A married Muslim man has been arrested by the Masanjore police on Wednesday, for faking his identity and trying to lure a Hindu girl to marry him, and convert her to Islam. Tipu Sultan has been booked under Section 417 of the IPC for ‘cheating’ and section 376 of IPC which pertains to rape since Jharkhand has no law to curb the menace of Grooming Jihad.
30-year-old Tipu Sultan originally hails from Dhawan Rampur village under the jurisdiction of Palajori police station of Deoghar district in Jharkhand but had pretended to be Satish Rai of Dhanbad while introducing himself to the 19-year-old girl belonging to Patsimla village under the jurisdiction of Masanjore police station of the district.
How Tipu Sultan pretended to be Satish Rai to lure a Hindu woman and what led to his arrest
Reportedly, Tipu Sultan, who was pretending to be a Hindu man called Satish Rai had introduced himself to the 19-year-old Hindu girl about 6 months ago at a local mall. Tipu Sultan has been married for the past 7 years and has 2 children.
The officer-in-charge of Masanjore police, Vijay Kumar Singh, said that the Hindu girl belonged to a marginal family and Tipu Sultan, who was pretending to be Satish Rai introduced himself as a bachelor. He claimed that he was a petrol pump owner and a Horlicks dealer to lure the girl. “He posed as a petrol pump owner and to be Horlicks dealer in a bid to influence the girl who otherwise belongs to a marginal family”, Vijay Kumar Singh is quoted as saying in a report by ewoke.
3 months ago, the police said, Tipu Sultan got into a physical relationship with the Hindu girl and recently, reached her village to marry her. However, alert villagers got suspicious since he had reached the village all by himself to solemnise the marriage. The villagers then asked Tipu Sultan to produce some identification. When he failed to do so, the police was called.
“Further, the accused failed to produce his Aadhaar card or any other document to prove his identity. Police were summoned, leading to his arrest after verification of his original credential to be a Muslim and a native of Palajori police station of Deoghar district”, said Vijay Kumar Singh.
The police then filed an FIR based on the complaint by the girl and took Tipu Sultan, alias Satish Rai, into custody.
Grooming Jihad- an extremely deep-seated phenomenon gaining a foothold in India
This is, however, not the only case in which a Muslim faked his identity as a Hindu to lure innocent and vulnerable girls. Over the years, several victims of Grooming Jihad have come forward with their stories. Their horrifying experiences include being deceived into a relationship or marriage by a Muslim boy disguised under a Hindu name, who only revealed later that he is a Muslim and forced the woman to convert. The pressurising tactics mostly include threatening to make viral their intimate photographs and videos, isolating the victim from her family, boy’s family members ganging up against the woman, beatings or threatening them with physical assault, force-feeding beef, insulting Hinduism and Hindus etc.
Though this phenomenon is long-established and extremely deep-seated, the year 2020 has seen many states not only acknowledging the occurrences but also enacting laws to curb the menace of Grooming Jihad. This includes many BJP ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
Over the past few days, a picture of controversial Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan with a young man has gone viral on the internet. Adorned with a saffron saree, Ira Khan was seen embracing a Tilak-carrying guy.
As these images went viral on the internet, fans of Aamir Khan could not control their excitement and went on to make several assertions about their relationship. Social media users claimed that the guy spotted in the green shirt was a Hindu servant of Aamir Khan, who has now run away with the actor’s daughter.
A user named Udharam alleged that Aamir Khan, who has a history of looking down on Hindus as inferior people, had employed a Hindu servant for his daughter Ira Khan. However, his daughter has now eloped a Hindu guy, claimed the social media user.
Another user also said that he has come to know that Ira Khan has fallen in love with a ‘Sanghi’ servant. Jeenal Patel, a social media user, said justice has been delivered for Aamir Khan as his daughter elopes a Sanghi man.
Anita Singh took to social media to claim that Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan has run away with their Hindu servant. She continued saying that it was good to know that Ira Khan has now been rescued from the barbaric Islamic practice of Halala and hoped that the same happened to the Muslim sisters of the country.
A few Twitter users, too shared the same images to claim that Ira Khan had eloped her Hindu servant. A user Deepak Sharma said that Aamir Khan used to hire Hindu servants to humiliate Hindus, however, the same Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan has now eloped with his own Hindu servant.
Another user, pointing out the same, Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan absconds with her Hindu minion and took dig at Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran Khan Rao saying she might feel intolerance in the country again.
However, the claims of Ira Khan eloping with a Hindu servant of Aamir Khan are not true.
Fact Check
The above image of Ira Khan was first shared by a person named Nupur Shikare on Instagram on the occasion of Deepavali last year. The person standing next to Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan in the viral image is Nupur Shikare, who is her fitness trainer.
Sharing the viral photo on social media on 17 November 2020, Nupur wrote, “Because we like to dress up and smile, Happy Diwali!”
Nupur Shikare’s Instagram post
Last year, Nupur and Ira celebrated festivals like Christmas and Diwali together. Nupur had posted a picture of them on social media. It is also reported that Nupur Shikare was also the trainer of Ira’s father Aamir Khan.
Nupur Shikare is the founder of Fitnessism. He is also the personal trainer of Bollywood diva Sushmita Sen. The 24-year-old Ira Khan is the daughter of Aamir Khan and his ex-wife Reena Dutta.
There are rumours thatIra and Nupur started dating during the lockdown when he also trained her. Both Nupur Shikare and Ira Khan had shared videos and images of their training sessions on social media. Recently, there were reports that Iran Khan has confirmed that she is in a relationship with Nupur Shikare, her fitness trainer.
However, we could not find any media reports or substantial evidence to categorically say that Ira Khan has ‘eloped’ with Nupur Shikare. Nupur Shikare, though presumably a Hindu, is not a servant of Aamir Khan but is a professional fitness trainer. The social media users’ claim of Ira Khan running away with ‘Hindu Sanghi servant’ is not true.
Unless you have been living under a rock, the internet was taken by storm after a Pakistani artist Dananeer, also known as Geena. She posted a video of her having fun with her friends, and instantly, ‘#PawriHoRahiHai’ making a trending subject. Now, BJP Party President JP Nadda seems to have put his own spin on the ‘Pawri’ meme during a rally in West Bengal ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.
Speaking in West Bengal, JP Nadda said, “Ye Bengal ki janta hai, ye hum sab hai, aur Bengal main parivartan ki tayyari ho rahi hai” (This is Bengal’s people, this is us, and in Bengal, people are getting ready for change).
The phrase used by JP Nadda was an interesting turn on the ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’ trend that has taken social media by storm in the past few days.
As several on Twitter were left wondering whether the spin on the meme was actually intentional by the BJP President JP Nadda, the video posted by BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga is now going viral.
What is the ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Hai’ meme
Only a few days ago, Pakistani influencer and content creator Dananeer, also known as Geena, posted a video where she was seen having fun with her friends. Little did she know that her little video would turn into an internal meme. In the video, Dananeer is heard saying: “Yeh humari car hai, Yeh hum hain, aur yeh humari pawri ho rahi hai (This is our car, this is us and this is our party).”
Giving their own take to the last line, netizens in India have been posting hilarious takes on the video.
Hilariously, even Amul, known for their witty ads, released their spin on the meme.
On Thursday, an extradition court in the UK ordered that fugitive Nirav Modi will be extradited to India to face trial in the ₹14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. The UK’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court also acknowledged that the diamantaire conspired to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses, and said that he is “satisfied that there is evidence that Mr Modi could be convicted”. Dismissing pleas of poor condition of Indian jails, the judge said that Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai is fit for Nirav Modi.
The Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued a detailed order, mentioning various arguments during the hearing, and giving reasons why he accepted or rejected those arguments. In the 83 page, the comments of the court on two individuals who had given statements as experts in defence of Nirav Modi stand out. Both of them are former judges in India, and the UK court made some very scathing remarks criticising their biased opinions, and rejected their contentions.
The first one is former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju, who had deposed before the UK court as an expert witness on Nirav Modi’s behalf. He had opposed the extradition plea of the Indian government saying that Modi would not get a free and fair trial in India. In a written statement submitted to the court, justice Katju had alleged that Modi was being subjected to a media trial in India, and had said that the judiciary in India was highly politicized and corrupt.
However, Judge Sam Gooze of Westminster Court discarded the comments made by Katju, and made some sharp observations against him. The UK judge said that he attached “little weight to Justice Katju’s expert opinion”, and said that despite being a former judge in Supreme Court of India, his opinion was “less than objective and reliable”.
The UK court also noted that “his evidence in Court appeared tinged with resentment towards former senior judicial colleagues.” The judge further said regarding Katju’s opinions, “it had hallmarks of an outspoken critic with his own personal agenda. I found his evidence and behaviour in engaging the media the day before giving evidence to be questionable for someone who served the Indian Judiciary at such a high level appointed to guard and protect the rule of law.”
The court was referring to Justice Katju going to the media before giving evidence in the court, calling it a questionable conduct. The judgement also reveals that during cross-questioning, Katju had admitted that he has not considered the evidence give by the court in the court.
The judge also strongly objected to certain comments the former Supreme Court judge made during the cross-examination, saying that “Justice Katju made some astonishing, inappropriate and grossly insensitive comparisons.” Katju had said that because the BJP cannot solve the economic crises it is just like “Hitler and the Jews”. He had said, “Nirav Modi is the Jew that must be blamed for all the problems in India”. But when he was challenged for such a comment, he had stated that he was not commenting on the merits of the case but, saying that Nirav Modi cannot get a fair trial in India under BJP.
Interestingly, the UK court judge also pointed out several contradictions in the comments and actions of Katju. He noted that while Katju was blaming trial by media in the case, he himself had gone to media before giving his statement to the court.
Kajtu had also brought up the matter of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi appointed as Rajya Sabha member, saying that it was done on a quid pro quo basis against a Supreme Court judgement, and asserted that it was an example of collusion and corruption. However, the UK court reminded that Katju had himself accepted government appointment after he was retired from the Supreme Court, as he was appointed as Chairman of the Press Council of India by the Indian government after his retirement.
During the trial, the Indian government’s lawyer Helen Malcom QC and Nicholas Heren quoted some outrageous comments Kajtu has made in the past. They mentioned how Katju had said “90% Indians are fools”, “gay relationships are humbug and non-sense”, “women who remain single are prone to psychological problems”, “50% of judges are corrupt” etc.
The Westminster Court in London also disregarded the opinion of Justice Abhay Thipsay, former judge of the Bombay High Court, saying that he “attach no weight to his opinions set out in his reports and in oral testimony.” Justice Thipsay had claimed that the case against Nirav Modi will fail in an Indian court, as it didn’t have any victim. He had claimed that “if the victim is not deceived, there would be no cheating”.
“There must have been a victim who has been deceived …But I cannot find anybody deceived by the issuing LOU”, the former high court judge had claimed. The Court also noted that the government of India had alleged that Thipsay’s comments were directed by the Congress party, as he had joined Congress after retirement. After Union Low Minister Ravi Shankar had criticised him for defending Nirav Modi in the UK Court, Thipsay had refused to give further evidence. As a result, the Court said that his evidence could not be subjected to scrutiny.
Rejecting the arguments supporting Nirav Modi, which were mostly based on alleged of corrupt system in India not ensuring fair trial, the court expressed confidence on Indian democracy. The court said, “India is governed by it written constitution which has at its core the fundamental principle of the independence of the judiciary by virtue of the separation of powers between judiciary, the executive and the legislature. There is no cogent or reliable evidence that the judiciary in India are no longer independent, or capable of managing a fair trial even where it is a high-profile fraud with significant media interest.”
Coming as a big set back for the makers and actors of the web series Tandav, a single-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court Thursday rejected an anticipatory bail application filed by Aparna Purohit, over a UP Police FIR in Noida against the makers of the web series ‘Tandav’. Aparna Purohit is the head of Amazon India’s creative development team and also the in-charge of the platform’s original web series. She has been accused of hurting religious sentiments by pushing anti-Hindu content and scenes mocking Hindu gods in the web series.
Making strong observations while rejecting Purohit’s anticipatory bail plea, Justice Siddharth said in a 20-page order: “Such People Make The Revered Figures Of Religion Of Majority Community Source Of Earning Money”.
The judge furthered: “Whenever such crimes are committed by some citizens of the country, like the applicant and her co-accused persons, and it is made the subject matter of demonstration and public protest, the forces inimical to the interest of this country become active and they make it an issue and raise it before different national and international forums alleging that the Indian citizens have become intolerant and ‘India’ has become an unsafe place to live.”
The order further said, “even in the liberal democracies of the West, it becomes a topic of debate and the Indian diplomacy has to face tough time protecting the interest of the country and assuring the international community that the protests made against such acts are stray and genuine and it is not mark of any intolerance in the country as a whole.”
Giving the reference of stand-up ‘comedian’ Munnawar Faruqui who was arrested by the Indore police and sent to judicial custody for passing indecent remarks about Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a show in the city, the judge observed that for such people the revered figures of the Hindus are used as a source of income.
“Western filmmakers have refrained from ridiculing Lord Jesus or the Prophet, but Hindi filmmakers have done this repeatedly and still doing this most unabashedly with Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Things are worsening as is evident from the fact that an obscure stand-up comedian, Munawar Faruqui, from Gujarat made comments on Hindu God and Goddesses in a New Year show at Indore and gained undue publicity on being arrested in a case”.
Observations made by the Allahabad HC single judge bench while rejecting Aparna Purohit’s bail plea
The judge raised concerns about how this disturbing trend of mocking Hindu deities had passed from films to the comedy shows.
Furthering that the applicant (Aparna Purohit) had not been vigilant and acted irresponsibly making her open to criminal proceedings.
The court also commented on what it called a “growing tendency” on the part of the Hindi film industry to subvert the image of the figures revered by Hindus. “If not curbed in time, it may have disastrous consequences for the Indian social, religious and communal order”, observed the court, worrying about the adverse effect it would have on the younger generations which is not much aware of the social and cultural heritage of this country. It gradually starts believing what is shown in the movies by people like the accused persons in the present movie in dispute”, said Justice Siddharth while rejecting Aparna Purohit’s bail application.
Observations made by the Allahabad HC single judge bench while rejecting Aparna Purohit’s bail plea
It is important to note that Purohit has protection from arrest in a second, separate case filed by the police in Lucknow, and a different judge in the Allahabad High Court extended that protection till March 9 three days ago.
SC rejects anticipatory bail pleas of ‘Tandav’ makers asks to apply in concerned courts in the states
Last month, theSupreme Court bench, comprising of justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and MR Shah had also refused to grant any interim protection to the makers and actors of Tandav against FIRs filed in six different states. While delivering its verdict, the apex court had then stated that the makers have no liberty to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. It had, however, permitted them to seek bail from concerned courts in the states where FIRs have been filed.
On Wednesday, Congress leader and Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi took part in a fishing exercise in poll-bound Kerala’s Kollam district. During the exercise, Rahul Gandhi jumped into the sea along with fishermen as they cast their nets. However, now claims have emerged that it was a pre-planned drama and the fishermen were paid to play their parts in this.
Rahul Gandhi had reportedly spent around 10 minutes swimming in the sea with the fishermen. A few Congress party leaders had accompanied Rahul Gandhi to the sea. A PTI report had quoted a Congress leader as saying, “He (Rahul Gandhi) jumped from the boat when he saw some fishermen jumping into the sea after casting their net to catch fish. After coming to know from their fellow fishermen that their companions were adjusting the net underwater, Gandhi also jumped into the sea”.
However, the fishermen who witnessed Rahul Gandhi’s theatrics on Thursday has now made some sensational disclosure saying that the Congress party had staged the whole event and had paid Rs 30,000 to fishermen who accompanied him.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘swimming’ event was staged, Congress party paid money to fishermen
According to a report from Deshabhimani, a Malayalam newspaper owned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), two ‘sea farmers’ R Robin, who hails from Mothakkara and Biju Sebastian, a resident of Vaddy, were eyewitnesses to the fishing expedition of Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday. Speaking to the media, the two fishermen said that the whole fishing expedition of Rahul Gandhi was nothing but a PR event and the ‘swimming in the sea’ theatrics of the Gandhi-scion was a pre-planned act.
Robin, who saw fishermen’s group leaving the shores from Kollam on Thursday with Rahul Gandhi, said the drama was staged, and they were paid Rs 30,000 to accompany Rahul Gandhi. Calling Rahul Gandhi a ‘good actor’, Robin narrated the sequence of events that followed on Wednesday when Rahul Gandhi decided to join fisherfolks at sea.
According to Robin, Rahul Gandhi did not join the fisherfolks for any fishing expedition at sea as they had already brought a load of fishes much before his arrival. Robin said Rahul Gandhi arrived at six in the morning and boarded the fishing boats. He said that fishing boats were already filled with the fishes. After spending two hours at sea, Rahul Gandhi returned to the shore. During his time at sea, Rahul Gandhi jumped into the sea along with a few other fishermen.
As per Robin, on an average day, it takes at least two and a half hours to undertake one side journey to the deep sea and to place their nets at specific fishing pockets. It takes at least four hours to fish on a normal day, said Robin contending that it was not possible for Rahul Gandhi to fish and return back in just a short span of time.
No sincerity in Rahul’s gesture, he mocked at us by jumping to sea: Fishermen, who accompanied Rahul Gandhi
Another fisherman Biju, confirming the same, said there was no sincerity in Rahul Gandhi’s gesture. If he had sincerity he should have been prepared to see the sufferings of the fishermen first hand, said Biju adding that fishermen usually jump into the water to prevent the fish from escaping from their nets.
When the fishermen were finding it tough to survive, Rahul mocked the fishermen community by jumping into the sea, lamented Biju. “Elections will come and go. Do not distort the truth. In five years, there will be nothing left for the benefit of the fishermen. And yet why this drama,” asked Biju Sebastian.
OpIndia could not independently verify the claims of the two fishermen. The Congress party is yet to react to the allegations.
Rahul Gandhi’s fishery ministry fiasco
The latest swimming’ fiasco of Rahul Gandhi comes just days after he was openly caught spreading lies about the country not having a separate fishing ministry. Not once but twice, Rahul Gandhi repeated the same lies by demanding for a separate fisheries ministry, despite being admonished last week by the Centre that India already has one.
On February 17, 2021, just days before the Congress government in Puducherry collapsed, Rahul Gandhi had promised to give the fishermen their own ‘ministry’ in Delhi. However, the Ministry of Fisheries – Giriraj Singh had to himself school the Gandhi-scion about the existence of a dedicated ministry for shipping.
Despite a rebuke from the centre the first time, Rahul Gandhi again peddled the same lies in Kerala saying he would strive to have a separate ministry for fisheries at the Centre.
Made-in-India social media platform ShareChat is reportedly aiming at raising $200 million from Chinese technology giant Tencent via optionally convertible debentures. In view of the strict Foreign Direct Investment norms put by the Government of India last year after the Galwan Valley face-off between India and China, it is possible that the funding will be routed via a Europe-based entity. According to the guidelines put in place in 2020, FDI from countries that share a land border with India will need prior approval from the central government.
Local data storage and processing may be at risk in future
Though the investment is expected to be done using optionally convertible debentures that are debt instruments, there are clauses that allow such investment to be converted to equity after a certain period of time. In that case, the management control of ShareChat may shift from the Indian management to the Chinese tech giant. According to Economic Times, experts believe there is a possible risk related to local data sharing and processing in case Tencent converts the convertible debentures to equity shares in ShareChat.
Notable investments in ShareChat
In August 2019, ShareChat managed to raise $100 million from microblogging giant Twitter. In September 2020, it raised another $40 million from existing investors, including Twitter, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others. Some other notable names in the list of investors include TrustBridge Partners, Shunwei Capital, and Elevation Capital.
Last year, ShareChat had appointed Gaurav Mishra, former product leader at Uber. The company also announced that it was planning to open ShareChat Labs, a Centre of Excellence in Palo Alto, California. In November 2020, there were reports that Google was in talks with ShareChat for acquisition at a potential valuation of over $1 billion.
Tiktok ban had helped apps like ShareChat to flourish
When TikTok was banned in June last year, it left a huge void in India’s short-video market. Several apps, including ShareChat’s Moj, took advantage of the situation and captured a significant share in the Indian market. So far, the app has crossed 100 million downloads on the Google Play store.
As the government has been firm about not allowing Chinese apps to make a comeback in the Indian market, several apps, including TikTok, Helo, WeChat and Alibaba’s UC Browser, were permanently banned in January 2021 after the parent companies of these apps failed to give a satisfactory answer to Indian government’s notice.
Tencent’s penetration in India
Notably, along with over 200 other apps that were of Chinese origin, the Central Government had also banned PubG, in which Tencent owned 10% share. Also, another social media app WeChat was permanently banned by the Indian government in January. However, several companies in India have Tencent as one of the investors, including Flipkart, Ola, Swiggy, Hike, Ibibo, Policy Bazar, Udaan, MX Player, Khatabook, PocketFM, Practo, BYJU’S and others. Globally, Tencent has invested in over 800 companies.
The West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has spent her entire day today travelling on an e-scooter in Kolkata to protest against the rising fuel prices. After riding a pillion with Kolkata Mayor and State Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim who rode the e-scooter in the morning, the TMC supremo decided to try her hands at riding one herself. She was riding the bike from Kalighat to the State Secretariat in Nabanna with the assistance of almost a dozen of her party members when at one point in Howrah, the CM lost her balance and nearly fell off the scooter.
Luckily, with the support of the people who were assisting her, Mamata Banerjee quickly regained her balance and continued to drive. A video of the incident was shared by ANI.
#WATCH | West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee nearly falls while driving an electric scooter in Howrah, as a mark of protest against fuel price hike. She quickly regained her balance with support and continued to drive.
Earlier in the day also Banerjee was seen riding a pillion while Kolkata Mayor and State Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim drove the electric scooter from south Kolkata’s Hazra crossing to Nabanna. Both were seen wearing helmets while the CM was adorned with a protest banner hung from both sides of her body.
Netizens then too mocked the West Bengal CM for inadvertently highlighting PM Modi’s focus on the use of a renewable source of energy by riding an e-scooter.
Allegations of fraud have been made against Congress supporter and ardent follower of Rahul Gandhi – Saket Gokhale. Saket Gokhale, who masquerades as an “RTI and Transparency Activist”, is now in dock after being accused of being a ‘fraud’ by a fellow left-liberal.
On Wednesday, a social media user named Amit Behere, a supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party and a member of the left-liberal coterie, took to social media to lament about the arrests of various far-left anti-India propagandists, Islamists and Urban Naxals over the last few years.
According to Behere, the arrest of former JNUSU President and sedition accused Kanhaiya Kumar back in 2016 had initiated a process of similar arrests including the latest arrest of alleged climate activist Disha Ravi, who is accused in the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case. He said that letting such arrests is when society starts rotting slowly.
It is important to note that Behere is influential among the left-liberal ecosystem and is followed by many official functionaries of Congress like Sanjay Jha, members of Aam Admi Party, journalists with various publications including Barkha Dutt’s MoJo, the alleged fact-checking website Alt News’ co-founder, Harsh Mandar, and many other ‘secular-liberals’.
As Behere cried over the latest arrests of the various anti-India propagandists, Congress supporter-cum-troll Saket Gokhale descended on his timeline to give sermons to AAP follower Amit Behere. Launching an attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Saket Gokhale said that the ‘rot’ started with the ‘extra-judicial murder’ of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat and blamed AAP chief of collaborating with RSS to bring the murder into power at the centre.
It is pertinent to note that Ishrat Jahan Raza and three other Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were gunned down by the Gujarat police on June 5, 2004. The four terrorists were planning to assassinate the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. It is no surprise that the Congress supporter has dived into the support of the Islamic terrorists, who were conspiring to assassinate an elected Chief Minister of a state.
Responding to Gokhale’s barbs against Kejriwal, Behere said Saket Gokhale did not even understand the pattern that Modi government ‘victimised people using the judiciary, state, and media when they did not even commit the crime’. Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi’s fanboy Saket Gokhale, Behere said that it was no wonder that Gokhale’s RTIs did not work outside social media.
He also expressed his regret for paying Rs. 25,000 to Saket Gokhale, which he said, he “would have been better spent on weed”.
However, a few social media users flagged Behere’s attack on fellow left-wing propagandist Saket Gokhale, saying demeaning the latter’s work was not acceptable.
Reacting to the criticism, Behere said he was categorically calling Saket Gokhale as “grade A fraud” and said that he was now suffering from ‘buyer’s remorse’ for donating money to Saket Gokhale. Behere said he was stupid enough to fall for Saket Gokhale’s fraud and demanded accountability for the same.
“When he raised money, 10s of lakhs, and I was stupid enough to fall for his bullshit, he said he would hire people to further RTI cause, I want their names and pay-checks,” said an angry Amit Bhere seeking details about the use of funds received by Saket Gokhale.
Levelling further allegations on Saket Gokhale, who has been claiming to be a ‘transparency activist’, Behere revealed that Gokhale’s RTIs have had absolutely “zero return on investment” and there has been no improvement or no benefit for the common man, just benefits for Saket Gokhale.
Stressing on an important point, Behere said he wanted to categorically know and quantify what Gokhale’s RTIs have achieved till now.
Asserting that Gokhale has not achieved anything through such donations, Behere said that Gokhale had returned his money and he should return all the money he has ‘stolen’ from trusting Indians.
“I want an audit of every penny of the 10s of lakhs of rupees he has ‘stolen’ from trusting Indians like me,” said the anguished AAP follower.
However, in a hurry to attack Saket Gokhale, Behere also hurled casteist abuses at him, claiming that he wanted to know how long must people like him keep funding fraudulent Brahmins for their bullsh*ts and fraud because they have been allegedly “doing that for 1000s of years”.
Behere, ending his tweets, said he knew quite a few RTI activists who pursue their activism without the need for donations. “What makes Saket Gokhale special? Why is filing a simple RTI so much work that he needs lakhs of rupees and a fancy lower Parel office?” asked Amit Behere.
Following the serious accusations by Amit Behere, Saket Gokhale asked him share his account number to return the money he had paid as donation.
The Congress supporter said he was neither donating to Sanghis nor he was Behere’s personal banker and went on to share the receipt of the money he returned to the AAP follower.
I’m not donating to sanghis. Nor am I your personal banker.
Responding to the allegations, Saket Gokhale said that Behere had donated to a website and no one personally approached or asked him to do it.
“I know you’re a man-child but time you took accountability for your own decisions. You have it now. I don’t have to indulge your bullsh*t no more,” said Saket Gokhale. However, he did not clarify about the alleged lakhs of rupees that he had collected, as per Behere’s allegations.
The West Bengal Assembly elections are only weeks away and with the admittedly meteoric rise of the Bhartiya Janta Party in the state, it is not difficult to imagine the absolute and thorough panic attacks that the entire ecosystem might be experiencing. Mind you, there is absolutely no guarantee that BJP will be able to clinch a decisive victory in the state, but the rise, the sheer rise has sent certain elements within the ecosystem into a rather strange spiral into madness. One such panic attack was detailed in The Print, owned by Shekhar Gupta, written by our very own Icchadhari protestor, Yogendra Yadav.
Article by Yogendra Yadav in The Print
In this unhinged ramblings of a presumably mad man, Yogendra Yadav, who seems to have made the switch from a newly anointed farmer leader to a political analyst yet again, essentially tells people that they need to be scared about the 2021 Bengal elections, not because who might win in the end, but what the process of these elections would do to the state.
In a stunning display of just what an abomination one man can be and also, how incompetent (considering before turning into an Icchadhari protestor, he used to be a failed psephologist), he truly is, Yogendra Yadav has this to say:
Article by Yogendra Yadav on Bengal elections in The Print
He first says that BJP has an ‘outside chance’ of winning Bengal since it did rather badly in the last assembly elections. He then says that there might also be a situation where they come “so close, yet so far” and hence, could essentially indulge in violence. First and foremost, this article gives me a better understanding of why Yogendra Yadav was compelled to turn into an Icchadhari protester – there is absolutely no chance he could have made a successful career in psephology with such idiotic statements. Secondly, it gives us a peek into the beating his mental health seems to have taken over the years – changing careers ever so often can possibly lead to some form of cognitive dissonance that we see a reflection of here.
Beyond the jibes, however, it is essential to understand how Bengal politics work. When the TMC routed the Communists, it was following the exact trajectory that BJP has followed. A terrible assembly performance, followed by a decent electoral performance and culminating in a clean sweep of the state. Electoral politics isn’t like solving a simple equation where LHS equals RHS. It is not about Lok Sabha seats translating to Assembly seats to the decimal.
But, of course, the beautiful mind of Yogendra Yadav is perhaps too fried to grasp such nuanced concepts – or perhaps – this is just him being devious. I leave that decision to the readers.
Essentially, Yogendra Yadav started by saying that BJP has had a meteoric rise in the state. He then went on to say that they have no chance of winning the state and ended with “it might be a close fight and hence, they might indulge in violence”. A mark of a good psephologist – all outcomes laid out neatly, so matter what the result is – he gets to say ‘I told you so’.
What comes next is far more hilarious.
Yogendra Yadav lists 4 possibilities that he seems to be paranoid about:
Raj Bhavan turning into a BJP HQ because the current governor is partisan. This would, according to him, result in a slugfest to control the local bureaucracy.
Yogendra Yadav says that the credibility of EC is compromised in the eyes of the public and in this election, its neutrality matters the most (it does in every election, but then again, this article has been written by Yogendra Yadav). He further says that “this is where the Commission might come under pressure from the ruling party the most” – he does not explain the logic behind this tenuous conjecture.
The central government might be tempted into using the powers at its disposal to neutralise the strong-arm tactics of the TMC cadre on the ground, for which the BJP has no match at this moment. There are fears of blatant partisanship on polling day.
He says that “BJP has already begun and is likely to pour money on a scale that West Bengal has never known before”.
Divisive politics
Now, let us briefly analyse Yogendra’s worries one by one.
1. Raj Bhavan acting partisan is a silly conjecture that must be summarily ignored. According to the cabal, he is being partisan because he does not stay mum about the violence being unleashed by TMC.
2. The article does not exactly clear how the EC would likely be under more pressure from the government when he says that this is an election where EC’s neutrality would matter the most. But as I said earlier, Yogendra Yadav is a mindless rabble-rouser. For him, the logic of his argument does not really matter as long as it leads to chaos. Sadly, we can’t really compare him to The Joker either, because the latter actually had the luxury of being extremely intelligent.
3. In this argument, Yogendra Yadav is actually worried about the central government using “its powers” to counter the violence by TMC. Let me get this straight – Yogendra Yadav is worried that the central government might try and stop TMC from using violence. Ah! This suddenly all makes sense. This article is meant to be a foundation for the cabal to scream about how the elections are being “rigged” if the paramilitary forces, 150 units of which have already landed in Bengal – try and ensure free and fair elections without interference by other parties. So Yogendra Yadav here admits that TMC will indulge in violence on polling day, but is worried that the central government will use its powers to stop the violence and hence, he thinks polling day would end up being ‘partisan’.
4. Yogendra is extremely worried that BJP will spend bundles of money in West Bengal – he has no proof for it, but he is worried nonetheless. He is willing to ignore the several documented cases of voters being paid off by the TMC, Congress, AIMIM and the Communists, but he is fearful about the BJP.
5. And thus, we come to his favourite schtick – communal politics. Mamata Banerjee screaming bloody murder when she hears Jai Shree Ram is not communal politics. Mamata Banerjee’s various minority appeasement schemes are not communal politics. Owaisi talking against Hindus is not communal politics. BJP chanting Jai Shree Ram is. Sure!
Essentially, in this article, Yogendra Yadav is dog-whistling. He is laying down every asinine argument that would be used by his cabal to cry hoarse after the Assembly Elections. If the BJP makes inroads or wins, they would say it was because BJP bought the votes, the EC was partisan, the governor was partisan and the Modi government crushed dissent with paramilitary forces (this would of course mean that the forces did not let TMC, Congress or the Left indulge in violence and rig the elections).
Frankly, I don’t disagree with him as far as his basic premise goes. No matter who wins, the process of elections in West Bengal has always been a concern. In the 1972 elections that he alludes to at the beginning of his article, Congress and CPI won the assembly elections, riding on the popularity gained by Indira Gandhi post the 1972 Bangladesh liberation war. the CPIM lost miserably. However, there were several allegations of rigging. There was gunfire, unbridled violence to either stop people from voting or force them to vote the Congress way.
In a Telegraph article, it is noted:
“There was gunfire and bombing. The Congress had taken complete control of the election set-up and was freely rigging the polls,” said Gopal Banerjee, 56, a CPM leader from Baranagar who had accompanied Basu on a round of the constituency as an 18-year-old that day. “Jyotibabu visited a few polling stations and decided to withdraw his candidature. ‘This cannot be tolerated,’ he told us,” Banerjee said.
While blood has always flown cheap in Bengal and political violence has been rampant, it was peachy to think of Jyoti Basu pontificating about it. To put it mildly, Jyoti Basu is the mass murderer that India forgot. in 1997, Bengal’s Home Minister admitted on the floor of the Assembly that 28,000 political murders had happened in West Bengal since the beginning of Jyoti Basu’s rule. And who can forget the Marichjhapi massacre? Deep Haldar, who wrote a book on the massacre says in an interview, “Why the government suddenly became desperate to send refugees back to Dandakaranya remains a mystery. Jyoti Basu was like a dictator. He probably couldn’t digest the fact that they were disobeying his orders. It was his hurt ego, nothing else”. In the massacre, thousands were murdered, raped, buried at sea, humiliated and driven off. It was all done under the watchful eyes of Jyoti Basu.
Essentially, Bengal politics has always been marred by violence – blood-curdling violence.
Only 2 years before the 1972 elections in Bengal that Yogendra Yadav remembers with such fear, a mother being force-fed rice soaked in her son’s blood. In 1970, the Sain Parivar was a prominent family in Bardhaman which supported the Congress party. The family had refused to join the Communists despite the numerous threats that were issued and for their conviction, they suffered ruin.
On 17th March 1970, a mob of CPI(M) workers, allegedly led by a man who went on to become a Minister in the state no less, barged into the house, set it on fire and committed one of the most horrendous crimes in the history of Indian politics. Two brothers of the family, Pranab Kumar Sain and Malay Kumar Sain were hacked to death in front of the family members.
A private tutor, Jitendranath Rai, who had come to teach the kids in the family was hacked to death as well. Later, the mother of the slain brothers was forced to eat rice smeared with the blood of her dead sons. Words cannot ever capture the horror that transpired in Sainbari that day.
One of the daughters-in-law of the family, Rekha Rani, now around 75 years old, recounted the horrors of the incident in an interview with Indian Express. She said, “My brothers-in-laws Pranab Kumar Sain and Malay Kumar Sain and Jitendranath Rai, a private tutor who had come to teach the kids, were hacked in front of my eyes. I was 26. It all began at 7.30 am… people started pelting stones at our house. Later, they set it on fire.” “My mother-in-law, Mrignayana Devi, tried to stop the attackers but she was hit on her head. Two attackers mixed Pranab and Malay’s blood with rice and forced it into her mouth… She was taken to the hospital… she survived,” she added.
This was only two years before the assembly elections, that Yogendra Yadav speaks of. However, he fails to mention it. He says that 1972 was a blot on the other clean record of West Bengal holding fair elections. Fair? What was the attempt here, one wonders? My readers know for a fact that I have absolutely no love lost for the Congress, but to blame Congress for the start of political violence in Bengal is deceitful, to say the least. The communists started the cycle of violence that has continued to this day. That Yogendra Yadav refuses to mention the trail of blood that has been left in Bengal, makes him either stupid, ignorant or plain malicious.
While whitewashing the atrocities heaped by the Communists, Yogendra Yadav also whitewashes the TMC and, lo and behold, ends up expressing his ‘worry’ about what the BJP might do in the state in its “desperation” to win Bengal.
These arguments are mundane and expected and therefore, my concern for Yogendra Yadav’s mental health has only peaked. He could not hack it as a psephologist. He could not cover his tracks in the Delhi Riots. In the farmer protests, he was tossed aside like a rotten fish by the Modi government and ended up with egg on his face when his comrades indulged in rampant violence. If he cannot even write a decent opinion piece without sounding unhinged and monumentally stupid – what does he do next?
