Documents accessed by The Daily Caller indicate that the search giant Google manually manipulates search results even as the company officially denies such manipulation.
One of the documents reportedly shared with The Daily Caller reads, “T&S (Trust & Safety) will be in charge of updating the blacklist as when there is a demand”. As per the report, two official policies dubbed the “misrepresentation policy” and the “good neighbor policy” inform the company’s “XPA news blacklist,” which is maintained by Google’s Trust & Safety team. “The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies,” the policy document reportedly says.
The Daily Caller mentions that the said document is “approved” by gomes@, nayak@ and haahr@ as on 8/13/2018. Ben Gomes is Google’s head of search and reports directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. As per the report, Pandu Nayak is a Google Fellow and Paul Haahr is a software engineer who is involved in “fringe ranking: not showing fake news, hate speech, conspiracy theories, or science/medical/history denial unless we’re sure that’s what the user wants.”
As per the alleged policy document accessed by The Daily Caller, “The purpose of the blacklist will be to bar the sites from surfacing in any Search feature or news product. It will not cause a demotion in the organic search results or de-index them altogether.” That means the site will not be removed from the top ten search results thrown by Google on the first page, but other search features like “top news,” “videos” or the various sidebars that are returned as search results. Hence, while the top ten search results called the “ten blue links”, may not get impacted by the blacklist but almost every other Google search result is which could mean a significant dip in the web traffic.
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Pichai on December 11, 2018, Pichai had claimed that Google does not manually intervene on any particular search result. However, an alleged memo which was last edited on December 3, 2018, a week prior to Pichai’s testimony, accessed by The Daily Caller describes the process by which a site can be blacklisted for deceptive news.
The beginning of the workflow starts when a website is placed on a watchlist which is used for monitoring of sites to determine if they violate the Good Neighbor Policy. This watchlist is maintained and stored by Ares with access restricted to policy & enforcement specialists working on the Good Neighbor Policy. Access to the listing can also be shared at the discretion of counsel and legal investigations on a need to know basis to enforce or enrich the policy violations. The investigation of the watchlist is done in the tool Athena, the Ares manual review tool, and intakes signals from Search, Webspan, and Ares in order to complete reviews. … Once a domain is determined to be violating the misrepresentation policy or the Good Neighbor Policy, such patterns are then added to deceptive_news_blacklist_domains.txt by the Trust & Safety team.
This clearly shows that there is a manual component “manual review tool” involved in maintaining the blacklist. Interestingly, the blacklist contains many right-wing conservative sites like Gateway Pundit, Matt Walsh’s blog, Gary North’s blog “teapartyeconomist.com,” Caroline Glick’s website, Conservative Tribune, a property of The Western Journal and the website of the American Spectator.
As per The Daily Caller, in a statement issued by a Google spokesperon, Google has asserted that the search giant does not “manually determine the order of any search result, nor do our algorithms or policies attempt to make any judgement on the political leanings of a website.” The spokesperson said that the Google News guidelines are publicly available which provide guidelines on content and behaviour for matters like sponsored content, deceptive practices and more. Google says such sites are not eligible to appear on news surfaces or in information boxes in search. These policies (the ones on sponsored content) does not impact these sites which appear in the organic search result of Google.
Times of India, one of the leading publications of the country, which often indulges in propagating fake news, has yet again caught peddling half-truths regarding the suspension of 22-year old Meerut Law Student.
In a report, Times of India journalist Piyush Rai has resorted to false propaganda to target the BJP by reporting that the 22-year old Meerut Law College student was suspended after she refused to wear a BJP cap. He further claimed that the “inebriated” students who had allegedly molested Umam Khanam for ‘refusing to put on a BJP cap’ were also rusticated.
The Times of India report
However, all the claims made by the Times of India journalist are whole lies. Journalist Swati Goel Sharma, who had visited the college which the students studied in, had talked to fellow classmates and college students only to find out that the two students were just suspended contrary to claim of Piyush Rai, where he reports that the two students have been rusticated.
In his attempt to push his ‘secular’ journalism, the reporter further alleged that 22-year girl, Umam Khanam was suspended by the College even after she was harassed by her inebriated classmates for refusing to put on a BJP cap during the college trip. The false accusations of Piyush Rai fall flat as most of the students along with the teachers who had accompanied them to the trip have categorically said that neither the students present in the bus were under the influence of the alcohol nor there were wearing any BJP caps.
Further, the College authorities had formed a committee to look into the complaints made by Umam Khanam. The college had even immediately suspended the two students who were accused of alleged harassment. However, even after a week of the incident, the committee could not hold a single meeting as neither the victim nor the accused or their parents have appeared before the committee for giving their statements. Hence, the college suspended the 22-year old student till further hearing.
According to a student from the college OpIndia.com spoke to, she has been suspended for allegedly levelling false allegations. “All the evidence was against her and she doesn’t have any proof,” said the source.
On April 2, Umam Khanam had started a controversy after she had alleged that she was harassed by fellow students for being a Muslim during a college trip. Umam Khanam, in a series of tweets, had also claimed ‘victimhood’ stating that certain students under the influence of alcohol had harassed her.
She had claimed that the fellow students were carrying BJP caps which they were forcing her to wear and consequently, she was harassed after she refused to wear those caps. She also suggested that her Muslim identity played a role as she was the only person from the community in the entire group. She further stated that the faculty had ignored the fact that students were harassing despite being present right at the scene.
However, the teachers who had accompanied the students to the trip had refuted all the accusations and had denied any such incidents during the trip as claimed by the 22-year old Law student Umam Khanam.
A ground report by journalist Swati Goel Sharma, Swarajya, had revealed further interesting details regarding the incident as nearly 35 students, who are also the classmates of the alleged victim Khanam had shared their side of the story backed by clear facts.
Many students also came forward to give their testimonies to Swarajya regarding how Umam is a “religious fanatic” who did this “to get into the good books of Shehla Rashid and Afra Khanum”. The students added that the 22-year old student had actually discriminated a few of them for their beliefs and said that Umam had a grave contempt towards the BJP.
Another student also said that Umam was a religious fanatic. He has said that how Umam was very conservative and orthodox, who had referred Dawood Ibrahim as India’s ‘baap‘ and wanted Modi to be lynched. One of her classmates also said that Umam had supported Sharia laws, cracked gau mutra jokes and went on calling everyone andh bhakts and Hindutva-types who disagrees with her.
In a hurry to target the ruling BJP and the Hindus, the Times of India journalist has now resorted to propaganda to paint a picture that some sort of harassment had occurred during the trip without even following basic journalistic ethics of reporting or at least hearing the other side of the story.
Taking a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, BJP Chief Amit Shah said that Rahul Gandhi can do ‘ILU, ILU’ with terrorists, but the BJP government will give a befitting reply to them, reports ANI.
On Tuesday, BJP President Amit Shah while addressing a rally in Nagpur said, “After the air strike at terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot, Rahul Gandhi led Congress was busy mourning. I would like to tell Rahul Baba that if you want to do ‘ILU-ILU’ with terrorists, then you may, but one must remember it is the BJP which is in power and we believe in giving a befitting reply to terrorists,” said Shah.
“ILU, ILU” is an apparent reference to the abbreviation ‘I Love You’ taken from a song from an old Bollywood movie song.
Accusing Rahul Gandhi of defaming Hindus, BJP President Shah demanded the Congress President apologise to the Hindu community in the world, especially to the Hindus of India, before the elections.
Amit Shah targetted Rahu Gandhi for contesting from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala. Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s alliance with radical Islamists in Kerala, Amit Shah said that when a procession is taken out in Wayanad, it becomes difficult to make out whether it is an India or Pakistan procession. Amit Shah also said that the Congress party also could not find a native candidate of Nagpur to contest from there instead the party has given a ticket to an outsider.
Launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi’s ally Omar Abdullah, Amit Shah said, “Omar Abdullah is saying that there should be a different Prime Minister for Kashmir. I would like to tell Rahul Baba and Abdullah that Kashmir cannot be separated from India, whether we are in power or not.”
This comes after Omar Abdullah had said that he would like to bring back the posts of ‘President’ and ‘Prime Minister’ for Jammu and Kashmir and also warned that any attempt to tamper with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, notably, Article 370 and 35A of the Constitution, will lead to a rethinking of the state’s relationship with the nation.
Recently, Union Minister Arun Jaitley had attacked that the Congress party by saying its manifesto was prepared with a ‘tukde tukde’ mindset and even an ‘Ivy League’ mindset in an apparent reference to the Congress party promise of dilution of AFSPA and reduction in presence of security forces in the Kashmir valley is reduced, if voted to power.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had also recently targeted the security forces after he had claimed that Jammu and Kashmir Police killed unarmed people for promotions and money in Kashmir. His statements against the security forces depict the disdain of the Congress party towards the security forces, which is being increasingly growing lately.
An attack on an elected MLA is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on our democracy and the founding principles of our republic.
Bhima Mandavi was an elected MLA out on an election campaign, days before our General Elections, the largest democratic exercise in the world. He was a public representative out to meet the people to request their support at the polling booth. This is the most sacred part of any democratic tradition. It reminds the nation that those who govern are not masters but servants and must humble themselves before the people.
In this sense, BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi died while in the act of performing the highest and noblest of all rituals in Indian democracy.
And who killed him? Violent left-wingers who are enemies of democracy.
Except we are not hearing that in the discourse, even when we are hearing something at all.
Chhattisgarh CM ‘blamed’ the death on ‘ignoring police warnings’ instead of the ones who actually murdered him.
No! No! No! No! A hundred times no!
This is not the time for Chhattisgarh CM to speak like a regressive patriarchal jerk who blames rape on what the woman was wearing, or how late she stayed out at night and in which part of town.
This is time for Indians, cutting across party lines, to speak in one voice against the Great Evil of left-wing terror. To speak against those in politics and public life who enable the leftist ideology of hatred, murder and violence. And those who govern have a special responsibility to do so.
This is hardly a partisan issue and nor should it be. Who can forget what happened at Jhiram Ghati in 2013 when top Chhattisgarh Congress leaders were killed by followers of the same violent leftist ideology? Among them was Mahendra Karma, a great man, a patriot and a hero who led the Salwa Judum resistance against violent leftism.
Leftism is a challenge to us as a nation. We have to recognize that.
Except that did not happen yesterday. Because the killers were leftists and the victim was a BJP MLA, the assassination was met with a chilling silence among sections of society that otherwise claim to be very vocal about civil liberties and democracy.
The artists, the journalists, the intellectuals, the academics were all silent. These people, who pretend to be thought leaders and conscience keepers, all refused to speak when it really counted. And their silence against violent leftism makes them look both complicit and suspect. Remember that an attack on an elected MLA is an attack on all of us.
Remember the liberal crowd that comes out on the streets against one angry tweet or some trolling on Facebook? Remember the people who write alarmist articles every time some quarrel breaks out in some neighbourhood over kids playing cricket? Remember the folks who rush to their Western paymasters screaming ‘intolerance’ and feeding them stories about the dangers of everything from sarees to Hanuman stickers?
Those are the people who have been trying to glorify violent leftist ideology as some kind of movement for civil liberties. And on the other hand, they have been trying to dehumanize members of the RSS/BJP to the point where the nation no longer cares about their deaths.
This dehumanization of RSS/BJP members has a long history. Can you name even a single person who was burned to death inside S-6 compartment of Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27, 2002? An entire coach full of people was burned alive in public view and the only thing heard from media and intellectuals was fake stories about how those people had refused to pay for tea, implying that they somehow deserved to be massacred.
Some counts suggest that nearly 1000 lakh people have been killed by Communism. Yesterday, BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi joined that unending list of victims. And yet when some student union goon flies the blood red Communist flag with the dreaded hammer and sickle, Bollywood celebrities descend to campaign for them. This is an outcome of a culture that systematically glorifies left-wing violence.
There is no celebrity whose PR agent will tell them to stand with a placard for Bhima Mandavi. There is no academic or intellectual who expects to get NGO funding by speaking up for what happened to Bhima Mandavi.
But the thing is that we the people have the power to make these propagandists irrelevant. We do not have time for photo shoots with placards, speaking at fake intellectual conferences or signing propaganda petitions. And they would not let us into the big Lutyens clubs anyway where the liberals gather to sip wine that is subsidized with taxpayer money.
But we do have the power to vote.
We have the power to start speaking among ourselves to counter the ideology of violent leftism. Let a billion voices emerge against the scourge of leftism. No celebrity, no intellectual and no academic could possibly drown our collective voice.
Bhima Mandavi died because he was participating in our most noble democratic tradition. The policemen who were with him died in the line of duty. If we do not speak and vote against left-wing evil today, we might be the victims tomorrow, every single one of us. Time to stand up and be counted.
The Income Tax department conducted raids at more than 50 locations connected to Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in the last two days. Yesterday a press release issued by the department had revealed that Rs 20 crore was transferred to the headquarters of a ‘major political party’ through hawala route. The department had detected a racket of money collection, and recovered evidence unaccounted cash of Rs 281 crore collected by various persons related to the party and Madhya Pradesh government. This amount was collected from businessmen, government departments and politicians. Income Tax officers had also recovered unaccounted cash of Rs 14.6 crore along with several incriminating documents.
Apart from Indore, Bhopal and Goa, raids were also conducted in Delhi, which included the residence of AICC official SM Moin. When the raids were going on, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel had arrived there yesterday.
The I-T department press release had said that more than Rs 242 crores were siphoned from government exchequer using bogus billing. They had recovered cash logs detailing transactions of a total amount of Rs 281 crore.
Now, media has accessed some of the logs, which show the source of the money collected, as well as the destinations where the money was sent. The logs show that money was siphoned from several public welfare schemes in Madhya Pradesh, and they were sent to party offices and functionaries for election funding.
The logs were recovered from the Mobile phone of Lalit Kumar, accountant of Rajendra Miglani, who is a close aide of Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath. The logs show amounts allocated to various schemes were siphoned to be sent to the party fund. Apart from collecting money from PWD, Excise, transport etc departments, they also collected money for a scheme meant for the nutrition of infants and pregnant women. On the dispatch part, the note mentions entries like Cheque PCC, Cash PCC, Delhi AICC, Election Bond AICC, Cheque AICC, MLAs etc heads to where money was sent, with amounts in lakhs against them.
WATCH: Explosive #CongHawalaCashNote accessed raising questions over whether funds meant for state government schemes were diverted for election campaign purposes. Tune in to watch the super exclusive newsbreak LIVE here – https://t.co/LGCyJUEBn5pic.twitter.com/1hP9m7FQao
The entries under the receipt heading mention the following, with all amounts in lakhs:
Transport- 5445
Excise (MP)- 3622
Excise (GUJ)- 197
Mining- 550
PWD- 520
Urban Development-430
Po Aahar-1200
Energy department- 100
The total receipt showed an amount of 280.15 Rs crore in the documents seized by the Income Tax department.
Some of the entries under the expenses heading include the following, also in lakhs:
Cheque PCC-1082
Cash PCC-1000
Delhi AICC-1700
Election Bond-200
Leaders-95
MLAs-440.50
Candidates-420.50
The logs clearly show that immediately after coming to power, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh started siphoning money from various government departments and schemes, and diverted the same to party fund and politicians.
In a big blow to Congress right before the first phase of voting starts, Gujarat Congress MLA and Bihar Congress Secretary Alpesh Thakor is likely to resign from all posts of Congress party as reported by the web portal, DeshGujarat.com.
Alpesh Thakor has been requested to resign from all posts of Congress party within next 24 hours as Thakor Sena’s core committee has today taken decision to withdraw the support to Congress: Jagatsinh Thakor who attended the meeting of Thakor Sena
As per the report, Thakor-led outfit, Kshatriya Thakor Sena’s core committee has decided to withdraw support to Congress following which, Alpesh has been asked to resign from all posts of the party. He is expected to resign within next 24 hours, DeshGujarat quoted another Congress MLA Dhavalsinh Zala saying. As per reports, Zala is also likely to resign from Congress. Thakor may join the BJP tomorrow in presence of BJP President Amit Shah, as per reports.
Earlier, two office-bearers of Kshatriya Thakor Sena had filed their nominations for the Banaskantha and Sabarkantha constituencies. Congress had tried to persuade Alpesh to get the office-bearers of the outfit he heads to withdraw their nomination.
Earlier we had reported about a rift within Congress when Thakor was not invited for an event in Bihar after it was reported that Thakor had allegedly instigated violent attacks on migrant workers from Bihar in Gujarat.
While addressing a public rally in Meerut Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath taking a jibe at BSP supremo Mayawati’s latest appeal to Muslim voters to not vote for the Congress said that “Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko ‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ par vishwaas hai, roughly translated as “If Congress, SP and BSP trust Ali, we trust Bajragbali (Lord Hanuman)”.
#WATCH UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a public rally in Meerut, says, “Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko ‘Ali’ par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi ‘Bajrangbali’ par vishwaas hai.” pic.twitter.com/ZwI3L5ZEFt
Taking a dig at the SP-BSP alliance, Yogi Adityanath said that they are trying to woo the minority community as they know supporters of Bajrangbali won’t spare them in the elections. “Congress, BSP, SP knows the supporters of Bajrangbali won’t spare them in the elections. That’s why they are shouting ‘Ali, Ali’,” he said.
Recently in the first joint rally of Bahujan Samaj Party (SP) Supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav at Deoband in Saharanpur, Mayawati was seen openly polarising votes by asking Muslims not to split their vote between Congress and SP-BSP alliance and rather consolidate their vote in favour of the alliance candidate.
“Muslim samaj ke logo ko mai ye batana chahti hu, aap logo ko apna vote batna nahi hai. Aap logo ko apna vote Samajwadi Party aur RLD k ummeedvaro ko dekhar unke kamyab banana hai (I want to say this to the people of Muslim community that you should not spilt your vote. You should consolidate your vote in the favour of the candidates of SP and RLD and make them win)”, said Mayawati.
However, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has taken cognisance of Mayawati’s speech and sought a factual report from the Saharanpur administration.
“Seeking votes on the basis of religion or caste is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, and the matter will be probed by the Election Commission (EC),” an election official had said.
Earlier too Yogi Adityanath had made a similar remark targetting Congress for playing divisive politics. Last year, after a video went viral showing Congress leader Kamal Nath asking clerics to ensure 90 per cent voting in Muslim-dominated areas to secure victory for the party in Madhya Pradesh elections, Adityanath had said, “Aap Ali ko rakh lo….Hamare liye Bajrangbali kafi hain”.
Yogi Adityanath has on several occasions been extremely critical about Congress’ inclination for the minority community. Recently, he came down heavily on the Congress Party after scores of Muslim League flags were seen during Rahul Gandhi’s nomination yesterday from Wayanad constituency in Kerala. The flags belonged to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) which is an ally of the Congress in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and was involved in the infamous 2003 Marad Massacre in Kerala.
Calling the IUML a virus in a tweet, CM Yogi said that the Congress Party has been infected by this deadly virus. He warned that the virus would spread across the country if Congress comes to power.
He said that the whole country had fought along with freedom fighter Mangal Pandey against the British. But the virus of Muslim League spread across the country and eventually led to its partition. The country is facing the same danger today. He asked people to be aware of the virus of the Muslim League that has already infected Congress.
The Gandhi scion has filed his nomination from the ‘safe‘ Wayanad constituency in Kerala apart from his traditional seat of Amethi. In fact, many have commented on the significance that the Congress President had chosen to compete from a constituency where Hindus are in the minority. Even a party leader had made the admission on a sting tape that the great share of the Christian-Muslim vote in the electorate made the constituency very much a safe bet for Rahul, who heads a party which has had a history of playing caste-based politics.
Five persons, including a BJP MLA, lost their lives when Naxal terrorists ambushed the convoy of BJP in Dantewada in Bastar region Chhattisgarh. BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi, his driver and three security personnel died in the attack. The attack took place just two days ahead of polling for the Lok Sabha elections in the area.
Maoists had planted an IED on the road which was triggered when the convoy reached the point. The IED was so powerful that it ripped apart the bulletproof vehicle in which the BJP leader was travelling. After the blast, people from the other cars came out, and the Maoists fired on them, who were hiding in the jungle. It triggered gunfire between the Maoists and security personnel in the convoy.
A big crater formed on the road due to the IED blast
The attack took place between Kuakonta and Syamgiri in Dantewada, and a big crater formed on the road where the IED went off. The SUV was thrown away to a distance due to the impact of the blast.
PM Narendra Modi tweeted to condemn the attack, saying that the sacrifices of the martyrs will not go in vain.
Strongly condemn the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh. My tributes to the security personnel who were martyred. The sacrifices of these martyrs will not go in vain.
— Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 9, 2019
PM Modi also tweeted, “Shri Bhima Mandavi was a dedicated Karyakarta of the BJP. Diligent and courageous, he assiduously served the people of Chhattisgarh. His demise is deeply anguishing. Condolences to his family and supporters. Om Shanti.”
DIG of Anti Naxal Operations P Sundar Raj said that steps are being taken to bring the bodies of the victims to the district headquarters. He said that the PSOs killed in the attack have not been identified yet.
The IED completely destroyed the bulletproof SUV of the legislator
The CRPF has sent additional forces to the area as reinforcement. A team of police force also had been dispatched to the location. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has called a high-level meeting over the incident.
Indian politics is wilder, funnier and more dramatic than any comedy show on the planet. As the elections draw closer, it just gets better and better. The allegations of scams, intolerance, non-performance (and the lies that come with it) and all those issues are so usual during election time that one just wishes there were other things to laugh (or cry) about. Thankfully, Indian politicians never disappoint. They are more melodramatic than the worst Big Boss contestants.
PM Narendra Modi is the common target for most other politicians in the opposition to whine, gossip, and complain about. While the usual political accusations have been common and have often been repeated without success to attempt to tarnish his image, there are the occasional attacks on his personal life, his family and even his sartorial choices.
However, among all the complaints, there have also been certain unusual ones. They are about his looks and physical appearance. Before the Gujarat elections, Congress leader Alpesh Thakore had made a statement that PM Modi was earlier dark like him. But he had begun eating a magic mushroom that costs Rs 80,000 per piece and he eats 5 of them a day. And that is how he has become fair.
Taking the Mushroom claim a bit further, Congress leader Pawan Khera had argued once that the PM gets a “Diamond Facial” every day apart from eating the Rs 80,000 magic mushrooms.
The rumour mill has not dried up. And it is not just the Congressis either. There are admirers of the PM’s looks in the media too, though they hate to admit it and instead do the ‘fangirling’ claiming it to be the perspective of rural Indian women.
Via Twitter
And now, it has become evident that the gossips and obsession about PM Modi and his looks are not limited to the ‘Hindi belt’ alone. Karnataka’s CM HD Kumaraswamy has come up with a rather unusual statement where he is literally whining about PM Modi’s good looks on camera and his own lack of it (his words, not ours).
Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy: Modi wakes up every morning, applies makeup or wax to get a shine on his face&sits in front of cameras. But we take bath once in the morning & wash our face only the next day. Our faces don’t look good on cameras. That’s why even media shows only Modi pic.twitter.com/0h93gcsM4P
Just like a Big Boss contestant bitching to his/her confidante of the day about another house-member, Karnataka’s ever whining CM has found a new topic to whine about. This time it is not him being a clerk or him being cheated/neglected/manipulated or being made to drink poison. Kumaraswamy has stated that PM Modi wakes up every morning and applies make-up and wax to his face so he looks good on the camera. He has also lamented that his face does not look good enough on cameras only because he does not wash it frequently.
Before the mental images of Kumaraswamy with make-up start haunting your mind space, please acknowledge the fact that at least here is a man who does not believe in magic mushrooms and Diamond facials.
However, Kumaraswamy seems to have a horrible misconception about waxing. Painful as it is, I am yet to meet a person who has ever had a waxing on the face. With PM Modi’s beard and moustache, waxing is definitely an impossible idea. Somebody should remind that to the Karnataka CM.
With election season almost upon us and campaigns in full swing, PM Modi is often seen addressing rally after rally, meeting after meeting, attending event after event without ever being tired. It seems, apart from political prowess, power and success, personality and looks is another department where PM Modi is making his rivals fume.
On April 2, a law student named Umam Khanam had started a controversy after she had alleged that she was harassed by fellow students for being a Muslim during a college trip.
Umam Khanam, in a series of tweets, had also claimed ‘victimhood’ stating that certain students under the influence of alcohol had harassed her.
She had claimed that the fellow students were carrying BJP caps which they were forcing her to wear and consequently, she was harassed after she refused to wear those caps. She also suggested that her Muslim identity played a role as she was the only person from the community in the entire group. She further stated that the faculty had ignored the fact that students were harassing despite being present right at the scene.
She had alleged that some of them had tried to touch her in an indecent manner while pulling her and forcing her to dance on seemingly vulgar songs. She had claimed that they had misbehaved with some of her friends, who had come forward to support her.
Soon after her post claiming sexual harassment, she became a sensation on social media and the usual suspects began to blame the BJP for Islamophobia and shared it across platforms.
Following the incident, Ambuj Sharma, head of the department (HoD) at Dewan Law College, who had accompanied the group was contacted by Dushyant Dubey, co-host of the Chai with Red Pills podcast along with comedian Ahmed Sharif. Sharma had reportedly said that nothing of the sort had happened. The recording of the call has been accessed by OpIndia.com.
OpIndia.com, too, had contacted Sharma to inquire about the matter. Sharma denied the whole incident while talking to us as well and said that he will look into the matter when he goes to college next. He also denied that any student had consumed alcohol.
A new report by journalist Swati Goel Sharma, Swarajya, reveals further interesting details regarding the incident. According to the report, Ambuj Sharma then went to escalate the matter to the institute’s head and executive director Colonel (retired) Dr Naresh Goyal, who then spoke to Umam.
“She looked very agitated and told me that she was sexually harassed on the tour. She took two names, Amit Kumar Singh and Ankur Verma, and said they should be rusticated immediately. Then she said okay Amit is not so guilty but please rusticate Ankur,” said Goyal.
Goyal said Umam Khanam gave him a written complaint. He said that she mentioned “molestation” and made a specific charge against Ankur, mentioned both the accused’s names, but did not mention the word “BJP” or “Muslim” or that she was targeted for her religious identity.
The college soon formed a four-member committee to look into her complaint and sent letters to the accused informing them of their suspension until inquiry. Goyal said that they also added a Muslim faculty into the committee after seeing her tweets.
However, even after a week after the incident, the committee has not held a single meeting as neither the victim nor the accused or their parents have appeared before the committee for giving their statements. The college has now suspended the alleged victim Umam Khanam, along with the two students.
Interestingly, following the suspension, an active group have emerged on the social media comprising of nearly 35 students who were present on the bus that day. The group had recently written and signed a four-page statement to Goyal refuting Umam’s version completely and giving time-wise details of all that unfolded on the tour.
One such student Jyoti Singh, a first-year student of bachelors of law (LLB), same batch as the victim and the accused is leading the group. Swarajya Journalist Swati Goel Sharma has spoken to some of the students who were present at the trip last week.
After writing to the Principal, the group members also opened Twitter accounts to share the other side of the story. They also posted a video to reveal truth pertaining to the incident and released videos which shows that Umam smilingly dancing in the bus while Ankur is dancing alongside and not looking in her direction at all, further exposing Umam Khanam.
On the other side, neither the claims posted by Umam through her tweets nor the video does not prove or refute the story completely. As Umam herself spoke to Swarajya over the phone said, “If I was dancing, it doesn’t mean I wasn’t or couldn’t have been molested.” But the video contradicted Umam’s claim that she was forced to dance by the students.
Most importantly, other students who were are on the trip along with Umam has presented strong facts and reasons to allege that Umam was indeed lying about the incident.
First, there is no eye-witness, neither teachers nor students to corroborate the Umam’s account of the incident where she had claimed that two students had molested her.
Swarajya reporters spoke to all the four teachers — Ambuj Sharma, Neeraj Gupta, Garima Singh and Richa Tomar, who were part of the trip. Interestingly, all four of them have categorically denied having seen any kind of harassment on the bus. All of them also confirmed that Khanam did not approach any one of them even once throughout the trip.
“I even offered my seat to Umam at one point of time when I saw her standing, but she smilingly told me she was fine,” said Garima Singh. Another teacher Neera Gupta said that Umam was the last student to get down. He said that they had waited until her relative came to pick her up and confirmed that she was totally fine and did not tell them anything.
“On April 4, I asked Umam what had happened. She just said ‘hua tha hua tha, aapne dekha hi nahi‘ (it happened, it happened, you didn’t see it) and left,” said Ambuj Sharma.
“I asked her why she had tweeted instead of first approaching the grievance cell, and she said she did not know about it. It’s difficult for me to believe it as we have had several sessions with the students about this,” said Tomar.
Naresh Goyal has also confirmed to Swarajya that till date, no eye-witness of the harassment has come forward in Umam’s support.
Second, the student group refutes Umam statements where she had said that there were BJP caps. “She says the boys bought BJP caps. But there was no BJP cap at all. All that was there was a BJP flag that was already fixed in the bus at the rear end because probably the bus had been previously used for a BJP rally. The cap claim is a complete lie. Can she produce even one evidence of it? None of what she says adds up,” said Sandip Bansal, a classmate.
Third, the students also noted that apart from Umam, no other girl has complained or talked about her harassment. Shivani Chauhan, another classmate said, “She says some friends came to her rescue and were harassed too. Who are these friends? Till date, no such friend has been found,” said
Further, Goyal has confirmed that he has not received a complaint from any other girl on the bus for harassment.
Fourth, Umam’s classmates said that she is also misrepresenting the contents of the songs played. “Her tweet said the boys started playing songs like ‘jiski biwi lambi uska bhi bada naam hai, usse kothe pe bitha do‘ to harass her. But this isn’t a vulgar song. The line actually says ‘kothe se laga do‘ that means ‘place it along the wall’ and not ‘kothe pe bitha do‘ that means ‘make her sit in a brothel’. She is just making things up,” said Yashveer Yadav, a classmate. This famous song from Laawaris movie starring Amitabh Bachchan says that if your wife is tall, you don’t need a ladder. This is a light-hearted joke, and no way can be considered as obscene or vulgar.
Fifth, the students have also debunked Umam’s claims of facing harassment only because she was a Muslim. “She was our miss freshers. She remains one of the most popular girls in the batch. She seldom brings lunch and most of the time, she shares mine. We are always drinking from her bottle. There is absolutely no basis to that claim,” said Jyoti.
Interestingly, Shiva Trivedi, another classmate revealed that Umam was the one who discriminated them for their beliefs. Trivedi said that Umam had a grave contempt towards the BJP. “She tweeted that there is so much of hatred for Muslims and BJP is behind it. But the truth is, she is the one who discriminates against us and our beliefs. She hates BJP. She, in fact, hates India.”
Many students also came forward to give their testimonies to Swarajya regarding how Umam is a “religious fanatic” who did this “to get into the good books of Shehla Rashid and Afra Khanum”.
Ankur, one of the accused, spoke the reporter outside the campus and said that Umam has probably resorted to this to get even with him over their ideological differences.
“I often got into arguments with her about India and the BJP. She once called Army a bunch of rapists on social media. I called her out and she called me an ‘andh bhakt‘ (blind follower). After a similar spat again, she tweeted that while Saudi has money, Pakistan has beauty, India only has andh bhakts. It was directed at me. In fact, on the tour too, we had differences because she kept on calling me andh bhakt,” said Ankur as reported by Swarajya.
“I cannot think of any other reason why she would drag my name other than to get even with me over our ideological differences,” he said. Ankur added that when he confronted Umam a day after the complaint, she said that he must apologise in writing so she can post it on her Twitter account.
Another accused Amit said that he really did not know why she took his name. “I think she took my name because I recently joined a new friend circle. She was my very good friend until now,” said Amit. Swarajya also reported that Amit shared audio with them where Umam is asking him to pick her up from home in the morning.
Shiva Trivedi said, “Umam is a religious fanatic. She is conservative and orthodox in an extreme way. She calls Dawood [Ibrahim] as India’s ‘baap‘, wants Modi to be lynched, supports Sharia laws, cracks gau mutra jokes and goes around calling everyone andh bhakts and Hindutva-types who disagrees with her. The strange thing is, she calls us andh bhakts on the face and on Twitter, she calls for bhakts to be killed. All of us have had a fight with her at some point or the other,” he said.
Image Courtesy: Swarajya
Shiva also remembered an incident when a group of seven friends including Umam had gone to watch the film Uri, Umam had disturbed them after she refused to stand up for the national anthem and kept on calling it a propaganda film throughout. “This is just one of the incidents that show she is against India,” said Shiva.
“She wants to get into the good books of Shehla Rashid and Afra Khanum. She is always talking about them. No wonder she tagged them in her tweets too,” said Shiva.
Reportedly, Jyoti Singh also carried several printouts of Umam’s social media posts to strengthen their claims against Umam Khanam. “She deleted some three hundred tweets in a day. We managed to take screenshots of several of them,” said Jyoti.
Jyoti shared another incident involving Holi. “Amit and Ankur applied colour on her. Until the colour was white and green, she was fine. The moment they put saffron colour on her, and they did it unknowingly, she said this is not done and started crying,” Jyoti said while sharing some of the photographs of Umam crying with saffron colour splashed on her face. The report says that several other students also confirmed this to Swarajya.
Jyoti said, “She is always talking about her religion. Once a senior of ours who is a Muslim and is very secular, said he doesn’t believe in any religion, Umam got so mad that she stormed out of the conversation and till date, doesn’t talk to him.”
The Swarajya team also tried to reach out to Umam to listen to her version of the incident, who said she could only talk over the phone as she would not be visiting the college.
When questioned regarding why there no eye-witnesses, Umam said she stood by her complaint. Asked why her classmates are campaigning against her, Umam said a conspiracy against her is on. The reporter questioned the inconsistency in her tweets and written complaint that made no mention of her Muslim identity, she said she felt so and stood by her complaint. However, Umam disconnected the call after she got to know that the reporter works for Swarajya.
