The Aam Aadmi party-led Delhi government has told the Delhi High court that execution of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.
As per reports, Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.
Just in | #Nirbhaya gangrape and murder: Delhi government says execution will not happen on January 22 as mercy plea has been filed.
– PTI
Quoting prison rules, the Kejriwal government told the court that they are duty-bound to wait for convict’s mercy plea to be decided for executing the death warrant.
As per reports, Advocate Rahul Mehra, the standing counsel for the Tihar Jail authorities have stated that ‘Execution of convicts (2012 Nirbhaya case) will surely not take place on January 22’. He added that the execution can take place only 14 days after the final mercy plea has been rejected by the president. The Tihar jail authorities have reportedly conveyed that they are duty-bound to serve a 14-day notice to the convict after the rejection of their mercy plea.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case, Mukesh and Vinay Sharma, challenging the May 2017 judgment of the court that had upheld their conviction and death sentence.
Immediately after the Supreme court rejected the curative petitions, Mukesh had filed his mercy plea before the President.
A curative petition is the penultimate legal option against the death sentence.
The four convicts, Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.
The four adult accused were convicted by the trial court in September 2013, and was awarded a death sentence. The High Court had upheld that verdict in March 2014. In the same year, the Supreme Court had stayed their execution until their appeal was heard by the apex court.
In May 2017 the Supreme Court had rejected their appeal against the death sentence, and in 2019 the review petitions were also dismissed. Subsequently, the president had rejected their mercy plea on the recommendation of the Home Ministry.
Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were convicted of brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, nicknamed as Nirbhaya by media, on December 16, 2012. The fifth convict was a minor, and he was released after spending 3 years in a juvenile home. The sixth person involved in the crime and also the main accused, Ram Singh was found dead during the trial period in Tihar Jail on March 11, 2013. He had allegedly committed suicide.
The hearing which is going on since morning will continue post-lunch. Latest media reports say that the Delhi government has recommended the rejection of the mercy plea by Mukesh Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter today to hail the Indian Army for fighting all odds and saving the life of a pregnant lady Shamima stuck in the snow in Kashmir.
The Prime Minister wrote: “Our Army is known for its valour and professionalism. It is also respected for its humanitarian spirit. Whenever people have needed help, our Army has risen to the occasion and done everything possible! Proud of our Army. I pray for the good health of Shamima and her child”.
Our Army is known for its valour and professionalism. It is also respected for its humanitarian spirit. Whenever people have needed help, our Army has risen to the occasion and done everything possible!
Narendra Modi praised the Indian Army for its valour and professionalism and also for its humanitarian spirit. He lauded the Army acknowledging its readiness to always be available for people in despair.
The PM was responding to a tweet by the Chinar Corps or 15 Corps, an infantry field formation of the Indian Army which is presently located in Srinagar and responsible for military operations in the Kashmir Valley.
Taking to the microblogging site, the Chinar Corps had divulged how 100 Army personnel along with 30 civilians saved the life of a pregnant lady in the valley who needed immediate medical attention. Sharing a video of how the expecting mother was carried on a stretcher by the Army officers through heavy snow, the tweet stated that it took the officers around four hours to reach the hospital. The Army also stated that the mother and the newborn are now doing fine in the hospital.
#HumsaayaHainHum ???
During heavy snowfall, an expecting mother Mrs Shamima, required emergency hospitalisation. For 4 hours over 100 Army persons & 30 civilians walked with her on stretcher through heavy snow. Baby born in hospital, both mother & child doing fine. #VRWithU4Upic.twitter.com/BpDcXRvuUH
It is the nature of the Indian armed forces to step in any time when there is a need. The Defence forces have been involved in several daring rescue acts such as the air-lifting of a pregnant woman and winching up of a two-year-old which won them widespread appreciation. They have relentlessly contributed to relief efforts, including shipping material and providing medical assistance to the displaced people during unprecedented floods and during other natural disasters in various parts of the country at any given point of time.
Last year, when floods were wreaking havoc in Kerala the Indian armed forces had been deployed to carry out rescue and assistance operations. Amidst the disastrous situations in the state, news of valiant rescue operations had poured in and the expertise and care with which the armed forces had handled the grave situation had received appreciation in mainstream and social media. Then too, a heavily pregnant woman in the initial stages of labour was airlifted by Navy’s rescue team. Within an hour of being rescued the woman gave birth to a baby boy under the care of Naval doctors.
A controversy has erupted over a video shared by The Quint where a Muslim cab driver is seen hyperventilating over the proposed National Register of Citizens. The person in the video appears to be putting some special effort into exaggerating concerns about the NRC and invents scenarios that are detached from reality. “What wrong have we done to deserve this?” the driver asks rather dramatically before adding “What is our crime?”
“My heart starts pounding on just thinking about #NRC. I don’t have land, neither do I have documents for land. What will I tell them to prove that I am an Indian,” asks Irshad Ahmed, a cab driver in Mumbai.
Full story: https://t.co/G7T6rmOgncpic.twitter.com/ZbJExaWsy2
The alleged Muslim cab driver, Irshad Ahmed, fearmongers about the NRC without any rebuttal from the journalist. He says, “My heart starts pounding on just thinking about NRC. I don’t have land, neither do I have documents for land. What will I tell them to prove that I am an Indian.” The Quint does not bother to point out that owning land is not the only way of proving citizenship.
Furthermore, Ahmed would have needed to provide documents for acquiring his driving license, which is likely to be enough evidence of citizenship in the proposed NRC. Therefore, his fearmongering does not make any sense at all given the fact that he already has the documents necessary to prove his case. Furthermore, if he is driving the cab without a valid license or if his license happens to be fraudulent, then his immediate concern should be the fact that he has broken laws of the country and not the NRC the details of which haven’t even emerged yet. The same was pointed out by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
Show with which documents you got a driver’s licence to drive taxis. If forged you go to jail
The gravest of allegations, however, came from filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. He has alleged that the Muslim cab driver is, in fact, a part-time junior actor in Bollywood. He has claimed that Ahmed was paid by The Quint to act out the scene from a written script.
Vivek Agnihotri has also challenged The Quint to not just deny this allegation mounted by him, but also to prove that he was indeed a cab-driver and not an actor hired by the media outlet.
Ok friends, I am told that this man is also a part time junior actor in Bollywood. He was paid by @TheQuint to do this performance in a written script.
The filmmaker even responded to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy reiterating that the man shown in The Quint video is a hired actor and not an actual cab driver.
The controversy comes at a time when reports have emerged of Muslim cab drivers in Delhi forming WhatsApp groups where they collecting data of pro-BJP riders and sharing it on WhatsApp group to give them low ratings on online cab booking apps. The claims, although not verified as yet, raises troubling concerns about cab drivers of a particular religious orientation profiling their customers on the basis of their political ideology based on their personal information.
It also raises pertinent questions about The Quint’s editorial policies. As we know, the media outlet’s parent company partnered with Bloomberg News to found the BloombergQuint. Bloomberg News was founded by Michael Bloomberg, one of the Democrat Presidential aspirants for the 2020 US Presidential Elections.
In the past, The Quint has also offered tutorials to protesters on how to avoid facial recognition by wearing masks. We are also aware that Bloomberg’s news coverage is affected by their ownership. Thus, given what we know, one has to wonder whether The Quint’s coverage is affected by their association with Bloomberg News, which can be said to serve as the propaganda wing of a US politician from the Democrat party.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Inc and the owner of Washington Post is in India for a tour even as several small traders are planning to stage protests against the retail giant for distorting the local market. India’s antitrust chief Ashok Kumar Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that big e-commerce companies in India should not offer deep discounts which can potentially hurt and small-scale brick and mortar retailers in India. Amidst the ruckus, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had decided not to meet the WaPo owner Jeff Bezos during his three-day India visit. Now, sources have confirmed to OpIndia that Prime Minister Modi too will not be meeting Jeff Bezos personally.
The e-commerce player has come under investigations on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers, in India. On Monday, in a major setback ahead of Bezos’ India visit, fair market watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an enquiry into the operations of both Amazon and Flipkart on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers.
Finding merit in the allegations levelled by traders” body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, the Commission asked its Director General (DG) to complete the investigation in 60 days from the receipt of the order.
However, other than Amazon’s market practices, there could be another crucial feature that has got Minister Piyush Goyal refusing a meeting with Bezos. In 2013, Jeff Bezos had purchased the Washington Post. Recently, Washington Post, owned by Bezos has launched a vicious campaign against India and its internal matters, whether it is the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir or even the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Washington Post harbours a deep-seated and mindless hatred for the Indian Prime Minister and has, on several occasions, written lie-ridden, baseless article to malign India and its ruling, democratically elected dispensation.
Washington Post has increasing been peddling an anti-India narrative with a special target painted by them on the back of Hindus.
When OpIndia reached out to sources about Minister Piyush Goyal not meeting Jeff Bezos, they confirmed that other than the unfair trade practices of Amazon, Washington Post’s sans-fact rhetoric against India is also one of the factors that have gone into the decision of not meeting Jeff Bezos.
With Prime Minister Modi and Minister Piyush Goyal declining to meet Jeff Bezos, India seems to be sending a strong message to international media and businesses. India is concerned about protecting its interests and global players need to be mindful to not indulge in attempts to hurt domestic interests by indulging in petty propaganda or unfair trade practices.
Many of us saw the IndiaToday article claiming that Centre has not allocated any funds for Kerala flood relief. They try to further sensationalise this news by raising apprehensions about political vendetta by BJP since Kerala is ‘Left’ ruled state. The headline of the article read, “No flood relief to Kerala, Centre ignores Left-ruled state again in fund release”.
India Today headline
The news looks shocking in first glance and raises the immediate question that ‘Out of Rs 5908 Crores allocated for 2019-2020, why there was zero funding for Kerala’? Our mainstream media often follows the principle of ‘Dont let facts come in the way of propaganda’. And we at Opindia are determined to ruin their propaganda. So I decided to probe this charge based on publicly available information which India Today and other news portals also have access to.
Like it happens often with such news items, this is also the case of relying on people’s limited memory and author’s ability to confuse people by selectively quoting data. We all remember how devastating floods ravaged Kerala recently. We also remember there were attempts to portray the Centre government as a villain.
People cheered the news of (non-existent) Rs 700 Crore grant from UAE and mocked the Modi government. But wait! When was this? Last year? No, it was in the year 2018. And the Rs 5908 Cr grant Centre has approved (from NDRF kitty) is for 2019-20.
Floods hit Kerala in 2019 too but the magnitude wasn’t as big as 2018 and hence it wasn’t declared a national calamity, therefore NDRF funds were given to the states that needed more help.
The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements SDRF of a State, in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in SDRF.
It must be remembered that the NDRF fund is allocated in 2 phases. The first instalment of Rs 10,000 Cr was announced earlier and next one (5908 Cr) came recently on which these news portals are reporting.
A quick look at the state-wise fund allocation for Disaster relief will throw more light on this. In 2019, Centre allocated Rs 168.75 Cr and Kerala Govt allocated Rs 56.25 Cr for Kerala’s SDRF. Out of this Rs 52.275 Cr were utilised by Kerala govt. It means Kerala SDRF has a balance of Rs 173 Cr available from 2019 allocation quota. Why Left lead Kerala govt didn’t utilise funds, can these analysts tell us which vendetta Kerala govt was doing?
NDTF fund allocation 2019-2020
A little more digging on the NDM India website will tell us Kerala state already has a balance of Rs 2107 Cr available as on 1st April 2019 (that was not utilized during 2018 floods which were 4 times more devastating than 2019 floods in terms of human causalities)
So Kerala has Rs 2107 Cr available from the Year 2018, add to it Rs 173 Cr which were not spent in 2019 (Rs 2280 Cr) which is mostly provided by Centre government itself. And people are seeing vendetta here?
Since people are so fond of crying vendetta, I would wonder how do they explain the omission of Gujarat, UP, Uttarakhand (BJP ruled states) in phase 1? How do they explain granting Rs 1000 Cr, Rs 3000 Cr and Rs 500 Cr to Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra (neither of them is BJP ruled) in phase 1? How will they explain Rs 1749 Cr to MP and Rs 956 Cr to Maharashtra in phase 2 (both of them are non-BJP states)?
The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government has approached the Supreme Court demanding the declaration of NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional. The Chhattisgarh government, in their plea, has argued that the NIA Act grants arbitrary powers to the Centre to deal with the terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
The suit was filed under Article 131 of the Constitution by the Chhattisgarh government which provides for the state to move directly to the Supreme Court in matters of a dispute against the Centre. The state government filed plea read: “The state respectfully submits that the NIA Act is ultra vires to the Constitution and is beyond legislative competence of Parliament since the Act empowers the defendant (Centre) to create an agency for investigation, which, notwithstanding the NIA, is carried out by state police, which is a subject matter of the state under entry 2, List 2, Schedule 7, of the Constitution.”
Interestingly, the NIA Act of 2008 was brought into force by the Congress-led UPA government at the centre to effectively grapple with the terror-related incidents across the country. The reason cited then to float the NIA Act was the gruesome attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai when 12 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists entered the city and carried out attacks and shootings, leaving 166 people dead and scores of others injured.
The National Investigation Agency Act 2008 conferred powers to the Central Government to form a National Investigation Agency (NIA) to combat terror in India. The agency acts as the Central Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency and is empowered to deal with terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
According to the constitution of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008, “Any officer of the Agency of, or above, the rank of Sub-Inspector may, subject to any orders which the Central Government may make in this behalf, exercise throughout India, any of the powers of the officer-in-charge of a police station in the area in which he is present for the time being and when so exercising such powers shall, subject to any such orders as aforesaid, be deemed to be an officer-in-charge of a police station discharging the functions of such an officer within the limits of his station”.
Now, the Congress-led Chhatisgarh government has stated in their plea to the apex court that the NIA Act 2008 autocratically snatches the authority of the probe authorised to local police under the constitution and grants arbitrary power to the centre. In the petition, the Chhattisgarh government has demanded the Supreme Court declare the Act as “Unconstitutional”.
The AAP government in Delhi has been claiming that they will seek votes on the basis of stellar work done in the last 5 years of their rule. However, seeing their current list of candidates, speculations are being made whether the party doesn’t even trust the ‘work’ of its sitting MLAs.
The party had issued the list of candidates on 14 January. 15 sitting MLAs seem to have lost out in the ticket race. However, the party has reportedly fielded 5 such ‘new faces’ who had joined AAP just 24 hours prior.
ND Sharma, the sitting AAP MLA from Badarpur seat has alleged that he was called to deputy CM Sisodia’s residence where he was informed that the party has given the ticket for his constituency to one Ram Singh. Sisodia allegedly told Sharma that Singh wanted the ticket and has paid Rs 21 crores for it. Sharma has further alleged that Sisodia had demanded Rs 10 crores from him for the ticket to his constituency.
Sitting AAP MLA from Badarpur, ND Sharma: Manish Sisodia had called me to his residence saying that Ram Singh (who has been given ticket from Badarpur) wants a ticket from your constituency by paying Rs 20-21 Crore. He demanded Rs 10 cr from me. I left from there after refusing. pic.twitter.com/NkSo6kODmk
One of the ‘new faces’ fielded by AAP is Vinay Mishra who has obtained the Dwarka ticket. He is the son of former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra. The Dwarka seat was won in 2014 by Lal Bahadur Shashtri’s grandson Adarsh Shashtri on an AAP ticket. Shashtri has not been given a ticket this time.
The other new faces apart from Vinay Mishra are Rajkumari Dhillon, Naveen Chaudhry (Deepu), Jai Bhagwan and Ram Singh Netaji (Badarpur).
As per reports, AAP is repeating only 46 MLAs. In the list of candidates shared by AAP, 24 seats are getting ‘new faces’. 15 of these constituencies are those where sitting MLAs have been denied tickets. The MLAs in 5 seats have had their membership cancelled and 4 seats are under BJP.
Important Announcement :
Aam Aadmi Party declares all 70 candidates for the upcoming Delhi election.
We congratulate all the candidates and wish them all the best to establish high levels of trust and integrity within their constituency.#AAPKeCandidatespic.twitter.com/mbby8Z2GCR
Apart from Badarpur MLA ND Sharma, Seelampur MLA Haji Ishrak and Delhi Cant MLA Commando Surendra have also reportedly voiced objections over the ticket distribution. They have stated that they will meet the CM over the denial of tickets.
A Facebook post has gone viral on social media which suggests that Muslim cab drivers in Delhi are collecting data of pro-BJP riders and sharing it on WhatsApp group to give them low ratings.
This is dangerous. Don’t discuss politics with cab drivers unless you are a rich and powerful journalist. Read ?? pic.twitter.com/JzFwTWaB7a
As per a tweet by Twitter user @pokershah, in a Facebook post, a protestor returning from Mandi House anti-CAA protests held last week was injured and hence booked a cab. According to the post, the protestor overheard the cab driver, one Aslam, talk to someone and managed to catch ‘Sanghi saale’ being spoken from other end.
As the protestor was injured, Aslam went to nearby medical store to get some first aid when the protestor looked into the phone and saw a WhatsApp group wherein Aslam and few other Muslim cab drivers were sharing details of their riders. They were allegedly discussing giving low ratings to pro-BJP riders.
As per the Facebook post, these Muslim cab drivers also collected information of pickup and drop locations of these ‘Sanghis’ so they could ‘avoid’ them. The rider, instead of feeling alarmed that someone is profiling them and collecting personal information, actually thought this was funny.
Later, as per the rider, the cab driver Aslam told her that some riders cancel their rides when they see the driver is a Muslim. Hence, when cab riders ask him his political views, he just tells them he is a Modi supporter. That way, the pro-BJP riders give him higher ratings and he ends up giving lower ratings to these riders.
While OpIndia could not independently verify the claims in the above post, if true, this raises a number of questions. How is anyone, irrespective of religion, collecting and sharing personal information of riders safe? How do ‘liberals’ find the idea of cab drivers collecting and sharing personal information and profiling people based on political ideology funny?
Meat and animal carcasses were reportedly found thrown on the road where the annual Thiruvabharanam procession for Sabarimala temple was set to pass through. As per reports, the Thiruvabharanam procession is a traditional procession of Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala where the jewellery to be worn by the deity is taken in a grand procession from Pandalam to the main shrine at Sabarimala.
Three sacred caskets are used for carrying Thiruvabharanam ornaments made by the Pandalam king for his son, Lord Ayyappa, along with pooja utensils to Sabarimala temple. They are the Thriuvabharana Petti (sacred ornaments casket, the silver vessel casket, and the Kodi Petti (flag casket). The Thiruvabharanam procession takes a traditional route to Sabarimala, covering a distance of 83 km on foot. The boxes are carried on the head by 12 people. Thousands of devotees participate in the grand procession.
Thiruvabharanam being taken out of Pandalam palace and being taken to Pandalam Sastha Kovil (Valia Koikal).
Will leave for Aranmula at 1pm and reach sannithanam at 6.30pm on 15th. pic.twitter.com/3s61I0x6ts
As per a report in Organiser, meat and animal carcasses were found dumped on the Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road, where the Thiruvabharanam procession was to pass. Devotees, led by several Panchayat members, had spotted the meat and animal carcasses hours before the procession was to pass and had rushed to wash and clean the spot.
As per reports, an order was passed by Panchayat Secretary on January 6 to keep all the meat and fish shops along the Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road on 13 and 14 January for the Thiruvabharanam procession.
Some local groups, reportedly Islamist and communist outfits had objected to such an order. They had reportedly stated that such an order is against the Kerala government’s ‘progressive’ stand. Many social media users had also shared the order and had outraged over the issue, complaining that it is against ‘secular’ values.
meat and carcasses on Mandiram-Vadaserikkara road being cleaned before the procession, image via Organiser
However, Panchayat President Shaji Manappallil of the Congress had stated that the order to close meat and fish shops during the days of Thiruvabharanam procession has been a regular practice since the last few years after local Hindu outfits had complained of poultry waste being discarded in an unhygienic way the nearby river and polluting the area.
Local Hindu outfits had complained that while the order of closure of the meat and fish shops has been a part of routine procedure being followed in the last few years, some groups are now deliberately trying to communalise the issue.
Panchayat officials have also stated that the controversy over the closure order of meat shops is misplaced as it is a part of regular practice to lower waste production and poultry waste dispersal.
Jyothi S, the Panchayat Secretary was quoted by Times Of India as saying, “It is a normal practice. We had cleaned up the path for the procession and still poultry waste was dumped yesterday. The notice is being misinterpreted. We have a facility for collection of poultry and meat waste, but some of the merchants don’t co-operate with it and that’s why the notice was issued as a precautionary step to avoid dumping of waste along the path of procession since it could lead to other issues also”.
The Thiruvabharanam procession has started from Pandalam on Monday and had passed through Vadaserikara on Tuesday. Saima S, the deputy director of the Panchayat Directorate had also stated that the issuance of notice to close meat and fish shops to avoid the dumping of meat and poultry waste is a routine affair. Some people are unnecessarily trying to create communal tension in the area by highlighting it.
She added that the Panchayat Secretary only wanted to ensure that the Hindu religious procession is carried out smoothly and there is no dumping of poultry waste on the path. It is a peaceful and proper way to conduct a religious event.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Inc and the owner of Washington Post is in India for a tour even as several small traders are planning to stage protests against the retail giant for distorting the local market. India’s antitrust chief Ashok Kumar Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that big e-commerce companies in India should not offer deep discounts which can potentially hurt and small-scale brick and mortar retailers in India. Amidst the ruckus, Union Minister Piyush Goyal has decided not to meet the WaPo owner Jeff Bezos during his three-day India visit.
The e-commerce player has come under investigations on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers, in India. On Monday, in a major setback ahead of Bezos’ India visit, fair market watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an enquiry into the operations of both Amazon and Flipkart on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers.
Finding merit in the allegations levelled by traders” body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, the Commission asked its Director General (DG) to complete the investigation in 60 days from the receipt of the order.
However, other than Amazon’s market practices, there could be another crucial feature that has got Minister Piyush Goyal refusing a meeting with Bezos. In 2013, Jeff Bezos had purchased the Washington Post. Recently, Washington Post, owned by Bezos has launched a vicious campaign against India and its internal matters, whether it is the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir or even the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Washington Post harbours a deep-seated and mindless hatred for the Indian Prime Minister and has, on several occasions, written lie-ridden, baseless article to malign India and its ruling, democratically elected dispensation.
Washington Post had rallied against the decision of Gates Foundation to present Narendra Modi with an award for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. They are in staunch opposition of the decision to abrogate Article 370 and also the NRC and are accusing Narendra Modi of committing gross human rights violations.
Suchitra Vijayan and Arjun Singh Sethi, writing for the Washington Post, argue that the Indian Prime Minister’s “Hindu nationalist party has incited violence against minorities, silenced dissent and curtailed freedom of expression.” They add, “In light of Modi’s record, including promoting repressive policies in the past month in Kashmir and the northeastern state of Assam, he should not be given the award.”
The same old tropes were peddled by Washington Post to demonise PM Modi without understanding the historical context of the Kashmir conflict, the India-Pakistan conflict, and, based on complete conjectures and lies.
So biased was there reporting on Kashmir that several Kashmiri Pandits from the USA had decided to demonstrate outside the Washington Post office and had even written a letter of dissent to the Editor taking strong exception to their Kashmir reportage.
“In the historic first, many Kashmiri Americans demonstrated peacefully outside your office against the biased news coverage on Kashmir following the removal of Article 370, a temporary provision governing the Federal state Constitutional relationship of Jammu and Kashmir,” read the memorandum submitted to Martin Beower, the executive editor of Washington Post.
The Kashmiri Pandit group also respectfully requested the Washington Post to publish the contents of this press release to ensure that their readers get a fair and balanced reporting of what has transpired.
“Your coverage has not addressed the dejure lawlessness that existed in the State of J&K due to Article 370 accompanied by Article 35A which supposedly granted special status to the State,” the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora said in a memorandum submitted to the Washington Post. “Nowhere in the Washington Post media narratives is their mention that in this lawless State the most heinous genocide was committed against the aboriginal people, the Kashmiri Pandits, resulting in their virtual exile,” the organiser said.
The Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora also accused the daily of fanning religious polarisation in the region through their reporting. “The most dangerous framing of the issue is your reporting in fanning religious polarisation with the use of Hindu-Muslim binary,” said GKPD in its memorandum.
“Washington Post’s biased reporting ignores the inconvenient truth that Article 370 and Article 35A…have denied democratic rights to minorities, women and weaker sections of the society while throttling Kashmir’s economy…(and) Kashmir Valley became breeding ground for rampant corruption, separatism,” said Mohan Sapru, the chief coordinator of the rally.
In fact, after the Ayodhya verdict that gave the ownership rights of Ram Janmabhoomi to Hindus, Washington Post published an article headlined, “India’s Supreme Court endorses right-wing vision relegating Muslims to second-class citizens”. The article was written by hate-monger and fake news peddler Rana Ayyub who has been regularly given a platform by Washington Post without her hateful assertions being verified by the publication at all.
While the Washington post whitewashes even the terrorist-in-chief of ISIS, Al Baghdadi, and call him an “austere religious scholar”. However, when talking about an elected representative in India, Washington Post derides him shamelessly simply because he wears saffron.
Washington Post headline about Yogi Adityanath
Washington Post has had a long history of taking a stand which is diametrically opposed to the interests of India and has been an active participant in spreading propaganda against India, the ruling dispensation and even Hindus.
When asked if Washington Post’s anti-Hindu, anti-India propaganda is the reason for Minister Piyush Goyal’s decision to not meet Jeff Bezos, sources alluded to the fact that this could be one of the main reasons along with Amazon’s faulty trade practices.
It should be kept in mind that Minister Piyush Goyal has on several occasions reiterated the fact that India will not tolerate any trade practises that hurt its local traders. The investigation into Amazon’s trade practices along with the deeply anti-India stand that Washington Post has taken recently is being attributed as the two prime reasons why the minister has refused to meet Jeff Bezos during his three-day India trip.
With the step, the Modi government is clearly signalling that the government is likely to take a zero-tolerance approach to propaganda that is routinely published in the foreign press and such shenanigans come with a cost.
