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Indian Air Force inducts 8 attack Boeing-64E Apache helicopters to replace ageing Russian Mi-35 choppers

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Air Force inducts 8 attack Boeing-64E Apache helicopters to replace ageing Russian Mi-35 choppers

In a big boost to India’s combat capabilities, eight US-made Boeing Apache AH-64E attack helicopters joined the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet today in Pathankot.

According to the reports, the Indian Air Force inducted eight lethal attack helicopters in the presence of Air Force chief BS Dhanoa at the Pathankot Air Force station. “It is one of the most fierce attack helicopters in the world. It is capable of performing many missions, today with the induction of Apache AH-64E, the Indian Air Force has upgraded its inventory to the latest generation of attack helicopters,” Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on induction of the choppers.

The Apache choppers received a water cannon salute, before induction at the Pathankot Air Base. This will be its first fleet of attack choppers. By 2020, the IAF will operate a fleet of 22 Apaches.


“It is a ceremonial induction of the aircraft into IAF. As of now, we have 8 aircraft. 22 aircraft will come in a phased manner and all will be inducted into the IAF. We had attack helicopters earlier, but this aircraft brings in lethal firepower with great accuracy,” IAF spokesperson Anupam Banerjee said.

In 2015, India had signed a multi-billion dollar contract with Boeing for the supply of 22 of these choppers, widely considered the most advanced helicopters of their type in the world.

The 22 Boeing Apache-64E attack helicopters are meant to replace the IAF’s ageing fleet of Russian Mi-35 choppers which are nearing the end of their service life. The attack helicopters can fire anti-armour missiles, mainly targetting tanks, bunkers and can be deployed in other wide-ranging missions. They are equipped with advanced sensors to enable them to detect and engage their targets while flying very low and at high speeds to evade detection by enemy forces.

The AH-64E Apache for the IAF completed successful first flights in July 2018. The first batch of IAF crew began their training to fly the Apache in the US last year. The IAF’s first Boeing AH-64E Apaches will be inducted into the 125 HU ‘Gladiators’ squadron.

“It is the only available combat helicopter with a spectrum of capabilities for virtually any mission requirement. For the AH-64 E, this includes greater thrust and lift, joint digital operability, improved survivability and cognitive decision aiding,” the PTI quoted Boeing as saying.

Addition to Apache attack helicopters, the Indian Air Force’s combat helicopter stream will be augmented by Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), which is being indigenously designed and developed by HAL. The LCH can be deployed in various roles, including tracking slow-moving aerial targets, insurgency, destroying enemy defences, search and rescue, anti-tank and scouting. The Indian Air Force will induct 65 HAL LCH.

The Indian Air Force also currently uses HAL Rudra as an attack helicopter. The HAL Rudra is the Weapon System Integrated (WSI) variant of the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH). HAL Rudra is the first armed helicopter being produced indigenously in India. It can be deployed in a wide range of missions, including reconnaissance, troop transport, anti-tank warfare and close air support.

Actress Sara Ali Khan wishes people for Ganesh Chaturthi, fundamentalists question her Muslim credentials

OpIndia Staff
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Actress Sara Ali Khan wishes people for Ganesh Chaturthi, fundamentalists question her Muslim credentials

On Monday, Bollywood actress Sara Ali Khan took to Instagram to wish people on occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. However, she seems to have never anticipated the hatred and online lynching that she could receive from social media users.

Image Source: Instagram
Sara Ali Khan wishing Hindus a happy Ganesh Chaturthi.

As Sara Ali Khan wished her fans on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, a mob of social media users barged into her timeline to attack and abuse her, claiming that wishing Hindus was anti-Islamic and questioned her whether she was really a Muslim.

 

Muslim social media users spewing venom against Sara Ali Khan.

Then followed personal abuse against Sara Ali Khan, as fellow Muslims said she should be ashamed of being a Muslim. Some even questioned whether she was a Muslim.

Muslim social media users spewing venom against Sara Ali Khan

Abusing a woman, despite being from the same community for celebrating a Hindu festival is symptomatic of dangerous levels of radicalization.

Sara Ali Khan is daughter of film actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh. Film actor Kareena Kapoor is her step-mother. This is not the first time that Muslim celebrities are subjected to severe abuse on social media for celebrating Hindu festivals. Shahrukh Khan, too, has been a victim of trolling on social media after he had tweeted a picture of his son celebrating Ganesh Puja. Muslims had called it a ‘sin’, had abused and condemned him.

Popular Bengali actress and a TMC MP from West Bengal, Nusrat Jahan was insulted on Facebook for celebrating Durga Puja as it was ‘inappropriate’. Cricketer Mohammad Kaif was trolled by Muslim fundamentalists for celebrating Christmas and condemned for performing the Surya Namaskar. Another cricketer Irfan Pathan was told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is ‘against Islam’ and abused when he wished everyone on a special day.

In the past, a freelance protestor from JNU, Shehla Rashid, was forced to deactivate her Facebook account as well after receiving rape threats from Muslims. The rape threats were in response to Rashid asking Muslims whether they would let their sisters and daughters marry a non-Muslim man of their choice.

On another occasion, Arshad Mansuri, a Muslim doctor from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, had claimed that he was receiving threats due to his pledge to donate his organs after death. His pledge had angered a section of his community who were angered by his committing an “anti-Islamic” act.

In December 2017, a popular Radio Jockey from Kerala, RJ Sooraj, had attracted the wrath of Muslim hardliners. He had received death threats after coming out in support of three Burkha-clad girls who had angered radicals by performing an innocuous street dance as part of a flash mob to create awareness on AIDS Day.

Despite all the hatred pushed by the minority community, the ‘liberal-secular’ media mafia turns a blind eye towards the radicalization that has gripped the minority community but blames Hindus for rising intolerance. Despite the growing intolerance, it has become normal for ‘liberals’ to embrace silence whenever Islamic radicalism manifests itself with hatred and intolerance.

NRC outcome: As a nation, we have failed Assam

Abhishek Banerjee
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NRC outcome: As a nation, we have failed Assam

When the draft NRC came out last year, it identified about 40 lakh suspected illegal migrants in Assam. Now, any person with an inkling of the ground realities would have said the real number is much more, but at least it was better than nothing.

Now the final NRC is out and that figure has shrunk to just 19 lakh. Further, mounting anecdotal evidence suggests that the list is full of Hindu refugees and some say it may even be a majority of them. These victims of partition will now have to live through the worst of our bureaucratic nightmares merely to stay in India.

The politicians are still trying to hold on to their rhetorical positions. Some talk of approaching the Supreme Court again. But it may be time to look at the depressing reality in the eye and just admit: We failed Assam as a nation. Irretrievably.

In reality, what options do we have left? The NRC was promised by Rajiv Gandhi as part of the Assam Accord in 1985. Obviously, he had no intention of actually doing it. He had no incentive to. The Congress would be the biggest beneficiary of “secular” votes from across the border.

Work on the NRC did not begin seriously until the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016. That’s over 3 decades in between. With our mass poverty, what documentation could be seriously expected to last 30 years to prove citizenship beyond reasonable doubt? There is a flood almost every year in Assam. Obviously, the standards have to be lowered to the point that the standards no longer matter at all.

The depressing reality is that, when it comes to providing documents, the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have now become indistinguishable from genuine Indians.

This is the goal that Indian secularism worked towards and they have achieved it. For decades, they opened the door from the inside and let infiltrators in, hoping to harvest their votes. The promise of NRC was kept as an eyewash, but the timeline was extended indefinitely.

Indian secularism was just playing for time. They knew that with each passing year, it would become more and more difficult to identify and deport infiltrators. It’s 2019 now. How will you prove someone came illegally in the 1970s? See if you can think of a concrete suggestion.

The BJP is also to blame here. They didn’t proactively invite infiltrators from Bangladesh, unlike their ‘secular’ adversaries. True. But they must have understood that by 2016, it was already too late. All legal options had become unimplementable already. The NRC was no longer possible. They offered the dream anyway.

Someone has to look the people of Assam in the eye and tell them the dream has been shattered already. No politician will dare to say this, so I might as well do it. We as a nation failed the people of Assam. We saw with our own eyes the infiltrators coming in, colonizing and subjugating Assam, but we did nothing. We let it go on. And now, we have lost Assam to the colonizers from East Pakistan.

When Partition happened and Pakistan was created, one side saw it as a one time sacrifice to secure a permanent peace. The other side saw it as a staging area from where they would carry out the unfinished business of wiping out India.

Many in India think Pakistan considers Kashmir to be the unfinished business of Partition. They are wrong. Partition was never a goal for the other side. Their real business was to wipe out India. Kashmir is just an unfinished step in their real unfinished business.

And today, thanks to their proactive nature and our passive nature, we have failed Assam.

Our passive nature continues to this very day. If you have seen any Indian metropolis, you know that what happened to Assam is happening again. Before our eyes. But we care so little.

Worse, so many of us fall for the American liberal narrative about illegal migrants that is being wrongly juxtaposed in the Indian context. Who wants to be Trump? But America is a nation of immigrants. America was not born out of a Partition. Bharat is our cultural inheritance. That cultural identity was torn into two pieces in 1947. We did not ask for it to be torn into pieces. We were forced. There is no shame in demanding that the other side keep its word and leave us in peace. We’ve paid the ransom. We lost 30 lakh innocent lives. We lost forever much of the land of our ancestors. At least leave us alone now. To say so is not narrow minded. This is having the common sense to stand up for ourselves because nobody else will.

Worst of all, we are still fighting among ourselves. Assamese against Bengali. Who realizes that unless we do something today, tomorrow it might be Bihar or Odisha who will be resentful of refugees coming in from both Assam and Bengal? And a few years after that, maybe refugees from Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha will all be looking for a place to live? But who has the time to learn the most obvious lessons from history?

The Citizenship Amendment Bill is caught up in our squabbles. The unfortunate Hindu refugees, who are the real victims of partition, are stuck. From the NRC final list, it seems these people were the least proactive in getting “documents.” Possibly because they had trusted that India would give them a place under the sky. Where else would a Hindu refugee go? Clearly, they expected too much. On the other hand, the real infiltrators arranged for all the “documents” necessary to set up their colony in Assam. How messed up is this? And how doomed are we as a nation?

Maharashtra: Massive fire breaks out in ONGC plant in Navi Mumbai, at least 5 killed, 8 injured

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Massive fire breaks out in ONGC plant in Navi Mumbai, at least 5 killed, 8 injured

A massive fire which had broken out in ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) plant in Uran, Navi Mumbai has been doused. The ONGC has confirmed via tweet that the fire has now been doused within two hours.

As per reports, a fire broke out in storm water drainage early morning today at the Uran oil and gas processing plant of ONGC. The ONGC fire services and crisis management team rushed to the spot. Attempts are on to contain the fire. As per the reports, there is no impact on oil processing. The gas is being diverted to Hazira plant in Gujarat.

At least five people, including 3 CISF personnel, have reportedly died and eight are injured in the fire and rescue operations are underway. People living near the plant were evacuated to prevent any further loss of life.

‘Journalist’ Ali Sohrab tries to pass off 2013 image of CISF jawan martyred in terrorist attack as image from Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370

OpIndia Staff
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‘Journalist’ Ali Sohrab tries to pass off 2013 image of CISF jawan martyred in terrorist attack as image from Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370

The Kashmir valley is returning to normalcy slowly, however, some section of media is hellbent on fear-mongering in the valley by sharing fake news to incite violence.

In a similar case, a ‘journalist’ Ali Sohrab tried to pass off an old image of two army men cleaning a pool of blood on a road as a recent one. He shared the misleading image implying that it was taken during the ongoing situation in Kashmir. He posted the image on Twitter with a caption #28DaysOfKashmirShutdown.


While the image is indeed from Kashmir, it is not a recent one. It is actually of security personnel cleaning up after a terrorist martyred a CISJ jawan in Srinagar in October 2013. According to the fact-checker – Facthunt.in, this image shared by ‘journalist’ Ali Sohrab is almost 6 years old. A simple reverse image check leads us to an article posted by the Indian Express with the headline “CISF jawan killed in militant attack in Srinagar”.

Indian Express photo from 14th October 2014 after a CISF jawan was killed by a terrorist.

This article was posted on October 14, 2013. It consists of a few images that show the aftermath of a militant attack in Srinagar and one of the images is the one tweeted by the user.

Ali Sohrab, by tweeting an old, unrelated image and connecting it with the ongoing situation with the Kashmir, deliberately attempted to indulge in fake news and push pro-Pakistan agenda. Taking a cue from Ali Sohrab, the image has been shared by several others on social media to claim that the bloodshed incident had occurred in Kashmir after Modi government abrogated Article 370.

Following the repealing of special status, some of the sections of media, political parties, the intelligentsia had hoped that violence would erupt in Kashmir valley as a mark of protest against the Modi government’s decision. As normalcy is returning back to Kashmir, the ‘liberal-secular’ forces seem to be in discomfort and have now resorted to putting pro-Pakistan agenda to discredit the Narendra Modi government’s decision to correct the historic blunder.

Kulbhushan Jadhav under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims: MEA after consular meet

OpIndia Staff
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Kulbhushan Jadhav under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims: MEA after consular meet

An Indian diplomat met Kulbhushan Jadhav today at a sub-jail for an hour after Pakistan granted consular access to the former naval officer “in line with the ICJ judgement.”

In a statement, which was released hours after the first consular access, the Indian government has said that Kulbhushan Jadhav appears to be “under extreme pressure” to parrot a false narrative.

“While we await a comprehensive report, it was clear that Shri Jadhav appeared to be under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims. We will decide a further course of action after receiving a detailed report from our Cd’A and determining the extent of conformity to the ICJ directives,” the MEA said in a statement.

It furthered that only after receiving a detailed report will India decide on the future course of action.

“The Charge d’ Affaires, High Commission of India in Islamabad, met Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav today. This meeting was held in the light of the unanimous judgment of the International Court of Justice delivered on 17 July 2019 which found Pakistan in egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 on many counts and ordered Pakistan to provide Indian consular officers access to Shri Jadhav,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He added, “Today’s consular access is a part of the binding obligations of Pakistan, as ordered by the ICJ, to ensure effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence awarded to Shri Jadhav through a farcical process.”

The MEA spokesperson also said that the External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken with Jadhav’s mother and has briefed her of today’s development.

He added the government remains committed to continue to work towards ensuring that Kulbhushan Jadhav receives justice at the earliest and returns safely to India.

India had accepted Pakistan’s offer for consular access to detained former navy officer Jadhav on Monday and had hoped that Pakistan officials would ensure the “right atmosphere” for the meeting, keeping with the letter and spirit of the ICJ order.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands had directed Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution and allow him consular access. Based on ICJ’s verdict in a 15-1 decision on July 17, Pakistan had on July 30 sent its first proposal to India but with 2 riders attached. One that Pakistani security personnel will be present during the meeting and second there will be CCTV cameras present in the room.

India had rejected Pakistan’s first offer with riders and had demanded unimpeded access. According to article 36 of the Vienna Convention, “Consular officer shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending state and to have access to them.” The first rider by Pakistan was in clear violation of the Vienna Convention.

Jadhav is an Indian national and a retired navy officer, who was arbitrarily arrested by Pakistan in 2016 for being an ‘Indian spy’. The Indian government had approached the ICJ over the arbitrary death sentence handed down to Jadhav after an ad hoc hearing in Pakistan.

A Pakistani military court had sentenced him to death in April 2017 on charges of espionage and terrorism. However, the ICJ in The Hague had asked Pakistan to hold off the execution till it reached the final verdict in the case.

The ICJ had conducted a public hearing of the case in February this year. India has sought annulment of Jadhav’s death sentence and his immediate release stating that Pakistani army court verdict had failed to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process. Senior advocate Harish Salve had presented India’s case at the ICJ.

SIT to probe the harassment charges levelled by LLM student against Swami Chinmayanand, Allahabad HC to monitor: SC

OpIndia Staff
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SIT to probe the harassment charges levelled by LLM student against Swami Chinmayanand, Allahabad HC to monitor: SC

The sexual allegation case against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, levelled by a law student from Shahjahanpur in UP, has taken several twists and turns. Yesterday, the ‘abduction’ angle in the case was ruled out after the victim herself confessed before the Supreme Court that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”

Now with one of the serious allegation eliminated, the Supreme Court today ordered the government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that will probe the harassment charges levelled by the LLM student against Swami Chinmayanand.

UP police had filed an FIR against Swami Chinmayanand, booking him for abduction and intimidation on the basis of the victim’s father’s complaint.

Taking the case suo motu on an application by some activist lawyers, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna informed that following the interaction with the student, she had expressed certain grievances and her parents have expressed apprehensions.

To look into these grievances and apprehensions, the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh will constitute an SIT headed by a police officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police. The team will also comprise the superintendent of police and other police officials, ordered the apex court today. The Court has, however, clarified that it is not expressing any opinion on the correctness of the grievances and apprehensions.


Moreover, the SC has requested the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to constitute a Bench to monitor this probe. The SIT will also take note of the FIR and the cross FIR filed in the case.

However, the Supreme Court retained the suo motu petition with itself on the limited aspect of ensuring that studies of the girl are not discontinued or disturbed. It directed the Counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh to apprise the Court of the institutes where the girl can be accommodated.


After a week-long hunt, the UP police traced the girl in Rajasthan with one of her friend named Sanjay Singh, and extortionist, who had allegedly made ransom calls to Swami Chinmayanand demanding Rs 5 crore.

After the Uttar Pradesh LLM student, who had initially accused BJP MP and former Union Minister Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, went missing, her father had alleged that the BJP leader has abducted her. Accordingly, the police had registered against Swami Chinmayanand. But after being produced before the Supreme Court yesterday within hours of being traced by police, she told the judges in an in-camera interaction that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”

The Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident after a group of lawyers had written a letter to the Court urging for the same. The matter was mentioned before the Bench headed by Justice NV Ramanaon Wednesday.

The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had released a video on social media on August 23, levelling allegations of sexual harassment against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.

In a video posted on Friday, the girl alleged that Chinmayanand, the director of her college, is threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence that could land him in trouble. She asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for help. The student, however, went missing three days after the allegations were made. This had raised suspicion that the BJP leader had abducted her and accordingly, the police had registered a case against him.

Earlier, Swami Chinmayanand had stated that he was being framed in the case as a part of a big conspiracy to malign the Uttar Pradesh government’s reputation.

Former Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit confuses porn star Johnny Sins with a Kashmir youth blinded by pellet gun

OpIndia Staff
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Former Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit confuses porn star Johnny Sins with a Kashmir youth blinded by pellet gun

Parody nation Pakistan has at least, been extremely consistent when it comes to providing ‘entertainment’ to humankind. Whatever the situation may be, Pakistan never fails to give Twitterati its regular dose of entertainment through its consistent dose of bloopers.

Pakistan’s recent anecdotes on India’s decision to abrogate Article 370, has also been nothing but a full-fledged gag show which is getting better and better with every passing day. Though all Pakistan’s machismo and psyops over Twitter have been busy creating an atmosphere of being at war against India, their regular gaffes exposing their low IQ has always left Twitterati in splits.

After recently Pakistan Senator Rehman Malik gave the world a sneak-peak into his pea-sized brains by tagging the ‘UNO’ game instead of ‘United Nations’ in his Tweet criticizing Modi, the former Pakistan Envoy Abdul Basit has today gone a step further and asked the world to ‘pray for Johnny Sins’.

In haste to peddle anti-India narrative, the former Pak Envoy took to Twitter to re-tweet an image of the adult movie star Johnny Sins claiming he is Yousuf from Anantnag who has been blinded by a pellet.


For the people who are unaware, Johnny Sins is a pornographic actor who has received nominations for numerous adult industry awards, including the AVN award for male performer of the year, twice. He is consistently among the most popular pornography searches.

Twitterati, as usual, had a field day. Though Basit was quick to undo his retweet, the alert users were faster to point out this gaffe by the former Pak Envoy by taking screenshots.


And there were few who had no words for this ‘intelligentsia’!


This trend of fooling well known Pakistani personalities started after many Pakistanis, including their media, started spreading old images and videos of other places claiming them to be recent imageries from Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistanis have been caught using dozens of such unrelated images and videos claiming atrocities by Indian armed forces on civilians in the state. Some enterprising social media users started contacting people in Pakistan government claiming to have evidence of such ‘atrocities’, only to send images from movies etc. Although most people recognise such trolling after seeing the images, few of them believe them, and Abdul Basit was one of them.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan says Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first against India

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan says Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first against India

As Pakistan continues to knock at the doors of the international community against India’s decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir, prime minister Imran Khan made a significate statement today. He said that Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first, as any escalation between the two nuclear-capable countries will put the entire world in danger.


Addressing a gathering of Sikh community in Lahore, Imran Khan said, “we both are nuclear-armed countries. If these tensions increase, the world could be in danger”. “There will be no first from our side ever,” he assured.

He repeated his rants against RSS in his speech, saying its totalitarian ideology will target other minorities like Sikhs and Dalits also, not just Muslims. He urged the Sikh community raise their voice against the RSS ideology.  Imran Khan was addressing the closing session of International Sikh Convention at the Governor House as the chief guest.

His comments come just a few weeks after Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh saying that India may review its no first use doctrine of nuclear weapons if needed, indicating that India may not stick the ‘no first use’ doctrine if the government feels the need to use the deadly weapon.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s assurance of not using nuclear weapons came just a day after his cabinet colleague, railway minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, warned India that Pakistan has tactical nuclear weapons capable of causing targeted damage in India. “Pakistan has small 125-250 gram atom bombs which may hit a targeted area in India,” he had said while talking to media on Sunday.

While India has self-declared no first use doctrine on nuclear weapons, Pakistan does not have any such official position. Pakistan claims that its first use doctrine is entirely deterrent in nature.

MP forest minister claims Digvijay Singh is trying to destabilise Kamal Nath government, writes to Sonia Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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MP forest minister claims Digvijay Singh is trying to destabilise Kamal Nath government, writes to Sonia Gandhi

One of the ministers of Kamal Nath led cabinet in Madhya Pradesh has levelled serious allegations against Congress party veteran and former CM of the state Digvijaya Singh, accusing him of trying to destabilise the Madhya Pradesh government.

Umang Singhar, forest minister in the MP state government has written a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi Sunday in this context. The letter exposes the infighting within the MP Congress, which the party has been trying to cover.


Singhar has in his letter to Gandhi had written that he was pained to inform her that senior party leader and MP, Digvijaya, was trying to destabilise the Kamal Nath government install him as a power centre.

He further added that Digvijaya was writing letters to the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues and sharing the same on social media platforms.

“He had also written letters to Nath regarding Vyapam, e-tendering and tree-plantation scams, but had not written about Simhast (Kumbh Mela) scam as his son Jaivardhan Singh is heading the urban administration and development ministry. The Congress had made it (Simhast scam) a big issue while it was in the opposition,” the letter stated.

“Such letters give credence to the opposition, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and leader of the opposition Gopal Bhargava, that Digvijaya is running the government from behind the curtain,” it further read.

Singhar, who is a tribal MLA from Gandhwani seat, also said in the letter, “When he is running the government from behind the curtain, which is known to everyone including the Congress workers, then what was the need to write a letter (to ministers)?”

Singhar confirmed to the PTI about writing the letter to Gandhi. In the same breath, he asked, “What is wrong with it?”

Reports of fiction in the Madhya Pradesh party unit have been surfacing for a while and recently a section of the party workers favouring Jyotiraditya Scindia threatened to mass resign if her was not made the party chief in the state.

Digvijaya, a known Gandhi family loyalist, had recently written to the state ministers for an appointment to seek the updates on the transfers and works recommended by him.

State public relations minister PC Sharma jumped in defense of Digvijaya and his act of writing to the CM and ministers citing his stature as a present Rajya Sabha MP.

“People come to him with their problems and he highlighted them by writing letters,” Sharma said and added, “He did the ‘Narmada Parikrama’ (circumambulation), and a large number of people contact him with their problems. There is nothing wrong in writing letters.”

Sharma who is believed to be a loyalist of Digvijaya rubbished the claims that he was running a parallel government in the state. “It is chief minister Kamal Nath who is running the government and all senior leaders and ministers are supporting him,” he asserted.

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