'Bajrang Dal workers and activists of some right wing Hindu groups on Friday forced a newly-married inter-faith couple in Moradabad to call off their wedding reception despite 50 of the protesters being detained, police said. The couple was to host the wedding reception on Valentine’s Day in the Civil Lines area of Moradabad. While the woman is from Moradabad, the man who is a Muslim hails from Bijnor. Parents of neither had any objection to the marriage, police said...'
'Post the tragic incident in Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, where a wall collapsed and led to the death of 17 Dalits, close to 3,000 people from the Dalit community announced that they were to convert to Islam. Illavenil, the state secretary of the Tamil Puligal Katchi, told India Today that legally 430 people have converted to Islam and many more are in the process of the conversion...'
'Soaps, toothpastes, room fresheners, incense sticks, eye drops and pain-relieving oils and other products made from cow urine and cow dung are now on sale at the ongoing Magh Mela in Prayagraj. These products have been manufactured at a gaushala in Bithoor in Kanpur and among the best sellers are medicines for indigestion, arthritis, cataract, diabetes and lung infection.
'As the coronavirus scare runs across the world with one confirmed case in India, Hindu Mahasabha has proposed bizarre treatment for the dreaded virus infection. Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, president of Hindu Mahasabha, on Friday said cow urine and cow dung can be used for treating novel coronavirus disease. He also said that a special yagna will be performed to "kill the novel coronavirus and end its effects on the world"...'
'Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi took to Twitter on Saturday, 4 January, to share a video claiming that NASA has recorded the sound of the Sun, and the sound it emits is ‘Om’. At the time of reporting, this video had over 72,000 views and had been re-shared 1,600 times... The Quint could verify that there is no truth to the claim stated in the video. NASA has not released any report which suggests anything remotely similar to what is said in the video...'
'Close to four decades since the '1981 Meenakshipuram conversion', around 3000 members of the Scheduled Caste in the state are planning to convert to Islam over government apathy in the recent caste wall collapse. Close to 3000 individuals, who belong or are linked to the Tamil Puligal Katchi, a Dalit political outfit, will be converting to Islam in multiple phases from January 5. The decision was announced by the party at a state level meeting in Mettupalayam in Coimbatore district and comes after the collapse of a 'caste wall' in the region that led to the death of 17 Dalits.
'I am a displaced Bangladeshi and Muslim gay man. I am a survivor of religious violence. And I fled to India in 2016. I would like to tell the Bharatiya Janata Party and its president, Amit Shah, that I exist. Their construction of all Muslims as hegemonic oppressors is outrageous and demonises India’s own dispossessed people. I have experienced this first hand in 2016, but this year BJP has gone a step further.
'During the debate on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, the BJP repeatedly claimed that population of religious minorities in Pakistan has declined from 23% in 1947 to 3.7% in 2011. Analysis of official data however shows this argument is faulty... IndiaToday.in's analysis of Pakistan's Census data shows that these claims are faulty... Pakistan got its identity as a separate nation on August 14, 1947. Back then, Pakistan also included present-day Bangladesh which was known as East Pakistan.
'While tabling the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured that the proposed Bill "intends to provide protection to the persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh." However, the contents of the Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday night, seem to be incompatible with some arguments put forth by the government at the time of its introduction.
'The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, on Monday said it was “deeply troubled” by the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha and sought sanctions against Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other principal leadership if it is passed by the Rajya Sabha.
