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Journalists use Nankana Sahib attack to claim CAA does not help persecuted minorities entering India after 2014, here is how they are wrong

OpIndia Staff
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Journalists use Nankana Sahib attack to claim CAA does not help persecuted minorities entering India after 2014, here is how they are wrong

As the terrible news of the attack on Nankana Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan by a Muslim mob emerged, some journalists chose to use this incident to peddle their propaganda against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The CAA has been passed to give Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Yesterday NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain claimed that CAA is of little use of minorities presently in Pakistan or the other notified countries. He also hoped that the incident is not used for pro-CAA propaganda, while using the same for anti-CAA propaganda at the same time.


National Editor of The Hindu Suhasini Haidar also made the same claim today, saying that “CAA as drafted doesn’t help anyone who crosses over today”. She said that the amendment helps only those who had entered India before December 31st 2014, and that’s why the law is flawed and it should be revised or scrapped.

These claims by the senior journalists of the country explain what is wrong with the anti-CAA protests in the nation, that those opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act has not even read the two and half pages of the text that has been in public domain for a long a time now. It is completely wrong to claim that the CAA does not help people from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan coming to India after 2014. The amendment does help them, provided they don’t enter India illegally.

Read- Modi government dispels myths about CAA: Here are 19 FAQs and their answers

The CAA has two distinct provisions, which most people have missed or confused the two because they both address the same group of people. Section 2 of the amendment inserts provision in section 2 of the main Citizenship Act, stating that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014, will not be considered as illegal migrant.

Section 2 of CAA
Section 2 of CAA

The amendment states that if any case is going on against such people for illegal immigration, such cases will be dropped, and after such persons apply for citizenship of India, the request will be granted subject to relevant terms and conditions related to naturalisation.

Everyone seems to have understood the CAA till this point, because it has another provision at the end. Section 6 of the CAA adds a provision in the clause (d) of the Third Schedule of the Citizenship Act, which deals with naturalisation. The newly inserted provision says, “for the person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, the aggregate period of residence or service of Government in India as required under this clause shall be read as ‘not less than five years’ in place of ‘not less than eleven years’”.

Section 6 of CAA

As we can see, this provision does not mention any cut-off date, which means it is applicable even after 2014. According to the Citizenship Act, when some foreigner wishes to apply for Indian citizenship, such persons must have lived in India for eleven years in aggregate in the past fourteen years. This means foreigners can’t come to India and apply for citizenship immediately, they have to first stay here on valid documents for at least eleven years in total.

Third schedule of Citizenship Act, 1955

This is the requirement for normal naturalisation process in India, and almost all countries have similar provisions. For example, in the United States, a person must have lived in the country as legal permanent resident (green card holder) for at least five years before being eligible to apply for citizenship.

Now the section 6 of the CAA has inserted a provision for the six communities from the three countries, and the requirement of staying in India for eleven years has been reduced to five years for applying for citizenship for them. Therefore, the CAA does help the religiously persecuted minorities in the three countries by reducing the waiting period for applying for citizenship.

Read- Fact check: Does Citizenship Amendment Act violate Article 14 of the Indian Constitution

Moreover, most opposing the CAA want to portray that the amendment prevents anyone outside the 6 communities from 3 countries from coming to India and seeking citizenship. That is a completely false assumption, and in fact CAA has nothing to do with coming to India. Citizens of any country can come to India using valid documents or seek asylum, and they will be allowed or not allowed to enter India as per existing laws. CAA neither helps nor prevents foreigners from coming to India, as falsely portrayed by opposition parties and journalists.

CAA does a positive discrimination for the notified categories of people, but it does not do any negative discrimination against anyone. Any foreigner can apply for Indian citizenship, and such applications will be considered according to existing naturalisations laws. If the applicants fall under the categories notified under CAA, then such applicants will enjoy the relaxation provided by CAA, for others the law will apply without any relaxation.

CAA will not help only those who enter India illegally after 2014. By saying that it will not help the minorities in the three countries, the journalists are assuming that everyone will cross the border illegally. But that is a completely wrong assumption, as there are legal means available for people to enter India. People can come to India on a valid visa, or they can approach Indian embassies and consul offices seeking asylum. Moreover, unlike the India-Bangladesh border, the border with Pakistan is highly secured and illegal immigration is not easy. Although terrorists use the difficult mountainous routes to enter India which are not well protected, that is not feasible for ordinary civilians.

Therefore, if the Sikhs in Pakistan wish to come to India due to incidents like the Nankana Sahib attack, they can come using valid means of immigration. And as they are under the notified category, they will be granted citizenship five years after their entry, as opposed to eleven years waiting period for other people.

Rajasthan infant deaths: CM Gehlot makes insensitive remarks, Deputy CM Sachin Pilot says response should have been more sensitive

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan infant deaths: CM Gehlot makes insensitive remarks, Deputy CM Sachin Pilot says response should have been more sensitive

While the Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot made inconsiderate remarks regarding the unfortunate deaths of 100 children in Kota, the deputy chief minister of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot has said that the government should have been more sensitive and compassionate towards the Kota tragedy and accountability should be fixed instead of pinning the blame on the previous government.

“After being in power for 13 months, I think it serves no purpose to blame the previous government’s misdeeds. Accountability should be fixed,” Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot said. Slamming the Chief Minister, Pilot said that he cannot escape the responsibility by blaming past governments for the tragedy.


Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday had made insensitive statements on the deaths of more than 100 children in the JK Lon Hospital in Rajasthan’s Kota. He said that more children died during the BJP regime. In fact, days after trivialising the incident by saying that “children die, there is nothing new in it”, the Rajasthan CM shrugged off his responsibility for the deaths of the children saying “Some people are trying to divert attention from ‘other major issues’ such as CAA and NRC’.

Read: After Rajasthan minister walked off TV debate, CM Gehlot wants people to focus on ‘real issues’ like NRC and not children deaths in Kota

In a major public health system disaster in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, over more than 100 children died in Kota’s JK Lon Hospital in the last month. The cause of an overwhelming number of children in the hospital had been due to hypothermia. However, the hospital has given a clean chit to itself by forming a committee to investigate the deaths, which has now ruled out any negligence saying resources and equipment were functioning properly.

Besides Kota, case of medical apathy has also been reported from other districts of Rajasthan. About 10 children died in the Bundi district. The hospital administration had tried to hide the details of the death of the children following the issue of Kota deaths that shook the nation’s conscience. The Additional District Collector has sought a report on the matter.

NDTV shields Muslim rioters, says not 57 but could find only 1 police officer who suffered bullet wounds, UP police calls the lies out

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV shields Muslim rioters, says not 57 but could find only 1 police officer who suffered bullet wounds, UP police calls the lies out

Uttar Pradesh has been worst hit by the anti-CAA riots in which Muslim mob ran amok, resorting to severe violence, vandalism, arson and stone-pelting in the pretext of ‘peaceful’ protests at the behest of many Opposition parties and rabid Islamic organisations and NDTV has been at the forefront of spreading lies to legitimise these riots.

Revealing the injuries suffered by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the ensue, Director-General of Police (DGP) OP Singh, on December 21, said that 57 police officers have suffered gunshot wounds. He added that some of the officers were in critical condition.

However, the desperation of media to whitewash the crimes committed by Muslim mobs during the anti-CAA riots has compelled NDTV to once again resort to lies and distortion of facts.

In one of its articles titled ‘UP Police Say 57 Cops Had Bullet Injuries In Clashes. We Found Only One’ published today (January 4, 2020), NDTV doubted the claims made by the Uttar Pradesh Police. It said in its report that “The Uttar Pradesh government claims that about 300 police personnel were injured, of whom 57 suffered bullet injuries. But when asked for details of the policemen with gunshot wounds, the police top brass didn’t seem as forthcoming”.

NDTV, which is an indispensable part of the fake news factory went on to dispute Uttar Pradesh Police’s claims by writing that the UP Police have merely provided numbers but have not disclosed the names of those officers whom they claim have had bullet injuries.

Screenshot of NDTV report dated January 4, 2020

While disputing the UP police’s claims, their only proof was that NDTV could not reach the other personnel who have been injured in the anti-CAA riots. There are several reasons why the identity of those injured are being kept a secret. One of the possible reasons could be the apprehension of retributive action of Islamists.

The Uttar Pradesh police have, however, taken to Twitter to fact-check NDTV. It has cleared that the injury reports are documented and part of the official record.


Interestingly, while trying to spread lies and discredit the bullet wounds suffered by the police, NDTV also tried to shield Islamists who ran riots in Uttar Pradesh.

NDTV article snapshot

While the Islamist mobs went on a rampage, the NDTV continued to call them “protestors” and blamed UP police of “excessive force and high-handedness” in dealing with them.

This narrative is in tune with what the Congress party has been saying. In fact, even Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tried to allege the same when he shared old videos from Bangladesh to say that the UP police was “beating up Muslims”. The fake tweets were later deleted.

Read: NDTV does it again, twists tweet by Yogi Adityanath’s office on how the State cracked down on anti-CAA rioters: Read details

The Uttar Pradesh saw unprecedented communal riots after Muslim mobs following the Friday prayers resorted to extreme violence against police officials. The Uttar Pradesh administration had to resort to lathi-charge to take control of the situation. The Muslim mobs also fired bullets in those ‘peaceful protests’ and pelted stones at the police officials.

Responding to the allegation of the police excess against the rioters in the state, UP Police has time and again restated that the actions taken by them were merely counter-reactions to the atrocities unleashed by the Muslim rioters who had run amok injuring several innocent citizens, police personnel while damaging public properties worth crores.

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

Though the Uttar Pradesh Police has produced various evidence in the form of pictures and CCTV footage to establish its claims, the so-called ‘secular-liberal’ media refuse to abstain from weaving false and malicious stories to suit their agenda.

Recently, ABP journalist Shobhna Yadav had also displayed similar quirk by humanising the Muslim mobs which had unleashed extreme violence in the state during the anti-CAA riots.

On Thursday, at ABP Shikhar Sammelan 2020,  Uttar Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya spoke on the anti-CAA riots that took place in Uttar Pradesh in which Muslim mobs unleashed extreme violence on police officials and damaged public properties.

Read: As Muslim mob pelts stones on Nankana Sahib, NDTV journalist worries about visuals being used for ‘pro-CAA propaganda’

Maurya reiterated that the government will not accept any kind of violence. The innocent will be treated with respect and anyone who has indulged in violence will not be spared, he added.

However, the ABP journalist was quick to humanise the Muslim mobs by stating that the rioters belonged to ‘poor’ families and could not afford to pay for damages. She questioned the government on how will they make those ‘poor’ pay for damaging public properties in the state.

Sikh groups in India protest outside the Pakistan Embassy over stone-pelting by Muslim mob at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib

OpIndia Staff
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Sikh groups in India protest outside the Pakistan Embassy over stone-pelting by Muslim mob at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib

Following the attack on Sikhs by the Muslim mob at revered Nankana Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan on Friday, Sikh groups in India, including Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Committee and Akali Dal today staged a protest outside the Pakistan Embassy in the national capital. The protesters, with placards in their hands, raised slogans against Pakistan outside the embassy.


Meanwhile, Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue with his counterpart in Islamabad Imran Khan since Sikh minorities in the country were feeling extremely unsafe and insecure.

The Indian government on Friday expressed its concern and called upon the neighbouring country to take immediate steps to ensure the safety and security of the Sikh community living in Pakistan.

In a statement, the Indian foreign ministry said New Delhi called on the government of Pakistan to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims who regularly visit the shrine that marks the birthplace of the founder of Sikhism. It also demanded strong action against the perpetrators of violence and vandalism.

Read- From whitewashing Indian Islamists to shielding Pakistan ones: Congress calls Nankana Sahib video fake, says Mullah threatening Sikhs is ‘Sanghi bhasha’

On Friday, in yet another incident reaffirming the persecution of minorities in Pakistan, an angry mob of Muslims had gathered around the Sikh shrine of Gurudwara Nanakana Sahib and started pelting stones at it. The mob was being led by the family of Mohammad Hassan, the boy who allegedly abducted and converted Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur, who is the daughter of the gurdwara’s granthi.

The mob of angry Muslims gheraoed the holy shrine on Friday afternoon, leaving many devotees stranded inside. The protesters threatened to destroy the gurdwara and build a mosque in its place.

Hundreds of Muslims protestors swarmed the Gurudwara Nankana Sahib and raised inflammatory slogans against the Sikhs. “We will not let any Sikh live in Nankana Sahib and will its name to Ghulam-e-Mustafa,” one of the irate Muslim protestors exclaimed.

The police along with the Pakistani Rangers and Army had rushed to the spot to quell the protest but they had failed in dispersing the violent mob away from the Gurudwara. The situation was brought under control after the local police and Pak Rangers arrested the protesters.

However, the mobs dispersed only after police released Hassan, the man who had abducted Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur, daughter of the Gurdwara’s panthi.

West Bengal: Four killed in explosion in illegal fireworks factory allegedly used to make crude bombs, owner Noor Hossain arrested

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Four killed in explosion in illegal fireworks factory allegedly used to make crude bombs, owner Noor Hossain arrested

At least four people, including two women, were killed and one person was seriously injured in an explosion at an illegal firework manufacturing factory in Naihati in North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal on Friday. Noor Hossain, the owner of the factory, has been arrested from Amdanga area in the district on Friday night and a suo motu case of accidental murder along with other sections has been registered against him.

“We are interrogating Noor Hossain,” a senior police officer said, adding that a forensic team will visit the explosion site on Saturday. All four people killed in the blast were workers at the illegal factory.

The blast was of such high intensity that tremors were felt in houses located at least two to three kilometres from the blast spot. The roof of the factory was blown away by the blast and most of the walls collapsed. Given the intensity of the blast, locals allege that the illegal fireworks factory was used to manufacture crude bombs, not just fireworks. Police officials have also said that the factory had some strong explosives.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Arjun Singh demanded a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) saying that the factory could have terror links. “I visited the spot after the blast. There are several such illegal factories in the area. But they actually manufacture crude bombs under the garb of firecrackers. It is very likely that these units have Khagragarh-like terror links and needs to be probed by the NIA,” said Singh.

Following the blast in the illegal fireworks factory, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar sought a probe into the explosion, saying the administration should be held accountable as there are allegations that crude bombs were being manufactured in the factory.

“Several deaths in blasts at the factory at Masjidpara, Naihati has pained and shocked me. Allegations that crude bombs were being made in illegal factory warrants intense expert probe. Accountability of all in the administration needs to be fixed promptly,” the governor said in a tweet addressed to CM Mamata Banerjee.


West Bengal has been a constant concern for national security agencies as it has been a safe haven for terrorist activities due to political patronage. A similar blast in October 2014 in a house at Khagragarh in Burdwan town, about 100 km from Kolkata, had then exposed a network of Bangladeshi jihadi elements running an arms and explosives factory in the state.

The Burdwan blast on October 2 had occurred in a rented two-storeyed building in Khagragarh, reportedly owned by Nurul Hasan Chowdhury, a Trinamool Congress leader. The ground floor of the building was allegedly used as a party office.

Read- West Bengal: 3 TMC members die when bombs they were making to hurl at rival TMC group detonate accidently

Two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed and a third person was injured in the explosion that occurred in the residential building. The explosion led to the discovery of a cache of arms and ammunition. Two persons, identified as Shakil Ahmed and Swapan Mondal, died in the blast. The injured identified as Abdul Hakim (alias Hasan Saheb), was severely injured

The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which was probing the Burdwan blast, had then unearthed a chain of illegal madarsas, which were being used as a cover for providing training to militants.

According to the seven-page preliminary report submitted by the NIA then, the terror groups most of whom are members of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a Bangladeshi outfit, have managed to infiltrate and start operations with the help of local support. They were also given a free hand by the local police in whatever they did. As a result, they indiscriminately built up bases, purchased agricultural land to set up illegal madarsas, recruited locals for subversive activities, gave arms training and imparted ideological lessons.

JMB started activities in West Bengal in 2008 when two of its senior leaders, Talha Sheikh and Sohail Mahfuz crossed over to West Bengal to evade arrest and persecution in Bangladesh. Both were accused in the serial blast in Bangladesh that JMB carried out in 2005, the very year the outfit was founded.

The two, making a base in West Bengal, started working quietly on recruitment and training. This duo created several modules and ‘sleeper cells’ in the districts of Murshidabad, Birbhum, Nadia and Burdwan over the coming years.

He made the death of innocents his sick passion, Qassem Soleimani contributed to terror plots in India: US President Donald Trump

OpIndia Staff
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He made the death of innocents his sick passion, Qassem Soleimani contributed to terror plots in India: US President Donald Trump

In a stunning revelation, the President of the United States, Donald Trump has alleged that the assassinated Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was linked with terror plots in India.

Trump reportedly said that Soleimani, who killed in US drone attacks, was involved in terror attacks as far away as New Delhi and London.

Speaking to the reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump said, “The latest attacks on US targets in Iraq, including rocket strikes that killed an American and injured four American servicemen severely, and the violent assault on our embassy in Baghdad, were carried out under the auspices of Soleimani.”

“Soleimani made the death of innocent people his sick passion, contributing to terrorist plots as far away as New Delhi and London. Today, we remember and pay a tribute to the victims of Soleimani”s many atrocities and we take comfort in knowing that his reign of terror is over,” Trump said.

The head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani was killed in the US airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday, a move that has provoked a major escalation in US-Iran tensions.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has issued a statement vowing to retaliate “in the right place and time”. Trump, on the other hand, had claimed that he doesn’t seek war with Iran and the drone attack to eliminate Soleimani was to stop an “imminent” war with the Middle-East country.

However, the Ministry of External Affairs has remained tight-lipped about Trump’s recent assertions. India had called upon the two warring nations to exercise restraint over the growing escalation following the death of Iranian leader Soleimani and so far has not reacted to the remarks made by Trump.

India and the US have not been on the same vis-a-vis Iran. While Washington considers the Shia majority nation as a hub of American-centric terrorism and a nation committed to destabilising the Middle-East, New Delhi views Iran as a strategic partner in its extended neighbourhood.

Rajasthan: After over 100 infant deaths in Kota, 10 children dead in Bundi in one month, report sought by Additional District Collector

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: After over 100 infant deaths in Kota, 10 children dead in Bundi in one month, report sought by Additional District Collector

After deaths of over 100 infants in JK Lon Hospital in Kota rocked the state, another case of medical apathy has come to fore. This time, the case is from the Bundi district in Rajasthan where 10 children death have been reported in last one month. All these deaths have happened in SNCU ward.

The hospital administration in Bundi was deliberately trying to hide the statistics of the deaths of children even as the issue of infants deaths in JK Lone Hospital in Kota rages on. The official figures of the deaths of children in Bundi district were revealed after the Additional District Collector visited the hospital on Friday. The hospital administration, which was until now carefully hiding the number of children deaths had to disclose that in the past month, 10 children lost their lives in the SNCU ward.

The medical department of the hospital said that all the children who died in the hospital came from rural areas. Duty in-charge Hitesh Soni tried to defend the hospital by claiming that some of the children who died were undernourished while others had contracted infection, vindicating hospital administration of medical negligence.

Read: After Rajasthan minister walked off TV debate, CM Gehlot wants people to focus on ‘real issues’ like NRC and not children deaths in Kota

The Additional District Collector has sought a report regarding the matter. In addition, the Additional District Collector has directed the hospital administration to take special care of the sanitation system and asked the authorities to bear in mind that there is no infection of any kind in the hospital. Necessary guidelines have been issued to ensure that there is no negligence in treatment.

The report of deaths of children in Bundi comes on the heels of the infants deaths in JK Lon hospital in Kota. The cause of an overwhelming number of children in the hospital had been due to hypothermia. JK Lon is the biggest government hospital for children and receives as many as 200-300 patients in the OPD every day.

Read: NCPCR issues notice to Kota Health Officer over deaths of kids in JK Lon Hospital, finds several irregularities in the govt hospital

Following the deaths of the children, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Medical And Health Officer of Kota District, BS Tanwar, to look into these deaths. The Commission has directed Tanwar to appear in person on January 3 to explain reasons for not sharing the report on action taken with the Commission.

Large numbers of Bangladeshis living illegally in India for decades fleeing to Bangladesh over fears of NRC: Intelligence sources

OpIndia Staff
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Large numbers of Bangladeshis living illegally in India for decades fleeing to Bangladesh over fears of NRC: Intelligence sources

Ever since the Modi government has introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act and the talks of a nationwide NRC have started gaining momentum, the Bangladeshi illegal immigrants living in different parts of India for decades have somehow started to fear being identified and incarcerated in detention centres. This is compelling them to return to Bengal, which they consider to be a ‘safe heaven’ for them, in large numbers with an intent to go back to their country through the porous portions of the Indo-Bangladesh border at the opportune time, according to reports.

“All the talk about a nationwide NRC has put the fear among illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (IBIs) living and working in many states outside Bengal. The news of detection of a few scores of such IBIs in Karnataka and their subsequent deportation has spread like wildfire among them”, said a senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer.

“They (the IBIs) also fear being incarcerated in detention centres and the prevailing sentiment among them now is to migrate to Bengal where they will be safe and await an opportune time to get back to Bangladesh,” the officer added.

The reason they are migrating to Bengal, and not Assam, in large numbers, is because they know they will be safe in Bengal. “They know that the Mamata Banerjee government will not do anything to them and will protect them”.

“But Assam is now hostile to IBIs and so they cannot risk going to Assam, even though it would have been easier to cross over to Bangladesh from Assam due to greater porosity of the many stretches of the border there,” the IB officer explained.

Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has time and again stated that it is a humanitarian obligation to give refuge to migrants and her state West Bengal will take care of anyone seeking shelter. It is notable here that Mamata Banerjee has been vocally critical of the BJP led central government over the CAA and NRC and maintained that she will never let them to be implemented in her state.

West Bengal has been a constant concern for national security agencies for its porous borders. Millions of illegal Bangladesh immigrants, and in recent times Rohingyas from Myanmar have been able to infiltrate into India without check and many have been able to obtain Indian identity documents with the help of local Muslims.

However, now it is being believed that several illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (IBIs) have journeyed to Bengal from Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and some other states in recent weeks. Many of these IBIs are planning to return to Bangladesh and have reportedly got in touch with touts who facilitate the illegal movement of humans across the international border.

Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) have caught hundreds of people, in the last few months, trying to sneak back into Bangladesh from the porous Indo-Bangladesh borders at dead of night.

Bangladesh’s paramilitary force chief confirmed on Thursday that a total of 445 Bangladeshi nationals returned from India in the last two months following the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the Indian government.

According to Senior Border Security Force (BSF) officers in the North and South Bengal frontiers, these illegal immigrants, mainly labourers, have been assembling in many villages and small towns near the border, waiting for an opportune time to cross over to Bangladesh for fear of NRC.

The BSF officials guarding the Indo-Bangladesh border in Bengal say that though all efforts are being made to capture such Bangladeshi Muslims fleeing India at the border, in the dark of night, they are succeeding in crossing the border through jungle etc. According to officials, since large areas of the international border have no fencing and electricity and the area is surrounded by rivers and dense forests, some people secretly succeed in crossing over.

Interestingly, this reverse migration has particularly been on the rise after the Modi Government in a historic decision introduced CAA and NRC in the country.

A highly placed source in the BSF confirmed: “The reverse migration of illegal Bangladeshis has increased in the last few days. We have information that every day, people are crossing over to Bangladesh and they are using the porous border in North 24 Parganas area of Basirhat and Bongaon, and the border in Nadia district to cross over. Some reports are also coming in from Malda in West Bengal.” These people fear that once NRC is implemented they will be identified as living illegally in India for decades and this is compelling them to flee the country.

Bangladeshi border guards have apprehended and handed over 300 people from Maheshpur sub-district to the police last month. Villagers living close to the border claim that a large number of people are fleeing to Bangladesh from India.

People from the border areas of the neighbouring country say that the Rohingya people have already increased our problems. Now if people from India also start coming then we will have a lot of trouble. They claim that 300 to 400 people are entering Bangladesh from India every day.

Moreover, the Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB) and Bangladesh Police claim that Indian identity cards are also being recovered from these intruders. The police are investigating by registering cases against these illegal entrants.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh, which is already housing several thousand Rohingya refugees, is not taking this re-migration lightly. Out of concern that there might be a sudden population explosion, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission had recently suspended the mobile network in a 1 km band along the approximately 4100 kilometre-long border with India.

By switching off mobile telecom services indefinitely, Dhaka hopes to deny the IBIs who are amassing along the border in Bengal the opportunity to contact touts and others in Bangladesh who would facilitate their entry into that country.

PM Modi in Siddaganga Matth, Karnataka: After ‘Divide and Rule’ failed, ‘liberals’ return to prejudice against Lingayats

Abhishek Banerjee
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PM Modi in Siddaganga Matth, Karnataka: After ‘Divide and Rule’ failed, ‘liberals’ return to prejudice against Lingayats

On a scale of 1 to 10, liberal hatred for PM Modi has always been a 12 at the very least. But after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed, liberal hatred seems to have finally broken the meter. Nothing quite makes liberals so angry as helping out persecuted Hindus escaping from Islamic countries. In this backdrop, a recent picture of PM Modi addressing people at Siddaganga Matth in Karnataka received a surprising amount of hatred. Sample this from a liberal who has written in the LA Times, The Hindu and Caravan.

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Tweet by “journalist” Vidya Krishnan

Wait! It can get a lot more hateful than even this. Here’s from a very popular liberal handle run by one Professor Rohit Chopra whose humour and wit has previously been covered in The Telegraph and The Guardian.

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Tweet by IndiaExplained
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Tweet by IndiaExplained

For what it’s worth, the handle also ran a Twitter poll speculating about an assassination of India’s Prime Minister. Talk about intolerance…

Does anyone still wonder whether Hinduphobia is real?

I am sure that going forward, anything and everything that PM Modi does will continue to trigger liberals in such self-destructive ways. And in doing so, they will only further expose themselves and their Hinduphobia.

But there is something specific about this image of PM Modi which makes the liberal hate particularly ironic.

Read: Delhi-based think tank pulls down essays of hate-monger Rohit Chopra alias ‘IndiaExplained’ for calling for PM Modi’s assassination

Notice the repeated use of the word “Hindu” in the tweets above?

You see, what PM Modi is wearing here is a traditional religious outfit worn by Lingayats in Karnataka. He has come to the Siddaganga Matth to pay his respects to the much revered Shivakumara Swamiji.

Liberals seem to have forgotten that shortly before Karnataka polls in 2018, the ‘secular’ Congress government in Karnataka declared that Lingayats are not Hindus at all, but a separate religion.

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Remember Siddaramaiah? Once upon a time, he was supposed to ‘save’ Southern India from Modi.

At the time, this was supposed to be a political masterstroke. The obvious calculation was that the separate religion status would divide the Lingayat vote which traditionally goes with BJP’s BS Yediyurappa.

Read: Senior Congress leader dubs his party’s Lingayat card a ‘political stunt’

The only snag? People saw through the trick. It was way too easy.

The “Divide and Rule” policy failed miserably. If anything, Lingayats voted rock solid for the BJP. On the day the election results came out, Siddaramaiah was forgotten in a matter of hours. The once-formidable Siddaramaiah now joins the elite club of liberal icons who were supposed to stop Modi, from Hardik Patel to Raj Thackeray and Kanhaiya Kumar.

So dear liberals, when PM Modi wears Lingayat attire, he is actually honouring a religious minority. How could you possibly relate it to Hindu majoritarianism?

What’s that you say? Are you saying that in order to qualify as a “real” minority, one must vote tactically to keep BJP out of power?

Now B S Yediyurappa is Chief Minister of Karnataka. No wonder that liberals have returned to their prejudices against Lingayats.

I expected nothing else.

Arvind Kejriwal indulges in fearmongering about CAA using lies, NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan contributes to his falsehoods

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal indulges in fearmongering about CAA using lies, NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan contributes to his falsehoods

Ever since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by both houses of the parliament, the opposition parties and left-liberal media has been running full-fledge propaganda against it. Most of the oppositions to the CAA are based on lies, aimed at creating baseless fear among Muslim citizens of India, but Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal crossed all limits of lies by claiming that every citizen, including Hindus, who don’t have own and parent’s birth certificates will have to leave India due to CAA.

The Delhi CM made this comment in a townhall session on NDTV moderated by Nidhi Razdan. Although the session includes the CM taking questions from the audience, a question on CAA was asked by the moderator herself. She said that entire country is debating the Citizenship Amendment Act, and asked Kejriwal to clarify his stand on the issue, adding that several opposition CMs have said that they will not implement the CAA and NRC in their respective states.

To this, first Kejriwal said that he does not understand the act at all. After that he proceeds to narrate an incident about meeting a person named Satish Pandey a few days ago, who has come to Delhi from UP or Bihar. “I asked him whether he has birth certificate issued by government, he said no. He said ‘I was born at home, and in those days birth certificates were not issued’. After that I asked what about your parents, he said when ‘I don’t have when how my parents will have it?’ After that I told him, now what will do? You will have to leave the country,” the Delhi CM said making a completely false statement and creating fear among people.

https://youtu.be/8YyJZqRz_rc?t=1455

After that, he went to take a poll of people in the audience asking how many have own and parent’s birth certificates issued by the govt, and it turned out that only 15-20 people had it. “Out of around 1000 people sitting here, only 15-20 people have raised their hands, rest all will have to go away from the country”, he said. Nidhi Razdan ably contributed to this fearmongering by adding “whether they are Hindu or Muslim”, which was promptly agreed by Kejriwal.

He then added, for Hindus coming from Pakistan, the central government will make their papers, for Hindus in India, if they don’t have papers, they will have to leave the country. “Read the law if I am wrong”, he asserted. Kejriwal went on by saying so much love for Pakistani Hindus, but Indian Hindus will have to leave if they don’t have papers, what was the need of this law I don’t understand.

When Nidhi Razdan mentioned that the prime minister and home minister have clarified that CAA and NRC are not linked and the govt is not talking about NRC at present, Kejriwal asked her when will they talk about this. After that he added that govt is bringing 2 crore Hindus from Pakistan, and asked where will they be settled. He said that govt should think about economy and jobs, and not create controversy by making the law.

On this entire section on CAA, every word that Kejriwal uttered was a lie, starting from when he said he does not understand the law. It is not that he is misunderstanding the CAA, but it is clear that he is deliberately spreading lies.

The CAA is a special relaxation given to 6 minority communities facing persecution in 3 neighbouring Islamic countries, and it has absolutely nothing to do Indian citizens. Therefore, to claim that Indian citizens, including Hindus, will have to show their and their parent’s birth certificates due to the Act is absolutely false. The claim that Indians will have to leave the country for not having official birth certificate is laughable.

Read- Indian Muslims do not stand to suffer due to the CAA-NRC combo: Here are the laws and guidelines explained

The CAA is for those people who have already entered before 31st December 2014, and they are already living in India. There is no question of bringing 2 crore Hindus from Pakistan under CAA as Kejriwal is claiming. Any person coming after the cut-off will have to go through the usual naturalisation process as per the Foreigners Act, they will not get the relaxation provided by CAA.

While Arvind Kejriwal was uttering these lies on CAA, instead of countering him, the moderator Nidhi Razdan instead chose to contribute to his fearmongering. Not even once she mentioned that CAA has nothing to do with Indian citizens. Even if it is accepted that Kejriwal was mixing up CAA and NRC, as a journalist she should have corrected him.

Moreover, the fearmongering about NRC is also totally baseless, as the central government has yet to make any official announcement on it, and nobody knows what will be its shape and how it will be implemented. Even in the recently updated NRC in Assam, people were not asked for their birth certificates. The government had published the legacy documents, which were the NRC of 1951 and the voter lists upto 1972. People had to find the names of their or their parents or grandparents etc in those documents, and rest of the family had to prove relationship with that person using a number of official documents, not just birth certificates.

More importantly, the NRC of Assam can’t be replicated in pan Indian level, as Assam has special provision in the Foreigners Act due to the Assam Accord, and the cut off date for citizens in Assam is different, 24th March 1972. The Assam Accord makes if mandatory to deport foreigners who have come illegally after that date, therefore it was necessary to identify such persons using the NRC.

But the NRC at national level will not have deal with these issues, therefore it will be a completely different exercise. Even if opposition parties want to oppose, they should at least wait till the government comes up with a proposal for it, instead of creating needless fear among people and instigate riots and violence in the name of protests.

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