Two weeks after capturing Afghanistan, the Taliban is keen on demonstrating its military capabilities to the rest of the world. After parading Blackhawk helicopters during the “victory lap” on the streets of Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of Taliban, the Taliban has now held another parade to showcase its military might.
On Wednesday, the Taliban held a victory parade to showcase the weaponry it plundered following the fall of the US-backed Afghan national government. In the parade, the Taliban displayed its suicide attackers, car bombs, barrel bombs, vest explosives etc.
The event was telecast on Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), a public broadcaster of Afghanistan.
In the parade, the Taliban displayed one of its showpiece weaponry – suicide bombers – to the elders of the radical Islamic outfit. A group consisting of various martyrdom-seekers squadrons or suicide bombers were seen parading carrying the Islamic Emirate’s flag.
This is National TV of Afghanistan, broadcasting parades of Taliban’s Suicide attackers, Car bombs, barrel bombs, vest explosives. pic.twitter.com/BnRczQQ4Xy
The Taliban also showcased light weaponry, heavy weaponry, mines, yellow barrels and car bombs during the event. A Taliban commentator said that the weapons would be used against invaders and their puppets in defence of independence and dear country.
The most prominent among this weaponry is the yellow barrel, vest bomb and car bomb, said the Taliban, adding that the yellow bombs are the greatest invention of the military industry of Mujahideen that could destroy vehicles of the enemy.
During the parade, the Taliban also displayed vest bombs and car bombs, which they termed as the weaponry of the military industry of Mujahideen intended to be used in the martyrdom-seeking operations to destroy enemy moving and static targets and enemy’s key installations.
In another video shared by Iranian journalist Tajuden Soroush, Taliban fighters were seen impressing the elderly Mujahideen leaders of the Taliban with their Karate skills.
It is important to note that the weaponry that the Taliban are displaying does not belong to them. Most of the weaponry accessed by the Taliban is due to the large scale loot carried out by the Taliban fighters from the erstwhile Afghan national forces. The United States of America had provided massive arms and ammunition to the Afghan national forces during their war against the Taliban.
After the US forces withdrew from Afghanistan and the Afghan forces either surrendered to the Taliban or fled from their posts, and followig the subsequent take over of the war-torn country by the Taliban, these arms were passed on to the Taliban. Besides local arms, the Taliban has laid its hands on the sophisticated American weaponry and vehicles that the US troops left behind in Afghanistan.
The US-led forces that formally left Afghanistan on August 31, 2021, left behind military equipment worth almost USD 80 billion. The US had provided Afghan forces since 2003 with more than 16,000 night-vision goggle devices, 600,000 infantry weapons, including M16 assault rifles, and 162,000 pieces of communication equipment.
Besides, there are more than 6 lakh small arms like rifles, machine guns, pistols, grenade launchers, and RPGs that have fallen into the Taliban fighters’ hands. Apart from this, the Taliban has secured surveillance equipment, radio systems, drones, etc., making it one of the heavily armed fighting units in the world.
Amidst this, there are concerns that China may get access to state-of-the-art weapons, military equipment, aircraft and other equipment, which may then be reverse-engineered to be used against India and the United States – the two hostile powers of China.
The Congress party, which is witnessing internal troubles in several states, has formed an ‘agitation committee’ to run agitations against the Modi government. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) today informed that party president Sonia Gandhi has formed a committee under the leadership of Digvijay Singh to plan sustain agitations on the national level.
Apart from former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh as the chairman, this ‘agitation committee’ is comprised of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Telangana MP Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Congress leaders Manish Chatrath, BK Hariprasad, Ripun Bora, Udit Raj, Ragini Nayak and Zuber Khan.
Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi has constituted the following committee to plan sustained agitations on nation issues, with immediate effect. pic.twitter.com/KYCJqvckFZ
Interestingly, while Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is a member of the committee, her son Rahul Gandhi is not. Rahul Gandhi has been at the forefront of launching attacks on Modi governments, mostly on false and baseless claims.
The committee will devise strategies for the Congress party to run agitations against the Modi government on various issues like price rise, farm laws etc ahead of the assembly election in five states. “No meetings have been held so far, but on issues like price rise, farm laws and other issues need sustained agitation. It is the need of the hour, need of the country, need of the people. Rahul ji is fighting, farmers are also fighting, but it should be more sustained,” said Congress leader Udit Raj, who is a member of the newly formed committee.
The Congress party had raised various issues of farm laws, price rise, Pegasus etc in the recently concluded monsoon season of the parliament, where the Congress and other opposition MPs had resorted to vandalism.
This 9-member agitation committee has been formed by the Congress party after it had formed a 11-member committee to plan celebrations for 75th year of independence. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is the chairman and Congress leader Mukul Wasnik has been appointed as convenor of that committee. Senior Congress leaders AK Antony, Meira Kumar, Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Pramod Tiwari, Mullappally Ramachandran, KR Ramesh Kumar and Pradyut Bordoloi are the other members of the committee. This committee will oversee the yearlong celebrations of the 75th year of independence by the Congress party, which will run parallel to the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Reportedly, there were dissatisfaction among several Congress leaders over the composition of that committee as included several leaders from the G-23 faction like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mukul Wasnik.
On Wednesday, actor Naseeruddin Shah had released a video criticising Indian Muslims who seemed elated at the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Terming the celebration by Indian Muslims over the Taliban’s victory as dangerous, Shah stated that every Indian Muslim should ask himself whether he wants a “reformed, modern Islam” or the “barbaric values” of past centuries.
Shah even went on to say that his ‘Islam’ is inspired by Mirza Ghalib, which is non-political and ‘Hindustani Islam’ has always been different from the Islam that is practised elsewhere and prayed that the Indian version of Islam doesn’t change so much that it is no longer recognisable’
However, Shah, who is usually a favourite of Indian Islamists and so-called ‘secular-liberals’ for his anti-Modi stand, suddenly was ‘cancelled‘. Islamists of all hues and range started condemning Shah’s condemnation, asking him not to preach what Islam should or should not be. Apparently, talking about reforms within the religion is not Islamist enough for Islamists. Here are some samples:
Screenshots from Twitter
Rifat Jawaid of the pro-AAP blog Janta Ka Reporter even went a step ahead and declared Shah as ‘not Muslim enough’ to speak about Islam, “because he is not a practising Muslim and he has no knowledge about some topics.”
Jawaid then went ahead and clarified what “knowledge” he was talking about. As per him, putting geographical tags on Islam is haram. Islam apparently knows no separate kingdoms or regions. Islam remains the same regardless of region. The Caliphate junkies of ISIS would be really proud of him.
The very idea of a Caliphate or global Islamic brotherhood is based upon the idea that Islam itself is the supreme identity and its adherents need not oblige to any other ethnic, regional or cultural identities. ISIS believes in it. The terrorism sponsors of Pakistan believe in it and every other radical who has blown himself up for the sake of ‘Jannah’ or ‘Ummah’ believes in it too. Jawaid just explained it in simpler terms.
Jawaid and Naqvi are just two examples from the so-called ‘elite’, there are dozens of others who are spewing venom on Naseeruddin Shah, declaring him unfit to issue advice and suggestions, even accusing him of trying to appease the Hindus. Just regular ‘Ummah’ things on Indian social media.
‘Swara Bhaskar not woke enough’
Swara Bhaskar was cancelled recently too. She was cancelled because she was seen following the Hindu rituals of Grih Pravesh. For a section of ‘secular-liberals’, following the rituals of one’s own religion, if that religion is Hinduism, is haram. On the contrary, Hindus who openly deride Hinduism, make Gaumutra jokes, eat beef and abuse Hindu Gods, are celebrated instantly.
Any Hindu who praises Islamic values and lifestyle is praised too. No matter how many high-fives Swara had given to Islamists and ‘wokes’, no matter how many Gaumutra jokes she had cracked, she was mercilessly cancelled the moment she was seen following Hindu rituals of Grih Pravesh, under the guidance a Hindu priest.
The comments got so heavy that the actress had to compensate her previous post with an explainer, that being Hindus does not necessarily mean being hateful, such is the power of narrative setting.
Praying to my Hindu Gods & still don’t want to kill or lynch Dalits or Muslims, still don’t believe in or practice discrimination, still believe in social justice, Liberty & equality. Still can raise my voice against injustice, hate & bigotry. Shockingly, it’s possible! ??✨ pic.twitter.com/IYf9HsIvps
Anyone that deviates from the directive is ‘cancelled’
It is not just Swara and Naseeruddin. Not very long ago, Naseeruddin Shah was seen spewing venom against the government of India in anti-CAA protests, instigating Muslims against a law that had nothing to do with them and did not affect them in any way. He had been peddling the ‘Dara Hua Musalman’ narrative for years now. And yet, the moment he speaks about reforms, and warns against barbarism spread in the name of Islam, he gets cancelled. It is a mandate, it is an omerta. You follow the strict directive, or you will be cancelled.
Indian, and for that matter even the global Left-liberal intelligentsia is a slave at the feet of Islamists. The very same ‘feminists’ who cry hoarse over women rights in liberal democracies promptly affirm that ‘Hijab is a choice’, the same ‘liberals’ who proclaim themselves as champions of diversity and inclusion, never dare to speak against homophobic laws in Muslim countries.
For Indian Islamists, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was ‘not Muslim enough’. Sagarika Ghose had called him ‘bomb daddy’, ‘scholars’ had written articles about how the former President and scientist was ‘too-Hindu-friendly’, Arfa Khanum Sherwani had asked why is he eulogised and so on.
The same Naseeruddin Shah was hailed and praised when he harped on how the Indian Muslim is the victim of injustice, hatred. He was celebrated when he asked anti-CAA protestors to agitate against the government. But the moment he talks about reforms, he gets promptly cancelled. Despite being a successful, celebrated actor, loved all over the country, Shah had peddled the fake ‘I am afraid for my children” narrative and was hailed for it by the same Islamists and ‘liberals’ who today cancelled him for speaking about reforms.
Recently, IPS officer Najmul Hoda in an article in The Print, explained how the Indian Muslims and ‘liberals’ are trapped in a toxic relationship. He discusses how the so-called ‘liberals’ kept Muslims confined to a certain mindset of denial, whitewashing over historical instances and making them believe that they are perpetual victims, thus binding the entire population in a mental state where they actively denounce reforms.
The cancellation of Shah is just an example of the larger reality that is the ugly underbelly of the Global Left. It is “my way or the highway”. ‘Liberalism’ in India is about perpetual victimhood peddling, whitewashing and smokescreens.
It was evident when the ‘liberals’, interestingly Swara included, were enthusiastically equating the Taliban with India’s democratically elected government. Imran Khan the terrorism sponsor becomes a star for them, Sharjeel Imam and his separatist buddies are painted as victims but just because he is Hindu, Yogi Adityanath is always a villain. In the case of Indian ‘liberals’, all their intellect, their thought process, and talks of progressive ideologies lie firmly at the feet of Islamist radicals.
The Karnataka government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has taken a decision for a massive vaccination drive on priority basis within a 20-km radius on the borders with Kerala.
We’re vaccinating the population in districts bordering Kerala. Students/employees coming from Kerala have to quarantine for one week &do an RT-PCR test at the end of the 7-day quarantine.We’re taking all possible measures to prevent spread of COVID: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai pic.twitter.com/KBbOrJt7ng
Accordingly, the Karnataka government has directed the south Kannada administration—that shares borders with Kerala — to also vaccinate fishermen and fish traders on priority basis since they visit Kerala.
Bommai also asked the south Kannada administration for deployment check posts on Kerala border to check the travelers.
Despite having a robust Covid control and vaccination management system the Karnataka government is worried about the safety of its people. It is because of the reason as Karnataka shares borders with Kerala which is ruled by a highly incompetent Left government.
The news agency ANI has tweeted “We’re vaccinating the population in districts bordering Kerala. Students/employees coming from Kerala have to quarantine for one week &do an RT-PCR test at the end of the 7-day quarantine. We’re taking all possible measures to prevent the spread of COVID: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai.”
As told and explained; people namely students/employees coming from Kerala to Karnataka will have to stay in quarantine for one week followed by an RT-PCR test.
Currently, Karnataka gets 64 lakh to 65 lakh doses of vaccine a month. But Karnataka will now require more than double of the dose.
The Karnataka government has fixed a target to administer five lakh doses per day. The government has announced a special vaccination camp named Lasika Utsav to be held every Wednesday with a target of 10 lakh doses.
The fear of the Karnataka government is not unfounded. According to a recent report carried by OpIndia and a few others as many as 65 students from Kerala were tested positive for Covid-19 who study at a nursing college in Kolar in Karnataka. They had returned from Kerala carrying a negative certificate.
The fallacious Kerala model of ‘Covid-19 control’ propagated by the Lutyens gang has emerged as a monument of lapses and lies as Kerala has been reporting the highest number of Covid 19 cases. There is a tandem of Left government and Leftist media at play and the lies are still being littered that Kerala has controlled Covid-19. However, such reports read like poor and filthy jokes of some degraded stand-up comedians.
Karnataka is among some of the states of India that has remarkably done well on the front of Covid control and vaccination. Karnataka is quite different from Kerala where the Left government was more interested in minority appeasement and alleging the Narendra Modi government.
The official Covid chart looks like a memo to an incompetent left regime that has failed to protect its people.
Kerala cases
As per data on covid19india.org, Kerala has 2,29,941 active cases as of 2 September, 2021. To put things in perspective, total active cases in all of India stands at 3,82,934. Karnataka, on the other hand, has 18,412 active cases. In such a scenario, it is natural for Karnataka to equip districts that share border with Kerala to fight the pandemic.
With the demise of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, several netizens took to Twitter to share the gory past of the Hurriyat leader.
Similarly, journalist and Kashmiri Pandit Aditya Raj Kaul shared a video of him asking pointed questions to the separatist leader in 2011 at a press conference which led to threats and intimidation.
Sharing the video Kaul Tweeted, “I met Syed Ali Shah Geelani twice in life. Most interestingly when India Today invited me to speak at their 2011 Conclave in New Delhi where I exposed his links with masters across the border in Pakistan and how he supported terrorism. The crowd booed when he tried to respond.”
I met Syed Ali Shah Geelani twice in life. Most interestingly when India Today invited me to speak at their 2011 Conclave in New Delhi where I exposed his links with masters across the border in Pakistan and how he supported terrorism. The crowd booed when he tried to respond.? pic.twitter.com/oVMv91vrhY
Kaul who stood unabashed in front of the Hurriyat leader regarded him as a mirror image of once dreaded terrorist Osama Bin Laden for talking about democracy. Sharing an anecdote of the fateful exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in the 1990s, Kaul narrated, “I was just nine months old when my mother had to wrap me in a cloth and flee so that people like Geelani do not kill me and hundred other children like me.”
“There were hundreds of children killed and hundreds of women raped,” continued Kaul to suggest that he was talking as a Kashmiri to Geelani and not as a Hindu Pandit.
“What does he (Geelani) have to say about Kashmiri Pandits, Ladakis and Jammu people who have been suffering since all these years,” asked Kaul garnering applause for his unfrightened demeanor.
Kaul then asserted that he does not expect any answer from Geelani knowing his ideology and leaning. He then asked why did the Hurriyat leader get even his own people killed only because they spoke in favor of India.
“You are only faithful to your masters across the border,” said Kaul vociferously accusing accused Geelani of establishing a gun culture in the valley which set the base for the exodus.
To this Geelani giving a rather predictable but shameful answer said that the Hurriyat had no role to play in the exodus of Kashmiri pandits and that it was all a ploy of then-governor Jagmohan Malhotra.
The audience broke into laughter at Geelani’s response and also booed him for it.
Geelani who died at the age of 92 on Wednesday in Srinagar, spent his entire lifetime peddling Pakistan’s agenda in Jammu and Kashmir.
Geelani was a key hardliner separatist leader in Kashmir, who had played a major role in the increase in separatist activists in the region. The only ones to mourn his death were the likes of Mehbooba Mufti.
Bollywood director Faisal Khan, the brother of Aamir Khan, has made some sensational disclosure in his recent interview, saying that his brother pressurised him to grant his signatory rights and locked him up by falsely declaring him as a “mentally ill” person.
Speaking to Navbharat Times, Faisal Khan opened up about his complicated relationship with his brother Aamir Khan in the last few years, especially after its legal tussle with the Bollywood superstar over his custody.
The legal battle between the two brothers had taken place after Aamir Khan’s family had kept Faisal Khan “under house arrest” for about a year. Aamir Khan and his family had allegedly locked up Faisal Khan at his house over suspicion that Faisal was depressed and had paranoid schizophrenia.
Earlier in an interview, in an explosive interview, Faisal Khan had rejected the talks around his depression and mental illness as a lie. He had said he was never depressed or had paranoid schizophrenia and had made some serious allegations against his family.
Responding to the same, in his latest interview, Faisal revealed that he might have forgiven brother Aamir Khan, however, it has not been tough to forget the incident. The actor-turned-producer said that he still fears Aamir Khan and suffers from trauma following his house arrest.
The actor also said that he had to “run away” from home to avoid being a forever prisoner in Aamir Khan’s house.
In the interview, Faisal said despite all the suffering, he wished Aamir Khan and his family the best, however, following the trauma he suffered, he has resolved to maintain a distance from them.
He said he has been trying to regain his lost glory through his new film called Faactory, in which he has acted and also directed.
Aamir Khan wanted my signatory rights, admitted me in a hospital for mental evaluation
In the interview, Faisal further disclosed that Aamir Khan and his family deliberately declared that he was depressed and had paranoid schizophrenia.
The actor-turned-director said that he had to move to the court when Aamir Khan asked him to give up his signatory rights. Faisal Khan said his lawyer had advised him to leave the city for a while, however, he added that Aamir Khan tracked him with the help of the police and forced him to get treatment for the purported mental illness.
“I was given the wrong medication for one year, which was very unfair on the family’s part. I was quietly tolerating it all, hoping that they will finally understand,” Faisal Khan said in his interview.
Faisal Khan, the younger brother of Aamir Khan, said that he was forcefully admitted to Mumbai’s JJ hospital, where he underwent a mental evaluation for twenty days, after which he was declared of sound mind and mentally healthy.
Faisal Khan, who first appeared with Aamir in the critical and commercial dud Mela, is making his comeback with Faactory, which is scheduled to release in the first week of September.
Khan has directed a film Factory whose trailer was recently released. The film is expected to hit theatres on September 3.
The sudden and shaky withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan has embarrassed the Biden government to no end. What can be seen as an attempt to conceal a botched-up exit strategy, the Biden officials are now deleting official data of military equipment deployed in Afghanistan from Federal websites.
A Forbes report based on an admission obtained from the State Department, suggests that the Biden government has instructed federal agencies to erase data of official reports detailing dollars flushed in the 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
The audits and reports asked to be scrubbed include the $82.9 billion spent on military equipment and training provided to the Afghan security forces since 2001. These entail the Black Hawk helicopters, armoured vehicles, hand grenades, night vision devices and more.
Reportedly the US govt has spent billions on 208 aircraft and helicopters; 75,000 war vehicles – including 22,000 Humvees, 50,000 tactical vehicles and nearly 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles; and 600,000 weapons – including 350,000 M4 and M16 rifles, 60,000 machine guns, and 25,000 grenade launchers in the past 20 years of its presence in Afghanistan.
The Biden government has justified its action by saying that ‘it is a move to protect Afghan allies.’ “The safety of our Afghan contacts is of utmost importance to us,” said a spokesperson.
“The State Department advised other federal agencies to review their web properties for content that highlights cooperation/participation between an Afghan citizen and the USG or a USG partner and remove from public view if it poses a security risk,” he said further.
However, it is imperative to note that the Biden administration’s excuse is just an empty defence. In a misguided attempt at evacuation, the US government has already handed over a list of Afghans to the Taliban for clearance.
Audit reports that do not identify military personnel also erased
The Biden officials claimed that the exercise was being undertaken to safeguard the military officials who stood by them in the 20 years of war. However, two reports which did not identify any personnel but just quantified military equipment were also taken down.
A Government Accountability Office spokesperson confirmed, “The State Department requested we temporarily remove and review reports on Afghanistan to protect recipients of US assistance that may be identified through our reports and thus subject to retribution.”
A Special Inspector General For Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) official also admitted that they have received requests to pull down reports from public view.
“In recent days, some SIGAR reports have been temporarily removed from the agency’s public website due to ongoing security concerns in accordance with guidance received from the U.S. Department of State. This is in line with actions taken by other U.S. federal agencies and is out of an abundance of caution,” said the SIGAR spokesperson.
The Taliban are currently in possession of military equipment worth over $80 billions which the Biden administration chose to dump in Afghanistan.
Taliban parade captured US military equipment
Meanwhile, the Taliban on Wednesday paraded the captured Humvees outside Afghanistan’s second-biggest city, Kandahar decorated with white-and-black Taliban flags attached to aerials.
Pick-up trucks laden with supporters cruised by the convoy of military vehicles armed with heavy weapons and machine guns.
Videos of the Taliban trying to fly the Black Hawks have also been doing the rounds on social media.
Every parent wants the best future for their children. Most parents do not think twice before investing heavily in education to ensure their children get the best possible chance at success. From admissions in modern schools to sending children to foreign universities for higher studies, the money involved in the education sector is beyond anyone can comprehend. Notably, when there are billions of Rupees flowing in the education sector, people see education as a huge moneymaking machine.
Byju’s is a titan of the Indian ed-tech market, and its flagship program, The Learning App, has 40m users and 2.8m paid subscribers; its valuation is about to climb to $21b; it’s been on a spending spree, buying up competitors in Asia and the USA.
A lot of companies have come up with solutions for schools, teachers and students to provide them support according to their needs. One such “sparkling golden star” in the industry is Byju’s. Launched in 2015, Byju’s is a “flagship program”, the “most asked-for learning app” that promises the students and their parents unimaginable success through its platforms. Reportedly, there are around 40 million users on the app, with 2.8 million paid subscribers. And these numbers are from before the schools were shut due to the Covid pandemic.
As on August 28, it was reported that Byju’s is eyeing 10,000 crores in revenues this year.
Cory Doctorow, author, journalist and activist, recently published a thread on Twitter in which he pointed out problems associated with Byju’s and other such ed-tech aggregators in India and abroad. He mentioned that currently, the company’s valuation stands at $21 billion, and it is on a spending spree taking over competitors in Asia and the USA.
Cory quoted a report that was published in Rest of World on August 30, authored by Akanksha Singh. In the report, it was described how the sales culture in the company is rotten from top to bottom. The report has stated that the sales staff of Byju’s hustle poor parents and lure them into taking predatory loans so that the salespersons can hit their target.
Byju’s and its spending spree
Singh’s report had stated that in 2021 itself, Byju’s bought six competitors, including Aakash Educational Services, one of the largest coaching institutes in India, for $950 million. It also bought American company Epic, Singaporean company Great Learning and others. The company offers a series of e-learning programs for students from age four and above. It also provides training for competitive exams, which is itself a huge business in India.
Singh’s sources include “7 current and former employees at Byju’s,” who describe the company’s pivot from emphasizing private tutors for wealthy families to subscriptions for poor parents who can’t afford them, coupled with predatory loans.
But how an education platform rose to such success in a few years? The catch is the alleged toxic and hostile work culture at Byju’s. In her report, Singh quoted one of the former sales representatives of the company who said that he left the company on the day he had to sell the package to a poor driver who merely had Rs.700 or $9 in his bank account. The driver took a loan from his boss and told the sales representative that “he would work 24×7 to repay the loan.” The sales guy said, “That was the day I resigned.”
Sales executives trap vulnerable parents in guilt
Reports suggest that sales representatives or business development executives (BDE) use guilt-trap techniques to trap poor and illiterate parents in buying the packages. According to an article published in The Morning Context by the title “How Byju’s catches parents”, the author narrated the whole process by which the sales representatives allegedly trap the parents.
The sales executives reportedly often use hard-sell tactics. Approaching anyone and everyone they come in contact with to register for the app and keep using it beyond the 15-days free trial period. The overworked, and over-pushed sales team has to spend long working hours to meet unrealistic targets. Often, it is the lower middle class and uneducated parents who end up taking loans after listening to a sales exec narrate how their child will face a dark future if they do not sign up for the learning app.
Cory quoted one of the reports on Byju’s in which it was mentioned how BDEs trap the parents in guilt. He wrote in a tweet, “One former sales associate summarized the pitch: “Your son can be nothing in life if he doesn’t go with Byju’s — and if you, as a parent, can’t [secure] your kid’s happiness and future … you might as well have not had kids.” Any parent who is even slightly vulnerable to such tactics would fall into their trap almost immediately.
One former sales associate summarized the pitch: “Your son can be nothing in life if he doesn’t go with Byju’s — and if you, as a parent, can’t [secure] your kid’s happiness and future … you might as well have not had kids.”
One of the BDEs told The Morning Context that he once pitched the package to a lady who wanted to buy it for her grandson, but the grandson was more interested in learning the Pakoda selling business she owned. The BDE decided not to sell her the package and left the company after few days. The stories several portals covered are the same. BDEs leave the job at Byju’s because of the toxic sales culture. After a point, they started to feel under extreme pressure and guilty for what they were doing to the parents.
And it quotes ed-tech activist Pradeep Poonia – a former ed-tech worker – who describes a host of deceptive tactics rooted in the fact that “Edtech is trying to solve problems that don’t exist.”
Pradeep Poonia, the activist who exposed Byju’s and other such apps, had uploaded a video in January 2021 that was allegedly a phone conversation between a manager and a new BDE in the company. It looks like new recruits were supposed to call the managers at a fixed time or after every demo they give to the parents. However, this particular BDE failed to do so and faced abuses by the manager.
“The problems” that do not exist
Poonia had once said that the “Edtech is trying to solve problems that don’t exist,” and it is not farfetched. It is true that we are living in a competitive world and want the best for our children, but that does not mean we should push them to something that is not even close to what they need. Notably, a defamation case was filed against Poonia by WhiteHatJr (Now owned by Byju’s) in November 2020 for exposing the alleged toxic work culture and problems faced by the parents. However, it was later withdrawn in May 2021.
There are several problems with the courses. The first being the language barrier. The courses Byju’s offers are in English. Their target families who may buy packages for their children are from the not-so-well-educated background, and the children are from Hindi or another language-medium school. In such cases, the courses are of no use.
The other problem with these courses is the lack of interest that students develop after a certain period. The morning context quoted a parent who said that his daughter loses interest in the course after two years. The app was useless for the next year as he had already paid for three years. The reason? Reports suggest students often do not find “enough practice questions, and the questions aren’t dynamic. After a point, questions get repeated.” When parents try to raise the concerns to the mentors or company officials assigned to their account, they had no answers.
The loan trap
Another problem with Byju’s highlighted in the articles is that it offers loan options via two partners. In some cases, they allegedly did not reveal to the parents that the EMI option they are taking would be via a loan that would be taken in the name of the parents. If a parent fails to pay EMI, the loan company starts to threaten them to repay the loan. It also adversely affects the CIBIL score of the parents. In case someone wants to cancel the subscription to the course, it can only be done in the first 15 days. If a student stops using the app after few months, the parents have to pay the remaining EMIs as Byju’s has already got its money and the liability of repaying the loan is on the parents.
In India, with a 1.3 billion-plus population scrambling for resources, competition is always severe. In the hustle to ensure a better job, a better life for their children, parents spend a lot of their hard-earned money on coaching classes, private tuition. An entire industry in India flourishes in the name of private coaching, which is beyond the regular academic hours, just to prepare students for the competitive and entrance exams. With the advent of technology and internet connectivity, the private tuition industry has now evolved into the vast ed-tech industry where millions of children and parents are joining a mad rush to get ahead of each other.
China’s crackdown on ed-tech companies
A similar boom in the ed-tech sector and the mad rush of parents to enrol their children in private coaching had been slowly stirring public grievances in China. With a goal to regulate private capital in the private tuition sector and to prevent the growing concerns about unhealthy competition, the Chinese government had recently announced major curbs on the ed-tech industry.
In one sweeping move, the Chinese government banned after-school tuition/coaching companies from earning profits, raising capital or going public. The directive mandated that all ed-tech companies will re-register as ‘non-profit’ organisations, local authorities will not allow any new ed-tech company, and existing companies will be subject to examination. Any online courses for 3 to 6-year-old children have been banned. No ed-tech company can teach school subjects on holidays or weekends.
China’s severe crackdown on the ed-tech business has stirred up a lot of discussion in India too. There are already voices that were cautioning against the unhealthy rush of pushing children into a barrage of courses and tuitions beyond school hours. With the advent of the ed-tech boom, the concerns regarding mental health, financial impacts and long-term effects on the education sector are being discussed too.
A day after veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah condemned Indian Muslims for celebrating the victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan, some Indian Muslims descended on the social media platforms to abuse the award-winning actor for asking Muslims to observe peace and non-violence and not support radical Islamist groups.
On Wednesday, Naseeruddin Shah released a video condemning a section of Indian Muslims for celebrating the onslaught of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The veteran actor termed a section of Indian Muslims celebrating the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan as dangerous.
“While the Taliban regaining power in Afghanistan is a cause for concern for the whole world, celebrations by a section of Indian Muslims of the barbarians are no less concerning,” said Shah in a video.
His video had come as a reaction to a section of Indian Muslims glorifying the radical Islamist outfit Taliban for capturing Afghanistan using force. Prominent Muslim clerics, a section of Indian “secular-liberal” media, had congratulated the Taliban for its recent success in Afghanistan and had said that the victory of the Taliban in the war-torn country is a moment of celebration for the entire Islamic community.
In response to such celebrations, the 71-year-old actor had released a video saying those rejoicing in the revival of the Taliban should question themselves if “they want to reform their religion or live with the old barbarism”.
In the video, Shah added that each Indian Muslim should ponder whether they are interested in a “reformed, modern Islam” or the “barbaric values” of past centuries.
“I am an Indian Muslim, and, as Mirza Ghalib said years ago, my relationship with my God is informal. So I don’t need a political religion,” the veteran actor said.
Naseeruddin Shah also further distinguished between what he called “Hindustani Islam” and what is practised elsewhere. “May God not bring a time when Islam in India changes so drastically that it is no longer recognisable,” he said in the video that has gone viral now.
Islamists take offence against Naseeruddin Shah’s video, asks him to mind his own business
The timely video of Naseeruddin Shah advising the fellow Muslims about cosying up to the radical Islamists outfits such as the Taliban has created an outrage in the Muslim community. Several Muslims, including the literates ones, have taken offence to the video of the veteran actor and have asked him to stay away from commenting on Islam.
Rifat Jawaid, of pro-AAP blog Janta Ka Reporter, slammed Naseeruddin Shah for his comments and said that he should rather stick to his films and steer clear of topics he does not know.
Calling Naseeruddin Shah a “non-practising” Muslim, Jawaid attacked the veteran actor for demanding religious reforms in Islam. “I wish he had first practised Islam before coming up with this appalling suggestion,” Rifat Jawaid said in his Twitter post.
Saba Naqvi, another ‘journalist’, also had a problem with Naseeruddin Shah’s advice to Indian Muslims. Taking to Twitter, Saba Naqvi asked why are so many Indian Muslims being asked to condemn the Taliban. She asked whether Indian Muslims chose, elect or invite the Taliban to India.
Saba Naqvi further said that the veteran actor has fallen into a trap to speak on the issue of the Taliban take over of Afghanistan.
Well, it is not just Rifat and Saba. Since yesterday, several Muslim social media users have been active on Twitter to abuse and condemn Naseeruddin Shah for giving “friendly” advice to his Muslim brethren.
Mohammed Hazar Imam schooled Naseeruddin Shah, saying that there is no need for reforms in Islam and nobody can bring reforms to the religion. Hazar Imam also claimed that if one followed the rules of Islam with all sincerity, he would be successful not just in his life but also in life after his death.
Another user Abdul Shahid said that Islam is about following Quran and following the Sunnah of the Nabi and nothing else. Refuting Naseeruddin Shah, Shahid claimed that Islam was already complete since its inception 1400 years ago, and there is nothing to add or remove from the religion.
They were responding to the video shared by The Wire journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani. However, she has since done a flip flop on the entire issue. Initially, Arfa had taken to Twitter to post the video of Naseeruddin Shah on her timeline, quoting, “Indian Muslims should think whether they want reform and modernism in their religion or the values of past centuries.”
However, she took a u-turn after Islamists began to abuse her on the timeline. Fearing condemnation from fellow co-religionists, Arfa took a u-turn, saying she disagreed with Naseeruddin Shah. She said he could not certify who is an ideal or perfect Muslim.
“Only Allah knows who is the most virtuous of us all,” Arfa said, adding that she does not agree with everything Naseeruddin Shah said.
Responding to Arfa Khanum Sherwani, who initially was on the same page as Naseeruddin Shah but later changed her stance after being trolled by Islamists, a social media user Wasim Shaikh warned both Arfa and Naseer to not offer their opinion on the issue as they have no status to talk about Islam. He said if Muslims acts like Mongols, the world will be full of Muslims by now.
Taki Khan indirectly compared Naseeruddin Shah to a dog.
Ever since Taliban took over Afghanistan, people have raised their concerns over human rights violation as well as women’s rights. Shocking visuals emerged from Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Islamist group where people were trying to get out of the country in hope for a better future. Visuals of people hanging on to planes as they took off went viral along with visuals of Afghans falling from the sky from these planes. Amid all this, many Indian Muslims have welcomed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Taliban is a believed to have drawn inspiration from Deobandi movement from Uttar Pradesh.
Uprooting the Taliban is the guiding principle of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters formed in the wake of the 2021 Taliban offensive. The group is led by vice president Amrullah Saleh and Afghan politician and military leader Ahmad Massoud, the 32-year-old son of the celebrated mujahedeen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
As fates would have it, Massoud found himself eerily at the same crossroads as his father did more than two decades ago. He needed to figure out whether to surrender to the Taliban and accept their supremacy or mount a resistance to reclaim his country. And expectedly, Massoud made the same choice his father did and picked up his tenacious fight against the Taliban.
Just days after the Taliban stormed Kabul and toppled the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government in a swift offensive on August 15, Massoud and Saleh retreated to Panjshir, a narrow mountainous valley province 70km north of Kabul, which has a storied history of never succumbing to invaders and whose residence swore allegiance to the legendary Massoud name.
It was the Panjshir valley from where the revered Afghan fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud controlled his anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban campaigns in the 1980s and 90s respectively. Now, as the Taliban once again threatens to establish its hegemony, Massoud’s son has aped his father and mobilised armed militias to launch the resistance movement against the fundamentalist group.
Who is Ahmad Massoud?
Ahmad Massoud was born in July 1989 in the Warsaj district of Afghanistan. He is the only son and the oldest of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s six children.
With Afghanistan remaining perpetually in flux, Massoud was sent to neighbouring Iran where he completed his secondary education. He then spent a year studying a military course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK.
In 2012, he began pursuing an undergraduate course in WarStudies at King’s College London and obtained his bachelor’s degree three years later, in 2015. He also completed his master’s degree in International Politics from City, the University of London in 2016. Interestingly, his topic of dissertation in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses was the Taliban.
As Massoud was occupied with his intellectual pursuits, the condition back in Afghanistan deteriorated sharply, with the Taliban making significant gains amidst a rudderless US-led NATO campaign. After completing his master’s degree, Massoud returned to Afghanistan to mobilise resistance against the Taliban.
On August 18, three days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, Massoud penned a poignant opinion piece in the Washington Post, describing his opinions on the protracted struggle that lies ahead of him and his fellow resistance members.
“I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time because we knew this day might come,” Massoud wrote, highlighting the inevitable that lays ahead.
Massoud also cautioned the west on leaving Afghanistan in the lurch, asserting that such an ill-thought strategy could haunt the countries for years to come as it would provide a breeding ground not just to the Taliban, but also to the forces inimical to democracies around the world and spawn a new wave of radical Islamist terrorism.
“The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will, without doubt, become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again,” Massoud wrote.
Massoud is currently in Panjshir and raising an armed militia to confront the Taliban. In his interaction with French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, Massoud harked back to the harangue his father delivered to his soldiers in a cave in Panjshir in 1998. “When you fight for your freedom, you fight also for our freedom,” Massoud told Levy he heard his father saying it to a gathering of soldiers.
Inviting all anti-Taliban forces to combine their efforts against the Taliban, Massoud told Levy that the “resistance has just begun” as “surrender is not a part of his vocabulary”.
Invoking this belief, Massoud, in his opinion write-up, sought help from the West, saying, “We have fought for so long to have an open society, one where girls could become doctors, our press could report freely, our young people could dance and listen to music or attend soccer matches in the stadiums that were once used by the Taliban for public executions — and may soon be again.”
Regardless of whether the West throws its weight behind Massoud or not, several reports say he has already attracted thousands of soldiers to the valley, including remnants of the Afghan Army’s special forces and some of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s experienced guerrilla commanders, who see in Massoud not only a striking resemblance to his father but also a reflection of his grit and determination.
The legacy of Ahmad Shah Massoud
Ahmad Shah Massoud is a legendary figure in Afghanistan, hailed by his followers as a revolutionary hero. He was born in 1953 in Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley to a well-to-do family native to the Panjshir valley. While he was born in Panjshir, he spent most of his time in Kabul after his family shifted from the valley to Herat and then finally to the Afghan capital.
Massoud, the father, was a Francophile who was educated in the lycée in Kabul. His birth name was Ahmad Shah but he embraced the name “Massoud” as nom de guerre when he went into the resistance movement in 1974. But he rose to prominence as an ethnic Tajik mujahideen commander after joining the rebel forces against the Soviets in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s.
Massoud earned the sobriquet of “Lion of Panjshir” among his followers for his role as a powerful insurgent leader of the Afghan mujahideen after he successfully repelled the Soviets from capturing the Panjshir Valley. In the late 1990s, he redirected his armed rebellion against the Taliban, rejecting their puritanic interpretation of Islam. He was pushed back to Tajikistan for anti-Taliban activities, following which he became the military and political leader of the Northern Alliance, which by 2000 controlled only between 5 and 10 per cent of the country.
Lion of Panjshir Ahmad Shah Massoud
Then in April 2001, Massoud travelled to Strasbourg to forewarn the European Parliament about Afghanistan being used as a base for the terror by Osama bin Laden. In the same year on September 9, two days before the 9/11 attacks, Massoud was killed in a bomb attack by Al-Qaeda. The assassination was said to have been a gift by Laden to the Taliban that reportedly won him protection from the group. The 9/11 attacks ultimately resulted in NATO allying with the Northern Alliance and deposing the Taliban from power in December 2001.
The Taliban steps up attacks to bring Panjshir Valley under control
With the Panjshir Valley being Afghanistan’s only remaining holdout, the Taliban has intensified its offensive to bring the last independent enclave under its control. It has laid siege to the region and called upon the National Resistance Front (NRF) to lay down its arms.
The development came after negotiation talks between the Taliban and the NRF that took place on Wednesday failed to yield any result. The resistance force said it will continue its campaign against the Taliban. 13 members of the Taliban were killed in an ambush by National resistance in the Chikrinow district of Panjshir province, and one of their tanks was destroyed.
As the resistance force girds for the impending clashes with the Taliban, it remains to be seen whether Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh succeed in preserving the valley’s reputation as the deathbed of invaders or does the Taliban trounces the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan to consolidate their grip over the country.
