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Amit Shah seeks report after BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya was seen thrashing a Municipal Corporation official with cricket bat

OpIndia Staff
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Amit Shah seeks report after BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya was seen thrashing a Municipal Corporation official with cricket bat

Union Home Minister, Amit Shah has sought a report after Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya was arrested for thrashing a municipal official in Indore with a cricket bat.

Sources said that the BJP chief wanted to know the exact sequence of events that transpired on June 26 leading to the arrest of the son of senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, adding the party will take a call on what to do with the first-time MLA after “studying all the facts of the case”. The incident is hurting the party’s image, they said.

The Indore police had arrested senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya’s son Akash Vijayvargiya for attacking a Municipal Corporation official with a cricket bat in the city on Wednesday.

A First Information Report (FIR) had been registered against Akash and 10 others at MG Road police station in Indore under IPC 353, 294, 506, 147, 148, for assaulting and obstructing a public servant from performing his duties. Police have also recorded the statements of two civic body officials.

The BJP MLA was recorded thrashing a civic body official using a cricket bat who was in the Ganji Compound area to carry out an anti-encroachment drive. Akash along with his supporters chased the official. The incident took place in full public view including the presence of policemen and television crews.

Akash Vijayvargiya has been sent to jail till July 7 after his bail plea was denied. The arrest of the BJP MLA has let to national outrage. Posters supporting Akash Vijayvargiya appeared in parts of Indore which read, “Salute Akash ji”.


The posters were, however, later taken down by the Indore Municipal Corporation.

Moreover, BJP is also planning to hold a demonstration rally on Friday against the arrest of Akash Vijayvargiya in Indore.

After the incident, Akash had clarified, “I told them (the officials) to leave in 10 minutes and said we couldn’t tolerate it any longer. I am an elected representative. It is my responsibility to sort out the issues between the residents and the authorities. I was making every effort. But the civic body officials were indulging in dadagiri and weren’t listening to the people.”

He further added that civic body officers who went to the residential building during the anti-encroachment drive were not accompanied by any female officers. Alleging that officers dragged the women residents and verbally abused one of them, the BJP MLA added, “I was very angry. I don’t remember what all I did. Let’s see what happens.”

He had also alleged that Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma had sent some anti-social elements to capture the building and the Municipal Corporation workers were helping the Congress leader in grabbing the building.

Twitter informs Italian journalist critical of Pakistan that she violated Pakistani Law

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter informs Italian journalist critical of Pakistan that she violated Pakistani Law

Francesca Marino, an Italian journalist, was informed by Twitter of some of her tweets violating Pakistani law. Twitter claimed to have received official correspondence over her account.

Posting the screenshots of the email she had received, Marino replied that she lives in Italy where ‘freedom of speech’ still exists and accused the social media giant of being manipulated by regimes.


In the email, Twitter said, “Twitter has not taken any action on the reported content at this time. We are only writing to inform you that the content posted to your account has been mentioned in a complaint.”

In the tweet which allegedly violates Pakistani Law, Marino accused the Pakistani establishment of nurturing and supporting terrorist groups and also blamed them for committing human rights violations in Balochistan.


Marino confirmed that she will consider suing Twitter.


Twitter has sent such emails to users in the past as well. Imam Tawhidi, a progressive Muslim scholar from Australia, had received an email on 3rd December last year informing him that a particular tweet of his has broken Pakistani law.

Similarly, Ensaf Haider, a Canadian human rights activist and wife of Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer and dissident who has been imprisoned for his satirical blogs against Saudi regimes, too received similar notice of having violated Pakistani law.

Twitter, however, states that they inform their users of legal notices so that they can have a better opportunity to deal with it effectively. It says, “We have notified you so that you can avail yourself of the rights available for your particular situation in your specific jurisdiction. We want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request and, if necessary, take appropriate action to protect your interests.”

Guess who supported the Emergency? The Communists, of course

Ashish Shukla
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Guess who supported the Emergency? The Communists, of course

Every anniversary of Emergency in India (June 25, 1975) and worn-out clichés on muzzling media, despotic Indira, state repression and the complicity of judiciary begin to do rounds. Now a senior journalist Arun Anand has done a piece in Indian Express edits which deserves everyone’s attention.

Two takeaways from Anand’s piece would bring a silent chuckle on the faces of millions who are relentlessly resisting and overthrowing the Tukde-Tukde gang inch-by-inch in the last half-a-dozen years. Those on the other side of the divide, the Congress-Left-Sickular “ecosystem”, would surely be squirming in discomfort.

Anand quotes from an article, “The Empress Reigns Supreme”, published in August 1976 in The Guardian: “…Pro-CPI (Communist Party of India) journals in India are being given some latitude by the censors because the party is in favour of even stronger measures to suppress the non-communist opposition.” Communist leader Sitaram Yechury, a savvy Twitterati who short of blaming BJP for everything but cataract in his eye, surely deserves a forward of this piece. A reaction from him though is a long shot.

The same article goes on to state that the Indira government was pressurizing King Birendra of Nepal to hand over some of the RSS members who were running the underground movement against the Emergency from Nepal. The article, quoting a source, said: “…Kathmandu will never hand over to the Indian government members of the RSS, banned by the Gandhi regime shortly after the promulgation of Emergency.” So please be easy on Rahul Gandhi, the RSSphobia is in his genes.

The article has some interesting anecdotes on the fate of foreign journalists present in India when the Emergency was declared. Anand informs us that the correspondent from The Washington Post was expelled from India within four days of the draconian imposition. The correspondents from The Times (London), Daily Telegraph, Newsweek and Far Eastern Economic Review didn’t budge and hence had to leave the Indian shores. They fell foul of the “Press Censorship Guidelines” issued by Information & Broadcasting ministry, headed by Vidya Charan Shukla. The BBC had to shut its office in 1975. Accreditations of many foreign journalists were cancelled. One, KR Sundar Rajan, was even detained under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

Christopher Sweeney, a correspondent for The Guardian and The Economist, gave an account of his ordeal thus:

“…I came under obvious suspicion within days of my arrival in the country…after arranging meetings by telephone, odd characters would turn up to observe who I was seeing each morning, others would be waiting in red sarees in the entrance of the Delphi hotel. People I spoke to openly would be later stopped and questioned. At least twice my hotel room was broken into and searched…

“When I complained of the continued harassment by the Government agents and asked Mr Haksar (A.N.D Haskar was the chief government spokesperson) to explain why it had been necessary to organize breakings to my hotel rooms, he replied that unless I left the country as soon as possible, there ‘would be a further prospect of physical inconvenience’.”

Don’t you now sympathize with Lutyens Media who dug themselves deep under the soil to avoid the searchlight of The Emergency? I mean poor guys what could they have done but wag their tails? Don’t you have the decency to shame them now, 40-odd years hence, for the sins of their predecessors? Isn’t there a mountain of material to shame them on their own sins?

Anand is matter-of-fact on the Emergency but unwittingly he has held forth a mirror, be it on Congress, Left or Indian media—the order of the “ecosystem” is more or less same to our day. The only difference is unlike today, the foreign press of those days was singing paeans in praise of RSS.

Sample a piece titled “Yes, there is an underground” published in The Economist:

“The shock troops of the (underground) movement largely come from Jana Sangh and its ideological affiliate, the RSS, which claim a combined membership of 10 million (of whom 80,000 including 6,000 full-time party workers are in prison).”

So, the Communists supported the Emergency and RSS resisted it tooth and nail. Delicious, isn’t it.

Sonia, Rahul and the entire coterie should apologise for injustice done to PV Narasimha Rao, says grandson NV Subhash

OpIndia Staff
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Sonia, Rahul and the entire coterie should apologise for injustice done to PV Narasimha Rao, says grandson NV Subhash

NV Subhash, the grandson of former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader late P V Narasimha Rao has slammed a senior Congress leader and the party for making allegations against the former Prime Minister and also demanded an apology from the Gandhi family for “injustice” done to him.

According to the reports, NV Subhash reacted after AICC Secretary G Chinna Reddy had issued a statement accusing former Prime Minister Rao of trying to “sideline” the Nehru-Gandhi family during his tenure. NV Subhash said G Chinna Reddy’s accusations were “not true and condemnable”.

“Rao was the most trusted and loyal leader for Gandhi family and always guided the family on many issues”, he claimed.

Subhash, a BJP member, further alleged that Congress always neglected the leaders other than those from the Nehru-Gandhi family, especially late P V Narasimha Rao.

“It is very clear and evident that his dead body was not even allowed to enter the headquarters of AICC in Delhi. All the former PM’s memorial was built in New Delhi except that of Rao’s which shows the indifferent attitude of the Congress leaders,” Subhash told PTI.

He further added that Rao never sidelined or suppressed the Gandhi family during his tenure. On every occasion, Sonia Gandhi was very well informed about the party activities, development initiatives are taken up by the government, Cabinet expansions, the election process, campaign and allotment of tickets in Assembly elections, he claimed.

“In fact, on many occasions, Rao personally met Sonia Gandhi and apprised her. But she was neither interested in politics nor wanted her kids to get into politics. So, where is the question of suppressing the family?” Subhash asked.

Responding to Reddy’s allegation and blaming of PV Narasimha Rao for the Babri Masjid Demolition in December 1992, NV Subhash said that Rao had taken all the necessary steps to stop its demolition.

“If it is true (that the demolition alienated Muslims from Congress) then how is it possible that the Congress was in power from 2004 to 2014?” questioned Subhash.

Subhash also accused Congress of neglecting their own leaders other than Nehru-Gandhi family and added that the party, not only gave credit to Nehru-Gandhi family for success but also blamed Narasimha Rao for the party’s failures.

“At least now, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and the entire coterie of Gandhi family and Congress should apologise to the nation for the injustice done to Narasimha Rao”, he said. They should recognise Rao’s services by paying him rich tributes on the occasion of his 98th birth anniversary tomorrow, he added.

P V Narasimha Rao was the first prime minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to complete a full term of five years. He had become the PM in 1991 due to the assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi during the elections.

Rahul Gandhi upset that no other senior leaders offered to take responsibility of poll debacle and resign

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi upset that no other senior leaders offered to take responsibility of poll debacle and resign

Congress President Rahul Gandhi while speaking to youth Congress workers yesterday, expressed his unhappiness saying that he is saddened that he is the only one who resigned taking responsibility of the Lok Sabha poll debacle and that no general secretary or State President took the responsibility for the same, reports India Today.

The youth Congress workers in the meeting yesterday expressed solidarity as RaGa remained adamant on his resignation as the party President.

The month-long theatrics seems to be reaching its climax now as Rahul Gandhi during a meeting with leaders from Haryana state coordination committee on Thursday stuck to his decision to resign as Congress president, saying he did it to ensure accountability for the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle and there was no question of going back on it.

Responding to the request made by the Haryana state coordination committee to reconsider the resignation, Rahul told the leaders, “I have resigned after taking full responsibility and ensuring accountability for the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. I cannot ask others to resign too. It is up to them if they want to take responsibility.”

Congress president Rahul Gandhi who led the party to a disastrous defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections after a historic low of 44 in 2014 Lok Sabha polls has been hell-bent on resigning from the post even as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had rejected his resignation. Interestingly, the President of the Congress Working Committee is Rahul Gandhi himself.

Taking the farce a step ahead, after weeks of speculation regarding whether or not the Congress party will finally mend its ways and assign blame to the reluctant Dynasty who has managed to reduce the party to ashes, Randeep Surjewala had clarified to the media that Rahul Gandhi was, is and will remain the President of the Congress party.

Several other party bigwigs had jumped up in Rahul’s rescue. While, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, had come out in support of the party president saying that Rahul Gandhi is the best person to pull the Congress out of its predicament following the setback in the Lok Sabha polls. He furthered that his party is “alive and kicking” and it is too premature to write its obituary, Senior Congress leader, Verappa Moily, also, took to Twitter to support Rahul Gandhi’s post as Congress chief.

In a similar drill 5 years ago, after the 2014 poll drubbing, then party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi had reportedly offered to resign from the post but the CWC then had rejected their proposal

Amarnath Yatra: Security arrangements enhanced after alert over a possible Jaish attempt to target pilgrims

OpIndia Staff
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Amarnath Yatra: Security arrangements enhanced after alert over a possible Jaish attempt to target pilgrims

With just two days to go for the Amarnath Yatra to be flagged off from Jammu and Kashmir, sources in the intelligence agencies have confirmed that a specific alert has been issued by the multi-agency centre that terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) are planning to target the Baltal route of the pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to reports, Jaish terrorists might target security forces and the Amarnath Yatra convoy on the national highway going towards Baltal near Kangan area. There are specific inputs that terrorists are hiding in the mountain regions of Ganderbal and Kangan in Jammu and Kashmir.

The pilgrimage is slated to begin on July 1. Over one lakh pilgrims have registered for the 46-day-long annual Amarnath Yatra which will conclude on August 15. The first batch of the Amarnath Yatra pilgrims will be flagged off on June 30 from Jammu under the strict vigil of security forces with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) patrolling the area along the route. The Centre has deployed as many as 40,000 security personnel as part of its multi-tier security arrangement.

“There is a 268 km long National Highway in the districts through which Amarnath Yatra passes and it is the most sensitive area for us. Therefore, there is full deployment on the national highway,” said IGP MK Sinha.

The IGP further divulged that “The highways have been divided into zones and sectors where all zones have a gazetted officer deployed and all sectors have a non-gazetted officer. In Jammu specifically, gazetted officers have been deployed even in sectors.”

All vehicles will be tagged by radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags so that they can be tracked, Sinha explained. Moreover, all pilgrims travelling without cars will have bar coding on their registration forms. Drones are also being used by the security forces to keep strict vigil in the area.

Jammu Police will also be setting up check-posts where police, central police forces and Army personnel will be deployed as per requirement.

IGP Sinha also added that six sensitive points have been identified on the highway which will have teams from traffic police, local police, state disaster response force and health services if there is an incident of landslide or traffic congestion.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had recently visited the state for two days and had taken stock of the security arrangements for the Yatra.

Last year also, amidst warning that about 450 terrorists backed by terror outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba were planning to sabotage the Amarnath Yatras, the security had been tightened. Devotees embarking on the Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir had been provided with multi-layered high tech security by the government.

Safeguarding Amarnath pilgrims have been of utmost importance for the Central government considering the tragedy in July 2017, when seven Amarnath pilgrims including six women had been killed when terrorists had attacked a bus carrying 60 such devotees. In the past too, there have been multiple terrorist attacks in the Hindu pilgrims to the shrine.

Cricket World Cup match preview – South Africa v Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka needs a win to stay alive in the tournament

Ritesh
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Cricket World Cup match preview – South Africa v Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka needs a win to stay alive in the tournament

It was Sri Lanka which made the world cup enjoyable when they beat England in their last game. That win not only created an opportunity for them but also for Pakistan and Bangladesh for the semi-final spot. If Sri Lanka wins there all three remaining games, they will qualify for the semis, if not then they must win at least 2 games from here on.

For the first time in the World Cup history, South Africa will be playing for completing the formalities. But for the pride, they will go all guns blazing and would be hoping to win their remaining contests in the tournament.

South Africa has a real concern with their batting, Amla the most experienced player has not fired at all. The others have not done well too, de Kock may have scored runs, but at a languid pace, Faf had a good start but didn’t convert into big ones. When your top 3 doesn’t perform well, you are bound to fail as a team. The bowlers too didn’t have a good tournament, but with injuries and all they had an excuse for their below-par performance.

Sri Lanka has to play for everything. Their remaining games are against West Indies and India. As per the form and record, it would be difficult for them to beat India, so they better win against South Africa and West Indies. They have a decent bowling unit that can uproot the out of form South African batting line up. However, they need to bat well; the batting has disappointed them on so many occasion in the competition already. So they must click together and put up a decent score for their bowlers to defend.

Players to watch out for

The one player on which South Africa relied heavily to give them a flying start, de Kock, has scored runs at the top but with a low strike rate. He needs to up the tempo for which he is known for; scoring runs at 120 or above strike rate. A good start may give confidence to the middle order batsman and can make a good total.

Malinga will be again the main firepower for Sri Lanka. The way he won the match for Sri Lanka, against the host nation, will be remembered for years. He can still turn the game into the team’s favor with his deadly slow yorkers. If he performs today, Sri Lanka’s task to win the match will become quite easy.

South Africa v Sri Lanka in ODIs:

Overall: Matches 76, South Africa Won 43, Sri Lanka Won 31, Tied 1 No Result 1

World Cup: Matches 5, South Africa Won 3, Sri Lanka Won 1, Tied 1

Recent Form (most recent first): South Africa L L W NR L, Sri Lanka W L NR NR W

ICC Rankings: South Africa (5), Sri Lanka (8)

Upcoming Records:

Quinton de Kock has scored 4,840 runs and needs 160 more to reach the 5,000 runs milestone.

Squads:

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Beuran Hendricks, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen.

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay.

Jagan Mohan Reddy govt serves notice to Chandrababu Naidu asking him to vacate his residence

OpIndia Staff
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Jagan Mohan Reddy govt serves notice to Chandrababu Naidu asking him to vacate his residence

The Andhra Pradesh government led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy served a notice to the former CM, Chandrababu Naidu, asking him to vacate his residence in Amaravati. The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) officials had put up a notice outside his residence.


Chandrababu Naidu is a tenant of the Krishna Riverside residence, the property of which is owned by Lingamaneni Estates Pvt Ltd. The notice says that Naidu’s residence was built in violation of the river conservation rules. The residence is located within 100m of the Krishna river.

Reportedly, a total of 28 buildings including Naidu’s residence has been served a notice to clear the premises as they are built close to the river.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has termed the recent actions of the Jagan Reddy government as “vendetta politics”. Recently, the “Praja Vedika”, a conference hall built by Naidu next to his current residence has been demolished by the government for flouting environmental norms. The government had also removed Naidu’s  ‘Z’ category security and had been scaled down to ‘Y’ with 2+2 armed gunmen. The security of other Naidu family members has been withdrawn completely.

Mamata continues appeasement politics: WB Govt to provide mid-day meal dining hall for only those schools having 70% or more minority students

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata continues appeasement politics: WB Govt to provide mid-day meal dining hall for only those schools having 70% or more minority students

The Cooch Behar district magistrate office (minority section) under Mamata Government has on Tuesday, issued circular directing state-run schools to construct a dining room for mid-day meals in all government or government-aided schools with 70 per cent or more minority students.

To implement the order, West Bengal’s Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department (MAMED) has sought an urgent list of state-run schools that have more than 70 per cent, Muslim students.

“In reference to the no:1173-MD/15011/10/207: dt:14/06/19 received from the Special Secretary, MA and ME Department, Government of West Bengal, you are requested to send the names of the government / government-aided schools having minority students more than 70 per cent as per format is given below within June 28 positively. This is for sending a proposal to the aforesaid department for construction of dining hall for mid-day meal in schools,” the directive issued by the District Officer (Minority Affairs) in Cooch Behar states.

Circular issued by WB government seeking names of schools with more than 70% Muslim students

According to the circular, the district education officer and the district inspector of schools are required to compile a list, by June 28, providing data that mentions the percentage of Muslim students in various state-run institutions.

BJP state President Dilip Ghosh, however, slammed Mamata government for playing appeasement politics. Uploading a copy of the circular on his Twitter handle, Ghosh wrote, “The West Bengal Government has issued a circular whereby it has directed the school authorities where 70 per cent or more students are from the Muslim community to reserve a dining hall with seating arrangements for them. Why this discrimination between the students on the basis of religion? Is there some other malafide motive behind this segregation? Another conspiracy?”


Mamata Banerjee has been receiving a lot of flak for her appeasement politics. Right after the general elections results were announced, Mamata had defended her politics by saying that ‘if a cow gives one milk, one has to be prepared for its kicks also’. She had said, “I like Muslims, no? I will go there a hundred times. ‘Je goru dudh dei tar lathio khete hoi; (if a cow gives milk, one has to be prepared for its kicks also),” she said, meaning, she would continue Muslim appeasement if it continues to benefit her.

‘People were waiting for us to fail,’ says English cricketer Bairstow

OpIndia Staff
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‘People were waiting for us to fail,’ says English cricketer Bairstow

England opener Bairstow has lambasted the critics who have criticized the team after their defeat against Australia on Tuesday. He said that English fans wait for them to fail so that they can criticize them.

The World Cup hosts battling for semi-final qualification, after their back to back defeats against Sri Lanka and Australia in the tournament.

Bairstow was especially talking about the former England players Vaughan and Pietersen who openly slammed the team and captain on social media.

Talking to media Bairstow said, “I’ve not even seen it, to be quite honest. I was on the radio this morning; I was surprised with a clip of Vaughan’s comments at 8.30am. Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich.”

“It is just showbiz: they are paid to have an opinion, and if they don’t have an opinion they get sacked,” said Bairstow, of Pietersen and Vaughan.

Bairstow continued, “Because we’ve done so well, any opportunity for someone to see we’ve lost two games, they were always going to jump on it. People were waiting for us to fail. They are not willing us on to win, in many ways they are waiting for you to get that loss, so they can jump on your throat. It’s a typical English thing to do, in every sport.”

Former England batsman, Kevin Pietersen branded skipper Morgan scared in the hosts’ 64-run loss to Australia.


“Our method doesn’t change, because of the way we go about it and the way we play, it doesn’t make a difference what’s been said here, what’s been said there. This group has been together for near-on three years now, if not longer. So just because we’ve lost two games in a crunch tournament and people start talking, it’s not going to change the way we go about it, said Bairstow.

England who entered the World Cup as favourites needs to win at least one game either against India and New Zealand to qualify for the semis.

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