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After opposing his invitation to the convocation, AMUSU seeks the President’s intervention in resolving the Jinnah controversy

OpIndia Staff
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After opposing his invitation to the convocation, AMUSU seeks the President’s intervention in resolving the Jinnah controversy

The Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) has written to President Kovind seeking his intervention on the matter of the Jinnah portrait at the University to put to rest the controversy surrounding it. The student body has also alleged in their letter that the state government has failed to take any satisfactory action thus far. According to them, the Aligarh District Administration has not acted yet on those who allegedly trespassed the university campus and engaged in violence on May the 2nd.

AMUSU President Mashkoor Ahmed Usmani, among other leaders of the students union, has sought an appointment with President Kovind over the matter. “We have high regard for the president and we hope his prompt intervention will ensure justice and fair play on this critical issue which we are presently facing,” Usmani said. He added that a similar letter was sent to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar and that they were currently awaiting the responses to their letters.

AMUSU President Usmani also said that they were not defending Jinnah or his portrait. He said, “We’d again like to make it very clear that the students of Aligarh Muslim University are in no way defending Mohammad Ali Jinnah or his portrait.” Usmani also claimed that the Jinnah portrait controversy was a “hoax” manufactured by certain sections of the media along with the ruling party at the center.

Controversial former Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is known at attend programs organized by violent Islamist outfits, has also come out in support of the students of AMU over the Jinnah controversy. While supporting the call for a judicial probe by the AMUSU, Ansari also lauded the violent protests by the AMU students and said it was ‘commendable’.

Intriguingly, the student organization which is now seeking President Kovind’s aid had opposed tooth and nail his invitation to the annual convocation as chief guest by the university administration. AMUSU Secretary Mohd Fahad had said, which appeared to be a thinly veiled threat, “If any Sanghi or anyone associated with Gandhi’s assassination and demolition of the Babri Majid attend the convocation, they will not be treated well as we know how to deal with such elements.”

The University was mired in a controversy after BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote to the Vice Chancellor of the AMU demanding that the portrait of Jinnah be removed questioning the need for it on the University walls. Following the letter, clashes had ensued between students and activists who were demanding that the portrait be removed where numerous policemen got injured.

This Mothers’ Day, every mother would be ashamed of Gurmehar Kaur’s mentor

OpIndia Staff
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This Mothers’ Day, every mother would be ashamed of Gurmehar Kaur’s mentor

Healthy democracy is all about being critical of the elected leader. However, hate for Prime Minister Modi has made people forget basic human decency. Gurmehar Kaur’s mentor, Ram Subramanian, who has previously rooted for Prime Minister Modi’s assassination, didn’t even leave Modi’s mother out of his vile tweets. Today, being International Mothers’ Day, Subramanian tweeted how his mother should have considered abortion.


As if that was not enough, he followed it up with posting a picture of sand sculpture made by sand sculpture artist Sudarshan Pattnaik which featured Prime Minister Modi taking blessings from his mother, and called it ‘ugly’.


While there is no reason to dignify his crassness with a response, it is essential to know the kind of people who are trying to influence youth. Thankfully, he got called out by people for his hateful tweet by people across the political spectrum.


Ram Subramanian is supposed to be an ad filmmaker who has worked with top advertising firms like Ogilvy, Contract. But recently he seems to have started specialising in political agenda peddling and hate mongering.

A well known AAP supporter, he had openly volunteered to work for the party in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections and had shot to fame for being a mentor to minute-made celebrity Gurmehar Kaur who held a placard and proclaimed that ‘Pakistan didn’t kill her father, war did’. This had later exploded into a free speech under attack narrative after she was allegedly trolled and also supposedly received death threats. However, it came to light that the torch bearer of free speech had herself threatened and intimidated a group of young boys running a harmless meme facebook page.

Locals find bomb in TMC leader Arabul Islam’s house a day after he being sent to police custody

OpIndia Staff
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Locals find bomb in TMC leader Arabul Islam’s house a day after he being sent to police custody

Trinamool Congress leader Arabul Islam was dealt another blow when the day after his arrest in connection with the killing of a supporter of an independent candidate, it was reported that locals recovered handmade bombs from the leader’s house in Bhangar, in 24 Parganas South district.

Officers of Baruipur police district conducted a raid jointly with Kashipur and Bhangor police in the area around the house of arrested Trinamool Congress leader Arabul Islam and a large number of bombs and materials for making bombs which were stored underground in a mango garden near his house were seized.

The arrest on Friday was made as per chief minister’s instructions, and he was produced before the court and remanded in police custody for 10 days.

All this transpired after the shootout on the Save Land Livelihood Environment Protection Committee rally on Friday afternoon where a participant, Hafijul Molla, was shot dead.

Meanwhile, the supporters of the Jami Raksha committee put up roadblocks in many areas of Kashipur demanding the immediate arrest of Khude, Arabul’s brother, and all the persons involved in Friday’s attack in which a supporter of an Independent candidate backed by the Jami Raksha Committee was shot dead at Natunhat.

Arabul Islam cannot boast of an esteemed reputation in the past as well. Instances of he being involved in violence and of his arrests and expulsion have been reported several times in the past.

When it comes to politics in West Bengal, violence has often been the currency of choice for the political parties. They have resorted to brute force and coercion for attaining individual benefits. The party workers have often been caught on the wrong foot, breaking laws fearless of the repercussions. The upcoming Panchayat polls have turned West Bengal into a battlefield, with the Calcutta High Court suspending all the poll processes of West Bengal’s upcoming Panchayat elections. The order came in the backdrop of serious violence across the state with regards to the Panchayat polls. Besides violence, the TMC establishment has been accused of openly intimidating people by carrying out armed rallies.

Besides that, ahead of the West Bengal panchayat elections, voters are claiming that they are deprived of the Centre’s prominent schemes such as Ujjwala Yojana (gas connection) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (house) to name a few.
Voters are of the view that they would keep development in mind before they exercise their electoral franchise. It’s time Trinamool keeps the murky politics aside and gets down to serious business.

Walmart’s Flipkart experiment is a very good sign for Indian consumers and entrepreneurs

manjeetsingh
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Walmart’s Flipkart experiment is a very good sign for Indian consumers and entrepreneurs

World’s biggest retailer company Walmart just acquired the majority stakes in India’s leading online retailer, Flipkart. Walmart agreed to pay $16-billion for a 77-percent stake in Flipkart. It is Walmart’s biggest deal ever. The country’s e-commerce market is expected to experience explosive growth in the coming decades, so any retailer should see it as a covetable prize.

After struggling for almost a decade in India, this is the best shot they had. The regulatory environment has made it difficult for Walmart and other international retailers to make inroads. Cultural differences between US market and Indian market was also a factor which Walmart was not able to understand. Moms-pops stores are the one who serves the mass population of India. So it was pretty difficult for Walmart and any other retailer to beat that.

Walmart is very strong in physical retail but has failed miserably in online commerce, an area where Amazon is miles ahead. Amazon is almost unbeatable in US e-commerce. They are king, queen, and prince there. With more than 400 stores in China and a partnership with online site JD.com, Walmart is “well-penetrated” in China. This leaves India for Walmart and this deal gives them a head start. Walmart is not going to win its battle with Amazon by taking baby steps or simply imitating Amazon’s playbook. It needs to act early and it needs to be aggressive – and buying Flipkart is just such a move. If you are the world’s largest company (by revenues), how can you not have a presence in India? So, from a strategic point of view, this deal makes a lot of sense. Growth in the Indian retail market and Flipkart’s ability to ride the India consumer wave, it is clear, are what Walmart is betting on in this deal.

India is a jewel of a market where Walmart has been eager to get in. Fastest growing economy, a growing middle class who values education and is increasingly mobile. In US Walmart only grows 2-3% a year but in India, it can grow at 10-15%, something not many countries in the world can offer. If all works well over time, Walmart/Flipkart will be a hugely important company in India. The turning point came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in the US. The PM asked McMillon to invest in India’s farm sector. That changed the mood, and India was back on Bentonville’s strategy board. Walmart’s India unit hired BCG as an adviser.

Flipkart has an established track record of success. Today, the company has around 30,000 employees, $7.5 billion annual GMV, 54 million active consumers and an annual turnover of $2.3 billion. In its latest fiscal year, it recorded $7.5-billion in gross merchandise volume, which represented growth of more than 50 percent over the previous year. So far they maintain the lead over Amazon India. By joining forces with Walmart, perhaps Flipkart can build on that lead.

This deal will be helpful for Walmart and Flipkart both. Flipkart has 100 million registered users and records more than eight million monthly shipments across Tier-I, Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns and even rural India. Flipkart is dominating in many segments in India. In Fashion, Electronics they are market leaders and way ahead of Amazon. Ekart’s reach in India is astonishing. Phone Pe is very successful as an individual.  So, $16 billion isn’t too high to have a strong presence in a market that’s expected to reach $1.3 trillion in size in the next five years; this will also make India among the world’s five largest retail markets.

In India, Walmart has an opportunity to do what they’ve always been good at, which is bringing commodities at a reasonable price to the mass market. Walmart is a relentless innovator. In retail, Walmart has changed everything, like the way products are packaged and displayed, the way data about sales is analyzed (Walmart analyses sales for every product category in the US every single hour), the way its warehouses run, the way trucking systems operate. Walmart never stops asking questions like, “Are we selling the right thing, in the right place in the store, in the right package?” The innovation all goes to keeping prices low. And now they have the huge database of Flipkart to understand the notion of the Indian market.

Flipkart and Walmart offer each other a fascinating and valuable partnership. Flipkart needs expertise in selling a whole range of merchandise—how do you sell groceries online? Walmart has got money. So, Flipkart won’t have to go looking for investors anymore. Flipkart offers Walmart the online merchandising skill, which Walmart needs badly. Also, it offers an understanding of Indian consumers, in a way Walmart really understands: through data. Most importantly, this is Walmart’s chance to become a “store” for Indian consumers.

As a consumer, it’s important to remember that the low price isn’t always the best thing. Quality is as important as price, so you need to shop with awareness. Walmart will do what’s in its interest. Taking care of Indian consumers, workers will be the job of the Indian officials. Walmart follows the rules, but Walmart will always push to get the best deal…for itself.

Former VP Hamid Ansari praises students who protested for Jinnah’s portrait

OpIndia Staff
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Former VP Hamid Ansari praises students who protested for Jinnah’s portrait

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Saturday has issued a ‘statement of support’ for the students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on the issue of Jinnah’s portrait in the campus.

Hamid Ansari said he supports the demand of the AMU Students’ Union, for a judicial probe on the recent incidents in the University and he termed their demand as ‘justified’. The former vice president has reportedly written a letter to Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) president Maskoor Ahmad Usmani regarding the same.


In his letter, Ansari noted that he was present on the campus on May 2 where he was to be conferred the lifetime membership of the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union but it was cancelled due to the ruckus in the campus. Ansari alleges that the incident was orchestrated and even claimed threat as the protesters were very close to his guest house. Also, he supported the Students’ Union’s violent protest and said it was ‘commendable’.

Recently a clash erupted between students on the issue of Pakistan’s founder and Muslim leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s portrait  in the campus. Some sections of the students opposed and staged a protest against University authorities for placing the divisive leader Jinnah’s portrait. Violent clashes erupted between students organisations and AMU Student Union dominated by Muslim students, as AMU Student Union was in support of the controversial leader, Jinnah.

Hamid Ansari is not new to controversies. He earlier had issued a statement saying he is feeling insecure and uneasy as a citizen of the country. His statements were condemned by all sections of the society. Recently, post his retirement, he was seen in a programme organized militant Islamic organization Popular Front of India (PFI) which has been accused by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) of being involved in the controversial ‘love jihad’ cases in Kerala.

Fodder scam convict Lalu’s son’s wedding: crowd loots food, crockery

OpIndia Staff
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Fodder scam convict Lalu’s son’s wedding: crowd loots food, crockery

Things went out of hand at RJD supremo and fodder scam convict Lalu Yadav’s elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding as unruly crowd breached the cordon separating the VIP pandal and started looting food and crockery. The wedding was taking place in the Bihar Veterinary College ground where people lost their cool when food was not made available to them. An angered crowd overturned the food counter. The organisers even had to resort to lathicharge to control the crowd.

Things went from bad to worse when people started carrying stuff from the venue along with the crockery. Crowd even broke some of the plates they were eating food in. Some party leaders tried to control the crowd, but failed. In fact, even the stage where Tej Pratap and his new wife put garland around each other too broke when too many people climbed it to wish the newly weds, resulting in minor injuries to some people.

While the organisers had said they were prepared to handle 7,000 guests, it appears they weren’t prepared for regulating such a crowd.

Interestingly, when Sushil Kumar Modi’s son was getting married in November last year, Tej Pratap had allegedly threatened to disrupt the wedding which also took place at the same venue.

Karnataka : Exit Polls indicate massive gains for BJP and a possible change in government

Anubhav
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Karnataka : Exit Polls indicate massive gains for BJP and a possible change in government

The voting in Karnataka concluded just a short while back. The campaign trail in Karnataka saw Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Janta Dal (Secular) among others fighting for the right to govern the state. In Karnataka state assembly out of the 224 constituencies, 173 are reserved for the general category, 36 for the scheduled caste and 15 for the scheduled tribe.

As with all elections, the exit polls indicate how a party may perform in that particular election. Exit polls often time in the past have been inaccurate and sometimes the results have been opposite of what the exit polls predicted but they do tend to show a trend.

Karnataka Exit Polls

 

As stated above, the exit polls from different agencies show a steady trend in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With all of the exit polls indicating a BJP win in Karnataka. Only Today’s Chanakya has shown BJP touching the required 113 mark, but all others have shown that the Bharatiya Janata Party will emerge as the single largest party in the state. If these exit polls are to be believed, Karnataka will soon witness a change in power.

Canadian activists in Toronto protest against Khalistani terrorists, demand action

Jhankar Mohta
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Canadian activists in Toronto protest against Khalistani terrorists, demand action

As reported by ANI, activists of the Canada Combat Coalition, a Toronto based nationalist organization gathered on the streets protesting against Khalistani separatists, who were using their land to carry out terror activities against India.

They carried flyers with “Stop Sikh Terrorism in Canada” and “No Khalistan allowed in Canada” written over it. The activist clearly damned the beliefs the Sikh Terrorists adhered to, saying that these terrorists were clearly flourishing because of the guardianship provided to them by politicians of the country.

A protester of the CCC said, “Khalistan is a genocide of non-Sikhs, thousands of people were slaughtered by Khalistan Sikhs, Khalistan Sikhs blew up Air- India jet killing 330 Canadians. The main suspect stated that he wanted to kill 50,000 Hindus. He went on to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP leader, both have connections with Khalistan Sikh promoters. Canada’s image in the world has been defamed by convicted Khalistani terrorists fraternizing with Justin Trudeau.

He added that their campaign was not against any religion or faith but against all those who were a threat to the integrity of the country. Demanding a strict immigration policy where the people coming into the country can be carefully monitored, he said “I know we are having a mass immigration problem in this country but it’s not all that is happening. Sikhs are a threat, not all of them but the Khalistan ones. They have been brought into this country indiscriminately. They are very large in numbers and are a threat to Canadians. So it’s time for Canadians to stand up and take Canadians back.”

He further added that the Khalistani’s use the facile immigration laws to their advantage to enter the country and use it as their workshop to plan mayhem in India.

These situations are prevalent in other places as well. Recently it was reported that in a disgraceful incident that took place in London a group of Pakistan backed pro-Khalistani and Kashmiri protestors, in the presence of London Metropolitan Police, pulled down the tricolour from a pole at London’s Parliament Square and replaced it with a flag representing Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Khalistan.

Recently, Punjab police had arrested four people for allegedly trying to publicise pro-Khalistan campaign ‘Referendum 2020’ supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), by setting buses and liquor shops on fire.

Rapidly people all over the world are realizing that militant Khalistanis are not just dissenters against the Indian states but terrorists fuelled evidently by cross-border funds.

Democracy – A photo story of Karnataka elections

OpIndia Staff
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Democracy – A photo story of Karnataka elections

Today, in a display of democratic celebration, people in Karnataka took to booths to give their mandate in Karnataka state assembly elections. All and sundry got involved in a remarkable display of democracy, here are few instances of this celebration –

A 60-year-old woman, who is physically challenged and visually impaired defied all odds to exercise her fundamental right to choose her representative.


For Indians, the day of their wedding is of paramount importance and marks the beginning of a new phase of life. This couple took time out of their special day to cast their vote in Karnataka state assembly elections.

A newly Married couple cast their vote.

The picture is pretty self-explanatory, three generation of a family standing shoulder to shoulder to exercise their fundamental right to vote.

Three generations of a family ques up for voting.

This tweet depicts an eighty-year-old lady, who got up early and prioritized voting to be the first thing to do in the day.


In Karnataka’s Madikeri, A bride and her mother cast their vote just before the initiation of the wedding ceremony.

Right before her wedding, a bride casts her vote at polling booth number 131 in Karnataka’s Madikeri.

The youth also joined in this galore of democracy, in this picture we can see three young voters proudly showcasing the ink.

The youth joined in.

The involvement of youth is very important for any democracy to sustain itself. Pictures like these stand as a testament to the promise of a democratic India.

Nepal’s territory will not be allowed to be used against India, says Nepal PM

OpIndia Staff
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Nepal’s territory will not be allowed to be used against India, says Nepal PM

Nepal Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli has stated that Nepal will not allow its territory to be used against India. According to reports, the Nepal PM has assured PM Modi about his country’s sensitiveness to India’s interests on the second day of his official visit today.


Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhle reportedly informed media personnel at a briefing and added that it is a significant statement and India is satisfied with the discussions taken place between the two Prime Ministers. Nepal shares an extensive border of over 1800 km with India spanned across 5 states. PM Modi met Nepal’s political leaders today and visited Muktinath and Pashupatinath temples.

Yesterday while visiting Janki Temple in Janakpur, PM Modi had inaugurated the Ayodhya-Janakpur Bus Service and announced a 100 crore package for development of the city.

In an official statement after bilateral talks with his Nepali counterpart, PM Modi praised the love and friendship between the two countries and added that India and Nepal are looking forward to improved connectivity and cooperations through agriculture, inland waterways and railways. He also talked about enhancing ties through tourism and cultural linkages by developing Ramayana and Buddhist circuits.

PM Modi became the first world leader to visit the Muktinath temple
Muktinath
PM visited Pashupatinath in Kathmandu
PM visited Pashupatinath temple

PM Modi discussed a range of issues and asserted India’s long-standing commitment to peace and prosperity in Nepal.

India’s ties with Nepal has gained strategic importance in the recent times as Nepal has just elected a leftist government and with views of China’s geopolitical and economic influence in the region, a stable and favourable relationship with Nepal is essential for India’s national interests.

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