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Shekhar Kapur says ‘intellectuals’ still make him feel like a refugee, Javed Akhtar takes it as a personal offence

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Shekhar Kapur says ‘intellectuals’ still make him feel like a refugee, Javed Akhtar takes it as a personal offence

Javed Akhtar has moved on from writing lyrics and poetry to abusing those who not agree with him ideologically on social media. To make a merry out of his blissful Sunday, ‘intellectual’ Javed Akhtar attempted to pick up a fight against legendary filmmaker Shekhar Kapur after the latter expressed an opinion on the so-called ‘intellectuals’ of the country.

Shekhar Kapur, one of the foremost filmmakers of the country, in a tweet shared his own life experiences with the so-called ‘intellectuals’ of the country. Recalling his past, Shekhar Kapur mentioned about his life as a refugee after partition and how his parents sacrificed everything to make a life for them.

While expressing his viewpoint, Shekhar Kapur made a reference to ‘intellectuals’ of the country, who often make noise to disrupt the prevailing peace in the society. Kapur cited his interactions with these intellectuals, who looked upon to him as an ‘insignificant’ and only embraced him once his works began to be celebrated. He added that he still fears about ‘intellectuals’ while opining that their embrace is like a bite of a snake. He added that he was still a refugee.


Through his tweets, Shekhar Kapur was indicating at the reality of some of these ‘intellectuals’ and ‘celebrities’ present among us. Perhaps, Kapur was also subtly expressing his thoughts on the recent letter fiasco involving some of the ‘intellectuals’ and ‘celebrities’.

However, while Kapur hadn’t named anyone in his tweet, Akhtar who often considers himself to be an ‘intellectual’ despite there are serious doubts regarding his integrity and intellect, took it upon himself to respond on behalf of the ‘intellectuals’.

The triggered Javed Akhtar somehow wanted to make a point to counter Shekhar Kapur. “Who are these intellectuals who embraced you and you found that embrace like a snake’s bite?” a visibly upset Akhtar questioned Shekhar Kapur. Akhtar even cited few names of intellectuals like Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopal Krishna, Ram Chandra Guha to cross-check whether Kapur was directing his tweets to anyone of his comrades.


Then began the quintessential Javed Akhtar abuse, as he declared that Shekhar Kapur was not well and he needed help. Javed Akhtar also mocked Kapur by saying that there was no shame in meeting a good psychiatrist insinuating that Shekhar Kapur had mental health issues. The ‘intellectuals’ are usually at the forefront of advocating mental health and are against trivialising mental health issues.

However, it did not stop there. As Shekhar Kapur ignored Akhtar’s blabbering, the latter seems to have experienced a high adrenaline rush resulting in sweating, heightened senses and rapid breathing. Continuing his abusive behaviour, Akhtar questioned Kapur’s choice of words and went on to refer to him as ‘poor rich but lonely guy’.


As Shekhar Kapur continued to ignore Javed Akhtar, the latter dropped in a barrage of tweets to nullify Shekhar Kapur’s views on intellectuals.


Javed Akhtar, one of the active members of the “liberal-secular” intellectual industry, often feels a sense of entitlement and control over the intellectual thought of this country. If a common man or anybody other than the cabal ever dare to question the existing intellectual feudalism, they are either mocked or abused to discredit their position.

Bihar man unleashes his dog on cow, journalist invents Hindu-Muslim angle

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar man unleashes his dog on cow, journalist invents Hindu-Muslim angle

On Friday evening, a man in Patna, Bihar, was angry that a cow was tied to the gate of his house. He got angry and unleashed his pet dog on the cow which bit the cow. The residents got angry at the dog owner’s actions and things got a little tense. However, Police reached on the spot and controlled the situation.

However, journalist Narendra Nath, gave it a communal angle and spread fake information that the matters escalated over rumours that the dog owner was a Muslim.


However, it is untrue.

As per this report of the same incident, the house owner, who is a jeweller, was angry that people used to tie their cow outside his gate to milk them. When he took his dog out in the evening for a walk, he got angry on seeing the dirt. Following which, he unleashed his dog on the cow.

According to the eye witness, the owner had threatened to get the owner bitten by his dog if the cows are tied to his gate. He even said that the dog owner threw stones on the cows tied below.

Twitter user Mihir Jha, pointed out to Nath that none of the reports, web portals of local news mention the ‘rumour’ Nath is talking about.


He added that after Nath’s tweets, some portals picked up the ‘Muslim dog owner’ bit and wrote reports, which later were removed from the portals.

Nath’s tweet with fake information has already been retweeted over 2000 times. Nath, however, continues to stand by his falsehood.

Ahmedabad man registers Pak PM Imran Khan, rape convicts Ram Rahim and Asaram Bapu as ‘BJP members’, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Ahmedabad man registers Pak PM Imran Khan, rape convicts Ram Rahim and Asaram Bapu as ‘BJP members’, arrested

On Saturday, the cyber cell of the Ahmedabad crime branch booked 40-year-old man named Ghulam Fareed Shaikh of Shahpur area of Ahmedabad for forgery after he claimed to have made Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to the reports, Ghulam Fareed Shaikh misused the membership drive launched by the BJP to register not only Pakistan PM Imran Khan but also the likes of rape convicts Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and Asaram Bapu through forgery. The accused not only forged membership forms of the BJP with these names but also reportedly circulated the e-membership cards on social media.

Ahmedabad city general secretary of BJP Kamlesh Patel said that the accused circulated the forged e-membership cards of Imran Khan, Asaram Bapu and Gurmeet Ram Rahim to tarnish the reputation of the saffron party.

Patel added that BJP had initiated membership drive since July 6 for which party had issued a cellphone number to register new members into the party. If a person uploads his personal details, photograph and cellphone number on a web link given through a text message after making a call to the party’s number, he would be given a membership card with party’s logo. This card is called e-card with a unique number being given to the member, stated the FIR according to Times Of India.

The BJP members came to know about the forgery on July 24 as Ghulam Fareed Shaikh shared these images showing e-cards of BJP primary membership of Imran Khan, Asaram Bapu and Ram Rahim Singh on social media.

A case has been registered in the cyber cell against Fareed Shaikh under IPC section 465 (forgery), IPC section 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and IPC section 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and Section 66-C of the Information and Technology Act (punishment for identity theft).

CBI frames charges against Raqibul Hassan for hiding his religion and torturing shooter Tara Shahdeo

OpIndia Staff
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CBI frames charges against Raqibul Hassan for hiding his religion and torturing shooter Tara Shahdeo

The Central Bureau of Investigation has framed charges against Raqibul Hassan alias Ranjit Kohli for giving false information about his religion while marrying national-level shooter Tara Shahdeo.

Reportedly, the court has also framed charges against four others for allegedly helping Hassan. On Friday, the special CBI judge Ajay Kumar Gudia read out the charges against the accused in their presence.

The other accused against whom charges were framed are Raqibul’s mother Kaushal Rani, former judge Pankaj Srivastav, The CBI has also framed charges against Rajesh Prasad, the then judicial magistrate of Gaya.

The court has fixed August 23 to begin the process of recording statements of witnesses. The CBI has framed charges under IPC 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 212 (harbouring an offender).

The Case

The incident had come to light in August 2014, when Tara left the house of her in-laws and made these shocking charges. In 2014, Tara Sahadeo had claimed that she was pressurised and tortured by her in-laws to accept Islam after she married a person, who she thought was a Hindu. She was barely married for a month before she had to walk out of it to save her dignity and choice of following her religion.

Tara had married another shooting professional named Ranjeet Kumar Kohli on 7 July 2014 in Ranchi. Ranjeet reportedly had been doing well professionally and was well connected with high profile people. Tara had met Ranjeet the same year-earlier during shooting practice. He started courting her and later proposed to her, to which she agreed.

Both were married as per Hindu rituals but Tara says that just a day after the wedding, she came to know that Ranjeet was not a Hindu. His real name was Raqibul Hasan Khan and he was a Muslim. Due to this reason, this incident was reported as a possible case of ‘Love Jihad’ back in 2014.

Reportedly, both Raqibul and his mother used to mentally and physically torture Tara, asking her to accept Islam if she wanted her married life to be normal. She was strictly warned not to apply ‘sindoor’, failing which her hands will be broken. There were dowry demands too from the in-laws, Tara had alleged.

A group of Maulvis were also called a couple of days after their wedding where Tara was asked to convert. Tara had alleged that she was brutally beaten up after she had refused to convert. She was allegedly further threatened that not only her, her family members will also be killed if she opened her mouth.

Tara had decided to break free finally when she used a mobile phone of domestic help to call her brother and asked him to come to her in-laws’ house along with the police. The incident came to public knowledge thereafter.

Later, accused Raqibul Hasan Khan had accepted that he had physically assaulted Tara but denied putting pressure for religion conversion. He was subsequently sent to judicial custody on 27 August and he is lodged in a Ranchi jail ever since. His mother was granted bail later.

CBI charge sheet against Raqibul

In 2017, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Ranjeet alias Raqibul, his mother Kaushal Rani, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the then Registrar (vigilance) of the Jharkhand High Court, more detail on the case are emerging.

The High Court had asked the CBI to investigate the case and the case was transferred to the central agency in May 2015. CBI now has filed the charge sheet under sections of criminal conspiracy, sexual assault, domestic violence and for fraudulently organising marriage ceremony without lawful marriage.

On June 27, 2018, a Ranchi court had granted Tara Shahdeo divorce from her husband on the ground of false information and the subsequent domestic and physical violence.

Sagarika apologises to Maj Singh for calling him an ‘idiot’, continues to maintain she knows more about wars than most decorated officer of territorial army

OpIndia Staff
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Sagarika apologises to Maj Singh for calling him an ‘idiot’, continues to maintain she knows more about wars than most decorated officer of territorial army

Journalist Sagarika Ghose is a ‘liberal’. By virtue of being a ‘liberal’, Ghose gets the moral authority to be more knowledgeable in all fields. After referring to a decorated soldier of the Territorial Army as an ‘idiot’ because he did not agree with her assessment of ‘war’, she has finally apologised to him. However, her apology comes with conditions.


Sagarika first apologised to Major Singh ‘if he got offended’. Essentially, ‘liberals’, as a rule, are never wrong. They usually apologise if their ‘being right’ offends others others who clearly couldn’t know more than them. Ghose added that she continues to believe that Major Singh’s tweets, where he disagreed that only the poor join the army and that the wars are fought for the ‘bloodlust’ of the elite.

Major Navdeep Singh is one of the most decorated volunteers in the history of the Indian Territorial Army. A lawyer by profession, Major Navdeep Singh has basically signed up to go to war for the Nation when the country needs him.

However, Major Singh’s logical tweets defied Ghose’s reasoning who thought his views were ‘shockingly obtuse’ and his reasoning ‘intriguingly limited’.

Ghose then also took an offence when someone said that she is not a level-headed journalist and not even a decent human.


Sagarika then mocked her own apology which showed how hollow her sorry was to Major Singh.


As if already writing a draft of her next book, “Why I am a victim”, she said that her reaction, of referring to Major Singh as an idiot for a disagreement, was because she thought the civil conversation was a hostile one. One’s mind boggles at this lack of comprehension skills.


“Sorry to all, sorry standing on my head, sorry sitting down, apologies, apologies, apologies,” she tweets, showing how hollow her apology was.

When another police Twitter user asked her that apology and all is fine, but she should at least answer the points raised by Major Singh, she shifted goal posts and gave a juvenile excuse.


She says that Major Singh asked her ‘out of syllabus’ questions. Whereas, Major Singh had just used that as an example. All Major Singh had pointed out was as against Sagarika’s views on war, men and women in uniform are not ‘sons of poor’. He had added they are also not fulfilling an elite’s ‘bloodlust’. Then used the government offices as an example to prove a point when Sagarika displayed her lack of comprehension skills.

Further, she again ‘apologised’ to Major Singh, after a few hours, as an afterthought claiming how she just assumed he was a troll.


In yet another tweet she said how she is usually on the receiving end of the ‘trolls’, she assumed Major Singh was also one.


Essentially, for ‘liberals’ anyone who disagrees with them, even if politely and keeps the disagreement civil, is a ‘troll’. ‘Liberals’ are never wrong.

Randeep Hooda schools Dia Mirza for her disparaging remarks against the forest department

OpIndia Staff
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Randeep Hooda schools Dia Mirza for her disparaging remarks against the forest department

In an unfortunate incident, a 6-year old tigress was ruthlessly beaten to death by villagers in Uttar Pradesh. Quoting statements from an article related to the tigress’ death, an anguished Dia Mirza proceeded to disparage the forest department that they couldn’t rescue the wounded animal.


However, this didn’t sit well with actor Randeep Hooda. He was quick to admonish the RHTDM actor for her sweeping accusations against the forest department. Hooda, an animal enthusiast himself, claimed to have inquired about the status of the wounded tigress with the officials. He added that the officials had informed him that she was beyond rescue at the time when she was found.

Hooda however, asserted it is the forest officials who look after the well-being of the wildlife and not just the NGOs.


Shortly afterwards Mirza responded only to distance herself from the quoted remarks undermining the forest department. She defended herself claiming that she will always champion the cause of forest rangers and officials and that her previous tweet merely contained quotes from the attached article.

In a snarky rejoinder, Hooda shot back questioning why would one share only a particular quote from the entire article then?


This time, however former beauty queen accepted the “stark reality” that forest department is not up to the snuff and needs to be strengthened in order to make them more adept in dealing with man vs animal conflicts.

Hooda then pointed out the inconsistency in her statement stating that she indeed meant what she had quoted in her first tweet. He exhorted Mirza to stop making villains out of the forest officials based on rumours and credit other parties for the hard work done by them.


In a Pilbhit village of Uttar Pradesh, an angry mob had mercilessly thrashed a helpless tigress with sticks and spears. The attack on the wild cat was so savage that it ended up injuring almost every part of her body.

“Sustained fractures and injuries… on almost every part of her body,” Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) field director H Rajamohan told news agency IANS.

A probe has been launched to investigate the matter and to determine why did the forest officials fail to rescue the tigress earlier. The probe will also ascertain whether the enraged mob stopped the forest officials from tending to the injured tigress.

GST Council reduces tax on Electric Vehicles and their chargers in a view to curb pollution

OpIndia Staff
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GST Council reduces tax on Electric Vehicles and their chargers in a view to curb pollution

In a welcome move, the Goods and Services (GST) council on Saturday proposed to slash the GST rates of all-electric vehicles from 12 to 5 percent. Applauding the council, Power Minister RK Singh said this step will be significant in promoting the sales of electric vehicles and accomplishing pollution-free cities.

As per reports, Singh asserted, “I welcome this decision by the GST council. It will go a long way in promoting electric vehicles in India and making our cities pollution-free.”

Besides, the council also recommended a reduction in GST rate for chargers and charging stations from 18 to 5 percent. The council also recommended that hiring of electric buses with a seating capacity of 12 passengers by local authorities or more should be exempted from GST purview.

The council meeting was presided over by GST Council Chairperson and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. As per the official statement, the proposed changes will come into effect from August 1.

India is grappling under the menace of pollution and various measures have been taken to reduce the effects of the same. Pollution poses a serious threat and is responsible as the root cause of various life-threatening disease.

The Supreme Court on March 12, 2019, had questioned the reason for people seeking a ban on firecrackers suggesting that automobiles appeared to cause more pollution. It had directed the government to submit a comparative study on the matter.

In a bid to curtail the rising pollution, the apex court had, last year, imposed a ban on firecrackers triggering a sharp response from the citizens.

In a bid to keep the check on rising pollution, India is aggressively pushing electric vehicles and take a big leap in the emerging industry. With an eye on containing pollution, the government intends to have only electric three-wheelers running on the roads by the year 2023 and only electric two-wheelers by 2025.

Home Ministry approves deployment of 10,000 additional troops in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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Home Ministry approves deployment of 10,000 additional troops in Kashmir

The Union Home Ministry, on Friday night, passed an order to deploy 100 companies of additional parliamentary forces in Jammu and Kashmir. As per the fresh move, 10,000 troops will soon join their counterparts in the valley.


The decision by the Centre comes days after the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval returned from Kashmir. Doval had visited the valley to take stock of the security and infrastructure development in the state.

Reportedly, the Centre’s order states that additional deployment of forces will help in strengthening the Counter Insurgent (CI) grid homeas well as maintaining law and order situation in the valley. 40,0000 paramilitary personnel have already been deployed in Jammu and Kashmir due to the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.

The order also lists the details of troops, which will be mobilised ahead of the Independence Day on August 15. According to the report, 50 additional companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies from the SSB, and 10 companies each from the BSF and ITBP will be deployed.

However, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti seems to be spooked by the government’s decision and has criticized the move. She once again raised the need to have peace talks with the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the Pakistan government.


Last month, Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking in the Lok Sabha, had slammed the policies of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru during and after partition. He asserted the issue of J&K is a Congress legacy and depicts the failures of the then PM Nehru.

Hanuman statue found broken in Aligarh, Bajrang Dal leader says Muslims did it

OpIndia Staff
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Hanuman statue found broken in Aligarh, Bajrang Dal leader says Muslims did it

Communal tension had erupted in Aligarh today after a Hanuman statue was found broken by unknown elements last night. According to reports, a statue of Hanuman placed at the Gandhi park near the bus stop was found broken last night.

Hearing about the incident, workers of the Bajrang Dal reached the spot and held a protest against the desecration of the statue. Talking to media, Dal leader Gaurav Sharma said that when few Bajrang Dal workers had reached the park last night after hearing about the incident, the night guard posted at the park informed them that Muslims have broken the statue. He added that they have video of the statement given by the guard, which will be handed over to the police.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHVUE3DM3Rc]

Sharma asked how the statue was broken when there are CCTV cameras at the park and the police station is located nearby, and why nobody is caught by police so far. He added that if a mosque was vandalised, the entire city would have been burning. The Bajrang Dal leader also alleged that women are regularly harassed the park by ‘messengers of peace’.

An argument also took place between police and workers of Bajrang Dal and other Hindu organisations. To calm down the situation, the police immediately got a new statue and placed it at the park. Police said that they will install a gate at the park and will ensure that such an incident is not repeated in future.

India receives its first batch of four AH-64E Apache attack helicopters from Boeing

OpIndia Staff
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India receives its first batch of four AH-64E Apache attack helicopters from Boeing

In a major fillip to India’s defence readiness, 4 Apache attack helicopters, ordered by the Indian Air Force have touched down at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad today. It is a significant development as Apache is the first attack helicopter to be inducted in India’s defence arsenal.

The four AH-64E Apache helicopters are amongst the first batch of choppers delivered to India after PM Modi signed multi-billion dollar contract for 22 Apaches in 2015. Another batch of 4 helicopters is expected to arrive next week. The 8 attack choppers will then be moved to Pathankot airbase and will be formally inducted in the IAF in September.

The complete fuselage of the Apache helicopter has been made by Tata Boeing Aerospace in Hyderabad in India. TBAL is a joint venture between Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

The IAF believes that the induction of Apache will greatly enhance its tactical capability and prove to be a game-changer. Until now, Indian Airforce is operating Russian-built Mi-35s, which are almost at the brink of retirement. Mi-35s are called as ‘assault helicopters’, used to lift troops to heavily defended territories. However, Apache helicopters, in every respect, is an attack helicopter that is hailed as the world’s most advanced multi-role combat helicopter.

One of the deadliest attack helicopters, Apache is equipped with a 30mm cannon under the nose, that can fire 1,200 rounds in less than two minutes. It also comes with 70mm rockets, which can be guided or unguided. The Apache has a capacity to carry 80 of them in one go, along with Hellfire missiles. With the help of advanced avionics on board, together, these missiles can identify, track and demolish targets with remarkable accuracy, even in pitch darkness.

The model AH-64E Apache, which India has procured is the most modern variant manufactured by Boeing and is currently also a part of US Army’s fleet. By 2020, IAF will have a fleet of 22 Apache helicopters. According to the sources, the delivery of these 4 combat helicopters are ahead of schedule.

Apart from this, the Indian Army is going to get an additional six Apaches. In 2017, the government cleared the acquisition of extra Apaches as the Indian Army was insistent on having its own attack helicopters.

India’s acquisition of helicopters from the USA has been going on smoothly, unlike most other defence purchases. In February this year, 4 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters were delivered by Boeing. Both these helicopters are part of a $3.1 billion deal for purchase of 15 CH-47F(I) Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters from American aviation giant Boeing.

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