As provided by the police, two Durga idol processions were going in Ballia market for immersion when an individual, identified as Amit Rastogi, allegedly removed the flag belonging to one of the processions, as per a report of the Observer Post. The said act had led to confusion and chaos amongst the people who were a part of the religious processions. As the temperament started flaring, a gunshot was fired at those participating in the idol immersion, and the flag associated with the procession was tampered with.

The angry members of the religious procession had then resorted to vandalising the local Muslim owned shops.

Begusarai Superintendent of Police Yogendra Kumar told the Observer Post that the incident reached such a level that it necessitated police intervention, which included a lathi charge. As per the HT report, additional police force had rushed to the spot of the clash to bring the situation under control. Furthermore, six people have been detained by the police and are being questioned.

A post of Hate Detectors on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) had posted videos from the incident. In one video, a group of people can be seen standing on a tempo. One young boy can be seen pulling down a flag and throwing it down. The second video shows individuals vandalising properties and roaming around with sticks and swords in their hands. The third video shows the mob vandalising shops of roadside fruit and vegetable sellers.

The video can be viewed here:

In #Bihar‘s #Begusarai, Muslim shops vandalised & looted during Durga procession!

A clash broke out between two Durga immersion processions in #Ballia market of Begusarai!

Police said that two Durga idol processions were going in Ballia market for immersion!

During this… pic.twitter.com/0u8UwoXVox

— Hate Detector (@HateDetectors) October 28, 2023

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The post Bihar: Clash between two Durga immersion groups, chaotic mobs vandalise and loot neighbouring Muslim-owned shops appeared first on SabrangIndia.

One of the voters said that while she was pressing the first button, administrators forced her to press the second one which allegedly belongs to the BJP candidate and union minister Giriraj Singh.

Earlier in the day, there were reports that Congress workers were allegedly forcing voters from the Arta village in Barmer, Rajasthan to vote for the Congress candidate and when they denied to comply, they were manhandled. However, the police later claimed that an old-rivalry between the two groups was the cause for the tussle. There have also been reports of EVM malfunctioning and booth-capturing in previous phases where the voters alleged that the vote went to the BJP candidate even when they didn’t vote for him/her.

Begusarai has been in the limelight since the time young student leader and CPI candidate, Kanhaiya Kumar, filed his nomination to contest against BJP’s candidate Giriraj Singh and RJD’s candidate Tanveer Hasan. A tough fight from Kanhaiya has made the BJP stoop to a new low with its controversial IT cell circulating fake news and morphed images to spread animosity against him by portraying him as anti-national who will divide India into pieces.

While it is for the Election Commission to adjudicate this matter, reports of such incidents are a serious setback for India, the largest democracy in the world!

Related Articles:

1. Kanhaiya Kumar’s Photoshopped Image Being Circulated With Appeal Of Not Voting For Him
2. EVM Malfunction or manipulation?
3. Early voting in Assam marred by reports of VVPAT mismatch, faulty EVMs

The post Officials Force Voters to Vote for BJP candidate in Begusarai appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A massive rally took place in Begusarai, Bihar today in support of youth leader, ex-JNU president and CPI candidate from Begusarai, Kanhaiya Kumar. Eminent activists Teesta Setalvad, Fatima Nafees, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, actress Swara Bhaskar, youth leaders Shehla Rashid and Gurmehar Kaur  joined the rally in support along with several other youths and locals. Even rains and hailstorms were not able to affect the enthusiasm of the massive crowd which shows no sign of dispersing anytime soon. 

Around 15,000 people walked a distance of eight and a half to ten kilometres of the rally that was splashed with rain drops and hail. More than ten thousand people gathered for the Jan-Sabha at the BSS high school ground in Begusarai.

Fatima Nafees, an activist in her own might and mother of the missing JNU scholar Najeeb Ahmed addressed the gathering palpable with raw energy and cheer. She highlighted how the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) perpetrated violence on Najeeb and has been responsible for several such episodes across the country. She said, “Kanhaiya has become my voice. Wherever he goes he definitely talks about us, whether that be Najeeb or Akhlaq or Pehlu Khan. He has never differentiated between Hindus and Muslims. The time to crush the communal forces has come. I want that [these forces] should be taught a lesson and Modi should be sent back to sell chaay pakoda in Gujarat.” She even said that Modi will not be able to work like Kanhaiya will.

Jignesh Mevani, the firebrand MLA from Vadgam, Gujarat said, “It is time to rise above the politics of religion and give birth to a new kind of politics. I am very hopeful that all you people, who have participated in the rally with such rigour, those who have worked for, 12-14-16 [and more hours] will work hard and ensure that Kanhaiya Kumar reaches Delhi.”

Swara Bhaskar, the actress with several critically acclaimed movies up her sleeves, also came to campaign for Kanhaiya. She said, “Don’t think that a Heroine has come amongst you. Today I have not come as an actress but as the granddaughter of Bihar. Begusarai is my maternal home. Begusarai was the Nanihal of my fua-nani. Today Bihar’s daughter has come home. [In common parlance] The word Bihari is used like an innuendo, those people [who use it like an abuse] should meet Kanhaiya. They will feel a sense of pride. “

Shehla Rashid said, “We feel that this isn’t the fight in Begusarai alone, but of the entire country. The country needs a new leader. We respect all the other candidates, but this is a request from Begusarai that give new leadership to the country.”

“Very happy that a youth leader has emerged at such an age. I don’t remember such a huge rally for a non-dynast. I think this is an Indian victory. This is the victory of the entire nation,” said peace warrior Gurmehar Kaur.

Amidst huge applause and cheer, Kanhaiya Kumar said, “There have been several attempts to weaken the constitution. This is so that the questions of basics, of food, house, affordable education, of dignity can be weakened. All of you must feel that all of you are candidates in this election. And that You have to unite to fight for the development and dignity of Begusarai. And we know that no fight that has been fought with all the heart, can be lost!”

For Kumar, the challenge is going to be double folded as not just Giriraj Singh of BJP stands in opposition, but also Tanveer Hassan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) grand alliance. This seat goes for Lok Sabha polls in the fourth stage of elections, on April 29.

The Jan Sabha is still going on as the story is filed.
 

The post A Star studded rally for Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Patna: “Like every drop of water fills an earthen pot, (your) donation of Re 1 to my campaign fund will help me to fight the election and take the voice of the marginalised and exploited to Parliament,” Kanhaiya Kumar, fighting from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, had said in an appeal.
 
Kanhaiya Kumar also launched an online crowdfunding platform on March 26 to collect money to contest the elections.
 
He had been receiving overwhelming support to his online crowd funding initiative. Within four hours of its launch on Tuesday, Kanhaiya’s crowdfunding bid had fetched Rs 7 lakh in donations. By Wednesday afternoon, the amount had crossed Rs 31 lakh.
 
Then, a source close to Kanhaiya said the CPI candidate and many of his party colleagues had been “flooded with calls from people whose donations are not going through online”.
 
Kanhaiya posted on Facebook, “On one hand we have got your support, on the other, as always, we are facing the conspiracies of those who do not want the voice of the exploited and the dispossessed to reach Parliament. For the last two days, we have faced repeated cyber attacks to shut down our donation website.”
 
The site, ourdemocracy.in, has now been taken offline and engineers are probing whether the glitch was the result of a cyber attack.
 
An integral member of Kanhaiya’s team, Varun Chauhan said that the funds that have been raised are not at risk or exposed to any security concerns. “We have raised Rs 32 lakh in less than 24 hours that the site was properly live for. The money goes to a payment gateway and not to a particular account directly. Once the campaign is done, the ourdemocracy.com team will transfer the funds or hand over a cheque. We will set up an account in accordance with the EC rules and regulations and then transfer the money there,” he said in a report by edexlive.com.
 
The attacks, Varun said, started within an hour after the site went live. “I don’t want to name anyone directly. But certain IT cells have been working hard to flood the site with various forms of cyber attacks. We have a team from the USA and the site IT professionals working on the security upgrade of the site at Delhi. It will take a day to get it back up,” he said in the report.
 
Bilal Zaidi, the co-founder of the website, in a report by the Telegraph, said, “We are working to make it more safe and secure with a team of senior technical experts. Until then, the website is closed for contributions…. From the volume of traffic on the website, we estimate that had there not been problems with the website, he would have touched Rs 50 lakh to 60 lakh by now.”
 
The Telegraph reported that Kanhaiya and his supporters are continuing what communist parties have been doing for long. “After songs and skits, our cultural squads pass around a red cloth in which the people of Begusarai drop their donations,” a source said.
 
In his appeal, Kanhaiya spoke about Gauri Lankesh, M M Kalburgi, Rohit Vemula and missing JNU student Najeeb. “At a terrifying moment like this, we all share the struggle to protect the values of our constitution and of humanity. It is often that people who raise genuine issues have to face vile schemes on one hand and resource crunch on the other. We really hope that you will make a financial contribution to the best of your ability and strengthen us in this shared struggle.”
 
Kanhaiya Kumar is the Left candidate and will take on Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Giriraj Singh in Begusarai.

The post Kanhaiya Kumar’s crowdfunding site suffers cyber-attack after Rs. 32 lakh donated under 24 hours appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This time Kanhaiya was not given the status of a state guest like the last time around but this did not stop the fiery student leader with other colleagues of the JNUSU from expressing solidarity with students incarcerated in Bihar.

Here is Kanhaiya’s Message from his Bihar trip in June 2016:

कन्हैया कुमार, गाँधी मैदान, पटना में प्रतिरोध मार्च को संबोधित करते हुए:

“जिस देश के शिक्षा मंत्री व प्रधानमंत्री की डिग्री ही संदिग्ध हो, वहाँ किसी छात्र की डिग्री का क्या कहना ?
यह देश की शिक्षा-व्यवस्था की हालत को दर्शाता है।
दरअसल इस सरकार ने विश्वविद्यालयों को युद्ध क्षेत्र में तब्दील कर दिया है। शिक्षा को बाज़ार के हवाले कर सबसे ज़्यादा सामाजिक न्याय की अवधारणा को निशाना बनाया जा रहा है । जो नेता छात्र आंदोलन की उपज हैं, कम-से-कम उन्हें छात्रों के सवालों के प्रति उदासीन नहीं होना चाहिए। फर्ज़ी मुक़दमे में फसाकर अपने छात्र -नौजवानों को वाजिब सवाल उठाने पर तंग करने वाली सरकार एक दिन ख़ुद तंग हो जाती है। हम अभिव्यक्ति की आज़ादी के पक्ष में अपनी सारी ताक़त झोंक देंगे। बेऊर जेल में बंद एआइएसएफ राज्य सचिव साथी सुशील समेत सभी साथियों को बेशर्त रिहा करना होगा। पटना विश्वविद्यालय में  छात्रों की माँगें पूरी होने तक हमारी लड़ाई जारी रहेगी ।
राष्ट्रपति का बेटा हो या चपरासी की संतान
सबको शिक्षा एक समान, सबको शिक्षा एक समान ।“

And there is more:

“The ABVP organised a series of rituals for purification of all the places I visited yesterday to offer garlands to our ideals and to address the people of Begusarai. They reveal their mentality of untouchability even while protesting against anything. The mentality that portrays belief in such purification rituals is the same that supports the discrimination against Dalits and Tribals at colleges and universities. They consider me a ‘traitor’ and they  have the democratic right to criticise me, but the means they have adopted to do so are anti-democratic in nature. They have revealed their "anti-rational" approach once again by promoting superstitions in this whole process.

The battle within India’s universities for ‘rationality’in the face of authoritarian obscurantism continues. At the forefront are India’s youth leaders today the most formidable opposition to the Modi regime.

The post Kanhaiya Campaigns Against Discrimination & Majoritarianism, draws Sangh Ire appeared first on SabrangIndia.