On Friday, a 32-year-old man, Puneet Sisodia, obsessed with TikTok (a Chinese video-sharing social networking service) open fired in his society, Jaypee Kosmos, located in Sector 134, Noida, Uttar Pradesh while recording a video.
He lived on the 15th floor in one of the towers. The accused would often make TikTok videos in which he brandished his guns (both real and fake). To lend credibility to his content, Puneet fired from his licenced pistol during the incident. As per report, he was driving a car while firing bullets.
One of the bullets fired by the accused entered the house of Mayank Bansal, Vivek Vihar ACP, who lived on the 17th floor. Fortunately, he and his family were not at home at the time of the incident. Puneet was arrested after a formal complaint was lodged against him by Bansal. The cops recovered the pistol used by the accused and 106 live rounds.
Additional Police Commissioner, Akhilesh Kumar stated, “Once the accused was identified after due investigation, it was found that he was fond of making TikTok videos and would pose with guns.”
It was revealed during the police complaint that Puneet had joined IMS Ghaziabad to pursue MBA. He also had a PG Diploma and has allegedly been the Managing Director (MD) of a real estate company. His father used to work as an automobile engineer and owns a motorcycle showroom in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
Initial complaints by locals against Puneet involved driving a Scorpio around the society while playing loud music. However, they could not ascertain the identity of the miscreant at that time.
In December last year, in a viral TikTok video, a Muslim ‘protestor’ said they’ ruled for 800 years’ but never ‘got arrogant’ and threatened PM Modi with dire consequences over CAB and NRC. He added, “If we (referring to his Muslim community) start showing our true colours than you will have no place to escape”.
A couple from Kashmir accused of having links with the terrorist organisation Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), has been nabbed by Delhi Police from south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on Sunday morning, as per reports. The ISKP is a branch of ISIS which is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the reports, the couple had been in touch with senior ISKP members in Afghanistan and were trying to exploit the ongoing riots to incite Muslims to carry out terror strikes inside the country. The Delhi police had intelligence regarding the IS terrorist presence in Jamia Nagar and carried out an operation on Sunday morning.
Pramod Singh Kushwaha, Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP): A couple, Jahanjeb Sami and Hina Bashir Beg linked to Khorasan Module of ISIS apprehended from Jamia Nagar, Ohkla. Couple was instigating anti-CAA protests. https://t.co/eAh5WTY085pic.twitter.com/NcZUd0LlqJ
Jahanzaib Sami and wife Hinda Bashir Beigh, a couple from Srinagar in Kashmir, have been detained.
Jahanzaib Sami was under the radar of the Indian intelligence operatives some time back for his association with senior members of ISKP in Afghanistan. It appears that he intended to carry out terror strikes including a suicide attack and had also been attempting to procure weapons for this purpose.
However, lately, Jahanzaib Sami’s activities were largely confined to propaganda for the Islamic terror group on cyberspace and had been advocating that the group should expand its focus to the Indian hinterland, and not just Jammu and Kashmir.
According to intelligence officials, Jahanzaib Sami was also in touch with Huzaifa al-Bakistani, the Pakistani commander of the Islamic State’s Khorasan wing who played a key role in efforts to radicalise Kashmiri youngsters to join the terror group. Huzaifa al-Bakistani, a Pakistani national who first joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba before upgrading to the IS, is a well-known online recruiter for IS.
Jahanzaib Sami’s wife Hina Bashir Beigh was also active on pro-IS handles on social media and facilitated in spotting what the group considered ‘talent’ for its terror activities, a senior Police officer said.
In his initial questioning, Jahanzaib Sami is alleged to have told a group of interrogators about his role in publishing and publicising the February edition of the IS magazine Sawt al-Hind (Voice of India). In this edition of the digital magazine, the Islamic State’s subcontinental branch had called on Indian Muslims angered by the Citizenship Amendment Act to abandon political protest, and instead turn to jihadist violence.
“Democracy is not going to save you,” the terrorist group’s magazine released online on 24 February said.
The official said Jahanzaib Sami had spoken about the role of some other people in connection with the magazine that had attempted to provoke the youth to join ‘jihadi violence’.
It is pertinent to note that Jamia Nagar, from where the terrorists have been arrested, falls under Okhla constituency. Aam Aadmi Party leader Amanatullah Khan represents Okhla in Delhi government.
The Kutch Police apprehended four youths, including one minor, on Saturday on suspicion of spying on behalf of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. They have been identified as Hajam Mamadrafik, Sumra Arbaz Ismail, Padeiyar Abas and a 17-year-old minor.
Saurabh Tolambiya, Superintendent of Police, Kutch (West) said, “We have found information on their phones and they haven’t been able to give valid reasons for keeping them.”
The four accused has been booked under section 123 (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war), section 120B (conspiracy) and the Official Secrets Act for allegedly sending critical information about defence instalments to an unidentified person in Pakistan. They are residents of Abdasa taluka of Kutch district.
When asked if the accused received anything in exchange for sending information, police said that these things are still being probed. “Prima facie, they have been arrested on the basis of suspicion. The other aspect of this case is a matter of investigation which the Special Operation Group (SOG) is doing,” the SP said.
Among the arrested, Mamadrafik is a barber and Ismail runs a mobile shop, while the other two are students of a private school.
This is not the first time that such a case of espionage has come to light. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh police jointly with the Naval intelligence had arrested thirteen people, including eleven Navy personnel and two civilians. It had been revealed that they were honey-trapped by the Pakistani ISI operatives on social media after which these men had leaked sensitive information related to the Indian Navy through their social media profiles.
In January, it was revealed that one Army jawan named Sepoy Somveer Singh, who was arrested four months back on charges of espionage in Jaiselmer, got in touch with one ‘Anika Chopra’ over Facebook and was chatting regularly with her and exchanging details and information about the armoured unit including its movement. Following this, multiple accounts of officers and jawans are under probe with whom ‘Anika Chopra’ was in touch with.
Recently, a suspected Pakistani spy was arrested from Arunachal Pradesh border who had allegedly passed sensitive information about Army deployment and location, weapons information and number of Artillery installations in Kibithu to his Dubai based handler.
In October last year, an Indian Army soldier of Meerut Cantonment was caught and several others detained by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad on the charges of espionage activities carried out on the directions of the infamous ISI.
The Greta-model of activism has indeed gained significant prominence in recent years. Ambitious guardians use their wards in order to pursue their personal political agenda. Using children for activism has a distinct advantage as adults have an innate aversion towards criticizing children too harshly, as they should. Nefarious agendas can be made presentable by having children advocating them, as the inherent innocence of children masks the hideous nature of such activism, quite effectively.
Unsurprisingly, the said form of activism has arrived in India as well. Licypriya Kangujam, one eight-year-old ‘child activist’, recently made news for turning down Narendra Modi’s #SheInspiresUs to honour women on Twitter because she did not ‘want to be celebrated if PM Modi was not going to listen to her’. As it turns out, the account is not operated by Licypriya. The account is operated by her guardian.
Licypriya’s account is managed by her guardian
After ‘woke’ comedians and politicians used Licypriya’s guardian’s tweet to attack Prime Minister Modi, former National General Secretary of Congress’ students’ wing, National Students Union of India (NSUI), Angellica Aribam revealed how Licypriya was made into a celebrity over fake claims of achievements.
Aribam mentioned that 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.
Now, Licypriya’s Twitter account, which is managed by her guardian, has resorted to blocking everyone who questions her credentials on the social media platform. It needs to be reiterated here that Licypriya is only eight years old, she has no control over what is happening. She is being used as a pawn in all of this. Angellica Aribam, who revealed the fraudulent claims of Licypriya’s achievements, was blocked by the child’s guardian managing her account.
Mohit Sharma, a journalist working with Times Now, was blocked by Licypriya’s guardian-operated account as well. Sharma saw it as a vindication of Aribam’s revelations.
As it turns out, Kangujam Kanarjit, Licypriya’s father, is charged with cheating and fraud. He has been accused by several businessmen of duping them. 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).
The fall of Licypriya shows that activism is a very lucrative business. Given the manner in which so many activists have suffered a downfall in recent times, one would expect the media to perform a little more background check before shoving the opinions of activists down the throat of ordinary citizens. The tale of Licypriya should serve as a caution for everyone who bought into the hoax. However, it is unlikely that the media will mend its ways.
The festival of colour shall soon be upon us. On Tuesday, Hindus all over the world will celebrate the festival of Holi with their friends and family. However, on the 5th of March, some students in the United States of America celebrated a Holi of their own. They called it ‘A Holi Against Hindutva’. The event was organized by a group called ‘Students Against Hindutva’ (SAH) and the event was held across several universities in the country.
Given the nature of the protests, we decided to investigate the background of the organization. We came across a profile of the organization on the delusional far-left propaganda outlet Teen Vogue. From there on, we discovered the website of the organization.
The website itself is a little short on information about the central core of the organization, to put it mildly. The website does not mention the executive board members of the SAH, however, it does ask for donations. But there was enough material in there for us to proceed further.
The poster of the event
On the website, we discovered an open letter to the Congress of the United States of America. It is important to mention here that the Congress is currently controlled by the Democrats, numerous members of which have made baseless remarks against the internal matters of India.
The letter, of course, has numerous lies and factual inaccuracies about the nature of Hindutva, the then Citizenship Amendment Bill and the National Register of Citizens. The letter was written by Yale South Asian Society Political Chair, Shreeya Singh and edited by Yale Muslim Student Association Member, Ziad Ahmed, and Princeton University Student, Kamya Yadav. It was also signed by the student associations of numerous universities. We will now attempt to puncture their lies here.
A portion of SAH’s Open Letter to the US Congress
Ziad Ahmed, mentioned as an editor of the letter, is a well-known activist in his own right. We looked for his account on social media and quickly discovered his profile on Twitter. He tweets under the username ‘@ziadtheactivist’. He said about the event on social media, “We are uniting for #AHoliAgainstHindutva because we stand together in opposing Modi’s fascist agenda that is systematically creating laws, empowering violence, and championing rhetoric to marginalize Muslims/minorities. Our love is louder than their hate.”
Given the wording of his tweet, we assume that he was an integral member of the initiative. On digging further, we discovered that by his own admission, he was part of the collective that launched the ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ program.
Ziad Ahmed’s tweet
On his social media account, the link to his personal website was mentioned. Thus, we took a detour and explored it. We shall elaborate on what we learned about Ziad Ahmed later on but before all of that, we need to understand the political context first.
The Political Context
Prime Minister Modi addressed an audience of Indian-Americans in Houston, Texas at the Howdy Modi event. That was interpreted by certain quarters as Narendra Modi’s endorsement of Donald Trump for the presidential elections this year and a part of the US President’s outreach towards the Indian-American community for his reelection bid.
Under such circumstances, it appears natural that Democrats would seek to tarnish Narendra Modi’s image in the USA due to a misguided sense of revenge and malice. Furthermore, it is known that Hillary Clinton bears animosity towards the Indian Prime Minister. Therefore, it appears natural that she saw the Howdy Modi event as Narendra Modi’s revenge for her antics when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Moreover, the Democrats have been vocal about their opposition towards the abrogation of Article 370, the CAA and NRC. Bernie Sanders, a presidential aspirant, has been vocal against it. Elizabeth Warren, who has now suspended her presidential campaign, too promised to ‘fight’ for the ‘freedom of Kashmir’ before Super Tuesday. Apart from them, prominent US Congresswomen such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have criticized India on these issues as well. Therefore, it is not farfetched to assume that Democrat politicians might have been motivated enough to initiate a campaign across universities to demonize Narendra Modi in the USA.
Ziad Ahmed
Ahmed’s website describes him as a “20-year-old junior at Yale University. He is an unapologetic American-Muslim-Bangladeshi student activist, entrepreneur, and speaker.” Ahmed, here, has previously worked for the US Department of State, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign, Martin O’Malley’s 2016 Campaign, and Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. The politicians mentioned here are Democrats who have been vocal in their criticism against the abrogation of Article 370, the CAA and the NRC. And this should ring the alarm bells. However, there are far more disturbing aspects of Ahmed’s professional life.
Ahmed is the CEO/co-founder of JUV Consulting, “a Generation Z consultancy that works with clients to help them reach young people”. In simple words, it is a marketing agency. JUV’s website describes itself as a “Gen Z marketing agency working with clients to more authentically and powerfully engage young audiences”. And this is not the end of it. Ahmed has also founded a non-profit ‘redefy’ in 2013 that is “committed to furthering equality”. ‘redefy’ also engages in journalism. This is the person who played a crucial in launching the ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ initiative.
Ziad Ahmed’s bio on his website
Imagine the conflict of interest for a moment. A person that has a history of working for left-oriented political campaigns founded a non-profit that engages in journalism, is a CEO of a marketing agency that is designed for clients to specifically target young audiences launched an initiative the primary objective of which is to turn American opinion against India, a country that the US administration under Donald Trump is trying to ally closely with. Needless to say, Donald Trump is the arch-nemesis of the political faction Ahmed is associated with.
Therefore, some questions need to be asked here given that it has been observed that the best way to market a political opinion to the youth is cloaking it under the mask of noble and righteous activism. In what capacity is Ziad serving the ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ initiative, as an activist or as the CEO of a marketing agency specifically designed to manufacture propaganda to brainwash the youth? Did Ziad launch the initiative at the behest of prominent Democrats whose public position against the CAA and NRC are well known? Was Ziad employed by the Democrats to launch a campaign against India across the universities in the United States?
These are questions that must be answered. However, one thing is certain. We cannot rule out the possibility that Ziad Ahmed’s marketing skills were employed by political institutions in order to tarnish India’s reputation in the country due to the prevailing political climate in the USA.
The Dark Side of ‘Students Against Hindutva’
Through the Teen Vogue profile on the SAH, penned by Shreeya Singh, the same individual who authored the letter to the US Congress, we discovered some startling details about the organization and how deeply it is linked to the Democrat Party in the USA. Shreeya wrote, “Thanks to the leadership of progressive giants in the South Asian diasporic community, such as South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and Stand With Kashmir, along with the energy of a new generation of South Asian Americans, we are building a determined diasporic solidarity network.”
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
Before we remind our readers of the ideological antecedents of Stand With Kashmir, an organization we have reported on before, we shall delve into the background of the SAALT. The Board of Directors of SAALT is composed of members who have worked closely with institutions associated with the politics of the Left. Pakistan born Amina Khan has “served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy under President Clinton’s Administration.” President Clinton here is Bill Clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton, whose approach towards India was not very friendly. Amina has also been “involved with efforts as an attorney and activist through her work with the Buxton Initiative, the Pakistan American Public Affairs Committee, and the USPAK Foundation.”
Shruti Garg, another member of the Board, has “worked for major philanthropic institutions including the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations (OSF).” Darakshan Raja, a Pakistani Muslim immigrant woman, who currently serves as the Founder/Co-Director of Justice For Muslims Collective, a Muslim-led space organizing against Islamophobia, is another member. Sasha Neha Ahuja has worked with Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Democratic politician.
Recently, failed US Presidential aspirant Kamala Harris, whose campaign was destroyed by Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard in a couple of minutes, was an honorary co-host for a congressional briefing on immigration detention hosted by SAALT. Thus, the political inclinations of the SAALT are pretty clear.
Stand With Kashmir
Stand With Kashmir (SWK) is a “Kashmiri diaspora-driven independent global citizen grassroots group committed to standing in solidarity with the people of Kashmir in ending the occupation and supporting their right to self-determination.” Calling India’s military presence in Kashmir an ‘occupation’ reveals amply the ideological orientation of the network. The organization believes “any proposed resolutions must foreground Kashmiri aspirations. We condemn the use of Islamophobia to undermine Kashmiri aspirations for freedom.”
In the ‘Origins of Conflict‘ segment of its website, it traces the roots of the Jihad in Kashmir to 1931, a decade after the Khilafat Movement that led to the creation of Pakistan, but never calls it as such. Instead, SWK paints it as ‘secular’. Furthermore, not once does it mention the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. Not once during the segment does SWK blame Pakistan for the roots of the mess. In the subsection on the plebiscite, the organization puts the entire blame on India for the fact that it has never occurred and conveniently ignored that plebiscite never occurred because Pakistan invaded Kashmir right after independence and since then, has refused to vacate the territories it occupied, in contravention of the UN norms.
As we have said in our earlier report on the organization after Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar shared a work of propaganda manufactured by them, SWK’s intentions are not pure. The SWK, which may well be backed by Pakistan, manufactured Kashmiri separatist on a highly sensitive issue at a time when sinister designs are afoot across the country. It is important to note that Farhan Akhtar shared the work of propaganda on the 18th of December, precisely a week after Ziad Ahmed announced the launch of ‘Holi Against Hindutva’. At this point, we are forced to ask Ziad Ahmed, were his marketing services hired by any Pakistani backed institution or individual?
The Politics of Students Against Hindutva
By now, it ought to be clear that SAH is entirely a far-left initiative. To be frank, it is clear on the face of it as well. In case it wasn’t obvious yet, Shreeya Singh concluded the SAH profile for Teen Vogue with the words, “Inquilab Zindabad. Long live the revolution.” Also, the feature image of the ‘Open Letter’ page its website is the one that was used to propagandize the Jamia Milia Islamia protests against the CAA as some sort of humanitarian project. In reality, the woman in the picture, Ladeeda Sakhaloon gave a call for Jihad on the 11th of December, only days before violence erupted in Delhi.
A portion of SAH’s Open Letter
Sinister Designs
SAH says on the ‘Resources‘ section of its website, “Our aim is to amplify the voices, actions, and protests of communities in India, particularly Muslim, Dalit, Adivasi, femme ones.” Let us again reiterate, Ziad Ahmed, an individual who is a CEO at a marketing agency he co-founded and a history of working with high-profile Democrat politicians, has launched an organization the aim of which is to amplify unrest in India. Nobody could accuse us of being suspicious about the actual motives of the ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ initiative without good reason. Furthermore, the SAH appears to be enamored with an organization such as the SWK which clearly is inimical to Indian interests.
Under the resources section, it has compiled ‘information’ against the CAA from far-left sources, the ‘organizers and collectives’ that are inciting protests across India, petitions and open letters and leftist opinion pieces and places where people can donate to support the students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Milia Islamia.
Source: SAH Website
Even more troubling is the fact that SAH has compiled a list of protests across India against the CAA. The list even includes ‘CAA Protest Helper’ which is apparently a ‘Legal Services Clinic’ where people could find legal help if they ran into any trouble during any protests against the CAA.
In addition to that, a ‘protest schedule’ and a running list of protests in the USA, UK, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Canada and other countries have also been provided. For an organization that is not even based in India, it is certainly an inordinate amount of attention it has dedicated towards the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India.
From: SAH’s website
If all this weren’t enough, Students Against Hindutva admits on its home page that it will be lobbying with the financial donations it receives. It states, “Our growing inter-campus coalition plans to campaign through protesting, sharing informational material, holding on-campus teach-ins, lobbying, and coordinating other events to raise awareness. Any donations to our fundraiser would be greatly appreciated and will help us continue to organize in support of protestors on the front lines.”
SAH also states, “As Students Against Hindutva, we are grateful for the support and organizing of those standing in solidarity with the civil disobedience movement persisting across India. We are committed to amplifying the demands of marginalized communities and working towards increasing international pressure to tip the scales in the protesters’ favor.”
Source: SAH’s website
Let us make it clear, Students Against Hindutva is a lobbying group. And we can safely speculate that ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ is a propaganda initiative organized to aid in the group’s lobbying efforts. We can also safely speculate that Ziad Ahmed was hired on the basis of his skills in the marketing field. We can only wonder, however, if the services of the lobbying group, which is closely linked to the Democrat Party, was hired by any Pakistani institution or individual given that we know that the SAH idolizes Stand With Kashmir.
What is the ultimate objective of the lobbying? Even that has been made quite clear by Shreeya Singh in the SAH profile published on Teen Vogue. She wrote, “The more of us that speak, the harder it is to call us out one by one and the easier it is to dismantle the Hindutva project.” Thus, the SAH’s goal is not to merely ensure that the CAA and NRC is repealed. Its ultimate objective is to ensure the destruction of Hindutva.
Attempts to fuel unrest in India?
From the conduct of the SAH, it is pretty clear that the organization is working towards undermining Indian interests. In addition to supporting the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India, it also seeks to lobby against Indian national interests, presumably in the USA. But we must also remember that SAH is not the only foreign organization that is working to undermine Indian national interests.
Only yesterday, we had reported that Harsh Mander is a member of an organization that is backed by the Italian Foreign Ministry and works closely with the Italian Secret Service. He is also the Chairman of the OSF’s Human Rights Initiative Advisory Board. Harsh Mander and his NGO Karwan-e-Mohabbat have been very active at the anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests. Considering everything that we do know now, it appears that a sinister attempt is underway to foment unrest and civil discord in our country.
A day after Modi government set up a delimitation commission to redraw the territorial constituencies of the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir, Congress leader and grandson of Hari Singh who signed Instrument of Accession, welcomed the decision of the Modi government but also expressed apprehensions regarding the using of 2011 census data for delimitations of constituencies.
On Saturday, Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh took to Twitter to state that setting up of Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir was a welcome step. However, he raised doubts regarding using 2011 census as the data for the process and called it a “critical mistake”.
Vikramaditya Singh stated that evidence showed that census data of 2011 pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir was fudged and using it for delimiting new constituencies will be a mistake. He also urged the government to use 2021 census data as the base data.
Setting up of delimitation commission for Jammu & Kashmir is a welcome step. However to base it on 2011 census will be a critical mistake. All evidence shows J&K census was fudged/bogus. As 2021 census is on the anvil I urge GOI to review its decision. @HMOIndia@AnkurSharma_Advhttps://t.co/wz7uyhw4k4
— Vikramaditya Singh (@vikramaditya_JK) March 7, 2020
The Modi government on Saturday had constituted a Delimitation Commission to redraw Lok Sabha and Assembly Constituencies of the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
The Delimitation Commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state election commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states will be the ex-officio members.
Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislative body. The new delimitation will enable the process of redrawing the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the four northeastern states.
The last delimitation across the country was conducted in 2002, but these states were left out due to various reasons. In the four states of North East India, delimitation could not be carried out along with other Indian states due to prevailing security reasons. But now, the government thinks the situation has changed.
The delimitation in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir comes nine months after the controversial Article 370 was scrapped and the state was divided into two union territories. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was cleared in Parliament in August 2019, mentioned new delimitation to redraw the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir according to section 62 of the Act.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today has his hypocrisy called out when he tweeted on occasion of International Women’s Day and talked about equality.
Wish all my sisters, mothers and daughters a happy #WomensDay. It is very heartening to see the growing access to opportunities for women
Only when women and men become truly equal partners can we progress. My salute to all women for shaping our society and building our nation.
“Only when women and men become truly equal partners can we progress,” Kejriwal said in his tweet. He was soon called out for lack of women participation in his own Delhi Cabinet.
So much fr women empowerment that no women in ur cabinet..???
He also came under fire for referring to women as ‘someone’s mother, sister and daughter’ to be deserving of respect.
To the men asking “mother, sister” bola toh kya ho gaya? I’ll tell you. Men are the first to use these identities — mother, sister, daughter — as violent cuss words. So the hypocrisy is something else. It also means it ties women with family roles to be deserving of respect.
Following the victory in concluded Delhi Elections, Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal had come under fire for not including a single woman in his cabinet. This is the second time in a row that Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal has not a single woman minister in his cabinet. The AAP campaign was built around claims of some kind of great education revolution in Delhi, for which the credit was systematically given to Atishi Marlena. However, despite the brouhaha around it, she was left out.
In a video that has now gone viral on social media, a group of four girls studying in Class XI at a reputed school in Malda, West Bengal could be seen vandalising a timeless classic (Sedin Dujone) of Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore. They had replaced words from the romantic composition with references to “sex”, “penis” and “voyeurism.”
The loose translation of the original composition goes as, “While I was strolling on my known path, the Moon had risen to the night sky… That was when we met without knowing about the divinity of the moment.”
However, the vulgar parody of Tagore’s song goes as:
“On our way under the night sky, we were fuc*ed by a di*k at one place. All this while, an uncle from the neighbourhood watched us fu*k. Sister fuc*er! We fuc*ed a di*k at one place. (3) ”
School authorities had vowed to take “appropriate action” against the students after the contentious video came to light. The school Headmistress, Depashree Roy, had “reprimanded” the students and added that they need “counselling.”
She, however, allowed the accused to sit for class tests. Meanwhile, the girls and their guardians had tendered an unconditional apology for the vulgar song which they initially claimed to have made “for fun.”
Earlier, a group of youngsters at the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata were seen sporting cuss words and slangs disrespectful to Tagore on their bodies during the Basant Utsav celebrations on the university campus.
While one body marking read “Dudu chai (I need b**bs)”, the other highlighted “F*ck you” in bold letters. Another group of girl could be seen sporting, “Bada Chada Uthalo Gogona (The d**k has risen to the sky)“. This line was made by distorting a famous song by Rabindranath Tagore, which had caused outrage from social media users.
Not only the youths sported the obscene words on their bodies, the vulgar parody of Rabindranath Tagore’s song made by Youtuber Roddur Roy was also played at the event, and the students danced to the tune of that song made with replacing original words with vulgar words.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University has already tendered his resignation avter photographs and videos of the event viral on social media which were subsequently picked up by national media.
Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government has spent a whopping amount of Rs 43 crore on advertisements from August last year to January this year of which nearly Rs 29 crores was spent in just two months of December 2019 and January 2020 ahead of the Delhi assembly elections.
An RTI application filed by an activist named Vivek Kumar to the Directorate of Information and Publicity under Delhi government has revealed that the Aam Aadmi Party government has spent Rs 42.67 crore of public money on party’s promotion ahead of the Delhi assembly elections.
The details on total expenditure incurred on advertisement and publicity of Aam Aadmi Party in print media, internet media, electronic media and others from August 2019 to January 2020 is:
RTI document revealing AAP’s’ ad spending
Ever since Arvind Kejriwal elected as Chief Minister of Delhi, his obsession with publicity and to create an image for himself by using public money is only increasing.
An earlier RTI document had revealed that Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party had spent about Rs 78 crore annually on advertisements in the first four years of its tenure, more than any previous governments in Delhi. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government had spent Rs 311.78 crore on advertisements between 2015 and 2019, on an average of Rs 77.94 crore annually, four times that of the Congress.
The AAP came to power in 2015 and spent Rs 81.23 crore on advertisements in 2015-16 and in 2016-17, the expenditure was Rs 67.25 crore, the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) said in reply to the RTI application. The Delhi government saw its maximum expenditure on advertisements in 2017-18 when it spent Rs 117.76 crore.
It is surprising to see that Arvind Kejriwal, who had come to power accusing Congress of corruption and inefficient governance structure, has himself resorted to unnecessary spending on boosting his publicity rather than utilising the public funds for furthering developmental activities.
In a shocking disclosure, the Income Tax department has found an alleged nexus between former Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor and Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, reports Times of India.
According to new revelations, Rana Kapoor has bought a painting of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for a large sum raising suspicion over Gandhis’ involvement in Yes Bank scam. Following the disclosures, the Income Tax Department is investigating whether there is a link between Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor and Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi.
Reports indicate that Rana Kapoor had close links with the Gandhis. Rana Kapoor had allegedly bought a painting by Priyanka Gandhi for a whopping Rs 2 crore. The massive expose comes after Rana Kapoor was questioned for almost 30 hours by the Enforcement Directorate.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor under money laundering charges in the wee hours of Sunday. The banker was held under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) around 3 AM after he did not cooperate with the officials.
Rana was questioned by the ED sleuths for over 30 hours after the central agency raided his residence on Friday night. He will be produced before a local court during the day to obtain custody, the officials said.
The central agency is probing Kapoor’s role in connection with the disbursal of loans to some corporate entities and the subsequent alleged kickbacks reportedly received in his wife’s accounts.
The ED action came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday imposed a moratorium on the capital-starved Yes Bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account, and superseded the board of the private sector lender with immediate effect.
Yes Bank will not be able to grant or renew any loan or advance, make any investment, incur any liability or agree to disburse any payment.
On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India had published a draft of the scheme of reconstruction for the troubled private sector bank. Public sector bank State Bank of India will infuse capital in Yes Bank by acquiring 49% stack.
After SBI picks up the stake, a new board will be constituted for the bank, and the administrator appointed by RBI will hand over the control of the bank to the newly formed board. State Bank of India will nominate two directors in the board of directors, while RBI may appoint additional directors exercising its powers.
