Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) is a self-proclaimed Indian ‘digital liberties’ organization whose goal is to ensure that Indian citizens can use the Internet with liberties guaranteed in the Constitution like Free Speech, Privacy etc. After the Indian government passed new regulations for social media, the IFF has been in the news for its criticism of the said regulations.
Apar Gupta, the executive director at advocacy Internet Freedom Foundation, told Reuters that the new rules posed a threat to freedom of speech. “To fix the problems in these sectors the government has adopted an approach which carries the risks of political control and censorship,” he told the media outlet.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to question and review the credentials of the organization. Who does the IFF represent? The people, the government, Twitter or someone else?
To realize who the IFF represents, or any other organization for that matter, it is imperative to check who donates to them. IFF prides itself on its transparency of donations. Therefore, it is easy to find out that the Indian social media app Sharechat is an ‘organizational donor’ of IFF.
According to IFF itself, ‘organizational donors’ allows IFF to make their work ‘sustainable’. From the information that IFF provides, it is clear that Sharechat is the second largest organizational donor of IFF. As it turns out, Twitter has invested in Sharechat. However, Sharechat itself has broadly supported the new rules.
More damningly, however, Raman Jit Singh Chima is the chairperson at the IFF and to add to that, he is the Policy Director at Access Now. Access Now, another advocacy group funded by Twitter, Facebook, Google and western governments has come out in criticism of the new social media regulations that seek to make them accountable. A majority of Access Now’s funds come from western governments.
Source: Twitter
On 18th December 2020, the Supreme Court issued a notice to IFF trustee Rachita Taneja for a Contempt of Court plea against her. Rachita Taneja stands accused of being in contempt of the Supreme Court over her cartoons which depicted the Supreme Court in a derogatory light. The Supreme Court issued a notice to comedian Kunal Kamra for Contempt of Court on the same day. Both of their matters are currently sub judice i.e. under judicial consideration.
Rachita Taneja is a former Social Media Officer for Greenpeace India, an organization whose financial dealings has been severely restricted by the Government of India because of its activism against Indian interests. Under such circumstances, it is abundantly clear that the IFF is not the neutral observer that it is pretending to be.
In a bid to take on its competition, popular Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, an organisation operating under the umbrella of TV Today Network, recently ran a social media campaign to highlight how news is a solemn affair for the channel and not an occasion to be turned into a spectacle.
Aaj Tak is running a paid promotional campaign ‘Samachar Tamasha Nahi‘ with hashtag #AajTakSabseTez in which it has ridiculed other news channels for overly dramatising flimsy incidents and portraying itself as a channel that focuses on news and not drama.
#AajTakSabseTez The contrast between rumour mills and real news is more stark than ever. Watch AajTak’s hilarious take on this rising evil. For news, follow only @AajTakpic.twitter.com/UWy3a0JPv3
Besides overly dramatising events to sensationalise incidents, TV Today Network is also accused of being a fake news purveyor on more occasions than one. So while Aaj Tak sanctimoniously preens on being a no-nonsense news channel, here are 5 incidents when the popular Hindi news channel, along with its sister channel-India Today, were caught spreading fake news, sensationalising mundane occurrences and lowering the standards of journalism.
Aaj Tak anchors sitting on a tractor while interviewing BKU Rakesh Tikait
In an obvious attempt to dramatise its broadcast program, Aaj Tak anchors were recently seen sitting in a tractor while interviewing BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, one of the prominent figures of the ongoing ‘farmers’ protest.
It is pertinent to note that the violence that swept the national capital on Republic Day last month happened during the ‘tractor rally’ carried out by the supporters of Rakesh Tikait and other Farm Union leaders. Several vehicles, including buses, were torched by the rampaging demonstrators as they ran amok breaching barricades and injuring the police personnel.
A section of demonstrators who participated in the ‘tractor rally’ also stormed the hallowed ground of Red Fort and desecrated the heritage monument. The protesters scaled the walls of Red Fort and hoisted religious flags and allegedly Khalistani flags as well.
Many Twitter users also highlighted the fact that Aaj Tak, which has been heaping scorn on dramatising news has been doing exactly the same thing.
Aaj Tak journalist hounds Hathras SDM, accusing him of misbehaviour while screaming near him without a mask
A few months ago, Aaj Tak journalist Chitra was in the news because of her hyperventilating coverage of developments in Hathras. In a viral video on social media, Chitra was seen hounding Hathras SDM Prem Prakash Meena, accusing him of misbehaviour and ‘daring to teach journalists how to do their jobs’ and many other things at the top of her voice.
In the video, Chitra is seen constantly screaming without a mask, accusing the IAS officer of threatening her, misbehaving with her. She also screamed that SDM Meena is incapable of doing his job despite having educational qualifications. The young IAS officer, following the coronavirus guidelines, stands there silently, letting the melodrama unfold and refusing to respond to what appeared like a non-stop tirade.
Interestingly, violating COVID guidelines, Chitra was not wearing a mask. Shortly after she was found haranguing the SDM, Chitra was tested positive for coronavirus.
India Today journalist a part of Robert Vadra’s PR stunt
Another instance that highlights the cringe-worthy journalism that India Today has come to be associated with occurred a few days ago when one of the richest ‘farmers’ in the country hopped on to a bicycle to ride into his office to protest against the rising fuel prices in the country. His Land Cruiser followed him at a snail’s pace as he rode the bicycle in peace. There was an India Today ‘journalist’ by his side to cover his unique form of protest. And then, it happened. The ‘journalist’ fell from the bicycle she was riding. The protagonists in our story are Robert Vadra and Mausami Singh.
Mausami Singh had only pointed out that the BJP would call the whole charade a gimmick given that Robert Vadra had his Land Cruiser tail him, was wearing expensive Suit-Boot while riding an expensive bicycle. The sharp glare that particular line of questioning elicited from the official son-in-law of the Congress party appears to have been enough to throw the reporter off from her bicycle.
India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai spreads fake news during the Republic Day riots
In January 2021, India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was caught red-handed peddling fake news about the death of a rioter Navreet during the Republic Day violence. While Navreet had died after the tractor he was driving to break police barricades turned turtle, Sardesai put up a tweet claiming that he was shot at by police.
That’s not all. Sardesai even went on to make the claims live on air. He had said on air that he was shown the body of the farmer with bullet injury on the head.
However, the video footage released by Delhi Police showed that he died after his tractor turned turtle while he tried to break police barricades.
After his lies were exposed, India Today had to grudgingly take him off-air for ‘two weeks’ as a punishment for spreading fake news. His one month salary was also reportedly slashed for the same.
President of India rebukes India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai for the controversy over the portrait of Netaji
Even as Aaj Tak and India Today brag of being conscientious in covering news, the organisation had recently received a sharp rebuke from the President of India for the fake controversy over the portrait of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.
When the portrait of Netaji was unveiled on 23rd January on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary, a large number of opposition leaders and journalists, including India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, had claimed that the portrait actually depicted actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, who had played the role of Bose in a movie.
However, it was later revealed that the portrait was based on a photograph of Bose, which was supplied by his grand-nephew. Rajdeep Sardesai was one of the journalists to spread fake news on Twitter.
The aforementioned instances, by no means, form an exhaustive list of instances when Aaj Tak, India Today and their journalists have been caught dramatising the news and spreading misinformation. These were but a few instances of TV Today Network’s cringe-worthy journalism. There are countless other such illustrations that didn’t make the cut because of the sheer overwhelming number of occasions when the news organisation and their anchors were caught peddling lies and propaganda. If this didn’t amaze you enough, you can scroll right up and type in the search bar ‘Rajdeep Sardesai’, ‘India Today Fake news’, ‘Aaj Tak’ to access their other works of ‘excellence’.
In a shocking incident, a 14-year-old minor girl studying in class IX was drugged and brutally raped by seven members of a drug syndicate in Kerala. According to the reports, a drug and sex racket operating in Kerala had befriended the 14-year-old girl from Malappuram, Kerala. For the last few months, the accused drugged and raped her, whom she had befriended through Instagram.
The police have arrested two accused in the case – Muhammed Aflah and Muhammed Rafeeque, both natives of Malappuram district.
The Kerala police said that the girl was given access to a mobile phone for her online classes during the lockdown period. However, during the lockdown, she befriended a 30-year-old youth, now identified as the key accused, through social media platform Instagram.
“After several rounds of chatting on Instagram, the youth visited her home and initiated her into the world of drugs,” an officer said.
Accused trapped girls, provided drugs and raped them
According to the police, the accused supplied her the drugs and slowly made her an addict. Later, the youth started sexually abusing the girl. The accused made other members of the drug syndicate sexually harass the victim.
The victim lives in Malappuram with her mother and younger brother as her father works in West Asia. The accused used to sneak into the girl’s house and supply her drugs before abusing her. The issue came to light after the victim narrated the incident to a relative, leading to intervention by Childline.
The Childline in the district later busted the racket, and the teenager was rescued. The accused used to target school-going girls through Instagram. The girl has now been rescued and sent to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). However, the teenager is struggling with withdrawal symptoms.
The police have registered seven cases in connection with the case. The Kalpakanchery police suspect that at least seven people are involved with the racket.
A probe has been launched by the Pakistani police into the marriage of a 14-year-old girl from Balochistan with Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi, a leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) and a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) of Pakistan. Reportedly, the investigation was initiated after a complaint was filed by an NGO working for the welfare of women in Chitral, Pak Observer reported.
According to local Pakistani media agencies, the girl was a student of Government Girls High School, Jughoor, where her date of birth has been recorded as 28 October 2006, which highlighted that the girl had not attained the age of marriage. Significantly, Maulana Salahudddin Ayubi is in his late 50s.
The Chitral police station SHO Inspector Sajjad Ahmed, however, alleged that the father of the girl denied the girl’s marriage when the police had reached the girl’s home a few days ago on the complaint of the organisation. Ahmed also added that an affidavit saying that the girl was not married was also shown by the girl’s father.
The alleged marriage of the underage girl with the Pakistan MP, who is roughly four times heer age, comes even as the country’s law strictly prohibits marriages of girls below the age of 16 and recommends punishment for parents if they willfully allow the marriage of their underage daughters.
As per Pak Observer, the legislator has so far only solemnised the marriage with the underage girl while a proper marriage ceremony is yet to be held.
The menace of child marriage continues unabated in Pakistan
The menace of child marriage continues unabated in Pakistan. Over the last few years, radical Islamists in the country have abducted, carried out forced conversions and married minority girls, including those who were below the legal age of marriage. The Associated Press quoted Human right activists as saying that the religious persecution of these impoverished non-Muslim girls accelerated during lockdowns against the coronavirus, as they spend more time on social media and fall prey to the traffickers who remain active on the internet.
The report suggests that as many as 1000 Christian, Sikh and Hindu women between 12 and 25 years are abducted, raped, married, and forced to convert to Islam every year. Due to the limited financial means of the families of such victims, many cases go unreported.
According to UNICEF, 21 per cent of girls in Pakistan are married before the age of 18, and three per cent before the age of 15. As per a survey, while child marriage is practised in some parts of Pakistan, its prevalence is highest in the Sindh province.
Although laws and statutes exist to criminalise child marriage, on occasions even the Pakistani judicial establishment has advocated the reprehensible practice. In February last year, a Pakistani court ruled that men can marry underage girls as long as they have had their first menstrual cycle.
The ruling was in the case of 14-year-old Huma Younus, a Catholic girl, who was abducted, forcibly converted and married off to a Muslim adult in October 2019. Her parents went to the police and the court seeking justice in the matter.
Several persons of Indian origin staged a protest outside controversial Canadian lawmaker and Khalistani-terror sympathiser Jagmeet Singh’s office in Burnaby, Canada, alleging that they are being targeted by Khalistan supporters due to ongoing farmers’ protest in India.
According to an ANI report, several NRIs thronged at Jagmeet Singh’s office carrying Canadian flags and protested against fuelling hatred against communities during the ongoing farmer protests in India.
“We are not against the farmers’ protest but this agitation has actually turned into a Khalistani movement which is now targeting Hindu minorities in Canada,” said a demonstrator outside the office of Jagmeet Singh, MP from Riding (seat) of Burnaby.
The protester further said, “We really expect our leaders to protect everyone without any discrimination”.
Khalistani sympathiser Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh- an alleged sponsor of ‘farmers’ protests
The protests outside Jagmeet Singh’s office comes at the backdrop of his repeated attempts to incite Sikhs and other protesters in India to create chaos on the streets of India. Jagmeet Singh, who is notoriously known for supporting Khalistan separatism, has been trying to meddle into India’s affairs and has been at the forefront of carrying global propaganda against the elected Indian government.
Singh is not only accused of funding the farmer protests in the country but also believed to be the man behind song-writer Rihanna’s anti-Indian propaganda. Rihanna had stoked a massive controversy by not only interfering in India’s domestic politics but also by endorsing violence in the name of supporting ‘farmer’ protests.
In the light of several allegations, the NRIs gathered outside Jagmeet Singh’s office to protest against fuelling tensions between communities in the name of farmer protests.
Who is Jagmeet Singh?
Jagmeet Singh, also known as Jimmy Dhaliwal, was born in 1979 to immigrant Indian parents in Canada. A lawyer-turned-politician, Singh is currently serving as leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017 and as a Member of Parliament since 2019.
However, Jagdeep Singh is known for his support for Khalistani terrorists and has openly voiced his support for the anti-Indian Khalistanis in Canada, earning him the tag of being ‘Pro-Khalistan’.
In 2014, the Indian government had denied Singh a visa to visit India for criticising human rights record of India. Denying him a visa, the Indian government had accused him of misusing the human rights cause to pursue his “insidious agenda of disturbing the social fabric of India and undermining the peace, harmony and territorial integrity of India”. He also became the first western legislator ever to be denied entry into the country.
In June of 2015, Singh, who was then just an NDP member of the Ontario legislature, appeared on stage at a Khalistan rally in San Francisco which had featured a large poster of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Khalistani terrorist, who led an armed movement against India and had occupied the Golden Temple.
In 2016, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had participated in a pro-Khalistani seminar and had even endorsed the use of political violence as a “legitimate form of resistance” to achieve an independent Sikh homeland in India.
Shockingly, in his speech, Singh had even accused India of committing “genocide” against Sikhs in the Golden Temple assault. In April 2017, Jagmeet Singh was also responsible for passing a motion recognizing the 1984 Sikh riots in India as a “genocide”.
The anti-India propaganda of Jagmeet Singh does not end just there. Following the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government, Singh had even expressed his support to pro-Pakistan propaganda on Kashmir. He had made public statements against India and accused the country of human rights violations in the region.
U.S. President Joe Biden approved military airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups in Syria, the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday. The airstrikes were targeting facilities near the Syrian-Iraqi border, which are often used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The airstrikes come within just 37 days of Joe Biden’s administration, making them the first ones approved by Biden in his tenure. The Pentagon claims that these airstrikes are retaliatory strikes for a rocket attack in Irbil in Iraq earlier this month which resulted in the death of one non-American contractor and the injury of six others including a U.S. service member. It should be noted that Iran has denied any involvement in the Erbil rocket attack.
The reactions to these airstrikes were very contrasting. Whilst the Pentagon in its statement claimed that the airstrikes were a “proportionate military response” and would “de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” the overall online reaction to the airstrikes was negative, with both Republicans and Progressive Democrats questioning the airstrikes, sometimes almost in the same words. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris; and the President himself, Joe Biden, all faced accusations of hypocrisy as their assumed positions and stances regarding U.S.’s involvement in the Middle East conflict went viral online.
Influential U.S. Conservative and Republican, Jack Posobiec called out W.H. Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Twitter for a tweet dating April 2017 in which she had questioned the authority of the United States to launch airstrikes into a sovereign country like Syria. The context for Jen Psaki’s tweet was the then U.S. President Donald Trump authorizing airstrikes in Syria in retaliation to Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical weapon attacks on Syrian civilians. The response from Mr. Posobiec simply reads, “Great Question, Jen!”
This sentiment of conservative Republican Jack Posobiec was echoed from an unlikely place, with Somalia-born Democrat Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar joining in the chorus to retweet the same Jen Psaki tweet, with a nearly identical sarcasm laden caption of “Great question”.
Mr. Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris also had to face the music over her 2018 tweets, in which she had questioned the “legal rationale” of the then President Trump’s airstrikes and exhorted Trump to lay out “comprehensive strategy in consultation with Congress.” It is to be noted that Joe Biden has not yet ‘consulted’ the U.S. Congress about a Syria policy.
War-hawk Joe Biden
In October 2019 in a speech in Iowa, Joe Biden referred to then-President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Northern Syria as “erratic” and “impulsive” which will “endanger our troops.” Therefore, the Syrian airstrikes within just 37 days of Joe Biden’s administration do not come as a huge surprise to keen observers. Joe Biden’s political record, which is extensive, makes it very clear that he is pro-war. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Joe Biden voted for Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, a legislation which is highly responsible for U.S. Military intervention in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq and Somalia.
In 2002, Joe Biden did not only vote, but also championed the effort for the Iraq War, which led to the death of Saddam Hussain and has since then marred the region in a permanent state of instability, as lakhs of Iraqis and thousands of American soldiers have died from the war and its aftermath effects. In 2012, under the Vice Presidency of Joe Biden, NATO did a bombing campaign in Libya, aiding the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya has been failed state ever since, with open slave markets.
In 2013, the Obama administration, in which Joe Biden was the Vice President, had secretly authorized the CIA to supply the Syrian rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian Government with weapons. This weapons supply program was known as Timber Sycamore, and was disbanded in mid-2017 by the Trump administration. One of the reported ‘downsides‘ of this program was that some of the rebels funded and trained under this program defected to the Islamic State (IS) and other radical groups.
But perhaps the most damning evidence is Joe Biden’s own words. In October 2014 at an event in Harvard Kennedy School, a candid Joe Biden basically admitted to U.S. allies fueling the rise of ISIS by funding and arming Syrian rebels in opposition to Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian Government. “The Turks… the Saudis, the Emirates, etc, what were they doing? They were so determined to take down (Syrian President Bashar al) Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tonnes of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that people who were being supplied were Al-Nusra and Al-Qaida,” Biden said in October 2014 to a room full of students at Harvard University.
There are some similarities between President Trump’s April 2017 airstrikes in Syria, and President Biden’s airstrikes in Syria yesterday. However, there are some stark differences. Besides the obvious difference that Biden approved the launch of airstrikes just 37 days into his administration, as opposed to Trump’s airstrikes in April, there is another major difference between the two airstrikes.
President Trump’s 2017 April Syrian airstrikes were approved in response to an alleged chemical weapon attack by Bashar al-Assad on his own people. Videos of this chemical attack had gone viral, and there was immense pressure on Donald Trump, both from the media and the political establishment to approve the airstrikes. President Biden’s airstrikes are classified by the Pentagon as a “proportionate military response.” However, the Irbil rocket attack earlier this month did not result in the death of a single American, with only a single non-American casualty, and there was no pressure on the president to launch the attack from any quarter. Also, the ‘proportionate’ response in the form of airstrikes resulted in the deaths of at least 22 Iran-backed militia fighters, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. Therefore, the argument to classify President Biden’s airstrikes in Syria as a ‘proportionate’ response is on shaky ground at best.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Friday held that Shamima Begum, a British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join the Islamic State, would not be allowed to return to the country to appeal against the revocation of her UK citizenship as she poses a security risk.
With the verdict, Begum has failed in her attempt to re-enter Britain to fight a court case for her British citizenship which was stripped after the UK government found that Begum had left the country to join the ISIS cadre.
The verdict means that the 21-year-old, who is currently held in a detention camp in Syria, will not be able to enter the United Kingdom to fight her case in person and will not have her citizenship restored while she is being detained in Syria.
Lord Reed, the president of the UK Supreme Court said that the judges have decided unanimously to rule in favour of the Home Secretary who had opposed Shamima’s return to the UK. Begum’s British citizenship was revoked by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid. Current Home Secretary Preeti Patel had stood by that decision. Patel has welcomed the UK Supreme Court’s decision.
Begum left London along with her school friends to join the ISIS
Begum had left London in 2015 when she was 15 and went to Syria along with her two school friends to join ISIS. In Syria, she had reportedly married an ISIS fighter. Her UK Citizenship was revoked after a journalist found her in a prison camp in 2019.
Shamima was earlier granted permission to return to the United Kingdom to contest the removal of her citizenship after the court of appeal had agreed that she could only have a fair appeal of that decision if she were allowed back to Britain. However, the British Prime Minister and others in the government strongly objected to her return to the United Kingdom.
Shamima Begum feels no regret in joining the ISIS, justified terror attack in Manchester Arena
Begum wanted to be allowed to return to the UK to pursue her legal challenge in person in a test case about the status of Britons who joined ISIS and also had their citizenship revoked.
Shamima Begum has been trying for some time to return to the United Kingdom. Barely a teenager, Shamima had married an ISIS terrorist named Yago Riedijk in Raqqa and had three children. All three children died of disease and malnutrition. She was found heavily pregnant in a prison camp by a Times journalist after the fall of the ISIS caliphate.
Shamima Begum has said in the past that she does not see why British authorities would consider her a threat and claimed that then Home Secretary Sajid Javid had “no proof” she was a threat “other than that I was in ISIS”. However, she has also said that she does not regret joining ISIS. She has also justified the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.
“Mostly it was a normal life in Raqqa, every now and then bombing and stuff,” she had said in the past. “But when I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn’t faze me at all. It was from a captured fighter seized on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam. I thought only of what he would have done to a Muslim woman if he had the chance.”
Pakistan’s televangelist-turned-politician Aamir Liaquat Husain was forced to apologise for his disrespectful act of using the image of a Hindu deity to mock Maryam Nawaz, the opposition leader in Pakistan.
According to the reports, Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, stoked a controversy after his stunning display of bigotry. He tweeted an image of a Hindu deity to target Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Tweet by Aamir Liaquat Husain
The derogatory tweet targeting Hindus came as a response to an earlier statement made by Maryam, who had warned the Pakistan government against ‘seeing a different Maryam’ if they attempted to steal the vote in a by-election. In an attempt to take a dig at Maryam Nawaz, Hussain posted the image on Twitter likening it to Maryam’s different version.
Following his tweet, he faced flak from the Hindu community, civil society, and other Pakistan politicians.
Hindu leaders, Pakistani politicians condemn Aamir Husain for his anti-Hindu tweet
Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council and also PTI’s representative from Tharparkar in Sindh province, criticised Hussain’s tweet as a “shameful act”.
“Strongly condemned this shameful act by someone who claims to be a religious scholar also but doesn’t know respect to other religions. Delete this tweet immediately otherwise we reserve right to demand strict action under the Blasphemy Act and protest across the country,” he wrote on Twitter.
Strongly condemned this shameful act by someone who claims to be a religious scholar also but doesn’t know respect to other religions. Delete this tweet immediately otherwise we reserve right to demand strict action under the Blasphemy Act and protest across the country. https://t.co/yWgK8W19DM
He said the TV host’s post had not only hurt the sentiments of Hindus across the country but also created resentment among supporters of the ruling party who admired party chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan and believed in the party’s manifesto regarding protecting the rights of religious minorities, which is frankly, a joke in itself.
Lal Malhi, another party leader from the Hindu community and PTI MNA from Umerkot, also criticised Hussain and asked Prime Minister Khan to take notice of his illogical act. He added that the tweet, in fact, exposed Husain’s “second version”.
Strongly condemn the blasphemous act of @AamirLiaquat and appeal @ImranKhanPTI to take notice of this immoral act. No religion including Islam permits him to do such illogical acts. This act exposes #دوسراروپ of amir liaquat . pic.twitter.com/1MM4XarPfx
“Strongly condemn the blasphemous act of @AamirLiaquat and appeal @ImranKhanPTI to take notice of this immoral act. No religion, including Islam, permits him to do such illogical acts,” he said.
According to a report from Pakistan’s Dawn, PTI MNA and Hindu leader Jai Parkash criticised the fellow lawmaker and asked him to apologise for his shameful act.
PPP MPA from Tharparkar Surendar Valasai alleged that PTI lawmakers like Husain had “lost their mental balance” and were using insulting language against “weaker” communities. He demanded an unconditional apology and warned of protests if Husain failed to apologise.
“We the lawmakers must try to respect the sentiments of people before tweeting or issuing statements as far as the religiosity of the people is concerned,” he stated.
Hindu Rights activist Kapil Dev also attacked Husain on Twitter and requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to act against PTI lawmaker. “Hindus are abused and their religious sentiments are hurt even by those sitting in the parliaments,” he said.
Aamir Husain deletes the tweet, apologises to Hindus
Following the backlash, PTI leader Hussain later deleted his tweet and tweeted an apology to the Hindu community.
ہندو کمیونٹی کے جذبات مجروح ہوئے معافی کا خواست گار ہوں مقصد ہر گز ایسا نہیں تھا, ٹوئٹ ہٹا دیا ہے, میں تمام مذاہب کی عزت کرتا ہوں یہی میرے دین کی تعلیمات ہیں , ایک بار پھر معذدت
The Election Commission of India today announced the dates for upcoming assembly elections in four states and one union territory. The elections will be held in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry. The term of the current Assam assembly is up to 31st May, the term of Tamil Nadu is up to May 24, West Bengal assembly’s term will be over on May 30, while the same of Kerala will be over on 1st June.
Elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be held in a single phase on 6th April, while the elections for West Bengal will be spread over eight phases, and it will be held in Assam in three phases in March and April. West Bengal will elections will span over a month, with the first phase on 27th March and the eighth phase on 29th April.
The counting of the votes will take place on 2nd May for all the assembly elections, which will be a Sunday.
State
Election dates
Assam
27 March, 1st April, 6th April
Kerala
6th April
Tamil Nadu
6th April
West Bengal
27th March, 1st April, 6th April, 10th April, 17th April, 22nd April, 26th April, 29th April
Puducherry
6th April
Elections will be conducted for 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal, 234 constituencies in Tamil Nadu, constituencies seats in Kerala, 126 constituencies in Assam and 30 constituencies in the union territory of Puducherry.
This represents elections in a total of assembly 824 constituencies in the country, where 18.68 crore electorates will cast their votes at 2.74 lakh polling stations, all of which will be situated will be on the ground floor.
The elections this year will be a bigger affair, as the number of poll stations is being increased to avoid crowding in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. Along with that, the polling time will also be extended by one hour, which was also done during the Bihar elections.
During the recent weeks, the Election Commission officials had travelled the poll-bound states to take stock of the preparedness for the elections. Following the meeting with state administrations, the Election Commission had held a meeting on Wednesday to finalise the dates for the polls.
The elections this year will be a bigger affair, as the number of poll stations is being increased to avoid crowding in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. As a result, it will be a big challenge in Kerala which has seen a big rise in cases in the recent weeks.
With the announcement of the election dates, the process of assembly election formally begins, and the model code of conduct will be applicable from today. This means, the governments in the polls bound states can’t take any major decision, and can’t announce any scheme that can influence the voters.
West Bengal will see the most high-profile in the elections, with Mamata Banerjee led TMC government facing strong competition from BJP. Several senior leaders of TMC have left the party and joined BJP, along with their support base. It is speculated that BJP may be able to repeat what happened in Assam and Tripura, where it had grabbed power following mass migration of politicians from the ruling parties.
Kerala will see another intense fight between the ruling left front and the Congress, who are otherwise allies in several other states. Tamil Nadu will witness the familiar fight between AIADMK and DMK, with DMK hoping to grab power after a decade.
BJP will hope to retain its power in Assam, where it faces opposition from Congress, AIUDF and several parties that came up in the last few months. But the party has done well in all the local body polls in recent months despite the opposition to the CAA, and it is expected that Sarbanandana Sonowal will be re-elected as the CM.
The Congress govt in Puducherry fell this week just months after the end of its term, after several MLAs from the ruling party resigned from the house. As a result, President’s rule has been imposed on the Union Territory and the assembly has been suspended.
Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan has announced his retirement from all forms of the game. With a reputation of being a big hitter of the ball, the batting all-rounder played for the national team for a brief period and won major trophies as well.
Statement by Yusuf Pathan
Yusuf Pathan said, “The time has come today for me to put a full stop to this innings of my life. I officially announce retirement from all forms of the game. I thank my family, friends, fans, teams, coaches and the whole country wholeheartedly for all the support and love. I am sure you will continue to encourage me in future as well.”
“Winning two World Cups for India and lifting Sachin Tendulkar on my shoulders were some of the best moments of my career. I made my international debut under MS Dhoni, IPL debut under Shane Warne, Ranji debut under Jacob Martin and would like to thank them for believing in me. I thank Gautam Gambhir with whom, at KKR, we won the IPL trophy twice. I would also like to thank my brother and backbone Irfan Pathan who was always there for me during the highs and lows of my career,” he added.
However, he said that his retirement does not mean that his relationship with cricket is over. “Nothing can keep me away from cricket and my passion for the sport will remain the same. I will continue to entertain everyone even in future,” he said.
Yusuf Pathan played 57 ODI matches and 22 T20 internationals. In the IPL, he has played for Rajasthan Royals, the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. One of his most famous knocks included a 37-ball century in the IPL against Mumbai Indians that included a boundary of 11 consecutive balls. He is 38 years of age.
