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Ahmadiyyas were at the forefront of creation of Pakistan, an Ahmadiyya Unit fought against India in Kashmir in 1947-48

OpIndia Staff
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Ahmadiyyas were at the forefront of creation of Pakistan, an Ahmadiyya Unit fought against India in Kashmir in 1947-48

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was tabled in the Parliament today amidst much ruckus and chaos by the Opposition and one community smack in the middle of the debate was the Ahmadiyya community. Ahmadiyya Community is a sect of Islam that is often persecuted in Islamic countries because Islamic nations believe that the community is not “Muslim enough”.

While the persecution of the community is tragic, it is indeed an internal problem of the Islamic community. With respect to the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, a fact that is lesser known is that the community was at the forefront of the creation of Pakistan.

One of the foremost advocates for Pakistan was Muhammad Zafrulla Khan who was an Ahmadiyya. The Lahore Resolution of 1940 was authored by Khan himself. Commenting on his role, one commentator wrote, “[T]here needs to be a realisation that Jinnah was the ‘lawyer’ for the case of Pakistan. He argued for it and won. However, Jinnah was never the visionary or a revolutionary strategic thinker to guide the course of the nation. If anybody at all in Muslim League was a strategic thinker, it was Sir Zafarullah Khan, who was also the author of the Lahore Resolution, which for the first time chalked out the idea of Pakistan. Khan, however, belonged to the then Islamic sect of Ahmadis and thus his role over the years was kept a secret, until recently when documents and letters written by Lord Linlithgow revealed the centrality of his role. Hence, there should be a little less stress on ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’, because honestly, there is none; and scratching out Jinnah’s vision forcefully has only served to confuse the people and obfuscate the roadway to progress”.

Read: India: A land with Hindu consciousness, which will forever be a natural home for Hindus

According to the book, ‘Facts are Facts’ by Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Viceroy Lord Lithinglow sought Zafarullah Khan’s help who then studied the matter and brought a draft proposal for the partition of the country. The Viceroy wrote, “Upon my instruction, Zafarullah wrote a memorandum on the subject. Two Dominion States. I have already sent it to your attention. I have also asked him for further clarification, which, he says, is forthcoming. He is anxious, however, that no one should find out that he has prepared this plan. He has, however, given me the right to do with it what I like, including sending a copy to you. Copies have been passed on to Jinnah, and, I think, to Sir Akbar Hydari. While he, Zafarullah, cannot admit its authorship, his document has been prepared for adoption by the Muslim League, with a view to giving it the fullest publicity.”

Zafarullah Khan went on to become the first foreign minister of Pakistan. He also represented Pakistan at the United Nations on the Kashmir issue. Ultimately, he was forced to resign after the monster he had helped create devoured on his own people. He is even regarded by some as one of the founding fathers of Pakistan.

Read: CAB necessary because Congress divided the country on the basis of religion, does not violate the Constitution: Amit Shah

Not only the Zafarulla Khan but the Caliph of the Ahmadiyyas at the time, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, too, came out in great support for the creation of Pakistan. In the 1946 elections, he advised the Ahmadiyyas to vote for the All India Muslim League and support the demand for the creation of Pakistan on which the elections were fought.

Mirza Mahmood also directed the creation of the Furqan Force, a uniformed fighting force of volunteers comprised entirely of people from the Ahmadiyya sect. The unit fought for Pakistan against India during the first war for Kashmir in 1947-48. Even the expenses for it were paid by the sect itself. He also founded the All India Kashmir Committee in 1931 and the Ahmadiyyas influenced the Kashmiri Muslim identity greatly in the 20th century.

Not merely that, even Muhammad Iqbal, who is referred to as the ‘spiritual father’ of the Pakistani state, was an Ahmadiyya for the most part of his life. He staunchly advocated for the creation of an independent Islamic state and had full faith in the Ummah. It was only during his later years that he quit the sect. It is widely known that he remained in touch with the Ahmadiyya leadership till 1931, when he vouched for the Ahmadi Khalifa as the most able person to lead as the first president of the newly founded all-India Kashmir Committee. His parents and elder brothers remained Ahmadiyyas.

Congress leaders want Rahul Gandhi back as President but want mommy Sonia to handhold him, journalist close to party reveals

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leaders want Rahul Gandhi back as President but want mommy Sonia to handhold him, journalist close to party reveals

Even as the Congress party remains undecided on selecting a full-time president, the party faces a huge dilemma on Rahul Gandhi. According to journalist Rasheed Kidwai, who is very close to the Congress party and the Gandhi family, while most leaders want Rahul Gandhi back as president if Sonia Gandhi does not want to carry on as interim president, Rahul Gandhi is not favoured as a poll campaigner by most leaders.

Writing in Tribune India, Kidwai narrates the internal thoughts of the country on the matter of president. According to him, Sonia Gandhi is emulating Indira Gandhi in many ways, including promoting her son in politics. But unlike Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi has not become the most acceptable leader withing the Congress party, let alone among the voters.

Kidwai writes that Sonia Gandhi is unwilling to continue as interim chief of the party due to health issues. Moreover, she is no longer interested in full-time politics. Therefore, she is asking the party leadership to find her successor soon. And the most common name suggested for the next president of the party is Rahul Gandhi. But while most leaders want Rahul Gandhi to replace his mother, they also don’t want to lead the party alone without the oversight of Mrs Gandhi. Kidwai says that the Congress leaders “do not relish the prospects of him as head of the party in Sonia’s absence.”

Read: The fall and fall of Rahul Gandhi

According to Kidwai, while the mother and son share a strong personal bond, the top leadership of the party is clearly divided as loyalists both of them. He writes that Rahul’s style of functioning is not liked by most Congress leaders. He is rarely sought as a poll campaigner, and his own defeat in Amethi in Lok Sabha election is a big negative for his image among the party workers. Rasheed Kidwai notes that Rahul Gandhi relied on lies during the election campaign, and the party leaders are not very happy about it. He writes that “from Rafale to Doklam, Rahul’s allegations lacked facts, figures and details.” Kidwai also notes that “Rahul miserably failed to influence undecided voters, disgruntled farmers and millions of those who make up their voting decision closer in the 2019 General Election.”

Kidwai also talks about the predicament of Rahul Gandhi returning as president, as he has been advocating intra-party democracy for a long time. Ideally, the party should hold an election for the post of the president where Rahul Gandhi contests. But there is a problem in that also, as hardly any leader will like to contest against him. Therefore, even if there is a poll, Rahul Gandhi is sure to win if he contests.

Despite a setback in Maharashtra, Amit Shah remains the undisputed Kautilya of modern Indian politics

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Despite a setback in Maharashtra, Amit Shah remains the undisputed Kautilya of modern Indian politics

Not for nothing is Home Minister Amit Shah called the modern-day Kautilya. Shah is a master strategist known for his political acumen and statecraft which enables him to register bloodless victories over his enemies, pulverize entrenched regional satraps, and prevent the Balkanisation of India through moves such as the abrogation of Article 370.

Niccolo Machiavelli (the purported Kautilya of the western hemisphere) had in his seminal treatise – The Prince – remarked upon the essential qualities of a successful political leader, thus: “… a good leader must combine the qualities of the lion and the fox, striving to be brave as one and as crafty as the other. It is not sufficient to be like the lion only, for lions do not know how to protect themselves from traps, nor like the fox only, for foxes are unable to defend themselves against wolves…”Amit Shah has, time and again, outwitted and outclassed his opponents for he is the living embodiment of Machiavelli’s description of an ideal politician and Kautilya’s exhortations on the essentials of Neeti-Shastra.

However, after securing a massive mandate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP floundered, unexpectedly and disappointingly, in the formation of government in Maharashtra.

Read: ‘Keeping BJP out’ isn’t a winning strategy, and the opposition parties seem to have learnt nothing from history

The reliably biased fourth estate has gone ballistic in saying that Shah is no longer the Kautilya (the venerable mantle, apparently, going to the Maratha strongman) and it is hubris that has been his undoing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Shah has over the past 5 years, fundamentally, changed the prevailing political mores of India – and this in itself is sufficient for him to be called the worthy successor of Kautilya, an electoral reverse or two, notwithstanding.

It would be instructive to look at the Haryana elections and the abrogation of Article 370 to fully appreciate the contours of Shah’s prodigious genius.

Haryana Elections

Historically, politics in Haryana has revolved around the issues of identity – caste, not religion – particularly those of Haryana’s chattis biradaris (36 communities). In 1996, Bansi Lal fought the elections on the issue of liquor prohibition (not caste) and won handsomely too. However, soon he reverted to the tried-and-tested template of identity politics realizing that prohibition has very little political mileage left.

Of the 36 biradaris, Jats – constituting a single biradari – have always occupied an outsized presence in the state’s politics as opposed to the non-Jat biradaris (Sainis, Punjabis, Khatris, Banias, etc.) whose constant in-fighting and sniping, also, did not help their cause.

Haryana: Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2019: Lessons and the role of the candidates, citizens and the media

However, in 2014, Shah worked assiduously to unite the 35 non-Jat biradaris into a single, cohesive voting bloc which would put up a united political front to the hegemony of Jats. His social engineering paid off handsomely and for the first time in Haryana’s electoral history, a non-Jat (Punjabi in this case) became the CM with BJP winning a simple majority of 47 in a 90 seat assembly.

In the 2019 assembly elections, however, BJP performed below par, failing to cross the half-way mark, due to 2 major reasons: first, counter-consolidation of Jats behind Hooda and Dushyant Chautala against Khattar’s stridently non-Jat regime; second, cutting of BJP’s non-Jat votes by good JJP candidates. However, in the end, by forming a coalition government with JJP (as the junior partner), Shah played a masterstroke – the optics of a Jat serving as a deputy to a Non-Jat will consolidate BJP’s non-Jat vote bank as non-Jats, generally, view Jats as oppressive. This would not only help stem the attrition in BJP’s core vote bank in the state but would also deal a death knell to Jat politics for some time to come.

Even if tomorrow, say, JJP ditches the coalition, Shah can always expect the tall Jat leaders of Congress to do a Bhajan Lal – that is forming their own splinter group of MLAs who have defected from Congress and supporting BJP on the pretext of a nationalistic issue. Why? Because, these Jat leaders, when they could not get favourable terms from the Congress high command, turned rebels and were quite vocal in their support for PM Modi and Shah over the abrogation of Article 370. This should be indication enough on how things can change overnight owing to political expediencies and fear of court cases.

Clearly, Shah has covered all his bases in Haryana and left everyone else to fend for themselves off the crumbs.

Abrogation of Article 370 and Amit Shah

Ideas sometimes take a long time to fulfil in practice. Even when India was sauntering along the misleading road of Fabian socialism and a misguided hard-separation of religion and state in the name of secularism, some nationalistic Indians, vividly, imagined a time when the Kashmir issue would be resolved and India’s self-esteem redeemed. This idea reached its fruitful consummation when Shah abrogated Article 370 in August – a rare real-life case of poetic justice.

The sharpest thorn in Indo-Pak relations has been Kashmir. Nothing has bedevilled them more than this beautiful mountainous state and the Himalayan blunders committed by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In fact, Nehru’s policies regarding Kashmir were blinkered, muddled, and a vestige of hopeless romanticism; helped in no less measure by (a) his desire to project himself as a statesman diplomat on the global stage, one who believes in conciliation and not hard realist stands, (b) his Kashmiri ancestry – Nehru is said to have confessed to a British officer: “In the same way as Calais was written on Mary’s heart, Kashmir is written on mine”. Calling for plebiscite, giving a long rope to Sheikh Abdullah and allowing him to create a personality cult around himself, going soft on Pakistan’s transgressions, and last but not the least, imposing article 370 in the state to give it an autonomous status within the federation of India – all of them compounded the problem in Kashmir for decades to come.

Read: Jammu and Kashmir includes PoK and Aksai Chin too, will lay down life for it: Home Minister Amit Shah roars in Parliament

Kashmir had always been a part of the concept of Pakistan and the letter ‘K’ in its name stood for Kashmir. As the Pakistan minister for Kashmir affairs said in 1951, and this has been Pakistan’s line ever since, “Kashmir is an article of faith with Pakistan and not merely a piece of land or a source of rivers” By giving autonomy to Kashmir, under Article 370, Nehru only helped fan the further alienation of Kashmiris who caught between the cross-fire of India and Pakistan, desired to seek refuge in Pakistan – a state where their religion – Islam – was the state’s religion.

This autonomy had two more disastrous fallouts. First, local regional parties like the NC and PDP became power brokers who would cosy up to Pakistan, to garner a few more votes at the cost of India’s sovereignty and security. Second, it created a fertile ground for a militant insurgency which has vitiated the atmosphere of the valley ever since.

The courageous displayed by Amit Shah in taking the decision to abrogate Article 370 was not merely a masterclass in statesmanship and realpolitik but was righting a historical wrong. Now, finally, after so many years of strife, blood, and violence, Kashmir can move forward on the path of development, maybe slowly, but surely.

Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), Germany’s Chancellor who revenged past humiliations inflicted on the German people by defeating their enemies to create a unified state in 1871, had famously said, “Politics is the art of possible. The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches or consensual decision making in a parliament, but by iron and will. A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward, boldly and unerringly. Had he been alive today, his heart would have swelled on seeing Amit Shah and his ingenuity in politics and affairs of state.

UP Shia Board chief claims Shias are persecuted in Sunni countries, asks HM Amit Shah to include them in CAB

OpIndia Staff
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UP Shia Board chief claims Shias are persecuted in Sunni countries, asks HM Amit Shah to include them in CAB

The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi has written a letter to the Union Home Minister of India, Amit Shah, asking him to include the Shia Muslims from the Muslim countries within the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019.


In a letter addressed to the Union Home Minister, Rizvi has claimed that the Shia Muslims are being harassed in Sunni dominated Muslim countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria etc. and has asked him to include the Shia Muslims within the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, in order to grant Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, who come to India because of religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan even if they do not possess proper documents.

”It is true that Shias are one of the weaker sections of the Muslim community which have always been oppressed by the majority Muslim community because Shia sect refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of rabid caliphs succeeding Prophet Muhammad. Shia community parted their ways as the succeeding caliphs were unworthy of representing Islam and were primarily responsible for murdering the family of Prophet Muhammad,” Rizvi said.

Rizvi further claimed that Shias have been exploited by the dominant Sunni community from the last 1400 years and the exploitation still continues.

“With the aim to relieve the Shia community from the cruelty and excesses meted out by the majority Sunni, it is my humble request to the Union Minister to consider Shia Muslim community alongside other persecuted minority communities which are considered to be included in the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019,” Rizvi has stated.

It is notable here that Sunnis make the majority sect in many Muslim nations. But Shias are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and as per some estimates, in Yemen too.

After Siddaramaiah, now Karnataka Congress State President resigns: Another jolt to Congress after BJP sweeps Karnataka by poll

OpIndia Staff
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After Siddaramaiah, now Karnataka Congress State President resigns: Another jolt to Congress after BJP sweeps Karnataka by poll

The counting of votes for the 15 assembly constituencies that went for by-polls in Karnataka are going on and the ruling BJP has won 7 of the 15 seats. Congress has won 2. The BJP, which needed 6 seats to retain the majority, has now attainted it. BJP is expected to win 12 seats in total and Congress ally in Karnataka, JD(S) and scored a zero. Following the results, Congress in the state suffered a massive jolt as Siddaramaiah resigned as the Legislative Party Leader and as the leader of opposition in Karnataka Assembly. Now, the Congress State President has also resigned, delivering another body-blow to the party in Karnataka.


In July, the 14-month-old Congress-JDS government led by HD Kumaraswamy had fallen after it lost the trust vote in the assembly. The coalition government had lost the majority after 16 MLAs from both the parties had turned rebel and resigned from the assembly. After rebel MLAs from Congress and JDS had resigned, 15 out of 17 Karnataka seats had become vacant. The apex court had held the disqualification order but had disagreed on the duration of disqualification and had held that the MLAs will face re-election.

Read: Karnataka: Democracy in danger as 3rd largest party fails to form the government

All MLAs were from Congress and JDS who had later decided to support the BJP. The 15 MLAs were all given BJP tickets. To retain power in the state, BJP needed to win at least 6 seats out of the 15. Following the disqualification, the strength of the assembly was reduced to 208, where BJP held the simple majority of 105. It had the support of independent MLA H Nagesh. Now, the numbers needed by BJP have been attained following the by-polls.

Earlier in the day, Siddaramaiah, the state’s former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader had also resigned from his position as Legislative Party Leader and leader of opposition in Karnataka Assembly.

Madhya Pradesh: Congress MLA extends open support to Indore’s mafia don Jitu Soni

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: Congress MLA extends open support to Indore’s mafia don Jitu Soni

As the Indore police tighten the noose around influential businessman and underworld mafia Jitendra Soni aka Jeetu Soni, a Congress MLA from Manawar seat in Dhar district, Dr Hiralal Alawa, has openly come up to extend his support to him. Alawa has openly condemned the action being taken against the alleged underworld mafia by the Indore police.

According to a report by News 18 Hindi, the Congress MLA Hiralal Alawa, speaking at a program organized by the Indian Journalists Association in Manawar said that the Jai Adivasi Youth Organization is “standing with Jitu Bhai Soniji of Indore”.

Alawa said that Jitu Soni’s newspaper published articles in their support when the Ultratech cement factory in Manawar assembly constituency tried to grab lands in 32 villages. Today, he added, the entire Jay Adivasi Youth Organization is standing with Jitu Soni.

Notably, Jitendra Soni aka Jitu Soni or Jeetu Soni, based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh is the owner of the newspaper ‘Sanjha Lokswami’, an evening tabloid which has been brought under the radar for its alleged involvement in the Madhya Pradesh high-profile honey trap racket busted in September.

Jitu Soni has been accused of involvement in several illegal activities. His involvement in the honeytrap racket was highlighted after his tabloid had published transcripts of the sex chats between the honeytrap gang accused and several political leaders of the previous and current government.

Jeetu Soni has several cases against him, including cases of human trafficking, extortion, blackmailing, arms act and forgery. He has been absconding.

After a principal secretary-rank officer allegedly attempted suicide inside the state secretariat, fearing his video would soon find its way into the public domain, the Indore police had sprung to action and raided Sanjha Lokswami newspaper owner Jitu alias Jitendra Soni and his son Amit Soni’s hotel My Home, their house and offices.

According to SSP Ruchivardhan Mishra, during the raids, police had found 67 girls in the hotel ‘My Home’, suspected to have been held hostage for illegal activities. Police had also recovered documents related to the infamous Honey Trap scandal from Soni’s house. Moreover, pen drives, CDs, registry papers of more than 30 plots, whose prices in the market must be more than Rs 150 crores were also recovered in the raid.

After the action, which was jointly taken by 9 departments including administration, excise, municipal corporation, narcotics and Indore police, cases of human trafficking, IT Act, Arms Act, a case pertaining to causing hindrance in government work had been registered against Jitu Soni, Amit, and other family members. Amit had been arrested by the police, while Jeetu Soni has been absconding.

Apart from this, almost 25 criminal cases of various offences, including provisions of the Information and Technology Act, capturing land and properties of others, human trafficking, blackmailing and extortion have been registered against the mafia.

Read: Madhya Pradesh sex racket: 13 IAS officers, a former Chief Minister and Governor possibly honey-trapped by a gang

The Indore Municipal Corporation had recently demolished four illegal structures, including My Home Hotel in Geeta Bhawan, Hotel Best Western in South Tukoganj, O2 cafe in Janjeer Square and Lokswami’s bungalow Jag Villa-a 7,000 square ft structure on a 24,000 square ft plot, built by Jeetu Soni.

According to SSP-Indore Ruchi Vardhan Mishra, while Rs 30,000 bounty has already been declared on the arrest of Soni, a proposal has been sent to the state government to raise the bounty to Rs 1 lakh. “A lookout notice has also been issued to prevent him from fleeing India,” she maintained.

The News 18 report states that Hiralal Alawa’s open support for Jitu Soni is the indicator of the confidence of the MLA that there will be no action against him, as the Kamal Nath government is holding power in the state with a wafer-thin majority. Out of the 116 seats required for a majority, Congress has 115 and is running the government with the support of an independent MLA and other smaller parties.

CAB necessary because Congress divided country on basis of religion, does not violate Constitution: Amit Shah

OpIndia Staff
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CAB necessary because Congress divided country on basis of religion, does not violate Constitution: Amit Shah

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was tabled in the parliament earlier today by Amit Shah and that led to a massive debate and uproar. The opposition parties including Congress, TMC and other parties have said that the bill is against the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution, forgetting, that those rights apply only to citizens of India and thus, while it applies to every citizen, it does not apply to say Rohingyas or Pakistani Muslims who are not being given citizenship under the bill.

After the massive furore where AIMIM chief Owaisi even compared the Home Minister to Hitler, Amit Shah presented his counter-arguments. Here are the key statements made by Amit Shah in the parliament after the Citizenship Amendment Bill was tabled and the opposition parties rallied against it tooth and nail.

The Legal Basis for the Bill – Does it violate sections of the constitution?

Home Minister Amit Shah said that he wants to assure the members of the parliament and even the citizens of the country that the Citizenship Amendment Bill does not violate any of the provisions of the constitution. Speaking about Article 11, Amit Shah asked the members of the parliament to read the article in its totality since Article 11 says, “Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship”.

On Article 14 being violated by CAB, Amit Shah read out the article. Article 14 essentially speaks about equality before the law or equal protection within the territory of India. Article 14 of the Constitution of India provides for equality before the law or equal protection within the territory of India. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of law within the territory of India. However, Amit Shah pointed out that citizenship has been granted in view of special circumstances in the past to specific communities, specifically to Bangladeshi refugees after 1971 and following the attacks on Indians in Uganda by using the provision of reasonable classifications.

The Country was partitioned on the basis of Religion

Most significantly, Home Minister Amit Shah reminded the opposition leaders that the country was partitioned on the basis of religion. “Why do we need this Bill today? After independence, had Congress not done a partition on the basis of religion, then, today we would have not needed this Bill. Congress did the partition on the basis of religion,” Amit Shah said.

Voted in Favour of Introduction of the Bill

After an intense debate on the legal and constitutional merits of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the Lok Sabha has voted in favour of the introduction of the bill in the parliament. The proposal to introduce the bill in the parliament passed with 293 members of Lok Sabha voting Aye and 82 members voting No. Home Minister Amit Shah then proceeded to introduce the Bill in the Parliament.

Watch: The man who was threatened by Karti Chidambaram for asking a question on INX media scam speaks up

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: The man who was threatened by Karti Chidambaram for asking a question on INX media scam speaks up

Prakash Belwade-Patil, the former secretary of ABVP in Maharashtra, has said that the bail of both P Chidambaram and his Karti Chidambaram as they keep threatening people. Patil had received a threatening message from Karti yesterday after he had tweeted to P Chidambaram suggesting him to write an article on “How you made money and skilled your son also.”

After his tweet to P Chidambaram, Karti had sent a direct message to Prakash on Twitter, asking him to come to his office, as he was told that Patil needs Karti’s advice. To this Prakash had replied asking him the give the advice publicly so that everyone can benefit. After that Karti Chidambaram, who is a member of Lok Sabha, sent him another direct message asking his address, saying that he will personally come to give him advice. Prakash said that sending such a personal message amounts to issuing a threat.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Jhd3Li6_4]

Talking to ANI, Prakash said that both father and son are out on bail, and the courts have asked them to not interact with media, not to interfere with evidence, but they keep threatening people like this. “Therefore, I request the court to cancel their bail, and send them back to Tihar jail,” Prakash said.

He said that he is a social worker and uses social media to express his feelings openly, and the Chidambaram family can also use social media openly, but sending such personal messages is not right. Prakash added that if the Chidambaram family takes matter personally forward, he will talk with his guides to decide on necessary action.

Massive jolt to Congress after BJP sweeps Karnataka by polls: Siddaramaiah resigns as Legislative Party leader and Leader of Opposition

OpIndia Staff
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Massive jolt to Congress after BJP sweeps Karnataka by polls: Siddaramaiah resigns as Legislative Party leader and Leader of Opposition

The counting of votes for the 15 assembly constituencies that went for by-polls in Karnataka are going on and the ruling BJP has won 7 of the 15 seats. Congress has won 2. The BJP, which needed 6 seats to retain the majority, has now attainted it. BJP is expected to win 12 seats in total and Congress ally in Karnataka, JD(S) and scored a zero. Following the results, Congress in the state has suffered a massive jolt as Siddaramaiah has resigned as the Legislative Party Leader and as the leader of opposition in Karnataka Assembly.


Siddaramaiah, the former Chief Minister of Karnataka when the Congress was in power and the Legislative Party Leader currently has said that he is resigning because he ‘needs to respect democracy’. He has also resigned as Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly.

Read: Karnataka meltdown: Congress leader Roshan Baig trains guns at Siddaramaiah, calls KC Venugopal a buffoon

According to ANI, Siddaramaiah has said that he has submitted his resignation to Congress party interim chief Sonia Gandhi.

In July, the 14-month-old Congress-JDS government led by HD Kumaraswamy had fallen after it lost the trust vote in the assembly. The coalition government had lost the majority after 16 MLAs from both the parties had turned rebel and resigned from the assembly. After rebel MLAs from Congress and JDS had resigned, 15 out of 17 Karnataka seats had become vacant. The apex court had held the disqualification order but had disagreed on the duration of disqualification and had held that the MLAs will face re-election.

Read: Here’s why the Karnataka elections will signal the end of the road for Siddaramaiah

All MLAs were from Congress and JDS who had later decided to support the BJP. The 15 MLAs were all given BJP tickets. To retain power in the state, BJP needed to win at least 6 seats out of the 15. Following the disqualification, the strength of the assembly was reduced to 208, where BJP held the simple majority of 105. It had the support of independent MLA H Nagesh. Now, the numbers needed by BJP have been attained following the by-polls.

As for Siddaramaiah, when the Congress-JDS alliance had chosen to make Kumaraswamy the Chief Minister, it was considered a humiliating ouster for the Congress leader. There were several rumours of dissent not only from Siddaramaiah but also his supporters from within the Congress party.

BJP wins Karnataka by-polls: Rajdeep Sardesai blames voters, says ‘voters rewarded defectors’

OpIndia Staff
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BJP wins Karnataka by-polls: Rajdeep Sardesai blames voters, says ‘voters rewarded defectors’

As BJP sweeps the Karnataka by-polls by maintaining clear leads in 6 seats and winning 6 seats out of the total 15, controversial journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had a hard time believing the fact that the saffron party would continue to remain in power in the state. The by-polls were scheduled following the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress-JDS MLAs that paved the way for the BJP to form government in the state.

With the results declaring BJP’s victory, Rajdeep Sardesai posted a tweet claiming that the Congress party and JDS continue to remain ensnared in faction feuds while the BJP came out as number 1 party in the state. He further stated that voters in Karnataka rewarded the defectors, insinuating that ‘money and state power’ play a significant role in determining the election results.


Rajdeep’s rumblings come at a time when the BJP recently formed government in the state of Karnataka under the leadership of BS Yediyurappa. About 4 months ago, after 17 rebel MLAs from the previous Congress-Janta Dal (Secular) coalition revolted, the BJP staked a claim at the government in Karnataka. Many of the rebel MLAs fought and won the by-polls elections on the BJP ticket.

The by-polls happened on Thursday last week on 15 of the 17 assembly seats that were left vacant after the MLAs resigned in July, leading to the collapse of the Congress-JDS alliance. The BJP currently has 105 MLAs in the 222-member Karnataka assembly, with the support of 1 independent. It needed to bag at least six seats for scoring a majority in the assembly. The Congress and the JDS hold 101 MLAs between them.

As per latest reports, the BJP has already won 6 of the 15 seats, Congress leader DK Shivakumar has stated that his party accepts defeat.

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