A day before Munawar Faruqui is scheduled to perform his comedy special ‘Dongri to Nowhere’ in the National Capital, the Delhi police have turned down permission for the show.
As per reports, the decision was made by the licensing unit of the Delhi police after the central district police pointed out that his show could affect communal harmony in the area.
Although Faruqui was supposed to perform at the Kedarnath Stadium in Delhi’s Civic Centre on Sunday (August 28), his show will now be cancelled in the absence of requisite permission.
Licensing unit of Delhi police rejects permission to stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui to perform his show scheduled for August 28th in Delhi
This comes after the central district police wrote a report to the unit stating that “the show will affect communal harmony in the area.” pic.twitter.com/tMPvvb6C2T
Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) warned about holding protests against Munawar Faruqui in a letter to the Delhi police. The Delhi unit Chief of the Hindu organisation, Surendra Kumar Gupta, urged the Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora to cancel the comedian’s controversial show.
VHP writes a letter to Delhi Police seeking the cancellation of Munawar Faruqui’s show that is to be held in Delhi on August 28, further saying that workers of VHP & Bajrang Dal will hold a protest against the show otherwise pic.twitter.com/sN1Ir0K4zS
Earlier, Faruqui’s comedy special was cancelled in Bengaluru on the complaint of a Hindu group named Jai Shri Ram Sena (JSRS).
Their memorandum read, “We bring to your kind notice that this Talk Show ‘Dongri to Nowhere’ is planned propaganda to mock Hindu gods and goddesses as evident in previous programs of Munawar Faruqui. It is a serious matter of hate speech and hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.”
“Mr Faruqui whilst not having any knowledge about the Hindu scriptures or Hindu dharma, is influencing a negative and offensive view of the most respected Hindu dharma, without any basis. There is enough proof and evidence of hurting religious sentiments by the lead of the show Munawar Faruqui,” it added.
However, the comedian had claimed on Instagram that the show was cancelled due to his poor health.
In Shahjahanpur of Uttar Pradesh, a delivery boy was shot for refusing to accept torn currency notes while delivering an order of pizza and burgers. After the incident, the injured man Sachin Kashyap was sent to Bareilly for treatment. The incident took place on 24th August 2022. The accused Nadeem Khan and Naeem Khan were arrested by the Bareilly police and country-made pistols were recovered from them.
#UttarPradesh: Pizza delivery boy Sachin , 21, shot at by “Nadeem and Nayeem Khan” for refusing to accept torn Rs 200 note in #Shahjahanpur.
This incident took place in the Kotwali Chowk area of Shahjahanpur on Wednesday. Sachin Kumar Kashyap, a resident of the Kachcha Katra Mohalla works as a delivery boy in the Vilanka Cafe situated in the town hall area under the Sadar Police Station. On Wednesday, August 24, he went to deliver a pizza and burger order late in the night. He was accompanied by his friend Ritik. At around 11.30 in the night, both of them went to Nadeem Khan’s residence in the Jalalnagar area for delivery of the order and returned after collecting the price.
According to reports, Ritik said that Sachin was supposed to collect Rs 197 from the customer, and Nadeem Khan gave him a note of Rs 200. After that, they went to buy a soft drink and gave that same note. But the shopkeeper refused to accept it as it was torn. They immediately went back, and requested Nadeem to replace the note. But Nadeem Khan and his brother Naeem Khan got very angry at this. Both of them abused Sachin. As Sachin resisted the abuse, Nadeem Khan brought out a country-made pistol and shot Sachin in the back. Ritik was saved by chance.
After hearing the gunshot, a neighbour called police, the police reached the spot and sent the injured to the Government Medical College. Seeing his condition, he was referred to Bareilly. Inspector-in-charge Amit Pandey said raids were conducted at several places to arrest the accused. The police took quick action in this case and on 26th August 2022, the police arrested the two accused Nadeem Khan and Naeem Khan for shooting the delivery boy. The police also recovered an illegal pistol that was used in the crime and 12 bores cartridges.
SHO Pandey said, “Multiple teams were deployed in the area to nab the accused brothers. We recovered two countrymade pistols and multiple bullets from them. We booked them under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 504 (intentional insult) of the Indian Penal Code, along with section 5/25 of the Arms Act. Both of them were sent to jail on Thursday”.
On Friday, senior Supreme Court advocate Dushyant Dave cried as everyone bid farewell to retiring Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. Dave stated in court that Justice Ramana “had a spine” and upheld the checks and balances between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches.
Dave said, “I speak on behalf of a vast multitude of citizens of this country. You stood up for them. You upheld their rights and the constitution. When you took over, I was sceptical of what the court had gone through. I must say, you excelled our expectations. You maintained checks and balances between the judiciary, the executive and parliament. You did with a spine.”
Advocate Dushyant Dave’s problematic antecedents
It is worth noting that advocate Dave wrote to the Supreme Court’s Secretary-General in 2020, opposing the supreme Court’s ‘preferential’ hearing of Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami. After it was discovered that Dave was one of the greatest claimants of such ‘urgent hearings,’ questions were raised about the senior Supreme Court lawyer’s honesty.
Dushyant Dave had denounced the listing of the case, calling it ‘extraordinary urgent listing,’ even as Arnab Goswami spent many days in jail in Mumbai in a case that was unilaterally re-opened by the Mumbai Police without the approval of the court.
Interestingly, Dushyant Dave was a direct beneficiary of such urgent sessions before the Supreme Court in two cases. First, in August 2018, self-proclaimed historian Romila Thapar filed a plea seeking an interim measure for some of the accused Urban Naxals in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Prashant Bhushan moved the Supreme Court in April 2020 in connection with a lawsuit brought by Gujarat police against him for infringing on Hindu religious feelings. Prashant Bhushan’s case was listed on April 30, 2020, and an urgent hearing was held the following day, on May 1. Interestingly, Dushyant Dave had asked the Supreme Court for the dismissal of the FIR filed against the activist lawyer.
In May 2020, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Secretary Ashok Arora called for the removal of senior advocate Dushyant Dave from the post of president of the organisation and also from its primary membership. An “extraordinary meeting” was also called by the SCBA secretary regarding the same. The removal of Dushyant Dave was sought in connection with the resolution passed by the association in February condemning Justice Mishra for his remarks praising Prime Minister Modi.
As the Gujarat state assembly elections are approaching, the number of sponsored and bogus surveys is increasing again. Now an application has also come on social media through which anyone can make a poll and get people’s votes. With not getting much response on the ground, the Aam Aadmi Party has now taken up such surveys to gain some space in the popular discussions using such applications for the survey. However, after this practice by AAP was exposed, the posts shared by the leaders had to be deleted.
Although the Aam Aadmi Party had conducted such surveys in many assembly constituencies, it was finally exposed when it came to the Navsari assembly seat in Gujarat, and the posts shared by the Aam Aadmi Party leaders had to be deleted.
A poll was created on an app named StawPoll by Aam Aadmi Party workers in Navsari city and the link of this was also shared on various social media platforms. The theme of this survey was that if elections are held on the Navsari assembly seats, then which candidate will get how many votes?
According to the viral screenshot of this opinion poll, a total of 638 votes were cast. Of these, 562 votes went to the Aam Aadmi Party candidate, 66 votes to the Congress, and only 10 votes to the BJP candidate. The percentage of this vote share is 88.09%, 10.34%, and 1.57% respectively.
AAP’s surveys for the Navsari constituency exposed the fake pre-election voting polls held on applications
Looking at the results of the survey, prima facie it seems that the swing in the constituency is in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Navsari assembly seat and if the election is held today, the AAP candidate will win with a huge majority. BJP has been winning the Navsari seat continuously since 1990 and every time the Congress party was in the second position. The current MLA is Piyushbhai Dinkerbhai Desai who won his second term in 2017, and the last non-BJP MLA in the constituency had won an election way back in 1985. Therefore, the poll showed a huge shift in votive preference in the seat.
However, soon the AAP survey was exposed to be dubious, and the truth behind the entire scandal came to the fore. It was found that only a small number of people had voted for AAP numerous times, pushing up the votes for the party.
In fact, while creating a poll on this app, the option is given whether the details of the persons who voted are to be made public or not. Also, there can be a setting where a person can vote only once. However, both options were not chosen while making this poll.
When the number of people who voted under this poll was seen, it was found that there were one or two names who had voted several times for AAP at the same time. Due to this, the percentage of the Aam Aadmi Party automatically increased.
In the screenshot, it can be seen that after a few votes, a large number of votes have been put together by two names Bhavin and Savla. When counted, only those two names crossed the figure of 100 votes each. However, after some users commented on the post shared by the Aam Aadmi Party leader in this regard, the post was finally deleted.
However, this was not the only post. Apart from this, the party has made several surveys on the same app. The results of these surveys are also being shared on social media platforms and these surveys were described as ‘the biggest survey of Gujarat’ and showed that the Aam Aadmi Party will form the government. But cases like this are enough to expose the actual credibility of such surveys.
Such surveys before the elections are not new for the Aam Aadmi Party. The party, which has been active for quite some time, has to resort to a similar survey to create a fuss. Even before the upcoming elections, the Aam Aadmi Party has tried to infuse enthusiasm among its workers by sharing the results of such sponsored surveys.
On Thursday (August 25), the Election Commission recommended the disqualification of the Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren as a member of the State Legislative Assembly. In a report submitted to the governor of Jharkhand, EC recommended that Hemant Soren should be disqualified from the post of MLA. This effectively means that Soren will have to resign from the post of chief minister.
As per reports, the nodal election body informed that Soren used his Chief Ministerial position to award a stone mining lease to himself in June 2021. The matter was initially raised by the Opposition BJP with State Governor Ramesh Bais.
He then referred the issue to the Election Commission. This was done in accordance with Article 192 of the Indian Constitution, which states that as the governor must “obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and shall act according to such opinion” in case of an MLA’s disqualification.
मेरे उपर हेमंत जी ने 36 तरह के केस दर्ज करवाया और आज मुख्यमंत्री के कुर्सी और हेमंत जी में 36 का आंकड़ा होता नज़र आ रहा है।राज्य में लोकतंत्र की लड़ाई लड़ हमने जीत की तरफ कदम रखा है।इतिहास दोहरा गया मधु कोडा भाग दो। pic.twitter.com/N6zA9xiEGe
Following political outcry about the matter, Hemant Soren surrendered the land and Jharkhand Advocate General even told the State High Court that it was a mistake by the State government.
Citing sources, several media houses have reported that the EC recommended the Jharkhand Governor to disqualify Soren. The nodal election body issued a notice to the Chief Minister in May 2022 for prima-facie violation of Section 9A of the Representation of People’s Act [pdf].
The said rule prevents MLAs/ MPs from entering into a contract with the government for the supply of goods by it. However, disqualification under Section 9A will remain effective as long as the contract is in force.
JMM is confident about the return of Hemant Soren
As such, Hemant Soren can tender his resignation and technically be sworn in as the Chief Minister again, with the condition that he wins a by-poll within the next 6 months. He is the MLA of the Barhait Vidhan Sabha constituency of Jharkhand.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is however confident that the ongoing controversy will not have any impact on the State’s ruling dispensation.
The party’s general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya remarked, “We taught them a lesson in the 2019 assembly polls and four by-elections in Jharkhand. Let them do all the conspiracy they want to… Public support is with us as the Hemant Soren government has fulfilled all its promises.”
Currently, Congress has 18 members, RJD has 1 and JMM has 81 seats in Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha. The Opposition BJP has 26 members in the State Assembly.
Two videos have surfaced on social media wherein Islamists are seen using extremely foul language while threatening the suspended BJP leader Raja Singh for his alleged blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
The videos surfaced days after hundreds of Islamists hit the streets of Hyderabad to shout Islamists slogans like, “Allah-hu-Akbar”, “Gustakh E Rasool ki ek he saza sar tan sejuda, sar tan se juda” and demanded to arrest and behead Raja Singh. They also yelled slogans like, “Raja Singh Murdabad, Murdabad” and reiterated that the BJP MLA had allegedly insulted the Muslim community and their God.
Both videos were shared by the Telugu live TV channel Telangana Maata on Friday, August 26. In the first video, a Muslim man is heard threatening Raja Singh with dire consequences if the Hyderabad commissioner and Home Minister do not take prompt action against him. In the video, the youth is heard threatening Raja Singh with veiled threats and using foul words like ‘Har**mi and kut*e ki aulad for the suspended BJP leader.
The youth not only abused and threatened to behead the suspended BJP leader but was also heard mouthing profanities against his mother. He further abused and threatened Raja Singh’s supporters with a similar fate to Raja Singh if the Telangana police does not take action against them.
The youth is heard openly threatening Raja Singh and his supporters, saying, “Tumhara Hyderabad mein jina haram kar denge” (We will make it difficult for you to live in Hyderabad), as he urged his community to teach these “har**mi’s a lesson.”
Meanwhile, in the second video shared by Telangana Maata, a woman, who identifies herself as Ayesha Parveen threatened Raja Singh with death for allegedly abusing their Prophet. She hurled insults at the ex-BJP leader by calling him ‘suar’ (Pig) and ‘jahil’ (illiterate). She threatened to kill him for insulting Islam.
This video had originally surfaced on August 23. It was shared by the Youtube channel Sach Ke Sath.
She went on to say that whatever Raja Singh said about the Prophet was because he was supported by Telangana’s ruling TRS party. She claimed that if it weren’t for their help, Raja Singh would not have been able to openly deliver such hate speeches in the state.
She claimed that the Telangana government is profiting from the state’s communal strife, which is why it is refusing to take any concrete action against Raja Singh.
Prior to this, Congress leader Feroze Khan was heard ranting on video as violent protests against Singh gripped Hyderabad. In the video, Khan also asked T Raja Singh to apologise for his statements about the Prophet, who, he said, is the “hero of the Muslim community”.
In the brazen threat on camera, the Congress leader said, “T Raja Singh wants to do politics of polarisation. Put him in jail. Raja Singh should apologise for his statement. The Prophet is our hero. If he doesn’t apologise, then I would want to ask every Muslim in Hyderabad to beat him wherever you see him. We can take the law into our hands not once, but several times. For his audacious remark against the prophet, he must be hit with a shoe.”
Besides, Feroze Khan, Telangana Congress Committee Secretary Rashed Khan on Tuesday also threatened of entering Goshamahal, the constituency of T Raja Singh, and turning it into ashes if the police did not arrest him.
“If Raja Singh is not arrested on 23, I will turn Goshamahal (Raja Singh’s constituency) into ashes on 24,” Rashed Khan said. “I am ready to break law and order and enter Goshamahal. I will not be responsible for it then.”
In the interview, Khan also appeared to justify “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants raised against the suspended BJP leader, contending that Singh’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad triggered the beheading slogans against him.
Meanwhile, severe protests broke out in Hyderabad at South Zone DCP office where protesters demanded immediate action against Singh. Singh had posted a video in which he, according to the Islamists, used abusive language towards the Prophet Muhammad.
Several people then gathered at the South Zone DCP office in Hyderabad and staged a protest against the BJP MLA. Hundreds of them shouted Islamists slogans like, “Allah-hu-Akbar”, “Gustakh E Rasool ki ek he saza sar tan sejuda, sar tan se juda” and demanded the arrest of Raja Singh. They also yelled slogans like, “Raja Singh Murdabad, Murdabad” and reiterated that the BJP MLA had allegedly insulted the Muslim community and their God.
Additionally, on Wednesday, a large mob of over 50 people along with AIMIM leaders called for the beheading of T Raja Singh near City College.
Reports also emerged how over 90 Islamists raised murderous ‘Sar tan se juda’ beheading chants over T Raja Singh’s comments on Munawar Faruqui’s ‘comedy show’ where he had once mocked Hindu gods and goddesses. Men, women and even children were involved in stone pelting as well as chanting the murderous chants calling for T Raja Singh’s beheading. The report said that these ‘protestors’ were later released on the directions of AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi.
A Shiva temple in the Cholapur village of the Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh was attacked on 22nd August 2022. The Shivling in the temple was also vandalized in this attack. The police have registered a case in this matter and started an investigation to locate the unknown accused. The incident took place at Rajla village under the Cholapur Police Station Area.
The attack was discovered when some of the local residents came to the temple for morning prayers on 23rd August 2022. At that time they noticed that the temple interiors and the Shivling were mutilated. The unknown attackers had vandalized the temple and the Shivling. Reportedly, they also found some objectionable items placed inside the temple. This incident was immediately reported to the nearby police station and a complaint was filed.
The local residents claimed that they had seen a person whose frequent visits to the temple in the recent past were suspicious. There was a massive protest against this attack on the Hindu temple and the protesting Hindus demanded the immediate arrest of the attackers. The locals also protested when police took way the objectionable item placed in the temple, alleging that police were removing evidence about the attack.
Additional SP Neeraj Pandey said that case has been registered for the incident, and raids are being conducted on the adjoining of Varanasi district, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Chandauli and Jaunpur etc. to nab the culprit.
Attacks on Hindu temples have become common thing in the recent past. A Hindu temple in the Kanchanpur village of the Shergadh area in the Bareilly district was vandalized by Islamists on 11th August 2022 while taking processions of Moharram from the site. Uttar Pradesh police arrested 7 miscreants in this case.
The arrested Muslims were accused of chopping larger branches of the holy Pipal tree near a temple located at the Brahmadev Sthal, allegedly to widen the path for the Taziya procession during Muharram. During the process of cutting the branches, they allegedly vandalized the idol in the temple, threw away the donation box, and damaged the temple by using a bulldozer. Now this incident of vandalizing a Hindu temple has occurred in Varanasi – the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Local residents are demanding quick arrests of the accused in this case.
The online banter between Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on education in both states escalated today after Kejriwal refused to answer Sarma’s question on how many new schools have been built by the Delhi govt. The Assam CM gave a befitting reply to the Delhi CM after Kejriwal said that they should visit each other’s state to see the schools.
Pointing out the attempt of Kejriwal to compare the education system of Delhi with the same of Assam, Sarma said that both can’t be compared because the two are completely different regions. He pointed out that while Delhi is a rich city-state, Assam is a much larger state with huge diversities and poorer economic conditions, and therefore the schools of both can’t be compared.
This all started yesterday when Arvind Kejriwal criticised the Assam govt for the decision to shut down 34 schools for poor performance in board exams. Quoting a report saying that the Assam govt has ordered to close 34 schools after not a single student was able to pass the 10th exam from those schools, Kejriwal had tweeted that closing schools is not the solution. ‘We need to open many new schools all over the country. Instead of closing the school, improve the school and make education right,’ he had added.
Himanta Biswa Sarma had responded to this by saying while the govt is shutting down some poor-performing schools, the Assam govt has built many new schools during his tenure as education minister and then chief minister. Giving an account of new schools built and private schools provincialized, Sarma had asked Kejriwal, “How many new schools Delhi Government has started in last 7 yrs?”
Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that 8610 new schools were added to the number of govt schools in Assam, which included 8391 private schools taken over by the govt, and the rest new schools built.
While the Assam CM and everyone else were waiting for Kejriwal to respond with the corresponding numbers for Delhi, he decided to dodge the question completely. Instead, he claimed that he was not criticising the education system in Assam, and instead everyone should learn from each other to make the country number one.
अरे। लगता है आप बुरा मान गए। मेरा मक़सद आपकी कमियाँ निकालने का नहीं था। हम सब एक देश हैं। हमें एक दूसरे से सीखना है। तभी तो भारत नम्बर वन देश बनेगा
मैं आता हूँ ना असम। बताइए कब आऊँ? आप शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में अपने अच्छे काम दिखाना। आप दिल्ली आइये, मैं आपको दिल्ली के काम दिखाता हूँ https://t.co/SQCJyerfII
Then he offered to visit Assam to see the Assam govt’s work in education, and invited Sarma to Delhi so that he can show his govt’s work in the sector.
However, Himanta Biswa Sarma lambasted Kejriwal for his attempt to compare education in both states. Pointing out how the scale of the sector is vastly different, he tweeted, “Your ignorance is painful. Let me help you. Assam is 50 times bigger than Delhi! Our 44521 govt schools teach 65 lakh students- against your 1000+ odd schools. Our army of dedicated teachers number 2+ lakh; Midday meal workers 1.18 lakh. Fathom it?”
He added that unlike Delhi, Assam has to manage the fury of floods, deal with militancy, negotiate hilly & tough terrains – and yet deliver high-quality education.
Dear @ArvindKejriwal Ji, Your ignorance is painful. Let me help you. Assam is 50 times bigger than Delhi! Our 44521 govt schools teach 65 lakh students- against your 1000+ odd schools. Our army of dedicated teachers number 2+ lakh; Midday meal workers 1.18 lakh. Fathom it??
Pointing out further differences between the two states, Assam CM said, “We impart education in six mediums including 14 different tribal languages. Our diversity is something that we’r proud of, cherish, & ensure it to thrive through our unique education system. And yes, we do not have resources like that in Delhi. We’re proud of what we’ve and do!”
The six mediums that schools in Assam impart education are Assamese, English, Hindi, Bodo, Bengali and Nepali.
He then invited Arvind Kejriwal to visit Assam and said that after he sees the challenges faced by Assam, he will stop lecturing. “We’re amazing hosts. Please come; spend 2 nights in our riverine area and hill districts. See challenges we face. You’ll stop lecturing,” Sarma tweeted.
The Assam CM also offered him to show the medical colleges in Assam, saying they are 1000 times better than Kejriwal’s Mohalla clinics.
And yes, when you're in Assam, which you so desperately wish to, I will take you to our Medical Colleges, 1000 times better than your Mohalla Clinic. Also meet our bright Govt school teachers & students.
और हाँ, आप देश को No 1 बनाने की चिंता छोड़ दें, वो मोदी जी कर रहे हैं।
Ending the thread of his tweets, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Arvind Kejriwal need not worry of making the country number 1, as PM Modi is already doing that.
The Assam CM also responded to questions on the issue by reporters in Assam, and pointed out the vast difference between Delhi and Assam. He said that Delhi is basically a municipality, and it has been the capital of India for a long time, on the other hand, Assam is a remote state with several challenges.
‘They run 1200 schools where 15-16 lakh children study, and we run schools in areas like North Kachar Hills, Karbi Anglong Hills, Riverine areas where even today there are no electricity. We deal with almost a crore student in 50,000-60,000 schools. There can’t be a comparison between a municipality and a state,’ he said.
Sarma added, ‘if there were only 1200 schools in Assam, every student would have got a computer, an iPad, smart class, and they would have got non-veg food for breakfast and lunch in the schools. I don’t why a person running 1200 schools comparing himself with a state.’
He said that even private organisations like Don Bosco, St. Mary’s, Sankardev Vidya Niketan etc run a large number of schools comparable to schools run by Delhi govt, therefore the talk about Delhi model of education is meaningless.
‘Against 1200 schools and few Mohalla clinics, we run 2000 hospitals and 60000 schools, that too in an area of 80000 square kilometre that includes difficult terrains like hills, rivers etc. How he can sell that model? He can compare Delhi model vs Chandigarh Model, he can compare Delhi model vs Andaman Model, but he should not bring this comparison,’ Sarma further said.
On the invitation to visit Delhi, the Assam CM said that he anyway keeps visiting Delhi for official work, he had already seen the Mohalla clinics, and he can see the schools also anytime. Therefore, it is for Kejriwal for visit Assam to seen the ground realities of Assam. He said Kejriwal should visit Assam and spend some days in places like Dima Hasao, Baghbar, Jania etc. He also should visit other northeastern states to see the situation there and how the region has been victim of partition, militancy and natural calamities etc.
It is notable that while the Assam CM said that Delhi govt runs around 1200 schools, the actual number is even less. The education department of the Delhi govt lists 1040 schools on its website.
Six more Congress leaders have resigned from their primary membership of the Congress party following the resignation of Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. At the same time, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that he will be forming his own party in Jammu & Kashmir.
Congress leader GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, Choudhary Mohd Akram, and Senior Congress Leader & Former Minister RS Chib resigned from the primary membership of the Congress party.
J&K | GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhary Mohd Akram resign from the primary membership of Congress “in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad”. pic.twitter.com/PciPTd3QS3
In his resignation letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi, RS Chib said, “Keeping in view the turmoil that the State of J&K has witnessed over the past decades, the people require a decisive leader like lb. Ghulam Nabi Azad to guide them towards a better future. I feel that the Congress Party has not been able to play the role that is expected of it.”
J&K | Senior Congress Leader & Former Minister RS Chib resigns from Primary membership of Congress soon after the resignation of Ghulam Nabi Azad pic.twitter.com/HPFgfb886W
“I firmly believe that there is a growing divergence between my views and the views of those at the helm of the Party affairs. In light of the same, I feel that the best course of action would be for me to part ways with your Party. Accordingly, I am tendering my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress,” the letter further added.
Meanwhile, senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has stated that he will be forming a new political party in Kashmir. He said, “I will go to Jammu and Kashmir. I will form my own party in the state.”
It is noteworthy that senior Congressman Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had been involved with the party since the mid-1970s, resigned from the party on Friday. Azad criticised the Congress’ top leadership in his letter for ignoring senior party figures and caving into the preferences and desires of “inexperienced sycophants.”
Jaiveer Shergill, the spokesperson for the Congress party, recently resigned after making similar claims as Azad, stating that the party’s senior leadership only pays attention to bootlickers. Hardik Patel also left the Congress, claiming that the party’s leaders were more concerned with feeding Delhi leaders chicken sandwiches than concentrating on the problems in Gujarat.
On Friday, the Kerala High Court refused to grant permission to build a new mosque in a locality in Kerala which already had many mosques. The Court said that the state already has many religious places where the faithful can worship and that the ratio of religious structures to the population in the state is very high.
According to the reports, the Court was hearing the case filed by Noorul Islam Samskarika Sangam which sought to change a commercial building to a Muslim place of worship. The petition claimed that this would enable Muslims in the vicinity to access a mosque to offer prayers five times a day.
However, the District Collector evaluated the request and refused it based on reports from the District Police Chief, who stated that there are around 36 mosques within a 5-kilometre radius of the petitioner’s current commercial structure.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan while hearing the case stated that the state of Kerala is known as ‘God’s own country’ and that it is full of religious places. “We are exhausted with religious places and prayer halls and we are not in a position to allow any new religious places and prayer halls except in the rarest of rare cases”, the judgement read.
The Justice also referred to the Quran and said that it was nowhere written in the book that there must be a Mosque for Muslim community in every nook and corner of the locality. Court further referred to the verses Juz 10 Surah 18 and Juz 1 Surah 114 of the Holy Quran and to Clause 1064 of Riyadussaliheen.
“The above verses of the Holy Quran, clearly highlight the importance of the Mosque to the Muslim community. But it is not stated in the above verses of the Holy Quran that Mosque is necessary in every nook and corner. It is not stated in the Hadees or in the Holy Quran that the mosque is to be situated adjacent to the house of every Muslim community member. Distance is not the criteria, but reaching the mosque is important,” the Court observed.
“If every devotee of Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jews, Parsis, etc. start to construct religious places and prayer halls near their residence, the State will face serious consequence including communal disharmony”, the Court stated adding that as per the police report, conversion of commercial building to a religious prayer hall might lead to communal disharmony in the area.
In the instant case, because 36 mosques already existed in the vicinity in question, the Court determined there was no need for yet another mosque in that area because Muslims could travel to other nearby mosques, especially given that most citizens have access to a vehicle or public transportation.
“It is true that Article 26(a) of the Constitution of India states that subject to the public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes. That does not mean that they can construct religious places in every nook and corner of the country. Kerala is a very small State”, the Court observed.
Justice Kunhikrishnan also cited a movie song by late famous poet Late Vayalar Ramavarma, which refers of how man created religions, religions created God, and religions and God split the globe and humanity.
“Let the citizens love each other and follow their religious practices according to their religious beliefs. They can do it from their house and if their religion insists that, it should be done together in a prayer hall. They can travel to the nearest mosque instead of constructing another mosque or prayer hall in their neighbourhood….If the poet is alive today, I am sure that the poet will rewrite the second line of the above song as “religion is the creator of religious places”, instead of God,” the judgment stated.
The Court reviewed the ‘The Manual of guidelines to prevent and regulate community disruption and to encourage communal harmony’ issued by the State via a Government Order and determined that approval from district authorities is required even for a change of occupation.
“Therefore, it is declared that, even for a change of occupancy of a building to a religious place, the Manual of Guidelines is applicable and the approval from the competent authority as per the Manual of Guidelines is necessary”, the Court held in its judgment.
The Court further went on to say that the presence of other religious places or prayer halls nearby is a sufficient reason to deny a request to convert the category of a structure to a religious place and even to develop a new religious prayer hall. In this case, the Court saw no basis to overturn the State authorities’ judgement and dismissed the petition.
