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Trouble for Congress in Chhattisgarh after Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel supporters reach Delhi to oppose any leadership change

OpIndia Staff
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Trouble for Congress in Chhattisgarh after Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel supporters reach Delhi to oppose any leadership change

The crisis in the Congress is leaping from one state to another, and after Punjab, another Congress-ruled state Chhattisgarh seems to be the next stop of this crisis. Worried over speculation of leadership change, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has dispatched around 15 MLAs to Delhi who are loyal to him. Baghel is expected to send more MLAs to mobilize support in his favour.

These MLAs reached Delhi on Wednesday and sought a meeting with the central high command of the party as well as in-charge PL Punia to submit a signed petition against any change of guard. According to media reports, these MLAs have said that any attempt of change of leadership may lead to chaos in Chhattisgarh like Punjab and Rajasthan.

The MLAs who have reached Delhi include Purushottam Kanwar, Brihaspati Singh, UD Minj, Prakash Nayak, Mohit Kerketta, Chandradev Rai, Dwarkadhish Yadav, Gulab Kamro and Vinay Jaiswal and others.

Brihaspati Singh maintained that Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Bastar region and they want Rahul Gandhi to visit their districts also.

The Congress problem in Chhattisgarh

Bhupesh Baghel was appointed chief minister in December 2018 on a rotation formula with the understanding that e will serve only for two and half years. According to the formula, T.S. Singh Deo, who is the health minister in the Baghel cabinet, will head the later part of the government. This rotation formula was neither accepted nor clearly denied by the central leadership. Now T.S. Singh Deo and his supporters are reminding Rahul Gandhi about that rotational formula as time for the change of CM has already passed.

The crisis in Chhattisgarh is unfolding at a time when the central leadership of the Congress is already grappling with the issue of Punjab which has turned into a political theatre of absurdity. Captain Amarinder Singh was removed as chief minister of Punjab on the insistence of Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu. Charanjit Singh Channi was appointed as the new chief minister. But later Navjot Singh Sidhu also tendered his resignation from the post of party president in the state.

However, Chhattisgarh Congress MLA Brihaspati Singh, who is a Baghel loyalist, pointed out that there is no Punjab like situation in Chhattisgarh. He said that all MLAs and ministers are united in his state. He said that they have the blessings of the party high command.  Brihaspati Singh is among the MLAs who are camping in Delhi at Chhattisgarh Sadan.

He rejected speculation that Baghel will be changed adding that, including party high command, all MLAs and people of Chhattisgarh are satisfied with Baghel as CM. he added that the government can’t be destabilized just to satisfy an individual.

Bhupesh Baghel on previous occasions had said that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had entrusted him the responsibility to run the state government.

In the house of 90 seats, the Congress has 70 MLAs in the assembly, and the Congress government in Chhattisgarh is perhaps the safest one.  But nobody can predict when Chhattisgarh will go the Punjab way.

Captain Amarinder Singh dismisses rumours of joining BJP, says ‘won’t remain in Congress’ as Punjab in pushed into chaos: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Captain Amarinder Singh dismisses rumours of joining BJP, says ‘won’t remain in Congress’ as Punjab in pushed into chaos: Details

After former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh met Union Minister Amit Shah, speculations of him getting inducted into the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) were rife. 

However, Singh dismissing the rumours, asserting that while he is not going to join BJP. But he has now revealed that even though he is not shifting to BJP, he will also not be staying with Congress anymore. “So far I am in the Congress but I will not remain in the Congress. I will not be treated in this manner,” Singh said in an interview with NDTV. 

“I am not joining the BJP,” he confirmed further.

‘Was asked to resign’

Miffed with the treatment meted out to him by Congress high command, he said that he was humiliated by the party on three occasions. 

“The way I have been treated. At 10.30 am the Congress President says you resign. I didn’t ask any questions. At 4 pm I went to the Governor and resigned,” said the former CM who has been into politics for the past 52 years. 

“If you doubt me after 50 years, my credibility is at stake and if there is no trust, what is the point of me staying in the party? I have not resigned from the Congress yet, but how can one continue in a place where there is a trust deficit. I have made my stand clear. When there is no trust, one cannot continue,” he further said. 

‘Sidhu is good at creating a scene’ 

Calling the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu ‘childish’, Captain further said, “Sidhu is good at creating a scene.”

Taking a dig at Sidhu’s part-time career as the guest of a comedy show, Singh said, “He can do what he did in Kapil Sharma’s show and get a crowd, but he is not a serious guy. He can only do theatrics.”

Captain Amarinder Singh reiterated his opinion about Sidhu and called him a ‘loner’. “Sidhu is an immature person. I have said this repeatedly that he is not a stable man. He is not a team player. He is a loner. How will he handle the Punjab Congress as its chief? For that you need to be a team player, which Sidhu is not,” said the former Punjab CM. 

‘Congress is going downhill’

When asked about the upcoming state assembly elections in Punjab, Amarinder Singh said that the party is on a downward slope. “In the current scenario, we see in a recent survey done by the Congress between July and September that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is on the rise and the Congress is on a decline. Congress has seen a 20% decline according to that survey,” revealed the former CM. 

He also claimed that the elections in Punjab this time around will be very different from the previous ones considering the emergence of newer fronts and parties. 

Reportedly, despite being in the national capital, the former CM has not sought any meeting with Congress acting president Sonia Gandhi. However, he did meet National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at his residence on Thursday. 

UK fuel shortage: London petrol station owner Nerali Patel assaulted, racially abused by British man, suffers head injury

OpIndia Staff
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UK fuel shortage: London petrol station owner Nerali Patel assaulted, racially abused by British man, suffers head injury

In London, an Indian origin business owner named Nerali Patel was viciously attacked by a ‘6-foot tall British man’ on Sunday amid the looming fuel crisis in the country. As per reports, Patel was first assaulted with a petrol nozzle and pushed violently to the ground by the man. The man also allegedly repeatedly called her “Paki”, a British racist slang for Pakistani people.

As per reports, Nerali Patel, 38 and a mother of 2, who runs a BP petrol station at Haverstock Hill, North London, was attacked and violently pushed to the ground by the British man. She was shoved to the floor so hard that her head could be seen bouncing off the ground in the CCTV footage from the station.

She was rushed to the hospital after passers-by stopped to intervene. The attacker was arrested at the scene on Sunday. As per reports, the attack was the second violent incident at the same station on that day. Just 2 hours prior, Nerali had to step in break the fight between two customers when one moped driver started kicking another.

Nerali Patel has suffered a concussion on the head due to the attack. She had also suffered a laceration in her hand when she fell.

The attacker was angry because there was no fuel

Nerali Patel runs a BP petrol filling station in London and her station has been designated as one of the priority fuel delivery sites for emergency service vehicles in the British capital city.

As reported by The Sun, on Sunday, after they ran out of petrol, Nerali had asked her staff to close the station and had gone to put bags on the nozzles to indicate that fuel is over. Two moped drivers had driven in at that time, demanding fuel.

One of the men refused to believe Nerali that petrol is over and started abusing her, “fu**ing P*ki, I know you are lying, you have got fuel, you f**cking scumbag.”

When Nerali tried to explain to the customer that there is no more petrol available, the man reportedly got angry and put the nozzle on her face saying, “I am having it, you f**cking P*ki.” The man then whacked Nerali on her face and shoved her back, causing her fall. The man allegedly kept lunging at Nerali but was luckily held back by persons present at the scene.

Metropolitan police later revealed that they had arrested a man from that petrol station on Sunday on charges of assault and aggravated racial offence. He was released later but is under investigation.

Fuel crisis in UK, panic buying causes stations to run dry

The UK is going through a serious fuel crisis. Though the government has been saying that there is enough fuel available, a shortage of truck drivers due to Brexit, the pandemic and several reasons has created a logistics and supply crisis. As per reports, the lack of fuel at stations is causing brawls and public disorder in several locations.

Recently, it was reported that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could consider calling in the British army to deliver fuel to petrol stations running dry across the country. However, Environment Secretary George Eustice asserted that the shortage of drivers was “not a huge problem”.

“The only reason we don’t have petrol on forecourts is people are buying petrol when they don’t need it,” said Eustice.

In wake of Punjab crisis G-23 Congress leaders demand CWC meeting and election of party president

OpIndia Staff
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In wake of Punjab crisis G-23 Congress leaders demand CWC meeting and election of party president

In the wake of Punjab crisis, Ghulam Nabi Azad, a prominent face of G-23 of the Congress has shot a fresh letter to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi to convene the meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC) to discuss affairs of the party. Besides, the group has again demanded elections to the post of the party president.

Gulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and others are the part of Group 23 of the Congress. In August last year they had demanded an organisational overhaul of the party.

The current development took place after Kapil Sibal held a press conference on Wednesday in Delhi criticizing the central leadership. In the wake of the Punjab crisis, Kapil Sibal demanded open dialogue and introspection. This sparked an angry protest by the loyalists of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at his residence. Protesters called everybody in the Congress who questioned the ‘wisdom’ of central leadership. They shouted Gaddaron, party chhoro (traitors leave the party)” and and also carried ‘Get Well Soon’ placards.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma has expressed shock over attack and hooliganism at the residence of Kapil Sibal after he raised concerns over the lack of clarity in the decision making process of the party.

Anand Sharma commented on Twitter that the incident at the residence of Kapil Sibal left him shocked and disgusted. “Shocked and disgusted to hear the news of attack and hooliganism at Kapil Sibal’s house. This deplorable action brings disrepute to the party and needs to be strongly condemned,” Anand Sharma said.

Anand Sharma further commented that those responsible must be identified and disciplined. Urging Sonia Gandhi to take cognizance and action he stated that the Congress has the history of upholding freedom of expression. 

Kapil Sibal has not issued any statement after madness outside of his residence. But what he said at the press conference in Delhi on Wednesday had annoyed many Yours’ truly of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Kapil Sibal said that G-23 was not a group of yes men. “We are G23. We are not ‘ji huzoor’ 23,” he had said.

In reference to Punjab crisis Sibal wondered that who in the party was taking decision when there is no full-time president. He demanded Congress Working Committee meeting to start the dialogue.

“In our party at this moment there is no president. So, who’s taking the decisions? All of us know and yet we don’t know. We want the meeting of CWC for a dialogue to take place,” Kapil Sibal had said.

He had said leaders of G 23 will not leave the party. He said that those who were close to the party leadership have left the party but those whom central leadership doesn’t consider close to them are still standing with them.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi asks authorities to change the name of LAWDA: Here is what it is

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi asks authorities to change the name of LAWDA: Here is what it is

On Thursday afternoon, senior lawyer and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi made an unusual request, saying that he is requesting the Jammu and Kashmir authorities to change or amend the name of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority. While taking a dig at BJP while making the request to the J&K administration, Singhvi said that while he is not a big fan of name changes, he made an exception this time.

The reason why the Congress leader requested to change the name of the authority was how the acronym of the name sounds. And the matter came up today after ANI reported cleanliness drive conducted at the Dal Lake in Sri Nagar by the Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA). Vice-chairman LAWDA Dr Bashir Ahmad Bhat informed that 15-16 machines have been deployed to clean the famous lake, a work paused last year due to Covid-19.

Soon after the tweets, the acronym LAWDA started trending on Twitter, for its similarity to a crude Hindi word. The full name of the organisation is actually Jammu & Kashmir Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, which was created by the government of Jammu and Kashmir as an autonomous body to look after, manage and conserve water bodies and waterways of the state. Therefore, while the short form of the name should be JKLAWDA, LAWDA was used by ANI instead.

Interestingly, the website of the organisation does not use the word LAWDA, it refers to the organisation as JK LDA. But for some reason, the Facebook page of the organisation calls itself LAWDA, even though its username is JKLDA. Moreover, the organisation also uses the JK LAWDA in its official communications. For example, some tender notices uploaded on the website use this acronym, while in some others LDA is used. Therefore, it can be said that the organisation itself is using the LAWDA acronym in some official documents.

Tender notice of LAWDA

This is not the first time LAWDA was trending on social media, every time there is some news report regarding the organisation, netizens post tweets emphasising the acronym.

Now coming back to the request of Abhishek Singhvi, it appears that the Authority can avoid this, if it wants, by using the full name to form the short name, which will be JKLWDA. However, without a vowel in the middle of the word, here each letter will have to be pronounced separately. Adding the ‘a’ from ‘And’ in the short form makes the acronym LAWDA, which can be pronounced as a word, and thus it makes it much easier to pronounce it compared to pronouncing six separate letters. Maybe the organisation can swap two words in the name to change its name to the Waterways and Lakes Development Authority, which will produce the acronym WALDA.

Not your Amarinder: How Indian National Football team goalkeeper is the unfortunate casualty in Punjab Congress crisis

OpIndia Staff
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Not your Amarinder: How Indian National Football team goalkeeper is the unfortunate casualty in Punjab Congress crisis

On September 30, Amrinder Singh, the goalkeeper for the Indian National Football team, urged the media houses to stop tagging him in place of former Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh. In a tweet, the football player said, “Dear News Media, Journalists, I am Amrinder Singh, Goalkeeper of Indian Football Team and not the Former Chief Minister of the State Punjab. Please stop tagging me.”

It seems that the current political drama in Punjab has found a victim who is not even remotely associated with Politics but plays football for the country. Footballer Amrinder Singh’s Twitter handle has been wrongly tagged by many Twitter users, including from media instead of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Recent tweet tagging football player instead of Capt Amarinder
Recent tweet tagging football player instead of Capt Amarinder

The possible reason for the goof-up could be the spelling of the names. Generally, when people spell the name “Amrinder” they do not use ‘a’ after ‘m’ but in former Punjab CM’s name spells with an ‘a’ after ‘m’. On the contrary, a football player’s name spells without the ‘a’.

When someone tries to tag “Amarinder” on Twitter, former CM’s ID appears.

Going by the habit, when someone searches for ‘Amrinder’, the first result comes out to be the player’s ID and it seems no one bothered to check if they are tagging the correct person.

When someone tries to tag “Amrinder” on Twitter, football player’s ID appears.

Interestingly, he has been getting tagged instead of Capt Singh for a long time as several tweets from previous months were also found.

Old tweet tagging football player instead of Capt Amarinder
Old tweet tagging football player instead of Capt Amarinder
Old tweet tagging football player instead of Capt Amarinder

Footballer Amrinder Singh is Indian National Football team goalkeeper and ATK Mohun Bagan FC in ISL.

Amusingly, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, too, joined in the fun with his namesake.

He quoted the athlete’s tweet and said that he empathises with him and wished him luck for his games ahead.

‘Journalists’ take upon themselves to defend Congress as Rahul Gandhi seems to not care about mess in Punjab

Nirwa Mehta
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‘Journalists’ take upon themselves to defend Congress as Rahul Gandhi seems to not care about mess in Punjab

The political crisis in Punjab deepened, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh took to Twitter to raise concerns about the uncertainty and handing over reins of a border state to someone he does not find too trustworthy. Punjab, along with union territories of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and states of Rajasthan and Gujarat share the international border with Pakistan. While other states have faced issues with infiltration from Pakistan, the terror activities have been historically high in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab.

It is no secret that other than funding cross border terrorism in Kashmir, Pakistan has also been sponsoring separatist movement for Khalistan in Punjab for decades. So while Rajasthan and Gujarat, too, are border states, Punjab would obviously be more of a cause of concern for government.

However, this is now being twisted by the Gandhis-friendly media where some are even trying to use this crisis within Congress to plant seeds of distrust in minds of common folks of Punjab against Modi government. Something that Pakistan would very much like. Here are some examples:

How is the fact that state of Punjab faces more drug abuse problem and is more susceptible to Pakistan-sponsored-terrorism because of Khalistan sentiments ‘inane nonsense’? But for former Aam Aadmi Party leader it is.

Here is another Congress-friendly ‘journalist’ Saba Naqvi who, for some reason best known to her, made it about those pointing out Punjab is a crucial border state are doing so because farmers and soldiers from Punjab ‘who can’t be trusted’. See how farmers and soldiers are the soft targets and it is easy to emotionally manipulate an average Indian by invoking the ‘poor farmers’ and ‘brave soldiers’ narrative.

The Quint journalist, Aditya Menon, who has embraced Islam, has yet another theory. That maybe Punjab being a border state is a cause of concern because Hindus are minority in the state.

But worry not. The Wire has Congress’ back covered.

Do understand that the so-called reports on ‘incursion by Chinese troops’ are based an Economic Times report from two days back which was based on unverified ‘sources’ in government and security officials. Similar claims were made by Rahul Gandhi too to attack Modi government and claimed that a bridge was also destroyed by the Chinese. However, senior government officials have denied any such destruction of bridge.

This is similar to what the mainstream media had done earlier in July this year. In July this month, Business Standard had published an article by Ajai Shukla claiming that there were fresh clashes between Indian and Chinese forces in Easter Ladakh. This was rubbished by the Indian Army. The army had said that the article written by Ajai Shukla was riddled with inaccuracies and misinformation, and the intention of the author was malafide.

But the fact that there have been Khalistan sponsored and supported elements who were embedded in the so-called farmer protest that culminated into riots at Red Fort earlier this year is ignored because the facts make Congress uncomfortable. They are not really worried about the national security but only want to build on a narrative that helps Congress. Even if Congress itself seems to have given up on doing the hard work.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders themselves seem oblivious to the mess that Punjab is in. Imagine being so bad at your job that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi try to resolve the Captain Amarinder Singh vs Navjot Singh Sidhu fight and within ten days they get the chief minster removed, get a chief minister of a state who was accused of sending inappropriate messages to woman IAS officer and then also got the state party chief to resign. In between Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi also vacationed in Shimla. And as if this was not enough, Congress got Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mewani onboard, as if it is some sort of a platinum deal.

So much that even the ‘fact-checkers’ have now taken it upon themselves to prove that Congress leaders, especially Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi during their times as party president did not insult Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his tenure. The so-called fact-checkers shared a video where one can see Sonia Gandhi, a party president, getting off the car and royally ignoring the Prime Minister who was standing there, but apparently that was not an ‘insult’ to the head of the State. Meaning, unless someone is locked up in toilet to usurp the seat of the leader, it does not get counted as an insult. And even if that does happen, it gets deleted from our history books because, Congress-bred ‘historians’ write our history books.

As Amitabh Bachchan in Sharabi would have said, ecosystem ho to aisi ho, warna na ho

And then yesterday, Rahul Gandhi went on a bizarre rant where he spoke about Indians being (or ceasing) to be Indians after taking international flight (?) and not being part of geographical boundaries and something else about Savarkar thrown in Kerala. I personally believe that Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the dialysis centre inauguration got Congress workers to lose their minds that they ended up attacking Sibal instead and staging a protest against him. Because no one quite has the courage to tell the prince is naked.

But hey, why not talk about Gujarat and Rajasthan as border states too?

After meeting home minister Amit Shah, former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh meets NSA Ajit Doval in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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After meeting home minister Amit Shah, former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh meets NSA Ajit Doval in Delhi

On September 30, former Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at his residence in New Delhi.

Amrinder Singh’s meeting with Ajit Doval is significant given the fact that just a few days ago, he had termed Navjot Singh Sidhu a national security threat. After resigning from the post of CM, Singh had said that he will fight any move to make Sidhu the Punjab CM, terming him as anti-national, dangerous, unstable, incompetent and a security threat to the state and the country. “We have all seen Sidhu hugging Imran Khan and General Bajwa, and singing praises for the Pakistan Prime Minister at the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor while our soldiers were being killed at the borders every day,” he had said talking to media after handing over his resignation to the governor.

Notably, a day earlier, ex-CM Amarinder Singh had met Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. However, Singh had denied that meeting BJP leaders were on his agenda during the Delhi visit. His meeting with HM Shah led to the rise in speculations that Amarinder Singh is going to join the BJP ahead of assembly polls next year.

After the 45-minute long meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, Singh said in a tweet that he had urged the central government to repeal the laws and end the deadlock between farmer unions and the government. He wrote, “Met Union Home Minister Amit Shah Ji in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers’ agitation against #FarmLaws & urged him to resolve the crisis urgently with repeal of the laws & guarantee MSP, besides supporting Punjab in crop diversification.”

The former CM of Punjab arrived in the national capital on Tuesday amid the ongoing turmoil in Punjab Congress.

Amarinder Singh’s resignation

On September 18, Captain Amarinder Singh had resigned from the post of the chief minister. He had said that he could not continue with the humiliation he was facing in the party. He had taken the decision after the party had called for a meeting of the Congress legislative party in Punjab without informing the CM, who is also the leader of the legislative party.

The political drama in Punjab started with the appointment of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the president of the Punjab Congress in July despite opposition from Amarinder Singh. Interestingly, unhappy with the selection of ministers in the new Charanjit Singh Channi government, Sidhu had resigned from the post of Pradesh Congress chief yesterday, which the party high command has not accepted yet.

Delhi: Aquila restaurant of the ‘No Saree’ controversy shut down by authorities for operating without a license and unhygienic conditions

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi: Aquila restaurant of the ‘No Saree’ controversy shut down by authorities for operating without a license and unhygienic conditions

The Aquila restaurant in Delhi’s upmarket Khel Gaon Marg, which was recently at the centre of a social media controversy after allegedly refusing entry to a saree-clad woman on the night of September 19, has been closed for licencing issues and operating under unhygienic conditions.

As per reports, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) issued a closure notice to the restaurant after it was found that it was operating without a proper trade licence. The notice, which was issued on September 24 mentioned that a health inspector found out the upscale Delhi restaurant has been operating under unhygienic conditions, without proper approvals from the civic authorities.

According to reports, the civic authorities are also mulling to impose a penalty against the eatery for flouting norms.

Confirming the news, Mukesh Suryan the SDMC mayor told PTI: “The Aquila restaurant was operating without a proper licence. It has now been shut after we issued a closure notice. We are also exploring other actions including imposing a penalty in accordance with the DMC (Delhi Municipal Corporation) Act against the eatery as it was functioning without approval from the civic body”.

The owner of the eatery has reportedly closed down the restaurant. He was quoted saying, “I have closed down the above-said trade immediately and I shall not run the same trade without SDMC Trade Licence under the unsanitary conditions from a health point of view and create a nuisance.”

The restaurant is located in South Delhi’s Ansal Plaza in Andrews Ganj. As per reports, an inspection by the Public Health Inspector had found that the restaurant was running under unhygienic conditions and some public land has also been encroached. The local Congress councillor Abhishek Dutt has proposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh upon any restaurant or hotel that denies entry to people wearing Indian clothes. He has also demanded a probe on how was the business running so far without a license.

Aquila restaurant in Delhi involved in the ‘No Saree’ controversy

Recently, the aforementioned restaurant had received a lot of flak after a 10-second video emerged on social media platform on September 20, in which a staff member of the restaurant was seen stopping a woman identified as Anita Choudhary from entering as she was wearing a saree. The staff member in the video was seen saying, “saree is not a smart casual” dress.

The footage drew strong criticism from across sections, and the restaurant started to get negative reviews on all platforms. On the other hand, some netizens stood by the restaurant and said being a private entity, they have the right to admission on their premises. The incident took place on the night of September 19.

On September 23, the National Commission for Women (NCW) had taken cognisance of the viral Delhi restaurant saree entry video and directed authorities to take action for the same. It had also directed the restaurant’s marketing and PR director to appear before it on September 28.

Aquila restaurant in Delhi responds, says guest created nuisance

A day after the social media uproar, Aquila had issued a statement on its Instagram profile. In the statement, the restaurant said that the 10-second video is just a snippet of what had happened on the day of the incident. They also published a couple of videos to show their side of the story and said that the lady was stopped for creating a nuisance.

In one of the videos, the patron who claimed she was stopped from entering the restaurant because of saree as attire was seen slapping one of the staff members of the restaurant.

The restaurant said that the excuse their staff member gave for not allowing them to enter was not in sync with the restaurant’s policies. However, they could not have allowed someone on the premises who had allegedly assaulted a staff member.

Counter statement by the patron

Later, a Twitter user named aryaminii had claimed that the lady in the saree was her mother. She claimed that her mother had only pushed the staff members and not ‘slapped’. She had also acknowledged that they had arrived late, past their reservation time and were told that no seats were available. She also alleged that her mother was confronted by ‘bouncers’ and was misbehaved with by staff.

Uttarakhand: Illegal mosque built near Tehri dam finally removed by authorities

OpIndia Staff
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Uttarakhand: Illegal mosque built near Tehri dam finally removed by authorities

On September 30, authorities finally demolished the illegal mosque in the Khand-Khala Koti Colony that was in close proximity to the Tehri Dam. Recently, OpIndia has covered the problems faced by the locals because of the mosque.

In a conversation with OpIndia, Akshat Biljwan, the activist who was leading the protests, said that the coverage caused a nationwide uproar over the illegal mosque, and finally, the administration decided to remove it.

Notably, since the report was published in OpIndia, hashtag #RemoveTehriMosque was trending on social media. The netizens echoed the demand of the locals to remove the illegal mosque and tagged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to take swift action in the case.

Today, Akshat called OpIndia and informed that the mosque was being demolished. He also shared videos of the demolition process in which the temporary structure that had been standing there for the last 20 years was being removed from the site. The structure was encroaching upon government land and locals have been objecting to it for a long time.

Akshat, in a video message, thanked all the Hindu organizations, including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Jagran Manch, for the support they had provided in the case. He also thanked the administration for taking action on the illegal mosque. In his message, Akshat said, “I would also like to thank the Muslim community in the region for the support they have provided in getting the illegal structure removed.”

The Tehri Dam illegal mosque case

In the early 2000s, during the construction, the company (JP) that was building the dam built a temporary mosque for the Muslim workers. After completing the project, the company and the workers went away, but the temporary mosque was not removed. Local leaders, Hindu organizations and locals have raised their voices against the mosque several times in the past, but no action was taken to remove the structure.

The locals claimed that on namaz days, the structure caused a large gathering in the area and several incidents of harassment of school and college going girls have been reported.

In the first week of September 2021, locals led by Akshat and Hindu organisations started a new phase of protests against the mosque. It is notable here that the district administration and the Tourism Department which owns the land had already carried out inspections and had ordered the removal of the illegal mosque. All other illegal structures in the area like temporary shops etc were already removed, but the illegal mosque kept standing.

Interestingly, the administration of the mosque filed an application with the Uttarakhand minority commission against the demand of the locals.

Acting on the plea, the minority commission summoned the local authorities, and the demolition order was derailed. On September 25, SDM met the protestors and promised that action would be taken as soon as possible as the Tourist Department, which owned the land, had deemed the structure illegal. However, SDM also stated the fact that as the minority commission was involved, the locals may have to wait for the structure to get removed.

After the report got published in OpIndia, the issue was raised on social media at the national level by the netizens. Questions were asked as to why the state minority commission is trying to intervene in the due process of removal of an illegal structure.

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