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420 people dead in Kerala this year due to various serious diseases

OpIndia Staff
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420 people dead in Kerala this year due to various serious diseases

Kerala has been hit by an epidemic of contiguous diseases after as many as 420 people have succumbed to fever and over 22 lakh have taken treatment since January in Kerala this year.

This was stated by the Kerala Health Minister K. K. Shylaja while replying to the notice for an adjournment motion moved by Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. She also stated that about 74 persons had succumbed to H1N1 or Swine flu, 24 persons to dengue and 2 deaths have been attributed to an infection by Shigella bacteria. Four cases of cholera were also reported among migrant workers.

The Health Minister then praised her government by claiming that it was because of the timely intervention by the Health Department, that the epidemic outbreak was controlled in the state.

The opposition though was in no mood to buy her claims and after alleging failure of the government to check the spread of contagious diseases, staged a walkout in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, the former minister, alleged that there were major discrepancies in the fever death toll provided by the government and the actual numbers which he pegged to be about 1000. He claimed that this year about 50 lakh people had fallen ill due to fever, out of which 14 lakh had been treated in hospitals. He also tried to pick holes in the government’s claim the rise in fever cases was due to climatic variations and the abnormal fluctuation in temperature.

The leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala also decided to take part in the attack. He accused the government of not carrying out any proper pre-monsoon clean-up drive in a timely manner which caused an uncontrollable spread of contagious diseases. He alleged that the clean up drive was just a three-day affair before the rainy season started.

In July there were reports of many as 14,600 people have been reported to be affected by dengue in last one month. Kerala’s Health Minister, KK Shylaja, had then called the outbreak “unprecedented” and blamed an early arrival of rainfall for the rapid outbreak.

Indian armed forces again taste success after killing top Hizbul commander Yasin Yatoo

OpIndia Staff
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Indian armed forces again taste success after killing top Hizbul commander Yasin Yatoo

The Indian armed forces continued to taste success in the Kashmir valley when it comes to counter terror operations after top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Yasin Yatoo was killed on Sunday. The gun battle took place at the Awneera village in South Kashmir’s Shopian district, between Yatoo and a joint team of the Army, CRPF and J&K Police. The security forces got to the area after receiving Intel that a total of nine Hizbul and Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders were having a meeting in the village.

Incidentally 6 months earlier Yatoo had faked is death which included holding his funeral in order to escape the radar of the security forces. He had first joined insurgency in 1996 when he was a 2nd year student in Amar Singh College, Srinagar when he was motivated to join the Hizbul Mujahideen by one of its sectional commander. He soon went across the border to receive arms training.

The Kashmir zone’s IG Muneer Khan dubbed this operation as a very big success and stated that he was one of the top commanders active in the valley. The operation which lasted over 15 hours also resulted in the death of 2 associates of Yatoo named Umar Majeed and Sheikh Irfan-ul-Haq and 2 soldiers named Sepoy Gawai Sumedh Waman and Sepoy Ilayaraja P attained martyrdom.

The already difficult operation(as the area was surrounded by orchards and nullahs), was given an added complexity after residents of the village started stone pelting on the security forces even before the cordon was put in place. What made things worse was that for the 1st time in over a decade, militants from another area came to the aid of their associates and started firing on the forces from outside the perimeter. This external help ensured that several terrorists including top commanders like Altaf Ahmad Dar managed to escape.

The forces have managed to kill at-least 133 terrorists this year and it is believed that there are 70 more who are active in the valley.

The forces could have experienced another monumental success if they were successful in capturing or eliminating dreaded terrorist Zakir Musa who has declared his support for Al Qaeda and has openly called to make Kashmir an Islamic state. He and his aids were incidentally trapped in a house at Noorpora on Friday but were helped to flee by stone pelters.

Gorakhpur ‘hero’ Dr. Kafeel Khan sacked soon after social media dug up his past

Nirwa Mehta
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Gorakhpur ‘hero’ Dr. Kafeel Khan sacked soon after social media dug up his past

As many as 72 infants died in BRD medical college in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh in past five days, reportedly due to lack of oxygen supply. Amidst all the saddening and heartbreaking stories, came a story of good samaritan: one Dr. Kafeel Khan. It was reported that due to his quick thinking, the death toll was contained, otherwise many more infants would’ve died:

On the night of August 10, the central oxygen pipeline in the college premises started beeping, indicating low supply of the gas. The doctors and hospital staff knew that the supply could be maintained through emergency cylinders, but only for two hours. They did not know what to do after that.

Khan knew that uninterrupted oxygen to critically ill children, was the only life-saving medicine, to save lives of those suffering from encephalitis.

A few called up the supplier, only to be told that they will send fresh supplies only after clearance of their dues. Refusal from other suppliers caused more panic in the hospital. But Khan did not lose hope. He drove two hospitals employees in his car to his friend’s private nursing home and borrowed three oxygen cylinders.

Before leaving the hospital, he had given standing instructions to junior doctors on duty and paramedical staff to keep pumping Ambu bags if the oxygen supply further reduced in the central pipeline.

Khan loaded the three cylinders in his car and rushed back to BRD Hospital. However, the oxygen content in the cylinders was enough only to provide half an hour of supply in the central pipeline.

By now, it was 6 am and several critical children were developing convulsions for want of oxygen. Khan left the hospital again and made a round to other nursing homes known to him.

He collected as many as 12 oxygen cylinders. The child specialist made four trips to the hospital to ferry these cylinders for children admitted in his ward.

When he returned to the hospital, he was informed that a local supplier was ready to supply oxygen cylinders on cash payment. Dr Khan gave his ATM debit card to one of his employees and withdrew Rs 10,000 to bring in more oxygen for patients. He also paid for diesel and other expenses to truck drivers who brought fresh supplies from Faizabad.

This sounds like a story, just out of films. However, there seemed to be a twist in all this after just 24 hours.


If all this was true, why was Dr. Khan, who was the nodal officer of paediatrics department, sacked on Sunday evening? What could have gone wrong?

While the official reasons of why he was removed from his post are not known, some twitter users had made some startling revelations.


This is news of one Dr. Kafeel Ahmed, from Gorakhpur, who has a clinic in Rustampur, accused of molesting a woman, in March, 2015.

Who Dr. Kafeel from clinic in Rustampur? Perhaps this one?

Screenshot of tweet allegedly done by Dr. Kafeel Khan about his private clinic [hmm, are doctors in Government hospitals allowed to have a private practice?] in Rustampur. Is he the same Dr. Kafeel from the molestation case?

Wait, is he the same Dr. Kafeel, who was suspended from Manipal University in 2013?


Or the same Dr. Kafeel, who was arrested in Delhi in 2009 for impersonating someone in National Board Exam for medical registration? Even as we wait for know real reasons why Dr. Kafeel Khan was sacked, here is something to chew on.


Perhaps we are too quick to hail someone as a hero, especially in face of tragedy. Let us pray for the souls of those children who died too young, and make sure such a tragedy doesn’t end up being mere statistics.

UP Government, wake up. We are watching you.

Update: Kafeel Khan, the doctor in question was questioned by the media regarding the removal. While he called it a smear campaign, he didn’t deny the accusations by asking as to why were past controversies being raked up now. Other reports have made another severe allegation that Khan used to steal oxygen cylinders from the BRD hospital for his private clinic. The report claimed that on August 11 he hurriedly sent 3 oxygen cylinders from his clinic to BRD hospital while claiming that he had merely borrowed them. Dr Rajiv Mishra the Principle of the college who was sacked on Saturday was also believed to have been in cahoots with Dr Kafeel Khan.

Journalists slammed for their distasteful tweets about children’s deaths in Gorakhpur

OpIndia Staff
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Journalists slammed for their distasteful tweets about children’s deaths in Gorakhpur

Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh experienced a tragedy recently after kids admitted in a Baba Raghav Das Medical College allegedly died after oxygen supply was disrupted due to non payment of dues to the contractor. The larger issue which came to notice was that most of the kids were believed to be suffering from encephalitis which has caused the deaths of 25,000 children in Gorakhpur itself from 1978.

While everyone was mourning the deaths of the kids and wondering as to how the endemic of encephalitis can be controlled or those behind the negligence can be punished, some journalists decided to come out and tweet outright insensitive stuff, bereft of any respect for the dead:


Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta of the ‘coup fame’, tried to bring in the religion of the poor kids with his tweet and was slammed by many:


Gupta wasn’t the only one who decided to exploit the tragedy. Marathi journalist Nikhil Wagle who recently had falsely cried victim, too decided to plug in his agenda:


What is more surprising is the fact that these journalists haven’t yet deleted their tweet and expressed an explicit apology for the same. They though were given tough competition by members of the Congress party for belittling the issue:

After Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh madarsas asked to hoist the Tricolour

OpIndia Staff
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After Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh madarsas asked to hoist the Tricolour

On 3rd August, UP Madarsa Shiksha Parishad directed all Madarsas in the state to unfurl national flag and recite the national anthem on India’s 70th Independence Day.

The circular directs all madarsas to hoist the tricolour and sing the national anthem at 8 am. The flag hoisting should be followed by a speech on the importance of the freedom struggle and the sacrifices made by freedom fighters. The students will also have to pay tributes to freedom fighters on the occasion.

The Uttar Pradesh government also directed the madarsas to photograph/videograph the event.

However, the madarsas have criticised the order, calling it an attempt to test the patriotism of Muslims. While, the government claims that the recording will be done only to “identify the ‘best programmes’ so that they could be ‘replicated’.” Questions were raised at the directive to photograph and videograph the event. UP minority affairs minister Mohsin Raza welcomed the order


Following the footsteps of UP, even Madhya Pradesh Madarsa Board issued advisory to celebrate the Independence Day and send photographs of the celebrations. MP Madarsa board chairman, however, said that the order was a routine order to celebrate the Independence Day


The chairman of MP Madarsa Board further added that the directive is sent every year and photographs are also called in.

Children die in Gorakhpur hospital as oxygen supply disrupted due to non payment of dues

OpIndia Staff
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Children die in Gorakhpur hospital as oxygen supply disrupted due to non payment of dues

In an extremely tragic incident, 30 children died in the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur over a period of 48 hours. Some of the deaths happened after contractors allegedly stopped supplying liquid oxygen due to non-payment of dues of about Rs 63 lakh.

According to reports, out of the 30 children, 17 died in the neo-natal ward, 5 in the AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward and eight in the general ward. It is also believed that one of the culprits for the illness in the children is Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

Encephalitis is basically a rare and potentially life threatening disease which causes acute inflammation of the brain. The disease appears abruptly and grows at a fast rate. It is mainly caused due to a viral infection but sometimes due to the brain’s own immune system mistakenly attacking the brain tissue.

The most common type of Encephalitis in India is the Japanese Encephalitis which is caused by a by mosquito-borne flavivirus. The disease is both treatable and preventable (using vaccines).

But as reported by various outfits the deaths were catalysed by the lack of oxygen supply in the hospital. The CNN-News18 put out a letter which stated that Pushpa Co. which supplied oxygen to the Gorakhpur hospital had threatened to cut off the liquid oxygen supply if their dues weren’t cleared.

The report claimed that there was indeed some disruption in oxygen supply on the intervening night of 10th and 11th after which deaths took place in the neonatal and encephalitis unit. The government though have denied that the supply was even disrupted at any moment and that a payment of around Rs 70 lakh was made on the night of 10th. The report also claimed that it was entirely possible that the lack of oxygen supply may not have been the sole reason for all the 30 deaths and that there could have been other factors at play.

Now various journalists have claimed that the hospital where deaths took place has been infamous for corruption and that the contract for pipeline was given to an undeserving firm. It remains to be seen as to what lessons are learnt from this tragedy and whether those responsible for the negligence are brought to the book.

Whatever may have been the reason for the current deaths. Deaths due to encephalitis themselves have been very rampant in Uttar Pradesh and even Yogi Adityanath himself has been raising this issue in the Parliament in 2014.

As reported then, Yogi had asked for the setup of a concrete long term national encephalitis program in order to stop the disease. In order to create that, he had demanded a viral research centre and an AIIMS in Gorkahpur.

Yogi also claimed that children in Uttar Pradesh have been continuously dying of this disease from the last 36 years. He put out numbers which claimed that over 50,000 people have been its victim in the state of UP. The report claimed that there were 500, 525 and 995 deaths in UP in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. Just a week back it was reported that there were about 124 deaths only in Gorakhpur this year but medical officials claimed that the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was coming down year on year.

Hashtag activism – the opium of lazy feminism

jogakhichudi
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Hashtag activism – the opium of lazy feminism

If I imagine our society as a huge brain, I’d think of it as mostly dormant when it comes to the issues on women’s safety. This dozing brain usually wakes up with a jolt from time to time at the end of heinous crimes committed against the lesser half of the society, churns out short phases of outrages, a few marches maybe, and yes #hashtags, before comfortably going back to sleep and sweeping the memory of the crimes under a rug.

Right now the brain is awake and this time what kicked it out of its stupor is the Kundu-Barala high profile chasing/stalking case. As a woman I can imagine how scary it must have been for Varnika that night, and as she herself confessed she was lucky to get out of it unscathed. Also she is lucky to belong to an influential family that she could create enough noise to get swift action against the equally influential assailant. Vikas Barala is now in police custody under stalking and kidnapping charges and judicial process to follow. Case closed as far as we are concerned.

Now going back to our “brain”, oh yes it’s still buzzing but guess what did it synthesized from this case? – a hashtag women’s movement called #AintNoCinderella (ANC). Anyone and everyone worth her salt identifying herself as a “feminist” are splashing the social media with their bold “drinking and/or staying out past midnight” pictures. This is their forceful declaration of not being dainty, dependent Cinderellas against the provocative and primitive remark of yet another politician who thinks women ought to maintain curfew times for their safety and err… dignity.

Going by the media projections and glossy supplements of newspapers, ANC is one heck of a cool successful feminist victory (gone international with BBC, Telegraph, et al picking it) with celeb feminists like Barkha Dutt and baby vanity feminists of various kinds on Social Media, all joining the chorus, posing and posting.

But let me be the pin to the bloated balloon and say this out loud – Ain’t No Cinderella (ANC) isn’t a women’s movement, It’s a privileged section movement. I’ve nothing against the hashtag or its participants, but I’ve objections to this being touted as a women’s movement for ALL women.

Heck! forget women, this is not a movement at all. A movement after a crime against a woman yet again should be talking about safety and lack of it, but ANC is just a mocking exercise against the brainless comment of a hitherto unknown leader Ramveer Bhatti, suggesting women shouldn’t be out alone late at night!! *massive eye roll and facepalm moment*

Yes, that’s a senseless stupid statement, but why do we tend to focus on such statements instead of looking beyond? Why should we make it a priority to mock these people rather than demanding safety measures for all women? Yes, the broader issue is the mindset that is responsible for such statements, but the immediate issue is the plight of women, most of whom have no idea what a hashtag is.

Right after the Chandigarh case, a schoolgirl in Ballia (Uttar Pradesh) Ragini Dubey was stabbed to death in the middle of the day, riding her bicycle to school by her stalkers. She was no Cinderella either and I doubt she knew who Cinderella was!

She didn’t have the privilege of a car (more protection than a cycle any day) to run away, nor other perks of a better life. Now compare the noise this little girl’s death, who could have grown up to become a contributing member of the society (Ragini’s father wanted to make her a doctor) made viz-a-viz the Barala case.

My issue with fancy bubble movements like ANC is that more often than not grave problems around women’s safety like stalking in both these cases, gets restricted to patriarchal idiotic comments made by a few people and we immediately divert all our energies fighting them, while nothing really changes when it comes to women’s safety in general applying to the larger population.

Last year till now, I’ve been reading cases after cases where women were attacked/stabbed to death by jilted lovers/stalkers caught on cameras in broad daylight in safe places. Shredding down this myth that somehow sunlight protects women from assaulters, it would if we were talking about dealing with Vampires!

But instead of talking about this larger menace the focus gets narrowed down to “how dare someone questioned our rights to be out at night?”

How many of these cases and victims do you remember? How many follow ups has the media done to seek justice and in case it was met report it? Let me refresh your memory with a few accounts (apart from the Ballia incident) that a simple google search threw up –

  1. July 2017 – 21 years old woman stabbed to death in broad daylight outside her home in Delhi by her stalker and his two aides. The victim had earlier filed a complaint against the stalker, but guess what.. He ran away only to come back and stab her 7 times! She was an air-hostess in the making.
  2. April 2017 – A 50 year old woman was stabbed twice in her stomach inside her flat of a gated posh Andheri colony. Thankfully she survived!
  3. Dec 2016 – 23 year old Capgemini employee was stabbed to death in Pune while returning from work one evening. This victim too was known to be harassed and stalked by the assailant for a while before the attack.
  4. Oct 2016 – A 34 year old woman was stabbed to death on a crowded metro station in Gurugram by a jilted suitor stalking her for months. This happened on a Monday morning NOT night. The assailant slashed her throat, stabbed her multiple times on her neck, chest, stomach and hand ultimately killing her.
  5. Sept 2016 – A 28 year old woman was stabbed to death by her stalker of 6 years in Delhi. Cut, chased down and stabbed in the stomach, this woman was a mother of two. She had registered complaint against the stalker, who was arrested once then let out on bail and then twice matter resolved by family intervention.
  6. Sept 2016 – A 21 year old woman was stabbed to death in broad daylight on her way to work, she was a teacher. She was stabbed 22 times brutally with a scissor by her stalker of 18 months.
  7. June 2016 – 24 year old woman was hacked to death early morning while waiting for her train on Chennai railway station. The stalker of this Infosys employee who was allegedly one of her friends, was harassing her for sometime demanding her to marry him and eventually hacked her with a sickle.

How many of the above women and their causes of death did you remember? None of these women were defying anything, proving any point but just trying their best to make a good life for themselves despite looming stalkers and daily dangers.

Honestly, being part of that privileged section in real life outside the SM bling, I’ll not give two hoots about any stupid misogynistic comment made by any two bit politician or self proclaimed “samaj ka thekedaar” and carry on with my life going out at whatever time, doing whatever like all those women putting pics on ANC without explaining my life to anyone.

The fact is, this fad will fade. But personally I can’t get over the stalking leading to stabbing of little Ragini and the many before her, because once I wasn’t privileged (and safer in my car) and because once I was young n helpless and have been molested and chased down on roads and felt utterly disgusted, helpless, got into accidents trying to flee from stalkers.

So why are we so bothered about going up against faceless commentators who we don’t own anything in life by trending silly #hashtags but not collectively raising our voices to question the authorities about this lackadaisical law & order situation, and continue to shout and scream till they answer? Why not demand for stricter implementations of law and swift justice? Why not also holding society structures like the film industry etc for promoting this stalking culture blatantly in the name of romance? Why are we still taking the easy way out by skimming the surface and soothing our guilt by making such half-hearted efforts right before dozing off again till the next stabbing? Why?

Don’t get me wrong that I’m trying to impose that privileged women are safe and their harassment be overlooked or not taken seriously, they maybe just a bit safer overall. That’s why whatever the movement it has to be ALL inclusive one and not a factional, fashionable ephemeral whim of a few.

Elon Musk blasts the American media for carrying fake news about him

OpIndia Staff
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Elon Musk blasts the American media for carrying fake news about him

Recently famous publications like Business Insider and the Fortune magazine published a story about visionary tech-entrepreneur Elon Musk firing his long term secretary.

The report which 1st appeared in Business Insider around 9th August, sourced information from his 2015 biography written by Ashlee Vance. The report claimed that in 2014 Elon Musk’s executive assistant named Mary Beth Brown who had been working for him for 12 years had asked for a significant raise.

He then rather than obliging her with one, asked her to take a two weeks off during which time he would perform her duties and determine whether she was was indeed critical to his success. Brown returned after 2 week and then Musk relieved her of her duty.

This ruthless story was the basis of report, which then gave guidelines about how to remain worthwhile to the company. The Fortune magazine then also decided to carry the same report under the title:

How to Not Get Fired by Elon Musk — And Be Indispensable at Work

Musk who is generally active on twitter, decided to react to them and in the process blasted the media houses for not carrying out a proper fact check before publishing their article.

According to him, the biography in question was never independently fact checked even though he had requested so. He then put for his version of events. He claimed that his secretary was asked to stop working as her role now demanded various specialists as opposed to her being a generalist. Even though she was let go, it wasn’t before she was compensated with a whole year’s salary plus company stock.

The CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX then blasted the TIME media group which owns the Fortune magazine by asking them to spend at-least a few moments to carry out the necessary fact check:


Questions might also be raised as to why the publications decided to carry the story now out of the blue even as the biography has been out for about 2 years. It also remains to be seen if the numerous victims of Fake News in India too would take a cue from Musk and start protesting against the “hitjobs” carried out by the media.

Just 10 reasons why I feel insecure as a Hindu, thanks to the Indian state

Divya
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Just 10 reasons why I feel insecure as a Hindu, thanks to the Indian state

Vice President Hamid Ansari is making headlines for his exit interview to Rajya Sabha TV. He spoke at length about how Muslims in the country are ‘feeling uneasy due to the current wave of ‘hyper nationalism’. That he deemed it fit to speak on behalf of only one community and not on wider national issues that are faced by the nation is a debate for another day.

In his interview, he ascribed the spate of vigilante violence, mob lynching, beef bans, Ghar waapsi campaigns to the breakdown of Indian values. Unfortunately, the current liberal narrative has hyphenated mob lynching with Gau rakshaks and Hindutva forces, though there is enough data to prove otherwise.

It is a sorry state of affairs that the lynching of Junaid near Faridabad gets acknowledged by the Chief Minister of Kerala while the lynching of Dr Manoj Narang in Delhi was not even acknowledged by the Delhi Chief Minister.

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have already addressed the issue of Gau rakshaks on multiple forums. These have all been incidents carried out by individuals with no backing from the State. The perpetrators have also been punished in most cases. Justice has been meted out as the crime was committed by individuals.

But is redressal possible when injustice is perpetrated by the State?

Since we are on the subject of citizen insecurity, let us look at a few incidents in recent history, which bring forth a deep sense of insecurity to many, as Hindu citizens of this country:

  1. It is increasingly being revealed how the UPA govt had tried to implicate Hindu terror in what was a cross border attack (with or without local support). It was a well thought out and minutely detailed plot, aimed solely at establishing the existence of something called “Hindu terror”. Not only was this done with the agenda of giving Pakistan a clean chit and a free pass, there was a more nefarious plan of implicating Hindus in terror cases, with the help of the might of the state machinery. Sadhvi Pragya and Colonel Purohit’s lives are a tragic testimony to this. How secure am I supposed to feel as a Hindu when the government of the day was looking at ways of cornering, labelling and brandishing me as a terrorist?
  2. Mulayam Singh has gone on record saying that he had ordered the shooting of Karsevaks to placate the feelings of Muslims after Babri demolition. How secure am I supposed to feel as a Hindu if my blood is going to be used as armour for vote bank politics?
  3. After the 1993 Mumbai blasts, the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar had concocted a story about a 13th blast, whereas in reality there had been only 12 blasts. The reason for this blatant lie was that all 12 blasts had occurred in Hindu dominated localities and he did not want Muslims to be victimised. Thus he added a fictitious account of a blast in Masjid Bunder, a Muslim dominated locality in Mumbai. To add insult to injury, he was praised by Justice Srikrishna Commission for this noble gesture. How secure should this make me feel as a Hindu citizen?
  4. Haji Mehboob, a litigant in Babri Masjid dispute was exposed on secret tape proudly admitting that he threw bombs at Hindus for 2.5 hours back in 1992, and further proclaiming that he would not hesitate throwing bombs at devotees if Ram Mandir was constructed on the disputed site. He roams free. How secure am I expected to feel as a Hindu if I cannot pray in a temple that will only come up after a due legal process has been conducted?
  5. Talking of throwing bombs at Hindu devotees, there have been numerous attacks on Amarnath Yatris in the last decade or more. How secure should I feel as a Hindu if I’m not confident of returning alive from one of the oldest pilgrimages, that dates back to the 11th century in a state that is being aggressively eyed by Islamists? And when the state, for a change, helps Hindus here, blatant Hinduphobia is spread by international publications calling it ‘Weaponisation of spiritual tourists’. Are we supposed to just die? Lebensunwertes Leben?
  6. How secure am I supposed to feel as a Hindu in Kanglapahari village in West Bengal where I am not allowed to organise or participate in Durga Pujo celebrations? Because I am told my celebrations may offend the local Muslim community?
  7. How safe did Kashmiri Hindus feel when messages of hatred were delivered to them from loudspeakers in mosques back in 1990? How safe do Kashmiri Hindus feel now at the prospect of going back to the only place they have ever called Home?
  8. How safe does the juvenile Hindu boy somewhere in West Bengal feel after he has been jailed for an innocuous Facebook post? (Though in this case must admit he is probably safer in jail than out of it).
  9. How safe should Hindus feel when the constitution doesn’t allow them to run schools and institutions that can preserve and promote their culture and beliefs? You need to have a minority tag to have this right. Hindu groups are now in a race to prove that they are not Hindus so that they can have “minority” rights. Imagine, a constitution that forces Muslims to prove they are non-Muslims if they want these rights.
  10. How safe and secure should Hindus feel when hate crimes against them are not even acknowledged as hate crimes, and their religious festivals are branded as provocative political gestures that must be banned? And if they can’t be defamed and banned, put restrictions on them and extract money for celebrating the festivals. Jaziya anyone?

These are just 10 reasons – one each for every year Hamid Ansari spent in a constitutional office. But trust me, one each for every week can be found, but let us keep it short. You get the drift basically.

It is abundantly evident that an average Hindu citizen in India has enough reasons to feel “insecure” as well. Probably more so as erstwhile governments and secular state governments have been guilty on numerous occasions of using their might to oppress or tarnish Hindus.

The Muslim citizen on the other hand has been pandered to by the State with multiple overreach programmes. What we are looking at today is lawless behaviour by a few individuals (which is peddled as Muslims under attack) vs Victimisation by the State (Which has been proved to be a reality under former governments).

While we witness awards being returned for one, the other is brushed under the carpet or dismissed as Whataboutery. This hypocrisy of seculars has already yielded terrible electoral results for them. But for some strange reason they refuse to see the writing on the wall.

Perhaps they were confident that thanks to their command over media and academia, they have convinced the average Hindu to live perpetually in guilt and be blind and numb to these injustices. Perhaps they were confident because the narrative has been hijacked by self- hating Hindus in positions of power, who have peddled untruths and half lies to the unsuspecting masses all along.

Thankfully an awakening has been witnessed among many Hindus, who refuse to tow the burden of secularism any longer. Faux victimisation and shaming the country is no longer being accepted without a murmur. The backlash received by Mr Ansari bears testimony to the fact.

Monkey roams around the seats of AAP MLAs in Delhi Assembly, snake also found

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Monkey roams around the seats of AAP MLAs in Delhi Assembly, snake also found

In some “monkey business” which happened in the National capital, a money dodged heavy security at the Delhi assembly on Thursday and started to roam around. As he got inside the assembly premises, he decided to do a bit of sightseeing and moved around the benches reserved for the opposition before making his way towards the seats of AAP MLAs.

The doors of the assembly were soon opened to throw the monkey out but by then he had already left the premises after pestering all the MLAs present inside. This incident happened at about 4 PM on Thursday ,when senior politicians like Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Leader of opposition Vijender Gupta were debating on the issue of guest teachers.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal though was most probably absent because, as alleged by rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra, he hasn’t yet attended a single proceeding of the ongoing monsoon session.

Apparently monkeys aren’t the only issue, the Delhi assembly is also reportedly infested with snakes. A couple of them were caught just a couple of days before the current monsoon session had began. This risk of infestation means that the forest department conducts regular checks of the assembly premises.

This isn’t the only time animals have been found creating a menace around the legislative buildings of the country. It had been reported in the past about the monkey and dogs bothered our Parliament. In 2014 the then Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu had stated in the parliament that efforts were being made to curb the menace.

In order to do so, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) had hired 40 youths who were given training to disguise themselves as monkeys (possibly with the help of monkey costumes) to try and scare away the langurs. Dog catchers too were mobilised to make bi-weekly visits to catch catch non-immunised and stray dogs.

This probably wasn’t taken up on a long term basis as a monkey entered the parliament premises in 2016 and stayed over there for about 30 minutes.

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