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Uttarakhand govt to abolish Revenue Police system after its flaws were highlighted in Ankita Bhandari murder case, files affidavit in Supreme Court

OpIndia Staff
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Uttarakhand govt to abolish Revenue Police system after its flaws were highlighted in Ankita Bhandari murder case, files affidavit in Supreme Court

In a major development following the Ankita Bhandari murder case, the Uttarakhand State Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to end the Revenue Police system prevalent in several districts in the state and replace it with the regular police instead. This decision was conveyed to the Supreme Court during a hearing on the matter.

Deputy Advocate General State of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi informed the Supreme Court that the State Cabinet in its meeting held on October 12, 2022, decided to bring those areas under the jurisdiction of regular police which that are presently being policed by the revenue police.

The Pushkar Singh Dhami government’s decision conforms to a High Court order in 2018, which had asked the govt to replace the revenue police with regular police for criminal cases. The state government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court informing about the decision to implement the High Court order. Earlier, the state govt had approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order, but now they have decided to take a U-turn after the serious flaws in the existing system were exposed by the Ankita Bhandari murder case. A separate plea was also filed with the apex court urging to direct the state govt to reform the policing system in the state.

After the affidavit of the Uttarakhand govt, the Supreme Court stopped hearing the case. A bench of CJI UU Lalit and justice Bela M Trivedi said that the govt has informed it about the decision taken in a cabinet meeting on 12th October, where the cabinet decided to follow the Nainital High Court order to abolish the revenue police system. Therefore, there is no need for the apex court to get involved in the matter now. With this, the court dismissed all petitions filed in relation to the revenue police system in Uttarakhand.

However, the change will be done in stages, not in one go. The Uttrakhand Government told that in the first phase, all heinous crimes including crimes against women, kidnapping, cyber-crime, POCSO etc shall be handed over to the Regular Police by the District Magistrates immediately and State Administration shall prepare a detailed blueprint for remaining areas and prepare the necessary proposal for up gradation of Cadre Strength of the existing police, necessary Infrastructure for Police Stations and outposts etc along with cost implications and means of financing. All these will be put up for decision of the State Cabinet after six months.

“In the interim, the District Magistrates shall continue to keep a close watch on crime reported in their respective districts and each case will be assessed for the necessity of handling by regular police and decisions taken accordingly by the District Magistrate on a case to case basis,” the state govt said in the court.

Accepting the state govt’s affidavit and dismissing the cases, the bench said, “though the issues raised in the Special Leave Petition do call for authoritative pronouncement, in view of the decision taken by the State Cabinet in its meeting on October 12, principally accepting the decision of the High Court and taking appropriate steps to implement said directions, we see no reason to interfere with the present petition. The Special Leave petition is therefore disposed of leaving all questions of law open.” 

After the transition is complete, in the districts where the 161-year-old Patwari police system was in place, criminal cases will be handled and investigated by regular police. The state govt is in the process of opening new police stations in those places.

The revenue police system is in place in around 7500 revenue villages in the state, and in the first phase around 1500 villages will be brought under regular police. The state government aims to complete the transition to regular police in the next two to three years.

The questions on the Patwari police system had come up again in the backdrop of the Ankita Bhandari murder case, as the local Patwari police’s action had come under intense scrutiny following the case. It was found that the revenue police in the Ankita Bhandari murder case did not register a complaint in time and also favoured the accused resort owner Pulkit Arya. Ankita Bhandari was murdered on September 18 however, no complaint was registered by the local Patwari even after informing about the victim’s disappearance.

Instead of registering the case after it was reported that Ankita had gone missing, Patwari Vaibhav Pratap had chosen to be silent and then went on leave. Three accused in the case were arrested only after the case was registered and transferred to the regular police on September 22. The regular police charged the Vanantra resort owner Pulkit Arya and two others under the relevant sections of the IPC for murdering Bhandari, who worked at the resort. Patwari Pratap was suspended and eventually arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for carelessness and siding with the accused.

The Revenue Police system

The revenue police system was introduced by the British over a century ago when crimes were low in the mountainous districts. The goal was to conserve money and resources by not deploying the regular police in the area. British Indian government had regularised this system under the Scheduled Districts Act passed in 1874. Under this law, the patwari was given the power of a station officer of police. The system was continued even after independence, as the crime rates in those areas were still low and the existing revenue police system was working fine.

Civil officials of the revenue department have the powers and responsibilities of ordinary police officers under the unique revenue police system. According to this system, whenever a crime occurs in the region, the revenue police register an FIR, investigate the matter, arrest the culprit, and file a charge sheet in the local court.

While revenue officers perform police duties under this system, they are not given weapons. This has earned them the nickname ‘Gandhi Police’.

However, the case is transferred to normal police in cases of grave crimes such as murder, rape, or offences against Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The procedure might take days or even months since the revenue police first forward the information to the district Superintendent of Police (SP), who then transfers the case to a normal police station. Often, the delay causes vital evidence to vanish or undermines the case in other ways. Moreover, as the revenue officials are not trained to perform police duties, and they have the responsibilities of the revenue department also, investigations by them get delayed.

Although Uttarakhand has a regular police force, its authority does not extend to certain mountainous areas. Currently, the revenue police jurisdiction spans more than 50% of the state’s land area and around 25% of its population. This system is unique to Uttarakhand, in other states, the duties of revenue officials include maintaining records of land, cultivation and land revenue, and collecting revenues. They are also deployed for census and election duties, but they do not perform policing duties in other states.

High Court’s 2018 decision

Earlier in the year 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court had ordered the state government to do away with the century-old practice of the revenue police system. “…more than a century old practice of revenue police system… in many parts of the state of Uttarakhand is ordered to be abolished within six months”, the order by the court read while hearing a case of a woman’s alleged killing by her in-laws for dowry in 2011 in Tehri Garhwal district.

Justices Rajiv Sharma and Alok Singh had said that the revenue police are not qualified to investigate serious offences nor do they know about the laws related to crime like IPC and CrPC. The High Court had ruled that in such a situation, the chances of getting justice for the victim’s family become very less. It had asked the state to abolish the revenue police system within six months. However, the statement government had approached the Supreme Court against this order. But the Supreme Court neither stayed the High Court order nor asked the state govt to implement it, and therefore the existing system continued. There was no hearing in the case since 2019, but things started to move in the apex court after the Ankita Bhandari murder, as a plea was filed asking the court to abolish the old system.

However, now the Uttarakhand Government has changed its position, and the state cabinet approved the plan to replace the state’s revenue police system with regular police. This will be implemented in stages. The territory of current police stations and outposts will be expanded in the first phase.

In addition, approval has been given for six additional police stations and 20 police outposts in locations where tourist and commercial activities are increasing. After this, the duties of the revenue officials will be limited to land-related matters only, like other states.

Bangladesh cancels Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi’s performance in Dhaka: Read why

OpIndia Staff
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Bangladesh cancels Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi’s performance in Dhaka: Read why

Actor and dancer Nora Fatehi was set to dance to the tunes of Bollywood songs in Dhaka soon. But her performance was ‘disallowed’ by the Bangladesh government, leaving the organisers in panic and her fans upset. 

Nora, known for her steamy item songs in Bollywood movies, was not allowed to perform in Dhaka as a part of the Bangladeshi government’s broader austerity measures to “save dollars” amid depleting foreign reserves. 

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs on Monday said Nora was not granted permission permission “given the global situation and to maintain the foreign exchange reserves.”

Nora was scheduled to dance and hand out awards at an event organized by the Women Leadership Corporation.

The move to cancel Nora’s performance came in the wake of the central bank’s restrictions on dollar payments and dwindling foreign exchange reserves in the country. Bangladesh is feeling the heat with the record-high global inflation, coupled with the ongoing war in Ukraine, which came on the back of a devastating coronavirus outbreak that had cratered economies around the world and disrupted global supply chains. 

The country’s foreign reserves slipped to $36.33 billion as of October 12 from $46.13 billion a year earlier. Reports state that the current reserves are only enough to cover roughly four months of imports. As a consequence, the Bangladeshi government undertook several measures, including disallowing activities that involve payment in foreign currency. Nora’s performance fell in that category.

Nora Fatehi has worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films. She had recently featured in the ‘Manike’ song in the upcoming movie ‘Thank God’, which features Ajay Devgn, Siddharth Malhotra, and Rakulpreet. Nora made her on-screen debut in 2014 with the Hindi film Roar: Tigers of the Sundarbans. 

However, she came into the limelight in 2015 after participating in the popular reality show Bigg Boss 9. She has since also competed in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

And since then, she has been a regular fixture in the Indian film industry, especially in performing dance numbers—often referred to as item songs in movies. She has been a part of dance numbers in movies like Baahubali, Satyamev Jayate, and Temper. 

She has also acted in supporting roles in films like Bharat, Street Dancer 3D, and Bhuj: The Pride of India. She currently judges the reality show Dance Deewane.

Rs 200 fine and six-month jail for bursting firecrackers in Delhi, said AAP’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai

OpIndia Staff
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Rs 200 fine and six-month jail for bursting firecrackers in Delhi, said AAP’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai

On October 19, in yet another attack on Hindu festivals, Gopal Rai, the Environment minister of Delhi announced that manufacturing, storing, and selling firecrackers in the national capital is a punishable offence. He added that anyone found indulging in these activities may face a fine of up to Rs 5,000 and a jail term of up to six months.

Furthermore, anyone found purchasing and bursting firecrackers is also a punishable offence. Anyone found indulging in these activities will be fined up to Rs 200 and a jail term of six months. Diwali is on October 24.

Notably, on September 7 this year, Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal announced the re-imposition of a ban on manufacturing, selling, storing, and bursting firecrackers till January 1, including Diwali and other festivals.

A program will be launched by the Delhi government to raise “awareness” among the public of the name ‘Diya Jalao Patakhe Nahi’ on October 21. The government is planning to light 51,000 diyas or earthen lamps at Central Park in Connaught Place.

To impose the ban on firecrackers, the minister said that 408 teams had been formed. 210 teams under the assistant commissioner of police in Delhi Police, 165 teams under the revenue department, and 33 teams under the Delhi Pollution Control Committee have been constituted. These teams will impose the ban on the citizens of Delhi and, if required, will arrest the “accused” for bursting firecrackers on Diwali.

Interestingly, 188 cases of violations have already been registered in Delhi, and the government has seized over 2,900 KG of firecrackers till October 16.

BJP called it an anti-Hindu move

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga lashed out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. In a tweet, he wrote, “Kejriwal is Anti Hindu, first, he banned Chath Pooja at Yamuna Ji, then he banned Crackers in Ravan Dahan, now he is trying to Ban Crackers in Diwali. He also protested against Ram Mandir and supported Batla House Terrorists.”

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari had approached Supreme Court against the ban on firecrackers. However, the apex court denied any relief. OpIndia tried reaching out to Tiwari for comment but could not connect.

Hyderabad: Driver of DAV Public School’s principal sexually assaults a 4-year-old student, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Hyderabad: Driver of DAV Public School’s principal sexually assaults a 4-year-old student, arrested

On Tuesday, the Hyderabad Police arrested an individual named Rajini Kumar for allegedly sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl student studying at the DAV Public School in Banjara Hills. The accused worked as a driver for the school principal and would also handle odd tasks at the school such as maintaining the laboratories and running errands for the staff members.

According to the reports, the girl was repeatedly assaulted over a span of a few months, and it came to light only when the parents of the victim girl noticed changes in her behaviour and questioned her on October 18. The girl had been depressed and crying over the last two months. She was asked by the parents about her school activities when she opened up about being in pain.

The girl then was taken to the Bharosa counselling centre where she revealed that she was in pain and that the accused had taken the advantage of her. She said that the accused used his fingers to sexually assault her in the laboratory which is opposite the principal’s chamber in the school. She also said that she was later brought home.

She was taken to the school on the very next day where she pointed at the accused named Rajini Kumar. The parents then filed a complaint at the Banjara Hills Police Station. The Police arrested the accused and booked the principal of the school for negligence. Meanwhile, the parents of the victim girl caught hold of the accused and thrashed him with a stick, the video of which went viral over social media.

The Hyderabad police have registered a case under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the POCSO Act against the driver. “The parents observed that the girl had become less active and would cry abruptly. On being prodded by parents, the child told them about the driver’s misbehaviour”, the police said.

According to the police, several other students were afraid of the driver who would enter the classrooms in absence of teachers and teach discipline to the students. He would also handle odd tasks at the school such as maintaining the laboratories and running errands for the staff members. The police said that the driver came in contact with the victim during his routine tasks and sexually assaulted her when she was found alone.

However, the principal of the school stated that she was not aware of her driver’s actions. Parents of many other students studying in the DAV Public School in Banjara Hills had already complained about the driver to the principal. Now parents are protesting against the school and demanding justice in the case.

Venkat Sainath, joint secretary, of Hyderabad Schools Parents Association took cognizance of the incident and said, “Cops must ensure the accused gets the severest punishment. Even the school management must be held accountable”. The Police are investigating the matter to check if the accused has harassed or abused other students as stated by the parents.

Woman abducted and brutally gang-raped for 2 days in Ghaziabad, police book Dinu, Shahrukh, Javed, Dhola, and Aurangzeb

OpIndia Staff
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Woman abducted and brutally gang-raped for 2 days in Ghaziabad, police book Dinu, Shahrukh, Javed, Dhola, and Aurangzeb

Five men allegedly kidnapped, gang-raped, and tortured a woman from Delhi for two days in the Uttar Pradesh district of Ghaziabad. The accused rapists also inserted an iron rod into her private parts, packed her in a jute bag, and fled after abandoning her on the roadside.

The victim, a resident of Nandnagari in Delhi, was found lying near Ashram Road in Ghaziabad on October 18 and was taken to the GTB hospital. The woman works as a nurse at a Hospital in Delhi. Police have registered an FIR naming six persons, who have been identified as Dinu, Shahrukh, Javed, Dhola, and Aurangzeb alias Jahir. The police have nabbed 4 people among them so far. The nabbed accused are Shahrukh, Javed, Aurangzeb, and Dinu.

Rajat Jamba, the spokesperson of GTB Hospital informed that on October 18, around 7 am, the victim was brought to the hospital. The victim has been sexually assaulted and has suffered internal injuries. Her condition is stable, Dainik Bhaskar reported.

Nipun Agarwal, Superintendent of Police in Ghaziabad, stated, “On October 18, Nandgram (UP) Police received information that a woman was found lying near Ashram Road. She was taken to the hospital by the police. She is a Delhi resident who had come to her brother’s home in Nandgram.”

“After her brother dropped her off, five people she knew took her away and gang-raped her,” SP Agarwal added.

According to the police, the woman was returning to Delhi after attending a birthday party in Ghaziabad on Sunday and her brother had dropped her off at a bus stand. While she was waiting for the bus there, a car approached the woman and five men dragged her into it. They took her to an undisclosed location and allegedly raped her, according to the police.

The accused had a property dispute with the victim: Police

Notably, SP Agarwal also informed that the perpetrators were known to the victim and that the incident could be linked to a property dispute between the parties. He also claimed that the woman recognized all five men who raped her. According to the police, a case involving the property dispute is sub-judice in Delhi’s Karkarduma Court.

“It is being said that they have a property dispute and the matter is sub-judice. We are taking all necessary action,” SP Agarwal said.

The disputed property is located in Durgapuri Shahdara, Delhi, according to the victim’s brother. “My sister bought the property. We also have the registry documents. However, the accused are refusing to give possession. Sister has filed a case. That is why the accused wants to kill her.”

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) seeks action taken report from Ghaziabad Police

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) took cognizance of the horrific incident and requested an action taken report from Ghaziabad Police by October 21. 

The woman, a Delhi resident, was discovered “wrapped in a jute bag, with her hands and legs tied and an iron rod inserted in her private part,” the DCW stated.

“In Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi Commission for Women has received information about a brutal gang rape with a woman.” The Commission has been informed that the survivor lives in Nandnagari, Delhi, and went to Ghaziabad on October 16 to attend a birthday celebration. Four people kidnapped her in a Scorpio car while she was returning home late at night while waiting for an auto-rickshaw. “They took her to an unknown location where another person was also present,” the commission stated in a letter to the Senior Superintendent of Ghaziabad District Police.

According to a report in India Today, the police rejected the DCW chief’s statements, adding that a tongue cleaner was found in her private part. The report also adds that the victim was raped inside the vehicle.

‘Liberal’ cabal hustles together to portray The Wire as the victim of an elaborate hoax after they fabricated ‘evidence’ to target BJP

Anurag
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‘Liberal’ cabal hustles together to portray The Wire as the victim of an elaborate hoax after they fabricated ‘evidence’ to target BJP

The Wire’s report against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Amit Malviya claimed he has superpowers at Meta, using which he can get any Instagram post removed. The report, however, has now been thoroughly debunked as fake and fabricated. The Wire’s tendency to peddle fake news has been out in the open for a long time but as their real face got exposed literally to the whole world in the Meta issue, there have been efforts by many to pass it off as an one-off, minor error.

Since the beginning of the fight between Meta and The Wire, there have been speculations and allegations that The Wire fabricated the evidence to paint a bad picture of Meta and the BJP. However, The Wire was not alone, and its friends came to the rescue.

Even after The Wire retracted the reports and initiated an “internal investigation,” these friends believed that The Wire was a victim of a well-organized scam. A scam that would give the Nidhi fiasco a run for its money. A scam is so elaborate that the tech experts got their best tools out to examine whatever evidence they got hands-on and give their opinion. Sometimes I wonder if Nidhi was feeling bad for not getting this much attention after it was revealed she was scammed. But anyway, let’s come back to those who are still standing with The Wire.

Meghnad, a left-leaning researcher, quoted the statement by The Wire and expressed that he felt the news portal was ‘duped and scammed’ by ‘sources.’ He wrote, “The Wire has taken down the recent flurry of Meta stories after doubling down on it for days. There are only two possibilities here: a) Wire deliberately & maliciously did these fake stories to malign Meta & BJP. b) They were duped & scammed by ‘sources.’ I think it’s b.”

Source: Twitter

However, it is notable that Meghnad did call for the release of all the “evidence” The Wire collected while reporting the claims that BJP’s Malviya has superpowers.

Source: Twitter

Karan Saini, one of the researchers who called out The Wire’s founder and editor-in-chief Siddharth Varadarajan for his “lies” on social media, also sided with The Wire towards the end. He attempted to put the blame on the chaat-lover Devesh Kumar in one of his tweets for misleading The Wire. He wrote, “The picture appears to show Devesh Kumar having misled folks at The Wire, not limited only to the story about his accounts allegedly being hacked, but also more maliciously throughout the course of the investigation/publication process.”

Source: Twitter

Former Meta’s employee and currently Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google Rahul Fernandes openly came in support of Siddharth Varadarajan. He wrote, “If you’ve followed his work over the years, you’ll know Siddharth Varadarajan is a man of serious intellect. The interview with The Platformer shows you he’s also willing to take the blame and not choose the easy route of throwing someone else under the bus.”

Source: Twitter

He added, “It’s not as easy time to be associated with The Wire. This is just a little note to say how much I trust you and appreciate the work you’ve done over the years. You’ve been among the handful few who’ve kept journalism alive in India.”

Rahul Gandhi fan Sanjukta Basu also sided with The Wire. She said, “I didn’t doubt for a minute. It’s crazy to think Wire which is already the target of the govt, and all kinds of defamation suits will just slip like that. Besides, it’s Meta, of course, we can’t trust them. Occam’s razor.”

Source: Twitter

Many others said that they were feeling sad over what happened but restrained from taking sides. The likes of Barkha Dutt, however, decided to see the “larger picture” and said, “In the Meta, Vs. Wire spat, journalists took sides basis their politics & not facts. The Chamcha-Morcha face-off is dismaying. And western media’s blind celebration of Indian activists over journalists muddies waters.” She took the opportunity to promote “a new platform.” Convenient, we must say.

Source: Twitter

The Meta fiasco was not a one-off, not a mere error by The Wire. As we have documented over the years, the far Left portal has been peddling fake news and fake allegations habitually. They have sold lies on multiple occasions and with explicit editorial sanction. What has changed this time around is that they poked a tech giant and got burned in return.

Fake news, ignorance, Rana Ayyub, and more: Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and her chronic anti-India leanings

Anurag
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Fake news, ignorance, Rana Ayyub, and more: Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and her chronic anti-India leanings

Those who follow Tennis must know the legendary tennis star, Martina Navratilova. An 18-time Grand Slam winner who has made millions of fans worldwide with her top-quality game has somehow turned into an anti-Hindu and, to some extent, anti-India gossip peddler post-retirement. Martina has been popping up in discussions around Hindus, India, and the BJP-led central government for quite some time, and it is mindboggling to see how much hate she has accumulated within her mind.

Notably, it is not limited to the rants but extends to support for the left-leaning liberals in India. How can one ignore her love and affection for donation fraud accused Rana Ayyub? Not to forget, the Enforcement Directorate had recently filed a charge sheet in the misappropriation of funds case where Ayyub was found misusing funds collected via donations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Martina and her poor grasp of democracy

However, Martina is in the news not because of her association with Rana Ayyub, but because of her poor understanding of how democracy works all the while claiming that she has been enamoured by India, the world’s largest democracy, and weighing in unsolicited opinions on every issue under the sun.

Recently, Martina was caught making a foot-in-the-mouth remark when she declared that the BJP did not get a majority to govern India. Countering a fact on how 300 million voters voted for PM Modi and BJP, Martina made an embarrassing remark saying that the 39 per cent vote that Modi got to become the prime minister of the country was not a majority.

Source: Twitter

While Martina may not need classes in math, she clearly needs one on how a democracy works and what constitutes a majority in a democratic system. But this is not enough. Martina has a long and storied history of making critical remarks against the Modi government and India, passing off her convictions shaped by her interactions with usual suspects as gospel as she continues the left-liberal propaganda of disparaging India internationally to discredit the BJP regime.

Martina went on a rant against India after the India-Pakistan T20 match

The tennis player condemned the Uttar Pradesh police for arresting students who cheered Pakistan’s win against India in the first Super 12 match of the ongoing T20 World Cup.

Navratilova reacted to a post where a Twitter user named Anjali Mehta (ex-army now a social activist as per her Twitter bio) tagged several sportspersons from across the globe to condemn the arrests being made in India of students who celebrated Pakistan’s win.

Source: Twitter

To this Navratilova expressed bewilderment. After another social media user shared a BBC report on the news, the tennis player Tweeted, “Didn’t realize cheering for a particular team was against the law?”

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

It is imperative to note that Pakistan has long sponsored terrorism in the valley, keeping the pot of “Kashmir liberation” boiling and deluding the locals into believing that secession from India could be a reality. As a consequence, many locals who are brainwashed with teachings of Islamic supremacism happily embrace terrorism, killing Hindus, whom they despise for being a kafir and idol worshipper. In October alone, Islamic terrorists backed by Pakistan have killed about 10 Hindu civilians.

India lost more than 110 security personnel fighting terrorism in Kashmir from the year 2019 to date.

Hence, if personalities like Navratilova wish to understand why supporting, cheering and bursting crackers for a country responsible for terrorism in India is a punishable offence, a short history class or flipping through a few reports apart from the likes of BBC and The Print might help.

Navratilova spreads fake news

On October 21, Navratilova took potshots at the BJP government in India on the basis of fake news peddled by CJ Werleman, an Islamism apologist profiled by Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint.

In a tweet, she wrote, “Quite the democracy, eh? Trying to catch up to trump, I see. But then Modi and trump were pretty chummy from what I could see… will Modi speak up against this man and his rhetoric? I doubt it…”

Sadly, her comments were based on a piece of fake news, which was shared by columnist and ‘Islamophobia crusader’ CJ Werleman.

Martina and Rana – a curious bond

The first mention that we noticed where Martina hailed Rana Ayyub was in October 2021. She quoted columnist Grant Wyeth who had praised Rana Ayyub for her “courageous” reporting in India against the BJP-led central government. Martina deemed Rana a hero in her tweet.

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

In the next tweet from November 2021, Martina quoted Rana Ayyub, the “great journalist” herself, where she had shared a video of herself talking about the “problematic past of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Martina praised Rana and called her ‘brave.’

Source: Twitter

In December 2021, Rana Ayyub claimed that she was sent a summon by the central government agencies because she gave an interview against the government to BBC. Again, Martina stepped in, questioned democracy in India, and wished her good luck.

Source: Twitter

In the following months, Martina and Rana Ayyub continued to have interactions with each other on social media. What was in public could be seen by the netizens, but no one knew if they had spoken in private.

Then on October 13, after months of social media interaction, Ayyub met Martina in person. As expected, Ms Ayyub was ecstatic meeting Martina, presumably because the optics of being in thick with a legendary Tennis would prop up her reputation sullied by her chronic support for the Islamists.

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

In all the comments that Martina received over meeting Ayyub, one reply caught our eyes. A Twitter user named Antithesis commented, “You are a gentle soul …I read somewhere how you gifted a pair of shoes to a Wimbledon qualifier (your first-round opponent, I think) … you have no idea what this Rana girl is doing back in India.”

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

To which Martina said, “I always try to do the right thing rather than the popular thing… Rana is fighting for fairness in India, which is no easy task for a Muslim and a woman on top of that.” Martina seems to be living in a paracosm or a parallel universe, where Rana Ayyub is doing something “fair” in India.

Martina and her “love” for India

If people believe that Martina started talking about the “problems” in India after getting in touch with Ayyub, that was not the case. She has been tweeting about India long before the October 2021 tweet about Rana. However, when we checked her track record in Tweets related to India, Hindus, and BJP, we noticed that she was highly influenced by the propaganda media houses that speak irrationally against India, Hindus, and BJP.

For instance, when we looked at the tweets from Martina mentioning India, it was all good until the BJP-led government came to power. Soon after, instance after instance, she started to notice reports that painted a bad picture of India.

When the JNU fiasco happened, where anti-India slogans were raised, for Martina, it was about the “attack on the Universities” and “dissent,” but she did not talk about if the slogans were right or wrong. “Bharat Tere Tukde Honge” can never be accepted by a true Indian or a true supporter of India. But anyway, we are not here to judge anyone, are we?

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

Martina hoped BJP did not come back to power

In April 2019, while the Lok Sabha elections were ongoing in India, Martina hoped for BJP’s defeat. In a tweet, she shared a Huffington Post article titled, “Patriotism Edges Out Progress As India Kicks Off World’s Largest Election- please India, do the right thing. We have enough Right Wing madness in the world- no more BJP!!!” But it did not happen. BJP came back with even more seats in Parliament.

Source: Twitter

Martina had no idea about the Kashmir Genocide of Hindus

On October 13, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri tagged Martina and asked if she was aware of the genocide and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir Valley. He said, “Would you like to stand up for the Kashmiri Hindu victims of the Kashmir Genocide. FYI, a 100% Hindu land doesn’t have any Hindus there because of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism? That would be true fairness.”

Martina Navratilova
Source: Twitter

To his query, Martina denied having any knowledge about it. She said, “I don’t know anything about this particular thing. Is this going on now, or when? Of course, any kind of genocide is wrong, that goes without saying.”

For someone who claimed to be deeply in love with India, it is hard to believe that she was unaware of Kashmir. However, it might be because of the fact that she was relying on western media and propaganda outlets. Moreover, we would not be surprised if this were true that she has limited information about the pleas of Hindus suffering in Pakistan and other Islamic countries, given that she is friends with Rana Ayyub and likes. Her knowledge of Hindu issues presumably comes from an Islamist, which would obviously be biased in nature.

For a sportsperson of her stature, if she wants to get into politics and the problems of a country, it will be better if she tries to be unbiased and listen, read and learn about both sides. Relying on just one set of sources is not going to be in her favour for a long time, and she may lose credibility for good.

Mallikarjun Kharge elected new president of Congress party, Shashi Tharoor says Gandhi family will remain foundational pillar of the party

OpIndia Staff
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Mallikarjun Kharge elected new president of Congress party, Shashi Tharoor says Gandhi family will remain foundational pillar of the party

Congress party has elected Mallikarjun Kharge as its first non-Gandhi president in more than two decades. Kharge won a landslide victory, securing eight times more votes than Shashi Tharoor.

On Monday, around 9,500 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates from across India voted to elect a new party president, making a choice between Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor to succeed Sonia Gandhi. Mallikarjun Kharge got 7897 votes, while Shashi Tharoor won 1072 votes. 416 votes were rejected, according to reports.

Mallikarjun Kharge is replacing Sonia Gandhi, who has been the longest-serving president of the Congress party. She has been leading the party since 1998, barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when her son Rahul Gandhi was made the president.

Shashi Tharoor had positioned himself as a candidate for change, emphasizing the need for a change in how the party operates, whereas Mallikarjun Kharge was known as the ‘unofficial official candidate’ due to his unfaltering loyalty to the Gandhi family.

After the results of the elections came out, the Congress MP and party president candidate Shashi Tharoor congratulated Mallikarjun Kharge. He said that decision of the party delegates is final and he accepts it humbly.

“It is a great honor & a huge responsibility to be President of @INCIndia &I wish @Kharge ji all success in that task. It was a privilege to have received the support of over a thousand colleagues,& to carry the hopes& aspirations of so many well-wishers of Congress across India,” Tharoor tweeted.

Tharoor thanked Sonia Gandhi for her leadership of the party for a quarter of a century and thanked Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi for ensuring free and neutral elections. However, he acknowledged that the party will continue to be actually led by the Gandhi family ever after the election of a new president. He said he hopes and believes that the family will remain the foundational pillar of the Congress, their moral conscience and ultimate guiding spirit. He added, “In particular, the spectacular success of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is a testament to the family’s enduring appeal to the masses.”

Even though both candidates maintained that interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi was completely impartial during this election, Shashi Tharoor claimed that several state party chiefs were unavailable to meet him when he visited their states, even though they showed their support and met Mallikarjun Kharge when he went there to seek support.

The party presidential election has been marred by controversy since its inception, which was necessitated after former president Rahul Gandhi resigned in July 2019 following the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. Following this, Sonia Gandhi was appointed as the party’s interim president.

Then there was the G23 (Group of 23 Leaders) crisis. Following the debacle of the Lok Sabha elections, the G-23 leaders wrote to Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, requesting an organisational overhaul and internal elections at all levels. With the exception of a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and a closed-door session with Rahul Gandhi, this elicited little response from the leadership, resulting into to increased internal conflict.

Sonia Gandhi has been the President of the Congress for the past two decades. In fact, the Nehru-Gandhi family has ruled the party since 1978, with the exception of brief periods between 1992 and 1998 when PV Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri were in charge. Sitaram Kesri was the last non-Gandhi family leader to hold the top leadership position of the Congress party, and his departure was one of the most controversial.

The Wire and Logically: How two leftist propaganda portals have come together to help Congress conjure up bizarre fiction

Anurag
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The Wire and Logically: How two leftist propaganda portals have come together to help Congress conjure up bizarre fiction

On October 18, the castle of cards made on the foundation of the ‘Meta Vs The Wire’ saga crumbled down as The Wire retracted its reports and ‘initiated an internal inquiry.’ The step came after one of the independent experts who were quoted by the Wire for validating Meta’s communication head Andy Stone’s email(s), came forward and said on Twitter he never did any DKIM validation for The Wire. The reports by The Wire were written by their reporter Devesh Kumar.

For some time, let’s say approximately an hour, Devesh deactivated his Twitter account on Tuesday after The Wire issued a statement that it was reviewing the reports and initiated an inquiry. Devesh, in his tweets, claimed he just deactivated to get some air and eat some chaat outside and reactivated once he was back. While replying to netizens who questioned the “experts”, he refused to comment on why the expert(s) denied their involvement in the verification process.

Notably, Devesh Kumar also worked on Tek Fog stories by The Wire, which the news portal claims to continue working on. To jog up the memory, here is our latest piece on the absurdity called Tek Fog. At that time, Logically.ai’s Ayushman Kaul also helped The Wire with the reports. Interestingly, the duo, Devesh and Kaul, collaborated on the ‘Meta Vs The Wire’ reports as well.

This time Kaul did not come forward openly. However, in one of the tweets, Devesh revealed that Kaul gave voice to the DKIM verification video they published in one of the reports. Though the report has been de-platformed (as per The Wire for internal investigation), the video is still available on The Wire’s Twitter handle. It is unclear how much Kaul individually or as part of Logically was involved in the reports linked to ‘Meta Vs The Wire’ with technical aspects of the investigation. OpIndia cannot independently verify the extent, if any, of Logically.ai or Kaul’s involvement in the Meta-related reports by The Wire.

Here is an archive link to the tweet. The tweet that mentioned Kaul had been deleted. Kaul also deleted his comments under the tweet where Devesh revealed it was his voice.

Now deleted Tweet by Devesh revealing Kaul gave voice to the video.

There are other netizens on Twitter as well who pointed out that Kaul was the voice behind The Wire’s DKIM video.

As a matter of fact, there is no tweet from Ayushman with mention of Devesh linked to The Wire reports. He actively participated in the conversation, but the tweets have now been deleted. This screenshot shows that Kaul had replied to Buzzfeed’s Pranav Dixit at one point related to the report, and Devesh also chipped into that thread, but several of the tweets are now missing.

Several tweets on the Meta/Wire matter were deleted by Kaul. Source: Twitter.

As can be seen, Logically’s Kaul was quite clued in on the reportage of The Wire on Meta.

Who is Ayushman Kaul?

Ayushman Kaul is a senior analyst at Logically.ai, a dubious website that has been involved in the anti-India narrative. Based out of London, Kaul has collaborated with The Wire on many tech-related projects, including the one on Tek Fog in January this year. During Tek Fog reporting, Ayushman and Devesh did Ask Me Anything sessions on YouTube and Reddit to answer questions about the reports. Those AMA sessions are still available to check.

Kaul has contributed to multiple stories on The Wire such as “What the SOS Tweets Tell us About the Second Wave of COVID-19”, “Tek Fog: An App With BJP Footprints for Cyber Troops to Automate Hate, Manipulate Trends”, and “Anonymous Complainant Targeting Zubair Tweet Linked to Tek Fog App, BJYM Leader in Gujarat”.

Ayushman Kaul, as per his LinkedIn account, works as a Senior Analyst at Logically. He joined the company in January 2022. It is unclear if he joined Logically after the Tek Fog exposes which were reported in first week of January or after. Earlier, he was associated with Digital Forensic Research Lab as a South Asian Research Analyst.

Source: LinkedIn

However, The Wire had claimed that they worked on Tek Fog for over a year and a half before publishing the report in January 2022 based on wild allegations tweeted by an anonymous Twitter account in April 2020. The account by name of ‘Aarthi Sharma’ was created in April 2020 and had just 121 tweets and has been inactive since July 2020. You can read more about this here.

The link between Logically and Congress

In May 2022, OpIndia explained how Logically was involved in sponsoring an anti-India stunt event where Rahul Gandhi was one of the guest speakers. The company was one of the sponsors of the event. Gandhi’s session was on May 21, which was reported by us. Rahul Gandhi spoke at the event ‘Ideas of India’ in the United Kingdom, organized by Bridge India. Resorting to his usual scaremongering, Rahul Gandhi asserted that a civil war in India would not surprise him because the country was extremely unstable. He stated that India was in a horrible position and that a political revolution was required.

To substantiate his contention, he stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party has “poured kerosene around the country” and that a single spark is enough to blow the country up.

“We have a massive level of polarization, huge unemployment. We have the backbone of employment broken, and we have a massive concentration of wealth. We are going to have social problems, and they’re coming. There’s no doubt about it,” he further said.

He even supported the US interfering in internal matters of the country. Gandhi was then asked about the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking about human rights violations in India in a press conference. To that, Rahul replied, “I’m glad that the United States has woken up to this idea.” Tweaking the course of his answer, he said that the US is not needed in order to make us realize the issue. “It has been quite a long time since to sense it,” he stated.

Tek Fog, the ‘app’, which Logically employee worked on and published by The Wire, was used by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to attack the BJP.

Meet Logically, the company where Ayushman Kaul works

Founded by Lyric Jain, Logically is a British Multinational technology startup company that claims to combine AI and expert analysts to “tackle harmful and manipulative content at speed and scale.” The company was founded in 2017. The headquarters are based out of Brighouse, England, and offices are spread across London, Mysuru, Bengaluru, and Virginia.

The problematic portfolio of Logically

Logically also provides ‘doxxing’ services to ‘uncover’ the identity of anonymous accounts and proudly gloats about it in the description of one of its case studies.

Logically India has been accused of running a disinformation campaign against Union Ministries. The account follows the usual regime change agents, including Mohammad Zubair of Alt News, Rana Ayyub of Washington Post (Amazon, which owns Washington Post, also funds Logically), News Laundry, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Barkha Dutt, and The Quint, and many others.

Normalizing Bengal post-election violence

In May 2021, they published a report titled ‘Stop The Steal, West Bengal Style: Disinfo Narratives Around Political Violence’ in which they tried to blame the BJP for misinformation after its workers experienced waves of violence post-poll.

While asserting that post-poll violence is common in Bengal, Logically said, “As swathes of fake images and videos of the violence gained traction on social media, hashtags such as #PresidentsRuleInBengal, #BengalBurning and #ArrestMamataBanerjee trended on Twitter. The flood of misinformation and disinformation amplified by pro-BJP handles appears carefully crafted and coordinated to portray the state’s grip on law and order as lacking, hence justifying the invocation of the President’s rule in the state.” They clearly blamed BJP leaders for the misinformation.

Interestingly, in 2020, the Indian Government awarded Logically in AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge under the News section.

If tech experts had not debunked the claims of The Wire, the reports on the alleged link between Meta and BJP would likely have been used by the Congress leaders during the state as well as Lok Sabha elections in the coming years. This is how the global left ecosystem is coming together in coordinated fashion to build narratives.

Kashmir: Hybrid terrorist arrested for killing migrant workers shot dead during an anti-terror operation in Shopian

OpIndia Staff
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Kashmir: Hybrid terrorist arrested for killing migrant workers shot dead during an anti-terror operation in Shopian

On Wednesday, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) hybrid terrorist arrested for killing two migrant labourers was killed in a firing by another terrorist, the police informed. The dead terrorist has been identified as Imran Bashir Ganai, a resident of Harmain in Shopian. He was reportedly shot dead by another terrorist during an anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir.

He was arrested for two migrant labourers named Ram Sagar and Munesh Kumar in a grenade attack in the Harmain area of South Kashmir’s Shopian. The accused terrorist had hurled a grenade inside a shed where labourers from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj had come to Shopian in search of work and were sleeping.

Ganai was described as a ‘hybrid terrorist,’ a term used by police to describe someone who is not classified as a terrorist but commits terrorist acts and then goes back into society without any trace and carries on with their normal life.

“Based on the disclosure of arrested hybrid terrorist and in continuous raids by police and security forces, another contact has been established between terrorists and SFs at Nowgam, Shopian, in which hybrid terrorist namely Imran Bashir Ganaie killed by the firing of another terrorist,” the Kashmir Zone Police said on Twitter.

“Incriminating materials, arms, and ammunition were recovered from the point of contact. The search is still ongoing. Further details shall follow.” His accomplice was also arrested on Tuesday, on his disclosure.

According to ADGP Vijay Kumar, Imran and his associate have confessed to police about the grenade-throwing incident on labourers, which killed two of them on the spot. According to Vijay Kumar, these two hybrid terrorists carried out the attack on the orders of Lashkar Commander Abid and Danish, and forces are raiding several locations to apprehend these terrorists.

Vijay Kumar went on to say that the killing of Kashmiri Pandit Pooran Krishan Bhat on October 15th was also carried out by the LeT. He stated that forces are searching for such terrorists who are carrying out soft targets on non-locals and that they will be eliminated soon.

“The main culprit, the terrorist for whom Ganai was working, will be eliminated very soon. The labourers are soft targets. They don’t have any security. It’s a heinous attack and a cowardly act. We will respond in equal measure,”ADGP Kumar was informed.

On Saturday, terrorists murdered Pooran Krishan Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit, in Shopian’s Chowdery Gund village. The targeted killing of Kashmiri Hindus has sparked protests across Jammu and Kashmir.

Hybrid Terrorists: Who are they?

In recent years, the valley has seen an increase in the number of hybrid terrorists or part-time terrorists. ‘Hybrid’ terrorists are unidentified radicalised individuals who carry out terror attacks and then disappear, often without leaving any trace. These terrorists, according to security agencies, are not ultras. However, anti-national forces have radicalised them to the point where they are willing to carry out a terror attacks.

Terrorists are defined by security agencies as “boys next door” who are kept on standby mode by terrorist organisations. These hybrid terrorists live their normal lives in between two tasks. They are difficult to track and trace because they live among the general population.

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