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‘Non-serious Rahul Gandhi destroyed party, his PAs and guards taking decisions’: Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress, here is the full text of his scathing letter

OpIndia Staff
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‘Non-serious Rahul Gandhi destroyed party, his PAs and guards taking decisions’: Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress, here is the full text of his scathing letter

On Friday (August 26), veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the Congress, after being associated with the party since the mid-1970s.

In his letter, Azad slammed the Congress high command for sidelining senior party leaders and giving in to the whims and fancies of ‘inexperienced sycophants.’

He pulled up a ‘non-serious’ Rahul Gandhi for infamously tearing a copy of the ordinance, approved by the UPA Cabinet. The veteran Congress leader suggested that the decisions of the grand old party are now being made by the Personal assistants and security guards of Rahul Gandhi.

He informed how the senior party leaders were insulted by the Congress scion in a special Congress Working Committee meeting. Azad lambasted the party’s high command for not holding transparent elections at any level within the organisation.

He suggested that the grand old party has now reached a point of no return and installing a puppet will draw the monicker of ‘remote control’ for Congress as it earlier did for the UPA.

Full text of the Resignation Letter

I joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in mid 1970’s when it was still taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from 8″ August 1953 onwards – the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah being the nadir of its political myopia.

Notwithstanding all this, I (was) inspired from my student days by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose and other leading lights of our freedom struggle.

Subsequently, at the personal insistence of Late Sh Sanjay Gandhi, I agreed to shoulder the responsibility of the Presidentship of the Jammu & Kashmir Youth Congress in 1975-76. I was already serving the Indian National Congress as a Block General Secretary from 1973-1975 after completing my post-graduation from Kashmir University.

During the period from 1977 onwards as General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) led by Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi, we went from jail to jail along with thousands of Youth Congress leaders and workers. My longest period in Tihar jail was from 20” December 1978 to the end of January 1979, for leading a protest rally against the arrest of Mrs Indira Gandhi from Jama Masjid Delhi to Parliament House.

We opposed the Janata Party dispensation and paved the way for the revival and rejuvenation of the party founded by the Late Mrs Indira Gandhi in the January of 1978. Within three years as a consequence of that heroic struggle the Indian National Congress stormed back into power in 1980.

After the tragic death of the youth icon, I took over as the National President of IYC in 1980. As President, I had the privilege of inducting your husband Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi into the Indian Youth Congress as a Member of the National Council on the first death anniversary of Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi on 23rd June 1981.

Subsequently, Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi took over the leadership of the IYC in a Special Session of IYC held in Bangalore on 29 & 30 December of that year (1981) again under my Presidentship. I have had the honour of serving as a Union Minister in Late Smt. Indira Gandhi’s, Late Sh Rajiv Gandhi’s, Late Sh. PV Narasimha Rao’s and Dr Manmohan
Singh’s government respectively from 1982 till 2014.

I have also had the opportunity of serving as a General Secretary in the AICC with every President of the Indian National Congress since the mid-1980s. I was a Member of the Congress Parliamentary Board headed by your late husband and then Congress President Sh. Rajiv Gandhi till his tragic assassination in May 1991 and later with Sh PV Narasimha Rao till the latter decided not to reconstitute the Congress Parliamentary Board in October 1992.

I have also been a Member of the Congress Working Committee continuously for nearly four decades both in an elected and a nominated capacity. I have been AICC General Secretary in Incharge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last thirty-five years. I am happy to state that INC won 90% of the states that I was in charge from time to time.

l am recounting all these years of selfless service just to underscore my lifelong association with this great institution that I also served recently as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for 7 years. I have spent every working moment of my adult life in the service of the Indian National Congress at the cost of my health and family.

While undoubtedly as the President of the Indian National Congress you played a sterling role in the formation of both the UPA-1 and UPA-2 governments. However, one of the major reasons for this success was that as President you heeded the wise counsel of senior leaders, besides trusting their judgement and delegating powers to them.

However unfortunately after the entry of Shri Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as Vice President by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him. All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and the new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the Party.

One of the most glaring examples of this immaturity was the tearing up of a government ordinance in the full glare of the media by Shri Rahul Gandhi. The said ordinance was incubated in the Congress Core Group and subsequently unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister of India and duly approved even by the President of India.

This ‘childish’ behaviour completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and the Government of India. This one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA Government in 2014 which was at the receiving end of a campaign of calumny and insinuation from a combination of the forces of the right-wing and certain unscrupulous corporate interests.

You may recall that after you took over as the Congress President after dethroning Shri Sita Ram Kesri, the Congress leadership had met for brainstorming in Panchmari in October of 1998, Subsequently, there was another such session in Simla in 2003 and then again in Jaipur in January 2013.

I had the privilege of chairing the working group on Organisational Affairs on all these three occasions. However, regrettably, none of the recommendations of these retreats was ever properly implemented.

In fact, in January of 2013 at Jaipur, I had proposed with the assistance of others members of the Committee a detailed action plan to revitalize the party in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. That action plan was duy approved by the CWC.

These recommendation’s were supposed to be implemented in a time-bound manner before 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Unfortunately, — these recommendations are lying in the storeroom of the AICC for the past 9 years.

Inspite of my repeated reminders in person both to you and the then Vice President Shri Rahul Gandhi from 2013 onwards to implement these recommendations. However, no effort was made to even examine them seriously.

Under your stewardship since 2014 and subsequently that of Shri Rahul Gandhi, the INC has lost two Lok Sabha elections in a humiliating manner. It has lost 39 out of the 49 assembly elections held between 2014 — 2022. The Party only won four slate elections and was able to get into a coalition situation in six instances.

Unfortunately, today, the INC is ruling in only two states and is a very marginal coalition partner in two other slates. Since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened.

After Sh. Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a ‘huff and not before insulting all the senior Party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. A position that you have continued to hold even today for the past three years.

Worse still the ‘remote control model’ that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government now got applied to the Indian National Congress. While you are just a nominal figurehead all the important decisions were being taken by Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guard’s and PA’s.

In the August of 2020 when I and 22 other senior colleagues including former Union Ministers and Chief Ministers wrote to you to flag the abysmal drift in the Party, the ‘coterie’ chose to unleash its sycophants on us and got us attacked, vilified and humiliated in the most crude manner possible.

Infact on the directions of the coterie that runs the AICC today, my mock funeral precession was taken out in Jammu. Those who committed this indiscipline were feted in Delhi by the General Secretaries of the AICC and Shri Rahul Gandhi personally.

Subsequently, the same coterie unleashed its goondas to physically attack the residence of a former Ministerial Colleague Sh. Kapil Sibal who incidentally was defending you and your kin in the courts of Law for your alleged attacks of omission and commission.

The only crime committed by the 23 senior leaders who wrote that letter out of concern for the Party is that they pointed out both the reasons for the weaknesses in the Party and the remedies thereof. Unfortunately, instead of taking those views on board in a constructive and cooperative manner, we were abused, humiliated,insulted and vilified in a specially summoned meeting of the extended CWC meeting.

Unfortunately, the situation in the Congress party has reached such a point of no return thal now “proxies” are being propped up to take over the leadership of the Party. This experiment is doomed to fail because the Party has been so comprehensively destroyed that situation has become irretrievable.

Moreover, the ‘chosen one’ would be nothing more than a puppet on a string. Unfortunately, at the National level, we have conceded the political space available to us to the BJP and state level space to regional parties. This all happened because the leadership in the past 08 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the Party.

The entire organizational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC siting in 24 Akbar Road.

At no place in a booth, block, district or state was an electoral roll published, nominations invited, scrutinized, polling booths set up and elections held. The AICC leadership is squarely responsible for perpetrating a giant fraud on the party to perpetuate its hold on the ruins of what once was a national movement that fought for and attained
the Independence of India.

Does the Indian National Congress deserve this in the 75th year of India’s independence is a question that the AICC leadership must ask itself?

NIA arrests two including Delhi-based businessman Kabir Talwar in 3,000-kg Mundra port heroin seizure case

OpIndia Staff
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NIA arrests two including Delhi-based businessman Kabir Talwar in 3,000-kg Mundra port heroin seizure case

On Thursday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a Delhi-based businessman, Kabir Talwar, in connection with the Mundra Port drug seizure case, in which about 3,000 kilogram of heroin was discovered. Kabir Talwar owns the Playboy nightclub in Delhi’s Samrat hotel. Prince Sharma, another businessman, was also taken into custody by the NIA as part of the inquiry.

According to NIA officials, Talwar, also known as Harpreet Talwar, is the Indian drug kingpin who allegedly imported drugs, distributed them to various peddlers, and then sent the money via hawala channels to individuals in Afghanistan who financed terrorist organisations.

In an official statement, NIA said, “The arrested accused are a part of an international drug smuggling network involved in smuggling of large commercial quantities of heroin originating from Afghanistan into India. Heroin was being concealed in import consignments of material, such as semi-processed talc, bituminous coal, etc.”

“The accused were involved in the import of narcotics through fake/shell import companies and further facilitated its transport to Delhi-based Afghan nationals involved in purification and distribution of heroin in many states, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and UP,” the statement further added.

In September 2021, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested six Afghan, one Uzbek, and three Indian citizens after seizing a consignment of heroin at Gujarat’s Mundra Port. The shipment had been packed and labelled as semi-processed Talc stones in Afghanistan before being carried by road by Hasan Hussain Limited, located in Kandahar, to the Bandar Abbas port in Iran.

Subsequently, the parcel was sent to Mundra Port on the pretext of being sent to the Aashi Trading Company in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Initially, it was estimated that the confiscated heroin was valued between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 crores. But after a careful examination, it was found that the heroin smuggled in from Afghanistan was actually worth Rs 9,000 crores.

In October 2021, the NIA took up the investigation. In March of this year, the agency submitted a charge sheet against 16 suspected people based on the investigations. The NIA discovered that the group had previously smuggled narcotics into the country.  They were linked in a complaint filed by the DRI about the seizure of 20.25 kg in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, and 16.10 kg from a Delhi warehouse more than a year ago.

Who is Kabir Talwar alias Harpreet Talwar

Kabir Talwar is a Delhi-based business magnate who presently runs some of the city’s most exclusive clubs and restaurants, including the Playboy club in the Samrat Hotel. The Playboy club is part of the Playboy Enterprise network of nightclubs, resorts, and periodicals, which was founded in 1960 in Chicago, USA.

Talwar with Punjabi performer Hardy Sandhu.

Talwar stated in an interview with a magazine that his entrepreneurial career began when he was 16 years old. Talwar claims to be on the Forbes list and to own more than seven bars on his Instagram page, which stands deactivated right now. Talwar has posted photos of various luxury cars on social media. He has also posted images of himself with Punjabi performers such as Sidhu Moose Wala and Hardy Sandhu.

Transporting cows within the state not a violation of the UP Cow Slaughter Act, rules Allahabad HC

OpIndia Staff
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Transporting cows within the state not a violation of the UP Cow Slaughter Act, rules Allahabad HC

The Allahabad HC Thursday said that a person would not require a permit to transport cows within the state as it does not violate any provision of the Uttar Pradesh Cow Slaughter Act.

The bench of Justice Mohd Aslam set aside an order passed by the Varanasi district magistrate to seize a vehicle on the allegation that the same was carrying animals for the purpose of cow slaughter without valid permission.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Mohd Shakib whose truck was caught by the police and seized on December 12, 2020. on the grounds of illegally carrying the transport business of cows without any legal authority. An FIR was lodged under Sections 3/5A/8, 5B of the Cow Slaughter Act and Section 11 Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act.

According to the FIR, authorities received information from an informant that the alleged truck with registration number UP-70ET/2667 is transporting animals for the purpose of cow slaughtering without a valid permit. Based on this information, the police apprehended the aforementioned vehicle and recovered 16 bullocks, while the driver of the vehicle fled.

Mohd Shakib petitioned the Varanasi district magistrate for the release of the truck in question, which was denied. Following that, he filed a criminal revision before the District and Sessions Judge, Chandauli, which was also rejected. The aforesaid revision was transferred to the court of Special Judge (SC/ST Act), Chandauli and the revisional court also rejected the revision vide order dated October 13, 2021. As a result, Mohd Shakib petitioned the Allahabad High Court, challenging both the DM’s and the revisional court’s orders.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad HC, taking into account, an earlier high court order in the case of Kailash Yadav and Others vs. State of UP & others, 2008(10) ADJ 623, wherein it was held that no permit is required for transportation of cow or its progeny within Uttar Pradesh, set aside the Varanasi district magistrate ruling and observed that transportation of cows within the state is not a violation of any of the provisions of the UP Cow Slaughter Act.

Transportation of the skin of cows doesn’t amount to contravention of ‘UP Cow Slaughter Act’: Allahabad HC

Notably, only 4 days ago on August 22, Justice Mohd Aslam of the Allahabad High Court ruled that transporting the skin leather of cows does not violate the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955, and thus the Magistrate has the authority under sections 451 or 457 CrPC to release a vehicle in which allegedly skin leather of a cow or its progeny was transported.

The Court had added that in such matters the District Magistrate/Commissioner of Police has no jurisdiction to issue an order for the confiscation of such a vehicle in the event of seizure of the transport medium by a law enforcement officer.

Uttar Pradesh govt approves ordinance against cow slaughter, illegal transportation to be penalised

It may be recalled that in the year 2020, the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government cleared an ordinance aimed at protecting the cow and preventing crimes related to cow slaughter. The proposed amendment included a penal provision of imprisonment ranging from one year to ten years for physical damage to the cow and a fine from Rs one lakh to Rs three lakh in cases related to cow slaughter. The UP government will bring amendments to the Cow Slaughter Act, 1955.

The ordinance aimed at making the existing law (Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955) more robust and effective and completely stop the incidents pertaining to cow slaughter, the statement said.

Under section 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955, the driver, operator and the owner of the vehicle shall be charged for the illegal transportation of bovine animals. The new Act would punish if there is a danger to their lives through physical damage or mutilation.

Love Jihad in Bareilly: Chand Babu poses as Dr Vishal to trap a Hindu woman, made compromising videos and converted her to Islam, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Love Jihad in Bareilly: Chand Babu poses as Dr Vishal to trap a Hindu woman, made compromising videos and converted her to Islam, arrested

On Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested one person named Chand Babu for allegedly raping a woman and forcing her to convert her religion to Islam. Chand Babu introduced himself as Doctor Vishal and duped a Hindu woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district. The Police have booked the accused under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

According to the reports, the woman is a resident of Muradabad, Uttar Pradesh. However, the incident is said to have happened in Bareilly where accused Chand Babu posed himself as Dr Vishal. He developed a love and sexual relationship with the victim woman and shot compromising videos of her. He also clicked several private pictures of the woman and later used them to blackmail her.

The accused Chand Babu is already married and is the father of two children. The woman came to know this about the accused and also that he was a Muslim and not Dr Vishal. She then began to maintain distance from the accused.

Reports mention that after that the accused started to blackmail the victim by saying that he would make public the videos and photos of the woman on social media. He then forcefully abducted the woman from Muradabad to Bareilly and locked her in ‘Mannat Guest House’ in the city. He also forced the victim woman to convert her religion to Islam.

The woman somehow managed to call the Police and inform about the incident. The Police reached the spot and rescued the woman. According to DSP Bareilly City Shweta Yadav, the woman had called on 112 on Thursday night and informed about her abduction. “The police then reached the spot and arrested the youth. Chand Babu posed himself as Vishal and made a young woman a victim of love jihad. He also forced her to convert her religion”, she confirmed.

Earlier on July 19, a similar incident was reported from the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Police had registered a complaint against an auto driver named Rahmat Hasan for forcefully converting a poor woman and her two-year-old child in Ghaziabad. Hasan had posed himself as a Hindu and deceptively married the woman and converted her to Islam. He also circumcised the two-year-old boy and forcefully converted him to Islam.

Also on July 11, a case in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly was reported that said that a youth named Imran had concealed his religious identity to trap a Hindu woman. He had pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him. Imran also raped her and clicked objectionable pictures of her. He thereafter used the pictures to blackmail her into eating beef forcefully against her will and offer Namaz.

In the current case, based on the compliant of the victim woman, a case has been registered in the city Police station under several relevant sections of IPC. The Police has also arrested the accused named Chand Babu in the case of religious conversion, rape and assault.

Adani buying NDTV: Washington Post owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is concerned about ‘Modi ally’ endangering press freedom

OpIndia Staff
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Adani buying NDTV: Washington Post owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is concerned about ‘Modi ally’ endangering press freedom

The Adani group had recently announced that they are moving to acquire a 29% stake at NDTV through an investor. As NDTV’s promoters Radhika and Prannoy Roy try to stall the takeover bid, a number of Indian media persons and general ‘Left-leaning’ commentators have been trying to paint Adani Group as some evil corporation that is all set to taint an honest media organisation by buying it through evil means.

Interestingly, such juvenile rants are not limited to India alone. Major international media organisations have produced op-eds lamenting the takeover bid. Ironically, the most vocal among them was Washington Post, a media organisation that is owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

Headline by WaPo

“Fears for independent media in India as tycoon eyes major news channel”, read Washington Post’s headline for the article. They shared it on social media with the text, “Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man and an ally of prime minister Narendra Modi, made a hostile bid for NDTV in a move that could reshape India’s media landscape.”

Social media users tried to point WaPo towards the glaring irony in their article.

Not just Washington Post, many other international media organisations also peddled similar claims, trying to paint the Adani bid as an evil political-corporate plan to attack the ‘so-called’ independent media. The fact that NDTV has long been a serial fake news peddler, agenda-driven, Leftist media house, was conveniently forgotten.

UK-based The Guadian ran an article titled, “Media freedom fears in India after Modi ally Adani buys 29% in NDTV”.

Article in The Guardian

An article published in Reuters on August 25 read, “Takeover of NDTV by India’s richest man worries journalists”. Desperate efforts made by vacuous claims trying to paint Adani as some evil corporate arm of the Modi government only show how the Leftist media houses try to take their readers for a ride with misleading claims.

Reuters article on Adani takeover

Reuters’ sharing test read, For years India’s NDTV pursued an independent line critical of the government as others embraced strident nationalism. Now a proposed takeover by tycoon Adani’s conglomerate raises fears that one of the country’s last bastions of free media is under threat.”

The claim that NDTV represented free and independent media might be called the best joke of the week. For decades NDTV has sold blatant fake news, and political bias and has worshipped the Congress party and Left. It has even produced news items that are appreciated in Pakistan and have been used by Pakistani groups to promote their anti-India agenda.

In one of its most recent fake-news attempts, NDTV had claimed that India had sent a private jet for ousted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The channel deleted it when MEA called out their attempt to peddle blatant lies.

NDTV’s 29% shares were with Reliance Group for all these years, but Adani taking over from Ambani became ‘concern for media freedom’

Another glaring irony in the concerns and worries shared by journalists is that the 29% shares that Adani has acquired were with Ambani-owned Reliance Group all these years, Adani has merely taken over the investor that held those shares. The media persons who are lamenting over the move should first explain how is Ambani owning shares better or different than Adani owning shares if their concerns are about corporate ownership and journalistic freedom.

Prannoy and Radhika Roy’s attempts to stall Adani may not succeed

Responding to the Roys’ allegations and their attempts to rile up false victimhood by friendly media houses, the Adani Group on Friday clarified the exercise was a mere warrants conversion from VCPL and for that no prior approval from SEBI was needed and claims made by the Roys are false.

An indirect subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, VCPL said that RRPR is not a party to the SEBI order, which restricted Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy from dealing with securities. “The Warrant Exercise Notice has been issued by VCPL under a contract which is binding on RRPR. RRPR is therefore obligated to comply with its contractual obligations,” it said.

VCPL informed that the exercise of warrants conversion did not violate restrictions imposed on Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy against dealing in securities by SEBI. As such, it contended that no prior written approval from the regulatory body was required.

Baseless, legally untenable and devoid of merit: Adani Group responds to allegations of a ‘hostile takeover of NDTV’ without consent of promoters

OpIndia Staff
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Baseless, legally untenable and devoid of merit: Adani Group responds to allegations of a ‘hostile takeover of NDTV’ without consent of promoters

Days after New Delhi Television (NDTV) accused the Adani Group of acquiring a 29% stake in the company without consent, the Indian multinational conglomerate has responded to the allegations.

In a statement on Friday (August 26), it said, “We hereby inform you that VCPL has received a reply on behalf of RRPR to the warrant exercise notice dated August 23, 2022, for the exercise of the 1,990,000 warrants into 1,990,000 equity shares of RRPR, contents of which were also disclosed by NDTV in its disclosure dated August 24, 2022.”

RRPR (a promoter-owned company that owns a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV) had claimed that written approval from SEBI was required for the exercise of conversion of warrants, a claim dismissed by Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL).

An indirect subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, VCPL said that RRPR is not a party to the SEBI order, which restricted Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy from dealing with securities.

“The Warrant Exercise Notice has been issued by VCPL under a contract which is binding on RRPR. RRPR is therefore obligated to comply with its contractual obligations,” it said.

VCPL informed that the exercise of warrants conversion did not violate restrictions imposed on Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy against dealing in securities by SEBI. As such, it contended that no prior written approval from the regulatory body was required.

“Further, on August 23, 2022, the amount of Rs. 1,99,00,000, being the amount payable for the 19,90,000 equity shares of RRPR pursuant to exercise of warrants, has been paid by VCPL and received by RRPR.,” it said.

“Any subsequent attempt by RRPR to return the money received or the original warrant certificate shall have no legal effect on the exercise of warrants by VCPL which has been completed,”it further emphasised.

While rubbishing the allegations levelled by NDTV, Adani Group said, “The contentions raised by RRPR in the Letter are baseless, legally untenable and devoid of merit. RRPR is therefore bound to immediately perform its obligation and allot the equity shares as specified in the Warrant Exercise Notice.”

The Allegations of Hostile Takeover of NDTV

The term hostile takeover largely means when one company acquires another company against the wishes of the company getting acquired. It may happen when the acquiring company buys shares directly from shareholders of target company.

In this case, the Roys have stated that they were not consulted before Adani Group made the open offer to buy shares to form majority stake after loan or other convertible debt instrument is converted into equity.

Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VPCL), is company incorporated in 2008. In 2009, it offered unsecured loan to NDTV’s holding company, Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Holding Private Limited (RRPRH) worth Rs 403.85 crore. RRPRH held 29% equity in NDTV.

VCPL, in same year, had received unsecured loan from Shinano Retail Private Limited, which had obtained money from Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited, a part of Reliance Group.

Shinano Retail was a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Group. Since these documents are publicly available, NDTV was aware that it was obtaining unsecured loan from an entity that was linked to Reliance group. For its part, VCPL was owned by Shinano Retail and Teesta Retail Private Limited, another fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Group.

ISIS says its first Indian suicide bomber was a Christian who converted to Islam from Kerala, was called ‘Abu Bark Al-Hindi’: Here is what we know so far

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS says its first Indian suicide bomber was a Christian who converted to Islam from Kerala, was called ‘Abu Bark Al-Hindi’: Here is what we know so far

As per the Islamic terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the first Indian suicide bomber for them was a Keralite who converted from Christianity to Islam. The Islamic State revealed this in their propaganda magazine Voice of Khorasan. Following the claimed admission by the terrorist organisation, Indian central intelligence agencies have launched an investigation into the matter.

The suicide bomber is mentioned in the magazine’s (Voice of Koharasan) newest issue’s chapter “Memories of Shuhada,” which is a section dedicated to the memories of those who died fighting for ISIS. The identity of the Kerala terrorist was not mentioned in the story. According to the report, the suicide bomber was given the name “Abu Bakr Al-Hindi” and became interested in Islam in the UAE.

According to the magazine, after his conversion, Abu Bakr became interested in Jihadi philosophy and contacted ISIS sleeper cells in Dubai. He had planned to fly to Yemen for more instruction but was unable to do so, so he returned to his native state of Kerala. After spending some time in Kerala, he received word from his ISIS handlers that there was a chance in Libya, so he went there under the pretext of trying to find a new job. According to the report, he waged Jihad against the Libyan Army in Sirsit, ISIS’s stronghold, before turning into a suicide bomber and blowing himself up.

OpIndia recently reported on the Kerala engineer operating under the alias Abu Bakr. Abu’s repeated attempts to migrate to an IS-controlled area in Yemen failed due to logistical issues. Still, the opportunity to join the Libyan module ultimately came up with the support of his Gulf connections.

Abu received military training in Sirte after arriving in Libya. The current issue of the magazine mentions, “Brother Abu Bakr joined operation istishhadi (suicide attack). When the apostates reached gate 40, he was selected and carried out istishhadi operation on the murtaddin and attained martyrdom.”

Another Kerala engineer ‘Najeeb’ died in a suicide attack in Afghanistan

In March of this year, OpIndia reported that ISKP showcased another engineering student from Kerala in their publication Voice of Khorasan. In a report about his death, the Indian fighter was identified only by his assumed name, Najeeb Al Hindi, and he was described as a 23-year-old “engineering (M.Tech) student from Kerala.” The article had no more information on Najeeb, nor did it state when he died or the circumstances surrounding his death.

According to the ISKP publication, Najeeb only wanted to fight for the Islamic State and did not want to marry, but under the influence of friends, he married another jihadi girl from a Pakistani family. The ISKP propaganda journal linked Najeeb to Prophet Mohammad’s companion Hanzala Ibn Abi Mair, who was murdered in a fight on his wedding night.

ISIS stronghold in Kerala

As early as 2014, ISIS established roots in Kerala, with modules encouraging religious conversions and aiming to attract professionals to join its troops in Afghanistan and Syria. Plenty of Kerala men and women are said to have joined the ISKP in recent years.

The United Nations warned in its 2020 terrorism report that there are a substantial number of ISIS terrorists in the Indian state of Kerala, stating that the ISIL Indian affiliate (Hind Wilayah), which was declared on May 10, 2019, has around 200 members.

Furthermore, a National Investigation Agency’s chargesheet filed in July 2020 in connection with the murder of Special Sub Inspector Wilson revealed a strong association between ISIS terrorists active and growing in the state.

The NIA is currently investigating cases related to IS operating recruitment centres in Kerala. Several non-Muslim women have also been radicalised and converted in the last few years and have been sent to Afghanistan and Syria to fight for the Islamic State.

‘Don’t worry, take rest’: Watch how AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi spoke to released Islamist, arrested for chanting ‘sar tan se juda’ against Raja Singh

OpIndia Staff
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‘Don’t worry, take rest’: Watch how AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi spoke to released Islamist, arrested for chanting ‘sar tan se juda’ against Raja Singh

On Thursday, the Hyderabad Police released around 90 Islamists who had raised murderous ‘sar tan se juda’ beheading chants over T Raja Singh’s alleged ‘blasphemous’ comments. This is hours after the Police arrested Singh from his residence in Hyderabad.

According to the reports, the Islamists had protested overnight for two nights calling for the beheading of suspended BJP MLA T Raja Singh who had also passed comments on Munawar Faruqui’s ‘comedy show’ where he had once mocked Hindu gods and goddesses. The Islamists were detained by the Police on August 23 and were released by the Hyderabad Police on directions of AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi.

Men, women and even children were involved in stone pelting as well as chanting the murderous chants calling for T Raja Singh’s beheading. As reported earlier, the AIMIM leader is said to have met the DCP South Zone and got these ‘protesters’ released.

On August 25, after the Islamists were released, the AIMIM leader called the protesters and extended support to them, the video of which went viral over social media. In the video, one of the protesters can be seen talking to Asaduddin Owaisi. Expressing concern, Owaisi on phone said, “Whatever happened was really bad. Mustafa Ali Muzaffar told me that the police had detained you all. Now there’s no need to worry. It’s 1:30 am. You all go home and take a rest. Your parents might be worrying”.

Meanwhile, the Islamist protestor who was talking to the AIMIM leader thanked him for his interference in the matter and said that Muzzafar corporator played a major role in their release. Corporator Mustafa Ali Muzaffar is an AIMIM leader from the Shalibanda area who was also part of the protests where the Islamists raised the ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans against T Raja Singh. Muzzafar had shared the video of the protest on his Facebook page with a hashtag that read, “Arrest Raja Singh”.

Earlier, it was reported that the Islamist protest was led by Syed Abdahu Kashaf who calls himself a political strategist and Social and Civil Rights Activist. He seems to be associated with the AIMIM party and its supremo Asaduddin Owaisi as he has worked as Social media Head of the party from 2012 to 2019.

On Thursday, the Telangana Police detained Raja Singh again for his alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks against Prophet Mohammad. The former BJP leader was arrested from his residence in Hyderabad. Earlier, he was arrested and released on bail in the Prophet remarks case.

Informing that Singh has been labelled as a rowdy sheeter at Mangalhat Police Station, the police said that Raja Singh committed ‘blasphemy’ by making objectionable comments on Prophet Mohammad in a video posted on his YouTube channel. According to the reports, as many as 101 criminal cases are registered against Singh, and he is involved in 18 communal offences registered in different police stations in the city.

Tense situation continue to prevail in the city of Hyderabad as the Police has imposed section 144 in the area.

Mark Zuckerberg admits on Joe Rogan’s show that Facebook suppressed Hunter Biden emails story just before US elections because FBI had told them to

OpIndia Staff
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Mark Zuckerberg admits on Joe Rogan’s show that Facebook suppressed Hunter Biden emails story just before US elections because FBI had told them to

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, who owns the social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, made an appearance on the popular Joe Rogan podcast ‘Joe Rogan Experience.

During the interview, Joe Rogan asked “How do you handle a big news item that is controversial? Like there was a lot of attention on Twitter when the Hunter Biden story came out during the elections.”

To this, Zuckerberg replied, “We took a path different path than Twitter. During elections, the FBI basically came to us. As a team, they said we need to be on high alert because of a lot of Russian propaganda during the 2016 elections. (They told the Facebook team) that there is going to be a similar kind of dump (of political controversy), so just be vigilant. Our approach is different from Twitter. Twitter tells directly that you just can’t share that particular thing. Facebook works with third-party fact-checkers. There was a 5-7 day period when that particular story was being flagged as potential misinformation. So its distribution on Facebook was limited. We were not ‘black and white’ like Twitter. But we limited the reach of the story so that a fewer number of people were able to see it or share it. ”

Zuckerberg further stated that if the FBI tells them to be careful about something they take it seriously. And that (hunter Biden laptop) story was flagged by them, so Facebook did what was necessary. He even lamented that despite limiting the reach of the story, Facebook was still criticised by many for not limiting it enough.

When Joe Rogan asked if the FBI specifically asked them to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, Zuckerberg admitted that they did not mention it specifically, but Facebook did it anyway.

Zuckerberg’s admission that social media giant Facebook actively tweaked its algorithm to favour one particular candidate in the 2020 US elections and prevented him from facing negative public opinion at a crucial juncture in the election process has triggered some major reactions on social media.

While some people highlighted how Facebook actively tweeted its algorithm to favour one candidate in the US elections (Joe Biden), others pointed out the concern that Big Tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter are now deciding which stories would be consumed by the masses and how they will promote or suppress them based on Big Tech’s own definition of their legitimacy and usefulness.

The Hunter Biden emails story

It is notable here that in the last weeks of the 2020 US presidential elections, the New York Post had published an explosive story about Hunter Biden’s problematic emails with a Ukrainian gas company executive from Burisma. Twitter had censored the NY Post account and a number of major news outlets like the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN and others had gone overboard declaring it as fake news. After the elections were over and Joe Biden was declared president, it later became clear that the NY Post story was true. Twitter’s former head Jack Dorsey then expressed regret over censoring the story and blocking NY Post from their Twitter account.

The media favouring of Joe Biden was not limited to suppressing the NY Post story and declaring it as fake. The pool of journalists who followed Biden around during his campaign never asked him about it. When one journalist, CBS News’ Bo Ericson had managed to ask, he was pushed back angrily by his own colleagues and other journalists.

I hate you f*cking Indians: Mexican-American woman’s racist tirade goes viral, arrested after she assaults Indian women, pulls a gun out

OpIndia Staff
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I hate you f*cking Indians: Mexican-American woman’s racist tirade goes viral, arrested after she assaults Indian women, pulls a gun out

On Wednesday (August 24), a Mexican American woman assaulted a group of 4 Indians, following a racist rant in the parking lot of a business establishment in Plano in Dallas city of Texas.

As per reports, the accused was identified as Esmi Armendarez Upton. The video of the nasty confrontation had gone viral on social media, leading to her arrest on Thursday (August 25).

“I hate you f*cking Indians…You come to our country and want everything free. I am Mexican-American. I was born here. Were you born here? Everywhere I go, you fucking Indians are there,” Esmi was heard as saying.

“If life was so great in India, why the f*ck are you here? Turn your camera off. I am happy to talk,” Esmi warned before proceeding to hit one of the Indian women in the face. The victims were returning home when the Mexican American woman confronted them in the parking lot, without any provocation

She also tried to pull out a gun from her purse and threatened to shoot the Indian group. In a longer version of the video, the woman was heard referring to the Indians as ‘curry ass bitches.’

While stating that her ethnicity is ‘Mexican’, she then assaulted another woman in the group. Esmi told the victims that she hates Indians because of their accents. She also claimed that Indians were migrating to the United States en masse to reap its benefits.

After realising that the victims were calling the cops, Esmi turned ‘apologetic’ and claimed that she overstepped her boundaries. According to her Linkedin profile (which now stands deleted), the Mexican American woman is a realtor for California Federal Bank and parishioner at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Plano.

Victims share ordeal

The four Indian women were identified as Bidisha Rudra, Rani Banerjee, Sabori Saha and Anamika Chatterjee.

In her Facebook post, Bidisha said, “Four friends who were spending a nice evening in a free democratic country with rule of law were verbally abused using racial slurs and thereafter, threatened and body shamed by a complete stranger.”

She further added, “We feared for our lives because she was extremely agitated and seemed totally out of control. We called cops who came in time and diffused the situation.
Is this a way to live in a free civil society??????”

While recounting the ordeal, Rani Banerjee told WFAA, “Suddenly, we heard this woman yelling at us and started coming toward us. We were shocked by the racial slurs that she used and combative attitude.”

Arrest of the racist woman

After the video went viral on social media, netizens were quick to find her Facebook profile. The Plano police arrested Esmi on Thursday (August 25) for Assault bodily injury and terroristic threats. She is now held on a bound amount of $10,000.

“This incident is currently under investigation by the Plano Police Department’s Crime Against Persons Unit as a hate crime. Additional charges may be forthcoming,” the police said in a statement.

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