Monthly Archives: March 2021

Joginder Singh Ugrahan, the State General Secretary of BKU Ekta Ugrahan has tested positive for COVID-19.

BKU Ekta Ugrahan took to Twitter and said, He is under treatment and under the continuous observation of doctors. There is no serious harm to his health and not any worrisome situation. According to the doctors he will recover shortly and we will see him again in the field of struggle.

According to a report in Tribune India, Joginder Singh Ugrahan complained of breathlessness and was admitted to the hospital on the 17th of March. The doctors said Ugrahan has responded well to the treatment so far and his condition is quite stable now and likely to be discharged from the hospital in 3-4 days.

Shingara Singh Mann, president of BKU Ekta-Ugrahan, Bathinda, said, Indeed it does affect your movement a bit especially in the absence of a leader of Joginder Ugrahans standing and stature but on the whole, it would not impact the agitation to a large degree. Ugrahans schedule was planned for Punjab and he had been attending meetings and holding rallies in the state since March 12 and was to return to Tikri after March 23. After illness, he had to admit but his condition has improved a lot and there is nothing to worry about now. He will be discharged and after taking rest for a few days, he will rejoin the agitation.

As Joginder Singh Ugrahan tests positive for COVID-19, fears are being raised about the protest rallies becoming yet another superspreader of COVID-19. According to reports, he was attending kisan panchayats at various places and overseeing preparations for Bhagat Singh martyrdom on March 23 and the call for Bharat Bandh on March 26.

He has reportedly been away from the Tikri Border site for the past 1 week, however, one is not sure about his itinerary and where the 75-year-old was just before he tested positive for COVID-19.

Interestingly, while BKU has confirmed now that Joginder Singh Ugrahan has tested positive for COVID-19, only 20 hours ago, the official handle of BKU Ekta Ugrahan had claimed that news about Joginder testing COVID-19 positive was fake news.

A handle called Kadak Samachar took to Twitter to claim that the leader had tested positive, however, he had taken admission in a hospital after concealing his identity, which is against the Epidemic Act.

This tweet was then quoted by the BKU Ekta Ugrahan handle to claim that the news was false and Joginder Singh Ugrahan had indeed not contracted COVID-19.

In fact, the handle Kadak Samachar had also tweeted the COVID-19 positive report of the farmer leader. The report was dated 19th March 2021.

If the COVID-19 positive report was out yesterday itself, one is unaware why BKU lied about the test result yesterday itself.

With the COVID-19 positive cases rises in the country again and the farmer agitation against farm laws that actually benefit the farmers continuing unabated, concerns are being raised about whether the so-called farmers would prove to be another super-spreader since the so-called farmer leader was out and about till he tested positive for COVID-19 and met several people in preparation for further protests.

Concerns are also being raised about why BKU tried to conceal the fact that Joginder Singh Ugrahan had tested positive for Coronavirus. Till the time this report was published, BKU had not issued any clarification about their previous denial and whether Joginder Singh Ugrahan had taken admission into a hospital by giving a fake name and concealing his real identity.

Original post:

20 hours after terming it fake news, BKU Ekta Ugrahan confirms that Joginder Singh Ugrahan tested positive for COVID-19: Here is what happened -...

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VERKHNEDVINSK District, 19 March (BelTA) The Information Ministry suggested authorizing the Information Ministry, the General Prosecutor's Office and the Interdepartmental Commission on Information Security under the Security Council of Belarus to disable fake news, Information Minister Igor Lutsky said answering a question from a BelTA reporter during his visit to Verkhnedvinsk District.

Speaking about legislative improvements, the minister noted that amendments to the law on mass media are under discussion. False information is frequently disseminated under the guise of reliable information. Negligent journalists and mass media present it as a common mistake. In fact, this is a purposeful information war against the state. We believe that the available mechanisms to respond to it are insufficient and take too much time. These amendments will allow us to quickly deal with fake and prohibited information, Igor Lutsky said.

He said that the Information Ministry put forward a proposal to allow the Information Ministry to make decisions on blocking prohibited information that is detrimental to the state and public interests. These functions are also to be given to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Interdepartmental Commission on Information Security under the Security Council.

More:

Information minister reveals who will tackle fake news in Belarus - Belarus News (BelTA)

Around 187 million people in southern and eastern India will vote in 824 assembly seats for a month. The voting process will begin by March 27 and the counting will take place on May 2.

UPDATED ON MAR 18, 2021 03:55 PM IST

The central government is working in close cooperation with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to curb fake news designed to influence upcoming Assembly elections in four states and a union territory, Union minister of information and technology Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Parliament on Thursday. The minister also said that the election regulatory body has set up a dedicated cell to weed out any fake news and media that may influence the polls.

Around 187 million people in southern and eastern India will vote in 824 assembly seats for a month. The voting process will begin by March 27 and the counting will take place on May 2.

Prasad also cited an example of the Cambridge Analytica data mining case and said, "We took a very tough action and the company today has been banned, and a CBI investigation is going on. Therefore, for maintaining the purity of India's electoral process, my government works in close cooperation with EC to ensure that there is no influence of election by fake news."

In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg-owned Facebook said that the data of about 87 million people mostly in the US might have been improperly shared with the British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. After the data breach came to the light, the Indian government launched an investigation into the case for allegedly mining the personal data of Indians from Facebook illegally.

Over the last few years, fake news, especially that propagates on social media and messaging platforms, has become a significant problem around the world, especially during the time of election. On March 11, the Election Commission ordered an FIR over "fake news" about EVM hacking attributed to former chief election commissioner T S Krishnamurthy circulated on the internet. It also warned of stern action against the miscreants uploading fake news to create wrong impressions about the election process.

PTI, New Delhi

PUBLISHED ON MAR 17, 2021 09:57 PM IST

The election commission also asked the state government to send a list of names of officers for appointment as IG, South Zone, official sources said.

ANI, New Delhi

PUBLISHED ON MAR 17, 2021 09:33 PM IST

Congress leaders Abdur Rezzak Mollah and Avjit Narjinary will contest from Falta and Kalchini assembly seats respectively.

PTI, Amaravati

PUBLISHED ON MAR 17, 2021 03:57 PM IST

The YSR Congress party won the Tirupati Lok Sabha (Scheduled Caste reserved) seat in 2014 and again in 2019, improving its vote share from 47.84 per cent to 55.03 per cent.

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'Working in close cooperation with EC to curb fake news during election': Ravi Shankar Prasad - Hindustan Times

Rt. Hon. Lord Naseby

Former Chief Justice Silva

Lt. Col. Anton Gash

Mahieash Johnny

Ranjiv Goonawardena of International Consultants who is an aficionado on Sri Lanka, working very closely with the Rt. Hon. Lord Naseby, facilitated the TV program which dropped the bombshell revelation, exposing the United Kingdoms fake allegations made against Sri Lanka with the collusion of the UN Human Rights Council, in collaboration with the Core Group that comprises Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Malawi, Montenegro and the UK.

By Ranjiv Goonawardena

The trumped-up charges of war crimes were exposed when aired live on television on 18 March in Colombo. The exposure was done by Ada Derana 24 TV on the progam Get Real with Mahieash Johnny, Episode 93, Evidence Exonerating Sri Lanka.

Lord Naseby, an ardent supporter of truth and justice for Sri Lanka; a voice of reasoning in Her Majestys Government in the UK outlined categorically the complicit nature that the UK Government has been concealing information crucial to exonerate Sri Lankan soldiers of heinous war crimes.

It was apparent when Lord Naseby mentioned that an ample amount of evidence was, for unknown reasons, classified and taken out of circulation by the UK Government, and they actively took steps to hide the information in an attempt to sway the investigation by the UNHRC to a political one. The former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka Sarath N. Silva says that the Sri Lankan Government should push much harder for credible evidence from the accusers.

In 2014 Lord Naseby wrote and requested Her Majestys Government to release the diplomatic dispatches of Lt. Col. Anton Gash who was the defence attach at the UK High Commission in Colombo during the conflict period.

They decided maliciously to redact the actual figures which Col. Anton Gash reported back to his superiors, these were the figures of casualties, internally displaced people and most importantly the number of civilian deaths which indicated somewhere around 8,000. At no time was it ever quoted in his report as it has indicated by the bogus number of 40,000 casualties, which has been claimed by the UN Human Rights Council; the fake figures cant be verified and validated.

This has been the campaign slogan of the proxy LTTE groups as they use false figures to campaign. The proxy LTTE has been financially sponsoring politicians in the Western hemisphere including the UK, Canada and America to bring these trumped-up charges against Sri Lanka. It was revealed in the program with the actual documents which are now in the public domain after Lord Nasebys efforts of getting them released but they have been redacted to a very large extent.

Lord Naseby met up with Colonel Anton Gash in Colombo and he was amazed at the revelations which were disclosed to him two fundamental points were disclosed:

1) The care the Sri Lankan armed forces were taking not to kill civilians and the care extended to civilians who were coming onto the Government side during the day and night, were being looked after exceptionally well.

2) This was happening on a regular basis on the ground.

All throughout the process, the UK Government was trying to hinder Lord Nasebys efforts every step of the way. Then eventually Lord Naseby took it up with the final stage of a tribunal in March 2017. According to the UK Government, the reason for the delay was because the OHCAR was making an enquiry and they did not want to influence their findings based on the dispatches of Colonel Gash who was the military attach to the UK Government in Sri Lanka.

Mahieash Johnny was taken by surprise and dumbfounded, he went on to say this is the British Government thats saying apparently they dont want to give the evidence to people who are doing the investigation because apparently the truth will sway the investigation to another direction, so theyre waiting upon till they come up with the version they really want to hear and then they will release it.

More recently Lord Naseby went on to say, I have asked written questions in the House of Lords from Her Majestys Government, if the UK Government has supplied UNHRC with redacted or unredacted information. The answer comes back from Her Majestys Government, no, we havent, as nobody has asked for the information, this is incredible.

Here we are talking about alleged war crimes which will affect individual members of the armed forces of Sri Lanka, men and women who work to keep peace and law and order; this is very, very serious. The UK Government sitting on its hands waiting to be asked by the UNHCR, when peace, unity and lives are at stake. This is unacceptable especially because the UK is the Chairman of the Core committee. There must be a liaison between the core group and the UNHRC, this is very unfair and very biased in my judgement, Lord Naseby went on to say.

Lord Naseby went on to reveal evidence from the dispatch reports that he had in his possession; just take the date 16 February 2009, Colonel Gash writes: I observed the arrival of 400 Internally Displaced Persons by sea to Trincomalee. Taken on a boat down to Trincomalee the operation was effective and efficient but most importantly was carried out with compassion, respect and concern. I am entirely certain that this was genuine my presence was not planned and was based on a sudden opportunity; I have free access to 300 m long stretch of the beach over a four-hour period and was able to observe upwards of 200 Sri Lankan Navy personnel working extremely hard in difficult conditions. Their high morale was notable; they were enjoying the work and clearly finding it satisfying. There were constant examples of thoughtful assistants looking after babies while mothers were being searched for, helping elderly ladies or mothers of babies with their bags cheerfully offering food, etc.

After reading extracts of Colonel Gashs report Lord Naseby went on to say: There is clear evidence you havent got an army which has gone amok. The absolute opposite has taken place, taking huge care of the civilians at a great cost to themselves. Then you have UNHRC in Geneva producing a report which ignores the basic fundamentals and disregards all this vital evidence. The UN has something to answer for this is totally unacceptable in my judgement.

Lord Naseby stated: Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of history where everybody is sitting on their hands and refusing to divulge information.

The statement is said in a very polite manner but the reality is that they are withholding critical information which is vital to the Government of Sri Lanka as it would exonerate its armed forces from this heinous allegation that has been enacted with the collusion of several foreign governments, the UK taking the lead here.

Lord Naseby went on to state: Thats not 40,000 killed and US Ambassador Blake said on 7 April according to the UN the dead was 4,164. Then you have your own census which have been done by Tamils themselves indicating that February 2012 stated 7,400 people died in the five months.

The former Chief Justice Sarath Silva meticulously examined the details on the Ada Derana 24 TV program Get Real with Mahieash Johnny of the dispatches of Colonel Gash and pointed out that Colonel Gashs input was not just some run-of-the-mill analysis, it was one of the most objective reports ever undertaken on the armed conflict against the LTTE. Silva also pointed out that Colonel Gash was the UKs designated military attach in Sri Lanka to monitor and report back on the counterinsurgency campaign being conducted. He was even given diplomatic status by Sri Lanka and allowed to travel where he wanted without restrictions.

He then pointed out the dubious manner in which the report had been presented to Lord Naseby by the British Government, with large portions of it blocked out even while being presented to a member of their own House of Lords. By looking at the parts that were not concealed though, Silva asserted that the hidden passages were clearly parts that would have worked against the UK Governments efforts at the UNHRC, had they not been censored. Given that there are no obvious national security implications, he also pointed out how strange it was that so many sections of the report had been rendered inaccessible.

The UK Government, despite being such a prominent part of the resolution against Sri Lanka, did not share the Gash report with the UNHRC. Silva noted how patently unfair such behaviour was. The Gash report, he reaffirmed, rightly noted the vast military capabilities of the LTTE, including the use of trained mercenary pilots, submarine manufacturing plants and conventional warfare capabilities. It thus made it clear that that the Sri Lankan Army was not just facing an IRA type terror campaign but a far more complex armed insurgency. He added that the Gash report also gives specific instances of attacks by the LTTE against civilians in no-fire zones, something rarely acknowledged.

Former Chief Justice Silva then used the report to discuss Gashs graphic accounts of forced recruitment by the LTTE, especially of women and children. He also noted that the report documented how food supplies were controlled by the LTTE and denied to civilians until their own needs were met. The former Chief Justice was particularly critical of the Darusman report throughout the conversation, which he said lacked the data and overview of the Gash version.

Another important part of the discussion was the number of civilian causalities that is often touted in such conversations, with some accusations bloating up to 40,000. Sarath Silva once again used the report to demonstrate how such numbers are beyond the realm of what was actually being discussed at the time. As a matter of fact, Colonel Gash even reveals that the UN-estimated numbers themselves were around 6,000 civilian casualties, a far stretch from the figures being thrown out now.

In fact, the Gash report repeatedly points to the compassionate way in which the armed forces acted in the heat of the moment, often putting themselves at risk to rescue people even when the LTTE sent in suicide bombers among civilians to deter any humanitarian operation.

Sarath Silva also critiqued the international system itself and the way in which the UNHRC process works, with nations that have no knowledge or interaction with Sri Lanka now becoming the co-sponsors of the resolution itself.

The former Chief Justice added that the entire campaign was being done with a political agenda, rather than any altruistic concern for human rights in Sri Lanka. There are vested interests who wish to keep the LTTE flame alight perpetually and he warned that there was nothing objective about these accusations. He also stressed on his deep appreciation for Lord Nasebys pursuit of the truth, despite the obstacles that keep being thrown his way.

It is difficult to avoid a few questions after listening to Sarath Silvas comments:

1. Why was the report presented to Lord Naseby censored to such a large extent? What are the security implications that prompted the UK Government to block out so many passages?

2. Why did the UK Government, despite playing such an active role in moving the resolution forward, not share the Gash report with members of the Human Rights Council? Colonel Gash was the person specifically appointed for this task, surely his report has to be the central piece of first-hand evidence to consider?

More here:

Revelation on TV: UK fake news in collusion with Core Group in UN Human Rights Council - ft.lk