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Shekhar Gupta slams Shekhar Gupta for sneering at former IAS officer Shaktikanta Das after he was appointed as RBI Governor

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Shekhar Gupta slams Shekhar Gupta for sneering at former IAS officer Shaktikanta Das after he was appointed as RBI Governor

One of the well-preserved secrets in the post-modern Indian history is the source of the senior journalist of the country – Shekhar Gupta’s eternal knowledge. There is not even a single individual in the entire world, barring Nityananda of Kailasa, who can comprehend the level of enlightenment Shekhar Gupta has achieved in the last few decades.

Perhaps, if there is someone exists who can match Shekhar Gupta’s credentials, it is Shekhar Gupta himself.

Shekhar Gupta, who is an epitome of eternal knowledge, presumably a notch ahead of multi-talented Yogendra Yadav, had once worn his economist hat in 2018 to share his opinion on Shaktikanta Das, a former Finance Secretary, who was appointed as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India by the Modi government.

Gupta, the de-facto head of media mafiosa in the country, had not only come up with his ‘constructive cynicism’ against Das’s appointment to the RBI but also had unleashed his media comrades to target Modi government for appointing a ‘generalist’ IAS officer to head the Reserve Bank of India, an institution responsible for the overall macro-economic stability of the country.

Shekhar Gupta, who has an enormous experience of being judgemental on every trivial issue, had also shared his opinion on the appointment then in 2018. In a tweet, Gupta had mocked Das for not having a formal domain education to qualify for the post of central bank’s governor.

Shekhar Gupta, a gold medalist from the illustrious – WhatsApp university, had pitied on IAS-turned-technocrat Shaktikanta Das for not being so knowledgable on fundamental economics, the course which Gupta had mastered from watching videos of Pro-Aam Aadmi Party Youtuber Dhruv Rathee.

Fifteen months down the line, Shekhar Gupta, now adorned with new knowledge perhaps thought of passing another judgement on the accomplishments of Shaktikanta Das. Mastered with enormous experience in handling monetary policies, Gupta has not only given his approval for Das’s appointment now but also praised Shaktikanta Das for doing a pretty good job as RBI governor.

Interestingly, Gupta, this time did not shy away from slamming his fellow ‘economists’ for insulting Shaktikanta Das in 2018 when he was made RBI chief.

Gupta has now remarked that Das, in a short period of time, has not only proven worthy of the job but also demonstrated that his appointment was a good choice. “Solid, calm & non-doctrinaire,” Shekhar Gupta asserted by finally giving his approbation to Das’s appointment.

Gupta, who is often busy with planting fake narratives across media platforms, however, may have forgotten that he was at the forefront at sneering at Das. With no shame left whatsoever, Shekhar Gupta has now found enough courage to post positive appraisal of Shaktikanta Das without even acknowledging the fact that he was one of the first ones to discredit his appointment back in 2018.

Shekhar Gupta ‘calling out’ Shekhar Gupta, would perhaps be a dream job for Shekhar Gupta, as he could use his entire day for rest of his life just to fact-check his own claims and conspiracy theories. This brave act would not only guarantee his livelihood options for the rest of the future but also saves significant time of other fact-checkers.

Rohingya Muslims attended Tablighi Jamaat events, MHA directs states to screen them and their contacts on priority

K Bhattacharjee
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Rohingya Muslims attended Tablighi Jamaat events, MHA directs states to screen them and their contacts on priority

Tablighi Jamaat has emerged as the biggest vector for the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic across the country. Since the massive gathering at the Markaz Nizamuddin was busted, the Islamic Missionary organization has contributed a lion’s share to the total number of Coronavirus cases. Now, it is reported that even Rohingya Muslims, who have been living in the country illegally, had attended the Islamic event in Delhi.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has reportedly written to states to trace Rohingya Muslims who had attended Tablighi Jamaat events at Mewat, Haryana and Nizamuddin Markaz. It is stated there is a possibility that they have contracted the Wuhan Coronavirus. It is also reported that Rohingyas living in camps at Hyderabad had visited Markaz Nizamuddin and attended a Jamaat event at Mewat. Furthermore, Rohingyas from Shaheen Bagh who had undertaken activities related to the Islamic Missionary organization have not returned.

The presence of Rohingyas who had attended Tablighi events has been reported from Derabassi, Punjab and Jammu. States have been asked to screen these Rohingyas and their contacts on priority.

Source: Hindustan Times

What happened at Markaz Nizamuddin of Tablighi Jamaat?

The Tablighi Jamaat time bomb erupted across the country in the last week of March when around 200 people with Wuhan Coronavirus symptoms were admitted to various hospitals in Delhi from the Markaz Nizamuddin and surrounding places. Subsequently, the area around the Markaz Nizamuddin was cordoned off by the Delhi Police. Soon, cases began to erupt across the country with links to the Tablighi Jamaat and the country stood horrified as the magnitude of the Islamic Missionary organization’s transgressions became known.

Soon enough, it became known that around two thousand people, quite possibly a lot more, had attended the event and as late as the 22nd of March, 2500 people were present at the premises of the Markaz Nizamuddin and around 1500 of them left the place on the 23rd of March. Even so, it meant that around a thousand people were still stuck at the global headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat as of the 24th of March. Since then, it has been a continuous series of escalations and atrocious conduct by the members of the Jamaat who have made things difficult for the administration and the healthcare providers at every step along the way.

Uttar Pradesh: FIR lodged against one Seraj Ahmad for refusing to eat food cooked by Dalit village head at a quarantine centre

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: FIR lodged against one Seraj Ahmad for refusing to eat food cooked by Dalit village head at a quarantine centre

The Uttar Pradesh police have booked one Seraj Ahmad, a native of Bhujouli Khurd village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district on Monday for allegedly refusing to eat food cooked by a Dalit village head at a quarantine centre.

Station House Officer (SHO) Khadda police station R K Yadav said an FIR has been filed against Seraj Ahmad under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Speaking about the incident, the village head Lilawati Devi’s husband Subhash Gautam said that the caste-based discrimination they faced has hurt them. He said that after the cook in the quarantine centre ran away, fearing infection, his wife felt bad that those five people in isolation were hungry. She went there and cooked food for them. The other four ate but Seraj Ahmad refused to eat since the food was cooked by a Dalit, he claimed.

As soon as the news reached BJP MLA Vijay Dubey, he visited Devi’s house on Sunday and asked her to serve him food cooked by her in order to set precedence. He said untouchability is a social evil and it can’t be tolerated at any cost.

Seraj Ahmad, along with four others, was lodged at a quarantine centre set up in a primary school in the village after he returned from Delhi on March 29.

On April 10, the village head, Lilawati Devi, who is a Dalit, went to the quarantine centre and prepared food for the five people lodged at the quarantine centre as the cook was absent. However, Ahmad refused to eat the food cooked by her, police said.

Later, Lilawati Devi informed Sub-Divisional Magistrate Deshdeepak Singh and Block Development Officer Ramakant about the incident. She also lodged a police complaint on Sunday, police added.

Though untouchability was abolished with Article 15 of the Constitution, giving every Indian citizen the right to be treated equally, regardless of religion, caste, creed and gender, this incident once again shows that casteism is still a very relevant and a genuine problem faced by the Hindu society in many parts of India. While left-liberals and Islamists often mock Hinduism due to the caste system, it is interesting that a Muslim person refused to eat food prepared by a Dalit.

Last year, in a similar incident, Dalits in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh had approached the police and district magistrate against caste-based discrimination by Muslim barbers in the area. Allegedly, Muslim barbers have refused to offer haircuts to Dalits living in their village. The Muslim barbers had allegedly said that if Dalits get their haircut and shaving done at their saloons, the towels will get ‘dirty’ and Muslims will stop visiting their shops.

Even as China blows its trumpet, Wuhan residents say actual number of Coronavirus deaths far more than official numbers: Details of growing anger

OpIndia Staff
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Even as China blows its trumpet, Wuhan residents say actual number of Coronavirus deaths far more than official numbers: Details of growing anger

While the Chinese Communist regime is busy projecting that the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus in the country is gradually on the wane, the residents of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly contagion that has ravaged hundreds of countries across the world and afflicted more than 2.1 million people globally with a staggering death count of 146,000+, believe that the number of deaths reported by China in its official count belies the havoc wreaked by the pandemic.

Angry with the communist party and Xi Jinping’s lackadaisical initial response in acknowledging and detecting the problem, those who witnessed the tragedy unravelling firsthand claim that the number of coronavirus victims is far greater than what the state has been quoting.

Fatalities count higher than the official tally: Wuhan residents say

Stephen Cheng, a 30-year-old Wuhan resident whose pregnant wife and father contracted the coronavirus, asserted that if the decision-makers had visited or consulted the frontline doctors about the extent of the spread, they would have known the actual count of the patients and realised the urgency of nipping the virus in its bud.

Cheng’s family exhibited symptoms of the novel coronavirus in late January, when panic shot through the streets of Wuhan, with fraught people seeking beds and testing kits overwhelmed the city’s hospital network. According to Cheng’s account, hundreds of potentially ill patients lined up the city’s 7 main hospitals, which according to him may have summed up to 10,000 cases on a conservative scale as compared to the official Chinese tally of 2,600 cases that was published a week later. Cheng believes that the death toll must be higher too, though he couldn’t provide the estimate, given the scale of the pandemic that continues to ravage the city.

Several other residents of Wuhan believe that the Chinese government has not been entirely truthful regarding the actual count of people who had died of the virus. Thousands of stacks of urn outside funeral homes in Hubei province had seeded doubts among the residents of Wuhan about the real tally of COVID-19 related deaths.

Mounting pressure from Chinese residents and the allegations of opacity from the international community over the suspiciously low count of deaths due to coronavirus had forced China to revise its official death toll. The new numbers, a 50 per cent increased in the previous count, has only added to the scepticism surrounding the accuracy of China’s coronavirus count. There are still strong suspicions that the actual number of infected and dead due to the Wuhan Coronavirus is far greater

Chinese residents seek explanation over the coronavirus fiasco

Besides the doubts over the real count of China’s coronavirus victims, residents in Wuhan are also wary of the efficacy of the government’s much-vaunted ‘Early Warning Disease- Control System’ that China developed in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003. Residents are also searching for answers over why the whistle-blower doctors and scientists were mistreated and precluded from ringing the alarm bells about a possible outbreak of a highly contagious disease.

Tian, a sales representative for a drone company based out of Wuhan, is infuriated over the inexplicable behaviour of Chinese authorities in covering up the outbreak and in silencing the doctors who had detected the contagion in its early stage. He also raised concerns about why the ‘Early Warning Disease- Control System’ which was developed by spending millions of dollars, failed in alerting the officials about the imminent flare-up of the virus.

Another Wuhan resident, Wang, 26, was particularly miffed with the government’s obnoxious behaviour meted out to the whistle-blower red flag was Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist who warned colleagues and friends in an online group about a number of “SARS-like” cases at his hospital. Li later contracted the disease and died in early February which served as a watershed moment in reshaping China’s response to the pandemic. Wang, who thinks that China’s authoritarian system had marginalised medical experts, believes that Li’s death may serve as a momentous event in altering the communist government’s attitude towards the medical practitioners.

Zhang Zhonglin, a hotel owner in Wuhan, is irked by the Chinese authorities for remaining tight-lipped about the lurking pandemic until January 23. “There were obviously a number of [Covid-19] cases in December and there were some whistle-blowers,” he said while adding, “There was definitely government inaction then, and we volunteered and acted on our own to help.”

Zhang, along with dozens of other hoteliers, opened up their hotel for free for doctors and nurses combating the coronavirus on frontlines. However, as the lockdown restrictions are gradually being lifted in Wuhan, Zhang and others like him are struggling in getting their businesses moving. They are bewildered as to why the government has not displayed any sympathy for them when they helped the government during the crisis.

Wikipedia deletes article on Tablighi Jamaat hotspot of Coronavirus calling it anti-Muslim, administrator uses Supervote to overrule majority vote to retain article

OpIndia Staff
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Wikipedia deletes article on Tablighi Jamaat hotspot of Coronavirus calling it anti-Muslim, administrator uses Supervote to overrule majority vote to retain article

By now it has been established that Wikipedia has become a bastion of Leftist-Ismalists. A small number of individuals now control what can be published on the crowd-sourced online encyclopaedia, and these individuals tend to have a pro-Islamist bias. The latest example of the same is a Wikipedia article on the role of Tablighi Jamaat in spreading the Wuhan Coronavirus in India, which was deleted after a voting process where an overwhelming majority had voted against its deletion.

The Tablighi Jamaat congregation, which took place in Nizamuddin Markaz in the first half of March, has become the mega-spreader of Coronavirus in India, as many as more than one-third cases in India are linked to that event now. People who had attended the event, and their family members and those who came into contact with them are testing positive regularly, contributing the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Therefore, the Tablighi Jamaat has become an important angle to the Coronavirus Pandemic in India, along with some other countries. In view of this, a Wikipedia page was created on 2nd April. But soon it came under the attack of Islamist editors, and it was nominated for deletion on the same day. After a discussion as per rules of Wikipedia, the article was deleted on 10th April.

The deletion discussion

The arguments given for deleting the article defies logic, while some others are outright lies. It is interesting that the person who had nominated the article for nomination originally, withdrew his nomination on a later date, but still the page was deleted by administrators. The person who goes by the username Kautilya3 on Wikipedia, had withdrawn the nomination on 5th April, ‘because the size of the hotspot has turned out to be much larger than previously known’, and said that this appears to be a legitimate topic for an article.

A total of 38 people had participated in the discussion to delete the article, and in them, only 12 persons had advocated for deletion. 23 persons had voted to not delete and keep the article, while 3 had said that it should be merged with other Coronavirus related articles in India. Those who had supported the deletion said that the article was biased and anti-Muslim. While those who had advocated to keep it had argued that it is a significant event that merits its own Wikipedia page, as it has become the largest source of Coronavirus in India, accounting for one-third of positive cases.

The Supervote

Despite the majority wanting to keep the article, one Wikipedia administration with the user name Sandstein decided to delete the page, using his power which is known as ‘Wikipedia: Supervote’ on the site. This term means an administration taking a decision without entering into a discussion and without taking into consideration the opinions of others.

Sandstein also posted a monologue on the deletion discussion page giving justification for the deletion, which nowhere comes near standard policies of Wikipedia. The administrator wrote, “there are a lot of tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India, and there is also increasing state-sanctioned Islamophobia and persecution of Muslims in India”. Which is clearly a personal opinion of a person against the governments in India, which was used to take a decision on Wikipedia.

While Wikipedia thrives on notability, which means the validity of articles are decided on the basis of their notability, Sandstein surprisingly wrote that “arguments based on notability criteria should not be given decisive weight in the context of this kind of topic”. The administrator also wrote that they should limit the amount of article creation only because the subject in question is “highly volatile and rife with misinformation and tensions in the real world and on Wikipedia”, which makes no sense and there is no such policy in Wikipedia.  

Therefore, the article was deleted based on the personal opinion of an administrator, going against majority of editors who had participated in the discussion. Most importantly, the original nominator for deletion has withdrawn the nomination, but despite that the administrator chose to apply a Supervote to delete the article due to allegations of Islamophobia.

Although decisions on Wikipedia are not taken based on majority, and therefore the number of votes does not matter as the discussions are held mainly to arrive at a consensus. But even in that scenario, a glance on the deletion discussion shows that it was deleted just on the allegations on being ‘anti-Muslim’ and ‘fanning religious hatred’, which are unproven, while the arguments for keeping it were backed by solid logic.

Baseless accusation of anti-Muslim

It is interesting to note that while the article on Indian Tablighi Jamaat was deleted accusing it of being anti-Muslim, a similar Wikipedia page exists for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. While Muslims in Pakistan do not hesitate in recording the role of Tablighi Jamaat in spreading coronavirus, leftists and Islamists in India think it is anti-Muslim if the same is done in India.

It has been established that the members of Tablighi Jamaat has been responsible for the spread of COVID-19 in several states of the country. That is established by the fact that in bulletins about new cases, individual state governments are reporting the number of cases linked to the Jamaat, even if some of them have some replaced the words ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ with generic names like ‘single source’ or ‘special operations’ due to attacks from Islamists.

For example, in Assam which have 34 positive cases for coronavirus, as many as 33 are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event that took place in Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi in the first half of March. Similarly, in most of the states, Tablighi Jamaat members account for majority of the cases, while the Jamaat members are also found hiding in mosques avoiding testing, and also avoiding treatment in case they test positive. They are also misbehaving with healthcare workers and others in hospitals and quarantine centres.

The Tablighi Jamaat has become a super spreader of Coronavirus, and the information about them is important in containing the highly contagious virus. To document the various event that led to it can’t be termed anti-Muslim just because it is an Islamic congregation. Any large group spreading majority of the infection merits documentation, and Tablighi Jamaat is one of them. But Islamists are working overtime to whitewash the role of the Jamaat, who had already forced two states to replace the words ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ in their bulletins. This deletion of the Wikipedia page looks like just another step in that whitewashing effort. Now a deletion review request has been filed on Wikipedia, requesting for deletion of the article. Most people participating in this discussion agree that the article should be restored, and the administrator deleted it based on his personal opinion without any valid logic. But Sandstein replied to the discussion affirming that it will be kept deleted. The administrator quoted an article by New York Times alleging that Coronavirus is fuelling religious hatred in India, while New York Times’ hatred for India is well known.

It is a repeat offence

A couple of months ago similar bias in Wikipedia had become evident when they tried to paint the Delhi riots as anti-Muslim riots perpetrated by Hindus, while the reality was the exact opposite. The article had labelled BJP leader Kapil Mishra as the main architect of the riots for his one speech calling for the maintenance of law and order, while had refused to name Muslim leaders who were seen leading the riots in videos. Later it was revealed that one Wikipedia editor with the user name DBigXray was spreading anti-Hindu venom in several articles on the encyclopaedia site.

These incidents have once again showed that while Wikipedia remains good source for topics on general knowledge, science etc, it has become very unreliable for topics related to politics, society, and current affairs, as the personal bias of the administers decide what is published and what is not on the website.

Watch: Karnataka Police lathi-charge people congregated at Mosque for Friday Namaaz amidst Coronavirus lockdown

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Karnataka Police lathi-charge people congregated at Mosque for Friday Namaaz amidst Coronavirus lockdown

On April 17, cops lathi-charged a group of Muslims who had congregated for Friday Namaaz at a mosque in the town of Haveri, Karnataka in complete defiance of the social distancing guidelines and the nationwide lockdown that was imposed in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak.

In the video, Muslim devotees could be seen exiting the mosque, following the Friday Namaaz when they were thrashed individually by the cops standing there.

Friday Namaaz in Belgaum proved costly

Earlier, a video emerged on social media where Karnataka police were seen thrashing people as they left the Mosque after Namaz, and were violating the lockdown. In the video, a group of Muslims could be seen coming out of the Mosque after offering Namaz.

At that point, the police took action against the congregation in the bid to disperse the crowd that was violating the lockdown. In the lockdown order, it was specifically mentioned that all religious institutions would also remain closed for the period of 21-days of the lockdown.

Namaazis attack cops

On April 3, a large gathering of Muslims in Karnataka’s Hubbali district attacked police officials when they tried to stop them from offering namaaz en masse amidst the nationwide lockdown to blunt the spread of coronavirus. 4 police officials, including one woman constable, were injured by Muslim youths as they pelted stones at the police personnel for stopping them from congregating amidst the looming threat of the Chinese Virus.

The cops had sustained minor injuries and were admitted to KIMS hospital for treatment. According to Police Commissioner R Dileep, an investigation into stone pelting incident has been ordered and suspected individuals involved in the attack against the police personnel have been detained.

Hindustan Times misleads its readers by twisting the comments made by an ‘expert’ on the relation between spitting and spread of diseases

OpIndia Staff
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Hindustan Times misleads its readers by twisting the comments made by an ‘expert’ on the relation between spitting and spread of diseases

The Hindustan Times in an interview published on the 17th of April 2020 insinuated that spitting was not as much of a significant issue as people would like to believe. The headline and the caption for it in its tweet was probably designed to whitewash the threat that members of the Tablighi Jamaat has been posing with their relentless spitting on doctors and all around. However, it appears that the words of the ‘expert’ were deliberately misled to give the readers an inaccurate impression.

Source: Hindustan Times/Twitter

What the Professor actually said about health risks posed by Spitting

First of all, the said ‘expert’, Professor Ross Coomber, is the head of the department of sociology, social policy and criminology, University of Liverpool, the United Kingdom (UK). He is not an epidemiologist, he is not qualified enough to speak on the actual threat that spitting poses to the health of the community. Moreover, when the professor did speak about the low risk posed by spitting, he was not even referring to the Wuhan Coronavirus. Professor Coomber was specifically referring to diseases such as HIV, hepatitis A, B and C and said that in the case of tuberculosis, spitting was low in the hierarchies of risk factors.

What the Professor actually said

The Professor’s remarks about Spitting in the context of the Coronavirus

When it came to the Wuhan Coronavirus, the professor actually said that it was best to stop spitting altogether. He said, “Social distancing and sensible all-round behaviour (washing hands etc.) are probably the most important. It seems sensible to suggest that not forcefully projecting bodily fluids into the air should be behaviour but I would suggest that spitting to the ground is not the same as spitting into the air, which happens rarely. It is probably best and sensible to stop all projectile bodily emissions in the current context, whenever possible.”

Thus, quite clearly, Hindustan Times, in its bid to shield the gross behaviour of Tablighi Jamaat first asked a professor who does not have adequate authority to comment on the matter and even then, twisted his words to present a completely different picture so that the actual threat posed by the Islamic missionary organization could be downplayed. Meanwhile, members of the Tablighi Jamaat have spat on doctors and the healthcare staff in order to get them infected with the virus and their horrendous behaviour shows no signs of abating.

The deplorable conduct of Tablighi Jamaat

Members of the Tablighi Jamaat have engaged in horrendous conduct ever since they were admitted to hospitals after being diagnosed with the Wuhan Coronavirus. They have spat on doctors, thrown tantrums and demanded ‘spicy beef biryani’ instead of the doctor prescribed food, sexually harassed the female healthcare staff at hospitals, refused to cooperate with the the healthcare staff and created ruckus and labeled deluded accusations at doctors. Furthermore, they have been trying to avoid detection by the administration and in certain cases, have switched off their mobile phones to avoid detection.

Kashmiri terrorist Aijaz Ahangar, who had ‘vanished’ 25 years ago, arrested in Kandahar by Afghan Security forces: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Kashmiri terrorist Aijaz Ahangar, who had ‘vanished’ 25 years ago, arrested in Kandahar by Afghan Security forces: Report

A Kashmiri terrorist originally known as Aijaz Ahmad Ahangar has been arrested earlier this month by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security in Kandahar. Ahangar is a native of Nawa Kadal in Srinagar, has been wanted for two decades in the valley.

As per a report in Hindustan Times, he was arrested once in mid-nineties on the allegation of terror links but released later. Aijaz Ahangar aka Abu Usman Al Kashmiri traveled to Bangladesh after his release from Central Jail and from there he took a flight to Pakistan.

After a span of nearly 25 years, he was finally arrested by Afghan forces. The NDS was focussed to catch Aslam Farooqui, the Chief of Islamic State ‘Khorasan Province’ who claimed the responsibility for 25 March Gurudwara attack in Kabul which claimed the lives of 27 Sikh worshippers. Aijaz Ahangar’s arrest had gone unnoticed till now.

An Afghan watcher said, “It was a surprise.” As per the HT report, Ahangar had identified himself as Ali Mohammad from Islamabad in the early questioning.

Terrorist links in India

Ahangar’s Father-in-law Abdullah Ghazali is also known as Abdul Ghani Dar was a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and played a role in the formation of the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen in 1990, that recruited militants from Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Ahangar had married Ghazali’s daughter Rukhsana.

Ghazali was found murdered inside Jamia Masjid Ahle Hadith at Maisuma near Lal Chowk, Srinagar’s business hub in this year’s February. He was 80. Abdullah Gazali was allegedly involved in a 2011 murder of Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah, the then president of the Jamiat Ahle Hadith. However, he was granted bail in 2015. Ghazali’s murder was attributed to faction rivalry in Ahle-Hadith.

Ahnagar’s son Abdullah Umais was killed a few years ago after fighting against Afghanistan’s Nangarhar. His Son-in-law Huzaifa-Al-Bakistani was a top online recruiter of ISKP who was killed in a US drone attack in Afghanistan in 2019.

Went To Pakistan via Bangladesh

Aijaz Ahangar allegedly went to Pakistan Via Bangladesh rather than taking the route through Line of Control despite terror links from across the border.

As per reports, Ahangar settled in Islamabad with the help of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and married for the second time to Aisha, a resident of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

After a brief association with Al Qaeda, he joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and later he joined Islamic State-Khorasan Province.

Armed terrorists and suicide bombers had attacked a Gurudwara in the Shor Bazar area in Kabul, Afghanistan on 25 March, leaving 27 Sikhs dead and at least 15 injured. The Islamic State (ISIS) had claimed the responsibility for the attack. While one suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance, three ISIS terrorists stormed the shrine in the Shorbazar area Wednesday morning (25 March). Around 150 people were worshipping in the Gurudwara at the time of the attack.

Meet Vidya Krishnan: A ‘health journalist’ who is more interested in playing politics than reporting on healthcare

OpIndia Staff
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Meet Vidya Krishnan: A ‘health journalist’ who is more interested in playing politics than reporting on healthcare

With the advent of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, one journalist has suddenly shot to fame from relative obscurity. The name of the journalist is Vidya Krishnan and her reporters feature on numerous publications including The Caravan and The Atlantic. Although she claims to be a ‘health journalist’, she appears to be more interested in politics than the nitty-gritty of healthcare. In recent times, she has received attention in equal measure for her political biases as much for her ‘health journalism’, which has not been up to the mark.

In a The Caravan report titled “Modi administration did not consult ICMR-appointed COVID task force before key decisions”, Vidya Krishnan falsely claimed that many members of the COVID-19 Task Force are unaware of the decisions taken by the Indian Government under Prime Minister Modi. It was contended that experts were not aware of the government’s decision to extend the lockdown until the 3rd of May. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) refuted her claims through social media. The ICMR clarified that in the past one month, the Task Force had met 14 times and that all decisions taken involve the members of the Task Force.

The Caravan Magazine article spreading falsehood

It was not the first time that Vidya Krishnan has spread lies about the Indian Government’s response to the pandemic, however. In an earlier report, she falsely claimed that “at two separate press briefing held on Friday, both the health ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research—also a government body—rejected the possibility of local transmission”. But that is a completely false claim, because the Indian Council of Medical Research has already stated that by March 14, 2020, India was already at stage 2 of transmission, which means local transmission.

Vidya Krisnan lied about the government’s admission of local transmission

As it turns out, at least for The Caravan, Vidya Krishnan has not written one single positive report about the Indian healthcare industry. The Indian healthcare system may not be very good and requires vast vast improvements, however, it is perplexing that there isn’t a single positive story to report about the industry in six long years.

Vidya Krishnan’s reports and commentary on The Caravan

Al Jazeera has carried only two reports by Vidya Krishnan and they tell a similar story.

Vidya Krishnan on Al Jazeera

Additionally, in a report penned by Vidya Krishnan and published by The Atlantic, a distorted image of the Indian Flag was used. In the report, India’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus was again denigrated and the hallowed Ashoka Chakra was replaced with an artistic representation of the Wuhan Coronavirus.

Vidya Krishnan report on The Atlantic

The reports that Vidya Krishnan has penned for The Atlantic, too, are of a similar nature. They are unidirectional in their approach and sorely critical of the Indian response to the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic.

Vidya Krishnan on The Atlantic

Meanwhile, Vidya Krishnan been mocking Prime Minister Modi’s initiative to raise awareness by wearing homemade masks during his interactions. She claimed that the Prime Minister wearing a mask during a video conference somehow suggested ‘tokenism’ and a lack of ‘common sense’ in India’s response to the Chinese virus. Meanwhile, India has been lauded by the likes of the World Health Organisation for its efforts in containing the pandemic. And anyone with half a brain and devoid of any motivated agenda would be aware that the Narendra Modi was only trying to lead by example at a time when masks have proven to be effective in combating the spread of the virus.

Furthermore, the ‘health journalist’ also appears to be working overtime to run cover for the Tablighi Jamaat and its horrendous conduct that has severely jeopardized India’s efforts to contain the pandemic. She compared the contribution of the Tablighi Jamaat to the Coronavirus cases in India to that of the ISKCON in the United Kingdom, even though the two are not even in the same plane. Tablighi Jamaat occupies a lion’s share of the total number of COVID-19 cases in India while in the UK, ISKCON makes up only a minuscule proportion of it.

Vidya Krishnan comparing the ISKCON to Tablighi Jamaat

Vidya Krishnan has also been deeply invested in slandering journalists who have reported on the manner in which significant sections of the Muslim community have flouted guidelines issued by the government to combat the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. According to her, the journalists should follow ‘WHO guidelines’ instead of reporting facts on the matter. The same WHO whose credibility lies in tatters after it was found running propaganda for the Chinese government.

Vidya Krishnan running cover for rule breakers from the Muslim community

Vidya Krishnan has also been going around claiming that the Indian Government is obstructing journalist from reporting facts on the issue of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. In an interview she gave to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), she claimed, “One of the things that I’m genuinely concerned about is the threats in my inbox. I don’t have a correct threat perception for it, because an email is just an email, but then I know from experience and from having common friends with Gauri Lankesh, that she used to get a lot of hate like that, up until someone showed up at her home one day and shot her. I constantly tell myself that’s not going to happen, but that is in my head.

Vidya Krishnan also claimed that she feared the kind of ‘judicial harassment’ that The Wire is facing. In reality, Siddharth Varadarajan and The Wire are in the dock for spreading blatant fake news about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by attributing fake quotes to him. She makes several other dubious allegations which is consistent with the kind of reporting she has been engaging in.

The Board of Directors of the CPJ include journalists and persons from the New York Times, NBC, Bloomberg News, Al Jazeera and The New Yorker among others. Such outlets have regularly flouted all journalistic norms and ethics and if such abuses were committed by any organization in any other sector, there would have been serious repercussions. But when one is engaged in the business of shaping public opinion, there is a lot that organizations can get away with.

Quite clearly, Vidya Krishnan may be a ‘health journalist’ but her motivations are purely political. Nothing else explains her resolute defense of Tablighi Jamaat or spreading mala fide lies about the government and its response to the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. To be clear, there are various issues regarding which greater transparency from the government would be appreciated. For instance, the religious demography of those infected and the deceased as well as it would help toward formulating better public policies.

Similarly, there are issues where the Government of India could be criticized legitimately. For instance, its failure to provide greater transparency into the social groups most affected by the virus or its decision to go forward with Home Quarantine which was often flouted by people instead of quarantining the in secure places. These decision are indeed worthy of criticism and ought to be criticized but somehow, the government has hardly received any criticism on such matters but has been criticized widely on issues that it has been remarkably proactive in. Such criticism reeks of mala fide intentions. And this is something Vidya Krishnan is acutely guilty of.

This moving graph shows how Maharashtra toppled Kerala to be No. 1 in coronavirus positive cases in India

OpIndia Staff
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This moving graph shows how Maharashtra toppled Kerala to be No. 1 in coronavirus positive cases in India

With initial 3 cases of Coronavirus detected in the last week of January in Kerala, the number have crossed 13000 in India after two and a half months. While the first cases were reported from Kerala and NCR region, now Maharashtra has the highest number of Wuhan Coronavirus positive cases, followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. A large portion of the infections in the country can be traced back to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation that took place in the first half of March in Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi.

Here is a moving graph which showed how the number of cases emerged in various states after March 1, and how the numbers in Maharashtra rapidly increased to occupy the top position, with almost the twice the numbers than the state in the second position, Delhi.

– Please wait for the moving graph i.e. data visualization to load below –

This moving graph (data visualisation) has been created by Abhishek A. Mukherjee, a masters degree student at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The graph has been prepared using data published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on its website.

This interesting data visualisation shows Maharashtra reported its first COVID-19 case only on 8th March, when the chart was dominated by Kerala, Uttar Pradesh Delhi. Just a week later, the state overtook Kerala on 14th March, and remained in top upto 23 March. On that date Kerala again occupied the top position with 87 cases against 86 of Maharashtra. But it was short-lived, as Maharashtra again overtook Kerala the very next day. The same thing happened on 27th March when both the states exchanged positions for a brief time. On 29th again Kerala became the state with highest coronavirus cases, to be overtaken by Maharashtra on 31st.

Till 31st March, both Maharashtra and Kerala were having similar numbers with small difference, but it changed drastically in April, as the numbers in Maharashtra rose at a steep rate, while Kerala kept the numbers in control. Gradually other states like Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh etc overtook Kerala, and as of today, Kerala occupies the last spot in the top 10 states.

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