Dilsher, a 55-year-old Muslim man from Aligarh, was thrashed by people from his own community for reading the Ramcharitmanas and Bhagavad Gita in his own house. Sameer, Zakir and some unidentified men barged into his house, thrashed him and took away the sacred books of the Hindu community.
A case has been registered against the accused under sections 298 (uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace)and 506 (criminal intimidation) at the Delhi Gate Police station. Superintendent of Police Abhishek told TOI that the matter is being investigated and action will be taken against the accused.
The incident reportedly occurred on the 4th of July, Thursday, at 9 a.m. in the morning when Dilsher, who works as a security guard, returned to his home. The crime occurred in the Shah Jamal area of Aligarh.
According to Dilsher, he has been reading the sacred books for 38 years. He has added that his religion does not prohibit him from reading the sacred books of other religions.
On 30th June 2019, in the very heart of Delhi, the ugly truth of ‘Ganga Jamuna Tehzeeb’ was exposed. A strong Muslim mob proceeded to desecrate a temple in Hauz Qazi, break the idols, and allegedly, urinate in the temple. The fight apparently escalated from a fight over parking space. The Hindu community of the area says that the Hindu man, with whom the parking argument happened was thrashed and the women of his house were dragged and harassed too.
Amidst the palpable communal tension, the news of a 17-year-old Hindu boy going missing was painfully suppressed. When this correspondent reached Hauz Qazi on 2nd July, 3 days after the communal tension peaked in the area, the Hindu community in Hauz Qazi was terribly distressed. The mother of the missing boy sat in one corner clutching the FIR she had filed. The father wailed, threatening to commit suicide if his son was not found.
This correspondent spent the better part of the day in the area and reported the Hauz Qazi violence, the nuances of what the Hindu community was facing living in a tiny bylane surrounded by a Muslim dominated area and what the Muslim community claimed of the event.
The reportage of the missing boy, however, did not go down well with several sections of the media. NewsLaundry, a publication that has a history of whitewashing crimes against Hindus, published a report today that cast aspersions on the reportage of the missing boy. The article headlined “Media reports on a Muslim mob ‘abducting’ a boy turn out to be a dud”, the report, written by one Veena Nair questioned the motivation of OpIndia in reporting how the boy was ‘abducted’ when things were finally calm in Lal Kuan.
NewsLaundry headline
The report in NewsLaundry said that OpIndia had claimed that the boy had been abducted and that, the report turned out to be a dud as the boy had returned.
Further, in a terribly insensitive comment, NewsLaundry goes on to say that
Firstly, OpIndia did not ‘claim’ anything. This correspondent merely reported that details of the FIR without embellishments.
FIR filed by Keshav’s parents
NewsLaundry admits that they visited Hauz Qazi on 3rd. In a communal situation, the reportage has to be sensitive to the evolving situation almost every hour. NewsLaundry’s claim that OpIndia reported the case of the missing boy “just when everything seemed to be under control” is idiotic. On 2nd itself, when this correspondent was on the ground, a fight between the Muslims and Hindus was just about averted. While the father of the missing boy was wailing, the Muslim community congregated and started chanting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ and the already agitated and distraught Hindu community, started chanting Jai Shree Ram in response. The Laal Kuan lane was cordoned off for vehicles completely and there were several barricades along the way. The Muslim community, that is a majority in the area, stood in groups discussing nothing but this situation. The Hindus, behind a separate barricade, right at the mouth of the Durga Mandir Wali Gali where the temple was desecrated, protested in their own way.
Secondly, it is a fact that the boy was missing. Keshav Saxena was not to be seen by the parents, well into the third day of the communal tension. The boy was finally home on 3rd evening, on the 4th day. Even if NewsLaundry is right (which they aren’t) that the situation was limping back to normal in Hauz Qazi, was OpIndia supposed to ignore the case of a missing boy just like the rest of the media did?
The NewsLaundry article’s main purpose not only seems to mock the platforms that diligently reported the situation at Hauz Qazi but also, shameless, cast aspersions on the parents of the missing boy themselves. The report says, “The FIR clearly states the mob vandalised the temple and “abducted” the boy at 11.30 am. According to the police and eye-witnesses, the temple was vandalised after midnight. The boy says he left the lane of his own accord at 10.30 pm. None of the media platforms focused on these discrepancies”.
One has to remember the situation that the FIR was filed in. There was a strong mob of hundreds of Muslims baying for blood. They vandalised the temple, allegedly urinated there, broke idols and the local Hindus say that if the main shutter of the lane was not shut on time, the Hindus of the locality would have been found dead. Amidst this, a 17-year-old boy goes missing. The NewsLaundry report mentions discrepancy in the timing mentioned by the parents as a marker that the parents might have been either lying about the disappearance of the child or that portals like OpIndia did not bother to verify facts. The insinuation here also is that if OpIndia had focussed on the “facts”, it would not have reported the disappearance at all.
Now, it stands to reason that the parents did not have eyes on Keshav Saxena the entire day. He was not a toddler. Sometime during the communal tension, the parents realised that the child was missing and for a mother and a father, panicked for their lives and that of their child, the timeline, the exact timing is going to be least of their concerns.
The NewsLaundry report possibly uses the angst of the mother and her worry for her child as a tool to say that media should not have reported the disappearance at all.
Further, the NewsLaundry report itself mentions that Keshav Saxena was beaten up by Muslims that day itself. As OpIndia reported too, the boy said that some Muslim men started asking him whether he stayed in the Durga Mandir Gali and whether he was a Hindu. When he said he was a Hindu, he was thrashed. In fact, the NewsLaundry report also mentions that when the crowd started building up after the parking scuffle, some of the boys (presumably Muslims) beat Keshav up. It is at this point that he ran away.
According to the facts mentioned in the NewsLaundry report itself, his disappearance was certainly related to the communal tension in Hauz Qazi. When the mother filed the FIR, her assertion that his disappearance was related to the communal tension was not incorrect. But when a child goes missing amidst a bloodthirsty mob, NewsLaundry needs to ask itself what the obvious conclusion of a mother would be in the situation. That he ran away on his own? That he must be playing with his friends? Why would it not be normal for any parent to assume that the mob might have taken him away?
NewsLaundry shamelessly questions the mother of Keshav, Mona, and asks why she assumed that he had been kidnapped by a Muslim mob. What else was she supposed to say? Think? And that later, Keshav’s statement was different, was it the media’s job to not report the disappearance at all? How does the media use the return of the child to claim that his disappearance of the FIR thereof should not have been reported preemptively?
Let me ask a pertinent question here: If a mob of Hindu men had desecrated a Mosque and in that process, a Muslim couple had claimed that their child had been abducted by the mob and filed an FIR to the same effect, would the media shy away from reporting the FIR as is?
Interestingly, in a report that trashes OpIndia reporting an FIR about the missing Hindu child, NewsLaundry has no qualms reporting an FIR lodged by Muslim organisations, namely, All India Students’ Association (AISA), Aman Biradiri and Karwaan-e Mohabbat.
The NewsLaundry report says:
As a result, representatives from the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Aman Biradiri and Karwaan-e Mohabbat filed a complaint at Hauz Qazi police station against media houses spreading misinformation. The complaint specifically lists the Organiser report, accusing it of promoting “disharmony and feelings of enmity and ill-will between Hindus and Muslims”. The complaint mentions platforms like Times Now, Business Standard and Hindustan Times, stating they’ve “exaggerated” the number of people involved in the vandalising of the temple.
The complaint was submitted to DCP (Central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa, who assures them that everything is under control. “I don’t know about the communal angles, all I know is there is truth on one side and lies on the other. I am here to find out the truth, which we will,” he says.
Interestingly, according to NewsLaundry, therefore, reporting that an FIR has been lodged by the parents of missing Hindu child becomes “communal” and in the same report, then reporting some faff complaint that talks about over-exaggeration of the number of people who desecrated a temple become “reportage”?
The downright asininity of saying that a report that spoke of the temple desecration by a Muslim mob and presenting the version of the Hindus is “sowing disharmony between Hindus and Muslims” is staggering. A temple was desecrated. What harmony are we really talking about here? NewsLaundry, of course, doesn’t question this. They report it. Just like OpIndia reported the FIR and the wails of parents looking for their 17-year-old son.
Did NewsLaundry want this correspondent to walk away after watching this? What the parents were saying? The mother, the father? Was this correspondent supposed to shut her eyes like the rest of the “secular” media and ignored the cries of pain and loss? Was this correspondent supposed to walk off? Was this correspondent supposed to tell the mother that her FIR and her quest to find her boy is worthless because hey, “things are calm now” so let’s just forget it?
Here are the videos this correspondent captured of the wailing parents. These were captured while right there, journalists came and went. They made a face and ignored these parents crying for their son. The media cabal expected this correspondent to do the same and their angst today is that she didn’t.
Keshav’s version of events now itself raises several questions. Like, if his relative indeed did find him in some station on his way to Haridwar, is it even possible that the relative did not call the parents? Why was he at the railway station? Is there something which is being hushed up?
But that is an investigation for another day. The police will have to try and do their job honestly and investigate where the boy was for 2 days. But casting aspersions on media reporting the missing boy is just another ploy to ensure that crimes against Hindus stay hushed up. This correspondent and this portal will not oblige.
The Wire journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani had earlier expressed her angst over Congress leader Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s tweet, in which the politician had called questioned the problematic Islamic practice of Nikah-halala while casting aspersions on the reasons tendered by Zaira Wasim for quitting Bollywood. Khanum had tagged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked if he approved of Singhvi’s “shameful” views.
However, censuring the Wire journalist, Dr AM Singhvi asserted that because of influencers like her supporting the regressive ideals, the state of minorities in the country will continue to remain backward.
Sections of the country especially minorities will remain backward if influencers like you are backing regressive / labelling ideals. https://t.co/Di6EKkTeZk
Earlier, Dr AM Singhvi had questioned the Islamic practice of Nikal Halala, a practice legitimised by the Islamic Sharia law. This was in reference to actor Zaira Wasim’s post on her social media accounts in which she stated that acting in Bollywood had veered her away from her Islamic faith and that she is giving up her career in Bollywood to diligently pursue her faith.
Singhvi brought attention upon the regressive and archaic practice of nikah-halala among certain sections of Muslims in the country. This triggered the Wire journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani, who in no time tagged Rahul Gandhi, to seek explanation on Singhvi’s assertions.
The nikah-halala is a custom by which a woman divorced by triple talaq gets to reunite with her husband. Nikah-halala requires a woman to marry another man and consummate the marriage and then take another triple talaq in order to return to her first husband. Often, such temporary marriage is done with another male member of the husband’s family, including father and brothers of the husband.
Arfa Khanum Sherwani is often seen perpetuating the Muslim victimhood while attempting to whitewash regressiveness and fundamentalism in the community. Earlier, she had also attempted to defend SP leader Azam Khan’s shameful and misogynistic comments on actress and politician Jaya Prada.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2019-2020. Here are the key numbers and charts of the budget.
Where the Rupee comes from
The receipts of the central government are more or less evenly distributed among various heads. Corporate tax, Income tax and Goods and Service Tax provide 21%, 16% and 19% respectively. Borrowings and other liabilities contribute 20% of the government’s receipts.
Where the Rupee goesThe largest share of the government’s outgo is states’ share of taxes and duties, which has increased significantly due to the implementation of GST. After that, the major expenditure goes towards interest payment. Defence, central sector schemes and centrally sponsored schemes, subsidies are the major expenditures.
Here is the budget allocation for various departments and sectors:
Allocation of Budget (in Rs crore)
After interest payment and defence, the two largest expenditure heads are food subsidy and pension. Transport occupies the fifth position, given the emphasis of the Modi government on infrastructure development. Agriculture and allied activities have seen the highest increased in the budget of 75%, from 86.6 thousand crores to 1.52 lakh crores. Tax administration has seen 74% increase, as this head includes the transfer to GST compensation fund. Budget for IT and Telecom has gone up by 34%.
Two sectors that have seen a reduction in budget estimates are Energy and Commerce and Industry, which have gone down by 3% and 5% respectively.
In the Rajya Sabha by-elections underway in Gujarat today, Congress rebel MLA Alpesh Thakor and Congress disgruntled MLA Dhavalsinh Zala have reportedly cross-voted. As reported by Tv9 Gujarati, Congress MLA Brijesh Merji confirmed that the duo have cross-voted.
I have sent my resignation to State assembly Speaker. Dhavalsinh Zala (Bayad MLA of Congress) has also tendered his resignation: Radhanpur MLA of Congress party Alpesh Thakor to media persons in State capital Gandhinagar pic.twitter.com/FlWFhGL5Qv
After casting his vote, Thakor said that he has voted as per his ‘inner voice’ and that he got nothing but mental stress by being with the Congress.
Alpesh Thakor, Rebel Congress MLA on Rajya Sabha elections: Maine antar aatma ki awaz se matdan kiya, aur rasthriya netretavya ko dhyan mein rakh ke kiya. Jo party jan aadhar kho chuki hai aur jis party ne hamare sath droh kiya hai, usko maddhe nazar rakh ke kiya. #Gujaratpic.twitter.com/sfPPBMKkHO
He even said that he voted keeping in mind national leadership. “I have kept in mind the party which has destroyed public trust and which is anti-national before voting,” Thakor said after casting his vote for the BJP candidates for Rajya Sabha bypolls.
The two were also not present at the Balaram Palace Resort where the Gujarat Congress MLAs were whisked away ahead of voting. The two of them have also tendered their resignation from the Assembly.
As per reports, about 15 more Congress MLAs are yet to cast their vote for the two Rajya Sabha seats. The bypolls were necessitated after Smriti Irani and Amit Shah vacated their Rajya Sabha seats after they were elected from Amethi and Gandhinagar respectively. BJP has fielded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Juglalji Thakor while Congress candidates are Chandrika Chudasma and Gaurav Pandya. The counting of votes will begin at 5 pm today.
A victim of gang rape in Gorakhpur has attempted to commit suicide by consuming poison after the traumatic experience. She was reportedly raped on the night of 1st July. The girl is reportedly a minor.
According to the case registered with the Police, one of the accused named Mudassir had coaxed her into accompanying him on his bike and then kidnapped her. He then managed to take her to a secluded place where he raped her with his friends Akhtar and Safayat Ali. The father of the girl filed a complaint with the Police on Thursday after which a case was registered. All the accused are absconding.
The girl had consumed poison on that very night itself. She was rushed to a primary healthcare centre by her family which then referred her to the BRD Medical College. Her condition is said to be critical.
The girl also asserted that the kidnappers attempted to marry her off in a Temple. However, she somehow managed to escape and reached home. The accused reportedly lived in the same neighbourhood as the victim and were known to her. Communal tensions are prevailing in the area as the accused and the victim are from different communities.
The Police has registered a case against the three accused under sections 363, 366, 376 and other relevant sections of the POCSO Act. Sunil Kumar Gupta, SSP, has assured that the guilty will soon be apprehended by the Police.
In a setback to MDMK Chief V Gopalaswamy or Vaiko, a special court has convicted the 75-year-old leader in a sedition case filed against him in 2009 by the DMK government.
According to the reports, MDMK chief Vaiko has been held guilty of sedition over his comments at the launch of his book. Judge J Shanthi held the senior Tamil Nadu leader guilty of sedition under section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000.
“India will not remain one country if the war against the LTTE in Sri Lanka is not stopped,” Vaiko had said during the launch of his book ‘Naan Kuttram Saatugiren’. He was charged with speaking against India’s sovereignty. The MDMK chief gave a speech that was in support of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terror group. It was at a time when the Sri Lankan civil war was at its peak.
However, a petition was filed to suspend the conviction enabling an appeal against the order. The conviction sentence was then stayed for a month.
Earlier in 2002, Vaiko was also arrested by the then Jayalalitha government and had spent 1 year in prison under POTA charges.
Interestingly, the conviction comes at a time when the Vaiko was all set to return to the parliament after 15 years. Vaiko, who was once considered the political heir of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, was named the party’s candidate from Tamil Nadu for Rajya Sabha polls on July 18.
Ironically, the case was filed in 2009 by the DMK government, which has now extended its support to MDMK chief Vaiko. A three-time Rajya Sabha member from DMK in the past, Vaiko was also elected twice from Sivakasi.
Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented her maiden budget in Parliament today. While presenting the first of the Narendra Modi government 2.0 in the Lok Sabha, FM said that the central focus of all programmes of the Narendra Modi government is “Gaon, Garib and Kisan”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the nation after the presentation of the budget by Sitharaman called the 2019 budget a balanced one. “This is a budget for new India,” he added.
“Ye desh ko samridh aur jan jan ko samarth banane wala budget hai. Is budget se gareeb ko bal milega, yuva ko behtar kal milega” (This budget will lead the country towards prosperity and make every citizen competent. This budget will provide strength to the poor and a better future to the youths of the country), said PM Narendra Modi.
PM Narendra Modi: Ye desh ko samridh aur jan jan ko samarth banane wala budget hai. Is budget se gareeb ko bal milega. yuva ko behtar kal milega #Budget2019pic.twitter.com/PllxCyqs4m
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the budget proves India is moving in the right direction. He also called it a green budget for its provisions on water, electricity and travel.
He said that the middle class will progress with this budget. Development work will expedite, the tax structure will simply and infrastructure will modernize.
PM Narendra Modi: The middle class will progress with this budget, development work will expedite even more. The tax structure will simply and infrastructure will modernize https://t.co/hpyIHqXR4L
Calling this budget ‘one of hope’ PM Modi said that this budget for a ‘New India’ also has a roadmap to transform the agriculture sector of the country.
PM Narendra Modi: The budget for a New India has a roadmap to transform the agriculture sector of the country, this budget is one of hope #Budget2019pic.twitter.com/MeWoLXTC3g
Today, the Supreme Court restored the conviction and sentenced the 12 people accused of murdering former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003. The verdict was delivered in a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra on the appeals filed by the CBI challenging the acquittal of the accused by Gujarat High Court in 2011.
The bench also dismissed a fresh PIL filed by NGO ‘Centre for Public Interest Litigation’ (CPIL) and imposed costs of Rs 50,000. The NGO claimed that there was fresh evidence in the murder case against senior Gujarat police officers and politicians.
Pandya was shot dead on 26 March 2003 in Ahmedabad near Law Garden when he had gone for a morning walk. The CBI claimed that this was done to avenge the 2002 communal riots in the state.
In June 2007, a special POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities) court had convicted the 12 accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment. However, the Gujarat High Court acquited all of them in 2011 stating that the investigation was “botched” and “misdirected”.
Then CBI had in 2011 itself filed an appeal questioning the acquittal of the Gujarat High Court as erroneous. On January 31 this year, the Supreme Court had reserved the verdict on the appeals.
Prior to Pandya’s killing the 12 accused were also earlier convicted in another case by a special POTA court for attempting to murder prominent VHP and Hindu to avenge the 2002 riots. An attempt was made on the life of a local VHP leader Jagdish Tewari on March 11, 2003.
CBI claimed that the two incidents were part of a single conspiracy to spread terror in the state. The accused were arrested on the basis of deposition of main accused Asghar Ali. The other accused are Mohammad Rauf, Mohammad Parvez Abdul Kayum Sheikh, Parvez Khan Pathan alias Athar Parvez, Mohammad Farooq alias Haji Farooq, Shahnawaz Gandhi, Kalim Ahmeda alias Kalimullah, Rehan Puthawala, Mohammad Riaz Sareswala, Aniz Machiswala, Mohammad Yunus Sareswala and Mohammad Saifuddin.
The agency had also claimed that these men were illegally sent to Pakistan and were trained by Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
The attempt of several people to accuse Narendra Modi to have murdered Haren Pandya has been exposed now and vindicated by the Supreme Court. Ever since his death, the biased sections of the media and self-styled secularists have implied that the Narendra Modi Government got him killed.
Haren Pandya who was a former minister in the Gujarat Government of the BJP resigned from the Cabinet in August 2002. He was subsequently murdered on 26 March 2003.
The Tamil Nadu police have arrested five minor boys for allegedly breaking 25 cement idols and sculptures at the Periyanayaki Amman temple in Tiruvarur district, reported The Times of India.
Reportedly, the minor boys were caught by the police after they broke into the temple to steal iron rods within the figures, which could then be sold off to purchase alcohol. The incident occurred before the consecration ceremony at the temple was supposed to take place.
The idols which were destroyed included those of Lord Murugan, Periyanayaki, Kala Bairava, while sculptures which were damaged were those of different animals.
The accused minor youths are currently being held at a juvenile home in the town of Thanjavur.
