"The lynching of a 50-year-old man by a mob which accused his family of consuming beef in a Dadri village has sparked outrage with opposition parties alleging that such incidents are a result of the “climate of hate” propagated under BJP to polarise people. Around 200 persons attacked the residence of Iqlakh on Monday night after rumours spread in the village that a cow has been slaughtered and beef was stored in his house, police said on Wednesday.
"Uttar Pradesh law does not criminalise meat possession. Yet, the authorities are sending meat from the Akhlaq home to a lab to be tested. There is law enforcement and then there is law enforcement when cows are involved. In Dadri, on the edge of the National Capital Region, 50-year old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob on Monday night because it was rumored that his family had been eating beef. His 20-year old son, Danish, is critically injured. Reports quote the police and the district magistrate as saying that a mob gathered after 10 pm following an announcement made at a temple.
"A group of Muslims from Bhumma village in Muzaffarnagar remained besieged in a mosque for half a day after it was surrounded by angry villagers protesting the killing of a Hindu youth nearby. The Muslims were rescued on Tuesday afternoon after police dispersed the mob with a lathicharge and by firing shots in the air. Trouble began Monday night after four motorcycle-borne assailants allegedly shot Satveer (25) outside his house in Bhumma. Soon, dozens of Hindus gathered outside the victim’s house to protest police inaction.
'No temple, but here's a museum. The Narendra Modi government is planning to build a state of-the-art Ram museum in the politically charged town of Ayodhya. Tourism minister Mahesh Sharma told ET that the museum will be part of the proposed 'Ramayana circuit'. The locus of past and possible political battles — the 'disputed site' — will not be part of the Ram museum. "This will be an exclusive museum which will be part of a larger holistic plan. The idea is to depict the mahima (grandeur) of Ram and Ramayana. The disputed site will not be touched by the project," Sharma said.
"A night before May 22, 1987, when 42 young Muslim men from Hashimpura, a mohalla less than two kilometres away from Meerut city, were murdered in cold blood by men in uniform, another death was registered in the nearby Civil Lines police station. The death was due to a bullet injury, the shots allegedly fired by someone from Hashimpura. Prabhat Kaushik, 23, an RSS worker, died around 9.30 pm standing on the roof of the house of his aunt Shakuntala Kaushik, a feisty BJP leader of her time.
'With Prime Minister Narendra Modi failing to rein in the Hindutva hardliners, and RSS and its affiliates coming out in support of ‘ghar wapsi’ (religious re-conversion), a number of Muslims who had enrolled with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, now want their membership cancelled. The party, which has pegged its ongoing membership drive on Modi’s development agenda, is now finding it hard to convince the minority community especially in the backdrop of controversial comments on Muslims by its leaders such as Sakshi Maharaj, Sadvhi Niranjan Jyoti and Sadhvi Prachi.
'Tension prevailed in Madhopur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district after 150 Muslim families reportedly left their homes Monday, fearing a backlash from BJP MP Yogi Adityanath’s outfit Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) over a land dispute. Heavy police force including PAC personnel have been deployed in the village to prevent any disturbance. Kushinagar additional district magistrate Ram Kewal Tiwari admitted that there is tension in the village. “It is a property dispute. There was a minor clash and we deployed PAC.
'The BJP's riot-accused lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh, Suresh Rana, has been given Z category security by the Centre, which means he is now among the country's most protected politicians. Mr Rana was arrested on charges of allegedly making inflammatory speeches in the days before the riots in Muzaffarnagar in 2013 that left over 60 people dead. He is currently out on bail...'
'Young couples faced the wrath of moral policing by saffron outfits like Bajrang Dal, Hindu Mahasabha, Shiv Sena and Hindu Yuva Vahini in different parts of Uttar Pradesh on Valentine's Day on Saturday. While 'love birds' were publicly humiliated and manhandled by the members of the saffron outfit in Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Bulandshahr, in Gorakhpur police were seen chasing couples from parks and public places. Several activists were arrested and detained on charges of breach of peace.
'Every few days, Vijaykant Chauhan WhatsApps me a photograph of himself. The photographs are invariably scenes of crowds gathered on a north India street corner. Chauhan is right in front: a thickset, mustachioed man in his late 30s, in faux-army fatigues, a camouflage-print baseball cap and sunglasses. He stands with his fists tightly bunched, arms upraised. Occasionally the police make an appearance – their faces creased by patient smiles, their hands held close to their chests, palms facing outwards, in gestures of pacification.
