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Barkha Dutt’s strange coincidences with a Kashmiri who wished death upon PM Modi and Amit Shah

OpIndia Staff
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Barkha Dutt’s strange coincidences with a Kashmiri who wished death upon PM Modi and Amit Shah

In the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370, one section of the India media is hell bent on casting a gloom over the valley by peddling hyperboles regarding the situation in the state. Leading this group is the Radia tapes famed Barkha Dutt who had a string of strange ‘coincidences’ with a Kashmiri migrant currently residing in Pune.


This Kashmiri man who currently lives and earns in Pune had reportedly contacted Barkha on Twitter seeking her help to know about her diabetic mother’s whereabouts. Coincidently Barkha met this very guy on her flight to Srinagar. Barkha then interviewed the man who claimed that he was profoundly distressed by the government’s move as communication blockade was enforced across the valley and he couldn’t inquire upon his mother’s health.

Barkha then chose to follow the man to his home where she interviewed his father who too toed the familiar liberal line of securing opposition and Kashmiri politicians’ confidence before embarking upon such an audacious move.


A cursory glance at the profile of the supposedly distraught man and his past interactions with Barkha makes one doubt about the veracity of the string of ‘coincidences’ struck by Barkha on her way to Srinagar. Barkha had a series of interactions with this man before, right from 2012. Many Twitter users started questioning the ‘coincidences’ after it was established that Barkha had a long association with the man.


Idrees ul Haq, who ‘coincidentally’ met Barkha on her flight to Srinagar has separatist tendencies. He has run a campaign #KashmirExit demanding separation of Kashmir from the Indian Union. In a Facebook post on August 10, 2019, Idrees had wished death upon PM Modi and Amit Shah for repealing Article 370 and integrating Jammu and Kashmir with the Union.

In light of such revelations, one wonders if these ‘coincidences’ were assiduously engineered moments of serendipity designed to evoke sympathy amongst the masses regarding the plight of Kashmiris. Furthermore, with the dubious credentials, of both Barkha and Idrees, one is compelled to believe that the streak of ‘coincidences’ were no less than a propagandist attempt to tarnish the central government’s momentous decision of revoking Article 370.

TikTok flooded with adult-dating scams and fake accounts: Report

OpIndia Staff
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TikTok flooded with adult-dating scams and fake accounts: Report

Owing to its rising popularity, TikTok has become the latest target for scammers. According to a report by the cybersecurity firm, Tenable, the popular media app, has been flooded with scams involving ‘adult-dating’ services.

Tenable’s Satnam Narang wrote in a blog post that these scams leverage the popularity of celebs and social media stars to redirect users to scam sites that offer adult content and ‘free’ likes and followers.

“Given TikTok’s meteoric rise in popularity, it comes as no surprise that scammers would take notice. So far, these scams appear to be in their infancy,” said Satnam Narang in his blog post.

“These profiles feature stolen videos from sources like Instagram and Snapchat, featuring women dancing, posing in bikinis, working out or just going about their normal day-to-day lives,” wrote the Tenable’s senior security response manager.

“While these accounts could use their TikTok profile biography to promote their adult-themed dating websites, the scammers primarily use these accounts to drive users to a separate Snapchat account, which they promote in their video captions… Based on a sampling of adult dating scam accounts I’ve encountered since March 2019, on average each account would follow 299 users, would be followed by 650 users and receive an average of 1,744 likes across their videos.”

The method being adopted by scammers:

The most popular method of scamming users involves duplicating the profiles of social media stars. Scammers steal content from popular Instagrammers and upload them to TikTok accounts that look legitimate at first glance. They also resort to tactics like setting up fake ‘backup’ accounts and fan pages in the name of social media celebs. This is one of the oldest tricks in the books. 

The posts will usually be accompanied by suggestive hashtags – #18Plus, #18PlusOnly #NSFW (Not Safe For Work), etc. – and links to adult-themed sites. Many of these accounts redirect users to premium Snapchat accounts hosting adult content.

How scammers benefit:

Narang, who has spent months analysing scammers’ modus operandi on TikTok, concluded that these scammers earn money when users click on the links or sign up to these adult-themed sites. This means every time a user signs up, they get paid.

One such website identified to indulge in this scam is flirt.com. Narang of Tenable says in the report that flirt.com affiliate could earn a scammer anywhere between $1 to $3 dollars for a qualified lead depending upon various criteria like the geographic location, age.

In another method, which is being widely adopted by scammers recently, users are being made to subscribe to a ‘premium’ Snapchat account in which people earn money by posting not-safe-for-work (NSFW) Snaps from a more private account. According to the report, scammers are offering their so-called ‘premium Snapchat’ for $10. They ask the user to make the payment through online payment modes like PayPal. If users ‘swipe up’ they’re redirected to a PayPal payment site to send the scammer the funds they’re requesting. Such ‘services’ are offered for a payment which varies from 5 dollars to 20 dollars.

TikTok’s response:

According to a report by CNET, TikTok has stated that the accounts which have been mentioned in the Tenable report have been pulled down. The CNET report quoted TikTok stating, “TikTok has strict policies safeguarding users against fake, fraudulent or misleading content. We flag and remove most spam accounts before they can reach users’ feeds, and we continuously improve our protections, even as malicious actors work to evade our safeguards.”

However, TikTok did not clear as to how many accounts have actually been pulled down until now. It has also not revealed as to how many such spam accounts actually existed on the platform as of now.

The app, created by a Chinese Internet technology company Bytedance, allows the creation of short videos which can be lip-synced with any of the existing soundtracks. This is, however, not the first time this popular media app has come under scrutiny.

In India, the app has faced attack after several incidents of death, morphed pictures of girls and even flesh trade were reported. Earlier also TikTok has been under the scanner for creating ‘law and order problem’. In February 2019, a Tamil Nadu minister sought a ban on the app as according to him many obscene activities take place on it.

With the increasing quandaries, it now becomes imperative for media apps like TikTok and other platforms to take cognisance of such alarming issues and take up fast and stringent steps to tackle them.

Forty-five days after Durga temple was desecrated by Muslims in Chandni Chowk, normalcy yet to return: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Forty-five days after Durga temple was desecrated by Muslims in Chandni Chowk, normalcy yet to return: Report

More than a month and a half after the horrific incident of desecrating a Durga temple in Lal Kuan market in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, the Hindu community continue to live in terror as normalcy is yet to return to Muslim-dominated locality, reports Swarajya.

According to an investigation report by Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma and Arihant Pawariya, the locality of Lal Kuan market in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area is slowly limping back to its normalcy amidst the huge presence of security forces, which were deployed following the hate crime committed by a Muslim mob. Reports suggested that there were at least 700 paramilitary forces in the area deployed after the incident.

On June 30, a group of nine-ten Muslim men had stormed in, pelted stones and bricks, kicked at the doors, attacked the parked vehicles while shouting something at the residents.

Nearly 50 Hindu families reside near Durga mandir lane amidst Muslim-populated colonies such as Farash Khana, Chabuk Sawaar Gali, Katra Sheikh Chand, Ballimaran and Hamdard Safakhana. With a narrow entrance, the congested lane opens to a Durga temple while the other end of the lane is closed. Durga Temple is not a typical temple but a row of idols placed inside glass panels on the sidewall of the lane.

Durga Mandir Lane in Lal Kuan

On June 30, at the midnight violence took place which jolted the families out of sleep. Reportedly, one of the residents recalled, “We had all gone to bed early as it was a Sunday and we had to get up on time the next day. I heard a commotion and looked down my window. A mob of youngsters was pelting stones and bricks at our homes. They hit scooters and bikes parked in the street and tried to break shutters of shops.”

“When they spotted me, they hurled the choicest of abuses my way. I woke up families around saying we are under attack,” he said.

Speaking to Swarajya, the Hindu residents in the locality said that they did not have any idea why they were being assaulted. However, they knew the attackers belonged to the Muslim community.

“Initially I thought they were venting out their anger as India had lost to England and it hurt Pakistan’s chances of getting into the World Cup semi-final. We were in fact anticipating some commotion after the loss,” said another resident on the condition of anonymity.

He added that he did not know the real reason then. “Nonetheless, some of our men gathered in the street and rushed to close the gate,” he said. He said some 10-15 men standing on the other side of the gate stopped the residents from closing it but they eventually managed.

Another resident said the Muslim mob had come to the spot with full planning. “They had rods, sticks, stones and what not. They were shouting slogans of Allahu Akbar and abusing us, daring us to come out,” he said. The youth recalled that youth,”saare Hinduon baahar aao, hum tumko batayenge kaata kaise jaata hai. Kaatna humse seekho (All you Hindus, come out, we will teach you how to cut)”.

He also added that some of the youths shouted political slogans, saying “Modi murdabad, hamara Imran Hussain zindabad. Kejriwal zindabad.”

The residents soon became aware that the Durga temple has been desecrated. They saw the broken panels and idols and the burnt curtains. The next day, they saw mobile-shot videos of the mob chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Naara-e-Takbeer” while proceeding to vandalise the 100-year-old temple.

Vandalised idols at the temple

Reportedly, the residents said the police arrived after an hour late despite several phone calls, and despite the Hauz Qazi police station is just a few hundred metres away. Instead of assuring them protection, the police officials attempted to erase evidence of the violence that was unleashed on the Hindus. “All that the cops did was to change the burnt curtains and clear the street of the debris to cover up the matter,” a resident said. “But it’s all been captured in the CCTV camera,” he said.

“What would have happened? There is no exit on the other side of the lane. It’s a dead end. We only have this one gate. It could’ve been a massacre,” another terrified woman.

The dispute over parking was a spark for the incident: 

According to the residents, a parking brawl between two locals – one Sanjeev Gupta and Aas Mohammad – around three hours before the incident, which had nothing to do with religion acted as a spark for the incident which led to the desecration of Durga temple.

Gupta, who stays at a house in first-floor right opposite the Durga temple lane said that around 9 pm on 30 June, he was standing at the window when he saw a man trying to park his scooter below his house. “I asked him not to park the vehicle there as cows pass by that route. I feared that if a cow knocked down his scooter, he would blame me,” said Gupta, recalling that Aas Mohammad man was “needlessly abusive”.

“He asked me if cows take the stairs and enter my house too. This made me angry and I hurled abuses at him in return. He then challenged me to come downstairs and I did. We then had a scuffle,” he said.

Gupta added that Mohammad left the spot threatening to teach him a lesson. “I did not take it seriously and came home. Within no time, over 50 men gathered outside my house. Some of them tried to enter inside but I managed to shut the door at them,” said Gupta.

As the situation got tense, the police arrived after a call was made by Gupta’s family member. The cops took both Gupta and Mohammad to a local hospital and then to Hauz Qazi police station, he said.

According to Gupta’s mother, the crowd continued to bang at the door. “We women and children were terrified. But there was not a single cop deployed for our safety despite a mob outside,” she complained. She added that the family is still scared for their safety and do not want any scuffle. “We only want peace. Please do not write anything that endangers our lives,” she said to Swarajya.

Gupta also said that he was horrified to see a crowd of hundreds of Muslim men outside the police station. “I did not know what they were sloganeering, whether they wanted me handed over to them or Mohammad to be let free, but I was shocked,” he said.

Gupta spent the night at the police station. The police later told the media that the Muslim mob had gathered after reading fake and provocative messages on WhatsApp that a Muslim man had been lynched by Hindus. Meanwhile, the Gupta family kept the windows and gate closed, but she said she heard a disturbance around midnight.

Keshav Saxena- the Missing Son

Keshav Saxena, the minor Hindu boy was missing after the mob left the Durga temple lane. Shockingly, the police did not take the family’s complaint on the night of 30 June and made it wait till late evening even on the next day, the locals said.

Mona Saxena, the mother of the missing boy named Keshav, reportedly showed Swarajya a copy of the FIR that was registered around 9 pm on 1 July. In Opindia ground report, we had also reported that his parents were extremely distressed over his plight. His father had even threatened to commit suicide if he didn’t return safely. The mainstream media tried its best to hush up the entire matter and totally ignored the fact that a boy was missing.

The mother said that some unknown Muslim men had taken away her son from home around 11:30 pm. The men entered the colony vandalising the temple and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, and began thrashing the residents. She said that her son was sleeping inside the house and he was taken away by some Muslim men. The statement further said that she was very worried about her son and the police should act against this “terrorism”.

The police booked the alleged kidnappers under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 452 (house-trespass) and 34.

“My son had intervened when Gupta and that Muslim man were fighting. The Muslim man had even slapped him. My son had come home, changed his clothes and gone off to sleep,” Mona told Swarajya.

The alleged kidnap of the minor boy, who had quit school to financially support the family, had shocked the colony and pushed them into worse fear. The boy had returned after three days, and he had said that he was rescued by an elder Muslim person.

The Hindu Migration

The residents of Durga temple lane fear that the local Muslims want even the 50-odd Hindu families living among a thousand Muslim families in Lal Kuan to leave so they can “take over” the entire area. According to the Hindus, the locality had a large number of Hindu families in the 1980s but constant curfews and violence triggered their migration. The latest clash could further drive them away, they added.

“If they shout Allahu Akbar and break our temples, or abuse our community for no reason, then naturally Hindus will migrate out. There are many families that are seriously considering the option now,” one resident said.

Another woman said there was no recent history of any clashes between the two communities in the area. “We exchange sweets at festivals. Some of their men come to our colony to burst crackers on Diwali. I don’t know what’s got into them,” she said.

Nevertheless, the desecration incident of June 30 may be a tipping point in their decision to migrate from the Lal Kuan. The Hindu families complain that they do not enjoy religious freedom at par with the Muslim majority which is degrading to them as a community.

“We haven’t organised a Jagran in many years. Police don’t give us permission. We can’t get even half of the road for our religious functions while Muslims occupy the entire streets on their festivals. We have to be careful with our crackers on Diwali and watercolours on Holi while they roam with swords on Muharram without any fear,” a resident said. “A few years ago, our youth tried to organise a Sandhyaon the road. Police made us wrap up by 10 pm,” he complained.

Hauz Qazi limping to Normalcy

The constant efforts by some sections of the ‘liberal-secular’ media and opinion-makers to downplay the incident and claim that there was no hate crime involved is busted by this Swarajya ground report.

On Tuesday, a team of Swarajya had visited Lal Kuan to ascertain the actual status of the locality. The report said Lal Kuan resembled a militarized zone due to heavy security. Reportedly, more than 1,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel armed with anti-riot gear have been deployed. The police have put barricades on the main road separating Muslim and Hindu crowds numbering in hundreds, chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Jai Shri Ram” at each other in a game of competitive sloganeering. The market was shut.

Speaking to several members, Swarajya reported that the Muslim crowd surprisingly expressed ignorance of the temple desecration. Shakeel Ahmed, a local, said that all he knew was that two men fought over parking and some people gathered outside the police station. He said he had not heard of the temple vandalism.

Several men dismissed the vandalism and put the blame on Hindus themselves. Few others claimed that it could be the design of the “outsiders”. “Who knows who vandalised the temple. It could be Hindus doing it themselves to give us a bad name,” said one resident. Another said that no real Muslim would desecrate the place of worship of another religion and thus it seemed like a handiwork of “BJP-RSS”.

A local resident named Rakesh Khanna (name changed) whose family migrated here from Lahore after partition, said he wasn’t surprised at all. “Partition kiya inhone, blame karte hain Hinduon ko. Kashmir se Panditon ko nikala inhone par kehte hain ki khud bhaag gaye. Abhi mandir toda aur bol rahe hain Hinduon ne toda (They did the partition but blamed it on Hindus. They threw pandits out of Kashmir but say they migrated on their own. Now they vadalise a temple and again blame Hindus for it),” he said to Swarajya.

He added that normalcy is yet to return in the locality and there is an attempt to impose normalcy by force, but no such thing on ground existed. “If the situation was normal, would there be hundreds of security personnel here?” he said.

Khanna, on the other hand, asked, “Ekta hoti to mandir todte? (If there was unity, would they break our temple?” He said that Lal Kuan has about 5 per cent Hindus as against 95 per cent Muslims and that if Hindus from elsewhere in Chandni Chowk had come to stand up with the community, they could not be labelled as “outsiders”.

It’s clear that tempers in both the Hindu and the Muslim communities are high and it would take a lot to restore normalcy.

Men from both sides said that the talk of Hindu-Muslim unity in the area was a farce. One Mohammad Zahid said that “Muslims” were being lynched everywhere in the country and the community won’t take it lying down.

Are people like Ramachandra Guha trolls?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Are people like Ramachandra Guha trolls?

Yesterday, just as I was about to fall asleep, I reached for my phone one last time. A friend had sent me the article in the Washington Post supposedly “downgrading” our democracy. I glanced at the headline, saw the name of author, Ramachandra Guha and rolled my eyes.

Then I rolled over and went to sleep. I wasn’t going to let a newspaper headline and some ‘intellectual’ ruin the perfectly amazing day I had.

In the morning it hit me. That one moment of annoyance I had on seeing the headline from the previous night. Was it all that Ram Guha was aiming for?

This article is not about any one individual, but an entire genre of folks rendered irrelevant several years ago. They can act as historians, as cricket administrators, as economists, as foreign policy experts, legal eagles, anything. Nobody really knows what qualifies them. Nobody knows if anybody is listening to them. Above all, are they trolls?

Consider this. As far as the world is concerned, India seems to have a complete free hand. We crossed the Line of Control and went for the surgical strike. After the Pulwama terror attack, we went and bombed terror camps in Pakistan. Recently, Pakistan has been trying its best to make an international issue out of India’s decision to abrogate Article 370, but they have not met with any success. The verdict is clear: The world will not mess with India easily. Least of all to make Pakistan happy.

Then, what does it accomplish when some article in some newspaper “downgrades” India?

In the United States, the mainstream media has never been more irrelevant. Not just in the eyes of Trump and his supporters. The leftist media establishment is just as much a villain in the eyes of the young left wing radicals who are swarming in favour of their icons like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And when it comes to foreign policy, the Trump administration seems committed to hard nosed, pragmatic dealings with everyone purely on the basis of trade and diplomatic interests. They couldn’t care less about some intellectual railing in some newspaper article.

Articles of similar tone and character have appeared in outlets such as The Economist, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, yada yada yada. I am too lazy to even make a full list of the outlets that carried such articles or the intellectuals who toiled to write them.

Even they couldn’t possibly believe they would change anyone’s mind with their unhinged rants. I remember The Economist had an article claiming that a Modi win would put India’s democracy in danger and exhorted people to vote against the BJP. If I remember correctly, the article appeared after three or four phases of the election and you had to pay thousands of rupees to even read that article in full.

That tells you seriously they meant it. They only expected you to read the headline or so, feel annoyed for an instant and then move on.

That my friends, is what a troll does. It desperately tries to grab your attention. Your own moment of annoyance makes the troll feel validated.

Think about the world from the point of view of an elite liberal. With the fall of Communism in the early 90s, their ideological foundations were wiped out. Not since the end of Nazism in 1945 has an ideology collapsed so spectacularly, been crushed and stamped out in front of the whole world. But the Indian elites still had Nehru. So they were sort of okay.

But then the Nehru-Gandhi brand became toxic for the Indian electorate. Their asset was the undeserved respect they had been handed by earlier generations of Nehru-Gandhi court poets. Those assets were wiped out. The airs that Indian ‘liberals’ would put on, from fake accents to fake mannerisms to fake thinkfests, everything came to be brutally mocked. Indian ‘liberals’ were left holding nothing.

You can still find the occasional Indian ‘liberal’ reminiscing about the days when Manmohan Singh would take them abroad on the PM’s official plane.

Indian ‘liberals’ perhaps had no choice other than to become trolls. Sitting around in Mommy’s basement looking for a purpose in life. Baiting real people who lead rewarding lives in the real world. Trying to get a rise out of them.

Trolls are known to validate themselves by making up fancy sounding statuses. Perhaps that’s how these trolls operate as well. Did Economist carry your article? That’s +100 reputation points. Did TIME Magazine feature your rant against Modi? That’s +150 reputation points. Another 200 reputation points and you can become a Level 10  Swordmaster. Then you can wear your fancy Redstar Fleet uniform to the Galactic Liberal Supermasters Convention at some thinkfest somewhere.

This stuff doesn’t mean anything, except to them trolls.

Let them have it. Don’t feed the trolls. Ignore them.

So today when you go out into the working world of normal people, take a moment to look at your neighbor whether on the train, bus or subway. That person probably doesn’t seek validation in making you feel one moment of annoyance. Because that person probably has places to be, a family to feed and real dreams to fulfill in life. Turn to that person and give them a smile. It will make their life better for one moment. You will like it too. Then get back to your own rewarding life.

And always be thankful that this Independence Day, you don’t have to be a troll.

Forget Gold. Invest in Indian movie CDs: Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle mocks Pakistan for banning Indian movie CDs

OpIndia Staff
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Forget Gold. Invest in Indian movie CDs: Legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle mocks Pakistan for banning Indian movie CDs

Parody country Pakistan which is making hue and cry after facing global isolation is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. After its decision to ban the sale of CDs of Indian movies protesting India’s historic decision to abrogate Article 370, the parody nation has been subjected to severe ridicule.

Reacting to Pakistan’s ban, legendary Indian singer Asha Bhosle took to Twitter to mock Pakistan and asked people to forget investing in gold and invest in Indian film CDs, as it will soon be in ‘high demand’.


Earlier in the day, Pakistan had decided to put a ban on Indian movies and the airing of advertisements for India-made products on television channels in the wake of tensions after India revoked Article 370 that gave separate status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Firdous Ashiq Awan, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information announced the government’s decision to ban Indian movies and advertisements of Indian products.

The government of Pakistan had directed PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) to step up its vigilance in this regard along with actions against the sale of Indian DTH instruments.

PEMRA, in an official statement released on Wednesday, said that the “appearance of Indian characters on Pakistani TV screens aggravates miseries of Pakistanis who are perturbed over Indian atrocities on Kashmiri brethren.”

It is amusing that when the rest of the world has moved on to newer technology like cloud networking and online streaming platforms, Pakistan is stuck in the time warp where they confiscate CDs like it is the 1990s.

West Bengal: Education Minister Partha Chatterjee summoned by CBI over the Saradha Chit Fund Scam

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Education Minister Partha Chatterjee summoned by CBI over the Saradha Chit Fund Scam

Education Minister of West Bengal and close aide of CM Mamata Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee, has been issued a notice by the CBI over the Sarada Chit Fund Scam. Chatterjee has been summoned in connection with the TMC mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’.


Chatterjee, who is also the General Secretary of Trinamool Congress, has been asked to appear before the CBI today. It is unclear, however, whether he will heed the notice.


Last month, CBI had summoned top Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien over the matter. Senior leaders of the Trinamool Congress have been alleged to be intimately involved in the scam ever since the CBI initiated its investigation. Earlier, it was reported that the agency had questioned Manik Majumder in connection with the case who is believed to be a close aide of the Bengal CM.

The Saradha scam broke in 2013 when a ponzi scheme run by the Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies, collapsed after collecting hundreds and thousands of crores from over 15 lakh investors.

J&K Chief Secretary: No life has been lost in the state due to abrogation of Article 370, 12 out of 22 districts functioning properly

OpIndia Staff
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J&K Chief Secretary: No life has been lost in the state due to abrogation of Article 370, 12 out of 22 districts functioning properly

Chief Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir, BVR Subrahmanyam, briefed the media on the situation in the state on Friday. He stated that the measures taken by the government were necessary in light of credible information that terror attacks were being planned in J&K.


Consequently, restrictions on free movement and telecom connectivity, prevention of large gathering, closure of educational institutions and preventive detentions of certain individuals were enforced with the objective of maintaining law and order, he said.


Schools will begin reopening on Monday area by area. Public transport, too, will be made operational. The Chief Secretary added that telecom connectivity will be restored in a phased manner.


Most significantly, Subrahmanyam stated that there have been no loss of life in the region due to the abrogation of Article 370. Moreover, 12 out of 22 districts are functioning properly, he said, with limited restrictions in 5 of them.


The Chief Secretary also stated that preventive detentions are being reviewed and decisions will be made subject to law and order assessments. He asserted that the government wants the earliest return to normalcy while ensuring that terrorists cannot find an opportunity to engage in bloodshed.

Imran Khan’s Twitter meltdown continues as international community ignores his rants

OpIndia Staff
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Imran Khan’s Twitter meltdown continues as international community ignores his rants

Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, continued with his meltdown on social media on Friday. He is persisting with his line of attack where he calls India a Hindu Supremacist state. Until now, he has equated the ruling Indian dispensation with the Nazis and has claimed that ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims is imminent.


For all his theatrics, Imran Khan appears to be screaming into the void. The tweets, which are quite obviously targeted towards an international audience, have failed to attract any meaningful attention from important geopolitical players.

Apart from traditional Indian allies like Russia, even Pakistan’s alleged friends have supported India on the matter. Saudi Arabia and the USA, who have traditionally sided with Pakistan on such matters, have left them to their fate. China is more concerned about Aksai Chin than they are about Article 370 and Pakistan’s tantrums on the same.

Another feature that has become evident is Imran Khan’s not-so-subtle threats of Jihad. Today, he alluded to people ‘not fearing death’. Yesterday, he had claimed that the abrogation of Article 370 will radicalize Muslims around the world. All of this was after he had threatened that there would be more Pulwama-type suicide terrorist attacks. The Pakistani Prime Minister’s conduct on Twitter only shows that his nickname ‘Taliban Khan’ is duly earned.

Without too many options on the table, Imran Khan appears to be relying on Pakistan’s age-old tradition of emotional blackmail and threats of Jihad to make the international community heed its concerns. However, countries the world over appear to be tired of their shenanigans. With India extremely unlikely to suffer any adverse consequences for administrative decisions on its internal matter, the highly anticipated climactic end to Imran Khan’s meltdown remains to be seen.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hints at revision of India’s ‘No First Use’ nuclear doctrine, says it will depend on circumstances in future

OpIndia Staff
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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hints at revision of India’s ‘No First Use’ nuclear doctrine, says it will depend on circumstances in future

Making a very significance comment, the Union Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh today suggested a possible shift in India’s nuclear doctrine, if needed. While commemorating Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 1st death anniversary, Rajnath Singh said that for a long time India has adhered to the ‘No First Use’ policy regarding country’s nuclear weapons but its future compliance will be contingent upon the circumstances.


Singh was in Jaisalmer for the International Army Scout Masters Competition. He visited Pokhran as a mark of tribute for the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, under whose leadership India had conducted the second round of nuclear tests.

This is not the first time that a change in India’s nuclear policy has been suggested. Ever since PM Modi came to power in 2014, there has been a growing chatter among defence analysts and security officials about an urgent review of India’s ‘No First Use’ nuclear doctrine. In fact, erstwhile Defence Minister late Manohar Parrikar was pretty vocal in questioning India’s no first use policy. He had said that India shouldn’t bind itself to the policy and instead declare that it will use its nuclear prowess responsibly.


According to India’s long followed ‘No First Use’ nuclear doctrine which was first adopted after its second nuclear tests, the Pokhran-II, in 1998, the Indian government asserted that the nuclear weapons are solely for deterrence and that India will pursue a policy of “retaliation only”. The Indian government released a draft of the doctrine stating that “will not be the first to initiate a nuclear first strike, but will respond with punitive retaliation should deterrence fail” and that decisions to authorise the use of nuclear weapons would be made by the Prime Minister or his ‘designated successor(s)’.

India and China remain the only two nuclear powers in the world who have still pledged their allegiance to this doctrine. Among other nuclear-powered nations, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France say they will use nuclear weapons only for defensive purpose if they are attacked or invaded by others. But it is not a ‘No First Use’ pledge, as they may retaliate with nuclear weapons even if they are not attacked by nuclear weapons.

Despite repeated provocations from hostile neighbours such as Pakistan, India has remained firmed and committed to its nuclear no-first-use policy. However, latest remarks by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hints that India might alter its stance vis-a-vis country’s nuclear doctrine. India is precariously perched between two inimical neighbours- Pakistan and China and given the ever-evolving threat of asymmetric warfare from non-state elements from Pakistan, India cannot afford to remain inflexible on its nuclear policy.

The statement from Rajnath Singh comes at a time when there is heightened tension between India and Pakistan after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan PM Imran Khan has been hysterical ever since the decision to strip JK of its special status was taken by the virtue of a presidential decree.

Columnist at Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint spreads Pakistani and Khalistani propaganda about London protests on Article 370 abrogation

OpIndia Staff
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Columnist at Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint spreads Pakistani and Khalistani propaganda about London protests on Article 370 abrogation

Columnist associated with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint, Zainab Sikander, has resorted to using the protests by Pakistani immigrants and Khalistanis in Britain to peddle her agenda against the abrogation of Article 370. She has dubbed protests held by Pakistanis and Khalistanis a “movement by the people for the people of Kashmir”.


Even after people pointed out to her that the people in the video were Khalistanis, Zainab attempted to brazen it out instead of offering an unconditional apology.


In other videos of the Pakistani protests shared by the same media outlet, Pakistani flags are clearly visible which betray the actual motivations of the protesters.


However, according to Zainab, attempts to enlighten her with the truth are ‘characfter assassination’.


As we have reported earlier, thousands of Pakistani immigrants in London resorted to violence on Thursday to mark their protest against abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir. Protesters carrying Khalistani and Kashmiri flags tried to push forward across police lines and pelted stones and other objects at Indians who were present at the spot to celebrate the Independence day.

They held anti-India placards and abused Indians present at the Indian High Commission. Indian families with small children were trapped for hours as the protestors held them as hostages. However, according to ThePrint columnist, these protests were a “movement by the people for the people of Kashmir”.

ThePrint’s coverage of the Kashmir issue has been dubious at best. Shekhar Gupta had claimed that protests in Kashmir are Pakistan’s best hope, then went ahead to ask the Indian government to lift restrictions so protests can be organized.

Indian intellectuals have been toeing the Pakistani line on international platforms as well. ‘Eminent Historian’ Ramchandra Guha had written an article for the Washington Post that peddled a narrative which was virtually indistinguishable from the Pakistani version of events.

It appears as though the so-called Indian liberals are almost overeager to undermine Indian national interests. In their bid to oppose Narendra Modi at every step along the way, they appear to harbour no hesitation in allying with Khalistanis and Pakistanis.

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