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Former EAM Sushma Swaraj shuts down a troll, Irfan Khan, who wishes death upon her

OpIndia Staff
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Former EAM Sushma Swaraj shuts down a troll, Irfan Khan, who wishes death upon her

Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter shut down troll for wishing death upon her. The troll, Irfan Khan, had replied to a tweet of the former Union Minister. Sushma Swaraj had earlier posted a message condoling the death of Mange Ram Garg, former Delhi BJP President.


Sushma Swaraj wrote about how Mange Ram Garg was loyal and devoted to the party. She also praised him for contributing to society even after his death. Garg had pledged his organs to the ‘Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti’.

In response to this, Irfan Khan had wished death upon the former Union Minister. He tweeted to Sushma Swaraj that someday she too would be remembered in the same manner.


Sushma Swaraj shut him down by thanking him for his kind thought.

Sushma Swaraj’s sassiness

The former External Affairs Minister is known for her quick witter replies and humour on social media. She gave a sassy reply to a user who had questioned her for taking part in the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign started by PM Modi.

Similarly, in another incident, a Twitter user Karan Saini had tweeted to Sushma Swaraj saying he was stuck on mars and the food sent via Mangalyaan is running out. He asked when Mangalyaan-II would be sent. Sushma Swaraj had replied to this tongue-in-cheek tweet with some wit, saying “Even if you are stuck on the Mars, Indian Embassy there will help you.”

Saudi Crown Prince facilitated Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s meeting with Donald Trump

OpIndia Staff
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Saudi Crown Prince facilitated Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s meeting with Donald Trump

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Washington on Saturday and is set to have a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday. Reports now suggest that the meeting between the two was arranged by the direct assistance of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

According to the report, two officials said on Saturday that, Crown Prince Salman had played an “instrumental role” in paving the way for the Khan-Trump meeting.

As reported by The Express Tribune, Prince Salman used his personal contact with Jared Kushner to arrange the invitation for the Pakistan Prime Minister. Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law and also his senior advisor.

Efforts were on to arrange the meeting in December last year after Trump wrote a letter to Imran Khan. He sought Pakistan’s assistance in enabling the Afghanistan peace process. According to an official Imran Khan wanted to have face-to-face interaction with the President to dispel any misconceived notions he might have had about Pakistan.

But the strained relationship between the two countries proved to be a stumbling block. Pakistan then decided to bypass the US bureaucracy by contacting Trump directly using Jared Kushner.

Knowing the personal relationship between Kushner and Prince Salman, Imran Khan had arranged several meetings with the Saudi Crown Prince. Sources say that the Prince used his ‘good offices’ to convince Trump for the meeting.

The report also says that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham must also be credited for the meeting between the two. Graham after his visit to Pakistan in January said that he was impressed with the vision of Prime Minister Imran for Afghanistan and the region. Sources say that the Pakistan Foreign Minister had kept in touch with Graham, who made personnel request to Trump for extending an invitation to the prime minister.

Currently, Pakistan is undergoing a severe economic crisis. Last month its military had to trim down its defence budget. Pakistan is also on the verge of getting blacklisted by the FATF, terror finance watchdog, for failing to act against terror groups.

In November last year, at the direction of President Trump, the US had suspended $1.66 billion in security assistance aid to Pakistan. The decision had come days after Trump statements slamming Pakistan of not doing ‘a damn thing’ for the US, alleging that its government had helped Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.

Pakistan hopes that the meeting with Trump would help in boosting ties and bringing investments into the country. However, a US Congressional report has said that the security assistance to Pakistan would remain suspended pending “decisive and irreversible” action against terrorist groups.

It is interesting to note that while Pakistan is eagerly waiting for the meeting, Pakistan PM was humiliated by the US as Imran Khan was welcomed by low-key officials at the airport. Also, there were no limousines waiting at the tarmac to ferry the visiting dignitary which is common for such visits by heads of foreign governments. Imran Khan had to take an airport bus to move from the aircraft to the terminal. Besides this, he flew on a commercial flight operated by Qatar Airways instead of the national carrier Pakistan International Airlines.

India’s tour of West Indies: Pandya rested, Saha makes to Test side, no split captaincy as Kohli to lead India in all formats

OpIndia Staff
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India’s tour of West Indies: Pandya rested, Saha makes to Test side, no split captaincy as Kohli to lead India in all formats

The rumour of split captaincy for Tests and limited over cricket has been put to rest by the Indian selectors — Virat Kohli to lead India in all formats against West Indies.

Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha has made a comeback after a year into the Test squad, he is there in the test squad with Rishabh Pant and would be interesting to see who plays for India in Tests.

There is still no place for Prithvi Shaw in Tests while middle-order batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey, and left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, have been recalled to the ODI squad.

Dhawan who missed most of India’s World Cup campaign due to broken thumb has also been recalled as he is fully fit now.

Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Kartik has missed the bus for West Indies tour while Bumrah and Pandya have been rested for white-ball cricket. Pandya has been even rested for Tests.

Dhoni already made himself unavailable for West Indies Tour, will serve the paramilitary regiment.

On Dhoni’s retirement the chief selector MSK Prasad said, “Retirement is purely individual. A legendary cricketer like MS Dhoni knows when to retire, I don’t think we need to discuss anything on it, because first of all he’s not available. Second, we have already started grooming some youngsters.”

India’s tour of the West Indies will begin on August 3 with 3 T20Is, followed by three ODIs and two Test matches between August 8-30. The two Test matches will be part of the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship.

Test squad: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini

T20I squad Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini

Karnataka Political Crisis: Mayawati snubs Congress-JDS coalition, asks lone BSP MLA to abstain from trust vote tomorrow

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka Political Crisis: Mayawati snubs Congress-JDS coalition, asks lone BSP MLA to abstain from trust vote tomorrow

In a move which could have larger political implications, N Mahesh, the lone MLA from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Karnataka, who was earlier a minister in the HD Kumaraswamy government, announced on Sunday that he will not attend the floor test due on Monday. This will further reduce one vote for the ruling alliance which is alerady staring at certain defeat on the floor of the house.


Talking to media, BSP MLA N Mahesh will abstain from supporting the Congress-JDS led coalition government in the floor test tomorrow in Karnataka Assembly. N Mahesh informed that he decided to do so as per the direction of BSP supremo Mayawati. He said, “my high command has told me to abstain from voting on trust motion so I won’t attend the session on Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be in my constituency”.


BSP MLA Mahesh was one of the 20 members who had missed the Karnataka Assembly session on Thursday and Friday along with the 15 rebels MLAs, two independents, and Congress MLAs Srimant Patil and B Nagendra.

There are reports that Mahesh, the Kollegal MLA, is all set to join the BJP after the trust vote citing lack of funds for his constituency’s development in the present Congress-JDS government. He had resigned in October 2018 as the Primary and Secondary Education Minister, after disagreements had erupted between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress concerning seat-sharing for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

With Mayawati deciding not to support Congress-JDS in the Karnataka politics, the stage is set for further disagreements in the state of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as BSP has two and six MLAs respectively in these two states. The Madhya Pradesh government which is just marginally ahead of majority mark will face a tremendous amount of pressure if BSP decides to withdraw its support to the Kamal Nath government and in turn supports opposition BJP.

As many as 15 MLAs, 12 from Congress and three from JDS have resigned, while independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh have withdrawn support to the coalition government, putting the Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka on edge.

If this position continues and Congress and JDS fails in wooing the dissidents back, the government will be reduced to a strength of 100 members including Speaker in the 225-member Assembly. The BJP has 105 members and the support of two Independents, which will be enough to form a government and prove majority in the house. One of the independents R Shankar may also abstain from the voting on Monday.

Omar Abdullah comes in support of Imran Khan who was not given official welcome on arrival in US

OpIndia Staff
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Omar Abdullah comes in support of Imran Khan who was not given official welcome on arrival in US

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister has come out in support of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan who was snubbed by the US on his maiden visit to the country as the head of the state.


Instead of flying a Pakistan International Airlines or the official aircraft, Khan flew commercial on Qatar Airways. On his arrival to the US, he was received by Pakistani officials and other low-key US officials. He even took a people-mover from the aircraft to the terminal.

Interestingly, Imran Khan was escorted out of the aircraft in a people mover instead of official vehicles. As per reports, Khan was not accorded the official welcome protocol when he reached America.

However, Khan’s humiliation seems to have affected former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah who sprung to his defence and said that this treatment of Khan reflects poorly on US. He even said how Khan flying commercial airline to reach the US saved money for his country which it didn’t need to spend. Abdullah also lauded Khan for not having an ego like ‘most “leaders”‘.


But Omar Abdullah’s argument of ‘cost saving’ was quickly punctured when it was seen that Imran Khan travelled from the airport in a large cavalcade of cars. This means only one thing, the cars were not allowed to go inside the airport. The cars were already there at the airport, therefore no cost was saved by taking the bus from the plane to the terminal.

Twitterati were quick to point out to Abdullah it is less about personal ego but about diplomatic relations two countries share.


This is not the first time Khan has been humiliated. In October 2012, the cricketer-turned-politician who was on his way to the US via Toronto was asked to deboard where the authorities had interrogated him for an hour on his views on drones. Earlier this month, Pakistan had claimed that Khan has been invited to Russia for Eastern Economic Forum. However, Russia denied having invited him.

Irony: Mamata Banerjee observes Shahid Dibas for 1993 police firing, while the then Home Secretary is now a TMC MP

OpIndia Staff
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Irony: Mamata Banerjee observes Shahid Dibas for 1993 police firing, while the then Home Secretary is now a TMC MP

Today, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to celebrate the annual Shahid Dibas to commemorate the killing of 13 youth Congress workers. They were killed in a police firing in Kolkata on 21 July 1993 under the Left Front government.


Mamata Banerjee has for long always held Jyoti Basu, the then Chief Minister, and his cabinet responsible for the firing. However, she has refrained from blaming the then home secretary Manish Gupta for the firing. In fact, Gupta is now a member of TMC and serving as an MP in the Rajya Sabha.

Last year, both the Congress and the BJP termed the TMC’s “Shahid Dibas” as a farce. The BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh had accused the TMC of holding the rally for political gains. “None of the martyrs (those killed in 1993 firing) have got justice. The person who shot them was an officer then and today he is a minister in the TMC. He is governing the country,” Ghosh said.

The Congress had also called out Mamata’s hypocrisy. They claimed that “many of the people who were directly or indirectly responsible for the firing are holding positions in the state government”.

In 1993, July 21 Mamata Banerjee, who was then a Youth Congress leader, led a rally to the Writer’s Building. They demanded photo voter id card to be made mandatory. On their way to the building, the police had intervened and opened fire at them.

21 year later after Mamata became the Chief Minister, she had set up a commission to find out who had ordered the police to open fire. Mamata had blamed Jyoti Basu, the then Chief Minister, and his cabinet responsible.

The commission in its report has said that that the control room officers were “vicariously responsible” and “overacted to please their political bosses”. The report also says that the incident was worse than Jallianawala Bagh massacre.

Manish Gupta had also testified before the commission. He said that he didn’t support the firing. The commission said that ‘history would answer’ why the firing was ordered when the then home secretary did not support it.

The report came out in 2014 and the Mamata Banerjee government has not taken any action against those responsible. Many including the likes of Manish Gupta continue to hold positions of power within the TMC.

From her tweet today Mamata Banerjee could be clearly seen using the “Shahid Dibas” for political gains. She has once again retorted to the old demand for discontinuing the usage of EVMs.


Despite being proven wrong many times, the TMC continues to blame the EVMs for the losses the party faced during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Last month, Mamata read an Urdu sher and blamed the EVMs to take on the BJP. Other TMC MPs had also staged a protest in front of the Parliament demanding to bring back paper ballot in future elections.

BJP leader BS Tomar shot dead in Ghaziabad, accused Shahrukh and Tasneem arrested

OpIndia Staff
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BJP leader BS Tomar shot dead in Ghaziabad, accused Shahrukh and Tasneem arrested

Two accused, Shahrukh and Tasneem, have been arrested for the murder of BJP functionary BS Tomar, reports Times of India journalist Raj Shekhar Jha.


Tomar was shot dead late last night in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad. The killers had fired five rounds at Tomar. He was rushed to the hospital but he succumbed to injuries at the hospital. The incident took place about 50 metres from a police station. SHO Praveen Sharma has been suspended over the incident.

Class nine student beaten by senior students for protesting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ during National Anthem singing in school

OpIndia Staff
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Class nine student beaten by senior students for protesting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ during National Anthem singing in school

In a shocking incident, a class nine student of a school in West Bengal was beaten senior students after he protested to the chants of ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ during the singing of the National Anthem. The student Arup Halder had to be hospitalised after the incident that happened on Thursday.

According to a report by Bengali daily Dainik Jugasankha, the incident happened in the Taldi Mohanchand High School in Canning in 24 Paragana district. On Thursday morning when the students were singing the National Anthem Jana Gana Mana as per custom, some Muslim students of class 12 suddenly started shouting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’ instead of singing the anthem. Although other students remained silent to this, class nine student Arup Halder could not tolerate it.

News clip from Dainik Jugasangha

Arup vehemently protested the vilification of National Anthem by the Muslim students, and tried to inform the teaches about the same. But the unruly students got infuriated at this, and they thrashed him badly. Due to the serious nature of the injuries, he was admitted at the Canning Hospital by the teachers of the school.

The family of Arup has alleged that the school authorities have not taken any action against the students who thrashed Arup. They also allege that the police also refused to register a case when they went to lodge a complaint about the incident. It is alleged that police took Arup’s mothers signature on a plain paper for a mutual settlement of the case. Rafiqul Gazi and Ashaful Gazi are the main accused in the case, who were joined by two other class 12 students in beating Arup.

US snubs Pak PM Imran Khan, welcomed by low-key US officials on his maiden visit, escorted to the terminal in a bus

OpIndia Staff
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US snubs Pak PM Imran Khan, welcomed by low-key US officials on his maiden visit, escorted to the terminal in a bus

The humiliation does not seem to stop for the parody country Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a video shared by Government of Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan can be seen deboarding the commercial flight and later boarded a bus along with Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi and Pakistan ambassador to the US Asad M Khan. Reportedly, he was not accorded the due state protocol while he landed in America.


Khan not only flew a commercial airline, but he even flew Qatar Airways instead of the national carrier Pakistan International Airlines.

Reportedly, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has travelled to the United States of America on a state visit to meet his counterpart US President Donald Trump. As Pakistan is on a verge of both financial and moral bankruptcy, just like their citizens, low-key officials of the United States state department had arrived to welcome him.

While entire Pakistan is celebrating the maiden visit of Imran Khan, the Trump administration cared little for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Interestingly, Imran Khan was escorted out of the airport in a people mover instead of official vehicles. As per reports, Khan was not accorded the official welcome protocol when he reached America.

This is not the first time Khan has been humiliated. In October 2012, the cricketer-turned-politician who was on his way to the US via Toronto was asked to deboard where the authorities had interrogated him for an hour on his views on drones. Earlier this month, Pakistan had claimed that Khan has been invited to Russia for Eastern Economic Forum. However, Russia denied having invited him.

Kamal Nath government threatens to restrict Narmada water in Gujarat, plays politics over rehabilitation of project affected people

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Kamal Nath government threatens to restrict Narmada water in Gujarat, plays politics over rehabilitation of project affected people

The Madhya Pradesh government headed by Kamal Nath has threatened the Gujarat government of restricting the flow of Narmada into the state on the pretext of Gujarat government not taking up the matter of rehabilitation seriously.

According to the reports, Madhya Pradesh Minister for Narmada Valley Development Surendra Singh Baghel on Saturday threatened not to release the Narmada water for the Sardar Sarovar dam unless the Gujarat government and the Centre addressed its concerns about the dam-affected people.

He has accused the Gujarat government and the Centre of not addressing the concerns about the project-affected people. He also alleged that the Gujarat government was not serious about meetings under the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) to help rehabilitate those people hit by the project. Baghel had also accused Gujarat government of not releasing water for power generation.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government has now warned Madhya Pradesh not to play politics over Narmada water and that both were bound by the ruling of the Supreme Court and the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) in the matter.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel accused the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh of playing politics over the issue. He said that MP government’s ‘threat’ showed a lack of understanding of the legal agreement reached under the NCA.

Nitin Patel clarified that under the NCA agreement the water could be released for power generation only after it reached a level of 131 metres in the dam and that the state had already paid Rs. 400 crore to rehabilitate the project-affected people.

“We will get our share of Narmada water that is due to us. It doesn’t befit the Congress to keep aside the entire interest of the nation to play politics over water,” said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

“The party is unable to digest its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and is now coming up with ways to politicise matters that have already been decided,” said Rupani. “The water is being distributed as per the share decided by the NCA and no state can suddenly decide to change it.”

Chief Minister Rupani also clarified that the Madhya Pradesh government first raised the issue of displaced people on May 27 stating that over 6,000 were yet to be rehabilitated. He added that the Madhya Pradesh boycotted the meeting of the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir Regulation Committee on July 18.

“The Resettlement and Rehabilitation sub-group of the NCA held a meeting on the issue on July 12, but no senior official of the MP government participated. They also boycotted a meeting of the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir Regulation Committee on July 18.”

However, Baghel contended that MP government officials had to shun the NCA meeting “because they (Gujarat government and the Centre) are not taking us seriously”.

The two hydel electricity generation plants at the Sardar Sarovar dam have a capacity of 1,450 MW, which is shared by Madhya Pradesh (57 per cent), Maharashtra (27 per cent) and Gujarat (16 per cent).

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