Controversial journalist Barkha Dutt’s sister Bahar Dutt was caught in a plagiarism row when nature and wildlife writer Janaki Lenin accused her of lifting paragraphs from her 2007 essay “The Song of the Ganges Gharial”. Taking to Twitter, Janaki alleged that Bahar Dutt’s book ‘Rewilding’ has portions of her essay lifted off almost verbatim.
Reading Bahar Dutt’s ‘Rewilding’ and struck by some familiar words in the turtles & gharial chapter. In 2007, I wrote an essay for Seminar and many sentences in her chapter are almost identical. @OUPAcademic
Janaki cited her own essay and shared a screenshot from Dutt’s book which were quite similar.
the benefit of the three endangered Indian crocodilians–the mugger, the saltwater crocodile and the gharial. It delineated 20,000 square kilometres as sanctuaries and set up several captive rearing projects.”
revised from Endangered to Critically Endangered, one stop away from Extinction. It is, today, the most endangered large animal in India, more gravely endangered than the tiger.”
When I wrote in 2007, status had been revised in 2006. So “recently”. Book published in 2019 says pic.twitter.com/Q1lT9C32BW
Dutt, however, refuted these allegations and said that she had quoted Romulus Whitaker, wildlife conservationist.
Dear Janaki
Am shocked by this allegation every single mail from Rom to me is ON record these are based on papers sent by him to me and every single quote he has shared has been attributed to him including his papers at the end in the references ..
Expressing shock at the allegations, Dutt said how her emails to Whitaker were on record and were based on the papers sent by him. She adds that the references to the papers she has used in her book are mentioned in the references section.
Janaki this is a quote from Rom to me attributed to him : If you were writing on his behalf why did you not mention ??
To another quote, she mentioned that in her book she had attributed the above quote to Rom as it was given to her by him. “If you were writing on his behalf, why did you not mention?” she asked Lenin. Rom is also Janaki Lenin’s husband. Responding to Dutt’s clarification, Lenin reprimanded her for not putting the verbatim quotes in quotation mark.
When you quote verbatim from another text, you use quotation marks and you cite the author. Not wave me to the list of references at the end of the book. https://t.co/TMrRYI3u9a
Days after Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan voiced his support for the Citizenship Amendment Act, Congress leader and the opposition leader of Kerala asked him to not attend a program where he was invited.
This was informed by the official Twitter handle of the Kerala Governor, which said that opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala requested the governor not to attend the event. According to the letter written by Chennithala to the governor, governor Arif Mohammad Khan was originally invited to inaugurate the commemoration of former Kerala CM K Karunakaran at 4 PM on 23 December.
As invited by Sh.RameshChennithala, Opposition Leader,Hon’ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan was to inaugurate Commemoration of Late K Karunakaran, Ex Kerala CM & @INCIndia Leader at 4pm, 23Dec. But, today,office of Sh. @chennithala requested Hon’ble Governor NOT to attend pic.twitter.com/aCf0r7C4aO
After thanking the governor for agreeing to attend the event, the letter addressed to the ADC to Governor states, “however due to some unexpected developments, the organisers of the programme have advised that it would not be appropriate for the Hon’ble Governor to grace the function. Taking into consideration all the aspects and the available information, Leader of Opposition also feels that it would be ideal, if the Hon’ble Governor takes out this programme from his schedule of functions for the specified day.”
The letter was sent today, 23rd December, the day when the event was scheduled, which means it was a last-minute decision. The letter does not mention the ‘unexpected developments’ that forced them to ask the governor not to attend their event, but the reason can be easily guessed. Congress party is organising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, and they don’t want to be associated with a person who have expressed pro-CAA views.
Two days ago, governor Arif Mohammad Khan had said that by enacting the CAA, the Modi government has promise made by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Congress to the people who were leading deplorable lives in Pakistan. He had added that the foundation of the Citizenship Amendment Act was laid in 1995 and 2003 and the BJP government has simply given a legal form to it. A couple of days before that, he had said that the amendment is an “extraordinary solution” in the wake of minorities from neighbouring countries fleeing religious persecution.
The Ghaziabad police on Monday registered a case against the Aam Aadmi Party leader Amanatullah Khan for inciting violence through his social media posts.
In a clampdown against hate-speech, the police filed an FIR against the leader under sections of the IT Act at Ghantaghar PS Ghaziabad. Khan is also alleged to have made inflammatory speech minutes before the violence broke out at Jamia Millia University on December 15.
However, on Friday, December 20, 2019, Khan rubbished the allegations that his speech touched off violence at Jamia Islamia University on December 15. He claimed that many RSS, VHP and BJP leaders were also involved in the protests. He also spoke in support of the Jamia students, exonerating them of the violence that erupted in the University last week.
The BJP, on the other hand, had accused the AAP leader of fomenting unrest and encouraging violence in the national capital of the country through his incendiary remarks during his speech at anti-CAA protests held at Jamia Islamia University on December 15.
In a trenchant speech on December 15 at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, Khan censured the BJP government for enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act that intends to grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He also alleged that the silence of Muslims on the Triple Talaq Act was taken as their weakness by the central government. The speech which was attended by thousands of impassioned people gathered to protest against the CAA was allegedly delivered just minutes before the violence broke out.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Monday arrested the state head of the radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India(PFI), Waseem and his two aides for allegedly masterminding the violence during the anti-CAA protests held in Lucknow last week.
#Breaking | Proof of ‘radical’ role in the anti-CAA violence in U.P has been accessed.
The PFI has allegedly masterminded the violence in U.P and its leader Waseem has been arrested.
According to the police, the PFI played an instrumental role in inciting violence in several parts of Uttar Pradesh, especially its capital, Lucknow. Waseem’s key aides, Nadeem and Ashfaq were also arrested for allegedly engineering violence during the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests in Lucknow. Maulana Shadab and 11 members of the PFI were earlier arrested in Shamli in similar cases.
Talking to the media, SSP Lucknow, Kalanidhi Naithani said, “We have been successful in nabbing mastermind of Lucknow violence. Waseem, Nadeem and Ashfaq of PFI have been arrested by the police. While Wasim is state head, Ashfaq is treasurer and Nadeem is a member of PFI.”
Earlier on Sunday, UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma had alleged possible role of PFI and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in stoking violence during the anti-CAA protests in the state which has claimed 18 lives so far and left scores of people, including many policemen, injured.
SSP further added that the police have retrieved placards, flags, pamphlets and papers, literature, newspaper cuttings, banners and posters of NRC/CAA protest from the accused.
Furthermore, the SSP added that Nadeem and Ashfaq have confessed to the police of building a strategy for December 19 protests and publicising it on social media.
At least 39 FIRs have been filed in connection with the violence that erupted last week across various cities and towns in Uttar Pradesh during the anti-CAA protests. About 150 people have been arrested so far in the state.
In addition to Waseem, Nadeem and Ashfaq, the police have also arrested Robin Verma and Mohammad Shoaib of the Rihai Manch for their role in instigating the mob. Nadeem and Ashfaq were accused of inciting people for the protest through WhatsApp and other social media platforms by sharing literature and video, SSP said.
West Bengal Chief Minister wears many hats, apart from being a firebrand political leader, she is also a painter, a poet, a designer and a writer. But now she has been credited with another unusual achievement. A Kolkata zoo has claimed that two lion cubs were born there with the inspiration of Mamata Banerjee.
A new enclosure for wild animals was opened on Sunday at the Alipore zoo in Kolkata. Two lion cubs born in the zoo a few months ago were also presented for public viewing, along with four wild dogs brought into the zoo. The enclosure and the new members of the zoo were inaugurated by forest minister Rajeev Banerjee and state minister of the department Sujit Bose. But the plaque used on the occasion has raised eyebrows in the state, as it claims that the lion cubs were born with the inspiration of the chief minister.
The plaque at Alipore Zoo
The board in Bengali says that the two ministers inaugurated the two lion cubs for public viewing on 22 December, which were born inside the Alipore Zoo on the inspiration of honourable chief minister of West Bengal. Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta shared an image of the plaque on Twitter today, giving detail of what it says.
According to this plaque, two lion cubs were born in the Alipur Zoo, Kolkata, through the inspiration of Mamata Banerjee. pic.twitter.com/hfsn24XmU9
Former TMC MP Kunal Ghosh wrote a scathing post on Facebook, sharply criticising the language used in the plaque. He asked whether some people without any knowledge of language and sense are helping the chief minister or making her subject of ridicule. He said that people have now used the word ‘inspiration’ for mating of lions also. He wrote that even if they meant the CM inspired the inauguration of the enclosure, there was no need to mention that. It is natural that animals in zoo will reproduce, will the CM’s name be mentioned in front of every such enclosure, he asked, adding that the minimum respect for the CM’s name should be maintained.
He went to add that the birth of lion cubs at the Alipore is definitely an important success, and the result of research work at the zoo. But by ascribing CM’s inspiration, the importance of the matter has been reduced.
‘What was the zoo director thinking? That using “inspiration” for lion mating will ensure his promotion?’ he asked. Ghosh added that the overuse of “inspiration” has crossed limits, and has become a source of joke and laughter.
According to local media, it has become unofficially mandatory to mention ‘inspired by CM’ at every poster/banner/plaque of government or party event, project etc. And the zoo plaque is the result of mindless use of the phrase. The image of the board has gone viral in WB, and has become a subject of ridicule. People are posting messages like ‘today sun rose on the east on the inspiration of Mamata Banerjee’, while others are questioning the need for such formal launch of new animals at a zoo.
The counting of votes in the Jharkhand Assembly Elections is on the verge of completion. Most significantly, it appears certain now that the BJP will not be the single largest party in the state. As of writing this report, the BJP was leading in 16 and had won in 9, taking its tally to 25 as per the latest trends.
The JMM had won in 8 and was leading in another 22. One of the few pollsters to have predicted this outcome precisely, or perhaps the only one, is the Jan Ki Baat.
The Jan Ki Baat exit polls had predicted the BJP to score between 22 and 30 seats while it gave the alliance anything between 37 and 46. Individually, JMM was touted to score between 28 and 23 seats while the Congress was expected to secure between 15 and 10 seats.
The JKB poll appears to have predicted the BJP’s and Congress’ seats perfectly as the latter is at 15 as per the latest trends. JMM is currently at two more than the maximum seats JKB gave them.
In terms of vote share, the JKB accurately predicted BJP’s vote share. The poll gave BJP a vote share of 33% and the BJP, as per the latest trends, is at 33.66%. However, it appears to have slightly overestimated the vote share of the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance. While the JKB poll predicted the alliance to secure a 40% vote share, the alliance is at 35.5%.
However, the JKB poll was perhaps the only poll that got the bigger picture correct. It might have missed the mark here and there but it did get the bigger picture absolutely correct. CEO of JKB, Pradip Bhandari, was also one of the few to accurately predict that there was a very serious chance of the incumbent Chief Minister Raghubar Das losing his own seat, which he has lost.
Speaking to OpIndia, Pradip Bhandari blamed BJP’s defeat on the arrogance of the local leaders. He said, “Modi can give you a 5-year stable government but eventually you’ll have to work. Raghubar Das’ arrogance made him lose. Most states which had won after 2014 are losing in 2019 because of anti-incumbency.”
An Indian technician named Harish Bangera working in Saudi Arabian city of Dammam has found himself in trouble over his Facebook post regarding the Muslim pilgrimage site of Mecca. Harish is a resident of Udipi, Karnataka.
(Source: Zorins News)
On Saturday, December 21, Harish had uploaded a picture of Kaaba in Mecca with the caption that “Next Ram Temple in Mecca. Be ready for fight”. Soon, the post elicited hundreds of comments, shares and came to the notice of the Saudi authorities after a complaint was registered against Harish accusing him of blasphemy. He was arrested by the Saudi police within an hour of receiving the complaint.
Harish Bangera arrested by Saudi authorities(Source:Zorin News)
After Harish was arrested, his employers too axed him from the job with immediate effect. A Facebook post that has now gone viral, allegedly from the employers of Harish, condemned the posts made by Harish as “objectionable” and said that they have decided to terminate him from the job citing his unethical posts as a justification for their decision.
(Source:daijiworld)
“We Gulf Carton Factory Co. want to have your attention for what happened, in relation to unethical posts, posted by Mr Harish Bangera from his personal Facebook account. It was unacceptable and we have immediately terminated Mr Harish Bangera from his duties and company contract. We condemn such activities extremely and have reported this case to Police, Ministry of Labour & Saudi authorities for their further action. We assure everyone that we have zero tolerance for such acts (sic).” The post is allegedly written by Meshari AM Al Jabr of Gulf Carton Factory Co where Harish was said to be employed.
On the other hand, Harish has expressed his remorse over the posts uploaded by him. In a video, Harish can be seen beseeching forgiveness from Muslims for his Facebook post. In the video, he says, “I have committed a mistake. Please forgive me. I will never upload any such posts again. I have faced a lot of difficulties prior to coming to Dammam. I seek forgiveness from my Muslim brothers. I am facing problems with my company. Please forgive me.” However, it could not be ascertained when was the video made.
The incident serves as a grim reminder to Indians staying in the Islamic countries where comments and actions considered disrespectful for Islam come under the scrutiny of harsh blasphemy laws.
A legal rights NGO, called the Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF), has filed a complaint with the Union Home Secretary and the FCRA Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs against the Andhra Pradesh based NGO ‘Sylom Blind Center’, with one Praveen Chakravarthy as its President, for indulging in conversions to Christianity. The complainant has demanded that the organization’s FCRA license be cancelled, bank accounts be frozen and an investigation be carried out regarding its other activities. Praveen Chakravarthy is also a senior pastor.
Filed complaint with Union Home Secretary & FCRA Division (MHA) against ‘Sylom Blind Center’ represented by its President Mr. Praveen Chakravarthy who indulged Christian Conversions.
Sought cancellation of its FCRA, Freeze Bank Accounts & investigation into his other activities. pic.twitter.com/a03orNAjZs
In the video shared by LRPF, Chakravarthy can be heard saying, “After everyone who had accepted Christ as Saviour and when they remove the tree god, a stone god, then I call it a Christ village.” He continued, “In some villages, I had hit the stones and trees with my leg, in front of the village people, they only said, Pastor Praveen, you can hit it because it’s fake. So there are many cases which I had kicked the gods’ heads and I was so happy.” Chakravarthy clarified that a ‘Christ Village’ means a village where everyone had accepted Christ. He claims to have made hundreds of ‘Christ Villages’ and was continuing with his mission.
Sylom Blind Center was established in 1989, and its stated goal is to help the orphans, widows, aged, neglected ones in the society by providing them education, shelter, medicine, clothing, care and concern. But the organisation headed by pastor Praveen Chakraborty has been involved in religious conversion activities. According to a report by Organiser, The pastor and his ‘Sylom Pastors League’ group claim to have Baptized 15,000 Indians in the year 2012, 37,000 persons in 2013, 292,000 persons on 2014, 6,00,003 persons in 2015 and so on.
Praveen Chakravarthy conducts his conversion activities through Sylom Pastors League, which is headed by him. LifePoint Church’s Missions Ministry, a US based Christian missionary organisation, list the Sylom Pastors League as their partner in India. They mention that Praveen is very active in church planting, disciple-making, and he had helped thousands of people in receiving fresh drinking water and also receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior.
As we have reported at OpIndia, Christian missionaries wish to convert the entire world to Christianity. Christianity considers Pagans Gods and Goddesses, including the Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism, as false gods and demons. It also considers idol worshippers as devil worshippers. Therefore, Christian missionaries seek to eradicate Hinduism from the face of the Earth.
Sonam Kapoor was in Saudi Arabia recently as an ‘influencer’ to attend The MDL Beast Festival which took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, things turned a little sour after the women present there were faced with sexual harassment. A lot of celebrities got backlash for attending and promoting the festival despite human rights in Saudi.
Fashion and culture commentary Instagram account Diet_Prada publicly called out these celebrities including Bollywood entertainer Sonam Kapoor.
Diet Prada accused the celebrities of ‘cashing big fat checks in exchange for content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia” especially over human rights violation. Moreover, there were allegations of sexual harassment of women in the concert too.
One of the attendees even recalled how girls in hijabs were also harassed. However, Sonam Kapoor, Bollywood starlet whose hypocrisy is as nauseating as acting skills, dismissed these harassment concerns by claiming how she was respected even as a “Hindu brown female actor”.
Sonam Kapoor’s tone-deaf response to sexual harassment concerns at Saudi Arabia’s MDL Beast festival
Sonam Kapoor conveniently forgot that while she may be ‘Hindu brown female actor’, she was still an actor. That comes with privilege. That just because she was the quintessential ‘minority’ in an Islamic country, she was still a celebrity invited by organisers and that comes with privilege. Diet Prada called out hypocrisy of Sonam Kapoor even louder in subsequent posts.
Diet Prada calls out Sonam Kapoor’s hypocrisy.
Diet Prada questioned Sonam Kapoor on her choice to promote Saudi Arabia, a country where homosexuality is subjected to capital punishment, when she is such a vocal supporter of LGBT community. Taking a dig at her, Diet Prada even asked her to donate the money she received as ‘influencer’ from Saudi authorities to LGBTQ advocacy groups.
The country has been burning as Muslim mobs have gone on a rampage, rioting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Registry of Citizens. In the midst of the chaos, Prime Minister Modi addressed a massive rally in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi where he also addressed the riots against CAA and NRC. In his speech, while training his guns at all and sundry anti-India forces, PM Modi said “Hate me if you want but don’t hate India. Burn my effigy, but don’t burn a poor man’s auto-rickshaw”. PM Modi’s speech seems to have ruffled many feathers, one of them, is that of filmmaker and hobby propagandist, Anurag Kashyap. He has claimed that a sentence from PM Modi’s speech was the same as what Hitler had once said.
Anurag Kashyap, who has often been caught spreading blatant lies and shoddy propaganda took to Twitter to plug a short clip. The short clip was of a speech by Adolf Hitler, the German dictator with his speech translated.
In the tweet, Anurag Kashyap called the Prime Minister an ‘Urban Nazi’ insinuating that his ‘hate me but don’t hate India’ line was taken directly from a speech by Hitler.
The translation text in the video reads, “I know who is hating me. Hate me if you wish, but don’t hate Germany”.
The insinuation that Anurag Kashyap made was obvious. He alleged that Prime Minister Modi is akin to a Nazi and that his speech was inspired by the German dictator.
The truth, however, is far from it. The translation of the German speech is wildly inaccurate.
Maria Wirth, a German author with deep links to India and the Indic tradition, living in India for the past 3 decades tweeted that the translation was inaccurate and actually had nothing to do with what the translation said or what Anurag Kashyap insinuated.
Wirth said that the translation in the video was incorrect and pertained to a completely different topic where Hitler was not saying anything remotely similar to what PM Modi said. She said the Hitler speech was about ‘going amidst people’, ‘help them and help them again and again’.
When OpIndia spoke to Maria Wirth, she said that the translation in the video plugged by Anurag Kashyap was completely incorrect. She said that Hitler in the speech said, “…to talk of this people as brothers (volk) to go in the midst of the people of the nation, to overcome all its …. To help and to help again and again”. Since it is a short clip and starts mid-sentence, she theorised that the context in which Hitler was talking about was to say that simply to call fellow Germans as ‘brothers’ is not enough, but the need is to go amidst people and help them over and over again.
After speaking to Maria, OpIndia did its own research. While it is difficult to place which exact speech this clip has been taken from, there are several indicators that we found.
We found a website where the date and the place of this particular speech were mentioned.
Date and subject of the speech in question
The note related to the video says, “German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler addresses volunteers and officials gathered for the opening rally of the annual Winterhilfswerk (Winter relief project), held in Deutschlandhalle, in Berlin, Germany. The hall is decorated with Nazi symbols and swastikas on sidewalls. Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann, are seen. Hitler gives an impassioned speech with much gesticulation. (Note: Midway through clip there is a brief 2 second shot from an unrelated speech by Hitler to the Reichstag)”.
The website claims that the speech was delivered by Hitler in Berlin, Germany on October 5th, 1937 at the Winterhilfswerk winter relief rally.
We then looked for a translation of the 1937 speech of Hitler and found an English version.
Translation of Hitler speech from 1937
We asked Ms Maria Wirth if the speech could be from 1937 and if this translation made sense. She said though it is not an exact translation if the speech is indeed from 1937, then the portion highlighted could be the loose translation.
The highlighted portion reads, “…behind it stands not the word, but the deed! With the aid of this tremendous society, countless people are being relieved of the feeling of social abandonment and isolation. Many are thus regaining the firm belief that they are not completely lost and alone in this world, but sheltered in their Volksgemeinschaft; that they, too, are being cared for, that they, too, are being thought of and remembered”.
Essentially, both her translation and that from this book would mean that Hitler was talking about how ‘deed’ is more important than ‘words’ and how just calling Germans brothers is not sufficient but what is needed is to go amongst the people and help them.
The Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes (English: Winter Relief of the German People), commonly known by its abbreviated form Winterhilfswerk (WHW) from where this speech is, was an annual drive by the National Socialist People’s Welfare (German: Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt) to help finance charitable work. Its slogan was “None shall starve or freeze”. The drive was originally set up under the government of Heinrich Brüning in 1931, though Adolf Hitler would later claim sole credit. It ran from 1933–1945 during the months of October through March and was designed to provide food, clothing, coal and other items to less fortunate Germans during the inclement months.
In the original video, from where Anurag Kashyap took the snippet to lie about the PM Modi speech being the same as the remark by PM Modi, the Hitler speech being from the Winterhilfswerk relief camp is proved by the banner displayed prominently. The original video was from a channel called ‘British pathe’.
Screengrab from the original youtube clip
Now, even if assume that the speech was not from the 1937 speech, the speech is obviously from one of the speeches that were made between 1936-37. However, in none of those speeches were the words ‘hate me’ used.
In fact, we searched multiple English translations of Hitler’s speeches spanning from 1922 to 1945. The phrase ‘hate me’ appears only once in all of Hitler’s speeches and that too, in a completely different context.
The speech of Hitler where ‘hate me’ appears
One can see from searching the PDF that “hate me” occurs just once while “hate Germany” has no mention at all in any of his speeches from 1922 to 1945.
It is thus evident that the translation peddled by Anurag Kashyap is completely false.
However, it was not even the first time that this false narrative was being peddled and Kashyap is certainly not the only person to do it.
“Comedian” Aditi Mittal too had posted the same propaganda which she promptly deleted later.
The now-deleted tweet by Aditi Mittal
The fallacious tweet by Aditi Mittal was then retweeted by Bollywood actor Sushant Singh as well.
In 2018, Prime Minister Modi had said, “Burn me alive if I am wrong”. The Leftists and Islamists, at that point of time too had claimed that the same sentence was used by Hitler in his 1935 speech as was used by PM Modi.
“Burn me alive if I am wrong”, said Hitler in 1935
But he ended up getting millions of Germans, Polls, Russians, Italians, French British & Jews killed before he killed himself.
History repeats itself either as a tragedy or comedy https://t.co/CdZ6DaFSTZ
Maria Wirth calling out another mistranslation in 2018
Turns out, Hitler, in the speech peddled by the leftists had said something completely different and not ‘burn me alive if I am wrong”, which PM Modi had said in his speech.
The Leftists, Islamists and “Liberals” have often fantasised about Prime Minister Modi being a mirror image of Hitler. However, while they run amock spewing venom and lies from the comfort of their own homes, “Hitler” Modi has not even given them the time of the day or an iota of attention, let alone throwing them in detention camps. The propaganda peddled by these elements fall flat every time they decide to peddle it, however, one cannot credit them for anything else if not for being persistent.
