'On September 29, Tathagata Roy, retweeted a tweet with the headline, “Muslims rape 16-year-old Hindu girl, who begs them ‘Please leave me for your Allah’s sake’.” The original tweet was by Robert Spencer, the founder of the extremist Islamophobic propaganda blog, Jihad Watch, which based the news on a report by another propaganda website – one inspired by Hindutva – the Hindu Post. Roy’s Twitter timeline is replete with tweets of this nature: incendiary, hate-filled communal propaganda. Why are we talking about Roy?
'A ‘hate speech’ by a Central Reserve Police Force constable during a debate organised by the National Human Rights Commission won a consolation prize on September 27. It also went viral on social media and while many criticised the harsh language used by the officer, some television channels chose to support her. The debate was on ‘terrorism and militancy in the country can be tackled effectively while observing human rights’. Two parts of Constable Khushboo Chauhan’s speech stood out.
'On February 3, 2019, Smriti Irani declared: “The day ‘pradhan sevak‘ Narendra Modi ji decides to retire, I will also leave Indian politics.” The statement is remarkable on many levels. Why would a 42-year old politician, already a Union minister with cabinet rank, and with bright political prospects, sacrifice her career just because the numero uno of her party, 26 years her senior, will hang his boots eventually? This is the same Irani who had threatened to go on a fast-unto-death if Modi did not resign over Gujarat riots.
'On February 26, Ashish Joshi, a department of telecom (DoT) official, was suspended. The suspension came one day after Joshi filed a complaint against Kapil Mishra, a controversial MLA, reporting a Facebook video posted by the latter. In the video, Mishra calls for attacks on several prominent actors, activists and politicians including Barkha Dutt, Prashanth Bhushan, Kamal Hassan and Naseeruddin Shah. He claims these individuals are “enemies of the nation” and that they support Pakistan. Additionally, he suggests that they should be dragged out of their homes onto the streets...'
'The News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), an independent body set up by the News Broadcasters Association, on August 30 directed BJP MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s news channel Republic TV to air a full-screen apology to its viewers for inappropriate comments made by its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. But despite the deadline given by the body passing by – before the 9 pm debate on September 7, 2018 – the channel has yet to tender an apology. The complaint was filed by A.
'Yogi Adityanath’s legal fortunes may have turned for the worse. A potentially incriminating CD, which allegedly contains a hate speech by him and whose existence successive Uttar Pradesh governments have refused to acknowledge for a decade, has been found. It was discovered when two judges of the Allahabad High Court — no less — dramatically opened sealed court records in their courtroom two months ago. This CD allegedly contains a video of Adityanath making a hate speech against Muslims in Gorakhpur in January 2007.
'Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday continued his campaign against state governor PB Acharya, and shot off a letter to the President, requesting him to immediately replace him because of “making no distinction between his constitutional functioning as Governor of a state and his political and ideological instincts.” Acharya had also converted the Guwahati Raj Bhavan into an annexe of the BJP office, he alleged.
'A Shiv Sena minister in BJP-led Maharashtra government has said actor Aamir Khan "can go to Pakistan" if he didn't love India and that people such as Aamir, Shah Rukh and Dilip Kumar were like "snakes", considering their statements... "From Dilip Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir, we gave everyone of them a lot of love. However, the statements coming from them make us feel as if we have nurtured snakes," said Mr Kadam...'
'On November 23, Aamir Khan made a statement on how his wife is scared of the growing disquiet in the country. His statement attracted opinions from across the country; politicians, fellow actors and people active on social media. But it has not only affected people’s opinion about him, it has also affected the brand he endorses. Snapdeal seems to be drawing a lot of flak only because Aamir is its brand ambassador. People took to Twitter starting another campaign called #AppWapsi asking others to not buy anything from Snapdeal and uninstall the app.
'Reacting to Aamir Khan's statement about intolerance, BJP MLA Satish Mahana from Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh suggested that perhaps Aamir's wife Kiran Rao wanted to be strip-searched in an airport in America, reported NavBharat Times. Perhaps, Mahana was referring to the incidents where people are strip-searched in airports to check if anyone is hiding any illegal substances.
