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Actress Soni Razdan calls terrorist Afzal Guru’s hanging ‘travesty of justice’, insinuates that he was ‘innocent’

OpIndia Staff
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Actress Soni Razdan calls terrorist Afzal Guru’s hanging ‘travesty of justice’, insinuates that he was ‘innocent’

Former actress Soni Razdan, who is the wife of Mahesh Bhatt and mother of actress Alia Bhatt, today took to Twitter to claim that the SC’s judgement parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was wrong and Guru was made a ‘scapegoat’.

Quoting an article published on ‘The Print’ about a possible connection between recently arrested DSP Davinder Singh and parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru, Razdan asserted that it was “travesty of justice” when an “innocent man” like Afzal Guru was hanged. Furthermore, Razdan stated that Guru was made the ‘scapegoat’ and demanded that a solid enquiry into the matter is needed.


The article cited by Razdan mentions a letter allegedly written by Afzal Guru wherein he alleges that Davinder Singh and other Jammu and Kashmir officials introduced him to one of the men who attacked the Parliament and asked him to arrange for logistics.

In another tweet, Razdan shared a video and wrote that there should also be an enquiry as to how people like Afzal are ‘tortured and forced to carry out terrorist activities’ for criminals and then get the death penalty.

In the mentioned letter, Afzal also reportedly claimed that Singh and other officers from the J&K police not only tortured him and extorted money, but also acquainted him to one of the men who later attacked Parliament. Afzal stated that it was Singh who asked him to arrange for a car and a place to stay for the assailant.

Razdan later added that she is not making claims that Guru was innocent, but merely saying that his claims should have been investigated and it is a travesty that nobody took his allegations about the now arrested cop Davinder Singh seriously.

Last weekend, Davinder Singh was arrested along with Naveed Babu, a district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a new recruit Atif and an advocate Irfan Mir. The four were caught with arms and ammunition while they were travelling in a car near Qazigund on the national highway in south Kashmir. Following Singh’s arrest with the terrorists, it was widely speculated that Singh had an illicit connection with the notorious Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and was involved in enabling and helping terrorists in the valley. The NIA has now been entrusted with the responsibility of probing the charges levelled against Singh.

With questions being raised over Singh’s integrity, Razdan went ahead and exonerated Afzal Guru of his crimes, considering everything written in the letter by a convicted terrorist, as gospel truth. Notably, Afzal was awarded the death sentence for his role in the Parliament attacks and his punishment was upheld by multiple courts.

The Supreme Court had upheld Guru’s death penalty after appeals. The court had noted that there was clinching evidence against Afzal Guru regarding his nexus with the terrorists who carried out the “terrorist act of most diabolical nature”. “All evidence unerringly point to Afzal Guru, a key conspirator, who played an active role”, the Bench had said observing that by no standards his act could be termed innocuous.

Zomato acquires Uber Eats for Rs 2,485 crore, aims to crack Swiggy’s stronghold

OpIndia Staff
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Zomato acquires Uber Eats for Rs 2,485 crore, aims to crack Swiggy’s stronghold

The Indian restaurant aggregator Zomato on 21 January, announced it’s acquisition of Uber Eats, the food delivery app of Uber, the US-based ride-hailing giant. The all-stock transaction gives Uber 9.99% stake in Zomato. Zomato will not absorb Uber Eat employees, which means they will either be absorbed in Uber’s other verticals or could face lay-off, reports Business Today.

The entire deal cost Zomato Rs 2,485 crore. While Swiggy is ahead of Zomato in market space, Zomato along with Uber Eats aims at cracking Swiggy’s stronghold in the market. Uber Eats India tweeted a goodbye note stating that it will be taking a different route after its acquisition by Zomato and will not be longer available with immediate effect.


Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has stated that Uber Eats users would now become Zomato users and that the user experience won’t be compromised.

The Indian restaurant aggregator Zomato has earlier been in news several times for all the wrong reasons. Last year in an effort to grandstand it had tweeted that ‘food has no religion’ after a Twitter user called Amit Shukla had announced that he did not want a ‘non-Hindu’ deliveryman since it was the month of Shravan and it went against his faith. It had created a quite a storm, and Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of Uber, had further fuelled the controversy by expressing its support for Zomato.

Moreover, after facing severe backlash for delivering ‘moral science’ lectures to social media users instead of food, food aggregator Zomato was caught in a losing battle against its customers and partners.

Two The Quint journalists, one accused in MeToo and another for abetment of suicide, win Ramnath Goenka award

OpIndia Staff
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Two The Quint journalists, one accused in MeToo and another for abetment of suicide, win Ramnath Goenka award

The winners of the Ramnath Goenka Awards for excellence in journalism were declared on Monday where four journalists associated with far-left propaganda website The Quint were the recipient of three awards. Poonam Agarwal’s reports on electoral bonds, Asmita Nandy and Meghnad Bose’s documentary ‘Lynchistan’, and Shadab Moizee’s documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, five years on, received the recognition.

Meghnad Bose is the same reporter who was accused of sexual harassment at the height of the MeToo movement. As per the woman who leveled the allegations against Meghnad, she was under the influence of alcohol one night when she returned to her campus and was having fun in the company of friends on the lawn. Soon, they were joined by Meghnad.

After a while, her friends left for their room upstairs leaving the two of them alone. She claims that she had put her head on his lap as she was feeling light-headed. Soon, she felt him touch her lips, her mouth and even put his finger inside her mouth. She got up and left the scene. Her account was shared through an independent journalist. Her account was supported by another person who claims that Meghnad’s inappropriate behaviour was being discussed behind closed doors.

Read: Pakistan’s official agencies start quoting Quint’s article for their propaganda against Kulbhushan Jadhav

Another woman had claimed that Meghnad had asked her if she wore a push-up bra in front of everyone in the canteen. After these multiple allegations, The Quint journalist apologised for his behaviour on social media. He tendered an unconditional apology to any woman he might have made uncomfortable. While he apologised unconditionally, he also said that he doesn’t recall him pushing his finger in anyone’s mouth, an allegation that was mounted against him through a journalist.

Another The Quint journalist Poonam Agarwal, meanwhile, is the journalist who was booked in a case of abetment to suicide in the matter of an Army Jawan’s death due to a piece of ‘sting’ journalism. Poonam had entered the Deolali cantonment in Nashik, Maharashtra with hidden cameras concealing her identity as a journalist, and recorded videos that showed army jawans employed as sahayaks (helpers) indulged in doing menial jobs that they should not be doing.

She talked to a jawan Lance Naik Roy Mathew in particular, who allegedly had no idea that he was talking to a journalist, and the conversation was used to prove that jawans were not happy with the sahayak system and that they were being exploited. A few days later, Roy Mathew was found dead in an abandoned barrack in the cantonment. A diary was recovered from the barrack, which suggested that the jawan was under pressure and it was a case of suicide. Roy Mathew’s family members also confirmed that he was scared and under pressure as his identity was reported to have been revealed due to the “sting operation” and subsequent media coverage. The charges against Poonam were subsequently quashed by the judiciary.

Gujarat: Couple’s wedding called off after groom’s father elopes with bride’s mother, families file missing persons report

Jhankar Mohta
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Gujarat: Couple’s wedding called off after groom’s father elopes with bride’s mother, families file missing persons report

In an unprecedented turn of events, a young couple who were set to marry each other had to call off their wedding, after the groom’s father eloped with the bride’s mother in Surat, Gujarat.

The bride and groom were reportedly preparing for their marriage for the last one year, soon after they got engaged, however, this disappearance of their parents barely one month before the marriage has left the families reeling from the shock.

The couple’s wedding was scheduled for the second week of February, but their parents have reportedly been missing for the last 10 days now. While the man disappeared from his house in Katargam area, the woman left her house in Navsari, leaving the family members in an extremely embarrassing situation.

The groom’s father, a textile businessman who also deals in property, went untraceable around January 10. The man who is also a member of a political party is a native of Amreli district. He apparently knew the bride’s mother since their young age as they were reportedly neighbours in Katargam area and good friends too.

“They knew each other since they lived in the same society. Some of their close friends informed us after they eloped that they had a relationship in the past too. However, the woman got engaged with her current husband in Navsari,” said a relative of both the families. Both the families have filed missing persons’ report with the police.

Rajnikanth refuses to apologise after complaint filed against him for comments on Periyar: All you need to know about the controversy

OpIndia Staff
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Rajnikanth refuses to apologise after complaint filed against him for comments on Periyar: All you need to know about the controversy

A complaint was filed against superstar Rajnikanth for his comments on Periyar at the Thuglak magazine’s 50th-anniversary event on Friday. It was filed by members of the Dravidar Vidhuthalai Kazhagam, a splinter group of the Dravidar Kazhagam. The Dravidian outfit claimed that the hugely popular actor had defamed Periyar when Rajnikanth reminded people that Periyar had disrespected Shri Rama and Sita Mata.

Rajinikanth had said on the 14th of January, “In 1971, at Salem, Periyar took out a rally in which undressed images of Lord Sri Ramachandramoorthy and Sita -with a garland of sandal-featured and no news outlet published it.” “Cho strongly condemned the event by Periyar immediately and Thuglak was the only magazine to do so. This brought a bad name to the ruling DMK who did not want the magazine to be circulated. The issue was seized by the government but Cho reprinted it and the magazine was sold in black. What was sold for Rs 10, was then sold for Rs 50 and Rs 60. Dr Kalaingar had (inadvertently) promoted the magazine in that way and in the next issue Cho had thanked him as its publicity manager…” he had added.

Read: Why did CN Annadurai, the founder of DMK, part ways with Periyar?

DVK chief Kolathur Mani claimed that Rajinikanth had uttered a “blatant lie that the images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude to a rally, which was held as part of a superstition eradication conference in 1971 in Salem”. The DVK sought action against Rajinikanth under IPC Sections 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief). “If the government does not take action, we may be constrained to look into aspects including launching a campaign against Rajinikanth, his films, or we could hold protests in front of movie halls that screen his movies,” Mani said.

Subsequently, on Monday, effigies of Rajnikanth were burnt in Tamil Nadu by ‘activists’. Five of them were arrested in Madurai for the same. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Rajnikanth declared that he won’t be tendering any apology for his comments on Periyar. He said, “I did not makeup what I said, there are even published stories in media on it. I can show them. I will not apologize.”

Read: Rahul Gandhi lies yet again, blames BJP and RSS for Periyar statue vandalised in Tamil Nadu

One of the stories on the event was published by The Outlook on the 20th of November, 2017 in a report with the headline “The Tamil Gag Raj”. The report spoke of the legacy of assaults on freedom of expression and the press by the state government. The report said, “The first stone was thrown by the DMK and its leader Karunanidhi in February 1971 when Thuglak, edited by Cho Ramaswamy, came under fire for ­publishing photographs of a Dravidar Kaz­hagam’s procession in Salem that had depicted Hindu gods Rama and Sita in the nude with a garland of slippers around their neck.”

The report continued, “Karunanidhi had initially denied that any such denigration had happened at Salem, but Thuglak countered his claim with photographic evidence. Even as the police came to the Ananda Vikatan press to seize the copies, bundles of the fortnightly were flung over the compound wall and found their way to the market, where they were sold at a premium. The irrepressible Cho published a cartoon in the next edition that showed Karunanidhi as the circulation-cum-advertising agent for Thuglak for having created a demand for his fledgeling magazine.”

Sachin Tendulkar and Courtney Walsh signed as the coach for Bushfire Relief Match in Australia

Ritesh
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Sachin Tendulkar and Courtney Walsh signed as the coach for Bushfire Relief Match in Australia

The Indian and West Indian legends, Sachin Tendulkar and Courtney Walsh are signed for the Bushfire Cricket Bash as the coach of two teams. The game will be played on 8th February between two teams led by Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne. All match profits and funds raised on the day will go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.

“We are absolutely honoured to be welcoming Sachin and Courtney back to Australia where they both enjoyed a lot of success as players, and we can’t wait to have them involved in what is going to be a special day,” said Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts.

“We’re looking forward to our people at CA and the entire Australian cricket family coming together for the Big Appeal.”

Read: Interview with Sachin Tendulkar’s mother Rajni Tendulkar: Of his childhood, her life, dreams, the devout family and working women

In 2005, a match was played between World XI and Asia XI for the Tsunami relief match at MCG. Tendulkar was part of the game but unfortunately couldn’t play due to Tennis elbow injury.

28 people died and over 2000 homes were burnt due to the Australian bush fire in December. Around 500 million animals lost their lives in this tragic incident.

Jama Masjid Metro Station: Woman carrying live cartridges caught by CISF

OpIndia Staff
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Jama Masjid Metro Station: Woman carrying live cartridges caught by CISF

On Monday, a 46-year-old woman was apprehended by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) yesterday for carrying two live cartridges at Jama Masjid Metro Station.


The said woman is a resident of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Two rounds of .315 bore were detected by the X-ray machine during the baggage screening. The incident took place around 1:22 pm. After she failed to produce any valid document for the ammunition, the senior officers and the Station Controller, DMRP was called. She was then handed over to the police.

During the course of the investigation, the woman reportedly stated to the police that a relative had forgotten the two cartridges at her house recently when he had visited and the woman had kept them in a bag. The woman was going to Noida where her brother-in-law’s son had died. She had hurriedly arrived in Delhi with that bag, stated DCP (Metro) Vikram Porwal.

The concerned relative reportedly has a valid arms license. The woman was caught by the baggage scanner at the Jama Masjid station.

Earlier, a 34-year-old man by the name of Ameer Hamza Khan was caught carrying a pistol and 5 live cartridges by CISF at Jamia Milia Islamia metro station.

NDTV’s Ravish Kumar more suitable than Rahul Gandhi to ‘defeat Modi’: Rama Chandra Guha

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV’s Ravish Kumar more suitable than Rahul Gandhi to ‘defeat Modi’: Rama Chandra Guha

Self-proclaimed ‘historian’ Rama Chandra Guha has stated recently that NDTV’s Ravish Kumar can be a better candidate than the 5th generation dynast Rahul Gandhi as the face of the opposition who can take on and defeat PM Modi in the upcoming elections.

Speaking to NDTV’s Nidhi Razdhan, on the talk show ‘Left Right and Centre’ on January 20, Guha stated that his remarks ‘criticising’ Rahul Gandhi were taken out of context and were twisted as his ‘affirmation’ for PM Modi. He clarified that he has long believed that Congress needs to find new leadership and he was in no way showing any affirmation for ‘Modi’.

Guha added that his statements against Rahul Gandhi were due to his ‘frustrations and exasperation’ over the state of the Congress party. Guha added that he wants to see Modi defeated and for that, he strongly believes that the Congress (or the opposition) should understand the roots of Modi’s popularity.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbCqOsApYbw?start=1369]

Guha further states that many people ask him why NDTV’s Ravish Kumar doesn’t join politics. Adding further on the context of a suitable opposition candidate who can challenge and defeat PM Modi electorally, Guha further added that Raveesh Kumar is “totally self-made, incredibly articulate, courageous and he speaks fabulous Hindi”. The four qualities, as per Guha, are necessary to ‘defeat Modi’.

Guha further added that a great south Indian politician, however courageous and articulate he is, can never be the PM face, because of his lack of Hindi speaking skills.

Guha further added that there are strong leaders in the Congress who can defeat Modi, like the CM of Chhattisgarh and Amarinder Singh, but, he added, if they are named, they will be ‘crushed’.

Going further to 2024 elections, Guha added, that it is going to be increasingly presidential and the opposition will need one face against Modi, “and it cannot be Rahul Gandhi”.

Read: ‘Historian’ Ram Guha’s strident criticism of Rahul Gandhi triggers a meltdown for abusive troll Swati Chaturvedi

Guha had recently stated at an event in Kerala that a 5th generation dynast like Rahul Gandhi can never defeat self-made PM Modi. After facing backlash from Congress-loyalist social media users and a spat with Shashi Tharoor, Guha had backtracked on his statement, claiming later that it was taken out of context.

Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh snubbed at Shaheen Bagh, ‘protestors’ do not let him deliver speech from stage

OpIndia Staff
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Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh snubbed at Shaheen Bagh, ‘protestors’ do not let him deliver speech from stage

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was snubbed by the ‘protestors’ at Shaheen Bagh in national capital late on Monday night when he had gone there to express solidarity over CAA and NRC. Singh was reportedly not allowed by the protestors to go on the stage to deliver a speech despite the fact that other Congress leaders like Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shashi Tharoor used the platform.

The ‘protestors’ at Shaheen Bagh insisted that the stage was not political. However, Digvijaya Singh later said that while he was requested to deliver a speech at Shaheen Bagh, it was actually he who did not want to politicise the stage.

Following the embarrassment, Singh today took to Twitter to announce that he also won’t show his documents by tweeting ‘kaagaz nahin dikhayenge’.


However, he was later mocked by netizens where they showed pictures of Singh showing his documents in full glory from the time he filed his nomination for elections.


His election affidavit was also shared.


BJP leader Sambit Patra too mocked Singh over the asinine comment.


Singh had contested 2019 general elections from Bhopal where he lost against BJP’s Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

The straws that ‘liberals’ clutch on to: First the ‘chaiwallah’ RTI, and now one that asks about ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’

OpIndia Staff
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The straws that ‘liberals’ clutch on to: First the ‘chaiwallah’ RTI, and now one that asks about ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’

The self-proclaimed ‘liberals’ seem to be clueless on how to break the Modi juggernaut. From asinine lies that get busted within minutes to even supporting rampaging mobs rioting on the roads, the ‘liberals’ have tried everything. Every time the anti-Modi gang has tried to go hammer and tongs against this government, the narrative has often gone against them.

Right after 2014 Lok Sabha elections, that was termed as a TsuNaMo, the narrative that a humble ‘chaiwallah’ had risen to the rank of the democratically elected and beloved Prime Minister of India was at its peak. From a ‘chaiwallah’ to a man who won a thumping mandate from the people of India was no mean feat. One can understand how that narrative had hurt the Congress party from the fact that Mani Shankar Aiyer, right before the 2014 elections had lashed out at the Prime Minister by saying that he could sell tea at the Congress HQ but will not become the Prime Minister.

To decimate the narrative of the humble chaiwallah becoming the PM of the country, Congress did something that can only be considered a stupid stunt by a desperate party. In 2015, they filed an RTI with the government to check if there was any record of the Prime Minister being a tea-seller earlier.

Read: As Congress revoked Mani Shankar Aiyar’s suspension, here is a look back at controversial remarks by Congress leaders

Back then, Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla had filed an RTI application to find out if PM Modi had ever sold tea in his lifetime. Even to a layperson, the RTI was ridiculous considering that is not information the government might have. For example, even if today a man sells tea in the trains, it is unfathomable that he would actually be registered with the government as someone selling tea at a railway station.

The RTI was then taken and the usual suspects had claimed that PM Modi was lying about his humble background. Nobody bought into the charade, but the Congress and its friends in the media did try their best to put an end to the conversation about PM Modi’s humble beginnings by this RTI.

Today, a narrative that is hurting not just the Congress but its ideological allies who are standing by rioting mobs is that of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. Tukde Tukde Gang came to be a colloquial term used to refer to those who have often stood with elements who want to see India break up, or those who have actively worked towards it. One recalls the JNU event that was meant to commemorate terrorist Afzal Guru where ‘Bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah Inshallah’ slogans were raised. Those ‘tukde tukde’ slogans came to be the identity of the ‘tukde tukde gang’.

Read: Radical Left Congress: Where treason and ‘bharat tere tukde honge’ is acceptable, but free speech on Social Media is not

The term itself, the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ hurt Congress and its ideological allies. Every time someone was seen with Kanhaiya Kumar, he was called a part of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. Every time Rahul Gandhi pulled a stunt supporting the Naxals, the rioting mobs, the Left goons, he was called as the facilitator of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’.

Essentially, people found a phrase to define the people they despised for decades.

To counter that, an RTI was filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs. A less-known individual who fancies himself as an activist and threatens people at random with no concrete result filed an RTI with the MHA to find out if a “Tukde Tukde Gang” actually existed.


The response to the RTI, obviously said that the MHA had no information on any ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ considering it is not a ministry’s job to keep track of colloquial phrases. The asininity of this exercise did not stop Congress party workers, that include several self-proclaimed journalists from branding HM Amit Shah a ‘liar’ because he had used the term in the past.


The fact that it is transparent stunt did not deter the ideological supporters of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ from calling Amit Shah a liar.

If anything, this only shows that the “liberals” are desperate at this point and they realise that the anti-CAA stunt is not working with the people.

Read: Khilafat 2.0: How Useful Idiots in the media and political parties were fooled by Jamia students associated with the ‘blood brother’ of a banned Radical Islamic outfit

The ‘Liberals’ have been supporting rampaging Muslim mobs and deeply anti-Hindu rhetoric during the anti-CAA protests in the hopes that they would be successful in painting the Prime Minister, yet again, as anti-Muslim. However, with the slogans like ‘Hinduon se Azadi’ and ‘Jinnah wali Azadi’ slogans being raised, that attempt has also fallen flat.

Whenever they deeply divisive agenda fails, the last resort of the ‘liberals’ seems to be to file an asinine RTI and hope that their agenda sticks.

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