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14 August declared ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’

By
The Commune
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partition horror remembrance day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (14 August) declared that from here on forth, 14th August will now be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day in memory of the millions of people displaced and all those who lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence during the partition of India in 1947.

“Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence. In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, 14th August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day,” PM Modi said in a tweet.

“May the #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony and human empowerment,” he added.

According to historians, the partition of India along religious lines displaced some 20 million people when Pakistan was created for Muslims. This division of a nation purely based on religion, though India chose to remain pluralistic, created an overwhelming refugee crisis.

The partition led to large-scale violence and as per varying estimates, nearly two million lost their lives. Now by declaring 14 August as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’ – the same day which the Islamic Republic of Pakistan celebrates as its Independence Day – India has sent a very strong message as to why a nation must never be divided.

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‘Stop killing Tamil’: Tamil Nadu Fin Min struggles to read budget speech in Tamil, becomes butt of memes

By
The Commune
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The DMK government in Tamil Nadu presented its first budget on Friday (August 13), ninety nine days after coming to power. The budget, presented by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, made record by being the first paper-less budget in the history of Tamil Nadu.

However, the budget also seems to have made another record for being a budget speech with most number of faux pas.

Palanivel Thiagarajan who proudly calls himself a ‘Dravidian’ and quite often boasts about being a fourth generation dynast politician tracing his lineage to Justice Party, fumbled and struggled to read the budget speech in Tamil. Many pointed out that the DMK Minister read out the speech like a school kid with poor reading skills being asked to read out from the textbook. The Finance Minister made several errors like even on simple words and struggled to make complete sentences.

A Twitter user named Selva Kumar has compiled some of the faux pas committed by Palanivel Thiagarajan.

This has now set off a meme fest with netizens letting their creativity wild and coming out with rib-tickling memes. Many including BJP Tamil Nadu leaders mocked PTR for his inability to speak Tamil.

BJP leader H. Raja said “Ayyo Pavam Tamil!” which means “Pity Tamil!”

BJP Tamil Nadu spokesperson SG Suryah took a jibe by pointing out to a word which Palanivel Thiagarajan struggled to pronounce.

“A person who does not know Tamil presents Tamil budget in Tamil Nadu Assembly shows the work done towards Tamil by the DMK for the last 71 years!”, SG Suryah said.

Here is a look at some of the other memes:

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US and UK send troops to get embassy personnel out of Afghanistan, Afghan VP hits out at Pak for supporting Taliban

By
The Commune
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As the Taliban surge continues unabated and it captures provinces after provinces, Afghan Vice-President Amrullah Saleh on Friday (13 August) held Pakistan responsible for its continued support to the Taliban.

In a tweet sent Saleh, who also served as the director of the Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004 to 2010, he said, “Truth can’t be hidden or faked for long. It comes out and hits back at the liar and the deceiver. Pakistan can’t hide anymore. They are in the war and on the side of the terrorist Taliban,”.

Saleh is one of the staunchest critics of the Pakistan Army and its notorious intelligence agency, the ISI’s for its interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs by supporting and sheltering Taliban terrorists.

However, things are looking very bleak for the elected government of Afghanistan as the Taliban has captured Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Herat, its third and the key city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province and this puritanical Islamic terror group have already taken control of at least 14 of country’s 34 provincial capitals in a week.

No one thought the Taliban will achieve such victories in such a short period of time. Ghazni which is 53 miles south of Kabul fell to the Islamic group on Thursday (Aug 12) morning local time and the loss of this key city is now seen as the prelude to the eventual takeover of the capital Kabul in the coming weeks.

Ghazni is strategically important as it has a major road that connects the capital to the country’s southern provinces. This loss will not put more pressure on Afghan government forces as the Taliban now controls key locations both north and south of the capital.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and in a statement released by the US State Department that reads, “Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin informed President Ghani that the United States is reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation and will accelerate the tempo of Special Immigration Visa (SIV) flights,”.

“The Secretaries both emphasized that the United States remains committed to maintaining a strong diplomatic and security relationship with the Government of Afghanistan.”

Right now the United Kingdom and the US have sent hundreds of troops to extract American embassy personnel and to facilitate the departure of Afghans under the special immigrant visa program.

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said, “We believe that this is the prudent thing to do given the rapidly deteriorating security situation in and around Kabul,”.

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NCTP member Gopi Shankar alleges DMK govt of protecting officer accused of harassment as Min of Social Justice seeks action taken report

By
The Commune
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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has sought an ‘action taken report’ from the DGP of Tamil Nadu on the harassment and abuse meted out to trans-activist Gopi Shankar Madurai who is the southern representative at the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP) by the Chengalpattu district administration.

Chengalpattu Collector Rahul Nadh IAS allegedly harassed the southern representative of the National Council for Transgender Persons, Gopi Shankar Madurai by initiating action against him and other fellow members of his community while they had gathered at a place to discuss the problems faced by the trans community. They were reportedly verbally abused and physically harassed by the Mahabalipuram police inspector and RI who later sealed the place of the fishermen community. The Chengalpattu District Administration had later filed cases against Gopi and the person who was sheltering him.

In this light, NCTP south representative Gopi had sought intervention from various government departments to initiate action against the Revenue Officer James, VAO Venkatesh Rajesh, and Dist Collector Rahul Nadh IAS.

However, Gopi has claimed that the DMK government is abusing its power and protecting the wrongdoers.

Earlier, the Intersex Asia, a Taiwan based human rights body has condemned the harassment meted out to Gopi and the trans community.

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Anti-India propaganda outlet NYT that published op-ed of Taliban terrorist wants PM Modi’s help to evacuate its journalists in Kabul

By
The Commune
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The New York Times newspaper that once ran an op-ed written by the Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani has reportedly sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help with the evacuation of its journalists from Kabul in Afghanistan.

This request comes at a time when the Islamic terror outfit has rapidly seized territories in Afghanistan after the US announced the withdrawal of its troops after twenty years that has all the potential for a full-scale civil war.

It must be noted that the Taliban had earlier brutally murdered and mutilated the body of Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who was working with Reuters, after ascertaining his identity and nationality.

Now the New York Times that had justified the publication of an op-ed authored by Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, has now sought India’s help in securing the evacuation of its journalists from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, which according to the US intelligence will soon fall into the hands of the Taliban terrorists.

However, it is very ironic that the liberals in the US had critised the NYT when it published an op-ed written by Senator Tom Cotton who is also a veteran of its armed forces but chose stone-cold silence over the Haqqani op-ed.

Indian journalist Aditya Raj Kaul in a tweet said, “The New York Times that publishes a Sirajuddin Haqqani Op-ed, the same New York Times that consistently badmouths Modi’s India, now turns to Modi’s India with a request to facilitate the evacuation of its journalists from Kabul. All the irony that’s fit to print,”.

In February 2020 the New York Times published an opinion article titled “What We, The Taliban, Want”, in which Haqqani had said that after the withdrawal of US troops, the Islamic terror outfit wants to “build an Islamic system” in Afghanistan.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is also the leader of the Haqqani network that is responsible for the death of many US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years.

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Scotland will allow children as young as four to determine their gender at school without parental consent

By
The Commune
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Under guidance introduced in Scotland, Children as young as four in primary schools will not have the power to determine their gender at school without the consent of their parents because children who are only four or five have the ability to “recognise and development of gender identity can occur at a young age”, reports dailymail.

Now any pupil as young as four who are in kindergarten can decide if they want to switch gender and it must be supported and listened to in school following the Scottish Government’s advice.

The new guidelines also give explicit instructions to teachers not to question a child who says they want to transition to be known as a boy or a girl and must ask for their new name and pronouns. However, it is questionable if children as young as four or five have the faculty to understand what are pronouns.

The Scottish government has also given guidelines to Primary and secondary schools to put books featuring transgender people on the curriculum and allow pupils to choose which changing room or toilets they prefer to use and is also considering introducing a gender-neutral uniform.

However, not everyone is happy with this new decision that allows children as young as four to determine their gender and has branded these new guidelines introduced by the Scottish government as “shocking”.

The advice says, “Some young people are exploring their gender identity in primary school settings. Primary schools need to be able to meet the needs of these young people to ensure they have a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment in which to learn,”.

A section on, “changing name and recorded sex’ says children simply need to tell others informally that they want to use a different name, and that they don’t need to record this formally on their official school record. Advice to school staff on what to do if a child wants to discuss their gender includes asking ‘what name and pronoun you should use to address them,”.

According to Marion Calder, director of the For Women Scotland campaign group who said, ‘To be transgender you have to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. What are they thinking? Parents will be very concerned to be reading this document.’

But Scottish education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said, “This guidance outlines how schools can support transgender young people while ensuring that the rights of all pupils are fully respected and the new guidelines provide schools with practical suggestions. The guidance is not prescriptive and does not promote transitioning,”.

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DMK supporter and Christian pastor gang rapes married woman and records act, arrested

By
The Commune
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The Tamil Nadu police have booked Christian priest Arumanai Stephen who is the secretary of Arumanai Christian Association (ACA) for allegedly gang-raping a married woman and also making a recording of this barbaric act.

When the alleged gang rape took place, seven other men joined Pastor Arumanai Stephen. At present, Pastor Stephen is already arrested for organising an event in the Kanyakumari district in which controversial Catholic priest George Ponnaiah made a hate speech against Hindus and abused Hindu deities.

However, Pastor Stephen is now in even more trouble after a 36-year-old woman from Veeyannoor of Thiruvattar district in Tamil Nadu registered a complaint and accused him of not only gang-raping her but also recording the act.

The victim has accused Arumana Stephen and seven others of spiking her drink and when she lost all consciousness, they gang-raped her, and the pastor and his friends then filmed the act and the rape according to the victim took place inside a farmhouse.

However, what is disturbing is that the victim had filed a complaint in April with the police, but no action was taken due to pastor Stephen’s close relationship with the ruling DMK.

The police have now booked Stephen, DMK functionary John Bright, Henslin, Callister Jebaraj, and other accused under IPC sections for unlawful confinement, stealing, sexual abuse, issuing death threats, etc. However, one accused Jefferson ended his life fearing police action.

The police only sprung into action after Stephen was arrested in the hate speech case, along with Catholic priest George Ponnaiah, and that led to the victim file another online complaint against Stephen seeking justice.

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Kerala HC: Cardinal Alencherry and his associates must face trial in alleged land scam

By
The Commune
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The senior-most leader of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry suffered a massive setback when the  Kerala High Court said on Thursday (12 August) asked him and a few others to stand trial in an alleged land scam, reports The Week.

This ruling comes in the wake of a massive financial scandal that also rocked the Mecca of Christendom, the Vatican where authorities unearthed hundreds of millions of financial misdealings by senior Vatican officials.

The apex court in Kerala also rejected all the six petitions submitted by Alencherry challenging the ruling by the lower court.

Before the case moved to the High Court, the lower court had passed the verdict asking Alencherry and others involved in the land deal to face trial and after this setback, the influential Alencherry approached the High Court seeking to quash the lower court verdict.

But what is most troubling for the Church is that these allegations have driven a wedge between the priests and the laity as a section of the people demanded that the Cardinal should step down from the post, as the issue had hurt the Church and even petitioned Pope Francis in this regard.

Recently, Mercy Senthil Kumar, the daughter-in-law of DMK minister I Periyasamy and wife of DMK MLA I.P. Senthil Kumar, has urged that a law be enacted requiring the Vatican Pope’s approval to arrest Christian pastors and sisters around the world.

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DMK gets caught in its own web of lies: Opposed electricity metering when in opposition, bats for metering now

By
The Commune
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Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan who released a ‘white paper’ on the states’ finance had said that the financial condition of transport and electricity sectors are in shambles. He had said that it cannot be business as usual in these sectors and reforms have to be done. For rationalizing subsidies, Palanivel Thiagarajan had said that it was important to bring all consumers including farmers under the purview of the state through metering so that the government knows whether the subsidy is going to those who actually need it.

It is to be noted that the Central Government had been nudging states like Tamil Nadu to rationalize power subsidies given to farmers and undertake serious reforms to improve the finances of the electricity generation and distribution companies (TANGEDCO for Tamil Nadu). The government had said that metering of all connections it needed to curb power theft. However, back then, the DMK which was in opposition had strongly opposed bringing farmers under metering. It had peddled lies that metering would lead to farmers paying electricity bills who have been enjoying free power.

But not that the DMK is in power, its Finance Minister is strongly batting for bringing farmers under metering. In an interview to a Tamil news channel, he said that those who are benefitting out of the present broken system are the ones who are peddling lies that metering would lead to farmers getting charged. He said that only when the connection is metered, farmers would get free electricity and added that only when the connection is metered the government would know where the power is going and whether the free power is being used by the right beneficiaries.

When the anchor points out that metering was strongly opposed by the DMK before, Palanivel Thiagarajan said that  this is his stance today which need not be necessarily his party’s stance. He added that ‘information is poor man’s friend and not enemy’.

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Anti-democratic and violent behaviour of opposition during the Parliament sessions scripts a dark chapter in the history of Indian democracy

By
The Commune
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Deplorable actions by opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) have become a norm. Their actions in this session were not an exception but a continuation. From tearing of the rule book last year to the opposition indulging in most unparliamentary conducts ever witnessed by this House, the conduct of opposition is becoming shameful day by day. This was said in a press conference today in New Delhi. The press conference was attended by Union Ministers Shri Piyush Goyal, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Shri Prahlad Joshi, Shri Bhupendra Yadav, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal and Shri V Muraleedharan.

The Ministers pointed out that opposition had publicly stated that the session should be washed out. Their intention was to not let the house conduct business. Infact, the Government had offered discussions on several occasions. However, appeals for discussions fell on deaf ears and they even took papers from the hands of the Hon’ble Minister and tore them. Even the Hon’ble Prime Minister was not allowed to introduce the Newly sworn In Council of Ministers.

Some Opposition members desecrated the sanctity of the House by climbing the Sanctum Sanctorum (Garbhagriha), namely the table located at well of the House and threw the Rule Book at the Chair. The Member of Parliament who stood on the table in the Parliament was not only standing on the table but was trampling upon Parliamentary ethics. He was not only throwing a book at the chair but was also throwing Parliamentary conduct out of the House. Such behaviour is unprecedented in our House and the opposition has done grievous harm to the reputation of the house. Opposition’s behaviour was an assault on the dignity of the institution and could have grievously injured the Secretary General. Misbehaviour by the Opposition members is a shameful disgrace in the Parliamentary History of India. It is rather unfortunate that the opposition MPs are not even apologetic about their actions. Rather they are considering these shameful actions as acts of valour.

Shri Piyush Goyal said that opposition has misbehaved throughout the session only because they do not want issues of public welfare to be discussed. It is demanded that strict action should be taken on the shameful and obstructive behaviour of the Opposition. They wanted to create Opposition unity to foster national disunity. They owe answers to the nation.

The Opposition questions over bills being passed in din. However, it is their refusal to allow parliamentary debate that has left no choice. From merely shouting, they have shifted to violence and manhandling staff to disrupt parliamentary process. Also, where was this concern about passage without discussion when numerous bills were passed in din during the UPA rule. Between 2006 and 2014, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA 1 & 2) government passed a total of 18 Bills in a hasty manner.

Despite highest disruption since 2014, the no. of bills passed per day during this session in Rajya Sabha was the 2nd highest since 2014 (i.e. 1.1 bills per day passed). The time lost due to interruptions / adjournments (till Aug 11) was 76 Hours 26 Minutes and the highest average time per day lost due to interruptions / adjournments since the 231st session of Rajya Sabha in 201 was 4 Hours 30 Minutes.

Despite all the chaos and disruption, 19 Bills passed in Rajya Sabha (incl. Constitutional Amendment on OBC reservation also passed), which are in national interest and will benefit the poor, OBCs, workers, entrepreneurs, & all sections of our society. This reflects the commitment, productivity and ability of the Govt to drive legislative agenda in the Parliament, which aims to fulfil the aspirations of its citizens. It will shape the future of our country. Govt successfully carried out Govt business during the session.

(Published from PIB)

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TheCommune
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