YouTuber and model Saahil Choudhary, a vlogger from Haryana, was allegedly picked up by Mumbai Police on Monday. As per his now-deleted Instagram post, he wrote that Mumbai Police arrested him on 28th September without any notice or warrant for making videos on the Sushant Singh Rajput case. He alleged if there is no post from him by evening, that means his game is “over.”
As per his post, three officers from Crime Branch came to pick him up, but only one accompanied him on the flight. “Don’t stop here and [I] have to make this sacrifice if we want to correct the system,” he added.
Since Rajput’s death, Choudhary made several videos on the case and blamed politicians and Bollywood celebrities for his death. A complaint was filed against him for making such videos. In one of his videos, he even alleged that Shiv Sena was behind Rajput’s death.
Reaction on Social media
The hashtag #ReleaseSaahilChoudhary started trending on Twitter on 29th September. Several netizens have asked Home Minister to intervene to ensure his release.
OpIndia could not independently verify Choudhary’s claims.
Saahil and MeToo movement
When the Me Too movement was at its peak in 2018, Saahil accused designers Sadan Pande and Rohit Verma of sexual harassment. He alleged that Pande asked him to remove his boxers at his flat in Shahpur Jat while Verma tried to kiss him forcibly. Both designers denied the allegations.
The news item in the screenshot cited 26/11 Mumbai terror attack conspirator David Headley’s confession in US in March 2016 wherein he had said that he was trying to raise funds for the Shiv Sena, ruling party in Maharashtra. Since the Twitter handle was earlier found demanding that Congress leader Udit Raj be made party president and the news was published by an outlet known to be pro-AAP blog that has published fake news many times, many people were not sure if this is true.
However, turns out the pro-AAP blog had indeed reported the news in March 2016.
As per the report, during a cross examination in the Mumbai court via video conferencing from the US, Headley had confessed to organising a fund raising programme for Shiv Sena. He had even planned on inviting Shiv Sena leader the late Bala Saheb Thackeray for the fundraiser. Many Congress leaders had then attacked Shiv Sena over the confessions.
If we take David Headley seriously wrt late Ishrat we must also accept that he raised funds for Shiv Sena &declare SS a terror outfit .
— Tehseen Poonawalla Official (@tehseenp) March 25, 2016
Arranged fund-raiser for Shiv Sena: David Headley https://t.co/0OFBknwGw8 See, Headley admits helping his friends in Shiv Sena, RSS, BJP. 🙂
In fact, as per a 2013 report, Headley had tried to forge friendship with Shiv Sena leader Rajaram Rege to get access to Shiv Sena. The two had exchanged emails where Headley had given business proposals. Shiv Sena leader Rege had also reportedly tried to lure Headley into business deals in 2008. Copy of the emails was produced by federal prosecutors in the court. Rege had even met Headley outside the Sena building reportedly for ‘2 minutes’ and denied him access to the building.
While Headley had made the allegations, Shiv Sena had back then refuted the same.
David Headley wanted to recruit filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt to ISI
A close aide of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt, David Headley had wanted to recruit the latter into Pakistan’s intelligence service ISI. As per reports, a day prior to the deadly Mumbai attack in 2008, Headley had warned Bhatt and asked him not to go to South Mumbai on 26th November, 2008, the day of the attack.
Yesterday was a moment of truth for the Kerala model, hailed worldwide as the one true model of healthcare. For the last several days, Kerala’s coronavirus numbers had been skyrocketing at close to 7000 per day. But a particularly significant milestone was reached yesterday.
As on date, Kerala has 1,79,923 confirmed cases of Corona virus. The state of Bihar has 1,80,032 confirmed cases. The difference between Kerala model of healthcare and the poorest most backward state in the country? Just 109 cases!
In fact, Kerala would have crossed Bihar yesterday, going by its recent trajectory. But Kerala aggressively reduced testing, doing just 33600 tests yesterday, resulting in 4538 confirmed cases. The test positive rate in Kerala is an alarming 13.5%.
Meanwhile, Bihar carried out some 1.2 lakh tests and reported 1150 cases, a positive rate of 0.9%.
Sadly, the media hasn’t followed up on what happened since they praised Kerala model to high heaven all the way from April to July. So a lot of people might be taken aback by the comparison between Bihar and Kerala.
Kerala and Bihar: Propaganda Vs reality
Let me update you on the facts. Bihar has been testing much more than Kerala, doing well over 1 lakh tests a day. Kerala has been lagging very far behind at just 50,000 or so per day. So far, Bihar has done 70 lakh tests and Kerala only 28 lakh. The test positive rate in Kerala is now among the highest in the country. And the test positive rate in Bihar is possibly the lowest.
What about number of deaths? Bihar has seen around 900 deaths and Kerala around 700. This is not a big gap. And remember that Bihar is testing much more than Kerala, with a much lower test positive rate. This means that Kerala is likely missing many more cases than Bihar is. So the small gap in number of deaths is easily explained by that.
That’s the Kerala model: global PR, global fame, international awards. But when it comes to delivery on the ground, Kerala’s healthcare stands at the same level as Bihar.
Let’s not forget: we are comparing Kerala and Bihar here. The poorest state in India versus the alleged global champion in healthcare. The Health Minister of Bihar never went to BBC mocking the rest of India for not having hospitals. Bihar didn’t win any awards for healthcare or HDI. Bihar didn’t mock anyone. But when it came to delivering on the ground, it did just as well as Kerala. Minus international awards, of course.
Side note on Uttar Pradesh. As of now, UP has some 54,000 active cases versus 58,000 active cases in Kerala. Congratulations to Kerala’s star Health Minister Shailaja Teacher for surpassing Uttar Pradesh, a state with 7 times the population of Kerala, in total number of active cases. Oh, and UP’s test positive rate is only around 2.5%.
An award from the UN might not be enough for the great ‘Teacher.’ Some special inter-galactic award might be in order for the best healthcare system in the universe.
There are many points to note here and I will make them one by one.
First, the intellectual cheerleaders of Kerala model have fallen completely silent. When the going was good, we heard so much about it. Now that Kerala has collapsed to the level of Bihar, these experts have simply gone silent, hidden under their desks or slipped out through the backdoor. This proves they were never experts, but simply politicians with a partisan operative mentality. What use do we have for experts who hide their faces and refuse to admit their mistakes when the facts go against their political bias? Can we ever trust them again?
Communist hold over media
Second, the stranglehold of the Communists over the media is scary. When the going was good, the Communists had the media eating out of their hands. When things went bad, they simply stopped the media coverage, like turning off a tap or clicking a switch. No apologies were offered for the publicity around Kerala model. The media just went dark. This is terrifying. The CPIM can get away with literally anything because their media network will not shine a light on their misdeeds no matter what.
The third point is that the people of Kerala are now in serious danger. There is a reason the media is called one of the pillars of democracy: it is supposed to highlight the failings of the government. But the media observes a mafia-like code of silence over the unfolding disaster of Kerala healthcare. For decades, the Communists have unleashed political massacres all across Kerala (ask a Bengali like me about what Communist rule is like). The political murders went unreported. The mafia-like code of silence in the media around Communist crimes makes people of Kerala less safe, not more. But this time, the stakes are much higher. This is a virus. It is capable of unleashing death and destruction on a scale that even Communists cannot match. And nobody will know what is happening in Kerala because the media will not talk about it.
Fourth, one should realize that the Communists have been fooling the masses of Kerala for a long time with a curious form of regional sub-nationalism. I’m sorry to break the facts, but Kerala just isn’t the star performer that Communist propaganda says that it is. In fact, it’s economy is a basket case and has always been so. The grip of political malaise in the state has been such that most enterprising folks have left. They had to use their talents to built businesses and wealth in the Gulf, instead of India. The genius of Kerala is making UAE richer, not Kerala and the rest of India. The state is reduced to operating a remittance economy.
The many disasters of the Kerala model have been swept under the rug by propaganda about regional pride. The regional pride plank rose to a crescendo when liberal ecosystem arranged all sorts of awards and interviews with BBC for Kerala’s Communist ministers. Now that Kerala’s healthcare system has proved no better than Bihar, the scales should fall away from everyone’s eyes. Those experts with connections at BBC and Al Jazeera were never friends of Kerala. They used Kerala as a marketing tool to push their political agenda. Now that Kerala is in peril, they are not willing to discuss the fate of real people.
Fifth, with the collapse of the Kerala healthcare model, the Communists are going back to the frightening basics of Stalinism. The Chief Minister and his star Health Minister have refused to take all responsibility. Instead, they say the surge of cases is because of the opposition protesting against the government in the gold scam. You get that? The cornered Communists know only one language: repression. They are not blaming themselves. They are blaming democratic expression for the failure of the Kerala model. They are coming for your liberties.
Finally, we have to note the story of Bihar and Kerala has many life lessons in it. This is like one of those Panchatantra stories we learned as kids. This is a tweet back in March from someone who has written in The Wire and Newsclick.
I will not speculate on what he wanted to say or what his tone was. You be the judge of that. I will just make some general observations, which may or may not be related to his tweet. Or the tweets of so many other liberals in the last several months.
Arrogance is wrong. Never look down on anyone. Especially, never look down on anyone because they are poor or underprivileged. They might have lessons for you. Be humble. Pride always comes before a fall. Life is a great leveler. Life is a great teacher. Even greater than Shailaja ‘Teacher.’
The Modi government has introduced major reforms in the agriculture sector with the passing of three crucial farm bills in the Parliament. The Centre has addressed the primary concerns of the farmers regarding market availability and fair pricing of their produce through the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
However, the Congress party and several other opposition parties have been opposed to the farm reforms. With organised protests in Punjab and Harayana, the grand old party is trying to create an impression of mass agitation against the farm bills. As a part of its political agenda, Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi has directed the Congress-ruled States to find ways to override the Central reforms in the farming sector under Article 254(2) of the Indian Constitution.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal informed, “Hon’ble Congress President has asked Congress-ruled states to explore the possibilities to pass laws in their states under Article 254(2) of the Constitution, which allows the state legislatures to pass a law to override a Central law.”
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi (in file pic) has appealed to all Congress-ruled states to explore possibilities of bypassing these tyrannical legislations by passing laws so that farmers could be spared from grave injustice done by the Centre: Congress https://t.co/zJFBxRwYAhpic.twitter.com/UIan4WsIMH
The Article 254(2) of the Constitution states, “Where a law made by the Legislature of a State with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament or any existing law with respect to that matter, then, the law so made by the Legislature of such State shall, if it has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his assent, prevail in that State.”
Congress party to observe ‘Kisan-Mazdoor Bachao Divas’
The Congress party has planned to observe Kisan-Mazdoor Bachao Divas on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary (Gandhi Jayanthi) on October 2. The party will hold demonstrations and marches at legislative assemblies and district headquarters in the country.
Congress will observe ‘Kisan-Mazdoor Bachao Divas’ on October 2 by holding dharnas and marches at every assembly and district headquarters across the country, the party says
Meanwhile, TN Prathapan, a Congress MP from Kerala, has moved the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutional validity of the farm bills. Punjab CM Amarinder Singh stated that the party would protest and explore legal options against the farm bill. While Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has submitted a memorandum to Governor Kalraj Mishra and President Ram Nath Kovind, Chattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel is planning to pass a resolution in the legislative assembly.
On Tuesday, Google Doodle paid a tribute to iconic Bollywood actress Zohra Sehgal.
Google Doodle celebrates Zohra Sehgal
The doodle had a picture of hers in a classical dance pose. However, the search word had a typo. Google spelt it as ‘Zohra Segal’.
Zohra ‘Segal’ in place of ‘Sehgal’
Google Doodle usually celebrates notable individuals on their birth or death anniversary. Sehgal was born on 27th April, 1912 and passed away on 10th July 2014. Hence, netizens were quite bewildered to see the Google Doodle.
Not that I am complaining but it’s mysterious that why is @Google celebrating #ZohraSehgal today, when it is neither her birth or death anniversary. Also, spells her name wrong! ? https://t.co/660Cxi9lAl
Born as Sahibzadi Zohra Mumtazullah Khan Begum in what is now Uttar Pradesh, she studied in Lahore, now Pakistan. She later studied modern dance for three years in Mary Wigman’s ballet school in Germany, first Indian to do so. When teaching at Uday Shankar India Culture Centre in Almora, Zohra met her future husband, Kameshwar Sehgal.
Few years later, the couple moved to Lahore and set up a dance institute, Zohresh. However, due to communal tension in wake of India-Pakistan partition, they moved back to India and settled in Bombay, now Mumbai. She then joined Prithvi Theatre and eventually films.
On this day in 1946, her film Neecha Nagar was released at Cannes where it won the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded at Cannes Film Festival.
Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, who has been under the scanner of the Narcotic Control Bureau for the alleged role in the Bollywood drug mafia case, had categorically denied consuming or procuring drugs during her questioning by the department on Saturday. Now Aaj Tak has revealed that the Padmavat actor, during the interrogation had come up with some bizarre claims.
When confronted with her Whatsapp chats by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Padukone stated that by ‘Maal’ she meant cigarettes and ‘Hash’ referred to the different brands of cigarettes.
According to the news channel, the NCB opined that all the three actors, namely Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor, who were questioned on Saturday, were very well trained and apprised in advance as to what needed to be said during the interrogation. All three spoke in an extremely calculated manner as if they had been briefed beforehand, on what needed to be said in front of the investigative department.
Jaya Shah, Krishna Prakash also made equally bizarre claims
Interestingly, talent manager Jaya Saha, who is being termed as the ‘kingpin’ of the case, had also stated that the terms ‘doobies’ and ‘buds’ in the drug chats referred to cigarettes. Moreover, Deepika Padukone’s manager Karishma Prakash, during her round of questioning had also claimed that ‘hash’ was ‘not a drug’.
It may be recalled that in the WhatsApp conversations, Deepika was allegedly asking for ‘maal’- hash (or hashish, drug made from cannabis plant) from a certain person named ‘K’, her manager, Karishma Prakash, who is also employed with KWAN, the talent management agency that manages the actor.
Deepika Padukone grilled for over 5 hours on Saturday
Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone was put through the wringer by the Narcotics Control Bureau, as she was grilled for over 5 hours on Saturday. It was reported how Deepika Padukone had accepted being part of the Whatsapp group but had maintained a stoic silence on the drugs issue.
Meanwhile, Karishma Prakash during her first-day interrogation on Friday, accepted that Deepika was the admin of the WhatsApp group.
NCB seizes phones as the alleged ‘drug’ chats were made using the same phones
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which quizzed the Bollywood actor Rakul Preet Singh, Deepika Padukone, her manager and the employee of the dubious Kwan talent management agency- Karishma Prakash, and fashion designer Simone Khambatta on Friday and Saturday in connection with the drugs case related to the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has seized their mobile phones. The agency had collected their phones as the alleged ‘drug’ chats were made using the same phones, the source said.
The source also said that the NCB has collected the phone of Sushant’s former talent manager Jaya Saha.
Besides Deepika, Rakul, Khambatta and Karishma, the NCB also questioned Bollywood actors Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan on Saturday for several hours.
With the passage of the farm bills, India has ushered in the era of an agricultural transformation. The three ordinances promulgated by the Modi government will have a far-reaching effect in structurally transforming Indian agriculture.
However, along expected lines, the bills passed for the welfare of the farmers in the country have faced stiff resistance from a multitude of opposition parties, who seemed unnerved by the central government’s commitment and dedication in alleviating the problems bedevilling the farming community.
As a consequence, several of these political parties launched protests in various parts of the country against the central government’s decision to pass the agriculture Bills. The opposition political parties are flustered so much so that their workers are now doubling as “farmers” in the protests to allege that farmers are not happy with the agricultural reforms promulgated by the government.
Workers of opposition political parties organise ‘farmer protests’ against the recently passed Farm Bills
Comrades of Leftist political organisation Revolutionary Marxist Party of India today blocked the Amritsar-Delhi National Highway near Phillaur in Jalandhar, to protest against the Farm Bills passed in the Parliament.
Punjab: Farmers, under the aegis of Bharatiya Kisan Union and Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), block Amritsar-Delhi National Highway near Phillaur in Jalandhar, in protest against #FarmBills passed in the Parliament. pic.twitter.com/6zsXZ5VhnW
Similarly, members of the National Student Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party, took out a march in Amritsar in opposition to the recently promulgated Farm Bills. The fact that ‘students’ bearing allegiance to the Congress party joined the protests indicates that the protests were organised by political parties and not by the ‘aggrieved farmers’ as claimed by the opposition parties.
Punjab: Workers of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) take out a march in Amritsar to protest against the recently passed agriculture bills. pic.twitter.com/yqAbnPPcMB
In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress functionaries were seen carrying out a demonstration in Kolkata against the recently passed agricultural laws. It is also pertinent to note that TMC had been one of the vigorous opponents of the farm bills and TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien was suspended for creating a ruckus in the parliament over the bills.
#WestBengal: Farmer’s wing of TMC staged a protest in Kolkata earlier today against recently passed agricultural laws
“It’s a draconian law passed forcefully by Modi Govt without any regard to procedures. The Modi govt is not for the general people,” says a TMC leader pic.twitter.com/P1hIsCKbFg
Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD organised a protest in different cities of Bihar to oppose the new agriculture reform bills. The protests were attended by several RJD workers, who demanded the government to repeal the said ordinances.
#Bihar: Opposition parties stage protest against the new agriculture reform bills in Gaya, today
“We’re protesting anti-farmer laws which must be repealed by the Central Govt. It’ll only benefit corporations & will lead to the closure of all mandis,” says an RJD district worker pic.twitter.com/X1ZGbGZnKC
In Karnataka, police detained workers of Congress, JD(S) and SDPI for participating in demonstrations opposing the Farm Bills. A state-wide protest had been called by the opposition political parties such as Congress, JD(S) and SDPI, in opposition to land reform ordinances, amendments to APMC & labour laws. In these demonstrations, workers of these political parties accused the government of relinquishing the interests of farmers.
Karnataka: Police detain workers of Congress, JD(S) & SDPI, who were protesting in Madikeri of Kodagu district today, amid statewide protest.
Farmers’ orgs have called statewide bandh today against #FarmBills (now laws), land reform ordinances, amendments to APMC & labour laws. pic.twitter.com/7lYOeanmx5
Karnataka: Workers of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Dalith Sangarsh Samiti blocked Shivamogga-Davanagere highway to protest against the recently passed bills related to the agriculture sector, in Shivamogga earlier today. pic.twitter.com/Ff7SU8dKpH
It is notable to mention that SDPI is the political wing of the Muslim extremist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI), which has long been accused of spreading Islamist terror across the country. SDPI and PFI are also accused of conspiring to perpetrate violence and unleash riots during the anti-CAA protests that gripped several parts of the country.
For a long-time now, the opposition parties are trying to mount a credible offence against the Modi government, whose approval ratings is at an all-time high. To their chagrin, the Modi government has so far prevailed over the issues highlighted by them, most notably in the matter related to the postponement of the JEE-NEET examinations. This has only infuriated the opposition political parties further and forced their workers to pose as ‘farmers’ and convey their protests against the reform bills.
The inclusion of political workers and members of problematic organisations such as SDPI, which is involved in Islamic terrorism and other such criminal activities, in a protest ostensibly carried out to safeguard the interests of farmers, effectively proves that the protests which are called ‘spontaneous’ are in reality organised and pre-planned. It also underscores the desperation among the political parties, who perhaps believe that the new Farm Bills would further cement PM Modi’s image as ‘farmer-friendly’ and significantly reduce their influence among the farmers.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa has alleged of receiving threat call from Pakistani, who warned him to either withdraw the complaint filed against Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar or face serious consequences. Sharing the details of the number and the name of the person who had made the call to him, the Akali Dal MLA has urged Delhi police to take cognisance.
I got a call from Pakistan in which the caller threatened me to withdraw the complaint against Bollywood or I might have to face serious consequences if I don’t do as they desire. https://t.co/JwZvqPCFdzpic.twitter.com/shdOM59EYj
— #Istandwithfarmers Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) September 28, 2020
In a video message shared on his official Twitter handle, Sirsa revealed that the caller, who identified himself as Mohammad Wasim, alleged that a certain ‘Bhai’ has asked him to steer clear of the drama and stop the nonsense. “Yeh Bollywood wala masla 2 din mein band kar aur case wapas le”, (end this Bollywood chapter in 2 days and withdraw your complaint) the caller allegedly told Sirsa.
On asking the caller to reveal who this “Bhai” is, the caller said: “Tum Bhai ko nahi jaante? Bhai ko to pura desh Jaanta hai. Kyun mara chahata hain? Ye nautanki band karo warna sabko thok denge” (you don’t know who Bhai is, the entire world knows him. Why do you want to be killed? Stop this drama immediately or we’ll shoot everyone).
Not intimidated by such threat calls: Sirsa
Stating that he is filing a complaint with the SHO of Punjabi Bagh police station, with the West district DCP for probe into the phone call, Sirsa declared that he will remain unaffected by such threats and will continue to work relentlessly against the drug nexus in Bollywood.
Sirsa addressed the caller and said: “You will not be able to scare us into stopping our work. This is a fight for principles and against the drug mafia. No one will be able to silence us. You are wrong if you think we will stop everything after your attempt at scaring and threatening us.”
Manjinder Singh Sirsa was the first to speak against the alleged drug mafia in Bollywood
It may be recalled that Sirsa had met the NCB chief Rakesh Asthana at his office located at BSSF headquarters CGO complex on Lodhi road on September 15 to submit a complaint against top Bollywood names like Karan Johar, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan etc, for consumption and possession of drugs being used at Karan Johar’s house on July 30, 2019, cognizable in nature under chapter 4 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
It was Sirsa who had first tweeted the video of the party at Karan Johar’s residence alleging that several actors in the video were in ‘drugged state’. The video had featured Ranbir Kapoor, Ayan Mukherjee, Vicky Kaushal, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and others. However, most of the actors, including Vicky Kaushal and Karan Johar had rubbished the allegations.
Following this complaint, NCB started investigating and unearthed a massive drug case in Bollywood. The names of many influential actors, producers, filmmakers have appeared in the drug link case leading a summons from the Narcotics Control Bureau.
The drug enforcement agency has recently questioned actors, including Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Shraddha Kapoor Rakul Preet Singh and others in connection with its probe.
Congress workers protesting against the recently passed Farm Bills burnt a tractor in Ambala, and then proceeded to carry the same burnt tractor in a truck to India Gate, Delhi and then burnt the same tractor there. ABP News has revealed that the tractor was first burnt in Ambala on the 20th of September. Eight days later, the half-burnt tractor was set on fire in Delhi.
The tractor was brought to Delhi by members of the Punjab Youth Congress and kept overnight at the residence of a Congress leader in Delhi. Five people have already been arrested related to the incident. Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh defended the conduct of the Congress workers. Responding to a question on the incident, the Punjab CM asked what problem existed if a person wanted to burn his own tractor?
That the tractor was not in a sound state was evident in the video shared by ANI portraying the burning incident in Delhi. The tractor was visibly damaged with parts falling off and its body severely burnt. It appears that the economic crisis unleashed by the Coronavirus is prompting the Congress party to take comical cost-cutting measures as well.
#WATCH: Punjab Youth Congress workers stage a protest against the farm laws near India Gate in Delhi. A tractor was also set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/iA5z6WLGXR
Prior to this, Congress had gone on to support the nationwide strike called by the Bharatiya Kisan Union and several other organisations on July 25. Most of the protests were seen in Punjab, where the ruling Congress government is joining the protests. Although the bills bring much-needed changes to the farm laws that are extremely beneficial for the farmers, which were proposed by the Congress party also when they were in power, now they are opposing the bills for political purposes.
You can read more about the recent agriculture Bills passed by the Parliament which got President’s assent here.
Sudarshan News channel today responded to the show-cause issued to the channel against the content of its programme ‘Bindas Bol’, which accuses Zakat Foundation of helping Muslims to infiltrate the civil services with the help of funding from terror-linked organisations abroad.
The Editor in Chief of the channel, Suresh Chavhanke, took to Twitter to announce that the channel had replied to the show-cause notice issued by the Ministry of Broadcasting for its show “UPSC Jihad”. Chavhanke also added that important sections of the 1000-page response would be shared on Twitter in the upcoming days.
“Today, we have given a reply to the show-cause notice issued by the Ministry of Broadcasting on #UPSC_Jihad. Sharing 5 pages of the covering letter of the response with you all. For the next few days, we will put up important portions of our 1000-page response to the show-cause notice. #BindasBol,” Suresh Chavhanke tweeted.
— Suresh Chavhanke “Sudarshan News” (@SureshChavhanke) September 28, 2020
“You had asked us 13 questions but we are answering 63 questions that were asked of us in the Supreme Court and social media forums. We thought it is our duty to address those questions as well. Please consider this earnest effort from us seriously and assist us in exposing the conspiracy that has been hatched against us,” the covering letter shared by Suresh Chavhanke and addressed to the Government of India read.
Citing the law of propaganda by Goebbels: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, the covering letter mentions that a concerted effort has been undertaken to run down the channel’s UPSC jihad show, provoke people against it and deceive various state institutions.
Nefarious attempts by detractors to brand the channel anti-Muslim and cover their tracks
“As a result, a show based on investigative journalism got mired in legal disputes and the expose of the country’s biggest national security threat got stuck in between. By taking advantage of these circumstances, the accused related to the expose are trying to erase the evidence,” the letter read.
The letter further read, “We are the only channel against which coercive action is being taken because we are the only ones who have endeavoured to take on the enemy of the global humanity–’Radical Islamic Terrorism’.”
The channel also alleged that the detractors trying to pull its show “UPSC Jihad’ down are “Intellectual Sleeper Cells”, who are trying to distract the nation’s attention from the pressing issue of terror links behind the funding of Zakat Foundation.”
Chavhanke also lamented that the show was branded anti-Muslim just because he urged people to watch the show whose promo included views of rabid fundamentalists. “We discovered the nexus between Indian organisations and foreign-based terrorists. If those terrorists are Muslims, is it my fault?” Chavhanke asked.
Raising questions over the objections related to the unpalatable depiction of Muslims in his show, he claimed that, “Is it a crime to anchor a channel while sporting a tilak and wearing saffron clothes? I have immeasurable faith over my holy culture and our mighty ancestors. How did I become anti-Muslim for this?” Chavhanke questioned in the letter.
Centre issues show-cause notice to Sudarshan News
The Supreme Court on September 23 postponed the hearing in the ‘UPSC Jihad’ case after the Centre informed the apex court that it had sent a show-cause notice to the channel over possible violation of channel code. The centre had asked the failing which an ex-parte decision could have been taken by the government.
The programme themed UPSC Jihadalleged that Zakat Foundation, an NGO which provides training to largely Muslims students aspiring for civil services has received funds from various terror-linked organizations. The court had maintained the September 15 injunction on the broadcast of the show.
