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Madhya Pradesh: Farmer gets loan waiver only Rs. 13 against a loan of Rs. 24,000

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: Farmer gets loan waiver only Rs. 13 against a loan of Rs. 24,000

The Congress party with their misadventures and the politics of farm loan waivers seems to be in the middle of a severe crisis as yet another farmer in the state of Madhya Pradesh has been deceived by the Kamal Nath led Congress government after just Rs.13 was set to be waived-off against a loan of Rs.24,000, reported India Today.

Shivlal Kataria, a resident of Malwa district of Madhya Pradesh got terrified after he found that it was just Rs.13 marked against his name instead of Rs.23,815 that he was expecting in the list of farm loan waiver beneficiaries issued by the authorities.

Kataria, who hails from Nipania Baijnath village in Agar Malwa district said that he was excited when Congress announced that it would write-off farm loan after coming to power. Kataria said that the state government had promised to waive loans up to Rs 2 lakh and he was expecting a complete waiver of his loan amount of Rs 23,815 but the Panchayat list only suggests that only Rs.13 will be waived off.

“I am an honest farmer. I have been regularly paying my dues. On questioning, the staff said that I did not have a loan on me on the date of the loan waiver. There are major irregularities in the loan waiver scheme. I have reported the matter to the authorities,” he said.

The government, on the other hand, said flaws are rising due to irregularities at the stage of loan disbursal. Cabinet minister Omkar Singh Markam, however, claimed that “Irregularities which happened at the stage of loan disbursal are now surfacing. We are taking the required action.”

Kamal Nath led Congress government’s promise to waive-off farms loans under Jai Kisan Rid Mukhti Yojana has turned out to be a dud, as the false promises of loan-waivers by the Congress government have already taken three lives of farmers in Madhya Pradesh. Along with these deaths, many farmers across the state who had taken the loan from banks before 31 st March 2018 and that of more than Rs 1 lakh, have reportedly got loan waiver benefit of mere Rs 25-30.

The Congress government in the Madhya Pradesh seems to have already lost their control as the state has been rocked with severe protests by the farmers along with severe law and order issues in the state. Within weeks of Congress coming to power in the state, there has been a series of murders of BJP and RSS workers in the state raising concerns about the issue of law and order in the state.

The government soon after assuming power in Madhya Pradesh had set in new conditions to waive-off farms loans contrary to its earlier promise of unconditional loan waiver. In addition to this, 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.

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.

Colour TVs and grinders are passé, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik now introduces foreign trips

Sambit Nayak
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Colour TVs and grinders are passé, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik now introduces foreign trips

20 years of rule and still going strong. We hear that a lot about Naveen Patnaik, don’t we? If political commentators are to be believed, he is going to sweep 2019 as well and return to power for another term. How one wishes that Naveen Patnaik himself was as confident as the political commentators are, about his fate in the upcoming elections. His actions surely don’t project a very confident and laid back Naveen Patnaik that we were used to in previous elections, including 2014 when Modi wave was at its peak.

In last few months he has launched a slew of projects which enables him to literally distribute cash among beneficiaries of various societal class including farmers, youth, unemployed, senior citizens to name a few. This blatant appeasement of voters is coming at the cost of crippling state treasury while flouting rule and statutes.

One such scheme for farmers is Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA). Lord Jagannath is also popularly called Kalia in Odisha owning to his Black colour. This scheme is seen as a more prudent replacement of the otherwise ill visioned loan waiver scheme. Under this scheme, the state government will provide an assistance of Rs 12,000 to 15,000 in cash annually to disadvantaged and economically backward farmers. The budgetary requirement for this scheme is around 3000 crore a year.

To fund his populist scheme, Naveen Patnaik’s government has recently withdrawn 735 crore rupees from state contingency funds.

Under article 267(2) of the constitution, contingency fund can only be used for “unforeseen events”. Regular government schemes aren’t unforeseen events by any definition. Whether this order will stand constitutional scrutiny or not remains to be seen.

The government has also started a group of youth volunteers called Biju Yuva Vahini – BYV. As per the official vision statement of the organisation, it aims to “Channelize the immense energy of the youth of Odisha towards Nation-Building Activities”. However, it has been in news for all the wrong reasons since its inception. It has been alleged that the members of Biju Yuva Vahini work as paid mercenaries of BJD to carry out attacks on its political adversaries, starting from Kharabela Swain to Jay Panda.

CAG has pulled up Naveen’s government over such reckless spending and has refrained it from spending money on BYV pending CAG audit.

BYV is a group of volunteers chosen by Department of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha. The selection process isn’t very transparent and is left to the whims of the ruling party. The group gets funding from the government for various activities as well as routine office expenditure. It also gets a fixed sum of 1.5 lakh rupees a year for each block to carry out sports and community activities.

Biju Yuva Vahini is a non-government body where the members will be chosen by government officers with no formal mechanism of enforcing transparency and accountability and will be given money to carry out their daily and annual affair from state coffers.

If that wasn’t ridiculous enough, read on. Recently, an order was issued from Sambalpur Collector to all BDOs of Sambalpur district asking them to mandatorily register at least 5 members from each BYV unit for a mega blood donation drive to be held on 23rd January. If that’s not all, it also asks them to identify 2 BYV members from each unit, who will be sent to Singapore on an all expense paid trip from state coffers. Grinder, colour TV and laptops are passé now. A foreign trip is the new ‘in’ thing.

But the key difference here is, instead of party fund, taxpayers money is being used for these doles-for-vote schemes. If pollsters and commentators are to be believed, Naveen Patnaik is all set to return to power in 2019. He is crippling state finance to a state beyond repair where he has to withdraw money from the contingency fund to finance government schemes while the government has all the money to send random NGO people on paid foreign trips. All this while, a major talking point of the government has been that we are a poor state and the centre must give us “Special Category Status”.

Copybook example of how to play by books yet use state machinery for the unofficial election campaign. Naveen Patnaik has surely learnt a lesson or two from Indira Gandhi’s Jeep incident.

Absurdity apart, one wonders how can BDO or any government officer mandatorily enrol people for a blood donation drive. Maybe, on Netaji’s birthday, CM took the clarion call of Netaji to a new level. “Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe Singapore ka ticket dunga“.

Congress breaks ties with Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, to go alone in upcoming elections

OpIndia Staff
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Congress breaks ties with Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, to go alone in upcoming elections

Days after the exhibition of strength at Kolkata rally, the Mahagatbandhan alliance seems to be failing in Andra Pradesh as Congress party has decided to go without the Telegu Desam Party in the upcoming elections. The state has 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and will witness state elections concurrently with Lok Sabha elections.

According to reports, AICC general secretary and person-in-charge of the State Oommen Chandy declared the party’s decision a day after holding deliberations with President Rahul Gandhi. He said that 200 convenors of the constituencies and the State executive committee members will converge and discuss future party prospects in Vijayawada, on 31st January. The former Kerela Cheif Minister has also expressed hope that party will not have a tough time finding candidates to filed in elections and said that there are plenty of candidates willing to fight.

The party, according to Oommen Chandy, will go to elections with the promise of Special Category Status to state. According to him, it will one of the first decisions taken by the party, if they are voted to power.

The cracks in the alliance of TDP-Congress had surfaced after the debacle in the last assembly elections of Telangana. Both the parties had cobbled up an alliance with Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI), to combat the incumbent Telangana Rashtra Samithi CM KC Rao. The alliance, named Prajakutami, had failed miserably with Congress getting 19 seats out of 100 it had contested, and TDP getting relegated to two seats. The other alliance partners had drawn a blank. Due to this, CM KC Rao was back to the throne with a thumping majority of 88 seats.

The Congress party’s senior cadre had expressed disenchantment with TDP and had warned party against contesting with them again in future. The senior leaders were of the opinion that, if the party had gone alone in the state, it would have secured more seats. The damage according to the party, came because the alliance with TDP betrayed anti-Telangana sentiments, as TDP was against the very formation of the state. However, the TDP was against breaking up of any alliance and had cited show of strength of opposition leaders at the swearing-in ceremony of Congress leader at Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as a reason to further strengthen the alliance and fight together.

The Mahagatbnadhan dreams of Congress have failed to materialise not only in Andhra Pradesh but also in other states. The recent announcement of the alliance between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had brought bad news for Congress as it was kept at bay with mere two seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli. Congress had later announced that it will field candidates in all seats of UP.

BSP has also announced that in Madhya Pradesh, it will contest all the Lok Sabha seats by its own without Congress. In Bihar too, the Rashtriya Janta Dal leaders have expressed discontent with Congress, after the latter decided to induct ‘tainted leaders’ like Pappu Yadav, Lovely Anand and Anant Singh into Congress.

The Andra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has been at the forefront of forming an Anti-Modi alliance in the country. He had even invited his arch-nemesis Telangana CM KC Rao, to come on board and fight BJP, rather than put efforts to cobble up a Thrid-Front or Federal Front which is free of both Congress and BJP.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy will organize a state-wide bus yatra in the month of February, to kick-start the campaign. The yatra will be held in all the 13 districts of the state.

After CJI Gogoi, Justice Sikri recuses himself from plea against appointment of interim CBI Director

OpIndia Staff
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After CJI Gogoi, Justice Sikri recuses himself from plea against appointment of interim CBI Director

After CJI Ranjan Gogoi had recused himself from hearing the Common Cause petition against the appointment of Nageshwar Rao as interim director as CBI, Justice AK Sikri has also recused himself from the matter. The matter will now be heard by a different bench on Friday.


Advocate for the petitioner, Dushyant Dave, was not pleased with the further delay and appeared to lash out at Justice Sikri. He stated that there was an impression that the Court does not wish to hear the matter and suggested that the Justices could have recused themselves earlier.


Dave also expressed frustration towards the Court for what he felt was felicitating the ouster of Alok Verma.


Common Cause, an NGO that is eligible to receive donations from abroad, has been at the heart of the battle within the CBI. As we have reported earlier, the NGO had filed a PIL against the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Special Director of the CBI. A PIL was also filed by the NGO against the Central Vigilance Commission and Central Government’s decision to divest Alok Verma of powers as CBI Director.

CBI registers FIR, raids Videocon headquarters in money siphoning case involving ex ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar’s husband

OpIndia Staff
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CBI registers FIR, raids Videocon headquarters in money siphoning case involving ex ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar’s husband

The Central Bureau of Investigation has conducted raids at Videocon headquarters in Mumbai and Aurangabad offices in loan case related to ex ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar’s husband, Deepak Kochhar. As per reports, the agency has turned its preliminary enquiry (PE) in which it was probing alleged nexus between Deepak Kochhar and Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot. The offices of NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Deepak Kochhar, are also reportedly being raided.

The CBI is yet to confirm whether Chanda Kochhar has been named in the FIR or not. Last year in October, Kochhar stepped down as ICICI Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

The issue first came to light when it was reported that In December 2008, Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Ltd set up a joint venture (JV) with Deepak Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar’s husband. In an investigative report by the Indian Express, it was brought to light that Venugopal Dhoot, after setting up a JV with Deepak Kochhar, issued the company a 64 crore loan through one of his fully owned entities and then proceeded to transfer the ownership of the JV to a trust headed by Deepak Kochhar. The transfer of ownership was done at just Rs 9 lakhs.

The report further revealed that the ownership transfer happened just six months after the Videocon group was issued a 3,250 crore loan from ICICI Bank Ltd. Almost 86% (2,810 crores) of that loan remains unpaid and it was declared an NPA in 2017.

The ICICI Bank in a press release has denied any quid pro quo or conflict of interest in case of the loan Videocon Group and the bank holds faith in its MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and the alleged irregularities are only an attempt to malign the image of the bank.

In another press statement, the Chairman of the ICICI Bank MK Sharma revealed that Chanda Kochhar was, in fact, part of the panel that approved the 3,250 crore loan to Videocon but there was no conflict of interest involved.

In December 2008, Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot had set up NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd. Dhoot (through family members) held 50% while Deepak and his relatives held 50% of it. In2009, Dhoot resigned as director of NuPower and transferred his shares to Kochhar for 2.5 lakhs. In March 2010, NuPower received a 64 Crores loan from Supreme Energies (owned 99.9% by Dhoot). Supreme Energy then, through a series of transfer of shares became the owner of 94.99% owner NuPower while the rest of the shares remained with Deepak Kochhar. Dhoot then transferred all his holdings in Supreme Energy to his associate MC Punglia who eventually transferred them to Pinnacle Energy, a trust where Kochhar was the Managing Trustee. The cost of the total transaction was just 9 lakhs.

The transactions are now under scanner as it raises several questions of conflict of interest on the part of ICICI Bank and the Videocon conglomerate. The other shareholders in NuPower were Deepak Kochhar’s father and Chanda Kochhar’s brother’s wife.

India Today journalist caught ‘directing’ Congress workers to appear excited about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

OpIndia Staff
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India Today journalist caught ‘directing’ Congress workers to appear excited about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

The harmonious relationship between the Congress party and the mainstream media of the country is not a hidden secret anymore. Congress party with its media ecosystem seems to have managed the issues extremely well in both creating and sustaining narratives for decades now.

An event that took place on Wednesday at Prayagraj soon after the announcement of the decision of Congress party to appoint Priyanka Gandhi as the in-charge of the party in Uttar Pradesh-East, will cause dismay regarding the nature of propaganda media houses resort for setting a narrative in favour of a political party, who otherwise laments on the issue of shrinking space for independent journalism in the country.

Mausami Singh, a reporter of India Today group was present at Anand Bhavan to record the celebratory events of Congress workers to welcome the joining of Priyanka Gandhi as the UP East in charge. However, in a video which has gone viral now, it can be seen that the journalist was orchestrating the event all along in order to create a narrative of excitement.

In a series of videos, a Twitter user with the handle @OkiaTataBye has recounted the scenes at an event that was purposefully staged so that it could be broadcasted in the media to sustain a narrative. The social media user who was at the spot claimed that few supporters belonging to the Congress party were chanting slogans “Priyanka Gandhi Zindabad” after it was announced that she would be joining politics ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

However, Mausami Singh and the camera crew did not bother to record the initial celebratory event held by those few Congress workers present as there were few other media persons present at the spot. The user claimed that once other mediapersons left the spot, Mausami Singh directed the Congress supporters to once again express their views on Priyanka Gandhi’s decision to join electoral politics while directing them to chant slogans too.


Sharing the images and videos of the event, the social media user went on to say that Mausami Singh was actually managing the entire event to make it more presentable. Shockingly, in the video, it can be clearly seen that Mausami Singh was indeed instructing those Congress workers to make certain statements to the media. The social media user further added that Mausami Singh had successfully managed to bring in some more crowd, especially women to the spot, who claimed to be Congress party workers.


The most bizarre part of the event was that the India Today reporter was caught red-handed on the tape while instructing and signalling the Congress workers to chant slogans while in the middle of a live reportage. Mausami Singh, in a live show, went on to falsely claim that they are was huge excitement among party workers following the decision of Congress President Rahul Gandhi to induct her sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into the party.

The reporter can even be seen making the persons present chant and rehearse the slogans before she went on to report.


The live video, telecasted on the India Today news channel had carried a story as against the real incidents that occurred at the spot. The behind-the-scenes video confirms that the whole incident was staged to a large extent.

Here is the video that was telecast live on the India Today news channel:


The journalist in question later tried to defend herself by saying they were not Congress workers but the ‘people of Prayagraj’ and she was not feeding them words but was telling them what Rahul Gandhi had to say about it.


This is not the first time that the India Today reporter Mausami Singh has indulged in behaviour raising questions on the standards of journalism practised nowadays. In 2017, Mausami Singh had gone to the extent of shielding Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar who had not only abused and misbehaved with the Republic reporter but she had also prevented a reporter belonging to rival Republic TV from doing his duty. In a viral video, Mausami Singh was seen taking the side of Mani Shankar Aiyar and asking the fellow journalist not to ‘peddle his agenda’ there.

Farmers protest against Rahul Gandhi for the Samrat Cycle ‘land grab’ case by Rajiv Gandhi Trust

OpIndia Staff
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Farmers protest against Rahul Gandhi for the Samrat Cycle ‘land grab’ case by Rajiv Gandhi Trust

Rahul Gandhi has been indulging in shrill rhetoric as far as the rights of farmers go. He has been constantly cornering Prime Minister Modi, alleging that the Modi government has not done enough for the farmers despite Rahul Gandhi’s promises failing spectacularly in the states where Congress is now in power.

A scathing indictment of Rahul Gandhi’s utter failure in Amethi and a reminder of how hollow his supposed concern for India’s farmers really came yesterday when the farmers in Amethi protested against Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

A group of farmers from the Shahgarh area of Amethistaged a demonstration in Gauriganj against the Congress Party ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s arrival in Amethi on Wednesday. Reportedly, the farmers were protesting against Congress and Rahul Gandhi for the party’s failure to restart the Samrat Cycle factory. The protests were staged in front of Samrat Cycle factory.

Sanjay Singh, a farmer from Amethi told news agency ANI while protesting, “He should go back to Italy. He does not deserve to be here. Rahul has grabbed our land.”

Sanjay Singh also reportedly said, “Rahul Gandhi had promised us that the factory would start but it has not. He seems to have no intention of returning our land but we will not let that happen”.

The Samrat Cycle factory has an interesting past and is one case that perhaps signifies how the Gandhi family extracts its pound of flesh from the very people who elect them.

The Samrat Cycle factory was inaugurated by Rajiv Gandhi when he was the Member of Parliament from Amethi. UPSIDC had leased 65.57 acres of land to Samrat Cycle factory of the Jain brothers in 1986. However, the company, for some reason, did not take off and when the company was closed down, the Debts Recovery Tribunal got it auctioned in 2014 at Rs. 20.10 crore to recover the loan.

The Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust paid stamp duty of Rs. 1,50,000 and purchased the land that was being auctioned. In 2015, Court held that the land was never owned by Samrat Cycles and, in fact, was on a lease and hence, could not be sold to Rajiv Gandhi Trust Foundation. The ownership was reverted to UPSIDC. The court held that it was probably a clerical error but also ordered a probe to find out if the land was recorded in the name of Samrat Cycles as a result of forgery. Rajiv Gandhi Trust was hence ordered to return the land to UPSIDC.

Merely two days before the Revenue Court ordered Rajiv Gandhi Trust to return the land to UPSIDC, Smriti Irani in Amethi had said, “65 acres of farmers’ land was acquired for (bicycle) factory in the 80s. Did the factory come up, did anyone get a job, what happened to the land? “No one can dare to speak but it is on stamp paper. The land was bought by Rajiv Gandhi Trust.”

One must recall that at the same time, Rahul Gandhi was drumming up rhetoric against the Land Acquisition Act saying that he will not allow anyone to take an inch of a farmers land. In fact, while Rajiv Gandhi Trust was being made to give the land back to UPSIDC, Rahul Gandhi was alleging that the Land Acquisition Act of the Modi government is the ‘biggest form of corruption’. While In Gujarat, he had said that he will change the Land Acquisition Act if voted to power.

While the protests in Amethi has reminded the people of the Samrat Cycle alleged land grab case all over again, the current promises to farmers by the Congress party have tanked just as spectacularly. Across Madhya Pradesh, many farmers have realised that only a few rupees of their loans have been waived off and several farmers have been committing suicide in MP after their ‘conditions apply’ loan waiver scheme.

In addition to this, 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.

Rahul Gandhi led Congress which came to power in various states promising several sops of loan waivers, high MSP to the farmers seems to have started on a very bad note. The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka has completely failed in waiving off farm loans which have resulted in two deaths of the farmers, while many farmers have also received repayment notices from the banks.

Madhya Pradesh: RSS worker found murdered in Ratlam, 4th BJP/RSS worker murdered in ten days

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: RSS worker found murdered in Ratlam, 4th BJP/RSS worker murdered in ten days

In a shocking incident, an RSS worker from Ratlam was found brutally murdered near his field. This is the fourth murder of members belonging to the BJP/RSS in Madhya Pradesh within a span of ten days. As per reports, RSS leader and farmer, Himmat Patidar, went to his farm where his body was found with his throat slit and his face burnt in an attempt to hide his identity.

As per the police, Patidar’s dead body was found at the early hours after he failed to return from his farm. The suspect has been identified and efforts are being made to arrest him. It is reported that it could be a matter of love affair gone wrong. It is also reported that a man from the village was found near the place where the dead body was found. That man is now reportedly missing from the village.

On Monday, Chhatrapal Singh Rawat, a BJP worker from Madhya Pradesh, was found murdered in Gwalior. Another BJP office-bearer, Magan Siddiqui was seriously injured after he was reportedly attacked in Jabalpur on Sunday. On Sunday, Balwadi BJP leader Manoj Thackeray was found murdered in a field after he had gone for a morning walk. Prior to that, Mandsaur BJP leader Prahlad Bandhwar was shot dead in full public view. On Sunday, a BJP leader Jitendra Soni of the Barwani district, his son Ravendra and two of his relatives were assaulted and robbed by unidentified persons near Charvi village, 30 km from the district headquarters.

There has been an increase in crimes against the BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh within a month of Congress coming to power.

AMU sends notices to students who organised Tiranga Yatra ahead of Republic Day in the University campus

OpIndia Staff
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AMU sends notices to students who organised Tiranga Yatra ahead of Republic Day in the University campus

The Aligarh Muslim University has issued show-cause notices to several students for organising a Tiranga Yatra in the University Campus on Tuesday. One of the students is Ajay Singh, the grandson of BJP MLA Dalveer Singh. According to the University administration, the students did not take permission before organising the bike rally.

The notice states that the students not only organised the rally without prior permission but also disturbed the ongoing classes. It further reads that the rally has created ‘fear among the bonafide students’ some anti-social elements and outsiders were allegedly invited in the rally.

The students have to submit their response by Wednesday failing which action would be taken against them. Professor Mohsin Khan, the proctor of the University said that the notice was issued to the students as they had organised the rally during teaching hours which caused a disturbance in the campus.

Also Read: Amu revokes the suspension of Kashmiri students accused of sedition, UP police seek inquiry report

On the contrary, the students have questioned the intention of the University administration for denying the permission to organise the Tiranga Yatra. Ajay Singh said that he had applied for the permission on January 19 but the administration did not respond.

“The proctor office has no objections when students protest and raise slogans in the campus against the killing of a terrorist in J&K, or burn papers after implementation of 10% reservation for economically backward. But they have a problem when we take out a Tiranga rally with slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai?” Singh was quoted by Times of India.

Reports stated that the yatra was organised to raise awareness about donating for the families of martyred soldiers through the mobile app.

Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into politics seems like a skit where people dress up as politicians for laughs

Abhishek Banerjee
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Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into politics seems like a skit where people dress up as politicians for laughs

In his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell describes what life will be like under the rule of Big Brother.

“always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. …. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.“

Orwell based his book on nightmarish visions about the future of the world under Communist dictatorships, which were rising in the 1940s.  The Congress party is not quite that. Rather, if you want a picture of the future under Congress, imagine a human face licking a boot – forever.

There is nothing quite like a Gandhi Dynasty surname to activate the “submission reflex” in circles of Lutyens’ Delhi. For at least 10 years now, journalists, academics and intellectuals have been talking about the supposed charisma, intelligence and political acumen of Priyanka Gandhi. Much of this felt like it was made up from thin air. Thus was born the myth of the “smarter Gandhi”.

It is impossible to know how much of this myth was cultivated by the Dynasty itself. And how much was cultivated by the same ecosystem journalists, academics and intellectuals anxious to obtain “insurance” against the failure of Rahul Gandhi?

But yesterday, the Congress appointed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Congress General Secretary of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. For the mythmakers of Indian journalism, the object of their worship was suddenly before them, available for public veneration.

Also Read: As Priyanka Gandhi takes charge of UP East, here is all you need to know about her colourful past. 

And what a show they put on! Showering her with attributes: classy, smart, charismatic, aggressive, Congress’ Brahmastra and so on. Some wanted to know if this changes the game in Uttar Pradesh, paving the way for a Congress sweep. Others decided to go one up and ask if her entry will change the election across the country.

Some wanted to ask who the BJP will deploy to counter the influence of Priyanka Gandhi: will it be Smriti Irani? Or Yogi Adityanath? Or Amit Shah? Or PM Modi himself?

Others wanted to know which ‘card’ she will play: the victim card, the likeness to Indira card, the Brahmin card.

The only things Congress is playing are its Lutyens’ darbaris. Which is why the political launch of Priyanka Gandhi feels like a parody of Indian politics. Something like a comedy skit on a late-night show, where characters dress up as politicians for laughs.

How else do you explain the media falling all over the supposed “likeness to Indira Gandhi”? A likeness to someone famous as a ticket to political success? This does not even help in the film industry. They expect it to work in politics?

Are we supposed to take this seriously? Is this for real?

Read Also: Pliant Media jubilant on the arrival of another non-achiever dynast in politics

As I said, this feels like a parody. Almost like the Dynasty is laughing in our faces, telling us that we as a nation will accept almost anybody as long as she bears their famous surname. Not so easy.

Last night, one prominent TV channel actually listed Priyanka’s “connect with women voters” as one of her many strengths. It is hard to see this as anything other than an insult to the intelligence of Indian women.

At best, this is funny. At worst, this is poking young India in the eye, telling us that we may have superpower aspirations, but they keep expecting us to submit to the same old zamindars.

Congress workers, nevertheless, will have an extra spring in their step. And we will have another reason to laugh at them. Actually, feel sorry for them. Every human life is unique, full of possibilities for achievement and advancement. How sad that actual people would find their lives at a point where the only light in their eyes is loyalty to a dynasty … and the heirs and successors of that dynasty their only hope.

You could try to say the same about Lutyens’ editors, academics and intellectuals, but at least those folks are doing well … or at least expecting to do well for their labours. You have to feel sorry for the Congress worker.

While this skit from the Congress Party may make waves in media circles, Indian politics will continue as usual. The best this can do for Congress is give Rahul ji a face-saving excuse to leave Amethi (which looks increasingly unwinnable for him) and scour the country for a safe seat somewhere else.

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