The Rohtak Police officials have reportedly received a letter sent by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit, threatening to carry out terror attacks at railway stations and Hindu temples across 6 Indian states by October 8. The letter mentions many famous railway stations such as Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Kota, Chennai, Hisar and Rohtak.
A letter, reportedly sent by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed has been received by Rohtak Railway station officials, threatening to blow up railway stations and temples across six states by October 8.https://t.co/q4sToWKfo7
The Haryana Railway Police officials claimed that the letter was sent to Rohtak Junction Station Superintendent’s office and was received by the station manager around 3 pm on Saturday by ordinary post. A man named Masood Ahmed, purportedly from Karachi, Pakistan is mentioned as the sender on the letter.
Following the terror threat, security has been tightened in and around Rewari railway station and other important locations and places mentioned in the letter as the authorities do not want to take the threat lightly. The police are yet to establish the authenticity of the letter which appears to be written on a torn-notebook paper.
After the abrogation of Article 370, the intelligence agencies had warned that their credible input sources informed them that the terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed is training its cadres to carry out terror attacks in India. The Navy chief had last month warned of underwater attack while Lt Gen SK Saini, GOC-in-C, Army Southern Command declared a terror alert in the southern states after discarded boats were found in Sir Creek in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa stated that some intel reports are indicating a possible attack on Indian Air Force’s air bases in Gujarat.
The abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir and the subsequent bifurcation of the state has given rise to a brand new cottage industry. The cottage industry attempts to write op-eds in order to influence the international opinion against India with respect to its sovereign action in the State. The cottage industry, one might think emanates from Pakistan, however, the truth is that India itself has several such elements who don’t hesitate to lie to project India in a bad light. One of those players is Leftist propaganda website The Wire, which is run by an American passport holder, Siddharth Varadarajan. The Wire on 14th September 2019 published an article headlined, “Ground Report: Kashmir’s Blackout Is Triggering a New Wave of Mental Health Issues”.
The report resorts to a classic propaganda method. It tries to add useless information in order to obfuscate from what the headline claims, that is, mental health deteriorating after the abrogation of Article 370. While the article includes a host of useless information that has nothing to do with the subject, it then uses conjecture and speculation to tie it all together and somehow, assert that Kashmiris are facing mental health issues after the abrogation of Article 370.
The Wire article starts with a sample of its modus operandi. At the outset, it says that ‘Doctors predicted a rise in the number of cases presenting with stress and anxiety, as a consequence of the removal of Article 370 and the accompanying communications blockade has prevented many from talking to their families or stepping out of home for fear they will be unable to contact their families when out”.
The Wire article
The Wire headline clearly asserts that there is a mental healthcare crisis in the state owing to the decision of the central government, however, at the very outset of the article, The Wire simply admits that it is a mere prediction by doctors, who have not been named in the entire article.
They then proceed to spin a yarn that would leave the readers dizzy.
The Wire talks about a 2015 survey that they use as an indication of the mental health issues prevalent in Kashmir.
Wire article
The 2015 Survey essentially studied how widespread mental health issues were in Kashmir and what were the associated causes. While the conflict was certainly one of the causes of mental health issues in Kashmir, as per the same survey quoted by The Wire from 2015, “The most-reported problems of daily life faced by adults living in the valley are financial issues, poor health and unemployment. The main coping strategies adopted by Kashmiri adults are prayer, talking to a family member or friend and keeping busy”.
Interestingly, the MSF study that says that the ‘main coping strategies adopted by Kashmiri adults are prayer, talking to a family member or friend and keeping busy’, is quoted in a completely different context by The Wire further down in the article. While the MSF study says that the main cause for depression is financial issues, poor health and unemployment, The Wire uses the coping mechanism employed for depression owing to these causes and connect it to Burhan Wani.
The Wire article quotes an unnamed psychiatrist and says, “…giving the example of the 2016 unrest in the Valley – when Indian security forces had killed the militant Burhan Wani, causing the state to suffer an estimated loss of more than Rs 16,000 crore between July and November that year. Patients had started coming in only after a year of that incident, the IMHANS psychiatrist said. People prioritise their basic needs and not mental health during periods of turmoil and seek help after things normalise, he explained, “Also a very minuscule proportion of people seek help, rest find other ways to cope. Human beings are very resilient.”
It is after this assertion that The Wire article says, “Kashmiri adults use prayer as a coping strategy, as well as talking to a family member or friend, and “keeping busy”, the MSF study said”, thereby giving the impression that Kashmiri folks pray and keep busy to cope with mental health issues after ‘traumatic incidents’ like the security forces killing a terrorist like Burhan Wani.
It is only later that the article mentions the leading cause of depression in Kashmiris as mentioned in th MSF report. Not only that, The physician quoted by The Wire says that the effect on mental health issues that the central government’s move could have had would be understood only after a few years. One wonders how, in that case, has The Wire already concluded that the abrogation of Article 370 led to a mental health crisis.
The chicanery of The Wire to assert rising mental health issues in Kashmir does not stop there and only gets more brazen.
In a section with the subheading, “Patients reluctant, unable to access healthcare”, Wire quotes fake news IndiaSpend to say that patients have not been able to access healthcare since August 5th 2019 so as to give the impression that even though Kashmiris are facing mental health issues due to the abrogation, they are not being able to get themselves treated. However, they follow it up in the same section by stating “Even in a normal situation, few people access mental healthcare, in particular”. In that case, how did The Wire manage to tie it to the abrogation of Article 370 is a mystery yet to be solved.
Following this, The Wire’s blatant agenda becomes even more clear.
The Wire article
The Wire goes on to assert that after the abrogation of Article 370 in August, 44.5% fewer patients visited IMHANS compared to July. However, they also say that this data is inconclusive as the number of patients was even lower in May.
The graph that they sourced from IMHANS is just added in the article without giving the readers an explanation for the discrepancies that the graph and The Wire’s arguments have.
Graph used by The Wire in their article
Interestingly, the highest mental health issues reported in Kashmir was in July, a month before the abrogation of Article 370. The lowest was in May.
The Wire article uses the statement of an anon physician to make a conclusion that the data does not support. Firstly, The Wire article proclaims that the number of health issue cases have gone up since the abrogation of Article 370. Then, they quote a physician to say that the actual effect of the move on mental health will be visible only a few years from now. Then, they use the lie about Kashmiris having no access to healthcare to insinuate that while mental health issues have increased, the cases in August are low because of no access to healthcare, however, since the cases were even lower in May and the highest in June, the data is inconclusive. Why did The Wire not draw the obvious, more simple conclusion that mental health cases are down in August, were down in May and the highest in July?
In the rest of the article, they liberally use statements of children and other Kashmiris who claim they are upset. However, not one shred of evidence was presented by The Wire to back its assertion that mental health issues have gone up after the abrogation of Article 370.
This blatant chicanery by The Wire is not surprising. The Wire itself has been caught numerous times peddling fake news and a narrative, laced with lies, that only hurts the cause of India. To top that, one of the co-authors of this article published in The Wire is a correspondent from IndiaSpend. This article itself was first published in IndiaSpend. Recently, IndiaSpend, much like this dubious article in The Wire, had quoted data to further a fake narrative on beef export, which was busted by the data quoted in its own article.
IndiaSpend itself was responsible for furthering the highly dubious hate crime watch database that has now shut shop. With their bigoted agenda and dubious track record, the IndiaSpend Factchecker.in had all along attempted to push Hinduphobic propaganda by selectively reporting crimes in which accused were allegedly Hindus and referred to it as a ‘Hate crime’ while deliberately ignoring those crimes committed in which perpetrators were Muslims and the victims were Hindus.
The ‘Hate Crime Watch’ initiative of the Factchecker.in, which began as a supposed tracking tool of hate crimes across the country, soon began to manifest its true colours by not only limiting its reporting to Hinduphobic content but also whitewashing crimes committed by Muslims against the Hindus. In fact, there have been instances where IndiaSpend’s ‘factchecker’ journalist was caught trying to manipulate a minor Dalit victim from Begusarai who, along with his family, was attacked by local Muslim goons, trying to force them to sell their home to prove that there was no ‘hate crime’.
In an attempt to justify their statement of not treating a terror attack – where the terrorist himself declared that it was a religious war against infidels – as a religious hate crime, FactChecker compared the terrorist attack with alleged attacks on Kashmiris in some parts of India after the Pulwama terror attack. They claimed that they have not included such attacks either as ‘hate crime’ as it doesn’t fit into their ‘motivated by religious identity’ criteria, because such attacks appear motivated by regional identities of the victims, not religious.
In another shocking revelation, the law student from Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, who has accused BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand of raping her and “physically exploitation” stated that the former MP recorded videos of her while she was in the bath and used them to blackmail and rape her.
According to the reports, the 23-year-old postgraduate student’s statement was recorded under section 161 of CrPC on Friday and a pen drive was handed over in which “all the evidence against the BJP leader” is stored. The victim said that she has a total of 43 videos including a video of a sexual act shot by the accused.
“I have full trust in the apex court and they will help me get justice,” the woman said.
Reportedly, the woman’s father has handed over 43 video clips to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case. He has also demanded that Section 376, along with the provisions for destroying evidence, be evoked against the former MP as some of the evidence has been removed from the hostel room of his daughter at the BJP leader’s behest.
The woman’s father told reporters that Chinmayananad had raped his daughter after blackmailing her with the recorded videos. His daughter then decided to record all his acts using a hidden camera.
A friend of the law student had also spoken out in her support, confirming the charges pressed against the former MP.
“She studied with me in the same college and had told me about the problems she was facing. She told me she was first given free food and other privileges in the hostel but was unaware of what was in store for her. Later, she told me that when she went for a bath, her video was recorded, which was later used to blackmail her,” the friend recalled.
On Friday, Chinmayanand was grilled by the SIT for more than 7 hours in Shahjanapur. The SIT members and a forensic team also spent six hours at his Divya Dham Ashram, where his bedroom was later sealed.
The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had alleged that Swami Chinmayanand had raped her and physically assaulted her for over a year. She had released a video on social media on August 23, levelling allegations of sexual harassment against Chinmayanand.
The student, however, went missing three days after the allegations were made. This had raised suspicion that the BJP leader had abducted her and accordingly, the police had registered a case of abduction against him.
But later she was traced in a Delhi hotel with one of her male friends, who allegedly made extortion call to Swami Chinmayanand demanding ₹5 crore. They had left the hotel before the police could reach there, but later they were found in Rajasthan. The girl had confessed that she had gone on her own with her friend, and she was not abducted by Chinmayanand.
Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, while allowing senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to visit Jammu & Kashmir, said that if requirement arises, he may also visit Jammu & Kashmir. While allowing Azad to visit four districts of Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar, Baramulla, Anantnag and Jammu, CJI said that he will not make any speeches or hold any public rally.
The apex court also asked the Centre and J&K administration that normalcy is restored in Jammu & Kashmir while keeping in mind national safety and security. The SC also fixed hearing on the matter challenging abrogation of Article 370 to September 30 for further hearing.
Earlier, Ghulam Nabi Azad had gone to Srinagar twice and was sent back both the times from the airport. Azad has been a very vocal critic of abrogation of Article 370 which made Jammu and Kashmir a part of India without any terms and conditions attached.
Azad had gone to the Kashmir to be a part of the ‘sadness’ that has crept over the state after the government took the “murderous decision” of bifurcating the state and repealing Article 370. He had also insinuated that the Kashmiris are a tradeable commodity as he stated that locals in Shopian who were seen earlier dining out with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were paid for the charade.
The Supreme Court will today hear a petition seeking the live-streaming of the proceedings in the Ram Janmabhoomi case. As per reports, the plea has been filed by RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
KN Govindacharya has requested the court that if live video streaming was not possible, at least an audio recording of the hearing should be available for the public.
SC seeks report from its Registry on how much time it would take to facilitate live-streaming of proceedings in Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.A Bench headed by CJI says after Registry’s report a decision to be taken whether to live-stream proceedings of the case. pic.twitter.com/pkm4XMuxxp
Further, the SC bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi has sought a report from the registry on how much time it would take to facilitate the live-streaming of proceedings in the Ram Janmabhoomi case. The SC bench has stated that a decision on this regard will be taken only after the registry’s report.
The SC bench has been hearing the Ayodhya land dispute case on a day-to-day basis since August 6.
The Sunni Waqf Board has been objecting to live-streaming of the proceedings.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah has been detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Farooq Abdullah has now been detained under the Public Safety Act. The Public Safety Act allows the government to detain a person for up to 2 years without a trial. The union government’s decision to slap PSA on the National Conference leader reportedly came on Sunday night.
According to reports, Farooq Abdullah has been detained at his residence by the government under PSA and his house has been declared as subsidiary jail. He will continue to stay at his house. There is however no bar on meeting relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has sought a response from the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration on a plea seeking to produce Farooq Abdullah before the court.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer issued a notice to the Centre and the state. The apex court also decided to hear the plea of Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK leader Vaiko’s on September 30.
Soon after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 7, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had not stepped out of the house and even skipped the assembly session claiming he was unwell. After Home Minister Amit Shah informed the house that Abdullah is neither arrested nor detained but had skipped Lok Sabha out of his own free will, former CM Abdullah woke up and gave media bytes stating why would he stay inside his house when ‘his state is being burned’ and his people are being executed in jails.
The new rules and hefty fines under the new MV Act have been generating news reports of monumental fines and sometimes hilarious methods adopted by the public to escape them. In a recently surfaced video, a Delhi girl is seen arguing with the traffic police after being stopped for a rules violation. The girl’s theatrics caught a lot of attention.
#Breaking | High-level drama was witnessed in the National Capital after a girl was caught traffic violating rules. pic.twitter.com/kvSMzpwPRs
The unnamed girl in Delhi was reportedly stopped for the broken license plate on her two-wheeler. When the traffic police demanded to see the scooter’s documents, she stated that she had no papers. When the traffic cops began issuing a ‘Challan’, the girl first requested one of them to ‘come to a side to talk’. When the cops refused, the girl started throwing full-scale tantrums.
The girl claimed she is would hang herself in that very spot. The traffic cops joked with her that she is most welcome to try. When another cop pointed it out to her that even her helmet is defective and does not meet the safety norms, the girl said that she will throw the helmet on them.
The girl stated that she has no documents with her. The agitated girl first argued, then threatened the cops. When nothing seemed to work, she declared that she is ‘calling her mom’.
It is really admirable that the girl seemed to think her mom is a bigger threat than ‘I will hang myself’ and ‘I will throw the helmet’. Also despite driving with a broken license plate, defective helmet and no documents, the girl was still confident enough to invite the cops to ‘come aside and talk’. The quintessential Delhi girl stereotype just seems to have got a new brand ambassador.
The Bengaluru police on Saturday arrested two people, including a TV journalist, for kidnapping and robbing a 68-year-old man from Hubbali.
According to the reports, the prime accused, Ranjitha, a TV anchor got in touch with the victim through social media. She and her associates then planned to honeytrap him and extort money, said police.
A senior police officer said that TV Anchor Ranjitha befriended the victim and invited him for a two-day trip to Bengaluru. On August 25, he came to Bengaluru to meet her and the duo booked a cab to a resort on Kanakapura Road.
As they were in the room, a group of men allegedly barged in and forced him to sleep on the bed with Ranjitha and started recording a video. Reportedly, they asked him to take off his clothes and then shoved him in a car and brought him to Suresh’s office in Govindrajnagar. Suresh is the state president of a labourers association and his car was used to kidnap the victim.
They took Rs 15,000 from him and demanded that he give them Rs 25 lakh else they will release his photos and videos. When the victim agreed to transfer the amount, he was released.
Govind BT, an investigating officer said the victim, who is a retired employee, discussed the case with a friend and then decided to file a complaint. On September 12, he approached Bengaluru police and two of the accused were nabbed. They also seized Suresh’s car.
“Suresh made a statement that Ranjitha and one of her colleagues, who is also a journalist, allegedly hatched the plan to make easy money. Five of the accused are absconding, and efforts are on to nab them, Govind added.
The police have now arrested N Suresh and Chandrashekar, residents of Govindarajnagar. The other associates of Ranjitha, V Srinivas, Chandrashekar, Vikas and Shivu, are residents of Vijaynagar. Chandrashekar is also a reporter with a news channel.
N Ram, the Chairman of the Kasturi and Sons limited that owns The Hindu Group, has claimed that former finance minister P Chidambaram is innocent and there is ‘no material evidence’ against him other than the words of the murder accused Indrani Mukherjea.
As per a report in The Hindu, N Ram attended a meeting of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee in Chennai to condemn Chidambaram’s arrest on Sunday, 15 September and spoke in favour of Chidambaram. Proclaiming that Chidambaram has done nothing wrong, the publisher of The Hindu claimed that a ‘monstrous injustice’ has been done to Chidambaram by sending him to jail. He added that there is no ‘material evidence’ against Chidambaram.
N Ram even went ahead to criticise the courts of India for sending Chidambaram to jail. He added, “The only intention behind those who have orchestrated his arrest and unfortunately the highest courts of the land have fallen victim to this, is to deny him liberty as long as possible. That’s the whole intention,”
Criticising the Delhi HC for dismissing Chidambaram’s bail plea, N Ram stated, “They have virtually adopted the case of the prosecution. For seven months, judgment was reserved. Just before the judge retired, the judgment came out depriving Chidambaram of any opportunity to appeal,”
Ram even did not even spare the judges of the Supreme Court. He stated that there are factual mistakes in the order of justices R Bhanumathi and Bopanna. He claimed that the judges said that Chidambaram’s assets have been confiscated which is completely wrong. He pushed for the need for a review petition to be filed soon.
Ram claimed that there is no basis to accuse Chidambaram except the statements of two murder accused (the Mukerjeas). He also asserted that the court should have granted bail to Chidambaram because there was no danger of any documents being suppressed or witness being threatened. He added that it was a ‘great shame’ that justice was not delivered in the case.
Congress leaders MP K Jayakumar and Peter Alphone stated that Chidambaram is being targeted by the BJP and it is a political fight, not a legal one.
Alphonse said, “A government which doesn’t take any action on big cases involving their party men, is only pursuing cases against a person who has done no wrong, is a renowned politician.”
Suba Veerapandian, the president of Dravida Iyakka Thamizhar Peravai stated that a psychological war is being unleashed on Congress to create an impression that it cannot rise again.
Yesterday, Haryana CM Manohar Lal proclaimed that Haryana will implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Under pressure of coming elections (which Congress is sure to lose badly), Bhupinder Hooda jumped to support the proposal. So now we have bipartisan support for NRC to be implemented in the state. Good.
It is only a matter of time before this spreads to all other states after Haryana has received bipartisan support for the implementation of NRC.
Again, good development, but we need to learn the lessons from the Assam experience. A few days ago, I wrote a very bitter and despairing article on the NRC in Assam, admitting how everyone had let down the state, allowed its demography to be altered irrevocably by foreigners. The common refrain is that illegal migrants had been one step ahead of genuine citizens, getting their documents in better shape.
Liberals obviously see the Assam experience as a victory. Well, they see anything that takes India one step closer to destruction as a victory. They hope it will put a chill on plans to implement NRC anywhere else.
Remember, liberals don’t care if people eventually wake up and implement NRC everywhere. They just need it to be put off long enough so that the demography changes irrevocably.
And if you have lived in any major Indian city, you know that the ground is shifting under our feet and very fast.
We need a strategy.
The very first thing to do is pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which will clearly and unapologetically spell out the difference between an asylum seeker (such as a Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist etc escaping from Pakistan/Bangladesh) and an infiltrator.
To a large extent, this should solve the problem of genuine Indians losing out while “better prepared” illegal migrants get through.
The second thing is to secure the border, especially with Bangladesh. The BSF needs to be given the resources to seal the border completely and stop all illegal border crossings.
An easy thing to do is to immediately deport all illegal Rohingya migrants from India. To a large extent, the government knows who they are and where they are.
The fourth leg is a diplomatic one and will require delicate negotiations. We have to get Bangladesh to agree to take deported illegal migrants. Remember that even if illegal migrants are isolated, we still need a sovereign country (usually Bangladesh) to accept them back. This will need a tricky carrot and stick policy. Because Bangladesh is an ally after all and China is always lurking in the shadows, waiting to snag any opportunity that might be presented by worsening India-Bangladesh relations.
The fifth and most important is to create an iron-clad law defining two things: first, what constitutes proof of Indian citizenship. Since we have very few cases of citizenship by naturalization, this largely means we have to define what is needed to prove that at least one parent is an Indian citizen (and the other parent cannot be an illegal migrant).
This is a difficult task, given the realities of India. But tell me what is easy about India? Is it easy to manage one billion people, when less than half of them had access to toilets just five years ago?
The second thing the law must do is explain what happens to illegal migrants, once identified. We cannot have them burdening public finances by means of the welfare system.
One cost-effective way of getting rid of illegal migrants is getting them to ‘self deport.’ It means we make it too hard for them to stay around in the shadows: how about no SIM cards, no welfare, no admission for their kids to public schools, no way to get a job, start a business or obtain a drivers license?
As I said, what liberals are really hoping for is that we keep putting NRC off until it is too late. They have a two-pronged strategy for achieving this. The first is to exaggerate the difficulties of the citizenship determination exercise, harping incessantly on the poverty and backwardness of India (I’m curious: whose governments left India poor and backward?). The second is to shame Indians by drawing unnecessary comparisons with the Trump administration in the United States. It’s a pity that we even need to point out that America is a nation of immigrants, while India was born out of Partition. And in any case, what America does is not our business. We have already had one Partition. Within India, we have had several “mini-Partitions” already: the displacement of Asomiya people, the expulsion of Hindus from Kashmir and so on. No more Partition. Never again. The Israelis get it. Why can’t we?
