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The Vatican probe into the Kerala Nun Rape case: a PR stunt for the disgraced

K Bhattacharjee
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The Vatican probe into the Kerala Nun Rape case: a PR stunt for the disgraced

Reports came in recently that the Vatican has formed a one-man probe panel to investigate the allegations of rape against Bishop Franco of the Missionaries of Jesus after the victim wrote to the authorities of the Church seeking justice.

And now the accused Bishop has written to the Pope seeking permission to step aside from his duties as he is set to appear before the Kerala Police on September the 19th. In the letter, he has maintained his innocence and claimed that the allegations against him are ‘sad and painful to the faithful’.

First and foremost, one wonders what purpose the probe panel of the Vatican will serve. The findings of the Church shall have no legal standing as the matter is being already investigated by the Kerala Police. And one also wonders what is the need for the Vatican to get involved now when the campaign for justice for the alleged victim has gained momentum. If the intentions of the Vatican are honest, then it should take action against Missionaries of Jesus for revealing the identity of the victim in violation of Indian law before proceeding any further. But the Vatican authorities have taken no action against the Church body thus far for its persistent slander campaign against the nun and has issued no statement to that effect either.

More importantly, the track record of the Vatican suggests that we are unlikely to decipher any useful information from its investigation. The Vatican has a history of covering up sexual abuse by its clergymen. Time and again, it has proved that their reputation is of more value to them than the well-being and the health of the hundreds and thousands of children and women who have been abused and sexually exploited by Catholic priests. Thus, the probe panel formed by the Vatican, more than anything, appears to be a desperate PR campaign to salvage some manner of credibility as it staggers from one crisis to the next due to its long history of paedophilia.

It is important to remember that the Pope himself is accused of indulging in the cover-up of sexual abuse allegations against a senior member of the Church. And the allegations were made by an Archbishop himself. The Archbishop also asserted that the Church had become more mafia-like over the years and that the Pope should step down from his position. Under such circumstances, the probe panel formed by the Vatican appears more incredulous as the Vatican itself is headed by a man who has been accused by a colleague of promoting a man who exploited children to higher echelons of power.

The past couple of months have been very bad for the Catholic Church to put it mildly. On July the 31st, the Vatican was rocked after Chile raided various church offices in a massive crackdown as a consequence of child sex abuse allegations against the clergy. Then, on the 14th of August, a Grand Jury Report stated that the Catholic Church had covered up sexual abuse by its priests in Pennsylvania, USA for decades. Then, on the 27th of August, the Pope himself was accused of being aware of sexual abuse allegations against a now disgraced senior Church official and yet promoting him. And only days earlier, a study commissioned by the Church itself revealed that over 3,600 children were sexually abused by its men in Germany between 1946 and 2014.

Under such circumstances, it is absolutely bewildering that the Church has formed a panel to investigate the allegations of rape against Bishop Franco because their resources are obviously spent better elsewhere. Because who knows how many more skeletons lie buried in the closet? But of course, instead of investigating the culture of sexual abuse and pedophilia that has gripped the Catholic clergy, the Church instead chooses to investigate allegations which are already being investigated by the Kerala Police who can be safely said, despite their many inadequacies, a million times more competent at the job and more importantly, far more accountable than the Vatican has proven to be.

There is also the issue that India is a sovereign nation with its own set of laws and authorities to manage its own affairs. The allegations against the Bishop is not merely an internal affair of the Church anymore as the alleged offence is a criminal offence under Indian laws. The Vatican, instead of investigating the allegations against the accused, should instead seek to better understand the culture within its institutions that allows its clergymen to sexually abuse the vulnerable with impunity and the mentality that motivates church bodies to staunchly defend the accused and initiate a slander campaign against the alleged victim. It is not the first time that such a thing has happened and considering the culture of sexual abuse that has gripped the Vatican, it is unlikely to be the last. Therefore, instead of investigating allegations that are already being investigated by law enforcement authorities of a sovereign nation, it should spend its resources trying to develop solutions for the rape culture within its walls.

What’s cooking in Odisha politics?

Sambit Nayak
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What’s cooking in Odisha politics?

Dr Damodar Rout, ex-senior leader of Biju Janata Dal was dismissed from BJD by party president Naveen Patnaik, on 12th September. This doesn’t come as a surprise, though. Dama, as he is popularly called, is known to be a motormouth and speaks out of turn which often embarrasses the party in the public sphere. Perhaps the last straw was when he accused BJD of being run by 3 MLAs Debashish Samantray, Arun Sahoo and Bobby (Pranab Prakash) Das led by an officer. Who is the officer he was hinting at, is anybody’s guess.

Dama was perhaps the last senior member of the party, who was associated with it since its inception. All other members have been systematically driven out. Naveen Patnaik is now the only person in the party carrying forward the legacy, whatever of it is left, of Biju Patnaik. Dama, though a motormouth, is not entirely wrong when he says that party is run by the younger lot. Of course, the final decision lies with the supremo but the daily affairs of the party are definitely being taken care of by the younger lot which doesn’t go well with seasoned members who feel they are being sidelined in the party. That is one of the primary reason, seniors have been revolted in the past and shown the door.

Amongst the founding members, late Nalini Mohanty, Dilip Ray and Bijay Mahapatra were the first in the lot to be been dismissed from BJD in early 2000 for their “utterances against Naveen Patnaik”. BJD has seen a series of dismissal of senior leaders over the years. The significant being Late Pyarimohan Mohapatra, Prafulla Ghadai, Jairam Pangi. Jay Panda and Dama being the latest to fall prey. Reasons are the same, barring Pyari who allegedly tried a coup against Naveen when he was in London. Dilip Ray, Jairam Pangi and Bijay Mohapatra have joined BJP and Dilip Ray is currently an MLA. Except Dilip Ray, most leaders have faded into oblivion after being expelled.

There have been other similarities as well. These leaders, after being expelled, have tried their fortune with forming new regional outfits. While Bijay Mohapatra tried with Odisha Gana Parishad(OGP) which later merged with INC, Pyari babu experimented with Odisha Jana Morcha. To say, these were failures, will be to put it politely.

Jay Panda, who was thought to be close to BJP, has not taken any decision yet. On one occasion, he has hinted that he is still open to contesting as an independent or forming a new party and implied about his bigger ambition. The reason why Jay Panda has not taken any decision on his political future may lie in the fact that, though he was seen close to BJP, he isn’t viewing BJP as the party which can fulfil his bigger ambitions or it may be the other way around. BJP leadership may be wary of what Panda can bring to the table.

Dama babu has also hinted at something similar. In fact, he has made it clear that while he won’t be joining BJP or Congress, he will definitely contest elections and one doesn’t need a party ticket to serve people. Of course, it’s the politician Dama Rout speaking and must be taken with a pinch of salt. Dama has gone as far as naming all those who have been expelled from BJD to come together and form a new party to contest elections in 2019.

It’s interesting to note that soon after news of his dismissal became public, Jay Panda paid him a courtesy visit, which of course in public is said to be non-political. It will be worthwhile to mention that both Dilip Ray and Bijay Mohapatra are unhappy in BJP as well. Bijay Mahapatra may not even get a BJP ticket to contest while Dilip Ray may opt out from contesting with a BJP ticket if the central leadership doesn’t fix things. Dama has named both of these gentlemen along with others to come together and pose a challenge to BJD.

However, Naveen’s popularity has not seen a great dent. He still is the undisputed popular leader of Odisha. A new party with political heavyweights may not see any remarkable success. Ideologically, if this party is to be formed, it will be more leaning towards BJP. What it can do best is to cut vote shares of BJP and in some cases BJD, but going by past precedents it is unlikely that the party will see any significant electoral fortunes. Maybe, like OGP, which since its formation had allied with Congress before merging with it, this new party may try similar experiments with BJP.

2019 elections are still a few months away and as they say, a week is a long time in politics. Nonetheless, interesting times are in store for Odisha politics.

Following JNUSU elections victory, Leftist goons attack ABVP students, many hurt

OpIndia Staff
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Following JNUSU elections victory, Leftist goons attack ABVP students, many hurt

It seems there is no end to the Left-wing violence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, as new reports have emerged that the Left-wing students have allegedly entered the hostel rooms of the ABVP students and has unleashed violence against the members of ABVP.

The Left-wing violence started from the day of elections and continued till the declaration of results. The united-left had resorted to the violence against the RSS student body after the former was allegedly caught in the middle of indulging a vote fraud.

As per the DU Professor and JNU Alumni Abhinav Prakash, the left-wing students has yet again attacked the ABVP students by entering their hostel rooms. A student named Sujal Yadav was thrashed by the left-wing goons led by JNUSU outgoing president Geeta Kumari and other 15 people and broke his arm by dragging him out from his hostel room.


 

Ankit Singh, another AISA worker has also been alleged to have been the mastermind behind the attacks on the non-left students. According to Prakash, Ankit Singh led a mob of left-wing students and attacked two students Mukul and Rajeshwarkant.


 

In another incident, girls from ABVP were allegedly chased down with sharp objects by the United-left supporters after the former complained about vote-fraud by the left.


 

Shocking videos have emerged today that new wave of violence has been unleashed by the left-wing at the early hours, as a differently-abled ABVP member named Sushil was brutally attacked by the communist goons.


 

Saurabh Sharma, former Joint-Secretary of JNUSU in a Facebook post has put up images of the horrors suffered by the ABVP students in the JNU campus after the elections. Saurabh Sharma alleged that the left-wing students entered the hostel rooms with Iron rods and has hit the ABVP students.


 

We had earlier reported that how ABVP members had been attacked by the left-wing students on the counting day of the JNUSU elections. Reportedly, the United-left had stormed into the Election Commission and had indulged in the vote-fraud. The ABVP had objected to this vote fraud and ended up at the receiving end of the Communist violence.

The elections to the office bearers of the JNUSU was held on Friday, and results were announced yesterday. The United-left, amidst allegation of vote-fraud, won all the four seats of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Joint Secretary by defeating its closest rival ABVP.

Shahrukh Khan’s son celebrates Ganesh Puja, Islamic fundamentalists call it a ‘sin’

OpIndia Staff
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Shahrukh Khan’s son celebrates Ganesh Puja, Islamic fundamentalists call it a ‘sin’

Ganesh Chaturthi, a ten-day festival celebrating the birth of Ganesha is a widely popular Hindu festival which is not only celebrated with great fanfare in Maharashtra but throughout the country. Often, the celebration isn’t limited to the Hindu community and transcends religion.

Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan posted a picture of his son praying to Lord Ganesha on social networking sites.


However, little did he know that he was setting himself up for abuses from Islamists. Soon, abuses and condemnations started pouring in as a response to Shahrukh’s tweet.

Social media was quick in mortifying the actor for his secular views.

Islamist fundamentalists were quick in schooling Shahrukh reminding him that practising or following any other religion was a sin in Islam and by encouraging his son for doing so, he was disrespecting ‘Allah’.

Few, in their animosity, did not spare his parents as well,

This is not the first time celebrities have been trolled by fundamentalists on social media. Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan too has had his share of such an incident where a Muslim organisation, almost a decade back, had issued a fatwa against him for attending a Ganesh puja.

A popular Bengali actress Nusrat Jahan was earlier insulted on Facebook for celebrating Durga Puja as it was called out to be ‘inappropriate’. While cricketer Mohammad Kaif was trolled by Muslim fundamentalists for celebrating Christmas with family, he was also condemned for doing Surya Namaskar. Cricketer Irfan Pathan, too, was told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is ‘against Islam’.

Aamir Khan also had a lot of hate directed towards him for uploading pictures of him eating during the month of Ramzan. Hina Khan, a popular television artist was also asked by Islamists to dress appropriately during Ramzan.

After hatred for Rudra Hanuman, is ‘Militant Ganesha’ the new way to propagate Hinduphobia?

OpIndia Staff
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After hatred for Rudra Hanuman, is ‘Militant Ganesha’ the new way to propagate Hinduphobia?

Hindu festivals, rituals and gods have quite recently been the target of mockery, fearmongering and hatred by the so-called ‘secular liberal’ intellectuals of India. When blatant disregard and insult and mockery do not work, liberals proceed to stoke the ‘guilty Hindu’ psyche. They try to project Hindu festivals and rituals as something to be ashamed of. Diwali becomes the sole cause of air pollution and swimming pool loving liberals become suddenly conscious of water wastage on Holi. Rakhi, Karwa Chauth and Bhai Dooj are the symbols of patriarchy and Jallikattu becomes atrocity against animals for boastful beef-eaters.

Recently, we witnessed how the sudden popularity of the ‘Rudra Hanuman’ image by Karnataka based artist Karan Acharya had pushed liberals into a frenzy. There were tweets, posts even editorial pieces on how the ‘Angry Hanuman’ image is a symbol of militarised Hinduism and it was even accused of spreading hatred and causing communal discord.

Recently Ganesh Utsav was celebrated with much vigour and enthusiasm all across the country. Incredible as it may sound but certain individuals have found excuses to spread subtle Hinduphobia over Lord Ganesha too. Journalist Anindita Ghose shared an image of an idol of Lord Ganesha riding a tiger and wearing tiger skin. She named it the ‘militant Ganesha’.


As anyone who has even a basic idea of Hindu culture would know, Lord Ganesha is the son of Goddess Parvati, whose avatar Goddess Durga rides a tiger and Ganesha’s father is Lord Shiva, who is sometimes depicted as having dark (blue) skin and wearing tiger skin as his attire. So this representation of Lord Ganesha was a mere attempt to depict him as an embodiment of his powerful parents. It was reminded to Anindita by many people on Twitter, but the representation was just not ‘peaceful’ enough for her.

Anindita Ghose on Twitter

Some other persons had a similar line of thought too.

Via Twitter

In addition, as with Rudra Hanuman, it was a subtle attempt to claim that a ‘peaceful and friendly’ god is unnecessarily being depicted as violent. The truth behind the proposed idea was shown to the journalist by many Twitter users.


Also, the confinement and branding of Hindu gods as frendly, peaceful and violent was objected to by many.


The attempts to associate guilt and condemnation with Hindu festivities and ideas are nothing new. In India as well as in the west, people of a certain mindset misrepresent the diversity, versatility and nuances of the Hindu faith by mocking our Gods and ways of worship. However, social media has been levelling the playing field and providing a platform of people with a better understanding of the religion to present facts and counter the agenda driven maligning of Hindu customs and festivities.

Senior journalist reveals how NDTV used to take editorial orders from PMO during UPA era

OpIndia Staff
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Senior journalist reveals how NDTV used to take editorial orders from PMO during UPA era

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi sworn in, we have been hearing about how the Modi government is supposedly clamping down on the freedom of the press and how there is a sort of ‘undeclared emergency’. However, a former journalist with NDTV, Samarendra Singh has revealed how back in 2005, a year after Dr Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister, Dr Singh got a story pulled off from NDTV, but nobody in NDTV claimed that UPA government was imposing ‘undeclared emergency’.

In a Facebook post, Samarendra Singh says that these days, it is ‘fashionable’ for journalists like Punya Prasoon Bajpai and Ravish Kumar to say that the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) is calling up the editors and owners of the media houses in an attempt to ‘censor’ content. However, the way news against the Modi government are coming out, the ‘censorship’ bit seems far from true.

“It is not that you can print anything against the Prime Minister and not expect a reaction. But is this ‘reacting to news’ something new? Is it really true that the PMO earlier never intervened and called up the editors and owners? Were channels allowed to show anti-government news? Was there freedom to run an anti-government agenda during the UPA?” Singh asks.

Reminiscing an incident from 2005, Samarendra Singh wrote:

I want to talk about a 13-year-old incident which took place in the organisation where Ravish Kumar works. Those days even I used to work with NDTV India. And those days, India was run by the most ‘kind and weak’ Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Sitting on the chair he got in charity, Dr Singh was also running the coalition government with a lot of generosity. In the ‘golden age’ of government and journalism, the krantikari journalists of NDTV had a brainwave of making a ‘report card’ of the ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. A list of ministers who had fared well and those who didn’t was aired on NDTV India at 9 pm bulletin.

Dibang, the then Managing Editor of NDTV India, called me and asked me to drop the list of ministers who didn’t fare well. I told him that we should even drop the list of ministers who fared well otherwise it will appear as if we are buttering up the government. Dibang agreed and said he would have a word with Roy (Dr Prannoy Roy, owner of NDTV), and get back. Some time back, Dibang called back and said to drop the list of ministers who didn’t fare well but to air the list of ministers who were doing good.

Years later, when Dr Manmohan Singh’s media advisor Sanjaya Baru wrote the book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, it was revealed why Prannoy Roy did what he did. On Page 97 of the book, Baru reveals the ‘kind and weak’ Prime Minister had called up the powerful owner of NDTV and scolded him such that he was stripped of all his journalism. Roy himself admitted that he felt like a teacher had scolded him. After being scolded by Prime Minister Singh, the journalist-owner of NDTV, Prannoy Roy, could not even muster up that much courage to air the ‘report card’ on his channel. The list of ‘good ministers’ was run so that Dr Singh could be cajoled. Whether you call Roy a journalist or a businessman, this incident could be seen as bowing down to the government pressure or just buttering up the government, but it cannot be called journalism by a far stretch of the imagination.

The incident mentioned by Samarendra Singh is indeed mentioned in Sanjaya Baru’s book. Here is an excerpt from the book The Accidental Prime Minister:

The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru, page 96-97

As mentioned above, in May 2005, when the UPA-1 was reaching its first anniversary, reports had started appearing in the media that Dr Singh was reviewing performance of his ministers and a cabinet reshuffle was on the cards. On 9th May, 2005 when Dr Singh was in Moscow, NDTV ran a story that Minister of External Affairs, Natwar Singh had secured a ‘low score’ on the PM’s report card and was likely to be dropped from the cabinet.

A senior Congress leader, Natwar Singh has been perceived as a staunch and avowed Sonia Gandhi loyalist. So an upset Natwar Singh took the next day off on ‘health grounds’. When Dr Manmohan Singh heard of it, he asked to find out what NDTV had reported.

When he was briefed, the otherwise calm and composed Dr Manmohan Singh burst into anger and asked Baru to tell Prannoy Roy to “stop reporting these lies”.

When Baru called Roy to convey the message, Dr Singh took the phone from Baru and spoke to Roy himself. Baru recounts the incident in his book:

I called Prannoy Roy, the head of NDTV, and had just begun speaking to him when the PM asked for my mobile phone and spoke to Prannoy himself, scolding him like he was chiding a student who had erred, saying, ‘This is not correct, you cannot report like this.’ Indeed, the relationship between him and Prannoy was not that of a prime minister and a senior media editor but more like that of a former boss and a one-time junior. This was because Prannoy had worked as an economic adviser in the ministry of finance under Dr Singh.

The book corroborates the claims made by the former NDTV journalist. In fact, the book even suggests that this may not be a one-off incident as Prannoy was virtually subordinate to the then Prime Minister. Interestingly, no one cried ‘undeclared emergency’ back in 2005.

We had earlier reported how India Today and Indian Express respective owners, Aroon Purie and Anant Goenka had rubbished claims that Modi government is pressurising or arm-twisting the media houses to into following a narrative. Goenka had even went far to claim that ‘phone call’ (from the government to arm-twist the management into firing journalists) would have come through, it would have happened in case of either of the governments. Now this account by the former NDTV journalist confirms it.

In fact, Purie had said, “This government lets you (proprietors) know that they are unhappy, unlike the previous governments, who ‘would do sneaky things and otherwise try and make life difficult for you’. But this government (Modi-led NDA government) ‘says okay, you’ve done this story, you haven’t done this and that, but it is up to you to decide how much you want to yield or not yield.”

On being asked about which government is more controlling (towards the press), Goenka had said, “I feel there is a lot of talk about how intolerant this government is or how thin-skinned they can be to the press… but it is not new, it has always happened. We have had our editors in jail. It has also got to do with the strength of the government.”

Earlier in March, Supriya Prasad, the Managing Editor of the Aaj Tak and India Today news channels, too, had said that he never faced any kind of pressure from the government regarding news broadcasts or running ‘favourable news’. Amusingly, many ‘celebrity’ journalists, like NDTV’s Ravish Kumar and India Today group’s very own Rajdeep Sardesai, while trying to raise the bogey of ‘undeclared emergency’ or while commenting on CBI raids against NDTV promoters, have tried to insinuate that the Narendra Modi government was trying to muzzle voices in media by putting pressure.

Trouble for proposed Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh as Mayawati and Mulayam’s plans remain ‘independent’

OpIndia Staff
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Trouble for proposed Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh as Mayawati and Mulayam’s plans remain ‘independent’

The Samajwadi-family feud between Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav seems to be taking some unexpected turns, as the rebel Shivpal Yadav has now announced that his elder brother and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, the current Lok Sabha member from Azamgarh, will contest the next general election under from his new political party-Samajwadi Secular Morcha (SSM).

Shivpal Yadav had formed the Samajwadi Secular Morcha after ending ties with Samajwadi Party and has now decided to field veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri in the upcoming 2019 elections. Mulayam Singh Yadav had contested and won from two seats-Azamgarh and Mainpuri in the 2014 elections. He had retained Azamgarh and had resigned Mainpuri seat, later won by his grand-nephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav. Reportedly, Mulayam Singh Yadav wants to contest from Mainpuri in the next elections rather than Azamgarh.

SSM spokesperson Deepak Mishra said, “Shivpalji has announced that Netaji (Mulayam) will be the SSM’s candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections from Mainpuri. If he wished to contest from any other seat, the SSM will be with him.”

Shivpal Yadav also claimed that many leaders from Akhilesh Yadav’s SP are in touch with him and are interested to join his party. Many SP leaders will soon join my party. We will also get the party registered with the Election Commission,” he said.

Shivpal Yadav had recently said that his party will field candidates in all the 80 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh.  He had earlier said that the proposed alliance between SP-BSP should also include his outfit SSM. According to Shivpal Yadav, his morcha can win 20-30 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “If the (SP-BSP) alliance does not include the morcha, it (morcha) will contest on all 80 seats in UP”, Shivpal had said to media recently.

The so-called anti-BJP Mahagathbandhan looks like a distant dream as several regional leaders are actively pursuing their own political goals. In UP, while there is uncertainty over whether BSP supremo Mayawati will be a part of the Mahagathbandhan with Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate, she has added fresh uncertainties to the already confusing broth. Mayawati has announced that her party will go solo if not given a fair share of seats. it is notable here that BSP has declared Mayawati as their PM candidate and she has been giving statements against both Congress and BJP in recent times. With the widening gaps in the Samajwadi family and uncertainty in BSP’s intentions, the Mahagathbandhan’s future looks bleak, at least for Uttar Pradesh.

Fact check: How is Narendra Modi government building 0.7 toilets every second?

OpIndia Staff
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Fact check: How is Narendra Modi government building 0.7 toilets every second?

On 15th September, the official Twitter handle of Prime Minister’s Office tweeted the following tweet.


Since coming to power, NDA govt in general and Prime Minister Modi, in particular, has been giving highest priority to cleanliness and sanitation. In 2014, only 39% of households had toilets. Open defecation was a huge health issue. To address the problem, Modi govt launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign on 2 October 2014. One of the components of the program was building toilets and making Indian cities and villages open defecation free. Under the program, toilets are being built at break-neck speed and every year number of households having toilet is growing at an impressive rate. The tweet by PMO gives an update on the work done under the program. This achievement was appreciated by many on the micro-blogging site.

But, some people have this Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder of finding fault, real or imaginary, in anything that comes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And this time was also no exception. Journalist Punya Prasun Bajpai decided to do his own fact check on the claim by PMO. Using some basic arithmetic, he concluded that it is not possible to build 9 crore toilets in 4.5 years because that would be mean constructing 0.7 toilets per second.


He was not the only one to ‘discover’ this big anomaly in the data. Many other Twitter experts also did the same calculation and arrived at the same conclusion.


Now, the mathematics is correct, there is doubt about that. These people get full credit for that. Although they have excellent calculation skills, they seem to miss another important quality, common sense. Those who are arguing with the 0.7 toilets per second seems to fail to distinguish between serial processing and parallel processing, to use Computer terminology. That is, these 9 crore toilets were not being built one after another, but they were built simultaneously, at multiple locations, by multiple people.

This tweet perfectly answers their doubt.


The work on building toilets are being implemented by two agencies, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for urban areas and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for rural areas. The program has a workforce of around 30 lakh, including government employees. The program builds toilets for public places and provides funding for constructing toilets at individual households. Households build the toilet on their own, often making their own contribution as per their choice. And that’s how lakhs of toilets are being built across the country.

Map showing % of households with toilets, source: Swachh Bharat Mission

Due to this vast work, the number of households with toilet went up to 93%. This is because around 9 crore toilets in total have been built in the last 4.5 years.

As Sikkim faces massive landslides leaving several tourists stranded, evacuation operation continues

OpIndia Staff
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As Sikkim faces massive landslides leaving several tourists stranded, evacuation operation continues

With the mayhem continuing, as India struggles to recoup from the havoc created by recent devastating floods, incessant rain in north Sikkim lately, has triggered massive, multiple landslides in North District, snapping road connectivity at several places including Gangtok. The two affected roads are NH-10, which links Kalimpong and Sikkim, and NH-31C that connects the Dooars. The heavy downpour has been blamed for the landslides.

A 20 metres stretch has been caved in on NH-10 on Thursday at 29 Mile, around 70 km from Gangtok. An entire portion has been wiped away on NH-31C. On Tuesday, a landslide on NH-31C at Mongpong had devoured a portion of the highway.

Many tourist vehicles are stuck at both ends of the landslide-affected stretch.

The PWD department said its workers have started constructing a new road by cutting through the mountainous terrain. Vishwanath, the district magistrate of Kalimpong, said the incessant rain was slowing repairs. “As the rains have not stopped, the soil is not firming up. This is why repairs are getting delayed.”

While the West Bengal government arranged special buses to rescue stranded tourists, as reported by ANI, Indian Army and Air Force, in coordination with civil administration, has been airlifting tourists stranded in rain-hit areas in North Sikkim. Helicopters have made several sorties from Gangtok and Sevoke evacuating around a hundred people, including a pregnant woman. Evacuation operation is still underway.

Every year, low-lying areas of North East India witness heavy spell of monsoon rains. This is followed by devastating floods and landslides. For thousands of people, this means a loss of shelter, land and livelihood. This year has been no different.

Ceaseless rains in the northeast region since the second week of June this year has triggered floods that have wreaked havoc across the region. Several villages and houses were submerged and many are rendered homeless. Relief camps had been set up across the state to rescue the affected people.

Assam, Tripura and Mizoram had been worst affected as unremitting rainfall had triggered flash floods in various districts leaving thousands of people in distress.

Expressing grave concern over the situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while chairing the fourth meeting of the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog, assured the chief ministers of flood-affected states that the Centre would provide all assistance to them to deal with flood situation.

Following the devastating floods in Kerala, Nagaland too had recently been engulfed by floods after the ceaseless rainfalls. Despite the intensity of Nagaland floods were as much as that of Kerala, Nagaland floods failed to garner media attention.

Deepavali to be celebrated in all its grandeur in Ayodhya, celebrations to last for three days

OpIndia Staff
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Deepavali to be celebrated in all its grandeur in Ayodhya, celebrations to last for three days

The Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath has decided to celebrate Deepavali, which marks the return of Lord Ram from Lanka after spending 14 years in exile, in all its grandeur for three days from 3 to 5 November at Ayodhya, reported Times of India.

The Yogi government has planned to celebrate this year on the lines of last year’s event, as last year more than one lakh diyas were lit on the ghats of the Sarayu River following a day-long celebration. It is reported that this year Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, along with UP governor Ram Naik and the entire state cabinet will be present in Ayodhya for the Deepavali celebrations.

According to the reports, the government has already roped in a number of professional organisations to make arrangements for this grand event. Last year, the event was managed by the tourism department of the state. The decision to involve professional event managers has been taken by the government, as the celebrations will be held for three days instead of one day and the scale of the event is much larger compared to the last year.

Adding to this, the Bharatiya Janata Party has also planned to celebrate the festival in 1,800 villages which were electrified only after Yogi Adityanath came to power in Uttar Pradesh. A senior party leader said that the most of the villages electrified belong to the districts of Bijnor, Bareily, Bulandshahr, Mainpuri, Muzaffarnagar from the Western Uttar Pradesh.

Vice-president of state BJP unit JPS Rathore said, “Power supply reached these villages after 71 years of independence all due to the efforts of Yogi government. The aim of celebrating Diwali is to spread the message that the BJP government is consistently working towards the development of all the areas that were neglected by the earlier governments”. It is said that MLAs and MPs are advised to visit their respective constituencies to celebrate Deepavali and to distribute sweets among the residents.

Apart from the celebrations, on the eve of Deepavali, Yogi Adityanath will also lay the foundation for the 108-meter statue of Lord Ram to be built in Ayodhya. According to the reports, the UP CM would lay the foundation of the statue on ‘Deepotsav’, organised on the eve of the festival. The Diwali will be celebrated on November 7th, while the foundation will be laid on 6th of November.

Diwali, or Deepavali, is the Hindu festival of lights, symbolises the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance”.

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