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Farmers’ March : I am sick of commies setting the narrative, are you?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Farmers’ March : I am sick of commies setting the narrative, are you?

Devendra Fadnavis doesn’t even have a clear majority in the Assembly. To keep his government, he must depend on Shiv Sena, a party run by two jealous, incompetent and lazy dynasts.

When given the task of conquering Maharashtra, he had to fight on many fronts: first, he had to turn the decades-old equation of Big Brother / Little Brother between Sena and BJP on its head. A task of catapulting BJP from No. 4 to No. 1 in Maharashtra in a single election cycle. Out of the 288 seats in Maharashtra, there were some 171 seats where the BJP had not even contested in the last 25 years (these had been allocated to ally Shiv Sena).

The second task was to try and win a majority for BJP on its own in the fractured politics of Maharashtra, something that no party had done since 1985. After the 1990 elections, no party in Maharashtra has won even 90 seats.  The outcome for BJP: 122 seats, but tantalizingly shortly after the magic figure of 145.

Not to mention that the mantle was suddenly thrust on him with barely 2-3 months to go for elections, due to the unexpected death of Gopinath Munde: BJP’s tallest leader in Maharashtra. A man carrying the yoke of being a Brahmin in a state whose politics has always been dominated by Marathas.

That’s Devendra Fadnavis: the first BJP leader to become Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

I have been saying for a while that the outcome of 2019 depends on two broad pivots: Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the two largest states. If BJP can control these two states, the chances of a second term for Modi increase exponentially. The credit belongs to Modi for installing two powerful Chief Ministers in these states, who have the potential of becoming the faces of their respective states.

Today’s event in Mumbai, CPI(M) bringing thousands of farmers to surround the Assembly, underlines again the challenge of being Devendra Fadnavis. Remember the humongous Maratha morchas that swept the state last year?

The ecosystem is making yet another major attempt to destroy Devendra Fadnavis. We have seen in January just how desperate they are to destroy him: that they could dig up a completely forgotten, insignificant episode of history and create a nationwide fuss over it. This is how far they are ready to go to destroy Fadnavis. The attempts to uproot him are not PC outrage based initiatives that only resonate with astroturf liberals. This is not Award Wapsi that it will have ZERO resonance with 99.9% of regular Hindus. These are major challenges: Maratha reservation, Dalit pride and now farmers issues.

These things have a resonance at the grassroots.

Until now, Fadnavis has been able to successfully parry the attacks. He has worked his hardest to balance the agrarian vastness of Maharashtra with its equally significant urban pockets. The Jal Yukt Shivir program was a hit among the farmers. Now, no government program is ever implemented to perfection, but he has managed to pull off a farm loan waiver as well.

At the same time, he has been able to somehow keep a lid on the scheming opposition. The Maratha morchas were defused slowly until they ran out of steam. In January, during the Bhima-Koregaon situation, he managed to position himself as some kind of neutral referee during the Opposition effort to create a Maratha vs Dalit conflagration in the state. Everyone knows that the vultures of the left came looking for dead bodies to serve their politics. No stone was left unturned to provoke a police firing or some untoward incident that could be used to create caste riots. The Maharashtra government frustrated them successfully. Ultimately, the vultures flew away, still hungry, with nothing to show for their efforts.

There is a reason the ecosystem has invested so much in successive waves of attacks on Fadnavis. You have to understand that Maharashtra is a golden state, the biggest cash cow in the union. Secondly, the Congress has always had its CM in Maharashtra except for 1995-99 and now. Although parties like SP and BSP are ultimately branches of Congress, they are still one degree of separation away from the Dynasty. The Congress has fallen by the wayside in UP a long time ago. Not so in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra was not ruled indirectly, unlike UP that was ruled by the Dynasty through Akhilesh or Mayawati.  The revenue from Maharashtra was going directly to the Crown. As the British would say, Maharashtra was “Crown land,” owned directly by the Queen herself. The slaves will fight 10 times harder when defending Crown land.

One such slave is being sent to Rajya Sabha I hear … a reward for being the Editor of a highly circulated Marathi language Congress pamphlet  … umm… err … newspaper.

With the “farmers march” in Mumbai, we are seeing yet another sorry consequence of the lack of a right-wing ecosystem. The failure starts right from accepting the tyrannical terminology “Farmers March.”

Communist hijacking farmers' protest
If you can’t see the red, you are blind.

Does this look like a “farmers’ march” to you?

Yes, the individuals there may be farmers. But to call it a “farmers march” instead of a “CPM march” is totally dishonest. It is extremely evident that the plight of the farmers and their cause if being hijacked by the communists to set their own narrative. It is being used to find their own political relevance. Calling it “farmers march” is like saying that Dr Sambit Patra’s opinion is the “doctors’ prescription” because Sambit Patra just happens to be a doctor. It is extremely dishonest, but even the right wing is bowing down and calling it the “farmers march.”

Because the right wing is used to the tyranny of terminology and surrendering to it. When AISA is on the streets, it is a “students protest.” When CPM’s Kisan Sabha is on the streets, it magically becomes a “farmers protest.” When AIDWA is on the streets, it magically becomes a “women’s protest.”

Will any left winger ever refer to a gathering of Sangh cadres as a “patriots protest” or a “Hindus protest”? They easily use their superior control over the narrative to create some artificial barrier between “Hindu” and “Hindutva.” They are able to boast from every street corner that they are not against Hindus but against “Hindutva.” Will the right wing ever be able to broadcast the message that we are not against “farmers” but against Commies?

Instead, the right wing begins from a point of weakness, two steps away from surrender. We have already granted the CPI(M) full moral supremacy and accepted them as legitimate representatives of “farmers.” Once this crucial point is conceded, the narrative shifts to whether the BJP government can fulfil their demands.

They are your implacable political foes: why would they make reasonable demands from you? The single point agenda of Commies is that the BJP should be banned and its leaders were thrown into prison for life. Will you be able to fulfil that demand? So their demands will go unfulfilled and the BJP will have to explain to everybody why they failed to fulfil the demands of “farmers.”

This is not only shameful, it is also an insult to democracy. How many farmers vote for CPI(M)? I think more farmers have voted for BJP than have voted for CPI(M) in the last ten elections put together. But the right wing is so lackadaisical that we let them set the agenda on “farmers.”

Ditto for students. How many young students today are Commies? Probably zero outside JNU.

Same goes for women or Dalits. More women and more Dalits vote for BJP than for any other party.

Through its rock-solid ecosystem support, the Commies manage to push their agenda with just 2-3% of the vote. It is time for the right in India to start taking some drastic measures to change this stranglehold.

There are 12000 Communist cadres in Mumbai today. There could be more, but the highest estimate I have heard is 35,000. With that, they have managed to bring the city to a halt.

There are 17 crore people who voted for BJP in the last election. If even 10% of that number comes out on streets, it will be the greatest political show on earth. Let 2 crore right wingers march to Kerala and demand that Pinarayi Vijayan and his entire Cabinet should resign.

Honestly, I am sick and tired of being arm-twisted by Communists. I was a student for many many years. I am sick and tired of hearing that Commies speak for students. No woman in my family is a Commie. In fact, the only Commie women I have seen are on TV. I know several Dalits but not a single one is a Commie. Most are fervently anti-Commie. In fact, the only Commies I know are Brahmin men (that too so-called “Kulin Brahmins” — highest among the highest caste). They are all heterosexual men, fluent in English and making fat pay packages at big corporations in India and the West. Most have flown first class at least once in their lives. Not one of them could be considered “underprivileged” in any sense.

These farmers who have joined this march probably have no idea how they are being used by the communists. They have no idea that while their poverty is glorified by communists, they themselves travel first class and enjoy the luxuries of life. They probably have no idea about their murderous ideology.

Frankly, I am sick of these rich, lazy Commies setting the narrative.

Chalo Paltai!

‘I don’t have money, will fight elections on your money’, Kejriwal in Chattisgarh

OpIndia Staff
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‘I don’t have money, will fight elections on your money’, Kejriwal in Chattisgarh

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has sounded the election bugle in Chhattisgarh by claiming how the party has no money left, and hence the election will be fought on the money of people. Saying that people have to fight elections since he himself is a common man, the funding should come from people themselves and not corporates. He further stated that funding received for fighting elections from corporates has to be returned, but when they fight on their own money, they get better schools and employment.

Speaking of Delhi school, Kejriwal claimed that 3 years back, Delhi government schools were in worse shape than in Chhattisgarh, but now even rich people send their children to government schools.

AAP rebel leader Kapil Mishra has accused Kejriwal of using these rallies to collect money, in lieu of tickets to contest the election. He accused Kejriwal of not conducting a rally as run up to the actual election after tickets have been sold for money.


Last year in December, Kejriwal had announced AAP will contest on all 60 seats in Nagaland, with focus on education and health sectors. However, eventually, AAP contested from 6 seats in Meghalaya and 3 in Nagaland, losing deposits in 8 out of those 9 seats.

Rahul Gandhi inadvertently exposes what The Wire’s plan was all along

Nupur J Sharma
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Rahul Gandhi inadvertently exposes what The Wire’s plan was all along

On 9th of March 2018, OpIndia published an article that busted an impending hitjob on Arun Jaitley and his daughter’s law firm by the leftist propaganda website, ‘The Wire’. OpIndia had received information that there was a concerted information to somehow link Arun Jaitley to Mehul Choksi, the tainted businessman, whose scam had invariable landed at the Congress party’s and P Chidambaram’s doorstep.

We also received information that the law firm, that was engaged by the tainted businessman in December 2017, terminated its contract and returned the retainership it within a month, before providing any sort of legal assistance to Geetanjali Gems.

In response to our pre-emptive article, ‘The Wire’ had cried foul over their hit-job being debunked before it could even be published. They came up with a shoddy explanation saying that once they received the response from the law firm, they decided to not run the story because “initial conclusion was that there wasn’t much of a story after all.“

Surprisingly, when ‘The Wire’ had sent their questionnaire to the law firm, they had categorically mentioned that their story was complete and they wanted to run it ideally with the firm’s response. How then did they decide “there was not much of a story after all” is a little sketchy, but we digress.

In the article that we published on the 9th of March 2018, we had made this observation :

It comes at a time when former Finance Minister Chidambaram is in the dock for the INX media case. Plus, Chidambaram is also in the gaze for signing a last minute order which primarily benefited Choksi’s and Nirav Mehta’s firms. A report which links Choksi to Jaitley then would make life much easier for Chidambaram.

So for some reason, ‘The Wire’ has decided not to cover a story on why Chidambaram, on the day 2014 Lok Sabha results were known, okayed a schemed that benefitted 13 private firms including that of Mehul Choksi and later the then RBI governor sanctioned that diluted 20:80 Gold Scheme five days before Modi took oath as the new Prime Minister. This glaring connection between Chidambaram, Raghuram Rajan and the Nirav Modi – Mehul Choksi scam has escaped the brave journalists at ‘The Wire’ completely.

Unsurprisingly, it may seem like our observation might be coming true after all.

Today, Rahul Gandhi in another epic self-goal plugged ‘The Wire’s’ article that claimed “there wasn’t much of a story after all” in a bid to indict Arun Jaitley and his daughter’s firm in the PNB scam.

The screenshot of Rahul’s tweet has been attached before because the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi have developed a habit of making such embarrassing gaffes and then deleting their tweets.

To summarise, Rahul Gandhi tweeted that the Finance Minister’s silence over the PNB scam was to protect his daughter’s firm that got a large retainership just a month before the scam broke out. He plugged an article that conceded “there wasn’t much of a story” to publish after finding out the law firm had returned the retainership once the scam broke and had not represented Mehul Choksi at all. He plugged the article that basically conceded that the OpIndia story was indeed correct and that Arun Jaitley, his daughter or their law firm cannot be connected to this scam which is why they dropped this story.

While all of Rahul’s idiotic gaffes and lies are laughable, and one might feel compelled to laugh this one off too, there is a larger question here.

Rahul Gandhi plugged an article from a sympathetic portal, distancing Arun Jaitley from the scam, as an indictment of his involvement. That makes me believe that Rahul Gandhi or the Einstien that runs his Social Media account did not even read the article they were about to plug.

Now, it is said that what can be attributed to stupidity should never be attributed to malice, but, in this case, while the stupidity is a foregone conclusion, the malice must also be examined.

The only reason an official handle would plug an article without even reading its contents can be that the handler thought they knew what the contents of the article from a sympathetic website would have. If we were to make an educated guess, should we assume that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party knew that ‘The Wire’ was planning a hit-job to link Arun Jaitley to the tainted businessman? Which in turn would mean, that the Congress perhaps wasn’t aware that their latest hit-job had been preemptively foiled?

We had pointed out how there seems to be a concerted effort by ‘The Wire’ to link elements who are perceived close to the Prime Minister with the tainted businessman perhaps to shift focus away from the fact that P Chidambaram has found himself smack in the middle of this financial scam by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi?

Can we conclude that perhaps this is the reason why ‘The Wire’ hasn’t written a single article about P Chidambaram sanctioning the diluted 20:80 scheme on the day Congress lost 2014 elections, that basically facilitated the scam perpetrated by the duo? It almost seems like some PR professionals have been hired to try and link any official to the Nirav Modi – Mehul Choksi scam in order to shift the focus from Congress.

 

On a lighter note, this seems like Rahul Gandhi ended up tweeting the same text that he was supposed to tweet when hitjob by ‘The Wire’ is published. We should now know who in ‘The Wire’ has been leaking editorial plans to Rahul Gandhi. Or is Rahul Gandhi a central part of the decision making process?

‘Activist’ associated with Amnesty International India calls for violence against Brahmins

OpIndia Staff
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‘Activist’ associated with Amnesty International India calls for violence against Brahmins

A “Human Rights activist” associated with Amnesty International India as per his Twitter bio, has advocated violence against Brahmins in a tweet:


Amnesty International, ironically, claims to work for lessening violence and granting dignity to common people around the world. However, in India, it is currently headed by controversial writer Aakar Patel, who himself is known for making bigoted casteist remarks. Perhaps this has emboldened anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu elements, who often masquerade as activists and journalists.

Some of the replies to the tweet by this Amnesty ‘activist’ exposed similar mindsets in similar professions. One such reply, by a person claiming to be ‘independent journalist’, is particularly revealing. He compares attacking Brahmins for their sacred thread with burning the Confederate flag. He seems to be under the impression that Brahmins perpetuate caste violence by merely existing and wearing the Yajnopaveetam/janeu.

anti-brahmin hatred
Bigotry that passes for journalism in India

If one accepts logic of such activists and journalists, attacking people wearing Muslim skullcap should be justified as that religious symbol represents Islamist ideology. How is this any different from a Nazi mindset?

Naturally, people were not pleased with the call for violence against common people merely for their religious identity. Some criticized Amnesty International and called for the self proclaimed Human Rights organization to act against their associate openly encouraging violence against Brahmins.


Others urged the Police to take action against Karthik Navayan for inciting communal violence.


It remains to be seen whether any concrete action will be taken against the offender by Amnesty International or the Police. Thus far, there is no indication that any action has been taken or could be taken.

The controversial tweets can be found archived here in case they are deleted in the future. However, given the bigotry that in ingrained in such characters, it can be safely assumed that the ‘activist’ will brazen it out and wish for more violence against Brahmins.

When ABP news could have avoided embarrassment by reading its own newspaper

OpIndia Staff
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When ABP news could have avoided embarrassment by reading its own newspaper

Septic tanks have become the new thing in the former communist bastion of Tripura, after Sunil Deodhar, the BJP’s state in-charge, asked new Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb to get all the septic tanks in the ministers’ quarters cleaned.

The reason given for the same was that, in January 2005, a woman’s skeleton was found in the septic tank of then CM Manik Sarkar’s quarter. He also claimed that the case had been suppressed. As per media reports from that time, the claim appears to be true.

Media reports from 2005 indicate that skeletal remains including the skull and nine bones of the shin, forearms and ribs were found in a tank connected to a toilet close to the house meant for security personnel and other members of the then Chief Minister’s staff, inside the CM’s official residence. The discovery was made when the tank was being cleaned by workers of the Agartala Municipal Council.

ABP News though had a totally different approach to the whole saga, as was caught by OpIndia columnist Sujoy Ghosh.

While running a report on the matter, the news anchor asked for a sound-bite from their correspondent. The correspondent though took a strange line, as seen in the video below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElIEqgNFktQ?start=80]

The correspondent is heard as claiming that Deodhar has levelled very serious allegations, though as per him, the truth regarding the matter could only be ascertained post a probe. He then took a different trajectory by claiming that BJP leaders have been making strange claims in the past few days regarding the “statue controversy” which weren’t based on facts. He thus again reiterated that one should wait for a probe in this matter before drawing conclusions due to Manik Sarkar’s clean image.

This narrative though was odd on two accounts.

  1. It was strange to note that, ABP news was referring to Deodhar’s statement as a mere allegation, considering a popular newspaper named “The Telegraph”, which currently is part of the ABP group, had carried a story in January 2005, titled, “Woman’s skeleton in CM’s house”. Here the newspaper factually reported the incident, without hinting that it was based on any sort of “allegations”.
  2. Secondly, as per the same report, an under pressure Manik Sarkar had indeed constituted a CID probe in this matter after consulting with the left front and police officials. Hence ABP news’ assertion that one should wait for a probe doesn’t make much sense as, going by their group’s newspaper a probe was ordered by the none other than former CM Manik Sarkar.

Interestingly, as per latest reports, since Deodhar’s tweet, the Director-General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla is reported to have said that they would now try to “ascertain” the progress CID made in its investigation. The report claimed that CID had failed to make much headway regarding the probe.

Forensic tests conducted had concluded that the skeleton was of a girl aged between 13 and 17 years. A possible sketch of the girl was also made and released in the media, but it elicited no response. Manik Sarkar in 2010 had defended himself in this matter, by alleging that the skeleton was dumped in the septic tank for no reason.

Considering the amount of mystery and uncertainty involved in this matter, it remains to be seen how seriously the police pursues the matter now, with there being no CPM government in the state anymore.

However, it is clear that the incident is not any wild allegation by a BJP leader as the ABP correspondent tried to suggest. Least he could have done is to read a newspaper of his own group.

Karnataka IPS Association expresses concern over declining law and order in a scathing letter

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka IPS Association expresses concern over declining law and order in a scathing letter

The Karnataka IPS Officers’ Association has written a concerned letter on the law and order situation in the state to the Chief Secretary of the state. In the letter dated 8th March 2018, Dr Rajvir Pratap Sharma, ADGP and President of the IPS association has brought out grave concerns and has questioned the integrity of the system and current scenarios. Addressed to Ms K Ratnaprabha, the chief secretary in the Karnataka government, the letter expresses deep concern and calls for urgent action.

The letter begins with the recent attack on the Lokayukta in his office premises and goes on to list out several other such attacks on serving officers in the state, including female IPS officers. Dr Sharma also lists several incidents where citizens were attacked and government properties were vandalised but there was conspicuous lethargy shown by the police to take appropriate action. He also recalls that in instances like riots over Cauvery water and farmer agitations in the city of Bangalore, the police and the state machinery should have handled the situation in a better way.

The letter further adds that normally the government offices were considered safe places by the people. But unchecked hooliganism has reached to such a point that even senior public servants themselves are not safe. Dr Sharma asserts that the Indian Police Service in Karnataka is merely a pale shadow of its past and it no longer commands the same stature. He expresses concern over the tenure of police officers being reduced to 1 year contrary to the police reforms order issued by the Supreme Court in the PIL of Prakash Singh. The letter states that Indian Police Officers cannot play their leadership roles if they are continuously being punished for discharging their duties.

The letter also alleges that in several cases, investigations have been hijacked at the political behest and this has resulted in criminals losing the fear for police. Dr Sharma insists that he can give specifics of the cases upon meeting. He adds that the specialised agencies under the police have also become redundant due to political interferences.

The letter draws attention to the fact that the Bangalore city has seen six different police commissioners in the past 4.5 years and due to frequent transfers of certain police officers, the continuity, command formation and intrinsic confidence of the IPS officers is at its lowest level. It asserts that attacks on the Lokayukta himself show that the officers are merely fulfilling their constitutional obligations to political powers and ignoring their obligations to the service of the people. Dr Sharma calls the current course of declining sense of responsibility towards the common man by the police officers is a dangerous precedent. The letter calls for urgent course correction and insists the IPS association wants the officers to accept their flaws and return to the path of duty and requests the chief secretary to convene a meeting of all the IPS officers to discuss strategy for the immediate goal of fair elections and the long-term goal of maintaining strong professional values and ethics.

Dr Sharma states that the office bearers of the IPS association are ready to convene a large group of serving IPS officers for the meeting and they are willing to give specific details of the cases mentioned in the letter. He also adds that even retired IPS officers should be called to impart their views and values.

The ‘Kisan Long March’ seems to be far from a spontaneous, neutral farmer’s protest

OpIndia Staff
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The ‘Kisan Long March’ seems to be far from a spontaneous, neutral farmer’s protest

A farmers’ march organised by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) today reached Mumbai’s Azad Maidan from Nashik, demanding a complete loan waiver, among other demands. AIKS is the peasant’s arm of the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPIM) led by Sitaram Yechury.

Later in the day, the protestors plan to stage a protest outside Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. While our heart goes out to the farmers and their plight, the movement of farmers now seems to have been hijacked by political parties to score their own brownie points as a run-up to the upcoming general elections in 2019.

Shiv Sena, which recently broke its alliance with the BJP to go solo in 2019 elections, has already extended support to the farmers’ march against the BJP. Similarly, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray has also extended support to the farmers’ march.

Other than waiving off the loan, the farmers are demanding change in the government’s plan to link rivers in Thane, Nashik and Palghar, which is scheduled to go for by-poll elections sometime soon, to ensure that the tribal lands are not submerged. Meanwhile, up to February, Maharashtra government has approved more than 5.4 million farmer bank accounts and funds of Rs. 12,381 crores have been released to banks for more than 4.6 million of them.

While the issues are genuine and the government is working towards resolving them, many have wondered if there is an ulterior motive behind such protests.


The march even has tribals from the interiors of Maharashtra participating along with farmers of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Khandesh. A similar such rally was organised by CPIM back in May 2015, where the same Azad Maidan was decorated with red flags and photos of Karl Marx.

Many, including the Managing Editor of Mail Today, an English Daily, have raised questions about the politicisation of the farmers’ rally and how it doesn’t seem spontaneous and neutral.


While the plight of farmers is indeed a matter of grave concern and the government must take steps to bring the agriculture and allied sector out of distress, the Kisan Long March, which has farmers waving red communists flags, seems to be far from a neutral, spontaneous rally.

After SC verdict in her favour, Hadiya meets chief of an Islamist hardline organisation

OpIndia Staff
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After SC verdict in her favour, Hadiya meets chief of an Islamist hardline organisation

The Supreme Court had recently upheld the marriage of Hadiya to Shafin Jahan which was earlier annulled in 2017 by the Kerala High Court. The SC held, however, that the NIA was free to probe the Love Jihad angle and take it to its logical conclusion. It said that marriage between two consenting adults cannot be annulled by the court.

While many chose to echo the “love wins” angle, disturbing details have now emerged about formerly Akhila Asokan and now Hadiya, meeting the chief of a suspected Islamist organisation PFI three days after the verdict.


PFI is allegedly involved in hypnotic counselling of Hindu girls in order to convert them in their religious centres as per NIA investigations. A religious facilitation centre managed by PFI called ‘Sathyasarini/Markaz Hidaya Da’wa Institute’ in Manjeri, Kerala is allegedly connected with 9 out of 11 cases of ‘Love-Jihad’ investigated by NIA. ‘Love Jihad’ is a term known in the mainstream media for the modus operandi of Islamists to lure Hindu women into marrying them, with the ulterior motive of converting their religion to Islam.

The institute is allegedly targeting the subconscious of the inmates to convert them. In addition to this, NIA has claimed that the organisation is also using allurement, confinement and coercion as part of their tactics. In response to these allegations, the public relations director of PFI told TOI that the NIA was wilfully maligning PFI. The Supreme Court had asked NIA to continue the probe but not to interfere in Hadiya’s marriage.


PFI is also known for chopping off a professor’s hand for allegedly insulting the Prophet in a question paper. 13 members of the organisation were found guilty by an NIA court.


The minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju had also tweeted that some elements in Kerala government had asked for a ban of PFI.


A report of a detailed presentation on PFI given by Kerala Police Chief at the DGP meet in Tekanpur, Madhya Pradesh has also raised eyebrows on the activities of this organisation. BJP in Karnataka and Kerala have called for the ban of PFI for their alleged involvement in communal incidents and targeted political murders. Yet no action has been taken on the organisation so far.

While many have disputed the ulterior religious motive and have tried to discredit the “love jihad” phenomenon, Hadiya’s recent meeting with extremists points to a very different and dangerous direction.

How the most intolerant wins – Nassim Taleb’s latest book has an important lesson for India

Nithesh S
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How the most intolerant wins – Nassim Taleb’s latest book has an important lesson for India

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been one of the most influential writers of our times. He is a scholar, statistician, former trader, and an alumnus of Wharton Business School. His books ‘Black Swan’, ‘Fooled by Randomness’, ‘Antifragile‘ have addressed fundamental issues plaguing the world.

Taleb takes on self-proclaimed experts and the ‘intellectual-yet-idiots’ in academia, public policy, economics and media in his books and articles. His latest book ‘Skin In The Game‘ is yet another addition to his collection of books which reveal some interesting insights into the way the world functions.

The author, in his preface, tells us what his latest book is about. Skin In The Game is about four major topics in one, he says. They are:

  • Uncertainty and reliability of knowledge (bullshit detection in simpler words)
  • Symmetry in human affairs (fairness, justice, responsibility, reciprocity)
  • Information sharing in transactions
  • Rationality in complex systems and in the real world

These four cannot be separated when one has his/her skin in the game as per Taleb. The central concept of the book is what Taleb calls ‘skin in the game’ which coincides with the name of the book. The author defines the concept as below :

“Skin in the game definition of a commons: a space in which you are treated by others the way you treat them, where everyone exercises the silver rule (Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you)”

The author has explained the same concept simpler words as below:

“Beware of the person who gives advice, telling you that a certain action on your part is “good for you” while it is also good for him, while the harm to you doesn’t directly affect him.”

‘What is the utility of this concept?’, one may ask. The world is filled with intellectuals and gurus who will tell you what is good for a country or society. The recent incident of so-called human rights activists criticising India for not accepting Rohingya refugees is one of the best examples. These activists will continue to live happily in their own countries while lecturing down to others who will face problems in real time. The ‘idea of India’ brigade in our own country is also filled with such individuals. They preach secularism and vehemently defend conversions, inter-faith marriages even though they are aware that this is a one-way road.

Apart from the introduction, the book has six main parts which largely deal with topics of uncertainty, the dominance of a stubborn minority, freedom, scientism, fake news and religion.

Taleb’s writing is not rigidly compartmentalised. He is not a difficult writer to understand, though he often invokes math, philosophy and Greek mythology in his writing. The book is an eye-opener on almost all topics it deals with and is therefore worth a read.

However, the most relevant concept in the book for an Indian audience is dealt with hereafter.

The Most Intolerant Wins

However, the most important lesson from this book for a reader in the Indian scenario would be his second chapter ‘The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dominance of the Stubborn Minority’. In this chapter, he talks about how a minute community of Jews/Muslims in the USA is able to influence the availability (Kosher/Halal meat) in entire America. He talks of ‘one-way street of religions’ and explains how the Muslim majority was achieved in a largely Christian West Asia and Egypt. Taleb lists two asymmetric rules that enabled this to happen:

“First, under Islamic law, if a non-Muslim man marries a Muslim woman, he needs to convert to Islam- and if either parent of a child happens to be Muslim, the child will be Muslim*. Second, becoming Muslim is irreversible, as apostasy is the heaviest crime under the religion, sanctioned by the death penalty.

*There are some minor variations across regions and Islamic sects. The original rule is that if a Muslim woman marries a non-Muslim man, he needs to convert. But practice, in many countries, both need to do so.”

The author says that under these two asymmetric rules a small minority of Muslims can reduce an existing majority into a minority over a period of time. All one needs is a small rate of inter-faith marriages, he says.

This reminded me of the latest verdict by the Supreme Court in the Hadiya case. Several studies on the demographic change in Kerala confirm Taleb’s analysis. The same phenomenon is happening at a slower pace in entire India as well. One might wonder as to what is the solution for Hindus to resist such a possibility. Taleb has an answer, albeit in another unrelated part of the same chapter. He says:

“Yes, an intolerant minority can control and destroy democracy. Actually, it will destroy our world. So, we need to be more intolerant with some intolerant minorities. Simply they violate the silver rule (Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you). It is not permissible to use ‘American values’ or ‘Western values’ in treating intolerant Salafism (which denies other people’s right to have their own religion). The west is currently in the process of committing suicide.”

This fact is relevant to India as much as it is to the West. Therefore, Hinduism and Hindus must drop a significant part of their pride in being ‘tolerant’ all the time and adopt some ‘intolerance’ to merely survive. For that, we have to first stop being politically correct in our discourse.

State govt employees in Tripura could get higher salaries as new CM takes charge

OpIndia Staff
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State govt employees in Tripura could get higher salaries as new CM takes charge

BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb has started off in his new role as Chief Minister of Tripura. In his first cabinet meeting as the CM, he has taken three key decisions.

The first is to examine whether a CBI probe into the death of two journalists, Sudip Bhowmik and Shantanu Bhowmik can be ordered. Currently, the case is being investigated by a Tripura police SIT (special investigation team). Sudip was killed by a policeman in November last year while Shantanu was killed in September last year while covering a fight involving CPM workers.

The second is to set up a committee to explore the implementation of seventh pay commission. This move could benefit 2.45 lakh employees of the government. Currently, the employees are not getting salaries as per recommendations of 7th pay commission.

The third decision is to rename the Agartala airport after its the last reigning king of Tripura. Earlier it was known as Agartala airport. Hereafter it will be called as the Maharaj Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Airport.

The Maharaja is known to be a progressive ruler and the architect of modern Tripura. The king is responsible for construction of the airport, and land reforms in the state during his reign before Tripura joined the Indian union. The current heir of the Manikya dynasty is interestingly working president of Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee.

Biplab Kumar Deb has reaffirmed that his key focus will be good governance, health and education. He has also told that he would take advise from former Chief Minister and learn from his experience:

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