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How George Soros is fueling a dangerous anti-India narrative through media and ‘civil society’

OpIndia Staff
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How George Soros is fueling a dangerous anti-India narrative through media and ‘civil society’

George Soros is a Hungarian-American businessman and a self-proclaimed philanthropist who had vowed to ‘fight nationalists’ and conservative governments worldwide, which he often refers to as ‘authoritarian governments’. During the course of his life, if there is one thing George Soros has hated the most, it is India and its nationalist government led by Prime Minister Modi.

Through his Open Society Foundation, which started its operations in India first in 1999 by offering scholarships and fellowships to pursue studies and research at Indian institutions, Soros has made great strides in creating disorder within India. In the name of running philanthropic activities, the left-wing international organisation led by Soros has begun to spread its tentacles across the country by his active support to anti-India elements operating inside India.

In the last few decades, George Soros has time and again has shown his desperation to wage war against the nationalist government in India through various networks funded by him comprising of NGOs, media, intelligentsia, etc.

Regarding his philanthropy work, Soros’s OSF grasped a stronghold in India during the Obama regime. Ever since its entry into India, OSF has tried to interlope in the internal affairs of the nation through the vast and interconnected network of organisations funded by George Soros. These organisations play a vital role in manipulating the original narrative and take the help of the judiciary and media to hinder the national interest.

In 2008, the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) had joined hands with Omidyar Network, Indian School of Business (ISB) and Google.org to launch their 17 million SONG fund to boost invetment. Together with other networks, Soros has provided extensive grants to media running into millions to manipulate political narratives.

Here are some of the intellectuals, journalists and NGOs operating in India that have been beneficiaries of George Soros’s “philanthropic funds”:

George Soros and his network of Intellectuals, Journalists and NGOs:

Through his network of NGOs, George Soros has cultivated a class of intellectuals who work resolutely towards opposing the Indian state, especially the nationalist government led by PM Narendra Modi. It all started in 1995 when George Soros contributed the initial seed fund to set up the Media Development Investment Fund.

The objective of the Soros-funded not-for-profit investment fund was to invest in ‘independent media’ in challenging countries with a history of media oppression. Currently, the Indian beneficiaries listed on the MDIF site are the far-left website Scroll and another website named Graam Vaani. 

Besides, the Open Society Foundation also funds the International Committee of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an international organisation with journalist affiliates worldwide, including India.

Some of the Indian journalists that are members of ICIJ are Ritu Sarin, Shyamlal Yadav and P Vaidyanathan Iyer of the Indian Express, Rakesh Kalshian – a former IANS editor who now works for German Channel Deutsche Welle (DW), Murali Krishnan and Yusuf Jameel of the Asian Age. ICIJ also has Syed Nazakat in its ranks, the founder and editor-in-chief of DataLEADS.

Besides funding media, the Open Society Foundation has also been a benefactor to left-leaning intellectuals who have constantly put out fake narratives against the current government. There are also some prominent names with extensive links to George Soros, but it is extremely unlikely that these connections will surprise anyone. Some of the most prominent among them are Harsh Mander, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Indira Jaising and Amartya Sen.

For instance, Amartya Sen, along with George Soros, is part of the advisory council of NGO Namati (funded by OSF) that works for ‘environmental justice’ in India. Amartya Sen is not just a regular speaker at the OSF, but George Soros has made a documentary with Sen.

Together with George Soros himself, Sen sits on the Advisory Council of the NGO Namati mentioned earlier in the report. Amartya Sen, of course, has an ideological hatred against the current dispensation and has a long history of making a series of bizarre arguments in his efforts to oppose the Narendra Modi government.

Amartya Sen’s links with George Soros.

Another controversial individual who has done more harm to India than any other person in recent times is none other than Harsh Mander. Harsh Mander, known for his close ties with the first family of the Congress party, has been associated with Open Society Foundations.

Mander served as an Advisory Board member of the international grantmaking network founded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations. His role in instigating the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots, particularly the violence around the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in December 2019, has been under scrutiny for some time now. Ironically, he had later filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court seeking the arrest of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur and Kapil Mishra for instigating violence. Other people have also noted this connection of Mander with Soros.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is another individual who sits on the Board of Directors of Namati.

Soros also has links with Yogendra Yadav. Yadav, who, as a professor at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies in 2006, had presented a State of Democracy in South Asia (SDSA) study in front of Soros, who was visiting India for the first time, as well as Amartya Sen.

Besides, some other Indians have also been appointed as Open Society Fellows by George Soros in the past.

Author and journalist Basharat Peer, known for peddling pro-Pakistan narrative in Kashmir, has served as an Open Society Fellow from 2009 and 2010, which is considered a very influential post in the intellectual circles.

Journalist Chitrangada Choudhury, who has previously worked with The Indian Express and The Hindustan Times, has also been a Research Fellow at the CSDS. Since 2014, Choudhury is an Open Society Fellow.

Similarly, Shekhar Singh, who claims to be an RTI activist and former faculty at St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, as well as the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, also is a beneficiary of George Soros. Moreover, Singh is also a part of the Soros network due to his association as an Open Society Fellow.

Interestingly, there is also a link between George Soros and Shekhar Gupta of The Print. Shekhar Gupta enjoys a special relationship with Soros as he is the only Indian journalist to whom George Soros gave the only electronic media interview when he used to host Walk the Talk for NDTV.

Besides, Soros’s only article written for the Indian press to date is published by Shekhar Gupta’s venture, The Print.

In addition, Soros’ Foundation and Omidyar Network have also funded $1.3 million to Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), with a long track record of attempts to thrust a biased fact-checking regime on India IFCN network.

NGOs sponsored by Soros:

Besides intellectuals and media networks, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations has also funded a large number of organisations in India.

In 2016, Open Society Foundations suffered a huge setback after the Indian Government was put them on a watch list, which essentially meant that it could not fund any of these organisations directly. As a result, since 2016, OSF needs prior sanction from the Home Ministry for sending money across to FCRA registered organizations in India.

Some of the NGOs that receive grants from Open Society Foundations:

Lawyers Collective – The controversial NGO headed by Indira Jaising and Anand Grover is known for its anti-government propaganda. Currently, Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover are on the dock as well for donations from George Soros’s network of NGOs their NGO Lawyers’ Collective.

The NDA government cancelled the FCRA licence of the NGO for using foreign contributions to achieve political objectives. The CBI had also registered an FIR in the matter in 2018 after the investigative agency raided them. The Supreme Court had issued notices to the duo as well for the FCRA violations.

Centre for Policy Research (CPR) – The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) is a  think tank focusing on public policy in India. It receives funding from Amartya Sen’s Namati, which in turn has received funds from Open Society. Some of the people associated with the controversial think tank are usual anti-BJP critics, such as Pratap Bhanu Mehta. Current President Yamini Aiyar is also known for her controversial views on the Indian government.

Multiple Action Research Group (MARG) – MARG is another organisation funded by Namati, which is funded by OSF. The NGO claims to works in the areas of legal rights and “helps people understand their legal rights”. The obscure organisation has also pushed for the implementation of RTE, an act that is viewed as discriminatory to schools run by the majority community.

Evangelical Trust Association of North India (ETANI) – This evangelical organisation handles property-related legal and governmental matters for the churches in North India. ETANI, which is an arm of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, documents news on the persecution of Christians across India.

In addition, there are NGOs such as the Centre for Civil Society (CCS), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Socio-Legal Information Centre – receive some form of funding from the Open Society Foundation.

Soros influence on the Global Media

George Soros has a tremendous influence on American media. The Media Research Center (MRC), an American media watchdog founded in 1987 to check the liberal bias in the media, discovered that over 30 major news organizations had links to George Soros. These organizations include the Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC. He has also financially supported the National Public Radio (NPR). In addition to all of this, George Soros has links to the Huffington Post too.

It is also reported that since 2003, George Soros has spent “more than $48 million funding media properties, including the infrastructure of news – journalism schools, investigative journalism and even industry organization”. Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism has also received extensive funds from the OSF. This is from 2011, the numbers will be exponentially higher now. George Soros has also funded numerous other journalism associations like The National Federation of Community Broadcasters, The National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Given all of this, the Western Media’s coverage of India shouldn’t really be surprising. The American media has traditionally held a bigoted view against India, and when it combines with the influence and financial power of one of the richest men in the world, the result is obvious. From advocacy for Radical Islam in Kashmir to fearmongering about the NRC and CAA, the Western Media’s coverage of India has been remarkably consistent.

George Soros actions against India

In his much-publicized WEF speech delivered at WEF, Soros made his views known to the world when he singled out rising nationalism as the greatest enemy of the open society. He had deliberately singled out India and blamed PM Modi’s Government for trying to create a Hindu state.

Terming India as the “biggest and most frightening setback occurred”, Soros had made plans known to everyone in no uncertain terms. Soros has been instrumental in propagating the anti-Indian government narrative in the international press by using his influence and trying to create anarchy on the streets of India.

In the name of freedom of expression and the western style of liberalism, a coalition of forces represented by billionaire investors like Soros, Omadiyar and Berggruen are leveraging India’s democracy and its institutions to leverage its fault-lines for fueling the discontent against the popular Government. Soros and his ecosystem have been largely successful in creating misinformation warfare on a massive scale by putting out negative and false narratives against the democratically-elected government with the help of left-liberal media outlets.

The long term investments to cultivating left-liberal intelligentsia, media and NGOs seem to have worked well for Soros. The well-oiled propaganda machinery created by Soros against the nationalist Indian government is there to stay and will continue to guide his objectives- to stem the rise of nationalism and defeat nationalistic forces.     

 

IMA asks Kerala to withdraw order allowing Bakrid gatherings as Covid cases rise, cites how other states have restricted Kanwar Yatra

OpIndia Staff
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IMA asks Kerala to withdraw order allowing Bakrid gatherings as Covid cases rise, cites how other states have restricted Kanwar Yatra

Indian Medical Association on Sunday has warned Kerala government against easing restrictions ahead of Bakri Eid even as the Chinese coronavirus pandemic rages unhinged in state. As per the statement released by the Medical body, a third wave of the pandemic is inevitable if appropriate steps are not taken.

“With the sustained progression of vaccination, avoiding mass gatherings in any form is the responsible duty expected at this crucial time from every citizen of our country. After the proactive visionary call of the Honorable prime minister to stop revenge tourism and not to invite the third wave by mass gatherings many proposed religious and pilgrimage Yatras were canceled,” the IMA said in a statement signed by Dr J A Jayalal, President IMA and Dr Jayesh Lele, General Secretary, IMA.

The IMA also said that the Supreme Court of India has taken suo moto cognisance of the issue and directed everyone to play vigilant role to mitigate the impending third wave.

“With the dedicated and committed services of the Government and the Modern medical fraternity, today we are in the declining phase of the second wave throughout the country, except in few states like Kerala and Maharashtra where we are still having the high number of cases,” IMA pointed out.

As of today, Kerala and Maharashtra contribute to over 60% of total new Chinese coronavirus cases in India. Kerala has been topping the list of state with highest new cases since days now and the trend is only upward with test positivity rate of over 10%.

Kerala cases

The IMA said that it is pained to see amidst the raise of cases and Seropositivity, the Kerala Government has issued an order to ease out lockdown followed in the state on the pretext of religious gatherings of Bakri Eid. “It is unwarranted and inappropriate at this time of Medical emergency. When many Northern states like J&K, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttaranchal have stopped, with a constructive sense of public safety the traditional and popular pilgrimage Yatras, it is an unfortunate learned state of Kerala had taken these retrograde decisions,” The IMA said.

IMA said that in the larger interest of the country and wellbeing of humanity, with the sense of responsibility, the Kerala State Government should immediately withdraw this order, enforce zero-tolerance against covid appropriate behaviours, and do not deviate from its statutory duty and vision to ensure the safety of State and Nation as a whole.

The IMA said that if the order is not withdrawn, with the sense of altruism, they will be constrained to move the Supreme Court against Kerala government order.

Kerala government had recently relaxed lockdown guidelines ahead of Bakri Eid and opened shops and malls on July 18, 19 and 20. Similar such restrictions were lifted last year in May as well ahead of Ramzan Eid even when the pandemic raged across the nation.

Meet the ‘dog parent’ IRS Babu with pronouns in bio who deactivated Twitter account and hates arranged marriages

OpIndia Staff
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Meet the ‘dog parent’ IRS Babu with pronouns in bio who deactivated Twitter account and hates arranged marriages

IRS officer Piyush Thorat earned the wrath of people on social media after delivering a ‘hot take’ on the concept of arranged marriages. The self-proclaimed ‘dog parent’ has since then deactivated his Twitter account. But that was not before netizens captured screenshots of some of the other problematic tweets he had made earlier or those that he had ‘liked’.

The tweet that started it all

Netizens captured a screenshot where it could be seen that Piyush Thorat had ‘liked’ a tweet that wished for death upon ‘Sanghis’.

Source: Twitter

On another occasion, Thorat retweeted a tweet that peddled hatred against Brahmins.

Source: Twitter

In another tweet, he appeared demonstrate an unbridled hostility for the rich.

Source: Twitter

Piyush Thorat, in the past, has also peddled hatred against North Indian men.

Source: Twitter

The animosity he bears towards the Brahmin community is quite evident from his tweets.

Source: Twitter

Thorat also idolizes rabid Hindu-hater Periyar.

Source: Twitter

Piyush Thorat has pronouns in his Twitter bio, a sufficient indication of his ideological inclinations.

Source: Twitter

Thorat has, since then, deleted his account. Thorat, an IRS officer of 2015 batch also believes that ‘rational people’ are the ones who identify themselves as ‘feminists, anti-casteist, communist and liberal’ amongst others.

His tweets demonstrate amply the authoritarian tendencies among Indian bureaucrats. It also highlights the ideological bias in the bureaucracy. It is particularly dangerous as their ideological orientations is at stark contrast with that of Indians at large.

The beliefs he is against, that is, his disdain for arranged marriages and love for gender identity politics, is at odds with even the voter-base of non-BJP parties. The conduct of bureaucrats during the Covid-19 pandemic, which ranged from thrashing the groom and purohita at a wedding to beating a boy who was out to get medicines, combined with the ideology that so many bureaucrats possess does not inspire confidence in them.

The Hindu journalist offers bizarre justification after their February prediction on vaccination proved to be wrong

OpIndia Staff
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The Hindu journalist offers bizarre justification after their February prediction on vaccination proved to be wrong

On 17th July, India crossed 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered to the people, with the vaccination rate picking up in the last one month. By the end of the day yesterday, India had vaccinated more than 40 crore or 400 million people, with around 51 lakh vaccinations on Saturday. This crossing the 400 million doses prompted a large number of social media users to inform The Hindu how their prediction vaccination has gone horribly wrong. But the author of the article refused to accept they erred in the prediction, and offered a bizarre justification instead.

On February 26, the newspaper had published an article titled “Data | India unlikely to meet its target of 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by July”. In the article, The Hindu had claimed that while then Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had expected to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses by July 2021, India will be able to vaccinate only 60 million doses by July.

The article had said that if the vaccination goes at the same rate as of February, it will be impossible to administer 400 million doses, only around 15% of the same would be done. It analysed that to meet the target, 2.44 million doses per day will be required, and concluded that it will be almost impossible to achieve.

The article also said that the vaccination rate in US and UK were enough to meet the target set by both the countries, but India’s rate is very slow.

However, proving the analysis of the article wrong, India achieved 400 million doses by 17th July, with 14 days remaining in the month. With the current pace, India will surpass the 500 million milestone with a huge margin.  

When the netizens pointed out how the Hindu has turned out to be horribly wrong in its prediction, one of the authors of the article Vignesh Radhakrishnan was offended and offered a bizarre justification to claim that the prediction was right. It may be noted that two persons Naresh Singaravelu and Vignesh Radhakrishnan are listed as authors of the article.

Vignesh Radhakrishnan tweeted that with the vaccination rate of February, India would not have achieved the target. “Story is valid. Mindless trolling does not change the fact,” he stated.

He added that the vaccination pace picked up later, and has dropped again now.

Although it is right the vaccination rate was very low in February and it was impossible to achieve 400 million doses by July, that does not mean Hindu was right in predicting the same. Because it was completely wrong to assume that the rate will not increase and it will remain at February level for months.

Vaccination against Covid-19 started in India on 16th January, and it was a slow start. That is because only the frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19 were eligible for the doses. The availability of the vaccines was not enough at that time for a full-fledged vaccination drive, therefore it was limited to people working in healthcare and other high-risk sectors.

The first phase of the vaccination targeted 30 million people, which included 10 million in healthcare and 20 million in other frontline sectors like police, paramilitary forces, sanitation, and disaster management. therefore, the rate of vaccination in February was bound to be low, as it was a limited drive.

The vaccination after that has been gradually opened up for the general population, first for people above 45 years of age, and then for everyone above 18 years of age. The government had been saying that the vaccination rate will pick up from June-July, by when the productions by the vaccine makers were expected to go up. Accordingly, the vaccination rate has gone up significantly since the second half June, and 400 million doses have already been given.

Therefore, even though the Hindu analysis was arithmetically correct, it was completely illogical to assume that the February vaccination rate will continue, fully aware that at that time it was available only for frontline workers.

After netizens pointed out how their methodology to make the prediction was wrong, The Hindu Journalist Vignesh Radhakrishnan deleted the tweet justifying the article.

AIMIM Twitter account hacked, poses as Elon Musk to talk about crypto currency

OpIndia Staff
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AIMIM Twitter account hacked, poses as Elon Musk to talk about crypto currency

Twitter account of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) was compromised earlier today where it posed as business magnate Elon Musk to talk about crypto currency.

AIMIM account compromised

Replying to actual Elon Musk’s tweet, AIMIM posing as Elon Musk (Ꭼꮮꮻɴ Ꮇꮜꮪꮶ) excitedly talked about crypto currency and claimed that 100,000,000 DOGE will be distributed to those who take part in some online event.

Interestingly, this is the second time in a month AIMIM’s Twitter account has been compromised.

On 9th July, too, the account was hacked where AIMIM had posed as Elon Musk to lure people to join some website promising DOGE.

Soon, netizens took to twitter to mock AIMIM for getting hacked.

Twitter user mocking AIMIM

Netizens were left wondering how will AIMIM leaders protect the people of Uttar Pradesh if they cant even protect their own Twitter account.

Bots

Bots, too, spotted AIMIM account and started responding to crypto currency calls.

At the time of publishing of this report, the account is still compromised.

Amarinder Singh refuses to meet Navjot Singh Sidhu until Sidhu apologises to him, will accept party decision on state Congress chief

OpIndia Staff
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Amarinder Singh refuses to meet Navjot Singh Sidhu until Sidhu apologises to him, will accept party decision on state Congress chief

The infighting in the Punjab Congress is likely to continue even after CM Captain Amarinder Singh hinted that he will accept Navjot Singh Sidhu as the chief of the Punjab Congress. The CM has refused to meet the dissident Congress leader unless Sindhu apologises to him first.

On Saturday, the CM stated that he will abide by any decision of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the appointment of the state Congress chief. This means that if the party high command appoints Sidhu as the chief, the CM will accept that decision. However, this does not mean the end of the problems inside the state unit of the Congress party, as Captain Singh is not willing to forget the derogatory comments made by Sidhu against him.

Captain Amarinder Singh has demanded a public apology from Navjor Singh Sidhu for his offensive comments and Tweets, and has refused to meet him until he receives the apology. Reportedly, the CM told this to Harish Rawat, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs.

Rawat is one of the three members of the panel set up by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to resolve the crisis in the party in Punjab. He held a meeting with Amarinder Singh to discuss probable names for state Congress chief, and urged him to hold a meeting with Sidhu. But the CM refused to meet him. A source in the party said, “Captain told the state in-charge that he will not meet Sidhu till he tenders a public apology for putting out hundreds of derogatory tweets and statements in the media against him.”

However, Amaridner Singh said that the appointment of the state party chief is the prerogative of the high command, and he will accept any decision taken by the party on the matter. ”Had a fruitful meeting with @harishrawatcmuk . Reiterated that any decision of @INCIndia  President will be acceptable to all. Raised certain issues which he said he’ll take up with @INCIndia  president”, tweeted the CM’s media advisor Raveen Thukral, quoting the CM.

Harish Rawat flew to Chandigarh on Saturday on a Punjab Govt helicopter to meet the party leaders in the state to resolve the issue. He told Amarinder Singh that he will be taken into confidence before taking any decision on the issue of state chief, but the CM refused to sit in a token meeting with Sidhu for sending an “all is well” message, unless Sidhu says sorry to him.

According to sources, the CM also told Rawat that he is not happy with the way the high command is dealing with the issue. He pointed out that premature announcements were made and stories were leaked to the media.

For the last several months, Sidhu has been attacking Amarinder Singh with various allegations. He has accused the CM of colluding with the Badals of Akali Dal, accused of running a mafia raj in Punjab, and alleged that the CM is not taking action against sacrilege cases. Although several state leaders are not happy with Sidhu for such public outburst against the own govt, the high command is not willing to take action against him, eyeing the elections next year.

Although the high command is in favour of appointing Sidhu as the party chief in the state, it has not been able to make the final decision due to strong opposition from Amarinder Singh, one of the seniormost members of the party.

NASA intern who suffered Hinduphobic attacks expresses love for her culture, thanks people for support

OpIndia Staff
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NASA intern who suffered Hinduphobic attacks expresses love for her culture, thanks people for support

Indian American Pratima Roy had to suffer toxic Hinduphobia after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States of America shared her photograph with her Gods on social media. Consequently, she received widespread support and goodwill from people across the world.

Now, Pratima Roy has penned a post on LinkedIn where she has unapologetically stood by her faith and thanked others for their support. She said, “As an American-born Bengali who practices Hindu, I always strive to preserve my background and culture. This love for my culture is evident in the photo of me that was first shared on a NASA blog in March and recently sparked a lot of conversation about my faith after NASA published a Tweet about the fall internship deadline.”

Source: LinkedIn

“I deeply respect everyone’s background – whether it’s race, ethnicity, gender, or religious faith – and I encourage others to be open to celebrating our beautiful differences as well. In the past few days, I’ve experienced an outpouring of positive support from people across the world who have connected with me online as well as my NASA colleagues,” Roy added.

The photograph shared by NASA showed Pratima Roy with Murthis of Hindu Goddesses on her table and the wall plastered with photographs of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Such overt expression of Hindu piety irked quite a few self-professed ‘intellectuals’ who were not happy with the devotion that Roy bears towards her Gods. Such ‘intellectuals’ resorted to questioning her ‘scientific temperament’, which one would assume is more than competent, since she earned the opportunity to intern at NASA.

IRS Babu questions ‘legality’ of arranged marriages, netizens give befitting reply

OpIndia Staff
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IRS Babu questions ‘legality’ of arranged marriages, netizens give befitting reply

Piyush Thorat, an Indian Revenue Service officer, recently took to Twitter to question legality of arranged marriages.

In a now deleted tweet, Thorat questioned why are arranged marriages still legal.

Piyush Thorat’s now-deleted tweet

Calling them ‘regressive’ he wondered how the system of ‘arranged marriages’ was continuing to be so strong.

When someone pointed out that not everyone can be lucky enough to find love, Thorat then pointed out why get married at all if one can’t find love.

However, he later did clarify that it was more of a hyperbole and not something that he meant literally.

Netizens, however, did give him a befitting reply that opting to go for arranged marriage, where parents or relatives set up an alliance, can also be a personal choice.

Twitter user @Dishasatra said that she is looking for an arranged marriage partner and does not consider it regressive at all.

Many also pointed out that there is no sure shot formula for success in marriage and such imposition of views also amounts to oppression.

Bhopal resident Mr Maithun also apologised on behalf of all for this tweet by the bureaucrat.

Some even pointed out that such kind of authoritarian streaks in bureaucrats is perhaps not a good sign.

Thorat, an IRS officer of 2015 batch also believes that ‘rational people’ are the ones who identify themselves as ‘feminists, anti-casteist, communist and liberal’ amongst others.

Perhaps considering he does not like the choice of those who opt for arranged marriages and wants them to not marry instead, he does not fall under the liberal camp either.

Update: Thorat has since deactivated his account.

Twitter censors tweets that exposed liberal hypocrisy over Danish Siddiqui’s photograph, calls it ‘abuse’ and ‘harassment’

K Bhattacharjee
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Twitter censors tweets that exposed liberal hypocrisy over Danish Siddiqui’s photograph, calls it ‘abuse’ and ‘harassment’

Twitter is finding new ways to censor political opinion it is not fond of. After making biased censorship the norm on the platform, Twitter appears to have decided to censor tweets that expose liberal hypocrisy. The latest instance featured the controversy around the photograph of dead Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui.

On the 16th of July, Twitter user Yosha (username @BlackDrug) shared the screenshot of a conversation on her account where she pointed out the hypocrisy of ‘liberal intellectuals’. She used the tweets of Stuti Mishra, journalist with The Independent, to point how liberals claimed that the photograph of Siddiqui’s corpse would hurt sentiments but do not think twice before using photographs of funeral pyres to score political points.

Yosha had used the following two screenshots in her tweet:

Twitter engages in censorship over Danish Siddiqui
Tweet where Stuti Mishra shared photographs of funeral pyres
Twitter engages in censorship over Danish Siddiqui
Stuti Mishra says photograph of Danish Siddiqui is disrespectful

Initially, the screenshots were labelled ‘sensitive media’.

Twitter engages in censorship over Danish Siddiqui
The tweet that was censored

But on 18th July, Yosha was notified that her tweet violated Twitter rules against “abuse and harassment”. According to Twitter, Yosha engaged in “targeted harassment”. Consequently, her account has been locked for 12 hours.

Yosha’s account locked for 12 hours

But the Twitter censorship went beyond only Yosha’s tweet. The platform is forcing people to remove tweets where they had quote-tweeted the above tweet by Yosha. On the 18th of July, this journalist had his account locked for the same.

As can be seen, the tweet did not contain any image and comprised only of four words. Twitter claimed that a tweet that did not contain any image violated “rules against posting media depicting the moment of death of an individual”. Perhaps, it was motivated by the images in Yosha’s tweet but even makes little sense as the her tweet itself was said to violate “abuse and harassment” rules, not the rule related to dead body photographs.

The rules that this journalist’s account was claimed to violate is bizarre and exists from 2019. According to the rules, the platform may remove media that “takes pleasure in the suffering of the deceased” or “laughs at or otherwise mocks the deceased”.

Source: Twitter

But it is not clear how a tweet that does not contain any image would violate a rule specifically for tweets that contain images. This instance marks a great escalation in Twitter censorship. The platform has basically decided to censor tweets that expose liberal hypocrisy. Now, not only does the platform assist liberals gain a wider reach for their propaganda but they will silence others who expose their agenda. The censorship is as political as it gets.

Danish Siddiqui was killed by the Taliban during clashes with Afghanistan. Following his death, a photograph of his dead body began to circulate on social media. Journalists wanted people to not circulate the photograph because it was apparently disrespectful, after using photographs of funeral pyres for their politics. Twitter appears to have accommodated their interests by censoring those who exposed their hypocrisy.

It also further elucidates the fact that there are no rules anymore because they are applied selectively, based on the political preferences of the individual; which again marks a very dangerous turn of events.

Uttar Pradesh: Villagers catch father-daughter in compromising position, demand police action after the man attacked them with stones

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Villagers catch father-daughter in compromising position, demand police action after the man attacked them with stones

On Thursday (July 15), a group of villagers caught a father-daughter duo in a compromising position at a field in the Sarupur area of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

As per reports, the accused and his daughter were having an illicit, incestuous relationship for the past 10 years. On Thursday, the man drove his daughter on his bike to the nearby village in Sarupur area and engaged in sexual activities. Despite the social taboo surrounding incest, the duo went about their actions unabated. However, alert villagers soon caught them red-handed and tried to convince them to refrain from tarnishing the father-daughter relationship. But, the duo would not listen to them. The accused man instead threw stones at the villagers, which further provoked the crowd.

The villagers then thrashed the duo and called for a panchayat meeting on the following day (July 16). However, it was disrupted by the police while assuring the villagers of appropriate action. This has led to widespread resentment against the accused in the village. In order to control the law and order situation, the police had deployed several teams outside the residence of the accused man.

Meanwhile, the villagers have demanded strict action against him. Since then, the video of the incident has gone viral on social media. We cannot share the video here, due to its graphic nature. While speaking about the matter, police-in-charge Sunil Kumar assured that the villagers that a case would be registered against the accused and that necessary action will be taken.

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