America discovered by 'our Indian ancestors', not Columbus: MP Education minister
Bhopal, Sep 11: Madhya Pradesh's Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar has claimed that America was discovered by "our Indian ancestors", and not by Christopher Columbus as taught to students.
He also claimed students have been taught "wrong history" that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered India.
Parmar was addressing the convocation function at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal on Tuesday.
In his address, the minister said, "Columbus discovered America...Indian students had nothing to do with this. If they had to be taught, they should have also been taught how people in the post-Columbus period tortured the natives and destroyed the tribal society there, because the society was worshipper of nature, worshipper of the Sun."
"(It should have been taught) how they were killed, how they were converted. But unfortunately, the correct facts were not taught," he said.
On the contrary, Indian students are taught that Columbus discovered America, Parmar said.
"I want to say that if someone had to write, they should have written that India's great hero Vasuloon went there in the eighth century and built many temples in Santiago in America. These facts are still written in a museum there. These facts are still kept in a library there," he said.
Parmar said the students should have been taught correctly that it was "our ancestors in India" who discovered America and not Christopher Columbus.
"When we (our ancestors) went there, we cooperated with the local culture of that place, the Mayan culture which was prevalent there, in their development. This is India's thought and philosophy which needed to be taught to the students," he added.
The minister also said students have been taught that Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered India.
Historians could have taught the right history by studying the autobiography of Vasco da Gama, he said.
Vasco da Gama expressed the wish to see Bharat to Chandan, a Gujarati trader, at the Zanzibar port of Africa through an interpreter, the minister said.
Chandan told Vasco da Gama to follow his ship and thus the Portuguese explorer reached India, he said.
Vasco da Gama himself wrote that Indian trader Chandan's ship was much bigger than his, but students were taught wrong history that the Portuguese explorer discovered India, Parmar said.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
