Bulandshahr: Monday’s violence has barely been contained in the west UP village and RSS backed Sudarshan TV owner Suresh Chavhanke has already started stoking communal fires.  
 
In a series of tweets, Chavhanke linked the violence in Mahaw village, where a policeman was killed by an angry mob, to the peaceful congregation of Muslim devotees in Bulandshahr. About 10 lakh Muslim devotees have gathered in the town for Ijtema, an integral part of Tablighi Jamaat. Monday was the last day of the gathering.
 
In one tweet, he wrote that the violence had erupted because local residents objected to cow slaughter taking place in the congregation. He urged his followers to watch Sudarshan TV for updates on ‘lathicharge, burning, firing and deaths.’
 
His subsequent tweet read, “After the controversy over Bulandshahr Ijtema, many school children are stuck and crying. People are stuck in forests, frightened inside their homes. This is what local residents told Sudarshan TV in live conversations.”
 

Bulandshahr Police exposed his lies and, in a tweet, asked him to stop spreading fake news. “Please don’t spread misinformation. This incident is not linked to the Ijtema procession in any way. The Ijtema concluded peacefully. The current incident happened 45-50 kilometres away from where the Ijtema was held. Some rowdy elements are the perpetrators of this incident. Statutory action is being taken in the case,” the police outfit tweeted from their official handle.

 
Despite this, Chavhanke has not removed his post.  
 
He was arrested in April for spreading hate amongst communities, damaging social peace, hurting religious sentiments and spreading fake news and rumours through his news channel. He was let go soon after. He was also accused of sexual harassment by a former woman employee.
 
“Suresh Chavhanke, the CMD of Sudarshan News, said he was just three when he joined the RSS and began attending its shakhas. He was with the Sangh for the next 20 years, reporting for pro-RSS daily Tarun Bharat and holding various posts in the organisation before becoming a full-time journalist for the “nation,” reported the Indian Express. 

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इज्तिमा में गए मुस्लिमों को बदनाम करने की कोशिश में जुटा था सुरेश चव्यहाणके, पुलिस ने खोली पोल

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As per a local news website, the translation of the original text on the post (Assamer niriho nagorikder upor kapuroshichito sontrashbadider hamla okhankar samajik poristhitie up bishrinkholota shrishti korar jonno baypok shodojontrer ashonka) reads as follows:
“The cowardly terrorist attack on the people of Assam seems to have an agenda of creating chaos in the state.”

It is extremely strange that the BJP official page should visualise the image of a supposed Islamic terrorist when no Islamic terror groups have been reported to be involved. Though the police indicated at the involvement of ULFA militants, the ULFA itself has denied their involvement.
Sabrangindia had reported how hate speech had preceded the killings and the article had suggested simmering tensions between various communities especially Bengalis Hindus and Muslims.

By using this image, the BJP official page seems to be giving an indication that Islamic terror groups are behind the attack, which may have grave repercussions for the already fragile atmosphere of the area following conflicts related to NRC and the troubled landscape.

The book whose cover page has been used, itself seems to be diabolical and the author Paul Sutliff defines himself as “only an awakened Patriot to what is happening around him.” The cover picture has been widely used by “several media organisation across the globe including the Economic Times for one of their report on Jaish-e-Mohammad and Masood Azhar.”

The local community, especially Bengalis who were angry at the attack tried to uncover the propaganda and took to social media to highlight the unethical behaviour. Debraya Mukhopadhaya, a CPI (M) activist, said, “: “The BJP’s West Bengal page has already started to visually portray the killers of Tinsukia (attack) as Muslims.”

Local news reports have quoted people saying that they feel this is a “divisive ploy” by the BJP for misleading its followers and others into trying to believe that the attackers were Islamist terrorists. Shouvik Ghosh went to the extent of saying, “Those who are responsible for the killing are now making these posts to gain public support by posting pictures of Muslim terrorists. As if they came from Pakistan to kill people here in Tinsukia.”

BJP’s Facebook page made three posts about the attack and merely said that the attack was uncalled and that the Chief Minister of Assam would be doing the needful. The pictures used in each post had silhouettes of terrorists who can be easily passed off as Islamic terrorists.
 

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Karnataka: “In Congress rule at Shivmoga Karnataka, the teacher in school is teaching Namaz to Hindu children. And if Yogi Government even paints a school in Saffron colour it is communalism. That is perverted secularism in India,” this message was circulated at a breakneck speed last week on social media and travelled far and wide along with a video clipping serving as ‘proof.’
 
Like most other WhatsApp reports, this too was fake. The video clipping was just a small part of the teachers attempt to teach students about other religions for their Independence Day program. In other videos, they were seen teaching Sanskrit Shlokas from the Gita and verses from the Bible too.
 
BOOM Live, a fact-checking website, identified the school and found out that the teachers had first circulated two videos, one with the children reciting verses from the Quran and the other with them reciting verses from the Bhagavad Gita.
 
The website found that the video was from Vidyadeep Vidyalaya, a kindergarten school in Shivamogga district of Karnataka. “For Environment Day we conducted a program where all the kindergarten students recited verses from all the three religious books. Since this was a success we thought of doing it again for Independence Day and the video shows us practising for the same,” said Arathi Janardhan, Principal, Vidyadeep Vidyalaya to BOOM.
 
“In the second video accessed by BOOM, it clearly shows the same children from the first video reciting a Sanskrit Shloka. The video has one teacher narrating the Shloka which the students then repeat. The teacher who taught the verses from the Quran is also present in the classroom. I was the one who recorded both the videos and sent it to a Whatsapp group that we have created for communication with parents. I sent both the videos and many parents praised us for what we were doing,” the principal said in the report.
 
“The school has since scrapped the program for Independence Day next month because of the backlash it has received online. “We wanted a program which showed a unified world. We did not have any ill intent but our teachers and the school has had to face a lot of backlash and anger due to that video. I cannot put my teachers’ lives in danger or bring harm to my school so we are not going ahead with the religious scriptures event,” the principal said.
 
The video was circulated with the message, “In Congress-JDS ruled Karnataka in Shivamogga the teacher in a school is teaching Namaz to Hindu children. If the Gita had been taught in any Madrasah, the whole media would have forced the government to apologise. Plz spread this video so that Hindus can know how our religion is been destroyed by these secular parties.”
 
An attempt to teach school children religious harmony and appreciate diversity was turned into such an ugly political diatribe.
 
The miscreants who spread hatred online don’t realise how their actions affect real people in their immediate environment. Fake ‘child-lifting’ forwards with a video clipping originally made by an ad agency by Pakistan, has resulted in the murder of more 29 people since last year.

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Monday, April 16, was supposed to be a joyous occasion in Nawadih village under Domchanch Police station in the Koderma district of Jharkhand. With a population of just about 60 families, the village was getting ready to have dinner organised after a wedding from the groom’s side. For the same, a total of 50 kg of chicken and 15 kg of fish (reserved for the special guests) was being prepared and by midnight, almost all of it had been consumed. Until Monday, this was just a regular wedding organised by two Muslim families for their friends and relatives.

What followed next day has become a frighteningly common narrative across the nation. On Tuesday morning, WhatsApp messages started doing the rounds accusing the family of having served beef in the wedding party, fuelled by bones found behind the house of the groom. By afternoon, a mob of almost 100 people according to local Muslims had ransacked and looted the house of the groom, smashed cars, bikes and autorickshaws and nearly lynched people. Two people, in fact, are still hospitalised. What is even more shocking is that all this vandalism occurred even as the Police was on the spot ‘investigating’ if the meat served had actually been beef or not.

Two days later, the police said it had arrested seven people for vandalism and two Muslims also for allegedly spreading the rumours that beef had been served in the wedding. All this has left Atif Ansari (name changed on request) and his family and fellow residents of  Nawadih village fearing for their life. Speaking with TwoCircles.net, Ansari said, “I am a daily wage labourer. My family had attended the wedding too…chicken was the only meat served at the wedding. How can there be beef in so much quantity in a wedding when people know it is illegal? Also, why would they cook beef when they know that anyone can tell this to police and land them in trouble?” he asks. Ansari said that the morning after the wedding, one hoof of a cow was found buried near the house of the groom which sparked the vandalism. “I have seen that hoof…no one can say that it is of recent times…it was old and could very well have been planted there. Plus if there was so much beef, do you think they would cut the cow near the house and then cook it? And why would they bury just hoof? Where is the rest of the carcass then?” he asked.

The claim that there might have been beef seems contentious, but that did not stop members of Hindu right-wing organisations from damaging anything and everything they wanted. “They broke window panes of the residents, they burnt bikes, they destroyed cars, tore books meant for children in the local Mosque…all this was done to scare the Muslim community. Since that day, these goons have been telling us to run away from here,” he said. “And the truth is that their threats have worked…a number of families have sent their women, daughters and children away for fear of their safety,” he added.
 
Another resident who refused to be named said that the Police, as usual, was trying to divert the issue in its investigation. “It is true that they have arrested seven people but the truth is that the Police are more interested in investigating whether there was beef or not,” he said. “The police have also arrested two Muslim men-Mohammed Riyaz and Mohammed Aijaz-on charges that they had spread rumours about beef as they had a family dispute with the groom’s family. However, the truth is that Riyaz and Aijaz went with two other Muslims to file a plea with the police to investigate the matter in all possible ways. This was a hate crime but police want to make it look like a property dispute,” he added.

Although Superintendent of Police Shivani Tiwari said the situation is normal, the locals say they are scared of what will happen next. When asked who was behind the attack, Tiwari told TwoCircles.net, “We are investigating that aspect. So far, we can only confirm that seven people have been arrested for vandalising.”

Ansari, who said that Hindu right-wing organisations had been threatening them for a very long now, believes that the situation will only get worse. “Migrating to someplace else is something I never imagined yet now I have to consider it. No one knows what is next,” he added. “What else will one do if even eating chicken can cause our homes to be destroyed?” he added.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post Man nearly killed. homes and property vandalised, women fleeing in fear: How a beef rumour ruined a Muslim wedding in Koderma appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy Scroll / A hoarding in Honnavara which says, “Hindu tiger, the Hindu martyr come alive again”.

It all started on December 1 in port town of Honnavara. On the occasion of Eid-Milad, some Muslim youth had unfurled a green flag at the Chandavar circle in the town. After which a number of Hindu youth reached the place and installed a pole with saffron flag there leading to clashes between the two groups in which at least five persons were injured. On December 6, the town witnessed another incident of a communal clash over an accident in which Paresh Mesta was allegedly also a part of it. Mesta went missing since then and his dead body was found floating in town’s Shetty Kere Lake on December 8. Rumours around Mesta’s death started circulating in social media groups and State BJP leaders were the forerunners in spreading them. The rumours of Mesta’s body being brutalised were turned down by the preliminary postmortem report, however, Hindutva outfits have resorted to communal violence across the district. Muslim communities have remained in a state of fear, locking themselves inside their houses. In order to bring in normalcy, Karnataka Police arrested about 160 persons allegedly belonging to Hindutva groups for taking part in riots across the district. In the recent riots t was reported that at least 50 persons were injured and properties belonging to Muslims were vandalised.

Speaking to Newsclick, Civil rights activist H. S. Anupama, a doctor at Jalaja General and Maternity Clinic in Honnavara described the tensed atmosphere caused among the Muslim communities due to violence. “In the last ten days, my clinic hasn’t been visited by any Muslim patients. Instead, some of my patients have contacted me through phone and told that stones are being pelted at their houses”. She said, “at least in the last two decades, Uttara Kannada has not seen any such communal violence, however, other parts of the state have witnessed such situations.”

BJP MPs from the state, Anant Kumar Hegde, and Shobha Karandlaje have reportedly made hate statements despite communal tensions. Karandlaje claimed Paresh Mesta to be a BJP activist and accused “Jihadists” to be responsible for Mesta’s death, however, it turned out that Mesta’s father denied any such Party affiliation of his son. Hegde, on the other hand, had earlier called for a ‘Jail Bharo’ from December 19, demanding the release of the persons arrested during riots. After some of the arrested people were released on December 15, hedge wrote a Facebook post threatening more violence . It said, “The chief minister should be ready for a bigger Marikamba Habba”, (Marikamba Habbais an annual event where animals are sacrificed near a temple).

Brief history of communal violence in Karnataka
How did a region known for its secular values turn into a hotbed of communal politics in the state? Shivsundar, a longtime associate of Gauri Lankesh Patrike traced the history of communal violence in the state of Karnataka. According to him Uttara Kannada district transformed into such a site gradually, after a planned effort of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar.

In 1985 Kolar witnessed communal tension after the decision of BJP and RSS to celebrate Ganesh Utsav in public in grand scale; in 1990 a riot broke out with the preparation for Eid-Milad celebrations in Kolar. BJP along with RSS did a door to door campaign and mobilised the locals and protested the Eid procession being carried out in Kolar.

BJP and RSS sympathisers celebrated the laying of foundation stone of Ram temple in Ayodhya on 10 November 1989. This resulted in a series of riots in Arsikere, Hubli, and Dharwad. In 1990 the Rath Yatra of the BJP had again sparked a communal tension in the regions of the procession; this tension continued till1992 following the Babri Masjid demolition.

In 1994, a dispute around an Urdu news channel broke out. The Kannada Para Sanghas (Kannada organisation) joined hands with the Hindu fundamentalist groups in the state and opposed the initiative. This again triggered communal tensions in the state.

Shivsundar noted that since 2004, BJP has become stronger and in collaboration with RSS, has been trying to polarise the state. According to the database of communal violence in the state collated by Alternate Law Forum (ALF) in Bangalore, festivals and public gatherings have been the main sites of communal violence. Twenty four churches were vandalised under Yeddyurappa led BJP government, in 2008.

Shivsundar says, “In 2017 BJP has changed its agenda from development to communal polarisation. The recent attack on Baba Bundangiri shrine in December 2017 proves it.”

Shivsundar also pointed out that, BJP and RSS had tried hard to communalise the Hyderabad-Karnataka regions but were unsuccessful. The syncretic nature of the region posed a serious challenge to their efforts to communalise the region; after which, they have occupied the Mumbai Karnataka region. Dakshina Kannada is also one of the regions that are now the soft targets of communal agenda of the BJP and RSS.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

The post What’s Behind the Communal Violence in Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 

The post Reasons Behind Uttara Kannada’s Errupting into Communal Violence, December 2017 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On 26th October, at Sadar Kotwali, Nai Bazar Road in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, a statue of Swami Vivekananda was found damaged with the head of the statue lying on the ground beside the statue. A rather unknown website called Akhand Bharat News was the first to report this issue. This report claimed that an anti-social element had broken the statue of Swami Vivekananda and was subsequently arrested. Patrika reported the same incident on October 27th and stated that the district administration has promised to install a new statue.

Even though none of the news reports had stated anything about the religion of the accused, social media made this into a communal affair with posts on both Facebook and Twitter claiming that people belonging to the Muslim community were behind this incident. The tweet by Shankhnaad got retweeted the most number of times with over 2600 retweets at the time of writing.

A rather popular website called Topyaps.com referred to Shankhnaad’s tweet and published a story titled, “Swami Vivekananda’s Statue Gets Damaged In ISIS Style In UP’s Bhadohi“. The story goes on to make innuendos completely contradictory to the prevalent news reports. The first para of the story states, “Whatever may be one’s political affiliation, the respect for Swami Vivekananda remains indistinguishable. Except, of course, the far Left and anti-Hindu religious fundamentalists, no one can even think of insulting Swami Vivekananda. But some anti-social elements have damaged a statue Swami Vivekananda located at Sadar Kotwali, New Bazar Road, Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh.“.

However, when a Twitter user tagged UP Police on Twitter, urging them to take action, Bhadohi police’s Twitter account responded stating that the accused had already been arrested, his name being Premchandra Gautam, son of Neeraj Gautam. Bhadohi police further stated that the accused was arrested at 12:55 pm on 26th October.

Fact-checking website BoomLive.in who was the first to do a fact-check regarding this claim also spoke to additional SP of Bhadohi, Sanjay Kumar, who rubbished the claims on social media and stated that the accused was mentally challenged.
 

Another day, another rumour, another set of right-wing Hindutva accounts using fakery to further their hate agenda. At what point will the police smoke out the anti-social elements behind accounts like Shankhnaad? At what point will Twitter finally decide to close their accounts for repeated fake news that foments hatred? Who would be responsible if rumours from one of these usual suspects leads to a riot yet again?

Courtesy: Alt News
 

The post The claim that statue of Swami Vivekananda was ‘beheaded’ by Muslims in Bhadohi, UP, is fake news appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Following is the complete text of Mr K Surendran’s post.

Original text: സംസ്ഥാനത്ത് വിവിധ പ്രദേശങ്ങളിൽ ഇടതുവലതു യുവജനസംഘടനകളും മതതീവ്രവാദസംഘടനകളും നടത്തുന്ന ബീഫ് മേളകൾ തടയാൻ സംസ്ഥാനസർക്കാർ അടിയന്തിര നടപടി സ്വീകരിക്കണം. ബീഫ് മേളകളിൽ വിതരണം ചെയ്യുന്ന മാംസം പലതും അംഗീകൃത ഇറച്ചിക്കടകളിൽ നിന്ന് വാങ്ങുന്നതല്ല. പലയിടത്തും പൊതുസ്ഥലത്ത് നിയമം ലംഘിച്ച് കശാപ്പു നടത്തിയാണ് മേളകൾ നടത്തുന്നത്. ജനങ്ങളിൽ ഭീതിയുളവാക്കുന്നതും അരോചകമായ നിലയിലുമാണ് കാര്യങ്ങൾ പോകുന്നത്. പ്രകോപനപരമാണ് പല പരിപാടികളും. സാമൂഹ്യവിരുദ്ധരും തീവ്രവാദികളും അവസരം മുതലെടുക്കുന്നു. ദേവസ്വം വകുപ്പ് മന്ത്രി തന്നെ പരസ്യമായി ഗോമാംസം ഭക്ഷിക്കുന്നത് ലക്ഷക്കണക്കിന് വിശ്വാസികളെ വേദനിപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. മന്ത്രിമാരും ഉത്തരവാദപ്പെട്ട പൊതുപ്രവർത്തകരും ഇത്തരം ഭീഭൽസമായ സമരപരിപാടികളിൽ നിന്ന് വിട്ടുനിൽക്കണം. പ്രചാരണവും സമരപരിപാടികളും ആർക്കുമാവാം. എന്നാൽ ജനങ്ങളിൽ അവമതിപ്പുളവാക്കുന്ന ആഭാസസമരങ്ങളിൽ നിന്ന് ഉത്തരവാദപ്പെട്ടവർ പിന്മാറുന്നതാണ് എല്ലാവർക്കും നല്ലത്. തിരിച്ചുള്ള പ്രകോപനങ്ങളിലേക്ക് ദേശീയപ്രസ്ഥാനങ്ങളെ മനപ്പൂർവം വലിച്ചിഴക്കരുതെന്ന് ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട എല്ലാവരോടും അഭ്യർത്ഥിക്കുന്നു.

Rough Translation: The State Government should immediately take steps to stop the beef festivals being organised across the state by youth organisations of the left and the congress and some terrorist organisations. The beef being distributed in these festivals are not being bought from legal meat shops. In many places, the festivals are being conducted by illegal slaughtering of the cattle in public. Many of these events are aimed at inciting tension. Anti-social elements and terrorists are making use of this situation. Lakhs of devotees are pained because the Dewaswom Minister (who is in charge of temples) himself was seen publicly consuming beef. Ministers and responsible social workers should stay away from such horrific protest movements. Everyone is free to hold protests. But, it is better that people desist from participating in protests which will cause ill-will among the public. We request everyone connected with this not to drag the nationalistic organisations into countering this.

The issue of public slaughter has come into sharp focus after members of Kerala Youth Congress allegedly slaughtered a cow publicly to protest against the new beef ban rules by the Union Govt. This act was condemned by many including the Vice President of Congress himself.
 

 
Though one may agree with K Surendran in principle that animals shouldn’t be slaughtered publicly, and that safety norms should always be followed, the irresponsibility bordering on criminality here lies in the fact that the photo used by Mr K Surendran is an old photo and has got nothing to do with the wide-spread protests in Kerala against the Union Govt’s diktat. This photo has been used with misleading captions many times over in the past few years by many to further the cow vigilante cause.
 
For eg, one Subhasis Chakravarty posted this photo on 28 Oct 2011 on the Google Plus platform with the caption “COW slaughter in UP under the license of PRINCESS MAYAWATI , this way , in the open“.
 

A higher resolution picture of the dead cows can be seen here. As the commentator Krish Datta points out in the above image, the language on the boards above the shops is Bengali. With all the shutters down, it would seem like the shops are shut for a festival. These two facts combined would indicate that these could be Eid celebrations either in West Bengal or Bangladesh. Had cows been slaughtered in such a fashion in West Bengal, it surely would have been covered by the main stream media. However, no such news report was found in main stream media about such an incident in West Bengal. Most likely, this image is from Bangladesh. This image has been in circulation since before 2009 as can be seen in this WordPress blog.
 
 
 

The post Once Again a Fake Cow Slaughter Photo Used, This time by Kerala BJP Leader K Surendran, Willl no Action Follow? appeared first on SabrangIndia.