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Vegetarian food cooked in oil used for non-veg dishes say students, AMU denies charges

OpIndia Staff
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Vegetarian food cooked in oil used for non-veg dishes say students, AMU denies charges

A controversy has erupted in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Monday after a group of vegetarian students staged protests alleging that vegetarian food is being served after being cooked in oil used to prepare non-vegetarian dishes.

According to the reports, students residing in Sir Syed Hall (North) have written a letter to the vice-chancellor, alleging that they were served vegetarian food cooked using the same oil which has been allegedly used to prepare non-vegetarian dishes. The group of students have demanded the university administration to take strict action against the provost for his negligence.

The incident came to light on Sunday when Bhartiya Yuva Morcha’s city unit chief Nikhil Maheshwari issued a statement alleging that it was a “deliberate ploy” to hurt the sentiments of Hindus. On Sunday, a police complaint was also filed at the Banna Devi police station.

Reportedly, on November 26, ‘chicken fry’ was prepared at SS North Hostel and same oil had been allegedly used to prepare ‘Poori’ hurting sentiments of vegetarian students.

“One of the hostellers had informed me about this and the provost of the hall was apprised about the matter. But no heed was paid to the issue thus it was addressed to the vice-chancellor through the mail on November 30,” said Somveer Singh, a student at AMU.

The aggrieved students have also written a letter to the President of India in this regard and the matter is also communicated to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD), stated Somveer Singh.

However, the AMU authorities have rejected the allegations claiming that respect for religious sentiments of all students was the hallmark of the university’s secular traditions from the time of its foundation. Shafey Kidwai, the spokesperson of the AMU added that according to the preliminary inquiries conducted by the provost, it was found out that the allegations are “completely baseless”.

He further said that four members of the cooking staff have confirmed to the university that “fresh cooking oil released by the kitchen stock was used for cooking the entire vegetarian meal”.

Aligarh Muslim University, one of the oldest educational institutions of the country have often been embroiled in controversies. In May 2018, a massive controversy had erupted after it was found out that AMU had placed Pakistani founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait in the Student Union Hall.

The AMU students’ union had in the past objected to the University Administration’s invite to President Ramnath Kovind for the convocation ceremony. The University again hogged the limelight when one of its students was found to have joined the terror organisation Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

AgustaWestland Case: CBI hails NSA Ajit Doval’s guidance for the successful extradition of middleman Christian Michel

OpIndia Staff
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AgustaWestland Case: CBI hails NSA Ajit Doval’s guidance for the successful extradition of middleman Christian Michel

The wanted fugitive and middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal, Christian Michel, was brought to India late on Tuesday night following his extradition by the UAE. The CBI has taken custody of the fugitive criminal after his extradition and has credited National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval for the success of the operation, reported ANI.

According to the CBI spokesperson, Abhishek Dayal, an operation named ‘Unicorn’ was planned and carried out under the guidance of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and being coordinated by interim CBI Director M Nageswar Rao to bring back middleman Christian Michel after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj discussed the extradition with her counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Dubai last night.

“A team led by A. Sai Manohar, Joint Director in CBI has been to Dubai for the purpose”, the CBI said. “Under the guidance of Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor (NSA), the entire operation is being coordinated by in-charge Director CBI M Nageswara Rao,” the agency spokesperson said.

The 57-year old Christian Michel was behind bars in Dubai since his arrest and was sent to custody pending the legal and judicial procedure in the UAE. Last month, the highest Court in Dubai, upholding the appellate court’s decision to extradite Michel had granted approval to India’s request for his extradition.

In 2010, India had signed an agreement to buy 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters for the service of the Prime Minister, the President and other VVIPs. It is alleged that some politicians and public servants had abused their official positions to reduce the service ceiling of the VVIPs helicopter from 6000 metres to 4500 metres to make AgustaWestland eligible for the contract and had awarded the contract for an amount of Euro 556.262 million in 2010.

In 2013, Italian officials arrested Giuseppe Orsi, the CEO of AgustaWestland’s parent company, alleging irregularities in the deal. Soon after, the then Defence Minister AK Antony had ordered a probe and had scrapped the deal in 2014.

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.

Odisha government finally decides to withdraw cases against defence analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra

OpIndia Staff
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Odisha government finally decides to withdraw cases against defence analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra

After receiving severe backlash, the Odisha government on Tuesday has decided to withdraw cases against defence analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra, who was arrested in October for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Odisha and its culture.

The decision to grant pardon to Iyer comes after Mitra’s appeal to Odisha’s Chief Minister not to prosecute him in criminal cases. Recently, the Odisha assembly had moved a motion to excuse Abhijit for making derogatory comments against the state. In his petition to the state government, Mitra had requested the Chief Minister to withdraw the sanctions prosecuting him under Section 196 of the CrPC.


“He has appealed ‘to accept his apology and contrition’ in having wounded the sentiments of people of Odisha without intention. He has further mentioned that in consideration of his unconditional apology in having hurt the sentiments of people of Odisha unintentionally “without malice or mal-intent” the Hon’ble Odisha Legislative Assembly have pardoned him on 16th November 2018,” said a statement signed by the special secretary to the Odisha government.

“Taking into account his representation, the government has decided not to accord sanction of prosecution in cases where a prosecution has been sought for and also decided to take steps to withdraw other cases pending against him,” Odisha home department released a statement.

Abhijit Iyer Mithra was recently admitted to a hospital as his health deteriorated due to severe mental trauma he suffered after spending more than 40 days in Odisha’s Jharpada jail.

Abhijit Iyer Mitra was first arrested in September for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of people and making derogatory remarks against the state, the Konark temple and Lord Jagannath. However, he had immediately clarified regarding the controversy soon after it went viral. Iyer-Mitra had also allegedly flown in a helicopter with former BJD MP Baijayant Panda over the Chilika Lake.

Soon after that the Delhi Police had granted him jail but had ordered him to be part of the police investigation. Abhijit citing threat his life did not join the police investigation. He had later moved to Supreme Court for protection from arrest. On October 4, the top court refused to grant him bail, saying jail was the “safest place” for him.

On October 24, he was arrested by the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police in connection with a criminal case filed for his tweets in 2017. A camp court at the Jharpada Jail in Bhubaneswar had once again declined defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra’s bail plea.

Tajinder Bagga’s defamation case against abusive’ journalist’ to continue as journalist withdraws petition to quash proceedings

OpIndia Staff
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Tajinder Bagga’s defamation case against abusive’ journalist’ to continue as journalist withdraws petition to quash proceedings

The High Court has dismissed as withdrawn the petition filed by abusive journalist Swati Chaturvedi to quash the defamation proceedings initiated against her by BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga.

Alakh Alok Srivastav took to Twitter to announce that the Delhi High Court had dismissed as withdrawn the petition seeking to quash the defamation proceedings. He also tweeted that a limited stay of 4 weeks on trial has been granted to Swati Chaturvedi to approach a lower court and file the petition to quash proceedings.


Speaking to OpIndia, Mr Srivastav said that they cited an old judgement by the Court where had dismissed a similar petition to quash by Rajdeep Sardesai. In fact, even the Supreme Court had dismissed the petition.

He asserted that this is a subject matter of trial and the defamation proceedings should go on. The High Court, Srivastav said, was largely convinced with his arguments.

The lawyers representing Swati Chaturvedi cited two parts of 1 tweet by Swati after Tajinder Bagga was appointed as the BJP spokesperson on 14th March 2017. The first part of the tweet was where Swati Chaturvedi had alleged that BJP had appointed a person as a spokesperson who had beaten Prashant Bhushan up. To prove the stand, they presented a few tweets by Tajinder Bagga. Bagga’s lawyers contesting that those tweets were not authentic.

Then, Srivastav says, he questioned the second part of the tweet by Swati Chaturvedi where she had alleged that Tajinder had been arrested for sexual harassment. In response, Chaturvedi’s lawyers maintained that it was an authentic claim and tried to prove their point by reading out the complaint filed by one Ms Jwala Gurunath, whose allegations Tajinder had countered fiercely by releasing a video and evidence just a few days ago.

While reading the complaint, Chaturvedi’s lawyer ended up with a self-goal of sorts considering even the complaint by Gurunath, which was later quashed, had no mention of sexual harassment at all and hence, the question of Tajinder Bagga being arrested for it did not arise.

Swati Chaturvedi’s lawyer then conceded, having failed to prove his point, that there was no arrest as claimed by Swati Chaturvedi.

The Court then told Swati Chaturvedi and her lawyers that either they withdraw their petition and file the same in a lower court, or the High Court would have no option but to dismiss the petition filed by Chaturvedi.

After a 5 minute recess, where the lawyer consulted with his clients, they agreed to withdraw their petition.

The lawyer asked the Judge for a stay on proceedings until they file the petition in the lower court and the High Court granted them a limited stay of 4 weeks after which, the proceedings would go on.

Government of India contemplating on setting up an elite ‘Surgical Strikes Unit’

OpIndia Staff
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Government of India contemplating on setting up an elite ‘Surgical Strikes Unit’

With the possibility of a long-drawn war with Pakistan not going to end in the imminent future, the government is mulling over setting up a ‘surgical strike unit’ comprising of best personnel from all the three streams of the Indian Armed forces. The government is contemplating the ‘surgical strike unit’ keeping in mind the increasing threats posed by enemies via land, air and water.

“The government has sensed a need for a distinct platoon with enhanced skills, having the best officers from all the three subsets of the armed forces,” said the report quoting an anonymous source.

This unit will be sanctioned with the authority of conducting surprise attacks deep inside the enemy territory with precision, inflicting irreparable damage and departing from the assault site as soon as possible.

Deemed as the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s brainchild, the new unit will have soldiers from Garuds, Marcos and Paras — the special forces of the Air Force, Navy and Army respectively. It is also expected that their capabilities will be on par with the US Navy Seals as they are required to navigate in demanding situations with great rapidity.

It is anticipated that this stratagem will be more effective than the cross-border surgical strike carried out by the country’s special forces in September 2016 as the government aims to institutionalise the use of air force in future operations by setting up a dedicated surgical strikes unit.

Separate budgetary allocations will be made for independent functioning of this unit. The force is being instituted to rein in increasing infiltration attempts and ceasefire violations made by Pakistani forces.

The unit will comprise personnel having extensive experience in carrying out counter-insurgency operations. The group will be commanded by the Chief of Army Staff and will have two groups- the planning group will have 96 members whereas the assault group will consist 124 members.

Maintaining the convention followed by all international special forces, the assault group will have two sub-units, attack and support units, to secure a smooth operation with perfect coordination.

The force will not only be trained in top combative skills but will also be equipped in field craft such as reading hi-tech maps and synchronising with air support. The support group will accumulate substantial knowledge of the target area to provide intelligence feedback to the attack unit.

Days after saying AAP was formed to fight casteism, Kejriwal plays the caste card, again

Nirwa Mehta
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Days after saying AAP was formed to fight casteism, Kejriwal plays the caste card, again

On odd days Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal promises that his party is against casteism and will fight tooth and nail against the social evil. On even days, however, he becomes the brand ambassador of the same evil. Just sample these tweets of the king of contradictions.

On 26th November, Aam Aadmi Party’s 6th anniversary, Kejriwal had tweeted how the party was formed to free the country’s politics of the poison of casteism.


A week later, he was caught alleging on Twitter how names of 50% voters of ‘Agrawal community’, once supporters of BJP but now ‘upset’ after GST implementation, are ‘missing’.


He even retweeted a tweet which, for some perversely odd reason, compared the Agrawal community to Muslims.

Tweet retweeted by Kejriwal

Kejriwal’s duality is not new and hence it does not come as a surprise that Kejriwal is resorting to divisive caste-based politics. In October 2017, during the runup to the Gujarat elections, he had tweeted how he wishes for a time when elections are fought on agenda of education and health and not caste and religion.


The epitome of hypocrisy that Kejriwal is, had forgotten his own tweet from a year prior when during the runup to Punjab elections he had promised how the deputy CM of Punjab would be from the Dalit community.


He had followed it up with how a ‘Dalit’ would occupy the chair of Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister.


Reminding our readers again that last week Kejriwal had tweeted that Aam Aadmi Party was formed to fight the poison of casteism.

Kejriwal and his army of zombies masquerading as “supporters” have regularly indulged in spreading caste and religion based hate politics.

He had earlier urged union minister Kiren Rijiju to not divide India between north, south, Hindus and Muslims.


After his party leader, Amanatullah Khan was found putting posters across Okhla expressing displeasure that 3 Muslim MLAs had joined the BJP. And Kejriwal found nothing wrong in it.


Khan, who was a volunteer then is an MLA and regularly plays his religion card whenever he is caught on the wrong side of the law. You could read more about him here.

Kejriwal is not the only one bitten by the casteist bug. His former commander Ashutosh, who resigned from the party in August amidst speculation that he was upset over not getting Rajya Sabha seat, too has played the caste card regularly.


When Vijay Rupani was made Gujarat chief minister after Anandiben Patel resigned, Ashutosh decided to identify Nitin Patel by his caste. Back in 2015, Ashutosh had urged journalists to not factor in the caste of candidates for elections.


It is rather unfortunate that Arvind Kejriwal, who portrayed himself as the new ray of hope in politics, which will give the citizens of India an option other than the traditional parties which have usually let the voters down has turned out to be such a disappointment. The party which came to power on the plank of being ‘different’ is not only just the same, it has turned out to be worse.

AgustaWestland middlemen, Christian Michel to be extradited to India tonight: Republic TV

OpIndia Staff
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AgustaWestland middlemen, Christian Michel to be extradited to India tonight: Republic TV

Middlemen Christian Michel of the AgustaWestland scam will be extradited to India from Dubai tonight, Republic has reported.


As we reported earlier, the Dubai government had cleared the decks for the extradition of the alleged middlemen in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam to India. Indian authorities were reported to be in Dubai already completing legal formalities. After his arrival in India, Michel will be formally arrested and produced at Patiala Court for custodial interrogation.

Last month, the highest Court in Dubai, upholding the appellate court’s decision to extradite Michel, had granted approval to India’s request for his extradition.

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

The complete details of the scam can be read here.

Kumar Ketkar’s rant: ‘Global conspiracy’ that murdered Mujibur Rahman, Indira Gandhi, Bhutto wants Modi to stay in power

OpIndia Staff
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Kumar Ketkar’s rant: ‘Global conspiracy’ that murdered Mujibur Rahman, Indira Gandhi, Bhutto wants Modi to stay in power

Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, Kumar Ketkar was invited in an event in Pune marking the birthday celebrations of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Former ministers Balasaheb Thorat, former MP Rajni Patil, former MLA Mohan Joshi and other Congress leaders were also present in the event.

Speaking at the event, Ketkar enlightened the audience by revealing that Modi’s ascendancy to power is a part of a “wider global conspiracy”. He claimed that if Narendra Modi comes to power again in 2019, then India might shun its democratic roots and elections may not happen in 2024.

In fact, Ketkar even raised doubts on the occurrence of 2019 elections. “If a united opposition defeats Modi, he will be uncomfortable in transferring the power. If Modi is defeated in the elections, he will not follow the democratic process of relinquishing his position,” Ketkar said.

Strengthening his conspiracy theory, Ketkar expressed deep shock over the selection of Narendra Modi as the PM candidate by the BJP in 2014. He claimed that the selection of then CM Narendra Modi for PM candidature was rigged as Nitin Gadkari left the BJP chairmanship for Rajnath Singh, who in turn chose Modi’s candidature for PM post.

“There was a lot of pressure on Rajnath Singh to appoint Modi as BJP’s PM candidate”, said Ketkar. According to Ketkar, not the voters but the global powers were calling the shots in 2014 elections.

Citing CBI imbroglio, Rafale controversy, Haren Pandya murder case, Justice Loya dies, and Gujarat 2002 riots Ketkar said, “Modi and Amit Shah have very serious allegations against them. If the facts are revealed after the change of power, they can be punished with life imprisonment.”

If this was not enough, Kumar Ketkar even conjoined disparate tragic incidents in the past such as Bangladesh’s army chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s murder, Indira Gandhi’s assassination and former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Bhutto’s death in 1979 to a “global conspiracy” which also wants Modi to remain in power in India.

Without producing any evidence to back his claim, he alleged that such widespread global shenanigans have been happening in the world since the last 30-35 years.

Kumar Ketkar’s statements might seem like the ramblings of a deranged man, and one might be tempted to laugh his shenanigans off, but behind these statements what is apparent is the deep fear of not only PM Modi coming back to power, but more so, Congress losing power.

The Lutyen’s circuit has been thriving on the patronage of the Congress dynasty and now, the prospect of that circuit being dismantled forever isn’t being accepted very well by the usual suspects who were long touted as “independent journalists”.

Operation Trident: When Karachi burned for seven days, historical victory of Indian navy over Pakistan

OpIndia Staff
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Operation Trident: When Karachi burned for seven days, historical victory of Indian navy over Pakistan

As India celebrates its 47th Navy Day today with the fascinating annual Beating Retreat and Tattoo ceremonies at the Gateway of India, we commemorate a remarkable victory in the history of Military of Independent India.

Navy Day is celebrated to mark the success of the audacious naval operation, known as Operation Trident, carried out by the Indian Navy during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. The operation was carried out on the night of Dec 4 by inflicting a ravaging attack on the Karachi port where the headquarters of the Pakistani Navy was located. Just the night before, Pakistan had attacked six Indian airfields.

It was planned that India would launch the attack at night as the Pakistani air crafts lacked night bombing capabilities. The strike team positioned itself at 250 nautical miles south of Karachi to avoid the range of Pakistani radar. The ship crews communicated in Russian, making it difficult for the Pakistani vessels to intercept the transmissions between the attacking vessels.

At around 10:40 pm, INS Nirghat attacked the Pakistani ship PNS Khaibar with its first Styx missile. A baffled Pakistani Navy assumed it to be an aircraft fire and responded with their anti-aircraft guns. PNS Khaibar transmitted the wrong position of their ship which delayed the help from their rescue teams and gave more time to the Indian strike team to attack. The vessel finally sank after another blow from the Indian side. None on the ship survived.

Two other vessels of the Pakistani Navy, PNS Muhafiz and PNS Shah Jahan were also destroyed by the Indian Navy. India suffered zero casualties during Operation Trident while inflicting gravest injuries on Pakistan. With INS Nipat, INS Nirghat, INS Veer, two submarines and a tanker, Indian Navy sank two Pakistani warships while damaging a third one. Operation Trident saw the first use of anti-ship missiles in combat in the region.

After the remarkable success of Operation Trident, Indian Navy launched another attack on the Pakistani Navy on December 8. This operation was called “Operation Python“. This time two Pakistani fleet tankers sank. The Indian Air Force then attacked the fuel and ammunition depots of Karachi. ‘Karachi burned for seven days,’ in the words of Admiral  SM Nanda. The attack proved lethal for Pakistan’s economy as it reportedly destroyed more than 50% of the total fuel requirement of the Karachi zone. The loss of fuel which was estimated to be worth $ 3 billion also affected the Air Force of Pakistan.

Madhya Pradesh: Vehicle with Congress sticker slams into EVM strong room, riders demand immediate counting

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh: Vehicle with Congress sticker slams into EVM strong room, riders demand immediate counting

A black Scorpio car rammed into the boundary wall of a strong room in Satna district in Madhya Pradesh past midnight on Sunday, giving a fresh twist to the recent EVM security row.

Talking about the incident, Kotwali police station in-charge Vidyadhar Pandey said that the vehicle with six occupants rammed into the boundary wall of the strongroom where the EVM was kept. While two persons, identified as Pramod Yadav and Rudra Kushwaha, were immediately arrested while the other four, namely Shailesh Kushwaha, Sanu Kushwaha, Satyavrat Singh and one other, managed to flee from the spot. The vehicle bearing registration number MP 19 CB 0505 was, however, impounded.

As reported by Dainik Bhaskar, the vehicle seized had Congress stickers stuck on it. The youths who were arrested demanded immediate counting of votes. A portion of the wall was damaged due to the collision.

Earlier too, a portion of the boundary wall of the same strong room was found damaged on November 30.

According to the reports, all the accused were intoxicated and during the police interrogation, they confessed that they wanted to check the EVM strongroom. The police have registered a case for trespassing, violating the model code of conduct and other relevant sections were registered against the accused after the report of the returning officer and SDM Satna CS Tripathi.

This incident gave a chance to the Congress, who have been obsessing over the ‘EVM hacked theory’, to immediately encash the situation and launch a protest. Recently a Congress worker died after being exposed to cold in neighbouring Chhattisgarh because he was outdoors all night ‘guarding’ the strong rooms.

This was the second mishap with EVM strong rooms in Madhya Pradesh. On November 30, the CCTV cameras and LED screens at a strong room in Bhopal had stopped working for around an hour due to power failure. After that incident, the EC had arranged for power backups at the strong room.

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