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UP Budget: Sanskrit receives a boost, Rs. 447 crores allotted for Gaushalas

OpIndia Staff
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UP Budget: Sanskrit receives a boost, Rs. 447 crores allotted for Gaushalas

Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal presented the state budget for the financial year 2019-20 today. The 4.79 lakh crore budget was 12% higher than the previous year’s budget.

Among its salient features, special emphasis has been given to the promotion of the Sanskrit language. An allocation of Rs. 242 crores has been made for grants to Sanskrit Pathshalas in the state. Another 30 crores has been allotted to provide a grant to aided Sanskrit schools and degree colleges.

The Kashi Vidyapeeth will receive Rs. 21 crores for promoting education in Sanskrit while Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya will receive an amount of Rs. 21.51 crores. The Vedic Vigyan Centre at Banaras Hindu University will be given a grant of Rs. 16 crores. It’s the biggest allotment to any research centre by the state government in a decade.


In addition, Rs 247 crore was allotted for the maintenance and construction of gaushalas in rural areas and Rs 200 crore for Kanha Gaushala and Destitute Cattle Shelter Scheme in urban areas. The government also expects to earn Rs. 165 crore from the cess imposed on alcohol which it plans to use for the upkeep of stray cattle. Rs. 459 crores were allotted for the modernization of Madrasas.

The UP government also announced the launch of a new scheme for women. The ‘Kanya Sumangala Yojna‘, which will be implemented from the next financial year, “with a view to raise health and educational standard of girls, brighten their future, bring in a positive change in the thinking towards women and instil a sense of respect towards them.”

The budget also allocated Rs. 300 crores for shrines and their development. Another Rs. 207 crore has been earmarked for the development and beautification of the Ganga Ghat to Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor.


Besides these, Rs. 1298 crores have been reserved for the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The Swachh Bharat Mission received a grant of Rs. 6000 crore. The budget was hailed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ budget.

Congress promises to scrap anti Triple Talaq law if voted to power

OpIndia Staff
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Congress promises to scrap anti Triple Talaq law if voted to power

Addressing All India Congress Committee’s meet, Congress leader Sushmita Dev said that if Congress comes to power, then Congress will scrap the Triple Talaq Bill, which was brought in by the Modi Government making triple talaq an offence.

“Through Triple Talaq Bill, Narendra Modi has given a reason to Muslim women to fight with Muslim men and send them to jail,” Dev said to a cheering audience. Congress, ironically, wants to bring about the women reservation bill even as they promise to allow triple talaq.


When the Narendra Modi led government batted for the abolition of Triple Talaaq in a bid to empower Muslim women who were being given triple talaq for frivolous reasons and being rendered homeless, Congress not only tried to stall the bill and often displayed double standards, senior Congress leaders even tried to justify their opposition to the bill in ridiculous ways.

34 years after Rahul Gandhi’s father Rajiv Gandhi overturned the Shah Bano verdict Rahul Gandhi again punches one of the biggest holes in the women empowerment facade of Congress. While the Supreme Court of India had granted Shah Bano the right to maintenance, the Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government in the centre succumbed to the possible confrontations from the Muslim Personal Law Board. Rajiv Gandhi’s government passed a law in the name of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and basically reversed the Supreme Court Verdict. The SC verdict that could have been the harbinger of equal rights to all Muslim Women as the rest of the women of this country was overturned in the name of Muslim appeasement.

It seems like the ‘women empowerment’ promise continues to be a farce for the Congress party.

In Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, family of 8-year old gang rape survivor asked to vacate house

OpIndia Staff
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In Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, family of 8-year old gang rape survivor asked to vacate house

The Indore Development Authority (IDA) has told the family of an 8-year old gang-rape survivor from Mandsaur who were allotted a house and a shop in the city by the previous BJP government, to vacate their home. The officials claimed that no official order was issued by the previous BJP government.

The father told media outlets, while admitting that no official order was issued by the erstwhile BJP government, “When the BJP government was replaced by Congress government several people told me that I would have to go back to Mandsaur as the government has changed. Their words have come true.”

IDA executive engineer NL Mahajan reportedly said, “We don’t have any right to hand over the house to anyone without a formal order. The family was not living in the house either. The house was rented out to get some money and use the same money for them to get a house on rent near the temple where the shop was given to father of the girl,” he added.

State BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agarwal said the issue should be dealt with without politicizing it. Higher education minister and legislator from Indore, Jeetu Patwari, also assured that he will look into the matter and ensure that the family doesn’t have to vacate the house.

The perpetrators of the gang-rape, Irfan and Asif were caught by the police and because of the stringent laws introduced by the then Shivraj Chouhan government, were prosecuted within two months and were awarded the death penalty by a Mandsaur court in August last year.

The child was abducted, gang-raped and had her throat cut by the perpetrators last year. She had to struggle for her life for five months in a hospital.

Why we don’t deserve PM Modi: A 16-year-old’s open letter to fellow Indians

nidhianand
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Why we don’t deserve PM Modi: A 16-year-old’s open letter to fellow Indians

On 16th May 2014, I was an eleven year old kid, who got up at six in the morning to watch the General Election results being declared. Politics had always been a hot topic in my family. We celebrated that day, ordered pizza, said prayers of thanks, and distributed sweets, because we thought that the country finally understood how desperately we needed change. I now know that we were gravely mistaken.

Nearly five years later, the country stands at the precipice of the next election. I’m going to be as blunt as humanly possible now: PM Modi deserves to be re-elected. This may not be the politically correct thing to say, given the warm and open atmosphere created by our left-liberal ecosystem (irony much?), but it’s the truth. He is without a doubt, one of the earnest, and dedicated leaders we have seen. He works solely towards progress, takes all (often sickening and malicious) criticism in his stride, and does not consider himself above the public. He calls out anti-nationalists and urban naxals, and does not endeavor to be politically correct at the cost of his own integrity. He is a living embodiment of the “By the People, For the People, Of the People”, principle of democracy, one of the very few we’ve seen so far as an independent nation.

All of which are among the many reasons why we don’t deserve him.

We must admit this; we’re a very uncooperative and ‘hard-to-govern nation’. There’s so many stakeholders, vested interests, and different points of view. While dissent may be the beauty of democracy, nationalism should always be, in my opinion, impermeable to dissent. You can choose to hate your government, not your country. A lot of people currently hate PM Modi because of how openly and strongly he supports the idea of nationalism. We can’t seem to digest the fact that our Prime Minister encourages us to love our country. After all, he’s challenging the status-quo, instilled by years of UPA governance. Where we sing patriotic songs, perform skits and hoist our flag two days in a year, and spend the rest oblivious to how our nation is being looted mercilessly. PM Modi urges us to change that, through Swacch Bharat and several other such campaigns. This poses a problem for us, as the older scheme of things was much more convenient and didn’t require much effort.

Another thing we must admit is that we love complaining. This could also be attributed to the years of UPA rule. They made us the whiny, perpetually unhappy nation we are today. We’ve now come to believe that the entire onus of driving our country to prosperity is on the government. PM Modi, however, urges citizens to be active participants in the process. This becomes a problem as while we’d all love to shout slogans and criticize, no one is willing to step up and take action themselves.

Think about it. Swachh Bharat was, almost entirely, a citizen driven initiative. It relied most importantly on awareness campaigns and public participation. This fits well with the Modi government’s “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” slogan. But, majority of people fail to credit or even acknowledge the contribution of the government in this regard.

Here’s something all those people need to know:

You are not doing a favour by voting a government into power. Merely exercising your right to vote does not absolve you of your moral duties towards the country. It is not wrong of a leader to encourage you to love, and contribute to your own nation. He’s just reminding us of our long forgotten duties, something that isn’t in his job profile.

We cannot appreciate a leader that projects himself as a ‘sevak’, not a ‘Messiah’. Who inspires us to uplift ourselves, rather than asking us to be completely helpless and dependent on a savior. He reiterates countless times that he is one of us, and is grateful for the opportunity we have given him to serve our nation. If we cannot recognize his value, we do not deserve him.

It is incredibly easy for a politician to become well-liked, especially given the vast disparity in the layers of Indian society. All it takes is a few moves of appeasement, some photo-ops, steering clear of all controversial issues (no matter how crucial they may be), and if all else fails, they could always entice the economically downtrodden with a few thousand bucks or a bottle or two of liquor. Forgive me for the thick cynicism, but I couldn’t put it in softer words. PM Modi has taken none of the aforementioned steps. He has been hands-on with controversial issues, refrained from appeasement on religious or casteist lines, and never introduced any measures or policies only to garner public support.

This is what makes him loathed by several sections of the Indian public.

We can’t help the existence of such people. We really can’t even attempt to change their minds. It is their own restricted mindset that prevents them from looking at these points objectively. The people I’m aiming to reach out to here, are the fence-sitters. The genuinely open-minded people who are willing to make an informed decision, and are aware of the dire consequences of ill-informed voting.

Your vote is hugely more important than you realize. Please do vote, and when you do, please make sure you have the interests of your country at heart, and nothing else.

Going mental on Modi didn’t help Kejriwal, will it help Mamata or Rahul?

Rahul Roushan
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Going mental on Modi didn’t help Kejriwal, will it help Mamata or Rahul?

Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, and Rahul Gandhi – there are more things common amongst these three leaders than just being in opposition while Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India.

Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal actually have been similar for a long time before Rahul Gandhi decided to join and complete the triad. Both the Chief Ministers are autocratic and there is no place in their respective parties for anyone who doesn’t suck up to them. When criticised on any aspect, both attack either the critic or blame some third party. Both went on to further the same kind of behaviour and policies against which they scored massive political victories. Both have zombies as online supporters. Both were, or maybe still are, favourites of Anna Hazare.

And both have gone mental against Modi in the last couple of years.

I’m not saying they have some medical problems that needs psychiatrist’s intervention – I don’t have access to their health records to infer either way – but I use ‘going mental’ as a figure of speech.

Both Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal use extreme language for Narendra Modi, conjure up irrational scenarios under Modi’s leadership, and blame him for everything under the sun. Imagine, when a private airline’s flight hovered over Delhi airport due to air traffic congestion, it was seen as a murder attempt at Mamata Banerjee by Modi government, while Modi is supposed to be sending people with chilli powder to murder Kejriwal.

It’s a bit unfathomable why Kejriwal has gone on this trip. He fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi and lost badly. He soon realised that attacking Modi is not going to help. He made amends. For 2015 Delhi assembly elections, he just went on saying sorry for having resigned from the post of Chief Minister in just 49 days.

He didn’t launch any virulent attack on Modi as part of his poll campaign; on the contrary, the party put up a banner on their official website that read “Modi for PM, Kejriwal for CM” as being Delhi voter’s choice. They had to soon remove it after facing embarrassment as this was for the first time that a rival leader’s image was being used by a political party to solicit votes for themselves.

Kejriwal swept the 2015 Delhi assembly elections.

And things went downhill for him and the Aam Aadmi Party after that, very fast.

The party broke, and those who were not loyalists of Kejriwal were thrown out, literally. Lokpal was forgotten, governance issues started cropping up, and there were allegations of corruption too. To hide his failure on these fronts, Kejriwal started blaming Modi for everything, with his famous “coward and psychopath” (with spelling mistake, possibly because Ashutosh was still in the party then) tweet for Modi confirming his transformation.

Around the same time, BJP had lost Bihar. The Congress fed ecosystem, which includes the large section of the mainstream media, was orgasming. This was second successive defeat for BJP in the Modi era after Delhi assembly elections. Though he was not any factor in Bihar, Kejriwal went on and hugged Lalu, signalling to the ecosystem that he was ready to take the national stage and make any “sacrifices” to see BJP losing.

This was followed with Kejriwal joining every event where he could attack Modi and appear like a national leader. From going to Hyderabad over Rohith Vemula’s suicide to having a rally in Delhi where a farmer committed suicide live on cameras, he tried to create a spectacle everywhere. He even tried to create controversy over surgical strikes, where he embarrassingly got support from Pakistan.

Then came demonetisation towards the end of 2016, and Kejriwal totally lost it. Coincidentally Mamata Banerjee too was most vocal opposing demonetisation.

All this while, Rahul Gandhi, the person who comes of age every few months, was watching Kejriwal and getting ready to come of age, again.

I had predicted in January 2017 that Rahul Gandhi would become more and more like Kejriwal. I had written:

“Punjab election results will also decide if Kejriwalification of Rahul Gandhi will continue or not. If Congress wins, Rahul will have all the reasons to believe that Kejriwalification helped him, and thus the process will continue. If AAP wins, Rahul Gandhi will yet again resolve to learn even more from AAP and that might actually accelerate his Kejriwalification.”

And was I not right! At this time, you can’t tell a Rahul Gandhi from Arvind Kejriwal. “Prime Minister chor hai” is the new “Modi is coward and psychopath”.

(update: Some time after this article was published, Rahul Gandhi used the term darpok i.e. coward for Narendra Modi. Insert ‘I told you’ emoji here.)

This happened primarily because Rahul Gandhi would have wanted the ecosystem, which his family so well nurtured, to put faith in him and not flirt with Kejriwal. Congress and the ‘ecosystem’ need each other. They might, and they do, fight with each other, but these are lovers’ tiffs. They can’t do without each other. Kejriwal unfortunately was bringing infidelity in this relationship.

Once Kejriwal lost Punjab, a state AAP was supposed to win on the lines of Delhi, the ecosystem realised that they better stick to Congress than flirting with Kejriwal. They fell in love with this charming young man who had come of age, again.

Now this is where the paradox lies. Acting like Kejriwal helped Rahul, but Kejriwal himself has been on decline ever since he went mental on Modi. He has not taken any corrective measures like he did after the 2014 Lok Sabha loss, but has gone only more mental against Modi, and there is nothing to suggest he’s going to taste any electoral success soon.

AAP is for all practical purposes finished outside Delhi, and even in Delhi the party is trying to get in partnership with Congress to save their face. The utility of Arvind Kejriwal in opposition rallies is that of a loudmouth troll who can say some absurd things that other leaders might find infra dig.

So why should one act like Kejriwal?

Why should Mamata or Rahul Gandhi be like him?

Answer lies in the difference between winning elections and winning the ‘ecosystem’. Going mental on Modi surely helps win the hearts of the Lutyens and the broader ecosystem. As explained earlier, Rahul Gandhi was copying Kejriwal to win back the ecosystem, which he has now successfully done.

Mamata too has won hearts of ecosystem. Hardly any Delhi based media talked about the Saradha chit fund scam, for which CBI, following SC’s orders, had gone to Kolkata to probe the police commissioner. Mamata ridiculously made it about ‘democracy under attack’ and Lutyens played along. The less said about Bengali media the better. Just two words are sufficient – The Telegraph.

These are perks on going mental on Modi, which is why, despite Kejriwal on decline, Mamata or Rahul will still be like him.

But this ‘ecosystem’ is not the only thing that you need to win elections – else BJP would have never won any elections – so a political leader will cleverly weigh this strategy.

Kejriwal is on decline as he’s no longer the darling of the Congress fed ecosystem and going mental on Modi alone is not enough to taste electoral success. This strategy could surely galvanise a particular set of people, or should I say a ‘particular community’, to rally behind you when it comes to voting, but it won’t generally impress everyone else.

For Mamata this is a sound electoral strategy too as that ‘particular community’ is in dominating numbers in her home state, so she doesn’t need to worry about Kejriwal failing to taste electoral success using the same strategy.

But what about Rahul Gandhi?

Catering too much to a particular community was one of the reasons Congress itself had put as one of the major reasons for 2014 Lok Sabha elections defeat, so will they risk doing the same in 2019 by Rahul going mental on Modi? Even for 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, many had argued that coming together of Congress and Samajwadi Party triggered a religious polarisation, for the only thing common between these two parties were Muslims.

Congress too realises that this could backfire and thus they are using two pronged strategies to neutralise this risk – first, make some ‘Hindu’ sounding noises too e.g. Rahul Gandhi becoming janeudhari Shiv bhakt Brahmin and newly formed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan taking forward issues like cow protection, and second, divide the average Hindus on caste lines.

Interestingly, this is where Kejriwal is now copying Rahul Gandhi. Though he’s still to declare himself a bhakt of some Hindu god, he is on special mission to play caste politics by claiming that BJP has got names of Baniyas struck off from voter list. If Congress refuses to ally with AAP in Delhi, maybe soon we will see Kejriwal singing bhajan in some maata ka jagrata.

So in all probability, all three – Mamata, Rahul, and Kejriwal – will continue to remain mental on Modi, hoping that their strategy to neutralise the risk arising out of it will work. In fact, not just these three, even someone like Chandrababu Naidu appears to be going on the same route and maybe more could join.

However, there is one extra risk that they will create with this ‘mental on Modi’ strategy – they reinforce the belief that it’s Modi vs All in 2019 Lok Sabha election – a perception the ecosystem is working overtime to fight because it is supposed to help Modi.

RBI Policy: Repo rate cut by 25 bps, GDP projected at 7.4%, EMIs may come down

OpIndia Staff
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RBI Policy: Repo rate cut by 25 bps, GDP projected at 7.4%, EMIs may come down

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, in his maiden RBI Policy, has projected GDP at 7.4% for the financial year 2019-20. The RBI has also brought down the Repo rate by 0.25 basis points bringing it from 6.5% to 6.25% which may bring down the EMI amount paid by individuals. Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks in case of shortfall of funds.


Stating that the inflation will remain contained, Das added the investment activity is currently recovering owing to the public spending on infrastructure.

Das further added that the RBI has decided enhancement of collateral free agriculture loan from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.6 lakhs. This enhancement Rs 60,000 has been taken in view of the overall rise in inflation, marginal agriculture input and benefit to small farmers. He added that the import growth had turned slow in November and had actually turned negative in December 2018 primarily owing to high base effect and weak global demand. The inflation rate is estimated at 3.2% to 3.4% in the first half of 2019-2020 and 3.9% in the third quarter of 2019-2020.

Kerala: University denies permission to North Indian students to perform Saraswati Puja as it is ‘secular campus’

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: University denies permission to North Indian students to perform Saraswati Puja as it is ‘secular campus’

The Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala has declined permission to ‘North Indian students’ to perform Saraswati Puja in the Kuttanad campus of its Engineering college. The reason cited is that its a “secular campus” and therefore, can’t permit the Puja.


The letter from the Joint Registrar of the University states, “It is informed that the request of the North Indian students to conduct Saraswati Pooja has been declined by the Vice Chancellor since ours is a secular campus and as such we cannot permit religious functions/activities of any particular religion inside the campus.”

It is the same college where students had claimed last year that they were misled into eating beef. The Principal was accused of feeding beef to his students to satisfy his ego.

It is also interesting to note that Christmas is regularly celebrated in this same ‘secular campus’.

Christmas celebration at Cochin University, 2017 (source: Facebook)

This move by the university again proves that secularism has a unique definition in India, where Christmas can be permitted by Saraswati puja can’t be.

There has been a concerted attempt by the Secular establishment to denude Indian educational institutions of Hindu cultural influences. Recently, the Supreme Court had sent a plea challenging the mandatory recitation of Sanskrit and Hindi hymns during the morning assembly in Kendriya Vidyalayas to its Constitution bench.

That petition was filed by one Veenayak Shah who is reported to be the father of children who received their education from Kendriya Vidyalaya. In the petition, he claimed that reciting prayers “creates a lot of obstacles in developing a Scientific Temperament” and that it was imparting religious instructions.

All 7 seven accused convicted by court in Kawal double murder case which had triggered the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots

OpIndia Staff
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All 7 seven accused convicted by court in Kawal double murder case which had triggered the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots

A sessions court on Wednesday convicted seven accused in the Kawal double murder case of August 2013, which is said to have triggered the infamous Muzzafarnagar riots, which had left almost 60 people dead and more than 50,000 people were displaced. Five of the convicted are already in prison, while the bail of the other two stands cancelled.

Muzassim, Muzammil, Furquan, Nadeem, Jehangir, Afzaal and Iqbal have been convicted for beating to death Gaurav and Sachin on the day of August 27, 2013. They were convicted by the court after examination of 10 prosecution witnesses and 6 defence witnesses.

According to reports, cousins Gaurav and Sachin had allegedly thrashed and stabbed a boy called Shaanazwa, after it was reported that he had harassed their sister. Following which the seven accused killed both in retaliation.

“Ravindra Singh, Gaurav’s father, had lodged an FIR for murder at Jansath police station against Muzammil, Mujasim, Furqaan, Jehangeer, Nadeem and Shahnawaz. Shahnawaz was killed later in retaliation to the murder of Gaurav and Sachin,” Anil Zindal, the lawyer for the complainant was quoted by Indian Express.

The names of two other accused of Iqbal and Afzal were added later.

A counter FIR was also lodged by the father of Shahnawaz incriminating Sachin and Gaurav for killing his son. But, an SIT in 2015 had given a clean chit to 5 accused in the case, while two other accused Gaurav and Sachin were already dead.

The quantum of sentence for the convicted will be announced on February 8. Gaurav’s father has expressed hope that convicted people will get the maximum amount of sentence, as he has been fighting for justice for his son for a long time now. While Gaurav’s mother wants death sentence for the convicted.

“I have faith in court. We hope justice will be done. Once we get a copy of the sessions court verdict, we will move to high court.” Father of two convicted Muzassim and Muzammil said. He also accused local police of doing investigation unfairly hiding the truth.

Over 6,000 cases were lodged following the 2013 riots and 1,480 accused were arrested for their alleged roles in the riots. A SIT had filed charge sheets in 175 cases.

Karti Chidambaram appears before the ED in connection with INX Media money laundering probe

OpIndia Staff
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Karti Chidambaram appears before the ED in connection with INX Media money laundering probe

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s son, Karti Chidambaram is currently being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in Jamnagar House in Delhi. He is being probed in connection to money laundering case in the INX Media scam. Both father-son duo is facing heat from the CBI as well as ED in the INX media scam.

In January, the CBI had sought the custody of former union minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media. Karti was arrested by CBI in February last in connection with the case, who was released on bail later.

It is alleged that INX Media received FDI in excess of what was allowed and when a probe was launched against the illegal investment, it was manipulated to save the company. P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in the UPA government at that time. The chargesheet filed by CBI in the case said that while the company was granted clearance to receive foreign investment of only ₹4.62 crore, the company violated the norms and raised ₹305 crores as FDI. On the other hand, INX Media had made payments to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Karti Chidambaram through his close associates.

It is alleged that Karti had received ₹3.5 crore from INX Media and used his influence to manipulate the investigation against the company.

INX Media was later known as NewsX, it was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case. Indrani had also alleged that P Chidambaram had asked her to pay a bribe of $1 million to Karti Chidambaram.

CBI had sought custodial interrogation of P Chidambaram in the case earlier also, but it was not granted. The agency has got the government’s permission to prosecute the former union minister in the Aircel-Maxis case also.

Since yesterday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband and Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother in law Robert Vadra is also being grilled by the ED in dubious land deals and in connection with another money laundering case. He is also asked to appear before the ED in Jaipur on February 12.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes resolution demanding SC status for ‘Dalit Christians’

OpIndia Staff
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Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes resolution demanding SC status for ‘Dalit Christians’

A resolution has been passed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly appealing to the Central government that ‘Scheduled Caste Christians’ be provided the benefits of reservations despite converting out of the Hindu faith.


The resolution was proposed by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ had been fighting for reservations for decades and that their demand was justifiable. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ should be treated on par with Dalit converts to Sikhism and Buddhism. The resolution was also supported by BJP MLAs in the Assembly.

The secular establishment has always propagated the idea that the Caste System is exclusive to Hinduism and ‘Eminent Historians’ have peddled the narrative that ‘lower castes’ converted to Abrahamic faiths due to the discrimination faced by them in the Hindu fold. It was also claimed the Abrahamic alternative was egalitarian and free of such discrimination.

Under such circumstances, even the term ‘Dalit Christians’ is an oxymoron as there is no concept of Castes in Christianity. Amusingly enough, even the leaders of the Christian community who target the Hindu faith over the caste system have often demanded reservations for Christians on the basis of their caste.

It appears to be little more than appeasement tactics by one of the new darlings of the ‘Secular establishment’ ahead of the General Elections later this year. The resolution, however, is nonbinding on the Centre.

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