Home Blog Page 6806

IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘hate tracker’ tries to show they are ‘neutral’, exposes their anti-Hindu bias further

OpIndia Staff
-
0
IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘hate tracker’ tries to show they are ‘neutral’, exposes their anti-Hindu bias further

On 31st October, Washington Post (WaPo) had published a report titled ‘Rising Hate in India’ based on shockingly biased and faulty data compiled by IndiaSpend.com. Many pointed out how WaPo was furthering a partisan agenda.

Swati Goel Sharma, a journalist associated with Swarajya magazine, called out the selective data on communal violence in India, used by IndiaSpend. She demonstrated, with painstaking detail, how the data used by IndiaSpend was full of bias and cherrypicked to suit a particular narrative.

When Swati called out Washington Post on Twitter, she was referred to as a ‘troll’.


After prevaricating for days, IndiaSpend tried to explain their bias and responded to the acts of omissions and commissions Swati had pointed out. However, this attempt ended up exposing IndiaSpend further.

Swati, on Twitter, gave a point-by-point rebuttal of IndiaSpend’s attempted explanation, which showed how this supposed data-driven journalism attempt was nothing but a propagandist approach to further a communal agenda.


Swati points out that in April 2018, when 38-year old Dalit man Vidharam Katheria was bludgeoned to death by a group of Muslim men over a family dispute, it was not included in IndiaSpend’s ‘hate tracker’ because there was no ‘evidence’ the crime was motivated due to victim’s religion. However, in September 2018 when one Azhar Khan was beaten up for fishing near a temple, it gets included as a hate crime even though the motive were nowhere religious. Additionally, as per IndiaSpend’s data, the perpetrators of the crime was unknown.

In January 2018, the severed head of one Palakuri Ramesh Goud was found on a flagpost near a mosque, in an area thickly populated by Muslims. His body was traced about a kilometre away. This does not get included in the ‘hate tracker’ because ‘police did not find any communal angle to crime’. However, when Junaid was killed over seat dispute in train, it gets included in ‘hate crime’ despite the fact that the court had given a verdict that it was not a hate crime.

In August this year, one Babu Khan was beaten up in a mosque for participating in the Kanwar Yatra. But it was not included in ‘hate tracker’ because the religion of victim as well as perpetrators is Muslim. However, when a Dalit man was allegedly slapped and harassed for converting to Islam by Hindus, it is still a hate crime.

These are just three examples. Swati’s entire thread gives a point-to-point rebuttal exposing IndiaSpend’s anti-Hindu bias which it camouflages under the veil of neutrality.

This is not the only time propaganda websites have shown their anti-Hindu bias in their supposed objective analysis. We had earlier reported how Hindustan Times had also launched a biased ‘hate tracker’ which had similar biased reporting and factual flaws. IndiaSpend’s ‘fact-checker’ website also launched a ‘tracker’ which tried to track ‘cow-related’ crimes‘. That data was also equally flawed and biased.

Abhishek Banerjee, a columnist with OpIndia, had written about how IndiaSpend have regularly indulged in peddling this narrative. They had earlier filed a report how 87 people had died in cow-related violence since 2010, of which 97% of the crimes happened after Modi came to power. The above ‘interactive fact-check’ map is an extension of the same report’. As can be seen even then that their ‘research’ was based on ‘Google search’ with particular keywords.

Molestation accused Vinod Dua maliciously edits video clip of Nitin Gadkari to claim Gadkari spoke against Modi govt

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Molestation accused Vinod Dua maliciously edits video clip of Nitin Gadkari to claim Gadkari spoke against Modi govt

Vinod Dua, a left-wing propagandist accused of sexually harassing a filmmaker has come back with another set of fake news to pursue propaganda against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the NDA by doctoring one of Gadkari’s interviews.

On December 21, HW News, where Vinod Dua joined recently, published an exclusive interview with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. In the interview, Gadkari talked about how hundreds of projects were stalled when he took over the charge of the ministry, and how he revived the projects with various measures.

Vinod Dua used Gadkari’s comments in the interview in episode 7 of his video blog titled The Vinod Dua Show to suggest that Gadkari was blaming his own government for stalled projects. Dua’s show contains a clip of the interview where Gadkari is blaming the government, but does not say which government. Dua goes on to say that this proves growing dissent in the BJP, and suggests after Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha etc, now people from RSS like Nitin Gadkari are also speaking against the government.

According to Dua, Gadkari, who is now Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, stated that there were 403 stalled projects concerning the department and 75% of those projects were stalled due to the policies of the government.

But now it has emerged that Dua used a carefully edited portion of Gadkari’s interview to create an impression of a rift in BJP. Dua carefully edits the video to claim that the ‘government’ which Gadkari referred to was the present NDA government led by Narendra Modi.

Responding to Vinod Dua’s comments, Nitin Gadkari’s office posted the full video of that portion of the interview, where it is clearly seen that Nitin Gadkari was indeed talking about mismanagement during UPA government. The original clip exposes Vinod Dua’s propaganda as Gadkari in his interview goes on to say that it was UPA government’s policy paralysis which had affected the completion of the projects. Gadkari in his interview clearly states that the UPA government had not issued any environmental clearances to various infrastructure projects. In the interview, Gadkari also added that how he addressed the issue of stalled projects and reduced NPAs after taking charge of the department contrary to Dua’s claims of increase of stalled projects during NDA government.

After the rebuttal by Nitin Gadkari, episode 7 of Nitin Gadkari has been removed from both HW news website and Youtube where the show is hosted. The link to the page on the website returns a 404 error.

Google search shows the link to the now deleted episode 7 of Vinod Dua’s show

The full interview of Gadkari is still there on the HW News website, which clearly shows that he was blaming UPA government. Despite that, Vinod Dua chose to use an edited portion of the interview to build a fake narrative about a fictitious rift in the party.

Vinod Dua’s attempt to discredit the NDA government led by Prime Minister Modi by using a doctored video is not surprising as Dua has a track record of resorting to this sort of unethical and shoddy journalism to target the BJP. Vinod Dua, who was earlier associated with another left-wing propaganda news website The Wire had successfully managed to peddle their false narratives without being held accountable.

Vinod Dua has also been accused of sexually harassing and molesting a filmmaker Nishtha Jain. After Nishitha Jain accused Dua, another lady filmmaker Sunita Thakur had come forward and accused Dua of inappropriate behaviour.

Despite these allegations, Dua had continued to publish videos for propaganda website The Wire and Dua had described the allegations of sexual harassment on himself as ‘keechad‘ (mud) virtually claiming that women coming out with their accounts of sexual harassment were indulging in mudslinging.

Andhra Pradesh CM calls upon his arch nemesis Telangana CM KCR to form an anti-Modi alliance

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Andhra Pradesh CM calls upon his arch nemesis Telangana CM KCR to form an anti-Modi alliance

The upcoming Lok Sabha elections of 2019, is bringing many arch-nemesis together to counter Modi wave. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has invited Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, who recently returned to the throne with a thumping majority, to form an anti-Modi alliance together.

Speaking at an India-Today conclave, CM Naidu said, “He (KCR) is welcome, to form a government, any such alliance of regional parties will have to take support either from Congress or BJP or give support to either of the two national parties. KCR has to make a choice.”

In recently concluded assembly elections, CM Naidu’s TDP had allied with Congress to fight against K Chandrashekar Rao’s TRS in Telangana. However, Rao returned to his throne with a thumping majority, giving a jolt to Congress-TDP alliance. Following which, K Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha had expressed the party’s decision to form a ‘federal front’, that is free of either Congress and BJP.

“A federal front is being floated. We believe that a neutral platform should be established which is free of both BJP and Congress. Our agenda is to address the people of this nation. There have been various political groupings in the country which failed while few succeeded.” K Kavitha had said.

Responding to which, CM Naidu had said this move of forming a federal front by K Rao will result in splitting of votes and ultimately favouring BJP.

At the conclave, Naidu reiterated his stand and said that regional forces, can only choose between Congress and BJP, and there is no way around. He asked K Rao to make a choice and become part of Congress alliance.

“Who is KCR? He was part of TDP, a minister in my government. He parted ways. He can always come back.” Naidu said referring to the fact that K Rao was once a part of TDP, which he joined under the leadership of founder NT Rama Rao. KC Rao had left TDP in 2001, and formed his own party to bolster demand of separate state of Telangana.

CM Naidu, who is trying to engineer an alliance, has remained non-committal on the PM face for it. At the conclave, he discarded Tamil Nadu DMK chief Stalin’s proposal of making Rahul Gandhi the PM face for the alliance in 2019.

“I made it very clear, we should not announce a candidate today. My stand is, post-election we will decide”, he added calling Stalin’s remark “his party’s stand” and not that of the opposition.

CM Naidu, who broke from BJP-led NDA this year, criticised Modi government of neglecting the aspirations of Andhra Pradesh’s people.

Naidu said that the BJP does not respect the democratic institutions. He accused PM Modi of misusing the government agencies like CBI and ED against his MPs, MLAs and other functionaries. When told by the journalist that according to Centre his MPs are allegedly involved in corruption, therefore, they are being raided, Naidu taunted, “Their MPs (BJP MPs) have not come from heaven. How many cases are there against Amit Shah”, he questioned.

Protestors block 11 women out of the 50-member group women from an NGO who tried to trek the Sabarimala shrine

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Protestors block 11 women out of the 50-member group women from an NGO who tried to trek the Sabarimala shrine

Protests have erupted once again at Pamba, the foothills of the Sabarimala temple, on Sunday as 11 women all below the age 50 years tried to trek the hilltop shrine. The women were escorted to Pamba by police teams. Out of the 11 women who arrived at Pamba reportedly around 3:30 in the morning, only 6 plan to visit the shrine while other 5 have accompanied them to show solidarity.

The women belong to Manithi, a Chennai based outfit that reportedly works for women empowerment, which had announced that 50 women from their NGO would be visiting the Lord Ayyappa Temple. The group has women from different states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala who are planning to enter the shrine which bars the entry of women between the age of 10-50 years.

The women were blocked on the way by the devotees who started the Namajapa protests as the women tried to trek through the traditional forest path about five kilometers from the shrine. The women are holding a protest at the Pamba Ganapathi temple. The coordinator of Manithi, Selvi, claimed that women are real devotees and were following the Sabarimala rituals. “Since we are a larger group, we hope we would be able to enter Sabarimala. Most of us are between 20 and 30 years old. A few women believe what’s the guarantee we would live to above 50 to worship here later? Swamy Ayyappa will protect us,” she said.

One of the women said, “We are strategically moving. There are many Dalit women also who are reaching Sabarimala for darshan today. The state and the police have to show enough will to ensure that we can have our rights. We all have taken the required fast (for the darshan)”.

Thilakavathi, another woman from the group, said, “Priests of the local temple at Pamba did not cooperate with us and declined to get our ‘irumudikettu’ (sacred offering to the God) ready as per custom. So we did it on our own”.

On September 28, the Supreme Court had passed a verdict allowing the entry of women of all age groups into the temple. So far, no women between the age group of 10-50 years been able to visit the shrine due to continuous protests by the devotees who want to save the temple traditions.

Mother of all ironies: Pakistan PM Imran Khan wants to ‘teach’ Modi government how to treat minorities

Editorial Desk
-
0
Mother of all ironies: Pakistan PM Imran Khan wants to ‘teach’ Modi government how to treat minorities

Actor Naseeruddin Shah’s statement that he is scared for his children’s lives in India now has resonated with the not-so-friendly-neighbour across the border. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken it upon himself to show the Modi government ‘how to treat minorities’. Referring to Shah’s statement, Khan said, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had ‘understood’ this and because of this very ‘intolerance’, Pakistan was formed.

A bit rich from the person who is widely known as a terrorist sympathiser. More so from a country where anyone who is not a Muslim is looked down upon as non-believer or a kafir. And not just Hindus or Sikhs, but there has been a regular purging against Muslims of the Ahmadiya faith. In September this year, the Pakistan government dismissed economist because of his Ahmadiya faith.

The minorities in Pakistan have reduced from 23% in 1947 to a mere 3-4% of the population now after militant groups were created to target Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians. On the other hand, in India, the population of Muslims in India has gone from 9.8% in 1951 census to 14.23% in 2011.

In Pakistan, Christians and Ahmadis have been displaced within the country and have had to either flee the country or seek asylum elsewhere due to lack of protection and constant threat of the draconian blasphemy laws in Pakistan. In fact, historians in Pakistan itself say how declaring itself as ‘Muslim state’ the country sowed the seeds of intolerance by alienating other religions.

And while religious minorities are escaping from Pakistan, the minorities from Bangladesh and Myanmar are illegally migrating to India and want to settle here.

This haughtiness of Imran Khan is not new. Earlier, too, Khan had taken a dig on India’s stand of calling off talks after kidnapping and killing of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir. Perhaps introspecting and fixing things in their own country first before trying to teach India lessons would do Khan good.

In yet another goof-up Congress IT cell wishes birth anniversary to former PM Narasimha Rao on his death anniversary

OpIndia Staff
-
0
In yet another goof-up Congress IT cell wishes birth anniversary to former PM Narasimha Rao on his death anniversary

The Congress party often known for its major goof-ups has come out with another embarrassing episode after they remembered former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao by celebrating his birth anniversary insensitively on the day of his demise.

The Congress party tweeted, “P.V. Narasimha Rao, the 9th PM of India, dismantled the License Raj and oversaw the biggest economic reform the country has seen till date. His contributions to the nation shall always be remembered as we honour him today on his birth anniversary.”

Congress tweeting birthday wishes to PV Narsimha Rao on his death anniversary

PV Narasimha Rao, India’s ninth Prime Minister is one of the tallest statesmen of the country. During his term as Prime Minister from 1991-96, he ushered the much-touted economic reforms also known as Liberalisation of Indian economy. He was the first holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region, belonging to southern India. Rao was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj and is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms”.

PV Narasimha Rao who passed away on December 23, 2004, after suffering from a heart attack. Rao’s family wanted the body to be cremated in Delhi as it was his “karmabhoomi”. It is often alleged that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not want PV Narasimha Rao’s body to be cremated in Delhi and ensured that the body was moved to Hyderabad.

Sonia Gandhi also ensured that the body of the former Prime Minister and former Congress President Rao’s body was not allowed inside to enter the AICC (All India Congress Committee) compound. His body stayed parked in a carriage outside the gate and the party made sure that there was no state funeral for him.

The Congress party might have realised their goof-up and deleted the tweet after it received flak in the social media for the lack of knowledge about its own great leaders.

This is not the first time Congress IT cell has tweeted such insensitive tweets. The Congress IT cell is often known for spreading fake news, hate and lies and has been caught several times for propagating such half-truths. Recently, it also had a similar moment, when it had paid tributes to reformist Raja Ram Mohan Roy on his death anniversary but they had wished him on his birth anniversary.

Stupendous hypocrisy of Rahul Gandhi: ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ before elections, opposes GST rate cut after winning 3 states

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Stupendous hypocrisy of Rahul Gandhi: ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ before elections, opposes GST rate cut after winning 3 states

Among the several issues that Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party President has lied about repeatedly, one of them was always the Goods and Service Tax (GST). The GST was perhaps one of the most large-scale tax reforms that a country, the size of India, had ever undertaken. GST unified taxes levied on goods and services.

The Modi government managed to get the consent of all parties, including Congress, before notifying the GST and has since been tweaking the products under various slabs to ensure consumers can extract maximum benefit.

However, Rahul Gandhi has been constantly referring to the GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”. He has asserted in the past that the tax slabs are too high and that the government is almost indulging in extortionist tactics.

He had made the asinine demand of every product being taxed at 18%. This would essentially mean that essential goods and luxury cars would be taxed at the same rate.

The Modi government today did the more prudent thing by shifting several items from the higher tax slab of 28% to the 18% GST slab or lower. Now, only 28 luxury items, also called sin goods, remain in the 28% category.

This was another promise delivered by the Modi government. Just 4 days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted that soon, 99% of Goods and Services would be brought under the 18% GST slab or lower.

However, while the country celebrated this move which would prove to be a massive relief for the consumers and especially the middle class, Rahul Gandhi’s Congress was reportedly singing a different tune.

According to a media report, during the GST council meet today, Congress opposed Modi government’s move to reduce the GST rates on several items.

A portal called BTVI News reported that officials from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, states that have just been wrested from BJP by the Congress, opposed the GST rate cut because they viewed it as a political move.

This reminds one of another analogy. Rahul Gandhi has been temple-hopping for some time now in a bid to wash away his anti-Hindu image. While he has been indulging in his pseudo-Hindutva, senior Congress leaders had gone to the Supreme Court and asserted that the Ram Mandir verdict should be delayed and delivered only after 2019 because a verdict now could influence 2019 elections. Basically, they feared that if a Ram Temple was built in Ayodhya, Hindus would rally behind Narendra Modi in 2019.

Just like Rahul Gandhi was ready to sacrifice the building of Ram Mandir due to political considerations, after screaming about how the Modi government should reduce GST rates, his governments from 3 states have today shamelessly opposed the GST rate cut which would benefit the middle class.

Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore too took to Twitter and reacted to Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy.


Others commented on how his stands change before and after elections.


Rahul Gandhi has displayed his hypocrisy on several issues that matter. This seems to be just another case.

BJP corners Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after Court orders eviction from National Herald building

OpIndia Staff
-
0
BJP corners Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after Court orders eviction from National Herald building

The Union Minister and Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad today launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after the Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) to vacate the property of the National Herald. Prasad accused Gandhi family of squatting the government property and clandestinely transferring it in their name through trusts like Young India.


Citing the court judgment, Prasad claimed that the Associate Journal Limited declared closure of all press operations when the Income Tax department approached them. AJL asserted that they had ceased their operations in April 2008 and had given out voluntary retirement to their employees then. However, when the centre issued an order to vacate the government land, they claimed that their operations are continuing there. The inspecting agencies found that no press unit was working on the premises for 10 years and its lease agreement was being used only for commercial purposes.

Prasad also alleged that since the main activity of printing newspaper had stopped, the AJL cannot be allowed to retain the property only to receive rent worth Rs70-80 lakh from it. Prasad also claimed that the National Herald’s assets worth more than Rs 5000 crore were surreptitiously transferred to the Young India Trust for a meagre amount of Rs 50 lakh.

Taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, Prasad said, ” The double standard is apparent. Rahul Gandhi is today asking many questions on Rafale deal despite the Supreme Court’s verdict. Will he and his mother explain how they transferred property worth crores on their name through Young India for just 50 lakhs? How can an organisation like Young India get 99% of the AJL’s leased out government property transferred to them?”

The AJL had filed an appeal against the centre’s order to vacate the premises. Justice Sunil Gaur rejected the appeal challenging the October 30 order of the centre to end the 56-year-old lease and ruled that the agency will vacate the ITO located in two weeks. After that, the process of evicting unauthorized occupiers will start. In its defence, the AJL had said that they are still operating the newspaper and its web version was launched in 2016. The Supreme Court had earlier allowed re-assessment of Income-tax files of the National Herald.

Modi delivers: Only 28 luxury items remain in 28% GST slabs, rates slashed for several goods

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Modi delivers: Only 28 luxury items remain in 28% GST slabs, rates slashed for several goods

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government’s aim to bring 99 percent of all items below the 18 percent GST slab, today 31st GST council meeting was chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with finance ministers from states in the National Capital. Its aim was to rationalize and announce tax cuts for goods of everyday consumption and bring them under 18% slab.

Financial Minster after the meeting announced that only 28 items of luxury remain under the slab of 28%, and all other products of common needs have been moved under the 18% slab. Products like monitors, tyres, power banks, lithium-ion batteries have been brought to 18% slab and accessories related to specially-abled people to 5%.

Products like components of automobiles, cement, air conditioners, and dishwashers will continue under the existing slab of 28%. Although GST reduction of cement was highly anticipated, the Finance Minister said that the reduction in tax on cement and the automobile parts will have fiscal implications as the total revenues from these products is around Rs 33,000 crores.

GST on real estate will be discussed in next council meeting along with taxation on lottery. Arun Jaitley said that  Law Fitment Committee will take a view on real estate in the next meeting.


The Council has also advised for the reduction of GST on Solar power generating plants. The tax rate on movie tickets above Rs 100 was brought under 18% slab. GST on third-party insurance premiums has also been slashed to 12% from 18%.

Vegetables (cooked or uncooked), and frozen vegetables have been shifted to zero percent slab from previous 5%. Bank’s services to Jan Dhan bank account holders will also not invite any tax rate slab.


”Today’s GST rate reduction will have an overall impact on revenue of Rs 5.500 crore” FM Jaitley has asserted.

These announcements are the biggest changes ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Sparing a few luxury items, a majority of the products have been transferred under a slab of 18%. These tax cuts will come into effect from January 1, 2019.

AgustaWestland: Court rejects Christian Michel’s bail plea, sends him to 7-day ED custody

OpIndia Staff
-
0
AgustaWestland: Court rejects Christian Michel’s bail plea, sends him to 7-day ED custody

The Patiala House court today rejected Christian Michel’s bail appeal, handing his custody to the Enforcement Directorate for 7 days. The court had yesterday allowed ED’s petition seeking Michel’s production in court over a money-laundering case.


The Enforcement Directorate had asked for Michel’s custody for 15 days. The special judge  Arvind Kumar allowed the ED permission to interrogate Christian Michel in the court for 15 minutes and later granted them his custody for 7 days. The court had earlier reserved its order on Michel’s bail plea on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI. The other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. The ED, in its charge sheet filed in June 2016 had alleged that Michel received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.

Christian Michel is accused of money laundering, bribery, and fraud in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore worth AgustaWestland scam. It is believed that not only did he pay kickbacks to politicians, officers, and agents but also involved certain celebrity journalists to swing the deal.

Christian Michel was extradited from Dubai to India on 4th December 2018. He was produced in the court on the next day, which granted his 5-day custodial interrogation to the CBI. The CBI got his custody extended by 5 days and later by another 4 days.

1...6,8056,8066,807...7,674Page 6,806 of 7,674