On June 3, a dreadful case of murder of a 20-year-old birthday boy was reported from Govandi area of Shivaji Nagar, Mumbai. The boy identified as Sabir Ansari was murdered by his four friends including two minors on his birthday. The accused identified as Shahrukh, Nishar, Salamat and one another recreated a scene from Salman Khan starrer Bollywood movie named ‘Antim: The final truth’ and killed the deceased with the same knife he had used to cut the cake.
The Mumbai Police have registered a case under section 109 (punishment for abetment), 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. Also, the police have arrested all four accused, two of which have been sent to a juvenile home given their minor ages. However, the other two identified as Shahrukh and Nishar have been sent to jail.
A 20-year-old youth named Sabir was allegedly murdered by four of his friends, two of whom were minors, following a dispute over sharing the food bill during Sabir's birthday party. The police arrested all four accused. Two accused- Shahrukh and Nishar were sent to jail and two…
The saga is said to have begun a couple of days earlier than the deceased’s birthday. A report by the Indian Express claims that the deceased was 18 and had gone to a Dhaba for a regular outing with his friends (the accused). The accused there asked Sabir to pay the entire food bill costing Rs 10,000. Sabir happened to refuse saying that he was saving for his birthday party. However, he paid the entire food bill after the accused promised to return the money.
Sabir after a couple of days approached the accused for money as he wanted to hire a DJ and a cake for his birthday. But the accused didn’t pay the amount. Sabir and his friends, the accused fought over this issue then. Sabir also returned home and told his father that his friends had threatened him.
Later on the day of his birthday party, the accused collected some money and threw him a party near the Ambedkar garden area of Shivaji Nagar, Govandi around 8 pm. At around 11:30 pm, the accused held the deceased by his jacket and confronted him over alleged abuses he had hurled earlier. They punched him and also assaulted him. One of them then grabbed the knife from the cake and stabbed the deceased several times.
As per the police, the accused could be heard saying ‘Isko Antim picture ka shot dikha (show him that scene from Antim movie)’. The deceased was taken to the Shatabdi Municipal Hospital where he was declared dead by the doctors.
Meanwhile, a slightly different version of the murder case has come to the fore. Report by News9live claims that the deceased had organized a birthday party where his friends hired a DJ and asked Sabir to pay for it. He refused as he had already spent Rs 10,000 and was out of money. His infuriated friends got into a fight with him and later one of his friends Salamat borrowed a knife from Shahrukh and stabbed Sabir in his chest.
As per the police, one of the passersby identified Sabir and saw him in a pool of blood. He immediately informed his father who later took him to the hospital where the doctors declared him already dead. One of the accused had also fled from the spot to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and that a team from the Crime Branch (unit-6) had been sent out to arrest them.
The Police on June 6, confirmed that all the accused named in the murder case have been arrested and sent to jail. The two minor accused have been sent to the Juvenile facility. The case has been registered under IPC sections 302, 323, 109 and 34. Further investigations are underway.
On June 4, the minor wrestler who accused former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual assault has reportedly withdrawn her allegations. As per The Indian Express report, the minor athlete was among the seven wrestlers who levelled allegations against Singh. She had recorded two statements, one before the police and another before the magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Unnamed sources informed The Indian Express that she has recorded a fresh statement withdrawing the allegations. Earlier, several reports noted Sakshi Malik clarified no FIR was taken back while talking to ANI.
The statement recorded under Section 164 is deemed as evidence before the court. As she has withdrawn the statement and recorded a new one, it will be up to the court if the charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act can be pursued or not. The court will decide which statement of hers will be given precedence during the trial.
Reports suggest that in the FIR registered with the Delhi police, the father of the minor said the athlete was “completely disturbed and cannot be at peace anymore …sexual harassment by the accused (Singh) continues to haunt her”. It was claimed in the complaint that Singh held her tightly while pretending to get a picture clicked. The complaint further read that Singh “squeezed her towards himself, pressed hard on her shoulder and then deliberately…brushed his hands against her breasts”.
The first statement in front of the magistrate was registered on May 10 in a case pertaining to an FIR registered against Singh under Section 10 of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 34 (common intention). If proven guilty, an accused faces up to seven years of jail time under Section 10 of the POCSO Act.
Wrestlers Protest
Several wrestlers led by Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat are protesting against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh alleging he sexually harassed hundreds of female wrestlers. The wrestlers’ protest first started in January 2023 but was halted after a committee was formed to investigate the matter. The protests restarted in April 2023. An FIR was registered by Delhi Police and the investigation is underway. Recently, Home Minister Amit Shah met the protesting wrestlers and asked them to let the law take its course.
The protests have turned political as Khap Panchayats, opposition leaders and farmer unions along with left-liberals have extended support to the protesters. They used the platform to target PM Modi-led BJP government at the centre.
Delhi Police questioned staff at Brij Bhushan Singh’s houses
As per Dainik Bhaskar’s report, Delhi Police teams questioned staff at Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s houses in Delhi and Gonda. The police visited his house on Monday night and questioned 15 of his staff members for around 1.5 hours at Lucknow and 12 at Gonda. As per reports, the driver, guards, gardener and servants were questioned by the police. The police has already questioned Singh two times for 5-6 hours so he was not questioned again during a visit to Lucknow and Gonda houses.
Recently (on June 1), the website TheWire published a video denouncing the so-called ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, a fictitious propaganda that is being run by Islamists to target Hindu men. In the video that they uploaded on their YouTube channel, they called the Bhagwa Love Trap a fictitious campaign, which it is, but being a Leftist propaganda rag which often acts as the backbone of Islamists, they used the fictitious campaign to whitewash ‘Love Jihad’, which has real victims, real stories, real FIRs, real conviction and real-life criminal implications.
Unrelated incidents from five cities have raked up a new phenomenon called the "Bhagwa Love Trap," where a group of Muslim youths would engage in moral policing by targeting Muslim women seen with non-Muslim boys or young men. | @TheOtherKaskar#Watch: https://t.co/hOhf47UHS2
However, even though TheWire tried to monkey-balance by denouncing Bhagwa Love Trap only to whitewash Islamist crimes against Hindu women (Love Jihad), their Muslim readership, which demands total submission to the Islamist agenda, got miffed with the ally-portal and starting trending the hashtag #BoycottTheWire on Twitter.
Islamists claim that Hindu men are trapping Muslim women. There have been several cases where a group of Islamists chased Hindu men travelling with their Muslim female friends and assaulted them. While targeting Hindus, Islamists also leaked information about Muslim women online who were seen with Hindu men. Several groups are active on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and WhatsApp running propaganda against Hindus.
It is pertinent to note that the only cases of so-called Bhagwa Love Trap that have come to the fore involve Muslim women merely being ‘seen’ with Hindu men. There is not even one case where the Islamists have been able to show that Hindu men were brainwashing Muslim women, trying to convert them to Hinduism, misrepresented their identity to trap the Muslim women or committed any religiously motivated crime against the Muslim women.
The Wire shenanigans
In the 7 minutes and 49 seconds video, The Wire’s Zeeshan Kaskar talked about women not being free in Indian society. The video started with a discussion on the so-called Bhagwa Love Trap cases. Kaskar said under the said phenomenon, Muslim men harass Muslim women seen with non-Muslim men. He pointed out five such cases came to the fore in May itself.
The Wire claimed that The Quint covered several cases of Bhagwa Love Trap where Muslim men would harass Muslim women roaming with non-Muslim men. They claimed the cases were “unlinked” and had nothing to do with each other. Interestingly, while Islamists are running propaganda to target Hindu men on multiple social media platforms, The Wire whitewashed the incidents claiming there was no link whatsoever.
Kaskar further said the only thing common among them was the modus operandi under which a group of Muslim men spot Muslim women roaming with non-Muslim men and target them. The funny thing was, within seconds Kaskar was seen explaining how they were actually “linked” to social media campaign against the so-called Bhagwa Love Trap.
It is also interesting that TheWire chose to highlight only 5 cases, thereby also whitewashing just how rampant this conspiracy theory is. OpIndia itself has documented several cases in a two part series where more than 20 cases of Hindu men being harassed by Muslim mobs have come to the fore.
‘The social fabric of India is in bad shape’ – Kaskar drew a parallel with Love Jihad
The Wire claimed that such cases are damaging the social fabric of India which is ‘already in bad shape’. It would be a stretch, however, to expect TheWire to call out the conspiracy theory of Bhagwa Love Trap, specifically made to target Hindu men and whitewash real religiously motivated crimes of Love Jihad.
After 4 minutes into the video, Kaskar said just like Bhagwa Love Trap a fabricated campaign called “Love Jihad” is being served to Hindus. The Wire named Hindu Janjagruti Samiti as the mastermind behind Love Jihad. He added that HJS is linked to Sanatan Sanstha, a Goa-based private organisation. He claimed Sanatan Sanstha is involved in terrorist activities including the murder of controversial journalist Gauri Lankesh.
Following the claims, The Wire got into full propaganda mode to target Hindus. They showed clips of news channels where it was claimed people linked to Hindu organisations attempted bomb blasts furthering the already debunked theory of ‘Saffron terror’.
Kaskar further claimed that cases like Bhagwa Love Trap gives more power to the right-wingers. “Maybe they [right wingers] are eyeing for such cases. That’s why organisations like Hindu Janjagriti Samiti keep provoking their followers. Everyone knows which political party gets benefitted from communalism,” Kaskar said.
Essentially, while denouncing Bhagwa Love Trap created by Islamists and Maulanas like Sajjad Nomani, TheWire could not resist blaming the Hindus for the theory being peddled by Muslims not only to target Hindu men but also to whitewash their own crimes against Hindu women.
The boycott call against The Wire
The Wire team might have expected brownie points from both Hindus and Muslims but their video backfired and now they are facing boycott calls from their loyal followers. Several Muslims who were subscribers of The Wire are unsubscribing from their channel. They are running hashtags like “BoycottTheWire” on social media. One of the main reasons behind the boycott calls is that The Wire used a photograph of prominent Islamic cleric Sajjad Nomani who has been at the forefront of the bogus campaign of Bhagwa Love Trap.
Twitter user Syed Nadeem questioned The Wire and Kaskar for using Nomani’s photograph in the thumbnail and demanded an explanation. Interestingly, Kaskar told him to ask Nomani not to spread hate and got more hate in return.
Twitter user Chaand said The Wire was paid to use Nomani’s photograph in the thumbnail and called Kaskar ‘Chomu Garbage’.
People of .@thewire_in have to collect weavers by putting the photo of our Shaikh Hazrat Maulana @msajjadnomani Sahab Damat Barkathum in the thumbnail. And @TheOtherKaskar like Chomu Garbage is writing against Hazrat, where do you get so much hypocrisy from?#BoycottTheWire
Twitter user Abu Hanzalah urged everyone to stand with the “scholars” of Islam and shut the mouth of “bigots” like The Wire who damage and attack Islam.
Stand for the scholars of Islam who represent the honor of Islam. Shut the mouths of vile bigots who act as saviours of Muslims but deviate Muslims from Islam, who damage Islam and who attack Islam#BoycottTheWirehttps://t.co/vf9Gz5g5cM
— Abu Sayed Dilwar Siddiqui (@DilwarSiddiqui) June 5, 2023
The Boycott campaign against The Wire by their Muslim readers and what it says about total submission to their agenda
As mentioned above, TheWire has on several occasions whitewashed the crimes of Muslims against non-Muslims and therefore, one should be rather surprised that their Muslim readership is today miffed enough with them to boycott them. If one recalls, it was The Wire that had tried to paint Tahir Hussain as an innocent victim, when in his disclosure statement he clearly mentions that he was one of the key conspirators of the Delhi anti-Hindu riots because he wanted to ‘teach Kafirs a lesson’. The Wire has on several occasions given covering fire to Islamists, whitewashed their crimes, covered up for their terrorism, tried to implicate Hindus for crimes committed by Islamists, hailed Islamists like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam etc.
With such dedicated allegiance to the Islamist agenda, one has to wonder why the Muslims found the need to boycott The Wire, even though, the video for which they are now facing a boycott actually monkey balanced, gave the Muslims a ‘get out of jail free card’, blamed Hindus for their sins and whitewashed Islamist crimes against non-Muslim women.
Essentially, Islamists and Leftists alike demand total and utter submission to their agenda. For a portal to be an ally of the Islamists, they will have to basically morph themselves into the mouthpieces of ISIS for their Islamist readership to be happy. It has been proven on several such occasions that any deviation from the most radical discussions in the Muslim circle earns the ire of not just Islamists but also the average moderate Muslims. The Wire was an ally until they whitewashed the Delhi anti-Hindu riots and painted the worst elements in Muslim society as angels. However, the moment they even remotely denounced an Islamist conspiracy, even their monkey balancing blaming Hindus and whitewashing their crime was not enough. What their Muslim readership expected of TheWire was to accept that Bhagwa Love Trap is real, and then use it to claim that Hindus were terrorists and that Love Jihad was not real. Any deviation from that specific agenda invited their ire.
Love Jihad is real and The Wire cannot deny it
No matter how much The Wire and others try to whitewash Love Jihad (grooming jihad), it is real and there have been hundreds of cases to prove it. Over 150 cases from 2022 were compiled by OpIndia at the beginning of 2023 and it was just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every day several such cases are being reported where Muslim men pose and Hindu to lure Hindu women. They trap them and then force the Hindu women to convert. A notable percentage of such cases end up in the assault and murder of Hindu women after they refuse to convert or object to following Islamic practices. OpIndia’s detailed coverage of such cases can be seen here.
NDRF Jawan Venktesan NK, who was onboard the Coromandel Express which derailed in Odisha, was among the first to alert his force about that tragic accident. While talking to ANI, Venktesan NK said, “I alerted my team about the accident. I informed the Odisha NDRF team. Within one hour an NDRF team was on the spot. The nearby civilians helped us a lot in providing food, water and first aid.” “The accident happened around 6:50 pm. There was a loud noise inside the train. Everybody was scared and people started praying to god. I asked people not to lose their cool and made them understand that something might have happened. The train slowed down after that. I asked them to settle down. I was in the AC coach. After the train stopped, I got down to see and realised that an accident had happened,” Venktesan NK further said.
Upon his return from Odisha after the horrific railway accident, which killed over 270 people and left over 1000 injured, Railway Board Chairman, AK Lahoti on Monday evening briefed top officials in the Prime Minister’s Office on the update on ground, including the ongoing investigation.
“Chairperson of the Railway Board will be meeting top officials in the Prime Minister’s office, including the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister about the details from the ground,” reliable sources had earlier told ANI.
While the enquiry ordered by the railway ministry is currently underway, the government has also sent a request to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take up the matter.
“There is a need to have a deep investigation by a professional agency to rule out any deliberate interference,” top government sources told ANI.
Within hours of the rail accident, the chairman railway board was on the ground with the Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw and has returned only today. So he is likely to brief the details to the PMO that has been keeping a constant watch on the developments on the ground.
The triple train accident in Balasore happened on Friday evening. At least 275 people were killed, while more than 1,000 were injured in the accident that took place near the Bahanaga Bazar area on June 2.
The Odisha government on Monday informed that 151 bodies from the triple train accident that took place in Odisha’s Balasore district have been identified till today morning.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the Balasore accident site from ground zero and also visited the injured being treated at the hospital. Before leaving Delhi for the accident site, PM Modi had also chaired a high-level review meeting on the same.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has reportedly admitted that they evaded taxes in India and are now committing to pay Rs 40 crores in tax arrears. According to a report in Times of India, BBC is yet to file revised returns or provide their commitment to the Tax Authorities in writing. The report said that tax sources have said that BBC has only made a statement of intent so far and no payment has been received by the IT department.
According to a report by India.com, the BBC has agreed to cough up Rs 40 crores to make up for their tax evasion over a period of almost 6 years – from 2016 to 2022.
In February 2023, the BBC offices were surveyed by tax authorities for 3 days. After the survey, the Finance Ministry had issued a statement explaining the depth of tax fraud committed by the BBC.
Without naming BBC, the statement said that a survey action under section 133A of the Income tax Act, 1961(the Act) was carried out at the business premises of group entities of a prominent international Media Company at Delhi and Mumbai.
The statement noted that BBC is engaged in the business of development of content in English, Hindi and various other Indian languages; advertisement sales and market support services, etc in India.
The statement said that the income/profits shown by various group entities under BBC India do not match their scale of operations in India, as the quantity of content in India is substantial. In the raid by the Income tax department, which has been described as a survey, several pieces of evidence were found that show that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group.
The ministry further informed that the survey revealed that BBC India had made remittances to its foreign offices for utilising the services of seconded employees, or temporary employees sent from overseas. While such remittances are subjected to withholding tax, BBC avoided it.
Further, the I-T department also found discrepancies and inconsistencies with regard to Transfer Pricing documentation. Such discrepancies relate to the level of relevant Function, Asset and Risk (FAR) analysis, incorrect use of comparables which are applicable to determine the correct Arms Length Price (ALP) and inadequate revenue apportionment, among others, the statement said.
The ministry has said that the survey operation has resulted in the unearthing of crucial evidence by way of statements of employees, digital evidence and documents which will be further examined in due course. “It is pertinent to state that statements of only those employees were recorded whose role was crucial including those connected to, primarily, finance, content development and other production-related functions,” the ministry said.
Interestingly, while the ‘Liberal’ ecosystem in India had tried to defend the BBC and blame the Modi government for conducting the survey at the BBC premises, the broadcasting company has a notable past of tax evasion and fraud. For example, Thousands of public employees, including those at the BBC, were not paying their taxes at the source, according to a 2012 report from the public accounts committee in the United Kingdom (UK). The full report on BBC’s history of tax evasion can be read here.
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari was convicted by a special MP-MLA court in Varanasi on Monday in the 1991 Awadhesh Rai murder case. He has been awarded life imprisonment in the case of murder of Congress leader Awadhesh Rai, brother of MLA Ajay Rai, on 3 August 1991.
Every time Mukhtar Ansari appears in the news, people mention that he is a relative of former vice president Hamid Ansari. It is often said Hamid Ansari is Mukhtar Ansari’s uncle, while some say they are cousins. While that is not true, it is also not completely untrue.
In fact, Mukhtar Ansari himself has claimed that he is related to Hamid Ansari. In February 2021, while opposing the UP government’s plea to shift him to the state from Punjab, he had said that he comes from an illustrious family with several well-known persons and freedom fighters. In this, he had also named Hamid Ansari.
Mukhtar Ansari said in an affidavit filed at the Supreme Court that he was a “part of a family that has made immense contribution to the Indian freedom movement and has given India many leaders in the form of Shri Muhammad Hamid Ansari who was the vice president of India, Shri Shaukatullah Ansari who served as the governor of Odisha, Justice Asif Ansari who was the judge of the Allahabad high court, and his own father Subhanullah Ansari who was a freedom fighter and social worker.”
It has been widely reported in media that Mukhtar Ansari comes from a distinguished family. His paternal grandfather Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari was the president of the Congress party. While his maternal grandfather Mohammad Usman was a Brigadier in the Indian Army. His father Subhanullah Ansari was also a politician and had a clean image. Mukhtar’s brother Sibgatullah Ansari is a member of Samajwadi Party and two-time MLA from 2007 to 2012.
Similarly, his family is indeed related to the family of Hamid Ansari, but they are not first cousins or direct uncle-nephew, as often alleged. According to available reports, they are distant relatives. Talking to newschecker, Shuaib Ansari, son of the elder brother of Mukhtar Ansari, has clarified that Hamid Ansari is a distant relative and not an immediate relative of Mukhtar Ansari.
Another member of the family said that Hamid Ansari and Mukhtar Ansari’s father Subhanullah Ansari were second cousins. Therefore, Hamid Ansari is not Mukhtar Ansari’s real uncle, but they belong to the same extended family. Hamid Ansari and Subhanullah Ansari are grandnephews of the freedom fighter Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari.
Other well-known names from the clan include Jamia Millia founder and former Congress president Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, former MP and former governor Dr Shaukat-Ullah Shah Ansari, former Kerala Chief Justice M Ahmad Ansari, Justice Asif Ansari of Allahabad High Court, among others.
Due to the distant nature of the relationship between Hamid Ansari and Mukhtar Ansari, locals consider them not relatives. In an OpIndia ground report, one villager from Mau village had said that they merely belong to the same village, and have no blood relation.
On the 4th of June, The New York Times, which has often been terribly racist towards India and her achievements published an article headlined “Money for Show Horses, Not Work Horses, on Indiaʼs Rails”. In the article written by Alex Travelli, the New York Times acknowledges that railway safety has improved drastically since the Modi government took over, however, somehow reaches the conclusion that not enough is being spent on safety, but instead, resources are being spent on speed and comfort instead.
“In a country where major industry and political fortunes alike are often tied to a vast, interwoven rail system, India has lavished public resources on new trains, but its purse strings have been much tighter when it comes to ensuring the safety of those already racing along its tracks”, the NYT article read.
If propaganda was an art, The New York Times would probably be Mozart. They carefully start with their conclusion, helping the readers’ make up their minds, believing their conclusion, without providing the facts on the basis of which they reached the said conclusion. They instead quoted some ‘experts’ to make their point.
Talking about the Balasore triple train accident, the New York Times makes strange assertions claiming, “But most of Mr. Modi’s initiatives have been aimed not at the basic steps needed to get trains from Point A to Point B without mishap, but at improving speed and comfort. He regularly extols higher-fare new electric Vande Bharat trains connecting bigger cities and has made an early priority of a Japanese-style bullet train, though it can do nothing to improve the lives of the country’s ordinary passengers”.
Interestingly, NYT makes this assertion while acknowledging that “The budget for the train system, one of the largest in the world, is five times as much this year than when he took office”.
To make their claims believable, NYT quotes experts and the CAG report. “A report last year by India’s auditor general, an independent office, found that less money was being allocated for track renewal work and that officials had not even spent the full amount set aside”, the report says. However, it is important to keep in mind that CAG reports are meant to keep government departments on their toes and by no means does the report state that insufficient amount is being spent towards safety of railways.
In fact, further in the article, after reaching a conclusion essentially against the Modi government, the NYT article itself acknowledges that railways safety has improved drastically under the Modi government.
The article says, “Derailments were once frequent, with an average of 475 per year from 1980 to about the turn of the century. In the decade leading to 2021, that number dropped to just over 50, according to a paper railway officials presented at the World Congress on Disaster Management. Rail safety in India, more generally, has also improved, with the number of serious train accidents dropping steadily: to 22 in the 2020 fiscal year from more than 300 annually two decades ago. By 2020, for two years in a row, India had recorded no passenger deaths in rail accidents — a milestone hailed by the Modi government. Until 2017, more than 100 passengers were killed every year”.
It is, therefore, evident that despite understanding how the railways’ safety has improved under the Modi government, a feat that would not be possible had a substantial amount of money not been spent on upgradation, the NYT chose to reach the conclusion that the Modi government is spending money on vanity projects and comfort instead of safety. This argument is certainly not surprising when made by The New York Times, given its history of racism against India. The argument is similar to saying why India should spend on going to the moon when there are poor people who sleep on the road – an argument that NYT had made once with this cartoon.
Racist cartoon by NYT
Be that as it may, there are several important facts that The New York Times has perniciously omitted from their article. For the benefit of NYT and its readers, here are some facts related to the Indian government, the safety of railways improving drastically since the Modi government took over and the money being spent to that end.
Measures taken by the Modi government to improve railways’ safety
Enough funds have been allocated to implement various modernisation measures for the rail network. A capital outlay of ₹2.40 lakh crore has been provided for the current financial year. Since 2014, there has been a substantial increase in fund allocation for New Line, Electrification, Gauge Conversion and Doubling Projects. The average Annual Budget allocation for these works was the highest-ever Rs 67,001 crore during 2022-23, which is 481% more than the average annual budget outlay of 2009-14, which was Rs. 11,527 crore).
Since independence, around 21,400 route km of the railway network was electrified till 2014, which was 33% of the total route. After the Modi govt came to power, over 37,000 route km have been electrified. According to railways, India now has around 90% of railway electrification completed. Interestingly, India is now global leader among major countries in railway electrification. In comparison, in USA only around 1% of route is electrified, and for Canada, the figure is only 0.2%. Australia, Russia, and China have electrified 10%, 51% and 68% of their routes respectively, while the figure for European Union is 56%.
After independence, the expansion of the railway network had almost stopped, it did not expand much beyond what was laid by the British. That has changed under the Modi government. During 2014-2022, 20,628 km sections of new lines were laid, ad 5,507 km Gauge Conversion and 11,151 km of Doubling was done.
During the financial year 2022-2023, 5,227 km of Complete Track Renewal was carried out. In the last 10 years, a Complete Track Renewal of 37,159 kms of track was completed. While 2,885 km was renewed in 2013-2014 (while the Congress govt was in power), in 2022-2023, that number has increased to 5,227 km.
For the purpose of track upgradation, a Modern track structure, consisting of 60kg, 90 Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) rails, Pre-stressed Concrete Sleeper was used. As on 31st March 2023, 65% of Broad Gauge Track was completed.
The Railways have started using long rails to minimise joins, and long rail panels of 260-metre and 130-metre lengths are being manufactured for this purpose. And for joints, the older fishplate joints with bolts are being replaced with welded joints. On most broad gauge tracks, earlier short-welded 39-metre rails have been replaced with long-welded rails, covering almost 90% of the total BG track in the network.
The old manual switching and signalling systems have been replaced by Panel Interlocking, Route Relay Interlocking, and Electronic Interlocking systems. This means now track alignments can be changed by just pressing a button, instead of pushing and pulling levers. These systems have improved safety and the efficiency of the rail network considerably.
97% of the stations now have modern Signaling Systems with electronic and relay-based interlocking.
In another improvement, the Two-aspect colour-light signals have been replaced with Multiple Aspect Colour Light Signals at 6,396 Stations out of total 6,506 stations. In two aspect signals, two colour lights are used, red for stop and green for go. In Multiple Aspect Colour Light Signalling, two yellow lights are added to it. One yellow light is lit to indicate caution and both are used to indicate attention.
Indian Railways now use Block Proving Axle Counters to ensure that a train has entered a line or exited a line at a station so that the next train can be allowed to enter that line. Earlier, it was a manual job. Now, the axle counters placed at both ends of track sections ensure that the track section is empty before permitting another train in that section. It eliminates human error and controls the safe movement of trains between stations.BPAC systems have been installed at 6,364 Block Sections out of 6,607 Block Sections in the BG network.
The Railways have undertaken a massive mission to remove unmanned level crossings, converting them to manned LCs, and also providing overbridges and underpasses with the collaboration of respective road authorities. Along with this, manned level crossing gates are being interlocked with signals on broad gauge routes, to ensure that no gate is left open when a train crosses a road. In the next phase, the Railways plans to eliminate all manned level crossings, by providing overbridges and underpasses everywhere a road crosses a railway line. The Railways is now closing average 676 manned level crossings per year, up from 199 during 2009-2014.
A major and ongoing project is the replacement of the older ICF (Integral Coach Factory) design coaches with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches which have several advantages. Coach production units of the railways are now making only LHB coaches. LHB coaches have anti-telescopic features, don’t climb over each other in case of a crash, have better disc brakes, and are less prone to derail.
The most important safety improvement being undertaken by the Railways is the Kavach anti-collision system. While the system has been installed on only small segments of tracks, work is on to install it on the entire network gradually. The Kavach system can apply brakes to control speed if the driver fails to do so. It is interfaced with the existing electronic interlocking system, and is designed to prevent head-on and rear-end collision between two trains running on the same track.
As a result of these measures, the number of consequential train accidents has decreased by over 2.4 times from 118 in 2013-14 to 48 in the year 2022-23.
On the 5th of June, digital news portal The New Indian shared a video of BJP leader Vijay Goel with the claim that he slapped a woman publicly. The New Indian tweeted, “BJP leader and ex-Union minister @VijayGoelBJP slaps a Delhi woman publicly during a conversation on stray dog policy”.
An Archive tweet of The New Indian can be accessed here.
This video was then shared by Rohan Dua, who is the Executive Editor of The New Indian. Dua tweeted, “SHOCKER: BJP leader and ex Union minister Vijay Goel slaps a Delhi woman publicly during a conversation on a stray dog policy”.
SHOCKER: BJP leader and ex Union minister Vijay Goel slaps a Delhi woman publicly during a conversation on a stray dog policy.pic.twitter.com/MeAuJ5kzoL
There were several other leaders who spread these videos. Saurabh Bharadwaj of AAP retweeted the video shared by the official handle of his party.
Re-Tweet by AAP leader
What is the truth? Did Vijay Goel slap a woman during a strategy meet to manage stray dog menace?
The video, which was shared by The New Indian and Rohan Dua quickly went viral and several politicians and their supporters shared it widely to attack Vijay Goel, claiming that he had slapped a woman publicly.
BJP leader Vijay Goel took to Twitter to release a video where he vehemently denied these charges. He said that the video was deliberately taken from an angle where one can’t see what really transpired. He said he had made these activists sit down and was talking to them while calling them ‘beti’. He further said that he had merely asked them to not record the conversation and listen to what he was saying. He flatly denied the charges that he had slapped anyone.
मेरे खिलाफ सोशल मीडिया पर झूठा वीडियो काफी फैलाया जा रहा हैं
In his video, Vijay Goel names Saurabh Bharadwaj, Yogita Bhayana and The New Indian, saying that they have uploaded a video claiming that he slapped a woman. He said the meeting was to form a strategy to handle the stray dog menace in Model Town.
He said that these elements who had come there were made to sit down respectfully and then he had a conversation with them about the menace. He said nobody was slapped and nobody’s phone was snatched.
In the video, it was evident that Vijay Goel was sitting on a chair and talking to them about RWA feeding stray dogs. Thereafter, he gets up to ask one of the women to stop recording a video.
Here is the specific video from which it is evident that Vijay Goel did not slap the woman, nor did he attempt to snatch her phone.
After fake news was spread by The New Indian, political parties and leaders, Yogita Bhayana and others, netizens have taken to Twitter to demand police action against those who shared the fake news including the media platform.
Netizens have also demanded action against Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of AltNews, who claims to be a fact-checker. He shared the fake video as well.
— Right Minded Indian ?️? (@ImdesiHypocrite) June 5, 2023
Earlier, ‘animal activist’ Yogita Bhayana had gate crashed a meeting by Vijay Goel on stray dogs, got slapped by a woman
On May 10, a group of animal ‘activists’ gate-crashed former union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Goel’s seminar on the menace of stray dogs at Constitution Club to mark their protest. Two women, one of which was animal activist Yogita Bhayana, exchanged slaps. Videos of the incident had gone viral on social media, including the “slap-gate”. In the video, when Bhayana and other activists were being forced out of the meeting by the attendees and the police, she slapped a woman and got slapped in return.
Bhayana claimed the organisers of the seminar misbehaved with them. She said, “We wanted to speak our minds. Rather than giving us a platform, they started thrashing us.” She further claimed the organisers used a photograph of a ‘ferocious dog’ across the city in promotional posters for the seminar. She further claimed that the seminar aimed to have a discussion on the lines of an ‘anti-stray dogs’ drive.
Even at that time, Vijay Goel had accused the animal activists of disrupting the event. The full report can be read here.
On Monday, June 5, a female police constable posted in the Shivkuti police station in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, accused IPL cricket player Mohsin Khan’s brother, Imran Khan, of alleged love jihad. In her complaint, the female police officer said that Imran Khan married her by pretending to adopt Buddhism. Soon after, he started pressuring her to convert to Islam. Not only this, she accused Imran Khan of coercing her to have sex with his father Multan and brother Mohsin Khan.
Mohsin Khan is an Indian fast bowler who plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket and Lucknow Super Giants in Indian Premier League.
Female constable in Prayagraj, UP has accused her fellow constable Imran Khan of #lovejihad
The victim, who is a resident of Varanasi, has now in a video message, pleaded with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for help.
She is heard telling that when she had first approached the police with a complaint against her husband Imran Khan and his family, the police were reluctant in registering the complaint. After a lot of deliberation, the Prayagraj police on February 23, 2023, registered a case was registered against the accused Imran Khan, however, the officers did not invoke the stringent sections of the SC/ST Act against the accused. She also alleged that since the accused’s brother is a famous and influential person, his and his father’s names have been removed from the FIR.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim said that she met Imran Khan in 2016 in Moradabad where she went for police training. Imran Khan, who was also in the police, trapped her in his love affair. He adopted Buddhism and married the victim under the Special Marriage Act in 2018. Following their marriage, Imran started pressuring her to convert to Islam. He also forcefully changed her name to Zaira Banu.
“Imran had converted to Buddhism just to trap me and the entire family of the accused is involved in this conspiracy. Even after converting to Buddhism, he continued to go to mosques to offer namaz. He also took me to mosques in Ajmer and Barabanki. In 2019, I went to Imran’s house for an event where his brother Mohsin Khan raped me at night,” the victim said, adding that she has a three-year-old child, whom Imran forcefully tried to circumcise, which she vehemently opposed.
The woman added that Imran had lied to her about his first marriage. She said that to trap her, Imran sent her an affidavit saying that he had divorced his first wife but he continued to live with her. “I have given all the evidence related to this case to the investigator. Even after this, no one in the police station is ready to listen to me. I am left with no option but to end my life,” the victim lamented, adding that she had even tried committing suicide on the railway track, but her friend saved her.
Speaking about the case, ACP Shivkuti Rajesh Yadav, said that it was a case of dispute between the couple. He said that since Imran Khan was previously married there are many technical flaws in this case. Only when the investigation is completed, can the police decide on the next course of action, he said.
DCP Deepak Bhukar, meanwhile, has also taken cognizance of the matter. He asked the victim to present her case before the police and assured her that her testimony would be taken into account while conducting the probe.
Love Jihad or Grooming Jihad cases have been reported almost on a daily basis across the country. OpIndia has covered hundreds of cases in the last few years where Hindu girls were lured into a relationship by Muslim men posing as Hindu men. Many of them were brutally murdered after they refused to convert or did not respond to their advances. OpIndia’s complete coverage of Grooming Jihad cases can be seen here.
On June 4, Minister for Commerce and Industry in Congress-led Karnataka Government MB Patil threatened pro-Hindu activist Chakravarthy Sulibele with jail time. Patil’s reaction came after Sulibele drew a parallel between the current Congress regime in Karnataka and Hitler for attempting to cancel an event commemorating Veer Savarkar. In his statement, Patil said if Sulibele continued to “incite communal strife” in the state, he would face jail time. Sulibele is the founder of Yuva Brigade.
Patil made the threatening remarks during a press conference. Countering Sulibele’s comparison between the Congress government and Hitler’s regime, Patil said those remarks were inflammatory and divisive. He accused Sulibele of instigating disturbance in the state over the past four years. Sulibele was local about several issues including halal, hijab and azaan.
He said, “Ask Sulibele, what has he done in the past. Sulibele, the disasters committed in the past by you and your ilk, like the Hijab, textbook row, halal and azaan, will be rectified. In case, you continue this, I want to tell you that you would spend time in jail.”
BJP criticised Patil for threatening Sulibele
BJP criticised Patil for his remarks. BJP MP from Karnataka Tejasvi Surya called it an abuse of power. He said such abuse of power was a common feature of the Siddaramaiah government. In a tweet, he wrote, “Karnataka Minister Sri @MBPatil’s threat to jail Sri Sulibele Chakravarthy only further proves Sulibele’s accusation that this is a Hitler-ish Govt that is keen to curb freedom of speech. In less than a fortnight of assuming office, these open threats to abuse power are a common feature of the Siddaramiah government. We will fight every abuse of power, both inside and outside courts.”
Karnataka Minister Sri @MBPatil’s threat to jail Sri Sulibele Chakravarthy only further proves Sulibele’s accusation that this is a Hitler-ish Govt that is keen to curb freedom of speech.
In less than a fortnight of assuming office, these open threats to abuse power is a common…
During the program commemorating Veer Savarkar on his 140th birth anniversary, Sulibele compared the Congress government to Hitler’s regime. He said, “It hasn’t been a week since they came to power and they wanted to cancel this programme. If they are not ready to listen to others, what are they? My friends, this is Hitler’s government.”
Responding to Patil’s threats, Sulebele said, “We call a government Hitler’s government when they don’t have the patience to listen to the truth, which is sometimes uncomfortable. They have the power and they will do what they want. It is not new for someone like me who has come here through struggle. We are ready.”
He added, “You [Patil] should have some control over your speech. As the public has given you the mandate to rule, you should let go of arrogance, which will spoil your and your government’s name.”
