On Thursday (October 21), former Czech-American tennis player Martina Navratilova took potshots at the BJP government in India on the basis of fake news peddled by Islamism apologist profiled by Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint, CJ Werleman, who is often branded as a journalist.
In a tweet, she wrote, “Quite the democracy, eh? Trying to catch up to trump, I see. But then Modi and trump were pretty chummy from what I could see… will Modi speak up against this man and his rhetoric? I doubt it…”
The comments by the 18-time Grand Slam winner was based on a piece of fake news, which was shared by columnist and ‘Islamophobia crusader’ CJ Werleman. He had tweeted a video of Pramod Muthalik, the chief of the Hindu activist group Shri Rama Sene, to allege that he called for violence against Muslims and the demolition of a mosque in Karnataka. “Leader of Hindutva group Sri Ram Sena calls for violence against Muslims and the demolition of Jumma Mosque in Karnataka,” he wrote.
Leader of Hindutva group Sri Ram Sena calls for violence against Muslims and the demolition of Jumma Mosque in Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/GYoyyd8PHs
— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) October 20, 2021
The Truth
OpIndia had earlier reported how left-liberal news websites had falsely claimed that Pramod Muthalik called for a “Babri-like” demolition of the Jamia Masjid in Gadag in Karnataka. However, in reality, he had made no such claims. In a speech delivered in Kannada, he had said, “We had to fight for 72 years for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Finally, after 72 long years of struggle, Babri Masjid was removed, and we successfully built a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.”
He had added, “In the same manner, I can challenge you that the Jama Masjid in Gadag was a Venkateshwara temple. Take out the documents, and you will have proof that there was a temple. Like Babri Masjid, which was built on a temple, Venkateshwara Temple was one of the many temples demolished during Tipu Sultan’s rule, and Jama Masjid was built at the spot. We have proof, and we should launch a struggle.”
Therefore, Pramod Muthalik did not call for the destruction of the Jama Masjid in Gadag to make way for Venkateshwara temple and was simply laying his claim. He was only saying that the mosque was built after demolishing a Hindu temple, but didn’t say that the mosque should be demolished now.
Martina Navratilova and her comments on the Indian government
Earlier in May, Martina Navratilova had wished ‘good luck’ to India to remove PM Modi from office. She had tweeted, “Who is worse- trump or Modi? Hard to tell- but at least we got rid of our wannabe dictator. Good luck India!!!”
Who is worse- trump or Modi? Hard to tell- but at least we got rid of our wannabe dictator
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) May 1, 2021
Good luck India!!! https://t.co/1NYKpKL3Yi
In October this year, she had mocked the comment made by Home Minister Amit Shah about PM Modi being the most democratic leader.
And for my next joke …😳🤡 https://t.co/vR7i5etQcv
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 10, 2021
The tennis legend had also hailed ‘jorunalist’ Rana Ayyub as a ‘hero.’
Rana is a hero!!! https://t.co/i4nUo5PWw2
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 22, 2021
The Supreme Court of India had trashed Ayyub’s ‘non-fiction’ book and observed, “The Book by Rana Ayyub is of no utility. It Is based upon surmises, conjectures, and suppositions and has no evidentiary value. The opinion of a person is not in the realm of the evidence. There is a likelihood of the same being politically motivated, cannot be ruled out. The way in which things have moved in Gujarat post- Godhra incident, such allegations and counter-allegations are not uncommon and had been raised a number of times and have been found to be untenable and afterthought.”
Note: Earlier this article identified CJ Werleman as columnist with ThePrint. However, it turns out, he was only ‘profiled’ by Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint and has not written any article for them. We have updated the copy. Error is regretted.
