Home Blog Page 7087

TMC MP Derek O’Brien threatens to name Twitter users in Parliament, gets paid back in kind

OpIndia Staff
-
0
TMC MP Derek O’Brien threatens to name Twitter users in Parliament, gets paid back in kind

Derek O’Brien, the Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former Bourvita Quiz Master seems so engrossed with Twitter that he wants the Parliament to spare time for discussion about his experiences on the social media platform. As a result he wants to discuss which handles he finds offensive and which handles irritate him.

A couple of days ago, Derek O’Brien demanded in Rajya Sabha why Prashant Patel, a young lawyer who goes by the Twitter handle @ippatel was invited to the BJP’s social media meet. As per O’Brien’s claims, @ippatel is India’s ‘most ‘vilious, hatred spreading monger‘ (his words).

Derek though decided to take things to a new level to flaunt the privilege he has as an MP by threatening to name a twitter user in the parliament:


As seen above, Derek decided to accuse a twitter user of lying about Omar Abdullah’s statement and as a result threatened that he would be mentioned in the Parliament.

It was indeed shocking to note that a senior MP wanted to use Parliament’s precious time to discuss social media disagreements and call out private citizens, who would be in no position to defend themselves from his attacks.

However, Twitter users did not take Derek’s threat lying down and decided to pay back in kind.


West Bengal has many serious issues plaguing its citizens but their MP apparently seems to be prioritising his time in Parliament discussing Twitter.


If Liam Neeson in the movie Taken was inspired by Derek, we would not have bothered to travel to Europe to look for his daughter.


Rahul Raj who was earlier defamed by Derek in Parliament also decided to speak up.


It seems every person not adhering to Derek’s views now risks finding his/her name mentioned in the parliament as an abusive troll.


Incidentally Derek has been a repeat offender when it comes to misusing his parliamentary privileges. Earlier too, he had defamed private citizens inside the parliament by alleging that they spread hatred on Twitter.

Such a modus oprandi might be a preferred route for him as whatever he alleges there cannot be legally used against him. Thus it is shocking to note that the TMC MP is deciding to use the constitutional privilege bestowed upon him as a tool to harass and abuse private citizens of the country, instead of trying to bring positive changes in people’s lives.

36 sexually assaulted students rescued from Pune Madrasa, Maulana arrested

OpIndia Staff
-
0
36 sexually assaulted students rescued from Pune Madrasa, Maulana arrested

With accounts of such horrors becoming a constant with the Madrasas, yet another heinous incident was reported by ANI in which Maulana of a Madarsa has been arrested for sexually assaulting his students in Katraj, Pune. A total of 36 students have been rescued, and a case registered against the cleric.


Kondhwa police inspector, Milind Gaikwad, said, “Maulana of a Madarsa has been arrested for sexually assaulting his students in Katraj, Pune. A total of 36 students have been rescued. We have registered a case against him. Further investigation underway.”

The gruesome incident came to light when two children were spotted alone by the Railway Police Force (RPF) at the Pune Railway Station. The RPF informed an NGO named ‘Saathi’ that works towards child rescue and rehabilitation.

The police team with the help of child rights activists raided Jamia Amubhuja Darul Yatama situated in RK colony, Katraj Kondhwa.

This particular Madrasa in Pune’s Katraj suburb, Maharashtra houses students aged 5 to 14 years.

A maulana named Rahim has been arrested so far, confirmed the Bharati Vidyapeeth police station. An FIR has been registered against him under Juvenile Justice and POCSO Act. Rahim has been accused by two children who are natives of Bihar’s Bhagalpur district.

Both the children fled the madrasa on 23rd July and were found loitering around the railway station while they were spotted by the RPF. Saathi took the two kids to ‘Balkalyan Samiti’ where they were counselled.

This is not the first time reports of such crimes involving Maulvi’s and various Madrasas have surfaced. In May this year, it was reported that a Madrasa teacher was arrested in Hyderabad for sexually abusing six minor children. He taught Arabic at the Madrasa and had been identified by the police as 22-year-old Mohammed Rehan Ansari.

Apart from this, it was recently reported how a young girl was raped in a Madrasa and the victim and her family were left traumatised when Islamists demanded that the victim is married off to her rapist. In another incident, a Maulvi was arrested for kidnapping and holding a minor girl captive in his Madrasa in Ghaziabad. 67-year-old Maulvi, Zakir Alam was also arrested for sexual assault on an 8-year-old child in a Madrasa at Narela, Delhi. In December, the UP police had raided a Madrasa in Lucknow’s Shahadatganj area, where girls were allegedly held hostage and molested by the Madarsa’s manager. A total of 51 girls were rescued by the police during the raid and the manager was also arrested. In 2015 it was reported that a Madarsa teacher in Kozhikode, Kerala was arrested over charges of him sexually abusing a minor girl.

This is yet another outrageous incident in a long row of heinous crimes that have surfaced in the recent past.

Swami Paripoornananda banned from Hyderabad, leftist portals add caste angle to the issue

Rohan
-
0
Swami Paripoornananda banned from Hyderabad, leftist portals add caste angle to the issue

The Telangana government, under K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), had ordered a respectable guru, named Paripoornananda Swami to be externed from the state of Telangana, under the Anti-Social and Hazardous Activities Act, 1980. In basic words, a Hindu preacher had been banned from entering the state.

Before analysing the legitimacy of the externment, we must take a brief look at the events that led to him being externed.

It all started with the self-declared ‘rationalistic’ film critic, ‘Kathi Mahesh’ (who has been a darling of the Telugu media), referring to Lord Rama, on a TV debate, as a ‘crook’ (dagulbhaji). He went on to make many other vicious comments about the Ramayana, least of which was the claim that Sita Devi should have stayed with Ravana because she would have had ‘a better life’ in Lanka.

As a result of such audacious remarks- which not only speak volumes about Mahesh’s ignorance regarding Hindu scriptures but also about his insensitivity towards the beliefs of the majority of his state and nation- Swami Paripoornananda felt the need to hit back.

The Swami simply pointed out the fallacies that existed in Mahesh’s vague ideas and consequently told him that he would embark on a ‘Dharmika Chaitanya Yatra’ if there was a refusal to apologise for the comments. The Yatra was supposed to be a form of protest, expressed by countering the ‘insult against Rama’ with a chant of the ‘Sri Rama Sankeertanas’, as the Swami walked from the Shiva Temple in Bodduppal to Yadadri.

Ignoring his basic right to protest, the Telangana government called off the Yatra and even chose to house arrest the Swami: with a number of police officers inside and outside the house, to monitor every activity of his, and various reporters outside his place of residence, making his time extremely difficult. The police and the government, referred to it as a “step forward while ensuring the betterment of the Telangana society.”

The state, also went on to extern Mahesh, under ‘Section 3’ of the Anti-Social and Hazardous Activities Act, 1980 for the statement that he had made. Within a matter of days, Swami Paripoornananda (who was the first subject to house arrest), was also banned from Hyderabad for a period of six months under the exact same section.

Therefore, to break down the ridiculous state of affairs:

  1. Mahesh had made slanderous remarks
  2. Paripoornananda Swami proved him wrong, asked him to apologise- without which he threatened to express his democratic right to protest peacefully by chanting Rama’s sankeertanas.
  3. The Telangana state under KCR banned Kathi Mahesh
  4. They subjected the Swami to an extra period of house arrest.
  5. Paripoornananda Swami was forced out of the city for 6 months

What makes it worse, though, is the fact that ‘Section 3’ of the Anti-Social and Hazardous Activities Act, 1980 is in reference to acts of goondaism only. Not only is it abhorrent to call a reputable Swami who sacrifices everything to become a Sanyasi, a “goonda“; legally too, referring to someone with no criminal record as an ‘anti-social element’ holds no water.

In that regard, it also makes little sense to extern Kathi Mahesh under the act, because he too has not explicitly committed any act that deserves to be classified as goondaism. While I do believe his remarks and comments reflect serious insensitivity, ignorance and idiocy, he has no legal reason to be externed from the state. While it can still be said that he violates Article 323 of the Indian Penal Code, by “causing voluntary hurt”, it is very clear that sending him out of the state holds no real justification legally and even practically, because it merely shifts the burden on to another state.

While Kathi Mahesh, may or may not have pushed his freedom to express, Swami Paripoornananda’s democratic protest, by no means, calls for any form of punishment. Subramanian Swamy too seemed to have believed the same, as he wrote to the Chief Minister of Telangana:


However, things do not end there. Aside from the fact that Swami Paripoornananda deserves to be brought back, the vindictive claims of the left-leaning media sites on this issue, need to be addressed.

Kancha Ilaiah- known for glorifying a “Post-Hindu India”, and writing books on the Hindu deities being “untouchable Gods” and so on- writes a piece for The Wire, jumping to defend Mahesh. All he does is use the opportunity to claim that this is a step that backs a “Hindu dictatorship” where “untouchability and graded caste inequalities will be reinforced.”

Of course, Ilaiah is more than happy to ignore the fact that a Swami has also been externed from the state, just for saying that he wished to embark on a Yatra while chanting his God’s name, to counter the nonsense spoken about the same deity in public.

He would much rather, add a “Hindu dictatorship” angle to it, to make the Hindu-bashing hero, appear like an abiding victim of atrocities by ‘casteist Hindus’.

It is worth noting that Scroll.in, who are well known for adding irrelevant angles to the most legitimate issues, decide to employ Mahesh’s ludicrous narrative of ‘Dalit victimhood’ in two of the three articles they write on the matter. “When a Dalit questions Ramayana, it becomes anti-national”: they quote in a headline, while they say in another article that he may have been subjected to externment “not least because Kathi is a Dalit”.

I cannot help but think of how caste was never an issue when channels chased Mahesh for his views on movies; how caste was never an issue when Mahesh was a ‘Bigg Boss Telugu’ contestant; how caste never was an issue when people begged for opinions on literally every social and political issue, there existed.

But of course, the convenience story dictates explicitly, that ‘caste’ must be the only consideration when dealing with Mahesh’s slanderous remarks on the Ramayana.

In truth, Telugu people have witnessed the most vicious of attacks on Hindu Gods and scriptures. Their culture has been such that, when ideas and arguments were penned, they were countered with a pen. For instance, when a celebrated personality named Muppala Ranganayakamma once wrote a book named ‘Ramayana Visha Vriksham’ (The Toxic Tree of Ramayana), it was countered with other books. And when it was countered, nobody made laughable excuses like that of ‘casteism’; they instead chose to understand the other side.

In the same way, the externment of Kathi Mahesh cannot be justified, just as the externment of a Swami who questions his views cannot be justified. But what sets the two apart, is the fact that Mahesh had crossed the line that the freedom of expression guarantees him, while Paripoornananda Swami was far from that ‘line’.

In the meantime, leftist portals cannot employ downright silly excuses, when they defend the position of their darlings- who fail to adhere to basic levels of decency when articulating their views on a religious perspective.

But still, such absurd positions on part of the media, cannot take us away from the real question which the Telangana government must answer with utmost urgency: what can possibly justify, banning a noble Swami from the city that his life revolves around?

Pakistan fell for a parody account, but only because the premise of the satire wasn’t far from the truth

Rohan
-
0
Pakistan fell for a parody account, but only because the premise of the satire wasn’t far from the truth

In a report by one of Pakistan’s biggest news channels, ARY News, a parody Twitter handle, ‘Times How’ was quoted. The tweet by ‘Times How’ claimed that Rahul Gandhi had drawn inspiration from the Pakistan Elections where paper ballots were used and that this could “help us save a lot of electricity”.


The ARY News report, had put it all on ‘Times’, as they went on to claim: “According to Times, Rahul Gandhi said, ‘If Pakistan can use Ballot Papers for its elections, why can’t India?'”, with a sense of pride in their supposedly ‘enviable’ election procedure.

But this is definitely not the first time, a known organisation has fallen for ‘Times How’. There was, for instance, a television debate was hosted by an “award-winning” news channel on the viral Priya Varrier video, which was founded on the satirical misquotation of a Maulana.

In all fairness to the ARY News report and Times How, though, the parodic idea of Rahul Gandhi getting ‘inspired by the paper ballots concept in Pakistan’ is not as ludicrous as it may appear at first. Although he never specifically endorsed the Pakistani procedure of voting, Rahul Gandhi and his party have lately, been rather vocal in their support for paper ballots over the EVMs, used in all recent elections.

For instance, Rahul Gandhi suggested early this year, in the 84th Congress Plenary Session, that paper ballots were more “transparent” and instilled “faith in the voting system”. But it is worth remembering that the EVM issue gets brought up in the light of “manipulation of results”, only when the Congress party loses its elections.

Despite the obvious fact that ARY News fell for a parody account, one cannot fully blame it on their lack of judgement, simply because such a premise was not far from the truth about the Congress party’s stance, that naturally changes based on convenience.

Cops held captive and thrashed while rescuing a minor girl who eloped with a Muslim boy

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Cops held captive and thrashed while rescuing a minor girl who eloped with a Muslim boy

Times of India reports of 26 people being arrested after a sub-inspector and three constables were held hostage and thrashed by a group of Muslim villagers in Kanhaisarai chowk village, of Lohta police station area in Varanasi, on Wednesday.

In order to investigate a minor girl’s kidnapping case, for which the girl’s father had lodged an FIR in Lohta police station, the sub-inspector and the constables had raided a house in that area. After three hours of the massive operation carried out by the police and PAC, led by SP (rural) Amit Kumar, the sub-inspector and the constables were ultimately rescued.

A minor girl of Ghamaria village had reportedly eloped with a Muslim boy named Shahid of Aurangabad a few weeks back.  Following the FIR lodged by the girl’s father, police started investigating the matter. It was thus brought to light that the boy was in regular contact with a friend of his, residing in Ghamaria area.

SI Bhupendra Singh and the three constables reached the friend’s house, where they were informed that the youth was a way to meet his maternal grandfather, Haji Yasin. The four policemen along with the girl’s family members reached Yasin’s house in their civil dress. On enquiring about the youth, Yasin and his family members held the policemen hostage, trashed them and tied them to a pole, while the girl’s family managed to flee.

Inspector Lohta Ram Kumar sent few policemen to rescue his fellow policemen when he learned about the incident, but later realising the austerity of the situation, on the directives of the SSP, SP (rural) Amit Kumar collected policemen from 10 police stations, PAC and commandoes from the anti-terror squad and raided Kanhaisarai chowk village in the evening and nabbed 26 miscreants, who were identified through video clips.

Corrupt businessmen and Islamists try to get Modi ‘arrested’ ahead of BRICS, read how they failed

Nupur J Sharma
-
0
Corrupt businessmen and Islamists try to get Modi ‘arrested’ ahead of BRICS, read how they failed

The BRICS summit 2018 being held in Johannesburg, South Africa is the tenth summit that is being attended by the heads of the member states five member states Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit after his three-nation Africa tour. Prior to this summit, there were efforts made by Islamists and a corrupt business family snubbed by Modi in 2016, to get him arrested during his trip to South Africa. An effort that failed miserably.

The South African Kashmiri Action Group and the Muslim Lawyers’ Association demanded the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Modi over his governance of Jammu and Kashmir. The motivated calls for arrest were based on the misplaced UN report on Kashmir that India had summarily and vehemently rejected. The Ministry of External Affairs had issued a statement saying “It is a selective compilation of largely unverified information. It is overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative.”

The credibility of the UN report also came into question after Canada based Pakistani Islamist Zafar Bangash, who is an Imam at York Region’s Mosque’s Islamist society claimed that he had helped the UN with the report on Kashmir. He had expressed “humility and great pride” in helping UN’s High Commissioner Al Hussein personally.

When the application to arrest Modi was made, the legal representative of the two associations said “It is simply unthinkable that Modi could be invited to this country and enjoy immunity,” and that the NPA had jurisdiction on several grounds to prosecute Modi, which included the country’s constitution and directives on case law from the Geneva Convention and Nuremberg Trials pertaining to war crimes.

However, things turned interesting when a charge led by 4 Muslim organisations came out with a press statement trying to negate the machinations caused to the summit by the Islamists trying to disrupt the meet. The statement read, “The Muslim community of South Africa joins fellow South Africans in welcoming the arrival of the BRICS delegates to our shores and our country. We are fully committed to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment initiative to build an economic powerhouse in the southern tip of Africa that will spill over into the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.” It was issued by four Muslim organisations, reportedly in a charge led by the Muslim Judicial Council. This was in direct response to Johannesburg-based Muslim Lawyers Association, and the South African Kashmiri Action Group moving a legal application to arrest Narendra Modi.

It is being reported in South African media that Thursday night last week, instead of going home, Energy Minister Jeff Radebe got on a long-distance flight to India to smoothen things over with the Indian authorities and avert the embarrassment of not having the Indian Prime Minister attend the summit. Reportedly, the Muslim group were also building cases against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping. The application to arrest Modi was summarily rejected by South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority since there was obviously no ground or evidence and heads of states have immunity.

The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are trying to rebuild the relationship between the two countries after the Congress-led government back in when they were in power had registered their protest over lack of respect shown to then PM Manmohan Singh with delays and no one-on-one meeting organised between the two heads

Interestingly, that the bid to derail the summit by legal applications of having Narendra Modi arrested have been fuelled by the controversial businessmen of the Gupta family.

South African media outlet DailyMaverick reported :

Building closer relations with India is probably somewhere on Ramaphosa’s to-do list, but at least he and Modi have in common a dislike for the Zuma-friendly Gupta family. During his 2016 state visit to South Africa, Modi snubbed a dinner at which he had heard some of the Gupta brothers would be present, and now some conspiracy theorists in the Indian High Commission in Pretoria reckon Gupta-friendly officials might be fuelling efforts to embarrass Modi, as payback.

South African investigative journalists from AmaBhugane had investigated the links between tainted Gupta brothers and the then President Jacob Zuma in a series called ‘Gupta Leaks‘. Zuma faced charges of massive corruption and impropriety and the journalists had found that the corruption was done with the help of the Gupta brothers – India born influential South Africa based businessmen with interests in computers, media, mining, and real estate.

OpIndia had also delved into the investigation of the South African journalists. In our earlier reports we had written :

Zuma’s son is reported to be a director in many companies of Gupta brothers, and thus Zuma was accused of granting undue favours to Gupta brothers as a result of which piling personal fortunes for himself and his family. For example, there was one instance where Bank of Baroda, through its South African operations, gave loan to Jacob Zuma’s fourth wife to buy a house. The loan was paid by companies owned by Gupta brothers.

Helping Zuma’s wife pay a housing loan is lesser of the charges levelled against the Gupta brothers. There have been reports that Guptas were so influential and powerful in South Africa owing to their proximity to the Zuma family, that they even used to offer posts in the central government to politicians (fixing cabinet berths a la Radia tape controversy back in India) apart from winning government contracts for themselves.

While investigating the links between Zuma and the Gupta brothers, AmaBhugane and DailyMaverick had stumbled upon his business relations with another controversial businessman called Piyoosh Goyal and in turn, Goyal’s business relations with Congress leader Kapil Sibal. However, no link has been established between Kapil Sibal and the Gupta family directly. Though, Daily Maverick amaBhungane claim that family of Kapil Sibal – the Congress leader, his wife Promila Sibal, and his son Akhil Sibal, who is also a lawyer – and families of Piyoosh Goyal and Gupta brothers took a chartered flight from Delhi to Mumbai to watch the final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup between India and Sri Lanka, a charge which was summarily denied by Kapil Sibal and his son.

Our independent investigation also showed that Kapil Sibal had acquired a defunct company from Piyoosh Goyal and an expensive piece of land for a nominal rate and the business dealings between the two were a little opaque. Following our investigation, Kapil Sibal’s refusal to answer our question and his subsequent u-turn from what he had told the South African journalists, Sibal had also threatened to sue OpIndia.

It is, therefore, intriguing that now, the South African media is strife with rumours that apart from Kashmiri separatist organisations, it was perhaps functionaries of the Gupta family who had tried their best to embarrass Modi during the BRICS summit after Modi had refused to attend a dinner attended by the Guptas in 2016.

The embarrassing embrace by the entitled man-child and the quick rescue team of Rahul Gandhi

Saket Suryesh
-
0
The embarrassing embrace by the entitled man-child and the quick rescue team of Rahul Gandhi

The storm over Indian politics has passed. India has survived the earthquake brought about by the hollow utterances of Rahul Gandhi. Beyond the humour that any speech of dynastic despot of Congress produces, this has something new. It was immediately criticized by those who love the democratic practices and graceful polity of the yore in this country, and who lament the decline of dignity in political discourse.

They, for whom, Rahul Gandhi’s coming back to the power, by means logical and purely evil, has implication of their own coming back to the power too were up, once they were over the immediate shock of the embarrassment put for public display in the holiest house of Indian democracy, trying to make the act of Rahul Gandhi in the parliament during a serious debate on No-Confidence Motion, brought in against the Narendra Modi Government, which enjoys unprecedented confidence of the citizen of this nation.

Rahul Gandhi walked after his speech, spoken without facts in his now infamous screeching voice, towards the chair of Prime Minister and even had the audacity of signalling the Prime Minister to get up from his seat so that he could be blessed by an embrace by the feudal lord of Indian polity. If one wanted to see the real downside of installation of a selected PM in place of an elected one, Sonia Gandhi installing Manmohan Singh as the PM was a clear demonstration of how low the Congress had converted the highest position in the Indian democracy.

In the meantime, Congress lost power, but the derision with which their leadership views constitutional position was once more evident in the parliament the other day during the hopelessly ill-conceived No-Confidence Motion brought out against PM Narendra Modi. The farce which began with a speech by TDP, blaming the Congress for its ills, reached its nadir by the time Rahul Gandhi began speaking.

His speech, sprinkled with his now infamous lunatic tone, read out like the editorial piece of some digital absurdity which passes on the fact-less fake news as a digital journalist. The theatre of absurd carefully created by the Congress strategists with the sole agenda of creating Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi narrative, rolled down into the darkest depths of worst of the parliamentary debate in the history of Independent India. In the future, when they want to show young parliamentarians how not to debate, this speech of Rahul Gandhi can serve as a brilliant lesson.

What followed his farcical speech was a disgusting demonstration of scant respect the dynastic prince has for the democratic positions, as he walked to the chair of the Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy and gesticulating like a perfect entitled child asked PM Modi to get up, saying- Utho, Utho. Then he went on the hug the Prime Minister, claiming to be spreading the love. This was so juvenile in itself and would have seemed funny if one disregards the fact that the corrupts of this land have joined hands to make this boy-man head of Indian state if we do not consider what happened after this obnoxious display of elite entitlement.

Having placed his act of absolute lack of etiquette for public display, he walked back to his seat and winked to his team. The wink was caught on camera. One can’t make out if Rahul winked to his colleagues or to the supposedly neutral journalists, who, as if one a cue, began hailing Rahul Gandhi’s speech, in a chorus, like that of Jesus speaking to Moses, a gift to the mankind, much like the speaker of the speech himself.

The whole behaviour of this man-child of forty-eight reeked of nothing but entitlement. It is no secret that all his big talk about grand love, fades away quickly. His own speech is quickly discredited by his behavior. The whole thing was terribly staged Public-school kid’s drama of a close circle of dynasts.

Rahul Gandhi, Gaurav Gogoi, Randeep Surjewala and the whole gang of Babalogs have zero respect for democratic process and positions. When one looks at this entitled lot of Congress which is running the party, one is reminded of Virginia Woolf’s brilliant observation on the British society which remains equally true in modern-day Congress. In her novel, Night and Day she writes about men of elite clubs deriving their legitimacy from their family name, “It may be said, indeed, that English society being what it is, no very great merit is required, once you bear a well-known name, to put you into a position where being eminent is a whole lot easier than being obscure…. One finds them at the top of the professions with letters after their names; they sit in luxurious public offices with private secretaries attached to them; they write solid books on dark covers, issued by the presses of two great universities, and when one of them dies, chances are that another of them writes his biography.” In this one paragraph, Ms Woolf, while writing about the early Nineteenth century British society, describes the Lutyen’s world in India.

The whole entitled club of babalogs of Congress believes that they have the divine right to rule over this nation as individuals and as a class. Now in their middle-age, they still remain mentally in their public school boyhood. They think such and behave such. Their understanding of Indian democracy is as little and as flawed as is their understanding of an Indian mind. India mind values quietness and grace. Their education has taught them to value noise and lack of respect. They lose election after election not only because of a history of political corruption. They lose because they want to superimpose their foreign interpretation of the world on Indian sensibilities.

What they projected as a gesture of love, a man of ruling class embracing the poor downtrodden where the latter is supposed to keep his mouth shut and enjoy his moment in glory; India saw as an affront on our culture where we don’t ask a man (for a moment assume that he is not the PM of India) to stand up and get embraced.

We, the people, saw an errant prince asking the man, twenty years his senior and who represents all the people of this great nation to stand up and be hugged. Indian people saw the man they chose, be slighted. What the incident demonstrated was how little the entitled lot thought of Indian masses and their choice. It showed that while they consider their position of power as a matter of natural necessity and their current loss of status as some sort of temporary aberration.

Their faith in their divine right to rule over this great nation is disgustingly evident in their behaviour. It is this faith in the hereditary right to rule which makes Rahul Gandhi act in this kind of non-serious fashion in the matter of constitutional and political significance. It takes a special nonchalance for the leader of principal opposition to go abroad and justify his own divine right of dynastic rule in a democracy. This idea always fails.

Thomas Paine wrote which explains the haughty disdain with which Congress elites treat Indian democracy and why it is such a bad idea for Indian democracy, for any democracy. He writes, “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings. is that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently, turn it into a ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion. He further adds in the same essay, “Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance;..” 

Every grain of Rahul Gandhi’s existence shouts about this feigned sense of superiority. For him and people around him who believe in his divine right to rule, the whole purpose of this nation is to surrender itself in slavery in front of their entitled blood. This is what we saw in that embarrassing embrace the other day in parliament. Rahul Gandhi believes in his superiority. He also believes that Modi is a mistake the nation has made, and India has no choice to surrender itself at his feet, sooner or later.

After using lynching as an excuse against returning to India, Mehul Choksi says he is a citizen of Antigua

OpIndia Staff
-
0
After using lynching as an excuse against returning to India, Mehul Choksi says he is a citizen of Antigua

Financial fraud accused Mehul Choksi has now claimed that he become a citizen of Caribbean island Antigua in November 2017 for expanding his business, Economic Times has reported. Antigua is known for providing visa free travel to 132 countries and freedom from extradition. Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted in connection with a Rs 13,000 crore financial fraud against Punjab National Bank.

As per the report, a statement made by Choksi appeared in an Antigua newspaper where he claimed that he has become the country’s citizen via its investment program. In the statement Choksi claimed that, he took this decision to expand his business in the Caribbean and take advantage of visa free travel for 132 countries. He also claimed that he had gone to the US for medical treatment in January.

According to claims made by Republic TV, Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has confirmed his presence in the country. With regards to him being given a citizenship, Browne claimed that it was extended to him when there was no Interpol’s red corner notice against him. He also claimed that there was no adverse information floating about regarding Choksi, when he applied for a citizenship.

When asked about the future course of action, Browne asserted that they have an obligation to cooperate with the Indian authorities but conceded that the process will be complicated as he is now a citizen. India has no extradition treaty with Antigua but Browne assured that they would do whatever can be done.

With regards to Choksi’s whereabouts, Browne claimed that the Indian government had raised a similar query and that the fraud accused had indeed paid a visit to the Island and might still be living there.

Incidentally this revelation about his Antigua citizenship comes a few days after Choksi’s appeal against a non-bailable warrant claimed that he was afraid to come back to India as he fears he might be lynched by a mob.

Panic stricken Shashi Tharoor seeks to restrain Swamy from ‘interfering’ in the Sunanda Pushkar case

Jhankar Mohta
-
0
Panic stricken Shashi Tharoor seeks to restrain Swamy from ‘interfering’ in the Sunanda Pushkar case

As reported by ANI, the Patiala House Court on 23rd August has settled to take up applications by Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor seeking to restrain senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy from interfering in the Sunanda Pushkar death case and seeking Delhi police vigilance report.


The Court has also approved the exemption application by Tharoor for non-appearance before the court. What is paradoxical is that Shashi Tharoor alongside is fervent on keeping Swamy away from the case as well. This surely raises ambiguity in one’s mind, leaving one to think whether the assertions and allegations made by Swamy are true? and is Shashi Tharoor not confident about his own claims? Does he foresee himself testing deep waters eventually, if Swamy continues to be as vociferous as he is in the Sunanda Pushkar death case?

Rajya Sabha MP and legal activist Subramanian who has been closely following the Sunanda Pushkar death case, in his undated interview to Catch News had made his intentions on his involvement in this particular case quite clear by admitting that, “I felt that why should a woman die, whatever her character or lack of character [may be], because, you know, I was [asked] why are you taking interest in it. I said that it’s wrong that the people in power can kill some woman and just cover it up!”

Swamy claims to be troubled by how Tharoor and the rest of Congress are “continuing as a party”. “There’s not even grief. So yeah, I thought I should do it”, he said.

Since then Swamy has continued to be quite forthcoming about his opinion, he went on to ask for a court-monitored probe in the case by a multidisciplinary special investigations team. The Delhi Police was criticised by the Delhi High Court for delays in the investigations. AIIMS had earlier confirmed that Sunanda’s death has been due to poisoning. The PIL submitted by Swamy with regard to the case was dismissed by the Delhi HC initially but Swamy had moved to Supreme Court against the decision.

In his latest, minutes after the Patiala House Court granted Congress leader Shashi Tharoor anticipatory bail, Dr Subramanian Swamy said, “he ran to the court as he was afraid”. He also said that the deployment of the battery of lawyers to get Tharoor bail was unnecessary. He called out at Tharoor saying that the bail plea was a farce as there was no written submission by the Delhi police, or in the chargesheet, or any of the materials placed before the court – where anybody spoke about him being arrested.

In a massive relief for Shashi Tharoor, the Patiala House Court on Thursday granted him anticipatory bail on Rs 1 lakh surety. The court has granted bail to the Congress leader on conditions that he will not tamper with the evidence and shall not leave India without permission.

It is yet to be seen how the ongoing Sunanda Pushkar case, where Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is charged with ‘abetment to suicide’ in his wife’s death unfolds, but with the recent applications by Shashi Tharoor seeking to restrain senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy from “interfering” in the case surely raises questions.

Narendra Modi, Pradhan Swayamsevak – Part II

doubtinggaurav
-
0
Narendra Modi, Pradhan Swayamsevak – Part II

Waiting for pivot

Before we continue where we left in the previous article, a minor digression – many Modi supporters who are of Minarchist/Hindutva bent, are disappointed with the direction of this government, for justifiable reasons (I include myself in both categories). They usually console themselves by claiming things will be different in the second term and that we will get substantial actions. That is a possibility. Modi, after all, has a penchant for dramatics. Considering the suddenness of demonetization or surgical strikes, this raises hopes of supporters. In other words, they are expecting a sequel which is better than original, a dark knight to batman begins, so as to say. However, I am sceptical if this would really happen. I am rather expecting “Fast and Furious” franchise, hugely successful but highly predictable. My scepticism has to do with my reading of Narendra Modi.

Reading Narendra Modi (And Sangh)

In the previous article, I dismissed the ‘secular-liberal’ jeremiad of Modi being some reincarnation of Hitler. That was accompanied by fulsome praise for his personal attributes. This article is going to be far more critical of the man. It might be just me, but I dont think, simple explanation exists behind the man. I think he has a layered and sometimes conflicting personality and motives.

Although this article focuses on Modi as a person, it is also a reflection on broader Sangh culture (refer to the title). This is to be expected, considering how Modi and Sangh are entwined, both Modi, the quintessential Swayamsevak, as a product of the project as well as him being the architect of the ongoing shift in Sangh’s direction.

So just who is Narendra Modi?

Narendra Modi, The Ascetic King

Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of Modi’s life can’t miss the ascetic streak. He left his family in his teens, joined Ramakrishna Mutt aspiring to be sanyasi when dissuaded by his guru for being meant for bigger things, he joined Sangh as life-long pracharak.

His choice of Sangh was not an accident. Sangh since its foundation has been inspired by the ascetic ideal.

Ascetic as king may sound appealing, especially considering the alternatives who are busy stealing Italian marbles and hoarding designer purses. Yet, this ideal is not without its drawbacks, foremost being a misunderstanding of Sanyas itself. Sanyas commonly understood is the renunciation of worldly pleasures, the ultimate aim of which is to become a Yogi. However, renouncing worldly pleasures is just half the measure to become Yogi in the true sense. A person also needs to conquer his emotions which are not directly connected to material possession, such as pride, envy, which remain an obstacle to the fulfilment of attainment.

A Sanyasi which has not conquered his ego is susceptible to it, in fact, he is more vulnerable than a common man of the world because he is self-conscious of his achievement (successfully renouncing material attachment). His ego in effect can lead him astray from his objective.

Broadly speaking this ascetic arrogance has become ingrained in Sangh culture where the belief that merely nationalistic instinct is sufficient for national revival, with any effort to cultivate knowledge and ideas not only unnecessary but detrimental to Sangh project. To borrow from the American lexicon, what we are witnessing is the epistemic closure of Sanghi mind.

In Modi’s case too, there is an unquestionable pattern of overconfidence discernible in his attitude. In my opinion, it is his overconfidence which drives many of his actions or inactions, rather than some super secret plan (which many of his starry-eyed supporters are wont to believe).

Narendra Modi – Agile Man

One of the rather uncharitable remarks about Agile methodology deployed widely in software development is it encourages an obsessive focus on implementation to almost exclusion (determinately so) of any explicit design process

One consequence of Sangh aversion to any form of ideological pursuit is, its agile mindset, that is its sole focus on action.

This, I believe is a misreading of Swami Vivekananda’s famous exhortation, “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached”. Sangh and many others take this to a call of immediate action, in preference to deliberation. To them, this is a directive for karmayoga. Yet this misses the context. At the time India had been under foreign rule for better part of millennia, and many found themselves helpless over the situation, it was under these circumstances that Swami exhorted to shed the diffidence and intellectual paralysis and strive confidently in whatever capacity possible to achieve the goal. And yet it would be a mistake to construe this as eschewment of intellectual pursuit. As the original shloka states, “to approach great and learn”.

Indeed it would be nothing less than astonishing if Swami Vivekananda implied otherwise, for he was one of the most formidable philosopher of India in his time, a time which is remarkable by the presence of intellectual giants astride public conscious.

In order to gain a meaningful insight into Karma Yoga, it is first necessary to understand SwaDharma as a precondition and to understand swadharma, examined thought is necessary.

To Be Continued…

1...7,0867,0877,088...7,677Page 7,087 of 7,677