Home Blog Page 6929

Election Commission announces schedule for Assembly Elections in 5 states

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Election Commission announces schedule for Assembly Elections in 5 states

Election preparations in the five states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana are in full swing. The five states are going to polls next month. The Election Commission has announced the poll dates for the five States. The poll schedule for all the five States is as follows:

Chhattisgarh

Phase I-

Last date of filing nominations – 23/10/2018

Last date for withdrawal of candidates – 26/10/2018

Date of poll – 12/11/2018

Phase II-

Last date of filing nominations – 2/11/2018

Last date of withdrawal of candidates – 5/11/2018

Date of poll – 20/11/2018

Madhya Pradesh

Last date of filing nominations – 9/11/2018

Last date of withdrawal of candidates – 14/11/2018

Date of poll – 28/11/2018

Rajasthan

Last date of filing nominations – 19/11/2018

Last date of withdrawal of candidates – 22/11/2018

Date of poll – 7/12/2018

Telangana

Last date of filing nominations – 19/11/2018

Last date of withdrawal of candidates – 22/11/2018

Date of poll – 7/12/2018

Mizoram

Last date of filing nominations – 9/11/2018

Last date of withdrawal of candidates – 14/11/2018

Date of poll – 28/11/2018

Counting for all the five states will be held on December 11, 2018. The political parties have already come out with the list of candidates for the Assembly elections. Elections will be held on 40 seats in Mizoram, 119 seats in Telangana, 200 seats in Rajasthan, 231 (230+1 nominated) seats in Madhya Pradesh and 91 (90+1 nominated) seats in Chhattisgarh.

In the Naxal affected state of Chhattisgarh, security has been prepped up to ensure security during elections. According to the information given by Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Vivekananda Sinha, about 500 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces are arriving here ahead of the November 12 elections. Bastar borders the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.

Talks are being held with the neighbouring states to ensure there’s no cross-border movement of Maoists. Satellite trackers with SOS buttons will be used to track the movement of the security personnel from the district headquarters. To track the movement of Naxals in the three districts if Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada, drones will also be used.

Out of the five states where Assembly elections are to be held, currently Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have BJP governments, Telangana has TDP government and Mizoram has Congress government.

Gujarat: Congress MLA arrested for accepting bribe from person accused irrigation scam

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Gujarat: Congress MLA arrested for accepting bribe from person accused irrigation scam

Congress MLA from Dhrangadhra, Gujarat, Parsotam Sabariya was arrested on Sunday for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from persons accused in an irrigation scam in Morbi district, over 60 kilometers from Rajkot.

A team of Morbi police had picked up Sabariya from his residence in Trajpar village on the outskirts of Morbi town at around 4 am on Sunday and had brought him to Morbi town for questioning. After grilling him for hours, he was formally arrested by ‘A’ Division police in Morbi town at 2 pm.

Besides Sabariya, a lawyer named Bharat Ganesh, an executive engineer in the irrigation department, CD Kanani, a contractual person, and two others have earlier been arrested in connection with a scam pertaining to construction and repair of dams, digging of ponds and repair and restoration of percolation tanks in villages in Morbi district.

Karanraj Vaghela, Superintendent of Police, Morbi, said that Sabariya had demanded Rs 60 lakhs from some accused in the irrigation scam, in return for not raising the issue in the Assembly and with the state government. He ultimately settled for Rs 35 lakhs, out of which Rs. 10 lakh was given to him through a middleman. Another Rs 25 lakh was given to the middleman in the form of a cheque, Vaghela said.

Inspector RJ Chaudhary of Morbi ‘A’ Division police station confirmed, that the alleged middleman identified as Bharat Vakil has also been arrested.

According to police, a grant of Rs 20 crore required for 334 minor irrigation projects was approved by the Gujarat government in villages in Morbi district. SP Vaghela furthered that the state government, after receiving complaints, had launched an investigation into the irrigation projects which revealed irregularities and mismanagement of Rs 1.12 crore in 51 such projects. Other projects are also being inspected for suspected irregularities and corruption.

Similarly last month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case of money laundering against Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar. The case was in relation to the income tax raids which were carried out at his premises last year and a huge sum of cash was allegedly recovered. DK Shivakumar has also been accused of being involved in illegal mining and land scams.

In another such case, a Manipur Congress MLA had been reportedly arrested in August in connection with a missing arms case. The National Investigation Agency has arrested Manipur Congress MLA Yamthong Haokip for having a connection with the theft of 56 pistols and 58 magazines from Director General of Police’s armoury located within the premises of 2nd Manipur Rifles Battalion, Imphal between September 2016 and early 2017.

Last year too, we had reported how Mumbai police nabbed Mohammad Jamadar, vice-president, South Mumbai District Congress Committee, in an alleged 15kg gold smuggling racket. Earlier, Ashton Sequeira, an NSUI (student wing of the Indian National Congress) leader (District Secretary) had been arrested among 5 others for stealing and attempting to sell antiquated idols of Jain Tirthankaras worth crores of rupees.

#MeToo: Suhel Seth fired by Tata Group after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him

OpIndia Staff
-
0
#MeToo: Suhel Seth fired by Tata Group after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him

The #Metoo movement in the country has led to the fall of another prominent individual, as Author and Marketing guru Suhel Seth has been sacked as a consultant by the Tata Group.

According to reports, Tata Sons has decided to terminate the contract of brand consultant Suhel Seth, after he was accused by several women of sexual harassment.

Suhel Seth reportedly played a crucial role in restoring the brand name of the Tata Group after the industry giants had met with a management crisis within the group in 2016 when Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of Tata Sons.

As soon as the accusations against Seth surfaced, Tata Sons said, “Tata Group is committed to promoting a safe workplace for women. We have noted the recent reports regarding Mr Seth in the media. We are looking into the issue and will decide on a further course of action in this regard.”

Six women had accused Suhel Seth of sexual misconduct in the past including model Diandra Soares, filmmaker Natashja Rathore, writer Ishita Yadav, and author Ira Trivedi. Diandra Soares had accused Seth of misbehaving with her at a party in New Delhi and tried to forcibly kiss her.

Mandakini Gehlot, another female journalist narrated a similar accusation against Suhel Seth after he had allegedly kissed her. Filmmaker Natashja Rathore had a similar story. She said, “You then threw yourself at me although I was clearly uncomfortable. You shoved your tongue down my throat even when I resisted, I whacked your head and said ‘behave yourself’. You put your hand into my kurta and grabbed my breast.”

The ‘MeToo Movement’ has grabbed the headlines in the country with startling revelations coming from across the spectrum involving several prominent personalities like stand up comedians, journalists, cinema stars and politicians. Union minister M J Akbar who was accused by over a dozen women of sexual harassment had to resign from the cabinet over sexual misconduct allegations.

Many people like Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor, Varun Grover and comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod are all being accused of sexual misconduct. Notable filmmakers like Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and Journalists like Vinod Dua and Sidharth Bhatia of The Wire, Prashant Jha of the Hindustan Times have been accused.

‘Faith of country is in the court and there will be a win’: UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya on Ram Mandir

OpIndia Staff
-
0
‘Faith of country is in the court and there will be a win’: UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya on Ram Mandir

As the Supreme Court begins to hear the Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid title case from today, the political debate around it has already started as the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday told Times of India that even parties like BSP, SP and Congress who are opposing the Ram Mandir don’t have the guts to build a memorial for Babur in the country.

Reportedly, UP Deputy CM Maurya while speaking to the media, referring to the opposition parties of Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi Party and Congress said that no one in the country does not want to build a structure named after Mughal emperor Babur in Ayodhya.

“I think no one would want a Babri structure in Ayodhya for sure. As a responsible government, we will respect the sentiments of the people… As of now, our hopes rest on the court,” Maurya added.

Keshav Prasad Maurya also expressed his hope regarding a positive judgement by the Supreme Court on the Ram temple issue. “The faith of country is in the court and there will be a win. Ram Lalla wasn’t born in Kolkata or Delhi. It was in Ayodhya that he was born. It doesn’t need rocket science to establish that,” Maurya said.

He added that he is hopeful that the Supreme Court will provide a solution to the issue which is a matter of faith for millions of people. He also hinted at taking the legislation course if courts are unable to give a judgment. “If courts and consensus fail, the option of bringing in legislation on the construction of temple would be taken,”  Maurya said in Lucknow.

The statements from the Deputy CM Maurya comes a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had told a gathering that if Supreme Court can give a judgement on Sabarimala, it should also give its order in Ram temple case.

The Supreme Court in its earlier judgement had ruled against referring the Ram Janambhoomi case to a larger bench to revisit the 1994 judgement. The Supreme Court will constitute a three-judge bench to hear the Ayodhya land title suit starting from October 29.

As BJP officially backs Sabarimala devotees, we witness the last rites of Communism in India

Abhishek Banerjee
-
0
As BJP officially backs Sabarimala devotees, we witness the last rites of Communism in India

There is a well-known expression “follow the money”. With political parties, it is just like that: “follow the votes”.

This is not even meant to be criticism, not even a taunt. It’s the simple economics of votes. Market demand leads to supply. And the BJP has now officially thrown its weight behind those protesting the state takeover of Sabarimala Temple, with the confirmation coming from the highest level.

Untitled.png

At first, Smriti Irani did some kite flying, testing waters with a poorly worded offhand remark that gave more grist to the liberal lie machine. There is no doubt that her remarks were twisted, but by this point in politics, she should have expected that in advance.

Let me say something here about the whole matter of whether the celebrated anti-Hindu activist shown on all TV channels was actually carrying used sanitary napkins to desecrate the Sabarimala Temple. I don’t care whether it’s true or not. This “news” has been viral on social media and that makes it “true” for me at a political level. Dear liberals, think of it as Lord Ayyappa’s punishment for the time you spread lies about “semen filled balloons” on Holi.

In order to demonize the festival of Holi, prominent liberals were asking random Hindu men on Twitter why they throw “semen filled balloons” … remember? Don’t complain now. Go explain to lakhs of devotees why your beloved anti-Hindu activist was carrying “used napkins” to desecrate the temple. Not my problem, but yours.

I know that there is a lot of disillusionment (and anger) among online right-wing over the BJP dragging its feet before finally getting its act together on the issue of Sabarimala Temple. However you feel about the leadership, we have to be grateful to the selfless RSS and BJP worker who has been on the front lines of opposing the storming of the temple from the very beginning.

Remember that dissent under CPIM in Kerala is a deadly serious and scary proposition. As George Orwell would have put it, dissent under CPIM rule does not entail death. Under CPIM rule, dissent is death. 

Who would understand this better than RSS/BJP workers?

Suffice to say that the CPIM government in Kerala has been left totally blindsided by the Hindu uprising in the state. This was much more than political upheaval. It was a grassroots uprising. The images reminded me of Jammu 2008 when common Hindus took to the street against the Jammu and Kashmir government revoking the land transfer to Amarnath Shrine Board to build temporary settlements for pilgrims.

The reason the CPIM govt was caught blindsided is because they committed the cardinal sin in politics : buying their own propaganda. Especially since 2014, the mainstream media and social media arms of the liberal ecosystem have sought to project Kerala as some kind of anti-Hindu state. This propaganda peaked in August when it was made to look as if even floods in Kerala are vaguely the fault of Hindutva forces.

We have become used to contempt filled lectures about how Kerala is “different” and how Hindutva forces can never secure a foothold in Kerala.

This, of course, couldn’t be less true. The BJP’s vote share in last Kerala elections was 16%. Do you know that JDU’s vote share in last Bihar elections was 16%? The BJP is already as popular in Kerala as Nitish is popular in Bihar. Think about that for a second!

The CPIM foolishly bought into their own rhetoric. Here’s what they forgot:

Kerala is India. India is Kerala. 

And Kerala Hindus don’t hate Hindus. You know why? Because they are Hindus themselves!

I know every Communist will be shocked to hear this.

So Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan’s government sat cosily in Thiruvananthapuram, convinced that Kerala Hindus were salivating for an opportunity to desecrate Sabarimala Temple.

How could that not be? All the prominent media persons, who were themselves SFI and AISA comrades back when they were wasting their time learning English Literature and/or Africology in college, said that Kerala Hindus would love to see their temples being stormed by the state.

So CPIM listened to the left loving media. And waited for the day their anti-Hindu activists would become Kerala’s biggest heroes by doing to Sabarimala what Ghazni did to Somnath.

Ha!

How wrong they were!

My favourite thing about the entire Sabarimala episode is how tribal Hindus, following their ancient duty, threw a protective ring around the temple. As on date, tribals represent the worst failure of the whole “idea of India” project. From Jharkhand to Chhattisgarh to Odisha to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala and all the way to the North East, tribals are the most consciously Hindu community in India today.  Take that JNU!

When the CPIM was caught unawares, it acted with the reflexive brutality common to Communist regimes around the world. The Communist police having failed to storm Sabarimala Temple, is now on the hunt for dissenters. So far 2000 have been rounded up and arrested.

Two thousand dissenters arrested in Kerala! Imagine how big this story would have been if 99% of our media persons had not been from college comrades from SFI and AISA.

Sadly for the CPIM, this is not Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia does not even exist anywhere in the world any more. The CPIM can put up as many portraits of Stalin and Kim Jong Un as it wants but the next election in Kerala will still happen on schedule.

We are witnessing the last rites of Communism in India. Bengal is gone. Tripura is gone. Game over in Kerala.

Indonesia: Lion Air plane crashes minutes after take off, 188 passengers and crew on board

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Indonesia: Lion Air plane crashes minutes after take off, 188 passengers and crew on board

Earlier today, a Lion Air plane, which lost contact shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, crashed in the sea. The plane, which was on its way to Pangkal Pinang took off at around 6:20 am local time and lost contact at 6:33 am local time. According to flightradar, the preliminary data show an increase in speed and decrease in altitude at last transmission.

The Boeing 737 flight had 181 passengers onboard including one child and two infants as well as six crew members and two pilots. Boats, helicopters and a team of 130 rescuers is deployed at the crash site, 34 nautical miles off the coast near Jakarta. Debris, life vests and a cell phone have reportedly been discovered about two nautical miles from the crash site.

Six months ago, a Lion Air plane had skidded off the runway at Djalaluddin Airport in Gorontalo, Indonesia. While none of the 174 passengers and 7 crew members suffered any injury, the incident destroyed plane’s landing gear.

In 2006, the European Union had banned Lion Air from flying to any of the member countries, deeming it ‘unsafe’. However, after an almost decade long ban, the EU lifted the same in 2016 and gave a green light to Indonesia’s low-cost carrier to fly to Europe.

Shekhar Gupta’s The Print publishes abominable lies by Taslima Nasreen about Hindu temples

Raju Das
-
0
Shekhar Gupta’s The Print publishes abominable lies by Taslima Nasreen about Hindu temples

On October 28, news portal The Print published an article written by Bangladeshi-Swedish writer Taslima Nasreen, who is living in exile in India. The article titled ‘Gods are male, they hate women: Why fighting for entry to temples is futile’ is written in the context of the protests that Kerala is seeing after the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala.

Screenshot a portion of the article

The article is full of lies and baseless allegations. Taslima Nasreen says that all Gods are male, that may be true for some other religions, but certainly not true in the case of Hinduism. Just last week, India celebrated Durga Puja and Navaratri, one of the longest religious festivals in the country, which is dedicated to goddess Durga. And after few days, India will celebrate Laxmi puja during Diwali. At the same time, another form of Devi, Goddess Kali will be worshipped in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and other eastern states. Taslima lives in Kolkata, virtually the epicentre of Devi puja, she should know.

Just like there are numerous Gods in Hinduism, there are also numerous Goddesses worshipped by devotees. There are countless temples and elaborate rituals around these Goddesses. Therefore, it is absolutely dishonest to say that all Gods are male, at least in the context of Hinduism.

In the article, Tasleema seems to have lied blatantly about the temples where women are barred. She says that women are not allowed in Mawali Mata Mandir in Chhattisgarh, Kartikeya Mandir at the Haryana-Punjab border, Kamakhya temple in Assam, Mangal Chandi Mandir in Jharkhand, Ranakpur Jain Temple in Rajasthan, and Shri Padmanavaswami Temple, Shri Krishna Temple and Sabarimala in Kerala. She also writes that “women cannot enter some of these religious precincts because the Gods there are believed to be celibates.”

It is ironical that she should mention Kamakhya temple in the context of Sabarimala. While in Sabarimala women of menstruating age are barred by tradition, Kamakhya is the unique temple where the deity actually undergoes menstruation every year. When the Devi goes through menstruation cycle, the temple remains shut, and the Ambuwachi Mela festival takes place at this time, attracting thousands of devotees from all over India, both men and women.

Kamakhya Temple (source: The Hindu)

It is to be noted that the deity of the temple Kamakhya Devi is a Goddess, and more importantly, there is absolutely no bar on women entering this shakti peeth in Guwahati, Assam. Just like almost all temples in India, men and women both can pray in the temple equally. Kamakhya temple and Ambuwachi Mela are quite well known in India, and it is surprising why Taslima chose to lie about it.

There is also no bar of entry of women in Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala and Ranakpur Jain Temple in Rajasthan, this is totally false information given by Nasreen, which was published by The Print without checking the facts.

Ranakpur Jain Temple in Rajasthan
Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala

She also mentions Shri Krishna Temple in Kerala where women are not allowed but does not mention which Krishna temple, as there are hundreds of Krishna Temples in the state. We assume she is talking about Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple, the most famous Krishna temple in the state. Here also, there is absolutely no ban on women devotees. In fact, the temple hosts weddings, where thousands of marriages are held every year.

Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple in Kerala

There is a ban on the entry of women in very few temples, and there are specific back stories or customs behind it. Other than those few, women can freely pray at tens of thousands of temples that dot the country. Just because a tiny number of temples bar women, Taslima claims that Gods hate women, which can be construed as an offensive statement for devotees.

It is an absolute shame that a media organisation headed by Shekhar Gupta, who is also the president of Editors Guild of India, publishes such offensive lies about some of the most famous temples in the country.

The Print has been a habitual offender as far as publishing lies is concerned. However, Shekhar Gupta had covered Assam extensively during the Assam agitation and he knows politics of Assam very well unlike other national media journalists who suffer from the tyranny of distance for such places, and he should personally know about the Kamakhya temple. Padmanabhaswamy temple also remains in news and it is impossible that Gupta does not about the temple and hence, that the article laden with lies was published in the first place, points towards deliberate mischief by not only Taslima, but also Shekhar Gupta.

Defence Ministry officially opens doors for girls in all the Sainik Schools

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Defence Ministry officially opens doors for girls in all the Sainik Schools

This August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech had declared the government’s decision to grant women officers permanent commission and committed removing of gender disparity from various sectors of government.

In an unprecedented move almost a year before the speech, some Sainik Schools already began to set the roads for girls.

Since their beginning, most of the Sainik schools followed a common objective and prepared “boys” physically, mentally and academically for getting into the prestigious National Defence Academy, which remains a male bastion since the setup in 1955.

But changing course, Sainik School Chhingchhip in Mizoram has given admission to 6 girls in class Vl, last year in the month of June. Sainik School, Lucknow joined the fleet and gave admission to 15 girls in class IX in April this year.

Sainik School in Mizoram received 31 applications for the admissions, within 3 weeks of putting out the advertisement. The girl applicants sat with boys for the entrance exams, out of 31 girls, 21 made it to the interview and 6 girls got finally selected.

This was even before the Defence Ministry’s official announcement.

On Thursday, Defence Ministry officially declared to induct girls in all the Sainik Schools across India. Sainik Schools, considered a bastion of boys, have now been opened for the girls for the first time. The girls can be equally imparted and prepared for armed forces, inducting both boys and girls on regular basis.

In the official statement, Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Minister of State for Defence confirmed the decision and talked about the ongoing infrastructure development in Sainik Schools to induct and accommodate girls as soon as possible.

“It is a testimony to the fact that the Sainik Schools are meeting their three-pronged agenda of opening access of quality public school education to children; serving as feeder-institutions to the NDA and removing regional imbalance in the officer-cadre ratio of the armed forces,” Said Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Minister of State for Defence. He also added, “The central government has taken revolutionary decision to induct girls in all the Sainik Schools and open the doors of quality training, a historic step towards empowerment of girls,” while addressing a two-day conference of principals of all the Sainik Schools. The conference was focused on policy matters and functioning of the Sainik Schools.

Since 1992, Indian Armed Forces are recruiting women in their supporting arms of engineering, education and medical corps. Indian Air force had also set precedent when three women pilots were inducted as pilots in 2016.

Know the man behind Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s ‘Statue of Unity’

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Know the man behind Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s ‘Statue of Unity’

As India gears up to unveil the world’s tallest statue, the ‘Statue of unity’, which stands spirited at a height of 182 metres, on October 31, it is imperative to familiarize ourselves with the man behind the astounding craftsmanship. Ram Vanji Sutar, a name synonymic to perfection, carries the weight of over 50 monumental sculptures on his shoulders during the span of forty years of his gleaming career. His latest work includes this mammoth piece of art in Gujarat.

Ram Vanji Sutar, born 19 February 1925, is the recipient of Padma Bhushan in 2016 and Padma Shri in 1999 for his contribution in the field of arts. In October 2018, Ram Vanji Sutar received the Tagore Award for the cultural harmony of 2016.

Sutar, was born in the village of Gondur, in Dhulia district of Maharashtra and got married to Pramila in 1952. Like him, their only son Anil Sutar (born in 1957) is also a sculptor. His guru Shriram Krishna Joshi encouraged him to foray into the world of stones and sculptures. “It all started with a dream,” says the frail veteran. “I dreamt that I needed to be a sculptor. I just followed that dream,” he said.

His ‘Chambal Symbolic monument’, at the Gandhi Sagar Dama, a 45-ft tall monolithic art piece of a mother and her two children, carved out of a single stone, went on to become the turning point in his career. Prior to this, Sutar had been partaking in the restoration of several sculptures in the Ellora and Ajanta caves.

Statue of Unity, India’s ratification to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contributions and the Indian freedom struggle, will be the world’s tallest statue, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Unity will be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, which also marks the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, the Ironman of India. The world’s tallest statue dedicated to independent India’s first Home Minister stands at 182 meters (597 feet) tall.

As almost all Indian look forward to celebrating India’s heartwarming gesture to recognise Sardar Vallabhbai Patel’s contributions and embrace the world’s tallest statue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, compelled by his habit, had tried using this astounding piece of art to target Prime Minister Modi, not once but several times in the past.

Back in October 2015, Outlook had reported that L&T had outsourced the work of constructing the statue to a Chinese Foundry. L&T had clarified even then that the entire statue would be built in India. Recently, while delivering a speech in Chitrakoot, Rahul, the master-blaster of lies, had repeated a debunked lie, stating that the statue was ‘made in China’. Back in September 2017, too, Rahul Gandhi repeated the debunked lie and claimed that this move would end up providing jobs in China and not India. Then too, we had reiterated that this was a blatant lie.

Scroll blames Tripura government for implementing law on cannabis

Raju Das
-
0
Scroll blames Tripura government for implementing law on cannabis

On October 26, left-wing propaganda website Scroll published an article titled ‘In Tripura, a crackdown on cannabis cultivation leaves hundreds without livelihood’.

Scroll.in downplays cannabis cultivation

The article says that in the Sonamura area in the Sipahijala district in Tripura, people were carrying out illegal cannabis cultivation since decades. And now due to the massive crackdown on this practice by BJP’s Biplab Deb government, the economy of the area has been wrecked and farmers have become jobless.

This is a shocking stand taken by the website on the issue. The article actually criticises the current BJP government for actually enforcing the law, indicating that the illegal activity should have been allowed to be continued. The article contains testimonial of several people who are affected by the crackdown on the practice, and it has tried to portray that the state government has done a grave injustice to them.

Although the facts mentioned in the report is correct, the stand taken in it is unacceptable. Yes, when government implement something which is already illegal under the law, the people practising that activity will definitely be affected. Cannabis was not banned by Biplab Dev government. The substance, including its cultivation, is banned for a long time under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Moreover, India is also a signatory to the United Nation’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. Both of these prohibits growing cannabis for any reason other than industrial purposes.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of every elected government to respect the law and not allow something which has been declared illegal. Yes, there is a debate going on for legalising it for medicinal and personal uses, but it is still banned in most countries across the world. Although few countries and few states in the USA have legalised it, it still banned in India, along with most other countries.

While Scroll criticises the current government in Tripura for carrying out its duty, it forgets to criticise the real culprit. The cannabis cultivation was going on in the region for several decades when the state was ruled by Communist and Congress governments. It was the responsibility of past governments to stop this illegal activity before it became so large scale and provide the farmers with alternative livelihood options. But they chose to take the easy way and allowed the activity to go on. Bolstered by such ‘encouragement’ from the administration, more and more farmers started cultivating cannabis, as it is more profitable compared to conventional crop.

3350 kg of dry ganja worth ₹1.68 crore was seized in the state in August 2018

There are many areas in the country where a lot of people are engaged in some illegal trade. Some areas produce illicit liquor, some areas harbour organised gangs, people in many border areas do smuggling, etc. Now if the government of the land takes strict action against such activities, the livelihood of those people will be definitely affected. But that can’t be an excuse for allowing the illegal practices to continue.

Before assembly elections, BJP had promised to make Tripura ‘nasha mukt’ (addiction free), and this crackdown is part of fulfilling that promise. The state government has already started programs to support farmers who used to grow cannabis, which include providing skill development training, supporting them to switch to other crops etc.

1...6,9286,9296,930...7,676Page 6,929 of 7,676