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Sant Gopal Das: fighting for cow rights by bringing dead bull at political rally

Nirwa Mehta
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Sant Gopal Das: fighting for cow rights by bringing dead bull at political rally

India is a democracy. Protests by dissenting voices keep the democracy thriving. Except, India is now turning into a land of unique protests. After the bizarre protest by Congress (State Bank of Tamatar) which appeared to be more like a scam in itself than a protest, another one took place at the BJP President Amit Shah’s rally in Haryana.

One ‘cow rights activist’ and self styled ‘sant’, Gopal Das has taken upon himself to ensure that the government delivers its cow protection promises. Despite heavy security, Sant Gopal Das and few of his followers stormed Tilyar Tourist Complex where Shah was addressing a rally, carrying a dead bull in a JCB.

Clearly miffed at the government, Gopal Das thought nothing like throwing a bull carcass amidst huge crowd to get the promise of cow sanctuary fulfilled. He also started lashing himself, because just bringing a dead animal to rally is not protest enough.

Das has since been arrested for creating nuisance in public and the dead bull has been sent for autopsy. If it is found to be an unnatural death, cow rights activist Gopal Das could be booked under the Cow Slaughter Act as well. Irony just sat on a JCB and threw itself in an Amit Shah rally.

But this is not the first time Gopal Das protested with a dead animal by his side. Back in 2014, Sant Gopal Das was arrested in Delhi and booked in Tihar when he tried to march towards the Parliament with a severed cow’s head!

Strangely, while Youth Congress in Kerala wants the rights to slaughter cow, and they even slaughtered a cow in public, Congress in Haryana supports Gopal Das in his mission. On 27th July, Haryana Congress President Dr. Ashok Tanwar joined Sant Gopal Das in a rally for cows rights.

How Congress, BSP and some ‘journalists’ provoked people in name of caste

OpIndia Staff
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How Congress, BSP and some ‘journalists’ provoked people in name of caste

At any given moment, 8 out of 10 Indians active on social media are offended. The remaining two will most likely take an offence at those 8 getting offended.

This morning, Indians woke up to an ad put up on Delhi railway station, which had pictorial depiction of evolution from ape to human where the most evolved human is shown to be throwing waste in the dustbin. This was an ad of Swachha Bharat campaign conceptualised and designed by one Antyodaya Group.

Swachh Bharat ad showing Ambedkar
The ‘controversial’ ad

As one can see in the poster, the most evolved human being was shown as Dr. BR Ambedkar. This apparently was insulting to Babasaheb, according to Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son in law Robert Vadra’s brother in law Tehseen Poonawalla.

This is what he tweeted in response:


Poonawalla, who was earlier caught lying about lynching and sending obscene tweets to Smriti Irani, virtually “threatened” the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that if the Indian Railways didn’t bring this poster down, “volunteers” will bring these posters down themselves.

We tried digging it a bit deeper and discovered it wasn’t Poonawalla who had discovered the “offensive” poster. It was first circulated by one Devashish Jarariya, Bahujan Samaj Party’s media representative on WhatsApp, screenshot of which he posted on Twitter.


Not wanting to be left out, Bahujan Samaj Party official handle soon tweeted the same image taking ownership of all things Dr. Ambedkar.


Soon, Nikhil Wagle, a journalist who recently lost his job due to bad TRP of his show, also took an offence to the said poster and demanded that the government took it down immediately.


Quick to follow suit was the mouthpiece of Aam Aadmi Party, the left leaning political outfit:


All of them condemning the government for using Dr. Ambedkar’s image for picking up trash.

Now the fact of the matter:

The poster is a part of the series of a campaign where the most evolved human form is a hero common man could relate to, who endorses picking up trash and keeping the surrounding clean. Earlier, the campaign included Mahatma Gandhi and even the fictional hero “Bahubali” picking up trash.

Mahatma Gandhi in similar poster at a railway station.
Bahubali picking up trash as part of the campaign.

No one found it offensive when Mahatma Gandhi was picking up the trash. This just goes out to show that the sensitivity is dependent on vote bank. If only manufacturing offence could contribute to the GDP.

Once the needless controversy gained ground thanks to these vested interests, Antyodaya Group, which conceptualised and designed the ads, gave an explanation on how the ads were based on post graduate research on behaviour change at Tata Institute of Social Sciences:


Too bad the poor researcher didn’t factor how the IQ and propaganda of some Indians work.

Communists get support of Muslim fundamentalists in Kerala: RSS leader

OpIndia Staff
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Communists get support of Muslim fundamentalists in Kerala: RSS leader

J Nandakumar, an executive committee member of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), has claimed that the communists in Kerala get active support from Islamic fundamentalists. He said that the Left front returned to power in Kerala with active support from Muslim fundamentalists, which helped them cobble a majority in the last assembly elections.

Mr. Nandakumar was speaking exclusively to columnist Shefali Vaidya for an interview to Maha Tarun Bharat, a news and opinion multimedia platform in Marathi. The interview largely focused on the “red terror” i.e. targeted killings of RSS workers by the left-wing terrorists in Kerala.

“The LDF (Left Democratic Front) came into power with the Muslim fundamentalist help,” Mr. Nandakumar said referring to the assembly elections that took place in May last year. He claimed that the attacks on RSS cadre started as soon as the communists took office after the elections.

During the interview, the RSS leader, who is also the convener of the intellectual think-tank of the Sangh, talked about the killings that have taken place recently. He said that the communists didn’t even spare women and children as they target not just the RSS workers but their families too.

He gave moving accounts of various victims of red terror including that of Ramith and his father both of whom were murdered by communists. He claimed that even though Ramith’s house was just a stone’s throw away from the country house of CM Pinarayi Vijayan, he (Vijayan) hasn’t till date visited their home to offer his condolences. He also described the harrowing details of the brutal murder of RSS worker Rajesh who was killed on Saturday. He claimed that a few elements had also tried to give it a nasty spin by claiming that the murder was a result of a clash between people affiliated with the RSS.

He further revealed that targeting of RSS workers and leaders was not a new phenomenon, even though the media has started reporting about such attacks only recently. He recounted an incident as old as one taking place in January 1948, when communists had attacked an RSS gathering in Kerala. They targeted none other than M S Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) of the RSS.

Mr. Nandakumar came heavily on the Kerala police too, accusing them of bias and collusion with the communists. He claimed that many policemen – whom he referred to as goons – were members of the trade unions or other outfits affiliated to communist organisations, and instead of protecting the citizens from the red terror, they either play the role of a mute witness or worse, help the communists in spreading the terror. He said that those policemen who are not part of such outfits or unions, have no option but to do the same so that their careers are not impacted.

We had recently seen in a CCTV footage how the state police had failed to stop an attack by leftists.

He also spoke about the culture of “party village” in Kerala where the communist party outright controls a whole village to such an extent that, no other political parties are allowed to exist. According to him, there’s so much interference in those villages that the party even decides which paint to use on one’s house.

He also expressed disappointment over the functioning of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and claimed that even though the CM knows everything about the whole history of political violence in the state, he is doing precariously little to stop it.

You can watch and listen to the interview here:

Muslim clerics oppose Yogi govt’s decision to make marriage registration compulsory

OpIndia Staff
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Muslim clerics oppose Yogi govt’s decision to make marriage registration compulsory

On Tuesday, the Yogi government’s cabinet announced that marriage registration would be compulsory for couples regardless of their religion.

This legislation of the Yogi government came in line with the Supreme Court’s 2006 order, which had asked Centre and state governments to make such registrations compulsory for people regardless of their religion or caste. Till date all the states apart from Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland had complied with the order.

According to the report, previous UP governments had not passed this order because of apprehensions within the Muslim community, which had objected to the move as the “nikahnama” should not contain the photograph of the couple. The government rejected the objection on the grounds that various documents like Aadhar and Passport too had photographs and there was no opposition to them.

According to this order, if someone fails to get their marriage registered, they would be liable to pay a token fine of Rs 10, which would increase to Rs 50 per year till they comply.

Now some Muslim clerics and organisations aren’t too happy about this order.

According to reports, Abul Qasim Naumani the Mufti of Islamic school Darul Uloom Deoband, has termed this decision “unnecessary”, and has claimed that such a compulsion is against religious freedom. He further said that the Nikahnama (without the pics) is a registration in itself. He also stated that it was okay if someone wanted to voluntarily register, but any sort of compulsion shouldn’t be there.

Another such cleric named Ahmad Khijar Shah Masoodi of Darul Uloom Wakf opposed the fines to be paid in case of non-compliance. One senior Mufti named Arif Kasami claimed that Islam had made the marriage process very easy and such registrations might make things difficult for the less educated.

The Muslim personal law body AIMPLB too was a bit grumpy about this decision. Its member Zafaryab Jilani stated that they had no problems about the registration, but that there shouldn’t be any provision which would imply that no registration means no marriage.

However, there were a few Muslim groups that welcomed this move by the Yogi government.

According to the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB)’s President Shaista Amber, this was a step in the right direction and claimed that such a registration would be a proof of marriage. AIMWPLB General Secretary Rabia Sandal stated that it would go a long way in ensuring social security for women. Even the Shia personal law board welcomed the move.

It is worth mentioning that the groups that have welcomed this decision had also advocated for other reforms, which includes their opposition to [1][2] the practice of triple talaq.

Supreme Court blasts Congress over the issue of NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Supreme Court blasts Congress over the issue of NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections

The Congress in recent days has been growing very anxious about the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, especially in Gujarat. The elections in that state have become a prestige issue for the party as one of its candidates seeking reelection is Ahmed Patel, the political adviser to the Congress party considered a crony of Sonia Gandhi.

Things started getting complicated for the Gujarat Congress when its MLAs resigned from the party and some even crossed over to the BJP. This would have meant that Patel risked losing his seat, and to avoid the embarrassment the party decided to fly out all its remaining MLAs to a Bangalore resort in order to prevent them from crossing over.

If this wasn’t enough drama, the Congress decided that it had a problem against the ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option, which would also be applicable in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. On Tuesday, the Congress party decided to knock the doors of the Election Commission to object to its use. The party claimed that use of NOTA violated the Constitution and electoral laws.

When the Election Commission did not pay heed, Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, the Chief Whip of Gujarat Congress decided to petition the Supreme Court regarding the matter but the Apex court too has now blasted the Congress over this issue.

As it turns out, the use of NOTA in the Rajya Sabha election is not something that has been envisioned recently. The Election Commission in a notice dated January 2014 [PDF] had announced that the NOTA option would be applicable in the Rajya Sabha election. Soon on 7th February 2014, Rajya Sabha elections were held in 16 different states (including Gujarat) which contained the NOTA option.

Since then, Rajya Sabha elections have been held in all the states of India with the NOTA option, but the Congress party, during whose tenure the notification was issued, had failed to lodge any protest against it, until now.

This was pointed out by the Election Commission on Tuesday and when asked about its 3.5 years delay, Congress leader Manish Tewari stated that “It missed the collective wisdom of the Parliament”. Even though Congress’s sudden aversion to NOTA wasn’t based on rational facts, rather than acknowledging its delay, the party tried to insinuate that the Election Commission was biased:


Now Congress’s game might finally be up now as even the Supreme Court today declined to stay the use of NOTA in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. The bench also blasted the petitioner for such a long delay in approaching the court:


The apex court however has agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the NOTA and has scheduled a 13th September hearing for the same.

Maoists pay tribute to their ‘martyrs’ by abducting railway employees

OpIndia Staff
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Maoists pay tribute to their ‘martyrs’ by abducting railway employees

The Naxalites in Bihar stay true to their words. Last week, they had announced they will be celebrating “martyrdom week” from 28th July to 3rd August with a promise to fulfil dreams of those ‘martyrs’. Nothing like a bit of train hijacking and abduction of railway employees to pay tributes to insurgents, though.

Early on Thursday, 3rd August, Maoists reportedly hijacked a train in the Lakhisarai district in Bihar. The report says a mobile tower was also blown up in the area. The CRPF statement read that train no-13288 Danapur Durg Express train was hijacked near the Bhalui station around 2:30 AM (3rd August). The cabin man who was on duty was also abducted. Exchange of fire took place between the forces and the Maoists. However, normalcy has been restored now and the kidnapped cabin man freed.

Before the Moaists hijacked the train in Lakhisarai, two railway employees were abducted on two separate tracks in Bihar on the intervening night of 1st-2nd August around midnight. On Kiul-Jhajha track, the Gopalpur cabin man was abducted whereas on Kiul-Jamalpur track, Urain cabin man was abducted. Following night-long operations by the district police and CRPF, normalcy was restored at around 6 am on Wednesday morning.

The Maoists had demanded a shutdown during the “martyrs’ week” observed by the banned CPI (Maoist) and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) on the death anniversary of Charu Mazumdar who is considered the father of Left-wing terrorism in India. It is reported that around 100 “rebels” were involved in the abduction of railway employees for defying the shutdown. The employees are now released.

Indo-Pak border to get “smart fence” but border with Bangladesh remains neglected

OpIndia Staff
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Indo-Pak border to get “smart fence” but border with Bangladesh remains neglected

The India-Pakistan border, sometimes termed the most dangerous border in world, is a regular witness to terrorist infiltration into India and numerous ceasefire violations, which are perpetrated by the Pakistani Army.

In order to put a stop to that, the Indo-Pak border has long been suggested to be sealed completely. Now we have got a date by which it could be done. The Director General of the BSF, K K Sharma on Wednesday stated that it was an immediate priority for the security agency to completely seal the Indo-Pak border in the Jammu sector by March, 2018.

Further, the BSF would be installing a “smart fence” along the length of the border. Smart Fence means that the security forces would be aided by surveillance radars, which would blip once it detects any form activity near the border.

Other smart fence equipment that would aid the security forces are satellite imagery, thermal gadgets, and laser walls. The biggest advantage of such a border fence is that security forces won’t need to patrol it 24×7 and can only respond once a threat is intercepted. An advanced version of such a fence has been implemented by Israel along the Gaza Strip border.

This sealing would be a part of the comprehensive integrated border management (CBIM) plan which the BSF is implementing.

Even though the BSF’s commitment to protecting the Pakistani border is appreciable, it has been surprisingly lukewarm when it comes to the Bangladeshi border. According to the Sharma, the project to seal the Indo-Bangla border using smart fencing had not even started yet. This is mostly due to the reason that the Bangladesh government is not hostile as Pakistan when it comes to relationship with India.

However, the Indo-Bangla border requires fencing too. Even though our border with Bangladesh isn’t plagued with terrorist infiltration, there are other serious issues like illegal immigration and illegal cattle smuggling which are rampant.

Recently we had reported how BSF Jawans are regularly attacked by cattle smugglers along the border, which over the years has also resulted in the death and serious injuries to Jawans. Official figures also suggest that there are about 2 crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants some of whom have also been reported to be indulging in serious crimes.

In December last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had claimed that the government was committed to sealing the 223.7 Km Bangladesh border along Assam. He had also assured that it would be done by Mid 2018. Also in January this year, reports had claimed that a similar smart border would also be installed along the Indo-Bangla international border in West Bengal. The time frame then given to start the project was a “few months”. But as per the latest report, the BSF doesn’t appear to be treating it at priority.

Communal tensions in Uttarakhand town after a Muslim man ‘rapes’ a calf

OpIndia Staff
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Communal tensions in Uttarakhand town after a Muslim man ‘rapes’ a calf

Satpuli town of the Pauri Garwal district of Uttarakhand witnessed communal tensions and protests by local residents after a man from the Muslim community was caught indulged in unnatural sex with a calf (young cow).

According to local reports, 23-year-old Shah Alam, who has a local carpentry shop and lives in the same area with his parents and three siblings in a rented house, was caught in the indecent act by the owner of a local gaushala (cow shelter) Baleshwar Chaudhari at around 9.30 in the morning.

Baleshwar caught Shah Alam and raised an alarm, causing locals to assemble there. The locals then proceeded to beat up Shah Alam and also targeted a couple of shops, including the carpentry shop of Alam. Protesters also reportedly called for a bandh in the market.

Police soon arrived at the market and Shah Alam was arrested, but locals insisted that police should be proactive and kick out such elements from the area. Shah Alam reportedly has been living in the area for around 8 years.

The incident has left the locality tense due to communal nature of the crime. “We have deployed additional police force in the town to keep the situation remains under control in the town,” Pauri Superintendent of Police Jagatram Joshi was quoted as saying.

The accused Shah Alam has been booked under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises unnatural sex, and will be produced at a local court in Lansdowne later today.

This is the second incident of communal tensions in Satpuli town in around a month. Last month a Muslim vendor had made objectionable comments about Hindus and Kedarnath on Facebook, which also resulted in communal tensions and similar protests by local residents in the area.

Congress tries an innovative protest, appears like an innovative scam

Nirwa Mehta
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Congress tries an innovative protest, appears like an innovative scam

Sonia Gandhi led the grand old political party of India, Indian National Congress does not seem to be getting anything right.

First the party introduced a “Professionals’ Congress” and stuffed it with dynasts:


This was followed with the party launching a protest against rising prices of tomatoes, and this time the party did something “innovative” (discounting the possibility that parading dynasts as professionals was also innovative).

Congress opened a “State Bank of Tamatar” (State Bank of Tomatoes) in a bid to launch a unique protest against rising prices of tomatoes.

Here is a closer look at the “offers” of the “bank”:

  1. In six months, get 5 times the quantity of tomatoes deposited today.
  2. Facility of “tomatoes locker” available.
  3. 80% loan facility available for tomatoes.
  4. Attractive rates for poor people to buy tomatoes.

Well, technically it is against the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, to randomly call anything as “Bank”:

Well, we are sure that Congress has learnt its lessons from the National Herald case and knows that it can’t undertake any business while being a political party, let alone launching a bank. So yes, we will assume that it was a symbolic protest and a symbolic bank; the BJP government doesn’t need to raid them for violation of any rules!

However, it would have been better if Congress had kept it entirely symbolic, say their own workers being the bank managers and customers as well. But as per media reports, their “State Bank of Tamatar” even got a “customer” (who was not identified as any Congress worker).

Here is one such customer availing the services of the “bank”:


But this is cheating!

Go back to the terms of the bank. The “bank” had promised 5 times returns in 6 months, so 103 years old Srikrishna Verma should have got 2.5 kg tomatoes after 6 months, but the poor senior citizen will get only 1 kg tomatoes after 6 months.

Alert Twitter users were able to spot this “scam” by Congress. Apart from this going back on declared promises of the bank, Congress was also supposed to be conning the citizens by taking tomatoes when prices are higher (now) and selling them back when prices are lower (December/January).


A symbolic protest has ironically become a symbol of how scams are carried out and how poor citizens are conned by making them believe in false promises.

Tough luck Congress.

Amit Shah ‘praises’ Rahul Gandhi for doing what Mahatma Gandhi wanted

OpIndia Staff
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Amit Shah ‘praises’ Rahul Gandhi for doing what Mahatma Gandhi wanted

BJP national president Amit Shah is on a three day visit to Haryana starting today. Taking a jibe at the Congress party while addressing a massive gathering at Rohtak, Shah said, “Gandhi ji ne kaha tha azadi ke turant baad Congress ko bikhed dena chahiye… khair wo Gandhi ne nahi kiya ab koi Gandhi kar raha hai“. (Gandhiji had said that right after attaining independence, Congress party should be disbanded. What that Gandhi couldn’t do, another Gandhi is is doing.)

Obviously, he was referring to Rahul Gandhi, the current Vice President of Congress.

After taking jibes at the vice president, Shah trained his guns at the party, saying, “Jab Congress ki sarkar aati hai desh ka growth rate neeche jaata hai, BJP ki sarkar aati hai growth rate upar jaata hai.” (Whenever Congress comes to power, the growth rate of India declines, and whenever BJP comes to power, growth rate goes up.)

Asserting that the BJP is determined to ensure eradication of dynasty politics and caste based politics, Shah hailed the saffron party for development across the country.

Eyeing the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah is on a 110-day nationwide tour which began from Jammu in April this year. The focus of this tour is to increase the BJP’s footprints in the North-East and coastal regions of India where BJP does not have a stronghold. His Odisha tour was also in news.

Shah, who is also an MLA from Naranpura constituency of Gujarat will be contesting the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat which are slated to be held on August 8, 2017.

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