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Congress ropes in ‘Break India’ forces for its ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, is it trying to replicate siege of ‘farmers’ with dozens of containers?

OpIndia Staff
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Congress ropes in ‘Break India’ forces for its ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, is it trying to replicate siege of ‘farmers’ with dozens of containers?

With the general election in 2024 in mind, senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi will kick off the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari today covering a distance of 3,500 kilometres in 150 days. Earlier in the day, he paid a visit to his father Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, where the former Prime Minister was killed in a suicide bombing on May 21, 1991.

Rahul Gandhi has previously stated that the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is a ‘Tapasya’ to him to unite the country, alleging social fragmentation and political centralization under BJP rule.

With only a year and a half till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress, which is struggling to stay relevant in the current political scenario, is looking to project Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate from an opposition side which is way too fragmented with leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and even Arvind Kejriwal wanting to be Prime Minister.

Congress Party itself is breaking apart

In fact, members of his own party are unwilling to accept him as a leader, except for a few sycophants. All of the prominent leaders who have broken away from the Congress, including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, have expressed their displeasure with the party leadership. This is why the party is looking at ‘reinventing’ itself via the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. Except, the problem is, that they have roped in some of the notorious elements who have nothing but ‘Bharat Todo’ (break India) in their minds and hearts.

It is also ironic that Rahul Gandhi who cannot even ‘Jodo’ (unify) his own party, is pretending to unify a country. In recent months, several senior Congress leaders have resigned. Amarinder Singh floated their own parties, and veterans like Ghulam Nabi Azad have openly voiced their discontent at the abject failure of the Gandhi family to lead the party.

Congress to do ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ with backing from ambassadors of ‘Bharat Todo’ ideology

About 150 left-leaning ‘activists’ and so-called socialists including Yogendra Yadav, Aruna Rai, Medha Patkar, and PV Rajagopal, Devenura Mahadev, Ali Anwar, Dr. Sunilam, Bezwada Wilson will join Rahul Gandhi in this ‘Bharat Jodo’ yatra. Medha Patkar, who stalled developmental projects in Gujarat and left people there thirsty for decades because of the farce that ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ has been, will also be joining Rahul Gandhi.

Yogendra Yadav, a professional protestor who decides his cause for protest as per flavour of the season, will also be participating. It must be noted that Yadav was at the forefront of year-long ‘farmer’ protests against the new agriculture laws where ‘protestors’ from Punjab, mostly, and political activists, blocked the national capital highways and choked Delhi for a year. There were reports of Khalistani elements supporting these protests. The new laws would have given more choice to farmers to sell their crops, but the ‘protestors’ were against the same.

These ‘protests’ got tacit support from opposition political parties, predominantly Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party and Congress. This makes one wonder if the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which has a cavalcade of over 60 ‘containers’ fully equipped with bathrooms and beds and air conditioners, yet another way to block the highways leading to the capital.

Recently, when Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi were called in by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in the National Herald scam, Congress workers had taken to streets and protested, sometimes violently. Somehow, the Congress workers cannot fathom having their Dear Leaders being questioned by investigative agencies even when they claim innocence.

During ‘farmer’ protests, on 26 January 2021, on Republic Day, the ‘farmers’ had held a tractor rally that culminated into riots and the Red Fort, where the Prime Minister gives the Independence Day address, was attacked. Yogendra Yadav was at the forefront of organising these protests. Now that he has extended his services to the new ’cause’, one wonders what the 60-container strong cavalcade would lead to. And how the law and order situation is taken care of.

Boom Live ‘fact-checks’ a satirical article mocking Raghuram Rajan over recession predictions, accuses it of spreading misinformation

OpIndia Staff
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Boom Live ‘fact-checks’ a satirical article mocking Raghuram Rajan over recession predictions, accuses it of spreading misinformation

On Tuesday, Boom Live that claims to be India’s first ever independent organization to ‘fight misinformation’ accused a satire spreading website named ‘the Fauxy’ of sharing false information. The fact-check article written by Boom Live reporter Mohammed Kudrati also targeted several social media handles for taking the satire light-heartedly and trolling former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan for his previous remarks over the recession.

The saga began on September 2 when the satire content writing website named ‘The Fauxy’ published an article titled, “India will be cornered if it doesn’t get hit by the recession like rest of the world: Raghuram Rajan”. The article poked former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan who had been predicting a global economic downturn for over a decade.

The Fauxy based its witty content on McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels’ interview on September 2 in which he had said, “It is India‘s century, not India’s decade”. Sternfels in his interview also praised India for its economic growth and said that the country would be the world’s future expertise manufacturing unit with 20% of the global working population by 2047. The Fauxy humorously created Rajan’s response to this and indicated that the former RBI Governor would be still predicting India to be hit by a recession.

“Former Governor of RBI, Raghuram Rajan has said that India not getting hit by the recession like rest of the world will make India get cornered”, it quoted. The article also coined his response to add, “A small recession hitting India won’t impact its economy but will avoid India getting cornered”. Notably, Fauxy openly confesses that it is a ‘pure entertainment website’ and advises the readers to not confuse its articles as genuine and true.

However, Boom Live, which claims to fight misinformation ‘fact-checked‘ a satire website and alleged that it was spreading misinformation. To dig the ‘truth’ out of humor, the channel also contacted Rajan who currently is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. The former RBI governor obviously refused to have made any such comments published on the satirical website.

Also, the Boom Live on September 6 targeted several right-wing social media users for taking the article written by Fauxy light-heartedly. “Several right-wing social media users have taken The Fauxy’s article at face value and have further spread the misleading claim”, Boom Live quoted while it fact-checked a satirical content writing website.

Boom Live failed to understand the satire and called out the Fauxy for spreading ‘misinformation’. The so-called fact-checker also cited social media posts, not realising that they had been mocking Raghuram Rajan for his perennial recession predictions. 

Here are some of the memes shared by the netizens to highlight how Rajan has been predicting a recession for years. 

Earlier in several instances, Rajan has repeatedly hinted that the country is at the risk of encountering recession. In the year 2019, he also cornered the PM Modi-led government and said that India was suffering from a ‘growth recession’ with signs of a deep malaise in the Indian economy that is being run through ‘extreme centralization of power’ in the Prime Minister’s Office and ‘powerless ministers’.

Notably, similar dull attempts were made by ‘fact-checker’ Alt News and New York Times, who had spent their time and energy fact-checking random meme material. Though satire articles and memes serve many purposes and functions, at a fundamental level, they serve as an expression of people’s opinions and humor. They are simple, clear, and explicit in their messages and are meant to be taken in a jovial manner. In the current case, the article written by Boom Live not only failed in discerning Fauxy’s satirical despite the website explicitly mentioning the same, but it also ended up ‘fact-checking’ it, alleging the website of spreading misinformation.

Gujarat: NIA raids offices of Krishna Hing manufacturer and its owner Asma Khan Pathan’s house in suspected terror funding case

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat: NIA raids offices of Krishna Hing manufacturer and its owner Asma Khan Pathan’s house in suspected terror funding case

On September 5, National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the office of New Bharat Hing Suppliers located in Nadiad, District Kheda, Gujarat, in connection to suspicious transactions worth crores possibly linked with terror funding. This company markets the well-known hing (Asafoetida) brand Krishna Hing. Reportedly, the raid started early morning on Monday and went on for 8 hours, it ended at around 3.30 PM.

The raid was conducted by NIA with the help of Naidad Police Crime Branch and SOG. The raid was conducted after NIA received an intelligent tip on a suspected terror funding link, which indicated funds were transfered from Nadiad to Delhi to fund terror activities. As a result, the NIA team arrived at the office of the company located at Marida Road at around 5 AM on Monday.

Apart from the office of the New Bharat Heeng Suppliers, the house of its owner Asma Khan Pathan in Amdavadi Bajar Shakkarkui, Nadiad, was also raided by the investigation agency. Several important documents and electronic documents were found and seized during the raid by the NIA team.

Notably, Asma Khan is a Gujarat State Member of the Delhi Waqf Board and served as a municipal councillor in the past.

As per Gujarat Samachar, NIA got a workable tip about terror funding in Delhi against Asma Khan. The raid started early morning on September 5 and went on for over seven hours. The search operation was conducted with the help of the local crime branch and SOG, and it continued until 3:30 PM. The investigation agency sealed several important pieces of evidence, including hard disks, computers and more.

Asma Khan Pathan calls herself a ‘Modi supporter’ and has photographs with PM Modi. Some reports suggest her family used to be Congress supporters, but Asma became a BJP supporter after she got help from PM Modi in tracing his relative after Gujarat 2002 riots. There has been no official statement from BJP over the matter. NIA is yet to issue a statement.

‘Will break Dobaaraa’s record’: Cinegoers mock Swara Bhasker’s latest film as the cringe is unleashed upon audience

OpIndia Staff
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‘Will break Dobaaraa’s record’: Cinegoers mock Swara Bhasker’s latest film as the cringe is unleashed upon audience

One more dose of unintentional cringe is set to be unleashed upon unsuspecting audience. This time it is in what appears to be a poor man’s version of cross between Hollywood classic Hangover and another Bollywood cringefest – Veere Di Wedding, which in itself was a cringe poor copy of Sex And The City – Jahaan Chaar Yaar. The trailer itself has been so uninteresting that it had gone largely unnoticed after being released on 22nd August 2022. Had this not appeared in recommended views in YouTube algorithm after this journalist went into the cringe video rabbit hole on the platform, one would not have noticed it in the first place.

The trailer starts with one married woman talking to other married women (presumably her friends) and discussing how their married lives are boring.

Entertainer Swara Bhasker mentions how the only outing she had in her married life was to Vaishno Devi and if she had Switzerland in her destiny she wouldn’t be washing her family members’ undergarments. One actress, who plays role of a Muslim woman, also gives a ‘triple talaq’ jibe to her husband, who appears to be quite violent in the trailer. Then there are a lot of innuendos and sex-related married life troubles and the four women decide to go to Goa for a women-only trip.

It gets worse.

The four women then contemplate how they will inform/take permission from their respective husbands and one of them asks them to come out of their husbands’ shadows and tells them how their husbands are emotionally manipulating them and only way to overcome it is this Goa trip. The Goa trip has a male stripper and Swara Bhasker, who otherwise has many kids and spends time washing undergarments, is shocked when the stripper strips and runs out screaming. Somehow, it seems the male stripper ends up dead and then some hilarity is supposed to ensue but leaves you wondering what even is happening. Meanwhile, there is one absolutely random scene towards the end where one woman just screams an otherwise sexist abuse out of ‘frustration’.

All this in 150 seconds.

Obviously, the trailer itself is not well-received.

Top comments

Here are some of the top comments on the trailer. After these comments, most were spam comments praying for long lives of parents of those reading the comments, telling how best book is the Quran and asking all those who believe in ‘Allah’ to ‘like’ the comment. As one can see, even regular movie-goers are quite convinced that the latest offering by Bhasker will be more like a damp squib on the box office.

Recently, the movies produced in Hindi film industry have not quite done well including big budget films like Laal Singh Chaddha starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan and other foreign film copies like Dobaaraa which was copied from 2018 Spanish film Mirage. Another film of Taapsee ‘Shabash Mithu’ also went without even some film critics taking a note of it. Even high budget Brahmastra, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt which is set to release this Friday appears to be a disappointing film going by the trailer.

While these entertainers want to mock and subsequently blame boycott calls for their films owing to their anti-Hindu and sometimes anti-India stand, the fact is that most of these films were actually sub par as well which led to them not doing that well as the box office. Amidst this, films like ‘Jahaan Chaar Yaar’ and ‘Dobaaraa’ come across like those multilevel marketing scams where a bad product is dished out and leading entertainer will make some ‘controversial’ statement to instigate people to ‘boycott’ films, which no one would have seen otherwise as well and then cry victim of ‘bhakts’ wrath’.

Rahul Gandhi draws inspiration from Imran Khan, will sleep, pee, and poop in a ‘container’ for 150 days of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi draws inspiration from Imran Khan, will sleep, pee, and poop in a ‘container’ for 150 days of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’

Rahul Gandhi, the perennial Congress candidate for the post of Prime Minister, notwithstanding numerous electoral defeats, seems to have taken a leaf out of his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan’s playbook for his upcoming ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ commencing today. Gandhi is going to live in containers for the 150 days of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ just like Khan spent his agitation days in containers back in 2014.

Khan, who pioneered living in containers to garner public sympathy and chart his way to the office of Pakistan Prime Minister, appears to be the source of inspiration to Rahul Gandhi whose party possibly believes ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is a momentous political movement that would revive his dying political fortunes.

For the next 150 days, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will sleep in a container during the 3,750 km journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, touted among Congress loyalists and sympathisers circles as a ‘masterstroke’ to take on the Modi juggernaut in the 2024 general elections.

As the inordinately long journey commences, pertinent questions about lodging and accommodation of senior political leaders participating in the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ have surfaced. However, the party has clarified that the Gandhi scion will not stay in any hotel and complete the entire journey living in a container.

As per reports, Rahul Gandhi would call the containers his abode for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets, air-conditioners, and other ‘basic facilities have been installed in containers to assist the leaders participating in the Yatra. About 60 such containers have been prepared and sent to a village in Kanyakumari, where a temporary village is set up where all the containers are housed. The container will be placed in a new position every day in the shape of a village for night rest.

Before coming to power in Pakistan, Khan had indulged in similar theatrics, projecting himself as the people’s leader, mobilising mass agitations against the incumbent government, and pitching himself as the panacea that the country direly needs to remedy its chronic problems. Khan had pioneered using containers to advance his brand of intimidatory politics, travelling across the country and whipping up a groundswell of criticism against the government of the day.

Back in 2014, when Imran Khan was one of the many candidates eyeing the coveted seat of Pakistan Prime Minister, the former cricketer turned politician launched a massive agitation called ‘Freedom March‘ to stamp his authority and project himself as one of the strongest contenders to challenge the incumbent Nawaz Sharif government. The march, which witnessed PTI activists and supporters advancing toward the capital Islamabad, saw containers used by the leaders while they were on the roads leading a campaign against the government. Pictures of Imran Khan sleeping on a container had also gone viral on the internet.

Years later, Rahul Gandhi will be following in the footsteps of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as he embarks on the 150-day long ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. The Wayanad MP, who keeps hightailing it to Italy and other vacation spots every once in a while, will sleep, pee, poop, and live in containers as the March snakes through different parts of India.

AAP govt in Punjab fails to pay August salaries to its employees as the govt runs out of money after giving freebies: Report

OpIndia Staff
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AAP govt in Punjab fails to pay August salaries to its employees as the govt runs out of money after giving freebies: Report

While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continues to promise freebies in election-bound states, its Punjab government continues to face a financial crisis. According to a report by Indian Express, the Punjab government is yet to pay salaries to its employees for the month of August even after a week has passed in September. And it is believed that the reason for this delay is that the state government has run out of money.

The government typically pays salaries for the previous month on the first of each month. Officials in the state govt claimed that the administration has been facing a funding crisis since the GST compensation regime expired. In the previous fiscal year, Punjab received Rs 16,000 crore in GST compensation from the Centre.

This year, it only received compensation for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, after which the GST compensation regime expired on June 30. According to the report, a senior govt official said that the salaries have been delayed because the AAP govt invested Rs 1,000 crore from the state exchequer to earn interest. The officials said that they thought that the “employees could bear with the government for at least a week”.

On Monday, the Cabinet approved a new policy that would create a specific cadre of employees by absorbing contractual and ad hoc staff. This would impose an additional burden of Rs 400 crore on the state exchequer.

Besides this, the state exchequer is already burdened with a whopping electricity bill, owing to the AAP government’s fulfilment of pre-poll free electricity promises. It is worth mentioning that the AAP had also promised before the assembly elections that every woman of a household above 18 years will be provided Rs 1000 every month. However, the state govt which presented its maiden budget of Rs 1.55 lakh crore skipped making any provision for implementing its pre-poll promise of giving Rs 1,000 allowance to women of each household above the age of 18. 

Why are the Centre and AAP fighting over freebies?

The BJP-led central government and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP have been debating over freebies with the BJP advocating that the freebies need to be stopped, while Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal asserts that his party’s schemes are meant for the welfare of the people and, that they will continue with such schemes. 

This debate over freebies started when Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the opposition over ‘Revdi Culture’ at the inauguration of the Bundelkhand Expressway on July 16, 2022.

Election Commission on freebies 

As the matter escalated and reached the Supreme Court, the Election Commission told SC that the terms “irrational” and “freebies” are open to subjective interpretation and have no clear legal definitions. Providing life-saving medicines, food, or funds during a natural disaster or epidemic may save lives, but in normal times, they can be considered giveaways, according to the commission.

RBI on freebies

Freebies are not merit products or expenditures, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report (such as public distribution systems, employment guarantee schemes, and governmental assistance for education and health facilities). According to the document, freebies include provisions for free energy, water, or transportation, as well as waivers of pending utility bills and loans, and other such perks.

Burden of freebies 

Freebies, according to experts, destabilize public budgets and send governments into a debt spiral. According to the above-stated RBI analysis, freebies undermine credit culture, distort prices through cross-subsidization, erode incentives for private investment, and disincentivize employment at the present wage rate, resulting in a reduction in labor force participation.

For example, Punjab’s electricity subsidy and escalating cost to the state exchequer exceeds 16% of total receipts. Bailouts imply money transfers from one state to another, as well as animosity. PM Modi has urged states to clear subsidies to distribution companies (DISCOMS) totaling hundreds of crores of rupees. According to a CRISIL report, most states are in perilous debt circumstances, which will limit their ability to compete.

West Bengal: CBI grills TMC MLA Paresh Paul for 3 hours in BJP worker Avijit Sarkar’s murder case, might summon again

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: CBI grills TMC MLA Paresh Paul for 3 hours in BJP worker Avijit Sarkar’s murder case, might summon again

On Tuesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned TMC leader Paresh Paul for the second time in the investigation of the murder of West Bengal BJP worker Avijit Sarkar. Paul arrived at the CBI office CGO complex office in Kolkata where he was questioned by the CBI officers for 3 hours based on the fresh inputs.

According to the reports, Paul is being summoned in the murder case of BJP worker Avijit Sarkar who was killed by purported TMC workers in the Narkeldanga area of the state. Sarkar was murdered after Paresh Paul had won the West Bengal 2021 Assembly election on May 2. While it is believed that the TMC MLA from Beleghata might be summoned again, he said on September 6 that he would cooperate with the CBI officials. “I will make myself available as many times as they call me”, he was quoted.

The case against the TMC MLA was originally filed by West Bengal Police at the Narkeldanga Police Station. The CBI however took over the investigation in the case after the Calcutta High Court directed the agency to do so on August 19, 2021. Earlier, the CBI had questioned the TMC leader on May 18 for around eight hours. The officials had also recorded his statement in the case. Later it continued to investigate the matter and questioned other witnesses to tally the recorded statement.

Reports mention that the CBI also attained a few recordings of the phone calls made by the leader before and after the brutal incident and hence summoned the leader on Tuesday. The BJP worker named Avijit Sarkar was dragged out of his house at Narkeldanga in Kolkata hours after the 2021 election results were declared on May 2 and was brutally murdered by Trinamool Congress workers.

Hours before his death, Sarkar had taken to Facebook to narrate the harrowing tale of violence that he was subjected to by the TMC goons. “I don’t know how to come live (on Facebook). They hurled bombs right in front of my eyes and vandalized my house and the party office. My only mistake is that I am a BJP worker,” he had said. He also cried on camera alleging that the TMC workers had killed his pet dogs also.

“They are destroying my house, NGO office – one after the other. Look at my dogs. She had given birth to 5 beautiful puppies. I uploaded their pictures on Facebook. They (TMC workers) slaughtered them mercilessly”, he had said adding that the attack took place in Ward no. 30 in the Beleghata neighbourhood in Kolkata under the supervision of TMC leaders Paresh Paul and Swapan Samaddar. OpIndia had later learned that Avijit Sarkar was beaten to death after uploading the two testimonials on Facebook.

Also, Biswajeet Sarkar, brother of the victim had talked to Opindia alleging that the attack was executed under the supervision of TMC MLA Paresh Pal and local councillor Sapan Samaddar. “I gave all names to the police but they did not act. TMC MLA Paresh Pal and local councillor Sapan Samaddar openly said on the day of polling that on the day of the results, they will kill us. Everybody witnessed it. I heard the goons talking to each other that they had an open hand from Paresh Da and Sapan Da to kill them”, he had stated.

Demanding justice further, he had noted that the TMC leaders were threatening him and his family and forcing them to keep shut about Avijit’s murder. “They still threaten to kill me. As I speak about the murder of my brother, they threaten my mother saying that there will be ‘Khela Hobe’ with me,” he had stated adding that he no more is scared of anyone.

Dal Khalsa terror org co-founder, who hijacked a 1981 Indian Airlines flight, found living in Pakistan, furthers ‘Khalistan’ narrative

OpIndia Staff
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Dal Khalsa terror org co-founder, who hijacked a 1981 Indian Airlines flight, found living in Pakistan, furthers ‘Khalistan’ narrative

On September 5, Gajinder Singh, the co-founder of Khalistani terrorist organization Dal Khalsa and an accused hijacker of a 1981 Indian Airlines flight revealed his current location as Punjab province of Pakistan. The revelation was made after he published a photograph of himself posing in front of a gurudwara on his Facebook profile. The gurudwara in the background is Gurudwara Shri Panja Sahib Ji, located in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan.

Source: Facebook

It is noteworthy that this was not the first time he published a photograph of the Gurudwara with himself in the shot. A similar photograph was published on September 1, where his side profile was visible. That photograph was clicked during nighttime.

Source: Facebook

1981 Indian Airlines plane Hijack

On September 29, 1981, terrorists hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft headed to Amritsar and forcibly diverted it to Lahore. The Indian Airlines Boeing 737 domestic passenger aircraft had departed from Delhi airport and was scheduled to land in Amritsar. However, five terrorists of Dal Khalsa hijacked it and diverted it to Lahore, Pakistan. As per reports, they were armed with hand grenades and daggers. The plane was carrying 111 passengers.

The hijackers demanded the formation of a separate State for Sikhs, what they call “Khalistan”. Gajinder Singh was the leader of the hijackers. They demanded the release of the leading face of the Khalistani movement, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Another demand that they made was delivery of USD 5,00,000 while talking to the Indian envoy to Pakistan, Natwar Singh.

Pakistan ran a trial in the case and sentenced the hijackers to life imprisonment. However, in October 1994, they were released from prison. Gajinder Singh has been on the most wanted list in India since 2002. The government of India has repeatedly tabled an official request to Pakistan to deport Gajinder Singh, but the neighbouring country kept denying that he lived in Pakistan. However, the recent revelation made on social media speaks a different story than what Pakistan has been telling India.

Khalistan, and only Khalistan: OpIndia’s deep dive into Gajinder Singh’s social media accounts

OpIndia looked into the public posts of Gajinder Singh’s social media account on Facebook and Instagram. We found out that the previous Facebook account of Gajinder Singh was suspended recently, after which he created a new ID. It cannot be surely said how many ‘Khalistan’ supporting posts were made in his previous ID and how many such posts are non-public on his current profile.

Gajinder fanned Khalistani narrative in Arshdeep controversy

After India lost the Asia Cup match to Pakistan on August 5, well-oiled propaganda surfaced on social media platforms where it was insinuated that Indians were defaming Arshdeep by calling him a ‘Khalistani’. Later, it was revealed the trend had Pakistani links, and the likes of Mohammed Zubair of Alt News fanned it in India.

Source: Facebook

Gajinder Singh also took advantage of the controversy and published a post on his Facebook account. In Punjabi, he wrote, “Arshdeep Singh, the Sikh player of the Indian cricket team, has been in a lot of discussions for two days. Arshdeep’s missed catch during India’s match against Pakistan, in which India lost, led to a campaign against him by Indian nationalists calling him a ‘Khalistani’.”

He further added, “The best answer to this Indian campaign is that we all say openly, ‘I am also Khalistani’ or ‘I am proud to be a Khalistan. How nice it would be if Arshdeep Singh and other Sikh sportsmen would openly say that they are proud to be Khalistani.”

‘Cows are the same as other animals for Sikhs’

In another post, he talked about the clash between Nihang Sikhs and Dera Radha Soami Beas followers. Though he stood by Nihangs for obvious reasons, he propagated hate towards Hindus. He said, “I do not understand the connection between Nihangs and cows. Hindus worship cows as a mother. Sikhs do not. For us, cows, buffalos, goats, etc., are the same. What kind of matters are our Sikhs getting into?”

Source: Facebook

Gajinder Singh ‘proudly’ published his photograph with Air India flight

On August 29, Gajinder Singh published an old passport-size photograph of himself in the background of an Air India flight on his Facebook profile. Along with the image, he wrote a poem in Punjabi suggesting he wanted to raise “the flag” [of Khalistan] high in the sky next to the stars.

Source: Facebook

Gajinder’s Instagram account also has a lot of posts linked to the Khalistani movement, and he regularly uses his social media presence to lure the Sikh community to “fight for the establishment of Khalistan”.

Delhi: Illegal Jamia Arabia madrasa built on government land, media team made hostage for asking questions

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi: Illegal Jamia Arabia madrasa built on government land, media team made hostage for asking questions

An alarming incident was reported from Delhi recently where two media persons were made hostage by madrasa operators for asking questions about the illegality of the place.

According to the reports, a media team of ‘Headlines India’ had reached the Nizamuddin area of Delhi to visit the Jamia Arabia Madrasa on Tuesday. The operators of the Jamia Arabia Madrasa which is looked after by the Nizamia Welfare Education Society initially stopped the reporter and the camera person from entering the Madarsa and later made them hostage.

The video of the incident was posted by the media channel on September 6 in which the Madrasa operator and his associate could be seen pushing the reporter and threatening the camera person to stop shooting the incident. The media team of ‘Headlines India’ had reached the Madarsa to show the truth about the illegality of the Madarsa. Reports mention that the Madarsa in question is illegally constructed on the land of LDO (Land and Development Office) and that it is engaged in illegal operations.

Notably, several FIRs have also been filed against the madrasa, copies of which were produced by the media team to the Madrasa operators. When asked about the complaints, the operators avoided the questions and claimed the FIR copies produced by the media team were fake. However, the operator later confirmed that the madrasa was built illegally on the land of LDO and that the civil suit was underway at the Court.

It is important to note that recently Uttar Pradesh announced that it would survey unrecognized madrasas of the state to ascertain information such as several teachers and students, curriculum, and its affiliation with any non-government organization. In this regard, orders have also been given to the District Magistrates of all the districts in the state.

Minister of State for Minority Affairs Danish Azad Ansari had earlier said that the survey would be conducted as per the requirements of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which wants to check on basic facilities being provided to students in Madarsas.

The minister stated further that the survey would help gather other details also such as the name of the madrasa and the institution operating it, whether it is being run in a private or a rented building, and information regarding basic facilities of drinking water, furniture, electricity supply, and toilet, etc. The decision was meanwhile backed by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind led by several Islamic clerics on Tuesday.

Also, in the state of Assam, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is taking efforts to eliminate illegal Islamic institutions and those engaged in illegal activities. The Sarma government demolished three Madarsas in Assam which were illegally operating and engaging in terrorist activities. Many clerics associated with these madrasas were also arrested by the police. Also on Tuesday, the inhabitants of Goalpara town in Assam razed a Madarsa which was engaged in anti-national activities. The Madarsa cleric named Jalaluddin Sheikh was also arrested.

Navy veteran pulls up The Wire for misquoting him on INS Vikrant to downplay India and Indian Navy’s achievement

OpIndia Staff
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Navy veteran pulls up The Wire for misquoting him on INS Vikrant to downplay India and Indian Navy’s achievement

In a bid to downplay the achievements of India and the Indian Navy, propaganda outlet The Wire on Tuesday misquoted Commodore Jaideep Maolankar (R) by taking his quotes from Barkha Dutt’s show out of context. In a series of tweets, Cmde Maolankar pulled up The Wire pointed out how every quote they’ve attributed to him are true, but taken out of context to mean completely the opposite.

Cmde Maolankar asked whether The Wire either had some score to settle with the Navy, rather the armed forces, or some vested interested owing to such biased writing.

In its article titled “Time for an ‘Accurate and Down-to-Earth Assessment’ of Vikrant, Say Veterans”, The Wire massively downplayed the Indian Navy’s feat of commissioning first Made in India aircraft carrier last week. Quoting Cmde Maolankar from his discussion on journalist Barkha Dutt’s show, The Wire downplayed INS Vikrant. While Cmde did say that the INS Vikrant is a modest carrier, but owing to our rich history, the indigenous aircraft carrier will only act as a stepping stone for more such carriers to come. “It is going to adapt, but it is going to grow even further,” he had said. He also pointed out how India is amongst the few countries to have the capabilities of making its own naval aircraft carriers, fighter aircrafts that can go with these ships and even aerial weapons and hence the commissioning of INS Vikrant should be viewed in such wider framework.

He later explains on what he meant by ‘modest carrier’. He said that since he was the first to land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier (INS Vikramaditya in January 2020), he said that those who do not fly fighter jets, these ships are projected as ‘massive’, ‘biggest’ or ‘largest’ and even names signify grandiose, but from the perspective of bringing fighter jets on the carrier, it is a modest one. But The Wire chooses to not mention how he then also talked about we should continue to be self-reliant. He also talked about challenges India is facing and might face in future in terms of national security, which as a veteran, it makes complete sense.

The Wire, however, dismissed the excitement Indians had over the commissioning of INS Vikrant as “breathless hysteria in official, military and media circles” and insinuated that Cmde Maolankar, through his statements that India could and should do better is ‘giving a reality check’. The Wire further downplays the commissioning of INS Vikrant by pointing out how this wont be operational till end of 2023 and various other pointers to portray how the celebration of INS Vikrant is meaningless.

Citing some unnamed ‘senior security officer’, The Wire then mentions how Cmde Maolankar’s comments were ‘accurate and down to earth assessment’ as against ‘frenzied reaction to Vikrant’s commissioning by a cross-section of serving and veteran naval officers, other military and defence officials, analysts and electronic and print media reporter’. Essentially, The Wire tried to portray an out of context comment by a Navy veteran to punch down the excitement of millions of Indians who were excited about commissioning of INS Vikrant, 75 long years after having attained Independence. Rest of the article also paints the Indian Navy in poor light, insinuating India is not combat ready.

While The Wire article does mention that Cmde Maolankar made these comments on Dutt’s show, many Twitter users were left wondering why did he agree to speak to The Wire that has a reputation of misleading reports especially to build an anti-India narrative.

However, Cmde Maolankar pointed out how that was also deceitful on The Wire’s part as what they did make it appear like he gave an interview to them.

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