In one of the most bizarre birthday celebrations noticed recently, a Congress-NCP leader from Maharashtra celebrated his birthday with a ‘Desh ka Chowkidar Hi Chor Hai’ cake.
Anand Paranjpe, Congress-NCP alliance candidate representing the Thane constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections celebrated his birthday by cutting a cake with ‘Desh ka Chowkidar Hi Chor Hai’ written on it.
Paranjpe had joined the NCP in the year 2014 after he quit the Shiv Sena. Interestingly, according to an official affidavit submitted to Election Commission (EC), there are 14 criminal cases pending against Anand Paranjpe.
The ‘Chowkidar chor hai’ jibe against PM Modi has been the slogan the Congress and its president have been obsessing over in the run-up to the elections.
Such has become the Congress’ obsession with this remark, that the party had launched advertisements titled ‘chowkidar chor hai’ as part of Madhya Pradesh’ election campaign amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. The Election commission had, however, put a ban to it by calling it highly derogatory and defamatory.
Moreover, the Congress President in his habit of using the gag line had gone on to audaciously attribute the “Chowkidar Chor Hai” jibe to the Supreme court which had, in turn, become a major embarrassment for the grand old party.
Rahul Gandhi had to tender an unconditional apology in the Supreme Court for “unintentionally and inadvertently” attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor hai’ jibe against Prime Minister Modi to the court’s order on Rafale Review plea.
Interestingly, PM Modi had kickstarted the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign with launching ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, effectively turning the negative campaigning by Congress on its head.
Following this, senior BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah, and Union ministers had prefixed their names on the microblogging site with ‘chowkidar’, which turned out be an instant hit as it became a mass movement spontaneously after lakhs of common people joined the campaign.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi today admitted to having ‘journalists’ on Congress’ side who could go and pose questions on the party’s behalf to his opponents. While addressing a press conference himself, at a time when the BJP was addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi inadvertently acknowledged that there are a few journalists, who probably identify themselves as neutral, are on Congress’ side.
Here @RahulGandhi admits how he failed to plant Congress journalists at PM Modi's press conference. He is causally admitting that he has bought a bunch of pet journalists.
Taking a dig at PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi said that he had sent some journalists to go and ask a couple of questions from ‘our’ side, but I believe they (those journalists sent by Rahul Gandhi) are not allowed.
Netizens were quick to point out how Congress is finally admitting the party has a few media persons to do their bidding.
Pappu agrees that he has media on congress pay rolls.
Only a Pappu can spill beans that he asked “his journalists” to ambush an opponent’s press conference. Modi is lucky to have Pappu @RahulGandhi as his principal enemy
The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai has directed all the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to be present before the court at least once a week. The court also expressed displeasure over the accused not being present in the courtroom.
Special NIA court in Mumbai directs all accused of Malegaon 2008 blast case to remain present before the court atleast once a week.Accused include Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit and others.Court expressed displeasure over their absence in courtroom. Next hearing on May 20 pic.twitter.com/CSqSPX0zyy
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, and Lt Col Purohit are accused in the Malegaon blast case. They were both arrested in relation to the case. Last month the NIA court while hearing a petition filed by Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, had refused to restrain Sadhvi Pragya’s candidature in the Lok Sabha elections citing the lack of jurisdiction. She had alleged that she was subjected to brutal custodial torture while she was in custody. She had named the former ATS Chief Late Hemant Karkare as being involved in her custodial torture but she had to apologise for naming Karkare following criticism.
Last year Lt Col Purohit had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking an SIT probe into his abduction, detention, and torture since his arrest in 2008. However, the Apex court had refused to entertain his petition and asked him to approach the trial court. The court cited the reason that the petition might impact the ongoing trial in the Malegaon blast case.
Amidst the raging controversies of statements regarding Mahatma Gandhi and his assassin Nathuram Godse, a shocking new revelation has emerged from obscurity. In 2012, the Home Ministry under the UPA government had said that Mahatma Gandhi cannot be accorded ‘Father of Nation’ appellation, citing that the constitution of the country doesn’t permit any titles except educational and military ones.
In response to an RTI filed by a Lucknow-based student Aishwarya Parashar seeking details about Mahatma Gandhi and reasons for referring him as ‘Father of Nation’. The Home Ministry, in its response, said that no such title has been accorded to Mahatma Gandhi. The Ministry added that no such action was taken on her plea to President to declare Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Father of Nation’ as Article 18(1) of the constitution didn’t permit any titles except educational or military one.
Aishwarya Parashar had written to then President Pratibha Patil and PM Manmohan Singh to issue a notification declaring Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Father of the Nation’. She had then filed an RTI to seek the action taken by the government on her plea. Her RTI application was transferred to the Home Ministry which then listed down the reason for their refusal to grant Mahatma Gandhi with ‘Father of Nation’ title.
Mahatma Gandhi has been referred to as the ‘Father of the Nation’ in post-independence India in numerous literary and popular references. It is also believed that it was Subhash Chandra Bose who had first used the reference for Mahatma Gandhi. However, the UPA government in 2012 had clarified that it is not an official title and neither the government can make it one.
PM Narendra Modi in an interview to New24 India, strongly condemned Sadhvi Pragya Thakur for her “Godse a patriot” remark, which has stirred a massive furore in the political circle.
In extremely heavy words Modi said that however apologetic the person might be, he would never forgive anyone who dares to insult Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi).
Sadhvi Pragya kicked off a political storm on Thursday, calling Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a ‘Deshbhakt’ (Nationalist).
Later in the day, Pragya’s spokesperson and BJP leader Hitesh Bajpai claimed that Thakur had apologised and retracted her statement. BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao also condemned Thakur’s statement and said the party did not agree with her remark. Rao asked the BJP candidate from Bhopal to apologise publicly for the comment.
BJP completely disagrees with the reported comments by its Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur with regard to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi. While strongly condemning this objectionable statement, the party will ask her to tender a public apology. pic.twitter.com/CmUvosPh1W
The BJP president Amit Shah has also come out in defence of his party claiming that the tendentious remarks made by its leaders were their personal opinions and they do not reflect the party’s stand on the matter.
The BJP president Amit Shah has also said that the concerned leader has taken her statement back and apologized for the same. Shah further added that the party has taken her remarks seriously and has sent it to the disciplinary committee to seek an explanation for the controversial remarks. The committee will submit the report to the party within 10 days.
However, Pragya Thakur later said that she agrees with the party line. “If I have hurt anyone I do apologise,” said Pragya Thakur agreeing that her statement was ‘absolutely wrong’. She clarified that she had great respect for Mahatma Gandhi.
BJP’s Pragya Thakur says, “Apne sangathan BJP mein nishtha rakhti hun, uski karyakarta hun aur party ki line meri line hai.” Earlier in the day, she had said “Nathuram Godse was, is and will remain a ‘deshbhakt’.” BJP has condemned her statement & asked her to apologise publicly pic.twitter.com/0bPJSsgPaL
Pragya Thakur had made the controversial statement while responding to actor-turned-politician, Kamal Haasan’ remark terming Godse as ‘independent India’s first terrorist who was a Hindu’. The President of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party who is a new entrant to the political fray in India, at an election rally in Aravakurichi assembly constituency had termed Godse as independent India’s first terrorist, stirring a fresh controversy. “Independent India’s first terrorist was a Hindu. His name was Nathuram Godse. I’m not saying this because this is a locality with a sizeable Muslim population. I’m saying this in front of a Gandhi statue,” he had said.
With merely two days remaining for the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Modi gave an interview to News24 continuing his spree of interviews since elections began. In his interview, he condemned Sadhvi Pragya’s remarks on Godse and Gandhi in the strongest of terms.
Narendra Modi was also asked about Rahul Gandhi’s comments on his ‘Bhrastachari No. 1‘ remark for Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress President had said that he will never drag the Prime Minister’s own parents into politics even though Modi may not award him the same courtesy.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRHghX9axmI]
Modi heavily criticized the Congress President for his remark and said he doesn’t need to be shown any mercy. He appeared quite angered by Rahul Gandhi’s remarks and addressed him directly for the first time.
He said, “Normally, I never address him by name but let me do it today. Shriman Rahul Gandhi ji, you have the experience of 5 generations in public life, your family has occupied the highest positions in the country, therefore, I am not doubting your wisdom. I am requesting you today to not show any mercy towards my parents. If my parents have ever done anything wrong, in personal, social or public life, whatever information you have on the matter, come out in public with the matter.” He further said that he will personally request the Election Commission to allow Rahul Gandhi to present the information on his parents’ conduct even if the time for campaigning is over.
“Abuse my parents, speak against me, do it on the basis of the evidence you have. I do not want it to happen that my parents have done something wrong and others show them mercy. By using the word mercy, you are hurting my integrity and my sanskar. If you believe giving birth to me is their biggest crime, then you can do whatever you want with me,” he added.
Narendra Modi also asserted that he has every right to criticize Rajiv Gandhi as he is a former Prime Minister. “I have no right to criticize your parents nor does anyone else have. And that is how it should be. However, people have the right to criticize former Prime Ministers, the RajParivar and those who live in public life. The same applies to me as well.”
He further stated, “If there are Rambhakts today, then there are people who debate Ram’s legacy proudly. People still debate Shri Krishna’s legacy and people who do so are respected. You may not understand Sanskrit, Rahul ji, but in our country, there was this person who before Marxist ideology spoke in that manner. He used to say, “Spend money, eat Ghee. Who cares about what happens after we die? Even to him, we gave the title of Rishi. This is the greatness of our country. If Ram can be criticized, then so can be Modi even decades after my tenure has ended.”
The simmering tension between Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and minister Navjot Singh Sidhu is finally out in open as the latter’s wife, Navjot Sidhu Kaur has alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh is responsible for her not getting the ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections from the Amritsar seat.
Navjot Sidhu Kaur had alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh and Asha Kumari had denied her ticket to fight from the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency on the grounds that her image might have tainted due to the Dussehra incident in which 60 innocent lives were lost. In addition to this, Kaur had even stated that Capt Amarinder Singh and Asha Kumari think that the Sidhu couple is incapable to do ‘some benefit for Punjab’. Kaur, who was also seeking a ticket from Chandigarh constituency had alleged that the CM had claimed that he alone was capable to lead Congress to victory on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.
Defending her wife’s allegations against Captain Amarinder Singh denying her LS ticket, Navjot Singh Sidhu contented that her wife will “never lie”. When asked about her wife’s allegations, the Tourism and Culture Minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu said, ” My wife has that much strength and moral authority that she will never lie.”
However, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh has dismissed the allegations levelled against him by Navjot Sidhu Kaur claiming that she was offered a chance to fight from Amritsar or Bhatinda but she refused to fight on both the seats. Singh added, “Ticket allocation is done by the Congress leadership in Delhi and they had denied her application to fight from the Chandigarh seat. Chandigarh doesn’t come under Punjab and thus I had no role in her rejection.” Singh also said that if given a choice, he would have recommended Pawan Bansal, the party’s chosen candidate for Chandigarh seat.
Last year a tragedy befell due to administration negligence in Amritsar during an event in which Navjot Sidhu Kaur was the chief guest. The probe report pointed out that the organisers of the event, including councillor’s Vijay Madan’s son Mithu Madan, who is a close aide of the Navjot Sidhu, did not undertake proper safety measures and showed extreme negligence while managing crowd. Navjot Singh Sidhu had rubbed salt on the wounds of the victims and the bereaved families stating the accident as ‘Parmatma ka Prakop’ (wrath of the almighty).
Things went sour between Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu when despite Captain’s advise Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan on Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s invite for the Kartarpur groundbreaking ceremony. Captain had asked Sidhu to not visit Pakistan amidst the rising ceasefire violations by Pakistani soldiers along the border. At that time, Navjot Singh Sidhu had quipped, “My captain is Rahul Gandhi and he is the captain of the Captain(Amarinder Singh). Sidhu in a video said that Rahul Gandhi also provided a special plane to facilitate Navjot Singh Sidhu’s Pakistan visit. The relation between Captain and Sidhu further strained when the latter’s picture with Khalistani terrorist Gopal Singh Chawla did the rounds on the Internet.
In the series on the performance of various ministers in the Modi government, today we take a look at the health ministry.
Health is probably the biggest concern which anyone has today. Be it families or the government, everyone strives for personal health, and government works towards a healthy society because without having a healthy population, a nation can’t succeed. Modi government has probably done the biggest health intervention in India since independence, by launching Ayushman Bharat, which takes healthcare to the poorest of the poor, and taking the worries of medical bills of their head. Modi government has launched many such initiatives to ensure healthy India, which we would look at however, a little bit about JP Nadda, the man overseeing Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Jagat Prakash Nadda is from the state of Himachal Pradesh, though he was born and brought up in Patna, and studied there up to his graduation, where his father was a professor, and later became VC of Patna University. He was also active in ABVP in his student days. He shifted his base to Himachal Pradesh which was his home state, to pursue his LLB from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla where he continued his association with ABVP, and subsequently with BJYM. He was first elected to Himachal Pradesh Assembly in 1993, and reelected in 1998. He was group leader of BJP in his first term as MLA. He was again elected as MLA in 2007 assembly elections. He however shifted his base to New Delhi in national politics in 2010, and was elected as Rajyasabha MP in 2012. He was inducted as Minister for Health and Family Welfare, in the first reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. Let’s have a look at his tenure as Minister for Health and Family Welfare.
Ayushman Bharat – Ayushman Bharat is one the world’s largest public health initiative taken by the Modi government, to take care of the medical expenses of the poor in the country. Under this scheme, every family identified as poor in 2011 census (approximately 50 crore people) are eligible to get free treatment in all the government, and most private empanelled hospitals up to Rs 5 lakh, every year. This scheme isn’t a dole, where the government is spending from its own coffers, but the government has paid the insurance premium, for such poor families under which they are given medical insurance of Rs 5 lakh every year.
The cost of the premium is shared by the central and respective state governments, in the ratio of 60:40. However some opposition-ruled states like Delhi and West Bengal have not joined the scheme, and deprived poor’s of their state the benefit just because the scheme is named as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna – Ayushman Bharat, and they feel Prime Minister Modi will get all the credit for the scheme.
It is pity on the parts of these states, to deprive poor benefits of such a good scheme, just because it has been initiated by the political leader, whom they oppose. According to recent numbers, this scheme has benefitted nearly 7 lakh beneficiaries in first 100 days of the launch of the scheme.
Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest man and philanthropist congratulated Modi government by tweeting about it.
Congratulations to the Indian government on the first 100 days of @AyushmanNHA. It’s great to see how many people have been reached by the program so far. @PMOIndiahttps://t.co/AHHktUt95z
AIIMS in every state – BJP had promised in its election manifesto to build an AIIMS in every state of India, so poor of these states aren’t deprived of availing world-class health facilities at cheaper rates and also helping decongestion of Delhi AIIMS. This decision was a continuation of the initiative taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which had set up 6 AIIMS at Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. These AIIMS had started functioning from 2012. Accordingly, the Narendra Modi government has decided to set up AIIMS in a phased manner in all the states. 13 more AIIMS have been approved by Modi government till now which include Raibareli and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Vijaypur and Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir, Kalyani in West Bengal, Bhatinda in Punjab, Changsari in Assam, Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Madurai in Tamilnadu, Darbhanga in Bihar, Deoghar in Jharkhand, Rajkot in Gujarat and Hyderabad in Telangana. Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have got two AIIMS because of the bigger geographical area of the states. AIIMS at Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Managalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) have started functioning out of temporary campuses in 2018.
Map of AIIMS in India
The total number of proposed and functioning AIIMS as of now stands at 24. After all the AIIMS are established, the number of AIIMS in the country will go up to 32. Establishment of AIIMS will serve the people in every nook and corner of India, as they won’t have to travel far for quality treatment. It would also increase medical seat intake in the country, and produce quality doctors. Starting new AIIMS is a part of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, which also envisages upgradation of existing Government Medical Colleges (GMCs), to further strengthen medical facilities. Accordingly, 73 GMCs are being upgraded under this scheme.
Mission Indradhanush – Mission Indradhanush was launched in December 2014. It aims to immunize all children under the age of 2 years, as well as all pregnant women, against seven vaccine-preventable diseases. The diseases being targeted are diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis B. In addition to these, vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza type B are also being provided in selected states. In 2016, four new additions have been made namely Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis, Injectable Polio Vaccine Bivalent and Rotavirus. In 2017, Pneumonia was added to the Mission by incorporating the Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine under the Universal Immunization Program.
Immunization Program in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Program of Immunization’ (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In 1985, the program was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Program’ (UIP) to be implemented in a phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90 with the one of the largest health program in the world. Despite being operational for many years, UIP was able to fully immunize only 65% children in the first year of their life. To strengthen and re-energize the program and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Modi Government launched “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014. The ultimate goal of Mission Indradhanush is to ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to two years of age and pregnant women.
The Government has identified 201 high focus districts across 28 states, in the country that have the highest number of partially immunized and unimmunized children. Earlier the increase in full immunization coverage was 1% per year, which has increased to 6.7% per year through the first two phases of Mission Indradhanush. Four phases of Mission Indradhanush have been conducted till August 2017, and more than 2.53 crore children and 68 lakh pregnant women have been vaccinated.
E Raktkosh – Blood availability for patients is a major issue in the country. While needy patients don’t get blood on time due to various reasons including running around for blood in absence of clear information on blood availability, while lakhs of blood bags are wasted every year in the country as they get expired. To overcome this problem government has launched a web and app-based portal called www.eraktkosh.in, which shows the live status of blood availability across all blood banks of the country. One can simply login on the portal or app, and see the availability status of needed blood group or blood components saving precious time in running around looking for the blood in critical times.
Pradhanmantri National Dialysis Program – Kidney diseases are increasing in day by day in the country. Kidney failure results in need of dialysis for the patients. This treatment is quite costly, costing on an average of Rs 2000 per session which results in huge (approximately Rs 4 lakh per year expenditure for patients. Identifying the need, government has started free dialysis program for the patients in PPP mode, where provision of dialysis is available at around 500 district hospitals in the country. Till March 2018, about 2 lakh patients availed treatment under this scheme.
Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) –PMSMA was launched in November 2016 to provide assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the 9th of every month. PMSMA guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services, to women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities. Under this scheme, more than 1.16 crore antenatal check-ups have been conducted at over 12,900 health facilities across all states and union territories. More than 6 lakh high-risk pregnancies were identified and were provided all possible care.
Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to be transformed into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) – Government has announced to transform over 5 lakh health sub centres into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs). These HWCs will provide comprehensive primary health care package which includes in addition to primary health care, geriatric health care, palliative care and rehabilitative care services.
Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 – Modi government promulgated this act which adopts a rights-based statutory framework for mental health in India, and strengthens equality and equity, in provision of mental healthcare services, to protect the rights of people with mental health problem, to ensure that they are able to receive optimum care, and are able to live a life of dignity and respect.
Overall this government has taken a leap forward, in the goal of having a healthy country. However, one can only pity Rahul Gandhi, when he says, we will scrap Ayushman Bharat if voted to power. Rahul Gandhi should answer, if he wants to scrap Aysuhman Bharat, what better alternative he has to treat poor people of India, and if he has any alternative, he should present it to the nation. If he doesn’t have then he should say it on record that, by scrapping Ayushman Bharat, he would leave poor people to die in absence of medical treatment or let them crowd in a very few government hospitals, this country has.
The author is journalism pass out from Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. After dangerously flirting with the idea of left during his IIMC days, due to the proximity of the IIMC with JNU, a den of radical leftists, he became firmly aligned to right after realizing the futility of the left. He tweets at @kpophale.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s political campaigning in UP has seen many interesting moments. Not only her statements of Congress being the ‘vote cutter’ party in UP have caused severe embarrassment for her party, her photo ops and empty road shows also have been a stark reminder of Congress’ slipping political hold over Uttar Pradesh.
In an attempt to mock PM Modi, Priyanka ended up scoring a massive self-goal today. Addressing a rally in Mirzapur, Priyanka stated that the people have elected the world’s biggest actor as their PM. She added that it would have been better if they had elected Amitabh Bachchan himself because neither of them (Bachchan or Modi) were ever going to work for the people.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Mirzapur: Ab aap samajh lijiye ke apne duniye ke sabse bade abhineta ko apna PM bana diya hai, is se accha toh aap Amitabh Bachchan ko hi bana dete, karna toh kisi ne kuch nahi tha aapke liye. pic.twitter.com/oYrtXdGuwS
However, Priyanka’s statement was a massive self-goal. Amitabh Bachchan was indeed elected an MP by the people of Uttar Pradesh once, in 1984. Ironically, it was Priyanka Gandhi’s family party Congress that had given him the ticket. Some Twitter users pointed out the fact to Priyanka.
— Woke Raja babu ? (@GaurangBhardwa1) May 17, 2019
Priyanka Gandhi trying to drag Amitabh Bachchan’s name into her political jibes is a rather amusing prospect also for the fact that Amitabh Bachchan had resigned as a Lok Sabha MP after just three years amidst the Bofors scam controversy, where Rajiv Gandhi’s government was accused of involvement. The names of Amitabh and his brother Ajitabh had surfaced too in the scam. However, Bachchan was later given a clean chit by Swedish Police chief Sten Lindstrom, who had led the investigations in Sweden.
Amitabh Bachchan had joined politics on Rajiv Gandhi’s request as they were close childhood friends. The Bachchan family had been very close to the Gandhis and back in those days, they were very open about the familial ties too.
In fact, it was Bachchan’s parents who had helped Rajiv in organising his wedding with Sonia. Amitabh’s mother Teji Bachchan and Rajiv’s mother Indira Gandhi were said to be close friends too.
Amitabh and his family were also among the special guests of the then PM Rajiv Gandhi when he had taken the now famous vacation at an uninhabited island in the Lakshadweep archipelago in 1987-88. The family of Amitabh’s brother Ajitabh was invited there too.
In her attempt to mock PM Modi, Priyanka has not only dragged the name of one of India’s greatest living actors, she has declared one of her family’s oldest acquaintances and her own father’s childhood friend, who was also a Congress MP once, as ‘incompetent’.
Kolkata was abuzz on Tuesday after violence was reported at BJP President Amit Shah’s rally. In the clashes that ensued, a statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalized at Vidyasagar college. As the issue gathered traction, political blame-game ensued over the matter.
While Mamata Banerjee invoked Bengali regional chauvinism, Shah in his press conference presented evidence to accuse Trinamool of violence and vandalizing the statue. AltNews claimed to do a fact-check in the matter.
In their fact-check, they initially claimed that a video showed only BJP karyakartas throwing stones at those inside the college campus, contrary to the claims made by the party that the first assault came from Trinamool. AltNews claimed that the video showed no stones being thrown from inside the college.
However, as pointed out by Fact Hunt, a fact-checking website, in reality, there are videos available which do show stones being thrown from the inside. But AltNews conveniently ignored it.
In the slowed down video stone or some object was thrown twice from the inside (8-10 sec & 19-21 sec). Man in white started seeing the object (after 8th sec) that came from inside..a man in turban threw a stone inside..at the same time an object was seen coming from inside.
Since then, AltNews has been forced to eat their words and they have updated their article on the matter and have admitted that there was indeed stone pelting from the inside. However, they still call it ‘retaliation’, thus, giving the impression that those were the BJP Karyakartas who pelted the stones first. They say so without any shred of evidence whatsoever.
Moreover, AltNews throughout its fact-check has built up the narrative that BJP Karyakartas were responsible for vandalizing the statue. However, all of it is mere conjecture and one ought to ask oneself, since when is conjecture considered a fact-check? AltNews says, “That the TMC vandalised Vidyasagar’s statue is a claim not backed by any visual evidence.” However, people wearing saffron appears to be sufficient condition for AltNews to brand them BJP Karyakartas. It appears it hasn’t crossed their mind that TMC cadres could very well dress up in saffron to fool people.
Anyway, since when do ‘fact-checkers’ take up the responsibility of investigative agencies and the Police? Whether people associated with the TMC vandalized the statue or it was done by BJP Karyakartas, it’s for the Police to find out. It’s not the job of fact-checkers. It appears the people at AltNews have been watching too much of CID and have been deeply inspired by ACP Pradyuman and his motley crew.
AltNews co-founders are known to harbour great hatred towards Prime Minister Modi and often peddle Fake News, as they did on this occasion, to further their personal agenda. Recently, Pratik Sinha, one of the co-founders, had lied about Narendra Modi’s poll promise of sending guilty MPs and MLAs to jail.
The media portal is a habitual offender. AltNews sought to ‘fact-check’ a ‘clipped’ video of journalist Barkha Dutt but interestingly, left out the quotes where she was actually giving a context to the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley. Altnews ‘fact-checked’ a retired major from the Army, but willy-nilly refused to respond to his side of the story. Altnews fact-checked a fake image in circulation without bothering to name the ones using that fake image. The reason was rather simple. The ones sharing that image were their ideological comrades which included Swati Chaturvedi, a source BBC has relied upon. One of their co-founders happily furthers genocidal accounts wishing for death upon anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the leftist cult. The co-founder of Altnews spread lies about ease of doing business rankings. He shared a fake image of BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa right before the Karnataka elections.
