A 55-year-old man, Farooq, has been arrested by Meerut Police on Monday for allegedly setting on fire house of a woman who did not reciprocate his one-sided love.
As per reports, the man was a father of ten and had one-sided love for the woman. The woman, along with her five children, was sleeping in her house when he reportedly set it ablaze on wee hours of 14th January, 2019. Two children were rushed to a hospital in Delhi in serious condition and one of them is still critical. The incident took place in Zahidpur village in Kharkhoda region of Meerut.
As per reports, Farooq was a close acquaintance of Rahmeen, a labourer who worked to support her family after her husband abandoned her. As per reports, Farooq used to financially help Rahmeen. Rahmeen’s daughter was reportedly in love with a boy from the neighbourhood and Farooq opposed the relationship. To that, Rahmeen asked him not to interfere. ‘Spurned’, Farooq decided to take revenge on Rahmeen who did not respond to his advances despite the fact that he ‘took viagra’.
Farooq, who is father to 10 children himself, reportedly went to woman’s house on 13th January. Later in the night, he put petrol through the window and set the house on fire. Police recovered half-burnt pipe and empty bottle of petrol from him. Farooq has reportedly confessed to his crime.
Amidst all the negativity that is found in abundance on social media, every once in a while there is a heartwarming story that puts a smile on all our faces. Rarely, though, do such stories involve political or media sections of social media. And this is what makes this story so special and rather unusual.
It all began when David Leavitt, ‘Award-Winning Multimedia Journalist’, decided to call the Police on an employee of a store on the 18th of January because she refused to sell an electric toothbrush for a cent. A cent is one-hundredth of a dollar, it is the paisa equivalent of the Indian rupee. According to Leavitt, the employee was not ‘honouring the price’ as per Massachusetts law.
I just had to call the police because @target Refused to sell me the toothbrush
The customer care handle of the store responded to the tweet and clarified that the price of the toothbrush was not a cent as he was claiming and requested his details. When they asked him what the Police said, the ’eminent’ journalist appeared adamant about involving the police in the matter.
They verified the info was accurate and told me I can take you to court for not honoring the price and are giving me a record that what I said happened happened
Social Media was appalled at the conduct of the ’eminent journalist’ and called upon him to delete the first tweet as it contained the photo of the female employee, Tori. Some even volunteered to buy him a toothbrush if he deleted the tweet. People on social media pointed out that it was a labeling error at worst and calling the police on an employee over the matter was horrible and shameful conduct. The ’eminent journalist’ was also slammed for sharing the employee’s photo online, presumably without her consent.
The first tweet in the thread by David Leavitt that began it all might just be the worst ‘ratioed’ tweet in the history of Twitter. Being ratioed refers to a tweet that has got a lot more replies than it has retweets. It has been observed to be a good indicator of blunder tweets. The logic behind the term that grown immensely popular on the internet is this: If the number of replies to a tweet vastly outpaces its engagement in terms of likes and retweets, then something has gone horribly wrong. Leavitt’s first tweet had received over thirty-one thousand replies at the time of writing this report and just over 1,300 retweets.
The tweet that started the entire saga
People on social soon decided to cheer up Tori who, obviously, had a bad bad day at the office. One Twitter user, who tweets under the username @CarpeDonktum, decided to use the platform to give her a small treat for the misery she had to endure. Carpe Donktum started a ‘Go Fund Me’ page and appealed for people to donate so that the beleagured employee could go on a vacation. As of the time of writing this report, the campaign which had set the target at five thousand dollars had managed to raise over thirty-thousand dollars.
On the 20th of January, Tori issued her first and thus far her only statement on the campaign to send her on a vacation. She expressed her gratitude towards everyone for their generosity and support. She also said that she was looking for a worthy cause to donate the amount that was collected for her. “Your support has changed my life,” she said.
Statement by Tori (Source: @RealTargetTori/Twitter)
There appears to be a good word to describe the entire phenomenon: Spitefunding. The term is likely to have been invented by Michael Malice, a popular political commentator on social media and the author of ‘Dear Reader’. Spitefunding is a phenomenon where people voluntarily donate to a cause in order to spite or, more colloquially, ‘piss off’ those who are in opposition to it. In the current instance, as Michael Malice pointed out himself, the act of kindness had the added advantage of ‘spiting’ an unpleasant character.
The outpouring of support for Tori was motivated by genuine human empathy and also by the fact that people are sick and tired of the media fraternity who perceive themselves to be special snowflakes who are more equal than everyone else. It was reflected by the fact that although Carpe Donktum happens to be a Trump supporter, the campaign drew immense support from every corner of the political spectrum.
In a major drama that has unfolded weeks before Delhi Assembly elections a sitting Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Delhi Cantonment, Surender Singh, will now contest from same seat on NCP ticket. He had earlier quit the party after being denied party ticket for the upcoming Delhi Assembly election.
The National Congress Party today released names of seven candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. AAP’s sitting MLA from Delhi Cantt – Commando Surender Singh (who has resigned from AAP) has been fielded from the constituency by the party.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) releases names of seven candidates for #DelhiElections2020 . AAP’s sitting MLA from Delhi Cantt – Commando Surender Singh (who has resigned from AAP) has been fielded from the constituency by the party. pic.twitter.com/LbDoSvW9h1
Sharing his resignation letter on Twitter Tuesday, Singh said, “Today, I’m sad and I’m giving my resignation letter from the Aam Aadmi Party.” Talking about his decision to quit AAP, he said he was doing it with a heavy heart. AAP has fielded Virender Singh Kadyan from the seat.
Later, speaking to IANS, the Delhi Cantonment MLA informed that he will be contesting the February 8 election as an NCP candidate.
The Aam Aadmi Party has suffered back to back setbacks in the last two days. Prior to this, two of its MLAs quit the party after they were denied ticket for the 8February Delhi Assembly election. While Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri joined the Congress on Saturday, Hari Nagar MLA Jagdeep Singh said he was in talks with the Shiromani Akali Dal, an ally of the BJP.
Shastri, who was among the 15 members of the outgoing Assembly not fielded by the AAP this time, alleged that the party was “selling” tickets and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of acting in an autocratic manner.
Shastri alleged that the AAP pretended to be an honest party and “made bus tickets free for women but are charging Rs 10 crore for an Assembly seat ticket”.
Countering Shastri’s allegations, another AAP leader said that when tickets are denied, people make such claims. “Does that mean when he previously contested from the AAP, he bought the ticket? The ticket distribution was strictly made on the basis of the performance of the MLAs which was closely scrutinised. All those MLAs whose performance was found to be not up to the mark were dropped,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who missed filing his nominations yesterday due to delay caused by his roadshow, filed his nominations today after a prolonged wait at the office of the Returning Officer (RO) at the Jamnagar House.
Kejriwal is being challenged in the New Delhi seat by BJP’s Sunil Yadav and Congress Romesh Sabharwal.
The national capital Delhi will go to polls in a single-phase on February 8 and the counting of votes will take place on February 11. The last day of filing nominations for the candidates is January 21 and the last day to withdraw nominations is January 24.
Unable to cope with his wife’s popularity on social media, a man named Ayaz Ahmed brutally killed his wife, Reshma (22) in Amer area near Jaipur-Delhi highway on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday (January 20) by strangulating her and then crushing her face by throwing a heavy stone on her.
Based on the information given by Reshma’s mother, the police found the defaced body of the woman around 8.30 am on Monday at Medauji Ki Chhatri, some 100 metres away from the Jaipur-Delhi highway. She was unrecognisable as the culprit had bludgeoned her with a stone, said ACP Ashok Gupta.
A two-wheeler parked close to the body helped the cops to resolve the case and nab the husband within a few hours after the incident. Police registered a case against him under sections 302 and 201 of the IPC for murder and tampering evidence.
The woman hooked to social media had over 6,000 followers on her Facebook account. She regularly shared her pictures and videos on social media. Envious of her popularity, Ahmed had started suspecting his wife of infidelity and the two began fighting over it.
He often fought with her for spending more time on social media. Unable to bear his torture, she left her husband a few days ago and started staying with her parents. They have three months baby girl.
According to reports, Ahmed went to his in-law’s house in an inebriated state on Sunday evening and requested his wife to return home along with him. Reshma agreed. Ahmed then took her out on a Scooty to Amer city, where he strangulated her and then crushed her face by throwing a heavy stone on her.
The Police investigating the case said that the name on which the two-wheeler was registered helped them nab the accused. “We got the name and address of the person from the RTO. The vehicle was registered in the name of Reshma Manglani. When we reached the address, Rekha Manglani, the victim’s mother gave the police crucial information.
“She told us that Reshma had married Ayaz and they were living separately for the past two months,” Gupta said, claiming that he had found enough evidence on her social networking account, which helped them to solve the case.
Madhya Pradesh Kisan Congress General Secretary Shailendra Verma was forcibly removed from Harda Collectorate premises allegedly after he spoke loudly to state minister PC Sharma.
#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: Kisan Congress state general secretary Shailendra Verma forcibly removed from Harda Collectorate premises, allegedly after he spoke loudly to state minister PC Sharma. (20.01.20) pic.twitter.com/fMuw4aCBT9
“Mantri ji scolded me and told to lock me up at police station. You’re part of this government, you are supposed to listen to our concerns.” Verma added while speaking to ANI.
As per reports, the minister and farmer leader discussed something after which they got into an argument. At this point, a minister in Kamal Nath government, P C Sharma, pushed Verma. After this, Sharma’s supporters carried Verma away. Verma has also alleged that Sharma has threatened to put him in jail. He said that he had gone there to meet and talk about farmers but Sharma got angry at him.
Taking a cue from the Left Front ruled Kerala and the Congress-led Punjab government, the West Bengal government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will bring a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 in the state assembly on January 27.
According to reports a special session of the West Bengal assembly will be convened on January 27 during which the anti-CAA resolution will be adopted around 2 pm. TMC supremo has urged all political parties to support the anti-CAA resolution.
West Bengal government to bring Anti-CAA resolution in the state assembly at 2 pm on 27th January. This resolution will be brought in a special assembly session. #CitizenshipAmendmentActpic.twitter.com/MbEI0fVq3e
This development comes on the day when Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Centre won’t take back the citizenship law however hard the opposition might protest. Addressing a pro-CAA rally at Lucknow, the Home Minister challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and others to hold an open debate with him on the new legislation.
Protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) continue to rage with Opposition-ruled state assemblies passing resolutions against the amended citizenship law. Earlier, Kerala and then the Congress-led government in Punjab had on January 17 passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state assembly.
Notably, while Congress fear-mongers and refuses to implement CAA in states, Congress veteran leader Kapil Sibal burst the bubble on Saturday asserting that the refusal to implement CAA by States would be unconstitutional. Kapil Sibal said that CAA is national legislation and no state can go about saying that it will not implement CAA. He also stressed on the importance of not scoring political brownies.
Mamata Banerjee has been opposing the CAA and the proposed NRC strongly. West Bengal has also seen great violence in the aftermath of the passage of the CAA in both houses of the Parliament. The Chief Minister of West Bengal has also taken to raising unconventional slogans during her rallies opposing the CAA, the most prominent among which goes something like “Kaa Kaa Chi Chi, CHi Chi Chi Chi.”
Contrary to Mamata Banerjee, who always appears consumed by rage when she speaks of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, addressing a massive rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on December 22, had also mocked the Chief Minister of Bengal for her opposition to the CAA. Narendra Modi said, “She earlier wanted the government to stop illegal immigration from Bangladesh, she also wanted to help Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. What has happened to you now? Once the Army was doing a regular drill in Bengal. Didi claimed Modi’s Sena had invaded Bengal.”
While a great many motivated ‘intellectuals’ are busy reinforcing a sense of gloom and doom regarding the Indian economy, a recently released United Nations report suggests otherwise. India was one of the top 10 recipients to attract Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) in 2019, revealed a UN report on Monday.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) commissioned Global Investment Trend Monitor report stated that India was one among the top 10 beneficiaries of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) and saw about 16 per cent growth as compared to previous year, attracting $49 billion inflows in 2019. The report also stated that the global foreign direct investment stayed lacklustre in 2019 at $1.39 trillion, a 1 per cent decline from the revised $1.41 trillion in 2018.
The report cited the looming threats of trade war, slackening macroeconomic performance and policy indecision as primary reasons for the tepid FDI investments last year.
The report also mentioned that the cluster of developing countries attracted more than 50 per cent of the foreign direct investment with South Asia registering a rate of 10 per cent increase in FDI to $60 billion, chiefly driven by India’s 16 per cent increase in FDI inflows amounting to $49 billion. According to the report, a large chunk of this investment was attracted by services industries, including information technology.
The investment in developed countries hit an unprecedented low, decreasing by 6 per cent as compared to 2018 to $643 billion. The United States topped the list of countries receiving FDI. However, it registered a negative growth as the FDI investments in US fell to $251 billion from $254 billion. China, on other hand, saw zero-growth of FDI inflows with 2019 witnessing $140 billion inflows as compared to $139 billion in 2018.
Against the backdrop of impending Brexit, the FDI in UK was down by 6 per cent. The European Union too did not remain immune to the sluggish year as its investments dropped by 15 per cent to $305 billion.
The report also highlighted the 40 per cent decline in cross-border M&As (Mergers & Acquisitions) in 2019 to $490 billion – the lowest level since 2014. It stated that the slump in Eurozone growth coupled with the Brexit fears have rendered European M&A sales halved to $190 billion.
Speaking at the Jan Jagran Abhiyan rally on the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in Lucknow on Tuesday, Amit Shah attacked opposition accusing them of spreading misinformation on CAA.
The home minister challenged the opposition to debate on CAA publicly, and prove whether the act can snatch away the citizenship from anyone. He further explained that CAA does not consist of a single provision that snatches away citizenship, it can only provide citizenship.
“The bill is firmly dedicated to the persecuted minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afganistan, whose rights are taken away, their places of worship and shelter are vandalized. Due to misdeeds of congress the country was divided into two, the minorities in these countries kept decreasing in number, after all where they are? Some people were killed, some of them were converted”, said Shah.
कांग्रेस के पाप के कारण धर्म के आधार पर भारत के दो टुकड़े हुए। पाकिस्तान, अफगानिस्तान, बांग्लादेश में अल्पसंख्यकों की संख्या कम होती रही। आखिर कहां गए ये लोग?
Amit Shah took on opposition saying: “Modiji brought CAA and Rahul baba and company, Mamata, Akhilesh ji, Behen Mayawati, the entire brigade started ranting against CAA”.
#WATCH Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Lucknow: Modi ji #CAA lekar aaye, aur CAA ke khilaf, yeh Rahul baba and company, Mamata, Akhilesh ji, behen Mayawati, saari ki saari brigade CAA ke khilaf ‘kau kau kau’ karne lage. pic.twitter.com/xMys1yiu3J
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Shah reminded that Gandhi had said that Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan can come to India anytime. It will be the duty of Indians to provide them with dignity and security. Slamming opposition for supporting Tukde-Tukde slogans raised in JNU. Shah said, “you can criticise me and my party how much ever you want..but if anyone shouts slogans against Bharat Mata, their place is in jail, behind bars.”
2 वर्ष पहले JNU में नारे लगे- भारत तेरे टुकड़े हों…
मोदी जी ने उनको जेल में डाला तो ये अखिलेश, मायावती, राहुल कहते हैं कि ये वाणी स्वतंत्रता का अधिकार है।
Firmly asserting his government’s stand on the CAA, the home minister declared that no matter how many protests and outrages are staged against the legislation, the government will not roll it back.
The anti-CAA protests in 2019 brought out into the open the ugly hatred that has been festering in the hearts of liberals and Islamic extremists against Hindus. It was obvious from the very beginning that the protests had nothing to do with ‘Secularism’ but was limited to Radical Islam and anti-Hindu bigotry with active support from the liberal community. Though opposition had its full-fledged support, the uglier sides of the ecosystem were revealed.
According to the Employee State Insurance Corporation payroll data, (ESIC data), over 19.6 new jobs have been added in November 2019 alone. The total number of employees who registered during the month were 19,62,804 showed the payroll data.
ESIC payroll data for November
The number of employees registered during the month of November is the second-highest in the financial year so far. The highest was in July with 19,86,360 employees registered during the month.
However, more than the number of employees being added, what makes November especially pertinent is that the number of employees from the existing stock who stopped paying the contribution during the month was the lowest in November 2019.
In November 2019, 12,66,225 employees stopped paying their contribution towards ESIC which is the lowest in the year 2019.
These numbers are corroborated by the GST collection for the month of November as well. The GST collection numbers that were released in December show that the collection was up by 6% in November 2019.
The collection in November 2019 stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in November, reversing two months of decline. GST collections were Rs 97,637 crore in November 2017 and Rs 95,380 crore in October 2019.
In December 2019, the numbers looked even better. GST collections yet again crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore benchmark for the second consecutive month in December 2019. In December, Rs 1.03 lakh crore was collected as GST owing to increased consumption and better compliance.
The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2019 was Rs 1,03,184 crore of which CGST was Rs 19,962 crore, SGST was Rs 26,792 crore, IGST was Rs 48,099 crore including Rs 21,295 crore collected on imports and Cess is Rs 8,331 crore.
Clearly, the increase in collections coupled with the increase in new employees being registered with ESIC and November registering the lowest number of employees who stopped paying ESIC contribution is a sign of economic revival, recovery in demand and measures to ease compliance. November 2019 significantly not only saw the second-highest new addition of employees but the highest net addition of employees as per ESIC records in the financial year so far.
The ESI Act is an important provision by the Central government and forms a part of Employee health benefits. Any establishment that has more than 10 employees is required to enrol under the ESI Act.
Under this act, a specified percentage is meant to be deducted from the employees’ salary and the specified percentage is meant to be contributed by the employer. The deductions and contributions are monthly and are meant to be deposited with the ESI corporation under the central government. This amount is then used to provide free treatment of the employee should they fall unwell. As soon as the employee is registered under the ESI Act, he starts to get free treatment from the ESI hospitals which are run and maintained by the ESI corporation (under the central government) and state governments.
Under the ESI act, if certain tests are not available or done by the ESI hospitals, the ESIC has contracts with several private hospitals and diagnostic centres where the patient can simply show their credentials and avail of the tests. The bills are then settled by the ESIC.
Since today is the last day to file nomination papers for the upcoming Delhi Assembly election, deadline loomed on Delhi’s incumbent chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal who reached the office of the Returning Officer (RO) at the Jamnagar House on Tuesday, after missing to file his nominations yesterday due to delay caused by his roadshow.
There was a huge crowd of candidates at the SDM office since morning, as Tuesday was the last date for filing nomination. Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s candidate from New Delhi, was delayed again as he arrived with his family to complete the formalities.
Many independent candidates and the supporters of other candidates alleged that the CM was being given “VVIP treatment”. Kejriwal faced protest from the candidates and their supporters contesting against him at the RO office who shouted slogans against the incumbent CM for being given VVIP treatment. They accused him of breaking the queue and entering the RO office immediately after arriving at the Jamnagar House.
Arvind Kejriwal, still waiting to file his nomination, took to Twitter to express his plight. He stated that his token number in 45 and he is waiting to file his nomination papers because there are so many other people there.
Waiting to file my nomination. My token no is 45. There are many people here to file nomination papers. Am so glad so many people participating in democracy.
The Delhi CM also complained that many people who are waiting to file nomination papers before him do not have all the documents, and some are even without the required 10 people to propose their nomination. He tried to sugar-coat his concerns by adding that he is glad to be waiting because he considers all those people as a part of his family.
AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj while speaking to news agency ANI said: Around 35 candidates are sitting at RO office without proper nomination papers, even without names of 10 proposers. They’re insisting unless their papers are complete and file nomination, they won’t allow CM Kejriwal to file nomination. BJP is behind these people.
AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj: Around 35 candidates are sitting at RO office without proper nomination papers,even without names of 10 proposers.They’re insisting unless their papers are complete&file nomination,they won’t allow CM Kejriwal to file nomination.BJP is behind these people pic.twitter.com/ykEysHoG45
“This is not India Gate where anyone can go and walk-in. The chief minister has to wait for 40-45 people. Police and other officials could have filtered the people who are coming there,” Saurabh Bhardwaj said.
Kejriwal had missed filing his nominations yesterday due to delay caused by his roadshow.
The roadshow which started from Connaught Place via Panchkuian Marg into the Inner Circle and then towards the Outer Circle on to Baba Kharak Singh Marg ended near Patel Chowk Metro station. Thousands of supporters were seen holding brooms as Kejriwal waved to them and flashed the victory sign amid chants of “acchhe beete panch saal, lage raho Kejriwal”. He was accompanied by his family, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP leader Sanjay Singh in his open jeep.
Kejriwal is being challenged in the New Delhi seat by BJP’s Sunil Yadav and Congress Romesh Sabharwal.
The national capital Delhi will go to polls in a single-phase on February 8 and the counting of votes will take place on February 11. The last day of filing nominations for the candidates is January 21 and the last day to withdraw nominations is January 24.
