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Banned by airlines for heckling Arnab Goswami on board a flight, ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra sues Indigo, demands 25 lakhs

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Kunal Kamra has issued a legal notice to Indigo Airlines which had temporarily suspended the ‘comedian’ from flying in their planes for a period of 6 months.


Through the notice issued through Advocate Prashant Sivarajan, Partner at Lawmen & White, Kamra demands the Airlines to pay him a compensation of Rs 25 lakhs on account of the ‘mental pain and agony’ allegedly suffered by him and the ‘losses incurred on account of cancellation of his scheduled shows and programmes’. He also demanded revocation of six months’ ban against him.

Through the legal notice, Kamra said that what he did was in the exercise of his right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 17(1)(a) of the constitution. Kamra seeks an unconditional apology from IndiGo, says it should be published in all newspapers.

Kunal Kamra has been banned from flying with IndiGo for a period of six months, after a video of him heckling and abusing Republic Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in an Indigo Mumbai-Lucknow flight went viral on social media.

In the clip that was shared by Kamra himself, one could see Kamra heckling to Arnab who continued to ignore him. He was heard heckling Arnab and asking him about how he could discuss Rohit Vemula’s (the University of Hyderabad student who committed suicide in January 2019) caste. He also tells Arnab that he should be answering him since he supports Rahul Gandhi and is a part of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. The video ends with Kunal Kamra calling Arnab Goswami a ‘Nationalist’ as if it were an abuse.

Hours after Indigo put propagandist Kunal Kamra on six months No Fly List, national carrier Air India too barred him until further notice for his unruly behaviour onboard Mumbai-Lucknow Indigo flight. This was followed by SpiceJet which tweeted that they have suspended Kamra from flying with their airline till further notice.

Read: After four airlines ban ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra from flying with them, Twitter bursts into a parody fest

Moreover, GoAir also declared that they have banned Kamra from flying in their planes until further notice, after the unfunny and unruly ‘comedian’ again tried to hound Arnab on a return GoAir flight.

Determined not to put an end to this self-inflicted humiliation, Kamra lately has been displaying some creepy antics. From standing outside the Republic TV office with a placard in his hand to sending creepy texts on phone, Kamra has been all-out to grab Arnab Goswami’s attention.

Budget 2020: Rs. 4,71,378 crores allocated for Defence Expenditure, a marked 9% increase from last year

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her second budget on Saturday. One of the most important areas for any country is its national security. And allocations made in the budget for Defense go a long way towards determining the ability of the Indian Defense Establishment to protect the country. Defence allocations are, thus, a prominent feature of every budget including Budget 2020.

Nirmala Sitharaman announced during the budget that the allocation for modernization and buying new weapon systems has been increased to Rs. 1,10,740 crore for the financial year 2020-21, which is an increase of Rs. 10,340 crore from the previous year. The total allocation for defence expenditure was announced to be Rs. 4,71,378 crore in Budget 2020. This marks a 9% increase. The defence pension budget has been increased to Rs. 1.33 lakh crore in Budget 2020 from the Rs. 1.17 lakh crore announced the previous year.


Last year, during the interim budget, Piyush Goal had announced that the government has released funds to the tune of ₹35,000 crores to Army personnel as part of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. It was also the first time that India’s defence budget crossed three lakh crore. It was also said additional funds would be provided should it be necessary.

I provide help to Shaheen Bagh protesters, they keep calling me: Delhi Congress candidate Mukesh Sharma

Ever since the Shaheen Bagh protests started, there were wide speculations that the protesters were enjoying political support from the opposition parties, emboldening their demonstration against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Now, the Congress candidate from Delhi’s Vikaspuri constituency, Mukesh Sharma, has claimed that he has been providing help to Shaheen Bagh protestors.


Ahead of the Delhi assembly elections, addressing a group of people, Sharma said, “When I offer help, I do it proudly, like a ‘man’. I have also helped Shaheen Bagh protesters. Shaheen Bagh protesters keep calling me daily seeking my help.”

For over a month now, anti-CAA protesters have occupied one of the main thoroughfares in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, causing profound inconvenience for lakhs of commuters travelling by that road. The acknowledgement by a Congress candidate from Vikaspuri constituency betrays the lack of empathy among the leader for the travellers who are facing everyday trouble to traverse through the Shaheen Bagh road.

Read: Sting video exposes propaganda behind Shaheen Bagh protests, organiser Sharjeel Imam from JNU confesses protest was carried out to attract ‘Western media’

The BJP had earlier claimed that the Shaheen Bagh protests, where anti-India and pro-Jinnah slogans were raised, were orchestrated by Congress and AAP. Recently, Shaheen Bagh protest mastermind Sharjeel Imam’s video had gone viral in which he was seen making secessionist and seditious remarks against the territorial integrity of India. AAP’s Amanatullah Khan was also seen accompanying Imam in one of the viral videos.

Earlier, in a viral video, a shopkeeper from the area was seen saying that the women at Shaheen bagh are being paid Rs 500-700 daily for ‘protesting’.

It is also pertinent to note that Delhi is going to the polls on February 8 and the results of which will be declared on February 11.

SC, ST and OBC in Budget 2020: Allocation of Rs. 85000 crores for welfare of SCs, OBCs, additional Rs. 53,700 for STs

The Budget for the year 2020 was declared on Saturday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and it had substantial allocations for SC, ST and OBCs.

During her Budget 2020 speech, the FM announced that Rs. 85,000 crore rupees for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) in 2020-21 also, an additional Rs. 53,700 crores have been allocated in Budget 2020 for the welfare of Scheduled Tribes (ST).


Rs. 9,500 crore has also been allocated for the welfare of senior citizens and differently-abled citizens. A tribal museum would also be set up in Ranchi to educate people about India’s rich tribal history.

In a speech that lasted nearly three hours, Nirmala Sitharaman made a host of other significant announcements. A 16-point action plan was put forth by the Finance Minister to help the agricultural sector and increase farmer’s wages. A new optional tax regime was also announced in the budget which significantly decreases the income tax rate for the middle class.

Union Budget 2020: Finance Minister announces disinvestment of LIC, to be listed on stock exchanges. Read details

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2020 speech on Saturday announced that the government has proposed to sell a part of its holdings in state-owned Insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

“The government proposes to sell a part of its stake in LIC through IPO,” said Finance Minister in her Budget 2020 speech. She informed that the government will list LIC on the stock exchanges. Currently, the government owns 100 per cent stakes in LIC.

Life Insurance Corporation of India is an Indian state-owned insurance group and investment corporation owned by the Government of India. As of 2019, Life Insurance Corporation of India had a total life fund of Rs 28.3 trillion. It has 290 million policyholders.

The developments come as the Life Insurance Corporation of India had closed 23 schemes on January 31 following the guidelines of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

The move is in line with the government’s aim to look at stake sale in government entities to shore up its finances and allow these PSUs to raise resources. The govt has pegged disinvestment for FY21 at Rs 2.11 lakh crore

The government had set a target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore in FY20. On the strategic sale, the government has already initiated the process for Air India and invited bids from potential buyers for a 100 per cent stake in the National Carrier.

Apart from Air India, other major strategic sales lined up are that of government refiner, Shipping Corporation and Container Corporation.

The disinvestment of LIC is in line with the government’s aim to look at stake sale in government entities to shore up its finances and allow these PSUs to raise resources. The govt has pegged disinvestment for FY21 at Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

Union Budget 2020: Rs 100 lakh crores to be spent on Infrastructure in the next 5 years to spur growth. Read details

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2020 speech announced a host of measures for infrastructure development. An ambitious plan to invest Rs 100 lakh crores on overhauling the Infrastructure in the country was declared by the FM which will give a fillip to the economic growth. The Union Minister mentioned that the investment of Rs 100 lakh crores will open up a host of job opportunities in the infrastructure sector.

Rs 1.76 lakh crores have been envisioned in Budget 2020 to be spent on transport infrastructure development in 2021. FM talked about the accelerated pace of development of highways. Delhi-Mumbai Expressway along with 2 other projects are intended to be completed by 2023 with 2,500 km access-controlled highways and 9,000 km of an economic corridor.
Chennai-Bengaluru expressway will be commenced very soon. A National Logistics Plan will be released soon. 12 lots of highway bundles spread over 6,000 km will be monetised before 2024.

Stating that Indians are fast embracing the air mode of transportation, the finance minister declared that her government plans to build and operationalise 100 new airports by 2024 to fulfil the fledgeling aspirations of the countrymen. With the aim to energise economic activities along the river banks, the government has conceived a project called ‘Arth Ganga’ for developing the inland waterways transport system in Ganga and other rivers that will provide employment opportunities and means of livelihood for people living along the banks of rivers.

In addition, N Sitharaman also stated that Rs 27,300 crores have been earmarked for the development and promotion of commerce and industry in the financial year 2020-2021 and about 3.24 lakh vendors have been registered on the Government e-marketplace. Ushering the villages into the digital age, the government has announced that 1 lakh gram panchayats will be getting optical fibre links to connect with the dynamic world of the Internet. Plans are afoot to institute a new policy to set up Data Centre parks across the country to provide digital connectivity to all public institutions, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.

Scheme to encourage the manufacture of mobile phones, electronic equipment and semiconductor packaging to be introduced.

The government also made a number of announcements apropos the Rs 1.03 lakh crore National Infra Pipeline scheme. About 6500 projects are envisioned under NIP across sectors — housing, safe drinking water, healthcare, clean energy, logistics, irrigation etc. “NIP is improving the ease of living for every citizen. Generic and sectoral reforms are there…There is huge employment opportunity in the construction, operation and maintenance of projects,” N Sitharaman said.

Budget 2020: Here is all you need to know about new optional personal tax regime where the govt foregoes Rs. 40,000 crores in revenue

Nirmala Sitharaman presented her second budget as Union Finance Minister on Saturday. The provisions in the Budget for Income Taxes were expected to create ripples as it was one area where reforms were expected the most. Along with Corporate Taxes, Income Tax reforms were believed to be crucial towards ensuring a revival of the economy.

In her second budget, Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed a new tax regime for the country. It is, however, optional for the taxpayers for the country. It was announced that in the new tax regime, those earning between Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7.5 lakh will pay income tax at the rate of 10%. Those earning between Rs. 7.50 and 10 lakhs will pay a 15% income tax. Those between Rs. 10 lakh and 12.50 lakh will pay a 20% income tax and the same for people earning between Rs. 12.50 and 15 lakh will be 25%. For those earning above Rs. 15 lakh in a year will be taxed at 30%. These rates are entirely optional and taxpayers willing to pay income tax at this rate will have to forego deductions and exemptions. Those who want to keep availing the deductions and exemptions can choose to pay tax at existing rates.

Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will forego a revenue of Rs. 40,000 crores due to the new income tax rates for individuals. She also said that 70 exemptions will be removed, with a view to further simplify the tax code. “A person earning Rs 15 lakh per anum and not availing any deductions will pay Rs 1.95 lakh tax in place of Rs 2.73 lakh now,” the Finance Minister said.

Read live updates of the Budget 2020 here.

In 2019, the income tax relief provided in the interim budget were the talk of the town and it is believed that it played a great part in alleviating the middle-class disenchantment with the Modi government head of the Lok Sabha Elections. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had announced a tax rebate for individual taxpayers with annual income up to Rs. 5 lakhs. It meant that individual taxpayers up to a gross income of ₹6.5 lakhs need not pay any income tax if they made investments in provident fund and prescribed equities. Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers benefited from the tax exemption due to this measure.

A Taxpayer Charter will be enshrined into the laws, harassment of taxpayers will not be tolerated: Finance Minister during budget speech

During her speech presenting the budget for the financial year 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that a taxpayer charter will be a part of the statutes of the government, to stop tax harassment.

Emphasising that honest taxpayers will not be harassed by tax officials, the finance minister said that the government is committed to taking measures to ensure that taxpayers are free from tax harassment of any kind. Saying that tax harassment cannot be tolerated, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the wealth creators will be respected in this country.

The government believes in trusting every citizen, the aspirational youth, the hard-working women, the risk-taking entrepreneur, the ever hopeful and untiring farmer, or the wise and old senior citizen, many among them are taxpayers, the finance minister said. She said that the prime minister has laid before us the ease of living as a goal to be achieved on behalf of all citizens.

Read live budget updates here

An important aspect of ease of living and ease of doing business is fairness, the efficiency of tax administration. Businesses should have the confidence that things are fair. “We wish to enshrine in the statutes a taxpayer charter through this Budget,” the finance minister said. The taxpayers charter will be going to part of our law, to build trust, she said. Tax harassment can’t be tolerated when we are talking about citizens and wealth creators.


There have been debates about building in statue criminal liability for acts that are civil in nature. Hence certain amendments for the Companies Act are proposed to correct this, the Finance Minister said. Similarly, other laws will also be examined where such provisions are present, and an attempt will be made to correct them also.

MSME in Budget 2020: Debt Restructuring Window extended by a year, NBFCs to extend invoice financing to MSMEs

Union Budget 2020 was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday. One of the primary focus of Budget 2020 was expected to be Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). Addressing the concerns of MSMEs was crucial towards reviving the economy amidst a global slowdown. And the budget, as expected, focused significantly on this front.

Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2020 speech that over 5 lakh MSMEs have benefited from the debt restructuring mechanism put forth by her government. The Government has also asked the RBI to extend the debt restructuring window for MSMEs by a year. It had a deadline of March 2020 which has now been extended. The Finance Minister also announced that amendments will be made to enable Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to extend invoice financing to MSMEs.

A great deal of attention was given to MSMEs in last year’s interim budget as well. A 2% interest subvention was announced for MSMEs that had taken a loan of up to Rs. 1 crore. Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had stated that the government had increased the share of government procurements from MSMEs through Government eMarketplace (GeM) to 25 percent, including 3 percent from MSMEs run by women.

It was also announced that businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 5 crores, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to file quarterly GST returns. The Government also abolished duties on 36 capital goods. The GST council was asked to devise ways to reduced GST for homebuyers.

Modi derangement syndrome? Anurag Kashyap fails to spot obvious sarcasm, makes a fool out of himself

The ‘anti-Modi’ hatred of the left and ultra-left wing intelligentsia of the country have turned them blind and delusional in such a way that they have completely lost their ability to distinguish between satire and real news on social media.

In one such incident, controversial Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap, who is not only known for his films overloaded with abusive slangs but also for being a fake news peddler, indulged in one such embarrassing incident where he tried to not only ‘fact-check’ a satirical post but also indulged in abusing right-wingers. Following his gaffe, social media users ridiculed the director for his inability to comprehend satire.

On Thursday, Rahul Roushan, the CEO of OpIndia, took to Twitter to express a satirical take on the Jamia shootout where an alleged shooting incident had occurred. Subsequently, the shooter was arrested and turned out to be a Hindu, predictably triggering the leftist media to incessantly peddle the ‘Hindu terror’ narrative.

However, the humanising project that often happens across the “liberal-secular” media to absolve the crimes of the accused by creating a wave of sympathy in support of the accused, even when they are dreaded terrorists, did not happen during the Jamia incident as the accused was not a Muslim.

In an obvious sly to the whitewashing of the crimes of terrorists by we usually see in the ‘liberal-secular’ media, like how the Pulwama suicide bomber was ‘slapped by an army personnel in his adolescent days‘ or how slain Hizbul terrorist Zakir Musa ‘loved sports bikes’, Rahul Roushan had mocked the ‘liberal-secular’ media by taking a sarcastic view of the incident. Thorugh his tweet, he reflected upon the prevailing times on how media would have reported the Jamia shooting incident and had tried to ‘humanise’ the accused shooter if he was a Muslim.


Rahul Roushan through his satirical tweet stated that how media would have narrated the incident by claiming that the attacker was subject to bullying when he had gone to admission at Jamia.

Roushan even cited ‘The Squint’, a parody of the left-wing website Quint which has a history of humanising and absolving even the likes of Islamic terrorist like Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden.

However, the obvious sarcasm of Roushan’s tweet was perhaps too difficult to comprehend for ‘left-liberals’ and their assorted trolls.

Replies to Rahul Roushan’s tweet

Anurag Kashyap, one of the flag bearers of India’s ‘secular-liberal’ intellectuals, also took to Twitter to showcase his ‘intellect’ and expressed his views on Jamia incident. Kashyap who failed to grasp the satire in Rahul Roushan’s tweet began to foul mouth him. Calling Rahul Roushan a ‘Bhakt’, the controversial filmmaker went on to fact-check the sarcastic tweet.

Kashyap’s reaction to OpIndia CEO’s satire

The most ironical of the above tweet by Kashyap is that he went on to ‘fact-check’ a tweet which was an obvious pun on the ‘liberal-secular’ media ecosystem.

Just the hyper-reactive ‘fact-check’ was not enough apparently. Kashyap has even retweeted others foul-mouthing Roushan, totally oblivious to the satire that was literally staring them on the face.

Anurag Kashyap on Twitter

Interestingly, fact-checking memes, sarcastic posts, photoshopped images have become a new trend of self-proclaimed fact-checkers lately. As the credibility of media is dwindling day-by-day, ‘fact-checking’ has now emerged as a new form of propaganda machinery in which any posts that are not ideologically suitable for the left-wing are checked for its authenticity.

Further mocking Kashyap’s rant over a sarcastic tweet, Rahul Roushan had tried to expand Kashyap’s knowledge about sarcasm. However, Kashyap was too reluctant to admit his failure to understand pun, seeing his ‘intellectualism’ challenged, he ranted further. Roushan has shared the screenshot of a Twitter user claiming that he did go to Jamia at 14.


Sparing no sympathy for raving and ranting Kashyap, Roushan took his pun a further notch up. It seems that that life is going to be more difficult fo Kashyap.


Alt-news, the ultra-left wing propaganda website, have a habit of checking the authenticity of memes, cropped videos and satirical images whenever it seems that the pun is not aligned with its political ideology. The left-wing self-proclaimed ‘fact-checking’ outlets like Alt-news has not only allowed their ideological masters to continue their false propaganda but also created a mess in the public discourse, thanks to their biased and selective approach towards exposing the truth.

Read: Anurag Kashyap shares a fake video to prove Modi’s ‘hate me, not India’ remark the same as Hitler’s: Here is the truth

Following a similar line, director Anurag Kashyap seems to be carving a niche for himself to uplift his career by resorting to fact-check sarcastic tweets to score some brownie points.

While Kashyap failed to identify an obvious satire, we cannot help but look sadly at the irony that left-wing elements like Anurag Kashyap who often proclaim to be fighting for free-speech often indulge in foul-mouthing social media users who just share a different viewpoint or do not agree with their political opinions.