Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is also the Mahant of Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, in a great gesture, has allowed the government authorities to demolish a part of the temple boundary to necessitate road-widening work in the city. According to the reports, Mahant Yogi Adityanath has set an example by approving the bulldozing of several shops inside the Gorakhnath temple to pave way for constructing a road connecting Sonauli from the city.
More than 100 shops have been bulldozed in the last three days that were located within the temple complex. The shops inside the temple were obstructing the widening of a 17-km long road, which is being built to ease the traffic congestion in the city.
“The road in front of the temple was witnessing massive traffic jams quite often and with the completion of the project, this problem is expected to be resolved,” said an official.
Mahant Yogi Adityanath himself gave permission to demolishing of temple premises
In a significant decision, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself had given permission to bulldoze the shops that were coming in the way of road development.
Reportedly, Chief Minister Adityanath did not hesitate even once before forwarding the proposal to demolish shops located inside the temple premises.
“Earlier, Yogi did not attend his father’s funeral and chose duty over personal issues. And by ordering the demolition of the temple wall, the CM has sent out a strong signal that any construction, be it a shop, house or any religious place, would be demolished when the matter relates to public interest and development,” said Vinay Gautam, a senior staff of the temple.
However, he has asked officials the authorities to immediately provide alternative shops to the affected shopkeepers who will now be relocated due to the widening of the road.
On Saturday, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) apprehended a 25-year-old man named Kamran Amin Khan from the Mhada colony in Chunnabhatti area of Mumbai for threatening to kill Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ‘with a bomb’. He had sent the death threat to Yogi Adityanath as a Whatsapp message to the social media cell of UP Police’s integrated emergency response centre, UP112.
On being interrogated, Kamran confessed to the crime. As per reports, he would be produced before a court on Sunday and would be handed over to the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF). The latter would then seek transit remand of the accused to take him to UP for further investigation.
Kamran who is jobless since 2017, following spine surgery, earlier worked as a security guard at Zaveri Bazar in South Mumbai. He lived in Nal Bazar but had moved to Chunabhatti in East Mumbai, owing to repair work at home.
25-year-old Kamran Amin Khan, who was arrested by Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Chunabhatti area of Mumbai, for making a threat call to kill Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath in a bomb blast: Maharashtra ATS pic.twitter.com/OCSSFajavH
Using dump data, the cell phone number used by Kamran to send the threat message to kill Yogi Adityanath was tracked to Chunabhatti. An ATS officer informed that the accused was nabbed using technical expertise and human intelligence. Reportedly, Kamran has no criminal record but has a history of drug abuse. “His actions seem to have been a prank. Even his number is saved on Truecaller as ‘Yogi Ji’,” the officer was quoted as saying.
Death Threat to Yogi Adityanath
Earlier, a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged by the Inspector of Gomti Nagar police station in Lucknow against an unidentified person under Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 505 (1)(b) for causing fear or alarm to the public to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity, Section 506 for the threat to cause death and Section 507 for using anonymous communication for issuing a threat.
Kumar mentioned in the FIR that the threat message was sent at UP-112 WhatsApp number 7570000100 at 12.32 am on Thursday. He said the UP-112 authorities informed the police station and further probe in the matter is on.
Additional Director General of UP-112, Asim Arun has also confirmed receiving a threat message against the Chief Minister on Whatsapp.
Yesterday, the Special cell of Delhi police had arrested two women named Natasha Narwal and Devangna Kalita in the North-east Delhi riots case. The two women belong to the far-left activist group Pinjra Tod.
It was found that on February 22 evening Pinjra Tod members had mobilised local residents for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and directed them to gather at Jaffrabad metro station. “Anti-CAA protesters gathered at the metro station on February 22 night at 10 p.m. We thought they would gather at the old site at Seelampur service lane, which is around a kilometre away,” sources said.
It now turns out that both women arrested for inciting the Delhi riots were the founding members of far-Left group Pinjra Tod which was established in 2015. Pinjra Tod was started primarily in opposition to hostel curfews at Delhi’s colleges and universities, however, their far-left agenda has been evident since long.
One of the co-founders of Pinjra Tod who has now been arrested for inciting the Delhi anti-Hindu riots, Natasha Narwal was also a columnist with several Left-leaning online portals in the past.
Natasha Narwal had written three articles for far-left propaganda portal The Wire.
Articles written by Pinjra Tod founder Natasha Narwal for The Wire
Harbouring deep-seated hatred and Hinduphobia, Natasha Narwal had also written for NewsLaundry during the release of the movie ‘Padman’.
Article written by Pinjra Tod founder Natasha Narwal for Newslaundry
Displaying her hate, Natasha Narwal in her Newslaundry article had written about a marathon organised by ABVP just before the launch of Padman which was flagged off by Akshay Kumar. The marathon was reportedly a race to demand that GST on sanitary pads be lifted by the government of India.
In her article, displaying staggering ignorance, Natasha had written:
“The RSS-affiliated outfit’s move for empowerment is at odds with its imaginations of a Hindu Rashtra in which a woman’s role is reduced to a biological reproducer of its members (“sons”); limited to mothers/wives/sisters in need of protection; contained into cultural signifiers who are the markers and reproducers of cultural boundaries/differences; and idolised into figures whose bravery is realised through self-sacrifice/erasure. In this imagination of the nation, women carry its burden every day, manifesting in diverse forms of regulations and restrictions that bind and cage her, in the policing of her autonomy and freedom that she has to negotiate and resist, and even internalise every day”.
Interestingly, in all her writings on the two platforms, while Natasha displays substantial hatred for Hindus and their traditions, even misrepresenting and lying about what the place of women is in the Hindu society, she seems to have stayed clear from any targeted criticism of women’s place in Islam and the Muslim community.
Delhi Police sent notice to Pinjra tod
Earlier, Delhi Police special cell had issued notice to 50 members of the Jamia coordination committee, former office bearers of Congress’ student’s union, National Student union of India, far left ‘activist’ group Pinjra Tod for their alleged connection with rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to anti-Hindu riots in north-east Delhi that had claimed the lives of 53 people and had left, over 400 injured.
It was earlier reported that police believed that Pinjra Tod activists were present in the Seelampur-Jafrabad area on February 22 evening and urged the anti-CAA protesters at the dharna site and other nearby areas to make their anti-CAA protest more impactful by creating a roadblock at the Jafrabad Metro station road. According to the report, it was this event that finally led to a show of strength from the other side and eventually, led to the Delhi riots.
“The assessment is that there may have been two reasons behind getting the anti-CAA women protesters to shift from the small Jafrabad dharna to an arterial road. One, an attempt to create an alternative protest site in the apprehension of the Supreme Court moving to end the dharna at Shaheen Bagh, and second, to create a negative image of India coinciding with the US President’s visit”, a Delhi police source had told TOI.
The police also seem to believe that the Pinjra Tod activists were not only involved in their capacity of expressing solidarity with the protesting women but were instrumental in the escalation of the protests. Police sources have said that even if these activists are given the benefit of doubt, their involvement in an already tense situation is being seen as instigation and is being probed further.
Sharjeel Imam was also a columnist with The Wire
It is pertinent to note that earlier, another columnist with The Wire, Sharjeel Imam was arrested for inciting the anti-Hindu Delhi riots. Sharjeel Imam had written about his toxic Islamic fundamentalism in The Wire long before he incited riots in Delhi where he had eulogised Jinnah in his article for The Wire. From his eulogy of Jinnah on The Wire, it is evident that Sharjeel does not find any fault with Jinnah’s conduct that led to the partition of the country. He does not even believe that partition was necessarily a bad thing. He says, “In order to demystify Jinnah and to resolve such contradictions, a fuller discussion of Partition should have been a part of our educational setup. However, it has been made impossible to know such a historic figure by attributing violence of Partition to him. This as an attempt by Congress to hide its failures to accommodate the genuine Muslim demands and aspirations for political proportional representation.”
Sharjeel did not stop there of course. He says that the ‘questions’ raised by Jinnah “are just the starting point of a larger debate which will inevitably take place again and again, as the situation of Indian Muslims is made to worsen.” He believes that Jinnah led a righteous struggle to protect Indian Muslims from Hindu rule. Also, Sharjeel goes to great lengths to prove that Jinnah was a leader of Indian Muslims. He says, “Indian Muslims, despite having been indoctrinated for generations now, retain some memory of Partition and Jinnah. For many of them, Jinnah is the author of Partition and yet one of the greatest leaders of “Muslim India” in the last century, who made the Muslim League into a national party by mobilising millions of Muslims across British India.”
He stated further, “Jinnah’s communalism is positive communalism as discussed above, and need not be understood through the contemporary meaning of the word. He did not believe that India was a nation, as is shown by the frequent use of the term ‘continent’ as well as ‘subcontinent’. He was merely representing one community in this grand ocean of communities, and in this process, he was trying to secure rights for all numerically inferior communities.”
Major Gurdial Singh Jallanwalia (Retd), who was nation’s oldest artilleryman and who fought four wars, including World War-II and two wars against Pakistan (1948 & 1965) passed away on May 21, 2020 in Ludhiana. The war wounded veteran was 103.
His death was confirmed by a senior Army official on Friday.
A total of 14 family members of Jallanwalia have provided their services to the Indian Army and have the distinction of having participated in all the wars since World War I. Jallanwalia’s father Risaldaar Duleep Singh was a World War I veteran who fought in Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq).
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh took to Twitter to pay his tributes to the Army veteran Major GS Jallanwalia who breathed his last on May 21.
“I pay my tributes to Army veteran Major GS Jallanwalia, who we lost on Friday at the age of 102. An officer with an illustrious career, Major Jallanwalia participated in 4 battles including World War II & 1965 Indo-Pak War. We shall always be indebted to him for his service,” a tweet posted by Singh read.
I pay my tributes to Army veteran Major GS Jallanwalia, who we lost on Friday at the age of 102. An officer with an illustrious career, Major Jallanwalia participated in 4 battles including World War II & 1965 Indo-Pak War. We shall always be indebted to him for his service.
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) May 23, 2020
Jallanwalia’s illustrious services to the Indian Army
Jallanwalia was born on August 21, 1917, and matriculated from the Royal Indian Military School, Jalandhar Cantt, before joining the Mountain Artillery Training Center on June 15, 1935. After he completed his training, he was stationed with 14 Rajputana Mountain Battery at Abbottabad (now in Pakistan).
In 1940, he was posted to a Survey Troop at Cammbellpur (now in Pakistan). Next year, the Survey Regiment was promoted and later in 1942, it became the first Survey regiment. Subsequently, he got permanent Regular Commission as Second Lieutenant in 1947 and was posted to 40 Field Regiment. Before being posted to Survey Regiment, Jallanwalia participated in Ahmadzai-Waziristan Operation in North-West Frontier Province in 1939 and 1940.
Jallanwalia also participated in the World War-II when he along with others were sent to Myanmar by road from Bengaluru to fight against the advancing armies of the Japanese in 1944. When he along with the soldiers of his platoon reached the Iraawadi river, they were shot at by a Japanese soldier. He gathered his team and took down two Japanese hidden in the bushes but was unfortunately got hit by a bullet. He holds the distinction of serving as a gunner for three decades in the Indian Army.
After India gained its independence, Gurdial Singh took part in the Indian Army’s attack against the Pakistani infiltrators in Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir in 1948. Jallanwalia served as Counter Bombardment Officer in XI in Amritsar-Lahore Sector during the Indo-Pak war in 1965. He is a pioneer in developing surveillance and target acquisition in Indian Artillery after India’s independence. Singh retired from his active services in 1967.
Singh is survived by his two sons- Harmanderjeet Singh and Harjinderjeet Singh, who joined the Indian Army and Indian Air Force respectively and fought the Kargil War with Pakistan in 1999.
The Special cell of Delhi police has arrested two women named Natasha and Devangna in the North-east Delhi riots case. The two women belong to the far-left activist group Pinjra tod, according to police.
Just in: Two women named Natasha and Devangna arrested in the north east Delhi riots case. They are from a group called Pinjda tod, police say.
It was found that on February 22 evening Pinjra Tod members had mobilised local residents for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and directed them to gather at Jaffrabad metro station. “Anti-CAA protesters gathered at the metro station on February 22 night at 10 p.m. We thought they would gather at the old site at Seelampur service lane, which is around a kilometre away,” sources said.
The Delhi police had earlier mentioned that they believe some external force is provocating riots. They also mentioned that the ‘Pinjra tod’ group can be that external factor. The police also believe that the Pinjra Tod activists were not only involved in their capacity of expressing solidarity with the protesting women but were instrumental in the escalation of the protests.
Pinjra Tod has been accused of inciting riots
Some citizens of Seelampur, Jafrabad, and Trans-Yamuna had accused Pinjra Tod, a far-left women rights initiative, and other elite civil society groups of inciting riots in the national capital.
Pinjra Tod claims to be an autonomous collective of women students fighting for a just, accessible, non-discriminatory University and affordable accommodation and has been involved in numerous protests and campaigns of a far-left nature.
Delhi Police sent notice to Pinjra tod
Earlier, Delhi Police special cell had issued notice to 50 members of the Jamia coordination committee, former office bearers of Congress’ student’s union, National Student union of India, far left ‘activist’ group Pinjra Tod for their alleged connection with rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to anti-Hindu riots in north-east Delhi that had claimed the lives of 53 people and had left, over 400 injured.
Arrests made in Anti-CAA riots case
Recently, Special Cell of Delhi Police has nabbed the Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for purportedly being a part of a larger conspiracy behind the February riots in northeast Delhi.
Prior to that, Safoora Zargar, a member of the Jamia Coordination Committee, was arrested in connection with her alleged involvement in the anti-CAA riots. Her arrest has led to a barrage of propaganda accusing the Delhi Police of ‘anti-Muslim’ bias.
Meeran Haider, also a member of the Jamia Coordination Committee, was arrested by Delhi Police. He was arrested on the 2nd of April in connection with rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to anti-Hindu riots in north-east Delhi.
The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJCSA) has alerted fellow Muslims to avoid the traditional gatherings and ceremonies stating that this Eid can be a potential super-spreader if the guidelines are not followed.
The council said that the community members will have to forego their usual practice of meeting for prayers at open spaces and their visit to cemeteries with family and friends.
The statement said, “Eid can potentially become a super-spreading event, which results in many more people dying, especially if people disobey lockdown regulations and start visiting family (as) it will lose its effect if people start visiting each other at home. Please avoid physically getting together as it puts yourself and your family at risk.”
The Country is observing lockdown since 27 March
As per reports, the country is under lockdown since March 27. The President of South-Africa had declared the fifth-phase plan of lockdown that included some relaxation in the last month.
Muslims in South-Africa gather in large numbers on the beachfront to witness the new crescent moon to signal the end of Ramzan and the advent of Eid the next day. Now the MJCSA has ordered the Muslims to maintain distance and stay home for the second time since the tradition started. The first time they were restricted was during the Second World War.
Reportedly, the Cape Town has been a hotspot for the coronavirus outbreak. The MJCSA said, “The Western Cape is in an exponential phase with the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Already there are reports of some hospitals filling up rapidly with critically-ill COVID-19 cases. We have seen a younger spectrum of people dying compared with international figures.”
MJCSA urged the families to stay at home
It further added, “The MJCSA would, therefore, like to request (that) the community should not gather at the moon-sighting points as is customary. We recommend that families stay home on Eid day and not visit their families.”
In South Africa, the Muslim bodies have been urging the fellow Muslims to stay away from cemeteries on the Eid day. A plea has also been made to people urging them to avoid social gatherings for lunch and dinner and suggested to greet each other from distance.
As per reports, many religious leaders of all faith met Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday and urged him to open the religious places with strict guidelines. No decision was taken in this matter.
Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the ministry will try to resume a good percentage of international flights before August. He said, “I am fully hopeful that before August or September, we will try to start a good percentage of international civil aviation operations if not complete international operations.”
Puri stated in a live session, “I can’t put a date on it (restarting international flights). But if somebody says can it be done by August or September, my response is why not earlier depending on what is the situation.”
Minister said that they are also increasing the number of Vande Bharat flights. He said, “I am able to meet that objective of ensuring Indians who are now living in India but are ordinarily resident abroad, such as in the EU, Canada, the US, Japan, and Australia, to return even before international civil aviation opens up because we are now increasing the number of Vande Bharat flights.”
Domestic passenger flights will be operated from 25 May
The Domestic passenger flights will resume operations from 25 May (Monday) in a phased manner. As per data by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA), the domestic flights will be operated on all the routes, that are taking off from 35 origin cities and 39 destination airports.
Recently, the central government also fixed the upper and lower fare limits for the next three months to avoid overcharging by the airlines in the wake of the rush to book tickets.
Puri said in a press conference on Friday that the central government can only intervene in special conditions. He said, “We will ensure fare band remains between floor and ceiling price.”
The domestic flights were suspended in India after the lock down was enforced to contain the corona virus epidemic.
An FIR has been registered against self-styled godman Daati Maharaj for allegedly praying in a Shani temple violating the lockdown in Asola area in New Delhi. Commissioner of Police, Atul Thakur said that preliminary enquiry revealed that Chief pujari Daati Maharaj along with some more people had performed the pooja at the temple at 7:30 pm on Friday evening flouting social distancing norms.
Thakur added, “It had come to notice that some photographs of a ceremony at Shani Dham Temple were being circulated on Social media wherein the social distancing norms were not being followed and a religious congregation was organised in contravention of the lock down guidelines.”
Daati Maharaj cutting cake
On Saturday, videos and photos of the religious ceremony held at the temple went viral on social media, after which the police launched a probe. The videos show men and women offering prayers, singing in the temple, and the Maharaj was also seen cutting a cake.
#Breaking | Controversial self-styled godman Daati Maharaj flouts lockdown norms by opening his ashram with a large gathering of his supporters.
Daati Maharaj and others present at the event have been booked under Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 34(acts by several in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian penal code and relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act.
The case was registered at Maidan Garhi police station on Tuesday and investigation is underway.
The artisans of the gold-silver market of Kota borrowed money from merchants and pledged some jewellery belonging to their wives so that they can go back to their native state West Bengal after the Kota administration avoided their request to be ferried back. The 200 artisans with their family collectively booked 7 buses and left for their homes.
At the same time, 18 people belonging to five families residing in Kota from Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh were unable to get back to their native places using govt provided transport and they also left in a bus after borrowing money. They rented a bus at Rs 22,000. Former Counselor Vinod Nayak gave them seven thousand and the rest of the money was loaned on the guarantee that the driver will recover money after they reach their destination. After this, they could leave for their hometowns on Thursday.
Majority of Artisans in Kota belongs to West Bengal
As per reports, most of the artisans who work in Kota belongs to West Bengal. They are facing unemployment since the lockdown has been implemented. Many times the workers requested the District Administration to ferry the back their native places. Even after continuous requests, when the administration did not respond, they collected money, some borrowed from the traders and some even pledged jewellery. After collecting the rent for seven buses, 200 people finally left for West Bengal.
People of Juanpur also left
Natives of Juanpur, Munnalal, Suraj, Kaushal Kumar, Rahul Sonkar, and Vikas Gupta came to Kota for employment with their families. These 18 people from five families were living in Keshavpura areas and sell juice near the coaching centers.
After the lockdown was enforced they had enough money to feed their children for few days. When the Shramik special trains were put into operation after some days they found a hope to go back but nothing could happen because they were also avoided by the District Administration.
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on Saturday took to Twitter to inform that a senior officer of Directorate of Civil Defence (HQ) has been suspended with immediate effect in connection with the Delhi government advertisement that raised aspersions on the territorial integrity of India and incorrectly referred to Sikkim as a separate country.
A senior officer of Directorate of Civil Defence (HQ) has been suspended with immediate effect for publishing an Advertisement which disrespects the territorial integrity of India by making incorrect reference to Sikkim on the same lines as some neighbouring countries.
The LG further added that there is no tolerance for such gross misconduct and directives have been issued to withdraw the offensive advertisement.
Delhi government advertisement sparked off a huge controversy
A massive controversy broke out on Saturday morning after the Arvind Kejriwal-led government issued an advertisement to recruit ‘Civil Defence Volunteers’ in most of the daily newspapers. The Delhi government in its ad to recruit nearly 200 volunteers, however, referred the state of Sikkim to be a separate entity and placed alongside sovereign nations like Bhutan and Nepal.
Controversial ad posted by the Delhi Government(Source: Hindustan Times)
Sikkim government took strong objection to the Delhi government advertisements in which the Indian state of Sikkim was likened to the foreign countries like Nepal and Bhutan. In a letter written to the Delhi government, Sikkim chief secretary SC Gupta stated that the offensive advertisement has “immensely hurt” the sentiments of Sikkim residents and it should be immediately withdrawn by the Delhi government.
In a strong-worded letter, the Sikkim chief secretary also asked the Delhi government to issue a suitable communique to ameliorate the concerns of the people of Sikkim. He added that the inhabitants of Sikkim take pride in being citizens of this great country ever since it became the 22nd state of the Indian Union on May 16, 1975.
Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang also posted a tweet condemning the advertisement that equated Sikkim with other sovereign countries.
