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IIT Kanpur’s incubated company sets up floating CNG filling station in Varanasi using novel Self Adjusting Fixed Type Jetty technology

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IIT Kanpur’s incubated company sets up floating CNG filling station in Varanasi using novel Self Adjusting Fixed Type Jetty technology

On December 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Shrikashi Vishwanath Corridor at Varanasi. Though the corridor is in itself speaks volumes about the development projects that have been happening in PM Modi’s constituency, one project that has started functioning in Varanasi needs special attention. The Khidkiya Ghat at Varanasi recently got its first and world’s first floating CNG filling station for eco-friendly boats. IIT Kanpur has contributed to the project by providing a patented technology, i.e. Self Adjusting Fixed Type Jetty (SAFTJ). PM Modi took a boat from Khidkiya ghat to reach Shrikashi Vishwanath Corridor.

Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur, in a detailed thread on Twitter, talked about the technology. He said IIT Kanpur’s incubated company Acquafront Infrastructure successfully deployed a patented technology, “Self Adjusting Fixed Type Jetty (SAFTJ)”, to construct the world’s first floating CNG filling station for eco-friendly boats on the Khidkiya Ghat, Varanasi.

The station would ensure the consistent and safe CNG pipeline connection to all the dispensers with controlled risk factors even in peak flood season. After inaugurating Shrikashi Vishwanath Corridor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited the facility.

It is notable and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) India has developed the model ghat, Khidkiya Ghat. Karandikar added that it would serve as a new tourist attraction from where the passengers could take the river route and reach the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in eco-friendly CNG boats.

The development of Khidkiya Ghat

In December 2020, the project to modernise Khadikiya Ghat was initiated to make it a new centre of attraction for the devotees as well as tourists visiting Kashi from different corners of the world. The main aim of the development project was to make it accessible via water, land and air. One of the 84 ghats of Kashi that are spread along the Ganga river in the shape of a crescent, Khidkiya Ghat, was developed at the cost of Rs.35.83 crores.

Spread over 11.5 acres, the ghat was scheduled to be functional in July 2021. The designing and engineering of the ghat were done by planner India. The ghat has been prepared with gabion and rotation walls that look like the old ghats but is much safer even during floods in the river. While other ghats lack parking space, this ghat accommodates parking space as well.

Deepak Agrawal, Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi, had said that though the majority of the tourists visit Assi and Dashashwamedh Ghats, they are not accessible by public transport like trains. Thus, Khidkiya ghat was being developed with modern facilities.

Equipped with amenities like an RO water facility, food plaza, a helipad that can accommodate two helicopters, and a CNG plant along with easy access to the city and tourist spots, Khidkiya ghat is one big step towards making Varanasi a smart city.

The CNG boats and importance of CNG filling station at the ghat

PM Modi’s vision for Varanasi included the addition of CNG boats to ensure an eco-friendly mode of transport via the Ganga River. The proposal was accepted by the boat owners with full support. At first, there was a temporary small refilling station at the ghat as the trial of CNG boats included a very small number. However, soon more boat owners showed interest in converting their boats to CNG to ensure Ganga River does not get polluted.

While talking to OpIndia, Ankit Patel, founder of Acquafront Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (AIPL), said that they were granted the project to build the base for the CNG plant on July 14, 2021. They handed over the completed project in just five months, on December 3, 2021. He said, “The aim was to reduce the water and air pollution. Thus the Petroleum Ministry, in association with the local administration, provided subsidised CNG engines for the boat owners. Initially, there were limited boats running on CNG, but soon more boat owners showed interest. There was a need for a stable floating CNG station.”

It is noteworthy that the subsidy for the CNG engines is being provided via Varanasi Smart City GAIL’s CSR Fund. So far, 20 crores have been spent on the project. Every engine costs around Rs 2 lakh for the engine in a small boat and Rs 3 lakh for the engine in a large boat. Around 900 boats have already been installed with such engines.

Ankit Patel further added, “On July 14, our company got the project as we have the patented technology to build a stable floating station that can remain functional even during floods. We delivered the completed project to GAIL on December 3.” When asked how different it was from what they had proposed in their videos and project details, Ankit said, “What is available on the internet was for the passengers. The load-bearing capacity was much lesser than what we had built. The floating base can tolerate around 600 tonnes (6,00,000 KG) of weight without any problem.”

He further added that his company also provided the same technology at a smaller scale for floating bridges etc., but the largest product that they have supplied is the floating base for the CNG filling station.

AIPL has provided the world’s first modular CNG floating filling station (Modular Barge), two passenger jetties (HDPE) and a floating bridge (SIFJ) for the Khidkiya ghat.

Reports suggest that a similar station would be built on Ravidas ghat as well.

The benefit of CNG engine

Compared to a diesel-petrol engine in a boat, a CNG engine produces up to 10% less pollution. Harmful gases like sulphur dioxide are not produced while using a CNG engine. Also, the CNG engine is much quieter compared to the diesel engine. Notably, the loud noise of diesel engines has adverse effects on aquatic animals, and CNG engines would reduce that problem as well.

According to the boat owners, their fuel expenses have been reduced as well. Earlier, they were spending Rs 500 to Rs 600 every day. Now the same number of rounds are being taken in CNG worth Rs 300 to Rs 350. While five-litre diesel could take only four rounds from Assi to Rajghat, 5 KG CNG is good enough for up to 12 rounds.

What is SAFTJ

Self Adjusting Fixed Type Jetty or SAFTJ is a jetty that has a self-adjusting mechanism that is governed and actuated by the natural forces to fluctuating water levels. It is a conventional deck that facilitates movement between marine and inland infrastructure but with a twist.

This technology was proposed in the June of 2016 by a group of Civil Engineers pursuing their degree at the esteemed IIT-BHU under the guidance of professors Dr KK Pandey and Dr Rajesh Kumar from the Dept of Civil Engineering.

According to the paper submitted on the technology by the developers of the technology at IIT Kanpur, SAFTJ is equipped with a self-adjusting mechanism to control the response of the structure against the fluctuating water level. This mechanism is governed and actuated by the natural forces (gravitational and buoyant force). This technology nullifies the requirement of two separate jetties by possessing the ability to adjust in bi-direction (horizontally and vertically) as per the seasonal/tidal changes in water bodies.

An animation-based explanation of the technology can be seen in the video below.

The team and the stakeholders in the project

The IIT Kanpur team included AIPL founders Ankit Patel, Achin Agrawal, their team members Keshav Pathak and Rakesh Jatolia, their mentors Jai Shankar Sharma and Prof K.K. Pandey. The stakeholders in the project were GAIL India, MECON Limited, Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur and Varanasi Smart City Ltd.

‘Aim was to create fear in minds of the Hindus’, Delhi Court frames charges against Shahnawaz, Shoaib and 8 others in Delhi anti-Hindu riots

OpIndia Staff
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‘Aim was to create fear in minds of the Hindus’, Delhi Court frames charges against Shahnawaz, Shoaib and 8 others in Delhi anti-Hindu riots

A Delhi court has framed charges against 10 accused in the 2020 Northeast Delhi anti-Hindu riots, observing that their main objective was to create fear in the minds of the victims belonging to the Hindu community and threaten them to leave the country by looting and burning their properties, reports Live Law.

The accused identified as Mohd Shahnawaz, Mohd Shoaib, Shahrukh, Rashid, Azad, Ashraf Ali, Parvez, Mohd Faisal, Rashid alias Monu and Mohd Tahir have been charged Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 436 (Mischief by fire), 452 (House-trespass with preparation to assault), 454 (Lurking house-trespass), 392 (robbery), 427 (mischief) read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of IPC.

Finding credibility in the statements of the witnesses, the Additional Sessions Judge Virendra Bhat observed: “From the utterances of the rioters comprising the unlawful assembly, as mentioned by these witnesses in their statements, it is limpid that the object of the assembly was to create fear & panic in the minds of the people belonging to Hindu Community, threaten them to leave the country and to loot as well as burn their properties”.

The Judge made the remarks while hearing a case filed by one Jagdish Prasad, who claimed that rioters had set fire to his son’s auto spare parts shop during the massive riot that was planned and executed in Delhi in February 2020 to target Hindus on the name protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Jagdish Prasad had claimed in the FIR that the fanatic Muslim mob had thrown petrol bombs into his son’s shop, causing the entire shop to burn down. He added that he and his two brothers had somehow escaped through the back gate and saved their lives.

No ground to disbelieve the witnesses, observes Delhi court while framing charges against 10 accused in Northeast Delhi anti-Hindu riots

The complainant, his son, nephew, and three police officers were all eyewitnesses in the case, according to the prosecution, who further stated before the court that all the witnesses had specifically named the 10 accused persons in their testimony. The eyewitnesses, according to the prosecution, claimed that the accused were present in the crowd that looted, damaged, and set fire to the complainant’s shop during the February 2020 North-est Delhi anti-Hindu riots.

The Court was of the prima facie view that there was no ground to disbelieve the version of the witnesses. “They have taken the names of only three accused whom they already knew and had seen them in the mob. If they had any intention to falsely implicate any person in this case, they would have taken the names of all the accused and not only of the three accused. This indicates the truthfulness of their statements and makes their statements trustworthy,” the Court said.

The court further stated that there were ten accused in this case, each of whom was recognised by different witnesses. “All the six prosecution witnesses, who have identified the accused, have given identical versions of the riotous incident involved in this case. All of them corroborate each other’s version in entirety,” the Court said as it framed charges against the 10 accused.

Court frames charges against Shahrukh Pathan

It may be noted that on December 8, the Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat of Delhi court had also framed charges against the 2020 Delhi riot accused Shahrukh Pathan who had fired bullets at head constable Deepak Dahiya during Anti-Hindu riots in Northeast Delhi.

Other than Pathan, the court framed charges on Kaleem Ahmad, Ishtiyak Malik alias Guddu, Shamim and Abdul Shehzad. 

Terming it not an ordinary case of individuals or groups committing unlawful acts, the court said that “these riots are of such a nature as has not been witnessed since the Sikh Riots of 1984.”

‘When rape is inevitable, enjoy it’: Karnataka Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar makes a shocking comment in assembly

OpIndia Staff
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‘When rape is inevitable, enjoy it’: Karnataka Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar makes a shocking comment in assembly

Karnataka Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar has created a controversy by making a shocking comment normalising rape. The former Karnataka assembly speaker said in the assembly on Thursday, “when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it”.

The Congress leader made the shocking statement in assembly when the members of the house were demanding a discussion on farmers’ issues. Responding to the demand, the speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri had asked how can he run the house if everyone is allotted time to speak. Asking the MLAs to decide on the issue, he told former speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, “I can’t keep this under control and take it forward in a systematic way.”

However, Ramesh Kumar responded to the speaker by saying, “There is a saying, when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it. That’s exactly the position into which you are.” But nobody in the house objected to it and the members of the assembly laughed together on the comment.

It is notable that as Ramesh Kumar saying, the comment he made is actually a saying which was used frequently earlier, but is no longer used due to its offensive nature. The phrase was used to suggest that when one faces a difficult situation with no way of countering it, it is better to cope with it instead of fighting it.

This comment is deemed offensive and unacceptable because it normalises the heinous crime of rape, and anyone making this comment invites harsh criticism.

‘Manufacturing hub of radical Islamic Jihadism’, VHP asks Centre to impose a complete ban on Tablighi Jamaat, freeze bank accounts

OpIndia Staff
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‘Manufacturing hub of radical Islamic Jihadism’, VHP asks Centre to impose a complete ban on Tablighi Jamaat, freeze bank accounts

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in strong words has appealed to the central government to impose a complete ban on the Tablighi Jamaat in India. The Hindu outfit has also demanded a crackdown on Islamic organisations like the Darul Uloom Deoband and the Popular Front of India (PFI), which are giving direct or indirect nourishment to Tablighis, Tablighi Jamaat and Ijtema.

Calling it the “manufacturing hub of radical Islamic Jihadism, the lone wolves and a host and patron of global terrorism”, the VHP demanded that the government should seal the Delhi-based Nizamuddin Markaz building and also freeze the bank accounts associated with it. The organisation also asked the Centre to plug the “economic sources and resources” of Tablighi Jamaat.

“By finding out the financial sources of the Tablighi Jamaat, which is endangering the lives of people, immediate ban should be imposed by Bharat and the entire world community on its bank accounts, offices and activities,” said the central working President of VHP and senior advocate Alok Kumar.

“Not only Bharat (India) but the whole world is in serious trouble today due to the transgressions of the Tablighi Jamaat and its Nizamuddin Markaz,” VHP said in its statement, adding that this radical Islamic fundamentalist organization is already banned in many countries of the world including Russia.

“The Tabligh, taking off from Nizamuddin in 1920 CE and encouraged by its success in horizontal religious conversion activities in Mewat, Haryana, has today injected its sick mentality of pandemic proportions into the minds and hearts of millions of people in more than 100 countries across the world and infected them and put their lives in danger.

The arms and ammunition recovered and the radical jihadi terrorists caught from many mosques, madrassas and settlements hosting terrorist sleeper cells across the country were somehow or the other the products of this fiendish mindset. Who does not know that lakhs of Tablighis armed with Wahabi worldview and agenda and trained from their Nizamuddin command & control centre have been proliferating bigotry, prejudices, anti-democratic mindset and terror through their jihadi speeches and lectures in Markaz, Ijtema, Mosques and Madarsas all over the world.

The founders of most of the terrorist organizations of the world have also been associated with the Tabligh: VHP

The arms and ammunition recovered and the radical jihadi terrorists caught from many mosques, madrassas and settlements hosting terrorist sleeper cells across the country were somehow or the other the products of this fiendish mindset. Who does not know that lakhs of Tablighis armed with Wahabi worldview and agenda and trained from their Nizamuddin command & control centre have been proliferating bigotry, prejudices, anti-democratic mindset and terror through their jihadi speeches and lectures in Markaz, Ijtema, Mosques and Madarsas all over the world. The founders of most of the terrorist organizations of the world have also been associated with the Tabligh.

The relations of all those – from the assassins of the American Trade Center (ATC) to the perpetrators of the burning of 59 Hindus alive in train bogey in Godhra and those celebrating the Urs of the Muslim lone wolf Abdul Rashid – the brutal murderer of Swami Shraddhanand – with the Markaz, is well known,” read the statement issued by VHP.

The Hindu organisation welcomed the move adopted by Saudi Arabia to warn its people against affiliation to the already banned group.

Saudi Arabia warns people against affiliation with Tablighi Jamaat

On December 11, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs of Saudi Arabia had directed the preachers of the mosques to dedicate the Friday sermon towards warning the Saudi people against the Tablighi and Da’wah groups. Minister of Islamic Affairs, Dr Abdullatif Al_Alsheikh had given a direction to the Mosques in Saudi Arabia to reserve the Friday sermon for warning the people against the partisan groups of Tablighi Jamat and Da’wah existing in the country.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Saudi Arabia went on to declare that affiliation with religious partisan groups of Tablighi and Da’wah is prohibited in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Tablighi Jamat already banned in Saudi Arabia

Several media houses in India have claimed that Saudi Arabia has banned Tablighi Jamat with these instructions, but that is not true, because the group is already banned in the country. Now the Saudi government has warned people against having affiliations with this group.

NYT blames ‘Hindutvavadis’ for scam on Nidhi Razdan when a BJP spokesperson was also targeted, proves she was only low IQ amongst everyone targeted

OpIndia Staff
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NYT blames ‘Hindutvavadis’ for scam on Nidhi Razdan when a BJP spokesperson was also targeted, proves she was only low IQ amongst everyone targeted

Almost a year after former NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan had revealed that she was scammed into believing that she has been offered a teacher job at the Harvard University, The New York Times published a report on the issue today. In the report titled ‘That Job at Harvard? It’s Not Real’, NYT tried to blame Hindu nationalists for the scam, and revealed that while several women in India were targeted in the elaborated scam, only Nidhi Razdan had fallen for it, who had resigned from NDTV to move to the USA, and had announced the same in public.

Although the article says that the identity of the scamsters is not known, it claims that they had expressed support online for the Hindu nationalist movement in India. It is not revealed where this support for Hindu nationalism was expressed by the people behind the scam. The article also repeatedly uses the term ‘Hindu nationalist’ while referring to the Modi government and BJP, making a clear insinuation on the political leaning of the unknown culprits.

Nidhi Razdan was not the only target

New York Times reveals that Nidhi Razdan was not the only target of the scam, and several other women were targeted before her. But, all of them had smelled that something was wrong, and had stopped communicating with the scamsters, avoiding the fate of Nidhi Razdan.

According to NYT, the first known target was The Wire journalist Rohini Singh, who was contacted by one Tauseef Ahmad claiming to be from Harvard University. Tauseef and another person named Alex Hirschman, both like fake identities, had invited her to participate in a high-powered media conference, with Harvard bearing all expenses. But as they were using Gmail email accounts and their phone numbers were not from USA, Rohini Singh grew suspicious, and after they asked for her passport details and some photographs, she stopped communicating with them.

The next target, according to NYT, was The Print Columnist Zainab Sikander, who also received similar offers from Tauseef and Alex. Sikander ignored the fact that they were using UAE numbers despite claiming to be from the Boston area, and says that the man sounded Pakistani. However, she also became suspicious after not receiving a formal invitation despite asking for the same, and terminated contact with the scamsters like Rohini Singh.

NYT report says that another female journalist working at a prominent Indian publication was targeted next, but the journalist refused to be identified. She also ended contacts after seeing the UAE phone numbers.

BJP spokesperson was target, had issued warning and wrote to Harvard about the scam

The most interesting victim of the scam was BJP spokesperson Nighat Abbass, because not only she is a politician from BJP, she had actually alerted Harvard about the scam. All other targets in the scam are journalists heavily critical of BJP and Modi govt, therefore Nighat Abbass stands out as the odd one.

According to the report, by the time Abbass was targeted, the scamsters had made improvements in their techniques. They had copied signatures from real Harvard employees, and obtained official letterhead from the university’s website. They were also now using Harvard.edu email addresses instead of Gmail.

But when they asked for passport details and other personal information of Abbaas, she decided to confirm from the university about the invitation she has received. But a Harvard official responded to her saying that the invitation sent to her from the Harvard.edu email address seems to be fake. When the official Bailey Payne asked for more details, Nighat Abbass sent everything, the phone number from the U.A.E., emails, screenshots of fake Harvard documents and hotel booking records.

However, NYT says that it is not known whether Harvard had taken any action on it, and the University declined to comment on what they did with the information provided by the BJP spokesperson.

Interestingly, Nighat Abbass had posted a video on Twitter on November 29, 2019, detailing about the scam being conducted by Tauseef Ahmad. She had said that Tauseef can be a scam-master or even maybe a terrorist, and it is a serious threat to people because he was trying to personal information of his targets.

She said that he used fake documents, fake IDs, fake numbers, and he could be some kind of terrorist. She had requested the US govt to trace him down using his US phone number and email IDs.

Despite this warning by Abbass, Nidhi Razdan proceeded to be the only known victim of the scam to provide her personal details. She had received the email just two weeks before the video posted by Abbass, and subsequently she was contacted by the same Tauseef that Abbass had warned people about, calling him a terrorist.

According to the NYT report, the scamsters had bought a website called HarvardCareer.com, and used it to set up an email server, so that emails sent by them carries the Harvard stamp. Reportedly, they copied documents from Harvard website and sent official-looking emails and letters to Nidhi Razdan, confirming her the job at the university.

Nidhi Razdan failed to cross-check the exciting offer like other targets of the scam had done, and announced on Twitter in June 2020 that she is leaving NDTV to join Harvard University as an Associate Professor teaching journalism.

The NYT article mentions more details that present Nidhi Razdan as much more careless, as she continued to ignore clear signs of a scam. Even when she was said that there was never a video call scheduled with a dean at Harvard that she was invited to, and her calls were getting cancelled, she thought these were bureaucratic snags and results of the pandemic.

Finally, Harvard wrote to her confirming that she was never offered any job at the university, after which she made the ordeal public.

Rohini Singh, the first known target, believes that Indian government was behind the scam. But that does not explain why the BJP govt will target a BJP spokesperson.

Forensic analysis reveals Pakistan link, NYT blames Hindu Nationalists

However, a security expert Jiten Jain, who did a forensic analysis of the laptop and devices of Nidhi Razdan, said that a suspicious file he uncovered on Ms. Razdan’s computer contained an IP address that had once been linked to a hacking group believed to be associated with Pakistani intelligence. It is notable that the scamsters had made Nidhi Razdan install Team Viewer on her computer, which allows remote controlling of a computer, enabling others to access files and install malware in the target computer.

Jain also discovered fake job websites from Ivy league universities operated from China, and suggests that it appears to be a group of sophisticated actors running a targeted surveillance campaign.

Despite this, New York Times theorises that the Hindu Nationalists could be behind the scam. They claim, “Perhaps the women were targeted by an individual, someone ideologically aligned with the Hindu nationalist ruling party in India and willing to go to great lengths to humiliate critics of the government’s intervention in Kashmir and those who spoke out against the divide between Hindus and Muslims”.

NYT also claims that one of the Twitter accounts used by the scamsters with the name Seema Singh frequently posted about these issues, and therefore Hindu Nationalists could be behind the scam.

Despite the fact that a BJP spokesperson was among the targeted women, despite the discovery of IP address linked to Pakistan and other details revealed by Jiten Jain’s analysis, and despite the use of a UAE number, New York Times choses to ignore all that blames Hindu Nationalists for the scam.

Govt will amend marriage acts of Muslim, Christian, other groups too to ensure only Hindus don’t end up following new marriage age for women: Sources

OpIndia Staff
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Govt will amend marriage acts of Muslim, Christian, other groups too to ensure only Hindus don’t end up following new marriage age for women: Sources

On December 15, the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to raise the legal age of marriage of women from 18 years to 21 years. During the Independence Day address in August 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the same and said the Government was planning to amend the law for the same. He again pointed out the same in an address to the people of the nation in October 2020 and said the government would soon take a decision over it. Once the law is amended, the legal marriageable age for both men and women would become the same, i.e. 21 years.

After the announcement of the decision, there were speculations that the burden of this decision would fall only on Hindus since there was no clarity whether personal laws would be amended. It was unclear if any change to Muslim Personal Law would be made to amend the minimum age of marriage for women, which is currently 15 years. For all other personal laws in India along with the special marriage act, the minimum age of the bride is 18 years while the same for the groom is 21 years.

The speculation was that the Muslim personal law would give the community the right to marry their girls at 15, and Hindus would follow the law, thereby affecting the fertility rate and screwing the demography further.

OpIndia reached out to sources in the know to get clarity on the issue. Sources have clarified that all personal laws would also be amended to increase the marital age of women to 21.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ proposes to amend ‘The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (PCMA)’ for making the age of marriage equal at 21 years for both males and females, which is presently 21 years for males and 18 years for females and consequential amendments in laws relating to age of marriage i.e. ‘the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872’; ‘the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936’; ‘the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937’; ‘the Special Marriage Act, 1954’; ‘the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955’; and ‘the Foreign Marriage Act, 1969’. Also the laws namely ‘the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956’; and ‘Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956’ pertain to this context.

Purpose of increasing the marriage age of women to 21

Sources said that the move has the potential to bring gender equality in India. The Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy (particularly the Right to Equality and Right against Exploitation) under Constitution of India guarantees gender equality. The proposed legislation is a strong measure towards commitment of the Government for the same as it will bring women on equal footing with male.

As India progresses, further opportunities open up for women to pursue higher education and careers. There are imperatives for lowering Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and improvements of nutrition levels as well as increase in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB). These are the main reasons for effecting the proposed legislation. It will also result in women attaining psychological maturity before marriage, exercising better reproductive rights and better place in life skills including about family planning, use of contraceptives etc.

When Karan Thapar tried to undermine India’s win in 1971: Here is what Sam Manekshaw said in the interview

OpIndia Staff
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When Karan Thapar tried to undermine India’s win in 1971: Here is what Sam Manekshaw said in the interview

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Bangladeshi Liberation War, a snippet from an old interview of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw with Karan Thapar has gone viral on the internet in which the journalist is heard undermining India’s heroic triumph in the 1971 India-Pakistan war that liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan.

The snippet which was earlier shared by Twitter user @tequieremos on December 16, 2020, is once again doing the rounds, as the nation is commemorating 50 years of India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war and the formation of Bangladesh.

At around 15 minutes into the interview on BBC’s Face-to-Face in the year 1999, Karan Tapar asked Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw whether India won because the Pakistan army proved to be incompetent in the 1971 war? Instead of crediting the Indian army for standing up to Pakistan’s army valiantly, the veteran writer suggests that India succeeded because Pakistan was weak and inept.

“To what extent did you win because the Pakistani military leadership proved to be incompetent, for instance, I gathered they had no fallback strategy,” asked Karan Thapar.

Vehemently objecting to the journalist’s inferences, the former CAOS is heard saying: “No it’s not true. The Pakistani army in East Pakistan fought very gallantly but they had no chance. They were a thousand miles from their base. I had eight or nine months to make my preparations. I had got a superiority of almost fifteen to one. They just had no chance.”

It may be recalled how last year another clip from 2002 had gone viral in which Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, one of India’s greatest war heroes, had narrated how the Pakistani Prisoner of Wars of the 1971 India-Pakistan war had hailed the professionalism of the Indian Army following Indian victory in the war that liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan.

The Retired General said that a Pakistani staffer revealed how the Indian general had saved his family. The Pakistani staffer at the Governor’s residence said that five of his sons were PoWs of the 1971 war, who were treated with a lot of respect despite being Pakistani soldiers.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of 93,000 Pakistani military and government personnel surrendering to the Indian Army, putting an end to the Bangladesh Liberation War, which began on December 3, 1971. This was the largest army surrender ever.

On the occasion of the 50th Vijay Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday participated in the homage and reception ceremony of ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaals’ at the National War Memorial in Delhi. He was accompanied by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The Prime Minister also laid a wreath at the war memorial.

Meanwhile, the Indian President- Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday left for a three-day state visit to neighbouring Bangladesh to attend the 50th Victory Day celebrations as the guest of honour. Besides paying tribute at the National Martyrs Memorial in Savar and meeting Muktijoddhas of the 1971 war, the Indian President will also be inaugurating and reviewing the newly constructed section of the Ramna Kali temple in Dhaka which was demolished by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. At that time, the barbaric Pakistani Army had slaughtered hundreds of Hindus inside the temple before eventually razing it down. 

Wuhan lab-leak the likely origin of Covid, virus most likey engineered: Biologist tells UK parliament

OpIndia Staff
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Wuhan lab-leak the likely origin of Covid, virus most likey engineered: Biologist tells UK parliament

A Canadian molecular biologist Dr Alina Chan has told the UK Parliament that it is reasonable to believe that Covid-19 was genetically engineered in China.

Dr Alina Chan claimed that a leak from a laboratory in the Wuhan region of China was more likely the origin of this global pandemic.

The statement has come at a time when the new Covid variant ‘Omicron’ is beginning to be a cause of fresh concern around the world and the WHO’s attempts to appease China has been facing criticism.

Chan who is a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering told this to the Science and Technology Select Committee of the House of Commons which is probing into the source of the origin of the virus and its impact on human life.

She has also co-authored a book with, Lord Matt Ridley ‘Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19,’ that has deeply investigated the source of the killer virus.

Recording her statement before the Parliament panel’s evidence session she said that the pandemic was caused by the unique feature of the coronavirus called furin cleavage site which has been linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Chan is a researcher at Harvard and MIT. She said that the bulk of circumstantial evidence points towards an accidental research-related emergence of SARS2 in Wuhan. A natural origin has been investigated more thoroughly than a lab origin, yet no dispositive evidence has been found.

Chan said that the Chinese Communist Party had covered up the initial outbreak in Wuhan two years ago and China also attempted to sabotage the inquiry set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to trace the origin of the pandemic.

It is notable here that the WHO ‘fact-finding’ team that went to Wuhan included US scientist Peter Daszak, whose own organisation Eco Health Alliance was funding the gain of function research of zoonotic viruses in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The same scientist has been vocally dismissing ‘lab origin’ theories of the coronavirus pandemic and had also been using his influence to shut down lab origin allegations as baseless.

Virus was probably modified in the lab before leak

Asked whether the virus was modified in the lab before the leak, Chan said that she heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin of this virus was reasonable.

“And this includes virologists who themselves have made modifications to the first SARS virus,” she said.

She said that this virus has a very “unique feature, called the furin cleavage site that makes it the pandemic pathogen it is. So, without this feature, there’s no way this would be causing this pandemic.”

She referred to the proposal of US-based EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology that got leaked in September. The proposal talks about the plan to put human-specific furin cleavage sites into SARS-like viruses in the lab.

“So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I am going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city,” she said.

Chan said that scientists who were part of this secret project should explain that their work did not result in the creation of SARS-COV2 that caused the pandemic and an investigation of documents made available by EcoHealth Alliance could hold the key.

No single infected animal found as the progenitor of this pandemic

WHO and China tried hard to convince the world that the virus might have passed from bats to humans through another animal. Such studies chiefly aimed to dismiss the laboratory leak theory and let people believe that the virus had a natural origin.

Lord Matt Ridley who also joined the evidence session supported Chan’s assertion that it was a lab leak and not the act of bats.

“We have to face the fact that after two months we knew the origins of SARS through markets, and after a couple of months, we knew the origin of MERS through camels. In this case, after two years we still haven’t found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor of this pandemic; that’s extremely surprising,” he said.

Ridley said that systematic attempts were made to stop any discussion on the topic. But the facts will have to be dug out to prevent the next pandemic.

“We also need to know to deter bad actors who are watching this episode and thinking that unleashing a pandemic is something they could get away with,” he said.

When will the truth come out

As the select committee is set to submit the report by the next year, Chan said that the truth of the origin of the deadly virus will eventually come out.

Right now, it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward,” she said. 

“But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out”, she added.  

SC collegium refuses to elevate Bombay HC judge as permanent judge for her insensitive ‘skin-to-skin contact’ verdict, to revert as district judge

OpIndia Staff
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SC collegium refuses to elevate Bombay HC judge as permanent judge for her insensitive ‘skin-to-skin contact’ verdict, to revert as district judge

The Supreme Court collegium has once again refused to elevate the Bombay HC judge Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala who had drawn flak for her controversial “skin-to-skin” order on sexual assault at the beginning of the year, as a permanent judge or provide her with an extension as an additional judge. Justice Pushpa Ganediwala is currently a Judge in the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court.

Despite the fact that Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala’s tenure is set to expire in February 2022, the SC Collegium has rejected her elevation as a High Court judge for the second time in a row. As she has not been elevated and her term as High Court judge has not been extended, Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala will revert back as a District Judge after her term as an ad hoc High Court judge ends in February.

Prior to this, the Collegium headed by then CJI S A Bobde was compelled to withdraw its January 20, 2020 recommendation to the Union government to appoint her as a permanent judge of Bombay HC, after the controversy over her back-to-back insensitive judgements in the POCSO case came to light the same month.

The Collegium had then recommended extending her ad hoc judgeship only for a year considering the insensitivity she had displayed towards children facing sexual abuse.

The Supreme Court Collegium approved the appointment of 3 Additional Judges of the Bombay High Court as Permanent Judges, Madhav Jayajirao Jamdar, Amit Bhalchandra Borkar and Shrikant Dattatray Kulkarni.

Bombay HC judge not made permanent over her insensitive ‘skin to skin contact’ verdict

It may be recalled that on January 24, the Bombay High Court bench of Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala had, in a shocking verdict, ruled that groping without skin-to-skin contact is not sexual assault. She had observed that the act involving a minor would not amount to sexual assault if the accused did not remove the top of the minor or slide his hands under her garment.

“The act of pressing the breast of a child aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside her top and pressed her breast, would not fall under the definition of ‘sexual assault’,” Justice Ganediwala had observed.

The case pertained to a matter from 2016 where the appellant in the case was accused of taking the minor victim, aged around 12 years, to his house under the pretext of giving her guava and then proceeded to press her breast and attempted to remove her salwar. Her mother, fortunately, reached the spot right then and rescued her daughter.

The victim confirmed the series of events. In light of the facts on hand, the Bombay High Court had held that “the appellant is acquitted under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and convicted under minor offence u/s 354 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo R.I. for one year and to pay fine of Rs.500/-, in default of fine to suffer R.I. for one month. The sentence for the offence punishable under Section 342 of the Indian Penal Code i.e. six months and fine of Rs.500/-, in default to suffer R.I. for one month, is maintained.”

Later, in another case, Justice Ganediwala had controversially ruled that “the acts of ‘holding the hands of the prosecutrix’ (female victim), or opened zip of the pant’…does not fit in the definition of sexual assault,'” and overturned a man’s conviction under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses). A five-year-old girl was the assault victim in this case.

Dehradun: Rahul Gandhi claims that the USA defeated Afghanistan after 20 years, repeats his pet lies

OpIndia Staff
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Dehradun: Rahul Gandhi claims that the USA defeated Afghanistan after 20 years, repeats his pet lies

Rahul Gandhi has a close relationship with gaffes, as he goofs up in almost every speech he makes. Today when he addressed the ‘Vijay Samman Rally’ organised by the Congress party in Dehradun in Uttarakhand, it was no exception. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed that the USA defeated Afghanistan after 20 years, which is factually inaccurate.

He made the claim while talking about the Indian armed forces. Rahul Gandhi said that Indian forces had defeated Pakistan in just 13 days in the 1971 war, while most wars last for months and years. As an example, he said that the American forces defeated Afghanistan in 20 years.

There are multiple inaccuracies in Rahul Gandhi’s statement. First, the USA was not at war with Afghanistan to defeat it. Actually, the USA was the ally of the Afghan government and was helping the elected government to fight radical forces like Taliban and Islamic State. The second and most obvious inaccuracy is, the USA didn’t defeat Afghanistan after 20 years. In fact, the Taliban captured power in Afghanistan defeating the combined power of the USA and Afghan govt forces.

In August this year, the American forces hastily left Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, leaving a large number of military equipment behind.

Rahul Gandhi made other questionable comments on war and defence too. He said that when India defeated Pakistan in the 1971 war, it was not the victory of the Army or Navy or the Air Force. ‘That is not correct, every person, every caste, every religion defeated Pakistan together’, he claimed.

Rahul Gandhi repeated his pet claims in his speech, by saying that the government is working only for 2-3 rich people. He claimed that the govt has exempted the 2-3 industrialists from paying taxes, but refuses to pay compensation to farmers who died during the protests. The govt is doing it for 2 industrialists, he claimed.

Rahul Gandhi further claimed that demonetisation and GST are two weapons of the select industrialists that are being implemented by the central govt.

The Congress leader said that India was able to defeat Pakistan in 13 days because India’s economy was strong, and there was better coordination between the armed forces and the govt, but the situation is not same. ‘No matter how many photos of Rafale fighters are shown, fighter aircraft don’t win wars’, Rahul Gandhi added, returning to his other favourite topic, the Rafale jets.

Rahul Gandhi addressed the ‘Vijay Samman Rally’ organised by the Congress party in Dehradun during his first visit to the state ahead of the assembly elections. The rally was organised almost two after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed a rally in Dehradun, where he had also inaugurated and laid foundation stones for various development projects in the state on December 4.

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