As per inputs from Military Intelligence (MI) unit, the Anti Rowdy Section of Kolkata Police recovered 51 crude bombs filled in sacks from Khidirpore crossing near the BJP office in Kolkata, West Bengal, at around 8 pm on Saturday.
Based on the input shared by the Military Intelligence, Anti Rowdy Section of Kolkata Police recovered 51 bombs from Hastings crossing area, near BJP Party office: Sources#WestBengalpic.twitter.com/zubooIg7vm
As per a Times Now report, the bombs were kept in four sacks and found just 20 meters away from the BJP office.
Informing that the explosion of so many bombs could have lead to serious damage, a senior official said, “We have started an investigation to find out how the bombs came there. The CCTV footage is also being examined.”
Investigation into the matter using CCTV footage as well as other means is underway to determine who placed the bag of bombs and the intention of the culprit.
Sexual violence, targeted attacks and use of state machinery
The Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA) has submitted a report on the post-poll violence in West Bengal where they have documented the concerted campaign against opposition party workers by the cadres of the Trinamool Congress.
In the report, the GIA states that the victims primarily belong to the very marginal sections of Hindu society which have voted for the BJP in the assembly elections. The report says, “The main modus operandi of the TMC is to debilitate political opponents by targeting their bodies, economic resources and their psychological wellbeing. This involves physical and sexual attacks, destruction of living spaces, property and means of production however small they are.”
Raising grave concerns over the prevailing situation in West Bengal, the report suggests action against police officers as well who failed to perform their constitutional duties. It also recommends inquiries by the National Commission for Human Rights, National Commission for Protection of Children, National Commission for women, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
11-year-old boy killed in crude bomb explosion
In May, an 11-year-old boy from West Bengal’s Birbhum district was killed in a crude bomb explosion.
The bomb was kept in a box near a canal in Khatipur village when the boy accidentally came in contact with it and died on the spot as the bomb exploded.
The Birbhum Superintendent of Police Nagendra Tripathi had informed, “We have received a complaint and started a specific case against unknown people.”
Calcutta HC orders for sending displaced people home
As the post-poll violence in West Bengal forced people to flee from their homes, the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the authorities to take steps to send these people back to their homes.
The five-judge bench, comprising of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal Court and justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar ordered that if the authorities failed to comply with the order, the court will have to take necessary steps for ensuring people’s safe return to their homes.
All does not seem to be well between TMC MP Nusrat Jahan and her husband Nikhil Jain. Reports of split between the two surfaced soon after their marriage amid rumours that Nusrat was dating her costar Yash Dasgupta.
Now, the Bengali actor-parliamentarian Nusrat Jahan Ruhi is alleged to be pregnant. However, neither the Bengali actress Jahan nor her team has confirmed the news, reports Asianet News.
For the past few days, news reports regarding Nusrat’s pregnancy are doing rounds on social media. Amidst these rumours, the actress dropped a cryptic post on her Instagram account.
“You will blossom in our way,” read the Instagram story posted by the 30-year-old actress-turned-politician.
Husband unaware of Nusrat’s pregnancy
Nusrat’s husband Nikhil Jain, who is currently separated from the actor, seems to have no idea about his estranged wife being pregnant.
Speaking to a local media, Jain had said that he has been separated from Nusrat for over six months now, and the child, if the news is true, is not his.
“I don’t know anything about this. I have no contact with her for a long time. From this, it is clear that this child is not mine,” Nikhil Jain said.
The Bengali actress and the Lok Sabha MP from Basirhat Nusrat Jahan Ruhi had married Nikhil Jain two years ago. However, the relationship between the two turned sour within a year of their marriage. In the meantime, Nusrat’s closeness with actor Yash Dasgupta continued to grow as they were seen together at different parties.
According to ABP, Nusrat Jahan and Yash Dasgupta are eager to welcome their child. The report said the couple received the news a month ago. It is expected that the couple will acknowledge being parents in the coming weeks and announce the same in public.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the face of the American COVID-19 response, recently found himself in hot water after thousands of his emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act pointed out his possible role in suppressing the truth and providing misleading information about the coronavirus.
The cache of emails revealed that several people, including researchers, people in US administration and intelligence, wanted to probe the role of the Chinese lab, but they were overruled by Dr Anthony Fauci and others, who had vested interests in the issue as they themselves were instrumental in US govt funding the study on the virus in the Wuhan lab. It has invariably given a boost to the lab-leak theory that many have been alleging after the outbreak first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Dr Anthony Fauci deliberately concealed the synthetic nature of coronavirus: Dr PSV Rao
In a debate on NewsX, Dr PSV Rao accused Dr Anthony Fauci of lying to the world about the true nature of the coronavirus. He pointed out the discrepancy between the assertions made by Dr Fauci in his leaked emails from February 2020 and the public remarks made by him then. In February 2020, Dr Fauci talked about the genome sequencing of the coronavirus, pointing out that the virus was not evolutionary. However, his email conversations from that time revealed that this was not the case.
“On January 31, 2020, Delhi researchers were referring to research I had mentioned in my Sunday Guardian article, which found that the spike glycoprotein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 had four insertions which are not found in any other Coronavirus, and the insertions are similar to those found in HIV virus. AIDS virus is retro RNA, it has to change to DNA and then transform to RNA. We have no study so far in the world that says a retro RNA virus can transform into RNA virus,” Dr PSV Rao said while throwing his weight behind the suspicions that the virus was synthetically manufactured.
Dr Rao further said, “In the month of Jan there were two other publications, one by Wuhan Doctors about the cases and another study by Hong Kong doctors who had gone to Wuhan and studied the disease. Both the research published are saying the same thing. A leading infectious disease expert, Kristian Andersen, emailed Dr Fauci that some of the features of the virus looked engineered. But he did not announce it in public. This reveals that Dr Fauci was already aware of the man-made nature of the virus but he did not inform the public about the same.”
Dr Rao further alleged that it was Dr Fauci’s organisation that had funded the gain of function experiments that were going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
When asked why Dr Fauci did not publicly raise misgivings shared by some of the doctors about the engineered nature of the virus, Dr Rao said that perhaps Dr Fauci was not ready to take criminal liability on his head after announcing the genome sequencing of the virus in February 2020. Dr Rao further added that the pathogen experiments conducted in Wuhan Institute of Virology were possibly funded by Dr Fauci, through Peter Daszak, in order to hide his direct involvement.
FBI should have interviewed Dr Anthony Fauci to know about the origins of COVID-19: Prof Madhav Nalapat
Another panellist on the news show, Professor Madhav Nalapat said that he has it on good authority that Dr Anthony Fauci has been lying from the very beginning. Madhav said he has been informed by expert virologists about the bat virus and the coronavirus that was detected in December 2019. He says he’s been informed by virologists that the coronavirus is genetically engineered.
“I have been told Dr Fauci is lying from the beginning. I have been told about the bat virus and the coronavirus that was found in Wuhan. I don’t know whether he is lying all these decades about his educational qualifications or he knew about the man-made nature of the virus and still kept quiet,” Prof Nalapat said.
He further said that the virus was manufactured in a lab and that FBI should have investigated Dr Fauci to get to the bottom of this murky affair. “Dr Fauci and others were aware of its lab origins. He should not have been interviewed by news channels but under oath by the FBI,” Prof Nalapat said.
Prof Madhav alleged that those who dared to go against Dr Fauci were warned in no uncertain terms that their reputation will be tarnished and their careers will be destroyed if they spoke against Dr Fauci and the synthetic nature of the virus. “What is even more disgusting is the cover-up. Any scientist who spoke up was strictly warned that his career would be destroyed should he speak against Dr Fauci,” said Prof Nalapat.
“Friends in the United States and Japan extensively briefed me that this natural origin of coronavirus is absolute bunkum. I asked them to expose him. But they said, If we speak out, Dr Fauci and his gang will destroy us and destroy our reputation,” Prof Nalapat said about doctors who confided in him that the virus was genetically engineered and not natural as claimed by Dr Fauci in 2020.
Prof Nalapat also slammed Democrats for shielding Dr Anthony Fauci and his collusion with the Chinese PLA. “Democrats very well knew that 70 per cent of the research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was done by PLA and was in close cooperation with them. They were looking at bio-weapons. The money sent by Dr Fauci through Daszak went to the PLA,” Nalapat said.
Dr Fauci outsourced the virus creation to China with generous donations: Deepak Vohra
Ambassador Deepak Vohra was another panellist in the debate who subscribed to the view that the coronavirus was created in a laboratory in Wuhan. He said that the virus was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan at the behest of Dr Fauci and Peter Daszak acted as a conduit to bankroll such experiments.
“In 2014, the United States placed a moratorium to stop the gain of function research. The US federal funding was banned for three viruses and attempts to weaponize them. Therefore, Dr Fauci outsourced the creation of coronavirus to Wuhan. He stopped the research back at the home and financed it to be carried out in China. And the Chinese were more than happy to accept American investment in developing a potential bio-weapon,” Vohra said.
Earlier, Indian researchers whose study had suggested an artificial origin of Covid-19 said that they were forced to withdraw the study due to pressure from vested interests.
Days after the activist-for-hire Licypriya Kangujam’s father was arrested for duping nearly 100 children from 12 countries under the garb of activism, the deceitful methods employed by the duo to hog limelight and favourable publicity have come to fore. The father and the daughter have been exaggerating their manipulated accomplishments and using run-of-the-mill acknowledgements from reputed organisations to spin a web of lies around their achievement.
A Twitter user named Herin Maru, who goes by Twitter handle @her1n, recently exposed how the hallowed organisations like Harvard University and international media organisation DW News fell for the propaganda peddled by Licypriya and her father and published them without bothering to carry out a basic due-diligence.
Harvard credits Licypriya as the for India’s Air Pollution Law
In an interview with Harvard, which was published on its website on 7 December 2020 and whose link is mentioned in Licypriya’sTwitter bio, the activist crowed about her role in bringing the Indian government to pass the new Air Pollution Law in 2018.
“I played an important role to bring about this new law to curb the air pollution crisis in Delhi. I protested in front of the President House at midnight on October 15, 2020. I was detained by Delhi police on October 18, 2020. On October 28, 2020, the President of India signed and approved an ordinance to enact this new air pollution law in India in five states,” reads the interview published on Harvard’s website.
Harvard University did not bother to check the claims made by Licypriya and published it verbatim on its website. As it turned out, the claim made by Licypriya did not match the reality. The new Air Pollution Law was passed due to a PIL filed by environmental activists and Class 12 student Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka, who sought directions to provide free of cost stubble removing machines to small and marginal farmers to check high particulate matters in the air. Licypriya had no role to play in bringing the new law.
Harvard publishes lies about Licypriya’s father’s educational qualifications
Furthermore, Licypriya also made misleading claims about her father’s educational qualifications in her Harvard interview. She said that her father completed his Masters in Environmental Studies at Nalanda International University.
However, this assertion runs counter to what Manipur journalist Paojel Chaoba claimed in an article published in 2015. Chaoba had cited sources from IGNOU and Manipur University to claim that Licypriya’s father, Dr KK Singh had lied about his educational qualifications.
Licypriya uses govt acknowledgement letter to claim her activism resulted in inclusion of “climate change” in school curriculum
Another lie pertaining to “climate change” being made a permanent subject in school education curriculum was published on Harvard’s website. A routine acknowledgment by Gujarat and Rajasthan government to Licypriya’s demand of mandatorily including “climate change” in the school education was touted by her as a result of her activism.
A simple acknowledgement of the letter, is being claimed that Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc. have agreed to include “climate change” as a compulsory subject.
Such letters are routinely handed out by governments to those who write to them, but Licypriya and her father used it to allege that the changes in the school curriculum were made because of their intervention.
In a matter of 9 months, Licypriya planted a staggering 300,000 trees
Another discrepancy in the claims made by Licypriya in her Harvard interview and the reality has surfaced. On March 3, 2020, Licypriya tweeted that she had planted 51,000 trees in her 8 years of existence on earth.
SourceS
But in just 9 months since then, she was able to plant an astounding 300,000 trees. In her interview with the Harvard University, which was published in December 2020, the activist claimed that she had planted more than 350,000 trees till date.
Source
There is no record of where she planted such a large number of trees, and what is the current status of those plantations.
International media organisation DW News blindly publishes Licypriya
The international news organisation DW News also fell into the trap of lies peddled by activist Licypriya. In an interview that took place on 29 April 2021, Licypriya claimed that she played a pivotal role in the enactment of the new Air Pollution Law.
“The new air pollution law was recently approved and signed by the President of India as an Ordinance to enact in 5 states. It’s my long-pending demand for more than 2 years. Finally, it happened after a petition filed to Supreme Court by one of my colleagues,” a tweet posted by DW News’ official Twitter read as Licypriya saying.
After Twitter user @her1n highlighted Licypriya’s deceitful claim of being responsible for the enforcement of the new air pollution law, DW News responded to the tweet saying they are looking into the matter.
Soon after Harvard University published its interview on its website, Licypriya added its link on her Twitter bio. Once a venerable institute publishes a feature story or interview on her, Licypriya uses it to the hilt, making sure to add a reference about it in every future communication and to portray herself as a well-renowned climate activist. This is the typical modus operandi employed by Licypriya and her father, who sought recognition from reputed organisations such as Harvard University on the basis of trumped-up achievements and later used their acknowledgements to burnish their manipulated credentials and dupe unsuspecting people.
Licypriya’s father, Dr KK Singh arrested by the police for duping over 100 children
Projecting his 9-year-old daughter as the face of a national and international ‘climate activism’ campaign, Licypriya’s father Kanarjit Kangujam has reportedly duped nearly 100 children from 12 countries under the garb of activism as per a Vice report. The fraud amount is estimated to be approximately $44,685, just from fees collected from students.
As of now, Kangujam Kanarjit has been arrested in a joint operation by Delhi Police and Manipur Police on 31 May and was be produced before the Court.
Kanarjit has been accused of cheating multiple people, with amounts as high as Rs 19 lakh. In 2015, he was arrested in Manipur with charges of criminal case number 176 of 2015 under Section 420 (Fraud), 324 (Assault) and 406 (Criminal breach of trust).
Kanarjit had also invented the fake achievements of daughter Licypriya Kangujam in order to propel her to international fame. In Multiple press investigations and reports, it was found that Licypriya’s so-called UN invite and other attendances were all fake, cunningly drafted and used by her father for media hype.
On Friday (June 4), over 30 student unions and organisations in India started a movement on Twitter, demanding the inclusion of a comprehensive chapter on the North-Eastern States in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum.
The movement was led on the micro-blogging platform with hashtags of ‘A Chapter for NE’ and ‘Northeast Matters’ between 6 pm to 8 pm on Friday. It was supported by activists, politicians, students, and academics from Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim. The objective behind the Twitter storm was to draw the attention of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and NCERT to include a mandatory chapter on North-East India in school textbooks.
The Twitter campaign came at the backdrop of recent events that have sparked a debate around the alienation and racial discrimination faced by North-Easterns in other States. Lingdam Kane, the President of All Arunachal Student Union of Chandigarh, informed, “Because of racial discrimination, many people of the northeastern states have faced problems. We as students, who go to other states to pursue our studies, face racial discrimination at least 6-7 times a month.”
He further added, “We cannot say that the movement will completely eradicate the racial discrimination but it will sure to help to minimise it.” Kane emphasised that the history of the North East and its people had disappeared from Indian textbooks and the inclusion of a chapter on its demography and history will help disseminate knowledge among people in the mainland. Mayur Jyoti Kaushik, a student in Assam, said that a chapter on the region’s history, culture, ethnicity, and lifestyle can ensure that children don’t grow up to be ignorant about North-East.
Netizens trend ‘A Chapter for NE’, and ‘North East Matters’
Hima Das, the Indian sprinter from Assam, participated in the Twitter storm on Friday. She tweeted, “As a proud citizen of India, I want our textbooks to include all its colours and glory. So I request concerned authorities to include a chapter about NE in the NCERT syllabus. #AchapterforNE #NortheastMatters”
Popular Twitter user Amit Singh Rajawat wrote, “We know about Chatrapati shivaji or Maharana Pratap, but how many of us know abt Lachit Borpukhan? It’s unfortunate that #NCERT books don’t have a chapter on NE. I’m a North Indian and I support the demand of our NE brothers to add #AchapterforNE in @ncert books.”
We know about Chatrapati shivaji or Maharana Pratap, but how many of us know abt Lachit Borpukhan?
Twitter user Dr Mahipal Singh Rathore tweeted, “NorthEastMatters. NE India has 3.76% of India’s population & 8% land mass. It is high time #AChapterforNE is added to NCERT so that school kids all over #India are taught about the rich History, culture and Geography of the region.”
#NorthEastMatters NE India has 3.76% of India’s population & 8% land mass. It is high time #AChapterforNE is added to NCERT so that school kids all over #India are taught about the rich History, culture and Geography of the region.https://t.co/lqAaNsgm2l
— Dr. Mahipal Singh Rathore (@MahipalRathore) June 4, 2021
“Northeast India need a representation in NCERT. A humble request to @ncert to add one mandatory chapter on it,” Twitter user Trishanu Bhuyan pointed out.
The Twitter movement, meant to raise awareness about the existence, culture, demography, population, and history of the North-East, was spearheaded by two recent incidents. On May 25, Punjab police had arrested popular YouTuber Paras Singh after a case was registered against him for making a racist slur against former Arunachal Pradesh MP and incumbent Congress legislator Ninong Ering in one of his videos.
Paras had called Ering a non-Indian and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of China. It was after the Congress legislator wrote a letter to PM Modi, asking to ban the re-launch of PUBG Mobile India’s new avatar Battlegrounds Mobile India. The Youtuber was then brought to Itanagar on May 27. He was also given lessons on Arunachal Pradesh’s history and culture and was taught about the international border separating India and China. Paras has now been sent to judicial custody.
The ignorance displayed by the popular Youtuber in his video rekindled discussions about racism and ignorance about the people of North-East India. To add salt to the wound, India Today journalist Rahul Kanwal suggested that Nagaland was not a part of India. He made the embarrassing faux pas while discussing the repartition of mehul Choksi from Dominica with Rupin Sharma, Nagaland DGP and author of the book ‘Extradition’.
During the TV debate, Sharma had briefly lost his connection. After being reconnected to the live feed, Sharma apologised and said that there was a power cut. “Don’t worry, you are in Nagaland, electricity goes off even in India, please go on,” Kanwal responded. Netizens were quick to question the journalist if he thought Nagaland was not a part of India. Although he had since apologised for the slip of tongue, his Freudian slip made the North Easterns understand the urgent need for a mandatory and comprehensive chapter on the region.
A complaint with regards to “kidnapping” has been filed by the mother of rapper MC Kode after he went missing on 2nd June. Before going missing, he had posted a message on his Instagram account that was widely speculated to be a suicide note by individuals online.
#JUSTIN: An FIR of kidnapping lodged in South Delhi’s Mehrauli police station days after Delhi-based rapper #MCKode (Aditya Tiwari), whose old video went viral, went missing. Her mother informed police he had also allegedly posted a suicide note on Instagram.@IndianExpress
— Mahender Singh Manral (@mahendermanral) June 5, 2021
Consequently, an FIR related to kidnapping has been lodged at the Mehrauli Police Station in South Delhi, reports say.
Earlier, videos had gone viral where MC Kode could be heard making Hinduphobic comments. In one video, he said that he would masturbate on the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. In other videos, he could be heard saying that he will rape a battle rap opponent’s mother.
Consequently, he had issued an apology over the matter. In his post, MC Kode said that he was standing at an isolated bridge overlooking the Yamuna river where he could see the waves ‘answering his distress call’ while giving him ‘much needed perspective’.
Threatening to end his life, the rapper said he could only ask for forgiveness as his selfish actions will definitely cause a great amount of grief. He also urged others not to bother people associated with him and added that he did not blame anyone for anything but himself.
After announcing ‘Mission June’, a massive Covid vaccination drive starting June 1, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed state officials on June 4 to triple the state’s daily Covid-19 vaccination rate in a month.
The CM has given new directives to boost the immunisation drive, according to a government statement. “Every action necessary should be done to increase daily vaccination capacity”, instructed Yogi Adityanath at a high-level Covid-19 review meeting Friday.
The CM stated: “The current capacity needs to be boosted by three times within a month.” Vaccination is currently being carried out at 6,000 locations, and more than 14.68 lakh people have been vaccinated since the commencement of Mission June on Tuesday. This includes the 3.94 lakh vaccinations administered on Friday.
According to this calculation, the three-fold goal would entail giving out more than 10 lakh vaccines a day.
“So far, UP has administered 1.94 crore doses since the start of the vaccination drive. Among them, 27 lakh doses were given to youth (18-45 age group),” the chief minister said at a Covid-19 review meeting here. He also said the Covid recovery rate in the state had touched 97.4%.
“On April 30, UP had 3.10 lakh active cases of Covid. Thirty-five days afterwards, the number has fallen to 22,877. So far, 16.52 lakh Covid patients have recovered in the state since the infection began in UP (in March 2020),” Yogi Adityanath said. In the last 24 hours, just 1,175 new Covid cases were registered in the state, with 3,646 people recovered during that time, he informed.
The CM mentioned that partial corona curfews had been relaxed in 65 districts which have recorded fewer than 600 cases. The night and weekend curfews, however, would continue statewide, he added, adding that each district’s police and local government must strictly enforce them.
He also told the officials: “It is very important to do sero-survey to assess and analyse the Covid disease and the development of antibodies in the population. Carry out the survey well and fast.”
Yogi Adityanath launches ‘Mission June’, targets to inoculate 1 crore beneficiaries in a month
In the beginning of the month, the state of Uttar Pradesh, under the supervision of CM Yogi Adityanath, embarked on a massive Covid vaccination drive starting June 1 (Tuesday). The drive, which has been coined as ‘Mission June’ by the CM, intends to inoculate 90 lakhs to 1 crore beneficiaries across 75 districts of the state in the month of June.
According to a statement by the Uttar Pradesh government, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given instructions to the state government officials to ensure that all the sections of the society receive a vaccine shot under ‘Mission June’.
The chief minister also announced a special vaccination drive for socially and economically weaker sections like drivers, vendors, and rickshaw pullers and daily wagers, who come in contact with many people due to their nature of work, from June 15.
“Special camps have also been set up for journalists, government employees, and members of the judiciary. Similarly as many as 200 “guardian booths”, where parents of children below the age of 12 can get themselves vaccinated have been set up in all districts,” informed Yogi Adityanath.
Arfa Khanum Sherwani, propagandist at The Wire, insinuated on Saturday that it was ‘Hindutva goons’ who inspired the Taliban to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas with explosives. She suggested that the demolition of the Babri Masjid, a symbol of Islamic tyranny, inspired the destruction of the Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan.
Arfa Khanum Sherwani makes crazy analogy
There are multiple aspects of the argument that are beyond ridiculous. First and foremost, what happened to the Bamiyan Buddhas is a further demonstration of the Islamic iconoclasm that has ravaged Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious monuments ever since Islamic invasions began.
The fate suffered by the Buddhish religious monument has been suffered by countless other monuments before. Aurangzeb is still infamous for the destruction of Hindu Temples even after all these years. The Babri Masjid itself stood on the same ground where a Ram Mandir earlier existed.
The atrocity by the Taliban is not without precedence. They were only carrying forward the longstanding tradition set by their ideological predecessors. Arfa Khanum Sherwani appears to believe that since tyranny by Islamic invaders is centuries behind us, it would be relegated to the dustbins of history.
But Hinduism is living religion and Hindus remember the sacrifices our ancestors have made to ensure that our Gods are still worshipped in our land.
While one was the manifestation of Islamic iconoclasm, the other manifested the spirit of the revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille. Just as the storming of the Bastille was the spark that ignited the light of the French Revolution, similarly, the demolition of Babri Masjid sparked a Hindu renaissance, the churn through which Hindu society is currently navigating through.
Thus, these are events of completely different nature that cannot be compared at all.
Secondly, the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is not an isolated event. As has been mentioned before, Hindu and Buddhist religious monuments have long been desecrated by Islamists and Islamic terrorists throughout history and it continues to happen to this day.
One only look at the condition of Hindu Temples in Pakistan, which was India once upon merely seven decades ago. They do not allow Hindus to even build Temples with their own money there and such bigotry is justified in the name of Islam.
Thirdly, the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas was an attack on a hapless minorities by Taliban terrorists which come from the dominant community of the land. Conversely, the Babri Masjid demolition was not against any community.
It was only the reclamation of Ram Janmabhoomi by Hindus. The matter was ultimately resolved in the Supreme Court of the India through measures made available by the Constitution of the country. The same cannot be said of Bamiyan Buddhas.
In the tweet, Arfa Khanum Sherwani through some twisted logic tries to present Taliban as a morally superior group compared to the RSS. This is the obvious logical conclusion of the liberal proposition that the RSS is a fascist organisation.
When liberals buy into the trope, it is only a matter of time before others with a much more problematic ideological bent go one step further and argue that Islamic terrorists are morally superior to the RSS.
A cluster of people who decided to comply with the wave of parivartan under the aegis of one political party by chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ ignites a firestorm and when the fumes of chaos finally settle, it exposes not only the despotic regime in the state but also the intolerant mindset of the authoritarian that promises nothing but the disintegration of socio-political system and highlights distorted political culture. The destroyed idea of democratic spaces for the people and the press is ideated through series of draconian acts: from public and private mutation to molestation and rapes as a way to commemorate the victory; murders, clobbering, and terrorization as a right to take away the lives of people who were promised protection by the state; and burning the private properties of people ratifying personal is political. And yet, the irony is the selective silence of the officialdom despite the perceptibility of the turbulence. Precisely, this pictures the melancholic and despairing landscape of post-poll Bengal. To mark the landslide victory, Bengal was flooded not with enthuse but gory and a macabre series of murders and sexual assault.
Epistemic violence and ideological separation are foundational and systematically accepted features of the post-poll Bengal election under the All India Trinamool Congress regime. If one were to map the post-poll condition in Bengal, the current politics of the state would begin to look frail and flimsy. The clouded narratives of people being uprooted, loss of dignity and honor, and flickering sadness provide considerable empirical evidence of a deceitful obsession with power and hegemony. This serves as a paradigmatic moment to comprehend the unconstructive politics of contemporary Bengal and understand that there is very little space for chicanery for a leader or a political party in any democratic establishment. The perpetual post-poll rampage and concurrently the preposterous response from the All India Trinamool Congress-led State government is pernicious for ‘people’ and demography both.
The situation in Bengal was becoming volatile amidst the unprecedented political contestation but the turmoil in the state politics doubled after the results of the election and at the centre was violence against women. The promise of protection by the women Chief Minister of the state seems futile amidst the political turmoil enforcing barbaric murders and rapes as if rape is a legitimized weapon instead of a crime. Violence against women, consciously or unconsciously, is a self-taken affirmation of women as objects who can be defiled and tortured to take revenge from the opposition. Politically, rape and sexual assault have been considered a systematic tool to silence the voices of retaliation and resistance. Subsequently the All India Trinamool Congress has institutionalised violence to shun the opposition and used it as a tool to silence the voice that dares to decide and speaks for oneself. The peculiarity of the situation compels us to question the entire process of governance that is constructed over the narratives of gruesome acts of violence and assault.
The anger is reduplicated: firstly as the marginalization of selected people and the extent to which the gender-based violence persist; secondly the unbearable gaze by the people and society over the body, particularly the body of the women.
West Bengal’s politics has for long been uniformly proscriptive as well as prescriptive over domination, control, and exclusion of political rivals through violence, erroneous tactics, and dictatorship. The Trinamool Congress has tactically closed all spaces for true spirit of democracy and has made the state a violent area of domination through abuse of power and misuse of institutions.
There has been considerable instances and legitimate assertion by the workers of Bhartiya Janata Party workers across the state that the ruling dispensation is leaving no stone unturned to scarify them and also penalise them. Violence is not new to the state, but what is astonishing is that it has been deeply embedded now with institutional shielding. This is alarming and therefore calls out for ‘Constitutional Interference’ by competent authorities and the very immediate being, the Governor of the state.
The defilement of communal honor and violation of women in Bengal impinged a deep scar on the mind and bodies of people. The nature and extremity of violence challenge the binary distinctions between one’s ‘own’ people and the ‘other.’ The significant other faces the brunt of approving an ideology, believing, and consciously voting for Bharatiya Janata Party in the state of West Bengal.
As a consequence, people are subjected to physical and psychological assault, brutality, eviction, dispossession, sexual violence, and agony. The petrified spaces full of murdered bodies in a pool of blood, battered faces, panting screams and traumatized minds are what one perceives out of post-poll violence in Bengal. The visuals of hanged bodies on trees just to quench one’s thirst of power and not let people hold the flag of BJP exhibits the vindictive and malevolent streak.
The Election results were declared on second of May, and since evening reports of violence, sexual abuse, physical assault and exodus is unceasingly coming from across the state especially the rural part of the state. There has been a constant fear amongst the people and subsequently women and children face the double trauma of post poll violence and assault. All those seeking shelter in various camps in Assam or temporary arrangements done by the State unit of BJP are praying to go back to their ‘baari’ (home) every single second. All this during a pandemic, where is the ‘Rule of Law’? , where is justice for thousands who fled to save their lives.
In the disguise of establishing law and order, the gruesome act of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse resulting in physical, sexual, and psychological acts of control and dominance stick to one’s gun. Rape is a social evil, the most vulnerable and treacherous form of evil that cannot be justified on any grounds be it moral, political, social, or cultural. Justifying rape as a ‘legitimate political weapon’ has been an old yet problematic expression of imposing power and legitimacy over the body of a woman.
Politically motivated sexual harassment is an issue that has seldom been highlighted by popular media yet it is profoundly disturbing. What is deeply agitating and distressing is the deliberate silence on the part of the intelligentsia, all being parasitic signifiers of blind irrationalism and systematically chosen oppression due to the fear of social castigation. Defending the act as the “culture of Bengal politics” is being doltish and also being mute spectators of rape is nothing but holding no accountability to people and state.
The post-poll violence is a passive reflection of the reality principle in Bengal giving credence to the fact that political valence or competence voting is a utopian myth in the state. The repercussion of speaking out and dreaming for change is met with mortification, opprobrium, and loss of dignity. People who dared to unmask their voice met with unimaginable humiliation and at the forefront were the women who faced double marginalization. One cannot even dare to imagine the physical and mental trauma of a woman whose body becomes enrapture for an ignoramus fool. She is physically assaulted for believing in an ideology, for being an active political participant; and for being an agent of change.
What is gut-wrenching is the consolidation of other women giving consent to assault women to seek revenge just because she is from another political party. Normalising rape for personal glory is a serious issue as it perpetuates rape and toxic behaviours. The legitimization of suffering is what is to be questioned as what is at stake is not only the women of one state but women of the nation as a whole. The policy of appeasement of one particular community by the State government has a cost, which the masses are paying by losing their homes, livelihood and right to life with dignity. It is important to underscore here that it is an ‘organised crime’ and all perpetrators of crime must be dealt with high handedness. The ‘Rule of law’ and the constitutional safeguards to people must prevail.
The inquiry committee set up by the National Commission for Women visited the victims of violence that confirmed the gruesome act of rape. The initial visit palpably confirms the negligence of the state authorities. The committee has also asked the Director General of Police, West Bengal to intimate them about the measures taken for women safety in the state.
Let us hope for a new dawn of constructive politics in the state where justice shall prevail, despite all odds, and perpetrators of the crime will be brought to law. The democratic values and constitutional principles should conquer and the people must not lose faith in the law of land.
Two days after Kerala claimed that it had secured the rights to the KSRTC trademark for its road transport corporation against Karnataka, the Karnataka government has rejected Kerala’s claims over ‘KSRTC’ trademark, saying such orders have no legal validity.
Kerala and Karnataka are fighting a legal battle to claim the exclusive rights to use the ‘KSRTC’ trademark for their respective road transportation corporations, which has been in use for both Karnataka and Kerala state transport services for decades. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation started using the abbreviation ‘KSRTC’ when they started the services in 1965, while Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation commenced services in 1974 and started using the abbreviation since then.
However, on Wednesday, Kerala announced that the Central Trade Marks Registry issued a final verdict under the Trade Marks Act of 1999, allotting the abbreviation ‘KSRTC’ to Kerala in a legal dispute between the two state-run undertakings that began in 2014.
Since the order, Kerala has claimed that the acronym ‘KSRTC’, abbreviated for Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, its emblem and the nickname Aanavandi (elephant cart) now belong to them, and no other RTCs can use it under trademark rules. Meanwhile, the legal issue has become an emotive issue in Karnataka, and people in the state are demanding the state government not to cede the iconic brand name to Kerala.
What is the dispute?
The legal battle between Karnataka and Kerala over intellectual property rights on ‘KSRTC’ was going on for seven years. The battle began in 2013 when Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) took the first step to register the trademark with the Controller General of Patent and Trademarks and asked Kerala not to use the acronym further.
Controller General of Patents Design and Trademarks is a body attached to the Union government’s Ministry of Commerce under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion that grants patents, trademarks to registered entities and decides on other Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related issues.
After the grant of approval by CGPDT, Karnataka had issued a notice to Kerala asking the state to stop using the abbreviation.
Following this, Anthony Chacko, then Chairman and Managing Director of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, too applied for the trademark at the Registrar of Trademarks under the Central Government for Kerala. Kerala also challenged the award in 2015 at the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB).
On Wednesday, Kerala claimed that they have been awarded the trademark certificate for KSRTC by the same IPAB.
As Kerala claims that the Controller General of Patents Design and Trade Marks allegedly has approved their claim on ‘KSRTC’, they have now said the Kerala RTC will display ‘KSRTC’ with the registration mark ‘®’ wherever the state uses it. Meanwhile, Kerala RTC’s CMD has said that they will be sending legal notices to people who use the abbreviation and can claim money from people using it.
Karnataka rejects the claims, says they will continue to use ‘KSRTC’ brand
Terming the claims made by Kerala as false, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Managing Director Shivayogi Kalasad on Friday (4 June) said that such claims are factually incorrect and they have received no such notice Controller General of Patents Design and Trademarks asking them to stop using ‘KSRTC’ trademark.
The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Managing Director Shivayogi Kalasad said they have not received any final order on the issue and media reports on the verdict are factually incorrect.
Contesting the claims made by Kerala, Kalasad added that the central government had abolished the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) by an ordinance on April 4, 2021, and any award issued by it is legally invalid as all such pending applications will be transferred to the High Courts for adjudication.
“We are consulting our lawyers to take legal steps to protect our rights. If Kerala issues notice to us, we will respond suitably. We reserve our right to defend our claim legally,” added Kalasad.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman Savadi has also said they have not yet received any order copy regarding this issue. “Without any notice from the Controller General of Patents Design and Trade Marks we can’t go ahead with Kerala’s claim. We will discuss with our KSRTC legal team and explore all possibilities,” he said. Savadi also said it was an unnecessary controversy, and “the service of the people is important for the two corporations”.
Currently, both states continue to use the ‘KSRTC’ brand name. While Karnataka corporation uses the Gandaberunda icon (two-headed mythical bird) as its logo, Kerala RTC uses the image of two elephants in its logo.
