahminism vs Hinduism – the latter types are basically the ‘liberals’.
Both the Periyarites and Ambedkarites hate, simply hate, Gandhi. They hate Gandhi with much more intensity than an average ‘Sanghi’ can ever do. Forget hating, a Sanghi like Narendra Modi can’t stop singing praises of Mahatma Gandhi, but you can’t find a single, literally a single Periyarite or neo-Ambedkarite finding anything good about MK Gandhi.
Remember, these are the people who can side with Islamists, with Naxals, with Anarchists, with the Chinese, and with anyone who can mask their Hinduphobia by dressing it up as anti-Hindutva or anti-Brahminism. They not only form a strategic alliance with such elements, they even come up with intellectual sounding claptrap to whitewash the bigotry of their new allies. However, they – the likes of Periyarites and the Ambedkarites – don’t provide even lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi, forget allying with his thoughts or his philosophy, even though Gandhi is presented as antithesis of Hindutva.
So there must be something in Mahatma Gandhi that gets the goat of the most Hinduphobic elements, right? Why do they hate Gandhi so much? Why do they feel that had there been no Gandhi, they would have been able to annihilate Hinduism already? What exactly did Gandhi do that thwarted their attempts to annihilate Hinduism?
Sometimes it is good to think like your enemy. Think about it.
The liberal love for Mahatma Gandhi is fake
While the likes of Periyarites and the neo-Ambedkarites are very honest and forthcoming in their hate for Gandhi, the ‘liberals’ are there to confuse you. That’s their core job – to confuse the Hindus. They do everything to distract you from seeing the real threat to your identity, and then they also tell the Hindus that actually it’s the Sanghis who are doing ‘Hindu-Muslim’ to distract you from the “real issues”. Admirable quality indeed.
Where the likes of Periyarites and neo-Ambedkarites fail, the liberals score. They provide awesome lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi. They have appropriated Gandhi to such an extent that it has become the default reaction of the right-wing Hindus to attack Gandhi, for the ‘other side’ appears to love him. But liberals don’t really love Gandhi.
Remember Gandhi talked about cow protection, about preserving traditional Hinduism that included the caste system (but not caste atrocities). He talked about the importance of temples in the society and championed many more religious and ‘conservative’ values. He belonged to an era when speaking against idol worship was supposed to be a “reform”, but Gandhi never spoke against idol worshipping. And there are dozens of such examples, which is why he is hated by the Hinduphobes.
A ‘liberal’ too hates these things, but he is too smart not to say it openly, not yet. He believes in strategic communication too. However, sometimes the mask slips off and their hate for Gandhi comes out. Take for example the following thought by a liberal thinker published in a liberal website:
An article published in left-leaning website Scroll in November 2015
They blamed Gandhi for partition. And what was Gandhi’s mistake? He was a practising Hindu. This is a quintessential liberal belief, not much different from what Periyarites and the Ambedkarites believe, but just that liberals are careful not to say it brazenly, lest Hindus actually start seeing who is behind the liberal mask.
Wendy Doniger and Scroll are no exception. Likes of Arundhati Roy have blasted Gandhi many times, and so have many more liberal icons. But they are careful not to overdo it. Because they need Gandhi. Actually, they need Gandhi’s dead body ridden with bullets fired by Nathuram Godse.
That’s the only thing liberals love about Gandhi – his death.
That’s the best thing they could have asked from whatever god they believe in. Not only a man whose ideas they simply can’t find fitting into their “idea of India” was eliminated, but they also got an excuse to paint everyone talking about Hindu causes as a “Godse follower”. Gandhi’s death is the biggest tool in the hands of liberals to discredit any voice that questions them.
Attacking Mahatma Gandhi won’t weaken the ‘liberals’
Now here one might argue that if Gandhi’s death is a stick with which all genuine criticism is stopped, isn’t it rather ‘desirable’ that Gandhi’s views and actions are relentlessly attacked so that “Godse follower” is no longer a pejorative?
If that’s the idea, it won’t work. At the end of the day, Nathuram Godse is going to be a murderer. He himself knew that he will be hated for the act and that he will become a villain. Hinduism is not like Islam where murderers in modern times – be it Ilm-ud-Din or myriad of others who become heroes in the Islamic world by committing murders to ‘avenge’ insult to prophet or religion – can be glorified. The DNA of the two religions are simply different. Tough luck if that is the plan.
Let me repeat again here that my perspectives are entirely from the point of view of strategic communication, and in my mind, it’s not a sound communication strategy. This may work with a specific bunch of people but won’t work with the larger Hindu community.
And what is more important – to paint Godse as not a villain or to make sure no one is pushed to become Godse again? Godse took upon sin on himself for a very different reason. Actually, he took upon himself a sin that would have finally fallen on the liberals.
Had Godse not killed Gandhi, Gandhi – his thoughts, his ideas, his causes – would have been slowly killed by the ‘liberals’ just in a matter of few years. Just think of Anna Hazare; he was thrown out like a ‘doodh ki makhkhi’ once political victory was scored by the team that swore by his name. Mahatma Gandhi would have met the same fate in independent India after the first general elections.
And today’s Congress has virtually killed Gandhi already. They celebrate Periyar now. So by attacking Mahatma Gandhi, you are not really weakening the liberals, or for that matter, not even the Congress party today.
Doesn’t mean that Gandhi shouldn’t be criticised at all
However, I must clarify that I don’t mean to say that Mahatma Gandhi shouldn’t be criticised at all or he should be put on a pedestal where he is worshipped as some great Hindu icon whose ideas are relevant in current times. Obviously not. Being a self-declared paranoid Hindu, I just can’t suggest it at all.
Mahatma Gandhi, due to his really really weird and extremist pacifist ideas, ended up weakening the Hindus – there is no doubt about that. Hindus have been warriors and that’s how they survived thousands of years of invaders destroying their temples and massacring their people. Mahatma Gandhi hugely erred by trying to paint Hinduism as some inherent pacifist religion or Hindus as inherently meek and weak people. One can criticise this aspect of Gandhi without totally destroying his persona or brand.
Similarly, his over-reliance on Hindu-Muslim unity has to be criticised. Most people do today realise that it was foolish of Mahatma Gandhi to extend support to movements like Khilafat, which at the core of it was a pan-Islamist movement – an idea that finally ended up in the creation of Pakistan.
Today, when the other side is talking about “Khilafat 2.0”, it becomes very relevant to talk about these mistakes of Mahatma Gandhi and to ensure that they are not repeated and India doesn’t surrender to Islamist might again. And they can well be talked about without glorifying Godse or tearing down every aspect of Gandhi’s life and personality.
As I said, it’s about communication, it’s about making sure the ideas are read and heard and understood. It’s not about Gandhi or even his mistakes per se. Talk about his mistakes, ask others to learn from it, but there is not really much to gain by ‘blaming’ Gandhi for those mistakes. Think about it; if you solely blame Mahatma Gandhi for partition, you are unwittingly furthering liberal propaganda (go back to the Scroll article I had referred to above). Gandhi couldn’t see the threats of Islamism and ensuing partition, but the partition was caused by Islamism, not by Gandhi. Plain and simple.
Gandhi failed to see some threats. Maybe had he lived long enough, he would have realised. Or maybe he wouldn’t have. That’s immaterial. Someone who fails to see an enemy doesn’t become an enemy. All criticism of Gandhi or his ideas should have this point in mind.
The Hathras case took a political turn yesterday after Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra decided to indulge in theatrics. The brother-sister duo embarked on a journey to Hathras to meet the victim’s family. When their motorcade was stopped owing to section 144 being imposed in that area, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi hopped out of their vehicle and started walking along with scores of Congress workers, shouting slogans against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While they were walking, they were again stopped by the police. Congress workers indulged in a scuffle with the police officials who were merely trying to do their job and ended up injuring a lady officer. Rahul Gandhi tried to show how he was being “manhandled” by the Uttar Pradesh police by falling to the ground after carefully selecting a clean spot. The scene that was enacted by Rahul Gandhi would be hilarious if the situation itself was not so tragic.
However, there seems to be a method to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s madness after all. One has to wonder if using the tragic fate of a young girl to hit out at the Yogi government is their only aim, or is there more than what meets the eye?
In the recent past, several cases of love jihad have been reported from Uttar Pradesh where Muslims were trapping, converting, and in some cases, even raping and killing Hindu girls. In the last 2 months, 20 cases of Love Jihad were reported from Uttar Pradesh and several other states. One of the recent cases were particularly brutal where a Hindu girl was beheaded after she refused to convert to Islam.
The Yogi Adityanath government had formed an SIT to probe these cases and significant headway was made in the investigation. It was reported that the police is almost at the cusp of breaking the mystery behind the nexus.
It is obvious that the sentiment runs high after several such cases are reported. In the meantime, the Hathras incident took place, which was not a very cut and dry case. On the one hand, initial statements of the mother indicated that it was a case of personal rivalry between the families. In fact, in the initial video statements, there was no mention of rape by the mother or the victim. Later, the media reported that she was gang-raped and the statement was later added by the family of the victim. The police then came out to say that the medical reports of the victim do not indicate rape and the cause of death as indicated in the medical report is strangulation and injury to the neck and spine.
Congress has always proved itself to be political opportunists. When the unfortunate Hathras incident happened, the Congress party, running out of issues and options sniffed one and started politicising the issue. The aim here could be two-pronged – One was to cash in on the sentiment after cases of love jihad were being reported from Uttar Pradesh and two, to whitewash their own image after the debacle of Nirbhaya case 2012. The latter would obviously serve the former.
While Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra indulged in their usual theatrics, their trusted allies took to Twitter to start comparing the two heinous incidents. Purported Journalist with The Wire, Rohini Singh, took to Twitter to “compare” the two incidents – Nirbhaya and Hathras – and talk about how well the former was handled by the Congress party.
It is never right to compare two rapes. But let’s compare how the Nirbhaya and the Hathras cases have been handled by two different govts. Nirbhaya was admitted in Safdarjung hospital. The head of the party in power Sonia Gandhi visited the family at the hospital….
Rohini Singh first says it is wrong to compare two cases, but then, goes on to write an entire thread comparing two cases which are vastly different.
Delhi police showed immense efficiency in cracking the case- a blind case at the time- and the rapists were all arrested. A new rape law was brought in. The same law that the current ADG, law and order in Uttar Pradesh, seems to know little about now it seems…
Singing praises of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress, she hails the fact that Sonia Gandhi met the protestors after the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case which shook the conscience of a nation. While Rohini Singh talks about Sonia Gandhi meeting the victim and the protestors, what she completely forgets to mention, surely by design, is that Sonia Gandhi met the protestors in a midnight stunt only after facing severe criticism over lathi-charging and using water cannons against the protestors.
As was the norm back in the day, and perhaps still is, the Congress party often planted news for their image management and the media happily obliged citing ‘sources’, a method Rohini Singh and her colleagues are all too familiar with. Back then as well, after facing severe criticism over the brutality heaped against the protestors, the news was planted in the media that the “government was displeased” with the police for brutalising the protestors.
There were the exact words of an India Today report:
The government has asked police commissioner Neeraj Kumar to give an explanation by Monday. Further, he has been asked to explain how the OB vans of channels entered the high-security Rajpath and India Gate without prior information. Top Congress party sources confirmed their dissatisfaction with Kumar’s handling of the entire case and the agitation.
The India Today report further said;
The government responded to the protests by unleashing policemen in riot gear who lobbed teargas canisters and resorted to lathicharge to break them up. Unfazed, the protesters lay siege to Raisina Hill throughout the day. At the end of the day, 72 people were injured, including 37 policemen of whom two sustained serious head injuries. In all, policemen fired 125 teargas shells seven times during the day. Two government vehicles, a Delhi Police bus, six public buses and two motorcycles were damaged.
While tens of people were injured by the barbarity unleashed mostly on students by the Congress government for no reason, Rohini Singh seems to recalls a very different chronology of events since she seems to believe that the Congress government handled the situation extremely well.
Further, Rohini Singh also doesn’t seem to remember the shameless conduct of Congress leaders back then.
Sonia Gandhi had remained mum when the Congress leader and former Delhi Chief Minister late Sheila Dikshit has said that the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case was “blown out of proportion” by the media. There was not a word of condemnation when her own party’s senior leader downplayed the Nirbhaya case saying that there were several cases of rape taking place across the country and that her government had no role to play in the security situations.
For the uninitiated Congress leader, late Sheila Dikshit served as the chief minister of New Delhi 15 years from 1998 to 2013 and was at the helm of affairs when the Nirbhaya case happened in the capital city.
Likewise, not a word of damnation when Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had in an insensitive remark favoured making public the identity of the Nirbhaya Gang rape victim.
In the Hathras case, not one leader is saying that the victim did not matter or why she was out in the fields by herself. Not one leader is making irresponsible statements and the investigation has been left to the police solely. In fact, thought the police has asserted that the medical report indicates no evidence of sexual assault, it is the media that is not reporting accurately thereafter.
Further, Rohini Singh says, “Nirbhaya’s family never accused anyone in the govt of putting pressure on them, threatening them. The family took their daughter home one last time & cremated her. The cremation was attended by the then CM of Delhi, MoS Home and even the state head of the opposition party, BJP”.
Nirbhaya’s family never accused anyone in the govt of putting pressure on them, threatening them. The family took their daughter home one last time & cremated her. The cremation was attended by the then CM of Delhi, MoS Home and even the state head of the opposition party, BJP.
Rohini Singh may have selective amnesia but the Congress government back then had not even revealed the location of the cremation after the mortal remains of Nirbhaya had been flown back to India. The cremation arrangements were made at 6:30 AM so that no crowd could gather but had to be done at 7:30 AM due to Hindu traditions, the location, was kept secret to avoid a sea of people and the media.
That the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit attended the cremation is not something to be hailed, but questioned, at least for those with a sound mind. It was the CM of Delhi from Congress at the time who had said that the case is being blown out of proportion by the media. It would only be a severely compromised journalist who would see Sheila Dixit attended the cremation as an act of compassion and not as a political move to whitewash the disgusting statement made earlier.
She further takes up how the police was ‘intimidating’ the family and wonders why Nirbhaya’s mother never blamed the Congress.
Why did the mother of the victim have to beg and fall at the feet of the cops to let her take her daughter home one last time to put haldi on her before cremating her? Why did the police carry out a hurried cremation without her family present?
Firstly, the video where she says the cops were threatening the police was twisted by India Today, but of course, one would not expect Rohini Singh to see facts over her agenda. The police were merely saying that after the media leaves, the police will be standing with the family. There was no intimidation in the video that was aired by India Today. Secondly, what Rohini shamelessly does is take away Nirbhaya’s mother’s agency. The lady fought tooth and nail for years to seek justice for her daughter. What Rohini does here, in her desperation to exonerate the Congress party, almost makes it seem like the state did a favour by deciding to hang the rapists of her daughter, while discounting the harrowing experience she went through to ensure her daughter gets justice.
Of course, she then goes on to mouth platitudes like, “Why has UP govt hired a PR agency that is spamming everyone with how there was no rape in the Hathras case? Why threats of FIR? This sort of headline management was never seen during the previous case. Why isn’t a nation allowed to grieve?”.
There is no evidence of this. The police will come out and talk about the findings of the medical report. In fact, if there was indeed no rape, everyone should be relieved. While the girl was tragically and brutally killed by a monster, at least she was not violated. That should give some sort of hope, some closure to every one of us shocked by the incident. However, here, Rohini Singh seems almost disappointed that the girl was not humiliated (according to the police) before she was brutally killed. Perhaps at the altar of agenda, humanity has to die.
In fact, while hailing the Congress and lamenting about the BJP today, Rohini Singh conveniently forgets that it is Congress that plays politics on the dignity and corpses of our girls and not the BJP. After the Nirbhaya case in 2012, PM Modi (Then the Chief Minister of Gujarat) had gone on record to say that he will not play politics on the dignity of our women and will not get into competitive numbers like which state has more cases.
This is not the only time when Rohini Singh used the Hathras case to further her own, vile hypocrisy. Only yesterday, she had tried to shield the Congress government in Rajasthan by downplaying the horrific incidents of rape and murder there.
While one has to marvel the dedication with which Rohini Singh is trying so hard to give the “political advantage” to Congress while preying on the dead body of a young girl, brutalised only days ago, it is a testament to her mediocrity that she was not even able to do that properly. Perhaps journalists who were “made” during the Radiia scandal were propped up for this purpose alone, even if they are not very good at it.
After the Congress scions Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained yesterday by the Uttar Pradesh police when they were trying to enter Hathras, today a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien were stopped at the border while going to meet the family of the Hathras victim. Section 144 of the CrPC is imposed in the area to maintain law and order.
#WATCH: TMC delegation being roughed up by Uttar Pradesh Police at #Hathras border. The delegation, including Derek O’Brien, was on the way to meet the family of the victim of Hathras incident. pic.twitter.com/94QcSMiB2k
Accusing the police of manhandling the female members of the delegation, TMC’s Mamata Thakur said that female police officers pulled their blouses and a male cop touched their MP Pratima Mondal.
#WATCH We were going to meet her family but there were not allowing us. When we insisted, the women Police personnel pulled at our blouses and lathi-charged at our MP Pratima Mondal. She fell down. The male Police officers touched her. This is shameful: Mamata Thakur, TMC https://t.co/404nqZhjl5pic.twitter.com/Nxc9SLeMWY
Mondal said that they have been sent by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to meet the family of the Hathras victim but they were stopped by the police.
We’re sent by Mamata Banerjee to meet family of the alleged rape victim to offer our condolences. Though we introduced ourselves we weren’t allowed to meet them & were pushed by police. If they can’t respect a woman lawmaker imagine the condition of commoners: Pratima Mondal, TMC https://t.co/pKzctbWKU7pic.twitter.com/wDvAgcHUDQ
A political circus was seen being played out by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday when their motorcade was on the way to Hathras despite knowing that section 144 of the CrPC is imposed in the area. They were stopped by the police near Pari Chowk in Noida where a confrontation happened between Congress workers and the police leading to Rahul Gandhi’s historic “fall“. FIRs were lodged against Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and 200 others. More are more political parties are jumping on the bandwagon as the Hathras incident has become playground for them to establish their relevance.
The Hathras incident has become a political slugfest where ruling and opposition parties are engaged in allegations and counter-allegations. After the young victim, a 19-year-old girl, succumbed to her injuries on 29 September, a lot of claims and misinformation have been doing rounds on the social and mainstream media.
Initially, many media reports had claimed that the victim had her tongue severed, eyes gouged out, spine broken and was brutally raped by a group of men in her village. However, the police later clarified that the claims of brutality were false.
The police had stated that the claims of eyes gouged out and tongue cut etc are false. They had stated that the girl was brutally strangulated, resulting in damage to her neck and spine. The victim had also bitten her tongue during the attack, due to which there was an injury on the tongue. The police statement had mentioned that the victim was able to speak and the injuries, (neck and tongue) were due to the strangulation. They have asserted that the victim had spoken to them and had recorded her spoken statement and had named the accused before police herself.
‼️खण्डन/Denial‼️ ➡️ कतिपय सोशल मीडिया के माध्यम से यह असत्य खबर सार्वजनिक रुप से फैलायी जा रही है कि “थाना चन्दपा क्षेत्रान्तर्गत दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण घटित घटना में मृतिका की जीभ काटी गयी, आँख फोडी गयी तथा रीढ की हड्डी तोड दी गयी थी हाथरस पुलिस इस असत्य एवं भ्रामक खबर का खंडन करती है pic.twitter.com/tyBTi1xZhp
Videos shared on social media that showed the victim and her family in a hospital, much before the media hype over ‘gang rape’ claims, also show that the girl had injuries on her neck, and was speaking to people.
Discrepancies between media claims and details that emerged in the case later
Media reports have been claiming that the Hathras victim was gang-raped. Though the initial reports of brutalities like gouging eyes out and cutting tongue were proven false soon, reports persisted, however, that the victim was gang-raped.
Several videos have emerged on social media, claiming to be that of the initial statements of the victim and her mother, where there is no mention of gang rape or any kind of sexual assault. Speaking to apparent local media persons, the mother of the victim was seen stating that they were in the fields cutting the grass when a local boy Sandeep, from the ‘Thakur’ caste had attacked the girl and strangulated her.
In a video circulating on social media, the mother of the victim, reportedly in her first media statement after the incident, is seen saying that the accused Sandeep, son of Guddu in their village, had attacked the girl and strangulated her. There are several videos circulating, all have the similar statement from the mother, that they had a long dispute with Sandeep’s family, and Sandeep had attacked the girl and strangulated her, in an attempt to kill her. There have been no claims of rape or gang rape. She also mentions that it was Sandeep alone and no one else.
यूपी को बदनाम करने की साज़िश रचने वालों को एक्सपोज़ करने वाला वीडियो, घटना के तत्काल बाद माँ का असली बयान। pic.twitter.com/PYw2Nk9nTh
In another video shared by Twitter user ‘Shash’, the victim’s statement can be heard. In this video, the victim is visibly in pain, and seems to have a neck injury with clear strangulation marks on her neck.
Wincing in pain, the victim says that she has been strangulated. She further states that the accused had strangulated her with hands. Some of her words are not clear in the video. Someone in the background asks why did the accused strangulate her, to which her answer is not clear. She further states that he strangulated her with his hands. On background, her mother says that they visit the fields every day for work.
Police complaint filed by victim’s brother , image via @BefittingFacts on Twitter
The police complaint filed by the family also mentions that the girl was attacked by Sandeep (not a group of men) who had strangulated her in an attempt to kill her. The initial media reports of the incident also have the same version, that the accused Sandeep had strangulated the victim in an attempt to kill her.
Police say post-mortem, forensic examination found no evidence of rape
The UP Police had stated that the post mortem report did not mention any injuries that may have indicated rape or sexual assault. ADG Prashant Kumar had stated that the forensic lab report of the samples collected from the victim’s body have ruled out rape or sexual assault.
Incidents of gang rape spike a lot of public outrage and are often hyped by media, ignoring other crimes that are ‘less sensational’. The Hathras incident has been already used for political goal-scoring, media propaganda and allegations of police and government apathy.
A young victim had died after a brutal attack. A 19-year-old girl is physically no match for an adult male. The brutal way the girl has been strangulated, eventually leading to her death, is condemnable and certainly deserves the harshest punishment. The images, reports and videos of the incident also subtly lay down the stark public, media and administrative apathy to poor victims of crime. But it is not clear how, and why the allegations of gang rape and brutal assault (eyes gouged out, tongue cut) etc were incorporated into the case.
Allegations of police apathy towards the victim’s family, including negligence in filing initial complaint and the hurried way the police performed the last rites of the victim are also under scanner. A lot of things do not add up. When the family only accused one person, how and from where the allegations of gang rape were brought into the case? Only a detailed investigation will reveal the truth.
A shocking incident has surfaced from the Congress-ruled State of Rajasthan. The naked corpse of a girl has been discovered at a hospital in the Banswara district, reportedTimes Now. The tribal-dominated area falls under the jurisdiction of the Khamera police station.
A case has been registered by the police under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder), 366 (abduction), and 372 (selling minor children for prostitution). Reportedly, the post-mortem of the victim has not been conducted, despite several requests by the family. As per Times Now, the accused had first dropped the victim at the hospital before fleeing the crime scene.
The family of the victim has also claimed that she was poisoned and raped. The cops, however, have not lodged a case for rape. Meanwhile, in a bizarre attempt at trivialising the atrocities on the girl, Congress MLA (Ghatol) Harendra Ninama claimed that the incident was that of a ‘love affair’ gone wrong.
SHOCKER from Banswara, Rajasthan: Girl found naked & dead inside a hospital. Family alleges she was raped & poisoned. A case has now been registered. Local Congress MLA calls it a ‘love affair that went wrong’.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot downplays Baran rape case
This is not the first time that Congress leaders had resorted to downplaying a rape case. Hours after it was reported that two minor girls, aged 13 and 15, from Baran, were taken to Kota, Jaipur and Ajmer and raped for three days, Rajasthan CM and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot took to Twitter to claim that the minor girls were not ‘forced’. He claimed that they went with the boys on their own free will.
The Rajasthan CM Tweeted that the girls had themselves admitted in front of the magistrate in their CrPC section 164 statement that they were not forced by the boys, who he claimed were also minors. This was despite the fact that the two sisters had reportedly admitted on camera that the two boys had abducted them, drugged them and raped for days.
While Mahatma Gandhi is known world-wide for his non-violence movement for independent of India, his simple lifestyle and other such aspects that make him a ‘Mahatma’, there are several other aspects in his that raise curiosity in the minds of people. Apart from the extreme pacifism that Gandhi practised which was questioned by many of his contemporaries, the one weird aspect, widely known but little discussed in public discourse, is his experiments with his celibacy.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had strong views on sex, and he often gave detailed instructions to his followers on this subject. His views on sex were not very popular, which was described as “abnormal and unnatural” by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Gandhi was married with Kasturba at the age of 13, not unusual for his time. They led a normal married life, who had four sons. Later in life, Gandhi had written how he had lustful feelings for his wife. “Even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me,” he wrote in his autobiography. He had written that he always wanted to teach his illiterate wife, but he could not find time due to his lustful love. His thoughts on sex had completely changed later in his life, and he felt ashamed of his life with his wife before he started his public life.
Gandhi has also written about the time of his father’s death as his double shame. When his father was ill, Gandhi had regularly taken care of him, like dressing the wound, and massaging his legs at the night. His wife became pregnant at that time, which Gandhi later felt was a matter of double shame, as his father was ill, and he was still in school. “Every night whilst my hands were busy massaging my father’s legs, my mind was hovering about the bed-room – and that too at a time when religion, medical science and commonsense alike forbade sexual intercourse,” he wrote. Gandhi also recalled how he could not be with his father during his last moments as he went to his bedroom to have sex with his wife, a decision he regretted later.
Brahmacharya
Gandhi’s attitude towards sex changed in his late 30s, when he was in South Africa. He deliberated on how he can give his best service to humanity, and decided that it must be done by embracing poverty and chastity. At the age of 38, in the year 1906, he embraced Brahmacharya, which includes complete abstinence from sexual relationships. He talked about his decision to his wife, and he writes that she had no objection. He had already discussed with his cousins whether he should stop having sex with his wife, and he was deliberating on in since 1900. Brahmacharya meant a complete change in his lifestyle, not just celibacy, it also included strict control on diet and other aspects of daily life.
Very soon, Gandhi become a completely changed man on his opinion on sex. In 1907, he wrote in the Indian Opinion, “It is the duty of every thoughtful Indian not to marry. In case he is helpless in regard to marriage, he should abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife.” According to him, sexual intercourse was justified only to have children, and should be avoided in all other times.
The experiments
Gandhi’s Brahmacharya didn’t end in mere abstinence, it became weird when he started to challenge his resolve to test himself. And thus began a series of experiments that would not be acceptable in today’s era. He had set up ashrams where he conducted his experiments, where boys and girls were to bath together, sleep together. But they were to maintain chastity, they would be punished if there were any sexual talks. The rules of ashram had forbidden married couples living in the ashram to sleep together, and Gandhi had advised that the husbands should not be alone with their wives. When they felt passion, they should take a cold bath, he had further advised.
Gandhi with granddaughter Sita and his nephew’s wife Abha
Rules were different for Gandhi himself, who had started to surround himself with women to challenge his resolve. In the 1920s, Gandhi had started resting his hand on the shoulders of young women during his morning and evening walks, whom he had jokingly referred to as his walking sticks. His grandnieces Abha and Manu were his regular ‘walking sticks’. After this started elaborate daily massage performed by young women in the ashram. The massage was followed by taking bath, helped and accompanied by his female attendants.
Sushila Nayar, sister of Gandhi’s personal secretary Pyarelal Nayyar, was his personal doctor, who took care of Gandhi since her teenage years. She was his regular companion in taking baths. He had claimed that he didn’t look at Sushila while taking bath together, saying he used to keep his eyes tightly shut.
As time progressed, Gandhi’s experiments also had progressed, which now involved young women sleeping with Gandhi, naked. Initially it was merely a sleeping arrangement, but soon became a part of his experiments. This was his method of attaining the nirvana state of perfect Brahamacharya, to maintain abstinence while sleeping next to attractive young women without cloths. Apart from Sushila, his grandnieces Abha and Manu were his regular sleeping companion, along with other women in his Ashram.
As Gandhi grew older, the number of women surrounding him in Ashram had increased, particularly after the death of his wife Kasturba, after Gandhi denied her treatment by western medicine. More number of women were obliged to sleep with him to test his control over libido, the women who were not allowed to sleep with their own husband in the Ashram.
Disclosures
Gandhi had never hidden his unusual experiments with women, he had disclosed the same to his close associates, many times through letters.
In a letter written to his Ashram manager Munnalal Shah, Gandhi had written, “Abha slept with me for hardly three nights. Kanchan slept one night only. Vinas sleeping with me might be called an accident. All that can be said is that she slept close to me.” It may be noted that Kanchan was Munnalal’s wife, while Abha was the wife of Gandhi’s grandnephew Kanu Gandhi.
He went on to write, “what Abha and Kanchan told me was this; that she had no intention whatever of observing brahmacharya, but wished to enjoy the pleasure of sex. She, therefore, stayed very reluctantly and undressed only for fear of hurting me. If I remembered rightly, she was not with me for even an hour. I then stopped both the women from sleeping with me, for I realised that Kanu and you were upset.” Gandhi than added that these three women were excluded from the experiment.
He then added, “I have deliberately included Pra. in the experiment. Maybe I should not. She often used to sleep with me to keep me warm even before I was conscious that I was making an experiment. I used to draw her to me when she lay on the floor, shivering, for my sake.”
While a large number of women slept naked with Gandhi, and some women were willing partner of his experiments, most of them did so at the insistence of Gandhi, and not out of free will. He had a strong personality, and it was very difficult to say no to him. It was revealed by Gandhi himself. In a letter to Krishnachandra he had wrote, “What I mean is that I have done naturally. Almost all of them would strip reluctantly. I have written— haven’t I?—that they did so at my prompting. If I wish to be a brahmachari under all circumstances and want the women also to be such, this is the one way. Now leave this matter alone and watch what happens.”
From the writings of Gandhi, especially letters, it can be seen he faced great criticism for his practice. But he remained adamant, claiming that it was necessary to maintain his Brahmacharya. He had written in once such letter to Krishnachandra, “If I stop sleeping together for all time it will mean that I have been mistaken. Otherwise why should I stop it? There is a limit to abstaining from it for the sake of friends. Sleeping together came with my taking up of brahmacharya or even before that.”
Therefore, Gandhi led a very unusual life which will not be acceptable in today’s era, and legal action will follow if someone tries such ‘experiments’ today. Actually, it was not acceptable in that era also, from his personal assistants to senior leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, everyone had criticised it. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had called it a “terrible blunder”, and had asked him to stop it. But he was Bapuji, with a halo around him, so he was allowed to continue with the experiments.
Following BJP leader Vivekananda Gupta’s explosive testimony that Rhea Chakraborty met actor Sushant Singh Rajput a day before his death, Karni Sena leader Surjeet Singh Rathore has also attested to the claim, saying that Rhea Chakraborty was indeed at Sushant’s residence on June 13.
Speaking to Republic TV, Surjeet Singh Rathore said that he was told by filmmaker Suraj Singh that Rhea was at Rajput’s home on the night of June 13 but had left later. Suraj was also present at the hospital on June 15.
“When I went to Cooper Hospital on 15 June, Suraj Singh told me that Rhea Chakraborty was at Sushant’s residence on the night of 13 June and had probably left due to some fight. Suraj Singh was co-ordinating everything and he called Rhea and introduced me to her and Sandeep … I don’t know any of them,” Surjeet said.
On being asked why Surjeet had made such a startling revelation now and not to the investigating authorities, he stated that he was not approached by the CBI for his testimony. He also added that he made this disclosure earlier too but amidst the cacophony of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, the media probably missed it.
Surjeet further noted that he did not know Sushant Singh Rajput personally and had not been in contact with Suraj Singh for months then.
Advocate Vivekananda Gupta claims Rhea Chakraborty met Sushant Singh Rajput on June 13
Contrary to actor Rhea Chakraborty’s assertions that she had not met Sushant Singh Rajput from almost a week before his death, Mumbai BJP leader Vivekananda Gupta on Thursday made a sensational disclosure that Rhea had allegedly met Sushant a day before his death, ie on June 13. Vivekananda said that “he was provided this information by an eyewitness”.
According to Gupta, an eyewitness had seen Sushant dropping off Rhea Chakraborty at her apartment late in the night on June 13. He also said that Mumbai Police was working under pressure due to which an investigation which should have been completed in 2-3 days was dragged to 55 days. Gupta alleged that Sushant Singh’s death is a murder case but police had hastily declared it as suicide.
Gupta argued that nobody has seen Sushant’s body hanging from the ceiling, which raises suspicion over the suicide angle being peddled in the media. He said that there could be a possibility that Sushant was killed before being hanged.
As the Hathras incident becomes fodder for political mud-slinging, many parties have tried to stir protests and caste-based violence in UP over the case. The Congress party had resorted to the politicisation of the sensitive case on Thursday with party leaders Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi and 200-odd party workers, leading a march on Greater Noida expressways en route the village of the victim’s family.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and their party supporters were stopped in the expressway, near Pari Chowk, leading to a brief confrontation with the police, following which they were detained and taken away in UP Police vehicles.
The Congress leaders had been proceeded to Hathras with a large group of supporters and media personnel, despite being aware that section 144 has been imposed in the area.
UP Police FIR
The Gautam Buddh Nagar police in Uttar Pradesh had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and 200 party workers. In a statement, the Gautam Buddh Nagar police informed, “Some party members have also been booked for indulging in a scuffle during which some women constables were hurt while the uniform of a lady sub-inspector got torn”
The Congress leaders and workers were booked under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 188 (disobedience to order by a public servant), 269 (negligent spread of dangerous infection), and 270 (malignant spread of dangerous infection). Earlier, their convoy was stopped at Patel Chowk. The Congress leaders and their supporters were also detained by the police but eventually set free on a personal bond.
FIR lodged against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and around 200 party workers under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Epidemic Diseases Act: Gautam Buddh Nagar police
A 19-year-old girl had succumbed to her injuries on the morning of 29 September, two weeks after she was brutally attacked and strangulated by a group of men in Hathras. The police had stated that the victim had bitten her tongue, and had suffered injuries on her spine because of the brutal strangulation. The victim had later stated to the police that she was gang raped. However, the UP Police have stated that the post mortem report did not mention any injuries that may have indicated rape or sexual assault.
Yesterday, ADG Prashant Kumar had stated that the forensic lab report of the samples collected from the victim’s body have ruled out rape or sexual assault.
The UP government has constituted a 3-member SIT to look into the case. The government has also promised that action will be taken against police officials who were accused of negligence. The Yogi government has provided a monetary compensation of Rs 25 lakhs for the victim’s family.
