Since July 5, several anti-Muslim graffitis have come up in various locations in the central Newton area of Surrey in Canada. The places where such graffitis with hateful messages against the Muslim community have been spotted in various places of the city. According to reports, when a similar graffiti was spotted on July 14 (Wednesday), near 72 Avenue and King George Boulevard, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) launched an investigation into the same.
The Canadian police are of the belief that these incidents are linked and may be connected to the same person or group.
Anti-Muslim graffiti like ‘Islam is evil’ come up in Canada
According to reports, on July 14, the locals spotted anti-Muslim graffiti on a dustbin in a business house, as well as on a utility pole near a mosque in the area of 72 Avenue and King George Boulevard. “Islam is evil” could be seen spray-painted on the trash can.
Image source: kelownanow.com
“These are weird times we live in, and I honestly think the last thing we need is all this hatred and racism around the city,” said Jaspreet Jandu, a volunteer with the Surrey Crime Prevention Society”.
“When we get these calls we try to respond as fast as we can, especially in an area like this. There’s a grocery store here, a dentist, an animal hospital — this is a family area and the last thing we really want is for people of the community seeing this sort of stuff”, he added.
Meanwhile Surrey RCMP Const. Sarbjit Sangha said that there is no room for such hatred in the city. “Hate crimes and hate-motivated criminal activity have no place in Surrey and our officers are working diligently to identify those responsible for these incidents,” Sangha said, adding that such incidents have a significant impact on people of the Muslim community. It brings in a sense of insecurity amongst the Muslims.
Volunteer paint over anti-Islam graffiti
Sangha said police were canvassing in the area and working to collect any CCTV footage that may have captured the suspect. In the meanwhile, volunteers have painted over the graffiti to hide them.
The chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami today said the live streaming of the Char Dham Yatra won’t be held as it is not mentioned in the Vedas. The decision came in the wake of the High Court directive, asking the state government to put a stay on Char Dham Yatra this year and ensure live streaming of the yatra for the devotees.
#WATCH | "After taking into account all the suggestions, we have decided not to hold live streaming of Chardham Yatra as it is not written in the Vedas. We are also going to file an affidavit in the High Court in this regard," says Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. pic.twitter.com/vorM8vsFWV
The meeting of the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board, chaired by Uttarkhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami decided against live streaming of religious ceremonies performed inside the sanctum sanctorum of the four shrines. The leaders in the meeting reportedly argued that the live streaming would violate the sanctity of the rituals performed inside the sanctum sanctorum.
The decision was taken after the Uttarakhand High Court directed the state government to ensure that ceremonies carried inside the sanctum sanctorum of the four shrines are live-streamed for the devotees.
As per the state government’s press release after the meeting, the live streaming of only the outer premises of the shrines would be possible.
“The opinion of all the board members, priests of shrines and other organisations have been received on the issue. The government will apprise the High Court about the opinion,” Tourism Minister and vice-chairman of the board Satpal Maharaj said after the board’s meeting held on Friday.
चारधाम देवस्थानम बोर्ड की आज मुख्यमंत्री जी की अध्यक्षता मे बैठक हुई।मुख्यमंत्री जी ने स्पष्ट किया कि हम सेवा,सहयोग और सबकी शंकाओं का निवारण करते हुए ही काम करेंगे।लाइव स्ट्रीमिंग के बारे में स्पष्ट किया गया कि सभी सदस्यों के विचारों को संकलित करके हाईकोर्ट को प्रेषित किया जायेगा pic.twitter.com/6pX6XWw13x
Earlier this month, after the Uttarakhand High Court put a stay on Char Dham Yatra and directed the government to ensure the rituals are live-streamed, the Uttarakhand Advocate General (AG) referred to Char Dham priests to state that Hindu Shastras do not permit live streaming of rituals.
Objecting to Advocate General’s submissions, the court in its July 8 order observed that India is a democratic country ruled by the law and not by ‘Shastras’.
Days after Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, a US-based Indian origin Professor has claimed that the Islamist terror outfit exhibited more humanity than the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
In a tweet on Saturday (July 17), Gaurav Sabnis wrote, “Even the Taliban itself is showing more humanity over #DanishSiddiqui than the Sangh.” Sabnis, an Associate Marketing Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, posted the tweet in response to the criticism faced by Siddiqui after his death. The deceased photojournalist had earlier clicked pictures of burning funeral pyres in clear breach of privacy of the family of the Covid-19 victims and also put it up for sale on British-owned stock photography agency Alamy.
Screengrab of the tweet by Gaurav Sabnis
Through his tweet, Gaurav Sabnis suggested that the Taliban had showcased more humanity than Sangh (and its followers) despite the former being the killer of the photojournalist. The bizarre analogy, aimed at dehumanising RSS and eliminating the role of Taliban in the context of Danish Siddiqui’s death, was not well-received by netizens. A Twitter user (Princess Woke Liberal) took potshots at the Marketing Professor and wrote, “Taliban did not kill Danis Siddiqui, RSS did.” Following his comment, Gaurav Sabnis was quick to block the user on the micro-blogging site.
Later, Sabnis tried to justify his earlier tweet wherein he claimed that Sangh was less humane than the Taliban. He alleged, “The only reason sanghi vultures are trying to peck at #DanishSiddiqui is because he took a picture proving the full scale of covid deaths and resulting cremations in India. Literally the only reason. Because some of his pics spoiled their deluded narratives.”
Screengrab of the tweet by Gaurav Sabnis
The Assistant Marketing Professor further claimed, “Notice how the only ones on Twitter dumping on heroic late photo journalist #DanishSiddique are sanghis. Because they are still upset that when BJP tried to hide the full scope of covid second surge deaths in India, Danish took this picture. That’s the only reason. Sick!” In order to further deviate public wrath from his original tweet about Sangh and Taliban, he wrote, “How many million lives are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of maintaining the delusional that Modi is awesome?”
Liberals refuse to call out Taliban over Danish Siddiqui’s killing
Several left-wing “liberal-secular” journalists also took to Twitter to condole the death of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who aggressively shared these images of the deceased photojournalist to pay some sort of tribute to him. However, the intriguing part of the matter is that hardly any of them mentioned the Taliban in their condolence message.
Rana Ayyub spoke about Danish Siddiqui and his work revealing how he had a passion for photography. She also shared an image in which she was seen sitting next to the deceased journalist. The tone and tenor of the message, however, were rather perplexing. It appeared as if the photojournalist died as a consequence of some natural disease and was not murdered by Islamic terrorists. A similar strategy was employed by Manisha Pande from Newslaundry, Stuti Mishra, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Yogendra Yadav, and Ravish Kumar.
It is perplexing that not a single condolence message pointed towards the Islamic terror group that claimed Siddiqui’s life. Not a single liberal journalist had the moral fortitude to remark that he was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Liberals used his photography to make a political point but refused to mention that it was the Taliban that killed him during clashes with Afghan forces. Instead, they attempted to whitewash the incident and deflect the narrative by preaching about how one should take inspiration from Danish Siddiqui to question those in power.
In a significant step to prevent the Scheduled Castes (SC) community from getting lured by Christian missionaries to convert to Christianity, the Gurujala village in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh has passed a resolution to take steps to protect the Dalits from forceful religious conversion.
On Friday, Legal Right Protection Forum, a legal-activism group, took to Twitter to express their heartfelt appreciation for the villagers of Gurujala for passing five resolutions in the Gram Sabha.
One of the resolutions passed by the Gram Sabha is to remove an unauthorised church constructed through foreign funding from the Christian organization International Mission Board (IMB). According to the villagers, now the converts to Christianity are seeking to expand the illegally built Church by constructing a compound wall. Villagers have said that if the Church is expanded as planned, it will hamper the rituals and celebrations in a Shiva temple nearby.
The villagers of Gurujala has passed five resolutions at Gram Sabha recently to prevent Christian missionaries conversion activities in the surrounding areas of the village.
Villagers say that during Shivratri, Ugadi etc festivals, the chariot has to pass through the road where the Church is located, and a large number of stalls are set up in the area during such occasions. If the church is expanded by constructing boundary walls, it will hamper the festivals at the Hindu temple.
(2/3): 2. To carry on proper survey on who is Christian, Hindu and Muslim and enter the same in Public Records 3. Recommendations to revenue officials to issue BC-C (SC convert to Christianity) Certificates to persons who converted to Christianity out of SC Community.
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) July 16, 2021
In its resolution, the Gram Sabha has also decided to undertake a registration exercise to document the number of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and enter them into the public record. The villagers also decided to ask the revenue officials to issue BC-C (SC convert to Christianity) Certificates to persons who converted to scheduled caste converts to Christianity.
The other two resolutions passed by the Gram Sabha are – no religious structure will be allowed to be constructed in future unless the Gram Sabha approves the same with a 51% majority and giving priority to Scheduled Castes in all social and cultural festivals and temple activities in the village.
4. No religious structure will be allowed to be constructed in future, unless the same is approved through a #GramSabha resolution passed with 51% majority 5. SCs will be given priority in all Socio-Cultural festivals & will be an integral part of all Temple activities in village
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) July 16, 2021
On June 27, the LRPF had informed that they had come with a strategy in association with the villagers to end this serious issue of religious conversions at Gurajala Village, Kurnool District after Christian missionaries had erected a huge Church on common land in the village.
#Revolution2021 We are coming up with a Strategy in association with the villagers to put an end to this serious issue at Gurajala Village, Kurnool District.
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) June 27, 2021
Realising the dangerous menace of conversion activities by Christian missionaries, the villagers had also written a letter to President of India Ramnath Kovind seeking action against the illegally constructed IMB Church in the village to convert Scheduled Caste communities.
The villagers had also accused the Christian missionaries of using the converts holding SC Certificate to slap SC/ST Atrocity Act on anyone who dared to raise their voice against illegal conversions.
A month later, the Gram Sabha has taken a significant step to pass a series of resolutions to prevent Christian missionaries conversion activities in the surrounding area of the Gurujala village.
Speaking to The Commune, LRPF has said that they will try and implement this in other villages too. “We strongly believe in the power of people in this democracy”, the head of legal activism group LRPF said.
Mandal Parishad orders to stop expansion of church
After the complaint was filed by the villagers, the Mandal Parisad Development officer issued an order to stop the expansion of the church.
The order says that the construction of the boundary wall will lead to encroachment of 10 feet of land in the area, which is despotic, capricious, tyrannical, autocratic, unlawful, illicit, illegitimate, and violation of Gram Kanta rules and regulations.
Odisha Police has detained 10 people for allegedly violating Covid-19 norms during the Rath Yatra in Puri. Two among them are ISKCON devotees who were reportedly detained for watching the Rath Yatra from the balcony of a building. The two have been identified as Atul Krishna and Govind Krsna Das from Kurukshetra, Haryana.
They had reportedly shared videos of the event on social media platforms.
[VIDEO] Two ISKCON devotees among 10 persons detained by Puri Police for alleged violation of curfew orders imposed in the pilgrim town during Ratha Jatha celebrations.
Radharamn Das, Vice President and Spokesperson of ISKCON in Kolkata, has said that he never imagined when devotees would be detained for watching the Rath Yatra from the balcony of their hotel room.
2 ISKCON Devotees among 10 detained by Puri Police for watching Rathayatra from a hotel room balcony.
Had never thought that watching Rathayatra from a hotel room will become a punishable offense in India.https://t.co/dYz96sHdHX
As per reports, the Police registered criminal cases against 10, including the two, for reportedly entering the inner cordon of the three chariots. Apart from the them, the other eight have been identified as Somanath Sahu, Ranjan Kumar Patra, Subrat Panda, Bhabani Jena, Manoranjan Mishra, Rajdip Harichandan, Raghunath Saraf and Biswanath Sahu. The rest are residents of Puri.
“Police are scanning the CCTV, drone camera and the live telecast footage of the festival to identify the intruders. Strict action would be taken against the violators after their identification,” Puri DSP Janardan Padhi had said.
An Akshaya Patra building has also reportedly been sealed for allowing its devotees to watch the procession from the rooftop. Odisha Government had imposed numerous restrictions in view of Covid-19, including refusing permission for Rath Yatras in Temples across the state with the exception of Jagannath Temple.
Earlier this week, the NIA court in Mumbai rejected the bail application filed by Anand Teltumbde, stating that the charges against him were prima facie true. The court cited his younger brother and wanted Maoist Milind Teltumbde’s confession, wherein he admitted that he was inspired by his elder brother, Anand Teltumbde, to further the activities of the banned organisation CPI(M).
“I find much substance in the submissions made by the learned Special Public Prosecutor(S.P.P) for the smile reason that the wanted accused is the best person to state as to by who conduct or activities he was being impressed and therefore, in my view, the statement made by the wanted accused that he was impressed by the applicant for furthering the activities of a banned terrorist organisation can be said to be relevant…” read the court order announced by Justice Kothalikar while dismissing the bail application moved by Anand Teltumbde.
Screenshot of relevant sections of the NIA Court order rejecting bail application of Urban Naxal Anand Teltumbde
A key witness in the case, who was in thick with Milind Teltumbde admitted that the wanted Maoist was inspired by his elder brother, Anand Teltumbde, and often showed photographs of the applicant and his daughters. As per another key witness, he had gone to Bhopal twice with Milind and at that time Milind had informed him that he would meet with his elder brother, i.e Anand Teltumbde. The key witness said there was no meeting with Anand in the first visit. But during the second visit, Milind had visited Anand’s place and met with him.
Screenshot of relevant sections of the NIA Court order rejecting bail application of Urban Naxal Anand Teltumbde
Yet another key witness confessed that Milind used to discuss the Elgar Parishad, Bhima Koregaon programme and about participation and support given by urban members of CPI(M) to use the said platform for spreading their own ideology under the guise of using the Elgar Parishad programme. He said Sanyukta Morcha, programmes were being organised in urban areas to spread negativity and hate speech against the established government.
In his deposition, the key witness said Milind had reportedly confessed to him that he was inspired by his brother Anand for the CPI(M) movement. The witnesses revealed that Milind used to visit urban areas such as Nagpur, Pune, Chandrapur, Bhopal, Indore, Katani, Amarkantak, Mandala, Dindori, Shahdol, etc. and during that time, he used to meet applicant Anand Teltumbde for seeking his guidance on expanding the CPI(M) movement in the jungle as well as urban areas.
Screenshot of relevant sections of the NIA Court order rejecting bail application of Urban Naxal Anand Teltumbde
The witness further added that Milind used to bring Maoist literature given to him by the applicant, who attended international conferences under the pretext of academic visits and used it to train the cadres.
“…the applicant used to attend international conferences under the guise of academic visits in the Philippines, Peru, Turkey and other countries and used to bring Maoist literature and videos in pen drive/memory card, related to their ideology, tactics, weapons used by them, period of attacks, planning of sudden attacks, the extension of zones and increasing members of recruitment for CPI(M) and that such foreign literature and videos were shown to the members of CPI(M) in training and classes after approval in the CCM meeting,” the S.P.P contended.
Urban naxals prove the mail correspondence between them were not fake as alleged by pliant media organisations
Earlier this year, far-left media houses supporting the Urban Naxals accused in the Bhima Koregaon case had claimed that the emails and other documents recovered from the electronic devices of the accused were fake. Quoting a report by a so-called Digital Forensics Firm in the USA, a Washington Post report had claimed that a study of the data recovered from the laptop of Rona Wilson, one of the accused, were planted, and the report was subsequently carried by several media houses in India.
The same claim was also used during court hearings by those accused in the case. But now, it has been found that they themselves are using those emails in their defence, admitting the mails were not fake.
The full order of the NIA Court in Mumbai has been made public, and it shows how the defendant had used the same emails that were claimed to be planted through malware. According to the court order, the defence lawyer had argued that in the mail dated 28/06/2014 from Anand Teltumbde to Rona Wilson, Teltumbde had requested to delete a sentence. This shows that the applicant does not support the Maoist ideology, the defence argument claimed.
Anand Teltumbde also claimed that emails exchanged between him and coaccused Hany Babu and Stan Swamy would reveal that there is nothing to implicate the accused.
Thus, the defence side mentioned the emails multiple times seeking bail for Anand Teltumbde. By this, they themselves demolished the claim that the emails were planted on Rona Wilson’s computer, as the first mail they mentioned was recovered from that source only.
NIA court rejects bail application of Anand Teltumbde
A special NIA court in Mumbai dismissed the bail application filed by activist Anand Teltumbde, who was arrested in connection with Elgar Parishad-Maoist links. The court said the charges against him were prima facie true.
Special NIA Judge Kothalikar observed that Anand Teltumbde has failed in offering an explanation as to why his name appears as a convener on the book or pamphlet titled ‘Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan’, which was printed prior to the programme on December 31, 2017.
In its observation, the court said it did not find the accusation of Teltumbde’s involvement not “inherently improbable” or “wholly unbelievable”, and prima facie he was involved in furthering the activities of the banned organisation. The NIA had earlier claimed that Teltumbde was an active member of the proscribed group CPI(M) and propagated its activities.
“I do not find any merit in the argument proffered by the learned advocate for Teltumbde that he had no concern with the event of Elgar Parishad and that the allegations made against him are not prima facie true,” the judge said.
Social media websites are awash with a video of a farmer being kicked around by the SDM of the Jalore district in Rajasthan.
In the video that has now gone viral, SDM Bhupendra Yadav could be seen kicking a protesting farmer named Narsingh Ram Chaudhary. Following this incident, a scuffle broke out between police personnel and farmers.
किसान को लात मारना वीरता का काम नहीं है एसडीएम साहब …
With much difficulty, the police finally managed to pacify the angry villagers. At the heart of the controversy is the demands of compensation made by farmers for the construction of highway built under the Bharat Mala Project.
The work on the expressway from Amritsar to Jamnagar started on Thursday (July 15, 2021). Meanwhile, the villagers reached the spot in Jalore and protested against the work.
When SDM Bhupendra Yadav reached the location to inspect it, a farmer sat in front of JCB in protest against the ongoing construction. The SDM moved towards another farmer asking him to stop obstructing government work. When one of the villagers tried to snatch a stick from the policeman, the SDM kicked him. After this incident, tempers ran high resulting in the clashes between villagers and police.
In his defence, SDM Bhupendra Yadav said he reacted in his self-defence. He claims the villagers were going to assault him with sticks so he kicked one of them in defence. A case has been registered against the farmers for obstructing the government work at the Sanchore police station. Angry farmers held a panchayat in the village on the night after being kicked.
Offering an explanation on his clarification on the viral video, SDM Bhupendra Yadav said, “The farmers had tried to stop the work, because of which I had to visit the spot. Even as I was having a conversation with them, one of the farmers pulled a stick towards me. I kicked him to save myself from his attack.”
There has been no stay order on the construction work from the High Court. A report has also been given to the police station. Meanwhile, it is being reported that SDM Bhupendra Kumar Yadav has been transferred late night by the state government.
Why were the farmers protesting in Rajasthan?
The market rate for the land in Rajasthan which is being acquired for constructing the expressway is about Rs 10 lakh per bigha. But for this land, the administration is providing compensation at the DLC rate – Rs 45000 per bigha. The farmers had moved the High Court two years ago regarding this. The matter was then transferred to a two-judge bench, but due to the ongoing pandemic, the hearing could not proceed till now.
It has being said that 90 percent of the farmers have not even not taken the compensation yet. On the other hand, the company awarded with the contract of building the expressway does not want to stop the work until a decision is taken by the court.
SDM is being fiercely trolled after the video surfaced. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia posted a tweet objecting to SDM’s behaviour and asked if that is how Rajasthan officials treat farmers. Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal has also called this incident of SDM kicking farmers as condemnable.
On Friday, award-winning Reuters photo-journalist was murdered by the Taliban as he was covering the conflict in Afghanistan. After his death, a strange phenomenon was noticed on his Twitter account.
A Twitter user pointed out that the famed tweet of Danish, where he had shared pictures of the funeral pyres of Hindus, said that the tweet was “unavailable”.
— krithika sivaswamy (@krithikasivasw) July 17, 2021
When one clicks on any of the replies to the tweet, Twitter says that the tweet by Danish Siddiqui is unavailable.
Source: Twitter
Rajnish Sharma had accused Siddiqui of making fun of “our people’s death” and said that in the Court of God, everyone is held to account. After his tweet went viral following Siddiqui’s death, Sharma said that he was extremely anguished as he had to perform the funeral rites of his wife and father within the space of four days during the first wave.
Source: Twitter
However, it is not just the funeral pyre tweet that seems to be unavailable. When one clicks on any of the tweet threads by Danish Siddiqui, the preceding tweets appear to be ‘unavailable’.
Tweet thread by Danish Siddiqui
When one clicks on the “Learn More” tag of the restricted tweet, the person is taken to the ‘Help‘ section of Twitter where explanations are provided for various labels. However, in this particular instance, it does not explain why the tweet was restricted.
Source: Twitter
On the face of it, it does appear that Twitter has censored the tweet in question. However, the explanation provided in its ‘help’ section does not adequately explain the ‘unavailable’ tag on the tweet. It could be an unintentional error that could be rectified before long. Especially, because all of his tweets seem to be ‘unavailable’ in a similar fashion.
It is entirely possible that his tweets being unavailable could just be a Twitter bug, or, Twitter is censoring the tweets because he was killed in a conflict zone. However, there seems to be no precedent for that to be done with a journalist’s account.
Danish Siddiqui was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan during clashes with Afghan forces. He was on a reporting assignment to the war ravaged country, embedded with the Afghan security forces. He was killed in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar.
Siddiqui was at the centre of the controversy during the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 in India when insensitive photographs of funeral pyres were splashed across the media. The photographs were widely criticized for being insensitive. However, he had also received international praise for the photographs.
On Friday, the 16th of July, it was reported that Reuters photojournalist from India Danish Siddiqui was killed during an ambush on the Afghan forces by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was travelling with Afghan forces in the Kandahar region near the Pakistan border when they were attacked by the Taliban. No sooner was the photo-journalist killed, than photographs of his grieving family and relatives started to sell like commodities on the stock image site, Getty Images.
The British-American media company Getty Images now hosts multiple images of the deceased Reuters journalist’s family members, relatives and his mourning father. The images are selling under the Editorial section for Rs 23,000 per piece on the stock image site, which is the standard price for a large version of editorial photographs on Getty Images. A smaller version of the same images can be downloaded for a lesser price.
Here are few images which were clicked on July 16, the day the journalist was killed by the Taliban during clashes at Spin Boldak district in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Image of Danish Siddiqui’s father selling for Rs 23,000 on Getty Image
Another image of Danish Siddiqui’s father and his relatives selling for Rs 23,000 on Getty Image
Image of Danish Siddiqui’s relatives and family members gathered at his residence after his deathA similar photo clicked outside the journalist’s residence being sold on Getty Image
When we looked at the list of the names associated with the images on Getty Images, we found out that Hindustan Times is the most significant contributor of such pictures on the website.
Another thing that is worth noting here is that the British-American media company is only selling images of Danish Siddiqui’s family clicked after his death. Amongst the 77 photographs present against his name under the Editorial section of Getty Image, none show his family before his death.
The Photographs of the family of Danish Siddiqui have appeared on the stock image site after several left-liberals had objected to social media users circulating the photograph of the deceased photojournalist. This had triggered more people to share the images, as the very same people were widely circulating the photographs of cremation of Covid-19 victims taken by Siddiqui.
Photographs of funeral pyres from India selling for Rs. 23,000 each on Stock image site Getty
Incidentally, when India was grappling with the worst second wave of Covid-19, the British-American media company Getty Images hosted multiple images of tragic funeral pyres, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of photographs showcasing the customary Hindu funeral pyre was also sold at the same price as the pictures of Danish Siddiqui’s family and relatives are being sold on the British-American media company site.
In fact, the bigger coincidence is that then too, Hindustan Times was the largest contributor of pyre photographs from Delhi on Getty Images. The news agency had uploaded almost 330 images in 30 days. The photographs were taken by several photographers associated with the media house, including Amal KS, Raj K Raj, Sakib Ali, Mohd Zakir and others.
Reuters’ Danish Siddiqui shares picture of a burning ghat in India multiple times, receives acclamation
However, Reuters, for which Danish Siddiqui worked, was one of the western media houses which drew immense pleasure from the death of Indians, especially Hindus during the devastating second wave of the pandemic. One photograph that we saw splashed all over social media, Twitter, Facebook or even family groups on WhatsApp then, was one that had an aerial view of a burning ghat in India by Reuters. It was taken by Danish Siddiqui.
Sharing this picture multiple times on Twitter, Danish Siddiqui had written, “As India posted world record of COVID cases funeral pyres of people, who died due to the coronavirus disease were pictured at a crematorium ground in New Delhi, April 22, 2021”. He had also thanked people for complimenting his work.
Besides that picture, Danish Siddiqui had clicked many such pictures, which are hosted on Alamy, the British owned stock photography agency similar to Getty Images. Multiple media hoses had used those photographs with their reports on Covid-19 deaths in India during the second wave.
A picture of an Indian funeral pyre clicked by Danish Siddiqui available on Alamy
Another picture of an Indian funeral pyre clicked by Danish Siddiqui available on Alamy
Despite being a clear breach of privacy of the family of the Covid-19 victims, without whose knowledge and permission Danish Siddiqui had clicked those pictures, the Reuters journalist had received international praise for these photographs.
Earlier this year, far-left media houses supporting the Urban Naxals accused in the Bhima Koregaon case had claimed that the emails and other documents recovered from the electronic devices of the accused were fake. Quoting a report by a so-called Digital Forensics Firm in the USA, a Washington Post report had claimed that a study of the data recovered from the laptop of Rona Wilson, one of the accused, were planted, and the report was subsequently carried by several media houses in India.
The same claim was also used during court hearings by those accused in the case. But now, it has been found that they themselves are using those emails in their defence, admitting the mails were not fake.
On July 12, a special NIA court had rejected the bail application of Dalit Activist Anand Teltumbde, saying that the charges against him are prima facie true. The court rejected the defence argument that he had no direct link with the even of Elgar Parishad, as his name was mentioned on the invitation card for the event, and he had gone to the location where the event was held.
The full order of the NIA Court in Mumbai has been made public, and it shows how the defendant had used the same emails that was claimed to be planted through malware. According to the court order, the defence lawyer had argued that in the mail dated 28/06/2014 from Anand Teltumbde to Rona Wilson, Teltumbde had requested to delete a sentence. This shows that the applicant does not support the Maoist ideology, the defence argument claimed.
Anand Teltumbde also claimed that mails exchanged between him and coaccused Hany Babu and Stan Swamy would reveal that there is nothing to implicate the accused.
Thus, the defence side mentioned the emails multiple times seeking bail for Anand Teltumbde. By this, they themselves demolished the claim that the mails were planted on Rona Wilson’s computer, as the first mail they mentioned was recovered from that source only.
According to the prosecution, in the email dated 28 June 2014 to Wilson, Teltumbde had requested to delete some portion from the press statement, which relates to ‘Inciting Dalit Militancy as well as Revolutionary Resurgence under Maoist Leadership’.
The prosecution has cited several email exchanges of Teltumbde with known Maoists and Maoist sympathisers, and the defendant has not argued that those are fake and planted emails. They have either use the same emails as defence argument, or said that the contents in those emails are incriminatory.
This make it clear that the emails and other documents seized from the computer of Rona Wilson and other accused are genuine, and they were not doctored or planted as alleged that leftist media houses.
