Amnesty’s anti-Modi Aakar Patel supports riot accused Umar Khalid: History of biases and compromising democracy to achieve favourable outcomes
1 year, 4 months ago

Amnesty’s anti-Modi Aakar Patel supports riot accused Umar Khalid: History of biases and compromising democracy to achieve favourable outcomes

Op India  

Recently I stumbled upon a post by Aakar Patel on X where he declared that “locking up a man indefinitely without conviction is not democracy it’s tyranny.” It brought back memories of some of his earlier views that may have receded from the public consciousness. Not-So-Attractive Views Aakar Patel’s claim to infamy was his assertion that ‘Gujarati women find Narendra Modi very attractive sexually’ – an offensive generalisation that demeaned the intelligence and political understanding of Gujarati women. Blatantly Biased and Unprincipled Aakar Patel’s May 2012 article, Why the Congress represents Indian values best, is a good read to understand how brazenly biased he is. He also ridiculed “the Hindu middle-class fantasy that India will become a world power tomorrow, though most of us are illiterate and hungry and will remain so in our generation, and the next and the next.” In his July 2012 article titled Congress can break Modi’s Gujarat with cash, not caste, Aakar Patel delivered another shocker. Yet, he supports the Congress against the BJP because according to Aakar Patel, in the pre-BJP era, “We used to do riots in more civilised fashion in Gujarat.” Maybe Amnesty International could explain what exactly is a civilised fashion of rioting.

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History of this topic

As Rahul asks Congress to up its game in Gujarat, why Ahmed Patel is missed
3 days, 6 hours ago

As Rahul asks Congress to up its game in Gujarat, why Ahmed Patel is missed

India Today  

Rahul Gandhi created a stir in the Congress in Gujarat during his visit to the state in early March when he said the party needs to identify and purge leaders working as the BJP’s ‘B-Team’. As the dust settles and cadre and leaders process Rahul’s message, an overriding question hangs in the air: why, indeed, are Congress leaders and workers …

Aakar Patel | The big ideas that Narendra Modi is fully committed to as India’s leader
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Aakar Patel | The big ideas that Narendra Modi is fully committed to as India’s leader

Deccan Chronicle  

There are two big ideas that India’s Prime Minister is fully committed to, and this commitment of his has shown itself over his years as the country’s leader. After the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” plan was made public in August 2020, Dr Panagariya said that “policy mistakes” by Mr Modi on international trade were undoing the good work done in 1991. …

Aakar Patel | Of Authoritarianism and Freedom: What the world is saying about today’s India
1 year ago

Aakar Patel | Of Authoritarianism and Freedom: What the world is saying about today’s India

Deccan Chronicle  

There was a popular video recently by a young man named Dhruv Rathee, which irked the government’s supporters. Its broad argument may be understood by the title, which was “Is India becoming a dictatorship?” The examples used in the video included the recent rigging of the Chandigarh mayoral election by the BJP, the recent rigging of the panel to select …

Dubious group screens banned BBC documentary on Gujarat Riots in Australian Parliament
1 year, 9 months ago

Dubious group screens banned BBC documentary on Gujarat Riots in Australian Parliament

Op India  

On May 24, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Australia, a group called ‘We The Diaspora’ screened the controversial BBC documentary on Gujarat Riots in the Australian Parliament House. Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia, he, deputy leader of Greens Mehreen Faruqi and Senator David Shoebridge wrote a letter to the Australian PM and Foreign Minister urging them …

Aakar Patel | Sardar worked differently from Nehru, but had the same ideals
2 years, 3 months ago

Aakar Patel | Sardar worked differently from Nehru, but had the same ideals

Deccan Chronicle  

We are in the middle of yet another election cycle and the matter of Jawaharlal Nehru versus Sardar Patel has returned. This newspaper had a headline a few weeks ago, reporting a speech by the Union home minister: “Had Sardar Patel been India’s 1st PM, many problems would not have occurred: Shah”. The key fact to consider in the Nehru …

Aakar Patel | Is govt trying to finish off civil society & India’s NGOs?
2 years, 5 months ago

Aakar Patel | Is govt trying to finish off civil society & India’s NGOs?

Deccan Chronicle  

Last Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the words “Urban Naxals” to describe those he said were stalling the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Some people keep at it.” Civil society, he said, was “also upset because I told a few NGOs to give us an account of the foreign funds that they spend here. The changes were in …

Aakar Patel | A benign mask for whole world; fangs bared to citizens at home
2 years, 8 months ago

Aakar Patel | A benign mask for whole world; fangs bared to citizens at home

Deccan Chronicle  

Having been kept busy by the government in various matters, I have not had the chance to catch up with the news much in the last couple of weeks. The first is that India and the European Union refer to themselves as “open and democratic societies”, which “emphasised the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights”. After this, …

Allegations against Ahmed Patel manufactured: Congress on Gujarat police claims
2 years, 8 months ago

Allegations against Ahmed Patel manufactured: Congress on Gujarat police claims

Deccan Chronicle  

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday said the "mischievous" and "manufactured" allegations by the Gujarat Police against its late leader Ahmed Patel were part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "systematic strategy" to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal carnage in 2002. In a statement, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party "categorically refutes the mischievous charges manufactured" …

Modi’s critics have a precarious life in India
2 years, 8 months ago

Modi’s critics have a precarious life in India

Al Jazeera  

On June 16, the Supreme Court of India cautioned the Uttar Pradesh state government against taking punitive actions targeting those who participated in protests over Islamophobic comments made by two Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. Protests against the Act were met with a brutal crackdown as right-wing mobs, led by BJP leaders, rampaged through Delhi, targeting protesters, while police arrested anti-CAA …

Aakar Patel | From secular to communal: The changing story of India & Pakistan
2 years, 9 months ago

Aakar Patel | From secular to communal: The changing story of India & Pakistan

Deccan Chronicle  

My initial column writing for many years was for Pakistani newspapers. The law enforcing zakat by debiting 2.5 per cent from bank accounts of Pakistan’s Sunnis failed as people withdrew their money just before it was due to happen. But Pakistan’s judges, trained in common law like India’s, were reluctant to pass these sentences and so the laws remained frozen …

Aakar Patel claims he was likely stopped from flying abroad because of his book
2 years, 11 months ago

Aakar Patel claims he was likely stopped from flying abroad because of his book

Op India  

The former head of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, had alleged that he was stopped from travelling abroad likely because of a book he had written against PM Modi. Aakar Patel talks to Karan Thapar Patel challenges CBI’s Look Out Circular issued against him in connection with alleged FCRA violations by Amnesty International India It is noteworthy to mention that …

Aakar Patel: Amnesty official barred from leaving India
2 years, 11 months ago

Aakar Patel: Amnesty official barred from leaving India

Al Jazeera  

Aakar Patel says immigration authorities stopped him from flying to the US after he was placed on a ‘look-out circular’. New Delhi, India – Indian immigration authorities have barred Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International in India, from travelling to the United States because of an order issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation over a case against the rights …

Asaddudin Owaisi slams Akhilesh Yadav over Patel Jinnah row needs to educate himself and read history – India TV
3 years, 4 months ago

Asaddudin Owaisi slams Akhilesh Yadav over Patel Jinnah row needs to educate himself and read history – India TV

India TV News  

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, on Monday, reacted to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's controversial remarks on 'Jinnah-Patel' and said that the former Uttar Pradesh CM should educate himself and read some history. Akhilesh Yadav had sparked controversy on Sunday when he compared Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, and said that they all fought for …

Protecting 'democracy' real tribute to Sardar Patel: Rahul Gandhi
3 years, 4 months ago

Protecting 'democracy' real tribute to Sardar Patel: Rahul Gandhi

India TV News  

The Congress on Sunday paid tributes to India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary, with former party chief Rahul Gandhi saying that at a time when all the pillars of democracy are being "weakened", it is important to remember his contribution. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also paid tributes to Patel by remembering his contribution …

Aakar Patel | How the world sees India is changing not for the better
3 years, 11 months ago

Aakar Patel | How the world sees India is changing not for the better

Deccan Chronicle  

What sort of India is the present generation growing up in and what will they live through? India’s urban unemployment is at a historic high and, more important, the participation rate of India’s labour force -- meaning those who are employed or looking for work -- is at a historic low. Within India our politics has become dark and election …

Aakar Patel | As democracy endangered, India's global reputation hit
4 years ago

Aakar Patel | As democracy endangered, India's global reputation hit

Deccan Chronicle  

The Washington Post’s editorial board has written that India’s claim of being a democracy should be put in question. India’s brave soldiers like Akshay Kumar and Sachin Tendulkar did not respond to the Washington Post either, as they had done to Rihanna. The Economist, which is the world’s most respected magazine, has carried a headline in its latest issue which …

Amnesty International shuts shop in India after govt froze its bank accounts
4 years, 5 months ago

Amnesty International shuts shop in India after govt froze its bank accounts

Op India  

Dubious NGO Amnesty International India that has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons lately, has halted its operations in India on 29th September 2020. #NEWS: Amnesty International India Halts Its Work On Upholding Human Rights In India Due To Reprisal From Government Of Indiahttps://t.co/W7IbP4CKDq — Amnesty India September 29, 2020 In the Twitter thread the organization posted, …

Aakar Patel | What’s this govt good at, except announcements?
4 years, 7 months ago

Aakar Patel | What’s this govt good at, except announcements?

Deccan Chronicle  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the new Ram Mandir in Ayodhya next week. This government’s former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian himself has calculated that India is reporting 2.5 per cent higher GDP growth figures than actual ones. The Modi government’s own National Sample Survey showed rural consumption grew at minus 1.5 per cent, meaning …

Even as China kills 20 of our soldiers, Former Amnesty India chief Aakar Patel says BJP is the real enemy, not China
4 years, 9 months ago

Even as China kills 20 of our soldiers, Former Amnesty India chief Aakar Patel says BJP is the real enemy, not China

Op India  

Even as China unleashed its treacherous attack on the India troops with nearly 20 soldiers losing their lives along the LAC at Ladakh, the Indian ‘intellectuals’ have now turned blind to the barbarity unleashed by the Chinese and instead are busy depicting the ruling BJP as country’s biggest enemy. Amidst the ongoing standoff between India and China where China went …

Aakar Patel's Twitter account withheld in India due to legal demand
4 years, 9 months ago

Aakar Patel's Twitter account withheld in India due to legal demand

Op India  

Days after journalist and ex-Amnesty India head Aakar Patel gave a call to violence on Twitter, his account is withheld by the social networking giant. Aakar Patel account withheld “Aakar Patel’s account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand” the landing page of his profile said. On 31st May, while quoting a tweet by Colorado Times …

Amnesty International India criticises police for filing FIR against Aakar Patel
4 years, 9 months ago

Amnesty International India criticises police for filing FIR against Aakar Patel

The Hindu  

The Executive Director of Amnesty International India, Avinash Kumar, criticised the Bengaluru police for registering an FIR against the organisation’s former India head and journalist, Aakar Patel, for a Twitter post in which he allegedly urged people to protest peacefully against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the US. The Bengaluru police must stop …

Farooq Abdullah’s arrest leaves India with few allies in Kashmir
5 years, 6 months ago

Farooq Abdullah’s arrest leaves India with few allies in Kashmir

Al Jazeera  

Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – The detention of pro-India politicians and the crackdown against their party members in Indian-administered Kashmir indicate a further shrinking of New Delhi’s allies in the region. It’s not a developmental problem that you solve by making roads, hospital or universities.” NC leader Hasnain Masoodi, a former judge elected to the Indian parliament this year, described Abdullah’s …

Naxal sympathisers, ultra-left wing activists and Congress beneficiaries among ’eminent’ people seeking inquiry against CJI
5 years, 10 months ago

Naxal sympathisers, ultra-left wing activists and Congress beneficiaries among ’eminent’ people seeking inquiry against CJI

Op India  

A group of ’eminent’ activists and writers has issued a joint statement on Monday seeking an “an independent and credible inquiry” to look into allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. According leftist propaganda portal, the group of 33 ’eminent’ activists has issued a statement calling upon all the judges of the Supreme Court to set …

Sentenced for 2 years in prison for rioting, Hardik Patel joins Rahul Gandhi’s Congress to ‘serve 125 crore people’
6 years ago

Sentenced for 2 years in prison for rioting, Hardik Patel joins Rahul Gandhi’s Congress to ‘serve 125 crore people’

Op India  

Right after the Election Commission announced the 2019 Lok Sabha Election dates, convict Hardik Patel has announced that he will be joining Indian National Congress to “serve 125 crore people of the country”. — Hardik Patel March 10, 2019 Hardik Patel also said that IF there is no “legal hindrance” and party decides to field him in electoral politics, he …

Ahmed Patel slams Modi government over Pulwama attack, says 'BJP leaders only good at delivering speeches'
6 years, 1 month ago

Ahmed Patel slams Modi government over Pulwama attack, says 'BJP leaders only good at delivering speeches'

India TV News  

Launching an attack on the Narendra Modi-government, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Friday said the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are only good at delivering speeches. People who have not made any sacrifice for the country are asking the Congress what it had done in 60 years of its rule, he said, without taking any names. Speaking at a function …

Opinion | The Bharatiya Janata Party’s search for a hero
6 years, 4 months ago

Opinion | The Bharatiya Janata Party’s search for a hero

Live Mint  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept at least one of the promises he had made in the run up to the 2014 parliamentary elections—of installing in Gujarat what will briefly be the world’s tallest statue, honouring one of the state’s illustrious leaders, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first home minister. There is also the speculation, popular within circles close to the …

Urjit Patel is finally defending RBI from Modi: Rahul
6 years, 4 months ago

Urjit Patel is finally defending RBI from Modi: Rahul

The Quint  

Congress president Rahul Gandhi. New Delhi, Oct 29 Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday hailed Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel for 'defending' the central bank from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, after reports suggested that tension prevailed between the RBI and the Centre. RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya had last week spoken on the need for the central …

Dividing Lines: When religion trumps citizenship
7 years, 3 months ago

Dividing Lines: When religion trumps citizenship

Deccan Chronicle  

Democracy has been celebrated as a noisy and raucous affair, a ritual of give-and-take between opposing groups. First came the Macwan affair and second the handling of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Somnath Temple. Mr Modi claims to be uniting the country and cites India’s efforts to rescue citizens, including Christians, from strife-torn countries. He hides behind the …

Decoding the Patel factor in Gujarat election
7 years, 4 months ago

Decoding the Patel factor in Gujarat election

ABP News  

The Patidars in Gujarat are in the limelight today and are happy flexing their electoral muscle. Travelling across Ahmedabad to Patan to Mehsana and the hinterlands, this columnist spoke to several Patel community members on their demand for reservations and support to Hardik Patel. How then has the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel managed such traction when members …

Why Muslims owe a lot to Sardar Patel
7 years, 4 months ago

Why Muslims owe a lot to Sardar Patel

Op India  

This is the centenary of the year when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel first met Mahatma Gandhi and India got its unifier to create the nation we know today. Congress loses no time in terming Sardar Patel as its own, and couldn’t care less about your protest that the “Iron Man” got Bharat Ratna only 44 years after India’s independence. We have …

Rahul Gandhi latches onto Yashwant Sinha's criticism of BJP policies, slams Narendra Modi during last day of Gujarat visit
7 years, 5 months ago

Rahul Gandhi latches onto Yashwant Sinha's criticism of BJP policies, slams Narendra Modi during last day of Gujarat visit

Firstpost  

Gandhi, who covered about 600 km in over five districts in three days, did not spare the BJP government in the state either. Addressing a gathering near Chotila in Surendranagar district on the last day of his three-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat, Gandhi said that even BJP leaders know that the country “is in deep trouble”. Patel, who has been …

Opposition parties race to woo Hardik Patel ahead of Gujarat assembly polls
8 years, 8 months ago

Opposition parties race to woo Hardik Patel ahead of Gujarat assembly polls

Live Mint  

Ahmedabad: Hardik Patel has hinted he may join politics if his community wants, following which all opposition parties in Gujarat are trying to woo the Patidar quota agitation leader to join them, apparently with an eye on the state assembly polls next year. Though NCP is a small player in Gujarat, its president Jayant Patel was among the first to …

Will join politics if my community wants, says Hardik Patel as parties try to woo him
8 years, 8 months ago

Will join politics if my community wants, says Hardik Patel as parties try to woo him

India TV News  

Surat: Following his release from Surat jail after 10 months, Patel quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel gave indications of joining politics if his community wants, after which all political parties are trying to woo him to join them, apparently with an eye on the state Assembly polls next year. The 22-year-old firebrand leader, who is demanding inclusion of the Patel …

Hardik Patel has lost his mental balance: BJP MP Vitthal Radadiya
8 years, 10 months ago

Hardik Patel has lost his mental balance: BJP MP Vitthal Radadiya

Deccan Chronicle  

Ahmedabad: In a scathing attack, BJP MP Vitthal Radadiya on Wednesday termed Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel as "mentally unstable" and said he was trying to project himself as a "hero" of the Patel community from jail. Meanwhile, Hardik's close aide leader Mahesh Savani who met the PAAS convener in Lajpore Central Jail today claimed that his remarks …

Patel stir: Anandiben grapples with quota fire, BJP falters in Gujarat
8 years, 11 months ago

Patel stir: Anandiben grapples with quota fire, BJP falters in Gujarat

Firstpost  

Ten months on, the Anandiben Patel government in Gujarat just does not know how to deal with the Patel agitation and thier demands for OBC quota. The last was on Sunday, when hordes of supporters of the Sardar Patel Group supported by Hardik’s PAAS laid siege to district jails in Mehsana, the home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and …

Patel agitation turns Gujarat into a battlefield
9 years, 6 months ago

Patel agitation turns Gujarat into a battlefield

Live Mint  

New Delhi: A police constable in Surat was among nine persons killed, six in police firing, Wednesday in a violent turn to the Patel community’s agitation for other backward classes status and reservation in Gujarat, reported The Indian Express. The violent turn to the Patidar reservation stir and the rise of 21-year-old Hardik Patel as a formidable leader has come …

What the Patel agitation for OBC status shows: Caste politics is back
9 years, 6 months ago

What the Patel agitation for OBC status shows: Caste politics is back

Firstpost  

The landslide victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the 2014 parliamentary elections had led people to believe that religion had triumphed over caste. The cacophony of caste based demands and caste based politics had been dissolved by the assertion of a ‘Hindu’ India. Instead, democratization, as Ashutosh Varshney, in his book, Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy points out, …

Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists
9 years, 11 months ago

Twitterati slam Aakar Patel for his idiotic article branding Hindus as terrorists

Op India  

Aakar Patel, a writer who is famous for making casteist comments and stereotyping people based on their ethnic backgrounds, came up with yet another article that was trashed by Twitterati yesterday. Whenever I get food poisoning, I read his best op-eds to make myself throw up #IStandWithAakar — IndiaSpeaks April 6, 2015 Today, extremism does have a religion RT @RanaAyyub: …

Rahul accuses Modi of trying to usurp Patel’s legacy
11 years ago

Rahul accuses Modi of trying to usurp Patel’s legacy

The Hindu  

Sharpening his attack on RSS and Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused them of trying to usurp the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and recalled the Congress stalwart’s description of RSS as “a venomous organisation” which could “finish” the country. The Congress vice-president quoted Sardar Patel’s views on RSS and said that Patel had described the RSS as “a …

Sardar Patel was not communal: Advani
11 years, 2 months ago

Sardar Patel was not communal: Advani

The Hindu  

Senior BJP pleader L K Advani on Tuesday contested allegations that Sardar Patel was anti-Muslim and quoted Rafiq Zakaria, an Islamic scholar and Congress leader, who had done research on the ‘Iron Man’, to underline his nationalistic credentials. The article said this was the reason Sangh Parivar “worships one and hates the other”, inviting strong rebuttal from the veteran BJP …

Patel was right-wing pro-Hindu, Nehru was left-wing secular
11 years, 4 months ago

Patel was right-wing pro-Hindu, Nehru was left-wing secular

India TV News  

The BJP's "mentor", L.K. For all the attempts by commentators to downplay the perception of India's first deputy prime minister as anti-Muslim, the belief down the decades has been that he tilted more towards the Hindus than Muslims as when he said that the former had had the better of "them" during the pre-partition Calcutta riots.It stands to reason that …

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