Kashmir.Watch

Category: National

  • ‘Gupkar Alliance wants what Pakistan does,’ claims BJP

    Questions Congress’ stand on Article 370

    New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday criticised the newly formed People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, or Gupkar Alliance, describing it as “unholy”.

    At a press conference, the BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the alliance was aimed at opposing the implementation of laws duly passed by Parliament.

    “Gupkar Alliance wants exactly what Pakistan and anti-India countries want,” he said.

    “Pakistan has gone to every forum and spoken against the removal of Article 370. The Gupkar Alliance says the same thing.”

    The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, a tie-up of six parties, which was formed in October with the agenda of reinstating the now abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which provided special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

    Patra’s comments come ahead of the District Development Council polls in Jammu and Kashmir, which the Gupkar Alliance parties have decided to fight together.

    Pointing out that the Congress, too, is part of the alliance, Patra referred to a statement which he said was released by the party’s Jammu and Kashmir president Ghulam Ahmed Mir, who called for defeating “the forces that have forcefully [been] implementing the laws in the Union Territory”.

    Taking exception to this statement, Patra said that the law to abrogate Article 370 was passed in the Parliament. He further hit back at the Congress for suggesting that it was being forcefully implemented.

    “The BJP would like to ask Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi if they stand by the comments made by leaders in the Gupkar Alliance,” he said.

    He also made references to an alleged comment made by National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on taking “China’s support” on the matter of reinstating Article 370 and Peoples Democratic Party Leader Mehbooba Mufti’s recent comments on the national flag.

    “Is this alliance Gupkar or Guptachar (spy)?”

    Patra remarked. “I would want Rahulji and Soniaji [to say] if they are in agreement with the statements made by Mufti and Abdullah.”

    The BJP spokesperson also took cue from the recent comments made by former United States President Barack Obama and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Shivanand Tiwari on Rahul Gandhi, to criticise the Congress leader.

    “When Obama got to know him [Gandhi] in four-five days, then people who interact with him on a daily basis, would also have realised what he is,” he said. Referring to Tiwari’s comment he said that Gandhi was “a non-performing picnicking president”.

    In a separate press conference, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cited laws that have been brought into force in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 and asked if the Congress supports their annulment, reported PTI.

    “I want to ask Sonia Gandhi [Congress president] and Rahul Gandhi, do they want restoration of Article 370?” he said. “Please tell the nation categorically and clearly does the Congress support annulment of pro-people laws?”

    He said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were earlier disadvantaged due to non-implementation of central laws, and accused the Gupkar Alliance of “narrow conservatism”, according to PTI. (KINS)

  • Arnab Goswami moves SC challenging Bombay HC order dismissing his bail plea

    New Delhi: Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami moved Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court dismissed his petition for interim bail in 2018 abetment to suicide case on Monday.

    Goswami was arrested along with two others – Feroze Shaikh and Nitish Sarda – by Alibag Police and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days on November 4 in connection with the death of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik in 2018.

    The 47-year-old journalist had earlier filed an interim bail plea before the Bombay high court on Saturday. The court had reserved its order on Goswami’s plea and given him an option to file the application in sessions court, which he took and filed a bail plea before a sessions court on Monday.

    Following his arrest from his Lower Parel residence, Goswami was kept at a local school designated as a Covid-19 centre for the Alibag prison till November 8, after which he was shifted to the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai. (Agencies)

  • Ensure no defamatory content against Bollywood’: Court tells Republic TV, Times now

    New Delhi: Nearly a month after leading Bollywood filmmakers filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against “irresponsible reporting by certain media houses”, the court Monday said that “no  defamatory content” should be uploaded on social media or displayed on their channels.

    Representational Picture

    Some of the film industry’s biggest names, including Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and Farhan Akhtar, came together in the unprecedented legal action against two channels – Republic TV and Times Now.

    According to a report by The Indian Express, the court said there needs to be some “toning down” and that the media channels were apparently not following the Programme Code. “If you (new channels) do not follow self-regulation, then what is to be done in a matter like this? You are prejudging issues. It is less news and more opinion,” observed the court.
    The court said there needs to be some “toning down” and that the media channels were apparently not following the Programme Code.

    “If you (new channels) do not follow self-regulation, then what is to be done in a matter like this? You are prejudging issues. It is less news and more opinion,” observed the court.
    “It is disheartening and demoralizing… I mean it demoralizes everyone. Today it is not hurting us (judiciary)… suppose it is your fraternity tomorrow. Surely, you can investigate but it has to be fair reportage,” the court said while addressing a lawyer representing Times Now.

    Observing that people are “very scared” of the fourth estate, the court said no one wants to have their private life in public. “Surely, these are people who are public personalities so that element of privacy to an extent gets diluted… but please see what happened when the media chased someone like (Princess) Diana. You cannot go on like this. Courts are the last ones who want to interfere…. but what is happening here… is that you do not want to follow the code?”

    The court also commented on debates being broadcasted on news channels and said there was “no civility in (their) discourse”. “Now I am hearing participants in debates are using cuss words because they get so excited. If you keep egging them on, that is what happens,” it added. (Agencies)

  • Muslim family dies of suicide in Andhra, alleges police harassment in viral video before death

    Srinagar: A four member Muslim family died of suicide in Andhra Pradesh last week after they alleged police harassment in a video recorded before taking the extreme step.

    Screengrab from the video clicked by Abdul Salaam with his family before taking the extreme step (Video shared on Twitter by N Chandrababu Naidu)

    On Sunday, the police arrested a CI and a head constable in connection with the suicide of the four-member auto driver’s family due to alleged police harassment in Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh following the intervention of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the matter, reported The New Indian Express.

    Auto driver Abdul Salaam with his family members. (File Photo)

    According to it, Abdul Salaam (45), an auto driver, his wife Noorjahan (38), their daughter Salma (14) and son Dadhi Khalandar (10), died by suicide on November 3. They threw themselves before a running train at Kavuluru village under the Panyam police station limits. They took a selfie video before taking the extreme step, in which they blamed the Nandyal police for their suicide.

    Blaming the YSRC government responsible for the harassment that eventually led to the suicide of Abdul and his family members, Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu demanded that the government take moral responsibility for the death of the family. Taking to Twitter on Sunday, the TDP chief alleged that the incident was enough to show how the ruling YSRC was persecuting the Muslim minorities in the State by foisting false cases against them.
    His eyes tearing up and his voice shivering, Abdul Salam and his wife Noorjehan cry, while the children wear solemn expressions.

    “What should we say?” Noorjehan asks her husband.

    Abdul Salam is unsure at first, but goes on to record the suicide note anyway, in his house in Nandyal town in Andhra Pradesh.

    In his tearful voice, he declares that he has nothing to do with the two crimes in which the police have implicated him, and that he is unable to bear their torture anymore.

    According to reports, Abdul Salam had been working at a jewellery store in Nandyal, where an incident of theft was reported a few months ago. The owner of the store suspected Abdul Salam of having stolen the gold, and he was even sent to jail, according to reports. Even as he was released on bail and started to drive a rented auto, he was continuously harassed by the shop owner and by the police, his relatives allege.

    A relative told NTV Telugu that after the gold theft, Abdul Salam was harassed and beaten badly by the police until he bled. “He came out on bail. When he would go (to the police station) to sign every month, he was abused very badly each time,” she said.

    According to reports, a few days ago, a person reported that his bag was missing. The police officers alleged that the person had travelled in Abdul Salam’s auto and that he had stolen the bag with help from his associates. According to Abdul Salam’s relatives, they verbally abused him and asked him to return the next day, to be taken to Vijayawada.

    In the video that he recorded with his wife and kids, Abdul Salam says, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I have nothing to do with the theft that happened in the auto, or in the shop. I am unable to bear the torture. We have no one to help us. That’s why I hope at least my death will bring peace of mind.” His wife, Noorjehan, was a private school teacher. Their daughter Salma was in class 10, and her brother, Kalandar, was in class 4.

    On November 4, Abdul and his family had died by suicide.

    His relatives told the media that he was unable to bear the abuse at the police station, and alleged that the police officers spoke inappropriately about his wife to Abdul Salam. They also alleged that the police had seized their family’s jewellery to support their claim that Abdul Salam had stolen the gold from the jewellery shop.

    The selfie video taken by Abdul, surfaced on Saturday and it went viral on social media. Taking the matter seriously, the Chief Minister called up the Director General of Police and the Intelligence Chief and enquired about the suicide case.

    He instructed DGP Gautam Sawang and Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha to submit a report after conducting an in-depth inquiry into the case.

    Following the Chief Minister’s intervention,  the DGP directed Shankha Brata Bagchi, Inspector General of Police, APSP Battalions, and Arif Hafeez, Additional SP of Guntur, to investigate the Nandyal suicide case. Nandyal CI Somasekhar Reddy was suspended pending investigation within 24 hours of the intervention of the Chief Minister. (KINS)

  • Soon after Biden declared as US President, Time Magazine slams Modi for Amnesty office closure, CAA, NRC, Art. 370 and 35A

    The confirmation on Saturday that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States will reshape the nation’s relationship with countries around the world. Biden has pledged that he will restore the U.S.’s “respected leadership on the world stage” and bring together representatives of democracies around the world to “honestly confront the challenge of nations that are backsliding.” This is in stark contrast to President Donald Trump, who for the last four years has taken an isolationist approach to foreign policy and undermined decades-old alliances.

    But Trump has forged a few friendships overseas—including with India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the face of a rising China, the two countries have drawn closer together militarily, too. So, for the world’s largest democracy, the stakes are high for the future Biden Administration.

    The pressure goes both ways: Kamala Harris will be the first Indian American Vice President of the United States, a position that has the potential to change Indian engagement with American politics, as well as the United States’ response to issues in India. The relationship between the countries is also especially crucial for India, where the economy shrank by 23.9% in the first quarter of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the largest drop in decades and the greatest setback a major economy has experienced from the coronavirus pandemic.

    On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated both Biden and Harris on Twitter. “As the [Vice President], your contribution to strengthening Indo-U.S. relations was critical and invaluable,” he wrote in a tweet addressed to Biden. “I look forward to working closely together once again to take India-U.S. relations to greater heights.”

    To Harris, Modi wrote: “Your success is pathbreaking, and a matter of immense pride not just for your chittis [a Tamil family term that Harris used in her VP nominee acceptance speech], but also for all Indian-Americans. I am confident that the vibrant India-U.S. ties will get even stronger with your support and leadership.”i

    Here’s what to know about what the Biden-Harris victory might mean for the U.S.-India relationship.

    Biden’s India Policy

    Since his re-election in 2019, Modi has pushed through a series of policies seen by many in the country as unduly targeting India’s Muslim minority, including the revocation of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and a new citizenship act that makes it easier for adherents of most large faiths practiced in South Asia, except Islam, to claim citizenship in India. Modi’s government has also sought to suppress dissent, most recently forcing the Indian branch of Amnesty International to shut down through legal pressure, which the rights group said was part of a “deliberate attempt by the government of India to stoke a climate of fear and dismantle the critical voices in India.”

    Biden and Harris have both spoken out against India’s human rights violations and Modi’s nationalist leadership. In his Agenda for Muslim-American Communities, Biden condemned the Modi government’s new citizenship act and a separate attempt to build a population register that could provide future justification to expel or intern foreigners, calling the projects “inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy.”

    But Biden has also committed to strengthening the U.S.-India relationship. “The U.S. and India will stand together against terrorism in all its forms and work together to promote a region of peace and stability where neither China nor any other country threatens its neighbors,” Biden wrote in an op-ed in an Indian-American newspaper in October.

    With inputs from the TIME

    (Expect for the headlines, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami Arrested

    BJP slams arrest, Maharashtra home minister says ‘no one above law’
    “Shades Of Emergency”: Ministers On Journalist Arnab Goswami’s Arrest

    Mumbai: Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was arrested today in a two-year-old suicide case in which investigations were reopened recently, the Mumbai police said. Several Union Ministers are among those who have condemned the arrest as a reminder of the Emergency.

    “Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV and Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the 4th pillar of democracy. It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED,” tweeted Home Minister Amit Shah as reports emerged of Arnab Goswami’s arrest.

    “We condemn the attack on press freedom in Maharashtra. This is not the way to treat the Press. This reminds us of the emergency days when the press was treated like this,” posted Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

    Mr Goswami claimed he was manhandled and assaulted by the police at his Mumbai home before being pushed into their van.

    News agency ANI quoted him as saying that Mumbai Police “physically assaulted his mother-in-law and father-in-law, son and wife”. In videos aired by Republic TV, policemen were seen holding him as they were attempting to take him away.

    The Republic Editor-in-Chief has been arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, Anvay Naik, and his mother, in 2018.

    The designer had reportedly named Arnab Goswami in a suicide note and had accused Republic TV of not paying him his dues.

    In May, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had announced that the suicide was being reinvestigated after a fresh complaint by Adnya Naik, the designer’s daughter. Mr Deshmukh had claimed that Adnya believed the Alibaug police had not investigated Republic’s properly for non-payment of dues, which, she claimed, drove her father and grandmother to suicide in May 2018.

    The arrest comes in the middle of Mr Goswami’s row with the Mumbai Police over its investigations into a ratings scam and allegations that Republic TV is among three channels involved in manipulating TRPs or Television Rating Points by bribing households metred for viewership. The editor had accused the police of harassing his colleagues and pursuing a vendetta over his channel’s criticism of Mumbai Police’s handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

    Maharashtra’s ruling Shiv Sena denied that the arrest was a vindictive move. “The law is followed in Maharashtra. Police can take action if they have evidence against anyone. Since the formation of the Uddhav Thackeray government, no action has been taken against anyone for revenge,” said senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

    The early morning arrest fueled a deluge of posts on social media, with members of the ruling BJP alleging “fascism” by Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena-led coalition.

    “Shades of the Emergency! The arrest of Arnab Goswami is an attack on the freedom of press. Those who really believe in this freedom must speak up!” – tweeted Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.

    Mr Goswami was taken to Alibaug after his arrest, the police said.

    Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) termed the journalist’s arrest as “Part 2 of India’s Most Wanted”, referring to a well-known crime show anchor who was arrested in the past for his wife’s murder.

    The Editors’ Guild of India expressed shock. “We condemn the sudden arrest and find it extremely distressing. The guild calls upon Maharashtra to ensure that Goswami is treated fairly and state power is not used against critical reporting by the media,” the top media body said in a statement.

    (With inputs from NDTV, PTI and ANI)

  • India rejects Pakistan’s status to Gilgit-Baltistan, says it has no locus standi

    New Delhi: India on Sunday rejected Pakistan’s move of granting provisional-provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan. In a strongly worded reply, spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs Anurag Srivastava said “the area of so-called Gilgit-Baltistan” are an integral part of India.

    Underlining India’s stand on the issue, MEA officials said that the territory has been illegally and forcibly occupied by Pakistan.

    “I reiterate that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the area of so-called “Gilgit-Baltistan”, are an integral part of India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947. The Government of Pakistan has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it,” a statement released by MEA stated.

    Such attempts by Pakistan, MEA said, ‘intended to camouflage its (Pakistan) illegal occupation, cannot hide the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom for over seven decades to the people residing in these Pakistan occupied territories.

    “Instead of seeking to alter the status of these Indian territories, we call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation,” the statement read.

    Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday officially announced the provincial status of Gilgit-Baltistan, which New Delhi asserts is part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

    Gilgit- Baltistan, earlier known as Northern Areas has been governed by the “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order of 2009”, which established an electoral framework. Elections have been held in the region under the Order that provides for only limited autonomy. (HT)

  • Times Now, India TV, Economic Times all made the misleading claim that the Pakistani opposition were shouting “Modi”

    Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi: Accused the opposition of being “anti-Pakistan”

    What’s the truth behind claims Pakistani MPs chanted ‘Modi’?

    Some Indian media outlets aired claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name was deliberately chanted by parliamentarians in neighbouring Pakistan during a heated debate about the recent murder of a teacher in France.

    But would Pakistani MPs really chant the name of India’s prime minister in their parliament?

    What happened in Pakistan’s parliament?

    On Monday, Pakistani opposition leader Khawaja Asif – along with other MPs – was pushing for a vote on a resolution condemning the publication in France of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which led to the killing of a teacher near Paris earlier this month.

    Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron after the killing angered some in the Islamic world, and were criticised by Pakistan’s prime minister.

    Both the government and the opposition in Pakistan were pushing for their own resolutions on the controversy to be passed.

    At one point in the debate, as Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi began to address the house, opposition members started to chant “voting, voting” – calling for the resolution presented by their side, and not the government’s resolution, to be voted on.

    This short two-minute sequence was then broadcast without any context on Indian media channels, digital outlets and on popular social media handles with a wide reach.

    Times Now, India TV, Economic Times and social media users all made the misleading claim that the opposition were shouting “Modi” (and not “voting”) in order to embarrass Prime Minister Imran Khan.

    The Economic Times has since taken down its report, and Times Now has deleted its tweet – but its article remains on the internet with the clip of the Pakistani debate.

    So was Mr Modi mentioned in parliament?

    Yes, he was – but at a later point in the debate, and in a different context.

    His name came up when Mr Qureshi accused the opposition of peddling “India’s narrative” during the debate.

    Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi: Accused the opposition of being “anti-Pakistan” | Getty Images

    During a heated exchange, Mr Qureshi claimed the opposition was trying create a rift within the armed forces and fanning what he called an “anti-Pakistan narrative”.

    Government supporters could then clearly be heard chanting in Urdu: “Modi ka jo yaar hai, ghaddar hai, ghaddar hai (whoever is a friend to Modi is a traitor, a traitor)“.

    There’s no reference to this at all in the Indian reporting.

    The version of the debate presented to make the claim that opposition MPs in Pakistan were chanting Narendra Modi’s name has been taken completely out of context.

    You can watch the parliament debate here:

    There have been other examples of events in Pakistan being misrepresented in India.

    Recently, the Indian media was abuzz with news that civil war had broken out in the Pakistani city of Karachi – but this was not true.

    With inputs from BBC

    (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

  • Piyush Goyal chairs SCO Foreign Trade and Economic Ministers meeting, urges to enhance intra-SCO trade and investment

    Srinagar: Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal chaired 19th meeting of Foreign Trade & Economic Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, SCO on Wednesday.

    In his remarks, Goyal said that SCO countries need to leverage their economic strength and explore partnerships that enhance trade and investment in the region. He urged to enhance intra-SCO trade and investment in ensuring the speed of recovery from the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic as SCO countries collectively account for more than 1/7th of global goods trade and nearly 1/8th of world trade in commercial services.

    Minister of State for Commerce Hardeep Singh Puri also joined the meeting. In his remarks, Puri said, India has ushered in bold & transformational reforms in agriculture, MSME, mining, defence, space tech, logistics etc. India’s economic strategy is based on the policy of self-reliance served through the vision of AtmaNirbhar Bharat.

    In the meeting four documents were adopted which were related to India’s initiatives on Multilateral Trading System, Response to Covid, Intellectual Property Rights and MSMEs. Statement on the response to Covid-19 reinforced the need for greater cooperation for access to medicines and facilitation of trade.

    Statement on the Multilateral Trading System of Ministers of SCO Countries who are WTO Members, highlighted the importance of the rule-based multilateral negotiations.
    Besides, statement on SCO Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) was also adopted which relates to cooperation of intellectual property and include sharing information and experience on legislation and enforcement, cooperation in international organisations and other areas.

    In another SCO meeting on Wednesday, Secretary, Ministry of Road transport and Highways represented India at SCO Transport Ministers meeting. Connectivity with SCO countries is a priority for India. India’s sincere involvement with international community in connectivity is evident in International North South Transport Corridor, Chabahar Port, Ashgabat Agreement, India Myanmar Thailand Highway and Bangladesh, Bhutan, India Nepal Initiative.

    The First-ever SCO Startup Forum was also launched on Tuesday. Startups from all the SCO countries participated with great enthusiasm in the forum which is a flagship initiative under India’s chairmanship.(KINS)

  • You can now see how scared Pakistan is of India under PM Modi: Sambit Patra

    You can now see how scared Pakistan is of India under PM Modi.

    People of India know that India is the best and our army is the bravest, they know that PM is clear about how to deal with Pakistan: BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra addresses media.

    – KNT