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SP-AIMIM’s Muslim Deputy CM, Mawayati’s Brahmin seminars: Parties gear up for assembly elections while Rahul Gandhi says he does not like UP mangoes

OpIndia Staff
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SP-AIMIM’s Muslim Deputy CM, Mawayati’s Brahmin seminars: Parties gear up for assembly elections while Rahul Gandhi says he does not like UP mangoes

It seems like the defeat of Amethi in 2019 is still stinging the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. To show how he is hurt by the electoral defeat in this Uttar Pradesh, recently the Gandhi scion said that he does not like mangoes from Uttar Pradesh but loved the ones from Andhra Pradesh.

“I don’t like UP aams. I like Andhra’s. It is a matter of taste. Langda is doable. Dussheri is too sweet for me,” Gandhi said. Just months before the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi openly saying that he does not like mangoes from the state has been considered a significant development.

Yogi Adityanath retaliates

Rahul’s statement about mangoes in Uttar Pradesh snowballed into a massive political storm after chief minister Yogi Adityanath minced no words in calling him divisive for having rejected the state’s famous mangoes. Sharing the video of Rahul Gandhi where he dismissed Uttar Pradesh’s mangoes, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted, “Shri Rahul Gandhi ji, your taste is divisive. The entire country is aware of your divisive upbringing. The impact of disruptive values is so strong on you that you have reduced even the taste of fruits to regionalism. But remember, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the taste of India is one.”

On the other hand, BJP MP from Gorakhpur Ravi Kishan took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, saying he does not like the mangoes of Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh does not like Congress.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time since Rahul Gandhi’s embarrassing poll drubbing in Uttar Pradesh that he has criticised the state. Gandhi had found himself embroiled in a controversy earlier as well when he compared UP unfavourably with Kerala after losing in Amethi but winning in Kerala’s Wayanad.

“It is much easier to talk policy in Kerala…simple, straightforward, extremely solid political mobilisation at the grass-roots level. The system responds very quickly. It is not a political war but I love going there. I feel happy, I feel like I’ve come home. There is affection, there is mutual affection,” Gandhi had said. He further added that in Uttar Pradesh, there is an utter break between communities and therefore negotiations are much more complex and much harder to undertake.

Mayawati trying to please Brahmins, Ram temple on poster

While Rahul Gandhi insults the produce of Uttar Pradesh, other opposition leaders are carefully preparing their parties for the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. Mayawati’s BSP is all geared to shed its Dalit-only image as it has started talking about fostering unity between Brahmin and Dalit communities. In an attempt to woo Hindus, BSP also held a convention in Ayodhya and posters of the party had a picture of Ram Lalla along with the under-construction Ram Temple.

BSP also plans to organize ‘Brahmin seminars’ at various places in the state. The party, which had once to power by abusing and intimidating Brahmins, has evidently changed its election strategy and launched a charm offensive to lure Brahmin voters to its fold. A campaign has been started to connect Brahmins with BSP in 75 districts by organizing ‘Brahmin Seminars’ in religious cities like Mathura, Kashi and Prayagraj. The disastrous result in the 2017 elections, when BSP could win only a paltry 19 seats in the assembly elections, seems to have precipitated the current change in the party’s strategy.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also realises the caste dynamics in the state and has started warming up to Hindus by visiting temples in Chitrakoot. He recently also organised celebrations for ‘Parshuram Jayanti’ at his party headquarters. At the same time, Akhilesh Yadav, also spoke highly about Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, something which he has restrained so far because of his “secular” compulsions.

However, BJP claims that the people of Uttar Pradesh can see through the insincere attempts made by the political leaders to lure the voters. Brajesh Pathak, a minister in the BJP government, said that Brahmins will no longer go side with the BSP as they have understood Mayawati’s intentions behind her campaign of flattering Hindus. He termed the move of BSP as irrelevant and superfluous.

Demand for Muslim Deputy CM, will there be an alliance of SP-AIMIM?

Though Akhilesh Yadav is endeavouring to portray a pro-Hindu image to the UP masses, there are rumours going on about his possible alliance with firebrand leader Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM for the upcoming polls in the state. Owaisi has announced that if the Samajwadi Party promises to make a Muslim candidate as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, then they can think of joining hands with Akhilesh Yadav’s party. He said that if all the parties are united against the BJP and if a senior Muslim leader is made Deputy CM, then there can be an alliance with the SP.

The party’s state president Shaukat Ali said that the ‘Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha’ is ready to contest the elections together with the SP but on one condition. Asaduddin Owaisi is scheduled to meet workers in Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Kaushambi and other adjoining districts during his visit in early August. Along with this, he will also have to meet the ‘intellectuals’ of Muslim and Dalit society. The AIMIM has declared it will fight in all 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh, stating that it is doing so to prevent the division of 20 per cent of Muslim votes.

How the TOPS programme by the Modi government paved the path for Mirabai Chanu’s success in the Olympics

OpIndia Staff
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How the TOPS programme by the Modi government paved the path for Mirabai Chanu’s success in the Olympics

Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu won a historic silver medal in the weightlifting event in the Olympics, making her the first athlete to win a medal for the country in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. On Saturday, Mirabai Chanu finished second in the 49kg category of weightlifting to secure the silver medal for the country. However, most Indians are unaware of the flagship programme launched by the Modi government in 2014 that helped the ace weightlifter in her journey to secure laurel at the world’s largest stage.

Adequate funding is crucial for a sportsperson to achieve professional success in the International arena. All sporting categories, with the exception of cricket, has suffered from neglect and lack of training facilities. The athletes are often faced with sponsorship challenges, thereby making it difficult for them to excel. Having understood the underlying reason behind India’s poor performance in Olympics Games, the Indian government launched the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in September 2014.

How TOPS turned out to be a boon for athletes

The programme was monitored by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, wherein it provided financial support and assistance to top athletes in the country. With the objective of helping sportspersons secure Olympic medals for the country, a TOPS Elite Altheltes’ Identification Committee and a Mission Olympic Cell were set up. The body was tasked to identify top athletes and parathletes and provide them with several benefits.

It includes training by reputed coaches at world-class facilities, purchase of equipment, supporting the services of physical trainers, sports psychologists, mental trainers and physiotherapists. At the same time, the athletes are provided with a monthly incentive of ₹50,000. The scheme covers sporting activities such as table tennis, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, hockey, archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting and para-sports.

Ace badminton player Saina Nehwal once remarked, “While our travel for the competition was always financially supported by the government, the establishment of Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in 2014-15 has been a great step. There was a time when if we needed some equipment, we would have to ask an NGO for help. Now, it is easier for more athletes to seek support from TOPS. The monthly out-of-pocket allowance is also a great step as more players now get support for their training, including dietary supplements.”

Success story of Indian government’s flagship programme

The TOPS programme has witnessed tremendous success, with athletes such as PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik winning medals for India at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Similarly, India won 2 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal at the 2016 Paralympic games. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 47 of 70 athletes supported by the TOPS programme won medals for the country.

About 100 Indian athletes were covered under TOPS in 2016 and the number has increased since then. According to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) website, about 106 athletes/teams are part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme as of February 2021.

Although some athletes have expressed disappointment over their exclusion from the programme, TOPS has been applauded by other champions such as MC Mary Kom, and Neeraj Chopra. Given the success of TOPS, it has now been extended for junior athletes in August 2020. The Selection Committee had shortlisted more than 250 sportspersons for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. India has sent the largest contingent to date to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and hopes to improve its medal tally this year. Mirabai Chanu’s success is just the beginning of India’s Olympic story.

Grooming Jihad in Uttarakhand: Four youths arrested in Almora for luring a minor Hindu girl to allegedly kidnap her

OpIndia Staff
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Grooming Jihad in Uttarakhand: Four youths arrested in Almora for luring a minor Hindu girl to allegedly kidnap her

Police arrested four Muslim men from Bagwalipokhar in Uttarakhand’s Almora after locals and some Hindu religious groups accused them of grooming jihad. The four were nabbed with a minor Hindu girl from a restaurant in the area, police officials said.

As per reports, the Muslim men are accused of luring the Hindu girl with the aim of abducting her. The police subsequently took the accused to the police station where the girl’s father had lodged a complaint. Aged between 19 to 27, the four accused are residents of Haridwar and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. According to the police, one among the four arrested befriended the girl on social media a few months ago.

“The man, along with his friends came to Bagwalipokhar area on Friday evening in order to meet the girl…He later called the girl to a local restaurant, where its owner, grew suspicious of them and informed the locals…,” a police officer privy to matter disclosed.

Soon thereafter, locals arrived at the restaurant and accosted the four youth. They accused them of “love jihad” and then handed them over to the police. The police said some of the locals informed the girl’s father, who told them that the four had lured his daughter to kidnap her.

Accused booked after BJP MLA Mahesh Singh Negi intervened

However, some Hindu organisations accused the police of not pressing charges against the accused. A report published in Jagran said the SHO kept refusing to reveal the names of the accused. Late night, only after the intervention of local MLA Mahesh Singh Negi, did the police disclose the names of the arrested youth. They were identified as Kasif, Armaan, Sane Alam and Farman, residents of Haridwar and Moradabad.

After reaching the police station, the Dwarahat MLA Mahesh Singh Negi asked the police to take quick action against the accused.

The four have been booked for “abduction and molestation” and also under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. They were due to be produced before a court on Saturday.

Woman who sparked outrage with post on ‘mother and child sexuality’ is back with ‘BDSM for beginners’ workshop: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Woman who sparked outrage with post on ‘mother and child sexuality’ is back with ‘BDSM for beginners’ workshop: Details

‘Intimacy coach’ Pallavi Barnwal has caused another stir on social media after announcing that she will soon be conducting a workshop on ‘BDSM for beginners’. BDSM is short for ‘bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism’, a sexual lifestyle where one partner takes the role of dominance and the other of submission.

BDSM usually involves punishment and a ‘master-slave’ relationship between the two sexual partners. Pallavi Barnwal will conduct a workshop for people who wish to have a taste of the lifestyle.

Source: Twitter

The poster has attracted a lot of criticism on social media, with people condemning what they consider sexual degeneracy. People also made fun of the poster with the idea of the workshop being the subject of crass jokes.

As it so happens, it is not the first time that Barnwal has found herself in the midst of adverse social media attention. A screenshot of one of her Facebook posts had gone viral on the internet where she could be seen making extremely problematic comments on ‘mother and child sexuality’.

We could not find the post on Facebook and it is possible that it has been removed. Even so, we cannot vouch for its authenticity. However, it has been circulated widely in the past couple of years. In the post, Pallavi Barnwal speaks of an obvious victim of child sex abuse who was sexually exploited by his own mother.

Source: Reddit

The victim was suffering a sense of guilt because his mother had instructed him to insert her finger into her vagina and fondle with her breasts. The problematic part came at the end of the post, which appears to be an endorsement of incest.

She wrote, “I asked Deepak (name changed) to do away with guilt. This is what happens when the sex drive of a natural drive is suppressed and repressed. Both Deepak and his mother are victims of a sexually repressive culture where sex should not be expressed and talked about.”

Her sympathies for a sexual predator angered people on social media and attracted a lot of criticism. However, it does not appear to have hurt her career prospects as she is back with a workshop on BDSM.

TMC nominates Jawhar Sircar to the Rajya Sabha, had tweeted morphed image of Modi, removed parts of his interview to appease Congress

OpIndia Staff
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TMC nominates Jawhar Sircar to the Rajya Sabha, had tweeted morphed image of Modi, removed parts of his interview to appease Congress

Bureaucrat turned Modi-hater troll Jawahar Sircar has got a bigger platform to spread his hate, as he is getting a seat at the Rajya Sabha. The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee has informed that the party has nominated former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar to the Rajya Sabha. The party took to its official Twitter handle on July 24 (Saturday) to inform they are sending Sircar to the upper house on its ticket.

“We are delighted to nominate Mr. @jawharsircar in the Upper House of the Parliament. Mr. Sircar spent nearly 42 years in public service & was also the former CEO of Prasar Bharati. His invaluable contribution to public service shall help us serve our country even better!”, wrote the party as it announced its decision.

Interestingly, the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and the party’s newly appointed member to the Rajya Sabha, Jawhar Sircar are on the same page when it comes to their anti-Narendra Modi stance.

Reacting to his nomination, Jawhar Sircar said, “I was a bureaucrat. I am not a political person but I would work for development of the people and raise the issues concerning the masses in parliament,” he said.

Jawahar Sircar is nominated by TMC for by-election to Rajya Sabha being conducted to fill a seat vacated by former TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi. In February this year, Dinesh Trivedi had resigned from Rajya Sabha, and later joined the BJP. The by-polls are expected to be held next month.

Jawhar Sircar shares a morphed picture of PM Modi to berate him

In fact, last month, the former Prasar Bharti CEO was slammed for sharing a photoshopped image to attack PM Modi.

For the unversed, on June 7, Jawhar Sircar shared a heavily edited image of Prime Minister Modi bending forward to greet Reliance Foundation chairperson Neeta Ambani, to insinuate that he goes out of his way to be polite to ‘his friends’. This morphed image was coupled with a Tweet that read: “Wish fellow parliamentarians and others in politics also received such courtesy and bonhomie — from their permanently-scowling PM. In a mature democracy, we would know the two-way relationship, favours, transactions. Some day, history will tell us.”

This was not all, when Twitter users fact-checked Jawhar Sircar’s fake claims and revealed that the original picture was that of PM Modi acknowledging social activist Deepika Mondal, Sircar went on to hide the replies to his tweet. However, after being heavily slammed, Sircar deleted his Tweet.

Ex-CEO of Prasar Bharati edited parts of PM candidate Modi’s interview during 2014 elections

Jawhar Sircar, a chronic Modi-hater, had removed inconvenient parts of PM candidate Modi’s interview during the 2014 elections. On April 27, 2014, Doordarshan had aired a 30-minute long interview with the then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the runup to the Lok Sabha elections. At that point in time, Jawhar Sircar was the CEO of Prasar Bharti.

Upon the release of the interview, a controversy broke out about how chunks of the 54-minute long interview were edited out by broadcaster Prasar Bharti on the behest of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

Interestingly, PM Modi’s comments about Priyanka Gandhi and Congress leader Ahmed Patel during the interview had miffed the Congress party so much so that those remarks were omitted in the post-production stage. As such, the 30 minutes long ‘edited’ interview was aired bereft of his commentary on the duo.

Following a public backlash, the then Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar had acknowledged that chunks of the interview were edited out. He had blamed the then I & B Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant ‘operational autonomy’ to the public broadcaster. He had pointed out how not giving in to the government’s demands resulted in transfers, and punitive actions.

Jawhar Sircar slammed by employees of Prasar Bharati for casting aspersions on broadcaster’s integrity

In what appears, Jawhar Sircar, during his days at Prasar Bharati, was not the favourite of his team members either. In 2020, the employees of Prasar Bharati had condemned former CEO Jawhar Sircar’s tweet in which he questioned the integrity of the national broadcaster. A Press Release by Prasar Bharati’s employees has then said that it is unfortunate that the former CEO Jawhar Sircar, instead of standing beside the organisation he once served, insulted the organisation by disparaging it on its current stand against BBC’s deliberately falsified reportage on the Delhi riots.

Global media looks away as Biden’s NSA “unmasks” dissenting right wing journalist Tucker Carlson

Abhishek Banerjee
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Global media looks away as Biden’s NSA “unmasks” dissenting right wing journalist Tucker Carlson

Would the most famously liberal government in the world spy on dissenting journalists? Never. With no such possibility at home, the New York Times, the Washington Post and their fellow travelers in global media have embarked on a campaign to save the (rest of the) world. Among their targets for regime change is India’s Modi. And so the global media elite, with their parrots in India, have spent much of last week dreaming up sinister stories of Modi government spying on journalists, ministers, judges, Twitter trolls and anyone who takes themselves too seriously.

Obviously, I’m being sarcastic. You might be wondering by now. Did the Biden administration spy on dissenting journalists? Why is there no media storm about this? Liberal privilege?

Well, not exactly. Biden’s National Security Agency was just “unmasking” a right wing journalist. What does that mean, precisely? I don’t know. Nobody does. It’s a technical term used by the intelligence community. See if this helps:

”the nation’s top electronic spy agency found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties and his name was subsequently revealed through “unmasking,” a process in which relevant government officials can request the identities of American citizens in intelligence reports to be divulged provided there is an official reason, such as helping them make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing.”

In case you didn’t notice, that was not a paragraph. It was one single sentence, sixty-three words long. Because words like “spying” and “snooping” are for third world countries only. Rich countries with liberal governments need long sentences.

Here is the sequence of events. A few weeks ago, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the highest rated news anchor in America and an outspoken critic of President Biden, claimed that the NSA had been monitoring his communications. At this, the NSA released the following statement.

On June 28, 2021, Tucker Carlson alleged that the National Security Agency has been "monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air." This allegation is untrue. Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air. NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.

It may seem like the NSA is dismissing the charges, but observe how carefully they word the sentence. “This allegation is untrue,” they say. But which allegation? Notice how the NSA quotes Tucker in an attempt to take advantage of his compound sentence. They deny that the NSA is monitoring him in an attempt to take his show off the air! Which part is the NSA denying, then? The monitoring part or the part about intent to take his show off air? They don’t say.

In the second paragraph, the NSA says they are not targeting Tucker Carlson. And presumably, they are not eating half his lunch nor taking a sip of his coffee each day. Are they monitoring him, perhaps as part of an operation that targets someone else? The NSA doesn’t say.

As Axios put it here:

Axios tried to ask more specific questions, but the NSA declined to comment. Very reassuring. And now comes this source based report.

Again, the headline would make the NSA very happy. And discourage the casual reader from reading the full article. That way you would never find the 63 word long sentence buried deep within it.

So, what really happened? Axios broke it down into several possible scenarios.

In their most likely scenario, Carlson’s communications would get picked up as he was reaching out to Putin for an interview. However, Axios also explains that in this scenario, Tucker’s identity would remain masked because he is a US citizen. An exception applies only if the identity needs to be “unmasked” in order to understand that intelligence.

So, why would someone need to unmask the identity of a reporter seeking an interview with Putin? Axios explains further:

“But under this scenario, too, Carlson’s identity would have been masked in reports as part of his protections as a U.S. citizen, and unmasking would only be permitted if a U.S. government official requested that his identity be unmasked in order to understand the intelligence. And it’s not clear why that would be necessary here.“

Not clear why that would be necessary here. Yes, when it comes to issues of privacy, it is always better when things are not clear.

That’s why the American media isn’t interested. The good folks at the New York Times and the Washington Post have decided to focus their energies elsewhere, preferably in India, where they can do so much good.

One final note. Yesterday, President Biden shut down the federal investigation into the thousands of nursing home Covid deaths covered up by Andrew Cuomo, the liberal governor of New York. Along with Cuomo, Biden’s other party colleagues, such as the liberal governors of Michigan and Pennsylvania, have also received a clean chit. The New York Times has not covered the story yet. They are busy looking for unreported Covid deaths in rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We are ever so grateful for the way global media “speaks truth to power.”

Catholic priest in Tamil Nadu arrested for hate speech against Hindus: Here is what the pastor said

OpIndia Staff
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Catholic priest in Tamil Nadu arrested for hate speech against Hindus: Here is what the pastor said

On Saturday (July 24), the police arrested a Catholic priest named Father George Ponnaiah from the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu for his hate speech targetting the Hindu community. The pastor had made the contentious remarks during a meeting on July 18 at Arumanai.

The development was confirmed on Twitter by a Times Now journalist. During the meeting with his followers, Ponnaiah condemned the closure of churches and the ban on conducting prayer meetings amidst the Coronavirus lockdown. He paid tribute to late Maoist sympathiser Stan Swamy and also criticised the move to deny permits to build new churches on patta land.

Christian pastor insults Bharat Mata, mocks Nadar community and warns Hindus of changing demographics

During the public meeting at Arumanai, Father George Ponnaiah slammed the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department (HRCE) PK Sekar Babu. He emphasised, “It does not matter how many temples you renovate and consecrate. No Hindu, no devotee of Mandaikattu Amman is going to vote for you. If you won, then it is the alms we Christians and Muslims have thrown to you. You won not because of your talents.”

While speaking about the role of the Church in ensuring DMK’s victory, he added, “Bishops just signalled with their eyes and our workers including the Pentecostal movement workers went and canvassed for you (DMK and Congress).”

The Christian pastor was heard admonishing another candidate for not openly associating with the Church. He took potshots at the BJP at the expense of the local Nadar community. Father George Ponnaiah claimed, “…He was afraid that he might lose Hindu votes. So who won there? Who was this M R Gandhi? He went to Christian Nadars and gave Rs 2,000 and cried that he was a Nadar and that he wanted to die as an MLA.” He mocked the Nadar community by asking if they have brains and whether the BJP candidate MR Gandhi was even a Nadar in the first place.

Fr Ponnaiah also insulted Bharat Mata by claiming that she is dirty and can cause scabies. During his public address, he mocked MR Gandhi for not wearing footwear out of respect for Mother Earth (Bhumadevi/Bharat Mata). “But we wear shoes. Why? Because the impurities of Bharat Mata should not contaminate us. The Tamil Nadu government has given us free footwear. This bhumadevi is dangerous, you could catch scabies from it,” the pastor brazened it out. Besides vulgar rhetorics and open polarisation, Fr Ponnaiah made despicable remarks about PM Modi and Amit Shah.

He said, “The last days of Modi are going to be pathetic. I give it in writing. If the God we worship is a true living God the history should see Modi and Amit Shah being eaten by dogs and worms.” The pastor also issued veiled threats to the Hindu community about the changing demographics of the State. “We are now majority (in the Kanyakumari district) from 42 per cent we have crossed 62 per cent. Soon we would be 70 per cent. You cannot stop us. I am saying this as a warning to my Hindu brothers.”

Hindus demand action against Father George Ponnaiah

Following his vitriolic speech, about 330 representatives from various Hindu organisations filed complaints with the police in various districts of the state. On Wednesday (July 21), Fr George Ponnaiah was booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different religious groups), 295A (outraging feelings by insulting religious beliefs), 505-2 (statements promoting enmity between classes), 506-1 (criminal intimidation).

The Christian pastor was also booked for flouting Coronavirus protocols by conducting public meetings. Charges were pressed under IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection) and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act. The Hindu outfits have demanded his arrest under the National Security Act or warned to stage a large scale protest on July 28.

Christian pastor cries foul, claims speech was edited

A day prior to his arrest on Saturday, Father George Ponnaiah claimed, “Speech was edited and circulated in the social media. My words were twisted as if I hurt and degraded the sentiments of Hindu brothers and sisters.” He alleged that he did not intend to hurt religious sentiments through his contentious speech. While vowing to not repeat such words in the public domain, he said, “In case our speech had been that way, I wholeheartedly apologise on behalf of the meeting.”

Did you know? US National Security Agency was authorised to spy on BJP when it was an opposition party

OpIndia Staff
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Did you know? US National Security Agency was authorised to spy on BJP when it was an opposition party

The United States of America’s National Security Agency (NSA) had received official permission to covertly spy on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and had added the Hindu-nationalist party into its top-secret surveillance list.

In 2014, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden had released certain classified documents to the media, which revealed that America’s top spying agency was authorised by a US court in 2010 to carry out surveillance on the BJP along with five other political organisations across the world.

Besides BJP, the US court had given the go-ahead to spy on Lebanon’s Amal, the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator of Venezuela, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian National Salvation Front and the Pakistan Peoples Party. The document revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) had sought permission from the court to carry out surveillance on six political parties worldwide.

“These are the entities about which the NSA may conduct surveillance for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence,” the reports said, citing documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

More than 193 countries, including Indian government was spied by NSA

According to top-secret documents Snowden published through the Washington Post in July 2014, the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court provided NSA with a “broad leeway” to conduct surveillance upon not only these six political parties but also a list of 193 foreign governments – including India. Only four countries were off-limits under this programme, the report said.

“The United States has long had broad no-spying arrangements with those four countries – Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” the Post had reported.

However, the agency had defended its move saying that they collected foreign intelligence based on specific intelligence requirements set by the President, the Director of National Intelligence, and departments and agencies through the National Intelligence Priorities Framework.

The documents had also disclosed that the FISA court had authorised the NSA to spy on the Internet and telephone communications of the World Bank, United Nations, OPEC, and the European Union.

Interestingly, the scandalising report had come in July 2014, just a month after BJP had stormed into power in India under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Incidentally, the US administration had almost for a decade denied Narendra Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat, a visa and blacklisted him over the 2002 Gujarat riots.

However, after the stupendous victory in the 2014 victory, the United States of America offered an olive branch to Prime Minister Modi and had vowed to work closely together with the Indian PM “for years to come”.

Uttar Pradesh: Yogi govt asks DMs to ensure all 548 oxygen plants sanctioned in various districts are operational by August 15

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Yogi govt asks DMs to ensure all 548 oxygen plants sanctioned in various districts are operational by August 15

Amidst speculations that the third wave of the Chinese coronavirus could hit India soon, the Uttar Pradesh government is leaving no stone unturned to prepare itself to tackle the ppssible escalation of cases and associated issues.

The state government is all set to make as many as 548 oxygen plants operational in the state by August 15, thereby assuring that there is enough oxygen supply in every district of Uttar Pradesh in case the state witnesses a resurgence of Covid cases during the predicted third wave of the infection.

The Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, has directed the commissioners and various district magistrates in the state to ensure that all the 548 oxygen plants sanctioned in districts under them are operational by August 15, 2021.

“Currently 214 out of 548 oxygen plants are functional. See to it that the rest of them are also operational by August 15”, Rajendra Kumar Tiwari told the officials during a video conference, adding that at every oxygen plant at least two technicians would be appointed to oversee the production.

Rajendra Kumar Tiwari said that until now 280 technicians have been shortlisted.

The CS of UP also asked the officials to oversee paediatric wards and ensure that there is a sufficient supply of oxygen there too.

Civil work of the oxygen plants in its final stage: CS of Uttar Pradesh

According to reports, the Chief Secretary of UP has stated that the civil work of the remaining Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) Oxygen generation plants, undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), are in its final stage. After the sheds are placed, the plants would be made operational by August 15.

UP gearing up to tackle the anticipated third wave of Covid-19

Pertinently, CM Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a press conference at Noida Film City in May this year, said that the state has been equipping itself to fight the anticipated third wave of Covid-19 with complete preparedness.

Since, as per predictions, the third wave may affect children, women, and other vulnerable groups, the Yogi government have been setting up Pediatric ICUs with a minimum capacity of 100 beds in all districts for proper and special care of the children. Additional wards are being set up in the medical colleges.

Moreover, amidst the third wave warning, UP Govt has been carrying out the vaccination drive at war-footing. On June 4th, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had instructed state officials to triple the state’s daily Covid-19 vaccination rate in a month. According to the calculations, the three-fold goal would entail giving out more than 10 lakh vaccines a day

Elon Musk seeks for temporary relief in import tariffs, says Tesla factory in India quite likely

OpIndia Staff
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Elon Musk seeks for temporary relief in import tariffs, says Tesla factory in India quite likely

Tesla Inc. co-founder and CEO Elon Musk on Saturday said he wanted to launch cars in India but lamented that import duties in the country are “highest in the world by far of any large country”. He, however, added that if Tesla is able to get some temporary tariff relief, it would likely set up a factory in India.

Musk was responding to a tweet by a user who asked him to launch Tesla cars in India as soon as possible.

To this, Musk replied: “We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country! Moreover, clean energy vehicles are treated the same as diesel or petrol, which does not seem entirely consistent with the climate goals of India.”

In a subsequent tweet, Musk said, “But we are hopeful that there will be at least temporary tariff relief for imported vehicles. That would be much appreciated.”

When asked by another Twitter user whether Tesla will locally assemble vehicles in India, the American billionaire said if Tesla succeeds with imported vehicles, then a factory in India is quite likely.

A host of luxury car manufacturers have already lobbied with the Indian government to reduce the import duties with little success.

Gadkari says golden opportunity for Tesla to manufacture electric cars in India

Earlier in April 2021, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said that American electric car major Tesla has a golden opportunity to set up its manufacturing facility in India given the country’s thrust on e-vehicles.

Tesla is already sourcing various auto components from Indian automakers and setting up base here would be economically viable for it, Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Minister Gadkari said while addressing a session at the Raisina Dialogue.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla’s entry into India

Earlier in December 2020, Elon Musk had confirmed Tesla’s entry into India. Musk said Tesla would start its operations in India in 2021, however, he added that January 2021 timelines were not possible.

A few months before, in October 2020, too, Musk had confirmed that his company’s plan to launch operations in India from the next year. While responding to a tweet about when Tesla plans to enter the Indian market, Elon responded, “Next year for sure.” 

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