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Supreme Court modifies its order to stop demolition of mosque earlier seen as encroachment

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court modifies its order to stop demolition of mosque earlier seen as encroachment

In April, there were reports of the Supreme Court directing the trust of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai to demolish all the encroachments in or around the Dargah. The court had explicitly asked the trust to remove all the said encroachments by 8th May. The court had made it clear that only the main structure would remain protected and the rest of the area would have to be cleared of squatters.

The action against the illegal encroachments around Haji Ali was first taken by the Bombay High Court, which had ordered the formation of a task force comprising of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Collector to remove encroachments on the road leading to the Haji Ali Dargah. The order also stated that any petition regarding the encroachments would have to be made in the Supreme court only.

The Haji Ali trust though later expressed its inability to do the job by 8th may and this somewhat angered the apex body. In a 3rd July order the court gave an ultimatum to the Maharashtra government to comply with its order within 2 weeks. The Supreme Court bench reportedly gave a stern warning to the deputy collector of Colaba zone by stating that strict action would be taken if they failed to carry out the demolition drive.

One of the structures which would have had to be either or demolished or shifted as a result, was the Kinara mosque, which is situated on the corner of the Mumbai mainland from where the road leading to the Haji Ali Dargah begins.

On 11th July, the Maharashtra government had petitioned the Supreme Court, asking it to save the Kinara Mosque from demolition. According to the government’s counsel, the ‘situation could turn bad’ if the mosque was demolished. But then the Supreme Court had flatly refused any such concession and had also slammed the Maharashtra government for making such a request.

On Thursday, in order to start complying with the Supreme Court order, the Collector’s office had removed 25 illegal stalls which were present on the approach road of the Dargah. On the same day the Haji Ali trust petitioned the Supreme Court asking it to clarify on its 11th July order to raze the Kinara mosque.

According to the trust, the mosque was not illegal as it was a pre-2009 religious structure and a part of it which was built on reclaimed or encroached land, could be regularised by the government.

Now it is reported the Supreme Court has gone back on its 11th July order and has decided to protect the Kinara Mosque, a part of which is reportedly built on encroached land.

According to reports, the Court modified its earlier order to protect the mosque from demolition. The court also asked the Maharashtra government to come to a decision within a week regarding the plea to regularise the mosque.

The court has then stated that if the state government rejects the regularisation plea, nobody would oppose the demolition of the disputed part of the mosque. The demolition though is unlikely as the Maharashtra government itself had petitioned the court to save the mosque, so it most likely would order the regularisation of the structure, because a refusal to do so could result in law and order problems.

It takes 5 minutes to walk out of Maha Gathbandhan: JD-U

OpIndia Staff
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It takes 5 minutes to walk out of Maha Gathbandhan: JD-U

A day after Bhai Virendra – a senior RJD MLA – said that being the “largest constituent” of the Maha Gathbandhan whatever decision the party makes must be acceptable to other alliance partners, JD-U has hit back saying it would take just five minutes to walk out of the Maha Gathbandhan and quit the power.

“Nitish Kumar is the leader of the Maha Gathbandhan, no one else. Those who are threatening of having 80 MLAs with them should not be in any kind of confusion. It won’t take us even 5 minutes to quit government, power. Power is least important for us,” JD-U spokesperson Ajay Alok told India Today.

Yesterday, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra said, “Lalu Prasad is our leader and we have 80 MLAs. What we want will happen.”

Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad’s heir apparent and Deputy chief minister of Bihar, along with his mother Rabri Devi, is among those named in the CBI FIR in connection to irregularities in awarding tenders for maintenance of hotels in Ranchi and Puri during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the Railway Minister. Other members of Lalu Prasad’s family are also facing similar corruption charges for illegally acquiring properties and lands in different parts of the country.

In the wake of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav named in the CBI FIR, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that those facing corruption charges should come clean by giving fact-wise reply to public.

Kumar is learnt to have given a four-day ultimatum to Tejashwi and the deadline ends on Saturday. But it seems that the RJD, which maintains that the deputy chief minister has been framed by the BJP, is no mood to mollify Nitish Kumar.

The JD-U, however, has said that Nitish Kumar will never compromise his stance of zero tolerance on corruption. “Nitish Kumar is leading the coalition government and JD-U’s stand on corruption is clear. The party expects Tejashwi to give a clear-cut explanation (on charges of corruption). Nitish will take an appropriate decision (on Tejashwi) at the right time,” JD-U general secretary Sanjay Jha was quoted as saying.

“In his public meeting in Madhubani after demonetisation was announced, Nitishji had publicly said demonetisation was not enough and war against benami properties will be more effective. How can Nitishji sit with a person next to him until he comes clean?” he added.

Reports also indicate that Nitish Kumar is considering all options and readying a plan-B in case the Maha Gathbandhan breaks.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former Deputy chief minister of Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi has sent fillers to Nitish Kumar saying that the JD-U president was always “comfortable” in the company of the BJP.

“Nitish Kumar was always comfortable in the company of BJP and he was most comfortable when he was the Railway Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 2001-2004. That was the golden period of his political career,” Modi said while speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange programme.

Al-Qaeda growing stronger in the Indian subcontinent: Counter terrorism experts

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Al-Qaeda growing stronger in the Indian subcontinent: Counter terrorism experts

Terror group Al Qaeda seems to be making significant inroads into the Indian Subcontinent, if reports are to be believed. According to counter terrorism experts, the Al Qaeda now has hundreds of members under its belt. Most of the cells of the terror outfit are believed to be in Afghanistan, though the group appears to be flourishing in Bangladesh.

Reports claim that Al Qaeda currently has cells in Afghanistan’s Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Ghazni, and Nuristan province, and its presence was more expansive than it was 5 to 10 years ago. This expansion might have been prompted by the fact that Taliban was making advances in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda had a relationship with their operatives.

But interestingly, it were the operatives from Bangladesh who were most active and were carrying out regular attacks. The group also appears to be indulging in regular propaganda via its media house As-Sahab. But even though the group had carried out attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it still currently remains irrelevant in the broader Taliban led insurgency.

The security agencies though seem to have been largely successful in countering the possibly growing threat of the Al Qaeda, which was evident by the fact that over hundred operatives linked to the Al-Qaeda were killed in October 2015 after US and Afghan forces targeted their training camp.

This news about the terror group gaining strength and indulging in propaganda, comes days after it was reported how the terror group had released a document titled Code of conduct for Mujahideen in the subcontinent. Here it detailed its objectives and targets and also laid out general guidelines for its members to follow.

Incidentally, even though this group has been mostly active in Afghanistan, it seems to have started to view Kashmir as a possible future breeding ground. This was evident by the fact that the Al Qaeda’s document threatened how it wanted to carry out attacks against the Indian military in order to establish Sharia in the Kashmir valley.

Sandeep Sharma became a terrorist within 3 months of converting to Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Sandeep Sharma became a terrorist within 3 months of converting to Islam

Recently a section of the Indian media was busy painting a Lashkar terrorist as the 1st Hindu to have joined its ranks. Quoted as Sandeep Sharma, the reports tried to insinuate that the so called ‘saffron terror’ was spreading its tentacles by colluding with hardcore terror organisations.

This whole insinuation was busted by us when we reported how the man named Sandeep Sharma had converted to Islam before joining the terror organisation. Now more information has started to emerge about the man whose actual name now is Adil.

The latest reports reiterate that Sandeep had converted to Islam before joining Lashkar-e-taiba. After adopting the name Adil, he also inculcated Islamic practices in his daily lifestyle. The conversion which was prompted by his desire to marry a Kashmiri girl, resulted in him working as a driver cum ‘soldier’ for Lashkar terrorists. Adil had come in contact with Lashkar operatives, while he was working as a driver between Anantanag and Pulgaum.

The report also claimed that he had no such criminal record before his conversion, but it’s very much possible that he was already indulging in petty criminal activities by that time.

Other shocking details too have also emerged. It is reported that Adil had crossed over into Pakistan in order to get arms training from Lashkar’s terror camps. Also, the girl he married appears to be the daughter of a retired officer.

According to ADG Anand Kumar, Adil also had a few associates who are now being tracked down.

While Adil was still Sandeep, he and 3 other had initially been hired from Muzaffarnagar by an electric contractor named Vakeel Ahmed, who got them to set up power grids. According to Sandeep’s brother, he was influenced in taking up this job by his cousin named Ashwini aka Sonu.

After initially working in Delhi, they relocated to Kashmir. After the work got over, 2 of the guys named Asif and Yogesh returned to Uttar Pradesh but Sandeep stayed on as he had fallen in love with a local girl.

After he proposed marriage, the family of the girl insisted that he converts to Islam. According to the ADG, Sandeep slowly started requiring more money. This which might have lured him into plunging into terrorism.

After he joined Lashkar, he started recruitment attempts other youths for the terror organisation. He had even called up his relative to ask him to send a few youths to Kashmir but didn’t specify the work they needed to do.

Even though he had converted, he kept using his old identity of Sandeep Sharma to escape coming under Police radar. Whenever some security agencies used to suspect him, he used to show them the old ID as a ‘Hindu’ belonging to Uttar Pradesh.

Soon after his association with Lashkar, he seems to have become a very active member of the group. According to the media reports, he had carried out 3 major attacks just in June.

On 3rd June, he had attacked the army in Kajikund, on 13th he had stolen arms from the Justice House in Anantnag, and on 16th June he drove and fired from the vehicle which had attacked the police forces.

The family of Sandeep/Adil seems to have disowned him long back. Earlier when he was arrested in connection with a theft case and when the police contacted his family in connection with his bail, they had flatly denied any help by stating that they had severed all ties with him.

A part of the Indian media and ‘liberals’ have decided to burn this country down

Abhishek Banerjee
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A part of the Indian media and ‘liberals’ have decided to burn this country down

This (the image below) actually appeared in an Indian publication as commentary on the Amarnath massacre:

violence justified by liberals

Terrorists being described as challengers to a “set view of India” who dare to pick up guns?

First they said it was okay to call for “Bharat tere tukde honge” as it was a matter of free speech.

Roughly a year later, things have come to such a pass that even if they pick up guns and start killing security forces, we can’t call them “terrorists”. Even that would be intolerant!

Has Indian media gone completely mad? Sab pagal ho gaye hain kya? 

Nowadays, it is hard to tell whether we are looking at Indian publications or at Pakistani state propaganda. This used to be the Facebook header of the commentary website Newslaundry:

Indian or Pakistani?

If I had blacked out the name of the publication in this photo, would you be able to tell if this was from an Indian news website or from the mouthpiece of Lashkar?

We are being bombarded today with liberal news commentary that is extreme, anti-national, openly secessionist and full of bizarre justifications of violence against the Indian state in general and Hindus in particular. Here is The Quint talking about the recent anti-Hindu riots in Bengal.

Hinduphobia in Quint

The riots happened because Muslims were angry about “aggressive feelings” inside the minds of Hindus who *may* have faced persecution in Bangladesh! The feelings sitting inside the brains of Hindus were aggressive, not the Muslims who rioted!

Liberal reporting always had an agenda. But nowadays there is an added nastiness it has taken on that I don’t recognize from before. It seems new. Here is another media take on the riots in Bengal!

DailyO justifying Islamic violence

The sheer audacity of claiming moral equivalence between the Muslim rioters in Bengal and those who came out on the streets of Delhi to protest the gangrape of Nirbhaya!

In a rational world, a statement like this should end a journalist’s career. Quite on the contrary, the journalist in question, someone named Ajit Sahi seems to have got a leg up in his line of work. The man who made this outrageous remark is now a “fact-finder” for Firstpost, who is filing their official ground report from Basirhat!

Propagandist as fact-finder

Somewhere out there it seems that a bridge has been crossed by liberals : from hypocrisy to open hatred against Hindus and India.

They are confident of getting away, because they have an organised strategy to make Hindus feel shame and guilt, thus taking all the hate and insults as justified, while “nationalism” has already been made a dirty word by them.

How else do you explain this?

Anti National rag of Siddharth Varadrajan

This sea change in liberal discourse — from hypocrisy to outright anti-India hatred — did not go unnoticed among India’s enemies. There is evidence that India’s enemies now regard India’s liberal media as an ally in their cause. A while ago, Jamaat ud Dawa (Lashkar) chief Hafiz Saeed heaped praise on prominent TV journalist Barkha Dutt.

Hafiz praises Barkha

I am not making a case that Barkha Dutt should be held accountable for the views of Hafiz Saeed.

But, receiving praise from top Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists should have given the liberal media a moment of pause … to reflect on what it is they are doing to their country and its standing in the world. 

It didn’t. 

Where did this extreme nastiness in the liberal discourse come from?

From losing the 2014 election to Narendra Modi, of course.

That they would throw such a tantrum speaks of the extreme immaturity and lack of foresight on part of the liberal media. And three years into the Modi government’s term, the tantrum is only intensifying.

Right now liberals feel they have no stake in the country because Modi keeps defeating them in election after election. So they are happy to throw the country to the wolves. You know, like those jilted lovers – as they are wrongly called by the media, for they are criminal haters, not lovers – who will throw acid and disfigure the face of a girl who rejects their advances.

I just want to tell them that they can revel in declarations of #NotMyPM and #NotInMyName but it’s always going to be their country.

Don’t hate it so much. Or if you must, don’t preach and propagate that hate.

If anything, liberals must realize the revolving door of democracy never stops turning. Five years ago, the BJP was nowhere in contention. Who knows what will happen five years from now? In fact, just two years.

Dear liberals, why not stay sane and wait for your turn to rule? Nothing lasts forever.

If nothing else, remember that what you see today as your enemy Indian state under Modi might well be Pappu’s grand empire tomorrow. And unlike BJP, the Congress knows which mouths to feed and which egos to massage. Achchhe din aayenge.

At least for the sake of that, *calm down*. Please!!!

ISIS might have lost Mosul in Iraq, but an ISIS 2.0 is taking shape globally

Saswat Panigrahi
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ISIS might have lost Mosul in Iraq, but an ISIS 2.0 is taking shape globally

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on 10 July declared that Mosul, which was once the defacto capital of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has been recaptured from the dreaded terror outfit.

But this has come with an enormous cost both to the city and the Iraqi forces. The city of Mosul has been battered and bruised in the war. According to an estimate [pdf], as many as 700 soldiers of the Iraqi Special Forces have been killed in the battle for Mosul.

Even as Iraq declared victory on ISIS in Mosul, Rukmini Callimachi, a Correspondent with the New York Times, who has extensively covered the war between the Iraqi forces and the terror outfit ISIS, says that it is premature to conclude that the operation against the terror outfit in Iraq is over. Earlier the Syrian Democratic Forces had wrestled control over Syrian city of Raqqa from the ISIS.

Both Iraq and Syria still have vast stretches of safe havens for the ISIS. But its core narrative of building an “Islamic State” is in tatters after the ISIS’s defeat in Mosul and Raqqa. However, the ISIS is not dead yet.

ISIS has declared to build a “religious government” in Iraq on the lines what Taliban did in Afghanistan. The Islamic State still has a powerful presence in Iraq’s Anbar province and in the city of Tal Afar. Reports suggest that after the terror outfit lost the territory of Mosul, the ISIS now considers Tal Afar, located west of Mosul, as its alternative headquarters.

The rank and file of Islamic State leadership has a number of core leaders from Saddam Hussein’s Baathist organisation, who are known for their survival skills and the wave of jihadi networks they built.

“To survive whether Allah blesses us with consolidation or we move into the bare, open desert, displaced and pursued.” This was what ISIS senior spokesperson Abu Muhammad Adnani said before he was killed in a US airstrike last year.

The top guns of the dreaded Islamist outfit are reportedly preparing a roadmap for Islamic State 2.0. According to an Associated Press report, the ISIS is rebranding itself through a mix of a local insurgency and digitally-connected global jihadis as it wants to maintain both local and global support base. The ISIS is drawing new territories, inducting thousands of new recruits, apart from reviving its source of funding.

A UN report, released last week, suggests that a first group of Islamic State fighters from Syria and Iraq, numbering more than 100, arrived in Afghanistan at the beginning of February, followed by a smaller group of around 20 at the end of March. According to reports, each terrorist of the group receives a handsome payment of $500 to $600 per month from Islamic State’s central command and that is triple the amount being offered by Taliban.

It could be noted that the ISIS, the richest terror outfit of the world, earns millions of dollars from oil money, ransoms and extortion. But with its Iraq and Syria operations in doldrums on the wake of mounting counter offensive from US, Iraq and Syria forces, the Islamic State reportedly told its Afghanistan contingent that it needs to be “self-financing.”

To be in business, the Islamic terror outfit are trying to make their ways to Europe or North Africa to plot terror strikes. In Europe, the ISIS cadre are reportedly hiding among the influx of migrants. Last month’s attack at London Bridge, which the ISIS called  as a “revenge” against the US-backed coalition is just an indication. The terror outfit vows more violence in the days to come. These incidents of terror could help the outfit extort more money and finance its operations.

Colin Clark, an analyst with American policy think tank RAND was quoted as saying, “Islamic State is a global group but it is more regionally anchored. I do not see them taking up and travelling wholesale to another place. They are going to go where they have roots. They are going to insinuate themselves in local conflicts.”

In India, the ISIS is selling its dreams of Islamic caliphate in Kashmir based on eighth-century Islam and Sharia law. A recent publication of the dreaded terror outfit disclosed its nefarious game-plan about Kashmir. It is not just Kashmir, the ISIS eyeing Kerala as a potential territory for its operation. There are reports that 21 youth from Kerala, who went missing since 2016, might have joined the ISIS. Recently, a lady from Kerala – who was converted to Islam from Christianity – has reportedly gone to Afghanistan along with her husband to join the dreaded terror outfit.

Terror accused gives Triple Talaq to his wife who had converted to Islam for him

OpIndia Staff
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Terror accused gives Triple Talaq to his wife who had converted to Islam for him

On 19th March 2011, a woman named Snehalata had married a man named Samshuddin Shah after falling in love with him. Snehalata, who resides in Banda, Uttar Pradesh was looking forward to her new marriage for which she had converted to Islam and had also changed her name to Shamshun Nisha.

16 months into her marriage she received her 1st jolt when her husband was named as an accused in the July 2012 Nagpur bomb blast.

According to reports, her husband had supplied arms and ammunition to those who had carried out the blast. The report also claimed that after she protested against her husband’s activities, her in-laws threw her out of the house.

On 21st October 2014, her husband was released on bail. But after returning home, he started torturing Snehalata, which included assaulting her. A few days later he left without informing anyone. In May this year, he suddenly called her up and uttered the dreaded talaq word three times. Snehalata has also alleged that now, Samshuddin is also threatening to kill their daughter.

Apparently after deserting Snehalata, Samshuddin had started living with a girl named Meena. Snehalata has alleged that he is a habitual offender who traps gullible girls into marrying him after they convert to Islam. He then deserts them some time later.

Snehalata had reportedly petitioned Islamic religious leaders for help, who turned a deaf ear after stating that she has to agree to it as it was a norm in their religion. The SP of her region has assured action against Samshuddin and also claimed that he would be arrested soon.

Hindu groups like the VHP and the Durga Vahini have now joined the issue by calling it a case of love jihad. They have also alleged Samshuddin was not alone and his friends were also involved in similar activities.

Modi govt gives special financial powers to Army for short and swift wars

OpIndia Staff
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Modi govt gives special financial powers to Army for short and swift wars

Amid the ongoing standoff between the Indian Army and its Chinese counterpart in Dokalam and the heightened Indo-Pak tension along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, the government has given special financial powers to the Army to procure critical weapons systems for maintaining adequate stockpiles and combat readiness for “short and intense wars”.

According to reports, the “full financial powers” have been delegated to the vice chief of Army staff to procure ammunitions and spares for 10 types of weapons and equipments. The government order delegating financial powers to the Army Vice-Chief was issued last week.

Another proposal to allow the Army to procure 20 types of armament is also under consideration.

The financial power, vested to the Army vice chief to buy the complete range of weapons for combat readiness, is linked to the budgetary support available. The Army on its part reportedly identified 46 different types of ammunition, 22 armaments, half a dozen mines as well as spares for 10 weapon systems ranging from tanks to artillery guns as “critical requirements” which would cost around 40,000 crore. But the quantum of funds is unlikely to be available within the current financial year.

“The decision is primarily aimed at filling the voids for short duration intense wars,” an official privy to the development was quoted as saying.

The procedure, a part of revenue procurement of the Army, won’t be required to go through numerous procurement stages.

According to an estimate, the Indian Army holds only one-third of the required war reserves meant for 30 days of intense fighting. As per the norms, the war reserve should be sufficient for 30 days of intense fighting and 30 days of normal fighting. A CAG report has also pointed out the ammunition shortage being faced by the Indian Army.

It could be noted that the gaps in combat readiness were found during an internal review of the Army in the aftermath of Uri attacks in September last year. After the Uri attack, the armed forces had inked a flurry of emergency deals worth over Rs 20,000 crore — primarily with Russia, Israel and France — to upgrade the war reserve for “intense fighting”.

Number of terrorists killed this year in Kashmir crosses 100, includes big names

OpIndia Staff
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Number of terrorists killed this year in Kashmir crosses 100, includes big names

On Wednesday, three terrorists were gunned down in an encounter in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The deceased terrorists – identified as Javaid Ahmad Shiekh, a resident of Beerwa, Sajid Ahmad Gilkar, a resident of Malaratta and Aaquib Gul, a resident of Gooripora – were from the terror outfit Hizb ul Mujahideen.

Among these, Sajid Ahmad Gilkar is reported to have played a key role in the lynching of DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandith in Nowhatta last month, besides a number of other terror-related incidents.

With this, over 100 terrorists are reported to have been killed this year as of now. This is against 150 in the whole of 2016. 80 terrorists were killed in the corresponding period of 2016. Of the 100 terrorists killed as of now this year, 33 belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba and 23 belonged to Hizbul-Mujahideen.

Most of the terrorists killed this year are big and prominent terror operatives. In 8 July last year, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with the security forces. In May this year, Sabzar Bhat, the successor of Burhan Wani, was gunned down by security forces.

The other terrorists gunned down in the recent times in encounter with security forces include Basir Lashkari, Abu Musaib, Aquib Ahmad Bhat, Abu Hamza and Gulzar Ahmad Lone. While Lashkari was working as a LeT commander, Musaib was a divisional commander of Pakistan-based terror outfit Abu Haris. Sabzar, Aquib, Abu and Gulzar were from Hizbul Mujahideen.

Reports suggest that most of the terrorists have been neutralised in Budgam, Kupwara, Kulgam, Baramulla, Anantnag, Bandipore and Pulwama. While 57 terrorists were killed so far this year in joint counter-terror offensive of Army, CRPF and J&K Police, 43 have been killed while infiltrating from across the boarder in Pakistan.

But what is worrisome is that an estimated 150 terrorists, including 40-50 who infiltrated from Pakistan, are still present in south Kashmir. The Army had launched Operation Clean Up to flush South Kashmir of terrorists.

The improvement casualty figures of terrorists is largely to do with Indian Amry’s strategy to actively engage with the terrorists in a seamless coordination with para-military forces, intelligence agencies and state police with a full backing of the Central government. The government has given a free hand to the Army to take stern actions against those who are spreading terror and vitiating the atmosphere in the Valley.

The intelligence agencies are simultaneously taking steps to choke terror funding in Kashmir. In a first, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided Kashmiri separatist leaders in connection to the funding they reportedly received from Pakistan to spread terror in the Valley. The amount received by the Kashmiri separatists from Pakistan in last one year, to keep the turmoil in Kashmir active, could run into several hundred crores.

This is what happened when Nitish Kumar was made the President of the Congress party

Hemant Bijapurkar
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This is what happened when Nitish Kumar was made the President of the Congress party

Recently pop historian cum Nehru bhakt Ramachandra Guha expressed an interesting desire. He called for a leadership change in the Congress, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar leading the grand old party.

According to him, if this ‘fantasy’ of his becomes true, it would mean a match made in heaven as the Congress is a ‘party without a leader’ while Nitish is a ‘leader without a party’.

Even though such a fantasy might not come true anytime soon, I decided to imagine a possible Congress meeting with Nitish as a president. So here it goes:

Congress party is holding a regular meeting of the party’s top leadership at their 24 Akbar Road headquarters in Delhi, with all the leaders like Kapil Sibal, Digvijaya Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid among others.

New Party President Nitish Kumar welcomes Yuva Margdarshak Mandal chief Rahul Gandhi, who had decided to spend a few days in India, and starts the proceedings:

Nitish Kumar: So good morning everybody, thank your for letting me take up the Presidency of your party on a trial basis, which can then be made permanent if the party finds my work satisfactory. So let us begin. I want to come to the most important issue – we do not have any alternative narrative to offer.

Rahul Gandhi: That’s not true. We always have alternatives ready.

Nitish: How?

Rahul: See, if the narrative that ‘Rahul Gandhi did not meet Chinese envoy’ doesn’t work, we offer an alternative narrative that ‘Rahul Gandhi indeed met Chinese envoy’.

Nitish: I am talking about narratives we offer to the people, not to the media. I mean we keep on opposing Modi and point problems, but we don’t say this is the solution.

Rahul: We have the solutions too – women empowerment, RTI…

Nitish: Okay let’s leave it for now. Let’s review our performance in the last assembly elections. So as I understand we could have formed a government in Goa and Manipur, with us being the largest party. Why didn’t it work out, Digvijay ji?

Digvijay Singh: Well, we were on our way to meet some independent MLAs, which would have meant more than enough support, but were lynched by a mob on route to our venue.

Nitish: Hain! Who died?

Digvjaya: No no nothing of that sort. Our car brushed with another vehicle and the drivers started abusing and slapping each other. We decided to claim that a lynching is taking place. We tweeted about it, counted re-tweets, and were busy replying to tweets. Cunning BJP took advantage of this and formed the government in the meantime by talking to the MLAs.

Nitish: Seriously? You thought making up stories about lynching was more important?

Digvijaya: You just said we have to offer narratives to people. We are offering the narrative of Lynchistsan. Now you have a problem with that. You sound confused. We need to appoint Rahul ji as the President. I am loyal to the family only.

*Digvijaya starts shouting slogans and everyone joins demanding Rahul Gandhi take over the party. But they realise that Rahul Gandhi had left for Europe in the meantime. They decide to let Nitish continue*

Nitish: Let’s forget the past. We have to plan for the future assembly elections. Gujarat. What are the plans Sibal ji?

Kapil Sibal: We are at second place in Gujarat. So we are planning to retain the position. There will be zero loss. After that, we can claim that BJP has rigged the EVMs and murdered the Indian democracy.

*Shashi Tharoor inexplicably starts coughing after hearing the word murder*

Nitish: That is okay, but what if we win?

*Everybody in the room starts coughing*

Nitish: Okay fine. Let us make long term plans. Amit Shah is touring entire country, we have to find a counter strategy.

Salman Khurshid: Rahul Gandhi is touring entire world. So we are already doing better on that count. And wait a minute, are you not supposed to come up with ideas that Rahul Gandhi ji and Sonia Gandhi ji, who is the mother of every Indian, failed to come up with?

Nitish: She is not my mother!

*this again caused all Congress leaders and workers present to stand up and start shouting slogans against Nitish Kumar. Salman Khurshid threatened to break away from the party and form Congress-S, while one worker took out gun and threatened to kill himself if Sonia Gandhi did not become President again* 

Just around then the Presidential candidate Meira Kumar walked in and said baith jayie, baith jayie, after which everyone stopped shouting and sat down. Nitish Kumar had left taking advantage of the din.

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