On Thursday, the Supreme Court referred the Special Leave Petition filed by the State of Uttar Pradesh against the March 6 judgment of Allahabad High Court directing removal of the posters erected by the UP administration in Lucknow to a larger three-judge bench.
A Supreme Court vacation bench comprising Justice UU Lalit and Justice Aniruddha Bose said that the matter involves “issues which need further consideration by a bench of sufficient strength” and referred it to a larger bench for consideration next week. However, the bench did not pass any order staying the operation of the direction of the Allahabad High Court.
“We direct, let the papers be placed before the Hon’ble CJI so that a bench of sufficient strength consider the matter in the coming week”, stated the bench in the order.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court vacation bench asked the Uttar Pradesh government under which law it publicly put up the posters of the protesters who demonstrated against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Highlighting the issue of privacy, Justice UU Lalit said that while the court agrees there should not be unruly behaviour, there must be some law which backs the action of putting up the hoardings. However, in this case, there is no backing of the law, said Justice Lalit.
Representing the Uttar Pradesh government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta cited a precedent set by the court in its 1994 judgement in R Rajagopal vs State of Tamil Nadu on the issue of privacy. He contended that people who resort to violence and point guns during a protest cannot claim the right to privacy.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for former IPS officer SR Darapuri, one of the rioters whose name was published in the posters, submitted that the action of government amounted to an “appeal for lynching”. Singhvi submitted that even the names of child rapists and serious criminals were not published. He also pointed out that the issue of recovery of damages was still sub-judice.
Another Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for lawyer Mohammad Shoaib, submitted that his client has faced assaults in the past for taking up the causes of minorities, and he may be attacked or even lynched following the publication of his name and address in the banners.
Senior Advocate CU Singh submitted that the UP Government was following a “vindictive approach” and that a “section of people is being targeted”.
The court was hearing a plea filed by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the Allahabad high court’s March 9 order directing it to remove hoardings containing photos and other personal details of people, who were allegedly involved in anti-CAA riots.
A high court bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Ramesh Sinha had ruled that the state government’s action of erecting the hoardings in Lucknow with personal details of the alleged anti-CAA protestors amounted to an infringement of their privacy.
However, Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government had vowed to move the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order in its bid to continue “profiling” the rioters.
On March 5, the Uttar Pradesh government had put up hoardings of 57 anti-CAA rioters in prominent intersections in state capital Lucknow. The hoardings included their names, addresses and photos of the rioters who damaged public property during the riots that claimed 22 lives in December last year. The accused were also asked to pay for the damages to public and private property caused during the protests within a stipulated time or have their properties seized.
Former Congress minister Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP on Wednesday in New Delhi in the presence of party president JP Nadda. Much to the dismay of Madhya Pradesh Congress, Union Home Minister Amit Shah not only met the ‘Maharaja’ post his induction into the party but also Tweeted a welcome message for him, embracing him into the party with open arms.
In his Tweet dated March 12th, Amit Shah said: “Met Shri @JM_Scindia ji. I am sure his induction into the party will further strengthen BJP’s resolve to serve the people of Madhya Pradesh”. Amit Shah also posted a photograph of Scindia meeting him today in Delhi.
This tweet by the Union Minister and the fact that he personally welcomed the former Congress leader into the party will in all probability throw the Madhya Pradesh Congress state unit off balance. Merely hours before Amit Shah put out his tweet, the Madhya Pradesh Congress had, like a jilted lover who’s not being able to recuperate from the break-up, put out a sarcastic tweet, taunting Scindia that neither PM Modi nor HM Amit Shah personally welcomed him into the party.
“Not even a tweet by Narendra Modi ji or Amit Shah ji to welcome Scindia ji! Modiji, Shah ji, at least do not do it so soon! It has not even been 24 hours yet and you guys have already started humiliating him…!” Madya Pradesh Congress tweeted in Hindi.
नरेंद्र मोदी जी या अमित शाह जी द्वारा सिंधिया जी के स्वागत में एक ट्वीट तक नहीं..!
मोदी/शाह जी, —कम से कम इतनी जल्दी तो ऐसा मत करो ! अभी तो 24 घंटे भी नहीं हुये और आप लोगों ने अपमानित करना शुरू भी कर दिया..!
While Congress leaders and supporters have been refraining from expressing their disenchantment over Jyotiraditya Scindia quitting the Grand Old Party to join the BJP, Madhya Pradesh Congress state unit is still not being able to come to terms with the fact that the Congress scion has broken ranks with the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Jyotiraditya Scindia also met defence minister Rajnath Singh today. Singh too posted a photograph of the meeting on Twitter, saying that his joining will help in further strengthening the party.
Met with Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia today. I welcome him to the BJP. His joining will help in further strengthening the party. I extend my best wishes to him in all his endeavours. @JM_Scindiapic.twitter.com/84nxoX71Ws
In their frenzy, the party’s state unit’s official social media account has been constantly sly-tweeting and also giving out what seems like veiled death threats.
On Tuesday, the day when Scindia bid goodbye to the Grand old party, MP Congress had listed out a number of posts the party had given to Scindia and questioned him on quitting the party and going to Modi and Shah. Congress conveniently skipped the part where Scindia was sidelined to make way for Kamal Nath as MP Chief Minister and that he was later made General Secretary in UP (West) where Congress has hardly any presence.
Upping its ante, MP Congress then resorted to melancholic poetry. Within minutes of this sad, grief-stricken poetry, Congress chose to let Scindia know that his fate might be similar to that of the Burari family.
For the uninitiated, in July 2018, 11 members of the same family were found dead mysteriously. While some believe they died while carrying out a ‘ritual’ to attain ‘moksha’, some family members believe foul play.
Later, MP Congress reminded how ‘Maharaj’, as Scindia is called fondly because of his royal lineage, was living with respect in Congress but will now be a ‘chowkidar’. Even later in the night, MP Congress put out an ironic tweet.
But sooner or later, Congress will have to come to terms with the fact that the dynasty’s, (which has been reigning over the party for years) arrogance has taken away a loyalist from them for good. Perhaps now is a good time for Congress to rise above its pettiness and move on with whatever dignity that it’s left with.
Even as the world is struggling to cope up with the massive coronavirus outbreak which has sickened more than 1,25,000 people across the globe, the chair of the UK think tank Chatham House, Jim O’Neill, on Wednesday made derisive remarks against India saying that if the coronavirus outbreak had started in India, things would have deteriorated even further. Jim claimed that the “quality of Indian governance” is not a patch on the way the Chinese dealt with the epidemic.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”, Jim heaped praises on the Chinese model of containing the virus that has so far claimed about 4600 lives globally, with more than 3000 deaths in the Mainland China alone as per the official Chinese government figures. However, analysts suspect more number of death than the official number since Chinese state authority is notoriously known for withholding crucial information detrimental to its global standing.
“Thank God this didn’t start in somewhere like India because there’s absolutely no way that the quality of Indian governance could move to react in the way that the Chinese have done, that’s the good side of the Chinese model, and I think you could probably say the same about Brazil too,” O’Neill said while ridiculing India’s ability to clinically restrain a rapidly contagious pandemic.
The former chief economist at Goldman Sachs, Neill’s assertions about India betrays his lack of awareness about India’s galloping progress in the field of healthcare and its resilient traditional practices that have prevented deadly epidemics from spreading their baneful claws in the country. Besides being one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines globally, India has also displayed remarkable dexterity in containing fatal diseases such as the pneumonic plague that broke out in the city of Surat in September 1994.
After the initial panic that is usually associated with the outbreak of a lethal disease, the government swiftly recouped and stopped the spread of the disease by identifying cases and providing them with antibiotics. It also ordered the sterilisation of cargo, clearing of ports infested with rats and spreading of insecticides over vast areas. Within months, the plague was stemmed and Surat emerged as a leader in public healthcare.
In addition, India has an array of time-tested traditional practices that serve to strengthen its competence in containing deadly contagions. India has staggering crowds in events such as Kumbh, Jagannath Yatra etc. Temples and other places of worship where a legion of people throng on a daily basis are filled with rats and other rodents but it still ducked from being the epicentre of contagions like SARS and coronavirus.
While Jim fawns over China’s exemplary measures to control the transmission of coronavirus, it is an irrefutable fact that the novel coronavirus emerged from one of the noxious streets of markets in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, with the cause of the zoonotic contagion residing largely in the deeply problematic Chinese practice of wildlife trade that had earlier caused a similar epidemic SARS in 2002-2003. However, China evidently failed to acknowledge the gravity of the problem then and allowed its lucrative wildlife trade to flourish, endowing the world with an even pernicious pandemic.
As the deadly COVID-9 pandemic is spreading across the world, global leaders are taking all the necessary precautionary initiatives including advising their citizens to ditch handshakes and instead endorsing Indian way of greeting “Namaste” to limit the spread of the deadly virus.
In one such decision, following various other global leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday used India’s traditional greeting style “Namaste” to welcome the Spanish King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
Emmanuel Lenain, the Ambassador of France to India, took to Twitter to share that the French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with “Namaste”. He termed it as a ‘graceful gesture’ that the President retained from his trip to India in 2018.
Président Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with a namaste, a graceful gesture that he has retained from his India visit in 2018 pic.twitter.com/OksoKjW7V8
Reportedly, the coronavirus has claimed 30 lives and affected over 1500 people in France. Macron had recently stated the country was taking appropriate measures to deal with the situation.
French President Macron’s decision to greet people with ‘Namaste’ is on the lines of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had also similarly urged the citizens of his country to adopt ‘Namaste’ amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Netanyahu had said that several precautionary measures will be adopted to mitigate the spread of coronavirus but simple measures such as greeting people the Indian way by using Namaste instead of the usual handshake can be adopted in day to day lives. He also showed how Indians do Namaste at the presser.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also recently urged the citizens of the country to adopt ‘Namaste’ over handshakes amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Following the outbreak of Coronavirus, Indian celebrities and other influential stars are calling on their fans and social media followers to do the traditional ‘Namaste’ to greet each other. Namaste is the customary Indian way of greeting people with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest.
Bollywood actor Anupam Kher had shared a video of himself to advise his fans to do Namaste instead of handshakes. Kher tweeted, “Of late I am being told by lots of people to keep washing hands to prevent any kind of infection. I do that in any case. But also want to suggest the age-old Indian way of greeting people called Namaste. It is hygienic, friendly & centres your energies. Try it.”
Of late I am being told by lots of people to keep washing hands to prevent any kind of infection. I do that in any case. But also want to suggest the age old Indian way of greeting people called #Namaste. It is hygienic, friendly & centres your energies. Try it. ?? #caronaviruspic.twitter.com/ix7e6S8Abp
India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu also endorsed the idea of greeting people with a Namaste. The 24-year old said on Sunday that she would not be shaking hands during next week’s All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham and use ‘Namaste’ greeting instead.
Bollywood entertainer Salman Khan also took to the social media to urge his fans to avoid handshakes and use ‘Namaste’ and Salaam instead to address people.
Coronavirus is a deadly respiratory disease which has killed more than 4,600 and so far more than 1,26,0000 cases are reported globally, according to the World Health Organisation. The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019.
The World Health Organisation has now declared ‘COVID-19’ outbreak a ‘pandemic’. Following this decision, the Government of India has suspended all tourist visas and e-visas granted on or before March 11. All incoming visitors including Indian nationals are advised against non-essential travel because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
In India, meanwhile, 52 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, the latest being two cases, one in Delhi and the other in Rajasthan. The transmission of the virus takes place when someone who is infected comes in contact with another person. According to medical experts, coughing, sneezing or even shaking hands with an infected person can cause exposure.
A 17-year-old Bangladeshi girl was rescued in Bengaluru’s Majestic area. As per reports, the girl was found sleeping on the footpath with bruises all over her body. She was rescued by the officials and sent to a children’s home.
As per a report in Bangalore Mirror, the minor girl later revealed that she is from Bangladesh and was brought to India under the pretext of providing employment. She was allegedly tortured and forced into prostitution.
Based on the information provided by the girl, Siddapura police have arrested 5 Bangladeshi nationals living in Bengaluru. They are named Mohamada Madisa, Kislumulla, Imran Mulla, his wife Sati, and Bajida.
The girl was rescued by an NGO from a footpath. She revealed the officials that the accused had lured her by promising a job a couple of months back. She was later made to stay in a house in Kadugodi. She was allegedly tortured and forced into prostitution. She was being abused by the Bangladeshi nationals whenever she resisted.
The minor girl had somehow managed to flee from the house in Kadugodi and had reached Majestic. After the NGO rescued the victim from the footpath, police acted on her information and had arrested the five Bangladeshis. They have been sent to judicial custody under POCSO, and other relevant sections of the IPC for kidnapping, trafficking and rape.
Most foreign publications have no love lost for Prime Minister Modi. Often, one reads opinion pieces that tarnish his image for the simple fact that he refuses to toe the line that the Left wants him to. While criticism of any public figure, especially of democratically elected leaders, is the right of the media, as is desirable, the trouble arises when that criticism comes from a place of malice and absolute misinformation. Nikkei Asian Review on the 11th of March published a similar article that had several lies, distortions and opinions based on nothing but fantasy.
The Nikkei-Asian Review article headlined, “How Modi won India’s elections but paralyzed the economy” was laden with blatant misrepresentations and lies upon which, the opinions about Prime Minister Modi and his reign in India were based. The opening of the article itself starts with a hilarious lie.
Introductory para of Nikkei Asian Review article
In the brilliant idea, Asia-Nikkei says that the sale of Godrej Safes have gone down because the economy is supposedly down. They further allege that after the Modi government extended plan to expand financial services to rural consumers, Godrej Safe business should have been booming but it has not. One is not sure how Asia-Nikkei came up with that conclusion.
Further in the article, NAR alleges that the central government, by its persistent efforts, has marginalised and disenfranchised the Muslim community of India.
2. It says Muslim citizens in India have been marginalized & disenfranchised by govt's persistent attempts.
The same piece later mentions how "Aam Aadmi Party won with an overwhelming majority"
Remember Amanatullah Khan? He won by over 70,000 votes from Muslim dominated Okhla. pic.twitter.com/bq6cmxXHK4
Twitter user @WordsSlay pointed out that in the same article, further down, NAR mentions that Amanatullah Khan, the AAP leader, won in Okhla with a huge margin of over 70,000 votes. It is pertinent to mention here that while NAR claims that Muslims have been disenfranchised, a Muslim ruler, who wears his identity on his sleeve, won in the Assembly Elections with a whopping majority.
In the article, NAR writes, “What Modi did carry over from his time in Gujarat, though, was inter-community violence. In 2002, while Modi ran the state, at least 1,000 people died in clashes between Hindus and Muslims. Moreover, instead of using its mandate to tackle the mounting economic challenges, Modi’s government has doubled down on Hindutva, its populist, Hindu nationalist agenda. Backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu ultranationalist group seen as an ideological driving force behind Hindutva, it has revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomous status, changed the country’s citizenship laws to deny recognition to Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries and tried to enforce Hinduism as central to India’s values and identity. Almost all of the government’s political capital has been thrown into this massive social project. Economic reform has fallen by the wayside”.
What NAR in this portion claims is that the revocation of Article 370, that integrated Kashmir fully with the rest of the country, was a part of the “Hindutva agenda”. Firstly, the integration of Jammu and Kashmir was on the national agenda and interest for decades. To allege that internal security decisions are a part of the “Hindutva agenda” are simply ill-informed. What perhaps the NAR is doing is peddling the Islamist agenda alleging that the Modi government is trying to alter the demography of the only state with a Muslim majority. If that his what the NAR is saying, then it really has no right to talk about the ‘communal strife’ between Hindus and Muslims since it is essentially saying Muslims are incapable of living with Hindus in harmony.
Further, NAR says that Modi has “changed the citizenship laws to deny recognition to Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries and tried to enforce Hinduism as central to India’s values and identity”. Firstly, the Citizenship Amendment Act does not “deny” citizenship. It is a one-time amnesty scheme that provides citizenship to persecuted minorities who are already in India as refugees. Secondly, the Muslims from neighbouring countries who wish to take Indian citizenship can do so by the process of naturalisation or by proving that they are individually persecuted. Perhaps NAR should research a bit. If they had, they would know that Home Minister Amit Shah had explicitly given Rajya Sabha the information that 566 Muslims from neighbouring countries were given citizenship under the Modi government.
While NAR alleges that the Indian Economy has tanked, the publication fails to mention that India is actually the fifth largest economy in the world.
There are several other discrepancies in the article. NAR says that the Modi government has not spent enough on infrastructure. What the article fails to take into account is that fact that Modi-led NDA government has spent over Rs 50 lakh crore on infrastructure in the past 6 years. Rs 100 trillion to be further spent on infrastructure creation and approximately Rs 1.5 crore homes provided under PMAY.
In one part of the article, NAR claims that, “Modi regularly borrowed Adani’s private plane to fly to election rallies before becoming prime minister”. This, however, is an absolute lie that was denied by Adani himself.
ScooopWhoop article from 2016 that proves Nikkei Asian Review assertion is wrong
Gautam Adani had categorically said that his planes were not used for free by Narendra Modi who was yet to become the Prime Minister then. Yet, NAR, which is meant to be known for its research lies blatantly simply to tarnish the image of a democratically elected leader.
NAR also alleges that Prime Minister Modi is adverse to any form of criticism, interestingly, in a piece that criticises him to the hilt often with lies and baseless allegations. The fact that NAR could do that only means that they know the Indian Govt will not take any adverse action against them for basing their article on downright lies. In fact, the Modi govt is perhaps the most scrutinised government in the history of India. Many of Modi’s supporters are disgruntled because they believe that the Modi govt refuses to take stern action against those who have an axe to grind against the PM and in the process, end up spreading lies and propaganda which only go against the interest of the nation. It is evident that this inclusion in the article is a figment of imagination of the author based on the lies that are spread by his comrades in the Left.
The article that is based purely on vindictive conjecture also blames Prime Minister Modi for the auto sector slump, when the truth is that globally, the auto sector has taken a hit.
11. The Asia-Nikkei piece pins blame on Mr Modi for the automobile slump.
While we are at it, let us also blame Mr Modi for the global automobile slump in China, Europe, the US & Germany too! pic.twitter.com/piJOaj6Xca
There are several other lies in the article as pointed out by Twitter user @WordsSlay.
14. A deliberate error of omission?
The piece very smartly mentions Deepak Parekh's initial criticism of the Modi govt in its 1st tenure, but skips the part where he turned around & heaped praises on several occasions since then lauding "Modi’s transformational reforms" pic.twitter.com/9T5QoZi2xp
The lies include the fact that the article claimed wrongly that India’s credit rating is only a margin above “junk” and the fact that the article mentions Deepak Parekh’s initial criticism of the Modi govt but conveniently omits the time when he heaped praises on the Modi govt lauding the transformational reforms.
The sheer audacity of the lies in the article was such that even Minister Prakash Javadekar lashed out at the portal.
Dear @NAR, your column about India is full of anecdotes & conjectures. However it lacks a basic element: FACTS.
Why don’t you educate yourself with the below facts so that you have some credibility the next time you write about India.https://t.co/T3GJv4r1Ai@PIB_India
The bulk of leftist controlled international media has always been hell-bent on projecting India as a land of backward, poor, snake charmers. The fact that the world has been changing under their wrinkled-up noses while they keep pontificating from ivory towers has somehow not registered with most of leftist, colonialist media, be it in India or abroad.
The New York Times, in particular, has been constantly, incessantly indulging in anti-India bashing. As a BJP government, which they term as a ‘Hindu nationalist’ government had taken charge in 2014, NYT had just upped their hate India quotient by several notches. From fake narratives about ‘Muslims in fear’ to dismissive, hateful articles on India’s culture, traditions and customs, they have done all they could to further their narrative against our country.
For the international media, a tax department raid on the promoters of NDTV and an editorial titled ‘India’s Battered Free Press’ is published. Then to malign India, NYT writes an op-ed on how the Saree, India’s widely popular female attire is in fact, a ‘Tool of Hindu Nationalist Campaign’. Mahindra and Mahindra opens a manufacturing plant in the US and the international media starts the same old condescension, totally ignoring the fact that Mahindra has a significant presence in their country already.
The international media has almost vowed to ensure that the narrative that is peddled is one that demonises PM Modi with no basis in facts. The conjectures have long been anti-Hindu and anti-Modi as far as the international media is concerned. And while they peddle these lies to malign Hindus and PM Modi, they whine, rather consistently about the Indian govt does not “allow criticism”. Irony much?
The Prince of Wales greeted celebrities including Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly with the Indian greeting ‘Namaste’ as he chose to avoid shaking hands amidst Coronavirus outbreak.
Prince Charles greets guests with ‘Namaste’ as he avoids shaking hands amidst coronavirus outbreak
Prince Charles was attending the Prince’s Trust Awards on Wednesday. As one can see, out of habit Prince Charles first extends his hand for shaking before realising he has to avoid it and then moves on to do a ‘Namaste’.
Earlier too, India’s Ambassador & Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Syed Akbaruddin has shared a series of photographs of Prince Charles adopting the ‘Namaste’ as preferred greeting.
On Monday, Prince Charles greeted people at Westminster Abbey with a Namaste on Commonwealth Day.
The highly contagious COVID-19 Coronavirus has claimed lives of hundreds of people worldwide and has been spreading very quickly creating global panic. Earlier today, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks took to Twitter to share that he and his wife, actress Rita Wilson have both tested positive for the same. The World Health Organisation has also termed COVID-19 outbreak a ‘pandemic’. Government of India has suspended all tourist visas and e-visas granted on or before March 11 and all incoming visitors including Indian nationals are advised against non-essential travel.
On Wednesday, Home Minister Amit Shah informed Lok Sabha that at least 1100 people, who were involved in Delhi riots, have been identified using the face identification technology.
Speaking at the Lok Sabha during the ongoing debate on the Delhi riots, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “We are using face-recognition software to identify people behind the violence. We have also fed voter IDs, driving license data into this software. The software has identified 1100 people, 300 of these people came from UP to carry out violence.”
Face Identification Software से दंगाइयों की पहचान की जा रही है।
अभी तक 1100 से ज्यादा लोग पहचाने जा चुके हैं। इसमें 300 से ज्यादा लोग उत्तर प्रदेश से दिल्ली में दंगा करने के लिए आये थे जिसकी पुष्टि उत्तर प्रदेश से प्राप्त डाटा से हुई है जो बताता है कि ये बहुत गहरी साजिश थी। pic.twitter.com/1lJB7oR73W
Amit Shah said that the facial identification technique does not discriminate between communities and religions, “We entered Voter ID data, Driving license data and other information available with the government to identify people who were involved in the riots.”
The Home Minister also added that 40 teams of Delhi Police have been formed to track these 1100 people. “The arrest will be made only in cases where is hard evidence against a person,” Amit Shah said.
Giving details of the probe into the Delhi riots, the Home Minister said that Delhi Police has recovered over 100 arms from northeast Delhi and 49 cases have been registered under Arms Act. “The spread of riots on such a big scale in such a short time is not possible without a conspiracy. We have registered a case of conspiracy to probe this angle. Three people have been arrested for financing the violence in northeast Delhi,” he said.
“From 27 February till today, around 700 FIRs have been registered,” Amit Shah informed Lok Sabha. He also said that no incident of violence has taken place since February 27 11 pm.
Responding to allegations on Delhi Police’s failure to contain riots in the national capital, Home Minister Amit Shah said that Delhi Police managed to control riots within 36 hours. “These riots were taking place in a place which has a population of 20 lakh. They did a great job in controlling the riots from spreading any further,” Home Minister Amit Shah said in Lok Sabha.
Following the anti-Hindu riots that gripped several parts of North East Delhi in the last week of February, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday spoke for the first time about the ghastly violence that killed about 50 people and left several hundred injured.
Paying homage and expressing his condolences for the victims of the Delhi riots, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that no riots took place after February 25 and that attempts were being made to politicise the riots.
Defending the Delhi Police for its actions during the anti-Hindu riots, Home Minister Amit Shah said Delhi Police are closely scrutinising about 60 social media accounts which were created on February 22 and closed down on February 26, 2020. HM Shah stated that the violence in Delhi was fanned by inflammatory posts on social media by nefarious elements, adding that a thorough investigation by Delhi Police is underway to determine the culprits behind the incident.
Home Minister Shah also contended that the riots on such a massive scale in a short span of time is impossible without the possibility of a conspiracy. He stated that a case of conspiracy has been lodged to investigate the angle and the police have made 3 arrests on the charges of financing the violence in North East Delhi.
On Thursday, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Popular Front of India (PFI) Delhi unit President Parvez Ahmed and Secretary Illiyas, in connection with their role in orchestrating anti-India protests at Shaheen Bagh, reports ANI.
This development comes after the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against notorious radical Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) for instigating and funding anti-Hindu Delhi riots in Delhi. The two office bearers of radical Islamic organisation PFI, president Parvez and secretary Ilyas, were on Thursday arrested for questioning by the Delhi Police. The two members of the PFI were reportedly taken into custody on charges of hatching a conspiracy to incite riots in northeast Delhi.
Interestingly, the ED has also seized a tab from PFI’s Delhi unit president Parvez Ahmed which it claimed has records of a chain of conversations between him and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. Mohammad Parwez Ahmed was reportedly also in regular touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh and several Congress leaders including Udit Raj.
The investigations had revealed that the senior PFI functionaries have admitted to certain transactions linking the outfit to the funding of anti-CAA protests in the capital and some other places. The agency had also questioned several people connected with PFI at its Delhi headquarters and found evidence of collection of Rs 120 crore, at least Rs 50 crore of which came as cash donations for which the source was not disclosed. The PFI is headquartered at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi.
The ED officials said that two-thirds of all the deposits are kept in cash at PFI’s headquarters in G-78, Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. Reportedly, the local handlers connected to the radical Islamic organisation collected cash from their respective areas all across the country and travelled to Delhi to deposit it at the organisation’s headquarters.
The ED has questioned office-bearers of PFI and another outfit linked to it, Rehab Foundation of India (RFI). The ED had interrogated Parvez Ahmed, RIF trustee Shahid Abookacker, PFI Delhi secretary Abdul Muqeet, RIF general secretary Remiz Muhammed, PFI national secretary Anis Ahmed, RIF secretary Afsel Chandrankandy and PFI’s national headquarters accountant KP Jaseer.
The central probe agency has also filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Tahir Hussain. His alleged links with the Popular Front of India (PFI) are also being investigated. The role of Aam Aadmi Party leader Tahir Hussain in the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee Ankit Sharma and also inciting riots in the Delhi has now been under scanner.
Earlier, a report of UP State Intelligence has revealed the role of Bhim Army and PFI in orchestrating simultaneous violence in Aligarh and Delhi. Several PFI members have been arrested or booked for violence during anti-CAA protests, more than a hundred such arrests have been made in Uttar Pradesh alone. A couple of arrests have been made in Assam and Tamil Nadu, while several cases against the organisation’s activists have been registered in Kerala and Rajasthan.
Ex-Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Grand Old Party on Monday and joined the BJP on Wednesday. This has scorned Congress leaders and supporters who could not digest that a prominent leader like Scindia left Congress. Ahead of his scheduled visit to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, ink was thrown on a poster with Scindia’s face. The poster was put up near Polytechnic Chouraha in Bhopal. A part of the poster was also torn up.
This does not come as a surprise as soon after Scindia’s resignation, Congress supporters and leaders have gone all out to abuse him. From ‘traitor’ to all sort of name-calling, Scindia has been even subjected to veiled death threats by official Congress state unit Twitter account. So much that even his Wikipedia page was vandalised as soon as he made his resignation public. His profile was edited to call him a ‘donkey’ and ‘comedian’.
After spending 18 years in Congress, Scindia finally quit the party on Monday evening as he said he could not see himself being able to serve the people in the party. Scindia had been hugely sidelined as despite being a popular choice as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister face after December 2018 elections, Kamal Nath was made the CM. Moreover, he was also passed over for the state unit chief post. Ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he was made in-charge of Uttar Pradesh (west) for Congress where the party has negligible presence.
