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No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now, Kohli on Dhoni’s retirement plans

OpIndia Staff
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No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now, Kohli on Dhoni’s retirement plans

After being knocked out of World Cup 2019, the Indian captain said in the post-match press conference that he has no idea about Dhoni’s retirement plans. Kohli also talked about Jadeja’s innings; Pant’s shot, team’s mental state after the defeat and structure of the World Cup.

India lost to New Zealand in the semi-final, which means they are coming home now. This was Dhoni’s last world cup and many believed that Dhoni would retire once the World Cup is over. Although Dhoni has already cleared that he isn’t retiring soon from International cricket but this question kept arising.

When asked if Dhoni is retiring 

“No, he hasn’t told us anything as of now.”

On Jadeja’s batting

“In my watching Jadeja for ten years, this according to me, was his best knock because of the amount of pressure and the stage we were at. We were almost out of the tournament, and then he produces that. He was motivated.”

On the team’s mental state after the defeat

“I don’t think I’d like to break things down immediately, but in time we’ll have to sit down and analyze where we went wrong and the things that we could have done right, particularly in this game.”

On Pant’s reckless shot

“He’s still young. I made many errors when I was young in my career, and he will learn. He will look back and think yes, he could have chosen a different option in that situation, and he realizes that already.”

On tournament’s structure

The defeat was India’s second of the competition – England only beat them in the league stage, Kohli was asked whether the structure of the World Cup should be squeezed.

“Who knows in the future maybe, If topping the table means anything then I think these things can come into consideration, looking at the magnitude of the tournament it’s a valid point, I guess.”

On Knockout games

“The challenge and the different kind of the fun of these games are that you have to be precise. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before that. It’s a new day, a fresh start and if you’re not good enough, you go home.”

India has lost back to back 4 ICC knock out games in the last 4 years.

Modi government’s bill to amend POCSO Act gets Cabinet nod, child rapists to be awarded the death penalty

OpIndia Staff
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Modi government’s bill to amend POCSO Act gets Cabinet nod, child rapists to be awarded the death penalty

On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The new amendments will include more stringent punishments including the death penalty in cases of aggravated sexual assault against a minor girl or boy, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, the Centre had earlier introduced a bill to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) in May earlier this year. But the bill had lapsed following the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. The government will reintroduce the bill which provides for the death penalty for rape along with jail terms to check child pornography.

The section 4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act are proposed to be amended to include the provision of the death penalty for child rapists, committing brutal sexual assault on a child. The government also intends to amend sections 2, 9, 14, 15, 34, 42 and 45 to add more legal muscle against the rapists.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said that the modification is made to address the need for stringent measures required to deter the rising trend of child sex abuse in the country. The bill will address the menace of relatively new kind of crimes on the other hand.

“Section 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act are also proposed to be amended to address the menace of child pornography. It is proposed to levy fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child with an intention to share or transmit it,” the government said.

The cabinet has also decided to amend Section 9 of the POSCO act to protect children from sexual offences in times of natural calamities and in other situations where children are administered hormone or any chemical substance to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault.

Mumbai Police blocks Payal Rohatgi on Twitter. Here is why is it in poor taste

Editorial Desk
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Mumbai Police blocks Payal Rohatgi on Twitter. Here is why is it in poor taste

Mumbai Police is one of the most social-media friendly police accounts. Not only does it make the best use of the platform to educate the citizens on being responsible online it also proactively reaches out to distressed citizens on its own to help. However, Mumbai Police has reportedly blocked film actor Payal Rohatgi on Twitter.


Payal Rohatgi took to Twitter to voice out her grievances against Mumbai Police. She said that with the ‘biased behaviour’ of Mumbai Police, she is scared of living in India. Without really getting into her allegations, the fact that a police twitter account has blocked a citizen is not a good thing.

Mumbai Police is duty bound to protect citizens, including Payal Rohatgi

As a citizen of India, the Police is duty bound to protect the citizens, including Payal Rohatgi whether or not they agree to their views or not, including the Mumbai Police. And while the police accounts mention that their social media accounts may not be monitored 24×7 and they should call 100 for an emergency, blocking someone on Twitter is wrong precedence. What if the citizen, Rohatgi or anyone, they have blocked, is indeed in an emergency? What if tweeting is a safer option than calling? Some followers may amplify such tweets such that the Police gets intimated but what if it is too late?

And not just Mumbai Police, any public entities especially politicians and police accounts should ideally not be blocking citizens, even if they disagree with them. Should the behaviour of citizens tweeting to them is unruly and they feel threatened, they should file a police complaint or take a legal course of action.

UPDATE: Mumbai police responded to Payal Rohatgi and said her getting blocked was unintentional and the ‘technical team’ is looking into it.

Karnataka Crisis: SC allows rebel MLAs to appear before Speaker, directs Assembly Speaker to decide on resignations by today

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka Crisis: SC allows rebel MLAs to appear before Speaker, directs Assembly Speaker to decide on resignations by today

The 15 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka have been told by the Supreme Court today to meet the Assembly Speaker and submit their resignations. The Speaker has been directed to decide on the matter today itself.


Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court that the rebel MLAs from Karnataka did not wish to defect but contest polls again for reelection. The SC bench was comprised of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose. Furthermore, the DGP of Bengaluru Police was directed to provide all necessary security to the MLAs. Further hearing in the matter will resume tomorrow.

The Karnataka government has been teetering on the brink of collapse ever since the resignation saga by rebel MLAs began. While DK Shivakumar initially insisted that no one was going to resign, he had to travel all the way to Mumbai to meet the disgruntled MLAs. However, the MLAs claimed that they felt threatened and consequently, Shivakumar was prevented from meeting them by the Police.

The alliance, as has become the norm, accused the BJP of buying its MLAs. With the rebel MLAs expected to meet the Speaker at 6 p.m. today, it remains to be seen whether HD Kumaraswamy is still sitting on the chair of Chief Minister when the dust has finally settled.

Video and stats highlights from India v New Zealand semi final

OpIndia Staff
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Video and stats highlights from India v New Zealand semi final

Shattered dreams, moist eyes, a shocker for every Indian fan as India lost to New Zealand in the semis of the World Cup.

Not for the first time in the last four years, India choked in the knock out rounds of an ICC tournament. They lost the semis of World Cup 2015, the semis of World T-20 in 2016, Champions Trophy final in 2017 and now this.

India dominated the first half of the game on day one of the match. Yes, a rare match in ODIs which got completed in two days, thanks to the rain. After winning the toss, New Zealand decided to bat first on a wicket which would go slow down as per pitch report. Bumrah and Bhuvi started well and bowled three maidens in a row. Guptill’s poor form continued in the semis as Kohli brilliantly caught him in the slips.

Henry Nicholas and Kane Williamson added 68 runs in the next 15 overs. The most experienced Ross Taylor and the man in super-rich form Kane Williamson put all their experience to tackle Indian bowling so that the team could reach a respectable total. Both Williamson and Taylor batted 31 overs of team’s innings and scored 67 and 74 respectively.

The match was halted due to rain with New Zealand 211 for 6 in 46 overs. They came out to bat on day 2 and added some vital runs in the team’s total. A score of 239 on a slow pitch and overcast condition was a fighting total.

India has the disastrous start of the tournament, and unfortunately for them, it came in the knockout game. India lost three wickets for five runs on board, and the batsman with best of form, Rohit, Rahul, and Kohli added one run each in the team’s total. The chief destroyer was Matt Henry who picked two out of three wickets.

Soon India lost Dinesh Karthik, and in bizarre tactics, India sent Hardik ahead of Dhoni to attack the Kiwi bowlers. With Pant, Hardik added 46 runs in 13 overs, and when it looked all settled, Pant played the worst shot of his career. He tried to hit a six against the spinner at deep mid-wicket where the fielder was placed. A few overs later, India lost another set batsman Hardik Pandya while trying to hit boundaries.

At 92 for 6, India was in deep trouble. But the bits and pieces player Ravindra Jadeja batted like a champion, he smashed 77 off 59 balls and added 116 runs with MS Dhoni for the seventh wicket. That brought the hope back in the Indian team and fans, but Jadeja wasn’t getting enough support from the other end in terms of boundaries and in the process of hitting boundaries as the required run rate was reaching beyond 10 in over, lost his wicket.

India’s last hope Dhoni kept taking singles and doubles which only added pressure on him. With 32 required off 12, Dhoni smashed six off the first ball of the penultimate over but was run out next ball off a brilliant throw by Martin Guptill. It was all over for Dhoni and India. India lost the game by 18 runs.

Video highlight

STATS

  • Kane Williamson scored 548 runs so far in the tournament, the most by any kiwi batsman in a world cup edition, previous best was 547 by Martin Guptill in World Cup 2015.
  • One hundred sixteen runs added by MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, the most by any pair for the 7th wicket in World Cup history.

Here are the ten Goa Congress MLAs who switched to BJP and are set to leave for Delhi to meet Amit Shah

OpIndia Staff
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Here are the ten Goa Congress MLAs who switched to BJP and are set to leave for Delhi to meet Amit Shah

Trouble for the Congress party, which is already grappling with the Karnataka crisis, has deepened after ten MLAs out of its total strength of fifteen in Goa defected to the state’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Wednesday. The leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Chandrakant Kavlekar, was also among the Congress lawmakers, who defected.

In the latest, the 10 Goa Congress MLAs who defected yesterday have left with the Goa Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, for Delhi, Thursday, to meet Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and the party working President, JP Nadda.

Pramod Sawant said that no decision has yet been taken, regarding the reshuffle in his cabinet. Talking to reporters, Sawant said that the party’s central leadership will take a call in this regard.

The state assembly speaker, Rajesh Patnekar, yesterday, accepted the MLAs request to merge their group with the BJP. “Ten Congress members of the legislative assembly have merged with the BJP. Chief minister Pramod Sawant has also informed this office that the strength of the BJP in the (40-member) state assembly has increased to 27. I have accepted both the requests,” Patnekar said.

The 10 Congress MLAs who defected the party are:
  • Chandrakant Kavlekar
  • Isidore Fernandes
  • Francis Silveira
  • Filipe Neri Rodrigues
  • Jennifer
  • Atanasio Monserrate
  • Antonio Fernandes
  • Nilakanth Halarnkar
  • Clafacio Dias
  • Wilfred D’Sa
The 5 members left with the Congress are:
  • Digambar Kamat
  • Luzinho Faleiro
  • Ravi Naik
  • Pratapsingh Rane
  • Aliexo Reginaldo

As two-third Congress MLAs have quit the party, they will evade the anti-defection law and hence will remain as MLAs. At present BJP has 17 MLAs, and it is running the government with the support of Goa Forward Party and independent MLAs. After the 10 MLAs formally join BJP, the ruling party will have 27 MLAs in the 40-member assembly, and it will not need the support of others.

Chandrakant Kavlekar, leader of Opposition in the Assembly said that the 10 MLAs were forced to join the ruling party as they were frustrated in the opposition. “We have been in the opposition for so long. And to continue in the opposition at the cost of development in our constituencies was not possible. We have joined to strengthen the hand of the chief minister as well as to ensure development in our constituencies,” Kavlekar said.

One of the defected Goa Congress MLA, Filipe Neri Rodrigues said, “We have already joined the BJP. We are part of it now. Its the collective opinion of all the Congress legislators and BJP has got the mandate of people. What we could not deliver to the people in Goa being in the opposition, we will also try to take benefit of this government to the people”.

Ayodhya hearing: Supreme Court seeks interim report from the mediators

OpIndia Staff
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Ayodhya hearing: Supreme Court seeks interim report from the mediators

Today, while hearing a petition for an early hearing on the Ayodhya land dispute case, the Supreme Court has said that it had set up a mediation panel and it should wait for the interim report from the mediators. The court has ordered Justice Kalifullah to submit status regarding the progress of mediation by next Thursday.


The Court has also said that if the matter is not resolved by mediation then the case would be heard from July 25 onwards on a day to day basis.


The petition to have an early hearing of the Ayodhya case was filed on July 9 citing the slow progress of the progress in the court-supervised mediation efforts. The Supreme Court had set up a 3 member mediation panel headed by retired Justice FM Kalifullah. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu as its other members. The mediation process was expected to be completed in 8 weeks.

However, in May the panel had asked for an extension of time to reach an amicable solution. Following which the court had granted time until August 15.

The court has had earlier directed that the mediation proceedings shall be kept confidential. There should not be any reporting of the proceedings either in the print or in the electronic media during the process of mediation.

An unapologetic Kangana Ranaut dares the ‘pseudo journalists’ to ban her, calls them ‘termites’

OpIndia Staff
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An unapologetic Kangana Ranaut dares the ‘pseudo journalists’ to ban her, calls them ‘termites’

After the Entertainment Journalists’ Guild of India decided to ban her till she apologises for an alleged spat with a reporter, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut has hit back at the Guild while requesting them to ban her.

In a four-minute video posted by Kangana Ranaut’s sister Rangoli Chandel, Kangana has shot back at the Entertainment Journalists’ Guild for her their alleged bias and propaganda.

“I am here to talk about the Indian media. There are good people as well as bad people in every place. The media has always supported and inspired me, I have found good friends and guide from the media fraternity. They have a major role to play in my success and I am grateful to them,” said Kangana Ranaut.


Kangana then began her defence against the arbitrary ban on her. She said, “A section of media functions like ‘termites’ who attack our country’s grace, honour, unity and integrity and often spreads rumours. They spread false propaganda, fake news and seditious views to the people. Our constitution neither has penalty nor any punishment for these crimes. I feel these people, so-called ‘liberals’ and ‘secular’ sold out media, are not secular as they peddle propaganda on communal lines.

“I met a journalist in Delhi recently, he has been making fun of many serious issues. I  campaigned for a ban on plastic recently and he ridiculed it, he also made fun of my campaign against cow slaughter, animal cruelty. I made a movie on a martyr, he made fun on the movie as well,” said Kangana referring to PTI journalist Justin Rao. Evidently, Rao isn’t a huge fan of the actor and has been mocking her for quite some time.

In her second video, Kangana Ranaut launches a scathing attack on these journalists and their dubious nature of work.

“These people do not have any proper argument or comment to make as journalists are supposed to do. Rather, they resort to attack and abuse me personally like professional trolls. They attend press conferences to get free food. These people do not have any work to quantify their existence as a journalist.”

“If I call myself an artist, I should have some work. Please show me one article that you wrote. How can you call yourself a journalist? I refused to answer his question as I have zero tolerance against anti-nationalists. These three or four people formed a guild against me, I think it was formed yesterday. It does not even have any recognition.”


Responding to the guild, Kangana said that these people are threatening to ban me, destroy my career. “These people are threatening to ban me, spoil my career. You incapable and anti-national people, one doesn’t need lakhs of rupees to buy you out, you people are so cheap that you get sold out for Rs 50-60. Do you think you can destroy me? If things were according to pseudo-journalists like you and the movie mafia, I wouldn’t be the country’s top actress and the highest paid actress. I ask you to please ban me, I do not want that there is no food at your home because of me.”

The spat between Kangana Ranaut and a ‘journalist’ began in a film’s song launch event on July 7, 2019. Kangana Ranaut had publically criticised PTI Journalist Justin Rao for his bias and his alleged propaganda against her movie ‘Manikarnika’. Soon, the Entertainment Journalists Guild of India had decided to boycott the actress from any kind of media coverage.

Balaji Telefilms and producer Ekta Kapoor had apologised for the incident and Entertainment Journalists’ Guild of India had responded by saying that they accept the apology but would continue to boycott Kangana until the actor apologises.

However, with Kangana Ranaut being unapologetic about the incident and instead further exposing what she refers to as ‘pseudo-journalist movie mafia’, the incident is expected to take a lot of twists and turns further giving free promotion to the movie ‘Judgemental Hai Kya’.

India vs New Zealand: Dhoni gambled, but Guptill pulled out an Ace at the end

Sandeep Singh
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India vs New Zealand: Dhoni gambled, but Guptill pulled out an Ace at the end

At 5/3 after 4 overs, memories of Champions Trophy Final came rushing back. For the past 2 years, India’s biggest worry was what happens if the top 3 fail, and the worst fears came true during that opening burst by Boult and Henry in the World Cup Semi Final match against New Zealand on Wednesday.

Most of the Indian runs were scored by Rohit, Rahul and Kohli in the competition, and now they were gone after scoring 1 each. DK never looked the part in his limited outings in the competition and when he was dismissed for 4, India were staring down the barrel. The young Turks Pant and Pandya put together a decent partnership and rode out the initial storm but the quiet, unassuming Santner tightened the noose and both of them got out trying to break the shackles.

At 92/6, it looked like all is over but there was one ray of hope, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is at the end of his career, he doesn’t score as quickly as before, he gets stuck against the spinners, but as long as he was there, we believed.

He found a perfect ally in Ravindra Jadeja, Manjrekar lit a fire in Jadeja’s heart with his comments earlier in the week and Jadeja was playing like a man possessed. He was miserly with the ball, typically sensational in the field, and now with the bat, he set about chasing the target with a vengeance.

Dhoni, who has played a lot of cricket with Jadeja for India and CSK, let Jadeja take the aggressor role while he quietly went about building his innings with singles. Jadeja’s heroics meant the required run rate was kept around 9-10 during the backend of the chase.

The stage was set, this was Dhoni territory, this is where he made his name as the greatest finisher in ODI history, Dhoni played out Santner, he played out Ferguson, he knew Neesham or de Grandhomme will have to bowl 1 over, the over he can use to catch up and close in on the target. Williamson knew what Dhoni is waiting for, he kept holding Neesham back and bowled Boult, Henry and Ferguson.

A sensational 47th over from Henry made things difficult, only 5 runs were scored, 42 from 24 became 37 from 18, Dhoni still waited. Boult backed Henry up beautifully in the next, concedes just 6 and dismissed the dangerous Jadeja, India needed 31 from 12, Dhoni couldn’t wait any more.

Williamson still held Neesham back and went with his leading wicket taker Ferguson in the 49th over against a man who backs himself to get the better of any bowler in such a situation.

The first ball of 49th over, short outside off, Dhoni murdered it over Covers with both feet off the ground for a six. A nation believed again, it was just like old times, Dhoni is going to pull it off. He blocked the second ball back to the bowler, the target was within his zone now, he didn’t need to risk a big hit every ball with the weaker 5th bowler’s over to come.

Next ball, Ferguson went short directed at the body, cramped for room, Dhoni flapped at it and it went to square leg with no fielder in the circle, Dhoni knew he needed to get back on strike, he pushed for that second as Wicket keeper chased the ball.

23 from 9 would have been in Dhoni’s range, but Martin Guptill has other ideas. He ran in from deep square, picked the ball up and with one stump to aim, smashed them with the most accurate of throws. Dhoni knew, Guptill knew, Kettleborough knew, India knew, but we still waited for 3rd umpire to confirm it to us, the World Cup was over, Dhoni fell short by inches.

He gambled on making up the dot balls at the death against the Kiwi bowlers but the freakish piece of fielding by Guptill upstaged him.

Rahul Gandhi finds easy being in the Opposition, maybe that’s why he is where he is

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Rahul Gandhi finds easy being in the Opposition, maybe that’s why he is where he is

The realm of teleserials seems to have crept into the Indian political scenery, especially within the Congress party. The drama not only continues to be perpetual but with time, it also becomes predictable.

The current story of Rahul Gandhi and his party seems to be following the screenplay of a daily soap. The drama is long and the story seems to be moving on the predictable lines.

Rahul Gandhi lost the ‘family seat’ of Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019 elections. After the humilating loss he returned to his constituency for the first time since his defeat. In Amethi, he addressed Congress party workers. The former Congress President did what he does the best – abdicating his responsibility of being a ‘leader’.

Rahul Gandhi in Amethi

“Narendra Modi is Prime Minister, Yogi ji is Chief Minister and Smriti Irani is the Member of Parliament from BJP. We have to do the work of opposition now, it is the most enjoyable, it is easy,” he said.


Through these words, Rahul Gandhi signalled his intentions of being an opposition leader perpetually rather than taking up the mantle of leadership. This comes at a time when the party is sliding into irrelevance. At a time when the party is battling for existence, it needs strong leadership to stabilise the party from its downward spiral. However, Rahul Gandhi, does not appear in the mood to be a ‘leader’ of the party to inspire his cadre. His stand-offish and casual attitude doesn’t help the party either.

With Rahul Gandhi making his intentions clear in Amethi stating that he finds joy in being in opposition party as it easy, it is nothing but gloomy for the Congress party. Since the early 2000s, the structure of the Congress party has been in a way that without the Gandhi-Nehru parivar at the helm of the affairs, it is bound to reach a state of anarchy.

Crisis in Congress

Right now, if reports are to be believed, Congress has started a franatical search for the party president. The party has asked its leaders to send in suggestions for the top post. However, they are reluctant to do so since they are afraid what if they do not make it. The infightings within the party has reached new heights.

Some Congress leaders even believe that Sonia should become the interim President since they feel only the Nehru-Gandhi family can keep the party together.

Meanwhile, the Congress leadership tried its best to blame several factors for its loss. They were also successful in finding a scapegoat for Rahul Gandhi’s incompetence in the form of Praveen Chakravarty, Congress’ Data Analytics Department’s head. The Congress party believes that it was the wrong data provided by Chakravarty that led the party to a defeat in the 2019 elections. Editorials were written that Rahul Gandhi’s fault was only that he put his trust in wrong person.

Amidst all this, the defeatist attitude of being excited at being in the opposition should be a cause of worry for those who still believe in Congress.

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