Pope Francis called for open doors and inclusivity during a visit to Hungary on Sunday.
The Hungarian government has long faced criticism over anti-immigration policies and rhetoric that has stoked xenophobia at home. Concerns about Budapest’s treatment of minorities were exacerbated on the eve of the pope’s three-day visit when Hungarian President Katalin Novák unexpectedly pardoned a far-right terrorist.
Speaking to a large crowd in central Budapest on Sunday morning before wrapping up his trip, the pope did not directly address the Hungarian government’s policies but was blunt about the need to embrace outsiders.
“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” the pope said at an outdoor mass, pointing to “the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor.”
“Please, brothers and sisters, let us open those doors!” he added. “Let us try to be — in our words, deeds and daily activities — like Jesus, an open door: a door that is never shut in anyone’s face, a door that enables everyone to enter and experience the beauty of the Lord’s love and forgiveness.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — who is not Catholic himself but has close political allies who emphasize their Catholic roots — has tried to capitalize on the pope’s visit, tweeting on Friday that “it is a privilege to welcome” the pontiff and that “Hungary has a future if it stays on the Christian path.”
On Sunday, however, Pope Francis underscored that his message is directed at Hungary itself.
“I say this also to our lay brothers and sisters, to catechists and pastoral workers, to those with political and social responsibilities, and to those who simply go about their daily lives, which at times are not easy. Be open doors!” he said.
“Be open and inclusive,” the pope added, “then, and in this way, help Hungary to grow in fraternity, which is the path of peace.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
It happens to all pianists at some point: that terrifying moment when you’re on stage and can’t remember what comes next. My former teacher, Jean-Paul Sévilla, was once playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations when, at the end of Variation 7, he couldn’t remember how Variation 8 began. By the time he got off stage to find his score it came to him, but his evening was ruined. Then there was Vlado Perlemuter who, upon leaving home to go to the concert hall, was asked by his wife if he had forgotten anything. A friend in attendance jokingly said: “The beginning of the concerto!” When, a few hours later, Vlado walked on stage in Paris to perform Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (which famously begins with a quiet piano solo), he couldn’t find the notes. My own turn came when I was 50 years old, playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (all four and a half hours of it) from memory in Stuttgart. It was part of a world tour in which I played that mammoth work 56 times in 26 countries. That night, however, I went wrong in the big A minor fugue from Book 1 and couldn’t find my way out. I had to go and get the score. You feel so ashamed – but we’re only human, and sometimes it happens.
On the whole, I’ve been blessed with an excellent memory – I suppose some would even say prodigious as I’ve performed the complete solo keyboard works of Bach (the exception being The Art of Fugue), the 32 sonatas of Beethoven, and who knows how many millions of other notes from memory over the years. I always thought it would have been a good idea to measure my brain before I memorised all that Bach and then again after to see how it had developed and changed. Too late now. At the age of 64, it’s definitely shrinking, and memorising has become a very conscious, frustrating and time-consuming activity. But I stick at it because memory is a muscle that needs to be constantly used to stay in any sort of shape.
When you’re a young pianist, memory almost comes without thinking. A huge part of it is reflex memory; add to that aural memory (especially if, like me, you had perfect pitch), visual memory (some pianists, like Yvonne Loriod, who was married to Olivier Messiaen, had a piece memorised after looking at it only once) and memory of association, and you have a relatively quick process.
I say I “had” perfect pitch because that has slipped with age. As a kid, I could instantly name all the notes in even the most complicated chords. Now I need time to think about it. Perfect pitch is related to memory: if one declines, the other does too. Everyone of a certain age who has had it seems to encounter this problem. It makes memorising a much more complicated task.
Memory is a subject we don’t like to talk about – like sex, love and religious beliefs – most likely because we are afraid of losing it. It takes courage to admit even to yourself that your memory is failing. Often friends or family notice it first. We shouldn’t feel ashamed, but rather embrace this normal sign of ageing and then do all we can to keep our brains alive. It upsets me when I can’t remember where I’ve put my boarding pass, as happened this morning at Heathrow (only to find it in the outside compartment of my bag, where I must have put it five minutes previously); when I can’t remember if I’ve taken my daily HRT lozenge (now there’s something that helps older women with memory!); and when I make the same mistake over and over again when learning a new piece.
This past summer, I was chair of the jury of the Bach competition in Leipzig, in which the contestants were allowed to choose whether to play from memory or with the score. (From a score these days means mostly “from an iPad” with a foot pedal to turn the pages on the screen, although one competitor used the app that allows you to make a facial grimace to turn the page – something I found deeply disconcerting). At their age, I would never have dreamed of using the score, even for complicated contemporary pieces. Yet quite a few of them did. Could they not have spent the extra time needed to memorise the music? I know the trend these days is to say it doesn’t matter, but I know myself that when I can get up and perform something securely from memory, it gives me a wonderful sense of freedom and accomplishment.
Angela Hewitt performing at St George’s concert hall in Bristol. Photograph: Stephen Shepherd/The Guardian
One of the most common faults of pianists is that we spend too much time playing the notes and not enough time thinking about what we’re doing. “Think 10 times and then play once” said the wise Franz Liszt, who could rattle off more notes a minute than anybody else (and who, along with Clara Schumann, was the first pianist to perform from memory – an act considered arrogant by the public of the time). In fact, the best memory work is done away from the keyboard – just looking at the score, memorising your fingering, the harmonies, the places where it’s easy to go wrong, the intervals, how many notes there are in a chord, the dynamics, phrasing; nothing is too simple or evident to go unnoticed. You must visualise yourself playing the piece without being at a keyboard. Then go and play and you will be amazed by the progress you have made.
Even when you are concentrating very hard, the brain is constantly assailed by extraneous and often silly thoughts. As a pianist playing from memory, you train yourself to deal with this. I call it double concentration mode. Coughing from the audience (do people realise that just one cough in the wrong place can easily upset the whole apple cart?); the inevitable mobile phone (I go on as though nothing has happened, otherwise it makes things worse); even once I had a beetle slowly climbing up my bare arm during a Bach fugue. You have to be able to count on your concentration to get you through, no matter what happens.
You must also train yourself to think ahead – even if just by a split second. As the brain ages, this becomes even more difficult but necessary. I think that’s why older pianists on the whole (Martha Argerich being the exception) tend to play slower than the young ones, to whom speed often seems the ultimate goal. It’s also why, as an audience member, we are more disturbed by fast playing as we age. It’s just too much for our slower brains to process.
In my 20s, I lived in an artist’s studio above a branch of the Banque Nationale de Paris for two years. The staff knew I was the one playing above, practising away, and they professed not to mind except when I “played the same thing over and over again”. To steal an observation from the actor Roger Allam, the French word for rehearsal is “répétition”, and that’s what you need to do. Get yourself a silent piano if it drives your family or neighbours crazy; I often have one in hotel rooms when I’m on tour.
Performing with the Aurora Orchestra in London’s Kings Place. Photograph: www.kingsplace.co.uk/kplayer
Another thing you can train the brain to do is to think of several things at once. You can practise this by being in a crowded restaurant and listening to two or more conversations simultaneously. You’ll need that if you’re playing a Bach fugue, which can have up to five voices, each one as important as the other. When I walk out on stage, I remind myself to “sing” every note; indeed, when I practise I am constantly singing away, trying to imitate the human voice on an instrument whose sounds are produced by hammers hitting strings. By singing, I engage my concentration and my emotions, as well as my memory. Unlike my compatriot Glenn Gould, once I am on stage or in a recording studio I do this silently.
If this all sounds very tiring then, believe me, it is. Take breaks when you feel your brain has had it and make sure it gets all the nutrients it needs. Alcohol and sleeping pills don’t help – which is why I mostly avoid the former and refuse to use the latter. Backstage in concert halls I have my brain foods at the ready: tinned sardines, avocados, peanut butter, rye crackers, blueberries, bananas and lots of water.
So often I hear people say they can’t memorise anything any more. Yes, but have you really tried? If you’re not a musician, take a poem, a recipe or the phone numbers of your best friends. Above all, don’t just give up. Get to know your brain and work on it.
I always say I couldn’t have memorised the complete works of Bach and had four kids. That would have been impossible; I don’t even have one. But I’ve had a wonderful life in the company of some of the greatest minds that have ever existed, and to them, and to my musician parents who put me in front of a toy piano at the age of two, I am for ever grateful.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Hubballi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said reservation based on religion was unconstitutional, and asserted that the BJP would implement the quota formula adopted by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai-led government in Karnataka.
He said BJP has given tickets for May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka on merits of winnability, and not on the basis of majority or minority, and also nowhere a non-Lingayat candidate has replaced a Lingayat.
Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar who recently quit BJP and joined Congress will not win the polls this time, Shah declared, as he pointed out that Hubballi-Dharwad has always voted for BJP.
“I want to assure the people of Karnataka that whatever formula of reservation that has been adopted by the Bommai government, we would implement it on the ground, including the sub category reservation (internal reservation) among the Dalits. This is our promise,” Shah said.
Addressing a press conference here, he said reservation on the basis of religion was unconstitutional, and never would it have “permission” under the Constitution.
About the reservation crossing 50 per cent, Shah said, “it has been challenged in the court, wait for its order.”
Congress leaders are saying that they would once again bring in Muslim reservation. “I want to ask them with utmost humility as to whose would you reduce to bring it back? Whether you would reduce Vokkaligas or Lingayats or Dalits or STs. Congress will have to come out clear on this.”
“Those Muslim community categories that are under OBC, we are ready to give them reservation even today and we are giving, but no one should be given reservation based on religion, it is the fundamental spirit of the Constitution,” he added.
Just ahead of the announcement of polls in Karnataka, the State Cabinet led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had decided to scrap the four per cent reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota and to distribute it equally among the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
Earlier, the government had decided to increase reservation for SCs from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for STs from 3 per cent to 7 percent, taking the total reservation in Karnataka to 56 per cent, exceeding the 50 per cent cap, and recommended to the Centre to bring it under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
With a section of Scheduled Castes demanding internal reservation alleging that only a few influential sub-castes were taking away a majority of the benefits while many communities were still marginalised, the Cabinet had also made a recommendation in this regard to the Centre.
Asserting that there is no single instance of a non-Lingayat being given a ticket replacing a Lingayat, Shah hit out at the Congress by asking as to what the party did for the community.
“In their history, Congress made two Lingayats Chief Ministers, both were humiliated and removed, one was removed by Indira Gandhi, while the other was humiliated and removed from airport by Rajiv Gandhi, I’m speaking about Patil Saab (Veerendra Patil), Congress cannot speak on this,” he said, as he added that BJP respects all communities and try to take along everyone.
Asked about family members of politicians getting tickets, while BJP accused JD(S) of parivarwaad (dynastic), the Union Minister said, unlike in JD(S), in BJP party president and Chief Ministers are not decided on the basis of the family. “Tell me someone who is not contesting polls in JD(S) family (Deve Gowda family), other than one or two.”
“BJP is always against parivarwaad in the main system, at many places family members of party karyakartas may contest polls, but it doesn’t mean BJP follows parivarwaad,” he said.
To a question on Muslims not getting tickets from BJP, he said, “Tickets were given on the basis of merits of winnability, we do not believe in the concept of majority or minority.”
Responding to a question on Congress seeking support of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Shah said Congress party earlier used to take the support of Popular Front of India (PFI); now that it has been banned, it is asking support of its SDPI which is the political wing. “For Congress, secure and safe Karnataka is not important, winning elections is important. BJP will not join hands with such parties.”
Jagadish Shettar quitting BJP will cause no loss to the party, he said, adding that “Jagadish Shettar will lose the election, Hubballi has always voted for BJP not to any person. BJP workers are united….reason for him not being given the ticket was conveyed to him.”
Jagadish Shettar is contesting from Hubballi Dharwad Central constituency as Congress candidate.
SRINAGAR: The Muslim community in the Wussan locality of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal came forward to perform the last rites of an elderly Kashmiri Pandit on Friday.
Eyewitnesses said that Avtar Krishan Koul, 75, son of Madhav Krishan Koul, passed away at her home in Wussan in the wee hours of Friday, which left the entire locality in mourning.
As soon as the news of her death spread, local Muslims made special arrangements to perform his last rites. They also helped the family by ferrying firewood to cremate the deceased.
“It is in our Islam to take care of neighbors irrespective of their religion,” said Ghulam Hassan, a local resident.
Another local mentioned, “Avtar was a remarkable person who always went above and beyond to help those in need. His kindness and generosity knew no bounds, and he was always willing to lend a helping hand, no matter what time of day or night it was.”
“Avtar was truly dedicated to his profession as a health worker. He saw it as his duty to care for the well-being of others, and he took this responsibility very seriously. He spent countless hours working tirelessly to help people in his community, never once seeking recognition or praise for his efforts,” said a native from his village.
Around a dozen Pandit families in the Wussan locality did not migrate from the Kashmir Valley during the early 1990s and instead decided to stay. Since then, the two communities have lived in harmony and have always shown compassion towards each other.
After the militancy erupted in the valley in the early 1990s, the Pandit community was forced to migrate from Kashmir. However, a small percentage of them stayed back and are currently living in many parts of Kashmir. (KNO)
Burhanpur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said that India will become ‘vishwaguru’ only by following the path of religion and will show the path to the world.
Bhagwat was addressing the Dharma Sanskriti Sabha in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur.
“India will become vishwaguru only by following the path of religion. If we all keep following the religion, then in the coming 20-30 years, India will become the vishwaguru who will show the world a new path,” Bhagwat said.
He said that religion means the feeling of the welfare of the whole world.
“We have to fulfil our duty by following the path of truth. India does not have to become a superpower but has to teach religion to the world. People of different languages, sects and religions live in India. Despite being different, we know that entire creation is one. That’s why we are Hindus. We have to take everyone along with mutual respect for each other,” he said.
The RSS chief asked people to follow the teachings of saints and sages.
“Since time immemorial they have been showing us the path of goodness. We all have to bear the burden of the welfare of the world together,” Bhagwat said.
The Dharma Sanskriti Sabha was organized by Peethadhishwar Swami Jitendra Nath of the Nath Peeth located in Amravati, Maharashtra.
Bhagwat reached Burhanpur in MP on a two-day tour. On the first day, Mohan Bhagwat organized a grand Dharma Sanskriti Sammelan in Bhagya district, which was presided over by Saint Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati of Badrikashram Himalaya.
Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi condemned Uttar Pradesh’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday after Asad Ahmad, an accused in the murder of Umesh Pal, whose father Atiq Ahmad is also mentioned in the case, died in a police encounter.
Speaking in Telangana’s Nizamabad, he questioned whether ‘the BJP (would) also shoot those who killed Junaid and Nasir’, referring to two men reportedly slain by cow vigilantes in February; their burnt remains were discovered in an SUV in Haryana.
“Will the BJP also shoot those who murdered Junaid and Nasir? Will the BJP also carry out encounter killings of individuals responsible for the deaths of Junaid and Nasir? No, because you (the BJP) conduct encounters in the name of religion,” an enraged Owaisi said.
#WATCH | Will the BJP also shoot those who killed Junaid and Nasir? No, because you (BJP) do encounters in the name of religion. You want to weaken the rule of law, do encounter of the Constitution: AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi in Telangana’s Nizamabad pic.twitter.com/H0a1xqRIC3
Gorakhpur: Religion gives a sense of duty and one should not mistake it just as a medium of worship, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday, while greeting people on Ram Navami.
Talking to reporters after completing rituals of Kanya Pujan and Shri Ram Janmotsav at the Gorakhnath temple here, he also said the world is realising the power of a strong and powerful India.
“New India is being formed with positivity and creativity under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said and added that “the concept of Ram Rajya is also being realised in ‘Samarth Bharat’” with benefits of schemes reaching every section of society without any discrimination.
“Many public welfare programmes are in front of everyone. The needy were given free of cost accommodation, toilet, cooking gas connection, electricity connection without any discrimination,” he said.
Not only this, free ration was also made available to the poor in time of crisis and efforts are being made to bring about comprehensive change in the life of every citizen, Adityanath said.
Greeting people on the festival, he said, “Religion should not be mistaken just as a medium of worship. It gives a sense of duty. Religion connects us with virtue, duty and moral values…”.
Adityanath said Ram Navami is being celebrated with enthusiasm across the state, particularly in the birthplace of Ram, Ayodhya.
“Since Wednesday, more than 15 lakh devotees have visited Hanumangarhi and Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya after bathing in the holy Saryu river,” he said.
The government has also organised Durga Saptshati and Akhand Ramayana recitations in various places in the state, the chief minister said.
WARSAW — War? Inflation? Corruption? Nope, the big subject dominating Poland’s politics ahead of this fall’s parliamentary election is the legacy of John Paul II.
Although the canonized Polish pontiff has been dead since 2005, he’s become the hottest subject in Poland following an explosive documentary aired by the U.S.-owned broadcaster TVN, alleging that when he was a cardinal in his home city of Kraków, he protected priests accused of sexually molesting children.
That caused a collective meltdown in the ranks of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is closely allied with the powerful Roman Catholic Church.
U.S. Ambassador Mark Brzezinski was even summoned (later toned down to “invited”) to appear at the foreign ministry.
In a statement, the ministry said it “recognizes that the potential outcome of these activities is in line with the goals of a hybrid war aimed at causing divisions and tensions within Polish society.”
PiS also pushed through a parliamentary resolution “in defense of the good name of Pope John Paul II.”
“The [parliament] strongly condemns the shameful campaign conducted by the media … against the Great Pope St. John Paul II, the greatest Pole in history,” the resolution said.
The government and its affiliated media have launched a wide-ranging campaign about John Paul II. A gigantic picture of the pope was projected on the façade of the presidential palace in Warsaw. Public broadcaster TVP is now airing a daily papal sermon.
Papal politics
It’s all a political play, as PiS has found what it hopes will be electoral rocket fuel ahead of the election, said Ben Stanley, an associate professor at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw.
“Defending John Paul II offers PiS an opportunity to show they’re on what they claim is the right side of a dispute that poses authentic Polish values against something inauthentic and suspicious,” Stanley said.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki over the weekend accused the opposition of “being ashamed of the most important countryman in the history of the republic.”
POLAND NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
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The party has a track record of finding wedge issues ahead of elections.
In 2015, during the refugee crisis, the party’s leader accused migrants of importing “all sorts of parasites and protozoa” into Europe.
In 2020, PiS-supported President Andrzej Duda helped galvanize his reelection campaign by launching attacks on LGBTQ+ activists as supporting an ideology that was inimical to Polish values.
In recent months, state-backed media has latched on to climate concerns from opposition politicians by accusing them of aiming to force Poles to drop their beloved pork cutlets and replace them with edible insects.
“You will notice that the debate about eating insects and living in 15-minute cities has all but disappeared now. John Paul II has a lot more potential,” Stanley said.
Although Poland is secularizing, with a steady fall in new priests, a decline in people attending Sunday mass, and large numbers of pupils abandoning religious education, the country is still one of the most Catholic in Europe. The Church still has an outsized influence among the elderly and those in smaller towns and villages — PiS’s electoral strongholds.
The JP2 gambit caught the opposition flat-footed; many of their supporters tend to be more secular, but the parties can’t risk offending religious voters if they hope to win power this fall.
Powerful pontiff
The late pope is often credited with helping cause the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe; his pilgrimages to his home country were seen as a key factor in the rise of the Solidarity labor union in 1980. He remains a revered figure across the country.
Civic Platform, Poland’s biggest opposition party, sat out the vote on the papal defense resolution. The party accused PiS of playing politics with the issue.
“You don’t want to defend John Paul II, you want to sign him up to PiS!” Paweł Kowal, an MP for Civic Platform, said during the parliamentary debate on the resolution.
While the opposition dithered, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the head of the country’s conference of bishops, denounced the reports on John Paul II as “shocking attempts to discredit his person and work, made under the guise of concern for the truth and good.”
Uncomfortably for the Polish church, Pope Francis put out a pretty lukewarm defense of his predecessor | Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images
It’s not just TVN accusing John Paul II of turning a blind eye to clerical pedophiles.
Similar allegations are made in a new book by Dutch journalist Ekke Overbeek, “Maxima Culpa: John Paul II Knew,” which says when he was a bishop, John Paul II moved pedophile priests from parish to parish to keep them from being discovered.
Both the book and the TVN documentary are being attacked for relying on communist-era secret policy archives.
TVN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, responded by saying: “The role of free and reliable media is to report the facts, even if they are painful and difficult to accept.” It also stressed that the author of the documentary didn’t only rely on archived files, but also contacted people who had been abused by priests.
Uncomfortably for the Polish church, Pope Francis put out a pretty lukewarm defense of his predecessor.
“It is necessary to place things in their time … at that time, everything was covered up,” he told Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper.
With several months to go before the vote, PiS will now watch to see if John Paul II is gaining traction as an issue, Stanley said.
“Pushing it too hard is potentially risky because it’s no longer the early 2000s and it’s not so clear this time if that many people, especially the young people, will spring to John Paul II’s defense,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that there is a growing consensus around hate speech and stressed there is no scope for hate crimes on the basis of religion in a secular country such as India.
“There cannot be any compromise on hate speech at all,” the top court said and added that it is only if the State acknowledges the problem of hate speech that a solution can be found.
It also said that it is the primary duty of the State to protect its citizens from any such hate crimes.
A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said, “When action is not taken against hate crimes then an atmosphere is fostered which is very dangerous and it has to be rooted out from our lives. There cannot be any compromise on hate speech at all.”
The top court was hearing a plea of a Muslim man who has alleged that he was assaulted and abused in the name of religion on July 4, 2021, by a “screwdriver gang” of criminals as he had boarded a car to go to Aligarh from Noida, and that the police has not bothered to register any complaint of hate crime.
The bench told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, that, “Nowadays there is a growing consensus around hate speech. There is no scope for hate crimes in the name of religion in a secular country like India. It has to be rooted out and it is the primary duty of the state to protect its citizens from any such crimes.”
“If a person comes to the police and says that I was wearing a cap and my beard was pulled and abused in the name of religion and still no complaint is registered, then it is a problem,” it said.
Justice Joseph said action of every state officer augments respect for the law. Otherwise, everyone will take the law into their own hands, he said.
The bench, which sat till 6 pm hearing the matter, said, “Will you not acknowledge that there is a hate crime and you will sweep it under the carpet? We are not saying anything adverse. We are only expressing our anguish. That is all.”
Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioner Kazeem Ahmad Sherwani, said it was on January 13 that this court had asked the state government to produce the case diary that police had registered the FIR after two years and that too with all bailable offences barring one.
Nataraj conceded that there were lapses on part of police officials and said that a special investigation team has been constituted headed by an ACP-rank officer and disciplinary action has been taken against erring police officials.
The bench said, “You set an example and let such people face consequences for dereliction of duty. It is only when you take action against such incidents that we will come at par with developed nations. Yes, there has been clear lapse and there is nothing wrong in admitting a mistake”.
Nataraj said that on July 4, 2021, when the alleged incident had taken place, the victim had gone to a police outpost in Sector 37 in Noida where no senior police official but constables were present. Hence, no complaint was registered, he said.
“Then he went to the hospital in Jamia Nagar and gave a statement to the Delhi Police that he was robbed, assaulted and suffered injuries. No where he said that it was a case of hate crime or was assaulted because he was Muslim,” Nataraj said.
Justice Nagarathna said, “At any point of time the victim cannot be met with disparaging remarks. Victim should not make it look as if he is a perpetrator of crime”.
Justice Joseph said be in minority or majority, certain rights are inherent in human beings. “You are born into a family and raised in one. We have no choice on our religion, but we stand out as a nation. That’s the beauty, the greatness of our nation. We have to understand this,” he told Nataraj.
Justice Joseph referring to a recent incident in Rajasthan said a mute person was attacked but it was later found that the victim was Hindu. “If you ignore this (hate crime), then one day it will come for you,” he said, adding that there is no doubt that some people have a communal attitude.
The ASG said that eight FIRs have been registered against the gang members and action has been taken against them.
The bench then asked when the first FIR was registered against the gang members and how many people were arrested and were they the same people, who attacked the victim and when were they bailed out.
Nataraj said he will file an affidavit giving details of all the FIRs but pointed out that the first FIR was registered in June 2021 against the “screwdriver gang” members and they have not discriminated in attacking Muslims or Hindus.
Advocate Ahmadi said it took two years to acknowledge that there was a criminal incident and in two affidavits filed by the Uttar Pradesh government, police have said that there was no hate crime.
“On July 5, 2021, a police patrol had come to my house and asked not to press for hate crime angle”, he said, adding that the victim’s beard was pulled and stripped and made fun of for being circumcised in a car.
The bench said that it cannot issue a pan-India direction on the victim’s petition under Article 32, as it may not be a case symptomatic of what is happening across the country or otherwise it will flood the courts.
Nataraj said police has not denied that there was not a criminal incident but no where it was found that it was a hate crime and the victim has tried to take advantage of media hype and changed its statements.
The bench asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a detailed affidavit and posted the matter for further hearing on March 3.
On October 21 last year, the apex court had asked Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi to crack down hard on those making hate speeches, observing, “where have we reached in the name of religion, what have we reduced religion to is tragic”.
Holding that the Constitution of India envisages a secular nation, the court had directed the three states to promptly register criminal cases against the offenders without waiting for a complaint to be filed.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Photo/ANI)
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday while presiding over the restoration and consecration of the idol programme at Neelkanth Mahadev Temple located in Bhinmal, Rajasthan said ‘Sanatan Dharma is the national religion of India’ which every citizen must respect.
During his address to the gathering, CM Yogi urged people to run a campaign to restore desecrated religious places on the lines of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
During this event, CM Yogi and Union Water Power Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat planted Rudraksha.
Chief Minister Yogi further remarked, “If our religious places have been desecrated during any period, then a campaign for their restoration must be launched on the lines of Ayodhya where the construction of a grand temple of Lord Rama is going on after 500 years with the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All of you devotees contributed to the construction of this grand national temple of Lord Rama, representing national sentiment. “
CM Yogi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the entire countrymen pledge to respect their heritage and preserve it. The restoration of Lord Neelkanth’s temple again after 1400 years on a grand note is an example of respect for and protection of heritage, he added.
CM Yogi said that the land of Rajasthan is the focal point of coordination of religion, karma, devotion and power. “If you want to understand the real secrets of religion, then it is necessary to come to Rajasthan.
