The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha’s official website was purportedly hacked by Team Kerala Cyber Warriors on Friday and showed, on the landing page of the website, a recipe for “Kerala Spicy Nadan Beef Curry”. The website also displayed a message for ‘Chakrapani psycho’- “We respect people for their character and not for their food habits.” The website was restored later in the evening.
The website was hacked apparently due to ABHM chief Swami Chakrapani’s controversial remark that only those who did not consume beef should have been helped in the Kerala floods. The self-styled godman said that many innocent people died in the floods because a few people kill cows and exhibit in shops.
“Those people who were eating cow meat in Kerala until now-they used to cut up the cow and present it, they used to tease the environment and those who consider the cow sacred. They used to cut up cows and eat it and distribute it. The way they insulted the cow and killed it, this is the consequence of that,” Chakrapani had told Times Now.
“Even innocents have been affected in Kerala today because of their misdeeds. Those who eat cow meat over there or are involved in killing cows, they should not be given any relief at all-whether it’s from the government or in kind,” he had said.
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“If there is any emergency, they must take a pledge that they will never eat meat in the future. Those who eat cow meat are the incarnation of the devil himself. If courts cannot probe cow killings, if governments cannot act against it, this is why the environment is reacting this way–it is taking revenge. If you upset the natural environment, this is how it will react,” Chakrapani added.
In one of the first unprecedented floods in history, fresh onslaught of rain in Kerala since August 8 has led to a death toll of over 300. 80 dams have been opened. A red alert has been issued in all the 14 districts of the state. There have been power cuts and food shortage across the state.
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi announced a financial assistance of Rs 500 crore to the flood ravaged state of Kerala after chairing a high level meeting with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister Alphons KJ and other state ministers for checking rehabilitations measures and assessing the damage. He also announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh per person to the next kin of the deceased.
The President of the United Arab Emirates Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan instructed officials to set up a national emergency committee to help flood-hit areas of Kerala, reported news agency ANI.
The author of a report on the conservation of the Western Ghats, Scientist Madhav Gadgil, said on Sunday that the scale of the disaster would have been smaller had the state government and local authorities followed environmental laws. He headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel formed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2010, said at least a part of the problem in Kerala was “man made”.
“Yes, there is an intense rainfall event which has caused this. But I am quite convinced that the last several years’ developments in the state have materially compromised its ability to deal with events like this and greatly increased the magnitude of the suffering that we are seeing today. Had proper steps been taken, the scale of the disaster would have been nowhere near what it is today,” Dr Gadgil told The Indian Express.
