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Supreme Court refuses to release Rs.10 Crore deposited by Karti Chidambaram for three more months

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court refuses to release Rs.10 Crore deposited by Karti Chidambaram for three more months

In another setback to Karti Chidambaram, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to release Rs.10 crore that was earlier deposited by him with the Supreme court’s registry for travelling abroad.

Reportedly, a bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta said the amount will continue to remain in fixed deposit for another three months.

Karti Chidambaram, who is facing proceedings in cases like Aircel-Maxis and money laundering matters, had deposited Rs.10 crore pursuant to the condition imposed by the top court for travelling abroad.

The apex court had allowed Karti to travel to the United States, Spain and Germany in May and June, asking him to deposit another Rs.10 crore as the security deposit. The bench was hearing Karti’s plea seeking permission to travel abroad to attend international tennis tournaments organised by a company called ‘Totus Tennis Ltd’ having its registered office in the UK.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna gave its approval for his travel abroad with subject to compliance of conditions.

Later, Karti had requested the court to release the sum of Rs.10 crore deposited by him earlier since he has returned back in time in compliance with the court’s order.

However, the Supreme Court had dismissed his petition filed in May seeking the release of Rs.10 crore deposited by him earlier this year before travelling abroad. The vacation bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose had dismissed his plea. In a sharp note to the advocated representing the newly elected Member of Parliament, CJI Gogoi quipped, “Pay attention to your constituency.”

Karti Chidambaram is facing investigation in a number of cases including money laundering and having undisclosed foreign assets. He has been charged in cases like INX Media case and Aircel Maxis case and is facing probe from the central agencies. P Chidambaram has also been facing an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Aircel Maxis case.

Karti was arrested in February 2018 by the CBI in the INX Media case. The CBI had accused him of receiving a bribe of Rs 3.5 crores from the Peter and Indrani Mukherjee owned INX Media Pvt Ltd. INX Media was later named as 9X. However, he was later granted bail.

Read the details of Enforcement Directorate’s case against Congress leader D K Shivakumar

OpIndia Staff
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Read the details of Enforcement Directorate’s case against Congress leader D K Shivakumar

Congress leader in Karnataka DK Shivakumar was remanded to ED custody till September 13 by a Delhi court after he was arrested on September 3. Shivakumar was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a money laundering as he was not cooperating with Enforcement Directorate in the case.

The alleged money laundering by DK Shivakumar came to light after raids by the Income Tax officials on August 2, 2017, at four flats in New Delhi, which led to the seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs.8.59 crore without evidence of its source of income. These flats were linked to Shivakumar, and associates Sachin Narayan and Sunil Kumar Sharma.

Another two associates, Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah and N Rajendran, employees of Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, had allegedly stored the case in the flats on behalf of the Congress leaders. They had said that they were handling the money of Shivakumar, but later they had retracted their statements.

Hanumanthaiah had told the Income Tax department that was responsible for the handling of unaccounted money belonging to Shivakumar, and was also the custodian of keys to the flats where the money was kept. The complaint filed by I-T dept says that the flats were purchased by the Congress leader to entertain guests, and to store unaccounted cash. The cash was generated in Bangalore and other places, which was then transported by Sunil Sharma to Delhi to be stored in the flats. This cash was then distributed by Shivakumar, and this entire operation was conducted to evade tax, I-T dept says.

The I-T Dept had also revealed that Shivakumar and his associates had used hawala channels to transport unaccounted money on a regular basis. “Accused number 1 (Shivakumar) has set up an extensive network of persons and premises across Delhi and Bangalore in order to transport and utilise unaccounted cash”, the department had said in its complaint submitted at the Special Court for Economic Offences in Delhi.

Sunil Kumar Sharma owns a transportation business named Sharma Transport, and it is alleged Sharma’s transport business facilitated the movement of cash from Bengaluru and other places in the country to Delhi, and subsequent distribution of cash to individuals on the directions of Shivakumar.

Shivakumar didn’t have any document to account for the cash recovered, and documents seized during the search showed that payments were made to AICC official V Mulgund from the stored cash. He had said he has agricultural income, but had no document to prove that.

The raids in Delhi by the Income Tax department were the result of another I-T raid conducted in March 2016, on K. Govindaraj, Parliamentary Secretary to the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and a member of the Legislative Council of the state. The raids had led to the seizure of a diary that allegedly listed financial transactions between different entities, which were referred to only through their initials.

The diary had entries like ‘RG Office’, ‘SG Office’, ‘Media, ‘DKS’, ‘M. Vora’ and ‘AICC’ etc, which were either paid amounts or from whom payments were received. One of the pages on the diary showed ₹3 crore received from one ‘DKS’. Another payment of ₹2 crore was sent by him to AICC, according to I-T dept.

Eventually, the Income Tax department raid on DK Shivakumar had led to a money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate in September last year. Before his arrest, ED had summoned him for questioning, but as he was not cooperating with the prove, the ED took him into custody.

The Curse of Gandhari: Author Aditi Banerjee tells why Gandhari is her favourite queen

OpIndia Staff
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The Curse of Gandhari: Author Aditi Banerjee tells why Gandhari is her favourite queen

‘Mythological fiction’ as we know it are written about the heroes. The protagonist is usually a strong, powerful male character. Yes, leading females in these books also have their fair share of action, but it is the hero who takes the lead. In ‘The Curse of Gandhari’, author Aditi Banerjee explores the personality of Gandhari, the queen who cursed Lord Krishna.

Banerjee believes that ‘mythological fiction’ is a misnomer for the genre. “Mythology implies that which is false, a superstition rendered obsolete by time, nothing more than a stale relic of the past. But for me, at least, the Itihaasa and Purana are very much alive and real. I like ‘speculative fiction’ as a category better, which is a more accurate description,” she says adding that she started writing The Curse of Gandhari from Mahabharata and other source text and speculated what may have been between the lines or even beyond them such that it stays respectful and consistent to the source text, Mahabharata.

Banerjee says she finds Gandhari as one of the most inspirational and unforgettable characters. “Her devotion to her husband, her astonishing act of sacrifice in blindfolding herself, her strength of will and power such that she was able to curse Krishna himself — she was always one of my favourites,” she says. “I wanted to explore her personality and reimagine her life story, driven by a simple question — would it be possible for someone who did what she did, suffered as she had, to find peace at the moment of death? I also wanted to explore her relationship with Krishna, because the dynamic between them is so fascinating,” she adds.

Banerjee says writing about Devas and drawing from epic literature of our tradition is a form of meditation for her which makes her feel closer to them. “It makes them more tangible and alive, more deeply present for me. This is what we are meant to do with these stories — listen, reflect and internalize. Writing is simply my way of practicing that. It also helps me relate better to a faraway time and place by reimagining it in the syntax of a novel, to play out in slower detail that which is covered by a few terse lines by Veda Vyasa and Valmiki, to let my imagination wander over the breathtaking canvas they have bestowed us with, to linger here or there, to explore at leisure and in depth,” she says on her experience of writing The Curse of Gandhari.

With pursuing an Executive MBA at Columbia University and working as a corporate lawyer in New York, Banerjee took about a year to write her debut novel. “Given my career, I wrote mostly on the weekends, turning batches of pages in weekly to my writing coach. Were it not for the support of Indic Academy and a creative fiction workshop sponsored by Hari Kiran Vadlamani, I may never have embarked upon this path. I am deeply indebted to him and the organization,” she adds.

Banerjee says she drew her inspiration from authors like Kavita Kane, Amish Tripathi, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Ashok Banker and credits Bibek Debroy’s English translation of the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata as her main source. In The Curse of Gandhari, debutante novelist Aditi Banerjee explores one of the lesser discussed figures of the Mahabharata — the complex, mysterious and endlessly fascinating personality of Gandhari, my favourite of the queens.

The book, published by Bloomsbury, will be released on 10th September. An excerpt of her book can be read below:

Finally, at six months, Gandhari began to show. It was a small, hard protuberance. It was barely visible, and Ayla told her worriedly how everyone was watching her figure expectantly every time she appeared before the family, before the public. There were looks of concern on the faces of Satyavati, Bhishma, Vidura, and deeper frowns on the faces of the ministers. Kutili, Dhritarashthra’s maid, stared at her belly obsessively and made whispered reports to Dhritarashthra, who shook his head sadly.

All this Ayla reported to her.

What do they expect? Can I make the baby bigger in my belly somehow? I am doing the best I can.

Yet, the anxiety got to her, too. Her dreams were haunted by babies. She knew very well that she was married into this family because of the boon that she would bear them one hundred sons. It brought a sheen of sweat to her forehead to think of what would happen, how far she would fall, if she could not deliver. She was the only hope of producing a royal heir to the throne. She could not fail. She pressed her hands into her belly, willing that foetus to life, willing it to grow strong and healthy, willing it to be a boy.

All of her prayers she poured into that belly. Into producing the perfect baby, the perfect heir, the one who would one day be king. That mass inside her, that rock-like hardness that felt like a tumour, began to grow and expand, spreading tentacles across her inner flesh, feeding on her marrow and blood. She became progressively weaker but revelled in that weakness, knowing her strength was going into her son. It became harder and harder to walk. Her belly grew so heavy in mass that she could not keep her balance when she walked.

Now it was the doctors’ turn to become worried. They had never seen a pregnancy like this. They could not detect anything about the baby, not even a heartbeat. But something was growing inside her. They worried that the baby would be stillborn. Whether she had already had a miscarriage. Whether it was a disease, not a child, that was ravaging her body from
within. They worried it was a demon who had taken root inside her, that she was being visited upon by some evil ghost.

They worried she would die.

Gandhari thought she would vomit from all the worry, all the speculation. She was careful not to vomit. She wanted to safeguard each morsel of nutrition for her babies — now she had started thinking of them in the plural. The mass in her belly had become hot and fiery, burning through the lining of her flesh like acid, sending streams of bile upwards. She was sweating all the time; even when she bathed in cold water, it was like a fever that suffused her skin, made it red and splotchy, unbearably sensitive, hot to touch. She began moaning, a low, guttural, whining moan, unbeknownst even to her, so out of sorts was she, that she did not even know she was making that noise. If she had known, she would have
been mortified.

Fed up with the doctors worrying and fussing over her, Gandhari finally threw them all out, disregarding Bhishma’s protest. As they filed out, one admonished her that she was at risk of delivering too early, before the baby was ready to be born, if there even was a baby. It was a female vaidya. Her voice was stern and she sounded experienced, a true expert. She warned her to stay on continued bedrest with her legs suspended above her head, to keep the baby in. She told her that was the only way. Despite herself, Gandhari believed her.

And so Gandhari shut herself into a dark chamber. Ayla tied her feet together and lifted them up on a stack of cushions so that her feet were elevated above her head. Ayla was the only servant who would remain with her. The others had become too frightened by what was growing in Gandhari’s belly and by her terrible mood. She was like a woman possessed. Her parents wrote and wished to visit her, but she refused to see them. She could not bear that after so many years they would see her like this.

Ayla was the only one who could soothe her. She lay next to her, washing her forehead with a wet scented cloth, fanning her in the unbearable heat of summer, reading her stories of her favourite kings and queens, the ones Subala used to tell her when she was a child. With Ayla, Gandhari could weep openly, gasping in pain when she felt the baby beating against the walls of her belly with hammering fists, perhaps as impatient to enter the world as she was to welcome him into it.

One day, Gandhari complained to Ayla, ‘It feels like I have one hundred babies inside of me, Ayla, all waiting to be born. That would really be a fine mess, if I am to bear all one hundred sons at once!’ Ayla clucked sympathetically.

It was Gandhari’s intent to imbue her baby with education even while he was in the womb. She wanted to recite all of the hymns to the devas that she had learned, to surround him with auspicious vibrations, to give him the company of the devas. She wanted to teach him all that Subala had taught her, reciting the names of all the eminent dynasties and lineages of the ruling families of Bharat, the history of their kingdom, the glories of their ancestors, the conquests, the piety, the might and valour of the family into which he would be born. She wanted to tell him about the values by which to live, how to care for and win the favour of the people, the duties of a king.

But in this too she was thwarted by Dhritarashthra. He would lie next to her in bed for hours, whispering bitterly into her belly, how he had been deprived of the throne by fate, how all of his hopes were vested in him, this baby boy who would finally win for him the throne he was denied, how he would do anything to make him succeed and secure his interests; he would lie, scheme, steal, kill, if he had to, to make sure his boy sat on the throne of Hastinapur.

Gandhari sometimes tried to put her hands on her belly to protect the baby from these venomous outpourings, as if she could cover the baby’s ears so he would not hear this poison. But she was so discombobulated by weakness and strain, by the pulsing mass of flesh that was eating away at her, that she lacked the strength to keep her husband away from her belly, to inoculate her baby from his spite. Every time she tried to talk, her teeth chattered uncontrollably. Her limbs shook like she was in palsy every time she tried to move.

Months and months passed. It had been a year now, over a year, and still no babies emerged from her womb. Gandhari grew weaker and weaker. She was on the verge of unconsciousness all the time but lacked the respite of sleep in this limbo state between being awake and unconscious. She was tormented by nightmares of hellish worlds full of fire and demons. In her visions, all she saw was a blazing fire spread across the entire horizon, scorching her skin as she walked through it, looking for her babies. Every time she opened her mouth to call out to them, she swallowed fire and her organs withered and died. She became a walking skeleton. But still she went after her babies. They began to cry out to her, like hatchlings. She heard their cries, faint through the din of the roaring fire, that howled as it ate more and more of the world, consuming and charring everything in sight. She never saw them, only heard their cries, crawling and groping through this world of fire. She lived more in this nightmarish world in those last several months of her pregnancy than in the world of her stuffy, dank chamber.

It was as if she had been left to die.

The tragedy of Ravish Kumar: A creative and deranged poet desperate to be a ‘hero’ in the world of journalism

K Bhattacharjee
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The tragedy of Ravish Kumar: A creative and deranged poet desperate to be a ‘hero’ in the world of journalism

Every legendary epic needs heroes and villains. It needs drama, traitors, collusion, collaboration, dark horses, bravery in the face of great adversity, valiant people with grand dreams, tragedy, glory, misery, delight and everything else that comes along with it to make a great story.

Every villain needs a great hero in order to alleviate his own stature. The converse is also true. Every hero needs a fearsome villain in order to prove himself worthy of honour. However, in a world that has remarkably few opportunities for people to attain glory, people must invent their own villains so that they can then overcome them in order to prove to others how great they are.

It is perhaps this innate desire in humans to become heroes that is responsible for the emergence of the SJW cult. And looking at some of the things Ravish Kumar has been saying, one gets the distinct impression that it is the same desire that is driving his brand of journalism. Ravish Kumar’s speech on winning the Ramon Magsaysay award is symbolic of the fact.

Listening to the speech gives one the distinct impression that he is living in a dystopian world where the upside is down, the left is right and contrary to what we have learned in all these years, the Earth is indeed flat. The government has been lying to us, fools. Ravish Kumar is indeed a poet with considerable talent, however, poets are often not in touch with reality. Journalism demands that a journalist keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground while poets can only prosper when they give wings to their spirits.

It appears as though Ravish Kumar continues to practice ‘journalism’ but he has allowed his spirit to take to the skies. And what we have as a result is a poet painting a terrible portrait of the world on the canvas with the considerable amount of creative talent at his disposal. Needless to say, the resultant ‘khichdi’ makes one a terrible journalist while his creative talents go unappreciated.

Ravish Kumar said in his speech, “We are living in testing times, as journalists and as common citizens. Our citizenship itself is on trial right now and make no mistake about it, we need to fight back. We need to rethink our duties and responsibilities as citizens.” It appears Ravish Kumar is referring to the NRC exercise. Ravish Kumar conveniently ignores the very real threat from illegal immigration to wax eloquence on an issue that demands a rational evaluation of facts.

The NRC, quite clearly, was riddled with various flaws that requires immediate fixes but Ravish Kumar paints a slanted view of the whole matter that’s tailormade to suit his own purpose. The slanted view was essential to augment his own stature amon his peers, it’s only by convincing others that he was fighting a mythical monster that he could portray himself as a hero.

Ravish Kumar goes on to add, “I believe that in today’s times when the attack on our citizenship is all-encompassing and the state’s surveillance apparatus is more overbearing than ever, the individuals or groups who are able to withstand this onslaught and emerge stronger from it, will be the ones who lay the foundation for a better citizenry and for that matter, maybe even better governments in the future.”

An authentic journalist would have recognized that the threat posed by surveillance is very real but also appreciate the fact that it isn’t coming from governments. It’s the tech companies which are undermining the privacy of their consumers. Tech giants like Facebook, Google, Twitter have managed to establish an environment where they spy on individuals without their consent. However, the poet that he is, Ravish Kumar thinks the Indian government is the problem here.

Ravish Kumar knows he can’t fight the tech giants. Therefore, he chooses an enemy that he actually has a chance of defeating. That’s the other essential part of epics. If the heroes and villains are so mismatched that one stands no chance against the other, then it doesn’t make the stuff exciting. One side turns out to be mere cannon fodder and as we all know, cannon fodder doesn’t make for a great story. A cannon fodder cannot be a hero. Our Ravish Kumar, here, does imagine himself to be a hero in his own story. Therefore, it was essential that he chose the government as his enemy and not the tech giants.

Evidence of his poetic inclinations was evident throughout the speech. At one point, he said, “Our world is filled with such determined citizens already who in spite of pervasive hatred and a manufactured information deficit, have chosen to fight back and bloom like the cactus flower does in the midst of a barren hopeless desert. Standing alone and surrounded by the ever stretching desert on all sides, the cactus doesn’t think about the meaning of its existence: it stands there to let you know that it’s possible.”

He goes on to add, “Wherever the fertile plains of democracy are being subverted into deserts, the exercise of citizenship and the fight for the claim over – and right to – information have become perilous, but not impossible.” At another point, he says, “Disagreement is the aatma [spirit, soul, or essence] of democracy and citizenship. The democratic aatma is under relentless attack every day.”

This is poetry in its purest form, it isn’t journalism. Because journalism doesn’t rely on flowery words and imagery to convey information, it relies primarily on the authenticity of its facts. Poetry, on the other hand, doesn’t have to constrain itself with the talons of reality. And Ravish Kumar, quite clearly, has taken the liberty to indulge in gross exaggeration, complete misrepresentation and twisting reality to suit his own purpose.

Ravish Kumar also condemns sections of the media for what he believes is unethical journalism. He says, “When mainstream journalism can neither support its own rights nor the sheer idea of journalism, citizen journalists and citizen journalism both are under a constant (existential) threat. The threat here is not merely on the practical implications of reportage, viewership or financial sustenance, but also on the atmosphere which should not enable the growth and nurture of such hypocrisy and bankruptcy. Such media – and may I go so far as to claim that its audiences too – cannot stand by pure information and hard facts, be it anywhere in the world. It has moved so far away from its foundational ideals and principles that it was imagined on, that it will, and it already does, fail to see the irony and tragedy in the cases that I have just listed.”

Earlier in the same speech, he had said of the media, “News channel debates take place within a vocabulary of exclusionary nationalism wherein they seek to replace the collective history and memory of the nation with that of the ruling party’s in their viewers’ minds. There are only two types of people in this news universe narrative: the anti-nationals and us. It’s the classic “us” and “them” technique. They tell us that the problem with Anti-nationals is that they ask questions, disagree, and dissent.”

On another occasion, he states, “India’s mainstream media is working night and day to convert our citizens into “post-illiterates”. It has given up on trying to convert superstitious beings into rational thinking beings. Its syllabus is comprised of unthinking nationalism and communalism. The mainstream media has begun to consider the state’s narrative as pure information. There are numerous channels on television but the manner and content of news on all these channels is the same. ‘Opposition’ is a derogatory word for this media.”

Such tirades against the media can be found throughout the article. Every media platform is corrupt and biased and agenda-driven, every single one of them; apart from the one where Ravish Kumar works, of course, and the ones he personally endorses. He is a hero, you see, up against insurmountable odds. But he, along with his rag tag band of comrades, is carrying on the good fight, in defiance of the mythical monster that seeks to destroy humanity itself. At least, that is what we are asked to believe here.

This, too, is extremely essential toward building an aura of integrity around himself. How could a preacher establish his own moral superiority without condemning others for their moral bankruptcy? How could a hero become a hero unless he is distinguished from those around him by virtue of his moral superiority? It is extremely natural for heroes to call out his peers for failing to adhere to standards that are expected of them. And that is exactly what Ravish Kumar is doing here, alleviating his own stature.

Then, like a true hero, Ravish Kumar tries to inspire people to victory. He says, “When the media turns against the citizen, then it’s time for the citizens to take on the role of the media. She has to do so knowing that the chances of success are slim in these times of state brutality and surveillance.”

On a particular occasion, he says, “When the state and media unite to control citizens, is it possible for a citizen to be able to act as a journalist? To be a citizen and exercise the associated rights, it requires a system that has to be provided for by the same democracy that the citizen belongs to.  If the judiciary, police, and media become hostile towards the citizen, and the part of society that is aligned with [is/indistinguishable from] the state begins excluding them, how much can we expect a defenceless citizen to fight? Yet, the citizen is fighting back. The cactus is coming alive.”

It is another instance where the brilliance of his literary skills comes alive in exquisite fashion. His commendable literary skills also become evident when he says, “While evening in India may arrive with the setting of the sun, it is the reportage from news media that spreads the darkness of night.”

Towards the end, he appreciates his fellow travelers on the bandwagon. “Even in these times of despair there are numerous people who are trying to fill this gap. From comedians to YouTube channels, they have tried to keep the essence of journalism alive: an exercise of citizenship in the service of citizens. It is their strength and determination which has not let everything become one-sided in India’s democracy. Even if they may have not won the battle (yet), the people continue to fight,” he said.

It was Ravish Kumar’s speech on receiving the Ramon Magsaysay award that the actual tragedy of his story became evident. I have no doubt that he resolutely believes in the apocalytpic picture of the world he has painted. But creative people have fertile imaginations and should they become hostage to the figments of their own creativity, consequences can be devastating.

It is more apparent than ever now that Ravish Kumar has fallen prey to the musings of his own mind. Perhaps journalism wasn’t his ambition, perhaps he always really fancied himself as a poet. Even when he took up journalism as a profession, he could never really abandon his heart’s call. Poetry is where his heart was and home is where the heart is. We carry our homes within us wherever we go, it never really leaves us, and so Ravish Kumar carried poetry into his journalism.

The end result of it all is that Ravish Kumar constructs a fictional narrative about the country and the world at large without ever realizing that the portrait he has painted is entirely the creation of his own mind. It exists only in his head and has no semblance to reality at all. However, Ravish Kumar has been so consumed by his passion for poetry and his compulsion to work as a journalist that the only way out that he could figure out for himself was transforming his work into a work of art. Unfortunately for him, the profession he was in demanded loyalty to truth and not creativity. Facts take precedence over imagination in journalism.

We are not living in a dystopian world, the world is not coming crashing down tomorrow because Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minister or Amit Shah was appointed the Union Home Minister. There is genuine hope among people that India may finally be on the verge of being a dominant player in world politics. The economy may be suffering a slowdown but people are still upbeat and optimistic about the future of the country. There is genuine trust in the government which is always a great thing in a vibrant democracy such as ours. The world is not on the verge of a Zombie Apocalypse either.

At 44 years of age, Ravish Kumar perhaps believes it’s too late for him to start anew as a poet. However, it’s never too late for a fresh beginning. He has a genuine talent with words and unconstrained by journalism, he could really let his creativity soar. As of now, the possibility of that happening is extremely low. Perhaps, Ravish Kumar intended himself to be a tragic hero in his own story. However, in the real world, the mythical narratives that he invents manifest themselves into action that would cause the ordinary observer to consider him a villain. Thus, even worse than a tragic hero, he is a tragic villain even in his own story. And that is, perhaps, the tragedy of Ravish Kumar.

Restructure Pakistan into multiple autonomous states or face an existential threat: Pakistan’s minority leader Nadeem Nusrat

OpIndia Staff
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Restructure Pakistan into multiple autonomous states or face an existential threat: Pakistan’s minority leader Nadeem Nusrat

After thrashing Pakistan stating that it had no moral right to speak on behalf of Kashmiris, prominent Mohajir leader Nadeem Nusrat this time warned Pakistan that it could face a “potentially existential threat” and advised Islamabad to restructure Pakistan into multiple autonomous states suggesting that it is the only viable solution to save the country.


According to ANI, Nadeem Nusrat, who is the Chairman of the US-based advocacy group, Voice of Karachi, in a special message on Pakistan’s Defence Day on September 6, said that in the history of the last 72 years, particularly after the creation of Bangladesh, it has been proven that Pakistan cannot become a nation-state, mainly due to Punjab’s hegemony over other ethnic groups.

“The creation of autonomous states is also in accordance with the 1940 Lahore Resolution, widely regarded as the basis for Pakistan’s creation, which had also called for the formation of autonomous states in India”, Nusrat said in a statement.

In a statement released by the Mohajir leader, “The founding fathers of Pakistan had already anticipated this threat and had, therefore, demanded the creation of ‘independent states’ as opposed to what the country eventually turned out to be”.

Quoting the 1940 Lahore resolution in his statement, Nusrat said, “That geographically contiguous units are demarcated regions which should be constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in the majority as in the North-Western and Eastern Zones of (British) India should be grouped to constitute ‘independent states’ in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.”

“The wording of the historic 1940 Resolution is an irrefutable proof that Pakistan’s current administrative structure is a blatant violation of the true aspirations of Pakistan’s founding fathers, and it is about time to address this betrayal,” the statement read.

“Pakistan’s existential threat comes from ‘within’ and not from India, Afghanistan, Israel or the US, as indoctrinated by Pakistan’s military establishment since its inception. The steady emergence of jihadist forces, religious intolerance, terror infrastructure, ethnic divisions, Pakistani military’s constant interference into civilian issues and its manipulation of election results, corruption, poor governance are the real threats to Pakistan’s integrity and national security,” the chairman said.

Bluntly questioning the celebrations of Pakistan’s Defence Day, Nadeem Nusrat said that the Pakistani military establishment might not even like to discuss this, but the fact remains that the country has lost all its wars against India.

Last month, Nadeem Nusrat had hit back at the terrorist state of Pakistan after it had attempted to interfere in India’s affairs by protesting against the historic decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir. He had said that Pakistan had “no moral right to speak on behalf of Kashmiris.”

Nadeem Nusrat had also stated that Pakistan must first provide the same rights to all ethnic minorities in its own territory before speaking on behalf of Kashmiris.

Nusrat is one of the most prominent minority voices representing the ‘Mohajirs’ of Pakistan. He leads a life of exile in the US. His group has been demanding the creation of a ‘Greater Karachi’ within Pakistan. Mohajirs are the Muslim immigrants belonging to multiple ethnic groups who had migrated to Pakistan from various parts of India.

Fire at New Delhi Railway Station, passengers evacuated safely

OpIndia Staff
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Fire at New Delhi Railway Station, passengers evacuated safely

A fire broke out in the read power car of Chandigarh-Kochuveli Express at platform 8 of New Delhi Railway Station. Four fire tenders reached the spot and efforts underway to douse the fire. All passengers are evacuated safely.


Update: The fire has now been doused.

Note: This is a developing story and we shall update it when newer information is available.

Special Court adjourns Aircel-Maxis case ‘sine die’, no future date of hearing assigned

OpIndia Staff
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Special Court adjourns Aircel-Maxis case ‘sine die’, no future date of hearing assigned

A special court in Delhi headed by Justice O P Saini adjourned the Aircel-Maxis case sine die (without assigning any future date for a hearing or further meeting).

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, who is currently held in judicial custody in Tihar Jail, and his son Karti Chidambaram are principal accused in the Aircel-Maxis case as well. However, Karti and P Chidambaram were successful in securing an anticipatory bail relief as the court yesterday ordered the reprieve for the beleaguered father-son duo.

Justice Saini instructed the investigative agencies-CBI and ED to revive the case once the investigation is complete. The agencies had sought an adjournment of 6 weeks from the court as they are yet to receive Letters Rogatory(LRs) from the foreign countries. The court adjourning the case sine die asked the investigative agencies to approach the court once they receive the LRs from the foreign countries.

The Aircel-Maxis case relates to the alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearances granted to the Aircel-Maxis deal at the time when P Chidambaram was Union Finance Minister. The prosecution had alleged that P Chidambaram, who was the Union Finance Minister at the time when the ₹3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal went through, and his son Karti received certain kickbacks to ensure FIPB clearance for the said deal.

P Chidambaram is also accused in the INX Media scam which involves charges of bribery and lobbying in granting foreign investments worth over Rs 300 crores to INX Media. INX Media was later known as NewsX, it was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjee of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case. Chidambaram is accused of misusing his power as the finance minister to grant INX Media an FIPB clearance. Currently, the former Union Minister is held in judicial custody at Tihar Jail till September 19, 2019.

First day in Tihar: Contrary to the long list of demands, P Chidambaram gets dal-roti to eat, floor to sleep on

OpIndia Staff
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First day in Tihar: Contrary to the long list of demands, P Chidambaram gets dal-roti to eat, floor to sleep on

The Congress-era Finance Minister P Chidambaram is currently lodged in Tihar jail after the court sent him to 14-day judicial custody in the INX Media case on Thursday.

Contrary to the long list of demands made by the Congress’ veteran leader’s counsel, Chidambaram had to accommodate himself in the stuffy barracks at Tihar on the first night on Thursday, reports Zee News.

Though Chidambaram was provided with a bedsheet and pillow the senior Congress leader was reportedly uncomfortable throughout the first night spent in the jail as he was made to sleep on the floor like regular jail mates. The former finance minister was, however,  allowed to take his medicines along with him inside the jail.

In the morning, Chidambaram was given tea and biscuits. For lunch, he would have been served chapatis, vegetables, dal and rice. Lunch timings are at 11.30 am. Between 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm, Chidambaram, like any other ordinary prisoner, will be lodged inside the cell. After 3:30 pm he would be allowed to go outside the cell and avail the library services or interact with other inmates. He will be served dinner at 6:45 while TV services are allowed till 9 pm after which he will again be sent back to his cell.

Chidambaram has been kept in 15 number cell, ward number 2 of Tihar’s Jail number 7 that houses 600-700 inmates. His son Karti Chidambaram was also lodged in the same jail earlier.

His lawyers had filed an application in the Delhi court earlier in which they had demanded certain facilities for Chidambaram. The long list of ‘VVIP’ demands had included a western toilet as Chidambaram cannot sit on the ground, according to his lawyers. Chidambaram has also sought permission to retain his spectacles. He asked for adequate security in the Jail premises since his counsel had argued that Chidambaram is a Z-category security protectee. A request for a separate cell with a cot and separate bathroom had also been made. During his stay at Tihar, a maximum of 10 people can meet him twice a week between 8 am and 1.30 pm.

The former Union Minister would have to celebrate his 74th birthday (September 16) with his jail inmates as he has been remanded in judicial custody until September 19, 2019.

Chidambaram’s counsels, in a desperate bid to save their client from going to Tihar, had moved an application in Court stating that Chidambaram wants to surrender in Enforcement Directorate case. It is pertinent to note that Chidambaram had refused it earlier.

Yesterday the Supreme Court had refused him anticipatory bail in the INX Media case.

A couple of days back the Central Bureau of Investigation had said that it no longer wants Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s custody and that the veteran Congressman should be sent to Tihar till September 5. Chidambaram had then pleaded that he willing to remain in the CBI custody till 5th.

Chidambaram was arrested on August 21 by the CBI after a prolonged drama where he had gone into hiding for over 24 hours after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Delhi High Court.

Read details: Delhi Police files FIR against freelance protestor-turned-politician Shehla Rashid, slapped with sedition charges

OpIndia Staff
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Read details: Delhi Police files FIR against freelance protestor-turned-politician Shehla Rashid, slapped with sedition charges

The special cell of Delhi Police has registered an FIR against JNU freelance protestor-turned-politician Shehla Rashid under sections of 124a, 153a, 153, 504, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR was filed in regards to her slanderous tweets against the Indian Army.


Rashid has been the book for sedition over her comments about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Latest FIR against Shehla Rashid
The latest FIR against Shehla Rashid

In a series of tweets posted by Shehla, she had accused the Indian Army of entering houses in the middle of the night, picking up boys and ransacking the homes, deliberately mixing oil with rice. Furthering her propaganda, she had also claimed that the armed forces had picked up four who were then taken into the Army camp. “A mic was kept close to them so that the entire area could hear them scream, and be terrorised. This created an environment of fear in the entire area,” added Shehla Rashid.

However, the Indian Army rejected allegations made by Shehla Rashid regarding the situation in the Jammu and Kashmir and called it “baseless”. “Allegations levelled by Shehla Rashid are baseless and rejected. Such unverified & fake news is spread by inimical elements and organisations to incite unsuspecting population,” said Indian Army.

American Airlines mechanic Abdul Majeed Alani arrested for sabotaging a flight carrying 150 passengers, forcing it to be grounded

OpIndia Staff
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American Airlines mechanic Abdul Majeed Alani arrested for sabotaging a flight carrying 150 passengers, forcing it to be grounded

An American Airlines mechanic from Miami International Airport was arrested on Thursday on charges that he sabotaged the navigation equipment of a flight carrying 150 people, forcing it to be grounded just before takeoff, reports Miami Herald.

According to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in federal court, Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, the mechanic who is now accused of sabotaging flight equipment admitted on Thursday that he tampered with a navigation system on the plane so that he could collect overtime work.

Abdul Majeed confessed that he had tampered with the air data module system on Flight 2834 from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas on July 17 because he was disgruntled about an impasse over a union contract, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Fortunately, none of the passengers and crew on the flight to Nassau were injured because the tampering with the air data module caused an error alert as the pilots fired up the plane’s engines on the runway July 17.

As a result, flight No. 2834, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft was aborted and taken out of service for routine maintenance at America’s hangar at Miami international airport. Later, the tampering with the ADM system was discovered during an inspection. An AA mechanic found a loosely connected tube in front of the nose gear underneath the cockpit that had been deliberately obstructed with some sort of hard foam material.

Alani is now charged with “willfully damaging, destroying or disabling an aircraft” and is expected to have his first appearance in Miami federal court on Friday.

According to investigators, security camera footage has revealed that Alani had gained access to the compartment housing the plane’s air data module system, where he inserted a piece of foam to obstruct the equipment. The federal charges said Alani spent about seven minutes doing the sabotage.

Reportedly, Alani glued the foam inside the tube leading from outside the plane to its air data module, a system that reports aircraft speed, pitch and other critical flight data. As a result, if the plane had taken off that day from MIA, the pilots would have had to operate the aircraft manually because the ADM system would not have received any computer data.

After his arrest Thursday, the affidavit says that Alani told federal air marshals assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force that “his intention was not to cause harm to the aircraft or its passengers.”

He said that his motive in tampering with the navigational system was because he was “upset” over stalled contract negotiations between the mechanics’ union and American Airlines that has raged for months, which had affected him financially.

He further said he only tampered with the plane’s air data module “in order to cause a delay or have the flight cancelled in anticipation of obtaining overtime work,” according to the affidavit.

The mechanics’ union and American Airlines are fighting a “bloody” battle over the course of the summer that has led to bitter legal fights in Texas, where the company is headquartered affecting more than 12,000 employees.

The air marshals, part of the Transportation Security Administration, also conducted interviews with three other AA mechanics who were with Alani after he tampered with the plane. They helped investigators identify him from the video footage. Alani was charged with willfully damaging or disabling an aircraft.

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