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After supporting Muslim-Hindu couple, Sushma Swaraj tastes the hatred of Hindutva bigots

coastaldigest.com web desk
June 25, 2018

Newsroom, Jun 25: Senior BJP leader and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj became the latest victim of hardline Hindutva troll brigade on social media platforms after she voiced support for an inter-faith couple from Uttar Pradesh that faced harassment by a passport official.

An upset minister “liked” numerous abusive and offensive tweets and wrote: "I was out of India from 17th to 23rd June 2018. I do not know what happened in my absence. However, I am honoured with some tweets. I am sharing them with you. So I have liked them."

Last week, Passport Seva Kendra official Vikas Mishra in Lucknow was transferred after a Hindu woman and her Muslim husband tweeted alleging that they were humiliated by him and their passport applications were rejected as the woman hadn’t change her surname post-marriage, and that her husband was asked to "convert to Hinduism." The next day, passports were issued to the couple and they thanked Sushma and her ministry.

The Hindutva bigots on social media who felt the passport official was unfairly targeted, began posting tweets with #ISupportVikasMishra hashtag and soon they turned their ire towards Ms Swaraj.

Ms Swaraj, who was on a four-nation European nations visit at that time, didn't reply to any of the tweets pertaining to the issue. On June 24, she liked as many as 70 tweets, all of them abusing her and calling her names.

She highlighted tweets that sought her retirement from politics, on how she was compromising on "national security", and how she might have done it "to boost her publicity." Many tweets were misogynistic and hate-driven in nature, with even her health condition not spared. She had recently undergone surgery for her kidney ailment.

Mocking Ms Swaraj as "Visa Mata" and "passport mata", the online advocates of Hindutva, uploaded numerous morphed photos the minister and urged prime minister Narendra Modi to drop her from the cabinet. Some abusers also criticized the minster’s recent move to grant medical visas to Pakistanis and accused her of “Muslim appeasement”.

However, Ms Swaraj got support from non-communal Hindus and other parties. The official handle of Congress also tweeted in her favour. "No matter the situation or reason, nothing calls for threats of violence, disrespect & abuse. @SushmaSwaraj ji, we applaud your decision to call out the heinous trolls of your own party," the tweet read.

Comments

ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 4 Jul 2018

she is great BJP Leader..

Arif
 - 
Monday, 25 Jun 2018

She is one of secular faces among the saffron party. May God bless her and give her good health and long life.

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News Network
July 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 19: A viral video claiming to show crowded condition of a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in the city was found to be false with police on Sunday arresting a person for allegedly circulating it on social media.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic and asked people to refrain from spreading them.

The arrest was made within hours of the police announcing registration of a case in connection with the video that showed a crowd of people wearing masks at an "outpatient ward" of a hospital, falsely identified as Victoria Hospital, a major dedicated COVID facility here.

The video went viral on social media.

"City Crime Branch swiftly identified and arrested this person who has been circulating false videos of panic in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Kudos to all doctors and medical professionals who are doing their best. False news busted," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic in society and asked people to refrain from it.

"Covid False video about conditions of hospitals in Bangalore circulated on social media. Case registered in Cybercrime PS. While government, society at large fighting the pandemic, some are creating/forwarding messages/videos which has potential to create panic in society. Refrain from it," Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil tweeted.

The video showed scores of people wearing masks gathered in a small space allegedly at an Out-Patient Department in a hospital, and a person filming it, claiming to be a doctor expressing concern that it was a threat to all medical staff, including the patients.

Official sources said the video was reportedly from a hospital in one of the northern states and not from Victoria Hospital.

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News Network
May 10,2020

Gadag, May 9: It is the month of April, and the season of mangoes is very much here. However, the mango farmers of Gadag are suffering huge losses amid the coronavirus lockdown due to the absence of transportation facilities along with several other issues that have been impacting their business adversely.

Speaking to media persons, Vishwanath Odugowdar, a mango farmer said, "Due to transportation problems we are not being able to export mangoes to different countries. We are trying to sell them in nearby markets."

"We are not in a situation to pack, transport and export the mangoes to different countries as we did earlier especially 
when it comes to Alphonso mangoes which is one of the most loved varieties. So, we are packing mangoes at our place. Somehow this year we have got very good quality of mangoes," he added.

Farmers here are incurring huge losses as mandis and markets across the country are shut while the transport of Alphonso mangoes has also come to a halt owing to the lockdown.

The small and medium scale farmers in places like Gadag, Dharwad, Bagalkote in north Karnataka have started packing the mangoes themselves in their farms in a bid to sell the fruit themselves.

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News Network
July 28,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 28: After the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the syllabi for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka government has followed the suit. The Department of Public Instruction has omitted the chapters on legendary south Indian rulers Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan from the textbooks of Class 7 in their attempt to reduce syllabus for state board schools by 30 per cent. 

The department, however, has decided to retain similar chapters on Tipu Sultan in 6th and 10th Classes, though the syllabus in text books for all classes from 1 to 10th has been trimmed. 

The trimmed textbooks uploaded on the website of the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) by Karnataka state Textbook Society revealed removal of chapters on Tipu Sultan for the seventh grade.

Justifying the decision, officials said, "students study similar chapters in Class 6 and more in the 10th grade." Yet another senior official from the Text Book Society said, "Trimming does not mean we have removed half of the syllabus from textbooks. It is only keeping in mind the repetition we have condensed the chapters. In case students study about a particular dynasty in higher grades, then the same had been removed from lower grades."

A few months ago, there was an uproar over dropping of content on Tipu Sultan and MLAs from the ruling BJP also demanded the same and petitioned to the Chief Minister. Even an expert committee led by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa suggested to not drop any content on the historic figure. However, the department still decided to drop lessons from one of the classes while keeping the syllabus short for the next 120 active academic days.

Earlier this month, a controversy had erupted over the CBSE's decision to omit topics like federalism, secularism, citizenship, etc while reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12. The education board had issued a detailed clarification later, stating that topics claimed to be dropped "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".

"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.

Last week, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh expressed its concern over 'deliberate and systematic' deletions of chapters related to the freedom struggle and the party's role in it from the Class 10-12 syllabi of the Secondary Education Board.

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