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Brazen Hinduphobia of Unacademy: Online education platform paints Hindus as anti-Muslim bigots, blames third party after outrage

OpIndia Staff
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Brazen Hinduphobia of Unacademy: Online education platform paints Hindus as anti-Muslim bigots, blames third party after outrage

Online education technology platform Unacademy has sparked many controversies. In the past, a video of an Unacademy tutor calling for students to pick up AK-47 had gone viral on the internet. Subsequently, another video of an Unacademy tutor going on a rant against Brahmins had surfaced on social media websites. Today, the online platform courted yet another controversy, reinforcing its Hinduphobic tendencies.

A social media user, Prakhar Bansal, who goes by the handle @PrakharBansal14, recently posted a screenshot that highlighted how the platform was peddling a dangerously anti-Hindu narrative through its online test module.

One of the questions on the platform’s Law Test Module read: “In a city named X, a group of Muslim people were carrying out their rally on the occasion of Eid. They were chanting their slogans and were celebrating their festivals. When they were passing through the streets of a Hindu dominated colony, the Hindus of the area started pelting stones at them and claimed that they outraged the religious feelings of Hindus. Is the claim correct?”

Unacademy toes left-liberal propaganda of demonising Hindus

Even if one assumes that the objective of the question might have been to sensitise the exam takers towards the menace of existing religious intolerance in the society, the explicit mention of the names of the religions in the question, with the negative portrayal of one religion, signified that it was only meant to fan further communal discord in the society, and hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

The negative portrayal of Hindus as the aggressors and the Muslims as the victims in the question by one of the test modules on Unacademy is unmistakable. In fact, it is in line with the left-liberal propaganda that tries often to demonise Hindus and whitewash the intolerant inclinations exhibited by Muslims.

When the online education platform used a figurative name ‘X’ to denote a town where the supposed incident took place, what stopped it from using abstract names to describe religions? The company could have surely used letters of the alphabet for religions similarly if its real objective was to explore the legitimacy of resentment felt by the members of one of two sparring communities. Instead, the real names of religions were deliberately used to project Hindus as an intolerant lot that harboured irrational hatred against Muslims.

The fact that the entrance exam questions are also inherently Hinduphobic in nature reveals how the entire system is rigged in perpetuating hatred against Hindus. Be it the opposition political parties, or the mainstream media, or the academicians and intellectuals, and now the technology platforms, the Hinduphobia is all too pervasive and systemic. A concerted attempt is being made to depict Hindus as villains while sweeping under the rug the hateful proclivities of the minorities, including Muslims.

Religions reversed to portray Hindus as aggressors and Muslims as victims

Besides, Unacademy shamelessly reversed the religion of the victims and the aggressors from real-world scenario — another trick out of the ‘liberal’ playbook — which entails interchanging the identities of victims and aggressors when the victims are Hindus and aggressors are non-Hindus. This is done to perpetuate the propaganda that Hindus are culprits while non-Hindus, including Muslims, are innocents.

While Unacademy would want us to believe that Hindus attacked Muslim devotees with stone-pelting, in the real-life world, exactly the opposite happens regularly. This has been the leitmotif of various communally charged-up skirmishes in various parts of the country. A mob of violent Muslims attacks Hindus for celebrating their festivals, or for taking out a religious procession in a Muslim majority area, which sometimes leads to clashes between the two communities.

Recently, a case of Muslim intolerance against Hindu festivals came up in the Madras High Court. Some Muslims in the district of Perambalur in Tamil Nadu have been objecting to the conduct of Hindu processions since 2012. They had consistently tried to stop and laid impediments to stop Hindus from carrying out their processions through Muslim-dominated regions. The community had dubbed the Hindu festivals as ‘sins’.

A petitioner had therefore approached the police for providing protection during the conduct of rituals and processions. The same was provided by the law enforcement authorities with restrictions.

When the matter came up for hearing before the Madras High Court, a 2-Judge Bench of N Kirubakarn and P Velmurugan noted that religious intolerance is detrimental to the secular fabric of the country. The Court noted that if such a ‘resistance’ to the conduct of religious festivals is reciprocated by another religious group, it might lead to riots and chaos.

While reading out the affidavit presented by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, the Madras High Court observed that objection to temple processions was raised from 2012 onwards. The Judges observed how no such problem existed prior to 2012. The Court pointed out how objections were raised by the Muslim community despite the Court granting permission to the Hindus to carry out temple processions (in accordance with Section 180A of the District Municipalities Act 1920).

In December 2020, Muslim mob pelted stones at Hindu groups for carrying out yatra near Begumbagh in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. According to the reports, several Hindus had taken out a Ramnidhi Sangrahan rally in Ujjain to collect donations for the Ram Mandir constructions at Ayodhya. The rally was scheduled to start from the tower area and end at Bharat Mata Mandir in Mahakal area.

As the rally reached the Muslim-dominated area of Begumbagh, a mob targeted the rally and pelted stones at them from the rooftops. The Hindu activists saw themselves surrounded in heavy stone pelting and escaped towards safety. However, they left their vehicles on the spot.

In February 2020, four separate incidents of attack on Hindus during the Saraswati Puja celebrations by Muslim mobs were reported from various places in Jharkhand. According to Jagran report, in Jharkhand’s Vidyasagar, Muslim mobs attacked Hindus who were carrying out a procession of Goddess Saraswati ahead of idol immersion. As they crossed locality dominated by Muslims, the local residents objected against Hindus playing religious songs near Karmatar area.

Unacademy apologises, blames third party for the question

After the widespread outrage on social media over the Hinduphobic question, the educational technology company announced that they have taken down the mock IPC examination paper containing the controversial question. They said that any hurt or offence caused is deeply regretted, and said that they unconditionally regret the reference to religions.

Unacademy added that the question paper was prepared by a third-party, and they have started efforts to tighten their internal review and quality process. The company also said that the future test papers will be scrutinised and modified to ensure that they are religion, community, and race agnostic.

Shahenshah Khan poses as Brahmin to marry Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh, later assaults her after identity is revealed

OpIndia Staff
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Shahenshah Khan poses as Brahmin to marry Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh, later assaults her after identity is revealed

In another case of alleged Grooming jihad, a Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh has filed a complaint against her Muslim husband on May 18 (Tuesday), for marrying her posing as a Hindu. She has also accused him of rape and assault. On the basis of the charges, the police have registered a case against Shahenshah Khan, a resident of Sarkahi village, under relevant sections of the anti-conversion law and other sections of the IPC.

The complaint was filed at Visheshwarganj police station, in which the 22-year-old Hindu woman, Sita, said that Shahenshah Khan married her posing as a Brahmin. Later, when his identity was revealed he forced her to have physical relations with him. Two members of his family have been abusing and beating her since then, alleged the woman in her complaint.

The Muslim man drugged and raped her after his identity was revealed, alleges the Uttar Pradesh woman

An investigation is underway and the husband is being questioned in the case, informed Additional Superintendent of Police (City), Kunwar Gyananjaya Singh.

The woman, who is a resident of Maharajganj district in the Visheswarganj area of ​​Bahraich, alleged that Shahenshah Khan lured her into marriage by posing as a Hindu. His identity was only revealed when the victim reached her in-law’s house after her wedding.

When the girl protested, the accused drugged her and forcibly raped her. The victim further alleged that she was administered high doses of drugs and was held hostage for several consecutive days by the accused. She furthered that two members of his family abused and assaulted her when she put up resentment.

During the investigation, it was found that the woman used to talk to Khan on phone and the two got married about three months ago. They used to have frequent fights and often approached the police, who use to sent them home after reconciliation. On Tuesday, however, the woman made these serious allegations against her husband.

Prima facie, the charges under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance seem suspicious, said the Additional Superintendent of Police (City), Kunwar Gyananjaya Singh, furthering that an investigation is underway and the husband is being questioned.

Uttar Pradesh: Monitoring Committees prove their effectiveness in combating Covid-19, conduct over 2 lakh tests in rural areas in a day

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Monitoring Committees prove their effectiveness in combating Covid-19, conduct over 2 lakh tests in rural areas in a day

While India has been hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Uttar Pradesh, the largest state by population has fared better in managing the situation compared to some other states. The state has around 1.2 lakh active cases, less than other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal etc. The Yogi Adityanath government has taken various steps in handling the situation, and one of them is the constitution of Monitoring Committees.

The Monitoring committees are playing a vital role in the ongoing battle against coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uttar Pradesh, as they are getting more than one lakh tests done in the rural areas of the state everyday. The tests are being conducted by the Rapid Response Teams (RRTs).

Representatives of civil society groups such as Asha, Anganwadi and ANM, who have been part to the committees, act as a shield to protect people from the disease by identifying suspected cases, expediting tests and facilitating treatment as fast as possible. They have been given oximeters and infrared thermometers to identify people with symptoms.

After identifying the suspected cases of Covid-19, the representatives pass on the information to the RRT which visits the residences of the suspected cases and conducts the tests. Subsequently, tests are conducted on the family members of the suspected cases also.

The monitoring committees are following the Yogi Adityanath Government’s mantra of ‘test, trace and treat’ against the novel coronavirus religiously. Apart from identifying all suspected Covid cases from door to door on the instructions of the Chief Minister, they are getting more than a lakh tests conducted daily through the RRTs in rural areas alone while the total daily tests are more than 2.50 lakh in the state. “Today UP has the unique distinction of being a state that is committed to eradicating Covid-19 from every village of the state”, a state govt release said. It added that thanks to the committees’ efforts, out of total 2.99 lakh tests conducted today, more than 2.19 lakh tests were conducted in the rural areas.

It is worth mentioning here that the members of the monitoring committees have visited 79,512 villages as part of a Covid-19 screening campaign launched by the Yogi Government on May 5. The members detected infections in 28,742 villages, following which targeted efforts were made to contain the spread of the virus in these villages. Today, 68 percent of the villages in UP are free from the virus, thanks to the timely efforts of the Yogi Government.

With the help of more than four lakh members of 60,589 monitoring committees, the Uttar Pradesh Government is inching closer every day in terms of flattening the curve of Covid infection.

Meanwhile, the state government has also started a special sanitation campaign in rural areas to prevent the virus from spreading. UP is the first state in the country where a sanitation drive has been undertaken on such a large scale in rural areas. The Government’s efforts to prevent infectious diseases before the rains have also paid off.

Furthermore, the members of the monitoring committees are also reaching out to rural population to raise their awareness of the importance of hygiene and social distancing in guarding against coronavirus. Awareness campaigns are also being run continuously on the importance of washing hands with soaps and wearing masks regularly. Members of the monitoring committees keep track of all the people arriving in villages in order to identify suspected Covid cases and facilitate testing and treatment of patients. They also distribute medical kits to patients in home isolation. The committees are also facilitating quarantine for suspected cases that can’t afford home isolation in schools, community centres and health centres in villages.

The monitoring committees have played crucial role in rapid management of Covid in the countryside of UP, earning the CM worldwide acclaim. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also praised the state government’s efforts to tackle Covid. The WHO, on its website, has praised the UP Government for speedy control of the disease.

Barabanki: While Muslim organisations protest demolition of 100-year-old illegal ‘mosque’, residents of the building had fled after receiving notice

OpIndia Staff
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Barabanki: While Muslim organisations protest demolition of 100-year-old illegal ‘mosque’, residents of the building had fled after receiving notice

A controversy has erupted after the administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district pulled down a 100-year-old illegally constructed ‘mosque’ in the area. Ever since the demolition process was carried out, Muslim organisations like the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and Samajwadi Party, the primary opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, started crying foul.

While they are slamming the local authorities for demolishing the 100-year-old Garib Nawaz ‘mosque’, the authorities maintained that the structure they demolished on court orders was indeed an illegal residential structure that encroached on the government land.

Officials confirmed that an illegal residential structure situated inside the ‘tehsil’ premises in Ram Sanehi Ghat area in the district, which the outraging Muslim organisations and opposition is claiming to be a ‘mosque’, was demolished on the orders of a sub-divisional magistrate’s (SDM) court in Ram Sanehi Ghat.

They said that a notice was served on the people, who had been residing there, asking them to produce documents in support of their claim but they fled after serving of the notice.

District Magistrate Adarsh Singh also confirmed: “A notice was served on people concerned on March 15, giving them an opportunity to put forth their views over the ownership but those residing there fled after receiving the notice”.

Singh furthered that the tehsil administration got the possession of the structure on March 18.

He said the the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court had disposed of a petition filed in this connection on April 2, which proved that the construction was illegal.

A case was filed in the court of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ram Sanehi Ghat, and its orders were complied with on May 17. Joint magistrate Divyanshu Patel also termed the construction as illegal and the building was brought down on court orders, he said.

The Barabanki police also responded to a Tweet by the Samajwadi Party, wherein the party shared its Facebook post which condemned the UP government’s decision to ‘demolish a hundred-year-old mosque’.

Muslim organisations and Samajwadi Party rage over the demolition of Barabanki illegal residential structure

After the incident, the Samajwadi Party, in a Facebook post, slammed the BJP government in the state for “doing politics by spoiling the country’s Ganga Jamuni culture”.

The party spokesperson wrote that the “former Chief Minister Shri Akhilesh Yadav said that BJP wants to spread religious hysteria through hate politics. Demolishing a hundred-year-old mosque is a misuse of power”, wrote Rajendra Chaudhary adding that “Shri Akhilesh Yadav has demanded the investigation of the Barabanki incident from the Hon’ble High Court sitting judge and rebuild the mosque”.

The District President of Samajwadi Party Maulana Ayaz Ahmad also called it an embarrassing incident and said that the authorities took advantage of the Corona curfew to bring down the century-old structure registered in the name of the Waqf Board.

Meanwhile, the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) working general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani said in a statement: “The century-old Garib Nawaz mosque in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil was demolished by the administration without any legal justification on Monday night in the presence of police”.

Accusing the authorities of pulling down the ‘mosque’ without prior notice, Rehmani furthered: “There was no dispute relating to the mosque. It is also listed with the Sunni Waqf Board. The SDM of Ram Sanehi Ghat had asked for papers of the mosque from the mosque committee in March against which the mosque management committee had approached the Allahabad High Court.”

Saying so, the All-India Muslim Law Board (AIMPLB) working general secretary demanded a judicial inquiry into the case by a sitting High Court judge and also asked for the suspension of officials responsible for the action.

Muslim organisations threaten legal action, ask for reconstruction of ‘mosque’

The AIMPLB also demanded that the process of removing the debris from the spot should be halted. The general secretary said that assurance should be given to them that no other structure will be allowed to come up on the land.

“It is the duty of the government to construct the mosque at the place and hand it over to the Muslims,” he said.

Adding to the controversy, the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board also threatened legal action. Condemning the incident and terming it as a blatant misuse of power, the Waqf Board chairman Zufar Farooqui said: “The mosque near the tehsil premises has been demolished by the Ram Sanehi Ghat SDM in the name of removing encroachment. I strongly condemn this illegal and arbitrary action”.

Propaganda outlet Alt News ends up exposing itself, shows how they work with Congress to attack BJP’s political moves

OpIndia Staff
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Propaganda outlet Alt News ends up exposing itself, shows how they work with Congress to attack BJP’s political moves

A day after social media was awash with a toolkit document, allegedly linked to the Congress party, which entailed a detailed plan of action for the Congress leaders and supporters to exploit the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country and target the Modi government, the Congress party used the so-called fact-checker Alt News to declare the toolkit ‘fake’. The party gave documents to the propaganda website to make its case, and the site made some dubious analysis to claim that the document allegedly prepared by AICC Research Department is forged on a real letterhead.

An article published on Alt News, notorious for peddling propaganda and fake news, gave a clean chit to the Congress party by declaring that the ‘toolkit’ was created on a forged document. According to them, AICC Research Department chairman Rajeev Gowda gave documents and statements to Alt News to proclaim the toolkit to be fake.

Alt News declares toolkit ‘fake’ because the font on its letterhead differs from the Congress document it received

In its article, Alt News said the letterhead of the Central Vista document it received from the Congress party did not match with the one on the party’s COVID-19 toolkit and therefore the document was fake.

Source: Alt News

Just because the font on the header and footer of the two documents were different, Alt News declared that the toolkit was a fake document and not created by the Congress party. In all likelihood, the fonts could have deliberately been kept different for plausible deniability by the Congress party, which means to keep an opportunity open to distance from the document if it becomes public.

The Alt News argument claims that all the documents published by the Congress party have to use the same typographical style. This is a completely laughable argument, as even the same person can use different fonts in different documents. For a large organisation like Congress, it is normal if various documents published in different times use different fonts and style. It is not logical to declare a document fake just because the font styles are different.

Alt News claims since the strategies suggested in toolkit were already implemented, it is a fake document

Alt News then comes up with a ludicrous explanation to discredit the authenticity of the toolkit. It says the toolkit is a document to lay down strategies for the future course of action, adding that most of the things suggested in the toolkit had already taken place and therefore it not genuine. What Alt News fails to factor in is that though the document might have been just a day old for the general public on social media, it might as well had been in use by the Congress IT cell for some time, providing time enough time to implement the strategy listed in the toolkit.

Source: Alt News

As such,  if events that preceded the toolkit expose are considered, it can be inferred with reasonable certitude that there was an uncanny symmetry between the past incidents and the plan of action suggested in the toolkit. The Congress party’s own behaviour, the responses of the leaders and the ecosystem in general dovetailed perfectly with the set of instructions issued in the toolkit.

The maligning of the Kumbh Mela as ‘super spreader’ event, the unwarranted attacks against PM Modi for the Central Vista project, international media’s attack against the Modi government and its COVID handling, there have been various incidents in the recent past that suggest that the Congress supporters were acting in accordance with what was asked of them in the toolkit. Yet, the Alt News article states that no social media strategy was implemented.

‘Fact-checker’ Alt News used factually incorrect data to declare the document to be fake

Twitter user and Consultant Ankur Singh, who goes by Twitter handle @iAnkurSingh conclusively debunked this shoddy attempt by the Alt News to help Congress dissociate itself from the toolkit. Alt News relied on peddling fake news to declare the toolkit to be a forged document. It argued that the toolkit suggested responding to SoS calls for COVID-19 only when the users tagged the official handle of the Youth Congress (IYC) and shared a screenshot of the one user who did not tag the IYC and yet received help. However, as it turned, the claim made by the Alt News was fake and the user had indeed tagged the official handle of the IYC. While the user had posted multiple tweets, Alt News deliberately chose only those tweets that didn’t tag the IYC handle, omitting the ones where the user had tagged the handle.

Next, Alt News said the toolkit is fake because the term ‘Modi Variant’ was used by people who were not Congress workers, as directed in the document. It argued that the ‘Modi Variant’ was used by the likes of Sonia Faleiro, Aparna Jain and Seema Chisti, and since they are not bona fide Congress workers, the document is fake.

However, as per the document, the term “Modi Strain” was meant to be used by “friendly intellectuals and opinion-makers” and not for the Congress workers. Considering the political inclinations of Faleiro, Jain and Chisti, one can assert that they are inspired by the Congress party’s ideology.

Additionally, it must be brought to the notice here that the left-leaning propaganda website branded people like Anand Ranganathan as “BJP supporter” in the so-called fact-check article while insisting on people like Faleiro being ‘neutral’ because she has no Congress membership.

In another instance, Alt News defends the Congress party saying the ‘Super Spreader Kumbh’ was used only 15 times on social media websites and therefore, the toolkit is fake. However, the truth is that ‘Super Spreader’ adjective has been used hundreds of times by Congress supporters and sympathisers to describe the Kumbh Mela. It’s just that on many occasions, the users simply used different spellings, like using ‘Spreaders’ instead of ‘Spreader’. Just because Alt News didn’t check with all the possible variants of spellings people may use, they declared that the term was not used much.

The close association of Alt News with the Congress party was evident when one of the spokespersons of the party said that the authenticity of the toolkit would be ascertained by the ‘fact-checkers’. During a news debate yesterday, Congress leader Gaurav Kapoor said that whether the document is fake or not will be determined by ‘fact-checking’ websites.

It must also be noted that the documents to verify the authenticity of the toolkit was provided to Alt News by the Congress party, demonstrating a close association between the two entities. In response, the Alt News gave a clean chit to the Congress party and declared the toolkit to be fake, albeit, based on flimsy arguments. The fact that the so-called fact-checking website was working closely with a political party and actively assisting it to extricate itself from the political quagmire it has found itself also raises questions on organisations like IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) that had certified it.

Singapore not to invoke ‘Fake News Law’ against Arvind Kejriwal, says they are satisfied with Indian govt’s response on his ‘Singapore variant’ jibe

OpIndia Staff
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Singapore not to invoke ‘Fake News Law’ against Arvind Kejriwal, says they are satisfied with Indian govt’s response on his ‘Singapore variant’ jibe

After External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for propagating falsehood by claiming a “new Singapore COVID-19 variant” had transmitted in the country, the Singapore government has said that they were satisfied with India’s response to the controversy.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Singapore High Commissioner to India Simon Wong said that Singapore and India are solid partners in the fight against COVID-19, and the pandemic knows no boundary or political color.

Addressing the controversy that erupted on Tuesday over Arvind Kejriwal’s unnecessary fear-mongering by claiming that there was a new Singapore variant of Covid-19 which is very dangerous to children, Wong said that the false statements by Arvind Kejriwal would invite actions under Protection from Online Falsehoods & Manipulation Act (POFMA), an act intended to mitigate misinformation in the country. However, he added that they are satisfied with the government of India’s clarification.

The Protection from Online Falsehoods & Manipulation Act is popularly known as Fake News Law, and it allows the authorities to respond to fake news by enforcing links to fact-checking sites, censoring websites or social media accounts, and filing criminal charges.

The Singapore Ambassador to India said that the Singapore government preferred to deal with virus and its variants in scientific terms. We abide closely with WHO’s recommendation of not giving virus any geographical name, and Singapore focuses more on scientific aspect than to put the finger on anyone, said Singapore High Commissioner to India Simon Wong.

The High Commissioner of Singapore further said that after exchanges between foreign ministers of both the countries, the Southeast Asian nation said, “it would wish to put an end to this episode because authorities representing Government of India had spoken and we are heartened by those assurances.”

The Singapore Ambassador also appreciated the “crystal clear” clarifications by the Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar and MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, saying it was time to turn the page. 

Delhi CM Kejriwal fear-mongers about new Covid strain, MEA slams Arvind Kejriwal

On Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to claim that a new variant of Covid-19 was found in Singapore, which could result in India’s third wave. Resorting to unnecessary fear-mongering, the Delhi Chief Minister put out unverified information to claim that the new variant was extremely dangerous for children.

The Delhi Chief Minister also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to immediately halt air services with Singapore and prioritize vaccination drive for children.

Following the callous statements put out by Kejriwal, Singapore’s Health Ministry reacted strongly and dismissed the fear-mongering of the Delhi Chief Minister. The official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs revealed that the Singapore government had called the High Commission, raising a strong objection to Kejriwal’s statement.

At the same time, the civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also fact-checked the Delhi CM, saying that international flights are already suspended since March last year, and India does not have an air-bubble agreement with Singapore. This means that currently there is no commercial flight service between India and Singapore that Kejriwal wants to ban. Only some Vande Bharat flights are operating from Singapore, which brings Indians trapped in foreign countries to India.

The embarrassing incident prompted Foreign Minister Dr. S Jaishankar to issue a clarification, who slammed Kejriwal for his irresponsible comments and had clarified that Delhi CM did not speak for India.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s cheap theatrics on social media, especially at an international level has caused a massive embarrassment for the country.

PIL filed in SC seeking NIA investigation into the Congress “toolkit”, seeks suspension of party’s registration if the probe finds them guilty

OpIndia Staff
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PIL filed in SC seeking NIA investigation into the Congress “toolkit”, seeks suspension of party’s registration if the probe finds them guilty

A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking NIA probe into the “toolkit” said to be created by the All India Congress Committee to defame India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst the ongoing pandemic.

The PIL filed by lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha has made the Indian National Congress a Party to the petition while making the Union of India and Election Commission as respondents before the Apex Court.

The petition also seeks the suspension of the Congress party if the allegations made against them of creating the “toolkit document” are found to be true.

It is imperative to note that the toolkit contains the propagation of serious crimes such as blocking of beds amid the pandemic and release only upon orders.

Jha in his PIL specified that the matter must be probed to disclose any offence under section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy), several sections of IPC and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. 

The petition also sought direction to the Central Government to issue necessary guidelines to every political party to stop any kind of hoarding and to initiate strict action against the usage of images highlighting funerals, dead bodies or content naming the Covid-19 mutant after India considering it as anti-national.

While the Congress has outrightly denied the creation of the ‘toolkit document’, reports suggest that the author is in fact a member of the AICC. Saumya Varma whose name emerged as the creator of the document has now deleted all her social media accounts including that on LinkedIn.

Metadata of document

AICC Chairman Rajeev Gowda too accepted to have created the Central Vista ‘toolkit’ or research document as they call it, however, continues to stay in denial of creating the anti-Modi toolkit. 

While OpIndia cannot comment on the authenticity of the documents, there indeed are similarities between both the leaked anti-Modi toolkit and the Central Vista ‘research’ document.

Black fungus scare: Rajasthan govt declares mucormycosis as an epidemic, separate treatment ward set up in Jaipur

OpIndia Staff
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Black fungus scare: Rajasthan govt declares mucormycosis as an epidemic, separate treatment ward set up in Jaipur

On Wednesday (May 19), the Rajasthan government has declared mucormycosis an ‘epidemic’ in the State. Also known as black fungus, it is affecting individuals who have recovered from the Coronavirus infection.

As per reports, Rajasthan has witnessed over 100 black fungus patients. The situation has been so grim that the government has set up a separate ward for the treatment of such individuals at the Sawai Main Singh hospital in Jaipur. As such, Principal Health Secretary Akhil Arora has issued a notification wherein mucormycosis has been notified as an epidemic under the Rajasthan Epidemic Act 2020.

While speaking about the matter, he said that the move is meant to carry out a coordinated treatment of both Coronavirus infection and mucormycosis. Earlier on Friday (May 14), Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Limited (RMSCL) said orders had been issued for the procurement of 2500 vials of liposomal amphotericin B, which is used in the treatment of black fungus. The orders were placed with Vaccines Limited and Bharat Serums.

Union Health Ministry had issued guidelines about Mucormycosis

So far, cases of black fungus have been reported from Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and Telangana. In a statement, the Union Home Ministry informed that one can contract black fungus after coming in contact with its spores. The fungus then enters the body through cuts or burns on the skin. The Ministry said that it has been detected in patients who have recovered from Coronavirus infection.

The Ministry further added, “Moreover, anyone who is diabetic and whose immune system is not functioning well needs to be on the guard against this. The disease is caused by a set of micro-organisms known as mucormycetes, which are present naturally in the environment, seen mostly in soil and in decaying organic matter like leaves, compost, and piles,” the Ministry said. Conditions such as prolonged ICU stay, co-morbidities, weak immune system due to the use of steroids and Voriconazole therapy can increase the chances of being susceptible to mucormycosis.

Netizens demand arrest of ‘comedian’ Abish Mathew after his sexist tweet on Mayawati goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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Netizens demand arrest of ‘comedian’ Abish Mathew after his sexist tweet on Mayawati goes viral

On Wednesday, Comedian Abish Mathew has found himself in sudden trouble after one of his old tweets resurfaced on the internet, in which he was seen hurling insults on BSP supremo Mayawati.

A tweet put out by the comedian in September 2012 has reappeared on Twitter, inviting a massive backlash against Abish Mathews. In the tweet, Abish Mathew had called the Dalit leader as ‘ugly’ and had shared offensive sexual innuendos.

“Mayavati is so ugly….. the only thing that can erect are statues! #ItsFunnierOnStage,” he tweeted years ago, in 2012.

2012 Tweet by Abish Mathew

Netizens have dug the old tweet tweet, and once it got circulated on social media, it resulted in a massive uproar. Many supporters of Mayawati and social media users have now demanded the comedian’s arrest and trended #Arrest_Abish-Mathew on social media platforms.

Netizens call out the offensive statement against Dalit leader

Several social media users pointed out that the tweets put out by the comedian were not just sexist and vile, but it also reflected his casteist and racist nature, especially against a woman leader belonging to the marginalized castes. They have demanded that the ‘comedian’ be tried under the SC/ST Act and demanding penal action against him.

One user pointed that if Abish Mathew can publicly abuse a Dalit woman Chief Minister, what would do they do to poor Dalit woman in villages.

Many called the insult against Mayawati as deliberately casteist and racist.

Another user said the tweets depicted how comedians thinks of Dalits.

No formal complaint has been registered against the comedian yet so far. Yesterday, another old tweet by Feminism in India’s CEO Japleen Pasricha against Mayawati had gone viral.

Here is how you can find empty slots near you for Covid-19 vaccine by sending just a WhatsApp message

OpIndia Staff
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Here is how you can find empty slots near you for Covid-19 vaccine by sending just a WhatsApp message

The Modi government recently began its third phase of vaccination, allowing people above the age of 18 to get the vaccine. To ease the process for vaccination and locate the nearest locations, the government of India has introduced a new feature that will help the citizens to find the Covid-19 vaccination centre nearest to them using the popular messaging app WhatsApp.

The WhatsApp chatbot- MyGov Corona Helpdesk helps people to find vaccination centres nearer to them. The service developed in collaboration with AI platform Haptik, was rolled out last year for sharing authentic information, is now being used to provide Covid-19 related helplines on WhatsApp for Indian users.

If one wishes to access this information, here is what he needs to do on WhatsApp.

How to locate nearest vaccination location on WhatsApp:

Any user who has installed the WhatsApp application can access the chatbot. The user has to save this number- +91 9013151515 and leave a text to the MyGov Corona Helpdesk.

The user can send texts like ‘Namaste’, ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ on this number which will further generate an automated response.

The message will have many options for users to select including some basic details, contact details, a link to the Aarogya Setup app, and language support changes among others. For Vaccination details – the user has to reply with a text ‘1’, to which the chatbox responds with seeking more response from the user.

The chatbot will give the user two options to select and this will include information related to centres along with authentic information related to Covid-19 vaccines.

If a user responds with option ‘1’, the chatbot will be asking for a 6 digit postal PIN code. Once the user enters his six-digit 6-digit postal PIN code, the chatbot will respond with a list of centres closest to the user and the date informing when vaccination will be available at that particular centre, along with slot details.

Here is a Covid-19 helpdesk’s response to a user who sought vaccination details in Chennai:

Here is one from New Delhi:

A user finding vaccination drive details in Bengaluru:

The WhatsApp chatbot will provide a link to the CoWIN portal where users can register themselves or sign in for vaccination. The users will have to book an appointment through the CoWIN portal only.

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