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JNU violence: DU student Komal Sharma says she was framed by media, registers complaint with NCW

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Days after videos claiming her as one of the masked attackers in the JNU violence went viral on social media, the Delhi University student Komal Sharma has today approached the National Commission for Women (NCW) claiming that she is being framed.

Complaining that her name has been maligned, Komal Sharma has said: “I am not the woman in the video. I am being framed. I have been deliberately, and with some bad intention, defamed to the extent that now the condition has become bad to worse and I have started receiving calls from my relatives/friends who are expressing their dismay considering me as the said alleged lady in mask/scarf.”

The National Commission for Women has, in turn, written to the media houses as well as to Delhi Police to look into the matter.


According to the NCW, Komal has alleged that a national news channel falsely implicated her in their sting operation. The NCW also said that according to the complaint filed by Komal, the news channel has defamed her by identifying and revealing her name as one of the attackers in the JNU violence case.

Sharma was also reportedly named by the Delhi Police over the JNU violence.

A masked mob that Komal Sharma is said to have been a part of ran amok inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus last Sunday, leaving thirty-four people, including students and faculty injured.

According to news agency PTI, Komal Sharma was seen wearing a check shirt, light blue scarf and carrying a stick in the purported video of the violence shared on social media. The police said Sharma’s phone was found to be switched off since Saturday night.

Soon after the violence broke out, screenshots of the WhatsApp group called ‘Unity Against Left’ purportedly used by the mobsters to coordinate the violence started making rounds on social media. Part of such conversation was shared by former NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt in a tweet late night on Sunday.

Later, several conspiracy theories began to float on social media, claiming that the Whatsapp group ‘Unity against Left’ was responsible for the violence inside the JNU campus on Sunday. As the name insinuated that it was against left-wing, the blame was quickly shifted on ABVP, implying that the sender of the message was ‘against Left’ and hence by default it was ABVP, the student wing of the RSS. However, later Congress links had also emerged in the JNU violence.

Read: India Today sting on JNU violence: Here is how Rahul Kanwal passed off a JNUSU activist as an ABVP member

Soon after Delhi police carried out the press conference in which evidence was released to the public regarding the involvement of ultra-left-wing students in the violence, India Today had come up with a shoddy sting operation claiming two JNU students allegedly belonging to the ABVP confessed on camera for instigating violence and vandalising the Sabarmati hostel on January 5.

A detailed fact-check was done by OpIndia regarding the so-called India Today sting operation and proved that the whole investigation was nothing but lies and half-truths to falsely implicate ABVP and absolve left-wing forces from its crimes that they had unleashed on JNU campus.

Liberalism and Fascism: 5 ways in which ‘liberals’ are exactly the same as Nazis

The 20th Century witnessed two of the bloodiest wars in the entirety of human history. More than seven decades have passed since the end of the second world war and as it happens very often, much of what was known, or should have been known, has been forgotten. However, there are certain patterns that can be deduced through observation alone. And it is those aspects that we shall focus on here.

In the second world war, unlike what has traditionally been believed, there were three totalitarian ideologies competing for supremacy, arguably at a global scale. The three primary actors, certainly the three most powerful ones, were the flagbearers of these totalitarian ideologies. One of the ideologies was vanquished in the second world war, another at the end of the cold war. The one that emerged victorious on both these occasions still survives and expectedly, it is not considered totalitarian in the 21st century.

The first, of course, was Nazism and the second was Communism. The third, which emerged victorious against both these ideologies, was, needless to say, Liberalism. Nazism ceased to be a serious political force with the end of Hitler’s Germany. Communism suffered the same fate with the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. Liberalism, however, is the state ideology of the world’s only superpower: The USA.

People may argue Liberalism is not totalitarian in nature and everyone has human rights and freedom of speech but one must also reconcile themselves with the fact that people who live in a totalitarian regime do not consider the regime to be totalitarian. For instance, it’s extremely unlikely that in the world George Orwell created in 1948, the residents perceived the state to be totalitarian. For them, a totalitarian society was ‘normal’. Similarly, people who live in a liberal society are unlikely to consider it tyranny. It’s only from the outside that it looks totalitarian.

Read: ‘Fascist Modi’ or ‘Over Tolerant Modi’: When Modi pardoned Muslim men for sending him threatening letters

In the 20th century, the similarities between these three ideologies wasn’t so apparent as these three ideologies were at war with each other. However, in the 21st Century, as Liberalism’s stranglehold over power became nearly complete backed by military prowess of the US military, the similarities have become more than apparent. Today, we look at some of glowing similarities between Liberalism and Fascism.

1. Obsession with Race

Adolf Hitler, as we are well aware, was obsessed with the supposed superiority of the ‘Aryan Race’. In his bid to ‘secure the future’ of the ‘Aryan Race’, he committed the genocide of Jews in Germany. Similarly, liberals in the West are obsessed with race too. In fact, they are so obsessed that a strong candidate for the Democrat nominee for US Presidential elections in 2020 lied about her race and claimed that she is Native American despite the fact she is not in order to gain political benefits.

Furthermore, prominent liberals in the US can be regularly found to be engaged in anti-White rhetoric where they can be seen cheering for ‘White Genocide’, all the while denying that such a thing exists. In India, liberals are obsessed with the Aryan-Dravidian race theory despite the fact that it has been regularly debunked by scholars and academics. But that hasn’t stopped Indian liberals from continuing to further the race theory. The obsession that liberals have with race is very similar to that shared by Nazi Germany.

In India, the rhetoric that liberals employ against Brahmins is akin to the one employed by Nazi Germany against Jews. In mainstream Dravidian politics, which is cheered on and encouraged and sustained by liberalism, the propaganda against Brahmins are is completely alike that fueled by Nazis against Jews.

2. Ideological Unity between the Media and Political Parties

In Nazi Germany, the media served as the propaganda wing of the fascist government. We see a similar pattern in the liberal world. The media was an extended arm of the Nazis. In the USA, we see the mainstream media act as the propaganda wing of the Democrat party. The collusion that was observed between news networks and Hillary Clinton was for all to see. The liberal American media has even justified violence by Antifa goons against their political opponents.

In India, we see the mainstream media serve as the propaganda wing of the ‘Secular’ parties. There is extreme collusion between the political establishment and the media. The Liberal media demonizes the opponents of secular political parties and their supporters, exaggerates minor events in order to benefit secular politicians and whitewashes and buries news that could adversely impact secular parties. It’s an incestuous relationship between Liberal Media and Liberal political parties and they work together in the same fashion as the media and politicians in Nazi Germany.

However, there is one distinct difference between the media-politics nexus in the world of liberalism and Nazism. In Nazi Germany, no efforts were made to hide the relationship. But liberalism, in order to be more effective, claims to be ‘independent’ and ‘neutral’ even when they are clearly not and buries the incestuous relationship under layers and layers of carefully constructed diversions.

The relationship between the Media and politicians in Nazi Germany and in the Liberal World stems from the ideological unity between them, the material benefits that are gained are only a second-order requirement. Loyalty to ideology is the main motivation.

3. Ideological Unity between Academia and Political Parties

In Nazi Germany, the Academia served the Nazis greatly and even helped shape their ideology and provided them with ideas and techniques to help them achieve their nefarious objectives. We see a similar pattern in the liberal world. The political parties rely on academia for acquiring footsoldiers and legitimizing their evil agenda while the latter relies on the former for patronage.

The Academia also provides Liberal politicians with footsoldiers and innovative techniques in order for them to achieve their political goals. Here, again, we see a complete unity of ideology between the Academia and Liberal political parties. It is the same in the US as it is in India. The liberal parties work in tandem in order to indoctrinate the youth and achieve ideological objectives.

4. The Will to Power and Crushing Dissent

In Nazi Germany, there was complete coherence of ideology between the political establishment, the Media and Academia. A similar pattern is also observed in the world of Liberalism. The three departments, together, with complete ideological unity between them, form the Liberal Establishment in the 21st century. The arms of the Liberal Establishment then work in tandem, like Nazi Germany, to crush dissent and entrench itself in the corridors of power.

The Liberal Establishment crushes dissent, demonizes its opponent unfairly and unceremoniously removes them from power all the while accusing their political opponent of being fascists, despite the fact that it is the structure of their politics that is completely akin to Nazi Germany. No stones are left unturned in order to secure their power. In India, the Liberal Establishment has also engaged in the genocide of Hindus and Sikhs, in Kashmir and in 1984 respectively.

The three arms of the Liberal Establishment attack and defend together. Whenever the power of one arm is under threat, the other arms immediately comes to their defense. For instance, when there is a threat to its political power, the academia and the media immediately rushes to their defense in order to defeat its political opponents. When political rivals attempt to remove stranglehold of liberals in academia, political parties and the media rushes to its defense. When the monopoly of liberals over media is threatened, the academia and political parties rush to provide cover. And together, they fight to ensure that the Liberal Establishment continues to thrive.

Simultaneously, the opponents of the Liberal Establishment are crushed by the three arms together and it’s ensured that opposing ideologies never get a foothold in these institutions. If someone or some entity succeeds in gaining legitimacy in these three arms, then they demonized and every effort is made to tarnish their reputation and destroy their lives. In many instances, people actually lose their lives and their death is brushed under the carpet as an insignificant statistic. And on and on it goes.

5. A Totalitarian Society

The most distinguishing feature of a totalitarian society or a totalitarian ideology is that the power structure isn’t merely interested in what an individual says or how he acts but also how people think. It is not enough to merely say or act in a certain way, a person must also believe the ideology completely. Otherwise, the person can be accused of a ‘thoughtcrime’ and persecuted accordingly.

In George Orwell’s 1984, ‘thoughtcrime’ describes a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, such as unspoken beliefs and doubts that contradict the dominant political ideology. We see a similar pattern playing out in the liberal world. Merely accusations and allegations combined with certain ‘suspicious’ behaviour is enough reason to completely destroy an individual’s life.

For instance, a person does not have to be a ‘homophobe’ or ‘misogynist’ in order to have his life completely destroyed and ruined, mere accusations are enough. Furthermore, anyone who does not endorse the most extreme positions of the Liberal world is branded ‘homophobe’, ‘misogynist’, ‘regressive’ or whatever the latest buzzword maybe and then it is demanded that his professional career be destroyed.

Mere differences in political opinions are treated as thoughtcrimes and efforts are undertaken to crush the individual. Everyone who disagrees with a liberal is Sanghi and fascist against whom even violence is justified. ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and chants of ‘Vande Mataram’ are deemed as provocations.

Conclusion

While it is fancy, these days, for people to accuse the political opponents of Liberalism as ‘fascists’, in reality, Liberalism and Nazism are cousins and the fight between them is one of sibling rivalry. The reason why liberals paint all their political opponents from diverse political backgrounds as ‘fascist’ is that ‘fascism’ is the ideology they are most well acquainted with and intimate with.

Read: From fake ‘Jai Shri Ram’ hate crimes to CAA: Five big battle of narratives that the ‘Liberal Establishment’ lost in 2019

The tactic of labeling the political opponents of Liberalism as fascists is also a way to hide the fact that Liberalism is the one ideology that shares the most similarity with Fascism. It’s also a way to distract people from the fact that it is the conduct of liberals that resembles that of Nazis the most. Most dangerously, however, the footsoldiers of liberalism religiously believe the accusations they level against their opponents and the indoctrination they have suffered makes them unable to see the intricate similarities between Liberalism and Fascism. However, if they look into the mirror with honesty and integrity, they will discover that the two ideologies are mirror images of themselves in a great many essential respects.

Congress-supporting Bharatiya Kisan Union leaders join the anti-CAA protests at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh

Congress supporting Bharatiya Kisan Union leaders and members have now joined the ‘organic and apolitical’ anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh in national capital.


These farmers were under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), and it is affiliated to All India Kisan Coordination Committee (KCC).

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Bharatiya Kisan Union had announced support for Congress party. BKU national president S. Bhupinder Singh Mann had said that they had decided to support Congress after evaluating the manifestos of both BJP and Congress. KCC had also supported Congress ahead of 2019 elections.

Last evening, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had visited Shaheen Bagh protests. He visited Shaheen Bagh upon his return from Pakistan where he had gone to attend an event in Lahore where he talked about the anti-CAA protests.

Read: Leftists to protest against Modi government under the garb of ‘Farmer rights’ in Kisan Mukti March

Speaking at a session on “Is Liberal Democracy Dead?”, which is itself ironic given the fact that it was organized in an Islamic State that uses terrorism as state policy, Aiyar again insulted India. Shaheen Bagh is the same place where ‘Jinnah wali Azadi‘ slogans were raised by the protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act, hinting at the Radical Islamic inclinations of the protesters.

Christian girls are being targeted, killed or being used in Islamic terrorist activities: Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala

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Raising alarms over the increasing number of Love Jihad cases in Kerala, the Syro-Malabar Church has alleged that Christian girls are targeted and killed in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ in the state.

Citing the Syro-Malabar Media Commission report, the Church said, “It is a matter of concern that ‘love Jihad’ is increasing in Kerala causing danger to the secular harmony & societal peace in Kerala”.


In an official communique released by the Media Commission of the Syro Malabar Church, the Synod of the Church raised concerns over the state of affairs where Christian girls face the danger of conversion by the radical Islamists. Citing multiple reports, the Synod said that half of the 21 women who joined Islamic State from Kerala hailed from the Christian community.

“The lives of the girls lost ensnared in love have profoundly injured the secular conscience of the state. The menacing rise of Love Jihad stands to imperil the communal harmony and peace in Kerala. It is a fact that Christian girls are being targeted by the love jihad in the state,” the Synod said in the press release.

“It is a matter of utmost concern that many girls who are missing are not even mentioned in the official records.” Citing the increasing numbers of complaints of girls being trapped, disguised in love, raped and their videos used to blackmail them into conversion, the Synod advised parents to create awareness among children regarding the hidden dangers of pervasive love jihad in the state.

In 2019 too, Fr Antony Thalachelloor of the Church raised apprehensions over the targeting of Christian Community for Love Jihad. “All the Investigative agencies-CBI, NIA and Intelligence Bureau have said that the cases of love jihad have been reported from across the country. It is saddening and alarming that despite the existence of a mechanism to counter efforts by religious terrorist groups to entrap unsuspecting girls, these are not being dealt with efficiently,” he said.

Last year in September, the vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), George Kurian wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, asking him to commission a probe into cases of ‘love jihad’ or forced conversion of women by Islamic radicals.

Read: Christian community the ‘soft target’ of Islamist radicals: NCM VC writes to Amit Shah over Christian girls being victims of Love Jihad

Seeking the involvement of NIA, Kurian asserted that the string of systematic religious conversions and the exploitation of the victims for terror activities by trapping them through ‘love jihad’ has revealed that the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference’s (KCBC) Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance report cited by Kurian stated that there were 4,000 instances of “love jihad” between 2005 and 2012.

Nirbhaya convicts cannot be hanged on January 22: Delhi government tells HC as one convict’s mercy plea is pending

The Aam Aadmi party-led Delhi government has told the Delhi High court that execution of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.

As per reports, Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.


Quoting prison rules, the Kejriwal government told the court that they are duty-bound to wait for convict’s mercy plea to be decided for executing the death warrant.

As per reports, Advocate Rahul Mehra, the standing counsel for the Tihar Jail authorities have stated that ‘Execution of convicts (2012 Nirbhaya case) will surely not take place on January 22’. He added that the execution can take place only 14 days after the final mercy plea has been rejected by the president. The Tihar jail authorities have reportedly conveyed that they are duty-bound to serve a 14-day notice to the convict after the rejection of their mercy plea.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case, Mukesh and Vinay Sharma, challenging the May 2017 judgment of the court that had upheld their conviction and death sentence.

Immediately after the Supreme court rejected the curative petitions, Mukesh had filed his mercy plea before the President.

A curative petition is the penultimate legal option against the death sentence.

The four convicts, Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.

The four adult accused were convicted by the trial court in September 2013, and was awarded a death sentence. The High Court had upheld that verdict in March 2014. In the same year, the Supreme Court had stayed their execution until their appeal was heard by the apex court.

Read: Delhi pollution is killing us anyway: Death row convict in Nirbhaya case mocks supreme court with bizarre arguments in the review petition

In May 2017 the Supreme Court had rejected their appeal against the death sentence, and in 2019 the review petitions were also dismissed. Subsequently, the president had rejected their mercy plea on the recommendation of the Home Ministry.

Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were convicted of brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, nicknamed as Nirbhaya by media, on December 16, 2012. The fifth convict was a minor, and he was released after spending 3 years in a juvenile home. The sixth person involved in the crime and also the main accused, Ram Singh was found dead during the trial period in Tihar Jail on March 11, 2013. He had allegedly committed suicide.

The hearing which is going on since morning will continue post-lunch. Latest media reports say that the Delhi government has recommended the rejection of the mercy plea by Mukesh Singh.

“Proud of our Army“: PM Modi hails the Indian Army for saving life of a pregnant lady Shamima and her child stuck in snow in Kashmir

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter today to hail the Indian Army for fighting all odds and saving the life of a pregnant lady Shamima stuck in the snow in Kashmir.

The Prime Minister wrote: “Our Army is known for its valour and professionalism. It is also respected for its humanitarian spirit. Whenever people have needed help, our Army has risen to the occasion and done everything possible! Proud of our Army. I pray for the good health of Shamima and her child”.


Narendra Modi praised the Indian Army for its valour and professionalism and also for its humanitarian spirit. He lauded the Army acknowledging its readiness to always be available for people in despair.

The PM was responding to a tweet by the Chinar Corps or 15 Corps, an infantry field formation of the Indian Army which is presently located in Srinagar and responsible for military operations in the Kashmir Valley.

Taking to the microblogging site, the Chinar Corps had divulged how 100 Army personnel along with 30 civilians saved the life of a pregnant lady in the valley who needed immediate medical attention. Sharing a video of how the expecting mother was carried on a stretcher by the Army officers through heavy snow, the tweet stated that it took the officers around four hours to reach the hospital. The Army also stated that the mother and the newborn are now doing fine in the hospital.


It is the nature of the Indian armed forces to step in any time when there is a need. The Defence forces have been involved in several daring rescue acts such as the air-lifting of a pregnant woman and winching up of a two-year-old which won them widespread appreciation. They have relentlessly contributed to relief efforts, including shipping material and providing medical assistance to the displaced people during unprecedented floods and during other natural disasters in various parts of the country at any given point of time.

Last year, when floods were wreaking havoc in Kerala the Indian armed forces had been deployed to carry out rescue and assistance operations. Amidst the disastrous situations in the state, news of valiant rescue operations had poured in and the expertise and care with which the armed forces had handled the grave situation had received appreciation in mainstream and social media. Then too, a heavily pregnant woman in the initial stages of labour was airlifted by Navy’s rescue team. Within an hour of being rescued the woman gave birth to a baby boy under the care of Naval doctors.

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri says ‘sobbing’ Muslim cabbie in The Quint’s video is a part-time actor who was hired for the video

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A controversy has erupted over a video shared by The Quint where a Muslim cab driver is seen hyperventilating over the proposed National Register of Citizens. The person in the video appears to be putting some special effort into exaggerating concerns about the NRC and invents scenarios that are detached from reality. “What wrong have we done to deserve this?” the driver asks rather dramatically before adding “What is our crime?”


The alleged Muslim cab driver, Irshad Ahmed, fearmongers about the NRC without any rebuttal from the journalist. He says, “My heart starts pounding on just thinking about NRC. I don’t have land, neither do I have documents for land. What will I tell them to prove that I am an Indian.” The Quint does not bother to point out that owning land is not the only way of proving citizenship.

Read: Bangladeshi journalist visits Kolkata, participates in anti-NRC protest holding ‘Modi go back’ poster

Furthermore, Ahmed would have needed to provide documents for acquiring his driving license, which is likely to be enough evidence of citizenship in the proposed NRC. Therefore, his fearmongering does not make any sense at all given the fact that he already has the documents necessary to prove his case. Furthermore, if he is driving the cab without a valid license or if his license happens to be fraudulent, then his immediate concern should be the fact that he has broken laws of the country and not the NRC the details of which haven’t even emerged yet. The same was pointed out by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.


The gravest of allegations, however, came from filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. He has alleged that the Muslim cab driver is, in fact, a part-time junior actor in Bollywood. He has claimed that Ahmed was paid by The Quint to act out the scene from a written script.

Vivek Agnihotri has also challenged The Quint to not just deny this allegation mounted by him, but also to prove that he was indeed a cab-driver and not an actor hired by the media outlet.


The filmmaker even responded to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy reiterating that the man shown in The Quint video is a hired actor and not an actual cab driver.


The controversy comes at a time when reports have emerged of Muslim cab drivers in Delhi forming WhatsApp groups where they collecting data of pro-BJP riders and sharing it on WhatsApp group to give them low ratings on online cab booking apps. The claims, although not verified as yet, raises troubling concerns about cab drivers of a particular religious orientation profiling their customers on the basis of their political ideology based on their personal information.

Read: NDTV spreads fake news again, this time during a ‘fact check’ on the government’s claims on NRC and NPR

It also raises pertinent questions about The Quint’s editorial policies. As we know, the media outlet’s parent company partnered with Bloomberg News to found the BloombergQuint. Bloomberg News was founded by Michael Bloomberg, one of the Democrat Presidential aspirants for the 2020 US Presidential Elections.

In the past, The Quint has also offered tutorials to protesters on how to avoid facial recognition by wearing masks. We are also aware that Bloomberg’s news coverage is affected by their ownership. Thus, given what we know, one has to wonder whether The Quint’s coverage is affected by their association with Bloomberg News, which can be said to serve as the propaganda wing of a US politician from the Democrat party.

Exclusive: After Minister Piyush Goyal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to meet Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Inc and the owner of Washington Post is in India for a tour even as several small traders are planning to stage protests against the retail giant for distorting the local market. India’s antitrust chief Ashok Kumar Gupta told Reuters on Tuesday that big e-commerce companies in India should not offer deep discounts which can potentially hurt and small-scale brick and mortar retailers in India. Amidst the ruckus, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had decided not to meet the WaPo owner Jeff Bezos during his three-day India visit. Now, sources have confirmed to OpIndia that Prime Minister Modi too will not be meeting Jeff Bezos personally.

The e-commerce player has come under investigations on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers, in India. On Monday, in a major setback ahead of Bezos’ India visit, fair market watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) ordered an enquiry into the operations of both Amazon and Flipkart on multiple counts, including deep discounts and exclusive tie-up with preferred sellers.

Read: Minister Piyush Goyal not to meet Jeff Bezos during his India visit: Washington Post anti-India stand showing effect?

Finding merit in the allegations levelled by traders” body Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, the Commission asked its Director General (DG) to complete the investigation in 60 days from the receipt of the order.

However, other than Amazon’s market practices, there could be another crucial feature that has got Minister Piyush Goyal refusing a meeting with Bezos. In 2013, Jeff Bezos had purchased the Washington Post. Recently, Washington Post, owned by Bezos has launched a vicious campaign against India and its internal matters, whether it is the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir or even the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Washington Post harbours a deep-seated and mindless hatred for the Indian Prime Minister and has, on several occasions, written lie-ridden, baseless article to malign India and its ruling, democratically elected dispensation.

Read: In opposing Narendra Modi, progressives at Washington Post reveal they are a mirror image of the ‘AltRight’

Washington Post has increasing been peddling an anti-India narrative with a special target painted by them on the back of Hindus.

When OpIndia reached out to sources about Minister Piyush Goyal not meeting Jeff Bezos, they confirmed that other than the unfair trade practices of Amazon, Washington Post’s sans-fact rhetoric against India is also one of the factors that have gone into the decision of not meeting Jeff Bezos.

Read: Washington Post publishes ‘Rising hate in India’ story based on fake data

With Prime Minister Modi and Minister Piyush Goyal declining to meet Jeff Bezos, India seems to be sending a strong message to international media and businesses. India is concerned about protecting its interests and global players need to be mindful to not indulge in attempts to hurt domestic interests by indulging in petty propaganda or unfair trade practices.

Fact check: Did Central govt ‘ignore Left-ruled Kerala’ in releasing flood relief fund, as claimed by India Today

Many of us saw the IndiaToday article claiming that Centre has not allocated any funds for Kerala flood relief. They try to further sensationalise this news by raising apprehensions about political vendetta by BJP since Kerala is ‘Left’ ruled state. The headline of the article read, “No flood relief to Kerala, Centre ignores Left-ruled state again in fund release”.

India Today headline

The news looks shocking in first glance and raises the immediate question that ‘Out of Rs 5908 Crores allocated for 2019-2020, why there was zero funding for Kerala’? Our mainstream media often follows the principle of ‘Dont let facts come in the way of propaganda’. And we at Opindia are determined to ruin their propaganda. So I decided to probe this charge based on publicly available information which India Today and other news portals also have access to.

Like it happens often with such news items, this is also the case of relying on people’s limited memory and author’s ability to confuse people by selectively quoting data. We all remember how devastating floods ravaged Kerala recently. We also remember there were attempts to portray the Centre government as a villain.

People cheered the news of (non-existent) Rs 700 Crore grant from UAE and mocked the Modi government. But wait! When was this? Last year? No, it was in the year 2018. And the Rs 5908 Cr grant Centre has approved (from NDRF kitty) is for 2019-20.

Read: Was the ‘UAE extends Rs 700 crore aid for Kerala flood’ assertion just a big fat lie?

Floods hit Kerala in 2019 too but the magnitude wasn’t as big as 2018 and hence it wasn’t declared a national calamity, therefore NDRF funds were given to the states that needed more help.

The disaster management division website defines the NDRF fund as below:

The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements SDRF of a State, in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in SDRF.

It must be remembered that the NDRF fund is allocated in 2 phases. The first instalment of Rs 10,000 Cr was announced earlier and next one (5908 Cr) came recently on which these news portals are reporting.

A quick look at the state-wise fund allocation for Disaster relief will throw more light on this. In 2019, Centre allocated Rs 168.75 Cr and Kerala Govt allocated Rs 56.25 Cr for Kerala’s SDRF. Out of this Rs 52.275 Cr were utilised by Kerala govt. It means Kerala SDRF has a balance of Rs 173 Cr available from 2019 allocation quota. Why Left lead Kerala govt didn’t utilise funds, can these analysts tell us which vendetta Kerala govt was doing?

NDTF fund allocation 2019-2020

A little more digging on the NDM India website will tell us Kerala state already has a balance of Rs 2107 Cr available as on 1st April 2019 (that was not utilized during 2018 floods which were 4 times more devastating than 2019 floods in terms of human causalities)

So Kerala has Rs 2107 Cr available from the Year 2018, add to it Rs 173 Cr which were not spent in 2019 (Rs 2280 Cr) which is mostly provided by Centre government itself. And people are seeing vendetta here?

Read: From Fani, Titli, Gaja, Kerala floods to Karnataka: Here is how the Modi government has responded to natural disasters

Since people are so fond of crying vendetta, I would wonder how do they explain the omission of Gujarat, UP, Uttarakhand (BJP ruled states) in phase 1? How do they explain granting Rs 1000 Cr, Rs 3000 Cr and Rs 500 Cr to Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra (neither of them is BJP ruled) in phase 1? How will they explain Rs 1749 Cr to MP and Rs 956 Cr to Maharashtra in phase 2 (both of them are non-BJP states)?

Congress govt in Chhattisgarh move SC seeking declaration of UPA-I legislated NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional

The Congress-led Chhattisgarh government has approached the Supreme Court demanding the declaration of NIA Act of 2008 as unconstitutional. The Chhattisgarh government, in their plea, has argued that the NIA Act grants arbitrary powers to the Centre to deal with the terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.

The suit was filed under Article 131 of the Constitution by the Chhattisgarh government which provides for the state to move directly to the Supreme Court in matters of a dispute against the Centre. The state government filed plea read: “The state respectfully submits that the NIA Act is ultra vires to the Constitution and is beyond legislative competence of Parliament since the Act empowers the defendant (Centre) to create an agency for investigation, which, notwithstanding the NIA, is carried out by state police, which is a subject matter of the state under entry 2, List 2, Schedule 7, of the Constitution.”

Interestingly, the NIA Act of 2008 was brought into force by the Congress-led UPA government at the centre to effectively grapple with the terror-related incidents across the country. The reason cited then to float the NIA Act was the gruesome attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai when 12 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists entered the city and carried out attacks and shootings, leaving 166 people dead and scores of others injured.

Read: After NIA and UAPA amendments, Amit Shah needs to go after conversion mafia

The National Investigation Agency Act 2008 conferred powers to the Central Government to form a National Investigation Agency (NIA) to combat terror in India. The agency acts as the Central Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency and is empowered to deal with terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.

According to the constitution of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008, “Any officer of the Agency of, or above, the rank of Sub-Inspector may, subject to any orders which the Central Government may make in this behalf, exercise throughout India, any of the powers of the officer-in-charge of a police station in the area in which he is present for the time being and when so exercising such powers shall, subject to any such orders as aforesaid, be deemed to be an officer-in-charge of a police station discharging the functions of such an officer within the limits of his station”.

Now, the Congress-led Chhatisgarh government has stated in their plea to the apex court that the NIA Act 2008 autocratically snatches the authority of the probe authorised to local police under the constitution and grants arbitrary power to the centre. In the petition, the Chhattisgarh government has demanded the Supreme Court declare the Act as “Unconstitutional”.