'The BJP’s Ashwini Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, has claimed that he is unaware of the onion crisis in the country because he is “a vegetarian and has never tasted an onion”. This comes a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a statement in Parliament that she “comes from a family that does not consume much onion and garlic”. Sitharaman’s comment invited heavy trolling online and prompted the viral hashtag #SayItLikeNirmalaTai. “I am a vegetarian. How will a person like me know about the shortage and price of onions?” Choubey told news agency ANI.
'...The bill, if passed, would change a key part in the category for illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan - Muslim-majority states that were once part of the undivided India as defined in the Government of India act 1935. The amendment proposes granting the ability to apply for nationality to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis fleeing persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan - even without any documentation i.e. illegal migrants.
'A case of arson has been filed against 25 people from the Dalit community in Alur in Karnataka’s Hassan district, for allegedly setting on fire the home of the accused in the murder case of a 45-year-old Dalit man Ramu. Ramu was murdered on November 15 allegedly for trying to break up a fight between two people from Alur. At the time, the Alur Police had registered a case of murder against Mahesh and three others from his family. On the night of the murder, Mahesh’s house was set on fire and the police have now booked 25 people from the Dalit community for arson.
'The huge stone wall, reportedly built to isolate the arunthathiyar community, collapsed early Monday after incessant rains in Mettupalayam in Tamil Nadu... Seventeen people, including three children and 11 women of A T Colony in Mettupalayam of Coimbatore district, were crushed to death after a huge wall constructed by a local textile shop owner belonging to a dominant caste fell down on the houses on the early hours of Monday. Four houses were totally damaged in the incident.
'A 25-year-old Muslim youth was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district allegedly over his relationship with a Hindu girl. Three people have been arrested in the incident, police confirmed on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Abdul Baari, a native of Hathinaraj village. The incident occurred on November 29 at night in Maraucha village under Baskhari Police Station limits when Abdul Baari was on the way to meet the girl. He was surrounded by a few unidentified assailants and beaten to death, police confirmed...'
'Writer Madhu Kishwar, who is followed by over two million Twitter users, on Sunday, 1 December, shared a video stating that soon after Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Maharashtra’s chief minister, the state started witnessing ‘secular activities’. The claim shared along with the video further states that the video is from Kausa Masjid in Mumbra in Thane district where police officers can be seen distributing tasbeehs (collection of beads) after people offered Friday prayers...
'A 26-year-old veterinary doctor went missing on November 27 near Hyderabad. A day later, her charred body was found at the underpass of a National Highway in Chatanpally village. The victim was gang-raped and subsequently murdered and burnt by four. The accused, Mohammed Pasha, Naveen, Keshavulu and Shiva, were identified by the police after scanning CCTV footage installed near a toll plaza where the victim had parked her two-wheeler... The names of the four accused were revealed hours before the police held a press conference.
'The assault on Dalit gender equality activist Bindu Ammini, by a fervent Ayyappa devotee, reveals the fragility of the Hindu nationalist male ego and a deals a chink to the Hindutva armour... Like other nativist and anti-pluralist projects, Hindutva is premised upon the restoration of a primeval order that involves the dominance of man over woman, father over son, savarna over avarna, avarna over Dalit, fair skin over dark, state over subjects, religion over law, priest over devotee, teacher over student.
'Last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that women of menstrual age could enter the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala despite a proscription against this, the Kerala government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided to prove its social crusader credentials by backing women who wanted to exercise their constitutional rights to visit the shrine... But all it took for the Left government to forget about constitutional rights was one election.
