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Maharashtra in the grips of vendetta politics as the new government of Maha Vikas Aghadi puts key projects on hold

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After a month-long struggle to form a government in Maharashtra, another set of problems beset the state as it descends in the throes of vendetta politics with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government determined to stall key infrastructural projects envisaged and set in motion by the preceding Devendra Fadnavis government. Following Uddhav Thackeray’s announcement of halting of the Metro car shed construction in Aarey, the state government has ordered a review of key developmental projects initiated by the previous government.

Now, prominent NCP leader and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, has written 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. Regarding the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train project, Thackeray said, “We will review the development projects happening across the state and determine if some projects that are done on priority are really needed. We will review the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Bullet Train project,” Uddhav said.

Last Friday, a day after Uddhav Thackeray was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of the state, he announced a stay on the metro car shed construction in Aarey, Mumbai. “I have ordered to stop the work of Aarey metro car shed project today. Metro work will not start until any further decision, not a single leaf of Aarey will be cut,” Uddhav said following a meeting with officials on Friday. Furthermore, Uddhav also stated that all the cases filed against the metro car shed agitators would be withdrawn.

West Bengal: School teacher and RSS activist shot at in Kolkata’s ‘mini Pakistan’

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In another shocking incident, an RSS activist and a school teacher named Bir Bahadur Singh was shot at in Kolkata’s Metiabruz area in full public view. Singh was on his way to teach at Tantia High school, near Mohammad Ali Park, Kolkata, when the incident took place, tweeted BJYM West Bengal.


According to Bir Bahadur Singh’s Facebook profile, he is a resident of Garden Reach area in Kolkata’s Metiabruz and works at Tantia High School since the year 2016. According to pictures of him shared on social media, Singh was attacked from behind as the images show that he received the bullet injury on his back.

According to information tweeted by President of BJYM Kolkata Port (East) and Former Convenor of ABVP, Kolkata Port, Bir Bahadur had actively campaigned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in West Bengal.

Bir Bahadur

Metiabruz, located on the fringes of Kolkata, is often identified as mini-Pakistan or a place that has a high crime rate and more. In fact, in 2016, then an MLA candidate of West Bengal’s ruling party and now Kolkata’s Mayor, Bobby Firhad Hakim had stoked controversy by referring to the area as ‘mini Pakistan’.

Hours before polling had started in West Bengal in the fifth phase of assembly election in 2016, Firhad Hakim, had reportedly told a Pakistani journalist that his constituency was a ‘mini-Pakistan’. It soon engulfed into a major controversy after the report got published in a Pakistan’s leading newspaper.

West Bengal has become a hotbed for political crimes, where especially BJP and RSS workers have been facing the wrath of TMC goons in the behest of their party head Mamata Banerjee.

Read: Revisiting Sainbari, a blot on Indian Democracy: When Communists made a mother eat rice with her dead sons’ blood

In yet, another spine chilling incident, Bandhu Prakash Pal, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker, his pregnant wife and their six-year-old son were found murdered by unknown miscreants in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on October 10.

Reportedly, Bandhu Prakash was a school teacher who worked in Gosaigram Sahapara Primary School. He also worked as an insurance agent in the locality.

Some sections of social media had indicated that the murder of the RSS worker and his family had a communal angle to it as Murshidabad has seen many such cases in the past, but no such angle has been reported in the case yet.

Devendra Fadnavis rejects claim of BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde that he returned ₹40,000 crore during his 4 day term

Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has denied the claim of BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde that he had sent back ₹40,000 crores to the center during his 4-day term as CM of the state. He said that he didn’t take any such major decisions before resigning on 26th November.

Earlier Ananth Kumar Hegde had made a sensational claim saying that Devendra Fadnavis took oath as CM despite not having the numbers so that the fund of ₹40,000 can be transferred to the central government, to ‘protect’ it from being misused by the next Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government. Giving a new twist to the political drama that lasted in Maharashtra for more than a month after the assembly elections in October, Hegde had said, “You all know that recently in Maharashtra for just 80 hours our person was chief minister, but soon Fadnavis resigned. Why did we have to do this drama? Didn’t we know- despite knowing we don’t have majority, why did he become CM? This is the question commonly every one ask.”

After that he proceeded to answer that question by saying, “More than about Rs 40,000 crore was under CM’s control. If NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena come to power certainly that Rs 40,000 crore would not have gone for development work and would have gone for different things (misused). It was entirely planned earlier itself. Once we got to know, it was decided that a big drama was necessary. So, adjustments were made and oath was taken, after oath within 15 hours Fadnavis systematically ensured that the (money reaches where it had to and protected it.” After he added, “if it had been kept here – the next chief minister -you know what would have happened.”

Hegde made these comments while addressing an election rally for bypoll in Yellapur in Karnataka on Saturday. But today Devendra Fadnavis rejected the claim after it was reported by national media today.


“No such thing happened. These are completely false claims. I took no policy decision when I was in office. This is not the way these things happen. The government’s finance department can investigate such claims,” he said. He added that those who understand the accounting systems of state and central governments will understand that such transfer of money does not happen.

Fadnavis also added that the Maharashtra government is not spending any money for the bullet train, and its role in the project is limited to land acquisition. Not a single paisa has been returned to the central government by the Maharashtra government when he was CM and then acting CM. He urged the finance department to investigate the matter and bring the facts to the public. Making such wrong statements, and reacting to such wrong statements, both are absolutely wrong, he asserted.

Ananth Kumar Hegde seems to have got misled by a WhatsApp message containing a similar claim that went viral in the last few days.

Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan seeks ‘mercy killing’, claims she is under stress

Nalini Sriharan and Murugan, the two convicts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, have sent a letter to PM Modi seeking ‘mercy killing’ for themselves.

According to reports, Pugazhendhi Pandian, Nalini’s advocate on Saturday said that on November 27 Nalini had sent a letter demanding mercy killing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Madras High Court Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and the TN Home Secretary’s office.

Nalini’s advocate Pugazhendi said that ‘extreme stress’ has driven Nalini to take this decision.

“Nalini has sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s office through prison officials. In the letter, she has sought mercy killing. The reason stated is that in 26 years they were hopeful that they would be released but that hope is now fading. Also, the prison officials are ill-treating her husband Murugan. She is unable to see the ill-treatment of her husband. She has also sent a petition to Tamil Nadu government seeking transfer to Puzhal Prison,” advocate Pugazhendi said.

In the letter, Nalini has reportedly accused prison staff of mistreating her and sought relocation out of Vellore prison. Nalini and Murugan are on fast in Vellore Prison for the past 10 days after Murugan was put in solitary confinement. Murugan was sent to solitary confinement after prison officials allegedly seized a cellphone from his possession.

Nalini is the longest-serving woman prisoner in the country. She is currently lodged in the Special Prison for Women in Vellore.

Reportedly, Padma, Nalini’s mother, has also concurred with advocate Pandian that her daughter is reeling under severe mental pressure.

Read: Madras High Court grants 30-day parole to Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan

“After completing 25 years in prison, my daughter is in a state of extreme stress. I have heard that the prison staff is not treating my daughter well. She wants to be shifted from the Vellore Prison. So, she is demanding mercy killing,” Padma told the media.

Earlier this year, Nalini was granted over a month’s parole to make preparations for her UK-based daughter’s wedding. In 2018, President Kovind had rejected the TN government’s proposal to release Nalini and the other convicts from prison.

The Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release all seven convicts – AG Perarivalan, V Sriharan alias Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran and Nalini Sriharan, wife of V Sriharan under Article 161 of the Constitution is pending with Governor Banwarilal Purohit. Four of the convicts – Sriharan, Santhan, Robert Payas and Jayakumar are Sri Lankan nationals.

Read: The politics of ironies: Getting away with the assassination of a former PM

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, by a woman LTTE suicide bomber during an election rally at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

Congress supporter tweets sexist abuses to Minister Smriti Irani demanding a comment on the Telangana rape and murder

In a twisted irony, Congress supporter on Twitter tweeted sexist, misogynist abuses to Union Minister Smriti Irani demanding that she condemns the horrific gang-rape and murder of 27-year-old Dr Preeti Reddy (name changed) in Hyderabad. In a now deleted tweet, one G. G. Upadhyay, whose Twitter bio reads ‘Kattar Congressi’ (staunch Congressi), referred to Irani as ‘Nachaniya’ (one who earns living by dancing) who does ‘Mujra for Ranga and Billa’.

Abusive tweet by Twitter user @dhar_gir which is now deleted

Ranga and Billa were the murderers who had killed two children Geeta and Sanjay Chopra in New Delhi in 1978. The duo had also reportedly raped Geeta before murdering her but it was never confirmed by forensic evidence. The duo Ranga-Billa of the gruesome murder are back in news after former Union Minister P Chidambaram’s lawyer Congress leader Kapil Sibal invoked them when he was arguing on his behalf after High Court rejected Chidambaram’s bail.

Read: Congress leader tweets a sexist and misogynist tweet on Smriti Irani after fake news circular is withdrawn

Following this, many Congress supporters without naming the duo had started referring to PM Modi and HM Amit Shah as ‘Ranga and Billa’, comparing the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to hardened criminals who murdered and also possibly raped the victim.


Hence, when G G Upadhyay refers to Irani as ‘dancer’ who does ‘mujra’ in front of ‘Ranga and Billa’ and demands she condemns the brutal rape and murder of Dr Preeti Reddy, one is left shocked at the multiple layers of misogyny women have to face even as they dodge getting raped.

After Smriti Irani called out his misogyny, Congress supporter Upadhyay quietly deleted his tweet without offering any apology.

Telangana: Main accused Mohammad Ali evaded his lorry being impounded two days before he raped and killed the veterinarian

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Mohammad Ali alias Areef, the main accused in the horrific gang-rape and murder of a young veterinary doctor on the outskirts of Hyderabad last Wednesday was driving the truck without a licence for more than two years and was even caught for the same just 48 hours prior before he committed the heinous crime, reports Times of India.

According to the report, on November 25, the main accused Mohammad Ali was intercepted by the vigilance and transport staff at Mahbubnagar. The police said Ali evaded arrest and seizure of his truck by making his truck immobile and later drove away from the police after they left the place.

The police said they are now investigating how the accused got away so easily even after not having a driving licence and committed the barbaric crime against the veterinary doctor.

Reportedly, on November 24, Ali and truck cleaner Jollu Shiva had picked up a load of bricks in Karnataka and were travelling towards Hyderabad to deliver a consignment. According to the police, Ali called the other two accused, Jollu Naveen and Chintakunta Chennakeshavulu, to meet him at Gudigandla village in Telangana, where they had planned to illegally carry an extra load of steel channels from there to Hyderabad.

The police said that Chintakunta returned to home after loading the steel, while the other three travelled towards Hyderabad from Gudigandla. As they were passing through Mahbubnagar, they were intercepted by the joint team of the regional transport authority and the vigilance department.

“This was around 4 am on November 25. The driver of the truck did not have a licence. Our officials decided to impound the vehicle, but Ali cunningly removed the self-start cable to ensure that the truck couldn’t move. Since the truck wasn’t starting, we moved to another location to carry on our work. When we returned, the accused had fled with the truck,” assistant motor vehicles inspector Chiranjeevi said.

Read: 4 arrested in Shadnagar rape and murder case confess, 2 of them had returned to the site to check if her body was charred completely

From Mahbubnagar, the accused parked his vehicle near a fuel pump. Later, Chennakesavulu drove the truck while Naveen rode the bike. The accused sold the steel channels for Rs 4,000 near the Raikal toll plaza.

Reportedly, the four of them reached Shamshabad Around 9 pm on November 26, parked their truck by the roadside and slept inside the vehicle. On the next day, at 9 am, a police team came to the spot and asked the accused to move the vehicle from there.

The accused then moved their vehicle near the Thondupally ORR toll plaza and parked the truck. They were busy drinking when they saw the veterinary doctor park her scooter next to the truck. They immediately hatched a plan to target her, a police officer said.

“They poured some liquor into her mouth. The victim lost consciousness during the sexual assault. When she came to, Ali smothered her to death,” the remand report states.

The police had already confirmed that the accused had planned the abduction and they had deflated the tyres of the young woman’s scooter after she had left. The police report also states that it was Mohammad Ali who had murdered the girl by suffocating her to death.

Read: Hyderabad Rape Case: The accused were under influence of alcohol, confessed to their crimes, says police remand report

After committing the murder, the accused had wrapped the body in a sheet and dumped it below a culvert near Ashiyana Hotel in Chattanpalli. They had set the body on fire and had abandoned her scooter at a difefrent location.

“After setting fire to the body, the accused destroyed the two SIM cards of the victim and left the place. They abandoned the victim’s scooter at Kothur and took the truck to Aramgarh around 5 am on November 28,” the remand report said.

The rape, murder and the brutalities associated with the crime has stirred a massive outrage all over the country.

Shocker after Telangana rape and murder case: Rape victim’s name ‘trends’ on porn sites as most searched video

In what can be seen as a glimpse into the perverse minds, the Telangana rape victim’s name is on the top of ‘trends’ in search results for video clips on porn websites. A screenshot had gone viral on social media where the Hyderabad rape victim’s name was most searched for ‘video clips’ to check whether any video clips of the heinous crime have been uploaded on porn websites.

Rape victim’s name top search word on porn website XVideos.com (image: @purpleproze on Twitter)

The body of the young veterinarian Dr Preeti Reddy (name changed) was found charred in Telangana’s Hyderabad where she was dumped after brutally gang raped by four men. The brutality of the case has sent shockwaves across India. However, the perversion of trying to look for the video clip of the brutal rape on porn sites is disgusting beyond words. This when neither the confession of the accused nor any police statement mentions any possibility of the culprits video recording the same.

Read: Hyderabad Rape Case: The accused were under influence of alcohol, confessed to their crimes, says police remand report

Not willing to believe that humanity could stoop so low, some Twitter users verified the claims themselves.


27-year-old Dr Preeti Reddy (name changed) was returning home from work a little after 8 pm to pick her vehicle, she noticed a flat tire. She immediately called her sister, who suggested that she leave her two-wheeler at the toll plaza and take a cab home. Before she could that, two of the accused, Muhammad Ali and Chenna Keshavulu, approached her, who offered to take her vehicle for repair. The woman was then ambushed and dragged into the bushes by the accused barely 50 meters from Tondupally toll plaza behind a line of trucks that was parked near the road. She was forcefully fed whiskey and brutally raped repeatedly before she was killed by strangulation. The accused wrapped her in a blanket and set her dead body on fire. Her charred body was found under an underpass next morning.

MP Education Board prints ‘Gandhiji’ instead of ‘gambling’ in school test paper, faces criticism

The Madhya Pradesh and the State Education Board has stoked a controversy after it committed a huge blunder by replacing the word ‘gambling’ with the word ‘Gandhiji’ in class 10 preparatory exam paper.

According to the reports, the embarrassing error appeared in a 45-minute model test paper to prepare weak students before they appear for the final exams.

In reply to a question on what were the qualities of ‘subuddhi’ (righteous man) and ‘kubuddhi’ (immoral man), the answer read “kubuddhi was a wicked man and led a life of drinking and Gandhiji”, instead of ‘drinking and gambling’.

Class 10 exam paper

 

Many people have raised serious questions on the editing standards of papers. Following the outrage, the Congress-led state government ordered a probe into the “printing mistake” which cropped up in the test paper.

Madhya Pradesh Education minister Prabhuram Choudhury took cognisance of the matter and said that the department will act against the responsible person. ‘We will look into the matter and take strict action against the person responsible for this”.

Commissioner of Directorate of Public Relations, Jaishree Kiyawat said that the mistake was not intentional but it was a typing error and the proofreader of the test-paper has been issued a notice for the same. “The paper was for remedial classes held for weaker students to help them prepare for the boards. We take such mistakes very seriously and have also issued a correction for the same,” said the officer.

This is not the first time that the Madhya Pradesh State Education Board (MPSEB) has committed such mistakes. As per a report in Times Of India, In the General Hindi textbook of Class 12, the death year of India’s Missile Man and former president APJ Abdul Kalam was printed as 1915 instead of 2015. The books for class 12 were distributed in July this year.

Similarly, the English textbook of class 8 also mentions the date of birth of Kalpana Chawala March 17, 1962, instead of July 1, 1961.

Recently, a controversy had erupted over a similar issue after an official booklet of the Odisha government had described the death of MK Gandhi as an “accident” triggering a massive controversy in the state last month.

The two-page booklet titled “Aama Bapuji: Eka Jhalaka” (Our Bapuji: A Glimpse) was published on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The booklet presents a brief account of his teachings, works and links with Odisha. However, the booklet also states that MK Gandhi “died due to accidental reasons in a sudden sequence of events on January 30, 1948, at Delhi’s Birla House”.

Watch: ‘Hypothetical’ question to ANI Editor Smita Prakash at a lit fest leaves journalist Barkha Dutt uncomfortable

At the recently concluded Mangaluru Lit Fest, a ‘hypothetical’ question from the audience member to news agency ANI Editor Smita Prakash left journalist Barkha Dutt, who was sharing the stage at that time, quite red-faced, to put it mildly.


An audience member puts forth a question about unholy nexus between influential journalists and lobbyists reminding everyone about the ghosts of the Radia tapes which let the country know how the narrative was set during the UPA times. The audiene member asks Prakash, “Smita, we are talking about media leanings and employers. Here is a straight hypothetical question. You are a media boss. What would you do if hypothetically you found that one of your journalists or reporters was found to be in cahoots with lobbyists and fixing government ministries. Would you sack that person?”

Prakash says how as an Editor, it is not easy to sack these days. Gathering her composure at the googly thrown at her while sharing a stage with Barkha, whose alleged audio tapes with lobbyist Niira Radia ‘fixing’ ministerial berths had shook the political landscape in 2010, Prakash said this kind of lobbying does not work in her organisation. “Fixing, lobbying, positioning… Firstly we are not important enough to do it. And I don’t think the people who work with me, none of us are involved in such jobs. It is not just fixing ministries. You now see journalists openly write books about how they were part and parcel of India Pakistan peace talks. ‘I told ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan that you should start the bus service. I told ex-General of Pakistan that you should begin talks now. Or that elections should be held at this time. They are actually coming out in the open. Because now what has happened is journalists are 40-50 years’ experience in journalism, so they feel that they did it for the good of the country. Either you are reporting and you are a journalist, or you are a broker and whatever glorifying halo you might have of why you were doing a particular thing, whether for your organisation, whether for the good of the country, for the nation. The fact is you’re not a journalist, you’re a broker.”

Read:

When the Radia tapes controversy broke, it acquainted the country with how the narrative is set, Cabinet berths negotiated, the disgraceful nexus between journalists and politicians and the political impunity to brush aside the scam. Not only was this issue hastily swept under the rugs but also all the dramatis personae involved in brokering the deals in Delhi’s power corridors have escaped unscathed from its implications.

Some of those who have had central roles in these tapes have suddenly disappeared from the face of Earth. Others who were in the thick of the controversy have rubbished the tapes as doctored and extenuated themselves from any wrongdoing.

In fact, it is a glorious irony that one of them, Vir Sanghvi, who allegedly sought the lobbyist Niira Radia’s opinion on how ‘slanted’ does she wanted an article to be is today hosting a news programme with the name ‘Virtuosity’. The other journalist who featured in Radia tapes, M K Venu, today, has started his own leftist propaganda organisation ‘The Wire’ to counter the ‘supposed’ propaganda run by the MSM, notwithstanding the fact that he actively promotes fabricated and concocted stories through his social media account.

Read: Barkha Dutt expresses deep anguish over the fact that the mainstream media can no longer influence elections

Another liberal lodestar, perhaps the cynosure of this story is Barkha Dutt, who sounded as an alleged conduit for Congress in the Radia tapes, relaying the information sought by Radia and seeking directions from her when in doubt. According to the conversation transcripts between her and Niira Radia, Radia was lobbying against the reappointment of Dayanidhi Maran to the post of Union IT and Communications minister and Barkha was allegedly actively mediating between the two parties to somehow end the stalemate and form a government at the centre.

In the 2009 elections, the Congress emerged as the single largest party but evidently, it was short of the 272-mark to claim a stake at the government. Congress needed DMK’s support to form the government. As a result, DMK came with a set of demands including Cabinet berths and ministerial positions for some of its ministers. The ensuing impasse sparked off a series of negotiation which the transcripts between Radia and Barkha allude to.

The impasse was eventually sorted out and A Raja from DMK was handed the ministry of IT and Telecom by the Congress then. It is pertinent to note that it was under A Raja, that the serious charges of arbitrarily allocating the 2G spectrum and crony capitalism were levelled against the government by the CAG.

This is not the first time Barkha Dutt has been left with an egg on her face on a public platform. Years ago on her show ‘The Buck Stops Here’ on NDTV while debating on corruption and lokpal, Dutt had asked Swami Agnivesh’s views on politicians stepping down on allegations of corruption.

Swami Agnivesh had responded with how would her reaction be if a ‘journalist’ who hosts a popular show is initiating debates on corruption while she herself is accused of indulging in it, should the journalist get themselves cleared of charges to have moral rights to hold debates? He has asked Dutt if such a journalist should step down.

New Delhi: Congress party leader chants ‘Priyanka Chopra Zindabad’ instead of Priyanka Gandhi

The Congress party, in an apparent mistake, chanted the name of Priyanka Chopra instead of Priyanka Gandhi in New Delhi. Congress former MLA Surender Kumar was involved in the process. In a video clip posted on social media, the Congress leader can be heard chanting the name of the Bollywood actress instead of their own leader. He also chanted the name of their interim president Sonia Gandhi and their former president Rahul Gandhi.

After chanting the names of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, he says Priyanka Chopra instead of Priyanka Gandhi. He was immediately corrected by a co-worker, and after that, he took the correct name of the Congress leader.


The Twitterati were not the ones to miss out and also had some fun about the flip about the clip.


The Congress party has developed a habit of having its foot in the mouth in recent times. Only today, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah illegal immigrants while attacking the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC). It’s not really a surprise considering the fact that Rahul Gandhi has had such an impact on the work culture of the party for so long.