Brize Norton, the largest air force base in the United Kingdom had to halt flights from the base as the prevailing heat wave in the country melted the runway. Luton Airport in London was also forced to suspend flights as the unusually high temperatures for the country caused damage to the runway.
As reported by Sky News, the Royal Air Force halted flights from Brize Norton, and had to divert flights to other bases to keep its operation running amidst safety concerns. Airport traffic isn’t the only one suffering the burnt of the high temperatures, as trains are also running slow, with some rail services even being cancelled.
In a statement shared by UK’s Ministry of Defense on Twitter, the Royal Air Force stated that there has been no impact on RAF’s operations as they are using alternative airfields as part of a long-established plan.
.@RoyalAirForce statement on flights at RAF Brize Norton:
"During this period of extreme temperature flight safety remains the RAF’s top priority, so aircraft are using alternative airfields in line with a long-established plan. This means there is no impact on RAF operations."
— Ministry of Defence Press Office (@DefenceHQPress) July 18, 2022
UK Health Security Agency has declared a state of emergency as the temperatures reached 38 degrees celsius. For the first time ever, the temperature in the UK is predicted to touch 40 degrees celsius during the ongoing heat wave. The previous record temperature recorded in the country was 38.7 degrees celsius in Cambridge in 2019.
The unprecedented heat wave is likely to continue on Tuesday as the Metrological Office has issued a red extreme heat warning for most of the country.
Days after the Supreme Court pinned the blame on Nupur Sharma for the gruesome murder of Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal ,the former BJP spokesperson moved the apex court on Monday (July 18) evening to seek protection from arrest.
As per reports, a total of 9 First Information Reports (FIRs) have been filed against Sharma across the country for speaking about Prophet Muhammad and his relationship with his child bride Ayesha.
While seeking protection from arrests in these cases, the ex-BJP spokesperson pointed out how she had been receiving increased death and rape threats since the contentious observation made by the vacation bench of the Supreme Court on July 1.
In her petition, she had also sought expunction of the observations made by Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala. Sharma had also asked the same Bench to club all her FIRs in Delhi.
Supreme Court’s observations in Udaipur beheading case
On 1st July 2022, the Supreme Court of India Judge, Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala blamed former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s comments for the brutal Udaipur murder. He stated that Sharma’s ‘loose tongue’ has set the entire country on fire and she should apologize to the whole country.
The two judges had effectively ignored the fact that murder and violence have been caused by Islamists seeking Nupur Sharma’s head, and had held Sharma ‘single-handedly responsible’ for the violence.
Nupur Sharma had moved the SC seeking the transfer of all the FIRs registered against her, across several states, to Delhi for further investigation. Sharma, in her application, stated that she is facing constant life threats.
After attracting severe criticism over the unwarranted oral remarks by a Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, justice JB Pardiwala advocated for censorship of social media and digital media.
The same two judges are to hear Sharma’s petition today.
On July 19, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirodi Lal Meena revealed on social media that he had received a death threat from Islamists for supporting Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal’s family, who was murdered last month in Udaipur. The threat came after he pledged his one-month salary to the family of Kanhaiya Lal. Notably, Kanhaiya Lal was killed for an alleged post in support of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
मैं इस प्रकार की धमकियों से डरने वाला नहीं हूं। मैं लगातार जेहादियों और इन्हें संरक्षण देने वाली राजनीतिक शक्तियों की पोल खोलता रहूंगा। चाहे मेरी जान ही क्यों न चली जाए।2/2
— Dr.Kirodi Lal Meena (@DrKirodilalBJP) July 18, 2022
In a tweet, Meena wrote, “A Jihadi named Kadir Ali did not like that I pledged one month salary to the family of Kanhaiya Lal who was killed by Jihadis in Udaipur. He has threatened to kill me. I have written to CM and Union Home Ministry on the matter.”
He further added, “I am not going to get intimidated by such threats. I will continue exposing these Jihadis and the political powers that are supporting them. I am ready to die for the cause.” The letter was sent to his residence in Delhi.
— INDIA NEWS RAJASTHAN (@raj_indianews) July 18, 2022
In his letters to Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home Ministry of India and Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot, he mentioned that the letter was sent to his Delhi residence. He further added that he had gone to Udaipur to meet the family of Kanhaiya Lal and pledged to support them with one month’s salary. The person who has sent the threatening letter has sent a copy of the news that was published after his meeting with the family.
‘Anyone insulting our Prophet will face a fate like Kanhaiya Lal’
In the letter dated July 9, Kadir Ali of Rajasthan wrote, “Anyone who insults our Prophet will face a fate like Kanhaiya Lal. Anyone who helps those who have insulted our Prophet, no matter how big a leader he is, we will teach him a lesson. Thus, it is your turn Kirori Meena because you think you are a big Hinduvadi leader and keep spewing venom against Muslims. You have committed blasphemy by supporting the one who had committed blasphemy by giving his family your salary. You have called us extremist Talibani. Now we have to teach you a lesson.”
Further, Ali sent a clipping of a news report about Meena pledging his salary to the family of Kanhaiya Lal. He wrote, “I have written the letter after seeing this. The world will read something else as well.”
Murder of Kanhaiya Lal
A Hindu tailor named Kanhaiya Lal was brutally beheaded by Islamists in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on June 28 for allegedly publishing a post in favour of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Reportedly, his neighbour Nazim had leaked his information to his community’s groups. He received multiple threats, following which he shut his shop for six days. After assurance from the Police that nothing would happen as there was a compromise between Kanhaiya Lal and those who were threatening him, he opened his shop, and on the same day, he was murdered.
On Thursday (July 14), the popular Indian photoblog ‘Humans of Bombay’ posted the story of a 22-year-old Muskaan, who apparently required ₹23 lakhs to pursue a master’s in Psychology at Harvard University. Soon after, netizens pointed out obvious discrepancies in the fundraising campaign with users pointing out that Muskaan has been running a similar fundraising campaign on Milaap.
Pointing out the discrepancies, a popular Twitter user @befittingfacts said, “Muskaan Bawa is collecting ₹25 Lakh in Milaap and ₹23.62 Lakh in Ketto for her ‘Education’. In Milaap she is from Dharmshala and in Ketto she is from Chandigarh.”
Muskaan Bawa is collecting ₹25 Lakh in Milaap and ₹23.62 Lakh in Ketto for her ‘Education’.
Several other users raised questions about her entire story claiming that the last date for admissions to Harvard has already passed, and some even said that Muskaan is a model by profession and the entire thing is suspect.
Following the internet outrage over this fundraiser, Humans of Bombay issued a clarification on the matter.
In an Instagram post, the Indian photoblog stated, “At Humans Of Bombay, no fundraiser is taken up without an elaborate vetting of documents and due diligence. Muskaan’s story is no different.”
Humans of Bombay claimed that it confirmed every fact of the case and reviewed her documents before promoting the fundraiser. It had uploaded soft copies of Muskaan’s Harvard admission letter, the breakup of the fee structure, Harvard loan receipt, visa document, flight tickets, and lease agreement.
However, now the Indian photoblog has offered to return the money to all the donors to this fundraiser for Muskaan if they so desire. In an Instagram post, Humans of Bombay said, “We hear you and are cognizant of all the opinions that have been shared over the past few days on Muskan’s fundraiser. As an organization committed to showcasing the best of humanity- we assure you that our only intent was to support a girl’s education.”
The photoblog also requested people to not direct any hate toward Muskaan, saying that she and her mother have been receiving hateful comments, emails, and even threats.
Further, Humans of Bombay offered to return the money of donors by saying, “If any of the 1000+ donors would like a refund, please send an email on [email protected] with the subject line- “Refund: Muskaan’s Fundraiser” and we will get in touch with you to help facilitate the same via Ketto.”
The average income of farmers has increased by 1.3-1.7 times, and in some cases, even two times, between the Financial years 2017-2018 and 2021-2022. This was concluded in a recently conducted research by the State Bank of India (SBI).
As per reports, the study is based on the granular data of crops such as wheat, cotton, groundnut, soybean, sugarcane, cotton and paddy from agriculture-intensive SBI branches. The research work analysed the average growth in income of farmers between FY18 and FY22.
For the same period, farmers witnessed an average increase in non-farm incomes by 1.4-1.8 times. Those who grew cash crops generated more income than non-cash crop farmers.
“This substantiates the trend according to the 77th National Sample Survey that source of farmer income has become increasingly diverse apart from crops,” the study emphasised.
“In principle, we have used a well-spread, well-represented, and probabilistic sample to estimate the change in income from FY18 to FY22 for all segments of farmers, large to small to marginal ones,” it further added.
In Karnataka, the average annual income of cotton farmers doubled from ₹2.67 lakhs in FY 18 to ₹5.63 lakhs in FY22. A similar phenomenon was witnessed in Maharashtra where soybean farmers were able to increase their income by 2x in the last 5 years.
The SBI report pointed out, “Minimum support price (MSP), increasingly aligned with market-linked pricing and increasing by 1.5-2.3 times since 2014, has been pivotal in ensuring passage of better prices to farmers and has led to optimal price discovery, setting ‘floor price benchmark’ for multiple crop varieties (23 as on date), also encouraging farmers to gradually move over to crop varieties that have better yield/value.”
While speaking about the matter, SBI’s group chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said, “The farm sector is currently in the throes of a significant structural shift on the back of a plethora of government policies and has emerged as the known unknown of the India growth story.”
“From a manifold and a statistically significant jump in income (both farm and non-farm, that has even doubled in some cases) to imbibing an entrepreneurial spirit, to a jump in agri exports, the farm sector has been witness to tectonic shifts of late,” he added.
In an egregious display of utter disregard for human life, the dewan of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah, Ali Musa Nizami, was seen laughing when asked about the horrendous beheading of the Udaipur’s Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal by Islamists in broad daylight.
Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu tailor was beheaded in Udaipur on 28th June 2022 by two Islamists Mohammad Riyaz and Ghouse Mohammad for supporting Nupur Sharma on social media. The sheer brutality inflicted on the Hindu tailor left most people in the country shell-shocked. Ali Musa Nizami termed the heinous murder ‘wrong’ but could not control his laughter while speaking about it.
Nizami is the same person, who a short while ago, during the conversation with OpIndia was hailing the dargah for preaching peace and love. He had referred to himself as a custodian of Sufism and claimed that because of his persona, Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus alike frequent the dargah. He also tried to normalise the recent controversy regarding the former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, the brutal murder of the Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, and the impact of the provocative statements by people associated with Ajmer dargah, saying that all this keeps happening.
In the video, one can see how Nizami starts laughing as soon as he is questioned about the gruesome murder of the Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal. He then gives a placid response to the heinous crime by simply calling it ‘wrong’. OpIndia further questioned him why individuals like him don’t come forward and condemn when “Sir Tan Se Juda” slogans are raised if he believed Kanhaiya Lal’s murder to be wrong. To this, Nizami again parroted the same response, saying that raising such slogans was also wrong.
“All of this shouldn’t be done”, he said, “Why unnecessarily spoil the harmonious environment.” Then he began to discuss the ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’- the Syncretic Hindu Muslim culture of North India, a myth that the so-called secular liberals have often used to exemplify how ‘tolerant’ and ‘peace-loving’ the Islamists in India are.
Significantly, after the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, videos of people associated with Ajmer’s Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Dargah had also surfaced. The connections of Gauhar Chishti, a Khadim of this dargah, with the Udaipur killers also came to the fore. Gauhar Chishti had not only raised slogans of beheading against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma but had also met one of the murderers of Kanhaiya Lal. In fact, the murderers of Kanhaiya Lal were en route to Ajmer after executing the heinous crime but were apprehended on their way.
Notably, the Sufis who are no less than ‘Saints’ in the eyes of the same group of self-described secular liberals who keep harping about the ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’ have two significant dargahs, one is the Ajmer’s Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Dargah and the other is Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah.
Ajmer’s Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Dargah’s role in the heinous killing of Kanhaiya Lal is now out in the open. Moreover, the threats to destabilise India, links with Kanhaiya Lal’s killers, incendiary remarks regarding Nupur Sharma, and joy shown when asked about Kanhaiya Lal’s killing, also indicate that the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz and the Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin not only share the same street but also the same thinking and mentality. Perhaps this explains why enormous chunks of meat are hung on either side of the path leading to the dargah, which is believed to be a place of worship, and how flowers and rose petals, that are used for worshipping are sold adjacent to these meat outlets.
Dewan of Delhi’s Nizamuddin dargah says Hindu visitors have decreased by 60% in the past year
Notably, during the course of the same conversation, the dewan of Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin’s Dargah, Ali Musa Nizami, also mentioned how the number of Hindu visitors to the Dargah has dramatically decreased over the last year. He said that the number has gone down by almost 60 per cent during that period. The 84-year-old dewan, who has been associated with the dargah for several years, asserted that fewer Hindus are now visiting the dargah as a result of the ‘propagation of hatred’, which he believed will only increase with time.
He regretted that while Hindus used to swarm the dargah, hold bhandara and provide food and money to the destitute, this was no longer the case.
Earlier last week, a controversy erupted in Lulu Mall, Lucknow, after a video of Muslims offering namaz inside the mall premises went viral on the internet. Following the incident, a conscious effort is undertaken by sympathisers of Islamists to peddle an alternative theory that Hindus were the ones who had offered the namaz inside the mall.
Social media platforms are awash with conspiracy theories saying that people who offered namaz in Lulu Mall were Hindus and not Muslims. They cited the arrest of Hindus in a different case to allege that those who were offering namaz inside the mall were not Muslims, but Hindus.
Ahmed Khabeer, Editor of the Islamist propaganda portal The Jamia Times, shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Lucknow Police to allege that Hindus posing as Muslims had offered namaz in the mall.
Source: Twitter
The screenshot of the tweet posted by DCP Lucknow carried the press note of the police about the arrests made in connection with the offering of unauthorised religious activities inside the Lulu Mall. The press note was about the arrest made on July 15 of youths who had gathered outside the mall for the recitation of Sundar Kand.
However, in his bid to malign Hindus, Khabeer conveniently ignores to share the complete details of the case. The four men arrested in the case were taken under custody on July 15 after they had gathered outside the Lulu Mall to recite Sundar Kand to oppose the offering of namaz inside the mall, videos of which had gone viral on the internet on July 13, two days before their arrest. One Arshad Ali was also arrested by the police on July 15 after he had gone to the mall to offer namaz.
But Khabeer used the press report of their arrest to weave a twisted narrative that depicted Hindus as villains for defaming Muslims by assuming their identity and offering namaz in a public place. The group of Muslims offered namaz on July 12, while the arrests of Hindu youths for gathering outside the mall for the recital of Sundar Kand took place on July 15. But Khabeer expediently muddled the facts to assert that the Hindu men arrested by police were held for offering namaz.
As it turned out, Khabeer was just a cog in the wheel of the giant and rampant propaganda effort aimed at shielding Muslims who offered namaz inside the mall and placing its blame at the feet of Hindus. The well-oiled Congress ecosystem also partook in the efforts to malign Hindus as imposters who posed as Muslims and offered namaz inside the mall premises.
Congress supporter Dr Pooja Tripathi quoted the UP police’s tweet on men arrested for reciting Sundar Kand, claiming that they posed as Muslims to offer namaz in the mall. Pawan Khera, chairman of the media and publicity department of the All India Congress Committee, also participated in this disinformation campaign as he quoted Tripathi’s tweet and lent his support to the insidious propaganda that entailed misrepresenting police communication of Hindus arrested as taken under custody for offering namaz.
Congress leader Salman Nizami also shared the fake news that said Hindu men posing as Muslims were arrested by the police. However, after being called out over his fake news, Nizami promptly deleted the tweet.
Source: Twitter
Radio Mirchi’s Sayema, who has often displayed little hesitation in promoting fake news that serves to bolster Islamist propaganda, also shared the misinformation being peddled about the arrest of Hindu men. Sayema quoted Khabeer’s tweet and promoted the misinformation that Hindu men posed as Muslims to offer namaz inside the mall.
Source: Twitter
Islamist website Siasat, too, played its part in perpetuating the warped propaganda that men who offered namaz in the mall are not Muslim. In an article, the portal claimed that the “CCTV evidence confirmed that it was a purposeful prank intended to tarnish the mall and incite communal hatred.” Interestingly, the article offers no evidence to substantiate the claim that CCTV footage from the mall proved that those who offered namaz were not Muslims.
Source: Siasat
Realising how the propagandists were using the news of the arrest of Hindu men to fuel disinformation, the official Twitter account of Lucknow Police issued a clarification, stating that the claims made on social media that men were arrested for offering namaz are misleading and baseless.
सोशल मीडिया पर लू-लू मॉल प्रकरण के सम्बन्ध में कुछ युवकों का नाम लेकर भ्रामक खबरें प्रसारित की जा रही है, जो कि पूर्णतया असत्य है ।
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE LUCKNOW (@lkopolice) July 18, 2022
How Islamist sympathisers peddle conspiracy theories to malign Hindus
For a long time now, apologists have either shifted the blame on the victims or appropriated their identity to shield their Islamist brethren. A certain section of the Muslim fundamentalists and their supporters loves peddling such conspiracy theories as it shows Hindus in a bad light while whitewashing the crimes of the Islamists.
While the “intellectuals” resort to twisting facts and weaving an alternate reality to absolve the Muslim fundamentalists and frame Hindus as the guilty, their allies in the form of Islamists and Islamic terrorists use Hindu disguises while carrying out attacks to shield their coreligionists from the fallout.
For instance, during the Godhra Train burning incident, the propagandists tried to deflect the blame of the tragedy on the Hindus, promoting preposterous theories to claim that the conflagration took place from within the bogey and the Islamists did not attack the train from the outside.
Even during the 9/11 attacks, the Islamists and their supporters had tried to play down the involvement of Muslim fundamentalists, alleging that the terror attack was a result of sabotage carried out by Americans as a means to justify their subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.
In India, too, such conspiracy theories blaming everyone but the Islamists have taken root, especially in the immediate aftermath of the incidents when factual details are scarce. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, a section of propagandists pushed conspiracy theories linking the lone terrorist captured alive, Ajmal Kasab, to Hindu organisations, citing the Kalwa he wore as a symbol of his “Hinduness”.
However, the plan to implicate Hindus as terrorists went awry after Mohammed Ajmal Kasab shed light on their nefarious plan to portray the attack as a case of a “Hindu terror” attack. He revealed that fake Hindu identities and Hindu symbols were deliberately attached to the terrorists, to project the attack as a handiwork of “Hindu terrorists”.
Nevertheless, it did not stop the Congress party from linking the terror attack to Hindus. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh released a book that blamed RSS for the terror attack, whitewashing the Pakistani antecedents of the terrorists and pinning the blame of the tragedy on Hindus.
It is worth noting that Congress was the first one to invent the “Hindu Terror” bogey in the wake of the 2006 Malegaon blasts as a parallel to Islamic terrorism. With this imaginary construct, the Congress party wanted to assert that terror has no religion. However, their real intention was to shield Islamic extremism that was responsible for a string of terror attacks in the tumultuous decade between 2000 to 2010. The Congress party then wrongly implicated Sadhvi Pragya to firm up their “Hindu Terror” fabrication.
More recently, the same methodology was once again employed to assassinate Hindu samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari. Two assassins, Farid-ud-Din Shaikh and Ashfaq Shaikh came dressed in saffron kurtas at Tiwari’s office-cum-residence at Lucknow and assassinated him. They carried sweet boxes in which they had concealed weapons with which they killed the Hindu leader. They were able to get close to Kamlesh Tiwari by the virtue of being dressed in saffron robes, which attracted little suspicions about their possible intentions to make the visit.
Similarly, earlier last year, a foiled assassination plot to kill Yati Narsighanand Saraswati, the chief abbot of the Dasna Devi Temple, revealed how the Islamists planned to use Hindu disguises to execute their nefarious designs. The terrorist who was planning to kill Yati Narsighanand Saraswati was caught and the police recovered a Bhagwa kurta, a Kalava, a Mala and a Chandan-tika from the terrorist, highlighting how he was working straight out of the Islamist playbook that ordains radicals to commit the acts of terror under Hindu disguises.
As the controversy over namaz offered inside the Lulu Mall erupted, the left-liberal intelligentsia and the Congress party have once again resorted to distorting facts and using the arrest of three Hindu youth for the recital of Sundar Kand to propagate fake news that they had been arrested for offering namaz in the mall.
Chelsea midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko, who played for AC Milan on loan last season, was stopped at a checkpoint by Milan police and subjected to an aggressive physical search. The officer searching Bakayoko was told by his colleague that the man he is searching is actually an AC Milan footballer, after which he let him go. Bakayoko spent the 2021-22 season on loan at AC Milan from Chelsea, he also spent the 2018-19 season on loan in the fashion capital of Italy.
According to the website, calciomercato.com, the incident took place in the Porta Garibaldi area of Milan on July 3, however, the incident went viral on Monday, July 18, after a video of the incident was shared on Reddit.
Bakayoko was stopped at a checkpoint set up in the wake of a shooting in the area, and the video shows a policeman searching him aggressively. Bakayoko on his part remained calm during the search and appeared to be cooperating fully.
Shocking footage of Milan’s Bakayoko in Milan’s downtown held at gunpoint by police cause taken for someone else.
Check when one of cop goes telling to the colleague searching him that it’s not the suspect but a Milan player, and the cop saying “WHO?!?” pic.twitter.com/B0PTYiXnc5
After a while, one of the colleagues of the policeman searching Bakayoko walks up to him and tells him that the person he is searching is not the suspect from the shooting, but footballer Tiémoué Bakayoko who plays for Milan, the officer mouths “who”, before letting Bakayoko go in absolute embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Milan Police issued a statement after the video of the search went viral on social media stating that the search was vital under the circumstances.
“It should be noted that the search occurred in an operational context that justified the adoption of the highest security measures,” the statement read. “Also as a function of self-protection, and was carried out in a manner absolutely consistent with the type of alarm in progress”, the statement went on to add.
However, the police statement didn’t clarify why Bakayoko was let go the moment the police officer realised he is frisking a Milan footballer.
Tiémoué Bakayoko, who is still a Chelsea player, is set to move to his native France this summer as Marseille is set to complete his signing. If this is his last experience in Milan, he is unlikely to remember Milan very fondly.
The weekend seems to have been a very difficult one for The Hindu. They seem to have spent many hours trying to figure out new ways to find anti-Modi/BJP content to fill in their newspaper for Monday. Despite those long hours, they didn’t find worthwhile content to be published. So, they chose 3 bizarre ways to come up with such news and print it in prominent places in the newspaper.
The headline of their primary Op-Ed thunders as follows “Two messages from three photographs”.
Source: The Hindu
If you are wondering, why there is only one photograph whilst the headline says three photographs then please join the queue! The author has a problem with the picture that is published because the Maharashtra governor is “stuffing sweets” into CM-elect Eknath Shinde’s mouth! What exactly is the problem? That, so far no other governor has “stuffed sweets” into new office bearers it seems! The author Peter Ronald Desouza was so disturbed by this photograph that he just went all over the place – “In our zest to decolonise like we did when we replaced ‘Abide with me’ with Aye mere watan ke logon…”. What exact link does that decision have with the Maharashtra governor offering sweets to the CM-elect? What exact link does decolonization have with the Governor offering sweets? It was at this point that I figured out that it is better to shut our brains and simply view these arguments for entertainment purposes! Remember, we are to talk about three photographs, and we are still discussing the first one!
The second photograph that the author has a problem, with is actually not a photograph. It’s a video of MLAs dancing on the tables when Eknath Shinde was announced as the CM! It is apparently an “unusual expression of our democratic culture”. Doesn’t it really amaze you how these folks somehow bring democracy into every argument they want to make? Dancing on the tables is now a serious threat to our democracy – can it really get any more entertaining than this! Yes, it can.
Source: The Hindu
Let’s discuss the next photograph.
Source: The Hindu
The author actually has heaped praises on the Electoral officer for sitting in his chair and accepting the nomination of Droupadi Murmu from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apparently, this indicates “conformity with constitutional propriety”. The mind simply baffles at the small things these people get happy about. Going by this (rather absurd) logic, is the electoral officer in this picture below transgressing “constitutional propriety”?
Source: The Economic Times
Did the author write about this grave attack on our democracy back in 2012? Or was it not kosher back then to talk about dangers to our democracy? If you thought this was the only unusual article, then you are mistaken.
Since The Hindu still needed a lot of material to cover their pages today, they had Dushyant Dave thunder: “Preserving Democracy in India”.
Source: The Hindu
He picks up on Prime Minister Modi’s “Congress-mukt Bharat” argument and extends it to “Opposition mukt Bharat” by citing Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as examples.
The Karnataka assembly verdict of 2018 was crystal clear in booting Congress out of power. Congress and JD(S) formed a post-poll alliance to prevent BJP (the single largest party). People spoke overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP in the 2019 LS elections. 17 MLAs rebelled, resigned and won elections again from the BJP ticket – thus completing the democratic necessity. A similar story happened in Madhya Pradesh too – those who rebelled have resigned and gone back to the people and won elections. The Maharashtra example is even bizarre – in fact, the 2019 mandate is restored in 2022. What happened in 2019 was a travesty and what happened in 2022 is a correction of that travesty. Yet our analysts somehow want to paint this as an attempt to make an “opposition-mukt” Bharat! A basic fact check will tell us that there are still so many states where the BJP is not in power, but clearly, analysts are not interested in such mundane facts.
Dushyant Dave ends his article with – “Mr Modi and his party have a responsibility to ensure that India doesn’t turn into an undemocratic republic”. Such fancy statements may get approval in WhatsApp groups of English media journalists but how exactly is it Modi’s responsibility to strengthen the opposition? Mr Modi has won every election fair and square till now, yet these people keep coming up with bizarre articles that put an unnecessary burden on him to strengthen others!
Not content with two articles on how our democracy is in danger, The Hindu mysteriously figured out that they must get a member of the Congress party to write about RSS and BJP.
Source: The Hindu
Apparently, RSS’s strict code wouldn’t have allowed BJP to move MLAs to other states, so democracy is in danger! No, really. That’s what the article is about. In fact, the author says that “Democracy requires the elevation of the political realm” – whatever that means! The irony of a member of the congress waxing eloquent on changes in governments is not lost out on the reader. However, it was lost out on the management of The Hindu!
On a more serious note, it’s one thing for the newspaper to print bizarre arguments in their Op-Ed space. But it’s a whole different thing to have come up with this graphic on their front page.
Source: The Hindu
On a day when India covered 200 crores of vaccine doses (highest in the world by a wide margin), The Hindu thought it absolutely prudent to sound despondent instead of celebrating India’s achievement. This level of hatred for anything good that happens in today’s India is unparalleled even by The Hindu’s standards. All that can be said to them is – Get well soon!
According to reports, approximately 100 female students in Kerala had to face severe embarrassment and humiliation on Sunday when they were forced to remove their undergarments before attempting the NEET 2022 medical entrance exam. Before entering the test centre, they were forced to remove their innerwear at the metal detection stage of the frisking procedure. The incident took place at an exam centre in Kollam.
#Kottarakkara police registered a case against the officials of NEET who were involved in the inspection of female students.
Controversy was over the examination center where female students were allowed to enter the hall only after they were forced to remove their undergarments pic.twitter.com/KFg40aDTHh
According to the aspirants, the undergarments were discovered piled together in boxes following the exams. Students stated that they had to endure psychological trauma just before taking the high-stakes exam. A complaint has been lodged by the parents with the Deputy Superintendent of Police at Kottarakka, Kollam.
An enraged parent, whose daughter had to go through this nightmare at the centre in Ayoor, 60 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram, stated on Monday that what occurred was completely wrong and that he had no choice but to file a complaint.
The facility, located in Kerala’s Marthoma Institute of Information Technology in Ayur Chadayamngalam, has denied involvement, claiming that the frisking and biometric checks were performed by third-party agencies.
Students are not permitted to wear any metallic objects or accessories into the test centre, according to the dress code. This is presumably an anti-cheating measure. Students are not even permitted to wear long sleeves during the exam, according to the NEET dress code. The exam centre does not allow shoes, although slippers and sandals with short heels are permitted.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that female students have suffered harassment at the NEET exam centre in Kerala; similar incidents have occurred in previous years as well. A female student taking the medical entrance test in Kannur in 2017 was also ordered to remove her undergarments. The test was conducted by CBSE at that time. The event sparked a debate about being overly protective before tests, and Education Minister C Raveendranath said the government will look into it.
