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Agra: Police seals illegal slaughterhouse after journalist shares images on social media

OpIndia Staff
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Agra: Police seals illegal slaughterhouse after journalist shares images on social media

On February 10, Swati Goel Sharma, a journalist with Swarajya, shared pictures of an illegal slaughterhouse in Mantola locality in Agra. She had said that the slaughterhouse was located in a residential area. Goel said that she was stopped from taking more pictures by the local residents as it would “endanger” her life.


Taking cognizance of her tweet, Agra Police responded two days later that the illegal slaughterhouse has been sealed. In addition, seven people have been booked under various sections of the IPC and sent to jail.


The tweet was posted in a thread where Sharma was discussing her recent Ground Report from Agra’s Mantola. Sharma had reported how Hindus, who are in the minority in the area, “lack in resources and live in fear.”

In the detailed report, Sharma says that communal flare-ups are extremely frequent in the area. The latest communal flare-up in the area, which is the subject of Sharma’s report, could lead to an exodus of Hindus from the locality.

In her report, Sharma states, “A closer look at the situation in Mantola throws up a case study in changing demographics of an area. It also shows that what we commonly understand of majority-minority equations for the country as a whole may not be true for individual states, villages and even tiny localities.”

Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav roots for Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for second term

OpIndia Staff
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Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav roots for Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for second term

Former Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has dropped a bombshell ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after he expressed his wished to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi return back to power once again.

According to the reports, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav while addressing the Parliament extended his support to Prime Minister Modi and wished him to return back to power as country’s Prime Minister again. This comes at a time when Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav has been attempting hard to forge an alliance with the other smaller parties to defeat the incumbent BJP.


“PM ko badhaai dena chahta hun ki PM ne sabko saath lekar chalne ki koshish ki hai. Main kehna chahta hun ki saare sadaysa phir se jeet kar aayen, aur aap (PM) dobara pradhan mantri banein [I want to thank PM Modi for taking everyone into consensus. I wish that every member of the house and especially you (PM Modi) return to being Prime Minister again],” said Mulayam Singh Yadav, a veteran in Indian politics.

“Meri kaamna hai ki pradhaanmantri ji aap phirse pradhaanmantri banein. Mera anubhav hai ki main jab bhi aap se mila, aapne turant mera kaam kiya [I wish that PM Modi, you should become the prime minister again. I have experienced that whenever I met you, you got my work done instantly],” said Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav, who is the current chief of the Samajwadi Party (SP) has already joined hands with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) to contest against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP in the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming general elections.

Interestingly, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was seen perplexed, who was seated next to the Mulayam Singh when he expressed his gratitude towards Prime Minister Modi.

Karnataka: JDS workers pelt stones at BJP workers in Hassan, BJP leader injured

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: JDS workers pelt stones at BJP workers in Hassan, BJP leader injured

In a shocking incident, party workers of Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal (Secular) have resorted to a deadly stone pelting against a BJP leader in Hassan district of Karnataka causing serious head injuries.

The grave incident took place when a group of JD(S) party workers, who were protesting against the Hassan BJP MLA Preetham Gowda at his residence, resorted to stone pelting towards the BJP leaders and other party workers present at the spot, seriously injuring Rahul Kini, state executive committee member of BJP Yuva Morcha.

Previously, an unauthenticated audio tape allegedly featuring MLA Preetham Gowda had gone viral, in which a person claiming to be Preetham Gowda had criticised former Prime Minister HD Devegowda leading to the violent protests against the BJP leaders in the Hassan.

The injured BJP leader has suffered a life-threatening blow on his head and has been admitted in the Chamarajendra District Hospital, Hassan.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has expressed shock against the vandalism of the Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy led JD(S) workers and held him responsible for the attack on the BJP leader in Hassan. He further added that the senior party leaders will be heading to the Hassan to hold a protest march in the next couple of days. The BJP is also mulling to declare a district bandh in Hassan to protest against the incident tomorrow.

Preetham Gowda, a first time MLA had created history after he had defeated JDS in its fortress, Hassan. The BJP’s inroads into the JDS bastion had unnerved former Prime Minister HD Devegowda and his son HD Revanna, the de-facto head of the JDS.

Meerut: Authorities seal parts of slaughter house owned by BSP leader

OpIndia Staff
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Meerut: Authorities seal parts of slaughter house owned by BSP leader

The Meerut Development Authority (MDA) on Tuesday sealed the machinery in the slaughterhouse owned by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Yakub Qureshi following the cancellation of the stay order prohibiting action by the authorities in relation to the slaughterhouse in the first week of February.

The map of the Al Faheem Meatex Pvt Ltd meat factory was not sanctioned by the authorities.  Parts of the land on which the slaughterhouse is built falls under non-compoundable area. Earlier the administration had stayed the sealing of the slaughterhouse by the MDA. However, when the factory operator could not provide the evidence to prove that the order of the MDA to seal the factory was wrong, the stay order was canceled.

Qureshi, who has been announced as the BSP’s Lok Sabha in-charge for the Meerut-Hapur seat, had sought a stay order on the sealing from the High Court but could not get it. The MDA officials accompanied by police reached the slaughterhouse on Tuesday to seal the green belt area of the slaughterhouse and heavy security was deployed to avoid any unpleasant situation.

However, according to some reports, the authorities did a mere formality in sealing the illegal area as only a small portion was sealed. Also, the MDA team was not allowed to enter the premises initially and was later allowed inside the slaughterhouse after much struggle. The whole proceeding took only 20 minutes after which the police returned.

It is notable here that Qureshi was in the news in 2006 when he had announced a bounty of Rs 51 lakhs on the head of a Danish cartoonist for making allegedly ‘anti-Islamic’ cartoons. Qureshi was the minister of ‘Muslim Affairs’ in the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government. He had switched to BSP later.

Parts of the slaughterhouse is built on agricultural land and therefore industrial use of the land cannot be allowed. “He has applied for the change of land use too. But it is under process and we cannot sanction construction here until the formalities are completed,” said Secretary MDA, Rajeev Kumar.

ED investigation finds Airbus had transferred $10.5 million to Singapore based partnership with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar

OpIndia Staff
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ED investigation finds Airbus had transferred $10.5 million to Singapore based partnership with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar

The preliminary investigation by the Enforcement Directorate has revealed that three years after the Indian Airlines inked a deal to buy 43 aircraft from Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer floated a shell company based out of Singapore in partnership with the middleman Deepak Talwar and, another three years later, transferred USD 10.5 million in its accounts.

The payments were reportedly defrayed in two separate instalments. In the first tranche, $4.5mn were transferred to the accounts of Auctus PTE Ltd., while in the second one, $6mn were transferred. The documents accessed by The Indian Express from Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) reveal that the company was set up in August 2009 with Airbus SAS as a 49% shareholder. Asiapec Alternative PTE Ltd. held the remaining shares (11,53,058).

The ED has said in the court that the company Asiapec Alternative PTE Ltd. was run by middleman Deepak Talwar and it had links with the Air India-Airbus deal. One of the three directors in Auctus Capital PTE Ltd (a subsidiary of Asiapec) was Aditya Talwar, son of Deepak Talwar and who now holds Antiguan citizenship.

The ED had alleged that Airbus had made USD 4.5 million payment to Auctus on August 29, 2012. Another transfer of USD 6 million was made almost a month later, on September 24, 2012.

While the Airbus authorities have refused to comment on the issue, citing the ongoing investigation, the defence lawyer of Deepak Talwar has refuted the allegations made by the ED. However, the ED is probing another instance when Airbus had transferred Rs 90 crore to Deepak Talwar’s NGO-Advantage India. The CBI and ED, both have registered cases against the NGO for misusing the funds and fraudulently using the money for personal usage by Deepak Talwar which was sought under corporate social responsibility for educational and medical purposes.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also alleged that the ‘corporate lobbyist’, Deepak Talwar, who was involved in several aviation deals during the UPA regime, acted as a middleman in negotiations to favour foreign private airlines causing the loss to national carrier Air India. The ED claims he had reportedly received Rs 360 crores to influence UPA minister and top bureaucrats to favour the international airlines. Several Congress leaders are assumed to have intimate relations with Talwar, while Digvijaya Singh’s letter addressed to Talwar, thanking him for the services rendered has already come to the fore.

It is alleged that actions of the UPA government, buying more aircraft than what was required by Air India and Indian Airlines, and giving up lucrative routes the time slots to foreign destinations, had benefited other airlines and had hurt the financials of merged Air India. Several foreign airlines had made payments to Talwar who had used his influence in the Indian government to help them get the slots and routes vacated by Air India.

The middleman Deepak Talwar, along with another high-profile fugitive, Rakesh Saxena was extradited from UAE in the same plane of the government of India on January 30, 2019. Before that, the middleman in VVIP chopper scam Christian Michel was also extradited to India. Michel, in his deposition, had named a certain Italian Lady and ‘Italian Lady’s son R’ in the AgustaWestland scam.

Kerala: Imam caught molesting a 15-year-old girl, claimed the minor was his ‘wife’

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: Imam caught molesting a 15-year-old girl, claimed the minor was his ‘wife’

Kerala Police has registered a case under POCSO Act against the Chief Imam of the Tholicode Jama Ath and member of the Kerala Imams Council, Shafeeq Al Qasimi, for alleged sexual assault against a minor girl.


As per reports, the case was registered after the mosque committee’s statement according to which the Imam had lured a 15-year-old girl into an isolated forest where he had then proceeded to assault her sexually. A group of local women had then confronted the Imam after spotting him with the school-going girl.

The case was registered at the Vithura police station in Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram, on Tuesday based on a complaint by the President of the Tholicode Muslim Mosque. The Imam is said to have worked at the same mosque. After the incident was reported, he was removed from his position at the Mosque and the Imams Council.

As per reports, the sexual assault has been confirmed by several witnesses. An audio clip was released by Badusha, President of the said Mosque, detailing the account of these witnesses. It was revealed after the members of the Mosque launched a probe. As per the report, when he was confronted, he lied that the minor was his wife. When the women noticed the uniform and school badge, they got suspicious.

When the women questioned that how can a 15-year-old girl be a wife of a 40-something man, the Imam reportedly got agitated and started yelling and escaped. The Imam was also reportedly spotted in the forest area a week prior to the incident.

CAG report on Rafale: Rahul Gandhi’s lies shredded to pieces, again

OpIndia Staff
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CAG report on Rafale: Rahul Gandhi’s lies shredded to pieces, again

The much waited CAG audit report on the Rafale Deal was tabled in the Parliament today. The conclusions of the report are unlikely to please the Congress party and its President which has been crying hoarse over the deal.

Although the CAG does not mention the price details of the deal, it provides a comparative analysis between the MMRCA deal for 126 deals during the UPA government and the deal to purchase 36 Rafale jets from the French government. Some major points in the portion of the report that deals with the Rafale deal are as follows:

Price

Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that Modi government is paying ₹1600 crore per Rafale jet, while the UPA govt was buying the same for ₹526 crores each. But the CAG quotes that the current Rafale deal actually is cheaper than the unconcluded deal of the UPA government on most counts.

The report states that India saved 17.08% money for the India Specific Enhancements in the 36 Rafale contract as compared to the 126 aircraft deal. While on the weapons package, the current deal is 1.05% cheaper.


Although the engineering support package and the performance based logistics are costlier by 6.54% in the current deal, the CAG’s audit report concludes that overall the NDA government’s 2016 Rafale deal is 2.86% cheaper than the UPA’s deal in 2007.

The report further mentions that the price of the basic aircraft is the same in both the deals.

HAL

Rahul Gandhi had been alleging that the Rafale deal was snatched from HAL and given to Anil Ambani, but the CAG report points out that the UPA deal could not be finalised due to disagreements over HAL, which was to make 108 jets in India.

CAG notes that HAL wanted that the man-hour quoted by Dassault should be multiplied by a factor of 2.7 for calculating man-hour required by HAL. But this had created a big problem, because if the manpower cost of 108 jets goes up by 2.7 times, Dassault no longer remains the lowest bidder, making the whole process impossible to implement.

CAG report also says that HAL was responsible for 108 jets to be made by it, but the Indian government insisted that Dassault should take responsibility for all the 126 jets under the deal. Dassault didn’t agree to it, it led to a stalemate in negotiations, and ultimately the deal had to be cancelled.

Sovereign/Bank Guarantee

Another allegation against the current deal is that the Inter Governmental Agreement waives the Sovereign/Bank Guarantee which is usually mandated in defence deal as per the DPP.

The CAG report mentions that both the French government and Dassault were made jointly responsible in the deal, which would make the French government equally responsible to fulfil its obligations. Therefore the law ministry was of the opinion that a separate guarantee from France was not needed. The government of France also had said that “the guarantees already provided by the French government were far-reaching and unprecedented”.

Delivery Schedule

Another question that the anti-Rafale lobby keeps asking is where are the Rafale jet that the Modi government has bought. But the CAG report concludes that the delivery schedule of the 36 aircraft in the current deal is better than the proposal made for the first 36 jets in the 126 aircraft deal, which included 18 to be made in Franch and the next 18 to be made in India.

The UPA deal

Rahul Gandhi keeps saying the inconclusive deal during the UPA government was better than the current one. But CAG has found major loopholes in the earlier bid process. The CAG report states that the Defense Ministry had said in 2015 that the Dassault Aviation Rafale proposal during the UPA era should have been rejected as it did not meet the RFP requirements.


According to CAG, the L1 subcommittee had made mistakes in price calculation from the bids submitted by the vendors. It also says that Dassault proposal was not compliant with the RFP and it should have been rejected in the TEC stage itself. It also says that even the proposal of Eurofighter was also not compliant with the RFP. Moreover, Dassault was not the lowest bidder after taking into account the price escalation due to increased manpower cost of HAL. Therefore, the deal had to be cancelled. This conclusion by CAG proves that the Modi government’s decision to scrap the earlier deal in 2015 was correct.

The CAG notes that the process to buy the aircraft had started in 2000, but even after 15 years, no progress could be made. Therefore, the process had to be cancelled in the year 2015.

 

Perhaps suspecting that the CAG report will exonerate the Modi government, the Congress President had already dubbed it the ‘Chowkidar Auditor General’ report. It was only days after the party had raised a lot of hue and cry demanding to see the report. The party has recently questioned the impartiality of the CAG as well.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has targeted Rahul Gandhi over the CAG report on social media and said that “It cannot be that the Supreme Court is wrong, the CAG is wrong and only the dynast is right.” He further stated that “The lies of ‘Mahajhootbandhan’ stand exposed by the CAG Report.”

Puducherry: Congress CM sits on a dharna demanding Governor Kiran Bedi recalled for trying to enforce ‘helmet rule’

OpIndia Staff
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Puducherry: Congress CM sits on a dharna demanding Governor Kiran Bedi recalled for trying to enforce ‘helmet rule’

In utter disregard for traffic norms and safety, Puducherry Chief Minister has sat on a protest outside the Raj Bhawan wearing black clothes urging the Central Government to recall Governor Kiran Bedi.


He is demanding that the helmet rule, where two-wheeler riders, as well as pillion riders, should wear helmets, be implemented in a phased manner. A few days back, Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi, in an attempt to improve road safety, had taken it upon herself and got on the streets, urging citizens to wear the helmet and explaining to them the importance of wearing a helmet.


Congress lawmakers in Puducherry, however, seem unhappy with the attempt of improving road safety. Many Twitter users expressed their shock at Congress leaders’ utter lack of regard for the law of the land.


And of course, some Twitter users could not help but crack jokes at the dharna-politics.


Considering chief ministers of many states where the ruling parties are part of ‘United Opposition’ are protesting against something or the other, the Puducherry chief minister just felt a little left out.

Read why Twitter users are trending “Rahul Gandhi Pagal Hai”

OpIndia Staff
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Read why Twitter users are trending “Rahul Gandhi Pagal Hai”

An unusual trend picked up on Twitter on Wednesday after the CAG’s audit report on the Rafale deal was tabled in the Rajya Sabha. People on the social media platform started trending #RahulGandhiPagalHai soon after the conclusions of the CAG, exonerating the NDA government, went public.

The trend comprised of tweets mocking the Congress President.


It appears that the trend picked up on the WikiLeaks cable from 2014 which had claimed that Rahul Gandhi suffers from ‘personality problems’.


The Wikileaks cable in question states that ‘influential columnist and political insider’ Saeed Naqvi claims that it was increasingly common knowledge among Congress insiders that Rahul suffers from “personality problems” of an emotional or psychological nature that are severe enough to prevent him from functioning as PM.

Many people promoting the trend are citing the WikiLeaks report.


Another tweet from 2011 has gone viral as a consequence of the trend where Mayawati, Congress ally in Madhya Pradesh, had stated that Rahul Gandhi has lost ‘mental balance’.


Today is proving to be a bad day for the Congress party. First, the CAG report dismissed all their claims of malpractice in the Rafale deal and now, the WikiLeaks cable that raised doubts about the psychological stability of its party president has again gained relevance only weeks prior to the General Elections.

Former Bihar Congress President Ram Jatan Sinha joins JD(U), Manjhi adamant on seat sharing too

OpIndia Staff
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Former Bihar Congress President Ram Jatan Sinha joins JD(U), Manjhi adamant on seat sharing too

In a major setback to state unit of Indian National Congress, its former state president Ram Jatan Sinha has now joined Janta Dal (United). Sinha joined JD(U) at an auditorium, in presence of top leaders like national vice-president Prashant Kishore and state unit chief Vashishth Narayan Singh. He was later felicitated by party supremo and Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar.

Sinha had left the Congres party in 2015, ahead of state elections. He is a three-time MLA from Makhdumpur assembly segment in Jehanabad district. He is speculated to fight upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the same seat, considering his popularity within the district’s Bhumiar population. He had tried his luck in 2015 assembly elections, as an independent candidate, but had lost.

He was the president of Bihar Pradesh Congress committee in 2003.

At a party function in Bapu Sabhanagr auditorium, he had lauded CM Nitish Kumar’s performance in the state. He had said that CM Nitish has been successful in eradicating the social inequalities prevailing in the society, on the grounds of caste and religion. He also had taken a dig at, Fodder scam convict RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejasvi Yadav, without taking the name. He said that people without formal education, have no right to ask the question about the state of universities of Bihar.

CM Nitish Kumar also praised Sinha’s contributions from the early days of his life in the education sector. He also added that his party is not controlled by a family, and therefore it wholeheartedly accepts individuals from various walks of life. In February, last year BPCC president Ashok Choudhary along with three Members of legislative Council had defected to JD(U). Former state president Mehboob Ali Kaiser had also joined NDA-constituent Lok Jan Shakti Party.

Amid this, Mahagatbandhan constituent – Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awami Morcha is keeping the alliance on the toe. Manjhi has made it clear that his party should get the number of seats, not less than its partner Rashtriya Lok Samta Party(RLSP). RLSP recently had exited NDA, to fight along with the alliance.

“Under no circumstances would we agree to a number of seats that is less than what is given to Kushwaha. We are not demanding any specific number but our contention is we must not get less than RLSP. Rather, we should get more” Manji asserted. He had said a few months ago, that his party has the dominant role in almost 20 seats out of 40 Lok Sabha seats. Manjhi had also taken a dig both at NDA and UPA recently. He had called NDA a ‘Nagraj’ (king cobra), and UPA a ‘saanpraj’ (king of snakes), and had declared that his party will boycott Lok Sabha elections if alliance fails to satisfy him.


But, on the question, whether he is considering joining NDA back, he said, ” Why would I have left NDA if I were to go back? When I joined ‘Mahagathbandhan’ I had vowed that I will strengthen the hands of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. I am going to meet him shortly.”

The high number of the exodus of its Congress’ veteran leaders to rival camp is surely going to deliver the blow to Congress party, which is expecting a comeback in the state with help of the Mahgatbandhan alliance stitched with Rashtriya Lok Dal. On the other hand, the alliance itself is facing strong dissent within itself, making it tougher to announce the seat-sharing formula.

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