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Buckingham Palace releases statement after Harry-Meghan’s ‘racism’ allegation, says the issue is ‘concerning’

OpIndia Staff
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Buckingham Palace releases statement after Harry-Meghan’s ‘racism’ allegation, says the issue is ‘concerning’

Days after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had stoked a controversy by accusing the members of the British royal family of ‘racism’, Buckingham Palace on Tuesday broke its silence over the issue, saying the allegations were “concerning” and would be addressed privately by the royal family.

In a statement released on behalf of the Queen over the allegations of racism made by Harry and Meghan Markle in an Oprah Winfrey interview, the British royal family said that they are taking the issue “very seriously” and added that the family is saddened to learn about the challenging years of Harry and Meghan.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the statement read.

The statement further said, “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”

In the end, the Buckingham Palace said, “Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle accused the British Royal family of ‘racism’

The interview, conducted by Oprah Winfrey and which aired Sunday night, has sparked-off a massive controversy after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle indirectly accused members of the British royal family of being ‘racists’. In the explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle confirmed the suspicions of facing racial discrimination after she claimed there were talks about ‘dark skin colour’ of the yet-to-be-born child of the couple.

Meghan said to Oprah that when she was pregnant, there was a lot of ‘conversations’ going around in the royal family sphere about how the coming baby of Meghan and Prince Harry, formerly the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, may not be given any royal title, and their child may not be given the title of a prince. When Oprah asked whether it was because of Archie’s “race” (Meghan is of African-American descent), Mackle paused for a second and took a deep breath.

In the interview, Meghan also said that during her pregnancy, a member of the Royal family had even talked to prince Harry about ‘how dark the child’s skin colour is going to be when he is born’. 

In the same interview, Prince Harry has also admitted that he had to face a lot of pressure and emotional challenges for being a part of the royal family. Harry has stated that his family had cut him off financially in the first quarter of 2020, and all he had was what his mother, the late Princess Diana, had left him.

Prince Harry also told that he had felt ‘trapped’ in the royal family, and he could never have left had it not been for Meghan. Harry and Meghan are also expecting their second child and the couple revealed that they would have a daughter this time.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, an American actress, began dating in 2016 and were married in 2018. They had announced that they would be leaving their royal titles and duties in early 2020. The couple were stripped of their royal security and royal purse following the announcement. Prince Harry is the sixth to the line of the British throne.

BJP MP Tirath Singh Rawat to become new chief minister of Uttarakhand

OpIndia Staff
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BJP MP Tirath Singh Rawat to become new chief minister of Uttarakhand

BJP leader and Member of Parliament Tirath Singh Rawat has been appointed as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Tirath Singh Rawat will take oath as the chief minister at 4 pm on Wednesday.

According to the reports, the 56-year-old Tirath Singh Rawat will be replacing Trivendra Rawat as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Tirat Singh Rawat, an MP from Chaubttakhal, was the chief of the party in Uttarakhand in 2013-15 and served as an MLA from the state in the past.

Tirath Singh Rawat’s appointment comes a day after Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned after speculation about a leadership change in the state. Tirath Singh Rawat’s name was picked over speculations that prominent candidates, including Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Uttarakhand Minister Dhan Singh Rawat, would be appointed as the new CM of the state.

On Tuesday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Earlier, he had met JP Nadda at his residence on Monday evening after the BJP president held two rounds of meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the party’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and general secretary in charge of Uttarakhand Dushyant Gautam.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra served notice for her rants against ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi in Lok Sabha

OpIndia Staff
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TMC MP Mahua Moitra served notice for her rants against ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi in Lok Sabha

Trinamool Congress (TMC) member of Parliament Mahua Moitra has been served a notice over a privilege motion after she made some controversial remarks targeting former Chief Justice of India and current Rajya Sabha MP Ranjan Gogoi in the Lok Sabha last month. Moitra took to Twitter to inform that she has been served a notice for “speaking truth in parliament” calling the notice a “badge of honour”.

Moitra was served the notice after BJP MP from Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey moved a privilege motion against her. She has been asked to file her response to the notice by March 25. Dubey had filed a privilege motion notice against Moitra on February 10. Moitra had reportedly launched an attack at the government, judiciary and media in her speech during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address. Her remarks were expunged by the Lok Sabha later.

Commenting on Moitra’s remarks, Dubey said that members of Parliament think that they can say anything using their Parliamentary protection. “Members believe that using the parliamentary protection, they can say anything against anyone and get away. I want this perception to change. I am grateful to the Speaker for admitting the motion”, he said.

Notice demands termination of Moitra’s membership

The notice served against Moitra demanded the termination of her membership in the Lok Sabha. Referring the matter to the committee of privileges under rule 227 of the rules of procedure and conduct of business in Lok Sabha for examination, investigation and report, the notice read, “Despite the fact that the remarks were expunged from the record, it continued to be put on social media and was published by a daily. Thus I demand action should be taken against the said member and her membership be terminated”.

Constitutional and procedural bar on discussing the conduct of a judge in Parliament

Article 121 of the Constitution of India prohibits any discussion in the Parliament regarding the conduct of any judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court in the discharge of his duties except upon a motion for presenting an address to the President praying for the removal of the judge. The Rules of Procedures 352(5) of the Parliament provides that the conduct of people in constitutional positions cannot be questioned. Despite the direction of the Chair in the parliament house, Moitra reportedly kept repeating her statements in violation of Rule 356 of Lok Sabha procedure.

Twitter suspends Oxford student Rashmi Samant’s account citing her age, restores it later with temporary restrictions

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter suspends Oxford student Rashmi Samant’s account citing her age, restores it later with temporary restrictions

The micro-blogging site Twitter has temporarily restricted the social media account of Rashmi Samant, the Oxford student who was forced to resign from the post of president-elect of Oxford University Student Union recently after becoming a victim of intense online bullying campaign.

According to Shashank Shekhar Jha, the legal editor of Goa Chronicle, Samant’s Twitter account was arbitrarily suspended on March 8. The micro-blogging site had claimed that the user had created her social media account when she was 13 and contended that it violated Twitter policies.

Twitter said that Samant could recover her account if she deletes her old tweets, likes on the micro-blogging site, according to Jha.

Two days later, Twitter has arbitrarily removed most of her old social media posts that were posted years back. It has also restored the account after 36 hours, however, by removing all the accounts she had followed in the past.

Speaking on the arbitrary suspension, Rashmi Samant wrote, “When I thought I could not be humiliated more, my account was suspended. Restored after 36 hours with zero followers,” said Samant in her Twitter post.

Currently, her account is temporarily restricted and Twitter has attached a warning to her account saying that there has been some unusual activity from Rashmi Samant’s account.

Twitter restricts Rashmi Samant’s profile

The micro-blogging site has not yet given a detailed clarification regarding the nature of violations that were committed by Rashmi Samant in her posts even as it arbitrarily suspended her account.

However, the strange behaviour of the micro-blogging site is not at all surprising as time-and-again Twitter has banned or censured accounts that exposes left-liberals or posts nationalistic contents on its platform.

Rashmi Samant – a victim of bullying by anti-Hindu propagandists

Rashmi Samant – the woman from Karnataka who had become the first female Indian elect of Oxford University Student’s Union, had to resign her post after being abused, bullied and targeted for being a Hindu and over her views against colonisation.

In a coordinated attack by leftists and the anti-Hindu propagandists, Rashmi Samant’s old social media posts were dredged up, accusing her of being racist, anti-semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic. Her Hindu roots were attacked too. Even her parents were dragged into it and she was painted as a anti-Muslim just because of her place of residence and faith. Samant was elected to the prestigious post on February 11 and within a week, she had to tender her resignation after facing a barrage of online criticism and abuse.

The controversy erupted after Cherwell, a weekly student newspaper published by Oxford, reported that Rashmi had commented on an image on Instagram of herself in Malaysia with the words “Ching Chang”, a pun involving the Holocaust. In another post, Rashmi had allegedly drawn a comparison between Former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (present-day South Africa) Cecil Rhodes and Adolf Hitler in a Student Union presidential debate. Bizarrely, Samant was also accused of separating ‘women’ and ‘transwomen’ in a caption.

Besides this, Rashmi was also targeted for being a devout Hindu. One of the faculty members in Oxford – Dr Abhijit Sarkar had even dragged Rashmi’s parents into the controversy, attacking them for having a Lord Shri Ram display picture on their social media accounts while claiming that Rashmi’s student council elections were funded by Prime Minister Modi.

He had even accused Rashmi of being Islamophobic by alleging that she came from coastal Karnataka, which the faculty member termed as “a bastion of Islamophobic far-right forces”.

Following the controversy, netizens from across the world had demanded the dismissal of Hinduphobic faculty AbhijitSarkar and had trended hashtag #DismissAbhijitSarkar on Twitter.

Republic Day riots: Two more, including Dutch national Maninderjit Singh arrested, was trying to flee on forged documents

OpIndia Staff
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Republic Day riots: Two more, including Dutch national Maninderjit Singh arrested, was trying to flee on forged documents

Delhi police has arrested two more rioters in connection to the Republic Day riots which resulted in Red Fort desecration.

As per Delhi Police Crime Branch, the two individuals are Maninderjit Singh, a Dutch national settled in Birmingham, UK, and one Khempreet Singh. Maninderjit Singh is a habitual offender and was arrested from Delhi airport as he tried to flee on forged documents. Khempreet Singh is accused of assaulting Delhi Police personnel on duty inside the Red Fort with the spear.

On 26th January 2021, the protesting ‘farmers’ at Delhi border broke barricades and ran riots in the national capital under the guise of ‘tractor rally’ to protest against the farm laws. The ‘farmers’ deliberately tried to run over Delhi Police personnel and also assaulted them with swords and other weapons. Eventually the ‘farmers’ took over the Red Fort and hoisted multiple flags with the holy Sikh symbol.

Delhi Police has made multiple arrests in the case till now.

BuzzFeed abruptly lays off 47 employees including senior editors, shuts down HuffPost Canada

OpIndia Staff
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BuzzFeed abruptly lays off 47 employees including senior editors, shuts down HuffPost Canada

On Tuesday, left-wing media outlet BuzzFeed announced that it has laid off 47 reporters, editors and producers from the newly acquired HuffPost in USA. BuzzFeed also said that they would be closing down HuffPost’s Canadian operation due to the ongoing organisational restructuring.

According to BuzzFeed, HuffPost Executive Editors Hillary Frey and Louise Roug have been asked to resign in the latest layoffs. The reporters’ sacking comes just three weeks after BuzzFeed had acquired HuffPost, the media outlet founded in 2005 as The Huffington Post, from Verizon Media.

In a statement, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said to the employees that they would begin to restructure HuffPost to fast-track its path to profitability. Unfortunately, that includes staff reductions, and a number of talented colleagues will be laid off over the next few days, he said. Reportedly, Peretti said losses last year pegged at $20M and would be similar this year without intervention.

“Though BuzzFeed is a profitable company, we don’t have the resources to support another two years of losses,” said Peretti announcing his decision to lay off 47 employees.

HuffPost Canada to shut down, Union condemns arbitrary removal

In addition to restructuring in the United States, the HuffPost Canada will be shut down due to the restructuring.

Following the decision to sack employees, some HuffPost staffers have criticized the decision saying it is arbitrary and comes at a time after an exhausting year of pandemic.

The HuffPost Union, organized as part of the Writers Guild of America, East, criticised the restructuring effort in a statement. The union said the layoffs included nearly 30 per cent of its membership.

“We are devastated and infuriated, particularly after an exhausting year of covering a pandemic and working from home,” the union’s statement said.

Many of the laid-off employees lamented about the job loss on social media and objected to the way they were asked to quit the organisation for which they had worked for years.

Samantha Beattie, a senior reporter at HuffPost Canada, said that Buzzfeed shut down the company without informing them.

The Huffington Post, as it was originally called, was launched by Peretti along with the author Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart and Kenneth Lerer in 2005. They started Buzzfeed the following year. However, in November last year, Buzzfeed had bought the remaining stakes of HuffPost owned by Verizon Communications Inc.

Following the decision, BuzzFeed had also decided to shut down the operations of HuffPost in India. The decision had come after the Indian government had capped the FDI in digital news at 26% to limit “foreign influence and interference in India’s domestic affairs, check Chinese and other overseas funding in news sites and create a level-playing field for all media”.

Burger King UK deletes ‘women belong in the kitchen’ tweet after backlash, issues apology

OpIndia Staff
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Burger King UK deletes ‘women belong in the kitchen’ tweet after backlash, issues apology

Burger King UK’s International Women’s Day tweets to announce they want to hire more women staffs have been withdrawn after massive social media backlash. The UK branch of the international burger chain recently deleted a tweet that they posted on March 8, 2021, that read, “Women belong in the Kitchen.” The tweet, that too on International Women’s Day, attracted a lot of criticism and eventually, the company ended up deleting the tweet on March 9, 2021, and issued an apology.

The company said that they understand their initial tweet was wrong, and they are sorry. They further added that the idea was to attract people’s attention towards the unequal percentage of women chefs in professional kitchens. Burger King said they deleted the tweet to ensure there is no space for more abuse as there were many abusive comments. It said, “It was brought to our attention that there were abusive comments in the thread, and we don’t want to leave the space open for that.”

The ‘good intentions’ were buried in abuses

The tweet Burger King UK posted was the first tweet of a thread in which they talked about how women presence in the professional kitchen is only 20%. To help fill up the gap, they offer scholarships for women chefs to pursue their dream in the culinary arts.

Original tweet thread by Burger King UK

However, many netizens did not read the thread, and as screenshots of only the first tweet in the thread started to make rounds, the actual intentions of the company were buried in piles of abuses thrown towards them.

The hate continues

It looks like Burger King UK will not get rid of hate anytime soon. The apology the company posted attracted more criticism as many netizens felt that they were throwing the critics under the bus for their decision to delete the tweet.

There was comparisons of the tweet from the past as well.

People started posting images of the front-page ads of the company in newspapers and asked if they are going to take back the copies of newspapers that have already been circulated.

Some pointed out the company did not delete it from their Instagram account.

There was a time when PR experts believed that even bad publicity is good. Some studies also suggest that there is a likelihood that sales may increase after receiving a backlash. However, some experts have started to believe that it is not true anymore. In today’s time, people research before making purchases and problematic past may result in scepticism in making a purchase.

Uttar Pradesh govt to establish Lord Ram University in Ayodhya, will focus on Hindu religious and cultural studies

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh govt to establish Lord Ram University in Ayodhya, will focus on Hindu religious and cultural studies

Uttar Pradesh government is reportedly planning to establish a university named after Lord Ram in Ayodhya. The proposed varsity will hold studies and conduct research on culture, beliefs, scriptures and religious facts related to Lord Ram. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Dinesh Sharma, who holds the higher education portfolio, said that the university will be make the life and principle of Lord Ram known to the world. The university will also be centre for studies on Hinduism and culture. The state government had earlier announced the construction of an airport in Ayodhya. Several other projects are in the pipeline intended to the develop infrastructure in and around Ayodhya.

Lord Ram university to be set up by private sector in collaboration with the state govt

The Lord Ram University is supposed to be established by the private sector in collaboration with the state government. The proposal has been welcomed by the saints in Ayodhya. Hailing the proposal for the university, Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ram temple, said that the university would be a medium the younger generation to know about Lord Ram and the Hindu culture. Mahant Paramhans appreciated the proposal and said that he had written letters in this regard to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Three more universities to come up in the state

The Deputy Chief Minister also informed that three more universities would be set up in the state one each at Aligarh, Saharanpur and Azamgarh. The process for building the universities has already been kick-started. Besides, in an effort to transform the state into an education hub, the state government is also planning to establish several other universities including a sports university. “Apart from this, a sports university, Ayush university and a law university will also be set up in the state. A concrete action plan has been initiated and a 16-member task force has been formed by the government to establish UP as a centre of higher learning”, said Dr. Sharma.

He added that separate steering committees have been formed in the departments of higher education, secondary education, basic education, and technical education. “Through these steering committees, the direction of implementing the new National Education Policy-2020 is being taken forward”, he said. Uttar Pradesh, at present, has 23 universities and six central universities in Uttar Pradesh.

Bhutanese journo lauds India’s cultural ethos for COVID-19 vaccination efforts, his Indian counterpart rushes in with Rohingya argument: Details

Jinit Jain
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Bhutanese journo lauds India’s cultural ethos for COVID-19 vaccination efforts, his Indian counterpart rushes in with Rohingya argument: Details

Some Indian journalists are perpetually on the lookout to criticise India. Even when the occasion demands otherwise, they somehow manage to disparage the country. One such individual is Nirupama Subramanian, a journalist at the Indian Express.

Recently, Bhutanese journalist Tenzing Lamsang lavished praises on India for its efforts to combat the menace of COVID-19. Quoting a tweet posted by the official Twitter account of the Indian Express which discussed how India has been playing a pivotal role in helping the world in the global health crisis through its vaccination policies, Lamsang replied in the affirmative, stating that had it been a European country, it would have held back its vaccine exports until all of its citizens had been vaccinated.

Lamsang, who is the editor of The Bhutanese, ascribed India’s generosity to its timeless civilisational and cultural ethos. “I think it is the timeless civilisational and cultural ethos of India to help others even when it is in need. A noble quality,” Lamsang said in the tweet.

However, no sooner did Lamsang appreciated India’s contribution to the global fight against COVID-19, Nirupama Subramanian descended on his timeline to denigrate India. Responding to Lamsang’s tweet, “Wish India would show the same large-heartedness in other matters, such as Rohingya.”

Source: Twitter

Just for the sake of criticising India, Nirupama connected seemingly disparate issues of India’s contribution in battling the COVID-19 pandemic and the Rohingya refugee crisis. She could not bring herself to praise India and its government for spearheading the COVID-19 vaccination programme and helping nations in their fight against the pandemic. All she could post is a rueful tweet, bewailing that the Indian government has not displayed the same magnanimity in other matters, such as the Rohingya issue.

It seems that praising India and appreciating the good policy decisions taken by the Modi government is a tall order for the journalists such as Nirupama and her ilk. Ever since the Modi government came to power in 2014, some of the journalists have found it incredibly difficult to stomach the reality of a non-Congress government at the Centre. Since then, these folks are spoiling for painting the country in a bad light to discredit the central government.

So consumed are they with hatred for the Centre that it has overpowered their rational thinking. For them there lies no distinction between the criticism of the country and the criticism of its leadership. Be it belittling the nation or denouncing its policies, everything is acceptable if it is serving to discredit the central government.

As for the Rohingyas, they are deemed as a security threat by the government and it is not a wise policy decision, both nationally and globally, to naturalise and support elements that are inimical to a nation’s security.

Samuel Paty’s beheading based on a lie? 13 year old girl confesses she lied to avoid father’s anger, had triggered the hate campaign

OpIndia Staff
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Samuel Paty’s beheading based on a lie? 13 year old girl confesses she lied to avoid father’s anger, had triggered the hate campaign

In a tragic revelation, a 13-year-old French girl has admitted to cooking up a story that led to her teacher being decapitated by a teenage Jihadi terrorist. Samuel Paty was killed in October 2020 in a Paris suburb for allegedly showing students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

On Sunday, March 7, it was reported that the girl had admitted that she had wrongly accused Mr Paty. The French newspaper Le Parisien mentioned that she had confided to an anti-terrorist judge that she had lied and that she was not even present in the class where Mr Paty had displayed students controversial cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.

The counsel representing the teenage girl said she lied because she felt trapped in a spiral because her classmates had asked her to be a spokesperson. The Parisian newspaper reported that the girl had lied because she did not want to anger her father.

Teenage girl weaves a fictitious story to prevent her father from knowing about her suspension

Like many school truants, the 13-year-old girl was determined to not let her father know that she had been suspended from school for missing classes. As a result, she weaved a story featuring her teacher Samuel Paty. The girl told her father that Mr Paty had asked Muslim students to leave the classroom while he showed the cartoons from satirical newspaper Charlier Hebdo during a lesson on free speech and blasphemy.

Though it might seem like a benign lie devised by a child to prevent her father from knowing the truth, it precipitated a chain of events that eventually led to the horrifying killing of Samuel Paty.

Soon after the girl narrated the fictitious tale, her father took to social media to launch a campaign, identifying Mr Paty and the school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. He also called Mr Paty a “thug” and demanded he was sacked. The claims made by the girl’s father triggered global outrage and led to death threats against Mr Paty. 10 days later, the teacher was dead—decapitated by an Islamist terrorist.

It was later reported that the girl’s father was in touch with Paty’s killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov. Prosecutor even claimed that there was “direct casual link” between the online campaign and Mr Paty’s brutal murder. According to sources quoted by Reuters, the murderer had also a sent text message to the girl’s father before he beheaded Mr Paty with a kitchen knife.

The incident devastated Paty’s family, traumatised the country, and the girl and her father are now facing criminal charges. Two other teenagers, who were reportedly bribed by jihadi Anzorov, are under investigation. The killing also triggered a moment of reckoning for the French society, with President Emmanuel Macron vowing to take a hard stance against the rampant Islamism plaguing the country.

Classmates confirm Mr Paty did not ask Muslim students to leave as alleged by the girl

While teaching the class on the subject of “dilemmas”, Mr Paty had posed a question “to be or not to be Charlie?”, referring to the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag used to express solidarity for the newspaper that came under attack in January 2015, leading to the death of 12 people.

The girl had earlier claimed the teacher had warned students that he was about to show a depiction of Muhammad and had asked Muslim pupils to leave the room. When she objected, she was suspended from the school, she said. However, as per the Parisian newspaper, the girl was suspended the day before the class was given, because of her repeated absence from school.

The girl repeatedly remained firm on her false testimony until the police informed her about conflicting accounts given by several of her classmates. They had even confirmed that the girl was not present for the lesson and that Paty had not asked Muslim students to leave the class as she had claimed.

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