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Kit Harington Reveals The Gruesome Injury He Avoided On 'Games of Thrones'

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Kit Harington’s character Jon Snow has suffered some gory injuries on “Game of Thrones,” but the actor revealed he nearly maimed himself for real during the filming of the show’s last season. 

Harington said that he almost tore off a testicle while riding a robotic buck (which is like a mechanical bull), which is used as part of simulating the dragons in the show. 

“I think what sums the buck work up for me is there was a bit where Jon almost falls off the dragon —swings round really violent like this —and my right ball got trapped and I didn’t have time to say stop,” Harington said in a behind-the-scenes video for HBO’s “Game Revealed.” 

“And I was being swung round, in my head I thought, ‘This is how it ends — on this buck swinging me around by my testicles. Literally,’” he said. “Buck work is not easy.” 

Neither, apparently, is reading criticism of “Thrones” last season. Harington took a ballsy stand against anyone who had a problem with the show’s latest episode during an interview with Esquire published Monday. 

“I think no matter what anyone thinks about this season — and I don’t mean to sound mean about critics here — but whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their [negative] judgment on it, in my head they can go fuck themselves,” he said, sounding testy. 

The actor added that he “doesn’t give a fuck” about what people think about the show’s last few episodes because “I know how much work was put into this.” 

“I know how much pressure people put on themselves and I know how many sleepless nights working or otherwise people had on this show,” Harington continued.

“Because they cared about it so much. Because they cared about the characters. Because they cared about the story,” he said.” Because they cared about not letting people down.”


2 Punjabi Men Reportedly Beheaded In Saudi Arabia, Amarinder Condemns 'Barbaric' Act

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CHANDIGARH — Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday condemned as “totally barbaric and inhuman” the reported recent beheadings of two Punjabi men in Saudi Arabia and said he would seek a detailed report from India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

According to a media report, the two men, identified as Satwinder Kumar of Hoshiarpur and Harjeet Singh of Ludhiana, were executed in connection with a muder case.

Expressing shock and grief over the “vicious act”, which he claimed has been confirmed by the MEA to have taken place on 28 February, Singh said it was atrocious that such incidents continued to happen in civilised nations even today.

The chief minister also criticised the MEA “for failing to prevent, and then not disclosing the execution of the two men till it was forced to do so by a petition filed by Satwinder’s wife in Hoshiarpur district.” 

Singh said he would approach External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for more details about the execution.

He said he would seek from the MEA information regarding the charges and would also question them on whether due legal representation was provided to the two men.

“If the executions were undertaken without prior information even to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, with the victims not provided legal counsel, it amounted to a grave violation of human rights,” the chief minister said in a statement here Wednesday.

He called upon the UN and other global human rights organisations to take serious cognizance of the incident and pressure Saudi Arabia “to end its ancient and blatantly illegal practices which were against all norms of humanity”.

Referring to media reports that the families of the two men would not get the bodies due to restrictions in place in Saudi Arabia, the chief minister said he would seek Swaraj’s intervention to take up the matter with the Saudi authorities at the highest level.

That the families should be deprived of the chance even to see their deceased kin and perform the last rites makes the whole affair even more appalling and shocking, he added.

Recounting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a warm welcome, breaking protocol, to the Saudi Crown Prince during his recent visit to India, Singh said given the friendly relations between the two leaders, bringing back the bodies should not be difficult for the MEA.

If needed, the prime minister himself should intervene to ensure the return of their mortal remains, he added.

The central government should also take steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated and no Indian is denied justice or his/her legitimate right in any manner in the future, the chief minister said.

Jailed Under NSA For Dissing Modi, Journalist Has A Warning For Voters

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KOLKATA, West Bengal — After six days in custody last November, an Imphal court ruled that Kishorechandra Wangkhem be set free as he had not committed a seditious act, as alleged by Manipur’s Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led state government.

The next day, the state police arrested him afresh and charged him under the draconian National Security Act of 1980 that allows a person to be arrested for up to a year without bail.

Wangkhem’s crime? Uploading a Facebook video in which he criticised Prime Minister Modi and the BJP government at Manipur for celebrating the birth anniversary of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Madhya Pradesh, while ignoring the freedom fighters from Manipur.

On April 10 2019, four-and-half months after he was arrested in November 2018, Wangkhem finally walked free — unbowed, unrepentant, and profoundly alive the threat that the ruling BJP poses to India’s democratic fabric.

“When the court couldn’t find anything seditious in what I said, how did the government decide that I was a threat to national security?” Wangkhem told HuffPost India in an interview soon after he was released. “Guess we will never know.”

As millions of Indians line up to vote for a new government, Wangkhem’s arrest illustrates the stakes at play in the 2019 general elections, at a time when constitutional rights and freedoms are under threat across the length and breadth of the country, and most visibly in states like Manipur that have a long history of police abuses and oppression. Worryingly, Wangkhem’s case isn’t an exception. In February 2019, a special cell of the Manipur police travelled all the way to Delhi to arrest student activist Veewon Thokchom on charges of sedition for a Facebook post criticising the BJP’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill. Thokchom was released four days later, in Manipur, after posting a Rs 30,000 bail bond.

 

“When the court couldn’t find anything seditious in what I said, how did the government decide that I was a threat to national security?

While the Congress election manifesto promised to strike down the colonial-era sedition law, the BJP has promised to make it even more oppressive. “If it’s within our powers, we will make the sedition law even more stringent,” the BJP’s outgoing Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a public rally on April 13 2019. “We will make such a strict law that it would send shivers down their spine.”

Yet Wangkhem’s story is also reflects how the fight for freedom continues despite the overwhelming might of a state-apparatus gone rogue.

When Wangkhem’s wife Ranjita visited him in the Sijawa Central Jail in Imphal soon after his arrest, she asked him if he wanted to apologise to the government, in exchange for his freedom.

“It is against my dignity, integrity and ethics,” he told her.

“Let’s fight this then,” Ranjita said, and so they did. Her two daughters, aged four and one-and-half in tow, she began her seemingly unending journeys from lawyers to courts to police stations back to lawyers even as she negotiated the social stigma of having a husband in prison. Alarmed by the frequent visits of the police to their house and news of Wangkhem being arrested, most of his neighbours stopped interacting with the family.

“The sedition law was used by the British to oppress Indians who dared to rise against them. Now we are using the same laws to oppress our own people?” Wangkhem said. “What kind of a democracy is this?”

STATE VERSUS DISSENT

The police first came for Wangkhem in August 2018.

“I had written a Facebook post criticising the chief minister and the BJP’s attempts to appoint someone close to the RSS as the vice-chancellor of the Manipur University,” Wangkhem said. “The next day, police arrived at my house.”

Wangkhem was taken to the police station and kept in the lock-up for a day and before he was produced before a local court.

As word of his arrest went out, the journalism community in Manipur protested and a day later, Wangkhem was released. He was told that the All Manipur Working Journalists Union had ‘apologised’ and secured his release.

“I was slightly confused as to why they should apologise, because I was not wrong. But I was also touched that they did and made sure I was released,” he said.

The next day however, the head of the journalists union told him to go to the Chief Minister’s house to apologise for his Facebook post. Wangkhem refused and that, he said, put him on a collision course with the government. Three months later, when he uploaded his post about Rani Laxmibai, his ordeal began afresh.

 

“It is against my dignity, integrity and ethics,” he told her.

On November 19, Wangkhem had uploaded videos in English and Meitei, the indegenous language of Manipur, criticising BJP, Modi and the government for celebrating the birth anniversary of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, and ignoring the freedom fighters from their own state. The next day, the officer-in-charge (OC) of the Imphal police station lodged a complaint against him, charging him with sedition and defamation. The OC was later made the investigating officer (IO) in Wangkhem’s case making his chance at a just probe even slimmer. “The man said that he had come across my post while surfing the internet casually. And that he found the content objectionable,” Wangkhem said.

“It does not appear to me to such which is intended to create enmity between different groups of people community, sections etc nor does it appear to be one which attempts to bring hatred, contempt, dissatisfaction against the government of India or of the state. It is mere expression of opinion against the Prime Minister and chief minister of Manipur which cannot be equated with an attack to invite people to violence against the government of India or Manipur to topple it,” the court order granting him bail the day before he was jailed under the NSA, said. That did not stop the police from finding a way to bypass it.

“Those were the darkest days of my life,” 39-year-old Wangkhem told HuffPost India.

Wangkhem’s arrest points at a pattern followed by the Manipur government and the BJP. This year, the Manipur Police arrested Thokchom and filed a suo motu FIR against him. The cyber crime cell of Manipur Police claimed that they had been ‘tipped off’ by any anonymous source about Thokchom’s Facebook post criticising the Citizenship Amendment Bill. 

BJP VERSUS MINORITIES

In 2014, the year the Narendra Modi government came to power in Delhi, Wangkhem got his break in journalism at as an anchor on Impact TV, a local cable news channel in Imphal.

“I was always interested in news and politics, so when I landed a job as a news anchor, I was thrilled,” Wangkhem, who used to work as an English teacher at a competitive exam coaching centre. Wangkhem said he was critical of the BJP from well before the party came to power at the Centre because of its ‘majoritarian politics’ and the party’s insistence on imposing Hindutva on the North East’s diverse cultures. Wangkhem, for instance, is a Sanamahist, a religious sect native to Manipur.

“My fears were confirmed after BJP came to power in Manipur in 2017,” he said. “As it is, the histories of the north east people are conveniently ignored by the rest of India, now they were erasing it.”

 

Kishorechandra Wangkhem.

The state government, for instance, began promoting north Indian Hindu traditions like Raksha Bandhan rather than celebrating indigenous ceremonies like Ningol Chakouba. The celebration of Rani Laxmibai’s birth anniversary, struck Wangkhem as particularly absurd because Laxmibai fought in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, while Manipur was annexed by the British in 1891.

In 2018, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh said there was ‘no separate Arunachal Pradesh or Assam or Manipur’ and all the north eastern states were “made a part of India by Lord Krishna.” Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, who is also from the BJP, added to this bizarre retelling of history by suggesting Krishna married a woman from north-east, making all people from north-east the descendants of Krishna.

“It is a well oiled strategy of diluting the culture and history of our people,” Wangkhem said.

“When you hear about the freedom struggle of India, how many north eastern names come up in that conversation? How many people from north-east are hero worshipped like the rest of them? When Manipur fought against the British, a lot of people laid down their lives as well, but you will hear nothing of it,” he said.

“North-east India won’t decide who wins at the centre, but we should elect a single BJP MP to the Centre,” Wangkhem added. “If we do, it will be like digging our own grave.”

A POLICE STATE?

Wangkhem said that soon after his arrest, his wife started receiving lewd messages on social media. “She was being stalked, flooded with hate messages,” he said.

She feared approaching the police as they were the ones who had arrested Wangkhem. Wangkhem languished in jail, and worried about the state terrorising Ranjita and its agents harassing her.

“At most times she wouldn’t tell me what’s happening to her, lest I worry,” he said.

The first few days in the jail were disorienting, but soon Wangkhem bumped into other victims of the nation state. “There are some good people and some bad people there as well,” he said, recollecting a group of Ronhigya Muslims he met in the jail who had been languishing in jail for seven years.

Wangkhem is unwilling to view his ordeal as a personal tragedy.

“It has been happening to so many people here. More people should speak up against it,” he said. The travails of the north east, he said, were largely ignored by both the mainstream media and people in India.

Four months in jail have left his family shaken but Wangkhem is not in a mood to shut up or back down. “In fact, this is the beginning of a new journey,” he said.

 

Polling Percentage For Phase 2 Of Lok Sabha Polls

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Voters queue up to cast their vote at a polling station in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh on 18 April 2019, in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. 

The Election Commission released the polling percentage till 9 am for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

Read live updates here.

Polling began on Thursday morning for 95 Lok Sabha seats spread across 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies.

Voting is also underway in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu.

Prominent faces in the fray in the Lok Sabha contest are Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan; former prime minister H D Deve Gowda; DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi; Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar; National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJP’s Hema Malini.

Over 15.80 crore voters will decide the fate of the 1,600-odd contestants.

In Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently.

The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls.

Besides Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. 

Of the 95 constituencies, the AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats, followed by the BJP with 27 seats. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD-S and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD-U, the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPI-M and the TMC one seat each.

The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on 11 April, 18 April, 23 April, 29 April, 6 May, 12 May and 19 May, and counting will be on 23 May.

(With PTI inputs)

Raiganj CPM Candidate Md Salim's Convoy Attacked in Bengal

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CPM leader Mohammad Salim’s convoy was attacked in West Bengal’s Islampur on Thursday, reports said.

Salim is CPM’s candidate from Raiganj where he is contesting against BJP’s Deboshree Chaudhary, TMC’s Kanhaiya Lal Agarwal and Congress’s Deepa Dasmunshi.

Salim’s car was pelted with bricks in Islampur, News18 reported. Salim alleges he was attacked by TMC goons with arms who were threatening the voters inside booths.

 

Read live updates here

CPM tweeted condemning the attack and said its comrades were resisting the attacks.

 

Raiganj is among the three key constituencies in West Bengal voting in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on Thursday.

Odisha Poll Officer Suspended By EC For Checking Modi's Chopper

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BHUBANESWAR — The Election Commission on Wednesday suspended an officer posted as General Observer in Odisha for allegedly checking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chopper in Sambalpur in violation of the laid down norms.

The 1996 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, Mohammed Mohsin, has not acted in conformity with the Election Commission’s instructions concerning SPG protectees, an order issued by the commission said.

On the basis of a report from the district collector and the DIG of police, the Election Commission has taken action against the General Observer of Sambalpur came a day after the prime minister’s visit on Tuesday. 

“Checking of the prime minister’s chopper, undertaken at Sambalpur, was not in accordance with the EC guidelines as SPG protectees are exempt from such checking,” said a senior official without elaborating.

The prime minister was stated to have been held up at the place for around 15 minutes because of the sudden checking, the official said.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s helicopter was also checked by the personnel of the EC flying squad in Rourkela on Tuesday.

Similar checking was carried out for Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s chopper at Sambalpur on Tuesday by the flying squad, sources said.

Poonam Sinha To Take On Rajnath Singh In Lucknow, Files Nomination

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Poonam Sinha on Thursday filed her nomination as the Samajwadi Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow, the constituency where the BJP has fielded Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Her candidature was announced by SP president Akhilesh Yadav, a day after Poonam Sinha joined his party.

Poonam Sinha had joined the SP in the presence of party leader Dimple Yadav in Lucknow on Tuesday, the day when the sitting MP, Rajnath Singh filed his nomination papers.

“The Samajwadi Party will fight the election on the Lucknow seat only on the basis of the development works done by the SP and BSP governments,” Yadav said.

Reminding people of Lucknow of the work done in the past by his party, the SP chief appealed to them to vote for Sinha.

Poonam Sinha’s husband Shatrughan Sinha had recently quit the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined the Congress .

To a question, Yadav said, “The BJP has always tried to retire those who make their manifesto and deny him ticket.” 

(With PTI inputs)

Mueller Report To Be Released Today. Here’s What To Look For

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The Justice Department is set to release a redacted version of the Mueller report on the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Seven-hundred-and-two days after US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel, the Justice Department on Thursday morning will publish a redacted version of Mueller’s report on the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller’s report is one of the most highly anticipated documents in American history. Political journalists are treating Thursday morning like it’s election night. The Justice Department has taken precautions to prevent its website from crashing. Publishers plan to rush copies of the report to print, and NBC’s Seth Meyers has announced an extended 90-minute version of his comedy show just to make jokes about it.

Clocking in at around 400 pages, the Mueller report spells out the findings of an investigation that led to the indictment of six Trump associates as well as dozens of Russian operatives who hacked Democrats’ emails and boosted candidate Donald Trump on social media. It also examines allegations that President Trump obstructed justice by interfering with the investigation.

Attorney General William Barr, working in counsel with Mueller, will release a redacted version of the report that leaves out grand jury material, intelligence information that might reveal sources and methods, information that may affect ongoing investigations and information that would “infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties.”

In a four-page letter to Congress on March 24, Barr said that Mueller “did not find” that any Americans conspired with the Russian government to influence the election. But the report likely further details Russia’s extensive efforts to boost Trump and hurt Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s campaign, answers questions about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian government officials and supposed agents, and lays out Mueller’s evidence on obstruction of justice.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report is set to create a heated debate over the president's conduct.

No Collusion?

The Mueller investigation’s main focus was to determine whether Trump’s campaign illegally coordinated or conspired with Russian government actors to improperly influence the 2016 election. From what we know, Mueller chose not to bring criminal charges against Trump or members of his campaign for engaging in a conspiracy with the Russian government.

Barr wrote in his letter reviewing the report that “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” That’s why Trump and many of his allies have been arguing that the report exonerates him.

But we do know of contacts between Trump campaign officials and alleged agents of the Russian government. The report should answer why some of these officials were prosecuted on charges related to these contacts ― mostly for lying to investigators ― and why others were not. It may also reveal previously undisclosed contacts made by Trump campaign officials and hangers-on with anyone connected to the Russian operation.

Thanks to Mueller’s charging documents, we already know a good deal about contacts between the Trump campaign and individuals presumed to be connected to Russian election interference efforts.

This whole ordeal began after Trump aide George Papadopolous divulged to Australia’s top diplomat to the U.K. that he had been told that Russians had obtained “dirt” on Clinton. The diplomat alerted U.S. authorities and the FBI responded with a counterintelligence investigation that would lead to Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. Papadopoulos lied to investigators when confronted about how he heard that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton and ultimately pleaded guilty to making false statements.

Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Rick Gates, Trump’s deputy campaign manager, pleaded guilty and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, was successfully prosecuted for their unregistered lobbying work for former Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich, among other things. The prosecution of Gates and Manafort revealed that Manafort had provided 75 pages of Trump campaign polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political operative alleged by Mueller to be a Russian military intelligence operative. Roger Stone, an outside adviser to Trump, is currently awaiting trial on charges of making false statements, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Any section of the Mueller report on Stone’s prosecution will likely be redacted because the prosecution is ongoing.

Mueller’s report could provide answers about why he decided to charge Papadopoulos and Flynn for making false statements, why Flynn got such a sweet plea deal and proposed sentence, what Gates provided as part of his plea deal, what happened with Manafort’s aborted plea deal and why Mueller believes Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence operative. Of course, much of this information could also end up being redacted if it pertains to U.S. intelligence operations.

And then there are the non-prosecutions from the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016. Presidential son Donald Trump Jr., presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and Manafort sat down with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in Manhattan for a meeting that Trump Jr. was told in emails would provide “dirt on Clinton” as part of the “Russian effort to aid” the Trump campaign.

As far as the public knows, Veselnitskaya didn’t provide any real dirt on Clinton and Trump Jr. left the meeting disappointed. But speculation persists about what happened behind closed doors, whether Trump Jr. spoke with his father about the meeting and if his pursuit of “dirt on Clinton” constituted an improper solicitation for a thing of value from a foreign national ― a potential campaign finance crime.

The report could help explain what other facts were uncovered during the investigation into the Trump Tower meeting and why Mueller chose not to prosecute anyone involved in it. Or perhaps the section is redacted to protect the reputation of peripheral characters ― including the president’s oldest son.

Attorney General William Barr is set to release his redacted version of the Mueller report on April 18.

No Obstruction?

What is likely to be the most consequential part of the report focuses on allegations that Trump obstructed justice by trying to undermine and end the investigation into his campaign. Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton faced impeachment inquiries based on the charge that they obstructed justice. Barr wrote in his letter that while the Mueller report “does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

There are several areas to watch for potential obstruction of justice. One is the May 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who detailed in internal memos Trump’s efforts to persuade him to end the investigation into Flynn. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump said, according to one Comey memo. When Comey wouldn’t end the investigation as Trump urged him, he was fired, prompting the appointment of Mueller as special counsel.

Another notable moment is when Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions in November 2018 after more than a year of relentlessly attacking Sessions for recusing himself from the Mueller investigation.

Did any of these acts obstruct the investigation? The report should provide some evidence either way.

Trump also repeatedly floated the idea of pardoning Manafort, who was charged with numerous counts of financial fraud, making false statements and lobbying violations. The report could indicate whether Mueller thought that the president undermined his investigation by giving Manafort an incentive not to cooperate. One of the pending articles of impeachment against Nixon related to his abuse of the pardon power by agreeing to pardon one of the Watergate burglars.

There is also the question of how Trump crafted his son Donald Jr.’s false answer to The New York Times about how the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting came about and whether the falsehood constituted an act meant to obstruct the investigation.

Barr’s letter said that “most” of the actions addressed in Mueller’s report “have been the subject of public reporting.” One big question then is what other potential obstruction Mueller may have uncovered.

Barr has already cast doubt on potential arguments that Trump obstructed justice in his letter summarizing the Mueller report. The attorney general argued that “the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.”

This follows the argument that Barr laid out in an unsolicited 2018 memo to the White House in which he made a legal case against obstruction charges.

President Donald Trump has touted Barr's summary of the report as proof that he was being falsely vilified.

Russian Influence?

It’s unlikely that any of the indicted Russians will ever set foot on U.S. soil, so their indictments haven’t received much ongoing media coverage. But the conspiracy they lay out is extraordinary.

One indictment against 12 Russians says that Russia’s military intelligence agency hacked the Clinton campaign as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee and then published the stolen emails online using aliases. Mueller’s team alleged that the Russians “targeted over 300” Democrats and successfully spear-phished Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. They stole email credentials and thousands of emails from a number of Clinton campaign officials. They installed malware on at least 10 DCCC computers, which “allowed them to monitor individual employees’ computer activity, steal passwords, and maintain access to the DCCC network.” They hacked into the DNC network with stolen credentials, gaining access to “approximately thirty-three DNC computers.”

Even the redacted Mueller report is expected to include significant information about the Kremlin-linked campaign that used social media platforms to influence the 2016 election, something that was a major target of the special counsel’s investigation and resulted in numerous criminal charges against those Russian operatives.

The special counsel’s office last year indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities on charges related to election interference. Prosecutors alleged that operatives working with the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency created Facebook groups and Twitter accounts to push out disinformation about the U.S. presidential candidates and the election, sometimes even helping to set up political rallies in the real world. The Internet Research Agency also purchased around $100,000 worth of Facebook ads and published tens of thousands of posts aimed at sowing discord or aiding Trump.

We already know a lot about that disinformation campaign from the 2018 indictment, but the redacted Mueller report is likely to give a more complete picture of Russia’s interference as well as possibly elaborate on the motives behind it. The indictment of the Internet Research Agency previously indicated that the operatives had a clear goal of supporting the candidacies of Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and negatively targeting Clinton’s campaign.

What Will Democrats Do Next?

House Democrats want the full, unredacted Mueller report. They will not be satisfied with Barr’s redacted version released on Thursday. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will almost certainly call for Barr to hand over the original version with no redactions. It will help Nadler’s argument if the report is heavily redacted.

But it still may be hard for Nadler to get the full report. The special counsel rules give the attorney general broad leeway on whether the results of an investigation are disclosed to Congress or the public. Courts may take the attorney general’s side in a subpoena fight.

There is one way that Democrats would almost certainly win the legal argument to obtain the full report: launch impeachment proceedings.


Widespread Reports of EVM Glitches Mar 2nd Phase Of Lok Sabha Elections

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As the second phase of Lok Sabha elections got underway, EVM glitches were reported from several constituencies polling on Thursday.

Technical glitches delayed the start of polling in a number of booths.

Read live updates here.

In Assam’sNorth Karimganj, not a single vote had been cast till 10:30 am due to EVM malfunction, News18reported.


Voters found the BJP symbol on an EVM covered in black tape at polling booth in Darjeeling, West Bengal, according to India Today.

Voting reportedly halted in Maharashtra’s Solapur booth because of glitching EVMs, Hindustan Times reported. 

Times Now said the Congress has complained to the Election Commission EVMs not working was leading to a low voter turnout in Maharashtra.

Several constituencies of Odisha reported EVM malfunctions. According to Firstpost, polling began late in six booths of Sundergarh constituency

Phase 1 of the elections had also seen widespread reports of EVM glitches, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. CM Chandrababu Naidu had written to the EC demanding repoll in 150 polling stations due to reports of faulty machines.

IED Blast In Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon, No Casualties

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RAJNANDGAON — Naxals triggered an IED blast on Thursday in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district where polling for Lok Sabha elections is underway, a senior police official said. No casualty was reported in the incident, he said.

Read live updates here.

“The rebels detonated the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) around 10.30 am between Medha and Dabba villages, falling under Manpur-Mohla Assembly segment, when a team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police team was out on area domination operation in view of polling in the area,” he said.

No harm was caused to the security personnel as the explosion took place a few metres away from them, he said, adding that a combing operation was underway in the area.

Polling in the Manpur-Mohla Assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency is being held from 7 am to 3 pm. In the remaining seven Assembly segments of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat, the polling time is from 7 am to 5 pm.

A thick security blanket of around 60,000 personnel, and drones, has been thrown around the three constituencies-Rajnandgaon, Kanker and Mahasamund - of the state where polling is being held in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Congress' 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' Ad Banned In Madhya Pradesh By State EC

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The Madhya Pradesh poll officer on Thursday banned Congress advertisements titled ‘chowkidar chor hai’ in the state. 

The BJP had on Tuesday urged the Election Commission to ban Congress president Rahul Gandhi from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls and impose the “heaviest penalty” on him, saying he levelled false allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale aircraft deal. 

A BJP delegation comprising Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Hardeep Singh Puri among others met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora with the complaint and demanded action against Gandhi for repeatedly using the term ‘chowkidar chor hai’ and making false attributions to the Supreme Court.

The top court had also directed Gandhi to give an explanation by 22 April for “incorrectly” attributing his ‘Chowkidar Narendra Modi chor hai’ remarks to its verdict in the Rafale case and said it will consider a criminal contempt petition filed against the opposition leader.

(With PTI inputs)

Shoe Thrown At BJP MP Narasimha Rao During Press Conference

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A shoe was thrown at BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday.

Rao and BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadav were holding a press briefing when the incident took place.

The man who threw the shoe was seen being taken out of the room by security guards soon after.

It is not clear why the person, who identified himself as a doctor by profession, threw the shoes. He will be handed over to police, PTI reported.

Rao’s press briefing was on the induction of Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya into the party. BJP is fielding Pragya from Bhopal where she will be up against Congress’ Digvijaya Singh.

At the time of the incident, Rao was attacking the Congress for defaming Hindus by foisting “false cases” on Hindutva activists, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

Read live updates here.

Tanushree Dutta Sharply Called Out Ajay Devgn For Working With Rape Accused Alok Nath

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Actress Tanushree Dutta, who has been at the forefront of the #MeToo movement in India, has called out actor Ajay Devgn for choosing to work with Alok Nath, who has been accused of rape and harassment by multiple women.

Actress Vinta Nanda filed an FIR alleging rape against Nath, who was given anticipatory bail. Days later, actress Sandhya Mridul came forward with her account of facing harassment by Nath.  

In an open letter, Dutta said Bollywood was “full of liars, showoffs and spineless hypocrites.”

During the #MeToo wave in October, Devgn had tweeted in support of the movement. 

In her letter, Dutta wrote, “Tinsel town is full of liars, showoffs and spineless hypocrites. And it seems by a large public consensus that the signpost is pointing currently at Ajay Devgn. During the #metoo movement in India the actor had tweeted and sworn never to work with those accused and now in a surprising and convenient turn of events is Working with rape and harassment accused Alok Nath and supporting him make a comeback to Bollywood. Doesn’t this prove yet again that your big Bollywood heroes are truly zeroes!”

“Overrated actors and human beings who have created a clout by clever PR machinery and careful manipulation of public sentiments, old stuffy morons who can’t tell the difference between what’s right and wrong and what is the need of the hour!” she added.

About Devgn’s decision to work with Nath in De De Pyaar De, she said,

“Would it be so difficult to just edit out Alok Nath’s portions in the film and hire someone else and reshoot those bits even before the film promotions started?? Nobody even knew before the posters and trailers that Alok Nath is in the film so if Ajay Devgan and the makers wanted they could have just quietly replaced him and re-shot his portions (which is barely 10-15 days for character actors in Bollywood )and given Vinta Nanda the respect she deserves as well as several other women who were troubled by this guy but No! they had to keep the alleged rapist in their film and rub it on not only Vinta’s but on all our faces as a show of solidarity with all rapists, molesters and harassers of Bollywood and an even greater show of arrogance and defiance against all things morally and conscientiously right.”

She further wrote, “If you dig deep you will find skeletons in their closets so horrendous that it will totally makes sense why they would stand supporting the accused rapists, harassers and abusers and why their conscience doesn’t prick them while doing so and why they give evasive answers when questioned. Birds of a feather always flock together and that’s why perhaps it doesn’t bother some of these people to work with a guy who has been accused by several women of horrendous behaviour and that’s why there’s always an excuse.”

 

 

 

Vivek Oberoi 'Happy' With EC Decision On Modi Movie, But Won't Say What They Decided

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Actor Vivek Oberoi on Thursday said he was happy with what Election Commission officials had told him after watching the biopic PM Narendra Modi.

“Everybody in the EC saw the film yesterday. We asked them, how did you like the film? Can’t tell you their response but we were happy with their answer. Only request is that film should be allowed to release,” Oberoi told reporters on Thursday.

The second phase of the Lok Sabha elections are underway and the EC had on 10 April stalled the film’s release until all the phases of the polls end.

The Supreme Court had on Monday directed the EC to watch the full biopic and take an informed decision on banning its pan-India release.

Officials of the Election Commission, drawn from its model code and legal divisions, had on Wednesday watched the biopic on the directions of the Supreme Court.

The EC had asked the producers of the film to arrange for a screening for its committee.

The EC will now take a considered view on whether the ban should continue and submit its decision to the Supreme Court by 19 April in a sealed cover.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna will hear the matter on 22 April.

The EC had on 10 April said that any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media.

Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel had asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level-playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force. 

Kerala CEO Recommends Action Against State BJP Chief For Anti-Muslim Remarks, Police Files Case

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KOCHI — Kerala Chief Electoral Officer has recommended “appropriate action” against BJP state chief. The Kerala police had on Wednesday filed a case against PS Sreedharan Pillai for his derogatory remarks, The NewsMinute reported.

Pillai had allegedly made anti-Islam remarks during an election campaign meeting in Attingal Lok Sabha constituency on April 14.

In his report to the Election Commission, Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena said Pillai made the remarks while countering the comments of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the number of people killed during the Balakot air strike.

“Our Rahul Gandhi, Yechury, Pinarayi and all are saying that, after getting there... the dead bodies... which caste, which religion... if they are Islam then there will be a few signs... if only you remove the dresses only then it can be found out... so after doing all that, we should come back is what they say,” Pillai had said, according to Meena’s report to the poll body.

 

Pillai made these remarks during the poll campaign meeting organised for BJP candidate Sobha Surendran.

The CEO, in his report dated April 16, said no permission was taken for the BJP meeting and a complaint has been registered in the Attingal police station in Thiruvananthapuram district.

“It appears prima facie a case of violation of Section 123(3A) and Section 125 of the Representations of People Act, 1951. Accordingly, appropriate action may be taken in the matter,” Meena said in his report sent to Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain.

On Wednesday, the CEO had informed the High Court that strong action would be taken against Pillai in the case.

A petition seeking a directive to the Election Commission to take action against Pillai was filed by CPI(M) leader V Sivankutty.

The court disposed of the petition in the light of the submissions made by the Election Commission.

(With PTI inputs)


Stop Sadhvi Pragya From Contesting Lok Sabha Election, Says Malegaon Blast Victim's Father

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Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur at the state BJP office in Bhopal in 17 April 2019.

Father of a Malegaon blast victim on Thursday filed an application against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur seeking to restrict her from contesting the Lok Sabha elections, Mumbai Mirror reported.

Thakur was on Wednesday inducted into the BJP and named the party’s candidate from Bhopal against Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh.

In his application, Nisar Bilal asked special NIA judge Vinod Padalkar to direct Thakur to attend court proceedings regularly. He said she had been granted conditional bail by the high court for health reasons, on the pretext she was a cancer patient, Mirror reported.

According to Firstpost, Thakur was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in April 2017 because she “suffering from breast cancer” and “unable to walk even without support”.

Thakur had been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

On Wednesday, speaking to the media after the announcement of her candidature, Thakur alleged that “They (the then Congress government) misused the law, disrespected a woman, and tortured me unlawfully”.

“I will ensure that the country remains secure, and those who are talking against the nation should now beware,” she said.

As to the Malegaon case, Thakur said she had got a “clean chit”, and all the conspiracies against her had failed.

Thakur also tore into Digvijay Singh. “He (Singh) has sown the seeds of defamation of our Sanatam Dharma (Hinduism) and the saffron. He termed the saffron and Hindutva as terrorism,” Thakur alleged.

(With PTI inputs)

Kashmir Votes: Elections A Glum Affair In Security-Shrouded Srinagar

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Election officers sit inside an empty polling station during the second phase of elections in Srinagar.

Around midday on Thursday, Mubarak Gul walked sulkily out of a polling booth in Srinagar’s Nawab Bazar. The booth was housed in a local community hall built from funds granted by the National Conference (NC) leader, who was an MLA until six months ago, but that memory didn’t seem to be improving his mood.

Until noon, just around 50 votes had been registered in the 11 polling stations meant for the 6,760 registered voters of Nawab Bazar, a cluster of densely populated mohallas in old Srinagar. In Gul’s own booth, only eight of 750 registered voters had managed to exercise their franchise by that time, and that too by evading the small groups of local residents gathered on the way, giving derisive looks to anyone heading towards the booth.

Polling is being conducted in five phases in Jammu and Kashmir, which has six Lok Sabha seats. Srinagar and Udhampur are the two seats going to the polls on Thursday.

The poor turnout wasn’t surprising, given the strong separatist sentiment in the region—this time, however, there are two differences that make the electoral contest even more unpredictable: one, the usual boycott campaign was muted like never before, as most separatists are either in jail, under house arrest or on the run. Two, Gul is worried by the emergence of Sajjad Gani Lone’s People’s Conference and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as serious threats.

Every vote counts in an election where the turnout is low—in 2017, NC leader and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah won a bypoll for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat with a margin of less than 11,000 votes. Only 7% turnout was recorded at the time, and seven anti-election protesters were shot dead by police. 

Abdullah is again the NC candidate from the seat this time, against PDP’s Aga Syed Mohsin, Irfan Ansari of People’s Conference and BJP’s Sheikh Khalid Jehangir.

“I don’t understand what Srinagar will gain from boycotting elections. I am ashamed because I saw someone who was voting for BJP,” said Yunus, Gul’s son, surrounded by four policemen who were guarding the father and son.

Of the eight votes, three were by young defectors from the National Conference who, people in the mohalla say, were promised (and maybe delivered) some goodies by the BJP. Two were a 74-year-old local baker and his son, fiercely loyal to the NC.

The old man was the only voter in the area who proudly showed me the indelible ink mark.

“I have always voted. Everybody knows that I vote,” he said.

Rafiq, a shopkeeper in his mid-fifties, vigorously nods in agreement.

“Yes, you have, but this is the only time when you are displaying your inked finger. In the past, you would go into a polling station stealthily. I think this time, you don’t feel the pressure from the other side,” Rafiq told the NC supporter, in an apparent reference to separatists.

Nawab Bazar is part of Srinagar district, one of the three districts constituting the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. The turnout for this seat hardly ever touches double digits, mainly because voters in areas such as Nawab Bazaar resoundingly boycott polls. Even by 3pm, officials said the poll percentage was 5%.

Nawab Bazar is part of Srinagar district, one of the three districts constituting the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The area’s recent history is blood-soaked, like other areas of the Valley. In the first 7-8 years of the insurgency, government forces had killed more than 22 militants and civilians, two of them children, here.

Anti-India street protests are common here. Several local residents, who have been earlier booked for protests, are asked to appear at police stations on crucial days such as the eve of elections, India’s Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations and general anti-India strikes. Even before the insurgency started, it had been a pro-Pakistan bastion.

Polling battlefields

Elections are such a taboo in most of old Srinagar that only NC and People’s Democratic Party had polling agents in most of the polling stations of Nawab Bazar. Only one station had an agent from Lone’s People’s Conference, BJP’s ally. These agents are meant to ensure that no ineligible voter casts his vote. But such is the shame associated with elections that none of the polling stations had an agent who lived in the same area.

Dozens of police and paramilitary soldiers in riot gear have been deployed both outside and inside every polling station. At the Government Women’s College in Nawa Kadal, which had a few polling stations for Nawab Bazar voters, a CRPF soldier asked whether I was a voter. Only after I revealed my identity did he open the gate.

I asked him why the door was closed.

“Small kids come and throw stones. That is why we keep it closed,” he said.

Anyway, there seemed to be no point in keeping it open. No voter had turned up at one of the three stations inside the college, an elderly man voted in the second and four had cast votes early in the morning in Jama Latta station.

In Nawab Bazar, the sound of firecrackers had greeted the arrival last night of the polling staff, some of whom had mistaken it for a grenade attack. A few officials complained that they had not had a cup of tea since last night. It appeared the legendary hospitality of the people in Srinagar was not extended to the polling staff. One reason could be that serving tea to officials part of an exercise separatists have condemned as “strengthening the occupation” could invite the community’s censure.

“A cup of tea would have done no harm,” said an official at Syed Hamid Pora, unaware of the fact that outside, a group was already discussing the six people who had voted at this station.

“Nothing surprising. They are like that only,” a man said of the three members of a family who had voted.

“Do they have no shame? Do they not see the children who have been killed and blinded?” asked another.

Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg To EU Lawmakers: 'I Want You To Panic'

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Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate change activist, brought European Union lawmakers to their feet in applause on Tuesday during an EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee meeting in Strasbourg, France.  

“My name is Greta Thunberg, I am 16 years old, I come from Sweden and I want you to panic,” Thunberg began her speech in front of the standing-room-only meeting, which was open to all members of the European Parliament.

“I want you to act as if the house was on fire,” she continued. “I have said those words before, and a lot of people have explained why that is a bad idea. A great number of politicians have told me that panic never leads to anything good. And I agree, to panic unless you have to is a terrible idea. But when your house is on fire and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground, then that does require some level of panic.”

Thunberg recently rose to fame after creating the school strike movement, aptly named #FridaysForFuture, in which thousands of students walk out of school every Friday to urge politicians to take action against global warming. The 16-year-old first began striking last August by herself. Eight months later, thousands of students from over 70 countries have joined in on the #FridaysForFuture movement. Last month, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. 

“We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction,” Thunberg said. 

“The extinction rate is up to 10,000 times faster than what is considered normal, with up to 200 species becoming extinct every single day,” she continued as she became visibly emotional. “Erosion of fertile topsoil, deforestation of our great forest, toxic air solution, lost of insects and wildlife, the acidification of our oceans. These are all disastrous trends being accelerated by a way of life that we, here in our financially fortunate part of the world, see as our right to simply carry on.”

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg reacts during a debate with the EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee during a session at the European Parliament on April 16 in Strasbourg, France.

In her usual blunt fashion, Thunberg did not shy away from calling out greedy politicians and other powerful figures reticent to fight against climate change. She also shamed British politicians who are too busy dealing with Brexit to address the pressing issues of global warming. 

“Our house is falling apart, and our leaders need to start acting accordingly. Because at the moment they are not,” she said. “If our house was falling apart, you wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and environment.”

The room erupted with applause after Thunberg’s Brexit comment, with many giving her a standing ovation. 

“Well, our house is falling apart. And we are rapidly running out of time. And yet basically nothing is happening. Everyone and everything needs to change so why waste precious time arguing about what and who needs to change first,” she added. “Everyone and everything has to change but the bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty.”

Another Bangladeshi Actor Attends Election Rally, Asked To Leave India

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Representative image. 

NEW DELHI — Bangladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor who had attended a political rally in West Bengal has been asked to leave India immediately, officials said Thursday.

Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor, after Ferdous Ahmed, to be served a ‘Leave India’ notice. Noor was staying in India despite expiry of his visa.

“Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his overstay in contravention of visa rules,” a home ministry official said.

Reports suggest that Noor allegedly campaigned for TMC’s Dumdum candidate Saugata Roy.

The Centre on Tuesday had issued a ‘Leave India’ notice to Ahmed and cancelled the business visa given to him for allegedly campaigning for a political party. Ahmed had attended a rally in support of the Trinamool Congress candidate in Raiganj in West Bengal

The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by the Bangladesh actor.

The BJP Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission after a video surfaced showing Noor purportedly campaigning for Roy in the Dumdum constituency in alleged violation of the poll code.

“This act is in violation of the terms of visa and yet another case of a foreigner actively influencing the electoral process. This is a gross violation of the basics of democratic structure,” BJP’s West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said after filing a complaint with the EC.

Voting For The Lesser Evil? AMU Student Leader Says India's Muslims Deserve Better

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Afreen Fatima is president of AMU Women's College Students' Union.

ALIGARH, Uttar Pradesh —Afreen Fatima was 15-years-old when Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014.

Modi’s victory barely registered with the teenager who was preoccupied with school, social media and basketball.

When Modi chose Hindutva firebrand Yogi Adityanath to be Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, three years later in 2017, Fatima was a student at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Women’s College, a voracious consumer of news, and gearing up for college politics.

Adityanath’s elevation stung.

“When I got to know that Yogi ji was going to be CM, my body was shivering with fear,” she said. ”I was afraid of what will happen to my state.”

As a Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, Adityanath had said, “If they take one Hindu girl, then Hindus will take at least 100 Muslim girls” and ”if they kill one Hindu, then we will kill 100.”

Fatima was confounded when a Muslim student in her college, who hailed from Gorakhpur, told her that Adityanath was actually a “good” MP, and that she was happy about him becoming chief minister.

India’s Muslims were rudderless in an increasingly competitive political landscape, no longer dominated by the Congress Party, Fatima felt. Muslims, who constitute 13% of India’s population, needed a political movement of their own.

In a recent conversation with HuffPost India, the petite, fast talking, 20-year-old said that the “otherization” of Muslims had thwarted them from finding their political identity.  Muslims, the student of linguistics added, have been made to feel like the “other” not just in the five years that the BJP has been in power, but since India gained its independence.

While sipping tea at a popular hangout in Aligarh, with Adele and Ellie Goulding songs playing in the background, Fatima said that she didn’t blame the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Congress for “everything that has gone wrong with Muslims in India.”

“We have inflicted this on ourselves,” she said. ”Why is no political party taking us seriously? Political parties have stopped using the word Muslim. Where is the Muslim political movement? There is a Dalit political movement, a Jat movement and a Yadav movement, but no Muslim movement.”   

For there to be a Muslim movement, Fatima felt, Sunni-Shia sectarianism had to end. “We can have different ways of doing sajda, but as a community, we need to be one political entity,” she said.

Where is the Muslim political movement?

Fatima, who was elected president of the AMU Women’s College Students’ Union in 2018, finds herself wholly absorbed by India’s political history and its present — both inside and outside the campus.

In 2019, Fatima is reconciled to casting her first vote against the BJP, a party she regards as a threat to herself, her community and her college.

Fatima is worried that AMU, set up by Sir Ahmed Khan in 1877 for the educational regeneration of Indian Muslims, may not survive another five years of the BJP.  While its minority status is contested, AMU is one of the few institutions that Muslims have in India. It is a place that has come to mean a great deal to her.

From the controversy over the Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s portrait at AMU to the demand for a temple for Hindu students, the 140-year-old University has been pummeled by Hindutva forces both inside and outside the campus.

“If the BJP comes back to power, I would be a more frightened citizen. We need to stop the hate politics. Hindus should not hate Muslims and Muslims should not hate Hindus. Straight people should not hate gay people and gay people should not hate straight people. Why can’t we think about humanity and make the best of our lifetime?” Fatima said.

If the BJP comed back to power, I would be a more frightened citizen.

The student leader is clear that she must vote against the BJP, but she finds no joy in choosing “the lesser evil.”

Calling the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) “okay,” Fatima said that she did not “like” the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or the Congress.

Referring to the Congress Party, she said, “Who lifted the ban on the RSS? Who opened the lock on the Babri Masjid?”

“I don’t know whether I would want to vote for Congress or not, but I might have to because I don’t want BJP to come back,” she said.

Fatima is not alone in wanting a Muslim political movement.

Rounak Shahi, who is pursuing an M.A. in West Asian studies, said that with the exception of the BJP, everyone wanted the Muslim vote, but no one dared utter the M word.

The 24-year-old said, “With BJP, the attack is open and blunt, but we don’t see Congress as a friend either. It is high time that a Muslim leader and a Muslim party rises in the country. If I’m going to be accused of communalism for saying this, then I say if Mayawati can do Dalit politics, if Akhilesh can do Yadav politics, then why can (Asaduddin) Owaisi not do Muslim politics? Why are we called communal?” 

It is high time that a Muslim leader and a Muslim party rises in the country.

A Muslim woman

Fatima, one of five siblings, is the first in her family enter politics.

Her father, a businessman in Allahabad, helped her with her campaign.  

“He helped me in the cutest ways. He suggested crowdfunding my campaign, taking one rupee from every student so they feel invested in the result. He got my posters made in Allahabad. He wrote best wishes on all my Facebook posts,” she said.

Thinking of herself as a “Muslim woman” is new to Fatima, who, until she joined college, never thought of herself as anything other than “a normal Indian girl.”

She grew up wearing shorts, playing basketball, and studying at a convent school. Her best friend in school was a Christian and she was surrounded by Hindu friends.

The first time she felt “weird” around them was the first time that she visited home after BJP had swept UP the Assembly election in 2017, and Adityanath had become chief minister.

“I don’t know why but I could not feel the same with my friends. I was wondering if they saw me as Muslim. I was thinking that maybe they don’t like me. They are just pretending,” she said. “It was all in my head. My friends are the sweetest people that can be. 

It is high time that a Muslim leader and a Muslim party rises in the country.

When Adityanath renamed her hometown, Allahabad, as Prayagraj , Fatima felt under siege.  

When a middle-aged woman on an Aligarh-bound train made her feel invisible, Fatima felt humiliated.

Fatima recalled smiling at the woman, who was reclining against the window in the lower berth. The woman flashed her a warm smile and asked, ”kahan ja rahe ho, bete?” (Where are you going, child?)

Fatima recalled her smile vanishing when she saw her burqa clad sister who had followed her into the train. The conversation died after she said that they were students at AMU.  

Fatima humorously refers to that moment as the point of no return. “She gave me this look — okay, so you are the sister, not the friend,” she said, laughing.

Then, as a pained expression replaced the comical look on her face, Fatima said, “You know, she remained in the corner, didn’t come near us or speak to us for the rest of the journey. I know it’s because we are Muslim.”

Muslim enough?

Unpleasant as this was, Fatima has imagined far worse.

After Junaid, a 16-year-old Muslim boy, was killed in an argument over seats in Mathura-bound train in 2017, Fatima has taken to thinking of life and death situations and how she would confront her attackers.

“They killed Junaid because he was wearing traditional clothes. My sister wears a burqa. I think about what I would do if someone attacks her,” she said. “Will I have the courage to save her? Will I be quick enough? Will we both get killed?”

Such thoughts are no longer surprising in present-day India run by the BJP, which has normalized dehumanizing language and hate crimes against Muslims.

Even as 900 million Indians vote in the world’s largest election, Whatsapp messages are fueling hate against minorities and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is driving a campaign predicated on fear. This week, the BJP decided to field Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts, which killed seven and left over 100 people injured.

Fatima is worried every time her elder sister, who wears a burqa, travels by train. She has told her younger sister not to cover her hair on a train journey.

On how she feels while traveling in a train, without a burqa or a headscarf, Fatima quoted Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto’s haunting line in the movie Manto: “I am Muslim enough to get killed.” (Itna to hoon ki maara jaa sakoon).  

Unlike Manto, who left India for Pakistan, Fatima said she isn’t planning to go anywhere.

“I’m not willing to leave India even if I’m killed for it. My grandfather decided to stay in India and I will stay here. That is my nationalism. But if someone tries to define nationalism for me, then I’m sorry, I’m not willing to answer them.”

Fatima says she would love to go study in Amsterdam or the United Kingdom, but she does not intend to run away because she is a “Muslim woman.”

“When my identity comes into it, then I’m not willing to go to any other country. As a Muslim woman, I’m not willing to give up on India. I’m not willing to give up on this democratic nation,” she said.

My grandfather decided to stay in India and I will stay here. That is my nationalism.

Pummeling AMU

With the BJP in power at the Centre and in UP, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has become an easy target for BJP leaders to beef up their Hindutva credentials, and for political aspirants to kickstart their careers.

It started with the BJP Member of Parliament (MP) from Aligarh, Satish Kumar Gautam, opposing AMU’s claim to minority status and demanding reservation for Dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes (OBC) at the University.

Gautam has built his re-election campaign around seeking reservation at AMU. While campaigning in Agra last week, Adityanath said, “We need a MP like Satish Gautam, who can raise the issue of reservation again and again till he succeeds.”

AMU continues to argue that it is a minority institution and has Constitutional exemption from implementing reservation.

Activists have pointed out that BJP is adept at mixing legitimate questions of Muslim conservatism with an unfounded and violent attack on the Muslim community.

Dalit activist and winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, Bezwada Wilson, said that reservation is necessary in all institutions, government and private, but in singling out AMU, the BJP was trying to “divide and rule.”

“I cannot support this manipulative politically motivated concern to divide people,” Wilson said.

When asked whether she is for or against reservation at AMU, Fatima said she cannot give a definitive reply.

Gautam has also stoked controversy over Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s portrait, which has been hanging in the university since 1936.

Last year, BJP youth leaders  stormed AMU, demanding its removal, even as former Vice President Hamid Ansari was present on the campus. The event, which was to confer Ansari with the life membership of the AMU Students’ Union, had to be canceled.

In 2017, a Delhi High Court lawyer, who had no connection with AMU, tweeted that Hindu students at the university were not served food during Ramzan.

The truth is that not all the AMU hostels provide food during Ramzan, but there are an adequate number that continue running.

Of AMU’s estimated 21,000 students, around 4000 are Hindus. Of the 1,300 faculty members, 100 are Hindus.

The Hindu students that HuffPost India spoke with said they do not go hungry during Ramzan.

“I have never faced any kind of discrimination,” said Shiva Chaudhary, a 24-year-old mass communication student at AMU. “Some people are maligning the name of our university for their own benefit,” she said.

Ajay Bisaria, who has spent 40 years as a student and a teacher on the AMU campus, says he never faced a problem during Ramzan.

The Hindi professor said, “Hindutva interference has increased in the past five years and these forces are willing to go to any extent to communalize the campus.”

I have never faced any kind of discrimination.

In February, Ajay Singh Thakur, a law student and the grandson of Dalveer Singh, a BJP MLA from Aligarh, said he would not allow All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi to enter the AMU campus. He was joined by local BJP youth leaders from the city.

In the ensuing clash, fourteen AMU students were booked for sedition.

Shahi, who is pursuing an M.A. in West Asian studies, says the events in AMU cannot be viewed in isolation.

“Article 370, the Uniform Civil Code, the Ram Temple, nothing has worked for the BJP. Now, they need new issues for the polarization game and AMU fits right in those lines,” she said.  

Fatima says that AMU is one of the last remaining places that she feels safe and she doesn’t want to lose this space.

“If a minority needs a university to reinforce the idea of them being minority, especially in the current political climate, there is nothing wrong. A minority university is the utmost need of a Muslim community,” she said.

A minority university is the utmost need of a Muslim community.
Aligarh Muslim University students during a protest over the Jinnah portrait issue in Aligarh.

Temple politics

Thakur, and the BJP’s Yuva Morcha (youth wing) in Aligarh, have also demanded the construction of a temple on the AMU campus.

Like the other AMU students that HuffPost India spoke with this week, Fatima wanted to know if there are any mosques inside Benaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, and if Muslim students in any Hindu majority university in India would dare ask for one.

BHU does not have a mosque on its campus.

While there is a temple right outside the college campus, Thakur, says that it’s quite a hike getting there from some places in the campus.

The law student, who stood for the AMU Students’ Union election and lost, also asked why Hindus were “never” elected to the three top positions — president, vice president and treasurer —  in the body.

“When we can vote for Muslims, why can they not for Hindus? Why is everything is always Muslim, Muslim, Muslim?” he said.

The Hindu students that HuffPost India spoke with said that Thakur’s demand for a temple had gained little traction.

“There is no temple issue or Ramzan issue. People outside seem to be feeling some pain, which we, students inside the campus, don’t feel,” said Chaudhary, the mass communication student.

There is no temple issue or Ramzan issue.

Mohammad Sajjad, a history professor at AMU, finds the demand for a temple to be disingenuous and politically motivated. “If you keep raising the bar of Hindutva, if you keep raising certain issues about AMU, you hit the national headlines,” he said.

Fatima said she is fine with a temple or even a church on the AMU campus, but she questioned the intentions of those making the demand.

“It’s coming from those who have been trying to communalize the campus,” she said. “All this is doing is to encourage extremists and radicals on all sides.”

As a student leader, who is determined to make AMU’s Women’s College a more politically, socially and religiously vibrant space, Fatima dreads orthodoxy.

Fatima says she is the first president of the Women’s College Students’ Union, who in recent history, does not wear a hijab.

After she was elected president of the Students’ Union, Fatima said there were some women students who questioned how she dressed.

This group of detractors, she said, object to cultural events, playing music at college festivals and they have taken to posting banners of “Quran ayats interpreting them in a way that everything that is happening is wrong.”

Earlier this year, when she organized a public talk on the Kunan Poshpora mass rape in Kashmir, they objected to her inviting male speakers on the women’s campus.

“There is a group that is trying to bring out the Muslim-ness in us but most students oppose these kinds of things,” she said. “Whether it is a Muslim university or not, this is a central university in a democratic republic and we wish to follow that.”

Fatima, who is applying for graduate school, is on the fence about continuing student politics. The student leader sees herself joining academia and fighting for the freedom of academic institutions in India.  “We cannot be a democracy if our campuses are not free,” she said.

This is a central university in a democratic republic and we wish to follow that.

Burqa, burqa, burqa

Fatima has seen photo of a former principal of AMU’s Women’s College dressed in a sari and a sleeveless blouse. She repeats “a sleeveless blouse.”

Fatima could not say how old the photo is, but she has heard stories of how women used to dress in the “seventies and eighties” at AMU. “Back in the eighties, it was a chill college,” she said.

While the burqa in Fatima’s house is a matter of choice, it has become a tool in the hands of Hindu right-wing leaders. Those wanting to make a case for growing religiosity at AMU point to its burqa clad women students.

Fatima points to a rise in the number of women students, who are the first generation of college-goers, hailing from rural backgrounds. While these women have conservative families, the student leader thinks there are multiple reasons for women students using headwear. For some, she said, it can be fashion choice.

 

For Fatima, everyone’s preoccupation with the burqa is tiring. 

What pains her is seeing her elder sister treated differently because she wears one. “I see how people speak to me and speak to her. They have a problem speaking to her because they can see that she is Muslim,” she said.

They have a problem speaking to her because they can see that she is Muslim.

Another student at AMU, Afnan, recalled how her father had bought her a bunch of brown-coloured burqas instead of the traditional black as a safeguard against any attack.

Laughing, the 19-year-old political science student, said, “He said if you wear the black burqa, people will know that you are Muslim. If you wear a brown one, people might think it’s a gown.”

Even as she made light of her fears, Afnan asked why wearing a burqa allowed strangers to question how she felt about her country.  

“Why are we asked to go to Pakistan? Modi ji can go to Pakistan and eat Biryani. If I go to Pakistan, then I’m anti-India. I’m a terrorist,” she said. “Imran Khan just tweeted that he hopes that Modi wins, nobody questions that. What if he had tweeted if that about any leader who is not in the BJP?”

Fatima has considered wearing a burqa to make a political statement.

“I’m not sure if I will or won’t. I don’t understand why an individual’s socio-cultural identity stands in the way of seeing her as a human being. Why can’t we just see each other as people,” she said. “I’m tired of having to prove my Indian-ness.”

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