'Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) is engulfed in a controversy over derogatory references to the Bhil tribe in a question paper. BJP MLA Ram Dangore – who is a Bhil and a candidate in the same exam – has demanded action, calling it an insult to the community... Bhils number over 1.6 crore in India, with about 60 lakh of them in Madhya Pradesh. They are the dominant tribal community in the country. “The question paper says the Bhil community is completely under the influence of liquor. How can such a thing be written in a PSC exam? We are being targeted,” said Dangore...'
'Stung by criticism over its attempt to rally support for the CAA through a campaign in Mumbai schools, the BJP has taken a step back. An office-bearer who had launched the exercise last week has now postponed a similar programme scheduled for Monday at a Kandivali school. At Shree Dayanand School in Matunga last Friday, many BJP leaders called anti-CAA protesters traitors and asked the 1,000-odd students aged 9-17 and 40 teachers to “protect the country from them”.
'...Put on the back foot by widespread protests against the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the BJP’s new strategy appears to be: catch them young. “We must protect our nation from traitors (Bharat ke gaddaron se hume apna desh surakshit rakhna hai),” Sumita Suman Singh, mahamantri of BJP’s Uttar Bharatiy Morcha, told a gathering of about 1,000 of students, aged 9 to 17, and 40 teachers from Shree Dayanand Balak, Balika Vidyalay & Junior College at Matunga yesterday.
'...She said, “I want to know what Deepika Padukone’s political affiliation is. Anybody who has read the news knew where you are going to stand, knew that you are going to sit with people who wanted the destruction of India, knew that you are going to stand with people who celebrate every time a CRPF jawan is killed. “She knew that she is standing with people..They hit girls at private parts with lathis. So she stood next to them. That’s her right. I can’t deny her that right.” Irani continued, “It’s her right, go stand with the people who say Bharat tere tukde tukde honge.
'Two photographs of JNSU president Aishe Ghosh have been juxtaposed together to portray that she plastered different arms at different times. Thus suggesting that her injuries are fake. Ghosh was injured during violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where masked goons attacked students on January 5-6. Shefali Vaidya was among those who made the allegation but later took it down... RSS-affiliated ABVP’s national organising secretary Ashish Chauhan also shared the images. His tweet, now deleted, was retweeted by Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of BJP’s foreign affairs department...
'“Congratulations. I, citizen of India, congratulate honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). I and my family support this act.” A PRIVATE school in Ahmedabad asked its students, from Classes V to X, to write this message on postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. However, following protests by parents on Wednesday, the school management apologised and called the exercise a “misunderstanding”. The postcards were returned to the parents, who tore them up...'
'If reality spoke for itself, Prasar Bharati would probably dispute it. On January 6, a day after mob violence in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, India's state broadcaster spun a blatantly false angle on it. This was fact-checked by AltNews, but Prasar Bharati would not back down... In short, the state broadcaster of India — itself borne out of the fears around autonomy following ruthless state propaganda during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime — is now peddling demonstrably false information online. Unsurprisingly, this information suits the position of the current establishment.
'A video of a man in a red jacket beating up another person in green clothing is widely circulating on social media to espouse the claim that students associated with Left parties attacked members of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). This triggered the violence in JNU on the intervening night of January 5-6, per the narrative. Journalist Sumit Kumar Singh the first to tweet the video. He wrote, “This triggered clashes in #JNU campus. Students associated with Left parties bashed up #ABVP members when they were facilitating admission process.
'...The private event was part of a nationwide campaign by the BJP to create support for the planned National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed on December 11. Going by media reports, the only A-list names who attended were T-Series head Bhushan Kumar and Ritesh Sidhwani, who runs Excel Entertainment along with Farhan Akhtar. (According to Mumbai Mirror, Sidhwani “left in 20 minutes”.) Among the other guests were Kunal Kohli, Kailash Kher, Anu Malik, Ranvir Shorey, Shaan, Abhishek Kapoor and Rahul Rawail...
'With the BJP and the Centre coming in for intense criticism for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the party had begun a campaign asking people to give a missed call to a number to “register” their support for the controversial law. While reports said that the BJP IT cell would also “give a push” to the campaign on social media outlets, the strategy took a rather interesting turn, as it later emerged...
