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Pranab Mukherjee’s last memoir, set to be released in 2021, slams Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for Congress’ downfall: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Pranab Mukherjee’s last memoir, set to be released in 2021, slams Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for Congress’ downfall: Details

In the fourth volume of his autobiography titled, ‘The Presidential Years (2012-2017)’, former President Pranab Mukherjee had blamed the Congress party for losing its focus, after his elevation to the post of the President. The new book of Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away on August 31 this year, is slated to be released in January 2021.

On Friday, publisher Rupa Publications shared excerpts from the much-anticipated book wherein President Mukherjee had made making scathing observations about his former party. “We are delighted to announce the publication of ‘The Presidential Years’ by Pranab Mukherjee. Releasing in January 2021. ‘The Presidential Years’ gives us a glimpse of President Pranab Mukherjee at his best,” the publication tweeted.

Pranab Mukherjee attributed Congress’ loss of 2014 elections to lack of ‘political focus’, slammed Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi

The former President narrated how several Congress leaders believed his lack of elevation to the post of the Prime Minister in 2004 was responsible for the defeat of the once-formidable Congress party in the 2014 General Elections.

Pranab Mukherjee recounted, “Some members of the Congress have theorized that, had I become the PM in 2004, the party might have averted the 2014 Lok Sabha drubbing. Though I don’t subscribe to this view, I do believe that the party’s leadership lost political focus after my elevation as President.”

While blaming top brass of Congress leaders for the debacle, Mukherjee added, “While Sonia Gandhi was unable to handle the affairs of the party, Dr Singh’s prolonged absence from the House put an end to any personal contact with other MPs.” It is pertinent to mention that Congress tally in the 2014 elections had reduced to a dismal 44.

As per the book excerpts, Pranab Mukherjee pointed out how the lack of governance, on the part of Manmohan Singh who was busy in coalition politics, cost them the popular vote. While emphasising on differences between Singh and incumbent PM Narendra Modi, President Mukherjee wrote, “While Dr Singh was preoccupied with saving the coalition, which took a toll on governance, Modi seemed to have employed a rather autocratic style of governance during his first term, as seen by the bitter relationship among the government, the legislature and the judiciary.”

While cautioning the current political dispensation, he highlighted, “Only time will tell if there is a better understanding of such matters in the second term of this government..” He had authored 3 other memoirs titled, ‘The Dramatic Years: The Indira Gandhi Years’, ‘The Turbulent Years: 1980-1996’ and ‘The Coalition Years: 1996-2012.’

It is perhaps due to this outlook for the former President that the relationship between Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee became sour. In 2019, when it was announced that the Bharat Ratna would be conferred on Pranab Mukherjee, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi had displayed staggering pettiness and decided to stay away from the award ceremony.

Despite an invitation extended from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, even former Congress President Rahul Gandhi stayed away from Pranab Mukherjee’s Bharat Ratna event.

While it is not yet clear why he chose to skip the function felicitating one of the party’s veteran leaders, there were speculations that it might be because of the fact that Mukherjee chose to attend an RSS event last year. The former President had hailed Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS as a ‘great son of Mother India’. Even back then Congress had displayed displeasure at his decision. While Rahul Gandhi chose to not even tweet his congratulations to Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh and Sonia were also absent from the ceremony.

Bollywood actress Arya Banerjee found dead in her apartment in Kolkata, body sent for post-mortem: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Bollywood actress Arya Banerjee found dead in her apartment in Kolkata, body sent for post-mortem: Read details

Actress Arya Banerjee, who had acted in several movies, was found dead at her south Kolkata residence on Friday. According to the reports, the 33-year-old woman, who came to limelight for her role in ‘The Dirty Picture’, was found dead at her Kolkata residence. The police broke the door of her apartment and found that her body was lying in the bedroom.

The police reached the spot after her domestic help got suspicious as she did not respond to the doorbell and phone calls in the morning. The domestic help had informed the neighbours who called the police. Arya lived alone and kept to herself mostly, the domestic help said.

The police said that the body has been now sent for post mortem examination and a forensic team collected samples from her room.

No foul play, body of Arya Banerjee sent for post-mortem, says police

They said that primarily it appears to be no foul play. The exact cause of death will be known when the post-mortem report reaches us, a senior police officer said.

“She was getting her food through app-based delivery platforms for some time now. She used to spend time with her pet dog. Neighbours said she didn’t mix with anyone in the locality. We are trying to find out who would visit the house for any work. Her call details are being scanned to see if she was in any distress and if she had received any food from outside in the last 24 hours,” the police added.

Arya Banerjee, the daughter of late sitarist Nikhil Bandyopadhyay, had acted in ‘LSD: Love Sex Aur Dhoka’ (2010) and other films besides ‘The Dirty Picture’ (2011). She had also done some modelling work in Mumbai.

Don’t share ideology: Yuvraj Singh tries to distance himself from father’s anti-Hindu rant but supports ‘Award Wapsi’ nonetheless

OpIndia Staff
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Don’t share ideology: Yuvraj Singh tries to distance himself from father’s anti-Hindu rant but supports ‘Award Wapsi’ nonetheless

Former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh on Saturday said that he was ‘saddened and upset’ by his father Yograj Singh’s hate speech during the ongoing farmer protests in NCR and added that his ideologies are not similar to that of his father.

Yuvraj Singh, who turned 39 today, took to Twitter to clarify his stand on the latest controversy surrounding his father Yograj Singh. The former cricketer also said that he wished for a speedy resolution of the ongoing conflict between farmers and the central government.

“Birthdays are an opportunity to fulfil a wish or desire and this birthday, rather than celebrating, I only wish and pray for a swift resolution of the ongoing talks between our farmers and our government” Yuvraj posted on Twitter.

He further said that he wished to clarify that his father’s remarks have been made in an individual capacity and their ideologies are not the same in any manner.

Yuvraj Singh also urged the citizens of India to continue to take necessary precautions against the Covid-19 virus and infection as our society continues to fight against the pandemic. “Undoubtedly, farmers are the lifeblood of the nation and I truly believe that there is no problem which cannot be resolved through peaceful dialogue,” Yuvraj Singh said in a statement on Twitter.

Yuvraj Singh also said that the farmers are demanding the right thing and the government should listen to them. “It is really high time that the government should come up with solutions in this regard and I back all those sportspersons who are returning their prestigious award,” Yuvraj said.

The clarification from Yuvraj Singh comes after his father Yograj Singh had recently made a vile speech against Hindus, especially women during the ongoing farmers protests along the Haryana-Punjab border.

However, the clarification by Yuvraj Singh is being seen as hogwash by many since it comes several days after the controversy broke out and the shocking speech was made by his father. Also, several people noted that even though he is trying to distance himself from his father, he is still supporting the falsehoods being spread in the name of the farm bills by vested interests and thus, doubted his genuineness.

Father of Yuvraj Singh, Yograj Singh’s hate speech against Hindus

Recently, addressing a gathering of protestors at the farmer rally at the national capital, Yograj Singh had made an abhorrent speech targeting Hindus. The videos had gone viral where Singh was not only heard humiliating Hindus but also making some extremely repugnant remarks against Hindu women.

While giving a speech at the ongoing farmer protests at the outskirts of Delhi, Singh remarked on Hindu women saying “Inki aurate take-take ke bhaw bikti thi” (their women were sold for two cents). When their women and daughters were abducted by people like Ahmed Shah Durrani and sold off for a paltry sum, it was we Sikhs who saved them. These are the people who have betrayed us. This community has been slaves for thousands of years,” said Yograj Singh.

While attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for being Gujaratis, Yograj Singh said, “I have spent 15 years with Gujaratis in Mumbai. These people would take a u-turn even if they swore on their mothers, sisters, and daughters.” 

Mentioning terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Yograj urged the farmers to raise another Bhindranwale amongst themselves. “Every person here is a ‘Jarnail.’ If you want to save Punjab, ensure that power is in your hands. If the power is in your hand, you will see a new sun rising from the land of Punjab,” he said.

Earlier, Yograj Singh had also justified death threats to PM Modi. He further accused the central government of carrying out ‘atrocities’ worse than those carried out by barbaric invaders like Babur, Aurangzeb and the British.

Days after his vile rant against Hindus, filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri had dropped the former cricketer and actor from his directorial movie The Kashmir Files. 

ANI denies allegations of running disinformation campaign at EU, calls it an attempt by Pakistan & its proxies to hurt ANI’s credibility

OpIndia Staff
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ANI denies allegations of running disinformation campaign at EU, calls it an attempt by Pakistan & its proxies to hurt ANI’s credibility

News agency ANI had denied the allegations that it is running an operation to influence EU parliamentarians against Pakistan. ANI editor Smita Prakash said that Pakistan and its proxies are behind the propaganda against Asian News International (ANI).

Smita Prakash tweeted, “an attempt has been made by Pakistan & its proxies to hurt ANI’s credibility by hurling wild accusations of fake news.” She said that partners and subscribers fully understand the politics that is behind all this, and continue to repose faith in the depth reach and credibility of their coverage.

The ANI editor was responding to a report by EU Disinfolab, an organisation which claims to tackle sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the European Union, its member states, core institutions, and core values. They had alleged that a 15-year long campaign is being run to target the EU and UN to serve Indian interests.

They claimed to have “uncovered a massive operation targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests”, and EU Disinfolab named it as ‘Indian Chronicles’. The report prepared by them claims that the main objective of ‘Indian Chronicles’ is to run pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan, anti-China campaign on international platforms, and to consolidate the power of India.

The report claimed the operation conducted a massive fake news operation, created by obscure local media networks. It said that ANI repackaged those reports and circulated in mainstream media across the world. It claimed that as the reports were created by obscure news networks, it required an established news agency like ANI to distribute them. “Once repackaged by ANI News, the content from EU Chronicle is reproduced by other major Indian outlets, then reaching a domestic audience in India,” EU Disinfolab claimed.

Interestingly, they even claimed that Pakistani media also came under the influence of ‘Indian Chronicles’ to run anti-Pakistan propaganda. In one example they gave to illustrate how ANI allegedly spread propaganda, they used the copy of a report by Dawn, a major Pakistani newspaper.

Ministry of External Affairs of India also reacted to the report by EU Disinfolab and denied the allegation. Saying that it is Pakistan which is spreading disinformation, and not India, the MEA in a statement said, “as a responsible democracy, India doesn’t practice disinformation campaigns. In fact, if you’re looking at disinformation, the best example is the country next door which is circulating fictional & fabricated dossiers & purveys a regular stream of fake news.”

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava added, “Disinformation is practised particularly by those who have records to hide such as sheltering international wanted terrorists including Osama Bin Laden, & seek unsuccessfully to cover up their own tracks such as on the 26/11 Mumbai Attack.”

Subramanian Swamy likely to sue BBC journalist Stephen Sackur for accusing him of endorsing discrimination against Muslims

OpIndia Staff
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Subramanian Swamy likely to sue BBC journalist Stephen Sackur for accusing him of endorsing discrimination against Muslims

Firebrand politician Subramanian Swamy is all set to file a case against BBC journalist Stephen Sackur after the latter accused him of discrimination against Muslims and falsely attributed ‘Muslims not equal’ comments to him. Advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari took to Twitter to inform that a case in this regard is about to be filed.

In an interview with Ram Madhav on BBC HARDtalk, Sackur seemed intent on cornering the BJP leader, questioning him on a host of issues including Kapil Mishra’s tweets, Home Minister Amit Shah’s ‘termites’ remark for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Subramanian Swamy’s allegedly discriminatory remarks against India’s Muslim population.

Ram Madhav cautions BBC journalist of a legal suit if his Swamy’s remarks about the Muslims are false

When Ram Madhav repudiated Sackur’s allegations of BJP’s alleged prejudice against the Muslims, the BBC journalist said, “Are you not aware that just last month the BJP MP, Subramanian Swamy, said, ‘Muslims if they become anything like 30% of our population, they will be a danger to the country.’ Muslims, he said, are not in an equal category. This is the language of pure discrimination and coming from senior figures in your party.”

Madhav responded to the question, stating that the BBC journalist should be careful, for if the allegations levelled by him against Dr Swamy are not true, he will face a legal suit by the BJP MP. Madhav also added that if the statement is at all true, the party does not subscribe to such sentiments.

“Ok, I have not seen the statement directly. I take it that what you are saying is true. You be careful that if it is not true, you will be sued by Dr Swamy. Having said that, we do not approve of such sentiments,” Madhav said.

The BBC journalist’s question came in reference to Swamy’s interview with Vice News where he was asked if the Citizenship Amendment Act was in contravention of the Article 14 of the Indian constitution that grants equal rights to all Indian citizens regardless of their religious background.

Swamy had then said, “It’s misinterpretation of Article 14. Article 14 guarantees equality for equals”.

“If Muslims become more than 30 per cent, that country will be in a danger,” Swamy said while speaking to Isobel Yeung.

BBC journalist cites Amit Shah’s “termites” remark out of context to paint BJP as anti-Muslim

Subsequently, the BBC journalist asked Madhav to provide an explanation on Home Minister Amit Shah’s “termite” remarks for the Bangladeshi infiltrators in India. He asked, “If you are so sure that there is no discrimination, communal hatred, racism directed by the saffron party towards Muslims, then how would you react when your own Home Minister Amit Shah describes migrants from Muslim majority Bangladesh living in India as ‘termites’ who will be thrown into the Bay of Bengal?”

Madhav coolly responded that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks were taken out of context.

Shah had referred to the illegal immigrants in West Bengal as termites ahead of the General elections 2019. He made the comment in reference to the enormous strain the illegal immigrants posed for the limited resources in the country which are meant for the poor.

“The illegal immigrants are like termites. They are eating the grain that should go to the poor, they are taking our jobs. The T of TMC stands for Tushtikaran, (appeasement), M for Mafia and C for Chit funds. After coming to power, the BJP would find these termites and throw them out,” Shah said.

Ram Madhav, in his defence, said that the allegations of BJP leaders and the saffron party being anti-Muslims are totally baseless, and have their origins from the nefarious campaign ran by the opposition parties and individuals who are opposed to the Modi government. He further cited the approval ratings of PM Modi commissioned by independent agencies, stating that they are above 90 per cent, which means that both Hindus and Muslims have voted in favour of the prime minister.

The menace of Grooming Jihad: How neighbours, lawyers, landlords etc come together to report potential cases

OpIndia Staff
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The menace of Grooming Jihad: How neighbours, lawyers, landlords etc come together to report potential cases

As Uttar Pradesh continues to be afflicted by the increasing number of Grooming Jihad cases, the residents of the state have taken upon themselves to report suspected cases with the help of social media networks, in an attempt to nip the menace in the bud.

As per a report published in the Times of India, a strong network of landlords, neighbours, temple managers, marriage registration officers, lawyers and others are involved in reporting on the potential cases of Grooming Jihad relationships fostering in their midst.

Initially, it is those who are close to the couples, such as neighbours and the family relatives, who approach the Hindu groups to save their daughters or acquaintance from falling into potential cases of Grooming Jihad. But on the second level, neighbours, temple managers, lawyers, marriage registration officers, parents and others, who were earlier shy of approaching Hindu organisations, have openly reported the possible grooming jihad cases to them.

“There is seismic change in the outlook of the parents and people who would earlier go against us,” said Chetna Sharma, the national president of Hindu Swabhiman, adding, “things are changing now are concerned parents and neighbours come to them to save their daughters from getting into a wrong relationship”. Sharma told TOI that every year she rescues 15 girls on an average from wrong marriages.

Neighbours, temple managers, family relatives act as informers to nip potential cases of grooming jihad in the bud

Aligarh convenor of Bajrang Dal Gaurav Sharma and former west UP convenor Balraj Dungar echoed similar sentiments about the growing awareness among people with regard to incidents of grooming jihad. They confessed that an array of people, from businessmen to students, to neighbours, act as informers, apprising the Hindu organisations of potential grooming jihad cases blossoming in their vicinity.

“We did not have to prowl streets in search for the Bareily couple,” Dungar said while referring to an interfaith couple from Bareilly whose landlord reported them on Tuesday this week. Dungar informed that even social media websites are used to keep track of the probable cases of grooming jihad. He said that every year his organisation stops at least 20 to 30 potential cases.

The Meerut circle convenor of the Hindu Yuva Vahini informed that his organisations had eyes on temples where Hindu girls would come with Muslim men to get married and temple managers would let them know about the interfaith marriages.

UP government passes ordinance to curb the menace of Grooming Jihad

The Uttar Pradesh government recently enacted a law to curb the rising menace of Muslim men pretending to be Hindu to lure Hindu girls into relationships, a phenomenon known as grooming jihad, also known as love jihad. The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cleared an ordinance against forced conversions, which the Yogi Adityanath government has been mulling ever since the cases of the purported crime had been reported from various parts of the state.

The decision to promulgate an ordinance was taken after a spate of cases of forced conversions of Hindu woman by Muslim men, on the pretext of marriage, had come to the fore. Though, cases of love jihad have been reported from across the length and breadth of the state, Kanpur had emerged as the epicentre of ‘organised love jihad’ cases. There have been several cases of forced conversions of women on the pretext of marriage reported from the city that it has fuelled suspicions about a new model of entrapping Hindu women gaining a foothold in the city.

OpIndia has decided to use the term ‘Grooming Jihad‘ in place of ‘Love Jihad’ for the latter term fails to capture the gravity of the Jihad that is being waged by sections of radical Muslims to target non-Muslim women. Non-Muslim women are being groomed to accept their own subjugation at the hands of Muslim men. They are kidnapped, raped, lured, converted to Islam, punished and brainwashed. There is no ‘Love’ in these crimes against humanity. There is no ambiguity that it is a form of Jihad. We believe that the term ‘Grooming Jihad’ is far more appropriate since it encapsulates within itself all categories of crimes that keep women at the centre of this Jihad.

What is the Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic Association? Meet its president and HDFC Bank’s ‘neighbourhood hero’ Ashok Singh Garcha

K Bhattacharjee
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What is the Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic Association? Meet its president and HDFC Bank’s ‘neighbourhood hero’ Ashok Singh Garcha

There is a certain person on social media who has become a meme on the internet. He goes by the name of Ashok Singh Garcha and claims to be the president of Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic Association (AIAA). His bio on Twitter shows that he preaches “JEWISH/CHRISTIAN/MUSLIM and SIKH UNITY”. He has obviously not been very successful because if he had been, he would have already been summoned to resolve the Palestinian conflict.

Nonetheless, his posturing on social media gives one the impression that he believes a peace between the said communities could break out any moment. But during the presidential tenure of Ashok Singh Garcha at AIAA, such a peace has failed to materialize and Afghan Sikhs have continued to come into Hindu-majority India to escape the hellhole in their native countries. But such a stellar record at failure, matched only by Rahul Gandhi, does not appear to threaten his position as the president of AIAA.

Twitter profile of Ashok Singh Garcha

Amusingly enough, HDFC Bank designated Ashok Singh Garcha as their “neighbourhood hero” from Ludhiana for providing food to underprivileged residents. The award was presented in August 2020. Before we proceed further, it is pertinent to state it outright that claims that Sikhism is “Indo-Abrahamic” is proper nonsense and has no connection with reality whatsoever.

Garcha receives HDFC’s endorsement

We visited the website mentioned in Garcha’s profile in order to learn more about the association. According to the website, “The AIAA (Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic Association) is an inter-faith association of the Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic faiths based upon their shared faith traditions and beliefs.” “The Abrahamics and the Indo-Abrahamics comprise almost 75% of the world’s population and form the single largest global collective of religions with shared root ideologies and practices,” it adds.

The AIAA believes that Sikhism and sects such as Radha Soami, Ravidasia, Kabir Panthi, Satnami, Eksarna Sankardev, Sacha Sauda, Sri Narayan Dharam Paripalan, Namdev, Sai Baba, Sindhi sects etc. are ‘Indo-Abrahamic’ faiths. On his profile, Garcha claims that Sikhism is ‘Indo-Abrahamic’, ‘Deen-Dharmic’, ‘Sanatan-Semetic’.

Harebrained ideas of Ashok Singh Garcha

The AIAA states, “The relationship between the Indic and Indo-Abrahamic religions is well understood and acknowledged. However, the equally close kinship between the Abrahamic and Indo-Abrahamic religions is not so well understood and expounded. The AIAA is incorporated to remove this void of ignorance about the third largest genre of world religions in world theology.”

Ashok Singh Garcha also has some extremely novel ideas such as his theory on the culinary traditions manifested in Kurkure, the snack. According to him, “Kurkure are an Indo-Western snack arising out of the syncretisation of the culinary traditions of India with that of the West.” We cannot be sure whether he is serious or being sarcastic.

Ashok Singh Garcha on Kurkure

It appears that he wishes to portray Sikhism as the “most globally connected” in the world. He has said in the past, “Sikhism is the common link factor between the major religions of the world. The Indo-Abrahamic Sikhs have ideological cosanguinity, common descent, with the Abrahamic as well as Indic religions.” From his tweets, it is quite evident that he wishes to distance Sikhs from Hindus and associated religions such as Buddhism and Jainism and associate Sikhism with Abrahamic faiths instead.

However, Garcha does not have the support of the core constituency he seeks to address: The Sikhs. Sikhs on social media, the extremely few who do interact with him, are quite clearly sick of him and have been spotted calling him a ‘senile fool’. We also discovered that Ashok Singh Garcha was formerly associated with the Congress party. When a user said that he was peddling these weird ideas to further his political career, he did not deny being associated with the party.

Sikhs are not too fond of Ashok Singh Garcha, clearly

We have found some media reports from the past which call Garcha a “senior” Congress leader. In 2009, he had questioned the candidature of party spokesperson Manish Tewari from Ludhiana for the Lok Sabha Elections that year. But later, the then general secretary of the Punjab Youth Congress claimed that Garcha did not even hold preliminary membership of the party. But Garcha claimed that he was a Congressman because he had strong faith in the ideology of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Our ‘investigation’ also revealed that it was not the first time that Garcha has been called a “senile fool”. One would assume that in the Garcha school of thought, success is the ability to go from the first instance of being called ‘”senile fool” to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.

Probably not the first time he was called a senile fool either

Even as he continues to disassociate Sikhism from Hinduism, Garcha goes overboard in trying to build kinship with other religions. There is no evidence to suggest that Jews, Christians or Muslims are enthusiastic about embracing Sikhs in the ‘Abrahamic’ fold. According to him, “The Indo Abrahamic Sikhs are brothers and religious kinsmen of the Abrahamic Jews/Christians/Muslims”.

The many delusions of Ashok Singh Garcha

Ashok Singh Garcha has also floated numerous other problematic nonsense. In May this year, he floated the idea of ‘Delhi Takht 2020’, which is supposed to be a “patriotic, nationalist movement of Indian Sikhs to have Sikhs ruling over the country by 2050 AD”. When asked how he intends to carry it out, he said the plan is for “Sikhs to build a coalition with majority and minority communities to form a govt as per the constitution.”

Garcha’s Delhi Takht Agenda

The objectives of the AIAA, meanwhile, include “To network worldwide with the Abrahamics and make the Indo-Abrahamic emigrants like the Sikhs, Sindhis, Radha Soamis, Ravidasia, Satnami, Shirdi Sai Baba, Eksarna etc feel welcomed and comfortable in Abrahamic countries of Europe, Americas, Australia, Middle East, Africa” and “To network with the Indics and make the Abrahamics (Jew/Christian/Muslim ) feel welcome and at home in India, and vice versa for the Indics (Hindu/ Buddhist/Jain) outside India.”

Some have even claimed that certain individuals with their surname ‘Garcha’ have stopped using their surnames because of the nonsense that the president of AIAA has come up with. Unfortunately, we cannot as of this moment verify the authenticity of these claims.

Well…

Needless to say, hardly anyone takes Garcha seriously, but he does have a section of followers who mainly interact with him for comic relief. He has inevitably ended up becoming a meme on the internet where people use his antics for laughs. Some meme enthusiasts have cast him as a fanfic superhero who has been named ‘Dharmo-Semetic Garchos’.

While misled farmers continue to protest, Delhi’s cab driver, also a farmer from Punjab, explains how new farm laws are in farmers’ interest

OpIndia Staff
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While misled farmers continue to protest, Delhi’s cab driver, also a farmer from Punjab, explains how new farm laws are in farmers’ interest

While many misled farmers protest at the outskirts of the national capital against the Modi government’s new farm laws, Former Karnataka cadre IPS officer K Annamalai has taken to Twitter to share his encounter with a cab driver, who incidentally is also a farmer from Punjab. In a thread of Tweets, the BJP leader narrates his conversation with the taxi driver, where the latter talks about how the new farm laws brought by the Modi government is actually beneficial for the farmers and expresses his vexation over the ongoing protests.

He explains how contrary to the apprehensions, the new agriculture laws are actually in the farmers’ interest.

“I’m a farmer and I completely support these acts. It’s sickening to see protests of this sort”, said the cab driver to the BJP leader.

According to K Annamalai, the driver had shifted to Delhi a few years back as he couldn’t make any living out of agriculture. Now slowly and steadily he is alternating between driving a cab and farming back home, informed the former IPS officer, furthering that the driver is now getting the confidence to return to farming for the first time.

In his next few Tweets, Annamalai pens down the reasons which has helped the can driver regain his confidence in the agricultural sector.

Firstly, the inputs costs on agriculture have gone down, the cab driver told the BJP leader. The cost of fertiliser and seed have drastically decreased. Soil health cards are available. The Government is providing an insurance cover in case the crops fail. Modi Government has been granting Rs 6,00 to all small-term farmers like him, which is being directly transferred to their bank accounts.

Secondly, due to the provisions in the new farm laws, farmers like him would get rid of ‘local uncle’ who acts as the Arhtiya – commision agent. They would have the freedom to sell their produce any where, anytime and to anybody.

The cab driver explained that currently, nobody gets paid at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in his state. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the farmers are having to pay 6 per cent to the mandi which gets deducted from their accounts. The first 3 per cent is for mandi commission and the rest is for local development tax. The current politics, he said, is over this and on the additional 2.5 per cent Arthiya commission extra, lamented the can driver.

The BJP leader said that the cab driver divulged how these Arhtiyas or the commission agents, who are a complex set of system created by the Punjab state, act as facilitators between the mandi and the buying house and exploit farmers by making stringent rules regulating the sale of the farmers’ produce. These Arthiyas are economically very powerful. With the new farm laws in place, these commission agents would suffer the most and that is why they are going all out to protect themselves and their turf, said the driver.

Speaking about the ongoing protests where misinformed farmers continue to protest against Central government’s new farm laws, assuming that the new laws mean that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be abolished, the cab driver opined that centring the protest around MSP would not lead the farmers anywhere.

The driver then went on to explain how under the new laws, the government has increased the scope for the farmers. Under the new farm laws, around 21 agricultural produces have been brought under MSP, whereas, until 2014, only 3 agricultural produce were included. In fact, this govt is widening the MSP net in two ways – bringing more products under MSP and increasing the support price as well, the BJP leader quoted the cab driver as saying.

“In short what the previous governments have done is to insult farming and to make farmers to feel lowly about them selves. Dole Outs will take a back seat and farming for the first time after Indian independence will see youngsters and others taking up willingly, Tweeted K Annamalai.

Congress instigating farmers by peddling blatant lie that MSP will be abolished

It almost becomes imperative to note here that opposition parties, especially the Congress has been consistently misleading the farmers in Punjab by sharing some blatant and outright lies against the new farmer laws. Amongst other things, the Congress has been instigating the farmers that the central government, through its news farm laws, would abolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Which is an outright lie as seen by recent procurement of Kharif crops as per MSP.

The farmers have been, in turn, agitating at the outskirts of the national capital against Modi government’s farm laws assuming that the new laws mean that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) would be abolished.

Mandis will remain, MSP will be unaffected: Modi government

The central government has clarified a number of times that they are neither abolishing Mandis not repealing MSPs. Both the claims are lies. In fact, the Congress, in its own 2019 election manifesto, had promised to abolish the APMC Act altogether. However, the Modi government has only amended the APMC Act.

Modi government has not repealed the APMC Act in its entirety. The new laws passed by the current dispensation provides the farmers with an additional avenue to sell their produce besides the state-run Mandis. The provisions in the bills exempt transactions done outside the physical premises of APMC (agricultural produce market committee) Mandis from any “market fee or cess or levy” imposed by state governments.

PM Modi, government ministers and BJP leaders have asserted time and again that MSPs will continue. Rahul Gandhi and Congress, however, have been peddling the same lies again and again.

As the government is neither abolishing Mandis nor taking back the MSPs, the claims about Mandi workers being jobless and MSPs being repealed are thus completely false.

In fact, the Congress is opposing the very same reforms that it has been promising to the farmers over the years.

Iqbal, accused of murder in Delhi anti-Hindu riots, granted bail by HC because 4 other co-accused are already out on bail

OpIndia Staff
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Iqbal, accused of murder in Delhi anti-Hindu riots, granted bail by HC because 4 other co-accused are already out on bail

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court granted bail to Mohammed Iqbal, who has been accused of murder and rioting in the Delhi anti-Hindu riots case. The riots began on February 23 during which violent Muslim mobs went on a rampage in North-East Delhi, attacking Hindu homes and businesses.

As per reports, a Single Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar granted Iqbal bail on a personal and surety bond of ₹15,000. The Delhi High Court observed that four other people, who were accused in the case, had earlier been released.

The Court ruled, “It is not in dispute that 4 accused are already on bail pursuant to order passed by this Court. However, learned ASG is unable to establish that the present petitioner is not similarly situated with other 4 co-accused. In view of the facts recorded above, I am of the view that on parity the petitioner deserves bail,” the Judge ordered.”

The case of Mohammed Iqbal

Mohammed Iqbal was detained by the Delhi Police in connection to the Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots. He was booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder) and 395 (dacoity). Iqbal was represented by Advocates Sanjay Hegde, Anas Tanwi, Eeshan Pandey, Chandan Goswami, and Mudit Makhijan.

He was earlier granted bail by a local court on a surety bond of ₹20,000 on June. However, he was not released due to his involvement in another murder case. His family alleged that he was innocent and had gone to the market with his three friends to buy meat when he was apprehended by the police.

They claimed that they were not informed about his detention until the following day. The family members of Mohammed Iqbal also alleged that the Mandoli Jail authorities did not provide a copy of the FIR in the second case, even after the bail order of the local Delhi court.

Drone Prathap, who had crash-landed after OpIndia fact-check, rumoured to be entering the house of Bigg Boss Kannada

OpIndia Staff
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Drone Prathap, who had crash-landed after OpIndia fact-check, rumoured to be entering the house of Bigg Boss Kannada

Karnataka youth Prathap NM, known as Drone Boy or Drone Prathap, whose claim of building 600 drones using e-waste was busted by a comprehensive fact-check by OpIndia, is all set to enter the house of Bigg Boss Kannada, if reports are believed. According reports by Kannada media such as Asianet News and News 18 Kannada, the fake drone scientist is going to participate in the reality TV show aired on Colors Kannada channel.

According to the reports, the 8th edition of Bigg Boss Kannada will start early next year, and the selection process of participants has already started. Although the names of the participants are kept confidential before official disclosure by the channels, rumours on media and social media suggest that actor Anirudh Jakaar, newsreader Heeregowdar, Divya, Tik Tok queen Sonu Gowda, Drone Prathap and Bindu Gowda are set to participate in the show.

Prathap had risen to fame after Kannada media had hailed his ‘inventions’ without bothering to verify his claims. He had claimed to have built drones using electronic waste from broken TVs and Mixer Grinders, had claimed to have won numerous awards in ‘Drone competitions’ Japan and Europe. He had also claimed to have received invitations from over a hundred countries to deliver lectures.

But there was not a single photo or video available of any drone build by him, and the awards that he had claimed to have won do not exist. In the OpIndia fact-check, it was found that Prathap had visited various tech-expos in Japan, Germany etc, had got himself photographed with drones on display at those events, and had circulated them as his own creations. Most of the images had branding of the companies that made the drones, but it didn’t stop him from making false claims. Reportedly, he had also received funding of a large amount from various donors to keep up his ‘research’.

However, after OpIndia had published the fact-check, ‘drone Prathap’ had crash-landed, and all the people who had supported him started distancing themselves from him. Kannada media had also finally started to question him. The final nail in the coffin of his fame was put by Prathap himself, when he had shared a photo from a German expo to give proof of drones built by him in a live TV show. Immediately after that, German drone maker BillzEye Multicoptersysteme had issued a statement saying that it was their drone, and Prathap had nothing to do with its development.

Bigg Boss Kannada 8 is scheduled to start in January after Sankranti. Sudeep is set to return as hosts of the show this time also.

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