'We must turn to neuroscience to examine the Bharatiya Janata Party's boast that more and more Indians are making a rational choice in favour of Hindutva over competing ideologies. The truth, in fact, is to the contrary: The BJP projects itself as the sole saviour of Hindus, then scares them into suspending their rationality before every election, and hopes they will herd around it for protection. This strategy of the BJP is stark in its campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections.
'Undeterred by a 96-hour ban imposed by the Election Commission for making communally divisive remarks, BJP MP Parvesh Verma today termed the ongoing protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act at New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh as "anti-national" and said that the law won't be rolled back because India is "not ruled by Rajiv Feroze Khan". "Shaheen Bagh protest against the CAA is anti-national because they are demanding the separation of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir from India. They want Jinnah's azadi... This is not Rajiv Feroze Khan's government. This is Narendra Modi's government...
'"By looking at the face of a person, can one be identified as being a Bangladeshi national?” questioned Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, slamming the state over the demolition of settlements in Bengaluru over suspicions that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants stayed there. The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar told that state that it will have to rehabilitate those affected by the demolitions.
'Two days after a teenager shot a protester in the Indian capital, another firing has been reported at an all-women sit-in site in the city against a controversial new citizenship law. Police said no protester was wounded after a man fired a gun at New Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which critics say violates India's secular constitution and is anti-Muslim...'
'The Hindu Mahasabha on Friday announced that the organisation would felicitate the accused in Jamia firing case. The outfit further called the shooter "a true nationalist like Nathuram Godse". Hindu Mahasabha spokesperson Ashok Pandey said the organisation is "proud of the boy, who attempted to silence the anti-national activities on Jamia campus by giving the students there 'instant azadi'."...'
'As the coronavirus scare runs across the world with one confirmed case in India, Hindu Mahasabha has proposed bizarre treatment for the dreaded virus infection. Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, president of Hindu Mahasabha, on Friday said cow urine and cow dung can be used for treating novel coronavirus disease. He also said that a special yagna will be performed to "kill the novel coronavirus and end its effects on the world"...'
'The Facebook profile of the young man identified by Delhi Police as the person who brandished a gun and opened fire at anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protestors near Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi on January 30, is noteworthy for several reasons. The profile of the young man, from the Jewar area of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar district, has begun making the rounds on social media. While ANI had first quoted police as having said that he was 19 years old, it later tweeted the photograph of a marksheet that showed that he was just shy of 18.
'BJP leader MP Renukacharya who is political secretary to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, stoked a fresh controversy by stating that he will cut all facilities given to minorities in the Honnali Assembly constituency as they "have not voted for him in the elections". "They did not vote for me in 2018 elections and I am sure that they will not vote to me in future as well. That's why I want to find places where they live in the constituency and I will cut the facilities given to them in Honnali," Renukacharya said in a public meeting in his constituency.
'Around 5,000 migrant workers from Assam and other parts of the country were rounded up in a supposed 'document-verification drive', after a pro-Hindutva organisation alleged that they were illegal immigrants. On Wednesday evening, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kodagu, Suman D Pennekar issued an order to all police stations in Kodagu to conduct a document-verification drive.
'Kailash Vijayvargiya, the national general secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, on Thursday said that the construction workers at his house had “strange eating habits” that aroused suspicions about their nationality, PTI reported. The labourers were only consuming poha, a popular dish made from flattened rice, Vijayvargiya said at a seminar on the Citizenship Amendment Act in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. “I suspected these workers were residents of Bangladesh,” he said. “Two days after I became suspicious, they stopped working at my house.”...'
