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NIA court sends Asiya Andrabi to 30 day judicial custody for waging war against the country

OpIndia Staff
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NIA court sends Asiya Andrabi to 30 day judicial custody for waging war against the country

The National Investigation court has sent Pakistan sponsored terrorist Asiya Andrabi, head of the banned outfit Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of Faith) and her two associates to Tihar Central jail for waging war against the country with the support of Pakistan.


Asiya Andrabi and her aides Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen were all presented by the NIA, before Special NIA judge Poonam Bamba. Earlier they were sent to 10 days judicial custody in connection with a sedition case filed by NIA.

The NIA judge has now sent to 30 days judicial custody in relation with her anti-national activities. The NIA probe had revealed that these Pakistan backed terrorists were running a campaign to destabilize the sovereignty and integrity of the country, by receiving support from the neighbouring country.

Andrabi and her aides were arrested earlier in April after a case had been registered against them for waging war against the country. Now they will be shifted from Srinagar prison to Tihar Central Jail.

The National Investigative Agency, on the directions of the Union Home Ministry, has registered cases against these Pakistan-sponsored terrorists and their organization. They were banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The FIR states that they had extensively campaigned against India and published numerous materials that resulted in hatred and contempt towards the country. It also states that Asiya Andrabi and her associates were running a terrorist organization Dukhtaran-e-Milat, with the support of Pakistan.

Recently, it was reported that action against Andrabi and other terrorists were recommended during a high-level security meeting, chaired by the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Asiya Andrabi is known for her anti-national activities and had gone even to the extent of celebrating the Pakistan national day and hoisting the Pakistani flag in Srinagar. She had also claimed that all Muslims living in India are Pakistanis by default.

‘We can win 30 seats, but need to connect with people’: Chandra Kumar Bose speaks about BJP, Mamata and 2019

Anubhav
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‘We can win 30 seats, but need to connect with people’: Chandra Kumar Bose speaks about BJP, Mamata and 2019

Chandra Kumar Bose, apart from being the grand nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, is also the Vice president of the West Bengal BJP state unit. OpIndia met Bose to understand the current political scenario in Bengal and Bose’s view on the state and the state of the Bengal BJP.

The political situation in Bengal has been continuously getting intriguing. The recent by-polls in the state have indicated a rise in BJP’s vote share in the state. Along with the increased vote share, there has also been an increase in the political violence against the BJP in the state with approximately 50 people losing their lives in panchayat poll violence, 26 among them were karyakartas, according to BJP.

Bose, who comes from the corporate world, has always been an iconoclast in the party. He contested his first elections against the incumbent chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee from the Bhawanipur constituency. When asked about his views on the ability of Bengal BJP to adapt to the Bengal brand of politics, Bose expressed his reservations.

According to Bose, BJP Bengal is still pursuing the policy of focusing on the Hindi speaking people in Bengal. He furthered by stating the need to understand that most of them are not voters here. They are here as workers. So, they might come to BJP rallies and road shows but that will not result in a change in vote share as most of them are not voters here. The “Bengal BJP is yet to approach the Bengali speaking Hindus”, who according to Bose constitute around 40% of the Hindu voters in Bengal.

Chandra Kumar Bose on BJP’s ‘North Indian’ Politics

“I would not use the word ‘north Indian’. Bengal BJP is mostly doing appeasement of and catering to the ‘Hindivashi’ or Hindi speaking people residing in Bengal. This has created another problem, as I was mentioning earlier, these people are not on the voter’s list. But, if we keep concentrating only on them we will never be able to increase our vote share beyond 25%,” he said.

Bose implied that the current policies of the Bengal unit are not electorally efficient and if not introspected, will result in a quagmire for the world’s largest political party.

Bose on what BJP can do to make itself electorally relevant in Bengal

“The concentration should be on Bengali Hindus, who out of that 70% still constitute around 40%, according to me. Although I feel that 70% number is inaccurate, a more realistic number should be around 65% of the Hindu vote. This is where we are losing out. We are not being able to touch this section of people by more than 2%. The majority of the votes in this section are going to Trinamool,” he said.

When asked about the accountability of the party’s poor performance in the state and the virtually non-existent political representation of BJP in Bengal since its inception till 2014, Bose claimed that the fault lies with the BJP leadership. According to him, the prevailing notion in the party was that Jyoti Basu was undefeatable and thus they never tried.

“The fault lies with the Party leadership. I would not say that that the fault lies with Bengal because BJP never focused on Bengal. Because Jyoti Basu was not undefeatable, somehow they thought it is not possible to defeat him. Why not? This is politics you need people to support you. The dent on the left, which was made by Mamata Banerjee, should have been made by the BJP. As a national party we should have used the regional face of Mamata Banerjee but for some reason, we failed to do it”, he said.

The Bengal unit has claimed that they have been working overtime in order to strengthen their organizational capacity in Bengal.

Bose on BJP’s claims that it has booth committees in more than 65,000 booths out of 77,300+ booths in Bengal. 

“I can tell you, that number is incorrect. According to me, the number is around 45-46000 booths”, said Bose.

This was particularly interesting because BJP has earlier cited increasing their organizational capacity at booth levels in the state for inducting Mukul Roy into the party. Mukul Roy was at a point in time the general secretary of the TMC and many believed him to be the number two man in the Trinamool Congress before joining BJP.

Chandra Kumar Bose on Mukul Roy’s induction into the party and whether Roy could improve BJP’s chances in the state

“Mukul Roy certainly has his followers because in the TMC he was the number 2 man. He is a strong organizational man but his organizational expertise had to work in parallel with Mamata Banerjee’s image. It is Mamata’s mass leader image that complimented Mukul’s expertise and vice-a-versa”, he said.

About state leadership or the lack thereof. We asked him if he means that Mukul Roy can only be effective is there a local leader and whether he thinks BJP Bengal lacks leadership

“If I say that then people will get very unhappy with me. But, the problem with the current leader is that he is proving to be unable in bringing the party together. Today we have four factions within the Bengal BJP, fortunately, or unfortunately, I am not part of any factions, but the point is if you are not part of any faction then you are not in the game also”. These four factions are – Dilip Ghosh’s faction, Mukul Roy’s faction, Rahul Sinha’s Faction and last but not the least is the faction of Ashish Sarkar. The leadership crisis in Bengal BJP is not that we don’t have leaders but it’s that we have too many”, he said.

Bose had earlier mentioned to us that he has written a letter to Amit Shah, the national president of BJP. In his letter, he has cited a few of his observations and reservations about certain party functionaries and the detrimental effects of their ways.

Bose on his letter to Amit Shah 

In his response, Bose stated that there is rampant over-reaching of organizational jurisdiction in the organizational circle of Bengal BJP. He mentioned an instance where the president of a national party’s state unit stood on a podium in Siliguri and stated that he will remain in his party position till such and such date. Bose expressed his reservations about such political statements.

He said coming from the corporate world, “an MD will not stand in the board meeting and say that I will remain till such and such date, the board members will say. Similarly, the state committee here will say that yes you are going to. So, why is he clarifying? Is there a question? Right after this statement, Kailash Vijayvargia, the central observer stated in Purulia that Dilip Ghosh will remain the president until 2021 assembly polls, why these statements?”

We asked him if these statements were a by-product of your own political ambitions

“I am not dying to become the state president. My ambition is to become the Prime Minister of India. I have stated the same to the Prime Minister himself, during one of my visits. I faced two interviews in my life, the first one with Russi Mody in Tata Steel. When he asked about my ambition, I replied that I want to be in his chair after a few years. The same I said to Prime Minister Modi. If anybody thinks that I am trying to grab the president’s post then he or she is mistaken. I am trying to grab the Prime Minister’s post.”

Amit Shah had earlier claimed that BJP will secure 22 seats in the state and we asked Bose about his estimates about BJP’s electoral fortune in the state.

“We can even get more seats than that. We can get 30 seats, provided we are able to connect with the people. Today, we have not been able to connect with the voters. The majority of whom are Bengali Hindu voters. We also have to get at least 10% to 15% of the Muslim vote. We have to get the magic figure of 45% to 48%. Today Mamata is in power with 51%. We have to cut Mamata’s vote share. We are getting LF and Congress votes in Bengal. If we continue this way, we will always remain a lower number two.”

The BJP has emerged as the number two party in West Bengal. Some even consider BJP to be a direct threat to the incumbent TMC government.

With 2019 elections on the horizon we asked Bose about the electoral formula to crack the state elections

“Our work should be focused on the small things. Reach out to the people without the party flag, meet and tell them that we are here for you. Do you want a gas connection? Is there somebody who needs to be admitted to the hospital? See, unless we don’t help the voter on the ground. They are never going to vote for us. See, if today the Left front calls a meeting in Brigade it will be packed but it won’t convert into votes”, he said.

We asked if he thinks the only way to counter the TMC is not to out-shout or out-debate them but the out-favour them?

“Correct, see Mamata has a three-pronged strategy. First is to provide favours. For example, this policy of giving two cycles, one for the daughter and one for the father. The girl goes to college on her bicycle and her father who used to walk to complete his day to day chores does those in a cycle now. They are very happy. This two-rupee rice scheme, though subsidized by the central gets reported as TMC is giving this to the people. After all, this, if you go to them and call TMC thieves they are not bothered at all.

Mamata’s second strategy is to threaten people of harm. She tells them, I have done all this for you, even after this if you do not give me the vote, there will be consequences. The third is she will actually beat up people.

We have to crack this by whisper campaigning. Just like the left did in the 1970’s. We don’t need them to have a BJP flag in their houses, we want their votes. If we create a ruckus and threaten the ruling party, the next day that karyakarta will be thrashed and given a TMC flag.”

Within the Bengal BJP, there seems to alienation imposed on certain individuals. These people despite being competent and stalwarts in their own fields are not given the proper space to articulate their opinions.

We asked him if he thinks he is being sidelined by Bengal BJP

“It does not bother me. I joined BJP to reach to the people. I don’t work for Amit Shah or Dilip Ghosh, I don’t work for Narendra Modi either. I work for the people utilizing the BJP platform, the day I cannot utilize this platform, I will go to another platform or from my own platform.

This mention of ‘platform’ is immensely important as 21st July is fast approaching. An important day in Bengal politics since TMC assumed power. Every year, one party leader or the other join the TMC on this day.

We asked him for his views on 21st July approaching and many people from other parties who are expected to join TMC on that date.

“My leader is Narendra Modi. I joined BJP because of Narendra Modi. Modi has introduced me to Amit Shah. I found both leaders able to give some clear thinking. I cannot say that of others and especially about the Bengal Unit. Bengal unit has a long way to go”, he said.

We asked him if focusing only on religiosity would work in Bengal

“See, In Bengal, religiosity will never work. It is ok if you want to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ or visit a temple but the moment you try to play the religious card in Bengal politics, it will come to a screeching halt. They will probably give NOTA but won’t vote for you. We respect all our deities but here people are focused on Durga Puja and Kali Puja. They might accept “Jai Ma Durga.” Though, the best slogan for Kolkata is Jai Hind.”

No conversation about Bengal can ever be completed without mentioning Mamata Banerjee. For the last few months, she has been constantly targeting BJP and its decisions. She is one of the propagators of the proposed ‘Mahagathbandhan”.

Mamata Banerjee government has directed the CID to arrest people on the basis of social posts and the circular to the CID states, according to a report published in ‘The Hindu’, cases should be filed for 505(2) IPC for “disseminating defamatory content”. It can very well be argued that this goes against her stance on FoE. We asked Bose if he thinks by issuing this circular she has exposed her hypocrisy regarding democratic dissent?

“Yes. You see I asked the same thing in person to Mamata Banerjee. I meet her at the Raj Bhavan every now and then. Whenever I am there, I make it a point to go say ‘hello’. You see, my wife lost her Job because I was contesting an election against Mamata Banerjee. Her employer got spooked. She was told since her husband is contesting elections against the incumbent chief minister she cannot continue there. She was told that Mamata Banerjee can be very vindictive and she will go after the company.

So, I told this to Mamata one 15th of August. I asked her – “Do you believe in Democracy?” to say she was shocked would be an understatement. She asked why I am asking this particular question. I shared my wife’s case and said you can do anything to me but my wife has nothing to do with this. She may very well be your supporter. My two cousins are in TMC, Sugata and Amit Mitra. She asked Indranil and told him to look after the matter. I said we don’t want any favours from you but I also told her that people think she is vindictive on her face”, he narrated.

We asked him why would Mamata Banerjee be so paranoid about the opposition since she is a mass leader and has around 211 seats. Why such insecurities then?

“Yes, I also think this is peculiar. If I was in her position, I would not fear anyone. Of course, I should not be overconfident. But, you see in this large-scale violence that took place around 50 people have died. Out of them, 26 were from our party. It was not necessary. If you remember, right after she came to power there was this Park Street rape incident. Even before the investigation started she said it’s a ‘got up case’ or ‘’Sajano Ghotona’. How can anyone say that? Even in the case of that interview with Sagarika Ghosh or the incident involving that farmer named Shiladitya Chowdhury who was arrested and charged for being a Maoist just because he had raised his voice against Mamata”.

He went on to say, “even this Ambikesh Mahapatra guy got arrested for drawing a sketch mocking Mamata. Kutty, the famous cartoonist mocked Indira Gandhi, who was a dictator, so many times but never once he was arrested. Thus, she has a long history of paranoia and overreaction”.

We asked him if he thought Mamata Banerjee is more paranoid than Indira Gandhi, who imposed the Emergency to retain power. 

“Yes. I think, only in these electoral cycles she becomes this paranoid other than that I cannot think of anything else which will make her this paranoid”.

Senior Congress leaders ‘tormenting’ Kumaraswamy, senior Congress leader backs the CM’s claims

OpIndia Staff
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Senior Congress leaders ‘tormenting’ Kumaraswamy, senior Congress leader backs the CM’s claims

Days after the Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy broke down saying that he is swallowing the poison in the current state of the coalition government, former Assembly speaker and senior Congress leader, KB Koliwad, has come out in support of Kumaraswamy and said that certain Congress leaders are ‘tormenting‘ the chief minister. Without disclosing names, he said that certain Congress leaders were not able to ‘digest’ the Congress-JDS alliance and are simmering from inside and hence troubling Kumaraswamy.

Hinting that it is former CM Siddaramaiah who is upset about the coalition, Koliwad said Mallikarjun Kharge and Parameshwara are supporting Kumaraswamy on Congress high command’s directions. However, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao refused to comment on Koliwad’s statement and distanced himself from the allegations on Siddaramaiah. ‘A CM needs to be strong,’ he said.

Meanwhile, another Congress leader A Manju said that Congress has not given poison but chief ministership to Kumaraswamy, including the finance portfolio demanded by JDS. Crying in public is unbecoming of a Chief Minister. Meanwhile, the BJP has mocked Kumaraswamy’s public breakdown by calling him ‘best actor’.

The ‘opportunistic alliance’ between the Congress and JD(S) in its craving to form the government in Karnataka, which was evidently nothing but a compromise, seems to be constantly grappling to accommodate each other.

In a pitching reference to some Congress leaders who are said to begrudging the Karnataka CM, H.D Kumaraswamy for latching on to the highest post, he, on Saturday, broke down at a JD(S) event and told party cadre that he would not keep the post at the cost of his self-esteem.

At the event which was organized to facilitate him on becoming the CM, a teary-eyed Kumaraswamy confessed that he is not happy with the present situation (of a coalition government) as it is a source of pain for him, akin to swallowing poison.

Post-Karnataka elections, which concluded in May, BJP had emerged as the single largest party acquiring 104 seats. In this high-strung ‘Game of Thrones’ which had kept the entire nation on the edge of their seats, the Congress in its desperation to retain power was quick in teaming up with the JD(S) which was clearly nothing but a compromise.

And this eventually, almost immediately started showing up, when almost in no time an intense lobbying from both Congress and JDS for ministerial berths in the present government started surfacing. Congress party demanded two Deputy CM posts and reports suggests that JDS was not willing to consider. D K Shivakumar, one of the most powerful leaders of Karnataka Congress was also lobbying for the post, but the JDS was not keen to give in. Amidst this confusion, a Muslim faction had also demanded the post to be given to their community. As there are considerable MLAs from the Lingayat community, they too demanded the Deputy Chief Minister post for their community creating a considerable amount of internal turbulence. This is somehow just the beginning, the climax to this high-octane drama is yet to unfold.

No crown for the Prince? BSP says Rahul cannot become the PM because of his mother’s foreign origin

OpIndia Staff
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No crown for the Prince? BSP says Rahul cannot become the PM because of his mother’s foreign origin

The Bahujan Samaj Party has said yesterday that Rahul Gandhi cannot aspire to become the Prime Minister of the country because of his mother’s foreign origin. According to reports, the party has pushed its leader Mayawati’s name as a Prime Ministerial candidate.

BSP’s national coordinators Vir Singh and Jai Prakash Singh stated yesterday at the worker’s conference of the party that Mayawati is the only one who can ‘take on’ PM Modi and it is the high time she became the Prime Minister of the country. Jai Prakash Singh reportedly stated that Mayawati has emerged as a powerful politician in the country after playing the pivotal role in making HD Kumaraswamy the CM of Karnataka and she is the only ‘dabang’ who can stop the winning spree of Modi-Shah duo.

Speaking about Rahul Gandhi, Singh reportedly stated that Rahul looks more like his mother than his father and his mother is a foreigner, hence he cannot become the PM. On the other hand, Singh added, Mayawati is a grassroots level leader who has become the CM of Uttar Pradesh 4 times.

Previously in May, Mayawati was also projected as the PM candidate for the party in their national executive committee meeting. Yesterday’s worker’s conference was the first to be held in preparation for the 2019 general elections and the party is reportedly keen to project its national image.

BSP’s rejection of Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate is another blow for the ‘united opposition’ being proposed at political circles. A glimpse of the United opposition was witnessed during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy when Sonia Gandhi was seen sharing some cordial time with Mayawati.

BSP’s stand and criticism of Congress in yesterday’s conference have also generated questions about its possible tie-up with Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. A report in the Times of India states that while BSP wants an ‘all or none’ package deal tie up, Congress state units in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are not keen on a tie-up with BSP. Madhya Pradesh Congress unit is, however, desperately wants BSP’s support to seal Dalit votes in the state.

The great enthusiasm and ceremonial chest thumping Congress staged during HD Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in ceremony was meant as a message to the BJP. Rounding up all regional and non-BJP leaders from all over the country was even hailed as the winning formula the Congress should follow to dislodge the BJP from power in the upcoming national elections.

However, with Mayawati making her stand clear, Congress’ position as the leader of the united opposition looks dicey. Even Mamata Banerjee had dropped subtle hints about the importance of regional leaders and her statements in the past have indicated that she may not be very interested in seeing Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate of the united opposition front.


Subtle propositions for Mamata Banerjee‘s candidature for the PM post has also started. It was Mamata who has been reaching out to other state-level leaders like Uddhav Thackeray and Chandrababu Naidu.

The BSP does not have the representation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha needed to make a national stand. Even though, banking on their hold in state-level politics, if they are willing to make their stand on PM candidate clear, rejecting Rahul Gandhi’s eligibility, it remains to be seen how far other regional leaders will go to support the Congress prince. In Congress, the leadership of the Gandhi family is by default and without question, but as the Lok Sabha elections draw closure, it is likely that the Congress will wake up to the harsh reality that regional parties do not rally behind to cater to its whims and dictatorship anymore.

With its Prince being denied the crown, whether the Congress will be willing to take the support of regional parties is another pertinent question.

Muslims living in China’s ‘little Mecca’ allege conspiracy to deliberately eradicate Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Muslims living in China’s ‘little Mecca’ allege conspiracy to deliberately eradicate Islam

The Muslim residents of north-west China’s Linxia region, nicknamed as ‘little Mecca’ have alleged that there is a deliberate effort to eradicate Islam, AFP has reported. People in Linxia are considered to be deeply Islamic in its beliefs.

The report quotes the locals as claiming that China’s communist party has banned kids below 16 from participating in religious activities or studies. Some of the already implemented measures in Linxia include “severely curtailing” the number of students allowed to study in mosques and the certification of Imams. The mosques have also been asked to stop playing the call to prayer on loudspeakers to reduce noise pollution.

The restrictions also extend to curtailing the study of Koranic basics in mosques during the kids’ school vacations. The clamp on the religious activities can be gauged by the fact that only 20 youths above the age of 16 are allowed to study in an Imam’s mosque.

One local Imam has even been seen ‘fearing’ that China is implementing the Xinjiang model. Under this model it has been alleged that the native Ughurs are being sent to re-education camps if they carry a Koran or sport a beard.

As per a Daily Mail report, out of a total 2.18 million residents in Linxia, 1.3 are believed to be Muslims, which translates to 59 per cent of the population. Most of these Muslims are believed to be of Hui ethnicity.

Incidentally reports of such ‘persecution’ of Chinese Muslims is nothing new. It was reported some time back how Muslims are allegedly being forced to give up their Islamic beliefs and align themselves with communism. These measures include forcing Muslim in “re-education camps” to eat pork and drink alcohol – both forbidden in Islam, if they don’t follow orders.

These “re-education” camps are supposedly an effort by the Chinese government to check Islamic extremism and separatism in the troubled Xinjiang province. It has been speculated that hundreds and thousands of Muslims have been sent to such camps.

Besides this, the Chinese government has also decided to regulate Muslim institutions like making it compulsory for all the Mosques to hoist the national flag at a prominent place. The order which was given by the country’s highest Islamic regulatory body, aimed to strengthen the understanding of national, civic ideas and instil the spirit of patriotism among the Muslims.

Kerala police arrest members of Islamist outfits SDPI and PFI in connection with the Abhimanyu murder case

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala police arrest members of Islamist outfits SDPI and PFI in connection with the Abhimanyu murder case

The Kerala police have made a breakthrough in cracking the recent murder of the 20-year-old student leader, Abhimanyu, who was killed inside the premises of Maharaja College of Ernakulam.


Reportedly, the police have arrested Adil, a member of Campus front of India. The police believe that Adil was directly involved in the murder and was also a part of a 15 member group that plotted Abhimanyu’s murder. Adil, along with his twin brother has now been arrested and his father is already under police custody for an earlier attack on police personnel.

The police have also arrested four top leaders of the controversial Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which is the political front of Kerala-based ‘radical’ outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). They have arrested, the state president of SDPI P. Abdul Majeed Faisi, vice president M K Manoj Kumar, general secretary Roy Arakkal and district president V.K Shaukath Ali. The arrested members of SDPI had earlier held a press conference to state their stand on the murder of Abhimanyu.

The police suspect that these SDPI cadres were not only responsible for the murder of the student activist and harbouring the murder accused. As reported by Times Now, the murder accused has stated that they all belonged to the SDPI. It is also stated that they were all present at the campus that day, to boost the prospects of SDPI in student politics.

In addition to these members, the police have also picked up a number of other members of the SDPI and Campus front of India, which is the student wing of the SDPI. Reportedly, the police have also arrested more than 700 cadres of SDPI and PFI for “promoting enmity between religions and spreading objectionable extremist material”. The police have also recovered a large number of digital devices, which could provide large information about the murder

The Islamist outfit Popular Front of India has been accused of extreme communalism and has a long history of resorting to violence against their political opponents. It is also accused by the National Investigation Agency for being involved in love-jihad cases in Kerala. Recently, the SDPI members were also arrested in connection with the brutal murder of ABVP worker in Kannur.

MNS workers protest against pothole deaths in the city, vandalise PWD office in Navi Mumbai

OpIndia Staff
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MNS workers protest against pothole deaths in the city, vandalise PWD office in Navi Mumbai

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers led by none other than Raj Thackeray who has artistically chiselled his workers by engraving in them his basic philosophy, “In MNS, we beat up people, we don’t get beaten up”, are back at doing what they are recognized for.

As reported by ANI, MNS party workers were caught on camera vandalizing the office of Public work department, Navi Mumbai, over incidents of pothole deaths in the State.


Before this incident occurred, the MNS workers had threatened the PWD staff, forcing them to do sit-ups on the pothole-ridden road, blaming them for not taking any prompt action on fixing the potholes in Mumbai, due to which in the last two weeks, four people succumbed in Kalyan, while one in Navi Mumbai.

On Saturday, Maharashtra PWD minister Chandrakant Patil sparked a row by saying that pothole-ridden roads cannot be blamed for accidents alone. Speaking to reporters in Sangli yesterday, Patil said, “When you talk about a death in such an accident, you forget that five lakh other people have travelled on the same road. You can not put the entire blame on the (condition of) roads alone.” However, today, the PWD minister clarified saying, “I did not mean to hurt anyone’s sentiments, I had made a general statement”.

This is not the first instance where the MNS party workers have been seen using their might to carry out protests and have been caught throwing around their weight at others.

Earlier in 2015, MNS workers had vandalized the toll plaza in Navi Mumbai and assaulted the staff as they were supposedly opposing the opening of that particular toll plaza.

Towards the end of last year, it was reported how MNS workers had gone beserk assaulting hawkers selling wares outside Mansarovar and Kharghar railway stations in an attempt to evict them from the station. Later the feud between the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Mumbai unit of the Congress over the hawker eviction issue took an ugly turn and again the MNS party workers, vandalized the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee’s office in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.

Recently, Opindia had reported how an MNS party worker had thrashed the PVR multiplex staff at PVR Icon multiplex located at Senapati Bapat Road, Pune over the high pricing of food items sold at the multiplex, making this subjugation a part of their party culture.

Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity : Decades of the Baby Bazaar?

Abhinav Agarwal
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Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity : Decades of the Baby Bazaar?

There was a fair amount of shock and disbelief in many circles when news, on the 7th of July 2018, broke that a nun at Nirmal Hriday (a hospice established by Mother Teresa) in the town of Ranchi had been arrested and remanded to judicial custody by a court for allegedly selling a baby at the Nirmal Hriday home. According to another story, “Arti Kujar, head of the Jharkhand State Child Protection Society, told Reuters that they suspect the home was charging upwards of $600 for each baby, depending on what the prospective parents could afford to pay.”

Soon enough came the suitably shocked protestations from the Mother Teresa founded Missionaries of Charity, along with the expected disclaimer – “We are shocked to know what has happened in our home… it is completely against our moral conviction,” Sunita Kumar, spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity, stated. “We are carefully looking into this matter. We will take all necessary precautions that it never happens again if it has happened.”

Shortly thereafter came political cover to the aid of the Missionaries of Charity, when Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, on the 12th of July, tweeted her full support to the organization:


A few news outlets, including Republic, however, continued to dig into the scandal, continually updating their site as more news trickled out, including confessional statements from the arrested nun.

What caught my attention was was the statement by the Missionaries of Charity spokesperson, expressing shock at the trafficking of children that such a line of business would be “against” their “moral conviction”.

This article, however, is not about this particular episode of child trafficking, alleged or otherwise, by the Mother Teresa founded charity.

Sonaton Dhar

Let us take a journey decades old. To do that, let us take the assistance of Aroup Chatterjee‘s meticulously researched book, “Mother Teresa: The Untold Story (which the Irish Independent, Dublin, called ‘Painstakingly recorded, (exposes) the other side of Teresa’), and go back in time to 1980, when a seven-year-old Sonaton Dhar was sold to a Belgian Catholic couple for the princely sum of ₹Rs 125,000 (more then two-million rupees – twenty lakh – today after adjusting for inflation).

How? Missionaries of Charity falsified records to enable the sale.

What exactly were these falsifications? Missionaries of Charity showed Sonaton as an orphan. No, let’s correct that – Missionaries of Charity showed all three siblings as orphans. You see, Sonaton Dhar, his two sisters, and mother had been given shelter at Prem Daan – another of Mother Teresa’s hospices. Soon enough, the mother died, and all three children were promptly sold off to Belgian Catholics by the nuns at the hospice.

This was a crime as per Indian law since Sonaton’s father and grandfather were still alive at the time, and neither had given their permission to the Mother Teresa charity to give away their children for adoption.

From 1993 onwards, Sonaton Pauwels (as he was now named) made frequent trips to India to locate his sister. Sonaton visited Prem Daan “many times but was told by nuns to forget his past and move on.” Sonaton, with the assistance of some journalists, managed to view his papers at the MC orphanage in 2002, where he found data had been falsified by the missionary outfit – that he was an orphan and that his grandmother had given him up for adoption. Both statements were false.

Sonaton continued to investigate similar cases of child trafficking and found 74 such “orphans” only in Belgium.

In 2002, Dr Kunal De, a member of West Bengal’s Juvenile Justice Board, gave an interview for a documentary made by Anilabha Chattopadhyaya. In the interview, he implied that as this was Mother Teresa’s order, no charge or action would be forthcoming. The documentary can be viewed on YouTube – The Truth about Mother Teresa- Sanatan Powell’s Narrative

True enough, nothing came from either Sonaton’s investigations or from the documentary. No investigation was ordered, no arrests were made, and no charges were ever filed. It was as if Mother Teresa and her outfit could never be accused of child trafficking, evidence be damned.

It is not as if Mother Teresa was ever circumspect or apologetic about her priority – proselyting and religious activities came first. The hospices and shelters for the dying were at best a facade, a facilitator, for her main business – religious conversions. To take just one example, in “1974, the Missionaries of Charity (UK) received ￡117,394 in donations. Of that amount, ￡80,000 (68 per cent) they sent to ‘H.Q. Rome’; another ￡650 was sent to ‘Beda College (Religious Training) Rome’. Child welfare in India got ￡334 and Home for the Dying in Calcutta ￡45.” That is, a total of less than one-third of one per cent of the funds received actually went to help the needy and dying.

Indeed, in a private talk to some Americans, Mother Teresa gleefully boasted – “Not one has died without receiving a special ticket to St. Peter… Twenty-nine thousand have died in that one house… but it’s so beautiful to see those people dying…”. More sordid details about the squalid conditions at Mother Teresa’s homes have been documented in Aroup’s book.

What happened if someone did try to investigate or dig deeper into the accounts of Mother Teresa’s businesses? When Aroup, in 2001, met Atanu Mukherjee, Registrar of Trusts, Societies, and Non-trading Corporation in Calcutta, he filled an application to view Missionaries of Charity’s files of accounts, which were public, and, in theory, open to any member of the public to view. Chatterjee told Aroup of an incident in the 1990s when a journalist had obtained the accounts of MC and published them. An octogenarian Mother Teresa had marched up to the Registrar’s office and given him “hell.” “The following day, the Registrar got a phone call from some unnamed bigwigs asking him in effect to make the files unavailable to the public.”

Aroup persisted in trying to obtain access to the public accounts of Missionaries of Charity. In reply to his letter in 2002, the Registrar sent a reply that contained Sister Nirmala’s, then head of MC, response, in effect directing the Registrar to deny Aroup any access to the account of MC – “that Chatterjee who has caused us a lot of trouble.”

One would suppose that a putatively charitable organization would want the whole wide world to know more about their work and how frugally they spent their money and how every rupee, dollar, and pound was spent in the welfare of the dying and the destitute. Obviously, Missionaries of Charity thought differently.

As Aroup caustically diagnosed the Indian malaise – “Pusillanimity before the white man is the norm. … Western vulgarities, such as MTV, have reached remote villages but Western standards of transparency have not touched the biggest institutions.”

Perhaps the most poignant and pointed illustration of India’s continued mental colonization and ‘pusillanimity’ was on parade for the entire world in 2016, when the government of India sent an official, 12-member delegation, to represent a billion Indians at Mother Teresa’s canonization at the Vatican – to honour a person whose mission in life had been to proselyte, convert through deceit tens of thousands of dying, allegedly sell hundreds of babies, deposit hundreds of millions of dollars received in donations in offshore bank accounts, write letters in support of the corrupt, invest not a single rupee in healthcare from those donations for the sick and dying.

It has been more than a hundred years since Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore expressed a hope, a desire, a prayer to see his country awaken in a heaven “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high“. India has not begun to take even small, tentative steps towards true freedom.

News links:

Book links:

“Mother Teresa: The Untold Story”, by Aroup Chatterjee – Amazon IN, Kindle IN, Amazon US

“The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice”, by Christopher Hitchens – Paperback,  Kindle, US

 

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal.

Rajyavardhan Rathore slams terror apologists, says ‘fake liberals’ glorify Afzal Guru instead of Rifleman Aurangzeb

Sanghamitra
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Rajyavardhan Rathore slams terror apologists, says ‘fake liberals’ glorify Afzal Guru instead of Rifleman Aurangzeb

Rajyavardhan Rathore, India’s minister of Information and Broadcasting who also heads the Ministry of Sports has penned a blog for The Times of India. In the post, titled ‘Fake liberal narrative is laughable, baseless’, he has highlighted our country’s freedom and the sacrifices it took to earn it, emphasizing the need to maintain the territorial and constitutional integrity of India.

In the article, Rathore writes that our constitution grants us certain fundamental rights and those articles that make the basic structure of our constitution, granting the citizens of India the rights of life, speech, liberty and equality are unamendable. He asserts these rights have moral and legal sanctity and it is our collective duty to protect them.

Rajyavardhan Rathore goes ahead to discuss that the conventional threat perception in the Indian context is threats from our neighbours, especially Pakistan. He writes that Pakistan never came to terms with Jammu and Kashmir being a part of India and after repeated failed attempts at conventional warfare, has resorted to state-sponsored terrorism in an attempt to destabilise India. Hence, Rathore writes, ensuring the stability and integrity of our country has been ingrained in most Indians as the patriotic thing to do.

He further adds that in recent times, there has been a disturbing trend to brand patriotic Indians wishing to conserve India’s integrity as obscurantists, fundamentalists and are called them the right wing. In contrast, people who undermine India’s territorial integrity, use violence to divide the nation and continuously project our country negatively are being branded as activists, progressives and liberals. Rathore adds that this labelling is wrong and is rejected by the silent majority of Indians.

Rathore cites the example of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and Maoists/Naxals operating in interior India. He adds that terrorists have stalled economic progress in J&K, which, ideally should be the state with the highest per capita income in India. He adds that the Maoists/Naxals od central India have a similar plan. They want to destabilise the government and deprive the tribals of these regions of socio-economic progress. He asserts that the standard yardsticks of constitutional freedom cannot be applied to these elements because they are threatening the very integrity of the nation that grants these constitutional rights to its people.

Rathore further discusses that the political alternative being offered by these elements has no place for equality, religious tolerance and free speech. It only has the rule of the gun. One of them seeks to establish a theocratic dictatorial state and another wants an ideologically committed dictatorship. He asserts that both these ideas are being pushed into public discourse by a few vested interests and people opposing them are being branded as undemocratic and right-wingers. He terms it an absolute irony that some of those who are protected by the very blood and sweat by the nationalists defending the integrity of the country are being embarrassed to identify with it. Rathore the askes these people that if their freedom of speech will exist after the groups they are supporting succeed to overthrow the Indian state.

Rathore further adds that the very cause of freedom and liberty is a liberal one and it can only be preserved by those who believe in the constitution of India. It cannot be achieved by groups which act as public faces of the violent underground movements and keep apologising for them. He adds that the protests and narratives of these groups are aimed against armed forces, the very forces that make sacrifices protecting India against threats. He states, “ Having spent most of my life being part of the armed forces, I am intimately and deeply aware of the sacrifices they make. They defend the freedom of India, many times at the cost of their own lives. It is disappointing when the very groups our armed forces defend India against are later supported by pseudo-human rights organizations.”

He highlights the fact that fake liberal narrative chooses to glorify Afzal Guru instead of the likes of Lt Umar Fayaz and rifleman Aurangzeb.

Rathore further discusses that certain political parties have swallowed up the narrative and have resorted to fear-mongering, trying to create a spectre of threats against freedom under the Modi government. He calls the false-narrative baseless and laughable. He cites the incident when Rajiv Gandhi, in 1986, tried to implement the Indian Post Office (amendment) bill, which would have allowed his government to read the letters of private citizens. Thankfully, he adds, the bill was rejected by the then President.

Rathore further cites another incident, where Congress’ Rajiv Gandhi brought forward the Anti Defamation Bill in 1988, asserting that the bill was totally needed, Gandhi then tried to implore the press to support the bill. He nudged the press again, writes Rathore, but the press refused to budge on the issue and the bill never saw the light of the day.

Rathore asserts that it was the vigilance or the press that preserved constitutional values by not allowing the bill to become a reality. He adds that the same level of commitment to freedom is required today from all of us to defend our liberty and preserve the fabric of our society.

Rathore concludes by stating that in today’s vast, diverse and complex society, it is very easy to induce fear through the simplest of ways and create an environment of fear among the masses. He adds that in the era of instant, digital messaging and social media, it is the people who would have to be vigilant not to give in to narratives of fake-fear and protect the social and territorial integrity of our country. He urges the people of the country to come forward and be vigilant against elements that pose a threat to our nation’s social fabric and integrity. He concludes, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.

Journalist with alleged Benami links to Chidambaram, taken into CBI custody over extortion and corruption charges

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist with alleged Benami links to Chidambaram, taken into CBI custody over extortion and corruption charges

Upendra Rai, a journalist with allegedly Benami links to Congress leader P Chidambaram has been taken into CBI custody over charges of corruption and extortion, PTI has reported.

As per the report, Rai has been taken into custody in connection with a fresh case, where he has been accused of extorting Rs 15 crore from a Mumbai builder. The case in this connection was lodged on 5 May by Balvinder Singh Malhotra – one of the directors of White Lion Real Estate Developers. He is expected to be produced before a CBI court on Monday.

Incidentally, this isn’t the only controversy Rai has managed to notch in his career. As reported by us a couple of months back, there were claims of him being arrested by the CBI over charges of bribery, while others claimed that he was called in for questioning.

One of the biggest allegations against him is that of him being one of the Benami’s of former finance minister P Chidambaram and owing as many as 19 residential buildings in various cities. The properties supposedly include a 30 crore bungalow in Delhi’s Greater Kailash and flats in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow.

It has also been alleged that he might be involved in IPL related money laundering. Further allegations include him getting paid for consultancy agreements via shell companies.

Incidentally, prior to being CEO and Editor-in-chief of Tehelka, he was associated with the Sahara Group where he was accused of threatening and blackmailing investigative officers on behalf of Sahara chief Subrata Roy.

Going by the PTI report which reported of him being taken into CBI custody, he also allegedly managed to procure an airport access pass with the help of an airline which is a violation of rules.

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