India’s space agency spokesman told the BBC on Monday it was from one of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV).
Sudhir Kumar added that it would be up to Australia to decide what to do with the object. He did not comment further.
His comments came after the Australian Space Agency (ASA) on Wednesday said that the object was “most likely” the third stage of a PSLV, which are used by India to launch satellites into orbit.
Countries often plan for debris from their launches to land in oceans to prevent them damaging people and property.
The ASA said it was working with India’s space agency to “determine next steps, including considering obligations under the United Nations space treaties”.
The BBC has approached the agency for further comment.
According to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, countries are required to return any “foreign” space objects found in their territory to the owners.
Dr Gorman said that there were many reasons why a country would want debris back, such as mission analysis.
In this case, however, she said there would be no benefit in India retrieving the object.
Western Australia has already indicated it would be happy to keep it.
The state’s premier, Roger Cook, suggested to local media that the object could be stored in the state museum alongside debris from Nasa’s Skylab station, which was discovered in 1979.
Locals said they might be interested in turning it into a local tourist attraction, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Dr Gorman said another option would be to put in a park, adding: “Things that have been in space have this kind of aura and to touch something that has been in space would be a bit special.”
The object is currently in storage with the ASA. It is still not clear which mission it was used in, nor how long it had been in the water before washing up at Green Head.
Experts estimated that it would have been at least a few months. The debris was covered with barnacles.
There were initially concerns about potentially dangerous toxins leaking from the object if it was found to be part of a rocket.
However, the authorities later determined it was not a risk to the public.
The ASA has asked that any members http://cingengkali.com/ of the public who finds further suspected debris should get in contact with them.
“He’s had some pressure on his shoulders for some time living up to the expectation of his career so far, he’s probably fallen off the radar a little but he’s very, very hungry to come and get himself back to his very best and get back into the India team.”
Northants, who will be captained by wicketkeeper Lewis McManus, do not play their first One-Day Cup game until Friday, when they face Gloucestershire at the College Ground in Cheltenham.
Although they won the T20 Blast in 2013 and 2016, the club have not won a trophy in a longer limited-overs format for 31 years.
And they are hoping Shaw can help them improve on last season’s performance, when they finished next to bottom of their group after two wins from their eight games.
He averages 52 in List A cricket, with a best score of 227 not out, made off 152 balls, for Mumbai against Puducherry in 2021.
“It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m really thankful to Northamptonshire for giving me this chance to express myself here,” he said.
“The goal for me wherever I play is about the team. http://mantrasungokong.com/ So winning games for Northamptonshire is the first goal for this season and then it’s about scoring as many runs as I can. I just want to give 100%.”
Image caption,The group of 11 women bought a prize-winning lottery ticket together
By Ashraf Padanna
Reporter, Trivandrum, Kerala
In June, 11 women sanitation workers from the southern Indian state of Kerala pooled money to buy a lottery ticket. Last week, they were overjoyed to find out they had hit the jackpot of 100m rupees ($1.2m; £946,685).
The money, they say candidly, is not enough to make ends meet. Most of the women have borrowed money and taken loans for their children’s education and other expenses.
That’s why they would occasionally join forces to buy a lottery ticket.
The lottery is largely illegal in many Indian states but Kerala’s government itself runs a highly popular programme – private lotteries are banned in the state.
“Once, we won a 1,000-rupee prize and shared it,” says MP Radha, who usually buys tickets for the group.
Last month, the group decided to buy a 250-rupee ticket for a monsoon bumper prize lottery (bumper prize lotteries are issued for special occasions such as festivals).
Kuttimalu, 72, says she was initially sad when Radha was collecting funds because she didn’t have enough money.
“Then Cherumannil Baby (another member of the group) told me she had 25 rupees and was willing to lend me half of it for the ticket,” she tells the BBC.
So the two women put in 12.5 rupees each for their share of the ticket while the other nine women paid 25 rupees each.
“We agreed we would get an equal share if we won anything,” Ms Kuttimalu says. “We didn’t expect to win such a huge amount of money!”
The women only found out they had won a day after the draw, when one of them asked her husband to check the results.
“This is the fourth time we bought a ticket for the bumper prize,” Ms Radha says.”We are fourth time lucky!”
Image caption,(From right to left) Cherumannil Baby lent money to Kuttimalu to contribute towards buying the ticket
“Luck was never on my side,” she says. Her house was washed away in the devastating floods that hit Kerala in 2018. She now plans to build a house and pay off her debts.
Other women in the group also have similar stories to share.
K Bindu, 50, lost her husband last year to kidney failure. The family was unable to afford the money for his transplant.
“He used to buy lottery tickets with the money we kept for dialysis,” she says. “He left us without finishing the construction of our house. I have to complete it now.”
Ms Bindu wants to spend the money on educating her 15-year-old daughter so she can get a good job.
Lakshmi, 49, says that just the night before their lottery win, her family had been worrying about their future. Her husband, a construction worker, was struggling to get work because of heavy rains in the state.
The couple is relieved that they can now spend the money on their daughter’s studies.
Leela, 56, had been worried about how she would pay for her daughter’s surgery. “I had already borrowed money for her wedding by taking a loan against my house,” she says.
After paying government taxes, the group will receive 63m rupees. Ms Baby and Ms Kuttimalu will divide their share of 6.3m rupees equally between them while the others will get 6.3m rupees each.
Apart from collecting waste, the women also help construct public toilets and install facilities for disposing waste, says KT Balabhaskaran, director of the Suchitwa Mission, the agency which coordinates these efforts across the state.
On Friday, a day after their life-changing win, the 11 women reached the agency’s office like always to resume their work.
“We decided one thing,” Ms Leela says. http://gayunggoyang.com/ “We will not leave this job because it was this collective that brought us prosperity.”
Image caption,Burnt vehicles were removed from the road and shops in Sohna, Gurugram remained closed on Tuesday
A mosque was set on fire and a Muslim cleric killed during religious clashes that broke out after a procession by Hindu nationalist groups in the northern Indian state of Haryana.
Several policemen are among the injured and have been admitted to hospital.
A curfew has been imposed in Nuh town where the clash took place.
Chief Minister ML Khattar has called the incident “unfortunate” and appealed for peace.
Violence broke out on Monday afternoon during a procession taken out by the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Footage from Nuh showed stone-pelting by a mob as cars were set on fire and shops were vandalised.
More than 2,000 people who were in town to take part in the procession were stranded in a temple as the clashes escalated. They were later evacuated by the police.
Image caption,Visuals from the Nuh area showed cars that were set on fire and shops that were vandalised
The state government suspended internet services in Nuh citing “intense communal tension” and danger to life and property.
The violence, which lasted for several hours, soon spread to the neighbouring areas of Faridabad, Palwal and Gurugram (formerly Gurgaon), on the outskirts of the capital, Delhi.
In Gurugram, a mosque was set ablaze by a mob.
A senior official said police had been deployed at the mosque when it was attacked. “But we were outnumbered by the attackers who opened fire suddenly,” Nitish Agarwal, Deputy Police Commissioner (East) of Gurugram, told BBC Hindi.
Police was now collecting videos related to the incident. “Some of the suspects have been identified and taken into custody,” Mr Agarwal said.
The federal government has sent additional security forces to the state following a request from the Haryana government.
Randeep Singh Surjewala, a leader of the opposition Congress party, has blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government for “failing to control the law and order situation”.
Lawmaker from the regional Indian National Lok Dal party Abhay Singh Chautala said the state government had failed to take preventative action despite security concerns.
“For the last two days, there were reports regarding a possible law and order disruption in Nuh,” Mr Chautala told the Indian Express newspaper.
He was referring to a video posted online by Monu Manesar, a member of the Bajrang Dal, saying he would attend the procession in Nuh.
Manesar is a well-known cow vigilante who regularly uploads videos of himself questioning cattle transporters. In recent years, cattle traders – many of them Muslim – have been assaulted by Hindu vigilante groups as the animal is venerated in the religion.
Mr Chautala asked, “When there was already information about his presence in the procession, why didn’t the police take adequate preventive action?”
Image caption,Carts and shops run by Muslims had been burnt, with smoke seen rising from some shops on Tuesday
As he appealed for peace on Monday night, Chief Minister Khattar said “strict action” would be taken against the perpetrators of the violence.
On Tuesday, BBC Hindi’s Abhinav Goel reported that security personnel were deployed in large numbers in the Sohna area of Gurugram district, with barricades every two kilometres on the road between Sohna and Nuh.
Carts and shops belonging to Muslims have been burnt and smoke can be seen rising from some shops even on Tuesday, our reporter added.
The state’s home minister http://ceretemas.com/ said the situation was under control. But schools were shut and internet remained suspended in Faridabad, Palwal and Gurugram.
There are thousands of varieties of rice that are grown and consumed, but four main groups are traded globally. The slender long grain Indica rice comprises the bulk of the global trade, while the rest is made up of fragrant or aromatic rice like basmati; the short-grained Japonica, used for sushi and risottos; and glutinous or sticky rice, used for sweets.
India is the world’s top rice exporter, accounting for some 40% of the global trade in the cereal. (Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the US are the other top exporters).
Among the major buyers of rice are China, the Philippines and Nigeria. There are “swing buyers” like Indonesia and Bangladesh who step up imports when they have domestic supply shortages. Consumption of rice is high and growing in Africa. In countries like Cuba and Panama it is the main source of energy.
Last year, India exported 22 million tonnes of rice to 140 countries. Of this, six million tonnes was the relatively cheaper Indica white rice. (The estimated global trade in rice was 56 million tonnes.)
Image caption,Farmers plant rice saplings at a water-logged farm in India in June
Not surprisingly, July’s export ban has sparked worries about runaway global rice prices. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas reckons the ban would drive up prices and that global grain prices could rise up to 15% this year.
Also, India’s export ban has not come at a particularly propitious time, Shirley Mustafa, a rice market analyst at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told me.
For one, global rice prices have been steadily rising since early 2022, with an increase of 14% since last June.
Second, supplies are under strain, given that the arrival of the new crop in the markets is still about three months away.
Inclement weather in South Asia – uneven monsoon rains in India and floods in Pakistan – has affected supplies. Costs of growing rice have gone up because of a rise in prices of fertilisers.
The devaluation of currencies has led to increased import costs for numerous countries, while high inflation has elevated borrowing costs of the trade.
Image caption,India is the world’s top rice exporter, accounting for some 40% of the global trade in the cereal
“We have a situation where importers are constrained. It remains to be seen whether these buyers will be in a position to cope with further price increases,” says Ms Mustafa.
India has a stockpile of an eye-popping 41 million tonnes of rice – more than three times the buffer requirement – in public granaries for its strategic reserve and the Public Distribution System (PDS), which gives more than 700 million poor people access to cheap food.
Over the past year, India has grappled with nagging food inflation – domestic rice prices have risen more than 30% since last October – resulting in increased political pressure on the government ahead of general elections next year. Also, with a host of state-level elections in the coming months, the escalating cost of living poses a challenge to the government.
“I suspect that the action to ban non-basmati rice exports is largely precautionary and hopefully it will prove temporary,” Joseph Glauber of International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri) told me.
Devinder Sharma, an expert in agriculture policy in India, says that the government is trying to get ahead of an anticipated production shortfall, with rice-growing regions in the south also exposed to risks of dry rain as the El Nino weather pattern sweeps through later this year.
Many believe India should avoid rice export bans as they are detrimental to global food security.
More than half of the rice imports in around 42 countries originate from India, and in many African nations, India’s market share in rice imports surpasses 80%, according to Ifpri.
In top consuming countries in Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, for example – the share of rice consumption in total calorie intake a day ranges from 40% to 67%.
Image caption,In many African nations, India’s market share in rice imports surpasses 80%
“These bans hurt the vulnerable people most because they dedicate a larger share of their incomes to buying food,” says Ms Mustafa. “Rising prices could compel them to reduce the quantity of food they consume or switch to alternatives that are not nutritionally good or cut expenses in other basic necessities like housing and food.” (To be sure, India’s ban does permit some government shipments to countries on the basis of food security.)
Food export bans are not new. Since last year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, the number of countries imposing export restrictions on food has risen from from three to 16, according to Ifpri. Indonesia banned palm oil exports; Argentina banned beef exports; and Turkey and Kyrgyzstan banned a range of grain products. During the first four weeks of the Covid pandemic, some 21 countries implemented export restrictions on a range of products.
But experts say India’s export ban http://lakbanhitam.com/ poses greater risks. It would “surely cause a spike in global prices of white rice” and “adversely affect food security of many African nations”, warn Ashok Gulati and Raya Das of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier), a Delhi-based think tank. They believe that in order for India to become a “responsible leader of the Global South in G-20”, it should avoid such abrupt bans. “But the bigger damage,” they say, “will be that India will be seen as a very unreliable supplier of rice.”
Image caption,Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone have invested in start-ups
By Nikhil Inamdar & Cherylann Mollan
BBC News, Mumbai
Three years after launching her clothing brand Ed-a-Mamma, Alia Bhatt, one of Bollywood’s most sought-after young actresses, is reportedly cashing out. Indian newspapers report that her company will be acquired by the retail arm of one of India’s largest conglomerates, Reliance Industries, for 3bn rupees ($36m; £28m).
Bhatt is just one among a host of Bollywood stars who have been actively investing in start-ups recently. Her contemporary Deepika Padukone launched her own skincare brand, 82°E, last year, around the same time that her husband, actor Ranveer Singh, bought a stake in beauty brand Sugar Cosmetics.
The trend isn’t new, say industry watchers. It began in the early 2010s when India’s start-up scene started gaining traction. Salman Khan, one of Bollywood’s most popular actors, was among the first to venture in, when he picked up a minority stake in the travel portal Yatra in 2012.
But with India emerging as the world’s third largest start-up ecosystem, this has gathered more steam.
In just 2022 alone, 14 Indian actors put money into 18 start-up ventures, most of them in the early or growth stages. A majority of the investments were in direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, while the rest were in ed tech, e-commerce and food tech, among others.
“Celebrities today don’t want to be seen as just movie stars but also as smart investors,” says Aviral Jain, managing director of the valuation advisory services practice of Kroll. “Alia Bhatt has shown how a celebrity can leverage her stardom and fan following to transform an eco-friendly, homegrown brand into a successful business.”
Image caption,Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma have invested in a plant-based meat company
It’s a significant shift from the way Indian actors approached money and investing in the past, when many would cheerfully admit to depending on family members to manage their finances. While some, like Shah Rukh Khan, did become successful businessmen, investing in sporting ventures and restaurants, stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Jackie Shroff faced bankruptcy because they put most of their eggs in one basket – film production, which is a high-risk venture.
But today’s stars are a savvier lot financially, and along with investments in traditional sectors such as public markets, real estate and infrastructure, they are allocating capital towards start-ups as a “diversification tool from an investment portfolio standpoint”, says Navjot Kaur, associate director at Epiq Capital.
“Indian venture capital is attracting funds from domestic ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNIs) and many celebrities are a subset of that,” she adds.
Many stars have even set up family offices to manage their investments in a professional way, according to Mr Jain.
Experts say partnerships between celebrities and brands can be of mutual benefit.
For start-ups, getting investments and promotions from a celebrity instantly lends them credibility and enables them to reach millions of consumers. These start-ups typically have limited resources, “so preserving cash by giving away equity is often a smarter approach,” says Shauraya Bhutani, partner at Breathe Capital.
Start-ups also get to “leverage a celebrity’s media presence to publicise the brand”, says Benaifer Malandkar, chief investment officer of Raay Global Investments. Plus, the association with a well-known celebrity brings instant recognition to a brand and makes it seem more trustworthy to consumers.
As it did for Blue Tribe Foods when cricketer Virat Kohli and his wife, actress Anushka Sharma, invested in the fledgling plant-based meat company.
“We wanted to make people aware of the problem with the current meat value chain, and also offer the alternative solution. Their endorsement has led to the category awareness going to masses of the country, rather than just giving the brand a push,” Sohil Wazir, the company’s chief commercial officer, told the BBC.
Taking equity in a company rather than getting cash upfront means that stars get to participate in the upside if the company does well, and put their money into businesses that gel with their own personal ethos. Both Kohli and Sharma are vegetarians who often advocate for the rights of animals.
Image caption,Reliance is set to acquire Alia Bhatt’s clothing brand, according to news reports
However, K Ganesh, a serial entrepreneur and promoter, says that relying solely on a celebrity’s popularity may not be enough to grow a brand. He also warns that celebrities should be cautious about the start-ups they support, checking not just the “business risk”, but also the “reputation risk” associated with a company.
Governance scandals have rocked several high-profile Indian start-ups recently and many of them have also seen a markdown in valuations amid a funding winter.
According to a report by PwC, India’s start-up ecosystem raised the lowest funding in four years during January-June 2023 at $3.8bn across 298 deals, down 36% from July-December 2022.
But rather than seeing this as a deterrent, it could instead be an excellent time to seize the opportunity, says Mitesh Shah, partner at Physis Capital, a venture capital firm.
“With attractive valuations, these start-ups have the potential to create substantial wealth for investors in the long term,” Mr Shah told the BBC.
In the West, celebrities such as Jay-Z who purchased a $2m stake in Uber and Ashton Kutcher – an active investor who bet on companies like Skype and is now a venture capitalist – have made handsome returns on their money.
In India too, “we can expect a few billion http://repositoryku.com/ dollar new-age consumer brands being built or backed by Indian celebrities in the next decade,” says Mr Bhutani.
In Nuh, where the violence began on Monday afternoon, the streets are empty and shards of glass lie scattered everywhere. Remnants of burnt cars and shops – vandalised and looted by rioting mobs – are chilling reminders of the clashes.
Those killed include two “home guards”, who assist the police in controlling riots and public disturbances. Several policemen were injured.
Authorities imposed a curfew, suspended internet services and deployed thousands of paramilitary personnel after the clashes also spread to Gurugram, a city just outside India’s capital Delhi.
There, a mosque was set on fire and a Muslim cleric was killed in the violence, which continued through Tuesday. Several shops and small restaurants were vandalised or torched.
The state’s government – led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is also in power nationally – has been conducting meetings with leaders of both communities and no major instances of violence have been reported since Tuesday night. Haryana’s Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced financial compensation to the victims and said that the guilty will be punished.
But many locals fear that even a small spark could trigger a fresh wave of violence.
Image caption,Security has been tightened in Haryana state
“I have lost everything,” he says as he gestures at the food strewn across the floor and pieces of shattered glass.
He still shudders when he remembers the fear he felt during the violence.
“I am not angry with those who did this, I am angry at the authorities who allowed this to happen,” he says.
Others sitting with him said that Hindus and Muslims have lived in harmony in Nuh for decades and accused “outsiders” of stoking violence in their city for political gains.
In India, voting on religious lines is common and experts say that communal incidents like these can be politicised in the run-up to elections, which are due in both Haryana and India next year.
The BJP has called the clashes the result of a pre-planned conspiracy. But several opposition parties have accused the party of inaction and said it failed to prevent or stop the violence.
Image caption,Satyaprakash Garg says that his shop was looted by a mob
The violence in Nuh began when Hindu and Muslim groups clashed with each other during a religious procession taken out by members of a hardline Hindu organisation.
While details are still emerging, some have alleged that the clash was triggered by a video posted by Monu Manesar – a member of the right-wing Hindu group Bajrang Dal – who is wanted by police in connection with the murder of two Muslim men in February. Mr Manesar, who has been absconding since then, is a well-known cow vigilante in Haryana.
According to reports, he shared a video claiming that he would participate in the procession, which angered local Muslims who have been demanding his arrest.
Misinformation further fuelled tensions. Some reports initially suggested that thousands of Hindu devotees who participated in the procession were stranded in a temple complex, which was surrounded by a violent mob.
However, the head priest later denied this and said that the temple was not harmed during the clashes.
Image caption,Several vehicles were torched after religious clashes broke out in Nuh on Monday
By the time authorities managed to bring the situation in Nuh under control, the news had spread to other parts of Haryana.
Less than 50km (31 miles) away, in Gurugram, a 22-year-old Muslim cleric Saad Ameen was killed and a mosque set on fire.
People who were present say a mob of 150 people broke into the mosque and attacked the cleric and a few others who were inside.
“Kill them, kill them, they kept saying, while shouting religious slogans,” says Sahabuddin, who was sleeping in the mosque at the time of the attack.
He and his friend, Mahmudul Miyan, hid in another part of the mosque and came out only after the mob dispersed. “I could hear gun shots. They broke into the mosque and attacked the imam. Then they poured petrol and set fire to the office,” Mr Miyan alleges.
Riyazuddin – one of the managers of the mosque who had left the premises a few hours before the attack – says he feels lucky to be alive.
“Saad was so young. Why did they have to do this to him?” Mr Riyazuddin breaks down. He says he has been unable to return to the mosque, which is now barricaded and guarded by police.
Image caption,Riyazuddin says he feels lucky to be alive
The mosque, built in 2005, stood in the middle of a busy street with towering residential apartments, and a stone’s throw away from the offices of some of the world’s biggest companies.
Mr Riyazuddin says the structure had always been a source of tension, with some local Hindus opposing its construction. After several legal battles, there was a ruling in favour of it being built, which he says didn’t go down well with some people.
“This was years of bottled-up http://brewokkiri.com/ anger that came out on Monday,” says Riyazuddin. “The rioters used the violence in Nuh as an excuse to burn the mosque down and vent their frustration.”
He says he was speaking to a dying relative in India when the co-worker falsely reported him for violating “security regulations”.
Parsons has denied the allegations.
“Mr Varshney was terminated after several security violations, including using Facetime on his personal phone in a government-controlled worksite among other previous security violations where such actions are prohibited and pose risks to national security,” it said in a statement shared with the BBC.
The company added that the “series of documented improper conduct” violated both company and government policies.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of Alabama, also names US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin as the legal representative for the country’s Missile Defence Agency (MDA).
It says that in September this year, he was in an empty cubicle in the office, speaking to his dying brother-in-law “for approximately two minutes” when a co-worker saw him and reported him to company officials.
Before taking the call, Mr Varshney says he made sure there were no “classified materials or anything else pertaining to the MDA or Parsons’ work anywhere near him”.
But he alleges that despite there being no policy prohibiting the call, and without any investigation, the company accused him of committing “a serious security violation” and fired him in October.
“Worse, they blackballed him from future http://roketgubuk.com/ [MDA] work, effectively ending his career and life of service to MDA and the United States government,” it adds.
Image caption,Police say Monu Manesar has been absconding for months, but he’s been giving interviews to the media
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi
A 28-year-old man is accused of being at the centre of the deadly religious violence that broke out in the northern Indian state of Haryana earlier this week.
At least six people, including a Muslim cleric, were killed and dozens of others, including several policemen, were injured as mobs of Hindu and Muslim men clashed.
Police said violence broke out on Monday afternoon in Nuh district after a religious procession by Hindu nationalist groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was pelted with stones.
But the Indian press reports accusations putting Mohit Yadav, popularly known as Monu Manesar, at the centre of the Hindu-Muslim conflagration.
Residents of Nuh and several Muslim politicians say it was a video by Manesar, released just two days before the procession, that lit the fuse.
“If the video hadn’t come, Nuh wouldn’t have burned,” many Muslim residents of the area told Indian media.
Image caption,Several vehicles were torched after religious clashes broke out in Nuh on Monday
Manesar’s video shows him appealing to Hindus to “participate in large numbers” in Monday’s procession. “I will also be there, along with my supporters and team,” he said.
The son of a bus and truck driver, Manesar makes a living by renting out a few small properties he owns to labourers. But it’s his political work that has often seen him hit the headlines.
He joined the hardline Hindu group Bajrang Dal a decade ago and has risen through the ranks over the years. On his social media feed, he’s posted pictures carrying firearms, including machine guns. There are also selfies with powerful government ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, and senior police officials.
A member of the Haryana government’s Cow Protection Task Force and the head of the Cow Protection Unit of Bajrang Dal in Nuh, Manesar says his “true calling is to protect Hinduism and cows” – an animal that many Hindus consider sacred.
Cow slaughter is banned in a number of Indian states, including Rajasthan and Haryana, and over the past few years, many Muslims have been lynched on suspicion of killing or transporting cows.
Among his supporters, Manesar enjoys huge popularity and has several fan pages dedicated to him on social media. They say more than 50 cows have been saved because of the efforts of him and his team.
Manesar always insists that he and his team work with the administration and within the ambit of law. “It is our duty to protect cows and Hinduism, but we always work with the administration. Whenever we catch cow smugglers, we hand them over to the police,” he’s said.
But that’s a claim that’s being contested, all the more so because over the past few years his supporters – and Manesar himself – have routinely posted photographs and videos depicting alleged cow smugglers being heckled; and trucks – which he claims are carrying beef or cattle for slaughter – being chased and fired upon.
In several of them, he’s seen posing with battered Muslim men, with swollen, bloodied faces. He’s also shared videos where men are being forced to chant slogans praising the Hindu god Ram and “mother cow”.
And in February, Manesar was named as an accused in the murder of two Muslim men, Junaid and Nasir, and faces charges of kidnapping, assault and murder. He denies all the charges against him.
Image caption,Monu Manesar says his “true calling is to protect Hinduism and cows” – an animal many Hindus consider sacred
According to court documents in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan, the Muslim men were abducted in Nuh on 15 February by the Bajrang Dal’s cow protection unit on allegations of being cattle traders. They were brutally assaulted and a day later, their charred bodies were found in a burnt car in Haryana.
Since the crime, Haryana police say Manasar has been absconding and that they don’t know where he is. At the time, Rajasthan police had visited Haryana to arrest him, but said they couldn’t find him.
But new videos of Manesar continue to pop up regularly on social media – shared on his accounts and those of his supporters and fans.
And since Monday’s violence, Manesar has also given several interviews to Indian TV channels where he denied any role in the violence and said that he did not attend the event on advice from VHP leaders. He blamed the violence on some local Muslim leaders, and insisted that “Hindus would not tolerate any attack on their religion or cows”. He also used the opportunity to address the murder allegations – telling reporters that he was not present at the scene at the time of the crime.
This has led many to ask if the Indian media can find him and speak to him, why can’t the police from the two states? The BBC has contacted the police in Rajasthan and Haryana, but they have not yet responded.
But as the local press continued to keep the pressure on, http://merujaksore.com/ calling for his arrest, Manesar told a Hindi news channel on Wednesday night that he would “101% give himself up to the police in Haryana and Rajasthan soon” to clear his name.
On Thursday morning, Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar said Manesar was not a wanted man in his state and that his government would help Rajasthan police look for him.
But Mr Khattar’s claim has been contradicted by Manesar himself – he told a news channel that he has been named in a surfeit of cases by the Haryana police. “Even if a rat dies, I am blamed,” he said.
Police say he’s also named in other complaints of rioting and violence, including an incident from 6 February, in which four people were injured. A police official then told the Indian Express that “Monu is one of the accused in the attempt to murder case” as he was allegedly “seen in a video firing a gun near the spot”.
Mr Gandhi was disqualified as an MP following his sentencing.
Friday’s court ruling paves the way for him to return to parliament and contest general elections next year.
The office of the lower house of parliament will need to revoke Mr Gandhi’s disqualification for him to become an MP again.
“This will have to be done immediately,” PDT Achary, former secretary general of the lower house, told the BBC. He added that Mr Gandhi can start attending the ongoing parliament session from Monday.
“If the matter pertaining to his conviction is not settled, he would still be eligible to contest the next general elections,” he said.
The Supreme Court noted that the reasons given by the trial judge for giving the maximum punishment of two years to Mr Gandhi “are without sufficient reasons and grounds”.
The defamation case against Mr Gandhi, brought by BJP lawmaker Purnesh Modi, revolved around comments the Congress leader made in Karnataka state in 2019 during an election rally.
“Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi,” he said.
Nirav Modi is a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon while Lalit Modi is a former chief of the Indian Premier League (IPL) who has been banned for life by the country’s cricket board.
In his complaint, Purnesh Modi alleged that the comments had defamed the entire Modi community. However, Mr Gandhi said that he made the comment to highlight corruption and it was not directed against any community.
A lower court had granted Mr Gandhi http://katasungokong.com/ bail to appeal against his conviction but in July, the Gujarat high court dismissed his appeal seeking a stay on his conviction.
