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IAS officer who had resigned protesting the ‘fascist’ policies of the BJP government joins Congress to ‘continue the fight’

OpIndia Staff
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IAS officer who had resigned protesting the ‘fascist’ policies of the BJP government joins Congress to ‘continue the fight’

S Sasikanth Senthil, the former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, joined the Congress party in Chennai on November 9, a year after he quit the civil service alleging that Indian democracy’s fundamental building blocks were being compromised. Senthil joined the grand old party in the presence of state unit president K S Alagiri, All India Congress Committee in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Dinesh Gundu Rao and AICC secretaries, Sanjay Dutt and Sirivella Prasad at the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan.

Senthil believes Congress understands the challenges faced by the country

A day prior to the event, Senthil had posted a note on Twitter on November 8 (Sunday), announcing his decision to join the Congress. He spoke about how the country was under “totalitarian attack” and added that Congress understood the challenges being faced by the country and was ready to find solutions along with the people.

The 41-year old former officer joined the civil service in 2009 and belonged to the Karnataka cadre. He quit service last September alleging, “the fundamental building blocks of our diverse democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner.”

S Sasikanth Senthil-a harch critic of BJP government

Santhil has been a harsh critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government ever since he quit civil service in September last year, in “search of a method to stem the totalitarian attack on the country that I so dearly love.”

Speaking at a mass protests held against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Population Register (NPR) by Citizenship Protection in January 2020, the former IAS officer had said the “after the implementation of CAA and NRC the nation is observing an emergency like situation”. He had alleged that PM Modi and HM Amit Shah were playing with people’s emotions.

Former IAS officer declares of starting non-cooperative movement if CAA is not revoked

Launching an attack at the BJP government, Senthil had said that that “current government and the leaders at the centre are fascists. We cannot expect anything more than terms like ‘Pakistan’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘Hindus’ from such people. He has tried to spread fear and mislead people by saying that the “CAA has affected the Muslim community today and will affect the Dalits and the backward classes in the future”. He had then declared that if the BJP government does not revoke the Act, he will have to once again start Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperative movement.

Congress to launch the former IAS officer on a national level

Santhil’s decision to take a political plunge comes when Tamil Nadu is gearing up for the Assembly elections next year, and political activities are picking up.

Speaking on the induction of the former IAS officer into the Congress party, the AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu affairs Dinesh Gundu Rao said: “Senthil is sick of the strife among communities, violence over religious issues, and the BJP’s policies. He wants to join efforts to unify the country. He has already discussed his ideas with Rahul Gandhi. The party will make use of him at the national level”.

After falling from Left’s grace since sanctioning prosecution against Islamist Umar Khalid, Kejriwal proceeds to display soft Hindutva, that too, on Republic TV

OpIndia Staff
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After falling from Left’s grace since sanctioning prosecution against Islamist Umar Khalid, Kejriwal proceeds to display soft Hindutva, that too, on Republic TV

Delhi Chief Minister seems to be making a shifting his position from ‘secularism’ to ‘soft Hindutva’, based on some of his recent actions. After angering the Islamists and ‘liberals’ by granting the approval to prosecute Umar Khalid under UAPA in the Delhi riots case, the CM is now aggressively promoting a puja he will hold on the occasion of Diwali.

Arvind Kejriwal has released a video, where he has informed that he and the members of his ministry will perform puja at the Akshardham temple in Delhi at 7.39 PM on 14th November. He informs that the Diwali puja along with the chants of mantra will be broadcast live on all major news channels, and he appeals the public to participate in the puja by watching the live stream.

The chief minister also said that when the 2 crore people will do the puja together on the evening on Saturday, magical waves will appear all around Delhi, and all visible and invisible forces will bless the people of Delhi. This puja will benefit all the residents of Delhi, the CM said.

Apart from posting the video message on social media, it is also being aggressively promoted on TV channels. Among other channels, the promotional video is also being shown on Republic TV, a channel hated by liberals. In fact, it seems the video is shown the most times on the channel, as it appears several times in an hour on Republic TV. For example, in the screenshots below, the video can be seen on Republic with a 10 minutes gap.

Kejriwal’s video on Republic TV at 5.43 PM on 13 November
Kejriwal’s video on Republic TV at 5.53 PM on 13 November

Not just this, the Delhi govt has also launched a telemarketing campaign to promote the Diwali puja. Several people on Twitter has informed that they received multiple phone calls with the audio of Kejriwal’s message, urging them to watch the live broadcast of the puja.

While it is common for politicians and ministers to host iftar parties, it is rare for them to hold puja with such public fanfare, especially for those politicians who are not linked with Hindutva ideology. Arvind Kejriwal has been a major politician from the liberal-secular camp, and therefore, this has been seen as an indicator of a major shift in his ideology.

Reacting to this apparent shift, BJP leader Tejasvi Surya said that this is the greatest shift in Indian politics that PM Modi has brought about. He opined that it is now the new normal, as nobody can afford to be anti-Hindu and be relevant in politics.

BJP MP Gautam Gambhir also mocked the Delhi CM for his appeal. He said that  Kejriwal is blaming other states for pollution, and blaming pollution for increase in coronavirus cases. Taking a jibe at Kejriwal, Gambhir tweeted that everything will be resolved automatically, and people can watch the CM performing puja on TV.

This is how a nation dies: Tyrants are using the Coronavirus crisis to destroy Hinduism and ‘civilise the heathens’

K Bhattacharjee
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This is how a nation dies: Tyrants are using the Coronavirus crisis to destroy Hinduism and ‘civilise the heathens’

There is a reason why conspiracy theories have always been so popular. When reasonable people cannot come up with rational explanations to explain the tyrannical actions of the ruling class, they usually have to resort to bizarre conjectures in order to preserve their sanity. Usually, there is a much simpler explanation. The ruling class is overflowing with sociopaths who feel an intense arousal every time they exercise their power. The events that have been underway in India since the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic certainly points towards it.

Before proceeding any further, it needs to be pointed out that Indians are, by and large, not stupid. They are acutely aware of the threat posed by the Coronavirus and have been more observant of government guidelines than most. When Prime Minister Modi announced that he will not participate in any Holi celebrations due to the pandemic as mass gatherings were to be avoided, people heeded his concerns. If he had made the same appeal to citizens, people would have exercised more caution on their own.

But after all this time, despite all the patience that Indians have demonstrated, the citizens of this country are being criminalised over festivities. There are a lot of restrictions that people will observe if the restrictions are enforced equitably across the country. But when they can see with their own eyes that festivities and mass gatherings are treated arbitrarily, it breeds contempt. Contempt lays the seed for chaos.

Social media was afire on Friday when it was reported that the Bhubaneshwar Municipal Corporation had banned the Paya Shraddha and Pinda Dana rituals for ancestors at Bindusagar Lake and near Lingaraj Temple on Diwali. The decision was taken in order to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, we are told, although it is not precisely clear at this point why are mass gatherings permitted for political rallies but not Hindu rituals and rituals as important as the ones we perform for our ancestors.

Bhubaneshwar Municipal Corporation order

While the ruling class across the country is on a power-trip, the ones in Odisha appear to be a special case. The district administration at Puri banned the age-old ritual of burning of Kaunriya Kathi (jute sticks) at the Singhadwar of Lord Jagannath Temple during Diwali this year. The excuse cited, once again, was the Coronavirus crisis.

“As there is possibility of huge smoke due to burning of Kaunriya Kathi, the ritual has been completely banned this year to prevent worsening of the pandemic situation. Covid-19 patients as well as others will be affected by the smoke. Therefore, we urge the people to perform rituals at their home, if possible,” Puri Sub-Collector Bhabataran Sahu said.

Sahu Babu did not explain how it will help prevent the further spread of the pandemic as people have been permitted to observe ‘Paya Sraddha’ at the Temple. But then again, answers to such questions cannot be expected from Babus who lord over us. We are puny mortals and Babus from their high seats are under no obligation to provide answers to our innocent queries.

It is not just Babus who are on a power trip this year. Our political class were presented with the chance to disguise their tyrannical tendencies under the guise of public good and they were not going to relinquish such a golden opportunity. A ban on firecrackers was imposed in numerous states across the country and now we have policemen pretending to be heroes by projecting cracker sellers as some sort of dreaded terrorists.

Punjab Police was boasting on social media about its crackdown on ‘illegal firecrackers’ during the “festive season” after demonstrating its stellar impotence at curbing down on instances of stubble burning which contribute more to pollution than firecrackers ever could. Not to be left behind, the Uttar Pradesh police is cracking down hard on firecracker sellers as well, arresting Hindus ahead of one of their most important festivals.

Citizens were initially quick to indulge in partisan politics over the firecracker ban accusing the political party they were ideologically opposed to of being responsible for the firecracker ban. But the truth of the matter is, blame for it lies on every single political party, the central government more so than others because it is with the explicit endorsement of the central government that the drive to ban firecrackers was first initiated.

Again, it has to be admitted that there has been no difference in the manner in which BJP ruled states and non-BJP ruled states have enforced the ban on firecrackers. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are enforcing the ban with equal zeal despite the fact that the former has a Congress government while the latter is ruled by the BJP.

Some BJP ruled states have made it clear that firecrackers will not be banned during Diwali but then, the NGT the members of which were nominated by the BJP government at the centre have outright banned firecrackers in numerous towns and cities nationwide. Therefore, it is utterly dishonest to blame the Congress and absolve the BJP or vice versa.

When our bureaucracy and political class is running amok, how could our famed judiciary be far behind? West Bengal has elections around the corner and therefore, no political party wants to incur the wrath of the electorate. Thus, the Judiciary stepped in for their share of the pie. First, bizarre restrictions were imposed on Durga Puja celebrations and then firecrackers were banned as well.

It is a free country, ladies and gentlemen. The citizens will be freely harassed and harangued by each arm of the state in turn. The excuse being used for the unprecedented levels of tyranny is the Coronavirus. The powers that be have mandated that political rallies are more important than Hindus observing rituals for their ancestors.

It is the same manner in which the powers that be had mandated that massive crowds outside of liquor shops were more important than Durga Puja celebrations. The Coronavirus is certainly the smartest virus human beings have encountered. Amazingly, it does not spread at mass gatherings approved by the ruling class. The cognitive abilities of the virus certainly has me confounded.

Needless to say, this is a recipe for instability. A country cannot be governed peacefully for long when the ruling class is at war against the dominant culture of the country. The cultural reform that the Indian State seeks to impose on Hindus is akin to the ‘cultural revolution’ of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP prevailed eventually but it was not before unparalleled devastation and destruction was wreaked upon China.

The ruling class of the country has demonstrated that it does not care at all about the masses. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people have been devastated by the ban on firecrackers. And the state did not even blink an eye as all these lives were thrown into turmoil. The dream for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ will remain a fantasy if this is the approach that is adopted by the state.

During the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, those opposing the government sanctioned lockdown in western countries, particularly the USA, were mocked. But no one is laughing now. It is clear that government sanctioned lockdown has given complete power to tyrants who arbitrarily enforce lockdown without a shred of sympathy for those they lord over.

It is a nightmare now and it is unclear when it will end. But end it will. However, what lies after that might be even worse. And the blame for it shall solely lie on the ruling class of this country. The masses have suffered enough, bled enough and endured enough misery.

Karnataka: Abdul Razak changes his name to Sanju, wears Tilak and goes to Dharmasthala to trap Hindu girl

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: Abdul Razak changes his name to Sanju, wears Tilak and goes to Dharmasthala to trap Hindu girl

A case has been registered against Muslim youth in Uppinangady police station for cheating a Hindu girl by falsely claiming to be a Hindu and also sharing intimate images on social media sites.

According to the reports, the 25-year-old Muslim youth identified as Abdul Razak, a resident of Kadaba taluk of Dakshina Kannada district had befriended a 24-year-old Hindu girl on Facebook by introducing himself as Khushik alias Sanju. Razak had lied to the girl saying he was an ardent Hindu and also claimed of being an orphan.

Soon, the couple exchanged their contact numbers and began to chat on WhatsApp. On November 1, Razak and the Hindu girl had also gone on a pilgrimage to the holy town of Dharmasthala. The Muslim youth had captured photos and had uploaded these images on social media network. To convince the girl, the Muslim youth had uploaded images, where he was seen wearing tilak.

The parents of the girl, after getting suspicious of Razak’s behaviour, looked into his antecedents to realise that he had cheated the girl by claiming to be a Hindu. Following that, the parents registered a complaint in the Uppinangady police station against Razak for cheating their daughter.

The Uppinangady police have now registered a case against Abdul Razak and has begun investigation.

Watch: After Bihar elections, Congress leaders come down to blows, abuse each other in a major showdown

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: After Bihar elections, Congress leaders come down to blows, abuse each other in a major showdown

The Congress party, which has been at the epicentre of criticism for sinking the chances of the Mahagatbandhan to ace the recent Bihar elections is now embroiled in yet another controversy. Just three days after losing the polls, Congress leaders have now been calling each other names and exchanging blows.

The incident took place on Friday at the Bihar Congress Pradesh headquarters in Sadakat Ashram during a party meeting of the newly-elected MLAs. During the meeting, the MLAs broke into a scuffle after a Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey was called a ‘thief’ by supporters of another newly-elected Congress MLA Siddharth. The controversy began over the decision to choose the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. Following a heated argument between the two MLAs and their supporters, they resorted to hurling expletives and exchanging blows.

While Dubey was elected from Maharajganj constituency, Siddharth has been elected from the Vikram constituency. It is said that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Congress Screening Committee chairman Avinash Pandey were also present in this meeting.

Congress party sinks the fortunes of RJD in Bihar elections

In the recently concluded Bihar elections, analysts believe the fact that RJD allied with Congress may have been the reason the Mahagathbandhan failed. Congress contested on 70 seats of which it won just 19 seats, thereby bringing down the Mahagathbandhan tally in an election that was so closely fought.

As per reports, Bihar Congress leaders feel that the top leadership failed to understand the pulse on ground. Several top candidates who might have won were dropped. The local leaders are especially upset with the fact that leaders from outside the state, with zero, connect to ground reality, were calling the shots.

The disastrous results in assembly elections is not the only concern with Congress which is also struggling to have an inspiring leadership. The entitlement of the Gandhis who cannot seem to let go of the power and adds to their woes. With the Congress fighting for its relevance, one can only wait and watch which way things go for the grand old party.

No Arvind Kejriwal, the main reason for the rise in Coronavirus cases in Delhi is not pollution, it’s the pandemic

OpIndia Staff
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No Arvind Kejriwal, the main reason for the rise in Coronavirus cases in Delhi is not pollution, it’s the pandemic

In a press conference on Friday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made a bizarre claim that pollution was responsible for the drastic rise of Coronavirus cases in the National Capital. As of November 13, Delhi has recorded a whopping 43,116 active cases and a total of 7,332 fatalities.

Arvind Kejriwal stated, “…When we wake up from sleep, we see only smoke around us. The number of Coronavirus cases in Delhi is rising dramatically. And the major reason behind this is pollution. We had earlier controlled the number of active cases, till October 20. But, since then, cases have been on the rise. There are many reasons but pollution happens to be the major reason…”

Science Vs Arvind Kerjriwal

While it is true that air pollution aggravates the health condition of Coronavirus patients, as it affects the lungs, it is incorrect to say that pollution causes new coronavirus cases. The Novel Coronavirus spreads from person to person, when an infected person sneezes or coughs, the viruses come out with the droplets coming out of the person. Any healthy person coming in contact with these virus-laden droplets gets infected with the virus. Whether the air is polluted or not has nothing to do with how the virus infects people.

On the other hand, as COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, polluted air makes the situation worse for COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the severe air pollution in Delhi should increase the severity of the infected persons, which means, it should increase the demand for ICUs and ventilators, and also perhaps the rate of death of the patients. But it is incorrect to say that air pollution increases the rate of coronavirus infection among people. That is a wrong claim made by the Delhi CM.

Second wave of Coronavirus in Delhi

Last month, Arvind Kejriwal had conceded that the ‘second wave’ of Coronavirus had peaked in the National Capital but the situation has been under control. He claimed, “The Covid-19 situation in Delhi is under control now. The peak of the second wave of infections was witnessed on September 17, when around 4,500 cases were recorded. With time, the number of fresh cases has gone down even with the high number of tests being done.” He added that there has been a drastic reduction in the occupancy of hospital beds and ICUs. Arvind Kejriwal had also claimed in August of the possibility of having gone past the ‘second wave’.

However, Dr Puneet Mishra of AIIMS Delhi emphasised that it could not be said with certainty whether Delhi has been witnessing the second wave of infection or had gone past it. “In epidemiology, a second wave will be when the first wave has subsided to the baseline and has remained low for some time before going up,” he explained. He added that cases will increase until the development of herd immunity.

Based on ‘new’ sample collection methodology for 3rd round of sero-survey, which collected data ward-wise instead of districts and types of residences (planned colonies, slums, unauthorised colonies), it was found that the prevalence of Coronavirus has declined from 29.1% to 24.8%. Dr Puneet explained, “The dip could have been because of the change in the sample collection method. There are also some reports of the antibody titers (concentrations) going down over time. However, even if antibody levels go down, people are likely to still have innate immunity from the infection with very few cases of re-infection. This means Delhi might develop herd immunity soon.”

Delhi model and mismanagement of the pandemic; Amit Shah to the rescue

It must be remembered that the myth of ‘Delhi model’, as promulgated by the left-liberal lobby and Arvind Kejriwal, was debunked when the National Capital was reeling under the crisis of the pandemic. In early June, Satyendra Jain, the Health Minister of NCT Delhi, had stated that the capital was likely to witness another 30000 coronavirus cases in the following 12-15 days i.e. double the number of cases. While speaking to ANI, Satyendra Jain said that orders had been issued to increase the number of beds by 2000 in the following 2-3 days. It was expected that Delhi would need 15000 beds by the end of the month. 

At one point, the Delhi government had lost all hopes and resorted to blaming the ‘outsiders’ for the rise in the number of Coronavirus cases. Delhi desperately needed adult supervision of its elected government. And they got it. The Prime Minister put together a team to “help” Delhi and Amit Shah stepped in. The number of tests that were conducted on an everyday basis increased while the positivity rate declined. Things turned around for Delhi with the Center coming in. It is difficult to imagine how bad things could have gotten in Delhi, had there not been the Centre to babysit the Delhi government.

Delhi High Court slams AAP govt

With the supervision of Amit Shah now gone, the Delhi government is back to square one. Recently, the Delhi High Court rebuked the Arvind Kejriwal government over the rising cases of COVID-19 in the national capital and stated that the city could soon become ‘corona capital of the country’. Observing that the Delhi government has gone completely “haywire” on the pandemic, the two-judge bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad pulled up the AAP govt for taking the health of the citizens for a ride.

Rising cases of Coronavirus in the world

The number of active cases and Coronavirus-related deaths have witnessed a steep rise throughout the world. As of Friday, there are 1.45 crore active cases in the world and a total of 13 lac fatalities. Overall, 5.3 crore people have been infected so far while 3.7 crore individuals have been fully recovered.

Rising Coronavirus cases and fatalities in the world (Image Courtesy: Worldometers)

In the United States, Coronavirus has claimed 2.48 lac lives (constituting 4% of the total infected individuals) and infected over 1 crore people. The number of recoveries/discharges made in the cases stand at 67 lacs. Similarly, Spain has reported around 14 lac cases, resulting in 40,461 deaths as of November 13.

China and the origin of the pandemic

The origin of Covid-19 has been traced to a seafood market in the Chinese commercial city of Wuhan. Despite speculations about SARS-CoV-2 having been lab-engineered, till date no proof consolidates it. A scientific study published in the journal, Nature Medicine, has ruled out the possibility of the responsible virus SARS-CoV-2 being man-made or a biological weapon leaked through a lab. According to World Health Organisation’s (WHO), by December 31, 2019, cases of pneumonia were reported in only a few clusters of Hubei province, while by January 5, 2020, the causative agent was not identified as a new virus.

While it is well known now that the coronavirus infection had started and was spreading as early as November 2019, till January 14, the Chinese authorities have claimed that the Covid-19 did not show human to human transmission.

A week after this, it crossed the boundaries of China and the first case was reported outside of China in Thailand. On January 14, WHO announced a limited human to human transmission of this virus. Finally, it was on March 11, 2020 that WHO declared it as a pandemic. From the detection of the first few cases to its culmination into a global pandemic, the possible failures in handling and the resulting socio-economic cost (impact) to human life have been the subject of relentless discussion.

Jharkhand: Dalit girl gravely injured after attacked by one Hajrat Khan with a sharp weapon for refusing to marry him

OpIndia Staff
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Jharkhand: Dalit girl gravely injured after attacked by one Hajrat Khan with a sharp weapon for refusing to marry him

Just weeks after Nikita Tomar was shot dead in broad daylight by Tauseef for refusing to convert to Islam and marry him, a similar incident has happened in Jharkhand. According to reports, A Dalit girl in Lakadhi village in Majhiaon in Jharkhan was attacked by one Hajrat Khan for refusing to marry him.

The incident happened on Wednesday, when 22 years old Hajrat Khan, son of Farid Khan, went to Shivalal Ram’s house in the same village and attacked Shivalal’s 20 years old daughter Rani Kumar with a sharp weapon. At the time of the incident, Rani’s house was being painted as her marriage is scheduled later in this month.

Rani was with her 10 years old brother at the house at that time, as her mother had gone to Garhwa town due to some work and her father, who works in the police department, was at his duty. Seeing that her parents were away, Hajrat entered the house and repeatedly stuck on Rani’s head with a sharp weapon, injuring her gravely.

Immediately after the attack, Rani’s brother came out of the house and informed the workers painting their house about the same. The workers took the girl to the Majhiaon Hospital, but the doctors their referred her to Garhwa hospital due to her critical condition.

The incident came to light after the girl’s father lodged a complaint about the incident. The police have recorded the girl’s statement, and an FIR is being registered against Hajrat. According to Majhiaon police station in-charge Sudhanshu Kumar, the girl in her statement said that Hajrat Khan was pressurising Rani to marry him for a long time, but she had rejected the proposal. As her marriage was scheduled this month, Hajrat got agitated, and attacked her with a sharp weapon, gravely injuring her.

After Barack Obama’s observations, Congress admits that Rahul Gandhi lacked aptitude ten years ago, but has evolved since then

OpIndia Staff
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After Barack Obama’s observations, Congress admits that Rahul Gandhi lacked aptitude ten years ago, but has evolved since then

The Congress party is trying hard to undo the damage inflicted upon them after reports of a rather interesting assessment of Rahul Gandhi by Barack Obama came out in public where he has described Gandhi-scion as someone who lacks aptitude and passion to master the subject.

Assessing Rahul Gandhi, former US President Barack Obama in his new book – ‘A Promised Land’ had highlighted the inability of the Gandhi-scion to understand the way of politics and said that he lacked both aptitude and passion to master the art of politics.

As soon as the reports about Obama’s critique against Rahul Gandhi went viral on the internet, the Congress leaders rushed to defend him by claiming that the assessment of Wayanad MP was not true. Some Congress leaders even called for unfollowing Barack Obama on Twitter after he had expressed his opinion.

Interestingly, senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar, in his hurry to defend his leader, conformed to the views of former US President Barack Obama on Rahul Gandhi by admitting that Rahul Gandhi lacked aptitude and passion for politics.

Hours after the controversy broke, Anwar, speaking to the media, said the meeting between the two leaders had taken 8-10 years back and contended that Rahul Gandhi’s personality has changed since then. The former MP also added that the Gandhi-scion had gained a lot of experience since then and went on to say that assessing someone in few meetings was tough.

“Obama & Rahul Gandhi must’ve met briefly, probably 8-10 yrs back when he came here as US Pres. To assess someone in few meetings is tough. Rahul Gandhi’s personality has changed since then, he’s gained a lot of experience,” Tariq Anwar said.

Essentially, Tariq Anwar agreed to the assessment made by Barack Obama in his book by admitting that Rahul Gandhi had lacked ability and passion to lead his party 8 years ago when he had met US President.

Another important point to note is that the Congress party is deliberately ignoring Rahul Gandhi’s recent meeting with Barack Obama, just as recent as 2017.

Tweet by Rahul Gandhi in 2017

In doing so, there are jumping to conclude that it was on the basis of a decade-old meeting between Obama and Gandhi that resulted in such a conclusion and not based on his 2017 meeting with Rahul Gandhi.

Congress ally says its Indians who assess Rahul Gandhi, not former US President

NCP leader Majeed Menon, an ally of the Congress party, went a step further to suggest that the extract from Obama’s book that has an adverse opinion on Rahul Gandhi is being unnecessarily publicised.

Menon defended Rahul Gandhi by discrediting Obama’s views by saying that he was making his opinion from a distant place. According to Menon, it is the people of India who have to assess Rahul Gandhi and not Obama. The main argument of Menon is that Obama does not understand the will of people with regards to their political leaders and it is the voters of the people who judge Rahul Gandhi’s abilities.

If one goes by Menon’s argument, Obama’s assessment of Rahul Gandhi has been time-and-again proved right as the people of the country have repeatedly, elections after elections, assessed Rahul Gandhi’s abilities and have voted against his party and its ideals.

In fact, Obama’s opinion on Rahul Gandhi, however, does not comes as surprising to many Indian, who have already realised the lack of capability of Rahul Gandhi to lead the Congress party.

Perhaps, the Congress party and its intelligentsia do not want to see the writing on the wall and accept that Rahul Gandhi is not cut for politics and intends to live in a bubble hoping that Rahul Gandhi would be their saviour in future.

It will not be any surprise if liberals hail Barack Obama by twisting his ‘criticism’ to pass it off as a ‘subtle praise’ of Rahul Gandhi. By citing Rahul Gandhi as a ‘young and a nervous student’, Obama has now opened an opportunity for liberals to hail the ‘coming of age’ of Rahul Gandhi.

In its hurry to threaten BJP, Shiv Sena admits that there was indeed a land deal between Uddhav Thackeray’s wife and Anvay Naik

OpIndia Staff
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In its hurry to threaten BJP, Shiv Sena admits that there was indeed a land deal between Uddhav Thackeray’s wife and Anvay Naik

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut might have added on to the worries of his chief Uddhav Thackeray. In haste to attack BJP leader Kirit Somaniya for directing a few uncomfortable questions towards the Thackreys, Sanjay Raut inadvertently has let the cat out of the bag. Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Raut hit out at the BJP leader and said: “All these allegations are made to protect an accused. They are calling the land deal illegal but that deal is completely legal, nothing will be proved.”

Stating this, Raut claimed that hw will make the BJP ‘is at home’ for 25 years.

Raut’s statement came as a reply to BJP leader Kirit Somaniya who has been, for the past two days, seeking Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s explanation on alleged financial deals between the Thackerays and the family of deceased interior designer Anvay Naik. The Maharashtra Government had tried to implicate Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami recently for being involved in an alleged non-payment of dues to Naik, which allegedly led to his suicide in 2018.

Sanjay Raut confirms there was indeed a land deal between Uddhav Thackeray’s wife and Anvay Naik’s family

It is pertinent to note here that at no point of time did Kirit Somaniya question Uddhav Thackeray about the legalities of the land deal. Regardless of the legality of the illegality of it, questions are being raised if the hounding of Arnab Goswami is connected to the financial and personal relationship between Thackerays and Naiks. However, it has been confirmed now after Raut’s statement that the Thackerays did have financial dealings with the Naik family, especially Akshita Naik, in the past. Akshita Naik has been holding pressers recently, accusing Arnab of abetting her husband’s suicide.

BJP leader claims Arnab Goswami’s targeting was linked to the Thackerays’ dealings with Naik’s wife

For the second consecutive day today, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya addressed media persons at the BJP headquarters in Mumbai and alleged that Uddhav’s wife Rashmi Thackeray and Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Vaykar’s wife Manisha Vaykar had bought land from the deceased interior designer Anvay Naik.

“In the backdrop of the arrest of Republican TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami (in Anvay Naik and his mother’s abetment to suicide case) and suicide of Anvay Naik, who apparently was reeling under financial problems, it has become all the more significant to let the people of Maharashtra know what are the equations and financial issues between the Naik and Thackeray families,” Somaiya said.

Yesterday, the BJP leader had Tweeted saying that there are at least nine 7/12 extracts of such deals and claimed that the evidence of these land deals had been released on the public forum. He asked Uddhav Thackeray as to what exactly is the relationship between him and Anvay Naik’s family. He alleged that Rashmi Thackeray and Manisha Vaykar are in partnership with Naik.

He questioned as to why Uddhav Thackeray does not break his silence about the alleged deals between his family and the Naiks despite the case gaining so much prominence. He insinuated that the state government’s “targeting” of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was linked to the spouses of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Vaykar buying property from late Anvay Naik’s wife.

On November 11 also Kirit Somaiya shared the details of the several pieces of land jointly purchased by Uddhav Thackeray’s wife Rashmi Thackeray and one Manisha Ravindra Vaykar from Akshita Naik in March 2014 at about Rs 2.20 crore. Akshita Naik is the late Anvay Naik’s wife.

With so much information out in the open, it becomes imperative to revisit the situation under which Maharashtra police, at the behest of Uddhav Thackeray government had detained Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami for 8 straight days.

Arnab Goswami implicated by Shiv Sena in the closed Anvay Naik suicide case

Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami was arrested by Mumbai Police early morning on last Wednesday. A few Mumbai Police officers barged into Goswami’s residence, physically manhandling him and his family members before arresting him. He was arrested in connection with a 2018 abetment to suicide case that was already closed.

The case pertains to the death of an interior designer Anvay Naik, who, along with his mother was found dead in May 2018 and had left behind a note alleging that Arnab Goswami had not cleared his dues to the tune of ₹83 lacs. Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud were found dead in their Alibaug farmhouse. The suicide note had also two named two other people, namely Feroz Shaikh and Nitesh Sarda for non-clearance of dues of ₹4 crores and 55 lacs respectively. It is pertinent to note that the case was closed in April 2019 and has now been unilaterally opened by the police seemingly, to hound Arnab Goswami.

As per an exclusive report by The Indian Express, the officers investigating the Anvay Naik suicide case had found no links between Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami, Nitesh Sarda and Feroz Shaikh. They found no evidence that could establish that the trio made life ‘unbearable’ for Naik or led to the abetment of suicide.

In their statement, Republic TV had declared that Anvay Naik’s firm had been paid most of the dues and the remaining amount was to be paid after the completion of the work which was never done. Arnab’s family had also stated that he had never had any direct dealings with Naik or his firm.

Watch: India retaliates after Pakistan violates ceasefire, 7-8 Pakistani soldiers dead, several injured, bunkers destroyed

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: India retaliates after Pakistan violates ceasefire, 7-8 Pakistani soldiers dead, several injured, bunkers destroyed

Seven people have died as a consequence of a ceasefire violation by the Pakistani Army at the Line of Control (LoC) in North Kashmir’s Baramulla, journalist Aditya Raj Kaul has reported. Official confirmation of the same is awaited but the journalist has reported that the deceased include 3 civilians, 3 Amy men and one from the Border Security Force (BSF).

The official handle of the BSF on Twitter said that at 1.15 pm on the 13th of November, SI Rakesh Doval deployed at Baramulla passed away due to ceasefire violation by Pakistan. Aditya Raj Kaul said that he had sustained an injury to his head at about 12.20 pm. At the time, the ceasefire violation by Pakistan was still underway.

India retaliates, destroys Pakistan Army bunkers, fuel dumps and launch pads

Now, visuals have emerged where one can see the massive damage inflicted by India on Pakistan in retaliation of the ceasefire violation by the latter.

ANI reported a visual where India was seen destroying Pakistan army bunkers, fuel dumps and launch pads.

ANI has also reported that at least 7-8 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in Indian retaliation and as many as 10-12 soldiers have been injured.

This is a developing situation and the report will be updated with more information as and when received. There are reports of more injuries and deaths but we await confirmation of the same.

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