16-01-2021 The Asian Independent

2
16-01-2021 to 31-01-2021 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
In a secular democracy, media turns
a zealous fundraiser for Ram Temple
In a secular democracy, the
mainstream media has become
a zealous fundraiser for the
construction of the Ram
Temple in Ayodhya. While it
has often opposed the appearance
of any religious symbol
belonging to minority communities
in the public sphere, it
has never restrained itself from
campaigning for the Hindutva
forces. A recent example is the
ongoing fundraising campaign
for the Ram Temple.
On January 16,
2021, Dainik
Jagran (National)
carried a sevencolumn
lead story
on page seven about the
President Ramnath Kovind
donating five lakh one hundred
rupees for the construction of
the Ram Temple. The Hindi
daily also carried an image of
Govind Dev Giri (treasurer of
Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth
Kshetra Trust) showing the
cheque from the President. Not
only Dainik Jagran but other
newspapers also covered the
story prominently.
For example, The India
Express gave first-page coverage.
It wrote that “President
Ram Nath Kovind on Friday
donated Rs. 5,00,100 for the
construction of the Ram
Temple in Ayodhya, as the
Ramjanmabhoomi Teerth
Kshetra Trust began a nationwide
campaign to collect donations”.
Several chief ministers
also gave contributions. “The
sources said the Chief
Ministers of Madhya Pradesh
and Uttarakhand, Shivraj Singh
Chouhan and Trivendra Singh
Rawat respectively; the
Governors of Maharashtra,
Team AI :
Devinder Chander
Editor-in-chief
Columnists
V.B. Rawat
Farzana Suri
Arun Kumar
Rahul Kumar
Harminder K. Bhogal
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Abhay Kumar
Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,
and Uttarakhand, Bhagat Singh
Koshiyari, Bandaru Dattatreya,
Draupadi Murmu, and Baby
Rani Maurya respectively; and
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister
Nitin Patel made donations on
Friday”, The Indian Express
reported.
In order to justify the
involvement with the government
and the state machinery in
the construction of the Ram
Temple, the media wrote a sentence
that the donation by the
President made in his “personal
capacity” (vyaktigat rup se).
But the media does not want to
tell us the truth that the way the
donation of President Kovind
was advertised through the
media was a purely political
act. The President is the first
citizen of India and also the
Head of the State. If he pays a
donation to any religious activity,
it carries a big legitimacy
for the act. It creates also an
impression that the President
has become a patron for the act.
In a secular democracy, a person
holding a constitutional
post is absolutely free to profess
a religion or not to profess
any, but he should not be seen
to be patronizing any particular
religious activity. Such an act
goes against the secular
Constitution of the country that
forbids the state from associating
with any particular religion.
The media is conspicuously
ignoring these points. It does
not want to accept the fact that
the RSS is planning to collect
funds from 10 crore families as
reported by Dainik Jagran
(January 8, p. 6). The media is
also silent about the fact that
the same Hindutva forces were
responsible for a religious frenzy
that tragically culminated in
the demolition of the Babri
Masjid and killings of a large
number of people in violence
related to the temple agitation.
The media does not want to
accept the fact that the Ram
Temple agitation was purely a
political movement for gaining
power for Hindutva outfits.
Those who have any doubt
about it can read a recently
published autobiography by the
former RSS activist Bhanwar
Meghwanshi. His biography
titled “Main Ek Karsewak Tha”
(I was an RSS volunteer) narrates
how the upper caste
Hindus organized Dalits and
lower castes to participate in
the Babri Masjid demolition in
Ayodhya; but they kept themselves
and their own children
away from participating in it.
Collecting donation for the
construction of the Ram
Temple is less a religious act
and more a political one. The
campaign is aimed at generating
less wealth than votes. The
Hindutva forces have got a
great opportunity to reach out
to each and every corner of the
country and mobilize people in
its support. They would not
only project themselves as the
Rama bhakta or devotees to
Lord Rama but call its opponents
and opposition leaders as
Ravana. The donation campaign
may also create law and
order problems. A news report
published in the Urdu daily
Inquilab (January 15, p. 15)
says that the Hindutva fanatics
organized a motorcycle rally in
Bulandshahar, UP, in the name
of collecting funds for Ram
Temple but ended up raising
anti-Muslim slogans and asking
them to leave the country.
During the anti-CAA
protests, the same media
donned the role of a great
champion of “secularism”. It
rejected a peaceful mass movement
on the pretext of the use
of religious symbols. For
example, the media alleged that
during the anti-CAA protests
the activists raised the slogans
in favor of Allah and women
sat on the protest sites in a
burqas. If invoking the name of
Allah by some activists, if it is
true, amounts to a violation of
secularism, is not a donation
for the construction of a religious
place by the people holding
constitutional posts and
high offices against the spirit of
secularism? Are not holding a
rally in the name of collecting
donation for building a religious
place and raising inflammatory
slogans against the religious
minority against secularism?
The media is still silent
about these questions. For
them, the religiosity promoted
by the Hindutva forces seems
to have become a new normal
and is now synonymous with
the national culture. For
instance, Dainik Jagran
(January 16) carried a picture
on its lead story in which government
officers are doing
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pooja before sending corona
vaccine to vaccination booths
in Mirzapur in eastern Uttar
Pradesh. How could public
officers be justified in doing
pooja at public offices? Had the
media taken it a “normal” event
if the same officers would have
recited the verses from the
Bible or offered namaz? Sadly,
the mainstream media, in a secular
democracy, continues to
ignore and it is increasingly
becoming a new zealot for the
Hindu religion as defined by
the Hindutva forces.
(Abhay Kumar is a Ph.D.
from JNU. He is broadly
interested in Minority and
Social Justice. Earlier, he
held a Post-Graduate
Diploma in English
Journalism from The Indian
Institute of Mass
Communication, New Delhi,
and worked as a Delhi-based
reporter with The Indian
Express. You may write to
him at
debatingissues@gmail.com)
Haryana Police arrest 89, recover Rs 112 cr in GST fraud
Chandigarh. In a wellcoordinated
operation against
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
scamsters, Haryana Police on
Sunday said it busted four
major gangs related to issuing
or registration of bogus firms
involved in fake invoice bills
scam which defrauded the government
exchequer to the tune
of over Rs 464.12 crore.
The nexus of the fraudsters
was active not only in Haryana
but across the country.
The crackdown on GST fake
invoice scam has also led to the
recovery of over Rs 112 crore
and unearthing of fake GST
identification numbers
(GSTIN).
A total of 72 police cases
have been filed so far in which
89 accused have been arrested
by the Crime Branch. Among
the total arrest, 40 cases have
been registered against on
Govind Sharma, Gaurav,
Anupam Singla and
Rakesh Arora.
Director General of
Police Manoj Yadava said
these persons issued
fraudulent invoices to
numerous firms and companies
without actual supply
of goods through
fraudulent e-way bills
(GST related challans for
transporting consignments)
and facilitated fake
income tax credit entitlement
on GST portal through GSTR-
3B form. It has also been
revealed that fraudulent income
tax credit worth crores of
rupees has been passed by these
gangs using fake GST invoices,
e-way bills and with the help of
forged bank transactions.
During the course of investigations,
it has also come to
light that out of the arrested
persons, some are white-collar
economic repeated offenders.
Police has also blocked
inadmissible income tax credit
worth of Rs 97.22 crore in the
Excise and Taxation
Department.
Yadava congratulated DGP,
Crime, Mohd Akil and his
entire team for their performance
in busting the
racket involved in
GST scam.
A total of 21 FIRs
against fake firms
belonging to the
Govind gang active in
Panipat and adjoining
areas were lodged in
2019 while other
three gangs involved
in major GST evasion
were booked between
2018 and 2019. Police
has so far blocked income tax
credit of these gangs to the tune
of over Rs 80 crore.
The DGP said the major
goods involved in these GST
invoice scams were scrap, iron
and steel articles, cotton yarn,
paper, etc. The drive against
the GST evaders and income
tax credit fraudsters is expected
to intensify and more
arrests are likely in the future.
Maximum fraudsters in
these gangs used to first register
fake firms on the GST portal
in the name of gullible people
and then generate fake
invoices, bills of these firms
by using software apps like
BusyApp, TallyApp, Shkun
Software, etc, and then
uploading these bills to generate
e-way bills on the GST
portal.
"We have conducted a
statewide drive against GST
fake invoice fraud and requested
the department concerned
seeking all the records. As the
beneficiaries (income tax credit
claimants) are from various
parts of Haryana and other
states too, we are coordinating
with our counterparts to track
the culprits involved in the
fraud," Akil said.