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Curious case of media and its obsession with Harjit Bhatti: Times when media used the Congress leader as an independent doctor

OpIndia Staff
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Curious case of media and its obsession with Harjit Bhatti: Times when media used the Congress leader as an independent doctor

The JNU violence that broke out on the evening of the 5th of January rocked the country, but more importantly, discredited the deeply motivated and partisan media. Today, OpIndia debunked a so-called sting operation by India Today where they tried to pass off a JNUSU activist as an ABVP member who had purportedly mobilised other ABVP workers and indulged in violence in JNU. Earlier, NewsLaundry and Barkha Dutt had touted one Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti as the representative voice from AIIMS. We had revealed that they were being rather stringent with the truth.

NewsLaundry and Barkha Dutt had quoted Dr Bhatti as an AIIMS doctor to allege that ABVP members received only superficial injuries during the JNU violence, however, the Left students had been injured grievously. It was, however, revealed that Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti is not a doctor at the AIIMS. His Twitter profile says he was president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at AIIMS but does not inform about his current medical practice. The Alumni page of AIIMS says that he is working at Manipal Hospital in Delhi. But the website of the hospital lists no doctor by that name. Moreover, when defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra called the hospital, he was informed that they have no doctor by that name.

As it turned out, Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti is the National Convenor of the All India Medical Cell of the Congress party. In February last year, he was appointed to the post in the Congress party. Not just the Congress party, he is also close with the Bhim Army. He claims to the doctor of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad and has been very vocal in demanding medical care for Azad who is currently in jail, claiming that he is extremely unwell. He is not just a healthcare provider for Azad, but also a supporter, as he has been seen posting tweets with the hashtag #AzaadiForAzad.

Read: Newslaundry quotes doctor to say JNU ABVP students received only “superficial” injuries. They lied: Here is the truth

Clearly, Dr Bhatti has no authority in AIIMS, has no right to comment on the medical care of the students, whether ABVP or Left students and is being used by the media as an independent voice, while he has deep political links and is a formal member of the Congress party.

Recently, several students from ABVP also claimed that AIIMS ended up discriminating on the basis of ideology and gave sub-standard care to ABVP students after the JNU violence. To a video posted by Swarajya journalist, Dr Bhatti proceeded yet again to misrepresent himself as an individual who has the authority to comment on the behalf of AIIMS.


As it turns out, the romance between the established media and Dr Bhatti is not new. From as far back as 2017, the media has been publishing comments by Dr Bhatti without any indication of his political affiliation. In fact, this phenomenon has continued well into 2020, almost a year after he became a post-holder in the Congress party.

Here are some instances that detail the raging romance between the partisan media and a Congress leader masked as an independent doctor.

National Medical Commission Bill issue

On July 24th 2019, the Statesman carried a news article about “Delhi doctors” protesting against the National Medical Commission Bill.

The Statesman article

The article quotes Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti extensively, who trashes the National Medical Commission Bill extensively. While we are not getting into the merits of his statements, it is pertinent to note that the article fails to mention that Dr Bhatti is a post-holder in the Congress party.

The Statesman Article

The article was published in July 2019 and Dr Bhatti was appointed as the Congress national convenor of the All India Medical Cell in February 2019. It is dishonest on the part of the media to not identify him by that affiliation and let their readers decide whether his opinions are coloured by his political affiliation or not.

CAA protests

Left-leaning rag The Caravan too published a report quoting Dr Bhatti recently but without identifying him as a Congress functionary.

The headline of the article by The Caravan was “How the police prevented medical volunteers from working at the CAA protests”.

Article by The Caravan

The entire article by The Caravan is based on what Dr Bhatti claims without once mentioning that Bhatti is, in fact, a Congress post-holder.

The first instance when Caravan quotes Bhatti, they write, “At around 10.30 pm, one doctor and one lawyer was allowed inside to meet the detainees. The doctor was Harjit Singh Bhatti, a 33-year-old who is also the national president of the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum. The PMSF is a collective of around a hundred doctors from all over the country, which was initially formed to fight the perpetuation of pseudo-science and superstitions. Inside the police station, Bhatti found that the detainees, including the minors, were “wreathing in pain” and in need of medical assistance”.

While Caravan introduces him as the PMSF president, they fail to mention the Congress connection.

Caravan article

The Caravan further prints outlandish claims solely by Dr Bhatti, emphasising on so-called police brutality on the rioters, without any independent verification whatsoever. In doing so, Caravan paints Bhatti as an independent doctor instead of a Congress leader with a political motivation to fan anti-CAA protests and discord.

JNU violence again

On the 6th of January, Indian Medical Association released a statement about the attack on doctors and nurses who were trying to treat patients. Moneycontrol while covering this letter, embedded a tweet by Dr Bhatti. The article was headlined, “JNU violence: ‘Is this civil war’, asks IMA, claims attack on doctors reaching out to injured students”.

In quoted Dr Bhatti, this is how they introduced him.

Moneycontrol article

Nowhere in the headline, do they mention Dr Bhatti as a Congress functionary.

Doctor of BHIM Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad

During the anti-CAA riots, when BHIM Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was detained, it was alleged that his health was deteriorating in prison and that he was being denied medical care.

Scroll and several other media portals identified Dr Bhatti only as Azad’s doctor without mentioning that he was also a Congress office-bearer.

The Scroll article

The romance between Media and Dr Bhatti started way back in 2017, at least.

Kafeel Khan is one of the accused in the BRD Medical College and Hospital children’s death case in Gorakhpur. He had taken to social media to spread false news that he had been given a ‘clean chit’ in the 2017 case in a departmental inquiry. The Uttar Pradesh government had in October initiated a fresh inquiry against him for spreading misinformation in the media and forcibly entering a hospital and trying to treat patients during his suspension period.

While the debate was raging on, the one Doctor to categorically come to Kafeel Khan’s defence was Dr Harjit Bhatti.

He was at that time serenaded by fake-news peddlers NDTV.


He was also quoted by Hindustan times which in turn was even quoted by Dailymail.co.uk.

Article by dailymail.co.uk

Conclusion

The media has been using Dr Bhatti and publishing his comments for years now. However, the most shocking case of media irresponsibility is when even after his appointment as the National Convenor of the All India Medical Cell of the Congress party, they continue to project him as an independent voice with no political affiliations.

Read: JNU violence: Congress connection emerges after WhatsApp conversation of coordination of violence goes viral

The media generally shies away from mentioning political affiliations because they would want their readers to believe in what the subject is saying unequivocally without questioning his motives. Had the media mentioned Dr Bhatti’s political affiliation to Congress, the agenda against the Modi government would perhaps not be as easy to sell as the readers would evaluate his comments with the prism of his political affiliation to Congress.

While one can’t blame Dr Bhatti for doing what a politician does, one certainly wonders what motivates the media to hide vital and relevant information from its readers in order to push a political narrative.

Supreme Court directs Centre to respond to United Nations Human Rights Council official’s intervention plea on Rohingya Muslims

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court directs Centre to respond to United Nations Human Rights Council official’s intervention plea on Rohingya Muslims

The Supreme Court of India on Friday directed the central government to reply to the plea made by a United Nations Special Human Rights Council Rapporteur that sought intervention in the group of petitions filed by the members of Rohingya community against the central government’s move to organise their mass deportation from India.

The court headed by CJI Sharad A. Bobde took cognisance of the plea made by E. Tendayi Achiume, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, who assists the top court on country’s human rights commitments to racial equality and non-discrimination bearing in mind the international agreements signed and ratified by it.

Citing the ongoing turmoil over the CAA and NRC across the country, the UN Rapporteur, in her application, has termed the expatriation of the illegal Rohingya immigrants as “impermissible under international human rights law”, claiming that it is India’s responsibility to treat Rohingya with “equality before the law and provide them equal access to judicial remedies and individualised form of due process”.

Senior advocate CU Singh, who is the counsel for the intervenor argued that the intervention attempts to bring to notice of the court the findings of the United Nations on Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims and cited UN’s report to assert that the Myanmar government perpetrated crimes against humanity.

Read- Pakistan training 40 Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh after it fails to push terrorists from LoC, plans for them to infiltrate India

Highlighting India’s obligation to the International convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Singh stated that India is obligated to respect and uphold racial equality and the right to be free from racial discrimination.

”The main objective of making this application is to help the court by providing expertise on State’s obligations under international law apropos the prevention of racial discrimination against migrants, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and populations otherwise considered ‘foreign’,” the plea filed by CU Singh read.

Representing the petitioners in the deportation matter, Advocate Prashant Bhushan has called upon the top court to decide on the issue of the expatriation of Rohingya expeditiously.

The Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already made it amply clear that every illegal immigrant in the country will be identified and deported back to his/her home country as per the International law. Shah had asserted that the illegal immigrants of Rohingya community pose a security threat for the country and it is in the best interest of the nation to deport them back to Myanmar through available international mechanism.

JNU violence: Delhi police identify 37 members of the WhatsApp group ‘Unity Against Left’

OpIndia Staff
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JNU violence: Delhi police identify 37 members of the WhatsApp group ‘Unity Against Left’

Thirty-seven people from the 60-member WhatsApp group named ‘Unity against Left’ have been identified by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), said the Delhi Police in a press conference on Friday. According to the police, the group was created against the Left parties on January 5, the day when violence broke out in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) premises. The action against Whatsapp groups comes after Delhi police had released identities of nine accused in the JNU violence case.

Soon after the violence broke out, screenshots of the WhatsApp group called ‘Unity Against Left’ purportedly used by the mobsters to coordinate the violence started making rounds on social media. Part of such conversation was shared by former NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt in a tweet late night on Sunday.

Later, several conspiracy theories began to float on social media, claiming that the Whatsapp group ‘Unity against Left’ was responsible for the violence inside the JNU campus on Sunday. As the name insinuated that it was against left-wing, the blame was quickly shifted on ABVP, implying that the sender of the message was ‘against Left’ and hence by default it was ABVP, the student wing of the RSS.

In fact, since the violence broke out in JNU, the usual suspects were busy propagating and making noise that it was the ‘ABVP goons’ who were on a rampage on campus despite the fact that they were masked. Later, several facts began to emerge which exposed a conspiracy against the ABVP members.

It was revealed that certain numbers in the Whatsapp group ‘Unity against Left’ belonged to people who were actively associated with the Congress party. Screenshots of WhatsApp conversations shared by former NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt had number linked to a person named Anand Mangnale.

Mangnale was involved in various crowdfunding events for the Congress party and had involved with Prashant Kishore, who had earlier worked as a strategist for ex-Congress President Rahul Gandhi in 2016 ahead of Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections.

After the initial Congress link emerged in the JNU violence, Congress quickly tried to dissociate itself from Anand and discarded his association, whatever he had, with the party. The Congress party had claimed that the number belongs to a private vendor they had hired for Lok Sabha elections and it had discontinued the association after that.

But, it was once again revealed that Anand is still very much part of crowdfunding for Congress and Congress leaders as he had involved in a crowdfunding event for Congress’ national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh as recent as November 2019.

It seems there have been concerted campaigns against the ABVP in an alleged effort to save the ultra left-wing students, who are the main accused in the JNU violence. As Delhi police revealed that seven left-wing students, including Aishe Ghosh – the president of JNUSU – and four left students organisations were responsible for the barbaric violence that was inflicted on students on the campus, left-wing ‘liberal-secular’ media have resorted to a hit job against the ABVP.

“Those identified for the violence includes – Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Aishe Ghosh, Waskar Vijay, Sucheta Talukraj, Priya Ranjan, Dolan Sawant, Yogendra Bhardwaj, Vikas Patel,” DCP Joy Tirkey, who is heading an SIT had said on Friday.

Soon after Delhi police carried out the press conference in which evidence was released to the public regarding the involvement of ultra-left-wing students in the violence, India Today had come up with a shoddy sting operation claiming two JNU students allegedly belonging to the ABVP confessed on camera for instigating violence and vandalising the Sabarmati hostel on January 5.

A detailed fact-check was done by OpIndia regarding the so-called India Today sting operation and proved that the whole investigation was nothing but lies and half-truths to falsely implicate ABVP and absolve left-wing forces from its crimes that they had unleashed on JNU campus.

India Today had not only failed to prove that the two members belonged to ABVP but also indulged in fake news by sharing misleading images.

Responding to India Today’s hit job, the nationalist students’ organisation ABVP had categorically rejected charges that the two alleged JNU students were associated with the organisation. Despite clarifications by the ABVP, India Today had carried out their fake story to mislead the public on the JNU violence.

Following these fake sting operations, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has demanded that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) be banned.

Interestingly, one of the students- Akshat Awasthi, who India Today had ‘exposed’ in its fake sting operation on Saturday as a member of ABVP, had retracted his statements by stating that whatever statements he had made to the India Today reporter were false and said he only such confessions simply to display bravado. In fact, Awasthi has said that he is not even a member of ABVP.

ISIS terrorists kill Tamil Nadu cop to avenge the arrest of their associates in Bengaluru: Police

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS terrorists kill Tamil Nadu cop to avenge the arrest of their associates in Bengaluru: Police

The investigation into the murder of Wilson, an ASI of Police in Tamil Nadu, has revealed that his murderers were “self-declared jihadists” who killed the police personnel to avenge the arrest of their ISIS associates by the Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday in Bengaluru.

Wilson was shot dead the following day at the Padanthalumoodu check-post at Kaliyakkavilai in Tamil Nadu at around 9:30 PM. The accused, Thoufeek and Abdul Shameem who are from Kanyakumari, were identified by the police through CCTV footage. According to the police, Shameem had been on the run after procuring bail last month in the murder case of a Hindu Munnani leader in 2014.

Initially, the police presumed that the killing would have been spontaneous after the terrorists feared that Sub Inspector Wilson had identified Shameem who had been on the run. However, the sources state that the police now believe that the attack was carried out as a revenge to avenge the arrest of three radicals- Mohammed Haneef Khan (29), Imran Khan (32) and Mohammed Zaid (24), who were arrested in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Special Sub Inspector Wilson

The police have suspected that the killers are hiding away in Kerala. The CCTV footage accessed by the police shows Shameem and Thoufeek ran into a Jamaath office near the check post. The police sources claim that both escaped through another door, which opens to a road connecting to Kerala.

The police believe that the two involved in the killing of the policeman were expected to join the arrested men to carry out the terror attacks. Sources claim that the gang was operating from different parts of the country and was inspired by the terrorist group Islamic State. All the members of the gang were involved in murder cases.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu police busted the terror module as the intelligence wing arrested three persons in Bengaluru with the help of Karnataka police and sister agencies. The police had then found out that the Tamil Nadu module had developed a link with a similar module in Bengaluru and started moving to different parts of the country.

The police think that the three arrested in Bengaluru were “aiding” Shamim and two of his other associates-S Syed Ali Nawas (25) and C Khaja Moideen(52), who were imprisoned in connection with the killing of the Hindu Munnani leader, K P Suresh Kumar, about 5 years ago. “The three of them were absconding for over a month after they came out on bail. Both Shamim and Nawas are from Kanyakumari, and Moideen is from Cuddalore,” said an officer.

Besides Thoufeek and Shamim, the police action resulted in the arrest of one Moideen, who is accused of indoctrinating the alleged shooters in cases of terrorism in Tamil Nadu. Referred by police as the “Islamic State chief of Tamil Nadu”, Moideen was arrested Thursday by the Delhi Police Special Cell along with Nawas and another associate Abdul Samad (28).

Moideen is also accused of the purported recruitment of youths for the Islamic State after being acquainted with Tamil Nadu man-Haja Fakrudeen (42), who travelled to Syria from Singapore in 2014 to join the IS. The NIA has filed a case against Moideen, Fakrudeen and others in 2017 and submitted a charge sheet on March 13, 2018, accusing Moideen of “consciously and deliberately assisting Haja Fakrudeen in joining the ISIS/ISIL/Daish in Syria during January 2014”.

India Today issues clarification on old date seen in JNU sting video, stays mum on JNUSU activist being passed off as ABVP member

OpIndia Staff
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India Today issues clarification on old date seen in JNU sting video, stays mum on JNUSU activist being passed off as ABVP member

After questions were raised on authenticity of the sting operation done by the India Today group on the JNU violence, it’s Hindi News Channel Aaj Tak has issued a statement clarifying one of the issues raised about the report. Yesterday, India Today and Aaj Tak channels had aired a highly doubtful sting operation where 2 youths claiming to be ABVP members had ‘revealed’ on camera that ABVP had planned the violence in JNU. The sting operation was aired by India Today right after the Delhi police had held a press conference and implicated several Left students, including the JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh as suspects in the JNU violence.

In one clip of sting video showing JNU student Akshat Awasthi speaking, a timestamp showing the date 22 October 2019 was seen. This implies that the recording was done almost three months ago, while the violence in JNU happened just one week ago. This date was seen in the report aired by Aaj Tak, while it was hidden by on-screen graphics on India Today.

Aaj Tak
Screengrab from the video uploaded by Aaj Tak

This afternoon Aaj Tak posted two tweets saying that the clip showed old date because in the camera used to record that video, the settings were not updated. This had caused an understanding, for which they express regret, they tweeted. Aaj Tak also said that in October 2019 there no incidents of violence took place in JNU, therefore on 22 October such reporting could not have been done. In the clip with the old date stamp, Akshat is heard saying that they used masks during the violence seeing the left groups using the same earlier.


Although Aaj Tak has clarified on the issue of the old date seen in its footage, both India Today and Aaj Tak are still silent on the main issue with their sting, that the guys they are claiming to be ABVP activists are actually not ABVP members. The ABVP has denied that they are members of the association. After that, India Today anchor Rahul Kanwal had shared a clipping from a Hindi newspaper claiming that Akshat was seen in an ABVP rally. But the Jansatta news that he himself posted had said that the photograph where Akshit is seen was from a protest by JNU Student’s Union, and the report didn’t mention ABVP. The same incident was reported by several media houses, including India Today itself, saying that it was a JNUSU protest against fee hike in JNU, and none of them mentioned JNU. In fact, the reports say that the minister of state in HRD ministry Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ was blocked by the protesting students for several hours, and ABVP members are unlikely to do that given their affiliation with RSS.

Warangal shocker: Boyfriend Mohammed Shahid surrenders at central prison after slitting his girlfriend’s throat

OpIndia Staff
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Warangal shocker: Boyfriend Mohammed Shahid surrenders at central prison after slitting his girlfriend’s throat

Just a couple of month after the horrifying tragedy of the rape and murder of the 27-year-old Hyderabad veterinary doctor shook the conscience of the entire nation, another tragedy from the neighbouring town of Warangal has come to fore. A 25-year-old MBA graduate was brutally killed by her alleged boyfriend on Friday.

According to the police, accused Mohammed Shahid, who lived in a rented room in Ramnagar Colony of Hanamkonda, called the victim Mungila Harathi to his place before slitting her throat and rushing to the Warangal central prison to surrender.

It is believed that the victim and accused, who knew each other since their college days, were allegedly in a relationship. The accused, Shahid, was preparing for competitive exams and was well acquainted with the girl’s family. On the other hand, the victim’s family was in the process of seeking an alliance for the girl. As per preliminary investigation cited by the New Indian Express revealed, Shahid had a heated argument with the girl over the suspicion of the latter’s affair with another person after which a furious Shahid slit her throat.

After slitting Harathi, Shahid hailed an auto and travelled to the central prison four kilometres away. When the security official at the prison brushed him away saying that the time for ‘mulaqat’ is over, Shahid confessed to him that he had just committed a murder. The bewildered security staff informed Subedari police under whose jurisdiction Ramnagar falls about Shahid’s assertions.

A team of officials from Subedhari quickly reached the prison, apprehended Shahid and took him to the police station. He was later taken to his room where the police found the victim’s body lying in a pool of blood. Shahid provided the details of the victim after which her relatives were informed about her murder.

According to Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravinder, the victim died instantly after the attack. A case has been registered against Shahid and he has been detained, the commissioner said. The victim’s death has caused a grave trauma to her parents who can’t believe that a close friend had committed their daughter’s murder. “We cannot believe that he did this to our daughter. We have known him for a long time and he was a very trusted friend of hers,” they said.

The parents also informed the police that when their daughter revealed her desire to marry Shahid, they readily agreed to her request. “We were waiting for the right time to discuss it with Shahid,” said the victim’s parents.

Mayawati lashes out at Priyanka Vadra for not meeting Kota children’s parents despite being in Rajasthan, shedding ‘fake tears’ in UP

OpIndia Staff
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Mayawati lashes out at Priyanka Vadra for not meeting Kota children’s parents despite being in Rajasthan, shedding ‘fake tears’ in UP

On Saturday, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati slammed the Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi and the Congress party for having double standards, saying that while the party leaders visited Uttar Pradesh to shed fake tears, they are not visiting Kota, where over 110 infants have died in 35 days.

In a series of tweets, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said her party does not indulge in cheap politics by adopting double standards like the BJP, Congress and other political parties.


She claimed that the country is facing a tough time as violence, tension and unrest are prevalent in the country. “But even in such a time, just like the other parties, the Congress is also not ready to change itself. The latest example is from the Congress-ruled Rajasthan where a large number of innocent children have died due to negligence in a government hospital in Kota.”


Mayawati, without naming Priyanka Gandhi, said while a Congress leader visits Uttar Pradesh to shed fake tears every now and then, “but could not find time to visit Kota to wipe the tears of the mothers of the children who have died, despite herself being a mother. It is very unfortunate,” said Mayawati.

On January 2, BSP supremo had launched a similar attack on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as she had called out the hypocrisy of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi regarding her silence over the deaths of 110 children in government-run hospital in Kota, Rajasthan in the month of December.

Mayawati had targetted Priyanka Gandhi by stating that it was unfortunate that the top leadership of Congress, especially the general secretary who is a woman herself continued to remain silent. In a strongly-worded tweet, Mayawati further cautioned the Uttar Pradesh citizens about the politics at play by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The attack on Congress by Mayawati comes after six BSP MLAs in Rajasthan had quit the party to join Congress. As BSP lawmakers jumped from the party to Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had accused Congress of encouraging ‘communal forces’ within the country by weakening the voices which are speaking out against such forces.

As Derek O’Brien proudly labels entire NJUS as part of ‘tukde tukde gang’, majority students unhappy over decision to uninvite governor

OpIndia Staff
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As Derek O’Brien proudly labels entire NJUS as part of ‘tukde tukde gang’, majority students unhappy over decision to uninvite governor

Trinamool Congress continues to use students for its politics against the Modi government, and West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. After assaulting BJP leaders and the governor at the Jadavpur University, the ruling party in the state brought its divisionary politics to the National University of Judicial Sciences (NJUS) in Kolkata.

On Thursday, a prestigious event, the ‘International Model UN’ or MUN, started in the University, where TMC leader Derek O’Brien was invited as the chief guest. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was also invited to the event, but his invitation was revoked by the organisers of the event. The student body had taken the decision after few students had sent them a strongly worded mail asking for the cancellation of the invitation to the constitutional head of the state for his pro-CAA and pro-NRC views. Although less than 50 students had signed the letter in the university with more than 600 students, the NUJS MUN Society had agreed to their demand.

But according to reports, now students are divided over that decision, and the university administration is also not happy with the decision. A group of angry students told media, “Just 45 students out of the total of 600 took the call. There was no general body decision on it. This is undemocratic.”

It is important to note that the 45 students who opposed the presence of governor at the event are also part of the MUN organising committee, while a large section of Students’ Juridical Association didn’t agree with them. As a result, the Association members didn’t attend the opening ceremony. A student leader said, “We are yet to take an official stand on the issue. We are totally shocked and embarrassed. This has brought the entire university into disrepute. You may disagree with the governor’s position on CAA but can you “uninvite” him?”

Read- Allegations of public money misuse: Calcutta HC orders Mamata govt to stop all anti-NRC, anti-CAA ads

According to sources, only a small section of students from NJUS attended the opening ceremony, and the auditorium was filled with people from outside the university. Although later the students partticipated in the other programs of the MUN.

Faculty members also stayed away from the event, although they said that as classes were suspended due to the MUN, they didn’t attend the university. The Vice-Chancellor said that he was completely in dark about the decision to ‘uninvite’ the governor.

In the opening ceremony, Derek O’Brien continued with his anti-CAA and anti-NRC rhetoric in his speech. He also got the students to recite the preamble of the Constitution, which is being used in anti-CAA-NRC protests by the opposition parties.


O’Brien posted the audio recording of the same on Twitter, saying that the Tukde Tukde Gang list got longer, implying that the students of NJUS are now with TMC against the union government. He took the students reading the preamble in chorus as a big achievement for him, saying that it is more news for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

But students of NJUS were not happy that they were dragged into politics like this by the TMC MP. They replied to Derek strongly objecting to his tweet. They said that although they recited the preamble, it does not mean they are part of anti-CAA-NRC protests, and they don’t want to be associated with the narrative of Tukde Tukde Gang.

NJUS
Screenshot of tweets of NJUS students

Some students also noted that Derek O’Brien misused his authority as the chief guest of the event, as students were not informed that their words were being recorded and it will be made public on social media, saying that they didn’t give their consent for the same.

Students also informed him that majority of students in the auditorium were not from NJUS, but outsiders, which means an entire NJUS has not become the part of Tukde Tukde Gang as the MP was proudly claiming.

Chidananda Murthy: A literary stalwart and champion of the Hindu cause passes away at the age of 89

OpIndia Staff
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Chidananda Murthy: A literary stalwart and champion of the Hindu cause passes away at the age of 89

Kannada writer, historian and scholar Dr M Chidananda Murthy passed away at the age of 89 at a private hospital in Bengaluru around 3.30 am on Saturday, after a brief illness.

Reportedly, Chidananda Murthy was ill for some time and was being treated for age-related illness at a private hospital in Bengaluru.

Chidananda Murthy is a champion of the Hindu cause and was one of the key articulators of the argument against tyrant Tipu Sultan. He had also launched a campaign to save the monuments of Hampi. Interestingly, the renaming Hyderabad Karnataka — a group of six districts formerly under the administration of Nizam of Hyderabad to ‘Kalyana Karnataka’ was done by the present BJP government as per the recommendations of Chidananda Murthy.

Born in Horekogaluru in Davangere district, on May 10, 1931, Murthy did his schooling in his village, before joining the Mysore university to study bachelor of arts. He pursued post-graduation in Kannada literature in 1957 from the University of Mysore. He obtained his doctorate from Bangalore University in 1964 for his valuable thesis ‘A cultural study of Kannada inscriptions’, under the guidance of another literary giant TN Srikantaiah also known as Thee Nam Shri. Murthy had also served as head of Kannada department, Bangalore university.

As a supporter of Kannada cause, he led the Kannada Shakti Kendra in 1960s to invoke the Kannada pride. Murthy, known for his researches and pro-Kannada stance, heralded a new dawn in the field of literary research. For the Kannada cause, he had even entered the Tungabhadra river in Hampi to commit suicide. He had a special love for Hampi.

Popularly known as “ChiMu”, he was known for his work on Kannada inscriptions and has authored more than 25 literary works. His work played a key role in deciding the antiquity of the Kannada, which helped get the language Classical Language status from the Union government in 2008.

Recalling his contribution to Kannada language and protection of monuments at Hampi, Yediyurappa recalled that Murthy had declined his offer as Chief Minister earlier, to become MLC, citing his age.

“He was a thinker, researcher and historian who always worked for the interest of Kannada. His place in history is unique and irreplaceable. His role in protecting the monuments of Hampi and in Kannada getting a classical language status is memorable,” Karnataka Chief Minister Yediyurappa tweeted.

His last rites will be performed with state honours, the Chief Minister added.

No connection to ABVP, was only boasting: India Today JNU sting disintegrates further, student touted as ‘ABVP activist’ retracts

OpIndia Staff
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No connection to ABVP, was only boasting: India Today JNU sting disintegrates further, student touted as ‘ABVP activist’ retracts

On the 10th of January 2020, India Today aired a “sting operation” that claimed to unmask the goons who indulged in rampant violence in the JNU campus on 5th January 2020. In the “sting operation”, that has now been discredited, India Today “unmasked” a supposed ABVP activist who admits on camera to vandalising the Sabarmati hostel on 5th. In the sting, Akshat Awasthi claims that he is an ABVP activist and it was him who called upon other ABVP activists to retaliate after the Left had indulged in violence in the Periyar hostel of JNU.

While Rahul Kanwal took to Twitter to try and prove that Akshat was indeed an ABVP activist, claims that fell flat after an OpIndia fact-check, Akshat Awasthi has retracted his statement.

Read: India Today sting on JNU violence: Here is how Rahul Kanwal passed off a JNUSU activist as an ABVP member

As reported by Aaj Tak itself, Akshay Awasthi has now claimed that whatever statements he had made to the India Today reporter were false and he had said those things simply to display bravado.

Akshat Awasthi has now also said that he is in no way associated with ABVP, as he had claimed on the tapes aired by India Today and Aaj Tak. In fact, Awasthi has said that he is not even a member of ABVP.

India Today had aired the sting operation while touting it as the story of 2020 and patting itself on the back for “cracking the case of JNU violence” even before the police did.

Read: Traitors of JNU, Nothing will be forgotten: Naxal-style poster seeking revenge on non-left professors and alumni put up inside JNU

The sting operation was aired just an hour after the Delhi police had held a press conference naming 9 suspects in the JNU violence case. In the 9 suspects named, 7 were from 4 Left organisations and 2 were said to be from ABVP.

The four Left organisations that were named by the Delhi police were SFI, AISA, AISF and DFI. Amongst the 9 accused, JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was also named by Delhi police.

The police also said specific rooms in JNU’s Periyar hostel were targeted. Interestingly, most of the injured students of the Periyar hostel were from ABVP.

Read: JNU violence: Read the detailed chronology of events since attacks started on teachers and their family in October

Three cases have been registered till now, and they are being investigated by the Delhi police. However, none of the nine accused has been detained. The Delhi police have now decided to issue a notice to all the accused.

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