Police on Friday have taken four individuals into custody in connection with a distressing incident where two women were paraded naked in front of a mob in the northeastern state of Manipur in India.
Local police confirmed the arrest of the four main accused, as announced on their official Twitter account.
Four main accused arrested in the Viral Video Case :
03 (three) more main accused of the heinous crime of abduction and gangrape under Nongpok Sekmai PS, Thoubal District have been arrested today. So total 04 (four) persons have been arrested till now.
The action has been taken after over two months of the incident happening in the troubled district. Public outrage exerted pressure on the state government, led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and four culprits were apprehended.
The suspects came to light after a video of the incident surfaced on social media in early May, garnering nationwide outrage. The video depicted the women being subjected to humiliation and harassment by a jeering mob while walking naked along a street in the state.
The country’s Supreme Court took notice of the horrifying incident and issued a warning to Modi’s government, urging immediate action, with the implication that the court would intervene if necessary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence on the matter, after facing harsh criticism by lawmakers and public. He said that the country was “shamed” by the incident.
The incident occurred against the backdrop of months of ethnic violence that has resulted in at least 120 fatalities. The situation has been further exacerbated by the imposition of an internet shutdown by the Indian authorities in the area.
On Thursday, the European Parliament urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end ethnic violence in Manipur, and to do more to protect ethnic and religious minorities in India. Modi is currently on an official visit to France, having been invited to attend the country’s annual Bastille Day national festival as a guest of honour.
However, between the ceremony and the diplomatic courting, EU parliamentarians in Strasbourg approved a motion that urged India to end violence in the country’s northeastern Manipur state, and to protect the minorities there.
The motion also criticised the ‘national rhetoric’ of the local state government, run by Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). EU parliamentarian Pierre Larrouturou released a statement on his Twitter, with an accompanying video.
Ahead of the Indian Prime Minister’s official visit to France, Emmanuel Macron’s guest of honor on July 14th, the European Parliament denounces Narendra Modi’s “nationalistic rhetoric”.
In his tweet, Larrouturou stated that Modi and Macron can “pretend that everything is going well in India”,however, the EU parliament is recalling facts, and strongly condemns the human rights violations that take place in India.
“Every day in India, thousands of Muslims, Christians, and members of ethnic minorities see their rights repressed,” the statement read. “To remain silent on the situation would have been a humiliation for all those who fight for their fights and suffer every day from the Hindu nationalism imposed by the Modi government.”
In May, CNN reported how residents of Manipur say there has been a breakdown of law and order. This was after a spell of violence that left at least 58 dead and tens of thousands more homeless.
In a speech to the public, Larrouturou went on to point out, “In Manipur, for the past two months, we have seen monstrous violence. Over 120 people have died and 1700 homes have been devastated, 250 churches have been destroyed, 40,000 people have fled for their lives.”
Despite differences over the war in Ukraine, namely India’s continued support to Russia, as well as tensions over human rights violations in the country, Western democracies are courting Modi and what is currently the world’s most populous country, as a counterweight to China’s influence in Asia.
India is also one of the largest global buyers of French arms. On Thursday, India approved in principle the purchase of 26 French marine Rafale jets and three Scorpene-class submarines, news agency ANI reported.
During Modi’s last visit to Paris in 2015, he announced a landmark deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets worth around €4 billion ($4.48 billion).
Congresswoman Cori Bush and member of the U.S. House of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have joined Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in boycotting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Washington speech.
Both politicians announced their decision via Twitter. The development came shortly after Omar announced that she would be boycotting Modi’s speech, citing human rights abuse.
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Bush have made their decision to boycott for the same reasons. In her statement on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out how Modi had been denied a U.S. visa in 2005 due to his alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will boycott Prime Minister Modi’s joint address to Congress. pic.twitter.com/DICpt7StvF
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) June 21, 2023
She goes on to explain that a joint address to Congress is among the most prestigious invitations the U.S. can extend, and it should not be done so to individuals with a record of human rights violations.
Bush also alleges Modi’s history of committing human rights abuses, undermining democracy, and targeting journalists.
Prime Minister Modi has a shameful history of committing human rights abuses, undermining democracy, and targeting journalists.
In solidarity with the communities that have been harmed by Modi and his policies, I will be boycotting his joint address to Congress.
In February this year, BBC offices in India had been raided by tax department officials, just weeks after the release of a documentary revealing evidence of Modi’s responsibility in Gujarat riots. The documentary was later blocked by the government.
Modi had been invited by top U.S. lawmakers to join Biden in a joint address to Congress on June 22nd. As China’s influence grows in the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. is anxious to secure India’s cooperation as a counterbalance.
Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah spoke to Indian Express about growing Islamaphobia under the rule of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its influence on Bollywood.
“Oh sure, these are worrying times absolutely,” the veteran actor said. “The kind of stuff that’s pure, undisguised propaganda is being lapped up and it’s a reflection of the zeitgeist of the times. Muslim hating is fashionable these days, even among educated people. It’s what the ruling party has very cleverly tapped into this nerve. We talk about secular this, democracy that, so why are you introducing religion into everything?.”
The actor is well known for his out-spoken critique on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the spread of fascism in India, especially on the Indian Premier’s silence on growing hate speech in India.
“I mean how spineless is the election commission of ours? Who doesn’t even dare utter a word. If there had been a Muslim leader who had said, ‘Allah Hu Akbar bol ke button dabao’, sh*t would have hit the fan. But here our Prime Minister goes ahead and says things like this and yet he loses. So, I have hope that this will wear off. But it’s definitely, at the moment, at its peak. It’s been a very clever card played by this government, and it has worked. Let’s see how long it continues to work.”
Speaking on the rise of state propaganda films like ‘Mission Majnu’ and ‘Kashmir Files’, Shah said that the best thing that actors can do in these times is stay quiet and not participate in any propaganda, because artists these days are scared to raise their voice or fear their movies will be boycotted by the masses.
Further addressing the role of art in influencing society, Shah urged all artists to raise the right questions, but also stressed on the need to come from a place of fearlessness. He further said that words and no action will not resolve the issue, but one has to practice what they preach.
Sri Lanka is now one of the strongest contenders to host Asia Cup 2023 as the recent meeting of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee Chairman with the Vice-President of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Pankhaj Khimji seems to have not gone as well as was expected.
According to a report, PCB Chief Najam Sethi met with ACC officials on Tuesday, May 9, where it was decided that Pakistan would pull out of the tournament because their proposal of hosting it in the UAE was not accepted.
Asia Cup is scheduled for September this year, but the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, who is also the President of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) had threatened that the Indian government would not allow their team to travel to Pakistan because of security concerns.
Regardless of the current political crisis in Pakistan, the country has just concluded a New Zealand series in peace. Yet Indian media and BCCI officials have based their decision to not send their team to Pakistan on security concerns.
In the recent meeting with Jay Shah and ACC officials, Najam Sethi proposed a revised ‘Hybrid Model’ in which four teams Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh will play their matches in Pakistan and then all the teams along with Pakistan will move to Dubai to play the whole tournament.
ACC officials straight away rejected the proposal by raising questions about logistics, asking how broadcasters will travel between the two countries with all the crew and equipment.
Sethi reply was that they only had to travel to Pakistan only once and then will go to Dubai.
ACC officials said that ahead of World Cup they cannot take the risk and that weather conditions are not suitable in Dubai for playing cricket. Sethi reportedly pointed out that the BCCI held IPL 2020 in Dubai and also in the same season.
An ultimatum on the matter is expected by the end of this month. Should the decision go against Pakistan, the country’s status as a participant in the Cup would be up in the air, with a boycott being likely in that event.
Indian director Sudipto Sen’s upcoming film ‘The Kerala Story’ has attracted widespread backlash for claiming to represent the stories of 32,000 women from the state who were lured into converting to Islam by Muslim men and then taken to Afghanistan to join militant outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The trailer for the movie debuted online on November 3 last year. It opens with the story of Fathima Ba (played by Adah Sharma), who is a Hindu Malayali nurse and claimed to be one of the 32,000 Hindu and Christian women who were abducted and sent to Afghanistan. Since then, the film has been criticized by Indian politicians such as Congress leader and Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan for spreading misinformation that would only further marginalise the Muslims living in India:
“The film is a bundle of lies. It says 32,000 women were converted and sent to Islamic State-held areas. Its trailer gave enough hints of its content. It is intended to defame the state and community and Sangh Parivar outfits are behind this.”
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan released a statement on 30 April where he slammed Sen for pushing the so-called claim of ‘love-jihad’ through the film, a conspiracy theory pushed by Hindutva members which alleges that Muslim men lure Hindu and Christian women through seduction or kidnapping to convert them into Islam. He further accused the filmmaker of threatening religious harmony by “sowing the seeds of communalism” through the debunked claim that 32,000 women were kidnapped from India and handed over to ISIS.
“In the movie trailer, we see a hoax that 32,000 women in Kerala were converted and became members of the Islamic State. This bogus story is a product of the Sangh Parivar’s lie factory.”
The central controversy surrounding the film was it’s claim that 32,000 women were forcibly converted to Islam in Kerala and were sent to ISIS, which has been debunked by several credible publications to be untrue. But speaking to India Today, the producer of the film, Vipul Shah, said that the focus was not the numbers, but the fact that forced conversions are still happening throughout India:
“We don’t want to get into the debate on the numbers, we want to talk about the issue. We want to bring notice to the human tragedy happening in Kerala and in India.”
Actor Adah Sharma also defended the movie’s false pretext, by telling India Today that she had spoken to the women who inspired the story:
“I spoke to some of these women. There will be testimony from those who will be brave enough to come in front of cameras.”
Politicians like Shashi Tharoor have also slammed the filmmakers for spreading misinformation regarding the 32,000 figure, and addressed it in a lengthy Twitter post where he also said that his 2021 tweet was not proof that the allegations of the filmmakers were real:
“Many are spreading this 2021 tweet of mine as if it undermines my present objections to the trailer & publicity for “The Kerala Story”. Yes, I was approached then by three Kerala mothers and was aware of a fourth, and I was open about my concerns about their daughters’ radicalisation. But four cases are a far cry from the 32,000 that the film-makers are alleging. If there really were so many ISIS female members from Kerala, that would mean double the number when you count their husbands, whereas even Western intelligence sources says the number of ALL Indians in ISIS does not approach three figures. This gross exaggeration and distortion of the Kerala reality is what I am objecting to.”
Many are spreading this 2021 tweet of mine as if it undermines my present objections to the trailer & publicity for “The Kerala Story”. Yes, I was approached then by three Kerala mothers and was aware of a fourth, and I was open about my concerns about their daughters’… https://t.co/R8Vn1RsfpU
In a tweet posted on Monday, Tharoor offered Rs1 crore to anyone who would be able to prove that 32,000 women had been forcibly converted and sent to ISIS.
Now there’s an opportunity for all those hyping the alleged conversions of 32,000 women on Kerala to Islamism — to prove their case and make some money. Will they be up to the challenge or is there simply no proof because none exists? #NotOurKeralaStorypic.twitter.com/SrwaMx556H
ALT News, in an investigative piece, revealed that the director Sudipto Sen had first mentioned the figure on a Youtube channel ‘The Festival Of Bharat” where he talked about how he calculated the final number, with the help of a speech delivered by the former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy:
“In 2010, former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy put a report in front of Kerala assembly. In front of my camera, he denied that anything had happened. But in 2010, I documented a case where he (Chandy) said that every year approximately 2,800 to 3,200 girls were taking up Islam. Just calculate it for the following 10 years, and the number is around 32,000.”
When the publication spoke to Sen on the phone, the author Shinjinee Majumder writes, the director claimed that he picked the number up from an article published by ‘The Times Of India”:
“This figure (32,000) is not mine. It was a piece of news in The Times of India… one thing I can tell you is that Oommen Chandy, the chief minister of Kerala, had placed this number in the state assembly. So this is not my number, I have got all the documents with me.”
However, no publication quoting such a large number has come to light. But ALT News reports that in 2012, India Today reported the Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy informing the state minister about how 2,667 young women had converted to Islam between 2006 to 2012. Especially, Chandy had said that there was no evidence of forced conversions in the state, and the fears of ‘love jihad’ were baseless.
When ANI news shared this report with Sen, his response was:
“Let the intolerance reach a crescendo. I’ll share my data after the film is released. Why should I defeat the cause of my film?”
Similarly, Kerala Police had also refuted the claims that 32,000 women had been sent to Syria as “totally baseless”.
While a report published in 2020 by the United States Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism said that there were only 66 known Indian-origin fighters associated with ISIS in 2020, of which 34 terrorism cases were related to ISIS and NIA arrested 160 people by the end of September.
Moreover, The Hindu reported in June 2021 that four Indian women were traced in an Afghanistani prison, who had travelled with their husbands to join the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), and it was unlikely that they would come back to India.
As a response to the growing backlash, the film trailer has now changed the title description from 32,000 women to just three young girls, as shared by several Twitter users.
From ‘Heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32000 females in Kerala! Coming Soon!’ TO ‘True story of 3 young girls from different parts of Kerala’. Propaganda Movie teaser has NOW changed the description of ‘The Kerala Story’ on YouTube. pic.twitter.com/GIUAomaX5i
With the film set to release on 5 May and despite calls to authorities to ban the film on grounds of hate speech and misinformation, NDTV reported today that the Indian Supreme Court had refused to entertain a petition to seek a stay on the release of ‘The Kerala Story’ because it had been cleared by the censor board:
“There are varieties of hate speeches. This film has got certification and has been cleared by the board. It’s not like a person getting on the podium and starts giving uncontrolled speech. If you want to challenge the release of the movie, you should challenge the certification and through appropriate forum”.
Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been found guilty of defaming Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi by a court in western India and sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday.
He was given bail and the sentence was suspended for 30 days.
The criminal defamation case was filed against Gandhi by a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a speech during the 2019 general election in which he referred to the surname Modi and asked how all thieves had the surname.
However, he said that he had made the comment to highlight corruption and not against any community.
Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the defamation law to target and silence critics. Gandhi faces at least two other defamation cases elsewhere in the country.
It is pertinent to mention that despite wide-spread accusations of promoting hatred against Muslims, with increasing attacks against the community, Modi is the most popular politician in India by a substantial margin.
It is expected that in 2024, Gandhi will stand against Modi for prime ministership.
The Indian foreign ministry has dismissed a BBC documentary about Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujrat riots as “propaganda”.
The first of the two-part series was aired in the UK on Tuesday with the second part scheduled to hit airwaves a week later. The documentary tracks Modi’s first steps into politics, including his rise through the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to his appointment as chief minister of Gujrat.
Modi was still holding the position when communal riots rocked the state, leaving more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
According to the documentary the inquiry team had assessed that Modi had prevented the police from acting to stop the violence targeted against Muslims, stating that he had specifically ordered law-enforcing authorities not to intervene. The documentary also features a former top UK diplomat who says that the violence had been planned by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, has termed the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece”.
On Thursday, British PM Rishi Sunak was asked in parliament if he agreed with the report that Modi was directly responsible for the violence. In reply, Sunak defended his Indian counter-partner.
“We don’t tolerate persecution anywhere”, the British Prime Minister said but added that “he did not agree with the characterisation” of Modi as depicted in the documentary.
Bollywood film Pathaan starring Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan, and John Abraham, is nearing its release, and before that, it has already gotten itself in a pool of trouble now the last jibe has been taken by the Censor Board as they have asked for more than ten cuts in the film. The film has been directed by Siddharth Anand and is helmed under the banner of Yash Raj Productions. But with time, instead of the problems getting resolved, things are becoming harder for the makers.
When the first song of the film, Besharam Rang, came out things started to go down south, people protested against the film, especially Deepika’s outfit from that song. And now, when the film is all set to release, there have been reports of several changes had been suggested by the board.
According to a report in ETimes, the Censor Board has asked for more than ten cuts in Pathaan, including the song Besharam Rang. The makers have been asked to make changes in dialogues and shots. As per reports, some of the changes are the word ‘RAW’ has been replaced with ‘Hamare’, ‘Langde Lulle’ by ‘Toote Foote’, then ‘PM’ has been replaced by ‘President or Minister’, and not just that the term ‘PMO’ was replaced in 13 places.
As the report stated, the ‘Ashok Chakra’ got replaced by ‘Veer Purashkar’, ‘ex-KGB’ with ‘ex-SBU’, ‘Mrs Bharatmata’ by ‘Hamari Bharatmata’, and ‘Scotch’ by ‘drink’. Then there was a text, ‘Black Prison, Russia’, which got replaced by ‘Black Prison’ only, and not to forget the song, several shots have been asked to remove from it as well. As per the report, the closeup shots of b*tts, ‘side pose’ [partial nudity] and the visuals of the steamy dance movements were also replaced with ‘suitable shots’ [during the lyrics ‘Bahut Tang Kiya’ in the song Besharam Rang]. Although, there has been no mention of Deepika Padukone’s ‘saffron bikini’ getting censored from the song.
The song Besharam Rang (roughly translates to shameless colour) from the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan movie ‘Pathaan’ has garnered controversy since its release. Now India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has advised the makers of the film to implement changes to the song. Since the song’s release, costumes worn in the music video have been the subject of criticism, with certain Hindu clerics stating that the lyrics are an insult to their religion.
Narottam Mishra, a minister from the state of Madhya Pradesh, held a press conference on December 14 about the costumes in the music video, calling them insulting to Hindu practices, and warned the makers of the movie that ‘Pathaan’ would be banned in the state on its release. ‘Pathaan’ was submitted by Yash Raj Film to the CBFC for certification prior to being shown in cinemas. On Thursday, the chairman Prasoon Joshi released a statement requesting the makers to implement changes in the song ‘Besharam Rang’ to prevent controversy. The full statement read:
Manupal Hansal, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Uttar Pradesh, has placed a Rs 2 crore bounty on the head of Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, stating that Indian people are angry at the minister’s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Mai ailaan karta hoon ke jo uss mantri Bilawal Bhutto ka dhar se sar alag karega, 2 crore ka inaam mai doonga” [I declare that I will give a reward of ₹2 crore to anyone who will behead Minister Bilawal Bhutto], Hansal had said.
The BJP also held protests across India and in front of the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi, burning effigies of the Pakistani foreign minister.
Minister of Climate Change Sherry Rehman has condemned Hansal’s remarks in a tweet, saying that this was a testament of “the shocking impunity that extremism enjoys for doing only what terrorists do in Modi’s RSS-defined India”.
Strongly condemn this local BJP leader for announcing a bounty on Pakistan Foreign Minister @BBhuttoZardari’s head. This is clear testament of the shocking impunity that extremism enjoys for doing only what terrorists do in Modi’s RSS-defined India https://t.co/lHjgWxItaO
In an interview with “Bloomberg“, Bilawal Bhutto stood by his statement about Modi by pointing out that what he had said was “a historical fact”. He also pointed out that the term “butcher of Gujarat” had not been coined by him, but by the people of Gujarat after the 2002 Godhra incident. He further added that he was aware of the bounty a BJP leader had placed on his head.
“I was referring to a historical reality. The remarks I used weren’t my own. I did not invent the term ‘butcher of Gujarat’ for Mr Modi. The Muslims of India following the Gujarat riots used that term for Mr Modi. I believe I was referring to a historical fact and they believe that repeating history is a personal insult. If I was incorrect then … So what has happened today… it’s been two days since my remark, a member of Mr Modi’s party has announced 20 million rupee bounty on my head. So I don’t think the best way to disapprove the fact that Mr Modi is the butcher of Gujarat is to adopt such extreme steps,” he said in the interview.
When the interviewer had further questioned Bilawal on whether these comments might further sour relations with India and even the possibility of nuclear war, the FM pointed out that Indian citizens had the right to protest, but the threat to his life was very problematic:
“As far as my remarks concerned they resulted in protests all over India and that’s their right. I think you cross the line when you officially announce head money for your neighboring country’s foreign minister’s assassination. I think that’s a line we’re normalizing in crossing and the fact that we get to move on from that question is troubling for me when I’m engaging with Bloomberg which is an important international forum. As far as nuclear war no one has threatened nuclear war. A minister did say that Pakistan is a responsible nuclear country and should be treated as such.”
At a press conference in New York on December 16, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had responded to accusations that Pakistan had sheltered Osama bin Laden by pointing out that Modi, who is regarded as ‘butcher of Gujarat’ is still the Prime Minister of India:
“I would like to remind Mr Jaishankar that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister (of India).”
