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.
A Delhi court has dismissed the bail plea of 15 persons accused in the Daryaganj violence case during anti-CAA protests last week. The accused were arrested on Saturday after large scale arson and rioting took place during the protests at Daryaganj in Old Delhi on Friday.
Dismissing the bail pleas filed by the accused persons, the court said that there are substantial grounds for keeping them in judicial custody for the time being. Citing the reason for their detention, the court noted that the rioters had assaulted Delhi police officials, pelted stones, and obstructed police in doing their duties. The court also said that all 15 persons were arrested from the spot during the act of violence, and violence for any reason can’t be justified. As the further probe is underway, the accused needed to kept in judicial custody, the court said. The court sent them to 14 days of judicial custody.
On Friday during the anti-CAA protests, a large number of protesters had resorted to violence, breaking police barricades and pelting stones at policemen. They also set ablaze private vehicles parked on the road. A total of 42 people, including policemen, were injured in the violence. Around forty persons were detained after the violence, and from them, 15 were arrested. They were charged with rioting and using force to deter policemen from duty. The detained persons also included eight minors, who were released on Saturday.
The Delhi court had sent the 15 persons to two days of judicial custody onj Saturday and had refused to hear their bail plea. Today the court extended their judicial custody by two weeks after the expiry of the two-day custody.
Shiv Sena supporters beat up a man in Mumbai over his alleged remarks on Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. As per reports, one Rahul Tiwari alias Hiramani Tiwari, a resident of Wadala in Mumbai had posted a remark on Thackeray over his remarks on the Jamia issue.
As seen in the video above, the goons are forcefully tonsuring head of Tiwari.
Shiv Sena supporters first reportedly beat him up and then forced him to get his head shaved. Reportedly, the post criticised Thackeray for comparing the action against Jamia Nagar rioters with that of Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. After he got threats from some people, Tiwari deleted his Facebook post. However, on Sunday, a mob led by Shiv Sena functionaries Samadhan Jukdeo and Prakash Hasbe beat him up and tonsured his head outside his residence in Shanti Nagar area.
A notice under section 149 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) has been issued to both the sides. Tiwari, who was earlier associated with Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal has criticised this and said that action must be taken against Shiv Sena leaders for this.
The Calcutta High Court on December 23 has issued an interim order to the West Bengal government, asking them to remove all anti-Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and anti-National Register of Citizens(NRC) advertisements from public platforms. The court has directed the provisional order until the next hearing scheduled to be held on January 9, 2020.
As per reports, the court has also sought a detailed report from the state government over the claim of the petitioners that campaign against the CAA was carried out using public money.
The matter has been put up to January 9th for the next hearing.
Reacting to the court order, BJP MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo said if WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had “taken advice from few educated MPs & MLAs she has in her party about the CM’s authority over matters like this, she would have known that citizenship is centre’s prerogative.
If only @MamataOfficial had taken advise from the few educated MPs & MLAs she has in her party about she (A CM) not having any authority, as per our constitution, to block an ACT that’s in the Central List & anyone other than Didi wud know that Citizenship is Centre’s prerogative pic.twitter.com/0aL3YAzFPk
Mamata Banerjee had been critical about the recently legislated Citizenship Amendment Act, asserting that she would not allow CAA and NRC to be implemented in her state West Bengal. A concerted campaign was run by the Trinamool Congress party to slam the Citizenship Law that aims to grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from three neighbouring Islamic countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Posters were put up by TMC claiming that CAA and NRC will not be implemented in West Bengal. As many as 6 pleas were filed against the advertisements. Yesterday, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had accused Banerjee of splurging public money on the anti-CAA campaign. Terming them “unconstitutional”, he had demanded immediate withdrawal of the advertisements.
In addition, Mamata Banerjee was also criticised by the central ministers for demanding a UN-monitored referendum on NRC and CAA a few days ago following large-scale violent riots by Muslim mobs in her state.
What a mind-blowing week diary, what a mind-blowing week. The fascist forces are quaking in their boots after the mass uprising that shook the roots of their evil dictatorship. The streets of Delhi were on fire, Lucknow was more stoned than a South Bombay person at NH weekender, Trains in Bengal were hammered more than the hammering that Kuldeep Yadav got against Pollard, it was beautiful.
The fascist idea of giving fast-track citizenship to refugees has been opposed tooth and nail by our comrades, and with a united country opposing it, it doesn’t look like the government will be able to implement this law. There were rallies by Bollywood, there were mass protests by Jamia Millia students on the roads of Delhi, by students who were all studying in the library at the same time, Policemen were beaten on the roads of Ahmedabad, it was just beautiful.
There were historic sacrifices being made everywhere. Ramchandra Guha, the modern-day Mahatma Gandhi, had to tell his name to someone. Medha Patkar, modern-day Sarojini Naidu, had to smile at Pakistani Hindu refugees. Rahul Gandhi, modern-day King Edward The First, had to….. sorry, he didn’t do anything, which is a sacrifice in itself because he didn’t want to take way the spotlight from other revolutionaries.
Of course every revolution extracts a cost diary, and so did this one. We had to cancel a dinner at Civil House in Khan Market because our driver got arrested while practicing Shot Put in Seelampur, but we knew it beforehand that we will need to make tough choices to bring about this revolution. There were some deaths in UP and Mangaluru as well but UP has far too many people anyway and what is Mangaluru, is it a real place or just people mispronouncing Bengaluru?
Fascist Modi will always remember this week diary. The week in which people firmly rejected his Government’s NRC proposal, which is yet to be drafted.
The good news didn’t just come from the streets, it also came from the polling booths diary. Our secular parties have won Jharkhand and we can finally bring democracy to the state. As you know diary, Jharkhand is a very important state for us because of all our friends living there. Something tells me, we will get a farmhouse near Ranchi now, to help the tribals obviously.
In personal news diary, reached New York yesterday for our vacation. Such an energetic city, always on the move, no bandhs, no crowds blocking the roads, no burning buses, absolutely love it. Wish Delhi was more like this. Anyway, that’s enough for this week from me diary, hope the street protests in Delhi continue and we force Modi to go back to that evil state Gujarat.
