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Shekhar Gupta virtue signals media for ‘fake news’ regarding India’s strike on Pakistan, Gen VK Singh reminds him of his own ‘coup story’

OpIndia Staff
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Shekhar Gupta virtue signals media for ‘fake news’ regarding India’s strike on Pakistan, Gen VK Singh reminds him of his own ‘coup story’

Yesterday, some media channels suddenly started reporting that the Indian Army has conducted a cross-LoC strike on terror launchpads in PoK. There was a lot of buzz regarding the nature and magnitude of the so-called strike though no verified evidence was shared. However, soon, the Indian Army clarified that no such strike has been made and it has been a media speculation.

Soon after, some media veterans started peddling sermons on Twitter about how over-enthusiastic news channels are so quick to share unverified news. Shekhar Gupta was one of them.

Shekhar Gupta tweeted, “PTI files a vague story, the warrior TV channels jump the gun & declare war on Pakistan. Now Army HQ is made to clean up the mess with rebuttals. It will be sad if the next war is set off by fake news. It might just happen.”

However, his tweet did not go down well with former Army Chief VK Singh. The former COAS reminded The Print’s editor of his own history of peddling a fake news story about an imaginary army coup in Delhi in 2012. He wrote, “This (lecture) coming from a wise journo, who peddled a fake coup story… An expert at the game can surely tell.”

The baseless military coup story by Shekhar Gupta

In a contentious article in the Indian Express authored by Shekhar Gupta, Ritu Sarin, and Pranab Dhal Samanta, the journalists had claimed that an attempted military coup was underway in Delhi on an intervening night between January 16-17 in 2012. The report stated, “…It is a story of a most unusual night when Raisina Hill was spooked as never before in peacetime.” It claimed that an infantry contingency of 33rd Armoured Division, commanded by Lt. Gen AK Singh and a large contingency of airborne 50 Para Brigade began heading towards Delhi, unnotified.

While it was a part of a routine exercise, the report claimed that Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were not followed and the Ministry of Defence was uinformed about the movement of the soldiers. The report alleged that the unusual movement of troops towards the National Capital raised alarms, especially the timing of the movement. “The Army’s explanation that it was all a simple fog-time exercise was then viewed with scepticism at the highest level. The question: Why was the well-set protocol, that any military movement, at any time, in the NCR (National Capital Region) has to be pre-notified to MoD (Ministry of Defence) not followed?” Shekhar Gupta had claimed in the article.

The report further added, “But so strained has the political-military relationship been these weeks, that nothing is easily dismissed as a routine misdemeanour. The timing of the Chief’s petition on his date of birth was filed on the morning of January 16 did not help. Sources speak of confusion and unease in the government. To be fair, the MoDs considered view now seems to be that it was a false alarm, caused by some non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) by the Army and an alarmist civil/political reaction on a, particularly distrustful day. “

Screengrab of the fake coup story (Image Courtesy: Indian Express)

Indian Army had rubbished ‘coup’ report

The report was rubbished by both the Indian Army and Ministry of Defence. “Such reports are completely baseless and we categorically deny the same,” reiterated the then Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar. While speaking about the potential military coup story, Maj Gen S L Narasimhan clarified that the troop movement was a part of the routine exercise, which did not require authorisation from the Defence Ministry. He had also revealed that the Ministry of Defence had not asked for any written reports from the commanders and that the troops were recalled when directed by the government.

As such, the report could not prove anything but did cast aspersions about the integrity of the Indian Army, at a time when the UPA regime was busy demanding for the age proof of the then Army Chief VK Singh. But, even after 8 years since the story was originally published, both Shekhar Gupta and the Indian Express has remained unapologetic about the far-reaching effects of their baseless story. Unperturbed by his lack of journalistic ethics, Shekhar Gupta continues to patronise other media publications about how they should conduct themselves in the current state of affairs.

VK Singh had lambasted Shekhar Gupta earlier too

In a Facebook post on February 6, 2019, VK Singh took a dig at Shekhar Gupta, by calling him ‘Coupta’ – an infamous buzzword often used in social media circles to define Shekhar Gupta for planting a fake coup story against the Indian Army when Singh was the army chief, and also asked him to be honest to the post of the editor even if he cannot be honest to his professions.

He stated, “When Mr Coupta was recruited by the powers-behind-the-scenes to cleverly imply I was planning a coup, their objective was to not only spook the good Doctor (Dr. Manmohan Singh) and his Italian handler (Sonia Gandhi), it was also the time honoured tactic that had been in vogue to set Nehru versus Thimayya, Shastri versus Chaudhuri, or Indira Gandhi versus Manekshaw. However, earlier these were usually just whispers… which was damaging enough.”

Further lambasting Couptaji, VK Singh had added, “Even today, though six years have passed, there should be a detailed enquiry and the guilty brought to book. The age old saying that truth must always prevail is timeless. It’s a shame so many people who played games and falsified news, are even today not accountable. In the interest of our country’s future where fake news is such a major threat, it is imperative to take action at the very root of this evil especially when all the evidence is there in the public domain.”

How Shekhar Gupta’s The Print had advocated ‘deliberate fake news peddling by opposition parties’

It is indeed an irony when Shekhar Gupta virtue signals other media outlets for sharing unverified news. In May this year, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print had published an article by Shivam Vij, urging liberals and opposition parties to embrace fake news in their war against Prime Minister Modi.

Calling for curbs on freedom of expression of individuals and crackdown on political opponents, The Print had suggested that the opposition parties should attack the Modi government with a chain of lies. The moral depravity to actively support the spreading of misinformation and fake news, especially by a media venture controlled by the Chief of the Editor’s Guild had caused a huge furore across social media.

Calling Shekhar Gupta as ‘Coupta’ again, General VK Singh had called out the open endorsement of fake news peddling, by a person no less than the chief of Editor’s Guild of India.

General VK Singh had than asserted that ‘Coupta’ is indeed living up to his name.

The former COAS had lambasted ‘Coupta’, stating hat Shekhar Gupta is again highlighting to the world that he is sold out.

Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah, accused of sexual assault, nominated by RSF for ‘prize for courage’

OpIndia Staff
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Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah, accused of sexual assault, nominated by RSF for ‘prize for courage’

Fahad Shah, editor of The Kashmir Walla, has been nominated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for the ‘prize for courage’. The organisation of journalists, which is funded by the US Government, has decided to nominate the Kashmiri journalist for continuing his journalism despite ‘persecution’ by the Indian State.

The nomination citation reads, “Editor of the main investigative website The Kashmir Walla, Fahad Shah is regularly summoned for questioning by the police about his reports in order to intimidate and threaten him, but also to try to force him to reveal his sources, which he refuses to do under any circumstances. He has also been the target of physical assaults.”

“The outlet that he runs has played an important part in defending press freedom, using innovative methods to keep 8 million Kashmiris informed despite the fact that they have been cut off from the outside world since the territory’s autonomy was rescinded in August 2019,” it adds. However, as it turns out, the Kashmiri journalist has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women.

Rama Dwivedi, a contributor to The Outlook and The Hindu, claimed in 2018 that Fahad Shah “who was also my former partner, last year molested both me and my friend at a gathering.” “He touched me inappropriately several times at that party. When I told him that his action was not apt and that what we had was in the past, Shah very conveniently said “C’mon, we have been there. You cannot say that you don’t like it.”,” she added.

Rama Dwivedi's allegations against Fahad Shah
Rama Dwivedi’s allegations against Fahad Shah

Rama Dwivedi went on to add, “At this moment he was pushed back. But instead of stopping here, he then went to another room and made a pass at my friend Akanksha Narain sitting there. He even locked himself with her in a washroom. This guy got away the next day by saying “I was drunk”.
His friends who were there in the same house, including a Kashmiri photojournalist Shahid Tantray, said not a single word to stop him. He tried to normalise the entire incident.”

She continued, “He also came to my home next day with an intent to pacify the entire situation, saying “Chalo ho gaya, forget that”. He told my friend not to file an FIR in this case and convince Rama not to do the same, because if this comes out “it will bring shame” to them.” “While the offender walks scot-free, my life was made hell in months following the incident. We were also called morally-corrupt, character-less, politically sold Delhi girls who intentionally tried to shame him for being a “liberal” Kashmiri journalist,” she stated.

Her allegations were carried by numerous mainstream media news outlets such as the Times of India, Asia Times and even Scroll. No action has apparently been taken against him yet. As per ToI, at least 3 women have accused him of sexual impropriety, however, he has denied the allegtions against him.

UP govt to bring law against “Love Jihad”, home ministry sends proposal to law ministry to criminalise hiding identity to lure girls

OpIndia Staff
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UP govt to bring law against “Love Jihad”, home ministry sends proposal to law ministry to criminalise hiding identity to lure girls

Joining the league of states like Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the Uttar Pradesh government is all set to enact a law to curb the rising menace of Muslim men pretending to be Hindu to lure Hindu girls into relationships, a phenomenon known as love jihad. The Home Department of the Uttar Pradesh government today said that a strict law would be introduced in the state against to deal with the cases of love jihad. The Home Department has forwarded a proposal regarding the same to the Department of Law of the state.

“A strict law against ‘love jihad’ will soon be brought in the state. Home Department has sent a proposal to the Department of Law,” a statement issued by the home department on Friday said. Law Minister of the state Brajesh Pathak said, “Such issues were affecting communal harmony in the state which needed to be taken seriously. The government had already planned to take this up as law and the procedure has started.”

“It will be a warning for those to refrain from such acts else they will have to bear strict punishment. We can’t reveal the facts but the government will make a very strict law with high penalty and imprisonment. The draft is being prepared and will soon be available in the public domain. We have taken all the measures and making a law is the only way to deal with it,” the minister added.

Commenting on the matter, Minority Welfare minister Mohsin Raza said, “Now in UP it won’t be possible to deceive girls into changing their religion, like a mission. This is a stern message to those jihadis who are doing such acts. There is full preparation to put these people in jail now.”

Supporting the Allahabad High Court order which invalidated religious conversion just for the sake of marriage, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had warned the miscreants indulging in love jihad by concealing their identities and entrapping girls and women in their relationship.

Haryana to set up a committee for drafting law against love jihad

Haryana Home Minister Ail Vij had announced earlier this week, after holding a meeting with senior officials, that a committee would be set up in the state to draft a stringent law against love jihad. Vij had told that the committee would study the laws of other states. “With the enactment of this law, strict action will be taken against any person who is found indulging in religious conversion by pressuring, tempting someone or is involved in any kind of conspiracy or tries to do so in the name of love”, read his statement.

Vij had said in the Haryana Assembly that the government would be considering the Himachal Pradesh’s law against forced religious conversion called the Freedom of Religion Bill 2019 which was passed last year. The law deals with cases of conversion by force, inducement or through marriages solemnised for the sole purpose of adopting a new religion.

Dharm Swatantrya Bill 2020 in Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh government is also planning to introduce a law against love jihad. The government is likely to introduce Dharm Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill 2020 in the next Assembly session. The Bill proposes rigorous imprisonment for a period of 5 years on being found guilty of luring a person through fraud and forcing marriage by religious conversion as told by the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra. In addition to these three states, the state governments of Assam and Karnataka are also planning to enact laws against love jihad.

The state government apparently sprung in action after the brutal murder of a college student named Nikita Tomar in broad daylight by a Muslim man named Tauseef who had been stalking and pressurising her to convert to Islam.

OpIndia has decided to use the term ‘Grooming Jihad‘ in place of ‘Love Jihad’ for the latter term fails to capture the gravity of the Jihad that is being waged by sections of radical Muslims to target non-Muslim women. Non-Muslim women are being groomed to accept their own subjugation at the hands of Muslim men. They are kidnapped, raped, lured, converted to Islam, punished and brainwashed. There is no ‘Love’ in these crimes against humanity. There is no ambiguity that it is a form of Jihad. We believe that the term ‘Grooming Jihad’ is far more appropriate since it encapsulates within itself all categories of crimes that keep women at the centre of this Jihad.

Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by either Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi, might fly out of Delhi due to rising pollution: Here is what reports indicate

OpIndia Staff
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Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by either Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi, might fly out of Delhi due to rising pollution: Here is what reports indicate

Heeding her ‘doctor’s advice’, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will fly out of Delhi on Friday, owing to the deteriorating levels of air pollution and poor air quality in the national capital which had seemed to aggravated her chest infection.

According to a Congress functionary privy to the developments as reported by Indian Express, Sonia Gandhi has been advised by her doctors to move to a warmer place until the air pollution in Delhi is back to normal levels. Two places—the outskirts of Chennai and Goa—have been identified for this purpose, he reportedly said.

Gandhi will be accompanied either of Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi during her stay out of Delhi. The Congress President had made a brief appearance at the Indira Gandhi Memorial to pay homage to the former Prime Minister on her 103rd birth anniversary. Notably, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are already vacationing in Shimla post the tiring loss in Bihar Assembly Elections.

Sonia Gandhi was admitted to hospital in July and subsequently flown to the US for a routine check-up

Earlier in July, Gandhi was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi following a meeting of the party’s Rajya Sabha members headed by her. She has been under heavy medication since her discharge from hospital in August, the functionary informed. 

Sonia Gandhi, 73, had in September flown to the United States for her routine medical check-up. She was accompanied by her son Rahul Gandhi during her visit to America. The duo had missed the monsoon session of Parliament from September 14 to 23.

Prior leaving for the United States, Gandhi had made several internal changes in the Congress party, reconstituted the Congress Working Committee(CWC) and her team of office bearers, and established a special panel to assist her in organisational and operational matters.

Sonia Gandhi’s departure from Delhi comes at a time when there is internal churning about the recent poll debacle in Bihar and unimpressive performance in by-polls in several states. A group of 23 dissidents had also signed a letter to the party chief earlier in August, demanding organisational revamp, and the reckoning of the party’s multiple electoral defeats.

Air quality index of Delhi continues to deteriorate amidst the increasing number of coronavirus cases

Delhi’s air quality continues to remain poor as the city’s pollution due to stubble burning in the surrounding region had increased by over 20 per cent. The government agencies had warned that the air quality may dip to the “very poor” category on Friday.

Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index(AQI) was recorded at 283. It was 211 on Wednesday and 171 on Tuesday. An AQI between zero to 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

The deteriorating air quality also seems to have played a part in aggravating the city’s COVID-19 outbreak, a disease involving grave respiratory complications. Delhi is witnessing an inexorable surge in the coronavirus cases since the end of last month when, October 28, the daily number of fresh cases crossed the mark 5,000-mark and breached the 8,000-mark for the first time.

Ashok Gehlot trivialises suffering of non-Muslim women by reducing ‘love jihad’ to interfaith marriages: Here is why he is horribly wrong

K Bhattacharjee
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Ashok Gehlot trivialises suffering of non-Muslim women by reducing ‘love jihad’ to interfaith marriages: Here is why he is horribly wrong

The suffering of Hindu women is often ignored when it fails to serve a political narrative, for several parties like the Congress. The phenomenon of Love Jihad in India is one that has been time and again proven to be a real and present threat to Hindu women. Muslim men subjugating Hindu women, either by forcing them to convert to Islam, murdering and raping them to that end, or luring them into a relationship to serve Islam is not unheard of. There are hundreds of documented cases that prove this threat as real.

However, Congress and several of their allies have proceeded on a crusade to deny and trivialise the suffering of women. While a Nikita Tomar is murdered for refusing to convert to Islam and refusing the advances of a Muslim man and a Hindu woman is beheaded in Uttar Pradesh by her husband for refusing to convert to Islam, Congress and its allies have vehemently maintained that Love Jihad is not real and is indeed a figment of the right-wing imagination.

As several BJP ruled states have declared their intent to introduce a law against Love Jihad, the latest Congress leader to join the list of those trivialising the suffering of Hindu women is Ashok Gehlot. Gehlot went on an elaborate rant and claimed that the term was ‘manufactured’ by the BJP to ‘divide the nation’ and ‘disturb communal harmony’. “Jihad has no place in love,” he declared.

Ashok Gehlot went on to claim that the BJP was putting curbs on marriage itself and due to such laws, ‘consenting adults’ would be at the mercy of the state.

Disregarding completely what the term actually represents, Ashok Gehlot claimed that the proposal to implement a law against it will fuel ‘social conflict’ and it also apparently disregards ‘constitutional provisions’.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Rajasthan Chief Minister has carefully avoided mentioning the actual reasons which prompted state governments to bring forth a specific law for the particular brand of crimes. The crime for which a law is being proposed is not to curb inter-faith marriages, but to prevent the Jihad where Hindu women are subjugated, raped, killed and forced to convert to Islam at the pretext of marraige. In fact, that is not the only way in which non-Muslim women are made the target of Jihad. There are several other aspects and categories of crimes that we had discussed at length here.

What Ashok Gehlot is essentially doing is trivialising the suffering of Hindu women by reducing the dangerous phenomenon of Love Jihad to just ‘inter-faith’ marriages that he thinks BJP opposes.

One, of course, must concede that the term used to describe such crimes, ‘Love Jihad’, makes it very easy politicians who care more about their electoral prospects than the actual lives of people to get away by offering meaningless inanities.

When people hear the word ‘love’, people generally think about the good things in life and it is assumed, until proved otherwise, that the love being spoken of is consensual. But the cases that are clubbed under ‘love jihad’ have very little to do with love at all. It has everything to do with fraud, cheating, violence, brainwashing, grooming with the explicit intent of converting the woman to Islam.

The use of the word ‘love’ in the term describing this broad category of crimes allows politicians the opportunity to pretend that ‘Love Jihad’ refers to love between consenting adults, when it has absolutely nothing to do with love at all. Take the example of the recent case in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. A married Muslim doctor engaged in a relationship with a nurse and raped her for several months after promising marriage.

The doctor allegedly hid his religious identity as well as the fact that he was already married and had two sons. In the end, he put forth the condition of conversion to Islam for marriage. Now, does this look like ‘love’ from any angle? Calling this ‘Love Jihad’ gives politicians the opportunity to pretend that such crimes do not happen at all.

Then, there was the case of Pooja Patel, a resident of Varanasi who had married Mohammad Aftab Siddiqui of Lucknow. She later hanged herself to death. Pooja, tired of being forced by husband Aftab and his family to adopt Islam had chosen to end his life instead. The locals suspected that the woman was murdered by her husband’s family.

These are just two examples but there are countless cases such as these, of Hindu women being lured by Muslim men under false names. Only after the woman finds herself in a compromising position that the religion of the perpetrator is revealed, at which point an attempt is made to blackmail her into converting to Islam. Such instances are cases of grooming, not love.

As the NIA had observed in 2017, “A pattern emerges from similar cases that have been reported from Kerala. In multiple cases, the persons who play a role in approaching young girls help them in conversion, give them shelter and get them married to Muslims, appear to be common. They seem to approach young girls who appear distressed because of disagreement with parents”.

This phenomenon has great similarities with the ‘Grooming Gang’ phenomenon that is observed in western countries such as the United Kingdom where Muslims of primarily Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent made a deliberate attempt to target White girls and women. The girls are brainwashed and exploited sexually, financially and/or through other means.

Grooming gangs consisted primarily of Muslim men of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent, who hooked their victims on drugs, primed, and sexually abused them. It also could not be ignored that the perpetrators belonged to one religion while the victims were predominantly from Sikh or White backgrounds. Attempts were made to brush the truth staring at everyone’s face under the carpet but eventually, it could not be hushed up any longer.

The grooming gang phenomenon has the most similarities with what happened in Ajmer, Rajasthan. A specific group of local influential men would trap one girl and manage to take obscene images. Then they would blackmail the girl into familiarising them to her classmates and friends. Eventually, other girls would be raped, sexually exploited and have their pictures taken. The cycle continued so forth. The gang continued to expand its operations and victimise an increasing number of girls.

Most of the rapists were Muslims while most victims were young Hindu girls. Unfortunately, even such clear cut instances of grooming are classified under the category of ‘Love Jihad’ as a consequence of which, it gives authorities more excuse to trivialise the phenomenon and not take harsh steps to address the root of the cause. Even the Nikita Tomar case is not ‘Love Jihad’ per se. She rejected the advances of the Muslim man and for that, she was murdered.

Individuals such as Kavita Krishnan, a hardcore Communist herself, claim that no woman has ever acknowledged such crimes and a strawman argument is invented to claim that the term is just an expression of bigotry against interfaith marriages, People like her have refused to acknowledge the numerous accounts of victims themselves who have come forward with their accounts of how they were groomed by the perpetrators.

Thus, the term ‘Love Jihad’ is not specific enough and allows bad-faith actors such as Ashok Gehlot and those in the liberal crowd to avoid addressing the rise in such crimes by pretending that they don’t exist or do not form their own particular and distinct category. It is for this reason that the term ‘Grooming Jihad’ is much more appropriate as it captures the essence of the crime itself in a much better way than ‘Love Jihad’.

‘Tiny terrorist’ stabs inmate in Aussie prison where she is serving a 42-year term for screaming Allahu Akbar and stabbing landlord

OpIndia Staff
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‘Tiny terrorist’ stabs inmate in Aussie prison where she is serving a 42-year term for screaming Allahu Akbar and stabbing landlord

Momena Shoma, a Bangladeshi woman serving a 42 year jail term in Australia on terror charges, has been charged with another terrorism charge after she stabbed a fellow inmate in the prison. The woman, dubbed ‘Tiny Terrorist’ for her height of 150 cm, is lodged in a women’s prison in Melbourne.

According to reports, the incident happened on October 30 at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Ravenhall, after an altercation between the two women inside the prison, both aged 27. The victim was taken to a hospital after receiving an injury on her hand.

Momena Shoma was charged by counter-terrorism police and was presented before the Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link to face fresh terror charges. The court remanded her in custody till the next hearing scheduled on March 25. Due to Coronavirus pandemic, court proceedings in Australia are delayed, which means it could take more than a year before the case reaches trial.

Momena was convicted in terror charges in June 2019 after she had stabbed her landlord in February 2018. According to the verdict convicting her, she had gone to Australia with the sole purpose of carrying out a terror attack, and she had attacked her landlord just after eight days of arriving in Australia.

She had shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ while stabbing her homestay host Roger Singaravelu while he was sleeping with his 5-year-old daughter. She had pushed a kitchen knife into his neck, but he had survived the attack. Both the victim and his daughter had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack.

During the questioning, ‘Tiny Terrorist’ Momena Shoma had said to police that she went to Australia with the aim of carrying terror attacks in the name of ISIS. She had also informed the police that she had practised the attack by stabbing a mattress while staying with a different family earlier, and chose Roger as target as he was vulnerable.

Shoma had pleaded guilty during the trial, and said that she engaged in ISIS-inspired terror attack to advance the cause of violent jihad. She had travelled to Australia on a scholarship to study at La Trobe University, but the court ruled that her real purpose of the visit was to carry out terror attacks.

Initially, she had stayed with a family in Bundoora after arriving in Australia, but she moved to Roger Singaravelu’s house after the first host family expressed concern after finding out that she was stabbing their mattress. However, Singaravelu said that he was not informed about the incident. His family used to host students from all over the world through homestay (paying guest) companies, but after the incident, they stopped doing that.

According to the court order convicting her, Momena Shoma became radicalised in 2013 during the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Even on the day of attack, she had downloaded a video from ISIS media centre.

Even though her victim survived, the court had convicted her of terror charges, and sentenced her to 42 years, with a minimum term of 32 years. One reason for the unusually long sentence was to set an example to deter others, as she was first to be convicted of terror charges in Australia. The court had said that Shoma’s intentions were disrupting the community and instilling fear. ‘The offender, or the terrorist, is trying to weaken the fabric of society itself. So even though the immediate victim is one person, it’s aimed at society and not treated like a typical personal offence,’ the judge had said.

When China moved away from Mao, Varavara Rao wanted to keep that flag flying high: Here is a profile of his most deranged thoughts

S. Sudhir Kumar
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When China moved away from Mao, Varavara Rao wanted to keep that flag flying high: Here is a profile of his most deranged thoughts

“As a writer and rights activist, I am against capital punishment, with abundant faith in the reform of human beings, particularly the oppressed youth.” This has been written by Varavara Rao very recently after he was arrested. Rao claims to be a human rights activist but relishes the events where murderous Naxalites killed police forces ruthlessly, in an ‘act of war’. Varavara Rao not only has “abundant faith in the reform of human beings” but has unique ideas on how to accomplish this reform. 

In an interview, he was asked – “What is your ultimate aim?”. 

His answer:  “Our main aim is: We shall counter the developmental model with our vision of an alternate politics, alternate culture, plus an alternate value system”.

Even Rahul Gandhi will sound more coherent in his ramblings than what Varavara Rao described as his aim. Do you want to know what alternate politics, culture and system he has in mind? You must listen to how he proudly tells us a story about the dreaded Peoples War Group (PWG) from the year 1981. From 11:40 in this video (where he is seen drinking water from a Kinley water bottle!), he flashes a book – some 9th volume of Mao Tse Tung thoughts. He tells the audience that this volume was not published by China, but by some Indians. 

According to him, China stopped publishing these books after volume 4 or volume 5, because they had moved from Mao’s model to an “Investment model” (whatever that means). The dreaded PWG leadership in Andhra Pradesh was very upset with China to have moved from Mao’s model to “Investment Model”. They were so upset that they visited China in 1981 and told the Communist leadership in China that though China has given up on Mao, they will not give up on him. 

The dreaded PWG group told China that they will continue to take inspiration from Mao because of whom the Naxalbari movement was born in India and continue on that path (which basically means that they will continue that same violent path of waging a war with the state and continue to put people in misery.)

Can you find a more deranged and dreaded ideology present anywhere else in the world? When China itself has decided to move away from Mao’s thoughts, it is the ilk of Varavara Rao that wanted to keep that flag flying high, with great impunity. 

You must also listen to his English speech from a 1996 “International Seminar on Nationality Question”. The choice of his language is simply baffling – “The Kashmiris and North East nationalities are struggling for a longer time against this Indian state. On the other hand, since the Naxalbari uprising in 1968, people under communist evolutionaries are waging an armed struggle against the ruling classes and the Indian state.” 

If you are baffled at the usage of terms like “Kashmiri and North East nationalities” and “Communist Evolunataries”, then you must wait for the punchline that comes at around 2:25. “The aim is to create a truly democratic and federal India”!! In 1996, Varavara Rao didn’t believe in Indian democracy. He didn’t believe it in 1970 when he co-founded “Virasam” (Viplava Rachayatala Sangham – Revolutionary Poets Association). He doesn’t believe it in 2020. He will never believe in it till his last breath. And he will never propose an “alternate model” to this democracy, expect to continuously rant about “feudal oppression” and justify the “armed struggle” that put so many people into untold misery. 

In another interview, Varavara Rao tells us that “The only future is the Maoist movement as it is the only alternative politics. People are vexed with parliamentary democracy”. So, we have the same person telling us that he wants democracy and he wants to follow Mao to achieve this path of democracy! How this irony gets missed in all the eulogies he is getting recently, simply baffles me. 

Varavara Rao’s rise in the literary world happened at a time when poverty ruled the roost in our country. I wasn’t there in the 1960s and 1970s but can very well imagine the impoverishment and the misery of those times. I can even understand the angst amongst the villagers of Naxalbari against the oppression they faced and their anger when many of them were killed in a police firing for organizing protests. But for “poets” like Varavara Rao to continue to seek to urge people to take the path of the violent Naxalite movement that followed the Naxalbari massacre should be seen as nothing short of resorting to provoking violence. 

Many portals have mentioned that VVR has been arrested many times and all the 25 odd cases foisted against him were struck down by the courts. True – because VVR never explicitly wrote in his works to create bloodshed (In fact, I find his works dull. You can read a sample here). He was careful enough to espouse the Maoist cause without making a mention of their violent methods; diligent enough to talk only about fight against “oppression” without ever mentioning about the guns being used to fight them; intellectual enough to write about why the armed struggle is happening without ever mentioning about the misery of those with the arms. 

Ever since he was the founding member of “Virasam” in 1970, he has provided space, material and voice to the violent Naxalite movement. I totally understand why he was such a success during those dark years of 1970s and 1980s. Those were the years when the ecosystem was being built and his writings fit extremely well into their planning. But he started becoming irrelevant in the 1990s once people also started seeing through the evil machinations of this ilk. Coupled with India undertaking rapid reforms, VVR and his ilk started fading into oblivion. 

Varavara Rao’s delusion lies in the fact that in a 2016 interview, he tells us that it is the World Bank that hoisted Chandrababu Naidu as the CM of Andhra Pradesh; and that CBN banned PWG at the behest of the World Bank so that more investments can come into Andhra Pradesh. What he didn’t tell us was that more investments meant more development which meant the “alternate vision” of VVR to let people continue to live in misery and pick up arms for an imaginary “struggle”.

Activists like Varavara Rao have normalized violence (and the misery it causes) by writing fancy words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs. His delusional arguments include questions such as why leaders walk around with security with guns if they don’t believe in guns. He continues to be the ideologue of a “Maoists movement inspired by Naxalbari”. That can only mean one thing – violence against the Indian state. 

Varavara Rao must realise that today’s India is much more evolved than when he flourished as an activist. Today’s India will not fall into this violent trap that he seeks to lay. Today’s India has bought into democracy. We don’t need any more lessons from Mao. 

Arabs like to hunt Bustards of Pakistan because it is a sport and its meat is regarded as an aphrodisiac: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Arabs like to hunt Bustards of Pakistan because it is a sport and its meat is regarded as an aphrodisiac: Read details

Hunting Bustards of Pakistan is one of the favourite delectations of the affluent and resourceful Arabs, who like to hunt the bird both as a sport and because its meat is regarded as an aphrodisiac, a food that they believe stimulates one’s sexual desire.

Every year, as creeping winters result in a dramatic fall in mercury, thousands of Houbara Bustard birds, also known as Asian Houbara, migrate from the cold temperatures of Central Asia to the warmth of the desert region of Southern Pakistan.

However, the migration of the birds also brings with it a posse of wealthy Arab princes and their friends in search of their quarry to Pakistan, thereby providing an opportunity to Islamabad to engage in “soft diplomacy”. Most of these Arabs, belonging to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates travel in their private jets to Pakistan for their hunting expedition.

As per Arabic traditions, hunting of Bustards has been in practice for more than thousands of years ago. Arabs apparently believe that the Bustard meat has a mythical quality of enhancing one’s virility.

Pakistani authorities issue special licenses to Arab elites for Bustard hunting

Even though the hunting of Asian Bustard is banned in Pakistan, the government issues 25-35 permits annually to wealthy sheiks, allowing them an opportunity to hunt the bird in its winter habitat. The species is listed as vulnerable and is on the verge of extinction as per various international wildlife organizations. But this has not stopped Pakistan from pandering to the desires of the Arab elites from the neighbouring countries.

The hunting parties are given the ceiling limit of hunting 100 Asian Houbara in the span of a 10-day period, but more often than not they exceed their quota. In 2014, as per a report published in The Dawn, a staggering 2,100 Houbara were hunted down by the Arab entourage. The report had forced the Pakistani authorities to impose a “temporary moratorium” on hunting, but hunting permits were quietly issued for the winter season later that year.

The next year, in August 2015, the Supreme Court ordered a blanket ban on hunting in Pakistan. But it had no effect on the hunting of the Asian Houbara as flouting of norms, including court directives, has become par for the course in Pakistan. The Pakistani authorities, in their bid to indulge Arab demands, issued “partridge hunting” licenses to Arab royals instead and the hunting of the Houbara continued unabated.

Hunting Houbara Bustards used as foreign policy tool by Pakistani government

However, within a span of few months, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in January 2016, lifted the ban on the hunting of Asian Houbara after the Pakistani government contended that hunting Houbara is the “cornerstone” of Pakistan’s relationship with its middle-eastern Arab elites.

Pakistanis are not allowed to hunt this bird. However, the hunting of Houbara bustard is used as a foreign policy tool by the Pakistan government, which allows influential nationals of the Arabian Gulf nations to hunt the bird for a price tag of approximately $100,000.

Bustard hunting continues unabated even as locals and animal conservationists protests against it

Farmers and locals in the region have been massively disrupted by the hunting raids carried out by the Arabs since their trips often result in grave damages to their produce in the fields. Despite them raising concerns with regard to the hunting trips carried out by the Arab elites, Pakistani authorities have turned a blind eye to their grievances, giving a short shrift to their complaints.

Likewise, Environmentalists and Animal conservationists in Pakistan, who are also a vanishing species in the country much like the Asian Houbara, have vigorously opposed the hunting raids organized by wealthy Arabs. But their opposition had little effect in upending the unfortunate luck of the beleaguered bird.

Bhutan rejects reports of Chinese village within its territory after NDTV claims of transgression based on Chinese media tweet

OpIndia Staff
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Bhutan rejects reports of Chinese village within its territory after NDTV claims of transgression based on Chinese media tweet

A day after NDTV reported that China has established a village within Bhutan’s territory, Bhutan’s Ambassador to India on Friday categorically denied the presence of any Chinese village inside Bhutan.

Earlier on Thursday, NDTV had reported that China had established a village two km inside Bhutan’s territory, very close to Doklam site where the Chinese and Indian militaries had a tense standoff in 2017.

NDTV’s anchor Vishnu Som took to Twitter to share images posted by a senior journalist with the Chinese state media on Thursday to claim that it was “clear evidence of Chinese land grabbing of Bhutan territory”.

Further, Som shared a series of maps to claim that the Chinese had transgressed deep into Bhutanese territories, which is also strategically close to Indian borders in the Eastern sector.

Som said that the Chinese village of Pangda lies two kilometres within Bhutanese territory and is an indicator of what India has always feared – “salami slicing” by the Chinese. “Salami Slicing” refers to Beijing’s attempts to cut into Indian and Bhutanese territory.

Not just NDTV, even India TV, Moneycontrol, DNA, the Logical Indian and various other media networks had reported about China’s transgression into Bhutanese territory.

However, rejecting media reports of China occupying Bhutanese territories, Bhutan’s Ambassador to India clarified that no village has been set up by China inside Bhutan.

CGTN journalist breaks the story, NDTV latches onto it

Interestingly, Shen Shiwei, the Chinese journalist who first put out images of alleged Chinese village inside Bhutanese land, has silently deleted his posts making such claims. However, NDTV, which has based its entire assertions on the claim made by the Chinese journalist continues to peddle the misinformation despite clarification from the Bhutan government.

“We have permanent residents living in the newly established Pangda village. It is along the valley where 35 km south to Yadong county,” said Shen Shiwei, CGTN News Producer sharing a map to show the precise location of the settlement. 

Shen Shiwei has deleted this tweet

It is suspected that China could well be playing the dirty games by peddling false information into the media regarding its transgression into Bhutan to make a strong point to India. However, the likes of NDTV and other Indian media networks seems to have fallen prey for Chinese propaganda and indulged in reporting unverified news reports on Chinese presence inside Bhutan.

London mosque attacker begs for jail time so he can memorize Quran from ‘start to finish’, media had termed attack a product of ‘Islamophobia’

OpIndia Staff
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London mosque attacker begs for jail time so he can memorize Quran from ‘start to finish’, media had termed attack a product of ‘Islamophobia’

A British Muslim who had stabbed another Muslim in the neck at a London Mosque early this year has now begged the judge to jail him so that he can gets time to memorize the Quran.

According to the reports, the 30-year-old Daniel Horton pleaded guilty to stabbing 70-year-old Raafat Maglad, who was offering prayers at the London Central Mosque on February 20. The London police had arrested Horton after the attacks, who was supposed to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.

During the hearing, the Muslim youth asked the court to send him to a prison cell rather than a psychiatric hospital, so that he gets time to deepen his ‘religious studies’.

“Mr Horton has been clear in the limited interactions I have had with him that he wants to be sentenced, that he wants to be punished for the harm that he has done,” his lawyer, Sam Blom-Cooper said to the court adding, “He wants to learn the Quran off by heart. He wants to learn the Quran from start to finish”.

Following the incident, there was an attempt by the media to paint the attack as a manifestation of Islamophobia. However, with facts emerging in the case, the intentions of the attacker are extremely clear now.

HuffingtonPost had published an article after the mosque attack that claimed that the Muslims had believed that an attack, such as this one, was ‘brewing’ for a long time.

Huffington Post article

The article quoted Shaukat Warraich, director of public affairs at Muslim welfare charity the Al-Khoei Foundation, who made it sound like they were expecting retaliatory attacks against Muslims after the Christchurch attack, however, the ‘Islamophobia’ angle fell flat after it was revealed that Daniel Horton was a convert to Islam.

During the hearing, the attorney said that it was not clear yet what was the motive behind the attack against the mosque elder, who was stabbed close to an artery in the neck by Horton. As most Islamic terrorism attacks are painted, the attorney has claimed that Horton has a history of mental illness, including paranoid schizophrenia, as well as a string of previous convictions, including firearm possession and assaulting a police officer.

The assault had left Maglad traumatized about a repeat of the unprovoked attack during worship, said prosecutor Benn Maguire. The prosecutor added that “Maglad is less confident about standing in front of the prayer hall while the congregation is standing behind him as he is scared about being attacked”.

Benn Maguire said that the attack has shattered the sanctity of the mosque which should have been a safe haven for worshippers. This should have been a spiritual haven of worship, he added.

The court hearing has now been adjourned until December 10 for Judge Deborah Taylor to consider his request for prison as well as his mental health history.

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