# Move creates furore in social media

# Organisations oppose it

Mangaluru, Jan 23: The flex and banners put up by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti in the city as part of awareness programme on Hindu Nation to be held in Mangaluru and Shivamogga on January 27, evoked mixed response and debate in the social media.

It reads in the banners ‘All Hindus come together. Let us build Hindu Nation. Present in the convention and exhibit the unity’ and it has created controversy.

Earlier, the organizers claimed that they would conduct the convention at the Nehru Maidan. But now, the programme is shifted to Sharada Vidyalaya at Kodialbail for some reasons.

The Samiti has put up such banners in many places across the city. But more than banners, the event is being debated much in social media and getting more publicity.

Questions like ‘as to how the JDS-Congress coalition government which claims itself as secular, gave permission to put up such banners? Is there a provision to put up such banners as per the Constitution? What will happen if Hindus- Muslims and Christians put up their own banners appealing people to build their own country? Is it not anti-national?.. are being raised in the social media. Moreover, the netizens also urged the police department to act on this issue.

“No organization has sought permission from the department to conduct such a programme in any public places in Mangaluru. If any complaint is lodged against putting controversial banners in public places, the department would take action”.

-       Hanumantharaya, DCP, Mangaluru City

“Mangaluru City Corporation will not give permission to put up any controversial banner. It will be verified on such banners put up in the city”.

-       Gayathri Nayak, Deputy Commissioner, Mangaluru City Corporation

“This is against Constitution. It is anti-national. Police should not take this issue as small. The administrative machinery which book activists like Kanhaiya Kumar who fight for the nation under false allegations, should not spare such organizations. They should take legal action against the organization. The Indian culture itself is secular. Even the Muslim kings had ruled the country for centuries. They had never tried to make this country Muslim country. When this was the case, some people have been conspiring to convert the secular country into Hindu nation which is unfortunate”.

-       PB Desa, vice president PUCL national committee

“The state government should consider such anti-constitutional and anti-national programmes during Republic Day programme seriously and must take action to cancel the programme. The Education department should investigate as to how an education institution has given permission to conduct such programme on its premises? This is the country of pluralism. In coming days, if other communities came forward to build the country on their religion, what will be the situation? As there is a chance of law and order problem, the police department should take precautionary measures. Not only on programme organizers, the police should also take action against the education institution too. Is it not the Urban Naxalism of rightists? Why the government, district administration and police department are silent?”

-       PV Mohan, General Secretary, KPCC

“As an effort to counter the secular concept of the democratic India, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti which has close association with the Sanatan Sanstha is going to conduct the convention in Shivamogga and Mangaluru and its posters were put up in the city.This is a dangerous development. The Indian Constitution has declared the country as a secular and democratic. Building the country in the name of any particular religion is anti-Constitutional and anti-national.The efforts of Hindu Nation are also like ISIS objective of making Islamic country. Both are dangerous. So, the police should not allow the organization to conduct the programme and it should register suo moto case against the organizers and take action”.

-       Yasir Hasan, PFI State General Secretary

“It is a dangerous development. They have posed a challenge to the unity and integrity of the country. Case should be registered against the organizers and those who allowed this programme under Treason Section and investigate the issue to uncover the conspiracies behind this move”.

  •       Muneer Katipalla, President, DYFI Karnataka

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Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.