The residents have even written to the deputy commissioner raising their concerns. The spot in Sector 47 is a designated site for offering namaz, and is among the 37 such sites where prayers can be offered in the open. Such arrangements were made in 2018 and have been followed since then, as some disturbances had taken place and Muslim and Hindu communities had then reached an agreement. Yet, these residents refuse to accept this and demand written proof of such agreement and argue that they were not consulted for the same.

At 1 P.M on Friday, October 8, around 30-35 residents, carrying these placards raised ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans, and gathered at the ground opposite the State Vigilance Bureau office in Sector 47. For over an hour, they sang bhajans and hymns while police placed a barricade to stop them from marching to the place where namaz was being offered, reported Indian Express.

Tulsi Devi, a resident of Sector 47, told IE, “Local residents have concerns related to security and safety. Earlier, only 20 people used to offer prayers; now there are 200. We don’t know who these ‘outsiders’ are. Petty crime has increased and it has created congestion on access roads.” Notably, among those protesting was Bharat Mata Vahini President Dinesh Bharti who was arrested last week on charges of disrupting Friday prayers in the past few months. He was arrested by Sector 50 police station and was just granted bail on Thursday as he promptly joined the protest the very next day.

Bharti claims, “This is an international conspiracy… they are offering namaz as part of this conspiracy of… love jihad, land jihad. If we don’t raise our voice, they will build a mosque here.”

Mufti Mohammad Saleem, president, Jamiat Ulama, Gurgaon, said that on Thursday evening, administration officials had requested them to shift the prayer site by a few metres as some residents had raised objections. “We complied with the request. Our only motive is to pray here in peace. There is a dearth of places where Muslims can pray — there are over 5 lakh Muslims in the city and only 13 mosques. We are praying here in the open under compulsion (majboori). Several workers from nearby come here to pray during lunch time and leave after 15 minutes. I appeal to citizens to let us pray here,” he told IE.

Altaf Ahmad, one of the founders of Gurgaon Nagrik Ekta Manch made an appeal to the administration to allocate land in sectors in Gurgaon for building mosques for them to offer namaz.

Related:

Hate Watch: Twitter influencer Mahesh Vikram Hegde shares anti-namaz video

Court reminds hate mongers, India is not a Taliban State

Delhi: After defacing Akbar Road signboard, goons flee at the sight of cops

The post Hate Watch: Gurgaon’s communal side; residents oppose Friday namaz offered in open space appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This Facebook page is called “Garv se kaho hum hindu hai – Hindu jago” (Say it with pride, I am a Hindu – Wake up Hindus!). This page keeps posting videos revering right wing leaders such as former Prime Minister, Late Atal Bihari Bihari Vajpayee and Shiv Sena Supremo Late Balasaheb Thackeray.

One such video of Balasaheb is where he is hoisting his Hindu identity and saying that he is a “mad” Hindu.

In the video he can be seen recounting some incidents around the chilling Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992-93. It has been widely reported that a government inquiry into these riots blamed Shiv Sena and its members of orchestrating attacks on Muslims.

Further, there is also a video clip from the film titled ‘Thackeray’ wherein Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the actor playing the role of Balasaheb is seen delivering an inciteful speech.

In this video he can be seen saying, “Aaj ke baad jo Hinduon ki baat karega wohi Hindustan pe raj karega” (From now on, only those who speak up for Hindus will rule India). Further there is also a scene from the movie which depicts a trial court hearing where a lawyer is questioning why Babri masjid was demolished. In this scene he can be seen justifying the same.

There are several such videos that can be found on this page which propagate Hindutva ideology while also projecting Hindus as victims and hence trying to incite the need for ‘awakening’ Hindus.

This page, with over 18,000 followers is one of the many such pages that starkly reflect prevalent fascism and the idea of a Hindu nation. Such Facebook pages are kept active by the several right wing organisations that have mushroomed throughout the country in the past 5 years and they keep propagating hatred and inciting Hindus by giving them a sense of being victimised at the hands of minorities such as the Muslim community in order to feed into their vote bank politics and communal agenda.

Facebook complicit with hate propaganda?

Facebook has always been criticised for its failure to remove hate content from its platform. Despite many complaints going to Facebook from many users about such pages that propagate hatred, they still continue to persist. The reason behind this may have been revealed in this Wall Street Journal report which states that Facebook has been turning a blind eye to controversial hate speech by few leaders of the ruling party to remain in the good books of the BJP. Clearly, it is all a part of the larger scheme of things.

The Wall Street Journal report says that Ankhi Das, who is Facebook’s top public policy executive in India, opposed applying hate speech rules to the BJP’s T. Raja Singh out of fear of ruining the company’s relationship with the ruling party. “Facebook deleted some of Mr. Singh’s postings after the Journal asked about them. It said Mr. Singh no longer is permitted to have an official, verified account, designated with a blue check mark badge,” the report notes.

The August 14 WSJ report headlined “How Facebook’s Hate Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics” puts a name and a face—Ankhi Das, its chief lobbyist in Delhi, who works under the title of public-policy director–to some of the rumours, whispers and sharp practices surrounding Facebook’s India operations.

Related:

The curious case of a secular alcoholic, an Eid banner and hate mongers

August 5, 2020 and thereafter

The post Hate Hatao: Hindutva page on FB posts old videos to incite new hate appeared first on SabrangIndia.

But the farmers in the district are in distress year after year. So far there has not been a proper system of MSP in place. The state government fixed a minimum support price of Rs. 6918 per quintal which itself is a low price compared to the production coast of Rs. 5000 per quintal. But the Central government has fixed it at Rs. 5450. When the MSP is low, the market price also goes down; the farmers are being forced to sell the product at Rs. 3500-4000 this year, an amount lesser than the production cost. Many farmers have also refused to sell their crop and have stocked them, unsold.   

On the other hand, the central government has imported 18 lakh tonne of toor dal in 2017-18, 57 lakh tonne in 2016-17 and 62 lakh tonne in 2015-16. This massive import of dal has started after the BJP government came to power. The India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) signed an agreement with Adani port under which the Adani group handles the pulse import in to the country with zero percentage import duty.   

The BJP government’s nexus with corporate companies has already resulted in 50 suicides in 2017-18 in Gulbarga.

The post The BJP’s love for Adani is giving farmers a hard time appeared first on SabrangIndia.