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Harish Salve defends CAB, says bill not anti-Muslim, does not violate articles 14, 15 or 21 of the Indian constitution: Read details

Harish Salve, one of India’s biggest names in national and international law, has stated that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is not anti-Muslim and it does not violate the Articles 14, 15 and 21 of Indian constitution as being claimed by naysayers.

Speaking with Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar, the senior lawyer explained that the communities named in the CAB are the minorities in the three neighbouring nations, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. He added further that the CAB is a narrow-tailored law specifically meant for religiously persecuted minorities in the 3 specified countries.


Harish Salve explained further that the CAB aims to provide the persecuted minorities in these 3 countries a special status in the naturalisation process and it does not mean in any way that other communities or people will not be naturalised at all, for other communities the rules of general asylum process will be followed. So there is no violation of Article 14 here.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

Salve further added that as far as Article 15 is concerned, it is applicable only for Indian citizens and not people from other countries. One becomes an Indian citizen after they are naturalised, not before.

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is concerned with the right to life. Salve stated that it provides a right to life for those who live in India, not those who want to enter India.

Answering Shivshankar’s question on whether specifying Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians is discriminatory against Muslims, Salve explained that on the laws of equality does not mean having the same law for lions and lambs. He added that since the CAB has ‘religious persecution’ as the basis and is aiding those who are being religiously persecuted (the minorities in the specified Islamic countries) then the community which belongs to the majority religion in these countries cannot claim ‘religious persecution’. And since the CAB is not about political or economic asylum seekers, Muslims do not feature there.

He also asserted that the CAB does not undermine or interfere with the existing rules of asylum and Muslims can continue to seek asylum or apply for citizenship under the existing rules.

Read: Cultural Marxism: Liberals oppose the CAB because of Hinduphobia which dictates that Hindus must never be recognized as Victims

When Shivshankar asked whether the claims of Ahmadiyas, Hazaras, and in some cases Shias facing discriminations in their countries have been ignored in the CAB, Salve stated that the countries specified in the CAB have their own state religion and Islamic rules. He added that Islamic majority nations identify their people as per who follows Islam and who does not. Addressing governance problems in neighbouring countries is not the purpose of the CAB.

Replying to the question of why the CAB does not include Tamils in Sri Lanka, Salve stated that Tamils in Sri Lanka are not religiously persecuted. Over the issue of Rohingyas, Salve stated that a law that addresses one evil does not need to address all the evils in all countries. It is notable here that Myanmar, though a Buddhist majority nation, does not have a state religion and Myanmar does not feature in CAB.

For argument’s sake, Salve stated, if immigration or naturalisation facility is provided to the Rohingyas, it can also be argued that why people from African nations are not being included. “CAB is for the religiously persecuted minorities of the three specified neighbouring nations and it does not need to be applicable to all nations or all people in the world who have problems,” he added.

Salve also expressed confidence that if the CAB comes under judicial scrutiny, India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Attorney General KC Venugopal will defend it well.

Shekhar Gupta is wrong, the Citizenship Amendment Bill is exactly what BJP was voted to power for

The Citizenship Amendment Bill has been creating a furore in the ‘Liberal’ section of the population. Several untenable arguments against the bill have been made including the assertion that the bill is against the Constitution of India and is against ‘secularism’. People have also said that it is an ‘anti-minority’ bill. Most of these arguments are oft-repeated and have been countered threadbare earlier. The Bill does not violate the provisions of the constitution and since it is to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic countries, it is not ‘anti-minority’ or ‘anti-Muslim’ since Islam is the dominant religion in those countries. Tired of these oft-repeated statements, Shekhar Gupta of The Print decided to come up with a new argument.

Shekhar Gupta of The Print wrote a ’50 word edit’ in which he claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Bill is not what the BJP was voted to power for.


Shekhar Gupta in his edit says that the BJP is needlessly bringing back the ghosts of the partition. He also says that the fact that BJP is bringing this bill shows a bankruptcy of ideas for 2019 and that while the bill may pass through the parliament, it is not what the BJP was voted to power for.

While these conjectures might sound interesting and intellectually stimulating, they are far from the truth.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill – Myths and lies propagated against it, and the facts

Firstly, the assertion that the bill brings up the ghosts of the past is an incorrect statement. The persecution that minorities face in the neighbouring Islamic nations of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are extremely real and present. Many Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist etc girls are abducted, sexually exploited, forcefully converted to Islam and then exploited further.

On the day that Shekhar Gupta wrote this edit, another Christian girl in Pakistan was abducted, forcefully converted to Islam and then forced to marry her abductor. What the minorities in Islamic nations suffer is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. That the crisis was born out of the ill-conceived partition on the basis of religion is secondary.

Read: Citizenship Amendment Bill has exposed Indian ‘liberals’ like never before

Further, Shekhar Gupta says that the BJP was not voted to power for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. He could not be further from the truth.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was mentioned rather explicitly in the BJP’s 2019 manifesto.

BJP manifesto 2019

The manifesto of the BJP prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections clearly specifies that the BJP is committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from the neighbouring countries escaping persecution. It also said that it will make an effort to ensure clarity on the issue to the sections of the population from Northeast India.

In fact, in several speeches throughout the years, the BJP and its leaders including Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have reiterated their promise of passing the citizenship amendment bill. It is pertinent to note here that the BJP was elected to power with a greater majority in 2019 than in 2014.

Read: At the stroke of midnight, as Lok Sabha passed Citizenship Amendment Bill, ‘seculars’ can’t keep calm

With this being a prominent promise through 2014 to 2019, one wonders how Shekhar Gupta can claim that the BJP was not voted to power for the Citizenship Amendment Bill. While no one promise or agenda ever get a party to power and it is always a culmination of promises, the Citizenship Amendment Bill was one of the most prominent promises made by the BJP and it got the mandate to deliver on it.

It is evident that along with the other self-professed “liberals”, Shekhar Gupta is trying to further a narrative against granting citizenship to persecuted minorities of Islamic nations. The narrative is obviously not rooted in facts but does strengthen the ‘secular credentials’ of the ones who rather watch minorities in Islamic nations suffer than admit that the bill introduced by PM Modi addresses a humanitarian crisis that deserved attention long ago.

Pakistan: 14-years-old Christian girl in Karachi abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her abductor

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The persecution of minorities in Pakistan continues unabated as another incident of abduction and forcible conversion of girls belonging to minority communities to Islam have come to the fore. Huma Younus, a 14-year-old Christian girl from Karachi was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to her captor Abdul Jabbar.


According to the reports, Younas was kidnapped on October 10 by three men who waited on the girl’s parents to leave the house before forcibly abducting her. She was reportedly taken to Dera Ghazi Khan, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan, about 600 Kms from her home.

The law enforcement officials initially rejected the numerous attempts made by the girl’s parents to file a complaint of abduction. However, after their persistence efforts, the police lodged a complaint on October 12.

A few days after her conversion, the family of the girl received conversion papers and marriage certificate. Her mother, Nagina Younas claimed that the papers are fake, as it takes several hours to reach where she was taken but the date of conversion on the papers was the same as the day of her abduction. She exhorted the Pakistani courts to intervene in the matter.

Read- It is considered as an achievement to convert a Hindu to Islam: Report of Members of European Parliament on religious minorities in Pakistan

After the court hearing, the victim’s distraught mother asked if the Christian women in Pakistan should kill their daughters if kidnapping and conversion are what they are destined for. The parents of the girl have created a video asking for the help of Pope Francis and in order to draw international attention to the plight of Christian girls in Pakistan. She has also pleaded to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, opposition politician Bilawal Bhutto and Pakistani Army Chief for help.


Lawyer Tabassum Yousaf, on behalf of the archdiocese of Karachi, is fighting the case of Huma. Yousaf claimed that five appeals made to the courts in Karachi have yielded no result. In fact, now the kidnappers have filed an appeal to the High Court, seeking liberation of the girl from her parent’s authority, claiming that she is of age.

As per International Christian Concern, there have been 34 incidents of abduction, forced conversions, rape and assault against children, women in the first nine months of 2019, displaying the vulnerability of Christians in Pakistan.

Girls from other minority groups aren’t safe in Pakistan either. In a similar incident, a young Hindu girl named Chandri Kolhi from Noukot, Mirpurkhas, was allegedly abducted, converted and married to Allah Dino recently.

Earlier, Jagjit Kaur, a Sikh girl was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Nankana Sahib which had caused a huge uproar. In another horrific incident, a 13-year-old Pooja Sotahar Kumari, daughter of Fatan Rathore, resident of village Bakhsho Laghari in Hyderabad district’s Hosri Taluka, was kidnapped, forcefully converted and subsequently married off to a man identified as Syed Irshad Shah.

Pakistan is notoriously infamous for its persecution of not only religious minorities but also ethnic minorities within their own country. The forceful conversion programmes have often been unleashed against the minorities especially Christians, Sikhs and Hindus living in Pakistan with utmost brutality.

Maharashtra: Amidst political turmoil, senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse meets CM Uddhav Thackeray, denies rumours of quitting BJP

Maharashtra BJP veteran Eknath Khadse, who has been critical of the state leadership after the assembly polls, met Maharastra’s newly appointed Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Maharastra’s Vidhan Bhavan today.


After the meeting, Khadse while speaking to media cleared the rumours of him quitting BJP, Confirming to news agency ANI that he was not planning to join Shiv Sena, Khadse said: “I am not upset with BJP party, I am just upset with 2-3 leaders of the party”.

This statement by Eknath Khadse seems to put an end to the speculation that he may leave Bharatiya Janata Party and join some other party.


Confirming his meeting with Khadse, CM Thackeray, earlier today, called Khadse an old associate. Thackeray also mentioned that he has a long-standing relationship with Khadse that goes beyond politics.

Speaking to the media, Thackeray said, “I will definitely meet Eknath Khadse (Khadse Bhau). In the current situation, I will call him my old associate. But apart from the political relationships, I have an old long relationship with him. I will meet him.”

The veteran BJP leader’s meeting with the Shiv Sena chief came a day after he met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in the national capital on Monday, where, the two held a closed-door meeting for around half-an-hour at Pawar’s residence.

Talking about the Khadse-Pawar meeting, NCP leader Nawab Malik said that the meeting was not political. “It was all about farmers and agrarian crisis in Maharashtra,” Malik added.

The BJP heavyweight Khadse, who was asked to quit as Maharashtra’s revenue minister in June 2016 amid charges of corruption in the Bhosari land scam, has been expressing his displeasure with Maharashtra BJP for some time. In an earlier statement, he had said that some BJP leaders in the state had played an active role in defeating OBC leaders in the recent state elections and that he had complained about it to state BJP president Chandrakant Patil as well. After this, rumours have been doing the rounds that Eknath Khadse may quit BJP as he feels that he has been steadily sidelined within the party after the graft allegations in 2016.

In fact, on Saturday, Khadse in a veiled threat said that he will be looking at other options if his “humiliation” at the hands of BJP leadership continued. “I am not God. I am a human being and have emotions. I don’t want to leave the party for whose growth I worked hard for more than four decades. I am still ready to work for the party,” Eknath Khadse had told reporters adding, “But If I continue to face the humiliation of being kept away from decision-making, I will have to think differently.”

In fact, if one’s to believe reports, NCP luminaries have also hinted that Khadse may quit BJP. Though BJP leader and former minister Ashish Shelar described the reports as baseless and false, Khadse himself remained non-committal then. “As of now, I am in the BJP, I do not know what will happen tomorrow. Prior to the assembly elections, I had an offer from both Congress and NCP, but at that time I did not accept it,” he was quoted by TOI as saying.

Earlier, Khadse confirmed agitated OBC leaders from the BJP had met him at his residence to discuss the “stepmotherly treatment given to the community by the BJP.” “The consensus was that prominent members of the community should unite and take up the cause of the community with the BJP leadership”, Khadse had said furthering that a meeting had been called to discuss these grievances on December 12 at the Gopinath Munde memorial in Parli.

According to sources, apart from Khadse, BJP leaders Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde have also been disgruntled with the party because they feel that they were sidelined in the 2019 Maharashtra State Elections. It is also alleged that the leaders feel that OBC candidates were particularly sidelined in the Assembly elections.

Sikh Uber driver racially assaulted in the United States, attacker released on bail after arrest

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In a racial attack in the United States, one of the Uber passengers racially abused a Sikh driver and strangulated him. The assailant identified as Griffin Levi Sayers was picked up by the Sikh driver before he unleashed his onslaught on him. The incident happened along the Barkley Boulevard in Bellingham in Washington state.

According to the reports, the victim dialled 911 on December 5 to inform the police about the attack. Sayers was arrested police and lodged into Whatcom County Jail on December 5 on suspicion of second-degree assault and a failure-to-appear warrant for fourth-degree assault. However, he was released on the bail of $13,000 the next day.

The driver stated in his complaint that the assailant hailed the cab to make some purchases and then returned to the pick-up location. However, at this point, the passenger became abusive and pulled the driver by his collar and wrung it violently. In addition to this, the passenger also made racial remarks against the driver’s ethnicity, skin color and the turban he was wearing. The driver somehow managed to get out of the cab and made a call to 911. Soon after the driver’s call, the police arrived at the spot and found the assaulter nearby. He was arrested and taken to the police station.

Read: Racist attack on Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, asked to ‘cut off’ his turban in Montreal’s Atwater Market

The racist attack on the Sikh Uber driver is currently being considered as a bias incident, while the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is determining whether to charge the assault as a hate crime. A Bellingham Police officer told media, “this assault is being investigated as a bias incident, as Sayers maliciously and intentionally assaulted the victim because of Sayers’ perception of the victim’s race, national origin and religion. Additional charges by the prosecutor’s office for hate crime offence are pending.”

Following Donald Trump’s election as the President of the United States, there has been a spurt in the incidence of racial attacks against the minorities in the States. Sikhs have been the target of the racial attacks in the United States. As per a report published last month, Sikhs were the third largest groups behind the Jews and Muslims to be target of racial attacks. According to an FBI report, crimes against Sikhs rose by a whopping 200 per cent since 2017. Though Sikhs are evidently different from members of other communities, they are often mistakenly targeted because of their turbans.

National Conference to not participate in politics until Article 370 and statehood is restored to J&K, says Farooq Abdullah’s brother

The National Conference won’t participate in any political process until Article 370 has been restored in Jammu & Kashmir along with its statehood, senior leader of the party, Mustafa Kamal, has announced. In an exclusive interview with IANS, the brother of Farooq Abdullah announced that the party won’t take part in political processes that do not serve the interests of the people of J&K.

“They demolished the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. We can not take part in any political process in this system,” he stated. “New Delhi will like to manipulate us for changing the demography of Jammu & Kashmir and enslave the people.” Kamal also said that Article 370 was removed to alter the ‘Muslim-majority character’ of the state and make way for “demographic change”. He also said that his party won’t demand the extension of Article 371 to J&K either. Article 371 has special arrangement for some states, mostly from northeastern region.

Read- Farooq Abdullah’s brother, Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, questions Pulwama attack, gives clean chit to Pakistan

“We don’t want Article 371, those who want it, let them take it,” Kamal said. “They are talking about a third front, let them go with it, National Conference will not change its position.” He also said that he faith in the Supreme Court. “Our leaders met with (then) Governor Satya Pal Malik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both denied the Article was being revoked,” he said. Kamal remained optimistic that international pressure was mounting on India and that the current situation could not continue forever. Asserting that the senior Abdullah will not settle for a compromise, he said, “Farooq Abdullah has always stuck to his principles, why would he change his stand now?”

Article 370 and Article 35A, which gave a separate status to Jammu and Kashmir was abolished by the union government in August this year. Along with that, the state was bifurcated into two union territories, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

Cultural Marxism: Liberals oppose the CAB because of Hinduphobia which dictates that Hindus must never be recognized as Victims

The Liberal Meltdown over the Citizenship Amendment Bill has been one for the ages. They appear unable to cope with the simple fact that India owes a special responsibility towards the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in a manner that it doesn’t owe the Muslim majorities in these countries. Of course, it is something that the average Indian understands instinctively but ‘liberals’ don’t.

There’s a fundamental reason for this. In the ‘liberal’ world, Muslims are always the primary victims, regardless of where they are from. They are considered victims of Islamophobia, racism and a myriad of other evils even if they are living in the Islamic States. In the ‘liberal’ world, it is a solemn belief that the atrocities that are perpetrated against religious minorities in the Islamic States should never be acknowledged.

The Indian ‘liberal’ is no different. He constantly admonishes Indians who rightly believe that Pakistan is a plague upon the world. He tells us, contrary to all evidence, that the average Pakistani is just like us even as the average Pakistani constantly proves through his actions that it is not so. But there are a plethora of contradictions within the ‘liberal’ belief system. While India is urged to initiate dialogues with Pakistan, any attempts made by India to fulfill its traditional responsibilities is deemed as the country turning into a ‘Hindu Pakistan’.

Read: From Nehru-Liaquat Pact to Rohingyas: Here are the most important takeaways from Amit Shah’s reply on CAB

Even as Pakistan continues to function as an Islamic state which sponsors terrorism against India, ‘liberals’ chastize India for making efforts to provide citizenship to the religious minorities from the country. There’s a good reason for these contradictory beliefs and the blame for it can be put at the feet of the pervasive theological liberal doctrine of Cultural Marxism.

In the eyes of the Indian ‘liberal’, a Hindu can never be a victim. It sees the Hindu-Muslim relationship as primarily an oppressor-oppressed relationship where Hindus are always the oppressors and Muslims always the oppressed. Consequently, no attempt is made to highlight the instances where Hindus are the victims of Islamic radicalism and even when such cases are highlighted, special care is taken to ensure that emphasis isn’t laid on the religious identity of the oppressors even if it had played a major role.

The same worldview is then projected into the relationship of other countries. Indian ‘liberals’ genuinely believe that recognizing the fact that non-Muslims suffer institutional persecution in the Islamic States will affect Hindu-Muslim relationships in India although there’s no obvious reason why it should. They are terrified that recognising such atrocities against Hindus will affect the manner in which India treats its Muslim citizenry. Due to its biased lens, it cannot even bring itself to recognize basic facts about the world.

Cultural Marxism divides the World in black and white even though the world, in reality, is mostly different varieties of grey. In that world, majority is always the Oppressor and the minority is always the Oppressed. One would assume that such a worldview would be applied uniformly throughout the world. However, it’s always imposed upon the world from the point of reference of one’s own residence.

Read: Ahmadiyyas were at the forefront of creation of Pakistan, an Ahmadiyya Unit fought against India in Kashmir in 1947-48

Thus, according to an Indian ‘liberal’, India must never recognize the fact that non-Muslims are persecuted in neighbouring Islamic States. Recognition of such is considered another excuse to justify the oppression of its Muslim minority. There is, of course, no evidence that the Indian State is perpetually in the process of oppressing its Muslim population. There’s no evidence that the Indian State has ever engaged in a motivated campaign to oppress its Muslim population. But that is how Cultural Marxism views the world: The majority is always engaged in the perpetual oppression of the minority.

It cannot be denied that Indian ‘liberals’ do suffer from rabid Hinduphobia. They genuinely believe there’s a fascist residing in the heart of every Hindu, looking to break free and oppress the Muslims. They also believe genuinely that every Muslim is a victim, even the radicalized ones are considered victims. It is argued that the Radicalized Muslims turned out the way they did because the Hindu dominated society did not treat them fairly.

Under such circumstances, it’s not really a surprise that Indian ‘liberals’, who wholeheartedly believe in the theological doctrine of Cultural Marxism, are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill tooth and nail. Hindus must never be recognized as victims, according to them, because it’s too dangerous. They earnestly believe that the only reason to recognize the oppression of non-Muslims in the Islamic States is to justify India’s alleged oppression of its own Muslims.

Owaisi slams Shiv Sena for flipflop on CAB, calls it ‘bhangra politics’

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has slammed Shiv Sena over its flipflop on the Citizenship Amendment Bill after Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray announced that his party will not support the bill in Rajya Sabha unless ‘things are clear’.

The Sena had supported the CAB in Lok Sabha yesterday.

Calling it ‘bhangra politics’ Owaisi lashed out at Shiv Sena, saying: “They write ‘secular’ in common minimum programme, this bill is against secularism and Article 14. It is the politics of opportunism”.


In a seemingly delicate monkey-balancing act, the Shiv Sena Tuesday said it won’t support the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha unless the Narendra Modi government incorporates changes it has asked for.

The move came just a day after it supported the same draft in the Lok Sabha, breaking ranks with its allies NCP and Congress to bring down the ideological faultlines in the recently forged ruling alliance in Maharashtra.

Interestingly, prior to voting in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Shiv Sena had opposed it both in the House and in an article in its mouthpiece Saamana.

In the Saamana article, the Shiv Sena claimed that the passage of the Bill would create an “invisible partition between Hindus and Muslims”. The party also wondered whether the “selective acceptance” of Hindu undocumented immigrants would spark a religious war in India. The party alleged that practising “vote bank politics” under the guise of the Bill was not in the nation’s interests.

Read: After spewing venom against Amit Shah, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi tears copy of CAB in Lok Sabha

In the Lok Sabha, Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut asked why persecuted Tamils in Sri Lanka were not included in the amended law’s ambit. He asked Amit Shah to reveal how much the population would increase after the enactment of the proposed changes.

Soon after this, the party took a U-turn and voted for the Bill. Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant was quoted as saying that the party supported the bill “in the interest of the nation”. “The Common Minimum Programme is applicable only in Maharashtra,”  Sawant said, referring to a programme agreed upon by the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress when they formed a government in Maharashtra on November 28.

However, soon after Rahul Gandhi’s blistering criticism of the parties who support the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 in a Tweet today, Shiv Sena’s chief Uddhav Thackeray, probably buckling under pressure, quickly made a U-turn again, declaring that he will not extend his support to the CAB until “things are cleared”.

NCP’s Nawab Malik asks Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut to ‘cross all limits in love’ after both parties ally

As winter is setting in parts of the country, romance is in the air. There is no dearth of love for the newly forged alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra. Sanjay Raut’s love for shyries has now affected his new buddies and things have become hopelessly romantic.


Tagging Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP’s Nawab Malik tweeted a couplet from a song of the 90s Bollywood hit film Phool Aur Kaante. He tweeted, “dheere dheere pyaar ko badhana hai, hadd se guzar jaana hai, (slowly we have to increase the love and eventually cross all boundaries in love).”

In a subsequent tweet, he even corrected his typo.

Which also has a typo.

Before Raut could respond in his inimitable style, netizens replied with shock, surprise and amusement at the new romance.


Filmy, very filmy.


Clearly, everyone’s quite amused.

Read: An analysis of Maharashtra politics in the last few weeks through Sanjay Raut’s poetry

The hopeful romantics at heart even appreciated the same.

While others weren’t too happy with his choice.

As of now, Raut has not yet replied to the love song. We will update the report if and when he does.

Delhi pollution is killing us anyway: Death row convict in Nirbhaya case mocks supreme court with bizarre argument in review petition

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One of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Akshay Singh, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a review of its 2017 judgement which had upheld the death penalty to all four accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Akshay Singh, in a bizarre argument, has asked Supreme Court to spare him the death penalty since life in Delhi is anyway getting ‘short’ due to air and water pollution. Singh’s petition which brings up points of law arguing that Akshay was incorrectly convicted and talks about capital punishment being abolished in various countries, at one point ridiculously brings up Delhi’s air and water quality, arguing that people in Delhi are anyways dying due to the poor air and water quality, so there wasn’t any need for a capital punishment.

“That it is important to pertain here that Air Quality of Delhi NCR and the metro city is burst and like a gas chamber… the water of Delhi NCR and metro city is also full of poison… Everyone is aware of what is happening in Delhi NCR in regard to water and air,” the petition says before asking a simple question. “Life is going short to short, then why death penalty?”

Akshay Singh, who had not filed the review plea earlier with the other three convicts, has now moved the apex court with the petition.

Akshay Singh Thakur along with Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were convicted in the brutal 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi student, Nirbhaya. All four were awarded the death penalty and the punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court. A fifth convict had killed himself in jail during the trial phase while the sixth person involved in the crime was tried in a juvenile court.

Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma filed review petitions asking the Supreme Court to reconsider their convictions. The petitions were rejected. Akshay Singh, who had not filed the review plea earlier with the other three convicts, has now moved the apex court with the petition.

Read: Nirbhaya rape case convicts could be executed soon, handed notice: Tihar Superintendent

Delhi student Nirbhaya was brutally raped in the most barbaric manner inside a moving bus and was left to die on the road on December 16, 2012. She was later sent for treatment to Singapore but had succumbed to her injuries. The case had generated widespread public outrage both nationally and internationally and has made a huge impact in the psyche of the nation.

The case made a profound impact on the Indian legal system and led to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, known as the Nirbhaya Act which ensured harsher punishment for sexual violence against women. The Supreme Court had in May 2017, upheld the death penalty awarded to the convicts by the Delhi HC.