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Kerala CPM chief’s son skips DNA test in rape case, refuses to give blood sample citing illness

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala CPM chief’s son skips DNA test in rape case, refuses to give blood sample citing illness

Binoy Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPM chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, skipped giving samples for his DNA test today. Binoy said that he couldn’t give his blood sample as he was sick.

Last Wednesday, Binoy got anticipatory bail from the Dindoshi sessions court. However, the court has ordered him to take a DNA test. The DNA test would be the first and final evidence which will decide the fate of the case.

As a condition for the bail, he was required to appear before the investigations officer of Oshiwara police station every Monday for one month. He would be required to stay at the station from 10 am to 1 pm.

Reportedly, Binoy had arrived at the Oshiwara station today and was questioned for 30 mins by the investigating officer in the case. He had told the officer that he was sick and wouldn’t able to provide the blood sample. He had even produced a medical certificate. He had also said that he was ready to cooperate with the investigations.

Binoy would now be required to provide his blood sample next Monday.

Binoy Kodiyeri was booked in a rape case over a complaint filed by a 33-year-old woman. Mumbai Police registered a case against Binoy after the woman alleged that he had raped her repeatedly over a decade under the pretext of marrying her. The woman had also alleged that she was kept in dark regarding Binoy’s marital status. The woman also has an eight-year-old son who she claims was fathered by Binoy.

After the complaints, Binoy had absconded from the Mumbai Police. The police had even issued a look-out notice for him.

Hearing about the trouble Binoy was going through, a journalist from Kerala O Abdulla had invited Binoy Kodiyeri, son of Kerala CPM chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, to join Islam as a solution to the current rape charges that he is facing reports News18.

Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka to take floor test on Thursday to prove majority in the Assembly

OpIndia Staff
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Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka to take floor test on Thursday to prove majority in the Assembly

Amidst the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka that has been threatening the stability of the 13-month-old coalition government of Congress and JD(S), the Kumaraswamy government will face the floor test on July 18 at 11 am.


Karnataka Congress leader Siddaramaiah had announced earlier today that the Kumaraswamy government will prove its majority in the State Assembly tomorrow but it was yet to be confirmed by the Speaker. The Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh had said that he would take a decision regarding the floor test only after the Supreme Court order tomorrow. But now the speaker has decided that the floor test will take place at 11 am on Thursday.

The Supreme Court had ordered the Speaker and the rebel MLAs on July 12 to maintain status quo regarding the resignations and disqualification of the MLAs till July 16 when the next hearing is scheduled to happen. Following the Supreme Court order of status quo, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had announced in the State Assembly the same day that he intended to prove majority.

The Supreme Court had asked the Speaker on 11th July to take a decision on the resignations of rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs. However, the Speaker did not take any decision after which the Supreme Court had passed the order of maintaining the status quo.

Sixteen MLAs belonging to the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka has resigned, plunging the government into crisis. 14 of the rebel MLAs are currently staying in Mumbai. The rulling coalition has 116 members including 78 Congress, 37 JD(S) and 1 BSP and 1 speaker. If the resignations are accepted, the coalition number will reduce to 100, which will mean BJP will have majority with 105 MLAs.

Deputy CM of Bihar announces financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh for sex reassignment surgeries

OpIndia Staff
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Deputy CM of Bihar announces financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh for sex reassignment surgeries

Sushil Kumar Modi, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, has announced that the state government will grant Rs. 1.5 lakh to people who wish to undergo sex correction operations. The state government has also constituted a Kinnar Kalyan Board for the development of the Transgender community.


The announcement comes at a time when the state government has been facing great criticism for its utter inability to deal effectively with the Acute Encephalitis crisis. The medical infrastructure in the state has come under intense scrutiny. Over a hundred children had succumbed to the disease in recent weeks.

The state also suffers from malnutrition to a great extent which contributed to the devastating extent of the tragedy in a significant manner.

There also doesn’t appear to be any scientific evidence to suggest that sex change operations, or sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) as they are often called, benefits the person in any manner. In fact, the only long-term study that was conducted on the matter showed that transgenders who underwent SRS reported a higher rate of depression and suicidal tendencies when compared to those who had not. Numerous other healthcare professionals have voiced similar concerns.

Under such circumstances, that the Bihar government is funding potentially life-threatening medical procedures without any solid scientific basis for its supposed benefits using the taxpayers’ money at a time when the state’s healthcare infrastructure requires urgent upgrades is a matter of great concern. Before Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu too had started providing free sex correction operations to people.

Karnataka now, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan tomorrow: Who saves Congress?

Ashish Shukla
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Karnataka now, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan tomorrow: Who saves Congress?

Critics are bemused, fans dismayed as Congress goes on a political ventilator. Vital organs (top leaders) and arteries (regional leaders) are giving up. Deep coma of a few decades, beckon. Can it survive?

When the patient is in ICU, it allows surgeons to do what is best. The trouble is these surgeons—Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra—can’t pick up the tools on the table.  All surgical tables have three types of instruments: (a) Cutting instruments like scissors, surgical blades, knives etc; (b) Grasping or holding instruments like forceps; and (c) Retractors, to hold the tissues and look at malaise which is beneath. Our surgeons, however, can’t feel a twitch in their frames.

One of the surgeons did make his move early. Rahul Gandhi resigned and resigned while an assortment of assistants wailed and vowed to prevail against his resolve. Priyanka Gandhi-Vandra was beholden to this virtuous man who was her brother. Mamma darling, meanwhile, pursed her lips and awaited for the inevitable offer to land on her shoulders which age and illness have slumped. What next?

Enter Congress Working Committee (CWC). This is the club of the comatose whose prime office-bearers are no other than our three surgeons. The rest are made up of walking corpses, ghosts too benign to affect a single voter and vultures who despite cleanest of clothes, trimmed beards and dyed pates, are only for interface with a servile media.

Thus our surgeons and this august club are interchangeable. The club would only do what the surgeons ask them to do. So this club could accept the resignations of Scindias and Deoras but would dither on Rahul Gandhi. It would never say no to flying resignations in the room from Telangana, Goa or Karnataka.  Maybe both the surgeons and the club should quit and replant a new setup.

Easier said than done. The precedent itself is sobering. It was once attempted in 1992, the first Congress’ organizational elections in two decades. Narasimha Rao emerged as the party president. A new CWC and All-India Congress Committee (AICC) were constituted in Tirupathi. New office-bearers and committees were constituted for two years. However, two years later in 1994, nobody quit. No fresh elections took place. The posts and its occupants were given an “indefinite extension.”

So fresh organizational elections within the Party would fool no-one. It might encourage factionalism and multiple splits to occur. Young Turks already have their hat in the ring and are smelling blood in the pool. Older ones—sample Ashok Gehlot who says Rajasthan wanted him as CM—are drawing whatever strength they could from the imbeciles like them. Nobody is losing sight that four assembly elections are slated within next few months.

Meanwhile there are practical issues too. In case both Rahul Gandhi and CWC go in a limbo, who strikes alliances and keeps regional dissidence in check? Kerala and Tamil Nadu might not be immediate issues; but what about 16 other states where they have been hammered like nails into the wall. Even the loyalists like Navjot Singh Sidhu are making public their resignations to the Congress president Rahul Gandhi: the same man who once promised to quit if Gandhi lost in Amethi.

The dark clouds of Karnataka are portending something far more sinister. This is model which would replicate itself in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan soon. MLAs would quit and the nebulous hold of the Party would be evident. The same routine of assembly Speaker holding firm, “sticking” to Constitutional values, Supreme Court nudging him to the inevitable collapse, would occur.

Another step and Congress is off the cliff. A few self-serving individuals have driven the Grand Old Party to its moment of truth. It’s a sitting duck to the winds of change. It lied on Rafale and economy and the poor didn’t buy their “Nyaya” lollipop. It ranted and railed against Narendra Modi and it didn’t work. It’s cry on “democracy”; “idea of India” and “secular values” only earned snides. That’s why the patient is left with its final few breaths. It could be born again but for that it has to die first. The point is who pulls the plug?

Since 2014, Modi government has forced 312 govt officials to retire over corruption and inefficiency

OpIndia Staff
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Since 2014, Modi government has forced 312 govt officials to retire over corruption and inefficiency

Last week, the government had informed the Lok Sabha that as many as 312 government officials have been either compulsorily retired, or been listed for retirement over corruption and inefficient work between July 2014 and May 2019.

Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said this in a reply to the question posed by DMK leader A Raja. A Raja wanted to know whether the government had ordered compulsory retirement to officials across the country.

The minister said that the decision was taken after reviewing the work of about 1.2 lakh officials both at the Group A and Group B levels. The retirement was recommended for 125 Group A officers and 187 from Group B.

The minister has said according to the provisions of FR 56(j)(i), Rule 48 of the Central Civil Services Pension Rules, 1972, and Rule 16(3) (Amended ) of the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 the government has absolute right to prematurely retire officials on grounds of lack of integrity and ineffectiveness in public interest.

Using the provisions, the government had reviewed the performance records of 36,756 Group A and 82,654 Group B officers.

Last month, days after sacking a handful of tainted officers from service, the Modi government passed a directive to all departments and ministries to prepare monthly reports identifying officials facing charges of corruption and other wrongdoing against them.

Yesterday, it was reported that Modi government 2.0 has shortlisted 167 ‘transformative ideas’ and has set an internal target of 100 days to implement the plan. The first 100 days of the Modi government’s second stint would be completed on October 15, 2019.

Fact-check: Did the Modi govt concede the NSCN demands of a separate constitution, passport and flag for Nagaland

OpIndia Staff
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Fact-check: Did the Modi govt concede the NSCN demands of a separate constitution, passport and flag for Nagaland

Amidst ongoing negotiations between the Government of India and the NSCN(IM), reports had surfaced that the GOI had agreed to the eight-point charter of demands put forth by the Isak Muivah faction of the NSCN.

The demands were reported to include a separate constitution for Nagaland, separate passports and a separate flag. National Herald, the Congress mouthpiece, also peddled the rumours that the Government of India had conceded to the NSCN(IM)’s demands for a separate constitution and flag.

However, Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) and Centre’s Representative and Interlocutor for Naga peace talks, R.N. Ravi, has rubbished these reports. He told the Nagaland Post, one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the state, “These are all mischievous rumours. There is nothing in it.”

Ravi maintained that the demands for a separate constitution and flag remain unresolved. He further stated that negotiations were still undergoing and the final agreement could be signed at the earlier if the “Naga negotiators reciprocated with pragmatic flexibilities”.

The demands by the NSCN(IM) are longstanding demands of the Naga terrorists. Apart from separate flag and constitution, they want greater Nagalim which includes large parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The neighbouring states are vociferously opposed to the idea of the Nagalim. No Indian government has, thus far, entertained the notions of conceding to these demands. It appears extremely unlikely that the current NDA government will even consider conceding to such far-fetched demands.

TMC lawmaker Mahua Moitra files a criminal defamation case against Zee News journalist Sudhir Chaudhary

OpIndia Staff
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TMC lawmaker Mahua Moitra files a criminal defamation case against Zee News journalist Sudhir Chaudhary

After being put on the high pedestal by the ‘Liberal left’ for her rather prosaic maiden speech on ‘Seven Signs of Fascism’ in the Lok Sabha, TMC MP Mahua Moitra has now filed criminal defamation against journalist Sudhir Chaudhary for alleging that her June 25 speech was highly plagiarised.

Acting on the complaint filed by TMC MP, Metropolitan Magistrate Preeti Parewa today placed the matter for July 20. The statement of Mahua Moitra will be recorded on that date.

Representing Moitra, counsel Shadaan Farasat asserted that Moitra’s speech was inspired by a famous Holocaust poster in a United States museum. The poster read 14 signs of early fascism. Moitra borrowed the concept and couched it in the Indian context, her counsel argued. Farasat also contended that even while adopting the idea from the Holocaust poster, Moitra mentioned the source from where her speech was inspired from.

Sudhir Chaudhary, on Zee News, ran a broadcast in which he alleged that Mahua Moitra had plagiarised her “hate-filled speech” given in Parliament. Chaudhary also claimed that the views expressed by Moitra were not of her own but were ‘copy-pasted’ from an article written by Martin Longman in reference to US President Donald Trump.


Earlier, Moitra had tried to browbeat Chaudhary by submitting a breach of privilege motion against Chaudhary claiming that he had falsely reported her maiden address in the lower house of the parliament. However, the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla did not accept the breach of privilege motion submitted by the Trinamool MP then.

Flustered by the negative response from the Lok Sabha speaker, Mahua Moitra had then resorted to abusing media and journalists claiming that she had not stolen the speech. After parliamentary privilege didn’t yield the intended result, Moitra has now employed legal means to intimidate a journalist from performing his duty freely.

IANS wrongly reports that BJP MLA’s daughter and husband were kidnapped from the premises of the Allahabad High Court

OpIndia Staff
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IANS wrongly reports that BJP MLA’s daughter and husband were kidnapped from the premises of the Allahabad High Court

The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) had wrongly reported an incident of a couple of being kidnapped this morning. Initially, they had reported that BJP MLA Rajesh Mishra’s daughter Sakshi Mishra and her husband were kidnapped in a black SUV at gunpoint outside the Allahabad High Court.

However, it later came to be known that it was another couple that had been kidnapped. The police have nabbed the abductors and rescued the couple. As for Sakshi and her husband, Ajitesh, both were spotted attending the court hearing. Their lawyer had claimed that Ajitesh was roughed up outside the court premises. The couple weren’t kidnapped.

Due to the confusion caused by IANS, several news portals such as India Today, The Tribune and Congress mouthpiece National Herald have also reported the same.

IANS had later corrected their report after it became clear that two were separate incidents.

Last year IANS had used expletives to describe PM Modi. In a story about a new scheme approved by the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by the Prime Minister himself in which the word ‘Bakhch*d’ was used as Narendra Modi’s middle name. The journalist was later suspended.

Earlier OpIndia had reported on how the alleged reply to an RTI filed by IANS, on money spent on PMMVY in Uttar Pradesh, greatly differed from the official government data.

In May this year, in a gross violation of Election Commission rules, IANS published a comprehensive Exit Poll for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Exit Poll was published before the final phase of the election had even begun. Since 1998 Exit Polls have been banned by the Election Commission from the time the poll begins till half-an-hour after the polling ends.

Barkha Dutt terms Kapil Sibal a ‘Mallya’ for not paying salaries to Tiranga TV employees while enjoying in London

OpIndia Staff
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Barkha Dutt terms Kapil Sibal a ‘Mallya’ for not paying salaries to Tiranga TV employees while enjoying in London

The crisis at Kapil Sibal backed English News Channel Tiranga TV seems to be mounting as senior journalist associated with the channel Barkha Dutt today spoke against the way the channel is being run.

The controversial journalist of Radia tapes fame posted several tweets today about the “appalling situation” in the channel promoted by Kapil Sibal and his wife. The channel has fired several of its employees in the last couple of weeks, and it has been taken off from some DTH platforms.

Although the sacked employees of the channel had been narrating their situation on social media for last couple of weeks, there no much detail available about the situation. But now the tweets by Barkha Dutt reveal how deep the crisis at Tiranga TV is.

Making a sensational disclosure, Dutt revealed that equipment have confiscated from more than 200 employees who now face sacking from their jobs. Confirming that the employees have been asked to leave without adequate payments, she wrote that “Man who acts holier than though (sic.) in public has treated journalists in a hideous way”, commenting on Congress leader Kapil Sibal.


Confirming the allegations of the sacked employees, Barkha Dutt said that most people in the channel had left their existing jobs to join the then Harvest TV (later renamed to Tiranga TV) on the assurance from Kapil Sibal that the organisation will be run professionally and they will have a minimum tenure of 2 years. But all live programming has been cancelled for 48 hours, she informed.

Barkha Dutt accused Kapil Sibal’s wife of being insensitive to the plight of employees. According to the former NDTV editor, Promita Sibal who runs a meat factory said, “I shut down factory without giving a paisa to labour, who are these journalists to ask for 6 months salary.” Kapil Sibal earns crores every day but he wont pay 200 employees industry norm of 6 months or at least 3 months pay out, ruining the lives of 200 plus people, she tweeted.

Barkha Dutt also revealed that Kapil Sibal and his wife planned to blame Modi for the sacking of the employees accusing that the government didn’t let the channel run. But the fact is, the government has done absolutely nothing, hence that excuse could not be used. She informed that instead of facing the employees, the Sibal couple has gone to London while shutting shop here, prompting her to call him Mallya.


The host of ‘Democracy Live’ show on Tiranga TV informed that the promoters of the channel threatened her with defamation for comparing Sibal with Mallya, and had ordered her to withdraw her emails. But she has refused to do so and said that she supports the employees of the channel, and she will fight the case with a criminal case.


Barkha Dutt also revealed that Kapil Sibal and his wife abused the female employees by referring to as “Kutiya” or bitch. She said that it is a fit case to be filed with National Commission for Women and they will be submitting affidavits in the regard.


She also revealed that Tiranga TV has not paid salaries to her and other senior employees for a year, and refuses to pay the same. Barkha Dutt requested her friends in media and everyone else to tweet to Kapil Sibal asking him to make the due payments to the staff of the channel.

It is not sure whether Barkha Dutt intends to leave the channel. When we checked on TV, we saw that the Tiranga TV was running promos of her program. Barkha Dutt’s show Democracy Live was last broadcast on 11th July. Although she tweeted that live programming has been cancelled for 38 hours, we found a live news bulletin running on the channel at the time of publishing of this report.

Champagne against Islam? English cricketers Moin Ali and Adil Rashid escape as team pops open a bottle of champagne

OpIndia Staff
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Champagne against Islam? English cricketers Moin Ali and Adil Rashid escape as team pops open a bottle of champagne

England won its first ever Cricket ODI World Cup after it defeated New Zealand in the final by scoring more boundaries. The match ended in a tie after both teams had played 50 overs and the super-over couldn’t separate the teams either. However, since England scored more boundaries in the match, they were declared the winners.

While the match was a thriller, one amusing incident was captured on camera while the England team was celebrating. As is customary, one of the team members opened a bottle of champagne in celebration. Adil Rashid and Moin Ali, the Muslim members of the squad, were seen scampering away from the stage to avoid the alcohol the consumption of which is forbidden in Islam.


The incident was taken sportingly by most. Social media users respected the manner in which the Muslim members of the squad adhered to their faith even in the midst of a raucous celebration. However, everyone found it funny.


Islamic scholars are unanimous on this matter. They claim that their god has declared alcohol as one of the handiwork of Satan. They also blame alcohol for incest and AIDS.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5TVeronvFs]

Therefore, conservative Muslim society strictly abstain from its consumption and as is evident by Moin Ali and Adil Rashid’s escape, do everything they can to maintain a safe distance from it.

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