Swami Nityananda: Tension Continues at Bidadi Ashram

Swami Nityananda is again in news for the assault on a Kannada news channel reporter by his disciples at Bidadi ashram on Thursday. The godman had called for a press meet on Thursday to clear the air about allegations levelled against him by one of his former disciples, Aarathi Rao.

During the meet, reporter of a Kannada news channel questioned about summons issued by a US Court against Nityananda and sought his reaction. First Swami denied about receiving any such summons, but when reporter showed copies of the summons, he got flared up and asked his disciples to throw the reporter and his lawyer friend out of the meet. Some of the assembled journalists opposed the move and were abused by the disciples. The reporters later walked out. The TV reporter later filed a complaint against Nithyananda and four of his followers alleging of physical assault and threat to his life, police said.

Based on the complaints and counter complaints, the Bidadi police registered two first information reports (FIRs) on Thursday - one against Nithyananda and others, and another against the reporter. Tension prevailed at the Nithyananda ashram for the second day on Friday when activists of some Kannada organisations and ashram devotees clashed for over three hours. The police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the warring groups. The Bidadi police arrested 20 activists of Kannada organisations. Ten devotees have also been taken into custody and their role in the clash and Thursday's unruly incidents is being probed.

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.