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Man arrested for threatening a citizen with a gun, PTI says ‘arrested for abusing Yogi’

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Man arrested for threatening a citizen with a gun, PTI says ‘arrested for abusing Yogi’

According to PTI feed story, one Umesh alias Lakku Nagar was arrested yesterday from his house in Dankaur area of Gautam Buddh Nagar district and booked under Indian Penal Code sections 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (house-trespass), 147, 148 and 149 — all three related to multiple people rioting with deadly armed weapons. He has been accused of entering the house of a Hindu Yuva Vahini functionary, Naveen Pandit, brandishing a pistol and threatening to kill him.

The story further cites SHO (Station House Officer) who says that Pandit had objected to a vulgar dance show and a qawwali programme during the Drona fair held in the district last week. Following that, Lukka Nagar called up Pandit and abused him and he also made derogatory remarks against Yogi Adityanath. While the audio clip had gone viral on 7th September and police had registered a non-cognizable report.

However, on Sunday night, Lukka Nagar along with his four aides reached the house of Pandit brandishing a pistol and threatened to kill him. An FIR against Lukka Nagar was filed on basis of a complaint by Pandit and the arrests were made on Monday morning.

Lukka was arrested for threatening Pandit with a gun under relevant sections of the IPC. However, the PTI story spinned it to show that he was arrested for ‘abusing Yogi’.

PTI story claiming man arrested for ‘derogatory’ remarks on Yogi Adityanath

The PTI story was also picked up by NDTV, Hindustan Times and The Hindu which ran with the same headline. Times Now ran the story with the headline ‘UP police arrest man for passing ‘derogatory’ comments at Yogi Adityanath’ which is also misleading.

PTI or Press Trust of India is a news agency and exchanges information with several other news agencies including 100 news agencies based outside India, such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and The New York Times. Publication houses subscribe to the agencies like PTI, ANI, etc. for a fee, and use the feed stories where their own reporter could not be present. Usually, the agency stories are published as it is by the publication houses unedited, thereby keeping the responsibility of authenticity of the story on an agency such as PTI. The media houses above could have chosen to edit the headline to give a true reflection of the story, but they chose not to, thereby being complicit in pushing fake news.

This is not the first time PTI has shared misleading news. Earlier, PTI had almost maliciously spread a completely false report about the Yogi government drastically slashing its education budget in Uttar Pradesh, while the truth was that it had actually seen an increase.

Last year, PTI was slammed for circulating 2015 photograph of Chennai Airport as that of Ahmedabad airport during the incessant rains. Later PTI was caught peddling fake news yet again, when it claimed that the Government had now made Aadhaar mandatory for registration of death with effect from October 1, 2017. CBEC, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia have on separate incidents claimed PTI of misquoting them, whereas MHA had also denied PTI report claiming Doval attended election meeting at Rajnath Singh’s house.

Mamata plays ‘soft Hindutva’ card, set to give 28 crores to Durga puja committees this year

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata plays ‘soft Hindutva’ card, set to give 28 crores to Durga puja committees this year

Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been trying to counter Bharatiya Janata Party’s recent surge in Bengal especially after the panchayat polls, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party made significant inroads into the state.

Mamata Banerjee while addressing the coordination meeting with Puja committees and Police at the Netaji Indoor stadium on Monday announced a package of twenty-eight crores (28) to committees across the state.


West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also offered gifts for the Puja committees in Kolkata and districts including a waiver of license fees for the Puja organizers and Rs 10,000 donation from the government to at least 28,000 puja committees across the state. She said that each of the 3000 committees in Kolkata and the additional 25000 committees across the state will receive a donation of Rs 10,000 from the state government.

Hinting at the opposition parties in the state, the chief minister also urged the committees to ‘resist all kinds of advances’ from ‘groups’ who might offer a huge amount of monetary donation to the committees. She stated that these people may try and ‘buy’ the committees by offering a lump sum amount of money. According to Mamata, such advances should be tackled and committees should not ‘surrender’ to these ‘forces’.

The promises made by Banerjee include a complete waiver of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation tax and the fees for the issuance of fire licenses.

It is important to note that Bengal is in a debt-ridden situation, the debt burden on the state is estimated around Rs 3.64 lakh crore and it is slated to go up to Rs. 3.94 lakh crore in the current fiscal. Thus, such expenses are sure to be a burden for the state in the long run than a source of hope. This is not the first time Mamata has used public funds to further her ‘cash for compliance’ schemes. She has, by her own admission, distributed Rs. 600 crore to clubs since coming to power in 2011. Ironically, Mamata has repeatedly stated that there is no money in the state’s treasury and blamed the central government for not waiving off the state’s debts.

The most shocking aspect of these waivers seems to be the source of that money and the departments which have been asked to pay for this. According to a report published in DNA, Kolkata Municipality and fire and emergency department have been asked to pay for this ‘cash for compliance’ scheme of Mamata. The police department will be responsible for handing over the money to respective puja committees.

Last year, there was a controversy in the state as the Mamata government had created a controversy and had faced wide criticism for withholding the idol immersions on Vijaya Dashami because the date coincided with Moharram. The order was later revoked by the Kolkata high court. Referring to the controversy as ‘outside meddling’, Banerjee asked people to stay vigilant this year. She stated – “We all need to be very vigilant during this period. Do not allow anybody to instigate communal violence or create disturbances in your areas.”.

 

Delhi civic bodies to propose eateries displaying boards informing if they serve ‘Jhatka or Halal’ meat

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi civic bodies to propose eateries displaying boards informing if they serve ‘Jhatka or Halal’ meat

The North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations are set to come up with a proposal that makes it mandatory for all restaurants under their jurisdiction to display specifying whether they are serving halal or ‘jhatka’ meat, reported Hindustan Times.

This comes a week after the East Delhi Municipal Corporation passed a similar resolution to notify restaurants to display the kind of meat they are serving to their customer.

The office bearers of both NDMC and SDMC said they will hold meetings with the health department and bring a proposal in the standing committee and house meeting for final approval. Reportedly, the resolution is being passed to protect the sentiments of the Hindu and Sikh Community who do not consume Halal meat.

Speaking to the media North Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Adesh Gupta said they received a letter from the Delhi BJP national secretary RP Singh recently, demanding to bring a proposal to make it mandatory to display boards mentioning the kind of meat served. “There are Sikh residents who do not eat halal meat. The decision has been taken to ensure that their religious sentiments are not hurt”, the Mayor said.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation had passed a resolution on August 30th, declaring that it is mandatory for all east Delhi restaurants to display whether they serve ‘jhatka’ or halal meat.

South Corporation mayor Narendra Chawla, supported the proposal, “If the shops selling raw meat display such boards, then why can’t restaurants serving non-vegetarian dishes do the same? The consumer has the right to know what they are eating”. However, AAP leader Anil Lakra said that this was just another political stunt to win the confidence of some communities.

Raghuram Rajan blames scams and ‘policy paralysis’ under UPA government for NPA mess

OpIndia Staff
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Raghuram Rajan blames scams and ‘policy paralysis’ under UPA government for NPA mess

In response to a letter that sought his inputs over the issue of the accumulated Non-Performing-Assets (NPAs) of Indian banks, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has written a letter to the head of the Lok Sabha panel set to look into the matter. According to reports, in his letter addressed to MP Murli Manohar Joshi, the former RBI governor has written that the problem of accumulating NPAs has begun from around 2006 and has blamed UPA era scams, policy paralysis among other things.

Rajan has reportedly written that banks had also failed to enforce due diligence and they also have failed to act swiftly on bad loans. On this, he adds that he cannot say whether the slow response and lack of due diligence were due to corruption or sheer incompetence. He also mentions that the unrealistic growth projections set up by the banks started acting against them in the post-2008-slowdown period.

Rajan also reportedly emphasized that the scam-ridden UPA government was slow in decision makings and it had created a policy paralysis for the banking sector which had delayed several ongoing projects.

Rajan has reportedly further stated that as laws did not allow banks to seize properties and banks chose evergreen loans. He has also added that banks also extended further loans in order to prevent ‘zombie’ loans from turning into non-performing assets. He has mentioned that the exuberance, incompetence and the corruption of bankers, along with a lack of monitoring of companies with a history of default has led to high NPAs over the years.

NITI Ayog chairman Rajiv Kumar had recently stated that the faulty methods of identifying and demarcating NPAs implemented during Rajan’s time had led to NPAs ballooning from 4 lakh crores to 10 lakh crores, thus causing the banks to pull back their extended credits thereby resulting in companies becoming starved of their working capital, which had caused a slowdown in India’s economy. responding to Kumar’s allegation, Rajan has reportedly stated that the RBI did introduce correction measures, but as the RBI is not a commercial banker and only a governing body, banks dithered despite being aware of the crisis. He has also added that the RBI representatives in banks’ boards were not very effective.

Raghuram Rajan was the chief economic advisor to the UPA government before becoming the RBI governor. His tenure came under scrutiny after it was revealed that the 13,000 crore PNB scam co-accused Mehul Choksi was one of the business owners in whose favour the infamous 20:80 gold import scheme was amended right before the UPA government lost power.

Missionary of Jesus Congregation stands in support of the rape accused Bishop, calls him “an innocent soul”

OpIndia Staff
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Missionary of Jesus Congregation stands in support of the rape accused Bishop, calls him “an innocent soul”

After Kerala MLA PC George called the rape survivor nun a ‘prostitute’, the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation has added insult to injury by calling the rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal “an innocent soul” and said he cannot be crucified “based on such allegations”.

In a statement, the congregation condemned the protest in Kochi and accused the nuns protesting in solidarity with the rape victim as being influenced by external forces.


The congregation went on to reject all the charges against the Bishop and in return pinned the blame on the nun. According to the congregation, the nun was coordinating the bishop’s programmes in Kerala. They further added that nun participated in functions and even received the Bishop at her house even after she claimed to have sexually harassed by the Bishop on May 5th, 2014.

A special team was earlier constituted to investigate the case and according to preliminary investigations, it is reported that Bishop Franco Mulakkal abused his position to repeatedly sexually abuse the nun.

The congregation issued this statement as a reaction to the protest done by the five nuns demanding the immediate arrest of rape accused Bishop.

One of the protesting nuns at Kuravilangadu in Kottayam district said, “We have full faith in the investigation being carried out by the Deputy Superintendent of Police”. The nuns had accused the top police officials of not allowing the investigating authorities to conduct free and fair probe”. They said that the top officials are not giving the DySP permission to take the bishop into custody and do his custodial interrogation.

“They are not allowing him to carry out a free and fair investigation. They are delaying the probe and trying to sabotage the case”. However, the family members of the affected nun said they have full confidence in the investigation being done by the DSP and were planning to approach the Kerala High Court seeking a court-monitored investigation. “We have full faith in the investigation officer,” one of the family members told reporters.

Interestingly, Catholic reformation organisations, including the Kerala Catholic Church Reformation Movement, have decided to take part in the indefinite protest seeking justice to the nun, KCRM office-bearer George Joseph said on Sunday.

We had earlier reported regarding the threats issued to the nun to withdraw the complaint against the Bishop Franco Mulakkal. According to the reports, the investigating officers are facing severe pressure from senior police officers and political leaders.

This incident came to the light when a nun accused the Bishop Franco Mullakkal of Jalandhar diocese of committing rape and unnatural sex with her between 2014 and 2016 on 13 different occasions. The nun had further alleged that she had approached the Syro-Malabar Church authorities over the matter but no action was taken against the Bishop which made her approach the Police.

2007 Hyderabad blast case: Special NIA Court awards death penalty to two, third gets a life imprisonment

OpIndia Staff
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2007 Hyderabad blast case: Special NIA Court awards death penalty to two, third gets a life imprisonment

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court today has announced sentence in the 2007 Hyderabad blasts that had killed 44 people. The court has given the death penalty to two terrorists and the third convict was awarded a life sentence.


The court had convicted two Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives Mohammad Akbar Ismail Chowdhari and Aneeq Shafique Sayeed last week in relation to 2007 twin blasts in Hyderabad. These two convicted terrorists have been sentenced to death, while the third Tarik Anjum, a civil engineer graduate, was sentenced to life imprisonment for providing shelter to the other accused. The sentence was given by the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge (in-charge) T. Srinivas Rao.

The twin blasts occurred at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad had taken the lives of 44 people and hundreds of people had sustained injuries.  The police had found another as many as 19 unexploded bombs in another location in the city after the blasts.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested five accused in October 2008, who were allegedly Indian Mujahideen operatives. They were charged under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act in the twin blasts.

The Central intelligence wing of Telangana had filed charge-sheets against the accused and also had named three others who are absconding, Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Amir Reza Khan. According to the prosecution Aneeq Shafique Sayeed, Riyaz Bhatkal and Ismail Chowdhari planted bombs.

Correct data, wrong visualisation: BJP’s graph on fuel prices

OpIndia Staff
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Correct data, wrong visualisation: BJP’s graph on fuel prices

On the day the opposition parties led by Congress had called for a nationwide bandh protesting high fuel prices, BJP’s Twitter account decided to counter the claim of opposition. For this, they tried to explain that actually, the increase in prices of petrol and diesel during the current government is less than the corresponding increase during UPA government by using the best method to represent numbers in an easily understandable way, graphs. But while doing so, something went wrong, and the graphs they posted became a subject of a joke on Twitter.

First, let us see the graphs posted by the party:

Petrol price graph by BJP
Diese price graph by BJP

As most people have noticed, the graphs are not correct.

It has two different data series: the price of fuel and the growth rate of the price of that fuel, at four different points in time during the last 14 years. And it is indeed correct that the growth rate of price during the term of current government is less compared to the previous two UPA governments.

Now let’s take the petrol graph. Petrol price has risen by 13% during NDA government, while it rose by 20.5% during UPA1 and a whopping 75.8% during UPA2. But while trying to emphasise on this fall in growth rate during NDA government, they decided to reduce the height of the last column. But perhaps they forgot that the columns are representing the retail price of the fuel, and they have even included the retail prices as data labels on the columns. Even if the price has risen by low percentage, it has still risen, so the height of the fourth column can’t be less than the 3rd column. While data is showing that price in 2014 is more than the price in 2014, the altered size of the last column indicates the opposite, which is not correct.

Hence, while BJP is correct in pointing out that price has increased at a much lower rate compared to the previous two UPA governments, they could not visually represent it correctly.

No wonder the graphs become subject of criticism, mocking and jokes from people of all ideologies. Congress’ Twitter handle didn’t let this opportunity go and they tweeted their own version of the graph. They added another data point, international price of crude in US Dollar at the corresponding points of time. And they also decided to remove the growth rates, as that did not suit them, focusing only on retail price vs crude price.


So, what could have been the best way to emphasise on the fall in growth rate of fuel price? Well, such graphs correctly depicting the scenario using the same data were already circulating on social media.

This was tweeted today afternoon, and this correctly represents the data.


Another user had taken the BJP’s graph and ‘corrected’ it, enlarging the height of the fourth column to match with corresponding data.


Yet another user went ahead and created a graph from scratch using the data used by BJP, but by plotting them correctly in a proper graph.


At the time of writing this report, the BJP’s Twitter account has not deleted the tweets.

National Herald Case: Delhi High Court rejects Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s plea in Income Tax case

OpIndia Staff
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National Herald Case: Delhi High Court rejects Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s plea in Income Tax case

In a massive blow to the Congress, the Delhi High Court on Monday rejected Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’s plea challenging the Income Tax notice seeking tax reassessment for the financial year 2011-2012 in connection with the National Herald Case. The petition regarding the same, filed by senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, has also been rejected by the court.

The court also clarified that the tax department reserves the right to reopen any tax proceedings and that the petitioners can approach the income tax department with their particular grievances.

Earlier last month, Rahul Gandhi had appeared in the Delhi High Court and challenged after the I-T department accused him of concealing his income in the years 2011-2012. According to the department Rahul’s case was considered to be reopened as he did not disclose that he was a director in the company- Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YI) since 2010.

His lawyers, however, asserted that Rahul did not receive any income from the source, hence he is not liable for any tax.

The same day, Sonia Gandhi and Oscar Fernandes, too, had moved the Delhi High Court, challenging the reopening of their assessments by the Income-Tax regarding the Young Indian- National Herald transactions.

The ‘tax file’ had then revealed that Rahul Gandhi had hidden from the Income-Tax department that he was a Director in Young India, which is the main company involved in the ‘National Herald case’.  Since he had allegedly hidden the facts from the I-T department, a whopping amount of Rs 154.97 crore couldn’t be assessed by them. The tax file also revealed that along with being the Director, he was also the direct beneficiary of the funds directed at ‘Young India’.

However, at that point in time, to block the reassessment, Rahul Gandhi had challenged the notice in the Delhi High Court, which has been now duly rejected by the same.

As the investigation proceeds, and the conditions take unexpected turns, the Gandhi’s seem to be getting jittery. Earlier too, we had covered how the Gandhis’ had tried to thwart the Income Tax’ investigation into the National Herald case. Congress had also earlier reportedly threatened tax officials with legal consequences for asking “irrelevant questions” during their investigations.

Now that the Delhi High Court rejects Congress President Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi’s plea challenging the Income Tax notice almost closing all escape doors, one is left to wonder what would be the possible next step taken by the Congress bigwigs in their own defence.

Shia Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi expelled from Islam for claiming that homosexuality is prevalent in Madarsas

OpIndia Staff
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Shia Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi expelled from Islam for claiming that homosexuality is prevalent in Madarsas

Islamic clerics have announced the expulsion of UP Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi for allegedly making objectionable statements against Islam in the past. According to the reports, Waseem Rizvi is accused of saying that homosexuality is prevalent Madrasas across the country.

The Muslim clerics reportedly held a meeting in the Noori Mosque of Agra on September 8th and Mufti Mudassar Ali Qadri approved the proposal to remove Waseem Rizvi from Islam. The clerics defended the decision by claiming that Rizvi statements against Islam will be a danger to the country’s peace and harmony.

The clerics also accused the Shia leader of having a connection with ‘anti-national elements’ in the past. Mufti Mudassar Ali Qadri also demanded a CBI inquiry against Rizvi to investigate this matter. He further said that after Muharram, both Shias and Sunnis will hold protests against Waseem Rizvi.

Reportedly, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad has met UP CM Yogi Adityanath and has requested him to take action against Rizvi for his statement. The cleric also warned CM Yogi that his government will be responsible if any communal riots occur as a reason of Rizvi’s statements.

Jamit-ul-Quresh President Mohd Shareef Kale reportedly accused Rizvi of previously equating Indian Muslims as terrorists by claiming that the Pakistani is recruiting Indian Muslims with the help of  Indian Muslim clerics who were spreading falsehood in the name of Islam. He said that Rizvi even called the fatwa given by the global leader of Shia community Ayatullah Agha Shistani as wrong.

Sami Aghai, the chairman of Bharatiya Muslim Vikas Parishad reportedly said that Rizvi is making these statements to get publicity and added that he should not be given importance as he does not belong to the Muslim community anymore.

Waseem Rizvi has been always controversial among Islamic clerics. He had openly declared his support for the Ram temple in Ayodhya and had said that Muslims who are opposed to Ram Mandir should go to Pakistan. He had also written to AIMPLB president asking them to return all the Masjids which were built on destroyed temples, back to the Hindus.

Some hilarious moments from the ‘Bharat Bandh’ today led by Congress and Rahul Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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Some hilarious moments from the ‘Bharat Bandh’ today led by Congress and Rahul Gandhi

Protesting against high petrol and fuel prices, opposition parties led by Congress called for a nationwide bandh today. There were reports of hooliganism and vandalism that also trickled in from various parts of the country. However, amidst the news about the bandh from across the country, came some videos that gave us some amusement. Here are some:

In Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh, few Congress workers were doing a procession while chanting slogans. Suddenly, they got confused and chanted “Rahul Gandhi Murdabaad”.


In Belagavi, Karnataka, few AAP workers were doing a protest, but perhaps some workers were not aware of what they were protesting against. One of them demanded an increase in petrol prices! The result? The party leader present there immediately went to him and slapped him.


Congress workers in Neemuch were not the only ones who were confused between zindabaad and murdabaad. Somewhere else, Congress workers were caught chanting Narendra Modi zindabaad slogan during today’s bandh.


And this Pune man wins the internet today. The India Today reporter was expecting some usual comment against price rise and difficulty due to the bandh, but for this man, Congress is a bigger problem than anything else. He says Congress is the main problem. He also says even if petrol price becomes ₹200 it will be alright, but he doesn’t want Congress back in power.


In Karnataka, Congress workers were enforcing the bandh by forcing shop owners to shut their shops, when suddenly a woman appeared on the scene and started chanting counter-slogans “Narendra Modi ki jay, Bharat Mata ki jay”, which resulted in Congress workers to chant slogans louder and one of them physically mishandled the lady also.


In Udupi, Rikshaw drivers confronted Congress party workers with “Modi, Modi” slogan, forcing the bandh enforcers to retreat.


Social media was full of such videos of people rejecting the bandh and confronting opposition party workers with counter slogans when such counter slogans were not chanted by the opposition workers themselves.


It is perhaps the greatest testament to Congress’ credibility if such videos emerge during a supposed nationwide strike.

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