A shocking incident is being reported from Delhi NCR region where a Bajrang Dal member was shot at by cattle smugglers. In the wee hours of Thursday, an alert group of Gau Rakshaks reportedly gave a high-speed chase to 6 cow smugglers who were trying to escape along with smuggled bovines from Sector 10 of Gurugram towards Mewat.
shocking incident in Gurugram where Bajrang Dal member was shot by cattle smugglers,incident took place in Sector10a team of Gau rakshak was involved in a high-speed chase with the cow smugglers.The victim has been shifted to the hospital & NO smuggler arrested yet @ndtv pic.twitter.com/O3Pr4bVVoJ
A video of the incident showing cow smugglers desperately speeding away, breaking past multiple police barricades has emerged on social media. Reportedly, members of a Gau Rakshak group got a tip-off some smugglers in a Mahindra pickup van had come to Gurugram from Mewat on Wednesday afternoon and were planning to smuggle cows to Mewat later in the day. When the Gau Rakshaks discovered that cows were indeed being smuggled, they promptly informed the police and chased the smugglers in an attempt to nab them.
However, realising that they are being chased, the smugglers first started throwing cows off the speeding vehicle but the Gau Rakshaks relentlessly continued chasing them. At last, the smugglers fired bullets at the Gaurakshaks, injuring one of them.
DCP (crime), Gurugram Rajiv Deshwal on cow vigilante shot: At last they fired bullets which hit a member of a cow vigilante org. He was immediately admitted to a hospital. 5 of the 6 smugglers identified. Vehicle of smugglers has been recovered, search for smugglers is underway. https://t.co/92jlzaPdky
The injured Gau Rakshak, identified as Mohit (25), was immediately rushed off to Medanta hospital. According to DCP Gurugram Rajiv Deshwal, the police has identified 5 of the 6 smugglers and recovered the vehicle used by the smugglers. However, the smugglers are absconding and the police have launched a search operation for them.
The police have stated that they had informed Mewat police immediately and the pickup has been recovered by Nuh police earlier today.
It is notable here that the Mewat region in Haryana and Rajasthan has been constantly witnessing incidence of violence and even attacks at police personnel perpetrated by cattle smugglers. Just days ago, a group of cattle smugglers had fired at police in an attempt to escape the police barricade in Bharatpur.
I hadn’t taken much notice of Greta Thunberg and her angry speech until a Twitter handle I respect and admire, slammed her:
Well, frankly, no one came to you for hope. You impose yourself on everyone through strikes and activism. You show NO HOPE. All you do is shame adults for being fallible and human. And posture as a beacon of hope.
Sorry, but not seeing it. Not buying it. https://t.co/fLVIXDy9p3
Now, @aliceonaroll is no way ‘an elder’ who needs to be defending herself. She’s a young lady passionate about the environment, conservation and photography. She educates and inspires many to care for Nature and lifeforms.
But I, however, am a true elder, close to 80 now.
So, I went over to find out what the young girl had said that so upset my friend, who I know is not easily angered. I have just heard her and barely recovered from her cold snarl, such as what they say is seen only in those possessed.
Let me try and tell Greta Thunberg what elders -my contemporaries- did in our past and see if she is exorcised.
I assure everyone, this is not about me except in the next couple paras. I also promise a solution for Greta from an elder, 20 years older than me.
Whenever I get an opportunity I, as an Indian, apologise in public for the sin of my generation, in having been abettors -active ignorant or silent- of the cultural hijack by the Reds and Nehruvians.
I too am culpable.
But we in India are not guilty of environmental destruction, because India’s poverty helped in making the madness called the Green Revolution unaffordable, and so saved us somewhat. But when I was a young man, a true ogre stalked the world at large and shook young people: the Vietnam War.
In the 1970s, as the war raged, I was a sea-going, young man. I sailed the South China Sea for most of that period and I met with several young men in uniform, shaken, despairing and coming apart. There was no escaping conscription in the USA, Australia and NZ. Whoever could, escaped to gentler countries, including India.
Those that escaped chose a quieter life, which invariably was about caring for the earth. They sang of the Age of Aquarius, of love, hope and courage. Those young men of the 1970s’ Western World in the were Greta’s elders who too had lost their childhoods. They quietly went away and explored solutions for happy living.
And do you know what, they forced an end to Vietnam war and made waging wars difficult for Greta Thunberg and her future.
They saw hope in low footprint lives. Homesteading, self sufficiency, low cost living, music and books were their lives. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jack Kerouac, Baba Ram Das, Masanobu Fukuoka, Ivan Illich, Stewart Brand, Amory Lovins, Bill Mollison and James Lovelock ruled their hearts- and mine too, because I used to travel the world on slow ships with time to take in what went on everywhere.
Because of them, I have been for 40 years, planting trees, harvesting water and exploring energy options. Let my credentials end there. I personally know two deeply committed Europeans- one an Australian, now in Auroville, India and another an American, now in one of Canada’s Vancouver islands. Yet another American I know has made India his home to work on wildlife conservation
All are Vietnam deserters, who have dedicated 50 years to growing forests and inspiring others.
Enough of that.
Now it’s time to offer Greta Thunberg a solution for what she rightly said, is a problem that has been ‘staring at us for 30 years’
Remember my mention of James Lovelock? He just turned 100 and lives in Britain.
In the 1970s he proposed that the Earth be deemed a living organism with a mind of its own. This came to be known as the Gaia Hypothesis. He gave us hope that Gaia can survive man’s abuse because as a large living organism Gaia can heal herself.
My generation ate out of his hands.
And then this happened:
In 2006 James Lovelock wrote a book titled “The Revenge of Gaia”.
It shook and outraged his followers, because of what he proposed in it.
Let me summarise in my own words.
No doubt Gaia is self-healing, but now she has a terminal fever. She has lost her strength to heal herself. It is due to global warming. We cannot save her unless we first cool the fever.
None of the alternate energy solutions -wind, solar or tidal- have matured or scaled enough to replace fossil fuels.
Humans, however, cannot now be weaned away from lifestyles that are energy-intensive. They want comfort, luxury, entertainment and travel. (Sounds true, Greta?)
So how do we cool the planet? We must adopt nuclear power for a period during which renewable energy can mature and take over.
Nuclear power has one of the best safety records. Yes, there is the spent fuel problem but an engineered solution to overcome it is available. Nuclear waste is a far lesser evil than extinction.
All hell broke loose. His flock called him a traitor. I was saddened but have now recovered to see sense in his solution. I have lost many friends though. One can read about Lovelock here.
Lovelock and I are Greta’s elders who she accuses of having robbed her life and not having cared for her.
I ask Greta.
Lovelock has proposed a solution widely agreed as a sensible one.
A) Will you accept it? Will your captors?
B) Have you ever heard of him or his solution?
C) If you reject it, have you another solution that can avert our extinction?
Greta, first ask yourself if 3 above is true and then attempt C.
My guess is you will not undertake this exercise.
Because you are a victim of child abduction by a Post Communist Cabal which is intent on preventing you from discovering solutions. It is in its interest to keep the world shaken and agitated for it is in such times that it prospers.
I have watched their members for long.
When your abductors have gone to bed, stealthily read what I wrote about them in OpIndia two years ago:
You will understand it is them who have fought induction of nuclear power, knowing well there is no solution now other than that. World leaders have had to cope with them at every step and turn.
It is your captors who’d be responsible if extinction comes about.
Deliver the same speech to them, Greta Thunberg, and demand they protest in the streets for nuclear power.
Leave bitching to your elders. You must focus on solutions for the planet.
In a public rally in Nanded, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi mocked the Hindu traditional ritual of using lemon and chilli for auspiciousness and warding off bad luck. Owaisi alluded that Hindus waste the lemons by crushing them whereas Muslims utilise them by offering lemon juice to others and using chillies in their meat dishes.
Openly mocks “Nimbu & Mirchi” traditions of Hindus. Carefully watch the gesture when he says “आप हरी मिर्च लगाते, हम खिमे में डालते’ pic.twitter.com/nOmSeLmcjk
“If I buy a new car, or a new motorcycle, or open a welding shop, a puncture repair shop or a fruit lorry, I crush lime in a glass and offer lemon juice to others. You crush lemons, we drink lemon juice,” Owaisi said.
He continued saying that a BJP-Shiv Sena supporter called him up asserting that lemon and chillies have the ability to avert dangers and problems. Scoffing at this Hindu belief, Owaisi asked the BJP-Shiv Sena supporter to send a lorry of lemons and chillies at the border, claiming that nothing will happen there.
“You crush lemons, we offer lemon juice. You hang green chillies, we put them in minced meat. We do not waste anything. We eat everything,” Owaisi jeered.
Besides, AIMIM chief’s speech yesterday was replete with insinuations for Muslims to shun secularism and vote solely on the basis of religion. Owaisi further claimed that Muslims have been ignored and treated unjustly in the country. He even lamented the death sentence awarded to Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon. He claimed that Muslims were unable to save Yakub Memom from being hanged because they were not in power.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s brother Akbaruddin Owaisi had earlier threatened to kill the Hindus and balance the population ratio if police forces are removed for 15 minutes.
Recently, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey triggered a chain of events in motion that could have massive repercussions. All he did was a tweet in support of the Hong Kong protesters. He posted an image that had the seven words, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” China does not take kindly to corporates meddling in its affairs. As a consequence, the NBA, which has made massive investments in the country over the years and generates huge revenue from it, swung into action and disassociated itself from Morey’s tweet. The reaction to the tweet in China was ‘harsh’, to put it mildly.
The Liberal World Order is based on remarkable narcissism. It’s based on the fundamentally flawed assumption that as any country became more and more developed economically, it will expand to become more and more liberal as a society. Of course, it’s a religious belief with no basis in reality. And the greatest threat to it currently is mounted by the autocratic regime China.
The Chinese Basketball Association declared that it would suspend all cooperation with Houston Rockets. China’s consulate general in Houston urged the team to “clarify and immediately correct the mistakes.” CCTV 5, the sports channel of China’s top state broadcaster, announced that it would suspend airing the team’s events on television. And Tencent (TCEHY) Sports stated that it would suspend live streaming the games, and reporting news about the team.
The NBA, subsequently, made a statement that could only be described as a capitulation to the might of the Chinese. The NBA said that it realized that Morey’s opinions “have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.” “While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them,” NBA said in a statement, adding: “We have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.”
The response of NBA to the tantrum by China was criticized widely across the board by US politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. Following the outrage, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement of his own. “The NBA will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say,” Silver said in the statement. “We simply could not operate that way.”
Daryl Morey, in the midst of all of this, issued a grovelling apology. For all the virtue-signalling globalist corporates indulge in, they regularly demonstrate that their allegiance is to money and money alone, as the NBA has now. Everything else is just a means towards increasing their revenues.
2/ I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA.
Americans are quite upset by the manner in which the NBA has capitulated to China. However, it is something that has been happening for quite some time now. The US Business class has been regularly massaging the egos of the Chinese regime to maintain its access to the country’s market. From Google to Apple to ESPN, every American company that has invested in China has knelt down before China and obediently fellated Xi Jinping.
When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, every liberal intellectual was orgasmic in their belief that China would espouse liberal values. It was, of course, consistent with their delusional belief, embodied by Francis Fukuyama, that liberalism would mark ‘the end of history’, that is, liberalism is the end-point of humanity’s sociocultural evolution.
China is the biggest refutation of it. It was the predominant belief among liberal intellectuals that the investments made by the American business class in China would also result in the flowering of liberal values in the country. That has not happened. Instead, China has exported, along with a million other things, the values of censorship to the United States.
Meanwhile, back at the NBA, American fans are having signs about the Uyghurs confiscated:https://t.co/XNEp0pfDuQ
Wisdom has dawned on the American political establishment of late and credit for it must go to US President Donald Trump. People in the United States are also realizing that the American Business class has sold out their own countrymen and national interests to China for a few more bucks. Thus, we see a radical shift in US policy against the Chinese regime.
US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on China and visa restrictions in response to unfair trade practices of the communist regime and its human rights violations against its Muslim population. As a consequence, the Chinese economy is suffering and it’s anybody’s guess the extent to which it would suffer.
Despite our own rivalry with China, there are certain things we ought to be grateful to the Chinese for. With their obsession with upending the global world order based on Western dominance, they have provided India with an opportunity to pursue our own interests with renewed vigour. Chaos is a ladder, a wise man once remarked, and China has unleashed chaos on a global scale. The chaos that was necessary for China to achieve its own objective.
It is due to the chaos that China unleashed that India got the window of opportunity to abrogate Article 370. For over two months, Kashmir is on virtual lockdown. We can do so because of the US-China trade war. Much of the international community and the US of A has endorsed India’s actions in Kashmir. This was unthinkable even a decade ago. It’s due to China’s hegemonic ambitions that an opportunity was created for India to alter the equations of its relationship with Pakistan.
The USA knows that it cannot afford to antagonize India during its trade war with China. Even in the rest of the Western world, there’s growing apprehension about China’s global ambitions. Thus, India has much more leverage now on the international scene than it has ever had in the recent past. And the Modi Sarkar with its focus on foreign policy is trying to milk it to the fullest.
The definitive wins with regards to international diplomacy have not yet translated into specific economic benefits yet. But with the corporate tax cuts that were announced recently and with the promise of more reforms around the corner, India will hopefully soon begin to reap the economic benefits of the trade wars as well.
The recent capitulation by the NBA to China ought to be seen as another step in the death of the liberal world order. And we ought to remember that China may have initiated it but India stands to gain from its demise as well. All of this is quite evident from the words of MEA Jaishankar himself.
During a talk at an American Think Tank, Jaishankar remarked on the changing political landscape of India, “You have a new set of people there with different thoughts, with their own sense of roots, who relate to the world obviously different from the people who dominated the Indian political scene before them.”
He also stated quite bluntly that the West never wanted India to become weak but neither did it want India to become strong. He described it as the ‘Goldilocks era of the relationship’. He also emphasized the fact that “India would hedge enough to make sure that it always has a strong bargaining hand vis-à-vis the West”.
China with its reckless abandon has opened up this opportunity for India. Our country is the only one in the region which has any hope of standing up to China. We also happen to be the only country that could ever hope to match the strength of China’s market. Thus, as China bares its fangs more and more as it has against the NBA on this particular occasion, it will also risk strengthening India’s hands. Ironically enough, China cannot pursue its hegemonic ambitions against the West without strengthening its regional rival India.
MEA Jaishankar’s words made it abundantly clear that India would make a hard bargain and pursue its own national interests. Times have changed and so has India. And the West must realize it and must come to a new understanding with India. And amusingly enough, contrary to our civilizational character, India stands on the edge of history as the Joker in the pack.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pleaded not guilty before a court in Surat in Gujarat in connection with a defamation case against him. Rahul Gandhi who is now back in the country was present before a magisterial court today in Surat to defend himself in a criminal defamation case over Modi surname remark, where he had asked why all thieves have the Modi surname.
Chief Judicial Magistrate BH Kapadia had in May issued summons to Rahul Gandhi after admitting a complaint filed by a BJP leader. While admitting the plea, the court had held that there was a prima facie case of criminal defamation against former Congress President.
Reportedly, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday also filed an application for a permanent exemption for his personal appearance in the case. However, the court said it would reply to his application on December 10. Under the application for a permanent exemption, an accused may be exempted from appearing in criminal proceedings, provided certain conditions are fulfilled.
Responding to the defamation case against him, Rahul Gandhi had stated that the defamation case filed against him by his political opponents, who were desperate to silence him. The Gandhi-scion had taken to Twitter to thank Congress workers for their “support and solidarity”.
I am in Surat today to appear in a defamation case filed against me by my political opponents, desperate to silence me.
A case was filed against him after he had mocked by asking ‘why all thieves share the Modi surname’ during a Lok Sabha election rally in Karnataka in April. “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi… how come they all have Modi as a common surname? How come all thieves have Modi as a common surname?” Gandhi had made the remark at a campaign rally in Kolar, Karnataka.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Surat Purnesh Modi had filed a complaint against the Congress leader for defaming the entire Modi community.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was booked under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with criminal defamation. At the last hearing in July, Gandhi was granted exemption from personal appearance from that proceeding.
Later in the day, Rahul Gandhi will appear in another case in Ahmedabad on Friday at 3 pm. The case has been filed by a local BJP corporator Brahmbhatt for the Congress leader’s alleged comment against Union home minister and BJP president Amit Shah.
Rahul Gandhi has been several defamation cases at various courts across the country, and he has been granted in all those cases.
Once upon a time, it used to be ‘Ankit from IIT.’ Then, there was always a friendly taxi driver, always willing to go the extra mile in customer service and tell their passenger exactly what they want to hear about the prevailing political situation. At various times, other humble folks, such as the milkman and the paper delivery boy have pitched in with helpful opinions when our liberals couldn’t be bothered to step out of their homes. And let us not forget the maid, who is generally the official ambassador for the masses in liberal homes. Sort of emblematic of the servant-master kind of relationship that they would like to see between the masses and the classes.
These and other ‘sources’ have played an invaluable role in keeping us informed about what is going on in our country. Since time immemorial.
But now, there is a new alarm across this unquiet land of ours. Day in and day out, babies are suddenly turning bigots all over the place. Liberal goes to a birthday party. Promptly, a five-year-old tells his Muslim friend to get out of the country. Possibly, the five-year-old also threatens her with dire consequences once the NRC is implemented. Liberal pulls out her phone and lets the world know. The tweet goes viral. Articles and commentaries appear, asking Hindus to be even more ashamed of themselves than they already are.
It’s the same template: a writer for a leftist news portal is travelling in a taxi. She puts her head out of the window and notices a small procession of folks wearing Hanuman shirts. It kickstarts her creativity. And the fantasy of the ‘Angry Hanuman’ as a symbol of intolerance catches on. Before you know it, the Washington Post is reporting on the Hanuman as the new face of ‘militant Hinduism’!
OMG! Somebody save the babies, at least!
There are even books out there now, with guidance on how to protect babies from communal rhetoric spewed by other babies.
Presumably, these accounts of bigot babies are meant to be believed. Without evidence, of course. Based on the inherent trustworthiness of our liberals. You are supposed to take them at their word. Because who wouldn’t?
Now, using unverified accounts is nothing new for our media. But the ‘bigot baby’ stories take it to another level altogether. Because now, both the account and the conclusion are not only unverified but unverifiable.
Think of a journalist who claims to see some kind of electoral hawa in favour of one party based on (claimed to be) real interactions with people on the ground. Election comes. The journalist proves disastrously wrong. Naturally, they become the target of much ridicule and their professional competence is called into question. Other, even less charitable folks, start attributing all sorts of motives to them.
So, who knows? Is it possible that liberals might be taking the ‘safe’ option of reporting not on the mood of babies instead of grown up voters?
After all, kids who are old enough to talk won’t be voting for anywhere between 10-15 years. And their mentality may change completely by the time they turn 18. If you claim you are speaking to voters and the election is two months away, you could be proven wrong and get ridiculed in two months. But there is no way to know exactly what kids, in general, are thinking. So claim anything you want. Nobody can prove you wrong.
The bigot baby stories have therefore crossed the bridge between the ‘unverified’ and the ‘unverifiable.’ You can’t even call it fake news, because it is not even lying. It transcends the distinction between truth and lies altogether. We need a new term.
China has destroyed scores of traditional burial grounds belonging to Uighur Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang province, leaving behind human bones and broken tombs in what critics say is part of a campaign to wipe out the minority group’s cultural identity. According to reports, satellite images by Earthwise Alliance were published on Wednesday which shows that dozens of cemeteries, burial grounds in the Northwest region have been destroyed in just two years.
The demolished cemeteries have given way for new car parks, business parks and other standardised facilities in places that once housed the remains of Uighur families going back generations.
The AFP report states that some of the graves were cleared in haste in Shayar county. The journalists reported that unearthed human bones left discarded in three sites. In other sites, tombs that were reduced to mounds of bricks lay scattered in cleared tracts of land.
However, China has remained defiant despite mounting global criticism for its treatment of Uighurs. Recently, the United States had warned that it would curb visas for officials over the alleged abuses and had blacklisted 28 Chinese firms it accuses of rights violations.
According to satellite imagery analysed by AFP and Earthrise Alliance, since 2014, the Chinese government has destroyed at least 45 Uighur cemeteries, including 30 in the past two years.
The destruction is “not just about religious persecution,” said Nurgul Sawut, who has five generations of family buried in Yengisar, southwestern Xinjiang. “It is much deeper than that,” said Sawut, who now lives in Australia and last visited Xinjiang in 2016 to attend her father’s funeral. “If you destroy that cemetery, you’re uprooting whoever’s on that land, whoever’s connected to that land,” she explained.
Even sites featuring shrines or the tombs of famous individuals were not spared. AFP reported that an enormous graveyard in Aksu where the prominent Uighur poet Lutpulla Mutellip was buried had been turned into a “Happiness Park” with a man-made lake, fake pandas and a playground for children. Officials said that while the graves had been relocated to a more “standardised” facility, they did not know what had happened to Mutellip’s remains.
Mutellip’s grave was like “a modern-day shrine for most nationalist Uighurs, patriotic Uighurs,” recalled Ilshat Kokbore, who visited the tomb in the early 90s and now resides in the US.
The “Happiness Park” project saw graves moved to a new cemetery in an industrial zone out in the desert. The caretaker there said he had no knowledge of the fate of Mutellip’s remains.
In China, urban growth and economic development have led to the destruction of innumerable cultural and historic sites, from traditional hutong neighbourhoods in Beijing to segments of Dali’s ancient city wall in southwestern Yunnan province. The government is also being criticised for its disrespect towards burial traditions outside of Xinjiang, including the destruction of coffins in central Jiangxi last year to force locals to cremate.
However, the critics of the government state that the clearances are especially extreme in Xinjiang, where the obliteration of other cultural and spiritual sites have happened including at least 30 mosques and religious sites since 2017.
“The destruction of the graveyards is very much part of the wider raft of policies that are going on,” said Rachel Harris, who researches Uighur culture at the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London.
“From the destruction of holy shrines, the tombs of saints, to the destruction of tombs of families, all of this is disrupting the relationship between people and their history, and the relationship between the people and the land that they live on,” she said.
The officials offer a varied explanation for removal of cemeteries. In Urumqi, the regional capital, a cemetery near the international airport was cleared to make way for an urban “reconstruction” project. In Shayar, where the local government has built new cemeteries near some of the old sites, an official told AFP the programme was aimed at “standardisation.”
A sign by a new cemetery in Shayar, which replaced a graveyard from the 18th century containing about 7,500 graves, echoed, “The rebuilt sites saved space, protected the ecosystem and were civilised”. “The new cemeteries are standardised, clean, and they’re convenient for residents,” Kadier Kasimu, deputy director of Shayar’s cultural affairs bureau, told AFP.
Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uighur activist in Britain whose father was buried in one of the many destroyed cemeteries in Shayar, agreed: “If you want to build new graves then you can, but you do not need to destroy the old ones.”
The AFP report asserts that there is clear evidence that human remains have been left behind in the process. On a trip to Xinjiang in September, AFP visited 13 destroyed cemeteries across four cities and observed bones in at least three Shayar sites. Further, seven forensic anthropologists who saw images taken by AFP identified a number of human remains, including a femur, feet, hand bones, and part of an elbow.
The move to raze Uighur cemeteries is not new. The satellite imagery reviewed by AFP shows the destruction from more than a decade ago.
After Indonesia’s North Sumatra mayor Edy Rahmayadi proposed ‘halal tourism’ to attract Muslim tourists in Lake Toba, the Christians in the area have planned a two-day ‘pork festival’ to resist the same. Lake Toba’s tourism industry has taken a hit following the 1997 Asian financial crisis and 2002 Bali bombings and the mayor thought ‘halal tourism’ would boost the industry.
Rahmayadi had proposed building mosques and also getting halal certification for the restaurants. He reportedly even suggested regulating the non-halal practice of slaughtering pigs in public. He had also said that the plan would entail a policy regarding food vendors that sell pork-based food. “If [Muslim] tourists see that, they’ll never come back to Lake Toba again,” Rahmayadi had told reporters.
However, the Bataks, the Christian population which lives in the area, have opposed the move. The residents around Lake Toba kill and feast on the pig to mark occasions like birthdays and weddings.
About 90% population in Indonesia is Muslim while Christians form remaining of the majority of the population. Buddhist and Hindus form small community. The Christians regularly organise pork festival on the Chinese New Year in January which it renamed to ‘Imlek’ after Islamic groups protested.
The Lake Toba was formed 74,000 years ago after a massive supervolcanic eruption, the largest-known eruption on Earth in the last 25 million years. It’s now home to a large Christian minority, who is now resisting initial plans to transform the region into a Muslim tourist destination.
With North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi proposing that his administration will promote halal tourism in the area, the native Bataks have now decided to protest in a unique by holding Pork festivals in and around the Lake Toba.
One of the popular dishes of the Christian Batak Toba and Batak Karo of North Sumatra is Babi panggang Toba. The Bataks slaughter the pigs and use them in their entirety for the dish like bones for a clear soup, grilled meat. They also consume a bowl of pig’s blood mixed with spices for the meat to be dipped in.
The Batak have farmed pigs for generations and their cuisine is synonymous with pork. The new decision by the North Sumatra administration has stoked fear among the Bataks who suspect the real agenda behind the halal campaign is to boost “Islamisation” in their areas.
Rapidin Simbolon, the regent of Samosir Island in the middle of Lake Toba, stated he would defy the governor’s “halal and sharia” plan. “The very notion of halal tourism contravenes local cultures and traditions. Samosir is for Indonesia; Samosir is also for the world. We need to preserve its cultural significance,” he said.
Peppa Pig, the long-running British television show for children, has now become the chosen mascot in some areas to represent the fight of non-Muslim Indonesians against attempts by Muslims to enforce their mission to establish halal-based tourism.
Togu Simorangkir, one of the pig festival activists, added that people are invited to participate in activities such as competitions to catch pigs, guess pigs’ weight, clean pig stalls and also to have selfies with pigs. There will be a prize for the best pork steak, as well as stand-up comedy and a music festival.
AIMIM chief Asauddin Owaisi addressed a public meeting in Nanded, Maharashtra yesterday ahead of the assembly elections in the state. In his speech, Owaisi was seen asking for the consolidation of Muslim votes to elect Muslim people to power. He insinuated that the community needs to start voting for and electing people on the basis of religion.
Interestingly, Owaisi, who keeps hailing the Indian constitution and democracy in his parliament addresses, was urging people to vote on religious lines. Ironically, he also kept bashing other parties and the opponents of AIMIM candidates for considering religion as a basis of ticket distribution.
In reply to a Congress leader who had reportedly denied ticket to a Muslim candidate, Owaisi said that it is the Muslims who had made Rahul Gandhi win Wayanad. He stated that Rahul won Wayanad and lost Amethi because Amethi does not have a 40% Muslim population.
Owaisi stated that in 2014 general elections, 37% Hindus had voted for the Modi government. He further claimed that in 2019, 44% Hindus had voted for the same modi government. He added that a journalist had asked him about the vote shares of Muslims for the Modi government.
Owaisi claimed that the percentage of Muslims who had voted for Modi in 2014 was 6% and that percentage has remained the same in 2019 too. He further added that the number 6 is called ‘Chhakka’ in cricket, hinting at a colloquial derogatory slang for transgender persons, he stated that they dont have anything to do with the ‘Chhakkas’ who had voted for Modi.
Owaisi was in nanded yesterday..
while reacting to aadarsh kaka’s statement that H ppl dnt vote M candidate so he did nt gave ticket to M man from nanded south..
In a speech that was replete with insinuations for Muslims to ignore everything and vote solely on the basis of religion, Owaisi further claimed that Muslims have been ignored and treated unjustly in the country. He even lamented the death sentence awarded to Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon. He claimed that Muslims were unable to save Yakub Memom from being hanged because they were not in power.
Owaisi urged Muslims to ‘forget about secularism’ because it is the responsibility of Congress party and claimed that it is the Muslims who have borne the burden of secularism in the country. Peddling victimhood over riots and outbreaks of violence where thousands, irrespective of their religion have died in the past, Owaisi insinuated that it is only the Muslims who have suffered.
Adding that the central government has the power of commuting the death sentence awarded to a convict into a life term, Owaisi lamented that because there were not enough Muslims in power, Yakub had to be hanged.
Owaisi said do away with Secularism. We want Muslims in govt. We couldn’t save Terrorist Yakub Memon as we were not united.
In short he means demography is changing and he is dreaming to making India ISLAMIC Nation.
He stated that only AIMIM had spoken for Yakub and had worked to save his life. He further added that if there were at least 40-50 Muslims in the parliament, Yakub Memon could have been saved.
Owaisi was campaigning for AIMIM’s candidates in Nanded and Parbhani yesterday. The AIMIM is contesting for 44 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly. Unlike the 2019 general elections, there is no official coalition with the Prakash Ambedkar-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi this time.
On 8th October, a Durga Puja Visarjan procession in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh came under attack by a strong Muslim mob. The mob attacked Hindus with bricks, stones, swords and sticks. Raghav Bahl’s The Quint is, however, ready to dance on the dead bodies of Hindus in an attempt to whitewash the Islamist attack on Durga visarjan.
The Quint report on Balrampur, headlined “Balrampur Puja Procession Violence Pre-Planned? Cops Deny Claims”, the report starts off with a shameless toning down of the entire incident. The Quint deemed it fit to describe the incident as “clashes between two groups”.
It writes:
“As the 10-day Durga Puja festival came to an end with devotees across the country bidding farewell to Goddess Durga, an incident has come light from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district where clashes broke out between two groups during a Durga Puja procession”.
The emphases in the above paragraph are not mine. The Quint while reporting the Islamist attack in Balrampur thought it fit to emphasise and put in bold, the phrase ‘two groups’ as if to ensure the reader doesn’t miss the fact that they have deliberately tried to gloss over the fact that a Muslim mob went on a rampage against Hindus, almost like the Nazis denied the Holocaust ever happened.
Even traditionally ‘secular’ media portals like Times of India and Indian Express reported that it was a mob that pelted stones at the visarjan procession in Balrampur. While Indian Express chose to whitewash the crime in their own way, by increasingly harping on how reportedly, the stone-pelting happened because while crossing the mosque, Hindus did not switch the music off, it still did mention the mosque and the fact that it was a mob that pelted stones. The Quint, however, chose to downplay the entire siege in Balrampur by calling it a ‘clash between two groups’. This, when there is no evidence that the Hindus instigated or participated in any form of violence whatsoever.
Further, the aim of the Quint article was not to bring about the details of the horrific incident itself or ask pertinent questions like why a peaceful procession came under siege by a Muslim mob, but to “fact-check” OpIndia which had first reported that the Additional Superintendent of Police had categorically hinted that the attack was pre-planned.
On 9th October 2019, a day after the procession came under attack, OpIndia reached out to the Additional SP (ASP) of Balrampur to get a better sense of what transpired in the area. The ASP categorically told OpIndia that the procession came under attack when it was crossing the Mosque and that they might have pre-planned the attack. The ASP’s exact words were, “Pehele se hi prepared the or whatever it is”.
The Balrampur police’s Twitter handle, which is presumably run by some PR agency and not the police itself quoted a tweet by Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma who had plugged the OpIndia article and denied that the ASP had ever made the statement. To this, OpIndia editor and the correspondent who reported the crime, Nupur Sharma responded saying that OpIndia is the possession of the recorded conversation where the ASP has categorically hinted that the entire siege could have been pre-planned.
Now deleted tweet by Balrampur police
In response to this, since the PR agency was hell-bent on brazening out their lie, OpIndia uploaded the audio of the conversation between Nupur Sharma and the ASP.
Here is full audio of my conversation with Additional SP of Balrampur. I did not want to make this public because I have deep respect for the police force, however, I cannot let a PR agency get away with lying repeatedly. Listen to what ASP says at 3:15https://t.co/Bk9qF1mGq2
After the audio of the conversation was made public, Balrampur police Twitter handle quietly deleted the tweet where they had denied the comment being made by the ASP. As one can see from the screenshot below, the tweet by the police handle to which Nupur Sharma responded has been deleted.
Balrampur police delete tweet
There were other tweets too that the Balrampur police’s Twitter handle silently deleted. It had also quoted the Twitter handle of OpIndia Hindi and made the same statement. A couple of other tweets making the same statement against the OpIndia report were also deleted by Balrampur police Twitter handle.
Under these circumstances, it becomes evident that the PR agency that handles the Twitter handle was unaware of the fact that the ASP had made this statement to OpIndia. Perhaps, their brief was to stick to the video of the official police statement and deny all other details. However, the audiotape released by OpIndia and the fact that Balrampur police’s Twitter handle deleted their accusations proves that the ASP had indeed made that statement to OpIndia.
Raghav Bahl’s The Quint, however, had different plans. Before this entire fiasco, it is pertinent to note that The Quint had not even covered the crime at all. It did not think it was necessary to cover how a Muslim mob went on a rampage against Hindus. Interestingly, this was an ANI feed that is often copy-pasted and run as-is by all news portals. This particular news, though, was censored by most summarily and deliberately. Quint, which even publishes Kerala lottery news thought it best to ignore the news of Hindus coming under siege.
Either way, The Quint, after declaring that this was a ‘clash between two groups’, went on to claim that OpIndia was spreading fake news and that the Additional SP never said that the siege may have been pre-planned. This assertion was made long after the audio of the conversation had already been released and Balrampur police had deleted several tweets that contested the OpIndia report.
In the article, after falsely claiming that the SP had never made such a statement despite the audio of the conversation being out, The Quint writes:
“Further Balrampur police took to Twitter to clarify that the police is taking all the necessary steps to ensure law and order”.
Interestingly, there was nothing to “clarify” here. The news that 8 people had been arrested and that the police claims it has deployed 4 units to track down the absconding accused was reported by OpIndia. We had also reported that the police says the law and order situation is normal in the area with heavy police presence. In fact, OpIndia had also done aa comprehensive story of an eye witness account, where an injured Hindu also said that the Balrampur police is doing its job diligently. This word-chicanery by Quint only aims to sow seeds to doubt and discord, not bring facts to the fore.
After vilifying OpIndi, The Quint absolutely had to vilify the Hindus too.
In the concluding paragraph of The Quint report, the portal writes:
“We also spoke to a local journalist who said that the clashes broke out between the two sections when the procession allegedly didn’t stop the loud music and splashed colours while crossing the mosque. But it remains unclear as to who instigated the violence”.
The police and the supposed local journalist have claimed that the Muslim mob may have gone on a rampage after the music was not stopped while the procession crossed the mosque. Interestingly, the ASP, while confirming the music angle had not said anything about the gulaal that was apparently splashed by Hindus.
The eye-witness account by a Hindu man who was allegedly attacked with a sword and injured, though, contests this claim. Suraj Pandey says that every year, the procession passes from the same route and there has never been a problem between the Hindus and the Muslims. Every year, the Hindus on their own switch the music off while crossing the Mosque, however, this time, the Hindus did not even have the opportunity to switch the music off. Suraj says that they have set up a divider and when they reach the divider, they switch the music off and then resume when they turn the corner. This time, even before they could do that, the Muslim community first threw garbage at the Hindus and then, within minutes, started attacking them with stones, sticks and swords.
Suraj also narrates an incident that hints at pre-planning. He says that on 8th morning, he was passing through the lane and one Zulfikar threw a stone at him from his house. While the incident was let go off after Zulfikar’s old mother pleaded with Suraj, he considers this as an indication that the Muslims of the area had planned the siege meticulously.
These details of the Islamist attack in Balrampur, though out and reported extensively by OpIndia, were not even mentioned by The Quint.
The Quint doesn’t stop there and proceeds to whitewash the crime further. In the end, they declare that ‘it remains unclear as to who instigated the violence’.
Sample this – Hindus of the area took out a Durga Puja visarjan procession that they do every year in Balrampur. There was no deviation from the route and supposedly, there is no evidence yet to suggest that the Hindus did anything differently this year. Yet, the Muslim mob evidently pre-planned a siege against the Hindus. The procession was attacked with stones, bolsters, sticks and swords. Suraj himself claims that he was injured by a sword attack. There were women, children and “Mullahs from Mosques” attacking Hindus from all corners, who hid for their lives. The only fault of the Hindus appears to be that they wanted to celebrate their festival like they do every year. Or perhaps, their only fault was that they were Hindus, to begin with.
After all these facts are on the public domain, Raghav Bahl’s The Quint proclaims that it is unclear who instigated the violence in Balrampur. Bahl’s portal almost declares that even if we consider the ‘music and gulaal’ argument to be true, that is reason enough for Hindus to be attacked with stones and swords. Them being Hindus and daring to celebrate their festivals in an area that happens to have a Mosque is reason enough for the blood of Hindus to be shed. Hindu lives are that cheap. Hindus are just that dispensable according to The Quint.
The Quint’s grouse seems to be that the lynching of Hindus with stones and swords was called ‘pre-planned’ by Opindia. Let us assume for a moment that OpIndia had not made that claim at all. That we had not quoted the ASP or had the conversation recorded. Can The Quint perhaps explain how a strong mob of Muslims in Balrampur gather thousands of stones to attack Hindus spontaneously? Can The Quint explain how hundreds of stones reached the rooftops of Muslim houses spontaneously and in the spur of the moment? Is The Quint implying that Muslims are always battle-ready? Because if they are, they are not only dancing on the dead bodies of Hindus but are also bigoted towards Muslims in general.
These questions would, of course, never be answered by The Quint that has a history of shielding the Muslim community. In fact, this The Quint report on Balrampur seems trivial compared to their whitewashing of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist-in-chief who was killed by American forces.
The ‘Liberal’ media often brazenly and rather shamelessly whitewashes Islamist crimes against Hindus. Most of these crimes are never reported by them to begin with. If they are, they are reported with an attempt to pacify the Islamists and demonise the Hindu victims all in one stroke, like The Quint seems to have done here, even if they have to take the help of blatant lies and half-truths.
During the Hauz Qazi violence, where a Muslim mob had desecrated a temple in a tiny bylane of Chandni Chowk in the heart of Delhi, OpIndia had reported how in the communal flare-up, a young Hindu boy was missing for 3 days. When OpIndia had visited the area, the parents of the boy were clutching on to the FIR they had filed and wailing in the middle of the road. They were even threatening to commit suicide. They argued with the police at length. This was all on camera. None of the Lutyens media bothered to report the disappearance of the Hindu boy. The parents were initially convinced that their boy was kidnapped by the Muslim mob who had attacked the Hindus. When the boy was later found, NewsLaundry published a report questioning OpIndia, Swarajya mag and Organiser. They asked us why we reported the Hindu boy missing at all because ‘he was found alive’. It was almost as if NewsLaundry was claiming that crimes against Hindus must be reported only after the Hindu turns up dead. There was an FIR and Lutyens media wanted us to not report it because it inconvenienced the Muslims.
In all of these cases, one wonders how NewsLaundry or even The Quint would report if the tables were reversed. How would they report had Hindus been the aggressors and Muslims the victims? Would The Quint write this shoddy report downplaying the Balrampur siege? Would NewsLaundry not report an FIR that claimed a Muslim boy was missing after Hindus attacked a Mosque?
The media essentially likes to dance on the dead body of Hindus. They regularly bake their pie on the funeral pyres of hapless Hindu victims who have been abandoned by the very institution that should be speaking up for victims. All to shield one community. One people. Hindus are children of lesser Gods who should walk on egg-shells around the ‘superior race’. Celebrate their festivals in silence, side-step Mosques, appease Muslims, offer the other cheek, be willing to be vilified, demonised, shut down, beaten, attacked with swords, pelted with stones, and then, be called the aggressors.
This is what The Quint facilitated with its report on Balrampur:
Tweet quoting The Quint article
“Looks to be the fault of those who were involved in Visarjan and did not follow protocol”.
Yes. Hindus must follow ‘protocol’. That they were pelted with stones and attacked with swords is their fault. The poor Muslim was bound to get offended, as it does, ever so often. There is still no surety who instigated the violence, but, the Muslims must have had a reason to kill those fascist Hindus daring to celebrate their festival.
Congratulations, Quint. You have made Raghav Bahl proud.
