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Approval rating of PM Modi highest among world leaders at 66%, ahead of Biden, Trudeau, Merkel and others

OpIndia Staff
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Approval rating of PM Modi highest among world leaders at 66%, ahead of Biden, Trudeau, Merkel and others

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval rating is highest among the list of popular global leaders, a survey conducted by American data intelligence firm ‘Morning Consult’ revealed. PM Modi’s approval ratings stood at 66 per cent, which is better than world leaders of 13 countries including the US, UK, Russia, Australia, Canada, Brazil, France and Germany.

The ‘Morning Consult’, which regularly tracks approval ratings of world leaders, recently tweeted results of its latest survey. PM Modi outperformed all other political leaders around the world with a 66 per cent approval rating. The second position was bagged by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (65%), followed by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (63%), Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (54%), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (53%), US President Joe Biden (53%), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (48%), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (44%), South Korean President Moon Jae-In (37%), Spanish Spain Pedro Sánchez (36%), Brazilian President Jaire Bolsonaro (35%), French President Emmanuel Macron (35%) and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (29%).

With a sample size of 2,126 adults in India, the Morning Consult Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker that was updated on June 17 showed 66 per cent approval for PM Modi while 28 per cent of the respondents disapproved of him.

The current rating, even though better than other world leaders, is 16 percentage points lower than the approval PM Modi enjoyed in August 2019, days after his government annulled the archaic Article 370 and paved the way for greater integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the union of India. PM Modi had then polled 82 per cent of approval ratings in a survey conducted by Morning Consult.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar took to Twitter to announce that PM Modi continues to remain at the numero uno position among the list of democratic leaders with the highest approval rating.

“People and the world have faith in PM Shri @narendramodi’s leadership. The approval rating of Shri Narendra Modi is the highest among all top democratic world leaders. PM Modi the leader of #NewIndia,” Javadekar tweeted.

Methodology adopted by Morning Consult to arrive at the approval ratings

Political Intelligence is Morning Consult’s proprietary platform that provides real-time polling data on elections, elected officials and voting issues. Morning Consult conducts more than 11,000 daily interviews globally about leadership approval and 5,000 daily interviews with registered voters in the United States, about the presidential and congressional election.

Revealing its methodology to arrive at the ratings, the American data intelligence firm said the daily global survey data is based on a “seven-day moving average of all adults in a particular country with a margin of error of between +/- 1-3 per cent.” “All interviews are conducted online, among nationally representative samples of adults. (In India, the sample is representative of the literate population),” it said on its website.

It further added that the surveys are weighted in each country by age, gender, region, and education breakdowns in certain countries based on official government sources. “In the United States, surveys are also weighted by race and ethnicity. Respondents complete these surveys in languages appropriate for their countries,” it added.

Pakistan foreign minister supports Taliban, insinuates present Afghan Govt and India are responsible for terrorism and violence

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan foreign minister supports Taliban, insinuates present Afghan Govt and India are responsible for terrorism and violence

Recently, in an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, the outspoken Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi stirred up a hornet’s nest by absolving the Taliban, the Islamic extremist outfit originating in Afghanistan, from the violent offensives it has carried out against the people of Afghanistan and instead accusing India and Afghanistan of “carrying out terrorist activities” in the country.

Pakistan foreign minister gives a clean chit to Taliban

According to the excerpts of the interview posted on Tolo News’ official Twitter handle, when the anchor, Lotfullah Najafizada questions Qureshi about the incontrovertible fact that the Taliban are responsible for a series of bombings and targeted assassinations of government officials, Qureshi tries to give a clean chit to the extremist group by saying: “Who’s responsible for that? Again, if you try and create this impression that the violence is high because of Taliban…again, that would be an exaggeration. Why do I say that? Aren’t there other elements over there who are playing the role of a spoiler.”

When the journalist asks if not Taliban, who else is then responsible for the violence and killings in Afghanistan, the Pakistan PM responds: “Daesh, like forces within Afghanistan… who gain from the war economy, who want to perpetuate their power, who are not seeing beyond their nose and just want to hang on to power.”

Qureshi insinuated that the current Afghan government is responsible for the violence in Afghanistan.

It is important to note here that in recent years, the tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan has increased due to Pakistan’s continued support of the Taliban.

India uses “your [Afghan] soil against us”: Shah Mahmood Qureshi to Tolo News

While speaking about India presence in Afghanistan, the Pakistan minister goes on to rehash the same lie his government has persistently peddled.

Giving an extremely ludicrous argument to back his claim, Qureshi opines that considering India does not share borders with Afghanistan, its presence should not have been as predominant as it is now. India’s presence in Afghanistan is “larger than it ought to be as it does not share borders with Afghanistan.”

Furthermore, asked how many Indian consulates there are in Afghanistan, Qureshi replies: “Well, on paper, perhaps four.”

“No, I’m saying we feel that, at times, you don’t share a border with India. Obviously, you have sovereign relations and you have bilateral relations, and you have every right to have sovereign and bilateral relations with India. You have trade with India, they come and carry out development work there, that’s completely fine with us. But at times we feel that their presence is perhaps larger than it ought to be because they…don’t share a border with you,” argues Qureshi.

He adds that if India uses “your [Afghan] soil against us”, it bothers him at a personal level. To this, when the anchor questions the Pak Foreign Minister to throw light on how India is using Afghan soil for anti-Pakistan activities, he says: “Yes, they are…By carrying out terrorist activities.”

Pakistan foreign ministers says that if Afghanistan and Pakistan want to coexist then the former has to recognise the Durand Line as an international border

Asked about his opinion on Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan, Pakistani FM Qureshi says that if Afghanistan and Pakistan want to “move ahead as good neighbours and coexist, then the Durand Line should be recognized as an international border”.

When asked whether Pakistan has had discussions pertaining to this issue with the Afghan Govt, the Pakistan minister, despite knowing that Afghanistan thinks otherwise, says that there is no room for discussion as it is an established fact that the Durand Line is the International border between the two neighbouring countries.

The Durand Line controversy

For the uninitiated, the Durand Line carved out in 1893 between British-ruled India and Afghanistan’s Amir Abdur Rahman Khan as an attempt to improve relations and exchange between the two countries, has always been an issue of conflict between the two Islamic countries. Though Pakistan claims that Durand Line is a well established international border, Afghanistan has never accepted it. Afghanistan claims a significant portion of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan based on the fact that though they were claimed by Pakistan at the time of its formation, however, they used to be a part of Afghanistan and the ethnic groups of Balochs and Pashtuns have been partitioned.

Afghanistan had also demanded in 1947 that the Pashtuns should be given the right of self-determination. The demand was ignored by both the British and Pakistan at that time.

One claim that Afghanistan often uses to assert its position over the Durand Line is that the border drawn by the British was valid for 100 years, and its validity has expired. Another claim that Afghanistan makes is that the legitimacy of the border ended with Pakistan’s formation as the agreement was between India and Afghanistan and not with Pakistan.

Information about a fictitious train on ‘reliable’ Wikipedia, picked up by websites and academic journals: Here is how it originated

OpIndia Staff
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Information about a fictitious train on ‘reliable’ Wikipedia, picked up by websites and academic journals: Here is how it originated

Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced online encyclopaedia, is considered as a reliable source of information worldwide, including by search giant Google. The founders and administrators of the site proudly proclaim how nothing can be put on Wikipedia without reliable sources. The left-leaning website has even black-listed several right-leaning media houses, which means those media houses are not considered as reliable sources for citing in Wiki pages.

However, it has come to notice recently that for almost four years, details of a fictional train was mentioned in the Wikipedia page of Pakistan Eastern Railway, and it managed to fool lots of people, including Punjab University in Lahore. Pakistan Eastern Railway was later renamed to Bangladesh Railway after East Pakistan gained independence and became Bangladesh.

On 28th November 2016, one Wikipedia editor that goes by the username PAKHIGHWAY made an edit to the wiki page of Pakistan Eastern Railway, where the user inserted details about a train named Mashriq-Maghreb Express, with train number 5214. The edit said that the train ran from 1950 to 1955, and operated from Koh-e-Taftan in West Pakistan to Chittagong in East Pakistan. The wiki page also said that the train used Indian Railway track and rolling stock between Attari and Benapole.

Wikipedia page before the detail of the train was removed

Soon the details of this train started to appear on Facebook posts and blogs, and it made its way to a research paper published by Punjab University in Lahore. The paper titled “Why Pakistan Railways Has Failed To Perform: A Special Focus On Passenger Perspective”, copy-pasted the line about Mashriq-Maghreb Express from the Wikipedia article.

Paper by Punjab University, Lahore

This was an obvious fake information, there is no evidence that any direct train ran between West Pakistan and East Pakistan through India. If it was there, it would have been a well-known historical fact by now. Actually, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had proposed a 1,280-km long transit corridor between the two segments of Pakistan at that time, but neither the British govt nor the Congress party agreed to it.

The claims made in the Wikipedia edit also defied logic, as there was no reason why such an important train will run from Koh-e-Taftan, Pakistan’s western-most Railway station, located in a small mountainous border town. Any such train would have run from major West Pakistan cities like Lahore, Karachi etc. Similarly on the eastern side, Chittagong is located on the easternmost side of Bangladesh. Any train from West Pakistan would have most probably terminate at Dhaka.

Despite lack of any evidence and such logical errors, the information about Mashriq-Maghreb Express remain on the Wikipedia page for 3 years. Only in August last year, someone deleted that sentence after noticing that no link has been provided for the train, and not mentioned in any reliable source.

It is not known why the user with the username PAKHIGHWAY made the edit. Coincidently, that user has been permanently banned from Wikipedia, although for other reasons. According to Wikipedia, the user has been banned for indefinite time for abusing multiple accounts and using talk page to argue with other users.

Doubtful claims behind the edit

The matter about Wikipedia carrying fake information for 4 years came to light after a Facebook post appeared on Social Media, where people claimed to have made the edit to “deter ‘googlers’ on the NALSAR quizzing website”. The claim, posted by multiple on Facebook, says that after making the edit, the person forgot to revert it, and later it became almost impossible to do so, as it had been mentioned in some academic articles, and even in official Pakistan Railway websites.

However, most people making this claim are Indians, and from the edit history of PAKHIGHWAY who had made the change to Wiki page, it can be concluded that the user is Pakistani as all others edits made by the user are Pakistan related.

The Facebook post also says there couldn’t even have been such a train at the time, as the break of gauge would have made it impossible. However, that is not true, as West Pakistan, East Pakistan and India, all three inherited the same Railway infrastructure built by British govt, and trains regularly ran across these three areas before independence.

Therefore, although it was true that the Wikipedia article carried fictional information for three years, the claims behind it are most probably fake.

Republic TV issues statement over Arnab Goswami’s disappearance from the news network: Here is what they said

OpIndia Staff
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Republic TV issues statement over Arnab Goswami’s disappearance from the news network: Here is what they said

More than a month after Arnab Goswami last appeared on his channel, Republic TV announced on Friday (June 18) that he will be hosting his prime time debate at 9 pm from June 21 onwards. The news comes as a major relief to his fans who have been waiting to see the journalist on TV screens.

Arnab Goswami was last seen on May 2 during a discussion on West Bengal State Legislative polls. In a video shared by Republic TV, Arnab Goswami was heard as saying, “Beyond a point of time, I will not mind my language. Beyond a point of time, I will not hold my words. And beyond a point of time, I won’t be threatened. The reason I have come out on my own. I have with me a bunch of young crusaders in journalism and we are out there to break the rules of journalism.”

“I want to tell each one of them today that I have the support of the people and I am not scared. Ya Bharat ke logo ki jeet hai (This is the victory of the people of India),” Arnab Goswami had said. The audio and visuals, used in the video, were originally shot after the journalist was released, following his illegal arrest by the Mumbai police.

Earlier in the day, Republic Media Network announced, “We have been flooded with calls, emails, and messages from our viewers about our Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. We will make an announcement at 4 pm on our official social media handles.”

On Wednesday, Republic TV informed that the network will be expanding its international base and take 120 journalists from across the world on board. The tweet read, “We are proud to announce R. GLOBAL! India’s largest & most loved news brand R. is now going GLOBAL! We are rapidly expanding our international base with over 120 journalists from across the globe to deliver world-class content & investigations to our viewers.”

It further added, “Arnab is personally committed to the expansion of Indian media in the global market. And R. GLOBAL is the first step in that direction.” The tweet had added to more speculations about the whereabouts of the Republic TV founder and Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

Allahabad HC dismisses petition seeking directions to UP govt to cremate dead bodies buried on banks of Ganga

OpIndia Staff
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Allahabad HC dismisses petition seeking directions to UP govt to cremate dead bodies buried on banks of Ganga

The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition that sought directions to the Uttar Pradesh government to dispose of dead bodies buried on the banks of river Ganga in Prayagraj, reports Bar and Bench.

Hearing the plea, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav and Justice Prakash Padia dismissed the arguments of the petitioner that it is the responsibility of the state to perform cremation according to religious rites and dispose of the dead bodies in a dignified manner. The High Court asked the petitioner to inform the court regarding his contribution to the public interest cause.

“If you are a public-spirited person, tell us how many bodies you have been able to identify and give them decent burial or cremation,” the court asked the petitioner.

Responding to the High Court’s questions, the petitioner Pranvesh claimed that he had personally visited these places and added the situation is very bad. Noting that there are traditions, customs, and people from various communities reside on the banks of Ganga, the Court asked the petitioners to show the court the contribution he made in this cause before passing any order.

The court asked whether the petitioner had himself dug out and cremated bodies found on the banks of river Ganga.

“Everyone has visited these ghats, someone or the other has lost someone. We are not satisfied, we will not call for the affidavit. If this is a public cause then how have you contributed to this?” the High Court noted.

As the court asked the petitioners regarding the help he had rendered to people, the petitioner said that he had no records but claimed that he understood the situation was very devastating.

Enraged by the arguments, the High Court slammed the petitioner, asking him to do better research and withdraw the petition stating that they were not entertaining such petitions. “We are not interested in respect of these heavy words and adjectives. There are ground realities you have not examined,” the court said.

The court asked to show some contribution and said it would otherwise impose a heavy cost, as the petition was not public interest litigation but a “publicity interest litigation”.

However, the petitioner contended that it was the responsibility of the state to perform cremation according to religious rites and dispose of the dead bodies buried alongside the Ganga River. The court rejected the argument saying why should the state do that, and asked whether it was the state’s responsibility if there is a death in a family.

Dismissing the order, the Allahabad High Court noted that the petitioner had not done any research regarding the rites and customs which are prevalent in various communities living near Ganga and asked him to withdraw and file again with some research work.

‘Being targeted because I am Muslim’: SP leader Umed Idris plays victim card after giving Ghaziabad incident a communal spin

OpIndia Staff
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‘Being targeted because I am Muslim’: SP leader Umed Idris plays victim card after giving Ghaziabad incident a communal spin

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Umed Pahalwan Idris, who appeared in a Facebook Live video alongside Ghaziabad assault victim Abdul Samad, had been booked by Ghaziabad police on June 17 for giving the incident of personal animosity a “communal colour”. The SP leader who reportedly made the victim of assault tell that he was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram, has now taken a complete U-turn.

While speaking to journalist Aman Chopra on Zee News show Taal Thok Ke, the SP leader said that he was not aware that there was no religious angle in the incident. He further denied knowing anything about the ‘tabeez’ (occult amulet), for which one Bauna Saddam had hired the services of occultist Abdul Samad Saifi. He also declined of being aware that Abdul Samad was attacked by a group of people that included Muslims too.

Zee News anchor Aman Chopra interviews SP leader Umed Pahalwan

When Aman Chopra asked the SP leader why he lied about the victim being made to chant and unnecessarily introduced the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ angle to give a communal twist to the incident and was he asked by his party to do so, Umed Pahalwan seems to get agitated.

The cornered SP leader immediately brought out the victim card to claim that he is being targeted since he wears a skullcap and has a beard. He furthered that he did not lie, it was the victim who claimed that he was made to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

When the Zee News anchor reiterated about him knowing that the victim was attacked by Muslim assailants too, he first refuses, then went on to defend them by saying: “Musalmano ne toh mara hi nahi, yeh baat sabit hi nahi hui” (Muslims did not attack the victim, nothing has been proved against them yet). Umed Idris asserted that he did not know that there were Muslims also amongst the assailants.

Interestingly, when the Samajwadi leader did a Facebook Live video on June 7 alongside Ghaziabad assault victim Abdul Samad, he castigated Hindus for beating up the elderly victim, chopping off his beard and forcing him to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans. 

Umed Pahalwan Idris, who was seen doing most of the talking on behalf of the victim, gave the incident a communal spin by claiming that Hindus attacked Samad. Using extremely abusive and crass language, the SP leader had issued open threats to Hindus who he claimed had attacked Abdul Samad.

Facebook live video by Umed Idris used by ‘liberals’ to communalise a petty fight to defame ‘Jai Shri Ram’

This Facebook live had got the ball rolling for the so-called secular liberals who lapped up the video to peddle their favourite ‘Dara Hua Musalman’ narrative. The left-leaning brigade rushed to communalise the incident of personal animosity to defame the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant whch is held sacred by Hindus.

On June 14, Alt News co-founder Muhammed Zubair first uploaded a muted video (which now stands deleted) of the incident where the victim was being assaulted and Tweeted that the man was threatened at gunpoint, beaten, assaulted and the perpetrators forcefully chopped off his beard.

Soon after, Zubair posted (now deleted) the Facebook live video done by SP leader Idrisi with photos of SP leader Akhilesh Yadav hanging on the wall.

These two videos activated the entire left lobby giving the incident a ‘communal color’ after almost 10 days of the assault. Publications like The Wire, TheQuint, Indian Express published reports on the basis of the victim’s statement in the Facebook live video, thereby, defaming the Hindu religious slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram.’

The video and the narrative soon went viral on social media, posing a threat to the law and order in the state. 

Ghaziabad police busts the fake ‘hate crime’ angle

On the very same day, Ghaziabad police uploaded a video apprising of the case giving relevant details and kept the social media users updated with the development thereon.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the Uttar Pradesh government filed an FIR on June 15 against Twitter for failing to flag the video with unverified claims as ‘manipulative’ and lack of action. 

Alt News co-founder Zubair, Rana Ayyub, The Wire, Salman Nizami, Maksoor Usmani, Sama Mohammad and Saba Naqvi have also been booked for spreading misleading and fake news.

SSP Amit Pathak in a press conference held on June 16 informed that some social media handles and media publications turned the entire incident of assault on an old man into a hate crime and deliberately tried to give it a communal colour. 

The SSP stated that while the accused and the victim were known to each other, false claims on social media had fanned a communal narrative, hinting that it was a crime committed solely for communal hatred.

SP leader Umed Idris coerced victim into filing a police complaint and added the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ angle

It was reported that the incident took place on June 5, but Abdul Samad did not file a police complaint against his attackers. It was the Samajwadi Party leader Umed Pahalwan Idris who coerced Abdul Samad into filing a police complaint.

Idrisi claimed that the victim wrote the first complaint on June 6 but police did not lodge an FIR on that day. He said that only after he went live on Facebook and spoke about the attack, that the police filed an FIR at 7.44 pm on June 7.

Victim’s initial complaint found factually wrong

Meanwhile, when asked about the June 6 complaint and why the police didn’t lodge an FIR that same day, Akhilesh Mishra, the Loni police station head, rejected Idrisi’s claim. “The June 6 complaint is forged. We never received any complaint on that day and it does not even have the police stamp on it. Only on the basis of the June 7 complaint, we lodged the FIR.”

The police informed that the FIR filed on June 07 mentioned that the accused and location both were unknown to the victim, however, the investigations have revealed otherwise.

Basically, so far, the police investigation has revealed that in the initial FIR, a petty crime due to the personal animosity of two parties was given a different colour. As per reports, the victim Samad was reluctant to file the FIR and has been uncooperative in the police investigation.

The claim of ‘forced to chant Jai Shri Ram’ was first found in the SP leader’s video. After which the police had filed an FIR. But the victim had made no mention of the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant in the initial FIR too.

UP Police has booked the SP leader Umed Idris for spreading false information to incite communal hatred.

Protestors demand change of movie name ‘Prithviraj’, burn Akshay Kumar’s effigy: Here’s the name they want

OpIndia Staff
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Protestors demand change of movie name ‘Prithviraj’, burn Akshay Kumar’s effigy: Here’s the name they want

On Thursday (June 17), protestors belonging to All India Kshatriya Mahasabha (AIKM) burnt the effigy of actor Akshay Kumar over his upcoming film on the great Hindu king Prithviraj Chauhan.

As per reports, the protests were held in Sector-45 of Chandigarh during which they demanded a change of the movie’s title from ‘Prithviraj’ to ‘Hindu Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan’. The AIKM demonstrators raised slogans and burnt effigies of actor Akshay Kumar in protest. They have claimed that the movie title disrespected the Hindu king.

The All India Kshatriya Mahasabha had demanded that senior members of the community must be shown the film, prior to its release. It had sought to see whether the history had been tampered with in the movie.

The protestors also threatened that the film would meet the same fate as ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ and ‘Padmaavat’ if the director and producers did not comply with their demands. Earlier, Karni Sena had too made similar demands with regards to the movie.

Movie of Akshay Kumar to be released in November this year

‘Pritviraj’ movie will showcase actor Akshay Kumar as the Hindu ruler, and former Miss World pageant Manushi Chillar as ‘Sanyogita.’ The movie is being directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and produced by Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films. The film is set to be released during Diwali on November 5 this year. The shooting of the film was initially delayed due to the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. Akshay Kumar is yet to react to the development.

4 arrested in Hiranandani society fake vaccine scam, Tips Films, another production house were duped too: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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4 arrested in Hiranandani society fake vaccine scam, Tips Films, another production house were duped too: Reports

Days after residents of a plush housing society in Kandivali alleged the administration of fake Covid-19 vaccines during a private vaccination camp, it has now come to light that similar vaccination drives were conducted for two film production houses by the same agency, involving the same people.

SP Events has been under the radar for organising a fake vaccination drive at Kandivali’s Hiranandani Heritage Society on May 30. However, on May 29 and May 30, the same agency had organised a vaccination camp for Tips Industries Ltd.

As per the latest reports, 4 accused persons have been arrested by Kandivali police in the fake vaccination drive case. They have been sent to judicial custody till 25 June. Details of the accused are not released by the police.

Ramesh Taurani, the Bollywood producer who heads Tips Industries, confirmed to Times of India that one Sanjay Gupta from SP Events had carried out the inoculation drive for his staff and colleagues. Besides Gupta, one ex-employee of Kokilaben Ambani Hospital named Rajesh Pandey was also involved.

“A vaccination drive was carried out for our staff, and we are still waiting for certificates. When my office contacted Pandey, he said the certificates will come by Saturday (June 12). 356 of our people were vaccinated and paid ₹1,200 per person plus GST,” the Tips Industries’ Head remarked.

Taurani added, “But more than the money, now we are worried about what was given to us. Is it genuine Covishield or any saline water? We were told we would get the vaccination certificate from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (in Mumbai).” He has now filed a complaint with the Versova police.

Matchbox Pictures too duped by SP Events

A producer, who has known Rajesh Pandey for 3 years, told The Times of India that the accused would help his staff get doctors and hospital beds out of turn. “He was our go-to man for medical needs,” the producer added. He emphasised that he reached out to Rajesh Pandey after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) gave a green signal to private hospitals to carry out vaccination drive. The producer had received a text message from the accused on May 21, asking about the number of people to be vaccinated.

Once he had handed over the list of names, the vaccination drive was carried out on May 29. Reportedly, Rajesh had also visited the camp to supervise if everything was working fine. The accused had assured that the data of the vaccinated individuals would be entered online by his back office later. When the beneficiaries did not receive their certificates, the producer had taken up the matter with Rajesh. Later, a few of the vaccinated individuals received their certificates from a hospital in Vile Parle that was not associated with the vaccination camp.

Rajesh had charged each individual ₹1260 for the vaccine doses and demanded that the money be transferred to a current account. “It was only after Hiranandani Heritage residents approached police and Pandey was picked up for questioning did we realise our camp was fraudulent as well,” the producer emphasised.

The description matches that of Matchbox Pictures which had vaccinated 150 staff members on May 29 as well. While employees were told that they would receive certificates from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, they instead got it from Vile Parle-based Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital.

Interestingly, the date of vaccination was registered in the certificate as June 12. “We weren’t given any vaccination certificates after receiving the jabs. The company said due to a backlog, our certificates would be issued a week later. We were worried because none of us experienced any post-vaccination symptoms,” an employee anonymously told India Today. However, producer Sanjay Routray said that he would only comment after seeing all the facts.

Vaccination camp fraud in Hiranandani Estate Society 

Mumbai Police and the civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday (June 16) launched an investigation after residents of a plush housing society in Mumbai’s Kandivali area alleged that they have been the victims of a Covid vaccination drive fraud. The residents of Mumbai’s Hiranandani Estate Society had alleged that the Covid-19 vaccines given to them during the private vaccination camp organised in their society on May 30 were possibly fake.

Residents filed a complaint at the Kandivli police station after they spotted several irregularities in the entire process. The vaccination camp was reportedly held in Mumbai’s Hiranandani Estate Society on May 30. As many as 390 members received the jabs at the camp at Rs 1,260 per person. The vaccine recipients of the housing society said that none of them developed any sort of side effects after being inoculated. This raised doubts in the mind of the people of the society.

Moreover, residents were told that the vaccinations would be given to them by Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri. However, once they began to receive immunisation certificates, that too after 10-15 days, they discovered that their vaccines came from Nanavati Max Super Speciality, Lifeline Hospitals, and NESCO Jumbo Centre. This further raised the resident’s concern that something was amiss. Furthermore, none of the recipients had registered on the Government’s CoWin App before being inoculated, which is a mandatory process.

They were registered after being vaccinated. After receiving the vaccination the recipients received phone calls requesting the Cowin OTP. Following this, they received their certificates which were full of wrong information, like date of vaccination, name of the hospital, etc. These three hospitals, whose name appeared on the vaccination certificates, denied ever delivering vaccines to the housing society in question when approached. This purported vaccination scam had sent the people of Mumbai, the state administration, and hospital officials into a tizzy. 

It is not only Tips Industries who have been duped. Industry insiders claim that many production houses have been scammed by SP Events.

‘Baba Ka Dhaba’ owner Kanta Prasad attempts suicide, admitted to hospital after overdosing on sleeping pills: Details

OpIndia Staff
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‘Baba Ka Dhaba’ owner Kanta Prasad attempts suicide, admitted to hospital after overdosing on sleeping pills: Details

Kanta Prasad, owner of the Baba Ka Dhaba, has been hospitalised and is currently admitted to the ICU at Safdarjung Hospital. According to the police, he may have tried to commit suicide, journalist Kumar Kunal reported.

The Police received a call that a man had been admitted to the hospital after attempting suicide. The Police had subsequently identified the man as Kanta Prasad. He attempted tgo kill himself by overdosing on sleeping pills but is now reported to be safe and undergoing treatment.

Earlier, he had shut down his restaurant and was now back to running his food stall. When OpIndia got in touch with Kanta Prasad, he confirmed that he still had a significant sum of money raised by the public intact with him. He said that he was able to get over his over financial woes due to the help and support he received from the people of Delhi.

“My financial condition is still very stable. The money I received from the public is safe with me. More than my children, I am aware that the donation I got would safeguard my future. I have kept it safely,” remarked Kanta Prasad.

Baba Ka Dhaba gained internet popularity last year after a food vlogger Gaurav Wasan posted a video where he was seen crying over financial woes amid lockdown that was imposed to curb Chinese coronavirus. After his video went viral, support and love poured in from all over Delhi and people flocked his little ‘dhaba’ where he served ‘matar paneer’ and rotis.

Mukul Roy refuses to resign from assembly after defecting to TMC, Suvendu Adhikari petitions the speaker to disqualify him

OpIndia Staff
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Mukul Roy refuses to resign from assembly after defecting to TMC, Suvendu Adhikari petitions the speaker to disqualify him

BJP heavyweight and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, has submitted a petition to the Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of TMC leader Mukul Roy, MLA from 83-Krishnanagar Uttar Assembly constituency after he defected to TMC.

Adhikari has demanded the resignation of Roy citing anti-defection law after the latter joined the Trinamool Congress party despite winning the assembly seat of Krishnanagar Uttar on a BJP ticket. 

Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday had said that all paperwork to support the BJP’s demand is completed but could not be submitted as the receive section was shut. He had earlier said that he will approach the West Bengal speaker demanding the application of the anti-defection law against Roy if he did not resign. 

“An MLA from Krishnanagar Uttar has changed party, and we hope he will resign from the membership of the assembly. If he does not resign by tomorrow, we will write to the Speaker on Wednesday seeking application of the anti-defection law,” he had said.

BJP leader Amit Malviya said that Mukul Roy should have resigned from the assembly on his own after going back to Trinamool Congress, and has he has not done that, a petition for his disqualification has been submitted to the West Bengal assembly speaker.

In a tweet, Malviya said, “After joining TMC in the presence of Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy should have on his own resigned from his membership of the Bengal Assembly, a seat (Krishnanagar Uttar) he won on BJP ticket. Now, Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s LoP in WB has moved the Speaker for his disqualification…”

Suvendu Adhikari and BJP MLAs write a letter to Governor Dhankar seeking action against Mukul Roy

A bitter quarrel ensued between Adhikari and Roy after the latter deserted the BJP along with his son and joined the rival TMC. Soon after defecting to Mamata Banerjee’s party, Adhikari had demanded Roy’s resignation. In response, Roy clung to his post of MLA and refused to give up his position. 

Adhikari approached the Governor of West Bengal to seek action against Mukul Roy under provisions of anti-defection law. “Todna-Jodna is part of TMC’s dirty politics. They have been doing this for the past 10 years and nobody opposed it. But it is being opposed now and action will be taken under the anti-defection law,” Adhikari said. 

BJP MLAs had written a letter to Governor Dhankar over the defection of BJP leaders to TMC following the assembly elections. In response to the letter, Dhankar said, “…Being the Constitutional head of the state, let me make it clear that anti-defection law is applicable in full force in Bengal. It is as much applicable here as in other parts of the country.”

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