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Christian missionary indulging in proselytization activities caught red handed by locals in TN

A Christian missionary indulging in proselytization activities was caught red handed by locals in Ranipet district, Tamil Nadu.

The man who had come in an auto carried with him a Bible and other pamphlets for distribution in a locality mostly comprising of Hindus.

In the video that has gone viral on social media, locals can be seen confronting a young man in his twenties for coming into the area and engaging in conversion activities. To this, the man can be heard saying that he is not from Church but wants spread the ‘good things’ that he had learnt from Bible.

When asked about who he was and what he was doing, the man claims that he had completed engineering and works as an apprentice at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.

“You are working in a central government firm and engaging in conversion activities?” the man recording the video can be heard asking the missionary.

“What are these books? Are they Kamba Ramayanam or Mahabharatham or Naalayira Divyaprabandham? What are these books man?” to which the missionary responds saying that he gives the pamphlets (supposedly containing pictures of Jesus and Bible verses) only to those who wanted it and that he does not ‘forcefully’ give it to anyone.

“Did anyone in this street ask you for it (posters and pamphlets) willingly?” locals lashed him to which the missionary says that he just wanted to spread what he had learnt.

“I learnt a few things when reading Bible. I wanted to shared those”, the man says claiming that he is not from any Church.

From the conversation it can be inferred that another lady had accompanied him and ran away after seeing him getting caught. When asked who that lady was, he said that it was his ‘aunty’.

As the conversation became heated, the missionary said that he had by mistake come to their street and promised to never come to the area for indulging in such activities.

Watch the full video here.

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Shashi Tharoor spreads fake news about former LS Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Hindustan Times apologizes

On April 22, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor tweeted that former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had passed away.

He said in his tweet “Saddened to learn of the passing of former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. I remember many positive interactions with her, including when she and the late Sushma Swaraj asked me to lead a Parliamentary delegation to BRICS in Moscow. My condolences to her family and prayers: Om Shanti.”

Following Tharoor’s tweet, many other leaders including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule took to expressing condolences.

Even Hindustan Times published a news about the passing away of the former Lok Sabha speaker attributing the source of information to Shashi Tharoor.

However, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya responded to Tharoor’s tweet saying that Sumitra Mahajan was hale and healthy.

He said in Hindi “Tai Ekdum swast hai. Bhagwan unhe lambi umar de (She is absolutely healthy. Let the Almighty give her a long life.)”

Realizing that he had spread fake news, Shashi Tharoor responded to Vijayvargiya’s tweet saying that he has deleted his earlier tweet. “Thanks Kailash Vijayvargiya. I have deleted the tweet. I wonder what motivates people to invent and spread such evil news that takes in people. My best wishes for Sumitra Ji’s health and long life.” Tharoor said in his tweet.

Mandar Mahajan, the youngest son of Sumitra Mahajan responded to the controversy on Friday morning and asked people to not fall prey to rumours.

Mahajan said, “My mother is perfectly healthy. The rumours about her demise are absolutely false. Please don’t believe in such rumours. Her COVID-19 report is also negative. I had met her in the evening itself. She is perfectly healthy.”

Hindustan Times which had published the story based on Shashi Tharoor’s claims, later retracted its story and apologized for the same. The national daily had published the report without verification.

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16 year old boy selected as Udupi Shiroor Mutt head

Aniruddha Saralatthaya, the 16 year old son of Dr. Uday Kumar Saralatthaya and Srividya, from Nidle village in Dharmasthala, has been selected as the 31st successor of Sri Shiroor Mutt. He will be anointed formally on May 14  during the auspicious time (between 12.35 pm- 12.50 pm) at the Sri Sode Mutt in Sirsi of Uttara Kannada district.

The Shiroor Mutt in Udupi is one of the 8 mutts of the Madhwa sect. It was founded by Sri Vamana Tirtha, one of the direct disciples of Sri Madhwacharya.  The throne will be having its successor after lying vacant for more than two years following the untimely death of Sri Laxmivara Theertha.

Aniruddha has studied till class 10 and has studied various schools of thought such as the Veda, Thathparya Nirnaya and Yuktamallika. Sri Vishwavallabha Theertha, the pontiff of Sri Sode Mutt, shouldered the responsibility of appointing a suitable person. He said that appointing a teenager as an heir to the mutts in Udupi is a tradition followed as per the shastras.

After his anointment, Aniruddha will study Vedanta and may continue his formal education but without going to school.

Aniruddha’s ancestors served as priests at Sri Durga Parameshwari temple at Kadya near Subrahmanya in Dakshina Kannada district. His father Dr. Udaya Kumar Saralatthaya came to Udupi in 1988 for higher studies and holds Ph.D. from National Sanskrit University, Tirupati.

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RSS schools to become COVID isolation centres in UP

Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and Saraswati Vidya Mandirs, the schools run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will be converted into isolation centres for COVID patients in Uttar Pradesh should the need arise.

In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, these schools have already been turned into isolation centres to accommodate Covid-19 patients.

Uttar Pradesh Kshetra Sewa Pramukh Naval Kishore was quoted saying in a report that though the situation is under control in the state, they are preparing themselves in advance to handle rise in patients and various ‘prants’ (administrative unit of RSS) have been asked to make use of resources based on the requirement.

The central unit of the RSS has asked for two workers from every prant to coordinate work in the area. Each worker at the prant level will also have workers at the district level to facilitate food, medicines and other logistics.

“So far, we have formed groups of allopathic, ayurvedic and homeopathic doctors who can be contacted for consultation by people. Their numbers have been publicized on social media. We had also held their camps in the past. To get the right treatment is the biggest requirement of people,” Kishore was quoted saying in a report.

The RSS workers are helping people find beds, reach hospitals and vaccination centres, especially for the poor and old.

(With inputs from Sindhu News)

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Telangana shepherd grabs eyeballs after fashioning mask out of bird’s nest

As the storm that is coronavirus is raging relentlessly all over the country and the number of cases steadily rising, government continue to insist that the public wear masks to protect themselves from the spread of the virus. Violators will be fined ₹ 1,000, said the order. Thanks to this announcement, people are getting creative day by day on the kind of masks that they wear.

This shepherd from Telangana in particular made the headlines for his creative mask. Mekala Kurmayya, a shepherd from Telangana grabbed eyeballs on Thursday when he entered a government office wearing a weaverbird’s nest instead of a mask.

Kurmayya belongs to Chinnamunugal Chad in Telangana’s Mahbubnagar district. He had reportedly gone to the Mandal office to collect his pension. When asked about this questionable choice of mask, he replied saying that he couldn’t afford the mask that was being prescribed by the government and had to find an alternative.

This quickly caught the attention of people around who took a picture of this and shared it on social media. This image is going viral online. Many users also prompted government offices to provide face masks for visitors who cannot afford one.

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Indian Navy lends hand to Indonesia to find missing submarine

The Indian Navy lent a helping hand to Indonesia on Thursday to help find the missing submarine KRI Nanggala – 402. This had gone missing 60 miles of the Bali coast on Wednesday having had 60 people on board.

Indian Navy pitched in by sending their Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) to help locate the lost submarine. This departed from  Vishakapatnam which has a side-scan Sonar to locate the lost submarine whatever position it may be in. This submarine is also fitted with equipment that can provide immediate relief if at all the occupants are in distress.

This is not the first time that the Indian Navy has been playing Good Samaritan to neighbouring countries. They have been helping out under their Sagar missions in terms of providing rations medicines and so on. Similarly, Singapore and Malaysia have also sent out their vessels to help locate the submarine.

Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a statement said, “The Republic of Singapore Navy’s MV Swift Rescue – our submarine rescue vessel – was dispatched expeditiously…as fast as she could get ready after our navy chief received a request for assistance from his Indonesian counterpart.”

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Missionaries scare 7 year old to get converted saying that her parents will die and haunt her as ghosts if she doesn’t

Missionaries are targeting children for their proselytizing practices in the name of summer camps and tuitions, as schools are closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A few months ago, a 13-year-old tribal girl from a hill village in Thiruvannamalai was abducted by a priest who was conducting ‘tuition’.A similar incident took place near Modakkurichi in Erode district where a 7-year-old girl was threatened by Christian missionaries to convert her religion.

Govindarajan is a farmer from Madathupalayam village in Modakkurichi Union Inchampally panchayat. He has lodged a complaint with the police alleging that his daughter, who is a class two student, was being forcibly converted by two women – Usha Rani and Virginia- who are also from the same area. Usha Rani and Virginia have been constantly harassing the kid to convert. They reportedly took the child to a Church in the area and tried to convert her. They threatened the kid saying that her parents would have a terrible problem and die if she did not convert to Christianity and that their spirit would enter the girl’s body. The frightened kid told her parents about the incident.

Following this, the kid’s father Govindarajan, with the help of leaders from the Hindu Munnani, has lodged a complaint at the Malayambalayam police station.

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Famous Tiktok star arrested for sexually harassing 14 year old

Andhra Pradesh police have arrested a Tiktok star under the POCSO Act for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in Visakhapatnam. Chipada Bhargav, also known as Fun Bucket Bhargav, is a Tiktok celebrity who became famous through the ‘supposedly’ funny videos that usually end with him exclaiming ‘Oh my God!’. His videos went viral on social media, regardless of language, because they were meant to be funny.

His perverse behaviour came to light on April 1 when the victim’s family lodged a complaint at the Pendurthy police station in Visakhapatnam. The victim is reportedly 4 months pregnant.

Apart from the POCSO Act, Bhargav has been charged under sections 376 (punishment for sexual assault) and 354 (assault or criminal offense against women) of the Indian Penal Code, police said. Subsequently, the accused Bhargav was arrested in Hyderabad and brought to Visakhapatnam. The case is being investigated at the Disha police station in Visakhapatnam.

Speaking at the press conference, the Vishakapatnam Disha police station’s Assistant Commissioner of Police Prem Kajal said, “The accused had promised to help her get a chance to appear on media channels after seeing her in Tiktok videos. He had then gone ahead to propose his love to her, which she had declined. Following this, he had intimidated her, claiming to have private videos of the woman, and had sexually assaulted her. She is currently pregnant.”

Police have warned people against sharing the photo of the victim on social networking sites. They also said that action would be taken against those who did so.

Meanwhile, photos of Nitya, a popular Tiktok celebrity, have been circulating on social networking sites, claiming that she was the said victim. She had allegedly acted with Bhargav in his videos. Nitya, however, denied the allegations and posted a video on her Instagram page explaining that she was not involved in the case.

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Karnataka suspends drug control officer involved in Remdesivir racket

Remdesivir Karnataka

In what is being seen as a strong message to corrupt government officials, the Karnataka state government has suspended BR Venkatesh, a drug control officer for his alleged involvement in a Remdesivir supply racket.

The state government had earlier imposed strict Covid-19 guidelines to combat the deadly rise in the number of the coronavirus cases in Karnataka.

Additionally, the government had also issued instructions to the state’s medical officers and drug control officers to ensure that there was ample stock of Remdesivir and other life-saving drugs in the pharmacies of Covid-19 hospitals across the state.

Keeping with these instructions, 96 vials of Remdesivir injection were supplied to the BGS GIMS Hospital in Bengaluru. However, BR Venkatesh, a drug control officer employed by the state government, allegedly supplied a dose of the Remdesivir to a private agent, instead of arranging for it to be supplied to a Covid-19 patient who needed it at the aforementioned hospital.

Taking cognisance of his misconduct and gross negligence which resulted in an artificial scarcity of the drug, the government swiftly suspended Venkatesh pending further inquiry.

The Karnataka government has now set up a war room to ensure the supply of medical oxygen and Remdesivir at hospitals in Bengaluru.

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Archaelogical excavation in Gangaikondacholapuram reveals pottery, nails, coins

Archaeological Excavations at Gangaikondacholapuram have uncovered pottery, nails and copper coins. The Government of Tamil Nadu announced last year that excavations in Tamil Nadu for the year 2020-21 will be started by the Archaeological Survey of India at 7 locations across Tamil Nadu, including Keezhadi, Adichanallur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

Accordingly, the ASI surveyed Gangaikonda Cholapuram and its surrounding villages near Jayankondam in Ariyalur district last January by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) within a radius of 18 km to explore 6 locations including Ponneri, Kalkulam, Ayudhakalam, Manmalai and Maligamedu around Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Photo and video were taken with the tools and the study was carried out.

In preparation for the excavation of the mansion at one of the selected sites, the clearing of the Mandi grass bushes took place last February. Subsequently, work is being carried out at selected locations by radar equipment.

Of these, 10×10 pits have been dug, and work is in progress on that site. Also, pottery tiles, roof tiles, nail types and copperware found at the site. Archaeological officers are engaged with staff in intensive research as to whether there are more fossiled remains of that period hidden beneath the soil.

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