Former Cricketer Shahid Afridi recently requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan to speak up against the treatment meted out to Uighur Muslims in China. He said that “talk of uniting the Muslim ummah includes our brothers & sisters in China too”. He also requested the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan to address the issue. However, 18 minutes into December the 25th, it was revealed Shahid Afridi deleted the said tweet.
Wonder who forced Shahid Afridi to delete his tweet condemning atrocities against Uighur Muslims by China? pic.twitter.com/z1P5DTZsxi
Shahid Afridi’s tweet was possibly deleted after Lijian Zhao, the Deputy Director-General of the Information Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China responded to his comment about the Uighur situation. Zhao said that Afridi was “totally misled by Western propaganda against China”. “The West is demonizing China and exploiting the sentiments of Muslims,” he said.
Source: @zlj517/Twitter
Chinese oppression of Uighur Muslims has been known for a long time. Earlier the Chinese police had imposed a dress code for Uighur women, under which the Muslim women are not allowed to wear long dresses. Last year photos had appeared on social media showing police cutting dresses of Uighur women for being “too long”. It was also reported that Han Males are sleeping on the same bed as Uighur Muslim women in China whose male family members, often husbands, are locked up in ‘reeducation camps’ in conformity with a diktat by the Chinese regime.
Despite such atrocities, China has not faced any repercussions for its ongoing totalitarian policies which are most heinously affecting the Uighurs. They have been abandoned by the Muslim world as well. Imran Khan, who cannot stop engaging in delirious rhetoric against India regarding Kashmir, has refused to condemn China’s actions against Uighurs.
He continues to call China the best friend of Pakistan and has maintained a carefully crafted mask of ignorance over the entire issue. The OIC, while issuing statements on India, has refrained from issuing any statement on the Uighurs.
Thus, under such circumstances, it is only natural that Shahid Afridi deleted his tweet at the slightest pushback from the Chinese. It is well known that China does not appreciate being lectured to by people of other countries. Thus, once again, it seems, a follower of the Ummah has kneeled before the Chinese regime and meekly moderated his behaviour so as to not anger the Chinese.
The intelligence agencies have received information that Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) is planning a major attack on the sacred city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, reports DNA.
According to the reports, intelligence agencies have intercepted messages that are being circulated on social media hinting that terror attacks are being planned by Jaish-e-Mohammad.
JeM chief Masood Azhar is said to have shared the message in which he talked about executing an attack on the Ram Janmbhoomi temple in Ayodhya.
Reportedly, messages were circulated through social media app Telegram, which is widely used by JeM and other terror groups for communication.
Following the information, intelligence agencies have shared the input with all the relevant security agencies and security has been beefed up in Ayodhya and other important places of the city. The security agencies have got in action and are now closely monitoring the JeM network in India.
It is pertinent to note that Jaish-e-Mohammad had carried out the Pulwama suicide attacks on February 14, 2019, in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred.
The Islamic terror group was responsible for executing an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. JeM chief Masood Azhar was designated a ‘global terrorist’ by the UN Security Council 1267 Sanction Committee on May 1, 2019.
The government of Uttar Pradesh has cracked down hard on the anti CAA ‘protesters’ who resorted to mob violence, vandalism and arson in the state. In the process of stopping the rioters, at least 18 individuals have lost their lives. The UP Police also revealed that at least 62 policemen suffered bullet injuries and over 250 were injured. It was also evident from the visuals of the ‘protests’ that it was a case of Muslim mob violence.
A person on Twitter claimed that 14 of the 16 individuals who had died as a consequence of Police action were Muslims. OpIndia cannot verify the authenticity of this claim. It was also alleged that the UP Police had indulged in ‘selective killing’.
In the face of this claim regarding the anti-CAA riots, Rana Ayyub, the perennial fake news peddler, then proceeded to label the Police action as an ‘anti-Muslim carnage’. The cops in UP “have blood on their hands”, she claimed.
Names of those killed by cops in Uttar Pradesh ? Tell me this is not communal ? Tell me this was not an anti Muslim carnage ? They have got blood on their hands https://t.co/8FhG5SsX7k
Another motivated agenda appears to be underway to demonize the UP Police. It’s not really a surprise that Muslims were killed during Police action as the riots were an organized campaign of Muslim mob violence. Therefore, if only one community engages in mob violence, it’s only to be expected that it’s the members of the same community that will die when the Police make an attempt to bring the situation under control.
In this instance, the community happened to be Muslim. Thus, accusing the UP Police of engaging in an ‘Anti-Muslim Carnage’ appears to be a deliberate ploy to give the Muslim rioters a free pass. There are consequences to mob violence and if one does not wish to be killed while the Police attempts to control rioters, then one should not indulge in rioting in the first place.
The UP Police has released several video clips which confirm that the ‘protesters’ were anything but peaceful, despite the agenda that was peddled by Rana Ayyub and her ilk.
One such ‘fact-finding mission’ led by Harsh Mander, a shady character associated with a foreign-funded NGO. His propaganda was thoroughly debunked by the UP Police and Times of India was even forced to take down one of their reports.
Despite the obvious, the claim by Rana Ayyub and her ilk appears to be that Muslim mobs should be permitted to run riot across the country and the Police should do nothing and instead, watch the entire series of events unfolds as sitting ducks.
The Indian entertainment industry has a severe dearth of people who could break the stereotype that good looking people cannot be intelligent. Rang De Basanti actor Siddharth, who thinks real-life apes fiction and not the other way around. While tweeting on CAA and protesting against it, Siddharth says citizenship should be open to all.
Anybody who is eligible for citizenship should be considered. Their background, their integrity and their genuine need should be considered. Leave religion out of it. Anybody who is escaping persecution should be eligible! This is #India. This is the #Indian way. Jai Hind. #CAA
Now, here’s the thing. CAA is applicable only for the religious persecuted minorities from three Islamic neighbouring countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It does not apply to Indians, Muslims as well as non-Muslims. The Muslims of these countries, as well as others from other neighbouring countries who seek citizenship of India, can follow due process, which is currently going on parallelly. A Muslim woman from Pakistan, Haseena, was given Indian citizenship in Gujarat on 18th December 2019.
So, clearly, the virtue signalling is quite misplaced and might one say, misinformed. Siddharth, however, is not the only one. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha who urged Pakistanis to watch his flop film ‘Mulk’ illegally, took this opportunity to indulge in fear-monger about NRC.
जिन लोगों को अपने गाँवों और शहरों में रोटी नहीं मिली। बड़े शहरों में रोटी कमाने जाना पड़ा उनके पास Documents होंगे क्या??? घर नहीं, ज़मीन नहीं पैदाइश की तारीख़ पता नहीं वो लाएँगे birth certificate???? NRC is Anti India and Anti Poor. Nothing to do with religion.
It is pertinent to mention here that NRC (National Register of Citizens) is not even ready in its draft form. Hence, anything being talked about it, especially the ‘documents needed’ is purely speculative. Sinha doesn’t really like to get facts get in his way of validation.
Speaking of validation, one rapper Dilin Nair alias ‘Raftaar’, who most people hadn’t quite heard of till two days back is the newest icon of ‘resistance’ against the ‘fascist regime’.
Drawing a leaf from Bollywood actor Sushant Singh who used these protests as his way to show he’s ‘martyr’ of some sort when he was kicked out of tv show Savdhaan India, very conveniently ‘Raftaar’ begins his revolutionary speech by adding a disclaimer how he does not care about his career. To a cheering crowd, ‘Raftaar’ then speaks about Arshad, who is presumably his aide or assistant who looks after his needs. “Agar koi isko desh se nikalne ki baat karega to saamne goli khaunga, beh*n k* ch*t (if anyone talks about removing him from the country, I’ll take a bullet for him, )” he said to a whistling crowd. Wonder which law he is speaking of since CAA applies neither to Arshad nor to Dilin Nair and NRC is not even out in draft form yet. (PS: Sushant Singh was replaced earlier this year as host of the show for a period of nine months and the decision to replace him again from January next year was in the pipeline from December 5, days before the Act came into being.)
The amount of misinformation and bravado over the same is mind-boggling. Speaking of mind-boggling misinformation, the award for it should actually go to Farhan Akhtar. On 18th December, he tweeted this:
Here’s what you need to know about why these protests are important. See you on the 19th at August Kranti Maidan, Mumbai. The time to protest on social media alone is over. pic.twitter.com/lwkyMCHk2v
Other than the fact that he is factually incorrect in ALL the points he has stated above, he has also given in to Kashmiri separatist and Pakistani propaganda. See the map of India he has used? Do you see how Kashmir in his map has been given away to Pakistan and China? Now see the little ‘dove’ with maple leaves in its beak next to Kashmir. The logo is that of a bird with only ‘Kashmir’ written beside it that can be observed clearly. After investigation, we discovered that the logo is that of an organization called ‘Stand With Kashmir’. What is Stand With Kashmir? As per its website, it is a “Kashmiri diaspora-driven independent global citizen grassroots group committed to standing in solidarity with the people of Kashmir in ending the occupation and supporting their right to self-determination.” Calling India’s military presence in Kashmir an ‘occupation’ reveals amply the ideological orientation of the network. The organization further says, “We believe any proposed resolutions must foreground Kashmiri aspirations. We condemn the use of Islamophobia to undermine Kashmiri aspirations for freedom.”
SWK has labelled the Islamic terrorist organization Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) as ‘secular’ and ‘pro-independence’. In reality, Maqbool Bhat, the cofounder of JKLF was a terrorist who was sentenced to death for the murder of a constable. He also masterminded the hijacking of an Indian plane in 1971. It was the murder of the judge who first convicted Maqbool Bhat and awarded him the death sentence that marked the beginning of the cycle of violence that led to the genocide of the Kashmiri Hindus. It is this organization that is being called ‘secular’. Yasin Malik, another prominent face of the JKLF, is accused to have murdered 5 IAF personnel in early 1990.
Either Akhtar is really naive or he is a closet separatist whose heart bleeds for Pakistan. And while we’re at low IQ Bollywood popcorns whose hearts bleed for Pakistan, here’s Farah Khan Ali. Now many may never have heard of her, but everyone knows Hrithik Roshan. Farah is Hrithik’s ex-wife Suzanne Khan’s sister. She is also the daughter of Sanjay Khan who played the role of Tipu Sultan in popular television series in the early 1990s.
Farah Khan Ali retweets Pakistan’s Army spokesperson
In his tweet, Ghafoor refers to Kashmir as ‘India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir’. He refers to the current riots against CAA as ‘beginning of the end’. Farah Khan retweeted this, perhaps because she agrees with what Ghafoor is saying. Same Pakistan and its army which has extensively used social media to spread fake and malicious news to fear-monger following the abrogation of Article 370.
She then defended her action by saying how she did not read the tweet, but just saw the handle of Ghafoor ‘peace for change’ and took it on its face value.
Yes I made an error because I read “peaceforchange” I did not read anything else’s because I was looking at the video. Yes I apologise because one must read everything before tweeting. I should have checked the handle too. https://t.co/fVLwJKgKBJ
Eyes have been rolling so hard at this that they have attained escape velocity of Jupiter.
However, with the partaaay season up for the woke crowd of ‘South Bombay’, one wonders whether the graduates of the Instagram school of public policy (inspired from this tweet) will head to Goa for the 31st or come to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
In the aftermath of violent protests by Muslim mobs across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), several CCTV videos have now emerged that conclusively bust the myth peddled by Islamists and the anti-Indian establishment that the anti-CAA protests were peaceful and spontaneous in nature. More videos of CCTV footage have emerged from Mangaluru which exposes Islamists, in which it can be clearly seen that the riots were pre-planned meticulously by these mobs.
These plans even included arranging of stones by Muslim mobs to target the common man and police officials.
A CCTV footage has become viral on social media platforms in which mini-truck carrying pieces of stone can be seen parked near a road-side, from where the Muslim mob picked up stones and began to hurl the stones at the police officials.
Earlier, we had reported regarding some CCTV footages in which Muslim mob covered with their faces covered, had attempted to destroy CCTV cameras before going on the rampage.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said that the attack was premeditated and the arson was orchestrated by anti-social elements. He also stated that the people from Kerala was behind creating trouble in anti-CAA protests in Karnataka.
“We have definite information about people who have come from Kerala and enrolled in Mangaluru colleges and were back in the coastal city last week to create trouble, exploiting the unrest against the CAA,” he said.
Bommai said, “The video clippings and pictures clearly show vandals used goods vehicles to transport stones and bricks to the protest site and hurl them at the police”. The Karnataka government has commissioned two probes — one magisterial and the other by the CID to probe the videos, said Home Minister.
The video footage was released after the Mangaluru city police requested the public to share pictures and videos to help their investigation into the December 19 violence. Two ‘protesters’ died after police allegedly opened fire to disperse a Muslim mob that had allegedly been trying to storm a police station in Mangaluru and snatch arms.
Over a thousand CCTV video clips were shared with the police after the city police commissioner had tweeted requesting people to share footages of the riots by the Muslim mobs.
Reportedly, the Mangaluru police have registered 24 cases so far relating to the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) riots that held in the city on December 19. The police have put together over 350 footages so far. The police have identified over a hundred culprits based on facial features visible in the footage. Some of them have been taken into custody for questioning.
In the aftermath of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, riots, violence, arson and vandalism by Muslim mobs in the name of ‘protests’ against the enactment of the law have taken place across the country.
The Citizenship Amendment act seeks to give Indian citizenship to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from three neighbouring Islamic countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh after facing religious persecution.
The Act states the refugees of the six communities will be given Indian citizenship after residing in India for five years, instead of earlier requirement of 11 years. The Act also proposes to give immunity to such refugees facing legal cases after being found as illegal migrants. The cut-off date for granting citizenship will be December 31, 2014.
Uttar Pradesh had become a hotbed for violence after the newly-enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) came into force. The anti-CAA rioters in several parts of the state including Rampur resorted to large scale violence, arson, stone pelting, damaging public property to the tune of almost Rs 15 lakh.
Merely a few days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced tough measures to combat the anti-CAA rioters and promised to seize the property of every rioter and use its funds to repair the damaged public property, the Rampur Police have issued notices to as many as 28 locals across Rampur district, holding them responsible for acts of violence and causing damage to government property.
According to an India TV report, the police have sought an explanation as to why recoveries should not be made for damage worth Rs 14.86 lakh. The notice cited damage to the government properties to the tune of Rs 14,86,500. It lists, among others, a police jeep of Bhot police station (Rs 750,000), motorcycle of a sub-inspector (Rs 65,000), motorcycle of City Kotwali police station (Rs 90,000), wireless set, hooter/loudspeaker, 10 dandas, three helmets, three body protectors.
Commenting on the development, Rampur District Magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh said notices were issued to 28 people after the police found their role in protests.
“We issued notices to 28 persons whose role were found by police during the investigation. Police submitted evidence against them. They (28) have been asked to submit their response within a week, otherwise, the process of recovery against them will be started. Of the 28, a few have been arrested while raids are on to trace others. An accused and his family can submit evidence to support their plea that they have been wrongly booked in the case,” Singh said.
According to the district administration, notices were issued after the state government issued an order based on a direction from the Allahabad High Court.
Earlier, the UP government had sealed 50 shops belonging to rioters in Muzaffarnagar who caused damage to public property. The sealed shops are all in the trouble-hit Minakshi Chowk and Kachchi Sadak areas of the town.
Uttar Pradesh had turned into a war zone last week, wherein the Muslim mobs resorted to vandalism and had gone on a rampage against the police officials taking the death toll in the state to 16. The rioters have destructed several public properties while indulging in stone-pelting to attack police officials. Altogether, since the violence began, 925 people have been arrested across the state, the police said.
The Uttar Pradesh police have videos, photographs, CCTV footage of those involved in the anti-CAA protests, the police said.
Yesterday, the Rampur police had also produced pictures and video footages of one incident as evidence, where Parvez, a driver and close associate of Samajwadi Party strongman, Azam Khan could be seen hurling stones at the police personnel.
Condemning the violence and protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in parts of Uttar Pradesh and parts of the country, Yogi Adityanath had said people cannot indulge in violence in the “name of protests”. The UP CM had assured that strict actions will be taken against hoodlums who have been trying to create unrest in his state and various parts of the country.
Further, the UP government has also formed a four-member panel to look into the videos of riots and identify vandals in the state capital Lucknow. As per police, stringent action will be taken against perpetrators once identified.
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the plea of a man who sought the quashing of criminal proceedings against him for allegedly molesting a woman by claiming that he was in the process of transitioning to a female himself and that he was never attracted to a woman. The accused claimed that he was suffering from gender dysphoria since childhood and identified himself as a woman before the Court.
He claimed, the relationship between him and the accuser was that of two sisters and therefore, he could not have molested her. The accused arrived at the Court dressed in formal woman’s clothing, with make-up on and a feminine hairstyle. Gender dysphoria is a disorder where a person perceives himself to be of the gender opposite to his biological sex.
The accused made these submissions while claiming that the complainant was ready to settle the matter. However, the advocate for the complainant denied categorically that the woman had given her consent to the quashing of the FIR. It was further alleged that in a previous court hearing, the accused got some other lawyer to appear on behalf of the victim without her knowledge and even forged her signatures.
According to the FIR lodged in October 2016, both the accused and the woman worked in the same company in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida in 2014, when he allegedly molested her at a party in a Connaught Place pub. It is also pertinent to note that the recent affidavit annexed with the petition mentions the accused as a man.
In one of the deadliest attacks by jihadis in West African country Burkina Faso, 35 people were killed on Tuesday. The terrorists had launched a double attack on a military base and the civilian population in Arbinda town, and most of the victims, 31 in total, were women. Seven soldiers also lost their lives in the attack, while 80 terrorists were killed in the retaliatory action by the military helped by the air force.
Burkina Faso, which borders Mali and Niger, has been regularly targeted by Islamic fundamentalist terror groups operating in Africa, and hundreds of the people have lost their lives in the violence which had spread to the region in 2015.
The army chief of staff said, “A large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the civilian population in Arbinda.” Talking about the incident, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said, “The heroic action of our soldiers has made it possible to neutralise 80 terrorists. This barbaric attack resulted in the death of 35 civilians, most of them women.”
Burkina Faso
The attack took place on Tuesday morning and had lasted several hours. Dozens of terrorists on motorbikes opened fire on a military base and the civilian population nearby. The civilians, mostly women, were collecting water when they were attacked. Later the military forces drove the attackers back following an intense battle that lasted several hours near the border with Mali. Ground troops and Air Force fighter jets participated in the battle.
The president has declared 48-hours national mourning after the incident. The national flag will at half-mast and all Christmas celebrations have been cancelled.
No terror group has taken responsibility for the attack so far, but past violence in the country has been blamed on al-Qaeda and ISIS groups. Islam is the dominant religion in Burkina Faso, but there is a sizeable Christian minority of about 20 percent. Muslims account for more the 60% of the population.
William Lawrence, visiting professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School said that the attacks are part of the plan to establish an Islamic state. He said that this is the worst attack ever in Burkina Faso. He added that terror activities in the country started only in 2015, but their frequency and lethality have been increasing.
“This is a group led by someone from Burkina Faso, whose recruiting fighters from Burkina Faso, even though they launch attacks from Mali. And while they are trying to sow chaos and they are under pressure from the French, their main goal is to liberate this area and establish an Islamic State, not unlike what we saw in north Mali in 2012,” he said.
Islamic terrorists operating in Mali has come under intense pressure from French forces, as a result, they have spilled across the border into Burkina Faso, spreading their terror activities in the landlocked country. They frequently conduct hit-and-run operations on motorcycles.
The world has changed in the last ten years to the point that there is no going back. If the Internet was revolutionary for the previous generation, it is social media for this. I have been one of the early adopters of social media. Being a social recluse, awkward, the introvert person helped me discover how I am not the only one out there who thinks the Internet is her best friend.
As an early adopter of blogging and Twitter universe, I have seen the platform evolve. While it provides a fantastic level-playing field, it could ruin your lives within seconds. Social media, especially Twitter, changed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat, took to the platform and talked directly to his audience. The media-hating chief minister of a state who was hated more by the media itself used the platform to his advantage.
From Narendra Modi to Amitabh Bachchan to Paulo Coelho to Rajdeep Sardesai – you could let anyone of these public figures know what you like and don’t like about them. The mainstream media journalists who were not used to two-way communication were shocked to know people did not take their word as gospel truth. The imminent doom of their propaganda made them lose their cool more often than not and everyone who disagreed were ‘trolls’.
That started a new wave of ‘bhakts’ vs ‘liberals’. BJP or Modi supporters were invariable ‘bhakts’ and anyone who did not agree with him were by default ‘liberals’. ‘Liberals’ came in all shapes and sizes. They would talk about lovely things like feminism and have a general dislike for Hindu festivals as the only festival worth celebrating was the one which is known for biryani. Cow-jokes, offering non-left/’liberal’ folks to drink gaumutra (cow urine) is a running joke because #AdoptDontShop is legit only for dogs and cats. Cows are to be devoured.
Speaking of jokes, Twitter also gave birth to ‘standup comics’. A bunch of people who could crack jokes in 140 characters, who were of course ‘liberals’, we now part of the elite clout of feminist woke crowd which talked about mental health issues. We will come to ‘mental health issues’ in a while, but before that, let us talk about the standup comics.
These standup comics gained popularity making jokes on Modi. One fellow thinks he is funny every time he picks on a particular film director and his zombies would laugh at his ‘jokes’. Another gained popularity by being a parody of a popular author whose books have been read by more number of people than those who have heard of these individuals collectively.
The ‘liberal’ brand of such ‘woke’ individuals thought that since they all talk about things like consent and feminism when it comes to them, the consent is a given. They even get ‘protection’ from the same set of people they abuse because for them the bigger picture is important. I have earlier written how the Left protects the sexual predators when the accused is one of their own. Recently, after the Kathua rape case, a JNU student had accused the lawyer, Talib Hussain, of raping her. But she had kept quiet for the ‘bigger cause’.
Coming back, the common thread in all this is social media activism. It gives instant gratification to call out someone’s ‘lies’, to name-call someone because you don’t agree with them. And your clout of ‘liberals’ will back you. At the cost of sounding sexist and harsh on my own gender, they will put their weight behind you especially if you’re a woman, because ‘sisterhood’.
There was a strong element of slander involved. Unverified claims were put out because of the ‘trust women’ phenomenon. At the risk of sounding harsh on own gender, trust, but verify. And that holds true for anyone irrespective of their gender. Because Twitter is not the court of law and your social media justice could just ruin an innocent person’s life. All this because you could. That’s the power of the Internet.
Social media gives one the feeling of ‘playing God’. Armed with screenshots, the one who makes the first move is believed. The one on whom allegations are put is left ‘defending’ because people have already made up their minds that you are wrong.
When #MeToo movement took India by storm, everyone believed the women. And why shouldn’t you, after all, why would anyone lie, right? This is not to say the women lied. But we believed them and decided that the men accused were monsters. With newer things emerging a year later, some are wondering if they were too quick to judge while some are staying clear of it because, ‘ah, well, apne ko kya lena dena’ (which is a fantastic attitude to have, IMO – much better for mental health).
What is common in both these are screenshots. ‘Screenshots never lie,’ right? Well, we don’t know anything anymore. We can only speculate and believe the one we want to or rather, the one we dislike less.
As things unfolded last week between Utsav Chakraborty and Mahima Kukreja, I saw a conversation where one woman was empathising with Utsav but cautioned him against this thread because it may make people feel empathetic to ‘monsters like MJ Akbar’. Journalist-turned-politician, like Chakraborty, was accused by multiple women of inappropriate behaviour. Akbar is a BJP Member of Parliament. Hence, for ‘liberals’, he is guilty by default while Chakraborty deserves another chance.
Hi Utsav,
I was a part of the movement back in October 2018. I spoke to at least 5-6 victims but refused to put out 3rd party stories. So as someone committed to @IndiaMeToo creating change, here is an open letter to Utsav on behalf of the volunteer of the movement. Page 1 pic.twitter.com/ZJrqx7czNk
Please note, Akbar is not yet pronounced guilty in any court of law. But on Twitter’s kangaroo court, he is one. Utsav, gets the benefit of the doubt, because he, well, doesn’t really like Modi. Oh, and he had even blamed the ‘right wing‘ for the allegations when they were put up against him last year.
Social media is increasingly being used as a platform to slander. Over and above the fact that people are ready to believe the worst about anyone, it is also easy for people to hide behind the cloak of anonymity and make allegations and disappear. Even celebrities do not shy away from abusing individuals who disagree with them. Recently we saw Bollywood entertainer Swara Bhasker refer to journalist Swati Goel Sharma as ‘jaahil Sanghi’ just because she was doing her job: reporting.
जाहिल संघी! फ़ैज़ साहब कैसे पहचान पाएँगे आख़िर- पढ़े होते तो दिमाग़ में नफ़रत का गोबर ना भरा होता!! (हाँ अब गौ मूत्र के साथ गोबर के भी गुण गिना दो! ) https://t.co/KlagWNoPb7
She also used the ‘gau mutra’ jibe, the same one Pulwama terrorist used as he wanted to kill the ones who drink cow urine. Pulwama terrorist exuded Hinduphobia and so do such woke individuals who make the cow urine jibe when they want to ridicule someone who doesn’t agree with them.
Another issue with ‘woke’ individuals on social media is the fact that they hide their insecurities behind the cloak of ‘mental health’. While depression, bipolar disorder are very real illnesses and deserves to be as mainstream as any other illness, most of the ‘woke’ people are seeking ‘therapy’. Anything you tell them affects their mental health and they get ‘triggered’ into a meltdown. You cannot call out their bullshit because then you’d be accused of being a ‘vile’ person who likes to play with other people’s mental health.
Anyone disagreeing with someone who has proclaimed they are having ‘depression’ on Twitter is a bully by default. The ‘depressed’ person will then lead a bunch of his/her/their (another sign someone is a ‘woke’ individual is their putting out the pronoun they identify themselves with) friends who will mock you in solidarity because only the ‘depressed’ can be bullied, and they can never be bullies themselves.
Social media has given the power of discourse back in the hands of the people. The ‘Liberals’ and ‘intellectuals’ who got a free run to peddle their lies and their propaganda have been checked time and again. However, it has also given rise to a sub-culture of bullying, lying, and extracting revenge, that invariably ruins lives. There is no mechanism, as such, that can help curb the menace. There is a thin line between putting checks and balances in place and the entire system descending into just another method to curb free speech, like Congress’ draconian 66A. However, what can be done, at best is to spread awareness and to ensure, that while one may not win popularity contests by siding with the truth, however inconvenient, it just must be done.
The anti-CAA riots have gripped the country with Muslim mobs running amuck, indulging in arson, vandalism, stone-pelting, organised violence and political parties adding fuel to fire with known Leftists leading the charge. One of the first incidents of unbridled violence was one that came from the Jamia Millia Islamia University followed by the violence unleashed by the so-called students of Aligarh Muslim University. The UP police were massacred with criticism by the Leftists who repeatedly asserted that the UP police had used “excessive force” on the “students of AMU” while “they were protesting peacefully”.
Dispelling those allegations, the Uttar Pradesh police released videos yesterday which showed the “peaceful” students of AMU clearly hurling stones, mercilessly at the police.
In the first video, UP police demonstrate how the police had actually appealed and warned against the unlawful assembly. It is at this point that stone-pelting had started, injuring several policemen. It is to control the situation that the police had to resort to tear-gas shelling.
The second, more damning and chilling video is where it is clearly visible that AMU’s Bab-e-Syed gate was violently broken down by the ‘students’ of AMU, not the police.
The two videos have decisively put an end to the Left-Liberal agenda of blaming the Uttar Pradesh police of using “excessive force” on “peaceful students”. The “students” of AMU were not peaceful by any stretch of the imagination and considering the violent nature of these riots, the UP police can be seen using sufficient restraint.
These videos also put in focus the motivated, lie-ridden “fact-finding report” that was published by ace propagandist Harsh Mander who used to be a part of Sonia Gandhi’s NAC, which was almost the de facto government during the UPA’s tenure.
Harsh Mander and his NGO ‘Karwan e Mohabbat’ published a report based on utter conjecture and outright lies to demonise the Uttar Pradesh police and whitewash the crimes of the violent AMU students who ran riots.
Harsh Mander claims in his fact-finding report
Harsh Mander claimed that the ‘circumstances in which RAF entered the campus remain unclear’. He then claims that the students and faculty attest to the fact that there was no provocation from the peaceful students.
It is evident from the videos that the students indulged in violent stone-pelting and thus, for Mander to take the word of the students in this aspect betrays the truth. Interestingly, his “fact-finding” thus seems to have been limited to furthering propaganda by the violent rioters. It is evident that Mander did not check the CCTV footage of the violence or if he did, he chose to hide the facts that emerge from it. One has to then wonder what this ‘fact-finding’ mission was all about.
Harsh Mander then claims with absolute certainty that it was the RAF and Uttar Pradesh police that broke down the Bab-e-Syed gate of AMU.
Harsh Mander claims in his fact-finding report
In this fact-finding report, other than the victimhood of rioters, noting really seems to be based on ‘facts’. Harsh speculates that the VC of AMU extended to ‘consent’ to let RAF in after they have “broken down the Bab-e-Syed gate” to legitimise police action. He says that the gate was broken with ‘precision’ while the locks were intact, insinuating that the RAF and UP police had somehow conspired to break the gate without any provocation from the students of AMU. He also tries to cast aspersions on the fact that there was stone pelting and large scale violence from within AMU. Both these assertions have been debunked by the videos released by the UP police.
Harsh Mander, while painting the stone-pelting, rioting students completely innocent, also claims that the Uttar Pradesh police used ‘stun grenades’ and ‘bullets’.
Aligarh SSP Akash Kulhari has in clear terms stated that no lethal arms were used to control the mob violence that broke out at AMU during the anti-CAA riots. He stated that he is ready to face an inquiry over such allegations that stun grenades were used by police during the protests. Interestingly, much before Harsh Mander, it was Naxal sympathiser Nandini Sunder who had made these claims. Similar such ‘stun grenade’ usage appeared in leftist rag The Telegraph India which claimed that a report prepared by Jamia Millia Students who went to AMU to ‘fact-find’ on what transpired the previous night in violence, mentioned usage of ‘stun grenades’.
Harsh Mander claims in his fact-finding report
While there is absolutely no evidence that stun-guns were used and the UP police have already clarified, after lying about everything else, Harsh further fear-mongers by claiming that the UP police turned AMU into a war-like situation by using stun guns.
Further, Mander says in his report, “Based on students’ and teachers’ testimonies, video footage, medical opinion, remarks of administration, and physical evidence on-site, we can confirm that tear gas shells, sound bombs, rubber bullets, stun grenades and lathis were used on the students. They had also resorted to stone-pelting”.
It is to be noted here that while Harsh Mander claims to have checked the video footage to peddle a lie that lethal weapons were used, he has asserted that the AMU students did not indulge in stone-pelting and also that the Bab-e-Syed gate was broken by the police and RAF without confirming those allegations with the video footage.
Harsh Mander does not stop there.
In an already charged environment where Muslim mobs are going on a rampage, Harsh Mander claimed that the police raised ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans while “attacking” the “peaceful” Muslim students of AMU. There is, of course, no evidence for this except the word of the rioters of AMU who Mander is trying to shield.
It is important to note here that in WhatsApp groups that were run by NSUI (Congress), coordinating protests throughout the country, Harsh Mander was one of the names that came up as a go-to helping hand in case rioters get into trouble.
While Harsh Mander has resorted to blatant lies helped by digital media platforms and leftists like Nandini Sunder and scores of others, it is shocking to note that the mainstream media has only added fuel to fire.
Times of India had earlier today reported the videos released by the Uttar Pradesh police that demolish the lies being peddled by the likes of Harsh Mander.
Times of India headline
Interestingly, the Times of India has now pulled this article down.
The Times of India has claimed that the article was removed because it contained ‘inaccurate/insufficient information’.
An archive version of this article shows that it was a simple report based on the videos released by the Uttar Pradesh government that not only showed the students of AMU breaking down the AMU gate but also them indulging in unbridled stone-pelting.
One has to wonder why Times of India would delete a simple report based on videos released by the official, verified Twitter account of the Uttar Pradesh police.
Is this a part of a concerted attempt to further a certain kind of narrative without allowing the truth to reach masses? Till this report was published, the Times of India had not published their report back.
The violence in the country has been fomented by political parties and aided by media that has often refused to publish the truth. With Muslim mobs going on a rampage across the nation, the media, Left-liberals and political parties like the Congress, AAP and others have been active participants in not only spreading disinformation but also shielding the rioters by either maintaining silence on their violence or airbrushing the truth. Harsh Mander is certainly unlikely to withdraw his blatant lies, however, one has to wonder what stopped the Times of India from publishing the truth about AMU as evidenced by the videos.
