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Atishi Marlena accuses Gautam Gambhir of spreading abusive letter against her, Gambhir says Kejriwal got it written

OpIndia Staff
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Atishi Marlena accuses Gautam Gambhir of spreading abusive letter against her, Gambhir says Kejriwal got it written

Aam Aadmi Party today levelled allegations against BJP East Delhi candidate former cricketer Gautam Gambhir that he has distributed pamphlets in East Delhi constituency to defame AAP candidate Atishi Marlena.


According to AAP, the letter, which is not signed by anyone, was published and circulated by BJP East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir. The letter refers to Atishi as ‘mixed-breed’ and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal as ‘Kuta Kejriwal’ and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as ‘Kanjar Sisodia’.

AAP claims the above abusive letter is distributed by BJP’s Gautam Gambhir

The letter refers to Marlena as ‘Sisodia’s keep’ and a ‘prostitute’. The letter goes ahead to assassinate not only Marlena’s character but also that of Manish Sisodia.

Gautam Gambhir has meanwhile has claimed that the said derogatory letter was actually written and published by Aam Aadmi Party itself.


Gambhir took to Twitter to question Kejriwal on how low would he stoop to win an election? He condemned such act of outraging a woman’s modesty. Referring to Kejriwal as ‘filth’, Gambhir said he needs his own jhadu (broom, AAP’s election symbol) to clean his dirty mind.

He even challenged Aam Aadmi Party that if proved that he was behind such a disgusting letter, he would quit politics.


Gambhir even said he is ashamed to have a chief minister like Arvind Kejriwal.

Cyclone Fani: How a state was ravaged and how it pulled together to fight Mother Nature’s fury

Sambit Nayak
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Cyclone Fani: How a state was ravaged and how it pulled together to fight Mother Nature’s fury

Broken trees, mobile towers, wretched electric poles and debris lay scattered on roads of Puri and Bhubaneswar as a category 4 cyclone named “Fani” ripped through the Odisha coast in the early hours of 3rd May. As wind speed crossed 250 KMPH at landfall, it left behind a trail of destruction and horror. Government sources put the death toll at 42 while some unofficial counts suggest that this number can go up, this is beside the massive damage to livestock and fauna across Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara district. Civic infrastructure, communication, electricity network, monuments, temples are ravaged across the path of the cyclone.

As the IMD forecasted the exact time and landfall point of the strongest ever cyclone in two decades, the state government moved massive resources to undertake one of the biggest evacuation drive to have been undertaken in recent history. A day before the storm, IMD revised its time of landfall from 17:00 to 08:00 as the storm picked up the pace and the task to evacuate people with lesser time in hand became more challenging. The government evacuated 1.2 million people to safe places and cyclone shelter homes before the deadly cyclone hit the coast. To those who have never experienced a super cyclone, here is a small video to give an impression of how it looks like.

It was complete mayhem on Puri coast and Bhubaneswar city as the cyclone approached on 3rd May.  At the weather monitoring station on Puri sea beach, the Anemometer clocked Cyclone Fani at 274 kmph before the winds broke it. After landfall, Puri recorded gusts upto 250 KMPH and sustained wind velocity upto 240 KMPH while Bhubaneswar was hit with 205 KMPH gusts. It slowed down further as it travelled on land. Puri district along with Puri town itself and Khurdha district which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part of, have taken the worst hit.

To give a picture of the destruction Foni has caused, sample this. 1,56,000 electric poles have been uprooted, 10,000+ 11 KV transformers are affected, 200 33KV towers, 19 132 KV towers and 5 400 KV towers have fallen to the ground. 5030 KM of 33 KV lines,  38,613 KM of 11 KV lines and 79,485 KM of LT lines have been destroyed. Odisha’s energy secretary Hemant Sharma puts it that the entire grid network in Puri and Bhubaneswar has to be built from scratch.

1,89,095 houses are damaged in Puri district alone. One of the major victims of the cyclone is the Green canopy and worst sufferer is the picturesque highway between Puri and Konark along the coastline, popularly known as a marine drive. Lakhs of Casuarina plantation, Cashew nut plantations, Coconut trees which lined up the stretch are no more. This stretch, also known as Balukhand reserve forest, is home to Blackbucks, spotted deers and other species. With their natural habitat destroyed, not only the animals have lost their home, with the forest cover thinning, the coastal villages along the line lost the natural cushion against such vagaries of weather. And with the Green cover gone, coastal Odisha awaits another blistering hot summer.

In the aftermath of the cyclone, state and central governments have joined hands to put life back on track. Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), Fire department personnel and  Odisha police force are on the ground clearing debris, cutting fallen trees branches and clearing out roads so that places are accessible and relief can reach. CESU, OPTCL and FEDCO teams are pulling extra hours to resurrect the power infrastructure and restore electricity. We met these men in uniform from the NDRF team, who are clearing out debris so that the electricity network can be restored. With the infamous sweltering summer of Odisha, where the temperature is hovering around 43 degrees, the chain saw machines are sometimes giving up, but not our men. They are unrelenting and resolute.

With no power to two entire districts, the hoarding bazaar is working overtime. As Mundali barrage pump house suffered heavy damage post the cyclone, there is no drinking water supply to Bhubaneswar and adjoining areas. Puri is also going through drinking water crisis of epic proportion. Though villages have hand pump and traditional wells, town areas are entirely dependent on tapped water and motor pumps drawing water from bore wells. With no power, there is no water on the overhead tank and taps are running dry. The genset owners are making a fortune out of this. They are charging somewhere between Rs. 1000 to 1500 to power an 0.5 KVA motor for 1 hour. The authorities have fixed water supply to some part of Bhubaneswar but Puri is still reeling under a severe drinking water crisis. Some gensets owners are even charging 50 to 100 bucks to recharge a mobile phone as people staying outside the state are frantically trying to reach to their families and enquire about their well being.

Most grids in Bhubaneswar City Distribution Division (BCDD) are charged while work on the LT lines remains. Indian Oil on a priority basis has provided Diesel to vital installations like airport, stations and hospitals. Power has been restored to some hospitals. Fuel pumps opened 1 day after the cyclone. Packaged milk was available as the plant re-opened 3 days after cyclone. Some ATMs have now started working through their VSAT link. All arterial roads and highways are now open to vehicular traffic enabling relief to reach people. Community food centres are providing cooked food to the worst affected. Cellular companies have joined hands to provide communication links to consumers from whatever towers remain functional. IOCL has started mobile fuel pumps delivering fuel at the doorstep.

Many volunteers group are organising relief distribution. Drinking water is being supplied on a war footing basis.

Authorities are saying that by 12th May, all of Bhubaneswar City will be back on the grid while for Puri, it may take more than a month as a total of 1,56,000 electric poles need to be erected. Life is limping back to normalcy, slowly but steadily.

Puri, which is usually bustling with visitors is wearing a desolate look. With no access to water and power to more than 30 lakh people, the cities of Puri and Bhubaneswar have plunged into darkness. But there is always a silver lining in the darkness. Yesterday, I was returning to work and as I merged into NH 316 near Rasulgarh, a part of the street lights lit up. It was like a part within me lit up. It was so heartening to see power back in the city and into people’s life.

Though it’s just a small percentage, every little step counts. With normal life has thrown totally out of gear, and Puri being literally ravaged by the cyclone, on the auspicious occasion of Akshay Tritiya yesterday, the Pandas of Puri Jagannath Temple went ahead with Chandan Jatra rituals, which earmarks the start of construction of “Rathas” known as “Ratha Anukula”, for the upcoming Ratha Jatra.

What’s disheartening is the near total absence of MSM from covering an calamity of such an epic proportion, the biggest cyclone to have hit Indian coast in 2 decades, which has affected 1.4 crore people. People have been living in dark without food, electricity or drinking water. Lives and livelihood have been lost. It’s understood that, in an election season, a natural calamity may not give them the TRP or eyeballs, especially from a less talked about state. But as responsible organisations, there are times when you should rise up from the number games and report events of such massive order.

As Prateek puts it, Dharma is our backbone, our identity and it should and it must live on. The land of Prabhu Jagannath’s will bounce back, one step at a time, with His blessings.

https://twitter.com/pattaprateek/status/1125654456148709377

Note: If you would like to donate for relief to Odisha, here is the link for Chief Minister’s Relief Fund

Prashant Bhushan submits rejoinder affidavit in Rafale review petition, repeats the same lies

OpIndia Staff
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Prashant Bhushan submits rejoinder affidavit in Rafale review petition, repeats the same lies

Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan has submitted a rejoinder affidavit at the Supreme Court, in the review petition filed against the Rafale deal. The rejoinder was filed as a response to reply of the union government in the case, as instructed by the court.

The affidavit rejects the three broad contentions made by the government. The government had said that as the matter pertains to national security, the scope of judicial review is limited; petitioners cannot ask for a “roving and fishing inquiry” based on subsequent media reports; and CAG has not found any wrongdoing in the contract in its final report after considering all records. Prashant Bhushan says that these arguments made by the government are not justified.

The affidavit says that if the complaint prima facie discloses a cognizable offence then an FIR has to be mandatorily registered and investigated. But in this case, CBI did not take any action on the complaint of the petitioners.

Prashant Bhushan states that the court had dismissed their petition as if the petitioners were asking for a cancellation or review of the contract. The affidavit says that the deal was granted after the announcement about the same was made, and PMO officials were doing parallel negotiations which were objected by the defence ministry. It also alleges that several clauses applicable for defence purchases were removed in the deal, like Sovereign Guarantee and Seat of Arbitration.

The affidavit also says that domain experts in the Indian Negotiation Team had strongly objected to the increase in benchmark price, delivery schedule, sovereign guarantee, seat of arbitration and provisions in offset contract.

Prashant Bhushan alleges that the government has misled the government in various aspects of the deal in its response which was submitted in a sealed cover. He also accuses the government of suppressing information and says that the government obtained the judgement on the basis of fraud.

It can be seen that in the rejoinder affidavit, Prashant Bhushan has not brought any new allegation, he is merely repeating the same complaints which have comprehensibly rebutted already. It is on record that the Indian Negotiation Team submitted its decision unanimously, without any dissent. What the anti-Rafale petitioners are relying on are details of meetings when many things are discussed, objected, accepted etc. But the final decision of such meetings matter, not how those decisions were arrived at. Regarding the dropping of certain provisions, it is a known fact that in government to government contracts, provisions like sovereign guarantee are regularly dropped, and they were dropped in previous similar defence deals. It was not something that was done for the first time in the Rafale deal. The allegations of defence ministry objecting to PMO’s alleged interference has been dismissed by former defence minister late Manohar Parrikar. Even the stolen document submitted by the petitioners had Parrikar’s note on it dismissing the apprehensions of an official, who was not even part of the negotiating team.

The Supreme Court will next hear the case on May 10. The Contempt case against Rahul Gandhi for attributing chowkidar chor hai will also be heard together with the main review petition. Yesterday the Congress president submitted his unconditional apology to the apex court for his comments.

Up against the Lutyens cabal, disgruntled journalists and a blockbuster like Avengers Endgame, The Tashkent Files succeeds

OpIndia Staff
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Up against the Lutyens cabal, disgruntled journalists and a blockbuster like Avengers Endgame, The Tashkent Files succeeds

Bollywood is going through a churn where in recent times, many movies with a historical and political background have not only been made and released but have been extremely well received by the audience. Progressively, movies a different political theme is tasting success at the box office. Recently, we saw movies like The Accidental Prime Minister do well and now, with The Tashkent Files is breaking glass ceilings for off-beat political dramas.

The Tashkent Files, directed by Vivek Agnihotri released on 12th April 2019 amidst a lot of outrage from members of the Congress party. Congress was of the opinion that the movie demonises the Gandhi family.

‘The Tashkent Files’ is about one of the tallest leaders of the country, Lal Bahadur Shastri and his mysterious disappearance. A mystery that has long haunted the nation and questions that have long been pointed, in silent, dark corners of the collective subconscious at the first family of Indian politics – The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

After hoards of outrage by Congress, the Lutyens ecosystem struck. For no good reason, there were several movie reviews that demonised the movie. Raja Sen, movie review flat out refused to write about the movie. Aseem Chhabra, another soldier of the Bollywood confederate responded to the movie’s PR agent and said he does not want to watch the movie at all. Flat out refused. The players of the ecosystem rained down hate on the movie without even watching it.

stalwarts in the industry like Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra have refused to review Vivek Agnihotri’s movie. They have, of course, not provided any reason for doing so, but for those who follow politics and the veiled players in the political arena, are well aware of the reasons that may have forced them to betray their profession.

The outrage and demonisation of the movie, though, seems to have failed. The Tashkent Files which had was made with a paltry Rs. 2.55 crores budget has done phenomenally well at the box office in its category.

At the end of Week 4, The Tashkent Files had totalled a business of Rs. 13.25 crores according to Taran Adarsh.


The Tashkent Files, the small budget product of love was up against a big blockbuster like Avengers. One glance at the business it drew makes it clear the scale of unevenness when it comes to the box office battle.


It is thus no mean feat that The Tashkent Files managed to hold its own in its own category.

When OpIndia spoke to Vivek Agnihotri, he said that the movie has survived massive ups and downs. When the Avengers Endgame was released, he said, everyone said that the movie, The Tashkent Files was done. However, the shows increased. Even abroad, Vivek says that the movie is doing well.

In Kanpur, the shows of The Tashkent Files had almost stopped running as all theatres picked up other movies. But when several people started demanding that the show is brought back, the movie was picked up again by the movie hall owners, said Vivek Agnihotri.

Earlier, when we had spoken to Vivek Agnihotri, he had spoken of the roadblocks and opposition he faced while trying to release this movie. He had said, “it would never have happened had I make a movie eulogising Nehru”, and perhaps he was right.

This time, in our conversation, Vivek Agnihotri said that several journalists spoke to his wife and artist Pallavi Joshi to ask her why OpIndia.com was taken on board as a media partner. In fact, Joshi was told that the movie will not get the necessary traction and nobody will touch the movie because they partnered with OpIndia.com instead of a big media house.

Vivek Agnihotri basically said that he and Pallavi were unmoved by these threats and ‘words of advice’. They went with their heart.

Uttar Pradesh: Congress candidate’s car caught with cash worth 24 lakh in Basti

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Congress candidate’s car caught with cash worth 24 lakh in Basti

The Uttar Pradesh Police has seized 24 lakh rupees in cash from the vehicle of Congress candidate from Basti, Raj Kishor Singh’s vehicle on Thursday. Two people have been arrested in this regard.


Singh, who was formerly in the Samajwadi Party, was reportedly not present in the vehicle when the checking was done by the Police. It is believed that the money was meant to be used to bribe voters. Pamphlets of the Congress party were also recovered from the vehicle. A case has been registered and an investigation has been initiated into the matter.

As per reports, members of the police flying squad were checking vehicles near Sonupar area within city police station limits in Basti when a Scorpio vehicle was apprehended. The vehicle was reportedly filled with campaigning material printed in the name of Congress’ Raj Kishore Singh and also had Rs 24 lakh in cash. Two people present inside the vehicle had been arrested while a third person named Ram Prasad Gupta managed to escape.

Raj Kishore Singh was a 3-time Samajwadi Party MLA from Kaptanganj in UP. He had joined Congress recently.

The Congress candidate is up against Harish Dwivedi of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Ram Prasad Chaudhary of the Mahagathbandhan in Basti. Singh was a Minister during the Samajwadi Party regime in the state. The constituency is set to go to polls in the 6th phase of the Lok Sabha Elections on the 12th of May.

Shiv Sena backs PM Modi’s ‘Bhrashtachari’ remark, says its the price Rahul is paying for insulting Savarkar

OpIndia Staff
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Shiv Sena backs PM Modi’s ‘Bhrashtachari’ remark, says its the price Rahul is paying for insulting Savarkar

Shiv Sena on Thursday, in its editorial mouthpiece, Saamna, backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Bhrastachari No 1’ remark on Rajiv Gandhi, saying that this is the price Congress president Rahul Gandhi has to pay for “insulting” freedom fighter Veer Savarkar.

Shiv Sena said in its editorial that the Congress scion has blatantly called the Prime Minister a ‘chor’ in his public rallies and intermittently insulted Veer Savarkar publicly.

“Rahul Gandhi refers to Narendra Modi as ‘chor’ in public assemblies; does anyone expect the Prime Minister to invite him for a cup of tea for this? Even if we assume that what Prime Minister said about Rajiv Gandhi was wrong, the manner in which Rahul Gandhi has insulted great freedom fighter Veer Savarkar is worse,” said Shiv Sena. “The manner in which he made fun of Savarkar and described how he freed himself by pleading to be British, it is an insult to all the freedom fighters and is simply unacceptable,” the editorial read.

The Congress President had in the INC’ 84th plenary session, last year, disparaged the credibility behind Veer Savarkar’s life by branding him a ‘traitor’ and a “British Stooge”. He tainted him as an “anti-national” because he sent ‘mercy petitions and clemencies’ to British in jail.


Meanwhile, Shiv Sena, while defending the Prime Minister for his remark, said the latter has simply “shown him (Rahul) his deeds.”

“Rajiv Gandhi was killed in an attack by the Tamil militants and all were saddened that Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s father left them. Before his entry into politics, Rajiv Gandhi did nothing great for the nation, hence a term like “sacrifice” doesn’t suit him. He became Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi was brutally murdered and later on his politics and life also ended in a sad manner. But such was not the case with Veer Savarkar, who at the age of 14 years pledged in front of the Almighty to get independence for his nation and fight British till his last breath,” the editorial read.

At an election rally in Pratapgarh constituency on May 4, Prime Minister Modi in response to the incessant allegations on the Rafale deal by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who is out on bail in National Herald case, had said that his father (Rajiv Gandhi) was termed as Mr Clean by his courtiers but his life ended as a Bhrashtachari No.1.

Though many opposition leaders condemned PM Modi’s remark the Prime Minister stood his ground and challenged the Congress to fight the remaining phases of Lok Sabha elections on the issue of Rajiv Gandhi’s self-respect.

PM Modi hits out on Mamata Banerjee in Purulia, says infiltrators included in TMC as its cadres will be identified

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi hits out on Mamata Banerjee in Purulia, says infiltrators included in TMC as its cadres will be identified

In a blistering attack against the Trinamool Congress party, PM Modi in an election rally in West Bengal assured the people of the state that ‘infiltrators’ which the TMC has made its cadres will be identified and those who are troubling daughters and cultured Bengalis will be singled out.


Taking a jibe at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, PM Modi said, “Didi has ‘Mamata’ for the infiltrators and foreign artists but she has no concern for the welfare of the Adivasis residing in West Bengal.


PM Modi further attacked the West Bengal Chief Minister saying that she wants to greet him with pebbles and slaps. “Didi, o Mamata Didi, main toh aapka aadar karta hun, aapka thappad bhi mere liye aashirwad ban jaega, vo bhi mai khalunga.”


In the remaining 2 phases of the Lok Sabha elections, 17 Lok Sabha seats from the West Bengal state are going to the polls. In the 6th phase to be held on May 12, 2019, elections will be held on 8 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal and in the last phase, 9 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal will go to polls.

ASI identifies Indian artefacts seized from art smuggler Subhash Kapoor in USA, could be brought back to India

OpIndia Staff
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ASI identifies Indian artefacts seized from art smuggler Subhash Kapoor in USA, could be brought back to India

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had identified Indian artefacts seized by the US Immigration and Customs Department from the arrested art smuggler Subhash Kapoor. On Wednesday, the ASI said that the artefacts would soon be returned to the country.

Over 300 antique objects, including idols dating to the Gupta period (5th-6th century AD) and terracotta objects of the Harappan culture, were identified by the Indian team that had visited the United States.

Two officials, Dr Urmila Sant and P.S. Sriraman, visited the US after receiving information from the Consulate General of India in New York about the seizure of artefacts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement of U.S. Department of Homeland Security from the storage of the art smuggler Subhash Kapoor. Close to 100 objects have been identified by the ASI team.

“The antiquities comprise beautiful bronzes from the Suttamalli and Sripurantan temples of Tamil Nadu and also a very significant image of Mahakoka Devata. Of these, four antiquities were stolen from the protected monuments at Karitalai, district Katni in Madhya Pradesh on August 16 and 17, 2006,” the ASI said.

In addition to this, the Consulate showed the team 327 objects, out of which 251 were found to be historically important antiques. This also contained the 56 terracotta objects returned by the Toledo Museum (Ohio) which was originally gifted to them by Subhash Kapoor. A majority of the terracotta belonged to Chandraketugarh, West Bengal, a prominent site of terracotta art in the first decade, CE. The rest comprised terracotta objects of Harappan culture and of the Gupta period.

“Further, 232 objects comprising of brass and copper alloys, gold with enamel work, silver, stone and terracotta in possession of the Indian consulate were also inspected by the ASI officials. Among them, few were identified as antiquities, like the stone image of the Buddha of Mathura School, a terracotta image of the Buddha belonging to the Gupta period and a set of 10 copper plates engraved with Quranic verses of the late Mughal Period,” the ASI said.

The statement also added that following the arrest of Subhash Kapoor, many museums have returned the stolen artefacts procured from him.

“Many museums in the U.S. have also deposited various valuable antiquities to Homeland Security officials that they had purchased from Kapoor, saying they were not aware that the items had been smuggled into the country,” the ASI said, adding that the Indian consulate in New York would be working on transporting the objects back to India.

Subhash Kapoor was an Uttar Pradesh-born US citizen and had an antique gallery in New York. He had smuggled idols from India and Afghanistan. Kapoor is also an important link to an international smuggling racket. Interpol had acted upon a red corner notice and he was detained in Germany. He was extradited and faced trial in Chennai. Currently, he is locked up Trichy prison.

The discussion around GDP data is driven by political and ideological belief, not data and facts

Karan
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The discussion around GDP data is driven by political and ideological belief, not data and facts

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the data on GDP and the discussion on this has been driven more based on ideological beliefs rather than a rigorous review of the issue at hand. There is no denying that India does need to improve its statistical systems but the important question to ask is if the quality of new data is worse than the quality of data that was made available to us before. The answer to this is likely to be a no as the quality of our data is still as good as (or as bad as) it was before.

Another important point is to keep this debate limited to a discussion amongst statistical experts rather than having politicians jump in to try to use this for petty political points. The fact does remain that the new GDP methodology is far more robust and reflective of the true picture of the Indian economy (You can read an earlier article that explored this issue by clicking here). As discussed, revision of base years and recalculation of previous years is a routine statistical procedure. In fact, many times such revision tends to lower the value of GDP for previous years.

The recent debate regarding the GDP has come with the backdrop of a report that suggests that the MCA-21 database has 36% of its companies unsuitable for collection of data. The MCA-21 is the new dataset that is used by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation while estimating the GDP based on the revised methodology. It must also be stated the new methodology is based on the United Nations System of National Accounts (2008) and is, therefore, it has been vetted by international experts. Yet, this debate continues to be politicized and the focus shifts from the genuine discussions on improving India’s statistical systems.

Critics point out that the presence of shell companies is likely to lead to a downward revision of the GDP in preceding years. However, a downward revision of previous estimates of GDP solely because of the presence of these companies is highly unlikely for many reasons. An alternative source of data on the performance of the economy (in the industrial sector) is the Annual Survey of Industries. It is evident that when the industrial sector grows, the service sector is likely to grow and therefore, ASI data can help us understand the broad trend in directional sense of the Indian economy.

Dr Surjit Bhalla highlighted the findings of the ASI data in an earlier article as he showed how ASI showed a significant acceleration in the industrial sector post-2014. Table 1 presents this data as it becomes evident that indeed there has been an acceleration in the growth rates from 2014 onwards. Therefore, the economy is likely to have performed better in this duration than in 2011-13.

Another important issue worth considering is that the problem concerned is with companies in the service sector. One needs to realistically evaluate the extent of this issue with the MCA-21 database but it is also important to stress that the CSO also takes into consideration all available data of economic indicators as available to them as it routinely revises these estimates and publishes detailed press notes on such revisions. Therefore, if there was any downward revision say in the Index of Industrial Production or the agricultural production data, CSO would have taken it into consideration and revised the estimates downwards. Thus, any discrepancy in what the MCA-21 is showing and other datasets show would be identifiable and thus, could be corrected for in subsequent revisions. The fact that this did not happen, combined with the available data makes one conclude that the revision of GDP because this report is highly unlikely.

Besides, it is very important to understand what shell companies are and whether they create value to be added in the GDP computations or not. Shell companies are created purely for taxation purposes as it enables firms to pay lesser tax through the division of value creation between multiple companies. For instance, suppose there is a manufacturer who produces a good and he creates a company that trades the good. The reason why a firm is likely to do this is in the event of a high excise tax compared to sales tax, the manufacturer can sell the product to the trading company at a lower rate to avoid paying the high tax. In doing so, the manufacturer allocates a greater share of value addition to the trading company than the manufacturing company. The trading company may just be a shell company while the value addition is happening solely at the manufacturing stage. But, for the computation of GDP, it is important that the overall value addition is computed and hence, for estimation purposes, the economic value of shell companies should well be accounted for. Dr Pronab Sen has also highlighted this issue in an article for the Hindu.

It is important to understand that even in a directional sense India’s growth rate post-2014 is better than during 2009-13, while we may disagree on the magnitude, but broad indicators do point out that due to the strong macroeconomic fundamentals growth has indeed been higher. Therefore, what is needed is to strengthen India’s statistical systems further and ensure that discussions on economic indicators are free from politics and driven by logic rather than ideologies.

While the quality of India’s economic data remains just as it was in the past, it is imperative that the government considers reforming our statistical systems to ensure that such questions don’t arise in the future. What is also important is for the MCA-21 to be made public so that independent researchers can use it to find any inconsistencies and suggest potential changes to improve the reliability of this dataset.

Woman throws slipper at Navjot Singh Sidhu for speaking against Modi at a rally marked by ‘Modi, Modi’ chants

OpIndia Staff
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Woman throws slipper at Navjot Singh Sidhu for speaking against Modi at a rally marked by ‘Modi, Modi’ chants

Political tension during this Lok Sabha elections seems to be high that some people have resorted to physical violence against politicians they are unhappy with. Few days after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was slapped by an Aam Aadmi Party supporter during a roadshow, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu was attacked by a woman with footwear.

While addressing a rally in Rohtak, a woman threw a slipper at the Punjab minister for speaking against PM Narendra Modi. Although she had missed her target, the woman was detained by police present at the spot. She told the police that she threw the slipper because the politicians were talking against PM Modi.


Although no video has emerged showing the incident, a short video has emerged showing the woman talking to police personnel who detained her. In that short clip, it can be heard that she says she threw the footwear because Sidhu was talking against Narendra Modi.

Slipper throwing woman was not the only thing that Sidhu had to face at the rally. People present at the rally were also chanting ‘Modi, Modi’ slogans, causing a huge embarrassment for the Congress leaders.

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