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Ram Rahim Verdict: how some indulged in whataboutery while people died

Nirwa Mehta
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Ram Rahim Verdict: how some indulged in whataboutery while people died

Earlier today, Panchkula’s special CBI court held Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape in 2002 case filed against him by two ‘sadhvis’.


Following the verdict, Dera followers took to violence in Haryana and as per initial reports 17 protestors were killed in police firing whereas over 200 were injured. Even more were detained in an attempt to contain violence.


Even as the Khattar Government struggles to maintain law and order in the state, the so called liberals had come up with their own suggestions on how to tackle the sensitive situation on hand.


Nidhi here is an NDTV journalist and Omar Abdullah is the former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir. They are referring to pellet guns used by police in Kashmir to control stone-pelting separatist crowd in Kashmir.

They are conveniently forgetting to mention that rather than pellet guns, the police in Haryana is using actual guns, where as many as 28 (as per latest count as this report gets published) people have been killed and over 200 are injured.

A bit insensitive whataboutery?

When the death toll mounted, Abdullah realised the thoughtlessness of his tweet and repeated the tweet so as to suggest non-lethal pellet guns to control the crowd.


However, by then Congress leaders had chimed in too.


Where journalists were quick to exude their bigotry.


But that is not the only whataboutery that happened today. Many were asking what if the religious head accused (before being pronounced guilty) was a Muslim cleric?


Bainjal aka Swati Chaturvedi is best known on social media for spreading lies and hurling abuses at people who don’t agree with her.


And of course, comparison of Dera followers to JNU students who had allegedly raised “Bharat tere tukde honge, inshaallah-inshaallah” slogans in February, 2016 while protesting hanging of the terrorist, Afzal Guru.


And then, can cows be far behind?


BUT WAIT, that’s not it. Some so called journalists also took it upon themselves to fear mongering. Why should mobs have all the fun?

After  being called out on spreading rumours and fear, Faye decided to delete this tweet. Whatever happened to responsible journalism?

However, better sense prevailed over Omar Abdullah, who, after realising the gravity of the tweet, withdrew it unconditionally.


Perhaps expecting a little bit of sensitivity and restrain by the journalists in reporting delicate situations is asking for too much.

Mamata imposes restrictions on Durga Puja to make way for Muharram, Liberals blame her “bad luck”

Abhishek Banerjee
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Mamata imposes restrictions on Durga Puja to make way for Muharram, Liberals blame her “bad luck”

She did it last year. And now she has done it again. Mamata Banerjee has gone ahead and decreed that there will be no idol immersion after 6 pm on Dashami day to make way for the observance of Muharram.

Mamata bans Duraga Puja immersions

Now, Mamata Banerjee going out of her way to appease Muslims is hardly a surprise. But what stands out about this decision is the brazenness with which Mamata Banerjee is defying all semblance of institutions, including the judiciary.

The TMC government had passed a similar order back in 2016 over Durga idol immersions. This order was not only flayed by Kolkata High Court, the language used by the court was quite extraordinary in that it specifically castigated the West Bengal government for “appeasing Muslims”.

Let us read here the words of the judge, which shows just how furious the court was with Mamata’s order last year.

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Clear endeavor on part of the state government to appease the minority at the cost of the majority! Governments should not take decisions that pit one community against another! Irresponsibly brazen state government has infringed on fundamental rights of people worshipping Maa Durga!

These are not my words; these are the words of the Kolkata High Court!

The injustice that Mamata Banerjee is doing to the Hindus of Bengal is so obvious and so extreme that it seems even left wing anti-Hindu media could not find the words to defend her.

But not having the heart to condemn Mamata Banerjee for her actions, some in the media chose to blame “bad luck”! Yes, you read that right.

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Oh Mamata Didi, you poor dear. You and your bad luck! Now they are going to create a grudge against you for doing what would have been “normal in other times in West Bengal” and postponing the immersions for a day to allow Muharram processions.

Apparently, the Firstpost journalist who wrote this was not informed (obviously) about what was “normal” at other times in West Bengal. Clearly, the journalist who “reported” on this story  did not care to read the words of the court from last year (again, obviously):

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*Facepalm*

I guess it was just the “bad luck” of the secular journalist that what she wrote was blatantly false.

I guess in “normal times”, secular media would have required that journalists reporting on a story actually be informed about it … or take 2 minutes to at least google the thing before shooting their mouths off on it.

And so did the “poor Mamata” trope continue to spread, with much hand wringing about Mamata’s bad luck giving big bad BJP another issue to capitalize on!

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They don’t give a damn about the actual injustice. Their only care in the world is that BJP might benefit from it. Not for the first time though.

So what is Mamata thinking? It is doubtful that her decision will hold up in court this year, considering just how furious the court was in 2016.

One possible explanation is that with this public announcement, Mamata hopes to give a signal to her core constituency that Hindus will be systematically humiliated and subjugated under her reign. Due to recent events, the Islamic patriarchy has been feeling weak and needed an ego boost. Prominent Trinamool Ministers have refused to accept the authority of the Supreme Court in the triple talaq judgement and on the ground, the petitioner Ishrat Jahan, who lives in Bengal, is being harassed by the insecure and sore losers.

In the coming days, whether Hindus in Bengal are able to stand up for their rights and for the rights of Muslim women remains to be seen.

In Mamata’s Bengal, triple talaq petitioner faces social boycott

OpIndia Staff
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In Mamata’s Bengal, triple talaq petitioner faces social boycott

Ishrat Jahan, one of the five petitioners in the landmark Supreme Court verdict which pronounced instant triple talaq invalid, is facing social boycott and character assassination back home in Howrah, West Bengal. Jahan has been allegedly facing social boycott and insinuations and is being ostracised by her in-laws and neighbours in Howrah’s Pilkhana.

30 year old Jahan’s husband divorced her in 2015 over the phone from Dubai and allegedly took away her 4 children. In her fight for social justice, she has faced financial losses and now she has to face abuses as she is called “dirty woman”, “enemy of men” and “anti-Islam”.

The Supreme Court verdict seems to have opened floodgates of abuses for Jahan as her in-laws and neighbours have stopped talking to her even as she faces insults.

Ishrat lives in Howrah’s Pilkhana in West Bengal in a house her husband purchased from the dowry she had brought in 2004. Her husband’s elder brother and his family also live there. Jahan now feels unsafe staying in the house and says after such a long battle she does not have strength to fight them anymore.

She has since removed the naqab and shown her face to the world. “I realised that I am not a victim anymore. I want other women to see me and understand that if an ordinary woman like me can fight for her rights, so can they,” said Jahan, reported Times of India explaining the reason why she decide to remove her naqab.

Jahan adds that just a court verdict will not change anything unless the society and community brings about a change where people help a vulnerable and helpless victim instead of assassinating her character. She says instead of coming out in support of her, people have mocked and ridiculed her for standing up for justice.

This is indeed true, since even TMC Minister has vocally opposed the Supreme Court verdict and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has held an uncomfortable silence on the verdict.

Prashant Bhushan shares unverified image with wrong information to score a political point

OpIndia Staff
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Prashant Bhushan shares unverified image with wrong information to score a political point

Politician and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who used to be part of the AAP before Arvind Kejriwal removed him from the party, today posted a sensational “news report”, which appeared to be printed on the front page of some newspaper.

Using the picture of that article, Prashant Bhushan then attacked Modi and his “Bhakts” for being selective in their approach:


Bhushan made the above claim based on an article from a certain “Dainik Ujala” newspaper. The headline meant “the biggest scam in the country” and claimed that Reliance Jio had betrayed India by buying 30 crore phones from China. It also accused Reliance Jio of committing tax fraud, though did not explain the rationale.

The content, in Hindi, did not read like a proper news report and more like a WhatsApp forward created by a political party. It claimed that Jio had ordered the cheap phones from China, even though there is a ‘Make In India’ program in prevalence.

The ‘report’ further claimed that Jio did so even after knowing that had it made the handsets in India, lakhs of unemployed people could have got work. It then stated that at a time when the Indian army is ready to give a befitting reply to the enemy (China), our company was giving a Rs 45,000 crore business to China. It then claimed that such phone were a security concern for India and also put a comparative analysis about India’s losses and China’s gains due to Jio’s move.

The so-called newspaper report however is not factually correct. It should be noted that the Jio phones are not being manufactured in China. They are being manufactured in Taiwan, which incidentally has a long standing conflict with China. So if at all Jio is funding someone, its funding China’s enemies.

It can be argued that Reliance could indeed have done better by manufacturing in India, but a private company can not be forced to take business decisions. Nonetheless, the rhetoric vis a vis China is factually wrong.

Apart from that, the newspaper that is supposed to have published this ‘report’ shared by Bhushan appears non-existent or fictitious. Details about any newspaper called “Dainik Ujala” are sketchy. This supposed newspaper hardly has any information about it available online. Even its website (www.dainikujaala.com — as mentioned in the image shared by Bhushan) doesn’t exist. In fact, the domain was available for sale when we checked:

Prashant Bhushan shares fake image
Domain search undertaken at 5.00 PM IST on 24th August 2017

Assuming that a newspaper got its own website URL wrong, we found that the closest matching URL is danikujala.com, which hosts a ‘web news channel’ (as per its own definition) but it neither has a print version nor has its website got that particular Jio report online.

So not only did Prashant Bhushan share a ‘news report’ that made wrong claims, the newspaper which carried it too appears to be fake. A lawyer of Supreme Court is expected to have this much of awareness and common sense to ascertain if a piece of information he is sharing is reliable and authentic. Is this the kind of ‘proof’ he relies upon when fighting cases?

It also remains to be seen if Reliance Jio takes some action against him for spreading information, which might even be considered slanderous.

Prashant Bhushan is somewhat of a habitual offender when it comes to creating controversy on Social Media. A couple of months back, he had blamed the “culture of Hindutva” and anti-romeo squads for a gruesome molestation case, even though it was well established that the crime was committed by Muslim youths.

Bhushan has also gone to great lengths to somehow link Narendra Modi with a ‘scam’, especially involving big corporate houses. He had famously spearheaded the whole case about Modi allegedly taking bribes from Sahara and Birla, but the ‘proof’ he submitted were thrown out by the Supreme Court, with apex court nothing that anyone could create such proofs. Perhaps just like anyone can create such newspaper clippings.

TMC leader calls triple talaq verdict ‘unconstitutional’, says courts can’t interfere in matters of Islam

OpIndia Staff
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TMC leader calls triple talaq verdict ‘unconstitutional’, says courts can’t interfere in matters of Islam

Trinamool Congress MLA and West Bengal Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind President has described the Supreme Court verdict on instant triple talaq “unconstitutional” saying that the court and the government have no right to “interfere in internal matters of Islam”.

Chowdhary, who is also the Library and Mass Education Minister in the Mamata government, said, “The verdict given by the Supreme Court is unconstitutional and we will not abide by it. Our central committee will meet today in Delhi to decide our future course of action in this regard.”

He added that triple talaq is “mentioned in Quran, and we will abide by it”.

He even went on to blame the BJP government for banning triple talaq and said they would move a review petition before the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court. He said Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind does not accept this verdict and will continue with triple talaq. He further added that only minuscule population, about 3 percent of Muslim population, suffer from triple talaq. However, he did acknowledge that these views are his and not of Trinamool Congress.

Earlier, TMC ministers Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakikm had opposed the uniform civil code in favour of triple talaq. They had taunted the BJP for falling short of requisite numbers in the Rajya Sabha to bring about a change in existing laws.

On Tuesday, in a landmark judgement, the apex court had abolished the practice of instant triple talaq, calling it arbitrary and against the tenets of Islam. And while most hailed it as a victory and considered it as an empowering step for Muslim women, a lot seemed unhappy about it.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is quick to react to all quick developments, has maintained silence over this verdict even as she welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on Right to Privacy being a fundamental right.

In Mamata’s Bengal, news channel banned as its Facebook page had ‘offensive’ comments by people

Nirwa Mehta
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In Mamata’s Bengal, news channel banned as its Facebook page had ‘offensive’ comments by people

If there is one thing the Mamata Banerjee government excels at, it is crawling the social media and keeping a vigilant eye for all things that could possibly show her government in bad light, and then instead of weeding out the cause, just ban it.

It has been a month since West Bengal government has banned ABN News Network, the only Nepali language satellite channel in India, alleging that telecasting footage of Darjeeling unrest fanned hatred in the hills. The news referred to the 21st July pro-Gorkhaland khukhri-rally. Khukhri is a traditional Nepali knife and one of the symbols used by protestors demanding a separate state since early this June.

The order served by district magistrate of Jalpaiguri, Rachna Bhagat said that the channel’s news were promoting enmity between communities, especially after being shared on the social media. The complaints that led to banning of the channel reportedly focused on the ‘objectionable comments’ left by users on the Facebook page of the channel.

Representatives of the news channel claim that they had even deleted many comments, and that they should not be held responsible for what the public is saying. However, this failed to convince the administration and the channel remains off air.

This control on internet and media is unfortunately not new for the Mamata government. Many pro-Gorkhaland Facebook pages have reportedly been banned and the news from the hills are actively suppressed, critics claim.

This high-handed behaviour of the government is not limited only to the ongoing Gorkhaland protests. Earlier, the state police had preferred arresting a minor for an allegedly provocative post on Facebook to taking action against rioters inuldge in arson. Last year, an FIR was filed against Zee News reporters for covering Dhulagarh riots.

Things were taken to absurd level last month when a photograph of someone praying in a temple posted on Twitter was allegedly seen as a threat to peace in Bengal.

Unfortunately, these illiberal developments don’t cause a huge hue and cry nationwide, especially among the ‘liberal’ media and chatterati, as Mamata Banerjee is seen as a ‘secular’ challenger to Narendra Modi.

Sonia and Mayawati to not attend Lalu’s ‘Desh Bachao, Bhajpa Bhagao’ rally

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Sonia and Mayawati to not attend Lalu’s ‘Desh Bachao, Bhajpa Bhagao’ rally

In some disheartening news for Lalu Yadav and his supporters, Sonia Gandhi became the second top leader after Mayawati who has decided to skip Lalu’s anti-BJP rally. On 27th August, Lalu has organised a “Desh Bachao, Bhajpa Bhagao” rally in Patna.

According to media reports, even Rahul Gandhi would be unable to attend the rally. Sonia now has nominated Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and CP Joshi to attend the same. The rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan was seen as an attempt to forge an alliance of like-minded opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Among the leaders who have confirmed their participation are, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and JD(U) rebel, Sharad Yadav.

Lalu while speaking to the media confirmed the absence of Soina and Mayawati while stating that the latter would be sending Satish Mishra to represent her. He also dismissed Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modis appeal to put off the rally in view of the devastating floods in Bihar due to which at least 341 people have died so far.

Lalu reportedly stated that Sushil Modi should not teach him things and asked whether the rally’s postponement would end the floods.

He in the same press conference also reportedly attacked JD(U) spokespersons who were defending Nitish in the ‘Srijan scam’, by calling them Alsatian dogs.

This isn’t the only time the opposition failed to rise above their squabbles to put up a united front. Recently Nitish Kumar who was then a key part of the “Mahagathbandhan” had announced his support for the NDA Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind and later decided to switch sides itself and join the BJP’s alliance.

The opposition has also in the past boycotted possible partners like the AAP whose Supremo Arvind Kejriwal is a bitter critic of PM Modi and could have aided the opposition’s attack on the ruling BJP government.

Only a few days back, BSP had disowned its verified Twitter account after it shared a picture showing opposition unity where Mayawati and Akhilesh were together along with Lalu and Sonia.

Newslaundry columnist asks a Sikh man supporting Hindu festivals to give up Sikhism

OpIndia Staff
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Newslaundry columnist asks a Sikh man supporting Hindu festivals to give up Sikhism

On Wednesday, West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stirred up a storm after applying restrictive conditions on the immersion of Maa Durga idols this Dashami. According to ANI, immersion would only be allowed till 6:00 PM on Dashami and be resumed only from 2nd October due to the Muharram procession.

This outraged many people online and one of them was Tajinder Bagga, who is the spokesperson of Delhi BJP. Bagga decided to protest against such clamping down on the Hindu festivals by the Mamata government:


Bagga, who happens to be a Sikh, in his tweets reiterated that Hindus had the right to celebrate their festivals and dared the Mamata government to stop the visarjan. He also stated that he would personally stay present in Bengal this Dashami to ensure no disruption occurs.

This vocal support for Hindus by a Sikh deeply pained a Newslaundry columnist named Jaspreet Oberoi, who decided to attack him and Hinduism:


Jaspreet, who goes by the name of Jas Oberoi, was then given a befitting response by Bagga, who also tagged Newslaundry’s Editor-in-chief Madhu Trehan to make her aware about the antics of her columnist:


The Hinduphobic and communal comment by the Newslaundry columnist was also bashed by other twitter users:


But rather than apologising for his attack, the Newslaundry columnist made further personal attacks on Bagga and users opposing his bigotry.

Rather than putting the troll columnist in the dock (who might just enjoy the attention), it might be more prudent to ask as to whether Newslaundry approves of his vicious trolling. And if not, does it plan to take any suitable action against him? People might also question as to what did Newslaundry see in the troll, that it decided to make him their columnist?

Questions might be also raised as to why has Newslaundry chosen to give space to his articles such as this, where he demonises legendary police officer KPS Gill, who was one of the key persons responsible for stopping the Khalistani insurgency.

It also remains to be seen if Madhu Trehan and Newslaundry condemn this unsolicited heckling by their troll columnist or whether they choose not to react, which some might consider to be a case of silent approval.

Father of 2 Spanish terrorists claims they were radicalised by their Imam who masterminded the attack

OpIndia Staff
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Father of 2 Spanish terrorists claims they were radicalised by their Imam who masterminded the attack

Recently Spain witnessed a chain of terror attacks. On Thursday terrorists drove a van into a pedestrians which killed at-least 13 people and injured 100 more at La Rambla in Barcelona. On Wednesday an explosion took place in the town of Alcanar which destroyed a building, killing a man. Later on Thursday the police killed 5 terrorists in Cambrils who attacked  pedestrians with an axe and knife. The Spanish Prime Minister openly called it a Jihadi attack.

Such form of crude terror attacks have now become rampant in Europe in the past 13 months and have killed about 130 people in France, Germany, Britain, Sweden and Spain.

Now as news keeps coming out about the attack, the father of the two dead Spanish terrorists named Said Aallaa and Youssef Aallaa who were killed in Cambrils and at an explosion at a bomb factory in Alcanar respectively has claimed that their minds were poisoned by a radical Imam. According to the report, the father pinned the blame on the Imam named Abdelbaki Es Satty who preached for two years at a mosque in Ripoll where incidentally 11 of the 12 attackers lived.

The report claimed that the Imam Es Satty, whose mosque was raided by the police, was linked to the Al-Qaeda and was also connected to the terrorists responsible for the 2004 Madrid train bombings. One local shop owner in the area claimed that families had become more hardlined ever since the Imam had arrived in town. This increased orthodoxy included young women starting to wear the Hijab even though they had never done so before. Families of the other attackers too acknowledged that there was a spike in religiousness of their wards. The imam in question incidentally vanished from the town last week but is believed to have died in that explosion in Alcanar and is believed to have masterminded the whole attack.

According to latest reports, the Imam had gone to jail in the past for smuggling drugs between Spain and Morocco. For this crime he was ordered to return to Morocco but when he left jail in 2014 he won an appeal against the deportation. There he had argued that his International rights would have been breached by the order. He then sought asylum later that year due to which he was allowed free movement in 26 European states.

This Spanish attacks weren’t the lone instance of terror and they were closely followed by attacks in Finland and Russia.

On Friday at about 4 PM the Finnish town of Turku experienced a knife attack where the armed assailant had resulted in the death of 2 women and injuries to 8 people. This attack was soon suspected to be an act of terror and a journalist also claimed that the attacker was shouting “God is great” in Arabic. The police apprehended a certain Abderrahman Mechkah who is a 18 year old Asylum seeker from Morocco, in connection with the crime.

Russia too was not spared from such an attack. On Saturday, 7-8 people were injured in a knife attack at the Siberian city of Surgut. According to the report, local police claimed to have shot down the attacker and the responsibility for the same was taken by the Islamic State.

How an unverified picture about Doklam made it to Times Group’s newspaper and news channel

Nirwa Mehta
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How an unverified picture about Doklam made it to Times Group’s newspaper and news channel

Early morning on 19th August, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari tweeted two pictures saying these are sent to him by a friend claiming these are the roads are from the Indian side to Doklam and are in “pathetic” condition:


Seeing the pictures, Bhutanese journalist Tenzing Lamsang quoted the tweet and called it as final stretch of road to Doklam, which could be in Sikkim:


In subsequent tweet, he clarified that his tweet about probable place where the picture might be clicked was based on the photograph tweeted by the Congress spokesperson. That he was just making an educated guess:


He said he it could be last stretch of road from Indian side based on the vegetation seen in the picture:


Tewari immediately held on to the first tweeet by Lamsang and said how the Bhutanese journalist “confirmed” that this is Indian road:


He conveniently missed out the part where the picture was sent to him “by his friend on ground”. It was now somehow the responsibility of the Bhutanese journalist, even though he had clarified that he was ‘comfortably based’ in Thimpu and not confirming anything about the ground situation in or around Doklam.

Soon, Times of India, in its 21st August edition printed the above picture claiming Bhutanese journalist Tenzing Lamsang tweeted the said picture.

Picture tweeted by a Congress leader is being claimed as picture tweeted by a Bhutanese journalist

Tenzing Lamsang even tweeted to Times of India about the error, giving them benefit of doubt that they might have assumed he tweeted the picture since Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari had retweeted his tweet:


But that still wasn’t enough. Not only did Times of India not acknowledge the error, their news channel, Times Now, even ran an exclusive video of how they have access to Indian side of Doklam giving ‘credit’ to Tenzing Lamsang for the pictures:


In their defence, they did say how Times Now cannot verify these images, which they claimed were of Chinese army vehicles moving inside Doklam region.

(Please note, the narrative has changed from exclusive image of Indian side of Doklam to Chinese army invading Indian side of Doklam – all over unverified images.)

Tenzing Lamsang, on his side, cried himself hoarse that Times of India has got the story completely wrong, but it all fell on deaf ears.

In a Facebook post, he lashed out against The Times of India for misreporting on Bhutan:

Bhutanese journalist lashes out at Indian journalism

He even requested Times of India and Times Now to correct their “blunder” but no such correction seems to have been made.


At a time when Doklam is a sensitive issue concerning India, such casual attitude of a leading media house is really unfortunate.

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