Home Blog Page 6662

Turkish website spreads rumours about Muslim Kashmiris being threatened in Hindu-majority India after Pulwama suicide bomb attack

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Turkish website spreads rumours about Muslim Kashmiris being threatened in Hindu-majority India after Pulwama suicide bomb attack

A Turkish website called trtworld.com was seen spreading rumours about India attacking Kashmiris in the wake of the recent Pulwama terrorist attack. Referring to the Pulwama terrorist attack as “a suicide bomb attack” and Kashmir as “India-administered Kashmir”, the website posted a tweet from its official Twitter handle.


The report published by the website says that “Muslim Kashmiris living in Hindu-majority India are facing property evictions, job suspensions and attacks on social media after a suicide bomber killed 44 paramilitary troops in India-administered Kashmir.” It mentions the statements of some “fear-engulfed Kashmiris”, as claimed in the report, living in other parts of India regarding the kinds of threats they are facing from the Hindu-right wing groups. The report does not stop at that, it further goes on to claim that the last year was the deadliest for India’s security personnel in Kashmir ever since PM Modi’s “Hindu nationalist” Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

A Twitter user claimed that his tweet, in which he tagged the Home Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office complaining about the anti-India tweet of the Trt World, was suspiciously deleted by Twitter.


Similar claims have been made by the “liberal intelligentsia” in India in what appears to be an attempt to divert the attention from the ghastly terrorist attack carried out by Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Jaish-e Mohammad. A JNU freelance protestor Shehla Rashid was seen spreading the rumours that Kashmiri students were being threatened by a mob in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Her claims were refuted by the Dehradun police. While there was no mob threatening the Kashmiri students, there were protests against the Kashmiris who were celebrating the death of soldiers in the Pulwama Terrorist attack.

Punjab farmers face possibility of arrest as banks file criminal cases for defaulting on loans

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Punjab farmers face possibility of arrest as banks file criminal cases for defaulting on loans

According to a report on The Indian Express, banks in Punjab have started filing criminal cases against farmers for non-repayment of loans. The farmers, on the other hand, claim that they were made to sign on blank cheques.

Buta Singh Burjgill, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakunda faction), claimed that in the past 12 months, “thousands of farmers” have been issued legal notices by banks by using the blank cheques they got farmers to sign on at the time of granting crop loans. “These days, banks have been taking triple securities from farmers — pledging of land, signing by a guarantor and blank/post-dated cheques – while the RBI has asked banks to extend collateral-free agricultural loans of up to Rs one lakh. That limit has been raised to Rs 1.6 lakh in the Interim Budget,” he said.

An unnamed public sector banker was mentioned in the report admitting to the practice of obtaining blank cheques as security for farm loans. He blamed it on the loan waiver scheme of the Punjab government and its decision to ban the auction of mortgaged land to recover loans. “What is happening is unfortunate. But if loans are waived and kukri is not allowed, and the government also wants us to lend more to farmers, what are we supposed to do?” he was quoted as saying.

Despite the Congress President’s professed love for farmers, it appears farmers are not doing very well in Congress-ruled states. Apart from Punjab where farmers face the possibility of arrest, in Karnataka, despite Rahul Gandhi’s fantastical claims, the state government had itself admitted that the Rs 44,000 crore loan waiver had helped only 800 farmers in the state. Defaulting farmers there faced the possibility of arrest as well.

In Madhya Pradesh as well, the loan waiver promised by the Congress party had numerous terms and conditions which made many farmers ineligible for it. Reportedly, a massive loan-waive scam has also been brewing in the state of Madhya Pradesh after reports emerged that various beneficiaries listed by the government eligible for farmer loan waiver did not even exist in reality. Many discrepancies and irregularities are already being unearthed in the loan waiver schemes. Moreover, there have reports of incidents where farmers have gotten a loan waiver of as little as 13 rupees against a loan of Rs. 24000 and Rs. 25-30 against loans of Rs. 1 lakh or more.

The Congress governments in both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are facing severe outrage from the farmers within weeks of their government formation, as both governments in the respective states had created a crisis by mismanaging the supply of urea.

Despite Rahul Gandhi’s bravado, it appears that farmers are suffering immensely in Congress regimes.

BJP and Shiv Sena to contest Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections together, announce seat-sharing formula

OpIndia Staff
-
0
BJP and Shiv Sena to contest Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections together, announce seat-sharing formula

Putting to rest all speculations about whether Shiv Sena will continue as NDA ally or not, BJP and Shiv Sena announced today that they will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections together.

In a joint press conference addressed by BJP president Amit Shah, Shiv Sena chief Udhav Thackrey and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, it was announced that the three-decades-old alliance between the two parties will continue for the time being.

In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP will contest in 25 seats, while Shiv Sena will contest 23 seats. Maharashtra sends 48 MPs to Lok Sabha. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 23 seats, while Shiv Sena had won 18 seats.


It was also announced that both the parties will contest an equal number of seats in the Assembly election. The Maharashtra Election will take place later this year, as the last election was held in October 2014.


In 2014, BJP and Shiv Sena had contested the assembly election separately, following disagreements over seat sharing. BJP had won 122 seats in the 288 member house, emerging as the largest party but falling short of the majority, while Shiv Sena had won only 63 seats. Later both the parties came together to form an alliance government in the state, led by BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.

Talking to reporters, Amit Shah said he is confident that BJP and Shiv Sena will together win 45 out of total 48 seats in Maharashtra. Uddhav Thackeray said that people are seeing Shiv Sena and BJP together for 30 years, out of which for 25 years both stood united while there was confusing in the rest 5 years. CM Fadnavis said that they have taken this decision in the interest of the nation, and the alliance leaders believe NDA will come to power in 2019.

‘Our effort is to win 1 seat more than 2014 in Uttar Pradesh, not any less’, Piyush Goyal talks about elections and much more

Nupur J Sharma
-
0
‘Our effort is to win 1 seat more than 2014 in Uttar Pradesh, not any less’, Piyush Goyal talks about elections and much more

(Note: This interview with Minister Piyush Goyal was taken before the Pulwama terror attack. As a mark of respect to our nation’s brave martyrs, we held the publication of this interview back so far.)

The General Elections is only weeks away and the electoral hustle bustle is just about picking up. One felt the mood changing after the Interim Union Budget 2019-2020 where big bang reforms were delivered, especially, for the middle-class. With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley away for treatment, acting FM Piyush Goyal delivered the budget speech.

OpIndia.com recently had the opportunity to interview Union Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal. During the interview, Goyal answered questions on a variety of issues including BJP’s electoral prospects ahead of the 2019 General elections and the interim budget which he presented as the interim Union Minister.

The questions have been mentioned in bold followed by Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s answers.

In the interim budget, middle-class was the focus. Was this planned since the beginning or did the party take this decision after sensing some discontent among the middle-class? 

Goyal downplayed the suggestions that the massive benefits provided to the middle-class and income taxpayers in the interim budget were motivated by reports of ‘middle-class discontent’ with the BJP. “This was what we had planned and we have been working towards this in the past 4 years. I have listed the steps taken by the government in the previous budgets, this is just one more step in the series. Collectively, we had already given 80-90 thousand crores benefits to the middle class over the past 4 years and another 25 thousand crores this year, so this is merely a continuation. Put together, the tax benefits help people with income up to 6, 7, 8 lakhs and sometimes even 9 lakhs, almost become tax-free.”

Goyal also remarked on the low rates of inflation during the Narendra Modi government which benefits the middle class the most. “It’s at 2% right now. Never before has there been 5 years of consistently low inflation. You look at any 5 years in the history of India, we never had a period where we have seen 5 years of consistently low inflation. We inherited it at 9-10%, at one point, it had gone up to over 12% during the UPA regime. We have brought it down to 2%. I think it’s a huge achievement.”

The middle class cares about inflation, taxes, and corruption. Rahul Gandhi is trying to raise the bogey of corruption. Do you think his allegations will stick?

“People of India know what’s good for them. They trust Narendra Modi. Now, with the Supreme Court’s verdict, the CAG report has come out, the French government and Indian government have issued clarifications on the matter. I think the issue is settled and any amount of mudslinging will not have any impact.”

There has been a lot of talk about the lack of jobs in the market since BJP came to power. Do you think we have a job creation issue or the issue of lack of data on job creation? 

On the matter of job creation, Goyal insisted that we need better measures for collecting data on jobs. “The nature of jobs is changing all over the world. There are numerous areas where the jobs are not being counted because our method of collection of data is still based on old times.” When asked why a consolidated database on job creation, direct and indirect is not being released, he said that the nature of jobs are changing and the consolidated list is being compilated, to be released soon.

There have been allegations made against the BJP that the government was slow in pursuing cases of corruption during the first 4 years of the government and has only picked up pace only a few months earlier with the extradition of Christian Michel and others related to various scams.

“Our efforts to bring back such people have been most consistent. We have never slackened the pace at all. All of this culminates after due process, you can’t do it overnight. There are international agreements over which these achievements happen and I am happy that it has been one government which has been really relentless in its pursuit of such fugitives.”

Mulayam Singh Yadav supported Prime Minister Modi during the last session of Lok Sabha. What do you think changed? Do you think his statement is based on ground reality or change of heart?

“I think the people of Uttar Pradesh have made up their mind in support of Prime Minister Modi. Very clearly, for years, they haven’t seen a decisive government taking care of law and order the way it is today. Large parts of Uttar Pradesh have suffered due to lack of amenities for years and years which we have provided them. Over several generations, people in Uttar Pradesh were reconciled to such kind of existence, that has changed. And I believe there can be no better example of this than the results in Kairana which was not even a national election. Despite the entire opposition being together and Kairana not being a traditional BJP stronghold, we won over 46% of the votes, it’s no mean achievement. I think the winds are very much in BJP’s favour. Our effort is we are going to win 1 seat more than 2014, not any seat less.”

When asked if SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s remarks where he expressed his desire to see Narendra Modi re-elected as Prime Minister for a second term were indicative of his personal opinions or ground realities, Goyal replied, “My opinion is that it’s both, that it is the ground reality and also that it has been a good government which has worked for the welfare of the poor. Also, his traditional instinct that we need a good government in the country.”

What are the plans for Tamil Nadu? You are the prabhari there

Piyush Goyal said that the BJP is in talks with various parties and mentioned that “whichever parties have aligned with the Congress, they have been completely wiped out.” He also said that Rajnikanth is a “good friend” and at some point, will try meeting him as well.

The Modi government inherited a mess in the Railway sector. How did you manage to turn that around? 

“Historically before the Modi government came in, there were fund shortages. You think of any program, the first thing that you had to deal with was the lack of funds. The mindset was one of ‘We don’t have funds, so we can’t do much’. But mindset today has changed, Prime Minister Modi has ensured that Railways gets enough funds. We are focusing on modern technologies, we have revolutionized the cleanliness levels. Railway stations are cleaner than ever before. Now, we are trying to refurbish the trains to make the whole passenger experience much more delightful.”

Minister Piyush Goyal also spoke about how they revolutionarised the punctuality of railways and the importance of data collection when it comes to the railways. He said that earlier, the punctuality data was not accurate. On paper, the punctuality was always good. But people have always complained about punctuality. Goyal said that when a root cause analysis was done, they realised that punctuality was based on station master reports, which were inaccurate. Now, they have put data loggers across the country at all the interjections. The day the new system was switched on, the punctuality fell by 20%. Hence, unless the data is more robust and captures the actual position, a fix on the problem can never happen.

The Vande Bharat Express, which used to be called Train 18, has been displayed as an engineering marvel in India. What makes it so? 

“The Vande Bharat is a train set like they use abroad. It’s not different coaches being put together, so the safety level is much more. Also, the luxury levels will be much higher than any other train apart from speed. It also doesn’t have an engine. Further, there are regenerative power benefits. In many respects, it is modern technology at work in India and my own sense is that it will help change the passenger experience in India. We are already in the process of procuring 30 more trains and going forward, we will keep expanding. It’s the first time that India engineers have designed, manufactures and conceptualized this. It gives you a lot of self-confidence when you do something like that and it has been done in a time-bound manner, good modern technology and it is world-class. Going forward, we will improvise on it. And at the end of the day, I think we may end up supplying them to the rest of the world from India.”

There has been a lot of controversy regarding the Angel Tax. While the government has asserted that there will be no coercive action, there have been demands to withdraw this provision altogether considering the Modi government has been big on ‘stand up, startup’. What do you have to say about it? 

“Firstly, there is no such thing as an Angel Tax. This problem started because earlier, many people used to have shell companies, issuing shares at a huge premium and using that method to launder money. So, restrictions had to be brought. As you know, we have delisted nearly 300,000 companies and action had to be taken against those who indulge in such practices. Now, unless a company has some cogent evaluation or value and shares are issued at exorbitant premiums, it raises suspicion about the intent behind it. Now, what is needed is to separate the honest taxpayers and the real venture capitalists and start-ups from those indulge in the money laundering business. The tax that is presently being imposed is on those operations where money laundering was being done by issuing shares at a huge premium. We are trying to ensure that honest start-ups and capitalists do not suffer as a consequence. I am quite confident that we will be able to resolve the issue soon and no honest person will suffer. If necessary, when we come back, we will bring back measures which are necessary to address the issue.”

(This interview was conducted by Nupur J Sharma and Rahul Roushan)

Navbharat Times published two different versions of the same news in two different editions with same misleading headline

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Navbharat Times published two different versions of the same news in two different editions with same misleading headline

Ever since Vande Bharat Express, India’s first semi-high speed train, was flagged off by PM Modi a few days ago, a certain section of media has been targeting the made in India train by mocking it for getting delayed during its first run.

A popular Hindi newspaper Navbharat Times published two different versions of the same piece of news in its Ghaziabad and Delhi editions on February 18. The newspaper published that an unidentified person has committed suicide by jumping in front of Vande Bharat express. In the newspaper’s Ghaziabad edition, it was reported that the incident took place when the train was travelling from Varanasi to Delhi.

Navbharat Times Ghaziabad edition

While the same piece of news published in its Delhi edition claimed that the incident happened last month during the train’s trial run.

Navbharat Times Delhi Edition

It is unlikely that the readers of the newspaper in Delhi will read the Ghaziabad version of the newspaper to cross-check the news or vice versa. The difference in the news reported in two editions was spotted by a Twitter user who posted the photos of both the editions on Twitter.


This unexpected and highly irresponsible for a popular newspaper like Navbharat Times. This also raises questions on the credibility of the incident published by the newspaper.

Responding questions asked on social media regarding this anomaly, Navbharat Times journalist Narendra Nath Mishra said that it was a mistake that was rectified in the Delhi edition. He informed that Noida edition is printed earlier hence the error remained, which will be corrected later.


But this clarification still does not explain what was the need to publish a one-month-old news today. And even the Delhi edition, which carried the correct news, used a misleading headline to suggest it is a setback for the Vande Bharat Express project. Committing suicide by jumping in front of trains is an unfortunate event that happens quite often, but to term that as a setback for a newly launched train is a completely wrong presentation of the incident. People deliberately giving their lives by coming under running trains can’t raise questions on performance on a train, and Navbharat Times report on both the editions seems to be designed to spread negative information about the newly launched train.

Kavita Krishnan uses 4 year old photograph to claim PM Narendra Modi was laughing after Pulwama attack

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Kavita Krishnan uses 4 year old photograph to claim PM Narendra Modi was laughing after Pulwama attack

There is no stop in lies by liberals in the aftermath of Pulwama attacks. There are rumours being spread that Kashmiri Students were harassed in various parts of the country after the attacks. Now, left-wing activist Kavita Krishnan has resorted to using an old photograph to peddle a lie.


On 17th February, Kavita Krishnan posted a tweet saying that while the entire nation is crying due to the Pulwama attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his friends like Nitish Kumar, Sakshi Maharaj are laughing and having fun at election rallies. She made the comments quoting a tweet by a Twitter user who had posted a photograph which shows Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar laughing together. Kavita Krishna tried to imply that the photograph was taken after the Pulwama attacks, and PM Modi is so insensitive towards the attack that he laughed loudly in public just after the horrific terror attack.

The photo seen here in a July 2015 report of Indian Express

But the fact is that the photograph that Kavita Krishnan was referring to is very old, and is not after the Pulwama attack. The Photograph was taken on 25th July 2015 in
Patna, where Modi had addressed an election rally ahead of assembly elections. Although both the leaders are seeing sharing a laugh in the photo, they were political opponents at that time, as Nitish Kumar had allied with RJD ahead of the assembly elections.

This means the allegation that Modi was having fun at election rallies after the Pulwama attack is false, as that allegation is based on a photo that is almost 4 years old.

After outrage against his comments, Kamal Haasan takes a u-turn, says ‘plebiscite no longer relevant’ in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
-
0
After outrage against his comments, Kamal Haasan takes a u-turn, says ‘plebiscite no longer relevant’ in Kashmir

Actor turned politician, Kamal Haasan, after being called out on social media for his controversial comment where he demanded a plebiscite in Kashmir and referred to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as ‘Azad Kashmir’, has been forced to make a U-turn.

Kamal Haasan, president of a year old party, Makkal Needhi Maiam, echoing the sentiments of the terrorist state of Pakistan, had sought a ‘referendum’ in Jammu and Kashmir.

Haasan’s controversial comments took Twitter by a storm as many came forward to question his loyalties towards the country and mocking his ignorance.


Following such harsh criticisms, Kamal Haasan was forced to take a U-turn, saying that his comment on demanding ‘plebiscite in Kashmir’ was reported out of context.

His party also issued a clarification saying that the English media had completely twisted their president’s statement. In a press statement released by Makkal Needhi Maiam dated February 18, the party said that the reference which was made in the English news channel reports, were mentioned by their president in the context of a magazine article published about three decades ago about an option present then and that it was no longer relevant today and in no way an indication of his or his Party’s position.

Justifying the frivolous comment by their president, the party furthered that its president and all the members stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the armed forces in this hour of grief.


Meanwhile, Kamal Haasan recently declaring that his new party would contest all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu in the national election, due by May, made parting shots at DMK president MK Stalin for discovering the concept of “grama sabha” from a new entrant like him into politics, and Rajnikant on his stand about contesting only the “assembly polls” and not “parliamentary polls”.

Liberals tried to change the narrative desperately after realising that most Indian don’t hate their country

Abhishek Banerjee
-
0
Liberals tried to change the narrative desperately after realising that most Indian don’t hate their country

Indian liberals have a big problem on their hands. Most Indians don’t hate their country.

When you realize that liberalism is an ideology that thrives on creating guilt, it becomes clear how big this problem is for them.

Guilt? Whose guilt? And for what?

I am talking about inducing guilt in anybody who succeeds at anything. Liberals want you and me to feel guilty about (still) being the large ‘majority’ in India.

How was this majority achieved? Well, it happened because M majority parts of India were torn away from us. Literally, millions of Hindus were then expelled from the new “land of the pure” created for Muslims.

But liberals don’t care about that. They tell us that Hindus are the majority. And simply because of the fact that we are a majority, we are “guilty” of something.

Yeah. Hindus are the large majority in India. It is like saying that earthquake victims are the “large majority” at the earthquake relief camp.

And because we are the majority, we are constantly on notice, to be blamed for anything. Liberals don’t allow Hindus any moral capital, to have any joy or pride. Or even basic rights such as the benefit of the doubt.

According to liberals, Hindus have no right to victimhood. Even from an India vs Pakistan point of view, liberals see India as having no moral capital. Why? Because liberals hold India “guilty” of the mere act of survival, that too managing to have a larger territory than Pakistan.

In recent years, the whole world knows that India has expanded its economic and global clout, leaving Pakistan in the dust.

For liberals, this is even more proof of India’s “guilt”. See this photo that was sent to me by a Facebook friend.

Untitled.png

The headline in Bengali reads: “To cover up for failure in protecting jawans, Pakistan is being targeted“.

For those who don’t know…the newspaper here is “Ganashakti”, the OFFICIAL mouthpiece of the CPIM in Bengal. Speaking the *exact* same language as Pakistan. Complaining that Pakistan is being “targeted” by India.

See what I said? Whenever it comes to India vs Pakistan, liberals and communists instinctively side with Pakistan. Because for them India has no right to moral capital, no right to be treated as even human.

So a situation like Pulwama terror attack presents a big problem for them. How to deal with a situation when our victimhood is undeniable? And when there is no doubt that the terrorist wanted to destroy us for being “cow piss drinkers” (his words, not mine!) ?

For liberals, it didn’t help that social media has given everyone a mouthpiece. Before the bosses could set the narrative from the top, their Leftist and Islamist supporters posted outrageous messages on their own social media timelines and gave the game away.

On top of that, the right wing took to social media relentlessly exposing anti-national tweets and Facebook posts through clear screenshots. All of them coming from Leftists and Islamists. How were the liberals going to explain all this?

That is when they have to deflect. They had to find imaginary “victims” and make them the focus of the conversation. To induce “guilt” among ordinary Indians for mourning our fallen soldiers.

The solution was obvious… start a rumour that Kashmiri students were being attacked in various colleges and universities across India. Bonus points if you can lie about them being attacked by RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal men.

From what I saw, the rumour was spread yesterday in a fairly coordinated manner, but the first one to get it going might have been one particularly infamous “student leader”. Perhaps this person sensed another opportunity to raise funds. This time because the supposed “victims” literally don’t exist and never did exist, there can be no questions asked if the money collected in the non-existent names of non-existent people disappears. See? Genius!

And people say leftists do not understand wealth creation…

The coordinated campaign soon picked up. Another celebrity journalist cum spin master, also known for his street fighting skills, requested any Kashmiri student needing help to Message him directly on Twitter. Except that his Twitter DM was closed …

Gives you an idea of how fake and how motivated this campaign is…

Meanwhile, the CRPF, which is still recovering from the terrible loss, had to take to Twitter to beg for the lies to stop.

Untitled.png

What a shame!

The Uttarakhand Police had to do the same thing.

Untitled.png

Untitled.png

It is a good thing the debunking came before liberals could begin collecting money for providing “relief” to the non-existent victims.

But see how liberals operate? A day ago, India was the victim. Now, Indian society has been put in the dock, on the defensive.

Now let me give you an example of something that really happened.

Untitled.png

And not surprisingly, the reality was exactly the opposite of the narrative that liberals were pushing.

Pulwama attack: Ajay Devgn announces that his upcoming movies ‘Total Dhamaal’ will not be released in Pakistan

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Pulwama attack: Ajay Devgn announces that his upcoming movies ‘Total Dhamaal’ will not be released in Pakistan

In the aftermath of the dreadful Pulwama attack, Indian Film actor-producer, Ajay Devgn, took to Twitter to announce that in the light of the current situation, his upcoming movie ‘Total Dhamaal’ will not be released in Pakistan.


Protesting the dreadful Pulwama attack and paying tribute to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers who were killed, the team of ‘Total Dhamaal’ had unanimously taken this decision.

Amongst many other celebrities who denounced the cowardly Pulwama attack, Ajay condemned the heinous crime by Tweeting, “Horrible and disgusting. Anger can’t be put into words. #KashmirTerrorAttack”.

The 49-year-old actor is also one of the producers of this movie sequel, which is slated to release on Friday. Starring Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Riteish Deshmukh, Esha Gupta, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jafri, Boman Irani, Johnny Lever in the pivotal roles, the movie is the third instalment of the ‘Dhamaal’ franchise. The other producers of the movie are Fox Star Studios, Indra Kumar, Sri Adhikari Brothers and Anand Pandit.

Earlier in the day, it was also announced that the team of the movie has donated Rs 50 lakh for the families of the martyrs. Movie critic, Taran Adarsh put out a Tweet, earlier in the day, confirming the same.


The Nation has been engulfed in deep anguish and extreme infuriation after Pakistan backed terrorist organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad, audaciously attacked a convoy of 70 vehicles of the CRPF carrying 2500 personnel which was on its way from Jammu to Srinagar. In what is being considered the most gruesome attack in the last 3 decades, over 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives as a suicide bomber, rammed an explosive-laden car into the CRPF bus, which was part of the convoy.

In wake of the ghastly terrorist attack, the popular music company T-series had unlisted a song sung by Atif Aslam, a Pakistani national on its YouTube channel.

Two eminent personalities from the film fraternity, Kangana Ranaut and singer Sonu Nigam also shared their anger and resentment, which, most of the people of India can identify with in the aftermath of the dreadful attack.

While Nigam took a caustic dig on people who have raised slogans of ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge, Inshallah Inshallah” and Afzal Hum Sharminda Hain, Tere Qatil Zinda Hain” in JNU a couple of years ago and had called out the secular liberal gang and their supporters for pretending to care for the soldiers who have lost their lives, Kangana too expressed her disdain for the ‘Aman Ki Asha’ preachers, who pretend to call for peace and dialogue while turning a blind eye towards the very religious fanaticism that causes deaths and violence in the Kashmir.

Kangana Ranaut had even cancelled the celebratory event organised for the recent success of her movie Manikarnika to stand in solidarity with the grieving families of the CRPF Jawans.

The Hindu not only cropped the Rafale dissent note, but also had digitally manipulated it

OpIndia Staff
-
0
The Hindu not only cropped the Rafale dissent note, but also had digitally manipulated it

On February 8th, The Hindu had published a note from defence ministry in its efforts to help Rahul Gandhi in derailing the Rafale deal. The note contained a note a defence ministry official who had objected to Prime Minister’s office enquiring the progress of the deal, although that officer was not involved in the negotiations of the deal. The Hindu wanted to project that there was opposition to the Rafale deal in the defence ministry and only the Prime minister pushing for it. In doing so, the newspaper had cropped a vital part in the same document, a note by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. The then defence minister had written that the officer was overreacting, and offices of Indian PM and French President were just monitoring the progress of the deal.

Immediately after the Hindu report, ANI had published the full document, which had proved that N Ram had used a cropped version of the document in his article. Now 10 days after the incident, The Hindu has come up with a clarification, saying that it did not doctor the document. In its column Readers Editor, it has claimed that the document published by it was an earlier version, which didn’t include the Defence Minister’s note. As proof of the same, The Hindu notes that the document published by ANI has serial numbers on each note, while there are no serial numbers on the document published by Hindu. It means that the ANI’s document is a subsequent document, it claims.

Ths Hindi clarification was in response to tweets by Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, who had questioned the reporting by The Hindu on the Rafale deal.

The Hindu wants to say that someone had kept a copy of the note before it went to the Defence Minister, and the same was passed on to it. The Hindu document has the note by Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar dated 1st December 2015, while Manohar Parrikar’s comment on the ANI document is dated 11th January 2016. Although the Hindu note does not contain the date of Defence Secretary’s note, it contains the note and top part of the sign, and in the complete ANI document the date is clearly visible. Which means, as per Hindu claims, someone made a copy of the document between 1/12/2015 and 11/01/2016 and later it was passed on to the Hindu.

As Hindu has claimed that ANI had published a later version of the document, it has become necessary to examine both documents more closely.

Cropped note by The Hindu

The first thing that needs to be noted is that The Hindu cropped not only the bottom part of the document which contained the Defence Minister’s note (or it was blank as per Hindu claim), but they also cropped the right side of the document which contained signatures and stamps of various officials who had commented on it. There is a vertical line on the document, around 2 inches from the right edge, which separates the notes section to the stamp and sign section. But few stamps spill over to the notes section, crossing the line. And this where a glaring omission can be noticed, which proves that Hindu not only cropped the document, but also digitally manipulated it.

Before the Defence Secretary, the DG (Acquisition) had put his note under the main dissent note, and this note is dated 24th November, which is visible in both the notes. The sign and date are below the note, while the stamp, along with file noting number, is on the right side of the document.

Stamp visible in full document
Stamp missing on the same place on Hindu’s document

As we can see in the ANI document, the stamp has crossed the vertical line and part of it is on the notes section, just beside the sign and date. But in the Hindu note, this portion of the stamp is missing, instead, there is a white space. Now Hindu can’t claim that their document predates the stamp, because its date is same as the note that is present, and that stamp was put on 24th November, before the Defence Secretary’s note on 1st December.

This clearly means one thing, The Hindu erased the stamp from the document to remove any evidence of the stamps and notings on the right side of the document.

Now, why would N Ram want to hide the stamps from the document? And while cropping the Parrikar’s note, why did it also cropped the signature of Defence Secretary also, although his note was included?

Both questions are answered by the full document published by ANI. Above every note in the document, the designation of the person making the notes are mentioned on the left-hand side. And just below the line where the document is cropped horizontally by Hindu, the word “RM” appear on the left-hand side, indicating that there is a comment by Raksha Mantri below it. That’s why The Hindu had to crop the signature of Mohan Kumar, as the designation RM would be seen if the full signature was retained, which will indicate that there is a note by defence minister below.

Now coming to the side panel of stamps that was cropped, it can be seen that there are no gaps between them, they are almost overlapping each other. Which means, if the side panel was not cropped, people would know that there is more content below as a part of a stamp will appear cropped. More importantly, there is a stamp dated 20th January, which is after the Defence Minister’s note on 11th January. Definitely, the Hindu didn’t want people to know that there were more activities on the document after the ‘dissenting’ notes.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra also made these observations, and posted detail examination of the Hindu note in a series of tweets.


To hide the evidence of Parrikar’s note, the Hindu cropped the document in two places, and digitally erased part of a stamp that should have visible even after cropping the same. And its claim that it did not doctor the document is not true, because a date stamp before defence secretary’s note has been clearly removed from the document.

1...6,6616,6626,663...7,671Page 6,662 of 7,671