Hours after Sanjay Raut invoked the great legacies of Shivaji Maharaj and Maharana Pratap to claim that Shiv Sena party respects women, the Shiv Sena spokesperson have come up with a new definition of “haramkhor” to brazen out his stand. In an interaction with AajTak, Raut was seen defending his crass remarks for the actor Kangana Ranaut, saying he meant “haramkhor” as “naughty” and “dishonest”.
“If you want to play politics or whip up frenzy, then any word in any language can be misinterpreted as per one’s needs. In our Maharashtra, when we call someone a haramkhor, we mean that the person is naughty and dishonest,” Sanjay Raut said alleging that the ‘Queen’ actor had been both naughty and dishonest as per the various tabloid reports he read about the actress.
Raut resorts to invoking Shivaji Maharaj and Maharana Pratap to claim Shiv Sena respects women
Earlier in the day, chastened by the backlash his abusive statements against Kangana had triggered, the Shiv Sena spokesperson had to resort to citing the enduring legacies of Hindutva icons such as Shivaji Maharaj and Maharana Pratap to salvage the spiralling situation and convince the critiques that his party, Shiv Sena, respects women.
In a bid to whip up regional chauvinism, the Shiv Sena spokesperson further added that those who have been alleging that Shiv Sena has insulted women have themselves insulted Mumbai and the city’s deity Mumbai Devi. “But one should not forget the fact that those making these allegations have themselves insulted Mumbai and our Mumbai Devi,” Raut said in the tweet.
“Shiv Sena will continue to fight for the pride of women, this is what our great Shivsena supremo taught us…,” Raut said.
Sanjay Raut addressed actor Kangana Ranaut as “haramkhor ladki”
Raut’s response claiming that Shiv Sena stands for the pride of women did not jibe with the abusive remarks he made against actor Kangana Ranaut after she voiced her concerns about Mumbai resembling Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in the wake of a series of ‘Azaadi slogan’ graffiti that had come up in Mumbai. Kangana had raised objections over the Aazadi graffitis on the streets of Mumbai. But, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut had allegedly threatened her to not return to Mumbai.
In response, Kangana said that no big daddy can stop her from entering Mumbai. Sanjay Raut while responding to the News Nation reporter about whether he will take unlawful steps to prevent Kangana Ranaut from entering Mumbai said, “What is law? Did that girl respect the law in the manner in which she spoke? Why are you acting as the lawyer of that ‘haramkhor’ girl?”
Before we proceed further, there are two things that ought to be stated outright. Firstly, the purpose of this article is not to encourage desecration of the Quran or any other Islamic scriptures or doctrine. The sole purpose is to provide an understanding of the core matter at hand, in light of the online battle between ex-Muslims and Hindus. And secondly, most obviously, the author does not believe that all Muslims are Jihadis or terrorists. Now that we are done with formalities, let us jump straight to the matter.
Steven Weinberg, the great American physicist and a Nobel laureate, once remarked, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil, but for good people to do evil – that takes religion” and since then, this quote has almost been weaponised by Atheists around the world to condemn religion as an outdated concept that is using violence to maintain its relevance in a world that has outgrown the need or the desire for its tenets.
The New Atheism movement started in the mid-2000s with the ‘four horsemen for Atheism’ – Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris – gaining immense popularity. The core tenet of New Atheism is that religion was created in an attempt to explain how the world works at a time when science had hardly made the leaps that it has today. Thus, at a time when science has progressed, religion’s validity has expired, so to speak. There are several other claims that New Atheists make which we will examine in the course of this article, however, the central theme remains constant – Religion, any religion, has outlived its validity.
The New Atheism movement, however, ushered in another remarkable trend. It essentially espoused that being an Atheist was not sufficient. Atheists must ‘scientifically’ counter the theists and expose their dogmatic ways wherever they are found.
What started off as an attempt to infuse scientific discourse and composed debate on the question of Religion, soon became a free-for-all with the influx of several ex-Muslims, like Armin Navabi, Harris Sultan and others, who simply assumed that the function of Atheism was ‘desecration’ without the consideration that criticism for every religion would have to differ based on the genesis, nature and context of that specific religion itself.
Armin Navabi, Iranian Ex-Muslim who is now an Atheist first tore up and spat on the Quran. Following the support he got from Hindus, he proceeded to willfully desecrate the Hindu faith. The underlying reason for doing this, per Armin, was that all faiths should be desecrated equally, however, that is not where this saga began.
It has already been established that the saga of desecrating the Hindu faith started with another ex-Muslim, Abdullah Sameer, shielding the Muslim community after the Sweden and Norway riots, getting called out by Robert Spencer and then, proceeding to draw a false equivalence between Hindus (who were calling him out online) and Muslims (who were burning the world).
Soon, after the spat between Robert Spencer and Abdullah Sameer, Sameer started posting offensive images of Hindu Goddess Kali. Along with him, several other ex-Muslims like Harris Sultan and Armin Navabi started talking about how Hindus are just as bad as Muslims because they were calling them out on Twitter. On the 3rd of September, Armin took things a step further and shared the same image of Maa Kali.
Which Hindu god is this? I’ll consider Hindusim if you have more sexy gods. Show me what you got! pic.twitter.com/WBLVjdSNSV
Only a couple of hours before posting this distorted picture which showed Goddess Kali in a sexual epithet, Armin was retweeting and talking about the #DesecrateTheQuran hashtag.
Given how this spat started, one can easily assume that this entire episode was orchestrated to falsely equate Hindus and Muslims post the Sweden and Norway riots by the Muslims. However, for the purpose of this article, I will not be delving into that aspect. What needs to be analysed, however, is the surmise that gives rise to the notion that desecration of all faiths, in equal measure, is a desirable outcome of Atheism.
It is in this spirit, that Harris Sultan, while speaking to ‘Hindu Atheist’ Kushal Mehra question OpIndia for covering Armin’s desecration of the Quran but being silent or even outraged, by his desecration of the Hindu faith.
At the heart of it, is the supposition that all religions are equal and thus, all religions should be desecrated equally and it is this ill-informed position that needs to be challenged.
Dissecting the ‘All religions are equal’ claim
The notion does not really stem from Atheism itself but the notions of religious pluralism that assumes that not only do all religions claim that their truth is the ‘only truth’ that exists, but that all religions are based on the principles of Universal Truths and thus, these are the two tenets that need to be dealt with if religions are to co-exist peacefully.
Religious Pluralism essentially says that firstly, all religions must acknowledge that certain truths exist in other religions as well, thereby declaring that it is not only their own religion that is the ‘only truth’. Further, it says that all religions must acknowledge that every religion teaches basic universal truths that have been taught since before the advent of religion itself.
When one delves into the principles of religious pluralism as a construct that can enable religions co-existing without sectarian violence, it becomes important to ensure that all religions are brought down to the same surface level and hence, the claim that all religions are the same takes a beastly proportion where cultural context is often lost.
For the purpose of this article, we will focus on Islam, Christianity and Hinduism since the question we eventually want to answer is- why is it permissible to desecrate Islam and not desecrate Hinduism?
At the very outset, it suffices to say that no other religion in the world, at this point of time in history, lays out a doctrine for the torture, subjugation, conversion and humiliation of all the people who refuse to believe in their faith, other than Islam.
This question of whether all religions are equal and whether Islam is inherently a religion of peace was discussed at length in an interview with Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer. He said in the interview that Islam as a religion indoctrinates its adherents to slay the Kafirs where they see them. They lay out the doctrine for religious warfare and strict rules as to what is to be done with the ‘spoils of war’.
No other religion in the world has left behind a trail of mangled bodies, blood and gore in its wake as much as Islam and what is worse is that this carnage was sanctified in their religion, in fact, it is one of the necessities of their religion. Moral relativists and apologists of Islam often say that Islam is a religion of peace and it is its adherents who have distorted the peaceful version of Islam.
They also say that the Quran is a peaceful text that essentially takes people closer to universal truths, just as other religions do, but it is the Hadith that twists the meaning of the Quran and ebbs people to commit violence in its name. None of these claims hold scrutiny, according to Spencer, since there exists no version of Islam that does not lay out a doctrine for the subjugation of Kafirs. In the interview, Spencer quoted verses of the Quran that themselves asked Muslims to slay the Kafirs and strike their neck.
Are the Hadits that are used to interpret Quran responsible for the violence while the Quran is largely peaceful?
As Mr Spencer talks about the verses of the Quran that ordain its followers to slay Kafirs and Polytheists, one has to wonder how can a religion that is at odds with Polytheism be equal and aspires for the same goals as that of a Polytheistic religion? When Islam is at odds with Polytheism and the religious texts explicitly mention the subjugation of any Polytheist faith, how accurate is it to say that all religions are exactly the same since neither Christianity (which is also an Abrahamic religion) or Hinduism (which is a polytheistic religion) say anything that remotely resembles Islam.
We can further classify this argument between Abrahamic faiths and Polytheistic faiths. In the conversation with Robert Spencer, it was clear why Islam took over 500 years to find footing in India and countries like Europe fell to the onslaught of Islam far quicker than India. The Quran presents itself as completion and correction of Christianity, said Spencer, which also gives us a window into just how vast the difference between the Hindu faith and Islam/Christianity really is.
Hence, to essentially say that all religions are equal and aspire towards the same universal truths is a fallacious statement that is made by the people who either harbour malice, or ignorance.
What the desecration of the image of Maa Kali meant for Hindus
A familiar grouse that was expressed by the Neo-Atheists is why Hindus were celebrating the desecration of the Quran while they felt outraged when Armin Navabi desecrated the Hindu faith by sexualising Maa Kali. The underlying issue with this question that seems to baffle the Ex-Muslim Atheists is that they, almost militantly, follow the tenet that all religions are the same, a question, that we have debunked earlier in this article.
When we have concluded, with adequate proof, that all religions are indeed not the same, one has to then understand the cultural context to truly understand why Hindus were celebratory, or even supportive, when ex-Muslim Atheists desecrated Islam and went after the same Atheists when they sexualised Kali.
From what I understand, the backlash against Armin Navabi first started with him sharing the sexualised images of Maa Kali and was exacerbated with his follow-up tweet that essentially told Hindus to put Maa Kali in a Burkha if her sexualisation was offending them.
Dear Hindus. It’s not my fault your goddesses are sexy. Maybe put a hijab on them?
What Armin did was to reduce the divine, with no provocation whatsoever, to a basal, human upheaval of hormones. To ask Hindus whether they would want to masturbate to a deity they consider their mother or even say that he “simps for Kali” which essentially means that he would put the deity on a pedestal to get sexual favours in return. This tirade did not come from a place of understanding but from a place of militancy of thought that had no cultural context whatsoever.
When they ask “how is the desecration of the Quran different from the desecration of Maa Kali”, the simple fact remains that the ex-Muslims grew up in a household that deeply believed in the tenets of Islam, as per their own confessions. Their draw towards Atheism or even anti-theism comes from being told that if they do not follow exactly what the Quran says, they will go to hell.
Or that apostates deserve death and if they do not follow the tenets of the Quran, they too, like apostates would deserve death. From being told that women don’t deserve respect or can even be beaten up because the religion accords a sub-human position to women. It is a faith that is largely considered the root of violence and militancy across the world, a faith that has claimed countless lives in order to stay relevant in the modern age.
Hence, since their anti-theism or atheism comes from their experience of religion growing up in a household that followed Islam, they understand what they are desecrating, to begin with. They know, that when they tear the Islamic scripture, what is the extent of the ideology and what those pages say, in very specific terms.
However, for most monotheists, barring a few who can be debated on their ideas of universal truths and not just anti-theism, the idea of Hinduism is too abstract to even understand what the religion’s basic tenets are. This was, in fact, admitted by Navabi himself in a podcast he did a year ago. How then is it acceptable to critique a religion one doesn’t understand simply because it is a religion and the anti-theist believes in the desecration of all religions, even though they are by no way equal.
Further, what the western anti-theists and atheists, a significant chunk of them being ex-Muslims, don’t understand is that there is a cultural context to the outrage of Hindus. For thousands of years, Hindus have been subjugated by the Islamist invaders who have raped Hindu women, beheaded our kings, murdered our children all for the ultimate goal of the establishment of the Caliphate. There are countless tales of how the Islamic invaders murdered Hindus and kept their wives, mothers and daughters as slaves – the spoils of war.
The barbarity was so perverse, that Hindu women often chose to jump into the fire and give up their lives after Hindus were defeated in war, lest they were taken slaves by Islamic invaders. You might wonder why they didn’t simply slit their wrists instead of stepping into the burning fire – well – they did not want their corpse to be desecrated by the followers of Islam who had laid siege on their land.
The brutality is not just limited to Islamic invaders. In the modern political landscape of India, Hindus were humiliated during the partition as well. One recalls how the Khilafat movement claimed the lives of countless Hindus during the Moplah massacres by Islamists and even the Direct Action Day, spearheaded by Jinnah. After the countless deaths of Hindus, our own, MK Gandhi, asked Hindus to simply lay down their lives if the Islamists chose to claim it.
During partition, Hindus were mutilated and their women raped. At the altar of ‘secularism’, which the Atheists love to espouse, India decided to not conduct a full exchange of population, a suggestion that was made by various luminaries at the time including Dr B.R. Ambedkar, and thus, began another cycle of subjugation in modern India. This year itself, we saw riots by sections of the Muslim community and aided by the Left against the Hindus.
The saga of brutality continues to this day not just in India, but also, against the minority Hindus of Pakistan and when India decided that the minority Hindus could take refuge in India, their natural home post-partition, the Islamists ran riots yet again. They stabbed a Hindu over 50 times simply because he was Hindu and chopped off the arms and legs of another before burning him alive.
Since the Atheists and anti-theists love to ally with the Left, the obvious question that will be thrown after reading this article is – what about the Muslims who died? Let me preempt that question and say that in every war, both sides suffer losses, but war is defined by those who start the war, and Hindus, have never started one.
With centuries of subjugation behind them, when Armin says that Hindus must put their Goddess in a Hijab if they are offended by the cheap sexualisation, he triggers an all-too-familiar sentiment – convert or die, worse, be raped.
For centuries, whether they were Islamic invaders, or the Muslims post-partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the domestic Muslims who still employ this tactic or even the Muslims of Pakistan who till date subjugate Hindus, this trope has been used to humiliate Hindu women and their faith. For centuries, these were the options given to Hindu women by Islamist barbarians – wear a Burkha, convert to Islam or be raped or killed.
This is exactly the sentiment that was invoked by Armin – He essentially said that he will reduce our Goddess to an object of cheap titillation, a disrobed woman, humiliated because he can. And if Hindus did not want him to cheapen their mother, they should make her wear a Hijab.
While it is unclear that this was the intent or not, however, it is clear that internalised misogyny, Hinduphobia, hate for Idolatory and the unbridled urge for the subjugation of Kafirs is so strong, that even after leaving the faith, the barbarism towards polytheists remains.
Hindus saw what Armin did as not just the humiliation of their deity, but also Iconoclasm that the community is far too familiar with. For the Hindu, there is absolutely no difference between their Idols being desecrated by the Islamic hoards and being buried in the steps of a mosque, their Ram Temple being demolished by invaders to build a Mosque and then deny them their rights and what Armin did. Essentially, it was an outsider, an Islamist, perhaps, who desecrated their faith and presented the remains as an offering at the foot of Abrahamism.
One simple account of the hatred Muslims had for idolators comes from a poetic account of what Ahmad Shah did at Sidhpur, available in Mirat-i-Sikandari, the history of Gujarat, written by Sikandar ibn-i-Muhammad alias Manjhu ibn-i-Akbar in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. He marched on Saiyidpur,— writes the historian, on Jamad-ul-Awwal in AH 818 (July/August, AD 1415) in order to destroy the temples which housed idols of gold and silver.
As quoted by Sita Ram Goel in his book, ‘Hindu Temples’, the poetic account is as below:
He marched under divine inspiration, For the destruction of temples at Saiyidpur, Which was a home of the infidels, And the native place of accursed fire-worshippers.— There they dwelt, day and night, The thread-wearing idolaters.— It had always remained a place for idols and idol-worshippers, It had received no injury whatsoever from any quarter. It was a populous place, well-known in the world, This native place of the accursed infidels. Its foundations were laid firmly in stone, It was decorated with designs as if drawn from high heaven. It had doors made of sandal and ud.— It was studded with rings of gold, Its floors were laid with marble, Which shone like mirrors. Ud was burnt in it like fuel, Candles of camphor in large numbers were lighted in it. It had arches in every comer, And every arch had golden chandeliers hanging in it. There were idols of silver set up inside, Which put to shame the idols of China and Khotan. Such was this famous ancient temple, It was famous all over the world. By the effort of Ahmad, it was freed from the idols, The hearts of idol-worshippers were shattered with grief. He got mosques constructed, and mimbars placed in them, From where the Law of Muhammad came into force. In place of idols, idol-makers and idol-worshippers, Imams and callers to prayers and khatibs were appointed. Ahmads good grace rendered such help, That an idol-house became an abode of Allah. When the Sultan was free from Saiyidpur, he marched on Dhar in AH 819 (AD 1416-17).
One has to understand that for a Hindu, what Islamic invaders did to their temples and their idols is no different from what Armin Navani or any of the other ex-Muslim Atheists did to the image of Maa Kali. In both cases, the iconoclasm was exactly the same. In both cases, the followers of Abrahamic religion (yes, Atheist is also an Abrahamic, Monotheistic religion, which I will explain later in the article), desecrated the idol that they sacred. An idol and a faith that did absolutely nothing to deserve the kind of humiliation that it received except the fact that it chose to exist and fought, fiercely, the attempts to convert.
The urge to desecrate Hindu idols comes from the basic contradiction between Hinduism and other monotheistic religions. The icons of Hinduism are expressionist while the monotheistic religions are mostly suppressionist. While Islam and Christianity are political ideologies, Hinduism is that which depends on its adherent’s experience and spirituality. While all you need to understand and even criticise Islam and Christianity is a study of their text, what you need to criticise Hinduism is experiencing and ultimately, working up to understanding its scriptures.
While Christianity and Islam focus on a binary value system, Hinduism has multitudes of value systems that can even be at odds with each other. That Islam and Christianity both function on the basic premise that any human emotion is to be suppressed, Hinduism believes that it is to be celebrated and expressed, and it is this expressionism and the lack of binary value systems that Abrahamics find so difficult to rationalise.
The binary model simply does not work with Hinduism and thus, the frustrations of a suppressive culture is often expressed by desecrating symbols of an expressionist, spiritual religion.
Essentially, when Hindus say that Abrahamics do not understand Hinduism enough to criticise it, they mean that until they have gone through the experience of being Hindu, there is no text that they can read and claim proficiency in the religion, unlike Islam and Christianity. To top it all, other than the painful ignorance of Hinduism itself, the Atheists and anti-theists who have denounced Islam do not understand the cultural context of the Hindu communities struggle with Iconoclasm and thus, have not the faintest idea of the scars that have been inflicted time and again.
For a Hindu, an Atheist is only deepening the scars left by the religion they claim to have denounced. For a Hindu, what the Atheist does is no different from what the adherents of Islam did to his idols and temples. And this cultural context cannot be ignored simply by repeating the “all religions are equal” trope, because they are certainly not.
Why Hindus endorse desecration of Islam but not of Hinduism
20-year-old Yazidi girl Israa, who had been rescued from ISIS, burnt her hijab as she was surrounded by the Kurdish forces in 2019. The image, that powerful image, became one of the symbols of resistance against the Islamic forces.
Israa is helped by female Kurdish fighters after being released from IS fighters (Image source: metro.uk)
In her interview, she had said that she felt suffocated the first time she was asked to wear it and she wished she could burn the ISIS terrorists just like she burnt her hijab.
Why did Israa feel suffocated with the Hijab and why was burning that Hijab such a powerful sentiment for her? For that matter, why is burning the image of Adolf Hitler such a powerful image for Jews? Why does a Yazidi celebrate when symbols of her oppression are destroyed?
Because the hijab symbolises and is a manifestation of her oppression. Her scars. It symbolises the very people who took away her dignity, her faith, her family, her community, her temple, her everything. It is a symbol of those who pushed her and her family to darkness. It is a symbol of those who she wishes to destroy, not because she hates Muslims, but because the staunchest followers of Islam destroyed her life and desecrated on everything she and her ancestors held dear.
Given the history of Hindus and their subjugation by Islamists, the sentiment mirrors that of Yazidis. When symbols of oppression are destroyed, Hindus are bound to support that as an act of defiance. It becomes even more pronounced when that destruction of oppressive symbols comes from those who claim to have left the faith of Islam.
It is essentially seen as a validation of vindication of their pain. The reason why Armin got support and coverage when he desecrated the Quran is for the very reason that a Yazidi woman would burn her Hijab or be jubilant when someone else does. It was a destruction of the symbol of centuries of oppression. It was an act of defiance, the same defiance felt by Hindus. It validated the angst felt by Hindus.
Now, imagine claiming that the destruction of the Hijab by a Yazidi is the same as the destruction of the symbols of Yazidism. While Islamists consider Yazidis as devil worshippers, would it be fair to assume if a Yazidi is happy about the destruction of the Quran or even that of the Hijab, she has to mandatorily be accepting of the destruction of her faith when has done nothing to receive that ire?
This analogy is exactly what is needed to understand why Hindus supported the desecration of the Quran by Armin and not the desecration of Maa Kali. Hindus saw their vindication in an ex-Muslim recognising that Islam is a religion that has the potential to subjugate non-believers because that premise has been responsible for their own humiliation for centuries.
On top of that, it helped them reinforce that what the Left has been telling them to almost gaslight them, about Islam being a religion of peace is not true – and this came not just from Hindus, who were the victims, but also people who used to be Muslims and have since left the faith.
Then came the inexplicable desecration of Maa Kali and it jolted Hindus from their stupor. They wondered why an Atheist ex-Muslim would desecrate their faith when they had done nothing to deserve that ire. Armin tore the Quran because his experiences taught him that he did not want to endorse the ideology in the Book. What was his experience with Hinduism that drove him to desecrate Hinduism? Nothing except the notion that all religions are equal.
Hindus would endorse the desecration of the faith that subjugated them and reject the desecration of their own faith that has been subjugated by the oppressor.
Interestingly, Atheists seem to not have the bandwidth to grasp the fact that by desecrating Hinduism, they have only cut the branch that they were sitting on.
Their aim in desecrating Islam was that its tenets are inconsistent with the modern age values that the world espouses. However, one of the tenets is to slay polytheistic religions and as a result of that, idols are desecrated. Essentially, the Atheists ex-Muslims seem to have done exactly what their erstwhile religion ordained them to do, it was only cloaked with Atheism and not Islamism.
The ire of Hindus was expected, and necessary because for far too long, their faith has been desecrated for no fault of theirs, simply because the Abrahamics cannot accept polytheistic faiths. Saying ‘enough is enough’ is important.
The shaming of Hindus when they voiced their disgust
We have already established why Hindus were disgusted and outraged at the conduct of Atheists against Hinduism and the depiction of Maa Kali, however, what was more unpalatable is the response of the Atheists, ex-Muslims and Hindus to that outage. Outright, Hindus were labelled “just as bad as Jihadis” for protesting against the blatant disrespect for their faith, for no good reason.
What is essentially wrong with this assertion is that first, the ex-Muslim atheists and Liberal Hindus were trying, rather hard, to draw a false equivalence between Hindus and Muslims. That is almost the same as drawing an equivalence between Jews and Nazis when a Jew criticises the desecration of its faith by ex-Nazis. Or saying that a Yazidi is “as bad” as an ISIS terrorist because they differentiate between the burning of the Hijab and the ruination of her faith by the very people who enslaved her.
What the Atheists and Liberal Hindus essentially wanted was to submit to the whims of those who clearly have no idea of the cultural context of Hindus or worse, know and don’t care. Personally, I believe it is the second because I have seen several videos where these ex-Muslims discuss Hinduism and I find it hard to believe that they would have no idea of the cultural context.
Essentially, the Atheists ex-Muslims and Liberal Hindus wanted Hindus to submit to the desecration of their faith, quietly, demurely, or they threatened to label them just as bad the very people who raped, subjugated, murdered and forcefully converted them to Islam. The manipulation in this tactic is staggering.
Essentially, this is akin to telling a victim that she must not voice her opposition to what the perpetrator did against her or she will become just as bad as the perpetrator himself and because the victim harbours such visceral hate for everything that her perpetrator stands for, she would somehow be brainwashed and gaslighted into silence.
The debauchery of this argument was further exposed when some of the Hindus started telling their fellow Hindus that Hinduism is a tolerant religion and hence, any and all desecration must not be responded to aggressively. What they wanted to tell Hindus is that they should accept the desecration of their faith to display how tolerant they and that if they don’t, even their words of protest would be right compared to those who were murdering and burning down entire cities because they were offended.
Perhaps the overtly erudite Ex-Muslims and Hindu Atheists and liberal Hindus need to pay attention and read Karl Popper. He says:
“Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant“.
Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance is an apt description of what Abrahamics and Liberal Hindus want pious Hindus to follow. Essentially, these elements want Hindus to be tolerant to a level where the intolerant reign over the tolerant and the tolerant espoused by Hindus dies along with them. Certainly, one can see how that is a principle that has never been one that can be followed without the complete annihilation of the community that wishes to be tolerant to the level of their own destruction.
It is essential to understand here that Islam took over 500 years to find footing in India because of the deep faith that Hindus held. Despite the barbarity heaped upon them, they refused to submit to the rule of Islam and held on to their faith despite all odds. When the Liberal Hindu and ex-Muslim Atheists want Hindus to inexplicably let go of that faith in the name of tolerance, what they do is create a situation where they leave the faith open to the onslaught of Abrahamics – the intolerant.
Does the last standing major pagan religion in the world deserve to be annihilated on the basis of hollow principles like tolerance? This is a question that Hindus need to ask themselves without consideration for what Abrahamics believe they should do. But under no circumstances should Hindus be played by moral pleas of tolerance and in no manner, should they be manipulated to believe that their words can be deemed just as violent as rampaging mobs burning the world down.
Freedom of Speech – The hypocrisy of it all
Neo-Atheism and especially, those by Ex-Muslims and Ex-Christians are essentially based on two concepts that they consider the axiomatic truths – Universal value system and binary value system, as discussed before, that draws heavily from the Enlightenment philosophy. Essentially, this means that Atheists believe that there are certain universal value systems that are to be accepted without any question. Individual rights, the dominance of man over nature, freedom of expression, overt reliance on logic and essentially, rejecting everything that is not “real”. The binary logic sees everything in black and white and is a concept of absolutism.
Essentially, Atheism gives no room for any deviation from what it believes to be the ultimate truth and/or the ultimate value that is to be espoused. When ex-Muslims criticise Islam for its dogmatic practises, they must essentially declare that all religions are to be treated the exact same way since their binary logic does not allow them to understand a construct where a religion like Hinduism can have multitudes of value systems.
When they talk about freedom of expression, they must be absolutists because any limitation means that they are being thoroughly non-binary. For Atheists, they must desecrate Hinduism if they desecrate Islam because since one religion is problematic, all religions must be equally problematic. If one religion has Jihadis who burn the world down, the other must also have the same kind of adherents even though there is no empirical evidence to prove the hypothesis.
The beliefs of Liberalism and Atheism come from the enlightenment age which had no scope for the understanding of Hinduism since it was aimed at overthrowing the dogmatic Church. Thus, Hinduism and its criticism thereof simply remains a product of the Abrahamic lens that is donned by Liberals and Atheists without really the consideration that none of these principles applies in totality to Sanatan Dharma.
In that sense of absolutism, freedom of speech and expression is also meant to be absolute according to most liberals and atheists, however, just as any absolute ideology, this too suffers from its inherent hypocrisies.
Every culture has its natural limits to freedom of expression that draws from the cultural context of that particular society. For example, one would not go to Israel and name their child Adolf Hitler because there is a contextual limit to FoE that comes into play. Similarly, one would not use the “N-word” in the USA because attached to it are tales of suppression and one has to give due importance to the cultural and societal context before being an absolutist as far as FoE is concerned.
This was proved remarkably well when in a podcast by Kushal Mehra, who calls himself a Hindu Atheist, three ex-Muslims refused to use the “N-word” even when the subject came up. The ex-Muslims on that podcast included Harris Sultan who is now equating Hindus to Jihadis because they would not roll over and accept the desecration of their harmless faith.
If Harris Sultan was indeed an absolutist when it came to freedom of speech, he should have ideally had no problem with using the N-word rather openly. He did not because Sultan seems to be more clued in and respectful of the cultural context of the country he lives in and more importantly, the culture he has adopted as his own.
Extending the same rationale, one has to question the Atheists that if they would not demand absolute FoE to use the “N-word” because of the history of subjugation attached to that word or would not expect a Jew to ‘tolerate’ anyone ‘hailing Hitler’, why would they then expect unbridled and unrestricted freedom of expression when talking about Hinduism?
If these ex-Muslims would not call Jews ‘just as bad as the Nazis’ for voicing their exception to their faith being desecrated in the same manner as Hitler did, why would they say that Hindus are as bad as the Jihadis when Hindus were voicing their exception to their faith being desecrated in the exact same manner as the Jihadis did?
To take this a step further, their wails of ‘freedom of expression’ became a loud shriek and words such as ‘Mujahindus’, drawing an equivalence with Mujahideen, were thrown about. Atheists posture as the arbiters of morality but here they are, conflating people trolling a person on social media with cast distance between them with actual terrorists. Speech is now violence we are to believe. And such people pretend to be FoE absolutists.
Abhijit Iyer Mitra calls Hindus opposing the sexualising of Maa Kali ‘Mujahindus’.
The amusing aspect of this is the fact that Abhijit Iyer-Mitra himself does not hesitate to abuse the parents of individuals he disagrees with. Coming from him, it is especially difficult to accept such an argument. The other argument, presented by Kushal Mehra is that people in India do not understand how neo-atheists in the West operate.
I humbly disagree with that assertion. We understand perfectly how neo-atheists operate in the West. Neo-atheists in western countries are overwhelmingly oriented towards the Left and suffer from delusions of their own. In the current context, just because they get a kick out of abusing our Gods, it does not mean that a deliberate provocation ought to go unchallenged.
There also seems to be an insinuation that Hindus ought to be fearful of the mockery neo-atheists are capable of. With due regards, there is absolutely no reason for us to be fearful of them. Instead, they are the ones who ought to be careful with regards to the manner in which they use their speech. One does not know when cancel culture strikes them down. Also, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra and Kushal Mehra are good friends of mine but I am extremely disappointed with their ideological stance on the current debate revolving around atheism and freedom of expression.
The hypocrisy of Harris Sultan is particularly astounding. He was recently threatened by a Muslim for his criticism of Islam. The offended Muslim had actually threatened to hurt Sultan’s family and had made it clear that he was aware of the atheist’s address. Hindus have done no such thing. Harris Sultan has personal knowledge of the fact that Hindus and radical Muslims are not the same. Even so, even he peddles the delusion of equivalence between the two.
Why it is perfectly okay for Hindus to endorse desecration of Quran and oppose abuse of Hindu Gods
At the very outset, it ought to be mentioned that the foremost loyalties of Hindus ought to lie with their Gods and Goddesses and not to concepts such as freedom of expression and other such things. It is perfectly permissible, even rational, for Hindus to not tolerate the abuse of the Devis and Devtas. There is no decree that FoE ought to be the foremost priority of Hindus.
Atheists might value FoE above all else, and we have already established that they are not the FoE absolutists they pretend to be, but Hindus are under no compulsion to prioritise FoE over their Gods and Goddesses. It is also perfectly rational for people to have one set of rules for the out-group and completely different for the in-group, there is nothing wrong with that.
Atheists do not have the authority to decide what is permissible and what is not. For them, insulting someone’s mother is crossing the line. We share the same sentiment. The only problem here is that we consider our Goddesses to be our mothers as well. Therefore, their insult towards our Goddesses invokes the same emotions in us that an insult to their mother evokes in them. They have no business dictating the relationship we share with our Gods and Goddesses.
It also ought to be mentioned that neo-atheism is intrinsically Abrahamic in its approach. It arises out of the enlightenment worldview that was ingrained in Abrahamic philosophy. It is no surprise then that modern atheism has a distinctly protestant approach to it. Furthermore, it also ought to be mentioned that the fervour with which modern atheists approach politics is the same as a devotee approaches religion.
Neo-atheists have merely substituted religion with the political ideology of their choice. Instead of proselytising on behalf of a religion, they proselytise to convert their people into their favoured political ideology. Instead of Gods and Goddesses, they want people to believe in absolute FoE, the rules of which they wish to dictate as the evidence clearly by the current saga, and the precepts of liberalism.
Hindus are under no compulsion to live our lives by their rules. ‘Hindu’ atheists might fancy calling themselves Charvakas but they are no different from neo-atheists at all. They have utterly failed to distinguish themselves from the ideology that neo-atheists espouse. Calling nonsense by a different name does not change the fact that it is still nonsense.
Before attempting to corner Hindus, it is incumbent upon atheists to provide evidence for their claim that the world will automatically be a better place without religion. It ought to be mentioned that the absence of religion does not automatically lead to a paradise for human rights and freedom of expression. In the 20th century, the biggest death toll was under Communism. In the 21st century, hundreds and thousands of Muslims have been locked up in ‘reeducation camps’ by Communist China. The crimes may not have been committed in the name of atheism but they do disprove the atheist claim that a lack of religion automatically leads to a better world.
If the current episode has proved anything, it is that there is no essential difference between Charvakas and neo-atheists. The other thing that it has proved is ex-Muslims are remarkably obtuse about cultural sensitivities. The only good thing that has come out of it is the fact that Hindus have demonstrated that they shall no longer take kindly to the abuse of their Gods.
Santosh Trivedi, priest at Kedarnath shrine, was shifted to AIIMS in Rishikesh on Monday after his health worsened while protesting against the formation of the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board in Uttarakhand. The 32-year old priest has been protesting in freezing temperatures for over 2 months.
Santosh Trivedi was transported to Rishikesh on a helicopter. Priests have been protesting over the formation of the board for a long time. Their demandsa have not yet been met by the state government. They have been threatening to continue the protest until the decision to form the board is taken back.
Vinod Shukla, the president of Kedarnath Tirtha Purohit Mahasabha, was quoted by Hindutan Times as saying, “We have been protesting for months, but the state government has not paid any heed to our demands. Even in such extreme temperatures in Kedarnath, Trivedi would protest bare-chested outside the shrine and eat only one meal a day. His health condition has worsened. He has been admitted to AIIMS in Rishikesh for treatment.”
“A team rushed to the shrine and brought the priest to Lincholi on a stretcher, from where he was airlifted to Dehradun for treatment,” Vineet Kumar, an official from State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), said. Harish Thapliyal, the public relations officer (PRO) at AIIMS, Rishikesh, stated, “A priest from Kedarnath, Santosh Trivedi, was admitted to the hospital at around 11.30 am on Monday. He complained of pain in his lower abdomen and was administered medicines accordingly. Doctors have taken his swab samples for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) test as per the protocol. He is being examined further.”
Santosh Trivedi has been protesting wearing just a Dhoti since June. “My protest is against the formation of the Devsthanam Board. This move is to deprive us priests from our traditional rights. I will continue my protests,” he had said. Vinod Shukla has threatened to intensify the protests across the Char Dham shrines if anything unfortunate happened to the Kedarnath priest.
In his 68th address to the nation in Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the importance of proper diet and nutrition for women and children in their formative years. “Nutrition plays a key role in helping children unleash their true potential. The month of September will be celebrated as ‘Poshan Maah’ or nutrition month nationwide. Nation and nutrition are inextricably linked,” he said during his address to the nation.
PM Modi highlighted that our food intake influences our mental and intellectual development. He added that it is essential for a newborn child and the mother to get complete nourishment. The Prime Minister said, “Only public participation can make the initiative successful.” He informed that the ‘nutrition’ has been made into a mass movement in rural areas of India in the past few years.
Quizzes and meme competitions to be used to spread awareness
“Be it through Poshan Safta or Poshan Maah, we are creating awareness about the importance of nutrition. Schools have been asked to hold competitions to spread awareness among children… Just like class monitor, there needs to be a nutrition monitor and nutrition card,” PM Modi stated. He further informed that a quiz on food and nutrition will be organised during the ‘Nutrition Month’ on the MyGov portal.
Proper nutrition is vital to build a prosperous nation. #POSHANMaah2020 starts today. Let us undertake efforts to reach out to people across the length and breadth of India and spread awareness on eradicating malnutrition. This will help our Nari Shakti and Yuva Shakti. pic.twitter.com/mpPEuaT210
PM Modi stated that a meme competition will be organised and has asked people to participate in it. He highlighted the nutrition park built on the premises adjoining the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat. “India is a large country with diverse food habits, seasons, and climates… It is important that a nutrient-rich diet plan is prepared, specific to each region”, he emphasised.
Central database about region-specific nutritious diet to be created
Taking to Twitter, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, wrote, “In order to form a database of indigenous food items with high nutrition value, the Ministry seeks support of people of India. Contribute towards Bharatiya Poshan Krish Kosh by sharing traditional recipes of your family/region.” She had appealed to people to share recipes of balanced and nutritious region-specific diet so that they can create a central database for the welfare of women and young children.
On March 8, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launchedPOSHAN Abhiyaan (abbreviated for The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) to improve the nutritional level for children, pregnant and lactating women. Also known as National Nutrition Mission, the objective behind the campaign was to reduce malnutrition by 2022. NITI Aayog has been handed the task to monitor, evaluate, and file periodic reports about the progress of the initiative.
When the ‘Poshan Maah’ was first observed in 2018, the broad themes included optimal breastfeeding, anemia, growth monitoring, complementary feeding and education, diet, hygiene, and sanitation of girl child. The event was successful as the Mission reached over 13 crore children, 12.2 crore women, and 6.2 crore men through various activities observed in September 2018. In total, a total of a whopping 30.6 crore people were benefitted by the awareness campaign.
In a new development surrounding the unnatural death of the 34-year-old actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a team of three AIIMS doctors had prepared a list of four questions for the Cooper hospital doctors who conducted the autopsy of the deceased actor, reportedIndia Today.
On Saturday, the team of three doctors from AIIMS Delhi, namely, Dr. T Millo, Dr. Adarsh Kumar, and Dr. Abhishek Yadav visited the scene along with teams from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and CFSL (Forensic Investigation of Crime and Scientific Services). They were in Mumbai for a short period between September 4 and September 6.
AIIMS doctors quiz Cooper Hospital doctors about the autopsy report
The five doctors from the Cooper Hospital were quizzed by the Delhi team. The four questions included, “What is your opinion about ligature mark alone? With mixing the internal examinations findings and inquest reports. Please explain how you ruled out the possibility of ligature strangulation? How could ligature mark be produced by a kurta, the alleged ligature material? How this narrative of homicidal ligature strangulation which has been spread among public all over world can be resolved?”
Reportedly, the last pictures of Sushant Singh Rajput had horizontal ligature marks in the middle of the neck, instead of being oblique and abraded. Such an occurrence is common in homicide cases and not suicide.
Medical Team from Delhi visits Mumbai
Earlier, the medical board held a meeting and concluded, following the assessment of documents, that a visit to the crime scene was essential. The team of doctors had the mandate to visit the crime scene as well as the Cooper Hospital where the post-mortem of Sushant Singh Rajput was conducted. They also had the mandate to interact with the officers from the Central investigative agency, mortuary staff, and the doctors who performed the autopsy. The doctors from AIIMS Delhi also recreated the crime scene in the presence of Meetu Singh, the sister of the deceased actor.
Autopsy report of Sushant Singh Rajput lacks time stamp
As per a report by India Today, the final autopsy report lacked a timestamp, which is considered a critical piece of information. Dr. Sudhir Gupta, the head of the Forensics Department at AIIMS, has stated that the Mumbai police should have sought a second opinion from doctors since the column for the timestamp was left vacant. “It is a hard fact, what can be said about that … they should give it. It is mandatory,” he was quoted as saying. He further added, “If there is something missing (in the autopsy report) they have to take a second opinion from doctors.”
Online streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Voot, Amazon Prime and others have offered to self-police content on their respective platforms to avoid censorship from Indian authorities. About 15 companies have signed a self-regulatory code, described as the “Universal Self-Regulation Code for OCCPs (Online Curated Content Providers)” to prevent regulators from censoring content deemed problematic by them.
The 15 signatories include Zee5, Viacom 18, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, MX Player, Jio Cinema, Eros Now, Alt Balaji, Arre, HoiChoi, Hungama, Shemaroo, Discovery Plus, and Flickstree.
The new self-regulation code mandates the service providers to set up grievance redressal mechanism, involving complaint department, internal committees or both to deal with the issues. The code was presented over the weekend by The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), emphasising that intends to “empower consumers with information and tools to assist them in making an informed choice” and “nurture creativity and provide creators the freedom to tell the finest stories.”
The common practices under the new code include providing content descriptions, age ratings, and parental controls. In addition to this, online platforms are mandated to set up a Consumer Redressal Department or/and an internal committee, an advisory panel, to address the complaints, appeals and escalations raised by the people. The advisory panel should have a minimum of three members, including two senior executives of the platform, and one independent advisor. The external advisors will be appointed in the next 60 days.
OTT platforms have a history of airing problematic content on their platforms
The development comes at a time when many Over The Top (OTT) media streaming services had a free pass, airing content without exercising any censorship over it. They were accused of providing their platform for Hinduphobic movie makers to host deeply problematic and severely critical content with impunity as the government had been reluctant in censoring the content that went on their platforms.
For far too long, Netflix, the American online streaming service, has been involved in airing controversial web series that depicted Hinduism and Hindu Gods in a bad light. Recently, a controversy was kicked up, after Netflix’s new Telugu film “Krishna and his Leela” showed a male character named Krishna having sexual encounters with many women, one of them with a girl named Radha. The controversy created a furore on social media platforms, with many users vehemently criticising Netflix for hurting their religious sentiments.
This was not the first time that Netflix has been accused of providing a platform for disseminating Hinduphobic views through its platform and hurting the religious sensitivities of lakhs of pious Hindus. Earlier, Netflix series such as Sacred Games, Ghoul and Leila were decried for portraying Hinduism and Hindu practices as wicked.
Amazon Prime has also been accused of providing its portal space to blatantly Hinduphobic content. The online streaming service by Amazon had come under attack after Anushka Sharma produced ‘Paatal Lok’ was accused of broadcasting Hinduphobic views. The social media users criticised the show for degrading the Hindu culture by glorifying beef-eating in a few scenes.
Another OTT platform, Zee5, was under the fire of Hindu organisations and senior BJP leaders over the blatant Hinduphobia pushed by the platform through its new Tamil web series ‘Godman’. Several Hindu groups, including prominent voices BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, social media users had raised their voices against the anti-Hindu web series. The blowback from the Hindu organisations and Hindus on social media was so severe that Zee5 had to suspend the release of the controversial web series.
Ekta Kapoor’s Alt Balaji had also come under a severe attack of the social media users after many complained that an erotic show on the platform disrespected and disparaged the Indian Army personnel. After receiving flak for a controversial sex scene in her erotic web series XXX 2, streaming on OTT platform Alt Balaji, producer Ekta Kapoor later claimed that the team has deleted the scene in question.
The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested Asif Shah alias Nafiz, a resident of Jajmau in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, who had allegedly used occult practices to trap Govind Nagar’s 18-year-old Muskaan.
Muskaan’s mother, Mamata Tiwari, while speaking to OpIndia has also confirmed that Asif alias Nafiz, who had been absconding ever since the case came to the fore, has been arrested on September 6 and sent to jail.
Muskaan’s family had filed a complaint with the local police station in Govind Nagar, Kanpur, accusing a Muslim youth named Asif Shah alias Nafiz of ‘brainwashing’ their daughter with the help of occult practices, physically abusing her, threatening and intimidating her to convert into Islam and marry him.
On the basis of the complaint, Govind Nagar police had registered an FIR against Asif Shah under IPC Section 366 and had been investigating the matter.
Asif referred to his first wife as “apaa” and she, in turn, called him “Bhaijaan”
Speaking about the youth’s arrest, Muskaan’s enraged mother also made other allegations. She said that Asif is a married man with two children. He is 35-years-old, while Muskaan was only 18. He had lied to Muskaan about his previous marriage. In fact, when he took Muskaan to his house he had allegedly introduced his wife as his elder sister.
Mamata Tiwari said that till the time Muskaan lived there, Asif referred to his first wife as “apaa” (elder sister in Urdu)and she, in turn, called him “Bhaijaan” (brother in Urdu). “Sodeceitful was Asif that he also taught his two children to call him mamu in front of Muskaan”, revealed Mamata Tiwari.
Speaking about her daughter, Mamata Tiwari, in a heavy voice, said that she would take time to recover from the shock.
Kanpur Love Jihad: Victim’s family claims Asif trapped, used occult practices to intimidate her.
OpIndia had earlier reported how the 18-year-old daughter Muskaan was ‘trapped’ by one Asif Shah alias Nafiz, who brainwashed her into embracing Islam. She was then, forcefully converted and married off to Asif. Here, the family of the girl have accused the Muslim boy and his family of brainwashing Muskaan into embracing Islam with the use of some occult practices and intimidation methods.
The victim’s mother Mamata Tiwari, Mamata’s employer Deepti Tiwari and the Bajrang Dal activist Ramji Tiwari, who had helped the Hindu family to bring their daughter home, all had confirmed that this too, like other cases in Kanpur, was also a case of Love Jihad, where the accused’s family had targeted and trapped a girl in a planned manner.
CM Yogi Adityanath asks UP officials to stop ‘love jihad’ incidents in Kanpur
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed senior officials of the state Home Department to prepare a plan to stop incidents of “love jihad” after several such cases were reported from different parts of the state. On his direction, the Uttar Pradesh police have formed a special investigating team (SIT) to probe allegations of an organised effort to entrap, convert and forcefully marry Hindu girls to older Muslim men.
If you have been following the social media trends on those demanding ‘postponement’ of JEE and NEET exams, you’d have noticed how possible bots are hired to retweet tweets with particular hashtag. A lot of these tweet get thousands of retweets within seconds by Twitter handles which have mostly zero followers. One of the frontrunners of these hashtag campaigns has been one self-proclaimed ‘climate change and environment activist’, eight year old Licypriya Kangujam.
She claims that the account is managed by her guardian. Earlier it was her father, who is accused of an elaborate con of duping people and faking her ‘achievements’.
A Twitter user who goes by the handle @Being_Humor today posted a series of tweets, exposing the hashtag propaganda campaign that is being peddled by some perverse individuals to postpone the NEET examinations. Tagging the Delhi Police, the Twitter user had alleged that the protests against JEE/NEET examinations were not spontaneous and organic, but preplanned and coordinated.
The thread, which comprises of screenshots of a certain Telegram group, alleges that members of the group, whose admin is a media troll Prerna Bakshi, is orchestrating a protest in Delhi, supposedly led by Licypriya Kangujam, to demand the deferment of the NEET examinations.
In one of the screenshots shared above, a user named Prerna B, presumably Prerna Bakshi, is seen asking students in the group to call for a protest. When Prerna B did not receive the desirous response from the students, she vehemently emphasised the need to corner the government on the NEET issue. Bakshi, however, has denied being part of the social media group leading online mob.
In another screenshot, a message forwarded by another admin of the group–Sabbuma, asked students based out of Delhi to enlist themselves in a protest against the government’s decision of not postponing the NEET examination. The message read that the demonstration was going to be led by Licypriya.
In subsequent screenshots, in another Telegram group (or possibly name changed of current group), one Vedhika can be seen urging everyone to protest outside the PMO.
In fact, she has been going on an inane rant on Twitter. She is 8 and her account is managed by her guardians for their own seemingly political agenda.
Privately students are abusing admins of Whatsapp groups such as Licypriya for organising protests against NEET exams
OpIndia contacted @Being_Humor to get into details of the allegations levelled by him. “The protests surrounding the JEE and NEET examinations were pre-organised. It has more to do with thrusting the country into chaos rather than highlighting alleged problems faced by the students with the current schedule. This was proved when propagandists like Licypriya were roped in for the protests. While some students had genuine issues concerning the organisation of the exams, the same was addressed by the government,” @Being_Humor said while talking to OpIndia.
“JEE aspirants, who have already appeared for the examinations, have appreciated the precautions taken by the government to ensure their safety. The students said that they had always wanted to appear for the examination as per schedule, but various Telegram groups have been created by admins like Prerna Bakshi, Licypriya and others, that seek to provoke and incite students to protest against the government and turn it into a student revolution. The same students were then abusing these admins in their private DMs,” he revealed.
Licypryan Kangujam, who ‘turned down’ PM Modi’s #SheInspiresUs honour faked her ‘achievements’ to stardom
Another controversial figure associated with the pre-organised campaign against the NEET examinations is the so-called ‘child activist’ Licypriya Kangujam. For some time now, Licypriya, who is aping another putative environmental activist Greta Thunberg, has been used as an instrument by leftists to throw the country into chaos.
The Manipuri ‘child activist’ shot to limelight in March this year for ‘turning down’ government of India’s ‘#SheInspiresUs’ movement honour on Twitter because she did not ‘want to be celebrated if PM Modi was not going to listen to her’.
Dear @narendramodi Ji, Please don’t celebrate me if you are not going to listen my voice.
Thank you for selecting me amongst the inspiring women of the country under your initiative #SheInspiresUs. After thinking many times, I decided to turns down this honour. ??
The poor little girl has been subject to intense criticism online, because of the antics of the elders surrounding her. The criticism came after a guardian operating the verified Twitter account of Licypriya rejected Prime Minister Modi’s #SheInspiresUs movement because ‘she’ did not ‘want to be celebrated if PM Modi was not going to listen to her’. A storm was kicked up over the matter as the little girl, who presumably be more interested in toys and cartoons, found herself in the eye of that storm, with several journalists, opposition politicians, who perenially opposed PM Modi, hailed the 8-year-old girl for snubbing PM Modi.
However, it was later learned that the ‘achievements’ which had propelled Licypriya to international fame were all fake and her father is a conman.
Twitter account of Licypriya Kangujam
While the mainstream media fell over itself to criticise the BJP government and PM Modi, none of them, despite having endless resources at their disposal, cared to identify if it was the 8-year-old girl running the Twitter account. The verified account of Licypriya is that of an adult exploiting Licypriya for his or her devious objectives.
Fake it like Licypriya
In April 2019, Licypriya claimed that she was on her way to UN headquarters in Geneva to address a ‘global UN session’ for ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’. The news was widely reported and Licypriya was congratulated on social media for ‘making India proud’. Except, it turned out to be fake. After Imphal Free Press uncovered that not only was she not invited to the UN but her father was also reported to be an alleged conman.
An investigation by Imphal Free Press (IFP) revealed that her entire ‘UN invite’ was a sham and a cooked up story by her father, Kangujam Kanarjit. IFP got suspicious over the news item since when they investigated the claims, the UN event showed that registration for delegates was still on and the names of speakers wasn’t confirmed yet. Hence, Licypriya’s claims that she is going to address the session was already on thin ice.
Further, Licypriya claimed to be working as a “Child Disaster Risks Reduction Advocate in International Youth Committee (IYC)” which did not have much internet presence. IFP got hold of a press release on the basis of which this news report was published. The press release was issued by IYC that had no specific address and the pin code corresponded to Safdarjung area in New Delhi.
The address was partial and IFP had little success in tracing. However, soon enough the search result showed that the IYC chairman was one Dr KK Singh. The Dr KK Singh was Kangujam Kanarjit, who IFP had exposed as a conman back in 2015. As per IFP, Kangujam Kanarjit, was a man behind the Global Youth Summit and World Youth Summit held at Imphal and is charged of cheating and fraud. He has been accused by several businessmen of duping them.
Licypriya’s father, Kanarjit’s court proclamation requesting his appearance. (image: @angellicaaribam on Twitter)
Kanarjit has been accused of cheating multiple people, with amounts as high as Rs 19 lakh. In 2015, he was arrested in Manipur with charges of criminal case number 176 of 2015 under Section 420 (Fraud), 324 (Assault) and 406 (Criminal breach of trust). As per investigation by IFP, a place he had rented in Porompat and carried out his clandestine activities under the Club 25 banner was allegedly sold to three different individuals without the knowledge of the real owner. Kanarjit was later released on an interim bail and has been an absconder since.
When the story of Licypriya attending UN event broke, eyebrows were raised as the source of her attending an event at UN in Geneva was routed through IYC, which has a history of fraud, dubious and shady work. Soon after the IFP investigation, the story quietly disappeared. Later, in a now deleted Facebook post, Licypriya wrote that she has ‘decided’ not to attend the UN event in Geneva. “Finally I decided not to attend the program in Geneva next month as I am completely in depression. Even my visa and flight tickets was ready. This is not the way to treat your “Ningol” [daughter]” she reportedly wrote on Facebook.
One of her ‘achievements’ she claims to have is one ‘Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Children Award’ and one ‘World Children Peace Prize’ and an ‘India Peace Prize’. In July 2019, she was awarded one “Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award” by one Munna Kumar, founder of Khwaab Foundation. No one has heard much about Munna Kumar either.
In September last year, Licypriya Kangujam had claimed she won some ‘World Children Peace Prize’ at Male.
Licypriya faking it
Except, such an award does not exist.
Licypriya’s lies busted
Activism is the new buzzword and ‘climate change activist’ even more so. And children like Licypriya Kangujam, an eight-year-old ‘child activist’, are being used as a tool by her guardians for their personal motives.
Embroiled in the Sushant Singh Rajput’s suspicious death case, actor Rhea Chakraborty has filed a complaint with Mumbai Police against the late actor’s sister, Priyanka Singh. Rhea, the prime accused in the CBI case, has requested the Mumbai Police to file an FIR against Priyanka Singh, Dr Tarun Kumar (from RML Hospital, Delhi) and others under IPC, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act & Telemedicine Practice Guidelines for allegedly prescribing drugs to the actor without any consultations.
Rhea Chakraborty’s complaint states that Priyanka had sent Sushant a prescription by Dr Tarun Kumar and he “appears to have prescribed medication controlled under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to Sushant without any consultation as mandated by law.”
According to the complaint filed by Rhea, Priyanka had sent Sushant a prescription by Dr Tarun Kumar, who “appears to have prescribed medication controlled under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to Sushant without any consultation as mandated by law”. The complaint added that the medicines prescribed by the doctor (Dr Tarun Kumar) were “prohibited from being prescribed electronically under the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020”.
She has accused that the so-called prescription appeared ‘forged and fabricated’.
Rhea had alleged in her complaint that Sushant had died just days after ‘obtaining this unlawful prescription’. She had sought an investigation into the role of Priyanka and doctor Kumar for providing the late actor with an unlawful prescription. The complaint was filed based on Whatsapp messages between Sushant and his sister on June 8.
As per the chats between SSR and Priyanka, his sister had suggested him to take Librium for a week, Nexito every day and Lonazep whenever he was afflicted by an anxiety attack.
Rhea being grilled by NCB in connection with drugs probe linked with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput
As a part of the ongoing investigation into the death case of Sushant Singh Rajput, Rhea Chakraborty is currently being grilled by Narcotics Control Bureau. As per various reports, Rhea had reportedly confessed of procuring drugs but never consuming them. Earlier last week, Rhea’s brother, Showik Chakraborty, was arrested along with others in connection with the drugs probe linked with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.
On Monday, TMC MLA and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee took to Twitter to slam the former Governor of Meghalaya, Tathagata Roy, after he made remarks hinting at the situation in the state and alluded that it is turning into ‘West Bangladesh’.
The TMC Minister tweeted, “Bengal is a land where respect for people is paramount! Tathagata Roy has made some wild obnoxious comments and he should really consider the idea of entering Bengal politics with such a polluted mindset.”
Bengal is a land where respect for people is paramount! @tathagata2 has made some wild obnoxious comments and he should really reconsider the idea of entering Bengal politics with such a polluted mindset!https://t.co/IZ5V0X33xu
Partha Chatterjee had shared an old article listing some remarks by Roy on modern-day Bengali ‘liberalism’ where he had insinuated that the people of the state are being forced to seek menial jobs in other state while the state’s ruling politicians seek trivial issues to stir up controversies. The article shared by Partha Chatterjee mentions Tathagata Chatterjee making blunt remarks on a variety of matters, which included the suggestion that the terrorists responsible for the Pathankot terror attack should be wrapped in pig’s skin and buried in pig excreta.
Tweet by former Meghalaya Minister riles up Trinamool Congress
Earlier, in the day, Tathagata Roy had expressed fears about how so-called ‘progressive thoughts’ had led to the destruction of the State. Without naming any political party, he took potshots at the ruling dispensation on how it was hellbent on turning the West Bengal into ‘West Bangladesh’. Praising the Prime Minister, the former Meghalaya Governor said that the fear of Narendra Modi had prevented the State from turning into the ‘West Bangladesh’.
He tweeted, “There is no state in India called ‘Bengal’. West Bengal,through its so-called ‘progressive thoughts’ has shot itself in the feet and would have been halfway today to becoming West Bangladesh. It is only the fear of the Iron Man in New Delhi that prevents it. Jai Hind.”
There is no state in India called ‘Bengal’. West Bengal,through its so-called ‘progressive thoughts’ has shot itself in the feet and would have been halfway today to becoming West Bangladesh. It is only the fear of the Iron Man in New Delhi that prevents it. Jai Hind.
In a series of tweets, Roy had emphasised how Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had worked to create West Bengal, a land for Bengali speaking Hindus. Sharing some incidences from the region’s political history, Roy had stated that had it not been for Mukherjee, Bengali Hindus would have all been slaughtered. He had also discussed how the radical Bengali Muslims call Mukherjee as ‘Shyama Poka’, an insect.
Rising political violence in West Bengal
Political violence is on the rise in West Bengal, ever since Mamata Banerjee and the ruling TMC came to power. Bolstered by political patronage, the goons have turned into a nightmare for the political opponents in the State. Recently, a BJP worker named Rabin Paul was lynched to death in the Pathar Ghata village in Kalna in West Bengal. He was first beaten mercilessly by about 50 TMC supporters and then taken to another place in the village where Paul was thrashed by the TMC Deputy Chief. The family alleged that the TMC workers stopped the victim’s daughter when she tried to offer him water. The TMC workers also threatened to thrash Paul’s daughter if she tried to help her father.
On July 13, The West Bengal police had recovered the dead body of Debendra Nath Roy, a BJP MLA from Hematabad, in a closed tea shop in the village of Balia in Bindol Panchayat in Rajiganj. Roy was found hanging from the roof of the shop. He had been missing from the previous night. While the West Bengal police has ruled out ‘foul play’, the BJP unit of West Bengal has alleged that the MLA Debendranath Roy was murdered. BJP President (North Dinajpur) stated that the ‘suicide note’ was a conspiracy by the police to protect the murderers of the deceased politician. “We are not satisfied with the probe by the CID and will stick to our demand for a CBI investigation,” he was quoted as saying.
