In yet another embarrassment for the country, anti-Pakistan posters appeared across Geneva, Switzerland during the ongoing UNHRC meeting. The posters highlighting atrocities against minorities in Pakistan including Baloch and Pashtuns emerged outside the United Nations.
Switzerland: Posters highlighting the ‘Pashtun genocide in Pakistan’, put up across the city of Geneva. pic.twitter.com/dNJShDtU4M
Several groups have appealed to the UN to pull up Pakistan for oppression of minorities. Several banners and placards have been put up by “Save the Baloch” and ” Stop Genocide Pakistan” campaigns across Geneva near the UN Headquarters. These posters point out and highlight how a genocide is being carried out in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in a systematic manner by Pakistan.
Various human rights organisations have demanded release of missing persons and putting an end to atrocities carried out on Pashtuns and Balochs among others. It has alleged that due to forced abduction and killing, more than 32000 Pashtuns have gone missing over the past 10 years in Pakistan.
Pashtuns, a predominantly tribal people, have been a victim of the ongoing brutality by the hand of Pakistan administration.
The sexual allegation case against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand levelled by a law student from Shahjahanpur in UP has been witnessing a new twist with each passing day. In the latest, the law postgraduate student on Monday alleged that the former Union Minister had raped and sexually assaulted her for a year.
She mad these new allegations while addressing the press in Delhi. The woman, who was studying at a law college where Chinmayanand was the director, had gone missing after releasing the video on social media alleging harassment. She was found with her male friend a few days later in Rajasthan. She has now alleged that Chinmayanand exploited many more girls like her, but only she had the courage to come forward and file a complaint.
“Swami Chinmayanand sexually assaulted and physically exploited me for one year,” she alleged before the media, her face covered with a black scarf. “I have every evidence of the crime… go and open my hostel room,” she added.
The SIT probing allegations of harassment on Tuesday visited the ashram and the college run by Chinmayanand where the girl studied. The SIT opened the hostel room of the law student in the presence of her family. The hostel room had been sealed after the case came to light.
Claiming that she had proof, she had asked for her sealed hostel to be opened in front of the media. ‘I will give the proof, including video clips, at an opportune time against the 72-year-old BJP leader’, the woman had said.
The girl had further claimed that Shahjahanpur police was not registering the rape case, because of which she had to approach Delhi Police with a complaint accusing the BJP leader of raping her.
She has allegedly provided 14 videos as evidence to the SIT against Chinmayananad allegedly being massaged by a woman. He allegedly shot these videos through a hidden camera.
Moreover, her family has also provided a pen drive to SIT on Monday. The girl and her brother have claimed that if the SIT does a fair probe the pen drive would help with some vital evidence against Chinmayanand. According to the girl’s brother, the pen drive contains a video that is enough to expose the “real face” of the BJP leader.
The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh 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 abduciton against him.
Interestingly, the ‘abduction’ angle in the case was ruled out after the girl herself confessed before the Supreme Court on September 2 that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”
After a week-long hunt, the UP police traced the girl in Rajasthan with one of her friends named Sanjay Singh, who had allegedly made ransom calls to Swami Chinmayanand demanding Rs 5 crore.
After this, SC had ordered the government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the harassment charges levelled by the LLM student against Chinmayanand.
The SC had also requested the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to constitute a Bench to monitor this probe. The SIT will also take note of the FIR and the cross FIR filed in the case.
The girl’s family has been blaming Shahjahanpur police of inaction and alleging the police are treating them as the ‘culprits’ while the actual accused has not even come face to face with the Special Investigation Team yet.
“On Sunday, the SIT quizzed me for about 11 hours. I have told them about the rape. Even after telling them everything, they have not arrested Chinmayanand yet,” she said.
She alleged that when her father filed a complaint to police here about her physical exploitation, Shahjahanpur District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh “issued threats,” asking her father to file “a missing complaint” instead.
Earlier, Swami Chinmayanand had stated that he was being framed in the case as a part of a big conspiracy to malign the Uttar Pradesh government’s reputation.
However, the SIT has summoned Swami Chinmayanand to join the investigation.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with defence secretary Ajay Kumar and other senior officials will receive the first batch of the Rafale aircraft from France on October 8 on the occasion of Dussehra.
“8 October is auspicious for two reasons. It is both Dussehra and Air Force day on that day,” government sources were quoted in the report as saying.
It’s been three years since India signed a deal with the French government for 36 Rafale jets. Rafael is manufactured by Dassault Aviation SA, French aircraft manufacturer of military, regional, and business jets, and is a subsidiary of Dassault Group.
India inked a 36-fighter jet deal with the French manufacturer for over Euro 7.8 billion in September 2016 to arrest the fall of combat squadrons and meet urgent requirements on eastern and western fronts.
Earlier it was reported that Defence Minister and Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa would lead a large contingent of the Indian government to receive Rafale jets on September 20. However, there seems to be a change of plan as now it is being reported that an IAF team will be travelling to France at the same time to sign documents with the French officials, after which Indian pilots will start training on the Rafale planes.
“Once they start training, they may also fly the aircraft once the Defence Minister and his team reach the location near Bordeaux,” the sources said.
According to reports, though the induction of Rafale into the IAF will officially take place on October 8, the jets will start arriving in India from May 2020. The jets will arrive after accommodating the modifications as per the Indian specifications, and training of pilots and personnel in France.
Although small batches of Indian pilots have been trained on French Air Force planes already, IAF would train 24 more pilots in various batches to be able to fly the much-awaited Rafales from May next year.
Ambala in Haryana and Hashimara in West Bengal will be the airbases where the IAF will deploy one squadron each of the Rafale.
An upscale restaurant in Delhi named ‘WE Qutub’ got into trouble for denying entry to a Sikh man from Delhi, allegedly due to his religion and the attire he wore.
Param Sahib got into an altercation with the restaurant manager who reportedly not only denied Param and his friends’ entry into the plush restaurant but also misbehaved with him and his friend on Saturday night. He took to Instagram to post his ordeal.
He described the events in an Instagram post and wrote, “Hi @wequtub, today later in the evening, I along with my friends was not allowed inside the premises on the grounds of being a Sardar and having an untrimmed beard, with a reason saying that I am not cool enough as per the other Hindu gentry.” He alleged that his “female friends were spoken badly to, with a crass attitude from the guy at the counter” of the restaurant.
SS of the Instagram post of Param Sahib
“The guy at the counter said that we do not let Sikh people enter the lounge and that’s their motto, to which he later rectified and said that he didn’t like my pink shirt,” he added.
“We asked them to post an official apology and to organise langar for 100 poor kids, we are still in talks with them. I don’t want this to happen to anyone anymore. I just want them to stop this,” he added.
However, after taking it up on the photo-messaging app, the restaurant regretted whatever happened and tendered an apology to Param Sahib. They extended their apologies to his friends as well and assured that instant corrective measures had been taken against the manager and confirmed that Ravi Kishan, the restaurant staff, who allegedly misbehaved with the patrons had been fired following his ‘intolerable misconduct.’
WE QUTUB renders an apology
As a redemption, WE Qutub restaurant also agreed to organise langar for 100 poor street children as demanded by Param Sahib.
Param Sahib today took to Instagram to acknowledge and accept the apology tendered by the restaurant and said, “We have amicably decided to close this on.”
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh on Monday said that while the state is on the path to recovery, Pakistan sponsored terrorist organisations have been forcing the residents to not follow their daily chores.
As per a news report, Singh said that terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen have been coercing the people by forcing them to shut down shops and petrol pumps. “But pumps are open and we have ensured that shops are open wherever people want to open them,” he added.
Singh asserted that police have arrested several groups who were coercing the residents.
“They are doing so on behalf of Pakistan. They are being chased everywhere; we carried out two successful operations, one in Baramulla where one was killed and another terrorist was captured. A group working with Jaish-e-Mohammed was apprehended in Sopore yesterday. They were printing and pasting posters threatening people at various places. They are associates of terrorists, they were working on behalf of three local terrorists from Sopore,” he further added.
Informing about the capturing a notorious group from South Kashmir, Singh said it was a part of the infiltrating groups from across the border. He further said that their details will be released once the interrogation is over. Singh was speaking to the media in over a month after the abrogation of Article 370.
Singh blamed the Pakistani army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for their vicious attempt to infiltrate terrorists into India and said, “Pak agencies especially ISI and Pak Army have been very active, they’ve brought several terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) and have been making attempts to push them across.”
Frustrated by the Indian government’s unexpected move on Article 370, Pakistan army has resorted to ceasefire violations in an attempt to fuel unrest in the valley by pushing armed terrorists across the Indian side. “Our troops have been able to thwart many such attempts,” he added.
After Amnesty International India was served a show-cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate for receiving foreign funds violating FEMA norms, now it has come to light that the organisation is using that fund to prepare reports on Kashmir with pre-decided conclusion to spread propaganda globally. This has been revealed by documents accessed by Republic TV.
According to the report, Amnesty India is using funds received from foreign countries to prepare reports on Kashmir. They are doing this through a commercial entity, Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd. This company had started as a trust in 2010 with the name Amnesty International India Foundation Trust. But as they were denied approval under FCRA by the government in the same year, they had floated a company in the name of Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL) to receive foreign funds bypassing FCRA rules.
AIIPL is receiving funds from its parent organisation Amnesty International UK in the grab of exporting consultancy services. According to the ED, ₹51.72 crore has been received by Amnesty in India violating the FCRA rules, out of which ₹26 crore was paid to AIIPL towards consultancy services.
Now the documents accessed by Republic show that the services offered by AIIPL was to prepare reports on Kashmir, against which it received payments. But the most striking point is, in the agreements signed by Amnesty International with the Indian company for studies on Kashmir, the desired outcomes were pre-decided and mentioned.
The agreements have a deliverable section, which apart from mentioning what to deliver, also specifies what is to be mentioned in those reports. For example, for a report on ‘Kashmir access to justice’, costing 46,867 GBP, the deliverable section says that it has to research 10 individual cases of barriers to justice. Republic has accessed more than 50 pages of such documents containing multiple agreements to work on Kashmir.
The reports were supposed to be prepared after doing research and field work, but the conclusion of the reports, even their titles, were predetermined and mentioned in the agreements.
These documents show that Amnesty India has received around Rs 5,29,87,663 from Amnesty International (UK) over the last few years to only prepare reports on Kashmir. AIIPL has received the money in the name of “export of goods and services”, and has produced the Kashmir reports. The agreements show that almost 50% of the totally value of the works were paid in advance.
The ED has questioned these so-called exports of goods and services by AIIPL. The report quotes a top investigating officer saying “Amnesty India has so far not been able to furnish any documentary evidence of price negotiations with their only client Amensty International, UK. Also, no details in respect of breakup of costing whatsoever have been furnished by the company. In this case substantial export advance or exorbitantly high rates is questionable”. According to sources, although ₹51 crore was received towards export of services, no documentary proof of such export like invoices were furnished by the company.
ED had sent the show cause notice to Amnesty on 25 July, and today the company denied the charges. They acknowledged that they have received a notice from ED, but denied any wrongdoing. The organisation declined to reveal anything more before replying to the notice.
In October last year, the ED had conducted searches at its Bengaluru office in connection with its probe in the alleged violation of FDI guidelines and remittances it had received from the parent body. Its director Akar Patel’s residences were among premises searched by the agency then.
The agency was probing if the Amnesty adopted the FDI route to evade the foreign contribution regulation act as the government had tightened laws under FCRA and had cancelled registrations of hundreds of NGOs for their “anti-India” activities.
A village in Begusarai, Uttar Pradesh is on tenterhooks as the news of a Dalit girl being allegedly sexually assaulted by a young man from Muslim community has come to the fore, raising communal tempers in the region, says a report published on Swarajya by journalist Swati Goel Sharma.
The concerned man in question is a private tutor who lived two houses away from the victim’s house in Begasarai’s Khodabandpur block. The mother of the victim had no inkling of the excesses meted out on her daughter until the girl showed great reluctance in visiting the tutor’s house for her tuitions. It was then that the child described in excruciating detail about her tutor’s misdeeds.
The minor child who is yet to turn seven lives in Begusarai’s Khodabandpur block with her mother and 3 other siblings. Her father is living in Varanasi alone, where he runs a food cart for a living while his family continues to stay in Begusarai.
Around two weeks back, the minor girl refused to go to her tutor’s house for her tuitions. The tutor, alleged culprit, Mohammad Murtaza alias Dilkhush, lives just a couple of hundred metres away from the victim’s house. The family states that Murtaza is 22 years old but some reports suggest he is just 19.
The girl had been evading her tuition classes for some time now. She was also down with fever. After avoiding tuitions for many days giving vague reasons for not going to the tuitions, the child’s mother asked her if she was hiding something from the family. The girl said as quoted by her uncle, “Wo Ganda kaam karta hai.” The child’s mother found bite marks in her private parts.
According to the child’s uncle, Murtaza would take the girl behind the curtains, remove her clothes and sexually assault her. The livid mother gathered women from the colony and approached one Akhtar who is an IAS officer and had links with accused Murtaza’s uncle.
According to the reports, this is not the first time that Murtaza has molested girls. He has been a repeat offender and has sexually molested at least 3 girls before- One Paswan and 2 Thakurs. The child’s uncle asserted that the previous cases of molestation, which happened with older girls were hushed up by the families of the victims, fearing social stigma. He claimed that they never thought Murtaza would indulge in molesting a minor girl.
Murtaza, on the other hand, continued to deny the charges levelled against him. In a local panchayat where Murtaza admitted to his crime, he later claimed that he was pressurised by Akthar to testify for a crime which he had not committed. Murtaza further claimed that he was being framed in the case by the Dalit family for extortion. The victim’s uncle stated that the Muslims in the village weren’t keen on punishing the accused and the situation had devolved close to a Hindu-Muslim riot.
The family finally approached the police and filed a complaint mentioning molestation of their girl child at the hands of accused Murtaza. However, they are yet to receive an FIR in the case till now. According to some reports, the culprit has already fled the village with his relatives even as the police were trying to arrest him.
Scholar Hindol Sengupta created quite the storm on Twitter when he shared a work of art that he claimed was the ‘coolest version’ of Lord Ganesha. The work of Digital Art by Firhat Solhan showed a Being with two tusks with a crown of gold embedded with precious gems. It’s called ‘Meditation’ and there appears to be little to suggest that it’s actually Lord Ganesha.
By far the coolest version of Lord Ganesha I have seen. By the artist Firhat Solhan. pic.twitter.com/S6tWP1AwNL
Despite the artist not claiming that the Art portrayed Lord Ganesha (it was tagged elephant god by the artist on Deviant Art), Hindol Sengupta interpreted it as such. The instinctive reaction from Hindus to his caption was one of revulsion. People mostly pointed at the Islamic imagery in the work of art as the reason behind their disapproval. However, even instinctively, there appears to be something inherent about it that doesn’t ‘feel’ like it is about Ganesha.
The reasons could be debated but it could be said with a relative amount of certainty that the work of art wasn’t inspired by feelings of utmost piety. Religious works of art tend to have that effect unless they are driven by piety, the novel ideas do not manifest themselves in the manner the artists perhaps would have wanted to.
Consequently, Hindol Sengupta was mocked by people and his tweet even became a meme template.
Digital works of art of Gods and Goddesses can be beautiful and enchanting. The most obvious instance of it was the ‘Rudra Hanuman’ portrait by Karan Acharya that was a smashing hit by any measure. Despite the fact that it employed modern techniques, the aesthetics were still, quite clearly, Hindu.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a trend of portraying Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Digital Art that could only ever be described as ‘weird’, for the lack of a better word. In DeviantArt, one of the most popular websites where people share their work, such renditions abound.
An art depicting Indra by Molee on DeviantArt is a perfect example of this trend. While the art viewed in isolation is great, however, there appears to be very little about Indra to it. The God depicted in the rendition comes across as some Caucasian God, maybe Thor, but hardly Indra.
Artist: Molee/DeviantArt
Molee’s Digital Art depicting Rama, too, suffers from the same flaw. There’s nothing offensive or vulgar about it but it just ‘feels wrong’, so to speak. Here, too, Rama seems to be some Caucasian man rather than Indian.
There are depictions of other Gods and Goddesses as well that appear to lack the ‘Divine’ essence of the Beings they claim to portray. Kali by Derek Langille suffers from the same flaw.
Kali by Derek Langille
There’s this one particular art depicting Lord Shiva which has become quite popular with time in certain circles. The artist Ramawat depicts Shiva smoking cannabis in the mountains.
Artist: Ramawat
While there are numerous other works of Digital Art that fail to capture the essence of what they seek to portray, there is indeed true genius to be found in the genre. One of the most fascinating sub-genres is something that can be roughly called ‘Hindu Futurism’.
Concept Designer and Architect, Siddhartha Valluri, in his piece ‘Prayer‘ imagines the Ghats of Varanasi in the 22nd Century. He says, “At the Ghats of Varanasi, a complex and vast world paces ahead around the pristine architecture of our ancestors which is slowly crumbling away as the evening prayers continue as they always have for over a thousand years keeping the spirit of these temples alive.” He adds, “Through this concept, my main goal was to showcase the “Soul of India” in a very unique manner, not yet explored. I wanted to showcase the Indian Temple Architecture, the oldest unique style of architecture that evolved in India from the lens of a futuristic scenario set in the 2100s.”
Prayer by Siddhartha Valluri
In another work, ‘Ritual‘, Valluri depicts a Hindu Temple surrounded by spaceships and neon symbols. In his words, “Centuries, after these monuments were first constructed the glory of these monolithic temples, remains untouched. Yet, something is very different. Instead of priests walking the temple grounds we witness hoards of spaceships circling the temples and neon symbols decorating the temple walls creating an experience that perhaps not even the gods could have foreseen.”
Ritual by Siddhartha Valluri
In yet another work of art, ‘Sanctum‘, Valluri explores ” the inner chambers of an ancient temple lit by holographic images and symbols representing an amalgamation of how modes of worship may evolve.” He adds, “Even though parts of the temple have broken and chipped away after centuries of use, the essence of the temple remains untouched as a Holographic interpretation of Lord Ganesha sits proud at the centre of the temple Sanctum.”
Sanctum by Siddhartha Valluri
Quite clearly, there’s something inherent about Karan Acharya and Siddhartha Valluri’s works of art that the works by other artists mentioned above lack. While it is difficult to point out precisely what that characteristic is but it can roughly be called ‘Hindu Aesthetics’. In the works of art by Firhat Solan and Molee and others, there appears to be very little ‘Hinduness’ about the works which is extremely unlike the works by Karan Acharya and Siddhartha Valluri.
People’s aversion towards the ‘coolest version’ of Ganesha by Solhan perhaps stems from that very fact. Hindus found it revolting for the same reason that worshippers of the Norse Gods would have found the depiction of Thor and Odin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe revolting. Although the characters in the movies are based on the Norse Gods, Their essence is completely lacking in them.
While Digital Art is certainly ‘cool’ to look at, most, however, miss their mark wildly. While the artists are extremely talented, their works of art often fail to capture the essence of the Gods they aim to portray. Very few of them could effectively capture the Divinity enshrined with the Gods. There are certainly hidden gems in there, however, gems which are indeed worthy of great applause.
In a shocking incident, a 21-year-old son mercilessly killed his father for disallowing him to play PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) in Karnataka.
The incident took place in Siddheshwar Nagar under Kakati police station, Belgaum, Karnataka at 5 am this morning, one Raghuveer Kumbar (21), a diploma course dropout who was addicted to PUBG, chopped off the head and the left leg of his father, Shekarappa Revappa Kumbar (61).
“Raghuveer Kumbar killed his father Shankar for cutting the internet connection. He was beaten badly before death for taking his phone and not allowing him to play PUBG game”, Belgaum police said.
Shekarappa, who retired as a carpenter from the district armed reserve police four months ago, had advised his son against mobile game addiction several times.
On September 8 (Sunday), Shekarappa reportedly scolded the youth after he found him engrossed in the mobile game for hours. This irritated Raghuveer who went out and started throwing stones at his neighbour’s glass windows to vent out his frustration. The neighbours, in turn, called the police who summoned Raghuveer and his father to the Kakati police station.
Raghuveer’s father told the police that his son was addicted to games such as PUBG and Final Combat. The police officer let them go after counselling the youth for nearly an hour.
Immediately after reaching home, the youth went back to playing games on his phone and continued till midnight. Shekarappa shouted at his son and asked him to go to sleep. He snatched his mobile phone and refused to return it to Raghuveer.
Raghuveer woke up at 5 am and attacked his father in his sleep with a vegetable knife, after locking his mother’s room from outside.
The mother who got up after she heard her husband’s cries, raised an alarm. A neighbour woke up and called the police. By the time the police arrived, the accused had already beheaded and cut off the victim’s leg. Raghuveer, who had escaped from the house, was nabbed by the police after a search.
Raghuveer confessed to the crime and said that his father’s objection to his playing on the mobile had angered him.
Police Commissioner B S Lokesh Kumar and other senior officials reached the spot and a case has been registered in Kakati police station.
This is, however, not the first incidence where the addiction to PUBG has turned fatal. In June we had reported how one 15-year-old minor boy from Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra allegedly killed his elder brother, Mohammad Shaik (19), for scolding him over playing the PUBG game on his mobile phone.
PUBG is an online multiplayer battle game developed by a South Korean Firm. Several concerns have been raised across the world regarding the addictive nature of the game, which also has a tendency to push children towards violent behaviour. Parents and educators say the game incites violence and distracts students from their studies.
In the month of May, a 16-year-old boy from Telangana had committed suicide after he was scolded by his parents for spending too much time being engrossed in the mobile game.
Recently, news surfaced that Mirror Now anchor Faye D Souza had quit Mirror Now and Vinay Tewari was poised to take over as the new Managing Editor of Mirror Now. While there was no clarity on why Faye had ‘quit’ her job, the ‘liberal’ ecosystem had already started fear-mongering and alleging that she had to ‘quit her job’ because she was a ‘fearless voice’ that ‘stood against’ PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
Lawyer Karuna Nundy termed Faye D Souza as a ‘slayer of fascist ideas’ and ‘a voice of poor’ and said she has been ‘silenced as a prime time anchor’.
Fantastic @fayedsouza, slayer of fascist ideas and a voice for poor, marginalised Indians has been silenced as a prime time anchor. She’ll be great in her new @romedy Oprah style role, but
the blow to integrity and truth in prime time TV news is massive. https://t.co/Mv5RCIZOT7
Prashant Bhushan said that fearless Faye was ‘made to’ resign.
One of our finest TV journalists @fayedsouza has resigned (made to) from MirrorNow. She raised the biggest issues & spoke truth to power. Obviously it annoyed the establishment who then put pressure on the Times management to replace her. Very Unfortunate https://t.co/TNGRY1Vir6
Journalist Sakshi said that Faye resigned because she refused to ‘not be’ the voice of the poor.
U never spread hatred, u never shouted to put ur point across, u just followed the basic ethics of journalism @fayedsouza and women like us always look upto u. U have resigned from a job it just means u refused to not be people’s voice. More power to u ❤️ #FayeDsouzahttps://t.co/HG38jOrw2E
Congress too jumped in the mix. Shashi Tharoor and Sanjay Nirupam peddled the same agenda insinuating that it was because of the Modi government that Faye D Souza quit.
Its really sad to know that @fayedsouza is forced to resign.
Finally Mirror Now brand of real journalism is past. It will very soon follow its sibling Times Now type of fake journalism.
This is an absolute shame: https://t.co/DVFcG6MUYx
IF she was forced out by political pressure, she enters a Hall of Fame occupied by @bdutt, Karan Thapar, @ghoshworld &other illustrious names. But Indian media plunges further into darkness.
Hers was a voice of passionate sanity.
In fact, there was even a change.org petition that demanded that Faye D Souza be brought back to Mirror Now.
Now, however, Times Network has issued a statement clarifying that Faye will continue to be associated with Times Network and Mirror Now.
Statement by Times Network
The statement says that Faye D Souza played a pivotal role in establishing a strong position for Mirror Now, Faye is now moving away from managing daily operations of the brand and will now be responsible for creating and presenting flagship shows on Mirror Now in addition to steering new shows, IPs and ground events for the Network.
Faye D Souza too issued a statement after 2 days of speculation.
It is interesting, however, none of the individuals who tweeted blindly blaming the Modi government for Faye’s exit based on source-based rumours from an unreliable website has retracted their fear-mongering tweets that rue the state of press freedom.
