CBI Joint Director Pankat Srivastava has been asked to present himself at the Bhawanipur Police Station by the West Bengal Police in connection with an extortion case.
West Bengal: Police sends notice to CBI Joint Director Pankaj Srivastava in connection with an extortion case. Police has asked him to be present at Bhowanipore Police Station within one week.
Srivastava has been asked to join the probe into a case registered under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC filed against CBI Sub-Inspector Sunil Meena and others at Bhawanipur Police Station on January 21.
One person named Vaibhav Khattar had alleged that the CBI had illegally detained and tortured him in a case which had nothing to do with him. Khattar is an employee of Central Roller Flour Mills Pvt Ltd which was raided by CBI in August, 2018. It was alleged that the raids were carried out due to infighting within CBI between then Director Alok Kumar Verma and then Special Director Rakesh Asthana. The mill’s owner Dipesh Chandak, who had turned approver in the Bihar fodder scam case, was picked up by CBI and he was allegedly coerced into framing Asthana. But he had escaped from custody, after which CBI had furiously picked up the company employees, including Khattar, and allegedly tortured them.
Chandak was later arrested by Kolkata police and is in custody at present. These activities of CBI took place under the leadership of Joint Director Pankat Srivastava, and that’s why he has been named in the case.
This is the latest development in the fight that has broken out between the central investigative agency and the West Bengal government. Recently, the CBI had questioned Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. TMC MP Kunal Ghosh was also summoned.
Earlier, the state was the scene of massive chaos after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had resorted to ‘dharna’ politics to allegedly save herself from Saradha chit fund scam investigation. Mamata Banerjee had sat on ‘Dharna’ after Kolkata Police had forcefully detained eight CBI officials who had gone to visit police commissioner Rajeev Kumar to obtain crucial information regarding the Saradha scam.
Rajeev Kumar’s role is under the CBI’s scanner for deliberately withholding some crucial and incriminating documents that the SIT had collected in the chit fund scams probe. The Central Bureau of Investigation had also expressed fear over the destruction of evidence after the Kolkata police had taken charge of all evidence and seized all documents. The BJP had alleged that these documents point fingers at various TMC leaders and people close to Mamata Banerjee.
Interim CBI Chief M Nageshwar Rao had said that a lot of evidence is being destroyed or being caused to disappear. Earlier too, the CBI had claimed that the West Bengal government was obstructing investigation in Saradha Chit Fund scam. It has alleged that the “hostile” government is delaying the filing of the final charge sheet.
Amid the speculations of India taking some decisive action against Pakistan as a retaliation for the Pulwama attack, today many people started posting on social media sites that India has conducted air-strike over Sialkot in Pakistan.
There were reports that sounds of heavy blasts and jet engines of fighter planes were heard, and some even claimed that India had dropped two bombs in Silakot, and Pakistan Air Force jets were being scrambled in response.
Some users on social media even went on to claim that one Indian Air Force jet was shot down by Pakistan.
These unconfirmed reports were very big, as any airstrike inside Pakistan by India will signal the start of a full-blown war between the two countries with nuclear bombs.
But soon the facts emerged, which showed that nothing of that sorts had happened.
According to reports, jets of Pakistan Air Force had conducted drills over several places in Pakistan today, which included Sialkot.
Scare in Sialkot, Pakistan after two fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force flew near civilian areas of the International border. Indian border forces noticed the movement as well. Please don’t speculate as it spreads unnecessary panic given the situation.
Two jets of PAF flew near the international border at Sialkot, and some people mistook them to be jets of Indian air force. Due to the possibility that India may initiate military action against Pakistan, the security forces in the country are in a state of high alert, and the drill was part of that. It also has been reported that Pakistan is moving tanks towards the border. Other than Sialkot, Pakistan Air Force’s F-16 jets flew low over Lahore also, which was spotted by several social media users.
Coming to the sound of blasts, it is possible that the Pakistan Air Force fighter jets crossed the speed of sound while flying over civilian areas. When a fighter jet goes supersonic, it causes a sonic boom, which sounds like the sound of an explosion.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav has lashed out at the alliance forged between SP and BSP, by his son and party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
On January 12, SP and BSP declared in a joint press conference addressed by BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav that they will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections under an alliance. As per announcement, SP and BSP were to fight on 38 seats each. But, today it has been declared that BSP will fight on 38 seats and SP will fight on only 37 seats. 3 seats have been given to Rashtriya Lok Dal.
While addressing party workers at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed his disenchantment with the alliance, and also lashed out at Akhilesh Yadav, for agreeing to give BSP nearly half of the seats. He claimed that SP has given up on elections, long before the polling.
“I dot even know why the alliance has been forged,” Mulayam Singh said at the event. He said that he has been made the ‘Sanrakshak’ or Guardian of the party, without having any responsibility.
During the speech, he also acknowledged BJP’s stronghold over the state and said that election will only be between the alliance and the BJP, with Congress making no impact. Lending his support to party chief Akhilesh, Mulayam said that he is ready to help him with ticket distribution if Akhilesh needs. He said that SP has formed its own government in the state without any pre-poll alliance, so why does the party need it now. He pointed out that BSP currently has zero MPs in the state, so it does not deserve so many seats in the pre-poll alliance.
“They used to tell me I am finishing the party. Now, you tell who is finishing the party” Former SP chief said. He added that there was one time that in the state no one cared for BJP and Congress, but now the SP has been weakened to the extent that, other parties are performing better. He further claimed that Akhilesh Yadav has not even asked him from what seat he wants to contest Lok Sabha election. Mulayam Singh Yadav is currently MP from Azamgarh.
Mulayam Singh also talked about declining women representation in the party. He said that previously women had adequate representation in the party but now their participation has reduced.
Singh’s disproval of his son’s decision to forge an alliance had also come during 2017 UP assembly elections. That time too, Singh had criticised Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to fight elections along with Congress.
Mulayam Singh Yadav’s open criticism of party chief Akhilesh Yadav has come days after his praise for PM Modi and his leadership.
“I want to thank PM Modi for taking everyone into consensus. I wish that every member of the house and especially you (PM Modi) return to being Prime Minister again” Mulayam Singh had said at the last day of Lok Sabha session.
Following the heinous Pulwama terror attack that took the lives of 44 Indian CRPF personnel, the Indian government has managed to isolate Pakistan globally after it launched a diplomatic offensive against the terrorist state of Pakistan. With emotions running high, demand to ban Pakistan from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 or at least calls to Indian cricket team to boycott its match against Pakistan has been growing increasingly.
Reacting to the issue of isolating Pakistan by banning them from participating in the ICC Cricket World Cup, Rajdeep Sardesai – the self-proclaimed cricket expert and the “journalist” who had expressed excitement over the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament, claimed that banning Pakistan from World Cup to be held in England is ‘unthinkable’ especially on the basis of ‘one terror attack’ on India.
Speaking on the might of the BCCI, Rajdeep Sardesai said that any Cricket World Cup without India is unthinkable and similarly banning Pakistan in a World Cup is also unthinkable on a pretext of just ‘one terror attack’. He said India can only take the decision to boycott unilaterally and he did not expect of any such ban against Pakistan by the ICC.
Rajdeep went on to say that there was no precedence of boycotting any country from multi-nation cricket tournaments barring the suspension of South Africa during 1970s because of the then South African government’s policy of ‘apartheid’. Rajdeep also objected against the boycott of Pakistan saying that it was difficult to equate the policy of state-sponsored terror of Pakistan to ‘apartheid’. Instead, he suggested that the Indian team should forfeit the match against Pakistan, which will be held on June 16 at Old Trafford, Manchester.
In an interview with Former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar, Rajdeep carefully directed questions at him asking whether the decision to boycott Pakistan was just a knee-jerk reaction after the tragic Pulwama attacks. Rajdeep Sardesai throughout the show also contended that the decision to boycott has been some form of emotional outburst as contrary to a coherent policy to isolate Pakistan.
Rajdeep Sardesai has also expressed his disappointment over the removal of Imran Khan’s portrait from the Cricket Club of India, Mumbai. Rajdeep Sardesai like other peaceniks still pretends that socio-cultural interaction with the terrorist state of Pakistan is a necessity despite Pakistan using terror as an apparatus to target India.
Rajdeep Sardesai further trivialises the idea of boycotting Pakistan to an ‘event’ by depicting it as an intrusion of politics into sports. In their attempt to casualise the terror policy of Pakistan, Rajdeep and the other ‘peaceniks’ forget the fact that foremost responsibility of any national sports teams is not only representing their country but also to respect the sentiments and wishes of the country.
The peaceniks like Rajdeep also deliberately ignore the fact that it is not the just the responsibility of the political class to stand up against the menace of terrorism but also the commitment of every citizen to support the choice that a political system chooses to execute. So, cultural issues such as sports tournaments, movement of artists, people-to-people interaction are indeed political and should follow the general sentiment that persists in the country at a given point of time.
We are a nation who often indulges in conceding laughable analogies of religious symbolism to a sport like Cricket and has often even equated some of its icons to the ‘God’, which has now resulted in the petty issue of a Cricket World Cup taking preference over country’s national interests. Cricket is a mere sport, while tournaments come and go, what matters the most is the resolve of the Indian political establishment which has decided to teach the terrorist state of Pakistan a lesson.
According to fresh intercepts gathered by the Intelligence agencies, Pakistan backed terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad, who carried out the dastardly Pulwama attack, is preparing to strike again. The inputs received from the conversations on February 16 and 17 between JeM leadership in Pakistan and its terrorists in Kashmir have revealed that another fidayeen attack of a much bigger magnitude is being planned by them.
According to sources, an IED attack is being planned in the Chawkibal and Tangdhar route of Simpwarni district of Kashmir in coming two days by the JeM.
One green coloured Scorpio vehicle has been readied by the terrorist organisation to carry out a fidayeen attack, sources told Zee Media.
Moreover, the intelligence agency has also decoded a message on JeM’s social media which talks about a ‘Khelona’ of some kilograms. This message has been interpreted as an explosive (khelona) which weighs 500 kilograms and shall be used for the attack.
According to sources, the message states that there will be more attacks if the security forces did not stop targeting the Kashmiris.
On Wednesday, a top intelligence official revealed that there were various inputs from different quarters confirming that there could be a major attack, either in Jammu or outside Jammu and Kashmir.
As per intel sources, the Times of India had earlier reported that a 21-member JeM squad, including three suicide bombers, had infiltrated into Kashmir in December last year to launch three attacks, which included two outside the valley. JeM chief Masood Azhar’s nephew Mohammad Umair led the squad along with Kamran, the mastermind behind the Pulwama attack, who was neutralised on February 18th by security forces in an encounter in Pulwama.
The intercepts picked up by the agencies also revealed that the JeM are planning to release a video showing the preparations of the Pulwama suicide bombing with the purpose to glorify the 20-year-old suicide bomber, Adil Ahmad, who had rammed the explosive-laden car into the CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14. This, according to an analyst, would help Jaish to radicalise vulnerable Kashmiri youths into suicide bombing missions.
Though the police officials believe that the entire conversation between the JeM terrorists which has been intercepted by our agencies is more of a ‘psychological operation’ and has been conducted with an aim to terrorise India, but since it has been intercepted it cannot be ignored, said a senior police officer. “We are on high alert and trying to corroborate the threats through other means too,” he furthered.
Pakistan backed Jaish-e-Mohammad, which had been dormant in the valley for quite some time was instrumental in executing the horrific Pulwama attack which consumed the lives of 44 CRPF soldiers leaving several critically injured. India has been making several attempts ever since to avenge the dastardly attack.
As the country mourns the death of the CRPF soldiers in the Pulwama terrorist attack, the “liberal intelligentsia” of the country seem to be more worried about the fate of the so-called ‘minorities’ in the country than the families of soldiers who lost their lives in the ghastly terrorist attack. One such liberal, Gurmehar Kaur who appeared on BBC Urdu after the Pulwama terrorist attack expressed deep concerns over the perception of Pakistan and ‘peace efforts going in vain’ in the country after the attack.
Kaur said that it is sad to see the efforts of peace go in vain after such attacks take place but one should keep trying for peace between the two countries. When asked whether the Pulwama terrorist attack would influence the internal politics of the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Kaur replied that the effect of the attack is quite visible even now. She accused ‘politicians’ of using the attack and said that politicians bank on polarisation that they do after such attacks and that this has created hatred in the minds of people.
While she expressed concerns over Islam and Pakistan being perceived as ‘equal’ she also spectacularly ignored the fact that the organisation behind the attack calls itself ‘Jaish-e-Mohammad’ and the attack was an act of Islamist terrorism.
Speaking on Kashmiris, Kaur said that the situation is sad for Kashmiris after the attack. She said that the “rhetoric for avenging the deaths” is peddled in the name of justice. “I think justice for martyrs children and for anyone would only be achieved when we put an end to violence”, said Kaur. She also conveniently ignored to mention the fact that the attack was carried out by an Islamist terrorist group sheltered by Pakistan.
Kaur, however, completely ignored the hatred and religious fanaticism that was actually behind the attack. The video released by JeM showed the suicide bomber proudly declaring that he is going to kill “cow urine drinkers” and avenge the Babri mosque demolition. Kaur’s hypocrisy in exonerating the perpetrators of the attack and trying to shift focus to political narratives was called out widely on social media too.
Kaur became darling of the media overnight after her video went viral in which she held a placard on which “Pakistan did not kill my Dad, War killed him” was written.
In the light of the recent Pulwama attack, India is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to pressurise Pakistan to relinquish its assistance to terrorists. After taking various measures like withdrawing the Most Favoured Nation status and imposing customs duty of 200% on all imports from Pakistan, now Union Minister for Water Resources, Nitin Gadkari has informed that India will stop the flow of waters of three rivers assigned to it as per the Indus Water Treaty into Pakistan. Gadkari asserted that the diverted water will help in nurturing the Yamuna river.
Under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Sri @narendramodi ji, Our Govt. has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan. We will divert water from Eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
Addressing a rally in Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, Gadkari had informed that a project is being conceived to divert the waters of 3 rivers flowing into Pakistan into Yamuna. If accomplished, the project would choke the water supply of Pakistan, which is already reeling under the water scarcity distress. As per the Indus Water Treaty, India and Pakistan were assigned waters of 3 rivers each. However, India had been magnanimous in generously allowing the waters of 3 rivers assigned to it to flow to Pakistan.
Gadkari further added that a project is being conceptualised to connect the three rivers and possibilities of transportations in these water channels are being explored. “Water that rightfully belongs to us was flowing into Pakistan. The water of these three rivers belonged to India. We are now conceptualising a project to divert the waters of these three rivers to the Yamuna. There will be enough water in Yamuna,” Gadkari said while laying foundation stones for several water projects in Uttar Pradesh.
Rivers under the Indus Water Treaty
The Indus Water Treaty, signed in 1960, divides the water available in the Indus System of Rivers between India and Pakistan. The treaty gives the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej rivers to India, while the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum rivers are given to Pakistan. Therefore, this move by India will be according to the provisions of the treaty. The amount of water carried by the three rivers allotted to Pakistan is already more than double the water carried by the three rivers given to India.
Following the Pulwama attack, PM Modi chaired a CCS meet with top security officials and his cabinet. The meet concluded with offering the Armed forces a free rein to exact the revenge at a place and timing of their choice. It also agreed upon mounting an insurmountable diplomatic offence by speaking to representatives of 25 countries, the ambassadors of Arab nations and withdrawing the Most Preferred Nation (MFN) status from Pakistan.
Journalism is universally acknowledged to be one of the most favoured professions for sociopaths. If you ever wondered why you need only look at Ajaz Ashraf from The Caravan magazine who in his report has blatantly attempted to politicize the Indian security forces along caste lines and shockingly, Caravan, a leftist rag, has happily published it.
Article published on the Caravan
Under normal circumstances, focusing on the caste of martyred soldiers is the worst that any journalist would be capable of in a single report. However, Mr Ashraf here has crossed all limits of decency and has behaved in a manner that would even put Radia Tapes journalists to shame. In the report, Ashraf says quite clearly that he called the martyrs of the family to in their moment of unimaginable tragedy to inquire about their caste.
He writes, “While the names of a few jawans revealed their respective caste identities, for those bearing caste-neutral last names, I spoke with their family members on telephone numbers registered with the CRPF. I also determined the caste identities through conversations with journalists who covered the jawans’ cremation; local politicians; social activists; sociologists; and by scanning media reports.”
Imagine this for a moment, you have lost a family member to a depraved terror attack. Your family is grieving, the atmosphere is heavy with sorrow. Then, you receive a call on your phone from a person who claims to be a journalist. He offers his condolence and sympathy and then soon after the formalities are over for him, he proceeds to address his actual business. “What is your caste?” he asks. How would you feel?
Your family just sacrificed his life for the interests of the nation. Even before your wounds have been healed and before his spirit ascended to reunite with the Gods he cherished, the entirety of his life, the immense magnitude of his sacrifice, the honour of serving the country, the glory and tragedy of a life cut so short by barbarism, the great affection and respect showered at his memory by his beloved countrymen, his entire existence and his legacy reduced to merely his caste, how would that you make feel as his parents, his sibling, his friend? How would you feel if the martyrdom of a person you love is used to the detriment of the very country he sacrificed his life for?
It’s a grave insult to the memory of our martyrs to reduce their sacrifice to their mere caste identity, it’s a grave insult to remember them by a feature of their identity they could not even choose. It wasn’t their choice to be born into a particular caste but it was their choice to serve their country, it was a choice that was made knowing full well what it entailed, it was a choice which was made while being fully aware that an unnatural death is very much a possibility. They did not choose their caste but their martyrdom was the consequence of the conscious choice they made to dedicate their lives to Bharat, and it is that choice that should define his memory, his legacy.
Ironically enough, the people who evaluate the martyrdom of our soldiers through the prism of caste vehemently deny the Islamic nature of terrorist organizations. According to them, people who sacrificed their lives for their country are SC/ST or OBC first and Indians second but someone who blows himself up with tons of RDX while screaming Allahu Akbar has nothing to do with Islam. These people will deny with a straight face the Islamic terror character of Kashmiri separatism even when the terrorists themselves claim to be fighting for Islam but will see reduce martyrdom to caste politics. These are the same people who call others bigots for observing that the overwhelming majority of those celebrating the Pulwama Terror Attack are Muslims.
Should we reduce everything to people’s religious and caste identities now? Should we reduce the highest expression of human existence, sacrificing one’s own life so that their brethren can prosper, to mere caste politics? Is this the pits journalism fallen to?
If Ajaz Ashraf does not want to be reduced to his religious identity, then he should refrain from reducing our martyrs to their caste identity and use them for his petty, distasteful, disgusting, inhuman politics. As a consequence of his report, people will reduce him to his religious identity as well. People will argue that the report, which is clearly intended to hurt the interests of our country by inciting communal disharmony among our armed forces, was motivated by his religious identity.
People will wonder whether he too is a radical Islamist. People will wonder whether he too looks down upon our Indian Army. People will wonder whether he is anti-Hindu owing to his religious identity. People will wonder whether he is trying to give covering fire to the radical Islamists who carry out suicide bombings, owing to his religious identity. When this happens, the author would proceed to own the perennial victim card that has been accorded to him by the ‘liberal’ cabal. But our murdered, mangled martyrs are fair game?
When people wonder, they would be called ‘hyper-nationalists’. They would be called ‘Hindu terrorists”. Some journalists like Barkha Dutt would wonder when the country descended into majoritarianism and ultimately, why Modi should resign. But who inflicted the first wound? Who behaved like a vulture circling a dead body to peddle their agenda, the dead body of our brave soldiers?
People will argue that like so many people from his community who have been celebrating the terror attack. he too was motivated to hurt India’s interests and attempt to destabilize the country by his religion. And he and his ilk will not be able to offer any legitimate counter whatsoever because, in his report, he has reduced nationalism and patriotism to caste identities. If nationalism can be reduced to caste identities, then there’s no reason why anti-national behaviour cannot be reduced to religious identity.
More importantly, the obvious motive of the report is to weaken India by fueling caste divisions within the Armed Forces cannot be ignored. At a time when our neighbouring country is using Indian media reports to justify their persecution of an Indian national they have captured and could very well put to death, it is perhaps time for the Government to consider that a significant section of our media is hand in gloves with the enemies of our nation and is publishing propaganda to serve their interests.
Just a week after the dastardly attack by a Kashmiri terrorist belonging to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad claimed 40 lives of our CRPF soldiers, the Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala rubbed salt on their wounds by alleging that the terrorist was a ‘Home-grown so-called terrorist’.
While addressing a presser, Congress spokesperson insulted the sacrifice of the martyred soldiers by referring to the terrorist who killed them as ‘so-called terrorist’. Surjewala also called into question the functioning of the Armed forces when he called the terrorist as ‘Home-grown’, providing an alibi to Pakistan.
Pakistan has long been arguing that the terrorist activities in Kashmir are an indigenous uprising, executed by the rebellious local youth and Surjewala’s utterances appeared to support the Pakistani assertions.
Earlier this week, Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan had posted a pre-recorded and heavily doctored video in which he brazenly denied Pak involvement in the Pulwama terror attack, even as JeM terror group took responsibility of the attack. Khan alluded that the attack was carried out by local Kashmiris as Pakistan doesn’t stand to benefit from it.
There is evidence galore that the terrorist who perpetrated this heinous crime was a JeM operative indoctrinated and motivated with Hinduphobic sentiments to carry out the attack on the CRPF convoy. It is also believed that the terrorist had undergone training in JeM training camps situated in Pakistan. But Surjewala had little regard for the facts as well as for the sensitivities of the Armed Forces which have regularly lost their jawans to Pakistan sponsored terrorism.
The shocking remarks by the Congress party come days after the Indian security forces- CPRF, Army and J&K police convened a joint presser in which they answered a slew of questions concerning the Pulwama terror attack. Zulfiqar Hasan, IG, CRPF while speaking to the media announced that their forces have hunted down the JeM terrorists who conspired the Pulwama attack within 100 hours of the attack. He also spoke on the issue of the security lapse at the highway where the incident took place. He said that the ROP (road opening party) was inspecting the area through which the CRPF convoy was passing.
This is not the first time that Congress has cocked a snook at the Indian Armed Forces. The Sunday Guardian report alleges that Congress had planted fake news of Army coup to undermine the forces. Rahul Gandhi has been at the vanguard to scuttle the Rafale deal, meant to fortify the country’s defence preparedness. Despite the CAG, Supreme Court rubbishing the claims of any wrongdoing in the deal, the Congress President and his party spokespersons are unrelenting in their attacks regarding the deal.
Propaganda website scroll.in published a story titled “Centre holds telecom firms responsible for obscene text messages sent to journalists, seeks action”. It said that the government has sought immediate action against 19 persons who sent obscene messages to journalists Ravish Kumar and Abhisar Sharma. They also shared the story on Twitter with the saying that centre has held Airtel, Vodafone, Jio and others responsible for sending obscene messages to Ravish Kumar and Abhisar Sharma.
The Scroll in the headline and tweet clearly mentions that the telecom companies have been held responsible for obscene messages sent by their customers to journalists. But that is not true, as the government order does not say that telecom networks are responsible for messages sent by users. The order by DoT has been attached in the article, and it is clear that the order by Department of Telecom has ordered the respective telecom operators to take action against the subscribers sending such messages. The order says “you are hereby directed to take immediate action against the customers/subscribers of your network for sending messages as it is also a violation of customer declaration in customer application form”, which was marked to all telecom operators.
The order also notes that as per licensing norms, the onus is also on the telecom operators to ensure that their networks are not used for obscene, malicious and objectionable transmission. It says companies should ensure that their networks are not used for sending offensive messages, but Scroll has misinterpreted this to say companies are held responsible by the government for the specific offensive messages already sent to the specific journalists, as the headline and tweet conveys. Moreover, it is just a reiteration of existing norms and not a new order issued by the government.
The order also suggested the telecom companies to open dedicated call centres or helpline to receive complaints about offensive messages received by people on the phones.
After the Pulwama attack, several journalists had spread fake news that Kashmiri Muslims students in various places were being attacked by right-wing groups. Such unsubstantiated claims had attracted criticism to them on social media, and some journalists alleged that few people had crossed the line and had sent offensive messages and images to them on social media platforms like Twitter and WhatsApp. Following this, the journalists had called for censorship on social media, and asked the government to take action. Following this, the government asked the telecom companies to take action against the offenders, but that is certainly not holding the companies responsible as Scroll wanted to portray.
