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Shiromani Akali Dal quits NDA over farm bills and ‘insensitivity of govt to Punjabi and Sikh issues’

OpIndia Staff
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Shiromani Akali Dal quits NDA over farm bills and ‘insensitivity of govt to Punjabi and Sikh issues’

Long term NDA member Shiromani Akali Dal has announced that it is leaving the BJP led alliance over the farm bill issue. The Akali Dal has been protesting against the three bills reforming the farm sector which were passed by the parliament in the just concluded monsoon session.

After the bills were passed, Akali leader and union food processing minister had resigned from the government in protest against the bills, hinting at possible split in the alliance.

The party said that it is breaking the alliance due to refusal of the govt to “give statutory legislative guarantees to protect assured marketing of crops on MSP and its continued insensitivity to Punjabi and Sikh issues.”

Although despite misinformation spread by opposition, the system of govt procuring of food grains at MSP continues even after the amendment of laws, now the opposition, and the Akalis, are demanding that MSP should be guaranteed even for procurement by private parties. They are also demanding that the amount of MSP should be determined in the relevant act itself.

The three bills passed by the govt are, The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. These bills end the monopoly of APMCs allowing farmers to sell their produce anywhere the best the price they can get, allows contact farming.

Apart from the farm bills, the Akali Dal is also objecting over the recent amendment of the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, as Punjabi was not included as an official language of the union territory. The amendment had included Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi to the list official languages of the Jammu and Kashmir. Before this, only Urdu and English were official languages of the former state. SAD was demanding that Punjabi also should be included, considering large Punjabi speaking population in the UT.

Despite the departure of SAD, the Narendra Modi govt faces no danger as BJP alone enjoys majority in the Lok Sabha, while SAD has only two MPs in the house. Akali Dal is the second major NDA to leave the alliance after Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

PM Modi calls for an expanded role of India in the United Nations: Here are the 7 key highlights of his speech at the 75th session of UNGA

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi calls for an expanded role of India in the United Nations: Here are the 7 key highlights of his speech at the 75th session of UNGA

During his virtual address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Saturday evening, PM Modi congratulated the member countries on the 75th anniversary of the forum. He also said that India is proud of being one of the founding members of the United Nations. PM Modi’s speech touched upon India’s enduring commitment to Vasudev Kutambakam(the world is one family), its contribution towards global peace and tranquillity, and called for a bigger role for India in the working of the United Nations.

Here are the key highlights from PM Modi’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly:

India proud to be among the founding members of the United Nations

India is proud of the fact that India is one of the fouding members of United Nations. On this historic occassion, I have come to share the sentiments of 130 crores on this Global platform. Your excellency, the world of 1945 was definitely different from today’s world. Problems, their solutions, everything is distinctly different.

Reforms in responses, processes, and character of the United Nations is the need of the hour: PM Modi

PM Modi raised questions over the United Nations’ handling of the coronavirus crisis. He noted that the world has changed since 1945, and the United Nations will also have to adapt to the changes to arrive at better solutions for the problems affecting the world. He asked for a thorough introspection of the work of the United Nations.

Referring to the dithering ongoing process of the reforms, PM Modi said that the expeditious changes in the responses, processes and character of the United Nations are the need of the hour.

“If we were to make an objective assessment of the performance of the UN over the last 75 years, we see several stellar achievements. But at the same time, there are also several instances that point to the need for a serious introspection of the work of the United Nations: PM Modi

India aspires for an expanded role in the United Nations

PM Modi stressed on the need for an overhaul in the working of the United Nations. He raised the anxiety of 1.3 billion Indians, approximately 18 per cent of the world population, aspiring for a meaningful role in the intergovernmental organisation.

Highlighting India’s commitment to maintaining peace, PM Modi said that India has participated in 50 peacekeeping missions and has lost the maximum number of its brave soldiers in these missions. He also brought to attention India’s Neighbourhood First Policy and Act East Policy, as well as the idea of security & growth for all in the region, or its views towards the Indo Pacific region, which have always been for the welfare of humankind and not driven by vested interests.

“Indians have been waiting for a long time for the reform of the United Nations. People are worried that if the process could ever reach a logical end. For how long Indians will be kept out of the decision-making structure of the United Nations? A country that is the world’s biggest democracy and inhabits 18 per cent of the world’s population. A country which was a leading global economy for hundreds of years and also one which had endured hundreds of years of foreign rule,” PM Modi emphatically added while making a case for an expanded role of India in the United Nations.

PM Modi assures India will provide coronavirus vaccines for the entire humankind

Amidst growing concerns among poorer nations that vaccines produced to fight coronavirus pandemic might not be available to them, PM Modi assured the world that India will use its production and delivery capacity to help the entire world in fighting the coronavirus crisis.

He added that even during a difficult times such as the ongoing pandemic, India’s pharmaceutical industry has sent essential medicines to more than 150 countries.

“As the largest vaccine producing country in the world, I want to give one more assurance to the global community today. India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi reiterates India’s commitment to fighting terrorism, smuggling of illegal weapons, drugs and money-laundering

Speaking on the menace of terrorism, smuggling of illegal weapons, drugs, money-laundering and other such transnational crimes, PM Modi said that India will not hesitate in raising issues regarding the matter on the relevant platforms to bring an end to these enemies of humanity, the human race and human values.

India moving towards the aim of “self-reliance”: PM Modi

PM Modi at the 75th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly outlined the nation’s vision of “self-reliance”. He spoke how India being a self-reliant country would provide a boost to the global economy.

“In the changed circumstances of the post-pandemic era, we are moving forward with the vision of a “Self-reliant India”. A Self-reliant India will also be a force multiplier for the Global Economy. Today, it is also being ensured that there is no discrimination in extending the benefits of all the schemes and initiatives to every citizen of the country,” Prime Minister Modi said.

India is a country where women are provided maternity leaves of 26 weeks: PM Modi

Speaking about the importance of paying more importance to the health of women, PM Modi said that India is the country that grants a maternity leave of 26 weeks to its women workforce. PM Modi also said that India is a country where rights of transgenders have been secured through necessary legal reforms.

Addressing the general debate of 75th United Nations General Assembly, he added, “India is one of those countries where women are provided Paid Maternity Leave of 26 weeks,” further highlighting the progress made in regard to the rights of members belonging to the transgender community. “In India, the rights of transgenders are also being secured through necessary legal reforms.”

Mumbai Police to seize vehicles of media houses chasing celebrities summoned for questioning after more channels join the car chase race

OpIndia Staff
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Mumbai Police to seize vehicles of media houses chasing celebrities summoned for questioning after more channels join the car chase race

Over the last few days, almost all the mainstream media channels have been racing against one another to provide ‘exclusive’ updates in relation to the probe being carried out by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the alleged drug angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. The NCB has summoned some of the top names of Bollywood after their ‘drug chats’ emerged. This has led to TV news channels chasing on the roads the cars of celebrities reaching the NCB office to answer the summons, or returning after their questioning by NCB.

The chasing cars of celebrities had begun with the CBI probe in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, when the cars of Rhea Chakraborty and others summoned by CBI were chased by some TV channels to give minute by minute updates. Now that CBI is silently probing the case and NCB is questioning big names in the drug angle, the car chase has increased with more channels joining the race, literally.

But now Mumbai Police have decided that enough is enough, and have said that they will no longer allow cars belonging to media houses to chase celebrities called for questioning. Sangram Singh Nishandar, the DCP of Zone 1 of the Mumbai police, announced that they have decided to seize the media vehicles which are found chasing the cars of celebrities, who are summoned by investigating agencies, for endangering the lives of people on the road along with their own lives.

More channels join the car chase race

As the probe in the alleged Bollywood drug syndicate is progressing, the media channels are competing against one another to bring out the ‘first’ or the ‘latest’ updates in the case. Interestingly, some of the media channels like India Today and NDTV, which were earlier condemning the ‘media trial‘ of the celebrities by channels like Time Now and Republic TV, calling that media circus, are now themselves adopting every possible tactic from interviewing the prime accused in the case to chasing cars of celebrities on the roads to catch up with their competitors in the rating game.

Yesterday, NDTV was seen following Rokul Preet Singh in her on her way to NCB for questioning, an act the journalists of the channel were mocking earlier when done by other channels.

Today NDTV was seen reporting live from the NCB where actress Deepika Padukone was called for questioning.

NDTV camera were also present in front of Sara Ali Khan’s house to report when she left to answer NCB questions.

Similarly, India Today has been tracking the movement of the actress since the day she was to leave from Goa for Mumbai after she was summoned. Yesterday, India Today reporters chashed Deepika Padukone on her way to airport in Goa, as seen in the below video posted by the channel.

Interestingly, while the India Today journalists were giving ‘exclusive’ updates of Deepika Padukone reaching Goa airport, they actually ended up chasing a wrong car believing it to be Padukone’s. Later, in the evening they reported that actress whose car they believed they were chasing in the day had not even left from the hotel as yet.

NCB’s questions to actor Deepika Padukone in the Bollywood drug mafia probe accessed by media, was grilled in three phases

OpIndia Staff
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NCB’s questions to actor Deepika Padukone in the Bollywood drug mafia probe accessed by media, was grilled in three phases

Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone was put through the wringer on Saturday by the Narcotics Control Bureau, which has been probing the alleged drug mafia in Bollywood. The Padmavat actor was grilled for over 5 hours today and according to India Today, the interrogation was a three-phased one. At first, the actor was questioned alone. In the second phase, the actor was confronted with the statements given to NCB by her manager Karishma Prakash on Friday and in the third phase, Deepika was reportedly brought face to face with her manager as the NCB questioned her about the chats from 2017.

According to reports, NCB grilled the actor over her manager Karishma and the party at Koko restaurant in Mumbai. India Today, which claims of having access to the questionnaire, said that the Narcotics department essentially asked the film star the following 6 questions:

  • Why did you meet Karishma?
  • Did you ask your manager Karishma to procure drugs?
  • How many times did you ask Karishma to get drugs?
  • Who all attended the party at the Koko club?
  • Were drugs consumed at the Koko club party?
  • It at all drugs were consumed at the Koko club, who all consumed it?

Deepika Padukone and her manager Karishma Prakash confronted with their chats from October 2017

Deepika and Karishma Prakash were confronted with their chats from October 2017, which was retrieved by the NCB, where they were seen discussing drugs. In the chats, Deepika asks, “Maal hai kya?” To which Karishma replies that she has it at her home and currently she is out. She then tells Deepika that she can ask someone else to arrange it for her. Karishma is the employee of the dubious Kwan talent management agency.

The Padmavat actor accepts being part of the Whatsapp group

It may be recalled that earlier, talent manager Jaya Saha and Kwan’s founder partner Dhuv Chitgopekar too were questioned in the case. Jaya Saha, in particular, is being termed as the ‘kingpin’ of the case, and authorities had stumbled upon the above chats during her questioning.

Meanwhile, Karishma Prakash during her first-day interrogation on Friday, accepted that Deepika was the admin of the WhatsApp group.

Today, though Deepika Padukone too, accepted being part of the group, she maintained a stoic silence on the drugs issue. According to reports, the second round of questioning dawns on the duo as Deepika Padukone’s unsatisfactory answers did not please the investigating agency.

Apart from the Padmavat actor, the NCB had also grilled actor Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor who reached the NCB’s zonal office around 12pm to record her statement in the drugs probe linked to Rajput’s death. 

Deepika Padukone confesses to NCB of being a part of drug chats Whatsapp group: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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Deepika Padukone confesses to NCB of being a part of drug chats Whatsapp group: Reports

Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has reportedly confessed to being a part of the Whatsapp group, where discussions on drugs took place, for which she was summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday.

As per reports, the NCB is of the belief that both Deepika and her manager Karishma Prakash have come prepared for the interrogation. The suspicion of the investigating officials is premised on the fact that the actress had earlier cited her medical condition to extend the date of the summon to September 25. Reportedly, her manager Karishma was also with her when she had returned to Mumbai from Goa. The legal hassle is likely to increase for the actress after she admitted to having drugs-related conversation with her manager Karishma Prakash.

NCB quizzed the duo on Saturday regarding the ongoing investigation in the drug-scandal case, which had emerged during the probe into the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. However, the investigating officials are not satisfied with their response. NCB had also summoned actresses such as Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan in connection to the case.

NCW believes Deepika Padukone was the admin of the Whatsapp group

As per a Times Now report, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) sources on Saturday revealed that Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone was the admin of the WhatsApp group in which the conversations regarding drugs were found. The Times Now report states that Deepika, Karishma and Jaya Saha were all admins of the group. It stated that two mobile numbers belonging to Deepika were added in the group.

Deepika’s name had emerged in the drug abuse probe earlier this week after her WhatsApp conversations went viral. A series of WhatsApp conversations had gone viral recently where the actress’ was allegedly asking for hash (or hashish, a drug made from cannabis plant) from a certain person named ‘K’, who many believe is her manager, Karishma Prakash.

Clashes erupt between tribal people and local Christians in Chhattisgarh over alleged forest land encroachment

OpIndia Staff
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Clashes erupt between tribal people and local Christians in Chhattisgarh over alleged forest land encroachment

Clashes erupted in some villages of Kondagaon district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh allegedly over the issue of forest land encroachment. People from one group reportedly plundered the houses of some families belonging to the other group on September 22 and 23 as informed by the police.

According to some reports, some Christian families were attacked by some local tribal people allegedly for not following the local tribal culture. The tribal villagers have reportedly asked the Christian families to worship the native deities if they wished to continue living with them.

The District police, however, said that the clashes happened over the issue of forest land encroachment between two groups in Kakadabeda, Singanpur and Silati villages. The Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said that police force has been deployed in the area to prevent the situation from further escalating.

No FIR has been registered by the police in the matter so far as preliminary investigation is being conducted to ascertain the details of the incidents. He told that there are a few families who have been following Christianity for last 6 years. He added that the tribal community in the villages had some issues with the Christian families who did not follow the local customs.

The IG assured that the police will take all necessary legal action for maintaining peace and order. “After being alerted about the situation, senior officials reached the spot on Wednesday and pacified the villagers. Presently, the situation is peaceful”, he told.

Arun Pannalal, the President of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, claimed that the violence took place in the presence of the police and that the families have run away to Raipur. He said that the villagers were pressurising the Christian families to convert or lose the benefits available to Scheduled Tribes (STs). However, the Kondagaon SP Siddharth Tiwari rejected the claims of the CCF that the violence happened in the presence of the police. He said that this was not a communal conflict but related to the land encroachment.

CCF President Pannalal has demanded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for the Christian families along with a high-level inquiry by a retired High Court judge or district judge.

Congress party, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shares UPA-era images of farmers in distress to criticise Modi govt’s farm bills, score self-goal

OpIndia Staff
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Congress party, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shares UPA-era images of farmers in distress to criticise Modi govt’s farm bills, score self-goal

At a time when the farmers of the country are embracing the agricultural reforms of the Narendra Modi government, the Congress party and its leaders have been spreading blatant lies and misinformation on social media to score political goals.

Ever since the Modi government passed trhee bills in the Parliament to reform country’s farm sector, the Congress party has been posting old images of farmers to peddle misinformation that the farmers in the country were upset against the Modi government.

The Congress party shared a post on Twitter to claim that the new laws passed by the Parliament wiped out not only farmers’ future but also rural India’s chances for prosperous future. The post was accompanied by a photograph of a group of women sitting in anguish.

Image Source: Congress party

However, the photograph shared by the Congress party is from the time when the Congress-led UPA government was in power. The image shared by the Congress party is from a 2012 The Economist report titled “A tale of two villages”.

Image Source: The Economist

In another tweet, the Congress party posted a video that mocked Prime Minister Modi over the alleged non-implementation of promises by the Modi government.

The Congress party had posted a video to criticize the Modi government, in which it had included an image of devotees crossing the polluted waters of the Ganga river.

Image Source: Superstar Raj

However, the image shared by the Congress party featuring a polluted Ganga river is captured at Sangam in Allahabad on April 14, 2013. In fact, the Congress party has scored a self-goal by depicting the state of the Ganga river during the rule of UPA government.

Image Source: Weather

Similarly, in another tweet, the Congress party had shared another image dated 2014 to portray that the farmers were in distress in the country.

Image Source: Superstar Raj

Here is the image of the distressed farmer shared by the Congress party that dates back to 2014.

Priyanka Gandhi shares UPA-era images to target Modi government

The Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi, continuing the act of putting misinformation on social media, posted a tweet to criticise the farm reforms that are being implemented by the Narendra Modi government. The tweet was accompanied by a photograph of a farmer in distress.

Image Source: Priyanka Gandhi

However, the photograph shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is at least seven years old. The image shared by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of a farmer in distress was published by Amar Ujala back in 2013 itself during the UPA government.

Image Source: Amar Ujala

The photograph used by Vadra can also be found on Flickr, posted by a user named ‘sujataschool’ on 6 August 2011. The image is captioned, “A farmer looking at the seedlings at a field. The cultivation work in the district hampered due to scarcity of water”.

With Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sharing an image that was captured during the UPA-era, the Gandhi-scion indirectly criticised her own party for the depriving condition of Indian farmers.

Congress, a repeat offender

The Congress party has a history of posting such old and morphed images, especially images captured during the UPA-era, to target the Modi government.

At a time when the country was the middle of a pandemic, the Congress party had also indulged in spreading blatant lies and misinformation on social media to score political goals.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala had earlier shared an image from Nepal as that of India to play politics over the misery of the poor. The Congress leader had posted the image of a woman, carrying a toddler on her back on Twitter. Surjewala’s tweet was accompanied by a politically motivated caption that read, “New India ka Saach!“

Earlier, the Dalit Congress had taken to social media to share an old image of a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh to attack the central government for its alleged inefficiency of handling of the migrant workers’ issue. Sharing the image through the official Twitter handle, Dalit Congress had said that Modi govt should envisage the helplessness to the faces of these people and do something to help them.

In another incident, targetting Prime Minister Modi, the Congress party had shared an old image of Narendra Modi from a few years ago to make a misleading claim during the pandemic. The Congress party used a photograph of Prime Minister Modi in which measurements were being taken for his statue at the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

The scene depicted in the photograph is from 2016 but the Congress party attempted to portray that it was captured in recent times when the country is suffering a grave crisis in the wake of the economic crisis unleashed by the coronavirus.

‘This is the economic expansionism of Islam’, VHP President warns about the dangers of Halalonomics. Read details

OpIndia Staff
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‘This is the economic expansionism of Islam’, VHP President warns about the dangers of Halalonomics. Read details

In an exclusive interview with News Intervention, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) President Alok Kumar highlighted the dangers of Halal economy or Halalonomics.

VHP President points out the exclusivist nature of Halalonomics

While expressing his objection to the exclusivist nature of Halal, Kumar cautioned, “This is the economic expansionism of Islam. We are for a secular economy.” He cited the example of England where all restaurants have Halal certification, despite Muslims constituting only 4% of the population. Kumar further added, “It (Halalonomics) is a sort of economic domination of the principles, tenets and people of Islam over the followers of other religions.”

The VHP President informed that even Baba Ramdev, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have procured Halal certification for the sale of their products. “That Halal certification is given by designated Muslim organisations and they charge a hefty fee for that. So, they get enriched for their religious affairs. We pay for that in the form of the increased price of the goods and then from the meat they travel to food, medicines, and now a mall is coming up in Gurugram which proclaims that it is Halal-certified,” he emphasised.

Halal is cruel and has religious objections, observes VHP President

“Halal is rather a very cruel way of killing an animal. Killing an animal to a person like me is bad, but killing the animal with merciless cruelty is the worst.” The VHP President expressed happiness over the rising awareness and campaign to curb Halal meat and promotion of Jhatka. “…The serving of meat should not be restricted to serving only Halal meat including in the Indian Army,” he emphasised.

Emphasising on the cruelty of Halal practice, he stated, “Somebody told me about a Shabad in Gurbani which ordains them not to eat Halal meat…So there are religious objections also and there are objections on the point of cruelty, and three we see it as an organised conspiracy to impose Islamic perceptions and tenets on us. And the money in the certification of Halal goes to them. So, I see every reason to propagate that there should be no exclusivity in food.”

VHP president suspects use of Halal money for promoting Islamic terrorism

Alok Kumar discussed how he believes that funds from the Halal economy are used to fund Islamic terrorism. He stated, “Lots of money is being collected by Islamic organisations which are approved for Halal certification. We do really suspect that the money from those sources may be directed towards Islamic propagation and terrorism.”

Alok Kumar has clarified that even though VHP has not taken any decision at an organisational level, the concern remains as to how Halal economics is detrimental to ‘religious amity.’ He stated, “And for a secular economy, we will join the fight as individuals.”

Halal is discriminatory against non-Muslims

In recent times, there has been a great controversy surrounding Halal. It can only be performed by a Muslim man and therefore, in a meat industry where Halal is the norm, non-Muslims are automatically being denied employment. Thus, non-Muslims have taken objection to the surreptitious normalisation of the practice across vast sections of the meat industry in India.

Bollywood drug scandal coverage by media saves liberals the blushes as Bharat Bandh becomes a mega flop

Abhishek Banerjee
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Bollywood drug scandal coverage by media saves liberals the blushes as Bharat Bandh becomes a mega flop

The following is an actual line from Aaj Tak’s coverage of the Bharat Bandh yesterday:

“भारत बंद का पंजाब से हरियाणा तक असर देखने को मिल रहा है” (Effect of Bharat Bandh is visible from Punjab to Haryana).

I do not wish to be too hard on the poor intern who wrote these words, probably not realizing the irony. In fact, I feel bad for the big media channels yesterday. For days, they had been put on notice by liberal conscience keepers of our great nation.

“Farmers” are protesting, the conscience keepers had said. They had taunted the TV channels endlessly for their supposed obsession with the dark underbelly of Bollywood. They wanted to see coverage of “real issues.” Most of all, on Sep 25, when farmers all over India were supposed to rise up in a day of rage against the new farming bills passed by the government.

In doing so, the liberal conscience keepers set up the media to cover the biggest non-event of the year. All through the day, the media was reduced to putting out images of dozen or so people here and there in Punjab. A handful of people protesting in areas of Haryana bordering Punjab. And that’s about it. Perhaps not wishing to embarrass the “activists,” media took photos of the protesters from up close, so that the sparse crowd would not be so obvious. They probably did the same with Tejaswi Yadav’s “tractor rally” in Patna.

Until a day before, India’s one true journalist Ravish Kumar had been wagging a finger at the media, expressing fears that “crores of farmers” would lose out to one Deepika in TV coverage. Last evening, after the bandh had flopped, he bleated out something roughly like this: People are calling it a Punjab-Haryana bandh, but there was a protest 3 days ago somewhere in Odisha…

Don’t cry, Ravish ji. I hate tears.

As a kid, my greatest fear was that nobody would show up at my birthday party. That I would be waiting, dressed up, with cake, balloons and all, but nobody would show up. Thanks to my friends, that never happened. But after watching Ravish Kumar’s show yesterday, I know what that nightmare would have been like.

They said farmers were very angry. They said farmers had been sold out. Remember that 50% of India works in agriculture. If farmers were really angry, they wouldn’t need to schedule a day of protest. They would spill out into the streets and instantly bring the country to a halt. Instead, the opposition took like a week to prepare the “protests” and delivered a damp squib bigger than Deepika’s last movie.

Ironically, the one thing that saved the liberals the blushes yesterday was the same Bollywood coverage they had been mocking. Had there been no Bollywood scandal taking up air time, liberals would have been even more embarrassed by the complete absence of protests.

There is an important lesson here for those of us in India’s cities. It’s true that we know almost nothing about farmers’ issues. So we tend to fall for the image of the Indian farmer as helpless and forever in distress. And we tend to get caught up in feelings of doubt and guilt. We tend to worry about whether we are paying enough attention to our farmers.

Read- Despite rhetoric, Bharat Band supported by Congress fails to impress, Indian Railways see no impact on train operations, movements see increase

Those are legitimate concerns. But we also need to understand that a class of snake oil salesmen is trying to cash in on this guilt. We don’t know about farmer issues, but trust me: the five star comrades know even less. Some sweet talking fake psephologist from Lutyens, for instance, is no farmer leader. He is much more disconnected from real issues of India than almost anyone else.

Yesterday, the farmers of India did send a message after all. By giving a cold shoulder to yesterday’s “Lutyens bandh,” they told the rest of us that five-star comrades don’t represent farmers. Let us pick up this message from our kisan brothers and sisters and stop paying attention to five-star activists.

Oh and here is some free advice for liberals. Next time you call a bandh in which nobody wants to participate, try playing Arnab’s show in public places. You might gather some crowds. Then, you can pass them off as “protesters” who have gathered to support your cause.

‘Bha*ve, what should I do if you have an open marriage’, Sherlyn Chopra goes off at Bollywood perverts

OpIndia Staff
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‘Bha*ve, what should I do if you have an open marriage’, Sherlyn Chopra goes off at Bollywood perverts

Sherlyn Chopra has been in the news recently after making sensational allegations against influential individuals in the Bollywood movie industry. She had issued a statement where she said that the co-founder of Kwan talent agency, Anirban Das Blah, had sexually harassed her and asked her whether her breasts were real or not.

In a recent interview with ABP Majha, Sherlyn Chopra went into greater detail regarding the allegations she had made. She revealed that one of the individuals she had met, associated with Deepika Padukone, had informed her that he was in an ‘open marriage’. An open marriage indicates that the husband or wife could have sexual relationships outside of marriage.

Sherlyn Chopra said, ‘You should ask questions regarding the person’s professional interests but you are asking about breasts. What has anything got to do with my cup size? Real or fake, how does it matter? He spoke nonsense.’ She continued, ‘The he tells me he lives in an open marriage. Abbey bha*ve, your marriage is open or closed, kya fark padhta? (How does it matter?) If you live in an open marriage, what shall I do? ‘No… everything goes in an open marriage…’ Then go ahead and do it, bhad*ve, why are you telling me these things at your office?’

Sherlyn Chopra further said that individuals who engage in such perverse conduct feel that they are kingmakers or queen-makers. She revealed that questions such as ‘Can I touch your boobs’ are also asked.

Anirban Blah #MeToo

In 2018, Anirban Das Blah was asked to step down from KWAN after #MeToo allegations were levelled against him. Four women had accused him of sexual harassment. Aspiring actress Meira Omar had said that in 2016 when she had come to Mumbai to become an actress, she met KWAN’s Anirban. After her first meeting, which she said she felt did not go well, Blah called her again and requested to meet her privately.

Omar said he called her to his Juhu apartment. After some discussion, he started asking inappropriate questions and so she decided to leave but he forcefully tried to kiss her. However, soon her cab arrived and she left.

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