Even as Islamists and ‘secular’ politicians including Congress leaders continue to support the Taliban after the group captured Afghanistan, now the Congress party is worried that the incidents in Afghanistan may benefit BJP politically. Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Friday alleged that the Narendra Modi government can use the Afghanistan conflict for the electoral advantages of the BJP in the upcoming assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
The election in Uttar Pradesh is scheduled for the next year and the overwhelming public opinion favours a second term to Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Sibal posted on his Twitter handle, “We are hardly a player in an “inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue”. Our policy towards the Taliban regime will be guided by how this regime can use it to it’s advantage in the UP Assembly election. That is the bitter truth! The media is already playing its part!”
Afghanistan
We are hardly a player in an “ inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue ”.
Our policy towards the Taliban regime will be guided by how this regime can use it to it’s advantage in the UP Assembly election.
However, the statement of Sibal sounds contradictory as at the same time he has said that India has hardly any role to play in an ‘inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue.’ There is no further Tweet by him to explain or to understand how the Modi government can tweak an international issue for domestic consumption at a time Sibal himself has said that India is hardly a player in inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue.
Sibal has neither explained nor given any clue how India’s policy towards the Taliban regime will be guided vis a vis assembly election. Probably, Kapil Sibal is hinting towards the Taliban link with Uttar Pradesh. The ideology that had resulted in the birth of the Taliban had originated in Deoband in UP. Therefore, it is possible that the Congress leader is hinting that BJP will raise this issue to polarise the polls.
Call it senile or malicious, this statement has come a day after TS Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to United Nations, on Thursday affirmed India’s stand that Afghan territory should not be used to threaten or attack any nation and its sovereignty besides to give shelter and training to terrorists and terror organization. Over the decades, India has undertaken around 500 development projects across 34 provinces of Afghanistan. A peaceful, progressive and democratic Afghanistan is the need of the hour that forms the bedrock of India’s policy to Afghan. In this case, Sibal who leaves no chance to hit the BJP with ‘unverified’ allegations may have been inspired by some highly speculative media reports.
Sibal has a known history of making unverified allegations to kick-off a controversy.
For instance, as a counsel in the Ayodhya title case, he had requested the court to adjourn the hearing of the case till 2019 stating that the verdict could influence the 2019 parliamentary elections. In 2019, when India had hit the terror factory at Balakot in Pakistan, Sibal had joined the ranks to raise doubts of the airstrike.
Rahul Gandhi woke up early today to wish his followers on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. While wishing his followers, Rahul Gandhi shared a graphic with the inscription “Ganesh Chaturthi ki hardik shubhkamnaye”, there was, however, one crucial element missing from the graphic. The image of Lord Ganesh himself.
Several netizens noticed the trend where Rahul Gandhi was perhaps deliberately not including the picture of Hindu Gods when he wished during festivals and reacted to the same.
One wondered how Rahul Gandhi was celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi without Lord Ganesh being there in his greeting.
Another Twitter user noticed that Rahul Gandhi not using images of Hindu Gods seems to be a trend. Even while wishing Janmashtami, the image of Lord Krishna was missing from his greeting.
Taking a cue from netizens, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya too took to Twitter to question Rahul Gandhi as to why the image of Lord Ganesh was missing from his wishes.
Rahul Gandhi wishes Ganesh Chaturthi without even using a picture of Ganesh ji.
This disdain for the Hindus, their culture, beliefs and traditions for a former Congress president is troubling. Imagine the systematic discrimination Hindus would have suffered under the Congress. https://t.co/vPIeIatZrg
While using a basic graphic to wish Hindus on their festivals seems perfectly reasonable, several netizens were outraged about Rahul Gandhi habitually leaving the image of the Murti out of his greetings. It is to be remembered that in the recent past, this seems to be the third time that Rahul Gandhi has conveniently left the idol out.
In the first instance, Rahul Gandhi shared an image of Sumit Antil, a para-athlete who won gold at Tokyo Paralympics except that he had cropped out the ‘Om’ from the chain Antil is wearing. This comes on a day he shared fake ‘hate crime’ clip to further the ‘Dara Hua Musalman’ narrative. Rahul Gandhi also likes to identify himself as ‘Janeudhari Brahmin’ of the Kaul Dattatreya Gotra and also as a Shiv Bhakt. Netizens, however, were quick to point out that the actual image of Antil showed him wearing the ‘Om’ pendant in his chain.
Then, he had shared a Janmashtami greeting without using the image of Lord Krishna.
Now, on Ganesh Chaturthi, Rahul Gandhi seems to have repeated his trend and left out the image of Lord Ganesh from his greeting. In Hinduism, idols of Hindu Gods have a special meaning in any festival. With Rahul Gandhi leaving out the Murthi of the Hindu Gods twice and cropping the Aum pendant of Sumit Antil once in quick successions, Hindus, at least on social media have started to wonder if Rahul Gandhi has some inherent problem with Murthi worship of Hindus or whether he is leaving the Murthis to appease a certain section of Left intelligentsia that has started to harbour intense hatred for Hindus and Hinduism.
On 28 August, a group of farmer protestors had clashed violently with the Haryana Police in Karnal. The police had lathi-charged on the marauding mob and used water cannons to disperse the crowd. Following the police action, a barrage of Congress leaders and Congress supporters had started complaining on social media about alleged police brutality.
Several social media handles, including general secretary Priyanka Vadra, Randeep Surjewala and Imran Pratapgarhi had used the picture of a man lying on a hospital bed with a deep head wound. Even the official main handle of the Congress Party had misused the image, with elaborate texts, to blame the Haryana Police for attacking ‘farmer protestors’.
Image via Swarajua, Congress leaders sharing a photo of Tinku with false claims
The photo was widely shared by many social media handles, claiming that the person with the deep injury is a victim of police brutality against farmers.
However, Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma has traced the person in the photo and found that his picture has been deviously used by Congress handles to falsely claim that he was a farmer protestor’ and a victim of brutality by Haryana Police.
Swati Sharma has spoken to Tinky Dayma, a resident of Gurugram who was the person in the photo. Dayma has stated that he has suffered deep anguish to learn that the photo of his injury has been used by Congress handles for their political propaganda.
Speaking to Swati, Dayma revealed, “I was deeply hurt when I saw the posts. I received them on my Gau Raksha Whatsapp group. How could they misuse my injuries for political gains?”
Tinku is not a ‘farmer protestor’ injured by Haryana Police. But he is a Gau Rakshak who had got that deep head injury while trying to stop a group of cattle smugglers near Gurugram.
Tinku Dayma is a Gau Rakshak, not ‘farmer protestor’ demanding repeal of new farm laws
Anguished over the misleading claims by Congress Party and its leaders, Tinku had lodged a complaint with the Gurugram Police, stating that his photo has been misused for political propaganda by certain political leaders.
Tinku Dayma’s complaint to Police, image via Swarajya
In his email complaint to the cyber cell of Haryana Police, Tinku Dayma has stated that Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi had maliciously used his pictures for his own political gain and had tried to malign the Haryana Police while making false claims.
Tinku’s complaint states that he had got a serious head injury while confronting cattle smugglers near the Rajesh Pilot Chowk Ullahwas village under Gurugram on 25 August. An FIR related to the incident has already been registered with the Haryana police on 26 August. He has expressed anguish over being falsely painted as a part of a violent mob that was protesting against the farm laws.
Tinku in his complaint has stated that the post shared by Pratapgarhi was shared by thousands of others and he has been hurt seeing the photo of his injury and personal suffering being used to propagate a vicious political agenda to malign the image of the Haryana government.
Tinku works to protect cows from cattle smugglers, with the help of Bajrang Dal
As per Swati’s report in Swarajya, Tinku’s group ‘Gau Raksha Dal’ comprises local volunteers who alert each other and work in a coordinated manner to track, and report cattle smugglers. They report the suspicious activities, like cattle being forcibly hurdled into cramped vans or mini-trucks, illegal dealings etc through a WhatsApp group of volunteers. The Gau Raksha Dal even follows and tries to stop cattle smugglers and help the local police to nab the criminals.
The volunteers in Tinku’s group also work to rehabilitate the cows by sending them to Gaushalas.
Tinku has stated that the Gau Rakshak’s primary goal is to save the cows from slaughter. “Catching the smugglers is always secondary because they manage to get bail and resume their activities soon anyway,” he added.
How Tinku got the injury
Tinku has stated to Swarajya that on around 3 am on the intervening night of 24 and 25 August, he had received a message on his phone that a minitruck carrying cows from Wazirabad is headed towards the Ullawas Dhani Road.
“I, along with several other boys, immediately reached there. We were in a camper van. The police were also chasing them at the same time. We spotted the thieves’ vehicle easily,” he explained to Swati.
“Only thieves ferry cows in the dead of the night”, he explained, stating that it is easy to spot the smugglers because no dairy farmer would harm his animals by piling them above each other in a cramped mini-truck. Also, the vehicles used by smugglers are always without number plates, the Gau Rakshak added.
Tinku added that cow smugglers often keep broken glass bottles in the van to attack any chasing Gau Rakshaks. On that night too the smugglers had thrown many glass bottles towards the direction of the camper van that Tinku and his fellow Gau Rakshaks were using. But when the Rakshaks continued the chase, the smugglers suddenly threw a cow on the road.
Not wanting to run over the animal, the camper van had suddenly taken a sharp turn, lost balance and turned turtle. Tinku had suffered a deep head injury in that accident and had lost consciousness.
Gau Raksha is Dharma
Tinku’s mother informed that Tinku was grievously injured and it is only due to the blessings of Gau Mata that he is alive. Tinku is a Gujjar and they live in a Gujjar village. His family are small farmers. The family believes that Gau Seva is their Dharma and even the villagers tell that what Tinku is doing is very good work.
Tinku’s family doesn’t understand how Gau Rakshaks are painted as notorious criminals in mainstream media. They believe that Gau Raksha is Dharma and the volunteers of the Gau Raksha Dal are loved and respected in the village.
“It happens only in your cities”, Tinku says when the journalist mentions that the mainstream media often portrays Gau Rakshaks as goons.
Gau Rakshaks work with the police
The Swarajya report also highlights how the Gau Rakshaks often work with the police. Tinku informed that the Gau Rakshak Dal never intervenes without informing the police and often the local police seek their help to stop cattle smugglers.
Tinku’s family informed that when the villagers learned of Tinku’s injury, many persons had visited him at the hospital and the elders even touched his feet, hailing his holy work of saving cows from slaughter.
As per the report, most cow smugglers working in the area are Meo Muslims from the Mewat region. Mewat has been notorious for a sharp rise in cattle smuggling and other crimes. In 2019, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had slammed the state governments for failing to curb cattle smuggling cases in the region.
The court, over the course of multiple hearings, had asked the police chief to give detailed reasons why none of the accused in 800 cases filed under the state’s anti-cow slaughter laws since 2015 had been convicted. The police had then informed the court that police personnel work in an extremely hostile environment in Mewat, often with a risk of life.
Contrary to ground realities, the mainstream media continues to defame Gau Rakshaks, painting them as lynchers and goons, while whitewashing smugglers as innocent victims.
There has been speculation and unconfirmed reports earlier that Rohullah was murdered by the Taliban. There are unconfirmed reports that he was tortured by the Jihadist group as well.
Rohullah Saleh, brother of former Vice President Amrullah Saleh has been killed by the #Taliban last night. The late Rohullah Saleh was fighting the resistance in #Panjshir. pic.twitter.com/EGPIBH6qOa
The Taliban had announced on the 6th of September that they have managed to gain control of the Panjshir Valley. The resistance forces, however, had claimed that they were still fighting the Jihadist group.
Soon after, Taliban destroyed the tomb of the Late Guerilla Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud in the Panjshir Province. After the Taliban took over Kabul, Ahmad Massoud, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, along with Amrullah Saleh had reportedly fled to Panjshir valley to continue the Resistance against Taliban occupation. Panjshir Valley remained the last bastion of the Northern Alliance and all the Anti-taliban fighters.
The circumstance surrounding the death of Rohullah are not yet clear. But reports say that he was killed when he was leaving Panjshir for Kabul.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has so far registered 34 FIRs in connection with the West Bengal post-poll violence investigation. According to the FIRs uploaded to the CBI website, the central agency has found merit in at least ten of these FIRs which declare unequivocally that the post-election violence that had erupted following the TMC’s victory in the assembly elections was politically motivated. Moreover, at least in 8 out of these 10 FIRs, names of members of the state’s ruling dispensation are mentioned as the perpetrators.
BJP wrokers dragged to a Muslim area and assaulted by TMC goons
In one of the FIRs uploaded on the CBI website, number RC0562021S0005, dated August 25, 2021, the complainant named Ayan Mandal clearly stated that on August 14, 2021, at around 3 pm in the afternoon, 8 TMC goons, namely Abul Sekh, Alamgir Sekh, Ujjal Ghosh and others, all residents of Hridaypur, Chapra in Nadia, West Bengal, dragged him and his brother to a Muslim locality where they were assaulted brutally with sticks and iron rods. The victim says they were singled out because they were known BJP supporters.
Image source: cbi.gov.in
Image source: cbi.gov.in
Join TMC or we will make your life hell
Complainant Bandana Khetrapal in an FIR number RC0562021S0004 dated August 25, 2021, narrated how her 26-year-old son Kush Khetrapal fell prey to the atrocities of the TMC goons as a result of his affirmation towards BJP. Bandana Khetrapal said that her son, who worked in a hotel in Mirzapur was often accosted by TMC workers namely Kanan Khetrapal, Sukumar and Dilip Khetrapal, when the former returned from work. They had threatened him to join TMC or face dire consequences.
Bandana Khetrapal recalled how her now-deceased son, had told her that the trio often stopped in on his way back home and hit him with shoes and slippers, threatening him to join TMC. They told Bandana’s son that if he did not join TMC they would make his life hell. They would forcefully make him drink alcohol and drown him in a pond. Bandana recalled how her son would regularly return home crying, afraid that his life was in danger.
Following the TMC’s victory in the assembly elections, the torture only increased. On May 6, the aforementioned TMC workers along with some others forcefully took Bandana Khetrapal’s son to their Raibhagini party office and killed him. Two days later on May 8, at around 5 pm, Kush’s body was found lying near the Baishtam pond, behind a Ganesha idol. The body had various stab marks on his body read the FIR.
They said they would finish Hinduism: Mother of deacased BJP supporter wrote in her WB post-poll violence FIR
According to the FIR number RC0562021S0012 dated August 26, 2021, filed by the complainant Tumpa Majhi, five TMC goons (all names are registered in the FIR) attacked her house with iron rods, weapons, bombs in a pre-planned manner. They ransacked the house and abducted her 22-year-old son. The TMC goons brutally assaulted Tumpa Majhi’s son. Soaked in blood, Balram Majhi fell to the ground but the accused kept attacking him.
Later, when the accused learnt that police was approaching the spot they fled hurriedly. “They threatened us that they would finish our Hinduism and fled away”, alleged Tumpa Majhi. “We were not allowed to leave the village late at night. My injured son was transferred to BIMS Hospital in Burdwan the same day, where he died at around 10 pm”.
The victim’s mother further accused the TMC goons of also causing financial damage to the tune of Rs 10 lakhs.
TMC goons killed the wife as they were unable to find her husband and son
According to the FIR number RC0562021S0017 dated August 27, 2021, filed by complainant Mamoni Khetrapal TMC goons came looking for her neighbour Anil Khetrapal and his son on May 3. When they could not find the father-son duo, the TMC goons brutally assaulted his wife with a sharp weapon. The victim was rushed to Jamalpur hospital in Bardhaman, West Bengal, where she was declared brought dead.
According to the FIR filed by complainant Fagal Mandi, his brother was killed on May 5, 2021, because of his political inclination towards a particular party.
The goons strangulated and fractured his testis to confirm he was dead: Brother of victim of Bengal post-poll violence
In another FIR filed by one Dinanath Kirtaniya, the complainant has said that all his family members are associated with BJP. Nine TMC goons (names mentioned in the FIR) threatened his brother and family members not to work for BJP. On April 17th again the accused rounded up his brother. They told him that he would be killed since he did not pay heed to their warning and left BJP. “You are still working for the BJP, we will kill you today”, the FIR quotes the TMC goons a telling Dinanath Kirtaniya’s brother.
That very night, when Dinanath’s brother went out of the house, he was attacked. He was first, as per plans, hit by a heavy blunt object. To confirm he was dead the TMC goons then strangulated his throat and fractured his testis, the brother of the deceased BJP worker detailed the harrowing incident in his complaint. The BJP worker died on the spot.
They killed him for being associated with the BJP
One Sufal Adhikari filed an FIR in which he accused 16 TMC miscreants of killing his nephew, Haran Adhikari and brutally assaulting a few others for their political affinity. He said that the TMC workers attacked Haran with bricks and shovels in front of the house of one Akhtar Molla. Haran Adhikari succumbed to his injuries while others were battling for their lives.
Today we have killed one, tomorrow we will kill all
One Marufa Bibi, a resident of Duttapukur in West Bengal’s North 24 Paraganas, registered a complaint in which she said that miscreants attacked her husband and other family members when they had gone to the field on May 3, at around 5.30 am. The miscreants surrounded the victims and started beating them up.
When Marufa Bibi’s husband tried to escape they hurled a bomb at him, as a result of which his right hand was torn and rib bones raptured. Marufa Bibi’s husband died on the spot. While fleeing the goons told them: “Today we have killed one, tomorrow we will kill all the members of your family”.
Post-poll violence in West Bengal
Umpteen number of violence against political opponents have been reported from the state. In an overwhelming number of such incidents, the victims have been BJP supporters and workers, while the accused were said to be the supporters of the TMC party. More than a dozen BJP workers have lost their lives in the post-poll violence that ensued following the victory of the TMC party in the assembly elections.
High Court hands over the West Bengal post-poll violence case to the CBI
The CBI has taken over the investigations on the orders of a five-judge panel of the Calcutta High Court, which on August 19, tasked the agency with a court-monitored probe into the innumerable murder and rape instances reported during West Bengal’s post-poll rioting which occurred in the aftermath of West Bengal Assembly elections in the month of May 2021.
On September 6, the CBI had arrested 2 persons from the Domjur area in the state’s Howrah district in connection with West Bengal post-poll violence. With this, the total tally of CBI arrests in post-poll violence has risen to 8.
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.
