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Christian girls are being targeted, killed or being used in Islamic terrorist activities: Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala

OpIndia Staff
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Christian girls are being targeted, killed or being used in Islamic terrorist activities: Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala

Raising alarms over the increasing number of Love Jihad cases in Kerala, the Syro-Malabar Church has alleged that Christian girls are targeted and killed in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ in the state.

Citing the Syro-Malabar Media Commission report, the Church said, “It is a matter of concern that ‘love Jihad’ is increasing in Kerala causing danger to the secular harmony & societal peace in Kerala”.


In an official communique released by the Media Commission of the Syro Malabar Church, the Synod of the Church raised concerns over the state of affairs where Christian girls face the danger of conversion by the radical Islamists. Citing multiple reports, the Synod said that half of the 21 women who joined Islamic State from Kerala hailed from the Christian community.

“The lives of the girls lost ensnared in love have profoundly injured the secular conscience of the state. The menacing rise of Love Jihad stands to imperil the communal harmony and peace in Kerala. It is a fact that Christian girls are being targeted by the love jihad in the state,” the Synod said in the press release.

“It is a matter of utmost concern that many girls who are missing are not even mentioned in the official records.” Citing the increasing numbers of complaints of girls being trapped, disguised in love, raped and their videos used to blackmail them into conversion, the Synod advised parents to create awareness among children regarding the hidden dangers of pervasive love jihad in the state.

In 2019 too, Fr Antony Thalachelloor of the Church raised apprehensions over the targeting of Christian Community for Love Jihad. “All the Investigative agencies-CBI, NIA and Intelligence Bureau have said that the cases of love jihad have been reported from across the country. It is saddening and alarming that despite the existence of a mechanism to counter efforts by religious terrorist groups to entrap unsuspecting girls, these are not being dealt with efficiently,” he said.

Last year in September, the vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), George Kurian wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, asking him to commission a probe into cases of ‘love jihad’ or forced conversion of women by Islamic radicals.

Read: Christian community the ‘soft target’ of Islamist radicals: NCM VC writes to Amit Shah over Christian girls being victims of Love Jihad

Seeking the involvement of NIA, Kurian asserted that the string of systematic religious conversions and the exploitation of the victims for terror activities by trapping them through ‘love jihad’ has revealed that the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference’s (KCBC) Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance report cited by Kurian stated that there were 4,000 instances of “love jihad” between 2005 and 2012.

Nirbhaya convicts cannot be hanged on January 22: Delhi government tells HC as one convict’s mercy plea is pending

OpIndia Staff
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Nirbhaya convicts cannot be hanged on January 22: Delhi government tells HC as one convict’s mercy plea is pending

The Aam Aadmi party-led Delhi government has told the Delhi High court that execution of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.

As per reports, Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.


Quoting prison rules, the Kejriwal government told the court that they are duty-bound to wait for convict’s mercy plea to be decided for executing the death warrant.

As per reports, Advocate Rahul Mehra, the standing counsel for the Tihar Jail authorities have stated that ‘Execution of convicts (2012 Nirbhaya case) will surely not take place on January 22’. He added that the execution can take place only 14 days after the final mercy plea has been rejected by the president. The Tihar jail authorities have reportedly conveyed that they are duty-bound to serve a 14-day notice to the convict after the rejection of their mercy plea.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case, Mukesh and Vinay Sharma, challenging the May 2017 judgment of the court that had upheld their conviction and death sentence.

Immediately after the Supreme court rejected the curative petitions, Mukesh had filed his mercy plea before the President.

A curative petition is the penultimate legal option against the death sentence.

The four convicts, Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.

The four adult accused were convicted by the trial court in September 2013, and was awarded a death sentence. The High Court had upheld that verdict in March 2014. In the same year, the Supreme Court had stayed their execution until their appeal was heard by the apex court.

Read: Delhi pollution is killing us anyway: Death row convict in Nirbhaya case mocks supreme court with bizarre arguments in the review petition

In May 2017 the Supreme Court had rejected their appeal against the death sentence, and in 2019 the review petitions were also dismissed. Subsequently, the president had rejected their mercy plea on the recommendation of the Home Ministry.

Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were convicted of brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, nicknamed as Nirbhaya by media, on December 16, 2012. The fifth convict was a minor, and he was released after spending 3 years in a juvenile home. The sixth person involved in the crime and also the main accused, Ram Singh was found dead during the trial period in Tihar Jail on March 11, 2013. He had allegedly committed suicide.

The hearing which is going on since morning will continue post-lunch. Latest media reports say that the Delhi government has recommended the rejection of the mercy plea by Mukesh Singh.

“Proud of our Army“: PM Modi hails the Indian Army for saving life of a pregnant lady Shamima and her child stuck in snow in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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“Proud of our Army“: PM Modi hails the Indian Army for saving life of a pregnant lady Shamima and her child stuck in snow in Kashmir

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter today to hail the Indian Army for fighting all odds and saving the life of a pregnant lady Shamima stuck in the snow in Kashmir.

The Prime Minister wrote: “Our Army is known for its valour and professionalism. It is also respected for its humanitarian spirit. Whenever people have needed help, our Army has risen to the occasion and done everything possible! Proud of our Army. I pray for the good health of Shamima and her child”.


Narendra Modi praised the Indian Army for its valour and professionalism and also for its humanitarian spirit. He lauded the Army acknowledging its readiness to always be available for people in despair.

The PM was responding to a tweet by the Chinar Corps or 15 Corps, an infantry field formation of the Indian Army which is presently located in Srinagar and responsible for military operations in the Kashmir Valley.

Taking to the microblogging site, the Chinar Corps had divulged how 100 Army personnel along with 30 civilians saved the life of a pregnant lady in the valley who needed immediate medical attention. Sharing a video of how the expecting mother was carried on a stretcher by the Army officers through heavy snow, the tweet stated that it took the officers around four hours to reach the hospital. The Army also stated that the mother and the newborn are now doing fine in the hospital.


It is the nature of the Indian armed forces to step in any time when there is a need. The Defence forces have been involved in several daring rescue acts such as the air-lifting of a pregnant woman and winching up of a two-year-old which won them widespread appreciation. They have relentlessly contributed to relief efforts, including shipping material and providing medical assistance to the displaced people during unprecedented floods and during other natural disasters in various parts of the country at any given point of time.

Last year, when floods were wreaking havoc in Kerala the Indian armed forces had been deployed to carry out rescue and assistance operations. Amidst the disastrous situations in the state, news of valiant rescue operations had poured in and the expertise and care with which the armed forces had handled the grave situation had received appreciation in mainstream and social media. Then too, a heavily pregnant woman in the initial stages of labour was airlifted by Navy’s rescue team. Within an hour of being rescued the woman gave birth to a baby boy under the care of Naval doctors.

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri says ‘sobbing’ Muslim cabbie in The Quint’s video is a part-time actor who was hired for the video

OpIndia Staff
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Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri says ‘sobbing’ Muslim cabbie in The Quint’s video is a part-time actor who was hired for the video

A controversy has erupted over a video shared by The Quint where a Muslim cab driver is seen hyperventilating over the proposed National Register of Citizens. The person in the video appears to be putting some special effort into exaggerating concerns about the NRC and invents scenarios that are detached from reality. “What wrong have we done to deserve this?” the driver asks rather dramatically before adding “What is our crime?”


The alleged Muslim cab driver, Irshad Ahmed, fearmongers about the NRC without any rebuttal from the journalist. He says, “My heart starts pounding on just thinking about NRC. I don’t have land, neither do I have documents for land. What will I tell them to prove that I am an Indian.” The Quint does not bother to point out that owning land is not the only way of proving citizenship.

Read: Bangladeshi journalist visits Kolkata, participates in anti-NRC protest holding ‘Modi go back’ poster

Furthermore, Ahmed would have needed to provide documents for acquiring his driving license, which is likely to be enough evidence of citizenship in the proposed NRC. Therefore, his fearmongering does not make any sense at all given the fact that he already has the documents necessary to prove his case. Furthermore, if he is driving the cab without a valid license or if his license happens to be fraudulent, then his immediate concern should be the fact that he has broken laws of the country and not the NRC the details of which haven’t even emerged yet. The same was pointed out by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.


The gravest of allegations, however, came from filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. He has alleged that the Muslim cab driver is, in fact, a part-time junior actor in Bollywood. He has claimed that Ahmed was paid by The Quint to act out the scene from a written script.

Vivek Agnihotri has also challenged The Quint to not just deny this allegation mounted by him, but also to prove that he was indeed a cab-driver and not an actor hired by the media outlet.


The filmmaker even responded to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy reiterating that the man shown in The Quint video is a hired actor and not an actual cab driver.


The controversy comes at a time when reports have emerged of Muslim cab drivers in Delhi forming WhatsApp groups where they collecting data of pro-BJP riders and sharing it on WhatsApp group to give them low ratings on online cab booking apps. The claims, although not verified as yet, raises troubling concerns about cab drivers of a particular religious orientation profiling their customers on the basis of their political ideology based on their personal information.

Read: NDTV spreads fake news again, this time during a ‘fact check’ on the government’s claims on NRC and NPR

It also raises pertinent questions about The Quint’s editorial policies. As we know, the media outlet’s parent company partnered with Bloomberg News to found the BloombergQuint. Bloomberg News was founded by Michael Bloomberg, one of the Democrat Presidential aspirants for the 2020 US Presidential Elections.

In the past, The Quint has also offered tutorials to protesters on how to avoid facial recognition by wearing masks. We are also aware that Bloomberg’s news coverage is affected by their ownership. Thus, given what we know, one has to wonder whether The Quint’s coverage is affected by their association with Bloomberg News, which can be said to serve as the propaganda wing of a US politician from the Democrat party.

Exclusive: After Minister Piyush Goyal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to meet Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos

OpIndia Staff
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Exclusive: After Minister Piyush Goyal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to meet Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Inc and the owner of Washington Post is in India for a tour even as several small traders are planning to stage protests against the retail giant for distorting the local market. India’s antitrust chief Ashok Kumar Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that big e-commerce companies in India should not offer deep discounts which can potentially hurt and small-scale brick and mortar retailers in India. Amidst the ruckus, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had decided not to meet the WaPo owner Jeff Bezos during his three-day India visit. Now, sources have confirmed to OpIndia that Prime Minister Modi too will not be meeting Jeff Bezos personally.

The e-commerce player has come under investigations on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers, in India. On Monday, in a major setback ahead of Bezos’ India visit, fair market watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an enquiry into the operations of both Amazon and Flipkart on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers.

Read: Minister Piyush Goyal not to meet Jeff Bezos during his India visit: Washington Post anti-India stand showing effect?

Finding merit in the allegations levelled by traders” body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, the Commission asked its Director General (DG) to complete the investigation in 60 days from the receipt of the order.

However, other than Amazon’s market practices, there could be another crucial feature that has got Minister Piyush Goyal refusing a meeting with Bezos. In 2013, Jeff Bezos had purchased the Washington Post. Recently, Washington Post, owned by Bezos has launched a vicious campaign against India and its internal matters, whether it is the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir or even the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Washington Post harbours a deep-seated and mindless hatred for the Indian Prime Minister and has, on several occasions, written lie-ridden, baseless article to malign India and its ruling, democratically elected dispensation.

Read: In opposing Narendra Modi, progressives at Washington Post reveal they are a mirror image of the ‘AltRight’

Washington Post has increasing been peddling an anti-India narrative with a special target painted by them on the back of Hindus.

When OpIndia reached out to sources about Minister Piyush Goyal not meeting Jeff Bezos, they confirmed that other than the unfair trade practices of Amazon, Washington Post’s sans-fact rhetoric against India is also one of the factors that have gone into the decision of not meeting Jeff Bezos.

Read: Washington Post publishes ‘Rising hate in India’ story based on fake data

With Prime Minister Modi and Minister Piyush Goyal declining to meet Jeff Bezos, India seems to be sending a strong message to international media and businesses. India is concerned about protecting its interests and global players need to be mindful to not indulge in attempts to hurt domestic interests by indulging in petty propaganda or unfair trade practices.

Fact check: Did Central govt ‘ignore Left-ruled Kerala’ in releasing flood relief fund, as claimed by India Today

NR Nigam
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Fact check: Did Central govt ‘ignore Left-ruled Kerala’ in releasing flood relief fund, as claimed by India Today

Many of us saw the IndiaToday article claiming that Centre has not allocated any funds for Kerala flood relief. They try to further sensationalise this news by raising apprehensions about political vendetta by BJP since Kerala is ‘Left’ ruled state. The headline of the article read, “No flood relief to Kerala, Centre ignores Left-ruled state again in fund release”.

India Today headline

The news looks shocking in first glance and raises the immediate question that ‘Out of Rs 5908 Crores allocated for 2019-2020, why there was zero funding for Kerala’? Our mainstream media often follows the principle of ‘Dont let facts come in the way of propaganda’. And we at Opindia are determined to ruin their propaganda. So I decided to probe this charge based on publicly available information which India Today and other news portals also have access to.

Like it happens often with such news items, this is also the case of relying on people’s limited memory and author’s ability to confuse people by selectively quoting data. We all remember how devastating floods ravaged Kerala recently. We also remember there were attempts to portray the Centre government as a villain.

People cheered the news of (non-existent) Rs 700 Crore grant from UAE and mocked the Modi government. But wait! When was this? Last year? No, it was in the year 2018. And the Rs 5908 Cr grant Centre has approved (from NDRF kitty) is for 2019-20.

Read: Was the ‘UAE extends Rs 700 crore aid for Kerala flood’ assertion just a big fat lie?

Floods hit Kerala in 2019 too but the magnitude wasn’t as big as 2018 and hence it wasn’t declared a national calamity, therefore NDRF funds were given to the states that needed more help.

The disaster management division website defines the NDRF fund as below:

The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements SDRF of a State, in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in SDRF.

It must be remembered that the NDRF fund is allocated in 2 phases. The first instalment of Rs 10,000 Cr was announced earlier and next one (5908 Cr) came recently on which these news portals are reporting.

A quick look at the state-wise fund allocation for Disaster relief will throw more light on this. In 2019, Centre allocated Rs 168.75 Cr and Kerala Govt allocated Rs 56.25 Cr for Kerala’s SDRF. Out of this Rs 52.275 Cr were utilised by Kerala govt. It means Kerala SDRF has a balance of Rs 173 Cr available from 2019 allocation quota. Why Left lead Kerala govt didn’t utilise funds, can these analysts tell us which vendetta Kerala govt was doing?

NDTF fund allocation 2019-2020

A little more digging on the NDM India website will tell us Kerala state already has a balance of Rs 2107 Cr available as on 1st April 2019 (that was not utilized during 2018 floods which were 4 times more devastating than 2019 floods in terms of human causalities)

So Kerala has Rs 2107 Cr available from the Year 2018, add to it Rs 173 Cr which were not spent in 2019 (Rs 2280 Cr) which is mostly provided by Centre government itself. And people are seeing vendetta here?

Read: From Fani, Titli, Gaja, Kerala floods to Karnataka: Here is how the Modi government has responded to natural disasters

Since people are so fond of crying vendetta, I would wonder how do they explain the omission of Gujarat, UP, Uttarakhand (BJP ruled states) in phase 1? How do they explain granting Rs 1000 Cr, Rs 3000 Cr and Rs 500 Cr to Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra (neither of them is BJP ruled) in phase 1? How will they explain Rs 1749 Cr to MP and Rs 956 Cr to Maharashtra in phase 2 (both of them are non-BJP states)?

Congress govt in Chhattisgarh move SC seeking declaration of UPA-I legislated NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional

OpIndia Staff
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Congress govt in Chhattisgarh move SC seeking declaration of UPA-I legislated NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional

The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government has approached the Supreme Court demanding the declaration of NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional. The Chhattisgarh government, in their plea, has argued that the NIA Act grants arbitrary powers to the Centre to deal with the terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.

The suit was filed under Article 131 of the Constitution by the Chhattisgarh government which provides for the state to move directly to the Supreme Court in matters of a dispute against the Centre. The state government filed plea read: “The state respectfully submits that the NIA Act is ultra vires to the Constitution and is beyond legislative competence of Parliament since the Act empowers the defendant (Centre) to create an agency for investigation, which, notwithstanding the NIA, is carried out by state police, which is a subject matter of the state under entry 2, List 2, Schedule 7, of the Constitution.”

Interestingly, the NIA Act of 2008 was brought into force by the Congress-led UPA government at the centre to effectively grapple with the terror-related incidents across the country. The reason cited then to float the NIA Act was the gruesome attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai when 12 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists entered the city and carried out attacks and shootings, leaving 166 people dead and scores of others injured.

Read: After NIA and UAPA amendments, Amit Shah needs to go after conversion mafia

The National Investigation Agency Act 2008 conferred powers to the Central Government to form a National Investigation Agency (NIA) to combat terror in India. The agency acts as the Central Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency and is empowered to deal with terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.

According to the constitution of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008, “Any officer of the Agency of, or above, the rank of Sub-Inspector may, subject to any orders which the Central Government may make in this behalf, exercise throughout India, any of the powers of the officer-in-charge of a police station in the area in which he is present for the time being and when so exercising such powers shall, subject to any such orders as aforesaid, be deemed to be an officer-in-charge of a police station discharging the functions of such an officer within the limits of his station”.

Now, the Congress-led Chhatisgarh government has stated in their plea to the apex court that the NIA Act 2008 autocratically snatches the authority of the probe authorised to local police under the constitution and grants arbitrary power to the centre. In the petition, the Chhattisgarh government has demanded the Supreme Court declare the Act as “Unconstitutional”.

Kejriwal and Sisodia sold MLA ticket for 21 crores: Sitting AAP MLA alleges as many new faces emerge as AAP candidates

OpIndia Staff
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Kejriwal and Sisodia sold MLA ticket for 21 crores: Sitting AAP MLA alleges as many new faces emerge as AAP candidates

The AAP government in Delhi has been claiming that they will seek votes on the basis of stellar work done in the last 5 years of their rule. However, seeing their current list of candidates, speculations are being made whether the party doesn’t even trust the ‘work’ of its sitting MLAs.

The party had issued the list of candidates on 14 January. 15 sitting MLAs seem to have lost out in the ticket race. However, the party has reportedly fielded 5 such ‘new faces’ who had joined AAP just 24 hours prior.

ND Sharma, the sitting AAP MLA from Badarpur seat has alleged that he was called to deputy CM Sisodia’s residence where he was informed that the party has given the ticket for his constituency to one Ram Singh. Sisodia allegedly told Sharma that Singh wanted the ticket and has paid Rs 21 crores for it. Sharma has further alleged that Sisodia had demanded Rs 10 crores from him for the ticket to his constituency.


One of the ‘new faces’ fielded by AAP is Vinay Mishra who has obtained the Dwarka ticket. He is the son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra. The Dwarka seat was won in 2014 by Lal Bahadur Shashtri’s grandson Adarsh Shashtri on an AAP ticket. Shashtri has not been given a ticket this time.

The other new faces apart from Vinay Mishra are Rajkumari Dhillon, Naveen Chaudhry (Deepu), Jai Bhagwan and Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur).

As per reports, AAP is repeating only 46 MLAs. In the list of candidates shared by AAP, 24 seats are getting ‘new faces’. 15 of these constituencies are those where sitting MLAs have been denied tickets. The MLAs in 5 seats have had their membership cancelled and 4 seats are under BJP.


Apart from Badarpur MLA ND Sharma, Seelampur MLA Haji Ishrak and Delhi Cant MLA Commando Surendra have also reportedly voiced objections over the ticket distribution. They have stated that they will meet the CM over the denial of tickets.

Muslim cab drivers collect and share info of pro-BJP riders over WhatsApp group, give them low ratings, viral Facebook post suggests

OpIndia Staff
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Muslim cab drivers collect and share info of pro-BJP riders over WhatsApp group, give them low ratings, viral Facebook post suggests

A Facebook post has gone viral on social media which suggests that Muslim cab drivers in Delhi are collecting data of pro-BJP riders and sharing it on WhatsApp group to give them low ratings.


As per a tweet by Twitter user @pokershah, in a Facebook post, a protestor returning from Mandi House anti-CAA protests held last week was injured and hence booked a cab. According to the post, the protestor overheard the cab driver, one Aslam, talk to someone and managed to catch ‘Sanghi saale’ being spoken from other end.

As the protestor was injured, Aslam went to nearby medical store to get some first aid when the protestor looked into the phone and saw a WhatsApp group wherein Aslam and few other Muslim cab drivers were sharing details of their riders. They were allegedly discussing giving low ratings to pro-BJP riders.

Read: Uber driver Imrom turns Amit, then Irshad: Activist raises concerns about safety of customers

As per the Facebook post, these Muslim cab drivers also collected information of pickup and drop locations of these ‘Sanghis’ so they could ‘avoid’ them. The rider, instead of feeling alarmed that someone is profiling them and collecting personal information, actually thought this was funny.

Later, as per the rider, the cab driver Aslam told her that some riders cancel their rides when they see the driver is a Muslim. Hence, when cab riders ask him his political views, he just tells them he is a Modi supporter. That way, the pro-BJP riders give him higher ratings and he ends up giving lower ratings to these riders.

While OpIndia could not independently verify the claims in the above post, if true, this raises a number of questions. How is anyone, irrespective of religion, collecting and sharing personal information of riders safe? How do ‘liberals’ find the idea of cab drivers collecting and sharing personal information and profiling people based on political ideology funny?

Sabarimala: Notice to close meat shops during Thiruvabharanam procession angers ‘seculars’, meat and animal carcasses found on path later

OpIndia Staff
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Sabarimala: Notice to close meat shops during Thiruvabharanam procession angers ‘seculars’, meat and animal carcasses found on path later

Meat and animal carcasses were reportedly found thrown on the road where the annual Thiruvabharanam procession for Sabarimala temple was set to pass through. As per reports, the Thiruvabharanam procession is a traditional procession of Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala where the jewellery to be worn by the deity is taken in a grand procession from Pandalam to the main shrine at Sabarimala.

Three sacred caskets are used for carrying Thiruvabharanam ornaments made by the Pandalam king for his son, Lord Ayyappa, along with pooja utensils to Sabarimala temple. They are the Thriuvabharana Petti (sacred ornaments casket, the silver vessel casket, and the Kodi Petti (flag casket). The Thiruvabharanam procession takes a traditional route to Sabarimala, covering a distance of 83 km on foot. The boxes are carried on the head by 12 people. Thousands of devotees participate in the grand procession.


As per a report in Organiser, meat and animal carcasses were found dumped on the Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road, where the Thiruvabharanam procession was to pass. Devotees, led by several Panchayat members, had spotted the meat and animal carcasses hours before the procession was to pass and had rushed to wash and clean the spot.

As per reports, an order was passed by Panchayat Secretary on January 6 to keep all the meat and fish shops along the Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road on 13 and 14 January for the Thiruvabharanam procession.

Some local groups, reportedly Islamist and communist outfits had objected to such an order. They had reportedly stated that such an order is against the Kerala government’s ‘progressive’ stand. Many social media users had also shared the order and had outraged over the issue, complaining that it is against ‘secular’ values.

meat and carcasses on Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road being cleaned before the procession, image via Organiser

However, Panchayat President Shaji Manappallil of the Congress had stated that the order to close meat and fish shops during the days of Thiruvabharanam procession has been a regular practice since the last few years after local Hindu outfits had complained of poultry waste being discarded in an unhygienic way the nearby river and polluting the area.

Local Hindu outfits had complained that while the order of closure of the meat and fish shops has been a part of routine procedure being followed in the last few years, some groups are now deliberately trying to communalise the issue.

Panchayat officials have also stated that the controversy over the closure order of meat shops is misplaced as it is a part of regular practice to lower waste production and poultry waste dispersal.

Jyothi S, the Panchayat Secretary was quoted by Times Of India as saying, “It is a normal practice. We had cleaned up the path for the procession and still poultry waste was dumped yesterday. The notice is being misinterpreted. We have a facility for collection of poultry and meat waste, but some of the merchants don’t co-operate with it and that’s why the notice was issued as a precautionary step to avoid dumping of waste along the path of procession since it could lead to other issues also”.

Read: Congress, communists and Muslim League have attacked the root of our faith in Sabarimala: PM Modi in Tamil Nadu

The Thiruvabharanam procession has started from Pandalam on Monday and had passed through Vadaserikara on Tuesday. Saima S, the deputy director of the Panchayat Directorate had also stated that the issuance of notice to close meat and fish shops to avoid the dumping of meat and poultry waste is a routine affair. Some people are unnecessarily trying to create communal tension in the area by highlighting it.

She added that the Panchayat Secretary only wanted to ensure that the Hindu religious procession is carried out smoothly and there is no dumping of poultry waste on the path. It is a peaceful and proper way to conduct a religious event.

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