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‘On one hand Hardik calls for social harmony, on the other, he calls protesting Dalits, goons’ says one Dalit leader

OpIndia Staff
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‘On one hand Hardik calls for social harmony, on the other, he calls protesting Dalits, goons’ says one Dalit leader

The man behind Patidar reservation stir, Hardik Patel and his new friend Jignesh Mevani were seen supporting opposite parties involved in a land dispute.

The land dispute came to light when 5 Dalit families of the Gitapur village in Ahmedabad sat on an indefinite fast at the mamlatdar’s office in Detroj. They were demanding residential plots for themselves. Dalit leader and independent MLA from Vadgam, Jignesh Mevani visited the Dalit families and extended his support.

The village has a dominant Patidar population and the Patidar leaders were opposed to the demands of the Dalit families. As per reports, they insisted that the land belongs to the village Panchayat. The Patidar leaders also sat in protest at the mamlatdar’s office.

Things took an interesting turn on January 24th when Hardik Patek visited the Patidars sitting in protest, just a day after Jignesh Mevani’s visit. Hardik had also tweeted about the incident.


The administration quickly intervened and resolved the land issue, allowing the Dalit families to convert their agricultural land to non-agricultural plots to build houses. But the Dalit community was angered over Hardik’s statement. They found his statement offensive and were prepared to protest against him. One Dalit leader Kirti Rathod from Hardik’s own hometown Viramgam stated  “On one hand, he (Hardik) talks about social harmony, and on the other hand, he calls protesting Dalits anti-socials and goons. This is not acceptable. We will launch protests against Hardik, seeking his apology for the comments”.
Hardik and Jignesh Mevani’s friendship saw its peak during the Gujrat Elections. While Hardik was seen openly praising Jignesh, Jignesh had supported Hardik during the infamous sex-CD controversy.

On the land-dispute issue, Jignesh Mevani has stated that Hardik’s statements do pose a challenge but that is what caste system does and he will speak to Hardik over the incident.

BJP worker Santosh murdered in Karnataka, one of the accused, Wasim, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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BJP worker Santosh murdered in Karnataka, one of the accused, Wasim, arrested

As Karnataka gears up for polls, the bloody campaign seems to have been kicked off as a 28 year old Santhosh, a BJP worker, was stabbed to death by four assailants last night in JC Nagar. Santhosh, who was a member of BJP Yuva Morcha, was allegedly killed over political rivalry. Two of the four accused, Wasim and Philips, have been arrested by the police.

Santhosh, who had the responsibility of a polling booth in the view of upcoming Legislative Assembly elections, was reportedly killed by assailants who held a grudge over his election related activities. The four accused, two of who are arrested, were reportedly planning to kill him since a while, but managed to do it yesterday when he went to have tea.


He was killed when he was putting up buntings for the BJP’s Parivartana Rally, scheduled to be held in the city on February 4. The other two accused, Umar and Irfan, are absconding and according to police, efforts are on to nab the two.

Earlier in January, too, BJP activist Deepak Rao was brutally murdered in Katipalla, Karnataka where six people, Mohammed Rafiq, Irfan, Mohammed Aanas, Mohammed Zahid, Hidayatullah and Imran Nawaz, were reportedly arrested.

As per shocking statistics, as many as 90 political murders have taken place in Karnataka in past 17 years, with upcoming elections expected to rank amongst the most violent in the state.

Has ‘feminism’ gone too far ? Misguided ‘feminist’ says dog sperm is enough to reproduce

OpIndia Staff
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Has ‘feminism’ gone too far ? Misguided ‘feminist’ says dog sperm is enough to reproduce

The simple meaning of feminism is : ‘the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes’. This is a necessity for progress of society and mankind. The basic goal of feminism has been twisted and misinterpreted by some sections of women who claim to be feminists.

Pseudo-feminist logic has been amusing people around the world.  Recently a video of a woman claiming that dog sperm can also be used to give birth has been throwing Twitter into splits of laughter.


The proceedings of the programme on Mahaa News, a regional news channel in South India, went on like this

Female speaker : I broke up with a guy and married another . Am I a playgirl?

Male speaker : No you are not called a playgirl.

Female speaker: Firstly, nobody has the right to label any girl or a boy. It is my choice to do anything. There is no gender here. Just because, you have something extra. I have something extra in my body. It is as simple as that. I have something more. I can give birth. you can’t.

Male speaker: I can give a software to you to give birth. I can give you the formula of a human being.

Female speaker: I was about to say. I don’t need your sperms, even dog sperms can be used to give birth to a human child. Did you know that ? Please read biology.

[ All female participants in the programme clap to this ]

Male speaker: Ok go marry a dog. Find a dog

Female speaker: You are a male chauvinistic dog.

The world is waiting for the its next miracle. A baby born using a dog’s sperm.

Body of Dalit youth beaten to death recovered near a mosque in UP’s Hathras, accused arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Body of Dalit youth beaten to death recovered near a mosque in UP’s Hathras, accused arrested

A Dalit youth was beaten to death in the Gadhi Khandari locality (which demographically contains a mixed religious population) of Hathras, UP on Monday night. The body of the youth named Amit Kumar Gautam (27), was recovered from near a Mosque on Tuesday, following which tension spread in the region.

Soon after the incident, the family members of Amit filed a case against five Muslim youths namely Alam, Saddam, Khalid, Sukel and Ashu. Out of these, Alam is a known history-sheeter.

As per the family members, Amit had left home on Monday afternoon saying that he was going out to correct a certificate. After he failed to return home by late evening, they decided to go and search for him, but returned empty handed. At about 7 AM they were informed about his battered body being recovered from the mosque square area.

Reaching that area, to their horror they found him crushed beneath the mosque gate, with grave injuries on his head and neck. The Station House Officer later took possession of the body and after seeing a communal atmosphere being created, police force was deployed in the area and at the postmortem centre.

The police seems to have swiftly acted in this case, and has proceeded to arrest two of the accused named Alam and Saddam.

As per an Amar Ujala report, the murder was committed due to a dispute over a motorcycle. The report claims that Amit had given Alam his motorcycle as a collateral, but was dithering from handing over the bike. It has also been alleged that the accused even tried to attack Amit on Saturday while he was travelling on a bike but was saved after people came to his rescue.

After the news of the incident spread, people protested at the postmortem centre and members of the BJP, Hindu groups like the Hindu Yuva Vahini too reached the area.

Even though the left regularly tries to peddle a “Dalit-Muslim unity” narrative, there have been glaring instances of Dalit persecution by Muslims.

Apart from the aforementioned incident, it was recently reported that Dalit family livingin Mewat Haryana, has alleged that it was brutally attacked by the village goons for refusing to convert to Islam. Besides this even castiest slurs were hurled at them.

In a ground report about the incident by Swarajya, the Dalit family was seen recounting its plight, and then spiritedly reaffirming that they would prefer dying than giving up their religion.

Reports suggest Kasganj’s Chamunda temple could have been the epicenter of communal tension, days before Tiranga Yatra

OpIndia Staff
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Reports suggest Kasganj’s Chamunda temple could have been the epicenter of communal tension, days before Tiranga Yatra

Kasganj has been the subject of a lot of conjecture and surmise. A youth named Chandan Gupta was murdered in communal clashes which erupted over flag march in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh. While this is quite clear, the exact cause of the flare up is still being debated. Every side has their own version.

The sequence of events reminds one of the celebrated movie maker Akira Kurosawa and his movie named “Rashomon”.  In the critically acclaimed film, a murder is described in four mutually contradictory ways by its four witnesses. This phenomenon, where the same event is given contradictory interpretations by different individuals involved, is now known as the “Rashomon effect”. The unravelling of the Kasganj case is a real life example of that.

The event here is the murder of Chandan Gupta. The build up to the murder, the reasons, the causes, are still being investigated and each day a new version emerges. Media houses are split vertically on ideological lines, each trying to push a particular version ahead. The versions are sometimes of the people involved, and sometimes that of the media houses itself.

Chandan’s parents have claimed that their son was killed for refusing to chant “Pakistan Zindabad”. Media “ground reports” on the other hand spoke to the muslims in the area, who claim that an “unathorised” bike rally disrupted their Republic Day function, ‘objectionable slogans’ were raised, and matters escalated. Bareily DM hinted at a “strange trend” of moving into Muslim dominated areas and provoking them. Yet another report claims that the initial fight began 6 days before on social media, and then descended on to the lanes of Kasganj. The alleged shooter is also said to have links with Samajwadi Party, as per some reports.

Amidst this heavy cocktail of information, the truth is lost. One more version to this gruesome murder is emerging. While all the above theories came to the fore after the murder, this version was first reported on 23rd January 2018, much before any such yatra etc took place.

A report in Amar Ujala on the above date, states that communal tensions had begun rising on 23rd January itself, when an incident took place at the Chamunda temple gate in Kasganj. Initially, a complaint was filed with the local administration that the movement of heavy vehicles from right in front of the Chamunda temple must be stopped. Hence, as per the report, it was decided to place barricades on half the gate, to block heavy vehicles.

However, the home guard on duty installed the barricades on the full gate, thereby blocking the movement of heavy as well as light vehicles. The report claims that this angered the “other community”. They reportedly went to the gate and protested this move. As matters heated up, the home guard called Inspector Padma Singh, who seeing the tension, removed the barricades.

However, he instructed the crowd that only light vehicles will be permitted and the police will act if any heavy vehicles are found moving on that road. Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh also later clarified that the intention was to barricade only half the gate so as to block only heavy vehicles.

The above report in Amar Ujala is significant because it was published way before the tiranga yatra and the murder. This report is not an attempt to re-imagine and retrace the steps to the eventual incident. Hence the facts presented here do not suffer from the ideological biases which may have crept into reports post the incident.

Was this the starting point of the communal tension? Was the tiranga yatra just the final straw which broke the camel’s back? Some media reports have hinted at this possibility. It may be noted here that this are around the Chamunda temple has been in the news earlier too. It has been a place known for crime and demands have been made to increase security in the area.

Where does this version fit in the various “truths” and “ground reports” of Kasganj? Can there be a more complicated truth which complements all the various versions? It may take a while for the full story to emerge.

As of now, it seems like the truth too is deemed to be a casualty. Just like Chandan.

Dear pseudo-feminists, wake up from the narcotic of hypocrisy : For you to be women, you need to be human first

Sanghamitra
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Dear pseudo-feminists, wake up from the narcotic of hypocrisy : For you to be women, you need to be human first

Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi is a young 18-year-old girl. Under normal circumstances, Nihad should be busy studying, enjoying with her friends and dreaming of a bright future like a million other teenagers worldwide. Sadly she has suffered atrocities that would make any sane person cringe with fear. This 18-year-old was held captive by ISIS for over 15 months. She was repeatedly raped, passed down from one ‘owner’ to another like livestock, to be raped and humiliated further. She had also given birth in captivity. She was not alone, Nihad narrated her horrors of hearing her own sister getting raped in the next room. Her sister was just 13.

Nihad has attempted suicide many times till her neighbours took pity on her and helped her escape. She considers herself lucky. Many young girls she met and hears from are not. Many keep slashing their wrists and locking themselves in bathrooms, many get killed in their attempts to escape.


The Yazidi are a Kurdish speaking ethnic minority group living in northern Iraq who are strictly endogamous. The ISIS has been hunting them down and killing and forcefully converting them since years. The ISIS labels them as ‘devil worshipers’. The worst sufferers are Yazidi women, mostly young girls.


What is striking is that while such vile and bestial torture of women is going on around the world, most of the pseudo-feminists who masquerade as champions of women’s rights are blissfully ignoring it. All around us we see ‘movements’ where self-proclaimed feminists scream for trivial issues such as smoking, drinking and what not. We have seen social media stars ranting for rights to dress a certain way, look a certain way. There was even a campaign for free bleeding!

Somehow amidst all the hurricane of pseudo-feminists, the real suffering and plights of the actual victims get choked. In our country pseudo-feminists rant about movies hurting their sentiments and simple traditions of festivals being patriarchal. How often do we see them standing up for women who actually undergo rape, abuse and oppression on a daily basis? Almost never.

How many celebrities raised their voices for the over 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram? How many social media stars campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)? Sadly the ones like Ayan Hirsi Ali who do campaign to end FGM are insulted and threatened by self-proclaimed feminists in the worst possible way.

Even in our own country, we have seen prominent ‘intellectuals’ and powerful personalities fail to support the Triple Talaq Bill – the only significant step towards granting Muslim women their legal rights after decades of injustice. Worse, they even oppose the bill from getting passed.

Rights of women get lost under the shadow of ‘political correctness’ and religious appeasement. Even when a Chief Minister ensures no school/college going girls will be harassed by street goons, he faces opposition from all quarters. Yogi Adityanath was ridiculed and opposed to no extent when he implemented the Anti-Romeo squads in UP.

Even an issue as disturbing as child marriage gets sidelined under the garb of minority appeasement.

 

Rape, sexual abuse, sex slavery, child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation etc are a disturbing reality of our world. While a privileged section enjoys the freedom of a liberalised nation and often takes its benefits for granted, millions of women worldwide undergo unspeakable horrors every day. We as a society, need to wake up from the narcotic of hypocrisy. For us to be women, we need to be human first.

Women empowerment is not about surrounding a dynastic scion, Rahul’s criticism of RSS is ridiculous

Nithesh S
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Women empowerment is not about surrounding a dynastic scion, Rahul’s criticism of RSS is ridiculous

Rahul Gandhi managed to score a self goal again. While speaking in Shillong, the Congress president criticised RSS for its ‘anti-women agenda.’ He said that RSS was dis-empowering women. He questioned whether RSS had any leadership for women. He went on to say that Mahatma Gandhi was always flanked by women in his pics, hinting at the ‘role’ given to women in Congress party.

Criticism for Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in Shillong

The comment by Rahul Gandhi in Shillong was criticised by Swati Goel Sharma , a journalist at SwarajyaMag. She rightly questioned if women would be ’empowered’ if they surround a male leader.

Repetition of anti-RSS remark in Gujarat

He had said something similar during his Gujarat poll campaign. He asked a gathering of women if they had seen women in shorts working with RSS. He said :

“They are not interested in women’s rights. How many women are in the RSS? Have you ever seen women in shorts working with RSS? I have never seen. You see women in the Congress all the time. In the RSS you will never see women. God knows what mistakes women have committed that they cannot be a part of RSS.

This comment was met with criticism from BJP’s women leaders.

Rahul Gandhi is a reluctant politician who clearly has no idea what is to be said, and what, when said, will make him look foolish. He is unaware that there is a separate organisation for RSS women called Rashtra Sevika Samiti. Girls/ women who are a part of this organisation do not require a male leader’s blessings to feel ’empowered’.

It is also telling how Rahul Gandhi thinks that for women to be empowered they either have to wear shorts, or have to subserviently surround men in power. Perhaps that is what dynastic culture has taught him. He fails to realise that Indian women see a role model in the first defence minister of the country, N Sitharaman, or the women who join the army to fight toe to toe with men, or our sportswomen who have been doing the country proud, or even our mothers, who move the world.

A politicians whose response to everything is “women empowerment” should perhaps learn, how women truly feel empowered instead of indulging in such drivel.

UP police confirms the arrest of main accused Salim in Chandan Gupta’s murder during Kasganj communal violence

OpIndia Staff
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UP police confirms the arrest of main accused Salim in Chandan Gupta’s murder during Kasganj communal violence

The Kasganj region of Uttar Pradesh has been on the boil since Republic Day, after communal clashes were reported following a Tiranga yatra by the ABVP, where people from particular community pelted stones which led to clashes.

The exact chain of events leading to the violence have been subjected to multiple versions. But it is clear that something triggered a fight between local muslims and the participants of the yatra, where in the ensuing violence a young volunteer named Chandan died. As per reports, it has been alleged by Chandan’s father, that his son was killed for refusing to chant “Pakistan Zindabad”.

Even though this death was widely mourned by Indians, some so-called liberals started to blame him for his own death.

Tension though refused to die down in the region with communal clashes continuing, and the UP police till Tuesday evening had arrested 114 people, and filed seven FIRs regarding the matter.

Now in a major breakthrough, the UP police has arrested [1][2] the prime accused in Chandan’s murder. As per reports, the prime accused Salim, his brothers Waseem, Naseem and 17 others have been charged in connection with this matter. The three brothers have been booked under section 302 of the IPC, which pertains to murder.

To provide further clarity in this matter, the official twitter account of the UP police has tweeted out an update, where it acknowledges the arrest of Salim, the main accused in the Kasganj matter:


The tweet provided an update claiming that, a total of eight indictments have been registered, in connection with the Kasganj matter and the total number of arrested have increased to 121 people. The police have further claimed that the situation is under control and common citizens are going about their business normally. It has also been claimed that the peace committee is organising meetings to try and maintain peace and harmony.

Delhi University professor says ‘the tiranga of the Hindutva bikers in Kasganj not mine’, ‘The Wire’ carries this shameless article

Nithesh S
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Delhi University professor says ‘the tiranga of the Hindutva bikers in Kasganj not mine’, ‘The Wire’ carries this shameless article

Apoorvanand, a professor of the Hindi department of Delhi University (DU) is supposed to be a figure whom students look up to. He is a person who is supposed to shape young minds. But, his article in The Wire reveals some disturbingly twisted opinions about nationalism and national flag. The professor’s article reveals that he places minoritarianism above national unity and respect for the tricolour.

Does the tricolour deserve differential treatment if held by Hindutva bikers

The DU professor is not hesitant to go to any extent in order to prove his hatred for Hindutva bikers who took pride in carrying the national flag. He writes :

The tiranga is only superficially our national flag when used to embarrass, frighten or subdue an individual or community. When used in this way, it loses its essence (byline).

Their tiranga is not mine. The tiranga that the bikers in Kasganj carried in order to thrust it in the faces of the Muslims who had assembled at Shaheed Abdul Hamid Chowk to unfurl the national flag on Republic Day is alien to me. This is not the flag I have grown up with. I do not know it and it does not look friendly to me. It is being wielded as a threat, a weapon of goons, the flag of a gang out to annex my very being. India belongs to its people. It does not annex them and I refuse to be annexed by any party or ideology.

Does this person know that the national flag has been the same ever since India became independent? And what kind of a hateful person fails to recognise the flag if a person of a different ideology holds it? How can it be wielded as a threat? Every Indian has a right to hold the national flag, and on every occasion it has to be respected by every Indian. The writer falls to a lower level in his next paragraph.

The tricolour is now being used to mark territory and annex people who are already a part of the country. Just see the faces of those who wield this flag. They look like marauders. Assault units out to capture new territories and vanquish people. To make them submit to the diktat of those who claim that this flag belongs naturally and only to them and that others will be made to bow before it.

The professor should understand that the entire territory of this country is marked as India. And the national flag can be hoisted/carried/displayed in every part of this country. Those holding a national flag are not marauders. They are nationalists. The writer plunges in the eyes of the reader with every line he writes. He goes on to say :

They think that once they hold this flag, they have a right to passage: they can ask you to make way for their gang, ask you to vacate your shared spaces by planting the flag over it. You are not allowed to question their right, their move.

Even if a person doesn’t hold a flag, he/she has the right to walk freely in all public roads of the country. It is a fundamental right. Unless and until someone is entering a protected forest, area cordoned of for security reasons or private property, no one can question the right to move around freely in the country. The professor seems to be endorsing no-go areas in the name of minority appeasement.

RSS usurping the national flag?

The most outrageous part of this article is where the writer says that the RSS should not usurp the Tiranga. What does that mean? Political opponents can claim that ‘RSS is propagating Hindutva’ with a saffron flag. But one wonders what might the problem with the national flag?

Many of us feel that we also need to take the national flag in our hands, to not let the RSS usurp it. But we don’t need to do this. We don’t need to legitimise all our acts by giving them a nationalist colour. When students protest for their rights or farmers fight for their claims, they need not do it in the shadow of the tiranga.

He criticises Tiranga yatras proposed by the prime minister as well in his article and also has a problem with RSS chief hoisting the national flag in Kerala. Clearly, his hatred has clouded his judgement and common sense (if at all has any of it). The professor’s allegiance or love for the flag depends on the people who carry/ hoist/ display it.

We are not sure as to what exactly happened in Kasganj. Only investigations can reveal the details. But this opposition to ‘Hindutva bikers’ carrying the national flag is the lowest point of the discourse in politics. It is shameful that a person in academia has propounded such a logic. If at all there is any threat for the idea of India or nationalism it comes from figures like Apoorvanand. And it seems like portals like The Wire will always be there to support such figures.

‘My name is Khan and I am not your vote bank’ – a Delhi resident’s resounding rebuttal to Kejriwal

OpIndia Staff
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‘My name is Khan and I am not your vote bank’ – a Delhi resident’s resounding rebuttal to Kejriwal

A political party which came into existence on the plank of non corruption and hope has always been in news for all the wrong reasons. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal in his Republic Day address to school children in Delhi had urged school children to not stay quiet.


In his speech, he said ‘we stayed quiet when Muslims were killed, when Dalits were burnt, beaten, we stayed quiet’. This venomous speech given to impressionable young children in school was shocking to say the least.

A week later, a visibly angry resident of Delhi, Baba Khan, through his video message slammed Kejriwal and told him that he is not a vote bank for him.


In his video, he questioned Kejriwal where are Muslims killed and burnt? He reminded Kejriwal of the promises he had made of water, the water which makes people ill. He reminded Kejriwal of the free medicines which were promised but are hardly available. He urged Kejriwal to stop paying dirty politics on the name of Muslims. Khan further said that the wants and requirements of Muslims are the same as Hindus. He added that if a Muslim needs clean drinking water, so does a Hindu. If a Muslim needs hospital, so does a Hindu. But Kejriwal has failed in all this. He condemned Kejriwal’s politics by telling him that Muslims are not a vote bank.

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