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CBI gets sanction to prosecute P Chidambaram in Aircel-Maxis case

OpIndia Staff
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CBI gets sanction to prosecute P Chidambaram in Aircel-Maxis case

In an important development in the ongoing investigations into the Aircel-Maxis case, the union government has granted its sanction to CBI to prosecute former union minister P Chidambaram.

Appearing on behalf CBI and ED before Patiala House Court’s Special Judge OP Saini, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that required sanction from the appropriate authority has been received to prosecute Chidambaram. The sanction was filed at the court by CBI.


CBI has been granted sanction to prosecute the Congress leader under section 197 of CrPC and section 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Tushar Mehta informed that there were 18 accused in the case named in the charge-sheet, and sanctions are needed to prosecute six of them. Although sanction to prosecute Chidambaram has been obtained, the sanction for the other five persons has not been received yet. CBI said that they will get the sanction for other five persons in two weeks.

The CBI also informed the court they have additional evidence to prove that P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram closed bank accounts in foreign countries after charge-sheet was filed in the case.

The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in grant of FIPB approval in Aircel-Maxis deal, while the ED is probing alleged money-laundering related to the deal. It is accused that Chidambaram misused his capacity as finance minister in the UPA government to illegally grant FIPB approvals, and in exchange his son Karti Chidambaram was given kickbacks. The FIPB approval was given to Malaysia’s Maxis for buying Indian telecom company Aircel for ₹3,500 crore in 2006. According to FIPB rules applicable at that time, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) should sanction foreign investment of such value, but the approval was given by the Finance Minister without referring it to CCEA. After the FIPB approval, Aircel allegedly paid Karti ₹26 crore through a company linked to him.

The court have granted P Chidambaram and his son protection till December 18 against arrest in the case. The matter was adjourned till December 18 by the court.

Saubhagya: The Silent Revolution

sumeetbhasin
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Saubhagya: The Silent Revolution

Most people would agree that the promise of “Bijli, paani, sadak” had become a distant dream for most of those who resided in the rural areas. Prime Minister Modi decided to bring an end to this wait for electricity and decided to launch the Saubhagya scheme to electrify every rural house in the country.

The government started with an ambitious project to first electrify all villages and once this task was completed, the focus shifted towards taking electricity from every village to every house across the country.

To see the impact of the Saubhagya Yojna, Public Policy Research Centre decided to commission a project for the state of Madhya Pradesh. The reason why Madhya Pradesh was picked was due to it being one of the lagging states in India, often classified in the BIMARU group. In fact, a major amount of household electrification drive was in districts of Madhya Pradesh so it made for an interesting study on how electrification was altering the day to day lives of citizens.

The study resulted in interesting findings as our researchers found that people spent less time in unproductive work and this resulted in a speeding up of household chores. This free time was utilized by individuals in the households into other productive tasks whereby adult members utilized it to supplement the household income while the children used it towards studying and other related activities.

On an average, we found that children spent an additional 1.5 hours studying post electrification of villages. One of the major reasons behind this is that now children could study even during the night and this is due to the increase in the effective productive hours during a day. For girls, we found that they pace out time to accommodate for education and this means that Saubhagya can be an interesting instrument towards improving education standards of girls over a coming couple of years.

Beyond education, household electrification has also led to the empowerment of women as they’re now able to efficiently manage their time, supplement their earnings and have a sense of security. We found evidence of several women starting up some household unit enterprise and during the course of interviews, they told us how their incomes were used towards improved grains and milk for the children. Thus, what is missing from the report is the indirect impact that Saubhagya can have on nutritional status through the route of increase in income due to the reduction in non-productive tasks.

The reason why this is missing from the report is the difficulty in establishing causality for this, however, from what we experienced on the ground, we believe that a scheme like Saubhagya is bound to have far too many indirect benefits than mere direct benefits. Apart from improved income, another aspect which we explored was the impact on indoor air pollution.

As evident, most of the fuel choices before Saubhagya are known to cause indoor air pollution. As a result of the electrification of household, a significant reduction in indoor air pollution was observed and this is bound to have major long-term health consequences as incidences and prevalence of asthma and other lung conditions or diseases will reduce significantly. Though, the reduction in incidences of lung conditions must be attributed jointly to Ujjwala and Saubhagya scheme.

Madhya Pradesh has become a pioneer in the implementation of developmental schemes and it is this fact which has brought in a complete shift in the day to day life of its citizens. From being a BIMARU state towards becoming an aspirational state, the journey of development of Madhya Pradesh is an excellent case study for researchers to emulate in other developing states and nations. As far as Saubhagya has concerned, the very design of the scheme made it critical towards the holistic development of the state of Madhya Pradesh and the state government ensured effective and efficient implementation of the scheme across districts.

For someone who’s seen the time when even Delhi didn’t have electricity, I can relate to the scarcity that these villages must have faced before being electrified. Most young kids today don’t know the period in the 70s when our parents would stand outside ration shops to get Kerosene for lamps as 24/7 electricity was unheard of or unimaginable by common citizens even in India’s capital city.

It is this scarcity, that these villagers were subject to till 2014 when the Government changed and decided to electrify all villages and later all houses. It is difficult to fathom the transformation that these households must have experienced upon being electrified, however, our research tries to capture some aspects of it and from what we’ve observed, Saubhagya has definitely ushered in an unprecedented change in the lives of these households.

Dr Sumeet Bhasin is Director at Public Policy Research Centre and former IT cell head at Delhi BJP. He tweets at @sumeetbhasin.

Gandhi family and their ‘Darbaris’ are priority for Congress, not the Country: PM Modi

OpIndia Staff
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Gandhi family and their ‘Darbaris’ are priority for Congress, not the Country: PM Modi

Addressing an election rally in Banswara, Rajasthan, PM Modi went all guns blazing against the Congress party. He attacked Congress party for having misplaced priorities. Modi alleged that for Congress the Gandhi family trumps everything else, after which follows the ‘darbaris’ of the Gandhi family, then the vote-getters, followed by Casteism and finally the country.


Alluding to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, PM Modi said that he can’t even differentiate between ‘moong’ and ‘chana’. He said, “The dynast doesn’t even know whether chana grows on a tree or a plant. He would fail to identify plants if 4 different plants are shown to them. Such people talk about Farmers? We implemented the Swaminathan Commission recommendations on MSP and helped farmers get 1.5 times the market price on their produce.”


PM Modi also contended that Congress is steeped in with the poison of Casteism and that if it were possible, Congress would have questioned castes of great scholars like Tulsidas, Saint Kabir, and others as well.

Earlier, In the election rally in Bhilwara, PM Modi slammed Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi for asking for ‘proofs’ for the occurrence of Surgical Strikes. He claimed that under Congress government, the dastardly attacks of 26/11 happened, they shouldn’t be giving lessons on patriotism to others.

“The Gandhi scion came here and promised to manufacture ‘Made in Dungarpur’ mobiles but there is no mention of it in the Congress manifesto. “How will the people of Rajasthan take Rahul Gandhi seriously when even the members of Rajasthan Congress are not taking him seriously?,” PM Modi said.


Hailing BJP’s work, PM Modi requested everyone to vote for the party and ensure their victory. He urged the listeners to understand the importance of their vote and the consequences it can have on their and their children’s lives.

Political diagnostics will have to continue post 2019 if India is to ever realise its ambitions of stability

Neeraj Ashok
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Political diagnostics will have to continue post 2019 if India is to ever realise its ambitions of stability

Anyone who voted for Modi in 2014 imagined they are doing it for the betterment of the country. Economic growth was expected to grow multi-fold, the income distribution was to become even between various economic classes, corruption was to come to an end and so on. In a nutshell, all our problems were to come to an end as soon as the lotus lit up on the EVM machines (few non-“rigged” ones included).

Many promises have been fulfilled and some, undoubtedly, haven’t.

So, will this change depending on which way the elections go in 2019? Will the pace of the country’s growth and quality of common man’s life improve drastically? Unfortunately, no. If a non-BJP coalition government comes to power in 2019, which would obviously be with the sole agenda to keep Modi away, things will get worse. But that is well-known, so the real question is why will the country not progress faster even if Modi returns in 2019?

One recurring thing we have seen since Prime Minister Modi took the reigns in 2014 is while people voted Congress out from direct governance, it is far from eradicating their ideology and more importantly, their influence over institutions.

Starting with bureaucrats, they were almost addicted to the free reign they had earlier. Right from their budgets, freebies, even the quid pro quo arrangements with various stakeholders, to them practically running the country. That is until the scams started making headlines at which point they decided to just excuse themselves from any decision-making and hence the virtual standstill in governance which we witnessed for most of UPA 2.

Enough has been said and heard about how Prime Minister Modi has tried to change the ‘chalta hai’ attitude within the bureaucracy of various ministries and how some of them have revolted quietly by ensuring many of the government’s measures do not see light of the day and even when they do, the impact is not as far-reaching as it ideally should have been.

Then came the media houses. Never in the country’s history has the blatant bias of most of the media houses come to the fore as it has since 2014. Even though the game is getting a little more balanced recently, overall the media is still a lot more critical of any shortcoming by anyone related to BJP then they are with their counterparts across the aisle.

Most recently, the media was reporting and debating the ‘hate’ politics practiced by UP government by renaming Allahabad. While renaming cities might not be the most logical thing, it is surely not more illogical then it was when Madras was renamed Chennai or Bangalore was renamed Bengaluru. Such was the dishonesty of the Media, that they spoke as if Yogi Adityanath was the first to ever rename a city, forgetting, that most cities were renamed by Congress itself.

While the advent of social media has made it difficult for media houses to peddle outright lies, we need to be mindful of the power the news still holds in our country where even today a decent portion of our population is not as tech-savvy to be using social media.

The traditional news outlets still shape their views of the country and national politics. So, while one expects the government to take tough decisions for the betterment of the country, a lot of their time and effort is spent on perception management.

Another recurring nuisance we witnessed in the last 4 years was the forced holidays because of strikes, agitations, bandhs, etc. The minorities, be it based on religion, caste or anything at all apparently felt more unsafe in the last 4 years than since 1947. The narrative was so carefully crafted that even some Bollywood celebrities chanted the same tune.

While the bandhs and the occasional mob violence might not be new for the country, one chain of incidents exposed a bone-chilling conspiracy and shed light on how Naxalites thrive in the country.

The ultra-left wingers disguised as journalists, professors and in other respected professions were exposed to be responsible for hatching the violence which the country suffered in the first two weeks of 2018 starting with Bhima Koregaon violence in Pune. Supporting the Naxalite movement to weaken the country from within was the main job description of these elites from our society. And while even this might not be an earth-shattering news for some as the red corridor and their urban sympathizers have been infamous for a while now, what was really alarming was the next conspiracy they were working on – to assassinate none other than the alleged poster boy of all the problems and nuisance we have looked at so far, PM Modi.

In any democratic country, a plan to assassinate the leader of the government would be nothing short of treason and will be dealt with accordingly by the country’s law enforcement agencies and the courts. But in our country, while the agencies did their job in exposing this conspiracy and arresting the culprits, the courts were unhappy with the idea of these “distinguished” people of the society being in police custody. Thus, they only agreed to keep the individuals within the luxury of their homes in the form of house arrest initially. While for some of them they have now agreed to grant judicial custody, one of them has already walked out free and one other still remains arrested within the luxury of their house.

At best, Modi’s tenure can be described as a nationwide diagnostic test since we do not even know the extent to which our institutions have been compromised. And until that is completed, initiating the correct treatment is a far-fetched dream. Make no mistake, this effort has not been limited to just some non-invasive minor scans and cuts but includes a major shot of radiation/chemotherapy in the form of demonetization. And what did that show us? The backbone of our economy, the banks (some of their employees) were working against the country’s immune system by helping the culprits launder their illicit wealth and camouflage them as healthy cells.

Another pillar of democracy which has raised eyebrows over its conduct during Modi’s tenure is, unfortunately, the judiciary. It all started with the efforts of the Modi government in its very first year to bring in transparency in the process of appointment and promotion of judges, which despite being cleared in both the houses of Parliament was shot down by the Supreme Court. Apparently, they did not see any issue with the opaque method of the collegium. This led to the initiation of the tug of war between the government and the court over the appointment of various judges in the last 4 years.

Congress also attempt to impeach the CJI. This brazen attempt was shot down by the Vice President, and rightly so.

Irrespective of how objectively one tries to look at this, two issues stand out. Firstly, the fact that the trust in the Judiciary is certainly wavering especially after some of the decisions that concerned Hindu tradition Sabarimala decision, Ayodhya postponement and the Diwali cracker verdict to name the most prominent ones.

Secondly, and probably more appalling thing is the statement from the CJI stating there are more important matters for the Supreme Court to look at other than Ayodhya. And if anyone is wondering what can be more important than an issue which has been lingering for more than a century, is associated with the religious beliefs of close to a billion people and has led to riots in the past, the very next day the SC dwelled into the pricing of the Rafale jets. Something which just a week earlier they had said they won’t get into.

If one is looking for any common links between the two issues, look no further than the ultimate beneficiary in both these instances – Congress. Such instances make Harish Salve’s video from 2014 seem prophetic wherein he warned of situations where Congress would use the judiciary to intervene in the governance. And while none of this might really be happening for the first time, what is really worrying is the possible intention and the final outcome of these moves.

The government and the billion people, it seems are being told in virtually no uncertain terms to look for a different solution if a temple is to be constructed in its rightful place. Already the demand for an ordinance in this regard was being made as many felt the solution to this historic issue needs to be found outside the court, such voices have only got louder since the CJI’s 5-minute-long hearing.

Now, if the government goes down the ordinance route, it risks creating a political storm. On the other hand, if they don’t bring an ordinance and wait for the Supreme Court which is now all but certain to not happen before the 2019 elections, they risk alienation from RSS and other supporters, allies and some part of the Hindu voter base. What this has essentially done is create a state of conflict where there ideally should have been none.

This has been the Congress’ modus operandi all along. Create conflict where there should be none through beneficiaries it has inoculated for decades. Congress is a disruptive force which is more lethal when out of power than when in power.

While all of this will unfold in the next few months before the 2019 elections, it leads us to one logical conclusion for now, irrespective of what and how hard the government tries, the influence and ideology inculcated by the Congress rule since independence will not allow India to realize its true potential. However, it took a Modi and his diagnostic tests for us to even just realize this, and as mentioned before, even now we are probably unaware of the extent to which our institutions are compromised. Thus, for the betterment of the 1.3 billion people, let these harsh but beneficial tests continue. Cliché as it may sound, the first step to solving a problem is to see and accept it in its entirety.

Indian Army nabs Kashmiri local youth turned terrorist alive, as promised to his mother

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Army nabs Kashmiri local youth turned terrorist alive, as promised to his mother

The Indian army along with the Jammu and Kashmir Police exchanged a brief round of fire with two Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) terrorists, in Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday. While a Pakistani-origin terrorist belonging to the JeM was killed, the army keeping in mind its promise made to the mother of a local Kashmiri youth who had joined the Jaish-e-Mohammed four months back, handed him over, alive, to the Kashmir police.

Colonel Samar Raghav on firing in Khrew’s Bathien area in Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir said, “We were tracking their movement since a month and had cordoned off Bijnari area. We nabbed several Over-Ground-Workers of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and busted their racket. We located the Pakistani terrorist and Sohail Lone, a local terrorist.”

The forces surrounded the area and opened fire. “The Pakistani terrorist was neutralised and we handed over Sohail to police. We recovered one AK-47 rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades, 1 pistol along with 2 magazines,” Col. Raghav confirmed.

“Sohail (a local youth) had joined Jaish-e-Mohammed four months back. His mother and sisters had appealed him to come back. We promised his mother that we won’t kill him and despite him firing at us, we exercised maximum restraint and apprehended him alive,” Col. Raghav said.


The Pakistani terrorist who was neutralised by the Indian forces was identified as a Pakistani national code-named ‘Waseem’.

In another major counter-insurgency success in Jammu and Kashmir, six terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces on Sunday in the Kapran Batagund area of Shopian district.

Of the six killed, four belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen and two belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Both the district commanders of Hizbul and Lashkar have been killed, security forces confirmed.

Hizbul commander Umar Majeed Ganaie alias Hanzalla, whose selfie in front of Ghanta Ghar at Lal Chowk in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar surfaced on Thursday last week, was among those killed.

Media has no right to pontificate about 26/11 after SC’s observations on their irresponsible coverage

Raju Das
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Media has no right to pontificate about 26/11 after SC’s observations on their irresponsible coverage

Today marks 10 years of the gruesome terror attack of 26/11, one of the most brutal and sordid episodes in Indian history. While the NSG commandos were the heroes who freed the city from the clutches of the Pakistani terrorists, Tukaram Omble sacrificed his life to capture Kasab alive. Omble didn’t know back then while doing his duty, that he had actually managed to save generations of Hindus from crushing humiliation of vilification, considering Congress wanted to paint 26/11 as an “RSS conspiracy”.

Apart from the Pakistani terrorists, the blood-soaked saga revealed another enemy that had endangered the lives of several Indians. The Media. While the Media shamelessly telecasts day-long programs on a day which is nothing but an occasion to garner viewership for them, none of them will delve into how they themselves endangered the lives of those taken hostage by the Pakistani terrorists.

It is thus only fair that on this harrowed day, we recall the conduct of the media and how, not much else matters to this ilk other than their bottom line – even if it means sacrificing the lives of innocents.

The Supreme Court had dedicated an entire section and several pages in its judgement in Md. Ajmal Md. Amir Kasab vs the State Of Maharashtra on 29 August 2012 to the conduct of the media and how it endangered operations during 26/11.

When SC starts opining on the role of the media, at the very onset, it observes:

From the transcripts, especially those from Taj Hotel and Nariman House, it is evident that the terrorists who were entrenched at those places and more than them, their collaborators across the border were watching the full show on TV. In the transcripts, there are many references to the media reports and the visuals being shown on the TV screen. The collaborators sitting in their hideouts across the border came to know about the appellant being caught alive from Indian TV: they came to know about the killing of high ranking police officers also from Indian TV. … At another place in the transcript, the collaborators tell the terrorists in Taj Hotel that the dome at the top (of the building) had caught fire. The terrorists holed up in some room were not aware of this. The collaborators further advise the terrorists that the stronger they make the fire the better it would be for them. … At yet another place the collaborators tell the terrorists at Taj Hotel the exact position taken by the policemen (close to a building that belonged to the navy but was given to the civilians) and from where they were taking aim and firing at them (the terrorists) and advised them the best position for them to hit back at those policemen. 

The Supreme Court judgement cited many such incidents where the terrorists were helped by the live telecast of the events. The court notes that the handlers of the terrorists were practically monitoring every movement of Indian security forces and guiding the terrorists on ground based on such information.

The court judgement says that the entire terrorist attack and the counter-attack by security forces were shown live on television channels non-stop. The coverage of the channels included the positions and the movements of the security forces engaged in flushing out the terrorists. Such reckless coverage by the channels had meant that while security forces had no knowledge of the location of the terrorists and what kind of weapons and explosives they were having, collaborators in Pakistan had full knowledge on the position and weapons of the security forces and their operational movements, which were being communicated to the terrorists.

The judgement concludes that although it can’t be determined whether the security forces actually suffered any casualty or injury due to the telecast, “it is beyond doubt that the way their operations were freely shown made the task of the security forces not only exceedingly difficult but also dangerous and risky.”

Coming down heavily on the TV channels, the judgement says “Any attempt to justify the conduct of the TV channels by citing the right to freedom of speech and expression would be totally wrong and unacceptable in such a situation. The freedom of expression, like all other freedoms under Article 19, is subject to reasonable restrictions. An action tending to violate another person’s right to life guaranteed under Article 21 or putting the national security in jeopardy can never be justified by taking the plea of freedom of speech and expression.” The court made it clear that the role of media cannot be defended using the pretext of freedom of expression, as media was endangering the lives of security forces.

The court notes the visuals of the action could have been shown after all the terrorists were neutralised and the operations were over. But “in that case, the TV programmes would not have had the same shrill, scintillating and chilling effect and would not have shot up the TRP ratings of the channels.” In the most scathing comment on media, the judgement concludes that “by covering live the terrorists attack Mumbai in the way it was done, the Indian TV channels were not serving any national interest or social cause. On the contrary, they were acting in their own commercial interests putting the national security in jeopardy”.

The Supreme Court judgement on 26/11 Mumbai attack containing the comments on media came in the year 2012. Six years later, there is no proof that media has mended its ways. Today, the media will flood their shows with stories from the horrific terror attack, however, none of them will hold up the mirror to themselves. None of them will introspect. And none of them will admit how they went horribly wrong in 2008. The media is above scrutiny for these people and the Supreme Court judgement a distant memory, never to be discussed.

The Supreme Court judgement can be accessed here [PDF].

‘The party chose to pander to Muslim fears’: Wikileaks cable on Congress’ dangerous politics over 26/11 terror attack

OpIndia Staff
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‘The party chose to pander to Muslim fears’: Wikileaks cable on Congress’ dangerous politics over 26/11 terror attack

A leaked WikiLeaks document reveals how the Congress party played politics over the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It did not escape the notice of even the then U.S. ambassador to India, David Mulford.

Minority Affairs Minister Antulay’s remarks

In the leaked memo, Mulford is seen talking about the Congress party’s politics over the 26/11 Mumbai tragedy. He mentions that P. Chidambaram officially denied any Hindutva link to the terror attacks after the UPA Minority Affairs Minister made outrageous claims. Antulay had claimed that Hindutva element was behind the death of Hemant Karkare. Antulay said,  “Superficially speaking, they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare. Whether he (Karkare) was a victim of terrorism or terrorism plus something I do not know.” “Karkare found that there are non-Muslims involved in acts of terrorism in some cases. Any person going to the roots of terrorism has always been the target,” Antulay had said, adding: “There is more than what meets the eye.”

Mulford’s scathing observations

Soon after the initial denial of Antulay’s rhetoric, the party issued statements which “implicitly endorsed” the conspiracy theories, Mulford observed. “The Congress party, after first distancing itself from the comments (of Antulay, the then Minority Affairs Minister), two days later issued a contradictory statement which implicitly endorsed the conspiracy. During this time, Mr Antulay’s completely unsubstantiated claims gained support in the conspiracy-minded Indian—Muslim community,” Mulford wrote in his secret cable to the State Department on December 23, 2008. “Hoping to foster that support for upcoming national elections, the Congress Party cynically pulled back from its original dismissal and lent credence to the conspiracy,” he added.

Mulford also observed that the Congress party chose to engage in dangerous identity politics for electoral benefits. He wrote, “The party chose to pander to Muslims’ fears, providing the impetus for those in the Muslim community who will continue to play up the conspiracy theory. While cooler heads eventually prevailed within the Congress leadership,
the idea that the party would entertain such outlandish claims proved once again that many party leaders are still wedded to the old identity politics. The seventy-nine-year-old Antulay was probably bewildered to find that his remarks, similar in vein to what he would have routinely made in the past to attack the BJP, created such a furore this time.”

It is interesting to note that the Congress’ minority appeasement politics did not escape the eyes of even the U.S. ambassador to India. It is also pertinent to mention that senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh also attended the release of a book titled “26/11: An RSS conspiracy?” at the India Islamic Cultural Centre.

Congress mouthpiece National Herald publishes article denigrating Hindu Epics

OpIndia Staff
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Congress mouthpiece National Herald publishes article denigrating Hindu Epics

Congress mouthpiece National Herald in an article titled, “Are our epics replete with #MeToo sagas?” has argued that “Disregard for women’s consent and misogyny are deeply rooted in our religious, cultural and literary traditions”.


In the article, the author Kuldeep Kumar argues that the Holy texts of Hinduism, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are deeply patriarchal and disregard and disrespect women’s consent. It appears that the author has done so without a proper understanding of the texts. The author also wrongly believes that Suparnakha was punished for ‘expressing her sexuality’. He writes, “The punishment was reserved for Ravan’s sister Suparnakha who gave expression to her sexuality and told Rama that she fancied him. Her nose and ears were cut off.”

The article comes only days after the Twitter CEO created a storm with the ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy‘ placard. The article in the Congress mouthpiece contributes to the Leftist agenda of painting Hinduism as a ‘patriarchal’ religion.

People on Twitter were not happy with the Congress mouthpiece for publishing an article that misrepresents Hinduism and let their thoughts known.


The Congress party and its President Rahul Gandhi has been trying hard to shed its anti-Hindu image in recent times. However, in light of party members regularly playing communal politics against Hindus and now the party mouthpiece publishing an article that attacks the Holy texts of Hindus, their true motivations appear highly questionable.

Recently, senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh was caught saying, “If we did not get 90 percent votes of the Muslim community then we will face a huge loss. We have the numbers. You know where the Muslims votes. You have to take care where those votes were cast. If we have received fewer votes then what are the reasons behind it. You have to postmortem the reasons behind it.”

A video also emerged where Kamal Nath was heard telling Muslim leaders, “We will deal with them later but you’ll have to suffer everything until the assembly elections.” BJP leaders claim that he was referring to Hindus while others are of the opinion that Nath was referring to the RSS. Regardless of who he was referring to, Nath’s rhetoric appears to be extremely problematic for the Congress party.

The Congress party and its ally JD(S)’ government in Karnataka also has been celebrating ‘Tipu Jayanti’, birth anniversary a Muslim ruler who is widely condemned for his atrocities against Hindus. Senior leader Shashi Tharoor claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was ‘Scorpion on a Shivling’ who you can neither remove with your hand nor hit with a chappal.

The Congress party’s history of peddling an anti-Hindu agenda is well known. Now that its own mouthpiece has published an article denigrating the Hindu faith, it appears the Congress party president’s new found respect for Hinduism is just for political gimmicks.

As Rahul Gandhi prays at Ajmer Dargah before talking in Pokhran, here is Congress’ tarnished history with both places

OpIndia Staff
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As Rahul Gandhi prays at Ajmer Dargah before talking in Pokhran, here is Congress’ tarnished history with both places

As a part of campaigning for assembly elections in Rajasthan, Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited and offered prayers at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah today. He was accompanied by Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot. After that, he addressed a rally in Pokhran.

As the Congress leaders visited the shrine, its dark past where Congress leaders were also associated, comes to mind. One recalls the mass rape and sexual exploitation that had happened at Ajmer which was exposed in 1992. Several members of the ‘Khadim’ family, who are the traditional caretakers of the Dargah, were involved in the crime.

The modus operandi of this crime was similar to what the Muslim grooming gangs have been doing in the UK in recent times. They would trap one girl and manage to take obscene images. Then they would blackmail the girl into familiarising them to her classmates and friends. Eventually, other girls would be raped, sexually exploited and have their pictures taken. The cycle continued so forth. The gang continued to expand its operations and victimise an increasing number of girls.

Local police were aware of this organised crime, but they turned a blind eye because the Khadims were powerful people with connections in high places. Even after a local newspaper exposed the crime, the prosecution was difficult as not many girls were ready to come forward and testify.

One of the main accused in the case was Farooq Chishty, president of Ajmer Congress. Other two persons accused in the case were vice-president and joint secretary of the city Congress unit. Initially, Farooq escaped prosecution by claiming to be mentally unstable. The defence was successful in proving that he had developed schizophrenia. He was convicted much later in 2007 by a fast track court.

It was estimated that more 500 girls became victims of this gang, most of them Hindus, while the criminals were Muslims. Rapists were not the only people to have exploited the helpless girls, others also joined in harassing them. Many local papers and tabloids had got photographs clicked by rapists, and they used those photos to extort money from the girls by blackmailing them.

Pokhran is the place where India has conducted its nuclear tests. And while Rahul Gandhi visits the place to campaign for election, the stand of the Congress party on the tests can’t be ignored.

While the first nuclear test was done at the same location by Indira Gandhi government in 1974, Congress reaction to the second test by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998 was dubious.

While the tests were vital in building India’s nuclear weapons, the Congress party had actually opposed the tests. Then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had said that “real strength lies in restraint, not in the display of shakti,” referring to Operation Shakti, the name given to the operation. Party spokesperson Salman Khurshid said that BJP had done the test for political reasons and not to enhance the security of the nation. India’s neighbouring enemies have nuclear weapons, despite that fact, the Congress party had opposed the nuclear tests.

‘Why are you Muslims afraid when Digvijaya Singh is here’? says the veteran Congress leader

Jhankar Mohta
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‘Why are you Muslims afraid when Digvijaya Singh is here’? says the veteran Congress leader

The senior Congress leader, Digvijaya Singh has stoked a fresh controversy ahead of Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. As per a report in Republic TV, while addressing a public rally in the state, the former MP Chief Minister made some objectionable statements, asserting that he had been receiving a bad name for helping the Muslims and Dalits because they are being constantly threatened from different sections of society.

“Congress workers have been dying for 15 years. He has been receiving a bad name, he has been going to jail. He has been dragged into false cases and still, we(BJP) are working in the direction of defeating Congress? They should be ashamed. I am quite sad. I am in deep grief as I am making this speech in front of you. Dalits are being threatened. Muslims are being threatened. Why are you Muslims afraid when your leader Digvijaya Singh is here. I have been infamous for helping Dalits and Muslims,” said Digvijaya Singh during an election rally.

The Congress has been busy dialling up its Hindutva image in Madhya Pradesh before the state assembly elections.

Retaliating to these statements former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and BJP leader Uma Bharti attacked the Congress party for always resorting to caste-based politics. “Congress has always been a party that plays the caste card. They have always indulged into communalism. It has divided the country in the name of religion. They have attacked the Sikhs in the name of caste. It is an opportunist party. It is a party that believes in superstitions. It has resulted in the degradation of the country. It has only divided the country in the name of caste and religion,” said Uma Bharti while speaking to reporters in the matter.

Recently, a video had surfaced where party veteran, Kamalnath was caught on camera resolving to use the Muslim card, weeks before the Madhya Pradesh state elections. In a ‘behind-closed-door-meeting’, Kamal Nath was perceived saying that ‘only the Muslim votes can make the Congress party win’. He is the same person who had promised that a Gaushala will be built at every Panchayat in the state of Madhya Pradesh. These statements coming from a Congress veteran have exposed the devious intent of the party which has made Soft Hindutva in public, minority appeasement in private and creating caste divide in secret its latest mantra.

However, these kinds of untimed statements from senior party members may cause troubled predicaments for the Congress party who has been lately trying its best to project its ‘soft-Hindutva’ image.

Congress’ approach towards wooing voters always seem to be caste or community-based. It has earlier too projected its predisposition towards the minority community. So far so a decade ago the Congress-led UPA government had submitted before the supreme court that “there was no historical proof of Lord Ram”.

Continuing in this context, in December, the Congress party had decided to maintain ambiguity over its stance on Ram Mandir by refraining from commenting on the matter. The explanation was given then, that it would be unfair to comment on a matter that is sub-judice. Its senior leader Kapil Sibal though was making other noises, with reports claiming that he was trying to delay the verdict in the matter, by openly trying to push the issue beyond the 2019 elections.

Rahul Gandhi furthering the anti-Hindu stance, which his party actually, fundamentally, believes in, had told the US ambassador that Hindu extremists were a bigger threat to India in the context of the Lashkar-e-taiba.

Besides this Hindu terror bogey, was the infamous communal violence bill which the Congress-led UPA government wanted to enact. All this is apart from the noise made by the state level leadership of the Congress, which includes Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah asking for the opinion of district heads regarding withdrawal of cases lodged against people from the minority community.

For a party that has been in power for the major part of India’s independent history, Congress’ tactic of bringing caste, religion, and communities rather than issues of development as their election agenda only exposes its own failure. As the 2019 general elections draw close, the once grand party of India’s politics seems to be fighting a desperate battle.

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