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Varun Gandhi apes the IQ of his cousin Rahul, gets confused between ‘loan waiver’ and ‘loan writeoff’, Kejriwal follows suit

OpIndia Staff
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Varun Gandhi apes the IQ of his cousin Rahul, gets confused between ‘loan waiver’ and ‘loan writeoff’, Kejriwal follows suit

On August 6, BJP MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi, in a tweet, targeted the central government over ‘written-off loans’ in the past five years and confused it with ‘loan waiver’. Varun Gandhi 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.

In his tweet, Gandhi 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?”

Varun Gandhi seems to be walking in his cousin Rahul Gandhi’s footsteps and mistaken loan write off with loan waiver.

Difference between written-off and waived-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. In reality, 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 actually 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 actually is an Non Performing Asset), then banks can continue to book interest income on the loan, on accrual basis of accounting. This has two impacts: First, the bank is artificially increasing its income by booking interest on accrual basis, income which it may or may not receive (since the loan is actually 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 normal course of business are written off. Even when these loans are written off, various recovery procedures like recovery suits filed before the DRT/ Court. and action initiated under SARFAESI Act continue. 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.

Rahul Gandhi and his complicated relationship with loans

There have been countless occasions when the Congress leader has intentionally or unintentionally got confused between loan waiver and loan write-off. For example, in December 2020, he 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 forgave 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 revri 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 difference between loan waiver and loan writeoff. Except, he is also a politician now and hence facts don’t seem to matter.

AIBEA’s incomplete data analysis

AIBEA is an organisation comprising of bank employees, and one may expect a better understanding of the data. It is also expected from a union like AIBEA to put out complete facts and not just incomplete information that could result in misleading the general public. On August 3, they published the said infographics on its social media accounts and urged the government to recover bad loans.

Source: Facebook

There was no mention if any of the amounts were recovered by the banks and which banks had written-off the loans as per the information provided by MoS Karad. The incomplete information gave a chance to the leaders like Varun Gandhi, and similar incomplete information by media houses let the likes of Kejriwal mislead the public.

MoS Karad explained loans written off and recoveries done by banks

MoS Karad was replying to Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge, who had sought information on bad loans written off by commercial banks and public sector banks in the last five years, loan defaulters, and recoveries made by commercial and public sector banks. In his written reply, MoS Karad informed the house that in the past five financial years, commercial banks have written off bad loans worth Rs 9,91,640 crores.

Written-off amounts in last five financial years. Source: Rajya Sabha

He further added that as per data provided by the Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) database of the Reserve Bank of India, there were 2,207 willful defaulters in 2019 having aggregate credit exposure of Rs 5 crore and above. In 2020, the number went up to 2,469, followed by 2,840 willful defaulters in 2021 and 2,790 in 2022.

Willful defaulters in last four financial years. Source: Rajya Sabha

As per the data, the State Bank of India has written off Rs 2,04,486 crores in five years. Similarly, Union Bank of India has written off 1,42,339 crores, Punjab National Bank has written off 92,340 crores, Bank of Baroda has written off 75,701 crores, and Canara Bank has written off 60,035 crores. Other banks listed by MoS included Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and more.

Written-off loan amounts year-wise by Public sector Banks. Source: Rajya Sabha

Top defaulters included Gitanjali Gems Limited, which has Rs 7,110 crores of bad loans, Era Infra Engineering Limited has Rs 5,879 crores of bad loans, Concast Steel and Power Limited owned Rs 4,107 crores of bad loans, REI Agro Limited had Rs 3,984 crores of bad loans and ABG Shipyard Limited had Rs 3,708 of bad loans among many others.

Top 25 willful defaulters. Source: Rajya Sabha

Coming to the recovery part that Varun Gandhi, Kejriwal and many media houses miss, MoS Karad mentioned that SBI had recovered Rs 41,006.94 crores of bad loans that were waived off during that period, and the process of recovering the remaining bad loans is in the process by the bank. Similarly, Union Bank of India recovered Rs 6,955.12 crores, Punjab National bank recovered 11,821.37 crores, Bank of Baroda recovered Rs 9,540.04 crores, and Canara Bank recovered Rs 7,348.52 crores. The government of India is using all possible means to recover the bad loans, and the results are visible in the stats. In recent years, the recovery process and paced up, and year-wise, recovery has increased for almost all commercial banks.

Bank-wide recoveries in last five financial years. Source: Rajya Sabha

Not to forget, it was reported in February 2022 that Rs 18,000 crores were recovered from three defaulters including Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

Amusingly, the infographic Varun Gandhi shared talked about how banks should not be privatised and thought this loan writeoff data was a clinching evidence that banks in India should not be privatised. However, he seems to have missed the part where the banks that had actually loaned the money written off were all public sector banks. If at all, it actually makes a case for privatisation of banks. But why let facts get in the way of narrative building.

‘Darlings’ on Netflix: Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah make a ‘killer’ duo, far from endorsing, it shows domestic violence in all its stark reality

Sanghamitra
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‘Darlings’ on Netflix: Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah make a ‘killer’ duo, far from endorsing, it shows domestic violence in all its stark reality

Let me be honest, Bollywood has set the bar so low that a moderately good movie is a rare exception. Issues like rape, stalking, harassment and abuse have been normalised, even romanticised on the big screen in a way that is cringe-worthy for any sane individual. Alia Bhatt’s recent release ‘Darings’, however, is something different.

Shefali Shah is a phenomenal actress and it is an established fact. Shefali Shah delivering a stellar performance is the norm. What comes across as surprising in Darlings is Alia Bhatt’s on-screen presence and acting skills ‘owning’ the movie. Alia has been one of the very rare good actors from her generation of entitled products of nepotism and she has indeed proven her mettle with performances in Highway, Raazi and Udta Punjab. In Darlings, she has just taken it to the next level, a stellar job throughout.

This review contains spoilers.

‘Darlings’ looks at domestic abuse the way Bollywood has not, so far. In usual productions from the Indian entertainment industry, we either get sick romanticisation or unrealistic ideals. We either get movies that depict harassment, rape, stalking and abuse as “things the hero does to win the heroine’s love”, or we get ideal ‘Adarsh Naaris’ where the protagonist is the permanently wronged, innocent, pure as morning dew, perfect, ‘no-fault in her’ unreal image that further twist the already warped social ideas about the issues.

Alia’s character of Badrunnisa Sheikh in Darlings is not like that. Badrunnisa is a good girl, yes, but Badrunnissa has her own vices. Badrunnisa sometimes cooks carelessly, Badrunnisa uses her female charms on vendors to buy things for cheap, Badrunnissa is silly, selfish, melodramatic and sometimes argues with her husband when he is already tired from work. Badrunnissa is what normal people are. She has her own flaws and ‘Darlings’ does not cover them up to prove its point. The movie does not preach unrealistic ideals.

Badrunnisa’s husband Hamza Sheikh is the regular boyfriend who slowly turns abusive in the course of the marriage. He is not the ‘evil personified’ bad man of regular Bollywood flicks who have evil music accompanying every scene, and who looks and smiles menacingly at their prey. Hamza suffers from his own issues, a bad boss that humiliates him, financial woes, alcohol addiction and in his own flawed, feeble way, does make some efforts to be nice to his wife. However, as abusive husbands often do, he fails at it miserably.

How domestic abuse is normalised by society in general

Netflix’s ‘Darlings’ does not preach. It does not guilt-trip and shame people for doing what they do. Badrunnisa’s neighbours, her local shopkeepers, her friends, and even her mom Shamshunnisa (Shefali Shah) all know that she gets beaten by her husband on a regular basis. They feel bad about it. Her mother suffers knowing that her only child is being beaten mercilessly by the man she loves, she does try to persuade her to leave him, but like abuse victims usually do, Badrunnissa keeps believing that one day, Hamza will change. Shamshu, like a regular Indian mother, despite her outrage, allows her only child to go back to her household and keep making efforts to ‘change’ her husband.

Badrunnisa’s friend, who runs a beauty salon downstairs, hears every single slap, every single kick, yet she keeps going about her business. She helps Badru buy ‘sexy’ outfits when she decides getting pregnant may help change Hamza. She eventually starts asking her customers to ignore the sound of cries and blows from upstairs because she knows it is Badru who has got to decide how much is too much.

Badru gives herself false hope, even if her loved ones try to help, she loves Hamza so much, and loves her silly ideals of love and marriage so much that she keeps believing him after repeated, almost regular abuse. She allows herself to believe Hamza’s false promises, despite knowing better. The denial, the rage, the vulnerability, the acceptance and the final snapping of her sanity are well performed by Alia. Amidst the chaos, dark humour and noise, the mother-daughter duo of Badru and Shamshu deal with their own demons in their own way.

The scene where a broken Badru is about to jump off a hospital window after learning about her miscarriage, and suddenly asks herself, “Why me? It is his fault, he needs to pay”, without uttering a single word, is a few minutes of acting that should set Alia as one of the best among present generation actors. That scene is powerful.

The mental breakdown, the revenge drama, and the ‘unhinged’ behaviour that Badru displays is the dark spiral that follows next. The second half of the movie is a bit weaker than the first, but Alia and Shefali do manage to keep it afloat with their performances.

‘Darlings does its jobs wells’.

Ashok Gehlot blames imaginary ‘hanging law’ for increase in incidents of murder of rape victims, except, he is wrong

Dibakar Dutta
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Ashok Gehlot blames imaginary ‘hanging law’ for increase in incidents of murder of rape victims, except, he is wrong

On Friday (August 5), Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot courted controversy after he blamed the Centre for increased murders following rapes in the country. He made the contentious remarks during a press conference.

The Congress leader claimed that the Union government had passed a law, making it mandatory to award death penalty to all rape convicts after the Nirbhaya case.

At about 4 minutes 36 seconds into his press conference, Gehlot alleged, “The situation is extremely grim in the country. Children are being raped! And the situation has worsened after law was made to award capital punishment to all rape convicts, following the Nirbhaya case.”

“After such a law was made, the killings of rape victims have increased. When the perpetrators see that the government is against them, they not only rape the victims but also kill them,” he claimed.

“I am seeing this trend across the country. This is a state of crisis for a democracy like India. I have never encountered such a situation before,” the Rajasthan Chief Minister concluded.

The truth behind the claims made by Ashok Gehlot

To begin with, there is no law that makes death penalty mandatory for all convicts of rape. Following the Kathua and Unnao rape case, the Modi government passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2018 [pdf].

The Centre had then amended the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and Prevention of Child Sexual Offences Act of 2012 to introduce harsher punishments for the rape convicts. One of the major highlights of the legislation was the increase of minimum punishment for rape from 7 years to 10 years.

The law was made even stricter for the rape and gang rape of minor children. For instance, the punishment for rape of a girl below the age of 16 years is punishable by a minimum sentence of 20 years or life sentence.

Screengrab of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2018

The biggest amendment was perhaps in relation to the rape and gang rape of children below the age of 12 years. For the first time, a provision to award death penalty to the rapist was introduced in the IPC Section 376 (punishment for rape). A new section ‘376AB’ was incorporated into the existing law. It states –

“Whoever, commits rape on a woman under twelve years of age shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and with fine or with death.“

Another section of 376DB was inserted to account for gang rape of victim below the age of 12 years. It states –

“Where a woman under twelve years of age is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and shall be punished with imprisonment for life,which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and with fine, or with death.“

Apart from introducing the provision of the death penalty for the rape of minors under the age of 12 years, another provision in rape law has been for awarding the death penalty, which is for repeat offenders. Section 376E of the IPC says if someone who was convicted of rape commits another rape, that convict can be given capital punishment.

Indian Penal Code section 376E says, “Whoever has been previously convicted of an offence punishable under section 376 or section 376A or section 376AB or section 376D or section 376DA or section 376DB and is subsequently convicted of an offence punishable under any of the said sections shall be punished with imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, or with death.”

Although the provision for capital punishment has been introduced for a certain cohort (victim age <12 years or repeat offenders) of rape victims, it does not automatically imply that the convict will be awarded the death penalty. The discretion ultimately lies with the Judiciary to decide the quantum of punishment on case-by-case basis.

Moreover, the death penalty is not even a provision in the law for rape cases, where the maximum punishments are jail of 10 years, 20 years and life imprisonment. Therefore, courts can’t award the death penalty if the age of the victim is above 12 years or if it is the first conviction of the accused in a rape case.

The Indian courts abide by the doctrine of rarest of rare case to award capital punishment to a convict. While some convicts were awarded the death sentences depending on the severity of case, all of those are generally rape and murder cases. And even in those cases, many convicts are pardoned and their death sentence is then converted to life imprisonment. In the 21st century, it has been used twice in India – one in the Hetal Parekh case and another in Nirbhaya case, both of which were rape and murder cases.

Thus, the Rajasthan Chief Minister is wrong in claiming that the Union government has made death penalty mandatory for all and that it is to somehow blame for the alleged rise in the killing of rape victims by the perpetrators.

Punishing a ‘collective art’ like a movie for one artist’s politics – why this seemingly unfair practice gets support

Nirwa Mehta
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Punishing a ‘collective art’ like a movie for one artist’s politics – why this seemingly unfair practice gets support

Whether we like it or not, politics is everywhere. And with social media, an average Indian is now way more politically aware than he might have been say a decade ago. Also, 2014 changed the rules of the game.

In the film industry, those who were covertly political decided to ‘have a voice’ and ‘talk about intolerance’ and ‘rising Islamophobia’ while continuing to make movies that mock the Hindu faith. Except, amid the normalisation of ‘sar tan se juda’ chants and increased awareness about rampant forced religious conversion, an average Indian is not shying away from calling out their bullsh*t of glorifying these on the silver screen.

Art is never apolitical. Critics have also said how when someone is not making a political statement through their art, even then it is a political statement. So when a film based on real life incident, changes religion of perpetrator from Muslim to a Hindu and calls it ‘artistic expression’, it is a political statement too other than it ceasing to be a film based on true incidents. When a film tries to humanise terrorists or give context to why the terrorist picked up arms other than the fact that he was brainwashed by The Book, it is a political statement. All art is essentially political.

Bollywood entertainers like Naseeruddin Shah, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir Khan have regularly taken a political stand. Farhan Akhtar joined the anti-CAA protests, which fast-tracked Indian citizenship of non-Muslims who have come to India from three neighbouring Islamic countries fearing and facing persecution because of their faith. The Muslims from these countries who seek Indian citizenship could do so as per the existing provisions. This Act had no impact on the lives of Indians, including Indian Muslims. Akhtar still decided to protest against the Act and justified by claiming if so many people have turned out for protest, it must be right. Well, many people also came and set a train in Godhra on fire on 27 February 2002. Surely that was not right, no?

Certain movies over the years had portrayed Hinduphobic content which got mostly unnoticed. Or if people did notice, they didn’t voice it out for fear of being termed ‘bigoted’ thanks to our ‘secular’ schooling where everything except Hinduism is sacred. Which is why when Aamir Khan’s PK was released where he can be seen mocking Hinduism and people protested, Supreme Court of India asked those protesting against it to ‘not watch’ if ‘you don’t like it’.

Supreme Court on PK in 2014

Aamir Khan did not mock the faith where blasphemy leads to beheading because everyone likes their head attached to their torso. Judiciary, which now cites Sharia in secular courts, too would likely not make such comments on films which depict other faiths in bad light because here, even ordering or sanctioning videography of disputed structures built after destroying Hindu temples result in death threats.

So years later when people call for boycott of films, the ‘liberals’ from the stable of so-called Nehruvian secularism come to guilt trip cine goers by claiming how a film is not only of the actor but has hundreds others associated with the film.

People like Singhvi then try to guilt trip people by saying how there are hundreds others associated with the film other than the actor people are unhappy with. Now, as an individual I am not obligated to help anyone financially – whether it is Aamir Khan, who makes Hinduphobic movies, Kareena Kapoor Khan, who throws attitude at critics and tells those who say she is product of nepotism (daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter and sister, cousin of multiple film actors) to ‘not watch the film’ or Atul Kulkarni, who joined hands with Medha Patkar and protested against Sardar Sarovar Dam that would keep Gujaratis water deprived for years.

Let me make one thing clear upfront. I am pro economy and generally against boycott calls in principle. Having said that, just as the actors, filmmakers associated with the film had their freedom of expression to take a political stand or make films that hurt sentiments of crores of people, the crores of people have a right to voice their opposition. We are taught in school that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi protested against the British rule by calling for a boycott of foreign products and called for Swadeshi movement. So, boycott calls are not a new phenomena in India. And if people think boycotting the films of those who have hurt them gives them satisfaction, so be it. Last I checked India is a democracy and protests keep democracy vibrant.

An individual or a bunch of individuals calling for boycott of film is not the same as State banning a film, like how Congress government banned political satire film Kissa Kursi Ka that was based on Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency. Calls for boycotting films are not wrong as those who want to watch the film are free to do so.

So while boycott calls for films may appear counterintuitive for those who fall on the ‘non-left’ spectrum of politics, as they are usually pro economy and pro business, they are getting immense support. Because if Aamir Khan or the likes of him cared so much about the rest of the crew, he could have been responsible himself and not tried to offend audience. The onus should be on artists if they want their art acceptable. And just as they have freedom of expression and speech, as do audience. It is entirely okay to be pro market, pro economy and still not be against boycott calls raised by people as long as the State does not ban the movies.

We all live with the choices we make and hence so should the artists, with displaced sense of entitlement and importance that they are ‘prominent citizens’ singlehandedly responsible to uphold the value of democracy by playing their religion card while offending other religions.

Karnataka NGO ‘Recycle India’ draws ire after showing Tilak sporting ‘evil’ man creating plastic pollution, here are its trustees

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka NGO ‘Recycle India’ draws ire after showing Tilak sporting ‘evil’ man creating plastic pollution, here are its trustees

On Wednesday (August 3), a Karnataka-based NGO ‘Recycle India Foundation’ courted controversy for posting a Hinduphobic meme to raise awareness about plastic pollution.

In a tweet, it stated, “It’s time to get rid of this plastic waste, and recycle.” The tweet was accompanied with a picture of a man, sporting a tilak, and creating hindrance in recycling waste.

The image, which has now drawn the ire of social media users, resembled the character of antagonist ‘Daroga Shuddh Singh’ (played by actor Sanjay Dutt) from Ranbir Kapoor’s recent flop movie ‘Shamshera.’

Screengrab of the contentious tweet by Recycle India

Nonetheless, netizens were miffed at the subtle insinuation that the Hindu community is the ‘evil’ responsible for creating waste and thwarting the process of waste collection.

“How dare you demean Hindus. Shameful. Recycle India,” wrote one user.

“Why are you showing the Tilak? Do only Hindus or Brahmins have a hegemony on creating rubbish? #antihinduagenda #ReligiousHatred,” questioned Deshbhakt Sanatani.

Another Twitter user remarked, “Jihadi mentality poster demeaning Hindu religion. Shame on you Recycle India.”

One Vipul Bhatia pointed out how the movie ‘Shamshera’ subtly promoted Hinduphobia. “The film character you are using is demeaning the Hindu traditional ‘Tripund’ tilak revered by Shiv bhakts. The film is a super flop. Your name will be too. Kindly remove it,” he said.

A Twitter user named Murali informed that the trustees of the NGO are two people, named, Abdullah A Rehman and Thahira Rehman. He stated, “No wonder the guy wears a tilak on his forehead ….bcoz the trustees are those wearing skullcaps. Check out who the trustees are…”

A link shared by Murali showed the team members behind Recycle India, where Abdullah Rahman is the founder and Chief Executive and Rasmiya Sheikh is the Project Head, behavioural change and awareness. One Ruhia Hasan is the GM of communications, while one Neha Shenoy is the GM of Operations.

It must be mentioned that several movies, based on Hinduphobic themes, have tanked at the box office in recent months. This also includes the Sanjay Dutt-starrer-Shamshera. Despite being made at a high budget of ₹150 crores, the movie managed to collect only ₹43 crores so far.

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat creates history, becomes first Indian woman to win Gold at CWG and Asian Games

OpIndia Staff
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Wrestler Vinesh Phogat creates history, becomes first Indian woman to win Gold at CWG and Asian Games

On August 6, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat created history by winning the third consecutive gold medal in the Commonwealth games that are currently underway at Birmingham. She also became the first Indian woman win Gold at both the Commonwealth as well as Asian Games. Phogat defeated Sri Lanka’s Chamodya Keshani Maduravlage Don in the women’s 53KG freestyle wrestling at the Birmingham Games. Previously, she had won gold at Gold Coast in 2018 and Glasgow in 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Speaking to News Agency ANI, Phogat said, “It was a good feeling when people were supporting us (inside the stadium).Today I was able to execute what I learned during my training &will try to continue my good performance in upcoming competitions: Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat after winning gold medal in Commonwealth Games.”

It took Vinesh only 2 minutes and 24 seconds to defeat her opponent. Most of the time, she had pinned her Sri Lankan opponent on the mat. Speaking to Hindustan Times before leaving for the games, Phogat had said, “I want nothing less than a gold medal as I wish to complete my hat-trick of gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. It’s always special to carry the hopes of billions of people, including family members, when you go to a big event. I am looking forward to giving my best at the Birmingham Games and winning my third gold medal. In my cabinet, I have a lot of medals (14 so far), but I would like to have an Olympic medal as well.”

Notably, there were only four wrestlers competing in her weight category. Thus, the medals were decided in Nordic format, contrary to the knockout format in other categories. Her first opponent was Samantha Leigh Stewart from Canada. She finished the match in just 36 seconds. The second match was against Mercy Bolafunoluwa Adekuoroye from Nigeria.

India continues to shine at CWC

Apart from Phogat, Ravi Dahiya and Naveen also won gold medals in wrestling. Dahiya defeated Nigerian wrestler Ebikewenimo Welson in the final of the men’s 57KG final by technical superiority. Naveen, on the other hand, defeated Muhammad Sharif Tahir from Pakistan in the men’s 74KG category.

Deepak Nehra won bronze in the men’s 97KG category in wrestling. Pooja Sihag also won bronze in the women’s 76KG category. So far, India has won 36 medals, including 12 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze.

Kolkata: CISF jawan opens fire using AK-47 rifle, surrenders after one assistant sub-inspector killed and a head constable injured

OpIndia Staff
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Kolkata: CISF jawan opens fire using AK-47 rifle, surrenders after one assistant sub-inspector killed and a head constable injured

An AK-47-wielding CISF constable went on a shooting rampage on the streets of Kolkata on Saturday 6th August 2022, firing at his own colleagues. One assistant sub-inspector was killed in this shooting while one head constable was injured. The shooter has surrendered to the police. The incident took place at the CISF barrack located at the Indian Museum in Kolkata. The shooter Head Constable Akshay Kumar Mishra was later captured after he surrendered.

A police vehicle that was outside the building’s police barrack was the target of the shooting. There were at least 25–30 shots fired inside the building located in the heart of Kolkata.

According to a report by Republic World, Head Constable Akshay Kumar Mishra began firing at about 6:30 o’clock near the Indian Museum on Jawaharlal Nehru Road. The Museum’s gates were thereafter shut. After that, two teams were assembled to capture him. One of those squads included commandos from the Kolkata Police. They entered the area wearing bulletproof jackets and came in from one side. The second squad of police officers arrived at the scene from the opposite direction wearing bulletproof jackets. They insisted the gunman surrender.

But the CISF personnel refused to surrender and a fight broke out between the squads and the gunman. It is said that more than 30 rounds were fired. ASI Ranjit Sarangi was killed and head constable Subir Ghosh was injured in this operation. The ASI who passed away suffered gunshot wounds to the neck, chest, and hand. The injured head constable is critical and being treated in the SSKM Hospital. The gunman gave up shortly after that and was nabbed.

Vinit Goel, Commissioner of Police, said, “The incident was reported to us around 6:30 in the evening. Our team reached here as soon as we got the news.” According to a report by News 18, after his father’s death, Akshay Kumar Mishra was not granted leave and was emotionally unstable. In his initial testimony soon after being apprehended, he said, “I made a mistake.”

At first, the head constable Akshay Kumar Mishra was refusing to let anyone in. But the IG and CISF men arrived and forced him to surrender. Additional legal procedures are in progress. To carry out the capture operation of the armed shooter, a commando unit under the control of the Kolkata Police employed dragon lights. Images taken at the site showed the vehicle that was shot at being covered with bullet holes. Blood stains were found on the seat.

A tale of 2 missing girls: How unresolved cases have haunted the top cops for years

OpIndia Staff
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A tale of 2 missing girls: How unresolved cases have haunted the top cops for years

On Friday (August 5), a 16-year-old teenager named Pooja Gaud was finally reunited with her family after a span of 9 years. She was abducted by a couple in 2013 when she was just 7. As per reports, one Harry D’Souza and his wife Soni D’Souza kidnapped the girl from a slum in the Juhu Galli area in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai. The police nabbed Harry on Thursday (August 4) night.

Pooja was on her way to school on January 22, 2013, when she was lured by Harry under the pretext of offering chocolates and ice creams. Although she had left the house with her brother Rohit, she lagged behind which gave the accused the perfect opportunity to abduct the 7-year-old.

She was first taken to Haji Malang in Kalyan and intimidated into silence. According to Pooja, Harry and his wife then took her to Goa, followed by Virar, and Raichur in Karnataka. The victim returned to Mumbai along with her abductors only in 2015.

“They used to give me proper food and take care of me, but once Soni had her own baby, she started harassing me and would beat me. They kept me home and did not allow me to go out. It was like I was in prison. Harry used to speak in English and he taught me how to write in English at home,” Pooja recalled.

The case had haunted former Assistant Sub-Inspector Rajendra Bhosale for years. Between 2010 and 2015, he was heading the bureau of missing persons at DN Nagar police station. Although his team was able to trace all the missing children, they could not find Pooja.

“I still carry her photo in my wallet. Even after my retirement, I thought about the girl every day and prayed that she is found,” Bhosale added.

How was the cold case of Pooja Gaud solved?

The breakthrough in the case came in the form of a 35-year-old tech-savvy maid named Pramila Devendra. She and the abducted girl, Pooja Gaud, worked as house helps at the residence of a businessman.

During one of their conversations, Pooja informed Pramila about the harassment meted out to her by her family. She also revealed how Harry D’Souza and his wife Soni D’Souza took her away from her real parents during childhood.

While speaking about the matter, Pramila told Hindustan Times, “Annie (aka Pooja) used to come to work with teary eyes and would tell me said that her mother beat her. When she told me that her mother is not her real mother and that she had gone missing when she was a small child, I understood that her case was not normal.”

Rajendra Bhonsale, image via Indian Express

On searching about Pooja’s case on Google, the enterprising house help stumbled upon a poster of the girl and several phone numbers. Pramila was able to connect to a number, which belonged to Pooja’s neighbour Mohammad Rafique Shaikh.

A hesitant Shaikh asked Pramila to give him a video call. Pooja was instantly identified by her family, including her mother. The family wasted no time in notifying the DN Nagar police station.

A police official, privy to the case, informed, “Our team went to the place where Pooja and Pramila worked, and reunited the minor girl with her family (on August 5, 2022).” For Assistant Sub-Inspector Rajendra Bhosale, it marks the end of a 9-year-long wait. “I am elated and I can now rest without any more tension,” he told Hindustan Times.

The Unsolved Case of Vishwa Patel of Ahmedabad

Vishwa Patel was 11 years old when she went missing in 2012. On the fateful day of January 27 that year, the 7th std girl had attended a wedding at around 1:30 pm. The event was organised in her society in Anand Nagar in Ahmedabad. She then disappeared without leaving any trace behind.

The case created such a hullabaloo that the local police, crime branch and State agencies got involved in tracing the missing girl. The law enforcement authorities launched a nationawide manhunt, and followed up on over 3400 informer calls.

The Crime Branch had even sent her pictures to 125 railway stations and updated her pictures to make up for the change in facial features with time. “We circulated her pictures across the country, but nothing worked out,” a cop conceded.

Himanshu Shukla, image via ANI

The police had an initial lead in the form of 2 CCTV footage, where the minor girl was allegedly seen walking out of the wedding. Later, it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, thereby leaving the cops with no new evidence.

After 10 years of investigation, the case was finally closed in February this year as no trace of the girl was found. Top cop Himanshu Shukla, who served in the Ahmedabad crime branch between 2010 and 2015, refers to the unsolved case of Vishwa Patel as his biggest regret.

Shukla, who holds the distinction of solving many high-profile cases, told The Times of India, “I could not trace an 11-year-old girl named Vishwa Patel who went missing in 2012.” While Bhonsale can now heave a sigh of relief, the journey is long for the likes of Himanshu Shukla.

Jagdeep Dhankhar elected as the 14th Vice-President of Republic of India, defeats Margaret Alva by a wide margin

OpIndia Staff
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Jagdeep Dhankhar elected as the 14th Vice-President of Republic of India, defeats Margaret Alva by a wide margin

As expected, NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar won the election to become the next vice-president of India, defeating opposition candidate Margaret Alva by a wide margin. Jagdeep Dhankhar will be the 14th Vice-President of the Republic of India. The tenure of the current Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu is about to complete on 10th August 2022.

After the end of counting, Jagdeep Dhankhar received 528 votes out of total 725 votes cast. On the other hand, opposition candidate and Congress leader Margaret Alva secured 182 votes. Out of the 780 voters in the electoral college, 725 persons cast their votes. The two Houses of Parliament together have a sanctioned strength of 788 MPs, of which there are eight vacancies in the Upper House.

Out of the total 725 votes cast, 15 votes were rendered invalid. Jagdeep Dhankhar secured a comfortable victory over Margaret Alva in this election. Apart from being the vice president, he will also be the Chairman of the upper house of the parliament, the Rajya Sabha.

The voting for the election of the vice president took place earlier in the day, where only the members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are members of the electoral college. The MPs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh cast their ballots early in the day, while two BJP MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre, who are unwell, did not vote. The Trinamool Congress Party has 39 MPs including 23 of them in Lok Sabha. The TMC had already announced its decision to abstain from this election, reducing the votes for the opposition candidate. TMC had that it will not vote in the polls as the party was not consulted while selecting Margaret Alva as the opposition candidate.

Jagdeep Dhankhar will take oath as the Vice President of India on August 11, a day after the term of current VP Venkaiah Naidu ends.

Jagdeep Dhankhar hails from the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. Born on 18th May 1951, a lawyer by profession, he is in active politics since 1989. He served as a member of Lok Sabha from the Jhunjhunu constituency and worked as a minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs between 1990-1991. He also worked as a member of the legislative assembly of Rajasthan from the Kishangarh constituency between 1993 to 1998. Since 30th July 2019, he has been working as the Governor of West Bengal, and resigned from the post on July 17 after he was selected as NDA candidate for the VP election.

The Vice-President is elected by an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting in such election is by secret ballot. Therefore, only the members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are voters in the VP polls, and members of state assemblies don’t vote in this election, unlike the presidential elections.

After whitewashing Aurangzeb, Audrey Truschke moves on to downplay the Portuguese Inquisition of Goa and atrocities committed against Hindus

Jinit Jain
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After whitewashing Aurangzeb, Audrey Truschke moves on to downplay the Portuguese Inquisition of Goa and atrocities committed against Hindus

Audrey Truschke, the controversial self-described historian who went to great lengths to whitewash the tyrannical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, seems to have developed a new fascination of late: to downplay the savage Portuguese inquisition in Goa and atrocities committed against the indigenous population.

To this end, Truschke recently took to Twitter to share her version of Portuguese conquest of some of the cities along the India’s southwestern coast. “I’m writing today about the first Indian experience with European colonization — the Portuguese Estado da India, established in 1505 and limited to a handful of cities along India’s southwestern coast,” Trushcke tweeted on August 2. 

Audrey Truschke
Source: Twitter

What followed next was a series of tweets packed with Audrey’s convictions and beliefs to sweep under the rug the atrocities meted out by the Portuguese during the tenure of their oppressive reign in India. She tweeted that there were certain things “pretty critical” to add to the conventional understanding that Vasco de Gama successfully sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in Calicut in 1498. 

Among those things was cooperation from experienced Indian traders in Africa, who, according to Trushchke, played a pivotal role in helping Vasco de Gama navigate the oceans to reach the Indian shore. While Audrey Trushcke summarily rejects Indian literature and evidence of persecution of Hindus and desecration of temples by the Mughal emperors, Aurangzeb in particular, she conveniently relies on unmentioned sources to claim a certain Gujarati from Kenya helped Vasco de Gama sail on to Calicut.

Truschke adds that once Vasco de Gama reached Calicut, he undertook negotiations with Samudri Raja, the Malayalam-speaking local rulers, apparently in Arabic that to the Aurangzeb fangirl’s interpretation was a “debacle full of wild misunderstandings”.

“Among other things, after three months in India, Vasco de Gama left thinking that all of the Hindus he encountered were Christians who inexplicably practiced caste. It’s a powerful example of how preconceptions are not always corrected by experience,” Truschke said in a subsequent tweet while cunningly covering up the vices that Christian proselytisation and imperial Christianity brought in its wake. 

Audrey Truschke Portuguese
Source: Twitter

Christian missionaries often pressurised the natives to embrace Christianity, offering them irresistible inducements for relinquishing their ancestral faith and making appealing promises to get them to initiate into Christianity. But, since the initiation often took place against the converts’ free will, it only served to widen social fissures and create artificial problems that hitherto didn’t exist.

Vasco De Gama, Truschke says, returned to Portugal in 1499, and the Portuguese soon returned to India, hoping to turn it into one of its colonies, especially with the conquest of Goa from Bijapur in 1510. And aping her deceit in painting Mughal emperor Aurangzeb as a victim of contemporary perception, Truschke tried to portray the subjugation of Goa by the Portuguese as some sort of peaceful transition that did not involved bloodshed and atrocities meted out on the natives.

She characterises Portuguese rule over Goa as the longest Indian experience with European colonialism, one that was distinct in the sense that Portuguese men often intermarried with local men. While Truschke tries to pass it off as a “virtue” of the Portuguese men to accept and marry indigenous women, what she tries to gloss over is the conformity of the Portuguese conquerors to the Catholic mandate that called for using miscegenation as a tool for converting Hindus. 

Source: Twitter

One of the popular methods used in medieval times to convert the native Indian population to Christianity and generate a sense of contempt toward their own culture was miscegenation. Christian men married multiple local native women to convert them into Christianity and bring them under their fold, thereby robbing them off their prestige and culture, which could form the basis of their rebellion against the colonial rule.

Another preposterous argument Truschke offers in her colossal exercise to whitewash atrocities committed by Portuguese rulers on the Indian natives is that at least they left most of India ‘untouched’. It is worth mentioning that Portuguese rulers did not try to expand their imperial borders in India as a part of a benevolent gesture toward the natives but because they were severely constrained in their resources to overtake the mighty British, which at that time commanded the seas and ruled most of India.

Certainly, their inability to dislodge the British and seize control of India could not be construed as an act of generosity on the part of Portuguese for “untouched” Indians. But for Truschke, it was profoundly generous of the Portuguese for not extending their rule beyond their existing borders.

Besides, with the Twitter thread, Truschke has also tried to pull a veil over the Portuguese Inquisition of Goa, an often forgotten and unspoken event by the ‘secular’ circles of Indian historians, despite various historical records exposing the gross exodus of not just Hindus, but also Jews that had escaped Medieval Europe to take refuge in India.

The Portuguese Inquisition of Goa: A living hell for native Hindus and Jewish refugees

The Portuguese inquisition of Goa started when Vasco Da Gama returned to Portugal after he discovered the route to India via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Upon his return to Portugal in 1510, Gama told the Portuguese royals about the undiscovered route to India, which gave the Portuguese an opportunity to colonise the Western coast of India, and particularly Goa. 

Pope Nicholas V soon issued a diktat which gave the kingdom of Portugal a monopoly on forcing Christianity upon the locals of the newly discovered areas (and mainly India), along with the monopoly to trade on behalf of the Roman Catholic Empire in Asia. Soon after, the Portuguese sent its troops to capture a portion of Goa and set up a colony in the coastal city.

Aghast by the local traditions followed by Hindus, the Portuguese were angered by the locals following a religion other than Christianity and ordered all temples within the colony to be shut; this marked the beginning of the bloody Goan inquisition that comprised of gross human right violations and mass executions of the local Hindu, Jew and Muslim populations. 

In 1541, idol worship was forbidden in the Portuguese colony of Goa and over 350 temples were destroyed by the Portuguese soldiers. It had been officially declared that being a believer of any religion other than Roman Catholicism was forbidden for residents of Goa. 

The infamous Francis Xaviers and Martin Alfonso were sent to Goa by King John III of Portugal in 1542 to initiate the process of converting Goan residents to Roman Catholicism. On their arrival in Goa, they were enraged by the New Christians of Goa secretly practising their previous religions (either Judaism, Hinduism or Islam), while also upholding their Hindu values and traditions. A disturbed Francis Xavier wrote to King John III of Portugal on 16th May 1546 to impose inquisition on Goa in an attempt to ‘discipline’ the residents and make them follow Catholicism. 

The inquisition banned apostasy of Roman Catholics to Hinduism, Judaism or Islam, and banned the sale of books in the Konkani, Marathi, Sanskrit and Arabic languages. The use of Konkani was forbidden in the colony of Goa. 

The Inquisition particularly affected the New Christians of Europe from the Jewish community, who had fled to India during the Spanish Inquisition in an attempt to escape the imposition of Christianity and live amongst the Jewish community in India. They had come in search of a life of dignity where they could practise Judaism openly and not in hiding while pretending to be Christian. India was the only country in the world where Jews were given absolute freedom to practise their faith, especially under Hindu kingdoms.

Upon the imposition of the inquisition in Goa, life became comparable to hell for the local Hindu population, who were often on the receiving end of persecution and were targeted in particular by the sadistic Christian missionaries. The Christian missionaries called the Hindus ‘uncultured’ and ‘savages’, who worshipped black idols ‘resembling demons’; the Christians took it upon themselves to force Hindus into leaving their religion and succumbing to Christianity. An inquisition office was thereby set up which aimed to discriminate against Hindus on all matters possible. 

Hindus were forbidden from holding any public office, inheriting their father’s property and testify as witnesses in courts. If a Hindu child was deemed to be an orphan by the colonialists, the child was ‘seized’ by the Society of Jesus (founded by the not-so-saintly Francis Xavier) and made to change his religion. Clear discrimination was seen in social life, where Hindus were forced to sign public documents only after Christians and couldn’t be clerks in village offices. In 1567, a law banning Christians from employing Hindus in the colony was introduced. 

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