First JAC meet on Delimitation begins under Stalin; BJP calls it "corruption-hiding meeting"
Chennai (PTI): The first Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting on delimitation commenced here on Saturday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin in the chair.
The meeting saw the participation of 14 leaders from at least five states and they would deliberate on the 'threat' posed by the Lok Sabha seats delimitation exercise to states with high economic growth and literacy.
The opposition BJP, which staged a black flag protest, slammed Stalin for not convening similar meetings on the Cauvery and Mullaiperiar water-sharing disputes with Karnataka and Kerala, respectively. BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan described the meeting as "corruption hiding meeting" by the respective leaders.
Karnataka Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar said, "at any cost, we cannot let down our country and our seats to be reduced."
He claimed South India had always upheld the census regulations and family planning policies, making it a progressive region. "Economically and in terms of literacy, we have consistently led the way. We have always protected the national interest, not just our own," he said upon his arrival here.
BJP national spokesperson C.R. Kesavan said on the meeting that the DMK was staging the delimitation drama "as a divisionary tactic to deflect public attention away from DMK's corrupt, failed, disastrous misrule."
"DMK's divisive politics of fear mongering, attempting to mislead and misinform people will badly boomerang back on the DMK. Rahul Gandhi and Congress, with their mutually conflicting and contradicting stand on delimitation, are indulging in a very pathetic politics of opportunism which is utterly condemnable," Kesavan said.
Former Telangana Governor and senior BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan said the black flag protest was to safeguard the interests of people of Tamil Nadu.
She asked Stalin if he held any meetings to solve the Cauvery problem and Mullaperiyar dam issue with the Karnataka and Kerala leaders.
"So, delimitation has not been announced, and not a single word has been uttered by the central government...Home Minister Amit Shah came to Coimbatore. He had clarified that Tamil Nadu will not be affected. The Home Minister has clarified it, so on what basis are you conducting this meeting," She asked the ruling DMK chief.
This meeting was being held "to hide the corruption charges, to divide the people of the country."
"The concerned CMs who are attending the meeting are doing so to hide the misgoverance in the concerned states. There are so many corruption charges in Telangana, Kerala. Their own people will be against their CMs attending this event," she claimed while speaking to PTI Videos.
"Instead of calling this a delimitation meeting, it can be called corruption hiding meeting," she added.
Earlier, Chief Ministers of Kerala, Telangana, and Punjab--Pinarayi Vijayan, Revanth Reddy, Bhagwant Singh Mann, and working president of Shiromani Akali Dal Balwinder Singh Bhunder, and general secretary of Indian Union Muslim League Kerala P M A Salam, were among the leaders who had arrived in Chennai to take part in the meeting.
Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and Punjab are the seven states the DMK has reached out to for the meeting.
"A historic day for Indian federalism,!" Stalin had said on the eve of the meeting.
Describing the DMK-led all-party meeting as a "landmark moment," in which as many as 58 parties participated by putting aside difference for a single cause, the chief minister had said, "this overwhelming consensus reflected Tamil Nadu’s unwavering commitment" to democracy and justice.
Further, the CM said: "Building on this historic unity, our MPs and Ministers actively engaged with leaders from other affected states, strengthening our collective resolve. What started as Tamil Nadu’s initiative has now grown into a national movement, with states across India joining hands to demand fair representation. This is a defining moment in our collective journey. This is more than a meeting—it is the beginning of a movement that will shape the future of our country. Together, we will achieve #FairDelimitation."
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
