'Ever since August 5, 2019, when the Centre read down Article 370 of the constitution, thus revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, there has been enforced radio silence from Kashmir. In contrast, though, there has been a cacophony of voices, both on television and on the internet, in organised support of the move. National security and nationalism emerged as the two primary pillars upon which this support was based.
'Former union minister and BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand said today that he has full faith in the judiciary, a day after the UP government constituted a Special Investigation Team or SIT to investigate charges levelled against him by a Shahjahanpur woman... The law student had gone missing after levelling her allegations in a video and was later found in Rajasthan by the UP police...
'A law student in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur has gone missing from her college hostel after accusing Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand of sexual harassment, say reports. The woman, a student of Swami Shukdevanand Law College, had posted a video on Friday where she also said that Chinmayanand had been threatening her life and that of her family’s because she had evidence that could prove her claims. Chinmayanand is also the director of the law college...'
'...During my more than a decade-long career in journalism, I’ve been mobbed by the most relentless and ruthless trolls that inhabit the orbits of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. From ultra-Zionists to Assadists to New Atheists to the MAGA crowd, I’ve had my replies and private message inboxes overwhelmed by them all. One particular group of an online troll stands out above all others, however, at least in my experience. I’m referring to Modi and BJP/RSS-supporting Hindu nationalists.
'As members of the UP police were seen visiting schools across the town of Barabanki recently, one of the superintendent of police gave a long lecture to students of a school on women safety, and on need ‘to raise their voice against crimes’ for justice. From the audience, as reported, a Class XI girl in turn schooled the superintendent, asking, how can the UP police promise to assure safety for women if the ‘accused’ is a ‘powerful minister’, and the police administration remains complicit in protecting them.
'"Our best wishes are with him [Sengar]. We hope that he will overcome the bad times, fight through it and come out of it and be with all of you," Hardoi MLA Ashish Singh Ashu said... Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Singh Ashu, MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi constituency, on Friday expressed solidarity with Kuldeep Singh Sengar – a former BJP MLA who has been in jail for a year now on charges of raping a minor.
'In an interview to The Wire, the 21-year-old said that the aunt who died in the collision was the one who would talk to lawyers and on whose earnings the family depended... For the elder sister of the Unnao rape survivor, days begin and end outside the trauma centre of Lucknow’s King George’s Medical College. Her younger sister, having survived an alleged gangrape by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, his brother Atul and their accomplices, is now critical after a truck collided with the car that she was travelling in on Sunday.
'Perhaps the simple truth is that she lacked the social capital necessary to receive the party’s protection – even reward – for what she did... Sunita Singh Gaur of Ramkola, Uttar Pradesh, India secured for herself a place in history when she soared to international infamy after an explicit social media summons for “Hindu brothers” to gangrape Muslim “mothers and sisters”. The jaw-dropping demand might have attracted little attention if it were not for Gaur’s role as head of the Ramkola chapter of the Mahila Morcha of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'On June 13, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed an FIR against Anand Grover and Lawyers Collective for alleged violations of rules related to NGOs receiving foreign funds... Grover and his partner Indira Jaising, both senior advocates, have been at the forefront of public interest and civil rights litigation in India. Several Indian lawyers have cut their teeth doing human rights work as a part of Lawyers Collective since 1981. Their work has had implications around the world. Between the two of them, they have contributed to the legal field in India for close to 80 years...'
'On Wednesday, BJP’s Unnao MP Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi alias Sakshi Maharaj met rape accused party MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar at the Sitapur district jail to “thank” him after the general election. Sengar, a four-time MLA, is lodged in the jail for allegedly raping a woman who had visited him for a job on June 4, 2017. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sakshi Maharaj said, “Our ‘yashasvi’ (renowned) and popular MLA Kuldeep Sengarji is lodged here for quite some time. I thought it appropriate to thank him after the elections.”...'
