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‘Sushant Singh was killed by people committing Muslim genocide in India’: Bizarre PIL by ‘Yoga teacher from Sharjah’ over alleged ‘hate speech’ gets a hearing in SC

OpIndia Staff
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‘Sushant Singh was killed by people committing Muslim genocide in India’: Bizarre PIL by ‘Yoga teacher from Sharjah’ over alleged ‘hate speech’ gets a hearing in SC

On October 10, the Supreme Court of India heard a PIL filed by one Harpreet Sehgal Mansukhani where she made bizarre claims that included things like “Kashmir Files was funded by a political party, there is an attempt to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2024, Senior BJP leaders admitted to her that minority were killed, and people including teachers, journalists, soldiers, and actors such as Sushant Singh Rajput were ordered to be killed.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Government of India, Home Minister Amit Shah, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, and 38 others have been listed as respondents in the matter. So far, notices have not been issued to anyone.

Harpreet Mansukhani appeared in the court in person. In her petition, Mansukhani cited 72 incidents of alleged hate speeches in the country. She claimed that the Muslim community (minority community) was being targeted with the aim of making India a Hindu Rashtra before the 2024 elections. While appearing in the court, the petitioner “started crying” while mentioning “genocide that must be taking place while she appeared before the court”.

While referring to hate speeches, she mentioned Kashmir Files, a film by Vivek Agnihotri that highlighted the genocide of the Kashmiri Hindus in the 1990s, the RSS Anthem and more. She referred to such “hate speeches” as “grave conspiracy”. In her petition, Mansukhani claimed that not only people from the minority but teachers, journalists, soldiers and actors, including Sushant Singh Rajput, were ordered to be killed. It is unclear how she is going to connect the death of an actor to the “conspiracy” to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2024 or if she will be able to produce any proof that SSR was “killed” as part of “hate speech”.

During the hearing, the petitioner claimed that she could provide statements of senior BJP leaders on record that minorities were killed. She said, “There [are] admissions with me now saying that they have indeed killed people from the minority community.”

She further claimed that the issue was raised by retired Army chiefs, presidents etc., who wrote to the PM, but no action was taken.

The bench initially said that normal criminal law proceedings must be undertaken in such cases. CJI Lalit said, “Normal criminal proceedings must be undertaken in these cases. We have to see who is involved and who is not.” Upon the petitioner’s insistence for directions to “curb the conspiracy”, the court asked the petitioner to come back by November 1 with at least 2-3 incidents from the list with complete details on how it happened, when it happened, who all were involved and more. The court said, “For a court to take cognizance of this, we need factual background. We need some samples of cases. Otherwise, it is a random petition.”

Mansukhani made headlines before the Lok Sabha elections

This is not the first time Mansukhani, who is a yoga teacher from Sharjah, has made headlines because of a PIL on hate speeches. In 2019, before the Lok Sabha elections, she filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to curb divisive rhetoric. Two petitions were filed in the apex court out of which one was dismissed by the court and the second was withdrawn by the petitioner with the liberty to approach High Court.

Hindu diaspora under attack: The rising trends of global Hinduphobia, attacks by Islamists and propaganda

NARENDRA SHARMA
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Hindu diaspora under attack: The rising trends of global Hinduphobia, attacks by Islamists and propaganda

Recent instances of targeted hate crimes against the Hindu community and its temples by Khalistani and Islamic radicals in Canada, the USA and the UK point towards the worrying trends of rising Hinduphobia in the West.

The everyday instances of discrimination and violence against Hindus due to Islamic extremism are common in the Indian subcontinent. Hindus have endured this suffering for ages. However, recent attacks on them in so-called liberal democracies have time and again proved that there is no escape from this violent Islamic ideology and so-called liberals and Khalistani are useful idiots in this hateful campaign by Islamists against Hindus.   

Network Contagion Research Institute, a US-based scientific research organization in its recent report points out that there has been a 1,000 per cent rise in anti-Hindu hate and attacks on the members of the community across the world, including in the USA. The report reflects the dangerous hybridization of hate against the Hindu diaspora particularly in the West. In the words of Joel Finkelstein co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, “We’ve seen that there’s been a growth of over 1,000 per cent and anti-Hindu slurs are stoking fears of replacement mixing with anti-semitic memes, with other forms of narratives, and hatred shared by white supremacists, by Islamists, and others, and creating a toxic atmosphere of hostility”.

This article with the help of independent reports and many recent instances of hate crimes and discrimination against the Hindu diaspora community shows the rising trend of Hindu phobia in countries like the USA, Canada and the UK.

To start with, North America has served as a natural home for Indian talent from various walks of life and Indian Americans particularly Hindus have a huge role in the prosperity of this region. However, in recent times this is increasingly becoming unsafe for American Hindus. Reports of a US-based organisation namely Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) sheds more light on rising hate crimes against Hindus. This organisation in its statement points out that

“Hindus are a vibrant and diverse community that has contributed significantly to American progress, well-being, and democratic values, whether during the COVID-19 pandemic or in the day-to-day things that make the US a great nation”. “Yet, our community is often the target of bigotry and hate, as witnessed in the recent attack on a local temple in New York and the twice desecration of the Gandhi statue on temple premises”.

Similar findings have been pointed out in a historic study done by researchers at Rutgers University on the rise of Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu hatred on social media and other messaging platforms. According to it, there has been a dramatic rise in hate speech and hateful memes directed towards the Hindu community across social media platforms often amplified by Islamists and Khalistani radical elements accusing Hindus of committing genocide of minorities in India. The study finds that Islamists and other extremists are increasingly using genocide memes, tropes and code words to spread Hinduphobia. For example, the term ‘Pajeet’ has been prominently used to describe Hindus in a derogatory manner. Also, deliberate uses of Hindu religious symbols like the Swastika are done for ulterior motives like violence against Hindus and the defacement of Hindu temples. These findings about rising hate crimes against Indian Americans further gets verified by the 2020 FBI data,  according to which hate crimes against Indian Americans are up by 500 per cent. And the irony is that this is despite the fact more than 100 Indian-origin people are occupying prominent positions in the government. 

A Delhi-based think tank namely Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights (CDPHR) working in the arena of human rights in its recently released report on human rights in the USA has also pointed towards the rampant discrimination and hate crimes against the peaceful Hindu diaspora community. In the words of Dr Prerna Malhotra, head of CDPHR, “Freedom of Religion is one area in which the USA makes much noise, but it fails in practice as it has its own preferred religions. Religious minorities, particularly non-Abrahamic religions, like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains routinely face discrimination”. This report also points out that North American Universities have been sponsoring attacks on Hinduism. For example, recently, the University of California at Davis sponsored a Hindu phobic conference which targeted Hinduism and propagated the hateful messages of certain Christian and Islamic fundamentalists. Also, Hindus have been a particular target of the racially entrenched North American political establishment, media and academia.

In North America, Canada is worse as far as hate crimes against Hindus are concerned. Here, with active support from the political establishment to Khalistani radicals, hate crimes against Hindus have seen a rising trend in recent times, particularly during and in the aftermath of farm law protests in India. Hindu temples in particular are targets of these hate crimes. The situation has become so worse that the Indian government is routinely issuing an advisory for Indians living in Canada on many occasions. Chandra Arya, a Canadian lawmaker while speaking in the House of Commons clearly stressed that “The increasingly vocal and well-organised anti-India and anti-Hindu groups in Canada has resulted in increasing anti-Hindu sentiments and Hindu-Canadians are legitimately concerned about rising Hinduphobia in Canada”. This worrying trend gets reflected in the report of Statistics Canada, an official Canadian government agency which points out that there has been a 72 per cent surge in incidents of hate crime between 2019 and 2021 and Canadian Hindus are major victims of this. 

Whether it is the sacrilege of Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto or defacement of another Hindu temple in New York or the recent violence at Leicester in the UK, the role of Khalistani separatists in fomenting anti-Hindu sentiments is increasingly being noticed. These Khalistani radicals often operating hand in glove with Islamists have become a menace to the peaceful Hindu diaspora in the West. They routinely intimidate Hindus on prominent Hindu festivals or on Indian independence or republic day functions. For example, on the occasion of 15th August, A UK-based Khalistani group proudly confessed that they (Sikh radicals) vehemently opposed and pushed Hindus out of Slough city of UK. Similarly, in a disgusting incident at fast-food joint Taco Bell in California’s Fremont, a Sikh radical named Tejinder Singh verbally harassed Krishnan Jayaraman for being a practising Hindu and ridiculed his religious beliefs. 

In the Western world, the United Kingdom is another centre of Islamic and Khalistani radicalisation. From being a recruiting ground for ISIS to Jihadi grooming gangs at home, it has become a major hotspot for hate crimes against the successful Hindu community. Its political establishment has allowed this disease of Islamic radicalisation to foster in the name of multiculturalism and in pursuit of appeasement politics. UK Home Office data shows hate crimes against Hindus have gone up from 58 in 2017-18 to 166 in 2020-21, a rise of almost 200 per cent in just four years. These crimes involve racial abuses, violent attacks on Hindus and vandalism of their properties and temples. 

A recent incident of a Muslim mob vandalising a temple and several properties belonging to members of the Hindu community in Leicester city of United Kingdom summarises the constant fear under which Hindus are forced to live in the Western cities with significant Muslim and Khalistani demography. These recent targeted attacks against Hindus come after the defeat of Pakistan in the Asia Cup cricket match on August 28 between India and Pakistan. Though for Islamists mere existence of Hindus is a grave provocation but minor instances like loss at a cricket match provide them an opportunity to vent out their hatred against Hindus.

The spate of hate crimes against Hindus has significantly increased during and after the farm laws and CAA agitation in India. The rising trend of Hinduphobia in the UK is also reflected in the recently released report of the Centre for Holistic and Integrated Studies (CHIS) which observes that “An incisive study of the cases of Hinduphobia in the UK show that Muslims and other adversaries have attacked Hindus time and again over issues which are central to Hindu culture. For instance, on many occasions, Hindu festivities have been disrupted, their temples vandalised, their deities mocked, and religious symbols destroyed. This reflects the deep-seated hatred and fear that Islamists hold for Hindu civilisation. In the last one-year, religious hate crimes have increased by 9 per cent in the UK. As observed on the ground, Hinduphobia has risen severely”.

The above description of a worrying trend of Hinduphobia clearly exposes the inhumane Hinduphobic propensity of Western liberal democracies. However, what is worse is that despite being the victim of these violent attacks, Hindus are painted as aggressors thanks to the total narrative control by Islamists, Khalistani and liberals including brown Hindu sepoys. Western media with support from their Indian counterparts have played the role of whitewashing the crimes of Islamists and Khalistani radicals.

For example, Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his article (Exporting division, IE, September 23) blamed the Modi government being in power as the reason for the recent Leicester riots and called on MEA to issue a statement instructing Hindus in the UK not to chant “Jai Shri Ram” in so-called “Muslim Areas”. Today anti-India protests in these countries are synonymous with anti-Hindu sentiments. Hindu diaspora, for most of the time, has shown reluctance to speak against this hatred but they can no longer afford this silence. Despite being at key political, administrative and business positions, being painted as an aggressor shows the narrative slipping out of the hands of successful Hindus and that’s why it is necessary for the community to raise their voice on all platforms against the unholy alliance of Islamists-Khalisanis and liberals particular brown sepoys. At the same time, it is the civilizational duty of the Indian government to protect the interests of the Hindu diaspora and mere routine condemnation via MEA will not do much now. 

‘Due to Urban Naxals, we wasted 50 years in construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam’: PM Modi in Gujarat

OpIndia Staff
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‘Due to Urban Naxals, we wasted 50 years in construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam’: PM Modi in Gujarat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public gathering in Anand district’s Vallabh Vidyanagar on Monday. While addressing the gathering, PM Modi said that 50 years had been squandered in realising Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel’s vision of building a dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat.

PM Modi said, “Due to Urban Naxals, we wasted 40-50 years of time before the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river. Today after various efforts, the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam has been completed.”

PM Modi further said that Urban Naxals are trying to enter the state with new appearances. “They have changed their costumes. They are misleading our innocent and energetic youth into following them,” PM said.

It is worth noting that earlier in September, speculations surfaced that anti-Gujarat Narmada Bachao Andolan ‘activist’ Medha Patkar would be Aam Aadmi Party’s chief ministerial candidate for Gujarat. Medha Patkar is not well-liked in Gujarat due to her anti-Gujarat stance, particularly her involvement in delaying the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, which left Gujarat dry for decades. 

Medha Patkar is most famous for her campaign against the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River. The protest caused a delay in the project for years. Patkar had previously joined the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the 2014 general elections but resigned from the party in 2015. While she has not formally declared her comeback to mainstream politics, the Aam Aadmi Party has not refuted in sufficient words that Medha Patkar would not be the party’s CM candidate in the upcoming elections.

The Prime Minister is in Gujarat for a three days visit beginning Sunday, ahead of the state’s Assembly elections. PM Modi dedicated several public projects worth more than Rs 8,000 crore on Monday at Amod in Gujarat’s Bharuch district. In his address to the public, Prime Minister Modi stated that Gujarat has always kept the lotus blossoming and that everyone in the state realises that the Gujarat BJP stands for service.

“The youth of today do not know how the condition of Gujarat was before. Now facilities including electricity, water, and roads have been created. People used to tell me that if you get electricity, you should give electricity. There is now 24-hour electricity available,” he said. 

PM further added, “When I became Gujarat CM, I did not have much experience in administration. However, we are fortunate that CM Bhupendra Patel has over 25 years of experience ranging from panchayat to assembly.”

The elections for the Gujarat assembly are set to take place in December.

West Bengal: Section 144 imposed in Ekbalpur area from October 10 to 12 after anti-Hindu violence rocks Kolkata

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Section 144 imposed in Ekbalpur area from October 10 to 12 after anti-Hindu violence rocks Kolkata

A gathering of five or more people have been banned in Kolkata’s Ekbalpur area following the ugly bout of anti-Hindu violence that erupted on Sunday evening. Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been imposed for three days in the area from today till October 12.

The order calls for prohibition of the assembly of five or more people and arrest of persons in possession of any lethal or other dangerous weapons. Anyone likely causing breach of peace and disturbing the public tranquility within the said area will also face arrest, the order added.

Anti-Hindu violence rocks Kolkata as Islamists go on a rampage

On Sunday (October 9), the Hindu community in the Mominpore locality of Kolkata in West Bengal came under attack as they geared up to celebrate the annual Lakshmi Puja.

Sukanta Majumdar, BJP Chief of West Bengal, informed that bikes and shops belonging to Hindus were vandalised by Islamists at Maila Depot in Mominpore. In a video shared by him, bikes and nearby shops could be spotted in a damaged condition.

Sukanta Majumdar further added that the Hindu community has been forced to flee after their houses came under attack in Mayurbhanj in Kolkata airport. “Police is silently watching. There is no law and order. The situation is serious but CM ⁦Mamata Banerjee is watching Hindus suffer,” he emphasised.

How Mulayam Singh Yadav’s caste politics and Muslim appeasement could stop BJP’s rise in UP, but couldn’t erase Hindutva

Rahul Roushan
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How Mulayam Singh Yadav’s caste politics and Muslim appeasement could stop BJP’s rise in UP, but couldn’t erase Hindutva

(The following is an extract from the book ‘Sanghi Who Never Went To A Shakha’, which is being republished here in wake of the death of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav)

Further, I believe that this whole caste politics, especially the OBC caste politics, unwittingly might have only helped Hindutva. This could sound entirely counterfactual, given that conventional wisdom says that caste politics is antithesis to Hindutva, which aims at building a common identity beyond caste, but there are certain reasons why I believe it could have indirectly helped.

OBC politics, or the Mandal politics, indeed proved to be a counterweight to the ‘Kamandal politics’—the term was coined to refer to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement—and Uttar Pradesh is the biggest example of that, where caste politics weakened the pan-Hindu identity and hurt the BJP and Hindutva politics.

In Uttar Pradesh, once the Babri Masjid was demolished and a makeshift Ram temple made, the BJP support base progressively thinned. At the same time, both the SP and the BSP—with their own caste-based cadre—grew powerful and their support base swelled. It appeared as if the group that had worked together in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement thought that the ‘work was done’ on 6 December 1992, and thus they subsequently went back to their micro-identities of caste.

This could have convinced the ecosystem that identity politics around caste can checkmate Hindutva. Perhaps, they thought that the Mandal politics will do to the Hindi heartland what Dravidian politics did in Tamil Nadu, and the Gangetic plains will go barren for any Hindutva politics.

The Dravidian identity politics, or the caste politics in Tamil Nadu, especially the one championed by the likes of Periyar, was rooted in anti-Hinduism. Let us remember that it was born during the British era, when the “ecosystem” (originally shaped by the British and later inherited by the Congress) could afford to support overtly anti-Hindu ideas without needing the façade of anti-Hindutva (post-independence).

However, the OBC identity politics of the late 1980s or 90s was not rooted in anti-Hinduism. This is a very basic and obvious difference, and for sure the great minds of the ecosystem knew it. Perhaps they hoped that over time, with help of ‘alternative history’, they would be able turn the OBC identity into non-Hindu identity, and subsequently into anti-Hindu identity.

The usual first step in this process starts with the anti-Brahmin rhetoric. Every Hindu practice, custom and ritual is declared as ‘Brahminism’, and the non-Brahmin castes are encouraged to stop following them. That’s how they are weaned away from their roots, and then given an alternative history and identity to associate themselves with. Such histories and identities are invented in liberal laboratories, such as the JNU, and popular caste leaders are supposed to take those to the masses.

If you look at the earlier political statements by the likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, you will invariably find the rhetoric of anti-Brahminism. Even now many of their supporters keep abusing Brahmins. I remember Lalu Yadav in his early days, asking people not to believe ‘pandas’ and ‘ojhas’ (terms used for temple priests). He had made his supporters throw away ‘jantar’ (amulets) or other religious symbols they might be wearing. Maybe the next step, expected from the likes of Lalu by the ecosystem, would have been to ask his followers to stop going to temples and worshipping ‘Brahminical gods’. But that never happened.

The liberal project to de-Hinduize OBCs was always going to be pretty challenging. The backward castes were a central part of the Hindu identity, and castes like Yadavs have identified themselves with Lord Krishna. Not just the OBCs, almost every caste had some god, including ‘kuldevtas’, or some Hindu icon that they would associate themselves with.

On a societal level, many Hindu rituals and festivals in a place like Bihar require a rather honourable presence of various castes to consider them complete as per traditions. While no one can deny caste discrimination and inequalities, castes in North India, including the Brahmins, had a more symbiotic relationship than its southern counterpart in Tamil Nadu during the British era. Deracinating them from that symbiotic relationship was not going to be easy.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, too, had issued statements in his earlier years that were music to the liberal ears. He had once famously questioned that, how could one be sure that Lord Ram was born at the same spot in Ayodhya that is being claimed as his Janmabhoomi? He had also asked whether there was any ‘parchi’ (receipt) in the name of Ram that could prove the claim.

Such statements were pure insolence towards Hindu sentiments, and obviously he did worse by firing at the kar sevaks in 1990. But, even he had to mellow down as he realized that he had already won the Muslim support, thanks to his early utterings and deeds, and now his party needed to consolidate support among other Hindu backward castes.

While the ecosystem was building plans and blueprint on how to uproot the OBCs from their Hindu roots, and while those plans perhaps looked invincible in places like the JNU, the OBC politics on the ground essentially strengthened caste identities—identities that were Hindu after all.

Not just that, the support base and even the leadership of the parties founded by Lalu and Mulayam were not exactly ‘liberal’ in any sense. On issues of women’s rights, free speech and free markets, they were far more ‘conservative’ than what the BJP or RSS could be. You will find it easier to recall a statement by a sexagenarian RSS chief in support of women’s rights or gay rights than by young leaders like Akhilesh Yadav or Tejashwi Yadav — the sons of Mulayam and Lalu, respectively.

And how can I forget Tej Pratap Yadav, the other son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who loves to dress up as Hindu gods? In fact, many of his pictures, where he is dressed up as Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva, have gone viral. He is reported to be quite religious. And I really like that aspect of him. Not kidding.

Anyway, the point is that while the rise of OBC politics clearly checkmated the rise of BJP and the rise of Hindutva, it didn’t really evolve the way the ecosystem would have wanted or planned it to be.

However, the ecosystem had to continue supporting parties that played OBC politics to keep the BJP at bay. But by supporting such parties in the hope that they will weaken Hindutva, the ecosystem was effectively strengthening identity politics and conservative values. So, basically, the Left-wing ecosystem was promoting the Right-wing value system.

Would it not have been easier for an OBC Modi to get this crowd to the ‘real’ Right wing? Hindutva as an ideology would not have been an impediment for this crowd, as they were already ‘conservative’ and proud of their identity, which was part of the Hindu identity.

‘We were illegally detained as the govt wants that the conspiracy to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh is not exposed’: BJP State President

OpIndia Staff
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‘We were illegally detained as the govt wants that the conspiracy to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh is not exposed’: BJP State President

West Bengal BJP State President Sukanta Majumdar and some other BJP leaders including State Secretary Umesh Rai and BJP leader RK Handa were detained earlier today at Lalbazar Central lock-up in Kolkata. The BJP leaders were on their way to Mominpur, where the Hindu community came under attack on October 9 when they were stopped by the police and arrested.

Condemning the West Bengal police’s excesses at the behest of the Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, the BJP state president tweeted, “Shameful that West Bengal police under CM @MamataOfficial failed in protecting the Hindu brothers and sisters and when we are going to visit the violence-hit Mominpur, arrested me.”

Majumdar, who criticised the West Bengal government for pushing an anti-Hindu agenda in the state, claimed that the state police had illegally held them in Chingrighata, which is quite a distance from Mominpur and where section 144 was not even in effect.

He stated that it was ironic that the police were detaining innocent individuals rather than taking action against the TMC goons and radical elements notwithstanding their siege of police stations and attacks on police officers during the recent anti-Hindu violence in Mominpur.

Dr. Sukanta Majumdar State President Bengal on his arrest from OpIndia Videos on Vimeo.

He further alleged that the West Bengal police detained them as they wanted to prevent them from reaching Mominpur. The BJP president said that there was a major conspiracy being devised with the state administration’s help to convert West Bengal into West Bangladesh.

“If we had arrived, the plot to turn West Bengal into West Bangladesh would have been revealed, and the public would have witnessed the atrocities being done against the local Hindu population by TMC goons and certain extremist elements. In essence, the Mamata government is afraid that their conspiracy will be revealed in front of the entire nation, which is why we were held in Chingrighata, which is located very distant from Mominpur”, Majumdar remarked.

He asserted that in Muslim-majority areas like Mominpur and Iqbalpur, the TMC goons are helping radical Muslims commit crimes against Hindus in order to drive them out and encroach upon their land. He claimed that they were not allowed to even approach the area in order to prevent this conspiracy from being revealed to the people of the country.

It may be recalled that earlier in the day, Sukanta Majumdar, BJP Chief of West Bengal, informed how bikes and shops belonging to Hindus were vandalised by Islamists at Maila Depot in Mominpore. In a video shared by him, bikes and nearby shops could be spotted in a damaged condition.

Sukanta Majumdar further added that the Hindu community has been forced to flee after their houses came under attack in Mayurbhanj. “Police is silently watching. There is no law and order. The situation is serious but CM ⁦Mamata Banerjee is watching Hindus suffer,” he emphasised.

BJP (Nandigram) MLA Suvendu Adhikari also shared a disturbing video from Ekbalpur police station where goons had laid siege, forcing the cops to flee. The mob was seen waving Islamic flags. In visuals shared by BJP leader Amit Malviya, the Islamists were also seen vandalising a Puja pandal.

“They took down their own flag”: Local residents in Mominpore narrate how Islamists made false accusations to unleash mayhem on Hindus

OpIndia Staff
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“They took down their own flag”: Local residents in Mominpore narrate how Islamists made false accusations to unleash mayhem on Hindus

A day after Islamists attacked the Hindu community in the Mominpore locality of Kolkata in West Bengal, the residents of the area recollected how the perpetrators took down an Islamic flag and blamed it on Hindus.

While speaking to News 24, a woman dressed in yellow, said, “There was a flag stuck to a pole. They (Islamists) took it down and tore it up. Hindus were not involved in the act but were blamed for it.”

Another saree-clad woman said, “Rumours were spread that their flag was torn, thrown on the ground and kicked (by the Hindus). Nothing of this sort happened. “

A man, who was standing in the vicinity, then informed that the source of the disinformation was a Muslim woman by the name of Mezbin. “There was a flag outside her house. We thought it was a Pakistani flag, but she told us it was an Islamic one. Nothing happened after that,” he pointed out.

“I was standing outside my house when I was hit on the head by a brick. I was about to bring my children home. When I sought help from the police, they abandoned me and fled from the area. Till now, I have not received treatment for my injury,” another man said, while pointing out his injury.

Earlier, media reports claimed that the unrest in Mominpore was caused due the tearing of a religious flag. ANI Journalist Syeda Shabana said, “On October 9, there was a clash between two communities after a religious flag was torn up by miscreants during Eid Milad-Ul-Nabi. Following the clash, a group of people reached Ekbalpore Police Station yesterday demanding the arrest of the accused in the incident.”

Opindia had earlier reported how Islamists vandalised bikes and shops belonging to Hindus at Maila Depot in Mominpore. According to West Bengal BJP Chief Sukanta Majumdar, the Hindu community has been forced to flee after their houses came under attack in Mayurbhanj in Kolkata port area.

BJP leader Pritam Sur, also shared scary visuals where miscreants were seen unleashing mayhem on the streets. He tweeted, “Bombs and bricks are being hurled at us. Even the police is forced to flee. The situation is so grim that the face of democracy is blackened on the occasion of Lakshmi Puja.”

Under the allegation that an Islamic flag was desecrated, the accused also ambushed the Ekbalpur police station and forced the cops to flee. They were also seen waving Islamic flags.

According to Twitter user Syed Ishtiyaque Alam, Mominpore anti-Hindu violence was the handiwork of Ghulam Asraf (Phoenix group owner), Rehan Khan (son-in-law of a TMC councillor), and Shahbaz Alam (a close aide of TMC leader Firhad Hakim).

To protect the Hindu community, which has been attacked by Islamists, Suvendu Adhikari has written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and sought urgent deployment of central forces.

Belagavi: Road rage turns violent as Islamists attack Hindu activists after Eid prayers

OpIndia Staff
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Belagavi: Road rage turns violent as Islamists attack Hindu activists after Eid prayers

A group of five Islamists attacked activists of Sriram Sena, an organisation that champions the rights of Hindus, after Eid prayers on Sunday afternoon and following a road rage, a report published in The Hindustan Times said.

On 9 October 2022, Amin Jangushaikh and four others were wandering around the streets of Belagavi, a town 500 kms away from Bengaluru, after offering prayers on the occasion of Eid Milad-Un-Nabi, the Islamic festival that marks the observance of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

While loitering on the road, Amin and his friends picked up a quarrel with Hindu activists of Sriram Sena alleging that the latter were not allowing them to pass. The road rage turned violent as Amin and four others attacked the Sriram Sena activists, injuring at least three of them.

However, the Belagavi superintendent of police Sanjeev Patil termed the incident as a result of personal enmity and appealed to the people not to disrupt peace and harmony in the region.

The Islamists attacked Sena activists Gopal Bandivaddar and Ravi Bandivaddar with knives while one Nanjundi Bandivaddar, who had gone to pacify the situation was attacked with an iron rod.

The injured were admitted to the government hospital at Ramdurg, and police personnel have been deployed in the town to avert an escalation in the conflict between the two sides.

Violence erupts in several parts of the country on Eid Milad-Un-Nabi

It is noteworthy to mention that the violence against Hindu activists in Belagavi is not an isolated incident of Islamists going on a rampage.

On October 9, a procession was taken out in Pipad town of district Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in which the participating Islamists raised ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi. The video of the incident went viral on social media, following which the main accused that instigated the mob to raise the slogans was arrested. Identified as Roshan Ali, the accused was reportedly involved in communal violence in the past as well.

Similarly, West Bengal too was in the grips of violence on Sunday as the Hindu community in the Mominpore locality of Kolkata in West Bengal came under Islamist attack as they geared up to celebrate the annual Lakshmi Puja, which incidentally fell on the same day when Muslims celebrated Eid Milad-Un-Nabi.

Sukanta Majumdar, BJP Chief of West Bengal, informed that bikes and shops belonging to Hindus were vandalised by Islamists at Maila Depot in Mominpore. Videos of the violence went viral on the internet, highlighting the vulnerability of the Hindu population in the state.

Missiles hitting Kyiv? Multiple explosions reported from several cities including the capital city of Ukraine

OpIndia Staff
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Missiles hitting Kyiv? Multiple explosions reported from several cities including the capital city of Ukraine

On Monday, October 10, explosions reportedly hit several cities across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, confirmed explosions in the Shevchenko district, a sizable area in the city’s centre where the old town and various government buildings are located.

In a Telegram post on Monday, Klitschko said that missiles have hit “critical infrastructure” in Kyiv.

“The capital is under attack from Russian terrorists!” Klitschko added.

According to the French International news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), air raid sirens rang in the Ukrainian capital more than an hour before the explosions, which occurred at about 08:15 local time following months of relative calm in Kyiv.

Speaking about the blasts, Rostyslav Smyrnov, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister claimed that eight civilians have been killed and 24 wounded as a result of missile strikes on Kyiv this morning.

He added that six cars caught fire after the attack and over 15 vehicles were damaged.

Moreover, 30 emergency service workers and six response units have been attending the scene in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyy district, said Smyrnov.

Several videos of the reported explosions have emerged on social media.

Twitter user @LogKa11 shared a video of the situation and said, “Over 50+ missile strikes have been reported in Ukrainian cities. Misty cruise missiles such as Kh-101 and Kalibr. Chaos ensues and woman can be heard screaming in the background.”

In another thread of tweets posted the Twitter user claimed that the “thermal power plant has also been hit. This is suspected to be the Trypilska plant in Kiev Oblast.”

In response to the explosions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that people had been killed and injured in the explosions that shook Ukrainian cities. He further charged that Russia was attempting to “wipe Ukraine off the face of the earth.”

“They are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth…destroy our people who are sleeping at home in (the city of) Zaporizhzhia. Kill people who go to work in Dnipro and Kyiv,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.

Blast damages the only link between Russia and Crimea

These explosions have been reported two days after the Kerch bridge connecting Russia and Crimea was destroyed in a bomb blast that struck a fuel train, causing the partial collapse of the sole road link connecting the Russian mainland to the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014. Three people were killed in the blast, Russian authorities said.

The speaker of Crimea’s Kremlin-backed regional parliament blamed Ukraine for the explosion but promised that the bridge will be restored as soon as possible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday also accused Ukraine of orchestrating the powerful blast that damaged a bridge linking Russia and Crimea, describing the explosion as an “act of terrorism”.

“There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” Putin said in a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

“This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services,” Putin said.

Toolkit activated to mock PM Modi, Prashant Bhushan, Jignesh Mevani lead from the front

OpIndia Staff
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Toolkit activated to mock PM Modi, Prashant Bhushan, Jignesh Mevani lead from the front

Founding member of Aam Aadmi Party and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan was again caught lying and spreading fake news to ridicule PM Modi. On Monday he took to Twitter to share a video clip and claimed how PM Modi’s popularity is dwindling in Gujarat. He did so by sarcastically sharing video of empty chairs and said how it is a symbol of his ‘increasing’ popularity.

Similar tweet with similar text was shared by Congress leader Jignesh Mevani.

Jignesh Mevani, before foraying into active politics, was associated with Mukul Sinha, father of Pratik Sinha, one of the cofounders of propaganda website Alt News which masquerades as ‘fact-checking’ website.

Similar tweets were shared by other anti-Modi Twitter users with similar language making one wonder whether they all got the video and suggested text in WhatsApp forward to be shared on social media by same source.

Most such videos were shared by Congress workers and supporters.

The keyword was ‘लोकप्रियता’ (popularity).

Clearly, Congress had activated its toolkit.

Except, the video is taken after the event was over when most of the people had left.

Here is the live streaming of PM Modi’s speech in Modhera, Gujarat. One can hear the part of Modi’s speech in the below clip at around 33 minute onward.

PM Modi is talking about the prospects of tourism in northern Gujarat. “Friends, along with Sun Temple at Modhera, the teerth at Bahucharaji, Umiya Mata, Ran Ki Vaav (stepwell), Taranga Hill, Rudra Mahalay, Vadnagar toran… Someone can take a bus and for two days keep visiting these places,” he said to a cheering crowd.

Towards the end of PM Modi’s speech, when the camera pans towards the crowd, one can see the entire hall full of people. There is no way the people just disappeared the way shown in the video shared by Congress leaders and sympathisers. It is likely the video shared by Congress leaders, supporters and sympathisers was taken after the rally got over when the speech was replayed while Modi supporters left the venue.

This, obviously, is not the first time Mevani and Bhushan are caught spreading lies. The anti-vaxxer Bhushan had regularly indulged in spreading vaccine hesitancy and misinformation related to the vaccines. Mevani, along with Kejriwal, whom he once supported, too indulged in spreading dangerous lies that could have led to law and order situation.

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