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Malegaon blast accused alleges that UPA govt tried to frame Yogi Adityanath and Mohan Bhagwat

OpIndia Staff
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Malegaon blast accused alleges that UPA govt tried to frame Yogi Adityanath and Mohan Bhagwat

On September 29, 2008 bomb blasts took place in the Malegaon region of Nashik district of Maharashtra which resulted in 4 deaths and left 80 injured.

Soon Sadhvi Pragya and Lt Col Purohit were arrested in connection with the blast and as a result terms like  “Hindu terror” or “Saffron terror” was popularised after their arrests.

They continued languishing in jails till April and August 2017 respectively when Sadhvi Pragya and Col Purohit were given bail. This long incarceration of Sadhvi Pragya was also called into question by her lawyer who claimed that she should have got bail within half an hour.

Now Malegaon blast is again in the news after it has been reported that one of the blast accused named Sudhakar Chaturvedi alleged on Monday that, Mumbai Anti-terror squad (ATS) had falsely implicated innocent people in the named of “Saffron terror” and had also tried to frame then BJP MP Yogi Adityanath and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Chaturvedi who was released on bail after 9 years, alleged that the then Congress-NCP government had tried to frame Hindu activists in order to appease Muslim voters. As alleged by him, the investigators questioned him about Yogi and his organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini’s profile. He further alleged that the way they questioned him, it indicated that Yogi was their main target in trying to frame a prominent “saffron-clad” personality in the case.

It was also reported that during interrogation, the investigators also wanted to know Chaturvedi’s connections to the RSS and its chief.

Apart from such sensational claims, Chaturvedi has alleged that the accused were subjected to brutal torture. He also alleged that false evidences of a pistol and RXD were also planted against him by the ATS.

This isn’t the only time questions have been raised against the investigations carried in prominent terror cases.

We had recently reported how a Times Now expose had raised questions regarding a similar modus operandi in the aftermath of the Samjhauta blasts. Initial reports after the blast had suggested that they were the handiwork of the Pakistan based terror group Laskhar-e-Taiba. But later Indian investigative agencies drew a completely different conclusion to blame “saffron terror” outfits for the blast.

The recent media expose had alleged that Pakistani suspects who had allegedly planted the bomb were let off without any proper investigation under the UPA government. This raised questions as to whether these suspects were let off so that the whole “Saffron Terror” theory could be propagated.

Kerala mosque committee orders boycott of family after girl marries a non-Muslim, receives mixed response

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala mosque committee orders boycott of family after girl marries a non-Muslim, receives mixed response

In another case of rising interference of Islamic religious institutions in an individual’s private life, it has been reported that a Mosque committee in Kerala’s Malappuram district ordered a social boycott of a family for carrying out an inter-faith marriage.

As per the report, Madarul Islam Sangham the Mahallu committee (administrative committee) of local mosques situated in Thachinganadam in Keezhattur, decided that they would boycott the family of Kunnummal Yusuf as they had agreed to his daughter’s marriage to a non-Muslim.

In order to ensure that, the mosque also issued a special circular which stated that, Kunnummal Yusuf a member of Mahallu had conducted the marriage of their daughter with a non-Muslim. Thus the committee had decided that people need not cooperate with the family neither in mosque-related affairs nor for any other matter. 

Undeterred by such a diktat, the family went ahead with the marriage and the girl married Tiso Thomas on 20th October under the special marriages act. This wedding was also conducted without any religious symbols and religious customs too weren’t followed.

This incident started receiving widespread attention after the girl’s uncle shared the circular and criticised the decision of the Mahallu committee on Facebook. The uncle wrote that the girl had the right to marry anyone of her choice asked the mosque to stop changing the tides of time.

This whole call for boycott seem to have generated mixed results. A day after the marriage, the family had organised a reception where hundreds of people including neighbours turned up and participated enthusiastically. But on the other hand reports claimed that of the 600 odd people invited, none of the Muslim families associated with the Kondiparamba masjid turned up and even a few family members didn’t cooperate with the wedding. The absentees also included the friends of the bride who didn’t attend in fear of the diktat.

As per Najma a CPI(M) area committee member, they are planning to file a police complaint against this boycott call issued by the Mosque committee.

Anti-Modi cop Sanjiv Bhatt gets called out on his bigotry

OpIndia Staff
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Anti-Modi cop Sanjiv Bhatt gets called out on his bigotry

Sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is best known for spreading hatred, lies and bigotry on Twitter, is back to his old tricks again.

After Indian cricket team lost to New Zealand on 22nd October, Sanjiv Bhatt wrote a post on Facebook and Twitter claiming how this Indian cricket team has not had Muslim cricketers. He implied how the selectors are being biased and not selecting Muslim players.

However, twitterati didn’t fall for his bait, and were quick to point out his bigotry. Many users schooled him and showed him that the sport is about competence and it has nothing to do with religion.


The responses were a tight slap on the bigoted face of Sanjiv Bhatt who tried to divide a sport on communal lines.

GST Intelligence Unit denies making any raids on Actor’s Vishal’s premises

OpIndia Staff
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GST Intelligence Unit denies making any raids on Actor’s Vishal’s premises

As an offshoot of the ongoing Mersal saga, Actor Vishal had criticized BJP leader H. Raja for advocating piracy by watching the movie online. Raja had claimed that he had seen the so-called offensive dialogues from the movie Mersal via some clips, and had not seen the movie since he did not have “the patience to watch a two-and-a-half hour movie.”

Based on this, Vishal had made the following statement:

“Dear Mr H Raja, as a leader and prominent personality, you are advocating piracy and blatantly agreeing to it”

He also wondered “how a political leader could watch a pirated version of a film (online)” and added that it “sets a bad example”. Vishal also demanded an apology from Raja on the matter, and pressed the government to enact more stringent anti-piracy laws. Raja on his part had clarified that he had not watched the movie and had only seen the clips received on his phone.

Today afternoon, just 1 day after Vishal’s outburst, reports began pouring in that the GST Intelligence Unit had raided Vishal’s premises. This supposed raid was linked to his statements from the earlier day, by media and politicians alike:

Now, the GST Intelligence Unit has issued a press release and squarely denied this raid:

According to the tweets of another reporter, the Jt Director of the GST Intelligence Unit claimed that some operations were going on in Chennai, but they had no connection to Vishal. He stopped short of revealing the actual persons who were raided:

Meanwhile, a Times Now journalist continued to claim that the raids had indeed been on Vishal.

Also, a report in TheNewsMinute claims that the actor’s production house however told media that four officers of the GST Intelligence Agency visited the office in the afternoon, for a routine inspection.  Only time will tell which version is accurate, but it is quite telling how media persons and politicians propagate unverified news to gain a political advantage.

Christian school in Tamil Nadu punishes students for bursting firecrackers during Diwali

OpIndia Staff
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Christian school in Tamil Nadu punishes students for bursting firecrackers during Diwali

A Christian minority matriculation school in Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu has become embroiled in controversy after reports have claimed that its students were punished for bursting firecrackers during Diwali.

This incident has resulted in a complaint against the school’s headmaster and physical education teacher, which has been made at the Palakkarai police station, under whose jurisdiction the school falls. The complaint has been made by a certain S. Sethuraman, who has alleged that his son and a few students were punished for the aforementioned reason which caused them mental agony.

According to the report, police sources have claimed that an inquiry took place on Saturday which involved the headmaster and the physical education teacher. The report claimed that the school had during a prayer session, made the students who burst firecrackers bow their heads and seek forgiveness from nature. This incident had happened a day after the festival.

Apart from punishing these students, the school also rewarded students who had not burst these firecrackers, by giving them appreciation certificates. The school in its defence has claimed that it was simply following a circular given by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

This isn’t the only such complaint which has been made against the school. As per the report, another complaint was made against the same school about a physical education teacher beating up a schoolgirl for applying mehendi.

This isn’t the only time schools have taken harsh action against students who have indulged in Hindu rituals.

It was reported in 2015 that a private school in Hyderabad had punished 6 girls for applying mehendi on the occasion of Dussehra. As per the report, the principle had thrown these girls out after the school had reopened.

Similarly a class 2 boy was fined Rs 500 by a Chennai school for applying henna on his hand during a family function. When the teacher noticed faint henna marks on the boy’s hand she immediately sent a note to the student’s parents, asking them to pay the fine.

Schools have also not shied away from taking action against teachers when it comes to such issues.

A 2012 report had claimed that a Chemistry teacher was suspended by a Chennai school after she recited a Hindu prayer to class XII students before they started their examinations. This act reportedly annoyed the teachers so much that they turned off the microphone while the prayer was being recited. As per a student of the school, usually a Christian prayer was sung on such days.

Barkha launches fresh attack on NDTV, spills beans on Radia helping the channel financially

OpIndia Staff
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Barkha launches fresh attack on NDTV, spills beans on Radia helping the channel financially

Less than a week back, former NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt had gone public with her grouse against NDTV over censorship and termed the news channel’s stand on free press and free speech as sham. Although Barkha has been distancing herself from NDTV right from the time when CBI had raided Prannoy Roy’s residences, her latest salvo comes after NDTV removed an article that was seen as making baseless accusations against BJP President Amit Shah’s son.

The said article was written by a journalist named Srinivasan Jain of NDTV, and he had tried to take a moral high ground over removal of his article. Instead of accepting that his article could be erroneous or defamatory, Jain went on to preach about good journalism and free speech.

This led Barkha Dutt to hit back and term the free speech crusaders of NDTV as ‘fake liberals’. She cited how NDTV had censored her interview with Chidambaram and another interview done by NDTV journalist Nitin Gokhale, who too has exposed NDTV as an organisation full of nepotism.

Later she even claimed that NDTV honchos were trying to reach out to BJP – in some apparent way to make peace through backdoor negotiations – while feigning to fight against the party at Press Club.

Now she has written yet another Facebook post where she has tried to answer some who found fault with her for attacking NDTV, and at the same time she has revealed some shocking details.

In her Facebook post, Barkha Dutt has claimed that NDTV dropped the story on National Herald – the case, which BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has been arguing as an example of personal corruption of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi through Congress party, for which he is demanding conviction of Gandhis and cancellation of Congress party’s recognition. Barkha wonders why the story was dropped when there were no defamation suits involved.

She further reveals that NDTV had made her delete some parts of her interview with author Taslima Nasreen, who is known to be a vocal critic of Islam and also attacks the ‘liberal and secular’ community of India for their double standards.

She also answers her critics, who presumably asked why she was speaking so late. She claims that she has been speaking for long, even when she was at NDTV. She further claims that her ‘hacked emails’ can prove it. Perhaps Barkha is hinting at NDTV Twitter account hacks that had taken place last year, and the hacker group ‘Legion’ had claimed that they will put all the emails in public, though nothing like that happened.

However, arguably the biggest bomb Barkha drops on NDTV is her mention of Radia tapes controversy. She claims that NDTV had done no favours to her or defended her when she got huge lot of bad PR on social media and even on some mainstream media platforms after her conversation with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia were leaked.

She points out – and rightly so – that the fact that NDTV got loans after Niira Radia talked about helping NDTV founder Prannoy Roy has not been discussed as widely as her conversation with Radia.

For those who don’t know, leaked Radia tapes suggest that on 9th July 2009, Niira Radia had told a journalist named MK Venu – who incidentally is currently associated with the website The Wire, which originally tried to insinuate corruption by Amit Shah’s son – that “We need to support Prannoy”.

You can listen to the conversation below:


Within a couple of weeks of the above purported conversation where Radia tells Venu that Prannoy needs to be supported, NDTV is reported to have received Rs. 350 crore as loan by a company that was a Reliance subsidiary then. Was it mere a coincidence or NDTV was raising money through lobbyists is subject to probe.

Referring to this incident, Barkha wonders that if she could open herself to questions in a one-hour long TV show, why can’t NDTV promoters do the same? This is exactly what she writes:

“Secondly, while we are on the tapes how many people know that Ms Radia speaks on the tapes of helping NDTV owners – the nearly 400 crores loan came thereafter. The Caravan story on NDTV sought to credit / blame me for this loan when I argued that all I spoke to her about was a news story and I gained nothing more than information. Caravan was wrong: I knew nothing about that loan till much much later when news media reported it. And since I have never held a management position or a financial one ever, even while being a full time employee, I was never going to be made part of any such negotiation. So when we speak of the Radia issue, let’s also examine her role in the financial help she speaks of offering NDTV owners. Haven’t heard much debate on that have we? I wonder why.”

It will be interesting to see if Roys or NDTV will now react to this latest salvo by Barkha. And perhaps this also explains why Barkha Dutt was curiously silent when most of the celebrity journalists were screaming in support of NDTV when CBI raided Roys to probe about financial dealings of the company. She suspected some wrongdoings or found something amiss?

Are more skeletons waiting to tumble out of NDTV cupboard?

A year after students gheraoed JNU VC, JNU Teachers’ Association holds kangaroo court against him

Nirwa Mehta
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A year after students gheraoed JNU VC, JNU Teachers’ Association holds kangaroo court against him

In January 2016, IIT Delhi professor M Jagadesh Kumar was appointed as Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Now, less than 2 years later, the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has ordered a ‘public trial’ or ‘Jan Adalat’ against him.


The apparent disdain in JNU Students Union (JNUSU) General Secretary, Satarupa Chakraborty, is little baffling. What do they really have against him? Let us go through how last 22 months have been for Kumar.

Soon after his appointment, JNU campus erupted with the alleged anti-India slogans and pro Afzal Guru, the terrorist, slogans. The students showing solidarity with terrorist Afzal Guru had made their affiliations very clear by shouting ‘lal salaam‘, the slogan of Communist and Leftist parties. When JNU VC gave permission to police to enter the campus for investigation as per law of the land, teachers and students of JNU had protested the action.

Later that year, Kumar had also alleged that he was manhandled by students and teachers when he allegedly refused to discuss a matter that was not on the agenda. He also accused students and teachers of unruly behaviour and heckling him by forming human chain.

Last year after a student, Najeeb Ahmed, went missing from JNU campus, the students and teachers again resorted to violence as a means to protest. They gheraoed college and admin staff and the Vice Chancellor, Registrar and other senior officers were kept as hostage in the administrative building of the university.

In February this year, the students again misbehaved and illegally confided the Vice Chancellor to the admin block to oppose the implementation of the May 5, 2016 UGC notification. The JNU proctorial inquiry has recently sent notice to 15 students for the said protest which ‘disrupted the normal functioning’ of the university administration.

It is not that the students have misbehaved only against the VC. In January this year, the ugly face of the left was seen at JNU when students belonging to various left outfits forced the university administration to drop the name of a participant because he had ‘a BJP connection’.

In February this year, Professor Makarand R Paranjape, who has been teaching at the university for 16 years, was one of the professors who had to face the irrational protests. He was not allowed to go into his office. He took to Twitter to show how he was stopped from entering his office.


This year, when JNU celebrated Kargil Diwas, the Leftists were visibly unhappy as they boycotted the event and ridiculed the administration for the same.

The same Leftists had also demanded a ban on Baba Ramdev’s entry into the campus in December 2015, and had protested against the screening of the movie Buddha In A Traffic Jam that talks about ‘Urban Naxals’.

And now, JNU Teacher’s Association, which thinks they are above the law, wants to hold a kangaroo court, a ‘public inquiry’ against the VC charging him with “violations of statutory provisions and harassing teachers and students”. The teachers body, exercising its powers under the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) Constitution, set a three-day deadline for the Vice Chancellor to submit his defence and state if he would appear for hearings in person or through a representative. Earlier, it is also believed that JNUTA pulled their weight behind the Leftist professor Arshad Alam, accused of molestation.


Now, JNUTA is hosting a ‘Jan Adalat’ or a public hearing, against charges filed on the VC, which may be followed by public inquiry.


In an opinion piece written on JNUTA and students, JNU professor Dhananjay Singh, said,

By blackmailing the administration to toe their line or forcing the academic schools to shutdown or invading the administrative block, this small group of teachers and students are going against the very idea of the university they preach — free dialogue and tolerance of differences. When opposition to the administration becomes routine, mechanical and pedestrian, and originates from hatred, malice and prejudice, deliberation gives way to the bigotry of a few obscurantist academicians and students.

He says that the one extreme side is hell bent on on defying all rules and norms, suggesting that this frustration at the weakening of their position is making them disrespectful towards the administration.

In such a scenario, one would wonder if this is the case of personal vendetta against the Vice Chancellor. These incidents have got everyone asking what might be scaring the Leftists thus? It might be them losing their hold over student politics or that perhaps the Vice Chancellor refused to conform to standards set by the leftist students. Unanswered questions remain as JNU, once the bastion of quality education, continues its tailspin.

BSP leader Haji Iqbal asked to seek forgiveness of Allah for performing a Yajna

OpIndia Staff
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BSP leader Haji Iqbal asked to seek forgiveness of Allah for performing a Yajna

Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Legislative Council (MLC), Haji Iqbal seems to have become the latest citizen to have drawn the ire of Islamists.

As per media reports, some Muslim leaders have got miffed after he performed a Yajna at the Glocal University in Uttar Pradesh, which he owns. This Yajna was part of Dhanwantari Puja, which was performed at the university in Saharanpur district on 18th October.

Haji was reportedly present at the ceremony and the trouble started when its video started getting circulated on social media. It turns out that this Yajna was held at the University thanks to a directive by the Modi government, which required all Ayurvedic institutions to hold such a program.

Be that as it may, Haji drew the ire of Mufti Zulfikar, the state President of the All-India Imam Association. As per Zulfikar, it was un-Islamic on part of Haji to organise the Yajna and he should seek forgiveness from Allah. He also claimed that each religion has a certain code which should not be flouted.

Such an adverse reaction by Muslim hardliners when some members for their faith take part in Hindu customs, is nothing new.

We had recently reported that a Deoband Ulema had proclaimed that Muslim women who had performed Aarti of Lord Ram on Diwali eve, had ceased to be Muslims. It was later instructed that they re-read the Kalma to get readmitted into the faith. Now it seems that things have worsened for the women after it has been reported that their marriage too has been deemed annulled as a result of this act.

A similar fate had beckoned Bihar minister Khurshid Alam soon after he had publicly chanted “Jai Shri Ram” in Bihar assembly premises. After the news became popular, a mufti (cleric) named Suhail Ahmed of Imarat-e-Shariya, an influential Islamic organisation in Patna issued a fatwa expelling Alam from the Muslim community. Later Sajid Rashidi, the chief of All India Imam federation had claimed that an individual’s marriage gets annulled after being ostracised from Islam so Alam was advised to retake his wedding vows as soon as he was inducted into the Islamic faith again.

It remains to be seen if the Muslim community and the Indian society takes a stance again such decrees which clearly are providing a blow to the much publicised “composite culture” of the nation.

Why we still need to vote for Modi in 2019

Hariprasad N
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Why we still need to vote for Modi in 2019

The 2019 general elections are still a while away. But the talk of whom to vote has already started — at least on social media. And many who voted for Narendra Modi and the BJP in 2014 are starting to have doubts. The disappointment of Modi not having met expectations is leading some to get disillusioned and some others to get alarmed. Some have started to ponder about using the “NOTA” option. Few others are talking about staying away from it all completely.

What we do in 2019 must perhaps be the most through decision ever in the history of this country. Here is my take on the choices in front of us.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will pass an Education Tribunal Bill and convert our schools and colleges into legal battlegrounds — but because there is still hope that Modi is banking on obtaining a sustained majority from the current transient majority to amend the Constitution to grant equal Educational rights to all citizens.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will likely expand the scope of RTE to classes 8 to 12 or even higher — but because there is still hope that Modi will realize the criticality of the Education sector — and sack both — the RTE Act as well his General in charge of Education — and usher in reforms- while there is still time before the “IOI transformation project” is complete.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will renew its loot of our country’s vast natural resources and engage in open corruption — but because there is hope that the personal example of corruption-free governance that Modi has set 2014 onwards will trickle down the various layers of governance, resulting in a much less corrupt administration and much improved delivery.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime where International relations is treated with contempt where our foreign minister does not even know which country’s speech he is reading at the UN — but because there is hope that the personal relationship that Modi has built with various International leaders will go further and pay-off in terms of even better ties with various countries on issues such as defence, economic co-operation and cultural tie-ups.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will encourage free-loading culture amongst its citizens and pay them for doing nothing, or for doing nothing of value (like digging lake beds and refilling them again) — but because there is hope that the various genuine initiatives that Modi has taken, like MUDRA and Make-in-India, will take off leading to lakhs of new jobs and opportunities being created.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will enact the Communal Violence Bill and ensure complete polarization of our society on religious grounds — but because there is hope that Modi will realize that the real need of this nation is uniformity of law & equal treatment of all citizens and repeal communal bodies like the MoMA, NCM and NCMEI.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will sit back and smile when its cadres roam on the streets with the severed head of a cow in their hands — but because there is hope that Modi will complete the project of sealing off our porous international borders and end illegal cattle trading so our go-matas can be much more safer.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will run a parallel government through the high priests of the Judiciary systematically eliminating every one of our religious and cultural practices — but because there is hope that Modi will win the tug-of-war with the judiciary and restore the sanctity of the top most institutions of legislature, executive and judiciary as also their separation of powers.

We must vote Modi not just because we cannot afford to go back to a regime that will teach our kids the kind heartedness of Aurangzeb or the patriotism of Tipu — but because there is hope that Modi will encourage and strengthen the hands of more like Yogi Adityanath so that we move beyond celebrating laksha-deepotsavs to realizing our dream of a Rama Mandir at Ayodhya.

We must vote Modi not just because Rahul Gandhi is not a choice — but because there is still faith in Narendra Modi!

How Shashi Tharoor helped expose Congress’s hypocrisy on freedom of expression

OpIndia Staff
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How Shashi Tharoor helped expose Congress’s hypocrisy on freedom of expression

Freedom of expression in general terms means that every individual has a right to hold opinions without interference. This “interference” in most cases is either imposed by the state or is a form of a legal recourse taken up by aggrieved parties who have been at the receiving end of this “freedom of expression”.

This whole debate on Freedom of expression, was revived again recently after the release of Tamil movie, Mersal. This movie starring a certain Actor named Joseph Vijay instantly became controversial.

As per reports, the BJP was miffed with the movie’s portrayal of schemes like GST, Digital India etc, hence wanted a few scenes removed from the movie. The party also alleged that the movie had got some basic facts wrong about these schemes. Apart from the BJP, the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association had accused the movie of portraying doctors in a bad light.

While the BJP was in the process of trying to discredit the movie, the Congress party decided to take political advantage of the situation by taking the moral high ground when it comes to freedom of expression.

First Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi came out to ask that no interference be made in Mersal. Inspired by that, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took things further and claimed that Congress stands for freedom of expression, whether in power or not:


Tharoor as a result, set himself and the Congress up for a spectacular self goal. Soon, scientist and political commentator Anand Ranganathan came out with an idea to list out the various staggering violations of “freedom of expression” which have taken place while the Congress was in power and in most cases, have been imposed consciously by the Congress itself for various reasons including muzzling criticism of the party, its leaders and its policies. He was later also helped by various twitter users. Here are a few such instances:

  • All began when India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to move the 1st amendment to the Indian constitution in 1951, which as per clause 2 of article 19, imposed “reasonable restrictions” on free speech on grounds like – in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court or in relation to incitement of an offence. As pointed out in this article, these grounds are pretty broad and limit this freedom of expression substantially.
  • This lack of freedom of expression was also visible when poet and lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested and spent a year in jail for writing a poem critical Nehru.
  • The Indira Gandhi government after imposing Emergency in 1975 imposed censorship of press during that period.
  • This emergency period also saw movies like Aandhi getting banned and all the prints of a satirical movie “Kissa Kursi Ka” were burned by Samjay Gandhi’s goons.
  • Even songs of legendary singer Kishore Kumar were banned from Doordarshan and All India Radio as he had refused to perform during a Congress rally.
  • Rajiv Gandhi also had a penchant for brutally muzzling ‘Freedom of Expression. He banned the import of Salman Rushdie’s book Satanic Verses.
  • Rajiv Gandhi also reportedly sought to enact a Postal Bill which would have allowed for the interception and censorship of letters. Later President Zail Singh refused to sign the bill into a law.
  • Such regulations against freedom of expression by the Congress have also been seen in this millennium. In 2012 the UPA government blocked access to Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons and also blocked access to an anti-Islam film.
  • Kapil Sibal the former IT minister was also seen openly calling for a ban on “hateful content” generating on websites.
  • This stifling of freedom of expression has also been seen in Congress ruled states. In Karnataka people were arrested for defaming Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, for creating his fake twitter handle and for allegedly posting derogatory comments about Tipu Sultan.
  • Even a out of power Congress party has seen intimidating filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar for making a movie named Indu Sarkar based on Emergency. This intimidation included Congress hooligans disrupting his movie’s screening and he as a result later called out Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy on the subject of freedom of expression.

It would be rather amusing, if the Congress Party’s grandstanding wasn’t so tragic. One wonders if Congress fashions its campaigns upon the assumption that the collective IQ of the citizenry is rather low and perhaps their memory extremely short lived. Twitter however, reminded the ‘Grand Old Party’ that before they attempt to educate people with their #KnowYourLegacy campaign, the party and its leaders need to remind themselves of their violent and abysmal tryst with the constitutional principle of freedom of expression.

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