Category: India

Why Indians get pissed off with Racism & Police Brutality in the US but don’t care about the same issues in their own country?

Editor

By Shamani Joshi Experts explain why some of us are so selective with the issues we outrage against. Over the weekend, I saw all my social media feeds flooded with illustrated quotes of Desmond Tutu that declared “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”, poignant protest signs that declared “I can’t breathe”, and the quintessential hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. These were all in solidarity against the incident that saw George Floyd, a black man, die after a police officer kneeled on his neck…

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Indian media blaming Muslims for the spread of the coronavirus

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“During this lockdown, why does every crowd gather only near mosques?” journalist Arnab Goswami recently asked on the Indian news channel, Republic TV. The well-known anchor was referring to a crowd that had gathered last month near a railway station that happens to be near a mosque in Mumbai, the capital of the western state of Maharashtra. Local media reports said they were migrant workers desperate to get back to their towns and villages after a nationwide lockdown was imposed to try and combat the spread of the coronavirus. The…

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Jail for ‘Pregnant Lady’, Bail for ‘Gun Supplier’ in Delhi’s Communal Violence Case

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Consider the case of two people arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the Delhi riots of February 2020. One is a pregnant Muslim woman, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia with no prior involvement in any criminal activity. She is taken into custody six weeks after the violence had ended. No arms and ammunition were recovered from her at the time of the arrest. The other is a Hindu man who the police claims has been supplying arms for the past two years, buying weapons and cartridges from Madhya…

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‘Do not buy from Muslims Vendors’: BJP leader calls for social boycott

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India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has issued a notice to one of its leaders after a video showing him asking people not to buy vegetables from Muslims surfaced amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. “Keep one thing in mind. I am telling everyone openly. There is no need to buy vegetables from ‘miyans’ [Muslims],” legislator Suresh Tiwari from Deoria town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was heard saying in the mobile phone video that went viral on Tuesday. Millions in India are facing unprecedented job losses and hunger…

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Arab World up in arms against India’s Corona-virus related Islamophobia

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Thanks to anti-Muslim bias in the media and even official messaging over the coronavirus, the intelligentsia in India-friendly Gulf countries has started critically examining the ruling BJP’s attitudes towards Muslims and Arabs. A pandemic that has claimed the lives of 170,000 people and infected close to 2.5 million people worldwide (at last count), acquired a religion on its arrival on Indian shores. The spread of the virus has not only created a health emergency in the country but also brought India on the verge of a new kind of polarisation, thanks…

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How the coronavirus outbreak in India was blamed on Muslims

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been turned into yet another Islamophobic conspiracy theory. The outbreak of COVID-19 in India has presented yet another opportunity to launch a fresh attack on the Muslim community. Physical, verbal and psychological warfare is being waged against Muslims, pushing further their ostracisation in Indian society. Violent attacks on Muslims perceived to be carriers of the virus have been reported from different parts of the country. There have been reports of meetings in gated communities discussing the prohibition on Muslims being allowed in. Elsewhere, gangs of youth…

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OIC, Imran Khan criticize India over the treatment of Muslims

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In recent months, Khan has repeatedly criticised the Indian government’s attitude towards the country’s Muslim minority and the external affairs ministry has pushed back against his remarks. Pakistan’s top leadership and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday criticised what they described as the deliberate targeting of Muslims by the Indian government against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Imran Khan followed up on tweets by the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of the OIC on the issue and compared the Indian government’s treatment of Muslims to…

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‘No agreement’ on Ayodhya, mediation report submitted; SC takes it up today

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The three-member mediation panel looking into the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute has been unable to get the various parties involved in it to come to an agreement, one of the persons aware of the development said on condition of anonymity. The panel submitted its report to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope on Thursday, drawing the curtain on almost four-and-a-half month-long negotiations between Hindu and Muslim litigants to explore the possibility of an out-of-court settlement to the decades-long Ayodhya land dispute. A five-judge constitution bench, comprising Chief Justice of…

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Fury across India as Trump claims Modi asked for Kashmir mediation, opposition wants Modi to clarify claim

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India’s foreign minister issued a strenuous denial to an infuriated opposition in parliament on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited him to mediate in the bloody conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir. While Pakistan has often sought third-party mediation in the decades-old dispute which has cost tens of thousands of lives, the idea is anathema to India, which has always insisted the issue can only be resolved bilaterally. Trump set off a political storm in India by claiming during a meeting in Washington on…

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Mediate on Kashmir: India rebuts Trump on claim that PM Modi asked him mediate

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US President Donald Trump on Monday offered to help resolve the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan in initial remarks with visiting Prime Minister Imran Khan. Trump said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a similar request when they met a few weeks ago — a claim that was rejected by India. “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said, following up on Khan’s request during a joint appearance in the White House that he would like the United States to help resolve the…

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