The Kerala High Court upheld the beedi tycoon’s life sentence on Friday. Mohammed Nisham, a beedi tycoon, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the District Sessions Court. Nisham filed an appeal at the High Court against the Session Court’s judgment.
While hearing the case, a division bench of Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran of the High Court ruled that all of Nisham’s appeals were dismissed. The Thrissur District Sessions Court sentenced Nisham to life imprisonment in January 2016, a year after the incident, after finding him guilty under sections 302, 326, 323, 324, 427, 449, and 506(1) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Along with this, a fine of Rs 80 lakh was also imposed on him.
Breaking: Kerala High Court upheld the life imprisonment awarded to beedi tycoon Mohammed Nisham. He had rammed his luxury vehicle into security guard Chandrabose in 2015 for a delay in opening the gate. Nisham had also beaten Chandrabose with an iron rod.
A few years back, the Kerala High Court ordered the state government to produce a report on Nisham’s mental status when he was imprisoned at Kannur Central Prison. A Kannur district hospital medical board examined Nisham, and the government later notified the court that he did not have any mental issues.
The incident dates back to January 29, 2015, when Mohammed Nisham, the managing director of Tamil Nadu-based King Beedi Company was returning from a late-night party to his apartment in Thrissur in a Hummer SUV. Nisham had severely attacked his security guard K Chandrabose for the delay in opening the gate at the time. Chandrabose was first crushed by Nisham. He then used a rod to beat Chandrabose. When several people arrived and wanted to take Chandrabose to the hospital, Nisham objected.
Police later brought Chandrabose to Amala Hospital in Thrissur, where he succumbed to his injuries on February 16, 2015. Nisham was subsequently charged with murder. The trial court had ordered him to pay Rs 80 lakh in damages, of which Rs 50 lakh were provided to Chandrabose’s family. Nisham’s wife has filed a case of domestic violence against him.
Nisham’s time in prison was also controversial. Images of a lavish banquet with the cops in the jail surfaced once. Even at the time, the VIP treatment he received sparked controversy. In this case, five police officers were suspended.
Apart from the Chandrabose murder case, 11 criminal cases have been filed against Mohammed Nisham, according to media reports. Apart from being a significant tobacco dealer, he owned a hotel in Dubai, jewellery stores in the Middle East and Kerala (King’s Jewellers in Triprayar, Thrissur), and real estate. Nisham was labelled a goon when the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act was applied to him as an undertrial in the murder case (KAAPA).
He once locked a female cop in his luxury car. The officer attempted to interrogate him. Nisham led a lavish lifestyle. Nisham owned 18 luxury cars, including Bentley, Ashton Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Rolls Royce.
For decades now, Islamists in India have mastered the veto of street violence and protests to fulfil their demands and instil a sense of fear among those who dare to enunciate uncomfortable facts. But of late, those protests have gone a step further, devolving into starker violence and featuring a nefarious chant of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ that has come to define the blasphemy rage coursing through the country.
“Gustakh-e-Rasool ki Ek hi saza, sar tan se Juda, sar tan se Juda”, which translates to “There is only one punishment for being disrespectful to Rasool (Prophet Muhammad), their head separated from their torso, their head separated from the torso”, an Islamist clarion call, has become a staple feature of violent protests that have so far claimed the lives of at least 6 Hindus, including Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, after Muslim fundamentalists, egged on by the dog-whistling of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, resorted to violence for what they perceived as ‘blasphemy’ against Prophet Muhammad.
From Kanpur in India’s northern plains to the southern metropolis of Bengaluru, from Kolkata in the east to Hyderabad in the south, protests in the name of blasphemy have erupted in almost every corner of the country as Islamists took to the streets running amok and shouting “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants over the perceived belief of blasphemy against the Prophet.
The Pakistani origins of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ chants
Though the slogan has been all the rage among Islamists across India, its origins are beyond the country’s northwest borders. Like all things Islamists, “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants are an imported concept adopted from neighbouring Pakistan, where targeting and attacking minorities, especially Hindus and Christians, in the name of blasphemy has become par for the course for the country’s overwhelmingly extremist and Islamist population.
The radicalised outcry that has taken over the streets of India was first used more than a decade ago in the wake of a brazen assassination of the governor of Punjab, Pakistan. And ever since, the slogan has found currency among the rabble-rousers determined to whip up hatred and anger against non-Muslims in the name of blasphemy.
In 2011, the governor of the Punjab province of Pakistan, Salman Taseer was murdered by his own guard Mumtaz Qadri who disagreed with Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a Maulana in Pakistan at the time hailed Qadri for assassinating Taseer and declared him a ‘Ghazi’. He led a procession with thousands of people in attendance, who raised provocative slogans against the former governor of Punjab, Pakistan, and hailed Qadri as a hero.
The procession, organised by the radical Barelvi terror outfit Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), amplified the slogan among the masses of Pakistan in 2011 to shield Mumtaz Qadri. Two slogans were chiefly chanted during the procession. One was “Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah” and the other, “Gustakh-e-Rasool Ki Ek Hi Zaza, Sar Tan Se Juda, Sar Tan Se Juda.” Rizvi would ask the audience during the mass demonstrations, “Gustakh-e-Rasool ki Ek hi Saza?” The protestors would respond by chanting “Sar Tan Se Juda, Sar Tan Se Juda”.
Qadri, who was trained as an elite police commando and assigned to Taseer as his bodyguard, shot the politician at an Islamabad market in January 2011. Being remorseless about his act, Qadri later justified the killing by saying that it was his religious duty to kill the minister, who was an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws and supported liberal reforms.
But Pakistan has long been wracked by violence in the name of blasphemy. Since the assassination of Salman Taseer, blasphemy-induced violence has only increased multifold in Pakistan, including instances where Islamists use fake blasphemy charges to subjugate and victimise minorities, especially Hindus and Christians. Personal scores against Hindu and Christian families are settled by levelling fabricated charges of blasphemy against them, which causes outrage and paints a target behind them.
How the slogan continues to live on through Islamists bent on “punishing” blasphemers
While Khadim may have passed away in 2020, his slogans have assumed a life of their own, living through murderous Islamists in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, who routinely invoke the call for the beheading against those perceived to have blasphemed against Prophet Muhammad. In a sense, Rizvi set a template for the Islamists to follow, sanctioning the murder of those considered “guilty” of blaspheming against Prophet Muhammad.
In India, be it Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari or the chief abbot of the Dasna Devi Temple Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, or more recently, the former BJP leader Nupur Sharma, all of them have drawn “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants by bloodthirsty Islamists, who believe Prophet Muhammad is beyond reproach and any earnest attempt to impartially assess his life and teachings should be snuffed out, by any and all means.
Unfortunately, the threat of “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants against Kamlesh Tiwari materialised in 2019 when Islamists entered his house under the guise of Hindus and slit his throat for remarks made on Prophet Muhammad years ago, for which he had already served jail time. The Islamists had also planned an assassination bid against Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, but it was foiled by the attentiveness of the Delhi Police, which arrested a JeM terrorist entrusted with the task of taking down the Dasna Devi Temple head priest.
Similarly, Sharma has also been a victim of furore incited by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who shared an incomplete clip of her debate on Times Now, where she defended her faith when one of the panellists mocked the discovery of a Shivling inside the controversial Gyanvapi structure. The leitmotif of protests that erupted after her video had gone viral had been Islamists shouting “Sar Tan Se Juda” threats against her, leading to the bloody murders of Kanhaiya Lal, Umesh Kolhe, and others.
Why the calls for beheading should be treated as a prelude to a terror act
Therefore, it is paramount not to understate the threat of “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants and view them for what they stand for: a precursor to a terror attack and a direct incitement to violence. Across the world, blasphemy attacks, such as the killing of Samuel Paty in France, are considered terror attacks and treated with utmost seriousness.
However, in India and other South East Asian countries, the allies of the Islamists in the form of leftist “intellectuals” downplay blasphemy attacks and inciting violence in the name of blasphemy, and instead paint the victims as aggressors. Therefore, as a first step toward dealing with the menace, the government should treat “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants as a prelude to a terror attack and attract anti-terror charges against those caught chanting the slogan.
Though a radical Muslim outfit in Pakistan coined the slogan, it has gained popularity among Islamists in regions beyond its geographical origins. Over the years, we have seen large crowds of Islamists chanting the “Sar Tan Se Juda” slogan, which is nothing but a direct incitement to violence, leading to murders committed in the name of blasphemy. When such slogans are normalised by not initiating the requisite action that incitement to violence deserves, the sloganeers feel empowered to continue exhibiting their murderous tendencies and instigating others to behead their target.
The condoning of such slogans, believing they are just a cathartic expression of a livid mob aggrieved over the purported insult of their prophet, is nothing but wishful thinking because chances are that some religious zealot in the crowd, egged on by the slogans, would be motivated to pick up the weapon and proceed to kill someone like Kanhaiya Lal.
In such a scenario, the state cannot assume a lasseiz-fair approach and allow the sloganeers to sow hatred and walk away with impunity. Instead, it should come down hard against such miscreants and set an example for others to discourage them from indulging in similar behaviour. Bulldozer action, slapping UAPA charges, and stripping away government benefits are some of the initial measures the government can take to tackle the menace of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ chants.
Another crucial measure the government can undertake is to ban the slogan altogether and criminalise its usage. While outlawing the slogan itself won’t solve the scourge of Islamic Jihad afflicting the country, as the source of their hatred has doctrinal roots and is not limited to specific slogans per se, it would at least send a message to Islamists that the state is taking cognisance of blasphemy murders by Islamists, is willing to acknowledge its Islamist links and take action against it.
Several ‘liberal’ panellists withdrew from the New York edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival because of the presence of BJP leader Shazia Ilmi. According to a report by Middle East Eye, at least three panellists have withdrawn from the event, alleging that JLF is normalising Hindutva in the United States.
Among the three persons that didn’t participate in the event due to the presence of Shazia Ilmi include Marie Brenner and Amy Waldman. While the two authors have not made any comment on the issue, journalist Aatish Taseer said that he knew at least three persons who had pulled out of the Literature Festival.
He also said that South Asian activists and writers were mobilised to explain to other participants that “these are full-on right-wing ideologues, including card-holding members of the BJP”. He said, “These people who are appearing from the New York side who are liberals would never be caught dead with these [BJP] people. So it’s a really, really insidious and sly thing that the JLF leaders have done.”
According to the schedule of the JLF New York, Shazia Ilmi participated in a session titled Intersections: Searching Equity with Dalit activist Guru Prakash Paswan and Prashant Jha on September 14. Marie Brenner was scheduled to discuss her book ‘The Desperate Hours: One Hospital’s Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic’s Front Lines’ on 14th, and Amy Waldman was scheduled to participate in a conversion titled “Better to have Gone: Love and Death in Auroville”, also on 14th September. But later their names and programs were removed from the schedule published on the official website.
Amy Waldman’s event was presented by Akash Kapur and Myna Mukherjee instead, while Marie Brenner’s event was cancelled. The event was held from 12 September to 14 Setepmber.
Shazia Ilmi sharply reacted after learning that some panellists left the event due to her presence. She said that she was not aware of it, and said, “If you say that these people have dropped out because of my presence, that remains entirely their choice.” While talking to Middle East Eye, she said “And if they are against freedom of expression, of others, or dissenting voices, a voice that is different from theirs [then] they must take a deep, hard look at themselves and examine the hatred and the bias that they have within themselves towards those who represent a different point of view. And this entire cancel culture and self-cancel culture that they are bringing to the table represents and smacks of intolerance of the worst kind.”
Ironical.Who’s squashing Freedom of Expression now? Gosh,the idiocy of these whining fascist crazies who first won’t allow me to speak and then pressurise the sponsors to pull out of the program.Time to ? cancel Cancel culture! I will speak! @BJP4Indiahttps://t.co/GWdN2FWluspic.twitter.com/K44XcjUl4z
Shazia found support from several other panellists, who said they will not object to the presence of someone with different ideology. Ugandan writer and academic Mahmood Mamdani said, “I have never before considered withdrawing from an event because I objected, however strongly, to the views of a participant – so long as the event itself was not being hijacked by this person or their organisation, thus closing it to opposing or divergent views.”
But Mamdani came under attack for his support to Shazia. Taseer said Mamdani has a lot to answer for because he takes a very strident position when it comes to Israel. “You have a party spokesperson that is systematically creating a climate of genocide in a country where the demographics are even more explosive, even more volatile,” he said.
Shazia Ilmi also delivered a keynote address during the closing ceremony of the festival.
On Friday (September 16), the Delhi police opposed the petition of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair wherein he sought the return of devices and documents seized by the cops during the investigation of the case against him.
As per reports, the Delhi police argued that the seized items are being analysed at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Rohini and that Zubair can approach the lower court for their release after the competition of the analysis.
It further added that attempts are underway to recover and analyse data from the devices seized by the cops from the Bengaluru residence of AltNews co-founder. The cops pointed out that Zubair’s 2018 tweet was sufficient to incite hatred among people, resulting in a disturbance to peace and tranquillity in society.
The police stated, “Mohd. Zubair had remained non-cooperative during the investigation. He also disclosed that he has asked his family to dispose of his equipment including his mobile phone and laptop in case he is arrested/apprehended by police,”
In its affidavit, the Delhi police said, “That, during Police Custody remand, one laptop, two invoices and one hard disk have been recovered from the residence (Bangalore) of accused Mohd Zubair on the basis of disclosure statement which is admissible under Section 27 of Indian Evidence Act, which is to be looked upon at the time of trial.”
“Quashing/ setting aside PC orders by Ld. CMM/ Patiala House Court will make the recovery inadmissible,” it continued. Earlier on July 27 this year, the Delhi High Court had sought the reply of the police about returning of seized items to Mohammed Zubair.
The background of the case
On 13 June 2022, Twitter user ‘The Hawk Eye’ (@thehawkeye) shared a collage of past tweets and posts by Mohammed Zubair, mocking Hindu Gods and beliefs. The development came days after India witnessed violent protests over the alleged insult of Prophet Muhammad.
In one of the tweets shared by The Hawk Eye, Zubair was 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‘ mocked Arun Govil and took a dig at Lord Ram, suggesting that ISRO must consult the actor for his knowledge about rocketry.
Another post showed an aeroplane under the water with the caption: “Breaking: Underwater Pushpak Vimana used by Raavan 5000 years found in the Indian Ocean.” Besides ridiculing Hindu Gods, Zubair has also poked fun at Hindu beliefs and took a dig at Sanskrit.
As his Hinduphobic posts started getting traction,the AltNews co-founder quietly pulled down his Facebook page. On June 27, Mohammed Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police over his old tweets, insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses. He was arrested under Section 153 and 295A of the Indian Penal Code.
Additional IPC Sections, including 295A, 201, and 120B of the IPC, as well as Section 35 of the FCRA Act, were invoked against him as the case proceeded. Mohammed Zubair filed a petition with the Supreme Court, seeking dismissal of the six FIRs filed against him in Uttar Pradesh.
The plea filed by him challenged the FIRs recorded in Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and two in Hathras. and the formation of the SIT by the Uttar Pradesh Police. He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court of India.
A 63-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, Abu Abdullah, nicknamed as ‘polygamist of the century’ revealed on September 10 that he had married 53 women in his life and does not plan to remarry. The man said that he decided to marry these many women in the hopes of looking for “peace and stability” and not for seeking “personal pleasure”.
The story gained attention after Abu’s video went viral over the internet. Netizens shared the video extensively, some interacting with him and praising him, while others reacted by saying what he did was nothing to be proud of and chastised him.
The man identified as Abu Abdullah was interviewed by Saudi-owned media company MBC where he stated that he performed his first marriage at the age of 20. He back then married a girl who was six years younger than him. “When I married for the first time, I did not plan to marry more than one woman because I was feeling comfortable and had children. But after a while, problems happened and I decided to marry again when I was 23 years old and I informed my wife of my decision”, Abdullah was quoted.
This action did not end his hunt for the right lady for him. Abdullah revealed that when complications arose between his first and second spouses, he opted to marry for the third and fourth time, finally divorcing his first two marriages.
He also claimed to have treated all of his wives properly and acknowledged that, while the majority of his wives were Saudi women, he had married international ladies as well. Abdullah married in other places to guard himself against vices while on work vacations abroad for three to four months.
Abdullah also meanwhile said that the shortest out of his 53 marriages lasted only a single night. “Every man in the world wishes to have one woman and remain with her forever. Stability is not to be found with a young woman, but with an old one”, he suggested. Abdullah is now married to a woman and plans to marry no other lady in the future.
The BBC has once more turned to its strategy of disseminating misinformation to achieve its covert goal and take advantage of India’s socio-economic faultlines to peddle its political agenda. BBC reported the rape and murder of two Dalit sisters implying that the girls were targeted as they were Dalits, “the bottom of a deeply discriminatory Hindu hierarchy.”
The report by BBC.
The deliberate non-reporting of the names of the accused, which were made public by the police soon after the incident, demonstrates the official British broadcaster’s determination to push the agenda in a sophisticated way. The report by BBC has factual inconsistencies relating to the Incident. The very first one is that the names of the accused were not reported by them even though those names were explicitly announced by the police.
The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested six persons named Junaid, Sohail, Arif, Hafiz, Karimuddin and Chhotu alias Gautam for sexually assaulting the Dalit girls and brutally murdering them. BBC also attempted to play the subtle game of blaming Hindus for crimes committed against Hindus. It explicitly reported, “The girls, both below 18, belonged to the Dalit caste, at the bottom of a deeply discriminatory Hindu hierarchy.” Showing Hindus as ‘deeply discriminatory’ BBC has intended to imply that the incident occurred due to the existence of ‘Hindu hierarchy’ and not because it was a crime committed by culprits who have been arrested already by the police.
In fact, the BBC report mentions that arrests have been made. The UP Police had informed the media about the arrests in a press conference and had given the names of the accused in that same press conference. Meaning, that the BBC was aware of the names of the arrested accused and was very much aware that it is not a crime committed because of the ‘Hindu caste hierarchy. But, they chose to go ahead with their false propaganda and deliberately missed the names of the arrested accused in their report.
Video: Two Muslim youths first befriended the two minor Dalit sisters and then raped & murdered them in an agriculture field in Nighasan, says #LakhimpurKheri SP Sanjiv Suman
Rumours about post-mortem examination without the family’s consent are totally false, he adds. pic.twitter.com/BQGXy5kGXh
BBC has also attempted to instigate an element of suspicion on the prompt action taken by Uttar Pradesh police. The official British broadcaster mentioned the encounter by UP Police in quotes, judging its legitimacy. Also, the report mentions, “There is deep suspicion of the police among the Dalit community,” implying that the Police, which nabbed the culprits within hours of the crime, were not trustworthy as BBC was not convinced.
This is not the first time BBC has reported India-specific cases in a biased way. There is a plenitude of instances where the British broadcaster reported misinformation packaged in the name of factual reporting and trusted journalism.
Overall, by deliberately missing the names of the culprits, and adding words like ‘Hindu hierarchy’ while emphasizing the Dalit identities of the victims, the BBC was trying to subtly peddle the false narrative that it was a crime committed by the Hindu upper caste, against Dalits.
Past instances of biased and misinformed reporting by BBC
In June 2022, the BBC published a piece about the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the leftist propaganda portal Alt News, claiming falsely that Zubair was jailed for being a “vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.” This came after the Delhi Police arrested Zubair for spreading nasty and disrespectful messages against Hindu Gods and Goddesses, as well as hurting the religious sensibilities of the Hindu community. He was detained after a social media user complained about one of his insulting tweets from 2018.
Similarly, in March of this year, BBC News Hindi released a story aimed at emphasizing the perspectives of displaced Kashmiri Pandits who had been moved to Jammu’s Jagti Township. The article magnified the voices of two colony residents, Shadi Lal Pandita and Sunil Pandita, whose negative sentiments opposing the movie The Kashmir Files were exclusively highlighted by the BBC as representing the views of the whole Kashmiri Pandit community settled in Jammu. In reality, the 2 specific persons quoted by the BBC were people associated with political entities that were against the movie for political reasons.
BBC’s duplicity was reported by OpIndia regarding the coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in India. The BBC published a report titled “India coronavirus: Round-the-clock mass cremations,” showing how India failed to manage the Covid-19 outbreak. There was no such coverage by BBC when lakhs of individuals succumbed to COVID-19 in the first wave in the US, UK, and Europe in 2020. There were no headlines emphasising how many people died in Western countries at an alarming pace that India never touched even at its peak.
The BBC produces this type of reporting about India not just because it provokes social unrest in the country, but also because it tarnishes India’s worldwide image, jeopardising India’s diplomatic alliances and economic interests. A thorough assessment of western media bias, including the BBC, can be read here.
On September 16, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reportedly said that he still doesn’t understand what the liquor scam is about, where his deputy Manish Sisodia has been booked by the CBI. While 15 persons have been booked in the case, along with unknown public servants and private persons in the case, the Aam Admi Party has been claiming that there was no scam. Therefore, it is no wonder that Kejriwal will claim ignorance about the scam, given that he is known for blatant lies.
I still don't understand what liquor scam is about: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal
Kejriwal alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were “unnecessarily troubling everyone”, and said that he still did not know what the liquor scam was all about. He also added that saying that “The country cannot progress like this.” As the Delhi chief minister says he does not know what the liquor scam is about, here is our attempt to explain it to him.
The liquor scam was exposed in July this year when Arvind Kejriwal’s own Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar found irregularities and procedural lapses in the new liquor policy implemented by the Delhi govt last year.
The new liquor policy of Delhi was floated in 2020 and implemented in November 2021, which brought several changes to the way alcoholic drinks are sold in the city-state. The police marked the exit of the government from selling liquor, handing over the operations to private retailers solely. Entire Delhi was divided into 32 zones and each zone had 27 liquor vends, which means each municipal ward had 2-3 vends.
The new policy allowed home delivery, opening of shops till 3 AM, and allowed sellers to offer unlimited discounts, ending the system of selling at govt mandated MRP.
However, when Naresh Kumar was appointed as Delhi Chief Secretary in April 2022, he examined the files related to the new liquor policy, and found several irregularities and procedural lapses in its formulation and implementation. It was discovered that undue benefits were extended to private parties, causing loss to the govt exchequer.
The chief secretary had prepared a report on the matter, and sought Manish Sisodia’s response on it. Excise is among the 19 portfolios handled by Sisodia, who is also the Deputy CM of Delhi.
Acting on the Chief Secretary’s report, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a CBI probe in July, and days after that, the Delhi govt announced the decision to scrap the new liquor policy and revert to the old one. In the meanwhile, CBI conducted raids on Manish Sisodia, excise officials and private beneficiaries of the new liquor policy, and filed an FIR on August 19 naming 15 persons including Sisodia.
The Delhi liquor scam
According to the chief secretary’s report, cartelisation and monopolies were taking place in the liquor trade under the new liquor policy. It was also alleged that there was an illegal distribution of liquor licences to companies that had violated the terms and conditions of the New Excise Policy 2021-22.
According to the allegations made in the report, Manish Sisodia made changes to the excise policy without the mandatory approval of the LG. He had waived off ₹144.36 crores on licence fees to be paid by the private liquor vendors for licences in the name of Covid-19 pandemic. He had removed the import pass fee of ₹50 per case of beer, and had given undue benefits to liquor sellers by revising the prices of foreign liquor.
According to the CBI FIR, L-1 licences were issued illegally in exchange for bribes, and one of the traders had paid ₹1 crore to a company managed by a person who is an associate of Manish Sisodia. It was found that L-1 licence holders were issuing credit notes to retail vendors with the intention to divert the funds to public servants, showing that it was a method of paying bribes in exchange of the licences. The licence holders also made false entries in their books of accounts to keep the records of such bribes straight.
CBI said that Manish Sisodia’s close aides Amit Arora, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey were actively involved in managing and diverting the bribe money collected from Liquor Licensees to accused public servants. CBI had found that Indospirits MD Sameer Mahendru had transferred an amount of one crore to account no. 10220210004647 of Radha Industries maintained with UCO Bank, Rajendra Place, New Delhi. Radha Industries is managed by Dinesh Arora, a close associate of the Deputy CM. Similarly, another person Arjun Pandey had collected 2-4 crores from Sameer Mahendru.
The FIR filed by CBI mentioned another firm Mahadev Liquors which was granted an L-1 licence. The firm’s authorised signatory Sunny Marwah was found to have close contact with govt officials and was regularly paying bribes to them.
Different amounts mentioned in the scam
Today Arvind Kejriwal also alleged different persons were different quoting numbers in relation to the matter, and therefore the allegations of the scam are false. He said, “One BJP leader says it is a scam of Rs 8,000 crore, the LG says it is a scam of Rs 144 crore and the CBI FIR says there is a scam of Rs 1 crore. I don’t understand what the liquor scam is.” This a classic tactic used by the AAP leader to mislead people to prove that there is no scam. But the fact is, all those figures were mentioned in different contexts to the scam, and they are not the total ‘scam amount’. Here is the detail of the various amounts related to the scam.
1 crore: Mentioned in CBI FIR, as the amount paid by Indospirits MD Sameer Mahendru to Dinesh Arora of Radha Industries, as per CBI FIR. Arora is named as a close aide of Manish Sisodia, and it is believed that he was a middleman in collecting bribes from liquor licence holders and forwarding the money to officials.
The CBI FIR also mentioned that another amount in the range of ₹2-4 crore was collected from Sameer Mahendru. But the AAP leaders including the CM have chosen to ignore this, claiming that CBI has mentioned only ₹1 crore.
From the CBI FIR
144 crore: This is the amount of loss caused by the waiver of the licence fee without the required authorisation of LG. The Delhi govt had waived the 24.02% licence fee for the period December 28 to January 27, after the vendors had requested the state govt for a waiver citing a fall in sales due to fresh cases of Covid-19.
This waiver has resulted in the loss of ₹144.36 crore to the exchequer of the Delhi government. As the waiver was granted without following norms, it can be said that this was the direct loss caused by the scam.
8000 crore: This amount was mentioned by BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, who had claimed that the state exchequer lost ₹8000 crore due to the new liquor policy which has been scraped now. Explaining the amount, he had claimed that while Delhi had set a target of ₹9500 crore as licence fee, only ₹1400 crore was collected, thereby there was a loss of over ₹8000 crore.
However, now it has emerged that the BJP leader had compared the annual target with the quarterly actual collection, which had resulted in such a big number. Actually, the Delhi govt made ₹1,485 crore in licence fees in the first quarter of 2022-23, against the target of ₹2,375 crore, resulting in a shortfall of ₹890 crore.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta had claimed that the amount of loss was ₹10,000 crore.
30 crore: Another number associated with the scam is ₹30 crore, which was returned to a successful bidder in violation of the rules. A company named Pixie Enterprises had won bids for 10 retailers in the airport zone. But it could not get a no-objection certificate from the airport authorities, as the airport already had an agreement with another company Buddy Retail to sell liquor in the zone. Buddy had also submitted a bid but didn’t win.
Pixie had moved to Delhi High Court also but their plea was rejected. After that, ₹30 crore deposited by Pixie was returned by the Delhi govt, and the licence was granted to Buddy after it matched the Pixie offer. Now, according to Excise Rules, returning the deposit to Pixie was illegal, because according to the rules, if a successful bidder fails to obtain approvals from other authorities, their deposit will be forfeited. The rules said that deposits of only unsuccessful bidders will be returned. Therefore, it was a violation of the rules in returning the deposit to Pixie.
This shows that Arvind Kejriwal was misleading people by claiming that different amounts are being mentioned in relation to the scam. All these are different amounts specific to individual incidents, and not the total scam amount as portrayed by the CM.
In fact, the scale of the scam has not emerged yet, and there are various aspects to it. Some of the amounts are bribes paid to officials in exchange of grant of licences in violation of rules, while others are losses to the exchequer due to various decisions of the govt. All these are yet to be quantified, which should be done in the CBI charge sheet. For example, the amount of loss due to the waiver of the licence fee for a month is known, ₹144.36 crore, but the losses due to other decisions, like waiver of import fee on beer and allowing retailers to give unlimited discounts are not known yet. And the important matter is, most of these decisions were implemented without the mandatory approval of the LG.
Paid media silence
The Delhi Liquor scam was unearthed by the Chief Secretary of the Delhi government, and probes have been conducted by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police and the CBI, after which CBI filed an FIR. This means this is a major scam and the probe agencies have found significant material against the accused, including the Deputy CM of Delhi who runs almost half of the ministries. But despite this, there is silence in the media over the scam. While there are reports on updates in the matter, it is not covered by the media like other scams and controversies are covered. Even so-called pro-BJP media houses are also not giving it a priority. And this can be explained by what was seen in today’s newspapers, full first-page advertisements by AAP’s Punjab government across India in almost all major newspapers, in all of their editions.
Netizens shared photos showing full-page ads featuring Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann published in various newspapers like Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Dainik Bhaskar, Lokmat, Amar Ujala and many other newspapers. And it is not that the ad was given only in the Delhi edition of the newspapers, it was published in the entire country, in all editions of the papers, most of which were on the first pages.
Heard @BhagwantMann spend Rs 100 crore today from Punjab Govt Funds ? From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Atak to Katak Bhagwant Mann is on front Page of every newspaper. Can anyone confirm ? pic.twitter.com/mo0CeBewcR
Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga alleged that Bhagwant Mann spent ₹100 crore from Punjab govt funds for the ads. Netizens replied to him showing the same ad in various papers in their cities.
Smart strategy. Paying them rich dividends in Delhi. Not a single media house (not even so called Godi media) is reporting Delhi Liquor Scam like a Scam but only as something that BJP is accusing it of in normal course of politics. https://t.co/xPPSI9usRX
Social media users accused Aam Aadmi Party of using the money from the people of Punjab to bury news about its scam in Delhi.
The Arvind Kejriwal govt in Delhi is already using the strategy of mass advertising to prevent any negative news in media, as Delhi govt ads appear every 10 minutes on all TV channels regularly. And now, the Punjab govt, which is anyway allegedly remote-controlled by the Delhi govt, is using the same strategy.
On Friday, the Hamirpur administration and Police in the state of Uttar Pradesh bulldozed residential properties of seven accused who have been arrested for assaulting a girl in the city forest park. The administration stated that all the properties now razed to the ground were illegally built forcing the authorities to take appropriate action.
This is exactly a month after a video had gone viral over the internet featuring six men abusing and misbehaving with a woman in the city forest park. On August 16, six persons including Kanhaiya, Pritam and Mohammed Faisal thrashed a woman who had gone with her friend in the park. The six boys, residents of Hamirpur abused her and assaulted her for roaming around with her alleged boyfriend.
Bulldozer razing properties of the accused to ground (Source- Aaj Tak)
The accused also stripped her clothes in the public and recorded the horrible incident. The video was then deliberately made viral by them over social media. It is believed that the six accused also sexually assaulted the victim and blackmailed her for money. The Police then immediately took cognizance of the event and arrested six persons in the case.
They further investigated the case and arrested two more persons in the case. During the investigation, the Police found out that seven out of the eight accused were staying in illegal residential properties. The administration stated that seven accused had illegally encroached on public areas and had built properties for residence.
Hamirpur administration workers at job (Image source- Aaj Tak)
On September 16, the Police and the Hamirpur administration executed the bulldozer action and razed the properties of the accused. Notably, all the eight accused in the case have been sent to jail after the legal proceedings. Reports mention that other than eight, there are accused who have been booked in the FIR registered in the case. They are absconding at present. The police are investigating the case further to search for the absconding accused.
In the long run, imprudent populist actions like doling out freebies beyond the state’s capabilities may lead certain Indian states towards the same fate as that of Sri Lanka, which is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis. The economic collapse has resulted in extraordinary inflation, wiping out public funds and causing shortages of basic commodities, along with other impacts such as civil unrest, political upheaval etc. In India, states like Punjab and West Bengal are facing a similar severe threat of going bankrupt as Sri Lanka.
During a four-hour meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in April 2022, some bureaucrats raised concern that populist policies in states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal could devastate their economies, as it did in Sri Lanka.
AAP’s replication of the ‘freebie’ based Delhi Model in Punjab and drying state exchequer
Some of the financial metrics of Punjab, a heavily indebted state, in recent times are starting to mirror those of Sri Lanka.
Punjab is one of India’s most indebted states, with debt exceeding 47 percent of its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which declined by 1.85 percent in the previous fiscal year. This is far higher than the 38.7 percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA).
With liabilities close to 3 lakh crore, its yearly interest load is more than Rs 20,000 crore. The AAP’s promised 300 units of free electricity will cost the state exchequer an additional Rs 5,000 crore in subsidies, adding to the state’s already unsustainable burden. AAP is most likely attempting to recreate its Delhi model in Punjab, oblivious to the vast contrasts in obligations and revenue generation between a traditionally rich state Delhi and a fast approaching bankruptcy Punjab.
The Aam Aadmi Party is neglecting the fact that Punjab is already burdened with multiple subsidies such as Subsidies in fertilizers, and price support for agricultural crops, as well as free power to farmers and every BPL, SC, and ST family till 200 units of electricity.
Punjab’s electricity subsidyand escalating cost to the state exchequer exceeds 16% of total receipts. Power distribution companies in India are already suffering greatly. Their troubles are mostly the result of two factors, the first is their failure to decrease transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, and the second is pricing hikes to keep up with escalating costs. Both have the potential to affect consumers across the country.
Despite the condition of the economy, the AAP government is granting subsidies and tariff cuts. The entire power subsidy in the current fiscal year is Rs 24,886 crore, which includes Rs 15,845 crore as a freebie for 300 units of power every month beginning in July of this year. Meanwhile, in two months, the government borrowed Rs 8,000 crore simply to pay interest on old loans.
Recent media reports reveal that the Punjab government even failed to provide salaries for the month of August to the state government officials in time thanks to the funds crunch. Meanwhile, Bhagwant Mann has announced regularisation of 36,000 more employees in government jobs. With the government already struggling to pay salaries of their current employees, how will they pay the benefits to these new regularised employees remains to be seen.
In between all this, Punjab government is spending money giving front-page advertisements in newspapers across the country. With state’s finances in doldrums, a string of such impractical decisions may totally derail Punjab’s economy and send it towards the same fate as Sri Lanka.
The Karnataka Hijab storm has been rattling the doors of the Supreme Court. For the past week, the Supreme Court has been hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court order that upheld the ban on Hijab in educational institutes. The matter is being heard by the bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia.
From deciding whether wearing Hijab is an essential religious practice in Islam, to the Muslim side claiming the court has no business deciding essential practices and more, several arguments have been made so far in the case over a span of 6 explosive days. On Thursday (day 6), the lawyers representing the Muslim side, which is challenging the Karnataka HC order, told the Supreme Court that BR Ambedkar’s statement on the Hijab, extracted from the HC order, was “deeply offensive” and “totally biased”. The lawyers further said that it is one that “should not be repeated in India”.
In March 2022, addressing the hijab row under the sub-heading ‘Emancipation of women’, the court quoted Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar in support of their verdict.
HC had cited an extract from Chapter ten, part one titled ‘Social Stagnation’ of his 1945 book ‘Pakistan or the partition of India’. In the extract, Ambedkar talks about how the ‘purdah’ system for Muslim women has been a method for them to be “weighed down by a slavish mentality and an inferiority complex”. He further talks about how it has “brought about segregation of Muslim women…keeping them secluded from the outer world. Referring to the extract the court had stated that “there is a lot of scope for the argument that insistence on wearing of purdah, veil, or headgear in any community may hinder the process of emancipation of woman in general and Muslim woman in particular.”
Colin Gonsalves, who has links with George Soros, representing the Muslim side, took umbrage at what the High Court had cited. He first cited the HC order in isolation, mentioning that the court had observed that the Hijab cannot lead to the emancipation of women. When the SC Judge corrected him and pointed out that the observation was made in connection with what Dr BR Amebedkar had said, Gonsalves essentially cancelled Ambedkar calling his views hurtful and one that should “not be repeated in India”.
Gonsalves : Linking hijab to disorder and chaos, and sectarianism.
Justice Dhulia : This was said in the context of what Dr. Ambedkar observed.. you can’t read a judgment like a statute.#Hijab#SupremeCourt
Ambedkar was vehement in his criticism of the Hijab. He had said:
There can thus be no manner of doubt that the Muslim Society in India is afflicted by the same social evils as afflict the Hindu Society. Indeed, the Muslims have all the social evils of the Hindus and something more. That something more is the compulsory system of purdah for Muslim women. As a consequence of the purdah system, segregation of Muslim women is brought about…These burka women walking in the streets is one of the most hideous sights one can witness in India.
Such seclusion cannot but have deteriorating effects on the physical constitution of Muslim women. They are usually victims of anaemia, tuberculosis and pyorrhoea. Their bodies are deformed, with their backs bent, bones protruded, and their hands and feet crooked. Ribs, joints and nearly all their bones ache. Heart palpitation is very often present in them. The result of this pelvic deformity is untimely death at the time of delivery. Purdah deprives Muslim women of mental and moral nourishment. Being deprived of healthy social life, the process of moral degeneration must and does set in. Being completely secluded from the outer world, they engage their minds in petty family quarrels with the result that they become narrow and restricted in their outlook.
They lag behind their sisters from other communities, cannot take part in any outdoor activity and are weighed down by a slavish mentality and an inferiority complex. They have no desire for knowledge because they are taught not to be interested in anything outside the four walls of the house. Purdah women in particular become helpless, timid, and unfit for any fight in life. Considering a large number of purdah women among Muslims in India, one can easily understand the vastness and seriousness of the problem of purdah.
Ambedkar further said that Hindus are right when they say it is not possible to establish a social connect between Hindus and Muslims because such contact can only mean contact between women from one side (Hindus) and men from the other side (Muslims). He had largely attributed this to the Purdah system among Muslim women and said that it leads to the segregation of Hindus and Muslims. “Not that purdah and the evils consequent thereon are not to be found among certain sections of the Hindus in certain parts of the country. But the point of distinction is that among the Muslims, purdah has a religious sanctity which it has not with the Hindus. Purdah has deeper roots among Muslims than it has among Hindus and can only be removed by facing the inevitable conflict between religious injunctions and social needs. The problem of purdah is a real problem with the Muslims—apart from its origin—which it is not with the Hindus. Of any attempt by the Muslims to do away with it, there is no evidence”, he had written.
The very people, who appropriate Ambedkar and use him to further their hate not just for Hindus and Hinduism, but also to further the Jai Bheem Jai Meem trope, cancelled him in open court.
In fact, in the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court, the Muslim side did not just cancel Ambedkar in order to justify their fundamentalism. Several other arguments indicate, quite clearly, that the Muslim side has no qualms pushing the boundaries of feigned decency to defend every tenet of Islam.
One of the arguments made during the hearing in the Supreme Court was that the High Court verdict in the matter was flawed because it cited the opinions of experts who claim that certain verses from the Quran lose their meaning with changing times. Advocate Nizam Pasha, who is focussing on the Islamic injunctions regarding Hijab, claimed that this assertion “borders on blasphemy”. Given the recent spate of violence in the name of Blasphemy, several commentators legitimately wondered if the violent consequences of Islamic blasphemy have now become a legitimate legal argument in the Apex Court of the “secular nation”.
Pasha : For believing Muslims, Quran is perfect for all the times to come. So to say the verses have lost meaning with time is bordering on blasphemy.
Justice Dhulia : Don’t go that far. Commentators are saying their opinon.
Pasha : Not commentators, learned judges are saying.
With such arguments being made, the delightful byproduct of the Hijab hearing in the Supreme Court has been two-fold – One, it is evident that the Muslim community is not afraid to defend their practices and preserve the sanctity of Islam, thereby shedding the pretence of being progressive, secular, accommodating, inclusive and other punch words that are often used by Leftists, their ideological knights, to defend Islam. And second, in their quest to preserve the sanctity of Islam, other tropes like Jai Bheem Jai Meem are being stripped to their bare, ugly bones.
These byproducts, as isolated as they may appear, are intricately intertwined in a special way, that reveals the fortitude of the Muslim community in mounting a defence for, and vehemently preserving the tenets of Islam. In fact, I say this with appreciation and not derision. The Muslim community stands resolutely with every measure taken to preserve their faith and the requirements of their faith, however distasteful. Their dutiful devotion is something that must be observed, understood and adopted, especially by the deracinated Hindu community, that is willing to let their faith be chipped away bit by bit in the name of hollow punchlines and a misplaced sense of moral propriety.
One would imagine that the Muslim side would spare deprecating BR Ambedkar in court, given that the stalwart, his views on Hinduism and his conversion to Buddhism is the understructure on which their electoral ‘Jai Bheem Jai Meem’ trope stands. The edifice of the mythical unity between Muslims and Dalits is cemented by Ambedkar’s disgruntlement with Hinduism. This is precisely why the Muslim community and the Leftists largely choose to appropriate Ambedkar while summarily ignoring his criticism of Islam – he serves a far more important political and electoral purpose for these communities.
However, as evidenced by the exchange in the courtroom, there is a red line that the Muslim community won’t cross for the sake of this mythical unity. Dalits are to be used, not prioritised over theological purity and religious preservation. The recent example of the Lakhimpur rape and murder comes to mind – Muslim representative and their allies screamed hoarse when news emerged that two Dalit girls had been raped and hanged from a tree in Lakhimpur – it was a delicious opportunity for vultures, after all – Minor victims who were Dalits and a crime in the state of Uttar Pradesh – headed by the Bhagwadhari Yogi. However, their concern soon turned into stoicism when they realised that 5 out of the 6 accused were Muslim – those who had actually raped the two sisters. In the case of the Hijab hearings too, the Muslim side has shown their commitment to theological preservation and for that, even the cancellation of Ambedkar is acceptable if his cited views negate their religious dogma.
There is a reason why Islamists get squeamish when Jogendra Nath Mandal is mentioned in a debate about Islamic theology versus political and electoral pipe dreams like the unity between Dalits and Muslims. One of the central and leading founders of Islamic Pakistan, a Dalit, who came back to India and died innocuously after he could not accept the barbarity being heaped on Hindus. Dalits are to be used for electoral benefits and to cripple the Hindu community as a whole by separating Dalits from them. When they become inconvenient, they are to be tossed aside, vilified and forgotten.
Siding with the Dalits, however superficially, gives the Muslim community an additional trope to tomtom – they can safely claim that they are for religious and cultural preservation of those marginalised by the dominant Hindu community, not for Islamic supremacy, per se. But if the Hijab proceedings prove anything at all, it is that the veneer of respect for all marginalised communities is just that – a decorative, thin veil. In actuality, religious sentiments of any community other than their own is merely a prop to be used to make their own arguments sound palatable – a veil that can be discarded at will when the time is ripe – as in the case of the Hijab debate.
The religious sentiments, cultural moorings and social preservation of any community mean paltry little and that is a reality that we must contend with. Our Gods and our stalwarts are props to be used, abused and discarded, not respected and certainly not regarded above the preservation of Islam and all of its tenets.
The Hindu community seems to be woefully unaware of the cultural challenge that stares them in the eye. Hindus often shy away from owning their own theological foundation because they believe, truly, that if they are willing to let their faith be chipped away, either to conform to western modernism or the Abrahamic worldview, they would be viewed as a community that deserves respect and social acceptance. They are willing to let go of their traditions, their festivals, their history and even the acknowledgement of their own genocide because they think that by doing so, they would get the coveted gratification of not just the Muslim community, that they believe lash out in violence because they have been marginalised, but also the elites and Leftists, who as per a calculative strategy, wish to keep Hindus ashamed and guilty.
The Muslims have, for so long, convinced themselves with a reassuring lie about being persecuted by the Hindu community, something that seeds their victim mindset and stops them from ever looking inwards, while their radicals go on murderous rampages against Hindus, that the Hindu community, in their eternal Stockholm syndrome, believes that by stripping themselves of their cultural and religious identity, they can not only convince the Muslim community that they have nothing to be scared of (so they can stop vilifying Hindus) but also, that the Hindu identity means so little and is so fluid, that they don’t deserve to be killed for it.
Hindus need to realise that for the Muslim community, the only thing that is of paramount importance is self-preservation. The Hindus can shred to bits everything they hold dear, everything they hold sacred, and essentially die with a smile on their face, as MK Gandhi advocated, but they will still be vilified as the aggressor while their funeral pyres burn like the sun. While not becoming the enemy you fight is a lofty principle, an honourable one, it is also a path paved with annihilation. They might convince themselves that they are the “Dara Hua” community and their repeated yelps might convince you too, but this Dara Hua community can stand up in the Supreme Court and tell a judge that their judicial opinion is blasphemous. While they do this, the Hindu gets blamed by the same judiciary, for beheadings committed by Islamists. Hindus are predisposed to taking a kitchen knife to a battle where the enemy uses a tank. If the Hijab proceedings prove anything – it is that the ammunition needs a serious, considered upgrade.
