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After a global outcry, WhatsApp issues clarification, delays enforcement of updated privacy policy: Read full details

OpIndia Staff
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After a global outcry, WhatsApp issues clarification, delays enforcement of updated privacy policy: Read full details

After facing flak from its users regarding an update in its privacy policy, popular messaging app WhatsApp has announced that it will be delaying its privacy update plan that had a February 8 deadline. Announcing its decision on January 15, the Facebook owned messaging app, said that it will be providing more time to its users to ‘understand the policy update’. “There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts”, it said.

In its blogpost, WhatsApp clarified that under the updated policy there will be no changes in its privacy policy concerning personal conversations, location, contacts etc. It said that messages sent on WhatsApp would still have end-to-end encryption and that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook would be able to see private messages, location or contacts of users.

Screenshot from whatsapp.com

The policy update that was announced by WhatsApp earlier this month was interpreted by its users as a major shift in its privacy and data-sharing policy. In a notification that popped on opening the app, the changes made in the privacy policy were indicated.

WhatsApp had said that as part of its new privacy policy it would share user data with other Facebook companies. This led its users to believe that WhatsApp would now be able to peek into personal messages of its users and it would share the personal data of users with Facebook. Facebook-owned Whatsapp had given February 8th as the date after which the app would stop working on devices and accounts would be suspended if the new policy was not accepted. As a result, many people started moving to other apps like Signal and Telegram looking for a substitute.

Interestingly, Facebook and Twitter combined has lost over $52 billion after they had banned Trump from their platforms. Following the privacy update, Signal had seen a massive spike in downloads. Both these results could have eventually led WhatsApp to delay its privacy update policy.

WhatsApp, after widespread outrage and exodus of users to Signal, was compelled to issue a clarification that the new policy supposedly did not violate user privacy and it was not going to share any personal data of users with Facebook. “We’re moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We’re also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security work on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15”, WhatsApp clarified.

Assuring its users about protecting their privacy, WhatsApp said that it helped bring end-to-end encryption across the world and that it was committed to defending security technology now and in the future.

Detailed overview of privacy policy changes made by Whatsapp

Whatsapp had updated its website with a detailed overview of what the changes in the policy of the app meant for the users earlier.

“Our Services have optional features which, if used by you, require us to collect additional information to provide such features. You will be notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to use the feature. For example, you cannot share your location with your contacts if you do not permit us to collect your location data from your device. Permissions can be managed through your Settings menu on both Android and iOS devices,” Whatsapp wrote.

The Facebook-owned messaging service also expanded on how much of the data is collected automatically by the app. “We collect information about your activity on our Services, like service-related, diagnostic, and performance information. This includes information about your activity (including how you use our Services, your Services settings, how you interact with others using our Services (including when you interact with a business), and the time, frequency, and duration of your activities and interactions), log files, and diagnostic, crash, website, and performance logs and reports,” WhatsApp said.

“This also includes information about when you registered to use our Services; the features you use like our messaging, calling, Status, groups (including group name, group picture, group description), payments or business features; profile photo, “about” information; whether you are online when you last used our Services (your “last seen”); and when you last updated your “about” information,” WhatsApp added.

Whatsapp is the largest messaging service in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users. However, an insidious in-app notification, forcing users to accept the new privacy policy has set off alarm bells ringing for the privacy-conscious users, who are now making a beeline to dump the app and shifting to more secure and reliable alternatives. Messaging apps Signal and Telegram are the two frontrunners that have caught the fancy of these set of disenchanted Whatsapp users who are looking to migrate to other platforms amidst the growing privacy concerns.

Ravish Kumar apologises for spreading fake news about paddy procurement by govt after letter to NDTV by PIB: Here is what he said

OpIndia Staff
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Ravish Kumar apologises for spreading fake news about paddy procurement by govt after letter to NDTV by PIB: Here is what he said

After getting caught for peddling fake news about paddy procurement by the government, controversial NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar has now apologized for spreading fake news. The controversial NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar took to Facebook to post an apology after he admitted to making a ‘mistake’ of putting false information without verifying facts.

In his Facebook post, Ravish Kumar said that he had made a mistake in the last episode of his prime time show where he was “highlighting the distortion of data by the government”, however, the information that was put out was not complete.

“The information is incomplete and therefore it is not correct. In this event, a mistake was also committed by me in the episode of 14 January. The analysis of a tweet put out by the Railway Minister turned out to be a mistake,” said Ravish Kumar in his Facebook post.

Facebook Post by Ravish Kumar where he apologises for spreading fake news
Facebook Post by Ravish Kumar where he apologises for spreading fake news

Hilariously, while apologising for spreading fake news, Ravish Kumar says that “Godi Media”, which is essentially media that does not follow his editorial line of spreading misinformation and propaganda, should not “excited by such a mistake”. Further, he tells other journalists to challenge him on his facts. It is worthy to point out that the entire post is actually about him apologising for spreading fake news.

In his Facebook post, he further asks “Godi Media’ to “Think about the kind of misunderstanding being spread”. Further he says, “Notice has been issued on this. I’d reply but the surprising thing is I catches many mistakes and lies in my program is no answer”.

While apologising, Ravish Kumar continued to blame the government and also, claiming that he catches many such lies in his program and the government has never answered for those, and hence, he is the bigger person for responding to the notice sent to him.

It is pertinent to point out here that Ravish Kumar has a history of spreading misinformation and fake news and has in no way “caught many lies”. Of the many examples, just one would be sufficient to provide a window into his journalism. During the Delhi anti-Hindu riots, Ravish Kumar had conveniently changed the identity of Mohammad Shahrukh, who was seen threatening cops with a gun pointed towards their head, to ‘Anurag Mishra’ simple to peddle his own agenda and shield the perpetrators. That does not really seem like someone who “catches so many mistakes” with others.

How Ravish Kumar spread fake news, for which he is apologising now

On January 14, NDTV India anchor Ravish Kumar had claimed that the Modi government had given false data regarding the farm product procurement. In his show ‘Prime Time With Ravish Kumar’, the controversial Congress-era ‘journalist’ had referred to an infographic posted by minister Piyush Goyal to deliberately mislead the public by saying that the data given by the government in the graphic is wrong.

Earlier, Food and Public Distribution minister Piyush Goyal had informed that till January 10, the centre had procured 534 Lakh Metric Tonnes of paddy, compared to 423 LMT in the same period last year. Therefore, the paddy procurement has gone up by 26% till now this year.

However, Ravish Kumar, as usual resorting to his false propaganda, had alleged that as per data available on the website of Food and Public Distribution ministry, the total paddy procurement in 2019-20 was 519 LMT, not 423 LMT, therefore the increase in the procurement is not 26% as claimed by the government. He said that either someone has made a mistake in the govt of India, or wrong numbers are being used to spread falsehood.

Ravish Kumar crops image to peddle misinformation

In fact, it was Ravish Kumar had deliberately lied to the public by cropping the image of the tweet of Piyush Goyal to put out misleading claims. The minister had clearly said that the data is for procurement up to 10 January. However, in an attempt to blame the government, Ravish Kumar used the incomplete procurement data of the income from 2019-20 to put out misinformation about public procurement.

After Ravish Kumar tried to mislead the public by putting out false data, the union government had taken a strong objection and had categorically stated that the procurement has gone up by 26% in the said period.

The government sends a letter to NDTV ‘Ethics Committee’, calls Ravish Kumar lies ‘shocking’

The ministry termed the program a ‘shocking display of poor journalism and sheer disregard of actual facts’ and had issued notice to NDTV on the 15th of January 2021, as reported exclusively by OpIndia yesterday.

The union government has taken a strong objection to the fake news peddled by Ravish Kumar, and has confirmed that the paddy procurement upto 10 January 2020 was 423 LMT. And therefore, it is correct that the procurement has gone up by 26% in the said period. The ministry termed the program a ‘shocking display of poor journalism and sheer disregard of actual facts’.

The letter sent to the NDTV Ethics committee by the Press Information Bureau’s Additional Director General has said that Ravish Kumar has done an unfair comparison of full year procurement of 2019-20 with ongoing procurement for 2020-21. It also states that Piyush Goyal’s tweet was cropped in the TV program, giving the impression that it was a malafide act.

The letter notes that at a sensitive time when farmers are protesting near Delhi, Ravish Kumar has misrepresented important facts, which misleads the farmers and incites negative sentiments in the society. The letter also said that Ravish Kumar has done an unfair comparison of full-year procurement of 2019-20 with ongoing procurement for 2020-21. It is this letter that Ravish Kumar is saying that he will respond to in the due course of time.

From ‘no trust on BJP’s vaccine’ to ‘impotency’ to ‘they can cause death’, Samajwadi Party’s petty politics over COVID-19 vaccine just does not end

Jhankar Mohta
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From ‘no trust on BJP’s vaccine’ to ‘impotency’ to ‘they can cause death’, Samajwadi Party’s petty politics over COVID-19 vaccine just does not end

Even before day one of the massive COVID-19 immunisation drive, Samajwadi Party continues to play its dirty politics over the vaccine. Just as his master Akhilesh Yadav, SP leader IP Singh today took to Twitter to politicise the COVID vaccine.

Taking to the microblogging site, Samajwadi Party spokesperson IP Singh on Friday said that vaccinations can kill the poor people of the country. He opined that in order to avoid any calamity, BJP workers and supporters should first get vaccinated. However, he deleted his tweet minutes later.

IP Singh’s now deleted Tweet

IP Singh fearmongers on bird flu

A week ago, the SP spokesperson had stoked another controversy with his disparaging remark on bird flu cases in various states. He had said that bird flu cases are coming up because PM Modi fed the birds, referring to PM’s pictures with peacock and other birds. Insinuating that Narendra Modi was a ‘bad omen’, SP leader IP Singh said that the birds got Avian Influenza because he fed them ‘Dana’.

Samajwadi Party and its petty politics over COVID-19 vaccine

Samajwadi Party leaders have been continuously trying to create an atmosphere of panic by spreading fake news to discredit indigenously developed Coronavirus vaccine. Be it the party chief or his leaders, no one is even ready to leave an opportunity to play petty politics as India unites in the fight against Coronavirus. 

Prior to IP Singh, Samajwadi Party leader and Mirzapur MLC Ashutosh Sinha on January 2 (Saturday) made the ludicrous claim that people fear that COVID-19 vaccine can make them ‘impotent’. Sinha had also backed his party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who had dragged politics in the much-needed vaccination drive in the country saying that he will not get himself vaccinated as of now as it is ‘BJP’s vaccine’.

However, later, Akhilesh Yadav took a u-turn and claimed, “Vaccination against coronavirus is a sensitive process. As such, the BJP must refrain from making it a show-off event and conduct the programme only after necessary arrangements for the same are done. This will affect the lives of people. So, we cannot risk their lives by making improvements to the vaccine later. The government must also declare a fixed date for the immunisation of poor people.”

NDTV’s Ravish Kumar spreads fake news on paddy procurement by govt: Read full details of letter written by govt of India

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV’s Ravish Kumar spreads fake news on paddy procurement by govt: Read full details of letter written by govt of India

Even as some farmer groups and opposition parties like Congress continue to oppose the three farm laws based on lies, NDTV India was caught peddling yet another fake news on the issue. On 14th January, in the program titled Prime Time With Ravish Kumar, NDTV India anchor Ravish Kumar accused the govt of India of giving false data regarding the farm product procurement by government of India.

But the govt of India has strongly reacted to the program, saying that Ravish Kumar used wrong data to accuse the govt of lying.

In the program, referring to an infographic posted by minister Piyush Goyal, Ravish Kumar said that the data given in the graphic is wrong. Food and Public Distribution minister Piyush Goyal had informed on January 11 that till January 10, govt of India had procured 534 Lakh Metric Tonnes of paddy, compared to 423 LMT in the same period last year. Therefore, the paddy procurement has gone up by 26% till now this year.

Ravish Kumar disputed the data, saying that as per data available on the website of Food and Public Distribution ministry, the total paddy procurement in 2019-20 was 519 LMT, not 423 LMT, therefore the increase in the procurement is not 26% as claimed by the govt. He said that either someone has made a mistake in the govt of India, or wrong numbers are being used to spread falsehood.

But the fact is, it is Ravish Kumar who has either made a mistake or deliberately lying. And to do so, he had cropped the image of the tweet of Piyush Goyal. The minister had clearly said that the data is for procurement upto 10th January. But to label the govt as liar, Ravish Kumar used the procurement data for whole 2019-20 with the date for 1 April 2020 to 10 January 2020.

It need not be said that one can’t compare data for one whole year with the data for 9 months and 10 days in another year. One has to take data for the same period in different years to arrive at any meaningful comparison.

Therefore, although it is correct that total paddy procurement for 2019-20 was 519 LMT, that figure can’t be compared to the procurement of this year as the year is end and the procurement is still going on. Therefore, the data till 10th January this year was compared with the data till the same date last year, which was 423 LMT.

Hence, it is Ravish Kumar who is lying to mislead the people that the govt is lying.

The union government has taken a strong objection to the fake news peddled by Ravish Kumar, and has confirmed that the paddy procurement upto 10 January 2020 was 423 LMT. And therefore, it is correct that the procurement has gone up by 26% in the said period. The ministry termed the program a ‘shocking display of poor journalism and sheer disregard of actual facts’.

The letter sent to the NDTV Ethics committee by the Press Information Bureau’s Additional Director General has said that Ravish Kumar has done an unfair comparison of full year procurement of 2019-20 with ongoing procurement for 2020-21. It also states that Piyush Goyal’s tweet was cropped in the TV program, giving the impression that it was a malafide act.

The letter notes that at a sensitive time when farmers are protesting near Delhi, Ravish Kumar has misrepresented important facts, which misleads the farmers and incites negative sentiments in the society.

Ashoka University removes links introducing Nidhi Razdan as Harvard professor, another institute quietly edits website: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Ashoka University removes links introducing Nidhi Razdan as Harvard professor, another institute quietly edits website: Details

The Ashoka University has announced that it is withdrawing tweets and posts where they had introduced Nidhi Razdan as an associate professor at Harvard University “pending further cross-verification”. Nidhi Razdan had earlier revealed that she fell victim to a phishing attack and she was never really offered a job at Harvard.

Ashoka University is withdrawing tweets related to Nidhi Razdan
Ashoka University is withdrawing tweets related to Nidhi Razdan

The Kautilya School of Public Policy (KSPP) has also appeared to have quietly edited their website to remove the Razdan’s Harvard links.

Kautilya School of Public Policy has edited their website regarding information about Nidhi Razdan
Kautilya School of Public Policy has edited their website regarding information about Nidhi Razdan

People on social media have also pointed out that the KSPP and those associated with it have quietly deleted their tweets and posts where they introduced Nidhi Razdan as an Associate Professor at Harvard.

Twitter had erupted after Nidhi Razdan revealed that she had fallen for a phishing attack and that Harvard University had not really offered her a job. Following the revelation, Joshua Benton, senior director and former Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, clarified that Harvard University does not have a school of journalism or department of journalism and has no professors either.

As early as September 2020, a Twitter user had pointed out that the course does not appear on Harvard’s course list. Following the revelation, netizens had reacted to the matter questioning how she had fallen for the phishing attack.

Nidhi Razdan Harvard fiasco: Former Director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab says the University does not offer journalism courses

OpIndia Staff
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Nidhi Razdan Harvard fiasco: Former Director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab says the University does not offer journalism courses

Twitter had erupted after Nidhi Razdan revealed that she had fallen for a phishing attack and that Harvard University had not really offered her a job. Now, Joshua Benton, senior director and former Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, has had his say on the Nidhi Razdan phishing attack. He has clarified that Harvard University does not have a school of journalism or department of journalism and has no professors either.

The Nieman Foundation, which Joshua Benton has referred to in his tweet, offers fellowships related to journalism. According to its website, the fellowship is for “individuals with a specific project to enhance journalism who would like to spend up to 12 weeks at Harvard advancing their idea.” “Following their work on campus, our fellows have gone on to assume senior leadership positions in newsrooms, produce groundbreaking journalism in every medium, launch entrepreneurial projects, and win the industry’s top honors,” it adds.

The Nieman Foundation has three initiatives: Nieman Lab, Nieman Reports and Nieman Storyboard. Nieman is located at Harvard’s Lippman House which “is the convening center every year for dozens of seminars, master classes, conferences and awards ceremonies. These bring together not only our fellows but the broadest-possible array of those practicing, celebrating, challenging and advancing journalism.”

Joshua Benton also pointed out that the Harvard Extension School only offers a Masters of Liberal Arts degree with a focus on journalism. Furthermore, it does not have full-time professors of its own. All the courses are taught by adjuncts and working journalists, he said.

According to the website of the Harvard Extension School, “The Master of Liberal Arts, Journalism degree field consists of 12 courses (48 credits), with one required on-campus course.” The course is customizable and includes Proseminar, Feature Writing, News Reporting among others.

It is pertinent to mention here that as early as September 2020, a Twitter user had pointed out that the course does not appear on Harvard’s course list.

Fresh wave of coronavirus cases reported in Hebei province, massive quarantine centres being built by Chinese govt

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Fresh wave of coronavirus cases reported in Hebei province, massive quarantine centres being built by Chinese govt

Some regions in China have again reported fresh coronavirus cases, causing the communist government to impose lockdown orders.

In what seems to be a second-wave of the Covid-19, several fresh cases have been reported from Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. Following the outbreak, the Chinese authorities have begun to construct large designated quarantine areas for medical observation amidst rising cases.

Reportedly, China has started construction of a medical isolation centre in Hebei province to help contain a severe COVID-19 outbreak. Covering an area of about 33 hectares, the centre will reportedly be used to isolate close contacts and secondary close contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients, according to the Chinese government mouthpiece Global Times.

As per reports, China has transferred more than 20 thousand people to these makeshift centres at Shijiazhuang in Hebei province after fresh cases emerged in the North China province.

In addition to the existing centre, a total of 3,000 makeshift wards are expected to be built in the centre, which will have room for several thousand people. More than 28 million people are already under lockdown in both Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases there.

The outbreak in China’s North and North-East is said to have originated in the coastal city of Dalian, where a series of local transmissions at the start of the year were traced back to infected cargo from Russia.

Meanwhile, China has reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases in more than 10 months on Friday, with a total of 144 new cases recorded on January 14, up from 138 cases a day earlier. China also recorded death in Hebei province yesterday, marking the first death from COVID-19 since mid-May.

Feng Zijian, deputy director of the China Centre for Disease Control (CDC), warned that the Hebei outbreak had been spreading faster than previous ones. The medical experts are also worried that the incubation period for the new strain is longer than previous outbreaks, with infections detected even after the recommended 14 days of isolation.

Nidhi Razdan got ‘scammed’ into believing that she got a job from Harvard University: Here is what does not make sense in her story

Raju Das
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Nidhi Razdan got ‘scammed’ into believing that she got a job from Harvard University: Here is what does not make sense in her story

In what has come as very shocking news, former NDTV anchor Nidhi Razdan today informed that she was conned into believing by scamsters that she has been offered a teaching facility at Harvard University. She took to Twitter today to inform that after contacting the university, she came to known that she was never offered a job there, and she fell victim to a sophisticated version of Nigerian prince email type scam.

On June 13 last year, Nidhi Razdan had announced on Twitter that she is going to join Harvard University as an Associate Professor of Journalism later that year. Consequently, she had announced that she is leaving NDTV after a long career in the controversial news channel. But now she claims that she was the victim of an elaborate phishing scam where she was conned into believing that she was offered a job in the university.

Although anyone can be victim of such scams, the incident does raise some questions. The scam didn’t involve monetary transaction like most online scams are, it was about offering someone a fake job. And it is intriguing how a well-connected person like Nidhi Razdan fell prey to it.

An interview is a basic prerequisite in any such recruitment. Assuming that physical interview was not possible during the pandemic, a video interview must have happened. If it happened, who took it? Did someone impersonate some senior official at Harvard and Nidhi Razdan didn’t recognise that? These questions need to be answered. And if no video interview was taken, it should raise doubt in anyone’s mind.

Before appearing for a job interview, a standard procedure is to study about the employer, visit its website, read the detail of the recruitment procedure, read about the interviewer etc.

According the recruitment process of Harvard University uploaded on its website, the process starts with reviewing resumes, after which selected candidates are screened through telephone. Candidates who clear this step are then called for an interview before an interview team. After the interview, reference check of the selected candidates are done, and only after that, the candidates are selected for the position.

Assuming that physical interview was not done due to Coronavirus pandemic, it must have been replaced with video interview. Had she studied the recruitment process, she should have felt something was not right when it was not done at all.

According to Forbes report on recruiting professors at top universities like Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT, candidates have to give a one hour seminar, attend a dinner with several faculty, and have a series of 30 minute to one hour meetings with individual faculty. Absence of any of these should have sounded alarms in her mind.

Nidhi Razdan has been a journalist with NDTV for a long time. Being a Delhi based journalist, she is also well connected to several politicians and bureaucrats. As a result, she must have known people who had studied or worked in Harvard, and could have just talked to such people to confirm the same before taking an important decision like quitting NDTV.

According to some reports, she had already moved to Boston to join Harvard. In fact, in September last month, she had said that she is teaching at Harvard, while replying to a Twitter user. This raises another question, how she was already ‘teaching at Harvard’ if the very job she was offered was fake? Does it mean she lied that she was teaching at Harvard when her job was not confirmed? Or was she teaching in some fake university in USA like a Bollywood slapstick comedy?

After she had left NDTV, the channel had taken her comments in its news reports on various issues. In those reports, the channel has identified her as Associate Professor of Harvard. It is very baffling how both Nidhi Razdan and NDTV claimed that she was working at Harvard when she was not. It shows that kind of due diligence, rather the lack of it, the former journalist and the channel used to employ in reporting stories.

Assuming that she had already moved to USA to join her ‘new job’, the question of her visa also arises. Without a letter confirming the appointment at Harvard, she won’t get a proper visa to move to USA to work there. If she indeed got a proper visa like H1B, L1, J1 etc, this means she was given a fake offer letter which even conned the US consulate officials in India, pointing towards involvement of a big ring behind the scam.

If she didn’t have a proper work visa and went to USA, assuming she went there, she may have gone on a tourist visa. That will be violation of US Visa rules, as vising on tourist visa with the intention of joining a job there is not allowed.

Although it is unfortunate that she was scammed like this, the incident does question the kind of decisions she made, and the kind of due diligence she had taken before making those decisions.

Rajasthan: SDM was seeking bribe during meeting where CM Gehlot spoke against corruption, arrested

Jinit Jain
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Rajasthan: SDM was seeking bribe during meeting where CM Gehlot spoke against corruption, arrested

The rampancy of corruption in Rajasthan could be gauged from the fact when chief minister Ashok Gehlot was speaking at the Collector Conference on the need to take strict action against corruption, an SDM who was attending the meeting was seeking bribes on the phone.

Two SDMs and an associate of the former SP of Rajasthan’s Dausa district were caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Thursday while taking bribes. Mobiles phones of the officers and the former SP were confiscated by the ACB officials. 

Interestingly, the SDM had apparently received a phone call where she sked a bribe worth Rs 10 lakhs from a construction company. She was in a conference where chief minister Ashok Gehlot was speaking against corruption. In the meeting, the Rajasthan government had decided to establish a special cell under the personnel department to keep a tab on corrupt and negligent officials in government departments.

In the video conference with district collectors, the CM emphasised that providing transparent, accountable and good governance is his government’s priority. He also announced that a cell will be formed to look into complaints of indiscipline and corruption against government officials and those who are found guilty will be severely punished.

Two SDMs and a former SP caught red-handed receiving bribes

The case pertains to a national highway project that is passing through the Dausa district of Rajasthan, where land acquisition is currently underway. Two SDMs from Dausa district, Pinky Meena and Pushkar Mittal were entrusted with the task of acquiring land for the construction of the highway. The company was embroiled in a lawsuit due to disputes over the land acquisition. The matter was presided over by SP Manish Agarwal but he was removed after allegations of corruption surfaced against him.

However, despite Agarwal’s removal, his tout Neeraj was allegedly pressurising the company to pay bribes for the acquisition. Apparently, Neeraj had sought Rs 30 lakh from the company. Neeraj is also arrested by the ACB. 

Besides, Bandikui SDM Pinky Meena, while attending a meeting with the CM, had reportedly asked a company staffer to pay Rs 10 lakhs to the liaisoning officer. “Give the money to the liaising officer. I will collect the money from him after the meeting,” the SDM allegedly said. 

Following the meeting, as the SDM was about to collect the money from the liaising officer, the ACB officials, already waiting in the lurk, caught her red-handed taking bribes. 

Similarly, Pushkar Mittal, SDM of Dausa, had asked the company officials to send the money at his residence. The Anti Corruption Bureau team, already keeping an eye on the SDM, reached his residence as the company officials were paying money to the SDM and caught him red-handed.

According to the ACB officials, spooked by the arrests of the SDMs, the IPS officer Manish Agarwal escaped to his hometown in Jaipur. A separate ACB team is sent to Jaipur where the officer will be interrogated with respect to the bribery case.

‘Tit for Tat’, ‘Work of Art’: Netizens react to the Nidhi Razdan Harvard fiasco, question her logic

OpIndia Staff
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‘Tit for Tat’, ‘Work of Art’: Netizens react to the Nidhi Razdan Harvard fiasco, question her logic

Nidhi Razdan, who was working as a news anchor at controversial far-left news outlet NDTV, on Friday claimed that she was the victim of a phishing attack and that Harvard University never offered her a position as an associate professor in journalism.

Razdan, who was boasting of being an Assistant Professor at Harvard University all along, faced reality recently after it was revealed to her that she was not at all considered as a faculty at the prestigious university and somebody had lied to her about the same.

Ever since the news about Nidhi Razdan allegedly being the victim of the phishing scam broke out, netizens have taken to social media to debate about the reasons for Razdan’s massively embarrassing situation. Several people highlighted the inconsistencies in her claim that she was cheated by some people for almost seven months, while some said that the far-left news anchor who has been caught several times peddling fake news did not deserve Harvard university in the first place.

How social media is reacting to the Nidhi Razdan fiasco

Senior Journalist Soumyadipta took to Twitter to question the intellect of Nidhi Razdan as he asked how could she, who worked at NDTV for over 21 years, not perform proper checks with Harvard University before moving to the US. Raising suspicion on Nidhi’s claims, the journalist questioned her claims saying how could she not verify the claims before claiming to be a victim of a phishing attack.

Another user also raised doubts over her claims saying that her theories look improbable. Rosy, the Twitter user, said how could Nidhi Razdan who claims to be a journalist did not check with the authorities at Harvard or receive proper verbal communication confirming the appointment before quitting her job at NDTV. All this just does not add up, she said.

Social media users remembered how Nidhi Razdan not only become a victim of phishing scam but also highlighted how she tried to unethically proclaim herself to be an Assistant Professor at Harvard University. NDTV had even gone to the extent of inviting Nidhi Razdan to its panel discussion by wrongly referring to her as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard.

Rajesh Juyal also had an interesting point to make. According to Juyal, the alleged phishing attack on Nidhi Razdan was nothing but controversial news anchor getting the taste of her own medicine and termed it as ‘Tit for Tat’ for spreading fake news and building false narratives solely to defame Prime Minister Modi.

Another social media user who goes by the name ‘Un-bhadralok bangali’ said Nidhi Razdan’s tweet was nothing but a piece of art and the greatest trick one ever pulled off. He called the plan to trap Nidhi Razdan was just ‘brilliant’ and added that whoever did that deserves massive respect.

He also added that the alleged conning of Nidhi Razdan showed the level of intellect of such journalists.

Anna, a social media user, made some interesting observations pertaining to the entire fiasco saying that there were no interviews, phone calls from Harvard and despite that Nidhi Razdan claimed that she got a job offer from Harvard University. He asked whether Nidhi Razdan’s claim were just like NDTV’s Prime Time show.

Some of the netizens also tried to explore the funny side of the whole controversy and posted some humorous memes.

Nidhi Razdan was scammed on Harvard Professor job

In a terse statement on Twitter, she said, “I have been the victim of a very serious phishing attack. I’m putting this statement out to set the record straight about what I’ve been through. I will not be addressing this issue any further on social media.”

Nidhi Razdan said, “I had been given to believe that I would be joining the University in September 2020. While I was making preparations to take up my new assignment, I was later told that due to the ongoing pandemic, my classes would commence in January 2021. Along with these delays, I began noticing a number of administrative anomalies in the process being described to me.”

“At first, I had dismissed these anomalies as being reflective of the new normal being dictated by the pandemic, but recently the representations being made to me were of an even more disquieting nature. As a result, I reached out to senior authorities at Harvard University for clarity. Upon their request, I shared some of the correspondence that I believed I had received from the University,” the statement added.

However, she realized that she had been conned after receiving replies from Harvard University. She said, “I did not, in fact, receive an offer by Harvard University to join their faculty as an Associate Professor of Journalism. The perpetrators of this attack used clever forgeries and misrepresentations to obtain access to my personal data and communications and may have also gained access to my devices and my email/social media accounts.”

Nidhi Razdan said that she has informed the police and authorities at Harvard University of the matter. A police complaint has been filed, however, it is unclear whether she suffered financial losses due to the scam. But it does appear that she left her job at NDTV because of the ‘job offer’. However, that is not yet confirmed. She said, “I hope that the police are able to get to the bottom of this attack on me at the earliest and help me bring this unsavoury incident to a swift end.”

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