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How true are Rahul Gandhi’s allegations that the BJP is diluting the SC/ST Act?

OpIndia Staff
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How true are Rahul Gandhi’s allegations that the BJP is diluting the SC/ST Act?

Rahul Gandhi has been on a campaigning spree after the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act became news and he has been accusing PM Modi and BJP repeatedly for attempting to dilute the law. Though Rahul Gandhi’s accusations without fact-check are rather usual, this time his allegations are on a sensitive issue.

The nation witnessed widespread violence on 2nd April, when Dalit groups protested across several states resulted in several deaths. In his rallies in poll-bound Karnataka, Rahul tweeted that ‘the RSS and the BJP have it in their DNA to keep Dalits at the lowest level of the society’.


Before that, Rahul Gandhi had led a delegation of Congress leaders to meet the President and stated that the SC/ST Act is being diluted. In the Shivmoga election rally too, on the day of Bharat Bandh, Rahul accused the BJP of diluting the act.

Rahul, however, has chosen to completely ignore the amendments brought in by the BJP government to make the act more stringent brought in by the amendment bill in December, 2015 to make it more effective and helpful to those who are the victims of atrocities.


The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which brought forward ‘The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015’, made several significant changes to the existing act of 1989. [pdf]

The amendment act included a list of activities that are derogatory and offensive in nature under the previous act.

SC/ST (PoA) Amendment act 2015, courtesy: PIB India

The new act also provided for the IPC offences attracting less than ten years of imprisonment to be registered under the PoA Act.

courtesy: PIB India

The amendment Act also called for exclusive special courts and exclusive special public prosecutors for speedy trial and judgements for the benefit of SCs and STs while giving special courts the power to take cognizance of the offence and complete trials within two months from the date of filing the charge sheet. It added a chapter to the ‘Rights of Victims and Witnesses’ and called for the clear definition of ‘willful’ negligence on part of public servants at all levels under this act.

After the Supreme Court order on 20th March, the central government had filed a review petition in the apex court. Though yesterday the apex court denied any interim stay on the order, the hearings are to continue.

The Supreme Court in its yesterday’s hearing on the petition stated that the order was only meant to protect the rights of the innocent and prevent the misuse of a stringent law. Rahul Gandhi and several other politicians who have deliberately spread misinformation that the BJP government is making deliberate attempts to dilute the law must consider this. The violent protests took lives and destroyed valuable public properties. The Dalits who actually face problems and who are the very people this law aims to protect should be provided with the correct facts. While there are constant debates on whether the protests had political backing, the fact remains that people lost lives, law and order were disrupted and huge losses were incurred.

The Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit stated that the people agitating are misinformed about the order and have been misled. A detailed reading of the order dated 20th March shows that the Supreme Court has not diluted the law in any way but has merely put some safeguards in place so that innocents are spared from frivolous complainants.

Kerala professor makes misogynist comments against women, calls them scientifically backed

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala professor makes misogynist comments against women, calls them scientifically backed

A Kerala professor from Kalady has come under server criticism following his misogynist comments against women, which he has defended by calling them scientifically backed. As per reports, the professor named Dr. Rajith Kumar, who teaches botany at Sree Sankara College, made a claim on a panel discussion that women who wear jeans give birth to transgender children.

This has been interpreted by people as not only being a misogynistic statement, but also being a transphobic statement for portraying transgenders as some form of undesirable individuals.

The Newsminute has reported that while being on TV, the professor sensationally claimed that he had a scientific reason as to why transgender and autistic children are born. As per him, women who dress up like a man (by wearing jeans), result in giving birth to a child with a transgender character.

Its not all and reports have claimed that he even targeted autism by stating that children who are born to ‘rebel parents’ suffer from the disorder. He supposedly made this point by showing a video clip of autistic children with their parents, while exclaiming how the mother was wearing jeans.

Following the furore over these statements, the Kerala state government is considering taking legal action against the professor. The announcement regarding the same was made by state health minister KK Shailaja, after adding that the professor has been a repeat offender when it comes to spreading sexist ideas and superstitions.

The professor though has refused to back off from his statements by asserting that his remarks were scientific and were backed by years of academic experience. In a Facebook video he claimed that the channel had aired his views selectively.

Similarly a few days back, another college professor named Jouhar Munavvir had made objectionable, sexually coloured comments against women. Following this a non-bailable case was registered against him.

UK man waives off anonymity, talks about how he was raped, abused and threatened by Catholic nun

Sanghamitra
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UK man waives off anonymity, talks about how he was raped, abused and threatened by Catholic nun

Edward Hayes, a resident of Carlisle, UK, has come forward to waive off his right to anonymity in a long legal battle he has been facing against the Catholic Church. Hayes has stated that as a 12-year-old back in 1953 he was repeatedly raped and abused by a Catholic nun at the former John Reynolds Home located in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.

The John Reynolds home was run by The Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph, a Catholic congregation of nuns. Edward Hayes, (76), who was earlier known as Billy, was sent there as a 10-year-old after being neglected by his parents. In his interaction with The Daily Express, he recalled his initial years at the home as pleasant. But in 1953, his fate took an unfortunate turn after the arrival of the then 27-year-old Irish nun, Sister Mary Conleth (originally named as Bessie Veronica Lawler).

Hayes explained that Sister Mary ‘sought him out’. He was assigned to assist her in the Laundry room and she started sexually abusing him regularly. Edward has stated that he protested against it but he was threatened by her and coerced into a sexual relationship. The sexual abuse continued for years and at 14, Edward was allocated his own room, which was very unusual in a care home but it was so Sister Mary could visit him during nights.

A young Edward Hayes at the John Reynolds Home. Image courtesy: express.uk

Edward stated that the abuse stopped suddenly in 1956 when Sister Mary got pregnant. The authorities at the Reynolds Home sent Sister Mary back to Ireland in disgrace and they arranged for Edward to be quietly sent to another facility in Cumbria. Edward has added that over the years, the Mother Superior of the Reynolds Home, Mother Mary Osmund kept tabs on him in Cumbria, which he later realised was only to make sure Sister Conleth didn’t get in touch with him and the matter does not become public.

Edward Hayes has added that he doesn’t know what happened to the child he was forced to father and Sister Mary Conleth has passed away. Recalling his traumatic experiences, he added that the abuse and the mental trauma had made him turn into an alcoholic and he had never been able to have a ‘normal relationship’. Edward, who is now 76, has suffered a broken marriage, alcoholism and has never been able to lead a stable and happy life.

Over the years, Edward had tried to narrate his experience and explain to the authorities, but he had failed. He was able to legally pursue the matter only after meeting Noel Chardon, who is also a survivor of Catholic Church abuse. Chardon was a volunteer at a support group Macsas (Ministry And Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors). With Chardon’s help, Edward was offered a shelter to live and has started making amends with his ex-wife and family. Edward received legal aid to pursue the case in 2012 and Finally, in 2016, he was offered 20,00 Pounds in compensation and ‘a sincere apology’ by the Sisters of the Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph.

Though most of the money he received was spent on legal expenses, Edward Hayes stated that he was satisfied that he at least managed to bring them to account. He stated, ” I may not be able to win, but I can get even”. Edward acknowledges that what happened to him must have bee the tip of the iceberg. He added, “I went through hell my entire life, trying to hide what happened to me. Nobody should go through that.”

Edward, who was a bright student, choir singer and a local football player, struggled through mental trauma and was drawn to alcoholism throughout his adult life. He was medically discharged from the Royal Artillery after he developed ulcer due to alcoholism.

Noel Chardon of the support group Macsas stated that the way the victims of the Catholic Church sexual abuse are treated is absolutely appaling. “They have no interest in self-empowerment, they don’t want victims to heal because they do not want to face up to what they did. They are waiting for people like Edward, like myself, like the Magdalene women, to die so they can say that this all happened such a long time ago and that they’re so very sorry.”

There are countless cases of child sexual abuse against Catholic priests all over the world.

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting his vile and abusive supporters?

OpIndia Staff
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Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting his vile and abusive supporters?

Ever since PM Modi has come to power at the centre, the mainly leftist establishment has envisioned a brand new angle to target him. Under that angle, a leftist propaganda blog and an alleged fact-checking website attacked the PM for following individuals on Twitter who as per them hurled abuses, spread misinformation online.

This predictably gained a fair amount of traction in certain sections of social media and even the mainstream media. Incidentally, while this episode was playing out, the spotlight barely focused on similar faults of other political parties and their leaders.

In a report a while back, we had laid out how well-known Congress leaders and affiliates like Ajay Maken, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Salman Soz, Shehzad Poonawala used to follow a murderous communist troll, who openly advocated a genocide of RSS functionaries.

This debate has now again come back to haunt the Congress party in an even bigger may. BJP Mumbai’s spokesperson Suresh Nakhua has now used a similar modus oprendi to target Congress President Rahul Gandhi, after expressing displeasure about the supposed hypocrisy of the mainstream media, when it comes to singularly targeting PM Modi.

In his Twitter thread, Nakhua made a list of abusive and vile people who had actually met Rahul Gandhi in person, which might be called an even bigger sin as compared to following someone on twitter.

The first person in question is a certain Abdul who is seen pictured with a happy Rahul Gandhi:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi with Abdul

Abdul (assuming its his real name) who operates under the @GuruJiPolitical handle, has in the past hurled casteist slurs against a journalist, as per a screenshot provided by Nakhua:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi supporter Via @sureshnakhua

Besides this, a twitter search also reveals him using vile slurs against RSS supporters:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul’s vile supporter

Next Nakhua introduced a certain Riyaz Ahmed who as per the screenshot provided, is seen getting into a less than dignified discussion with his fellow community member:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi Supporter Via @sureshnakhua

This is him with Rahul Gandhi:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi with his supporter

Incidentally, Modi hating cop Sanjiv Bhatt whose services as an IPS officer were terminated in 2015, is also supposedly seen in the same frame as Rahul Gandhi:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi with Modi hating cop. Via @sureshnakhua

The controversial former cop has been routinely seen spreading anti-India propaganda, fake news and being a bigot, raising the question whether Rahul feels comfortable in sharing space with such elements.

Another eminent Congress supporter Suryanarayan Ganesh, who has been seen indulging in high level sycophancy, has been graced with a photo with Rahul during a Congress volunteer meet:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Rahul Gandhi with Suryanarayan Ganesh Via @gsurya

Apart from his sycophancy, Ganesh has been seen abusing alleged trolls:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Suryanarayan Ganesh abusing alleged trolls Via @sureshnakhua

He has also abused senior journalists in the past:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Suryanarayan Ganesh abusing senior journalist

Even senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi has been at the receiving end of his abuse:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Suryanarayan Ganesh abusing Tarun Gogoi Via @sureshnakhua

Even though Rahul Gandhi only follows about 150 people on twitter, this hasn’t stopped him from following controversial ones like Harini Calamur, who in a 2004 blogpost as pointed out by Nakhua, is seen indirectly using a derogatory word against senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Harini Kalamur blog

Besides the list shared by Nakhua, Rahul Gandhi has also met two individuals namely Nisar and Abhishek Mishra, who as we will see below are substantially more vile than the aforementioned persons.

The twitter user named Nisar (@nisarpari) too had managed to meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi:


The smily emoji in his tweet might lead some to believe that he is a sweet character. But a simple search of his past tweets show him defaming PM Modi and outright abusing BJP President Amit Shah:


Interestingly, even though Nisar happily clicked a picture with Rahul and calls himself a “Congressi”, he has taken a bit of a myopic view when it comes to Rahul’s vision:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Congress supporter criticising Rahul Gandhi

Finally coming to Congress supporter Abhishek Mishra, who has in the past been caught spreading fake news. Mishra a few days back had posted a picture of him with Rahul Gandhi, whom he referred to with a lot of respect:


Such respect though is frequently seen lacking in Mishra’s behaviour, as evident by these filthy abuses by him on a private citizen’s Facebook page:

Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Abusive Congress supporter. Via @Being_Humour
Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Abusive Congress supporter. Via @Being_Humour
Will Rahul Gandhi apologise for meeting these vile and abusive supporters of his?
Abusive Congress supporter. Via @Being_Humour

As seen via all the aforementioned examples, Rahul Gandhi has met some very vile online characters in real life, and even possibly interacted with some of them. It thus remains to be seen whether the same outlets which hounded PM Modi, would now also come out to criticise Rahul for his associations.

Director General of PIB, Frank Noronha slams Shekhar Gupta for fake news, says ‘figment of imagination’

OpIndia Staff
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Director General of PIB, Frank Noronha slams Shekhar Gupta for fake news, says ‘figment of imagination’

As countries worldwide are struggling to fight the menace of fake news, there seems to be no dearth of a fresh onslaught of baseless, factless news and the people propagating it.

Today, The Print ran another of such fake-stories. The article published today claimed that I&B Minister Smriti Irani wants to track the movement of journalists through RFID cards.

The article went ahead to claim that the Press Information Bureau is working to issue Radio Frequency Identification Cards (RFID) to journalists. The article also mentioned that Frank Noronha, the Principal-Director General of the PIB had confirmed the move. It claimed that The Print has communicated with Noronha and received a reply from him and Noronha, in his response, has stated that the proposal has not been implemented yet.

Shekhar Gupta of the ‘coup story’ fame, who is the Print’s founder, shared the story with a ‘never a dull moment’ addition to his tweet.

Shekhar Gupta’s claim, however, was promptly refuted by Frank Noronha himself. The Principal Spokesperson of the government of India and Principal Director General of the PIB, in his tweet in response to Shekhar Gupta’s story, stated the story as completely false and called it an ‘outright figment of imagination’.


Shekhar Gupta has not offered any explanations so far. Interestingly, the article in question does not even present any documentary evidence for their claim. They have not shared and references or added any proof, they just attribute their information to ‘sources’ and the proclaimed communications with Frank Noronha are not substantiated by evidence either.

Shekhar Gupta is famous for identifying the religion and castes of objects from food plates to toilets. The Print didn’t even hesitate in spinning sensational lies about Chinese aggression at Doklam, that could potentially hurt national security. This time though, his imaginations seem to have reached the realms of science fiction.

Prasar Bharti CEO slams Chetan Bhagat

OpIndia Staff
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Prasar Bharti CEO slams Chetan Bhagat

Even as the debate on how to curb fake news menace heats up, everyone is busy dishing out opinions, many even defending the serial offenders when it comes to fake news peddlers.

Amidst all this, author Chetan Bhagat tried to ‘defend’ ‘free media’ by taking a dig on the Indian public service broadcaster Doordarshan.


In his tweet, Bhagat states how he’d rather have some ‘fake news’ instead of every other news channel turning into a Doordarshan clone, whereby it appeared as if he implies that Doordarshan peddles fake news.

Many Twitter users came out to defend Doordarshan, one of the world’s largest broadcasting organisations.


Amongst them, one person who came defending Doordarshan was Shashi Shekhar, CEO of Prasar Bharti, the parent organisation of Doordarshan.


He slammed Bhagat for a ‘frivolous’ comment on Doordarshan. He also said that no commercial TV channel invests in broadcasting content from a public service standpoint in India as much as Doordarshan channels do.

Fact Check: Was a Sub-Inspector murdered in cold blood during Dalit protests as being alleged?

OpIndia Staff
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Fact Check: Was a Sub-Inspector murdered in cold blood during Dalit protests as being alleged?

According to images circulating on social media, Sub-Inspector Mahendra Chaudhury, who unfortunately succumbed to his injuries suffered during the Bharat Bandh protests called by Dalits to protest the court verdict on SC/ST Act, was murdered in cold blood by the protesters.


The pictures depict a policeman, who has something of a resemblance with the late sub-inspector, being thrashed by a civilian. However, the images are not from the Bharat Bandh but from a riot at Kanpur in June 2017 over the alleged rape of a girl at a Hospital. In fact, the image was also reported by Times of India.

There indeed was a huge amount of violence during the protests. However, the allegation that the policeman was murdered in cold blood on the basis of images from 2017 appears to be false. There is a compilation of these images on YouTube as well which was published on June 18, 2017.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUjnoSHFH8U]

Multiple media outlets have reported that the Sub-Inspector passed away in unfortunate circumstances while he was being shifted to Ahmedabad from Jodhpur after suffering a heart attack. In the interest of peace and harmony, people should desist from spreading the false news on social media when tensions are already running high.

Ahead of polls, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi’s respective planes searched by EC in Hubbali, North Karnataka

OpIndia Staff
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Ahead of polls, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi’s respective planes searched by EC in Hubbali, North Karnataka

In poll-bound Karnataka, to ensure that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is strictly adhered to, the Election Commission officials searched the private aircraft of BJP President Amit Shah as soon as it landed in Hubbali district in North Karnataka. Shah is on the fifth leg of campaigning in Karnataka which goes to polls on 12th May and was accompanied by two more party leaders. As per officials, nothing unusual was found from the aircraft. The officials said that this was a part of their regular drill under the MCC which came into force from 27th March.

The special aircraft of Congress President Rahul Gandhi was also checked when it landed at the same Hubbali airport yesterday by the officials. The officials said it was a random search and nothing intentional in the search operation carried out by the presidents of two biggest national parties in India.

Gandhi, who is on the fifth leg of Karnataka tour, left for Shivamogga and addressed public meetings there and in Davangere.

Shah, who is also on the fifth lap of Karnataka tour, addressed an Other Backward Classes convention at Kaginele in Haveri district and had an interaction with the seers of Veerashaiva community at Shivayogi Mandir in Badami taluk of Bagalkote district.

Dubai Police Chief slams Pakistanis for their ‘criminality’, compares them to ‘disciplined’ Indians

OpIndia Staff
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Dubai Police Chief slams Pakistanis for their ‘criminality’, compares them to ‘disciplined’ Indians

Head of General Security of Dubai, has slammed Pakistanis for their criminal behaviour while comparing them to ‘disciplined’ Indians. The Dubai Police Chief said, “Why Indians are disciplined? While idleness, criminality and smuggling in the Pakistani community are rampant.”


Dhahi Khalfan also labelled Pakistanis as a serious national threat due to their involvement in the smuggling of drugs. The comments were made on the back of a recent drug bust. He said, “The Pakistanis pose a serious threat to the Gulf communities because they bring drugs to our countries.”


The Dubai Police Chief also called upon the citizens to stop employing Pakistanis and claimed that it has become a “national necessity”.


The Police Chief also stated that the Pakistanis must be subjected to severe scrutiny along the lines of what Bengalis (probably referring to Bangladeshis) were put under “when they formed criminal phenomena”.


Pakistanis have earned a less than favourable impression abroad for their alleged involvement in criminal activities and also for links to terror groups. In the United Kingdoms as well, grooming gangs have been operating for a long time which overwhelmingly consists of Muslims with Pakistani heritage. With the world increasingly viewing Pakistan as a state sponsor of terror, Pakistanis are facing the heat as well for their alleged involvement in criminal activities.

Hunger strike demanding Cauvery management board includes a ‘lunch break’?

OpIndia Staff
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Hunger strike demanding Cauvery management board includes a ‘lunch break’?

The recent Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery river dispute and the subsequent delay of the central government in delaying the constitution of a Cauvery river management board has lead to widespread discontent and anger in Tamil Nadu. The ruling AIADMK government has been under fire from opposition parties in the state for not fighting for the interests of the state.

Tamil Nadu government has also filed a contempt of court petition against the centre for not following the SC ruling. The centre is planning to seek clarifications on the SC verdict regarding the constitution of Cauvery management board.

Meanwhile, videos and pictures claiming that AIADMK protestors  had consumed food during a hunger strike in Vellore have emerged in various channels. The video has been used by the public in order to highlight the lack of seriousness of the ruling party about safeguarding the interests of the state.


In another location, AIADMK workers allegedly consumed liquor during their hunger strike.


However, it is unclear whether the people caught in the pictures and video are AIADMK party workers or not. The party’s official Twitter handle has also not responded to allegations of the media.

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