Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a 27-km long roadshow in Surat city of Gujarat, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders took to social media on Monday (November 28) to peddle disinformation.
They falsely claimed that chants hailing AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal were raised by people, who in fact had gathered to watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pankaj Singh wrote, “This is the second video where chants of ‘Kejriwal’ were heard during PM Modi’s roadshow. Gujarat is ready for change.”
The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here. Pankaj is the President of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Aam Aadmi Party.
गुजरात में मोदी जी के रोड-शो में केजरीवाल जी के नारे लगने वाला दूसरा वीडियो भी सामने आया है। बदलाव के लिए गुजरात तैयार है। इंकलाब जिंदाबाद।। pic.twitter.com/rLUK30Ns2V
Similar claims were made by the two-time Delhi AAP MLA, Gulab Singh Yadav. “Chants of Kejriwal raised in the Surat road show of the saheb (referring to PM Modi). Wow, what a spectacle.” The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.
केजरीवाल केजरवाल केजरीवाल सूरत में साहेब के रोड़ शो मे लगे केजरीवाल के नारे – वाह क्या नजारा हैं। pic.twitter.com/3XQzXsoQQj
AAP’s student wing leader, Vashraj Dubey, wrote, “Roadshow was organised for Modi but chants were being raised of Arvind Kejriwal. Zindabad Gujarat, Jai Ho!” The archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.
लो भाई गुजरात के सूरत का दूसरा वीडियो भी आ गया…….रोड शो मोदी का, नारे केजरीवाल जी के।।
The said video was first uploaded on Twitter by the popular user, Nandita Thakur on Sunday (November 27). In the video, it could be clearly heard that the people who gathered to watch PM Modi were chanting his name in unison and not that of Arvind Kejriwal.
A similar video posted by veteran journalist, Kanchan Gupta, on the same day also contained no chants hailing Arvind Kejriwal, as claimed by AAP leaders.
A longer version of the video, posted on the Youtube channel of PM Modi, also makes it evident that chants of ‘Kejriwal, Kejriwal’ were superficially to claim mass support for the AAP supremo before the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls.
The disinformation peddled by the Aam Aadmi Party leaders was also debunked by the likes of Boom and SM Hoax Slayer.
AAP IT cell spreads fake video to mock BJP
Earlier on November 12 this year, one Praatik Innamdar of Aam Aadmi Party’s IT cell in Gujarat tweeted an old video from West Bengal. He falsely claimed that the disturbing video was from Gujarat and that BJP workers were being thrashed by an angry mob.
He added the “Morbi Bridge Collapse” hashtag to his tweet to insinuate that the assailants were miffed with BJP workers because of the Morbi tragedy, which claimed over a hundred lives.
The video shared by AAP’s IT cell in Gujarat. Image Source: Twitter Handle of Praatik Innamdar
However, the video turned out to be from West Bengal and not remotely connected to the Morbi tragedy. Opindia found that the video was initially shared by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on August 6 this year.
In his tweet, Adhikari has written, “Yesterday Asit Mazumdar; TMC MLA from Chinsurah; Hooghly, thrashed a BJP Karyakarta for campaigning democratically. Those who questioned the NHRC, India’s post-poll violence report, citing ‘Law of the ruler, not Rule of law’ in WB haven’t seen Mamata Banerjee’s GOONDA Raaj.”
Yesterday Asit Mazumdar; TMC MLA from Chinsurah; Hooghly, thrashed a BJP Karyakarta for campaigning democratically. Those who questioned @India_NHRC‘s post poll violence report, citing ‘Law of ruler, not Rule of law’ in WB haven’t seen @MamataOfficial‘s GOONDA Raaj.@narendramodipic.twitter.com/MI0iElQWdO
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) August 6, 2022
Praatik Innamdar, who shared this video claiming that it is from Gujarat, is a member of the Gujarat IT cell of Arvind Kejriwal. He has also shared his photographs with the party chief Arvind Kejriwal from his Twitter handle in the past.
On Thursday, Maharashtra Police registered an FIR against Father James, Vice Principle of De Paul English Medium School in Rahuri, Ahmednagar, for allegedly threatening a 14-year-old Sikh boy and forcing him to convert his religion to Christianity. The case has been registered under sections 295(A), 298, 153A, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the FIR obtained by OpIndia, the incident is said to have happened on November 30 this year when the minor victim boy was with his friends on the playing ground of the school. Father James happened to arrive at the spot and saw the victim wearing a turban on his head. Father asked him his name and criticized it saying, “Why are you adding Singh again and again to your name.” On this, the victim stated that he belonged to the Sikh community and that it was mandatory in his religion to add Singh after the names.
FIR Copy obtained by OpIndia
The Vice Principal then pointed at his turban and said that wearing a silver religious kada (bangle), and turban (pagdi), all were to show off fashion and had nothing to do with religion. He then asked the boy to cut his hair short, remove the turban and be like the other students in the class. According to the FIR, Father James also asked the boy to convert his religion to Christianity.
14 y/o Sikh student of De Paul English Medium School, Rahuri Factory, Ahmednagar dist coerced to convert to Christianity by cutting hair n throwing Pagdi, when kid refused he was threatened! FIR u/s 295A, 298, 153A, 506 registered against Father James, Father Santo @NagarPolicepic.twitter.com/zywF6DZWm7
“I told them I would never cut my hair short, remove the pagdi and convert my religion to Christianity. I ran away to my class. However, he followed me and asked me if would I not cut my hair if ever was diagnosed with cancer. On this I told him that my religion was important to me and that I would die of the disease but would never cut my hair,” the victim boy mentioned in the FIR.
Father James named in the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia
The complaint further states that Father James constantly kept on pressuring and threatening the child to either change his religion to Christianity or cut his hair short. The De Paul English Medium School is located in the Rahuri Factory area of the city. The Principal of the school as mentioned in the FIR is Father Santo while Vice Principal is Father James who has been accused in the case.
FIR Copy obtained by OpIndia
Notably, the victim boy who studies in 9th standard was also criticized in the past for following the Sikh religion at the school. In August this year, the boy was asked by one of the teachers named Sister Rubi to remove the religious kada (bangle) that he was wearing. The boy said, “At that time she had asked me to get the Principal’s permission to wear the Kada while at the school and also had called my parents. My uncle, Rupinder Singh Kathuria then had attained the permission and had told the school that religion is important to us and that we would follow it everywhere.”
OpIndia tried to contact the school for its comment on the issue but the calls remained unanswered. However, Rupinder Singh Kathuria, the uncle of the boy talked to OpIndia and said that the matter had been resolved at the local level and that the school had issued an apology for their actions.
On Friday, Hindu organizations and members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a protest against the Upper Superintendent of Police in Shrirampur, Ahmednagar district in a case of alleged love jihad. Several Police officers including Police Inspector Harshvardhan Gavali of Shrirampur have been accused of misbehaving and threatening the family of the minor victim girl who has been abducted 18 days ago, is yet to be found.
A minor Dalit girl was abducted by Aman Sheikh who posed himself as Amrut Khairnar to entrap the girl in a love affair. The girl, a resident of Shrirampur was abducted from Shirdi where she had gone with her family to visit the Sai Baba temple in the second week of November.
The BJP on December 2 alleged that the Ahmednagar district police were delaying the action to favour the accused and his family. As reported earlier, the victim girl (17) will become 18 on December 6 this year. BJP’s Dattatray Popatrao Khemnar had issued a letter to the Upper Superintendent of Police on November 30 saying that the party members would start protests against the Police if the latter failed to find the girl within 24 hours.
Copy of letter submitted by BJP on November 30, obtained by OpIndia
Accordingly, several Hindu organizations and BJP members staged protests today outside the Srirampur Police station and demanded strict and immediate police action in the case. The parents of the Dalit girl also could be seen at the protest site. However, the police arrived at the spot and asked the demonstrators to stop the protest. They also took the sobbing parents of the victim along with them.
Khemnar in the letter dated November 30 mentioned that the girl was trapped by Aman Sheikh in a love affair under a fake Hindu name. He had introduced himself as Amrut Khairnar had also arranged for fake identity documents including Aadhaar Card to make the victim girl believe that he was a Hindu. “He has sent a few letters since the abduction but they all are to distract and fool the Police. It’s been 18 days and the girl has not been found. The police is also deliberately delaying action in the case”, the letter further alleged.
Several videos of the protests have been attained by OpIndia in which the parents of the minor Dalit girl could be seen sobbing over the matter. Police Inspector Harshvardhan Gavali of Shrirampur has been accused of misbehaving with the victim’s family. Meanwhile, one of the police officers could also be heard saying in Marathi, “..mulila sambhalta ala nahi (you couldn’t handle your girl properly).”
PI Harshvardhan Gavali of Shrirampur @NagarPolice misbehaved with relatives of Dalit juvenile girl abducted in #LoveJihad. Police have traced d girl but didn’t recover to let her complete 18 year age so that accused can b set free; FIR Atrocities Act must against Police @NCPCR_pic.twitter.com/eKa4vQiyRC
Earlier, the father of the girl had confirmed that his daughter was abducted by Aman Sheikh. “Aman Sheikh stays in the ward number two area of the city. His mother owns a beauty parlour and we have been asking her about our daughter since she disappeared. Even Aman is not seen around in the city and at his home”, the father of the girl had stated. Meanwhile, her mother said that they had lodged a police complaint and had been asking the police to launch an investigation into the case.
It was also reported that the victim is a minor girl and will be 18 on December 6 this year. Her school leaving certificate obtained by OpIndia also reveals that the victim girl was born on December 6, 2004. On the other hand, the fake Aadhaar card created by the accused shows his birth date as July 6, 1998. The girl is still missing and police investigations are underway.
The Kerala State government told the High Court Friday that they are ready to hand over the security of the Vizhinjam Port area to the central forces. Now, after the Pinarai Vijayan government’s approval, the Kerala HC has sought the Centre’s stand on the issue.
The state government was replying to a petition filed by the Adani group requesting the deployment of central forces to maintain security in the port area. The plea came in the aftermath of the attack on the Vizhinjam police station in Kerala on Sunday night, wherein a group of protesters led by the Latin Catholic church damaged police cars and injured at least 29 police personnel in a demonstration against the construction of the Adani Group port.
The protests are led by the Vizhinjam Action Council, which is backed by the Latin Catholic Archdiocese. The protestors have blocked the road to the port construction site with temporary sheds, and are not allowing the movement of vehicles.
Police protecting protestors instead of the employees: Adani Group tells Kerala HC
The counsel representing the Adani group contended in court that the construction of the port in Vizhinjam is being hampered and that the state is not providing security to allow construction to proceed, and hence central forces should be assigned.
The counsel added that the Kerala police have been protecting the group of protestors instead of its employees involved in the construction of the Vizhinjam post, which, he maintained, was a violation of the court order. The High Court had directed the police to ensure that necessary police protection is granted to Adani Port employees to carry out the activities permitted in accordance with the contracts entered into by them.
Speaking further on the Kerala police’s reluctance to deal with the situation, Adani Group’s counsel informed the court that protesters were not allowing vehicles carrying building materials, including rock, to pass through to the port construction site. Regardless, the cops were seen standing as quiet spectators, clearly disregarding the court instructions, said the lawyer.
The Counsel added, “If the police are not in a position to give the protection, and at the same time, rule of law demands that the orders of the Court be protected if that be so, it is only imperative that we seek the assistance of Central force, which is a force of our country”He thus pleaded that at least the port area be guarded by the Central forces, while the remaining could be guarded by the police.
The Kerala High Court then asked the Additional Solicitor General for India to get instructions regarding the deployment of Central forces to maintain security in the port area.
Justice Anu Sivaraman directed both the State Government and the Central Government to discuss the matter and inform the Court regarding the steps taken.
The matter is now listed on Wednesday, December 7.
Amid criticism for not handling the situation, Kerala CM says Vizhinjam port project work to continue come what may
Meanwhile, amidst criticism for not being able to provide adequate protection to the Adani group employees, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday that the project will be realised despite the ongoing protests.
Vijayan also said the agitations were with an “intention to destroy peace in the area” and assured stern action against those who were involved in the violence.
“We have made it clear that the project will be implemented come what may. Protesters, if they come in any dress or form, we are least worried. The government is committed and will not be cowed down by such threats,” he said.
While the left government has reaffirmed its support of the major port project, Viswa Hindu Parishath and Hindu Aikya Vedi took out a march on Wednesday in support of the project. They demanded that the culprits of the violence should be arrested. The Hindu activists also said that government should implement the high court order and expedite the construction of the port.
LDF sees a foreign hand behind the protests
The ruling Left Democratic Front in the meanwhile has alleged an international conspiracy against the construction of the Vizhinjam Port. LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan said that the conspirators are “hell-bent on denying Kerala its rightful place on the global trade map” to help other foreign entities, and he demanded an inquiry to identify these conspirators. Similarly, CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretary K. Mohanan said that attempts to block the project site to stop work have the makings of a deep-rooted and multinational plot.
The allegations of conspiracy behind the protests can be true, because NIA officials visited Vizhinjam on Wednesday to probe the circumstances that led to the violence. NIA is reportedly probing whether external forces were involved in the protests, during which the Vizhinjam police station was vandalised.
Mob led by Latin Catholic Church halts construction at Vizhinjam port
The Adani Group had approached the Kerala High Court in the wake of the attack on the Vizhinjam police station in Kerala on Sunday night, in which a group of protesters led by the Latin Catholic church damaged police cars and injured at least 29 police personnel in a demonstration against the construction of the Adani Group port. Protesters attempted to block a vehicle by smashing police jeeps. Two police officers reportedly suffered significant injuries.
On Sunday, charges were filed against at least 15 Latin Catholic priests, including Archbishop Thomas J. Netto, Fr. Christudas, Fr. Eugine Perera, and Lawrence Gulas, in relation to violent clashes in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, between those who supported and opposed the harbour project.
Following the attack, the Court issued various orders requiring the police to provide Adani Port employees with the required police protection in order for them to carry out the operations permitted under the contracts they signed.
The Court made it clear that, while the protest can continue peacefully and lawfully, it cannot extend to impeding the petitioners’, its subcontractors’, workers’, or authorities’ access to and from the project site, or obstructing project activities without legal permission.
The Court has also stated multiple times that if the State government and police are unable to maintain peace and order in the area, required actions will be taken to seek suitable assistance from the central government. Since the protests showed no indications of abating, the Adani Group filed a contempt of court pleas.
The Vizhinjam Port
Vizhinjam Port is a major port project in India, and has strategic importance for the country. It will become India’s first container transhipment hub, which means India will no longer have to depend on Colombo port and Hambantota International Port in Sri Lanka for container transhipment. Vizhinjam Port is going to be a major container transhipment hub in the lucrative east-west trade route, and the Sri Lankan ports will see a drop in business after the Indian port is completed.
It is notable that Hambantota Port was constructed with funds from China, is a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and is jointly operated by China and Sri Lanka. Apart from the two ports in Sri Lanka, Vizhinjam Port will also compete with Dubai and Singapore.
For years now, the bullies of the leftwing ecosystem have used Twitter to set political discourse and impose their views on others. That changed dramatically after Elon Musk took over Twitter, sending leftist commentariats into a tizzy and western publications into scaremongering over the fate of the social media behemoth under a tech billionaire who is determined to turn Twitter into a free speech paradise.
Several western dailies and media organisations have partaken in the propaganda efforts to undermine Musk’s takeover of Twitter, publishing countless articles to stoke unfounded fears about how his ambitions for the social media company would fuel hate speech and extremism in different parts of the world, helping ‘fascists’ dominate the public discourse.
As a part of this global Left’s effort to dissuade Musk from dismantling dubious mechanisms and structures built by Twitter’s preceding leadership, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network, recently platformed propagandists from Alt News, a fringe far-leftist organisation infamous for shielding Islamists and pushing fake news that hews to its agenda.
In an article about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, NBC quoted Alt News’ Pratik Sinha, Mohammed Zubair, and others to malign India and kindle fears of the social media platform firehosing hate speech and extremism under its new owner.
Titled as ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter risks opening floodgates of hate speech and extremism in India’, the article relies on statements made by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who is out on bail in connection with his incendiary Twitter posts insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
Source:nbcnews.com
In order to lend credence to its report and to possibly whitewash Alt News co-founders’ troubled antecedents, the American media outlet also peddled fake news that Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair were ‘unofficially’ nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, even though there exists no official list of the nominees for the prize.
“The fact-checking website’s work debunking fake news and calling out hate speech by powerful people against India’s ethnic and religious minorities has made it one of the country’s leading independent news outlets, earning its founders a mention on an unofficial shortlist for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize,” the NBC article read.
Relevant section from the NBC’s article
The objective of such an article cannot be mistaken: to malign India as a hub of non-left extremism and hate speech as Elon Musk refashions Twitter and shreds its prejudice against voices that challenge the left’s political discourse and expose its hypocrisy. And in doing so, the American daily has relied on peddling fake news and glorifying one of the most notorious websites known for pushing propaganda under the garb of ‘fact-checking’.
NBC peddles fake news that Zubair and Sinha were on ’unofficial list’ of Nobel Peace Prize nominations
While NBC article claimed that founders of Alt News were unofficially listed for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the reality is that Zubair and Sinha were never nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a lie which the duo allowed to travel far and wide even though they pride themselves on being ‘fake checkers’.
Earlier this year, TIME promoted a PR hoax claiming that Zubair and Sinha are among frontrunners for the Nobel Peace Prize. The propagandists from India’s Left ecosystem instantly lapped up the PR hoax, amplifying the fake news that the duo had indeed been nominated for the prestigious prize.
However, all these claims of Muhammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha were proven to be misleading and wrong. The Nobel committee does not reveal shortlists for awards for 50 years, but the source where the duo’s name comes from made it crystal clear that they were not even in contention, let alone in shortlist. Actually, the duo’s name was added as an afterthought in a Nobel Peace prize shortlist made by Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), which had actually ‘shortlisted’ Harsh Mander, and added the names of Md Zubair and Pratik Sinha as other probable names from India.
In February this year, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) shortlisted people from around the world who they deemed fit to receive the Nobel Prize. Though their list has nothing to do with the actual list of laureates that receive the prize, they have been doing it since 2002. According to PRIO’s website, their list is widely covered by the international media. This year, PRIO’s director Henrik Urdal, who has been in the post since 2017, named Harsh Mander as one of the five shortlisted candidates that he thinks would be the best fit to receive the Nobel Prize.
In the para on shortlisted Harsh Mander, Alt News’s Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha were also listed as worthy candidates for a prize focused on “combating religious extremism and intolerance in India” as they have contributed significantly “to debunking misinformation aimed at vilifying Muslims in India.” However, they did not find a place in the five names and were mentioned under Harsh Mander’s “nomination” as an afterthought.
The five shortlisted by PRIO were 1. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya & Alexei Navalny, 2. International Court of Justice, 3. Harsh Mander & Karwan-e-Mohabbat, 4. Ilham Tohti, Agnes Chow & Nathan Law, and 5. HRDAG & CANVAS, and the Alt News founders were not among them. They were just mentioned under the para of Harsh Mander & Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
Now, it is to be noted that the PRIO’s list has nothing to do with the Nobel Peace Prize. As per the guidelines laid down by the Nobel Committee, the director of PRIO is eligible to nominate anyone for the prize. However, according to PRIO’s website, PRIO’s director does not nominate anyone for the prize because of his active role as a commentator on the Peace Prize. It further reads, “Neither the Director nor the Institute he leads have any form of association with the Nobel Institute or the Norwegian Nobel Committee.”
Secondly, NBC kept referring to Alt News as ‘fact-checking website’ whereas it has been an inexorable source of fake news and propaganda aimed at undermining the current regime in India and shielding Islamists responsible for undermining India’s social fabric.
Recently, Bhilwara Police arrested PFI leader Abdul Salam over raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans after forensic examination of a video that has gone viral earlier this year. The video, which was from February 2021, showed throngs of rabble rousers chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Alt News and its co-founder Mohammed Zubair had given a clean chit saying that not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ but ‘SDPI Zindabad’ slogans were raised in the rally.
After police said forensic examination revealed the slogans chanted were ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, the other co-founder, Pratik Sinha, came to the defence of those chanting pro-Pakistan slogans. Sinha dismissed the forensic report as ‘faulty’ and said that the protesters were shouting ‘SDPI Zindabad’ and not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.
Alt News and its devious modus operandi
Alt News has been leaning on dishonest methods as a part of its modus operandi to give a boost to its propaganda of keeping the Muslim victimhood narrative alive. It has mastered several methods to further its narrative while disproving a contrarian worldview. Besides using reverse search images for its propaganda purposes, it has also emphasised nitpicking about petty and irrelevant details of an incident to muddle the readers and sow doubts about the narrative around the incident.
For instance, in 2020, when the videos of Muslim vegetable vendors applying saliva to their produce had gone viral, Alt News tried to water down the act by alleging that the video of a Muslim vegetable vendor spitting on the vegetables was not from April but from February, as if spitting on the vegetables in February was totally in accordance with the prevailing societal norms.
Pratik Sinha—a veteran fake new peddler
Pratik Sinha, the co-founder of Alt News, has an equally unenviable record of peddling fake news.
In December 2020, a social media user exposed the AltNews co-founder Pratik Sinha for flooding social media platforms with fake and misleading information. The social media user highlighted that Sinha, a self-described ‘fact-checker’, has an inveterate habit of spreading lies and distortions and has been doing so with impunity for the last few years.
The social media user posted a string of tweets exposing Sinha for spreading misinformation and lies. He shared various instances when the so-called ‘fact-checker’ was caught red-handed for disseminating propaganda.
The Twitter user said that Sinha, a Hindu-hater masquerading as a ‘fact-checker’, made a career out of abusing and denigrating PM Modi through dubious portals such as Truth of Gujarat, eopinion and Alt News.
Mohammed Zubair triggers Islamist violence in India, resulting in the deaths of innocent Hindus, including Kanhaiya Lal and Umesh Kolhe
Earlier this year, Mohammed Zubair sparked controversy after sharing a truncated video of Nupur Sharma’s comments on the Times Now debate and accused her of making derogatory remarks against the Islamic Prophet.
Before long, the controversy gained epic proportions and transcended national boundaries as Arab countries made unsolicited comments, causing a diplomatic nightmare for India’s mission in the Persian Gulf. Islamists took to the streets, running riot and indulging in vandalism, and arson against what they perceived as an insult to Prophet Muhammad. Protest marches calling for the beheading of Nupur Sharma were carried out as participants shouted “sar tan se juda” chants against Nupur Sharma. In one instance, her effigy was left hanging from a cable, reminding Hindus of the fate that awaits them should they dare cite authentic and reliable Islamic Hadiths to comment on Prophet Muhammad.
While Islamists went on a rampage on the streets in many cities across the country, it was essentially Mohammed Zubair who was responsible for kindling a fire that had gone on to assume uncontrollable proportions. It was Zubair’s dog-whistling that made a mountain out of a molehill and painted a target behind the back of Nupur Sharma and anyone and everyone who came out in her support.
The ominous hounding of Nupur Sharma prompted many to extend their support to her. Kanhaiya Lal from Udaipur, Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, and many others extended their solidarity with the beleaguered leader, voicing their support for her amid the death threats from Islamists.
And so, Lal was a marked man the moment he came out in support of Nupur Sharma. Islamists, provoked by Mohammed Zubair, dished out death threats to him for what they considered an unpardonable sin committed against Prophet. And days later, the Hindu man was killed for something as trivial as just sharing a social media post in support of Nupur Sharma.
Even though the Islamists on the ground were responsible for killing him, the buck does not stop there. They were puppets working at the behest of their masters, who were equally blameworthy for goading them into murdering Lal. In essence, Mohammed Zubair’s dog-whistling against Nupur Sharma instigated Islamists, who then went on to kill Lal for his support to the former BJP leader.
This makes Mohammed Zubair guilty of ‘stochastic terrorism’, a concept defined as the public demonisation of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted. It was Mohammed Zubair who spearheaded a campaign against Nupur Sharma, accusing her of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and letting loose an army of Islamists against her that ultimately hacked Lal to death.
A similar fate befell Umesh Kolhe, a chemist living in Maharashtra’s Amravati, who was murdered by four Muslim assailants while he was returning from his pharmacy on the night of June 22. Kolhe, too, was murdered for his social media post supporting Nupur Sharma, who was hounded by Islamists and egged on by the likes of Mohammed Zubair for her comments defending her faith on a TV news debate where a fellow Muslim panellist was mocking Shivling discovered inside the premises of the contentious Gyanvapi mosque compound.
Mohammed Zubair: Chronic fake news peddler with Hinduphobic tendencies
Days after India witnessed violent protests that saw Islamists running riot, indulging in violence over the alleged insult of Prophet Muhammad, Twitter user The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeye) shared a collage of past tweets and posts by Mohammed Zubair mocking Hindu Gods and beliefs.
In one of the tweets shared by The Hawk Eye, Zubair is seen mocking Shivling and comparing it with the top view of the Vatican City. He said the post comparing Shivling with the Vatican City inspired him to come up with a parody Facebook page ‘Unofficial: Subramanian Swamy’ in 2014.
Apparently, one of the posts on the Facebook page ‘Unofficial Mohammed Zubair‘ mocks Arun Govil to take a swipe at Lord Ram, suggesting that ISRO must consult the actor because he would know more about the rocketry.
Another post by ‘Unofficial Mohammed Zubair’ shows an aeroplane under the water with the caption: “Breaking: Pushpak Vimana used by Ravan 5000 years ago found in the Indian Ocean.”
Besides ridiculing Hindu Gods, Zubair has also poked fun at Hindu beliefs and took a dig at Sanskrit, regarded as one of the most important languages of Hinduism and the means of communication by the Hindu Gods. After being exposed for his Hinduphobic posts on Facebook, Zubair deactivated his page.
On top of all this, Zubair is also a consummate fake news peddler. Here are 20 instances when Zubair has resorted to sharing falsehoods and misinformation. Though this list is not exhaustive, it demonstrates Zubair’s penchant for fake news.
The Congress party has yet again courted controversy for allowing the 1984 anti-Sikh riot accused Jagdish Tytler to campaign for it in the run-up to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.
In a video shared by Times Now, Tytler was seen campaigning for the grand old party. Given that over 3000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi during the 1984 riots, the decision of the Congress party to entertain him has rubbed salt in the wounds of the families of the deceased.
The development has angered members of the Sikh community, who reside in large numbers in the National Capital. It must be mentioned that the MCD polls are scheduled for December 4, 2022.
1984 riots accused #JagdishTytler campaigns for Congress ahead of the upcoming MCD polls in #Delhi.
Earlier #Congress had also faced flak for inclusion of Tytler into the party’s star campaigner list for the polls.
While speaking about the development, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa remarked, “Congres is a party of killers. And the Gandhi family openly supports such killers. And the most shameful thing occurred yesterday when they made Jagdish Tytler address a public rally.”
“Congress is sending a clear message that if people don’t vote for it, then, it will bring in people like Tytler and orchestrate mass killings. This is clearly an attempt at intimidation. We are not afraid of those people, who killed us with impunity with the support of the government.”
He requested the Election Commission (EC) to take cognisance of the matter and asked the voters to abstain from supporting the Congress party, which endorses criminals such as Jagdish Tytler.
1984 सिख क़त्लेआम के दोषी, गांधी परिवार के लाड़ले जगदीश टाइटलर को दिल्ली में चुनाव सभा संबोधित करवा के कांग्रेस सिखों को डराना चाहती है अब हालात बदल गए हैं। नए भारत के सिख कांग्रेस से नहीं डरते और कांग्रेस की इस बदसलूकी का जवाब 4 Dec को @BJP4Delhi को #MCDElection में जिताकर देंगे pic.twitter.com/2P41j3eIXJ
Last month, the Congress party released the list of 40 members for the Pradesh Election Committee for Delhi Municipal Corporation Polls (MCD), and the name of 1984 anti-Sikh Riots accused Jagdish Tytler was included in the list.
Who is Jagdish Tytler
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots erupted in the aftermath of the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and culminated in the horrific killings of over 2800 people, according to government data.
Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler were accused of a direct role in instigating the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India. Jagdish Tytler was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 and later served as the Union Minister of State for Surface Transport.
He was only dropped in 2009 by Congress due to the controversy over his actions in the 1984 riots. The CBI gave a clean chit to Tytler during the second term of the UPA government. However, the closure report was rejected by a Sessions Court, and an investigation into his role was requested.
Despite public calls to cut relations with Tytler, Congress has frequently accommodated him on public platforms. In January 2019, Congress was criticised for granting Tytler a front-row seat during the ceremony of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit taking over as Delhi Congress chief on January 16, 2019.
On Friday, December 2, Supreme Court cancelled the anticipatory bail granted to five ex-officials accused in the 1994 ISRO espionage case pertaining to the falsification of evidence to frame scientist Nambi Narayanan.
A bench led by Justice M.R. Shah directed the Kerala High Court to re-hear the anticipatory bail pleas and ruled that, “all the appeals are allowed, and the impugned judgments are hereby quashed and set aside.”
BREAKING: Supreme Court protects from arrest for 5 weeks — four persons including former Director-General of Police (DGP) in a case relating to alleged framing of scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 ISRO espionage; asks Kerala HC to consider their anticipatory bail pleas
The top court asked Kerala HC to decide on the matter within a period of four weeks. As an interim arrangement, the Supreme Court also granted protection from arrest to the accused for five weeks till the Kerala HC issues its order.
Notably, Kerala HC had granted anticipatory bail to the five accused in the case namely – Former Kerala DGP Siby Mathews, former Gujarat ADGP RB Sreekumar and former Deputy Central Intelligence Officer, PS Jayaprakash – who were IB officials in 1994 – and two former Kerala Police officers S. Vijayan and Thampi S. Durga.
The bench said that the Kerala High Court failed to take several aspects into consideration while passing the order. “The High Court has committed certain wrongs. It has not dealt with Justice Jain committee report, individual allegations not examined. High Court should deal with individual cases individually”, the court said.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to the accused persons saying that this might derail the investigation.
Previously, the CBI informed the Supreme Court that some scientists were tortured and framed in the case, causing a delay in the development of cryogenic engines, causing India’s space programme to be delayed by nearly a decade.
It is pertinent to note that the CBI in its 1996 investigation report concluded that the cases against Nambi Narayanan and others were fabricated. The CBI in its report had observed that “The aforesaid IB officials comprising the team enquiring into ISRO case acted in an unprofessional manner and were privy to the arrest of six innocent persons, thereby causing them immense mental and physical agony.” The CBI had also clearly indicted Srikumar for “failing in their duty to conduct the inquiry in an objective and fair manner.”
The Supreme Court ordered a high-level investigation into the role of erring police officials in the Nambi Narayanan espionage case in 2018. On September 14, 2018, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee and ordered the Kerala government to pay Nambi Narayanan Rs 50 lakh in compensation for subjecting him to extreme humiliation.
The Supreme Court described the police action against Narayanan as a “psycho-pathological treatment,” and stated that Nambi Narayanan’s liberty and dignity, which are fundamental to his human rights, were jeopardised because he was forced to face “cynical abhorrence” despite his past achievements.
Former congress leader Jaiveer Shergill joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday. Jaiveer Shergill has been appointed the national spokesperson of the BJP.
#BREAKING | Former Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill joins BJP.
Along with this, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and former Congress leader Sunil Jakhar have been made the national executive members of the party. BJP also inducted P minister Swatantra Dev Singh, former Uttarakhand BJP chief Madan Kaushik, former Congress leader Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, and former Punjab minister Manoranjan Kalia in the National Executive of the party.
Notably, on August 24, Jaiveer Shergill resigned from the post of National Spokesperson of the Congress party and had also left the party. He tendered his resignation to the Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi, where he claimed that the vision of the decision-makers was no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth.
In his resignation letter, he wrote, “I hereby resign from the post of National Spokesperson of the Party. The primary reason being that the ideology and the vision of the current decision-makers of the Indian National Congress are no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and modern India.”
Hailing from Punjab, Shergill, who is a lawyer by profession, is considered to be one of the most prominent young leaders. In August, news agency ANI quoted him saying, “I’ve resigned from all posts in the Congress party. The primary reason for the resignation is that the decision-making in INC is no longer being done, keeping the interests of the public. It’s purely being influenced by a coterie who merely indulges in sycophancy.”
Also, Sunil Jakhar, former senior Congress leader and former chief of its Punjab unit formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party days after he quit the Congress in May this year.
Captain Amarinder Singh, the former chief minister of Punjab, joined the BJP in September after merging his party, the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC), with the BJP. Following his abrupt resignation as Punjab chief minister due to disagreements with the senior party leadership prior to the state assembly elections earlier this year, the veteran Congress politician was inducted into the BJP on September 19 in the presence of agricultural minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Law minister Kiren Rijiju.
Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Union government to grant the Scheduled Caste status to Dalit converts to Islam. The intervention application filed says that it is important for Dalit converts to Islam to be considered Scheduled Caste so they can get equal opportunities in government jobs, educational institutions and the employment sector.
Interestingly, the petition states that somehow, the non-inclusion of these converts stops them from freely propagating their faith. According to reports, the plea says that the denial of the Scheduled Caste status to Muslim converts deprives them of political, educational, and other benefits given to non-Muslim and non-Christian Scheduled Castes persons and it is a calculated historical wrong to restrain the free profession, practice, and propagation of religion.
It has been submitted that the truth of the caste system cannot be denied and the effect of society is inevitable on all the religious communities it inhabits.
‘In the present issue, a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste is provided benefits if he is a Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist. However, if the same person is a Muslim, he will not be provided with those benefits. This distinction is totally arbitrary and is sans any reasonable classification,’ the petition has stated.
While the Jamiat has approached the Supreme Court demanding Scheduled Caste status for converted Muslims, the BJP, India’s ruling party, has launched a massive outreach to the Pasmanda Muslim community. BJP launched a program to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, who are “lower caste” Muslims, historically oppressed by the “upper caste” Ashraf Muslims. Earlier in July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a clarion call to unite Pasmandas. In the National Executive meeting that concluded in Hyderabad earlier in July, PM Modi had asked BJP workers to reach out to the downtrodden and oppressed Pasmanda Muslim community.
These two developments – Jamiat demanding SC status for converted Muslims and the BJP reaching out to Pasmanda Muslims in conjunction could spell doom for Hindus at large.
Pasmanda is a Persian word. It broadly means backward and disadvantaged people. Muslims who come under Pasmanda are also called Arzal. Ashrafs come from the upper castes among Muslims. For example, Sheikh, Sayyid, Mirza, Khan etc. Ashrafs constitute only 15-20 per cent of the total Muslim population in India, the rest are Pasmanda.
The demand by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind essentially draws on the Liberal argument that caste is an ingrained construct that sticks with individuals regardless of their religious association – that even after individuals convert to far more “egalitarian” religions such as Islam or Christianity, the societal evil of caste discrimination continues to haunt them.
We are told that the entire reason Dalits convert from Hinduism to Christianity or Islam is that Hinduism is discriminatory and that these religions would provide equality, respect and security. If that is the case, the moment a Dalit changes his religion, there is an assumption that he is shedding the supposed historic oppression to become a part of an egalitarian society. Reservations were accorded to Scheduled Castes (Dalits) essentially because of the historical oppression that the community faced. The oppression then led to economic and social backwardness. As far as social backwardness is concerned, that ideally should be taken care of the moment the individual converts to Christianity or Islam. The economic backwardness is now taken care of by Economic Weaker Section (EWS). Interestingly, the petition by the Jamiat alludes to both these reasons to justify the demand for SC status to converted Muslims saying that the categorisation and the reservation that would accrue owing to the categorisation would help them get economic opportunities and social justice.
However, if one truly thinks about the argument given by the Jamiat, which draws from the liberal argument that caste is an ingrained social evil in India regardless of religious affiliation, one also has to ask why then is the caste construct used to deride Hindus with claims that only Hinduism is the vessel for this social evil. It is true that the construct of caste discrimination exists in Islamic and Christian societies, however, that has nothing to do with Hinduism. These individuals converted to Islam or Christianity precisely because they wanted to escape caste discrimination. Once they convert out of the religion, if they continue to face discrimination, that is a problem of Christianity and Islam and those individuals can’t possibly get reservations based on the assumption of discrimination that accrued when they were Hindus.
They essentially want state protection while their own discriminate against them, but use their Hindu identity to do so – preserving the propaganda of Christianity and Islam.
Be that as it may, it is important to understand the agenda behind these tropes being furthered not just by the liberals, but not by the Jamiat, based on the liberal argument.
The aim of furthering this argument is simply to facilitate the conversion of Hindus into Islam and Christianity and remove one of the few obstacles to such conversion – the loss of reservation benefits. It is no secret that the Christian and Muslim community provides enough coercive incentives to convert Hindus – from monetary benefits to false promises of an egalitarian society – and in worst cases – intimidation and threats. In several cases, reservation benefits given to Scheduled Caste Hindus is an impediment to the nefarious designs of monotheistic faiths. Many Hindus understand the benefits they get via reservations and refuse to convert. The argument that caste continues to haunt Dalits even after they convert from Hinduism is essentially designed not towards social justice because they continue to deny that Islam and Christianity also have a system of caste hierarchy and blame only Hinduism for it, but to further the political trope of Jai Bheem Jai Meem, which essentially attempts to form a mythical alliance between Dalits and Muslims against Hindus.
It is pertinent to note that even the PFI document Vision 2047, which talks about converting India into an Islamic nation, talks about this mythical trope. The PFI document said, “From all the cadres who are being given PE, those with talent are to be spotted and recruited to be given advanced training on weapons including firearms and explosives. Meantime, Party should utilise concepts such as ‘National Flag’, ‘Constitution’ and ‘Ambedkar’ to shield the real intention of establishing an Islamic rule and to reach out to SCs/STs/OBCs. We would reach out to executive and judiciary and also strive to infiltrate our members in these at all levels in order to gather information and get a favourable outcome in matters of our interest. Further, liasoning is to be established with foreign Islamic countries for funding and other help”.
The PFI document further says that PFI should form close alliances with the SC/ST/OBC community and win at least a few seats in elections. The alliance that the PFI wants to forge is with 50% Muslims and 10% SC/ST/OBC. In fact, the 10% support they are aiming for becomes trying to gain the trust of 50% SC/ST/OBCs in order to fulfil their dream of restoring power to Muslims.
With the stated goal of Islamists gaining the faith of Schedule Castes and Tribes simply to establish a Sharia state, it becomes even more clear why Jamiat wants to remove the reservation impediment to their campaign of converting Hindus to Islam.
Given this agenda, BJP’s outreach to Pasmanda Muslims and the rhetoric being used to further this outreach becomes far more concerning.
BJP’s Ram Madhav recently asserted that most Pasamanda Muslims converted to Islam due to caste inequalities and discrimination, however, their state has remained the same – and therefore – they need to be reached out to and taken care of.
BJP leader Ram Madhav’s views over Pasmanda Muslims, a clip from Jagran
With Pasmanda Muslims forming 70-80% of the Muslims, the BJP furthering this trope becomes particularly dangerous. They are essentially insinuating then, that most Muslims today converted to Islam because of the discrimination they faced when they were Hindus and that they are still in bad economic and social conditions because of their identity when they were Hindus.
This argument furthers the liberal argument that the root cause of problems even within Islam and Christianity stems from Hinduism, which is patently incorrect. If they convert from Hinduism owing to their social status to more egalitarian options, they cannot possibly continue to blame their Hindu past for their current plight. In fact, the urge to shed that historical and identity baggage is so severe, that often Dalits who convert to Christianity change mostly everything about themselves. Once a Dalit converts, one notices that they change their mannerisms, their linguistic pattern, how they dress and even how they eat. They become a part of the Church congregation or Mosque which in theory, is meant to treat everyone in its people equally. There have in fact been many cases where even the converted Christians and Muslims start disconnecting from their extended family and friends circle because of their newfound identity. The psychology behind that is once the individual is baptised or converted to Islam, they are reborn and start an entirely new chapter of life, therefore, the earlier roots must be abandoned completely. Another reason for this also is that either those newly converted Christians and Muslims start looking down on their Hindu relatives or they believe that with their changed lifestyle (mannerisms, eating habits etc), they are a misfit in the Hindu society they once belonged to.
With such changes, it is fair to assume that the individual converts to Christianity because, in his perception, he would shed his part baggage and achieve upward social mobility. A better social status after conversion is a primary motive for those who convert out of their own free will and even those who are induced to convert. Given that these individuals believe that conversion to a theoretically more egalitarian society would help them shed their past identity baggage completely, it is fair to say that they stop being “Dalits” altogether.
In such a case, for BJP to say that most Muslims today converted because of their past identity and continue to be in abysmal condition due to their past Hindu identity is a dangerous slope that will only legitimise the Muslim demand to remove impediments to conversion. If converted Muslims continue to face discrimination it is because of a problem within the Muslim society – which is discrimination on the basis of tribal and feudal mindset which is indeed independent of their past Hindu identity. In Muslim society, for example, Arabs do consider themselves ‘pure’ and look down upon Muslims of other origins – and that is the problem of the tribal Muslim society – not the Hindu society.
BJP’s outreach to the Muslim community is a political reality, however futile the exercise might be. When BJP repeats tropes like “terrorism has no religion”, while their support base becomes angry, they can still ignore the trope because the reality of the religious identity of terrorism is stark and apparent. However, the caste debate and its contours is a far more complex subject that even their own support base is largely unequipped to deal with. It is also a reality that the contours of the caste debate are set by the Left in order to rub the Hindu nose in the ground. With such tropes being repeated by the BJP, it can only lead to a dangerous situation for Hindus at large and the Hindu case that BJP largely wishes to espouse, leading to Hindus being vilified even for the ills of the Muslim society, leading to the strengthening of the mythical Dalit-Muslim alliance that Islamist organisations like the PFI want to forge in order to Islamise India.
On Thursday, December 1, 2022, the Government Law College in Indore took six of its professors including off duty for allegedly promoting love jihad and other anti-social ideas among the students. The decision came after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) accused these professors of being anti-establishment and encouraging negative anti-social thoughts and fundamentalism against the union government.
The ABVP, on Thursday, protested in Indore alleging that some teachers at the Government New Law College in the city were promoting ‘love jihad’. It was also alleged that the professors were promoting religious fundamentalism and instilling negative things about the country’s government and the army in new students’ minds. Following the protests, the college management has asked for a retired district court judge to probe the allegations.
Along with that, six teachers including four Muslim teachers have been removed from academic work for five days. They are identified as Professor Mirza Moziz Beg, Professor Ameek Khokar, Professor Suhail Ahmed Wani, Professor Milind Kumar Gautam, Professor Feroze Ahmed Meer, and Poornima Bise.
A college official shared the information about this move. Deependra Thakur, president of ABVP’s unit at Government New Law College, said that the complaint was submitted on his behalf to the college principal Dr. Inamur Rahman. It has been alleged that some teachers are promoting religious fanaticism among the new students of this institute. They allegedly put negative thoughts about the army and government of India in their minds. The ABVP has said that the professors have created different messaging groups of students which are used to spread hate messages.
The action was taken after ABVP members met principal Inamur Rahman and lodged a complaint against the teachers. They gheraoed the principal and demanded action against the six teachers accusing them of spreading religious bigotry. They said that the professors talk only about religion in the classes and don’t discuss the course material.
It has also been alleged in the complaint that every Friday, the principal of the college, Muslim teachers, and students of this community go to the mosque to offer namaz. There are no classes at this time. Thakur said, the complaint also alleged that love jihad was being promoted and meat was being consumed on the college campus. It is also alleged that the teachers invite girl students to meet them in private.
College principal Dr. Inamur Rahman said, “The atmosphere in our college is not the same as the allegations being made. However, ABVP’s complaint is serious and I have decided to get it investigated by a retired district court judge.”
He added, “On the complaint of ABVP, six professors have been relieved from academic work for five days so that the investigation is not affected. These include four Muslim teachers. Among those temporarily removed from academic work are two Hindu teachers against whom the ABVP has accused of indiscipline, acting at will, and not talking to students properly.
According to the Times of India, Dr. Bise, who is facing an inquiry, said she was not aware of the action. “There was a ruckus in the college for several hours after 4 pm. I never knew I was embroiled in controversy”, she said. Dr. Baig said he knew about the investigation through online messages. He said, “I have not received any official letter or communication from the institute. After getting anything from the institute, I will be in a position to answer it tomorrow.”
