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‘I did no wrong, so I won’t apologise’: Anand Ranganathan in contempt case over ‘whatever happened to dissent being safety valve of democracy’ remark

OpIndia Staff
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‘I did no wrong, so I won’t apologise’: Anand Ranganathan in contempt case over ‘whatever happened to dissent being safety valve of democracy’ remark

On Tuesday (December 6), scientist and author Dr Anand Ranganathan refused to apologise for supporting remarks made by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and S Gurumurthy condemning Justice S Muralidhar for granting bail to Urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha. 

Anand Ranganathan who was made a party in the contempt case against Gurumurthy and Vivek Agnihotri has issued a statement and said that he did nothing wrong and will not apologise.

Taking to Twitter, Ranganathan said, “My statement on today’s developments in the Delhi High Court, in the suo motu criminal contempt case regarding relief provided by the hon’ble judge to UAPA-accused Gautam Navlakha. I have done nothing wrong. I will NOT apologize.”

In his statement, Ranganathan said that he was made a party of the contempt of court case filed against Vivek Agnihotri and Gurumurthy for his tweets, “I stand with them” and “Whatever happened to dissent being the safety valve of democracy?,” both the tweets were unilaterally withheld by Twitter back then. 

Incidentally, ‘Dissent being the safety valve of democracy’ was used by the Supreme Court of India when Navlakha was arrested.

Ranganathan further clarified that he supported the two not only because he is a free-speech absolutist but also because is “fundamentally opposed to the contempt of court charge.” 

It is due to his opposition to contempt charges that he even supported a “rogue Prashant Bhushan” despite disagreeing “vehemently with his opinion on a Supreme Court judge and his judgment.”

This comes after Vivek Agnihotri tendered a written apology in the Delhi High Court. However, a bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh asked Agnihotri to appear in person in the court and apologise.

“I have done nothing wrong, and I continue to oppose the criminal contempt of court charge, and I remain a free-speech absolutist, and so I will not apologise,” Dr Anand Ranganathan said in a statement released on Twitter. 

It is important to note here that Economist S Gurumurthy was dropped as a respondent in the case. As informed by his lawyer, Dr Gurumurthy had refused to apologize, but since Twitter user who had originally posted had deleted tweets, he withdrew his tweets.

On May 4 this year, Anand Ranganathan, Vivek Agnihotri and Swarajya Magazine were served fresh notices by the Delhi High Court in the case. 

Refusing to apologise, Ranganathan said in his statement on Tuesday that “I have done nothing wrong and continue to oppose criminal contempt of court charge and will not apologise. I remain a free-speech absolutist. I have remarked on this once and saying it again, if I’m not in jail right now it is because the State has decided that I need not be jailed, however, if now the state has decided otherwise, so be it.”

Anand Ranganathan mired in “contempt of court” case

It all began when Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao wrote a letter to then Chief Justice Rajendra Menon about an article written by S Gurumurthy accusing Justice Muralidhar of bias in granting bail to Urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregoan case. On Desh Kapur’s blog ‘Dhristikone,’ Gurumurthy wrote the article “Why has Delhi High Court Justice Muralidhar’s relationship with Gautam Navlakha not been disclosed?” The article was retweeted in a tweet by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who received a contempt of court notice as well. 

Anand Ranganathan condemned this action by the High Court in a couple of tweets. It turned out that certain tweets of his were withheld in India with the message “This tweet from @ARanganathan72 has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.” The two tweets were withheld evidently in response to legal demand which was criticising the contempt of court notices that were earlier served to S Gurumurthy and Vivek Agnihotri. It was later known that the same charges had been levied against Dr Ranganathan as well.

Update (11 December, 2022): The article earlier mentioned Dr Gurumurthy had offered unconditional apology. However, he has not apologised for the same as informed by his lawyer and the article has been updated to reflect the same.

Elon Musk fires Twitter lawyer Jim Baker over his involvement in censoring Hunter Biden’s laptop and links to FBI’s Russia probe against Trump

OpIndia Staff
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Elon Musk fires Twitter lawyer Jim Baker over his involvement in censoring Hunter Biden’s laptop and links to FBI’s Russia probe against Trump

On December 6 (local time), it was revealed that the delay in the second edition of Twitter Files was due to the revelation that former Deputy General Counsel James Baker was found to be reviving the Twitter Files. As per reports, he was immediately fired by the new owner of the company Elon Musk. Baker was allegedly involved in the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop story by the social media platform.

As per the expose published by freelance journalist Matt Taibbi, it was revealed how top officials at Twitter dealt with the Hunter Biden story in New York Post in October 2020. Notably, Baker was general counsel at the FBI before joining Twitter. He was also a key figure in the investigation into the alleged interference of Russia in the 2016 presidential elections.

Baker was involved in the discussion about if the story would fall under the Twitter policy against ‘hacked materials’. In one of the emails during a discussion over the story, Baker had written, “I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked. At this stage, however, it’s reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted.” He was replying to an email sent by a Twitter executive seeking information if they could “truthfully claim” that the laptop policy would be “part of the policy” against hacked material.

As per Fox News report, in 2016, Baker met Attorney Michael Sussmann, who gave Baker purported data and white papers demonstrating an alleged covert communication channel between Trump Organisation and Alfa Bank, a Russian entity. It was further reported that initially, Sussman informed Baker he was not working for anyone but later billed Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the work. Later, in 2022, he was acquitted on one count of making a false statement to the FBI.

Furthermore, Baker was also involved in the FISA warrant application submitted to initiate surveillance on Carter Page, who was involved in former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Later, Baker admitted in a statement that his role in the said application was rather “unusual”.

The series of events that led to Baker’s removal from Twitter

On Tuesday (October 6), freelance journalist Taibbi said that two journalists, he and Bari Weiss, were provided with the documents access that was based on the Twitter Files. Following the first release of Twitter Files, they started to observe obstacles to new searches. This was when they discovered that Baker was responsible for releasing the files over the weekend.

Taibbi said, “On Friday, the first instalment of the Twitter files was published here. We expected to publish more over the weekend. Many wondered why there was a delay. We can now tell you part of the reason why. On Tuesday, Twitter Deputy General Counsel (and former FBI General Counsel) Jim Baker was fired. Among the reasons? Vetting the first batch of “Twitter Files” – without knowledge of new management.”

He added, “The process for producing the “Twitter Files” involved delivery to two journalists (Bari Weiss and me) via a lawyer close to new management. However, after the initial batch, things became complicated. Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was Bari Weiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When she called to ask “Jim’s” last name, the answer came back: ‘Jim Baker.'”

“Baker is a controversial figure. He has been something of a Zelig of FBI controversies dating back to 2016, from the Steele Dossier to the Alfa-Server mess. He resigned in 2018 after an investigation into leaks to the press,” he tweeted further.

In a tweet, Taibbi said, “The news that Baker was reviewing the ‘Twitter files’ surprised everyone involved, to say the least.”

Musk said in a Tweet, “In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today.” Replying to a Twitter user who asked if Baker was given a chance to explain himself, Musk said, “Yes. His explanation was …unconvincing.”

Twitter Files

On December 2 (local time), freelance journalist Matt Taibbi published a Twitter thread detailing how the former Legal Head of the company, Vijaya Gadde, was at the helm of the censorship exercise under the garb of vague and arbitrary rules. It is pertinent to note that Gadde was accused of refusing to take down child porn even as the victim’s parents had pleaded for removal.

The internal communications revealed how the Twitter moderation team routinely received directives from the Biden administration to censor tweets. “More to review from the Biden team,” read a response by a Twitter executive dated October 24, 2020. Though the expose revolved around the Hunter Biden story by the New York Post, it was just a drop in the ocean of possible actions Twitter took at the state’s behest.

Interestingly, Taibbi alleged that former CEO and founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey was “kept in the dark” over the coverup of the Hunter Biden story. Since the story broke, there have been calls for booking Gadde for what she did during her tenure at Twitter. Furthermore, Musk announced there would be the second edition of Twitter Files that were supposed to be published on December 3. However, the second edition is still awaited.

Kerala: Drama praising Pakistan wins first prize at a school youth festival in Kozhikode

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: Drama praising Pakistan wins first prize at a school youth festival in Kozhikode

On December 2, Memunda Higher Secondary School won the first prize at the school youth festival in district Kozhikode for a pro-Pakistani play. As per reports, a part of the play titled ‘Boundary’ that raises pro-Pakistani sentiments has made it to social media platforms.

In the play, a girl asks, “We clap when Brazil wins, we cheer when Argentina, Brazil, England and New Zealand win. Then what is the issue when we cheer up for Pakistan”? Replying to her “emotional” question, her mother says, “My dear daughter, what can we do ! Our countrymen have not come up to your level”. Notably, reports suggest that Memunda is a CPM-dominated school.

It is unclear how such a play was allowed in the youth festival. Above all, the play grabbing the first prize raises several eyebrows, especially among right-wing thinkers. Notably, around four years ago, the same school students staged another play titled ‘Kithaab’. It raised several questions, including why women are not allowed to offer prayers at mosques, why there are no male ‘hoors’ in heaven, while women possess half the wisdom of a man and so on.

The Muslim organisations strongly protested the play and said it would not be allowed in the youth festival. However, the school authorities have argued that it was based on the story “Vaank” (Adhaan) by Unni R. However, Unni denied that his story was on similar lines. The school later apologised to the Muslim community and promised it wouldn’t be staged again.

Netizens called it shameful

Netizens have reacted to the clip from the play and called it shameful. Twitter user Arun Prakash said, “Urban Naxals & Jihadis exploiting the school children for their Anti-India & Anti-Hindu Agenda. A drama performed by the students from Memunda HSS in Calicut District of Kerala got first prize in District Art Contest. The drama includes some dialogues arguing for Pakistan.”

Another Twitter user Bharatheeyam said, “What a shame? A school in Kerala has eulogised Pakistan as a more civilised nation, and India didn’t grow enough like Pakistan. What are these communists bent on? Poisoning the young minds?! Shameful.”

Stabbed, left to die by her own family: 9-year-old girl killed by her father Anees, 3 uncles, and grandfather as they wanted to frame Shaqil in a false murder case

OpIndia Staff
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Stabbed, left to die by her own family: 9-year-old girl killed by her father Anees, 3 uncles, and grandfather as they wanted to frame Shaqil in a false murder case

On Monday, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested five members of a family for brutally murdering a nine-year-old girl in a wheat field in Pilibhit. The five accused have been identified as Anees, Shadad, Shehzada, Saleem, and Naseem. The victim girl was the daughter of Anees, the niece of Shadab, Saleem, and Naseem, and the granddaughter of Shehzada.

All five accused were arrested by the Police in the murder case and also for providing falsified information during the investigation.

According to the reports, the girl was murdered by her father and other family members to falsely implicate their rival, a person named Shaqil in the murder case. The girl was initially given sleeping pills and then taken to the wheat fields to execute the murder. The police stated that all five accused confessed to the crime during interrogation and were sent to jail.

“The Class 3 student was found dead on December 3 with her abdomen cut open and visceral organs coming out. An FIR has been lodged against the girl’s father, three uncles, and grandfather under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offence, or giving false information to screen offender). The culprits have been sent to jail,” SHO (Amaria), Mukesh Shukla said.

The girl’s father initially had claimed that she had gone with her uncle Shadab to attend a religious function in a nearby village, Sarainda Patti and has been missing. However, the Police suspected the family members after witnesses at the Sarainda Patti noted that the girl was taken away by Shadab and his brothers and her father.

The reason behind the murder is believed to be family enmity. “The girl’s father, Anees Ahmad from Madhopur village, had an old enmity with Shaqil dating back to 2018 when the former’s younger brother Shadab Ahmad had eloped with the latter’s sister and subsequently married her against the family’s will,” the SP Dinesh Kumar Prabhu was quoted saying.

He added that an FIR was also lodged against Shadab under IPC section 376 (rape) and that the matter was still pending at the Court. “Suspecting foul play, the five accused were taken into custody and they confessed to the gruesome murder during interrogation. We have recovered the murder weapon, brick, and wrapper of sedative pills from the spot”, the SP stated.

According to the SP, Shadab took the child to a neighbouring village, Sarainda Patti, under the guise of attending a religious ceremony. Following that, he led her to an orchard, where he was joined by Anees, his two younger brothers, Naseem and Saleem, and their father, Shahzada. The SP also confirmed that the victim was given sedatives before the murder and was hidden under a heap of paddy straw. The accused then returned home and pretended that the girl had mysteriously gone missing. As per the reports, the accused men also pretended to search for the girl.

“All five men again went to the spot, smashed her head with a brick, and stabbed her with a knife. The accused fled the spot after mutilating the girl and dumping her, trying to create the impression that someone had cruelly killed her,” the Police were quoted.

Later, the accused men claimed they had discovered the missing girl after several hours. However, the girl was still alive, so they wasted approximately half an hour asking her about who attacked her instead of getting her to a nearby medical institution, which resulted in her death. The accused also shot a video of the girl and registered an FIR against Shaqil. They also posted the video online and made it viral over social media. However, the Police confirmed that the video captured by the accused of questioning the victim was fake. “The girl was bewildered and so was unable to name anyone. The video the accused took of the questioning was a ruse,” the Police said. 

Disturbing videos of the brutally stabbed child, gasping for breath, unable to speak anything in her final hours are doing rounds on social media, the murderers had reportedly tried to make her take Shaqil’s name when they found her alive.

A chilling confession by one of the accused shows him admitting that Anees, the child’s father had held her and looked the other way as one of the uncles stabbed her in the stomach, reportedly drawing her intestines out.

The accused have been arrested by the Police and have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offence, or giving false information to screen offender). Further investigations into the case are underway.

Elon Musk vs Wikipedia: How new Twitter owner is exposing the left-wing bias of the user-edited ‘encyclopedia’

OpIndia Staff
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Elon Musk vs Wikipedia: How new Twitter owner is exposing the left-wing bias of the user-edited ‘encyclopedia’

On December 6 (local time), Elon Musk again mocked Wikipedia for its blatant Leftist bias. In a tweet, he said, “Most of Earth: “The MSM is biased.” Wikipedia: “Cite MSM source to confirm this claim.” Wikipedia has a non-trivial left-wing bias.”

He also tagged the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and asked him about his thoughts on the user-edited ‘encyclopedia’ biased nature.

Musk’s reaction came after YouTuber Ian Miles Cheong pointed out that has been a discussion going on Wikipedia to remove the ‘Twitter Files’ page. Ian said, “Wikipedia is voting on the deletion of the entry for Elon Musk’s Twitter Files because the editors have deemed it a “nothing burger” that is “not notable” because the media didn’t give it enough coverage. These people work hand in hand with the MSM to shape the narrative.”

OpIndia looked at the Wikipedia discussion of ‘Twitter Files’ on Wikipedia. While the creator of the article on Wikipedia, who goes by the username Wikisempra, has been trying to put forward his point that the article deserves to stay, several Wikipedia editors found it “nothingburger”. For those unaware, nothingburder means “something that is or turns out to be insignificant or lacking in substance”.

After it was suggested that the article should be deleted, Wikisempra expressed his dismay and said, “To suggest the article for deletion without a single argument on said suggestion is no way to conduct a Wikipedia where we attempt, to be honest. I took care in referencing and am still formatting said references – it is appalling that users would describe work as a “disaster” without saying why.” One of the editors at Wikipedia replied to him and called the Twitter Files nothing burger. “It makes sense to delete this nothing burger. It is not notable enough for its own article and should be in the main Hunter Biden laptop controversy article. The prevailing consensus has been that the files were underwhelming, not bringing to light anything that was not known about Twitter’s handling of the story beforehand,” he said. He also linked to a report from Newsweek to support his claims.

The discussion describes how the ‘Twitter Files’ were only about the Hunter Biden story and nothing else. However, the real essence of the story was not about Hunter Biden but about a highly influential social media platform meddling with the elections.

Elon Musk vs Wikipedia

Elon has a history of highlighting Wikipedia’s biased nature. Replying to a Twitter handle that shares quotes by Elon Musk, who shared one of his famous quotes suggesting how history is being distorted at Wikipedia, he said, “In the past, victory would mean that your enemies are no longer around. These days, they’re not only alive & well but have lots of time on their hands to edit Wikipedia!

Notably, in April 2022, after Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter, he openly called out Wikipedia’s bias and its editors’ complicated relationship with facts. While replying to a Twitter user about how he acquired Tesla and built the empire, Musk said, “They say history is written by the victors, but not on Wikipedia if the losing party is still alive & has lots of time on their hands!”

Musk was referring to the unavailability of the story behind the acquisition of Tesla, which was a shell company and turning it into a multi-billion dollar venture. His statement came as a reply to a discussion where Vaibhav Sisinty of Growth School had said Musk was not the founder of Tesla, but he acquired it. A Twitter user Willy Woo countered how Musk changed the business model of a dying company and fired the founders before it sunk.

This was not the first time Musk had raised questions about the content available on Wikipedia. In 2021 he said, “My wiki is such a dumpster fire. That’s how you know it isn’t curated.”

The Twitter Files

On December 2, freelance journalist Matt Taibbi published a Twitter thread detailing how the former Legal Head of the company, Vijaya Gadde, was at the helm of the censorship exercise to kill the Hunter Biden laptop story under the garb of vague and arbitrary rules. It is pertinent to note that Gadde was accused of refusing to take down child porn even as the victim’s parents had pleaded for removal.

The internal communications revealed how the Twitter moderation team routinely received directives from the Biden campaign team to censor tweets just before the 2020 US elections. “More to review from the Biden team,” read a response by a Twitter executive dated October 24, 2020. Though the expose revolved around the Hunter Biden story by the New York Post, it was just a drop in the ocean of possible actions Twitter took at the state’s behest.

Interestingly, Taibbi alleged that former CEO and founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey was “kept in the dark” over the coverup of the Hunter Biden story. Since the story broke, there have been calls for booking Gadde for what she did during her tenure at Twitter. Furthermore, Musk announced there would be the second edition of Twitter Files that were supposed to be published on December 3. However, the second edition is still awaited.

‘Wikipedia should never be trusted’

In July 2021, co-founder of Wikipedia Larry Sanger spoke to OpIndia in detail about the user-edited encyclopedia. He said that Wikipedia lost its neutral nature in 2009, before which editors from all ideologies debated equally before deciding what should be published on the platform. He said that the recent issues from Covid to Biden, articles on everything on Wikipedia have become partisan, mainly supporting the Biden administration in such issues and blacking out information that does now show the Democrats in cheerful colour.

Interestingly, after Elon Musk’s tweet on Wikipedia, Sanger suggested in a reply that he has been working on a new platform that will bring encyclopedia articles from various encyclopedias in PDF format in a ‘truly decentralised’ manner. He said, “We have exciting things in the works. My son (an awesome dev) has built a Chromium plugin that appends encyclosphere search results to Goo and DDG, fetches the articles via WebTorrent, and seeds articles for other users in idle tabs. Truly decentralised. Launching this month.”

He added, “We’re bringing public domain encyclopedias into the encyclosphere, not just as PDFs—we’re doing the work of extracting individual articles and making them into ZWI files anybody can use. We’ll have millions of articles from dozens (100s?) of encyclopedias within a few months.”

OpIndia has extensively reported on the biased nature of Wikipedia. Our coverage can be seen here.

TMC’s Saket Gokhale sent to two-day police custody after Gujarat Police arrested him for spreading fake news relating to Morbi bridge tragedy

OpIndia Staff
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TMC’s Saket Gokhale sent to two-day police custody after Gujarat Police arrested him for spreading fake news relating to Morbi bridge tragedy

On Tuesday (December 7), an Ahmedabad court remanded Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale to two-day police custody after he was arrested by Gujarat Police. The former ‘RTI activist’ was arrested over his tweet endorsing a fake news report about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Morbi visit. 

Gokhale was apprehended in the early hours of the Tuesday morning in Jaipur, Rajasthan, by officials from the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell and brought to Ahmedabad in the afternoon, where he was formally arrested.

Notably, Gokhale had shared a fabricated news report about an RTI query and its response that does not exist. He had claimed that ₹30 crore was spent on PM Modi’s Morbi visit, sharing a news clipping from an unnamed Gujarati newspaper, which was claimed to be Gujarat Samachar. But BJP has said that it is fabricated and no such report was published and there is no such RTI reply, and Gujarat Samachar also clarified that they have not published such a report. 

Citing the fake news report, Gokhale claimed that ₹ 5.5 crore was purely for “welcome, event management, & photography”. He also claimed that “Modi’s event management & PR costs more than the life of 135 people”, as the families of the 135 victims of the tragedy were given ex-gratia of ₹4 lakh each, totaling ₹5 crores.

Saket Gokhale’s tweet spreading fake news

It is pertinent to mention here that Press Information Bureau (PIB) has done a fact check of Saket Gokhale’s tweet and clarified that “no such RTI response has been given.”

Interestingly, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee who is known for jailing people for sharing memes on her or criticising her has backed Saket Gokhale and condemned the BJP’s ‘vindictive attitude’.

“It is a bad and sad incident. Gokhale is popular on social media. He has made no mistake. I condemn this vindictive attitude. He has been arrested as he has tweeted against PM Modi. People also tweet against me,” Mamata told the media at Jaipur airport on Tuesday.

Malaika Arora criticised for flaunting a Balenciaga dress even as the fashion brand faces accusations of promoting child pornography

OpIndia Staff
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Malaika Arora criticised for flaunting a Balenciaga dress even as the fashion brand faces accusations of promoting child pornography

High-end fashion brand Balenciaga is under fire in recent days over its disturbing portrayal of children in its photoshoot for its Spring/Summer 2023 Collection. Founded by the Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, the brand had recently updated the homepage of its website with pictures of pre-pubescent girls in bondage-style gear.

Ever since then, Balenciaga has been widely criticised for promoting child pornography and its use of children to promote its products. Now, Bollywood celebrity Malaika Arora has drawn the ire of netizens for flaunting a Balenciaga dress at a Manish Malhotra party that she attended.

Malaika attended fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s birthday party at his Mumbai home. At this party, Malaika appeared in a silver turtle neck dress with the Balenciaga logo which didn’t go unnoticed.

One Twitter user, Monica Verma wrote, “Meet Malaika Arora. A Bollywood celebrity flaunting her Balenciaga dress despite this brand being under fire over their child-sexual abuse advertisements.”

Several Instagram users also took offense to her fashion choice and criticised Malaika for choosing Balenciaga… Responding to a post by Viral Bhayani, one user wrote, “Supporting Balenciaga aka pedophilia brand still….”. Another user posted, ““She literally could not have picked any other designer to wear?! Absolutely shameful. Yet another reason to not look at celebs as role models.”

Another user commented, “Wearing Balenciaga??? Really ?? I am totally against cancel culture but not when it comes to child pornography. This brand needs to be cancelled for good and a celebrity, you need to do it first.”

Malaika Arora is yet to respond to all the online comments and hasn’t bothered to explain her sartorial choices even as the brand she flaunted is facing allegations of pedophilia and child abuse.

In their much-criticised photoshoot, Balenciaga showed children posing with teddy bears, which were dressed in fishnet tops, leather harnesses, and collars with locks. One of the disturbing images also contained documents from a child abuse case.

Beware! Frauds posing as genuine banking service providers can trick you on social media: Here’s what is happening

Pallav
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Beware! Frauds posing as genuine banking service providers can trick you on social media: Here’s what is happening

As the domain of social media has been expanding day by day, several users tend to use such platforms to flag their concerns with several service providers. Similar is the case with people using banking and other financial services. There are many people who use Facebook and Twitter to reach out to banks and raise the issues they face with the services on a public platform.

However, there are times when SOS tweets by consumers get replies from frauds, who pose as genuine customer service handles/accounts and try to secure details of customers which may lead to fraudulent transactions from their accounts. This is the latest fraud that has been happening around for some time through social media.

The modus operandi of the fraudsters first includes the formation of an account that resembles the original service help account on any social media platform. Twitter can be taken for example here. From there onwards, the fraud starts looking for issues raised by users of the respective banks. Following this, they reply below the tweet and ask to get in touch with them so that they can help resolve the issue.

Below is a screengrab of a similar fraud account which poses as ‘HDFC BANK CARE‘. In broken English, it is written, “We apologize on behalf of HDFC Bank, We are sorry About Your Concern Please Reach Us Our 24/7 Helpline No 9023323105 Any Issue for the inconvenience caused to you. to assist you better thanks you”

Screenshot of a tweet.

Here is a similar tweet from a fraud account posing to be from Kotak Mahindra Bank. Dear Customer, “We regret the inconvenience you have. Request you to share your contact number via DM and we shall get in touch with you at the Kotak Mahindra Bank customer support Calling four secondary numbers 9832450548.”

Screenshot of a tweet.

In the image below, it can be seen that an imposter is posing as the ICICI bank support executive and asking the consumer to share his details. In all these three different tweets, it is well discernible that the language and style used by all of them are the same.

Screenshot of a tweet.

Though these accounts appear to be fake looking at their broken English tweets and explicit display of numbers, people with less awareness may fall prey to such traps and may end up sharing sensitive details to the fraudsters who then leverage them to mulct customers and cause them financial losses. It is advisable for customers to carry out due diligence before trusting such online accounts and sharing their details with them.

OpIndia wrote to banks seeking details on how they have been working to ensure that their consumers remain safe from such frauds and what directives they adhere to teach about digital hygiene to their users. We are yet to receive an official response from HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The report will be updated when the banks respond.

Maharashtra: Latur declares two days off for schools to allow Muslim teachers and students to attend Ijtema organised by Tablighi Jamaat

Siddhi Somani
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Maharashtra: Latur declares two days off for schools to allow Muslim teachers and students to attend Ijtema organised by Tablighi Jamaat

The Latur Administration in Maharashtra issued notices to the schools in the city directing them to declare two days of holiday citing the occasion of the Islamic evangelical event termed as ‘Ijtema’ organised by Tablighi Jamaat. The notice stated that the schools shall declare two days off allowing all Muslim teachers and students to participate in the event.

According to the letter obtained by OpIndia, the directions were issued by the Education Department of the Latur district administration based on the memorandum submitted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Vikram Vasantrao Kale, who also is a current member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Kale in his memorandum had stated that the Ijtema was being organised in the Ausa town of Latur district and that it was important for all the Muslim students and teachers to attend the event for their ‘intellectual and social growth’.

Notice issued by Latur Administration obtained by OpIndia

He added that many Islamic scholars were slated to attend the event organised on December 5 and 6 and that it would be better if the administration declared two days off in all the schools across the district. He also termed the Islamic event as a ‘social awareness program’ and demanded that all Muslim students and teachers be present at the event.

Accordingly, the Latur administrative officials released a notice on December 3 declaring two days off for schools across the district. The officials, including Block Education Officers Vandana Futane and Nagesh Mapari, also said that the schools shall compensate for the holidays by calling the students on Saturdays (weekly off days) for a month. Further, the officials also forced the private school principals to declare two days’ holiday on the occasion of Ijtema which was organised by Tablighi Jamaat.

Ijtema is a show of strength event for Muslims which is all about the moral reform of individuals and is often described as ‘making Muslims true Muslims’. It is termed a religious program in which several Islamic scholars are invited to offer guidance. It is an Islamic gathering organised by Islamic organizations for Muslims. It is considered to be an important aspect of the Tablighi Jamaat all over the world since it claims to have a big impact on the lives of Muslims.

Tablighi Jamaat, of which Tablighi Ijtema is an integral part, is a global Islamic missionary movement that urges Muslims to return to the way Islam was practised during the time of Prophet Muhammad. The focus is on rituals, dress, and personal behavior, and is considered one of the most influential Islamic religious movements of the 20th century. It has become the world’s second-largest Muslim congregation after the Islamic holy pilgrimage of Hajj.

Participation in Ijtema, according to a European Journal, promotes religious authority, prestige, and empowerment, and adds to Muslim identity through the concepts of brotherhood and Ummah.

30 years of Babri demolition: Read about the temporary ‘temple tent’ set up at Ram Janmabhoomi after levelling of the disputed structure

Jhankar Mohta
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30 years of Babri demolition: Read about the temporary ‘temple tent’ set up at Ram Janmabhoomi after levelling of the disputed structure

On this day 30 years ago (December 6, 1992), hundreds of Karsevaks brought down the disputed structure of Babri Masjid at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.

The Babri structure was symbolic of brute strength, of how native culture was subjugated, and how the universally adored Lord Ram was shown his position by the invaders. It was a dark symbol of tyranny and barbarism. On December 6, 1992, that monument of tyranny came crumbling down and thus began another chapter in the glorious history of the great Hindu Civilization.

Though the structure was demolished, the struggle for the reclamation of Ram Janmabhoomi continued until the Supreme Court, in a historic decision on 9th November 2019, ruled in favour of Ram Lalla Virajmaan and ordered the government of India to provide support for the construction of the Ram Mandir. A trust was formed in February 2020 as per the court’s guidelines.

On August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did the Bhoomi Pujan which marked the beginning of the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.

Prior to the Bhumi Pujan, the idol of Ram Lalla was shifted from the makeshift tent, where Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) had been living for years, to a new structure in the early hours on March 25, 2020, in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

How the temporary ‘temple tent’ of Ram Lalla came up in Ayodhya after the Babri demolition in 1992

At this point, before we proceed any further, it becomes crucial to revisit how Ram Lalla’s ‘temporary Mandir’ or the ‘makeshift temple tent’ appeared in Ayodhya following the demolition of the disputed Babri Masjid structure in 1992.

Notably, as the date of Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir inched closer, several stories about the demolition of the disputed structure of Babri Masjid started surfacing. One such story was of the temporary Mandir of Ram Lalla that was raised in 1992 after the demolition.

Baba Satyanarayan Maurya, one of those Karsewaks who were present at the time when the temporary Mandir was built, had then in a video, narrated how they had to think quickly and build a temporary Mandir to place the Ram Lalla idol at the site before armed forces entered the premises to take them away.

Baba Satyanarayan Maurya, famous by the name Baba said, “on 7th December, when we came to know that police is arriving at the demolition site in few hours we did not have any way to build the temple quickly. If we did not build a temporary Mandir at the site, it would have still been a disputed land, not the location of Ram Mandir. Bhagwan Ram showed us the path, and we built a small temporary Mandir using the cloth we took with us to make banners.”

Basically, before the demolition of the mosque, Ram Lalla’s idol was placed inside the mosque under its central dome. It was placed by some devotees on a December night in 1949, after which the mosque was locked by the government to prevent any communal violence. Before that, both Muslims and Hindus worshipped at the site, as the British government had divided the site into two parts by erecting a fence in 1859. The inner court including the mosque was given to Muslims, while Hindus were allowed to use the outer court. After the mosque was demolished in 1992, the temporary temple, which was basically a tent, was raised to place the idol.

Ram Lalla idol shifted from ‘temple tent’

The ‘temporary Mandir’ or the ‘temple tent’ remained in the same structure till the time Ram Lalla was shifted in March 2020 by Yogi Adityanath ahead of the construction of the Ram Mandir.

With the shifting of the idol, the site was cleared for the construction of the grand Ram temple.

According to reports, the Ram Lalla idol was placed on a 9.5 kg silver throne in the new structure. The idol of the deity will remain in the structure till the construction of the Ram temple is completed on the site that has been allotted to the Ram Lalla by the Supreme Court.

In October this year, Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath informed that over 50% construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya has been completed. According to the temple trust, the Lord Ram idol is likely to be enshrined in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum on Mankar Sankranti Day in 2024, and the temple’s construction, which began in 2020, is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2024.

Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya

The construction work on the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya began on August 5, 2020, after the foundation stone laying ceremony by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJBTK), the authority in charge of Ram Mandir’s operations, is supervising the temple’s construction. Former IAS Nripendra Mishra is the chairman of the construction committee.

Larsen & Toubro is the main contractor for the construction of the temple and the ramparts, while Tata Consulting Engineers has been hired as the project management consultant, while four other engineers four engineers Jagdish Aphale (IIT- Mumbai), Girish Sahastrabhujani (IIT-Mumbai), Jagannathji (from Aurangabad), and Avinash Sangamnerkar (from Nagpur) are also working voluntarily on behalf of the Trust.

The entire project is projected to cost between 900 and 1,000 crores and will be spread over 110 acres of land. The temple complex will also include a museum, a research centre, and an archival centre. By December 2023, the temple’s lower floor, which will house the sanctum sanctorum and a Ram Lalla idol, would be ready for worship.

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