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I am an Indian, a Christian, and I live in India without fear: An open letter to Pakistan PM Imran Khan

OpIndia Staff
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I am an Indian, a Christian, and I live in India without fear: An open letter to Pakistan PM Imran Khan

On the Independence Day address to nation, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan communalised Kashmir issue and equated the RSS with Nazis. Former Goa Congress leader and editor-in-chief of Goa Chronicle, Savio Rodrigues wrote an open letter to Pakistani Prime Minister shutting him up and said how as a Christian in India, another religious minority, he lives without any fear. 

His open letter which was first published on Goa Chronicle has been republished here verbatim with his permission. 

I have no respect for your intelligence or your position as Prime Minister of Pakistan. But I do respect your cricketing skills, I grew up watching.

Being a leader on a cricket field is not the same as being a leader of a nation.

I have no respect for your political acumen because in my analysis of you as a politician, you don’t have the aptitude or right attitude to be a leader of a nation. That you are elected by your people raises serious questions of the mental prowess of the people of your nation.

Without beating around the bush, let me get straight to the moot point of me writing you an open letter.

In your tweet on August 14, 2019 at 5.50 PM, you stated, “This is the RSS ideology that threatens not just Kashmiris or Pakistan or even just Indian Muslims, Christians & Dalits but India itself as envisaged by its Founding Fathers.”

In this tweet you shared an article – ‘Hitler’s Hindus – The rise and rise of India’s Nazi-loving nationalists’.

I am an Indian. I am also a Christian.

I live in India without fear.

I travel across most parts of India on my reporting assignments without fear.

I have two daughters, who have grown up in India without fear and live without fear.

I have a mother, father and wife who live in India without fear.

As a Christian and more so as an Indian, I have never felt threatened or intimidated by what you term to be RSS ideology in my nation.

I am not a RSS-member.

I have many friends in the RSS like I do in most social organisations irrespective of religion or social linkages.

I have studied about the RSS in my learnings about my country. I have found them to be a social service organisation with India and the people of India at its heart.

I have also found some RSS members that I have interacted with, to be exemplary citizens and human beings.

This boogey that foreign political leaders like you Imran try to spew about RSS or about the Hindutva ideology exposes your lack of understanding of the cultural roots of India and the true secularism of India that goes beyond creed, caste and socio-economic status. This is because to every Indian – India is our motherland and it is our Dharma to protect her and her children.

I do not expect you as a Pakistani to understand or have an emotional attachment to the idea of a motherland; that’s because your land was a gift from our Motherland, which our Founding Fathers gave willingly for the Muslims who wanted a land of their own.

You got the gift of land from Mother India but your Founding Fathers could not keep the Muslim people together. Therefore you divided from Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh.

I foresee an inevitable eventuality that Pakistan will further divide into more nations in the years to come. And this is because within your Pakistani souls, you do not have a feeling for the concept of a Motherland.

I believe today is also remembered as the Balochistan Solidarity Day and the fight for a Free Baloch. This is a part of your Pakistan right now but not for long.

You talk about Christians being threatened in India. I can confidently tell you the Indians who follow the Christian faith live in the arms of their #BharatMata. This is our mother and no child is ever threatened by her mother.

I know, however, that the Christians in Pakistan cannot be truly free. They are constantly under threat because you are an Islamic Nation and not a secular-Hindu nation.

I can only imagine the fear and harassment Asia Bibi and her family went through on account of a false blasphemy case. This is the behaviour of the Islamic fanatics in your nation and you could not even protect her. She had to leave her land and migrate to another country.

You could not even protect the young Muslim man Mashal Khan, who was brutally killed in a University in Pakistan over a blasphemy issue. The eyes in those Pakistanis that bludgeoned the poor man were pure evil. Evil that feeds on fanaticism.

So please don’t lecture an Indian-Christian about India and his safety in his own Motherland.

I understand that the assertive and aggressive decision taken by my government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Article 370 has caught you and your military by surprise; and more importantly you can feel Kashmir slipping out of your hand; that however, does not give you the right to indulge in childish fear-mongering about the welfare of the people of my country.

It is my humble advice that you spend time looking after affairs of your crumbling and incompetent nation.

Christian are safe, Muslims are safe and Dalits are safe. You must not spend too much time getting feedback from the leaders of Congress in India; I say this because you both seem to be parroting the same script on Kashmir and the revoking of Article 370. Their performance in the recent Lok Sabha 2019 elections should tell you that they have no idea about the mood of the people of India and they are on a downward spiral into an abyss from where there is no return.

Let me also be blunt to tell you that we will expose every Pakistani in an Indian garb in our country.

I know whatever I am writing to you, will fall on deaf ears, because like I said initially that you neither have the aptitude or attitude to be a political leader of a nation but I needed to set the record straight with you as an Indian-Christian.

Don’t ever drag an Indian-Christian into your false propaganda. You don’t know our love for #BharatMata.

Jai Hind!

Jai Shri Ram!

Praise Be to God!

Adnan Sami slays Pakistani trolls who taunt him for taking Indian citizenship

OpIndia Staff
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Adnan Sami slays Pakistani trolls who taunt him for taking Indian citizenship

Parody country Pakistan has reduced itself to the proverbial ‘dhobi ka kutta’, no one gives them the respect they keep crying for. Pakistani-origin singer Adnan Sami who recently embraced Indian citizenship has been on the receiving end of abuses from Pakistani trolls who target him for voicing out his support to India.

On 14th August, Pakistan’s Independence Day, a troll asked him whether he will tweet on the Independence Day. Sami very coolly mentioned that he will. But on 15th August.


A troll then asked him whether he has slaughtered a cow, otherwise Hindus will kill him. To that, Sami replied that the day they would look beyond the cow, maybe they could progress in life.


“We are looking at the moon,” he said.

When Sami tweeted to wish India a happy Independence Day, another Pakistani troll taunted Sami for not being ‘faithful’ to his ‘motherland’. “How could he prove to be loyal to the country against which his father fought war?” he asked.


Sami’s father, Arshad Sami Khan, was a Pashtun while his mother Naureen was from Jammu, India. His father served as Pakistani Air Force pilot before he became a senior diplomat representing Pakistan and served as ambassador of Pakistan to as many as 14 countries.

Sami slayed the troll by telling him that Jinnah, who propagated the ‘two-nation theory’ and was instrumental in dividing India into India and Pakistan, was also not faithful to his motherland.


Sami asked the troll, by that logic, what would he call Jinnah, who was also born as an Indian (in undivided India), but divided her.

This is not the first time Sami has shut up trolls. In October 2017, he held a concert in Srinagar where former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was acting sore-loserly by sharing pictures of empty chairs at the concert. Sami had called him out and taught him a lesson on how art should be above politics.

Ladakh celebrates its first Independence Day after announcement of UT status, salutes the tricolour and honours its heroes

OpIndia Staff
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Ladakh celebrates its first Independence Day after announcement of UT status, salutes the tricolour and honours its heroes

The mountainous region of Ladakh was declared to become a Union Territory when the government of India had announced their decision to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two separate UTs.

The people of Ladakh have been demanding UT status for a long time. As a part of the Jammu and Kashmir state, the Ladakh region was always ignored. The politics was always centred around Srinagar and the people of Ladakh had never got their due in participation, representation and in terms of funds allocation.

With the announcement of the UT status for Ladakh, the region has been expressing its joy and pride at finally being able to celebrate their language, culture and identity.

Via @KrrisshYadhu on Twitter

The announcement of Ladakh’s UT status has catapulted its young MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal to national prominence. When Namgyal roared in his historic speech in the Lok Sabha, he had communicated the 7 decades of pain, hard work and struggle that his people have been through to finally get free from the clutches of Srinagar’s politics and assert their identity as a unique region with a rich cultural heritage.

Namgyal has been rejoicing with his people after the announcement. Today he was seen dancing with the locals to mark Ladakh’s first Independence Day after the announcement of UT status.


Namgyal started the day paying tributes to Ladakhi leaders who had sacrificed their lives in the struggle for the rights of the people of Ladakh.


BJP’s National General Secretary Ram Madhav is in Ladakh to celebrate India’s Independence Day. Together with Tsering Namgyal, Ram Madhav also paid tributes to Ladakh’s hero HH Kushak Bakula Rinpochey, the leader who had raised the demand for the UT status of Ladakh decades ago.

via @MPLadakh on Twitter

HH Kushak Bakula Rinpochey was a Buddhist Lama born in in the Matho branch of Ladakh’s royal family. Recognised by Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Bakula Arhat, one of the legendary sixteen direct disciples of Gautama Buddha, Bakula Rinpochey was a key figure in reviving Buddhism in Mongolia and Russia by linking them with the community of Tibetian exiles in India.

HH Kushak Bakula Rinpochey was the Ladakhi leader who had firmly announced that Ladakh will remain a part of India and will never align with Pakistan. He was also the Indian ambassador to Mongolia later in his life and was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

Independence Day celebrations are currently underway at Leh, Kargil and several other parts of the region.


Ladakh will be officially recognised as a UT from 31st October. While Jammu and Kashmir will be a UT with assembly, Ladakh will be a UT without assembly. With its own identity away from the dominance of Srinagar’s separatist, appeasement centric politics, Ladakh is looking forward towards days of infrastructural, educational and economic advancement.

Indian Armed Forces for dummies: Is being a soldier ‘just another job’?

rohitagarwal
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Indian Armed Forces for dummies: Is being a soldier ‘just another job’?

Discussions around the armed forces on social media generally follow predictable lines. Amongst the participants, there is a section, comprising of veterans and families of those who are serving or have served in the past, whose views are based on personal experiences and obvious knowledge about the subject being discussed. Serving officers and soldiers, constrained by service rules, do not openly participate, and the official handles of the Army, Navy and Air Force restrict themselves largely to the dissemination of information without getting into discussions of any kind.

The largest number, however, is of those who have but a hazy idea about the forces, and the views of this vocal majority lie on extreme ends of the spectrum. On one end we have those who consider even a single negative utterance against any aspect of the services as blasphemy, even treason. On the other, we have those who feel that serving in the armed forces is just another job. Soldiers, sailors and air warriors are paid like any other professional, and there is a degree of risk involved in every profession. Both these extremes, of course, are way off the mark.

Firstly, the armed forces are large organisations – totalling about 1.3 million people. These people are no different from any other citizen when they join the forces. Those who think that only staunch patriots join the armed forces are actually further off the mark than those who feel its just another job in this regard. Majority of people who join the forces – whether as officers or as jawans – do primarily think about it as a career option while joining. Of course, there are those for whom it’s a family tradition, and they do look upon it as more of a calling than a job. But most fall in the former category.

What happens to them AFTER they join marks the difference between the forces and other careers. The value system and training of the armed forces create the ‘X’ factor that distinguishes them from other vocations. The value of being true to ‘Naam, Namak, Nishaan’ is ingrained in every individual to the extent that each would choose to die rather than disgrace or betray either of these.

Naam – his own personal honour, the honour of his comrades and unit. Namak – the salt he eats, or the salary that he is receiving. Nishan – the flag. And while the nation, patriotism and the tricolour are distant concepts, comrades in arms and the unit are more tangible to the soldier in the trench. When he goes into battle, his major concern is not to lose face before his comrades, and not to let his unit down.

This, of course, automatically leads to not letting the nation down. So what starts out as being ‘just another job’, actually turns into a commitment to do your duty, even unto death. And to the argument that there is a certain amount of risk involved in every job – in all others its a possibility through accident, not part of your JD (Job Description). Service in the armed forces, therefore, is definitely not just another job – even if those joining it do so thinking it is.

If those dismissive of the armed forces and its role are wrong, so are the ones who consider any criticism directed towards the forces as treason. In an organisation as large as the forces, its massive strength spread over the length and breadth of the country, employed in a plethora of peacetime and operational assignments, it is difficult to imagine that there would be no wrongdoings, mistakes – deliberate or unintentional. While the forces have a rigorous selection process and strict value system, there are always a few bad sheep who manage to slip through the former and avoid imbibing and practising the latter.

These exceptions by no means represent the forces in general, and all such transgressions are dealt with swiftly and strictly. Since there is ample transparency in the handling of such cases, it’s not surprising that sometimes they do end up being talked about in social media as well. And when that happens, it degenerates into fisticuffs between the two extreme factions mentioned above – one using it to tar the organisation-wide a wide brush, while the other defending it with all their might. The former feel it vindicates their stance that the forces are just as fallible as other organisations, and thus deserve no special consideration. The latter feel the need to defend the organisation by either denying the facts or by throwing the blanket of patriotism to cover them.

Both are wrong in their approach because they fail to distinguish between individuals and the organisation. Individual actions, specially aberrations do not reflect on the organisation as a whole. Nor is defending actual transgressions by individuals in the mistaken belief that one is defending the organisation per se a correct approach. In fact, very often veterans including very senior and learned ones, often become targets to attack when they express their opinions on some policy or decision of the forces that they feel is not in the overall organisational interest.

There are no individuals above criticism, irrespective of the organisation they belong to, or how highly placed within it they are. And if the criticism is related to specific actions, with clear reasoning, it is constructive and has the potential to bring about positive change. But senseless spewing of hatred – like comparing the Indian Army Chief to Gen Dyer – is merely foolish. It’s certainly not treason, and an individual is well within his or her rights to do it. But it remains a silly thing to do, possibly a misplaced quest to grab some attention.

So next time you are tempted to jump at either attacking or defending the forces on social media, without knowing too much about the issue at hand, conduct this simple two-step test. Ascertain who exactly is the individual the criticism is aimed at. Be sure of the specific action being criticised, and that you understand the nuances involved. If you do and have a specific opinion about it, feel free to air your views. Else you may decide to let it pass, lest you end up looking foolish.

India became a nation in 1947, but ceased to be a civilisation: 12 civilisational characteristics that India needs to achieve

Guest Author
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India became a nation in 1947, but ceased to be a civilisation: 12 civilisational characteristics that India needs to achieve

From the dawn of our species, we humans have organized ourselves into groups of various sizes and complexities. Human society began as small groups of hunter-foragers. Over time, as our numbers grew, we developed culture, formed larger and more complex societies with division of labor, and went on to build kingdoms, empires, and civilizations.

Every independent society develops a distinctive culture over time. Culture is a society’s distinctive set of values, norms, beliefs, teachings, practices, traditions, knowledge, arts, cuisine, language, literature and customs.

Historically, the human organization has taken the following forms, in order of increasing complexity:

Community

A group of people that has at least one thing in common.

Society

A group of people that are involved in persistent social interaction, and who have many things in common, such as a shared social identity, common motives and goals, a common set of social values, norms, rules, and taboos, an established system of governance, an established system for the division of labor, and established social status relationships.

Kingdom

A society that has a monarchical system of governance.

Empire

A large group of kingdoms or countries ruled over by a single monarch.

Civilization

The highest form of human organization, that has the following characteristics:

  1. A large territorial area that can encompass numerous nations, kingdoms, and even empires.
  2. A single, highly evolved culture.
  3. Robust social and governmental institutions that are grounded in the native culture.
  4. Laws, a system of governance, and constitution (if any) that are grounded in the native culture.
  5. A single, unifying civilizational language that has undisputed supremacy throughout the civilizational realm. This does not preclude the co-existence of local languages.
  6. A large area of cultural influence that extends far beyond territorial boundaries.
  7. A large area of undisputed military and geopolitical supremacy that extends far beyond territorial boundaries.
  8. A large and powerful economy (high GDP).
  9. Excellent living standards and widespread prosperity (high GDP per capita).
  10. A strong and stable government.
  11. Strong and effective judicial, and law and order machinery.
  12. Absence of significant internal conflict.

Today, the most common form of the top-level political division of society is the Nation-State, which traces its origin to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

A nation-state consists of a finite geographical territory and its inhabitants. Every nation-state has a centralized government that has exclusive sovereignty over its territory.

Let us examine Indian society using the above conceptual framework.

The archaeological record shows that Indian society first emerged in the Sapta-Sindhu (greater Punjab) region at least 9,000 years ago, along the banks of the now-defunct Sarasvati and other rivers of the region. It soon developed into a full-fledged civilization, and by around 5,000 years ago, had grown into the largest ancient civilization the world has ever seen.

Until around a thousand years ago, India had a single, highly evolved culture, a single unifying civilizational language (Sanskrit), a very large and powerful economy, and all the other hallmarks of civilization.

India’s cultural influence was visible throughout Asia as far as Japan, and as far west as Greece and Rome. Central Asia was Hindu and Buddhist. The Hindu kingdoms and empires of South-East Asia were its military vassals (Chola Empire).

After that, came approximately a thousand years of foreign occupation, which was a period of unprecedented and sustained demic and cultural genocide. 100 million deaths is probably an extremely conservative estimate. India’s culture was systematically attacked, weakened and eroded, and foreign cultures were introduced by force and coercion.

The millennium of foreign occupation and colonization ended, technically, with Independence in 1947, when India assumed the form of a modern nation-state after the British handed power over to the Congress party.

Independence was a priceless opportunity for India to dismantle the edifice of British colonialism and undo the harms and injustices of British occupation.

That did not happen.

Instead,

  • India adopted a constitution that is entirely foreign in origin and nature. The people of India were not given the opportunity to either accept or reject this constitution.
  • Colonial British laws remained in place.
  • Colonial British institutions remained in place.
  • The tens of millions of Indians rendered landless and destitute by the ghastly Ryotwari systemwere not given their lands back.
  • Collaborators and cronies who became prosperous due to British favours became the new elite in independent India.
  • The Congress party donated vast tracts of India’s ancient civilization lands to Pakistan without consulting the people.
  • Nehru willingly allowed China to engulf Tibet, thereby giving up a vast area of cultural influence.
  • The Congress mired India in a stifling web of socialism and corruption, dooming several generations to misery and penury.

The net result of all this is that India is no longer a civilization in its own right. It no longer satisfies the criteria for a society to be a civilization. It is merely a nation-state, an emerging economy at best.

Make no mistake: a nation-state is several degrees of magnitude lesser than a civilization.

And by virtue of its ever-increasing reliance on the English language and its mentally-colonizing education system (another gift of Nehru and the Congress), India is now reduced to being an appendage of Western culture and civilization. A poor knock-off, at that.

That is what we have to thank the Congress and the Nehru dynasty for: For reducing India from the greatest and most influential civilization of all time to a mere nation-state, a minor appendage of Western civilization.

That is now in the past. We must learn the lessons of history and move on. What should India aspire to?

India should aspire to become a civilization again. A civilization-state.

How can this be achieved? The answer can be found in the 12 characteristics of civilization listed above.

It will be hard work, but if done right, it can be achieved in as little as two decades.

This August 15th, let us resolve to work together to rebuild our civilization, together.

(This article has been written by @IndianInterest)

Netizens trend #AbbuKoWishNahiKaroge as Pakistani Army spokesperson taunts India on Indian Independence Day

OpIndia Staff
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Netizens trend #AbbuKoWishNahiKaroge as Pakistani Army spokesperson taunts India on Indian Independence Day

Parody country Pakistan’s armed forces spokesperson Asif Ghafoor has reduced himself to a troll. Last night, about two hours before midnight, he tweeted how it is ‘150 minutes’ to ‘Black Day’.


He meant to say Indian Independence Day is ‘Black Day’ for reasons best known to him. Considering Pakistan was created a day prior, he most probably got the dates mixed.

At midnight, though, Indian Army veteran, Major Gaurav Arya (retired) tweeted to him whether he won’t wish the daddy with the hashtag ‘#AbbuKoWishNahiKaroge’.


Soon enough the hashtag picked up and it was trending on Twitter. Some tweeted the iconic image of Pakistan surrendering after the 1971 war at Dhaka when Bangladesh was born. 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered to Indian Army on 16th December, 1971.


Some even mocked Ghafoor for using Twitter trend to threaten India.

Major Ghafoor’s shenanigans

The abrogation of Article 370 in erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir last week has rattled Pakistan to the core. Last month, Major Ghafoor had shared a doctored video of Air Marshal Keelor speaking on ’65 war as Balakot airstrikes. In a seemingly drunken tweet after the historic decision of abrogation of Article 370, Ghafoor proclaimed that Pakistan will ‘take Kashmir back‘. “It won’t be until just struggle of our Kashmiris succeeds. It will IA succeed,” he had tweeted. ‘IA’, by the way, stands for InshaAllah not Indian Airlines (which is now Air India, but Pakistan is stuck in 90s) or any such thing which could be *cough* hijacked *cough*. It may appear like it is a typo, but Ghafoor just abbreviated InshaAllah.

And Pakistan expects the rest of the world to take it seriously.

One Nation One Poll, Chief of Defence Staff, water conservation and more: 5 takeaways from PM Modi’s Independence Day speech

OpIndia Staff
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One Nation One Poll, Chief of Defence Staff, water conservation and more: 5 takeaways from PM Modi’s Independence Day speech

On the 73rd Independence Day of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his speech from the ramparts of Red Fort. This was his first Independence Day speech of his second term. It was also the first speech after the abrogation of Article 370, the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir and the Triple Talaq Bill that was passed by the Parliament. PM Modi started his address by remembering the victims of the floods that many parts of the country is reeling under. From the ramparts of Red Fort, PM Modi spoke about several issues including population explosion, water scarcity, triple talaq and the abrogation of 370.

Here are the 5 important takeaways from the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech:

Abrogation of Article 370

Prime Minister Modi spoke about the historic decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into 2 Union Territories – J&K and Ladakh. Prime Minister said that his government believes in solutions and not creating problems for the country. In less than 70 days of his government, Article 370 was abrogated and he wishes to serve the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. He said finally, the Nation can proudly say ‘One Nation One Constitution’.

He also spoke about the elements who oppose the abrogation of Article 370. Prime Minister Modi asked that if the ones opposing the abrogation of Article 370 should answer that if they thought Article 370 was so important and life-changing, why did they not make it permanent and let it stay temporary in all these decades in spite of the huge mandate they enjoyed all these years.

One Nation One Election

Prime Minister Modi spoke about ‘One Nation One Election’. This has been one of PM Modi’s pet dreams. He has long espoused that instead of the country going into an election cycle all year round, the Nation should vote once in 5 years for all posts and offices. In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort, Prime Minister Modi said that the Nation has now achieved One Nation One Tax with the implementation of GST, One Nation One Constitution after the abrogation of Article 370, One Nation One Power Grid in electricity, One Nation One Mobility Card and now, it is the time to talk about One Nation One Election.

Water Conservation: Jal Jeevan Mission

Prime Minister Modi announced that the government is going to spend at least Rs. 3.5 Lakh crores on this mission. PM Modi said that this has to be a people’s movement and will only succeed with the active participation of the people.

Announcement of CDS

Consequent to the submission of the Kargil Review Committee report, a group of ministers (GoM) headed by then Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani had analysed the functioning of the higher defence organisation in India. Among the major recommendations of this GoM was the establishment of the post of CDS with a tri-Service joint planning staff HQ. The CCS accepted this recommendation but held its implementation in abeyance. The two reasons cited for the deferment were the lack of political consensus on the need for a CDS and opposition within certain sections of the armed forces and the bureaucracy. More recently, the Naresh Chandra committee is reported to have recommended the appointment of a ‘permanent’ chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) as the first among equals.

Prime Minister Modi announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the government is moving forward on the creation of the post of Chief of Defence Staff, which has been a long-standing demand of several people.

Population explosion

In a first, the Prime Minister spoke about population explosion in the country. He said population explosion in the country will create various problems for the coming generations. Those who follow the policy of small family also contribute to the development of the nation, it is also a form of patriotism.

Delivering an aspirational speech, the Prime Minister spoke about a host of things including the reduction of interference of the government from the day to day lives of the people. The Prime Minister said that his government will aspire to remove the excessive interference of the government in the people’s life so everyone is free to realise their aspirations.

Other than this, the Prime Minister also spoke about making India an export hub, agriculture, clean India, Make in India and also wished Afghanistan on its upcoming 100th Independence Day.

Imran Khan picks up the narrative of Indian opposition parties, communalises Kashmir issue and equates RSS with Nazis

OpIndia Staff
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Imran Khan picks up the narrative of Indian opposition parties, communalises Kashmir issue and equates RSS with Nazis

After the Congress party stirred the religious pot on Kashmir, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, too, has given the issue a religious spin. He had made similar comments in an earlier speech as well. Imran Khan claimed that Muslims had now started believing in the two-nation theory.

“Muslims are living in fear today in India. When I used to play cricket in India; Muslims from affluent households used to say the two-nation theory wasn’t right. Today, those same people say Quaid-e-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah) was absolutely right,” said Imran Khan, while addressing the Assembly of Pakitan occupied & Kashmir.

Furthermore, Khan has cited politicians from Opposition parties in India to peddle his agenda. He said, “Pro-Indian Kashmiri politicians today are endorsing two-nation theory. This Pandora’s box of the RSS ideology will not stop at Muslims; it will spill over into the Sikh community, and the Christian community. It is an epidemic. We have information; the Pakistani Army is aware they have a plan to carry out operations in AJK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir)”.

The Pakistani establishment has been employing the narrative created by a section of Indians to further their own agenda. Some of the things he said appears to be straight out of the liberal playbook.

He stated, “We are against Modi’s ideology. We have to fight with RSS ideology, even Modi is from the RSS. They hate Muslims. This ideology killed Mahatma Gandhi. We saw what happened in Godhra with Muslims in 2002, we saw what happened with Babri Masjid. We are able to see what has happened with Muslims in the name of a cow in India.”

The Pakistan PM also posted link to an article on Twitter which compares RSS with Nazis. Speaking a language that sounds like coming from Congress party or the left-librals, he said the RSS ideology threatens not just Kashmiris or Pakistan or even just Indian Muslims, Christians & Dalits, but it threatens India itself as envisaged by its Founding Fathers.


The Congress party and other opposition parties have been making extremely problematic remarks about the abrogation of Article 370. Chidambaram had said that the government had abolished the provision as Kashmir was Muslim majority. Equating the RSS with Nazis, too, has been a consistent claim made by opposition parties.

It only reveals that when it comes to creating an anti-India narrative, Indian political players do such a good job at it that even India’s enemies rely on them for material to peddle against India. It is a matter of deep concern that the narrative being peddled by the Pakistani Prime Minister is virtually indistinguishable from the one peddled by India’s secular parties and the liber fraternity.

Karnataka: Popular Mysuru Dasara to be celebrated with usual grandeur, novelist S L Bhyrappa to inaugurate

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka: Popular Mysuru Dasara to be celebrated with usual grandeur, novelist S L Bhyrappa to inaugurate

Preparations for the world-renowned Mysuru Dasara festival in Karnataka have taken off. This year, the festival will be celebrated with the usual pomp and grandeur between September 29 to October 8. Chief Minister has zeroed down on award-winning novelist and litterateur par excellence, S L Bhyrappa to inaugurate the festival ceremonies this year.

Dasara festivities that have a rich history of more than 400 years, is celebrated for over 10-days and falls in the month of September or October. Mysuru Dasara is the ‘Nadahabba’ or the state-festival of the state of Karnataka called as ‘Navaratri’ means nine nights.

During the festival, which began in the 14th century, the Mysore Palace will be illuminated with around 100,000 bulbs. Various celebrations including a food mela will be organised in the Scouts and Guides ground. Various cultural programs are lined up at the Mysore Palace, Jaganmohan Palace, Kalamandir, Kuppanna Park, Ganabharati, and Nadabrahma with artists coming from all over India to participate in the 10-day event.

Dr Bhyrappa, is a celebrated author in South India and is a recipient of Saraswati Samman Puraskar. He writes in Kannada and his novels are widely translated into various Indian languages. He is the bestselling novelist in Marathi over the past decade and is among the top-five bestselling authors in Hindi.

His books have found their way to the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses of the universities in the state of Karnataka, and have been the subject of about 20 Ph.D. dissertations. Bhyrappa has served as a professor of philosophy over three decades at NCERT. In March 2015, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and was presented with Padma Shri in 2016 by the government of India.

This year, the festival will be organized at a cost of Rs 20.5 crore, the CM informed reporters after chairing a high-level committee meeting today. “The amount will be released immediately,” he confirmed.

When asked if the Mysuru Dasara will be scaled down due to the current flood situation, Yediyurappa asserted, “The festival will happen just the way it has been held in the past.”

While time is running short, the authorities of the forest department led by the deputy conservator of forests for Mysuru wildlife division Alexander, along with veterinarian Dr DN Nagaraju completed the task of examining the health of the elephants at Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, who are believed to be the show-stoppers of this grand event organised each year, at the beginning of this month.

Recently, the 39-year-old, legendary elephant ‘Drona’ which carried ‘golden howdah’ at Dasara procession in Mysuru for a record 18 consecutive years died at Thithimathi Elephant Camp in Nagarahole National Park. The tusker had collapsed while having water and said to have died due to a heart attack. This year around 15 elephants has been shortlisted to participate in the festival.

Fake news on Kashmir continues, now Hurriyat leader’s professor wife passed off as Maharaja Hari Singh’s granddaughter

OpIndia Staff
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Fake news on Kashmir continues, now Hurriyat leader’s professor wife passed off as Maharaja Hari Singh’s granddaughter

After Indian government took the historic decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir into India by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A, Pakistan has been engaging in a misinformation campaign to claim that there are widespread protests against the decision. Several influential persons and ordinary social media users from Pakistan had shared several old videos and fake news claiming they show atrocities of Indian security forces against Kashmiri protesters.

As part of that misinformation campaign, several social media users posted a video clip on Twitter today claiming that is shows granddaughter Maharaj Hari Singh speaking against the Indian government.


 


In the video, a woman can be addressing a meeting where she argues that Maharaja Hari Singh agreed to join independent India as a sovereign state. Maharaja Hari Singh was the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir at the time of independence, and he had signed the Instrument of Accession with India.

But contrary to claims made by several Pakistanis, the woman in the video is not the granddaughter of Hari Singh. The woman presenting the separatist lecture in the video is actually Prof. Hameeda Nayeem, a professor at Kashmir University. Hammeda is the wife of Hurriyat leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan.

The video clip used is from a speech Hameeda Nayeem gave in Aligarh Muslim University last year. In the full video of the speech embedded below, the relevant portion can be seen from 23rd minute onward.

Soon after the video was shared on social media platforms claiming to be granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh, it caught the attention of Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of Hari Singh. He tweeted that his sister and the real granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh is Dr. Jyotsna Singh, not the woman seen in the video. He also asked people to ignore the fake/malicious video.


Jyotsna Singh is also known as Jyoti Singh, and a 2016 interview with her available on Youtube shows that she looks very different from Hameeda Nayeem. This means its not a case of mistaken identity, but deliberate use of old video of different person to spread a malicious campaign to suggest the Maharaja Hari Singh’s family is opposing the abrogation of Article 370. But the fact is, Dr. Karan Singh, son Maharaja Hari Singh, has already welcomed the move by Modi government.

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