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Zero loss Kapil Sibal: Targets Rahul Gandhi after media reports, retracts after Rahul Gandhi ‘personally assures’ there was no need to outrage

OpIndia Staff
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Zero loss Kapil Sibal: Targets Rahul Gandhi after media reports, retracts after Rahul Gandhi ‘personally assures’ there was no need to outrage

Congress senior leader Kapil Sibal who propagated the ‘zero loss theory’ when the 2G scam came to light in 2011, has now given a live example of the same. After slamming Rahul Gandhi for accusing him and the others for “colliding with the BJP”, he withdrew his tweet, saying, that he was informed by Rahul Gandhi ‘personally’ that he never said that the old guard of Congress is colluding with BJP.

Miffed by the Gandhi scion, questioning the timing of the letter by 23 Congress leaders appealing for a total overhaul of the party leadership, the senior party leader, Kapil Sibal had resorted to sly tweeting.

Kapil Sibal’s now deleted tweet

Visibly upset with the accusations thrown at him, the senior Congress leader wrote, that though, in the last 30 years of his association with the party, he has never made any statement in favour of BJP, he has been accused of “colliding with the BJP”.

Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who were a part of the group which wrote the letter, said they are upset by Rahul Gandhi’s remarks. Sibal said he has never made a statement in favour of the BJP on any issue. Azad, meanwhile, offered to resign. 

Kapil Sibal’s tweet had attracted resentment from several Congress loyalists. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tagged Kapil Sibal’s tweet and issued a clarification that the former Congress chief ‘did not say a word of this nature nor alluded to it.’

All in all, a ‘zero loss’ for Sibal.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, called to discuss the turmoil within the Congress, turned fiery after Sonia Gandhi’s supporters slammed the leaders who wrote a letter to her, seeking a complete overhaul. Media reports suggested that Rahul Gandhi called the letter ill-timed and said the whole exercise was done in collusion with the BJP. AK Antony and other leaders said the letter was unfortunate and cruel. However, Congress leaders have now claimed that Rahul Gandhi clarified he never accused them of colluding with BJP.

The old resignation drama where the Congress leadership (read the Gandhis) is hellbent on stepping down, with their loyalists are urging them to stay on has again started. This time, Sonia Gandhi has offered to step down while former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged her to stay on. This is in similar lines with the last year’s farce, where Rahul Gandhi had insisted on resigning and his loyalists had gone out of their way to convince the Gandhi scion not to abdicate.

Meanwhile, the CWC meeting is still underway and we will have to wait and watch whether the Gandhis will remain the official or unofficial President of Congress.

The Wire journalist Rohini Singh attacks ANI for story broken by NDTV, hails NDTV after realising they did it first

OpIndia Staff
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The Wire journalist Rohini Singh attacks ANI for story broken by NDTV, hails NDTV after realising they did it first

The Wire journalist Rohini Singh today slammed news agency ANI for covering a story that was first reported by NDTV. The story pertained to the internal rift within the Congress party, with Rahul Gandhi allegedly accusing the signatories of the dissent letter of ‘colluding with the BJP’.

Rohini mounted an attack against the ANI after some sources reported that Rahul’s alleged statement was false and he had said no such thing. This report about the Gandhi scion alleging senior party members of collusion with the rival party was first reported by NDTV and was later picked up by the ANI.

However, the Wire journalist, best known for her stunning whataboutery on social media websites, decided to vent her spleen against the ANI and not against NDTV, who originally reported the internal turmoil within the Congress party.

“So @INCIndia strongly denies @RahulGandhi accused the letter writers of being in cahoots with the BJP. Says such words weren’t spoken at all at the CWC. Seems ‘sources’ misled ANI as usual when it comes to the Congress,” Singh tweeted in a sly attack against the ANI.

Later, when Nidhi Razdan, the former employee of the NDTV reminded Singh that NDTV was the first one to break the story and questioned why the Congress did not deny resignation offered by Azad, the Wire journalist quickly took a u-turn, praising the pertinent point raised by the former NDTV anchor.

While Singh displayed an unusual alacrity in censoring ANI for the report about the dispute within the Congress party, she did not show the same promptness on slamming the NDTV when she was informed that it was the NDTV who had first broken the story about the imbroglio within the Congress party.

Rohini Singh defended herself saying Kapil Sibal was misled by ANI’s sources to tweet against Rahul Gandhi

Furthermore, when Social Media leader of Aam Aadmi Party, Ankit Lal questioned Ms Singh over her tweet accusing the ANI of publishing a misleading report by citing the tweet posted by Kapil Sibal, Singh brazened out her stand, stating Sibal was, perhaps, misled by ANI’s sources, as claimed by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

Rohini went on to vent her anger on ANI, while it was NDTV which had broken the ‘news’ first.

Rohini Singh’s tweet

When Nidhi Razdan clarified that it was NDTV which had broken the ‘news’ first, Rohini immediately changed her stance. When a twitter user pointed it out and stated that NDTV also had the story and many, including Rohini herself had believed it, she again stated that she had no reason to doubt her colleagues.

Rohini’s tweets

Kapil Sibal had earlier posted a tweet, expressing his anguish over the allegations of collusion with the BJP levelled against him by the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi. However, he later pulled down the tweet, and posted a new tweet, stating that he was personally informed by Gandhi that he never said what was being attributed to him in the media.

ANI’s Smita Prakash reacts

ANI’s Smita Prakash, however, gave a ‘befitting reply’ to some of the journalists who were blaming ANI for the Congress communication fiasco.

Taking a dig at a certain journalist known for a certain 2bhk apartment, Smita Prakash said the concerned person should be made the Congress president as nobody else is more concerned about the party.

Earlier, Prakash had shared that Tehseen Poonawalla had also credited ANI for the particular issue while appearing for an NDTV news show.

For how long will Muslims remain slave of Congress’ ‘janeudhari’ leadership: Asaduddin Owaisi rubs salt on Ghulam Nabi Azad’s wounds

OpIndia Staff
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For how long will Muslims remain slave of Congress’ ‘janeudhari’ leadership: Asaduddin Owaisi rubs salt on Ghulam Nabi Azad’s wounds

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi gave a nudge to Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and other Muslim leaders in Congress and asked them for long will they continue to be slaves of the party’s ‘janeudhari‘ leadership. Sonia Gandhi is currently the interim party president at the time of this report.

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In a tweet Owaisi said that Azad used to refer to AIMIM as ‘Team B’ of the BJP. “Now you’re accused of the same. 45 years of ghulami for this? Now it’s proven that anyone opposing Janeudhari leadership will be branded B-Team I hope Muslims now know the high cost of loyalty to Congress,” he said.

Owaisi was reacting to media reports wherein former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had accused the 23 Congress leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi asking to overhaul the existing party structure of ‘colluding with the BJP.

Following this, Ghulam Nabi Azad offered to quit the party. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal too had expressed is displeasure at the allegations but deleted his tweet after claiming that Rahul Gandhi personally informed him that he had made no such allegations.

Later, Azad also ‘clarified’ that Rahul Gandhi never made such a statement.

However, as of now it is not yet clear whether Azad has withdrawn his offer to quit Congress or not, considering Rahul Gandhi ‘never said’ what was widely reported.

3 possible explanations why Congress seems to be imploding and a war is brewing between the old and new guard

Editorial Desk
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3 possible explanations why Congress seems to be imploding and a war is brewing between the old and new guard

Congress is in a state of chaos and the party seems to be imploding from the within. The implosion is so grotesque, that much like actual explosions where it takes hours, nay, days, to piece together what really transpired, nobody can truly figure out what is going on at the CWC meet. Essentially, Sonia Gandhi was the interim chief of Congress. Then, news surfaced that she had resigned. Soon, news surfaced that she had not resigned. Then, Congress ‘rebels’, who are essentially loyalists only, write a letter demanding for a full overhaul of the party. In the meantime, “protests” erupted demanding that Rahul Gandhi become the Congress President yet again. Somewhere in between, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that a non-Gandhi should become the President but some other Congress members protested and said that the party would disintegrate if a Gandhi was not at the helm to lead them proudly to defeat.

Now, at the CWC, things get even more confusing. Essentially, Sonia Gandhi is acting as the sacrificing queen who only wants what is best for her kingdom (Congress) and her successor to the throne (Rahul Gandhi) while Rahul Gandhi is acting as the Laltu Chele (Mama’s boy) who wants to uphold his mother’s reigning honour and legacy.

To that effect, Sonia Gandhi first said that she is giving the party time to find her replacement and after they do, she will be stepping down from her position as the Congress President – As a section of the leaders want. Reportedly, Rahul Gandhi was unhappy with the letter of dissent and raised questions over the timing of the letter. However, after media reported that he had said that those leaders (which included Kapil Sibal) were colluding with BJP and Kapil Sibal’s meltdown, Sibal clarified that Rahul had ‘personally’ assured him that he had said no such thing.

In the meantime, AK Antony reportedly said that the letter by rebel Congress leaders was ‘cruel’ and Ghulam Nabi Azad, after hailing Sonia Gandhi, offered to resign.

Essentially, amidst this entire chaos that the Congress party seems to have become, only one thing seems to be certain – there is a section that wants Sonia Gandhi to continue as the President of Congress and there is another section that wants Rahul Gandhi to continue.

However, the “internal rift” trope becomes slightly difficult to believe since Congressmen are often more loyal than the queen herself and that the Congress party would rebel against the Gandhi seems unthinkable.

Then what really is happening? Is this the old guard vs news guard battle? Is the old guard Sonia Gandhi and the new guard Rahul Gandhi?

Here are the three explanation we think could explain the confusion and chaos in Congress currently:

Gandhis vs Outsiders

This might seems like what could be happening, especially after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra randomly said that a non-Gandhi should become the President of the Congress party next, however, this is highly unlikely.

One could think that finally, with all the talk about nepotism, the ouster of a leader like Jyotiraditya Scindia, the almost ouster of Sachin Pilot and the downright terrible leadership provided by Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leaders may just have grown the hint of a spine and decided that it was time the Congress party was cleansed of the Gandhi clan.

However, a mass uprising that could affect any form of change is unlikely in the Congress party. Even in the past, there were dissenting voices who thought that a change of guard was long over-due, however, while the pretence to take them seriously was put on diligently, eventually, they were ousted and the reign of the Gandhis continued.

While long-time loyalists like Ramchandra Guha, who are not the sole recipients of the gravy train anymore, theorise that a non-Gandhi must lead the party now, it seems unlikely that his dreams would be realised.

Old Guard vs New Guard

When there is a battle, the central subject of which is whether Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi should lead the party, the obvious conclusion one can draw is that it is the battle between the old guard of the Congress party vs the new guard. Which is to say, that the battle is between Rahul Gandhi and his supporters vs Sonia Gandhi and her supporters.

However, the interpret the battle as the ‘old guard’ being Sonia Gandhi and the ‘new guard’ being Rahul Gandhi could be fallacious. The battle seems to be far more between the new crop of leaders who resort to ugly name calling and sub-intellectual ranting with zero finesse versus the old group of leaders who peddled the same nefarious agenda but with some semblance of panache. For example, the reactions of Divya Spandana and Pallavi Ghosh are rather telling in this aspect.

When the news of Rahul Gandhi accusing Kapil Sibal and the others of working in tandem with the BJP arose (later rumoured to be false), Pallavi Ghosh, who is a Congress loyalist, immediately jumped into action to defend the senior leaders.

She said that the leaders can be criticised for writing the letter, but accusing them of helping BJP is ‘not done’.

Contrast this to the response by Divya Spandana.

Responding to the now-deleted tweet by Kapil Sibal, Spandana said that Rahul Gandhi should have said that the leaders who wrote the dissenting letter were not only colluding with BJP but also with the media.

It should also be kept in mind that while old leaders like Sibal dissent, young and uncouth leaders like Hardik Patel support the Rahul Gandhi camp.

Thus, to assume that the fight is between Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi could be off the mark. The fight, essentially, seems to be between a ruffian group that supports Rahul Gandhi and the traditional political class that would prefer Sonia Gandhi’s methods of rule.

Fight for resources: Memes or Media?

While the old leaders and young turks fight it out, the chaos in the Congress party could well be about the distribution of resources. With their electoral downfall, one can possibly imagine that the resources at the disposal of Congress, to invest in the media and to ensure that Rahul Gandhi ‘comes of age’ against would be limited.

In such a scenario, the destruction of resources would be paramount. One would imagine that Sonia Gandhi would want to employ resources in traditional media and journalists instead of Twitter trolls. However, Rahul Gandhi would be more incline to investing in a Twitter army and meme makers as we have seen in the past.

The contrasting tweets by Pallavi Ghosh and Divya Spandana could be a testament to the fact. Rahul Gandhi had planed immense faith in Spandana, who used to spread fake news, share offensive memes and quotes as a political weapon against the BJP. However, Pallavi Ghosh, while loyal to the Congress, had a bit more finesse in peddling the Congress agenda.

Essentially, while Congress is firmly in the throws of chaos, the battle does not seem to be between Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as much as their supporters who are looking for their own place in the gravy boat.

ISIS terrorist Abu Yusuf influenced by Zakir Naik, wanted to retaliate against Ram Mandir construction. Here is what we know so far

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS terrorist Abu Yusuf influenced by Zakir Naik, wanted to retaliate against Ram Mandir construction. Here is what we know so far

On 22nd August, Delhi Police arrested an ISIS operative from New Delhi after an encounter. The Police got the information about him from Intelligence Agencies after which he was nabbed. During interrogation and search in his house in Uttar Pradesh’ Balrampur, a lot of updates followed. Here is what we know about Abu Yusuf and his case so far.

  • On 22nd, Delhi Police arrested Abu Yusuf after an encounter from the Dhuala Kuan area. Police recovered explosives and weapons from him. The police recovered a pistol, live cartridges, and approx 15 KG IED from Yusuf along with two pressure cookers. IEDs were diffused with the help of the Bomb Disposal Team of National Security Guards (NSG).
  • Teams of central agencies, Delhi Police and UP Police ATC, questioned him.
  • After his arrest, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have put on high alert especially Ayodhya, Noida, and National Capital. Police carried out multiple raids in Delhi and UP to find his other associates.
  • During the initial interrogation, Yusuf told the police that he, along with his group, was planning a major terror attack as a retaliation to the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
  • He informed the police that he was in touch with his handlers in Afganistan and later police found out that he was in contact with handlers in Syria and Pakistan as well.
  • DCP Special Cell PS Kushwah said in a statement that he was planning to carry out lone-wolf attacks in a crowded area in Delhi. According to the reports, he told the police that he did a recce of several places that can be considered as potential targets for terror attacks.
  • Police booked Yusuf under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was sent to police custody for eight days.
  • He spent five years from 2006 to 2010 in Saudi Arabia. Security agencies believe that this was the time when he came in contact with the radicals and started operating as a sleeper cell for ISIS.
  • Yusuf revealed that he had planned to move to Khorasan in Afghanistan along with his family but his handler Huzaifa died in 2019 that forced him to stay in India.
  • His first handler was Yusuf-al Hindi who was killed in Syria in 2017. Abu Haziafa Al Bakistani, a Pakistani took over for Hindi who was killed in drone strikes in Afghanistan. After that, a different handler was in contact with Yusuf who was helping him in carrying out attacks in India.
  • Reports suggest that security agencies were keeping an eye on him from last year. He had planned to detonate bombs on 15th August, but it failed.
  • Recent reports suggest that he was highly influenced by the Islamic Preacher Zakir Naik who fled from India and took shelter in Malaysia. The Malaysian government had given him a permanent residency.
  • The security agencies took Yusuf to his native place in Balrampur Uttar Pradesh to search his house. The police found bomb jackets, explosives and inflammatory material at his residence.

Reactions of Yusuf’s family

Yusuf’s father claimed that he did not know about his intentions, and if he had known, he would have thrown him out of the house.

Yusuf’s wife tried to play the poverty card and said that he should be forgiven as she has four children, and without a husband, it will be difficult for her to manage her house. Interestingly, his wife knew that he had been hiding explosives at home, but she never cared to inform the police or anyone about it.

Fact-check: Did Bababhai Pathan from Ahmednagar ‘adopt’ two ‘orphan’ girls and married them off as per Hindu rituals?

OpIndia Staff
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Fact-check: Did Bababhai Pathan from Ahmednagar ‘adopt’ two ‘orphan’ girls and married them off as per Hindu rituals?

Recently, social media websites were flooded with a heart-warming story of a Muslim man ‘adopting’ two girls and later marrying them off as per Hindu rituals.

According to the several reports in the media, a Muslim man, Bababhai Pathan, who hails from Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, ‘adopted’ two orphan sisters and organised their wedding from his own expenses in accordance with the Hindu rituals.

The same story was picked up by an IPS officer Dipanshu Kabra, posting a tweet lavishing praises on Bababhai Pathan for ‘adopting’ two orphan girls and marrying them off as per Hindu traditions. Lauding Pathan’s gesture, Kabra hailed the Muslim man as a totem of unity and humanity and asserted that it is due to people like him that the faith and trust of crores of people on humanity remains resolute.

The brides’ are not orphans as claimed in the media

However, contrary to the media reports claiming that the Muslim man ‘adopted’ the orphan girls and in a benevolent gesture and married them off according to the Hindu customs, the brides were neither adopted, nor orphans and their mother is still alive.

According to popular Marathi blogger and columnist Sameer Gaikwad, Bababhai Pathan was a rakhi brother of the bride’s mother and he performed the rituals of a maternal uncle at the wedding of the two daughters of the Bhusare family in Bodhegaon of Ahmednagar. The mother of the brides ties rakhi to Bababhai Pathan every year because she doesn’t have a biological brother.

After it came to the fore that the girls were not orphans ‘adopted’ by Bababhai Pathan as being bandied about in the media and the weddings were organised by the mother of the girls, IPS Kabra corrected himself by issuing a clarification tweet on the incident.

Clarifying assertions made in his previous tweet, IPS Kabra said that he was updated from media sources that the two sisters were not orphans and that their mother ties rakhi to Bababhai Pathan every year as she doesn’t have a real brother.

Cracks in Yadav household? Tej Pratap Yadav, son of fodder scam convict Lalu Yadav, tweets cryptic tweet on ‘thieves’ who looted Bihar

OpIndia Staff
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Cracks in Yadav household? Tej Pratap Yadav, son of fodder scam convict Lalu Yadav, tweets cryptic tweet on ‘thieves’ who looted Bihar

The multi-crore fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad Yadav’s eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav has taken to social media today, to write a cryptic Tweet on ‘thieves’ who looted Bihar.

Giving his two cents on the basic characteristics of ‘thieves’, the Bihar’s former cabinet minister for health, Tweeted in Hindi: “चोरों का भी एक अपना लोकतंत्र होता है। चोर कभी एक-दूसरे की चुगली नहीं करते। उदाहरणार्थ के लिए बिहार के प्रख्यात जनादेश लूटेरों को ही ले लीजिए!!”, roughly translated as “Thieves also have their own democracy. Thieves never cheat each other. Take, for example, Bihar’s famous mandate looters”.

Tej Pratap Yadav’s tweet

This cryptic Tweet by Tej Pratap, got the ball rolling for the Netizens, who asked whether the Tweet was directed towards his father, who has been serving a jail sentence after he was convicted in four fodder scam cases.

A Twitter user wondered whether the son has taken upon himself to narrate his father’s story.

Many Twitter users started dedicating memes to Tej Pratap Yadav and his father Lalu Prasad Yadav convicted in a corruption scandal that involved the embezzlement of about Rs 900 crores from the government treasury of the state of Bihar.

The multi-crore Fodder scam

RJD President and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in four fodder scam cases and was awarded up to 14 years of imprisonment. Two decades have passed since the multi-crore fodder scam was unearthed. It involved many politicians and bureaucrats siphoning off several crores of rupees, on the pretext of purchasing fodder, medicines and animal husbandry equipment for ‘vast herds of fictitious livestock’ over a period of 20 years.

The scam was unearthed by then finance commissioner VS Dubey who stumbled upon financial irregularities of massive proportions while reviewing the performance of various departments of the Bihar government. He found out that money was withdrawn in excess of the allocation by some of the departments and the animal husbandry department topped the list of withdrawals.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, father of Tej Pratap Yadav and ex-Bihar CM convicted in four fodder scam cases

A special CBI court in 2013 had convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav in the first fodder scam case involving the withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crores from the Chaibasa treasury. Lalu was pronounced guilty in another fodder scam case involving the Deoghar treasury of Rs 89 lakhs in December 2017. After this, both Lalu and Jagannath Mishra were found guilty of the third fodder scam involving the Chaibasa district treasury of Rs 33.67 crores. Lalu Prasad was sentenced to five years of jail term and a fine of Rs 10 lakhs. In March 2018, a special CBI court in Ranchi pronounced RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav guilty in the fourth fodder scam.

Imprisoned in Jharkhand, the former CM of Bihar has spent a large part of his sentence undergoing treatment at the RIMS.

Robert Vadra’s self-proclaimed ‘chela’ and ‘gold buddy’ roots for the Gandhis, says no ‘outsider’ can be Congress president

OpIndia Staff
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Robert Vadra’s self-proclaimed ‘chela’ and ‘gold buddy’ roots for the Gandhis, says no ‘outsider’ can be Congress president

A day after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi wrote to the party leaders, asking them to get together and find a new chief, son-in-law, Robert Vadra’s self-proclaimed ‘chela’ and ‘gold buddy’, Jagdish Sharma has been relentlessly staging dharna and raising slogans outside AICC office demanding that the Party’s reigns should remain in the hands of the Gandhi family only.

“We want Party President from Gandhi family only. Party will be destroyed and break away if any outsider is made President,” Robert Vadra’s ‘chela’ was quoted as saying by ANI.

Reportedly, Captain Amarinder Singh had also opposed the idea of a non-Gandhi president of the Congress party and has called that the attempt by a few leaders to seek a change in the leadership as a bid to weaken the party.

Jagdish Sharma and his unfaltering loyalty towards Vadra

It is probably Jagdish Sharma’s unfaltering loyalty towards the Gandhi family’s son-in-law that has deliberated him to engineer the protest wherein he asserts that no ‘outsider’ can be Congress president. Sharma is the same person who had held protests, after Congress’ 2014 election debacle, demanding that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra be brought into active politics to ‘save the party’.

In fact, Sharma has always been very vocal about his proximity to Robert Vadra. In 2012 after hurling a shoe at AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Sharma had boasted of being Vadra’s ‘Gold Buddy’. Similarly, in December 2018, Jagdish Sharma had asserted that he was “Vadra Sahab’s chela”.

Sonia Gandhi to step down as Congress interim president, say reports

Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi has reportedly told her aides that she does not want to continue as interim Congress president. This came amid a massive controversy over a letter by 23 top party leaders calling for sweeping reforms, introspection and “a full-time, visible leadership”. The letter suggests that the Gandhis, who has led the party for most of the years since its inception, can remain an “integral part of the collective leadership”.

Sonia Gandhi has decided that the matter will be discussed at the Working Committee meeting today.

PM Modi announces 500-bed Covid-19 makeshift hospitals at Patna and Muzaffarpur under PM CARES Fund Trust

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi announces 500-bed Covid-19 makeshift hospitals at Patna and Muzaffarpur under PM CARES Fund Trust

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that PM CARES Trust Fund has decided to allocate funds to establish 500-bed makeshift hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients in Patna and Muzaffarpur.

The hospital at Bihta, Patna will be inaugurated today. The hospital in Muzaffarpur will be inaugurated soon, PM Modi wrote in a tweet.

He informed that each hospital would have 125 ICU beds with ventilators and 375 normal beds. Every bed will have oxygen supply, and the Armed Forces Medical Services will provide doctors and paramedical staff for these hospitals.

PM CARES Fund

PM CARES Fund was set up earlier this year in wake of Chinese Coronavirus outbreak. In June it was reported that 14,000 ventilators will be delivered to states across India using PM CARES fund soon. Earlier, the government had earmarked Rs 2,000 crore from the fund to provide 50,000 ventilators to states and union territories, which would double the existing capacity of ventilators.

The public charitable trust with the name ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund)’ will be a dedicated national fund with the objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like the current Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister is the Chairman of this trust, and its members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister. 

Shekhar Gupta falsely accuses authors Sanjeev Sanyal, Anand Ranganathan and Sanjay Dixit of bullying Bloomsbury into withdrawing book on Delhi riots

OpIndia Staff
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Shekhar Gupta falsely accuses authors Sanjeev Sanyal, Anand Ranganathan and Sanjay Dixit of bullying Bloomsbury into withdrawing book on Delhi riots

As the controversy surrounding the abject capitulation of Bloomsbury to the pressure mounted by the liberal establishment to de-platform a book on Delhi Riots 2020 intensifies, ‘The Print’ founder Shekhar Gupta has levelled false accusations against authors Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan and Sanjay Dixit.

In his video show ‘Cut The Clutter’, Gupta absolved the liberals from coercing the Bloomsbury publication to backtrack on its decision to publish a book on Delhi Riots 2020 and instead wrongly pinned the blame of threatening Bloomsbury on authors Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan and Sanjay Dixit.

In the above clip from Gupta’s video show ‘Cut The Clutter’ on YouTube, it can be seen that Gupta announces that some ‘prominent authors’ had threatened to withdraw publishing of their books with Bloomsbury if they do not stop the Delhi Riots book by Monica Arora. With a blatant and abject misrepresentation, the video then shows the tweets of Sanjeev Sanyal, Anand Ranganathan and Sanjay Dixit.

Surprisingly, Gupta does not name the persons, the ‘secular-liberals’ who actually pressurised Bloomsbury to de-platform the above-mentioned book.

Shekhar Gupta blames Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan and others for Bloomsbury’s capitulation to ‘Liberals’

Gupta, who also happens to be the President of The Editors Guild of India, alleged in the video that the decision of Bloomsbury to cancel the publication of the book on Delhi Riots 2020 was taken after authors such as Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan, Sanjay Dixit and several others, who have published their books with the publication house, threatened to sever their ties with the organisation.

In reality, Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan, Sanjay Dixit, Shefali Vaidya and several other authors, took to Twitter to condemn Bloomsbury’s arbitrary decision of withdrawing the publication of the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ by authors of Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. As a consequence of the Bloomsbury’s unprofessional behaviour, many authors also announced that they will no longer be associated with an organisation that actively partakes in suppressing Freedom of Expression.

Tweets posted by Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr Anand Ranganathan were meant to condemn the arbitrary de-platforming of the book by Bloomsbury

The tweets posted by the authors, which were shown in Gupta’s video as the ones ‘threatening’ Bloomsbury, were in response to the Bloomsbury’s abject surrender to the pressure from the liberal intelligentsia, who were rattled at the publication house for providing their platform for a contrarian viewpoint on the Delhi Riots 2020. However, Gupta twisted the grievances raised by the authors about the publication house’s unacceptable behaviour and misrepresented them, claiming Bloomsbury withdrew the publishing of the book after the tweets posted by the aforementioned authors.

Authors demand clarification from Gupta for the dishonest presentation

Gupta’s dishonesty was promptly called out by author Sanjeev Sanyal, who in his tweet called out ‘The Print’ founder for blatantly misrepresenting him and Dr Anand Ranganathan. Clarifying his stance, Sanyal said that contrary to what Shekhar Gupta had presented in his ‘Cut The Clutter’ video, he and Dr Ranganathan had been advocating Freedom of Expression and are protesting against the cancellation of the book by the publication house.

Dr Anand Ranganathan also posted a sharply critical tweet addressed to Shekhar Gupta for peddling lies about him and Sanjeev Sanyal. Dr Ranganathan asserted that Gupta is an embarrassment to his profession and that his analysis on the book cancellation by Bloomsbury was immature and replete with lies and falsehoods. He also threatened to sue Shekhar Gupta for giving a false account of tweets by him and Sanjay Sanyal.

Soon after Gupta and ‘The Print’ were called out for their skulduggery, the video posted on YouTube was made ‘private’, so as to refrain the users from watching it.

Shekhar Gupta apologises

Shekhar Gupta, on his part, apologised and re-shared the video after editing the portions that were misrepresenting the authors.

In his tweet, Shekhar Gupta said that in the original video, there were some errors and he was sorry about them.

Bloomsbury surrenders to the leftist online mob, de-platforms Delhi riots book

Bloomsbury India kicked had up a storm after it decided to withdraw the publication of the book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ by authors Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra. In a statement, the publication house cited a ‘virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors’ as one of the reasons for its decision.

Bloomsbury India said that they had planned to release the book, a factual account based on investigation and interviews conducted by the authors, in September 2020 but they have rescinded their decision.

The publication house further added, “However, in view of very recent events including a virtual pre-publication launch organised without our knowledge by the authors, with participation by parties of whom the Publishers would not have approved, we have decided to withdraw publication of the book.”

Even as the Bloomsbury informed that they are withdrawing the book, it was marked as unavailable on e-commerce site Amazon. Before that, the book was available for pre-order, and a large number of people had pre-ordered the book ahead of its planned launch in next month.

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