by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for the first time admitted in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that fake news on social media has resulted in many mob lynching incidents in the country, saying the government has asked service providers to put a check on rumour mongering on social media. Not satisfied with his response, the opposition walked out.
Earlier, the Minister termed these incidents ‘unfortunate’ and asked the state governments to take “appropriate action”. He was replying to a question raised by K.C. Venugopal of the Congress during Zero Hour.
The Congress MP said incidents of mob lynching and vigilantism have increased across the country and political opponents were also being targeted by vigilante groups.
He alleged that investigative agencies were being misused even as he hit out at BJP MP Jayant Sinha for garlanding eight people who were convicted in a mob lynching case.
“Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity as well as Swami Agnivesh have been attacked by ruling party members,” said Venugopal. He also urged the government to bring a law to check such crimes.
Replying to him, Singh said while it was true that such incidents resulting in deaths have been reported from various parts of the country, “this is not the first time that such incidents have happened”.
Condemning these incidents, he said it was the responsibility of the states to take appropriate action.
“Since law and order is a state subject, the state governments should take action. I have personally spoken to the Chief Ministers about these incidents,” said Singh.
“The spread of fake news on social media by unverified accounts is also responsible for these incidents. We have asked the social media service providers to devise a system to prevent fake news,” he added.
He also said that the Home Ministry had issued two advisories to the state governments, one in 2016 and the other a few days back, urging them to take action in such incidents.
Not happy with the Minister’s reply, Congress, RJD and CPI-M members staged a walkout.
According to media reports, 20 people have died in lynching cases across the country this year.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Shillong : Stressing India’s northeastern states suffered from lack of adequate private investment, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that the Narendra Modi government is committed to ensure socio-economic development of this region as per its potential and to also ensure peace and prosperity to the citizens.
“Our Government is taking keen interest to act as a link with the South East Asian countries so as to push economic development in the region. ‘The Look East Policy’ has been changed to ‘The Act East Policy’. We are trying to ensure in all eight States, sectors such as infrastructure strengthening, manufacturing, trade, tourism, skill development, urban renewal, smart cities, and ‘Make in India’ get emphasized,” he said in his address at the 67th Plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) here.
He also suggested the NITI Forum for the North East to meet on a regular basis and decide on the action to be taken on recommendations by October and for this, he even advocated calling a special Session of the NEC.
The NEC, a regional planning body of the eight northeastern states, has recently been brought under the direct control of the Union Home Ministry. The Home Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of the council while Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister is the vice chairman.
The meeting was attended by Governors and Chief Ministers of all the eight north-eastern states, including Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region, Jitendra Singh.
Rajnath Singh, underlining that cooperation between India and ASEAN is essential for the region’s prosperity, he said with this objective, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj chaired an interactive session with Chief Ministers of northeastern states on the ‘Act East Policy’ and discussed the issues in detail.
This forum should prepare a broad roadmap towards realizing the objectives of the “Act East Policy” and for its preparation and its speedy implementation, NEC can be a right forum,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Saeed Naqvi,
I have never seen the electronic media so totally defiant of the BJP government. Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s avowed intention to calm Kashmir by announcing a Ramadan ceasefire appears to have been dismissed as “appeasement of Pakistan and terrorists”.
A guest peering out of one of the six windows on the TV screen was frothing in the mouth. “Murderers of our brave jawans are being shamelessly appeased.” The other went one better: “A brave nation does what the Sri Lankan army did to the LTTE – just finished them off.” The anchor on this Aaj Tak show Thursday evening looked angrier than both. This apparently is common fare.
The Communist Party of India is receiving signals from its Kashmir unit that it may have to rename itself. The ‘I’ in the CPI has been hurting the state unit for quite some time. But after the recent surge in shootings, stone pelting, “encounters”, sustained images of wailing women, trailing the spate of funerals, and relentless media jingoism, the “I” now invites physical danger. True, a defunct party by any name will remain defunct, but even so, Communist Party of Kashmir (CPK) will at least not incur the wrath of the street.
The relative Ramadan peace is a good occasion to take stock. Even in days of drift in Kashmir during the time of P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, there was a semblance of political control by the National Conference and the PDP. Elements of the Hurriyat had fingers on the street pulse. The scene recently has been anarchic: there was no control.
Recent increase in violence was described by reliable sources as “indigenous” which is not what officials say. A narrative which discounts outside “meddling” is not honeyed music to the establishment. Nor to that shrill panel – on Aaj Tak. Ironical, isn’t it, that the absence of outside support to the insurgency disturbs us?
Just when Kashmir was at fever pitch, the mayhem in Aligarh Muslim University erupted around the photograph of Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Friends are in error if they consider the undiluted hooliganism on view in Aligarh an occasion to engage in a serious debate on Jinnah’s culpability in partitioning the country. The hoodlums of Aligarh were not busting their guts to have Jinnah’s portrait removed from the AMU union office. Quite the contrary. Hindu Yuva Vahini would love to provoke Aligarh hotheads to dig their heels in to preserve Jinnah in the university precincts. This will be the ammunition which can come in handy at all times. The campus will be the ordnance depot for frequent explosions in the service of the projected Hindu Rashtra.
This is not the first time in recent decades that AMU has been exploited for saffron politics. Ever since Prime Minister V.P. Singh aggravated identity politics by implementing the Mandal Committee report providing reservation in government jobs to lower castes, the BJP has rushed to prevent the caste structure from crumbling. Hindu consolidation, by building up the Muslim ogre, has been the obvious strategy.
Aligarh was frequently the target as part of this strategy. There was no Arnab Goswami in the 90s but Hindi newspapers played a lead role in widening the Hindu-Muslim divide.
A story appears in newspapers that, after horrendous riots in Aligarh city, some of the injured Hindus being taken to the University Medical College for treatment are being killed by Muslim doctors and interns. Even though the university is only three hours drive from New Delhi, newspapers choose to rely on unverified agency copy which, in turn, quotes upper caste Hindi newspapers.
An incredible scene is being enacted on the outskirts of the university. Local scribes seated on chairs arranged in a circle under a mango tree, sip tea even as one Krishna Kumar Navman, BJP MLA from Aligarh, holds them in his thrall with graphic accounts of murders in the hospital.
“Has anyone visited the Medical College?” I ask. They had not, they say, because it is “risky”.
At the medical college the picture is surreal: petrified doctors encircle me. “No one has come to us for clarification,” they complain.
Why have they not reached out to the journalists with their story? After a long, pregnant silence, they speak up. They thought it would be dangerous stepping out of the campus “in the midst of communal violence”. This is what I call uninstitutionalized apartheid.
That was 30 years ago when there were no TV channels to inculcate saffron nationalism on the scale I saw the other day and which I have mentioned above.
Folks overtly agitated or elated at the turn of events in Aligarh may find it sobering that Pakistan’s Jinnah is not the only leader around whom communal polarization can be contrived. Ram Navami processionists in Kankinara, 24 Parganas in West Bengal, were so overpowered by the spirit of Rama that they pulled down the statue of Congress President and India’s first Education Minister, Maulana Azad – a person, who in his outlook was exactly the opposite of Jinnah. This was in preparation for the Panchayat elections currently in the news.
Protection to anti-namaz lumpens in Gurugram, or those who pasted a Maharana Pratap Road placard on Akbar Road (the placard was removed the next morning), Modi clenching his fist at Tipu Sultan during the recent campaign, are minor episodes in an epic of hatred being manufactured for 2019 of course, and beyond if need be. In this gameplan there is no real, long-term respite for Kashmiris, Muslims or Indo-Pakistan peaceniks. Alongside, the rage of the Dalits and tribals is spiraling out of control. There is an element of simulation in anti-Muslimism for political reasons but the retribution faced by Dalits and tribals in the countryside is visceral.
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Imphal : Union Home minister Rajnath Singh is set to meet the Chief Ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur on the contentious issue of framework agreement signed between the Central government and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) in 2015.
Meanwhile, normal life was thrown out of gear on Thursday at Thangmeiband in Manipur’s Imphal west district as there was a shutdown and sit-in protest demanding disclosure of details of the agreement.
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh is on his way to meet his Assam and Arunachal Pradesh counterparts Sarbananda Sonowal and Prema Khandu before the meeting with Rajnath Singh.
There have been protests in these three states amid fears that the framework agreement compromises their territorial integrity.
Manipur’s former Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam on Thursday said: “Time is overdue to sink all political differences and find a solution. Instead of holding talks with some particular groups, all stakeholders should be involved.”
Congress spokesperson and legislator K. Joykishan said Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju’s statement that the details of the agreement cannot be disclosed because of their sensitivity is “unacceptable”.
Pradip, Secretary of Thangmeiband United Club, which organised the protest, said: “Though we had invited all political parties to take part in the protest just three parties sent their representatives.”
Opposition Congress has been holding such protest meetings for some days demanding details be disclosed. The framework agreement was signed by the NSCN-IM leaders and the central interlocutor R.N.Ravi at the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 3, 2015.
Official indications are that the agreement will soon be implemented as a “Christmas gift”. There is apprehension among the three states that even though their territorial integrity may not be affected, some “autonomy” may be granted to the NSCN-IM in Naga areas.
Inaugurating the hornbill festival in Nagaland on December 1, President Ram Nath Kovind said that a final solution will be achieved soon.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sheikh Qayoom,
Srinagar/Jammu : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday sought to address the concerns over the legal challenge to the Constitution’s Article 35A by stating that the Narendra Modi government would do nothing that would go against the aspirations of Kashmiri people while also asserting that he was ready to come here and meet anyone to bring peace to the state.
Concluding his two-day visit to the Kashmir Valley on Monday, he also said that the situation here was improving and he could see “the green buds of peace on the trees”.
Addressing the media before leaving on two-day visit to Jammu, he said the controversy round article 35A was a non-issue that was being unfortunately raked up.
“The centre will do nothing that would go against the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people regarding article 35A.
“I feel there is no reason for doubt and confusion on this issue. The centre has not gone to the court in this regard and I want to assure that whatever our government will do, it will not go against the wishes and aspirations of the people,” he said.
Asked about the divergent positions taken by the RSS and even the BJP leaders and ministers who were demanding the abrogation of the article that gives special privileges to the permanent residents of J&K, an assertive Rajnath Singh said: “I am a BJP leader and the Home Minister of the country. My statement on this issue should be taken as final.”
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her predecessor Omar Abdullah both welcomed the assurance, but the latter also sought that the central government should now translate the assurance on ground by filing a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court.
Rajnath Singh, meanwhile asked about starting a political initiative in the state, said: “I have never counted the number of times I came here. I have always come with an open mind, but people must come forward to talk.”
Asked about the arrests of separatist leaders in the state, he said the National Investigation Agency is acting according to the law of the land, but added that this should not deter those who want to talk to the government.
“Law will take its course, but we are ready to speak to everybody. We have never opposed talks. The all party delegation came here and met everybody, we did not oppose that. I have already said that all stakeholders are welcome and anybody ready to talk to us is welcome,” he asserted.
He also said that during his present trip, he was convinced that things were improving in the Valley.
“What I have seen during last two, three days has convinced me that the trees of peace have not dried up. I can see green buds of peace on these trees.
“I have not counted how many times I have come here. If I have to come 50 times to bring peace to J&K, I will do that,” he asserted.
Singh said he met 55 delegations during this visit and was always ready to meet anyone without reservations.
“I have met non-political people including students, teachers, things are improving with every passing day. The situation may not have improved completely, but it is improving. I don’t want to leave out anyone with whom dialogue is possible,” he added.
He said he was moved to tears while paying tributes to slain policemen in south Kashmir.
“While giving tributes to Kashmir policemen, the face of ASI Abdul Rashid’s daughter, Zohra was passing through my mind. We want every face in Kashmir to smile,” he said.
He said the issue of disturbed area allowance to state policemen on the pattern of central armed forces was being considered.
On the developmental front, he said: “I have reviewed the progress on the implementation of Prime Minister’s developmental package for the state. From the initially slotted Rs 85,000 crore, it will now cross Rs 100,000 crore.”
The minister also said that children must have been pushed by motivators to commit crimes and they should not be treated as criminals.
“They must be dealt under juvenile justice system and not be put into jails. They must be properly counselled. I told security forces that no excesses should be committed during operations.”
He blamed terrorists for destroyed generations of Kashmir and reaffirmed that the government will not allow another generation to be destroyed.
“Poor people and businessman, youth with positive attitude and tourism industry have immensely suffered. After a wrong message went out, tourists stopped coming here. I want to send them a message that the people of Kashmir are ready to receive you, there is no danger here,” he said.
On the use of pellet gun, he said they had introduced the PAVA gun to replace it but he had been told that it is not very effective. However, he added that in comparison to past, less people have been injured during crowd control in the Valley during the past months.
He denied any political party delegations had sought revocation of the stringent AFSPA during their meetings with him.
Rajnath Singh held later a rally in Naushera in Jammu region where he said India wanted peace with Pakistan, but will respond to its ceasefire violations sternly. He also met residents of border villages who have migrated to safer places due to the ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops.
In Jammu city, various delegations called on him.
—IANS
