Category: India

Hathras Case: UP govt calls for court-monitored probe by CBI in Supreme Court

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Uttar Pradesh has asked the Supreme Court to order a court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Hathras gang-rape case, which has triggered protests across the country, in an affidavit filed before the top court. The state government has already recommended a probe by the central agency. The state government also said in the affidavit, which was filed on Monday, that the body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman was cremated at night to avoid law and order problems. The government has blamed political parties and civil…

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India calls for removing Kashmir Issue under “Outdated Agenda Item” from UN Security Council’s Agenda

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India at the UN has called for permanently removing the issue of Jammu and Kashmir under the “outdated agenda item” of the “India-Pakistan question” from the Security Council’s agenda, saying such “irrational exuberance” has no takers in a dignified world.In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India said that there is a delegation that repeatedly attempts to rebrand itself as contributing to international peace, but unfortunately fails to recognise that it is globally known for being the fountainhead of international terror and the hub for terror syndicates. During a virtual informal…

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Delhi Police being accused of Torture, Violence, Serious Rights Violations During Riots: Amnesty Report

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The report quotes accounts of victims of the riots, and says the police’s behaviour reveals a pattern of human rights violations and rampant impunity. Human rights organisation Amnesty International has accused Delhi Police of committing serious rights violations during the Delhi riots and even “indulging in violence with rioters”. It has called on the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to initiate “a prompt, thorough, independent investigation” into all such allegations against law enforcement officials. The 20-page report made public on August 28, which documented first person accounts of riot victims…

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Unlock 4.0: What to expect from Sept 1

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Unlock 4.0, the fourth phase of opening of the economy after coronavirus lockdown, will start from September 1. This phase comes at a time when India’s Covid-19 tally has crossed the 3.46 million mark and the number of deaths due to the disease have gone up to 62,550. Officials have said Unlock 4 guidelines, which will be announced later this week, only mention the activities which will be prohibited while the rest can resume. Here is a look at what will change during Unlock 4.0: • The Centre is likely…

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Aamir Khan is being trolled by Hindu nationalists for meeting Turkish first lady

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On August 15, Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan posted a picture of her meeting Bollywood star Aamir Khan on Twitter. It soon went viral. “I had the great pleasure of meeting @aamir_khan, the world-renowned Indian actor, filmmaker, and director, in Istanbul…” Emine Erdogan tweeted after meeting the Muslim actor, who was in Turkey to shoot his latest film, Laal Singh Chaddha. Pro-government supporters were furious at Khan for taking a picture with the wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has criticised the Indian government’s decision to strip Indian-administered…

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The making of a Hindu India

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If India is today a Hindu nation, it is also a tinderbox in which the self is defined by the perpetual hatred of others. Uday Chandra On August 5, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya. This fulfilled the orders of India’s Supreme Court, which last November awarded a victory to those who have long been campaigning to build a temple there, in place of a Mughal-era mosque that was demolished by a right-wing Hindu mob in 1992.…

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Deadly clashes in Bengaluru over a provocative Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad

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At least three dead in tech hub during violence over a reported derogatory post about the Prophet Muhammad, police say. At least three people have died in southern India’s Bengaluru city after protesters clashed with police over a provocative social media post about the Prophet Muhammad, police have told Reuters news agency. The Facebook post offensive to Muslims sparked protests in India’s tech hub on Tuesday night in which a police station was attacked, and a politician’s house and vehicles were torched. “The situation is under control,” Bengaluru City Police…

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After August 5, It’s hard for India’s Muslims to not feel Orphaned in their Motherland

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Arfa Khanum Sherwani August 5 was a difficult day for anyone who still believes in the idea of a secular and democratic India. The spectacle of a prime minister performing the ‘bhumi pujan’ for his political parivar’s temple in Ayodhya did no credit of the world’s largest democracy, one that incidentally is also home to more than 200 million Muslims. In November 2019, the Supreme Court gave the disputed site where the Babri Masjid stood – till it was forcibly demolished in 1992 – to the Hindu litigants and said…

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India marks another day of erasure and insult against its Muslim Citizens

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Rana Ayyub On Wednesday, images and renderings of the Grand Ram Temple — which will be built on the the site of the Babri Masjid, an important mosque in Uttar Pradesh state demolished by right-wing Hindu nationalists— will be beamed across giant billboards in Times Square by a U.S. organization to mark the groundbreaking ceremony for the temple’s construction, which will feature Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying silver bricks as the foundation. Wednesday is also the anniversary of India’s decision to revoke the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir,…

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PM Modi to attend temple groundbreaking at disputed site in Ayodhya on Aug 5

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a groundbreaking ceremony next month for a Hindu temple on a disputed site in northern India where a 16th-century mosque was torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992, according to the trust overseeing the temple’s construction. The ceremony is set for August 5, a date organisers said was astrologically auspicious for Hindus but that also marks a year since New Delhi revoked the semi-autonomous status of its only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. The symbolism was impossible to miss for both supporters…

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