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Rahul Gandhi joins Congress MPs to raise slogans in Lok Sabha over Karnataka issue

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi joins Congress MPs to raise slogans in Lok Sabha over Karnataka issue

Desperate times call for desperate measures! The Congress party which is going through a major crisis in Karnataka, today, found support in its ex-president, Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi was seen joining his fellow MPs in raising slogans on Tuesday as the Karnataka political crisis echoed in the Lok Sabha. He, however, did so while remaining seated and did not go in the Well of the House with the other protesting MPs.

Rahul had arrived in the lower house at noon just before the commencement of Zero Hour. At that time Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tried to raise the Karnataka issue and accused the BJP of “poaching” its MLAs in the state.

Speaker of the house, Om Birla, however, discouraged Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from raising the issue as the matter was already discussed in the House on Monday and Deputy Leader of Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh had responded to the charges.

Unsatisfied with the Speaker’s response, Chowdhury again tried to raise the issue. He then scribbled a few slogans on a piece of paper and gave it to his fellow MPs sitting behind him, who promptly raised them.

The members raised slogans like “Down with dictatorship” (Tanashahi band karo), “Stop the politics of poaching” (Shikar ki rajneeti band karo) and “We want justice”.

Rahul soon joined the bandwagon, while remaining seated in the front row of the Opposition benches. Though his pitch was not as high as the others, he repeated the last words of the slogans. Sonia Gandhi was also sitting next to him.

The Congress MPs, showing complete disrespect toward the house, entered the Well, as they continued with their sloganeering. The Speaker, Om Birla, warned the members against bringing posters.

“This is our right,” said one of the members, to which the Speaker retorted, “No, it is not your right. The country is watching you. This is your House. By bringing placards, don’t make it (Lok Sabha) the House of a civic body,” Birla lambasted.

The Congress has been blaming the BJP for the recent crisis its coalition government is facing in Karnataka.

In a desperate attempt to save the ship from sinking, Karnataka Congress MLA DK Shivakumar and JD(S) MLA Shivalinge Gowda have arrived in Mumbai today, to hold talks with the rebel Congress MLAs. The rebel MLAs flew to Mumbai last week after submitting their resignations.

Yesterday, the Karnataka state assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar rejected the resignations of 8 out of 13 rebel Congress MLAs because they were not in the ‘prescribed format’. The BJP MLAs who had gone to the Vidhan Soudha to meet the Speaker left without meeting him as he was ‘not there’. The speaker has asked for six days’ time to decide on resignations.

The JD(S) also accused the BJP of ‘buying’ MLAs in Karnataka for Rs 1,000 crore. Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy should resign. Today they will protest at the Gandhi statue in Vidhan Soudha in Karnataka.

On July 8, after an independent MLA and minister, H Nagesh quit the alliance, 21 Congress MLAs had also submitted their resignation to the party chief to placate the 14 rebel MLAs who withdrew their support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition on Saturday.

Interestingly, if the resignation of these 14 rebel leaders [11 from the Congress and three from the JD(S)] are accepted, the coalition government’s strength in the Assembly would be reduced to 102, besides the Speaker.

With the support of two independents, who on Monday resigned from the ministry, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the half-way mark is 113.

“Desist from false propaganda”: Congress denies reports that it had demanded front row seat for Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

OpIndia Staff
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“Desist from false propaganda”: Congress denies reports that it had demanded front row seat for Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

The Congress party has denied reports that it had demanded a front row seat for Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha. Congress leader in the lower house Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury posted a tweet last night to deny the media reports regarding the same.

Yesterday, it was reported that Congress party had requested for a front row seat for the former Congress president in the Lok Sabha, but the government had denied the same as. It was reported that the request was denied as the Congress party is eligible for only 2 seats on the front row as per rules depending on the number of Congress MPs.


Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that neither Rahul Gandhi nor the Congress party ever put forward any demand for ‘Front Row’ seat for Rahul Gandhi in the parliament. He termed the news as “false propaganda”, and asked to desist from it. Chowdhury also informed that the party has proposed seat number 466 for Rahul Gandhi.

He informed that Rahul Gandhi has been allotted a seat in the second row and he will be sitting there.

Is this how Congress crumbles? While Karnataka govt falls, Rahul Gandhi celebrates Twitter followers and other top leaders snooze

Nirwa Mehta
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Is this how Congress crumbles? While Karnataka govt falls, Rahul Gandhi celebrates Twitter followers and other top leaders snooze

The cracks in the Karnataka government are widening and snowballing towards an imminent collapse. As state leaders of Congress struggle to keep things in order, the national leadership seems to be living in a parallel universe.

Karnataka state assembly elections in May 2018 were the first major breakthrough for Congress after a string of failures. The party got into the unholy alliance with JD(S) which had almost half the MLAs they had to form the government. However, things have been turbulent ever since.

However, in December 2018, Congress got a new lease on life. The party formed government in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the party has barely managed to get the majority to form the government.

The fall of the Karnataka government may have a bigger psychological impact than the humiliating defeat of 2019.

Who is doing what

Former President Rahul Gandhi is busy celebrating his Twitter follower count crossing a 10 million mark. He is on his way to Amethi where BJP’s Smriti Irani gave him a humiliating defeat in 2019 elections. One has no idea what the interim President Motilal Vora is up to. Vora is also a co-accused in the National Herald scam with Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is also busy with cricket so much that he even used cricket analogy to slam the union budget. Meanwhile, the frontrunners for the post of party chief are also missing in action. Perhaps they are busy trying to build the ground for the top post. Poster urging Rahul Gandhi to give Jyotiraditya Scindia ‘national leadership’ was recently seen outside Bhopal Congress office.

Milind Deora resigned as Mumbai Congress chief saying he was looking forward to playing a national role to stabilise the party. However, Deora is conspicuously absent in the Karnataka crisis. Especially when the rebel Congress MLAs are in a Mumbai hotel.

That leaves us with Sachin Pilot. While there is mounting pressure on him to quit as state party chief, his rival and CM Ashok Gehlot is also pegged as possible names as Congress President. None have said a word on Karnataka crisis yet.

What it means for Congress

None of the top contenders to replace Rahul Gandhi as Congress President have gone into firefighting mode to save the Karnataka government. Rahul Gandhi himself is busy celebrating his Twitter followers and visiting Amethi, a constitution he lost. And he is not even attempting to save the government in Karnataka.

While the Congress has been in shambles ever since the 2019 election debacle, it has thus far blamed everyone from the senior leaders of the party to Praveen Chakravarty, their Data Analytics Department head. However, one has to question the part-time politician’s commitment to the profession if while his government falls, the entire party that is led by the Gandhis have simply gone into their snooze mode.

Perhaps the contenders to replace Rahul Gandhi are testing waters to see who ascends the throne first. The party is crumbling right under the nose of the leaders who want to lead it but they just don’t seem to care.

West Bengal: Female BJP worker found hanging in Midnapore, BJP alleges harassment by TMC

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Female BJP worker found hanging in Midnapore, BJP alleges harassment by TMC

A woman activist from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kalpana Bhuiyan, was found dead in Keshpur in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district on Tuesday. Her body was found hanging near ward number 4 in Golad Gram Panchayat’s Ammudiya Village, reports Zee News.

The death of the BJP Mahila Morcha activist has ignited a political furore in the area. Her fellow workers in the BJP are blaming the TMC workers for the alleged suicide. They are claiming that Bhuiyan was mentally tortured and humiliated by the TMC cadres which forced her to take such extreme step.

Meanwhile, TMC has denied the allegations, claiming that there was a conflict in her family, due to which the woman committed suicide. They have stated that Bhuiyan’s death was a suicide due to personal issues and it has no political angle.

The police also claimed that there was no political angle to the incident. However, an investigation into the matter is underway.

BJP has been on the receiving end of political violence in West Bengal since before the Panchayat Elections in 2018. Many BJP workers have been brutally murdered in West Bengal before and after the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. However, the political tussle between the BJP and TMC has become bloodier after BJP won a remarkable 18 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

Innumerable incidents have been reported where TMC goons have unleashed their atrocities on BJP workers and supporters converting West Bengal into a battle zone.

Addressing a gathering at Kolkata’s ICCR auditorium during the BJP membership drive on July 7, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh had claimed that over 72 party workers have been reportedly killed between April and July this year. “Since April, a single day has not passed when reports of atrocities on our workers did not surface,” the BJP MP added.

Earlier, BJP leader Mukul Roy had alleged that all the incidents of violence in the state are being carried out at the behest of TMC Supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with the support of the administration.

Moreover, the BJP had observed a ‘black day’ in the state and called for a 12-hour general strike in the Basirhat sub-division last month, in the aftermath of the face-off which ensued between the BJP and West Bengal Police in Sandeshkhali, North 24 Parganas district which had claimed the lives of five BJP workers.

In the wake of such incidents of violence in the State, the BJP had also demanded the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief Mamata Banerjee as the Home Minister of West Bengal.

‘Human Rights’ activist John Dayal asks fellow panelist to ‘rape’ a woman if he wanted to, normalises sexual assault on live TV

OpIndia Staff
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‘Human Rights’ activist John Dayal asks fellow panelist to ‘rape’ a woman if he wanted to, normalises sexual assault on live TV

Controversial Christian activist and self-proclaimed human rights activist John Dayal, stoked a huge controversy. Dayal tried normalised rape culture by asking a fellow panellist, Prafulla Ketkar to go and rape anybody he wanted. He said that Ketkar rape anybody and nobody would stop him. Prafulla Ketkar is the Editor of Organiser, a publication affiliated with the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

The Times Now debate

In a Times Now debate, John Dayal and other panellists including Prafulla Ketkar were discussing the issue of inclusion of the history the RSS in the syllabus of the second year BA (History) course in Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University.

During the course of the debate, John Dayal referred to the RSS as ‘murderous secret society’ with two faces. In the whole debate, Dayal went on to make unsubstantiated claims against the RSS.

Responding to John Dayal’s tirade, Prafulla Ketkar accused him of being secretive himself and a supporter of rapists and paedophiles. Ketkar referred to various church abuses and crimes committed by Christian priests.

He then questioned John Dayal regarding his dubious human rights activism and his silence during the Bishop Franco rape case. Dayal made a shocking remark claiming that Ketkar could also ‘rape’ the nun and nobody will stop him from doing so.

As a ‘human rights activist,’ Dayal’s insensitive remark sent shock waves in the Times Now studio.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf8br_6iARw?start=1230]

Calling his statement obnoxious, Times Now Editor Navika Kumar immediately asked Dayal to apologise to Prafulla Ketkar. John Dayal had to finally apologise on the live show as fellow panellists asked him to take back his comments and tender an apology to Ketkar.

Who is John Dayal

John Dayal, an ultra left-wing ideologue, is often known for his bigotry views. He has time and again exposed his anti-Hindu and anti-Indian views. Recently, he had even been part of the nexus, which stood for Rohingyas. He had even written to Prime Minister Modi to not deport the illegal Rohingya immigrants from India despite these posed a national security threat to the country.

A known punching bag of Arnab Goswami, John Dayal is known for his bigotry. Dayal is also the secretary general of the All India Christian Council and a past president of the All India Catholic Union. He was part of the 32-member group which drafted the controversial Communal Violence Bill. If at all the Parliament had passed the bill, it would have been a death knell on the Hindus of the country.

Uttar Pradesh: 6-year-old raped and murdered after being lured with biscuits by her neighbour Farooq

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: 6-year-old raped and murdered after being lured with biscuits by her neighbour Farooq

In another deplorable incident, a 6-year-old minor girl was brutally raped and murdered by her neighbour, Farooq (24) in a village in Fatehpur, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

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

Farooq, who was drunk, reportedly lured the girl with a biscuit and took her to a secluded place where he raped her and thereafter murdered her.

When the villagers saw the accused hiding the dead body in a sack, they caught him and beat him up, after which he was handed over to the police.

The police subsequently admitted the accused to the hospital as he suffered serious injuries after being thrashed by the villagers.

Speaking of the incident, the SP, Ramesh Kumar confirmed that a 6-year-old girl has been murdered by her neighbour named Farooq. The deceased’ body has been taken into possession and sent for post-mortem. The accused has been arrested. Only after the post-mortem report is out, it will be clear how the baby was killed, said the SP.

The minor’s mother claimed that her daughter was playing outside the house when Farooq lured her and took her away and did wrong to her. Later the child’s body was found in a sack, the mother said, furthering that when her child went missing, she had also gone to Farooq’s house to inquire, but he had refused, saying that “she was not there”, claimed the minor’s mother.

Such cases of sexual assault on women especially minors has been on the rise in Uttar Pradesh. Last month we reported how a minor girl was gang-raped for nearly two years by her own four cousins as they were jealous of her sister for excelling in studies. A teacher also participated in the crime against the girl. The incident came to the fore after the video of the rape inside the Islamia school in Sadarpur of Bareilly district reached the family WhatsApp group.

Moreover, in the last month at least five cases of crime against young girls have come to fore across different parts of Uttar Pradesh. Visibly miffed with the police for failing to ‘instil fear’ among criminals in the state, Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath, in a high-level meeting with senior police and home department officials on June 11, had asked the state police to re-activate the anti-Romeo squad.

Despite, persistent efforts by Uttar Pradesh government, a 19-year-old Tausif Imran Khan had repeatedly raped a 14-year-old class X girl and recorded her on his mobile phone. He had, allegedly, also attempted to brainwash her to convert to Islam by taking her to various religious places.

Moreover, recently, we had reported how the barbarity exhibited in the brutal killing of a three-year-old Tina (name changed) by Zahid and Aslam in Aligarh has shaken the conscience of the country.

Five ways to survive Sanjay Manjrekar’s commentary

Sandeep Singh
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Five ways to survive Sanjay Manjrekar’s commentary

In this era where Indian society has been sharply divided on almost everything, there is one great unifier – Sanjay Manjrekar’s commentary.

Every Indian hates it with a passion but Star Sports executives don’t seem to notice it. The reasons vary, some don’t like his bland commentary which offers no insights, some don’t like his constant negativity that turns people suicidal, some don’t like the fact that he constantly criticizes their favorite player, but the hate remains constant.

Since Star isn’t going to remove him, we came up with some ideas on how to survive a match when Manjrekar is doing commentary.

1. Hindi imposition – Yes Manjrekar can pop up on Star Sports Hindi as well but as long as he is on Star Sports English, Hindi commentary is totally Manjrekar-free. Just keep the batteries in your remote and switch whenever Manjrekar appears on the English commentary. You may even hear some good commentary if Ganguly or Gavaskar are on air at the time.

2. The Ravi Shastri way – Start drinking with the toss and keep drinking throughout the game. You won’t care who is saying what on commentary, whether it is Sanjay Manjrekar or Mayanti Langer. In fact, by the end of the game, you won’t even care who is winning and who is losing.

3. The Manmohan Singh method – The good old mute the TV option. You will miss out on the atmosphere from the ground and on the commentary from others as well but a small price to pay for a Manjrekar free experience.

4. Be a masochist – Derive pleasure from your pain. Revel in the punishment unleashed on your ears by Star Sports. Take inspiration from Congress leaders still asking for more Rahul Gandhi or from BJP leaders still seeking support of Lutyens liberals, there is a masochist in all of us, you just need to bring that person out.

5. Switch to Radio – Yes there are other things on the radio apart from Mann Ki Baat. You can enjoy the commentary from the World Cup on the radio and it is a lot more fun due to the added suspense. When commentators on radio say ,”Oh that’s high in the air”, you don’t know whether it is going to be 6 or a catch in the deep or a caught behind or a caught and bowled or even LBW at times. So far, Radio is a Manjrekar free zone so make the most of it while you can.

Mujhko Rana Ji Maaf Karna: Meet the ‘Champion’ MLA who loves dancing shirtless with guns in hand

OpIndia Staff
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Mujhko Rana Ji Maaf Karna: Meet the ‘Champion’ MLA who loves dancing shirtless with guns in hand

BJP MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ from Uttarakhand is seen dancing to the tunes of a popular Bollywood song while brandishing guns. The video clip, which is now going viral on social media, shows Singh dancing with his associates and showcasing multiple guns and also one assault rifle.


Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ is a BJP MLA from Uttarakhand’s Khanpur. He has also been a minister earlier. In the video, the MLA is seen dancing to the popular song ‘Mujhko Rana Ji Maaf Karna’ from the movie ‘Karan Arjun’.

It is, however, not the first time that the MLA’s dancing videos are going viral on social media. In 2015, another dancing video of the MLA had gone viral where Pranav Singh was again seen dancing with guns in his hand. The difference is, back then, he used to be a Congress MLA.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmh1wzdG18]

Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ seems to be a dance enthusiast. He probably loves dancing with his guns and without his shirts.

The MLA is fond of not just dancing himself, but he loves watching dances too. In another video, reportedly from 2016, the then Congress MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ is seen enjoying the performance of a woman, reportedly a bar dancer, in his office.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ-zsZGBcYM]

After the video went viral, Singh reportedly said in his defence that it was an old video, shot six months ago. In this video, thankfully, the MLA has his shirt on.

Khanpur MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion had often been in controversy. He had been a cabinet rank minister in the previous Congress governments of ND Tiwari, Vijay Bahuguna and Harish Rawat. In May 2016, he had revolted against the Harish Rawat government and had joined the BJP with 8 supporting MLAs. He was disqualified under anti-defection laws.

Singh was later elected as a BJP MLA from the Khanpur seat in the 2017 assembly elections.

Singh has always been in controversy over his activities.  Last month, Singh was suspended from the BJP for three months as a punishment for his unruly behaviour after he allegedly misbehaved with a journalist. It was reported that Singh was asking for the BJP MP ticket for his wife from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat.

Singh has been in news also for his verbal spats, comments over political leaders and his theatrics. In April, after indulging in a verbal spat with Jhabreda MLA Deshraj Karnwal a number of times, Singh had reached the Nehru stadium in Roorki and declared that he is there to challenge Karnwal for a wrestling match.

Deshraj Karnwal had stated that Pranav Singh is mentally imbalanced and he should get himself treated in Agra’s mental hospital.

‘Most dedicated fan of cricket in Pakistan’ files petition against Sania Mirza, Shoaib Malik and others for ‘sheesha party’

OpIndia Staff
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‘Most dedicated fan of cricket in Pakistan’ files petition against Sania Mirza, Shoaib Malik and others for ‘sheesha party’

Pakistani lawyer Abdul Jalil Marwat has filed a petition in the Singh High Court in Pakistan against various Pakistani cricketers. Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Imam-ul-Haq and captain Sarfaraz Ahmed are named in the petition for smoking sheesha (hookah) on the eve of the match against India in the ongoing Cricket World Cup. The Pakistani team lost to India and many blamed the party on the prior evening on the poor performance.


The petitioner has claimed that the act of smoking sheesha contributed to the team’s poor performance. Indian tennis player Sania Mirza is also named in the petition. She is Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik’s wife and was also present at the sheesha party.

The petitioner who refers to himself as ‘the most dedicated fan of cricket in Pakistan’ stated how Malik scored zero runs, Imam-ul-Haq scored seven and Riaz only took one wicket against the crucial match against India.

NIA attaches Srinagar property of Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi as ‘proceeds of terror crime’

OpIndia Staff
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NIA attaches Srinagar property of Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi as ‘proceeds of terror crime’

The National Investigative Agency (NIA) has now attached the Srinagar property of Kashmiri separatist Asiya Andrabi as ‘proceeds of terror crime’.

The notice written by the investigative officer of NIA says that the Srinagar property of Asiya Andrabi is the proceeds of terror activity and has been used for the furtherance of terrorist activities of a proscribed terrorist organisation Dukhtaran-E-Millat.

The notice also says that the Director-General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir has granted his approval for the attachment of the said property.

The property has been attached as ‘proceeds of terror’ under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and now, the property can be neither be sold, transferred or dealt with in any manner without prior permission.

Andrabi was arrested last year by NIA. A case was registered against Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

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