Cong Prez's alleged Facebook page sparks row; foreign influence, charges BJP
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka BJP has alleged that Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge's social media is managed by foreign handlers, referring to a verified Facebook page in his name, a charge debunked by his son.
Kharge's son and Karnataka Minister for Electronics, IT/BT Priyank Kharge said the page is "fake" and that they have requested Facebook to take it down.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, who is in news for waqf land grab, now has foreign handlers managing his social media. We've been warning about the foreign influence behind Congress’s divisive caste-based politics, and this only confirms it. Why@khargeji?," Karnataka BJP posted on 'X'
"Why trust foreign handlers over your own people? After all that India has given you, why this betrayal?" it further asked, while sharing a screenshot of "page information" from a Facebook page in Mallikarjun Kharge's name.
The "page information" of the Facebook page bearing Mallikarjun Kharge's name says, "Primary country/region location for people who manage this Page includes: Norway (1)"
Mallikarjun Kahrge is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
Hitting back at BJP's post, Priyank Kharge said despite having what they claim to be the “most effective Home Minister” in India’s history (referring to Amit Shah), BJP cannot determine whether an Opposition Leader’s account is genuine.
"I truly appreciate the relentless efforts of @BJP4India’s IT Cell. For just Rs 2, they’ve launched a malicious social media campaign against Congress President, Shri @kharge," he said in a post on 'X'.
"For clarity, Kharge has only two official social media accounts," he said, sharing the links of the Congress president's 'X' account and WhatsApp Channel.
Instead of focusing on pressing national issues, BJP seems obsessed with investigating a dead Facebook page that hasn’t been active since 2020, linked to an unknown email, Priyank Kharge said, adding, "Since we have no idea who is behind it, we’ve officially requested Facebook to take it down. Moreover, a Facebook Blue Tick is easily obtained through a paid subscription."
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Israel says rabbi who went missing in UAE was killed
Tel Aviv, Nov 24: Israel said Sunday that the body of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found after he was killed in what it described as a “heinous antisemitic terror incident.”
The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel “will act with all means to seek justice with the criminals responsible for his death.” There was no immediate comment from the UAE.
Zvi Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who went missing on Thursday, ran a Kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
The agreement has held through more than a year of soaring regional tensions unleashed by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into southern Israel. But Israel's devastating retaliatory offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, after months of fighting with the Hezbollah group, have stoked anger among Emiratis, Arab nationals and others living in the the UAE.
Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah, has also been threatening to retaliate against Israel after a wave of airstrikes Israel carried out in October in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.
Early Sunday, the UAE's state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Kogan's disappearance but pointedly did not acknowledge he held Israeli citizenship, referring to him only as being Moldovan. The Emirati Interior Ministry described Kogan as being “missing and out of contact.”
“Specialised authorities immediately began search and investigation operations upon receiving the report,” the Interior Ministry said.
Netanyahu told a regular Cabinet meeting later Sunday that he was “deeply shocked” by Kogan's disappearance and death. He said he appreciated the cooperation of the UAE in the investigation and said that ties between the two countries would continue to be strengthened.
Israel's largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the killing and thanked Emirati authorities for "their swift action." He said he trusts they “will work tirelessly to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. It said he was last seen in Dubai. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners.
The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai's busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday. As the wars have roiled the region, the store has been the target of online protests by supporters of the Palestinians. Mezuzahs on the front and the back doors of the market appeared to have been ripped off when an Associated Press journalist stopped by on Sunday.
Kogan's wife, Rivky, is a US citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Local Jewish officials in the UAE declined to comment.
While the Israeli statement did not mention Iran, Iranian intelligence services have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE.
Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country.
Iran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing British Iranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013, though Tehran has denied involvement. Iran also kidnapped Iranian German national Jamshid Sharmahd in 2020 from Dubai, taking him back to Tehran, where he was executed in October.
