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NDTV: The fraud we know so far

Saswat Panigrahi
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NDTV: The fraud we know so far

New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), its lobbyists and apologists call the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid on the residence of Mr and Mrs Prannoy Roy a “blatant political attack on freedom of press.”

But as skeletons tumble out of the closets, it has come to the light that NDTV has committed an unending fraud and the CBI is finally doing its duty, though late, as per the due process of law.

S Gurumurthy, a former associate and confidante of Indian Express founder Ramnath Goenka who is also known to have exposed misdeeds by Reliance in mid 80s through his reports and columns in Indian Express, has been among those in the forefront insisting the that case against NDTV is purely of financial fraud and the channel is hiding behind ‘press freedom’.


CBI too issued a statement yesterday and clarified that the raids were entirely as per legal provisions.


The CBI case against NDTV is related to a Rs 375 crore loan from ICICI Bank and a corresponding wrongful loss of Rs 46 crore to the bank. But behind this, there is a chain of borrow, repay and borrow when Roys took a series of loans in 2008 as they sought to buy back a large chunk of NDTV shares from the market.

ICICI Bank loan interest fraud

In December 2007, Roys had bought 7.73 per cent of NDTV shares from General Atlantic. Minority shareholders of NDTV were made an open offer to sell shares. To fund the purchase of shares that the minority shareholders wanted to sell, Roys created a company called RRPR Holdings Private Limited. RRPR borrowed Rs 501 crore from India Bulls Ltd.

To repay part of the India Bulls loan, RRPR borrowed Rs 375 crore from ICICI Bank in October 2008. In August 2009, RRPR found another lender called Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) to repay the ICICI loan. VCPL agreed to pay Rs 350 crore to RRPR in July, 2009.

RRPR’s balance sheets – filed before the Registrar of Companies in March, 2009 – however, showed that it had a loan of Rs 349,26,14,485 from ICICI Bank and an interest of Rs 17,21,80,697 on that loan. Between 31 March and 7 August, 2009 — when RRPR repaid ICICI after receiving the money from VCPL — an additional interest was accumulated and the bank therefore suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 48 crore.

Money laundering

It is not just the ICICI Bank loan interest fraud, NDTV’s story of deceit dates back to 2004. It was in that year, Prannoy Roy-led company suffered a huge loss of Rs 248 crore. Its shares were trading abysmally weak. This was at a time when the Congress-led UPA took the reins and there was a turnaround in NDTV’s fortunes.

NDTV raised funds by floating a galaxy of shell companies. S Gurumurthy, in a cogent article in New Indian Express, has written that between 2006 and 2010, NDTV India had floated 20 wholly-owned subsidiaries in different parts of the world. While seven were based out of Mauritius, eight subsidiary companies were based in India, two were located in Netherlands, one each in London, UAE, and Sweden.

These “letter-box companies”, which were wholly resting on the valuation of NDTV Ltd, together had raised $417 million. Of the $417 million, $267 million was invested by GE Corporation directly or indirectly. $310 million was raised through NDTV Network PLC UK and $117 million were raised via the sale of NDTV Imagine to GE Corporation.


Quoting references from the internal e-mail communications of NDTV, obtained by the Income Tax authorities, Gurumurthy’s article has established beyond doubt that Roys and other directors of NDTV were struggling to justify before the tax authorities the huge funds raised by the company through subsidiaries.

“The mails disclose a clear intent to camouflage the money. The fraud is self-evident, pre-meditated and exposed in their own mails. This opens the possibility of action for money laundering,” Gurumurthy wrote.

Immunity from UPA

During the UPA regime, the NDTV did not disclose the identity of the investors in its shell companies. It did not attach its foreign subsidiary firms’ balance sheets, thanks to the immunity from the Company Law Department of the then UPA government.

In the process, NDTV successfully hid funds to the tune of $417 million out of its balance sheet. This is plain and simple tax evasion and money-laundering. These all happened when P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.

NDTV: A party to Aircel-Maxis scam?

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to direct the CBI to file case against NDTV under Prevention of Corruption Act. Alleging that NDTV was a party to Aircel-Maxis scam, during the Congress-led UPA rule, Swamy had said it received illegal money from Maxis subsidiary Astro.

Swamy further said that the money, received by NDTV from Maxis, was “illegally approved” by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram to “benefit his son” Karthi Chidambaram.

How NDTV muzzled an honest tax officer

Gurumurthy hhas also highlighted the case of an honest Income Tax officer named SK Srivastava who unearthed the frauds committed by NDTV. Srivastava also sought to investigate the charges of pay-off involving Chidambaram. Following this, he faced sexual abuse charges by two lady officials and actions were recommended against him.

Husband of one of the lady officials was then working as a prime time anchor with NDTV. Srivastava had to face suspensions and a series of change sheets. Gurumurthy claims that this was purely a case of vendetta, which was dressed up as sexual harassment case.

The Ambani-Jindal connections

According to Gurumurthy, a Mukesh Ambani company gave a virtually interest-free loan to another company for acquiring 26 per cent of NDTV shares for Rs 403 crore. The zero-interest bond is transferred to another company belonging to Himachal Furturistic Group for Rs 50 crore, with the Ambani company incurring a loss of Rs 353 crore and claimed it as tax expense.

“While the Mukesh Ambani company purchased 26 per cent NDTV shares for Rs 403 crore after valuing NDTV at Rs 1440 crore, it sold the same to Nahata of Himachal Futuristic who bought the 26 per cent shares of NDTV for Rs 50 crore at a total valuation of Rs 192 crore,” Gurumurthy said.

“NDTV valued itself before the tax authorities at Rs 10000 crore. It was valued at $2 billion by GE Corporation USA for one investment and at $200 million for another. The Navin Jindal group and Agarwal Agro Tech group bought 15 per cent of NDTV shares for Rs 26 crore on a value of Rs 173 cr. NDTV valued itself before SEBI at Rs 367 crore,” he said.

Why NDTV ran away from Gurumurthy’s questions?

When S Gurumurthy wrote a note to senior Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani, in 2013, explaining the entire case of alleged NDTV fraud, Jethmalani wrote a stinging charge sheet against NDTV and Chidambaram.

“Jethmalani had sent a copy of my note to Mr Prannoy Roy who contacted me through an editor friend of mine and said that he would like to respond to that with documents. When his response came I found that the documents he had enclosed in support of the investments were not reliable.”


And finally…

Finally, the law is catching up with NDTV. There are charges galore against NDTV. The law must take its own course. And media is not above the law.


But, why it took so many years for the CBI to act against NDTV?


UGC, AICTE to be replaced with one higher education regulator – HEERA

OpIndia Staff
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UGC, AICTE to be replaced with one higher education regulator – HEERA

According to reports, the Modi government is all set to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and replace them with one higher education regulator with a legislation. The regulator has tentatively been christened as Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA).

The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting on education, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in early March.

A committee which has Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Higher Education Secretary KK Sharma as members, among others, is reportedly working on to prepare a detailed blueprint of HEERA. Work is on at a rapid pace to frame the HEERA legislation, sources in the government are quoted as saying. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and Niti Aayog are working in tandem to frame the new law.

The new regulatory legislation is likely to be short and clean and will outline minimum standards focused on outcomes. It will eliminate overlaps in jurisdiction and do away with regulatory provisions that may no longer be relevant. Since the separation of technical and nontechnical education is out of sync with global practices, a single regulator will bring in transparency and greater synergy among institutions.

“Though HEERA aims at putting an end to the inspector raj and harassment regime of the UGC and AICTE, the new body will be empowered to take strong penal action whenever necessary,” said a senior government official.

Since the process of replacing AICTE and UGC with HEERA – though a legislation – will take time, amendments to existing rules are considered among other options as interim reform measures.

It could be noted that the idea of replacing multiple regulatory authorities in education sector with a single and streamlined regulator has been mooted since long. Even during the UPA dispensation, several committees including Hari Gautam Committee, Yashpal Committee and even National Knowledge Commission had recommended the same. But the recommendations were never executed.

Al Qaida’s Zakir Musa calls Indian Muslims “shameless” for not joining jihad

OpIndia Staff
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Al Qaida’s Zakir Musa calls Indian Muslims “shameless” for not joining jihad

Former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, who recently joined Al Qaeda to establish Islamic State of Kashmir, has released an audio recording calling the Indian Muslims as beghairat qaum (shameless community) for not joining Islamic jihad for the Ghazwa-e-Hind (the final and last battle for the conquest of India).

Ghazwa-e-Hind is a radical Islamic term predicting the conquest of the whole Indian sub-continent by Muslim warriors “in the last and final battle”.

In the 4-minute audio clip, shared via Telegram and WhatsApp groups, the tech-shavvy terrorist insisted that the “war” is not just limited to Kashmir. “It is a war between Islam and the infidel,” he said.  “Our beloved prophet has assured Jannat to those who participate in the conquest of Hind,” he added.

Musa spoke in Kashmiri-accent Urdu. This was Musa’s first direct address to Indian Muslims as an Al-Qaeda operative. According to this report, two senior officials of Jammu & Kashmir Police confirmed it was Musa’s voice.

Musa began his audio message with a call to his supporters to come meet him with their weapons. “Those who claim to represent me must visit me with their weapons and I will serve them well,” the Al Qaeda terrorist said with a scornful laugh.


The clip shows a black Al-Qaeda banner, with a world map embed in it, as a background against Musa’s picture with Kalashnikovs rifles emblazoned on his two sides. The clip was interspersed with Islamic quotes in English and Urdu and pictures of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who was killed by the US Navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011. In addition, the clip carried a background display of the picture and quote of Al Qaeda’s former recruiter Imam Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in 2011.

“The fact that the whole world is against one religion shows just how powerful that religion is,” reads a background quote.

In an oblique reference to Hurriyat leaders who have been insisting on resolution of the Kashmir issue under UN resolutions, Musa quoted Laden, “If they want to solve our tragedies of today in the United Nations, then they are merely hypocrites who are seeking to deceive Allah and his messenger and the believers. Are not all our tragedies only because of the UN?”

In a rant against Indian Muslims, for calling that ‘Islam is for peace’, Musa said, “Indian Muslims are the most ‘beghairat qaum’ (shameless community) in the world who cannot speak up against ‘oppression’ and ‘injustice’. Is this what our Prophet and his ‘salafs’ (followers) have taught us? They should be ashamed of calling themselves Muslims.”

Referring to the Islamic Jung-e-Badr (The battle of Badr) of 624 CE, Musa said Indian Muslims have forgotten about the historic battle. “They were 313 and ruled the world. We are crores now but only as slaves,” he said.

The terrorist, who had succeeded Burhah Wani earlier, urged the Indian Muslims to show the “muscle of Islam” by joining jihad. “You still have a chance to stand up and join us. Come forward, we establish Sharia not just in India but across the world,” he said.

Zakir Musa recently featured in the list of 12 dreaded terrorists, operating in the Kashmir Valley, released by Indian Army. He has been marked as A++ category terrorist by the Indian Army.

Earlier, Musa as the Hizbul Mujahideen commander had called the separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders “hypocrites”, “infidels”, “followers of evil” and had threatened to chop off their heads and hang them in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk “if they create hurdles in the path of making Kashmir an Islamic state”.

Musa parted ways with the Hizbul recently in a step that could be a tactic to pander to Islamist crowd in Kashmir while keeping a ‘secular’ facade to get international and intellectual support.

Sadhvi Pragya should have got bail in half an hour: Senior advocate who fought her case

Rahul Roushan
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Sadhvi Pragya should have got bail in half an hour: Senior advocate who fought her case

After spending more than 8 years in custody, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on April 25 this year was finally granted bail by the Bombay High Court. She was arrested on charges of plotting a conspiracy to carry out Malegaon blasts, which took place on September 29 in 2008 in the Malegaon region of Nashik district of Maharashtra that had left 4 dead and around 80 injured.

The lead counsel who represented Sadhvi Pragya in the case is Nagpur based senior advocate Avinash Gupta. Talking exclusively to OpIndia.com, Mr. Gupta shared some interesting information that shed lights over this important case, which is often touted as an example of “Hindu terrorism”.

Following are the highlights from the interview:

Q1: At what stage did you get involved with this case?

Ans: I was approached by some followers and relatives of Sadhvi around Diwali last year. They wanted to engage a designated senior counsel to argue on their behalf in the High Court, where they had filed an appeal in July last year. I think it was her fourth appeal for bail. The trial court had rejected the bail in the same month (July 2016) even though NIA had failed to find conclusive evidence against her a month prior to that. They decided to challenge that in High Court, at which stage I and my son advocate Aakash Gupta got involved.

Q2: Had you been tracking this case otherwise? What made you agree to argue the case for bail?

Ans: I had followed the case only to the extent it was in news. I was not privy to many details. It was an entirely professional decision. When I looked at the facts of the case, I wondered why she had been denied bail for so long. She should have got bail within half an hour in the first instance itself.

Q3: What makes you feel so?

Ans: It is not about my feeling, it is about facts. I will come to the facts later, but talking in layman terms, one can be granted bail if there is enough evidence to doubt the involvement in a crime or if the person is not in a position to influence probe when out on bail. Sadhvi met both these criteria.

Q4: In that case, why did courts deny her bail for so long?

Ans: Frankly one can only conjecture. Earlier denial could have been due to the fact that as investigations were still pending, and also the fact that acts like MCOCA were invoked. But her bail application being denied in July 2016, even after NIA failed to find enough evidence against her, goes against accepted logic. It was argued that there was ‘no change in circumstances’ even after the NIA gave clean chit. This was absurd.

The trial court repeatedly observed in the order rejecting the bail of Sadhvi that there were no change in circumstances, in spite of the High Court observing in the connected matter that the filing of the charge sheet by NIA as well as observations of the Apex court were material change in circumstances. In spite of these observations and the above order of the High court being on record, the trial court rendered such observations, which are contemptuous.

Maybe the media pressure could be a factor too. This case was prejudiced by media. Media published articles like ‘Indian Muslims will lose faith in democracy if Sadhvi Pragya walks free’. This is absurd and contemptuous, but many times judiciary also fails to ignore the media pressure and narrative. I can’t think of other reasons.

Prejudiced articles in media
Such articles are virtual contempt of court as they question the competence of judiciary, advocate Gupta said.

Q5: You said there was enough evidence to doubt Sadhvi’s involvement, could you please share those details?

Ans: See, the biggest evidence that the ATS, which investigated the case till 2011 when NIA took over, claimed to have against Sadhvi was her motorcycle that was allegedly used in the blasts. She is supposed to have offered her motorcycle as plan of the conspiracy. But there are two glaring loopholes in this that dispute the ownership of the motorcycle.

First loophole is this: ATS says that the conspiracy was hatched between January 2008 and September 2008, where various closed-door meetings of Sadhvi and her colleagues took place. In two such meetings, she is supposed to have offered her support.

However, the material evidence on records reveal that she had sold her motorcycle much earlier than these dates. Coming from a poor family, she had taken bank loan to buy the motorcycle. Records show that she repaid the loan much earlier than the original repayment period, presumably because she got the money from the buyer after selling off her motorcycle.

Similarly, the ATS itself had recorded the statement of a garage owner and also seized contemporaneous records maintained by him which clearly demonstrated that the said motorcycle was regularly possessed and owned by the absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra.

All this happened much before the alleged period when the conspiracy was hatched. How can she offer her motorcycle when it was not hers in first place in those dates?

(Editor’s note: as per a former ATS officer, Ramji Kalsangra was killed by ATS and his body was disposed off as a victim of Mumbai terror attacks. Advocate Avinash Gupta refused to comment on this theory)

Now the second loophole is even more interesting.

After the blasts took place and a damaged motorcycle was found on the spot, which was assumed to have been used to carry the blasts, Nashik Rural Police started investigations. They found that a fake number plate was used. To ascertain ownership, they asked the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Nashik to decipher the chassis number and the engine number.

On 7 October 2008, FSL said that they were unable to decipher the chassis number and can not determine the engine number with certainty. They gave 3 possible engine numbers to the police, which was then forwarded to the motorcycle manufacturing company LML. On 6 November 2008, LML said that they did not manufacture any of these three numbers, but gave two closely matching numbers. Police then traced these two numbers, one of which was sold to Sadhvi in Surat.

Now this might look like a proper forensic analysis to you, but in legal terms, this is not something that passes as reliable evidence. Both the FSL and LML Motorcycles came up with estimations, not certain information. Further, what makes this entire investigation suspect is the fact that the station diary entry of the police mentioned the registration number belonging to Sadhvi on 11 October 2008. How did they find the registration number in October itself when LML came up with closely matching engine numbers only later in November?

Q6: Are you saying it was all set up to link it back to Sadhvi?

Ans: I don’t know. All I am saying is that there was no credible evidence that could prove beyond doubt that Sadhvi owned the motorcycle at time of the blast. This is why I said that she deserved to get bail in half an hour itself.

Advocates of Sadhvi Pragya
Senior advocate Avinash Gupta (sitting in front) and advocate Aakash Gupta, who represented Sadhvi in Bombay High Court.

Q7: Is the ownership of the motorcycle the only proof, rather argument, about her involvement?

Ans: There are statements of some witnesses too who claim to have attended the meetings where the conspiracy is alleged to have been hatched. These statements were recorded by the ATS.

First of all, ATS can’t really treat them as ‘witnesses’. If these people attended closed door meetings where a conspiracy to carry out bomb blasts was hatched, and they did not bother to inform the police, they should be considered conspirators and accused, not witnesses. They may turn approver later in the court and the court may pardon them, but the ATS has no power to pardon them.

Furthermore, most of these witnesses have retracted their statements given to the ATS after NIA took over the investigations, claiming they were pressurised and tortured into giving the statements. Some of them even claim that such meetings did not happen and ATS created this story.

As per my information, some of these ‘witnesses’ have even approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with their complaint against the ATS.

Q8: Do you really think NHRC will give a favourable hearing? After all, “Hindu terror” theory is something the Congress-left ecosystem is supposed to support. Why will they support something that punctures this theory?

Ans: That is something I can’t comment upon. I can however tell you that these guys don’t appear to have any institutional or what you call as ecosystem support. My own involvement in this case is an example of that. These guys approached me on the recommendation of a retired judge who knew me. I charged them professional fees. There was no institutional involvement of any organisation or big figure.

Q9: Does the “other side” get institutional support?

Ans: I have heard that there is a big fund running in the range of over 100 crore rupees that is used to defend people who are suspected to have been wrongly accused of terror charges based on their religion. Big shot lawyers and activists are involved using the fund. But it is all activism, which I feel is lacking in the case of Sadhvi.

Q10: Some people may claim that NIA giving clean chit to Sadhvi itself is a part of institutional support. Because the clean chit came after there was BJP government?

Ans: First of all, the case was transferred from ATS to NIA in 2011, when Congress was in power in both Maharashtra as well as in centre, so I find this argument weak.

Secondly, you can’t choose to believe the NIA or ATS when it suits your theory. Remember there were two blast cases in Malegaon – one in 2008, where Sadhvi was accused by the ATS, and another one in 2006 where ATS had accused some Muslims. One Muslim in the 2006 blasts case had even turned approver.

However, when cases were transferred to NIA, it rejected the ATS investigation of 2006 Malegaon blasts and instead implicated some Hindus, who are still under trial. ATS maintains that their original investigation was right, but those people who are now doubting NIA in the Sadhvi case appear to have accepted the NIA version in the 2006 case.

Q11: Sadhvi Pragya has said she is a victim of an elaborate conspiracy to UPA trying to invent “Hindu terror” and has claimed she was tortured too.

Ans: As I said, I was involved only during the bail application. These matters should be brought up during the trial, and I will reserve my comments for that.

Q12: Will you represent Sadhvi in her trial too and try to get her acquitted?

Ans: Depends upon if my services are needed. But I think she has a strong case and should be acquitted.

(the interview was conducted last month in Mumbai by Rahul Roushan and Aditya Raman)

This is what happened when Rahul Gandhi started his journey of reading Gita

Kansaratva
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This is what happened when Rahul Gandhi started his journey of reading Gita

Rahul Gandhi introspected, this time truly, on what he can do to seriously take on BJP and RSS. His jibes had fallen flat, or worse, ricocheted. So, Rahul had this brilliant idea one morning when he woke up at night, that he would read Gita and Upanishads.

There was a little problem though. Who would teach him to read? To read Gita that is.

Rahul first met his closest advisor, Digvijay Singh.

RaGa: Digvijay ji, tell me about Gita.
Diggy (without hesitation): sau taka tunch maal, Rahul ji!
RaGa (shaking his head): Bhagvad Gita!
Diggy (at a loss): Bhagwat? Why don’t we release a book “Gita ki Saazish”? I will invite Mahesh and Zakir too.

Exasperated by this farrago of misunderstanding, machinations, and perversion masquerading as serious politics, Rahul decided to reach out to an erudite Shashi Tharoor.

RaGa: Shashi, can you tell me about Gita?
ST: The figmental yet philosophical prestidigitation that the deity with pavonine plume on his diadem…

Not happening boss, Rahul said to himself. He wanted a simpler teacher. So that left Manish Tewari out. Rahul then talked to Mani Shankar Aiyar.

RaGa: Mani, Diggi and Tharoor couldn’t tell me about Gita. Can you help me out?
MSA: I told you, Rahul ji, inhe hataaiye humein le aaiye..
RaGa: laayeing laayeinge, pahle aap humein bataiye..
MSA: Rahul ji, instead of teaching you what the terrible troglodytes talked about, why don’t we meet the descendants of Duryodhana?

Rahul shook his head and decided to look beyond his party now. He thought of his new friend, Stalin.

Stalin: Gita is an Aryan conspiracy to impose Inthi on…

Rahul fled before Stalin could explain how “Stalin” is a lovely Dravidian name. Just like his father’s.

The Congress vice president then went to meet comrade Sitaram Yechury. The CPM leader was with a Youth Congress leader when Rahul arrived. On seeing the party vice president, the 64-year old was excited and fell on Rahul’s feet. Yechury did a Lal Salaam.

A dead animal was lying on the ground, hacked and bloody. An NDTV journo was calling it an “ox” for some reason. Rahul was not bothered. He was determined to learn Gita, and Sitaram was his new hope.

RaGa: Yechury ji, do you know about Gita?
Yechury (tapping on his iPhone): Comrade, Gita says that eating beef is a fundamental right.

It was frustrating now. He needed someone who could understand him better. Finally he thought about his family, and so he turned to Robbert Vadra.

RaGa: Jijaji, can you tell me about Gita lessons?
Vadra: Same Gita that was narrated during the battle Kurukshetra? It has important lessons. Duryodhana was a genius man, took the whole land away.

Rahul was seriously worried now. That smile that he had after 2014 defeat was gone now. No one was helping him learn Gita to take over BJP. He then decided that he should talk to someone who is RW (Right Winger) and yet willing to help him out.

After a few weeks he was ready, a new Rahul. The dimples were deeper, the smile was sweeter, and the kurta was whiter with more holes.

He declared he was ready to take on BJP and RSS. Party workers and independent journalists danced in joy. A big rally was announced. All news channels were ready to beam it live. Even Narendra Modi and Amit Shah huddled together and switched on the TV.

Armed with Gita lessons, and bonus Upanishads lessons learnt from his last guru, Rahul went on stage and thundered.

“Do you know what the Gita says? Sangostavakarmani. Do you know what it means? The Sangh makes money.”

“You know there is a whole Upanishad called Isa which is about living cordially with Christians? RSS doesn’t want you to know this.”

“Even Buddha said, sangham saranam gachhami. You know what it means? Pray that the Sangh goes away. RSS doesn’t want you to know this.”

Modi and Shah were utterly awed as Rahul threw such gems at the unsuspecting public. They knew he was their asset, but this was just awesome. They looked at each other and smiled.

After finding out that even this bookish ploy of defeating BJP and RSS didn’t work, Rahul Gandhi never ever worked with Rahul Easwar again.

Rahul Easwar
Honorable Rahul Easwar

NDTV deletes blog post written by Kapil Mishra that was critical of Kejriwal

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV deletes blog post written by Kapil Mishra that was critical of Kejriwal

Rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra, who has made many sensational claims about corruption and misdeeds by Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government of Delhi, has now claimed that his views critical of Arvind Kejriwal are being supressed by news broadcaster NDTV.

Yesterday, Kapil Mishra had shared a blog post that was published on the Hindi website of NDTV. The blog post was titled “yeh hain Arvind Kejriwal ke brahmastra”, which loosely translates to “these are the ultimate weapons of Arvind Kejriwal”:


In the blog post, Mishra had claimed that Kejriwal uses lies, deceit, treachery and conspiracy as weapons against those whom he considers threat to his political ambitions. The AAP MLA claimed in the post that these ‘weapons’ were used against Anna Hazare, Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and also against Kumar Vishwas, who is still with AAP.

The blog post made a sensational claim that emails and other messages that targeted Kumar Vishwas’s personal life by terming him a lecherous man who was cheating on his wife, originated from an IP address that was of Kejriwal’s house. The article claimed that a ‘report’ confirming the same exists and Vishwas is in possession of the same.

Another sensational claim made in the blog post was about the death of AAP worker Santosh Koli, who died after meeting an accident in 2013. Mishra claimed that he talked to parents and brother of Santosh and came to know that the death was a political assassination and Kejriwal had a role in it. The blog post though did not ascribe any direct role of Kejriwal in the alleged assassination.

The blog post further recalled an incident involving an unnamed AAP worker and close aide of Manish Sisodia, who apparently was removed from the party on behest of Kejriwal as he had tweeted in support of Kumar Vishwas. Later, Mishra re-tweeted a message by a person who claimed to be the same AAP worker who was removed for supporting Vishwas.

The blog post made news despite being published on a day India and Pakistan met in Champions Trophy. However, the post was gone early this morning. The link to the article was sending people to the home page of Hindi NDTV website. A google archive of the article is available on this link though.

Kapil Mishra claimed that NDTV did not provide him any reasons or explanation on why the blog post was deleted by them. He hinted that the broadcaster was biased in favour of Kejriwal:


Incidentally, Arvind Kejriwal later tweeted in support of NDTV condemning CBI raids at the residences of its founder Prannoy Roy. Mishra took a dig both at NDTV and the AAP supremo by reminding people how Kejriwal used to abuse media and that the case against NDTV and its founders was about financial fraud that had nothing to do with free speech or independent journalism.

Army tightening noose on anti-India forces, helping Centre in development push in Kashmir

Saswat Panigrahi
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Army tightening noose on anti-India forces, helping Centre in development push in Kashmir

Indian Army, with the strong backing of the Centre, is going aggressive against the anti-India forces operating in and around Kashmir. At the same time, it is swiftly implementing Government of India’s agenda in carrying out development push and weaning away the Valley’s youth, away from militancy, through education and jobs.

Kashmir has been on the boil since the Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed by the Army in July last year. Seventy-six people and two police personnel were killed during the five-month-long unrest following the killing of the terrorist.

Ever since the recent by-poll to Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, a fresh spurt violence broke out in the valley. There is a palpable tension in the valley with the separatist forces calling for a 2016-like protests. The Valley has witnessed a spurt in incidents of violence and terrorist attacks in the last couple of months. But the Army has been controlling the situation with an iron first.

“The tempo of our operations has been significantly higher than previous years and it will remain high in the coming months. Our approach is way more aggressive than before and has the backing of the force’s top hierarchy,” a senior Army officer was quoted as saying.

According to Defence experts, what has led to the aggressive approach of the Army in Kashmir is that the government’s strong backing to the Army’s operations in Kashmir.

A young Army officer – Major Leetul Gogoi – had used a Kashmiri protester named Farooq Dar as a human shield against the stone pelters in Budgam on April 9 while moving a convoy of election officials and ballot boxes to safety. Following this act, Major Gogoi was awarded by the Army. Army chief General Bipin Rawat has praised Major Gogoi saying that the dirty war has to be fought with innovative ways. The government has stood by the Indian Army on the incident at a time when the Army is coming under attack by a section of political class.

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 Army has launched Operation Clean Up to flush South Kashmir of terrorists. About a dozen terrorists, including Burhan Wani’s successor Sabzar Bhat, were gunned down by the Army over the last two weeks. The Indian Army has released a list of 12 dreaded terrorists operating in the Kashmir Valley.

At the same time, the Army has been carrying out “punitive fire assaults” against Pakistani posts. “The encounters were a result of ‘relentless operations’ by security forces to defeat the desperate attempts by Pakistan and Pak-sponsored agents to spread terror in Kashmir”, an Army statement said.

The Army, on 26 May, avenged 1 May beheading of two soldiers by killing two men from Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT). BAT, a rogue division of Pakistani Army, is primarily tasked for dominating the LoC by carrying out disruptive actions. It basically works in tandem with Pakistani terrorists waiting to sneak into Indian territory. In a clean break from the past, the Indian Army tweeted:


The Indian Army, on 23 May, has released a rare video of heavy artillery blasting. This is a clear departure from the past also.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had expressed satisfaction over the “aggressive domination” and “readiness” of the troops along the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir. “The aggressive domination and readiness of troops for befitting response to any misadventure by enemy is very satisfying,” Jaitley said. He stated that the force was not only dominating the LoC but also applying pressure on terrorist cadre.

Amid all these, the Army is carrying forward the Centre’s focus on education, jobs and development in Kashmir valley.

The Army is running scores of schools in the civilian areas of the Valley. The schools are getting very good response from the young students.

Hundreds of Kashmiri youth appeared for the Army recruitment test in Kashmir, on 28 May, rejecting the bandh call given by the separatists and defying the threat call by the terrorists.

Continuing the Centre’s development push in the Valley, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 27 April took stock of the implementation of the Rs 80,000 crore development package announced by the Prime Minister for Jammu & Kashmir. The package was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November, 2015. So far, Rs 17,000 crore has been released to the state government by the Centre.

“The Home Ministry has a multi-pronged strategy which includes building of infrastructure and capacity and generation of employment opportunities coupled with firm handling of criminal activities,” Ashok Prasad, Union Home Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying. The Centre is involving the Army for the successful implementation of the crucial development projects.

Pregnant Muslim woman burnt alive by family for marrying Hindu man in Karnataka

OpIndia Staff
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Pregnant Muslim woman burnt alive by family for marrying Hindu man in Karnataka

In a shocking case of dis-honour killing, a young Muslim woman died after being burnt alive by her family members for marrying a man outside her religion. The incident happened in Gundakanala village of Bijapur district of Karnataka.

the 21-year-old Muslim woman named Banu Begum had reportedly fell in love with 24-year-old Sayabanna Sharanappa Konnur, a Hindu boy belonging to the Valimiki caste. Both Banu and Sayabanna are residents of the same village. When Banu’s parents learnt about their relationship in January this year, they had brutally assaulted Sayabanna.

“The day Banu’s parents found out about their relationship, they had dragged her to the police station. They had created a huge ruckus and had demanded that the police file a POCSO case against Sayabanna claiming that their daughter was a minor,” PK Patil, Talikote DSP, was quoted as saying. After an enquiry, the police dropped the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses) case lodged against Konnur.

Following this incident, Banu and Sayabanna eloped to Goa to get married. They later got their marriage registered at the at the sub-registrar’s office in Muddebihal in Karnataka. When Banu got pregnant, the couple returned to their village thinking that their families would accept their wedlock. As the couple came back to Gundakanala village on last Saturday (3 June) and met their families with the news of Banu’s pregnancy, a huge fight raged.

“Banu’s parents wanted her to leave Sayabanna and the boy’s father was also not too pleased with the marriage. On Saturday night, when the couple refused to give in to their families’ demands, Sayabanna’s father, along with Banu’s mother, brother and sister brutally assaulted him,” the DSP said.

Sayabanna was bitten all over his body and Banu’s mother had pelted stones at him. But Sayabanna managed to escape and ran to the Talikote Police Station for help. A severely injured Sayabanna informed the police about the incident, sought help and ran back to Banu’s place to save her. But by the time he reached Banu’s house, her family members had set her on fire.

Sayabanna, meanwhile, begged for help to save her wife’s life but Banu’s neighbours went inside their homes and locked their doors while she was being burnt. Police claims to have reached Banu’s house 10 minutes after Sayabanna reached out to them, but by that time everything was over. Banu had been stabbed multiple times before being set on fire, police said. Sayabanna sustained injuries in the process of dousing flames from her wife’s body.

The police have arrested Banu’s mother, sister, brother-in-law and brother in connection with the shocking incident. Four other accused – two elder sisters of Banu and her two brothers – are still at large.

It’s not CBI raids on NDTV but the arrogance of media that threatens democracy

Abhishek Banerjee
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It’s not CBI raids on NDTV but the arrogance of media that threatens democracy

It happens every other day in India. Raids by some branch of law enforcement – police, CBI, ED, IT sleuths, et al. – on some individual or some business. Jewellers get raided, factories and their owners get raided. Politicians and industrialists get raided. Film stars and cricket players get raided.

So why does it matter if a raid happens on NDTV? Why is the reaction different? Here are just three samples – one that virtually threatens the law enforcement agencies with trail by media, another that declares it akin to Emergency (attack on democracy), and third one that suddenly finds such raids ‘barbaric’:


Why such extreme rhetoric? No, Mr. Praveen Swami, CBI raids are not ‘defining moment’. The last time this sort of thing happened was probably last week. Check local news reports from all across our vast nation. I am sure you will find that some business owner or executive was raided by police during the last week.

In fact, such raids have probably happened somewhere or the other in the country on every single working day for last several decades. And Indian democracy is doing just fine. It would have been in danger if media would have done what Tavleen Singh suggests – oppose every CBI raid (Lalu would love that suggestion by the way).

So what makes the current CBI raid special that warrants such extreme, almost hallucinatory, reactions? The fact that these are raids against a business that sells a very specific product : news.

If a jeweller or shopkeeper is raided by law enforcement, it’s not an assault on democracy. If you raid a ‘news trader’, only then is it an assault on democracy. Huh. Why?

The media would probably chafe at the term “news trader”, as if it is some kind of insult. What’s wrong with being a trader? Business creates wealth. If only Nehru and his descendants had understood this simple fact, they would not have led us into a four decade long disaster of aligning with the wrong side of history.

But no, the media looks down on the word “trader”. In an attitude that can only be described as Brahminical, the media claims to live in some higher intellectual heaven. What they sell is more than just a product, it is some kind of divine prasad that we should be eternally grateful for.

I checked. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, there are over 15 lakh registered companies in India. NDTV is just one of them. Nothing more, nothing less.

If media in general and/or NDTV in particular has a heightened sense of self, or some sense of entitlement, that is their problem. You know, like this:

NDTV statement on CBI raids

No, NDTV you are not an “institution of India”. You are just one of the 15 lakh+ companies in the country. Get over yourself.

If you insist on being put on some higher pedestal than other ‘traders’, let us, for argument’s sake, promote you and put you along with some ‘professionals’ and ‘service providers’. In fact, let us give you – media and journalists – another promotion, and not club you along with CAs (professionals) or mobile companies (service providers).

Let us give you a higher status, like a Teacher (considered even more important than god in the Hindu tradition you love to hate) or a Doctor (considered another form of god in the same tradition). The role and importance of a journalist is definitely not more important than these two in the modern world; I hope you have the modesty to accept that. But if you introspect, you know that you don’t deserve this high status.

You need to study hard to become a doctor, and your license is revoked if you indulge in malpractices. But in your industry, you just need ‘connections’ to become a journalist, and your career is not impacted when you are found indulged in fixing ministries or doing PR work or even manufacturing facts.

Being a teacher is also so dissimilar to being a journalist. You have to pass some exams, including Maths. There are some standards you should meet. So unlike journalism, you see. By the way, raids have been carried out against teachers and they have been arrested if they are found to indulge in malpractices. Here is an NDTV report on the same. I did not hear any teacher crying attack on education or insult to Maa Saraswati.

If you are honest, you know that you don’t deserve to be equated with doctors or teachers, for there is no similarity between your industry and theirs. You deserve to be equated with ‘traders’ only. Just like anyone can open a shop and become a trader, anyone can launch a newspaper, a TV channel, or a website and become a journalist. You are nothing but ‘news traders’ in true sense.

You are a trader who looks down upon other trades and traders. A trader who demands special status. A trader who seeks power without accountability. A trader with a sense of entitlement.

The same sense of entitlement operates when conventional media bashes the social media. The most common technique is to dismiss social media as “trolls” and the most common smear is to call them “misogynist”. You have been carrying out “raids” against anyone speaking against you. Thus there is no wonder that there is a sense of glee among masses when you are being raided.

Instead of creating fake outrage, introspect why you have come to this level. It is your arrogance. CBI raids should be least of your concern.

We do need institutions that can act as watchdogs in a democracy, but that institution can not be built with the arrogance that you proudly possess. That institution has to have the relationship of mutual respect, trust, and accountability with the public. You hate all three when it comes down to those. Public has to blindly follow your diktats and be in awe of your grand status. Sorry mate, it can not work this way.

If the conventional media thinks that a handful of their media workers could do a better job than the collective intelligence of the masses, it is really their problem. Technology has always gotten rid of low skilled jobs and it may just be the turn of the old media.

In short, media is a business. Privately owned. Privately operated. Be prepared to operate within the same system as every other business. I can’t believe you expected anything else.

You being treated the same as other businesses is not the problem, your entitlement without accountability is.

CBI raids at Prannoy Roy’s residence – read what NDTV and Roys are accused of

OpIndia Staff
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CBI raids at Prannoy Roy’s residence – read what NDTV and Roys are accused of

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the residence of New Delhi Television (NDTV) Limited co-founder and executive chairperson Prannoy Roy this morning. The CBI reportedly conducted searches at at four places including Delhi and Dehradun.

The raid was part a crackdown for bank frauds. The CBI has registered a case against Prannoy Roy, his wife and co-founder of the channel Radhika Roy, a private company and others for allegedly defrauding a private bank.

The case is related to a Rs 396 crore fraud on ICICI Bank. Reports suggest that Roys took Rs 396 crore loan from ICICI Bank to shell company RRPR Holding showing NDTV assets. Rs 21 crore and Rs 71 crore were then diverted to the bank account of Prannoy and Radhika Roy respectively.

Reacting to the CBI raids, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Subramanian Swamy said, “Fear of law is necessary and it should be applied no matter who you are.”

Swamy had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to direct the CBI to file case against NDTV under Prevention of Corruption Act. Alleging that NDTV was a party to Aircel-Maxis scam, during the Congress rule, Swamy had said it received illegal money from Maxis subsidiary Astro. Swamy further said that the money, received by NDTV from Maxis, was “illegally approved” by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram to “benefit his son” Karthi Chidambaram.

The Roys are being probed for contraventions of tax laws and laws involving foreign money. A report published in Caravan Magazine suggests that a series of financial transactions that the Roys have carried out from the mid 2000s onwards have been under close investigation by government agencies.

In 2013, Sanjay Dutt, director of a financial-services firm Quantum Securities who owned around 125,000 shares in NDTV, had filed complaints with Enforcement Directorate and Directorate General of Income Tax alleging that that NDTV and its promoters had violated a number of laws. In January 2015, Dutt had filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court against Enforcement Directorate and Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation alleging that both agencies failed to act on his complaints.

The Enforcement Directorate, in November last year, had slapped a show cause notice to NDTV for flouting foreign exchange regulations while bringing foreign investments to the tune of Rs 2,030 crore between 2007-10.

A book named ‘NDTV Frauds’, written by Sree Iyer, talks in detail about alleged illegalities committed by the media group.

The raids come on a day the broadcaster is taking its English business news channel NDTV Profit off air. It could be noted that NDTV Profit continued to have the lowest TRP among the genre of business-economy channels. Even the general news channels in Hindi and English have failed to top the TRP charts.

During the quarter ending 31 December 2016, NDTV had reported a consolidated revenue loss of Rs 18 crore following a dip in advertising revenue. Facing financial losses, the channel has put its assets on sale.

NDTV is facing three-fold challenges – revenue loss, fraud and credibility crisis. NDTV, primarily a left-leaning television news channel, often faces a lot of flak in social media for taking partisan stand against the Modi government and the BJP, using half truths and manipulation of facts. Incidentally, after the Congress lost power in 2014 general elections, the broadcaster is facing financial crisis.

At the same time the credibility of the channel is on a further downside with its anchors peddling fake news, channel being silent on crimes by relatives of NDTV journalists, and the channel giving platform to people who are abusive and violent.

NDTV also came under severe criticism for its coverage on the terror attack at Pathankot airbase. In November last year, the government had ordered a one day token ban on NDTV India, after an inter-ministerial panel constituted by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry recommended this action. The ban was ultimately not executed, even as the channel refused to apologise for Pathankot coverage.

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