On Wednesday, a 45-year-old man was aggressively attacked by a group of women for attempting to rape a minor girl at Debnathpara of Gandacherra in Dhalai district. The man was tied to a tree by a group of women who thrashed him and left him unconscious. He was taken to the hospital by the Police where the doctors declared him dead.
A 45-year-old man on Wednesday was beaten to death by a group of women after he allegedly attempted to rape a five-year-old girl in Tripura’s Dhalai district, police said.
The incident took place in Gandacherra police station area when the man allegedly lured the minor. pic.twitter.com/gNPRcX6LyK
The deceased has been identified as Ratan Acharjee. According to the reports, Acharjee was unemployed and had already served eight years of rigorous imprisonment in a murder case. On Tuesday, he attempted to molest a five-year-old girl in Dhalai.
The girl had accompanied her mother to Debnathpara of Gandacherra for a religious function. He deceptively took the girl in absence of her mother to the nearby forest and attempted to rape her. The family and the locals reached the spot to rescue the girl after she cried aloud for help. Acharjee had fled the spot till then.
The villagers tried to trace him throughout the night but to no avail. According to the Police, a group of women protested against the incident and blocked the Gandacherra-Amarpur highway. The accused was spotted by the locals in a nearby village on Wednesday morning. He was then tied to a tree and beaten by the women and other locals.
The Police arrived at the spot and saw Acharjee in a critical state. He was immediately taken to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead. The Police have so far interrogated four persons in the case. No one has been detained. The investigations are underway.
Speculations are floating around that the Aam Aadmi Party may send former cricketer Harbhajan Singh to Rajya Sabha. According to ANI’s report, Bhagwant Mann, the newly-elected Chief Minister of Punjab, might put Singh in-charge of the sports university that he had promised to set up in Jalandhar.
Notably, Singh had taken to Twitter to congratulate Mann after the victory. He said, “Congratulations to Aam Aadmi Party and My friend Bhagwant Mann on Becoming our New Chief minister. Great to hear that he will be taking oath as the new CM in Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkarkalan, what a picture…this is a proud moment for Mata Ji.”
Congratulations to @AamAadmiParty and My friend #BhagwantMann on Becoming our New Chief minister .. great to hear that he will be taking oath as the new CM in Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkarkalan, ? what a picture…this is a proud moment for Mata ji ?? pic.twitter.com/k46DNr6Pjz
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) March 10, 2022
Harbhajan Singh and history of controversies
Former cricketer Harbhajan Singh has a history of controversies. In June 2021, he was called out by netizens for glorifying Khalistan terrorist Bhindrwanwale on the anniversary of Operation Bluestar. He had to apologise after the backlash. The ace spinner had slapped Indian pacer Sreesanth and was accused of making a racially motivated slur towards Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
Bhagwant Mann swore as CM
On March 16, AAP’s Bhagwant Mann was sworn as Chief Minister of Punjab. The party had won 92 out of 117 Assembly seats in the recent elections. The Election Commission has already announced the dates for biennial elections for Rajya Sabha, and the voting, if required, will take place on March 31. Currently, there are three AAP members in Rajya Sabha, which is expected to rise to eight after the polls.
War is in the news, again. Amid all the discussions over wars and conflicts that have shaped geopolitical scenarios in the last few decades, the Vietnam war is one of the most significant. In the March of 1968, amidst the continuing US-Vietnam War between 195s and the 70s. The massacre perpetrated by US troops on the villagers of My Lai and My Khe of southern Vietnam goes down as the darkest episode in the history of the War.
On this day in 1968, US troops massacre 500 residents of the South Vietnamese villages of My Lai and My Khe. Although 26 soldiers are charged; only one, Lt William Calley Jr, is convicted. He serves just 3 years house arrest. “I won’t forgive as long as I live” vows one survivor. pic.twitter.com/Tr28853pGy
My Lai, a village in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam was a stronghold of the National Liberation Front (VC) a communist group that advocated for the reunification of North and South Vietnam. In the twenty-year-long Vietnam War, the US supported the independent government of South Vietnam, which had been loyal to the Western bloc in the Cold War. Its Quang Ngai province which saw many communist rebellions was always a frequent target of the US. In March 1968, a part of the American Division’s Infantry brigade called ‘Charlie Company’ took the village of ‘Son My’ under its control.
54 years ago today, the US Army carried out the Mỹ Lai Massacre.
Under orders from their commanding officers, American soldiers murdered several hundred Vietnamese civilians, including women's and children. Many of the women were gang-raped by soldiers before murdering them. pic.twitter.com/6ylOD6WluM
Owing to Charlie Company’s quick success, it was sent on a search-and-destroy mission in the Son My area. Upon the onset of the Tet Offensive the very last month, The Charlie company had faced big blows from the communists while losing 28 of their commanders in the defence. With now over a close battalion of 100 men, US army commanders shared a wrong correspondence of active Vietnamese Liberation Front (VC) sympathizers present in the nearby villages of Son My with the Company.
North Vietnam (Pink) and South Vietnam (White)
The My Lai Massacre
The Charlie Company battalion led by Captain Ernest Medina entered the nearby village of My Lai on the morning of March 16, 1968, and found a quaint village with women, children and old people sitting outside their homes, some cooking breakfast in their outdoor yards. To the surprise of the soldiers, they could find no VC sympathisers in the village but only common people after individual homesteads were inspected by the US army in the hamlet. However, according to some reports, Medina was quoted saying, “They are all VCs, now go and get them.”
Alarmed by the sudden firing by US troops, the villagers started running to and fro finding shelter in the fields from the interior. The killings had already started without warning. Lt. commander William Calley started shooting men, then women and children were also not spared. Innocent children running barefoot were kidnapped and were tied to trees alongside their mothers. The entire village was set on fire including the homes. The ones who tried to escape were gunned down.
Bodies of women and children at My Lei
Machine guns were pointed en masse with sparing no one. All of this was based on speculation that VC sympathisers are hidden within the village. The US troops spared none – including the old people, unarmed women and children. Apart from this, the raping of countless women by the troops was also reported. Lt. Calley is supposed to have executed the harshest crime of dragging dozens of young children into a ditch at My Lai and then executing them with a machine gun. A few Old men were thrown into a well and a grenade was dropped into it to destroy them.
More than 500 people were killed, raped, slaughtered or gunned viciously by the American army. In all, 182 women – 17 of them pregnant, 173 children of which 56 were infants, and a total of 504 people were counted to be dead.
The Ccover-up of the brutal massacre
Being well aware that the massacre at My Lai wound ring international alarms amidst the ongoing war, the US troops started tuning a different narrative to cover up their deeds. Initial reports of the incident including the one featured by the Stars and Stripes magazine said, “U.S. infantrymen had killed 128 Communists in a bloody day-long battle.” The US Army was successful in covering up its war crime by hailing it as a military victory against its opponents in South Vietnam.
Six months later, a young soldier, Tom Glen wrote to US Military General Creighton William Abrahams describing the American brutality on Vietnamese civilians which he personally witnessed. He wrote, “It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbours such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character, yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs.” He added that this is a problem that cannot be overlooked.
However, it was only when Ron Ridenhour, a soldier in the 11th brigade began to bring the details of the massacre with its documented reports. After writing several letters to President Nixon, the Pentagon and several State Department Chiefs, he finally gave an interview to Journalist Seymor Hersh who broke the horrors committed by America before the world in 1969. After the revelation, the US Army started its private investigation with a motive to cover up the war crimes.
The enquiry which concluded charged 28 officers for their involvement in the war crimes. Later, 14 names were dropped while Ernest Medina and Col. Henderson were acquitted. William Calley was initially sentenced for his life for being found guilty of carrying out unintended shootings. Later his punishment was reduced and commuted by Nixon and he just served 3 years under house arrest. The investigations which found the light of the day later, found that My Lai was not an isolated incident in the history of the Vietnam War. The massacres at My Khe village, in the Mekong delta, were to be revealed soon before the world.
On Wednesday, social media platforms were rife with reports that the second hijacker of Indian plane IC-814 – Zafarullah Jamali, has been killed in Karachi by some unknown people.
#Breaking: Another IC814 Hijacker Zafarullah Jamali, who was the hijacker of the Indian plane IC814 on December 24, 1999, is killed by unknown person in Karachi. This is second assassination of IC814 Hijackers after another Hijacker Zahoor Mistry was killed on March 1st.#ISIpic.twitter.com/uRz2mbixUk
There were reports that some unidentified men riding a motorcycle had killed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Zafarullah Jamali last week in Karachi. The reports claimed that the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist Jamali, who had led the IC-814 hijacking, had killed an Indian passenger – Rupin Katyal when the plane was in Dubai, where the terrorists had forced the plane to land in December 1999.
Social media users and security experts claimed that the assassination of Jamali was the second assassination of IC-814, which came after the killing of another hijacker Zahoor Mistry who was killed on March first week.
However, Zafarullah Jamali does not appear to be a second hijacker who has been killed as being speculated on social media. Reportedly, no terrorist was identified as Zafarullah Jamali had been involved in the IC-814 hijacking. There are speculations that no second terrorist was killed, instead, it was Zahoor Mistry, one of the hijackers of Indian Airlines flight IC 814, who was killed in Pakistan.
According to the New Indian journalist Pramod Kumar Singh, Zahoor Mistry’s alias was Jamali who was killed sometime back and it was confirmed on March 7.
Zahoor Mistry alias Jamali is the correct name..he was killed sometime back & it was confirmed on March 7th.
Mistry is reported to have been killed on March first week by two bike-borne assailants in Karachi’s Akhtar colony.
More importantly, nearly two decades after the hijacking, there is no confirmation till today there was any terrorist named Zafarullah Jamali had involved in the hijacking. The IC-814 airline was hijacked by five Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists, who took the Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 24, 1999, after a brief stop at Amritsar.
The five hijackers are – Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar’s brother Ibrahim Azhar, Rauf Asghar, Zahoor Mistry, Shahid Akhtar Sayed and another terrorist who was killed during the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
According to counter-terrorism experts, only Ibrahim Azhar and Shahid Akhtar Sayed are alive in Pakistan, with the latter moving away from Karachi to settle in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area of Pakistan. Rauf Asghar is believed to have died due to natural causes, while Indian security forces killed the other Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist on December 13, 2001.
The fifth terrorist who remained at large was Zahoor Mistry, who was killed by unknown assailants in the first week of March in Karachi. Hence, it appears that the speculations about the second terrorist – Zafarullah Jamali- are not accurate as there are no records to prove his existence in the first place. On the contrary, it is suggested that Mistry was eliminated by unknown gunmen, whose images are then being circulated on social media to claim that it is the second hijacker Jamali.
HT report on Zahoor Mistry
A March 8 Hindustan Times report identifies Zahoor Mistry as Jamali. The image of the slain terrorist also appears similar to the image of ‘Zafarullah Jamali’ being shared widely on social media.
Interestingly, there is also confusion among certain sections that the killed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist was the same as Zafarullah Jamali, the 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan. However, former PM Zafarullah Jamali died on December 2, 2020, ending rumours of former PM being killed in Karachi last week and having been mistaken for a terrorist. There are also no reports to suggest the former Prime Minister of Pakistan was involved in any terrorist activities, officially.
The hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-814
On December 24, 1999, an Indian Airlines plane (IC-814) was highjacked by five terrorists belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen from Nepal. The plane which was supposed to reach Delhi made suspicious stops at Lahore, Amritsar and Dubai before being stationed at Afghanistan’s Kandahar, which was under the control of the Taliban.
Around 178 people and 11 crew members aboard the plane were made hostages for a week while it ended after India was forced to release three JeM terrorists like Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar from its custody. The hijackers demanded the release of thirty-five terrorists from Indian prisons, including the dreaded terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar in addition to US$200mn in cash. The hostage ended on December 31, 1999, after a team of Indian negotiators, including the present NSA Ajit Doval, agreed to free three terrorists.
On March 16, streaming giant Netflix announced that over the next few weeks, it would start to launch and test two new features. Netflix would charge its customers an additional fee for sharing accounts outside the household. Additionally, the users would be able to transfer the profiles in their account to a new account or sub-accounts. As of now, the features would be tested in three regions that are Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
In a statement released by Netflix, the company said that over the years, they had made it easier for the customers to share the account credentials within the household. However, with multiple plans available that allowed customers to stream content on multiple screens simultaneously, the customers started to share the accounts outside households, which impacted the company’s ability to invest in new TV and films.
With the new feature, the customers would be allowed to share the account credentials outside the household by paying an additional fee. To make the transition easier, the additional profiles could be transferred to a new account or a sub-account that would make it possible for the customers to keep their viewing history, personalized recommendations etc., intact.
The price difference for sub-accounts
As of now, the new features are going to be launched in three regions that are Peru, Chile and Costa Rica. In Peru, Netflix plans vary from PEN 24.90 to PEN 44.90 a month. Under the new feature, PEN 7.9 in Peru will be charged from the customers for the additional profile(s). In the case of Chile, the plans vary from CLP 5,940 to CLP 10,700 a month. The customers will be asked to pay an additional CLP 2,380 in Chile for the additional profile(s). Lastly, in the case of Costa Rica, where the plans vary between USD 8.99 to USD 15.99 without tax, the customers will pay an additional fee of USD 2.99 for the profile(s) outside households.
Netflix ToU does not allow account sharing outside the household
It is notable that the Terms of Use of Netflix does not allow its customers to share credentials outside the household. It reads, “The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.” The ToU is applicable to all customers irrespective of location. However, it is well-known that the credentials are shared between family and friends beyond households.
Furthermore, the new features are applicable only in the three regions specified by the company in the post on its website. The company said it would test the features extensively in these regions before applying them to other countries. Over the next few weeks, the company will prompt the users to verify and choose new plans if the account login from outside a household.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Russia to immediately suspend the invasion of Ukraine. The Court ordered on 16th March 2022 that both parties must refrain from any acts which may aggravate the dispute.
The ICJ order against Russia was passed by 13-2 votes. The two dissenting votes were cast by the judges from Russia and China, the Indian judge at ICJ Justice Dalveer Bhandari voted in favour of the verdict asking Russia to stop its military operations in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the ICJ decision by tweeting, “Ukraine gained a complete victory in its case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The ICJ has ordered to immediately stop the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia must comply immediately. Ignoring the order will isolate Russia even further.”
Ukraine gained a complete victory in its case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The ICJ ordered to immediately stop the invasion. The order is binding under international law. Russia must comply immediately. Ignoring the order will isolate Russia even further
In its order passed, the court said, “The Russian Federation, pending the final decision in the case, must immediately suspend the military operations it commenced in the territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.”
It further said, “The Court further indicated that any military or irregular armed units which may be directed or supported by Russia, as well as any organizations and persons which may be subject to its control, direction or influence, take no steps in furtherance of the military operations.”
On 7th March 2022, the ICJ had heard Ukraine’s application seeking a declaration that the claims of genocide as alleged by Russia within Ukrainian areas of Luhansk and Donetsk are false. Russia had defended its military action on this ground. Ukraine also sought reparations for damages caused by Russian military action.
Ukraine sought a declaration from the ICJ that the claims of genocide alleged by Russia within Ukrainian areas of Luhansk and Donetsk are false. Russia has defended its military action on this ground.#UkraineWar#RussiaUkraineWar
The ICJ has said in its order, “At the present stage, Court is not going to weigh on the evidence on whether Russia’s allegations that there is an alleged genocide in Ukraine is true.”
It also added, “The Russian Federation shall provide a report to the Court on measures taken to implement the Court’s Order on Provisional Measures one week after such Order and then on a regular basis to be fixed by the Court.”
In its plea before the ICJ, Ukraine had alleged that Russia had justified the invasion of Ukraine by falsely alleging genocide in Luhansk and Donets in eastern Ukraine. While Russia had claimed it was acting in self-defence, Ukraine had argued that the Genocide Convention does not allow an invasion of a country to prevent a genocide. Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories of this convention.
While Russia had claimed that ICJ does not have jurisdiction over the matter, the court disagreed, and said Ukraine’s request falls under its jurisdiction.
It is notable that Russia did not attend the oral hearings in the ICJ, but had submitted written submissions. The Court expressed its regret at the decision of the Russian govt to not participate in the oral proceedings before the ICJ. “The non-appearance of a party has a negative impact on the sound administration of justice as it deprives the Court of assistance a party could have provided to it,” the Court said.
While the verdicts of International Court of Justice are binding on the member states, it does not have any executive means to enforce them. Therefore, it is to be seen whether Russia suspends its military activity in Ukraine or not after this verdict.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Khalid Moin, a professor in the department of civil engineering of Jamia Milia Islamia University, for taking bribes to issue fake safety certificate. The professor had issued fake safety certificate to Chintels Paradiso housing complex in Gurugram, a portion of which had collapsed last month.
Several roofs of a building in the Chintels Paradiso housing complex had collapsed last month, causing the death of two women. After that, CBI had launched a probe into fake safety certificate racket. Today, Khalid Moin was caught red handed taking a bribe of Rs. one lakh to issue one such fake certificate in a trap laid by CBI. His two aides Abid Khan and Prakhar Pawar were also arrested from a private company based at Okhla in New Delhi.
CBI arrests Khalid Moin, Professor at Jamia Millia university, who had issued fake safety certificate to Gurugram’s Chintels Paradiso society, in which portion of an apartment collapsed last month. pic.twitter.com/d4gbBKNClv
A case was registered against the accused alleging that professor Khalid Moin was involved in different activities for issuing bogus structural stability certificates for the projects after taking bribes. It was also alleged that the representatives of different private builders, architects, middlemen, etc. were also a part of the conspiracy. CBI laid a trap and caught the Professor & two others red-handed while accepting and giving the bribe of Rs. one lakh.
arrested accused:-
i) Md. Khalid Moin, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Milia Islamia University ii) Prakhar Pawar of M/s Vyom Architect, Okhla Phase-3, New Delhi iii) Abid Khan, an employee of M/s Vyom Architect, Okhla Phase-3, New #Delhi#Jamia
Among the three arrested, Khalid Moin is a professor in the department of civil engineering of Jamia Milia Islamia University. Prakhar Pawar owns a firm M/s Vyom Architect located at Okhla Phase-3 in New Delhi. Abid Khan is an employee of Prakhar Pawar.
Notably, Khalid Moin had issued a fake safety certificate to Gurugram’s Chintels Paradiso society, in which portion of an apartment had collapsed in February 2022. Although the case in which Moin has been arrested is not directly linked to the Chintels Paradiso case, it is part of the crimes committed by him, as home buyers trusted safety certificates issued by him to spent their life’s savings to buy houses which turned out to be not safe.
Chintels Paradiso Collapse
A floor of the Chintel Paradiso residential society in sector 109 of Gurugram had collapsed on Thursday during repair work on the sixth floor of Tower-4 of D-block. Two women had died in the incident while one person was rescued. Repairing work was in progress in the living room of a flat on the sixth floor when its roof started to collapse. This led to the collapse of one after another floor. The collapse started from the sixth floor and it stopped on the first floor of the building. As many of the flats in between the sixth and the first floor were vacant, a major tragedy was avoided.
After a safety audit of the housing complex, four more towers were declared unfit for living. Several structural weakness were found in the buildings, like exposed TMT bars, big cracks and falling plasters.
While Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files, which was released last week, continues to have a record-breaking run, some detractors have targeted the film for receiving significant government support. Critics have questioned BJP-ruled states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana, as well as Karnataka, which has announced that the film ‘Kashmir Files’ will be tax-free in the state.
NDTV’s senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain took a jibe at the BJP government for supporting the movie The Kashmir Files, which brings the brutally honest account of the Kashmiri Pandit genocide to the big screen. “Genuine q: can anyone recall the last time the Indian state threw its entire weight in promoting a privately produced movie while using it to target its political opponents?” the NDTV journalists tweeted, mocking the government.
Genuine q: can anyone recall the last time the Indian state threw its entire weight in promoting a privately produced movie while using it to target its political opponents?
The NDTV journalist implied that no government prior to this one has ever in the history of Indian cinema thrown its entire weight in promoting a privately produced movie. He further said that the government was using the movie to target its political opponents.
So, to get his facts straight, Jain was informed by popular Twitter user Vikrant that Congress leader and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi provided funding to Richard Attenborough for making the film ‘Gandhi’ in 1980.
“1980 – PM Indira Gandhi financed ($7 Million) to Richard Attenborough for making the Movie Gandhi The Script was especially vetted by I&B ministry The idea was to capture Indian mind with Gandhism & glorify the role of Congress in freedom struggle We are still paying for it..,” Tweeted Vikrant.
1980 – PM Indira Gandhi financed ($7 Million) to Richard Attenborough for making the Movie Gandhi
The Script was especially vetted by I&B ministry
The idea was to capture Indian mind with Gandhism & glorify the role of Congress in freedom struggle
As rightly pointed out by Vikrant, the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) was indeed one of the producers of the movie ‘Gandhi’.
Screenshot taken from YouTube
The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), headquartered in Mumbai, is the central agency responsible for promoting Indian cinema since 1975. It is part of the Government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and is responsible for film financing, production, and distribution.
In 1982, the National Film Development Corporation of India presided over by DVS Raju, was one of the production companies that financed the film ‘Gandhi’.
According to publicly available information, the decision was made after Rani Dube, the film’s co-producer, persuaded Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to provide the first $10 million from the National Film Development Corporation of India, on the back of which the remainder of the funding was eventually raised.
Directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, ‘Gandhi’ was released in India on November 30, 1982. Besides being based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the movie was also a tribute to Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, Motilal Kothari, an Indian-born civil servant working with the Indian High Commission in London and a devout follower of Gandhi and the then Prime Minister of India and Congress leader, Jawaharlal Nehru.
‘Gandhi’ was director Richard Attenborough’s dream project, which he worked on for several years before finally finishing. According to media reports, two previous attempts to make the movie ‘Gandhi’ had failed. Gabriel Pascal, a Hungarian film producer and director, secured an agreement with India’s Prime Minister at the time, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to produce a film about Mahatma Gandhi’s life in 1952. However, Pascal died in 1954, and the film could not be made.
Through a connection with Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, Attenborough met then-Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi in 1962. Nehru appeared to have approved of the film and promised to help fund its production, but his death in 1964 was one of the film’s many setbacks.
That wasn’t the only time Attenborough struggled to finish his dream film. In 1976, Attenborough attempted to resurrect the project with the help of Warner Brothers. However, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India, making filming for the project impossible.
Then, 20 years later, Indira Gandhi not only gave him permission to make the film but also provided him with the money for making it. Rani Dube, the film’s co-producer, persuaded Indira Gandhi to provide $10 million from the National Film Development Corporation of India because the budget was falling short.
Likewise, in response to Sreenivasan Jain’s Tweet, another Twitter user reminded the NDTV journalist how some other movies that were made on the Emergency of 1975, that was imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had also been then funded by the Films Division of India under the I&B ministry. “Do you recall how Films Division of India under MIIB had produced movies such as ‘The Prime Minister’, ‘Kaisa Andhera’, ‘Maa Ki Pukaar’ etc., during emergency with the sole motive of justifying emergency? Using state exchequer for personal political goals is even worse,” wrote one Satish Verma.
Do you recall how Films Division of India under MIIB had produced movies such as ‘The Prime Minister’, ‘Kaisa Andhera’, ‘Maa Ki Pukaar’ etc., during emergency with the sole motive of justifying emergency? Using state exchequer for personal political goals is even worse. https://t.co/soF1tQaMHU
Pertinently, while the movie ‘The Kashmir Files’ has been receiving an overwhelming response from the public and the government, with many states declaring it tax-free, the Congress party has been from the very start maintaining a controversial stance on the film.
On March 13, INC Kerala Twitter handle sparked controversy by alleging, “Pandits left the valley en masse under the direction of Governor Jagmohan who was an RSS man. The migration started under the BJP-supported VP Singh government.”
Today (March 16), AIUDF chief and ex-Congress ally Badruddin Ajmal demanded ban on ‘The Kashmir Files’, saying that the movie will stoke communal tensions.
The hinduphobic event ‘Holi against Hindutva’ which had earlier tried to appropriate the Hindu festival of Holi for political protesting on American college campuses will be organised this year as well. A poster calling ‘Holi against Hindutva 2022’ for a webinar invite on the morning of March 18 was posted by groups ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ (HfHR), ‘SAHI – Students against Hindutva Ideology’ and ‘Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus’ who were earlier seen taking part in anti-India activities while stationed in foreign campuses.
The organisation ‘Holi against Hindutva’ was formed in December 2019, to organise agitations in the US against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the Central Government in the same year. Founded by Shreya Singh from Yale University, with a social media account based in the United States of America, India and Pakistan, the group was renamed ‘Students against Hindutva Ideology’ or SAHI later. Organisations including SAHI, HfHR and Sadhna collectively organised protests against CAA and NRC in American Univerity Campuses including Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Wellesley, Michigan State, Duke and Rutgers.
The 2020 edition of ‘Holi against Hindutva’ saw the politicisation of the Hindu festival with an intent to target Hindu students on US campuses and peddle anti-India rhetoric. Diaspora Hindu organisation ‘Hindu on Campus’ alleged that Holi, which has been one the most popular Hindu festivals on U.S. college campuses, was been highjacked to target students from the same Hindu community. While the activist groups claimed at the outset that they are not against ‘Holi’, they engaged in a crude appropriation of the festival by wearing ‘black clothes’ as opposed to white and played only with white coloured powder to further a political move.
Furthermore, SAHI still condemns Holi, appropriates the colorful powders and replaces it with white powder to further a political motive. pic.twitter.com/Vw0onQWM4P
“This is not a celebration, but a condemnation,” the poster read. Going beyond protesting against the CAA or the NRC, the protest became a platform to spread hateful propaganda against India and Hinduism. Some of the posters held by the members read ‘Stop the Genocide in India’, ‘Stop State Sanctioned violence in India’. At Harvard University, Dalit activist Suraj Yengde attacked that the Men in Uniform (Police and the Army) and those not in the uniform (Civilians) both needed to be struck against.
Under the banner ‘Holi against Hindutva’ the organisation with the support of 44 South Asian, Muslim, Sikh and Democratic student groups, wrote an open letter to the US Congress for attracting sanctions against Indian government officials. Appropriating Holi as a ‘multicultural’ festival (though celebrated commonly in India by all faiths), organiser Vedant Behl said, “The celebrations won’t be the same in India this year. The festival that previously brought together Hindus, Muslims, Christians and people from all castes and backgrounds — or at least was imagined to be such — is not going to be that in these months of communal hatred and open polarization. We are reclaiming Holi from the forces of Hindutva that have broken it down.”
Friday Plans — I really look forward to what the students at this event have to say.
The invite for the current webinar registration describes, “As we honour the 2nd anniversary of the historic #HoliAgainstHindutva protesters, join us for this special webinar event featuring student activists from India, USA, Canada, and the UK who will be speaking about the history of student activism and resistance against Hindutva ideology!” The same was shared by Rutgers University professor Audrey Truschke on Twitter who is infamous for misappropriating Indology, glorifying Islamic genociders like Aurangazeb and targeting students from the Hindu community on her campus.
Hindu Academics, Activists and Professionals have earlier raised their voice against the groups misappropriating the festival of Holi for their political gains. Talking about one such incident, Suhag Shukla, founder of the Hindu American Foundation wrote, “A Holi Against Hindutva hashtag was created, protesters of various religious backgrounds wore black on Holi, and a story alleging a casteist conspiracy in the burning of Holika was disseminated to shame any Hindu student who sought to celebrate on campus.”
Well, the mask is off. #HoliagainstHindutva was always an anti-Hindu project. It is about rejecting and demeaning Hindu traditions and celebrations. Its about importing caste wars onto our college campuses. Tying Holi to Hindutva is a ruse. Support @holiforunity and reject hate! pic.twitter.com/gl8GNZCi4S
In March 2020, Equality Labs, a Hindu hating org that works with @Hindus4HR & @Students_A_H, published an article calling Holi a casteist festival where Hindus engage in violence, throw semen & celebrate the burning of a “lower caste” woman. 3/n https://t.co/oIoEZPUpXu
— CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) (@CoHNAOfficial) March 3, 2022
The ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ continues to remain an active conspiracy hatched against the Hindu diaspora by Liberal fundamentalism which has garnered support from South Asian Islamists, Radical Dalit activists and shreds of the Indian Left. By appropriating a Hindu Festival for protest it not only targets Hindus worldwide but also meddles in India’s soverign interests.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury launched a blistering attack on Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, saying that he should leave the party and prove his identity without the support of the Congress party. “Fight for your ideology on your own, there’s no outcome of just giving interviews”, he added. This is a day after Sibal in an interview to the Indian Express, expressed his displeasure over the party leadership’s inability to reach out to the senior leaders or use them properly for reviving the party.
“Who is Kapil Sibal? What kind of leader is he? He got many advancements because of the Congress party. Earlier, when UPA was in power, everything was good for him. Now, suddenly when UPA is not in power, he is feeling bad”, Chowdhury stated on March 16. He also added that the G-23 members of the Congress party don’t have a habit of staying out of the governing power and suggested they stop criticizing the party.
They (G23) don’t have a habit of staying out of governing power. That is why they’re trying to save themselves while criticising. I don’t know what’s his (Congress leader Kapil Sibal) mass base: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
Kapil Sibal on Tuesday fired salvos against Rahul Gandhi and the party high command. He questioned how Rahul Gandhi, who doesn’t hold any formal position in the party, went to Punjab and announced Charanjit Singh Channi’s name as the chief ministerial candidate. He also said that the Gandhis should step away from the leadership of the party.
Speaking about the CWC meeting that was held on Monday, Sibal said it had been eight years since the party had lost the Lok Sabha elections. If the leadership still needed ‘Chintan shivir’ to find out what went wrong, they are living in cuckoo land. He further claimed that prominent party leaders in CWC genuinely feel that Congress would not survive without the Gandhis. He said in his personal view that he would want ‘sab ki Congress’ and not ‘Ghar ki Congress’. By ‘sab ki Congress’, he meant to bring old Congress members who left and formed their parties together and fight against BJP.
This also comes as the G-23 meeting is scheduled on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the party after the humiliating losses in five states. The G-23 meeting is set to see the senior leaders, who first formed a grouping when 23 people wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 demanding internal elections and reform, planning their next move amid rumblings in the party.
It is important to note that last year in December, ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, Kapil Sibal in a press meet had criticized the Congress’ central leadership. The loyalists of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had then held massive protests outside his residence yelling, ‘Gaddaron, party choro (traitors leave the party)’. Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma had expressed shock over hooliganism and had termed the act as ‘disgusting’. Also, Ghulam Nabi Azad, a prominent face of G-23 of the Congress had written to Sonia Gandhi demanding an organizational overhaul of the party.
According to the reports, several Congress leaders such as Mukul Wasnik or Shashi Tharoor have stopped attending G-23 meetings as some members continue to question the high command. Recently, former Karnataka CM Veerappa Moily also disassociated himself from the group saying that G-23 had been institutionalized which was never the idea. “I don’t approve their relentless attack on the Congress leadership in this hour of crisis,” he had said.
Congress leadership has been facing a hard time since the Assembly election results for five states were announced on March 10. With the losing hope of revival, the senior leaders of the party are reiterating their demand of giving control of the party to someone other than Gandhis.
