Founder and CEO of Indian software development company Zoho, Sridhar Vembu and Accenture MD and Head of Operations Chennai Rama Ramachandran were bullied on social media for being the chief guest and guest of honour at an RSS event which will be held in Chennai in February.
RSS function where Zoho founder and CEO is the chief guest
However, the corporate leaders were bullied on social media by self proclaimed leaders for agreeing to be part of the event.
Hello @Accenture, why is your India MD at a function of a religious extremist paramilitary group that seeks to target minorities and has been responsible for the most brutal acts of violence the country has seen? pic.twitter.com/Be0m16rZM9
However, Zoho chief Sridhar Vembu was unperturbed by this onslaught of ‘liberal’ bullies.
I don’t decide my views based on Twitter attacks. If you dislike which events I attend, please do what your conscience dictates and I will do what mine dictates. We earn our daily bread due to our work and we will continue to do quality work. I won’t be responding to attacks.
Taking to Twitter, Vembu said how he will not let his views get affected by Twitter attacks. “If you dislike which events I attend, please do what our conscience dictates and I will do what mine dictates,” he said.
“Liberal” bullies then asked Zoho customers and employees to ‘do what their conscience dictates’, sending a veiled threat that if they would not toe the line, they’d face social boycott too.
— Nikhil Pahwa , https://mstdn.social/@nixxin (@nixxin) January 6, 2020
This is not the first time the ‘liberals’ have bullied people for attending events organised by the RSS. Former President Pranab Mukherjee was on the receiving end of the fury when he attended an RSS event in 2018.
After Udhhav Thackeray’s bizarre attempts to compare campus violence in JNU to 26/11 and Jamia police retaliations to Jalianwala Bagh massacre, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut has gone a step ahead and defended secessionist posters seen at the Mumbai protests yesterday.
Sanjay Raut,Shiv Sena: I read in newspaper that those who held ‘free Kashmir’ banner clarified that they want to be free of restrictions on internet services,mobile services and other issues. Also, if anyone talks of freedom of Kashmir from India then it will not be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/Mi03MkQ3JU
There was a protest organised by leftists and some Bollywood activists at Gateway of India, Mumbai, yesterday to show their stand against JNU violence. However, serious questions were raised at the motivation behind the ‘protests’ as secessionist posters demanding ‘Free Kashmir’ were seen at the venue.
Only recently, the anti-CAA protests were exposed to be mostly anti-Hindu events. A day after the Gateway event posters created a stir, exposing the hollow activism behind such protests and their actual intentions, Shiv Sena, the freshly ‘secular’ and newly ‘liberal’ voice in Indian politics has done a ‘la Barkha’.
Shiv Sena’s firebrand Shayari expert Sanjay Raut has stated that he has come to know that the ‘free Kashmir’ posters did not mean actually ‘free Kashmir’ and they wanted only freedom from restrictions of internet services, mobile services and other issues.
Raut’s sad attempt at whitewashing secession has invited amusing reactions on social media.
Nice, this makeover of Shiv Sena. Giving benefit of doubt to those with opposing views. Tiger changes it’s stripes. It’s a lamb like now. All soft n cuddly. https://t.co/SjgHXmLvMI
Recently, Sena CM Uddhav Thackeray has drawn criticism when he had compared police retaliation to vandalism and stone-pelting at Jamia Millia Islamia to the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. Yesterday, he had stated that the scenes of JNU violence reminded him of the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai.
The violence and mayhem at JNU on Sunday afternoon has again exposed the ugly face of the university and its politics. As videos and details of the chaos emerge, the mudslinging and clashes between student groups have been captivating the national media.
Nidhi Tripathy, the national general secretary of ABVP has shared a video from Sunday afternoon where she says Shivam, an ABVP member, is being chased and beaten by leftist goons in the JNU campus.
इस विडियो में आप देख सकते हैं कि कैसे ABVP JNU के कार्यकर्ता शिवम को कम्यूनिस्टों द्वारा दौड़ाकर मारा गया। चश्मदीदों के अनुसार गोदावरी जूस की दुकान के सामने इनकी बुरी तरह मोब लिचिंग की गई। जब ये बचने के लिए दुकान में घुसे तो दुकान को भी तोड़ा गया। शिवम जी का सिर फट गया है। pic.twitter.com/YlqOYYSn5R
In the video, it can be seen that a person is being chased by a mob. As the person runs for his life, the angry mob keeps up the pursuit and even throws sticks at him to cause injury.
As per Nidhi, the ABVP worker Shivam, in an attempt to save his life, had entered a juice shop in the campus. As per witnesses, the leftist mob had entered the juice shop and had even vandalised the shop to get their hands on Shivam. Nidhi further says that Shivam was assaulted badly by the mob and he has sustained serious injuries at the hands of the mob.
There have been non-stop blames and counter blames flying between the leftists and ABVP over the JNU violence. The JNU administration has stated in its official statement that the student groups that have been agitating against the fee hike have been physically stopping non-protesting students from registering for the new semester and attending classes. The agitators had also vandalised the servers of the communication centre where the registration was going on, leaving thousands of students on the lurch.
A day after violence broke out on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, around 700 police personnel have been deployed outside its gates on Monday. The police said the large deployment has been made to maintain law and order.
The protestors in Mumbai who were protesting against the violence perpetrated by left-wing goons on JNU campus on Sunday evening were evicted from Gateway of India by Mumbai Police and shifted to Azad Maidan.
This morning- protesters have been detained from Gateway of India and ‘relocated’ to Azad Maidan by Mumbai Police.
One can see one women chant “Mumbai Police haaye haaye” while recording it on her phone, perhaps to post on social media later, as she is being taken away in the police van.
Mumbai Police DCP (Zone 1) Sangramsingh Nishandar, said that Azad Maidan has better toilet and water facilities. “There are no toilets and water facility here (Gateway of India),” he said.
LOL! Mumbai police wallah trolls "Azadi protesters". Says Azad Maidan has better toilets so we shifted them there ??? pic.twitter.com/0YMfJyJlvX
Elitist protestors demanding Taj Hotel which which right across the Gateway of India, to let the protestors use the toilet facilities.
It is a human right to be able to use a washroom and ask for water from an establishment. Not all public restrooms are sanitary and will cause more harm than help.
As per Mumbai Police, these picnics masquerading as ‘protests’ were blocking the roads and common Mumbai residents and tourists were facing problems because of that.
Sangramsingh Nishandar, DCP (Zone 1) on protesters(protesting against #JNUViolence) evicted from Gateway of India: Roads were getting blocked and common Mumbaikar and tourists were facing problems. We had appealed to protesters many times,have now relocated them to Azad Maidan pic.twitter.com/aW0gWlKGZj
According to police, they appealed to the protestors many times but now they were relocated to Azad Maidan. About 100 Mumbai residents had taken to Gateway of India on Monday to stand in solidarity with the violence unleashed by leftist goons on JNU campus who were opposing registration of students for the winter semester. The leftist goons had reportedly taken over the server room and also attacked those students who were registering for the next semester.
Some of the ‘protestors’ at Mumbai last evening were seen holding ‘Free Kashmir’ posters.
People carrying “Free Kashmir” posters in protest for JNU in Mumbai, (courtesy: Twitter)
Reportedly, the students of the Mumbai University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and others who had assembled on the pavement across the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel near the Gateway of India to apparently condemn the JNU violence were surprisingly heard chanting Azaadi songs and displaying posters, leaving people to wonder what ‘Free Kashmir’ posters and these Azaadi slogans have to do with protests against JNU violence.
Some ‘students’ in Mumbai have been reportedly protesting at Mumbai’s Gateway of India to show solidarity with the JNU students, following yesterday’s incident, in which masked goons ran riots on the campus severely injuring students and teachers. Surprisingly, though these protests were called to condemn the JNU violence, it had “Free Kashmir” posters on display.
#WATCH Mumbai: Poster reading, ‘Free Kashmir’ seen at Gateway of India, during protest against yesterday’s violence at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. #Maharashtrapic.twitter.com/i7SeImYxCE
Reportedly, the students of the Mumbai University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and others who had assembled on the pavement across the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel near the Gateway of India to apparently condemn the JNU violence were surprisingly heard chanting Azaadi songs and displaying posters, leaving people to wonder what ‘Free Kashmir’ posters and these Azaadi slogans have to do with protests against JNU violence.
The presence of “Free Kashmir” poster at the protest suggests that it is not merely a students’ protest against the JNU violence, but there are anti-national forces involved in these protests. This also means the students’ protests are being hijacked and misused by the ‘tukde tukde’ gang to further their agenda of breaking up India.
This is not the first time anti-national forces with vested intests using protests for their agenda. Two weeks ago, blatant Hinduphobic messages were seen displayed in an anti-CAA protest, where the Hindu Aum symbol was twisted to look like the Nazi symbol.
In an unprecedented turn of events, a mob of masked miscreants, now reported as mostly leftist goons, had unleashed large-scale violence inside the JNU premises last night leaving several students gravely injured.
Following yesterday’s incident, several shocking details have come to the fore. While on one hand, Congress links to the entire ruckus have emerged, a JNU student has also confirmed that the attacks were planned by the left organisation and had hijacked a WhatsApp group to defame ABVP activists to portray that the ABVP students were behind the attack.
Interestingly the anti-CAA riots were also spearheaded by ‘students’ of the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi.
After the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, protests erupted at some parts of the country, including at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. Soon, the protest was hijacked by Jihadi rioters who started raising azaadi slogans amidst other jihadist war-cry.
The so-called ‘protesters’ raised slogans of ‘Hinduon se Azadi’ and ‘Chheen ke lengey Azadi’ and ‘Ladh ke lengey Azadi’. The slogans translate to ‘Freedom from Hindus’, ‘We will fight for freedom’. Besides issuing jihadist clarion calls, the Jamia protests also saw widespread violence where rioters blatantly indulged in arson, vandalism and stone-pelting. Delhi Police which responded swiftly to nip the riots in the bud were subjected to blistering criticism for dealing with the ‘protestors’ in a violent manner.
Today Newslaundy had published a report on the violence that had rocked the JNU on January 5. The report had claimed that the injuries sustained by ABVP members in the conflict were superficial, while the injuries suffered by left-wing student leaders were serious in nature. Newslaundry had relied on comments of a doctor named Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, who had claimed to have treated the students at AIIMS, to make these claims, but questions have been raised on the credibility and authority of Dr Bhatti to make such claims.
Newslaundry introduces Dr Bhatti as the former president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at AIIMS, and says that he was at AIIMS when injured students from JNU were brought there. Commenting on the injuries of ABVP members, Bhatti said, “Medically speaking, the injuries their activists allegedly sustained looked superficial. So, their claim seems questionable.” He alleged that “some alleged ABVP fellows with superficial injuries also got themselves admitted into the emergency and were making the other patients and doctors uncomfortable.”
On the other hand, Bhatti says that “a professor and the president of the JNU Students’ Union had deep wounds on the head”, adding that “others had lacerations and swelling on different parts of the body while one was badly hit in the eye.” He opined that they were attacked very bluntly with sharp objects.
Students belong to both ABVP and left-wing organisations have been injured in yesterday’s violence and that’s why they have been admitted at a premier medical care institution like AIIMS. But Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti makes some very serious allegations by saying that the injuries of ABVP members are superficial. It is not just a serious allegation against ABVP, but also on doctors who had admitted in the AIIMS.
Yesterday evening he had tweeted that he was at the trauma centre of AIIMS, and informed about the seriousness of the injuries sustained by JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh. He had said that all students were brutally beaten. After that he had talked to several media houses, giving detail about the nature of injuries sustained by students. He also narrated the nature of injuries on camera in front of AIIMS.
In first official word on the injuries in #JNU mob attack @DrHarjitBhatti tells #Mojo that 23 people are admitted with injuries at the Trauma Centre, students, but also teachers. Most injuries from blunt & sharp objects both, & 2 have lacerations. Watch: https://t.co/9PPU9l33L4
But the important fact to note is 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.
Therefore, it is extremely curious that a doctor who is not employed at AIIMS, and it is not known where he currently works, got access to the trauma centre of AIIMS, and was able to make serious allegations against some of the students admitted there. This is definitely an unauthorised intervention by an outsider.
Newslaundry knew that Dr Bhatti does not work at AIIMS, as the report intruduces him former president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at AIIMS. But still they chose to give legitimacy to his comments, as more than half of the report is based on his statements. The report does not inform on what authority Bhatti was issuing the statements and making serious allegations against a section of injured students.
But why the doctor made such anti-ABVP comments, the answer to that question lies in the fact that he has deep political links. As it turns 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.
Congratulations Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti has been appointed as a national convener and doctors who have been appointed the State Coordinators of the All India Medical Cell.
We are confident you will help the people of our nation to the best of your abilities. pic.twitter.com/TGB0OSYr20
Not just 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 last couple days 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.
It does not end here, Dr Bhatti is also an anti-CAA activist, and a vocal critic of the Modi government. He has been posting anti-CAA, anti-NRC and anti-Modi government messages on social media.
Turns out this doctor is an anti-CAA activist who has been mobilising crowds against the Act and “Modi Shah”
Newslaundry report does not mention any of this, all which are in public domain. This means they have deliberately hidden the political affiliations of the doctor and used his comments to defame ABVP members frm JNU.
Dr Bhatti is not a doctor at AIIMS, and therefore he is not authorised to comment on treatments being done at the hospital. He is convenor of the medical cell of the Congress party, and a vocal critic of Modi government. Going by his social media posts, it can be assumed that he is a full-time activist at present, while his current employment status is not known.
And comments of such a person was carried by Newslaundry and some other media houses to malign ABVP students injured in the violence. They tried to create an impression that he is associated with AIIMS, in an attempt to give legitimacy to his completely biased comments on the incident.
It is clear that Dr Bhatti has no authority to give statements on the behalf of AIIMS, and also no authority to intervene in the medical treatment of patients inside the hospital. Even if he had entered the JNU along with injured students, it can’t be determined if he also participated in the treatment of students and diagnosed their injuries to determine their nature. If he was allowed to treat and diagnose students, it is a serious lapse on the part of the AIIMS administration, as he is not employed there, and there is no report of AIIMS requesting doctors from outside to help treat the injured students. Hospitals do invite specialists from outside when needed, but Dr Bhatti is not known to be specialist in any specific medical field, and there is no report of AIIMS needing outside specialists for the JNU students.
Unless there is proof that he actually diagnosed the injured students, his comments on the nature of injuries can’t be taken seriously. Moreover, there are evidences that ABVP students suffered serious injuries in the fight, which suggests that the comments made by Dr Bhatti claiming them to be superficial are not correct, and Newslaundry carried false statements made by him.
In a shocking statement today, the CM of Maharashtra and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray went on to liken the 2008 Mumbai terror attack to the incident of violence inside the JNU premises last night, in which a mob of masked miscreants, now reported as mostly leftist goons, had unleashed large-scale violence inside the campus leaving several students gravely injured.
Reacting to the JNU incident, Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said: “I was watching reports on TV and the attack on JNU students on Sunday night reminded me of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Students are feeling unsafe in the country…I will not tolerate anything like that happens here in Maharashtra.”
The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11) were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, had carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting for days across Mumbai. At least 174 people had died, including 9 attackers, and more than 300 were wounded in the ghastly incident.
Responding to this shocking statement, the 26/11 victims have now expressed complete dismay over Uddhav Thackeray’s irresponsive remark.
According to an India Today’s report, one of the 2008 Mumbai blast victim, Devika Rotavan, now a student at Siddharth College, had suffered severe bullet injuries at CSMT in 2008, slammed the Maharashtra CM saying that she feels comparing this politically motivated incident with terrorism against the country trivialises the attack.
“The two incidents cannot be compared. Those were suicide attackers who came from outside the country. They did not just kill civilians but policemen and an NSG commando. At least 166 people were killed in that incident. They did not cover their faces. Here these are our own people who have attacked. This cannot be called a terror act as lethal as 26/11.”
One Baby Chowdhary, the wife of another victim who has been bed-ridden since he was hit in the Vile Parle taxi blast said: “Eleven years have passed, I am still suffering. It sends shivers down my spine when I remember that incident. It is wrong to compare this incident to the 26/11 terror attack. The terrorists came from outside and waged a war against our country. The incident in JNU cannot be compared to 26/11 at all.”
BJP MLA Ram Kadam also tore into Uddhav Thackeray saying: “The incident of JNU is very unfortunate and we condemn it. But the way Maharashtra chief minister has compared the JNU incident is unfortunate. JNU was not an attack by terrorists but it is because of the impact of Congress politics that the political leaders of Shiv Sena are speaking like this. It is very unfortunate.”
Uddhav Thackeray’s party, the Shiv Sena, had recently broken off from the NDA and had joined hands with Congress and NCP to grab the CM’s post in Maharashtra.
It’s appalling that though shocking revelations showing Congress connection to the violence that broke out on JNU campus on Sunday evening surfaced today, it’s alliance partner, Shiv Sena’s chief Uddhav Thackeray, pretended to remain completely oblivious to the fact.
The Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa has said today that a committee has been formed under the Joint Commissioner of Police for fact-finding and to avoid any delay in investigation and enquiry into the unprecedented violence witnessed in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi yesterday.
Randhawa also said that the police have found vital clues in the case and are hoping to resolve it soon.
Delhi Police PRO, MS Randhawa on #JNUViolence: A committee has been formed under the Joint Commissioner of Police, for fact finding and to avoid any delay in investigation and inquiry. We have found some vital clues and we are trying that the case is solved soon. pic.twitter.com/73JeLjie1S
A day after violence broke out on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, around 700 police personnel have been deployed outside its gates on Monday. The police said the large deployment has been made to maintain law and order.
MS Randhawa held a meeting with a delegation of students and teachers after violence broke out at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here, officials said on Monday.
The delegation comprising students and teachers from JNU, Jamia and Delhi University submitted an application to the Delhi Police PRO with four demands, including urgent medical assistance to injured students and arrest of the accused behind the violence.
“The police have assured us that they will look into the matter and our demands,” president Federation of Central University Teachers’ associations Rajib Ray said.
Late on Sunday after masked goons ran riots on the campus, JNU issued a statement where it said that during the ongoing registration process, violent students had again entered the CIS premises on Saturday and had made the servers dysfunctional by damaging the power supplies. The university stated that the groups of students opposing the fee hike want to stop students from registering with revised fees.
The protesting students have also closed some schools and have stopped the students and teachers from entering. On 5th January, when non-agitating students had tried to enter their respective school buildings, they were physically stopped by the protestors. At 4.30 pm, the agitating students had reportedly moved from the admin block to hostel rooms attacking the students who had supported the registration process. Even though police were informed, by the time police reached, several students and security staff at the hostels were reportedly badly injured in the assault by the violent protestors.
Following yesterday’s incident, several shocking details have come to the fore. While on one hand, Congress links to the entire ruckus have emerged, a JNU student has also confirmed that the attacks were planned by the left organisation and had hijacked a WhatsApp group to defame ABVP activists to portray that the ABVP students were behind the attack.
In that group, some people with international number talked to portray that the whole violence was orchestrated by the ABVP, alleged the student.
The Director of Editorial Strategy (whatever that means) of The Hindu, Dr. Malini Parthasarathy was recently worried that the Government of India “doesn’t see two sides of the national story any more!” The “national story” she is referring to here refers to the CAA and NRC headlines. I read The Hindu daily, and reading her tweet immediately prompted me to think if Dr. Malini’s newspaper actually sees two sides of a national story?
For example, I felt that irony died a million deaths when a column titled “FACTWISE” was written by Srinivasan Ramani. Srinivasan Ramani is no stranger to spreading lies, fake numbers and analysis under the garb of “facts”. In his article, “A tale of two demands”, he boldly proclaims that, “Dr. Singh and the CPI(M) demanded citizenship for Bangla refugees, but not on the basis of their religion”
The treachery is simply astounding. In 2003, Dr. Manmohan Singh stood up in the Rajya Sabha and said that “the minorities in countries like Bangladesh have faced persecution”. The CPI(M) party resolution in 2012 reads – “the CPI(M)] demands a suitable amendment in Clause 2 (i)(b) of the said Citizenship Act in relation to the Bangladesh minority community refugees”
The full statements are widely available on the internet. I copied the above lines from the very article that The Hindu published. Both Dr. Singh and the CPI(M) are very clear that minorities in Bangladesh need help. Yet, Srinivasan Ramani had the courage to lie openly that the demands were “not on the basis of religion”! Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh. In this context, what does “minorities in Bangladesh” mean? Except for alleged journalists, it is crystal clear to everyone that the reference is based on religion because the persecution is based on religion!
Can you imagine the lies this newspaper would have spread in days when social media wasn’t active? Do you shudder at this thought? In case you think this is a one-off case, let’s look at more examples.
On December 10th, The Hindu publishes a news article that says “1000 signatories express concern”.
The Hindu report on scientists opposing CAA
On December 21st, more than 1000 academicians signed a letter in support of the CAA. Guess what, there was not a single reference to this letter in the newspaper on December 22nd. Don’t believe me – here is a snap of their national news section on December 22nd.
Or you can even search in their online section here. However, The Hindu published the PTI version of this story on their website. Now, take a look at the accompanying image that The Hindu chose to publish for this particular news item.
The Hindu article on CAA support use anti-CAA photo
What explains the publication of an anti-CAA image in a pro-CAA story? If an anti-CAA letter merits a publication in the newspaper, why doesn’t a pro-CAA letter merit the same? What kind of treacherous mentality aids The Hindu to squash one side of the story completely?
Around the same time that The Hindu published a “viral photo” of a girl giving a rose to policemen, Farhan Akhtar’s video of him not knowing what he is protesting against also went viral. Just one video from Rahul Kaushik that was RT’ed by Smriti Irani had a whopping 4,40,000 views!. If this is not the definition of viral, then I don’t know what is! Why is this important video, that exposes the utter callousness of popular folks, not an important news item to cover?
Let’s now see how carefully The Hindu has attempted to downplay the violence. Here is an image The Hindu has published on December 14th.
This Hindu captions photo of CAA violence as protest
We can very clearly see that the “students” in this image are resorting to violence. Yet, The Hindu, in their caption tells us that this image is of “JMU students protesting against CAA and the NRC”! Is this not treachery that The Hindu choses to mask violence in the garb of “protests”?
An infographic was presented by The Hindu, with the title “Rising restrictions”. This was in reference to the ban on Internet in areas where violence was happening. Please take some time to study this infographic.
The Hindu infographic on Internet ban
Once you are done with it, can you please point out how is the 2019 data in anyway indicative of “rising restrictions”? 137 instances in 2018 versus 106 in 2019! If we remove J&K, then we are looking at 59 instances in 2018 versus 31 instances in 2019! Barring the problematic J&K, 31 instances in the entire country for an entire year, in various states (including West Bengal, the liberal group’s favorite state) – is that a number we really need to be alarmed about? If we are to be alarmed about them, then here is an open challenge to the Director of Editorial Strategy, The Hindu – can you please share with us 31 editorials and op-eds in The Hindu denouncing these instances as and when they occurred?
On December 18th, The Hindu front paged the following – “21 hurt as protestors clash with police in Delhi”. Somewhere in the article we are told that 15 out of these 21 are police personnel only! No information on how police personnel were getting hurt.
The Hindu article on injured in CAA violence
On December 20th though, The Hindu’s headline was crystal clear – 2 die in police firing!
The Hindu article on death in CAA violence
We are also then told that “Anti-CAA protests rock the country”. This was around the same time many pro-CAA rallies were also taken out in the country. No prizes for guessing if The Hindu covered them with the same vigor or not.
The Lok Sabha passed the CAB on December 9th. Since December 10th, in addition to all of the above news published in the guise of views, following are the headlines of just some of the views that were published as Editorials & Op-eds:
Dec 10th: Editorial titled “Unequal, unsecular: On Citizenship Amendment Bill”
Dec 11th: Congress and Partition (“The idea of religious identity being the basis for Partition has less to do with the Congress…”)
11th: A patently unconstitutional piece of legislation (“The CAB, 2019 has a sinister political logic — the first de jure attempt towards a Hindu Rashtra”. Although I wonder how does giving refuge to Christians make us a Hindu Rashtra!)
11th: Wholly subordinated to the majoritarian nation
Dec 12th: A law not based on religion (about the 1950 act)
Dec 13th: In the name of a majority
Dec 16th: Editorial titled “Many mutinies”
Dec 17th: CAA isn’t a Hindu-Muslim issue
Dec 18th : Left to the whims of the executive
Dec 18th: Time to defend India’s secularism (This one was by the CM of Kerala!)
Dec 19th: Are fears over the CAA misplaced?
Dec 19th: The last bastions of Secular India
Dec 19th: Jairam Ramesh Interview – NRC places an intolerable burden on the poor and vulnerable sections
Dec 20th: In thrall to its own violence
Dec 20th: A tale of two demands
Dec 23rd: Mixed Signals on NRC
Dec 23rd: The three-step communal game plan
Dec 23rd: A Hindu critique of Hindutva
Dec 24th: North East in Turmoil
Dec 26th: Dangerous Doublespeak
Dec 26th: An Act that fails the Constitution
Dec 26th: The return of the Secular
Dec 27th: What are the amendments that the CAA needs
Dec 28th: In CAA narrative, finding the judiciary’s lost voice (Virtually bullying the SC!)
Dec 28th: Fuel to the fire: On Cabinet announcement on NPR
30th: Arms and the man: On Gen Rawat’s comments
30th: A dangerous new low in state-sponsored hate
31st: Uncovering the CAA’s larger stratagem
Jan 1st: An anatomy of anti-CAA protests
Jan 1st: It is everybody’s constitution
Jan 2nd: The abiding power of protest
Jan 4th: Defying the legalisation of the unjustifiable
Jan 4th: Missing the wood: On anti-CAA resolution in Kerala Assembly
Dear reader, do you want to know how many pro-CAA articles were published by The Hindu in this period? A grand total of One. Yes, ONE. An article by Subramaniam Swamy on Dec 21st – “A premature denouncement of the Citizenship Act”
What I have presented to you in this article is perhaps 50% of what The Hindu has done during the past one month. The myriad news articles trying to cover-up for the violence and the myriad views trying to spread falsehood, create fear would take an eternity to cover. However, it was imperative that this documentation was done – to showcase to the world how lopsided and one-sided coverage of this issue is being perpetrated by The Hindu. It has been proven time and again, that the last entity on earth to lecture about “two sides” is The Hindu.
Twinkle Khanna, the wife of Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, demonstrated once again why people are sick of Bollywood actors who try to be too ‘woke’. In the aftermath of the violence at JNU on Sunday, Twinkle claimed that cows in the country ‘seem to receive’ more protection than students. In all fairness, her IQ ‘seems to be’ on the same level as Alia Bhat’s and Rahul Gandhi’s.
India,where cows seem to receive more protection than students, is also a country that now refuses to be cowed down. You can’t oppress people with violence-there will be more protests,more strikes,more people on the street. This headline says it all. pic.twitter.com/yIiTYUjxKR
All the evidence points towards the fact that violence was unleashed at JNU by leftist goons who wanted to hold the University to ransom. Despite that, Twinkle Khanna, in order to secure her brand as a ‘woke’ celebrity, chose to make a stupid remark about cows in order to boost her ego. Such sermons could not be found when anti-Hindu bigotry was rampant in the anti-CAA protests. Now that the propaganda of the Liberal Establishment hs provided her with the necessary ammunition to prove her ‘woke’ credentials, Twinkle Khanna has suddenly found her voice.
As it turns out, her insinuation that the BJP is responsible for the violence across Universities is a lie of the highest order. Even in JNU, the administration has issued a statement where they have said clearly that the violence was perpetrated by those who wished to stop the registration process for the new semester and the violent agitators were leftists. The ABVP’s version of events where they accused the Leftists of committing violence was consistent with the official statement of the administration as well. Thus, Twinkle Khanna is indulging in victim-blaming here. She is blaming the victim for the atrocities they had to endure.
The JNU administration issued a statement over the matter in the aftermath of the violence. The statement said that at 4.30 pm on Sunday, the agitating students had moved from the admin block to hostel rooms attacking students who had supported the registration process. Even though police were informed, by the time police reached, several students and security staff at the hostels were reportedly badly injured in the assault by the violent protestors.
The statement added that masked miscreants had entered the Periyar hostel and had attacked students and security staff with sticks and rods. Some groups of students had also vandalised the admin block and ransacked the VC’s office in the past few weeks. The university has filed police complaints after the incidents. The administration’s version of events was also confirmed by an officer of the Bihar Public Service Commission who is currently studying at the University.
Furthermore, the screenshot of the newspaper she shared speaks of the Aligarh Muslim University as well. Even there, the Uttar Pradesh Police has provided an overwhelming amount of evidence which proves conclusively that the students of the university were engaged in antisocial activities during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. It appears that Twinkle Khanna has deliberately decided to close her eyes to the evidence. There is no cure for people who pretend to be blind.
She says, “You can’t oppress people with violence-there will be more protests,more strikes,more people on the street.” No one is oppressing anyone here. The people voted for a particular political party and the elected government is delivering on the promises made in the manifesto. Electoral defeat is not oppression. And snowflakes aren’t revolutionaries.
The biggest irony in Twinkle Khanna’s tweet is the fact the violence was most likely orchestrated by those who cry fascism when attempts are made to curb the menace of cattle smuggling. The same people who cry hoarse when illegal abattoirs are shut down are the ones indulging in violence across the country.
Thus, the people who are supportive of the illegal slaughter of cows are the ones who have unleashed anarchy across the country. These are the same people who advocate the slaughter of an innocent animal and consuming its meat to prove a political point. Thus, for Twinkle Khanna to bring in cows in this particular issue is the hallmark of the stupidity that permeates through the very fabric of the Bollywood industry.
The former Bollywood actress is perfectly aware that what she said about cows receiving more protection than students simply isn’t true. She knows that she was engaging in massive hyperbole. But she did so because her intention was to target the BJP, which is the only political party seen as a Hindu party. Hindus worship the sacred cow as a mother and it is rather unfortunate that entertainers make it a point to hurt Hindu sentiments in order to make political statements.
If the intention was to criticize the BJP, Twinkle Khanna could have gone ahead and pointed her fingers directly at the party. But entertainers appear to have a sick fetish for deliberately indulging in rhetoric that involves the religious sentiments of Hindus. The BJP and the ABVP could have been blamed for the JNU violence anyway, but for some good reason known only to celebrities, cows have to be dragged into the argument somehow.
It is a joke that became stale at least three years ago. It reached its crowning glory when the standup comic industry made a series of images with girls wearing cow masks with captions that said cows were safer in the country than women. The joke was as stupid then as it is now. The only purpose those images served was making the ones wearing them appear cute for a while.
Just for the record, a sane individual would wish that cows receive as much protection in the country as students for the sake of communal harmony. A great amount of social strife is spread by the illegal slaughter of cows and cattle smuggling. A sane individual, instead of trivializing the matter, would seek proper protection of cows so that the religious sentiments of Hindus are protected and unnecessary communal conflict is avoided.
But such sane opinions are too much to expect from people who belong to the entertainment industry. Narcissists that they are, they just wish to feel good about themselves without performing the actions necessary to deserve to feel that way. If they have to fuel conflict within the country, spread communal tensions and anarchy, it’s only a small price to pay for such narcissists.
