'What happens when you ask leaders in the Narendra Modi government why they resent criticism? You get publicly hauled over the coals – and told you “hurt national interest” – by a whole army of Bharatiya Janata Party ministers and senior leaders. On Saturday, Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj asked a group of ministers – including Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal – some tough questions on lynching, Pragya Thakur and the government’s ability to accept criticism...
'The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ protests against the new hostel manual and fee hike have become a talking point across the country, drawing varied reactions from all sections of society. As students continue raising their demand for a complete rollback of the proposed hike, the University has become the new favourite target of the fake news factory. Famous radio jockey Raunac, who voices the on air character ‘Baua’, recently released a video endorsing multiple fake claims regarding JNU and its students.
'An EU non-profit group researching disinformation campaigns has said that the controversial European parliamentarians’ visit to Kashmir is linked to a network of fake local media networks and think-tanks across the world. Last month, the Indian government allowed a group of Members of European Parliament, a majority of whom were from far-right parties, to visit Kashmir for the first time since the state was put under lockdown following the reading down of Article 370...
'BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted a copy of a complaint filed by the party’s West Bengal unit with the election commission against an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by the TMC. The complaint was with regard to the by-polls in the state scheduled to be held on November 25. The BJP alleged that the officer-in-charge of Thanapara police station, Sumit Kumar Ghosh, has been regularly participating in door-to-door campaigning by TMC MP Mahua Moitra in Nadia district.
'During Diwali week, when many Indian athletes were sharing festive wishes on their social media, one message that stood out was an identical tweet posted by several prominent Indian sportswomen thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for starting a campaign called Bharat Ki Laxmi to celebrate women’s achievements... Most of these tweets also mentioned Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, who had tweeted a video highlighting the feats of Indian female athletes...
'A group of 27 European Union lawmakers is in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to observe the situation in the restive following the government's decision to abrogate article 370. According to reports, in all, 22 of the 27 members of European Parliament (MEPs) are Right-wing politicians in their home countries.
'Twenty-seven Members of the European Parliament are touring Kashmir today. They are reportedly visiting in their “personal capacity”, meaning the trip is being sponsored not by the Indian government but by a relatively obscure organisation, the Women’s Economic and Social Think Tank, or WESTT. Before leaving for their whistlestop holiday in the valley, the MEPs got to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi. The “visit in personal capacity” then is being made to look pretty official.
'In its July 16, 2019 issue, Organiser, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) mouthpiece, spat venom against the public sector in general and against BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) in particular. The magazine published an article, wherein it is stated that, “laziness, indifference and barren dullness are the well-known marks of the public sector”. By publishing such an article in the Organiser, the RSS has exposed its true colours vis-à-vis the public sector of the country.
'Ahead of a press conference on October 4, the Indian Air Force released a promotional video about the Balakot airstrike that was carried out in February on a target in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack. However, several media outlets reported the representational video as real footage that offered evidence of the airstrike in Pakistan. At the time of the attack, there had been some scepticism about what targets India had actually struck. While India said its bombs had destroyed a terror training camp, Pakistan claimed that only some trees had been hit.
