‘Jo Na Bole Jai Shri Ram, Usko Bhejo Kabristan’: Singer Varun Upadhyay, associates held

coastaldigest.com news network
July 27, 2019

Newsroom, Jul 27: Controversial Bhojpuri singer Varun Upadhyay alias Varun Bahar, who came up with his new hate song, has been taken into custody along with three of his team members by the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow from his village Bandarha in Gonda.

The song ‘‘Jo Na Bole Jai Shri Ram, Usko Bhejo Kabristan” (Send those who do not chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to their graves), had gone viral soon after Varun uploaded on YouTube.

The police, which acted on several complaints, picked up singer Varun Bahar, writers Mukesh Pandey and Santosh Yadav, and Rajesh Kumar Verma, the owner of the YouTube channel Janta Musical and Pictures on which the video was uploaded.

The four have been arrested under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code.

“I’m a bhakt of Jai Shri Ram,” Bahar told the Huffington Post in a phone interview. “This is all about Hindutva. It is only about Hindutva.”

Bahar even released a statement on YouTube claiming that he sang the song out of love for Hinduism and that he saw nothing wrong in the sentiments expressed as the song does not mention a particular religion or section of the society.

“I have not taken the names of any religion here. Media is after my life and is not concerned about content on social media that is much more provocative and vulgar in nature,” he said, while calling upon the Hindu Yuva Vahini, Bajrang Dal and his “Hindu brothers” to help him.

But songwriter Santosh Kumar, who also makes an appearance alongside Bahar to defend their song, was not so contrite and blamed “anti-Ram elements” in the media for pushing for their arrest. He said the song was for the cause of Hindutva and for making India a ‘Ram Rajya’.

The music video includes images of a graveyard. ‘Kabristan’ is a reference to graveyards used by Christians and Muslims.

Verma said he deleted the video from his channel, which had 507,000 subscribers, on July 22. Apologising, he said that “our company will not launch such audio or video [in future]”.

Comments

Mr Frank
 - 
Sunday, 28 Jul 2019

Minorities and dalits must prepare to defend themselfs before dying when travelling in the hands of lyching and mobing if this crime is not attached to law by govt.

Well Wisher
 - 
Sunday, 28 Jul 2019

Bullshit. these cowards are not much familiar among general public. Just to get publicity, they are issuing controversial statements. I am pretty sure, this crook doest not know even who RAM & what is his Ideology. Such guys should be put behind the bars for lifelong.

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News Network
August 7,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 7: The Karnataka government would provide Rs 10,000 immediate relief to families affected by heavy rains and flooding in districts across coastal, central and southern areas of the state, an official said on Thursday.

"Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has directed all the Deputy Commissioners in the rain-cum-flood-hit districts to provide Rs 10,000 interim relief to the affected families and Rs 5 lakh to those whose houses were completely damaged in the natural disaster," a Revenue Department official told media persons here.

As the south-west monsoon advanced and intensified, heavy and widespread rains with gusty winds have been lashing 12 of the 30 districts across the state, wreaking havoc and disrupting normal life due to flooding, landslides, lakes and ponds overflowing, and rivers and their tributaries in the spate.

"The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to make use schools, colleges and public places as relief centres to shelter the rain-cum-flood-hit families, as hostels and community halls have been converted into Covid care centres in the affected districts," said the official.

The affected districts have also been advised to conduct a survey of crop loss suffered by farmers for compensation under the centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes.

Deputy Commissioners have been told to take preventive measures to protect and provide relief to the people from heavy rains, floods and landslides in the affected districts.

"Yediyurappa also directed ministers in-charge of the districts to remain in their constituency and visit the affected areas to assess damage caused by the rains and flash floods for compensation and relief aid," noted the official.

The Chief Minister on Wednesday announced Rs 50 crore for rescue and relief operations in the affected districts across the state.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological department has issued a red alert on heavy rains in the affected districts of Kodagu, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttar Kannada in the coastal region and in Shivamoga, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Haveri in the Malnad region.

"Bagamandala in Kodagu district where Cauvery river springs near Talakaveri received a whopping 486 mm rain during the last 24 hours, causing flash floods and disrupting normal life as offices, shops and eateries remained shut and public transport was affected," added the official.

The water-level in Cauvery and Lakshmanatheertha is flowing at high level while the Sayi layout and Kuvempu layout Kushalnagar is inundated and the affected residents were shifted to safer location.

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News Network
February 24,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 24: Census authorities in Karnataka have requested deputy commissioners in the state’s districts to hold outreach and awareness campaigns about the National Population Register (NPR), as they fear misgivings about the exercise could hurt the forthcoming enumeration of population.

The house-listing phase of the Census and updating of NPR will be rolled out simultaneously by mid-April in the BJP-ruled state.

About 1,50,000 enumerators will handle the massive exercise.

Officials believe widespread awareness will help address concerns about the NPR data-gathering process and make people cooperate with enumerators when they visit houses for both NPR and census work.

“Sensing the kind of questions that enumerators may face when they do house visits, in all video conferences with deputy commissioners of districts, we have requested to establish contact with local representatives,” SB Vijay Kumar, director of Census Operations in Karnataka told news agency. “We have asked them to organise outreach programmes to ensure that people’s doubts are resolved before the information gathering work begins,” he added.

Census operations are handled by the Union home ministry. Several district officials are said to have raised concerns about the possibility of people refusing to share information when the work on the census and NPR begins in two months. This would affect the quality of the census work, making the exercise incomplete.

news channel earlier reported that people in parts of Karnataka had declined to share personal information with officials visiting households in connection with government programmes, suspecting them of gathering data for the yet-to-be unveiled National Register of Citizens, following enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) recently.

Kumar said district authorities will train and sensitise enumerators to tread carefully while gathering information. Enumerators will be told not to demand information but seek it gently.

“We will tell enumerators to proactively engage with people. For instance, if an old man in a village does not know his exact date or place of birth, the enumerator may engage in a conversation with the person that may elicit some anecdotes and roughly establish the year and the place of birth,” the census director said.

As of now, the NPR questionnaire has 21queries, but officials say it has not yet been finalised.

With most of the census and NPR data gathering and storage happening digitally this time, the challenge before census officials is to convince people that the data would remain safe.

“Individual data is sealed and all that we can see is collective data. The information is consolidated and tailor-made. We are telling district officials to create awareness about data safety as well,” Kumar said.

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News Network
April 20,2020

Karanataka, Apr 20: Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa launched an online crash course programme 'GetCETGo', here on Monday.

GetCETGo is the state government's free online crash course programme to help all students of Karnataka prepare for Common Entrance Test (CET) and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The programme was launched by the state government amid the disruption in education sector caused due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.

Students can access the content through the web portal and the Android Application that has been developed by Sinchu Infotech and Deeksha Online.

They can also avail comprehensive study material with practice questions, chapter-wise tests, revision videos and mock tests.

According to the state government, this programme will benefit around 1,94,000 students.

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