Jarvo 69, who has become the latest internet sensation for his pitch invasions during the India-England Test series, yet again intruded the Oval Cricket Ground in London on Friday disguised as an Indian cricketer.
YouTuber Daniel Jarvis aka ‘Jarvo 69’, an Englishman, who had intruded into the field of play during the second Test match at Lord’s and then again during the Headingley game, made another pitch invasion during the second day of the fourth test between India and England at The Oval, Kennington, London.
Jarvo, who sported the India whites, was spotted running with a ball during the 33rd over of the first innings of England. He ran fast even as Indian speedster Umesh Yadav marked his run-up to bowl to the English batsman. The Youtuber hit Johny Bairstow, who was standing at the non-striker’s end, as Jarvo approached the pitch with all vigour.
The umpires stopped Jarvo, after which the marshals pushed him up forcefully out of the Oval cricket ground. As Jarvo walked back, he received loud cheers as he waved to the crowd.
This is his third pitch invasion in the ongoing India-England cricket series. Earlier, Daniel Jarvis had walked into the Lord’s cricket ground dressed as an Indian fielder during the 2nd Test match. His Indian jersey bore the name ‘Jarvo 69’, and he pretended to be a part of the Indian cricketing side.
His actions left bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja in splits, who asked him about his ‘bowling side’ preference. It was an unusual sight for a white cricket fan to not only invade the pitch but impersonate as one of the fielders. Jarvis was eventually removed from the ground by the security officials.
On August 27, Jarvo came in to bat for the Indian side during the Day 3 of the 3rd Test against England at the Headingley cricket ground. He walked onto the ground casually, dressed in full cricketing gear, and took to the crease after opening batsman Rohit Sharma was dismissed.
Many do not know that Jarvo 69 is not an Indian cricketer or a cricketer at all. He is a serial prankster who hails from Gravesend town in the Kent county of England. The antics of Daniel Jarvis is not limited to pitch invasions during cricket matches alone.
Jarvo – a serial prankster and game intruder
Daniel Jarvis is a member of Trollstation, a group of British pranksters famous for making prank and social experiment videos. In a video shared by him on his official Youtube channel, the prankster was seen setting up a tent named “Trespass” in the middle of the cricket ground. He was then removed from the ground by the security staff.
Over the years, Daniel Jarvis had intruded into several sporting events. During the Diving World Series held in 2015, he had bypassed the security to make his way into London’s Aquatics Centre. In a video shared by him on his Youtube channel, Jarvis was seen stripping his clothes before taking a deep dive into the poll. The video of the incident was originally posted on the group’s Youtube channel ‘Trollstation’. At that time, Jarvis was 26 years old.
There are several such prank incidents Jarvo had pulled off in the last few years. We have recorded some of them in a report.
Although ‘Jarvo 69’ pulls off such stunts with no malafide intentions, they have raised questions about the lack of tight security protocol at International matches. Concerns have also been raised about the safety of players in the event of pitch invasion.
In yet another indicator that the Taliban is anything but “moderate”, the fundamentalist group had recently announced from a Kabul mosque that those who are found stealing and indulging in theft will have their hands chopped as per the Sharia Law of Islam.
Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul took to Twitter to inform about the announcement by the Taliban through a Kabul mosque, wherein it said that people who are caught red-handed stealing or in a case of theft, their hands would be cut as per the law defined in the Islamic Sharia.
Taliban has just announced from a Kabul mosque that those people who will be found stealing or caught in a case of theft, their hands would be cut as per the Sharia Law of Islam. This is Taliban 2.0.
The Islamic Sharia Law ordains Muslims to “cut off the hands” of the perpetrator who is found to have committed a theft. Quran 5:38 says perpetrators of theft and robbery be punished by amputation of their hands. This particular punishment was the order of the day in Taliban-era Afghanistan in the late 90s, demonstrating that the group’s recent claims of being moderate in conduct were nothing more than lip-service, aimed at pacifying internal resistance and seeking international legitimacy.
The hard-line interpretation of Islam had been a hallmark of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 when inhuman and brutal treatment as a part of the Islamic jurisprudence was imposed on the residents of the country. The Taliban rule came to an abrupt end after the US-led NATO forces stormed the country in the wake of the twin-tower attacks and obliterated the fundamentalist group in December 2001.
During its rule, the punishment inflicted by the Taliban included the public execution of murderers, amputation of hands and legs of robbers and thieves, and stoning and lashing of adulterers. The Taliban had then repurposed the National Sports Stadium in Kabul for executing people and inflicting other forms of punishment for people it deemed criminals every Friday.
Taliban takes over Afghanistan
After US president Joe Biden announced he would honour the withdrawal agreement signed by his predecessor Donald Trump, the Taliban launch a swift offensive, swallowing district after district to take control of the country. On August 15, it stormed Kabul and toppled the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government in a lightning move, effectively taking over Afghanistan. The offensive resulted in people trying to flee the country, including women who feared a return of 1990s-type Taliban rule where they had to stay at home, entertainment was banned, and public executions as punishments were common.
Since the Taliban took over, though they promised a moderate outlook, universal amnesty, and granting some rights to women under strict Sharia law. However, there have been reports emanating from Afghanistan of those promises being not honoured by the Taliban. Women have been told to wear a burqa. Female employees were told to leave business premises, including radio stations. A woman was killed for not wearing a burqa, while another was reportedly killed as she did not cook well. Reports also suggested that the Taliban has been conducting door-to-door search operations hunting their adversaries, and even girls and women between the age of 12 to 45 to use them as sex slaves.
Ever since India started its ambitious vaccination programme, notorious far-left propagandist and PIL ‘activist’ Prashant Bhushan has been pushing anti-vaccine propaganda on social media platforms in an attempt to create vaccine hesitancy among the masses.
For the last few months, Prashant Bhushan has been pushing anti-vaccine propaganda on Twitter by raising doubts about the efficacy of Indian-made vaccines. His anti-vaccine bile had come after Twitter had removed Prashant Bhushan’s anti-mask tweets for spreading misinformation.
Prashant Bhushan, who has a history of spreading misinformation on social media platforms, had come up with conspiracy theories to claim that vaccines did not work in reality. Pushing vaccine hesitancy in the society, Prashant Bhushan had claimed that the Indian government was funding private enterprises in the name of vaccine development.
In one of the tweets, Bhushan had claimed that the younger population has a higher chance of dying through vaccination than suffering severe complications or even death due to coronavirus. The far-left activist had said he has not taken any vaccines and he does not intend to take one in the future.
Prashant Bhushan on why he will not take the COVID vaccine
Similarly, he had shared a news report hinting that people are dying of Covid-19 even after taking vaccines. A few weeks later, he had gone on a ranting spree against Covid-19 vaccination, claiming that he is not anti-vaccine but against the promotion of universal vaccination.
In response, Twitter had marked his tweet on the Covid-19 vaccine as ‘misleading’.
“This Tweet is misleading. Find out why health officials consider Covid-19 vaccines safe for most people”, read the disclaimer published by the microblogging site below Prashant Bhushan’s tweet.
Screenshot of Prashant Bhushan Tweet with the warning message from the microblogging site
Despite the warning, Prashant Bhushan decided to continue with his rant against the Covid vaccines in India. In a Tweet posted a few hours ago, the SC lawyer wrote: “I have been attacked by many for tweeting about my views on Covid vaccines. The piece below summarises my Vaccine scepticism & the reasons for this. Apart from the vaccines being untested & having serious adverse effects, I am shocked by attempts to censor such contrarian views”.
Prashant Bhushan’s anti-vaccine propaganda flagged by Twitter
Yet again, Twitter flagged the dangerous anti-vaccine tweets put out Prashant Bhushan.
Interestingly, Twitter has been stringent in not allowing its platform to promote anti-vaccine propaganda in the West and suspended people indulging in such behaviour. However, this was not the case with Prashant Bhushan. Twitter has failed to show the courage to suspend Prashant Bhushan for promoting vaccine hesitancy in India, especially at a time when the vaccine has been the only protective measure against the Covid-19.
Prashant Bhushan continues with anti-vaccine propaganda, says vaccine is not working
Well, almost two months after getting flagged by Twitter for spreading his anti-vaccine propaganda, the far-left ‘activist’ Prashant Bhushan has returned on Twitter to put out more conspiracy theories to claim that vaccines are not working.
Sharing a news report from a website, Prashant Bhushan said Sweden has banned travellers from Israel, which according to Prashant Bhushan, is one of the most vaccinated nations.
Further, the far-left lawyer claimed that Sweden allegedly had “zero Covid cases” now, despite no lockdown, no mask and no vaccine mandates. However, Israel, with more than 85% fully vaccinated and its third booster vaccine program is seeing a huge Covid surge.
“Get it?” Prashant Bhushan asked, hinting that vaccines are not working as often claimed.
Bhushan’s claims about Sweden are misleading
While it is true that Sweden had announced a ban on all Israelis coming to the country, it was due to recent surge in infections. Portugal has also imposed a similar ban, even on vaccinated Israelis. The move has come after the EU on Monday removed Israel from the list of nations that are ‘epidemiologically safe’.
Sweden has put an entry ban on US arrivals too. The ban is to reflect from September 6 and continue till October 31. Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia are the other nations that are added to the banned list.
However, Bhushan’s claims about Sweden having “zero Covid” cases is misleading. As of August, Sweden’s have seen more Covid cases per 100 individuals than its neighbouring countries. Even the death rates have been higher than its neighbours. As per a report, its Covid death rate of 145 people per 100,000 population is 3 times higher than Denmark, 8 times more than Finland and nearly 10 times more than Norway, all its nordic neighbours.
Also, though Sweden had not imposed a full-scale lockdown, it did impose curbs, shut down schools and put on restrictions on social gatherings. Vaccination is not mandatory in India too. To put an idea that Sweden achieved some success of “zero Covid” by not following any lockdowns or mandates is a misleading statement.
No, Sweden doesn’t have “zero covid”
Bhushan’s claim that Sweden has ‘zero covid’ now is a blatant lie. Sweden has 27,671 active cases as of September 3. So far, it has registered 1,130,525 cases and 14,651 deaths due to Covid.
Bhushan is trying to create an impression that Sweden is not taking vaccination seriously. This is false too. Though Sweden has not made it mandatory for its citizens to take the Covid vaccines, vaccination has been done at a healthy rate. 12,739,829 doses have been administered so far, roughly equivalent to 62% of Sweden’s population.
Bhushan’s anti-Vaccine rant
Continuing, Prashant Bhushan said he has not taken any of these experimental vaccines, and he does not intend to do so. Promoting dangerous conspiracy theories against vaccines, Prashant Bhushan put out misinformation saying more than 67 per cent, i.e., two in three Indians, have had Covid-19, including him, who, according to him, are better protected than those vaccinated ones.
“Covid is rarely serious for the healthy, & effective treatments are there,” declared Prashant Bhushan.
Strangely, Twitter is yet to take any action against the tweets put out by Prashant Bhushan that could potentially act as a reason for people to stay away from getting vaccinated.
One has to wait and watch whether Twitter would still allow Prashant Bhushan to remain on the platform even after his continuous tweets that peddle conspiracy theories and unverified news reports promoting vaccine hesitancy among India’s masses.
US forces, a couple of days before completing their withdrawal from Afghanistan, killed at least six Afghan children in a drone strike that claimed the lives of 10 civilians in total. The US claimed that it was a ‘defensive’ airstrike to eliminate terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State of Khorasan Province.
But no information has been provided as to how many terrorists were killed, or indeed, if any were killed at all. While the western media has covered the incident, the outrage that such a monumental scandal is expected to generate was missing altogether.
After all, killing children is not a matter that is to be ignored. And indeed, it is not farfetched to assert that it constitutes a war crime. But the matter has been all but forgotten and has been summarily sidelined. One wonders why that is the case but, perhaps, the reasons are not difficult to fathom.
In this context, an interesting development caught the attention of this journalist on Thursday. It came to our attention that propaganda website The Wire received a prize from the International Press Institute for some obscure reason. The prize was awarded by the IPI in collaboration with International Media Support (IMS).
Source: IPI
The IPI said in its announcement, “Amid India’s press freedom downslide, The Wire’s commitment to public-interest news has also made it a growing target of government harassment. This year alone, three cases have been filed against the outlet and its reporters, including for their coverage of India’s farmers’ protests. In 2020, The Wire and Varadarajan were charged with “spreading panic” for reporting on violations of COVID-19 rules by religious leaders. The site previously faced 14 defamation cases by figures close to the ruling party requesting $1.3 billion in damages.”
It added, “The pressure on The Wire and its journalists took an even darker turn this summer with the Pegasus Project revelations. The phones of Varadarajan and Venu were shown to have been infected with the Israeli-made spyware, presumably at the behest of the Indian government, while The Wire’s diplomatic editor was also on the leaked list of probable targets. The Wire was part of the collaborative global investigation, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, that uncovered the extent of government surveillance of journalists and human rights defenders using Pegasus.”
Source: IPI
Jesper Højberg, executive director of IMS, “Media in Asia experience rising pressure. We have observed how Asia’s independent media and citizens must navigate a tightening operational space while dealing with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis and the risk of being punished for speaking out. The Wire relentlessly finds ways to uphold the right to freedom of expression, in inspiration for others, globally and in the region”.
Under such circumstances, this journalist decided to investigate the background of these organisations.
International Press Institute awarded The Wire
This journalist discovered that the IPI counts as its donors the European Commission, the Government of Sweden, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
Source: IPI
We discovered that N Ravi of The Hindu is a member of this western government funded group.
Source: IPI
This western government funded effort has also launched a ‘global independent journalism’ initiative. It is perplexing that a government funded initiative claims to support ‘independent journalism’. A government funded ‘independent journalism’ effort is clearly an oxymoron but such individuals appear to resolutely believe their own lies.
Source: IPI
The IPI, we discovered, is involved in politics as well. The group wanted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to raise the issue of ‘press freedom’ in India during his visit here.
Source: IPI
The IPI also initiated a propaganda initiative against Russia over its decision to label certain ‘journalists’ as ‘foreign agents’. The group deliberates obscures the fact that the USA has the same laws, which it does not appear to have any problem with.
Furthermore, Russia has been at the receiving end of a western propaganda campaign ever since Donald Trump was elected the president of the United States of America. Hillary Clinton and the Democrat party have decided to scapegoat Russia for her inability to defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential elections.
Source: IPI
In a World Congress event organised by the IPI, there were several Indian ‘journalists’ who attended it and some even were speakers.
Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire was himself a speaker at the event and spoke on “Journalism is still the answer to populist governments that mark media as the enemy”. It is pertinent to note that Varadarajan is himself an American citizen.
Here is what the speakers from Indian media spoke about at IPI’s World Cong. Notice the topic Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire spoke about. “Journalism is still the answer to populist governments that mark media as the enemy” At event organised by a group funded by Western Govts pic.twitter.com/0jxoLJnbp7
Thus, the problematic aspects of the IPI is quite clear. It is a western government effort to encourage propaganda that serves western interests in the name of ‘independent journalism’.
The award to The Wire was in collaboration with International Media Support
The International Media Support (IMS) is another western government funded group that has funded regime change propaganda in the past. It received as much 92% of its funds from governments of European countries in 2019.
31% of its funds in 2019 came from the Denmark government apparatus, 44% from Sweden and 17% from Norway. The total contributions received amounts to almost 20 million Euros.
Source: IMS
The IMS was one of the prominent funders of Radio Rozana. “The priority is to hear the voice of Syrians inside Syria. They are suffering and being killed every day. We want to support them,” its founder Chawaf had claimed.
Radio Rozana also hosted the Syriaza. Syriaza is “a Syrian-to-Syrian storytelling, archiving, and dissemination project for peace-building, created by the Rome-based international organization Ara Pacis Initiative and led by Syrian poets, defenders of human dignity and human rights, community leaders, and citizen journalists.”
The Ara Pacis Iniative stated on its website, “From the 18th of July to the 4th of August, 2015, with funds from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an intergenerational, interethnic, and interreligious group of 30 Syrians convened in Viterbo, Italy, for phase one of the Syriaza project: capacity building.”
The Syriaza apparently “gained the interest of Syrian satellite radio, Radio Rozana, which agreed to host a weekly Syriaza corner, reverberating the peaceful voices of Syrians from different backgrounds.”
In this context, it is important to remember that Syria is currently fending off a civil war incited by the USA. The Syriaza and Radio Rozana, both funded by western governments, clearly appear to be part of a propaganda to justify regime change wars.
It is also pertinent to mention that Harsh Mander is a member of the Ara Pacis Initiative as well.
Western propaganda in the name of ‘independent journalism’
It is not difficult to see what is happening here. Western governments with their huge money bags have established significant influence over international media that serves to create propaganda to further interests.
Indeed, it is due to the significant influence that western governments wield over their media that Joe Biden got a free pass for murdering six Afghan children recently. Worse, Joe Biden is not even the first US President to have murdered Afghan children
All the four US Presidents who have presided over the 20 year Afghanistan war have been involved in the murder of Afghan civilians, including women and children. And yet, it is the alleged ‘human rights abuses’ in other countries that western media is concerned about, far more than the war crimes committed by their own government.
Two Muslim youths Mohammad Arzoo and Mohammad Aurangzeb from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand accused East Singhbhum police for forcing them into gay sex and insulting Islam after being questioned in a criminal case on August 26. The news was reported in a website called ‘MuslimMirror’.
Screenshot of MuslimMirror website
This news was also widely shared by various Twitter handles garnering a lot of retweets and reach.
Tweet sharing news about Jharkhand youth
Some claimed that Muslims in India do not have legal recourse.
Tweet sharing news of Jharkhand youth
Jamshedpur is a town of East Singhbhum known for steel industry of Tata Group. But East Singhbhum police rubbished the allegations as a bundle of blatant lies and misleading.
Police sources while speaking to OpIndia said that not two but three youths were called for questioning at Kadma police station in a case related to kidnapping of a girl by a man who is said to be their friend. But they were released after initial questioning and handed-over to their parents.
This is surprising that only two youths made written allegation and demanded FIR against seven cops and officer in-charge of Kadma police station Manoj Kumar Thakur for sexual harassment and religious discrimination.
They alleged that they were beaten and threatened to be sent to Afghanistan and that they were asked to strip naked for gay sex and their religion was abused. They claimed the policemen made derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
The officer in-charge declined to give any clarification. “Since they have leveled allegations against me I should not comment. Kadma police station is situated in the heart of Jamshedpur and such kinds of things can’t go undetected. This is an attempt to create communal frenzy,” said Thakur.
On the complaint; East Singhbhum SSP Dr. M Tamil Vanan ordered an inquiry.
On being contacted East Singhbhum SP Subhash Chandra Jat termed the allegation baseless, misleading and malicious. “Nothing has come out in the inquiry. There is no shred of truth in this,” said SP.
Leftist media and Kolhan division of Jharkhand
This is the same Kolhan division that Leftist media had successfully converted as a laboratory to paddle the narrative of ‘minority in threat in BJP ruled Jharkhand’. Two years back in 2019 in Saraikela- Kharsawan district a suspected bike thief after Tabrez Ansari was caught and thrashed by the mob and he died later on. This was widely picked and reported by media. It was later confirmed in autopsy that he died of heart attack and murder charges were dropped against 11 accused.
Twitter India has withheld a tweet put out by self-proclaimed ‘comedian’ Munawar Faruqui that contained cheap sexist remarks targeting national award-winning actress Kangana Ranaut.
On August 23, Munawar Faruqui, who was once arrested for making Hindumisic statements in Indore, put out a tweet saying, “I think Right wing goons got angry because Taslim Ali was selling KANGANA at 2 rupees”. In his tweet, Munawar Faruqui attempted to take sly on the national award-winning actress Kangana Ranaut. However, he ended up making vulgar comments on the actress.
The tweet by the controversial ‘comedian’ was in response to the arrest of 25-years-old bangle seller Tasleem Ali for harassing a minor girl in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The Indore Police had registered a case against 25-years-old bangle seller Tasleem Ali for inappropriately touching and harassing a 13-year-old girl.
A video had gone viral in which Ali was seen getting trashed by a group of men in the Govind Nagar area, after which Indore Police had filed a case against three main accused and others. Later, it was revealed that Tasleem Ali was selling bangles using a Hindu name and harassed minor Hindu girls. Enraged by this, the residents had thrashed him and also recovered two Aadhaar cards on him, allegedly fake.
The incident had created a massive uproar on the internet, while Islamists and “secular-liberal” attempted to whitewash the crimes of Tasleem Ali by portraying him as a “victim”.
Carrying out similar propaganda, Munawar Faruqui took to Twitter to claim that the right-wing “goons” had thrashed the accused Tasleem Ali for selling ‘KANGANA’ for 2 Rupees. Even though Faruqui’s tweet did not directly name Kangana Ranaut, it was rather evident that his tweet was a cheap sly on the Bollywood actress, given his hatred for the self-made star.
In his hurry to peddle propaganda on Twitter, Faruqui ended up depicted Kangana Ranaut as a saleable commodity and made sexist remarks saying Tasleem Ali sold the Bollywood actress for just two rupees. Indirectly, Munawar Faruqui called Kangana Ranaut a prostitute, however, without directly saying so.
It is important to note that this is not the first time that Munawar Faruqui has been taking cheap potshots at Kangana Ranaut to hog the limelight amidst his dwindling career opportunities. Earlier in January, Munawar Faruqui, after being released from jail over his hate speech against Hindus, had taken pot-shots at actress Kangana Ranaut saying, “Kangana ke tweets padke lag raha hai Fir se Judicial custody chala jaun!”
Well, for Munawar Faruqui’s misfortune, his vile tweet that was passed off as a comedy did not pass Twitter’s scrutiny. The micro-blogging site has removed the tweets put out by Munawar Faruqui targeting Kangana Ranaut, saying it has been withheld in response to a legal demand.
Twitter has decided to withheld the contents posted by Munawar Faruqui after they received notice from authorities. It is not clear yet regarding which authorities demand the removal of vile tweets of Faruqui, however, Twitter has acted this time.
“We may withhold access to certain content in a particular country if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity in that country. We also clearly indicate within the product when content has been withheld,” the Twitter rules stated.
Who is Munawar Faruqui?
‘Comedian’ Munawar Faruqui, who rose to fame by insulting the Hindu victims of the Godhra riots of 2002 and peddling conspiracy theories of RSS involvement in the Gujarat carnage and mocking Hindu deities, was arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police for making indecent remarks about Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Faruqui and four other persons identified as Edwin Anthony, Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas and Nalin Yadav were arrested for mocking Hindu Gods in a stand-up comedy show in Indore based on the complaint of Eklavya Singh Gaur, an activist and the chief of Hindu Rakshak Sangathan.
They were booked under IPC sections 295-A (outraging religious feelings), 269 (unlawful or negligent act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and other relevant provisions. Section 269 was invoked for allegedly ignoring COVID-19 safety protocol. Faruqui was sent to judicial custody till January 13, which was later extended to January 27.
During a show in April last year, Munawar Faruqui mocked the 2002 Godhra carnage, where 58 Hindus returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive by a Muslim mob. In a part of the clip that had gone viral on social media, one can hear him refer to the carnage as a fictional film “directed” by Amit Shah and ‘produced’ by RSS.
“I was watching The Burning Train on TV. My father came and told me not to watch such nonsense and turned off the channel. I was like, ‘why so?’ He was like, this is the video of Godhra kaand. And this is a news channel. I thought it is a movie directed by Amit Shah, produced by RSS… I don’t know…,” he said. Munawar Faruqui then referred to the news about the 2002 Godhra carnage as “cartoon”.
On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi released a video on YouTube filmed at a photo exhibition held by Indian Youth Congress (IYC) in Delhi on his father, Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi, before becoming the Prime Minister of India was a commercial airlines pilot.
The six minute monologue by Rahul Gandhi has left us with more questions than answers.
Let me walk you through the joy of flight.
The camera pans at a hall full of pictures and suddenly Rahul Gandhi appears bobbing around looking at the pictures. He then points to a picture and says that the plane in the picture is one DC-3 plane. In the picture one can see a child holding hand of a man walking with two women. He says that DC-3 plane is the one Rajiv Gandhi first flew commercially in.
Camera pans towards a picture of Rajiv Gandhi inside a cockpit and Rahul then says, “that’s the real thing.” Flaunting his privilege, Rahul Gandhi then says that whenever he flew with his father, who was at that time the son of the Prime Minister of India and Rahul himself was the grandson of Prime Minister of India, he would be made to sit in the cockpit.
“What he would do is ask me questions about the instruments and we would do the flight-check together. So we would walk around the plane and he would ask me what’s that and what’s that and what’s that and then later in college I learnt to fly,” he says. Showing off more of his privilege, he says how once he and his father went jetsetting from Jaipur to Udaipur to Mumbai and Srinagar. He adds how his father, son of India’s Prime Minister would take his son for a ‘surprise flight’ randomly.
“I remember I sat in the jumpseat. Those days it was pre-9/11 so you could sit in the jumpseat. I remember sitting in the jumpseat for the first time and him pointing out ‘different things’ and then starting the engine, which for ‘us mechanical people’ is ‘fantastic’,” he said.
Here, let us take a moment to understand how Rahul Gandhi’s pilot father would take him for joyrides just like that when going for work. I remember how once my mother, a government employee back then, took a 7 year old me to her office under exceptional circumstances because no one was there to take care of me back home. All I got that day was one dairy milk chocolate from her boss. Rahul Gandhi got to fly on an airplane because his father was a pilot.
Also, what is ‘us mechanical people’? Does he mean he works mechanically, like a robot? But that description has been reserved for another politician from the UPA era.
“I can still remember it. And then there was a problem. There was some technical problem so it was delayed. So I spent quite a lot of time in the cockpit when my father was trying to fix the problem in the ground. And then I remember when we took off… <strategic pause> wonderful,” he said.
At this point, one expected that Rahul Gandhi would perhaps elaborate a little on what the problem was or how his father ‘fixed it’, but he seemed distracted like some kids these days with attention span of five seconds.
He then suddenly talks about being a pilot and risks one takes. This is where he starts to talk about the plane crash which took the life of his uncle and Rajiv Gandhi’s brother, Sanjay Gandhi. “My father told my uncle… because my uncle was flying a very particular type of plane, its a very aggressive plane. My father told him, you know, don’t do this. My uncle didn’t really have the experience. My uncle had similar hours to what I have, about 300-350 hours. And he shouldn’t have been flying that plane and he flew it and that’s what happens when you don’t have experience and you fly,” he said.
“It is easy to kill yourself,” he said.
Essentially, Rahul Gandhi said that because his uncle had as much experience as he did on flying planes, and that he didn’t have ‘enough’ experience, he crashed his plane and died.
At around 4 minute mark, Rahul Gandhi then talks about how pilots have a different ‘vision’ which is ‘not blocked by roads and railways’.
“Pilots have a very particular ability that comes from their training. And it is this idea that you have to move from a 30,000 foot vision to details in the cockpit. If you lose track of the details into cockpit you will run into trouble and if you lose track of the 30,000 foot picture, you will run into trouble. So the pilot, and I am one, we move from these two spaces very seamlessly and very quickly,” he says.
One is not sure if Rahul ‘mechanical’ Gandhi has been on the driving seat (or should I say flying seat?) of any other vehicles, but that’s pretty much how most vehicles are driven. You need to keep tab of the controls as well as keep your eye on the road. As they say, ‘savdhani hati, durghatna ghati‘. That is also how most things work, in fact. But that’s not it. He brought in this obscure logic for the follow up gem.
The video then shows a montage of various pictures of Rajiv Gandhi and one can notice a change in Rahul Gandhi’s voice, as if it is recorded and overlaid on the montage and then snipped and snapped into the video haphazardly.
“Also when they fly, their imagination is not blocked by roads, railway lines, their imagination is 30,000 feet. So they ability to see large systems. This is what really helped my father,” he says.
Oh. My. God. So, when a person is driving on the road, the railway crossing is ‘imagination’? Isn’t it a driver’s skill that he manages to manoeuvre the vehicle through various obstacles like other drivers, roads, pedestrians, road blockades like how sometimes there are structures like mazars which appear on flyovers? How are these obstacles ‘imagination’? And how does that make ‘pilot’ such as himself and his father better at ‘vision switching’?
“I could see this process taking place where he would go and meet people, get into their details, understand their details and instantly move to 30-40-50 thousand feet and look at the big picture. And his work was constantly moving between these two perspectives. And always understanding that imagination can bridge anything. That was a very powerful thing my father had,” he says.
Not kidding. He really did say this. He credited his father’s so-called ability to switch from details to a bigger, macro picture to his being a pilot.
Suddenly, the camera again shifts to Rahul Gandhi bobbing around at the photo exhibition and he points to some pictures and as suddenly as the montage begins, it ends.
In order to curb Covid and secure safety health measures, the Government in Australia has adopted drastic measures that can be termed as direct threats to liberal democracy and freedom. Australians are worried that the government is going to compromise democratic freedom to maintain emergency restrictions in these Covid times.
The Australian govt has barred people from leaving the country in the name of preventing the spread of Covid-19. But there seem to be a contradiction in the govt about this. While one arm of the govt has banned people from leaving the country, another arm promises the people freedom to move abroad. The website of the Home Affairs of the Australian government states, “Australia’s borders are currently closed and international travel from Australia remains strictly controlled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19,” and that “International travel from Australia is only available if you are exempt or you have been granted an individual exemption.”
This contradicts the view at the website of the Attorney General of the Australian government regarding Australia’s human-rights-treaty obligations and freedom to leave a country that “cannot be made dependent on establishing a purpose or reason for leaving.”
Till a month ago, Australians who are residents of other countries were allowed to return to their residence, but now the government has tightened the rule, trapping such people in the country.
Moreover, the Australian Parliament has passed a draconian bill by the federal government, the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 (Identify and Disrupt Bill), which gives unprecedent power to the police to “identify and disrupt suspected online criminal activity”. This new law gives the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission powers to modify or delete the data of suspected offenders, collect intelligence on criminal networks, and take control of online accounts of suspected offenders.
This law also allows police to force anyone, including tech companies, to hack accounts of suspected people to modify, add, copy, or delete data of people under probe, and they will be protected from civil liability for such activities. But if they refuse to help the police, they can face imprisonment for up to 10 years. Authorities can force companies and hackers to alter, copy and delete data, intercept and modify communications, surveilling networks, and change account credentials.
The bill has attracted huge criticism for the blatant use of police power, and has been dubbed as signifying the end of respect for Human Rights in Australia.
Meanwhile, the government of South Australia is testing an App that involves facial recognition and geolocation of people. The People of South Australia who have been allowed to stay in home quarantine will be forced to download the app. After the app is installed, the citizens will receive random messages from the authorities asking them to take a picture of themselves in the location where they are supposed to be and upload the same within 15 minutes. Any failure to co-operate with the State would initiate police follow up.
“We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall said. The app is designed to prevent people staying in home quarantine from leaving their houses. With the geotag attached to the photographs, the home quarantined people will prove that they are following the protocol.
Other states also have implemented several harsh measures, which are unprecedented in Australia. The Victoria state announced a curfew and suspended its Parliament, while New South Wales deployed the Australian military to enforce lockdowns. Melbourne city has banned anti-lockdown protests, and hundreds of protesters have been arrested and fined. There are severe restrictions on intra-state travel, the people can leave home only for govt approved purposes.
These are just a few of the several draconian measures Australia is implementing in the name of combating Covid-19. Earlier, the Sunday Morning Herald reported that a rural Council in New South Wales, authorities had shot dead dogs waiting to be rescued by a shelter in order to prevent volunteers from travelling during Covid-19 restrictions. During protests against the Covid-19 restrictions in Melbourne, police had resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets as thousands of people across the country hit the streets against the strict lockdown.
Despite such drastic measures to combat Covid-19, the vaccination in Australia remains slow. For a country with just around 2.5 crore people, only around half the population has received at least one dose of vaccine, while around 29% are fully vaccinated against the pandemic.
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of former Congress leader and 1984 anti-Sikh riots convict Sajjan Kumar saying his medical condition is stable. The SC additionally remarked that the senior Congress leader cannot be treated like a “VIP patient” and be allowed to be treated in a hospital of his choice.
Kumar who is serving a life sentence for instigating the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre had filed an interim bail citing poor health condition despite receiving the required medical attention. The former Congress leader had reportedly collapsed in jail following which he was undergoing treatment in the Emergency ICU at Safdarjung Hospital.
“You are feeling as if he is the only patient to be treated in the country. He is accused of a series of heinous crimes and you want him to be treated as a super VIP patient. That we won’t permit,” observed a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
The order came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a response saying Kumar’s medical condition was stable and that he had been showing signs of improvement.
The Court, however, said that if the medical authorities find it necessary to shift the accused to Medanta for further treatment, they might do so.
Representing Kumar, senior advocate Vikas Singh had submitted a plea seeking permission to shift the Congress leader to a private hospital for better treatment.
In the previous hearing, the Bench had said, “We want somebody from the state to verify it. We want the state to verify what the medical condition is.”
This is not the first time the Congress leader sought bail on medical grounds after being convicted. The Court had rejected his bail plea last year too.
Convicted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots
Sajjan Kumar was one of the many Congress leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre that happened after the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi in 1984. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018.
He was found responsible for the murder of 5 Sikhs (Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh, and Kuldeep Singh in the Delhi Cantonment area.
Kumar was charged under Section 302 IPC (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), Section 153A IPC (communal hatred speech) and other relevant sections of the IPC.
Friends and family of late actor Siddharth Shukla have begun arriving at the crematorium in Mumbai’s Oshiwara to perform the last rites. Heartbreaking visuals of his good friend and Bigg Boss co-contestant Shehnaz Gill have surfaced on social media.
Shefali Jariwala, Arti Singh, Sambhavana Seth and Rahul Mahajan also arrived at his residence to pay last respects.
Hailing from Mumbai, the actor garnered a huge fan following after starring in the popular show Balika Vadhu. He had also participated in several TV reality shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi, India’s Got Talent and was also the winner of the last season of Bigg Boss.
The 40-year-old actor suffered a heart attack on Thursday morning. The actor was declared dead on arrival by the Cooper Hospital in Mumbai.
