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Uttar Pradesh: Rape survivor set on fire by her out-on-bail rapists in Unnao, victim suffers 90% burn

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Rape survivor set on fire by her out-on-bail rapists in Unnao, victim suffers 90% burn

In a barbaric incident, a 20-year-old rape survivor was set on fire by pouring kerosene on her allegedly by five men, including the duo who are accused of raping her a year ago. The incident occurred at Sindupur village under the Bihar police station area on the wee hours of Thursday and has caused tension in the area.

According to the reports, the rape accused and his friends dragged the woman outside of her village, took her into the fields and doused her in petrol before setting her on fire. She was raped by the five men in March while police could manage to arrest only three of them and two others were still on the run.

Reportedly, the rape victim survivor was going to Raebareli with her parents to pursue the case at 4 am on Wednesday when she was attacked. The survivor was immediately rushed to the district hospital and then referred to Civil Hospital in Lucknow after her condition deteriorated.

“She has told investigators that she was set on fire by the two accused who had raped her a year ago and were presently on bail. They were accompanied by three of their associates,” said the police.

DS Negi, the chief medical officer of Civil Hospital in Lucknow, said that the survivor has sustained 90 per cent burns.

“The survivor is in a restless state due to pain. The next 48-72 hours are critical for her survival. She is in a state of shock as of now,” said plastic surgeon Dr Pradeep Tiwari who is treating her at the Civil Hospital.

DGP OP Singh said the incident is very unfortunate and all five accused, including Hari Shankar Trivedi, Shivam and Shubham Trivedi, have been arrested.

“The case was transferred to Raebareli following court orders a few months ago. We have recorded the statement of the survivor. Unnao DM and SP are supervising police action. Cops are scanning call details of all the accused,” Singh said adding that ADG (Lucknow zone) has rushed to the Trauma Centre to ensure proper treatment to the survivor.

Mumbai Metro: Stand-up comic Vir Das is upset people are making jokes on him while exposing his hypocrisy

OpIndia Staff
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Mumbai Metro: Stand-up comic Vir Das is upset people are making jokes on him while exposing his hypocrisy

Standup comic Vir Das is upset. Because people are making jokes on him. And this is not a joke. On Wednesday, Das took a Eurostar, a high international train, from Brussels to London and shared an image on Twitter.


His tweet hailing public transport like high-speed international train generated curiosity. Twitterati dug out his old tweets where he had opposed felling of trees for the construction of metro car shed in Aarey in Mumbai.


Netizens called him a hypocrite for having different standards for infrastructure projects.


And as some netizens correctly predicted, he has blamed the omnipresent ‘IT cell’ for normal people pointing out his hypocrisy.


Leftist organisations, politicians and virtue signalling activists had gone berserk after the authorities cut trees at the proposed site of the Aarey Colony for the Mumbai Metro car shed project in October this year. The vain protests and virtue signalling by people who never pause to think about the environment before using gas-guzzling SUVs, air conditioning and other personal luxuries have been called out on Twitter.

Read: Maharashtra: Maha Vikas Aghadi’s unholy alliance continues its vendetta as it mulls scrapping Mumbai-Pune hyperloop project

The new Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena-NCP and Congress alliance government which came to power in Maharashtra has halted the metro car shed project in Aarey.

Irony just protested against an infrastructure project, got it binned and laughed at its own joke.

Explained: How Citizenship Amendment Bill embraces the history of India

Abhishek Banerjee
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Explained: How Citizenship Amendment Bill embraces the history of India

The Union Cabinet has now approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill. We can now expect the Bill to be placed before both houses of Parliament shortly.

As with most things about India, there has been a large constituency, both in India and abroad, that has been trying to spread misconceptions about the intent and content of the bill. We hear that the Bill is against “idea of India,” whatever that means. The global liberal audience, which sees a Hindu fundamentalist hand in everything from sarees to car stickers, is only too happy to cry foul.

Let me make here a humble effort to explain, in a simple Q & A format, the need for the Citizenship Amendment Bill and its justifications, both from a historical and contemporary perspective.

Q: Why does the Citizenship Amendment Bill exclude Muslims? Doesn’t it make the Bill anti-Muslim?

A: The Bill also excludes Jewish people. Does this also make the Bill anti-Semitic?

Q:  Why should a secular state have laws that are based on religious identity?

A:  India already has plenty of laws that are explicitly based on religious identity. The laws regarding control over educational institutions and places of worship depend almost entirely on the religious identity of who is running them. Laws regarding property, inheritance, marriage and divorce also depend explicitly on religion.

Our model of “secularism” has always been about special privileges for minorities.

Surely the same argument should then be extended to those who have entered the country from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Our model of secularism, when applied to Pakistan and Bangladesh, would mean that it is Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, etc who need special privileges and protections.

Q: Isn’t the Citizenship Amendment Bill against the idea of India?

A: No, the Citizenship Amendment Bill, in fact, embodies the idea of India. Our country was formed out of Partition, which was explicitly based on religion. This is established fact and cannot be denied. Therefore, a law that addresses the injustices of Partition must be based on religion.

Surely, the idea of India is not to deny the history of India.

Q: Isn’t it wrong to make citizenship dependent on religion?

A: The law does not say that the Citizenship of India is based on religion. It merely offers a targeted relief to Hindus, Sikhs, etc from Pakistan and Bangladesh who seek citizenship of India.

Targeted relief to vulnerable people is not discrimination. If there is a drought in Madhya Pradesh tomorrow, the Central Government will declare relief for farmers of Madhya Pradesh. This is not discrimination against the farmers of West Bengal.

There are still many other ways to become a citizen of India via birth, naturalization or registration and none of these laws has anything to do with religion.

Q: Why only Hindus then? There are marginalized communities such as Shias among Muslims as well? Why not include them too?

A: There will always be some subjectivity in defining which communities are marginalized and which ones are not. In fact, the National Commission for Minorities did not recognize Jains as a religious minority within India until the year 2014. The specific Bill in question provides relief to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Christians. There are any number of other religious groups in the world that can claim to be marginalized somewhere. There could be Jewish people, there could even be atheists.

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

So we can have debates about which communities should be included by name, but this debate will never end. So it cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the Citizenship Amendment Bill here and now.

Q: Isn’t it quite well established that Shias in Pakistan or Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar are vulnerable communities? Why doesn’t this bill include them?

A: As a practical matter, the government of India (or any other sovereign nation) is under no obligation to extend principles of “equal treatment” to foreign citizens.

If there is an earthquake in Bangladesh tomorrow, sure it would be nice of India to send some relief material over there. But whether this aid is given and how much aid is given, will depend on security, trade and diplomatic relations between our two countries at that specific point of time.

The whole world operates on that principle. Not just in humanitarian issues, but even in routine everyday matters such as issuing visas. US Visa seekers from India generally report a very different experience from US visa seekers who are citizens of Germany, for example. Similarly, India offers visa on arrival to certain citizens but not to others.

Q: Won’t this Bill affect India’s moral standing in the world?

A: Only if we are not able to explain our position properly. Every democratic country in the world distinguishes between “asylum seekers” and “economic migrants.”

The CAB merely protects vulnerable religious minorities from being deported to Pakistan or Bangladesh. Most countries allow religious persecution as a basis for asylum claims. Would you have a gay person deported to Iran where homosexuality is punishable by death? Would you say that a policy of not deporting gay people to Iran is discrimination against straight people?

In a nation as ancient as India, history plays a significant role. The Constitution of India opens with “India, that is Bharat…,” thus claiming for itself the whole and the entire legacy of the subcontinent spanning thousands of years.

Read: India has a civilisational responsibility to provide citizenship only to persecuted followers of Indic religions: Here is why

For example, we see the Indus Valley Civilization as part of our history, even though both Mohenjodaro and Harappa are situated in present-day Pakistan. So is Taxila, where a great Indian university once stood. The Emperor Kanishka, who ruled over a region that is mostly in Pakistan today, is still venerated as a great ruler of India.

Is there such a thing as “Pakistani history”? We have no idea. Two countries were born in August 1947. But only one of them has a history.

Read: As Congress opposes CAB, here is what Manmohan Singh had said in support of the bill in 2003

This history leaves us with responsibilities that the modern Indian nation simply cannot overlook. And one of these responsibilities is to be a primary protector for those who follow the ancient religions that were born in India. All nations with a history, such as India or China, must carry out these obligations.

India is not just a country, it is a nation with a history. Any other way of looking at India is facetious, misguided and just plain wrong.

From Lalu to Manmohan: Here is how opposition leaders were promising bullet trains during UPA regime

OpIndia Staff
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From Lalu to Manmohan: Here is how opposition leaders were promising bullet trains during UPA regime

The Bullet Train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has faced much criticism from the Opposition political parties ever since it was announced. And now, with the Shiv Sena coming to power in Maharashtra along with Congress and the NCP, there is a very serious possibility that the entire project may be brought to a halt.

Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister appears to be hell-bent on scuttling all the infrastructure projects initiated by his predecessor, Devendra Fadnavis, and by the looks of it, the Bullet Train will not survive either. But there was a time when even the opposition Parties were excited about the prospect of having a Bullet Train in India. In fact, it was during the UPA regime that the dream first got its wings.

Extremely impressed with his ride on a Bullet Train during his trip to Japan, fodder scam convict and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was then the Railway Minister of India, announced in January 2009 that the Ministry was in the process of hiring global consultants for the purpose of high-speed trains in Indian routes. “The day is not far off when the bullet train will run in the country,” said Lalu. “We are in the process of appointing global consultants for introducing bullet train on certain routes,” he added.

The trusted ally of the Congress party even mentioned Mumbai-Ahmedabad as one of the possible routes for the project. He had said, “We are examining the possibilities of running it on some routes including Mumbai-Ahemdabad, Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Patna”. About his ride on the Bullet Train, he had said, “It was very good. The bullet trains are well managed in Japan.”

later in February, while introducing the Railway Budget for the session 2009-10, Lalu Prasad Yadav again mentioned the Bullet Train while elaborating on the annual plan. He had stated on the Floor of the House, “I have seen the passenger trains travelling at speeds of 300 to 350 km per hour in Japan, Germany and France. In the 2007-08 Budget, I had announced that based on the requirement, pre-feasibility studies would be undertaken for running bullet trains in various regions of the country. Action is on for examining the feasibility of running bullet trains between Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad- Mumbai- Pune, Hyderabad- Vijaywada-Chennai, Chennai- Bangalore- Ernakulam and Howrah-Haldia. He had added, “I am happy to inform the honourable members that action will soon be started for conducting a pre-feasibility study to run bullet trains between Delhi- Patna.”

Not only was the former Railway Minister of India excited about the prospect of India having a Bullet Train, but even former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also approved of it. Not just a Bullet Train, Manmohan Singh’s government gave a green nod to the proposal for a Bullet Train at the exact same route: Mumbai-Ahmedabad. The same was reported in June 2012.

“The 492-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail route is going to have the first bullet train as the proposed high-speed rail corridor has got the green signal in a high-level meeting presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently,” a senior Railway Ministry official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. “The high speed elevated rail corridor, which will be a stimulus for the development of satellite towns, will later be extended to Pune,” the official added.

The official also remarked that the project was touted to cost Rs. 60,000 crores and the government was exploring options to secure the financial resources required. “While one option is to execute it on a PPP model, the other is to opt for tying up with another country on the government to government model…The funding pattern has not been decided yet,” the official said.

Thus, quite clearly, the opposition parties which are screaming the most against the Bullet Train project now had no such qualms with it when Manmohan Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav had displayed enthusiasm regarding the same during the UPA years. It appears that the only real problem they have with it now is the fact that Narendra Modi could achieve something they weren’t able to during their regime.

Even the route Mumbai-Ahmedabad was chosen during the UPA era itself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal are only fulfilling the dream that was conceived years before they came to power. The cynical politics involving the Bullet Train Project only shows why it’s so difficult to achieve anything glorious in our country.

In 2009, Lalu Prasad Yadav as the Railway Minister of the UPA government said that we shall soon have a Bullet Train in the country. A decade later, the project is still nowhere near completion and the very same people who had touted the idea all those years ago are doing everything they can to create hurdles in the successful completion of the project.

Rahul Gandhi unfollowed 69 accounts on Twitter in a single day: What could be the possible reasons?

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi unfollowed 69 accounts on Twitter in a single day: What could be the possible reasons?

In an interesting development, Rahul Gandhi, the erstwhile President of Congress party and the ‘crowned prince’ of Indian politics has unfollowed 69 Twitter accounts on a single day. While earlier, he was following 315 people, he now follows only 246 people.

An archive version of the Twitter profile taken on 11th November 2019 shows that Rahul Gandhi was following 315 people on Twitter.

Rahul Gandhi Twitter Archive from November 11th

However, the current Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi follows only 246 accounts.

Rahul Gandhi current Twitter account

The Archive version of Rahul Gandhi Twitter account taken on 11th November 2019 and the current Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi prove that Rahul Gandhi unfollowed 69 people in the past couple of weeks.

To understand when this development may have taken place from 11th November to now, we tried to search the website socialblade.com. Website socialblade.com tracks the number of followers of an account and the number of accounts being followed by a person. It also tracks the quality of social media accounts across platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc.

When Rahul Gandhi’s account is searched on socialblade.com, one can see that Rahul Gandhi unfollowed 69 accounts on 21st November 2019.

socialblade.com analysis of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account

There can be several reasons for this drop in the number of people who Rahul Gandhi followed. While it is difficult to ascertain which were the exact accounts that were unfollowed by Rahul Gandhi, we can speculate why this drop may have happened.

Change in Congress IT Cell head

In May 2017, the actress turned politician Divya Spandana had been recruited as the Congress IT cell head by then-president of Congress Rahul Gandhi. With several crass comments and a vicious social media campaign that was unleashed by Divya, she had unceremoniously quit Twitter and deleted her account. This had come after she was named in the Chirag Patnaik sexual harassment case in which a former party worker had accused the right-hand man of social media chief Divya Spandana of molestation at the workplace. She had also alleged that Spandana had not taken any action, but instead had “mentally harassed” her.

Replacing Divya Spandana, Congress had then recruited Rohan Gupta as the IT Cell head of Congress. The appointment had come in the midst of election campaigning for Haryana and Maharashtra. Gupta, a native from Gujarat had played a “key role” in Congress social media campaign in 2017 Gujarat assembly polls.

Read: Gujarat-based Rohan Gupta replaces Divya Spandana as Congress Social Media head

Interestingly, Rohan Gupta too does not have a clean history. Rohan Gupta had shared a survey of the polling done in the first phase of Gujarat, which showed Congress winning 65 seats. The survey was fake and he was later booked in this case as well. Essentially, a website had published a fake survey of Gujarat elections. This survey was shared by Rohan Gupta, who was then the National Media Coordinator AICC, Chairman GPCC IT Cell. The site was registered with an email ID which is also used to register the official Gujarat Congress site and was also used to register the site of a business concern of the same Rohan Gupta. Not only is the survey fake and created by Congress stooges itself, but there may also be questions over its legality as well. As per the EC’s orders, no exit polls could have been conducted or published during the period 8.00 am on 09-11-2017 to 5.30 pm on 14-12-2017.

Read: Congress office-bearer who spread fake ‘survey’ of Gujarat elections, booked

Aside from the sketchy past of Rohan Gupta, one has to wonder if the change in guard in the Congress IT Cell led to 69 accounts being unfollowed simultaneously. It is entirely possible that certain accounts which were followed by Rahul Gandhi were a product of Divya Spandana and her alliances with those accounts in the capacity of IT Cell head. With the change of guard and Rohan Gupta taking over, it could be possible that those accounts were unfollowed by Rohan Gupta.

The JNU fracas

It was revealed earlier, that an individual called Sandeep Singh was Rahul Gandhi’s political advisor and was instrumental in writing his speeches. Sandeep Singh is a detractor turned Congress admirer. He had once shown black flags in a demonstration against erstwhile PM Dr Manmohan Singh and is now a political advisor to Rahul Gandhi and also writes his speeches. The former JNU student, Singh has also been travelling with Priyanka Gandhi ever since she was appointed as Congress general secretary in Uttar Pradesh. As JNU Students Union President, he was associated with AISA (All India Students Association), the student’s wing of the far-left Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). As per reports, he was also associated with the Anna Hazare movement for Lokpal. Eventually, he started writing speeches for Rahul Gandhi.

Read: ‘Go way, people like you maligned us’: JNU goons stop Dr Anand Ranganathan from entering his lab, hurl insults at the scientist

Given that the JNU protests was at its peak somewhere around 21st November, it is also possible that Rahul Gandhi’s political advisor Sandeep Singh, who is a communist, decided for Rahul Gandhi that some accounts that might not be toeing the communist line of thought as far as the JNU fracas is concerned, or even generally, must be unfollowed. While this cannot be confirmed since it is difficult to zero in on which accounts were unfollowed specifically, it is a strong possibility that this could explain some of the accounts which were unfollowed if not all.

Unfollows based on politics?

Congress is going through massive internal and external turmoil. While in Maharashtra, Congress and NCP have joined hands with Shiv Sena, in Madhya Pradesh, there is a potential rebellion brewing. During the Maharashtra fiasco as well, it was reported that while Rahul Gandhi was not in favour of allying with Shiv Sena, the Sonia Gandhi camp decided that they would go ahead with the alliance. One of the reasons that could explain the drop in follower account is Rahul Gandhi decided to unfollow certain individuals owing to this political turmoil.

It is interesting to note here that Rahul Gandhi is yet to follow Uddhav Thackeray, who is now the Chief Minister of Maharashtra after forming an alliance with Congress and NCP.

Rahul not following Uddhav Thackeray

In fact, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t even follow Aditya Thackeray yet.

Rahul Gandhi not following Aditya Thackeray

Bot accounts suspended?

One of the most plausible explanations of Rahul Gandhi’s following count reducing is that he may have been following some Bot accounts or fake accounts that were suspended by Twitter.

In October 2017, ANI Digital had published an article that pointed towards ‘bots’ that have been re-tweeting the rather politically casual tweets of Rahul Gandhi. These bots also appear to be of Russian, Kazhak and Indonesian origin.

Not too long ago, news surfaced that Rahul Gandhi might be taking a leaf out of Trump’s book and was in talks with Cambridge Analytica, which had earlier helped Donald Trump win elections through a targeted communication campaign. Trump had stirred up a storm in the USA when he had reportedly quoted and thanked a Russian Bot who was positioned as a “Trump Fan”. Many had wondered at the time, given how prone Mr Gandhi is to committing faux pass if the Congress IT Cell runs the risk of having to deal with a similar situation sometime in the future. Not surprisingly, Cambridge Analytica was a questionable company that also frequently used Russian bots. In fact, the Congress party’s poster on Cambridge Analytic’s head’s wall had also raised questions of whether Congress has taken the help of this dubious organisation.

Read: Cambridge Analytica, which was to help Congress in upcoming 2019 elections, shuts shop

Since then, the talk of Cambridge Analytics has calmed down, however, given the history of Congress and CA and also the chatter about Rahul Gandhi being retweeted by Bots, it is entirely possible that some of these bots and fake accounts were also being followed by Rahul Gandhi and they have now been suspended by Twitter.

Whatever the reasons, it would bode well for the Congress party to explain the sudden change in Rahul Gandhi Twitter strategy, considering Rahul Gandhi’s ‘resurgence’ in politics is mainly limited to the social media website and not on the ground.

As Congress opposes CAB, here is what Manmohan Singh had said in support of the bill in 2003

OpIndia Staff
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As Congress opposes CAB, here is what Manmohan Singh had said in support of the bill in 2003

As Narendra Modi government is all set to table the historic Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which seeks to grant citizenship to all non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan facing religious persecution, the Congress party seems to be upset and has expressed its opposition to the initiative which grants citizenship to persecuted minorities of our neighbouring countries.

On Wednesday, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor claimed that the new bill violates the basic idea of India that religion can never be a reason for citizenship. He added that ours is a country for everybody, irrespective of religion, has equal rights in this country and the Constitution that they wrote reflected that. “Today, this bill undermines this fundamental tenet of the Constitution”, he added.

Echoing a similar sentiment, former Union minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had also said that the Congress will take a leadership role in building an alliance with like-minded parties against the CAB and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

He went on to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and the BJP of using CAB as a political tool to divert the people’s attention from the main issues of the country like current growth pangs of India.

However, in a hurry to oppose the decision of the BJP government, the Congress party seems to have exposed its hypocrisy on the issue of granting citizenship to the persecuted minorities from the neighbouring countries. It is, in fact, surprising to see that the Congress party has now chosen to oppose an idea to which the party had vehemently supported in the past.

On December 18, 2003, former Prime Minister and Congress MP Manmohan Singh, who was then leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, had spoken in the Upper House in favour of giving citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh who had taken refuge in India because of persecution.

In the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh who was yet to become country’s Prime Minister had said, “After the partition of our country, minorities in countries like Bangladesh have faced persecution, and it is our moral obligation that if circumstances force people, these unfortunate people, to seek refuge in our country, our approach to granting citizenship to these unfortunate persons should be more liberal.”

Manmohan Singh expressing his support for Citizenship Amendment Bill for refugees who are minorities in countries like Bangladesh and Pak in RajyaSabha on December 18, 2003. / Image Source: @ModiBharosa on Twitter

Clarifying the Congress party stand on the issue, the then Rajya Sabha leader of opposition Dr Singh had stated, “It is our moral obligation that if circumstances force people, these unfortunate people, to seek refuge in our country, our approach to granting citizenship to these unfortunate persons should be more liberal”.

“I sincerely hope that the Deputy Prime Minister (LK Advani) will bear this in mind in charting out the future course of action with regard to the Citizenship Act,” Singh had said in Rajya Sabha in 2003.

Read: Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh trivialises 1984 Sikh genocide as a ‘sad event’, blames PV Narasimha Rao to shield Gandhis

The opposition parties, especially Congress has been expressing its resentment publicly against the Citizenship Act, 1955 on the pretext that it violated the ‘secular’ character of the country. Secondly, the parties claim that not allowing Muslim refugees from these countries is contravention to the fundamental rights of an individual under Article 14.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to amend the existing law 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.

The CAB will propose to amend the definition of illegal migrants, reduction in the number of years of residency period to obtain Indian citizenship through naturalisation and empower the Centre to cancel the registration of Overseas Citizen of India card in case of any violation.

Trouble for Shiv Sena in Maharashtra: Party sees mass resignations after it turned ‘secular’, 400 workers quit to join BJP

OpIndia Staff
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Trouble for Shiv Sena in Maharashtra: Party sees mass resignations after it turned ‘secular’, 400 workers quit to join BJP

In a big set back to Shiv Sena, an exodus of its party workers has begun as nearly 400 Shiv Sainiks joined Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) at an event organised in Dharavi on Wednesday.

According to the reports, Shiv Sena workers were upset over party Chief Uddhav Thackeray joining hands with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form government in Maharashtra.


Ramesh Nadesan, Special Executive officer of the Shiv Sena said that four hundred supporters of the party had joined BJP as they felt cheated when the Shiv Sena shook hands with corrupt and anti-Hindu parties.

“I was working with Shiv Sena for 10 years. We were supporting the Hindutva ideology of Sena. I was given an office to serve people but as Sena has decided to form the government with NCP and Congress, it is not acceptable to us. Now, we all have decided to join BJP,” said Ramesh Nadar, Sena leader.

He added that not just the 400 party workers, but there were several others who were also unhappy with Sena.

“No one understands the feelings and sentiments of a supporter who actually works for the party without anything in return. Also, in last the seven years, we were fighting against the NCP and Congress supporters. During elections, it is the karyakartas who actually go door-to-door for seeking votes. How do we go back and face the same people whom we have asked to vote for an honest government?” he said.

Another Sena worker, who joined the BJP, also echoed similar sentiments stating that workers are not happy with the decision of the Sena chief to join hands with Congress and NCP. “We are quitting the party because Sena had quit its main agenda, which is Hindutva,” he added.

The exodus of Shiv Sena party workers a week after senior Shiv Sena leader Ramesh Solanki announced his resignation from the party protesting against the party’s alliance with Congress to form a government in Maharashtra. Ramesh Solanki had resigned from the party after serving for 21 years a day after Shiv Sena MLAs were made to take oath swearing loyalty for Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar along with Uddhav Thackeray.

The BJP and Shiv Sena had fought the Maharashtra assembly polls together and won an absolute majority. However, Shiv Sena negotiated a deal with the NCP and the Congress to form a non-BJP government. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of Maha Vikas Aghadi of Sena-NCP-Congress, took oath as the 18th Chief Minister of Maharashtra and is also the first person from his family to hold the post.

Maharashtra: Maha Vikas Aghadi’s unholy alliance continues its vendetta as it mulls scrapping Mumbai-Pune hyperloop project

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Maha Vikas Aghadi’s unholy alliance continues its vendetta as it mulls scrapping Mumbai-Pune hyperloop project

According to a report by Pune Mirror, the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress may soon scrap the experimental hyperloop project between Mumbai and Pune. This comes close on heels of reports of various other projects either stalled or scrapped by the new government in Maharashtra.

According to the report, the NCP feels that the hyperloop project is an ‘expensive experiment’ and the Shiv Sena has said that the decision on the multi-crore project will be taken after a review. The project has now been placed under review and may be scrapped.

In 2017, the Devendra Fadnavis government through Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) had signed an MOU with Virgin Hyperloop One, a US based company to carry out a study identifying potential routes and analyse economical impact as well as technical viability.

Read: Despite SC’s stay on tree cutting in Aarey, new Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray says not a single leaf will be cut, halts metro car shed construction

The hyperloop project, if completed, may have brought down transport time between Mumbai and Pune to 15 minutes. However, within days of coming to power, the new government has put the project under scrutiny.

Earlier this month, NCP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to immediately shut down the Mahaportal service started by the Devendra Fadnavis government with the aim to provide employment opportunities to the youth of Maharashtra. Sule asserted that far from addressing the grievances of the people, it has increased the problems faced by the aspirants due to improper functioning of the portal. Besides this, Uddhav Thackeray has also ordered a review of all developmental projects going on in the state including the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train.

Islamist organisation PFI that hosted Hamid Ansari opposes Citizenship Amendment Bill, gives away PoK to Pakistan

OpIndia Staff
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Islamist organisation PFI that hosted Hamid Ansari opposes Citizenship Amendment Bill, gives away PoK to Pakistan

The Islamist organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI) that has in the past been embroiled in several cases of Islamic extremism and had hosted controversial former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari, has issued a press note opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill passed by the Modi government that aims to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations such as Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians. Interestingly, in their press note, the PFI seems to have also given up India’s right on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

PFI press release

The PFI termed the Citizenship Amendment Bill ‘unconstitutional’, ‘partisan’ and ‘controversial’. While saying that CAB paves way for Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, it says that the BJP government has shown its ‘communal colours’ by leaving out Muslims from the list. Further, the press release says that the BJP government’s claim that persecuted minorities are to be given citizenship doesn’t hold water since the government has refused to give citizenship to Rohingya Muslims.

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

The PFI press release says that the government has gone against various articles of the constitution though it forgets to take into account that this bill is for granting citizenship to refugees and doesn’t pertain to existing citizens of India.

In their press release, the PFI “demands” that the Union Cabinet recalls the decision to table the Bill in the Parliament and it also calls upon the secular and democratic forces from civil society to come out against the proposed amendment which is “against the basic tenet of our constitution’.

Read: Rohingyas pose a serious threat to national security, India should never let them in

Interestingly, in their press release, the PFI seems to have given away Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to Pakistan.

In the statement, while advocating for India to give citizenship to Rohingya Muslims, PFI says that India doesn’t share a border with Afghanistan but does with Myanmar. By making this statement, PFI essentially gave up India’s right on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

If one looks at the current map of India even after Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh were declared as Union Territories, India does share a border with Afghanistan since Gilgit Baltistan is a part of India.

Map of India. Source: Indian government

In this map, one can clearly see that the top part of Ladakh Union Territory includes Gilgit Baltistan which is illegally occupied by Pakistan and shares a border with India.

Read: Judge S Abdul Nazeer who was a part of Ayodhya and Triple Talaq verdict gets Z plus security after threats from Islamist PFI

To get a clearer picture, even if we look at the map before the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories, India did share a border with Afghanistan and that fact doesn’t change simply because Pakistan has occupied that land illegally.

Map of Kashmir before the status of UT

One can see that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan and since India has always maintained that PoK is Indian territory illegally occupied by Pakistan, by default, India shares a border with Afghanistan.

Read: Kerala: Two radical Islamist PFI members among the 10 believed to have joined ISIS

The Islamist organisation in its press release seems to have not only fear-mongered about Citizenship Amendment Bill and batted for Rohingya Muslims who are a security threat for India but also toed the Pakistan line by claiming that India has no right over PoK.

Update: After the OpIndia report, PFI has deleted the tweet where they shared this press note. They have also emailed all concerned that they have retracted their previous press release. 

Email by PFI

In their latest press release, they have retracted the sentence they had mentioned earlier about India not sharing a border with Afghanistan thereby the Islamist organisation recognising the territorial integrity of India.

In their latest press release as emailed by PFI, they have removed the reference of India not sharing a border with Afghanistan.

New Press Release by PFI

In their earlier press note, by making this statement, PFI had essentially declared that they do not believe that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is a part of India.

Daniel Shravan’s mother says she is ashamed of her son’s comments, he should apologise to all women with folded hands

OpIndia Staff
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Daniel Shravan’s mother says she is ashamed of her son’s comments, he should apologise to all women with folded hands

A small-time Telugu filmmaker Daniel Shravan had stoked a massive controversy recently with his outrageous and filthy comments over rapes and crimes against women.

Commenting over the recent incident of brutal rape and murder of a Hyderabad-based veterinarian that has created furore all over the country, Daniel had written on a Facebook post that rapes happen only due to unsatisfied sexual desires of men and women ‘should cooperate with their rapists’ so they are not murdered. He had also called for ‘legalised rapes’ and stated that rapists think of killing the women only because of the fear of punishment.

Shravan had also advised women to ‘carry condoms’ instead of calling 100 number. “If these adamant bitches didn’t consent to the proposal made by the rapists, they will have no other way but to rape them”.

Shravan’s sick comments had created a massive outrage on social media. When a Facebook user had asked whether he would give the same advice to the women in his own family, Shravan had reportedly replied in the affirmative.

Following the controversy, a women’s group named ‘Narisena’ had reportedly approached Shravan’s family and talked to his mother.

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

In a YouTube video uploaded, the women from the group has met with a lady, reportedly Daniel’s mother, and have made her aware about her son’s perverse comments on the social media regarding heinous crimes like rape and murder.

When the lady stated that she is not aware of any comments made by her son on social media, the group informs her about the context and content of Daniel’s comments.

The group explains to the lady how Daniel’s comments have created a furore on social media and how he has attempted to blame rape victims in the worst possible manner.

The group then told the lady that her son has asked women, in general, to forget calling the 100 number for police help and carry condoms with them instead to ‘cooperate’ with rapists. Addressing Shravan, the group enquired whether he wants them to give some condoms for his mother to carry around.

After hearing about Shravan’s comments, the lady stated that she is shocked to hear his statements and expressed sadness at his behaviour. She stated that Shravan’s comments have made her feel ashamed. Addressing Shravan, she added that he should never have made such statements regarding any woman.

The lady then asked Shravan to apologise to all women with folded hands and seek forgiveness.

It is notable here that after his comments created a massive controversy and social media users started demanding action on Shravan, he had deleted the comments and had shared a statement that the statements were not his opinion but rather a villain’s dialogues from one of his upcoming projects.

Read: Hyderabad rape and murder case: 22-year-old arrested for making vulgar comments on Facebook about the victim

The brutal murder of the 27-year-old veterinarian, named as ‘Disha’ in the police cases as Indian law prevents disclosure of the real name of the rape victim, had brought to the fore many such shameful and perverse comments from many individuals, exposing their mindset. Recently, the Cyber Crime cell of the Hyderabad police had arrested a 22-year-old man for sharing obscene posts regarding the victim.

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