On December 23 last year, a Bangladeshi bodybuilder named Jahid Hasan Shuvo courted controversy for kicking a blender machine, which he received as a prize at the BABF National Bodybuilding Championships 2022.
Jahid was reportedly upset after he came second in the competition and alleged that the Bangladesh Bodybuilding Federation (BBF) was being biased. A video of his ‘unruly behaviour’ has now gone viral on social media.
In the video, the Bangladeshi bodybuilder looked disappointed about not being declared the winner. After collecting his prize (a trophy and a blender machine), he was asked to step aside by an official (dressed in red).
Jahid Hasan Shuvo walked to one corner of the stage and displayed his medal to the crowd. He was then asked to get off the stage. At that point, the bodybuilder tossed the blender machine in the air in utter disgust.
To further express his displeasure, Jahid kicked the blender machine and walked away. The crowd became restless and raised slogans in unison. The Bangladeshi bodybuilder later clarified that he was miffed at the corruption within the BBF.
“This was a kick at corruption. Any kind of corruption in any place in our country,” he emphasised. Jahid added, “Even a child could tell the difference in physique between me and the winner. However, I would like to apologise for my reaction, because without context, it looks unpleasant for a sportsperson to do that.”
Screengrab of the press release by BBF
However, on December 25, 2022, Jahid Hassan Shuvo was served with a lifetime ban by the Bangladesh Bodybuilding Federation in consultation with the International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB).
BBF has cited ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ and ‘breach of discipline’ for the decision. While speaking about the matter to Dhaka Tribune, former Bangladeshi bodybuilder Haji Peyar Mohammad (one of the judges at the event) expressed shock and disbelief at the actions of Jahid.
“I have been in this sport for 32 years now but never saw such an incident before. There was a better player than him. There were 12 judges who picked their best and he just got fewer votes. There is win and loss in sport and one has to accept it, but he wasn’t able to hold his anger,” he said.
Peyar emphasised, “I know him for a long time. I liked him. He had a promising future, but he just ruined his career with this incident. I feel bad for him because I could never imagine he could act like this.”
External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar on Monday lambasted China for trying to unilaterally change the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
In an interview with the Austrian ZIB2 podcast, a daily news magazine of ORF television, Jaishankar said, “We had an agreement not to unilaterally change the LAC, which they have tried to unilaterally do. So there is, I think, an issue, a perception that we have which derives directly from our experiences.”
The Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake in the west of the LAC, have hosted flashpoints in recent years. In the east Tawang was the site of the latest India-China scuffle.
“I think there’s a larger concern based on our experiences. The concern is that we had agreements with China not to amass forces in our border areas, and they have not observed those agreements, which is why we have the currently tense situation that we do,” he said.
Recently, India and China held the 17th Round of Corps Commander Level Meeting at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Chinese side on December 20 and agreed to maintain security and stability on the ground in the Western Sector.
Speaking about China trying to change the status quo, he said that China may blame India for not following the agreements, however, the satellite pictures could clearly show who was at the fault.
“Now, where else the status quo may change or not change? I would hesitate as a foreign minister to predict publicly. I may have my own views and assessments, but I certainly can share my experience. And my experience is that written agreements were not observed and that we have seen levels of military pressure, which, in our view, has no justification. China would say the opposite. They would say that India had not obeyed different agreements. But obviously, no, I think it’s difficult for China to say that. For this reason, the record is very clear, because today there’s a lot of transparency. You have satellite pictures. If you see who moved the forces to the border areas first, I think the record is very clear. So it’s very difficult for China to say what you suggested they could,” said Jaishankar.
Commenting on India which is likely to overtake China as the most populous country, and its place in world politics, Jaishankar said, “India will probably overtake China as the world’s most populous country within this year. Is this fact of any political significance to India, or is it just a mere statistic? You know, we’ll know that when we reach there, won’t we? Because we have never used numbers in that manner. Maybe other countries have. I would still say it is a statistic to a large extent,” to ZIB2.
He also highlighted the need for reforms in the United Nations, saying that the world’s most populous country is not among the permanent members of the Security Council.
“What does it say about the state of the UN? If that is the case? So it’s both a yes and a no. It’s partly a statistic, but I think it’s a statistic that means a lot. For several years, you have called for a permanent seat on the Security Council as if Brazil as Japan, or Germany. How long will it take, from your point of view, till this reform of the Council will actually become reality? Well, ideally, we’d liked it yesterday, of course, but the problem, I think, is that those who are today enjoying the benefits of permanent membership clearly are not in a hurry to see the reform. I think it’s a very short-sighted view, in my opinion, because at the end of the day, the credibility of the UN, and frankly, their own interests and effectiveness, is at stake. So my sense is it will take some time, hopefully not too much time,” said Jaishankar.
He also underscored that the UN is not represented evenly, he said, “I can see a growing body of opinion among UN members who believe that there must be change. It’s not just us. You have entire Africa, entire Latin America left out developing countries vastly underrepresented, I think, the state of the world. This was an organization invented in 1945. It’s 2023. And when you would have to guess for a year when this will happen, what would it be? No, I wouldn’t guess, because I know the complexities of this process. It’s a tough one. I would be honest with you. It’s a tough one. But I don’t think we should give up because it’s a tough one. On the contrary, because it’s a tough one, we should actually up the ante, increase the feeling in bad parts of the world that this reform is essential.”
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
On January 3, Tuesday reports emerged that some unidentified persons threw pieces of meat in the compound of a Kali temple in the Dhaka village of Shikaripada block in Jharkhand’s Duma district. Along with the meat pieces, the police also recovered pamphlets with the name and the mobile number of Khalila, the deputy head of Shivtalla Panchayat, scribbled on them.
SDPO Noor Mustafa Ansari and Police Inspector Sanjay Suman arrived at the scene after receiving information about the incident. Police, along with temple authorities, ensured that the pieces of meat were removed from the temple premises and the compound was cleaned.
The villagers, who were outraged by the desecration of the revered temple, demanded that the person whose name appeared in the leaflet be brought to the temple. However, owing to the tense situation which authorities thought may lead to a communal flare-up, the police did not accede to the demands of the villagers.
Jharkhand Police, as per reports, said that they suspect that such an act was committed in order to implicate the deputy head of the panchayat.
SDPO Noor Mustafa later told reporters that whoever is attempting to vitiate communal harmony in the region will not be spared under any circumstances and that strict legal action will be taken against them.
The police, meanwhile, have launched an investigation into the matter by filing an FIR against unknown miscreants.
This is not the first time that such an incident has been reported from Jharkhand. Miscreants have historically used meat as a weapon to attack Hindu temples and show their disdain for Hindu places of worship.
Last year, a similar incident came to the fore from the Rampur village of the Lohardaga district of Jharkhand where some antisocial elements hurled a piece of meat inside the premises of the local Shiv temple. The incident sparked a face-off between members of the two communities.
Prior to this, on February 28, a group of unidentified miscreants threw suspected meat pieces inside the Kalibari Durga Temple located in Phulbaria of Rajmahal police station area in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand, raising tensions in the region.
Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party should not shield its MLA Aravind Limbavali in the alleged suicide case of a Bengaluru businessman.
On Sunday, a 47-year-old Bengaluru businessman allegedly shot himself in the head inside his car here, said the police. The deceased has been identified as Pradeep S. He left behind an eight-page suicide note in English holding six people, including BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali, responsible for him taking the extreme step. Pradeep ended his life in the car near Kaggalipura.
While talking about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement on two milk cooperatives in Mandya, Shivakumar said, “I condemn Amit Shah’s statement, he has once again proved that BJP has no leader in Karnataka, Amit Shah and Modi come to Karnataka again and again, BJP has no leader in Karnataka.”
“Recently, when Amit Shah came to Karnataka, he talked about Amul and Nandini, we don’t need Amul technology, our brand Nandini is the best, it’s better to make Karnataka than Gujarat model, we don’t need Gujarat model in Karnataka,” he added. On Friday, Shah in Bengaluru suggested that Amul and Nandini, two successful milk unions, could work towards the welfare of the country’s milk producers, initiating a “white revolution”.
However, on Sunday, Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekar clarified that the statement did not mean a merger of the two milk cooperatives — Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and Gujarat-based Anand Milk Union Ltd (AMUL).
On Sunday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai defended Shah and said that Nandini Dairy will always maintain its separate identity in the coming years.
Bommai told reporters here that the merger of Nandini into AMUL is a wrong imagination.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
As Congress MP Rahul Gandhi resumed his Bharat Jodo Yatra, which had been paused for 9 days to accommodate the Christmas and New Year festivities, he was joined by former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief AS Dulat in Delhi.
In a tweet posted by ANI on Tuesday, January 3, AS Dulat and Rahul Gandhi were seen holding hands as they walked alongside each other.
Former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief AS Dulat joins Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi
INC TV, the grand old party’s official media platform, also shared a picture of the former spymaster holding hands of the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Amarjit Singh Dulat is a former special director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau and former Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing from 1999 to 2000. After retirement, he was appointed as an advisor on Jammu and Kashmir in the Prime Minister’s Office and served there from January 2000 to May 2004.
It is worth noting that AS Dulat has always been known for all wrong reasons in the country, especially his soft outlook towards terrorists which helped dreaded terrorists and Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin’s son get a medical seat in Srinagar. He has often supported and furthered Congress’ anti-BJP and pro-Pakistani propaganda. Recently, AS Dulat whitewashed the genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, stating that the popular perception of the migration of Kashmiri Hindus differed from reality.
Well, Mr Dulat helped terrorist & Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin’s son get a medical seat in Srinagar. https://t.co/DOvTJG6AD3
Following the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, AS Dulat, like his friends in the Congress, blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for “milking” the situation rather than applauding the government for taking stringent action against terrorists coming from Pakistan.
Back in 2015, Dulat fuelled the Congress propaganda on the Kandahar hijacking of IC-814 in 1999, which led to the release of three terrorists, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, alleging that it was a “goof up” on India’s part to not have immobilised the aeroplane when it was grounded in Amritsar.
This assertion is a part of the Congress propaganda to malign the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which was then at the Centre. Ever since the hijacking took place, the Congress party had been using it to attack the BJP government, notwithstanding numerous terror attacks that took place when Congress was at the Centre, including the ghastly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.
Besides, Dulat had also heaped praises on Pakistan’s secret intelligence agency ISI, extolling it to be the world’s best intelligence agency.
In fact, Dulat’s affection for Pakistan can also be gauged by the fact that he co-authored a book with former Pakistan ISI chief Asad Durrani.
Interestingly, in 2018, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, controversial former Vice-President Hamid Ansari and other Congress leaders jointly released a book co-authored by former Pakistan ISI chief Asad Durrani and former RAW chief AS Dulat, in New Delhi. Other Congress leaders like Farooq Abdullah and Kapil Sibal were also present at the event. Moreover, controversial scribe Barkha Dutt who is known to be a sympathizer of terrorists was also present at the meeting. Dutt is often accused of leaking sensitive information to Pakistani Army during terrorist operations in India.
The Pakistan Army had then now summoned former ISI chief Asad Durrani to seek his explanation over a book he co-authored with India’s ex-spy chief AS Dulat, accusing him of violating the military code of conduct.
A day after Uorfi Javed lashed out at Maharashtra BJP leader Chitra Wagh for filing a police complaint against her, she took to social media to claim that she is getting ‘suicidal’.
On January 3, Tuesday, the former Bigg Boss OTT contestant, Uorfi shared Instagram Stories where she opened up on the police complaint filed by Chitra Wagh. In one of her stories she wrote, “I know it’s quite dangerous uploading stuff against POLITICIANS, but then these people are making me suicidal anyways so either I kill myself or say my mind and get killed by them 🙂 But again hi, I didn’t start this, I never did anything wrong to anyone. They are coming at me for no fucking reason.
Notably, on Sunday, January 2, hours after BJP leader Chitra Wagh filed a complaint against Uorfi Javed for roaming the streets of Mumbai in revealing outfits, the TV actress hit back on social media.
She tweeted, “Started my new year with another police complaint from another politician! Bc asli kaam nahi hai in politicians k Paas? (Do these politicians have no real work to do?) Are these politicians, lawyers dumb?”
“There is literally no article in the constitution that can be put on me to send me to jail. The definition of vulgarity, nudity defers from person to person. Unless my nipples and my vagina are seen, you can’t send me to jail. These people are only doing this for media attention,” she slammed Chitra Wagh.
The Background of the Controversy
BJP leader Chitra Wagh met Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on 1st January 2023 and complained about Uorfi Javed roaming the streets of Mumbai wearing revealing outfits. She has also given a letter to the Mumbai Police Commissioner. Chitra Wagh had also tweeted that she had demanded to ‘Stop Uorfi Javed who has become an open display of the female body’.
Uorfi Javed has always been in the news for her outfits and bold looks. Unhappy with her unusual sense of fashion, several people have filed complaints against her in the past.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an authoritarian law that expands the government’s power to regulate media groups and journalists in the country, a report published by The Kyiv Independent said.
The law was signed on Thursday after protests from media unions and journalist associations that described it as an authoritarian move that would have a chilling effect on free speech.
As per the new law, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, a statutory body whose members are selected by the president’s administration and members of parliament, will have sweeping authority over controlling Ukrainian media organisations and journalists.
The body will have the power to effectively shut down unregistered news sites.
Last month, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine said the bill would undermine press freedom in the country.
In a statement released by the organisation, the union described powers vested by the bill as “clearly excessive” and said that it will oppose it. “No one has yet managed to tame freedom of speech in Ukraine. It won’t work this time either,” the organisation said.
However, this is not the first time that Zelensky has been accused of suppressing press freedom. He first tried to draft a new law to boost media regulation in 2019, the year he entered office.
The bill was enacted into law along with several other new statutes lawmakers claim are required in order to become eligible for European Union membership, which Ukraine applied for last year.
However, the bill that was passed for legislation on December 13, was watered down after strident criticism.
The earlier draft had accorded greater control to the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council to impose fines on media groups, cancel licenses from printed media and prevent online outlets from publishing restricted information.
Blunt force trauma led to the injuries, reveals post-mortem report of Anjali Singh, the 20-year-old Delhi woman who was killed in the accident in Kanjhawala.
Kanjhawala death case | Delhi: All injuries occurred due to blunt force impact and possibly with a vehicular accident and dragging. Also, the report indicates that there is no injury suggestive of sexual assault: Sagar Preet Hooda, Special CP Law & Order, Delhi
Her post-mortem was carried out that Maulana Azad Medical College and the report suggests that the provisional cause of death is shock and haemorrhage because of antemortem injury to head, spine, left femur as well as both lower limbs. The report has also indicated that there are no injuries that suggest to sexual assault.
As reported by ANI, it has come to the fore that the girl, now identified as Nidhi, who was accompanying Anjali on the scooty when the accident took place, was her colleague at the hotel. The manager of the hotel has said that the two of them had a fight before they left the hotel on the scooty.
“Both of them were arguing. When I told them not to fight, they went downstairs and started fighting, after which both of them went on a scooty,” said Hotel Manager of the hotel from where the deceased and her friend left was quoted by news agency ANI. According to the Delhi Police, some boys who were seen with these girls have also been detained for questioning.
ANI further reported that the boys had a separate room booked and the hotel staff saw them talking to the girl.
The 20-year-old woman, who was killed in an accident was not alone at the time of the incident, said the Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Law and order), Sagar Preet Hooda, during a press conference on the Kanjhawala accident case. The Special Commissioner while addressing the media said that another girl was present with the victim at the time of the accident. However, she walked away after the incident. Reports suggested Nidhi, the other girl, had also sustained injuries but they were not major injuries.
Police is saying that now they have an eyewitness to the accident and her statement is being recorded under section 164. She is also cooperating with the police. The investigation regarding the same is still on and at a primary stage.
A 20-year-old woman, named Anjali was killed in the early hours of New Year after her scooty was hit by a car and she was reportedly dragged for 13 kilometres under the vehicle on the city’s roads. Five accused have been arrested in the case till now and sent to judicial custody.
A German YouTuber named Christian Betzmann has recently courted controversy for abusing street vendors in India and patronising his Indian audience about social etiquette in the West.
In one of his Instagram stories, he had claimed, “The audacity to drive through a street and scream to buy their freaking fruit.” In another Instagram story, he said, “How is this not banned? Every day 20 dudes scream in front of my Airbnb to sell their sh*t. I should buy all his pineapples and shove it up his a**. Bi*ch.”
His ‘privileged’ and insensitive rant on the social media platform drew the ire of his Indian audience. Christian Betzmann then went a step ahead and claimed that Indians would probably also justify rape as it had been happening for a long time.
The German Youtuber has been controversy’s favourite child for quite some time now. Prior to abusing underprivileged street vendors in India, he had pulled off a similar stunt in the neighbouring country of Pakistan.
Having realised the fandom a ‘white Christian man’ would generate by converting to Islam, Betzmann used the archaic mindset of Pakistani society to his advantage.
On February 6, 2021, he took to Instagram to inform his Pakistani audience that he had converted to the ‘religion of peace.’ He had claimed, “My best childhood friends were Muslims and deep inside we are all human beings in the same simulation we call life.”
Christian Betzmann further asserted, “Islam is the religion of peace and I felt a deeper connection and something I want to experience and explore deeper for myself.” As expected, his social media following surged with his ‘conversion story’ drawing over 1 lac likes in just 15 hours.
Screengrab of the Instagram post of Christian Betzmann
During his stay in Pakistan, he also managed to woo a Muslim Pakistani actress by the name of Zoya Nasir. When Betzmann converted to Islam, Nasir was elated and so were the average Pakistani Muslims.
“Welcome to peace…May Allah give you all that you desire and more,” she remarked about the German influencer’s decision to change his religion. Soon after, the couple got engaged and had a ‘dreamy proposal’ in the Bahamas.
However, things took a drastic turn in May 2021 after Israel came under attack from rockets fired from Gaza Strip. Given that the brute majority in Pakistan support pro-Palestinian forces including terror outfits such as Hamas, they expected the ‘white convert from Germany’ to follow suit.
Come on!!!!!!!what he said is totally right he highlights the dark side of our country one time but every time he highlights the good face of pakistan it’s really sad to see the reaction of Zoya Nasir towards him…. #ChristianBetzmannpic.twitter.com/L76U3j7N0q
After being bombarded by his Pakistani audience to post pro-Palestinian propaganda, Christian Betzmann lost his mind and rebuked the same people that he had pandered to for clout. The German blogger then attacked Pakistani society for its duplicity and for not standing up for their own basic rights.
“Social media will never win against government and politics. Sharing something which is all over mainstream media won’t make any difference. Stop feeling guilty for others when you’re littering your own country, not helping your own people and community,” he had stated.
With his statement, Betzmann stirred the hornet’s nest. He received flak on social media and even his Pakistani Muslim fiancée broke ties with him.
In an Instagram post, Zoya Nasir remarked, “It’s with a heavy heart I’m announcing that Christian Betzmann and I are no longer engaged to be married. His sudden change in stance towards my culture, my country, my people, and insensitivity towards my religion has led me to take this difficult and irrevocable decision.”
She further continued, “There are certain religious and social boundaries that can’t be crossed no matter what, hence, the decision to part ways. Humility, tolerance, and respect towards each other are the virtues that we must always adhere to.”
We should improve ourselves by acknowledging or mistakes rather criticizing a person who makes us aware of our errors. These are the hard realities which we have to face. Look at his stories on Insta.#ChristianBetzmannpic.twitter.com/QWdarhLIno
Soon after, Christian Betzmann took to Instagram to try and undo the damage. He thanked the Pakistani society and hoped that they would accept his ‘culture of honest criticism’ for their own betterment.
“For my new video, I went to Orangi Town in Karachi, which is the biggest slum in the world. I was shooting in extreme pollution [and] heat to show you that even people in the slums are good people,” he cited examples to prove his dedication to the Islamic Republic.
Screengrab of the comment by Christian Betzmann
When one of his fans tried to console him about his estranged relationship with actress Zoya Nasir, Christian Betzmann clarified, “I left her but that’s a different story.”
Nonetheless, the German influencer had been trying to woo his Indian fans by playing the ‘religion card’ as well. However, just like his track record in Pakistan, he displayed his ignorant behaviour and ended up upsetting the masses.
The caterwauling in the name of Allah, holding up posters, coordinated crying and victim playing, women and children out in the cold protesting against ‘state brutality’ and the online shills spreading fake news – the Haldwani issue has all the makings of snowballing into a Shaheen Bagh like situation. Since the 28th of December 2022, the residents of Haldwani, Uttarakhand, mostly Muslims, have been protesting against the authorities, who in accordance with a High Court order, launched a drive to clear encroachments from Railway land in the area.
The protesters have been making insinuations about how the State is persecuting them because they are Muslim. According to the reports, around 4000 families, the majority of whom are Muslims have been staying in the area for decades on the 29 acres of railway land that has been encroached upon by the residents. For years, railway authorities have contended that encroachment is impeding growth and expansion efforts.
However, on December 27, a strategy was developed to eliminate encroachments on railway land in the Banbhoolpura district. The master plan was developed during a high-level meeting involving administrative authorities and ADRM railways in response to a recent Uttarakhand High Court ruling for the elimination of encroachments.
The Uttarakhand High Court had recently ordered the authorities to evict forthwith the unauthorized occupants to vacate the premises from the railway land adjoining Haldwani Railway Station, commonly called Gaffur Basti. Accordingly, the action was initiated on December 29 after providing residents with a one-week prior notice.
Further, in accordance with the court ruling, residents of the Banbhoolpura area in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani who live on encroached railway land were also asked to surrender their licensed weapons and guns with the administration before the process of removing encroachments began.
The issue over railway land encroachment in the Haldwani area dates back to 2007 when railway officials conducted eviction operations for land segmentation and clearance of encroachment. It did, however, result in fights and arson, as well as demonstrations and stone-pelting.
On July 27, 2021, the North Eastern Railways delivered over 1,000 eviction notices to Banbhoolpura residents, instructing them to vacate their homes within 15 days. In April, over 500 people received similar notices, while 1,581 people received identical notices in January. The tenants then contended that the continuous distribution of eviction notices was done only to annoy them while the case was still in court.
The Uttarakhand High Court had previously asked the North Eastern Railway administration to remove encroachments on railway land in an order dated November 9, 2016. In the aftermath of the ruling, about 4,365 notifications were issued that year. After dismissing the state’s review plea, the court ordered the expulsion of informal settlers within four weeks in January 2017. The Supreme Court, however, postponed the ruling for three months, citing the fact that the High Court had not heard the petitioners before issuing the eviction order.
From the brief history of the issue, some facts become evident:
This is not an eviction drive that is being carried out at the whim of the administration. The authorities have been trying to evict land encroachers since 2007 – that is 15 years.
The eviction drive is a result of a High Court order, therefore, it is safe to say that the legal process has been followed by the authorities in order to carry out this demolition drive.
When an eviction operation was conducted in 2007, the residents of Haldwani, who are today wailing and crying, indulged in arson and rioting against the eviction drive.
There were several eviction notices furnished to the residents of Haldwani, who today seem to be insinuating that they are in a state of shock that their illegal houses, constructed on Railway land, are being demolished.
The Supreme Court, when approached by the residents, had asked them to go back to the High Court. SC had asked HC to decide their pleas in 3 months – this was in 2017. It was a couple of weeks ago that the High Court passed the judgement to remove encroachments from Haldwani.
After the High Court order, Rajendra Singh, Railway PRO, Izzat Nagar had said that there were 4365 encroachments and the eviction notices were served through the local newspaper. He said that the residents were given 7 days to shift, after which, the demolition would take place.
It is pertinent to note that after the High Court judgement and the eviction notice being served for the residents to shift in 7 days, the residents have spent their time protesting, blocking roads, talking to the media, crying ‘persecution’ and playing victim, with sympathetic voices in the media trying to build a narrative about a grave injustice being meted out to the Muslim residents.
From the facts of the case, it is evident that this eviction drive was 15 years in the making, with the residents being given ample hearing in a court of law and sufficient time by the authorities to move out of the illegal residences.
But the narrative that is now being built has all the marking of a protest being crafted to mirror the 2019-2020 Shaheen Bagh protest that ultimately led to the Delhi anti-Hindu Riots in February 2020. The ongoing protests in Haldwani, the imagery being used and the narrative being weaved by Islamist allies have uncanny parallels to what we saw unfolding in 2019-2020.
The unmissable Congress hand
Congress has taken a special interest in the Haldwani eviction drive. On the 2nd of January, Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi tweeted that represented by Salman Khurshid, he had approached the Supreme Court against the eviction drive. He said he had approached the court against the demolition of the homes of the “oppressed”. So far, we have been given no context by Pratapgarhi as to how the residents of Haldwani were being “oppressed”.
Tweet by Congress leader
Interestingly, Aarfa Khanam, a Congress politician and prominent attorney from Delhi, had gone live on Facebook to discuss the issue. She said that the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party administration is targeting the region because the majority of the population in the area is Muslim. “We respect the judiciary. But what kind of justice is this that you make fifty thousand people homeless but you didn’t make any arrangements for their rehabilitation” Khanam said.
It is also reported that the demonstrators are being supported by Congress MLA Sumit Hridayesh and Samajwadi Party in-charge Abdul Matin Siddiqui and general secretary Shoeb Ahmad. Notably, the matter in which Zubair and several other Muslim leaders have raised their voices is the matter of illegal encroachment of the railway land in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani area.
Interestingly, during the anti-CAA protests in 2019, which morphed into the Shaheen Bagh protest and later the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi, the Congress hand was also unmissable. First and foremost, the misinformation about Citizenship Amendment Act was fanned by Congress itself. It is pertinent to note that Sonia Gandhi held a rally where she had said made “do or die” calls from the stage on the 14th of December 2019. She had also said that sacrifices will have to be made to ensure that CAA is not implemented – the narrative which was being peddled, was that CAA was somehow anti-Muslim when it actually had nothing to do with Muslims, let alone Indian Muslims.
On the 16th of December 2019, OpIndia exclusively reported how Whatsapp groups were being made by Congress leaders and workers to spread misinformation about CAA and fan violence. From the Whatsapp conversations, it was evident that the group was run by Congress workers and leaders, that the anti-CAA protests were spearheaded by Congress but they wanted to appear politically neutral and organic and the aim of the protest was an Arab Spring-like protest. There were then other Whatsapp groups that pointed towards a specific Congress and foreign NGO nexus in the anti-CAA protest.
In the anti-Hindu violence itself, which broke out in February 2020, there were several Congress leaders who were involved in the violence and the conspiracy to commit violence. Ishrat Jahan, a Congress leader, for example, is directly accused of inciting and conspiring to commit violence in Delhi during the riots. There are several other Congress leaders who have regularly extended support to Umar Khalid, who is a prime conspirator of the Delhi anti-Hindu violence.
With the Congress tentacles being evident in the 2020 violence, the involvement of Congress yet again, this time in Haldwani, should raise several red flags for the authorities given that protests like these with political patronage can soon turn exceptionally ugly – as evidenced by the anti-CAA protests and Shaheen Bagh protests in 2020.
The maa-behen, biting cold trope in the protests
One of the defining characteristics of the Shaheen Bagh protest was the use of old women and children to drive home the point about how Muslims were supposedly being persecuted in India. We now see the same pattern being repeated in the Haldwani protests.
Muslim journalist from NewsClick tweeted a video about how the residents of Haldwani were out, protesting in the biting cold. He also said that he would stand in solidarity with them against the state.
In the video, the man delivering a speech to the protesting residents could hear invoking the name of Allah and crying, in a synchronised manner with the crowd. Apart from the obvious religious overtones, what stood out was the man talking incessantly about how women and children were being rendered homeless by the state’s action.
हल्द्वानी का मज़बूर और बेबस मुसलमान सर्द मौसम के बीच ठिठुरती सड़को पर बैठा है,हम रज़ाई और कंबलों में भी खुद की सर्दी नही उतार पा रहे है लेकिन @RailMinIndia का क्या उसने तो क़सम खाई है इन बस्तियों को उजाड़ लोगों को बेघर करने की!#Haldwani के लोगों के साथ हम एकजुटता से खड़े रहेंगे pic.twitter.com/EfXK7ko07s
Out-on-bail fact-checker of AltNews, Mohammad Zubair posted several pictures of the protest where it was evident that children were being used in the Haldwani protest, just like they were being used in the Shaheen Bagh protest, to invoke sympathy.
The other trope that we see getting repeated is that of “poor, destitute, helpless Muslims” protesting in the biting cold of December. This is the same trope we saw during the Shaheen Bagh protests.
In Uttrakhand, thousands of Muslims are out on the roads asking the government to stop the demolition of their houses. They are crying, praying helplessly. In the peak of the winter season, they will all soon become homeless. #Haldwani
It is pertinent to note that the Shaheen Bagh protests also started in December – on the 15th – and the Haldwani protest has also erupted in December itself.
Misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the issue to peddle a trope about state persecution of Muslims
As elucidated above, this issue is not about the state going out of its way to persecute Muslims, however, that is what the narrative that is being created suggests.
Mohammad Zubair, who habitually dog whistles, took to Twitter to claim that it is the media’s responsibility to speak for the helpless, however, the media has become the mouthpiece of the ruling government and therefore is not becoming the voice of Haldwani Muslims.
While Zubair acknowledges that the eviction drive is pursuant to a High Court order, he somehow, slyly, peddles the narrative that the media is silent because they are enslaved to the ruling government, essentially signalling that the ruling government is maliciously trying to demolish the house of the Muslim residents and therefore, they were a victim of state persecution. In fact, he even says that the demolition is happening “at the pretext of encroachments”, somehow insinuating that the Muslim residents were actually not illegally occupying the land but were being evicted maliciously by the government.
In fact, even the corporate media jumped on to the bandwagon in trying to paint the Haldwani residents as victims.
Rajdeep Sardesai in his segment on India Today said that several residents of Haldwani were protesting because they risked losing their homes to the demolition drive to clear encroached land. However, he also says that the India Today report was meant to explore the “truth” – “Where does the truth lie”, he asks, essentially seeding doubt that the fact that these were illegal buildings and the authorities were clearing encroachments legally could be a lie and the truth could lie elsewhere.
In the video itself, one resident of Haldwani clearly says that they were served repeated eviction notices. Her version is that they were served these notices because the authorities wanted to harass them, however, as we have seen, the facts of the case point towards a truth that India Today failed to elucidate. The fact is that several notices have been serviced to the residents in accordance with the law and it was the court that evaluated the facts before passing the judgement. Further, in this 15-year-old issue, it is also true that the Haldwani residents indulged in arson and rioting in 2007. With the clear knowledge that their homes were illegally built and encroached on Railway land and with several notices being served, the residents had ample time to find alternate accommodation.
Even after the latest judgement by the High Court and the authorities giving the residents 7 days to move out, the residents seem to have decided to spend that time protesting, crying in a synchronised manner, invoking Allah and talking to the media.
During the CAA issue in 2019-2020 as well, there was a substantial twisting of the narrative with the media and Muslim “activists” claiming that the CAA was a law against the Muslims of India. The truth was far from it. CAA had nothing to do with Muslims at all and was merely extending citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations. In fact, during the CAA fiasco, the politicians, Islamists and the media went a step ahead and claimed that the CAA coupled with NRC would ensure that Muslims lose their right to citizenship. While CAA had nothing to do with Indian Muslims, a nationwide NRC had not even been drafted for them to fearmonger on the basis of it.
Problematic Muslim elements who were active during the CAA violence have also come out of the woodworks during the Haldwani issue.
The #Haldwani issue is purely govt vendetta. Over 50,000 people, at least 1/3rd of the entire population in the city, is to be made homeless by HC order no less. They’ve govt schools, tanks and registration papers since generations. How were these made on railway land?
It is evident that the aim of the misinformation campaign in this issue is the same as that during the Shaheen Bagh – to twist an issue to somehow give the impression that the state is persecuting Muslims in a coordinated, malicious manner with the world looking away. The victim narrative serves the larger purpose of not only showing the central government, which has been deemed as “pro-Hindu” and “anti-Muslim” by the global order, in a bad light but also handing over the perpetual victim card to the Muslim community. In this case, it is clear that the Muslim residents encroached on Railway land and the authorities were trying to evict them for 15 years. After due process of the law, the High Court gave the go-ahead to evict the illegal occupants. After the residents were served with a notice and given 7 days to relocate, they chose to protest and cry victim instead of accepting the ruling of the court. The ecosystem which flourishes on using the Muslim victim card to claim that “minorities are under attack”, immediately sprung into action to claim that the “truth could be different” and that the media is not speaking up for the illegal occupants because they are sold to the ruling government, insinuating that the state is persecuting its Muslim population.
Now, with the Haldwani protest having all the makings of Shaheen Bagh 2.0, and the Congress petition coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on the 5th, there are a few ways that this could proceed.
If the Supreme Court, as it should, throws out the petition saying that the eviction is being carried out after the due process of the law, we would see spurious protests in Haldwani and shill cacophony by the ecosystem, but chances are, that the situation would be assuaged and the motivated protestors-for-hire would go home, looking for the next cause they can exploit.
However, if the Court decides to repeat the shenanigans that it pulled off during Shaheen Bagh, the situation could snowball before we realise it. During the Shaheen Bagh protest, the High Court had summarily refused to hear a petition that called for the protestors to be removed, citing inconvenience being caused to the general public. When the matter went to the Supreme Court, instead of acting in a decisive manner, the Supreme Court appointed interlocutors to beg the Islamists to move their protest to another location. What followed was elements like Teesta Setalvad coaching the protestors of Shaheen Bagh and the protestors furnishing a list of demands to the Supreme Court itself. With the lack of intervention of the court and the Government summarily pushing the ball in the Judiciary’s court, the protests raged on, culminating in the Delhi anti-Hindu riots.
In this case, if the Court decides to toe the liberal line and make statements “upholding the right to protest”, and the government refuses to act decisively, it is not too far from the realm of possibility that Haldwani would be Shaheen Bagh 2.0 – a breeding ground of Islamism, anti-India narrative, misplaced Muslim victimhood, fake news, instigation to violence and finally, violence.
