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‘Crude’ murder of BJP worker who was close to Arjun Singh’s son: A video, TMC conspiracy theories and police ‘probing all angles’

OpIndia Staff
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‘Crude’ murder of BJP worker who was close to Arjun Singh’s son: A video, TMC conspiracy theories and police ‘probing all angles’

The State of West Bengal had witnessed widespread chaos and violence, following the Assembly elections in May this year. During the Trinamool Congress sponsored carnage, several BJP workers were attacked, intimidated, and killed. One such tragic story was that of a 28-year-old BJP worker named Joy Prakash Yadav, who was murdered during a crude bomb attack, reported The Indian Express.

Yadav lived in a small hut in Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. He was an active BJP worker and even had a lotus symbol inscribed on the walls of his house. Yadav worked at a real estate company alongside his father Mishri Lal Yadav in Rajarhat. He was close to the BJP and was friends with Pawan Singh, the son of saffron party leader Arjun Singh. On June 6 this year, two unidentified men barged into the house when the family was having lunch.

Joy Prakash Yadav had a heated argument with the two men before he was killed after a crude bomb hit his head. Prior to his murder, one of the men could be heard as saying, “Forget police…. You are doing too much BJP, BJP… leave it.” The incident was recorded on camera by Yadav’s 17-year-old niece, Swapna. During the deadly attack on the victim, his mother Rajmati Devi too suffered from hearing loss.

While recounting the fateful day, Swapna said, “I recorded the men on my phone… I ran behind them but they escaped.”. Following the incident, the State unit of the BJP had condemned the attack on Twitter. “Violence continues after the elections in West Bengal! TMC miscreants bombed and killed BJP activist Joy Prakash Yadav… The death of Democracy in Bengal, freedom strangled.”

FIR lodged, 2 accused arrested

The police have so far arrested two people, namely Tuntun Choudhury, and Animesh Pal. TMC workers Chandan Singh and Lallan Singh have also been booked. Tuntun is said to be close to both BJP and TMC and has been involved in past bombing incidents. The victim’s family emphasised that the mastermind behind the attack was a TMC worker.

A First Information Report (DIR) was lodged against the accused under Indian Penal Code Sections 34 (furtherance of common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder),307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing hurt), and the Explosive Substances Act. Joy Prakash Yadav is now survived by his parents, wife Sangita, and children Anuj and Anushka.

Family debunks police claims of ‘land dispute’

JCP (Barrackpore) Dhrubajyoti De remarked, “We haven’t found anything political so far, it could be linked to a land dispute.” Another official, probing the case, also claimed that Yadav’s murder could be related to a land dispute. He alleged that the victim’s house was built of railway land and that several houses were constructed and given out for rent. He further claimed that the altercation was about constructing a house on the land.

On being informed about the political angle in the video recorded by Swapna, the official then claimed to probe all angles. However, the family of the victim insisted that the case had nothing to do with a land dispute. They added, “You can ask anyone… my son was not into any illegal things. He was a simple family man. Who will look after his two children now?” The Indian Express reported that Arjun Singh had handed ₹5 lacs to the family of the victim.

TMC desperately tries to weave conspiracy theories

In order to portray the murder of Joy Prakash Yadav as an ‘internal conspiracy’ by the BJP, the TMC claimed that accused Tuntun Choudhury was close to Pawn Singh’s father Arjun Singh. Pawan Singh had however rubbished such claims. He said, “There are thousands of followers of Arjun Singh, doesn’t mean he has got anything to do with this incident. Post Assembly by-elections in 2019, Tuntun had rejoined the TMC and is close to its workers Chandan Singh and Lallan Singh. Tuntun was used in this murder to fulfil both personal and political grudges. We have been following up with police but the investigation has shown no big development.”

NHRC makes damning disclosures on post-poll violence in West Bengal

On Wednesday (July 14), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) submitted its final report on Bengal post-poll violence to the Calcutta High Court. The statutory public body said in its report that, after visiting 311 spots in 20 days and carrying out an extensive inquiry in the matter, the seven-member committee constituted to probe the post-poll violence in West Bengal, concluded that the current situation of the state, is a manifestation of ‘Law of Ruler’, instead of ‘Rule of Law’. It added that the loss of faith in state administration among victims is very evident.

Attaching details of the same, the NHRC report stated that it collected a whopping 1979 number of complaints from 23 districts where incidents of violence had taken place post-Mamata Banerjee’s May 2 win. Most complaints are from Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Bardhaman, North 24 Parganas and Kolkata, said that NHRC reports adding that most of the complaints related to rape, molestation, and vandalism and were received through local sources in West Bengal while the team was camping there. The statutory body added that a list of 57 complaints related to women was received from the National Women Commission.

A bullet killed Danish Siddiqui, not the Taliban? Ravish Kumar writes a Facebook post, does an NDTV video, but forgets the truth

OpIndia Staff
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A bullet killed Danish Siddiqui, not the Taliban? Ravish Kumar writes a Facebook post, does an NDTV video, but forgets the truth

On Saturday, NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar took to Facebook to express his condolence to Danish Siddiqui, a Reuters photojournalist killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The photojournalist was killed in Kandahar province while he was on a reporting assignment embedded with Afghan security forces.

In his tribute to Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, the controversial news anchor NDTV news anchor Ravish Kumar saluted the work of acclaimed photojournalist and claimed that he took Indian journalism to a bold stage. Calling him a martyr, Ravish Kumar hailed him for taking the difficult front.

The far-left ‘journalist’ also added that Danish Siddiqui did his work on the frontlines even as journalists in the country reported the ongoing events in Afghanistan from their homes.

Interestingly, at the end of his post, Ravish Kumar said he wished thousands of curses to the “gun which fired the bullets” that killed the Indian photojournalist. Taking it a step further, Ravish Kumar claimed that Danish Siddiqui was killed in a crossfire between the two sides that fought in Afghanistan. However, he did not mention a single word against the Taliban, which actually killed him.

Image Source: Ravish Kumar/Facebook

Ravish Kumar also expressed his tribute to the deceased photojournalist on his daily primetime show on NDTV. Bidding adieu to one of his colleagues, Ravish Kumar yet again claimed that Danish Siddiquie was killed in a cross-firing incident, however, failed to mention that it was the Taliban that had shot him dead.

Essentially, just like his “liberal-secular” friends, Ravish Kumar pushed the blame on the “bullet” that killed Danish Siddiqui and reduced his death as a “cross-firing” incident. In both his post and show, Ravish Kumar failed to display his moral fortitude to mention that he was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Instead, the blame was put on the “bullet” even as he tried to whitewash the incident by claiming that he was killed in a cross-firing incident.

No, Ravish Kumar – Danish Siddiqui was not killed by a bullet, he was murdered by Taliban

It is perplexing to see not a single journalist, who claims to speak truth to power, have mustered the courage to point their fingers towards the Islamic terror group that claimed Siddiqui’s life. Ravish Kumar is no exception.

It seems that Ravish Kumar, who shows all his bravado on TV too has no nerve to call out the Islamic group Taliban for the cold-blooded murder of one of their own.

Journalists in India have often acted as the ideologues of Jihadis, giving them cover, or at least attempting to give them cover, when their crimes are exposed for the world to see. Even during the Delhi anti-Hindu riots, Ravish Kumar was at the forefront of trying to blame Hindus instead of analysing the riots impartially.

Canards propped up by him about the identity of the shooter who fired at Delhi Police officials during the anti-Hindu riots were conclusively debunked when the Delhi Crime Branch arrested Mohammad Shahrukh from Uttar Pradesh. It is pertinent to note that Ravish had, at the time, cleverly tried to portray that the Delhi riots shooter might be one ‘Anurag Mishra’ and not Mohammad Shahrukh as has been told by the Police and widely reported.

It is not just Ravish Kumar, the left-liberal coterie, which often proclaims itself to be the champions of truth-seeking, too have gone silent over the killing of the photojournalist. Instead of outraging against the Islamic terror group, the liberals have used his photography to make a political point and have behaved like Siddiqui died a natural death.

Since his death, the truth-seeking ‘journalists’ have not named the Taliban for the killing of Danish Siddiqui, instead, they have attempted to whitewash the incident and deflect the narrative by preaching about how one should take inspiration from Danish Siddiqui to question those in power.

UP Congress workers thrash unemployed graduates from Rajasthan for protesting outside Priyanka Gandhi’s office: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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UP Congress workers thrash unemployed graduates from Rajasthan for protesting outside Priyanka Gandhi’s office: Read details

Congress party workers in Uttar Pradesh thrashed several computer graduates from Rajasthan for protesting outside Gandhi-scion Priyanka Gandhi’s office, demanding the regularisation of jobs.

According to the reports, several computer graduates had travelled from Rajasthan to meet Priyanka Gandhi at her office in Lucknow on Saturday. These graduates, some of whom have been unemployed for years, have been demanding regular jobs. These computer graduates have also rejected the Rajasthan government’s decision to hire them on a contractual basis.

As they protested outside Priyanka Gandhi’s office, they were reportedly assaulted by her supporters. As a result, many of the unemployed graduates sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital.

During the protests, the graduates recalled how Priyanka Gandhi had criticized the Uttar Pradesh government for the recruitment of graduates on a contractual basis, however, she has been in favour of the Rajasthan government’s to implement the same hiring policy.

“I and my unemployed colleagues were beaten by Uttar Pradesh Congress workers,” Upen Yadav, one of the protestors said.

In June, the graduates had staged a massive dharna outside the Congress party office in New Delhi, lashing out at the Ashok Gehlot government over its proposal to recruit computer graduates through contractual jobs.

According to the protestors, the contractual recruitment would make them vulnerable to termination in the future. They said that the government would pay around Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per month as per contracts, whereas those in regularised jobs are being paid at Rs. 20,000 rupees per month.

Rajasthan has more than 3 lakh computer graduates. Nearly 20,000 of these graduates work in the private sector in various parts of the country. However, due to the lack of government jobs, especially in the IT/computer sector, most of them are unemployed or working in other fields.

Oxford Hinduphobia row: Rashmi Samant vindicated as internal investigation confirms how she was vilified, harassed and forced to resign

OpIndia Staff
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Oxford Hinduphobia row: Rashmi Samant vindicated as internal investigation confirms how she was vilified, harassed and forced to resign

Months after the first female Indian President-elect of Oxford University Student’s Union, Rashmi Samant, was vilified and forced to resign from her post, an internal investigation by the university has vindicated her. The lawyer of Samant, Adithya Srinivasan, took to Twitter to inform that an internal investigation by Oxford University has confirmed that Samant was indeed a victim of bullying and vilification.

In a series of tweets on Friday (July 16), advocate Adithya Srinivasan informed that an investigation has been conducted by the Oxford University on accusations of harassment levelled by Rashmi Samant. “I am delighted that a decision has been reached, and I am pleased with the outcome of the investigation,” he emphasised.

He further added, “The past few months have no doubt been emotionally wrecking for Rashmi Samant and I have nothing but admiration for her grit and perseverance throughout the process. For those asking for more details, I’m afraid we’re precluded from saying anything more at this stage. Personally, I think this is unfortunate given that Rashmi was subjected to a very public humiliation.”

Victim of online harassment remembers her grandfather

Rashmi Samant expressed her gratitude by paying homage to her grandfather, who passed on July 16 four years ago. She wrote, “16th July 2021 marks four years since my grandfather breathed his last in my arms. He was a special man, and we were best of buddies. He fought the good fight and never gave up, come hell or high water.”

The Oxford University student added, “He was born into extreme poverty post-independence and had to beat some extreme odds to survive and build a decent life. The last few months have been traumatic for me. But putting my problems in perspective to his sufferings as a young boy helped me march onwards. I find it rather poetic that I received the much-awaited decision on my grandfather’s barsi (death anniversary). If my grandfather could make it through so much difficulty, I could definitely take on a few bullies who took literal pleasure in harassing, hounding & humiliating me, my family, my faith.”

The Oxford Hinduphobia row

Rashmi Samant was hounded by leftists and anti-Hindu propagandists after becoming the first female Indian president-elect of Oxford University Student’s Union on February 11. She was forced to resign within days after being abused, bullied, and targeted for being a Hindu and over her views against British colonisation.

In a coordinated attack, her old social media posts were dredged up, accusing her of being racist, anti-semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic. Besides this, Rashmi was also targeted for being a Hindu. One of the faculty members in Oxford – Dr Abhijit Sarkar had even dragged Rashmi’s parents into the controversy, attacking them for having a Lord Shri Ram display picture on their social media accounts while claiming that Rashmi’s student council elections were funded by Prime Minister Modi.

He had even accused Rashmi of being Islamophobic by alleging that she came from coastal Karnataka, which the faculty member termed as “a bastion of Islamophobic far-right forces”. Following the controversy, netizens from across the world had demanded the dismissal of Hinduphobic faculty AbhijitSarkar and had trended hashtag #DismissAbhijitSarkar on Twitter. The Union External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar also raised the matter in the Upper House of Parliament.

‘Nobody should trust Wikipedia’, warns its co-founder Larry Sanger, says the site is taken over by leftists who reject content that doesn’t fit their agenda

OpIndia Staff
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‘Nobody should trust Wikipedia’, warns its co-founder Larry Sanger, says the site is taken over by leftists who reject content that doesn’t fit their agenda

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, has said that nobody should trust the crowd-sourced online encyclopaedia as it is run by left-leaning volunteers. He said that the site is no longer trustworthy as it does allow content that does not fit the agenda of leftists, and therefore people can’t get a complete view on the topics.

Sanger, who had co-founded Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales in 2001, said that the platform has betrayed its original mission by only reflecting the views of the ‘establishment.’ In an interview with LockdownTV, Sanger said that he agrees with the view that there are teams of Democratic party leaning editors who remove content that they don’t like.

Larry Sanger said that Wikipedia lost its neutral nature in 2009, before which editors from all ideologies will debate equally before deciding what should be published on the platform. He said that the recent issues from Covid to Biden, articles on everything on Wikipedia has become partisan, particularly supporting the Biden administration in such issues, and blacking out information that does now show the Democrats in positive colour.

The Wikipedia Co-founder gave examples of articles on Joe Biden and his Hunter Biden, where important details about them are completely missing. The article on the US President does not mention most of the criticisms against him, and it completely whitewashed the Ukraine scandal. Sanger said that the para on Ukraine in the page reads like a defence counsel’s brief. The concerned section in the page says “no evidence was produced of any wrongdoing by the Bidens”, and that “Trump and his allies falsely accused Biden” of involvement in Ukraine to protect Hunter Biden.

The Wikipedia page on Hunter Biden is even more shocking, as it does not mention anything about the content found in his laptop. The article does say no evidence of wrongdoing was found “after the seizure of a laptop purportedly belonging to Biden”, but does not mention other explosive content found in the laptop, which was left by Hunter at a computer repair shop and forgot to pick it later.

In October last year, The New York Post had published emails retrieved from the laptop, relating to Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine and the links to his father. Twitter and Facebook, run by the same left-leaning propagandists, had blocked the News York Post article, preventing people from sharing it. Similarly, Wikipedia is also completely blocking out any information about the contents of the laptop.

Larry Sanger said that Wikipedia’s coverage of Covid-19 is also very biased, as they just reproduce the view of the World Economic Council or World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation, the CDC and various other establishment mouthpieces like Anthony Fauci.

He also gave the example of Wikipedia articles on eastern medicine, which are biased as they basically call the ancient medicine systems quackery in dismissive, quite judgmental language.

Showing how biased Wikipedia has become, Larry said that major media houses like Daily Mail and Fox News are blacklisted by it. This means if something is covered by these published publications but not by the leftist media houses, that can’t be published on Wikipedia.

Larry said that Wikipedia has become just like any other left-leaning media house. ‘There are a lot of people who would be highly motivated to go in and make the article more politically neutral but they’re not allowed to,’ Sanger said. He added, ‘If only one version of the facts is allowed then that gives a huge incentive to wealthy and powerful people to seize control of things like Wikipedia in order to shore up their power. And they do that.’

He informed that there are now big companies like Wiki PR that employ people to write on Wikipedia, but such writers and editors don’t reveal that they are associated with such companies. People are spending to money to make changes to Wikipedia articles because there’s a very big, nasty, complex game being played behind the scenes to make the article say what somebody wants them to say, he said.

Larry Sanger had left Wikipedia over differences with co-founder Jimmy Wales over how to run the website, and has since become a staunch critic of it for its left-leaning bias. Earlier he had said that Wikipedia has become a huge moral hazard, saying that it has turned into a ‘monocultural establishment organ of propaganda’.

Saket Gokhale voluntarily deletes tweets he vowed not to voluntarily delete, all tweets on Lakshmi Puri removed: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Saket Gokhale voluntarily deletes tweets he vowed not to voluntarily delete, all tweets on Lakshmi Puri removed: Details

Rahul Gandhi fanboy Saket Gokhale has deleted the tweets where he made unfounded allegations against Lakshmi Puri, wife of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Saket Gokhale alleged that Puri bought a house worth $2.5 million in Switzerland, for which the couple did not have enough legitimate sources of income. The house was purchased in 2006.

Saket gokhale
Source: Twitter

When one clicks on the link to the tweet, it says that the tweet does not exist. Intriguingly, Saket Gokhale had told the Court that he would not voluntarily delete the thread.

Saket Gokhale
Source: Twitter

A quick search on Twitter shows that he appears to have deleted all his tweets on Lakshmi Puri.

Source: Twitter

The Delhi High Court had heavily criticised Gokhale and directed him to delete the tweets against Lakhsmi Puri. The Court has asked, “So any Tom, Dick and Harry can write anything vilification against anyone on the internet”.

During the hearing, the Delhi High Court asked Congress supporter Saket Gokhale how could he vilify people as he did with regards to Lakshmi M Puri. In its scathing observation, the Court slammed Saket Gokhale, saying that he must have gone to them to make necessary clarifications before he got to the public domain if he had any problem with public functionaries.

Lakshmi Puri has served as Assistant Secretary-General at United Nations, Deputy Executive Director at United Nations Women, and Ambassador of India to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is currently working as a commentator on National and International Affairs.

Before suing Gokhale, Puri had said, “Get your facts right, Saket Gokhale & there is no ‘mystery’. I was an International Civil Servant from 2002 to Feb ‘18. Drew a tax free UN salary of over US $200,000 annually when I bought the apartment in Geneva.”

Elgar Parishad case: NIA court denies bail to accused Anand Teltumbde, says charges against him prima facie true

OpIndia Staff
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Elgar Parishad case: NIA court denies bail to accused Anand Teltumbde, says charges against him prima facie true

A special NIA court in Mumbai dismissed the bail application filed by activist Anand Teltumbde, who was arrested in connection with Elgar Parishad-Maoist links. The court said the charges against him were prima facie true.

Special NIA Judge Kothalikar observed that Anand Teltumbde has failed in offering an explanation as to why his name appears as a convener on the book or pamphlet titled ‘Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerana Abhiyan’, which was printed prior to the programme on December 31, 2017.

In its observation, the court said it did not find the accusation of Teltumbde’s involvement not “inherently improbable” or “wholly unbelievable”, and prima facie he was involved in furthering the activities of the banned organisation. The NIA had earlier claimed that Teltumbde was an active member of the proscribed group CPI(M) and propagated its activities.

“I do not find any merit in the argument proffered by the learned advocate for Teltumbde that he had no concern with the event of Elgar Parishad and that the allegations made against him are not prima facie true,” the judge said.

The judge highlighted that since Teltumbde’s name appeared on the invitation card and that he went to Shaniwar Wada, the location where the Elgar Parishad event was held, suggested that he was linked with the Elgar Parishad.

Rejecting the bail application filed by Anand Teltumbde, Justice Kothalikar said, “While considering a bail application, there is a need to maintain a fine balance between the societal interest vis a vis personal liberty of the accused by adhering to the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence.

“Bail cannot be granted solely or exclusively on the ground that the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence is that the accused is presumed to be innocent till he is found guilty,” said the court.

The court also discarded the contention of Teltumbde that his educational qualification and social background be considered while deciding its verdict on the bail application.

“There is sufficient material to enable the court to reach prima facie conclusion that the accusations made against Teltumbde are prima facie true. Thus, there is no hitch to record prima facie satisfaction that there is material against Teltumbde to show his complicity in the crime,” the court observed.

Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence case

The Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case pertains to an event organised at Shaniwar Wada called Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017. The following day, i.e January 1, 2018, large scale violence broke out at Bhima Koregaon, where lakhs of Dalits had gathered to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, won by the British Army—comprising mostly soldiers from the Dalit community—against the Peshwas in 1818.

An FIR was filed in connection with the violence on January 8 after which Pune Police kickstarted a probe into it. According to the police, arrested ‘activists’ claimed that the event was organised as part of alleged Maoist activity and the accused were members.

The Pune police continued the probe in the matter for 2 years after which the investigation was transferred to the National Investigation Agency in January this year. The agency said that incriminating documents and letters were found on the devices of some of the accused, tying their links to the banned CPI(M) group.

Pune Police arrested Prof Anand Teltumbde on 2 February 2019 for his alleged involvement in the violence that erupted in Elgar Parishad in January 2018.

Besides Teltumbde, a host of other supposed “intellectuals”, including Sudha Bharadwaj, Stan Swamy, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, and Varavara Rao were arrested for inciteful speeches and their involvement in furthering activities of a banned organisation. Stan Swamy, one of the accused in the case had died earlier this month.

Liberals refuse to call out Taliban over Danish Siddiqui’s killing, make it seem as if he died due to natural causes

OpIndia Staff
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Liberals refuse to call out Taliban over Danish Siddiqui’s killing, make it seem as if he died due to natural causes

Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed by the Islamic terror organisation Taliban during clashes at Spin Boldak district in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Friday. The photojournalist was killed in Kandahar province while he was on a reporting assignment embedded with Afghan security forces.

Danish Siddiqui, who earned great plaudits by clicking insensitive images of funeral pyres during the peak Covid-19 crisis in the country, was also part of the Reuters team that won the Pulitzer in 2018. The tragic death of Reuters photojournalist was condoled by several Indians, who also reminded how the photojournalist had displayed his insensitivity during the peak of Covid-19 by putting out images of deceased patients.

Several left-wing “liberal-secular” journalists also took to Twitter to condole the death of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who aggressively shared these images of the deceased photojournalist to pay some sort of tribute to him. However, the intriguing part of the matter is that hardly any of them mentioned 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, was rather perplexing. It appeared as if the photo journalist died as a consequence of some natural disease and not murdered by Islamic terrorists.

Manisha Pande from Newslaundry, also tread a similar path. She hailed Danish Siddiqui as a “remarkable chronicler” but refrained from condemning the Taliban.

The left-liberals were deeply pained by the death of Danish Siddiqui, and rightly so, who shared his ‘stunning’ images that were captured during various political events that occurred in the country in the past few years.

Arfa Khanum Sherwani, too expressed her tearful sorrow following Danish Siddiqui’s death, saying the Reuters journalist was a brave man. But again, not a word for the Taliban.

Yogendra Yadav, a career protestor, shared some photographs by Danish Siddiqui to make a political point. Yadav conveniently used the tragic death of a photojournalist to take potshots at the government but he had no words to offer against the Taliban.


Even Rahul Gandhi asked the Government of India to facilitate the return of Siddiqui’s mortal remains but again, even a faint condemnation of the hate that took his life was nowhere to be seen.

It is perplexing that not a single condolence message pointed towards the Islamic terror group that claimed Siddiqui’s life. Not a single liberal journalist had the moral fortitude to remark that he was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Liberals used his photography to make a political point but refused to mention that it was the Taliban that killed him during clashes with Afghan forces. Instead, they attempted to whitewash the incident and deflect the narrative by preaching about how one should take inspiration from Danish Siddiqui to question those in power.

The left-liberal intelligentsia could not even bring themselves to blame the Taliban for the cold-blooded murder of one of their own. Their condolence texts make it seem as if Siddiqui lost his life to some disease.

In simple words, the entire liberal intelligentsia blame Hindus and the incumbent government for the unfortunate death of a thief in some remote corner of the country. But the same set of people have now chosen silence over Taliban’s involvement in the killing of Danish Siddiqui. Even though one does not expect ‘liberals’ to conduct themselves fairly, the least that could be expected of them is to name and shame the killers of their own dear colleague who died performing his duty.

It is rather bizarre, but perhaps not entirely, that ‘liberals’ fear to speak about the crimes committed by Islamic terror groups against ordinary Muslims. Indeed, the choice of language speaks for itself. “Left too soon,” “died on duty” among others. Compare the language that was used to describe Stan Swamy’s death in jail following a cardiac arrest. On that occasion, terms such as “cold blooded murder” were used.

Now that a young journalist was killed by the Taliban, the language is used is unrealistically mild in comparison and none of the tweets condemn the terrorist group that killed him. It is indeed illuminating that those who claim to speak ‘truth to power’ are the first to crawl when asked to kneel.

Enforcement Directorate hands over shares worth ₹792 cr to SBI-led-consortium from assets of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi

OpIndia Staff
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Enforcement Directorate hands over shares worth ₹792 cr to SBI-led-consortium from assets of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi

On Friday (July 16), a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) recovered ₹792.11 crores from fugitives and wilful defaulters such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi.

As per reports, the banks sold the shares of the three businessmen that were handed to them by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The central agency had confiscated their assets under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). According to ED, it has recovered ₹13,109.17 crores through the sale of its assets to banks, out of ₹9,371 crores worth of assets was handed in June. Till date, a total of assets worth ₹18,170.02 crores have been confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate, which constitutes 80.45% of the total loss to banks.

The nationalised banks have been trying to recover the loan handed out to Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi. While Nirav Modi and Choksi have caused losses to the tune of 14000 crores to Punjab National Bank (PNB) and others, Vijay Mallya owes over ₹9000 crores to banks. The liquor baron had lost his extradition case in the United Kingdom and has not been granted an appeal in the UK Supreme Court.

Fugitive Mehul Choksi granted bail in Dominica on medical grounds

Earlier on Monday (July 12), fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was given interim bail by the Dominican High Court on medical grounds. He was allowed to go to Antigua and Barbados for treatment of his neurological condition. He was granted bail until he was fit for travel. Choksi was also asked to deposit Eastern Caribbean Dollars 10,000 (approximately Rs 2,75,000) as bail money to seek medical treatment. The court had stayed his ongoing trial over his alleged illegal entry into Dominica on May 23 until his return.

Indian investigative agencies had sought his repatriation to India in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB Scam) which was unearthed in February 2018. Choksi along with his nephew Nirav Modi were the prime accused. Choksi had argued that he was no longer an Indian citizen as he took Antiguan citizenship in 2017.

Modi govt places single largest order of 66 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses, targets to vaccinate 94.4 crore people by December

OpIndia Staff
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Modi govt places single largest order of 66 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses, targets to vaccinate 94.4 crore people by December

On Friday (July 16), the Indian government placed an order for 660 million (66 crores) Covid-19 vaccines worth Rs 14,505 crore to be used between August-December this year. It is the single largest vaccine procurement by the government so far.

The development comes after State authorities and health experts have expressed concern about the possibility of vaccine shortage in the country. Reuters reported that the Modi government has kept an ambitious target to inoculate 94.4 crore individuals with both doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Amidst concerns of vaccination centres being shut and long queues to receive their jabs, the government has placed orders for additional 37.5 crore doses of Covishield (manufactured by Oxford-AstraZeneca) and 28.5 crore doses of Covaxin (developed and manufactured by Bharat Biotech).

The order is in line with the Union Government’s estimate of 135 crore doses being available between August-December, as stated in its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on June 26. Apart from the order for 66 crore doses, the government has made an advance payment to reserve 30 crore doses of Hyderabad based Biological-E’s Corbevax vaccine, according to sources.

According to the affidavit of the govt filed in the Supreme Court, 5 crore doses of Zydus Cadila’s vaccine and 10 crore doses of Sputnik V will also be available by December. A total of 50 crore doses of Covishield and 40 crore doses of Covaxin as expected to be available during this period.

Meanwhile, the vaccine manufacturers have also increased their monthly production. Reportedly, the Serum Institute of India (SII) is now producing 100 million Covishield doses (10 crores) each month. At the same time, Bharat Biotech has increased production from 1 crore Covaxin doses/ month in April to 7 crore doses in July/August.

While speaking about the matter, Professor Rijo John claimed, “I expect the vaccine shortage to continue and as per the planned vaccine supply, it appears that the daily average for the whole of July will stay below 4 million.” John is an Economist and a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in Kochi in Kerala. On Friday, about 38.78 lac Coronavirus vaccine doses were administered, thereby taking the total to 39.53 crores. On June 21 last month, India vaccinated a whopping 91 lac people, the highest in a single day.

Serum Institute of India to produce Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine from September

On Tuesday (July 13), the Pune-based Serum Institute of India announced that it is going to start the production of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V. The announcement was made by CEO Kirill Dmitriev of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who said Sputnik V would be manufactured by SII starting September this year.

Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is promoting the vaccine globally, said the plan was to manufacture over 300 million doses of the vaccine per year in India, making it one of the leading production hubs for Sputnik V. “The parties intend to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India per year with the first batch expected in September 2021,” the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement.

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