Two separate incidents of desecration of idols of Hindu deities have been reported in Karnataka.
In Chikkodi taluk of Belgaum district, some unidentified miscreants have vandalised the idol of Saraswati idol present inside the government primary school.
Saraswati idol desecrated in Belagavi’s Chikkodi taluk/ Image Source: TV9
From the photographs, it can be seen that the marble idol has been severely damaged in the attack. Two of the four hands have been broken, the Veena is broken, and several marble slabs and pieces can be seen lying around the tiled platform.
According to the reports, the incident occurred on Thursday evening at the government primary school in the Chinchani village of Chikkodi taluk. The school authorities became aware of the desecration of the Saraswati idol on Friday. They have now lodged a complaint with the Chikkodi police.
The Chikkodi police visited the site and inspected the school premises on Friday. The situation became tense after the incident, and a police team has been deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
Saraswati, Mohandas Gandhi and Vivekananda idols damaged in Shivamogga
Similarly, in another recent incident, miscreants had desecrated idols of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Saraswati at a government primary school at Harohally in Shivamogga district. The miscreants had entered the school premises to vandalise the idols and statues and also destroyed the backyard of the school.
The attack on the Harohally government school, which is a learning centre of several poor students, has angered the school alumni and villagers, who have now demanded strict action against the culprits.
The villagers have alleged that the illicit liquor mafia in the village is responsible for such attacks on the school. They said some men get drunk every night and create mischief in the village area.
Following the incident, the village panchayat and the school authorities have lodged a complaint in the Tirthahalli police station.
Interestingly, the attacks on Saraswati idols inside school premises comes weeks after several Muslim girl students protesting against the hijab ban in Karnataka’s schools had objected to government schools and colleges celebrating Saraswati pooja.
The everyday instances of discrimination against religious minorities are not only the result of Islamic extremism but many repugnancy provisions in the constitution of Pakistan actively emboldens and institutionalise these discriminations.
The recent incident of killing of a Hindu girl, Pooja Oad in Sindh district for resisting abduction attempt and forced conversion summarises the constant fear under which non-muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs, are forced to live in Pakistan. Apart from the constant threat to their lives via false blasphemy charges, there exist discriminatory legal, institutional and constitutional provisions which force religious minorities in Pakistan to live a life of second class citizens.
This article makes an attempt to show the many ways in which Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan are being discriminated against and their human rights are violated with impunity albeit with State support.
Rampant violations of rights of religious and other minorities are reported from Islamic countries on a daily basis. In this context, Pakistan is a living hell for religious minorities. Pakistan, the so-called land of pure, is literally on its way to becoming ‘Pure’ i.e free of Hindus and Sikhs. The 2017 census data shows that Muslims have become 96.47% of the total population and on the other hand religious minorities have shrunk. Hindus, for example, are at their all-time low at 1.73% of the population.
Similar is the situation for other religious minorities. Religious minorities are not treated as equal citizens and this fact is even boasted by the constitutional heads of the country. For example, Khawaja Nazimuddin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan, had said, “I do not agree that religion is a private affair of the individual nor do I agree that in an Islamic state every citizen has identical rights, no matter what his caste, creed or faith be”.
In Pakistan, there lies religious merit in converting non-Muslims to Islam and whole state machinery is found complicit in such activities against minorities. According to their own human rights commission report, around one thousand young Hindus and Christians are forced to convert to Islam every year. Atrocities on Hindu minorities, particularly on Scheduled Caste Hindus and women are particularly worse.
These atrocities started with the very birth of Pakistan in 1947. Then Scheduled Caste leader of Bengal, Jogendranath Mondal (1904-68), who made a so-called common cause with the Muslim League, had to come back to India just after a few years. His letter is a historic document indicating the abysmal status of minorities in the then just born Pakistan. Also, it is a lesson for today’s so-called Ambedkarites who are seeking a common goal with such Islamic fundamentalist forces in India.
Constitutionally, Pakistan being an Islamic state, its present constitution has many repugnancy clauses which discriminate against religious minorities. For example, sections 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code restrict religious groups from freely practising their faith and Clauses 295-B and 295-C on blasphemy can endanger the very life of the accused individual. Blasphemy laws perpetuate dehumanizing discrimination against minorities. They live under a constant threat of Islamic vigilantism.
Since 1990, scores of Pakistanis hailing from religious and linguistic minorities in Pakistan have been killed over claims of blasphemy. Even Muslims who speak against these inhuman laws are killed. The Minorities’ Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated in 2011 for speaking against the blasphemy laws. Also, Asia Bibi languished in jail for many years. After calling the blasphemy law a ‘black’ law, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by Mumtaz Qadri, his bodyguard, in 2011. As recently as in 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called out this draconian law and stated, “Religious minorities in Pakistan continue to face violence and repeated attacks on their religious places of worship and government’s failure to amend the blasphemy law led to violence against them”.
Legally also, Pakistan State discriminates against religious minorities in many ways. Take the example of the “Hindu Marriage Act, 2017” for the constitutional recognition of Hindu Marriages. However, a major loophole in it is used in the forceful conversion of Hindu women. It is section 12 (iii) which stipulates “…the marriage may be terminated on the basis of either the husband or the wife converting to some other religion”. This section annulled any imaginary protection provided to women. Abduct a married woman, force her to convert, force her to say it is voluntary and her marriage is annulled. Similarly, Ahmadis live in constant fear of harassment or assault either to themselves or their homes, workplaces and places of worship. For instance, under Section 298-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, Ahmadis are prevented from using any Islamic epithets that might result in them being mistaken as Muslims. In addition to this, Section 298-B (2) criminalises the use of the word “Azan” for the call to prayers by Ahmadis.
In a country infested with Sunni Islamic radicalisation, there is no security and freedom for women and even other ethnic and linguistic Muslim minorities. Women belonging to religious and ethnic minorities face double marginalisation. Though Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on the elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) yet crime against women continues unabated. Hatred is being fomented in society through an inappropriate representation of minorities and particularly women folks in society and also in the educational curriculum. The judicial system has also failed to prevent the occurrence of the crimes and give justice to the victims.
Punjab dominated military-politician complex violates the human rights of Balochs, Hazaras, Sindhis, Ahmadis and people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Violent attacks on their social gatherings or religious places by Sunni extremists groups and people are very common. Shias, Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, and Hazaras are particular targets of these attacks. In 1974 Ahmadis were officially denied even the legal rights to be considered Muslims. The Gojra riots were particularly harrowing in which several Christians, including women, were killed. Baluchistan’s independence movement is violently suppressed by the Punjabi dominated military here. Forceful abductions, rape, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of the detainees by the military are frequent in the case of the Baloch and Pashtun minorities. Though Pakistan adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a signatory to several international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, these ethnic and linguistic minorities along with religious minorities remain disenfranchised in society and are not fully included in the political life of the country.
Thus, every basic norm of human rights is being grossly violated in Pakistan by legal institutions, society and non-state actors. Hence, it’s a mandate on the international community concerned with the protection of human rights to take necessary measures. This is high time that international agencies, like the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), must intervene effectively before it is too late and minorities are completely wiped off from the country. Pakistan is signatory to many humanitarian covenants however gross violations of rights of religious minorities go unnoticed internationally. The UN and the other concerned agencies must give up their partisan behaviour and speak up vocally for religious minorities of Pakistan.
(This article is an aggregation of the facts that are already in the public domain. Inputs have also been taken from the various reports of a Delhi based Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights headed by Dr Prerna Malhotra).
On Friday 25th March 2022, the Supreme Court refused to consider a plea against the PM Cares Fund. The plea was submitted in the apex court to challenge an Allahabad High Court order rejecting a challenge to the constitutional validity of the PM Cares Fund. The petitioner’s lawyer Devdatt Kamat said that the High Court had not dealt with all the points raised in the petition. The Supreme Court bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai instructed the petitioner Divya Pal Singh to go to the High Court for a review.
The bench said in its order, “You might be right in saying that all issues were not considered. You go and file a review. Let us have the benefit of the High Court order. You can approach the top court again in case of grievance after HC decides the matter.”
Senior advocate Devdatt Kamat represented the petitioner. He said the High Court was not correct in dismissing the Writ Petition solely based on the judgment of the Supreme Court. He submitted that the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF), a public charitable trust, was created on January 24, 1948. When the constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950, at that time, as per Entry 10 of the Concurrent List in the Seventh Schedule funds were prescribed to be created only by the force of law. In 2005, Disaster Management Act was passed and National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) was created. Therefore, PMNRF lost its utility.
The petition claimed that the PM Cares Fund that was created in March 2020 during the pandemic weakens the already existing Disaster Management Act of 2005 because it is a substitute to NDRF and that the PM Cares Fund is taken out of the purview of the RTI Act 2005.
Advocate Kamat said, “Validity and disclosure were sought in this Writ Petition. That is not the scope of judgment in the Center for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL). This becomes all the more important because the judgment in CPIL is premised on the PM-CARES Fund does not receive money from the Government.” Replying to this argument, Justice Rao said, “We find too many public-spirited lawyers. Last week an advocate in Bangalore was saying reduce NEET cut off marks.”
The bench passed the order that says, “The senior counsel for the petitioner referred to the relief claimed in the writ petition and submitted that the points in the writ petition had not been dealt with by the High Court while dismissing the writ petition. The only ground on which the writ petition was dismissed was that the list is covered by the CPIL. The senior counsel seeks permission to withdraw to approach the High Court filing review to argue the other grounds. The petitioner is at liberty to approach this court against the order of the high court.”
BJP MLA Nitesh Rana made an explosive revelation about the Disha Salian murder case while speaking in the Maharashtra legislative assembly on Friday. Rane said he had in his possession a pen drive and had prepared a transcript of an eyewitness account of Disha Salian’s gang rape and alleged murder, stating that a state minister is involved in the case.
The BJP leader said he drew lessons from the “pen drive university of Devendra Fadnavis”, stating if the former Maharashtra CM can make two pen drives, why can’t he make at least one.
“If we assume that she committed suicide then why has the CCTV footage from her building disappeared. The watchman has disappeared, pages 8 and 9 of the visitors’ register are missing. Her fiancé Rohan Rai who used to live with her and is an eyewitness is not traceable. I say with full responsibility that it is not a suicide but murder,” Rane said.
Rane further added that he could have submitted the evidence with the police but he has doubts about their intentions. “The investigations are being done in a particular manner to save someone,” he said.
Asserting that the pen drive bears evidence about the involvement of a state minister in the gang rape and murder of Disha Salian as alleged by an eyewitness, Rane said he would, therefore, submit the pen drive to CBI and not the speaker of the assembly.
“I will not hand it over to you (speaker), rather I shall give it to the CBI through the courts, I do not believe the eyewitness will be alive otherwise,” he said.
Earlier, Rane had alleged that the death of Disha Salian is linked to her fiance Rohan Rai, who has since disappeared.
The mystery surrounding the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of actor Sushant Singh Rajput
Disha Salian, who had worked as Sushant Singh Rajput’s manager for a brief period of time, was found dead under mysterious circumstances on 8 June 2020, six days before Sushant allegedly died of suicide.
Initially, it was alleged that Disha Salian had committed suicide. However, later reports emerged that Salian’s death could have been a murder and possibly linked to the mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Investigations conducted in the matter revealed that Salian’s phone had remained active even after her death on June 8, 2020. Sources privy to the details claimed that Disha’s phone remained active for 9 days after her death. They also stated that Internet calls were made between June 9 and June 17 from Disha’s phone. However, no phone was seized by the officials of Mumbai Police, who had reached the spot within minutes of Disha’s death.
In a stunning disclosure, Russia said that US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his investment fund Rosemont Seneca financed the Pentagon’s bio-weapon programme in Ukraine.
According to the reports, Moscow said that Hunter Biden secured finance to fund the US military ‘bioweapons’ research program in Ukraine. The leaked emails, accessed by Hunter Biden’s laptop, showed that he had helped secure millions of dollars of funding for Metabiota, a Department of Defense contractor specialising in research on pandemic-causing diseases.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the George Soros Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provide financial support to the Pentagon programme, the Russian Defense Ministry added.
The commander of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces said there was a scheme of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological objects and revealed that there was a funding involvement close to the current US leadership, in particular, the investment fund Rosemont Seneca, headed by Hunter Biden.
The Russian Defence Ministry has said Hunter had a prominent role in making sure Metabiota was able to conduct its pathogen research just a few hundred miles from the border with Russia. Metabiota has worked in Ukraine for Black & Veatch, a US defence contractor with deep ties to military intelligence agencies, which built secure labs in Ukraine that worked on killer diseases and bioweapons, said Russia.
Apparently, Hunter Biden also introduced Metabiota to the Ukrainian gas firm – Burisma for a ‘science project’ involving high biosecurity level labs in Ukraine.
The Daily Mail report suggested that Hunter Biden and his colleagues at Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) regularly raised millions of dollars for technology companies. Metabiota was one of those firms in which Biden invested his money. The emails between Hunter and his colleagues excitedly discuss how the company’s monitoring of medical data may be useful in future as governments and companies look to spot outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Hunter Biden raised several million dollars of funding for the company from investment giants, including Goldman Sachs. The emails show Hunter was also particularly involved in Metabiota’s operations in Ukraine. Biden’s firm invested at least $500,000 in Metabiota through their firm Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners.
According to Lt General Igor Kirillov, head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence forces of the Russian Armed Forces, Hunter Biden raised funds close to $2.4 billion.
In 2014, when the funding was allegedly secured, Hunter served as a board member of the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, owned by a former top government official and corrupt billionaire Mikolay Zlochevsky. His father, Joe Biden, was the Vice-President of the United States of America.
Meanwhile, the US government spending records show the Department of Defense awarded an $18.4million contract to Metabiota between February 2014 and November 2016, with $307,091 earmarked for ‘Ukraine research projects’.
The US-funded bio-weapon labs project has turned into a national security liability for Ukraine as Russian forces have uncovered these secret facilities run by the United States, exposing the nefarious designs of the US administration.
Barack Obama ordered the construction of Biolabs in Ukraine to create dangerous pathogens
Former President Barack Obama had pushed an arrangement to develop bio-weapon labs processing “especially dangerous pathogens” in Ukraine, reports suggested.
This comes days that Biden administration had informed the United States Senate that the US government is anxious over biological research centres slipping into Russian control as a consequence of the escalating fighting in Eastern Europe.
The latest reports confirm that Washington was working with Kiev on dangerous pathogens in those labs authorised by former US President Barack Obama himself. The now-deleted report titled “Biolab Opens in Ukraine” gives details how Obama, while serving as an Illinois Senator, helped negotiate a deal to build a level-3 biosafety lab in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
The article also highlighted the work of former Senator Dick Lugar, who joined hands with senator Barack Obama to enter a partnership with Ukrainian officials. The report said that Lugar and Obama also helped coordinate efforts between the US and Ukrainian researchers to study and help prevent avian flu.
On June 18, 2010, the article “Biolab Opens in Ukraine” was published disclosing Obama’s role in setting up bio-weapons lab/ Image Source: National Pulse.
In one of its research papers, a US research lab explained how the Odessa-based laboratory is responsible for identifying especially dangerous biological pathogens.
“This laboratory was reconstructed and technically updated up to the BSL-3 level through a cooperative agreement between the United States Department of Defense and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine that started in 2005. The collaboration focuses on preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens, and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons,” the report read.
The report further said that the updated laboratory served as Interim Central Reference Laboratory with a depozitarium (pathogen collection). According to Ukrainian regulations, it has a permit to work with both bacteria and viruses of the first and second pathogenic groups.
“The US-funded lab studied viruses such as Ebola and viruses of pathogenicity group II by using of virology, molecular, serological and express methods,” the report said. In addition to research on pathogens, the lab also provided special training for specialists on biosafety and biosecurity issues during the handling of dangerous biological pathogenic agents.
US-funded laboratory studied deadly pathogens such as Ebola, Congo Fever, etc./ Image Source: National Pulse.
This shocking revelation comes at a time when the United States government is facing intense scrutiny over funding risky, “gain-of-function” research in Wuhan at a Chinese Communist Party-run lab with military ties, which may have been the source of the coronavirus pandemic.
US-funded bio-weapon labs in Ukraine
Recently, the Russian Defence Ministry had stated that they had found evidence of US-funded Biolabs in Ukraine, which had urgently destroyed samples of deadly pathogens when the ‘military operation’ started.
This is two days after Russia claimed that Ukraine was close to building a plutonium-based dirty bomb nuclear weapon. On March 6, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry had tweeted that Russian forces found evidence that Kyiv was eradicating traces of the military-biological program in Ukraine, financed by the Pentagon.
On several occasions, Russia had accused the US and Ukraine of developing bio-weapons close to its borders. In 2021, while talking about the inability of the World Health Organisation to establish the origin of the Covid-19 virus, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Kommersant reporter that Russia believed the US was developing bioweapons near its borders.
The war between Russia and Ukraine broke out on February 24 when Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine through neighbouring countries.
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the leader of the opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, criticised the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi for claiming to have the finest education model in the country. Bidhuri added that the assertion is a farce and that the situation on the ground is dire. He also gave some statistics to back up his claim that Delhi’s education system is in disarray.
On Twitter, he posted a video of himself speaking in the assembly. He wrote, “Kejriwal government’s model of education has completely failed. Leader of Opposition Ramveer Singh Bidhuri exposed the education model in the budget session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly!”
Bidhuri began by stating that Delhi schools have performed poorly in national performance rating. We dug further into Bidhuri’s claims and discovered that what he asserted was genuine. The AAP government’s chest-thumping on education reform in Delhi does not correspond with factual results.
As per the Performance Grading Index of 2019-2020, Delhi does not even stand in the top 5 of the list which includes all the states and the Union Territories. Delhi’s position is sixth on the whole list.
Delhi stands at 32nd position in terms of performance in the domain of learning outcome
Going into further detail, one can see how the boast of Delhi having the best performance in the country in the sector of education is simply a sham. In the performance in the domain of learning outcome, Delhi stands in the 32nd position among all states and UTs. Delhi is in the 6th position from the bottom. This implies that even after hefty spending in the name of education, students of schools in Delhi are performing very poor.
Learning outcomes and quality.
Going more deep into this domain, it was found that the performance of students was decreasing with an increase in their standards. This again exposes the claim of the best education system in the country.
Categorywise learning outcomes.
The score of Delhi is 124 in the learning outcome domain whereas Uttar Pradesh has got 132 marks. This makes us discern that even with comparatively lower equity and access, along with not so good infrastructure, students in schools of UP are performing better than those of Delhi.
Even in the case of infrastructure, Delhi is not the best. Delhi stands second to Punjab in this category.
Infrastructure and facilities.
Also, in terms of Equity, Delhi is in 5th position in the list.
Equity ranking.
Secondly, Bidhuri stressed that the condition of Delhi University colleges funded by the Delhi Government is very poor. The government is unable to pay salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff in the colleges fully funded by the Delhi government.
Delhi Universities experiencing funding crisis even as AAP boasts about its superior education model
According to a November 2021 news report, 12 Delhi University colleges financed by the Delhi government are experiencing a funding crisis since their assigned funds have been reduced.
Subodh Kumar, chief of the Maharaja Agrasen College staff association and coordinator of all 12 colleges, explained the scenario, saying professors want the teaching-learning process to continue, but the state government is not allowing it. Mr Kumar called it ‘inhuman treatment,’ and said teachers will be obliged to demonstrate in order to fight the government’s arm-twisting. Teachers have been compelled to resign as a result of the issue, he claimed.
“Then they (govt) alleged corruption in colleges and despite various audits, they did not find anything. After the pandemic, they said they don’t have money and slashed the budget. Earlier we (the college) were getting Rs 28 crore which has been brought down to Rs 16 crore,” he further added.
In addition, when it comes to vocational education, for which the Delhi Government has positioned itself as a forerunner, the situation is dire. Bidhuri stated that teachers and instructors in vocational institutes are struggling with their salaries with the government being careless about them.
According to some reports, 6 years have gone by, yet the salary of Delhi’s vocational instructors has not increased.
In Delhi government schools, vocational trainers were hired in 2015, but their pay has remained the same since then. On October 20, 2019, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia promised Vocational Trainers at Thyagaraj Stadium that their salaries will be increased as soon as possible, however, it is already 2022, and the pay has not been raised.
Similar is the case with guest teachers in schools and colleges who have been assured of pay hikes but nothing solid has manifested to date.
Two Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus (real names Vladimir Kuznetsov and Aleksei Stolyarov) managed to trick UK Home Secretary Priti Patel into a 15 minutes long phone call. Posing as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the duo discussed the ongoing Ukrainian war and Britain’s support for Ukraine with the Home Secretary. Patel was the second UK Minister to become a target of the comedy duo after Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had a 10 minutes long Teams call with them.
Sitting in her office in front of a Union Jack and a Ukraine flag, Patel discussed all aspects of the Ukraine war, including the refugee crisis and UK’s response to that. Experts were debating whether the video was spliced, to attach different answers to different questions to make the Home Secretary’s answers look silly upon viewing.
At one point, the pranksters asked Patel if UK will be afraid of the Neo-Nazis from Ukraine, and she replied ,”Clearly they’re not, the support is very significant here, it really is.” She also admitted during the call that they pressurized Kenya and UAE to support Ukraine in the ongoing war against Russia.
As the call went on, reality slowly dawned on Priti Patel as the caller kept saying more and more absurd things, including praising the fair trial of Julian Assange, who the caller claimed drank a lot of UK’s blood.
Earlier, the pranksters had released the video of their call with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, in which Wallace told the pranksters that Britain wanted Ukraine to join NATO but was blocked by other countries.
The government sources in Britain have alleged that these prank calls are part of Russian propaganda, and an attempt to spread disinformation using edited clips. Vovan and Lexus have been accused of having links with Russian intelligence in the past, a charge they have denied.
These are not the first instances of UK politicians falling prey to prank calls. In 2018, Boris Johnson, who was foreign secretary at the time, had an 18 minutes phone call with a prankster pretending to be Armenian Prime Minister. In another instance, a prank caller pretending to be the chief of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK was put through to former Prime Minister David Cameron.
On Saturday, a volunteer-driven initiative in the name of ‘Modi Story’ was launched by Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter, to gather inspiring moments from PM Modi’s life. The initiative aims at bringing forth Narendra Modi’s remarkable life narrative through the eyes of individuals who have got a glimpse of his life.
“Announcing the launch of MODI STORY, a volunteer-driven initiative to bring together inspiring moments from Narendra Modi’s life, as narrated by his co-travelers. Inaugurated by Smt. Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi,” the portal tweeted. Meanwhile, BJP leaders and several Union ministers including Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur also tweeted about The Modi Story on March 26.
Launch of MODI STORY portal at the hands of Smt.Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi and a longtime friend of Shri Narendra Modi.
“Gandhiji taught us to be the change we wish to see for Bharat. Modi is that change”, she says.
According to the website modistory.in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been at the root of the making of New India. He has inspired the common Indians to come together, aspire for greatness and carry in the spirit of ‘we the people’. “There are many people, from far and near, who have caught a glimpse into Modi’s life, his intent, integrity, and intensity. They came away inspired, keen to infuse the same ‘can do’ spirit in everyone. Modi Story’ is about such voices”, the website reads.
It adds that the initiative is about raising the collective voices and telling people’s contributions in the making of a New India. “If one Modi can give the country new momentum, imagine a nation with thousands of such inspired individuals”, the website said further inviting stories from individuals in written, video, or audio format.
Meanwhile, in the video shared by the BJP on its Twitter handle, Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni who launched the voluntary initiative could be heard saying that PM Modi was a good friend of her when she was in Delhi. “He used to visit us now and then. We were good friends. And that continues to be till today”, she stated.
MODI STORY, a volunteer driven initiative brings together inspiring moments from PM @narendramodi‘s life, as narrated by his co-travellers.
Officially launched by Smt Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.
Apart from Gandhi, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, Kishorilal Agrawal, Badminton player Pullela Gopichand, former finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia, and many more could be seen recalling their inspiring moments with the PM Modi.
The kins of the deceased eight people who were mercilessly assaulted and burnt alive in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on the night of March 21 (Monday) are living under constant fear. While some had named TMC block president Anarul Hussain as the key conspirator of the attack, a few others had lamented about the alleged state police’s negligence in handling the case. Now, another kin has come forward to speak out about the threats they have been receiving, making it impossible for them to go back home.
Speaking to News 18, one Mafiza Bibi of Rampurhat, whose mother died in the carnage alleged that Bhadu Sheikh’s goons are now threatening her with life. She was quoted by the media outlet as saying, “They are saying when their people will come out of bail, they will kill us. He openly said this to me. I have complained to the police. They have said they will come.”
According to a News 18 journalist who visited the village where the heinous incident occurred on the night of March 21, this was discovered to be the villagers’ common fear. The villagers explained to the journalist why the village remains deserted, saying, “If such threats continue despite the police being stationed there temporarily, it does not give us the confidence to return to the village.”
Victim’s kinallege state police negligence, accuse TMC leader Anarul Hussain of masterminding the massacre
Notably, prior to this, Mihilal Sheikh and Banirul, two relatives of the deceased victims also alleged the state police’s negligence in handling the case. They also named TMC block president Anarul Hussain, who was later arrested, as the key conspirator of the attack
According to the victims, when the incident occurred, women and children had locked themselves in a room out of fear. The attackers were aware of this, still, they set the room ablaze. The victim’s family further claimed that not eight, but ten members of their household were burned to death on Monday night, and instead of returning the bodies to them, the police buried them in the village overnight.
The victim’s kin also refuted the allegation that the incident was an act of retribution for the killing of a panchayat official of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state.
Mihilal’s brother disputed the police version as well as the family of the slain TMC leader, who accused Mihilal, his brother-in-law Sona, and Fatikh of murdering him.
Meanwhile, a 15-member CBI team, led by deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Akhilesh Singh reached Rampurhat village in West Bengal to probe the Birbhum violence on Saturday. The team also included Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) experts from New Delhi.
On Friday, March 25, the Calcutta High Court had transferred the investigation into the violence in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, in which 8 persons were brutally thrashed before being burnt alive, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Until now, an SIT formed by the Mamata Banerjee government in the state was handling the probe into the case.
In its order, the Calcutta High Court stated, “we are of the opinion that the facts and the circumstances of the case demand that, in the interest of justice and to instil confidence in the society and to have a fair investigation to dig out the truth, it is necessary to hand over the investigation to the CBI.”
Birbhum massacre
On March 22 late-night, a group of enraged miscreants set ablaze around 12 homes which resulted in the gruesome death of eight people including women and innocent children in Birbhum’s Rampurhat. The autopsy report of the burnt bodies shows that the people were beaten before they were locked in their homes before the houses were set on fire. The massacre had taken place in retaliation of the alleged murder of a TMC leader.
While Christian missionaries operating in the rural hamlets of Jharkhand have been luring vulnerable tribals with land and money in order to convert them, members of various Hindu outfits have been working tirelessly to free these innocent tribals from the clutches of such evangelists.
A week after 181 tribal community members were converted back to their Sarna religion in different villages of Jharkhand’s Garhwa district, hundreds of people from 61 families of Vanvasi (tribal) Samaj in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj district did the same on March 25, 2022.
According to reports, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Department Minister Kalicharan Mandal had organised a program for the return of these 61 Sarna tribal families in the Sahibganj district.
In fact, VHP’s Kalicharan Mandal has been running a ‘ghar wapsi’ or the reconversion programme in five villages in the district’s Barhait block. In the program, all the Christian converts who wished to revert to their original faith were welcomed as per the tribal tradition. Kalicharan Mandal and Upendra Kushwaha, regional head of the VHP, are in charge of the programme. Their goal is to persuade people who have been duped into becoming converts by the Christian Missionaries operating in these hamlets to return to the Hindu fold.
As soon as the VHP members learn of such an incident, they rush to the scene and rescues the innocent and vulnerable Adivasi, people belonging to the Pahadia caste, Dalit society, and the poor from the clutches of Christian missionaries.
181 Christian converts in Garhwa district, Jharkhand perform Gharwapsi to tribal Sarna religion
It is worth noting that recently as many as 181 members of a tribal community whose ancestors had embraced Christianity many years ago were converted back to their Sarna religion in different villages of Garhwa district in Jharkhand.
The Dharma Jagran and Tribal Suraksha Manch organised the Saraedih Village Tribal Conference for the return of the Sarna tribals. In the program, all the Christian converts who wished to revert back to their original faith were welcomed as per the tribal tradition of washing their feet.
About 104 members of 18 families from the Vishrampur Goraiyabkhar village, 42 members of 7 families from Khunti Tola Karachali village and 35 members of 8 families from Mahangai village left Christianity and returned to Sarna religion.
