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Congress government in Rajasthan to set up Vedic Shiksha and Sanskar Board: Ashok Gehlot

OpIndia Staff
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Congress government in Rajasthan to set up Vedic Shiksha and Sanskar Board: Ashok Gehlot

The Congress government in Rajasthan, headed by CM Ashok Gehlot, will set up a Vedic Shiksha and Sanskar Board to preserve and revive the study of ancient Sanskrit scriptures in order to ensure that the Youth has knowledge of the country’s glorious past.

Ashok Gehlot made the announcement while addressing the 25th state-level Bhamashah Samman Samaroh at the Birla Auditorium at Jaipur. The board will help future generations take inspiration from Vedic culture, tradition and values, he said. “In a democracy, governments keep changing but there should be no political interference and tampering in the field of education,” he added.

The state-level event was organized to honour the contributions of those who contributed to the transformation of the education sector. He added that during the UPA regime, it was mandatory for industries to donate part of their money towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. “It proved to be a historic decision as it ensured their participation in education, health, and other social sectors, and people were benefitted,” he said.

The NDA government at the Center has been mulling the establishment of a Vedic Education Board for a while now after initially rejecting it. In 2015, Baba Ramdev had requested the government to establish a school board for Vedic education but the HRD Ministry had rejected the suggestion.

In 2016, he had made the same bid but was rejected again. However, earlier this year, it was reported that MHRD Javdekar had given the idea a go-ahead and Baba Ramdev might head the first Vedic Education Board in the country. However, there has been no word on that front yet.

With the dawn of competitive Hindu politics, the Congress government in Rajasthan will certainly score one over the BJP should Gehlot establish the proposed Vedic Board in Rajasthan before the one pondered upon by the Central government.

Indian Express, enough is enough: Pehlu Khan was a cow-smuggler

Ashish Shukla
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Indian Express, enough is enough: Pehlu Khan was a cow-smuggler

Indian Express can’t expect its readers—and I am one—to be polite any longer. The newspaper is lying, promoting communal divide and Hinduphobia for years now. And it’s happening because they are unaccountable to readers, appeased by Press bodies and handled with kid gloves by the executive and judiciary of this country.

Indian Express has published a front-page screamer today in which they inform the readers that the “dairy farmer” Pehlu Khan who was “lynched” by “gau rakshaks” in Alwar two years ago has been charge-sheeted by the Police as “cow-smuggler.”

First thing first. Pehlu Khan was a “cow-smuggler” first and a “dairy farmer” later. Dairy farmers don’t buy non-milch cows and move in pitched darkness through a forest. You don’t expect readers to believe you and not the Police that he was a cow-smuggler. It was convenient for you to paint Rajasthan Police as compromised since the BJP was in power in the state in 2017. Now Congress rules the state. The bias factor is flushed down the drain.

Your harping on “gau-rakshaks” too needs a firm rebuttal. Alwar is the den of cow-smugglers who number in excess of 500. Cattles are picked from the streets and homes, stuffed into vehicles and mostly slaughtered in Mewat (Haryana) which comprises mostly Meo Muslims. “Gau-Rakshaks” are activists who, police acknowledges, tip them off against cow-smugglers. Indeed, police ask “gau-rakshaks” to accompany them in raids against the cow-smugglers.

Last year, police caught three women packing 60 kilos of beef in packets in Gobindgarh, Alwar. It allegedly was of a cow slaughtered in the jungle by the owner of the house, Sakeel. Police raided two more godowns in the same area: They were stocked with 221 cowhides, not more than a month old.

In the inside pages, Indian Express has another story which details the Pehlu Khan trial in progress. It mentions the accused who have been given “clean chit” by the police and which has “resulted in widespread criticism for the then BJP government in Rajasthan.” It mentions the case has been transferred from “Behror” to “Alwar” since the witnesses alleged they had been “fired at”.

One of the witnesses was Pehlu Khan’s son Irshad. The police later found out that the “firing” episode was fake. “No firing on the witnesses took place and the complaint was fake. There was no circumstantial evidence of firing and no such vehicle, as described by the complainant is seen in CCTV footage,” said the police.

Yet the Indian Express is on its own trip. It quotes Irshad at length in its front page story, as outraged perhaps as Pehlu’s son is. “We lost our father in the attack by cow-vigilantes and now we have been charged as cow-smugglers. We had hoped that the new Congress government in Rajasthan will review and withdraw the case against us.” Could you believe it! A fake narrator is being given a platform, never put to searching questions by the “Journalism of Courage.” Crime is viewed from political lenses.

Indian Express has headlined its Front Page story: “Pehlu Khan was lynched; now charge-sheeted by Congress government.” It’s inside story also has “lynching” in the headlines. Clearly, the newspaper is loathed to let go of the word “lynching.”

So let’s look at this lynching bit. For over a decade now, Alwar residents are keeping a vigil on their livestock in the night given the region being a beehive of cow-smugglers. Yet there are instances of farmers who had 10 cows once are now left with none, all stolen. Says son of one such robbed farmer: “We lost our cattle and learnt a new word—mob lynching. So if you resist a thief, they will say mob lynching happened.”

Cow-owners are terrorized, fired at, killed by cow-smugglers in Alwar. Yet, a Pehlu Khan is “awarded with a flat in Greater Noida and lakh of rupees.” What do those who lose their cattle and lives get in return, the activists ask? The tag of cow vigilantes/”gau-rakshaks and lynchers. In absolutely no way is any sort of physical attack on Pehlu or anyone else can be condoned. But this cannot be seen in binaries and the details of the menace of cow-smuggling need to be understood.

There is little doubt in my mind that Indian Express has written more on Pehlu Khan than the entire media put together in the last two years. It has beefed up the story on false, motivated reporting.

Indian Express treats crime along the religious lines: Gau-rakshaks killing Muslim dairy farmers. “Saffron terror” against a helpless minority. Hindutva brigade brutalizing peaceful Muslims. Nobody condones Pehlu’s killing but he was a cow-smuggler, not an innocent.

And just imagine the incalculable harm this biased, condemnable reporting does. An Asaduddin Owaisi builds on the narrative to whip up fears of millions of Muslims. Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti chime in rhyme. Shabana Azmi descends on streets with placards. A Naseeruddin Shah buys the lie without a question. Javed Akhtar, Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan, Swara Bhaskar, Prakash Raj all rustic to nuances of agenda, if not Hinduphobic, add their bit. It shapes the “Report of Religious Persecution” in India by the United States. New York Times, Time and other beacons of the Western press have pieces on intolerance in Modi’s India. And yet, merrily chugs the Hinduphobic train on the steam of an agenda.

Sandesara brothers’ loan fraud is much bigger than Nirav Modi’s PNB scam: Enforcement Directorate

OpIndia Staff
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Sandesara brothers’ loan fraud is much bigger than Nirav Modi’s PNB scam: Enforcement Directorate

The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that the fraud committed by Sterling Biotech’s Sandesara brothers is much bigger than Nirav Modi’s PNB scam.

ANI has quoted ED officials stating that the Sterling Biotech Limited and its main promoters Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara and Deepti Sandesara have cheated a consortium of Indian banks to the tunes of Rs 14,000 crores. Nirav Modi’s PNB scam was estimated to be over 11,000 crores.

In the Sterling Biotech case, the ED has been probing the bank loan fraud case against the promoters of the Gujarat-based group. In August 2017, the ED had filed a case of money laundering against Sterling Biotech company, the same month in which the promoters of the group, Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, had fled the country.

The ED’s case had come after the CBI’s FIR against the promoters in October 2017.

During the investigation, it was reportedly revealed that the Sterling Biotech Limited (SBL) had obtained a loan worth over 9000 crores from foreign branches of Indian banks. The loans were taken in both Indian and foreign currencies. The loans were sanctioned by a consortium of banks namely UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, State Bank of India, and Bank of India.

The promoters of SBL had allegedly then diverted the money raised from loans to non-mandated purposes, carefully layered and laundered through a number of domestic and offshore entities. The Sandesaras had not only siphoned off the funds to finance their Nigerian oil business but also for personal expenses, sources revealed.

Following the money trail, the ED had attached several offshore properties belonging to the promoters of SBL totalling over 9000 crores. The properties include four oil rigs and an oil field in Nigeria named OML 143, 4 ships namely Tulja Bhawani, Vrinda, Bhavya and Brahmani, that were registered in Panama under Atlantic Blue Water Services, a 200 Gulfstream aircraft registered in the USA, and residential property in London.

Meanwhile, with the ED attaching assets worth Rs 4700 crores belonging to the Sterling Biotech last year on December 7, the total attached properties stands at approximately Rs 13000 crore now. ED has further revealed that total outstanding dues to banks are over Rs 13,371 crore rupees.

Nitin Sandesara was apprehended by the Dubai police in August last year. He is reportedly known as a close aide of Congress leader Ahmed Patel. Hitesh Patel, another ain promoter of the SBL, was detained in the European country of Albania in March this year. A Red-Corner notice had been issued against him on the 11th of March. He has been detained by Albania’s National Crime Bureau-Tirana. He is also expected to be extradited to India soon.

The ED has been seeking to declare the Sandesara brothers fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act 2018. Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s name has also surfaced in the SBL scam case over connections to the Sandesara brothers and money kickback allegations.

World Cup Preview, Afghanistan v Pakistan: A new rivalry in cricket to start

Ritesh
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World Cup Preview, Afghanistan v Pakistan: A new rivalry in cricket to start

Afghanistan and Pakistan will face off in the World Cup contest for the first time. The last time they met each other was in the World Cup warm-up game where Afghanistan won the match. Afghanistan has nothing to lose while Pakistan needs to win at any cost to stay in the hunt of the semi-final spot. A new rivalry to start between the two nations after the controversial comment made by former Pakistani bowler, Shoaib Akhtar (video below).

Pakistan has won its last two games and has found the form at the right time. All they have to do is to win the next two games, one against Afghanistan and one against Bangladesh. Pakistan’s most significant improvement has been in their batting, with Babar Azam and Haris Sohail in top form, the batting has found some stability.

The bowling unit is firing all cylinders and would be waiting for the inexperienced batting line up of Afghanistan to bundle them out for a low total. The fielding is still an issue and needs improvement. Catches win matches especially in do or die games.

Afghanistan, still looking for their maiden win in this World Cup would be eager to beat Pakistan after Shoaib Akhtar’s controversial comment in his youtube video degrading the Afghanistani cricket and its people.

Afghanistan has some serious talent, and they have shown it in the matches against Sri Lanka and India.

Players to watch out for

Babar Azam, one of the best ODI batsman from Pakistan, still in his early ODI career, has played one of the most precious knocks of Pakistan’s World Cup campaign against New Zealand. He along with Haris Sohail will again be looking for adding runs in middle overs. If he plays well, Pakistan will have more chances to put a big total in the match.

This is Rashid Khan’s last chance to show his class in the World Cup. He will be part of the next match against West Indies but taking wickets against Pakistan would be different feelings altogether especially after that comment from Akhtar. His leg spin can fox the Pakistani batsmen, and can also score some runs in the slog overs.

Afghanistan v Pakistan in ODIs:

Overall: Matches 3, Afghanistan Won 0, Pakistan Won 3

World Cup: Yet to play

Recent Form (most recent first): Afghanistan L L L L L, Pakistan W W L L NR

ICC Rankings: Afghanistan (10), Pakistan (6)

Upcoming Records:

Shoaib Malik has taken 98 catches and needs two more to reach the 100 catches milestone.

Samiullah Shinwari has taken 45 wickets and needs five more to reach the 50 wickets milestone, and also the 1,000 runs/50 wickets milestone.

Squads:

Afghanistan: Gulbadin Naib (capt), Aftab Alam, Asghar Afghan, Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Rashid Khan, Samiullah Shinwari.

Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt & wk), Asif Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz.

Rahul Gandhi to become ‘ideologue’ and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for PM: Congress ‘masterplan’ for 2024?

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi to become ‘ideologue’ and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for PM: Congress ‘masterplan’ for 2024?

The Congress party is preparing to shift Rahul Gandhi to its ‘Marg Darshak Mandal’ while preparing for Priyanka Vadra Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial bid in 2024. At least that is what the Congress is planning according to an article by Rasheed Kidwai on News18.

Kidwai writes, “Rahul Gandhi is set to get a leadership role in the mould of an ideologue or a supreme leader without holding an office.” He adds towards the end, “It is a hush-hush plan and an open secret. In the Congress scheme of things, Priyanka Gandhi will be projected as a prime ministerial face in 2024.”

There is also a widening rift within the party between the old guard and the young, Kidwai says. The visiting fellow at the ORF foundation describes it as a “war of attrition”. The two figures at the mix of it all are Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, the Chief Minister and Deputy CM of Rajasthan respectively.

After the Assembly victories last year, Rahul Gandhi favoured the old guard in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh both. However, after the drubbing the party received in the 2019 General Elections, the position of the Old Guard appears untenable.

As for Rahul Gandhi’s role as an ideologue, Mani Shankar Aiyar had offered similar advice recently. He had said that if Rahul doesn’t want to carry on as Congress President, he shouldn’t be forced to. At the same time, Aiyar had emphasized that the Nehru-Gandhi family should continue to intervene in contentious matters. The Congress party, if it decides to elevate Rahul Gandhi to the stature of an ideologue, will be treading the path suggested by Aiyar.

According to reports that had surfaced in the aftermath of the Congress Working Committee meeting, Rahul Gandhi himself was flabbergasted with the conduct of the Old Guard. It was suggested that veterans like Kamal Nath and Gehlot were more concerned with the fate of their own sons than the party. Thus, it is a very distinct possibility that the party leadership could be handed over to someone like Jyotiraditya Scindia or Pilot himself, two young leaders who are touted to be close to Rahul Gandhi himself.

It is also unclear what ideology Rahul Gandhi would endorse if he were to assume the baton of Congress party’s ideologue. His ramblings during the 2019 election campaign don’t inspire a lot of confidence. His campaign lacked any coherent message or an overarching narrative apart from an aversion towards Narendra Modi.

His relentless campaign against the Rafale Deal was interrupted with occasional musings to the effect of ‘Hogi Pyar Ki Jeet’. The manifesto of the party appeared to have been written by a millennial from Berkeley University in the USA. Moreover, Rahul Gandhi is not renowned for his sound intellect. Therefore, elevating Rahul Gandhi to the stature of a party ideologue will only reduce Congress to the state of abject mockery.

It’s not surprising that Priyanka Vadra Gandhi could be the Congress party’s Prime Ministerial candidate in 2024. In hindsight, her not contesting from Varanasi appears to be an attempt to shield the potential future PM candidate from a certain defeat.

However, the most interesting part is the ongoing war between the Old Guard and the Young. It remains to be seen whether the party can overcome this conundrum without suffering a split. For able and popular leaders like Sachin Pilot, it wouldn’t make much sense to continue with a party that sidelines him at every step when he could do very well outside it. At the same time, the Gehlots and Kamal Naths will be loathed to part with their own base.

It’s a dark phase for the Congress party, it remains to be seen whether ideologue Rahul Gandhi could avert a calamity.

India vs England: Time to include Rishabh Pant in the middle order

Sandeep Singh
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India vs England: Time to include Rishabh Pant in the middle order

India remains the only unbeaten team in this edition of the World Cup and that record will be severely tested on Sunday against the pre-tournament favourites, England.

England has suffered a couple of unexpected reverses in the competition but they remain a very dangerous side and are very capable of defeating India. With the return of Jason Roy at the top of the order, their opening troubles will get resolved and when English openers fire (as they have often done in the last 3 years), their middle order really comes into their own to push home the advantage.

Things have gone a lot more smoothly for India in comparison but the big question over their middle order has remained unanswered. Vijay Shankar hasn’t yet come good at the Number 4 position while Jadhav hasn’t had a great World Cup at Number 6 either, with a laboured innings against Afghanistan raising a lot of concern.

Sandwiched between those 2 places is the man who starts a passionate debate whenever he goes out to bat these days. MS Dhoni’s struggles against the spin during the past few years are well known, and that is where Afghanistan got him in their league encounter. The same questions over his strike rate were raised against West Indies as well but he somewhat made up for it than with a late assault against the faster bowlers.

If Hope hadn’t squandered an easy stumping chance early on, who knows how things would have turned out. As it happened, the formidable Indian bowling attack defended the target on both occasions with some exceptional bowling.

The Pant Debate: When the squad of 15 was announced ahead of the World Cup, a lot of questions were raised over the absence of Rishabh Pant, one of the stars of the revelry concluded IPL. An “X-Factor” player who can score at a seriously rapid rate, Pant has a lot of admirers, except in the Indian selection panel. He was eventually drafted in when Shikhar Dhawan got injured and since then, the noise over his selection in the playing XI has increased manifold, the form of Shankar, Jadhav and even Dhoni has only increased the debate.

The presence of Pant in the middle order can give India a batsman who can keep the scoring rate up while Dhoni can take his time at the other end. A 4-5-6 of Dhoni-Pant-Jadhav/Shankar may just be the right combination for India but Kohli and Shastri are reluctant to move Dhoni up from his number 5 spot. Shankar and Jadhav are useful because they provide a bowling option if one of the main bowlers are having an off day but keeping 2 part-timers in the squad just for their bowling is a little too much insurance.

With the semifinal spot all but assured, this can be a good time for India to experiment a bit and see what Pant can bring to the table in that middle order. Maybe he can answer the long-standing problem of India’s Middle Order.

Video and statistics highlights from South Africa v Sri Lanka Match

Ritesh
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Video and statistics highlights from South Africa v Sri Lanka Match

Sri Lanka’s losing to South Africa means they will be eliminated irrespective of their results against West Indies & India if England wins at least one of their remaining games.

South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl first on the flat track. Sri Lanka in a must-win game lost their skipper of the very first ball of the innings. Despite the early loss, Kusal Perera and Fernando played freely and stroked their team to 67 runs in less than ten overs. That was their only good part of the match.

The middle order didn’t show any positive intent to stay on the wicket and score some runs for the team. You can’t throw away your wicket after playing so many balls in the middle overs, that too when the result of the match decides a berth in semi-final. Kusal, Angelo, Dhanajaya, Jeevan and Thisara all played over 25 balls, but none went on to score big.

Sri Lanka was bowled out for 203 runs in the 50th over. Dwaine Pretorius who was playing his second game of the tournament took three wickets and so as Chris Morris.

South Africa had no pressure to chase a low Sri Lankan total. When Proteas have nothing to lose, they dominate the opposition. The same thing happened in this game.

Although Malinga provided the early breakthrough. Despite losing de Kock in the fifth over, South Africa comfortably chased down the target in less than 38 overs. Both Faf (96 not out) and Amla (80 not out) played some beautiful drives and flicks during their unbeaten partnership of 175 runs for the 2nd wicket. Sri Lankan bowlers couldn’t

STATS

  • Amla has now 8113 runs in ODIs for South Africa, only de Villiers and Kallis have scored more runs for South Africa in ODIs.
  • The unbeaten 175 runs partnership between Amla and du Plessis is the highest run partnership for South Africa for any wicket against Sri Lanka in World Cup.

Suspended Congress leader alleges Rahul Gandhi’s press meet passes were sold for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000

OpIndia Staff
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Suspended Congress leader alleges Rahul Gandhi’s press meet passes were sold for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000

Suspended Congress leader, Karate R. Thiagarajan has made an explosive revelation alleging that the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee’s media coordinator Gopanna traded passes for Rahul Gandhi’s press meet for Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000. Thiagarajan stated that he’d approach police commissioner to file a complaint about the security lapse.


Expressing his angst against the Congress party for having suspended him, Thiagarajan defended himself saying that he didn’t utter a single word against the party. He asserted that there were 7 people in the internal meeting who expressed their disapproval against DMK but only he was made scapegoat and his words were published in the media. Thiagarajan has also alleged that he had been suspended from the party without any notice.


Earlier yesterday, the AICC approved the proposal sent by the general secretary of Tamil Nadu Congress for taking stringent action against Karate Thiagarajan for his frequent anti-party activities and transgression of party discipline. Karate Thiagarajan in the internal meeting had proposed that the Congress party should contest the forthcoming local body polls on its own, without their alliance partner DMK.

Intellectual Maulanas and Ayatollahs in suits and boots are rattled by Arif Mohammad Khan and there is good reason why

K Bhattacharjee
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Intellectual Maulanas and Ayatollahs in suits and boots are rattled by Arif Mohammad Khan and there is good reason why

In his interview with Arfa Khanum Sherwani with The Wire, Arif Mohammad Khan ably shattered the myth of perpetual victimhood that the ‘liberal’ fraternity constantly feeds the Muslim community. Khan reiterated that the primary cause of backwardness among Muslims is the regressive religious beliefs they harbour and called for intellectuals to introspect on their own conduct.

Naturally, Khan’s words haven’t gone down well with the Intellectual Maulanas and the Ayatollahs in suits and boots. But in their bid to undermine him, they have only proved the accuracy of Khan’s assessment.


The core argument appears to be that Khan doesn’t represent the Muslim community and is, therefore, irrelevant. It has also been argued that those who are providing a platform to him are doing a disservice to the Muslim community. That Khan cannot win elections and isn’t considered a representative of the community is more an indictment of the Muslim community than it is of him.

Akbaruddin Owaisi once announced in public that should the Police be withdrawn across the country for 15 minutes, then Muslims will show Hindus who the boss is. Asaduddin Owaisi, being the leader of his party, took absolutely no action against his brother despite the Jihadist bile that he spewed. If the Owaisi brothers can become elected representatives of the Muslim community but Khan cannot, it only proves that every word of Khan’s assessment of the problems within the Muslim community is absolutely accurate.

The other argument is that Khan is augmenting his own stature by playing to the ‘Rightwing’ gallery. They appear to forget that he was, once upon a time, a Cabinet Rank Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government. He resigned after the Shah Bano verdict was overturned by Rajiv Gandhi to appease the Mullahs in the country. Thus, these aren’t opinions that he has suddenly discovered after the 23rd of May, 2019.

He has long harboured these views and his resignation to protest against Rajiv Gandhi’s woeful Mullah appeasement is a testament to that effect. Unlike a few liberals who jumped on the Modi bandwagon in the run up to the 2014 General Elections but abandoned it later on when it became obvious that there weren’t any special privileges waiting for them for their newfound support, Khan has stood by his word for more than three decades now. If his primary objective was to secure political benefits, he wouldn’t have offered his resignation following the Shah Bano tragedy.

That liberals are attacking Khan for stating pretty basic facts only reveals their own vested interests in keeping India’s communal pot boiling. That they denigrate Khan for not being representative of the Muslim community while cheering for the likes of Owaisis only reveals their utter moral bankruptcy. It’s clear that it’s not a concern for the Muslim community that drives them, it’s their virulent hatred towards Hindus. If their hatred towards Hindus was superseded by their concern for Muslims, then they would have preferred and wanted Khan to lead the Muslim community, not the Owaisis.

Amusingly, since when has electoral prospects prevented liberals from projecting someone as a hero? When it was obvious to every neutral observer that the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar would find it difficult to win even municipality elections, they were heralded as youth leaders. Was Gauri Lankesh capable of winning any elections at all? Is Swara Bhasker capable of it? Clearly, electoral popularity isn’t a factor for liberals when it comes to lionizing someone, why is Khan being given a special treatment?

It also reveals a certain interesting dynamic within the alliance between liberals and radical Islam. Liberals want Muslims to be their puppets in their war against Hinduism, Islamic fundamentalists are playing a game of their own where they are continuously strengthening themselves.

Thus, while they continue to be in an alliance, Liberals believe they are in control while the Islamists are continuously clawing away at the roots of the dominant culture waiting for the right time to strike. Therefore, if the alliance is successful in its endeavours, liberals will get their wish and the dominant culture will be replaced. However, it will not be replaced by a society based on liberal ideals, it will be replaced by one with clear Jihadist principles.

Muslims like Arif Mohammad Khan, who is more concerned with the intolerance within the Islamic community, is an anathema to the alliance. A Muslim exposing the scam the alliance is seeking to wreak is their worst nightmare. Therefore, every manner of effort is being made to silence him. Questioning his words despite his track record speaking volumes about his integrity only reveals their ulterior motives.

It’s extremely unlikely that one Arif Khan will be able to bring about any significant reform within the Muslim community. Because the hold of rabid Maulanas and Maulvis over Muslim society is simply too strong. In spite of that, the fact that he is attracting so much criticism only goes on to show the nervousness that the alliance feels about the problematic beliefs of the Muslim community itself.

India is now producing the world’s cheapest solar power: Research by International Renewable Energy Agency reveals

OpIndia Staff
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India is now producing the world’s cheapest solar power: Research by International Renewable Energy Agency reveals

Ever since BJP came into power in 2014, PM Modi had placed special emphasis on harnessing the abundant Solar energy the country receives and producing power through it. With the government of India’s focused efforts in democratising the use of Solar energy, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) survey in its research found out that India is the world’s cheapest producer of Solar power.

Source: IRENA

Owing to low-cost panel imports from China, abundant land and low wage labour, the cost of building large-scale solar installations in India fell by 27 per cent in 2018, Year-on-Year. The cost of large-scale installations in Canada is highest amongst the countries involved in producing power using Solar energy, almost thrice that of India’s cost.

More than 50 per cent of the total cost in building a solar installation in India involves costs related to hardware, racking and mounting, while the remaining cost is divvied up between soft costs such as system designing and financing.  Considerably cheap labour and lower service expenses have also aided in the steep fall in the finance needed to establish large-scale solar power-generating projects. The setup cost in India fell by about 80 per cent between 2010 to 2018, the most remarkable reduction observed in any of the other countries.

The Solar power arena is progressing leaps and bounds. Last year, 94 gigawatts of new capacity was added, mostly by Asian counterparts. China added 44 gigawatts of Solar energy, almost 5 times more than India. US, Japan, Australia and Germany are other nations where there has been a steady rise in the solar power generation field.

As countries move towards cleaner sources of energy, the rising demand and less cost of installation will further spur the utilisation of renewable source of energy, especially in Asian countries which are heavily reliant on non-renewable sources of energy such as coal, oil etc. It will play a pivotal role in decarbonisation.

PM Modi had been one of the most foremost proponents of Paris Climate Agreement. As a part of the Paris Climate Agreement, India has agreed to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 35 per cent till 2030. Solar energy will play a key role for India to meet its intended targets.

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