The Income Tax department is conducting raids at the offices of online media portals, Newslaundry and Newsclick, reports say. The raids reportedly began Friday morning. The precise reason behind the raids is not yet known.
#Breaking: I-T department raids Newslaundry, NewsClick offices: Reports
Newsclick was raided earlier in February as well. The raids were reportedly related to a money laundering case and the agency was investigating the funding the organisation had received from “dubious companies” abroad.
According to sources in the ED, NewsClick had received Rs.10 crore under Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from an American company. Interestingly, NewsClick’s owner Prabir Purkayastha has no idea for what purpose the American company transferred the money to his company’s account. He could not give any proof of work that he has done for the particular company.
Further investigation revealed that another US-based company gave them Rs.20 crore and marked it as ‘Export Remittance’. The money was transferred because NewsClick had uploaded content on a portal named People’s Dispatch. It is not known whether the current raids are related to the previous raid.
One Newslaundry employee told The Wire, “So far the raid is only at one office of Newslaundry.” The employee also said that the media outlet’s “financial records are being checked”. According to one source mentioned in the report, “When the I-T officials came in at 11:40 am today, there were around 20 people at the office in Sarvodaya Enclave. Everyone’s phones were confiscated, switched off and kept together on a table.”
It is a developing situation and the report will be updated with further information when it is available.
Vikas Sakrityayan of the Hindu IT cell, based on whose complaint an FIR was registered against controversial journalist Rana Ayyub over money laundering and fraud related to her fundraising campaign on September 7, has taken to Twitter to give an update on the case. According to Vikas Sakrityayan, they have now written to law enforcement agencies to take immediate cognizance of the FIR against Rana Ayyub.
The Hindu IT cell member, through his lawyer Dr Kislay Panday, has requested the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to also take cognizance of the FIR, as the matter involves substantial Foreign Funding by way of illegal means.
My eminent lawyer @kislaypanday, has written to law enforcement agencies to take immediate cognizance of the FIR against Rana Ayyub. We have requested the FIU, ED and CBI to take cognizance of the FIR as the matter involves substantial Foreign Funding by way of illegal means 2/2
On September 7, an FIR was filed against Rana Ayyub at Indrapuram police station in Ghaziabad in UP in response to a complaint filed by Vikas Sakrityayan of the Hindu IT cell.
The complaint accused Rana Ayyub of Money Laundering, Cheating, Dishonest Misappropriation of Property, Criminal Breach of Trust by illegally acquiring money from the general public in the name of charity. It says that Rana Ayyub happens to be a journalist by profession and was receiving foreign money without any kind of approval certificate/registration from the government, which is required as per the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010. Hence, she liable is also liable for violating the provisions of FCRA, the complaint had stated.
Based on this complaint, the FIR was registered under sections 403, 406, 418, 420 or the Indian Penal Code (IPC), section 66D of the IT Act and section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The case relates to three fundraising campaigns Rana Ayyub had conducted on Ketto, Funds for slum dwellers and farmers, Relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and Help for Covid-19 impacted people in India. However, doubts were raised on the campaigns since the beginning, as the journalist was accepting foreign donations without the mandatory FCRA approval.
Our neighbour Sri Lanka is in crisis. Stocks of basic food items, such as rice and sugar, are running dangerously low. This has led to skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and of course, hoarding. The government is trying to firefight. They have declared a “food emergency” and fixed the price of every food item. And they have put a military general in charge of enforcing all these regulations. In other words, the situation simply could not be worse.
What can we learn from this? For one, perhaps Kaushik Basu, a supposedly eminent economist at Cornell, might want to take back this tweet which seems to suggest that India’s economy is somehow doing worse than Sri Lanka.
So how did Sri Lanka land itself in such a terrible situation? For one, the pandemic has gutted Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, which used to be their big source of foreign exchange. As things got tight, Sri Lanka had to ban imports of everything from cars to toothbrushes. And now, they don’t even have enough for food.
But there is a second, more interesting reason that few people are talking about. In April this year, Sri Lanka banned imports of all chemical fertilizers, becoming the first country in the world to go for 100% organic farming. In other words, Sri Lanka is going back to primitive agriculture.
It sure sounds good. In an idyllic sort of way. We have all heard of the dangers of chemical fertilizers. We don’t want harmful pesticides in our food, do we? So what is wrong if Sri Lanka wants to return to a simpler way of life? Cue in the hippies playing music, rock bands from the 60s and a campaign from Greenpeace.
The problem is that reality stands in the way. If we were to go back to traditional farming methods, crop yields would fall dramatically. The earth simply does not have enough land area to grow enough food to feed 7 billion people. If you want to get rid of chemical fertilizers, you have to wait for ingenious new ways to be devised. In other words, you have to wait for the science to catch up. You can’t turn the clock backwards. Because starving 2/3rd of the world’s population to death is simply not an option.
But this harsh reality does not stop global liberal NGO juggernauts from raising big money in the first world, nor spending it in the third world. In many least developed or developing countries in Africa for instance, foreign aid is a huge deal. The big-name global NGOs have resources that the local governments simply cannot match. Big money from abroad, therefore, has the ability to change local politics.
Consider what happened in Sri Lanka since they banned chemical fertilizers. The country exports a lot of tea and spices. This is even more crucial right now in order to earn foreign exchange. But those crops are set to fail, with yields expected to decline by up to 50%! An estimated 90% of farmers in the country utilize chemical fertilizers. The vast majority of them don’t even have any idea on how to transition to organic farming. This is what collapse looks like. No wonder Sri Lanka now has the military guarding sugar and rice.
But things are going great for organizations such as these
Website of La Viva Campensina
The name MONLAR stands for “Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform,” which sounds nice for sure. Names like that are indistinguishable from any of the other thousands of NGOs that operate across India. What do these folks at MONLAR want? Here is their mission:
“Cooperating towards building a peoples movement by capacity building and mobilizing of small farmers and marginalized communities, who have become victims of the globalization structures, to protect natural resources and human rights and to lobby for change and implement alternative policies that are favorable and sustainable.”
The language is so typical that it’s almost funny. You can almost picture the intellectuals with their scrawny beards, who are shabbily dressed on purpose. You can almost hear them mouthing inanities about “American imperialism,” at the exact same time as they line up for grants from America. If I had not told you in advance that MONLAR is based in Sri Lanka, I bet you would not know if they worked out of Calcutta or Colombo.
This is why I don’t intend to pick on MONLAR in any way. Nor do I want to imply that they had any special role in the “activism” that led to the Sri Lankan government making a disastrous decision to ban chemical fertilizer. Instead, I am just going to use them as a representative example and have fun with it. That way, perhaps you will see the real danger.
So let us find out who is behind MONLAR. Their website has a list of partners, which immediately gives the game away.
There is “Bread for the World,” which they describe thus:
“The work of Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service primarily focuses on the support of projects in the countries of the Global South. An essential feature of our projects is the close and continuous cooperation with local, often church-related partner organisations. Upon request, Bread for the World provides them with specialists and volunteers. Through lobbying, public relations and education in Germany and Europe we seek to influence political decisions in favor of the poor and to raise awareness for the necessity of a sustainable way of life.”
So it’s a Christian organization, which “seeks to influence political decisions in favor of the poor.” You know exactly what that means. And they are raising money in Europe for whatever they think is a good idea for Sri Lanka!
And then there is the Christian World Service, which apparently does the following:
“Justice underpins and shapes CWS’s understanding of and approach to development. CWS works with its partners and international networks to address the global processes and inequalities that keep people poor through unfair trade rules, exploitation, debt, lack of skills and resources, market arrangements and historical power imbalances.“
A Christian organization that is working against “unfair trade rules“? Again, we know exactly what that means. It means they will decide how a country such as Sri Lanka should run its economy. Do you really think they want what is best for the people of Sri Lanka or the best for their foreign investors … err, contributors? And even if they did have the most noble intentions, so what? Is it not up to the people of Sri Lanka to decide what they want to do with their country? How is this thinly veiled colonial rhetoric of white man’s burden still acceptable?
Speaking of colonialism, consider their partner organization CAFOD:
“CAFOD stands for the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development. We are an international development charity and the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. We stand beside people living in poverty – whatever their religion or culture. Through local church partners, we help people directly in their own communities, and campaign for global justice, so that everyone can reach their full potential.“
The official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales! Now, do officials coming from England have any kind of history on the Indian subcontinent? Does anyone know?
Put yourself in the shoes of a common person in Sri Lanka. You have a right to speak up about how you want your country to run. You have the right to organize and be heard. But how meaningful is that right if you are competing against organizations which are able to raise money in Europe or America? They can lobby your politicians much better than you can pressure them. And don’t forget these organizations also have the money to run media campaigns inside your country to convince you! They can not only go against public opinion, they can mold public opinion itself. So what does that do to your democracy?
And now the people of Sri Lanka have run out of rice. Will that Catholic agency from England feed them? Actually, they just might. Wonder if the people of Sri Lanka will still have their sovereignty after that.
India is bigger and much more powerful than Sri Lanka, but essentially we face the exact same threat. The key is to realize that global liberal NGOs will take down India bit by bit. Because they can’t take down India in one go.
This is happening in pockets all across India. They identify a cause, gather some activists from outside and some local people. They get their sympathizers in media and intelligentsia to start raising “awareness” about it in a coordinated manner. And they know how to play both the mainstream and social media game.
The main structural advantage they have is the ability to concentrate resources in a local area. They can pick 10 villages and spend huge sums of money there in order to get support for their cause. If they want to stop a road, a railway line or a factory, they can easily get the job done. The government simply cannot compete with this even if they want. Because the government cannot pick 10 villages and spend the entire state budget buying support over there.
In warfare, this is known as Lanchester’s law. The advantage goes not to the side with the higher overall strength, but the density of that strength in a local area. Because the invader chooses where to attack, they can always break through by applying overwhelming force at a single point. On the other hand, a defensive line would stretch over thousands of miles, making it impossible to concentrate troops at any given spot.
What happened in Sri Lanka is a warning to all of us. For a long time, India has been fighting local battles with these NGOs and church groups. We know how hard this is. It’s time to think big. These NGO groups are interfering with India’s sovereignty. This is imperialism. This is a form of aggression. We have to recognize it as such and take sweeping legal measures against them. Don’t worry about bad publicity. Nation first.
In a decisive move, the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh has imposed a ban on the sale of meat and liquor around the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura. As per reports, the UP government has declared the 10 square km area with the Krishna Janmasthan at its centre as a religious pilgrimage site and has banned the sale of meat and alcohol.
Keeping the Krishna Janmabhoomi at the centre, the UP government has declared that an area comprising of 22 wards of the Mathura municipality will henceforth be identified as a holy pilgrimage site and will have a complete ban on the sale of meat and liquor.
It is notable here that the ban on the sale of meat in Mathura was already declared by the government on August 30. With a formal declaration now identifying the 10 sq km area around the Krishna Janmabhoomi as religious pilgrimage site, enforcement is expected soon.
Earlier, when CM Yogi had announced a ban on meat in Mathura, it was speculated that the entire district may be restricted from selling meat and alcohol. But with today’s declaration, it has been made clear that only a specific area of the city, a 10 sq km area around the Krishna Janmabhoomi, will have a ban on the selling of meat and alcohol.
It is notable here that a ban on the sale of meat and alcohol exists in several other sacred sites in India. In 2017, CM Yogi’s government had declared a ban on meat in Vrindavan and Barsana. Similar bans also exist around the holy temple sites of Varanasi, Haridwar and Rishikesh too. In Amritsar’s walled city too, there is a ban on the sale and consumption of meat and liquor.
On Friday, BJP announced that the party is fielding Priyanka Tibrewal for the upcoming by-elections in Bhabanipur against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The by-polls scheduled for 30 September was necessitated after TMC MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had resigned after winning the seat, so that Mamata Banerjee can contest from the ‘safe’ seat to remain as the CM. She needs to get elected to the assembly as she had lost from Nandigram against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.
BJP has announced Smt @impriyankabjp, who represented the victims of post poll violence in Calcutta HC and got the order mandating a CBI and SIT probe, as its candidate from Bhabanipore against Mamata Banerjee. Bhabanipore must defeat Mamata Banerjee to stop Talibanisation of WB. pic.twitter.com/VdCfs441xo
Priyanka Tibrewal is an advocate by profession who had joined the BJP in the year 2014. She is a practicing lawyer at the Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court. Prior to joining BJP, she had worked a legal counsel for singer and BJP leader Babul Supriyo. Tibrewal has entered politics with the help of Supriyo. In the year 2020, she was made the vice president of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the party.
She had contested the 2021 assembly elections from the Entally constituency, but had lost to TMC candidate Swarna Kamal Saha by a margin of 58,257 votes. Before that Priyanka Tibrewal had contested Kolkata municipal elections in 2015, but she was defeated by TMC candidate in that poll also.
Born in 1981, Priyanka Tibrewal had done her schooling at Welland Goulsmith School, Kolkata. She had graduated from Delhi University, and had done law from the Hazara Law College under the University of Kolkata. After doing law, she had gone to Bangkok to do MBA in HR from the Assumption University of Thailand. She had obtained her law degree in 2007 and the MBA in 2009.
According to her election affidavit in the 2021 assembly elections, Priyanka Tibrewal has never faced any criminal case against her. Her husband is Aditya Kumar Tibrewal.
She had been a very active and vocal leader of the party. Priyanka Tibrewal is one of the petitioners in the petitions filed in the Bengal post-poll violence cases, which have led to the Calcutta High Court ordering CBI and SIT probe in the cases. Her petition has also led the high court order for a second autopsy of BJP leader Abhijit Sarkar, who was killed in post-poll violence on May 2.
By fielding Priyanka Tibrewal, BJP seeks to Trinamool Congress slogan of ‘Bangla nijer meyekei chay’ (Bengal wants its own daughter), but fielding a daughter of Bengal against another daughter of Bengal.
Talking to India Today, Tibrewal said, “I have defeated the chief minister in the high court in the first fight. Because when she said there was no violence, I proved there was violence and the court order proves this too. The way we have seen people being killed in West Bengal, the murders, rapes, vandalism. But the chief minister has been silent. Our fight is against that silence.”
She told News18, “”Mamata Banerjee is a two-time MLA from Bhabanipur but I was born there. It is my ancestral house, so I was born and brought up in Bhabanipur. I believe Mamata Banerjee doesn’t want the votes of outsiders or Hindi-speaking people. Certainly, she will get a befitting reply.”
Bhabanipur is a TMC bastion and as the sitting chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has several advantages in the upcoming election. But this ‘daughter vs daughter’ election has the potential of becoming interesting.
Hours after it was reported that the 5th Test Match between India and England would be played as per schedule at Old Trafford ground in Manchester on Friday (September 10), the England Cricket Board (ECB) informed that the match has been called off.
In a statement, the ECB stated, “Following ongoing conversations with the BCCI, the ECB can confirm that the fifth LV= Insurance Test between England and India Men due to start today at Emirates Old Trafford, will be cancelled. Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team.” It further added, “We send our sincere apologies to fans and partners for this news, which we know will cause immense disappointment and inconvenience to many. Further information will be shared in due course.”
Following ongoing conversations with the BCCI, the ECB can confirm that the fifth LV= Insurance Test at Emirates Old Trafford, due to start today, will be cancelled.
English cricket fans lash out at BCCI, level allegations against Indian players
Soon after, English fans began blaming the BCCI for prioritising the Indian Premier League (IPL) over Test cricket. They also accused the Indian team of ‘unprofessionalism’ and breaching the bio-secure bubble by attending a book launch event. “I very much enjoyed the series drawn 2-2 thanks to India forfeiting this test through being unable to field a team for fear of wrecking their IPL contracts,” claimed one Ryan Tring.
Screengrab of the tweet
Another England cricket fan alleged, “Absolute joke. BCCI and IPL rule Cricket now, Indians wouldn’t be quick to run home if they were 2-1 down.”
Screengrab of the tweet
Another English cricket fan squarely blamed the Indian cricket coach Ravi Shashtri of ‘breaking’ the bio-security bubble. “India must forfeit the match, book signing event by the Indian coach was absolutely unnecessary, no problem playing Day 5 at Oval but now they can’t step on field. Scaredy cats,” he alleged.
Screengrab of the tweet
Netizens slam English cricket fans for hypocrisy
Former English cricketer Kevin Pietersen pointed out the doublespeak of English cricket fans and reminded them how the ECB cancelled their tour of South Africa over Coronavirus outbreak. “England left the tour of SA for Covid scares & cost CSA plenty, so don’t go pointing fingers!” Pietersen tweeted.
Screengrab of the tweet by Kevin Pietersen
Another Twitter user commented, “It’s fine, they’re in their right to leave. We left when we had concerns in SA. Move on.”
Screengrab of the tweet
A fan page of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli pointed out none had any problem with security breaches by jarvo69, and players flouting mandatory quarantine period. “People had no problem of jarvo entering 3 times people had no problem of their players playing 100 and comming back to test cricket…Oh yeah IPL let’s target that and blame it …. imagine if a player played 1 IPL match between tests and came back or an indian breaking (into the) field,” the Twitter user added.
Screengrab of the tweet
BCCI issues clarification on the matter
While speaking to ANI, BCCI Vice-President Rajiv Shukla clarified that the decision to call off the final Test match was taken following consultations with ECB Chairman, CEO, BCCI President, Secretary, Treasurer, Joint Secretary, captains and senior players. “…Other negotiations with ECB will continue in order to resolve the whole issue amicably. There is no question of forfeiting the match, it has been only called off,” he emphasised. Shukla did not rule out the possibility of conducting the matches on a later date and said that negotiations were underway between the two cricket Boards.
No question of forfeiting 5th Test, negotiations taking place on future course, says BCCI VP Shukla
In a statement, the BBCI clarified, “The BCCI and ECB held several rounds of discussion to find a way to play the Test Match, however, the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the Old Trafford Test Match. In lieu of the strong relationship between BCCI and ECB, the BCCI has offered to ECB a rescheduling of the cancelled Test match. Both the Boards will work towards finding a window to reschedule this Test match.The BCCI has always maintained that the safety and well-being of the players is of paramount importance and there will be no comprise on that aspect.””
The United States of America, since 9/11 at the very least, has transformed into the most terrible violator of ‘human rights’. Despite the flagrant abuses, somehow, the USA has managed to avoid culpability for the abuses while lecturing others on alleged human rights violations.
There are good reasons for this, the primary being that they have a set of pliant media which is heavily influenced by the American national security establishment and defense contractors among other things. The other is that western academics appear far too much in love with American imperialism to consider the devastating impact it has had on multiple countries across the world.
Whenever circumstances are opportune for a discussion over the matter, their media and a cultivated set of western academics immediately rush to their defense and start pointing fingers elsewhere. It is in this light that we ought to view the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference.
The claims of ‘Global Hindutva’ itself are ridiculous. There is nothing such as ‘Global Hindutva’. The only truly global political phenomenon in this day and age, apart from Islamic terrorism, is American imperialism. There is no other political ideology that is global.
Even China, for all its totalitarian tendencies, is not exporting its political philosophy abroad. Russia is not exporting its ideology abroad either. But in Kabul, we saw that the Taliban was painting over a mural of George Floyd. Pray tell us, what does George Floyd have anything to do with Afghans? Why should there be a mural of Floyd at Kabul of all places? These are events that western academics do not wish to talk about.
Nonetheless, they are very quick to point fingers at others and claim that there is a global conspiracy afoot. As Tucker Carlson is fond of saying, and I am paraphrasing him here, ‘Whatever they accuse you of, they are guilty of it themselves’.
A certain set of western academics have discovered a new stick to beat India with. While Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, with the USA keen on a partnership with the Jihadist outfit, these academics have decided that now is a good time to target Hindutva. But we are forced to ask at this point, if these people are indeed so concerned about human rights, why don’t they demand accountability from the US national security establishment first? After all, charity begins at home.
US atrocities in Afghanistan
It is a good time to remind ourselves of the atrocities that the USA and US-backed militias committed in Afghanistan. Four successive presidents of the United States of America are guilty of murdering women and children. And yet, somehow western academics are giving Joe Biden a complete free pass.
Anand Gopal wrote in the New Yorker recently, “During one battle, Abdul Salam, an uncle of Shakira’s husband, took refuge in a friend’s home. After the fighting ended, he visited a mosque to offer prayers. A few Taliban were there, too. A coalition air strike killed almost everyone inside. The next day, mourners gathered for funerals; a second strike killed a dozen more people. Among the bodies returned to Pan Killay were those of Abdul Salam, his cousin, and his three nephews, aged six to fifteen.”
At another point, he wrote, “Abdul Rahman, a farmer, was rooting through the refuse with his young son when an Afghan Army gunship appeared on the horizon. It was flying so low, he recalled, that “even Kalashnikovs could fire on it.” But there were no Taliban around, only civilians. The gunship fired, and villagers began falling right and left. It then looped back, continuing to attack. “There were many bodies on the ground, bleeding and moaning,” another witness said. “Many small children.” According to villagers, at least fifty civilians were killed.”
These are not isolated events but the general trend of the American occupation in Afghanistan. US Forces allied with militias which are accused of raping and murdering women and boys. For all their talk of presenting themselves as the ‘saviours’ of Afghan women, US forces and militias they backed killed an unfortunate number of women and children. But somehow, instead of demanding accountability from American leaders for the same, western academics are busy pointing fingers at others.
USA is one of the biggest supporters of Islamic Terrorism
The USA, following the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, has demonstrated enough inclinations to indicate that they are looking to establish a working partnership with the Taliban. While some may be genuinely shocked by the development, there are enough instances where the USA has armed and allied with Jihadist groups to achieve their foreign policy objectives.
It is widely known that the USA supplied Jihadist outfits with weapons to remove Basshar al-Assad from power in Syria. While they claimed in public that they were arming ‘moderate rebel groups’ in the region, they were fully aware that the weapons were falling into the hands of groups affiliated to the Al Qaeda. A lot of these weapons fell into the hands of ISIS as well, enabling them to capture large areas of land.
Despite such gross violations of international norms, American imperialism hardly attracts any criticism from such western academics and their media. In fact, they call for more imperialism and interference in the internal matters of other countries. For instance, they have been begging the Joe Biden administration to take a hardline stance against India for alleged human rights abuses by the Narendra Modi Government.
The current ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference is consistent with the imperial fantasies of such individuals, endorsed by the departments of various western universities. But by what right does the USA lecture India and Hindutvavadis, or anyone else for that matter, on matters of human rights?
Hindutva has not committed a genocide of Muslims, American imperialism has. Hindutva has not murdered Muslim women and children, American imperialism has. Hindutva has not armed and backed Jihadist groups around the world, the United States has. But even so, the organisers of the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference want the world to believe that it is Hindutva the world ought to worry about.
Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference organisers should look to fix things at home first
The Hinduphobia of the organisers of the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference is quite palpable. While they claim that they are against a ‘political ideology’ and not a religion, it has been seen quite often that Hindus in USA are targeted solely because of their faith.
They also claimed that ‘Hinduphobia’ is a “distraction” despite the genocides that Hindus have suffered in the 20th century and the persecution that continues even at this day and age. Thus, they may claim that they are against Hindutva but with every action of theirs, they prove that Hindutva and Hinduism are one and the same.
Before pointing fingers at others, such academics ought to reflect upon the devastating consequences of American imperialism and the havoc it has wreaked across the world. Until they have brought to justice the American perpetrators of war crimes, they ought to shut up about everyone else.
Joe Biden announced widespread vaccine mandates early morning on Friday (IST) that has attracted staunch criticism from Republicans, journalists and others. His critics claim that the mandates are unconstitutional and an executive overreach. Consequently, calls are growing for “civil disobedience” in response to the decrees.
JD Vance, candidate for the US Senate in Ohio, has called for businesses to defy the mandate and described them as “illegal”, “unconstitutional” and “morally reprehensible”. He also described Joe Biden as a “geriatric tyrant”.
Statement by JD Vance
Vance said, “Joe Biden’s proposed covid mandates are not only illegal and unconstitutional, they’re morally reprehensible. While Joe Biden likes to talk about millions of American citizens as if they’re nothing more than vermin to be ruled by him and his friends, he’s revealed himself to be nothing more than a geriatric tyrant. No American citizen should ever be forcibly segregated by the government over their vaccine status. The Federal Government’s attempt to bully and coerce citizens into choosing between their livelihood and their own bodily autonomy must be resisted.”
To American businesses, he said, “Do not comply with the mandates. Do not pay the government fines. Don’t allow yourself to be bullied and controlled. Only mass civil disobedience will save us from Joe Biden’s naked authoritarianism.” Others are rallying behind Vance’s call for civil disobedience.
Others appear to concur with him that time has come for civil disobedience in the United States of America.
Meanwhile, media outlet The Daily Wire has said that they will not enforce the US President’s “unconstitutional and tyrannical vaccine mandate”.
“The Daily Wire does have more than 100 employees but we won’t be enforcing Joe Biden’s unconstitutional and tyrannical vaccine mandate. That’s it. We’ll use every tool at our disposal including legal action to resist.” – @realDailyWire CEO @JeremyDBoreingpic.twitter.com/uQy3Fufmmj
Joe Biden has also come under criticism for a comment he made while announcing the Covid-19 vaccine mandates. He threatened that he will use his presidential powers to get Governors who do not abide by his diktats “out of the way”.
Civil Disobedience is, of course, famous in India because Mahatma Gandhi used it as a tool against the British colonial regime. During the movement, Indians from all spectrums of society openly defied British policies.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case, has claimed that the mystery woman spotted with Sachin Vaze in CCTV footage is a 36-years-old single mother who has been in regular touch with him from 2011. The ‘mystery woman’ was seen in the CCTV camera along with the dismissed cop of Mumbai police at a five-star hotel in South Mumbai.
The woman has revealed to the NIA that she was working as an escort when Vaze met him as a client through a broker at a five-star hotel. She said that she doesn’t exactly remember whether Vaze had introduced himself as ‘Sanjay’ or ‘Sunil’ adding that after a few meetings he had revealed his name but not the profession. He introduced himself as a businessman. She further stated that she also used whitewash black money of Vaze.
Mother of a 13-year old son, she became an escort in 2008 as her unemployed and abusive husband forced her to pick this profession. In 2013 she got separated from him.
During the investigation, the investigative agency had spotted her entering Oberoi hotel on February 18 and leaving the hotel the next day. She disclosed that she had stayed with Sachin Vaze at the hotel on two occasions in February as Vaze had given her cash of Rs 40 and Rs 36 lakh to count and sort. The first consignment of Rs 40 lakh cash she had received from Vaze was on the 4th floor of the office of police commissioner in Mumbai either on February 15 or the next day. She took the currency notes to her Mira road residence in a local train. Vaze directed her to remove old soiled notes and segregate notes having “786” as serial numbers.
The woman said that when she left the hotel on February 19, Sachin Vaze again gave him a bag containing Rs 36 lakh which she returned to Vaze on February 20 after sorting.
She told the NIA that she had a bank locker which she jointly used along with Vaze. Few days after Vaze was arrested, she had removed Rs 5 lakh from the locker. She gave this money to her brother to hire a good lawyer in case her name surfaces in the NIA investigation. She also left for her hometown with her son on March 31. But she returned after her brother informed her that the NIA was looking for her.
The NIA has also detected Rs 1.5 crore cash in the account of a company Mayank Automation. The woman is mentioned as proprietor of the said company.
Sachin Vaze who remained suspended for 16 years was reinstated in June 2020 after which he asked the woman to stop working as an escort. Soon after that, he had started paying Rs 50,000 monthly to her from August 2020 onward so that she meets her expenses and they regularly used to meet in hotels in South Mumbai.
The NIA on September 3 submitted a charge sheet against Sachin Vaze as the key accused in the Antilia bomb scare case and the other related cases running over into 10000 pages has also recorded the statement of that mystery woman.
On the morning of February 25, 2021, a Scorpio car laden along with 12 gelatin sticks and a threat letter was found parked on Carmichael Road outside Antilia, the house of industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Later on the owner of the car, Mansukh Hiran was found dead. After that, the NIA took over the investigation and arrested Vaze as a key conspirator.
US President Joe Biden early morning on Friday (IST) announced a series of mandates to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The US President announced vaccine mandates that would impact as many as 100 million Americans. Joe Biden also admonished Americans who have not yet taken the vaccine and blamed them for the Covid-19 crisis still rampaging through the United States.
In addition to that, Joe Biden made another comment that has sparked huge criticism on social media. He said that if Governors do not help him ‘beat the pandemic’, then he will use his presidential powers to get them ‘out of the way’. It is not clear what Biden meant by that, like many other statements he has been making in recent times, and the comment expectedly has sparked outrage from Republican circles.
Citizens are calling Biden a ‘dictator’ and a ‘tyrant’ for what they interpreted as a threat to remove democratically elected Governors.
Good thing we got rid of the dictator and replaced him with the caring guy who will crush governors of states and their rights. https://t.co/4X716BpIDr
People also said that what Joe Biden proposed do was unconstitutional.
Under the Constitutional provision that says "if the states don't do what I want, I can just force them to do so regardless of my enumerated powers" https://t.co/5kKbyuQb80
Aside from how cartoonish and irresponsible this language is, I'm genuinely baffled by the power Biden thinks he has — but absolutely doesn't have. https://t.co/0h9cUCF6XP
Some accused Joe Biden of attempting to incite a second civil war.
So a sitting president just said he will miss use his power to remove elected Governors. He is literally proposing a second civil war https://t.co/kJNFmHazjd
A lot of people also drew attention to the fact that Donald Trump was labeled a dictator and yet, he had never threatened to remove elected governors like Joe Biden has.
If Trump did this Democrats would have filed articles of impeachment in 5 minutes. https://t.co/t2YOSgLyMa
It cannot be said for certain what Joe Biden precisely meant by his declaration to get Governors ‘out of the way’. He has been making bizarre comments in recent times, leading people to question his mental health and his psychological fitness to lead the country.
