'The Kashi Vikas Samiti has taken objection to actress Sara Ali Khan’s visit to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi complaining that her attendance at the ‘Ganga Aarti’ was not acceptable as she is a non-Hindu. The Samiti has demanded an investigation into her visit and action against those responsible, News 18 reported. Also seeing her visit to the temple through communally colored lenses were some Deoband clerics.
'In the backdrop of global COVID-19 outbreak, Kannada channel Public TV aired a show on March 14 where it was claimed that four Muslim youths in Sultan Street, Bhatkal in Karnataka refused coronavirus testing for “religious reasons” after returning from Dubai... Right-wing website OpIndia picked up the news the next day and tweeted, “Islam does not approve: Four Muslims who returned from Dubai threaten health officials in Karnataka, refuse to undergo Coronavirus test.”... The claim was shared sans any source by Mahesh Hegde, founder of fake news blog Postcard News.
'Coronavirus is declared a pandemic, India restricts the entry of foreigners, stock markets crash, Madhya Pradesh’s government teeters on the brink of collapse, a big private bank is in crisis, the home minister finally responds to questions about the Delhi carnage. These were the major news stories of March 11. For Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News, however, the most important story of the day was…jihad.
'A Times Now broadcast of March 5 ran a video of a man in red, wearing a helmet, opening fire during communal riots in Delhi. “New video of Delhi violence surfaces. Video reportedly from Maujpur…This is the 4th video of attack on police,” the channel claimed. The video was tweeted using #ShaheenLynchModel... A day later, the same clip was tweeted by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya who insinuated that the shooter was a member of the Muslim community. He wrote, “Another video of a ‘peaceful’ protestor firing at the cops?
'...Scroll.in spoke to the families of many victims of the violence who allege the police have not only been passive, failing to pursue such cases independently, even after they submitted written complaints, the police have ignored them. In one case, the police did not file an FIR after a family reported a young man was missing. His body was later fished out of a drain, but the family claims no FIR has been filed yet.
'AAP councillor Tahir Hussain has been linked with the murder of IB staffer Ankit Sharma who was found dead in a drain close to Hussain’s house on February 26. Since then, the AAP leader has been suspended from the party and is now under police custody. The reportage around Tahir Hussain and communal riots in Delhi comprises several reports that weren’t journalistically sound.
'The festival of colors, Holi is here and soon all over one message is set to boom across – ‘Bura na maano, Holi hai (It’s Holi, take no offense).” However, we have been slow to realize what a travesty of consent the above slogan is. Starting by being normalized through Bollywood, the idea of a woman’s consent washed off faster that the color on her. From then to now has come such a time that this festival is now been given a communal colour by the right-wing saffron brigade. We tell you why the celebration of Holi in its current form is a threat to women throughout India...'
'Four images have been shared hundreds of times in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts alongside a claim that they show a Muslim restaurant owner in the Indian city of Coimbatore mixing impotency pills in biryani before serving it to non-Muslim customers. The claim is false; the photos were taken from online sources unrelated to the restaurant; police in Coimbatore said there was “no truth” in the claim...'
'...Mirza Muzaffar Ali, who owns and operates locally popular Baba Juice Corner in the area, claimed he hadn’t seen such an atmosphere, laden with apprehensions about “what it could bring” prior to the festival, in six decades... “In my 66 years, I have never seen an atmosphere like this. There is a lot of police deployment in the area, generally because of what happened and also because of Holi...People, especially young boys, are being picked up...
'Usman Saifi had been religiously guarding a Ram temple in Gali Number 18 of Mustafabad’s Nehru Vihar for over a week now. Ever since riots broke out in the Muslim-dominated area of Northeast Delhi, Saifi and his neighbours were conscious of not letting tensions simmer for too long. “He knew that if anything happens to the temple, it will be the Muslims of the area who will be blamed.” his wife Salma told ThePrint. Saifi, 45, was picked up by Delhi Police from outside the temple late Sunday and detained.
