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Despite doctors denying claims made by The Wire on protestor Navreet’s death, propaganda website continues to instigate

OpIndia Staff
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Despite doctors denying claims made by The Wire on protestor Navreet’s death, propaganda website continues to instigate

The Wire on Saturday published an article insinuating that the protester who died during the Delhi tractor rally on Republic Day, had died of bullet injuries and not because of the injuries he sustained from the overturning of the tractor. The article further claims that the victim’s relatives spoke to the doctor who carried out the autopsy who claimed that while there was bullet injury, ‘his hands were tied’, thereby insinuating that the UP government is trying to coverup.

And while the Rampur District Magistrate clarified that all these statements are false, The Wire has stuck to its report. It has only updated the report while the headline still continues to be provocative.

The article titled “Autopsy Doctor Told Me He’d Seen the Bullet Injury But Can Do Nothing as His Hands are Tied” quoted the grandfather of the deceased to cast aspersions on the cause of the death of the protester and allege that the administration is hiding his real cause of the death.

The Wire published an article casting aspersions on the cause of death of a protester during the tractor rally

The Wire report impugns the validity of the post mortem report released by a medical officer at the District Hospital, Rampur, after a 2 am autopsy on January 27, which concluded that the protester, Navreet Singh, had died because of “shock and haemorrhage as a result of antemortem head injury” which has also been consistent with the Delhi Police’s explanation.

However, the report published by Siddharth Varadarajan’s website quoted Hardeep Singh Dibdiba, the grandfather of the deceased, who said that a doctor had confided in him that the real cause of Singh’s death was a bullet injury.

“We were told by the doctor that they have clearly seen the bullet injury, and then we cremated his body peacefully. But we were cheated as the [post mortem] report that came out did not say that. The doctor even told me that even though he had seen the bullet injury, he can do nothing as his hands are tied,” The Wire quoted Hardeep Singh Dibdiba as saying.

Vikramjeet Singh, Navreet’s father, also raised suspicion over the autopsy report of his son’s death. Vikramjeet alleged that all those who saw Navreet’s body claimed that he died of a bullet injury. He also added that one of the doctors who did the post-mortem report allegedly confessed to him that Navreet died of a bullet injury but he could not do anything to mention the same in the postmortem report.

But the claim of doctors being railroaded to prepare a false autopsy report was refuted by the senior-most police officer quoted by The Wire. According to ADG Bareilly Avinash Chandra, the police had no reason whatsoever to suppress or distort such a document because the matter is of Delhi Police.

Relevant sections from The Wire article

Besides, the report also added a video of the deceased to buttress the claims made by the family. Referring to the video, the family stated that the gash over Navreet’s ears was an exit wound of a bullet. But, Manoj Shukla, deputy CMO and doctor at the district hospital in Rampur where the post-mortem report was prepared, said this was not the case. Repudiating the claims of a bullet wound, Shukla told The Wire that it might be possible that something else might have hit his right ear or the leftist portal might have gotten the wrong document.

Relevant section from The Wire article

What is intriguing to note here is that despite the refusal of the Uttar Pradesh Police and the deputy CMO of the hospital where the autopsy was conducted expressly denying that Navreet died of a bullet injury, The Wire did not bother to mention the same in their headline. Instead, it went ahead with a misleading headline to raise aspersions on the authenticity of the autopsy report.

However, the District Magistrate, Rampur, shared a signed declaration of the three doctors who had carried out the autopsy that the above allegations were false.

The signed declaration states that none of the three doctors who were involved in the autopsy had spoken to any mediapersons or any other persons. The autopsy was video-recorded and the findings were given in sealed envelop to the officers.

Subsequently, The Wire has updated the article to include above information.

The DM further rebuked The Wire Founding Editor for irresponsible reportage and asked who would take responsibility for the law and order situation that could have happened because of such misleading reportage.

UP Police files FIR against Rajdeep Sardesai, Shashi Tharoor, Caravan Magazine for furthering lies and instigating violence

A raging controversy was kicked up after left-leaning liberals, including journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, alleged that the man who died in the tractor rally on Republic Day, died of bullet injuries. The rioter had died after a speeding tractor overturned near the ITO junction in central Delhi in a bid to run over the police personnel during the violence that marred the national capital.

UP Police had then lodged an FIR against several politicians and journalists for sharing fake news during the tractor rally in Delhi on 26th January. The FIR under section 154 of CrPC was lodged at the Noida sector 20 police station.

The FIR named Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, National Herald’s Senior consulting editor Mrinal Pandey, Quami Awaz editor Zafar Agha, Caravan magazine’s editor and founder Paresh Nath, Caravan editor Anant Nath and its executive editor Vinod K Jose, and one unnamed person.

All of them were booked for spreading the fake news that one protestor was shot dead by Delhi Police during the tractor rally on Republic Day, who had actually died due to an accident. Rajdeep Sardesai had tweeted the fake news on Twitter, and later had repeated the same on India Today, claiming that bullet injury was seen on the head of the deceased.

Shashi Tharoor and others named in the FIR had also circulated the fake news, which had instigated the protestors to indulge in violence.

Note: The article has been updated after The Wire updated its article.

Expert on Chinese security affairs Bill Gertz makes explosive revelations on Coronavirus origins, reveals China had discovered 2000 viruses

OpIndia Staff
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Expert on Chinese security affairs Bill Gertz makes explosive revelations on Coronavirus origins, reveals China had discovered 2000 viruses

In a major development, expert on Chinese security affairs Bill Gertz exposed the biowarfare programme of China and how the Communist regime has discovered over 2000 viruses. On Thursday, Gertz discussed the matter concerning the origin of the deadly Coronavirus with Fox News contributor Sara Carter during the ‘Sara Carter show’ podcast.

A year ago, Bill Gertz had published an article in The Washington Post, detailing his interview with an ex-military intelligence doctor from Israel. His interviewee had claimed that the virus might have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He had further said that the laboratory is controlled by the People’s Liberation Army. Soon after, several news portals had dubbed the report as ‘debunked conspiracy theory’, prompting The Washington Post to take it down.

However, the findings of the US State Department has now confirmed many of the facts in Bill Gertz’s article. He said, “Well, fast forward to January 15 of this month, and the State Department, in a very detailed fact sheet, revealed that yes, indeed, as I reported a year ago, the Wuhan Institute of virology is not only linked to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military but that they have been conducting secret biological warfare experiments at the laboratory since at least 2017.”

(Video Credits: Youtube/ Sara Carter)

Despite his story being vindicated by the US State Department, the expert lamented that Facebook continues to label his article as ‘false.’ Gertz also emphasised that the Communist regime in China is controlling the mainstream media and spreading its nefarious propaganda by spending billions of dollars. As such, his story is not getting the limelight it deserves. “If you look at our mainstream media today, there’s almost no mention of the fact that this virus came from China. And in fact, China’s narrative is that it didn’t come from China,” Gertz pointed out.

Bill Gertz concerned about Joe Biden and his policies

Bill Gertz expressed deep concerns about the Biden administration and expressed fears about the incumbent US government trying to put the matter under wraps. “Joe Biden ran for President on the fact that he criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. And then what did he do? He hired Anthony Fauci, who is leading that pandemic effort. So that just shows the level of hypocrisy now in government is at very high levels,” he emphasised.

Bill on Chinese virus discovery and specific targeting of certain ethnic groups

The China expert further added that Donald Trump received resistance from the political bureaucracy and intelligence authorities. Gertz said that during his conversation with Intelligence officers, he learnt that the Communist regime has been developing weapons that have the potential to eliminate targeted ethnic groups. In his original report, he had highlighted how China had initially boasted about discovering 2000 new viruses.

“Not all of them are bad coronaviruses. There are other animal viruses as well, but they’ve discovered 2000 new viruses. So China is obsessed with viruses. And this is a clear indication.. and they’ve had lab leaks in the past…We’re battling for our country, and we’re battling for our freedom. China’s in the background, they’re fueling it, they want to see the United States decline and ultimately destroyed,” Bill concluded.

Justin Trudeau helped China to cover-up the origin of Coronavirus

In what can be aptly termed as a startling revelation, if true, a Canadian media website called Rebel News has accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of helping China to hide the origins of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus that put the whole world to a halt last year.

In their exclusive report, the Rebel News has alleged that the Canadian Prime Minister had come to know of Covid-19 much earlier when some members of the Canadian Armed Forces were allegedly exposed to the Chinese virus during the 7th Military World Games (MWG) held in Wuhan city of Hubei Province of China in October 2019.

The media portal claims to have accessed some secret military documents distributed from the highest ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces in order to cover up a “scandal of global proportions”. The document reportedly titled ‘Potential Exposure to 2019 Novel Coronavirus during 7th Military World Games in October 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province China’ was penned by Canada’s Surgeon General, Major General AMT Downes, who later resigned. The letter allegedly “gaslighted” the Canadian soldiers who were in Wuhan for the MWG.

Liberals trend #NathuramGodse on Mahatma Gandhi death anniversary while condemning those trending Nathuram Godse

OpIndia Staff
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Liberals trend #NathuramGodse on Mahatma Gandhi death anniversary while condemning those trending Nathuram Godse

Today, on the 73rd death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, hashtag ‘Nathuram Godse’ has been trending on the top on Twitter, with nearly 45k tweets employing it by Saturday evening.

#NathuramGodse trending at number 2 on Twitter

Ever since the hashtag started trending the so-called liberals seemed outraged as a ‘tribute’ to his assassin, Nathuram Godse, emerged as the top trend on the microblogging site. However, in a bid to condemn such ‘trends’, the ‘liberals’ ended up contributing to the trend, thereby giving it more prominence.

Topping the list of this leftist cabal was the abusive trolls Swati Chaturvedi, who spends most of her free time on the internet peddling conspiracy theories against the BJP. The ‘journalist’, amusingly called all those trending the hashtag as “perverts”.

Swati Chaturvedi on ‘perverts’

The habitual fake news peddler Saba Naqvi also pitched in. She too was quite surprised that Nathuram Godse was trending in “New India”.

Saba Naqvi contributing to making the trend higher

CPI(M) leader went a step ahead to call all those trending Nathuram Godse a traitor. Little did he know that he too, thoughtlessly fell in the group of those ‘traitors’.

Comrade helping Nathuram Godse trend

Congress leader Salman Nizami, who had made some vile and disgusting tweets merely a month after the Nirbhaya rape and murder case also jumped on the bandwagon.

Congress leader contributing to Nathuram Godse trend

Perhaps these ‘intellectuals’ are oblivious to how Twitter Trends algorithm works. Though it is based on multiple factors, a hashtag generally begins to trend when a large number of people use it in a short window of time. And these patron saints of Gandhism chose to use the hashtag, thereby making it the top trending hashtag on Twitter today.

Over the years, Godse has merely become a stick to beat Hindutvavadis with and an excuse to exclude the Hindu Right from the corridors of power. These so-called liberals and political opponents, including Congress bigwigs like Rahul Gandhi, have often relied on Nathuram Godse to attack Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It’s a familiar trope that is often repeated all across the media by the same set of individuals over and over again hoping that it will somehow stick. However, much to the dismay of these detractors, it hasn’t stuck thus far and it is unlikely that it will somehow in the future.

Today India remembers MK Gandhi on his 73rd death anniversary. Every year on January 30th, India marks the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, as Martyrs’ Day or Shaheed Divas. It is also observed to pay homage to the freedom fighters who laid their lives for India’s independence.

‘Easier to date than girlfriends’: Hong Kong man gets engaged with sex doll, says he has never kissed or had sex with her for fear of damage

OpIndia Staff
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‘Easier to date than girlfriends’: Hong Kong man gets engaged with sex doll, says he has never kissed or had sex with her for fear of damage

In a bizarre incident in Hong Kong, Xie Tianrong, a 36-year-old man has got engaged to a sex doll which he bought through some e-commerce site in 2019. The ceremony took place earlier this month and was attended by his close friends and relatives.

The craziness, however, does not end at this. The youth reportedly also has a baby doll with his fiancé Mochi.

Image via Facebook

Xie Tianrong, who lives with his parents in Hong Kong, has fondly gifted his new bride to be with several expensive things, including an iPhone 12. Not only this, but Mochi is also in possession of 20 pairs of expensive clothes and 10 pairs of shoes.

Image via Facebook

In fact, Xie Tianrong’s Facebook page is filled with pictures of him with his fiance Mochi in restaurants, malls, gaming parlours, watching movies together, celebrating each others birthdays holidaying etc.

Speaking on his decision to get engaged to a sex doll, the man from Hong Kong exclaimed that a sex doll is easier to date than a human girlfriend. “When me and my previous girlfriend were together, she was always staring at her phone, but with Mochi it’s different. She will concentrate and give me all her attention,” said Xie to the media.

Xie also claimed that he has never “violated” his fiance and says that he never intends to even kiss her as he fears of damaging her “sensitive skin”. “I respect Mochi and only want her as a companion. I have had human girlfriends before but I am only attracted to dolls now. I have never had sex with her,” Xie Tianrong was quoted as saying.

News reports have it that Xie bought the sex doll for about 10,000 yuan (Rs 1 lakh) way back in 2019. Since then, he has devoted all his time in taking care of her. He learned that he was attracted to dolls ten years ago when he spotted one such doll in a retail store in Hong Kong.

“A doll cost 80,000 yuan at that time, so I had to dispel my thoughts as I could not afford her. But in 2019, I found a silicone doll on the internet that was on sale and cost about 10,000 yuan (Rs 1 lakh) so I ordered it,” Xie Tianrong was quoted as saying.

Three ways in which so called farmer protest is taking us back to the dark ages of the 1980s

Abhishek Banerjee
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Three ways in which so called farmer protest is taking us back to the dark ages of the 1980s

The 1980s were not a good time to be an Indian. The vast majority lived in absolute misery, standing in endless lines for everything from grain to cooking oil. If you had anything above subsistence level, such as enough money to buy a third hand 1960s model Ambassador car, you were considered middle class. If your family could afford a trip to Nepal, you would be dazzled by all the different kinds of ‘luxury’ soap available in their markets.

Many millions were destitute and the BBC came regularly to file ‘drain inspector’ reports. In Calcutta, a certain foreigner was so moved by our plight that she opened a “Home for the dying.” No medicines, no treatment. Just a place to lie down and maybe get a few drops of water before dying of hunger and disease.

It was a miserable way for nearly one-sixth of humanity to exist. Believe me, you don’t want to go back there. Four decades of failed Nehruvian socialist policies had turned India into a basket case. In case you are wondering, Pakistan had a much higher per capita GDP than we did.

Pushed to the wall, India finally decided to change course in 1991. And almost everything good that has happened in independent India followed after that. And in 2007, India finally did manage to wiggle past Pakistan in per capita GDP. Sixty years to catch up to Pakistan!

Who wants to go back? Anyone fancy a return to the India of the 1980s? Well, what if I told you that prospect looms large at the doorstep of Delhi right now? A group of so called farmer leaders have brought in people to block the national highways around Delhi. They have choked the national capital, caused factories to lose hundreds of crores of business, stormed the Red Fort and so on. But the most scary part is that they are trying to bring back everything that miserable about India of the 1980s.

Consider this. First, they all speak the language of hatred against private enterprise. Their rhetoric is straight out of an old Bollywood movie where the ‘angry young man’ takes on the greedy capitalists and ‘saves’ everyone from exploitation. They want to destroy mobile phone towers that connect us to the world. They want to ban all sales of produce across state or even district lines. And they want a legal guarantee that the government must buy everything at guaranteed rates at the local “market.” License, quota and permit. A command economy, a forever agrarian economy with low skilled farmers forever toiling on small plots of land.

Is this the nation you had in mind? Remember how we cherished the tag of fastest growing economy? Remember how we sulked when India lost that spot in 2019? Do you think the so called farmer leaders have a vision to match those aspirations? And yet, they say that this dim vision of India is the new cool. They are pumping the heady poison into the veins of young India, one ‘woke’ influencer at a time.

Second, when the so called leaders realized they could not muster mass support, what did they do? They began to stoke Sikh separatist sentiments. Thanks to these so called leaders, a social fault-line that had been plugged decades ago has turned into a gulf again. Once again, there are murmurs of fear and suspicion between Hindus and Sikhs.

Across the world, Khalistani organizations have jumped into the act. They lobby with foreign politicians who speak of this movement in openly religious terms. Even Indian liberals, many of whom write columns in western newspapers, support the agitators with openly religious slogans. They barely conceal their hand.

Decades ago, India paid a terrible price for this. Do you want to go back there again?

And most recently, after the storming of the Red Fort, the discredited movement has tried to turn over a new leaf. This time, they want to be a caste agitation. You know, I remember a time when caste based panchayats were derided as regressive and patriarchal. Who knew that in 2021, caste based panchayats would be hailed as the cutting edge of Indian “liberalism”?

A socialist agrarian economy, Sikh separatist movements and community action driven by caste based panchayats. Are we back in the 1980s yet? They say it’s the new cool. In fact, their message is targeting the youth. The generation that was born after (economic) independence. The generation that has not seen the human cost of Nehruvian socialism.

We get it. The Indian farmer is hard done by. Have you wondered why? Why is it that the average farmer does not want their sons and daughters to take up agriculture? Perhaps because the farmers got left behind by the rest. Once upon a time, a state like Punjab, powered by its farmers, was the richest in India. Today it is not even in the top ten. Why?

Because reform. Economic reform released the rest of the economy from the clutches of Nehruvian socialism. And it soared. The service sector, which was the least regulated, today accounts for over half of the nation’s GDP. The industrial sector, which is moderately regulated, has still managed to make its mark. Beyond these lies the agriculture sector, still in Nehruvian socialist mode, employing half of all people but not even producing a fifth of the GDP.

Today the same 1991 moment has come to the doorstep of India’s farmers. Will we fall for emotional blackmail by a bunch of so called leaders with nothing to offer the country except failed socialist ideas, separatist rhetoric and caste based panchayats?

In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi, the biggest and possibly the only beneficiary of Nehruvian socialism, had observed that just 15 paise of every rupee sent from Delhi ever reaches the ground. This December, PM Modi pressed a button and transferred money directly into the accounts of millions of farmers. Not a single paisa could be stolen in between.

This in a nutshell is the choice that India faces. India 2020+ or India 1980- ? Which one would you live in?

Karnataka Congress MLC caught watching porn during legislative council session, gives bizarre excuse: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka Congress MLC caught watching porn during legislative council session, gives bizarre excuse: Details

A Congress MLC in Karnataka was left red-faced after he was caught on camera browsing through porn clips on his mobile phone during the proceedings in the state Vidhan Parishad on Friday. The visuals of Prakash Rathod purportedly watching the pornographic content on his mobile phone, which was blurred out for television broadcast, was widely aired by many Kannada channels.

After the purported video went viral, the Congress leader came out to defend himself. Prakash Rathod, also the spokesperson of Karnataka Congress, said he was deleting messages to free up space on his mobile when some TV channels recorded it. He claimed he was not watching objectionable content.

A senior council official has, however, said that Rathod had breached the no-phone rule and added that the council chairman may punish him for doing so.

In another blooper, a member of the Goa unit of the Congress party, had in 2017, ‘accidentally’ shared a pornographic clip in the official WhatsApp group the party maintains for communicating with the media. Barnabe Sapeco, who was also a photojournalist forwarded a video to the WhatsApp group. The video had turned out to be a porn clip, which caused a lot of hullabaloo among the 80 odd members in the group that comprises both the journalists and Congress leaders.

‘Farmers’ protest leaked audio: Protestor admits of camping at Ghazipur border for money and free liquor

OpIndia Staff
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‘Farmers’ protest leaked audio: Protestor admits of camping at Ghazipur border for money and free liquor

A telephonic conversation between a so-called farmer and his friend has been doing the rounds on social media, where the former confides that the ‘farmers’ protest is sponsored. He admits of being paid and provided free booze to encamp at the Ghazipur border.

The audio recording was shared by BJP Delhi spokesperson Neetu Dabas.

Throughout the conversation, the ‘farmer’ appears quite delighted with the arrangements made for them at the border area, where they have been camping for over two months now. He tells his friend that it has been more of a party for them, as during the daytime, they are paid anything between Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 per day, and at night they are provided with free alcohol bottles.

“Hum toh aa gaye the ghumne. Maza aa raha hain pura. Yahin khaana, yahin peena, yahin rehna hain” (We are here on a holiday. We are having a fun time. We have to eat, drink, live here only), the ‘farmer’ tells his friend, as he confirms that almost 20 tractors have come from his village, alone, to join the protest. In what appears from the conversation, that these people have been incentivised to dedicate their free time to the protests. 

When his friend asks him, whether there are chances of violence at the Ghazipur border, similar to Faridabad, the ‘farmer’ concurs.

The ‘farmer’ is further heard eulogising Modi government’s new-farm laws. He says that the government is doing the right thing and there is nothing wrong with the new agricultural laws, against which the farmers have expressed a steely determination to continue their protest until they are repealed. “The BJP government has been phenomenal, but these morons are not understanding”, the ‘farmer’ tells his friend during the 2-minute conversation that has gone viral on social media.

On Republic Day, hundreds of rioters broke barricade at the Delhi border ahead of the scheduled time for Tractor rally and reached the Red Fort, all the time unleashing violence on the Delhi Police. The rioting mob then sieged the Red Fort and unfurled the Khalsa Nishan on the historical monument.

Soon afterwards, videos surfaced showing a trolley stockpiled with locally-sourced and international alcoholic beverages. It was reported that several protestors drove under influence and attempted to mow down police officials when they tried to stop them. 

The life and times of Rajdeep Sardesai: Multiple apologies, repeated ‘mistakes’ and dedicated propaganda, from Sohrabuddin to Coronavirus

OpIndia Staff
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The life and times of Rajdeep Sardesai: Multiple apologies, repeated ‘mistakes’ and dedicated propaganda, from Sohrabuddin to Coronavirus

Speculations are rife that ‘Eminent journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai has resigned from India Today after he was taken off air for spreading fake news regarding an extremely sensitive matter during the Republic Day insurrection. It was not the first time that the propagandist-in-chief lied about a critical event but the one on Republic Day appears to have proved to be one too many.

Rajdeep Sardesai had claimed that a protester was shot by the Police when, in reality, he died after meeting with an accident and no shots had been fired at him. Unsurprisingly, he has been facing major flak on social media and elsewhere regarding the same.

Public memory is short, therefore, it is perhaps a good time to remind people of the dedicated agenda that he has peddled during his career. And intriguingly perhaps, but not really, all such lies always are engineered to harm only one political party.

Thus, if the lies were a consequence of incompetence alone, one would have expected Rajdeep Sardesai to spread lies that hurt the electoral prospects of ‘secular’ parties as well but that, somehow, never appears to have happened.

In this report, we revisit some of the major propaganda efforts that Rajdeep Sardesai has made over the years.

The Sohrabuddin Encounter Case

Rajdeep Sardesai offered an unconditional apology in November 2019 for spreading lies about IPS Officer Rajiv Trivedi 12 years earlier. Rajdeep Sardesai had to apologise to Rajiv Trivedi for a program that aired on 13 May 2007. In the program, it was claimed that Hyderabad Special Investigation Unit SP Rajiv Trivedi had helped Gujarat police in nabbing Sohrabuddin. Rajdeep Sardesai had claimed that the IPS Officer had provided cars with fake number plates which were used to transport Sohrabuddin to Ahmedabad.

After the report, a Criminal Complaint was filed against Rajdeep Sardesai and others involved in the news report. Accordingly, Hyderabad police had initiated criminal proceedings against the ‘journalist’.

Rajdeep Sardesai provides platform to Pakistan Minister

Pakistani Minister Fawad Chaudhry had announced in their parliament that the Pulwama Attack was a great victory for Pakistan. He said that Pakistan had entered India and carried out the Pulwama Attack.

“Humne Hindustan ko ghus ke maara (We hit India in their home). Our success in Pulwama, is a success of the people under the leadership of Imran Khan. You and us are all part of that success,” Fawad Chaudhry said in the national assembly.

Immediately afterwards, Rajdeep Sardesai invited Fawad on his show to ‘clarify’ his stand. Instead of confronting him over the matter, the propagandist-in-chief permitted him to attack Indian media instead.

Rajdeep Sardesai insinuates Sushant Singh Rajput was suffering from ‘bipolar disorder’

The propagandist’s conduct regarding the Sushant Singh Rajput case has also been rather questionable. He had asserted that Sushant’s family should “mourn in peace” and raised objections when a police investigation was initiated. However, when he was told by IPS officers that it is the law to investigate every unnatural death, he had deflected his assertions.

Furthermore, he insinuated that Sushant Singh Rajput was suffering from bipolar disorder despite evidence to the contrary.

The propaganda regarding CAA

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was another polarized issue that incited violent riots. Thus, it will not surprise anyone that he spread lies regarding the matter as well. He claimed that “debates were invited after bringing in Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)”.

Debates on the matter have been ongoing since ages as evidenced by the past stance of the Congress party and other opposition parties which had earlier demanded provisions consistent with the CAA.

The Sachin Pilot Rebellion

In the aftermath of Sachin Pilot’s rebellion against the Congress party in Rajasthan, Rajdeep Sardesai insinuated during an interview with the Congress leader that the revolt was sponsored by the BJP. He was instantly shut off by Pilot who said they had paid for the travel and lodging expenses themselves.

Sachin Pilot said, “No, It is very easy to allege. I know the numbers better than you do Rajdeep. I have worked to make those numbers. I know each and every MLA in our party and otherwise.”

During the saga, he had cast aspersions on a verdict passed by the Supreme Court, perceived to be detrimental to the Congress party, saying that it was delivered by Justice Arun Mishra who had called Prime Minister Modi a “versatile genius”. He deleted the tweet later.

The Coronavirus crisis

Rajdeep Sardesai did not stop peddling his agenda even during the Coronavirus crisis. A Medical College in Devanagere, Karnataka had not paid the stipends of its students for 16 months. The propagandist-in-chief proceeded to target Prime Minister Modi’s drive to hail Corona Warriors.

Later, it was discovered that the Medical College in question was owned by a Congress leader and the BJP Government had asked the authorities to pay the students. He had also at one point discussed whether the success of the ‘Bengaluru model’ in combatting the Coronavirus was due to luck, hinting that the BJP Government in the state did not deserve credit for its initiatives.

Rajdeep Sardesai had also claimed that a man had died of starvation at Banda in Bundelkand, Uttar Pradesh. The DM of Banda had to fact-check the propagandist and reveal that the family had received food grains under various schemes free of cost and that the man had died to other reasons.

He had also claimed that Punjab had received only Rs. 71 crore from the central government to fight Covid-19 when, in reality, the state had received hundreds of crores in funding.

Rajdeep Sardesai lies about the Statue-of-Unity

Rajdeep Sardesai trolled Sonam Wangchuk, Ladakh based innovator and education reformist, after the latter made the call to boycott Chinese products in the wake of the clash at Galwan Valley. He claimed that the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat was in fact ‘Made in China’ and not built in India.

“The entire statue itself is being built in India at the site and only the bronze cladding in the form of bronze plates is being sourced from China, which constitutes a negligible amount of less than 9 per cent of the total value of the project,” the engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which constructed the statue, had stated as early as 2015.

Rajdeep Sardesai and 2001 Parliament attack

Rajdeep Sardesai, in a viral video, had said how the 2001 terror attack on Indian Parliament was a ‘great day’. During an interview in 2018, the ‘ace’ reporter had admitted that when the Parliament was being attacked in 2001, he was ‘excited’ and that journalists are like vultures. Rajdeep Sardesai stated, “It was a great day. We are like vultures. We feed on these moments.”

Rajdeep Sardesai and ‘fake sting operation’

In June 2018, a doctor named Ajay Agarwal levelled serious allegations against television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai (With India Today group) and others of ruining his life and reputation by airing a ‘fake sting operation’ in 2006 on news channels IBN7 and CNN-IBN (both channels have now been re-branded as News18 and CNN-News18 respectively). For 12 long years, Dr. Agarwal fought to salvage his life and reputation but none of the journalists including Rajdeep apologised him despite numerous probes finding him not guilty.

Rajdeep Sardesai and politics over dead bodies

Few years back, Rajdeep Sardesai exposed his own hypocrisy when he asked others to stop politics over dead bodies. It is a bit rich coming from someone who rose to prominence in the journalism arena by politicising charred dead bodies of innocent people in a train burning incident in Godhra in 2002 and the ensuing communal-riots. Rajdeep had also written a moving piece when journalist Shujaat Bukhari was brutally murdered. What is interesting, is that when Hindu Activist Prashant Poojari was murdered, Rajdeep had written a piece trying to whitewash the crime and assert that his murder had a “political context”. 

Rajdeep Sardesai and caste bias

The great visionary Mr. Sardesai is also known for his progressive, futuristic views. So much so that he has gone to the extent of pointing out ‘caste bias‘ in the selection of the Indian cricket team. Yes, a caste-based selection process is exactly what Indian sports needs right now, as his argument suggested. He stated that the French won the world cup because they have ‘democratised’ their team selection and there have not been many Dalit Indian cricket players. 

The multiple apologies of the Propagandist-in-Chief

Rajdeep Sardesai had claimed in 2017 that the VC of BHU had attended Narendra Modi’s rally in Varanasi. However, soon he was forced to issue an apology after admitting that it was a case of ‘mistaken identity’.

Another apology was related to a manipulated interview of Sri Sri Ravishankar. After a viewer registered a complaint regarding the same, the ‘journalist’ replied to the viewer expressing his regrets and said that an apology was issued on air and to Sri Sri in person as well. In addition he said that the channel had “put in place systems to ensure that pre recorded interviews do not run in live discussions at any stage”.

Rajdeep Sardesai and complicated relationship with facts

Soon after Delhi riots, Rajdeep Sardesai tried to blame BJP leader Kapil Mishra for the violence. The locals shut him up. Prior to that, during Delhi assembly elections, Rajdeep Sardesai shared fake news on Amit Shah’s rally. He deleted tweet twice after people pointed reality out to him. During anti-CAA riots, Sardesai called Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan a ‘BJP agent’. He shut him up and how. When Islamic mob ran riots and set buses on fire to oppose CAA, Sardesai painted them all as peaceful and patriotic.

After Narendra Modi led NDA alliance won the 2019 elections, Sardesai said PM Modi should thank terrorist Masood Azhar and others for BJP’s victory. He had also shamelessly twisted PM Modi’s comment on Congress’ “Hindu terror” bogey. In October 2018 he was found lying about the Amritsar train tragedy. Oh and to top it all in March 2017, India Today issued a wrong corrigendum for a lie he had spread.

Rashtrapati Bhavan pulls up Rajdeep Sardesai, India Today for Netaji portrait blunder, to review further engagements with media house

OpIndia Staff
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Rashtrapati Bhavan pulls up Rajdeep Sardesai, India Today for Netaji portrait blunder, to review further engagements with media house

President of India’s office, in a strongly worded letter to India Today group, has condemned the unsavoury controversy surrounding the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose portrait that was unveiled by President Ramnath Kovind earlier this week.

Letter to India Today

In the letter, written by the Press Secretary of the President, Ajay Kumar Singh, on behalf of the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the motives behind dragging the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the controversy by some of the journalists associated with the India Today group are not clear.

Addressing Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group, the letter said how a section of journalists associated with the group alleged that the portrait was not of Netaji but of an actor named Prosenjit, who played role of Bose in a movie ‘Gumnami’.

On January 23, 2021, the President of India unveiled a portrait of Netaji on his 125th birth anniversary. However, Sardesai, along with other prominent ‘journalists’ had asserted the portrait was of Prosenjit and not of Netaji.

Rajdeep Sardesai’s now deleted tweet

In a now-deleted tweet, Sardesai had said that the Rashtrapati Bhavan could have found a ‘nice original’ portrait for the occasion.

He later, instead of apologising for the needless controversy, had put the burden of clarification on the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

He had tweeted that the government ‘insists’ that the Netaji portrait is an original portrait and not from movie, thereby insinuating that he still believes the portrait was of Prosenjit and not of Netaji.

Some time later, he again tweeted Netaji’s photograph on which the artist Paresh Maity made the portrait.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan rebuked India Today group for gleefully ridiculing the high Constitutional Office while not only discrediting their professional ethics but also cast a shadow on the office of the President of India. “You will agree that such irresponsible behaviour compromises the dignity of the Rashtrapati Bhavan,” the letter said.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan stated that this behaviour was not a momentary lapse of judgement or a forgivable slip of pen as most of these journalists associated with India Today group merely deleted their tweet and did not own up to their blunder.

The President’s office further stated that this whole episode has caused deep distress at Rashtrapati Bhavan and are forced to review their engagement with the India Today Group.

Banned for ‘blasphemy’ and accused to leading people to deviate from Islam, “Zindagi Tamasha” will represent Pakistan at Oscars

OpIndia Staff
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Banned for ‘blasphemy’ and accused to leading people to deviate from Islam, “Zindagi Tamasha” will represent Pakistan at Oscars

A Pakistani film that was banned by the government for its alleged blasphemous content is the country’s official entry for the Oscars 2021.

Zindagi Tamasha(Circle of Life), produced by Sarmad Khoosat, was banned last year after the hardline Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) workers vowed to hold a countrywide protest against its screening. However, the movie which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival last year is now Pakistan’s official entry to the Academy Awards.

The film had passed the censor board certifications but, it ran afoul with the fundamentalist groups, including Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which objected to the film on account of its blasphemous nature. The far-right extremist group alleged that the movie would lead people to deviate from the teachings of Islam and the Prophet.

Zindagi Tamasha continues to remain banned in Pakistan

The movie, Zindagi Tamasha, revolves around a patriarch(Arif Hassan) whose single act of self-expression causes cataclysmic damage on the lives of his immediate family. Sarmad Khoosat, one of the two producers of the movie revealed that the inspiration for the film came from a real-life incident where the prevalent political discourse regulate and control one’s private passions.

The trailer of the movie shows a Muslim man, who writes hymns extolling the Prophet, being banished from society and subjected to humiliation after a video of him dancing to a popular song becomes viral. After his video of dancing goes viral, he is condemned by society. People stop inviting him to sing naats. They even spit at him or stop him for selfies after the video leak. The story is inspired by the story of a real-life man whose video of dancing to Punjabi song was leaked after which he was forced to submit an apology.

Set to release in January 2020, the movie’s trailer triggered an angry reaction from fundamentalists and the release date of the movie kept getting delayed amidst a series of protests, open letters and multiple reviews by the Pakistani censor boards. In July 2020, Pakistan’s Senate Committee for Human Rights approved the release of the film, but the decision got stuck in a legal battle. The movie continues to remain banned in Pakistan and the creators of the movie have expressed disappointment that the movie remains unavailable for the local audience, for which the movie was made.

Makers of the movie receive death threats for making a ‘blasphemous’ movie

Khoosat, one of the producers of Zindagi Tamasha, has been a toast of Pakistan’s entertainment industry. He directed popular TV Drama Humsafar with actor Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan in the lead. He has also acted in dramas and films in Pakistan. In 2018, he delivered a 24-hour-long live act, ‘No Time To Sleep’, performing the last 24 hours of a death row prisoner’s life, a rendition which earned him critical appreciation.

However, despite his soaring popularity, Mr Khoosat received a barrage of threat for venturing to make a movie on what was deemed as blasphemous according to the fundamentalists. Mr Khoosat’s phone number was leaked, he faced death threats and photos of decapitated heads on his phone. One religious leader even went on to say that the film would be released over his dead body.

Another maker of the movie, Kanwal Khoosat, is not cowed down by the threats he has been receiving. On the contrary, it has only emboldened his faith in the power of the arts. “All the heartache that Zindagi Tamasha gave me has somehow restored my faith in the power of art too: the sheer, almost physical power of art to make life imitate it. This announcement, for me, is a very bright light shining at the end of this dark tunnel of a year,” Kanwal Khoosat, co-producer of the film, was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

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