The Washington Post has issued a correction on its 2020 report, which criticised Republican Senator Tom Cotton for defending the claim that the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
As scientists and health experts worldwide discuss the possible lab origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Washington Post has silently edited out one of its reports that had debunked Senator Cotton’s assertion about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic by dismissing it as a “conspiracy theory”.
Senator Tom Cotton, along with former President Trump, had spoken about the possibility of Covid-19 originating from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, in 2019. Speaking to Fox News, Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton had pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a potential origin of the disease.
“We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton had said, adding, “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.”
In its article published on February 17, 2020, the Washington Post had described Senator Cotton’s claim as “debunked” and a “conspiracy theory.”
WaPo’s initial report published on February 17,2020/ Image Source: Greg Price
Responding to Cotton’s statements, the Post had written a report with an original headline from February 17, 2020, that read, “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.” In the earlier report, Post had dismissed the lab leak theories of Covid-19 by saying that Senator Cotton was repeating a conspiracy theory.
Washington Post edits its headline, deletes its reference to ‘conspiracy theory’
Fifteen months later, as lab leak theories are gaining renewed attention, and with President Biden announcing a probe to look into the possibility of the lab leak of the Covid-19, Washington Post has quietly edited its previous report that questioned Senator Cotton’s similar claims.
The headline has now been corrected on Tuesday to read, “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus fringe theory that scientists have disputed”.
Edited headline by Washington Post/ Image Source: Grey Price
The Post has also issued a statement with the correction that said the Post’s use of the words “debunked” and “conspiracy theory” has “been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus.”
In the article, the Post has altered the world “conspiracy theory” to refer to Cotton’s claims as “fringe”. It also changed the reference to “debunked” to refer to his theories as “disputed”.
“Earlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Senator Tom Cotton regarding the origins of the coronavirus. The term ‘debunked’ and The Post’s use of ‘conspiracy theory’ have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus,” the editor’s note read.
Many US leaders have spoken against the ‘media dishonesty’. They have called out the US media for perpetuating a false narrative and setting down voices that demanded truth.
Utterly bizarre.
Is there no limit to the corporate media’s dishonesty? Have they no shame?
Even now, WaPo can’t admit the were wrong/lying/deliberately spreading a false political narrative.
Correction comes amidst a change in scientists and experts’ opinion on the origin of Covid-19
The correction by the Washington Post comes after multiple scientists and experts have said it was not possible to rule out the theory that the coronavirus may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Earlier, many publications, including the Washington Post, had downplayed or outrightly rejected the lab leak possibility despite several facts that had pointed to the possibility of a Covid-19 lab leak since early 2020. The revision comes after several prominent public health officials, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House medical advisor, admitted that they lacked the information necessary to rule out a lab- leak.
Fauci has since publicly shifted his tone, acknowledging in recent days that the virus may indeed have come from a lab. Until recently, Fauci said it is “highly likely” that the coronavirus has a natural origin. However, a few days back, Fauci finally admitted that he was “not convinced” that coronavirus developed naturally.
Those comments came after World Health Organization (WHO) director Tedros Adhanom had revealed that his organisation’s investigative team, which had earlier dismissed the lab-leak theory as unlikely, had not sufficiently investigated the possibility.
After refuting the possibility for almost a year, the Biden administration finally accepted the theory as plausible after an investigative report revealed that three researchers at the WIV were hospitalised with symptoms consistent with Covid-19 in November 2019, a month before China said it recorded the first confirmed case.
Following the backlash, President Joe Biden subsequently directed US intelligence agencies to determine the likely cause of the virus and report their findings within 90 days.
Hindi daily Bhaskar had last week reported that the there has been rampant vaccine wastage in Rajasthan. They had collected over 500 vials with around 2500 doses still left in them. However the state government has been denying wastage.
On June 3, Hindi Daily Dainik Bhaskar had revealed that Covid-19 vaccines were not only thrown in the garbage in Rajasthan but were also buried haphazardly in several hospitals. It has to be noted that Raghu Sharma, Health Minister, Rajasthan, has repeatedly been insisting that vaccines were not thrown in the garbage.
Bhaskar reported that they had sent a team to further examine the vaccine wastage in hospitals of the state. A team had visited 10 hospitals in the state and had examined how vaccines vials are being discarded. In some hospitals, the reporters found 80%-filled vials discarded haphazardly in garbage heaps. The Bhaskar team then reportedly descended into a 12-feet deep pit to examine the vials that were carelessly thrown away.
Bhaskar report says vaccine vials with doses left in them were carelessly thrown away: Image via Bhaskar
In another hospital, a doctor reportedly stated that they had buried old vaccine vials.
The case of vaccine wastage in Rajasthan
Recently, Dainik Bhaskar had published a report on vaccine wastage in Rajasthan. The health minister of the state had threatened legal action against the Hindi Daily, after which the media house responded. They published a photograph of 500 vials with the batch number and expiry dates. Bhaskar said that its reporters had picked up the vials from dustbins of various vaccination centres in Rajasthan.
Hours after Dainik Bhaskar published its report posting a picture of the wasted vials to fact-check Rajasthan Health Minister’s claims of ‘misleading’ report, the minister responded. He alleged that the picture Dainik Bhaskar has posted to substantiate its claims is that of “expired and discarded” vaccines. He further claimed they had been kept in a yellow disposable bag according to the rules laid down by the Biomedical Waste Management rules of the Government of India.
Dainik Bhaskar had also revealed that during the investigation, its team had on May 28 found burnt Covid-19 vaccines in the drain near Lamba Harisingh Primary Health Center in Rajasthan’s Tonk district. When the doctor present there was asked about the burnt vial, he claimed they had burnt the empty vial.
Citing reports published in Hindi dailies ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ and ‘Rajasthan Patrika’ over high vaccine wastage in Rajasthan, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had urged Raghu Sharma to look into the matter. “The high wastage, you would agree, is not acceptable,” he had said.
At a time when reports of children getting infected with the Covid-19 virus is coming to the surface, an 8-year-old boy was made to clean the toilets of a Covid-19 isolation centre as seen in a viral video. As per reports, the incident is from Maharashtra’s Buldhana district where an adult can be heard giving instructions to the young boy to clean the toilet.
8 yr old school kid was forced to clean toilet of quarantine centre with 15 covid +ve patients in it; in buldhana, maharashtra.
The distressing incident took place in Maarod village’s Zilla Parishad School which has been turned into a Covid isolation centre. As it turns out, the panchayat had received an alert on May 29 of the district magistrate’s arrival for an inspection.
Owing to this, the group development officer of Sangrampur Panchayat Samiti had ordered the cleaning of the schools and facilities. This is when the boy who had visited the village to meet his relatives, was made to clean the toilets as others refused.
The officer threatened the boy to hit him with sticks if he refused to clean the toilet. The boy informed that he was given Rs. 50 for the work.
With the video going viral, the district administration on Wednesday suspended the panchayat samiti employee who deployed the boy for cleaning and was heard hurling instructions.
District officer S Ramamurthy informed, “An inquiry committee has been constituted and they will submit their report in three days. The employee seen in the video has been suspended. Action will be taken against whoever is found guilty.”
Maharashtra BJP Vice-President Chitra Wagh has demanded action against the officials responsible for this incident.
Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra
We reported earlier how 8000 children in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar were found Covid-19 positive in the month of May hinting at a renewed threat to the state of Maharashtra.
As per a New Indian Express report published early in May, as many as 1,34,470 children below 10 years of age were found infected, against 88,827 on April 3 in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 15,169 new Covid-19 cases and 553 fatalities- a slight jump as compared to the numbers from Tuesday.
Bhartiya Janta Party’s leader and a municipal councilor, Rakesh Pandita was shot dead by terrorists in the Tral belt of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday evening. Pandita was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
The leader was visiting his friend at Tral Payeen. Another woman, reportedly the daughter of the friend whom Pandita was visiting, has also received a bullet injury in the attack. The woman has been shifted to Pulwama hospital.
Vijay Kumar, the Inspector-General of Kashmir in a statement to ANI informed, “Late in the evening today (Wednesday), three unidentified terrorists fired upon Municipal Councillor of Tral Rakesh Pandita. He was a resident of Tral Bala who was visiting his friend at Tral Payeen. Pandita succumbed to injuries whereas daughter of his friend is seriously wounded.”
Pandita was not accompanied by his personal security guards during his visit to the area as he insisted on going alone to his native village. He had two PSOs deployed for his security and was given a secured accommodation in Srinagar, informed J&K police in a statement.
The area has been cordoned off and a massive search operation is being conducted by the police and security forces to hunt the terrorists.
Pakistani terror group claims responsibility for the attack
As per a Tweet shared by journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba’s front organisations have claimed responsibility for the killing of Pandita.
Pakistani terror group Lashkar e Tayyiba front organisations have claimed responsibility for killing Kashmiri Pandit Rakesh Pandita in Tral of South Kashmir yesterday evening. Yet another brutal attack against minority community in Kashmir valley. pic.twitter.com/Qi1zWKM7R8
A press release by People’s Anti Fascist Front reads, “If the Hindutva thugs believe that their evil designs can take roots in Kashmir then it is a delusion of great magnitude.”
Press Release by People’s Anti-Fascist Front. Image Source: Twitter
Leaders condemn the attack
Condemning the attack, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said, “Saddened to hear about the terror attack on the Councillor Shri Rakesh Pandita at Tral, Pulwama. I strongly condemn the attack. My condolences to bereaved family in this time of grief.”
Saddened to hear about the terror attack on the Councillor Shri Rakesh Pandita at Tral, Pulwama. I strongly condemn the attack. My condolences to bereaved family in this time of grief.
— Office of LG J&K (@OfficeOfLGJandK) June 2, 2021
“Terrorists will never succeed in their nefarious designs, and those responsible for such heinous acts shall be brought to justice,” he added.
Terrorists will never succeed in their nefarious designs, and those responsible for such heinous acts shall be brought to justice.
— Office of LG J&K (@OfficeOfLGJandK) June 2, 2021
J&K BJP Chief Ravinder Raina in a video message condemned the death of Pandita and said, “In coward acts of terrorism, the Pakistani terrorist once again bled the Kashmir valley. Rakesh Pandita ji was a dedicated and committed BJP worker who always dared the Pakistanis in Kashmir Valley.”
“The martyrdom of Rakesh Pandita will not go vain,” he added.
Shame on Pakistan, Coward Pakistani Terrorists once again bleeded the Kashmir by attacking Sh.Rakesh Pandit G at Tral area of Kashmir in which he attained martyrdom, Rakesh Pandit was a brave son of Bharat Mata, his martyrdom will not go invain, all involved will be naturalized. pic.twitter.com/Lwi8816c2D
— Ravinder Raina?? (@ImRavinderRaina) June 2, 2021
Altaf Thakur, BJP Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson termed the attack “barbaric” and asserted that such cowardly attacks by terrorists will not bring down the morale of the BJP leadership.
Political leaders from various parties have condemned the attack.
Attacks on BJP leaders in Kashmir
Five BJP leaders have been killed last year in a spate of targeted terrorist attacks which led to providing increased security and a secured accommodation in Srinagar.
In early April, a group of terrorists open-fired at the guard post of BJP leader, Anwar Khan’s residence in Nowgam, North Kashmir. One sentry who was critically injured in the attack and was rushed to the hospital has succumbed to his injuries. Anwar escaped the attack as he was not at his residence at the time of the attack.
On June 2, sevadaars of Dasna Mandir, Ghaziabad, caught two men identified as Vipul Vijayvargi and Kashif on suspicion of carrying out assassination attempt on Mahant Yati Narsinghanand. Yati Narsinghananad Saraswati said in a tweet, “Two more pigs were caught today who came to murder me. It is not that easy to kill me.”
हर हर महादेव मेरे बच्चों आज मेरी हत्या के लिए आये 2 और सुअर पकड़े गये इतना आसान नही है मुझे मारना…
— Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati (@NarsinghUvach) June 2, 2021
Anil Yadav, a close aide of Dasna Priest, filed a complaint with the Police. Superintendent of Police Dr Iraj Raja said that both the suspects had been arrested, and an investigation is underway.
Kashif told the Police that he came in contact with Vipul on Facebook three years ago. When Police asked the reason for staying in touch on Facebook, he said it was just a normal friendship. Vipul claimed that he wanted to meet the famous priest of Dasna Mandir.
As per reports, the duo entered the temple at around 8:30 PM. They had a bag that was allegedly not checked by the Police at the gate. The sevadaars of the temple raised concerns over their activities in the temple premises. When they stopped and checked their belongings, they found three surgical blades and some powder. The reports suggest that that powder was a poison. Dasna Priest has also claimed that the powder was cyanide.
The video statement by Yati Narsinghananad Saraswati
He also released a video statement on Twitter in which he detailed out the whole incident.
— Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati (@NarsinghUvach) June 2, 2021
He said every day he completes his Yagya at 8:45 PM. On June 2, one Hindu and one Muslim came to the temple around 8:45 PM with surgical blades and cyanide. “I am not bothered that a Muslim came, but it pained me that a Hindu brought him to the temple,” he added. They claimed that they were from Nagpur. It is unclear what they wanted to with the surgical blade and cyanide. “Only Police can reveal their true intentions after the investigation,” he added.
Both men identified themselves as Hindu at the entry gate. Kashif wrote his name as Kashi Gupta in the register. “The Police guards let them enter without searching them,” he claimed. He further added, “I truly believe that the Police will say that these men came to the temple by mistake to drink water or they were here to do surgery on someone.”
— Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati (@NarsinghUvach) June 2, 2021
Yati Narsinghananad said that it was a matter of fate that he had completed his Sankalpit Yagya on Wednesday morning and went for a TV show in the evening instead of going for Yagya. Neither he nor his security group were in the temple at the time when the two suspects came. “If I were here, I would have told them about the fate of those who bring surgical blade and cyanide in the temple. The Police officials have taken them to the station and would try to nullify the case,” he added.
He further warned those who have put a bounty on his head and said if he had been in the temple, the world would have seen the fate of those two. Towards the end of the statement, he said that he is waiting for the day when he would meet the Jihadis, who want to kill him, face-to-face. “My followers will continue my fight against these Jihadis after my death,” he said.
The recent attempt on Dasna Priest’s life
On May 17, Delhi Police uncovered an assassination plot against Dasna Devi Temple head priest Yati Narsighanand Saraswati with the arrest of a 24-year-old Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist Mohd. Dar alias Jehangir from Delhi’s Paharganj area. Besides one .30 bore pistol along with two magazine and 15 live rounds, the Police recovered a Bhagwa kurta, a Kalava, a Mala and a Chandan-tika from the terrorist. Reports suggest that he wanted to kill the priest while posing as a Hindu.
Rapper MC Kode, who had earned a lot of notoriety recently after his old abusive and Hinduphobic videos went viral on social media platforms, has allegedly gone missing from New Delhi on Wednesday.
A week after he was exposed by several social media users, who shared videos of the controversial rapper uttering filthy abuses and indulging in blatant Hinduphobia, MC Kode has reportedly gone missing. According to some social media influencers, MC Kode had posted a message on Instagram in which he had threatened to end his life.
MC Kode, who goes by the handle ‘forreal_kode’, posted a long post on Instagram saying how he has been facing constant suffering, trials and tribulations of life that has made him weak after his videos went viral. 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’.
MC Kode’s Instagram post
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.
Aditya Tiwari, who has MC Kode as his stage name, is a rap artist based out of New Delhi. For years, he has been hosting, participating, and judging rap battles across many states, including Mumbai, Gujarat, Guwahati, Jaipur, Uttar Pradesh & Haryana.
The Instagram post by MC Kode has now sent jitters across the social media platforms and several people are looking out for the rapper, who has threatened to end his life by jumping to Yamuna river.
Viral image of ‘dead body’ of MC Kode fake
Even as several netizens and others are helping to trace the controversial rapper, some Twitter users were indulging in spreading misinformation on social media claiming that the rapper has already ended his life.
AAP supporter spreading misinformation
One Twitter user on Thursday posted an image of a dead person to claim that the deceased individual was MC Kode. The Twitter user claimed that body of the rapper, who had earlier posted the suicide note, was recovered near Pragati Thermal Power station near Yamuna Bank in Delhi.
The images shared by Monish spread like wildfire across the social media platforms, stoking unnecessary panic among users.
However, the image that has gone viral on social media is not connected to MC Kode.
Fact Check:
The images that Twitter user passed off as the dead body of MC Kode was actually captured after a tragic incident in 2017 in Bangladesh.
On October 10, 2017, an overloaded boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized near Cox Bazar, killing at least 14 Rohingya refugees, most of them children. The images shared by AAP supporter was captured during the tragic incident in 2017.
According to social media users, the image passed off by the Twitter user as the dead body of rapper MC Kode is blatant fake news as it is connected to a boat tragedy that occurred four years ago near Bangladesh.
Social media team member of Aam Aadmi party posted fake pics of MC kode’s dead body. pic.twitter.com/TYv257h9Mo
MC Kode has a history of ‘going missing’ say netizens
Some social media users have shared that this is not the first time that the rapper has gone missing and he has done this earlier too. Sharing the screenshot of an old social media post, a twitter user wrote that Aditya Tiwari aka MC Kode had once ‘gone missing’ in 2014 too.
This guy MC Kode has an old habit of attention w0ring by threatening to k!l himself
This carefully choreographed suicide note is surely a drama and the fake news of it being spread by his AAP friends
Last week, social media websites were flooded with an old video of a popular rapper MC Kode wherein he is seen abusing Hindu beliefs and Hindu epics.
A short clip of the video, which was released on YouTube on 12 June 2016, suddenly started doing the rounds on the internet after it was discovered that rapper MC Kode, also known as Aditya Tiwari, had made deprecating remarks against Hindus in it. The video is about a rap battle between two contestants in which MC Kode is seen insulting the Hindu epic of Mahabharata and the cow, an animal considered sacred according to Hinduism.
“…If you are a Hindu, I will f*ck your Gau, I will f*ck your holy cow…I will fu*king mast**bate on Mahabharata, Geeta Geeta,” MC Kode says in the video.
I will fu***ing Mas***bate of Mahabharata kya tha wo Geeta Geeta Defaming Hinduism Shrimadbhagavat geeta Want to look cool
After his videos went viral, MC Kode had issued an apology regarding the whole matter and he has submitted a request to delete all of his songs from streaming and YouTube.
It s notable here that as of yet there is no official confirmation of the said rapper going missing or any mishap concerning his safety and wellbeing.
Days after Islamist mob attacked Dalits in Aligarh’s Noorpur, forcing them to flee their homes, AIMIM leader Syed Nazim Ali has vowed that they wont let the Hindus hold wedding procession without permission.
While interacting with media, Ali at around 1 minute into the video, Ali, while responding to a comment by BJP’s Shakuntala Bharti, vowed that, “Namaz will take place. And yes, we will not let you (Hindus) take out wedding processions without permission. If you carry out wedding processions without permission, we will not let you do it. Do whatever you want, we will not let you do it.”
Syed Nazim Ali is President of Owaisi Youth Brigade in UP, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
On 26th May, 2021, two wedding processions were en route to a Hindu’s home. It is alleged that a mosque was on the way and when the procession was passing by, some people from the mosque attacked the wedding procession. They were allegedly forced to move forward on foot. After this, the wedding procession instead of moving forward, returned.
It must be noted that last week, Islamist hooligans unleashed violence on Hindus in Noorpur after which they decided to put their houses for sale and flee the place. Several houses owned by Hindus in Noorpur bear a similar message —‘This house is on sale’—scribbled on their outer walls, informing prospective buyers that the property is on sale.
Noorpur is a Muslim-majority village in Western Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, about 800 Muslim families live in the village. There are 125 families of Hindus, the majority of whom belong to the Jatav community (Scheduled Caste). The aggrieved families told us that Dalit Hindus of the village have been forced to flee over the past few years due to increasing number of violent incidents against them. They also said that casteist slurs were hurled at them and they were not allowed to carry out processions on public roads.
Over the last few weeks, Lakshadweep has been the focus of national attention after its administrator Praful K Patel floated a number of proposals aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of residents, along with promoting the islands as a tourist destination on par with the Maldives.
The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (LDAR) 2021 proposed a new law to ban cow slaughter and beef, which is in line with the prevailing law in an overwhelming number of states in India. The draft also included a two-child policy to educate people about the importance of family planning. In order to deter people from having more than 2 children, the law proposed preventing such people from becoming a member of the gram panchayat.
Another provision in the draft authorised the sale of alcoholic beverages on the islands, strictly to the resort owners, in a bid to boost tourism in the archipelago. Currently, prohibition is in place on all inhabited islands, with liquor served only at resorts on the uninhabited Bangaram island. The new regulation is aimed at attracting more tourists by allowing liquor sale in resorts on the inhabited islands of the Lakshadweep archipelago.
Besides, the draft regulation also accords the administrator the authority to “declare any area to be a planning area” on the islands, for the purpose of development, and will also allow the administrator to acquire any land required for a public purpose under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, commonly known as the Land Acquisition Act.
The plan was to develop the Lakshadweep Islands like any other state to increase its revenues and boost its tourism. However, soon after the new regulations were introduced, a seemingly benign effort to steer the islands towards growth and development was politicised by the detractors, who resorted to fear-mongering and making wildly illogical and unreasonable assertions to oppose the changes proposed by Patel.
Critics site significant Muslim population in Lakshadweep to rubbish the reforms
A host of critics, who are also inveterate Modi haters, took the opportunity to vilify the Lakshadweep administrator and raise aspersions on his intentions to bring reforms to the archipelago. While some of these incorrigible fault-finders proffered spurious reasoning such as threats to livelihood and environment as reasons to oppose the new regulations, many others linked their disapproval to the demography of the Island, alleging that the Modi government’s new directives in the Lakshadweep Islands are yet another attempt to target its Muslim majority population.
Journalist Rana Ayyub shared a motivated article published in Al Jazeera to whip up fear among the Muslim community living in the Lakshadweep Island.
Source: Twitter
Similarly, Congress functionaries also tweeted against the administrative reforms proposed by Praful K Patel for the Lakshadweep Islands.
Source: TwitterSource: Twitter]
The Print founder and the former President of the Editors Guild of India, Shekhar Gupta also pontificated on the regulations proposed by the Lakshadweep administrator to catapult the islands towards the path of growth and development.
Source: Twitter
Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader and former party president of Congress, a party that is accused of brazenly indulging in minority appeasement, posted a tweet alluding that the proposed reform laws are detrimental to the people of Lakshadweep, 97 per cent of which are Muslims.
The Kerala government went a step ahead and tried to deprive the Lakshadweep Islands of the much-needed reforms by passing a resolution in the state assembly. On Monday this week, the Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the proposed reforms in the Lakshadweep Islands. The resolution demanded the removal of new Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Pate, and CM Pinarayi Vijayan accused the Centre of “trying to implement saffron agenda and corporate interests in Lakshadweep”.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan presents a resolution in the State Assembly declaring solidarity to people of Lakshadweep.
“Centre should intervene in Lakshadweep issue. It’s Centres responsibility to ensure that people’s interest should be protected,” says CM pic.twitter.com/cVYKx6I6WJ
The modus operandi of the opposition to keep the Muslim victimhood narrative alive
However, ginning up fear among Muslims has been the modus operandi of the Modi detractors, right from the start. Be it the judgment on the Ayodhya dispute, when the Modi government was unnecessarily criticised as anti-Muslim even though the Supreme Court gave its verdict in favour of the Ram Temple. Later, when the government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, its critics peddled misinformation about the bill, alleging that the Act was discriminatory against Muslims and was aimed to disenfranchise them. Contrary to their suppositions, the Bill was not intended to deprive Muslims of their voting rights but was designed to naturalise minorities from the three neighbouring countries who fled persecution and were living in India from or before December 2014.
Even the abolition of depraved practices such as Triple Talaq by the Modi government was met with scepticism by the detractors. Intellectual responses and elaborate opinion columns were published, arguing how the Modi government was interfering with the personal laws of the Muslims, notwithstanding the grave atrocities endured by the victims of the abhorrent practice. Whenever the government has tried to legislate reforms for the Muslim community, journalists who are viscerally against the Modi government and the opposition parties have come together to peddle victimhood narrative, so that an average Muslim perpetually lives under fear and does not gravitate towards the BJP and PM Modi.
The motivated propaganda of the opposition and its pliant supporters to vilify the reforms proposed in the Lakshadweep Islands
In this case, it is important to mention that reforms and legislations are not implemented based on one’s whims and fancies. There are several factors at play and not just the religion of the majority that the so-called journalists and opposition party leaders usually point towards to oppose the well-intentioned reforms forged by the Centre.
It is worth noting that Lakshadweep Islands hold special significance, both historically and geographically. It is, therefore, a Union Territory and directly under the control of the central government. It also has crucial importance from the security point of view, given the maritime threats posed by hostile nations and Islamic terrorists from Pakistan. Considering these aspects, if the centre-appointed administrator wants to bring in new regulations regarding administrative reforms, one must acknowledge that there must be profound reasons behind his actions. The new regulations were not the on the spur of the moment decision. Deep thought, extensive deliberations would have gone behind framing the regulations that are in the best interests for the development of the Islands as well as for the welfare of its people.
Moreover, the administrator of the Lakshadweep Islands is constitutionally authorised to carry out such reforms. The regulations floated by Patel are subjected to intense scrutiny. Every aspect of the proposed reforms is debated threadbare before they are finally implemented. Therefore, the argument that the reforms are being legislated to serve a particular ideology or to meet some hidden purposes is not only unwarranted but grossly misleading.
It is not that those who are opposed to the reforms in Lakshadweep are unaware of the governmental process that goes behind in the formulation and implementation of new laws and regulations. They are intimately aware of all the specifics and considerations that the state governments and the Centre have to factor in before passing new laws. However, they are constrained by their ideological shackles, which compels them to oppose the BJP government, even if the reforms brought in by them are just and appropriate.
For the last several years, the opposition is trying to corner the central government, but to no avail. They have consistently failed in their endeavour to wrongly paint PM Modi and his government as anti-Muslim. Normally, consistent failures provoke a radical rethinking. But, it is conspicuously missing in this case, where the opposition has refused to heed the writing on the wall as it continues with its agenda of using Muslims as pawns in its strategy against the Modi government.
The glaring loopholes in the opposition to the new regulations in Lakshadweep
When the sole aim is to defeat PM Modi, Amit Shah and the BJP, there is no curiosity to objectively analyse the central government’s push for new reforms in the Lakshadweep Islands. The allure of using Muslim victimhood to consolidate minority votes in the country, persuade them away from the BJP and present themselves as their saviour is too potent a reason for the opposition to simply squander it away by having an unprejudiced evaluation of the reforms proposed by the Lakshadweep administrator.
Out of the total thirty-six islands of Lakshadweep, only ten are inhabited. If the government wants to bring reforms for those islands which are inhabited, how is it an ecological disaster? Change is the force of life. All governments legislate laws and administrative reforms based on the needs and requirements. The existing laws are not set in stone. They are not immutable, nor are they sacrosanct that they cannot be changed. The Indian Constitution grants power to the elected administration to bring in changes that are beneficial for their state or the union territory.
As such, this is not the first time that reforms are being implemented in a union territory. The Kerala state administration has passed a resolution against the new reforms that includes authorisation of liquor sale in the resorts on the islands. It is noteworthy to mention that Kerala had the highest per capita alcohol consumption, according to a report published in October 2019. Kerala state govt owned Kerala State Beverages Corporation sells alcohol in the state, and alcohol sale earns a significant amount of revenue for the state. Considering its geographical proximity to Lakshadweep Islands, Kerala should have been hailed the reforms, rather than opposing them.
The uncanny parallels between the Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep Islands
The objections to the proposed reforms in Lakshadweep Island do not hold water. They are raised only because an overwhelming section of the population residing on the islands are Muslims. In this respect, the Lakshadweep Islands bear a stark resemblance to Jammu and Kashmir, another union territory with a Muslim-majority population. And the resistance to the reforms in Lakshadweep is similar to the protestations witnessed against the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
In August 2019, when the Modi government hollowed out the partition relic of Article 370, the same detractors who are opposing reforms in Lakshadweep rallied against the abrogation and termed the move as an attempt to effect a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir. The invalidation of Article 370 brought new administrative reforms, which included allowing women to buy lands in Kashmir and transferring their property to their children, permitting Indians living in other parts of the country to buy land in Kashmir, removal of discriminatory erstwhile laws and unlocking new opportunities in terms of jobs and businesses for the Kashmiri residents.
However, the abrogation was opposed tooth and nail by this set of critics, arguing that the move was designed to strip the Muslim-majority state of its separate status. The reforms that came in its wake were given short shrift, with the critics contending that saffronisation of the state was underway under the pretext of implementing reforms. Incidentally, these are the same set of reasons and justifications that were offered at the time of India’s independence in 1947, which prevented greater integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India and turned it into a festering problem.
What ensued in Jammu and Kashmir in the intervening decades since the independence is for everyone to see. Islamic radicalisation slowly gained its hold in the state, with the inter-community tolerance diminishing and terror incidents increasing. The radicalisation reached a crescendo with the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 90s.
Kashmiri Pandits were a sizeable population in Kashmir, albeit a minority in the state. But they were driven out by terrorists and Islamic radicals harbouring supremacist ideology. Those who chose to remain back were brutally murdered. Hindu pilgrims on their visit to Vaishnodevi and Amarnath Yatra were attacked and killed.
The Islamic radicalisation reached such dangerous levels that Kashmiri terrorists started carrying out terror activities across the length and breadth of India. The attack on India’s Parliament in the early 2000s was the culmination of the decades-long radicalisation that had continued unabated in Jammu and Kashmir. More recently, a brainwashed Islamic Kashmiri terrorist killed 40 CRPF soldiers in a dastardly attack in Pulwama. A recorded video was released later in which the terrorist said he would carry out an attack to kill Hindus.
Clearly, the laissez-faire policy of not instituting reforms in Jammu and Kashmir and allowing the situation to fester had a detrimental impact on not just the region’s security but that of the entire country. It appears that the opposition Congress party, which is largely responsible for the current predicament of Jammu and Kashmir, have a similar plan drawn up for the archipelago of islands in the Arabian Sea. Therefore, the Modi government must carry out the reforms it has envisioned for Lakshadweep Island s and pay no heed to the motivated criticism, lest the Lakshadweep plunges into the abyss of Islamic radicalisation and concomitant terrorism that Jammu and Kashmir endured for decades.
The Delhi High Court’s virtual hearing on the lawsuit by Juhi Chawla against the rollout of 5G in the country was interrupted on Wednesday by unidentified people, who sang popular tracks of the former actress in the during the hearing.
A video of the incident has gone viral on the internet in which an unidentified man was seen singing the song during the online hearing. The man interrupted the hearing several times, angering the judges and the other counsel present in the hearing.
The unidentified man had disrupted the hearing after the actress had shared a link of the court hearing on social media, urging people to join.
Here is the video of the hearing:
Funniest thing today ??
Oversmart @iam_juhi went live on Instagram during court hearing of her petition against 5G and one of her fans started singing amidst hearing. “Meri Banmo Ki aayegi Baraat” ??pic.twitter.com/RCjuMCpy8f
The man who joined the meeting under a fake name sang songs like “Ghoonghat ki aad se”, “laal laal hoton pe” and “meri banno ki aayegi baraat” before being shunned and blocked from the meeting.
As the unidentified man continued to interrupt the proceedings, the Delhi High Court judge asked the authorities to identify and issue contempt notice to him. In the video, one can see Congress leader Kapil Sibal alongside petitioner Juhi Chawla.
Juhi Chawla files lawsuit against 5G technology
Bollywood Actress Juhi Chawla had filed a lawsuit against the implementation of 5G technology in India on May 31. According to the actress, if 5G technology were to be installed, then people and humans will be exposed to radiofrequency radiation (RF) at a rate of 10 times or 100 times the current figure.
Juhi Chawla said in a statement, “We are not against the implementation of technological advancements. On the contrary, we enjoy using the latest products that the world of technology has to offer, including in the field of wireless communications. However, whilst using the latter kind of devices, we are in a constant dilemma, because after doing our own research and studies regarding the RF radiation from wirefree gadgets and network cell towers, we have sufficient reason to believe that the radiation is extremely harmful and injurious to the health and safety of the people.”
Juhi Chawla also said that the 5G network will cause “serious, irreversible effects on humans and permanent damage to all of the Earth’s ecosystems”.
Conspiracy theories about 5G technology have skyrocketed in recent times, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. A great many conspiracy theorists have blamed 5G network for the disease even after repeated clarifications by experts that it has nothing to do with the disease.
On June 2, lawyer and former civil servant Abha Singh said in a tweet that Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of children affected by the pandemic. While quoting NCPCR’s submission in court, she said, “Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of children affected by the pandemic. NCPCR has told the Supreme Court. 270 orphaned, ten abandoned and 1830 who lost a parent to #COVID19.” She further promoted her NGO, RannSamar Foundation and said that it could help the affected children.
While she quoted NCPCR to claim that UP has the highest number of Covid affected children, the head of the organisation has denied making any such claim. Priyank Kanoongo, chairperson, National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR), Government of India, rebutted her claims about Uttar Pradesh having the maximum number of children affected Covid. He said, “The states like West Bengal and Delhi have not given proper information, and you are hiding the truth.”
क्योंकि पश्चिम बंगाल और दिल्ली जैसे राज्यों ने उचित जानकारी नहीं दी है,और आप सही बात को छिपा रहीं हैं। https://t.co/9h9bzOwFMC
— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) June 2, 2021
The union govt and several state govts have recently launched schemes to help the children affected by the pandemic, and it is expected that the number of beneficiaries under this scheme will be available soon. After the beneficiaries are identified, it will be known which state has the highest number of children affected by the pandemic.
But it is notable that UP has reported around 20000 deaths due to Covid-19, and it is fifth in terms of deaths in the states. Maharashtra has seen almost 1 lakh deaths, and more people have died in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi than Uttar Pradesh from Covid-19. Therefore, it is unlikely that UP will have highest number of children affected by the disease when more people have died in other states. Most probably, Maharashtra will have the highest number of such children, given that the state’s deaths are much more than any other state, and accounts for almost 30% of total deaths in the country.
NCPCR launched a portal for tracking children orphaned during Covid
According to the affidavit submitted by NCPCR in Supreme Court, they have created an online tracking portal, “Baal Swaraj”, to track and monitor children between the age of zero and 17 orphaned during the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020. NCPCR told the apex court that these children are at high risk of being pushed into trafficking and flesh trade. They have received several complaints of government authorities illegally transferring details to private entities and NGOs.
Baal Swaraj portal by NCPCR
The district authorities were directed to upload the information of such children on the portal Baal Swaraj before May 29. As per the data uploaded on the portal, 9,346 children need care and protection. Out of these, 7,464 have lost either of the parents, 1,742 have lost both parents and 140 were abandoned. A total of 3,711 children are aged between eight and thirteen years.
In the statewide data, UP listed 2,110 children, Tamil Nadu reported 159, Kerala 952, Maharashtra 796, Bihar, 1,327, Karnataka 36, Andhra Pradesh 116, Jammu and Kashmir 375, Gujarat 434 and Haryana reported 776 children orphaned, abandoned or lost a parent.
Therefore, it can be said that UP has uploaded the details of the highest number of children affected by Covid-19, it does not mean the state has the highest number of such children. It is only a matrix of data uploaded by the states. It has to be noted that the data is accessible to concerned authorities only. Public view is not permitted on Baal Swaraj Portal.
Incomplete data reported by WB and Delhi
West Bengal government under Mamata Banerjee and Delhi government under Arvind Kejariwal uploaded details of only one and five children to the portal, respectively. Referring to the lower number of children by these two states, Kanoongo said in the tweet that the numbers are misleading. The commission said that the data on the portal would be updated periodically.
