On 24 January, strong tremors shook up the Delhi NCR in the afternoon. The magnitude of the tremors is yet to be known. However, several social media users shared videos of curtains, fans and furniture shaking inside their high-rise apartments.
Strong tremors have been reported from Noida too.
Some media reports mentioned that similar tremors were felt in Uttarakhand too. No injuries or damages have been reported yet. More details are awaited.
It is notable here that the lower Himalayas region is unstable and tremors are reported frequently. However, in recent months, Delhi has been experiencing frequent low-magnitude tremors too.
In less than a month, Australia has seen three separate anti-Hindu attacks on Temples initiated by pro-Khalistani elements living in the country. The latest attack happened on January 23 at the Hare Krishna Temple located at Albert Park in Melbourne city of Australia. The temple served as the centre of the Bhakti Yoga movement in Melbourne and is run by the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
As per reports, temple walls were defaced with anti-India slogans of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ and ‘Hindustan Murdabad.’ The miscreants had also hailed slain Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a martyr.
Earlier, on January 17, Khalistani supporters vandalised the historic Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple in Carrum Downs in Melbourne. During the vandalisation, the miscreants wrote anti-Hindu and anti-India slogans on the walls near the temple.
On January 12, BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple in Melbourne, Australia, was trashed by Khalistan supporters and damaged by painting anti-India graffiti on it. According to the reports, the walls of Melbourne’s iconic Swaminarayan temple in Mill Park’s northern suburbs were spray-painted with ‘Hindustan Murdabad’ slogans.
In less than a month, three attacks on Hindu temples by Khalistani sympathisers is enough to raise alarms, especially when the so-called Referendum 2020 voting is scheduled for Melbourne on January 29. Sikhs For Justice, the Khalistani terrorist organisation banned by the Indian Government in 2019 under UAPA, is conducting the so-called voting demanding a separate nation named Khalistan. A demand that the Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale raised.
The khalistani movement that paced up in the late 1970s and early 1980s spread like wildfire in Punjab, and it took authorities around two decades to eradicate the movement from Punjab’s soil. Unfortunately, those who sympathised with Khalistanis are now reigniting the movement. Furthermore, Khalistani terrorists who fled India went to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia, among other countries and continued their operations.
While Khalistani sympathisers in Canada, including those in the government there, have not quite shied away from extending support to break India forces, the ones who had moved to Australia had not been this anti-Hindu and anti-India. However, in the last two years, the rise of incidents against the Hindu community involving Khalistani elements concerns India. The Indian authorities reportedly warned the Australian authorities to be vigilant of such elements recently.
The Khalistani movement in Australia
There have been reports of Khalistani elements rising in Australia but failing to gain support like in Canada. However, the incidents will rise as three Hindu temples have already been attacked in Australia, and 2023 has just started. Apart from the attacks on temples, here are some examples that point towards the uprising of Khalistani elements in Australia.
On January 4, it was reported that Khalistani posters were seen outside Plumpton Gurudwara. The poster included photographs of the killers of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. The poster read, “The Last Battle. Khalistan Referendum. Voting January 29, Melbourne”.
On December 11, 2022, OpIndia reported Khalistani elements blamed Brahmins for the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide that took place after the assassination of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi. Notably, it is a well-known fact that the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 were politically motivated and perpetrated by Congress leaders to avenge Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her two former Sikh bodyguards. Despite no religious motive behind the riots, Khalistani sympathisers have blamed Hindus.
Several images surfaced on social media in which a large poster has been seen placed on a trolly. On the poster, it was written that ’60 Sikhs, indigenous people burnt alive by Brahmin-Hindu mobs’. As seen in the viral photo, several Sikh people were seen near the poster, which shows India’s map with ‘Hondh Chillar’ and the 1984 Sikh Riots written on it. Hondh Chillar here refers to the massacre of Sikhs in Hondh Chillar village during the 1984 riots.
In July 2022, Australia Today reported that an Australian Defence Force spokesperson, while addressing the media, said that they had identified an internal process issue after Khalistani posters were seen at the Australian Defence Force marquee at the Griffith Sikh Games. ADF said, “While the attendance of the ADF personnel at this event was well-intentioned, it has identified some internal process issues around attendance at community events and a requirement for further awareness training, both of which are being addressed.”
In February 2022, it was reported that four Victorian Gurudwaras, including Plumpton Gurudwara, planned and executed an event to commemorate pro-Khalistani actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu. As per reports, on the evening of Friday, February 18, 2022, representatives of the management committees of Tarneit, Miri Piri Deanside, and Plumpton Gurudwaras, as well as several Khalistani activists, met for several hours at Tarneit Gurdwara to finalise plans for the event. It was decided at this meeting that the car rally taken out in memory of Deep Sidhu would end at Craigieburn.
Pro-Khalistan Australians propagating the Khalistani movement
On November 19 last year year, a Nagar Kirtan (also called Humanity walk) organised by the Indian-Australian community in Victoria’s capital Melbourne was ‘hijacked’ by Khalistani supporters. Now, it has emerged that a member of the Australian Labor Party, the ruling party at the national level and in Victoria, was behind this.
According to The Australia Today, those who hijacked the Nagar Kirtan that day were no ordinary men but members of the banned terror outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
Many of them had flown in from the United States and Canada to participate in the event and run the ‘Khalistan referendum’ programme. Sikhs for Justice was banned by the Indian Government on July 10, 2019, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for anti-India activities on July 10, 2019.
The clash between pro-India and pro-Khalistan
Furthermore, several clashes between pro-India and pro-Khalistani groups in Australia have been reported from time to time. In 2021, following a similar clash, a Hindu man from Haryana, identified as Vishal Jood, was jailed in Australia for beating up Khalistani supporters. Vishal pleaded guilty to three minor charges of altercations that happened between September 16, 2020, and February 14, 2021. During the final hearing, Vishal’s lawyer presented video evidence proving that Jood was provoked by a group of Khalistanis, which led to the altercation. For the charges he pleaded guilty to, Jood was sentenced to six months in Jail starting from the day of his arrest, April 16, 2021. He was released on October 15.
What is Referendum 2020?
Referendum 2020 is anti-India propaganda being run by the Khalistani organisation Sikhs For Justice. Its founder and deemed a terrorist by the Indian Government, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the country. Those attacks include an RPG attack on the Punjab Intelligence Office, defacing walls of government buildings with Khalistani slogans, raising Khalistani flags on government buildings, hoisting the alien flag on Red Fort on January 26, 2021, and others.
Under the banner of Referendum 2020, SFJ is conducting so-called voting seeking support for the creation of a separate nation named Khalistan.
The Khalistani movement is no longer fringe in Australia and is slowly on its path to becoming mainstream.
Amidst the ongoing controversy over the recently released BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CPIM’s Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has vowed to screen the ‘India: The Modi Question’ at 200 venues in Kerala on January 24 and January 25.
As per reports, the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) informed that it will screen the anti-Modi propaganda at Poojappura on Tuesday (January 24) at 6 pm.
DFYI state president VK Sanoj remarked, “Let people see the fascist face of the Sangh Parivar outfits. We will go ahead with the plan and more screenings will be done at other places also in the coming days.”
Reportedly, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) will also hold the screening of the documentary on the Mangattuparamba campus of Kannur university at 2 pm. It will also follow suit at Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kochi and Government Law College Ernakulam.
Meanwhile, the Youth Congress has also vowed to follow in the footsteps of DYFI and SFI. Youth Congress (Kerala) president Shafi Parambil remarked, “Historical facts have always remained on the hostile side for Modi and Sangh Parivar. The reminders of betrayal, apology and genocide cannot be hidden using power.”
The BJP has hit out at the incumbent Kerala government and asked it to stop the screening of the BBC documentary. Union Minister V Muraleedharan said, “The documentary’s screening should not be allowed at all. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should intervene in the matter immediately.”
On Monday (January 23), the Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) and Muslim Student Federation organised the screening of the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside the Hyderabad Central University. More than 50 students from these groups attended the screening.
The Background of the BBC controversy
Recently, BBC aired a two-part documentary attacking PM Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. India has denounced the controversial program as a “propaganda piece” that is designed to push a discredited narrative.
One of the nefarious objectives behind the documentary was to whitewash the role of Islamists in the Godhra train carnage, which claimed a total of 59 Hindu lives.
It further used the already discredited statements of Sanjiv Bhatt and RB Sreekumar to attack the Indian Prime Minister. BBC even used the claims of Babu Bajrangi and Haresh Bhatt, who have admitted that they were reading the script given by a journalist, to try and declare PM Modi guilty.
In 2015, when the BJP was in power in Chhattisgarh and Dr Raman Singh was the Chief Minister, Congress had alleged that the government was distributing sub-standard quality grains under the PDS and that officials had received kickbacks from rice millers to allow this. The Nagrik Apurti Nigam is the nodal agency in Chhattisgarh responsible for procuring and distributing food grains under PDS. The BJP government had launched a probe into what came to be known as the NAN scam and subsequently, 27 people were booked by the BJP govt – Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla being the prime accused. ACB later started a money laundering probe as well and a chargesheet was filed in 2015. After this, Congress came to power in Chhattisgarh.
What transpired in Chhattisgarh after the Bhupesh Baghel government took reign was corruption with impunity, a coordinated campaign to save the primary accused, Anil Tuteja, in the NAN scam and an attempt to use IPS officers, the Judiciary and other means at the government’s disposal to Ex-Chief Minister, Raman Singh and his family members, former Principle Secretary Aman Singh and his wife Yasmeen Singh, Former DG (Police) Mukesh Gupta, Ashok Chaturvedi and Chintamani Chandrakar, using fabricated evidence, coercion of witnesses and other extra-judicial means. After Bhupesh Baghel took the reigns, an SIT was formed to probe the scam because the prime accused, Anil Tuteja, had alleged that the investigation was unfair.
Since then, various pieces of evidence have come to the fore, proving that Bhupesh Baghel was personally shielding the prime accused, Anil Tuteja, and was instead trying to implicate Raman Singh in the scam. In 2020, Tuteja got bail and immediately, he was appointed by the Baghel govt again. Tuteja was the Joint Secretary for Commerce and Industries and Shukla became the Principal Secretary in charge of Education and other departments.
OpIndia has accessed Whatsapp chats of Anil Tuteja-IAS Officer, presently Joint Secretary Industries and his Son Yash Tuteja, which was retrieved by Income Tax consequent to its raids conducted in Chhattisgarh, wherein his mobile phone was seized in February 2020. These Whatsapp chats now in possession of OpIndia contain the messages exchanged between the Tutejas and senior IPS officers in the State namely, SRP Kalluri, Kalyan Elesela, G.P Singh and Arif Sheikh. The chats clearly demonstrate that the entire criminal justice delivery system in the State is being abused, misused and mutilated at the behest of Anil Tuteja and his son Yash Tuteja. A detailed story about what the chats entailed was published by OpIndia on the 18th of January 2023. The story can be read here.
The Enforcement Directorate in 2020 had filed a Special Leave Application in the Supreme Court of India against the anticipatory bail granted to Anil Tuteja. In the SLP, the ED spoke at length about the WhatsApp conversations that the Income Tax Department had accessed, most of which have been submitted to the court in a sealed envelope and some others have been accessed by OpIndia. The ED told SC that both the main accused, Tuteja and Shukla, in connivance with successive chiefs of EOW-ACB, Chhattisgarh, one senior High Court officer, members of the SIT and with the “intervention of the Chief Minister” has “weakened the offence of corruption against them by procuring favourable reports from the said prosecuting agency and SIT by actively influencing and threatening witnesses of the predicate offences as well as the offences of money laundering.
G.P Singh, the ADG who succeeded SRP Kaluri as head of EOW/ACB, who was also colluding with Tuteja and Shukla at the behest of CM Bhupesh Baghel, approached the Supreme Court of India on the 22nd of December 2022, detailing how he was pressurised by Bhupesh Baghel to implicate Raman Singh, Mukesh Gupta, Aman Singh and several others in the NAN scam, save Anil Tuteja in the scam and also report the investigation details to Tuteja.
GP Singh in his petition says that he was called to meet Bhupesh Baghel twice, once on the 14th of September 2019 and once on the 10th of May 2020. In both these meetings, he was specifically asked to implicate Baghel’s political opponents and was threatened with consequences if he failed. He also mentioned that he was handed a “hit list” by Bhupesh Baghel himself, and that hit list was attached as an annexure to his petition.
Hitlist provided by Bhupesh Baghel to GP Singh
While the chats that OpIndia accessed and reported on earlier itself reveal the conspiracy, substantiating the ‘hit list’ that GP Singh had attached in his petition, OpIndia has now perused more evidence of the collusion and subversion of the criminal justice system that was underway in Chhattisgarh. In the chats that OpIndia had accessed, there were several documents that were exchanged between the IPS officers and Anil Tuteja. Those attachments and some other documents that were recovered from Tuteja’s phone further substantiate the ‘hit list’ that GP Singh was handed by Bhupesh Baghel.
How the accused and his son (Anil Tuteja and Yash Tuteja) were writing the Status Report that EOW was supposed to submit to HC against them
In the Whatsapp chat that OpIndia accessed, one chat, in particular, caught our attention. On the 16th of February 2019, Yash Tuteja (Anil Tuteja’s son) sent a message to IPS officer Kalyan Elesela, SP of EOW (the department that was meant to investigate Anil Tuteja in the NAN scam).
In the message, Yash Tuteja was seen sharing the draft of the Status Report (that EOW was to file to the High Court, after investigation Anil Tuteja in the NAN scam) with Kalyan Elesela.
Chat between Yash Tuteja and Kalyan Elesela
It is imperitive to break down the message sent by Yash Tuteja to understand what was happening at the time. In the message, Yash starts with “As discussed in the conference, please note the following sequence for the status report” and after writing the draft of the Status Report, he signs off using the name of “Dayan Krishnan, Senior Advocate”.
Essentially, there was a conference call where one can assume from the chats that at least the Tutejas, Dayan Krishnan and Kalyan Elesela were present, discussing the status report that EOW was to file to the High Court. Dayan Krishnan is a senior High Court lawyer who was representing the ACB-EOW in the NAN scam on behalf of the Chhattisgarh government (Bhupesh Baghel).
After the conference call, Dayan Krishnan, representing the department meant to investigate Anil Tuteja, shares a draft of the Status Report to be filed in the High Court with Yash Tuteja. We can assume this based on the fact that Yash Tuteja shares an edited draft with Kalyan signed off as Dayan Krishnan. Since we don’t have access to all the chats, at this point, this can only be an educated guess. Yash Tuteja then makes amendments to the draft and sends it to Kalyan – the SP of EOW – as the report to be filed in the High Court. One, therefore, has to ask the question of whether the lawyer representing ACB was first sharing the draft with the prime accused in the NAN scam (not the department), who was, in turn, making amendments and sharing the edited draft with the SP of the EOW, which was meant to be investigating him.
The fact that it was Yash Tuteja’s draft of the Status Report that was being used by the EOW-ACB is further substantiated by the fact that a day later, on the 17th of February 2019, Kalyan Elesela sent an update Status Report draft with Yash Tuteja over Whatsapp chat (the chats accessed by OpIndia).
Chat between Tuteja and Kalya Elesela
From the documents that are now in the possession of OpIndia that have been recovered from Anil Tuteja’s phone, the document exchanged here bearing the document number 73ea6827-acf0-4712-9ba0-cc37cd5f757c is the final Status Report draft that Elesela shared with Yash Tuteja, which Yash Tuteja, in turn, shared with Anil Tuteja (since the same document was retrieved with Anil Tuteja’s phone).
Status Report final draft shared by SP EOW to Yash Tuteja
Interestingly, one of the documents that were recovered from Anil Tuteja’s phone, some of which OpIndia has access to, is a list of “tasks” that are to be accomplished.
This document was shared with Anil Tuteja on the 21st of February 2019. OpIndia cannot confirm who shared this document with Tuteja since this was recovered from his phone but don’t make an appearance in the WhatsApp chats itself.
Document recovered from Anil Tuteja’s phone
From this ‘task’ list in the NAN case itself, it is evident that the hitlist which was given to GP Singh is indeed authentic and there was active collusion to implicate Mukesh Gupta, Aman Singh, Raman Singh and others in the NAN scam. In the ‘tasks to accomplish’, there are certain key tasks that stand out.
File chargesheet against Mukesh Gupta
Proper reply in Aman Singh’s case was to be drafted – which was listed for hearing on the 27th of February 2019.
This ‘task’ list proves that there was indeed a concerted effort by government officials along with the accused in the NAN scam, Anil Tuteja, to implicate the people mentioned in GP Singh’s ‘hitlist’, which was given to him by Bhupesh Baghel himself, according to his court submission.
If one notices, one of the ‘tasks’ to be accomplished is ‘getting approval from the Law Department to appoint Dayan Krishnan as the lawyer to defend ACB in the court of law. If one recalls, there was a substantial uproar in the parliament about Bhupesh Baghel hiring a private lawyer like Dayan Krishnan to save Anil Tuteja. It was revealed at the time that Krishnan was paid Rs 80 lakhs for his stint. The chats have now demonstrated that Dayan Krishnan was indeed working in collusion with Anil Tuteja while representing the ACB-EOW in the NAN scam case.
In fact, another document that was recovered from the phone of Anil Tuteja was an internal government document that confirmed the hiring of Dayan Krishnan as the ACB lawyer.
Document recovered from Anil Tuteja’s phone
There are several important aspects that emerge from these revelations and documents found on Anil Tuteja’s phone by the Income Tax department, that OpIndia has access to and is perusing:
The SIT constituted by Bhupesh Baghel under the ACB-EOW was meant to investigate the role of Anil Tuteja and Alok Shukla in the NAN scam. Why was the SP of EOW and other officials of ACB-EOW sharing the developments of the case with the prime accused himself? GP Singh has revealed that he was specifically instructed by Bhupesh Baghel to share the investigation progress with Anil Tuteja.
Dayan Krishnan is a senior lawyer engaged by the Bhupesh Baghel government to represent ACB – the department meant to investigate the role of Anil Tuteja in the NAN scam. Was Dayan Krishnan sharing the draft of the Status Report of the investigation, that ACB was supposed to file in the High Court against Anil Tuteja, with Yash Tuteja, Anil Tuteja’s son?
After Dayan Krishnan presumably shared the draft with Yash Tuteja, Yash made edits to the Status Report and sent the same to Kalyan Elesela – the SP of EOW, who in turn, presumably shared it with Dayan Krishnan (since the filing was to be done by the lawyer). Was Dayan Krishnan also instructed by Bhupesh Baghel to work in tandem with Anil Tuteja to save him while the SIT weakened the investigation?
The government document confirming the engagement of Dayan Krishnan was also recovered from the phone of Anil Tuteja – Was Dayan Krishnan, representing the ACB, actually on the payroll of Anil Tuteja, the prime accused that ACB was meant to be investigating?
Why was a “task list” which specifically mentioned the hiring of Dayan Krishnan shared with Anil Tuteja? Was Dayan Krishnan hired because he was willing to do the bidding of Anil Tuteja while representing the ACB?
To further substantiate that Dayan Krishnan, may have been hired to do the bidding of Anil Tuteja, another chat that gains importance is one where Kalyan Elesela was sending a copy of Dayan Krishnan’s air tickets to Yash Tuteja on the 18th of February 2019 – only a day after the final draft of the Status Report was shared (as explained above).
Chat between Kalyan Elesela and Tuteja
It, therefore, also becomes important to investigate why even the air tickets of the lawyer of ACB, were being sent by the SP of EOW to the prime accused who they were supposed to investigate.
From this part of the investigation by OpIndia, certain conclusions can be drawn with a fair amount of certainty:
The hitlist that GP Singh claimed was given to him by Bhupesh Baghel is indeed authentic as several other chats and documents, as explained in this article, prove that the ACB, EOW, their lawyer and IPS officers of the state were colluding with Anil Tuteja to implicate the protagonists mentioned in the hit-list (Mukesh Gupta, Alok Shukla and others).
Raman Singh had insinuated that the lawyer of the ACB was hired at the behest of Anil Tuteja since he was willing to do his bidding and save him in the investigation – this could be the case given the revelations in this article.
The entire investigation in the NAN scam, which was meant to investigate the role of Anil Tuteja, was being done at the behest of Tuteja himself.
The SIT that Bhupesh Baghel formed was done to save Anil Tuteja and weaken the investigation in cohorts with Anil Tuteja after he was charge sheeted as the prime accused under the Raman Singh government in 2018.
The High Court was wilfully misled by the Bhupesh Baghel government when a sham Status Report was filed by the ACB which was drafted and edited by the accused himself. The question also is whether Dayan Krishnan was a willful participant in the sham.
It is hard to believe that a senior lawyer like Krishnan was unaware of the collusion that was taking place between ACB/EOW and Tuteja. If he was indeed in the know, should he also be held liable for misleading the court.
While the NAN scam is elaborate, what is far more elaborate is the extent to which the Bhupesh Baghel administration seems to have gone to not only save the prime accused but also to implicate Raman Singh and others in the scam. As OpIndia said earlier, the NAN scam is one case that shows the extent of the rot that a system has been made to suffer – with police officers, IAS officers, judges and politicians fabricating evidence, weakening a case of corruption under investigation, coercing witnesses, threatening witnesses, shielding accused, perpetuating hawala transactions and more. As we keep peeling back the layers of this scam and delving more into the chats that OpIndia has accessed, we will continue to pose follow-up questions to CM Bhupesh Baghel in our ‘The Chhattisgarh Files’ series.
In public interest, we have made public all the Whatsapp chats, attachment files and other files that were recovered from Anil Tuteja’s phone by the Income Tax Department. The portions of the chats that OpIndia has accessed are the parts that have not been submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope by the ED. The full chats and files can be accessed here – https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KqlOtQ-1ty2eyghcUlg0FJ8rmkGYBpqm?usp=sharing
The BBC documentary dispute has heated up, with a complaint filed against the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) for displaying the forbidden documentary on campus. This comes a day after the JNU administration requested students to cancel the controversial BBC docuseries on the 2002 Gujarat riots, which was due to be shown on campus on January 24.
According to the reports, the complaint was filed against the JNUSU and other organizers intending to show the illegal documentary on campus. The complaint was filed by Vineet Jindal, an advocate, and social activist at the Vasant Kunj police station on Tuesday morning. The documentary series titled ‘India: The Modi Question’ has sparked widespread outrage in India. The said documentary series has also been labelled a propaganda work by the Union administration.
Jindal said in his lawsuit that the documentary’s primary objective is to sow discord in the country and discredit Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As the documentary has been banned by the central government, anyone organizing its screening has the same goal of causing religious separation and inciting hatred, the complaint read.
He further stated that, while the JNU administration has denied permission, certain students and organizers are still planning to show the documentary. As a result, the screening should be cancelled, and legal action should be taken against the organizers.
JNU asks to cancel the screening of the documentary “India: The Modi Question” scheduled for 24th Jan by a group of students stating that “such an unauthorised activity may disturb peace & harmony in the University.”. pic.twitter.com/yQwDah9xx7
“We all know about the documentary has already been banned in India but even after this basic purpose of making this documentary sheer agenda is to create and disrupt harmony between the communities as well as bring disgrace to the highest leader of the world Narendra Modi. Now, after the movie getting banned in India, there are a few people involved in Anti-national and anti-social activities, including some people in JNU who are supporting these kinds of acts which are against the law”, Jindal said.
“Although the JNU administration has instructed through an advisory to stop the screening, they are planning to do it today evening. In a bid to stop the screening, I have filed a complaint at the Vasant Kunj police station and requested them to initiate legal action against the people and organizers involved. The movie should be banned and the concerned person should be taken into custody”, he added.
Earlier, Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) & Muslim Student Federation known as the Fraternity group at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) had organized a screening of the BBC documentary inside the campus on Monday. More than 50 students from these groups attended the screening.
Also, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, has announced that they will screen the controversial documentary on Tuesday evening in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram despite stiff opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Last week, India denounced the controversial BBC documentary series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, described as a ‘propaganda piece’ designed to push a discredited narrative. “We think this is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity, and frankly continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during a weekly media briefing.
The MEA spokesperson added that the documentary is a reflection of individuals that are peddling this narrative again.
After accusing actor Nora Fatehi of brainwashing him against his girlfriend Jacqueline Fernandez, conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar has claimed that he paid a huge amount for Nora’s house in Morocco. This declaration from Sukesh comes after Nora Fatehi claimed that Sukesh offered her a large house and a wealthy lifestyle if she became his girlfriend.
In a recent statement to the media, Sukesh said, “Today she (Nora) talks about me promising her a house, but she already has taken a large amount from me to purchase a house for her family in Casablanca, Morocco. All these new stories are crafted by her to escape the law after the ED statement 9 months ago given by her.”
Sukesh also claimed to have given a car to Nora Fatehi. Sukesh Chandrasekhar said that he planned to gift her a Range Rover but she needed a car urgently, so he gave her a BMW S series and she asked him to register the car in the name of her best friend’s husband Bobby.
“Nora claims that she did not want a car, or she did not take it for herself, it is a very big lie, as she was after my life that her car had to be changed. As the ‘CLA’ that she had looked very cheap, so then I gave her the selected car, and the chats and screenshots are very well with the ED, so there is no lie at all. In fact, I wanted to give her a Range Rover, but as the car was not available in stock, I gave her the BMW S series, which she kept using for a long time. As she was a non-Indian, she asked me to register it in the name of her best friend’s husband Bobby’s name. I and Nora never had a professional transaction, as she is claiming except for once when she attended an event hosted by my foundation, for which official payment was made to her agency,” Sukesh Chandrasekhar said.
Notably, prior to this, Sukesh Chandrasekhar on Saturday, January 21 claimed that Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi has always been jealous of his girlfriend Jacqueline Fernandez.
Sukesh, in a press statement issued through his lawyers Anant Malik and AK Singh, stated that Nora Fatehi always brainwashed him against Jacqueline, so she wanted him to leave Jacqueline and start dating her.
It is notable that both actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi received expensive gifts from Sukesh Chandrasekhar. While Jacqueline was made an accused in the case by ED, Nora was made a witness in the Rs 200 crore money laundering case in December last year.
Pakistan’s economy has hit rock bottom, leaving its citizens struggling to meet basic needs such as food and energy. After videos and images of Pakistanis going to extreme lengths for 1 kg of flour went viral on social media, the people of Pakistan have turned to Twitter to voice their woes as a nationwide power outage left almost all regions without electricity on Monday.
Power failed across Pakistan on Monday (January 23) morning after a breakdown in its national grid. Power was out in all major cities including Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar.
According to a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy, the national grid’s frequency fell at about 7:34 am, causing a “widespread disruption” in the energy system.
ابتدائی اطلاعات کے مطابق آج صبح 7:34 پر نیشنل گرڈ کی سسٹم فریکوئنسی کم ہوئ جس سے بجلی کے نظام میں وسیع بریک ڈاؤن ہوا سسٹم کی بحالی پر کام تیزی سےجاری ہے
According to local officials, the outage began in southern Sindh Province due to an unexpected power fluctuation. According to Khurram Dastgir Khan, the energy minister, this caused a chain reaction of failures at power plants around the country.
The disruption affected over 117 grid stations in Islamabad. The Islamabad Electric Supply Company’s spokesperson stated that electricity was being restored in a phased manner.
As the country plunged into darkness, Pakistanis resorted to Twitter to vent their frustrations. With no sign of relief in sight, Pakistani users began using the hashtag #ElectricityShutDown to share their misery in their own country. ‘Welcome to Purana Pakistan’ also started trending on Twitter.
One Twitter user Abdul Latif Mehsood shared an image of how he lit the tail lamp of his bike to lighten his otherwise pitch-dark residence due to the power outage in Pakistan.
People in Pakistan shared videos of how the power outage was affecting daily lives. Orange train service has stopped, trains halted at places in Beach track, and passengers were trapped inside the train, a Twitter user claimed. Another video showed people walking on the track on foot.
As large swathes of the country continued to face power cuts, several other Pakistani social media users took to Twitter to vent out their frustration, cloaked in humour.
Many Pakistani Netizens posted funny memes with the ‘Welcome Back to Purana Pakistan’ jibe, which Pakistan opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto used after Imran Khan’s removal as Prime Minister after losing the no-trust vote in 2022, to get through the blackout.
No light. No charge. No UPS. No water. No WiFi Welcome to Purana Pakistan
Some irate users also shared videos of how Pakistan slipped into an acute crisis with frustrated citizens killing each other for basic needs such as food and energy.
A shopkeeper was shot dead in Karachi by 2 men who tried to loot food grains from his shop. Heavy shortage of Food & Water amid #ElectricityShutDown reported in all major cities of Pakistan. People have started killing each other due to starvation. The administration has Failed. pic.twitter.com/GcTDSmFfiL
During the power outage, videos illustrating Pakistan’s perilous status flooded Twitter with citizens opining that the country is on the verge of civil war.
I don’t want to sound pessimistic but sir sarim is telling the truth. Leave Pakistan if you can. This country is going down and you won’t have the guts to survive breakdown of law and order, civil war and anarchy. Leave and take your family out of here as well asap. https://t.co/OyAYxc2kbu
Now civil war will begin. Until pppl all over pakistan stay on road until free happen elections until then. No petrol,food,light,water,job,money in coming days
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari slammed the government, saying that the “incompetent cabal of crooks” was bringing the country down.
Major power breakdown in Federal Capital since early morning but am told it may be far beyond just Islamabad. Anyone know the situation? Incompetent cabal of crooks bringing the country down while they save their looted wealth abroad! This is what Conspirators wanted?
Undoubtedly, Pakistan has been experiencing its worst economic crisis amidst food shortages, flash floods, and poverty. According to the State Bank, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves last week dropped to $4.3 billion, the lowest level since February 2014.
A cash-strapped and desperate Pakistan in a bid to revive the long-awaited International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme has agreed to accept all the conditions laid down by the IMF. Islamabad has also requested the IMF to send its mission to conclude the USD 6 Billion bailout programme which was initially agreed upon in 2019. It is, however, highly unlikely that the IMF would release the funds, at least not till the Pakistani government fulfils its pledges.
Other than this, Pakistan, which was declared South Asia’s weakest economy by a report is also hit by a severe food crisis. The situation in several cities of Pakistan is so dire that flour is being rationed and guarded by armed guards. Prices of flour and wheat have witnessed a dramatic surge.
The desperate situation has triggered chaos and some clashes among people were also seen in various parts of the country in the past few days.
Now this massive power outage, which has affected all major cities including Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar, has only exacerbated the country’s existing problems.
On January 23, Supreme Court advocate Vineet Jindal filed a complaint with Delhi police against an unknown person linked to the Khalistani terrorist organisation Sikhs For Justice for giving life threats on calls and WhatsApp. Adv Jindal recently filed a complaint against SFJ for propagating the Khalistani movement in India and threatening terrorist activities on Republic Day.
देश व धर्म के लिए बोलने पर मुझे कल एक खलिस्तानी इंटरनेशनल आतंकी संगठन से धमकी मिली है।पुलिस ने आतंकी संगठन के ख़िलाफ़ FIR दर्ज की कर ली है सुरक्षा का वादा भी किया है।@HMOIndia@BhallaAjay26@CPDelhi
The FIR was registered under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on Jindal’s complaint. In his complaint, Jindal said that he had received death threats from terrorist organisations, including Babbar Khalsa, Sikhs For Justice and Islamic terrorists as well.
Source: Adv Vineet Jindal
On January 21, Vineet Jindal received death threats from two international numbers +61474268548 and +15105841217. Later, he also received a death threat in messages on WhatsApp from +61474268645. In the message, there was a video message from Khalistani supporters who burnt an effigy. There was a message with images of the gun firing at a mat.
The messages came on January 21 at 9:35 PM and 11:03 PM. The next day, he received a call from+15105841217 at 10:07 AM, in which the caller introduced himself as a member of Sikhs For Justice. He said they would kill him and his family. They also threatened to harm his children. Jindal noted in the complaint that the person threatened that he would face the consequences by January 24.
Notably, Jindal received photographs of hand grenades in his Twitter DM on December 14 last year. Subsequently, a complaint was filed by him in the matter. He said, “After the above-said threat, two terrorists were arrested with hand grenades from a very near place to my residence.” He urged police to file FIR against SFJ for threatening to kill him and his family. He also urged the police to provide security to him and his family.
Muslim students groups and political groups are screening the BBC propaganda documentary on PM Modi to insinuate that he, as a head of the state, let the riots, which took place after Muslim mob burned down a train killing 59 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, happen. This is happening at universities, some funded by the Central Government.
The documentary by the British state-funded broadcaster is an attempt to make PM Modi appear ‘anti-Muslim’ ahead of the 2024 general elections. As usual, the same is being used by opposition leaders in India. It is almost as if they have accepted that they could not defeat Modi on their own and would rather have foreign intervention coupled with ‘dara hua Musalman’ narrative to try and defeat him in 2024.
However, there is more than the politics behind this propaganda that should worry us. The radicalisation of Muslim youths. The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), members of whom have been involved in mobilising mobs for the anti-CAA protests that eventually led to anti-Hindu riots in Delhi in February 2020, were found screening the documentary at the Hyderabad Central University. Asif Tanha, one of the members of SIO, was booked for violence in Delhi.
The SIO was founded by Jamaat-e-Islami in 1982 after the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) broke away from it in 1981. A Livemint report from 2008 puts the relationship between the two organizations in this manner, “Blood brothers they may be, but the groups have charted conflicting courses, both in principle and actions. While SIMI is largely underground after the government crackdown, SIO is a gradually swelling student revolution in the making, taking Islam beyond the parodied stereotypes of fundamentalism and violence. Its mission: to prepare students, Muslims and non-Muslims, for reconstruction of a peaceful India on the basis of Islamic principles.”
Last week, the Centre said in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that activists of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) continue to function secretively and receive funds. It added that the organisation’s “objective of establishing Islamic rule in India can, under no circumstances, be permitted to subsist”.
The Centre pointed out that every new recruit of SIMI is administered an oath which asserts that they would operate for ‘independence of humanity’ and ‘establishment of Islamic system in my country’. The Centre also added that its “constitution not only disclaims, questions, and intends to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of our country; but also cause disaffection against India and the Constitution of India”.
The blood brothers, so to say, are now screening the propaganda documentary which is not only one-sided but factually incorrect and based more on hearsay and confirmation bias. And while India is a democracy and one is all for free speech, there is a darker side to screening such documentaries for impressionable young people.
In 2016, the Delhi Police had told a court in a charge sheet filed against three Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists that the Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar riots videos were shown to them to motivate them to join the terror ranks. JEM chief Maulana Masood Azhar was main inspiration for them to join terror organisations. One of the JEM terrorist, Sajid, had admitted that when the radicalised youths and terror aspirants met at a house in December 2015, they were told about ‘persecution of Muslims during Gujarat riots and Muzaffarnagar riots’.
Sajid had suggested that the trainee terrorists listen to speeches of Maulana Masood Azhar for ‘inspiration’. These speeches were about violent jihad in India in retaliation to demolition of disputed structure ‘Babri Masjid’ on Ram Janmabhoomi. These speeches also talked about so-called atrocities on Muslims in India and ‘liberation’ of Kashmir. These videos of Maulana Masood Azhar infused a sense of jihad in trainee jihadis.
The screening of riots videos was carried out to radicalise Muslim youth and inspire them to join terror activities. Muslim student organisations then screening more such propaganda videos which cry ‘Muslim persecution’ to young, impressionable youth, especially Muslims. What could go wrong?
This is not it. OpIndia had earlier reported how the videos from 2002 Gujarat riots were also used for forced religious conversion. While speaking to OpIndia, one Prakash Vasava (name changed), a member of the tribal Vasava community narrated how he was lured to convert to Islam. “We were told that in the Godhra carnage, (PM) Modi and (HM) Shah actually burned alive Muslims inside the train and then claimed that Hindus were killed. They told us that there was no temple at the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya and that it will always be a mosque,” Vasava said about indoctrination by Haji Fefdawala, one of the men accused of forced conversion racket.
At a time when polarisation is at its peak and propagandists and Islamists, well-funded by foreign forces and break India forces, are at the forefront of spreading communal discord under the garb of ‘journalism’, these one-sided propaganda screenings only add the fuel to the fire. An average Muslim, living his life, is suddenly made aware of his Muslim identity by the propagandists and that eventually ends up being his only identity and that often acts as the first step towards radicalisation. The ‘educated and influential intellectual Muslims’ will dog whistle and the average ones will end up being foot soldiers in this jihad.
The West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scandal has been chosen as the topic for this year’s Saraswati Puja, which will be held on Thursday, January 26 by a pandal committee in North Kolkata’s Kankurgachi area. The images of the pandal decoration have gone viral over the internet in which three idols of Goddess Saraswati could well be seen in the pandal. The primary idol, which will be worshipped throughout the event, is one of them.
Another statue of Goddess Saraswati appears on a weighing scale, with a pile of cash on the other scale. Standing near them are clay sculptures of Bengal’s former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his assistant Arpita Mukherjee, symbolizing the large sum of money confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate from the TMC leader’s houses.
West Bengal | Saraswati Puja pandal in Kolkata had theme of WBSSC scam showing Partha Chatterjee & Arpita Mukherjee(23.01)
Teachers are struggling for jobs,incompetent people got jobs by giving money & will ruin future of our children,it must be stopped:Organiser Biswajit Sarkar pic.twitter.com/mMgByo3m87
The third idol of Goddess Saraswati has been positioned in a cage alongside another cage filled with ad campaigns for tutors claiming to teach English and Bengali to potential applicants in 50 days—an indirect reference to the teachers’ recruitment scam in which aspirants were given jobs in exchange for large sums of money paid to ministers. “Goddess Saraswati is imprisoned due to the corruption prevalent in the sector of education in Bengal,” stated members of the pandal committee.
Besides the cage, a stage has been built with clay sculptures of individuals depicting the agitated job seekers who had been protesting on Kolkata’s streets against the alleged fraud and requesting jobs based on merit.
Biswajit Sarkar, the elder brother of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar, who was reportedly slain in Bengal’s post-poll violence in 2021, prompted the topic of this year’s Saraswati Puja at the Kankurgachi pandal in West Bengal. Members of the committee commended famous artist Jayanta Barua for bringing their concept to reality.
“Education in West Bengal is sold out for money. The teachers’ recruitment scam is the biggest in our state so far. Deserving candidates are not getting jobs but supporters of the ruling party are getting employed illegally. We have decided to register our protest against this huge scam by having it as the theme for this year’s Saraswati Puja”, Biswajit Sarkar was quoted as saying.
Last year, Partha Chatterjee, a prominent Trinamool Congress leader, and Arpita Mukherjee were detained for their alleged involvement in school employment fraud. More than Rs 50 crore was confiscated from Mukherjee’s two apartments.
Following that, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate detained many personnel from the Education Department as well as a middleman who reportedly accepted money from the candidates (ED). Partha Chatterjee’s bail appeal was denied by a special CBI court in Alipore on Thursday, and his judicial custody has been prolonged till February 2.
Chatterjee, who is presently incarcerated at the Presidency Correctional Home, appeared in court alongside the other defendants in the school employment fraud case. The others were Former West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) chairman Subiresh Bhattacharya, former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education head Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, former WBSSC adviser Shanti Prasad Sinha, and middlemen Prasanna Roy and Pradeep Singh.
