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‘Necessary that China takes appropriate steps too’: Indian Army after military commander level talks over LAC

OpIndia Staff
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‘Necessary that China takes appropriate steps too’: Indian Army after military commander level talks over LAC

The Indian Army on Monday released a statement on the India-China senior military commanders’ 13th marathon dialogue that took place on October 10. As per the official statement, the negotiation yielded no result. 

The Indian Army reiterated that attempts by the Chinese Army to ‘alter the status quo & in violation of the bilateral agreements’ along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) had led to the current situation. 

However, the Chinese Army is not willing to address de-escalation in the three remaining friction points that include Hot Springs, Depsang Bulge and Charding Nullah Junction at the LAC. 

“During the meeting, the Indian side made constructive suggestions for resolving issues in the remaining areas but the Chinese side was not agreeable & also could not provide any forward-looking proposals,” informed the Indian Army. 

“The meeting thus did not result in the resolution of the remaining areas,” declared the Indian Army while emphasizing the need for the Chinese Army to take appropriate steps in the concerned areas to restore peace & tranquillity.

Concluding the statement, the Indian Army assured establishing constant communication with the Chinese counterparts to maintain stability on the ground. 

“It is our expectation that the Chinese side will take into account the overall perspective of bilateral relations & will work towards early resolution of the remaining issues,” it said. 

As per the officials, the 13th round of discussion began at 10.30 AM on Sunday at Moldo on the Chinese side of LAC. 

The negotiation was held more than two months after the last round of talks. It came at a time when the Chinese Army is involved in massive military buildup and infrastructure development across the LAC. 

‘If China continues presence along LAC, so will we’

On Saturday, Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, in response to the massive military buildup by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) across the LAC said that if the Chinese army is to stay in eastern Ladakh, so is the Indian Army.

“It is a matter of concern that the large-scale buildup that occurred last year continues to be in place,” said the army chief.

“To sustain that kind of buildup, there has been an equal amount of infrastructure development on the Chinese side. It means that they are there to stay. We are keeping a close watch on the developments. But if they are there to stay, we are there to stay too,” asserted Naravane at a public event held in New Delhi. 

Coal crisis: How global media is attacking India to reduce China’s embarrassment

Abhishek Banerjee
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Coal crisis: How global media is attacking India to reduce China’s embarrassment

The following is a headline from the UK based Financial Times newspaper on Oct 6.

Financial Times’ headline on ‘coal crisis’

Notice the phrase “China and India.” But why? As the article itself would admit:

“As of October 3, India’s 135 thermal power plants had just four days’ worth of coal stocks, down from 13 days on August 1, the power ministry said on Tuesday.“

In other words, the “crisis” hasn’t even happened yet, at least by the time of the writing of the article. So how did the Financial Times work out that there is a crisis in “China and India”?

Okay, four days is not a very long time and maybe you cannot fault the Financial Times for looking a bit ahead. We will come to this. But first let us note the similar spate of articles about India’s looming power crisis in global media. Here is the BBC:

BBC on India’s ‘unprecedented power crisis’

“Brink” of an unprecedented power crisis. So it hasn’t happened yet. And here is Al Jazeera on Oct 6.

Al Jazeera on ‘energy shortage crisis’

Again, pay close attention to the exact words. India “faces” a growing crisis. So it hasn’t happened yet. But we already have the Financial Times, BBC and Al Jazeera warning us about what is going to happen. See the level of concern for India. See how much they love us and worry about us. Isn’t it touching?

Now, is there a problem with coal supplies in India at the moment? Absolutely. The Central government is having non-stop meetings with state governments, coal suppliers and all stakeholders to keep the supply chain from breaking down. Many mines have been flooded due to monsoon rain. In the international market, the price of coal (as with energy in general) has shot up massively. Power demand is surging with the economy showing a strong recovery. The festival season is here as well. A perfect storm. And so, Coal India is ramping up production, BCCL is racing against the clock. Basically, it is all hands on deck.

But the blackouts haven’t happened yet. We are on thin ice, but we are getting by. You cannot deny that.

Then why is the international media so interested? Why are they circling like birds of prey, eager to pick India apart?

Am I being too prickly here? Isn’t the media just doing its job, picking up early on a big story that literally affects hundreds of millions of people?

Yes, I would have said that. But only if I noticed a similar eagerness in the media to pick up on the much bigger and actually ongoing (instead of “looming“) power crisis in China.

In China, things are bad. When a power crisis happens, the usual thing is to shut down factories first. They always give top priority to household electricity. But in China, the trouble spread from factories to people’s homes at least two weeks ago. In many provinces across China, the government is switching off household power during the day, advising folks to make do with sunlight. Power supply at night is not guaranteed either, and people are learning to live with flashlights and generators.

The factory shutdowns in China have already impacted global supply chains. There are reports that the government in China is giving some preference to suppliers of the biggest name brands such as Apple and Tesla, just to maintain some appearance that things are fine. But you can’t fool everyone. Goldman-Sachs has already cut its GDP forecast for China. In other words, all the things that happen in the late stages of a crisis have already happened. Unlike India, where the crisis is still “looming.”

So how did the global media, if it was ever doing its job, miss the crisis in China? Why are they only talking about it only now that the blackouts are in plain sight, the factories have come to a halt and the GDP growth cuts have already been measured? Why didn’t they panic a week in advance like they did for India?

Show me all those articles in BBC and Al Jazeera and such warning about China months ago, counting down from a week before the crisis. I tried to find such articles dated from June, July or August. Considering how big the Chinese economy is and how vital their manufacturing is for the world, you would have expected the global media giants to be hot on their trail for the biggest story of the year.

I didn’t find anything. The closest I came was this story in Bloomberg on Sep 16, when the crisis was already running deep in China.

Bloomberg on China’s crisis

Did you notice the exact wording of the headline? And don’t miss the line below it: China poised for winter power deficit despite preparation. Be scared. Be very scared.

The most incisive observation I came across in recent years was this line I read somewhere: the pandemic didn’t change the world, it only revealed who is really in charge.

Maybe you are thinking: but India is a democracy. We are not China, where the only news that leaks out is how global factors are to blame for the problems in China. And how people should get ready for a crisis, despite preparation by dear leader Xi Jinping. In contrast, everything about India is in the open, despite what Freedom House says.

In that case, how about the United Kingdom, the home of the BBC?

UK crisis

Ah, the military. On the streets of a free country, distributing fuel to citizens. The first sign of a thriving first world nation, right?

No, this is not some British version of NREGA to give dignity to their soldiers with nothing to do after the surrender in Afghanistan. This is a full blown crisis. In many British cities, up to 90 percent of petrol pumps have run dry.

They say the crisis is not one of fuel itself, but of truck drivers. Apparently, these truck drivers used to be mostly migrants from poorer European Union countries. And now they have all gone home. Also apparently, there was no way to predict this crisis even four days before it happened…

Right, BBC?

So the global media couldn’t see the crisis coming in China. And when it came, they found themselves reminding people everywhere that dear leader Xi Jinping has been preparing for this. And that it isn’t his fault anyway, but the fault of everyone else. They couldn’t even foresee the day when the military would be needed to keep British people supplied with fuel.

But they have been on high alert about India. They have been looking out for us for weeks now.

One final thing. In this global energy crisis, where are our saviors? Where are our visionaries and our revolutionaries? There is another Friday coming up this week. I suppose a school strike might be in order. No Fridays for future to save us now?

Greta Thunberg leads a school strike and sits outside of the Swedish Parliament in an effort to force politicians to act on climate change on August 28, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden

I know, I know. How dare I ask…

Arvind Kejriwal cries ‘coal shortage’ and ‘power crisis’, two years after completely banning coal-based power plants in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal cries ‘coal shortage’ and ‘power crisis’, two years after completely banning coal-based power plants in Delhi

After Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the alleged coal shortage, on October 10, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia alleged the Central government was ignoring the ‘crisis’. He compared the situation with the oxygen crisis during the second Covid-19 wave earlier this year during the months of April and May.

Comparing with the medical oxygen crisis was a bit amusing because a detailed inquiry had found that the Delhi government had inflated demands and tried to manufacture a fake crisis of medical oxygen during the peak of the second wave of Covid this year.

Sisodia was addressing a press conference where he said, “For the last 3-4 days, the chief ministers across the country are flagging the issue to the central government. Amidst all this, the Union Power Minister is saying that there is no crisis at all. He said that Delhi Chief Minister should not have written a letter. Such an irresponsible approach of the Centre is very unfortunate.”

AAP’s Manish Sisodia alleged the central government is not taking steps to avoid the coal crisis. Source: Twitter

He further alleged that the government was following the policy of ‘closing eyes’, and it had created trouble in the past. He said, “If all chief ministers are flagging the issue of soal shortage, then attention should be given to it. The onus of the failure is completely on the Central government, just like before. They are mismanaging coal in the same way they mismanaged oxygen.”

Though Sisodia categorically mentioned the oxygen crisis during Covid, he forgot the fact that SC appointed audit panel had found that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government had exaggerated the oxygen requirement in the national capital by more than four times during the April 25-May 10 peak period of the Covid-19 second wave.

Earlier, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain had warned that the alleged coal shortage could cause a ‘complete blackout’ in the national capital if they do not receive an immediate supply of coal. He claimed the Delhi government was ready to buy expensive electricity as well. Delhi CM, in a tweet, had said that he was keeping an eye on the situation, and his government was trying its best to avoid the alleged power crisis in the national capital.

AAP govt had earlier banned thermal power plants in Delhi

Delhi’s AAP government is claiming that it is “trying its level best” to get coal for the thermal power plants. However, the past strategies of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi against the coal-based power plants shows the party’s double face.

AAP announced a ban on thermal plants in 2019. Source: Twitter

In 2019, the Delhi government had announced a complete ban on coal-based power plants in Delhi. Moving a step ahead, it also imposed a ban on the industries that were using coal as a power source.

In 2020, the Delhi Power Minister Satyendra Jain had written to Union power minister RK Singh and had urged him to shut down 11 thermal plants within a 300 KM radius of the national capital. Moving a step ahead, just three months ago, in June 2021, the Delhi Government had approached Supreme Court and sought directions to close down ten coal-fired power plants in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Is there a coal shortage in India?

From the last couple of weeks, there has been a buzz in the power industry that India is facing a shortage of coal. Several states have written to the Centre to provide coal to the thermal plants as they are “running out of the stock”. AAP-led Delhi and Congress-led Punjab governments are among those who have requested a ‘faster supply of coal’.

Contrary to the claims in media reports and by some state governments, the central government has clarified on October 10 that there is no shortage of coal in the country. In a press release, the Ministry of Coal reassured that there is ample stock of coal in the country. Notably, despite monsoon and heavy rainfall in the region where coal mines are located in India, Coal India Limited has been continuously supplying coal to thermal plants across the country.

It is noteworthy that the international coal price has spiked exponentially in recent times, making it difficult for the central government to import coal that has added to the said ‘crisis’.

CIL had urged power companies to stock up coal

Interestingly, in September 2021, it was reported that CIL has been writing to the power companies not to regulate the intake of coal and build up coal stock at their end. CIL said that it would help the power companies to ensure a continuous power supply.

In the same month, CIL had stepped up supply to the power plants by 20%. The state-owned company had said that they had allocated supply to the power plants with zero to six days stock on priority and arranged alternate sources in case of an issue with the linked mines.

Temporary coal shortage is not a new phenomenon

Contrary to what some leaders and reports might be suggesting, the coal shortage is not something new. Every year, during monsoon season, there has been a shortage of coal for a limited timeframe which gets regularized quickly. In April 2018, there were reports of coal shortages in monsoon season that were refuted by the government.

In October 2019, CIL reported a 24% dip in production amidst heavy monsoon, which was later regularised. In November 2020, after the effects of the monsoon were over, CIL reported a 19% jump in coal production.

The coal ‘shortage’ is just a phase that India faces almost every year. This year, due to low imports, there might be a temporary reduction in supplies, but the central government has assured that there was nothing to worry about.

Abdul Qadeer Khan: Metallurgist turned ‘Father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, an expert in espionage, nuclear proliferation and illicit profiteering

Dibakar Dutta
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Abdul Qadeer Khan: Metallurgist turned ‘Father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, an expert in espionage, nuclear proliferation and illicit profiteering

On Sunday (October 10), Abdul Qadeer Khan aka the ‘Father of Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb’ breathed his last at the ripe age of 85. He was admitted to a hospital in Islamabad earlier that morning after he complained of lung problem. However, his health condition deteriorated and he passed away within a few hours’ time.

His death was mourned by several politicians in Pakistan, including Prime Minister Imran Khan. In a tweet, Khan thanked Abdul Qadeer for making Pakistan a ‘nuclear State’ in the face of an ‘aggressive and large nuclear neighbour’ India.

Unlike India’s missile man APJ Abdul Kalam, who is admired by all sections of the society, Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan remained a polarising figure. While the general public adore him for his supposed contribution to the country’s nuclear programme, senior scientists remember him as an ‘egomaniacal lightweight given to exaggerating his expertise’. Although he was born in present-day Bhopal in 1936, his family left for Muslim-majority Pakistan in the year 1952.

Abdul Qadeer Khan and the motivation to become a ‘nuclear power’

Abdul Qadeer Khan was motivated to join Pakistan’s nuclear programme after India successfully carried out its first-ever nuclear test on May 18, 1974 (also called Operation Smiling Buddha). Pakistan’s humiliating loss to India in the 1971 war and the subsequent creation of Bangladesh also instilled a nationalistic fervour within him. In September 1974, he wrote a letter to the then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto about the need for producing highly enriched uranium (HEU) instead of weapon-grade plutonium.

When he met Bhutto in December 1974, he explained why he thought the idea of ‘plutonium’ was not feasible (plutonium enrichment required nuclear reactors and reprocessing while uranium could be enriched using gaseous centrifuges). The Pakistani Prime Minister was impressed and Abdul Qadeer Khan was inducted into the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1975. Khan was employed with the Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory in the Netherlands in 1972. The lab was a subcontractor of URENCO, which worked in the field of uranium enrichment using ultracentrifuges.

Owing to security lapses, Abdul Qadeer Khan was able to gain complete access to information about ultracentrifuge technology at URENCO. Between 1974 and 1975, the metallurgist stole drawings of centrifuges, collected classified information, and created a list of European suppliers. Given that URENCO began suspecting his actions, he left the Netherlands for Pakistan in December 1975. Upon his return, he began working on the enrichment of uranium using the classified information that he stole from URENCO.

Charges of espionage, proliferation and profiterring against Abdul Qadeer Khan

In 1979, the Dutch government tried to prosecute him for ‘nuclear espionage’ but failed to do so due to lack of evidence. Abdul Qadeer Khan was of the opinion that the PAEC alone couldn’t provide the materials required to sustain Pakistan’s nuclear programme. He insisted on purchasing electronic materials from Dutch companies, a proposal rejected by the Pakistani government. As such, he even tried to import Uranium from China during his visit to the Communist country for a conference. It was later returned by the Pakistani government.

By the mid-1980s, Abdul Qadeer Khan had ensured that Pakistan was on its track to build the nuclear bomb. This despite the fact that he was personally not involved in the design of nuclear devices, weapon testing or calculations. After discovering a window to benefit himself monetarily, he began creating companies in Malaysia and Dubai to sell designs, parts and centrifuges in the black market. His customers included the dictatorial regimes of Libya, Iran and North Korea. He almost gave in to a request to sell centrifuge technology to an unnamed Arab country until one of his confidantes confessed the matter to Pakistan PM Zia ul Haq.

Organizational Cultures and the Management of Nuclear Technology: Political and Military Sociology. (2017). (n.p.): Taylor & Francis.

A high-level investigation by the United States authorities found that Abdul Qadeer Khan was involved in nuclear proliferation. Without even bothering to inform the Pakistani government, he passed on information about gaseous centrifuge technology to Iran between 1987-1989. While the export of such designs was restricted by the Pakistani government, Khan was able to bypass all restrictions to achieve his ulterior motives. The US also recovered centrifuges from Libya, which were developed by Khan during his tenure at the URENCO in the 1970s. They also found that Khan had exported sensitive information regarding uranium enrichment to North Korea in exchange for rocket engines between 1991 and 1997.

The ‘Confession’ and Aftermath : The Downfall of the Father of Pakistan’s Bomb

In 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz city in Iran. The facility was using centrifuges that were again based on the design of URENCO. Reportedly, it was received by Iran from a foreign intermediary in 1989. Abdul Qadeer Khan was featured as one of the suppliers of the centrifuges to Iran, which brought economic sanctions on the country from the United States. Under US President George Bush, evidence was provided to Pakistan that showed the direct involvement of Khan in sharing sensitive nuclear information and materials with its arch-rivals. On January 31, 2004, he was removed from the post of adviser on science and technology by the then Musharraf government.

(Video Courtesy: Youtube/DocsOnline)

He appeared on the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) channel on February 4, 2004, and confessed to his role as a nuclear proliferator. He admitted, “The investigation established that many of the reported activities did occur. These were inevitably initiated at my behest. In my interviews with the concerned government officials, I was confronted with the evidence and the findings. I involuntarily admitted that much of it is true and accurate.” Many believe that it was a staged event done to clean the dirty linen of the Pakistani army establishment. Surprisingly, the Musharraf administration pardoned him the following day but put him under house arrest until 2009.

In the last decade, he made negligible public appearances and remained away from fanfare.

Once while speaking to Geo News, he had recounted, “There are many ways (to develop Pakistan) but I have taken an oath that I will not divulge anything to this country. After the treatment meted out to me (despite ‘making’ Pakistan a nuclear power), I will not tell anything to people.”

On being asked whether he is angry with his countrymen, Abdul Qadeer Khan clarified, “I am not angry with the public but mad at betrayers and ungrateful people. The people of Pakistan still love me.”

Legacy of Abdul Qadeer Khan

The legacy of Abdul Qadeer Khan remains untarnished despite his act of nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation and sale of classified information and military-grade equipment in the black market. Perhaps, one of the biggest ironies can be noted in the obituaries written on the event of his death. While he is being referred to as a ‘nuclear physicist’, the truth remains that he was a metallurgist who had a limited role in Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Despite this, Pakistanis hail him as the ‘Father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb.’

The misconception regarding his educational and professional credentials have been highlighted by noted physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy in an article in 1999. He wrote, “With fewer than 40 active research physicists in the country, about 100 active chemists, and far fewer mathematicians, Pakistan is starved of scientists. Even in nuclear physics, contrary to what may be suggested by Pakistan’s successful nuclear weapons program, there are just a handful of nuclear physicists. Ill-informed journalism is responsible for certain popular misconceptions.”

Abdul Qadeer Khan was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz in 1999 (Photo Credits:  STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

He further added, “For example, Dr. A. Q. Khan, the pre-eminent architect of Pakistan’s nuclear program, is often called a nuclear physicist when, in fact, his degrees and professional accomplishments belong to the field of metallurgy, which is an engineering discipline rather than physics. When Dr. Khan visited the physics department of Quaid-e-Azam University about two months ago, he endeared himself even more to his admirers by wistfully saying he wished he could come someday to this university to study physics.”

Bandipora: Terrorist Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar responsible for recent targeted killings neutralized in encounter

OpIndia Staff
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Bandipora: Terrorist Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar responsible for recent targeted killings neutralized in encounter

One Islamic terrorist identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar who was responsible for the recent targeted killings of civilians in Jammu and Kashmir was neutralized by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora in an encounter that ensued on Monday morning. The terrorist was killed by the Special Operations Group (SOG), J&K. 

Inspector-General of Police, Vijay Kumar in a statement to the media said, “Killed terrorist has been identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar affiliated with proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF). He was involved in the recent civilian killing at Shahgund Bandipora.”

On October 5, a local resident named Mohammad Shafi Lone was killed by terrorists in Shahgund area of Bandipora. Lone was the president of the local Taxi operators association.

Another unidentified terrorist was killed in a separate encounter that took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district early on Monday. A police officer is said to have sustained injuries in Anantnag’s Khagund Verinag area amidst the encounter.

The identity of the terrorist is yet to be determined as the operation is still in progress. 

Pakistan’s role in killing civilians in J&K

Pakistan’s new terror outfit ‘The Resistance Front’ (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in a statement released on October 7, had taken complete responsibility for the killing of school teachers of the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Idgah, Sangam in Srinagar.

In a terror attack last week, the Islamist terrorists had shot dead Makhan Lal Bindroo (68) at his pharmacy at Iqbal Park in Srinagar in Kashmir. Two other innocent civilians were also gunned down by terrorists in two different incidents in the city.

One of the deceased was identified as Virendra Paswan, a native of Bhagalpur district of Bihar who was residing in Alamgari Bazar Zadibal. He was a street vendor by profession who used to sell bhelpuri at the Hawal area of Srinagar.

The third victim was Mohd Shafi Lone, a resident of Naidkhai who was murdered by terrorists in the Shahgund area of Bandipora in North Kashmir.

Six terrorists were arrested by the forces in connection to these killings. The arrested terror associates have been identified as Tariq Ah Dar alias Tariq Khoucha, M. Shafi Dar, Mudasir Hassan Lone, and Bilal Ah Dar alias Sahab Khoucha. These terror associates had been carrying out the nefarious action at the behest of TRF handler Lala Umar, a resident of Pakistan.

Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar was said to be absconding but was shot dead by the security forces on Monday morning. 

Apart from the killing of school teachers, a pharmacy owner and a street vendor, the Kashmir Police on Sunday had confirmed the involvement of The Resistance Front, (TRF) in the killing of Mohd Shafi Lone as well. 

‘After Asif, Anas,’ Dasna Temple’s Yati Narsinghanand alleges boy caught doing recce of temple

OpIndia Staff
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‘After Asif, Anas,’ Dasna Temple’s Yati Narsinghanand alleges boy caught doing recce of temple

On October 10, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, Mahant of Dasna Temple, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, caught another Muslim boy in temple premises and handed over him to the Police. Narsinghanand has alleged that the boy, identified as Anas, had come to do recce of Temple for an attack.

In a video published by Narsinghanand on his Twitter account, Police was seen holding the boy. Narsinghanand said, “This is a Muslim boy. He was caught after I got up from Yagya. We have handed him over to the Police. No one has slapped him in the temple premises.”

He added, “However, I would like to tell SP and other Police personnel that this is preparation for an attack. This is preparation for a big attack. Everyone knows what had happened here. Still, he decided to come here. This should not be taken lightly.” Narsinghanand further said it was up to the Police if they trusted him or not.

Narsinghanand also urged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to look into the matter. He said, “I would like to send this message to CM Yogi that this is an attempt to kill me. The local Police are strict towards Hindus but see this boy entered in the temple premises. The boys of his age are trained killers here.”

The boy claimed that his family recently shifted to Dasna from Tezpur. He alleged he came to the Temple to find his father.

Statement of Ghaziabad Police

In a statement, Ghaziabad Police said that Anas had come to the CHC Hospital nearby Dasna Temple. As he was new to the area, he did not know about the Temple. Being illiterate, he could not differentiate between the gate of the Temple and the gate of the hospital. When he saw a crowd entering the Temple, he assumed it was the hospital. His statement matched the investigation as his family members were found in the hospital.

The Police did not find any objectionable item in Anas’s possession.

Narsinghanand and controversies around him

Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati is not new to controversies. In March 2021, a Muslim boy named Asif was caught in the Temple by Narsinghanand and his associate. A video of Asif getting thrashed went viral on social media. After the incident, several videos had emerged calling for Narsinghanand’s assassination. In June 2021, two men were caught in the temple premises who allegedly came to kill the priest. Narsinghanand was recently booked for making derogatory comments against women in a viral video.

Pakistani terror handlers conspire with J&K associates to cause extensive terror activities for harming the public, says NIA after raids

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistani terror handlers conspire with J&K associates to cause extensive terror activities for harming the public, says NIA after raids

NIA conducted searches with the help of CRPF and J&K Police across 7 locations including Kulgam, Srinagar & Baramulla districts of J&K on Sunday in connection with an IED recovery case from a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist in Bathindi Jammu.

According to NIA, the investigations revealed the involvement of Pakistan based handlers of LeT with their associates based in J&K. The investigations also concluded that the Pakistani handlers of LeT conspired with their J&K associates to cause extensive terror activities for harming the general public. The LeT handlers and their J&K counterparts had planned that responsibility for the terrorist acts would be taken by pseudo-acronym TRF.

According to reports, the searches carried out today also led to the arrest of 2 TRF operatives namely Tawseef Ahmed Wani of Bangdara, Baramulla district and Faiz Ahmed Khan of Panzat (Wampora), Anantnag district. NIA said that the arrests were made because of the involvement of the operatives in the conspiracy.

Earlier today, there were reports of several NIA raids carried out in different locations in Jammu and Kashmir in search of the ISIS team running the online magazine called Voice Of Hind (VOH). Three ISIS operatives were arrested in those raids.

Swara Bhasker files police case of ‘stalking, insulting modesty, obscene material’ against YouTuber who objected to her misrepresentation of his tweet

OpIndia Staff
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Swara Bhasker files police case of ‘stalking, insulting modesty, obscene material’ against YouTuber who objected to her misrepresentation of his tweet

Delhi police have lodged an FIR against Twitter user Elvish Yadav on the complaint of activist-actress Swara Bhasker. She had filed a complaint against the social media influencer at the Basant Kunj police station in Delhi on Sunday alleging that he had outraged her modesty, and had circulated some hashtags on social media regarding some movie scene involving her.

According to Delhi police, a criminal case has been registered under IPC Sec 354D (stalking), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and sec 67 of IT Act (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) against Elvish Yadav based on the complaint by Swara Bhasker.

The matter started on October 1 when Elvish had posted a tweet responding to the actress where he had said, “Excessive m@sturb@tion makes you blind was a myth but swara didi isko sahi prove karri hai. GST word use kiya mene swara?”

He was responding to a tweet by Swara calling him a liar, as he had said that only Hindu temples have to pay taxes in India, whereas the finance ministry had clarified that there is no GST on temple trusts. However, Yadav had retorted by saying he had not used the ‘GST’, and had referred to a scene from the movie Veere Di Wedding staring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Swara Bhaskar.

Although  it is true that there is no GST on Hindu temples, this does not mean that Elvish Yadav was wrong in saying that there are taxes on Hindu temples. Because, the matter relates to not GST, but it is income tax and taxes collected by respective state governments in several states.

Several start governments, mostly south Indian states where the temples are under govt control, collect 23.4% tax on the income of the temples, which includes endowment administration tax (14-15%), audit fee (2-4%) and common good fund (4-10%).

In Tamil Nadu, Hindu temples must pay taxes on their total income if their spending is less than 85% of total income in a year. If a temple trust spends less than 85% of total donations in a given year, income tax at rates applicable to individuals is payable on the difference between amounts spent and the amount received. This provision is only for Hindu temples, it is not applicable for religious institutions of other religions. This means that what Elvish said was right, as he didn’t talk about GST.

After the tweet by Elvish Yadav, several media houses and ‘fact checkers’ had fact-checked him, cleverly using the govt clarification that there is no GST on Hindu temples. But they had deliberately omitted other taxes applicable to Hindu temples to prove him wrong.

Later, Elvish Yadav had posted several tweets with the hashtag #SwaraApniUngliSambhal, which had led to many others to post the same on Twitter. Reacting to the same, Swara Bhasker had tweeted that it was cyber sexual harassment against her.

However, while Swara Bhasker accuses Elvish Yadav of harassing her, she herself have used abusive words for others. On one occasion, she had called a four-year-old child ‘ch**iya’ and ‘kam**a’ on live television.

While she objected to #SwaraApniUngliSambhal by Elvish, she herself had used “Chaddhi on fire” for him, which can be considered equally derogatory.

BSP chief Mayawati questions silence of Congress high command over the lynching of a Dalit youth in Rajasthan

OpIndia Staff
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BSP chief Mayawati questions silence of Congress high command over the lynching of a Dalit youth in Rajasthan

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday condemned the killing of Dalit man who was beaten to death at Prempura in Hanumangarh district of Congress ruled Rajasthan.

In a series of tweets, Mayawati questioned as to why the Congress high command is silent over the lynching of a Dalit man. On October 7, Jagdish Meghwal (29) was lynched allegedly over his relationship with a woman. Culprits also filmed the brutal killing and later dumped him outside his residence. In the video, some people are seen holding him tight and others are hitting him with sticks.

“This is sad and condemnable that a Dalit was beaten to death in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh. But why is the Congress high command silent over it,” she tweeted.

The context of her criticism is quite clear given that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress party are busy in Uttar Pradesh and trying to gain political mileage out of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

Eight died including four farmers during farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri. Two Congress chief ministers, Punjab’s Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel, announced Rs 50 lakh compensation each for the farmers who died. But the Congress high command maintained silence over the killing of a Dalit in Rajasthan.

“Will the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Punjab go there and give Rs 50 lakh each to the family of the victim? BSP wants answers or else, stop shedding crocodile tears in the name of Dalits,” she said.

Mayawati also condemned the brutal targeted killing of Hindu-Sikh minorities in Jammu and Kashmir. She demanded that the Centre should take some strong steps in this regard. 

‘Youth Ki Awaaz’ deletes objectionable content against Bhagwan Ram after Hindu IT Cell threatens legal action

Anurag
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‘Youth Ki Awaaz’ deletes objectionable content against Bhagwan Ram after Hindu IT Cell threatens legal action

On October 10, Hindu IT Cell (HIC) issued a warning to Youth Ki Awaz, that claims to be a writing platform for students, to delete objectionable content against Bhagwan Ram. The article and social media posts titled “How I Made My Grandfather See The Sexism In Ramayana At The Age Of 80”, written by Mrittika Mallick, had been posted by the platform on the website and social media handles.

In a social media post, HIC had said, “Youth Ki Awaaz, we are giving you the deadline of 5 hours to apologise and remove the objectionable content, or we will take the appropriate and stern legal action against you. Mocking and maligning our culture and deities won’t be tolerated in any manner. Your time starts now.”

Now-deleted post by HIC. They deleted the post once YKA deleted the article. Source: HIC

Within three hours of the tweet by HIC, Youth Ki Awaaz replied to their post and said on Twitter, “Hello, under Section 79 of the IT Act, Youth Ki Awaaz is an intermediary and an open platform where anyone can publish a post. We understand that this post hurts your sentiments. We apologise for the same and have taken the post down from all our social media handles. Thank you.”

YKA claimed that they are only intermediary and anyone can publish a post on their platform. Source: Twitter

As the platform apologised for the mistake, HIC has decided not to take any further action against the platform.

However, it has to be noted that the article they had published was up and running on their platform since October 4. The platform has also deleted one old article from 2017. Titled “Valmiki’s Ramayana Shows Hinduism’s Inherent Misogyny And Sexism”, it was deleted in October 2020. Notably, in both cases, the article was published or deleted close to Diwali that is celebrated as the day when Bhagwan Ram returned to Ayodhya after 14-years of exile.

What was in the latest article on Youth Ki Awaaz?

The archived version of the article is available. The author talks about how she tried to “reverse-parent” her grandparents and “teach” them how Bhagwan Ram misbehaved with Mata Sita. Quoting a book on Ramayana, she claimed that Mata Sita’s feelings were always belittled by Bhagwan Ram.

Now deleted story on Instagram by Youth Ki Awaaz based on the article. Source: Instagram

She further wrote, “If age-old myths like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have such fatally flawed men, why are they at all worshipped even today and the women still blamed? It was never possible to remove the Islamophobia in my grandparents’ hearts, but narratives like these do arouse questions in their own religion and religious heroes. Unless the strong pillars of a conceited belief in faith bears cracks, no human can possibly welcome new ideas.”

Interestingly, for the author, if alleged “Islamophobia” cannot be removed from the grandparents’ minds, it was okay to plant a narrative that would force them to question their faith in Bhagwan Ram. It was a very clever attempt to drive her grandparents away from the faith that they had in them for decades. And what it seems from the conclusion of the article, she might have succeeded to do so.

Also, this was not the only derogatory article that Youth Ki Awaaz had on Ramayana. One article from August 2020 titled “My Conversation With Lord Ram On His Ayodhya Mandir” showcases the hate its author Lenin Raghuvanshi (ironic that he calls himself Raghuvanshi, the same Vansh to which Bhagwan Ram belongs) has for Hindus and Bhagwan Ram. He tried to put his words in Bhagwan Ram’s mouth in the whole article and presented as if Bhagwan Ram was angry on Hindus for demolishing the disputed structure in Ayodhya.

There are several articles on YKA about Ramayana, Bhagwan Ram or Mata Durga. In another article from 2019 by Anjani Wishu called Mata Durga a prostitute and tried to propagate the infamous and derogatory twisted story of ‘Mahishasur Vadh’.

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