Film ‘The Kashmir Files’ has already become a massive hit since the very first day of its release on March 11. Initially released with a limited screen count of around 600, Sunday saw a massive increase in the number of screens which showcased the film to up to 2000 nationwide. Such is the response that in Karnataka’s Bhatkal, people have even started protesting with a demand to screen the film in movie theatres.
On Sunday, Bhatkal, a town in Uttara Kannada district of Northern Karnataka witnessed outrage over the limited screening of The Kashmir Files in the local cinemas. Protestors alleged that the screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ was halted at around 2:30 PM in the Pushpanjali theatre, to make way for Prabhas-starrer Telugu flick Radhe Shyam. Soon, Hindu activists who were eager to watch ‘The Kashmir Files’ which records the tragedy and pain of the Kashmir Hindu genocide in 1990 demanded that the screening should be reinstated.
After much protest, the screening supervisor intervened at the venue and promised to schedule a special show at 8:45 PM. Talking about the incident, Srikanth Naik, a former soldier, said, “This is a film made for patriots. We all desire to see the true story of Kashmiri Pandits who have been covered by our own people in our own history,”
#TheKashmirFiles shows PHENOMENAL GROWTH… Grows 325.35% on Day 3 [vis-à-vis Day 1], NEW RECORD… Metros + mass belt, multiplexes + single screens, the *opening weekend biz* is TERRIFIC across the board… Fri 3.55 cr, Sat 8.50 cr, Sun 15.10 cr. Total: ₹ 27.15 cr. #India biz. pic.twitter.com/FsKN36sDCp
Despite all odds, including the initial limited screen release, Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ has turned out a massive hit among the masses. With a very good opening on Friday (March 11) with Rs 3.55 crores, the film rose to make Rs. 8.5 crore on Saturday and Rs 15 crore on Day 3, Sunday. With a collective weekend of around Rs. 27.15 Cr, the film has emerged as the first choice among cinemagoers beating Gangubai Kathiawadi, Radhe Shyam and Batman.
Looking at the brevity of the subject and the audience’s response, various state governments in India including Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have declared the film tax-free.
Kudos to @vivekagnihotri for #TheKashmirFiles, a blood-curdling, poignant & honest narrative of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their home land.
To lend our support to the movie & encourage our people to watch it, we will make the movie tax-free in Karnataka.
Directed by Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, the film stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Bhasha Sumbli and Chinmay Mandlekar in lead roles.
Many argue that recording History is a work of grey. Nuances combined with interpretations collectively make the arena more of an imperative exercise in negotiating time. While doing so, all of this has to be done with facts – and facts only, argued Sanjeev Sanyal in the debate, stating that it is essential to re-write our history. The Economist, historian and author was part of the debate held at St. Xavier’s college in Kolkata with the house in a motion arguing that it is necessary to re-narrate our History.
Speaking in favour of a need to re-write our history, alongside Sanyal, were Scientist Anand Ranganathan, Desh Ratan Nigam, Lawyer at the Supreme Court of India and Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Former Chairperson of the National Commission for Women. Speaking against the motion were a bunch of Congress loyalists and leaders including Mani Shankar Iyer, Manish Tiwari, Sanjay Jha and Jawahar Sircar, Rajyasabha MP from the TMC who tried hard to uphold their integrity towards the Nehruvian-Marxist Intellectual Ecosystem. At the end, when the moderator asked to waive their mobile flashlight to record their support for either of the panels, lights glittered over voices asking to re-write our history unequivocally.
Panel speaking for the motion
Sanjeev Sanyal started his premise by arguing that the history written in our school textbooks, is not our history at all, but that of the invaders. It is the history that our Colonial masters wanted to tell us, he stated. “Have you ever wondered, whenever there is a battle in our textbooks, the Indians lose it always? The three battles of Panipat, The battle of Buxar and that of Plassey every time the Indians lose. Surely, there must have been some battles that we won, for we are here for the last 5000 years,” he asks.
Here is the full recording of the Fr. Joris Memorial Nihil Ultra Debate in Kolkata this evening on the topic: “It is necessary to re-narrate our History?” Spoke for the motion. We won with with a big margin; it was not much of a contest in the end. https://t.co/Gv0OE8tIM0
“The problem lies, Sanyal pointed out, “in repeating the same history for 75 years even after our colonial masters left us.” Illustrating the examples of Raja Prithu who defeated Bakhtiyar Khilji in Assam to Marthanda Varma from Travancore whose army was the only one to defeat a major European power like the Dutch, Sanyal highlighted how little we know about leaders from our own soil. He argued that a space must be carved for these lesser-known characters in Indian History.
It was now for Desh Ratan Nigam to address the house, who stepped on the podium confessing that ‘History met him’ in the dark corridors of the college asking to be re-narrated and not ‘repeated’. Quoting late nationalist historian RC Majumdar, he argued, “The history of India is not the story of how she underwent foreign invasions, it is about how she resisted and eventually triumphed over them. In a true sense, the work must be the story of the people inhabiting a country, it must be a record of their life from ages. The central purpose of history must be unfolded to inspire the inhabitants to develop their collective will,” Nigam argued that such history is still yet to be written.
Nigam argued that before you narrate a history, it is important to be recorded in facts correctly and truthfully. He argued that the concept of law and constitution weren’t given to us by the colonialists but years ago in our spiritual texts including the Upanishads and the Vishnu Purana.
Bringing in Feminine perspective to the debate, Lalitha Kumarmangalam, the ex-national spokesperson of the BJP made it clear that she was not on the dais as a politician, but as an Indian woman whose representation in the current versions of history has been abysmal. She argued that throughout her left-liberal schooling, the historical studies did not include much literature on Indian women. “Indian history has always revered women, beyond politics and religion. However today, it is not doing justice to Indian women,”
She asked, “How many of us know the names of 15 women in the constituent assembly. Why don’t we know that democracy existed in India more than 3,000 years ago?” Arguing that Indian queens do not have the space they deserve in historical narratives, she referred to tribal queen Durgawati who married a king of her wish and ruled his kingdom 20 years after he died. Before the house, she posed, “Don’t you think we as Indian women deserve as a right to be mentioned in our history?” while quoting many examples of women warriors from Indian history.
It was time for noted Scientist and commentator Anand Ranganathan to make his arguments in favour of the motion. Starting off on a lighter vein by taking a dig at his opponents, Ranganathan said the Panel is comprised of four people of which one is suspended in animation by the Congress (Sircar), the other is suspended by the Congress (Jha), the third one who wants to be suspended by the Congress (Tiwari) and the last who doesn’t remember whether he was suspended or not (Aiyar).
As I remarked in my opening yesterday: what a wonderful bunch these three make – the first is suspended by the Congress, the second is itching to be suspended by the Congress, and the third is so drunk he can’t remember if he has or hasn’t been suspended by the Congress. WDTT https://t.co/0mIWjGalP9
Dr Anand Ranganathan said that such emphasis on history amuses him. “You see, as a scientist, the time scale that interests me is not 100 or 500 years or 1000 years but 1 billion or 10 billion years. And on that time frame, I am not Indian, but a descendant of an Ethiopian. I am not a creation by design but a conspiracy hatched by light, thunder, water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane combined.”
“Nothing really matters if our ancestors were brilliant or not, whether our culture is ancient or not, whether our religions are better or not. We are but a bunch of inconsequential cells,” he argued. “Yet History still matters,” argued Ranganathan, “because like Science it has to be built on truthful observation of facts and the understanding of it helps us survive. Nations weaken not because of their past but rather how they are taught it.”
He further argued that we have been taught to forget the historical injustices inflicted upon us – be it from Babarpur to Bakhtiyarpur, from Somnath to Kashi Vishwanath, from Allahabad to Aurangabad. These injustices have been deliberately made visible to lionise the debasement of existing cultures, argued Ranganathan.
Arguments against the motion
After a diversity of views from the non-left on the matter, Congress Veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar refuted the fact the history so told until now was not that of the colonial masters. He remarked that it was Savarkar who championed the two-nation theory, which was refuted by Dr Ranganathan by stating that it was Sir Syed Ahmed and not Savarkar who drafted the idea of a two-nation theory. He argued that while foreign invaders like Mahmud of Ghazni attacked Somnath, it is also true that many resident Indians were also attacking each other.
Quoting Romila Thapar, Aiyar asserted that Somnath in Gujarat was an ‘object of treasury’, he argued that Somnath was on Ghazni’s agenda only because of his exercises in loot in politics, and not because of religious bigotry.
Congress leader Manish Tiwari asked over what it meant to re-narrating History. “This endeavour of trying to open a quarrel with the past is a path which is laden with pain. Just because today there is a dispensation which holds a certain view of History, it does not give them the right to try to obfuscate history in order to set a narrative that serves their political predilections of the day,”
RS MP Jawahar Sircar argued that the present dispensation has not changed history because they do not have facts at their disposal. “You have changed the face of India from a liberal, plural, democratic society to a graveyard of democracy,” Sircar made a snide at ‘Hindu history’ calling it a conspiracy of silence. He commented that Alexender’s invasion in India was not mentioned in the contemporary Matsya Purana and Vishnu Purana of that time,”
It was now time for suspended Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha to say that we are insulting our history by even discussing this topic. He argued that certain portions from the current mainstream version of history can be debated over or questioned, but there are always ‘two-sides’ to any proposition.
The audience decided
The 28th Father Joris Memorial Nihil Ultra Trophy National Debate which took place on Saturday this week resulted in the churning of ideas in the arena of understanding history, culture and politics. Needless to say, the audience tilted in favour of the motion arguing that history does need to be re-narrated and needs to be liberated from the Nehruvian-Marxist biases. The debate in a sense has recorded the mood of the nation, trying to assert its cultural identities in every sphere including the intellectual one.
A social media post, claiming that a newly appointed police spokesperson in Uganda attacked a journalist with a catapult, has been doing the rounds of the internet.
In a tweet on Saturday (March 12), a user (_@Sir_CharlesR) alleged, “Newly appointed Uganda police spokesman hits news reporter with a catapult for asking irrelevant question.”
At the time of writing, the post had 22.7K likes and was retweeted 8,265 times.
viral tweet claiming Ugandan cop using slingshot on journalist
Another Twitter user (@AdvoBarryRoux) claimed, “Newly appointed Uganda police spokesman hits News reporter with a catapult for asking irrelevant question.”
Newly appointed Uganda police spokesman hits News reporter with a caterpult for asking irrelevant question. pic.twitter.com/1IByYsvnjs
— Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) March 13, 2022
Similar claims were made by one Ayesha Ali Bhutta on Sunday (March 13).
*Hint Hint*
“Newly appointed Uganda police spokesman hits News reporter with a caterpult for asking irrelevant question.” pic.twitter.com/X4nhCAJPPn
A popular Kenyan lawyer by the name of Ahmednasir Abdullahi took potshots at the Uganda police, based on the viral social media posts. While reiterating the same allegation that a Ugandan spokesperson hit a journalist with a weapon, he had tweeted, “Our neighbours.”
The Official Twitter handle of the Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) labelled his claims as ‘fake news.’ Abdullahi was thus forced to delete his tweet. “Great…will delete it…great that you are proactive!…and pass my regards,” he posted in another tweet.
Screengrab of the tweet by Uganda Police Force
The man, who is seen in the viral photograph with a catapult, is Ugandan police force spokesperson Fred Enaga. And the image has been taken from the video of a press briefing, which was conducted in April last year.
Fred Enaga was seen cautioning the public about the emergence of gangs who targeted civilians with catapults. “You do like this and you target somebody. So you can see how dangerous this thing is,” the police spokesperson said while pulling the catapult.
“They are very dangerous because they are capable of firing metallic and credible projectiles or metallic bearings,” he had warned.
“Uganda police is investigation about a criminal gang trading terror activities using catapults to destabilize the country. While addressing the media in the weekly brief, the spokesperson of police Fred Enanga says some suspects are already apprehended as police is tracing for the rest,” reported Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).
Thus, an attempt by the Ugandan police force to raise public awareness about the rise of a criminal gang last year was misrepresented as an attack on a journalist by a ‘new’ police spokesperson or asking ‘irrelavent question’. As such, the viral post about Fred Enaga using slingshot on a journalist is both old and misleading.
The Kashmir Files, a film by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri on the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits leading to their exodus from the valley in 1990, has successfully attracted the masses to the theatres. The film has brought the truth and suffering of the Kashmiri Hindus into the limelight. One of the most shocking incidents during that period was the brutal rape and murder of Girija Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit, who was gang-raped and cut into half using a mechanical saw while she was still alive.
Girija’s family has finally opened up about the incident after staying silent for over three decades. Her niece, Sidhi Raina, shared a heartfelt post on Instagram where she talked about how her family still waits for justice and urged everyone to watch the movie. While explaining what happened to Girija, she said that the film shows the horrifying nights her family and every Kashmiri Pandit family went through.
She wrote, “My father’s sister, Girija Tickoo, was a librarian at a University who had gone to collect her paycheck, on her way back the bus she was travelling from was stopped and what happened next still leaves me in shivers, tears, and nausea. My bua was then thrown into a taxi, with five men (one of them being her colleague), who tortured her, raped her, and then brutally murdered her by cutting her alive with a carpenter saw. Imagine being the brother who had to recognize his Babli, who wasn’t at fault in this gruesome battle of total hypocrisy.”
Raina said she had never heard anyone speaking about the incident. “My father tells me every brother lived in such shame and anger that nothing had been done to receive justice for my Babli Bua,” she added. Urging everyone to watch the movie, Raina said, “This is my plea to ALL of you to watch the Kashmir Files and take your friends and family with you.”
The case of Girija Tickoo
Girija Tickoo was a Kashmiri Hindu from Bandipora. She worked as a laboratory assistant in a university in Kashmir Valley. In the aftermath of the ‘Azadi Movement’ by the terrorists of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front headed by Yasin Malik, Tickoo had fled with her family and settled in Jammu. One day, she received a call from someone who claimed the situation was better in the valley and she could come back to collect her salary. She was assured of safety, and the person alleged the area was safe to travel to.
In June 1990, Girija came to the valley to collect her salary and met her local Muslim colleague at her home. She was not aware that Jihadi terrorists were tracking her movement. Girija was kidnapped from her colleague’s home and was taken to an unknown location. Everyone, including her colleague and people in the locality, watched her being taken silently.
After a few days of the kidnapping, her dead body was found on the roadside in horrible condition. The autopsy revealed she was brutally gang-raped and horribly tortured. Girija was cut into two pieces using a mechanical saw while she was still alive, right from the middle of her body.
Her family still awaits justice, just like the hundreds and thousands of other Kashmiri Pandits whose suffering has been deemed as ‘propaganda’ by the ‘liberal’ section of the media and society.
Former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad has hit out at the Congress party for normalising the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits and trying to weave false propaganda against the atrocities committed on the Hindu community.
“When one feels, they have hit rock-bottom and can only rise from here, they invent ways to hit newer lows. A pity they choose to hurt the sentiments of Kashmiri Pandits again. Kashmir Files is an eye-opener and probably just the tip of the iceberg,” the former Indian cricketer slammed the Congress party in response to a tweet over its attempts to whitewash the genocide committed against the Kashmir Pandit community in Kashmir.
The former cricketer accused the Congress party of hitting a new low by choosing to hurt the sentiments of Kashmiri Pandits again.
The response by Venkatesh Prasad came after the Kerala Congress had posted a series of tweets to deny the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus and absolve the acts of Jihadi terrorists in Kashmir in the 1990s. Defending the movie, the fast-bowler said that the film was just an eye-opener and perhaps just the tip of the iceberg.
The tweet by the Congress party had come as a response to the overwhelming public response to the movie ‘The Kashmir Files’, which brings the brutal and tragic account of the Kashmiri Pandit genocide to the big screen.
Amidst the success of the movie, the Congress party sparked fresh controversy by trying to build a false narrative against the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits by propagating lies about the atrocities committed against them. Shortly after the CWC meeting in New Delhi, Congress Kerala shared a series of posts blaming Governor Jagmohan and RSS for the Kashmiri Pandit exodus.
In a series of tweets, the Kerala Congress claimed that Pandits left the valley en masse under the direction of Governor Jagmohan, who was an “RSS man”, and the ‘migration’ started under the BJP-supported VP Singh government.
The Congress party also said that Pandits’ migration started the very next month of BJP-supported VP Singh’s government coming to power in December 1989, and the grand old party also accused BJP of doing nothing but supporting VP Singh till November 1990.
Absolving the crimes of Islamic terrorists, the Congress party further claimed that is not just the Pandits who are victims of terrorism, adding that over 1,00,000 Kashmiri Muslims were killed in Jammu in the 1948 communal riots, but there were no retaliatory killings of Pandits.
The Congress party also claimed that the UPA govt built 5,242 tenements for Pandits in Jammu and provided one-time assistance of Rs.5 lakh to each family in addition to student scholarships, assistance to farmers & welfare schemes worth Rs.1,168.4 crores.
Hitting out that BJP, Kerala Congress went ahead to say that BJP did not bring the Pandits back to Kashmir or resettle them despite being in power for two terms at the centre and one term in Kashmir.
The shocking tweets by the Congress party have received widespread condemnation across the country, with people accusing them of turning into sympathisers of terrorism and enabler of genocide against Hindus in the country. Despite the outrage, the Congress party has neither deleted the deplorable tweets nor apologised for the same.
Perturbed by the success of Kashmir Files and people’s reaction to the genocide of Kashmiri Hindu community in 1990, Congress party has officially stepped in to defend the Islamists who carried it out. In a long deranged rant, official Congress Kerala handle blamed everyone from Governor Jagmohan to BJP for the genocide.
In a Twitter thread from their official Congress Kerala handle, the Congress party started off their rant by downplaying the whole Kashmiri Hindu genocide itself. Saying 399 Kashmiri Hindus were killed by terrorists, and comparing it to the 15,000 deaths of Muslims in the valley over the last 3 decades as a result of terrorism.
Kerala Congress’ now deleted tweet
To put things in perspective, lakhs of Kashmiri Hindus were forced to leave their valley, almost overnight, leaving all their belongings behind. There were announcements made from mosques asking Kashmiri Hindu men to leave the valley, leaving their women behind. The chants of ‘convert (to Islam), leave or die’ echoed in the valley. That the Kashmiri Hindus did not leave their homes out of free will but were forced to is completely ignored by Congress.
Then Congress went on to blame Governor Jagmohan, the man who actually saved Kashmiri Hindus from a fate much worse than the exodus. “Jagmohan theory” is a long peddled lie by Congress and its cabal to give a clean chit to the Islamists for their actions in 1990.
Congress blaming Governor Jagnmohan for the exodus
Governor Jagmohan, who was appointed as the governor of Jammu & Kashmir on 19th January 1990, and reached Srinagar only on 21st January 1990, has been repeatedly blamed by Congress for the Kashmiri Hindu exodus.
Home Minister Amit Shah meeting Governor Jagmohan after abrogation of Article 370
The thread further tried to imply that the Kashmiri Hindus were not targeted and they were victims of terrorism just like everyone else. Apparently slogans like ‘Raliv Galiv ya Chaliv‘ (Convert, die or leave) that Kashmiri Hindus heard all around them were a figment of their imagination. Another slogan the mobs chanted ‘aasie gacchie panunuy Pakistan, batav rostuy batenien saan’ (We want our Pakistan. Without Kashmiri Pandit men but with Kashmiri Pandit women) was not targeting them either apparently as per Congress.
Of course, much of the Congress ire was directed at the ruling party BJP. With multiple BJP governments supporting the Kashmir Files movie by making it tax-free, Congress tried to show that BJP is the actual villain of the events shown in the film. From linking Ayodhya movement to the Kashmiri Hindu exodus to BJP’s support to the then VP Singh government to declaring Governor Jagmohan an RSS man, Congress blamed BJP for the entire exodus.
And if that was not enough, somehow Congress managed to make Jammu residents villains by claiming how Kashmiri Muslims were killed in Jammu during partition. This insinuates justification of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus and genocide by hands of Islamic terrorists ‘because Muslims were also killed’ theory.
Congress’ tweet on Ram Janmabhoomi
Apparently, the Kashmiri Hindu exodus and genocide on hands of Islamic terrorists is ‘issue’ which BJP used for ‘propaganda’. The horrors endured by Kashmiri Hindus was reduced to ‘fake outrage’.
Congress’ tweet on KP exodus
Congress cleverly tries to insinuate that the violence in 1990 happened overnight or was the only time Kashmiri Hindus left the valley. The community was targeted continuously since the partition. There was violence in the 70s, 80s when some Kashmiri Hindus left the valley. Those who stayed back till 1990s thought they were in safe hands amongst their neighbours. Except, in the 1990s even many of the neighbours turned on them. This is not a figment of imagination but lived trauma of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus.
The only people Congress didn’t blame during the course of the thread was the militant cadres of Pakistani based terror groups, JKLF, Hizbul and members of local militia who carried out the genocide. Everyone else was culpable except the men actually carrying out the murders and the rapes.
Congress’ top leadership and Kerala unit
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is currently the Chairman of Kerala Congress Digital media cell.
Tharoor as Chairman of KPCC Digital Media cell
Senior Congress leader is the Chairman of Kerala state unit’s digital media cell. It is very likely that he was in the know of things being posted by the social media account. It is also likely the Kerala Congress social media account posted on behest of Tharoor.
Another thing is that former Congress President and son of current Congress President Rahul Gandhi represents Wayanad constituency in Lok Sabha. Wayanad is one of the important constituencies in Kerala.
The much-talked-about Congress Working Committee meeting has come to an end after 4.5 hours only to conclude that Sonia Gandhi will continue as the interim party president. In the meeting, CWC expressed its full faith on Sonia Gandhi to keep leading the party, and authorised her to take decisions needed to revamp the party.
Reportedly, it was also decided that the much waited and much delayed election to elect a full-time president of the Congress party will take place on August 20. During the meeting, Sonia Gandhi said that if the party feels is it is needed, the three from the Gandhi family, Sonia Gandhi herself, and her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are ready to resign from their posts in the party. However, the CWC members unanimously rejected the offer.
The party will also organise a brainstorming camp to find ways to revamp the party. Addressing a press conference after the meeting held on 13th March 2022 at AICC headquarters in Delhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala and KC Venugopal informed about the decisions taken in the meeting.
In the most important and the most expected of the decisions, the CWC has reaffirmed its faith in Sonia Gandhi’s leadership. Informing about the decisions taken in the CWC meeting, KC Venugopal read out the statement published by the Congress party that said, “Senior members openly participated in the discussions to analyse themselves. It was a sincere and fruitful discussion. The CWC unanimously accepted the following things. The recent assembly elections in five states are a cause of serious concern for Congress. The CWC unanimously reaffirms its faith in Sonia Gandhi.”
It further said, “We request the Congress president to lead from the front, address the organizational weakness, effect the necessary organizational and comprehensive changes in order to take on political challenges.”
Analysing the party’s dismal performance in the five state elections, the party concluded due to faulty strategies, it failed to ‘effectively expose the misrule of BJP govts in four states’, and could not overcome anti-incumbency in Punjab as the party had short time after effecting change of leadership in the state.
The statement also informed about the next steps to be taken by the Congress party. It said, “The CWC also decided that to have a detailed revelation of the party strategy and way forward in the upcoming elections in 2022, 2023, and 2024, a Chintan Shivir of the senior leaders will be held immediately after the current parliament session.”
It is also indicated that the party is going to make some decisions about the organizational changes soon. The party statement said, “Before Chintan Shivir, the CWC will meet once again to discuss the matters to be taken in the meeting including the organizational changes and the strategies. The Congress president will immediately take the immediate corrective measures to revamp and strengthen the organization.” Reportedly, the Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session) will take place after the budget session.
Randeep Singh Surjewala said that every party worker wants Rahul Gandhi to lead the party. However, he also cleared that the new party president will be chosen at the next organizational elections of Congress.
The much-talked-about meeting of the Congress working committee began at around 4 PM on 13th March 2022 in New Delhi. While 5 senior members of the party and the former prime minister Manmohan Singh were absent in this CWC meeting, party workers were seen protesting against the G-23 leaders and in support of Gandhi family members outside the AICC headquarters when the meeting was going on.
The much-talked-about meeting of the Congress working committee began at around 4 PM on 13th March 2022 in New Delhi. While 5 senior members of the party and the former prime minister Manmohan Singh were absent in this CWC meeting, party workers were seen protesting against the G-23 leaders and in support of Gandhi family members outside the AICC headquarters when the meeting was going on.
The CWC meeting had been called by the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the causes and effects of the recent decimation of the party in the assembly elections of five states. Congress not only failed to retain the state of Punjab but also saw a sharp decline in its number of seats in the other states.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and 5 other senior members of the party were absent in this meeting. According to a report by the Republic World, ex-defence minister AK Antony, MP A Chella Kumar, former Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, Tariq Hameed Karra, and G Sanjeeva Reddy did not attend this meeting. while Antony has missed the meeting after testing positive for COVID-19, the reasons behind other leaders missing the CWC meeting have not yet been specified.
Congress Working Committee meeting begins. The meeting is being chaired by party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi pic.twitter.com/czj37hmjKX
A day before this meeting, NDTV had reported that all the members of the Gandhi family that is Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Rahul Gandhi will resign from their posts in this CWC meeting. However, the party had denied this. Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had slammed NDTV for spreading fake news. Amidst these speculations, party workers protested against the G-23 leaders and in support of Gandhi family members outside the AICC headquarters on 13th March 2022 before the CWC meeting started.
Protest in support of Gandhis and against the G-23 leaders in front of AICC HQ in Delhi pic.twitter.com/ciwH9D4pdA
Earlier today, the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot had said that Rahul Gandhi must head the party. He said, “Rahul Gandhi must become head of the Congress party. No one from the Gandhi family has become PM for close to 30 years now. The Gandhi family is important to strengthen Congress.”
Decimation of Congress in recent assembly elections
The Congress party’s performance in the recent assembly elections has been disastrous. In Uttar Pradesh, it has managed to win just 2 seats. Having taken charge of a drowning Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has firmly sunk the party. Congress’ family bastions Amethi and Rae Bareli, where the party had some hope of attracting votes in the name of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, have also completely slipped out of the Gandhi family’s hands under her leadership. The party drew a big fat zero in both Amethi and Rae Bareli in the 2022 UP Assembly elections.
Likewise in other states, Congress has lost Punjab where it was in power for the last term. In the 117-seat assembly, Congress has got just 18. Congress has also lost in Manipur, a 60-seat assembly, where it has been reduced from 23 to 5. In Goa, Congress has secured 12 seats out of 40, while in Uttarakhand, it got 19 out of 70 seats.
Alleged newspaper and Congress mouthpiece, National Herald, has declared Priyanka Gandhi as the big winner of the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh elections. In an article praising Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to the skies, National Herald claimed that Priyanka really charmed Uttar Pradesh during her campaign. She charmed them so much that nobody actually turned up to vote for Congress.
For those living under a rock, Congress secured 2 seats and 2.33% vote share in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. Nobody believed that Congress can sink any further in the state after their 2017 showing when they won 7 seats and 6.25% votes, but Priyanka showed that she can achieve the impossible.
While the rest of the country can see what a disaster Priyanka has been as UP in-charge for Congress, losing even family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli comprehensively, National Herald begs to differ. As per them, Priyanka outshone everybody on the campaign trail, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the man UP voted for, Yogi Adityanath.
It should be noted that Congress was around 12% votes in UP in 2012 elections, while BJP was at 15%. In the 10 years that followed, BJP has moved from 15% to 45% while Congress, led by the brother-sister Gandhi duo, has slipped from 12% to 2%. While this would be a cause of serious concern for normal Congress supporters, National Herald is portraying this as a big win.
The comical piece goes on to add how Priyanka Gandhi Vadra taught a lesson in humility to Narendra Modi and forced him to change his campaign. It even goes on to say that Modi had met his match in Priyanka, because Congress won 2 seats in a state election where BJP won 255.
We have become used to annual Rahul Gandhi has arrived covers from magazines like India Today after every Congress loss overseen by him. Now it looks like we have to get used to Priyanka has arrived articles from National Herald after every loss under her leadership.
If Congress was a corporate body, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would have been fired from the job immediately after the results. However, since it is a family owned business, Priyanka is likely to get a bigger role on National level for sinking her party in UP.
On Sunday (March 13), ride hailing service Uber courted controversy after a Twitter user accused the app of displaying currency in Pakistani rupees (PKR) within the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The user, identified as one Koushal Raina (@ALkohliC), wrote, “PKR currency in wallet balance in Jammu, J&K, India???” He had also shared a screenshot wherein ‘Uber Cash’ was displayed in Pakistani rupees under the section of ‘personal’ payment options.
Screengrab of the tweet by Koushal Raina
In another tweet, the user pointed out that the ride-sharing app does not operate in Jammu and Kashmir, and the amount was shown for a ride in Delhi. “I was booking cab for someone in Delhi when I saw this,” Koushal Raina added.
Screengrab of the tweet by Koushal Raina
Netizens raise alarm over display of PKR in Indian territory by Uber
Social media users were miffed at the representation of currency in Pakistani rupees by Uber within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. A Twitter user cautioned the ride-sharing app to make amends or be ready to face financial loss in business operations in the rest of the country.
Screengrab of the tweet
“Shame on you, Uber. J&K is an integral part of India. Why are you doing this kind of activity? #BoycottUber. Let’s make this issue viral,” wrote another user.
Screengrab of the tweet
Another user warned, “Will start to boycott Uber if they don’t give a written explanation.”
Screengrab of the tweet
One Twitter user alleged that it was the work of the ‘usual suspects’. “Uber Support, what the hell is going on? Vivek Agnihotri, ecosystem at play again,” he wrote.
Screengrab of the tweet
One Rijul sarcastically remarked whether Koushal Raina might have downloaded the Pakistani version of the ‘Uber’ app.
Screengrab of the tweet
A user named Prakshit claimed that it might be a technical glitch. “Probably some GeoIP issue I think. If you set a higher range on Tinder in Jammu, it also shows you profiles from Pakistan,” he tweeted.
Screengrab of the tweet
Twitter user provides clarification, Uber responds with a computer-generated message
OpIndia tried to test whether the ride-sharing app displayed ‘Uber cash’ in PKR while booking a cab to/from Jammu. We found that the currency for ‘Uber cash’ was in Indian rupees (INR).
Screengrab of the Uber app while booking ride to/from Jammu
Meanwhile, Twitter user Koushal Raina has responded to the controversy. He said, “Some people are seeing INR, some PKR. Probably geolocation issue. Still needs to be fixed though.”
Screengrab of the tweet by Koushal Raina
The ride-sharing app has not commented on the matter. It has so far responded with a generic, automated message. “Hey Koushal, we would like to look into this for you. Could you please share your registered contact details via Direct Message?” the tweet read.
Screengrab of the generic tweet by Uber India support
As of now, it remains unclear whether it was a technical glitch or a deliberate act on the part of Uber.
