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PTI has misquote the CBEC chief on GST collection targets?

OpIndia Staff
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PTI has misquote the CBEC chief on GST collection targets?

Just a week ago, PTI had reported that Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had acknowledged that a “complete overhauling” of GST was required. This news was met with criticism on social media, as political potshots ensued. Later, Adhia claimed that PTI had misquoted him. He said that he had said only GST rate structure needed some rejig. Soon, PTI changed all their reports and updated the same.

Now PTI is in the cross-hairs of GST authorities again! This time, PTI carried a report quoting the CBEC chairperson Vanaja Sarna saying that GST may hamper centre’s FY18 revenue collection target:

This news was covered by various media houses:

This statement was a departure from recent remarks made by persons in the Government and other information in public domain. GST collections had a very good start  in July. Finance Minister Jaitley had said just a month ago that GST collections were set to surge in the coming months. A report by Swiss brokerage UBS Securities too had said that GST collection worries misplaced.

Now, Central Board of Excise & Customs, the body responsiblefor administering Indirect Taxes in India, has said that its Chief was misquoted by PTI. In a a letter to the Editor in Chief of PTI, CBEC has stated that its chairperson had said that “it was way too early to comment about the GST revenues right now”:

It remains to be seen whether PTI will once again update their report and accept their folly. In the recent past, PTI has regularly been caught on the wrong foot. In July, PTI spread fake news about the UP education budget. Later, PTI was caught passing off old pictures as pictures of Ahmedabad airport being flooded. In August, PTI was found using a ‘derogatory’ image in one of its reports. For the last two incidents, I & B Minister Smriti Irani had rebuked PTI on social media.

Love Jihad: Now a Kerala mother moves SC for a NIA probe into daughter’s conversion to Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Love Jihad: Now a Kerala mother moves SC for a NIA probe into daughter’s conversion to Islam

In recent days, alleged instances of “Love Jihad” taking place in the state of Kerala have managed to grab national attention. “Love Jihad” is an umbrella term which is used to describe a Hindu girl getting lured to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim boy.

We had recently reported how the Supreme Court had ordered the National Investigative Agency (NIA) to probe a case where a girl was allegedly forced to convert after being abducted and wrongly confined at an illegal Islamic conversion. Later it was reported that another such girl was also lured by a common mentor named Sainaba who was allegedly associated with the radical group Popular Front of India (PFI).

After the Supreme Court had ordered the NIA probe, the agency had acted swiftly by starting to scrutinise 32 such love jihad cases from Kerala. The total number of such cases have been pegged at 92.

Oddly, about 8-9 days after this NIA headway was reported, the Left Front government of Kerala told the Supreme Court that there was no need for an NIA probe and that the state police was effectively investigating the case. 

Now another episode seems to have started in this whole Love Jihad saga, after it has been reported that a Kerala mother has moved the Supreme Court, to seek a NIA probe into her daughter’s conversion to Islam via love jihad. She has also alleged that her daughter was also lured into waging jihad for the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

The mother in question named Bindu Sampath has in her petition described Love Jihad as a pernicious phenomenon which has wreaked havoc in the lives of many young hapless girls and their families. 

The daughter was reportedly studying in a dental college when she became a victim of sinister radical Islamic designs. As per the petition, while in college, the daughter was lured into an abusive relationship with a certain Sajjad Rehman, where she was also forced to undergo an abortion.

The petition then shockingly claims that the girl was then coerced to leave the country and join jihad. She was believed to be in an IS camp in Afghanistan’s Khorasan province.

The petition as a result sought a thorough NIA probe into the whole matter and it remains to be seen what decision the Supreme Court takes in this matter.

SC slams Mamata Banerjee for not respecting the federal structure of India

OpIndia Staff
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SC slams Mamata Banerjee for not respecting the federal structure of India

On 25th October, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, had made a big hue and cry about linking her telephone number to Aadhaar as mandated by the Central Government.

Banerjee had said, “Under no circumstances will I link my Aadhaar with my telephone number. If the authorities disconnect my phone, let them do it. It will actually save me a lot of trouble as I won’t have to go through a number of text messages, I would urge you to protest in a similar manner. How many telephone connections will they disconnect?”

Meanwhile, the Bengal Government’s plea against making Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes was taken up by the Supreme Court today, in which, the Bengal Government, and Mamata Banerjee in particular, were taken to task by the bench comprising of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan.

Kapil Sibal of the Congress party was representing the Mamata Banerjee led state government in its plea. Sibal informed the court that this plea was filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under this scheme were to be given by them. The Supreme Court took a stern view that in a federal structure, state governments cant file pleas challenging the Parliament’s mandate and that Mamata Banerjee should file a petition as an individual.

Kapil Sibal then said that the state could file a plea and that they would amend the prayer in the plea.

The apex court was hearing two petitions today – one by the West Bengal government challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar to various schemes and another challenging its mandatory linking with mobile numbers.

In the second matter challenging linking of Aadhaar to mobile phones, the Apex court has issued a notice to the Centre and asked for a response within 4 weeks.

The Central Government told the Supreme Court earlier this week that it would extend the deadline to link Aadhaar with government welfare schemes to March 2018.

Hijack scare: Jet Airways diverts Mum-Del flight to A’bad, finally leaves for Delhi at 11 am

OpIndia Staff
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Hijack scare: Jet Airways diverts Mum-Del flight to A’bad, finally leaves for Delhi at 11 am

Close on heels of nabbing two alleged ISIS operatives from poll bound Gujarat, a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad after an alleged hijack and bomb threat was found in the toilet of the Delhi bound flight.


The Boeing 737-900 flight 9W339, which took off from Mumbai at 2.55 am, landed at Ahmedabad airport at around 3.45 am.


Jet Airways, in its official statement said they are extending cooperation to security agencies investigating the matter.


Last week, Gujarat ATS had arrested two suspected ISIS operatives from Gujarat who were allegedly on plotting an attack on a Jewish synagogue in Ahmedabad. A day later, in a press conference, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had alleged that the two men were employed in the hospital where Congress leader Ahmed Patel was a patron of the hospital. However, Ahmed Patel has dismissed the allegations and slammed the BJP for “playing politics” over issues of national interest. Interestingly, an air hostess has also come under scanner for alleged links with the two youths nabbed by the ATS.

Yesterday, D-Mart in Ahmedabad had downed its shutters for two hours after a bomb hoax. It turned out that son of Ashok Jadeja, who had swindled people of crores of rupees in 2009 as self styled godman ‘Sikotar Mata’, had told the cashier that a bomb will go off at 4 pm, causing wide spread panic. However, no bomb was found and Jadeja’s son Chirag has been picked up for questioning.

Jet Airways flight, too, has finally taken off for Delhi at around 11 am from Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, the person who had put up the threatening letter has been identified as Salla Birju.


He has confessed to have kept the note to destabilise operations.

Home ministry grants long term visas to 431 Pakistani Hindus

OpIndia Staff
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Home ministry grants long term visas to 431 Pakistani Hindus

The Ministry of Home Affairs in recent days has granted long term visas to about 431 Pakistani Hindus, which makes them eligible to buy properties and avail identification papers like PAN and Aadhaar cards.

These 431 individuals can now also open bank accounts without requiring the prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India. They would also be allowed to get driving licenses, can start a business and are allowed free movement within the state they are currently residing in. They are also allowed to transfer their visa papers from one state to another.

These long term visa holders belonging to minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh which include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians are allowed to buy a small house which is sufficient for their use and can also buy an accommodation to set up a business.

This whole exercise can be dated back to the Modi government’s policy to help minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who decide to seek refuge in India after facing persecution in their home countries.

As per a 2015 press release from the Home Ministry, the central government on humanitarian grounds had decided to exempt minority communities from Bangladeshi and Pakistani, who entered India before 31st December, 2014, from having to follow the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946.

This included the minorities who had entered the country without valid documents like a passport or their travel documents had expired while staying in the country. Thus the Central government was considering regularising their entry and stay.

Apart from providing long term visas, citizenship is also being provided to Pakistani Hindus.

We had recently reported how the Raman Singh led Chhattisgarh government had helped provide citizenship to 60-70 Pakistani Hindus and the number might soon increase to 600-700. This was possible as a result of the Central government giving authority to the state government for taking such actions.

Were the Punjab drug problem figures misleadingly ‘high’?

Nirwa Mehta
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Were the Punjab drug problem figures misleadingly ‘high’?

During the run up to the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections held earlier this year, the political parties and politicians had talked at length about the ‘drug problem’ in Punjab, blaming the then existing government led by Shiromani Akali Dal, of being hand in glove with the menace. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal had also suggested that in November 2016, 40 lakh youth in Punjab was addicted to drugs and that AAP will end the drug menace within one month of coming to power. He had accused Bikramjit Majithia, the then Revenue Minister of Punjab, of patronizing multi-million rupee drug racket in the state. Kejriwal had also accused Captain Amarinder, now Chief Minister of Punjab, of taking ‘drug money’ from Majithia for his campaign.


In a twist of events, no evidence of Bikram Majithia’s involvement in drug racket has been found and ones who had campaigned about Akalis’ involvement in drug racket are eating their own words.


And along with this, the drug problem of Punjab seems to have miraculously vanished.


Interestingly, as per study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, the estimated numbers of opioid addicts from two separate surveys, which varied greatly — but which were both minuscule compared with the staggering number that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had claimed five years ago. As per one study conducted by Epidemiology of Substance Use and Dependence in the State of Punjab, the estimate of drug addicts was 1.7 lakh, about 0.89% of Punjab’s adult population, while other estimated it at 2.7 lakh addicts, about 1.41% of Punjab’s adult population. In 2012, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that about 70% youth in Punjab is addicted to drugs.

As per this report in Indian Express, the magical figure of 70% youth in Punjab being drug addict seems to be misquoted. The 2012 speech of Rahul Gandhi is said to be based on a study conducted as many as six years back by Prof Sandhu of the Department of Sociology of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, on a direction from the then Governor of Punjab, Gen (retd) S F Rodrigues. Rahul had based his statement from an affidavit filed in Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2009 which cited GNDU study by Prof Sandhu. Prof Sandhu, however, says that his research was misquoted. He says he had interviewed about 600 drug addicts, of which about 73.5% were in the age gap of 16-35 years, which could be categorised into ‘youth’. The figure stuck and made the foundation of political campaigning.

Now with the elections in Punjab over, all news portals which were crying themselves hoarse over Punjab’s drug addiction problem are silent as if the menace has been cleared overnight.

The Wire or The Liar? Old habits die hard

Dr. Bharat K
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The Wire or The Liar? Old habits die hard

Habits indeed are tough to change, and if the habit is that of lying, lying by none other than journalists of The Wire, we know they will stay! The Wire and its constituents will go to any extent to prove they are speaking the truth. But a lie does not become a truth merely because a journalist speaks it. Among the many lies spoken by Siddharth Varadarajan and Venu, a few of them are such which deeply hurt my nationalistic sentiments and I want answers from him. He, Sidharth Bhatia & MK Venu has put to tatters – my nation’s trust in fair journalism.

It is not an exaggeration when twitterati calls The Wire as liar. We know what the not-so-honourable men (‘The Wire’) have done. I have taken the time to do my research when I write this, unlike them. It is funny how The Liar..err..The Wire has spun one lie after other. As rightly said, when the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered. Famous journalist Shalini Singh, while she was with ‘The Hindu’ under the ‘not so able’ leadership of Mr. Varadarajan, broke the news of Vadra Scam in 2012, building on the evidence provided by Rohini Singh, a colleague of Siddharth Varadarajan. But the then editor of ‘The Hindu’ took 7 long months to carry out the story. Why?

While he was conveniently sitting on the story, Ms. Shalini Singh sought permission to give the story along with the documents to Mr. Prashant Bhushan who was at that time involved with “India Against Corruption”. None of the several opportunities available with ‘The Hindu’ under the ‘(not so) able leadership’ of Siddharth Varadarajan were taken until Mr. Prashant Bhushan’s press conference happened!

The ouster of Varadarajan from the editorial board of the Hindu does not seem to have taught him a thing or two about integrity. I call it ouster because there are news to prove this. Siddharth Varadarajan and CEO Arun Anant were accused of diverging from the “core values” of the Hindu. There was recurrent violations and defiance of the code of editorial values of The Hindu under Varadarajan’s leadership.  N. Ram, chairman of Kasturi & Sons and Ravi’s (the current editor-in-chief) brother said “There was editorialisation in the guise of news and manipulation of news coverage”. Varadarajan’s tenure also saw “loaded items on politicians” and “pieces that should have appeared in the edit pages and not as news stories”. After a stormy board meeting of The Hindu, Varadarajan was re-designated as the contributing editor and senior columnist at the daily while Anant was removed from his post as the chief executive officer of KSL. All directors of the board admitted to “problems” under the leadership of Varadarajan and Anant.

Significantly, his appointment was challenged by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who filed a petition in the Delhi High Court contending Varadarajan’s ineligibility for the job as he is US citizen. He is an American citizen and has been living and working in India for the past 17 years through a Residential permit and PIO Card. In his petition, Swamy argued that the editor of a newspaper must be an Indian citizen because the Supreme Court has said that news items published in a newspaper “cause far-reaching consequences in an individual and country’s life.”

The Wire under their leadership continues to write poorly researched articles and backing it not with facts and data but rhetoric and conjectures. We know how they targeted Arnab Goswami (we all know who he is) and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament. Reason? Because Arnab exposed too many of his friends in the left. I was scrolling on twitter when I came across a tweet where a gentleman echoed my thoughts.


So the repeat was with ‘The Wire’ writing an un-researched article on Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah. It was indeed low on facts and high on innuendo. They even gave a spin to RSS leader Dattatreya’s statement on Jay Shah’s allegations. In a particular video on self proclaimed media watchdog Newslaundry, while Siddharth Varadarajan was the Editor of The Hindu, he said – “reporting of corporate affairs was our weakness” on being asked as to why they didn’t report the 2G scam as the other media houses were doing. What he meant was it was his leadership under which the team somehow did not understand corporate affairs. The legacy indeed continues at ‘The Wire’ where they did a poor reporting of the corporate matters on Jay Shah case and had to reap the consequences of what they sowed – a defamation claim of a whooping INR 100 Crores. Citing prima facie case, the court has now summoned the reporters, editors. Varadarajan had himself said “conducting due diligence on any material you get is what responsible editors do”, but ‘The Wire’, to popularise themselves, do what they love to do – Repeat – publish fake news – retract fake news and claim ‘brave journos under threat’….We get what you’re trying to do, Wire! Arnab, please note!

Ha-Laal Salaam – Amendment to the communist constitution

mirchagalib
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Ha-Laal Salaam – Amendment to the communist constitution

Yesterday, some high profile communists woke up in the morning and proceeded to solve the issue of declining numbers of gullible cadres. It was noticed since long that every time communist leaders gave a public speech, only cattle appeared as audience and even they did not show the courtesy to stay till the end and ran away after chewing all the revolutionary pamphlets.

This prompted all the comrades, draped in different hues of Red, join hands to meet in Venezuela. The location was strategic. It was carefully chosen after taken into consideration the declining economy of the country under a fascist capitalist. They chose Venezuela so all the Indian comrades could learn how to apply Venezuelan economic policies in India.

They passed several amendments to the communist constitution to ensure they could lure the youth of India and convert them into fellow comrades.

The amendments are as follows:

  1. Comrades will use ‘Ha-Laal salaam’ instead of ‘Laal Salaam’ to make themselves popular among true proletariat people – the Muslims.
  2. Beef will be made free for all to take revenge against the cows that keep chewing the revolutionary pamphlets.
  3. Communism will be called as Candy Crushism to make it popular among the masses.
  4. Communist leaders will open baby day care centres so that babies can brainwashed. Comrades have to be converted young. This decision was taken after the realisation that it is too late to brainwash these youngsters once they get an education.
  5. Baby cadres will be recruited after they are able to babble ‘Ha-Laal Salaam’.
  6. Atleast 1,000 communist JNU scholars will be employed to find the real caste certificate of Narendra Modi so that his Brahmin origins are substantiated. They will be remunerated for their work in kind with alcohol and beef.
  7. Communist leaders will try to hire Dhinchak Pooja to sing communist songs to increase popularity.
  8. Bullet train was comdemned for its high speed and it was decided that every indian will be convinced to use donkey carts as alternative mode of transport.
  9. Final decision was to change the caterer for poverty oriented seminars so that red carrot halwa is added in the lunch menu.

Ha-laal Salaam.

Go home people! Himanta Biswa Sarma wins Twitter for today

OpIndia Staff
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Go home people! Himanta Biswa Sarma wins Twitter for today

Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi, has been on a social media makeover spree, which has been fuelled by bots and targeted mainstream media placements suggesting Gandhi is the coolest new leader on the block. Today, in an attempt to come across as the Indian version of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is favourite amongst the Indian liberals, not for his policies, but his quirkiness, Gandhi posted a video of his pet dog playing.


Soon, The Family loyalists immediately came to rescue and praised the Scion for his irrefutable sense of humour and wit.


But the one which won the Internet for today was BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, former Congress leader who is considered the architect of BJP’s win in Assam.


Turns out, that when Assam Congress was going through infightings and other internal issues, Rahul Gandhi was busy being casual about it, especially since he kept going to the gym and playing with his dog whenever anyone reached out to him. Sarma had told a TV channel that when a fight broke out in a meeting of Assam Congress leaders that he had called, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi seemed oblivious and more interested in his dog.

This tweet of Rahul Gandhi provided some entertainment on an otherwise sleepy Sunday since many Twitter users decided to show their creativity on this.


Pretty soon, a parody Twitter account by the name of Pidi Gandhi came up to take on the other ‘loyalists’.


We thank Pidi for keeping us entertained this Sunday. Woof!

Chidambaram demands autonomy for Kashmir, again, slammed by BJP

OpIndia Staff
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Chidambaram demands autonomy for Kashmir, again, slammed by BJP

Mr. P. Chidambaram, India’s former Home Minister courted controversy yesterday, yet again, by making a misplaced statement with regards to Kashmir. He said : “My interactions in J&K led me to the conclusion that when they asked for ‘azadi’, most people want autonomy”.


This is not the fist time Mr. Chidambaram has made such statements that might hamper national security. On 21st July 2016, Mr. Chidambaram had advocated restoring the “grand bargain” under which Kashmir had acceded to India by granting a ‘large degree of autonomy”.

More recently. Mr. Chidambaram had also stated that “India is losing Kashmir”. This statement was picked up by Pakistan and it’s media and was used as a stick to beat India with. Atleast they tried :

His statement yesterday was slammed by BJP and its top brass ministers including Mr. Arun Jaitley and Ms. Smriti Irani.


While Mr. Arun Jaitley asked Congress to desist from encouraging separatism in Jammu and Kashmir, Smriti Irani took a more aggressive stand and said it was no surprise that Mr. Chidambaram was making such “shocking and disgusting” statements speaking about breaking the Union of India and encouraging the very people that murdered our Security Forces, considering even Rahul Gandhi is known to have supported people who raised “Bharat tere tukde honge” slogans. She asserted that Chidambaram reflects the Congress mentality.


While BJP is attacking Congress with guns blazing against their Anti National statements, Congress sought to distance itself from Mr. P Chidambaram’s statements saying it was his ‘personal opinion’.

It would seem like Congress is trying to play the classic good cop, bad cop with it’s ministers and functionaries making anti national statements while the party itself distances itself from such controversies. While Mr. Rahul Gandhi himself indulged people sloganeering “Bharat tere tukde honge”, it was reported that Mr. Scindia had once said there should be a plebiscite in Kashmir.

While the party distances itself from such statements, and functionaries scramble to clarify, it would seem like Congress has developed quite the ‘foot in the mouth’ syndrome. However, this syndrome can cost dearly when it comes to national security.

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