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Social media users show the mirror to Comedian Vir Das

OpIndia Staff
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Social media users show the mirror to Comedian Vir Das

If you’ve been on Twitter from before 2014, you’d have known most of the current lot of standup comics as regular people who would occasionally tweet funny tweets. Of course, with time, the Indian standup comedy scene, which initially relied heavily on gender stereotyping and sexism, are now portraying themselves to be gender sensitive, responsible influential personalities who should not be cracking politically incorrect, offensive jokes.

Recently, standup comedy in India has become a tool for political propaganda, which is evident from a cursory glance at their tweets. Yesterday, comedian Vir Das tweeted how standup comedy is about taking a dig at the ruling party and how they have always taken on the Congress when it was in power, but Congress supporters hardly ever ‘abused’ them for their political viewpoints.


Twitter users, who have perfected the art of calling out hypocrisy, got to work and pointed out how Das, and other comedians for that matter, never quite were as aggressively critical as they have been of the Modi government. In fact, not only were they soft on them, they were even all praises for the previous government at times.

If this was sarcasm, it clearly didn’t shine through. And perhaps what was more tragic, is that after having declared that he is an equal opportunity offender, he was singing praises of a Government that has proven to be the most corrupt government in India.

Earlier, too, Twitter users had ripped him apart for asking stupid questions after doubling up as economic and policy watchdog.

As a wise person once said, anyone can be a comedian. Being funny is much harder.

Sagarika Ghose slammed for her bizzare glorification of Indira Gandhi in the Padmavati debate

OpIndia Staff
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Sagarika Ghose slammed for her bizzare glorification of Indira Gandhi in the Padmavati debate

In recent days the nation has been gripped with debate over filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming movie, Padmavati. As per the critics of the movie, the film supposedly distorts history and one of the allegations hurled by some Rajput groups like Karni Sena is that the movie contains a romantic scene between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji. This has however been clarified, that there in fact no romantic scene between the two.

Things have become so heated that radical elements like Meerut-based Thakur leader Abhishek Som announced a Rs 5 crore bounty on Bhansali’s head. A certain Mahipal Singh Makrana of Rajput Karni Sena even threatened to cut off the nose of actress Deepika Padukone, who plays the character of Padmavati.

Padmavati has even encountered opposition transcending party lines with senior leaders from both the Congress and BJP have expressed reservations about the movie. It has also meant that leaders like Mamata Banerjee have glaringly exposed their hypocrisy by coming out in support of the film.

If all this wasn’t enough, controversial journalist Sagarika Ghose decided to come out with a tweet to try and glorify former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with the help of this ongoing controversy:


Going by the literal interpretation of Ms. Ghose’s tweet, Indira Gandhi was some sort of a political leader who held freedom of expression very dear to her heart and would have done her utmost to try and make sure a movie like Padmavati was released uneventfully.

This amused people to no end as while Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977, the nation saw the imposition of emergency for 8 years between 1966-68, 1971-1975 and the most stringent one from 1975 to 1977. Which meant severe restriction getting imposed on the fundamental rights of the citizens.

People as a result didn’t stop from questioning Ms. Ghose’s logic:


Ms. Ghose though refused to back down and came up with another odd tweet to justify her point of view:


By especially mentioning that Indira Gandhi managed to ban democracy itself meant that Ms. Ghose’s initial point regarding glorifying Indira Gandhi’s supposed concern for freedom of creative expression was rendered moot. This is because if any national leader decides to impose such a state of emergency, he/she ensures that apart from creative freedom, civil liberties, free press, political opposition all go for a toss in that country.

Also what is more intriguing is that the pro freedom of expression stance Ms. Ghose herself has taken, is completely contradictory to her behaviour while the movie Indu Sarkar was being attacked by Congress supporters because it portrayed the 1957-77 emergency period.

As reported by us while Madhur Bhandarkar was being threatened by Congress supporters, Ms. Ghose rather than equivocally supporting Bhandarkar, decided to in-turn try and expose him and as a result ended up exposing her own hypocrisy.

This tweet is holistic farrago of locutions gerrymandering one’s cerebral salubrity

OpIndia Staff
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This tweet is holistic farrago of locutions gerrymandering one’s cerebral salubrity

Was the title of this article guilty of using expressions that are too esoteric? As in, was the title comprised of words that are barely employed in common parlance? Okay, the simplest way to ask it – did the title have words that we rarely use in day-to-day language?

If yes, you need to take a look at the following tweet:


Okay, shake your head, close your eyes, and take a deep breath.

Now let’s try to decipher the above tweet.

But before that, let’s try to understand why this tweet came into existence. And to understand that, let’s revisit the title of this article itself. The title basically refers to the above tweet and essentially says that the tweet is wide mixture of words that can make your brain go numb.

But it uses words that are unusual and not used in our daily conversations. Chances are that you didn’t know meanings of many of them, except perhaps of “farrago”, which was popularized by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, when he used that in a tweet attacking journalist Arnab Goswami for repeatedly raising the issue of his (Tharoor’s) wife’s death.

The above tweet by columnist and scientist Anand Ranganathan also has connections to Congress and death. Not death of any person though, but death of free speech.

The tweet deliberately uses inscrutable and arcane words as it mimics a statement by Congress leader and former Minister of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Manish Tewari. Take a look at that statement by Tewari, which was also a tweet:


Okay, Tewari is basically accusing the Modi government (current dispensation) of interfering and manipulating (gerrymandering) decisions by statutory bodies related to movies (hinting at Padmavati and IFFI controversies), while washing his hands off instances of censorship during his tenure, especially when a particular movie was refused censor certificate and denied participation in an IFFI like event.

Tewari was responding to a tweet, which is part of a series by Anand that has, by now, captured 166 (and counting) instances when Congress clamped down on free speech and freedom of expression. The tweet series began after Farrago Tharoor tried to project Congress as some free speech friendly party and it featured Gerrymandering Tewari in the latest tweet, eliciting a response from him.

Since Tewari could hardly have argued for Congress as being a free speech friendly party, that too on a day when Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh justified protests against Padmavati movie, he chose a farrago of abstruse terms to evade the original argument.

This is the reason Anand chose to reply to Tewari with even more abstruse and obsolete terms – to show that using high sounding words doesn’t exactly mean that one has won the argument. And perhaps we can all agree, that if high sounding words can win arguments, Anand has beaten Tewari by an innings and 166 runs.

Now let us come to the tweet that is giving headaches to people and try to learn new words.

  • Bacchanalian – drunken
  • Logorrhea – tendency to talk a lot
  • Aboral – far from the mouth
  • Ablactation – the process of a child no longer needing mother’s milk
  • Pabulum – bland and boring
  • Syllogism – deductive reasoning; using logic to conclude something
  • Sanguisugent – blood sucking
  • Accoucheur – a male midwife
  • Ebriection – mental breakdown from too much drinking
  • Nigh – near

So, in simpler terms, Anand Ranganathan basically told this to Manish Tewari in far convoluted way –

“Mr. Tewari, you are drunk tweeting. What you concluded from my tweet is not at all logical. Please stop this blood sucking politicking. You have become a male midwife who conceives and delivers hot-air (such tweets). Mental breakdown is near sir (if you continue tweeting like this).”

Phew!

By the way, we got in touch with Anand and asked if he regrets using such a simple term “hot-air” when he could have used equally brain-frying words. He answered in affirmative.

“Decalescent zephyr” is what he said he should have used for “hot-air”, but thought to keep some parts easy.

Thank god for small mercies.

NYT’s racism and elitism is full display after Indian company opens Manufacturing unit in the US

OpIndia Staff
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NYT’s racism and elitism is full display after Indian company opens Manufacturing unit in the US

In a significant step, Indian automobile giant Mahindra and Mahindra opened its first car manufacturing facility in Detroit, the auto hub, a first in 25 years. The plant, which is set up at an investment of $230 million, will produce an off-highway vehicle which is being considered a game-changer already.


Reacting to this, Anand Mahindra, chief of Mahindra Group, was visibly excited.


Interestingly, Mahindra already has a considerable presence in the US tractor and has a total 30 facilities having invested about USD 1 billion in the US and providing employment to some 30,000 people.

While most hailed this historic event, NYTimes, which seems to have a grouse with India, was it’s condescending best while reporting this development. NYTimes reported,

It has been years since Detroit, birthplace of the American auto industry, was a steady producer of the manufacturing jobs that defined it as the Motor City. But its comeback is entering a new phase.

The latest milestone came Monday, with the announcement of the area’s first new vehicle assembly plant in 25 years. And the automaker making it happen is from, of all places, India.

“Of all places” is a very patronising way to describe India, which is one of the leading manufacturers in automobile industry with various auto giants having its manufacturing facilities in India. This is not the first time NYTimes has shown its prejudice against India. Earlier, they had published an op-ed about India that was centered around the CBI raids at the residences of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the founder promoters of NDTV. The editorial was titled ‘India’s Battered Free Press’ which read like a textbook case of how it has been distorting the truth. NYTimes’ former Delhi bureau chief Ellen Barry had also indulged in white-washing the 2002 Godhra carnage where as many as 59 people were burnt alive in a train. She had also spread lies to insult the victims of Godhra carnage in her report on Gulbarg Society verdict. NYTimes also encourages troll-like behaviour while reporting on democratically elected public representatives where being ‘liberal’ is associated with smoking, drinking and Hindu woman having Muslim friends and boyfriend.

Perhaps the arrogance and elitism of Left leaning media is the same across the world.

Construction begins on a 150 KM road which will make it easier for Indian army to reach China border

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Construction begins on a 150 KM road which will make it easier for Indian army to reach China border

The construction of an all weather 150 KM stretch from Tanakpur to Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand has begun, which as per reports would make it easier for the Indian armed forces to reach the Chinese border.

This road is being constructed under the ambitious Char Dham all weather highway development project. Under this project launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2016, the damaged 1100 KM long highways in the state would be turned into all weather roads.

This Rs 12,000 crore project would result in the connecting the Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrnath Dhams. It is distributed into 7 packages which also involves the aforementioned Tanakpur to Pithoragarh stretch.

As per LD Mathela, an executive engineer of NH 125, the deadline for completing this stretch is set at 2019 and the target can be easily met considering, the road has no tunnels or over-bridges.

One of the reasons why neither tunnels nor over bridges are being constructed on the route is that a non-rocky hill portion isn’t available and the nature of soil and costs involved too don’t permit their construction. The total stretch is expected to cost about Rs 1065 crores.

After the completion of this 12 metre wide road, it would be able to bear the weight and width of all the defence equipment needed during times of emergency, along the India-China border.

Apart from improving the national security, this all weather highway development project would also increase road safety and reduce the travel time by 30% to 40%.

This road stretch isn’t the only one in this country which will aid the troop movement towards the border areas.

We had reported how two 475 metres and 1790 metres long proposed tunnels through the Sela pass in Arunachal would help in reducing the travel time to the Chinese border by an hour. The tunnels, which would be part of a new 12.37-km alignment, would cut down the 320-km distance from Tezpur, the Army’s 4 Corps headquarters, to Arunachal’s Tawang by about 10 km.

Such developments are significant in light of the recent Doklam standoff between the two countries, which signalled the fact that India needs to be prepared for any kind of scenario which China might throw its way.

FIR against two newspapers for using a local’s photo for slain Lashkar terrorist

OpIndia Staff
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FIR against two newspapers for using a local’s photo for slain Lashkar terrorist

On Sunday a local Kashmiri named Majid received a shock, after he found that various media houses on Sunday were carrying his photograph to depict one of the 6 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed by security forces.

This encounter had taken place in Bandipora on Saturday and had resulted in the deaths of 6 terrorists including a nephew of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi who is one of the masterminds of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Such a successful encounter has meant that security personnel have neutralised about 190 terrorists this year and have been successful in turning 60 boys away from following the path of terror. This claim was made by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu, during a press conference on Sunday. But rather than uneventfully celebrating the victory of the security forces, a few media houses managed to plunge into a controversy by using a wrong photograph to depict the nephew of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

As per the local named, the media houses downloaded his picture from his Facebook account and circulated it as the nephew of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. Majid sells barbecues and is associated with a religious group which preaches Islam, hails from Khatika Talab in Jammu. He as a result called it a negligence of the media, the state administration and demanded that his name be cleared at the earliest. He also claimed that he filed a police compliant in this regard.

The Jammu & Kashmir police has as a result booked two newspapers named Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala with regards to this photo publication. As per the FIR, a case has been filed against the newspapers under the sections 505 and 153 of state’s Ranbir Penal Code. As per this report, what makes these newspapers’ mistake more glaring is the fact that it was made despite the security forces having fully established the identity of the 6 slain terrorists.

Even the Smriti Irani led Information and Broadcasting ministry has recently been seen taking action against such erring media houses.

We had recently reported how the I&B Ministry issued a show cause notice to Radio Mirchi for its anti-India campaign in the aftermath of the attack on Swiss tourists in Agra. Even ‘The Hindu’ was issued a show cause notice by the press council for its fake Elphinstone molestation story, seemingly as a result of the I&B ministry having expressed their displeasure at the whole turn of events. Irani herself has slammed PTI not once but twice for spreading fake news and posting a derogatory tweet respectively.

Journalist Faye D’souza likens Padmavati to ‘Gandhi’, gets fact-checked

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist Faye D’souza likens Padmavati to ‘Gandhi’, gets fact-checked

Seems like the controversy around the film Padmavati refuses to die down any time soon with politicians from either side of political spectrum using it for their own political gains. And if politicians are busy scoring brownie points, can journalists be far behind?

Mirror Now editor Faye D’souza, who is known for peddling lies, tried to compare controversial movie Padmavati, based on historic character Queen Padmavati of Chittor, with film Gandhi, a biopic on Gandhi.


Her point was why didn’t Congress government, which formed the Central government at the time, demand a screening of the film on Gandhi to ensure there was no distorting of facts or disrespecting the ‘most respected individual in Indian history’. Twitter users soon began to correct her on why the Centre would not quite interfere in this movie since the movie and script had blessings of Nehru and Indira Gandhi themselves.


The project was first approved by Nehru in 1963, which was then followed up by Indira Gandhi, who not only approved of the script, but also got National Film Development Corporation, a central agency which functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, to finance it. According to Attenborough, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, read the screenplay and found it ‘remarkably successful in containing so succinctly the vital elements necessary to tell such a story. She had one or two pertinent criticisms, particularly with regard to the early relationship between Gandhi and Kasturba.’ Goes out to show the paragon of censorship Indira Gandhi never ‘interfered’ in creative freedom of artists?

Some pointed out how it was ridiculous to compare the two films which are as different as chalk and cheese.


And how, films on ‘national heroes’ almost always show them and their ‘experiments’ in good light.


Some even reminded her about the other fiction inspired from another former Prime Minister which faced the wrath of the central government.


Perhaps now would be a good time for mainstream media journalists to fact check before peddling propaganda, since social media is a dynamic medium and the sense of entitlement they have developed for years will be shot down within minutes by commoners.

With the searing diplomatic victory at the UN, India asserts herself like never before

Abhishek Banerjee
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With the searing diplomatic victory at the UN, India asserts herself like never before

India is no longer willing to let go what is rightfully hers. That’s the message with which the world walked away after a heart stopping diplomatic contest between India and Britain at the United Nations for the last open seat on the International Court of Justice.

Officially, the contest was between Britain’s Christopher Greenwood and India’s Dalveer Bhandari for election to the ICJ. Both were sitting judges of the court, with Greenwood serving since 2008 and Bhandari serving since 2012.

Five seats were open for election and four judges had already been elected, one each from Brazil, France, Lebanon and Somalia. The British press was already calling it a diplomatic humiliation for their country when the UK failed to muster support directly and was forced into a runoff election versus India.

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After all, the ICJ has always had at least one British judge ever since the court was established in 1946. To be elected, a candidate must secure the confidence of both the UN General Assembly (193 members) and the Security Council (15 members). Should the two chambers disagree with each other, multiple rounds of voting are held in each house to resolve the situation.

Britain’s Christopher Greenwood held the lead in the Security Council, with 9 votes to India’s 6. But the General Assembly disagreed. And as the General Assembly voted over and over again, Bhandari’s lead grew. At last count, India had 121 votes, nearing a two-third majority in the house of 193.

But the Security Council refused to budge. Although the vote is held by secret ballot, it is widely believed that the powerful P-5 were sticking with the British judge, insistent on showing their power. After all, if India snubs Britain today, it could be any other P-5 member tomorrow. Incidentally, that’s exactly what we hope India will achieve one day.

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The British in desperation pressed for an arcane mechanism of a Joint Conference to resolve the deadlock. Such a Joint Conference would have just 3 members each from the General Assembly and the Security Council. This method only exists in the rule books and has never been used before.

Also, as is wont with diplomatic intrigue, rumors were spread that India will get Bhandari to withdraw from the contest. Or that India had agreed to the Joint Conference mechanism. Both rumors were strongly denied by Syed Akbaruddin, India’s permanent representative to the UN.

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The game was set for what The Times of India called possibly the “worst diplomatic showdown” between India and the UK in recent times.

And then it all happened. Here are the results of the voting in both chambers of the UN, shared by Syed Akbaruddin (Thank you sir, you are a hero!)

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183 votes in the General Assembly. All 15 votes in the Security Council.

The British blinked. Greenwood withdrew from the contest. Bye, ol’ chap!  Smiles all around for the Indian camp.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted out the happy news.

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Thank you Madam. May there be many more such moments.

India bears nobody any ill will. But, between weakness and strength, we choose strength. Our rise is both relentless and inevitable and it must be duly acknowledged. That’s our message and we have delivered it powerfully on the world stage. Happily, our message has been accepted willingly by everyone in the community of nations.

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Without missing the irony of quoting William Shakespeare over here, let me just say that  All’s well that ends well. 

CBEC slams The Wire for ‘factually and legally incorrect’ news item

OpIndia Staff
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CBEC slams The Wire for ‘factually and legally incorrect’ news item

In the past few weeks, it has been thoroughly exposed how the left-leaning news and opinions website The Wire has become the hub of lies, half-truths and innuendos. We now may have one more to add to the list of “gaffes” by the leftist propaganda website.

The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), responsible for administering Indirect Taxes in India, operates under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. In a rebuttal published late night yesterday, the CBEC slammed The Wire for a “factually and legally incorrect” news item.

Yesterday, the website had published an article written by journalist Pranajoy Guha Thakurta, titled:

The report stated that, on August 21, 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) adjudicating authority, K.V.S. Singh, had dropped all proceedings against the Adani group. Further, the report by Thakurta further claimed that:

According to the Customs Act, the DRI has 90 days to file its appeal against the order of the adjudicating authority before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) in Mumbai. Till the morning of Monday, November 20, such an appeal had not been filed. The last date for filing the appeal is Tuesday, November 21.

Rebutting this, the CBEC took to Twitter to post a copy of the letter it had written to the Editor of TheWire.in, rebutting the claims made in the above article:

The rebuttal states that The Wire report has got it wrong on two counts:

a. The last date for filing the appeal is 14 December 2017

b. Contrary to the innuendos made in the piece, the Government is going to file an appeal against Adani, by the above date.

The CBEC also asks The Wire to publish the rebuttal as soon as possible, in order to prevent misinformation from being spread. But will The Wire oblige? At the time of publishing this article, they had not published the rebuttal.

Now China comes out to dismiss a Pakistani General’s allegation of RAW sabotaging the CPEC project

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Now China comes out to dismiss a Pakistani General’s allegation of RAW sabotaging the CPEC project

The Chinese government on Monday, rubbished the allegations of a Pakistani army General that, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the Intelligence agency of India is sabotaging the almost imperialistic China Pakistan Economic corridor (CPEC) project.

This dismissal by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang comes after a 14th November claim by Chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mehmood Hayat, wherein he alleged that India was stoking chaos and anarchy in the region.

As per the General, RAW at the cost of $500 million had established a special cell to sabotage the CPEC. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson though rebuffed such claims by stating that they had no such relevant reports.

Such an open contradiction by China which is dubbed as an all weather friend of Pakistan, is interesting to say the least considering other peculiar reports too are surfacing regarding Pak-China relations in the CPEC.

As per a Swarajya report, Pakistan has decided to cancel a US$14 billion infrastructure agreement with China, which would have been used to construct a dam in the Gilgit-Baltistan, under the CPEC framework.

The reason given by Pakistan for such a refusal is that Beijing imposed strict conditions for funding the project which were not doable and against Pakistan’s interests. A few of these conditions include having a Chinese company as the owner, operator and maintenance provider for the project.

It remains to be seen if further fault lines appear in between the two countries in the coming days.

Incidentally this isn’t the only time China has issued an India related clarification because of Pakistan. We had reported how Dunya News, a TV news channel of Pakistan had made a sensational claim which suggested that the Doklam standoff between India and China had blown up into a full-scale war, resulting in the deaths of 158 Indian soldiers.

India soon clarified that the report was utterly baseless, malicious and mischievous. Later Chinese newspapers like People’s Daily (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China) and Global Times, another state run media outlet too denounced the Pakistani media reports and termed them as ‘fake news’.

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