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Why Islamists and their apologists are desperate to insert ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to turn every random crime into hate crime

Nirwa Mehta
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Why Islamists and their apologists are desperate to insert ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to turn every random crime into hate crime

Imagine you’re taking a flight or are in a mall, just having a good time. You suddenly hear someone shout ‘Allahu Akbar’. What would your first reaction be?

Unfortunately, considering the recent incidents where beheading and terror attacks have taken place right after this chant, dread is a natural reaction.

Which is why some Islamists and their apologists are desperate to turn every crime against a Muslim perpetrated by a Hindu as ‘hate crime’. So much that they even invent scenarios to turn every random crime into a hate crime.

Here is a recent example. A Muslim youth, Asif Khan, in Haryana’s Nuh was killed on Sunday by a group of men. Asif’s group and the prime accused Pradeep alias Patwari’s group were old rivals and have had incidents of violence between them. In fact, just few days prior, Asif’s group had beat up members of Pradeep’s group. The unfortunate incident on Sunday was perpetrated as a revenge for earlier attack.

Here I’d like to make it clear upfront that any kind of crime is not justified and law must take its course and bring Asif’s killers to justice.

However, on Monday a strange pattern emerged on social media.

Sharjeel Usmani

Newslaundry columnist and AMU alumnus Sharjeel Usmani took to Twitter to claim that Khan was killed by ‘Hindu men’. That somehow, the rivalry between two groups was not relevant anymore but that the perpetrators were allegedly Hindu was the most important thing in this incident.

He went on to claim that a Hindu chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is ‘most likely’ to be a terrorist.

Sharjeel Usmani’s tweet

Similar tweets were made by a former journalist with CNN News 18, Asheem PK. He shared an article from Maktoob Media, an online portal based in Kerala which was the first to mention that Asif was ‘forced to chant Jai Shri Ram’.

Asheem’s tweet

Remember, all this narrative till now that Asif was a victim of hate crime perpetrated by a ‘Hindu mob’ and forcing him to chant Jai Shri Ram, was based on only one report by Maktoob Media. Maktoob did not attribute these claims to anyone, so it could very well be figment of someone’s imagination to create communal tension. It seems, minorities in India have first right to nuisance as well.

Maktoob Media

Maktoob, incidentally, has in the past indulged in mischief to peddle propaganda. In the violence at Jamia University episode, Maktoob released a heavily edited video online to cast aspersions at the Delhi Police which was forced to enter the campus to flush out rioters.

Maktoob Media is a Kerala-based media startup founded in March 2014. As per Facebook it states it is based in Kerala, but on its website it mentions it is based in Delhi. It mentions “Shaheen Abdulla” as its Associate Creative Editor in its “About Us” section. Who is Shaheen Abdulla? Shaheen Abdulla is the same person who was ‘saved’ by the “Jamia Sheroes” who were hailed by controversial journalist Barkha Dutt. Husband of Aysha Renna, one of the “Sheroes”, Afsal Rahman, has also worked with Maktoob Media. He has currently deactivated his Facebook profile but as per his LinkedIn profile, he was associated with Maktoob till September 2019 and is currently associated with “Opera News”. Aysha Renna had called India ‘fascist’ for executing Mumbai Blast terrorist Yakub Memon.

In September, 2020, Maktoob Media reported about an incident where it claimed that a Muslim man was beaten up by Hindu mob because he was a Muslim.

Maktoob media tweet

“Those people including two women dragged him inside the house and started beating him brutally and on finding a tattoo on his right hand which read ‘786’, they cut his arm off with a saw blade,” Maktoob Media report claimed. Maktoob was also the first to make such a claim.

Except, it was far from reality. The fact was that Akhlaq was caught molesting a minor. As reported by TheQuint, the family of the child had alleged that when they were sleeping in the verandah in their home near the railway line, they noticed the child was missing. When they started looking for him, they reached a nearby park where they saw Akhlaq with the child who was undressed. Akhlaq then allegedly tried to run away toward the railway track. Family then took their son and brought him home. The child has alleged that Akhlaq tried to push his private parts into his mouth.

But Maktoob and many other Islamist apologist portals such as The Wire had made it about ‘786’ tattoo on his hand.

In current case, the witnesses, Asif’s cousin Rashid, who was also injured, in his witness statement said how they were attacked by a group. He knew most of the attackers.

A report by The Quint says that the two groups were old rivals and have a history between them. The Quint, which has a history of whitewashing criminals, also does not mention anything about ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant. Neither does India Today report which says how he was killed while he was killed while he was out to get medicine.

It has been a consistent pattern where random crimes are portrayed as hate crimes either to whitewash the crime the criminal was perpetrating (like Akhlaq, who was raping a minor was suddenly victim of ‘hate crime) or to set a narrative of ‘Hindu terror’ as can be seen in the case of Asif Khan.

‘Dara Hua Musalman’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’

The commitment to spread the propaganda was so high that certain propaganda websites came up with a ‘hate crime tracker’. The database was faulty and so subjective that the hate crimes against Hindus were watered down and outrightly rejected from being hate crimes. The Pulwama terror attack, where the Islamist jihadi Ahmed Dar carried out attack to kill those who ‘drink cow urine’ (a jibe often used by Islamists and their ‘liberal’ apologists) to mock Hindus, was also not considered a hate crime.

Ever since PM Modi came to power in 2014, the ‘Dara Husa Musalman’ bogey has been raised time and again in Indian context mostly to whitewash hate crimes carried out against Hindus, like forced religious conversion amongst others, specifically because they are Hindus. In fact, most of the fake hate crimes which were claimed to have been perpetrated against Muslims almost always had the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant.

In May 2019, media reports of a Muslim man, Barkat Ali, in Gurugram being beaten up by some Hindu men in Sadar Bazar area had gone viral on social media. The alleged victim, Barkat Ali, claimed that he was beaten up by a group of men who removed his skull cap claiming it was now ‘allowed’ in the area and had forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. However, the Police denied that it was a hate crime after going through the facts of the matter. Gurugram police had said that the incident was a case of a minor brawl in a drunken state.

In fact, in his original FIR, he never mentioned the ‘forced to chant Jai Shri Ram’ bit. The police believed he was being tutored to claim that he was beaten up for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

Later in June 2019, a controversy had erupted after a Delhi-based Muslim man had claimed that he was allegedly hit by a car after he refused to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. A madarsa teacher named Mohammed Momin had alleged that he was allegedly abused and then run over by the car as he refused to chant Hindu religious slogans. However, eyewitnesses rubbished Momin’s allegations. A Police officer said, “The accounts given by some eyewitnesses of the incident do not substantiate the claims made by the victim”. CCTV footage from near the crime scene was also not able to prove the allegations.

This urge comes from the fact that their pious chant Allahu Akbar has become so dreaded and that they can’t do much about it as Islamic terrorists continue to stab, behead and blow up (themselves and others) chanting it.

So only thing left is to prove that others are equally bad.

Washington Post cancels Iron Dome for saving Israeli lives

Nirwa Mehta
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Washington Post cancels Iron Dome for saving Israeli lives

The Washington Post has a strange take on the air defence technology deployed by Israel to save its people.

Washington Posts on Iron Dome

In an article titled “Israel’s Iron Dome defence system protects Israeli lives. It also perpetuates the Israel-Gaza conflict”, Washington Post argues that while the technology has managed to save the lives of civilians, it perpetuates the conflict. Somehow, the fact that Hamas and Palestinian terrorists have been attacking Israel indiscriminately, which is why the Iron Dome has been developed to begin with as self defence to protect its citizens.

In its opening para itself WaPo admits how Hamas, the Islamist terror group ruling Gaza, has fired over 1700 rockets in just few days towards Israel. It adds how the Iron Dome, developed by Israel and funded by the US (Barack Obama in 2014), has thwarted about 90% of those rockets which were aimed to kill its civilians.

However, expressing its disdain towards the technology a country develops to protect its people, WaPo blames it for ‘perpetuating’ conflict. WaPo itself admits how it was the Hamas terrorists that fired at Israel over the Sheikh Jarrah ruling. But, because it saved its citizens, a fact WaPo does not seem to consider legit enough for the technology to exist. In fact, it squarely puts the blame of Hamas terrorists wanting to kill Israeli citizens on the Iron Dome that protects it.

Unfathomable.

WaPo claims that since Israel has Irom Dome, it does not have enough incentive to end the conflict as it protects its citizens. This could mean that Hamas terrorists, who use its civilians and human shield to carry out attacks, also don’t have any incentive to end conflict either because they perhaps don’t value the lives of its citizens.

WaPo then shows how the Iron Dome has reduced Israeli civilian casualties and hence it gave an optimal solution to Israel to end the conflict.

Washington Post on Iron Dome

So, here is the thing. WaPo says that while Iron Dome has saved lives of Israelis from Gaza rockets, it is ‘enabled’ air campaign against Palestine citizens. WaPo makes it sound as if it is only Israel that is attacking while giving a clean chit to Hamas terrorists. Should Israel just let its citizens die? Why should any country not use technology to save lives of its citizens?

Further, WaPo claims that since Israel has Iron Dome, it has ‘false sense of security based on technological success’ which ‘isn’t guaranteed forever’.

Threat, much?

Feminism in India Editor Japleen Pasricha called out for sexist jibe at Mayawati, blames it on ‘internalised sexism’

OpIndia Staff
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Feminism in India Editor Japleen Pasricha called out for sexist jibe at Mayawati, blames it on ‘internalised sexism’

Japleen Pasricha, founder-CEO and Editor-in-Chief at Feminism in India, has apologised for a sexist jibe at BSP supremo Mayawati in 2012. In the tweet, she mocked Mayawati for not having children and speaking of birth control and family planning.

Japleen Pasricha has issued an apology over the tweet after it went viral. She blamed it on ‘internalised sexism and casteism’.

Source: Twitter

She was called out over the nine-year old tweet and a campaign was initiated against her.

Japleen Pasricha was condemned for her regressive thought process.

The tweet has also sparked a lot of casteist attacks against Savarnas. Sumit Chauhan, an Ambedkarite journalist, said that Savarnas are ‘mentally sick’ people and ‘highly casteist’ by nature.

Earlier, comedian Neville Shah had issued an apology for a 5-year old joke where he had mocked ‘quota admission’.

Comedian Neville Shah apologises for ‘quota admission’ joke after 5 year old video clip went viral

OpIndia Staff
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Comedian Neville Shah apologises for ‘quota admission’ joke after 5 year old video clip went viral

Stand-up comedian Neville Shah has issued an apology after a video clip of his performance five years ago went viral on social media. He said that the performance was taped a few months after he lost his mother.

Neville Shah said, “I apologise for the trauma, the anger and duress that the joke has caused a lot of people. I am sorry.” “It was taped a few months after the loss of my mother in 2016. The joke in question and a lot of the others are about me grieving and dealing with that loss. I was trying to convert my loss to words and in the course of that, if I have hurt anyone or any community’s feelings, I am truly sorry,” he added.

Neville Shah apologises over a joke

He stated, “I had no intention to hurt or insult any community. I realise, that the joke though only intended to be funny, has been largely found to be tasteless and devoid of humour. I also re- alise that it has hurt people, even though that was never my intention. I truly apologise for the thoughtless remark on quota admissions.”

A video clip of his performance was in circulation since Sunday. During the performance, he jokes about a doctor who he suspected of being a ‘quota admission’. He says, “Why do you have to give quota admission when there’s a matter of life involved?”

People on social media had taken offense at the comment and attributed it to his ‘Savarna’ background.

Others accused him of insulting doctors.

Some saw it as evidence of ‘Brahminism’.

People also took offense at the joke as it described a limping doctor. They said it enforced stereotypes about the ‘disabled’ community.

There is great anger against Shah for the joke.

People on social media are not satisfied with his apology either.

ThePrint’s Dilip Mandal chastised Neville Shah for the joke as well.

Neville Shah issued an apology on Monday evening, a day after the video clip was in circulation. He said that there is a great many things he has to educate himself with.

West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee’s govt clears proposal to form a State Legislative Council. Here is why

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee’s govt clears proposal to form a State Legislative Council. Here is why

On Monday, West Bengal Chief Minister announced that a Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) will be set up in the State. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting, conducted via video conferencing, by the CM and several Departmental Secretaries.

As per reports, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party has promised in its manifesto that a Legislative Council will be formed once it returns to power. Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee had earlier hinted that those who were not given tickets by the party would be nominated through the Legislative council. She had even vowed to give seats to those who were part of her campaign in Nandigram and Singur, after the 2011 Vidhan Sabha elections.

Given that several party stalwarts such as incumbent Finance Minister Amit Mitra, Purnendu Bose couldn’t be accommodated in the Vidhan Sabha, the decision to set up a Vidhan Parishad was thus finalised. The move is now being viewed as a strategy devised by Mamata Banerjee, who lost to her rival candidate Suvendu Adhikari, to bypass the election process. Only 6 states in India have a Legislative Council, namely, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.

Challenges in setting up the State Legislative Council in West Bengal

It must be mentioned that a State Legislative Council existed in West Bengal from 1952 to 1969, before it was dissolved by the United Front Government. For the formation of the Council, a Bill needs to be tabled in the State Assembly. Such a Bill will require the Governor’s assent after it is passed by the Assembly. While speaking about the matter, Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee said that the Council was abolished by the Parliament through the West Bengal Legislative Council (Abolition) Act, 1969.

He informed that a Legislative Council can be formed if Article 169 of the Indian Constitution is followed along with the necessary constitutional amendment. He added that the Bill for the creation of Vidhan Parishad needs to be tabled before the Parliament and requires the President’s assent. Although Mamata Banerjee has directed the parliamentary affairs department to initiate the process, such a Bill is unlikely to go through Parliament due to the incumbent BJP government at the Centre.

According to advocate Subroto Mookerjee, the Vidhan Parishad must not have more than 1/3rd of the total seats in the Vidhan Sabha. As such, the Council can have a maximum of 98 seats. 1/3rd of the members will be elected by the MLAs, while another 1/3rd will be elected by the civic bodies, Zila Parishad, and other local bodies. There will also be provisions to nominate members to the Council by the government. Just like Rajya Sabha, a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman will be dominated. Members must be at least 30 years of age and will have a tenure of 6 years.

Mamata Banerjee lost to Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram

In a major turn of political fortunes, Mamata Banerjee lost to Suvendu Adhikari by a narrow margin in the latter’s bastion of Nandigram. Although she was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the State, Banerjee needs to win a seat in the by-polls within next 6 months. Failing to do so will lead to her dismissal from the post of the Chief Minister. In order to evade contesting polls after an embarassing defeat to Adhikari, she has now decided to form the Legislative council and bypass the electoral process.

Such a political stunt was earlier executed by the incumbent Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Although a Legislative council was in place, prior to him being sworn in as CM, Thackeray retained his position by being elected unopposed to the State Legislative council. As such, he too did not have to face the people or contest elections. Mamata Banerjee has decided to follow in his footsteps, by going a step ahead and setting up a Legislative Council.

14000 gelatin sticks, 4000 detonators and other explosives seized from two locations in Maharashtra: Details

OpIndia Staff
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14000 gelatin sticks, 4000 detonators and other explosives seized from two locations in Maharashtra: Details

As many as 14000 gelatin sticks, 4000 detonators and other explosive materials were seized from two different locations in Maharashtra.

In a raid by Thane’s Crime Branch Unit, cops seized 12000 gelatin sticks and 3000 detonators from Bhiwandi on Monday. As per the police, the sticks were packed in 60 boxes with each carrying 190 sticks in a safehouse.

Upon receiving the information, a team was constituted to raid Mittal enterprise located at the Karivali village to seize the explosive materials. Following the raid, one person identified as Gurunath Kashinath (53) has been taken into custody.

DCP Crime Laxmikant Patil informed, “The accused is a building material supplier and quarry contractor by profession and residing at Kalwar, Bhiwandi. He kept explosives in two rooms. Both rooms are located near Mahesh stone Chawl in Karivali village and are adjacent to each other.”

The accused has been remanded into police custody till May 22 as per court orders. Further investigation is underway.

Explosives seized from Amravati, Maharashtra

The Rural Police along with the Anti-Terrorism Cell and local Crime Branch unit seized 1300 gelatin sticks and 835 detonators from a farm warehouse located at Ghota in Tiwasa taluka of Amravati district, Maharashtra on Monday.

The accused Yuvraj Uddhav Nakhle (42) has been taken into custody for the illegal possession of explosives. Explosives worth 4 lakhs including gelatin sticks, detonators and a tractor fitted with an explosive was seized in the raid conducted. 

The accused, a local of Ghota village has named a Ishwar Mohod for supplying the explosives. A search is on to nab the other accused. 

After relentless PR hailing KK Shailaja’s ‘Kerala Model’ of Covid care, Vijayan govt to get new health minister

OpIndia Staff
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After relentless PR hailing KK Shailaja’s ‘Kerala Model’ of Covid care, Vijayan govt to get new health minister

On May 18, Kerala’s newly elected LDF-led government dropped all ministers from the previous Cabinet in a bid to look for new faces, including health minister KK Shailaja who was lauded by ‘experts’ for handling the Covid-19 crisis in the state. Only Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is getting a second term from the old Cabinet. As per sources, she has been elected as Party Whip.

Shailaja and her term as health minister

Shailaja, a retired teacher, gained popularity as the health minister for the ‘Kerala model’ of battling the pandemic. She was lauded by national and international media lauded for her handling of the Covid-19 virus. In September last year, a UK-based magazine selected Shailaja as the “Top Thinker of the Year 2020”. After all that PR campaign, Kerala is poised to get a new health minister.

Nevertheless, the Kerala model of Covid-19 management has failed spectacularly. During the second wave of the pandemic, the state has been consistently reporting more than 25,000 cases a day. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the maximum number of new cases reported by Kerala in a single day was on May 12 when the state reported over 43,000 cases in a single day.

LDF getting heat for changing health minister

Several experts have raised eyebrows at the decision made by the Kerala government to change the health minister in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis despite the failure of the ‘Kerala Model’.

Some called the decision to drop Shailaja as evidence of ‘sexism’.

On the other hand, reports suggested that CPIM said that it is part of their policy to have new members in the team. The Kerala government under Pinarayi Vijayan as CM will be sworn in on May 20. A total of 21 ministers will take oath on the day. The ceremony is expected to be low-key amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Sources suggest that MB Rajesh has been nominated as a Speaker candidate.

CPI(M), the largest coalition partner in the LDF government, will have 12 members in the Cabinet. CPI will have four members, while Kerala Congress (M), Janata Dal (S), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will have one member each.

In the recent Kerala elections, LDF won 99 seats, beating Congress-led UDF and BJP-NDA. UDF managed to get 41 seats while NDA could not secure any seat in Kerala.

A week after BMC floated global tender for Covid vaccines, it gets zero bids. Here is why

OpIndia Staff
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A week after BMC floated global tender for Covid vaccines, it gets zero bids. Here is why

As the last date for submitting an expression of interest (EOI) by vaccine manufacturers close today, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is left empty-handed. On May 12, it had floated a global tender for vaccines and became the first municipal corporation in the country to do so. However, it has not received even a single bid from any vaccine manufacturers.

The global tender, barring Chinese vaccines, was floated for a whopping 1 crore Coronavirus vaccine doses on May 12. However, the BMC had imposed strict conditions for the procurement of the vaccines. One of the conditions was that the bidding vaccine manufacturer must deliver the doses within 3 weeks from the date of the issue of a work order.

Such a short time span for the delivery of 1 crore vaccine doses was unfeasible for vaccine manufacturers. It must be mentioned that most global companies are struggling to meet the growing demand for vaccines and are running behind on existing orders. Even though the BMC had kept its tender open for foreign vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, all such companies need mandatory clearance from the  Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

The civic body had also put forth the condition to vaccine manufacturers that they will have to arrange for storage facilities in case those facilities aren’t available with the BMC. Such stringent conditions, coupled with pending approval, lack of flexibility, and a small window for delivery, meant that all vaccine manufacturers remained disinterested in the proposal.

It is notable here that vaccines for Pfizer and Moderna need ultra-low temperature storage facilities to remain viable. While the vaccines currently used in India, SII’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin can be stored in regular and existing facilities, the storage, transport and distribution of most foreign vaccines will need expensive set up currently non-existent in our healthcare logistics systems.

Penalty for delay

The BMC tender had conditions that there will be no advanced payments to the companies, and they will be fined if there is a delay in delivery of vaccines.

Many experts have stated that the BMC’s tender was unrealistic as there is a global demand against a limited supply of vaccines currently. All vaccine companies have multiple governments requesting billions of doses. Amid this, a city municipal authority pretending that vaccine manufacturers will line up with ready doses to sell at their doorstep was a flawed notion to begin with. The lack of any potential bidders for the vaccine tender by BMC has just proven so.

BMC to extend the deadline for bidding by vaccine manufacturers

Faced with embarrassment, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is now mulling to extend the deadline for submitting an expression of interest. Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velarasu, who has been tasked with vaccine procurement, has remarked, “If we do not receive any response by the deadline, we might give an extension. Until now, we have not received any bids.”

Amidst a shortage of Coronavirus vaccines in the State, this comes as a major setback. The Maharashtra government has thus deferred the third phase of vaccination, which was meant to kickstart from May 1.

Vaccine manufacturers around the world have no dearth of demand, often with simple or no conditions. Owing to BMC’s red-tapping strategy, it is now left with no bidders. However, this has not stopped Indian liberals from blaming the Union government for states not being able to procure Coronavirus vaccines. It must be mentioned that the Central government had allowed the States to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers after repeated demands from several state governments, including Maharashtra.

CNN fires Pakistan-based contributor Adeel Raja after anti-Semitic tweets generate backlash

OpIndia Staff
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CNN fires Pakistan-based contributor Adeel Raja after anti-Semitic tweets generate backlash

Adeel Raja, a Pakistan-based CNN contributor has been fired after he tweeted ‘The world today needs a Hitler’ amidst the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas. His pro-Hitler statement indirectly calling for another Jewish genocide drew a heavy backlash following which the American multinational media outfit decided to cut ties with him.

CNN later released a statement informing about the severing of ties with the controversial freelancer. “Adeel Raja’s reporting contributed to some newsgathering efforts from Islamabad. However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity,” the statement said.

Raja, who was employed as a freelance contributor with CNN since 2013, tweeted the pro-Hitler remark at around 12:45 pm Sunday and deleted it hours later after it attracted widespread criticism. Several social media users flagged his tweet as anti-semitic and slammed the freelancer for spreading hatred against Jews and indirectly calling for their genocide.

Adeel Raja
Tweet by Adeel Raja

And it is not just Raja’s recent pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic tweet that has caught the attention of social media users. He has been a lifelong supporter of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and had made no bones about expressing his admiration for him from time to time. Screenshots of those tweets have also gone viral since then. One screenshot shows him saying that he is supporting Germany in the final of the FIFA World Cup because Adolf Hitler was a German and he did “good with those Jews”. The next day, he tweeted, “Hail Hitler!”

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and is responsible for killing more than 6 million Jews.

After his anti-Semitic tweets surfaced online, many Twitter users had urged CNN to fire him and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to ban him from the social media site after his latest tweet.

Raja presented himself as a freelancing contributor to CNN on his Twitter profile, although he removed it after the blowback on his post. He had a byline on the network’s website as recently as September last year and his first CNN byline is dated January 2, 2014—months before his anti-Semitic tweets during the Fifa World Cup.

The Israeli-Palestine conflict has drawn sharp reactions from various Islamic countries, especially Pakistan, where there has been an overwhelming outpouring of hate against Israel ever since the conflict broke out. Only recently, Pakistani actress Veena Malik tweeted a misattributed Hitler quote to justify the genocide of Jews.

In a tweet, the reality show turned Twitter troll attributed a quote to Adolf Hitler and quoted ‘I would have killed all the Jews of the world… but I kept some to show the world why I killed them.”

Pakistanis on social media have also been urging their Prime Minister Imran Khan to nuke Israel for its attempts to save its own citizens agaianst Hamas rocket fire.

Congress toolkit says party blocked beds in ‘friendly’ hospitals amidst COVID-19 crisis to paint itself as a messiah on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Congress toolkit says party blocked beds in ‘friendly’ hospitals amidst COVID-19 crisis to paint itself as a messiah on social media

Social media websites are awash with a new toolkit, allegedly created by the Congress party, detailing its plan to extract political mileage out of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country.

In their pursuit to mount an attack against the BJP and PM Modi, the Congress leaders collaborated with local leaders to block beds and other facilities in some ‘friendly’ hospitals, which were to be made available only on their request, the alleged toolkit said.

“Liaise with local ground level political leaders in cities to keep some beds and other facilities blocked in friendly hospitals, to be released only on our request,” one of the subheadings under “Amplify work of frontal Congress organisations,” said.

Congress Toolkit

The recommendation to block beds in hospitals comes at a time when India is reeling under the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak that has left hospitals packed to capacity and patients struggling to get care. Hospital beds have been scarce, and other facilities such as ventilators, availability of key antiviral drugs such as remdesivir, oxygen cylinders, have also been in short supply, owing to the rising number of cases.

However, in their bid to project the BJP as incompetent, the toolkit suggests Congress leaders block beds in hospitals and hoard off essential supplies so that the party can slyly take credit and achieve positive social media coverage by later releasing it to the patients in urgent need of beds and other key supplies.

The toolkit also instructs India Youth Congress and other frontal Congress organisations to exaggerate their help while understating the work done by the BJP and its frontal organisations.

The toolkit said that request from journalists, media professionals and other influencers must get priority, which clearly reveals the party’s own priority of seeking positive media coverage instead of focusing on helping people in need.

The toolkit also suggests measures to destroy the image of PM Modi, which it claims is still high despite the COVID-19 crisis. It has directed Congress leaders to call the latest mutant virus as the Indian strain and to use ‘Modi Strain’ on social media to tarnish the image of PM Modi.

Congress toolkit suggests maligning Kumbh Mela while asking its followers to refrain from commenting on Eid gatherings

In another instance in the document that is titled ‘Cornering Narendra Modi & Covid Mismanagement’, the toolkit highlights how the ‘Kumbh Mela is to be used to malign the Hindu festival and the ruling party. It also recommends politicizing the congregation by repeatedly labelling it as a ‘super spreader’ to hint at BJP’s Hindu politics. 

The pointed instruction guide then recommends using international media reports to validate the point and warns to not comment on ‘Eid’ gatherings as it might be used as a trap.

OpIndia could not independently verify the authenticity of the toolkit.

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