Karnataka Guv warns CM Siddaramaiah against including Christian identifiers in caste survey
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has cautioned Chief Minister Siddaramaiah against including Christian identifiers with caste names like ‘Kumbara Christian’, ‘Kuruba Christian’ in the upcoming caste survey, saying it could cause "social disturbance, long term complications and irreparable damage" to the social fabric of the state.
In his letter to Siddaramaiah on September 16, Gehlot urged the CM to re-examine the issue.
The Governor said a contingent of BJP MPs and legislators met him and brought to his attention their concerns and objections to the Karnataka government's proposed caste-based educational and social survey.
“The written objections of the contingent elaborating certain contradictory issues and inclusion of Christian identifiers like ‘Kumbara Christian’, ‘Kuruba Christian’ and glaring and concerning issues of illegal infiltrators in the residency of the State have been brought to my notice,” he said.
The BJP delegation requested him to advise the government against proceeding with this “flawed and divisive exercise”.
“It is noticed that the use of such Christian identifiers and nomenclatures are not seen in any of the caste lists of the state and as per my knowledge, there is no such case identities in the Christian religion, so the above move of the State Government giving caste identity in the Christian religion may cause social disturbance, long term complications and irreparable damage to the social fabric of the State,” the Governor said.
He urged the CM to revisit the issue, stressing the need to safeguard the state's social structure while considering the long-term implications of such measures.
The Karnataka government will conduct the caste census from September 22 to October 7, at an estimated cost of Rs 420 crore.
The BJP had called it a "divisive move" and appealed to people to write Hindu instead of their sects in the religion column.
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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.
