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Kolkata Police arrest TMC supporter Garga Chatterjee in a case in Assam after High Court slammed them for inaction: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Kolkata Police arrest TMC supporter Garga Chatterjee in a case in Assam after High Court slammed them for inaction: Read details

Loudmouth Trinamool supporter Garga Chatterjee has finally been arrested in a two-year-old case lodged against him in Assam. Kolkata Police arrested him on the orders of the Gauhati High Court and presented him before a court. The court however granted him bail, ordering him to be present before the CJM court in Guwahati for a hearing of the case against him.

An FIR was registered against Garga Chatterjee in June 2020 in Dibrugarh in Assam accusing him of defaming the Ahom community. In a bid to attack BJP in Assam, Garga had called Sukapha, the founder of the Ahom dynasty that ruled in Assam for 600 years, a ‘Chinese invader’.

While two arrest warrants were issued against him by a court in Assam, West Bengal Police didn’t execute those warrants for two years. In June this year, Gauhati High Court slammed the West Govt and Police for this inaction and ordered to arrest him in six weeks. As a result, Kolkata Police arrested him. However, a court in Kolkata granted him bail, ordering him to be present at the Kamrup Metro Chief Judicial Magistrate court on September 17.

Following the Dibrugarh FIR in June 2020, Guwahati Police registered a case against Garga Chatterjee in October 2020 after he made comments defaming the Ahom community on Twitter, where he had questioned why then Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal regularly celebrates a ‘Chinese invader and his invading army’. He was referring to Chaolung Sukapha, who had established the Ahom kingdom in Assam in 1228 after coming from the Tai state Mong Mao in present-day Yunnan Province in China.

This had caused a massive uproar against him in Assam, especially among the Ahom community, and the FIR was filed against the following complaints. CM Sarbananda Sonowal also directed the police to arrest him for the objectionable comments. Facing arrest, Garga Chatterjee issued an unconditional apology to the Ahom community in August 2020. “I pray to the spirit of forgiveness of the people of Assam and honourable Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, please accept my unconditional apology,” he had said.

However, the Tai Ahom community and their organisations didn’t accept the apology and continued to pursue the case seeking his arrest. The court had issued non-bailable warrants against him, directing police to produce him before the court. However, Assam police could not arrest him as the West Bengal police were not cooperating with them. The CJM court had issued directions to the Kolkata police to arrest Garga Chatterjee, but the police in West Bengal chose to ignore these orders.

In June this year, while submitting a status report of the case to the Gauhati High Court, Assam police said that they could not arrest him and produce before the court due to non-cooperation from West Bengal police. The state government’s counsel told the court that two separate non-bailable arrest warrants against Chatterjee, issued by the SDJM court, could not be executed due to lack of assistance from the West Bengal Police.

As a result, the Gauhati High Court issued notices to the Chief Secretary of West Bengal and the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata on June 15, giving them six weeks to respond. The court had also slammed the Bengal police for not cooperating in executing the court-issued summons.

Violent clashes erupt during Muharram procession in Bareilly, Varanasi, Islamists pelt stones, video viral

OpIndia Staff
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Violent clashes erupt during Muharram procession in Bareilly, Varanasi, Islamists pelt stones, video viral

Violent clashes erupted on Tuesday as Islamists hurled stones in the fracas during Muharram processions in Bareilly and Varanasi districts leading to injuries to several people. The video of the incident went viral over social media where people can be seen using bricks and stones to attack during the Muharram procession.

According to the reports, some people of the Muslim community who had participated in the Muharram procession in Varanasi began to cut the huge Jamun tree in the Murzamurad area for the procession to pass easily. Later people from the nearby shops protested against the Islamists who were cutting the tree and said that there was enough space for the Tazia to pass. Amid the dispute, the shopkeeper Khaderu was beaten up and attacked with sticks. The Islamists also damaged his shop and injured five other people.

As the matter escalated, the Police including the DIG, Additional SP, and SP Rural were informed who immediately reached the spot and tried to pacify the matter, failing which a heavy police force was used to end the violence. Meanwhile, the people of the Hindu organization came to know about the incident and they reached the spot raising the slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram.

A similar incident was reported from Bareilly where amid the Muharram procession, the Islamists pelted stones at shops in the Majhoua Gangapur area of Bhojipura. The video of the incident went viral over social media in which even women of a particular community were seen pelting stones. Reports mention that stone pelting continued for about half an hour after which the Police reached the spot and tried to pacify the matter.

According to the reports, the Hindus from the Majhoua village also registered a complaint against the procession organisers as they were using DJ sounds, creating disturbances in the area. They said a new tradition was being set which was creating a disturbance in the society.

Considering the complaint, Bareilly Superintendent of Police (Crime) SP Singh said on August 9 that no new tradition will be allowed. “If anyone tries to start a new tradition, strict action will be taken against him. Hunt is on to nab the stone pelters”, the SP said adding police have brought the situation under control.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Varanasi (Rural) Suryakant Tripathi stated that about six people from other communities were injured as Islamists hurled stones in Varanasi during the procession. He also added that the miscreants will be arrested after registering a case on behalf of the injured persons.

In Muzzafarnagar also, the clashes erupted during the Muharram procession as stones were hurled at people from different communities injuring around 10 people. People also used bricks and sticks to attack each other in the city of Uttar Pradesh.

Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap heckled in Bihar as hecklers draw online support from Congress supporters, ‘fact-checkers’, and ‘journalists’

Amit Kelkar
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Aaj Tak’s Anjana Om Kashyap heckled in Bihar as hecklers draw online support from Congress supporters, ‘fact-checkers’, and ‘journalists’

Aaj Tak journalist Anjana Om Kashyap was heckled on Tuesday by an uncouth mob while covering the latest churning in Bihar as JD(U) Nitish Kumar flipped again and joined the Mahagathbandhan along with RJD and Congress.

Kashyap, a political beat journalist, was on the ground in Patna as a part of her professional duty to report on the development that swept the state in the wake of Nitish Kumar’s decision to switch sides and join hands with his former political allies turned rivals.

As Anjana was going about her business and reporting about the tectonic shift in Bihar’s politics, a crass group among the mob began shouting slogans against her, name-calling her and hurling pejoratives to insult and humiliate her. The condemnable incident was captured on camera, showing an uncivilised rabble of people heckling a woman journalist who was reporting about a significant development having pan-India implications.

The video instantly went viral on social media, where cheerleaders of the hecklers, in the form of Congress, RJD, opposition party supporters and leaders, ‘journalists’ belonging to the Left firmament, and so-called independent ‘fact-checkers’, enthusiastically partook in the efforts to pull down the journalist and express glee over the attack.

‘Journalists’, ‘fact-checkers’, Congress leaders, and supporters extend support to the uncouth mob that heckled the Aaj Tak journalist

Utkarsh Singh, a journalist whose favouritism for RJD-Congress is rather obvious, as witnessed through his Twitter timeline, shared the video of the attack endured by Anjana Om Kashyap.

Mohammed Zubair, a self-described ‘fact-checker’ who conveniently wore the cloak of being a ‘journalist’ after having denied the same years ago to feign victimhood over charges levelled against him, including hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus by posting a slew of Hinduphobic posts, felt no qualms to retweet the video of a mob heckling the Aaj Tak journalist.

Source: Twitter

Puneet Kumar Singh, yet another ‘journalist’, was also among those who shared the video and tacitly legitimised the attack against Anjana Om Kashyap. 

Congress leaders and supporters also endorsed and cheered the attack faced by Anjana Om Kashyap. While their supreme leaders gave a catchy slogan “Ladki hu Ladh Sakti soon”, their footsies and supporters gleefully expressed joy over the heckling of the Aaj Tax journalist. 

Srinivas BV, a Congress leader close to Rahul Gandhi, shared the video of the attack and pontificated that such incidents do not reflect well on the democracy of the country.

Several other Congress office bearers shared the video expressing their gratitude to the people of Bihar for welcoming “Godi Media journalist Anjana Om Kashyap”.

Congress supporters on social media, too, joined in denigrating the journalist and extending support to the mob of hecklers.

The cheering of attack against Anjana Om Kashyap: How the Left dehumanises independent voices who refuses to cave in under their pressure

It is worth noting that the endorsement and cheering on social media for the heckling attack against Anjana Om Kashyap came from the same quarters that went into overdrive to express outrage and shock over the unacceptably criminal behaviour of Shrikant Tyagi against a fellow woman resident in his society. While the ‘fact-checkers’, the Left, Congress, and opposition leaders held forth on liberal principles such as empowering women and treating them with respect when it came to the Shrikant Tyagi episode, their adherence to the same principles was conspicuously missing when hecklers attacked a woman journalist, Anjana Om Kashyap.

For the Left and their footsoldiers, anyone who refuses to toe their line and denies promoting their Islamist propaganda becomes a fair game for attack, slander, name-calling, and harassment. Anjana Om Kashyap, to them, is one of the impartial journalists who not only refuses to yield to their diktats but also possesses the ingenuity to expose the spurious political narratives woven to hoodwink unsuspecting people.

It is for these reasons the ‘fact-checkers’, self-described journalists, Congress leaders and supporters feel no compunction in dehumanising Anjana Om Kashyap, cheering on the hecklers and extending support to them. Anyone who does not follow their directives and dares to challenge their discourse is subjected to malicious attacks, their credibility called into question, and they being labelled as ‘Godi Media’ because by doing so, the Left effectively escapes critical scrutiny and avoids answering uncomfortable questions. Instead, they paint the critics as agents of the central government and promote more such attacks against them.

Bihar crisis: Who will be the Devendra Fadnavis for Bihar amid Nitish-Lalu drama

अनुपम कुमार सिंह
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Bihar crisis: Who will be the Devendra Fadnavis for Bihar amid Nitish-Lalu drama

During the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi emerged as a formidable force. There was a very obvious and prominent Modi wave. The BJP won 22 seats in Bihar. It’s allies Lok Janshakti Parti (LJP) and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) won 6 and 3 seats each. This way, 31 out of 40 seats in Bihar were won by the NDA coalition.

Just a year and a half later in 2015, there were Vidhan Sabha elections in Bihar. The JDU and RJD coalition secured 151 our of 243 seats in its kitty. The BJP got 53 seats. This despite PM Modi holding as many as 31 rallies in the state during run up to the elections.

PM Modi has hardly held so many preelection rallies in a state. However, despite that, it seems the 2015 loss in the state scared the BJP so much that in 2017 when Nitish broke the alliance with RJD and returned to the NDA fold, the BJP welcomed him with open arms. And hence in 2020, despite BJP having won more seats than the JDU, Nitish Kumar was made the chief minister of state. Is the BJP afraid of going solo in Bihar?

One reason could be the BJP in Bihar does not have a leader on whose name they can seek votes in the state. The current BJP state president in Bihar himself does not have any clout outside of Champaran. He may have had a hattrick in the Lok Sabha and even his father may have had a hattrick from same seat, hardly anyone from even neighbouring districts would have heard of them.

The MP from his neighbouring state is Radha Mohan Singh, who was a third time winner in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The six-time winner, Radha Mohan Singh registered his first victory in 1989. Despite being state president of BJP and having been a union minister for five years, the BJP cannot garner votes in his name outside of East Champaran. Everyone in Champaran talks about the internal rivalry of these two leaders. Currently, Radha Mohan Singh is the national vice president of the BJP.

Now let us talk about the two deputy chief minister of BJP. Tarkishor Prasad is a four-time winner from Katihar Vidhan Sabha constituency. But, many people outside of East Bihar heard of him for the first time when he was made the deputy chief minister of the state. Another deputy chief minister, Renu Devi has been a four time MLA from Bettiah. But it is very likely that people of West Champaran also do not know of her. Anyway, this is one of the biggest districts of Bihar.

Patna’s Nitin Navin is quite a popular leader amongst the youth and also state president of BJP Yuva Morcha. But despite winning elections for four times, he has not been able to create a name for himself outside of state capital and he is lost amongst the other big names in the state. Names of other ‘experienced’ BJP leaders that come up are Sushil Kumar Modi, Nandkishor Yadav, Prem Kumar and Shahnawaz Hussain. People and BJP karyakartas are so angry with Sushil Kumar Modi that he was not even offered post of deputy CM this time.

Their entire politics revolved and got stuck around exposing the corruption of Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party. Nandkishor Yadav is a great speaker, everyone agrees with it. But despite being a six-time MLA he is not talked about. If someone has been a six-time MLA, his stature automatically grows. 8 time MLA from Gaya, Prem Kumar, has also been leader of opposition, but outside of his district, no one will even vote for him.

Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was a Central Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. But today he was minister in Bihar state government, that too because of blessings of the ‘high command’. Otherwise that was also a distant possibility. Rajiv Pratap Rudy has not been made central minister this time around. Giriraj Singh definitely stays in news because of his statements and has become a central minister after defeating Kanhaiya Kumar. People in most districts of Bihar have even heard of him. But then he himself has said that this is the last phase of his political career. It will be unlikely that the BJP will gamble to contest elections in his name.

In Mithila, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav was a very popular leader at one point but he has retired from active political life. He came to limelight because of his speech in Lok Sabha in 1977 when he won elections for first time. His son Ashok is also an MP from Madhubani. But he is now more behind the scenes. The top leadership seems to be putting its bets on Nityanand Rai. He has been BJP state president and also a central minister and works alongside Home Minister Amit Shah. But outside of Samastipur, he, too, does not get popular vote.

Celebrities like Kirti Azad and Shatrughan Sinha have left the BJP. Amid all this, the question arises, who will lead the party in the state? Be the fact of the party. What Devendra Fadnavis did in Maharashtra, who can do it in Bihar? Is there any leader who can do it? Maybe not. The BJP will have to find one such leader, who is accepted across districts and communities in Bihar and groom and train him for leadership.

Communities here is important because while at some point the caste lines are blurred to some extent when it comes to voting for Narendra Modi, in state assembly polls, caste politics is still very much alive. In 2020 Vidhan Sabha elections, Tejaswi Yadav led RJD to win 75 seats, making it the largest party. It would be naive to say that the Muslim-Yadav vote bank had no role to play in this. And hence, if JDU, RJD and Congress join hands again, the BJP will likely be destroyed in the state.

Reason would be the same. Lack of local leadership in the party. This is also true that in name of Narendra Modi, BJP has contested and won elections in many states and established local leadership as well. For example, in Jharkhand, there is Raghubar Das, Manoharlal Khattar in Haryana, Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, Trivendra Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand, Jayram Thakur in Himachal Pradesh and Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP declared them as CM candidates and won elections in their names. These leaders have also proven themselves. Interestingly, Devendra Fadnavis is also in-charge of Bihar state.

Tarkishor Prasad, Renu Devi or Sushil Kumar Modi despite being deputy chief ministers, will not be able to pull off what Fadnavis did in Maharashtra. Bihar needs one Devendra Fadnavis. One leader who is a great orator and is wellversed and accepted within the party and is also loved by the people of Bihar. And if not loved, at least not completely rejected by the people.

Yadavs still vote for RJD in name of Lalu Yadav. Nitish Kumar also started his real political career with ‘Kurmi Chetna Rally’. Ram Vilas Paswan ran his party only on support of 8% vote from his community. In this, even the BJP should think of something new.

Bihar is a poor state. One analyst hence says that the world’s largest political party does is neither in any rush to come to power in this state nor is it even trying to win elections here. However, it is not true. PM Modi conducting over two dozen rallies in Bihar ahead of 2015 elections proves this theory wrong. Which party would like to let go of a state with population of 10 crore. The state has 243 Vidhan Sabha seats and 40 Lok Sabha seats and can make or break things at national level. The BJP needs to find just one leader who can do it.

Arvind Kejriwal’s antics won’t work in Bihar. We have seen how things have turned out for party floated by Pushpam Priya Chaudhary. Tejaswi Yadav also connects to audience in the style that was popularised by his father Lalu Prasad Yadav. Not everyone can be Narendra Modi that he can directly connect to the people. But no BJP leader in Bihar is even trying to do this. At least they can try. People here are fed up of Lalu and Nitish. They want someone new, an alternate. If no one comes up, RJD will return to power and Tejaswi will be Chief Minister and Julgleraj would return.

Time is also right currently. Lalu ruled Bihar for 15 years and Nitish has been in power for 17 years. Bihar has not seen a new face in past 32 years. Now that Lalu is convict in corruption cases and is also not keeping too well health wise and Nitish Kumar’s impression is that of ‘palturam’, if BJP can manage to come up with its own ‘Fadnavis’ it will be cherry on cake.

USA: Afghan immigrant Muhammad Syed arrested in Albuquerque for murder of four Muslim men, police probing Shia-Sunni angle

OpIndia Staff
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USA: Afghan immigrant Muhammad Syed arrested in Albuquerque for murder of four Muslim men, police probing Shia-Sunni angle

An Afghanistan-origin person has been arrested in New Mexico in the USA as the prime suspect in the murder of four Muslim men in recent times. On August 9, Harold Medina, Police Chief in Albuquerque in New Mexico, said in a tweet that the Police have arrested and charged a 51-year-old man identified as Muhammad Syed, for allegedly killing four Muslim men. The killings took place between November 2021 and August 2022. While the first murder took place in November last year, the other three victims were killed in just two weeks.

In a press release, the Albuquerque Police said that after detaining Syed, an immigrant from Afghanistan, they checked his vehicle and home which led to “additional evidence that further tied Syed to the murders”. It was revealed that Syed knew the victims and the killing could have happened because of interpersonal conflict between him and the victims.

While the motive of the murders is still not known, police said that they are investigating a possible Sunni-Shia conflict in the case. Reportedly, Syed is a Sunni Muslim and all four victims belong to the Shia sect. Some of the victims attended the same mosque.

According to New York Times report, Syed might have killed two of the four victims because he was angry as his daughter had married a Shiite Muslim man. According to the president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico Ahmad Assed, at least three of the murdered victims attended the mosque. He said the authorities were looking into the possibility of the murderer being a Sunni Muslim who might have got irked by a marriage to a Shiite Muslim. The Police had refused to comment on it suggesting they were aware of the conflict but were not sure it was the sole motive.

Ahmad Assed, the president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, a mosque that at least three of the victims had attended, said he understood that the authorities were looking at the possibility that the suspect was a Sunni Muslim who may have been motivated by resentment over marriage to a Shiite Muslim.

Medina refused to label the killings as either hate crimes or serial killings suggesting it would be irresponsible to assert anything without completing the investigation as labelling would drive more fear into the community. He said, “We still don’t have any indication that either of these topics or labels would’ve been appropriate.”

The investigating officers found shell casings of bullets at the crime scenes and were able to connect them to the gun discovered during the overnight search at Syed’s house. So far, he has been charged in connection with the murder of 41-year-old Aftab Hussein, who was killed on July 26 and 27-year-old Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, who was killed on August 1. Furthermore, the investigating officers are working on finding more evidence to charge him with the murder of 62-year-old Mohammad Ahmadi, who was killed in November 2021 and Naeem Hussain, who was killed on August 5.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said that his office is working with the federal partners to see if there is any possibility to book him under federal charges in case there is an appropriate federal statute.

Though Police did not provide any information on how the crime happened, they did point out that three of the four victims Aftab, Afzaal and Ahmadi were ambushed without warning. Notably, community members had organized a somber Friday prayer followed by a funeral for two of the victims. Hours after attending the service, Naeem Hussain was found dead. Earlier, it was reported that the Police have not been able to definitively connect all four crimes and they are looking for more evidence that may point towards it.

Deputy commander of the city police department’s criminal investigations division Kyle Hartsock said that it was deeply disturbing that all the victims were Muslims of similar descent. A $20,000 reward was announced by the Police for leads that could result in the arrest or arrests of the accused.

Details about the murders

The three men who were killed in July and August were from Pakistan. The shootings drew investigating officers’ attention to an unsolved murder of an Afghan man in November 2021.

On August 5, Naeem Hussain was found shot dead in the area of Truman Street and Grand Avenue. He had attended the funeral of two of the victims on the same day and had expressed concerns about the shooting as told by a spokesperson of Albuquerque mosque. Hussain was a refugee from Pakistan who had fled the country in 2016 to save himself from persecution as a Shia Muslim. He was granted US citizenship last month. He owned a trucking business.

On August 1, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was found shot dead on a sidewalk around 9:19 PM in the area of Cornell Street and Lead Avenue. Hussain had worked on the planning team for the city of Española. He was a Law and Human Resource Management graduate from the University of Punjab in Pakistan. Later he gained a PG degree in community and regional planning from the University of New Mexico.

On July 26, Aftab Hussain was found shot dead in the 400 block of Rhode Island at 10:30 PM.

Following the August 1 shooting, the Police started looking if they were connected to the murder that had happened on November 7, 2021, where Mohammad Ahmadi was found shot dead in the parking lot behind a business that Ahmadi and his brother ran.

Fake news peddlers blamed Hindus for the murders

While the New Mexico Police arrested an Afghani Muslim for the murders, fake news peddler and anti-Hindu propagandist CJ Werleman blamed Hindus for the murders. He said, “Muslims, particularly Pakistani Muslims, are being targeted for assassination in New Mexico. The perpetrator is most likely a white supremacist but would not be surprised if we learn he/she is a Hindu nationalist.”

Werleman has a long history of publishing anti-India and anti-Hindu posts on social media. His account was recently withheld in India following a legal demand from the Government of India.

Kerala: ED raids on accused persons in the 312 crore fraud case at CPM-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: ED raids on accused persons in the 312 crore fraud case at CPM-controlled Karuvannur Cooperative Bank

On Wednesday, the Kochi branch officials of the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at the premises of individuals accused in the Rs 312 crore fraud at Karubannur Co-operative Bank, which is controlled by the ruling CPM, as per reports.

As per reports, a 75-member team of ED has been ordered to raid the houses of the bank president, secretary and other accused persons.

The scam was unearthed in Kerala in 2021. On July 14, 2021, the Irinjalakuda police registered a complaint against the accused persons. Soon after, the case was handed over to the state crime branch. There have been allegations that board members of the bank were aware of the ongoing fraud, and rampant forgery of signatures and documents was carried out.

The bank had shown deposits worth Rs 501 crores in the year 2015-16. In the next year, the balance came down to Rs 424 crores as Rs 77 crores were withdrawn. In the year 2018, it came down to Rs 405 crores and in the year 2019-20, it further went down to Rs 340 crores. The bank had reportedly informed the court that they had only Rs 60 lakhs in cash.

As per reports, 4 of the 5 accused persons are already out on bail. Last week, the Kerala HC had ordered to stop all payments from the bank except the emergency ones. It had also asked the Vijayan government to prepare a roadmap to pay back the depositors.

State-run banks recover Rs 6.4 lakh crore bad loans, and written-off loans since FY15 even as opposition creates confusion between ‘loan waiver’ and ‘loan writeoff’

Siddhi Somani
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State-run banks recover Rs 6.4 lakh crore bad loans, and written-off loans since FY15 even as opposition creates confusion between ‘loan waiver’ and ‘loan writeoff’

The Modi government recently completed 8 years of rule in the country. Reports released by the government state that the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have recovered bad loans worth Rs 6.42 lakh crore since the financial year 2015. Along with this, 98.5% of willful defaulters have also been sued.

According to the reports, from the financial year 2011 to the financial year 2016, the government has infused Rs 3.36 lakh crore in PSBs, while banks have raised an additional Rs 2.99 lakh crore on their own from the markets. With this, the Provision Coverage Ratio of PSBs has improved from 46% at the end of March 2015 to 86.9% at the end of March 2022. PCR is the percentage of funds that a bank sets aside for losses due to bad debts.

Further, since the financial year 2015, the banks have recovered Rs 5.17 lakh crore in Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and Rs 1.24 lakh crore in written-off accounts. Data demonstrates that the gross NPA ratio of state-run banks has dropped from 14.6% on March 31, 2018, to 7.4% on March 31, 2022, while the net NPA ratio has decreased from 8% to 2% over this period. Stressed assets came down to 8.7% from 15.3%.

A senior government official elaborating on the data stated that the Indian banks continue to pursue recovery actions initiated in written-off accounts through various recovery mechanisms available. The occurrence of fraud proportional to the gross advances of PSBs fell from a high of 1.32% during the financial year 2013-14 to 0.05% during the financial year 2021-22.

Earlier, the government had released a report claiming that the concrete steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India had helped the Indian Banks to recover the bad loans. “Government and RBI (Reserve Bank of India) regularly issue guidelines and have taken several initiatives aimed at resolution of long-standing stressed assets on the books of banks as well as timely identification and recognition of stress immediately upon default and take corrective action for mitigation of the same”, Bhagwat Karad, the minister of state for finance had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha in July.

Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal creating confusion between loan waivers and loan write-offs

However, it is important to note that the opposition leaders have intentionally or unintentionally created confusion between loan waivers and loan write-offs. For instance, in December 2020, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi put out misleading information on the alleged ‘waiving-off’ loans of industrialists by the Modi government. He came up with some magical numbers of Rs 2,37,206 crore, claiming that the Modi government helped some industrialists by ‘waiving off’ their loans. According to Rahul Gandhi, the huge amount, which according to him was ‘waive-off’ by the government, could have been provided for 11 crore families in the difficult time of COVID, each with Rs 20,000.

Gandhi was not the only one who rode on the “confused” wagon. Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, who continues to stay irked by Prime Minister Modi’s ‘free ki revdi’ statement, also targeted the government with a similar tweet. Kejriwal wrote, “Providing free education to the children of the country and arranging free treatment for every Indian is patriotism, virtue, religion, nation building. It is treason against Maa Bharti to give free revdi on own friends.”

Kejriwal had posted a photograph of a newspaper clipping that talked about the statement given by MoS Karad in Rajya Sabha. Interestingly, Kejriwal is an IIT graduate and former Income Tax official and one would expect that of all people he would know the difference between loan waiver and loan write-off. Except, he is also a politician now and hence facts don’t seem to matter.

Also recently, BJP leader Varun Gandhi targeted the central government over ‘written-off loans’ in the past five years and confused it with ‘loan waiver’. He shared an infographic made by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) based on the reply given by Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad on August 2 in Rajya Sabha and wrote, “The House which aspires to get a ‘thank you’ for giving 5 kg ration to the poor. The same House says that in 5 years, the loan of corrupt ‘money animals’ up to 10 lakh crore has been waived. Mehul Choksi and Rishi Aggarwal’s names are on top among those who take ‘Free Ki Rewari’. Who has the first right on the government treasury?”

The difference between loan written off and loans waive off

From time to time, the leaders of the opposition have used the term written-off in a completely misleading manner. They depict as if the banks have forgotten about the loans when they write them off. As reported earlier, a bad loan is written off to remove them from the balance sheet. It is a regular process that banks follow as per the RBI guidelines.

A balance sheet should reflect the real position of assets and liabilities. Hence Banks have to write off loans given to borrowers, which are “assets” to the banks, which have now shown signs of weakness. If they don’t write off loans, it is like claiming to hold a high-quality asset, when the quality has deteriorated. Will you trust an entity that doesn’t give the true picture of its assets?

Secondly, if a loan is not written off and is continued as a healthy asset (when it is a Non-Performing Asset), then banks can continue to book interest income on the loan, on the accrual basis of accounting. This has two impacts: First, the bank is artificially increasing its income by booking interest on an accrual basis, income which it may or may not receive (since the loan is an NPA). Second, the bank has to pay tax on such interest income. Both are undesirable. A write-off prevents banks from doing this, since once a loan is “written-off”, income booking on the same is based on actual receipt of income, and not based on accrual. Banks do not stop earning interest on such loans, but now they can recognize it as income only when they receive it.

Hence write-offs are a purely technical, accounting entry. Loans, which may not be repaid by the borrower in the normal course of business are written off. Even when these loans are written off, various recovery procedures like recovery suits are filed before the DRT/ Court. and action initiated under SARFAESI Act continues. Now, the bank takes control of the assets secured against such loans and sells them off to recover the loans.

When loans are ‘waived’, however, the money lent is gone forever.

Former NYPD Commissioner says Democrats may attempt Donald Trump’s assassination to stop him from running in 2024

OpIndia Staff
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Former NYPD Commissioner says Democrats may attempt Donald Trump’s assassination to stop him from running in 2024

On August 9 (local time), former New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Bernard Kerik claimed that Democrats might attempt to assassinate former President Trump if the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago does not result in criminal charges against him. He further added the Democrats have exhausted all options to “stop him” from running for the office again in 2024.

Kerik said he was ‘deadly afraid’ for the former President after the reports of the feds’ raid at his residence in Florida. He talked about the raid during his appearance on The Balance hosted by Eric Bolling.

He compared the ongoing investigation against Trump to the incidents that have happened in countries with dictatorships and said in those countries, those who got investigated were either imprisoned or killed. He asserted something similar could happen with Trump.

Notably, the FBI raided Trump’s estate on August 8 as a part of an ongoing probe into accusations that had moved out classified records from the White House to his house located in Florida. In a statement issued by Trump, he said that the FBI personnel broke into his safe while looking for the documents. Earlier, after continuous communication between the department of Archives and Trump, 15 boxes of documents were returned by the former President. However, no further information was available about the content. Interestingly, the probe into the matter has intensified since then.

In his statement, Trump called the raid ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ and accused the investigation agency of double standards as no such action was taken against Hillary Clinton in the matter where she was accused of deleting emails.

Speaking on the show Kerik said, “If you remember back in 2016, right before he got elected, I was in Washington DC. I was at a couple of different social events, and I hear people talking, they said the Democrats want this guy so bad that they wouldn’t put assassination behind it. And I’m gonna tell you something. they’ve tried impeachment, they’ve tried another impeachment, they’ve tried one investigation after another.”

He further added, “This is about one thing. This is about stopping him from running in 2024. And I’m gonna tell you something, I’m not into conspiracies, I’m not into anti-government rhetoric. This is the first time in my lifetime that I would say I am deathly afraid of Donald Trump. I would not put assassination behind these people.”

The FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago

On August 8, FBI agents raided Trump’s Florida residence. The estate was being discussed since June with Trump’s legal team as it was revealed Trump had Presidential documents at the property. Reports suggest the White House was not informed in advance about the raid. However, in his statement at the show, Kerik said such raids could not have happened without the permission and knowledge of the White House.

In February this year, it was revealed that Trump took classified documents from the White House while leaving in January 2021. Some of the documents were returned to the National Archives. In a report, CNN said the investigators met Trump’s attorneys to discuss the documents on June 8. Trump was not questioned by the investigators. The two attorneys took the investigators to the basement room and informed them about the place where the documents were stored. Later, they received a letter from the investigators to enhance the security of the store room.

Pakistan: Politician attacks Hindu family on its way to pilgrimage over petty squabble

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: Politician attacks Hindu family on its way to pilgrimage over petty squabble

A local Pakistani politician and his goons on Sunday evening attacked a Hindu family on its way to a pilgrimage to Daherji in Pakistan’s Ghotki.

The Pitafi tribe leader got his goons to come and attack the Hindu family, broke the car glasses and harassed men and women of the family because a wrapper of ice cream flew and fell on his car. As per Ajay Kumar, the victim, the goons came and started beating them without any reason.

As per Pakistani local media, Kumar was returning from Raharki Sahib, a temple in the area and crossed vehicle of Pakistani politician, Dr Shamsher Pitafi’s car. Kumar tried to ask for a side to overtake but were repeatedly denied, reports say. When the family did overtake, Pitafi got angry and followed them and got them attacked. Sindh Police have reportedly assured that attackers will be arrested. However, no updates on this front yet.

Pitafi is a relative of Pakistani politician. He is cousin of Sindh Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Abdul Bari Pitafi. However, as per reports, Kumar was advised not to file an FIR by local Hindu leaders. Reports also suggest Pitafi was not arrested because of political pressure.

‘Advance bookings for Lal Singh Chaddha way below expectations’: Aamir Khan’s copy of Forrest Gump risking failure

OpIndia Staff
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‘Advance bookings for Lal Singh Chaddha way below expectations’: Aamir Khan’s copy of Forrest Gump risking failure

As the release date for Aamir Khan’s Lal Singh Chaddha nears, many experts are cautioning that the boycott calls may be working after all. Social media is abuzz with the lead cast of the movie making repeated appeals to the audience to watch their movie and not boycott it.

Amid all the speculations, noted film critic Taran Adarsh has shared that the advance bookings of Lal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Rakshabandhan are way below expectations.

Adarsh further added that both the movies need a word of mouth and walk-in audience/spot bookings to get a decent opening on Thurseday.

It is notable here that boycott calls against Aamir Khan’s Lal Singh Chaddha have mired the promotion of the big-budget movie that is the official remake of Tom Hanks’s classic Forrest Gump. Aamir Khan’s anti-India statements in the past, his negative and derogatory portrayal of Hindu Gods in is movie PK and his overtly political statements of the past have all been adding to the prevailing sentiments of rejection among the audience of Hindi cinema.

Even Kareena Kapoor’s past statements of mocking the audience and participating in politically motivated campaigns have stirred negative sentiments against the movie.

A number of social media posts also say that the advance booking of the movie is negligible and the movie may be looking at failure.

It is notable here that Bollywood, in general, has been suffering through a crisis lately where a number of multi-star, big-budget movies have bitten the dust in the last few months. While Telugu and Kannada movies like Pushpa, RRR, and KGF have managed to appeal to a pan-India audience, Bollywood movies have been mostly flopping.

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