Three days after the Supreme Court found advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt, around 41 lawyers have appealed against his conviction to the apex Court on Monday. On August 14, the Supreme Court found Prashant Bhushan guilty for two tweets where he had raised aspersions on the apex court, and specifically against the Chief Justice of India.
Lawyers urge to prevent ‘miscarriage of justice’
According to journalist Utkarsh Anand, the said lawyers had expressed ‘disappointment’ over the utter disregard of the Supreme Court to the presence of the Attorney General and his opinion in the matter as mandated by law. They had urged the apex court to defer the effect of the judgment until a larger Bench decides on the issue of ‘criminal contempt.’ The lawyers also asked the apex Court to prevent the ‘miscarriage of justice’ and restore the confidence of citizens in the institution.
41 lawyers, comprising more than half of them senior advocates, have appealed to the #SupremeCourt for not effecting the conviction of adv Prashant Bhushan in the criminal contempt case. pic.twitter.com/GfD1Pqy8P3
Earlier, the apex court observed that the insinuation by Bhushan is not an attack against an individual but on the institution itself and that the CJIs who presided over the court in the last 6 years, and particularly last 4, had a particular role in destroying the Indian democracy.
The Bhoomi Pujan for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya marked the culmination of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. A defining feature of the Bhoomi Pujan was the presence of materials from holy Hindu sites across the country – soil from Rameswaram, holy water from the confluence of the 3 seas at Kanyakumari, soil from the Sharada Peeth in PoK and many others. Water from the banks of the river Cauvery in Srirangam was also used during the event.
Srirangam’s contribution is particularly noteworthy because it is one of the holiest sites for Vaishnavites, the devotees of Lord Vishnu. Ram is the 7th avatar of Vishnu. The Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam is considered to be the oldest amongst the 106 earthly Vaishnava Divya desams (or Vishnu temples) mentioned in the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam, a seminal work of the 12 Alvars. It is also the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world.
The “Kovil Olugu” is an exhaustive record of the temple’s social, political and cultural history. The time span covered by the Kovil Olugu is very vast, starting with the Cholas and going all the way till the temple was taken over by the East India Company in the 18th century. Written entirely in the Manipravala dialect of Tamil, this is the most authentic source of the Raganathaswamy temple’s history. Despite the availability of such a massive body of work, almost no modern historian has attempted to chronicle Srirangam’s tryst with the Delhi sultanate.
The first Islamic invasion of Srirangam
Srirangam was the fountainhead of Vaishnavism under the Cholas as well as the Pandyas. Despite multiple political upheavals and wars, the temple town was richly patronized by the power of the day. Its pre-eminent status remained undisturbed. In 1310, the death of Malaverman Kulasekara Pandya I lead to a protracted struggle for succession between his sons. Unfortunately, this civil war also happened to coincide with the march of the Delhi Sultanate towards southern India (Ref: History of Srirangam Temple, 1967, Authored by Dr V.N.Hari Rao M.A., PhD, Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati)
Malik Kafur was one of Alauddin Khilji’s most prominent slave-generals. By early 1311, Kafur had subdued the Kakatiyas, Yadavas and the Hoysala kingdoms, forcing them to become tributary states of the Delhi Sultanate. The Pandya country, also referred to as Ma’bar in Khusrau’s works, attracted the attention of Malik Kafur. In March 1311, Kafur’s army breached the Pandya empire via the pass at present-day Thoppur and attempted to capture Vira Pandya, Kulasekara Pandya’s son. Unable to do so, he then proceeded towards to ransack the temple in Chidambaram and then turned to Srirangam, which was then renowned for its wealth. Kafur’s army entered the Srirangam temple via its northern enclosures. The Vaishnava saints within the temple were easily overpowered, the treasury was plundered and the temple’s riches were stolen.
By April 1311, Kafur’s armies began their march back towards Delhi. The civil war within the Pandya empire continued but over the next decade the Ranganathaswamy’s wealth was eventually restored. But very few knew that what happened in 1311 was merely a precursor to the tragedy that was to follow 12 years later.
The second Islamic invasion of Srirangam
In 1320, the Khilji dynasty was overthrown by its nobles with the aid of the Governor of Punjab, Ghazi Malik. A descendant of Indian Turkic slaves, Malik renamed himself as Ghiyasuddin Tughluq and established the Tughluq dynasty. While the Khilji empire had tributary states in the Deccan, Ghiyasuddin longed for complete administrative and military control of these vassal states. In 1321, he sent a massive army to conquer the entire southern peninsula. The army was led by his eldest son Ulugh Khan, who would later ascend the throne and was more famously known as Muhammad bin Tughluq.
The 1321 expedition failed after Ulugh Khan and his army was defeated at Warangal. However, by 1323 Ulugh Khan’s forces captured Warangal in a separate expedition and now their eyes were set on Ma’bar (i.e. present-day Tamil Nadu). They first conquered Tondaimandalam and then marched towards Srirangam (Ref: The Koyil Olugu, 1954. Condensed English version authored by T.S.Parthasarathy, PRO Indian Railways and published by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams)
The second Islamic invasion of Srirangam is an important historical event that is recorded in all major Vaishnava works. The Guruparamparai, the Prapannamritam, the Acaryasukti Muktavali and the Kovil Olugu have detailed accounts of the sacking of Srirangam by Ulugh Khan. All these works date the invasion to have occurred in 1323.
A temple festival was being conducted while Ulugh Khan’s army advanced towards Srirangam. This festival involved a procession of the Ranganathaswamy idol (also known as the Urchavar Azhagiya Manavala Perumal) from the main temple to another shrine on the banks of the Cauvery. 12000 Sri Vaishnavas had assembled as a part of this procession. On hearing the news of the arriving Muhammadan hordes, Srirangarajanathan Vaduladesika, the chief priest of the Ranganathaswamy temple immediately dispersed the procession. He arranged for the idol and the temple’s jewels to be secretly transported further south. Eventually, Ulugh Khan’s army reached Srirangam and desecrated the temple. On learning that the deity had slipped through his hands, an enraged Khan ordered his troops to behead the 12000 Sri Vaishnavas assembled at the temple. The Kovil Olugu refers to this incident as “Pannirayiramtirumudi-tiruttina-kalabham” (the invasion which took 12000 heads).
For a couple of years, the idol wandered from shrine to shrine across South India before it reached the safe haven of Tirumala, where it was eventually deposited. Urchavar Azhagiya Manavala Perumal spent 48 years in exile, staying out of the grasp of Muhammadan invaders. It was not until 1371 that the idol was safely taken back to Srirangam and reinstalled at the temple by the Vijayanagar empire.
The second sacking of Srirangam is one of the darkest periods in Vaishnavite history. The Tughlaqs exercised direct control over Ma’bar from Delhi for over a decade. One of Ulugh Khan’s chieftains stayed back in Srirangam. He mutilated the gopurams of the temple and set up his residence right opposite the sanctum sanctorum.
He ruled the villages around Srirangam for a few years. It is said that this Muslim chief was constantly afflicted with multiple diseases during his stay inside the temple and he eventually shifted Kannanur where he desecrated Poysalesvara temple and converted it into a mosque. The Ranganathaswamy temple was eventually restored to its former glory by Bukka Raya the First, from the Sangama dynasty of the Vijayanagar empire.
The Srirangam temple is the lodestar of the Vaishnava movement in South India. It is such a tragedy that its bloody tryst with Islamic invaders does not find a single mention in either our history books or in the works of noted mainstream Indian historians. What stops our historians from shining light on persecution under Islamic rule? Any attempt to even evaluate the Mughals or any other Muslim ruler objectively is often met with accusations of selectivity.
It would not be a stretch to state that Marxist historians that dominate Indian academia are singularly responsible for the distortion of the history we teach our children. In their quest to protect the dubious ideals of Nehruvian secularism, falsehoods and imaginary tales of religious tolerance have been spun for decades. Would reconciliation have been possible in post-war German society if history textbooks had decided to whitewash the Holocaust? The first step towards healing historical wounds and reconciliation is acknowledging the crimes of the past. Sadly, the burial of dark chapters such as the sacking of Srirangam will only widen religious fissures even further.
An abusive and hateful troll, Amit Behere, who has earlier displayed his utmost hate for BJP and the “Sanghis and Bhakts” (a supposedly pejorative used by the Left to demean supporters of the Prime Minister) has taken to Twitter to celebrate UP cabinet minister Chetan Chauhan’s death.
Chetan Chauhan, a former cricketer who was serving as the minister of Sainik welfare, home guards, and civil security in the Uttar Pradesh cabinet, succumbed to COVID-19 related complications at the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon on Sunday.
Soon after condolences for the UP minister started pouring in, Amit Behare posted a terribly hateful comment saying that he was glad that the BJP leader died. He even went a step ahead and wished death for all “BJPians”. “I just hope they suffer for days before doing us a favour and stopping breathing”, wrote Behere adding that he was happy “Chauhan, Parrikar, Jaitley” all are dead.
This troll, who is followed by many official functionaries of Congress like Sanjay Jha and Aam Admi Party, journalists with various publications including Barkha Dutt’s MoJo, the self-proclaimed fact-checking website Alt News’ co-founder, Harsh Mandar, and many other ‘secular-liberals’ did not stop here. In his subsequent Tweet, Behere also gave reasons as to why he is celebrating Chauhan’s death. He stated that he prefers if people evolve but he loves it when “fascist a**holes die”.
He further stated that he will celebrate every ‘Nazi’ death.
From calling him a “Nazi” to a “fascist” to rejoicing his death, Amit Behere in a series of Tweets, continues to spew venom against the BJP minister Chetan Chauhan.
Amit Behere and his despicable conduct in the past
Well, Amit Behere’s vile and despicable conduct is something which has been on display all too often. He is the same troll, who wanted the “Sanghis to be thrown in the gutter”. In January this year, Behere, who got triggered by an individual calling his 90-year-old maternal grandfather a “proud Bhakt”, took to Twitter to comment that when his 90-year-old grandfather dies, he should “throw him in the gutter” and he should tell his kids why he threw him in the gutter.
An older tweet by Defence Analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra had also exposed this troll for the venom he harbours. In the screenshots posted by Iyer, Behara was seen hoping for a slow, painful death for leaders like Arun Jaitley. He had also spoken about how he would celebrate those deaths.
The Aam Aadmi Party has now accused the BJP of sponsoring the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh and the riots at the national capital in February after some of its activists joined the BJP on Sunday. The party accused the BJP of ‘creating’ the protests against the CAA at the site. It has also embarked upon a social media campaign to convey the same message.
Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said at a press conference, “The inclusion of the leaders of Shaheen Bagh protest into the party by top BJP leaders has made it clear that the BJP was the creator of the anti-CAA stir there. Those who went to Shaheen Bagh to uphold democracy must also be shocked as they were being cheated.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj stated, “The BJP won some seats from the North-East in Assembly polls because of Shaheen Bagh, creating a gap between Hindus and Muslims. In Delhi, the BJP rose from 18% to 38% due to Shaheen Bagh. As they could not win the elections they caused riots”. The social media handles of the party and its workers are also driving in the message.
Akshay Marathe, spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party, claimed that the Shaheen Bagh protests were “funded and backed” by the BJP to polarise the campaigns for the Delhi Assembly Election and that is why Shahzed Ali joined the BJP on Sunday.
The section of Shaheen Bagh protestors who insisted that the blocking of an arterial road was fundamental to their protest were funded and backed by the BJP to polarise
That's why Delhi Police allowed the protest to go on
Liberals and Islamists are, however, displeased with the AAP for claiming that the protests at Shaheen Bagh were backed by the BJP. They claimed that it was utterly preposterous to suggest that the protesters were funded and backed by the BJP. Arvind Kejriwal was also called a ‘Sanghi snake’ for the allegations.
Asif Khan called Arvind Kejriiwal a ‘Sanghi snake’
Another user claimed that by associating the Shaheen Bagh protests with the BJP, the AAP had accused the women, children and men who had protested against the CAA by sitting on the road through the harsh winter of Delhi of working for the BJP. ‘It can’t get more messed up than this,’ he remarked.
Tweet by El Shabazz
Another user, Sania Ahmad, remarked that the AAP should be embarrassed of itself for suggesting that Safoora Zargar was and Meeran Haider is in jail because the Shaheen Bagh protests were funded by the BJP. She said that the AAP should also be ashamed for claiming that the women who were maligned as ‘500 rupay wali’ were sponsored by the BJP.
Sania Ahmad says AAp should be embarrassed of itself
Saif Ullah Khan, who works for Shekhar Gupta’s The Print, said that the AAP’s allegations were insulting to not only the “brave women and students” but also the people who voted for them in the Delhi Assembly Elections.
Saif Ullah Khan said the allegations were insulting towards the women of Shaheen Bagh
Controversial Congress politician Salman Nizami accused the AAP for ‘defaming Muslims’ by insinuating that the Shaheen Bagh protests were sponsored by the BJP and accused them of being a ‘mole’ of the RSS.
Salman Nizami slams the AAP
AAp was also accused of being anti-Muslim due to its allegations against Shaheen Bagh.
AAP is accused of being anti-Muslim
Others said that Muslims should stop responding to AAP’s allegations and let them whine.
The user wants Muslims to stop responding to AAP’s allegations
One Khushboo Khan remarked, “Shaheen Bagh was the movement of thousands of brave women and it is purely dedicated to them.” She asked the AAP, “With what face will you come to ask for votes next time?”
Khusboo Khan slams AAP
User Aafreen pledged to never vote for the AAP again. She said, “If protests were unconstitutional, AAP would have never made it to the governance.”
Aafreen pledges to never vote for AAP again
With its bizarre allegations against the BJP, the AAP has sorely angered liberals and Islamists on social media. Intriguingly, this is not the first time party or its supremo Arvind Kejriwal have attracted the wrath of liberals and Islamists. In April, the Delhi Chief Minister was attacked by Islamists for urging Muslims to celebrate Shab-e-baraat at home during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Islamists had also outraged against Arvind Kejriwal for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa on national television in his bid to win over Hindus ahead of the Delhi Elections.
A much hyped-up propaganda has been launched with the intention of portraying Facebook as ‘pro-BJP’. While the allegations appear hilarious on the face of it, liberals appear to have lost all sense of reality and proportion and embarked upon an ‘Uninstall Facebook’ drive. The latest spell of delusion began after propagandists at the Wall Street Journal published a report alleging, without any real evidence, that Facebook was unfairly favouring the BJP.
The allegations are particularly ridiculous because Facebook, like almost all other social media platforms, is known to silence ‘right-wing’ or ‘conservative’ voices on social media. The ‘Community Standards’ section on ‘Hate Speech’ offers sufficient indication of the Left-wing bias built into the platform.
Facebook clubs ‘gender identity’, a term engraved deeply in left-wing political ideology, with very real concepts such as race, ethnicity, religious identity and other such identities. Thus, if a user is vocal against the concept that a man can be a woman if he merely claims to be one, then the user can be accused of having trafficked in ‘Hate Speech’ and his account could be suspended. We are expected to believe that such an organisation has suddenly discovered fondness for a Hindutvavadi party.
Facebook Rules on Hate Speech
There is also other very real evidence that the Facebook is not favourably disposed towards the BJP. It is known that prior to the General Elections in 2019, the tech giant engaged in a campaign against popular pages supportive of the BJP and suspended them from Facebook without any clear reason at all.
For instance, in April 2019, Facebook had announced that it had taken down 687 pages linked to the Indian National Congress for suspicious activity. “When we remove one of these networks, the reason we remove them is because of their coordinated inauthentic behaviour, that they are using network of fake accounts to conceal their identity….to mislead who’s behind them. That’s the basic reason for removal,” Head of its Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher told the media.
What escaped notice was the fact that numerous pages supportive of the BJP were also taken down, without any good reason, and the popularity of almost every single one of these pages far exceeded that of the cumulative reach of the Congress pages put together. One of the pages that suffered the axe was The Chaupal page which currently has close to 10.8 million ‘likes’ on Facebook.
The monetisation of the page was suddenly rescinded on the 22nd of March, as per the admins of The Chaupal and they were told that it will be restored in 90 days. However, it was not restored even after 120 days had passed. Now, The Chaupal has a verified ‘blue tick’ on Facebook. It was suspected even then by the page that they suspect they were targeted because of their ‘right-wing’ political inclinations.
On the 1st of April, 2019, Facebook pages with a cumulative ‘likes’ of around 150 million were removed. “We page owners have no say after our pages are penalised. We are subjected to automated mails with no positive outcome,” they complained. They also complained that they could not add new administrators and editors to their pages.
Speaking to OpIndia, Vikas Pandey, social media influencer and administrator of various popular Facebook pages said that although numerous Congress pages were deleted and their umber was greater in absolute numbers, the cumulative ‘likes’ on them was far lesser than the BJP pages that were removed. We were told that the reason that was provided was that a Facebook administrator or editor on the page had a ‘fake profile’, he said.
“Facebook claimed that some pages were removed because one of the IDs of the admins was ‘fake’. Many people use more than one accounts and it is very normal to protect one’s identity. Such accounts were deleted arbitrarily. All this happened right before elections in April 2019.” he said.
We were told that it is a very common practice for admins of pages to create alternative profiles for their Facebook pages. Sometimes, these profiles have names that are similar to the name of the page itself or have the same names as other administrator accounts. BJP-supporting Facebook pages were removed on the basis of such silly reason.
A popular Facebook page, The Frustrated Indian, suffered similar action after they shared from a syndicated news feed. ‘Independent fact-checker’ Boom Live marked one of their articles as ‘fake’. Interestingly, it was a post that was from news agency IANS. When the administrator tried to reach out to Facebook to resolve the issue, he could not get through to him.
Similarly, another Facebook page ‘Nation Wants NaMo’ was deleted abruptly just ahead of elections. The page admin, speaking to OpIndia said that there was no ‘strike’, a warning, before Facebook deleted their page. “It was targeted to be deleted,” the former page admin said.
Another such Facebook account which is regularly targeted is ‘Political Kida’. Ankur Singh, admin of Political Kida, while speaking to OpIndia said how Facebook policies are still unclear and used arbitrarily to silence their pages. “They say that their memes and jokes are fact-checked and reported to be fake, videos that target the Congress party are removed before they go viral. The pages are selectively removed without any intimation and information and when an appeal is made, they are met with an automated response without any further response,” he said.
Numerous such Facebook pages with great reach such as ‘Doval Fan Club’, ‘I Support Ajit Doval’, ‘I Support Zee News’ with ‘likes’ of 4.1 million, 1.8 million, 2.2 million respectively were censored by Facebook as well. There are a lot of other Facebook pages supportive of the BJP that suffered the same fate.
Under such circumstances, it is utterly preposterous to claim that the social media platform is somehow unfairly favouring the BJP. If anything, it is deliberately engaging in malpractice against the party and engaging in electoral malpractice. The current ‘liberal’ rage against Facebook appears to be motivated by Facebook not bending to their will as absolutely as they so desire. Facebook, for its part, has rubbished such allegations.
A Biju Janata Dal MP from Odisha is a die-hard fan of Salman Khan, so much so that his social media pages are full of him constantly tagging and quoting Salman Khan about how he absolutely adores him, idolises him, loves him and well, etcetera etcetera.
Meet Anubhav Mohanty, a successful actor in the Odia movie industry and the Lok Sabha MP from the Kendrapara constituency. Anubhav Mohanty is obsessed with Salman Khan. Actually, that will be an understatement. The Kendrapara MP’s social media is so full of Salman Khan that calling him a mere ‘fan’ itself will be an understatement. Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty lives, breathes and constantly tries to be Salman Khan.
BJD MP had ‘prayed to Maa Durga’ to make him look like Salman Khan
Not joking. We are not joking. Anubhav Mohanty had himself stated that as a child, he once confined himself in the Puja room and prayed to Maa Durga to make him ‘look like Salman Khan’.
We all grow up with idols in our heart
My idol,till date is @BeingSalmanKhan As a child, once I shut myself in Pujaroom,praying to MaaDurga 2 make me looklike #SalmanKhan
When I met him in person,itwas an amazing experience
Last year, the MP had shared some pictures of him meeting the Bollywood superstar. From the images, however, it appears like Maa Durga ignored his prayers.
Anubhav Mohanty’s twitter profile says he has 2 heroes in his life. When he is not praising his boss, that is Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, he is found tagging, praising, and even praying to Salman Khan.
Anubhav Mohanty’s pleading with Salman Khan for ‘1 like’
The above pleading of a sitting Lok Sabha MP to a Bollywood star was for a single ‘like’ for a YouTube video of bodybuilding that he had shared on Twitter.
In sharing the said bodybuilding video, Anubhav Mohanty had also tagged Sylvester Stallone along with ‘Bhaijaan’. He had said that he has been an ardent follower of the above two and ‘needs everyone’s blessings’. What he needs blessings for, however, was not clear. It was probably for making his bodybuilding video more popular.
The video was slightly confusing. The narration said the Lok Sabha MP is constantly facing the challenges of life and winning all of them. But the video showed only clips of him exercising. There was one scene where he was standing in a balcony. But not looking like Salman Khan. Interestingly, that scene is an imitation of Ranbir Kapoor’s legendary “towel view” in his debut movie ‘Sawariya’. Thankfully though, the BJD leader keeps the towel on, unlike Ranbir.
Anubhav Mohanty’s video, screen grab from YouTube
Anubhav defends his love for Salman Khan before haters and critics
It is not that the actor-turned MP’s love for Salman Khan goes unnoticed. A lot of Twitter users criticise his Salman obsession and even advice him to behave in a different manner, since he is an MP. But Anubhav has no inhibitions. The BJD MP’s love for Salman Khan doesn’t bother about social media mockery or condemning.
Mohanty insists that Salman Khan is an ’emotion’ for him and political or not, every person has the right to have and pursue his emotions.
Thank you for being so polite and wanting to dictate how I live my life.
Have you heard of the term "striking a balance". Surely a political person has a right to have and pursue his emotions. No ?
There are certain tweets by Anubhav which cannot be described. There are simply no words for such pure, unadulterated love. For the Kendrapara MP, Salman Khan is more than an actor or star. He considers him the ‘ruler’, the ‘boss’ (sorry, Naveen Patnaik Ji).
BJD MP from Kendrapara showering love on Salman Khan
‘Jai Naveen’ by Anubhav Mohanty in Lok Sabha
Anubhav Mohanty is a popular Odia actor. The actor had defeated BJP’s Baijayant Panda in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the Kendrapara constituency. While taking his oath as an MP in the 17th Lok Sabha, the actor had grabbed headlines by adding ‘Jai Naveen’ slogan.
Anubhav Mohanty taking oath in Lok Sabha
Mohanty had chosen to take oath in the Odia language. He had ended his oath with the slogans, “Jai Jagannath, Jai Odisha, Jai Naveen, and Bande Utkala Janani”. We don’t know if political parties have ’employee of the year’ concept, but if they had, BJD would probably not even need any second thoughts.
Sadly, however, the “1 like” from Salman is probably yet to come for Anubhav Mohanty. A cursory search says Salman Khan has never responded to the actor-turned-MP on social media.
They said, “The channel said that the producers, show & the platform, have no intent whatsoever to offend any community or hurt anybody’s sentiments. Keeping in mind the feedback received and with utmost respect to our audience, we have blurred the image (inadvertently) used in one of the scenes of Abhay2.” They unconditionally apologized for the error.
Zee5 depicts Khudiram Bose as criminal in web series
On Sunday, netizens criticized the OTT Platform Zee5 and makers of Abhay 2 for disrespecting the revolutionary leader Khudiram Bose by portraying him as a criminal. The social media users alleged that in the second episode of the series, the sketch of the freedom fighter was placed with criminals in a police station.
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s latest visit to Turkey for the shooting of his upcoming movie ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ has raised several eyebrows. Amidst the straining relationship between India and Turkey following the Turkish authoritarian ruler Recep Tayip Erdogan’s unwarranted comments on Jammu and Kashmir and his overt support to the Pakistani propaganda on the Indian Union Territory, Khan on Sunday met Turkish First Lady drawing ire of netizens.
Aamir Khan’s charm-offensive of Islamic dictators in Turkey sparks emergence of old reports
With Aamir Khan choosing to turn a blind eye to Erdogan’s hostile remarks for India and his marked shift towards a more primordial version of Islam, most notably with the reversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, social media websites are replete with posts that allude that Khan shares the same zeal for religion as is lately manifested by Turkey’s authoritarian President.
While the articles of alleged interview are old, they have popped up many times and are back on the social media once again, in the wake of Khan’s inexplicable charm-offensive for the Turkey’s ruling regime. Khan had evidently finished the shooting of his movie early and paid a visit to Turkey’s first lady Emine Erdogan that had triggered netizens to draw a similarity between Aamir Khan’s adherence to Islam and Turkey’s totalitarian president Recep Erdogan’s recent descent into medievalist version of Islam.
Aamir Khan had claimed that he would raise his children from Hindu wives as devout Muslims
The alleged interview which is doing the rounds on the Internet said that Khan belongs to a “staunch, conservative and orthodox Muslim family” who traced their origins back to Peshawar. The article quoted Aamir Khan as to saying that though his wives are Hindus, he would raise his kids as Muslims only.
We tried to find the primary source of the article to establish the authenticity of the assertions made by Aamir Khan. One of the most cited sources were from an article on Santa Banta, which now seems to be deleted.
Santa Banta article, now deleted.
Here is an archive link of the article that alleged that Khan had been particularly uncompromising over the choice of faith adhered by his offspring.
While the article was removed from Santa Banta, the same interview is still carried by another website named “The Siasat Daily”, a website whose articles are frequently cited by scores of journalists and is a known “Muslim publication”. But the article attributes Aamir Khan’s quotes to “news agencies”.
Siasat Daily article on Aamir Khan
There are other websites too, who have carried the remarks made by Aamir Khan about raising up his children as Muslims but ‘Santa Banta’ and ‘The Siasat Daily’ seem to be the only two websites that are well known.
In fact, ‘The Siasat Daily’ is not just quoted by journalists but also by official Twitter handles of the various Congress units, lending an air of legitimacy to the website.
Various verified accounts provide legitimacy to publications such as ‘The Siasat Daily’
The official Twitter account of Telangana Congress had recently cited a report published on ‘The Siasat Daily’ to mount an attack against the incumbent KCR government in the state. Quoting the report, Telangana Congress alleged that the KCR government had failed to control coronavirus, provide proper medical facilities to the patients and curb unemployment during the pandemic.
KCR Govt Failed To ?Control corona ?Provide proper medical facilities to corona patients in govt hospitals ?Curb unemployment during this pandemic
KCR also failed to deliver on his promise of ₹ 3016 unemployment allowance to the youth of Telangana !https://t.co/T2gFzqtoNq
Tough to determine if Aamir Khan actually made the claims
It is difficult to ascertain the veracity of the claims made by these websites as Santa Banta has deleted the article and ‘The Siasat Daily’ chalks up undisclosed news sources to assert that Khan made such comments about bringing up children as Muslims.
Earlier, Aamir Khan had been particularly unsparing against articles that have misquoted him or have ascribed fake remarks to him. Aamir Khan had sent a legal notice to various Pakistan websites for carrying a fake news during the release of his movie PK.
The emergence of fake interviews or misquoted assertions are not particularly new phenomenons that have been employed by journalists to create sensationalism. Earlier too, the journalism in India had been tainted with fake stories and interviews, most notably the fake interview of former Finance Minister of India, George Fernandes, by a troll masquerading as journalist Swati Chaturvedi.
We tried to find out if Aamir Khan similarly might have sent legal notice to The Siasat Daily for this particular interview, but we couldn’t find out any such report
In early May 2020, The Hindu published an editorial titled “The mark of zero: on Containment of Covid-19 cases in Kerala.” At the time, Kerala had no new cases of Coronavirus on a few successive days. And the secular ecosystem made sure that the entire world heard about that. In fact, so smug was the tone of the editorial that it ended with the following words.
“It is a success born out of decades-old social revolution and development. This is also the reason why other States, even if they emulate the measures adopted by Kerala to fight the virus, may not be able to achieve the same level of success.”
Look at them using the R-word: revolution. Oh, they went there. They so went there. And they said they were so far ahead that nobody could catch up even if they tried. Ouch. What a way to rub other people’s noses into the ground.
Here is a grab from a popular fan video about the Kerala model, uploaded in mid-July. The song is titled “Up We Go.”
Kerala model on coronavirus
That’s Comrade Vijayan leading the way and Comrade Shailaja behind him, though at a distance. Great music, great composition. Great sycophancy. Not so lucky in terms of timing. Because, starting in mid-July, Coronavirus cases in Kerala began to explode.
In the last four days, Kerala has reported 1500+ cases on each day. A little far from the “mark of zero” envisioned by The Hindu.
And now, this.
Kerala model shattered
Up we go!
No, I am not taking pleasure in this. I am merely speaking the harsh truth to a government and its supporters who have been on a publicity overdrive and insulting everyone else. Speaking “truth to power,” if you will.
Whether you have been living in a cave or outside it, you could not have missed the news of the great “Kerala model” of containing the Coronavirus. The Communists made sure we heard. And they had all the usual allies : BBC, Al Jazeera, New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, UN, WHO, everything.
The sycophants who made that fan video saved me some effort by collecting some of the best headlines. See The Guardian here.
Kerala’s ‘rockstar’ health minister
From Al Jazeera here.
Al Jazeera hailing Kerala
From Huff Post here.
Huffington Post on Kerala
You could fill an entire museum with such headlines that have now turned into jokes that write themselves. Here is one of my favorites, published on Feb 14, 2020, which I believe should be a collector’s item.
Quartz had already declared Kerala had won in as early as February 2020
The arrogance of the Kerala government hit a peak when Health Minister K K Shailaja badmouthed other Indian states in an interview to the BBC.
She literally said Goa has no hospitals. I understand she meant to say Mahe in the Union Territory of Puducherry and mixed up the two. But that’s the kind of gaffe that happens when you are badmouthing your own country to get praise from hostile foreign media.
Arrogance is never a good quality. But if you are going to be an arrogant winner who is in everyone’s faces with your success, make sure first that you really won.
As of now, Kerala has a little over 44,000 total cases. Just behind Madhya Pradesh which has 45,000 cases. Yes, after all that amazing publicity, Kerala ended up running even with Madhya Pradesh. Did I mention that Madhya Pradesh has a population over twice that of Kerala?
Now compare the fanfare around Madhya Pradesh model with that around Kerala model.
The active cases in Kerala stands at little over 15,000, 11th highest in the country currently.
Let me add something here. The ‘rockstar’ Health Minister now says Kerala could soon see 10,000 to 20,000 cases a day. I have my doubts if these experts exist, but more than that, I suspect it is a ploy. The ‘target’ of 10,000 – 20,000 cases a day will never be reached. And when it doesn’t happen, the rockstar will again claim credit for taking tough measures and proving these (possibly imaginary) experts wrong.
I have a question for the media too. Would anyone of you dare to ask now if Kerala Model touted for all of Feb – June was due to luck?
The Communists have deep roots in media that guarantees them favorable coverage no matter what. Other States, even if they emulate the measures adopted by Kerala’s Communist government to get publicity, may not be able to achieve the same level of success.
Anyone can fail at something. That’s life. But when you celebrate too soon, go all over the world crowing about your fake victory and being mean to everyone else, you have truly achieved ‘The mark of zero.’
BJD MP Anubhav Mohanty has warned Odisha Television Network of dire consequences for allegedly running “regular and unvetted pieces” on him since years. The National Spokesperson of the BJD and an elected representative from the Kendrapara Lok Sabha Constituency, Anubhav Mohanty warned Odisha TV to remember what happened to defence analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra when he visited the Konark Temple.
Official Statement by Anubhav Mohanty released on Social Media
Threatening legal action against the news network, Anubhav Mohanty said, “OTV has compromised the ideals of journalism long ago. Having run regular and unvetted pieces on me since years, OTV has been reduced to a mere propaganda channel only to fulfil B.Panda’s dirty political agendas. It’s high time they were taken to the cleaners the legal way.”
The B.Panda referred to by the BJD MP is presumably Baijayant Jay Panda, national vice-president and spokesperson of the BJP, who had made the switch from BJD due to personal differences within the party. Mohanty accused the OTV of engaging in a witch-hunt against him, which he called “unfair and downright unprofessional”.
Accusing OTV, headed by Mrs. Jagi Mangat Panda, of being at the “forefront of all that is wrong with the media today,” Anubhav Mohanty announced that he was initiating legal proceedings under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code to “make the Channel answer for their mistakes”. He accused them of airing an unverified clip that supposedly throws doctors into the “crossfire”.
In what can only be interpreted as a threat, he warned OTV, “I understand the need to mimic one’s master’s knack for running unchecked propaganda, but here’s a reminder- this is ODISHA. If you want an indication of what happens to people who- mess with ODIAS- ask your friend who visited our Konark Temple.”
The ‘friend’ Anubhav Mohanty was referring to can be safely said to be Abhijit Iyer Mitra. The defence analyst was arrested by Odisha Police on the 23rd of October 2018 for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus through his derogatory comments on the Konark Sun Temple and Odisha during his visit to the Temple.
Abhijit Iyer Mitra was accused of hurting Odia pride through his video and he was made to languish in jail for weeks. His health deteriorated after he was made to spend over 40 days in prison and he had to be admitted to the Hospital. Finally, on the 4th of December 2018, the Odisha Government accepted his apology and decided to withdraw the sanction for his prosecution.
The BJD MP invoking the case of Abhijit Iyer Mitra in reference to his legal threat against OTV betrays his desire to censor media coverage that are critical of him and does not bode well for a healthy democracy.
