After BBC Modi expose screening, NPC chief slams Modi govts attack on journalists
President of the United States National Press Club, the world’s leading professional organization for journalists, Eileen O’Reilly, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu supremacist government for continuing attacks on journalists.
“Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as the regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media. We at the National Press Club demand in the strongest terms that the government stop its persecution of journalists and its suppression of press freedom in India,” said O’Rielly after the screening of BBC’s documentary “India: The Modi Question,” which exposes Modi’s role in the 2002 anti-Muslim massacres in Gujarat state.
Aakashi Bhatt, daughter of jailed Indian whistleblower Sanjiv Bhatt called on American officials and journalists to do their duty and highlight the “undemocratic and anti-minority policies” of the Modi government.
“They must speak out against Modi. The same goes for the American government. Why is Modi being welcomed with a state visit?” Bhatt asked.
Gujarat pogrom survivor Yusuf Dawood pointed to international complacency in Modi’s ascendance to power.
Pointing to Twitter and Youtube’s ban on the BBC film, Dawood said, “We must also look at how Elon Musk and others in his billionaires club caved into Modi’s demand for censorship. They are catering to the whims of an authoritarian leader.”
Leading Muslim fact-checker receives series of online death threats
Mohammad Zubair, a Muslim journalist and co-founder of the fact-checking news portal AltNews, has received a fresh flurry of violent online threats from several Hindu supremacist influencers.
The threats range from those demanding lone wolf attacks against Zubair to seeking “extrajudicial steps” against him.
Among those who issued threats against Zubair are right-wing columnist Harshil Mehta and former right-wing news outlet OpIndia’s editor Ajeet Bharti. “The plan is on. This time he will be totally circumcised so much that he’ll need a pipe to urinate,” tweeted Bharti.
Recently, Zubair’s fact-checks led to criminal cases being filed against Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prashant Umrao, Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, right-wing website OpIndia’s editor Nupur Sharma and CEO Rahul Roushan, among others.
Zubair has been the target of ongoing Hindu supremacist harassment, who have also filed false criminal cases against him.
Outrage after minor Muslim girls sexually assaulted during Hindu festival
Two minor Muslim girls, aged 6 and 7, were raped by Hindu extremists while they were celebrating a Hindu religious festival, in Bihar state.
The incident occurred while the minors were playing in a school and were approached by the accused, Chhotu Mahato alias Raj Kumar, and his friend, both of whom were reportedly drunk.
After sexually assaulting the girls, they fled the scene, villagers said.
The incident has caused anger among many Muslims, including the victims’ family members, who demanded that the accused be immediately arrested.
