700 persecuted Sikhs of Afghanistan will soon arrive in India after the Indian government decided to permit them to come and live in India. It has been reported that the government is completing all necessary formalities in order to ensure that they are here before Independence Day. Furthermore, 11 Afghan nationals were granted 6-month Visas and are expected to reach here on Sunday.
Under such circumstances, an Afghan Sikh was interviewed by Amaan, who tweets under the username @Amaanbali, for his blog. Sardar Iqbal Singh migrated to India from Afghanistan during the initial stages of the civil war. His daughter was around a year old when they came to India. He moved to India with 17 other families.
Iqbal Singh told Amaan, “I moved to India in 1994 after the start of the civil war in Afghanistan. The circumstances then were different and I think it was a wise decision. I got married in 1988 and by the time I moved, Jaspreet (daughter) was a year old. I did not want (her) to suffer in any way. I still remember withdrawing all the cash I had and closing my bank accounts in Jallalabad. It was an emotional day.”
Iqbal Singh said that life was initially difficult in India when first arrived her with his family. They stayed at Gurudwara Singh Saheba at West Delhi. Over the next couple of years, all his savings dried up. However, after the initial eight years, his hardships were comparable to that of any ordinary Indian.
He said, “I live an average life of an Indian in a metro city who goes to work and comes back in the evening to his family, so my hardships except for the first 8 years are more or less same as any other person. Say Aggarwal Sahib who sells bags in Karol Bagh faces same problems that I do. We aren’t racially discriminated, nor are we looked down upon by anyone. Indian Sikh community has deepest respect for Afghan Sikhs and they always meet us to ask about Sikhism in Afghanistan.”
Iqbal Singh said that illegal property captures, kidnappings, murders, rapes and threats were some of the numerous issues that Afghan Siklhs face. He also said he could resettle in Afghanistan if the Taliban were wiped off the face of the Earth but he does not dwell in fantasies. He said that there was a time when he as a Afghani blamed the United States for the chaos but now, he realises that both sides are to be blamed.
When he was questioned why he chose India as the country to migrate to, Iqbal Singh said the financially well-off migrated to western countries but “for middle class people like me, India was home and will always be.” He also revealed that he steers clear of answering questions around the Citizenship Amendment Act because there have been occasions during the recent protests against the Act when his statements were mosreported.
“I steer clear of answering this one because during recent Delhi Anti CAA protests, our market in Karol Bagh was flooded with young boys and girls seeking our opinion on CAA and modifying statements for their reporting. We have also given a video statement thanking Govt of India for enabling us to get the documents and passport. We can call ourselves Indian now and some people seem to have problem with that too. Turns out there is no home for poor,” he stated.
Iqbal Singh revealed that when he came to India, he had to sell his property at a much lower price than the market value due to compulsion. Now, he owns a mobile accessory shop in Delhi after renting a space from a Hindu landlord. He spoke very highly of the landlord and said that he is not forced to pay him on the occasions when he is late on the payment.
The Afghan Sikh, who is now an Indian, said that the financial welfare of the incoming Sikhs from Afghanistan is the only thing that needs to be taken care of by the Government. He said it was a very good thing that the persecuted Sikhs from Afghanistan will be coming to India.
Wikipedia, the online crowdsourced encyclopaedia which have been facing controversy due to its obvious leftist bias in its editorial decisions, have categorised a major American media house, Fox News, as being unreliable. Fox News is considered to be leaning towards right-wing, and is disliked by left-wing intellectuals.
Earlier, Fox News was categorised as a green-level source on the Reliable sources/Perennial sources of Wikipedia, but not it has been downgraded to yellow-level, which means editors are advised to exercise caution while quoting Fox News for articles. A discussion on the reliability of Fox News website is still going on Wikipedia editors and administrators. In the discussion for Fox News, there was no consensus on its reliability, the media house has been still downgraded to yellow level by the administrators saying that there was no consensus.
Administrators overrule editors
The downgrading of the news network followed an intense discussion on Wikipedia. During the discussion, while most contributors said that the talk and opinion shows on the network are biased, the network is pro-Trump, and they have been criticising rioting and violence in the name of the Black Lives Matter protests, the normal reports of the network are reliable. Several editors pointed out that Fox News appreciates fact-checking of its reports and issues corrections whenever errors are pointed out, which proves that the news network is reliable.
It is notable that while the discussion was on reliability of Fox News as a source of Wikipedia articles, almost everyone who opposed it cited the talk and political commentary shows on the network, and not their plain news reports. Such shows generally tend to be biassed towards one narration or the other, and opinion articles and shows are not used as a source for Wikipedia articles. There was no major complaint of regular news reports of the network being biased. Despite the fact that most people agreed that their new reports are not biased, and only their opinion shows are biased, three Wikipedia administrators concluded the discussion saying that “there is no consensus regarding the reliability of Fox News”, and then went on to downgrade it. They have mentioned that for science and political referencing there is no consensus regarding the reliability of Fox News, but for other subjects it is generally considered reliable.
Consensus on Wikipedia
Although all editorial decisions in Wikipedia are supposed to be decided by consensus among editors, the reality is different. Being a crowdsourced platform where any internet user can make contributions, it is virtually impossible to arrive at a consensus on most subjects. The consensus is not at all possible in where there are diverse views, and often, it is select few Wikipedia administrators take a decision after closing the discussions. And they make the decision based on their personal opinion, not based on majority views. There is no voting on Wikipedia, and no matter how strongly one makes a point, it may be overruled by others. In theory, an article should represent all different views on it, but in reality, only one side’s opinion prevails, which often happens to be the left-liberal view.
Perhaps reacting to the Fox News downgrading, The co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, who is no longer involved with Wikipedia, tweeted on Saturday that “consensus” is not possible on Wikipedia. He said that it stopped being something that can be taken seriously in around 2002.
I hate to break it to you #Wikipedia fanbois: “consensus” is not possible on Wikipedia. It stopped being something that can be taken seriously, I’d say, in 2002.
You really do need to develop a new and better way of deciding disputes; “consensus” is silly propaganda.
Larry also said that when he was associated with Wikipedia, the policy was the presentation of many competing theories on a wide variety of subjects, which suggested that the creators of Wikipedia trust readers’ competence to form their own opinions themselves. But “Wikipedia DESPISES this view today”, he said.
… if we succeed in adhering to our nonbias policy: the presentation of many competing theories on a wide variety of subjects suggests that we, the creators of Wikipedia, trust readers’ competence to form their own opinions themselves."
He said that after the last version of “Neutral point of view” policy that he had wrote in 2002, the policy has changed a lot and now it is complete opposite.
Wikipedia vs OpIndia
Wikipedia’s already known left bias was evident in the way OpIndia is represented on it. 3-4 years ago, when a simple neutral article on OpIndia was published on the Wikipedia, it was deleted by leftist editors saying the website is not worthy of a Wiki article. But one year later, the same people who had deleted it created a new page on OpIndia, which is highly negative towards the portal. The senior editor who wrote it made baseless allegations against OpIndia in the article, and anyone who tried to counter that was silenced with threats of ban, and any such edits were removed. With a pronounced Left bias in the platform itself and even in the community-driven editors, the OpIndia page on Wikipedia really did not stand a chance at neutrality.
In another instance, Wikipedia’s left-liberal bias was evident on the page on Delhi riots. While the Wiki page portrayed BJP leader Kapil Mishra as the mastermind behind the riots, the editors had refused to even mention the name of AAP leader Tahir Hussain, after the videos of him leading the riots from his house had went viral on social media. The editor who is also behind the negative article on OpIndia had said that IC official Ankit Sharma, who was stabbed multiple times and was tortured to death, “was not notable enough” to be mentioned in the Wikipedia article.
The co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, who is no longer involved with Wikipedia had gone on the record to talk about the bias of the online encyclopaedia. Sanger had written that it has long forgotten its original policy of aiming to present information from a neutral point of view, and nowadays the crowd-sourced online encyclopaedia “can be counted on” to cover politics with a “liberal point of view”.
The downgrading of Fox News on Wikipedia as a reliable source despite having no consensus on it is the latest example of the attempt of the left-wing to silence right-wing voices.
In the aftermath of the deadly attack on a Guru Har Rai Sahib Gurdwara in Kabul by the Islamic State (IS) terrorists and rise in cases of abduction of minorities, the Indian government has reportedly issued a 6-month long visa to 11 Afghan nationals. As per the report, they are expected to reach the National Capital by Sunday. Reportedly, minorities such as Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan living in a state of vulnerability under the Taliban Regime in the country.
According to a community leader in Kabul, Chhabol Singh, 11 people who have received short term visas include Nidan Singh Sachdeva who was abducted last month and the 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped to be forcefully converted to Islam. Chhabol Singh is a member of the management committee of the Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Darbar Karte Parwan in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Reportedly, the President of the managing committee, Gurnam Singh, revealed that the 6-month visa has also been issued to the families of brothers killed in the gurudwara attack. According to the family members, they did not want to leave their homeland but there was nothing left for them in Afghanistan. They are reportedly hoping for a new start in India. “Our plan is to first evacuate the families of those who lost one or more family members in the terror attack. Our first list has nearly 150 people. More will follow. No one from the Sikh community wants to live here,” he was quoted as saying.
Afghans nationals reach Delhi
According to Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee President, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the tickets and accommodation were arranged for the 11 Afghan Nationals who are scheduled to reach Delhi via Kam Air flight under Vande Bharat Mission.
As per the report, the decision of the government came in the backdrop of multiple appeals made by the Afghan Sikh community to the Indian embassy. They had also written a letter addressing the Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking immediate evacuation after the deadly attack on the Gurudwara.
On Sunday, the first batch of Afghan nationals reached Delhi and received a warm welcome.
First batch of Afghan Nationals reach Delhi
MHA allows 700 Afghan nationals to come and live in India
Reportedly, the Indian government is fulfilling all necessary formalities to bring the said Afghan nationals to India before Independence Day. The report noted that about 600 Sikhs had applied for such long-term visas to India after the attack on Gurudwara that occurred on March 25 this year and left 27 dead.
A government official informed, “To begin with, over 700 such individuals have been identified and the required formalities are underway to bring them to India before 15 August.” Reportedly, the Afghan minorities who will arrive in India include those who have received security threats and have relatives in India.
Amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, the Islamic State (ISIS) has been relentless in its anti-Hindu and anti-India propaganda. Reportedly, in its online publication named ‘Voice of Hind’, the ISIS has urged all jihadists associated with the organisation to unleash terror in the country by being carriers of the deadly disease.
As per the report, the terror outfit has released a 17-page special ‘lockdown edition’ of its magazine and has asked sympathisers to kill the Kaffirs and annihilate the disbelievers (Hindus in this case). Reportedly, the magazine features the cover image of Tablighi Jamaat who attended the Nizamuddin Markaz event and spread the Chinese virus throughout the country. ‘Voice of Hind’ also carried the image of Delhi Anti-Hindu riots with a message that read, “Believers stand tall its time for Kaffir (disbelievers) to fall.”
As per the report, the Islamic State has recommended several ways to Muslim fundamentalists to kill the disbelievers. The terror outfit has asked fellow jihadists to arm themselves with chains, ropes, and wires to choke Kaffirs to death. The magazine stated, “Keep yourselves armed at all times to never miss a chance to kill as many Kaffirs as you can. Tools like scissors and hammers can come in useful to kill the Kaffir.”
Terror outfit praises Jamaatis for spreading Coronavirus
The Islamic State has also asked its followers to spread coronavirus as fast as possible to annihilate the Kaffirs and the police with less effort. Reportedly, the magazine praised Tablighi Jamaat and its chief Maulana Saad for spreading the Coronavirus. The terror outfit has also urged radical Islamists to avenge the arrest of ‘activists’ from Jamia Millia Islamia who have been arrested for masterminding violence during the Delhi anti-Hindu riots.
UN warns against rise of Islamic State in Karnataka and Kerala
A United Nations report on terrorism has cautioned that there is a sizeable number of ISIS terrorists in the Indian states of Kerala and Karnataka, adding that the ISIL Indian affiliate (Hind Wilayah), which was announced on May 10, 2019, has about 180 to 200 members. According to the 26th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIS, “One Member State reported that the ISIL Indian affiliate (Hind Wilayah), which was announced on 10 May 2019, has between 180 and 200 members. According to the report, there are significant numbers of ISIL operatives in Kerala and Karnataka.”
In yet another attempt to push its anti-Hindu agenda, the CPI-M led Kerala government has now decided to utilise funds of Hindu owned schools under the Travancore Devaswom Board to employ Arabic teachers.
According to Organiser, Travancore Devaswom Board, whose responsibility is to administer temples in Kerala, has now decided to appoint Arabic teachers in schools which come under its management in Kerala. The Devaswom Board has been tasked by the Kerala government to fill the vacancies of schools managed by various temples. The board has now decided to recruit Arabic teachers and has also finalised a list of four candidates.
The board, which is mandated to administer Hindu temples, has now shortlisted Shameera, Bushara Beegum, Mubash and Sumayya Muhammed for the post of Arabic teacher.
Image Source: Organiser
Incidentally, the board has not recruited any Sanskrit teachers, even though Sanskrit is an Indic language and is mentioned in the 8th schedule of the constitution, while Arabic neither belongs to the country nor understood by any significant population.
The board will also fill the teaching vacancies for the subjects like Mathematics, Music, Social Science, Hindi for several schools that are managed by Hindu temples, which in turn is by regulated by the Communist Kerala government.
Travancore Devaswom Board is an autonomous body constituted under the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act XV of 1950. It is entrusted with the task of administrating 1248 temples in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore comprised in the State of Kerala.
These temples were earlier administrated by the ruler of Travancore before the integration of the Princely states of Travancore and Cochin in 1949. The Boards, which are constituted by the state government comprises of members, who are nominated by the government and the local community.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has declared that Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt will be summoned in the investigation into the death of accomplished actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Mahesh Bhatt will be summoned by Mumbai Police on the 27th of July. The senior NCP leader has made it clear that the Bollywood director will have to testify before the Police.
Furthermore, the managers of Karan Johan and Mahesh Bhatt have also been summoned on the same date. It has also been clarified that should the need arise, Karan Johar will be asked questioned in the matter as well. The development comes after actress Kangana Ranaut had said in her interview to Republic TV that Sushant Singh Rajput was ‘systematically sabotaged’ by filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and film critic Rajeev Masand. Kangana Ranaut also questioned Bhatt’s involvement in the relationship between Sushant Singh Rajput and his girlfriend.
After the actor was found dead in his apartment in June, a raging debate around nepotism in the movie industry has ensued. Calls have also been made for a CBI investigation into the matter. The Mumbai Police has also summoned numerous prominent individuals from the movie industry during its investigation into his death.
Rajeev Masand was called in for questioning who is accused of defaming Sushant Sinmgh Rajput by allegedly writing ‘blind items’ against him. Masand is alleged to have indulged in attempts to character assassinate the talented actor by attributing terms like ‘skirt-chaser’, ‘overpaid outsider’, an actor with ‘questionable veracity’ and ‘temper tantrums’, to Sushant Singh Rajput.
Veteran Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was summoned for questioning as well and Yashraj Films was instructed to submit a copy of the contract it signed with the actor. Ever since his death, Sushant’s family has alleged foul play in his death which is said to have been a suicide.
Nazariya QFRG has issued a statement on the reports by OpIndia where it was reported that the organisation had exposed children at the Tagore International School to extremely inappropriate sexual imagery and advertised a vulgar colouring book to students that included pictures of nude women masturbating and wearing dildos.
In their statement, Nazariya QFRG has chosen obfuscation as its preferred mode of defence. Without any basis, the organisation accuses OpIndia of being “factually inaccurate”, “misinformed” and publishing “deliberate distortions of the truth”. It is further claimed that the reports reflect a “fundamental lack of understanding on gender and sexual orientation”.
Source: @NazariyaQFRG/Twitter
Furthermore, the statement reads, “The author distorts the contents of the Facebook post and he recklessly states that Nazariya is responsible for the “indoctrination” of children in the “toxic ideology of Gender Identity politics”. It claims further, “the same author made entirely baseless allegations that Nazariya was basing an adult colouring book to young students, which is factually inaccurate.”
Nazariya QFRG claimed that the colouring book was for adults and was not made available to minor children. Before we proceed any further, some rebuttal is of utmost necessity here. Firstly, in the Facebook post in question, the caption only said that there was a discount of Rs. 100 for students. Nazariya QFRG did not specify the age of the students their advertisement was intended for.
Source: @NazariyaQFRG/Twitter
Secondly, the organisation conducted a session with the students of Tagore International School where they exposed the children to an image of a man with enlarged breasts breastfeeding a baby. The man in question was born a woman who underwent testosterone therapy to change her gender but the hormone did not diminish the feminine desire to conceive a baby.
If it does not say anything else, then at least it does reveal that the organisation is known to work with students under the age of 18. Thirdly, Tagore International School partnered with Nazariya QFRG in its Breaking Barriers campaign to train 30-35 ‘volunteers’ from classes 9-12 to further the politics of Gender Identity.
The OpIndia report stated, to which Nazariya QFRG appears to have taken objection, “It does not take the IQ of Einstein to realise why exposing adolescents to colouring books with nude women masturbating and wearing sex toys is not conducive to their holistic development.” Quite clearly, the statement did not accuse the organisation of advertising the colouring book to students under the age of 18 but was made in anticipation of such a possibility in the future.
Source: @NazariyaQFRG/Twitter
Furthermore, OpIndia cannot be held guilty of any wrongdoing based on that particular statement. It is the prerogative of Nazariya QFRG entirely to make it explicitly clear that the vulgar colouring book was not meant for students under the age of 18 when they advertise it on social media. It becomes even more necessary in light of the fact that they are known to work with adolescent students.
Without question, Nazariya QFRG should not accuse OpIndia of misrepresenting them when it was they who failed to make it clear that the colouring book was not meant for minor students. Products that are not meant for children come with the explicit label that they are not to be sold to those under 18. The advertisement in the Facebook post did not carry that notice when it was all the more important for them to make it explicit since they work with minor children.
Screenshot of the post in question
Furthermore, Nazariya QFRG claims that our reports reveal a lack of understanding of ‘sexual orientation’. This is just an outright lie as our reports did not speak a word on sexual orientation. They only spoke of the manner in which gender identity politics irreparably harms children and gender identity has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
Sexual orientation concerns itself with the particular sex individuals feel a sexual attraction towards. Gender identity concerns itself with the gender a person identifies oneself as. Thus, a person can be broadly homosexual or bisexual in their sexual orientation while the ideology of gender identity mandates that a person can identify as gender nonbinary, gender nonconforming, gender fluid and other such genders based on subjective feelings of oneself.
In this light, Nazariya QFRG has not said a word about why their session with the students at the Tagore International School paid odes to Hadiya, the high-profile case of Love Jihad in Kerala which was the topic of much national conversation. Radical Islamist organisation PFI spent Rs. 1 crore on the legal cases involving her marriage where her husband was reported to have been in touch with ISIS operatives prior to it. The organisation does not explain what Hadiya has to do with the ‘Queer ideology’.
The organisation also vehemently disagrees with the obvious fact that Gender Identity is a western construct and claims, “India, has had, and continues to have, diverse communities that transgress heterosexual and ‘cisgender’ norms.” For those unaware, ‘cisgender’ means a biological man who identifies as a man or a biological woman who identifies as a woman.
Source: @NazariyaQFRG/Twitter
The claim is utterly ridiculous. Indian society has had its own transgender community who have a separate space for themselves within the larger community but it has never had the kinds of ‘gender identities’ as advertised in the West. For instance, the transgender community of India has never claimed that one could be a woman one day and man the other before woman the next day, which is essentially what the gender identity ideology posits.
It has never been claimed by transgenders in India that children as young as ten-year old should be given medical treatment to alter their gender. Furthermore, the core claim that gender identity is independent of biological sex has never found credence in India, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, until the academia in the West simply decided after philosophical musings that it was the case. Thus, it is a western construct.
Nazariya QFRG then engages upon a lengthy explanation of the legality of their actions and the necessity of their activism. In the process, it marches into a completely different territory. However, their lengthy explanation and elaboration does not explain why it was necessary to show the disturbing image of a man with enlarged breasts breastfeeding a child or the necessity of advertising a colouring book with explicit sexual content to students where it was not mentioned that the book was not meant for those under 18.
Ya_All is a transgender youth organisation from Manipur
The statement further says, “The attempt by Opindia through the articles it published and the hatred towards us that it has inflamed on social media is an attempt to enforce compulsory heterosexual and cisgender norms as the only acceptable forms of existence in India. This is against the most basic values enshrined in the Constitution.”
It is quite an extraordinary claim that the organisation has made. There are plenty of things in our Constitution that requires fixing, however, one finds it hard to believe that showing inappropriate images to children and advertising vulgar colouring books for students without specifying the age of the people it was addressed to is a Constitutional value.
Also, Opindia only reported facts on the matter. We did not engage on reporting things that were not true. We cannot be held responsible for the conduct of others. It is the duty of a media organisation to inform the citizenry on pertinent political issues, the media organisation cannot be held responsible for the reaction the accurate information it generates. And it is reprehensible for Nazariya QFRG to claim that we incited hatred against them when all we did is report facts.
Nazariya QFRG also informed that it has removed the Facebook post where it referred to a session at the Tagore International School and spoke of Hadiya. It was the same post which carried the disturbing image of a man breastfeeding. The organisation removed the post at the request of the school.
It also needs to be made clear that their claim that they are not indoctrinating or brainwashing children is preposterous. Education on a matter without elaborating on accurate facts is indoctrination and can only be interpreted as such. Their refusal to showcase how gender identity politics harms children irreparably can only be interpreted as brainwashing. Furthermore, not everyone who disagrees with the gender identity overlords do so because they do not understand it. There is very good reason to oppose such indoctrination.
Thus, quite clearly, the defence put forth by the organisation has no legs to stand on. Furthermore, they have chosen obfuscation over clarificatiom and false allegations over honesty. Instead of admitting their mistake and assuring everyone that they will refrain from such conduct in the future, they have instead chosen to double down on their rhetoric.
On Saturday, news portal News Track Live reported that Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan has said that he will take Jal Samadhi if he is not invited to the Bhoomi Pujan of the Ram Mandir scheduled on 5th August. The article contained an image of the SP leader, and said that the MP from Rampur Lok Sabha seat Azam Khan has said that he is a devotee of Lord Ram. The same report was published by the portal’s Hindi edition too. But the comment was made by another person with the same name, but the portal wrongly attributed to the SP MP.
This news came as a big shock and surprise for people, as the controversial politicians is not known to be a Ram devotee. Several social media users believed the News Track Live report, and made comment against Azam Khan.
?????♀️hai shri ram .. Azam khan ko pta bhi nahi hai jal samadhi kise kahte hai ye baiso k tabele me nahane ko jal samadhi samj raha hai, man lo le bhi li to iske abbu ise usi samadhi se uper fek k bolege kya kar raha be gadhe tere mere bas ki na h.. papi ab raam bol raha jai ho https://t.co/CRskS66Mjh
— Madhav Ki Madhavi(sachi sanatani) (@KiMadhavi) July 26, 2020
Suddenly Azam khan has become devotee to Sri Ram. @RanaAyyub@_sabanaqvi must answer when did their secular love fraternity have Hindu angle. Hindu believe in Santana Dharma. So there is no difference everyone can have belief unlike others (verses) which ask to behead. https://t.co/mz9jpKkv6I
Even BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also fell prey to the wrong report, and mocked the SP leader for his sudden turnaround.
But the fact is, the Azam Khan who wants to attend the Bhoomi Pujan for the Ram Mandir is not the SP leader, but a different person. He is the president of the Sri Ram Mandir Nirman Muslim Kar Sevak Manch, a group of Muslims who have been supporting the cause of construction of a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. This Azam Khan has been a proponent of the Ram Mandir, and had run campaigns supporting the construction of a Ram temple the previously disputed site at Ayodhya. Azam Khan had formed the group after Supreme Court suggested both the parties in the Ayodhya Case to build consensus in the issue in 2017, before its historic verdict awarding the disputed land to Hindus.
Azam Khan made the comment while visiting Ayodhya. He did a darshan of the Ram Lala, and also offered prayers at the samadhi of Late Mahant Ramchandra Das Paramhans, who had led the Ram Mandir movement. Other media houses who had reported the comment, including OpIndia, had correctly identified as the Muslim Kar Sevak Manch President, and not the more well-known SP leader.
On the other hand, controversial SP leader Azam Khan is in Sitapur jail for last 4 months, he was arrested after several cases of land grabbing and forgery were filed against him. On Friday, he and his son were produced before a court in Muradabad, after which they were against shifted to Sitapur Jail. Therefore, even if invited, the Rampur MP will not be able to attend the Bhoomi Pujan on 5th August.
Jordan has become the latest entrant to the list of countries that have banned the radical Islamist terrorist organisation – ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ after country’s top court disbanded the radical Islamic group citing the group’s failure to “rectify its legal status”.
According to the reports, Jordan’s top court dissolved the transnational Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood last week. Since 2014, the Jordanian authorities had considered it illegal, arguing its licence was not renewed under a 2014 law on political parties.
However, the Islamist group continued to operate in Jordan. The relations between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian state had deteriorated further from 2015 when the government authorised an offshoot group, the Muslim Brotherhood Association.
The original Brotherhood had gone to the court to retrieve the properties, however, the top court in Jordan had delivered its final verdict ordering its dissolution.
The Jordanian breakaway faction has also now decided to cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, where hundreds of supporters have been killed and thousands arrested since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and most popular Islamist group in the world. The Muslim Brotherhood established in 1945 as a franchise to the parent organisation in Egypt, became the driving force for Islamists in the country. The Brotherhood was also behind the foundation of the country’s chief Islamist party, The Islamic Action Front (IAF).
Reportedly, the Muslim Brotherhood has “dominated politics and unions in Jordan for decades”, but declined steadily and lost power due to internal problems and rifts. The Islamist group even lost its ability to mobilize, and its relations with the Jordanian state continued to deteriorate.
What is Muslim Brotherhood?
The Muslim Brotherhood is a pan-Islamic ‘movement’ founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, a schoolteacher working in the town of Ismailia near Suez. The aim of the movement was to revive the Islamic religion, which would enable the Muslim world to compete with the West and shake off colonial rule.
The teachings of Banna spread across the Islamic world, beyond Egypt, creating various Islamist political movements- including missionary, charitable and advocacy organizations. Even many political parties in various countries in the region— trace their roots to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, some of them use the name Muslim Brotherhood and others do not.
The movement claims that it rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals. However, various offshoots and affiliates of the group have been linked to terrorist attacks in the past and have sparked troubles elsewhere in the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood is considered to be the forerunner of modern Islamic terrorism.
The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt has classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and often accuses it of carrying out terrorist attacks. Since the military coup in Egypt since 2013, some members of the Muslim Brotherhood have broken off to form splinter groups that carry out acts of violence against the military-backed government.
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is already banned in many countries, including in Islamic countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Syria. Even Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan have banned the Muslim Brotherhood.
Reportedly, Saudi Arabia has multiple reasons – including regional political dynamics – to ban the Muslim Brotherhood even after the Kingdom had supported it for many years in the past.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) had put a more lethal ban on the Muslim Brotherhood in 2014 as part of a broader Emirati fight against the Muslim Brotherhood who had allegedly plotted to overthrow the government. Even Tunisia, where the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Ennahda Party has been powerful, had blacklisted the Egyptian Brotherhood and its affiliates.
The Wire on 22nd July published an article by turn-coat NCP worker Jay Kholiya on the opinion section of its website, where he wrote about his reason for leaving Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP (a patriotic student organization in India, affiliated to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS). In the article, Kholiya writes on the reason why he had a “hriday parivartan” or change in ideology in 2019 (which, incidentally, was when the MVA government came to power in Maharashtra).
Jay Kholiya had joined ABVP in 2019 after he saw a Modi wave emerging in many parts of the country, and the powerful BJP-Shiv Sena coalition had formed the government in Maharashtra. According to several senior members of ABVP, the organization never believed that Jay was supporting the ABVP ideology, but nevertheless, rewarded him for the dedication he put in strengthening the student movement in South Mumbai. It was well known that he had left-leaning tendencies, but it was ignored because of ABVP’s work culture that encourages conflicting opinions and debates.
In the article, Kholiya claims to have organized a CAA-supporting rally in South Mumbai near CST station at Fort “under his leadership”, which is laughable, to say the least. The rally was organized by ABVP’s Mumbai unit, which overshadows all district units in the city. Nevertheless, several ABVP members from South Mumbai freshly remember Kholiya enthusiastically debating with people of opposing views regarding CAA on official Whatsapp groups of the unit. Kholiya has hogged the credit of organizing the event for his own political agenda and apparently used it while pitching for an NCP post.
Kholiya further claims that ABVP is a student wing of BJP. Which, ironically, he had himself disproved when the same was alleged by another former member of ABVP. When a former member of ABVP had a meltdown on the official Whatsapp group, the ex-member had claimed that ABVP was a student wing of Bharatiya Janata Party, to which Kholiya had sent a storm of news links reporting ABVP protests against BJP personalities. This change of colours is ridiculous, to say the least!
In his article on The Wire, he didn’t mention him joining the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which has multiple charges of corruption after quitting ABVP. After leaving the Parishad, Kholiya had joined the NCP after getting an offer to serve as a ward level executive member followed by promotion to Secretary of Charkop Vidhan-Sabha constituency unit of NCP.
I have been in regular touch with Jay Kholiya despite him betraying everything ABVP stands for, and have shared plenty of messages with him in the past.
In one of his messages post quitting ABVP, he says that the reason he left ABVP was that he had been in talks with NCP. It is important to stress on the fact that his uncle is also an NCP lawmaker from Gujarat. When I asked him about the reason why he left the Parishad, and if he would stay in contact with us after choosing a path in politics, he frankly told me that he keeps his “personal and political lives separate”, boldly revealing that he only cares about power/ politics and nothing more.
After him leaving ABVP in February 2019, it was revealed that he was in talks with the NCP long before the CAA bill was passed in the parliament and that he used the passing of CAA as an exit strategy from ABVP so that nobody suspects him of political infidelity. By writing an article on The Wire regarding his departure from ABVP, he has made juvenile attempts to demonise the largest student movement in India, and save his own face by justifying his lust for power.
Apart from his ridiculous attempt to defame ABVP in the article, he also tries to acquire media limelight on himself to fulfill his greed for attention and fame. Though he tries his best to make people believe that he left for an imaginary “Hriday Parivartan”, it is quite obvious that he does everything with a desire for power and political mileage.
(The author is the District Social Media In-charge of ABVP South Mumbai)
