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Manish Tewari opens a pandora’s box, writes to Facebook asking to contact his US-based lobbyist on alleged Facebook-BJP links

OpIndia Staff
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Manish Tewari opens a pandora’s box, writes to Facebook asking to contact his US-based lobbyist on alleged Facebook-BJP links

Days after the Wall Street Journal published an article claiming that BJP has links with social media giant Facebook, BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya has made some shocking revelations about Congress leaders hiring lobbyists in the USA to spread propaganda. Malviya posted a letter written by Congress MP Manish Tewari to Facebook, where he had asked the company to contact his lobbyist in the USA for any further information.

Manish Tewari wrote the letter to Facebook on 18th August, referring to the WSJ article published on 14th August. Saying that the article accuses of one Facebook executive of being biased towards the BJP led NDA government, Manish Tewari sought a response from the company on the matter. Tewari also noted that the allegation of Facebook bending its Global Hate Speech Policies at the behest of the Indian executive is a direct assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

Apart from seeking response from Facebook on the WSJ article, Manish Tewari also informed the company that if they want to add any additional thought, and if they require any immediate assistance or clarification in the matter, they can contact his senior policy advisor Dr. Bharath Gopalaswamy of Washington DC.

Now, this revelation that Bharath Gopalaswamy is Manish Terwari’s ‘senior policy advisor’ has opened a pandora’s box, according to Amit Malviya.

This is because, Bharath Gopalaswamy was the Director in an organisation that works with Facebook to manage content related to politics and elections. He was the director of the Atlantic Council from 2013 to 2019. In 2018, Facebook had entered into a partnership with the Washington DC based Atlantic Council to use their services to prevent ‘abuse of their service’ during elections and other sensitive occasions.

A statement issued by Facebook had said that the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council works closely with Facebook to provide real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world. “This will help increase the number of “eyes and ears” we have working to spot potential abuse on our service — enabling us to more effectively identify gaps in our systems, preempt obstacles, and ensure that Facebook plays a positive role during elections all around the world,” Facebook had said.

They had also informed that they will Atlantic services during elections and other highly sensitive moments, which will allow them to focus on a particular geographic area. The agreement between Atlantic Council and Facebook makes it clear that the former decides who is spreading misinformation and who is not, and based on their input, Facebook takes action.

Although Atlantic Council is known as a bipartisan and centrist organisation, it actually specialises in working with political and ideological propaganda. It has been accused to be a tool of American imperialist forces, with the ability to manipulate and influence political outcomes in countries around the world to suit American interests.

According to Amit Malviya, when a large number of pages were deleted by Facebook last year, the following of deleted pro-right wing pages were much more than the following of deleted pro-Congress pages. He informs that this process was led by the Atlantic Council.

“In light of these revelations, it is puzzling that the INC, at the first instance, has clandestinely chosen to use the services of Bharat Gopalaswamy to lobby for INC with Facebook. It is clear that by using the services of Think Tanks/its members, who use the charade of academic neutrality, INC has compromised its position. It is clear such alliances and services are used to gain access to FB’s management to influence the political process in India,” Amit Malviya said.

He said that such an explicit relation of Congress leaders with overseas influencer raises ethical and conflict of interest issues. Amit Malviya also expressed surprise that the Congress was using the services of a lobbyist to influence a private company like Facebook. “Lobbyists are the paid persuaders whose job is to influence the decision of Govts, but what amazes us is the use of such persuaders to influence the decisions of private corporations like Facebook,” he said.

Another important point raised by Amit Malviya is the issue of a sitting MP of Parliament using the services of a foreign lobbyist.

It may be noted that Manish Tewari himself was also associated with Atlantic Council, he had joined the organisation in 2017 as a senior fellow. Later that year, he had hosted Rahul Gandhi at an event in the organisation in Washington DC in September 2017.

This shows that, while Congress alleges Facebook of being partial towards BJP based on a report which was based on unknown sources, the party’s senior leadership has been associated with an influential organisation that has the power to control the political narrative on Facebook. In the words of Amit Malviya, “To operate behind close doors through quiet negotiations by using array of tactics to shape public opinion, the Indian National Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi and her son, has touched a new low in the politics.”

It may be noted while Manish Tewari says in his letter dated 18th that Facebook has not responded to the WAJ article, actually the company had already refuted the claims made in the article a day before. On 17th August, a Facebook spokesperson had said, “We prohibit hate speech & content that incites violence & we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position/party affiliation. We’re making progress on enforcement & conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness & accuracy.”

The challenges to ‘Secularism’ and the need to implement NRC to preserve it

Guest Author
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The challenges to ‘Secularism’ and the need to implement NRC to preserve it

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not participate in the Bhumi Pujan ceremony of the Ram Mandir construction at Ayodhya. And the State-owned national broadcaster Door Darshan must not telecast the live proceedings of the ceremony. Both the acts would be violative of the spirit of Secularism that is the guiding principle of the government, enshrined in the Constitution.

These were the vituperative outpourings of the raving and ranting Muslim Opposition and the leftists who were not, in any case, agreeable to the very idea of the construction of the Ram Mandir in the first place.

This is a classic example of how the anti-Hindu Opposition manipulates every issue by introducing a communal twist to it. Be it the enactment of a law, or its implementation, every move by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is applied to the touchstone of the Secularism doctrine. Even earlier, some opposition parties had employed the same tactic to sabotage the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

It derided the Act as a BJP ploy to brand Muslims as infiltrators or illegal immigrants and throw them out of the country as part of their purported communal agenda. Under the ruse of peaceful protest meetings and rallies, they orchestrated violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, which claimed several lives and caused large-scale destruction of public and private property. Vast amounts of money smuggled from across the border were used to fund extensive chaos and anarchy.

Government Maligned

After instigating communal clashes in Delhi, the political Opposition went to town deriding the Union government for its alleged failure to maintain law, order and overall peace. The biggest loser in the bargain was communal amity. Though the insidious act of the Opposition to create a sectarian divide between the Hindus and the Muslims has been successfully thwarted for the present, there is no denying the fact that the threat to communal harmony persists.

Enemy Factor

Fighting communalism is no more an issue restricted to the different communities on the one hand and the government on the other. There are some external agencies involved. These agencies are interested in seeing the creation of more and more theocratic states like Pakistan and Bangladesh in place of a strong and secular India. Our nation’s enemies are hoping to achieve their end-goal by instigating one community against another and creating a religious divide between the communities.

The following window provides a sneak preview into the magnitude of the problem:

  • The intelligence agencies had already got leads into the sources of funds pumped into the country to sabotage the implementation of the CAA. The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing the international gold smuggling racket in Kerala, has revealed that the sale proceeds of the smuggled gold were meant to be utilised for financing terrorist operations and anti-national activities such as anti-CAA protests.
  • The secret financial dealings of the Congress party with the Chinese government, which have been recently exposed, are currently under probe. Money is seldom received for no good reason and thus, suspicion of what was done in exchange for this money has been raised by several people.
  • If the available intelligence reports are anything to go by, several places of worship of the Muslims and Christians and the educational institutions run by them have become dens of radicalisation and conversion activities.

Acts of War

The real threat is to the communal harmony and not to Secularism, which the anti-Hindu governments of the past that spoke of ‘Saffron Terrorism’ used as a fig leaf to cover their shame. The days of the soft options like spreading awareness among the public regarding the evils of communalism and the perils faced by Secularism are over. Now is the time for the enemies of the State to be weeded out. Being a State policy, threats posed to Secularism should be treated as acts of war against the State. 

The enemies of the nation are working overtime in the mainstream and social media for the subversion of the State. Gross abuse of the right to free expression is rampant. The degeneration of the mainstream and social media, which are public forums for the exchange of ideas, thoughts and useful information into a platform for the nefarious activities of the anti-nationals needs to be arrested forthwith. 

Urgent Steps Needed

Unfortunately, the most serious challenge to Secularism springs from the ignorance of the silent majority of the Hindus about the impending probability of their becoming a minority community in their own country. They seem to be indifferent to the irrefutable truth that Secularism is safe in this land only so long as the Hindus remain the majority community. 

The day the Hindus become a religious minority in India, their eventual decimation would become a matter of time as it happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh. One does not even have to look too further away for the repercussions of a state where Hindus cease to be a majority. Even a cursory look at the history of Kashmir would show the consequences.

To make matters worse, the TFR (Total Fertility Rate) of Hindus is nowhere near compared to the Muslim community. Which only means that the Hindu community, in numbers, is growing at a much slower pace. Furthermore, both these Abrahamic faiths practise conversion without any check by the local governing bodies or the state governments. The NDA government should, therefore, implement the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and also impose a strict ban on conversions.

(The author of this article is Dr Sunil Gupta. He is a Chartered Accountant, author and blogger. He has served as an Independent Director on the Boards of India’s most influential public sector banks)

Democratizing Temple administration: Throwing the baby out with the bathwater

Sai Priya Chodavarapu
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Democratizing Temple administration: Throwing the baby out with the bathwater

In the ongoing discussion about state entrenchment in Hindu Temples, we come face to face with the question of what the alternative system would be, were the State to make a long-overdue exit, and whether it would be duly “democratic”. 

The issue can only be addressed with a baseline understanding the different types of temples and forms of Temple ownership, that vary across jāti, varna, kula, and sāmpradaya. That being said, the resources and wealth of the largest shrines in India are so vast that they require considerable manpower and expertise in order to efficiently administer – making them a doubly important topic of parlance.  

What distinguishes the Hinduism from other religions is that it is not a monolith. There is no single central concentration of power, and certainly no single, central religious organization or head. Countless sects, denominations, and schools of thought with numerous overlapping faiths; each with their own set of age-old highly specific rituals, festivals, deities, and traditions. These unique traditions, whether folk or Vedic or a blend of the two, are often confined to distinct deities, geographic locations, or even lineages.  

Historically, the administration of Temples has been handed down through the generations to the successors of that particular sampradāya, whether that be a particular family, a caste, or a whole village.  

Following the unconstitutional takeover of Temple administration by various state governments, which was essentially a perpetuation of the vestiges of colonial law (in both cases, only Hindu places of worship were targeted and never those belonging to other faiths), the situation with respect to the state of endowments, wealth, Temple properties, heritage preservation, antique idols, etc., has only gotten worse. While the reason for government incursion is cited as corruption and misappropriation of funds, the state has done absolutely nothing by way of increasing transparency and protection of assets as far as Temples are concerned.

Every rupee of Temple wealth and every square inch of Temple land unquestionably belong to the Deity and the Deity alone. There must, consequently, be no compromise by way of demanding utmost transparency when it comes to the management of Temples. Since the state has not delivered on this aspect, but in fact has allowed the exponential increase of corruption to unimaginable levels, especially in wealthy Temples across South India, the exit of the government is of paramount importance.

Naturally, upon the exit of the government, the administration and affairs should ideally directly be handed over to its rightful heirs, or the hereditary trustees of the Temple. While a few valuable players may be taken aboard for additional help, the financial and decision-making power must remain firmly with said hereditary trustees, as this is the only way to maintain Temple traditions in toto. After all, unique sampradāya and sthala purana (the history of that particular Temple, how it came to be established, and the lore surrounding it etc.) are what make a Temple one-of-a-kind.  

Temples are sacred to each and every Hindu and are the custodians of the Hindu faith. Temple traditions, some of which can be traced back millennia, have been preserved passionately and unwaveringly by those that subscribe to it. Any attack upon Temples and their traditions can be considered a direct attack upon Hindu Dharma.

Colossal levels of financial and ideological corruption have already crept in due to the state trampling Hindu rights. While we can strive toward a healthy level of equality and fairness, it is possible that subjecting Temples to constant scrutiny and social vigilance would be counter-productive. 

While a Hindu of any caste, creed, or race can take darshan and perform puja in any Temple of their choosing, irrespective of their sampradāya, ishta devata, kula devata or any other factor, an extrapolation of this right does not draw a logical corollary with being granted a stake in the administration of such an external sampradāya to which they are essentially an outsider. This is largely due to the elaborate nature of the rituals and rules that constitute or characterize the traditions themselves, and the resolute manner in which they are passed on to future generations – the specifics of which an outsider may not have intimate knowledge of. Deviations from the system would effectively dismantle the tradition itself, which, more often than not, is difficult to establish yet can be broken in an instant. 

For instance, would it be fair for a Vaishnava brahmin that say, newly began worshipping at his local Maisamma or Mesai (a south Indian folk goddess) Temple, to stake a claim in the administration of said Temple, solely by virtue of his living in its vicinity? Would they respect the weight of its history as much as one that has a deep familial connection, not only with the Deity but also with the institution itself? Not only is such a person not qualified to uphold and respect the tradition, but they are also clueless in most aspects of what that particular Temple and its rituals entail. Even if they spent years learning, they still most likely would not profess the same level of loyalty. An outsider inherently has little to no vested interest, and hence no obligation whatsoever to uphold the tradition without distortion.  

The same can be applied vice versa, yet no one is denying that either party can enter each other’s Temples or profess their faith for the latter, wholeheartedly. It is possible to draw a line between a devotee and invested party without it being discriminatory. The Constitution enshrines the rights of devotees or any individual for that matter, to be protected from discrimination based on caste. We’ve come a long way in terms of eradicating social evils related to caste, and thankfully, our country is, for the most part, not resistant to the right kind of social reform. 

At face value, democratizing Temple administration seems like a noble venture. But the negative connotations associated with birth-based varna should not be the driving force behind rallying to permanently alter a Temple’s character – that would be akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Straying too far from well-established traditions, even if well-intentioned, can have disastrous consequences by way of corruption of the Temple’s essence that make it exclusive in the first place. 

At the core of what keeps Hinduism alive, and a key factor that led to its survival through two barbaric invasions is its seemingly archaic practice of passing on knowledge and rituals unchanged through the generations. Despite this, we’ve lost a substantial amount of knowledge. Losing sight of this would mean losing the diversity that is so precious to the Hindu fold.  

Agra: Lady doctor brutally murdered for rejecting senior’s marriage proposal, arrested accused confesses to the crime

OpIndia Staff
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Agra: Lady doctor brutally murdered for rejecting senior’s marriage proposal, arrested accused confesses to the crime

Vivek Tiwari, a doctor working in Agra’s SN Medical College was arrested yesterday by the police for charges of murder. The doctor is arrested for the murder of a junior doctor, named Yogita Gautam. As per reports, the doctor has confessed to killing Dr Yogita Gautam over a failed love affair.

A video of the confession by Dr Vivevk Tiwari is going viral on social media. Dr Vivek Tiwari is posted as a medical officer in Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh. In the video, he is heard confessing that he had driven down to Agra to meet Dr Yogita on Tuesday.

He says that around 6:30 pm in the evening, he picked up Yogita. Tiwari has stated in teh video that he and Dr Yogita were in a relationship for the past 7 years. Dr Yogita works in the Gynaecology department of the SN Hospital.

As per the doctor’s confession, when Dr Yogita sat in his car, a heated argument took place between the two after which Dr Vivek, in a fit of rage, strangulated her.

Vivek then says that after stragulating Dr Yogita, he had taken the knife he keeps in his car and had hit her head several times with it. He then says that after ensuring that she is dead, he had taken the body to a secluded place and had hidden it in the woods.

Doctor Yogita Gautam’s body was recovered from the field in Bamrauli Katra area in Agra

The Agra police had recovered Dr Yogita’s body on Wednesday, from the field in Bamrauli Katra area under Dauki police station of Agra. The body reportedly had injury marks on the face and head. She was wearing a t-shirt and trousers and no identity documents were recovered from the body. He mobile phone was missing too. The body was later identified as that of Dr Yogita. She was missing from Tuesday evening.

Family alleged that Dr Vivek Tiwari had threatened them of dire consequences

The police had begun the search operation based on a complaint by Yogita’s family members. Dr Yogita was reported missing from her rented accommodation in Noori Darwaza area under MM Gate police station of Agra on Tuesday evening. Her phone was also unreachable after which the family had reported the matter to the police. They had named Dr Vivek Tiwari as the prime suspect.

The lady doctor’s father, Ambesh Kumar had alleged that Tiwari had been pressurising his daughter to marry him for the last few years.

The family also alleged that Tiwari had also called and threatened them to convince Yogita to get married to him. He had warned them of dire consequences if they failed to convince their daughter.

Meanwhile, SSP Agra Babloo Kumar has confirmed injury marks on the body’s head and neck, adding that the post-mortem report has also revealed that Dr Yogita had struggled to save herself before dying.

Yogita was on duty treating COVID patients

Dr Yogita’s name was recently in the news when a COVID-19 patient had successfully delivered a healthy child in Agra’s SN Hospital in April. She was a part of the team that had operated on the 28-year-old mother and ensured the healthy delivery of the infant in the COVID care facility. Yogita had assisted Dr Sangeeta Sahu of the SN Hospital in the LSCS procedure. It was the third such case in the hospital.

From Java, Philippines, Bali, Cambodia, Borneo to Burma: Understanding Ganesha from an iconographical perspective

Monidipa Bose Dey
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From Java, Philippines, Bali, Cambodia, Borneo to Burma: Understanding Ganesha from an iconographical perspective

With Ganesha festival around the corner, but with humble celebrations owing to the coronavirus spread, it seems this year will be a muted one for most religious festivals with most people being forced to stay indoors. So instead of focusing on the celebrations, my article takes a look at Ganesha – Vighnesvara from a different perspective, with a brief look at his iconography and the stories associated with him.

Ganesha, also popularly referred to as Vighnesvara, is the god who presides over obstacles, by both placing them in the way and also removing them. His capability of doing both is explained through a story in the Lingapurana. The story states that the various rakshasas and asuras through their virtuous acts and sacrifices received many boons from Shiva. Armed with these boons they then turned to attack the devatas and defeated them.

After facing many such defeats the gods headed by their king Indra requested Shiva to create someone who would provide obstacles in the way of the asuras and rakshahas in their virtuous acts, hence making them unfit for any boons. Shiva agreed, and from one of his amsas (his energy or power) came to life a being known as Vighnesvara, who was asked by Shiva to create obstacles for the asuras, rakshasas, and other evil beings in their acts of virtues and sacrifices.

He also asked Vighnesvara to help the devas and other pious beings in their good deeds by removing all obstacles. In Shivapurana, Matsyapurana, and Skandapurana the birth of Ganesha is however attributed only to Parvati where while bathing she combined the oils and ointments with the impurities that came from her body and created the figure of a man, which she brought to life by sprinkling the waters of the Ganga.

Interestingly, if we study the various Puranas and Agamas, we will see various versions of Ganesha’s origin, where we see him as the son of Parvati alone, of Shiva alone, of both Shiva and Parvati, and even with an independent origin (Swaymbhu- Surya Vinayaka, a popular narrative in Nepal).

It is stated that while composing Mahabharata, Vyasa had Ganesha as his amanuensis or scribe, who wrote with his own tusk as Vyasa dictated the verses non-stop. In Brahmavaivarta-purana Ganesha was Krishna himself in human form. In modern times Ganesha is the deity who is invoked by all those that are performing pujas, sacrifices, while invoking other gods, during difficult compositions in writing, and in other times in the daily affairs of men. Ganesha- Vighnesvara’s other names include Ganapati, Ekadanata, Heramba, Lambodara, Surpakarna, Gajanana, and Guhagraja

According to historian Y. Krishan, 1981-82, “Ganesha has now come to be called as the lord of all heavenly hosts, wisest of the wise, lord of treasures of treasuries, most adorable of all, the supreme of all beings, and the king of all kings. In Ganesha-purana various verses from the Purusha-sukta of the Rig Veda have been used for invoking Ganesha, and the 9th-13th century eulogy of Ganeshagita has been almost wholly taken from Bhagavadgita, where Ganesha, like Krishna, is a supreme being endowed with karuna (highest level of compassion). Since Ganesha was later identified with Vedic gods, he was also endowed with their attributes in visual imaging (murtis and paintings). With the ankusa, vajra, and lotus he is made at par with Indra; the crescent moon, tiger skin garment, and snake associates him with Rudra/Shiva; with his pasa (noose) he equals Varuna, and the axe makes him equal to Brhmanaspati.”

The first terracotta images of Ganesha found by archaeologists are from Pal (Maharashtra), Chandraketugarh (West Bengal), Verrapuram (Tamil Nadu), and Ter (Maharashtra), all of which belong to the 1st c. CE. The earliest Ganesha murtis in stone are from Mathura, and they belong to the Kushana era (2nd–3rd c. CE).

From various available books, research papers, and images it can be derived that the earliest murtis of Ganesha, of both the standing and sitting varieties, were with two arms holding a parasu and a mulaka (radish). The potbelly and one tooth are also among the earliest characteristics seen that continue even today. TAG Rao in his book on temple iconography presents a general form of Ganapati collected from various text sources that show him as four-armed; however, the Brhatsamhita in a couplet describes him with two arms carrying a kuthara (parasu) and a mulaka, potbellied, and with one tooth:

Pramathadhipo gajamukhah pralambajatharah kutharadhari syat| Ekarisano bibhranmulakakandan…….

Interestingly, the pot of sweets that is now synonymous with Ganapati finds no mention in Brhatsamhita, which has the earliest mention of the deity; however, the pot of sweets appears early in iconography from 1st c. CE (seen in the Pal terracotta Ganeshas). Later texts like Suprabhedagama, Vishnudharmattora, Rupamandana, etc. show Ganapati with four arms (which can go up 6, 8, 10, or even 16 arms) carrying the attributes: own tooth (svadanta), modaka (sweets), ankusa (elephant goad), pasa (noose), naga, vajra, japmala, lotus, wood apple (bael), etc. It is in these later texts that we find a mouse being described as his vahana, and there are mentions of his consorts Vighnesvari, Buddhi, Sri, Bharati (Sarda), Riddhi, and Siddhi.

These later books also give traits that are commonly seen now in Ganesha murtis, such as, three eyes, the poses abhanga and samabhanga, tiger skin as garment, and a snake as his sacred thread. These texts have also described many other iconographic forms of the god, such as Bala Ganapati, Bija Ganapati, Sakti Ganesha, Taruna Ganapati, Maha Ganesha, Nrtya Ganesha, Haridra Ganesha, Heramba Ganesha, etc. India once had six subdivisions under the Ganapatya sect, and these were devotees that worshipped the 6 different forms of Ganapati: Maha, Haridra, Svarna, Santana, Navanita, and Unmatta-Ucchista.

Ganesha as a giver of success and fortune is equally venerated by the Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. In fact, Ganesha is seen in many parts of SE Asia, and many medieval era images have been found from Java, Philippines, Bali, Cambodia, Borneo, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. These images show the ancient to medieval cultural and religious connections that India once had with these countries, the ties that still remain, despite the innumerable attempts that have been made to erase them.

Karnataka police books 61 accused under UAPA for involvement in Bengaluru riots

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka police books 61 accused under UAPA for involvement in Bengaluru riots

The Karnataka police have invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the 61 accused in the Bengaluru riots case.

According to the reports, Karnataka police chief Praveen Sood informed Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa that the some of the accused in the riot case have been charged under the stringent provisions of UAPA.

Following the August 11 violence in Bengaluru, unleashed by organised Muslim mobs, more than 400 people were arrested. The Muslim mob had unleashed terror on the streets of Bengaluru and had burnt down two police stations, the home of the Congress MLA as well as several vehicles.

“UAPA has been invoked in the case recently as more facts about the incident have emerged during the investigation,” Kamal Pant, Commissioner of Police said.

The stringent action against the riots accused comes days after the Karnataka government had decided to recover the cost of public and private properties destroyed in the Bengaluru violence last week, from the rioters. 

The state government had informed that it will request the Karnataka High Court to appoint a Claims Commissioner to assess the damage caused to properties in the riots as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court and fix the recovery cost.

Bengaluru Crime Branch questions Congress corporators

A week after the horrific Bengaluru riots, that left four dead and over 60 policemen injured, the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) has questioned two Congress corporators, including a former mayor, in connection with the violence.

R Sampath Raj, who is a former mayor and corporator from DG Halli and Pulikeshi Nagar corporator Abdul Rakeeb Zakir was questioned by the Bengaluru police.

Reportedly, the CCB questioned them about the internal differences in the party between MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy and the party’s corporators in his assembly segment ahead of the elections to the city civic body later this year.

Amidst chants of ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ and ‘Nara e Taqbeer’, Muslim mob unleashed violence in Bengaluru

On August 11, a Muslim mob went on a rampage and unleashed brutal violence and arson in Bengaluru over a Facebook post that was allegedly derogatory to Prophet Mohammad. The Muslim mob hit the streets near DJ Halli and KG Halli police station areas on Tuesday evening and attacked a Congress MLA’s house after one of his relatives had allegedly made a derogatory Facebook post.

More than 60 police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting and the subsequent riots unleashed by the irate Muslim mobs. At least 10 vehicles, including Innovas of two DCPs, were damaged in front of the stations. The mob also set fire to the vehicles in front of the DJ Halli police station.

During the pre-planned attack, the Muslim mob, carrying petrol bombs and other weapons, also barged into the nearby police quarters and attacked the premises. The Muslim mob was seen raising Islamic slogans like ‘Allah-hu-Akbar’ and ‘Nara-e-Taqbeer’ outside the police station.

Throwing India to the radicals: Biden, Harris and why India is the perfect target of hate for the American left

Abhishek Banerjee
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Throwing India to the radicals: Biden, Harris and why India is the perfect target of hate for the American left

Left to his own devices, Joe Biden would have no hostility towards India. I mean, the man is a middle of the road, establishment Democrat from Delaware. He’s not the problem: the problem is his party. Rather, what his party has become.

Let us first establish what we mean by “friend” or “enemy” of India. We should neither expect nor are we entitled to any emotional connection in the common sense of the word. The US President puts the US first. India’s PM puts India first. That’s exactly how it should be. The only reason we can “expect” friendship from the US is because, at the moment, India and the United States share several geopolitical interests.

It does not take very much for a US President right now to be a friend of India. In fact, all that the US President has to do is put American interests first and it will automatically work in India’s favour. That’s why under ordinary circumstances, an establishment Democrat like Biden would have been a “friend” of India — easy peasy.

The only way that could make a US President hostile to India is if they have a specific agenda against us. Which will hurt the US as well. Biden has no such agenda, but his party does. In fact, if I was an American, I would worry whether the current Democrats are even friends of America. India comes much later.

A lot of people are tempted to compare the Democrats to the Indian National Congress. I don’t agree. The Congress is and continues to be, opportunistic. The Congress panders to the ‘secular’ community because they are the last remaining core voters of the Congress. The Congress makes, every now and then, feeble attempts to pander to Hindus.

The Democrats are worse. More dangerous, rather. They have an outright anti-American agenda. The party now runs on twin engines of Islamism and Communism. Folks like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are bigger fans of Stalin and Castro than Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln. They genuinely hate America and the American way of liberty. People like Rachida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar despise the United States and everything about it (except its prosperity, which they soak up like parasites). These people would rather lose the election than give up on their anti-American agenda.

The Indian National Congress puts power first. The Democrats put their radical anti-American agenda first.

I should admit this characterization is grossly unfair to the average American Democrat. Why would a hardworking common Democrat bred in California or Oregon or Ohio or New York hate America? They don’t. Rather their party has been hijacked by an anti-American gang.

In fact, I suspect that Biden’s candidature itself is a silent uprising by rank and file Democrats that hardly anyone is talking about. The most vocal and radical elements in the Democrats wanted Stalin’s ghost brought back from the dead and made President of the United States. The ones militating from college campuses and Hamas bases in Palestine.

Meanwhile, the ordinary Democratic voters in the primaries quietly longed for a return of the Obama years. They didn’t like the cruel tone of Trump’s politics. They wanted someone who tinkers with America around the edges: not abolish the country. That’s why Biden is the candidate, Obama’s vice-president.

The problem is that Biden is old and weak. And losing it with every passing day. The fear is that the radical elements in his party will take over. Or at the very least, he has to give them something.

This is where the risk to India comes from. India could be that something that Biden tosses in front of the wolves from the radical wing of his party. To tear apart and devour.

When I express these fears, some people rush to say that India is not that significant to American politics. I would argue that is exactly why I am worried. Because India is a bundle of contradictions that makes it an absolutely perfect target for the Islamist radicals in the Democratic Party.

The contradiction around India is exactly the point. India is not Swaziland or Cameroon that nobody has heard about it. Everyone has heard about India, but almost nobody knows about India.

I dare you to give another example of a country that fits into this strange gap. A country that all Americans have heard about, but know nothing about. Americans have heard of Germany or Brazil but they also know a lot about Germany or Brazil. Americans have never heard of Swaziland and they know nothing about Swaziland.

Only India. They’ve all heard of us. They know nothing about us.

That’s what makes India the perfect target for hate. You take the blank mental space that India already occupies in the mind of every American and fill it up with lies, causing them to hate us. That’s what the New York Times and Washington Post are doing with their relentless propaganda. They are filling up the vacant space with lies.

Indians are easy to demonize. They follow a religion that is completely alien to most Americans. I am really talking about Hindus here. Because we all know anti-India hate is really about anti-Hindu hatred.

What else makes India the perfect target? When people hate, they don’t like to feel like bullies. India is a large and powerful country. That makes it easy to hate India without any sense of guilt.

More about the demography. When thinking about a country, people start with the assumption that the minority is persecuted, not the majority. Hindus are a majority in India. That makes it easy to adapt the standard global rhetoric of majority-minority and demonize the Hindus.

This is where Americans not knowing about India comes in so handy to the left. Americans don’t know that the supposed majority lived in slavery to the minority for 800 years. They don’t know how the majority paid a tax to the minority simply for the right to keep their religion. They don’t know about the destruction of our places of worship, about the cultural genocide of centuries that we faced.

That’s the difference between India and Israel. Everyone knows what the Jewish people have been through. So when someone points out that Israel is a Jewish majority nation, Americans can contextualize that with well known history of anti-Semitism. They can see why Jewish people would need a homeland.

The problem is nobody knows what we Hindus have been through. Nobody understands why Hindus would need a homeland. They just hear about a Hindu majority and assume that the majority would be dominating the minority.

Another thing that makes us easy to demonize is the Indian model of ‘secularism’ and simply the way our constitution is framed. And how it differs from the American model. Tell the Americans that India is giving refuge to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, etc and they will ask: why is the government making a law with a religious test?

The confusion is understandable. The average American simply does not understand the Indian model of secularism, nor the Indian model of social justice. Americans are taught to believe that the state should not discriminate between people in any way.

But that’s not the Indian model. Our model is “positive discrimination” in thousands of ways. In roughly one-third of panchayats across India, the post of pradhan is reserved for women! Nobody sees this as disenfranchisement of men. Do Americans know this? Do they know that across one-third of India, no male is allowed the most basic democratic right to represent his village?

We Indians just don’t see it that way. We see it as a good thing for empowerment of women.

To give an even more fun example, Yogi Adityanath’s govt has decided that all the jobs at one station on Noida metro will be reserved for transgenders!

An American would find this sort of obvious discrimination unthinkable. But our model is simply different from theirs. So when the New York Times pulls out just one thread of CAA from this vast fabric of thousands of strands of positive discrimination that make up India, Americans think it’s wrong.

They have never seen the rest of the strands. To say nothing of the outright unfair ones, like the government of India controlling all Hindu places of worship.

So let me itemize:

(1) India is far away from America.

(2) It’s major religion is different from everything Americans know.

(3) Nobody knows what the majority in India has historically faced at the hands of the minority.

(4) Our constitutional model is very different from theirs.

(5) We are big enough that you can hate us without feeling like a bully.

(6) AND you get points from the Islamist lobby for hating us.

From the point of view of Biden: India is the perfect target he can throw before the radicals in his party. He has to give them something to use their energy on. A target to tear apart causing minimal damage to the American establishment, which Biden really cares about.

And the choice of Kamala Harris just made it worse. The Democrat case against India had only one weak point. What if white Americans feel like they are being racist when they hate us? Americans are very sensitive to this charge. Now that Harris has a sliver of Indian heritage, they are immune to that accusation as well.

And make no mistake. The Islamist overdrive against India is target practice for their much more difficult target: Israel.

This is a pretty dire picture for India. Is there hope? Maybe.

As I said, I don’t believe the average Democrat hates India. Why would they? It makes no sense. But what do you do then with the radicals in the Democratic party? Radicalism, by its very nature, tends to thrive among those who are not in power. A Democratic President in the White House would have a mellowing effect on radicals in his party. They are the incumbent. They have to keep a grip on themselves. By his core nature, Biden isn’t radical. He is not even close. If he bats out one mellow term in office, it might actually push the Taliban takeover of the Democratic Party back by a generation.

Like I said, excuses to find hope. But straws in the wind, nevertheless.

UK-born Head of Christian Evangelical Mission in Odisha sexually assaulted minor boy in shelter home, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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UK-born Head of Christian Evangelical Mission in Odisha sexually assaulted minor boy in shelter home, arrested

According to reports, Odisha Police have arrested a 68-year-old missionary John Patrick Bridge, founder of Faith Outreach Odisha, who hails from the UK, for sexually assaulting a minor boy at a shelter home. He runs free shelter homes, daycare centres and boarding schools in Jharsuguda, Odisha.

Bridge filed a bail plea in a local court that was rejected. Police have booked him under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) and POCSO Act. According to a report in local daily Pragativadi, Police arrested him after a former inmate filed a complaint against him. The complainant stayed in the shelter in 2015 and was a minor when he was assaulted at the shelter. The district administrator gave the investigation to a senior police official.

Similar cases filed before against Bridge

There are similar charges against Bridge filed previously as well. New Zealand embassy had filed the complaint on behalf of a New Zealand citizen against Bridge.

According to the website of Faith Outreach Odisha, Bridge was born in 1952, and he came to India in 1977. In 1983, he married Delphine Titra Gerson, a Tamil South Indian and established the organization with her. They started as an orphanage that slowly grew into several children’s homes, daycare centres and training centre for volunteer. The couple is using these centres to convert the kids to Christianity. Majority of the kids living in these homes or shelters belong to poor tribal families. He was granted Indian citizenship in 1992.

SC rejects Prashant Bhushan’s plea for sentencing by another bench, Bhushan says wont apologise for tweets

OpIndia Staff
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SC rejects Prashant Bhushan’s plea for sentencing by another bench, Bhushan says wont apologise for tweets

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Prashant Bhushan’s plea to review his statement on the quantum of his sentence in two days by another bench. The next hearing of the case may take place on 31st August 2020. Bhushan was held guilty of contempt of court earlier this month.

Bench questioned the delay in filing the review petition

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Gavai and Justice Murari set 20th August 2020 to pronounce the sentencing verdict. During the hearing of the arguments on sentencing advocate, Dave asked the court to adjourn the hearing of the arguments on sentencing in light of the review petition Bhushan intend to file in the prescribed time. Justice Mishra refused to consider the argument and said it can be filed after the verdict. Justice Mishra added, “Don’t worry, we will be fair to you… Even if you are not fair to us.” Justice Gavai said that it appears to the bench that the review petition will be sought when one of the Judges on the bench has retired.

The SC bench headed by Justice Mishra told Bhushan that if he does not balance his comments, he will destroy the institution and the court does not punish for contempt so easily. “There has to be Lakshman Rekha for everything. Why should you cross the rekha?” Justice Mishra said. He further added that the court welcomes good cases in public interest and gave 2-3 days time to Bhushan to rethink his statement where he said he wont apologise for the tweets.

The bench observed that it can be “very lenient” only if the person concerned can show a sense of remorse from the core of his heart.

Prashant Bhushan’s statement on the court’s verdict

Advocate Dhavan informed the court that before he says anything on sentencing, Prashant Bhushan wanted to make a statement. Bhushan said that he is pained to learn that the court found him guilty. He said that he was misunderstood and he was shocked to learn that the court passed the verdict without providing any evidence about his motives. Bhushan claimed that his tweets were an attempt to discharge his duty as a citizen. He added, “I submit to any penalty which the court may inflict. It would be contemptuous on my part to offer an apology.”

Prashant Bhushan’s statement on holding him guilty in contempt of court (credit: Bar and Bench)

Bhushan cited Mahatma Gandhi in the court and claimed that he does not seek ‘mercy’. He added that he will not apologise for his tweets and will cheerfully accept the punishment.

What was the case?

On 14th August 2020, the Supreme Court of India held advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty for contempt of court. Bhushan had tweeted in twice in June once against the last 4 CJIs, and another tweet on CJI riding a bike. The court took suo motu cognizance of the case and issued notice to Bhushan and Twitter. After lawyers appeared for Twitter US in Supreme Court, they withheld the tweets by Prashant Bhushan until further notice or till the judgment comes in the case. The Supreme Court has given two days to Bhushan to reconsider his statement to the court over his sentence.

‘Will Sonia Gandhi do the same for Balasaheb’: Netizens question as Uddhav Thackeray offers floral tribute to Rajiv Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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‘Will Sonia Gandhi do the same for Balasaheb’: Netizens question as Uddhav Thackeray offers floral tribute to Rajiv Gandhi

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena chilf Uddhav Thackeray has reportedly offered floral tributes.

As soon as the image of the Maharashtra CM paying respects on the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi was circulated, several social media users started questioning whether the Shiv Sena will ever witness a similar gesture from Sonia Gandhi when she remembers and pays respect to their founder Balasaheb Thackeray.

Some social media users also highlighted the irony of Balasaheb’s son paying a floral tribute to Rajiv Gandhi before the firebrand Hindutva leader’s picture.

Some Twitter users asked whether Rahul Gandhi will be seen paying respects to Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb in a similar manner.

Some users went a step ahead and rememberered Balasaheb’s famous words about Congress and its supporters.

Today is Rajiv Gandhi’s 76th birth anniversary. The former PM and Congress leader was born in 1944 in Mumbai.

Shiv Sena had forged an alliance with a the Congress and NCP for the formation of Maharashtra government after the 2019 assembly elections. Many political watchers and supporters had seen the Congress alliance as Shiv Sena’s betrayal of the ideologies followed by Balasaheb Thackeray, the party’s founder.

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