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That you have lost readership and your peers doubt you, is not our problem: Read our response to Swati Chaturvedi’s defamation notice

Nupur J Sharma
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That you have lost readership and your peers doubt you, is not our problem: Read our response to Swati Chaturvedi’s defamation notice

Recently, OpIndia.com got a legal notice from abusive media troll Swati Chaturvedi. Reproduced below is our response to the legal notice in full. At the outset, we would like to reiterate that such intimidatory tactics won’t work with OpIndia. We reject the charges made by Swati Chaturvedi and will fight the case in court if push comes to shove. 

We are in receipt of the ‘defamation notice’ served on M/s Aadhyaasi Media & Content Services Private Limited, OpIndia.com, Editor Nupur Jhunjhunwala Sharma and others on behalf of your client Ms Swati Chaturvedi.

In the legal notice, you mention that your client is a ‘journalist of high repute, standing and eminence’. In support of this claim, you have mentioned names of various publications where Swati Chaturvedi has worked in the last 20 years. You have also highlighted the fact that she has not faced any charges throughout her career as an ‘investigative journalist. You also cite the instance of her winning an award in 2018.

Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi

While we are not contesting that her career could be over two decades long – which is quite an achievement for her – but we want to humbly submit that mere instance of winning an award does not make someone of high repute, standing, and eminence. We rely on the thinking of Ms Chaturvedi herself to make this submission. We want to bring to your notice that Ms Chaturvedi has on many occasions, especially on social media, mocked awards like Philip Kotler award to Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Padma Bhushan award to renowned actor Anupam Kher, National Film Award to renowned actress Raveena Tandon, and even awards to fellow journalists, thus signalling that just winning an award is no proof of repute, standing and eminence.

Furthermore, we are assuming that by mentioning that “she has not faced any charges”, you mean that there are no legal cases pending against Ms Chaturvedi in any court of law. However, this is not true. She has been slapped with a defamation case for accusing a man of “being arrested for sexual harassment” when he never was.

If we leave aside legal cases, Ms Chaturvedi actually faces many charges – in general parlance and not in legal terms – of using foul language, of bad journalism, and of bad practices – some of which are mentioned hereafter in the course of replying to your legal notice.

In your notice, you have alluded to a specific article called “Swati Chaturvedi may be delusional: Sources”. You have accused OpIndia.com, saying that we “falsely stated that Swati Chaturvedi works with the Leftist propaganda website, The Wire, with an intention to defame our client”.

Since Swati Chaturvedi has on several occasions written for The Wire, we do not think the assertion that she works with The Wire is a defamatory statement. In fact, your notice itself puts the name of The Wire among the list of publications she has “worked with”.

Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi

However, if Swati Chaturvedi thinks that being associated with The Wire defames her irreparably, we sympathise and apologise for the same.

You have further stated in your legal notice that our article, alleging that she gets accused of plagiarism or gets called out for blatant lies and fabrication is incorrect, and that we had no basis to put that information, and that our intent was to defame your client in the eyes of her peers. You had also mentioned that according to us, your client runs an extortion racket and that is untrue as well.

We would like to contest each of your points separately.

1) Plagiarism

Stanley Pignal a journalist with The Economist, had accused Swati Chaturvedi of plagiarising excerpts of his tweets. Pignal put out a tweet to provide proof for his accusations. You can read the details here. Interestingly, Swati had allegedly plagiarised content in an article that spoke of journalistic integrity. We have merely reported the charges levelled by Stanley Pignal and we did not sit in any judgment. Further, this proves that there was a basis when we wrote that Swati Chaturvedi had been accused of plagiarism.

2) Blatant lies and fabrication

Your client published a news report about actor Leonardo Di Caprio being invited to an RSS event, which had no real basis. Expectedly, it turned out to be false. She falsely claimed an image of a girl beaten up by a jilted man as being an image capturing violence in Benaras Hindu University. She has fabricated statements of a national leader on national television.

She has spread lies about a simple speech by Amit Shah, the BJP Party President. She has given credence to fake news, from a dubious website. She earlier spread false claims that Kanhaiyya Kumar attacker was a BJP office-bearer.

Therefore, it indeed is true that she gets accused of blatant lies and fabrication often, however, we are willing to concede that most of the charges against her are not of legal nature because the affected parties never deemed the case or her important enough to send her legal notices.

3) Extortion Racket

The extortion charge was made by a website named PGurus, not by OpIndia. The PGurus article was published in April 2018 and our original report covering this charge was published around the same time. This is not a charge levelled by OpIndia, and we want to reiterate that we have just reported charges made by another portal.

You can read our report here, that cites PGurus. The original PGurus report can be read here (this hasn’t been retracted yet). In fact, several other people including Director Vivek Agnihotri had tweeted the PGurus article and pointed out that Swati Chaturvedi’s name appeared in the list. However, no legal action was taken against any of the parties involved. We will update our article when the original source, namely PGurus, updates theirs.

4) Defame Swati in the eyes of her peers

Some of Swati Chaturvedi’s peers have claimed to us in private that she was fired from Hindustan Times for faking an interview of former Defence Minister George Fernandes. If our intention was to damage her reputation among her peers, we’d have always included this claim while mentioning her in our reports, crediting this claim to “sources” as your client often does in her reportage.

However, we have not done that, because we are not on any mission to damage her reputation. Further, this also suggests that her reputation among her peers was not so great, to begin with, and OpIndia can’t be deemed responsible for any perceived loss of that by your client.

Your notice further refers to one of our articles “The Wire and its ‘star journalist’ peddles another absurd lie about RSS and it’s not the first time” and claims that it was published with definite intentions to defame our client.

Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi

We would like to assert, unequivocally that OpIndia.com stands by this article, and the intention was to critique the article and not defame the author.

In the aforesaid article, your client had written:

“The RSS has been told by Modi and Shah that when the BJP comes back, the constitution will be tweaked to reflect India’s new majoritarian ethos and the secularism which they all hate will be excised.”

Your client provides no proof to back her allegations other than rhetoric and of course, her famed “sources”. Our article is actually far less defamatory if at all one can argue it to be, than the original article by your client, which accuses a very prominent social organisation of working on some grand conspiracy. Our claim that it was lie can be gauged from the fact that one of the first decisions of the new Modi government was about minority welfare, in complete contrast with any majoritarian ethos.

When our article said that “It is not the first time”, that aspect is also true and we stand by it. In 2018, your client had written that with RSS’ second in command Suresh Joshi’s term coming to end in March, he was likely to be replaced by Dattatreya Hosabale who is supposed to be close to PM Modi.

In the resultant analysis, your client claimed that the implications of this change would be “huge” for RSS and the BJP. One such claim made was that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Suresh Joshi share the view that RSS cannot play second fiddle to the BJP, but if Hosabale became the second in command then the balance of power will skew towards PM Modi. The author even alleged that Hosabale has risen meteorically through the ranks after Modi became PM.

As we know, in 2018, Suresh Joshi was re-elected as RSS’ General Secretary or “Sarkaryavah” by the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, which is the organisation’s highest decision-making body.

In your notice, you mention that even in this article of ours, we have reiterated the charges of plagiarism. We reiterate that the charges of plagiarism were levied by another journalist and we only reported that.

Further, you mention that after reading the articles published by OpIndia.com, Swati Chaturvedi was pained to learn that her peers doubted her bonafide and that she has lost readership because of our articles. We would like to thank Swati Chaturvedi yet again for confirming that her peers read and trust OpIndia.com.

Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi

In so far as the amount of Rs. 50,00,000 demanded by your client in way of ‘damages’ for ‘mental agony’ and ‘loss of reputation’ unless we delete our articles, we would like to categorically state that since the allegations against us are not valid, we don’t consider it relevant that any money should be paid to your client.

Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi

We are given to believe that Ms Swati Chaturvedi believes in freedom of express, freedom of the press and does not believe that articles written by journalists in criticism can cost anyone their reputation.

Recently, Ms Chaturvedi had slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for arresting a former journalist for making derogatory comments against the UP CM Yogi Adityanath.


We would like to reiterate the famous quote she plugged that read: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.

We surely are guilty of telling your client Swati Chaturvedi and many other journalists things that they do not want to hear. As demonstrated by your client herself, this is liberty and not defamation.

In the end, we’d like to reiterate that we are not running any personal agenda against Swati Chaturvedi, but the same can’t be said with surely about Swati. She has been relentlessly commenting about OpIndia and people connected with OpIndia in a disparaging and abusive way on social media and in her book. We’ve got a list of over a 100 (and counting) links of her social media posts and book that we could produce in a court of law in support of our claims.

In all our articles on OpIndia that feature her, we have only highlighted her hypocrisy (of using abusive language while terming others ‘trolls’) and various issues with her reportage (her reports often turning out to be untrue) and conduct in the virtual world, which are based on publicly available material.

Here is how PM Modi mocked Congress and Rahul Gandhi while calling for an all-party meeting

OpIndia Staff
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Here is how PM Modi mocked Congress and Rahul Gandhi while calling for an all-party meeting

While encouraging all parties to attend the June 19 meeting, PM Modi has stated, “Even parties without a president should attend.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be chairing a meeting of presidents of all parties represented in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha on June 19 to discuss the issue of ‘one nation, one election’.

While PM Modi’s words were viewed by some as a dig at the Congress after Rahul Gandhi’s decision to quit as AICC chief, others felt it was to clarify that outfits like CPI and CPM, which do not have the president post, were also invited.

The fate of the Congress party is still in a state of flux. Uncertainty still looms around the post of its party President. Nearly three and half weeks after the declaration of Lok Sabha results, there is no clarity over whether Rahul Gandhi will continue as Congress President or not. While the CWC has refused Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, Gandhi scion is sticking to his stance and wants the party to choose a new chief.

Meanwhile, ahead of the Parliament session, Congress has maintained that Rahul will continue as the party president. Last week, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said, “He was, is and will remain as the President of the Indian National Congress.”

These remarks were made after the party met, under the leadership of AK Antony to discuss the party’s strategy and preparation for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

Reiterating the same, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi later said, “I will not say anything more than what my party said earlier. Take this as my repetition, adoption, endorsement and reaffirmation of Shri Surjewala’s statement made on Wednesday.”

Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi, who wanted to resign as the party president earlier and had tendered his resignation to the Congress Committee, of which, he is the Chairperson too, was not present at this strategy meeting and neither was his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

For weeks after the Congress failed to stop PM Narendra Modi’s electoral march, Rahul Gandhi had played out an elaborate drama where he had pretended to want to take responsibility for the poll loss. He had tendered his resignation which was rejected. He had then reportedly said that he was steadfast in his decision to resign. However, now it is apparent that the Congress party doesn’t seem to mind sacrificing its electoral relevance as long as a member of the Gandhi Dynasty is spearheading the sinking ship.

India-Pak match: Rohit credited success to newly born daughter while Sarfaraz refuses to blame the seniors for the defeat

OpIndia Staff
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India-Pak match: Rohit credited success to newly born daughter while Sarfaraz refuses to blame the seniors for the defeat

In the post-match press conference, Sarfaraz Ahmed looked dull and disappointed but confident of making into the World Cup semis.

Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, was relaxed and his cheeky reply to the Pakistani reporter made everyone laugh.

In the 90s, other than the World Cup, Pakistan won most of the contest against India. The fortunes have now turned in India’s favour. “In the ’90s Pakistan had the upper hand, but definitely at the moment India is a better team than Pakistan that’s why India wins more matches,” said Sarfaraz

On asking if he had also wanted to bat first after seeing the result, Sarfaraz backed his decision of bowling first in overcast condition.

“I think we won a good toss. I think we didn’t capitalize on that; when we saw the pitch, there was a little bit of moisture on the pitch, we (wanted to use) the conditions. I think we didn’t hit the right areas,” said Sarfaraz.

Sarfaraz refused to blame the seniors for the loss against India, “I don’t think you can talk about only the senior players, I think you have to talk about the whole team. I think the whole team is not performing well in all three departments, not fielding, not bowling, and not batting.”

From the Indian side, Rohit Sharma attended the press conference.

Rohit’s cheeky reply upon asking what will he suggest to Pakistani batsman to come out from the present crisis, prompted the whole room to burst into laughter.

“Agar main Pakistan ka coach bana to main bataunga, abhi kya bataunga! (If I become the coach of Pakistan then surely I will tell you. What can I say now!),” he said to everyone’s amusement.

Rohit is the most successful IPL captain; he has won 4 IPL titles, including the one he won in May this year. Rohit gave credit to his newly born daughter for the recent success.

“It’s just the space I’m in right now; having a newly born daughter in my life has put me in a really good space. I am enjoying my cricket coming off from a great IPL campaign. Here we were focussed on starting well, and I think as a team, we are heading in the right direction,” said Rohit.

LokSatta and Karan Thapar scolded by Press Council of India for peddling fake news against the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

OpIndia Staff
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LokSatta and Karan Thapar scolded by Press Council of India for peddling fake news against the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

Lok Satta, the Marathi daily of the Indian Express group and journalist Karan Thapar were pulled up by the Press Council of India (PCI), the self-regulatory watchdog of the press, for publishing fake news about RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat.

According to Organiser, the PCI has slammed the media group for spreading fake news after it had published a hit job article written by journalist Karan Thapar, one of the oldest members of the Congress-backed Lutyens system against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat by attributing fake quotes to him.

Along with Karan Thapar, the editor of the Loksatta Girish Kuber wrote an editorial containing a fake quote of the RSS chief.

The Sangh had organised a three-day lecture series named ‘Bhavishya ka Bharat’ in New Delhi in 2018, where RSS chief had participated in an interactive session. The ‘non-partisan’ media group deliberately misquoted Mohan Bhagwat in an editorial, on September 21, 2018. In the article, Girish Kuber had written that Mohan Bhagwat had said that, “The Vedas order the killing of the sinner who kills a cow,” in reaction to the death of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was allegedly killed on suspicion of consumption and storing beef. LokSatta later issued an apology, albeit in small fonts.

Soon, Karan Thapar stepped into the scene to propagate his usual propaganda against RSS. In an article titled “Has the RSS ground shifted?” in Indian Express, Karan Thapar wrote, “In fact, Bhagwat himself is not averse to making inflammatory statements. In 2015, when Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched on suspicion of consumption and storing beef, he’s reported to have said: “the Vedas order the killing of the sinner who kills a cow.”

An Indian Express article written by Karan Thapar, dated September-21-2018, with attributing fake quotes to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat.

However, In reality, there is no reference of any such statements made by RSS chief Bhagwat. In fact, RSS chief had strongly condemned the violence and mob lynching. But both the newspapers and the columnists wrongly attributed the words to Mohan Bhagwat that were never expressed by him or other leaders of the RSS.

As Indian Express and Karan Thapar resorted to propaganda with attributing fake quotes to RSS chief Bhagwat, a complaint was registered at the Press Council of India by an individual named Akshay Phatak, a resident of Dombivali. The Press Council had issued show cause notices to the editors of both newspapers.

The matter was heard finally on March 29, 2019, by the Press Council, the respondent newspapers had ‘contended that they assumed that the attribution was correct and that it was a bona fide mistake’. The respondents had also questioned the ‘locus standi’ of the complainant.

However, the PCI found that the mistake was not bona fide. Taking a tough stand on Karan Thapar, the Council had accepted the report of the inquiry committee, which had opined, “had the mistake been bonafide and committed by a junior correspondent could have been accepted and the proceedings dropped. Here such a mistake has been committed by none other than a senior columnist having long experience. In the facts of the present case, the Inquiry Committee is of the opinion that the mistake is not bonafide. This was a verifiable fact and while attributing the statement of such a magnitude to the head of an organization, the columnist ought to have been more careful and taken due care. He has failed to do the same.”

With respect to locus standi of the complainant, “Even a reader has a right to approach the council if he finds some mistakes in the newspaper,” said the Press Council of India.

The PCI also rejected the apologies published by both newspapers, holding that “the corrigendum and the apology in the facts of the present case have been tendered only with a view to get out of the net of law and do not deserve acceptance.”

The Press Council decided to censure ‘The Indian Express’ and ‘Loksatta’ and directed that a copy of the order be forwarded to the DAVP, The Director of Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra and The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai.

Twitter diplomacy: Imran Khan made a thread on India-Pak world cup match but zero tweets by PM Modi

Editorial Desk
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Twitter diplomacy: Imran Khan made a thread on India-Pak world cup match but zero tweets by PM Modi

India vs Pakistan cricket matches have always been bigger than any other cricket match, even tournament finals. Such matches have been seen as part of diplomacy and the emotions often reflect the relationship between the two countries.

Once Imran Khan, the current Prime Minister of Pakistan and former cricket captain of Pakistan, had famously and cockily said that he could solve Kashmir dispute on the cricket pitch.

Even the current match was under lots of controversy as both the nations were meeting for the first time after Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan backed terrorists and the ensuing Balakot airstrikes by India. There were demands from various quarters earlier that India should boycott the match against Pakistan.

The match finally took place, though, despite the calls for a boycott and unreliable English weather. India beat Pakistan easily by 89 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. Even if the rains had not curtailed Pakistan’s chase, Pakistan was set to lose the match.

India’s victory immediately triggered a wave of congratulatory messages, which included tweets from common fans, cricketers, celebrities and politicians. Home Minister Amit Shah and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also tweeted to congratulate the Indian team for their clinical performance.

But one name was missing, that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In fact, PM Modi has not tweeted about the match at all, either before the match or after the results. Both the personal Twitter handle of Narendra Modi as well as the handle of Prime Minister’s Office had zero tweets on the India-Pakistan match.

In comparison, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had a series of tweets wishing the best for his team. Imran Khan also tweeted some tips for the Pakistan cricket captain, which were incidentally not followed by the captain. He has not tweeted after the results, perhaps he is still shocked. And for sure, he will now not offer to solve Kashmir dispute on a cricket pitch.

Given that Prime Minister Modi is online savvy and doesn’t miss an opportunity to connect with the masses on popular topics, the absence of any tweet on such a big match where everyone was hooked on to, is not something that can be missed.

Prime Minister Modi had tweeted only once before the world cup began, wishing the best for team India, hence he, by not tweeting before or after the match, decided to not treat the India-Pakistan match as any special event, even though it was a crucial match. This is in contrast with tweets of Imran Khan, who clearly thought this was important enough an event for him to tweet.

Given that India-Pakistan cricket has always been seen as a part of “Track 2 diplomacy”, perhaps it won’t be too exaggerated to conclude that there was some signalling involved when Prime Minister decided to simply treat this India-Pak encounter as a ‘routine event’ not worth taking note or be excited about.

Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled that his priorities or outlook on India-Pakistan relationship is way different than those of Imran Khan? Or has he signalled that the days of “Track 2 diplomacy” are officially over? Prime Minister Modi has been in favour of de-hyphenating India and Pakistan and focus on India as an independent global power despite the ‘bleed India by a thousand cuts’ policy that Pakistan employs as the state’s strategy to counter India. By not acknowledging the match, one wonders if PM Modi is trying to do just that.

In an era when tweets of world leaders comprise diplomatic strategy, the absence of some tweets surely can hint at things going on.

India refuses to be mediocre and docile, if that is ‘cold hearted’ for this Guardian writer, so be it

Sanghamitra
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India refuses to be mediocre and docile, if that is ‘cold hearted’ for this Guardian writer, so be it

India has scored another magnificent win in the ICC World Cup and as we Indians always feel, wins against Pakistan are bit extra special, extra sweet. However, there are some people who have grown uncomfortable with the new Indian team of the last few years, that has been carefully developed into a lean, mean win machine, their excuses are varied and colourful.

Team India has the love and admiration of more than a billion people, maybe more, considering overseas fans. But there are some who hate this team, no, we are not talking about the men in Green who looked particularly tomato deficient yesterday, there are certain gems on social media whose reasons for hating team India are so spectacular, even Virat Kohli would not run out of his choicest swear words in shock and awe. Sample below:

Via Twitter

After yesterday’s rain-soaked thrashing of Pakistan, while admirer’s worldwide are busy hailing a team India for winning a match despite having injured players, last-minute replacements, losing the toss and rain halts, some people, who have clearly run out of issues to find faults, have come up with a brilliant demonstration of what   Hindi Twitter knows as ‘Naraaz Fufa’.


Randeep Ramesh, who claims to be the “leader writer” for the Guardian quotes from a fan named Fahd Masood who has stated that he doesn’t like the ‘cold-hearted ruthlessness’ of the present Indian team. Mr Masood apparently prefers the old Indian team of Sehwag, Tendulkar and Kumble.

We don’t know which matches the quoted ‘fan’ has watched but to claim that Sehwag, Tendulkar and Kumble were ‘milder’ in their game is another concept that deserves a Virat Kohli swear word.

Sehwag was the one who has beaten Pakistan bowlers to a pulp, and he did it with an effortless style and yes, with that “big goofy grin”. Tendulkar did the same, and he did that for a much longer period of time. It might have looked ‘mild, and loving’, but to guess the number of heartbreaks and pain it had caused, the ruined careers and stunted reconds of many Pakistani bowlers will provide some clarification.

Yes, Anil Kumble looked less like an ‘aggressive’ cricket player and more like a blue collared corporate hunk, with his mild mannerism and gentle persona. But claiming his game against Pakistan was not ‘ruthless and cold-hearted’ is laughable. Proof? Firozshah Kotla stadium, February 7, 1999, the scorecard read something like Anil Kumble: 26.3  9  74  10. He was called the smiling assassin, and rightly so.

The thing is, a large number of people whose thought processes are yet to gain freedom from the British Empire, want to see an India that is subdued, mediocre and docile. Well, that is not the case anymore, the truth is, “Ye Naya India hai,” this India will not fall for the old tricks of guilt trapping and servile mediocrity. It will thrash its opponents, be it in cricket or across the LoC.

Priyanka blaming ordinary Congress workers for defeat is the lowest point for Congress and for Nehru-Gandhis

Abhishek Banerjee
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Priyanka blaming ordinary Congress workers for defeat is the lowest point for Congress and for Nehru-Gandhis

This should rank as one of the most shameful statements ever made in Indian politics.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ‘warns’ party workers.

 

The proud entitled Nehru-Gandhi princess on a stage, taking out her anger on the humble Congress worker.

I am not a Congress supporter, but this cannot stop me for feeling bad for the Congress workers who would have been listening to her speech and would be expected to raise their hands in agreement at the end of it.

And where does she make this statement? In Raebareli! The bastion that has voted for the Congress for decades. By all accounts, the neighbouring seats of Raebareli and Amethi are among the least developed places in India. Yet, for election after election, these would be the people who sacrificed their own future because of an emotional attachment with the Nehru-Gandhi family. They lived in extreme hardship every day of their lives only to catch a glimpse of the family once every five years.

And now, for the princess to waltz in and “talk tough” with them. It hurts to see any human being treated this way.

And it’s not even smart politics. At least we settled one debate here. We now know which of the siblings has worse political instincts. Observe at least two minutes of silence for every commentator, every columnist and courtier who waxed eloquent about the political genius and charisma of Priyanka Gandhi. No, she wasn’t the Congress’ trump card, hidden away all these years for use at the most opportune moment. If anything, being more sheltered from active politics than her brother has made her more entitled and arrogant.

Speaking of which, where is Rahul Gandhi? I have no idea. I read some people saying that he is holidaying abroad. He was reportedly sulking for a while, but those reports evaporated after he received a 3-page letter of appreciation from Sonia ji for his efforts in the election.

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Rahul Gandhi continues to be an exemplary leader.

This is bad form. It seems Rahul is not even here to dwell on the reasons for the defeat. As temperatures soar all across India, they say he is off to cooler climes. And for the humble Congress worker, as if the heat and dust of Raebareli was not enough, they are facing the heat from Priyanka Gandhi’s tough talk.

Again, it hurts to see any human being treated like this.

On top of that, there are “reports” of this kind that are now surfacing. This article went viral yesterday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi was set up by his own team of trusted lieutenants for a humiliating defeat, reveals a Sunday Guardian report

 

The article suggests that some members of Rahul’s team presented bills of crores of rupees, fed him with absurd claims of 180+ seats and disappeared after the election. Even worse, it alleges that top Congress leaders who might have a better ground picture were either ignored or made to feel small. And that many were scared to tell the prince the truth.

Because of the speculative nature of this “report”, it is impossible to know whether any or all of this is true. But if true, it would say more about the feudal culture of the Congress and how the party came to be so out of touch with the masses. We also do not know if such reports are being planted to put the blame on “members of the team” rather than the family itself.

The one thing that stands out is that the family won’t take any blame. And they might even believe this in their hearts. That it was really all the fault of others.

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Everyone is to be blamed for the 2019 loss except for the top leadership.

It was clear on the day Rahul Gandhi blamed party chief ministers such as Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot. That the blame would keep rolling downhill. Shortly thereafter, CM Ashok Gehlot put blame on his Deputy CM Sachin Pilot. Not surprisingly, the buck finally stopped with blaming the ordinary Congress worker. Because the Congress worker is the most voiceless, the least powerful of all.

India is changing. The Gandhis ruled for 60 years by passing the buck downwards. Why did India become an economic basket case under Nehru? Nothing to do with Nehru or his central planners or the quasi-Communist state they set up. It was all the fault of ordinary Hindus and their passive attitude towards life. The “Hindu rate of growth” kind of explanation might have worked then, but it won’t work now. Passing the buck downwards won’t work any more. Because those at the bottom will leave in droves.

Even Raebareli is gone for Congress in the 2024 election. That is a given.

Video and statistics highlight from Australia versus Sri Lanka match

OpIndia Staff
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Video and statistics highlight from Australia versus Sri Lanka match

As it was expected, Australia beat Sri Lanka the way comfortably by 85 runs.

After winning the toss Sri Lanka, surprisingly opted to bowl first on a batting friendly wicket. Finch and Warner have started belting the bowlers from the very first ball. Finch was mainly in a mood to smash everything coming in on his way. The pair added 80 runs for the first wicket before losing Warner in the 16th over. Soon they lost Khawaja, but then the inform batsman, Steve Smith came out to bat. Finch and Smith added 173 runs for the 3rd wicket. Finch reached his hundred with a six, and he didn’t stop there. He went on to make 150 in the innings, third highest World Cup score for Australia.

Maxwell did some firework with the bat, in the end, smashed 22 runs in an over, but Lankan bowlers made a brilliant comeback. At one time the project score was 350+, but bowlers did a great job in restricting them under 340.

Australian Innings 

For a while, it looked like the chase was well and truly on! A superb 97 by Dimuth Karunaratne helped Sri Lanka to a quick start. The openers added 115 runs in just 15.3 overs, but once Perera (52 off 36) got out, the match turned into Australia’s favour. The wickets fell on regular intervals. Lanka bowled for just 247 runs in 45.5 overs.  

Sri Lankan Innings (Fall of Wickets)

STATS

  • Finch became only the third Australian to 150 or more runs in World Cup innings. Warner (in 2015) and Hayden (in 2007) have also scored 150+ in World Cup.
  • Starc has now 35 wickets in the World Cup, only Mcgrath (71) has taken more wickets in for Australia in World Cup.
  • Malinga has 47 wickets in the World Cup, only McGrath (71), Murali (68), Akram (55) and Vaas (49) have more wickets than Malinga in the World Cup.

Here is what you missed when the India-Pakistan match was on

OpIndia Staff
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Here is what you missed when the India-Pakistan match was on

The 90s kids would remember how India v Pakistan cricket matches, especially the Cricket World Cup was nothing short of clash of the Titans with either side having a brilliant set of players. Yesterday’s match, though the rains threatened to dampen the spirits was more of a one-sided game.

And while everyone was glued to their TV sets, here are some of the news you might have missed:

Whitewashing the Aligarh child murder case continues

The Times of India in its article yesterday whitewashed the murder, downplayed brutality meted out to the child and blamed social media for a ‘communal spin’. It was almost as if the mainstream media took it upon itself to further the narrative after self-proclaimed faulty ‘fact-checker’ AltNews failed.

Rahul Gandhi got conned by his own men

A Sunday Guardian report reveals how the ‘Big Data’ head of Congress, Praveen Chakravarty billed Congress Rs 24 crores, IT cell head Divya Spandana billed Congress Rs 8 crores and both are reportedly now untraceable. It was perhaps his own team of trusted lieutenants which set him up for a humiliating defeat.

Ajaz, a police officer, brutally kills his colleague, Soumya Pushpakaran

Ajaz, police officer, reportedly knocked down his colleague Soumya, also a police officer, as she was returning on her scooter, hacked her with a sword and set her on fire. All because of a reported love-affair gone wrong.

One nation, one election

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will be convened from today. Prime Minister Modi has called for a meeting of presidents of all political parties on June 19 to discuss “one nation, one election” plan.

Pakistan cricket team captain also does not listen to the PM

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who himself once lost to India when he was the captain of the cricket team (1992, though Pakistan eventually won the World Cup then), had some advice for the current Pakistan cricket team captain. However, Sarfaraz went ahead and did the exact opposite.

Operation Sunshine-2

Indian Army conducts ‘Operation Sunshine-2‘ along with the Myanmar Army. Camps of North-east militants on the border regions of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam targeted.

India vs Pakistan: With India registering a thundering victory, here are some video and statistics highlights

Ritesh
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India vs Pakistan: With India registering a thundering victory, here are some video and statistics highlights

Another comprehensive win for India against their arch-rivals in the World Cup. Twenty-seven years, seven games and no success for Pakistan against India. India is too strong for Pakistan in World Cup matches and this now even the Pakistani fans have started to accept it.

Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl under overcasts condition, that was their first mistake. Pakistan brought one extra spinner in overcasts condition that too against the Indian batting line, that was their second mistake.

The golden thumb-rule of cricket in a pressure game is simple, win the toss and bat first, Sarfaraz chose the other way. Rohit has improved a lot as a player and senior batsman. He is in sublime form in this World Cup and being the senior opening partner, took the responsibility of scoring runs quickly. KL Rahul was cautious at the start, but that eventually helped India as the openers added 136 runs for the first wicket.

Rohit Sharma reached his hundred in 85 balls and with Kohli, he added 98 runs for the second wicket. Rohit smashed beautiful 140 off just 113 balls before getting out, but by that time, India had already cemented their position in the game.

Kohli (77) with the help of Pandya (28) and Shankar (15), took the score to 336 for 5 wickets in 50 overs.

Indian Innings

No team has successfully chased down 336 runs in a World Cup requiclash. Pakistan needed to score some quick runs in the first powerplay. Instead of going after the Indian bowling, Pakistani openers started cautiously. Imam-ul-Haq was plumbed in front of the wicket off Shankar’s bowling with just 13 runs on board in 4.5 overs. Fakhar Zaman and Baba Azam steadied the innings and added 104 runs for the 2nd wicket, however, they batted a little slow, and both lost their wickets in trying to score quickly. Kuldeep Yadav bowled a jaffa to Baba Azam and dismissed him in the 24th over. Pakistan was still in the game, but Kuldeep had other ideas, he got Fakhar this time, who was the main hope of the Pakistani team and its fans.

Hardik Pandya took two in two, by dismissing Hafeez and Shoaib (for a golden duck) on consecutive balls he completely shut down the hopes of the supporters of the Pakistan cricket team. Pakistan has now lost four wickets in the space of 24 balls adding only 12 runs on board.

Rain reduced the Pakistani innings to 40 overs, and the revised target for Pakistan was 302 runs. An impossible task for lower order batsmen, The Indian bowlers completed the formality. Rohit Sharma was declared Man of the Match for his 140 runs.

Pakistan Innings (Fall of Wickets)

STATS

  • Rohit took 85 balls to score his hundred; this is his 3rd fastest ODI Hundred. His fastest was off 82 balls, against England at Trent Bridge last year.
  • Rohit’s 140 runs are now his 3rd World Cup hundred, Only Tendulkar (6) and Ganguly (4) have more World Cup hundreds for India.
  • Baba Azam and Fakhar Zaman added 104 runs for the 2nd wicket; this is their first hundred runs partnership against India in World Cup history.
  • MS Dhoni has now played 341 ODIs for India, only Sachin Tendulkar (463) has played more ODIs for India.
  • Virat Kohli became the fastest man to reach 11,000 runs in ODIs. He took just 223 innings to achieve this milestone. Previous best – Sachin Tendulkar in 276 Innings.
  • 336/5 by India is the highest by any team against Pakistan in the history of World Cups, surpassing 334/9 by England in Nottingham earlier in the tournament.
  • Rohit Sharma became the fourth Indian batsman to score five consecutive 50-plus scores (95, 56, 122, 57 and 140) in ODI cricket.  The other Indians to achieve the feat are Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli (twice) and Ajinkya Rahane.
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