From Allahabad to Prayagraj; Whats in the name?

Ram Puniyani
October 27, 2018

Adityanath Yogi, Chief Minister of UP seems to be on the name changing spree. In his latest move he has changed the name of famous city of UP, Allahabad to Prayagraj. Prayag is the meeting point of rivers and since this city is the meeting point of Ganga, Yamuna and probably of invisible Sarswati, this name might have been chosen by him in his attempts to remove the Islamic touch to the names of our cities. As such many a versions of the origin of the name of this city are circulating. One such says that it was Ila-vas. Ila being the mother of mythological Pururva. Another such says it was in the name of Alha of Alha-Udal (part of popular folk lore) fame. More concrete records tell us that Akbar had named it Illaha-bad or Illahi-bas. Illaha is a generic term of Gods. He regarded this city as holy city of Hindus and Illah-bas in Persian means ‘abode of Gods’. This is clear from the records and from the coins of that time and reflects the inclusive spirit of Akbar. Earlier Yogi had made many changes in the names like that of Mughal sarai to Pundit Deendayal Upadhayay Junction, Agra airport in the same leader, Urdu Bazar to Hindi Bazar, Ali Nagar to Arya nagar etc. He regards all Muslim sounding names as being alien.

In an interview Yogi said he has to change many more names. On his agenda is to change the name Taj Mahal to Ram Mahal, Azamgarhg to Aryamgarh and to cap it all as per him the name India in our constitution should be changed to Hindustan. As per him these places were renamed after invasion of Muslim kings, so there is a need to re-change them. In UP Mayawati had already begun this name changing game which was to some extent reversed by his successor Akhilesh Yadav. Now in a more persistent way Yogi is identifying the Muslim sounding names and changing them one by one.

Adityanath Yogi is the Mahant of famous Gorakhnath Math. His predecessor of Math was in also politics, and Yogi has been a major player on the political chess board in UP. He comes from the Hindu Mahasabha stream of politics. His dominance has been very visible as his slogan, UP mein rahna hay to Yogi Yogi Kahna hoga (If you want to stay in UP, you have to Chant Yogi-Yogi) had been prevalent in parts of UP. His Hindu Yuva Vahaini has been in the news off and on; not for right reasons. He belongs to the group of large number of Holy men, Sakski Maharaj, Sadhvi Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Nirnajan Jyoti etc. who have been part of Hindu nationalist agenda. As such Holy men are supposed to have renounced the World to focus on spiritual pursuits, but this lot seems to be more active in Worldly pursuits.

The phenomenon of these holy men-women being in politics seems to be there in many post-colonial states. In these countries there has been absence of radical land reforms and there is persistence of hold of landlord-clergy which seems to be the reason for the God people to be in political arena. In these places God men and women has been part of the politics, which opposes the democratic values as being Western or alien, being against the spirit of ‘our’ land. They in a way harp on the pre Industrial values of birth based hierarchies. Surveying these countries one can see the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, succeeded by many Ayatollahs. In Pakistan the Mullahs have been working closely with the military and landlord elements to undermine the democratic possibilities in society. In Pakistan the most prominent name which emerged was that of Maulana Maududi, who worked closely with Zia Ul Haq in Islamization of Pakistan. In neighboring Mynamar, the monks like Ashin Wirathu, also called ‘Burma’s bin laden’, are part of the politics to oppose the democratic society, to target the religious minorities there.

Back to India we have seen the crop of these Holy men, dominating the political scene in various ways. Most of these Godmen-women have been part of Hindu nationalist movement and are very vicious as far as hate speech is concerned. One recalls that Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had used the word haram Jade, Sakshi Maharaj was booked for blaming Muslims for population growth. Yogi himself has many cases pending against as far as hate speech is concerned. The worst of these was when he advised the rape of dead Muslim women.

Yogi has intensified the communal agenda to no end. UP state is organizing Hindu religious festivals. One recalls that the on occasion of Divali, the Helicopter carrying Lord Ram and Sita landed and the Gods were received by Yogi. UP State also organized the lighting of lamps in big numbers. Recently he had again been in news for the declaration that state Government will spend 5000 crores for the Kumbh mela. All this is taking place at a time when the state is suffering sever crunch in regards to health care and other infrastructure related issues. Young children, infants have died in hospital for lack of facilities; times and over again. The cities where name change has been brought about languishes with bad infrastrures and state constantly lags behind in Human growth indices, what to talk of the abysmal condition of human rights in the state. The condition of minorities is worsening as state sponsored moves to trample on their livelihood in the form of closing many the meat shops, which was done right at the beginning of his rule in UP, among other steps which is order of the day.

Yogi also bluntly stated that secularism is a big lie. His actions are showing as to how he is forcing the march of the state in the direction of Hindu nation, without any qualms for secular values as enshrined in our Constitution!

Comments

Well Wisher
 - 
Wednesday, 31 Oct 2018

I prefer Goondaraj instead

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News Network
January 14,2020

New Delhi, Jan 14: The curative petitions of Vinay Sharma and Mukesh, who were sentenced to death in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, was on Tuesday rejected by a five-judge Supreme Court Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana.

In a three-page order, the Bench concluded, after an in chamber consideration that began about 1.45 p.m., that there was no merit in their pleas to spare them from the gallows.

“We have gone through the curative petitions and relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra versus Ashok Hurra. Hence, the curative petitions are dismissed,” the court held.

Curative is a rare remedy devised by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in its judgment in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case in 2002. A party can take only two limited grounds in a curative petition - one, he was not heard by the court before the adverse judgment was passed, and two, the judge was biased. A curative plea, which follows the dismissal of review petition, is the last legal avenue open for convicts in the Supreme Court. Sharma was the first among the four convicts to file a curative.

The Bench also rejected their pleas to stay the execution of their death sentence and for oral hearing in open court.

Besides Justice Ramana, the Bench comprised Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman, R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

Curative petitions were filed in the Supreme Court by both convicts on January 9. The petitions had come just days after a Delhi sessions court schedulled the execution of all the four convicts in Tihar jail on January 22.

Sharma and Mukesh, in separate curative petitions, argued that there was a “sea change” in the death penalty jurisprudence since their convictions. Carrying out the death sentence on such changed circumstances would be a “gross miscarriage of justice”.

In his plea, Sharma said the Court had commuted the death penalty in several rape and murder cases since 2017, when it first confirmed the death penalty to the Nirbhaya convicts.

“fter the pronouncement of judgment in 2017, there have been as many as 17 cases involving rape and murder in which various three-judge Benches of the Supreme Court have commuted the sentence of death,” the petition contended.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed a review petition filed by Akshay Singh, another of the four four condemned men, to review its May 5, 2017 judgment confirming the death penalty. It also refused his plea to grant him three weeks' time to file a mercy petition before the President of India.

A Bench led by Justice R. Banumathi had said it was open for the Nirbhaya case convicts to avail whatever time the law prescribes for the purpose of filing a mercy plea.

Akshay (33), Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Sharma (24) had brutally gang-raped a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. She died of her injuries a few days later.

The case shocked the nation and led to the tightening of anti-rape laws. Rape, especially gang rape, is now a capital crime.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar jail. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Jan 13: India lost more than $1.33 billion to internet restrictions in 2019 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government pushed ahead with his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda, raising tensions and sparking nationwide protests.

The worst shutdown has been in Kashmir, where after intermittent closures in the first half of the year, the internet has been cut off since Aug. 5 following the government’s decision to revoke the special autonomous status of the country’s only Muslim-majority state, a study said. The prologued closure was criticized by India’s highest court, which ruled Friday that the “limitless” internet shutdown enforced by the government for the last five months was illegal and asked that it be reviewed.

India imposed more internet restrictions than any other large democracy, according to the Cost of Internet Shutdowns 2019 report released by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The South Asian nation recorded the third-highest losses after Iraq and Sudan, which lost $2.31 billion and $1.86 billion respectively to disruptions. Worldwide internet restrictions caused losses worth $8.05 billion, the report said.

The cost of internet blackouts was calculated using indicators from groups including the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, and the Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center. It includes social media shutdowns in its calculations.

India’s ministry of information and technology didn’t respond to an email seeking a response to the report’s findings.

‘Conservative Estimates’

Through 2019, India shut access to the internet for over 4,000 hours. The report added shutdowns in India were often narrowly targeted, down to the level of blocking city districts for a few hours to allow security forces to restore order. Many of these incidents were not included in the report.

“These are conservative estimates,” said Simon Migliano, head of research at U.K.-based Top10VPN. “Internet shutdowns are increasing and it shows a damaging trend.”

India’s other major internet disruptions coincided with two moves by the government that affect India’s Muslim minority. The first disruption took place in November in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan after the Supreme Court handed a victory to Hindu groups over Muslim petitioners in a long-simmering dispute over a plot of land.

There were further disruptions in December when protests erupted against the introduction of a religion-based law that allows undocumented migrants of all faiths except Islam from neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship. The government enforced shutdowns across Uttar Pradesh and some Northeastern states in order to quell the protests, the report said.

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News Network
March 19,2020

New Delhi, Mar 19: The total number of reported novel coronavirus cases in India has climbed to 169, with 30 fresh cases reported from various parts of the country on Wednesday.

The total cases in India include 25 foreign nationals and the three persons who died in Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise in India, over 5,700 people, who had come in contact with positive cases, continue to be under rigorous surveillance, the government has said.

Maharashtra has 43 cases, including 3 foreigners, while Kerala has recorded 27 cases which include two foreign nationals. A 28-year-old woman from Pune with a travel history to France and the Netherlands tested positive for Covid-19, a senior official said on Wednesday.

A 68-year-old woman has tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai. She was in close contact with a Covid-19 patient, who was diagnosed yesterday.

In Rajasthan, three more have tested positive for Covid-19. The new cases have come from Jhunjhunu district. Their samples have been sent to SMS Medical college.

In Maharashtra, a 21-year-old man in Pimpri Chinchwad with travel history to the Philippines, Singapore and Colombo has tested positive for coronavirus. One more person in Ratnagiri has tested positive for Covid-19.

Telangana has reported seven more confirmed coronavirus cases. All the seven are Indonesian national.

Delhi has so far reported 10 positive cases which include one foreigner while Uttar Pradesh has recorded 16 cases, including one foreigner. A man from Noida tested positive on Wednesday, taking the total number to four in Noida.

Karnataka reported two fresh cases on Wednesday, taking the number of infections to 13. The number of cases in Ladakh rose to eight and Jammu and Kashmir three. Telangana has reported six cases which include two foreigners.

One more person has tested positive for coronavirus in Kashmir. The person, with foreign travel history, has been put under isolation. He had arrived in J&K on March 16.

There will be restrictions on public transport, assembly of people and some other measures, in #Srinagar from tomorrow.

Rajasthan has also reported four cases including that of two foreigners. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Punjab have reported one case each.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar has confined the state's second positive case of coronavirus in the state.

The health minister has stated that the condition of the patient is stable and is in observation.

In Haryana, there are 16 cases, which include fourteen foreigners.

According to the Union ministry's data, 14 people have been discharged so far, including the three patients from Kerala.

Three persons infected with the virus have died so far, the latest casualty being a 64-year-old man from Mumbai with a travel history to Dubai who succumbed on Tuesday.

While a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi who returned from Saudi Arabia died last Tuesday, a 68-year-old woman in Delhi who had tested positive for coronavirus passed away on Friday night.

The government on Tuesday banned the entry of passengers from Afghanistan, Philippines and Malaysia to India with immediate effect, according to an additional travel advisory.

With coronavirus cases swelling in the country, the government has also banned the entry of passengers from the European Union countries, Turkey and the UK from March 18 till March 31.

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