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It was a joke, being made into a mountain out of molehill: Farokh Engineer over ‘serving tea’ comment on Anushka

OpIndia Staff
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It was a joke, being made into a mountain out of molehill: Farokh Engineer over ‘serving tea’ comment on Anushka

After Anushka Sharma lashed out at detractors over alleging her interference in BCCI through a poignant post on Twitter, the former India cricketer Farokh Engineer has come up with a justification on his statement after he had said that all that the BCCI selectors did during the World Cup in England earlier this year was fetch “cups of tea” for actress Anushka Sharma, the wife of India captain Virat Kohli.

Engineer said that the comment was made in jest and that he never intended to demean Anushka. “I just said it in a jest and it’s being made a mountain out of a molehill. Poor Anushka has been dragged into it, she is a lovely girl. Virat Kohli is a brilliant captain and coach Ravi Shastri is extremely good. The entire matter is being blown up unnecessarily. It turned out to be a selector as he was wearing an all India blazer”, said Engineer.

The 82-year-old former wicket-keeper had stirred controversy by dragging Anushka’s name while launching an attack on the Supreme Court-appointed Committee Of Administrators (CoA), which was in charge of the BCCI for 33 months before the recent election, which saw Sourav Ganguly become president.

Calling them “honeymooners” and a “Mickey Mouse selection committee,” in an interview with The Times of India, Engineer had said: “All they were doing was getting Anushka Sharma cups of tea. I feel people with the stature of Dilip Vengsarkar should be in the selection committee.”

Miffed over the allegation accusing her of interference in the selection process of BCCI, the Bollywood actress and producer in an emotional post had refuted all the accusations meted out at her in present as well as in her past.

Without taking any names, Anushka Sharma has hit out at former Indian wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer’s comment saying that if one wants to criticise the selection committee they are free to do so but she does not appreciate that her name is dragged into the controversy to sensationalise the news.

Disproportionate assets case: No exception from personal appearances for Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

OpIndia Staff
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Disproportionate assets case: No exception from personal appearances for Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

In a setback for the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, a CBI court on Friday turned down his plea seeking exemption from weekly personal appearances in the disproportionate assets case against him. The court admitted that Jagan might sway witnesses if shown leniency.

Turning down Jagan’s argument that his position as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister made weekly appearances in court both hard and expensive, the court agreed CBI’s contention that exception granted to Jagan would provide him with undesirable freedom to do whatever he wished, including influencing the witnesses. Furthermore, the premier investigative agency asserted that Jagan is number 1 accused in all the 11 charge-sheet filed by the agency and therefore should not be granted any mercy. The CBI also listed down the high court’s observations about charges on Jagan stating they were grave and serious in nature and affected the economies of the state and the country.

Also Read: Andhra CM Jagan Reddy revokes Naidu govt order, reinstates general consent granted to CBI

The cases pertain to investments made by several companies during the period when Jagan’s father YS Rajasekhar Reddy was chief minister between 2004 and 2009. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has claimed that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had accepted Rs 1,172 crore from various investors as a bribe and in an alleged quid pro quo, helped them in getting favours from the state government. The favours were mainly land, mining leases and licences for new industries. Jagan was arrested by the CBI on 27 May 2012 in connection with a disproportionate assets case. Jagan had served in prison for 15 months after his arrest in May 2012 in related cases.

Following the court order, Jagan Reddy will now have to appear in CBI court every Friday for hearing linked to the cases filed against him in 2011.

Write letters to Khattar uncle, Captain uncle: Kejriwal teaches Delhi school kids to blame Punjab, Haryana CMs for air pollution

OpIndia Staff
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Write letters to Khattar uncle, Captain uncle: Kejriwal teaches Delhi school kids to blame Punjab, Haryana CMs for air pollution

Even after receiving severe backlash for using children to garner votes for the Lok Sabha election at the beginning of the year, Arvind Kejriwal seems reluctant to change his habitude. In yet another political low, the Delhi chief minister has now used school children for playing politics over pollution.

On Friday, Kejriwal told school children in the city that smoke emanating from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana was causing air pollution in New Delhi and asked them to write letters to chief ministers of the two states urging them to control it.

“Please write letters to ‘Captain uncle’ and ‘Khattar uncle’ and say, ‘Please think about our health’,” he told children as he visited schools to distribute masks to schoolchildren to protect them from the rising pollution levels which have choked Delhi.

A Supreme Court-mandated panel has on Friday declared a public health emergency in the Delhi-NCR region and banned construction activity till November 5 as the pollution levels in the region reached the ‘severe plus’ category. According to official data, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 1 pm on Friday was recorded at 480, which falls in the severe category. Schools have been closed till November 5 too.

Kejriwal has blamed Punjab and Haryana governments for severe pollution in Delhi. He has accused the state governments of Haryana and Punjab of forcing their farmers to burn stubble, which he said is the reason behind pollution in the national capital.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today criticised Kejriwal for playing petty politics over air pollution in Delhi and indulging in a blame game by rebuking everybody, including neighbouring states and the Centre.

However, this is not the first time Kejriwal has dragged innocent children into his petty politics. On January 29, the Delhi CM had sought votes for the Lok Sabha elections in the name of children asking parents to choose between their children or Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Read: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal discovers a new low, asks parents to vote for AAP if they love their children

Addressing children and parents at the Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya at New Friends Colony, Kejriwal asked the students, present at the event to thank their parents for voting the AAP to power in the Delhi Assembly elections.

Read: Child right body writes to Arvind Kejriwal, says poll campaigns in schools a bad influence on children

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, repeating Kejriwal’s statements had also said, “Someone told me that they will vote for Modi in the election, because ‘Woh achhe lagte hain, I told them that if you love your children, vote for those who are building schools for them. So I’m telling all parents, and asking all children here to go home and ask their parents whether they love you or not. If they say that they love you, tell them to vote for those who are building schools for us.”

In fact, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had then written to Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government reminding them that poll campaigning in schools is ‘bad influence’ on children.

The proper way forward is teaching students accurate history about Tipu Sultan, not removing the Jihadist tyrant from textbooks

K Bhattacharjee
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The proper way forward is teaching students accurate history about Tipu Sultan, not removing the Jihadist tyrant from textbooks

The textbook committee in Karnataka has said that chapters in school textbooks on Tipu Sultan cannot be removed from textbooks, Times of India reported. The statement comes two days after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa said that the ‘tyrant’ will be removed from textbooks.

“I am yet to see the letter Madikeri MLA Appachu Ranjan had sent to the government and which was forwarded to the committee,” Baragur Ramachandrappa, head of the textbook committee, was reported as saying by TOI. “But I can say in my personal capacity that Tipu cannot be erased from history textbooks.” The controversy erupted after Ranjan wrote a letter to the state education minister saying that Tipu Sultan is not portrayed in the right manner in textbooks. Thus, he asked all references to him be removed from them.

“Textbooks provided to students between classes I to X are supposed to only be informative. There may be a lot of opinions for and against Tipu. But this must be reserved for students when they reach PUC level and above,” Ramachandrappa reportedly stated.

Following the statement by Yeddyurappa, Karnataka BJP tweeted saying that “textbooks must be rewritten to portray the real Tipu Sultan to our Children”. They added that children “should be made aware of the Tyrant’s cruelty against Hindus & his anti-Kannada rule.”

Read: The legacy of Tipu Sultan: Here is why Mandyam Iyengars of Karnataka observe Diwali as a day of mourning

Compared to the opinion that all references to Tipu Sultan be dropped from textbooks, the stance adopted by Karnataka BJP appears much more logical. The Islamic tyrant is part of our history. Regardless of his actions, students at schools must be taught the facts about his reign. If we don’t teach our children the authentic version of history, someone will else teach them a distorted version of it.

The reasonable course of action is not expunging a Jihadist from the pages of our textbook but teaching our children about the atrocities he committed. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Those who don’t learn an accurate version of history and therefore, are not in a position to take reasonable lessons from it, are bound to suffer the same fate.

It is true that the version of history that is taught to our children at school is heavily ‘secularized’ so as not to hurt religious sentiments. The proper response to it is teaching them the accurate version of it. If Tipu Sultan is dropped entirely from textbooks, our children will continue to suffer from ignorance; ignorance that will eventually come back to hurt them.

Read: Tipu Jayanthi celebrations show Indian secularism at its rotten worst

By all reasonable measures, Tipu Sultan was a Jihadist genocidal megalomaniac. The Mandyam Iyengars observe a day of mourning during Diwali to this day after Tipu massacred 800 men, women and children in cold blood over two centuries ago. Amusingly enough, the Islamic barbarian was proud of the actions the secular camp says he either never committed or must be viewed in the proper context.

Tipu Sultan boasted about the fact that he had managed to convert lakhs and lakhs of Hindus to Islam. He was proud of the fact that he was doing it for Allah and Islam. During the course of his reign, he destroyed many many Temples and slaughtered and converted hundreds and thousands of Hindus.

These are facts, our children must learn our history so that they could truly appreciate the monumental resistance put forth by our ancestors so that they could live the life they are living today. We cannot run from our history. As painful as these events are, these things happened and they are a part of our history. We cannot deliberately shut our eyes to them and wish them away. If we do, it will be a terrible disservice to our own ancestors and our civilization.

Read: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa says ‘tyrant’ Tipu Sultan will be removed from textbooks

The glorification of Tipu Sultan is borne of a combination of motivated desire to gain political mileage from a certain community of the electorate and a malicious desire to undermine our Hindu Civilization. We can be pretty certain that certain people love Tipu Sultan for the very atrocities he committed against Hindus.

Therefore, it is imperative that our children learn the authentic version of our history, so that they are wary of those who celebrate him and his reign. Tipu Sultan’s legacy also exposes the farcical nature of Indian secularism. If secularism is dependent on the glorification of genocidal Islamic fanatics in a Hindu majority country, then perhaps we ought to consider whether secularism is worth preserving at all.

There’s a good reason why the Jews have holocaust museums. Quite obviously, it’s not due to their fondness of Adolf Hitler. These museums serve to remind their people and everyone else of the genocide they suffered so that they can guard effectively against such morbid hatred in the future, so that what happened during Hitler’s reign never happens to them again.

There’s another significant reason why students in Karnataka must be taught about Tipu Sultan’s reign. Despite the million he atrocities he committed, despite the genocide he perpetrated against Hindus, despite the rapes, pillage and rampant slaughter, despite the Jihad, the Vijayanagara Empire still towers over his legacy in every manner. And the great land of Karnataka is still an inseparable part of the Hindu Civilization despite the vicious Jihad that was waged by Tipu Sultan and others before him.

Therefore, there’s true pain and sorrow in our history. But there’s hope too. And our children must learn history from a proper perspective in order to appreciate the monumental struggle of our ancestors against depraved Jihadists. If we don’t teach our children accurate history, someone else will teach them a distorted version. It’s as much a battle of minds as it is one of arms. For far too long, the minds of our children have been corrupted by distorted history in textbooks. Now, it’s time to right that wrong. And the way forward is not removing tyrants from textbooks but teaching our children the authentic version of history.

No prior registration, passport: Imran Khan announces waivers for Indian pilgrims visiting Kartarpur Sahib

OpIndia Staff
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No prior registration, passport: Imran Khan announces waivers for Indian pilgrims visiting Kartarpur Sahib

The Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan today took to Twitter to announce waivers for Indian pilgrims visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib through the Kartarpur corridor. Khan declared that Indian pilgrims will not have to register in advance and they will not require a passport for their visit, although a valid ID will be needed. Besides, he also stated that no fees will be charged on the inauguration day and on Guruji’s 550th birthday.


“For Sikhs coming for the pilgrimage to Kartarpur from India, I have waived off 2 requirements: i) They won’t need a passport-just a valid ID; ii)They no longer have to register 10 days in advance. No fees will be charged on the day of inauguration and on Guruji’s 550th birthday,” Khan tweeted.

Although the requirement of passport and advance registration have been waived, the entry fee will still be required, which have been waived on two specific days only. The move comes after repeated insistence from India to Pakistan to waive off the fee of USD 20 per Indian pilgrim. In addition, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also made an appeal to Pakistan to stop levying fees and allow ‘khulla darshan deedar’.

Even as India inked an agreement with Pakistan over Kartarpur corridor, it expressed “disappointment” over Pakistan’s persistence on levying the fees of $20 per pilgrim. Pakistan, which is reeling under severe economic crisis, plans to earn $100,000 every day by allowing 5000 pilgrims a day.

Also Read: Navjot Singh Sidhu invited by his ‘friend’ and ‘angel’ Imran Khan for the opening ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor on November 9

In November 2018, India and Pakistan had accepted to set up the border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak. The foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor was laid in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu in November last year.

The construction of the 4.5 km corridor from Indo-Pak border to the Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is almost complete, and it will be inaugurated on the Indian side by PM Narendra Modi on 9th November.

Sona Mohapatra slams Sony TV for reinstating Anu Malik as a judge in Indian Idol, criticises music industry colleagues for supporting him

OpIndia Staff
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Sona Mohapatra slams Sony TV for reinstating Anu Malik as a judge in Indian Idol, criticises music industry colleagues for supporting him

Singer Sona Mohapatra has slammed the Sony TV and the makers of popular singing reality show Indian Idol for reinstating music director Anu Malik back as the show’s judge despite complaints of sexual harassment against him. In a long note, Sona has criticised Sony TV’s move and has also criticised many others in the music industry for allegedly not speaking up against workplace sexual harassment prevalent in the industry.


In an open letter written by Sona, she has mentioned that Neha Bhasin, Shweta Pandit, Anu Malik’s doctor’s 14-year-old daughter and many others had raised their voice against the sexual harassment meted out to them by the music director.

Slamming media and Sony TV, Sona questioned Sony’s decision of reinstating Malik back on the jury panel despite serious allegations levelled against him the previous year. She also stated that when she called out Anu Malik’s predatory behaviour last year, she was ousted from the jury panel of SaReGaMaPa with the co-judge reasoning out that the ‘publicity’ she provided to Anu Malik had shot up the TRPs of the Indian Idol show.


Singer Neha Bhasin too has supported Sona’s statement. Neha has written that she had ‘ran away’ from a ‘sticky situation’ when she was 21 and she had faced Anu Malik lying in a sofa and talking about her eyes in a studio.

Last year, when the #MeToo movement was making headlines and many women were sharing their stories of workplace sexual harassment, Anu Malik was accused by many women of being a sexual predator. Singer Shweta Pandit had gone so far as calling him a paedophile. Pandit had accused that when she was 15, Malik had asked her for a kiss when she was alone during a song recording.


Apart from Malik and Sony TV, Sona Mohapatra has also called out other singers and music directors like Sonu Nigam, Neha Kakkar, Aditya Narayan and Vishal Dadlani for supporting Anu Malik. She has even termed Aditya Narayan and Neha Kakkar as ‘spineless’.

It is notable here that last year, Mohapatra had levelled harassment allegations against Malik which Malik had denied. Sona had alleged that Malik had referred to her as ‘maal’ and used to call her up repeatedly at odd hours.

Sona has also claimed that by getting a sports icon like Sachin Tendulkar to praise the singers of Indian Idol and promote their show, Sony TV is trying to divert the issue. She has called Tendulkar’s praise of Indian Idol singers a ‘diabolical plan’ by Sony TV.

Read why Maulana Rehman organised ‘Azadi march’ demanding resignation of Imran Khan and why it has been postponed by a day

OpIndia Staff
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Read why Maulana Rehman organised ‘Azadi march’ demanding resignation of Imran Khan and why it has been postponed by a day

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan heads towards a massive political challenge as a mammoth protest rally has been spearheaded by an influential Pakistani cleric demanding his resignation accusing him of “rigging” the 2018 general elections.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman launched the ‘Azadi March’ along with leaders of other opposition parties on October 27 from the southern Sindh province to arrive in Islamabad on October 31. However, this massive rally has been postponed for a day on Thursday in the wake of the tragic Lahore train inferno that killed at least 74 people.

Rehman has accused Khan of mismanagement of economy, inefficiency and bad governance that has increased the hardships of the common people of Pakistan. “The person (Prime Minister Imran Khan) has come to power through the rigging of elections. He should see the writing on the wall and resign or we will drive him out,” the Pakistani cleric told his supporters on the way to Islamabad which he reached in the wee hours of Friday.

Read: Imran Khan is a closet bigot, regularly makes derogatory comments on Hindus, says ex-wife Reham Khan

According to reports, thousands of people are taking part in the rally. Supporters of various opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People Party (PPP), have also joined the anti-government protest rally.

The protestors have encamped in the ground near the Peshawar Mor area where different political parties have set up their camps to house their workers.

Addressing the protestors at the venue, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Imran Khan is a “puppet” and the nation is not ready to bow its head before a “selected” prime minister and “those who have selected him”.

Read: Imran ‘Taliban’ Khan as ‘hero’ was only the next logical step for Indian ‘liberals’

The Pakistani authorities have made elaborate security arrangements and additional police and paramilitary personnel have also been deployed in Islamabad to prevent any violence.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan’ government alleged that the opposition parties have influenced the protest so that they could force the government to release its top leaders, currently held in jails. Imran Khan and his party has ruled out his resignation but showed readiness to accept any other demand to improve the election system or system of governance.

Imran Khan has been passing through choppy waters as there has been a recent surge in voices of dissent against him and his governance. Recently, various political parties under the banner of All Independent Parties Alliance (AIPA) had come together in Muzaffarabad for a ‘pro-freedom’ rally against Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Kashmir. The day was marked as ‘Black Day’ in Pakistan as people in PoK and Gilgit Baltistan demand Pakistan leave their territory. However, Pakistan police resorted to lathi-charge on peaceful protestors and used tear gas.

Read: PoK protestors chant slogans against illegal occupation by Pakistan Army near LoC, several Kashmiris injured in Pak firing

In September 2019, to choke the voices of dissent, Pakistan government had registered FIR against students and youth in PoK for chanting slogans against the PM during his rally.

It sad that while Imran Khan has been lately keeping himself busy portraying to be the ‘ambassador of Kashmir’, his Naya Pakistan, which has been in war with itself dealing with a debt-ridden economy, has now collectively decided to extricate the premier from his duties.

As Radio Kashmir becomes All India Radio, remembering Lassa Kaul, Doordarshan director who was killed by JKLF terrorists in February 1990

OpIndia Staff
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As Radio Kashmir becomes All India Radio, remembering Lassa Kaul, Doordarshan director who was killed by JKLF terrorists in February 1990

On 31st October, 2019, when state of Jammu Kashmir was officially bifurcated into union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, it changed more than just names. All laws which stated that they were applicable to all of India except state of Jammu and Kashmir were repealed and central laws will now be applicable there. Ranbir Penal Code was abolished and Indian Penal Code was put in place. Along with that, Radio Kashmir has also been renamed to All India Radio.

The Radio Kashmir Jammu and Radio Kashmir Srinagar stations merged with All India Radio but their names were kept unchanged as it helped countering Pakistani propaganda from Muzaffarabad and Tralkhad. As the radio station changed name, ANI news agency editor and journalist Smita Prakash tweeted about Lassa Kaul, an employee with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, who was gunned down by JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front) separatists outside his house in February 1990.


At about 7:15 PM on 13th February 1990, 45-year old Kaul, director with Doordarshan Kashmir, was visiting his ailing parents. As he stepped out of his vehicle, he was gunned down by terrorists. JKLF terrorists, who were critical of news station’s separatist violence, had threatened Kaul.

Read: The abduction of Rubaiya Saeed: This is the image that eventually paved the way for Kashmir to descend into chaos

In a series of tweets shard by journalist Rahul Pandita earlier this year, he recounted the horror of Kaul’s murder by hands of JKLF terrorists led by Bitta Karate.


He said that Lassa Kaul had left his wife and daughter at a relative’s place in Ghaziabad during the peak of militancy in Kashmir. After he was killed, two of his colleagues came looking for them to take them to Srinagar. They had no address.


Kaul’s family was located when the policemen were out listening for cries of mourning coming from any home. There were rumours that some of his colleagues were involved in the murder. That he never realised that his own men would turn against him. It is believed that the information of his whereabouts was passed on to the militants by the moles. The CBI had created a file on his murder but that file is now lost.

Kaul was the only child of his parents to have survived among his seven siblings. Lassa in Kashmiri stands for ‘Be blessed or to have a long life. Unfortunately, his life was cut short too soon.

How the Statue of Unity proved naysayers to be 2700% wrong

Abhishek Banerjee
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How the Statue of Unity proved naysayers to be 2700% wrong

It is well understood that if PM Modi were to advocate breathing tomorrow, his deranged critics would start a campaign against oxygen. When the Statue of Unity, the tallest in the world, was unveiled on Sardar Patel’s birthday last year, it became an instant magnet for naysayers.

Their target: the eye-popping cost of building the statue, a hefty Rs 3000 crore. An all-round campaign was run, listing other possible productive uses for the money: primary schools, hospitals and the like. Curiously, not one journalist suggested building a journalism school with the money: it is almost as if they know that their line of work produces no tangible good for society.

Read: ‘Liberal’ meltdown for Statue of Unity is getting more creative with Shekhar Gupta’s The Print leading the charge

One of the most widely shared commentaries during this period was by social media-based economist Dhruv Rathee, who produced this estimate for the revenue that the Statue would bring in every year.

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The Taj Mahal earns Rs 25 crore in revenue a year. Rathee estimated that the Statue of Unity would be lucky to get even 10% of that, suggesting that the Statue would expect to make just about Rs 2.5 crore.

Read: Fact-Check: Two opposite headlines in two weeks, is The Print’s criticism of Statue of Unity valid?

Before we get into what actually happened, it is important to understand why such thinking is deeply flawed. The returns on the Statue of Unity cannot be calculated by adding up ticket sales. It has to be calculated on the basis of the total economic value generated.

This is simple. Does anyone seriously believe that the Taj Mahal adds just Rs 25 crore to the Indian economy every year? Obviously not. The real return is in terms of the visitors who flock to Agra to see the historic monument, spending on travel, hotels, shopping and eating out.

Read: Fact-Check: The Print publishes drivel by a YouTuber running the Statue of Unity down, here is the truth

The Statue of Unity does something very similar. Quite cannily, it has been built in the vicinity of the small town of Kevadiya in Gujarat, among mountains and forests. Far from urban centres, which necessitates at least a day of travel to see the place.

Now for the hard numbers.

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As many as 26 lakh visitors in 11 months! Imagine how this transforms the economy of Kevadiya, which used to be a town of a few thousand people. Now it caters to food, travel, eating and shopping needs of over 25 lakh people! Think of how much employment and business the brand new tourist attraction has generated.

Read: Statue of Unity attracts 1 lakh visitors in just 10 days, earns Rs 2.1 crores

And because social media-based economists would be wondering, how much money did they make in ticket sales?

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Rs 71.66 crore of ticket sales in 11 months. October was the month of Diwali and Dussehra, so this will go up significantly in the remaining 1 month. But let’s stick to the Rs 71 crore figure.

Remember the estimated earnings through ticket sales were a meagre Rs 2.5 crore or less. In other words, the estimate was off by a mere 2700%.

Not bad. We can expect more of such expert commentary from liberals in the coming years.

Read: Statue of Unity town to get its own world-class railway station

This year, the Prime Minister has inaugurated a whole host of new facilities such as river rafting and jungle safari at the spot, which will bring in even more people, make them stay longer and spend more.

Clearly, the Statue of Unity is a hit. The amazing publicity generated around the Statue has worked. Liberals should concede that.

Yes, the investment of Rs 3000 crore was a risk. But every investment involves risk. Without risk, there would be no wealth creation. There would only be social media-based economists who have nothing at stake.

Randeep Singh Surjewala lies, compares subsidised price of LPG in 2014 with current non-subsidised price

OpIndia Staff
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Randeep Singh Surjewala lies, compares subsidised price of LPG in 2014 with current non-subsidised price

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala resorted to lies while criticising the Modi government for the hike in the price of unsubsidised LPG. Today the price of non-subsidised LPG was raised by around ₹76 per cylinder. The price of a 14.2 kg Liquified Petroleum Gas marketed by Indian Oil Corporation under the Indane brand went up to ₹681.50 from earlier ₹605.00 in Delhi.


Reacting to this price rise, Rahul Gandhi’s close aide Surjewala tweeted that while the price of LPG is ₹716.50 is per 14.2 kg cylinder, it was ₹414.00 on 16th May 2014. Therefore, the prices have gone up by ₹302.50, he tweeted. But this is a blatant lie as the Congress leader is comparing two different prices.

While he has taken the non-subsidised price for the current, he is comparing it with subsidised price in 2014. If we take the non-subsidised price of LPG from 2014, we find that it was much more than the current price even after today’s hike. According to previous prices listed on IOCL website, price of non-subsidised LPG on 1st May 2019 in Delhi was ₹928.50, and the same was ₹1241.00 in January that year. That means, the current price of ₹681.50 in Delhi is still lower than the 2014 price by ₹247.00, and not ₹302.50 higher as alleged by Randeep Singh Surjewala.

LPG prices in 2014
LPG prices in 2014

It may be noted that during the UPA government the number of subsidised cylinders available per year was 9, which was increased to 12 by the Modi government. Under the DBTL scheme, the subsidy amount is directly credited to the bank account of consumers after the full non-subsidised price is paid for purchasing LPG.

Also Read: Congress’ Randeep Surjewala caught spreading fake news that Indian Rupee is weaker than Bangladeshi Taka, deletes tweet

The LPG prices, like all other petroleum products, are dependent on market prices. The prices go up and down according to global oil prices. Unlike petrol and diesel, LPG does not attract high tax, only 5% GST is applicable to it. Therefore, the government has little control over the non-subsidised price. But the government keeps changing the subsidy amount so that consumers don’t have to pay too much for the cooking gas.

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