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Metro shed in Aarey Colony gets green signal as Bombay High Court dismisses all petitions against felling of trees

OpIndia Staff
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Metro shed in Aarey Colony gets green signal as Bombay High Court dismisses all petitions against felling of trees

The Bombay High Court today dismissed all petitions against the Bombay Municipal Corporation decision to cut 2,700 trees in the Aarey Colony to make way for the Mumbai Metro car shed. The Bombay HC also dismissed the plea to declare Aarey an ‘ecologically sensitive zone and floodplain’.

Mumbai Metro is an ambitious infrastructure project which attempts to connect every nook and corner of the city. A city clogged with traffic and people this comes as a mode of quick, safe and cheap transit. By reducing vehicular traffic the metro de-clogs the roads and an independent UNFCC study points to the fact that it shall reduce CO2emission by 2.6 lakh metric tons every year.

Aarey is spread over 1278 hectares of land, out which, the metro car shed will be only built on 30 Hectare of Aarey land and even within that, 5 Hectare has been kept intact for greenery. So in a nutshell, only 2% area of the entire Aarey Colony will be utilized for the proposed metro car shed.

Recently, a woman from Marol was threatened by an Aarey ‘activist’ from NGO Vanashakti for writing a Facebook post that supported the Mumbai Metro Construction project.

The proposed metro shed had triggered widespread protests, where assorted NGOs and film stars joined hands to oppose the shed. The protestors argue that the present government is killing the lungs of the city and destroying forests and that the move is anti-environment. However, the fact is that Aarey is not a forest but ‘grazing land’.

The campaign against the Metro project has been ridden with several lies and inaccuracies. it has almost become the professional demand of certain NGOs to stall development work by citing ‘environmental reasons’. Recently, Mumbai High Court imposed a fine of rupees one lakh on an NGO for filing a frivolous petition to stall development project in Navi Mumbai. The court noted that the PIL filed by Abhivyakti, the NGO, was motivated to somehow stall development work in Navi Mumbai.

Watch: Tulsi Gabbard shuts down ‘Gujarat riots’ lies against PM Modi with one epic reply

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Tulsi Gabbard shuts down ‘Gujarat riots’ lies against PM Modi with one epic reply

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu to run for the US President’s post, has always been a target for a section of media and politicians for her faith and her refusal to toe their lines.

Media has made many attempts to paint Tulsi Gabbard as a supporter of ‘violent Hindu nationalism’, in the same lines they declare PM Modi as a ‘mass-murderer’ and blame him for the Gujarat riots.

The media attacks on Tulsi Gabbard for being a Hindu has intensified after she decided to enter in the US Presidential race. In a recent event, after Tulsi met PM Modi during his US visit, a woman tried to corner Tulsi over her meeting with PM Modi, saying that many believe PM Modi was ‘complicit’ in the Gujarat riots that saw thousands of people dying.

Tulsi, unperturbed by the baseless allegations, raised a simple question. “Do you know what instigated those riots”? The reply was an uncomfortable murmur throughout the room.

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

Tulsi then proceeded to answer the reporter saying, “You are levelling a very serious charge against me without presenting any facts to back them up. My focus as a member of Congress has always been and always will be about how best I can serve the interests of the American people and our country. I have been a co-chair here at the US-India caucus, for Indians and Indian Americans, recognising that India is one of our most important partners in the India-pacific region, where I come from.”

Tulsi, an army veteran who has served in Iraq, explained further that the US Pacific command does more training exercises with India than they do with any other country. The importance of US-India partnership is something that has bipartisan support. President Obama worked very closely with PM Modi when he was in the office recognising how important the partnership is for economic, educational, and cultural reasons.”

The reporter then asked, “What about the money you get from the RSS?”

Tulsi replied, “Again, back up your claims with evidence. The contributions that I get for my campaign come from American citizens. What you are doing right now is levelling criticism against American citizens who just happen to be Hindus and who are involved in our democratic process. I am proud to have support for my campaign from all across our country from citizens who are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Atheists.”

Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam hints of leaving the party, threatens to not campaign in upcoming elections

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam hints of leaving the party, threatens to not campaign in upcoming elections

After suffering a massive jolt in poll-bound Haryana, Congress is now facing a similar obstacle in Maharashtra, which also goes to poll along with Haryana on October 21. Now, its senior leader and Mumbai Congress’ former chief, Sanjay Nirupam seems to be miffed with the ticket distribution in the state. He, on Thursday, gave hints that he would not be taking part in the party’s campaign after the name he had recommended was “rejected”.

While interacting with media persons on Friday, the former reality show Bigg Boss contestant reiterated his stand and said that while he does not want to leave the party, “if things continue to be like this” then he may not be with the party for long. He also said he will not campaign in the upcoming state assembly elections.

Congress’ predicaments after the 2019 Lok Sabha debacle just seems to be proliferating. Poll drubbing, followed by a flurry of resignations and infighting within the party is definitely no good news for India’s oldest political party.

The former MP, sulking over the rejection of his sole recommendation said, “For Mumbai, I had recommended only one name of a potential winner Muslim candidate from Versova, but that has been rejected without assigning reasons. This means the party has no need for me. I shall sit at home during elections.”

He also said that the way the party’s leadership was behaving with him the time to say goodbye to the party was “not far away”.

“It seems the Congress Party doesn’t want my services anymore. I had recommended just one name in Mumbai for Assembly election. Heard that even that has been rejected. As I had told the leadership earlier, in that case I will not participate in the poll campaign. It’s my final decision,” Nirupam said on Twitter without naming any of the city leaders.


“I hope that the day has not yet come to say goodbye to the party. But the way leadership is behaving with me, it doesn’t seem far away,” he sulked in another tweet.


Sanjay Nirupam who is known for his crass language was replaced as the city Congress chief ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in March this year following complaints by a section of party leaders that he functioned in “unilateral” manner.

Former Union minister Milind Deora had replaced Nirupam. However, Deora had resigned from the post last month following the party’s debacle in the general elections. The party could not win even a single seat out of the six in Mumbai. Former MP Eknath Gaikwad is the acting president of the city unit at present.

Prior to this, the internal discord within the Congress showed up as the ex-party chief of Haryana, Ashok Tanwar alleged that the party of selling tickets to “undeserving” candidates and called his supporters to protest outside the AICC headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday.

“For 5yrs I gave my blood & sweat for Congress. Leadership in Haryana has been destroyed. We’ve been dedicated to the Party. Why give tickets to those who’ve recently joined&criticised Cong earlier,” said the ex-party chief while protesting outside Cong HQ.

Incidentally, both these states which are going for polls this month have been Congress’ arch-rival BJP’ stronghold. BJP swept both these states in the 2014 Assembly polls as well as the recent 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In order to defy BJP, Congress along with a re-worked strategy and organisation would have required the backing of its powerful patrons. But the way it is losing out on its supporters one after the other, future looks bleak for the grand old party.

Madhya Pradesh Congress worker ‘worships’ Sonia Gandhi during Navratri, considers her a manifestation of ‘Devi’

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh Congress worker ‘worships’ Sonia Gandhi during Navratri, considers her a manifestation of ‘Devi’

Madhya Pradesh Congress worker Dr TK worships Sonia Gandhi during Navratri as a manifestation of ‘Goddess’ and ‘Devi’ as he has as much faith in the Congress President as one has in God. He has also vowed that he will keep his head shaved off till she becomes the Prime Minister of India.

In Datia, Madhya Pradesh, Dr TK worships Sonia Gandhi during the Navratri because he believes she is a manifestation of the goddess. He prays to her and makes offerings throughout the nine days of Navratri to Sonia Gandhi. He even keeps fast for the Navratri to pray to Sonia Gandhi.

He has been worshipping Sonia Gandhi since last 20 years now, as per reports. He says that he only wishes to see Sonia as the PM and destroy the evil. He prays to Sonia Gandhi after taking a bath every day.

JNU: AISA members try to disrupt minister Jitendra Singh’s seminar on Article 370 abrogation

OpIndia Staff
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JNU: AISA members try to disrupt minister Jitendra Singh’s seminar on Article 370 abrogation

Students of the leftist All India Students Association and ABVP members reportedly clashed yesterday at the JNU campus. The clashes broke out when the leftist students were protesting against Union Minister Jitendra Singh’s address at a seminar scheduled at the campus.


As per reports, Union Minister Jitendra Singh was to address a seminar organised on the JNU campus yesterday over the government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The leftist students started protesting with placards and loud slogans at the venue.

The seminar was to be held at JNU Convention Centre from 3 pm yesterday. AISA members reportedly gathered before minister Jitendra Singh’s arrival and started sloganeering, creating a ruckus at the venue. Following alleged separatist sloganeering, ABVP members raised an objection and this reportedly led to arguments and clashes between the two student groups.

As per reports, the leftist students were raising separatist slogans while the ABVP members were trying to stop them from disrupting the event. Countering the separatist slogans, the ABVP members raised slogans like “Kashmir se Kanyakumari, Bharat mata ek hamari”.

Aaj Tak has quoted AISA leader and former JNUSU president N Sai Balaji has stated that AISA students were protesting at Jantar Mantar and no AISA member was there raising separatist slogans at the minister’s seminar venue.

It is notable here that the JNUSU had issued a statement against the minister’s address at the seminar and has stated that it condemns the ‘unilateral decision’ to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir and detention of opposition politicians.

Climate change activist in US urges everyone to start ‘eating babies’ because ‘even bombing Russia’ cannot help to reduce population

OpIndia Staff
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Climate change activist in US urges everyone to start ‘eating babies’ because ‘even bombing Russia’ cannot help to reduce population

A woman supporter of controversial US lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) suffered a break down at a town hall event on Thursday evening over climate change, declaring that there are only “a few months left” and that it is time to “start eating babies”.

Addressing the Bronx lawmaker Cortez, a lady supporter gets up from her seat to give suggestions to AOC to combat climate change.


“Because of the climate crisis, we only have a few months left. I love that you support the green deal but it is not going to get rid of fossil fuel, it is not going to solve the problem fast enough,” she said.

The lady then cites an unnamed Swedish professor who suggested humans could start eating dead people to contain the crisis. “A Swedish professor said we can eat dead people but that’s not fast enough,” she says while removing her jacket so the print on her t-shirt is visible. “So I think your next campaign slogan has to be this, “We got to start eating babies, We don’t have enough time. There is too much CO2,” she said.

Addressing the crowd, she says, “All of you, you are a pollutant. Too much CO2. We have to start now, please.” She even has other ideas on arresting climate change, which involves bombing Russia, but it may still not be enough, as she says, because, “we still have too many people.”

“Too much pollution, so we have to get rid of the babies! That’s a big problem. We need to eat the babies!” the woman continued.

While Ocasio-Cortez tried to calm down the hysterical lady by telling her that luckily we have more than a few more months, she did not really ask the lady to not eat babies to combat climate change.

As social media users pointed out AOC’s supporter’s hysterics and alarmist behaviour, the US lawmaker blamed the right-wingers for allegedly mocking her supporter. She further stated that her supporter may have been suffering from a mental condition.


AOC thinks the activist was mentally unstable, but relevant question is what pushed her to this condition? Aren’t climate change alarmist prophecies the reason? Finding fault with right-wing, when there could be a time to look inwards and introspect that maybe they need to give people hope and not fear.

Meanwhile, taking a dig at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Trump Junior said the woman who asked people to eat babies seemed like a normal AOC supporter to him.


US President Donald Trump too did not miss out any opportunity to mock Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as he called her a “Wack Job”.


Recently, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was slammed for her ignorance after she fell for Pakistan propaganda. She had resorted to false propaganda had made some controversial claims that there were reports of violence, torture and blockage of medical aid and communication in Jammu and Kashmir ever since the region was stripped of its special status by the Indian government in August.

‘Islam convert’ stabs four at police headquarters in Paris

OpIndia Staff
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‘Islam convert’ stabs four at police headquarters in Paris

A deaf civilian police worker who had recently converted to Islam killed four colleagues including a woman with a ceramic knife. He was shot dead by the French police in Paris on Thursday.

According to the reports, 45-year old Michael Harpon caused the bloodbath in the French capital’s historic Police Prefecture after he attacked three members of the police force’s intelligence division on Thursday inside two ground floor offices, then went into a stairwell and assaulted two women.

Reportedly, Harpon is deaf since childhood, was originally from the Caribbean island of Martinique – a French overseas territory. He was married in 2014, converted to his wife’s religion in 2018 before they had their first child together.

Harpon’s wife Iham has been arrested. According to police officials, the nature of Harpon’s attack corresponded with similar ones carried out by terrorists affiliated to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.

The 45-year-old deaf IT worker who stabbed four people to death had converted to Islam just 18 months ago. However, the investigators have not ruled out a possible terrorist motivation for the Thursday afternoon attack, which left a woman and three men dead.

Harpon, who had worked in the IT department since 2003, had recently been reprimanded by his female boss over his refusal to interact with women. Harpon worked directly to the Directorate of Intelligence of the Prefecture of Police, or DRPP. Investigators also believe one of the motivations for the attack could be a ‘dispute over working with female colleagues’.

One of the women who was attacked by Harpon has survived the attack. She underwent emergency surgery and still in critical condition.

Later, the attacker was gunned down in a courtyard at the police facility by an officer described as a young “police trainee”.

Russian President Putin criticises climate activist Greta, dismisses her as a ‘poorly informed teenager’

OpIndia Staff
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Russian President Putin criticises climate activist Greta, dismisses her as a ‘poorly informed teenager’

Criticising teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for her recent speech at the United Nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed her as a “kind but poorly informed teenager manipulated into making impractical demands.” He said that he doesn’t share excitement about the speech made by her.

Putin was attending a session at an energy forum in Moscow during which he said, “I might dispirit you but I don’t share the common excitement about the speech by Greta Thunberg. No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different. People in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”

Putin further added that young people who fight for environmental issues should be supported but when people start using children and teenagers in personal interests, it only deserves to be called out. “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme situations,” Putin said.

The 16-year old’s raucous speech condemning world leaders for failing to tackle climate change at the United Nations drew mixed reactions from across the world. While one faction hailed the speech for her trenchant criticism of nations for not doing enough to stop climate change, the other faction rubbished it as a prolonged harangue.

Meanwhile, Greta has changed her Twitter bio to ‘Kind but poorly informed teenager’ after Putin took a dig at her.

Greta Thunberg’s Twitter profile

U.S. President Donald Trump too ridiculed Thunberg and Canadian Member of Parliament Maxime Bernier termed her as alarmist and mentally unstable. However, Thunberg retorted back saying that the ridiculing of children showed that her message had become “too loud to handle”.

Watch: Pakistan minister meets Taliban leaders like old friends in an effort to revive peace talks with the US, exchanges hugs and smiles

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Pakistan minister meets Taliban leaders like old friends in an effort to revive peace talks with the US, exchanges hugs and smiles

The finance minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi was seen warming up to the Taliban envoy ahead of their meeting in Islamabad. A top-level Taliban delegation held discussions with Pakistani leadership in a bid to revive the Afghan peace which was halted after US President Donald Trump abruptly called off the talks with militant group as ‘dead’.

The Taliban’s co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, who remained prisoner for eight years in a Pakistani prison, was greeted with hugs and smiles by Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed.

Pakistan remains one of the few countries to acknowledge the rule of the Taliban regime, and its hazy military establishment, particularly the surveillance arm-Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is widely believed to be a supporter of the militant insurgency group in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has been passionately facilitating peace talks between Taliban and Washington in Qatar over the past year attempting to arrive at an agreement for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in return for various security assurances from the insurgents.

The two warring sides- the US and Taliban were almost on the verge of signing a peace accord and subsequent withdrawal of US troops from the strife-region but the process was abruptly declared dead following violence from Taliban.

After the talks were called off, Taliban warned escalation and intensified attacks on US troops, but both the parties kept the negotiation doors open. Qureshi said said, “Pakistan wants the talks to resume to iron out the path for a long-lasting, enduring peace and stability in Afghanistan.”

He further continued, “War is not a solution to any problems. Only through talks can we establish peace in Afghanistan.”

Though Pakistan vehemently denies the charges of bolstering terror groups on its land, the recent bonhomie on display between Pakistani leaders and Talibani convoy reinforces the long-held belief that Pakistan continues to use terror elements as an integral part of its foreign policy.

BJP leader contradicts Hasan Minhaj’s claim, says comedian was offered seat in the audience but did not want it

OpIndia Staff
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BJP leader contradicts Hasan Minhaj’s claim, says comedian was offered seat in the audience but did not want it

Hasan Minhaj, the comedian, was denied entry at the Howdy Modi event in Houston during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the USA. The denial of his entry had caused a mild controversy and it was speculated that he was denied entry due to his adverse comments about the Prime Minister during one of the episodes of his show The Patriot Act.

Now, Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of the foreign affairs department of the BJP has clarified that Hasan Minhaj was offered a seat as one of the 50,000 people in the audience because he did not register himself as a media person. However, he did not want that seat. Ordinary citizens were not permitted to enter with a camera due to security reasons.


Hasan appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers later and said he was not permitted to enter due to his comments on Narendra Modi.


On the show, Hasan said, “They said ‘Mr Minhaj we are out of space and you have been denied because of some of the comments you have made’. And I was like ‘I am sorry for making fun of cricket.’ They’re like ‘No. the comments you have made about Prime Minister Modi were not appreciated and you’ve been blacklisted’.”

“And I was in the parking lot watching this whole thing on live stream while I’m looking at the stadium. And I am watching the program. And during the program, they’re honouring the prominent Indian-Americans. And then they show a photo of me on the Jumbotron and people start clapping. So they were honoring me for my comedy while also blackmailing me and blackballing me and kicking me out for my comedy,” he added.

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