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‘Sanghi snake’: Liberals and Islamists slam Arvind Kejriwal led AAP for claiming anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests were sponsored by BJP

OpIndia Staff
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‘Sanghi snake’: Liberals and Islamists slam Arvind Kejriwal led AAP for claiming anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests were sponsored by BJP

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.

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.

Social media activists share stories on how their pro-BJP content was censored by Facebook even as some accuse Facebook of being ‘pro-BJP’

K Bhattacharjee
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Social media activists share stories on how their pro-BJP content was censored by Facebook even as some accuse Facebook of being ‘pro-BJP’

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.

Meet the Odisha MP who had prayed to Maa Durga to make him ‘look like Salman Khan’

OpIndia Staff
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Meet the Odisha MP who had prayed to Maa Durga to make him ‘look like Salman Khan’

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’.

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.

‘1 like, plz, 1 like’: BJD MP keeps pleading Salman Khan

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.

Anubhav’s love for Salman knows no bounds

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.

Zee5 issues apology for depicting freedom fighter Khudiram Bose as criminal in web series Abhay – 2

OpIndia Staff
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Zee5 issues apology for depicting freedom fighter Khudiram Bose as criminal in web series Abhay – 2

Zee5, owned by Zee Television, has issued an apology for depicting Freedom Fighter Khudiram Bose as a criminal in web series Abhay – 2.

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.

Did Aamir Khan really say ‘my wives may be Hindu but my kids will only follow Islam’? Read the details here

OpIndia Staff
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Did Aamir Khan really say ‘my wives may be Hindu but my kids will only follow Islam’? Read the details here

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.

Other than that, various pro-Islamist handles have also been regularly sharing Siasat Daily posts.

UAE Embassy in India too has shared links of Siasat Daily. Radical Islamist Ali Sohrab too shared links of Siasat Daily regularly. India Today employee Rajdeep Sardesai has also in the past shared Siasat Daily links.

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

Kerala’s publicity curve flattens: “Rockstar” Health Minister predicts 10,000 – 20,000 coronavirus cases per day

Abhishek Banerjee
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Kerala’s publicity curve flattens: “Rockstar” Health Minister predicts 10,000 – 20,000 coronavirus cases per day

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.’

‘Remember what happened to Abhijit Iyer Mitra when he visited Konark Temple,’ BJD MP warns Odisha TV

OpIndia Staff
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‘Remember what happened to Abhijit Iyer Mitra when he visited Konark Temple,’ BJD MP warns Odisha TV

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.

ISKCON requests action against Assam based artist Akram Hussain for depicting Lord Krishna with bikini-clad women, minister responds

OpIndia Staff
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ISKCON requests action against Assam based artist Akram Hussain for depicting Lord Krishna with bikini-clad women, minister responds

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has taken to Twitter to demand action against an Assam based artist Akram Hussain for his painting that featured Lord Krishna surrounded by bikini-clad women in a bar. After the artist’s 2015 artwork re-surfaced on the microblogging site today, ISKCON requested the Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and the state’s health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to take cognisance and initiate strict action against the artist for his offensive artwork.

Akram Hussain’s 2015 artwork featuring Lord Krishna, one of the most widely revered Hindu god who is worshipped as the eighth incarnation (avatar) of the Hindu god Vishnu, surrounded by bikini-clad “gopis”, re-invited the wrath of Netizens today. Netizens tore into the artist for depicting the Hindu god in an offensive manner.

Netizens also drew parallels between the recent Bengaluru riots where a rioting Muslim mob took to street over an an allegedly ‘offensive’ Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad.

FIR filed against Akram Hussain for hurting religious sentiments in 2015

This is, however, not the first time that this particular painting by Akram Hussain has faced a massive backlash. The outrageous artwork, mocking the Hindu god, had back in April 2015, also faced the ire of many social media users and Hindu organisations who bayed for Hussain’s blood. Hindu Jagaran Mancha had filed an FIR at Latasil police station in Guwahati against the artist for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.

In April 2015, Akram Hussain’s Lord Krishna’s painting along with another preposterous artwork depicting liquor bottles and undergarments pouring out of an unfurled tricolour were displayed at a group exhibition in the Assam State Art Gallery.

The Assam branch of the All India Patriotic Forum had condemned his act of “dishonouring the national flag in the name of artistic freedom”.

Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma responds to ISKCON

Following the concerns raised by ISKCON, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma responded. He stated that the issue has been resolved already and currently there are no such images at the art gallery.

Guwahati Police, too, clarified that the painting was seized back in 2015.

Guwahati Police informed that a case no. 127/15 was registered against Akram Hussain and the painting of Lord Krishna surrounded by bikini-clad women was seized. The same is not on display now.

After Rahul Gandhi attacks Facebook India’s Ankhi Das, she receives threat to life, police complaint filed

OpIndia Staff
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After Rahul Gandhi attacks Facebook India’s Ankhi Das, she receives threat to life, police complaint filed

Ankhi Das, Director, Public Policy, India, South & Central Asia at Facebook today filed a complaint at Delhi Police’s cyber cell unit over violent life threats she has been receiving after her personal details were disclosed online.

Das is facing criticism for alleged inaction against anti-Muslim posts by Facebook profiles linked to Bhartiya Janata Party. She has now filed a complaint at Cyber Cell Unit, Delhi Police against several people who issued violent life threats against her on social media platforms. This complaint on death threats come hours after Wayanad MP and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi posted a tweet supporting the claims made by Wall Street Journal that Facebook is pro-BJP.

Ankhi Das gets violent threats

As per information shared by India Today’s Journalist Aishwarya Paliwal, Ankhi Das filed a complaint and requested Delhi Police to register FIR under “Sections 354A, 499, 500, 506, 507, and 509 among other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code for posting violent threats to her life and body, making sexually coloured remarks and defaming her.”

  • FIR copy, personal details blanked out
  • FIR copy, personal details blanked out

Das named several users from Facebook and Twitter including Congress supporter Saket Gokhle and Arshad Khan National Coordinator, Social Media, NSUI. She said that after the article published by the Wall Street Journal in which they alleged Facebook employees are not penalising hate speech by BJP linked accounts, she has been under attack. She alleged that she had received multiple threats to her life and body, which made her extremely disturbed.

Tweet by Saket Gokhale

Some users posted her photo along with some other personal details that further added to her worries. She urged Police to take urgent action against people threatening her to “prevent the commission of further serious offences against her.”

What is the case?

WSJ on 14th August posted an article in which they alleged that higher officials in Facebook India are showing biased towards political and religious hate comments made by the users. The media house said that Facebook is not taking any action against the accounts that are linked to BJP. The article gave a way to the opposition party to attack Facebook and the BJP-led government at the centre. Some users, including Nidhi, ex-journalist NDTV, left Facebook to mark protest. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said in a tweet that he would raise the issue in front of the Parliamentary Committee and said, “Our Parliamentary committee will, in the normal course, consider testimony under the topic “Safeguarding citizens’ rights & prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms”. The subject is squarely within the IT Cmt’s mandate & Facebook has been summoned in the past.”

Journalist Tavleen Singh sues Twitter user Shashank Singh alias PokerShash over satirical tweet

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist Tavleen Singh sues Twitter user Shashank Singh alias PokerShash over satirical tweet

Even as the left-liberal establishment is crying hoarse over the alleged suppression of freedom of speech after the Supreme Court of India held prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court, one of liberal lodestar, Tavleen Singh has filed a civil lawsuit against a Twitter user Shashank Singh alias @pokershash for lampooning her on the microblogging website.

According to Twitter account @BefittingFacts, Singh had filed a lawsuit against @pokershash for a satirical tweet in which he jocularly alleged that Tavleen had a meeting with others to defend controversial hate-speech peddler Sharjeel Imam.

”Sources of NDTV told me that there was a meeting between @zafarsareshwala, @tavleen_singh and @Altnews to defend Sharjeel Imam. In which they have decided that Imam was not saying ‘Assam ko India se kaat denge’ but he was saying ‘Aaj sham ko nadia se paar dekhenge’,” the Twitter user had manifested posted in a lighter vein to mock the support Imam had been receiving from several personalities. The Twitter user @pokerhash has been suspended by Twitter.

Tavleen Singh had claimed Shaheen Bagh squatters did not chant pro-Pakistan slogans

The tweet that had riled up Tavleen Singh was in response to her tweet, exonerating the Shaheen Bagh squatters of indulging in shouting pro-Pakistan slogans. The protesters who had gathered at Shaheen Bagh, seemingly turning it into an enclave and disrupting the daily commutation of the Delhites, had chanted “Jinnah wali Azaadi”, a veiled call for the dismemberment of India.

Tavleen had defended the ruffians, claiming the BJP spokesperson lied about the pro-Pakistani slogans chanted by the gathered protesters. Ms Singh’s denial came even as videos of the Shaheen Bagh protesters seeking for “Jinnah wali Azaadi” went viral on the Internet.

In the video, the individual on the stage can be chanting Azadi slogans. “Hum ladke lenge Azadi. Nehru wali Azadi. Gandhi wali Azadi. Bhagat wali Azadi. Ashfaq wali Azadi. Jinnah wali Azadi. Dilli wali Azadi….”.

Tavleen Singh had threatened of legal action against the Twitter user

However, the satirical post by @pokerhash drove Tavleen up the wall and soon after his tweet, Ms Singh issued a stern warning to the Twitter user, asking him to remove the tweet forthwith or risk facing legal consequences.

Responding to the Twitter post which has now been deleted, Tavleen blasted out, “How dare you. Withdraw your outrageous charge against me or I will sue you. I don’t need certificates and patriotism from creeps like you but now that you have charged me publicly with treason you have gone too far.”

After Tavleen threatened the Twitter user to remove the tweet, she had reportedly approached the Patiala House Court to file a case against @pokershash for his tweet against the author-writer.

While liberals go into an overdrive mode, defending one of them when they are subjected to legal consequences and passionately champion the cause of freedom of speech to lend credence to their assertions, their record is woefully bad when it comes to defending the freedom of speech of those whose views are at variance with them.

The liberal ecosystem demands loyalty. Therefore, it is perfectly kosher to bring about legal action against those who do not conform with their worldview and those who dare mocking them. It is this through this false sense of entitlement that lies from a prominent lawyer against the Supreme Court is labelled as vendetta while legal threats and action against a Twitter user for his satirically mordant post on the liberals is hailed as exercising the recourse offered by the constitution.

The snowflake liberals, who wax eloquence on the need to observe absolute freedom of speech and hold forth on fostering a culture of tolerance in the country, have a very shallow and blinkered understanding of these ideals, as evident from Tavleen’s recourse to legal action against a Twitter user for his patently satirical post.

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