RSS worker’s murder: Cops illegally detaining innocent Muslims, says SDPI

Mangaluru, Jan 15: The coastal city of Mangaluru witnessed a historic event as a sea of humanity converged at the Shah Gardan Maidan in Adyar-Kannur to register their protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) besides the “categorical mistreatment” of Muslim community at the hands of the police across the country including in Mangaluru.

The protest is jointly being organised by the various Muslim organisations of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district under the leadership of Muslim Central Committee. 

The main staged is named after Shaheed Jaleel Kudroli and Shaheed Nausheen, who were ruthlessly gunned down by the police during a chaos that erupted on December 19 in the city due to police batten charge against people during a minor protest against NRC. 

Even thought the police had banned public transport and blocked the highway to reduce the number of protesters, around one-and-a-half lakh people had reached the venue when the historic meeting commenced at 2:30 p.m. By 4 p.m. the number of protesters crossed 2 lakh, according to the organisers.

Both sides of the highway were filled with those who came to witness the rally and traffic went haywire along a five-kilometre stretch of the road. The people who took part in the rally were seen waving national flags.

The protest rally was inaugurated by Udupi Khazi Bekal Ibrahim Musliyar. Dua was offered by Dakshina Kannada Khazi Twaka Ahmed Musliyar. 

Addressing the protesters, former IAS officer and activist Kannan Gopinathan alleged that the Centre wants to create fear among all sections of people and silence them. Society began to protest when the government crossed the limits and put curbs on democratic freedom, he claimed.

The Centre thought that they can get away with CAA and NRC. However, people have realised the truth and have started coming out onto the streets, Gopinathan added.

Activist Harsh Mander said the theme of the protest against the CAA and NRC is "national flag in one hand, Constitution is another and people will march forward with love in their hearts”.

“The fight against NRC is the fight for the protection of our Constitution. The BJP is using NRC as a weapon to divide the people after Article 370 and Ram Mandir construction," he said and warned the Centre: “The more you try to divide us, the stronger and united we’ll be”

Human rights activist Shivasundar said the "chowkidar" appointed by the people is now asking them whether they are the real owners of their houses.

The BJP only delivered hollow promises which is evident from the rising unemployment, fall in GDP, farmers suicides and the economic slowdown, he alleged.

MLA UT Khader, MLC BM Farooq, former MLA Mohiyuddin Bava, Muslim central committee president KS Mohammed Masood, Ullal Qazi Fazal Koyamma Tangal, Dakshina Kannada district Wakf committee president UK Monu Kanachur, Sunni Youth Federation state general secretary Abdul Rashid Zaini and Karnataka Samastha Mushavara state secretary UK Abdul Aziz Darimi were present among others.

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Mangaluru/Kasaragod, Jun 30: In what appears to be an ego clash between the officers of Karnataka and Kerala, around 150 Mangalureans including 12 pregnant women were evicted from the lodges in Kasaragod in the middle of the night and sent to Mangaluru.

Expressing shock over the incident, Mangaluru MLA U T Khader hit out at the authorities concerned for the lack of concern towards the stranded passengers. “If IAS officers don’t have humanity, what is the use of the IAS tag. Officers in the two states should learn to speak to one another and solve people’s problems,” he said apparently addressing DCs of Kasaragod and Dakshina Kannada. 

The 150 passengers had arrived on Saturday from Dubai in a chartered flight arranged by the Karnataka Cultural Foundation. The flight landed in Kannur after it was denied permission to land in Mangaluru.

But Karnataka’s nodal officer for stranded persons outside India C N Meena Nagaraj, an IAS officer, called up Kerala officials and questioned why the flight was allowed to land in Kannur, Khader said. She reportedly told Kerala officials that the passengers should be quarantined in the cities of arrival and that Karnataka would not take them in.

In the meantime, the Karnataka Cultural Foundation arranged seven buses to take the passengers to Mangaluru. By the time it was conveyed to them that they would not be allowed to enter Mangaluru, the buses had reached Kasaragod district. The representatives of the organisation made frantic calls to several political leaders. Congress leader and district panchayat standing committee chairperson Harshad Vorkady said he got a call for help around 10pm on Saturday. He spoke to owners of three lodges to accommodate them. The lodges were used by the district administration as quarantine centres. 

The lodge owners said they would take the passengers in only if the Kasaragod tahsildar gave permission. “So I called up the tahsildar. He only wanted to know who will pay for the lodging and food. When I told him that the passengers will pay, he gave permission. By midnight, all the passengers were put up in the three lodges,” he said. The police were also at the spot, he said.

According to the Covid protocol, those arriving from abroad should be in institutional quarantine for seven days and in room quarantine for another seven days. But by 4pm on Sunday, the police returned to the lodges and asked the passengers to vacate. They said it was the order of the collector. They produced the order to the lodge owners. The office-bearers of the Karnataka Cultural Foundation said they sought time from the Kasaragod police to arrange rooms in Mangaluru. But Kasaragod police denied it. 

On Sunday, there were Covid deaths in Mangaluru and the Mangaluru deputy commissioner was tied up as residents were objecting to the funeral of one of the victims. “By night, the police started threatening the lodge owners. The members of the Foundation said they would shift the passengers by Monday morning. But the collector would not listen,” said Harshad.

Around 11pm, the Kasaragod district administration brought in four KSRTC buses and sent all the 150 passengers to Mangaluru, he said. By 1am the buses crossed the Thalapdy border and Khader took over from there. But the MLA was livid with how officials treated the people. Collector Sajith Babu in a statement said his enquiry found that the tahsildar did not give permission to accommodate the passengers in Kasaragod lodges.

Remember social media memes of Chinese companies exporting #BoycottChina hats and t-shirts to India? This time India’s sensational and saffronite TV anchor Arnab Goswami vindicated those memes by hosting an anti-China debate show which was sponsored by Chinese companies!

While the last night's debate was all about boycotting Chinese products in the wake of massacre of over 20 Indian soldiers by their Chinese counterparts in eastern Ladakh, the show was brazenly promoting Chinese products through advertisement placements. 

During the debate, amongst the flashy headlines, there were two brand sponsorships that appeared: VIVO and Xiaomi. Both companies are giant Chinese multinational corporations. 

Twitter user Nirmala Tai, who was among those who spotted this irony, highlighted two instances during the debate where the logo of one of the brands popped up, and one where Xiaomi was found promoting the Mi 10. 

Many Twitterati used Goswami’s some of the favourite words such as ‘hypocrite’ and ‘anti-national’ to target him. They hit out at his channel for accepting sponsorship deals from Chinese brands at a time when anti-China sentiment is strong in the country.

Boycott China powered by Mi10 and Vivo. pic.twitter.com/TAb6Fn1tWx

— Nirmala Tai (@vishj05) June 17, 2020