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Dairy giant Amul joins the Turmeric Latte rage, introduces ‘Haldi Doodh’ to strengthen the immune system during Coronavirus pandemic

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Dairy giant Amul joins the Turmeric Latte rage, introduces ‘Haldi Doodh’ to strengthen the immune system during Coronavirus pandemic

Amid the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the country, when everyone is seeking ways to stay immune and prevent infection, the Dairy giant Amul has launched ‘Haldi Doodh’. The ‘Haldi Doodh’ or turmeric milk that is also known as Golden milk is known for its anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s ready to drink beverages available at Rs 30 per 200 ml can.

In the wake of the grave health crisis in the country, the Ministry of Ayush issued guidelines that also included consumption of golden milk that is turmeric milk to keep their immunity level up.

So in order to provide a ready to drink option, the Amul has launched the easily accessible and immunity booster ‘Haldi Doodh’ also called turmeric latte.

For years, the Ayurveda have been recommending turmeric as the best compound to fight infective diseases both as a fresh and as dried spice powder, to promote health. Turmeric is used for multiple purposes including the remedies to brighten the skin tone. It is also referred to as a superfood.

The turmeric milk is loaded with antioxidants that protect cells from damage, fight off the diseases and infections to contribute the overall health. Have the strong anti-inflammatory properties that may reduce inflammation and joint pain. It is also said that the golden milk may help preserve memory and reduce the decline of brain function due to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The Golden milk is rich in calcium and Vitamin D that contribute to a strong skeleton reducing the risk of bone diseases such as osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Read- ‘Hath’ se nikal gaya: Amul takes a jibe on Jyotiraditya Scindia slipping out of Congress’ hand

This ancient Indian health drink has become immensely popular in western countries, where it is available as a trendy drink named turmeric latte. Also known as ‘cuppa glow’, this beverage has become a rage in cafes in USA, UK and other countries. According to The Guardian, the ‘golden milk’ has a cult following, due to its health benefits, as an anti-inflammatory and an alternative to a caffeinated drink.

Yogi Adityanath trying to woo companies moving out of China amidst Coronavirus pandemic, over 100 US companies shown interest: UP Minister

OpIndia Staff
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Yogi Adityanath trying to woo companies moving out of China amidst Coronavirus pandemic, over 100 US companies shown interest: UP Minister

In the wake of the geopolitical and economic repercussions of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic across the world, many companies are now considering to move out of China and relocate their businesses and firms to other nations so as to reduce their dependency on China. Trying to make full use of this opportunity, BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh has been putting in all efforts to attract these investors to the state, which would help in reviving the pandemic-hit economy.

This basic idea to attract investors pulling out of China was floated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a high-level key meeting held in presence of MSME Minister Sidharth Nath Singh and Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana on Wednesday.

Video conference held by Yogi Adityanath, over 100 American companies shown interest

After the meeting, MSME Minister Sidharth Nath Singh was quoted by news agency ANI as saying: “Companies including big names from logistics, scientific instrumentation, electronic, automobile industries. They already have investments in China. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to bring them to UP, given how we’re working by making changes in our industrial and sectorial policy.

He said that the Prime Minister and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath want to use the opportunity where industries are moving out of China and see how they can be brought to India. He confirmed that video-conferencing was held with over 100 American companies yesterday in a webinar and they have shown interest.

At present, companies from Japan, the United States, Korea and other European nations with huge investment in China are mulling to move out after the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Japan has already started wooing these investors by announcing economic packages for the companies moving out of China.

Yogi Adityanath govt formulating policies to woo investors

UP government has started reformulating its various policies to suit these investors who are contemplating opting out of China in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to sources, Uttar Pradesh government is eyeing on the food processing industry which was in abundance in Wuhan province of China before the coronavirus outbreak.

The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh has been pitching itself as an attractive investment destination in the past few years. The Investors’ Summit held back in 2018 and also Defence Expo held in Lucknow in February this year has already attracted foreign interests. Some of the Adityanath government’s major infrastructural projects, such as the upcoming Jewar airport in Greater Noida, Purvanchal Expressway and defence corridor, have been planned to facilitate greater industrial investment in the state whose major population depends on agriculture.

1000 foreign firms plan production in India 

Around a thousand foreign companies are contemplating shifting their manufacturing base to India as the geopolitical and economic repercussions of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic becomes imminent. The said companies are in discussions with the Indian government and at least 300 of them are actively pursuing production plans in sectors such as mobiles, electronics, medical devices, textiles and synthetic fabric, according to top government sources.

Nirmala Sitharaman schools Rahul Gandhi after he spreads misinformation again by terming ‘bad loan write off’ by banks as ‘loan waiver’

OpIndia Staff
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Nirmala Sitharaman schools Rahul Gandhi after he spreads misinformation again by terming ‘bad loan write off’ by banks as ‘loan waiver’

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman schooled Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his false claims on “wilful defaulters, bad loans and write-offs”, calling them an attempt to “mislead people in a brazen manner” and sensationalise facts. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s response to Rahul Gandhi came after Gandhi-scion had claimed that the BJP government had waived off loans worth Rs 68,607 crore in the form of write-offs of top 50 wilful defaulters.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had attacked the ruling BJP after the Reserve Bank of India released a list of 50 wilful defaulters accused of cheating banks. These 50 defaulters included the companies of absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi and fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

“I asked a simple question in Parliament — tell me the names of 50 biggest bank scammers. Finance Minister refused to reply. Now RBI has put names of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and other BJP friends in the list. This is why they hid the truth from parliament,” the Congress MP had tweeted in Hindi along with a video.

Responding to the allegation of the Congress leader, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a series of tweets accused Rahul Gandhi of sensationalising facts by taking them out of context. Highlighting that between 2009-10 and 2013-14, scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 1,45,226 crore, she quipped, “Wished Gandhi consulted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on what this writing-off was about”.

She said provisions are made for Non-Performing Assets according to a four-year provisioning cycle laid down by the RBI. “Upon full provisioning being done, banks write-off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off,” she wrote.

Finance Minister Sitharaman said that wilful defaulters were beneficiaries of ‘phone banking’ under the UPA regime and the Modi government is chasing them to recover the dues.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also referred to media reports quoting former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan as having said that a large number of bad loans originated in the period 2006-2008 and “too many loans were made to well-connected promoters who have a history of defaulting on their loans”.

“Useful to recall the words of Raghuram Rajan: “A large number of bad loans originated in the period 2006-2008…Too many loans were made to well-connected promoters who have a history of defaulting on their loans…Public sector bankers continued financing promoters even while private sector banks were getting out. RBI could have raised more flags about the quality of lending…” Raghuram Rajan (said)… From 2015, PSBs (Public Sector Banks) were asked by the government to check all NPAs >50 crores for wilful default,” Minister Sitharaman responded to Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.

The Finance Minister then went onto explain regarding how properties belonging to fugitives Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya have been attached by the Modi government after they defaulted on the loans.

Sitharaman stated that immovable and movable properties belonging to fugitive Nirav Modi worth more than Rs 2,387 crores have been attached or seized, including foreign attachments of Rs 961.47 crore. “The auction of luxury items belonging to Nirav Modi has yielded for Rs 53.45 Crore. He is in prison in the UK,” said Finance Minister.

Citing progress on Mehul Choski case, Finance Minister said properties worth Rs 1,936.95 crore including foreign attachment of Rs 67.9 crore have been attacked by the union government. The government has also seized Rs 597.75 crore. She added, “Red Notice issued. Extradition Request sent to Antigua. Hearing for declaration of Mehul Choksi as Fugitive Offender is in progress”.

In connection with Vijay Mallya’s willful defaulting of loans, Finance Minister clarified stating that, “Total value at the time of attachment was Rs 8040 Crore and of seizure was Rs 1,693 Crore. Value of shares at the time of seizure was Rs 1693 Crore. Declared fugitive offender. On extradition request by GoI, UK High Court has also ruled for extradition.”

Sitharaman said it was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government which was pursuing these wilful defaulters.

“9,967 recovery suits, 3,515 FIRs, invoking Fugitive Amendment Act in cases are on now. Total value of attachment and seizures in the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya: Rs 18,332.7 crore,” she said.

“Bank-wise details of aggregate funded amount outstanding and amount technically/prudentially written off, pertaining to top fifty wilful defaulters was provided as an annex to the answer to Lok Sabha starred question *305 of Rahul Gandhi on 16.3.2020,” the FM wrote.

Sitharaman also mentioned that a list of “borrowers flagged as wilful defaulter by Public Sector Banks under CRILIC reporting as on September 30, 2019 (for borrowers with exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, global operations) was provided”, on November 18, 2019, in the Lok Sabha.

The finance minister stated that Congress and Gandhi should introspect why they fail to play a constructive role in cleaning up the system. “Neither while in power, nor while in the opposition has the Congress shown any commitment or inclination to stop corruption and cronyism,” Sitharaman further stated.

Congress claims on loans ‘write-off’

Soon after reports emerged that the government had written-off certain loans, the Congress leaders attempted to mislead people by spinning facts between write-offs with waivers, indicating that the loan given to the wilful defaulters are completely waived-off.

In reality, ‘write-off’ is a process of balance sheet cleaning up exercise undertaken by banks to depict the real status of the bank’s assets and liabilities. The write-offs are not loan waivers as claimed by Congress party and its ecosystem.

The banks usually write off loans (an asset to the bank) given to borrowers, which have now shown signs of weakness. If banks fail to write-off these loans, it is reflected as a high-quality asset and the returns-on-assets should be classified as an income to the bank. However, the quality of a defaulted loan has deteriorated for some time now, which results in giving the wrong picture of the true assets of the bank.

Secondly, if a loan is not written-off and is continued as a healthy asset at a time when it actually is a Non-Performing Asset (NPA), then banks can continue to book interest income on the loan, on the accrual basis of accounting.

However, there are two impacts if the bank continues to do so. Firstly, the bank is artificially increasing its income by booking interest on an accrual basis, the income which is doubtful as the loan is actually an NPA.

Secondly, the bank has to pay tax on earning such interest income. With mounting bad loans, it is bad for business for banks as it increases banks’ liabilities through unnecessary tax payments. Hence, scheduled commercial banks regularly write-off loans to effective accounting.

Once a loan is “written-off”, income booking on the same is based on actual receipt of income, and not based on accrual, banks continue to earn interest on such loans and recognize it as income only when they receive it.

Write-offs are a purely technical, accounting entry. Loans, which may not be repaid by the borrower in the normal course of business are written off. Even when these loans are written off, various recovery procedures like recovery suits filed before the Debt Recovery Tribunal and action initiated under SARFAESI Act continue. Hence, the writing-off a loan is not simply a ‘waive-off’.

Film actor Irrfan Khan dies at 54

OpIndia Staff
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Film actor Irrfan Khan dies at 54

Bollywood actor Irfan Khan passed away in Mumbai today. He was rushed to Kokilaben Ambani hospital on Tuesday following colon infection and was admitted to the ICU. In 2018 he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour.

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar took to Twitter to express his condolences and grief over passing of Irfan Khan.

Irfan Khan, the actor

Khan had undergone treatment abroad for several months in 2019. His last movie that was released is Homi Adajania’s Angrezi Medium. He has also acted in several remarkable movies like Maqbool, Paan Singh Tomar, The Lunchbox, Haider, Piku and Hindi Medium. He has also acted in Hollywood films like Slumdog Millionaire, Jurassic World, The Amazing Spiderman and Life of Pi.

More than 700 dead in Iran after drinking Methanol over false rumours that it will cure coronavirus

OpIndia Staff
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More than 700 dead in Iran after drinking Methanol over false rumours that it will cure coronavirus

More than 700 people have died in Iran after ingesting toxic methanol after falsely believing in rumours that it can cure the Chinese coronavirus, reports Al Jazeera.

According to the reports, more than 5,000 people have been poisoned from methanol-mixed alcohol leading to 728 Iranians getting killed between February 20 and April 7. Last year there were only 66 deaths from alcohol poisoning in the Islamic Republic.

“People think that alcohol causes immunity to corona while drinking alcohol does not eliminate corona in the body,” a medical expert was quoted saying.

Meanwhile, Iranian health ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, said 5,011 people have been poisoned from methanol, adding that some 90 people have lost their eyesight or are suffering eye damage from the alcohol poisoning.

Misinformation on social media

Due to overwhelming misinformation on social media, Iranian citizens resorted to consuming spurious alcohol in a bid to cure the deadly Wuhan coronavirus infection. Indiscriminate drinking accompanied by methanol poisoning has made thousands of people fall sick, killing nearly 700 Iranians.

The misinformation stemmed from a tabloid story published in early February which claimed that a British man cured himself of coronavirus infection by drinking whiskey with honey. Many believe that using alcohol-based sanitizer to ward off germs is akin to drinking alcohol to cure coronavirus infection.

Consumption of alcohol is banned in Iran

Consumption of alcohol is banned in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is mandatory for manufacturers of methanol to add artificial colour to their products so the public can differentiate it from ethanol.

Bootleggers, however, add bleach to these products such that it dilutes the artificial colour. Due to a growing demand for alcohol, bootleggers often sell methanol to its customers instead of ethanol. This explains the steep rise in cases of methanol poisoning.

Methanol cannot be smelled or tasted in drinks. It causes delayed organ and brain damage. Symptoms include chest pain, nausea, hyperventilation, blindness and even coma.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been largely affected by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Reportedly, 91,000 people had been affected while over 5,806 lives had been lost.



Leadership Lessons from Ramayana: JNU to conduct a two-day webinar in collaboration with The Ramayana School

OpIndia Staff
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Leadership Lessons from Ramayana: JNU to conduct a two-day webinar in collaboration with The Ramayana School

JNU’s Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar’s following tweet yesterday morning created a debate among twitteratties from the both the sides, about an upcoming webinar in JNU on Leadership Lessons from Ramayana, in partnership w

JNU VC said in his tweet, “About Rama, in 1946, Mahatma Gandhi said: He is one without a second. He alone is great. There is none greater than He. He is timeless, formless, stainless. Such is my Rama. He alone is my Lord and Master. JNU organizes ‘Leadership Lessons from Ramayana’. All from JNU are welcome.”

In another Tweet, the VC informed that JNU will be conducting a webinar on ‘Leadership lessons through Ramayana’ on May 2 and 3 from 4 pm to 6 pm. The webinar will be coordinated by Prof. Santosh Kumar Shukla, JNU and Prof. Mazhar Asif, JNU.

Founder of The Ramayana School, Shantanu Gupta, when contacted, thanked JNU’s VC for his proactive approach, to partner with the school for the Leadership workshop. 

The Ramayana School

Talking about The Ramayana School, Shantanu said – The Ramayana School is an endeavor to explore and contextualize the life lessons hidden in Ramayana to the present context. Ramayana School team has meticulously developed various innovative tools, to dive deep into the story, conversations & characters of Ramayana and to translate them in real life learnings for students, families, scholars, educators and entrepreneurs.

When asked about the details of the workshop, Shantanu told, that through various thought experiments and critical thinking tools, they try to work on critical & creative thinking skills of the participants, and in the process, participants develop, thorough understanding of the essence of Valmiki Ramayana. Learning from the leadership lessons from Rama’s journey, “Tracing Rama and Ravana within you” and “Killing the Ravana with you”, Ramayana Hackathon & Ramayana Olympiad Quiz are some of the popular tools among previous participants of the workshop.

When asked about the motivation behind the school, Shantanu told that he is homeschooling his son Abhiram, and around two years back, intrigued by a question by his son, he started engaging with Valmiki Ramayana deeply and being a management graduate, he found various leadership lessons in the wonderful ancient text of Ramayana. Shantanu has done multiple offline and online workshops on the topic, like at Rambhau Prabodhini in Mumbai and at 2nd World Ramayana Conference at Jabalpur. 

Shantanu added that The Ramayana School takes a cue from the fact that there is something magical in the thousands of years old biography of Rama, that it finds resonance in the culture of more than 100+ countries and got translated in more than 300 different variants and still counting, beyond the considerations of culture, religion and language. There is a hidden encrypted message in each of the 24000 slokas of Valmiki Ramayana, which can enrich humanity like nothing else.

MEA rejects USCIRF claims on religious freedom in the country, says US body’s misrepresentation has reached new levels

OpIndia Staff
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MEA rejects USCIRF claims on religious freedom in the country, says US body’s misrepresentation has reached new levels

The Indian government has categorically rejected the claims made by the controversial United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its report that the central government allowed violence against minorities in the country.

Responding to the recent USCIRF report, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated that the government rejected the observations in the report. Referring to the comments against India as “biased and tendentious” Srivastava said that such comments against India are “not new”, but on this occasion “its misrepresentation has reached new levels”.

“We reject the observations on India in the USCIRF Annual Report. Its biased and tendentious comments against India are not new. But on this occasion, its misrepresentation has reached new levels. It has not been able to carry its own Commissioners in its endeavour. We regard it as an organisation of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” said MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

USCIRF Annual Report on religious freedom

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an advisory body to the US Congress, on Tuesday released its 2020 annual report, where it recommended that the Trump administration to classify India as a “country of particular concern”, along with other countries like Pakistan, North Korea, China and Saudi Arabia.

The USCIRF, claimed that India was “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations”. The report also stated that the national government allowed violence against minorities and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence.

The report recommended that the Trump administration should impose targeted sanctions on Indian government responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and barring their entry into the United States under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations.

It recommended that the US administration “designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’, or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)”.

Three dissenters within USCIRF

Three out of nine commissioners at the USCIRF have dissented against the commission’s claim against India and have made separate qualifying notes to the report on India.

One of the USCIRF commissioners, Gary L. Bauer, said, “I must dissent from the decision of my fellow Commissioners to recommend India, the world’s largest democracy, for designation as a ‘country of particular concern’, or CPC, placing India in a gallery of rogue nations in which it does not belong.”

He added, “The trend line on religious freedom in India is not reassuring. But India is not the equivalent of communist China, which wages war on all faiths; nor of North Korea, a prison masquerading as a country; nor of Iran, whose Islamic extremist leaders regularly threaten to unleash a second Holocaust. India is our ally.”

USCIRF’s prejudice against India

The controversial US body has always been at the forefront of the misinformation campaign against the country. Ever since Narendra Modi returned back to power in 2019, the USCIRF has been meddling into India’s internal affairs by indulging in one-sided motivated propaganda against the Modi government.

The US congressional body emerged into the scene following the abrogation of Article 370 in the country with its misleading statements and continued to do so even during the implementation of historic Citizenship Amendment Act. It is notable here that the USCIRF has a history of fanning baseless rumours and leftist propaganda against India. They had also ranted against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act, calling it a ‘dangerous turn in the wrong direction’.

Ironically, the USCIRF, which claims to be standing for religious freedom and rights, resorted to peddling false propaganda against Indian government on CAA, a law which was implemented to guarantee rights in the country by granting Indian citizenship.

The Indian government has time-and-again rejected the one-sided prejudiced observations made by the US body. India had earlier said the American body on international religious freedom has chosen to be guided only by its biases on a matter on which it has no locus standi.

The USCIRF is the commission that had recommended the denial of US visa to PM Modi when he was the CM of Gujarat. It had also threatened ‘sanctions’ against Home Minister Amit Shah ‘if the CAB was passed’.

Fake news by USCIRF

Just weeks back, the self-proclaimed religious freedom body USCIRF, had indulged in a misinformation campaign by falsely claiming that coronavirus patients were being segregated on the basis of religious identity in an Ahmedabad hospital.

Citing a false propaganda report by Indian Express, the USCIRF had tweeted that it was “concerned with reports of Hindu and Muslim patients separated” into separate hospital wards in Gujarat. 

However, responding to the misinformation campaign of the Indian Express, the Gujarat government had categorically denied the claims. The Health Department of Gujarat had also clarified that no segregation is being done in the Ahmedabad civil hospital on the basis of religion for coronavirus patients.

Coronavirus: Death toll crosses 1,000 mark in India, over 31,000 have tested positive for COVID-19 till now

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus: Death toll crosses 1,000 mark in India, over 31,000 have tested positive for COVID-19 till now

The death toll for coronavirus has crossed the 1,000 mark in India and it stands at 1,007 as of 29 April, 2020. As of now 31,332 people have tested positive for COVID-19, the virus that originated in China.

MoHFW data on coronavirus

Coronavirus in India

India has been under a complete lockdown since 25th March 2020 and while it is expected to conclude on 3rd May, authorities have hinted that there may be further extension in hotspots where situation is still not under control. As per the data, there are currently 22,629 active cases in India while 7,695 people have recovered and have been discharged. Of the states, Maharashtra has been worst affected with coronavirus with as many as 9,318 positive cases and 400 deaths. This is followed by Gujarat that has recorded 3,744 positive cases and 54 deaths as per the official ministry data.

Delhi’s tally stands at 3,314 cases of which 1,078 have recovered. Rajasthan is at 2,364 positive cases of which 768 have recovered and Madhya Pradesh has 2,387 positive cases of which 377 have recovered.

Goa, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have fully recovered while Sikkim and Nagaland have not recorded a single positive case of coronavirus.

Delhi Minority Commission chief says Hindus will face an ‘avalanche’ if Indian Muslims complain to their friends in the Arab world

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi Minority Commission chief says Hindus will face an ‘avalanche’ if Indian Muslims complain to their friends in the Arab world

Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Zafarul Islam Khan on Tuesday indulged in blatant provocation against Hindus of the country after he threatened with an ‘avalanche’ by the Muslims of the country.

Islam Khan, took to Facebook, to share a provocative post to thank Kuwait for “standing with the Indian Muslims” and attacked Hindus by referring to them as “Hindutva bigots”, who according to him miscalculated the reaction of the Arab world about the “persecution of Muslims in India”.

In his post, Khan went on to assert that Indian Muslims enjoy huge goodwill in the Arab and Muslim world for their services over centuries to Islamic causes. His post comes amidst reports that Kuwait had expressed concern regarding the alleged atrocities against Muslims in the country amidst coronavirus outbreak.

AAP leader hails radical Islamist Zakir Naik

Shockingly, the Delhi Minority Commission chairman hailed notorious radical Islamist and terror sympathiser Zakir Naik in his post as he claimed people like Naik are respectful household names in the Arab region and Muslim world.

He claimed that Indian Muslims like hah Waliullah Dehlavi, Iqbal, Abul Hasan Nadwi, Wahiduddin Khan, Zakit Naik earned respect for their in the Arab world.

“Mind you, bigots, Indian Muslims have opted until now not to complain to the Arab and Muslim world about your hate campaigns and lynchings and riots. The day they are pushed to do that, bigots will face avalanche,” he added.

Kuwait ambassador’s statement

Recently, an old statement by the Secretary-General of Kuwait cabinet had gone viral on social media, where the Secretary-General had parroted Pakistan’s favourite lines about Muslims being persecuted in India.

However, the Kuwait government, through their ambassador in India Jassem Al-Najem, have clarified that they respect the UN charter of non-interference in other countries’ affairs and respecting the sovereignty of nations. The Kuwaiti ambassador had also highlighted the current cooperation between the two nations.

Recently, upon request from the Kuwaiti government, India had deployed a Rapid Response Team to assist in their fight against coronavirus. For two weeks, the Indian RRT had rendered emergency medical assistance in testing and treatment of coronavirus patients to Kuwaiti professionals.

Anti-India propaganda in Arab world

The Hinduphobic comments of Zafarul Islam come on the heels of several reports that some section in Kuwait has raised their voice against the alleged persecution of Muslims in India amid the coronavirus outbreak.

It is pertinent to note that just yesterday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reiterated that the government of Kuwait does not support interference in India’s internal matters and deeply respects the friendly relations between the two countries.

Last week, after the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, had urged the Indian government to take “urgent steps” to protect the rights of its minority Muslim community. However, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had asserted that Muslims are prosperous in the country and those trying to ‘vitiate the atmosphere cannot be their friends’.

Soon after, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar had officially stated that they do not support the anti-India propaganda currency going on by ‘foreign-sponsored social media handles and posts’.

It was recently found that many Pakistani nationals have been impersonating Arab elites on social media to share controversial statements against India in order to create discord between the nations and to dox Indians working in Gulf nations.

BJP hits back

BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli has hit out at Zafarul Islam Khan for “inviting” foreign countries to interfere in India’s internal affairs and questioned the Delhi government’s stand on his comments.

Nalin Kohli also slammed the Delhi minorities panel chief for mentioning the name of Zakir Naik among honourable Indian Muslims.

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