Smriti’s reversed academics

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April 12, 2019

The row over Smriti Irani’s educational qualifications is back in the limelight after the Union Textile Minister filed her affidavit as a candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. According to the affidavit filed by her in the 2014 general elections, she claimed to complete her graduation in 1996 and now in 2019 in a fresh affidavit, she accepted that she is only 12th standard qualified and that she did not complete her three-year degree course. It seems that the academic career of the Union Minister is in reverse gear.

After a fresh affidavit was filed by Smriti Irani, the Congress on Friday called the Union Minister a “serial liar” and said that she should be disqualified from contesting the polls. The party alleged that she had falsified records of her educational qualification and submitted contradictory affidavits to the Election Commission. Smriti Irani hit back at the Congress and said, “No matter what you say, the more you harass me, the harder I will work in Amethi.” Smriti Irani has been fielded against Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi also accused Smriti Irani of misusing her influence and power as the Union Minister. She said, “Union Minister Smriti Irani, who had been rubbishing Opposition’s claim that she is not a graduate, on Thursday accepted that she enrolled for an undergraduate course in Delhi University, but did not complete it.” She said that Smriti Irani should be disqualified. “We have no issue with the fact that Smriti Irani is not a graduate. The issue here is that she has lied repeatedly on oath and to the courts. People of India will see through these lies and give a befitting political reply to a ‘serial liar’,” said Priyanka Chaturvedi, accusing her of being guilty of an offence under Section 125A and Section 33 of the Representation of Peoples Act. In her affidavit filed during her nomination, Smriti Irani has submitted that she passed her secondary school examination in 1991 and senior secondary in 1993. She said that she had not completed her Bachelor of Commerce (Part-I) from Delhi University’s School of Open Learning in 1994.

Mumbai Women Congress president Dr. Ajanta Yadav told Afternoon Voice, “During 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Smriti Irani had submitted fake educational qualification certificates. However, it has been revealed that she has only passed B.Com 1st year and she is not a degree holder. She lacked knowledge but still was appointed as the Minister of Human Resource Development. She had taken the wrong decision; otherwise, Rohit Vemula would have been saved.”

“The decisions taken by her as the HRD Minister did not benefit the nation. After everyone raised objections against her, she was removed and made the Textile Minister. Her language is abusive. What work had she done for the welfare of women and girls education?” Yadav asked.

It is noteworthy that in 2014, Smriti Irani fought an election against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi constituency, but lost. In spite of this, she became a Cabinet Minister in Narendra Modi cabinet and an important Human Resource Development Ministry was given to her. The opposition parties including Congress raised the issue, but PM Modi did not care. She continued as the HRD minister. Later on, in a cabinet reshuffling, the Human Resource Development Ministry was taken from her and Prakash Javdekar was made HRD minister of state. After this, Prakash Javdekar was promoted as the Cabinet Minister. On the other hand, Smriti Irani got Textile, and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

BJP MLA Smita Wagh said, “Politics doesn’t work on degree. It is not necessary that a person will deliver in politics if he is well educated. Congress is politicising Smriti Irani’s educational background as they are worried about Rahul Gandhi’s defeat.”

BJP must boost the core strength of its leaders

By

Vaidehi Taman

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April 12, 2019

Ahead of elections, PM Narendra Modi and his ministers are under the scanner for various reasons. Mumbai based RTI activist sought details with the PMO requesting the nature and details of the expenses incurred on the foreign as well as the domestic visits of the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers since May 2014. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has said that it does not keep records of the expenses incurred on the domestic visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They said that the documentation of the expenses incurred on domestic visits of the Prime Minister is not part of the records and information maintained. The information related to the expenditure on domestic visits does not come in the purview of a single authority because such domestic visits are organised by the different public authorities. Prime Minister’s tours related to the poll campaigns are not official ones and the PMO does not have to incur any expenditure on these visits and therefore, the details could not be provided.

On the Prime Minister’s foreign visits and expenses incurred on these trips, the PMO advised to go through the PMO’s website to obtain the details but no straight account was provided.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Smriti Irani, who is contesting as a BJP candidate in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi against Rahul Gandhi, declared to the Election Commission that she is not a graduate. This is the first time that she makes it clear in her poll affidavit that her three-year degree course was “not completed”.

In the category of Highest Educational Qualification, Smriti Irani states “Bachelor of Commerce Part-1” from the School of Open Learning (Correspondence) University of Delhi. The year is 1994, which means she joined the course that year but did not complete it. “Three year degree course not completed,” is written in brackets. She made the same declaration in her 2017 affidavit to the Rajya Sabha, where she is a member. However, in 2014, she was a graduate; if somebody provides false information for a position of clerk, his/her candidature or job is liable to be cancelled, but for a Minister, who plays a major role, it is not a matter.

Way back in 2004, when she contested from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk against Congress leader Kapil Sibal, her affidavit only said B.A. or Bachelor of Arts, 1996, Delhi University (School of Correspondence). Well, From Yale to ‘not completed’ bachelors sounds funny! Can the EC question her for making a false declaration in 2004? She is the first such person in the world who completed her graduation in 2014 and 12th class in 2019.

With many lies BJP came to power and ruled for five years — 2014 was big with fat swearing-in and huge mandate. Narendra Modi and BJP came to power with a clear majority, but the cabinet was slim and trim and all those non-elected leaders were given the ministries. Many elected leaders had to take a back seat, just because they were not in good books of the powerhouses. BJP had a centralised power and only three are the decision makers — Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Arun Jaitley are the party rulers. Rest has no voices, but assigned ministries and tasks, and remotely controlled by these power centers. Arun Jaitley’s electoral foray ended in defeat, but he is a part of BJP’s top troika along with Modi and Shah. This was the question that struck my mind when Lok Sabha election results came out in 2014. Arun Jaitley, the head of the Finance Department and Smriti Irani, the head of the Education in India play a vital role in shaping the future of BJP. Now, the question is, if already people have rejected both of them in the Lok Sabha elections and yet these two are making laws for the people, isn’t this wrong?

In the political system, there are so many hidden facts, that what people see at the surface, majority party governs us. Now a member of the majority party decides whom they want to elect as their leader, which is the Prime Minister. Then, the PM will advise the President, who all Ministers he wants to be in the Cabinet. The PM and the Cabinet ministers need not be the elected members of the Lok Sabha. Now, the question remains that if we, the people, have not elected them, how can they make laws for us. In India, we are limited in terms of involvement in politics. We cry when prices increase; we get angry, when corruption comes in news. I believe that is because we are aware of what’s happening but cannot correct it. The only chance that we have got to correct is in the elections. However, truly, that time also we just vote first by seeing what party we are voting for which is based on caste and religion. Then again, as the last year election, people take revenge. Well! A non-elected member in the cabinet ministry is a debatable subject. However, if we look at BJP, we will see they have literally imported leaders from another party to strengthen their own. There are very fewer leaders that can be called as BJP’s own leaders who can be seen in active politics.

PM Modi was a stranger to network in Parliament, but Jaitley is not. His ability to make friends across the aisle and resolve parliamentary impasses has helped the stalemates that helped the government. He is an eminent lawyer and educated person, whereas the Modi government has many non graduate ministers in the cabinet.

In the 2004 general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha, Smriti contested unsuccessfully against Kapil Sibal from the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi. She was nominated as executive member of the central committee of the BJP. In December 2004, Irani, blaming then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for BJP’s electoral losses, threatened to fast unto death until he resigned. However, she later retracted this demand after BJP’s central leadership threatened to take action against her. In May 2009, Irani while campaigning for Vijay Goel’s candidature in New Delhi, voiced her concerns about the safety of women in the capital. She advocated capital punishment for rapists as a deterrent. In August 2011, she was sworn in as a Member of Parliament from Gujarat to the Rajya Sabha. Irani again contested the 2014 general elections against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi constituency of Uttar Pradesh and lost to Gandhi by 1,07,923 votes, a 12.32 per cent margin. On May 26, 2014, Prime Minister Modi appointed her as the Minister of Human Resource Development in his cabinet. Her appointment was criticised by many people owing to her lack of formal higher education. In July 2016, the Ministry of Human Resource Development was taken away from Irani, and she was given the Ministry of Textiles instead, in a cabinet reshuffle. If you look at Modi’s 23 Cabinet ministers and their educational qualifications, you will find half of them are not even graduates. Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who was elected from Vizianagaram, is the only member from the Lok Sabha to make it to the Cabinet rank from residual Andhra Pradesh. His educational qualification is Matriculation, Animal-rights activist Maneka Gandhi made a comeback to the Union Cabinet as the only member of the Gandhi family in the BJP-led government, Educational qualification-ISC.

On one hand, many non-elected leaders are ruling the party and on the other hand, the less qualified ministers are on the peak of career, and there are some ministers who are forced to quit the BJP because of its lost narrative. BJP needs to focus on its narratives and address the core strength of their own leaders before giving a crucial position to those leaders who hopped on the party from other ideologies.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

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Your vote counts

By

C S Krishnamurthy

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April 12, 2019

Voting, it takes time to register and learn about the parties and the candidates. Often, if the candidate is good, the party is not, and vice-versa. On the Election Day, standing in long queues or slog through scorching weather knowing that the chances your individual vote will make a difference among the hundreds and thousands are pretty much negligible.

Is it irrational, then, to exercise your franchise?

Most people are disenchanted by politics, as most politicians as confidence-tricksters and the political system are no more than a means of furthering the vested interests. Voting has become an activity to some that are not worth the effort. Certainly, many voters take a nonchalant attitude. There are some optimists who think because they are voting, people similar to them who support the same candidate/party probably vote, too.

But, very importantly, bad politicians are sent to “New Delhi” by good people who don’t vote. Isn’t it?

Mandatory voting in other countries

Do you know that nearly 30 countries have compulsory voting? In Greece and Brazil, for instance, voting is mandatory. If you miss Election Day, you will have to justify it, else you cannot open a bank account, have a passport, driving license, etc. In Bolivia, they can be prevented from drawing their salaries from the bank account.

Belgium has the oldest existing compulsory system (since 1892). It is fine for non-voting. If you don’t vote for 10 elections, you can lose the right to vote. You also face difficulties of getting a job in the public sector. Australia has compulsory attendance. Non-attendees face fines and possible imprisonment. In many systems, “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain”.

India is a great country, whose greatness is at risk when a significant number of people, nay citizens, doesn’t participate. I don’t want other people making my choices for me. I wish to have a choice in things that affect me. Though voting does not guarantee that one’s preferences will prevail, choosing not to vote denies a person of having a say in a democracy.

Be Heard

Regardless of your political ideologies or preferences, voting is a right that you are entitled to as an Indian citizen. Take your time to get educated on the politicians, political parties and the options available. The pessimistic view that your vote won’t count, is naïve, to say the least.

The time has come to cast your vote and exercise your right-duty pack. We owe it, not to the politicians, but to ourselves. If you don’t vote, you are in a state of ignorance, and you are giving scope to someone to fake your privilege. Unmindful of the gender, income, caste religion…, on the poll day, come as one entity, the voter.

Every vote counts. Make sure yours does, too. Just do it!

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Here is how much Modi has damaged India! — Part II

By

Afternoon Voice

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April 12, 2019

The Modi government handed over two public airports to the Adani group who has no experience in managing airports. It also favoured the union’s ordinance that allows a private company to use the Aadhaar database for profits in the absence of a data protection law, even after the Rajya Sabha not passing the legislation and the Lok Sabha session has already ended.

The government released a notification to introduce a new (13-point) roster system for the appointments in public funded universities and colleges would deny ‘socially and educationally backward classes’ equal opportunities to which Dalits and OBCs protested widely against it across the nation for months. It was also reported that PM Modi has involved Anil Ambani in the Rafale jet deal so that he could be benefitted and his business could revive. Rahul Gandhi has been alleging both Modi and Ambani for the scams in the jet deal. The documents regarding the Rafale deal was also stolen from the Defence Ministry for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was highly criticised and also blamed for being behind the theft of the files.

Modi has taken India to hell in the last five years. In Kashmir, he has let free a routine of total fear dependent on zero resilience for political contradiction. Today, there are no aggressors in Kashmir, just fear based oppressors who are being chased down and killed without being allowed to surrender. PM Modi said that the Kashmiris are tingling to be liberated from them. That obviously is the reason that a large number of youth emptied out into the avenues and had the capacity to shut down the entire of Kashmir for five months – three years ago. What standard and dissenter pioneers have clarified, more than once is that while they need ‘Azadi’ from India, they would prefer not to turn into a piece of Pakistan. Nor would they like to separate their connections with India. All they need isn’t to be administered by Delhi, particularly on issues concerning their governmental, culture, and religion issues.

Today, standard and dissident pioneers are mad in their supplications for the resumption of political discourse with Delhi on the grounds that the nonattendance of exchange and PM’s sole dependence on the firearm is driving the adolescent relentlessly towards Pakistan, and more towards al-Qaeda and ISIS. PM Modi, just to satisfy the guarantees, made to restrict pioneers from Kashmir, to examine any arrangement inside the Indian protected system, for Kashmir to begin quieting down. In any case, he is bound and determined against this in light of the fact that a readiness to consult with a neighbourhood government or development goes against the very grain of the hard country express that PM Modi needs to change his approach towards everything concerns with the harmony of the nation.

PM Modi took a pledge in 2015 that he would serve to ‘Maa Ganga’ and end her misery by cleaning her, however, the project got lost. Many social environmentalists have sacrificed their lives on hunger strikes to clean River Ganges but the government still seems to be in deep sleep. On one side, Modi campaigned for his Prime Ministerial candidacy in 2014 with quotes like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padao’ and on the other side, BJP leaders were trying, favouring their best to save the rape accused of Kathua and Unnao rape and murder case. Apart from this, BJP leaders threatened the Indian girl students to wear western clothes, beaten up Banaras Hindu University (BHU) students with the help of local police, made inhuman and grave remarks on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

Union Minister Jayant Sinha legitimised hatred and violence by felicitating the lynching convicts. When seven convicts of lynching Muslims and Dalits walked out on bail in July last year, six of them were directly taken to Sinha’s residence where the minister welcomed them with a garland. If a community which has suffered the most under the BJP government then it’s Muslims, Dalits, and then the farmers of India who run the country on their shoulder. The suicide of the farmers rose sharply during the Modi regime. The government imported wheat and pulses which crashed the price of domestic productions. The farmers through all the manners tried to grab the attention of the government. They started movements, marched hundreds of kilometres on foot and held agitations across the nation many times.

However, instead of getting the attention of the BJP government, they were lathi-charged by police, and the politicians neglected them; in anger, many farmers committed suicides during the movements. Apart from using every means to generate and grab vote bank, BJP has also supported and promoted those people who killed rationalists, objective journalist, Muslim minorities, Dalits and everyone who went against the BJP decision-making. It supported rapists and people who abused Congress, Gandhi family. It gave the term Love Jihad, Ghar Wapsi, Presstitute, and Hindu nationalism. The damage BJP has done to this country will take time to repair.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)

Letters to the Editor: April 12, 2019

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Web Team

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April 12, 2019

FEATURE LETTER DIARY 679x400 e1553672678487 — Letters to the Editor: April 12, 2019 10

Are our elections free and fair?

The 2019 Parliamentary elections started on a sour note with lots of discrepancies which in a way is a threat to our democratic process. EVM machines were malfunctioning at many polling booths with some even registering votes to one single Party irrespective of the button one pressed. The names of the voters missing and this has become a common phenomenon of elections in our country in recent times. The most shocking was the indelible ink disappearing after a few washes which have put our democratic process to shame globally.

Elections have no meaning if they are not free and fair. The Election Commissioner has to look into the discrepancies on a war footing as several phases of elections are yet to follow. Unfair practice at the election for undue advantage is a serious offense and those responsible should be put behind bars even if they happen to be influential politicians belonging to any party. Elections should be held under neutral observers from other countries that can be hired to give our democratic process more authenticity!

S.N.Kabra

Need smart queue management at polling booths

The recent conclusion of Phase 1 voting for elections in 91 constituencies has resulted in a skewed voter turn-out ratio. The outcome of such a voter turn-out may only be known further as the election progresses in the upcoming phases and may perhaps have an impact with the announcement of results.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) this time was very proactive to mobilise voters to the polling booths with various voter awareness drives including Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program (SVEEP) with the creation of an exclusive SVEEP division. The division has striven hard to create voter awareness programs but for the outcome, the voter turn-out expectations witnessed in the first phase of elections. It has now resulted in ECI to conduct further extensive outreach programs and thus, aim to achieve a better voter turnout in the upcoming phases.

The other outreach factors as adopted by ECI such as a dedicated voter express train carrying the message of voter awareness, providing assistance to Persons with Disability (PWD) through ‘Matdatha Mitras’ as volunteers, selfie contests encouraged on social media, extensive awareness drive to use CVIGIL app, 1950 helpline and NSVP portal etc are also appreciable. Perhaps an overworked ECI was time bound to enforce too many regulations related to Model Code of Conduct, Electoral Bonds, etc. Thus the due attention required to achieve high voter turn-out through extensive campaigns perhaps took a back seat for now.

ECI should now also strive to bring innovative measures to reduce waiting time of disheartening long queues at polling booths. The voters are patiently forced to wait in the scorching sun especially in the rural areas and perhaps may act as a deterrent factor resulting in low voter turn-out. Smart and quicker queue management at polling booths through technological innovation by ECI is highly a need for the hour.

Varun SD

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

Faulty EVMs scar LS Election

By

Moumita Mukherjee

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April 11, 2019

The first phase of polling in Jammu’s Poonch area got heated up with EVM malfunction allegations by the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the Congress buttons were not working in at least 6-7 machines in Poonch and Mendhar belt of the constituency. The National Conference’s Jammu provincial president Davinder Singh Rana also accused that the uniformed personnel in Poonch’s Arai Malka area coerced people to vote for BJP and manhandled them when the voters denied the same.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted a video showing the voters raising anti-BJP slogans after they were purportedly roughed up by the BSF for not voting for the BJP. “A voter at polling booth in Jammu was manhandled by the BSF because he refused to cast his vote for BJP. Using armed forces at polling stations to coerce people to vote for the BJP shows their desperation & hunger to usurp power by hook or crook,” she wrote in her tweet. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also confirmed the allegation with a tweet where he posted a video where a Presiding Officer is heard sharing the issues around the faulty EVMs and delay in polling procedure as its consequence.

The officer was heard saying that the polling process started on time and there’s no shortage of staff. Elaborating the reason behind the delay, he said, “A button on a ballot unit is not working. There is no other problem… We can’t say the reason why one button is not working.”

When pressed further, the officer said, “The fourth button is not working… one with the Hand symbol).” ‘Haath’ or Hand is the election symbol of the Congress. Besides that, a member of the crowd around the officer is heard saying, “If it was one or two machines we would have understood but there are reports of so many machines are malfunctioning.”

The District Election Officer Rahul Yadav spoke to ANI and confirmed that the faulty EVMs were replaced.

91 Lok sabha constituencies across 18 states and two union territories including seven of Maharashtra went to polls on Thursday in the first phase of the parliamentary elections. Indians turned out in comparatively in larger numbers to vote in the first of the seven-phased general elections. Long queue of enthusiastic voters were seen outside the pooling booths in different corners of the country. Two Parliamentary constituencies — Baramulla and Jammu — out of total six in the Jammu and Kashmir witnessed polls on Thursday. The state recorded 46.17 per cent voter turnout till 3 pm. Poonch is part of the Jammu Lok Sabha seat where sitting BJP lawmaker Jugal Kishore Sharma is contesting with Congress’ Raman Bhalla. The fight is looked as a tougher one as the National Conference has extended its support to the Congress candidate while the PDP has also decided not to field any candidate from the Jammu region.

The Jammu seat has the highest number of 24 candidates in the state in these polls. The constituency, spread over four districts of Jammu, Samba, Poonch, and Rajouri and covering 20 assembly segments, was won by BJP’s Jugal Kishore in the 2014 general elections; Kishore defeated veteran Congress leader and two-time MP Madan Lal Sharma by a margin of over 2.57 lakh votes.

Assange abusing “hero” status to avoid serious rape charges

By

Vaidehi Taman

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April 11, 2019

After long tug-of-war, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been holed up for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation. A video posted online showed an agitated, frail-looking man with white hair and a white beard being carried out of the central London building by at least seven men. He was taken into custody at a central London police station and to be brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court later. Sweden later dropped the investigation, but Assange was arrested for breaking the rules of his original bail in London. Assange’s relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno’s personal life. Moreno had previously accused Assange of violating the terms of his refuge. There is outrage on social media after his arrest, because to some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as an abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. However, for others, he is a dangerous rebel, who has undermined the security of the United States. Supporters of Assange had argued that living in the cramped conditions without access to sunlight had damaged his health. Many feel pangs of concern for his wellbeing. The stretch between the rooms he inhabits now and an American detention facility may become the most eventful in his life.

For his supporters, he is a hero who has highlighted the failings of modern corporate-controlled journalism. For others, he is nothing more than a modern-day Ida Tarbell, the investigative journalist who unearthed and publicised the practices of Standard Oil at the beginning of the 20th century. There is a section in media known as investigative journalism. This may sound crazy, but people are actually hired to investigate and find out the truth, and were paid to do it!

Julian Assange character has somewhat filled the role, which once was occupied by investigative journalism. Sure, one can argue that he has disclosed state secrets, but that was also done with the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and that highlighted how useless and bad America’s involvement in the Vietnam War was.

So, Julian Assange was ironically made possible by the big corporation’s wiping out investigative journalism. Those who miss and support investigative journalism should support him. The debate regarding Julian Assange and his development of WikiLeaks, is one that is very heated and controversial. Assange is an infamous Internet activist for his involvement in politics, social activism and journalism.

He founded WikiLeaks, a website meant to have the accessibility to international news sources, responsible for leaking them to the general public. It was launched in 2006, and to date has leaked over 1.2 million confidential documents beyond the hands of the government. The site has leaked various controversial government plans, secret documents, unknown videos, and front-page news headlines over a period of six years. Within recent years, many of the documents have been pertaining to the US war in Iraq, releasing documents such as mapping, prisoner information, and details as well as deals with media regarding coverage of the war.

The heated debate is over whether or not Julian Assange is a hero for obtaining and publicising this information or a villain. Assange has been arrested numerous times, on a large number of hacking charges. He’s been caught hacking into school systems, government systems, police systems, etc. He identified himself as a hacker at an early age, and this is where the debate of hero vs. villain comes into play. By hacking into files and obtaining this information, does that make him responsible for any negative outcome that occurs?

Leaving apart hacking and investigating any stuff, Julian Assange is fenced with so many charges of molestation, rape. His team is in desperate need of money and on their pages, they are begging for money. They are making very hard efforts to collect donations.

A few years back also, WikiLeaks team and its support group campaigned against the handful of financial groups and perusing people by asking for donations. However, as we all know, there is no excuse for stealing the documents of the governments, commercial establishments, banks, credit card companies, and individuals. WikiLeaks has to spend millions of dollars to defend the legal problems of Assange and the WikiLeaks in England and the rest of the world. Meanwhile, other hackers too attacked WikiLeaks the same way Assange attacked others. There are many hackers still languishing in jail for supporting Assange, but so far he never realized his moral duty towards them. Hackers strongly feel that Assange has betrayed them. Assange is not someone who is trying to hunt out a scandal, with honest journalistic approach and efforts, like the Bofors scandal, Harshad Mehta or Telgi scam. He mainly collects information from some disobedient employees in administration and publishes them to get an unsavory reputation. My question to forthright media is why are they forgetting that Assange has been arrested for sexual crimes, not for standing up for the truth, although one may try to make it look like that? Let us not make this guy some kind of pioneer for truth seeker or bringing controversies as truth. This happened even earlier and this will continue. The only difference Assange used different modus operandi all together. Finally, he’s now only wanted in the UK for breaching his bail and not even likely to be extradited to Sweden but following whatever sentence he served in the UK for breach of bail, would then be set free in the country he fled to! No one should think Assange is doing anything other than using this whole extradition and death-penalty claim other than as a smoke-screen to avoid facing serious charges of rape. Many people see him as a hero because he sticks two fingers up at the US. But people need to realise he’s abusing that “hero” status to avoid very serious charges. Meanwhile, have several pre-recorded tapes of Assange released at regular intervals to keep up the impression he is still holed up. By the time he is discovered, he will be sipping Colada Moradas on the beach.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

Julian Assange arrested in London

By

Moumita Mukherjee

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April 11, 2019

Ending a nearly seven-year-long stand-off, the British Police on Thursday arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London after his South American hosts abruptly revoked his seven-year asylum. In a video that went viral soon after the news of his arrest broke out, an agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and white beard is seen being carried out of the embassy by at least seven men to a waiting police van.

“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said on Thursday. They also said that they arrested Assange after being “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government’s withdrawal of asylum.” The police statement also read that Assange will be in custody at a central London police station and will be appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court “as soon as is possible”.

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Assange with the aim of obtaining and publishing confidential documents and images. Till date, it has leaked over 1.2 million confidential documents beyond the hands of the government. The site has leaked various controversial government plans, secret documents, unknown videos, and front-page news headlines over a period of six years. Within recent years, many of the documents have been pertaining to the US war in Iraq, releasing documents such as mapping, prisoner information, and details as well as deals with media regarding coverage of the war. Footage of US soldiers killing civilians from a helicopter in Iraq released by WikiLeaks hit the international headlines four years after its inception in 2010. As per reports, the video showed a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. He had been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012, after seeking asylum there to avoid extradition to Sweden on a sexual assault allegation – which he denied and was later dropped by Sweden in 2017.

However, the charges that still exist against him and led to his arrest are breaking the rules of his original bail in London. His rapport with his asylum host crumbled and Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno’s personal life. Assange was also accused of repeatedly violating his terms of asylum.

The followers of Assange called the arrest illegal as for them he is a hero who is held free speech high and exposed the abuse of power by modern states. On the other hand, he is labelled a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States. Adding to that, the alleged rape victim reportedly said that she would push to reopen the case against him.

However, as per reports, Junior Foreign Minister Alan Duncan confirmed that Britain would not extradite Assange to the United States if he were to face the possibility of the death penalty there. WikiLeaks alleged that Ecuador terminating Assange’s political asylum in violation of international law is illegal.

Here is how much Modi has damaged India! — Part I

By

Afternoon Voice

-

April 11, 2019

Since it has been five years now, everyone is quite aware that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reluctant about talking his government’s achievements in all of his political rallies, media interaction, public speech or in parliamentary meetings. He has established himself as a brand in these last five years. He has advertised himself in such a way that it has become very hard for the people to remove his image, however, a parliamentary query has revealed that the Modi government has spent around Rs 4,880 crore of taxpayer money on advertising its achievements. As the elections are going on in the country, it is evident that the historic opportunity has been wasted by the BJP government which won the 2014 elections historically by side-lining national as well as regional parties.

There are many factors which talk length about the BJP governance in the last five years. It has cultivated hate and there has been a sharp increase in the targeted attacks on Muslims and Dalits. More heartening is that the state government openly endorsed such attacks and attackers. BJP ministers welcome murderers and rapists with garlands. The government supported all those people who were against particular sections of society. The government has indirectly given them the law to take action against anyone they want to.

Thousands of cases of lynching, shooting, burning, and killing Muslims and Dalits have been registered in the last five years and every time a crime was done by the BJP workers Prime Minister Narendra Modi was silent and at the same time he was vocal about putting his condolences and condemning the attack, deaths, natural disaster in countries other than India. By using the Ram Janmabhumi and Babri Masjid dispute during his 2014 election rallies – Modi has been successful in gaining the highest mandate form the people and he understands it very well that how to play with the religious sentiments of the Hindus. However, in this game of politics BJP has divided the country into religious lines. It has created hatred in its supporters towards Muslims which is destroying the fabric of our democracy.

Freedom of speech has been almost stopped forcefully by the government and also there has been enslavement of a certain section of media which simply choke on any criticism no matter how innocuous the Prime Minister and the BJP president are. Media channels, newspapers, and journalists who were not pliant were blocked and stopped from printing, broadcasting, and sharing their views of the government on social media, the premises of media houses were raided, journalists were fired from their job, some journalist got death warnings, some rape warnings, some murder warnings and some, in reality, were murdered which include Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi, and many more.

Demonetisation is another stroke for the Indians which top the list of BJP’s sheer failure and the widespread havoc it created across the nation that it inflicted on the national economy. The disastrous demonetisation is being taught as precautionary subjects in business universities overseas. It failed on every aspect that the BJP stated during taking this decision like combatting terror funding, fake notes business, and black money. The demonetisation killed hundreds of people, broke marriages, shut downed hospitals, schools, and markets, brought unemployment, crisis, suffering and promoted bribery. Above all, as claimed by senior political analysts it was one of the biggest scams of the Modi-led BJP government.

BJP has weakened the government institutions. The parliament is an inconvenience to this government which prefers to rule the flat and ordinances. The Prime Minister rarely attended the parliament and whenever attended rather than discussing the legislative agenda or to answer the questions raised in the House, he always talked about his government, his achievements and the failures of the opposition. It introduced a draconian Aadhaar card and completely failed to deny the citizen a fundamental right to privacy. This government argued in the Supreme Court against the citizen having a fundamental right to privacy. It also argued for surveillance and labelled privacy as an elitist concern and failed to answer why it ordered the mandatory to link Aadhaar card to all services from school admission to railway tickets to banking.

Eventually, the Supreme Court had to step in and solved the issue. Rafale deal is another big scam in itself. The prime minister and his secret terms and conditions of a deal to acquire fewer jets for three times price, without following the stipulated procurement procedure is nothing but stupidity and cunningness. However, when faced with questions, the Prime Minister attacked the opposition and said that the opposition can query about the technicalities of the jet, not the price – it’s a matter of national security. Since the Rafale deal happened – Congress president Rahul Gandhi has continuously been attacking and alleging Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani for committing scam in the deal. However, as believed by the opposition leaders when the search was about to expose the documents related to the dealing of the jet got stolen from the Defence Ministry.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)

April 2 World Autism Day best forgotten

By

Jayanthy Subramaniam

-

April 11, 2019

On World Autism Day, we come across doctors share how to handle autistic kids and the ways and means to tackle them in a friendly and in a most dedicated way. On April 2 every year, organisations around the world celebrate World Autism Day, with events around the world, to persuade neurotypicals, people not on the autism spectrum, that autistic people are unique individuals who should not be seen as cases for treatment just like differently abled persons.

In Sanpada, Aashray School is doing yeomen service to the society by taking up the job of inculcating education to such students and provide them with a scope to learn art and culture and go to the extent of training them in sports like cycling and running to have a feel of the outside world. The school organises annual sports day and annual day to encourage the children to perform in front of their parents in a very big way. The stall outside the school sells items made by the students studying here to give some encouragement.

World Autism Day quickly became a global event which is still celebrated widely online. The most important thing to note about the day is that it is an autistic community event is conducted to give a fillip to the importance and it is originated from and is still led by autistic people ourselves. It is not a day for other charities or organisations to promote themselves or stifle autistic people. The rainbow infinity symbol is used as the symbol of this day, representing “diversity with infinite variations and infinite possibilities and it really reveals the real essence of such pride day.

The autistic people have a unique set of characteristics that provide them many rewards and challenges. Although autism is an expression of neurodiversity, some people promoting autistic pride believe that some of the difficulties that they experience are as the result of societal issues. Autism and other forms of disability are part of the human experience that contributes to human diversity. As such, the United Nations has emphasised the need to mainstream disability in the Organisation’s development agenda. Mainstreaming disability requires an integrated approach in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that inequality is not perpetuated. People need to accept autism every day, not just on that particular day.

Autism is no longer classified as a single disorder, but rather an entire spectrum ranging in severity. Autism is the core of all of these syndromes, with its features being prevalent to varying degrees throughout, and includes such disorders such as Rett Syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder. One of the most commonly known disorders on the list, outside of Autism itself, is Asperger’s. Asperger Syndrome is signified by the presence of Autism symptoms with no impairment of language development. With World Autism day on April 2 and Autistic Pride day on June 18, we remind people to be a part of the persons suffering from such syndrome and make sure people are aware of such a disorder in an ongoing basis.

In Kuwait, the teachers of this fraternity are well trained to make them aware of all the problems faced by such students by providing a personal touch. They dance with autistic students and help them to feel at ease and learn the movements to perfection. The teachers are becoming part of the system and are made to visit the palace of the children to observe the behavioural movement of affected children in front of their parents and other family members under the house surroundings.

Arati Vatsala, an Indian working in Kuwait after doing MA in psychology and Working for a couple of years in Gurugram in an International School of this nature, feel ill at ease in dealing with children and take the job in a friendly way. World Autism day brings out the best in teachers in this line and provides the best opportunity to make the day more meaningful.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)