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Mizoram: NGOs oppose political parties fielding Chakma candidates. Read about the age old conflict

K Bhattacharjee
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Mizoram: NGOs oppose political parties fielding Chakma candidates. Read about the age old conflict

The Congress party has fielded two Chakma candidates in Mizoram for the upcoming Assembly elections going against a directive by NGOs demanding that political parties not field Chakma candidates. Opposition parties Mizoram National Front and the BJP are expected to field Chakma candidates as well.

An umbrella body of civil society organizations, the NGO Coordination Committee of Mizos, including the Young Mizo Association (YMA), Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or Mizoram Elders’ Association, Mizo Hmeichhia Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or Mizo Women Federation, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) had issued the diktat citing that “Chakmas are Bangladeshi foreigners” and therefore, have no right to contest elections.

The Chakma-Mizo conflict is not a recent phenomenon. In 1972, the Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) was created under the sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution which created simmering resentment among the Mizo community. After the signing of the Mizoram accord of 1986, leader of the Mizo National Front (MNF), Laldenga, had demanded that the CADC be dissolved but his demand was rejected. Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had even said during a rally in Aizawl, “if the Mizos expect justice from India as a small minority, they must safeguard the interest of their own minorities like the Chakmas”.

The core aspect of the inter-tribal conflict is the issue of the nativity. The Mizos claim that only their community is indigenous to the state of Mizoram which is contested by the Chakmas by their own version of the matter. The matter is further escalated by the fact that there are certain regions in adjoining areas of Bangladesh that the Chakmas have been inhabiting for long. The Mizos allege that the Chakmas are infiltrating the country through illegal immigration.

The issue of nativity has direct consequences for the inhabitants of the state. For instance, last year in 2017, four students were denied seats after intervention by the state government despite being selected to pursue bachelors’ degrees in medicine and surgery in Indian colleges due to the fact that they were Chakmas.

The intervention came after the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (Mizo Students’ Association, or MZP) threatened to launch a statewide indefinite bandh if medical seats were allotted to anyone but Mizo students. Buddha Dhan Chakma, the only Chakma minister in the state cabinet, had submitted his resignation citing discrimination towards members from his community.

In 2016, a primary school was torched and a house was vandalised at Tuichawng Chhuah village in Mizoram’s Lunglei district, a village that is dominated by Chakmas. The Chakmas had alleged that they were being harassed and attempts were being made to evict them since the month of November, the previous year.

During the 1990s, it is reported that the names of hundreds and thousands of Chakmas were removed from the electoral list on the basis of complaints filed by a few individuals. The same civil society organizations are said to be responsible for the removal of Chakmas from the electoral list. In 1992, 380 Chakma houses were burnt by organized mobs.

Organizations have frequently demanded the expulsion of Chakmas who entered Mizoram after 1950. Earlier in October as well, the YMA demanded that the CDAC be scrapped claiming it is a safe haven for Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Victims of Mizo aggression aren’t Chakmas alone. Over 30,000 Bru tribals were forced to flee the state in 1997 as a consequence of ethnic clashes following the murder of a forest official by Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF). The BNLF was demanding an autonomous council for Bru tribals after Mizo organizations demanded that Brus be removed from electoral rolls claiming that they were not indigenous to the state. Repatriation of the Brus began only in July this year and thus far, only a couple of dozen families or so have returned to Mizoram.

‘Casual handling of people’s lives’ and poor dam management by state government led to Kerala Floods, reveals research study

OpIndia Staff
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‘Casual handling of people’s lives’ and poor dam management by state government led to Kerala Floods, reveals research study

The Special Centre for Disaster Research (SCDR) and National Institute of Disaster Management at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in its report on Kerala floods titled ‘2018 Kerala Floods: Governance and Legal Compliance’ has blamed the state government for the devastation that has occurred in the state.

“The government has been very ill-prepared to encounter a disaster. Dam Safety regulations assisted by flood inundation maps and early action plan(EAP) was ignored. Such a casual handling of people’s lives and an irresponsible release of water led to the devastating deluge,” the report states.

The report asserts, “The dam safety authority during its press brief on August 7 defied any plan to open the dams and exactly one week later, when the rainfall was at its highest and people were already facing a highly water saturated ground, the authorities opened all 38 big dams in Kerala together”.

As per experts, the devastation caused by the floods is not surprising considering the unpreparedness of the administration. “As the research team had already been working on the environmental devastation and community resilience in Kerala since 2016, such a calamity was not a surprise, but what was surprising was the lack of preparedness, the intransigence of administrative authorities,” Amita Singh, faculty at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, said.

The researchers further said, “Kerala’s prime resource to sustainable progress passes through its highly rich and pristine ecology. The government has acted against nature, environment and ecosystems so unique to Kerala. One disaster could push Kerala to many years behind.” The researchers then pointed out that there were certain lobbies that governed Kerala and these lobbies are to be blamed as well, “The fragile zones are under big estate owners who are not only controlling hills and forests but also mangroves which is Kerala’s strongest wall against coastal disasters.”

The report also states that though the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority was constituted in 2007, it had only come up with one plan, that too in 2013, which had already become redundant. It also highlights that the Fragile Lands Act, 2003, was dumped as an outdated law and the Western Ghats were thrown open for construction activities, devastating its ecosystem.

The Kerala floods wrecked havoc in the state in August. Hundreds of lives were lost when vast areas in many districts were flooded. NASA had also confirmed that delayed opening of the dams was one of the main reasons behind the deluge.

Media sanitises Goa Congress leader’s crass comment on Manohar Parrikar

OpIndia Staff
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Media sanitises Goa Congress leader’s crass comment on Manohar Parrikar

Former Defence Minister and current Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is currently recovering from a pancreatic ailment. He had been to the US for treatment and was also admitted in AIIMS.

Goa Government’s ministers have said that even though he was sick, he had been clearing files from AIIMS. “The chief minister is clearing all the files from the hospital. Whatever files are being sent, he is clearing them within two-three days. No files are pending,” said Goa Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Sudin Dhavalikar. Recently he was shifted to Goa, where he continued to recuperate.

While Parrikar is ailing, cheap attacks from Congress have not stopped. In the latest show of morbid hatred, a Goa Congress Spokesperson Jitendra Deshprabhu stated that unless they are shown Manohar Parrikar in person, BJP should conduct his “Shraadh” i.e. death ceremony:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it2pBqN9B8c?start=32]

Deshprabhu is an accused in an illegal mining case and had been arrested earlier by the state crime branch and fined Rs 1.72 crore for illegally extracting iron ore from Corgao village. He was a former national secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party, who was inducted into the Congress in 2012.

Deshprabhu’s utterances have been picked up in national media, but a sanitised version has been presented, without the usage of the words “shraadh”. IANS reports, PTI Reports as well as other reports, steered clear of the offensive remark.

Most reports quote the Congress spokesperson as saying, “At least they should release a video showing that the Chief Minister is walking, speaking and working. There is no bulletin or any doctor speaking on his health condition.” The most offensive part about the comment that points towards Congress’ disregard even for an ailing man has been edited.

Congress is essentially asserting that BJP is being dishonest and that Parrikar may already be deceased and that, if they cannot “show Parrikar in person” they should instead conduct his death ceremony. The essence of Congress’ hatred lies in the full statement and the media, by sanitising this comment seems to be obfuscating the politicking that the Congress has indulged in on Parrikar’s health.

This incident comes just days after Goa BJP state President Vinay Tendulkar had declared that the CM would rejoin office shortly: “Parrikar is recovering well and we expect him to resume office in the next month, that is November,”

Urban Naxal arrests: Maharashtra police takes custody of 3 accused after Pune court rejects bail plea

OpIndia Staff
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Urban Naxal arrests: Maharashtra police takes custody of 3 accused after Pune court rejects bail plea

Hours after a Pune court rejected the bail plea of activists Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj, who were under house arrest, the Pune police took their custody and initiated steps to produce them before a city court by Saturday.

Ferreira had approached Bombay High Court, which had also refused to grant him interim bail. The high court had, however, granted protection against arrest until November 1 to another activist, Gautam Navlakha, who had sought to invalidate the FIR against him by Pune police. Another accused, Professor Ashok Teltumbde who had also filed a plea for revoking the proceedings against him didn’t get any interim relief.

A senior police official said Ferreira and Gonsalves were taken into custody from Thane and Mumbai, respectively. A separate team of Maharashtra police has arrived in Faridabad to take her into custody.

The District and Session Judge (Special Judge) KD Vadane, while rejecting the bail plea observed that the material and evidence collected by the police, on the face of it, shows an alleged link with Maoists. “Under the pretext of doing social work, they are doing work for a banned organisation (CPI-Maoist) and (were) involved in the activities with the intent to threaten unity, integrity, security, the sovereignty of India”.

“At this stage, on the basis of the material collected by the investigation officer, it reveals that there is a connection of the accused with the banned organization,” the judge said.

After the bail pleas were rejected, the defense lawyers had moved an application before Pune Session court to seek a week’s stay on implementation of the order so that they could file an appeal in the High Court, but the judge did not grant a stay. Following this, police took Gonsalves and Ferreira into custody, said the investigating officer, assistant commissioner of police, Shivaji Pawar.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had declined an urgent hearing of a review petition filed by historian Romila Thapar in the case of the arrests of five alleged Urban Naxals for their alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence.

The Supreme court headed by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on September 28 had refused to interfere with arrests of these five ‘Urban Naxals’ and had extended the interim house arrest of the activists.

The Pune Police had conducted raids and arrested the five accused ‘Urban Naxals’ at the end of August. The arrests were in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence alleging the accused to have links with Maoist networks. Earlier, the Pune police had arrested Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhavle in the case. The arrested persons had moved to the Supreme court and had obtained an order for house arrest instead of judicial custody.

Kerala government’s brutal crackdown on Sabarimala devotees, plans to impose heavy penalty on those arrested: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala government’s brutal crackdown on Sabarimala devotees, plans to impose heavy penalty on those arrested: Reports

On Friday after reports emerged regarding the arrest of 2000 Sabarimala devotees by the communist government of Kerala, a new report by Manorama Online tells about government’s plans to impose amount up to Rs 13 lakh on several arrested devotees for securing bail, alleged by the government of indulging in violence.

The report tells that several devotees have been accused by police of causing damage to a police vehicle and KSRTC or  Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses. In order to secure bail accused will have to pay the amount from Rs 10,000 to Rs 13 lakh. The highest slab of fine, that is around Rs 13 lakh, has been fixed for the activist who allegedly pushed vehicle of Sannidhanam special officer SP Ajith in the ravine at Nilakkal.

The measures employed by the communist government seems unprecedented, in terms of a number of arrests and fines imposed by the government. The government has also issued look-out notice, circulated among all police stations for hundreds of devotees.

According to reports, Kerala High Court has taken cognisance of arrests and slammed Kerala Government Pinari Vijay’s government for relentless excess on devotees. Commenting upon plea filed by Suresh Kumar and Anoj Kumar of Sabarimala Achara Samrakshana Samithi, the court warned that the government will have to pay ‘’ heavy price’’ if any innocents are arrested.

Petitioners also claimed in front of the court that police had even harassed devotees, who were merely participating in Lord Ayyappa’s Nama Japa Yajnam.

Sabarimala Protests started after, Supreme Court delivered verdict lifting age-old custom of Sabarimala, which barred women from age of 10-50 from entering the temple. After the verdict, temple opened from October 17 to October 22, and several activists tied to enter the sanctum sanctorum but were stopped by thousands of devotees, who were trying to safeguard the age-old sanctity of the temple. This was followed by vicious man-hunt by  Kerala government, who has made it clear that they will anyhow implement the Supreme Court’s verdict, no matter what means they have to employ.

Father of Azeem confirms that death of his 8 year old son was not due to any communal violence

OpIndia Staff
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Father of Azeem confirms that death of his 8 year old son was not due to any communal violence

On Thursday, in an unfortunate incident, an eight-year-old boy died in a playground scuffle in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar outside a madrasa. The incident took place when two groups of children between the age 8 to 12 years, from different communities, got into a fight where the victim Azeem lost his consciousness after he was pushed and hit his head on a motorcycle. Four minors, aged 10 to 12 years, have reportedly been apprehended by the police.

As soon as the news of this unfortunate incident surfaced, many ‘journalists’ and self-proclaimed ‘liberals’ started fear mongering. They asserted that this was a case of lynching and a ‘hate crime’ and that Muslims were not safe in Modi’s India. Some even added ‘details’ like the boy was dragged from his school and beaten to death. The list of people who furthered blatant lies were, The Wire journalist Rohini Singh, ‘youth leader’ Shela Rashid, Nayi Duniya editor Shahid Siddique, portals like caravandaily, and many more.

OpIndia had reached out to Malviya Nagar Police Station where the police confirmed that it was not a case of lynching. We also spoke to Malviya Nagar SHO who confirmed that it was neither a hate crime nor does it have any communal angle to it.

Now, Azeem’s father has also spoken up to confirm that this was an unfortunate incident and there was no hate crime angle to it.

Khaleel Ahmed, a farmer by profession has said, according to Hindustan Times, “Please do not politicise my son’s death. This is not a communal matter. It was an accident. I used to speak to him regularly. He never suggested that he was being bothered or troubled by anyone.”

It is reported that the playing space has been a matter of contention. Most employees at the madrasa said the playground is the bone of contention between them and the adjacent JJ cluster residents.

According to Hindustan Times, Maulana Mohammad Ali Johar, an Imam at the mosque near which Azeem lost his life, said if the property remains disputed fights will go on. The Imam said that the property belonged to them.

Digital security company apologises for false report on ‘Aadhar data breach’

OpIndia Staff
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Digital security company apologises for false report on ‘Aadhar data breach’

Cybersecurity giant Gemalto has issued an apology to UIDAI, the authoritative body for India’s Aadhar identity database. Gemalto’s apology comes after it published its 2018 breach level index report wherein the company had claimed that of the 4.5 billion records globally that were compromised in the first half of 2018, over 1 billion were due to a massive ‘data breach’ in Aadhar database.

The original Breach level index report was published on October 15. It had also highlighted the claim that compromised data records of only 1 out of 12 records were protected by encryption. The original report had put Aadhar in the category of  Facebook, Equifax and Reliance Jio in terms of information breach score.

Image courtesy: Moneycontrol

It had created a huge uproar in India where many Aadhar opponents and critics had cited this report to criticize the central government and UIDAI.

However, after a strong backlash by UIDAI over the misrepresented facts, Gemalto had on October 18, updated its 2018 Breach level index report and mentioned that data breach comprises only 3.3 billion records, without any mention of Aadhar in the report.

Gemalto’s apology, has been published today in print in many leading newspapers in India has been released on behalf of its CEO Philippe Vallee and states that “Gemalto profusely regrets on its Breach Level Index Report 2018 and the subsequent press release issued in India on 15th October where it has by mistake taken into account an unverified news article about alleged Aadhaar data breach.”

courtesy: @centreofright via Twitter

The original report published on October 15 had claimed that the 1 billion records compromised in the Aadhar breach incident had names, addresses and other personally identifiable information of Indians.

The original report claimed that a total of 945 incidents of data breach has compromised 4.5 billion records out of which 1 billion were from India. the updated report, however, retracted the previous claim and stated that in 944 incidents of data breach, 3.2 billion data records have been compromised worldwide.

In its apology statement, the company has also mentioned that their report was based on an unverified news report and in their subsequent efforts, their company has not been able to identify any verified or substantiated breach on Aadhar data. It has also stated that by publishing unverified information, the company has caused prejudice and they deeply regret it.

There have been numerous claims over possible data breach in UIDAI. Early in 2018, the newspaper Tribune India had claimed that Aadhar data of individuals are being sold for as little as Rs 500. UIDAI had denied the claim and had filed FIRs against the newspaper publication house under relevant sections of IPC on cheating and forgery.

In September this year too, there were reports published in newspapers that the software UIDAI uses has been hacked and millions of records have been compromised. The government of India and UIDAI have, time and again, asserted that there is no breach and the Aadhar data of individuals are completely secure.

Last month, the Supreme Court of India, in its verdict, has reaffirmed the constitutional validity and importance of Aadhar. UIDAI chairman J Satyanarayana had stated recently that Aadhar based direct benefit transfer has saved Rs 90,000 crores of exchequers’ money in India.

Rajdeep Sardesai: The great Indian tweet thief

OpIndia Staff
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Rajdeep Sardesai: The great Indian tweet thief

When Rajdeep Sardesai isn’t too busy displaying his casual casteism, he seems to be keeping himself occupied with copying tweets. Scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan, who is also known for his legendary Twitter threads, among other things, has compiled a thread on Sardesai, calling out his hypocrisy and lies.

In the same thread, Ranganathan also points out a few times where Sardesai has voiced views quite similar to the Twitter users who had tweeted something similar/same just before Sardesai did.


As seen above, economist and writer Sanjeev Sanyal tweeted about Tata buying Bhushan Steel, in an almost similar style, Sardesai tweeted the same two hours later. Later, while commenting on Karnataka elections, when the allegations of horse-trading between the BJP and the Congress were rife Sardesai tweeted how the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore was built by Aga Ali Asker, who was a horse-trader. His trivia came within five minutes of a tweet by a Twitter user V.Vasudevan.

Sardesai on football

Similarly, when Croatia won the second place in football world cup in 2018, Rajdeep’s tweet comparing and contrasting the football federation heads of India and Croatia and the population between the two countries, was very very similar to tweets by other popular handles.

Now, Twitter users are quite sensitive about plagiarism and there have been many fights where popular Twitter accounts accused other popular Twitter accounts of ‘stealing’ tweets.

Yesterday, when Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted on the ongoing CBI feud, an almost similar tweet was tweeted by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala an hour later.


Sardesai’s tweet came at 9:54 am, which was followed by Surjewala’s similar tweet exactly an hour later at 10:54 am.


Sardesai, however, got a little agitated when he was accused of acting almost like Congress’ spokesperson.


A little too agitated.


However, fed up with the ‘hit jobs’ against him, Sardesai has now threatened to quit Twitter like his colleague, Ravish Kumar.


Except, that he had pulled the same stunt in April/May 2016 when he had deactivated his account for a while after sending abusive messages to Twitter users after a meltdown.

Receipt amount do not match donations made by some Paytm users for Kerala floods

OpIndia Staff
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Receipt amount do not match donations made by some Paytm users for Kerala floods

Several users who made a donation to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund through Paytm have complained about the discrepancy in the certificate acknowledging their donation by the Kerala government, said a report by The News Minute.

According to some users, the amount they donated towards the Relief Fund and the amount for which they received a certificate from the Kerala government borne differing numbers. Twitter user Haribabu had donated Rs 2000 but the acknowledgement receipt he received showed only Rs 3 as contribution.


Another user Rameshwar Singh contributed Rs 500 to the relief fund but he received an acknowledgement certificate that displayed a contribution of Rs 3. Similar grievances were raised by multiple users on Twitter.


However, this wasn’t the case of Paytm pocketing money to itself which was meant for the Disaster Relief Fund, not it was a case of some government official stealing money. As testified by Haribabu and Rameshwar Singh hours later, acknowledging a technical glitch in their system that sent wrong receipt link to the users, the Disaster Relief Fund and PayTM sent them a new link to download their corrected receipts.


The Chief Minister Disaster Relief Fund sent a message to the donors that read, “It has come to our notice that a technical glitch occurred while sending a large volume of messages, and you might have received an incorrect receipt against your contribution to CMDRF. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. We have rectified the issue.” Towards the end, they added a link where users can download the correct receipts.

PayTM too attributed the inadvertent error to a technical snag, claiming that some of the users may have received SMSs from Kerala CM Disaster Relief Fund (Kerala CMDRF) to download their donation receipts for contributions made on Paytm during the Kerala Floods with faulty links. It also said that it has transferred all donations collected on their platform to the Kerala CM Disaster Relief Fund and the Government authorities are issuing the remedied receipts on their website.

Correct receipts can be downloaded by the donors by visiting this link.

China agrees to increase imports from India this year, announces Suresh Prabhu

hansika09
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China agrees to increase imports from India this year, announces Suresh Prabhu

In an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Friday, India’s trade minister Suresh Prabhu announced that China has agreed to increase its imports from the country. “Chinese authorities will hold a meeting in November this year, specifically with Indian exporters to address their concerns relating to market access and trade regulations,” said Prabhu.

The union trade and commerce minister also mentioned that global disruptions offer a chance to increase Indian exports.

It can be noted that with large amounts of electronics and other items flowing across the border from its northern neighbour, India’s trade deficit with China is its widest with any country.

India is now all set to boost exports of rice and rapeseed to China to try to narrow down export gaps, said the Indian government on Thursday.

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