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Congress govt in Madhya Pradesh to introduce courses in govt and private colleges on ‘life, ideology and policies’ of Rajiv Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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Congress govt in Madhya Pradesh to introduce courses in govt and private colleges on ‘life, ideology and policies’ of Rajiv Gandhi

Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, on Friday, decided to introduce special sessions in government as well as private colleges to teach students about the “life, ideology and policies” of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

“The state government will observe 75th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi the whole year, as ‘Yuva Sankalp Varsh’ by organising different programmes, competitions and inviting experts to inform the students about Rajiv Gandhi’s life, ideology and policies”, said the official.

The programmes will be held from August 20, birth anniversary of Late Rajiv Gandhi to May 21, 2020, his death anniversary.

The motive to organise such an event would be to make the students aware of work done and policies introduced by Rajiv Gandhi as PM, said the state higher education and sports minister Jeetu Patwari.

Congress has always been synonymous with the dynasty and until it ceases to exist it somehow will continue the dynastic propagandism.

The Rajasthan Congress has also decided to include a write-up on former Prime Minister and an integral of this league, Rajiv Gandhi in the revised social science textbook for schools from the next session.

Sources said the write-up will be the part of the chapter ‘Aazadi Ke Baad: Bharat Ka Swarnim Itihas’ in classes XI and XII. “Rajiv Gandhi will be introduced as the father of modern India who laid the foundation for information technology,” a source said.

While the Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are all set to glorify Rajiv Gandhi, one wonder if the curriculum will teach the students about the various transgressions of Rajiv Gandhi including the Bofors scam.

Though Congress has always blamed the ruling government for saffronizing the education system what is appalling that Congress’ self-absorption has always pulled them back from crediting India’s evolvement to anyone else apart from its own ancestry. They have distorted Indian history by exaggerating the work and achievements of Jawaharlal Nehru while giving less importance to the work of other freedom fighters like Vallabhbhai Patel and Bhimrao Ambedkar and  Veer Savarkar.

In May, Congress government in Rajasthan had decided to change the class 10 school textbooks in the state, reversing the previous BJP Government’s decision to include the contribution of freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar in the school curriculum. The textbook would now depict Savarkar as a traitor who begged for clemency from the British government. Going a step further the Ashok Gehlot government in June axed the prefix ‘Veer’ from freedom fighter Savarkar’s name in the revised Class X social science textbook in the state.

P Chidambaram blames IAS officers for illegal FIPB approvals, says he didn’t see the files

OpIndia Staff
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P Chidambaram blames IAS officers for illegal FIPB approvals, says he didn’t see the files

Former union finance and home minister P Chidambaram, who is being interrogated in custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation, has blamed IAS officers for illegal FIPB approvals that have landed him in trouble. The senior Congress leader is accused of granting illegal FIPB approval for foreign investment into six companies including INX Media and Aircel Maxis, and laundering the black money received as kickbacks for the illegal favours granted to the companies.

According to reports, P Chidambaram has said during his interrogation that the decisions to grant FIPB approval to INX Media for foreign investment of ₹307 crore was granted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) division of the finance ministry. He said that 7-8 IAS officers handled the files related to foreign investments and he as finance minister never had enough time to go through the files. He said that he used to act on their recommendations.

“If there has been any irregularity, they should be knowing about it,” the finance minister in the UPA government said.

This marks a change in his position who has been maintaining that there was nothing wrong in the FIPB approval. His lawyers had argued that the total FDI in INX Media didn’t exceed the maximum limit of 75% even though the company raised far more FDI than what was allowed. According to allegations, Chidambaram and his son had influenced the FIPB members to issue an approval to INX Media for a downstream investment the company had already made in its subsidiary INX News, even though this request was rejected by the board earlier.

Indrani Mukerjea, who was the co-founder of INX-Media, has told the investigators that after the Income Tax department had detected the illegal investments, she had met P Chidambaram and his son Karti to settle the matter. The company was asked to make payments to the foreign bank account of a company controlled by Karti Chidambaram, and after that the fresh approvals were granted to make the illegal investments legal.

Indrani has turned approver into the case, and her version makes it clear that the IAS officers who were members of the FIPB had granted the approval on the influence of P Chidambaram. But now the former finance minister is trying to blame the officers saying he had signed the filed without seeing them.

After this statement by P Chidambaram, the then members of the FIPB are expected to be questioned by the CBI.

Indrani Mukerjea and her husband Peter Mukerjea are facing trial in a case involving the murder of Sheena Bora, her daughter from her earlier marriage. They are currently lodged in jail.

After getting more than 20 bails, P Chidambaram was finally arrested by CBI in a dramatic manner on 21st August, a day after Delhi High court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea. He was arrested at his residence after Supreme Court had refused to grant any interim relief, and a special CBI court had granted  CBI the custody of Chidambaram on the next day for 4 days.

Uttar Pradesh: Five journalists arrested for spreading fake news, booked under Gangster Act

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Five journalists arrested for spreading fake news, booked under Gangster Act

Five journalists, including three out on bail in a corruption case, have been booked under the Gangster Act after they allegedly circulating fake news on their portals, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, the Uttar Pradesh police have booked five journalists in Noida after they had attempted to put pressure on cops in connection with the corruption case that is already in court.

The journalists had published a series of ten news article, which cops claims that were motivated. One such news article accused the SSP of giving caste-based promotions to cops in Gautam Budh Nagar.

Reportedly, the five journalists who were booked are Sushil Pandit, Udit Goel, Raman Thakur, who are from Gautam Budh Nagar, Chandan Rai from Sahibabad and Nitish Pandey from Lucknow. The police officials said that Raman Thakur is on the run and police have announced a reward of Rs.25,000 on his head, while the police arrested the others on Friday night.

However, the journalists have denied the allegations against them. They said that the police should have sent them a notice if they had any objections to the news articles.

“We are being framed in a baseless case. If the police had issues with our articles, they should have given us notices and we would have produced evidence to prove our points. But they misused their power to book us under the Gangster’s Act. We will challenge them in court,” said Rai.

On Saturday, District Magistrate BN Singh and Noida police chief Vaibhav Krishna speaking to the press said that the inter-state criminals were posing as journalists.

“The accused would give lucrative offers to senior police officers to get their job done. If the cops declined, they would broadcast unverified and motivated news against these officers,” Krishna said.

“The accused had recently carried news that the Lucknow SSP and I had deployed some officers as SHOs on the basis of their caste and under the instructions from a political party. Both Pandey’s and Rai’s web portals carried the news. They also accused police of being involved in sand mining,” he said.

Nitish Pandey runs policenewsup.com, Rai is the owner of policemedianews.com. Pandit runs sansaniindia.com, while Goel owns grenoexress.com.

The officer said that Goyal, Thakur and Pandit were arrested on January 30 for plotting with a Noida Police inspector to extract Rs 8 lakh from a fake call centre operator. “They were out on conditional bail and carrying fake news to influence a sub-judice matter,” Krishna said. The offices of these web portals have been seized.

Meanwhile, the district magistrate has also clarified that the administration is not against journalists or freedom of expression but claimed that the accused would operate as a gang. “The postings of SHOs were done purely on the basis of merit and I also had a say in it. The accused were ganging up against police in order to get relief in a sub judice matter, which is why they are being charged under the Gangster Act,” said Singh.

The ‘journalists’ have been remanded in five days’ police custody. The accused were produced before a magistrate on Saturday. The magistrate has granted our appeal for a five days’ police remand, the police said.

Vyapam ‘whistleblower’ and Congress sympathiser doctor publishes confidential medical report to falsely malign Baba Ramdev’s associate

OpIndia Staff
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Vyapam ‘whistleblower’ and Congress sympathiser doctor publishes confidential medical report to falsely malign Baba Ramdev’s associate

An activist doctor posted a confidential medical report of a private individual to falsely claim that Baba Ramdev’s associate consumes ganja (Marijuana).

Dr. Anand Rai, who is known as a whistleblower of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, posted the copy of a medical test report yesterday on his verified Twitter handle. Dr Rai is close to senior Congress leaders, who wanted to contest Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in 2018 on a congress ticket.

In the medical report that he posted on Twitter, the name of the patient is mentioned as Acharya Balgovind Ji, and the report indicates that urine test of the person is positive THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), which is an active ingredient of Marijuana.


Dr. Anand Rai used this report to claim that an associated of Baba Ramdev consumes cannabis. But the fact is, there no well-known associate of Ramdev with the name Acharya Balgovind. The most well-known associate of the yoga guru is Acharya Balkrishna, who is the chairman of Patanjali Ayurved. The doctor deliberately used the medical report of a different person with an obvious different name in an attempt to malign the entrepreneur.

It may be noted that while the language used by the doctor indicated an insulting tone, a large number of sadhus in India use cannabis, mostly the devotees of Shiva. It is possible that the Acharya Balgovind mentioned in the test report is one such devotee. The report is from AIIMS in Rishikesh, an area where a large number of Sadhus live. This means the doctor is insulting all such sadhus who consume cannabis as a religious practice.

Most importantly, Medical test reports are considered confidential documents, and this activist-politician-doctor has violated norms of the medical profession by posting the report on a public forum without the consent of the actual patient, just to insult someone else.

Dr Anand Rai wanted to contest the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections on a Congress ticket, but the party had denied him a ticket. Although he was denied the ticket, he maintains a close relationship with senior Congress leaders, and his Facebook page is a testimonial of that fact.

Ravish Kumar blames ‘Modi the dictator’ for people not wanting to watch his mediocre shows anymore

OpIndia Staff
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Ravish Kumar blames ‘Modi the dictator’ for people not wanting to watch his mediocre shows anymore

Ravish Kumar, the star of the ‘liberal-secular’ media industry, has time and again demonstrated his state of paranoia by indulging in fear-mongering and propagating false agenda against the Narendra Modi government.

After facing a severe setback following the landslide victory of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ravish Kumar seems to be hurt and is now back to his old game of blaming ‘dictator’ Narendra Modi for every event that has occurred in the country since his re-election.

Ravish Kumar, who had once asked people to stop watching TV and throw them out to save the democracy has now displayed his hypocrisy by crying foul that the political atmosphere created by Narendra Modi led BJP was the reason why people do not watch his mediocre shows anymore.


In an interview, Ravish Kumar, as usual, while narrating his bizarre conspiracy theories, shared a ‘story’ of a boy who was abused by his own family after he had congratulated Ravish Kumar for winning Ramon Magsaysay award. Describing the story, Ravish Kumar said that he never expected that people belonging to the same family would muzzle dissenting voices.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RFTkygwodk?start=985]
Furthering his fear-mongering, he claimed that there is a situation in this country, where there is no need of the state to repress the people rather society will itself repress the dissenters.

Expressing his sympathy for that fictitious boy, Ravish Kumar claimed that the political system currently has polarised people within the family, leaving societies with many more divisions.

The most intriguing part of the Ravish conspiracy theories is when he described another story where one of his followers said to him that his elder brother switches off the television set whenever he watches Ravish Kumar’s show. With his usual rhetorics, Ravish Kumar asks what is happening within the country.

Next, Ravish Kumar insinuates that post-Narendra Modi led BJP’s victory, every member of the society is being converted into a political supporter. Taking his conspiracy theory to the next stage, he further claims that every voter is being converted into a political worker. Ravish Kumar further condescends that an average voter does not know much about the reality and they are unknowingly legitimising the things pushed by the political establishment by supporting its policies.

Ravish Kumar, who believes to be the most righteous man in the country, has a hidden talent of weaving new conspiracy theories to sustain his anti-government propaganda. The problem with ‘journalist’ Ravish Kumar is that he already knows who his enemy is. Strangely, Ravish considers PM Modi as his ‘adversary’ rather than an ideological opponent.

However, the most bizarre part is that Ravish Kumar himself accepts that his self-proclaimed ‘enemy’ does not even acknowledge his existence.

So, in an attempt to display his ‘dissent’, Ravish Kumar often targets the government, especially Prime Minister Modi. For Ravish Kumar, everything has to be about Modi as it was evident even in the hour of the grief of a remarkable politician like Sushma Swaraj, where he did not even hesitate to have that smug face while suggesting she was ignored purposefully by Modi.

The curious case of Ravish Kumar’s journalism is that he often resorts to shooting the allegations in the dark without backing with any hard evidence, relying on ridiculous claims like “Mujhe log message karte hain (People often text me)” or “Maine logon se baat ki (I talked to people)” or “Sutro ke mutabik (according to sources)”.

The above fantasy story of a boy which he narrates in the interview also falls flat as there is no evidence to back his claim.

As people are recognising Ravish’s bluff, they have now begun to stay away from his conspiracy fiction stories. With both Ravish Kumar and the NDTV fighting for relevance in the new age of media, it is rather not surprising to see Ravish Kumar venting out his anger by blaming ‘dictator’ Modi for everything under the sun.

A personal tribute to the legend: Working with master strategist Arun Jaitley during 2002 Gujarat elections

Guest Author
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A personal tribute to the legend: Working with master strategist Arun Jaitley during 2002 Gujarat elections

This story dates back to the post-Godhra election of 2002. Narendra Modi the sitting CM of Gujarat, was contesting his first-ever assembly elections. The state was the focal point of a highly motivated opposition and also the supremely charged up media, led by Lutyen’s media Mughals who were camping in Gujarat to ensure a defeat for Modi. These Lutyen gang had fiercely carried out a sustained negative coverage of Gujarat since February 2002 when Godhra massacre happened. Elections were slated good ten months later in December, thanks largely to an overtly watchful Election commission (Remember, James Michael Lyngdoh?), which did not announce elections soon after the assembly was dissolved in July 2002, nine months before Assembly’s term was due to end. The Commission’s interest too seemed anchored in Gujarat as the dissolution of the assembly had been publicly opposed by the Election Commission in wake of the then recent communal violence in the state.

This election was actively supervised by Arun Jaitely, who has also been the chief election strategist for all elections Narendra Modi fought from 2002 to 2012. Days before polling day, Arun Jaitely ji had anchored here in Gujarat and also supervised and finalised all ads that were released in Gujarat’s newspapers and Cable TV then.

Addition Ad Agency was the leading advertising & communications strategy agency of the party which was tasked with the creative duties of the campaign with few other firms. Nitai Pandya, a seasoned ad veteran and also a die-hard fan of Narendrabhai, was at the helm of this creative power-house. I was an associate of this communications firm since 1996. First as a media planning strategist, then also doubling up as a Hindi copywriter. I immensely enjoyed writing numerous political slogans and parody songs for party’s on-ground campaigns during that election.

As was the routine, Arun Jaitely would brief agencies on party’s communications strategies on a daily basis in the morning. And later in the evening he’d sit and select best ad for the next day from the ads the creative alternatives agencies presented him. Invariably Additions creatives won those rounds and many from this agency were handpicked by Jaitely ji. The selected ad would then be passed on to the media agency, Ajit Ads, which handled media releases since Party’s Jan Sangh days.

As the electioneering progressed, no one in the state was ready to predict the outcome of the election since the newly launched 24×7 news TV channels from Delhi were relentless in their negative coverage of the state. Local Newspapers aligned with Congress for decades were all opposed to Modi. The electioneering picked up its fierce pace as the polling day approached.

For the polling day ad’s briefing, Nitai Pandya from Addition went to see Arun Jaitely. Arun ji firmly ruled out any ad for the D-day. He summed up his intentions by saying that since BJP had presented all its points/credential to the people on the issues facing the state, so on the Voting day, he said, “there should be absolute silence. Let the voters decide in their absolute calmness”!

Nitai was a bit disappointed. Regardless, he decided to come back in the evening to present him with a creative that we had written for the polling day ad. When he arrived at party headquarters, Jaitely ji was very busy in fields, supervising polling day’s booth management strategies. He therefore met Nitai very late in the evening — almost well past the deadline when newspapers would close their ad bookings for the next day’s issue.

As Jaitely strolled back to the party office from his outing, he spotted Nitai in the waiting lobby. He dismissively said to him, ‘Bhai no ads for the polling day. I told you na?’ Nitai too pleadingly said, ‘Sir Dekh to lijiye’ (sir at least have a look).

Arun ji sat there reluctantly in the lobby and almost with no interest, he looked at the only creative Nitai had presented that evening. As Jaitelyji saw the ad and read its content, his eyes lit up!! He almost jumped out of his chair and said, “This is what I was looking for! Let’s get front pages in every newspaper of Gujarat tomorrow! Let’s do it!

News had leaked out from newspaper office to Congress Headquarters on Ashram Road that BJP was placing a front-page ad. They too went to book the space, but by that time the bookings were closed.

On the D-day that front page ad had created a huge impact on the polling. The Lutyen Media was hugely flabbergasted and annoyed with the ad. The Sardesais and Barkhas from gang of Lutyenpur were all running live bulletins through the polling day, holding that ad in Gujarati newspapers and crying hoarse by calling it a breach of election code!!

And what that ad was all about? I need not tell you that!

Rajdeep Sardesai on Modi’s spectacular victory on the counting day of December 28, 2002 had posted an open letter to Narendra Bhai congratulating him for the victory. He also graphically described the impact of that ad on the polling day. And sarcastically gave credit to Modi, Jaitelyji for approving that ad!

That ad had breached no publicity code. The polling day’s ad was crafted with two objectives: One to latently remind Gujarat voters on Godhra riots in which innocent train passengers were mercilessly torched. And the other being to ensure better voter turnout, especially for those elites educated upper crust which hardly voted during those days.

The ad had not mentioned anything about Godhra or the riot. It just headlined that legendary song of Lataji.

“Aye mere Vatan Ke Logon, Jara Aankh Me Bharlo Paani, jo Shaheed hue hain unki jara yaad karo Qurbani..”

The Centre space of the ad had a big Lotus, the election symbol of the party. And there was a base punch line, “Aapka vote hi aapki Shruddhanjali hai” [Your vote is your tribute (to martyrs)]. Who knows, had Jaitely not picked up that ad, or even had rejected it, how would have the history been written. And who knows how the election would have shaped up?

That polling day ad did all the wonders. As all news channels ran day long bulletins, cried foul for using Godhra in a polling day ad. Their bulletins with Godhra’s torched coach’s visuals in the background and their severe criticism of Modi for the riots, had brought the voters alive. Their criticism of Godhra’s handling brought the voter out to the polling station. And Gujarat Recorded 62% polling— much higher than most of the previous polling.

It is for nothing that Arun Jaitely was called a master strategist.

 

Author: A S Raghunath

The author is an independent Print Media Marketing and Advertising Professional

‘Tight slap to Pakistan’: Here are the awards that Prime Minister Modi has received from Islamic nations since 2014

OpIndia Staff
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‘Tight slap to Pakistan’: Here are the awards that Prime Minister Modi has received from Islamic nations since 2014

During his recent visit to Bahrain, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred with the UAE’s highest civilian award, the ‘Order of Zayed’ and the “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance” in Manama on Saturday. These are two recent honours that have been received by PM Modi from Islamic Nations.

PM Modi was honoured with “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance” as he held talks with King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on various bilateral and regional issues. Moreover, he was conferred with the highest civilian award, ‘Order of Zayed’ as a mark of appreciation for his efforts to boost bilateral ties between the two nations.

PM Modi’s personal diplomatic outreach has yielded great results for India as far as the Muslim world is concerned. Its relationship with Islamic nations is better than ever before. Several other Islamic nations have also honoured PM Modi with their highest civilian award in the recent past.

Following is a list of awards PM Modi has been conferred with by Muslim-majority countries:

  • The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance, Bahrain – August 2019
  • Order of Zayed, UAE’s highest civilian award – August 2019
  • Grand Collar of the State of Palestine – February 2018
  • Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan – June 2016
  • King Abdulaziz Sash Award, Saudi Arabia – April 2016
  • Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen, Maldives – June 2019

Though Pakistan has been continuously trying to isolate India, particularly amongst the Islamic nation in the world, especially after India’s audacious decision to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, these honours bestowed upon Modi from Islamic Nations over the last five years is sufficient enough to blow unnerved Pakistan off its feet.

Government officials believe that such widespread recognition from the Muslim world is a “tight slap” for Pakistan, which has been making one failed attempt after another to isolate India, especially amongst Islamic nations.

Despite India’s specific direction which spelt out that the decision to revoke Article 370 was India’s internal matter, rattled Pakistan has been trying all possible tactics to create unnecessary pressure on India. Besides snapping trade and downgrading diplomatic ties the parody nation has also been resorting to frivolous things like shutting its airspace for India, boycotting Indian advertisements and channels etc. Not only this, Pakistan has been running pillar to post knocking the United Nation’s door to exert pressure on India.

Failing in all its attempt, troubled Pakistan has also been attempting to create a fear-based environment and to mislead people, by resorting to spreading fake news and misinformation on social media.

PM Modi reveals how Bear Grylls understood his Hindi during ‘Man vs Wild’ show

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi reveals how Bear Grylls understood his Hindi during ‘Man vs Wild’ show

As the world witnessed the spectacular adventure show ‘Man vs Wild’ featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a guest along with host Bear Grylls, a section of country’s liberal industry had mocked the show by speculating that it was a choreographed event as PM Modi managed to communicate with Bear Grylls in Hindi while the Grylls responded adequately.

However, on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi himself revealed the facts regarding the show to put a full stop to the unnecessary propaganda pushed by some sections of the media.

Speaking during his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio address, PM Modi revealed that Bear Grylls had a small cordless instrument in his ear, which received a simultaneous translation of his conversation into English.


PM Modi clarified, “Some people ask me one thing albeit with some hesitation, Modi ji, you were speaking in Hindi and Bear Grylls does not know Hindi, so how did you carry on such a fast conversation between the two of you?”

“Whenever I spoke immediately there was a simultaneous translation into English or simultaneous interpretation and Bear Grylls had a small cordless instrument in his ear. So I used to speak in Hindi but he heard it in English and because of that the communication became very easy and this is an amazing aspect of technology,” clarified Prime Minister Modi.

On August 12, Prime Minister Modi debuted as a guest on the popular wildlife show ‘Man Vs Wild with Bear Grylls’ and it was one of the most widely watched on world television ever. The popular show had garnered 3.6 billion impressions and was still counting.

This special episode, which has been shot in the Jim Corbett National Park, was a frank and freewheeling journey, which put the focus on wildlife conservation and highlighting issues related to environmental change.

The special episode of “Man vs Wild” was broadcasted in 180 countries around the world. In India, ‘Man vs Wild’ featuring Bear Grylls and Prime Minister Modi premiered simultaneously on 12 Discovery channels in five languages – English, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

When the show was announced, the Left had a collective meltdown in an effort to dehumanise PM Modi. Congress had also resorted to peddling lies saying that PM Modi had shot for this show while the Pulwama terror attack had happened. The Left had also peddled lies that PM Modi was a ‘climate change denier’ by malicious tweeting an edited video.

Pakistan Senate chairman cancels UAE trip after PM Modi is honoured with ‘Order of Zayed’ and ‘The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance’

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan Senate chairman cancels UAE trip after PM Modi is honoured with ‘Order of Zayed’ and ‘The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance’

The recent decision, taken by Modi led-government to revoke Article 370 has made Pakistan’s blood run cold. It has been trying its best to create global pressure on India. Failing in its attempt, spooked Pakistan government, now decided to skip its pre-scheduled trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following PM Narendra Modi’ recent visit to the nation where he was honoured with ‘Order of Zayed’, the highest civilian honour and ‘The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance’.

Pakistan Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has decided to cancel an official visit of his parliamentary delegation to the UAE over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving the highest civilian honour in UAE, reported Geo TV.

Sanjrani was scheduled to visit the UAE from August 25 to August 28 on the invitation of the UAE government. His delegation was to hold meetings with the UAE parliamentarians and government officials.

In a lame excuse, the Senate Secretariat said in a statement: “The Senate chairman, however, decided to cancel the trip as Pakistan vehemently supports Kashmiri peoples’ right to freedom from Indian occupation and condemns India’s atrocities in the occupied valley”.

This is rather amusing as the public at large, who have been at the receiving end of the decades-long high voltage tension in Jammu and Kashmir have welcomed the decision of the abrogation of Article 370 by the government which has rekindled hopes among Kashmiri Pandits as well as others who got displaced, to go back to their homes in Jammu and Kashmir almost after three decades. In fact, the people of the newly formed UT have perceived abrogation and bifurcation as a golden opportunity to progress.

Meanwhile, amidst escalating tensions between India and Pakistan ever since New Delhi on August 5 revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, PM Narendra Modi has been conferred with ‘The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance’ by King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on August 24 (Saturday).

The Order of Zayed award has earlier been bestowed on several world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Queen Elizabeth II and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The award in the name of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE, acquires special significance as it was awarded to Prime Minister Modi in the year of the birth centenary of Sheikh Zayed,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement ahead of his visit.

PM Modi was also honoured with “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance” as he held talks with King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on various bilateral and regional issues.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Bahrain is significant as it is the first visit of an Indian Prime Minister to the country.

“Ties built on deep civilizational linkages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly received by HM King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa at the Al Gudaibiya Palace. Both leaders exchanged views on all matters of mutual interest,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

While addressing the joint statement along with the King of Bahrain, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I feel very honoured and fortunate to be awarded The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance. I am equally honoured by your majesty’s friendship for me and for my country.”

“I humbly accept this prestigious honour on behalf of 1.3 billion Indians,” PM added. “It is an honour for entire India. This is a symbol of the close and friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and India.”

The Wire uses language of the enemy, terms Kashmir as ‘disputed’

OpIndia Staff
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The Wire uses language of the enemy, terms Kashmir as ‘disputed’

After complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir into India by abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, the left-liberal establishment in the country is completely rattled. Although the administration has maintained the law and order situation in the state under control, some media houses are trying to project that the state is going through a very violation situation, and while doing so, they are using the language of the enemy.

Left-wing propaganda website The Wire published a report on injuries sustained by protesters in the state yesterday, and in a most shocking manner, they described the state as ‘disputed’. The report starts with a sentence saying that “at least 152 people have suffered injuries from tear gas and pellets in disputed Kashmir”.

Although international media using the highly objectionable terms like disputed Kashmir or India Occupied Kashmir is understandable, it is very worrying that an India based media outlet has chose to describe Kashmir as a disputed territory. The entire Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India, and there is no denying that fact. Indian parliament has time and again reiterated that fact. Even the recently passed Jammu and Kashmir reorganization act says that entire Jammu and Kashmir, including areas currently under the control of enemy countries, is part of India. By calling it ‘disputed’, The Wire is echoing the view of the enemy.

The Wire also talks about at least 152 people getting injured by pellet guns and tear gas during the protests after the abrogation for Article 370, quoting data obtained by Reuters. They have used this number to prove that Kashmir is witnessing massive protest against the Modi government’s decision. But the fact is, people getting injured in protests in the state is nothing new. Kashmir is seeing such a situation regularly since last few years. Security forces often have to use non-lethal forces like pellet guns and tear gas shells to combat stone-pelting separatists. And in such measures, some protesters are injured, this has been happening since the last several years, and it is not a new development.

Stone pelting has taken the lives of several soldiers, and many times stone pelters protected terrorists from security forces. The report itself says that despite restrictions, occasionally youths have come out and threw stones, especially on occasions like Friday prayers, and security forces were forced to take retaliatory measures. Even before this month’s decision, such stone-pelting protesters were getting injured in the state in defensive action by security forces. The fact that there has not been any confirmed fatality in this month shows that the protests have not gone out of control.

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