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Tipu Jayanthi celebrations show Indian secularism at its rotten worst

Abhishek Banerjee
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Tipu Jayanthi celebrations show Indian secularism at its rotten worst

Indian secularism is rotten to the core. We all knew that already. But in recent years, there has not existed a more perfect example of votebank politics than the Tipu Jayanthi celebrations in Karnataka.

First let us talk about the history of Tipu Sultan. He was an important ruler of Mysore region, one who allied with French colonists against British colonists. If that is an example of fighting for “freedom of India”, so be it.

Now that Tipu Sultan has become an issue in the politics of Karnataka, “eminent” historians have doubtless taken the side of the hand that has fed them generously for seventy years. There are some arguments that they have repeated over and over again and I wish to point them out.

First, they say that Tipu Sultan should be judged in the context of the times he lived in and not in the context of modern times. They say that like almost all rulers in the eighteenth century, he was an autocrat, hungry for power, hungry to expand his power and ruthless in crushing rebellions.

In itself, that’s not an unfair argument. However, this raises the question of why eminent historians and even more eminent journalists never play by the same rules when judging say Manu Smriti. Isn’t Manu Smriti a two thousand year old text, at the very least? How come no historian speaks out on the foolishness of Manu Smriti being burned on a daily basis by modern leftists to protest views that were written 2000 years ago?

Apart from demanding that Tipu Sultan be judged by the values of 18th century and Manu be judged by the standards of postmodern feminism, historians and journalists have recently made it their life’s mission to point out that while Tipu broke some temples, he also patronized others.

The point they try to make is that both of these actions were guided by Tipu’s single aim of consolidating his power, rather than considerations of Hindu vs Muslim.

Again, this argument would hold water only if those advancing it could give examples of Hindu rulers, the Marathas for example, destroying mosques in order to consolidate their power.

Kings worldwide have attacked places of other faiths in order to establish their power. But Maratha kings didn’t destroy mosques. Eminent liberals wanted Tipu Sultan to be judged by the morals of 18th century India and so I did just that.

So, liberals have one of two choices : either Tipu Sultan was a brutal bigot or Hindus of India stand out in world history in being more enlightened than their Muslim or Christian counterparts. Which one is it?

But then Tipu Jayanthi was never about Tipu Sultan at all. As I said before, Tipu Jayanthi celebrations reflect everything that is rotten about Indian secularism.

Did Muslims of Karnataka ask for Tipu Jayanthi celebrations? In fact, Islam is somewhat uncomfortable observing birthdays altogether. Few years ago, the Deoband issued a fatwa against celebrating even the birthday of Prophet Mohammad. The Saudis, who observe the most radical and conservative version of Sunni Islam, deliberately do not have a holiday on the Prophet’s birthday.

Muslims didn’t ask for this. There is one and exactly one entity that should get 100% of the blame for the current fracas over Tipu Jayanthi : the Congress Party.

This is why Tipu Jayanthi reflects Indian secularism at its rotten worst : the Congress Party of Smt. Sonia Gandhi pretends to “give” something of absolutely no value to Muslims, something the Muslims never asked for and likely never wanted. 

But by pretending to “give” something to Muslims, Congress Party created a wedge issue where absolutely nothing existed.

Now, everyone in Karnataka is being forced to take a side on an issue they never cared about.

This has been the core of Congress politics of the last sixty years. Dividing the country in every which way possible. In Gujarat 2017 it is the Patidar Patels. In Gujarat of 2012,  the Congress was stoking Leuva Patel “anger”. Earlier this year, the Congress and its fellow travelers were busy fanning Jat “anger”. This was a deviation from their previous plan of exploiting Brahmin “anger” against our Prime Minister, who is from an OBC community. And we all know who is behind Maratha “anger” in Maharashtra.

The Congress party’s newest initiative in dividing the people is to promise the Lingayats of Karnataka the status of a separate religion distinct from Hindus.

Rather than copy pasting the British policy of divide and rule, imagine how much good the Congress could have done for this nation had they cared about the people even once during their six decades of power.  Now that they are out of power, the Congress is committed to playing this card even more viciously. And they will keep playing it till they can ride their way back to the PM’s residence, no matter in how many pieces that leaves our country.

This is a good article, with some #CreditToRahulGandhi

OpIndia Staff
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This is a good article, with some #CreditToRahulGandhi

The GST council in its meeting on Friday slashed the rates on about 211 items which includes shifting 178 items from the 28% bracket to the 18% bracket.

While many consumer and business owners dependent on these goods breathed a sigh of relief, journalist Pallavi Ghosh who is known to be favourable to the Gandhi family came up with a pretty “interesting” tweet:


It was slightly amusing to note that the journalist decided to give credit to Rahul Gandhi out of the blue without taking advantage of the increased 280 character limit on twitter to explain as to how she reached this conclusion.

To any layman it seemed a little odd that Rahul Gandhi, and not the members of the GST council who actually reduced the rates, found a mention in her tweet.

Twitter users who were gearing up for a weekend, soon decided to have a bit of fun and started tweeting disjoint things or things unrelated to Rahul Gandhi under the #CreditToRahulGandhi hashtag, to sarcastically mirror Pallavi’s tweet:


Even though the GST tweet was possibly an innocuous attempt at sycophancy, far serious charges have been levelled against Pallavi Ghosh in the past.

We had reported how she had sent out a tweet alleging that a woman in Uttar Pradesh was gang raped for eating beef, without providing any additional information like the place of this incident. The UP police as a result of her tweet launched an investigation and later concluded that her tweet seemed fictional. She has till date not deleted that tweet.

Utterly prompt response to Amul’s Butterly request!

OpIndia Staff
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Utterly prompt response to Amul’s Butterly request!

The Modi government is known for its efficient use of Social Media not just during elections, but also to deliver governance. We regularly see how Ministers reach out to people through Social Media. From Sushma Swaraj to now, Piyush Goyal.

It was on 23rd October 2017, that Amul tweeted to the official handle of the Railways Ministry and said they were interested in using refrigerated parcel vans to transport Amul butter across India. Asking for advice on how to proceed.

We wonder if Amul expected such prompt action for a request made on Twitter. On that day itself, Ministry of Railways asked Amul to provide name and number of the person who should be contacted. On 24th October, the next day after Amul tweeted its query, Amul responded saying they had a good meeting with Sr. DOM and Sr. DCM of Ahmedabad.

As so many such meetings go, we thought it would be months before Amul would see some concrete action. To our surprise, today Amul tweeted that the first refrigerated van with 17MT Amul butter was being flagged off from Palanpur to Delhi and thanked Ministry of Railway for its prompt action.


Piyush Goyal, the current Railway Minister responded with a heartfelt “From Gujarat to Delhi, made and transported with love”.


We applaud Piyush Goyal for setting such high standards in prompt governance. Way to go Mr. Goyal!

Controversial AAP leader Somnath Bharti caught spreading lies about PM Modi and President Kovind

OpIndia Staff
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Controversial AAP leader Somnath Bharti caught spreading lies about PM Modi and President Kovind

Somnath Bharti, it may be argued is one of the more controversial leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Before entering politics, Somnath was reported to have indulged in unethical spamming on the internet. Has has also been accused of making racist remarks against African women and has been accused of physically and verbally abusing his wife.

In recent days his name has surfaced in a assault and molestation case which was filed by a women against three AAP leaders namely Somnath Bharti, Jarnail Singh and Amanatullah Khan.

Now it seems that Somnath Bharti has chosen Twitter as a platform to notch another controversy against his name.

At about 3:37 AM IST, Somnath Bharti sent out a tweet where he expressed shock about protocol not being followed when it comes to the President of India Ramnath Kovind and criticised PM Modi for his behaviour:


In this video of a marriage ceremony, PM Modi is seen standing closest to the groom while a person who Bharti claims to be the President is standing beside him. Here Modi is later seen getting all the attention and the man who Bharti calls, President Kovind, is sidelined on the stage while getting sparse attention from the organisers.

This was used by Bharti to allege lack of protocol on part of PM Modi that he usurped the stage from the President.

This tweet of Bharti was also used as an opportunity by AAP leader Ashutosh to launch an attack:

But almost predictably, Bharti was completely wrong in this case as the person who he called as the President of India is actually Banwarilal Purohit, the Governor of Tamil Nadu.

This lie was also recently repeated by Human Rights activists Shabnam Hashmi who later deleted her tweet after people exposed the lie:

Screenshot Via @iAnkurSingh

Incidentally this isn’t the only time Twitter has landed Somnath Bharti into trouble. We had reported how Bharti had once sent out a tweet praising PM Modi and soon deleted it. He, in his defence claimed that his account was hacked.

GST on restaurants cut from 18% to 5%, but your bill may not reduce by 13%

OpIndia Staff
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GST on restaurants cut from 18% to 5%, but your bill may not reduce by 13%

In a major announcement, following the GST Council Meeting at Guwahati, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that a decision was made to tax food at all stand-alone restaurants, AC and non-AC, at a uniform rate of 5%. This was a departure from the existing rates of 12% and 18%.

This apparent reduction in rates brought cheer to many on social media:


But will eating out really be cheaper by 13%? Lay people will not understand this, but the reduced rate of 5% comes with a rider. The press release stated the terms:

All stand-alone restaurants irrespective of air conditioned or otherwise, will attract 5% without ITC. Food parcels (or takeaways) will also attract 5% GST without ITC.

The words “without ITC” are key. ITC refers to Input Tax Credit. ITC basically is GST paid on purchase made. In the case of a restaurant, the GST which is charged on the rent it is paying, or on the groceries it is buying, is called ITC. This GST paid while purchasing items, can be utilized while making payment of GST which a restaurant collects from its customers.

To take a very simple example: Let us assume that the monthly expenses of a restaurant are Rs 250000, on which, the restaurant is charged Rs 34150 GST by various suppliers. Thus the total purchase cost is Rs 284150. But, this Rs 34150 can be used as “ITC”. When the restaurant sells food, for egs for Rs 400000, it charges GST of 18% on the same, i.e. Rs 72000. This Rs 72000 which has been collected from customers, needs to be paid to the Government. At this point, a restaurant can utilise the ITC of Rs 34150, and instead of paying Rs 72000, can pay only Rs 37850. This can be explained with the following table:

In the sample data above, raw materials are assumed to be taxed at various GST rates such as 0,5,12 and 18% since food items are scattered all over the rates spectrum. Based on the above, if a restaurant can avail ITC, and if it charges 18% GST on sales, the end price to the consumer would be Rs 472000.

In the proposed amendment making the rate of GST as 5%, the benefit of ITC has been withdrawn. Thus, all the GST which was earlier sitting separately and was being adjusted against GST collected on sales, suddenly becomes useless. The restaurant has to now straightaway charge 5% on sales and pay that 5%, without any adjustment. So Does that mean the GST on sales would be 5% of Rs 400000 and end price to consumer would be just Rs 420000? No.

Since the GST on purchases (ITC) is now useless, it becomes part of the cost of the restaurant. As costs go up, and profit remains constant, the selling price also goes up. But this increase will be partly absorbed by reduction in the GST rate from 18% to 5%. Thus, holding all the data as above constant, and only changing the 2 conditions of ITC and 5% GST, we get this data:

Thus, although GST rate was reduced by 13%, other things being constant, the price to the end consumer reduced only by around 3.42%. This percentage can vary depending on the actual data of each specific case and the product mix, but in almost no situation will the reduction be near 13%.

At this point, it is important to understand why this change of reducing the rate from 18% to 5% was brought in. In the pre-GST era, ITC was restricted to very few items. All VAT or Service Tax paid or purchases was not freely available as ITC, and hence, lot of such tax component resided in the cost of products. As GST came in, the ITC rules were largely liberalised. Virtually any GST paid for business was allowed as ITC, thus reducing effective costs. Further, the excise embedded in goods was not available as ITC to specific industries like traders, restaurants etc, but under GST, the entire tax was available as ITC.

The Government expected that business would pass on these reduced costs to consumers by reducing selling prices. In certain well regulated sectors, and in companies run by big corporates, this price reduction was evident. Within days of GST being launched, FMCG companies either slashed the prices of goods or increased the grammage of the products. Auto companies too passed on the benefits by reducing prices.

Similarly, it was expected that restaurants and eateries would also slash prices. But do you remember eating out becoming visibly cheaper? Did the restaurants in your neighborhood reduce their prices? There may be a few, but most restaurants did not fall in line. The GST Council was also of the same view that most restaurants did not pass on the benefits of input tax credit to customers by reducing prices after GST was implemented from July 1.

Hence, since the restaurant industry was not playing fair, the Government went ahead and removed their eligibility to claim ITC, and also slashed the rate of GST to a flat 5%.

Thus, a visible fall in GST of 13% may not result in food at restaurants becoming cheaper by 13%. Worse, if restaurants continue the trend of playing hanky panky and decide to pocket the 3-5% odd benefits as shown above, then your restaurant bill may remain the same. The tax component may shrink but the overall cost may remain the same.

Media spreads lies about ‘only vegetarians being eligible for gold medal’ in Pune University

OpIndia Staff
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Media spreads lies about ‘only vegetarians being eligible for gold medal’ in Pune University

It was reported today by ABP Majha that Pune University has come up with a circular that says only vegetarians and non alcoholics would be eligible for the Gold Medal.


The order embedded in their article also said that the eligibility criteria include students having participated in blood donation, shramdaan meaning labor donation, environment protection, pollution control work, literacy, cleanliness drive, and aids awareness drive etc apart from being vegetarian and non addicts.

Soon, this news was picked up by other National news outlets without verifying the facts mentioned.


The same lie was repeated by ‘India Today’,  which had curated the ‘TheQuint’ report. Many other national media outlets also picked up this lie and ran with it without verifying facts.

Even Supriya Sule who is an MP from NCP, reacted to this false news and expressed her surprise

The lie took an ideological turn with the statements of Santosh Shinde, Pune district president of Sambhaji brigade who said, “We are condemning the circular issued by the university. In many government hostels, students are given non-veg food and even in midday meal, students get eggs to eat. While the education department is providing non-veg to students, the SPPU management is forcing students to go for veg. I feel the university management is following certain ideology.”

The truth, as reported by DNA is that this circular is a 10 year old circular and the conditions of eligibility are not decided by Pune University but the trust that sponsors the Yog Maharshi Shelarmama gold medal award.

Arvind Shaligram, registrar of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) said, “The circular was first issued in 2006 and since then every year, university is issuing the circular with the same content. The university has not given these conditions. All the conditions mentioned in the circular have been decided by the trust of Yog Maharshi Shelarmama who gives the gold medal award. These conditions were set ten years back only and every year, the university is only issuing the circular with the same content.”

Infact, if the Media houses truly wanted to verify facts, they could have simply searched circulars uploaded on the Pune University official website. We found the circulars (1) (2) from 2012. A circular from 2008 also says the same.

A 10 year old circular catching the media spotlight now, in 2017, certainly raises many suspicions. One wonders if these inconsequential details are being spun into lies simply to divide the nation and create fault lines. The fact that media houses can’t run basic check on fact is a scathing indictment of the falling standards of our National Media. A similar ploy was earlier run by sections of the media when past circulars were hyped up to create outrage.

The ‘bone’ of contention behind the ‘Fine for Biryani at JNU’ story

OpIndia Staff
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The ‘bone’ of contention behind the ‘Fine for Biryani at JNU’ story

Something is always cooking in JNU. Today, news broke that a JNU student had been fined for cooking Biryani. Business Standard used this headline:

A journalist further claimed that the student was fined for eating Biryani:


Just recently the JNU VC was subjected to a farcical kangaroo court by left leaning faculty. Today too, people did not lose the chance to attack the JNU VC. Reactions on social media too showed their outrage over this seemingly “sanskari” fine:


Congress leader Shehzad Poonawalla, who is not related to the other famous and respectful Poonawallas, and who is in a constant fight to set newer lows in political discourse, also chose to attack the BJP Government at the centre:


So was a JNU student victimized for merely cooking or eating Biryani as some have claimed? Not quite. The complete picture was revealed with a copy of the order which levied the fine:


The student was in fact fined for cooking food near the stairs of the Administrative Building. Subsequently, he along with other students ate the item there as well. The order makes clear, the problem was the fact that food was being cooked near the stairs of the Administrative Building, and not the Biryani.

Thankfully, most other media houses had at least reported the full facts in the headline, unlike the Business Standard which carried a click-bait, truncated headline, while mentioning the core issue in the article:

Even so, a Rs 6000 fine for some innocent students cooking Biryani could be a bit steep. But was this an innocuous act of cooking food or Biryani at a random place? Probably not.

The incident has got more to do with the hatred the JNU VC has been facing in recent times. A report claims that the JNUSU president Mohit Pandey and Satarupa  Chakraborty had gone to the V-C office to raise students’ issues. However, after the V-C allegedly did not meet them, they camped outside the Administrative Block overnight and made biryani. This was a form of protest, because prior to this, the JNU administration as well as the Delhi High Court had banned protests within 100 metres of the Administrative Block.

The report further claims that for the above, Chepal Sherpa, Amir Malik and Manish Kumar — were fined Rs 6,000 each, and former JNU Students’ Union general secretary Satarupa Chakraborty was been fined Rs 10,000. She was also punished under another clause for “leading the protest demonstration along with slogan shouting against Vice-Chancellor, administration and Professor Atul Johri, and sitting inside the V-C’s office… even after repeated requests from CSO (Chief Security Officer) and security personnel”.

Not an incident of merely cooking or eating Biryani then? Also the question arises, Why did the students choose only Biryani? It certainly isn’t the easiest to cook. Or was it because they wanted it to be Biryani so that the usual suspects could make it a BJP vs Biryani, or better yet, BJP vs Beef issue? Cooking Khichdi in protest doesn’t have the same ring now does it?

Supreme Court refuses to entertain petition which sought a minority status for Hindus in 8 states

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court refuses to entertain petition which sought a minority status for Hindus in 8 states

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition which sought a minority status for Hindus in 8 states of the country.

This petition was recently filed in the apex court by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay whose PIL sought that Hindus be given a minority status in, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.

As per Upadhyay who is also a Delhi BJP leader, the Hindus were being treated as a majority in those states, despite being in the minority and as a result were being deprived of the resulting facilities.

A check of the demographics as per the 2011 census reveals that, there are a total of, 2.77% Hindus in Lakshadweep, 2.75% Hindus in Mizoram, 8.75% Hindus in Nagaland, 11.53% Hindus in Meghalaya, 28.44% Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, 29.04% Hindus in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% Hindus in Punjab and 41.39% Hindus in Manipur.

Out of these 8 states, 4 states have a Christian majority, two have a Muslim majority, one has a Sikh majority. Manipur has a threadbare Hindu majority by only 0.10% since the Hindu population is 41.39% and the Christian population is 41.29%.

Advocate Upadhyay also stated that the Central government offered 20,000 scholarships to minority students, in the field of technical education. In Jammu & Kashmir even though there are 68.30% Muslims, 717 out of 753 scholarships still went to Muslims and none went to a Hindu as a 1993 notification declares Muslims as a minority and not Hindus.

The petition also alleged that the minority rights of Hindus in those 8 states are being siphoned off as neither the Centre or State governments have notified Hindus as minorities under Section 2(c) of National Commission for Minority Act. Which as per the petition deprived Hindus of their basic rights which are guaranteed under article 25 to 30.

Till date, 6 communities namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains are notified as minority communities.

The Supreme Court though didn’t entertain Upadhyay’s plea and in-turn asked him to approach the National Minorities Commission. As per the bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, they cannot issue such orders and the minority commission is the most competent body.

The appearing advocate though had argued that the Minority Commission only dealt with national level decisions and did not look into state level demands, hence the Supreme Court could decide. This, unfortunately, failed to cut ice with the court.

ShivpratapDin: Remembering first significant military victory against Adilshahi forces

Nirwa Mehta
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ShivpratapDin: Remembering first significant military victory against Adilshahi forces

On this day, back in 1659, Battle of Pratapgad was fought between the forces of the Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Adilshahi general Afzal Khan, near the town of Satara, Maharashtra, where the Marathas emerged victorious despite the numbers not being in their favour. It led to the eventual establishment the glorious Maratha empire. In 1657, Aurangzeb, the Mughal leader with a heart of gold as described by so called liberals, decided to leave the Deccan and march northward. Shivaji, in his bid to expand his Maratha empire started winning over Konkan and other Adilshahi kingdoms.

Afzal Khan, the commander of the Adilshahi dynasty in Bijapur Sultanate, presently in Karnataka, took upon himself to stop the forces of Shivaji. He had earlier killed Shivaji’s brother, Sambhaji Shahaji Bhosale, through treachery when he was just 33. Khan started destroying temples (not surprising). Khan’s strategy was to bring Shivaji in open in the Deccan plains as against the rocky plateau where Shivaji had an advantage, and overpower him since they outnumbered the Marathas. Armed with over 20,000 Adilshahi cavalry and 15,000 infantry over 6,000 light cavalry and 3,000 light infantry of Marathas, Khan and Shivaji met on the foothills of Pratapgad. Shivaji sent out an emissary to Khan that he did not want to fight and wanted peace.

They had decided to meet unarmed with just 10 bodyguards each, who would stay within an arrow’s distance from the two men. A towering figure, Khan hugged Shivaji, but in a treacherous move, tried to kill him with a sword. However, Shivaji had come armed as well and the force was repelled by Shivaji’s armour which was underneath his clothes. Shivaji, who had concealed a bagh nakh (curved blades fixed to a crossbar) and disemboweled Khan when they embraced in the tent.

Bagh Nakh

A hand to hand combat ensued where the Marathas, though having been outnumbered by Adilshahi forces, emerged victorious. Shivaji was attacked by Sayyed Banda, Afzal’s body guard, but his trusted bodyguard Jiva Mahala came to the rescue, cutting him down, saving Shivaji’s life.

Such is the story of valour and courage of Shivaji that he is respected across India. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah even said that Shivaji belonged to Karnataka since his ancestors were from Vijaypura in Karnataka and his father died in Davangere, again in Karnataka.

However, when it comes to honouring a great warrior like Shivaji, same Siddaramaiah shies away and chooses to glorify a bigoted ruler who plundered Hindu temples.


Not just that, a full page ad was published in papers by Karnataka Government led by Siddaramaiah to celebrate “Hazarath Tippu Sultan Jayanthi”


He is the same Tipu Sultan who hanged women and children.


He even indulged in forced religious conversion by forcing Hindus to eat beef.


He has left behind a legacy of destroyed temples in Kerala.


Despite the atrocities, Siddaramaiah government decides to celebrate Tipu Sultan, who looted and plundered instead of Shivaji Maharaj, whom he once hailed as son of his own soil.

Perhaps the demands of ‘secularism’ trump honouring men who fought for our right to breathe and live by defeating the forces of tyranny and oppression.

Twitter users start their own version of ‘KnowYourLegacy’ and it’s hilarious

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter users start their own version of ‘KnowYourLegacy’ and it’s hilarious

The official Congress Twitter ID has been posting various polls under the “KnowYourLegacy” hashtag in a bid to get people talking again about the grand old party. While this idea itself has been plagiarised from BJP’s ‘KnowYourGovt’ polls, the gaffes Congress seems to make, are completely novel.

Earlier today the Congress IT Cell made a hilarious gaffe when they put up a poll asking “Named in the honour of Indira Gandhi, what is the northern most point of India called?” The northern most point of India is called “Indira Col”, named in 1912, 5 years before Indira Gandhi was even born.

Twitterverse wasted no time in coming up with their own hilarious version of “KnowYourLegacy”, mocking the Congress Party’s need to attribute everything, sometimes unrelated, to the Dynasty.

Here are some of the tweets that cracked us up


While this twitter user used a movie title to mock the ‘Indira Col’ gaffe


This Twitter user responded by saying that Lord Indira was perhaps named after Indira Gandhi


We certainly hope Congress doesn’t end up taking these twitter users seriously, considering they proudly assert “India is Indira, Indira is India”


While Congress party’s endless bloopers are a constant source of entertainment, Twitter’s creativity always leaves us laughing.

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