oppn parties Zawahari Video: Taking Advantage Of A Conflict

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
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  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Zawahari Video: Taking Advantage Of A Conflict

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-04-07 08:16:21

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The release of an al-Qaeda video in which the outfit's chief Ayman al Zawahiri praises Bibi Muskan Khan and her family for standing up for the hijab and not getting cowed down by Hindu students at her college and asking India Mulsims to unite has added a new twist to the ongoing hijab controversy in Karnataka. While state home minister Araga Jnanendra was quick to see an 'unseen hand' in the hijab row which he said was proved by Zawahiri's remarks, Muskan Khan's family distanced itself from the video by saying that they do not know who Zawahiri is and they condemn his remarks as they appear to be "aimed at sowing discord and creating divisions among us Indians".

The Karnataka government should realize that international terror groups often feed on local Muslim discontent in India. Hence, the chance of them having instigated the hijab row is negligible. The fact is that once the hijab row started and was highlighted in the international media, al Qaeda has jumped in to create further discontent and perhaps win a few recruits from India. There is no harm in the government keeping an eye on the developments and track things in this connection but it will be wrong if it makes up its mind only on the basis that al Qaeda or any other foreign terror group was behind the row.

It sometimes happens that sympathizers of international terror groups in India use simple Muslim families as pawns. But the way the hijab row started, the chances of that are slim. The girls were suddenly stopped from wearing hijab by invoking Section 133 (2) of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 which bans the wearing of "clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order" to schools and colleges. They protested and it spread like wildfire. Hindu students complicated matters by staring to wear saffron duppattas. It was a local matter that was politicized by the involvement of interested groups from both sides. If the old rule was not invoked, the row would not have started in the first place.