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Saudi Arabia pulls down Netflix comedy show criticising its role in the Jamal Khashoggi murder

OpIndia Staff
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Saudi Arabia pulls down Netflix comedy show criticising its role in the Jamal Khashoggi murder

The media-service providing platform Netflix has been caught in on outrage after it pulled down an episode of a comedy show, critical of Saudi Arabia’s crown for his alleged role in journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder inside consulate in Turkey.

Three months ago, the world was rocked by the disappearance of Washington Post’s journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was living in a self-imposed exile in the USA. According to reports, he was assassinated by Saudi government officials, inside the Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was a marked critic of the Saudi regime, for its human rights violations and for its role in the devasting civil war of Yemen. His assassination was seen as an assault on free speech. Initially, Saudi had denied allegation levied by Turkey of been complicit in the crime. But, subsequently, Saudi admitted that the journalist had been killed in fist-fight inside the consulate. Central Intelligence Agency of USA also backed Turkey’s allegations and contradicted Saudi’s claim that murder was spontaneous and not pre-meditated. CIA also added that crown prince himself was involved in the murder and privy of the events.

Standup comedian Hasan Minhaj, an American of Indian descent, was critical of the Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin-Salman in his show the Patriot Act. He mocked Saudi’s dispensation, of mass human rights abuses by its military campaigns in the Gulf region since 2015.

Hasan said that Saudi’s Mission in 2030, which is apparently aimed at diversifying Saudi’s oil-dependent economy,  is actually aimed at coercion, detention of people critical about the regime. He said that by 2030, Saudi would have executed around 2000 people. He also talked about Yemen which is caught in the middle of the proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and its rival Iran. He said that devastation of Yemen started with the rise of Prince Salman, and cited reports which claimed that so-far Saudi coalition has launched 18,000 airstrikes on Yemen, aggravating the civil war.

“At one point they were saying he died in a fist fight, Jackie Chan-style. They went through so many explanations. The only one they didn’t say was that Khashoggi died in a free solo rock-climbing accident,” the comedian mocked Saudi Arabia’s confessions.
Netflix has cited Saudi’s law, that they are bound to comply with.
“We strongly support artistic freedom worldwide and only removed this episode in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request — and to comply with local law,”  Netflix was quoted by media. Reports add that Saudi has used a cyber-crime law that states that producing, transmitting or storing material violation public order, religious value and privacy is a punishable offence in prison.
Hasan, in his removed episode, also accused the USA of turning a blind eye towards Saudi deeds. President Trump had contradicted his own state agency’s claim about Prince Salman’s involvement in the assassination, he said. He also urged them to sever all diplomatic ties with the Islamic country. He also added that media often gets distracted by the HR drama of Saudi, of diluting its laws and providing freedom to women of the country.
The removed episode is still available for streaming on Youtube and Netflix outside Saudi.

The move by Netflix has been widely condemned by Human Right group, for bowing down to Saudi and curbing free speech. This is not the first time that Saudi dispensation is condemned for censoring speech and taking action against them.

Reporters Without Borders has ranked the Islamic country on number 169th out of 180 for press freedom.

Kerala: While Communist government organizes Women’s Wall, women molested by communist ‘activists’ fear for their lives

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: While Communist government organizes Women’s Wall, women molested by communist ‘activists’ fear for their lives

A Christmas Carol singers’ group, which has women and children, were forced to take refuge in a Church after they were allegedly attacked by DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) ‘activists’ on the 23rd of December in Pathamuttam near Kottayam in Kerala.

As per reports, men associated with the DYFI, allegedly went berserk and damaged equipment at the Church, destroyed the food, targeted four nearby houses and molested the women. While DYFI claims to be an independent youth organisation, many CPI(M) leaders including former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya were part of the DYFI.

Seven people were arrested in connection with the incident, including six DYFI ‘activists’. Those arrested were later granted bail. And now, the people are scared of further attacks and hence, continue to remain at the Church, fearing for their lives.

Johnson PC, committee secretary of the St Paul’s Anglican Church, where the victims had taken refuge, told TNM, “On December 23, a 45 member Carol team was visiting homes in the area. But when they reached one of the homes, a group of DYFI workers allegedly joined the team and started calling them ugly words without provocation. The DYFI workers began harassing the girls in the group, and it was alleged that girls of the Carol group were molested. When we questioned their actions, they attacked us and destroyed our instruments. Then we informed the police, and they reached the spot and directed us to stop carolling, and so we returned to the church.”

He continued, “Food was arranged for the carolling group members inside the church. When we reached the church and started to distribute the food to the kids, a fifty-member group of DYFI workers attacked my home. At that time, only my wife Lincy and our kid were at home. But they brutally attacked her. Then they allegedly entered the church, attacked the members and destroyed church property, and our food. As part of the attack, many members of the church were injured. One of our church members, Yamiya C Thankachen, was severally injured in the attack. Later, the police reached the spot and admitted the injured members to the hospital.”

The National Commission for Minorities directed the Kerala chief secretary and the Director General of Police to ensure the safety of the Christians and enable their return as they continued to be in the Church out of fear even after eight days.

In a bitter instance of irony, while the women after being molested by alleged DYFI ‘activists’ continued to fear for their lives, the Communist government in Kerala was busy organizing a ‘Women’s Wall‘ for ‘Gender Justice’ to facilitate the desecration of the Sabarimala Temple.

The Jacobite Syrian Church also extended its support to the Kerala government in its bid to desecrate Sabarimala. The Church was busy gathering 1 lakh women for the desecration of Sabarimala while certain Christian women claimed to be fearful of their lives due to DYFI ‘activists’.

Churches, in recent times, have had a very complicated relationship with women and children to put it mildly. Therefore, it isn’t really surprising that they prioritized the desecration of Sabarimala over the plight of the women who claim to have been attacked and molested by DYFI ‘activists’.

Scores of women in Burkhas were also observed in the gathering. Amusingly enough, such commitment towards gender justice is hardly observed when it comes to the matter of Triple Talaq. Then, it becomes a matter of interference in the Islamic faith.

It appears that the Communist government did succeed in its endeavours. The Police is reported to have aided two women to enter the Temple violating the age-old tradition of Sabarimala.

UPI saw the highest number of transactions worth Rs 1 trillion in December 2018, reports NPCI

OpIndia Staff
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UPI saw the highest number of transactions worth Rs 1 trillion in December 2018, reports NPCI

The Unified Payments interface (UPI), the digital payment ecosystem which enables people to digitally send and receive money using their phones and a virtual private address, has seen tremendous growth in 2018.

The digital interface had received a massive push from the government after the landmark decision of demonetization was rolled out in November 2016.

Digital transactions using the UPI platform has consistently risen since then, especially in the last year. According to the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) report, December 2018, has witnessed a never before acceleration, achieving, around 620.17 million transactions worth Rs 1,02,594.82 crore. This is the highest number of transactions and amount recorded since the inception of UPI back in August 2016.

In August 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the UPI as a mobile-only digital payment platform for the monetary transaction using a two-factor authentication process. Users can transfer money either by using the mobile number or the virtual payment address.

In August 2016, when it was first launched, UPI saw transactions worth Rs 3.1 crores, the amount has increased to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in December 2018. The UPI platform saw transactions worth Rs 56,670 crore during the calendar year 2017, and in August 2018 alone, the amount transacted was Rs 54,212.26 crore.

In fact, the transactions through this platform have been steadily rising month after month.

Last year in June we reported how the BHIM-UPI had hit a record of 1 crore transactions in a day. In September 2018, the monthly transactions through UPI had crossed 400 million for the first time. Further, it crossed the 500 million mark for the first time in November 2018, a 9% increase in transaction volume, compared with 482.36 million transactions worth Rs 74,978.27 crore in October. And now, December has seen an 18 per cent rise in the total volumes of transactions as compared to November 2018.

Of the total UPI transactions in November, 17.35 million amounting to Rs 7,981.82 crore took place through the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) platform.

UPI is a payment system launched by the NPCI, the umbrella organisation for all retail payments in the country, which facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without requiring any detail of the beneficiary’s bank account.

UPI happens to be a payment method which is unique to India.

Transactions through the UPI received a major stimulus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BHIM app on December 30 2016. In fact, last year the BHIM app had gone international, after being launched by PM Modi in Singapore.

In the last year, the monthly UPI transaction volume has gone up by more than 2,000 per cent, according to NPCI data.

Till now, there have been more than 35.5 million downloads of the BHIM app on the Android platform and around 1.7 million on the iOS platform.

Interestingly, the number of banks going live on the UPI network has also increased steadily. From 21 banks in August 2016 to 68 in December 2017, until 2018, which saw as many as 129 banks going live on the UPI network.

Last year in order to make the platform more user-friendly NPCI introduced an upgraded version of UPI, the UPI 2.0. The new features, amongst other things, included an overdraft facility, enabling the customers to link their overdraft account to the UPI.

Rahul Gandhi refuses to authenticate the ‘Rafale tape’, brazens it out in the Parliament

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi refuses to authenticate the ‘Rafale tape’, brazens it out in the Parliament

During his speech in Lok Sabha today targetting the Narendra Modi government on the Rafale deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi attempted to bring in an alleged “doctored tape” claiming to be statements made by the senior BJP Goa minister on the issue of Rafale deal. He then brazened it out in the Parliament as soon as the speaker asked him to authenticate.

Rahul Gandhi, who has been caught several times for propagating lies and false data once again attempted to do so on the floor of the parliament and this time by referring to a “doctored tape” allegedly involving Health minister of Goa Vishwajit Rane. The tape consists of an alleged conversation where Rane tells the journalist that Manohar Parikar, the former Defence Minister of India and current Chief Minister of Goa says that he has the Rafale files “in his bedroom”. Vishwajit Rane had trashed the audio clip claiming it was doctored.

Rahul Gandhi tried to play the said audio tape, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to play it. However, Rahul Gandhi showing his sheer arrogance did not respect the Speaker’s instruction and kept on reading the script of the tape. Sumitra Mahajan, Lok Sabha Speaker, along with Union Minister Arun Jaitley insisted on Rahul Gandhi’s authentication of the tape before recording his statement in the house. But, Rahul Gandhi went on to brazen it out and started reading the alleged conversation.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had to repeatedly give instructions to Congress President on the etiquettes of the Parliament. Sumitra Mahajan had to tell Rahul multiple times to put on the headphones so that Congress President could hear what instructions she was giving to him. Cornered on facts, Congress started disrupting the debate and threw paper planes.

Goa Minister Rane and CM Parrikar rubbish Congress tape on Rafale, say it is doctored

OpIndia Staff
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Goa Minister Rane and CM Parrikar rubbish Congress tape on Rafale, say it is doctored

Health minister of Goa Vishwajit Rane has said that an audio tape released by the Congress party, containing his alleged conversation with a journalist, is doctored. The audio was of an alleged conversation where Rane tells the journalist that Manohar Parikar, the former Defence Minister of India and current Chief Minister of Goa says that he has the Rafale files “in his bedroom”. Rane was allegedly talking about the cabinet meeting of the Goa government a few days ago.

In the audio, the alleged voice of Rane tells the journalist that during the 3 hours long heated cabinet meeting, Goa chief minister Manohar Parikar had said ‘I have all the information of Rafale in my bedroom’. According to the allegations hurled by Congress, this was said by the CM to establish that nobody in the party leadership can touch him, and that’s why he is still the chief minister despite being ill.

In the audio recording that does not have any noise that is usually heard on taped phone calls, the alleged voice of Rane tells the journalist to crosscheck the incident with someone from the cabinet and make it a story.

Touting it as the biggest expose on the so-called Rafale scam, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala addressed the media and released the tape.

But now Vishwajit Rane has reacted to the audio saying it is doctored. He said that the Congress party has stooped so low that it has doctored a tape to create miscommunication between Cabinet and chief minister. He clarified that Parikar didn’t mention anything about Rafale or any such document.


Rane also informed that he has asked the CM to start a criminal investigation into the audio.

The Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parikar has also rubbished these motivated allegations. He has said that no such conversation came up during the cabinet meeting.


There are interesting facts regarding the tape itself. Firstly, the tape has no background noise which would be quintessential to a phone conversation being recorded. Secondly, this entire line of attack by Congress seems based on conjecture. Congress has provided no proof to back these assertions. There is no audio or video of Manohar Parrikar making these assertions or any other person corroborating these allegations.

The Congress has been targeting Parrikar over his ill-health for a while and this convenient “taped conversation” seems convenient. Also, it shows that this alleged ‘journalist’ was being fed a story that had no proof.

Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi himself had asserted earlier that Manohar Parrikar did not know about the “deal change” that was done by Prime Minister.


Now, Congress’ allegations seem rather hollow.

Before the recently concluded assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi used the alleged Rafale scam as one of the main weapons to target BJP, inventing one lies after another regarding the deal. After elections, the attacks had come down. But after extradition to AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel to India, and after he named “Mrs Gandhi” and “son of the Italian lady” to the investigators, the Congress party has once again started making allegations on Rafale as a counter-attack.

The destructive trio: Yashwant Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan move SC for review of Rafale judgement

OpIndia Staff
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The destructive trio: Yashwant Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan move SC for review of Rafale judgement

The trio of Prashant Bhushan, disgruntled BJP leader Arun Shourie and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha are back with a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking an open hearing on the Rafale deal despite Supreme Court giving a clean chit earlier in the Rafale case, reported Bar and Bench.

According to Bar and Bench, the trio has sought an open hearing in the Supreme Court claiming that the earlier Supreme judgement was based on “errors apparent on the face of the record” and sought to recall the order.

The petitioners claim that the Union government has ‘clearly misled the court’ by submitting false information. The petition further states that the Court has relied upon “false averments” to come to the conclusion that they have followed due process in the procurement of the 36 Rafale jets. We had busted these claims with a detailed article where the government had filed a correction in court asserting that the court misunderstood the government’s submissions in case of the CAG report. However, one must also remember that the SC independently verified the price details of the case and their verdict was not based on the CAG report at all.

On December 13, The Supreme Court in its judgement had dismissed all petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into the Rafale deal. The Court said that it has not found any material to show that there has been any commercial favouritism.

CJI Gogoi had stated that the perception of an individual cannot form the basis of interference. The Supreme Court dismissing the case and had clarified that the examination has been primarily from the point of the exercise of jurisdiction by this court under Article 32. The SC did not find it as a case for the court to scrutinise the process of acquisition.

Prashant Bhushan, a perpetual Modi hater and a self-proclaimed PIL activist is often known for filing frivolous PILs having wide-ranging consequences. He is also known for professing his love towards anti-national sentiments and in the past, he has stood in the support of terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Menon to save them from the death penalty.

Prashant Bhushan has been fighting the Narendra Modi government with various PILs intended to block various developmental policies. Recently, he had even filed a petition in the Supreme seeking a stay on the government’s decision to deport 7 illegal Rohingyas immigrants, who could have posed a huge national security risk for the country.

The Supreme Court has schooled Bhushan several times for his PILs, as recently CJI Ranjan Gogoi had warned Bhushan of misusing PILs and had stated that PILs are for poor after turning down one of his petitions. The conduct of Prashant Bhushan also led the Supreme Court to express grave concern over the rising misuse of PILs in its Judge Loya verdict.

Meanwhile, disgruntled BJP leader Arun Shourie and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha have been critical of the Narendra Modi after their aspirations of being relevant in the present regime turned sour. Interestingly, both Shourie and Sinha have been targetting Narendra Modi and has joined hands with left-wing and Congress supported forces against whom both Shourie and Sinha had fought ideological battles all their political life.

In a bid to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two BJP veterans have often expressed their desperation by seeking help from their ideological opponents. Former Union Minister Sinha had also created a massive controversy after he had attended a book release jointly authored by former Pakistan ISI chief Asad Durrani and former RAW chief A S Dulat. Asad Durrani was ISI chief in the 90s when Kashmir insurgency had just started.

No recital of Vande Mataram in MP secretariat under Congress rule, BJP protests

OpIndia Staff
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No recital of Vande Mataram in MP secretariat under Congress rule, BJP protests

In what can be described as a controversial move, the Congress government in the state of Madhya Pradesh led by Kamal Nath has rescinded a 13-year old tradition of singing Vande Mataram in Mantralaya on the 1st of every month. The move came on the first day of the New Year 2019. Speaking to the media, CM Kamal Nath stated that the order to sing Vande Mataram has been put on hold and a new form of the order is being drafted.

The tradition of singing Vande Mataram was instituted by Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s government 13 years ago. Under this, all the employees of the state secretariat gathered together on the first day of the month and sung Vande Mataram along with the national anthem. The current move by Kamal Nath to abolish the rendition of Vande Mataram has created another political debate over Congress’ duplicity and appeasement politics.

It is worth mentioning that during the election campaign, the Congress had promised in their manifesto to put a ban on government employees’ visiting Sangh shakhas. Congress had then also promised that if they are elected to power, they will ensure that government premises are not used for Sangh activities.

A video had also emerged in the run-up to the MP assembly elections in which Kamal Nath was seen allegedly advising Muslims to remain patient till the assembly elections and promising them that “we will deal with them later”. BJP spokespersons seemed to suggest that senior Congress leader Kamal Nath was talking about dealing with Hindus. In fact, former bureaucrat RVS Mani had earlier claimed that Kamal Nath had once said ‘people are willing to drink Rahul Gandhi’s urine’ while asking him to concoct the bogey of Hindu terror.

Kamal Nath’s move to abolish the practice of singing Vande Mataram has been fiercely criticised by the BJP. Former CM Shivraj Chouhan, who initiated the tradition under his regime, expressed his anguish over the issue and stated that he will be there to sing the national song with the public if Kamal Nath’s government is feeling ashamed to sing the national song.


Taking to Twitter, the former CM has stated that all BJP MLAs will gather to sing Vande Mataram in the premises of Vallabh Bhavan, the state secretariat building in Madhya Pradesh on January 7, on the first day of the next assembly session.

Modi Derangement Syndrome: 5 mind-numbingly silly tweets on the Prime Minister’s interview to ANI

OpIndia Staff
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Modi Derangement Syndrome: 5 mind-numbingly silly tweets on the Prime Minister’s interview to ANI

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an interview to Smita Prakash of ANI, where he was asked questions on a range of issues from the economy, dissatisfaction among the middle class, the farm loan waiver, the Ram Mandir, the Rafale Deal, the Surgical strikes and others.

Prakash was extremely professional and did not shy away from asking difficult questions to Modi as we enter the election year. Some people, however, reached the conclusion that the interviewer went too easy on the Prime Minister, unlike Rajdeep Sardesai who questioned Sonia Gandhi regarding her activities in the kitchen.

Some believe that Narendra Modi’s remarks confirmed their own opinions although it’s quite unclear how.


The primary contention in Vij’s article is that Hindutva will not be the central narrative of BJP’s campaign going into the General Elections. Vij claims that there will be a lot of Hindutva but it won’t be central to the campaign. He also asserted that the Prime Minister has somehow ‘given up’ on the Ram Temple.

The Prime Minister’s comment, however, was quite the opposite. He asserted his intent unequivocally. He even said that he will think about getting an ordinance only after the legal process was over. By his comment, one can undoubtedly conclude that Ram Temple is an important issue for the BJP and the PM has committed to do whatever is necessary to ensure that within the constitutional bounds, the Ram Temple is built. Shivam Vij perhaps reached this convoluted conclusion simply owing to his hatred for Modi and the fear, that if the Ram Temple is built, Congress would stand to lose.

Pratik Sinha from Altnews claimed that the interviewer had prompted the Prime Minister on a particular instance.


If this self-proclaimed fact-checker had watched the entire interview, he would have known that the Prime Minister had earlier in the interview called Congress a ‘soch’ without any prompt from the interviewer. Also, it is normal for an interviewer, in a matter of conversation, to mention what they might think the interviewee is going to say.

Sagarika Ghose believes that the interview was a soliloquy.


Sanjukta, the ‘feminist’, called Smita Prakash a ‘presstitute’, a term we were told by feminists was extremely abusive and vulgar.


Another ‘liberal’ claimed that Narendra Modi would justify Sati since he defended the tradition of Sabarimala.


Much like liberals in the United States who are suffering from the ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, Indian liberals are suffering from the ‘Modi Derangement Syndrome’ where they find faults with anything and everything that Modi does regardless of the merit of their arguments.

100 days of Ayushman Bharat: 6.85 lakh patients availed free treatment so far

OpIndia Staff
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100 days of Ayushman Bharat: 6.85 lakh patients availed free treatment so far

Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY), one of the most ambitious schemes of the Modi government, has completed 100 days on Monday, since its launch in September 2018.

In this span of time, under the AB-PMJAY, which is being considered the world’s largest public health care scheme, over 6,95,310 patients were treated in various empanelled private and public hospitals across India. Around 5.1 lakh claims have been availed of the scheme, for which payment has been released.

Soon after the scheme was launched in September 2018, the usual Modi-haters had latched on to the opportunity to spread misinformation about the scheme, but, the splendid success of this endeavour will now probably force them to eat their own words.

The Narendra Modi’s flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, aims to provide health insurance coverage to more than 10 crore poor families in the country. As per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data, 8.03 crore rural households and another 2.33 crore urban households will be covered under this scheme.

Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, calling this scheme a ‘game changer’ said, as many as 6.85 lakh poor patients have been provided free hospital treatment in the first 100 days of the launch of the programme. He further said, on an average 5,000 claims are being settled every day since its rollout on September 23, 2018.

In a Facebook post titled ‘100 days of Ayushman Bharat’, Jaitley anticipated that as awareness of the scheme increases over the years, almost 1 crore families will start benefitting every year.

“We are pleased with the initial momentum of PMJAY. We are now focusing on deepening the scheme in “greenfield” states, ensuring that no fraud or abuse takes place, assuring the quality of services and keeping our Information Technology (IT) system safe and robust,” said Indu Bhushan, CEO, AB-PMJAY.

“Greenfield States are those, where there was no health insurance scheme earlier such as Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Haryana, (Madhya Pradesh (MP), Himachal Pradesh (HP), Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand,” he said.

Currently, around 16000 government, as well as private hospitals, are amongst the enlisted hospitals, which are also expected to increase with time.

On December 2, the first open heart surgery was successfully facilitated under ‘Modicare’, a scheme which has been receiving admiration from all over the world. The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat and called it a “great commitment”.

Along with this, various other scheme’s launched by the Modi government had grabbed appreciation from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which had praised the Modi government for its efforts to curb air pollution through one of its flagship schemes of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which aims to safeguard the health of women and children by providing them with clean cooking fuel.

The WHO had also reported that the Swachh Bharat Grameen mission has been able to prevent over 3 lakh deaths due to sanitation-related infectious diseases during 2014 and 2018.

Congress’ duality: Mallikarjun Kharge bats for HAL after expressing ‘serious concern’ over HAL’s efficiency

OpIndia Staff
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Congress’ duality: Mallikarjun Kharge bats for HAL after expressing ‘serious concern’ over HAL’s efficiency

The Rafale deal has been in the middle of a political storm for the past few months. With Congress and Rahul Gandhi disregarding even the Supreme Court verdict that gave a clean chit to the Rafale deal, the mudslinging that has become synonymous with Rahul Gandhi’s brand of politics is far from over.

In an interview Prime Minister Modi gave to Smita Prakash of ANI yesterday, he had mentioned how Congress is playing with National security by playing politics over Rafale. Continuing that process, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, in his interview to Hindustan, has said that once Congress comes to power, the offset contract will be given to the public sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as that is good for the country.

Ironically, a few weeks back, a Parliamentary panel headed by Kharge had expressed ‘serious concerns‘ over HAL’s ‘failure’ to timely provide the required number of Tejas aircraft to the Airforce, which according to the panel would adversely affect the Indian Airforce’s combat capabilities.

It appears that even after the Supreme Court asserting that the off-set partner option was solely Dassault’s and the French President himself confirming the same, Congress plans to continue its rhetoric hoping their allegations stick.

Without offering any solution to how the Congress aims to improve the efficiency of the state-run company, Kharge accused the current Modi government of siding with a private company instead of HAL, which Kharge-led panel feels is not equipped to fulfil the requirements.

Back in 2015 also Dassault had also expressed its inhibition in partnering with HAL, flagging its concern about the technical inadequacies of HAL. An April 2013 article in India Today, from the time UPA 2 was in power, states how ‘HAL’s poor track record overshadowed IAF plans to buy the Rafale jets’.

The Congress seems to have developed renewed confidence in HAL just to take potshots at the Modi government even after concluding in a PAC report that HAL’s capabilities are not up to the mark.

With this new-found confidence, one must ask then, why Congress chose to purchase VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland when they could have just asked HAL to manufacture the choppers?

The Congress-led UPA in February 2010 got into a deal with AgustaWestland to purchase 12 AW101 choppers for the Indian Air Force. These helicopters were to be used for flying the VIPs like the Prime Minister, President, Congress President Sonia Gandhi etc. In 2004, when the UPA government took over, the flying altitude capability was reduced from 6,000-metre altitude to 4,500-metre altitude, expanding the scope for eligible bidders. Six years after a change in these conditions, AgustaWestland emerged as a winner. In 2013, the first charges of corruption had emerged and Congress had to put the deal on hold, which was eventually cancelled in January 2014, few weeks before the country went for elections. This scrapping of the deal led to an estimated loss of Rs. 2,666 crore to the exchequer.

Christian Michel, who is the alleged middleman, has started to spill the beans. He has named Ahmed Patel, ‘Mrs Gandhi’ and ‘Italian lady’s son R’. One wonders if the VVIP chopper contract was given to AgustaWestland because there was more scope for quintessential Congress scam or because Congress did not trust the capabilities of HAL even then?

Mallikarjun Khare, who is a known close confidante of the Gandhi family has displayed yet again how Congress is willing to play with national security if it means the narrative thereof would help them politically. The Rafale deal is an important one for India and the importance of it was noted even by the Supreme Court. It is an established fact that Dassault then did not want to partner with HAL. It is also an established fact the Kharge himself, as the head of the PAC has remarked on the inefficiency of HAL. For Congress to bring this issue up over and over again could mean only 2 things. Firstly, it believes that it has a fighting chance in 2019 only if they somehow create the perception that PM Modi is no better than Congress when it comes to shady defence deals, secondly, it believes that repeating a lie a thousand times might turn it into the truth since they underestimate the intelligence of the country and its citizens.

The only thing the cacophony around Rafale proves is that Congress is equally dangerous when it is out of power as when they are in power.

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