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Aditya Birla Group to invest Rs 700 crore in UP’s Gorakhpur, to set up paint manufacturing units

OpIndia Staff
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Aditya Birla Group to invest Rs 700 crore in UP’s Gorakhpur, to set up paint manufacturing units

As Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is rallying to make the state investment and business-friendly, the Aditya Birla Group is now set to pump in another Rs 700 crore.

Chief Minister Adityanath took to Twitter on Monday to make the announcement. As per the news report, the Aditya Birla group will be setting up industrial units to manufacture paint in Uttar Pradesh. 

Reportedly, the company had expressed a keen interest in investing in the state eight months ago. A proposal was made to sanction land in Gorakhpur’s Bhiti Rawat post which the representatives of the company met Gorakhpur District Magistrate K Vijayendra Pandian. 

The project which will span across 70 acres in Bhiti Rawat has been given a green signal by the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Authority (GIDA). The manufacturing unit will also provide employment to more than two thousand people. 

Additional support by the administration

The development fee has been waived off allowing the company to develop the land as per its requirements. The government has also assured support to ensure uninterrupted water and power supply.   

The administration is hopeful that the entire region will be uplifted with the arrival of the Aditya Birla group. Commenting on the development, District Magistrate K Vijayendra Pandian said, “A major investment of about Rs 700 crore will be made by the Aditya Birla Group in the Gida area. For this, the land will be made available by GIDA. We have spoken to the company representatives. All kinds of assistance will be provided to them. This investment will provide employment to many people directly and indirectly.”

From Uttar Pradesh to Uttam Pradesh

The development projects in Uttar Pradesh are progressing leaps and bounds under the Yogi Adityanath government. 

In what can be seen as a major accomplishment, the Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh has taken a steady lead, going on to become the first out of the 6 nodes or centres to get its first lease deed done in the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project.

The implementation of 21 investment-friendly schemes in Uttar Pradesh has now taken the state to the 2nd position in ‘Ease of Doing Business. Additionally, around 4 lakh youth were provided jobs by the government in the last 4 years. The state is also leading in sugarcane production, toilet construction (2.61 crores), Coronavirus testing and vaccination, the establishment of MSMEs, construction of expressways, new medical colleges and ‘one district one, product’ scheme.

Uttar Pradesh: Two men, Riyast and Javed, behead a 52-year-old, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Two men, Riyast and Javed, behead a 52-year-old, arrested

Delhi Police has arrested two men, Riyast Khan and Javed over allegedly beheading a 52-year-old man Shehzad over nonpayment of loan. On Tuesday, Shehzad’s family lodged a missing person’s report at Seemapuri police station. Three days later, his headless body was found in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. The police searched for his head but could not locate.

Subsequently, district police, special staff and AATS teams were deployed. CCTV footage and call records were recovered where Shehzad was last seen on Monday leading his house. During investigation, some names cropped up and Riyast Khan and Javed were arrested following raids. Khan is Shehzad’s neighbour and had known each other for years. They are both drivers by profession.

Khan, during interrogation, revealed that he had given a loan of Rs 25,000 to Shehzad last year when he had no work. When he asked Shehzad to return the money, he hurled abuses and threatened to hurt him and his family. Upset, Khan decided to take revenge.

However, a report by Amar Ujala states that the reason behind Shehzad’s beheading was his son Asif’s love marriage. The girl’s family was upset about the marriage. Earlier, too, an attempt was made to kill Shehzad, the report states.

On Monday, Khan asked Shehzad to go to Baghpat promising work and buying mangoes. Khan picked up Shehzad and called up Javed who drove them both to Baghpat. As per reports, police said that Khan also called up his nephew Nadeem and the men bought liquor which was also offered to Shehzad.

The group then reached a farm in Khekra, Baghpat where they attacked Shehzad with sharp weapons targeting his neck and abdomen. The accused, who were allegedly drunk at that time then proceeded to behead Shehzad. They left his body in the field and dumped his head at a canal in Muradnagar.

Shehzad’s head is still not recovered.

“Stories are based on conjectures and pre-conceived notions”: Govt of India denies allegations of spying on journalists using Pegasus software

OpIndia Staff
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“Stories are based on conjectures and pre-conceived notions”: Govt of India denies allegations of spying on journalists using Pegasus software

On Sunday evening, left-wing portal The Wire reported that the names of 40 Indian journalists are there in an alleged leaked list containing people who were under surveillance using Israeli spyware Pegasus. The 40 Indians are apparently among the thousands of people mentioned in the so-called leaked list, which were earlier reported by The Guardian.

Pegasus is developed by Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group, and reportedly it is only sold to governments. This software can infect iOS and Android devices remotely, and collect all kinds of data. Although The Wire didn’t mention it directly, they indirectly wanted to imply that as only governments can use the software, the Modi govt was spying on Indian journalists including Siddharth Varadarajan, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, M.K. Venu, Shishir Gupta, Rohini Singh etc.

The report included quotes from the allegedly targeted journalists who directly blamed the Modi government for ‘spying’ on them. However, The Wire, or other international publications, have not given any proof of this so-called leak. Moreover, none of the media houses reporting this ‘leak’ has said from where this data was leaked, which government was allegedly spying on those people. As the list apparently contains names from several countries, it is difficult to tell who was being spied on by which country, considering the list to be real.

After the reports of the alleged leak appeared in international media, the Indian government issued a statement responding to a questionnaire about the alleged leak. The statement says that “the story being crafted is one that is not only bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions. It seems you are trying to play the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury.”

The statement said that both in RTI replies and in the Parliament, the govt has clarified that there has been no unauthorised interception by Government agencies. “The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever,” the statement said.

The statement added that the Govt of India rubbishes reports in international media about snooping. “There is nothing new, these conjectures were answered earlier, and stories are based on conjectures and pre-conceived notions,” it said.

The NSO group also had refuted the claims by the Guardian report about the ‘leak’. The company had said that many of the claims made in the report are uncorroborated theories that raise serious doubts about the reliability of sources, as well as the basis of the story.

It had added, “NSO Group has good reason to believe that claims that you have been provided with, are based on misleading interpretation of leaked data from accessible and overt basic information, such as HLR Lookup services, which have no bearing on the list of the customers’ targets of Pegasus or any other NSO products.

Such services are openly available to anyone, anywhere, and anytime, and are commonly used by governmental agencies for numerous purposes, as well as by private companies worldwide. It is also beyond dispute that the data has many legitimate and entirely proper uses having nothing to do with surveillance or with NSO, so there can be no factual basis to suggest that a use of the data somehow equates to surveillance.”

NSO said that it does not operate the systems that it sells to vetted government customers, and does not have access to the data of its customers’ targets. It also said that due to contractual and national security considerations, NSO cannot confirm or deny the identity of their government customers.

Apart from India, other countries like Hungary, Morocco and Rwanda etc also have refuted the claim that the leaked list shows the names of persons who were under surveillance by the governments.

The full statement of the government of India is given below:

India is a robust democracy that is committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right. In furtherance of this commitment, it has also introduced the personal data protection bill 2019 and the information technology (intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code) rules 2021, to protect the personal data of individuals and to empower users of social media platforms.

The commitment to free speech as a fundamental right is the cornerstone of India’s democratic system. We have always strived to attain an informed citizenry with an emphasis on a culture of open dialogue.

However, the questionnaire sent to the government of India indicates that the story being crafted is one that is not only bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions. It seems you are trying to play the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury.

Considering the fact that answers to the queries posed have already been in public domain for a long time, it also indicates poorly conducted research and lack of due diligence by the esteemed media organisations involved.

Government of India’s response to a right to information application about the use of Pegasus has been prominently reported by media and is in itself sufficient to counter any malicious claims about the alleged association between the government of India and Pegasus.

India’s minister of electronics and IT has also spoken in detail, including in the parliament, that there has been no unauthorised interception by government agencies. It is important to note that government agencies have a well-established protocol for interception, which includes sanction and supervision from highly ranked officials in central and state governments, for clear stated reasons only in national interest.Advertisement

The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever. In the past, similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp by Indian state. Those reports also had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including WhatsApp in the Indian supreme court.

This news report, thus, also appears to be a similar fishing expedition, based on conjectures and exaggerations to malign the Indian democracy and its institutions.

In India there is a well established procedure through which lawful interception of electronic communication is carried out in order for the purpose of national security, particularly on the occurrence of any public emergency or in the interest of public safety, by agencies at the centre and states. The requests for these lawful interception of electronic communication are made as per relevant rules under the provisions of section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and section 69 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2000.

Each case of interception, monitoring, and decryption is approved by the competent authority ie the union home secretary. These powers are also available to the competent authority in the state governments as per IT (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.

There is an established oversight mechanism in the form of a review committee headed by the union cabinet secretary. In case of state governments, such cases are reviewed by a committee headed by the chief secretary concerned.

The procedure therefore ensures that any interception, monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource is done as per due process of law.

Uttar Pradesh: Zulfikar circulates porn video on WhatsApp with ‘Jai Bolenath’ text and audio, FIR registered

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Zulfikar circulates porn video on WhatsApp with ‘Jai Bolenath’ text and audio, FIR registered

A group of Muslim youths from Farukkabad, Uttar Pradesh, have been accused of circulating objectionable videos containing derogatory content against Hindu deities on WhatsApp groups.

According to Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma, a pornographic video was circulated on WhatsApp by a group run by some Muslim youths belonging to Farukkabad in Uttar Pradesh. In the Whatsapp group named ‘Masti’, the porn clip was posted with the voiceover and text saying “Jai Bholenath, Jai Bholenath”.

A few days later, the porn video reached Hindu outfits, who filed a case against the WhatsApp group admins in Fatehgarh police station. According to Swati Goel Sharma, a case has been registered against seven members for posting the video under Section 153A – for promoting enmity, Section 120B of IPC and IT Act. The police have named one Zulfikar as a key accused in the case.

Reportedly, Mohammed Zulfikar had allegedly shared the porn clip on the group, which other users on WhatsApp later circulated. Besides Zulfikar, a case has been registered against Tauseef, Adab, Javed Sanno, Mona, Taslim Ansari and Dabboo Khan for circulating the porn clip. Fatehpur Police posted a tweet that attempts are being made to arrest the accused persons after registering the case.

The Hindu Mahasabha members such as Rajesh Mishra, Deepak Dwivedi filed a case against all these accused. The Uttar Pradesh police have started an investigation, however, they are yet to make any arrest so far.

Why Left media and their hitjobs against India are part of a global conspiracy

Nupur J Sharma
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Why Left media and their hitjobs against India are part of a global conspiracy

There are people who love to claim that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy. The sense of self-grandeur is generally the bane of any man, but in the profession of journalism, being self-laudatory becomes almost an essential ingredient to being successful. Journalists love to believe that the weight of maintaining democracy in the country rests on their fragile shoulders. That the people, if not explicitly brainwashed into voting for the people they think deserve to be voted for, are falling prey to fascism, tyranny and any other word that can define the abject chaos that they wish to show the country in.

Democracy is a prisoner to the media, and no, neutrality is a myth that has been created to merely absolve the motivated, paid, compromised “4th pillar” that works for invisible puppeteers that afford them their farm houses, their 2 BHKs, their million dollar scams, their expensive wines and chartered planes.

No neutral media exists. There exists one section, a rather large section of media, that is paid by vested interest like George Soros, which hopes to affect regime change, that fancies itself as the harbingers of virtue simply because the white man told him he was (and gave him a lot of money to prove it).

Trusting the media is like trusting your dog to not eat the snow sugar covered donut that you have dangled in front of him. And these statements are not made in vacuum.

The influence of George Soros

Through his network of NGOs, George Soros has cultivated a class of intellectuals who work resolutely towards opposing the Indian state, especially the nationalist government led by PM Narendra Modi. It all started in 1995 when George Soros contributed the initial seed fund to set up the Media Development Investment Fund. 

The objective of the Soros-funded not-for-profit investment fund was to invest in ‘independent media’ in challenging countries with a history of media oppression. Currently, the Indian beneficiaries listed on the MDIF site are the far-left website Scroll and another website named Graam Vaani. 

Besides, the Open Society Foundation also funds the International Committee of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an international organisation with journalist affiliates worldwide, including India. 

Some of the Indian journalists that are members of the ICIJ are Ritu Sarin, Shyamlal Yadav and P Vaidyanathan Iyer of the Indian Express, Rakesh Kalshian – a former IANS editor who now works for German Channel Deutsche Welle (DW), Murali Krishnan and Yusuf Jameel of the Asian Age. ICIJ also has Syed Nazakat in its ranks, the founder and editor-in-chief of DataLEADS.

Besides funding media, the Open Society Foundation has also been a benefactor to left-leaning intellectuals who have constantly put out fake narratives against the current government. There are also some prominent names with extensive links to George Soros, but it is extremely unlikely that these connections will surprise anyone. Some of the most prominent among them are Harsh Mander, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Indira Jaising and Amartya Sen.

Author and journalist Basharat Peer, known for peddling pro-Pakistan narrative in Kashmir, has served as an Open Society Fellow from 2009 and 2010, which is considered a very influential post in the intellectual circles.

The antics of NewsClick

We can, of course, go on and on. We recall how even “journals of international repute”, like New York Times, is paid by China.

Only today, we realized that online portal NewsClick, in which Abhisar Sharma worked, got money from China. The Enforcement Directorate said that the investigation into the money laundering case against media portal ‘Newsclick’ has revealed that the promoters of the media outlet received nearly Rs 38 crores from entities which may be associated with the Communist Party of China

In February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate had raided premises and the residences of several officials and journalists associated with NewsClick, a news media portal is most famously known for peddling fake stories. The officials had also raided NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to foreign funding. 

Earlier, OpIndia had published a detailed report on foreign funding received by NewsClick and its links with Gautam Navlakha. It was revealed that both Purkayastha and Navlakha were directors of a company called Startacus Software Private Limited. The ED had alleged that funds Purkayastha received for opening a company with Navlakha. Gautam Navlakha was an ‘Independent Partner” of PPK Newsclick Studio LLP.

And these are the people we are expected to believe.

The Global forces behind Indian media is a cause of concern

The founding-editor of The Wire, a leftist propaganda outlet, is an American, Siddharth Varadarajan. Moreover, Varadarajan is also a member of the core group of South Asia Media Defenders Network (SAMDEN), which is a part of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

CHRI had received Rs. 2,29,500 on the 20th of September, 2019 from the United States’ Department of State for the purpose of “Advocacy and Outreach Programme for Detainees in the North Eastern States of India”. The CHRI has also received huge amounts of money from the Oak Foundation, a shady globalist organization, among others.

Kashmir Police has recently served The Wire with a show-cause notice for peddling fake news and engaging in rumour mongering. The Kashmir Police also accused the leftist portal of indulging in “misrepresentation of facts, sensationalism, concocted mixing of facts with opinion of some unknown experts”. The portal was also accused of engaging in a media trial.

The Wire, in the past, has labeled Kashmir as ‘Indian occupied Kashmir’. It rectified its conduct after outrage. Journalists with The Wire have also been booked for spreading fake news and communal hate. They have also attempted to invent hate crimes out of thin air over random crimes.

It is a cause of concern for a variety of reasons, but mostly because western backed media outlets serve as the propaganda wing of western countries. For instance, their role in spreading the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) lie regarding Saddam Hussein, in order to justify USA’s illegal war against Iraq cannot be ignored.

And their claims of supporting ‘independent media’ cannot be bought in good faith either. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been languishing in prison and being persecuted for the sole reason that he exposed war crimes committed by the USA.

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson was being spied on by the NSA because he has become the most influential journalist criticising US President Joe Biden. Of course, there has been an official denial of the same but the fact has been confirmed by other media outlets as well.

The regime change operation against India

Given the links of Indian media to the American Globalist regime, it is worth noting how the US Government has conducted itself with regards to India in recent times. The Biden administration blocked raw materials for Indian vaccine manufacturers, thus delaying vaccine production in India, which would directly impact Narendra Modi’s reelection chances in 2024.

Efforts were made to paint Narendra Modi singularly as the ‘big bad guy’ of the Covid-19 pandemic despite the fact that India has fared better than most western countries, including the USA, despite the disastrous second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Then there is Twitter which has been openly defying Indian laws, censoring political opinion that do not align with the Left and locking the accounts of Union Ministers. All of this points towards only one thing, that there are greater forces at play that want to oust Narendra Modi from the PM’s chair.

In this context, the alignment of Indian media, especially digital media, with western counterparts appears to be in concert with the general trend that has been observed. That western media is in the pockets of the American political establishment is no secret, the whole Russian Collusion Hoax was invented and propagated so as to undermine President Trump’s authority because he was an outsider.

Consistently, it appears that the media is being weaponised by the US establishment to force the Indian Government to compromise on matters that are considered essential for the Americans. Thus, between now and 2024, it is only to be expected that a lot of hitjobs will follow in order to secure the interests of the American ruling class.

It also means one thing, that Prime Minister Modi is not only dealing with a hostile media in India but also the hostility of the western press. It is not just The Wire and Scroll but also the New York Times and the Washington Post and the BBC and all the assorted consortium of sociopathic warmongers. And that is what the Prime Minister has to deal with here.

China reports the first fatality due to Monkey B Virus, veterinary doctor was first to get infected while working on primates

OpIndia Staff
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China reports the first fatality due to Monkey B Virus, veterinary doctor was first to get infected while working on primates

After the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, China has reported its first death due to Monkey B Virus (BV).

According to the reports, a Beijing-based veterinary doctor succumbed to the virus. The deceased was also the country’s first human infection case with Monkey B Virus.

The 53-year-old male veterinary doctor, who worked researching on non-human primates, showed early symptoms of nausea and vomiting. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the vet began to show symptoms a month after dissecting two dead monkeys in early March.

As he showed signs, the vet took treatment in several hospitals. However, the treatment failed, and he eventually died on May 27. The CDC journal said that there was no evidence of human fatality of BV infections in China before, however, the vet’s death has marked the first human infection case with BV identified in China.

Meanwhile, his family members and contacts have tested negative for the infection and are reportedly safe for now.

The Monkey B virus, first detected in 1931, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic found in macaque monkeys of the genus Macaca. The Monkey B virus can be spread through direct contact with the infected money or through the exchange of bodily secretions.

The death rate of the virus is close to 50 per cent. Since the identification of the virus in 1932, there have been 50 documented human B virus infection cases.

Islamists outrage after liberals say RSS is inspired by Taliban, accuse them of maligning the Jihadi terror group

OpIndia Staff
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Islamists outrage after liberals say RSS is inspired by Taliban, accuse them of maligning the Jihadi terror group

Following the death of Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui at the hands of the Taliban, Indian liberals began drawing parallels between the Islamic terror outfit and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

It must be mentioned that Siddiqui faced criticism after his death for being insensitive to human emotions during his lifetime. The photojournalist had clicked pictures of burning funeral pyres of Covid-19 victims and also put them up for sale on Alamy. The Indian liberals, who were rejoicing the death of journalist Rohit Sardana, soon began accusing the ‘right-wing sanghis’ of tarnishing the image of Danish Siddiqui. As such, they started comparing the Taliban with the RSS.

Such a frivolous comparison was however unacceptable to their Muslim counterparts. The Islamists felt aghast at the thought of liberals associating the Sangh with their ‘Ummah’ and ‘Taliban.’ Given that maligning the Taliban is blasphemous as per their beliefs, the Islamists took to Twitter to express their outrage. When ‘liberal’ Joydas alleged that Taliban inspired the ‘right-wing scums’, an aggrieved Islamist (@OpusOfAli) asked, “Why the Muslims always have to be the villian?”

Screengrab of the tweet by Opus of Ali

Hanan, who has been bleeding for J&K since August 2019, claimed that comparing the Taliban with the RSS was wrong. “It is very funny because RSS is older than Taliban. If anything, it is the Taliban that would have taken some lessons from RSS not vice versa. On a more serious note, such parallels are drawn to show that the standard of any “evil” would always be Muslim,” he lamented.

Screengrab of the tweet by Hanan

When Congress worker Srivatsa tried to earn liberal brownie points by likening Afghan Taliban to ‘Indian Taliban’, Islamic terror sympathiser Sarfy tweeted, “The only ironic difference being that Afghans didn’t vote for the Afghan Taliban. They are rogue, created as a tool by the US against the Soviet Union. RSS is mainstream & gets celebrated & glorified. This irony is lost on us.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Sarfy

Popular Islamist Sidrah was visibly enraged and corrected Srivatsa immediately. She stated, “Hindutva majoritarianism and supremacy. Call it what it is. Please.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Sidrah

Twitter account ‘Muslim’ pleaded, “Why the false equivalence? It’s the Hindutva Terrorist who are rejoicing. Say as it is.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Muslim

Another Islamist, Rehman, wrote, “RSS was founded in 1925, Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. Taliban was emerged in 1994, maybe it’s the other way around. Hindu liberals should learn to criticise their scum without bringing in Muslims, Taliban, Saudi.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Rehman

While reacting to the tweet by ‘liberal’ Joydas, Islamist (@Ahmed_Brilliant) claimed, “Lesson 101: How to whitewash your own by drawing a false equivalence with Muslims.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Ahmed_Brilliant

One Talhan Hussain alleged that every Sanghi was borne out of a liberal father. With that assumption in mind, he slammed Joydas and wrote, “Taliban didn’t inspire RW, you guys enabled them.. Shut the eff up.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Talha Hussain

Islamist, who goes by the username @PrinceOfDhamp, insinuated that Veer Savarkar was somehow the one who inspired the Taliban to become radical. In a desperate attempt at sarcasm, he wrote, “Taliban (1994) invested heavily in Science, created time machine went back to Savarkar then influenced his thoughts. Savarkar formed RW organisation (1924) which inspired today’s RW Scums. Phew! Finally connected the dots.”

Screengrab of the tweet by Dhamp

As evident from the above tweets, Islamists in India were angry at the liberal community for tarnishing the image of the terror outfit Taliban. By drawing a false equivalence between the timelines of RSS and Taliban and eliminating the role of the latter in the death of Danish Siddiqui, Islamists have tried to somehow portray the ‘right wing ecosystem’/ Sangh/ RSS as the ‘greater evil.’ Through bizarre analogies, and the subtle art of humanisation, Islamists have been able to help terror outfits get a new brand makeover of sorts.

It is interesting to point out that several left-wing “liberal-secular” journalists paid tribute to Danish Siddiqui without mentioning the Taliban in their condolence message. Rana Ayyub spoke about Danish Siddiqui and his work revealing how he had a passion for photography. She also shared an image in which she was seen sitting next to the deceased journalist. The tone and tenor of the message, however, were rather perplexing. It appeared as if the photojournalist died as a consequence of some natural disease and was not murdered by Islamic terrorists. A similar strategy was employed by Manisha Pande from Newslaundry, Stuti Mishra, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Yogendra Yadav, and Ravish Kumar. It is not far-fetched to assume that it was perhaps the fear of Islamists that prevented them from calling a spade – a spade.

Fact Check: Aam Aadmi Party leader Mahesh Savani posts images from Pakistan to show Gujarat in poor light

OpIndia Staff
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Fact Check: Aam Aadmi Party leader Mahesh Savani posts images from Pakistan to show Gujarat in poor light

Surat-based businessman Mahesh Savani, who had joined Aam Aadmi Party a few weeks ago, was caught peddling fake news against the Gujarat government on Facebook.

On Sunday, AAP leader Mahesh Savani took to Facebook to share an image of power lines supported by a tree instead of electric poles and claimed that the Gujarat government has failed to repair the power infrastructure in the state, two months after Cyclone Tauktae hit the state.

Taking a dig at the Gujarat model and PM Modi’s vision of ‘Digital India’, the Aam Aadmi Party leader peddled disinformation, saying that the people of Gujarat have become self-dependant and repaired the power supply on their own by using a tree.

Image Source: nanditathhakur




However, in reality, the image shared by Savani is not related to India, instead, the image was captured in Pakistan.

A few weeks back, the same image was posted on Twitter by a Pakistani journalist named Khalid Mahmood Khalid. According to Khalid, the image was taken from Sindh province in Pakistan.

In his tweet in Urdu, Khalid mocked the Pakistani government, saying, “The Sindh government has introduced cheap electricity poles with ancient technology. Note: There is no risk of electric shock from this pole. Government of Sindh is at the forefront of public service”.

In his hurry to propagate lies against the Gujarat government and show the country in a poor light, AAP leader Mahesh Savani resorted to peddling blatant fake news.

Who is Mahesh Savani?

Recently, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had welcomed Surat businessman Mahesh Savani into Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Gujarat state assembly elections likely to be held in December 2022. The move, however, garnered intense criticism as Savani, a top realtor from Surat, was arrested in 2020 on allegations of extortion and kidnapping.

Savani, who also owns several educational institutes and is also an alleged social worker, was accused of kidnapping Gautam Patel (65) from his house and demanding Rs 19 crore for his release. 

Patel and his business partner, who is now deceased, had allegedly borrowed money from Savani for an infrastructure project. Patel, who was liable to pay Rs 3 crore, could not do so, hence offered 60 per cent share in a plot of land. However, Savani could not recover his money and allegedly hatched a plan to kidnap Patel when he arrived in India for his son’s marriage.

Patel’s kidnapping by Savani and his aides was reportedly captured in the former’s CCTV footage installed at his residence. 

CJI Ramana says 45 million pending cases do not indicate whether Judiciary is functioning poorly, invokes Shri Krishna as a mediator

OpIndia Staff
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CJI Ramana says 45 million pending cases do not indicate whether Judiciary is functioning poorly, invokes Shri Krishna as a mediator

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India NV Ramana has said that the number of pending cases in Indian Courts do not determine whether the Judiciary is functioning properly or otherwise. According to him, the analysis that puts the figure at 45 million cases is also unfair and an exaggeration.

CJI NV Ramana made the comments at the India-Singapore Mediation Summit 2021. He said, “The often quoted statistic that pendency in Indian Courts has reached 45 million cases, which is perceived as the inability of the Indian judiciary to cope with the caseload is an overstatement and an uncharitable analysis.”

“Pendency cannot be a useful indicator of how well or poorly a system is doing,” he added. The CJI also said that “when things go wrong, the judiciary will stand by them”.

People, however, seemed to disagree with the CJI. They appeared to be rather angry with the sentiments expressed in the comment.

CJI NV Ramana also said, “People are confident that they will get relief and justice from the judiciary. It gives them the strength to pursue a dispute. They know that when things go wrong, the judiciary will stand by them. The Indian Supreme Court is the guardian of the largest democracy.”

“The Constitution gives wide ranging powers and jurisdiction to do complete justice between the parties to bring to life the motto of the Indian Supreme Court, ‘Yato Dharmastato Jaya’, that is, ‘Where there is dharma, there is victory’,” he added.

According to the CJI, the Mahabharata provides an early example of mediation “where Lord Krishna attempted to mediate the dispute between the Pandavas and Kauravas”. He also blamed “luxurious mediation” for the pending cases “where parties with resources attempt to frustrate the judicial process and delay it by filing numerous proceedings across the judicial system.” He said that the Covid-19 pandemic has added to the Judiciary’s woes as well.

Fact Check: Viral message claims Cadbury Chocolates contain beef, company says its products in India are vegetarian

OpIndia Staff
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Fact Check: Viral message claims Cadbury Chocolates contain beef, company says its products in India are vegetarian

A message is going viral on social media which claims that Cadbury chocolates contain beef. A screenshot from a website is being circulated on social media platforms that says that if a product contains gelatine as an ingredient, that means it was derived from beef. Several people shared this screenshot to claim that Cadbury products sold in India contain beef. But the company says that the message is misleading as it does not relate to India, and its products sold in India do not contain any beef or any other meat-based ingredients.

Many people also tagged the official handles of the company to clarify on the issue, and the company replied to them informing that screenshot shared by them is not related to Mondelez products manufactured in India. Mondelez International is the American company that owns the British company Cadbury now.

“All the products manufactured and sold in India are 100% vegetarian. The green dot on the wrapper signifies that,” the company stressed.

The company also requested people to verify facts related to their products before sharing them further. “As you can well imagine, negative posts like these, damages consumer confidence in our well-respected and loved brands,” the company responded to Twitter users who were spreading the viral claim.

Although the screenshot is indeed from a Cadbury website, the company is right when it says that it is not related to products sold in India. The screenshot contains the URL of the site, which is Cadbury.com.au, which means it is the website of the Australia unit of the company, as .au is the country code top-level domain for Australia.

The webpage shared in the viral message is available at the Halal section of the website, which means that it is talking about products sold in Australia.

This is not the first time the confectionary company had to respond to rumours about the ingredients of its products. People keep alleging from time to time that its popular chocolates contain beef. However, the packaging of its products contains a green dot, which means that it does not use any non-vegetarian ingredients. They only use plant-based and milk-based ingredients.

For example, the ingredients of Dairy Milk are listed as Sugar, Milk Solids, Cocoa Butter, Emulsifiers, apart from added flavours.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the products of Cadbury in India do not contain gelatine derived from gelatine, the viral message used information from Cadbury in Australia to claim it relates to India.

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