As the first session of the newly elected Parliament and the 17th Lok Sabha began from Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, a member of parliament from Wayanad constituency did not attend the parliament, raising questions over his respect for democratic values and traditions.
Rahul Gandhi, the President of the principal opposition party, was found missing during the morning session on the first day of the 17th Lok Sabha session. Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi had a meeting with senior party members in his residence, including his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi. It was reported that the Congress President may visit the parliament later in the day to take oath as the member of the parliament.
It was expected that Rahul Gandhi, being the leader of the largest opposition, would be attending the parliament in the afternoon session despite giving a miss to the most important morning session of the first day of the newly elected parliament. However, Rahul Gandhi is absent even in the afternoon session of the Lok Sabha.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi arrives at his residence in Delhi, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was holding a meeting with Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi. pic.twitter.com/WuUU0a6ExW
Reportedly, Rahul Gandhi has now returned back to India from his week-long vacation to London. After the humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi had flown to London to ward off any criticism post the Lok Sabha election defeat.
Rahul Gandhi’s absence from the lower house was widely criticised on social media. Even Congress friendly journalists and political commentators had questioned the move. Reacting to such criticism, Rahul Gandhi tweeted to inform that he will attend Parliament today afternoon and take oath as an MP from Kerala.
My 4th consecutive term as a Member of the #LokSabha begins today. Representing Wayanad, Kerala, I begin my new innings in Parliament by taking my oath this afternoon, affirming that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India ??
Earlier today, President Ram Nath Kovind administered the Oath of Office to Virendra Kumar as Pro-tem Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Virendra Kumar will oversee the oath-taking of newly elected Lok Sabha members on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, as soon as a new speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha is elected, his role will cease to exist.
Interestingly, Kodikunnil Suresh, a Congress MP from Kerala, was the second member of the house to take oath after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also surprised everyone by taking oath in Hindi. It is speculated that Suresh could be the leader of the Congress Party in Lok Sabha. He was followed by senior ministers of the government to take the oath, after which MPs started taking oath state wise.
The prime minister addressed the media before the inaugural session of the 17th Lok Sabha said, “We are working to fulfil people’s aspirations. New friends will join today and they will bring new energy. The role of an active Opposition is important. The opposition need not bother about their numbers. I hope they will speak actively and participate in house proceedings.”
Members of the 17th Lok Sabha took oath today in the Lower House of the Parliament. The elected representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party from West Bengal took their oaths amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram”.
Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Ministry of Women and Child Development, too, took her oath amidst rousing chants of “Jai Shri Ram” in the Lok Sabha.
Thank You People of Raiganj to give me an Opportunity to represent in Parliament. Slogan of “Jai Shri Ram” in the Temple of Democracy. pic.twitter.com/En4Du8GiR1
“Jai Shri Ram” has become a battle cry in West Bengal with Bengalis raising the slogan in protest against the oppressive policies of the Trinamool government in the state. The BJP was able to increase its tally to a whopping 18 from a mere 2 in the previous general elections.
Political violence against those who chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become increasingly frequent too in the state. As a consequence, Bengalis have started chanting the slogan in front of Mamata Banerjee as she passes by. She has displayed a tendency of becoming overly agitated with the slogans and even had the Police arrest those who raised the slogans.
While the Mamata government is currently busy fighting Doctors on the streets, the chants being raised in the Parliament while BJP leaders from Bengal are being perceived as a symbol of the state slipping away from TMC’s hold.
The Bengal Health Crisis is into its seventh day. After antagonizing the medical fraternity with her threats, Mamata Banerjee will finally be meeting with representatives of various medical institutions at 3.00 p.m. on Monday.
Under such circumstances, as normal services in hospitals across the country have been affected, numerous narratives are being peddled by people from expected quarters to shield the West Bengal Chief Minister and whitewash the events of Monday night. Past crimes that have been committed by members of the medical fraternity are being highlighted at the moment to tarnish the intentions of the current protests.
A lie that is being spread is that Emergency Services have been shut down in Hospitals. It’s completely untrue and Hospitals in even West Bengal have not shut down Emergency Services. Through the entire series of protests, they have been kept open contrary to the claims that are being made.
A caste angle is also being pushed. Some people on social media are questioning why there was no protest from the medical community when Payal Tadvi, a junior doctor, committed suicide allegedly after suffering casteist abuse from her seniors. Ostensibly, it appears to be a case of comparing apples and oranges. In the case of Tadvi, arrests were promptly made and the law would take its own course. The Police was quick to act as well.
In Kolkata, on Monday night, the Police stood by and watched as a Muslim mob arrived in Trucks at the NRS Medical College and Hospital and attacked the doctors and interns. Two interns suffered life-threatening injuries while numerous others were injured. Imagine a situation where the family of a patient who passed away due to natural causes owing to his old age triggered them enough to attack the medical fraternity and they could actually summon truckloads of people to attack a medical institution while the Police simply watched.
It’s a catastrophic failure of the state machinery and the medical fraternity has every right to feel angry. Since then, numerous other attacks have occurred in medical institutions across the state and more doctors and students have suffered injuries. Two rooms were actually set on fire at the Calcutta National Medical College. Since the events of Monday night, the state government has done absolutely nothing to assuage the concerns of the medical fraternity and the Chief Minister actually threatened them instead. Therefore, to even compare the situation with Payal Tadvi’s unfortunate death is quite absurd.
Attempts are also being made to portray the entire medical fraternity as casteist with some even insinuating that doctors discriminate against their patients on the basis of caste. Some call the strikes a ‘Sanghi Conspiracy’ while others have labelled it ‘Savarna-Brahmin Conspiracy’. It has also been branded a ‘coup attempt by Savarna Medical students’ to enforce a regime change in Bengal at the behest of the Central government’. ‘The doctor vanguards of savarna counter-revolution’ must be defeated, we are told, and Mamata Banerjee ought to “deploy the TMC affiliated labour unions to cut off food and water supplies to these reactionaries”.
And all of this for what? Because doctors want the state machinery to do its job of protecting them and punish the guilty, they seek accountability from the state government that has failed them. It again brings me to an argument I had made in an earlier article where I had asserted that our culture has been so corrupted by democratic politics that we cannot look beyond our petty political concerns even in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.
The concerns of the doctors are quite legitimate. How is it that truckloads of people could have the audacity to attack a medical institution and escape without any repercussions at all? What was the Police doing the entire time? Why is the state government so hesitant to address the concerns of the medical fraternity? Why did the Chief Minister threaten them into submission?
Was it vote-bank politics the reason why the Police were allegedly so hesitant to take action against the mob as they belonged to the Muslim community? What action has been taken against the perpetrators of the attacks? Why is it that since Monday night, a series of attacks have been carried out at medical institutions across the state? There are allegations that Trinamool leaders are themselves threatening the medical fraternity and are involved in the series of attacks, do these allegations hold any merit?
These are the questions everyone ought to be asking in one voice at this point. Instead, some people are comparing the brutal mob attack with the Payal Tadvi case, something that was entirely different, and others are calling it a Sanghi and a Savarna-Brahmin conspiracy. Lies are being spread that Emergency Services have been shut down. Why is it that the intellectual elite that constantly boasts about speaking truth to power choosing to attack the protesting doctors instead of the state government?
There is no doubt that patients are indeed suffering as a consequence of the strikes. However, the sole responsibility for it lies at the feet of the state government. It’s the government’s responsibility to provide safety and security to everyone. When they fail, and they clearly have failed here, questions will be raised. The situation could have been resolved instantly if the state government had chosen to act swiftly, punish the guilty and hold the incompetent Policemen accountable.
Instead, the Chief Minister chose the path of confrontation and intimidation. She actually derailed ongoing discussions for a speedy resolution. There should be no doubt about who the guilty party is here. But some people due to their personal politics are casting aspersions on the medical fraternity instead.
It is indeed one of the fundamental flaws of Democracy that the system itself provides incentives for chaos and unruly behaviour. It also causes people to play Politics with matters that shouldn’t be politicized. The events that have transpired in Kolkata since Monday night and the ever deteriorating state of law and order in West Bengal reflects the institution of Democracy in extremely poor light and captures its inefficiencies at its worst.
The Supreme court on Monday confirmed that it will hear the plea seeking safety and security of doctors in government hospitals across the country on June 18.
A vacation bench comprising of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant agreed to list the matter for Tuesday hearing after the counsel appearing for the petitioner, advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, sought an urgent hearing of the plea which was filed on Friday in the wake of protests by doctors in West Bengal.
West Bengal has turned into a hornet’s nest after doctors from various state-run medical colleges and hospitals resigned en masse following the apathy shown by the state authorities towards the assaulted and agitating doctors of West Bengal.
Initially, the West Bengal doctors crisis began as a small protest by a group of junior doctors at the state-run SSKM Hospital after doctors and interns at the NRS Hospital were brutally attacked by a mob on the premises of the hospital because a patient named Mohammed Sayeed reportedly died of natural causes.
However, due to the state government’s insensitivity towards the assaulted doctors, the protest gradually took a nationwide dimension with doctors from all across the country pouring in with their support and raising voices of dissent against the West Bengal government.
The CM aggravated the situation by threatening the doctors and by asserting that the doctors protesting are ‘outsiders’. Following which there were mass resignations from doctors across the state. Adding insult to the injury CM Mamata Banerjee had also accused protesting doctors of hurling abuses at her.
Both the West Bengal governor and the Calcutta High court had intervened asking the CM to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Moreover, the petition filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava also sought directions to Union ministries of home affairs and health and West Bengal to depute government-appointed security personnel at all state-run hospitals across the country to ensure safety and security of doctors.
Due to the protests, the healthcare services in the country have been badly disrupted and many people are dying because of the absence of doctors, the plea states.
In his PIL, Srivastava contended as per a study conducted by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), more than 75% of doctors across the country have faced at least some form of violence. This study concluded that 50 per cent of violent incidents took place in the Intensive Care Unit of hospitals, and in 70% of cases, the relatives of the patients were actively involved.
“The doctors are our saviours and particularly those working in government hospitals are doing great national service, especially to the poor and downtrodden of this country, in extremely adverse circumstances,” the petition stated.
Seeking stern proceedings in Kolkata incident, the petitioner pointed out that grave injury was being caused to the public at large due to “legislative vacuum and inaction” on the part of the government in such cases.
A crucial match between the two teams as a win here will keep the hopes alive for the semi-final spot. Both the sides have 3 points each after playing four games in the tournament.
Bangladesh must be pretty disappointed as their last game was washed out against Sri Lanka, one of the weakest team of the tournament. But since the weather is not in their hands, they must perform on the field and win the match.
Bangladesh certainly looks to be a better team than West Indies, as they have better batsmen (if not the hardest hitters of a cricketing ball), an excellent combination of pace and spin attack. They beat West Indies in similar conditions last month in tri-series in Ireland.
West Indian players need to apply their minds before going full monty against the bowlers. They have lost too many wickets in the middle overs in search of boundaries. They can’t have a better chance to uplift their game. Bangladesh is a good team, but the West Indies can beat them if they don’t play for the gallery and think from a team’s perspective.
Players to watch out
Shakib Al Hasan, the inform batsman, and bowler too. He has scored 260 runs already in the tournament and Bangladesh would be expecting him to perform once again for the team in a do or die situation.
Andre Russell, who had an outstanding IPL but an average World Cup so far. He had thrown his wicket when the team was cruising for a victory against Australia. He must play sensible cricket and wait for the right time for the onslaught against the opposition, and if he does, Bangladesh will be in big trouble.
The weather at Taunton is expected to be sunny and windy.
Bangladesh v West Indies in ODIs:
Overall: Matches 37, Bangladesh Won 14, West Indies 21 No Result 2
World Cup: Matches 4, Bangladesh won 0, West Indies won 3, No Result 1
Recent Form (most recent first): Bangladesh NR L L W W, West Indies L NR L W L
ICC Rankings: Bangladesh (8), West Indies (7)
Upcoming Records:
Mahmudullah has scored 491 runs in World Cup and needs nine more to reach the 500 runs milestone in the World Cup.
Shakib has taken 26 wickets in World Cup and needs four more to become the 1st Bangladeshi bowler to reach the 30 wickets milestone in the World Cup
Squads:
Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Abu Jayed, Liton Das (wk), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Mithun (wk), Mohammad Saifuddin, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal.
West Indies – Jason Holder (capt), Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Shannon Gabriel, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, many a giants and dynasts were slain. The one battle that stood out was that of Amethi, the constituency that has been the bastion of the Gandhi dynasty. Smriti Irani fought a valiant fight and defeated the reigning MP from Amethi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi. On the first day of the Parliament session today, Smriti Irani was greeted with a long spell of applause when she walked up to take oath as an MP.
BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, Smriti Zubin Irani takes oath as member of the 17th Lok Sabha. pic.twitter.com/144NEa2qz7
As can be seen, while Smriti Irani walked up to take the oath, the lower house erupted in applause for the MP of Amethi.
This would be Smriti Irani’s debut in the Lower House. While she was nominated as the MP in Rajya Sabha, this is the first time that the BJP leader has won an election.
In 2019, she defeated Rahul Gandhi from Amethi which is notably a key Congress bastion, by 55120 votes. In Modi Cabinet 2.0, she has been appointed as the Union Minister of Women and Child Development. Previously, she was elected as a member of Rajya Sabha in 2011 and was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2017.
Besides Smriti Irani, Prime Minister Modi too was greeted with thundering applause as he took oath as a Member of Parliament.
The outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the country has become severe as twenty more children succumbed to the fever in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll in Muzaffarpur and other districts of Bihar close to 100.
This syndrome is locally called the ‘chamki’ fever. Encephalitis, a rare disease, is an inflammation (swelling and irritation) of the brain. In most cases, a virus causes this inflammation. Most cases happen in children, the elderly, and people with a weakened immune system. It causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, convulsions and headaches.
Last week, Bihar Health Minister, Mangal Pandey said that according to the team which was formed to ascertain the cause of this disease concluded that sleeping empty stomach at night, dehydration due to humidity and eating lychee on empty stomach were some of the primary causes of AES.
According to the Superintendent of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) Sunil Kumar Shahi, “death toll due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Muzaffarpur has risen to 100”. Most of the casualties are between the age group of 1-10.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan visited the SKMCH in Muzaffarpur on Sunday where the maximum number of children have died in the last two weeks due to the Syndrome.
Sources confirmed that almost three children died during Vardhan’s four-hour visit, leaving the minister and other official terrified.
“The doctors here at the hospital are doing their best under such a difficult situation in treating the children. A multi-disciplinary institute will be set up here in the next year to identify the reason behind this disease,” Harsh Vardhan said.
The Union Minister, in another review meeting, which took place before he left for New Delhi, assured the relatives of the affected children that, “The government will leave no stone unturned to contain it at the earliest. All possible measures are being taken for the purpose,” he said.
इंसेफेलाइटिस से उत्पन्न स्थिति का जायजा लेने के लिए आज बिहार के मुजफ्फरपुर स्थित SKMCH का दौरा कर मरीजों व उनके परिजनों से मुलाकात की। @MoHFW_INDIA पूरी तत्परता से राज्य के लोगों के साथ खड़ा है व इस घातक बीमारी से निपटने के लिए हम हर संभव प्रयास कर रहे हैं @PMOIndia@NitishKumarpic.twitter.com/HqfxNsyjGV
According to the official data, while 83 children had died at the SKMCH, 17 deaths had been recorded at the Kejriwal Matrisadan since January this year. Currently, 290 patients were being treated at the two hospitals. In 2014, a similar AES outbreak had claimed 379 lives.
In the wake of this epidemic, the Cheif Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar had earlier announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to families of the deceased.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announces an ex-gratia of Rs 4 Lakh each to families of the children who died due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Muzaffarpur. He has also given directions to health dept, dist admn & doctors to take necessary measures to fight the disease.(file pic) pic.twitter.com/u3k6HyjNBK
Recently, OpIndia.com got a legal notice from abusive media troll Swati Chaturvedi. Reproduced below is our response to the legal notice in full. At the outset, we would like to reiterate that such intimidatory tactics won’t work with OpIndia. We reject the charges made by Swati Chaturvedi and will fight the case in court if push comes to shove.
We are in receipt of the ‘defamation notice’ served on M/s Aadhyaasi Media & Content Services Private Limited, OpIndia.com, Editor Nupur Jhunjhunwala Sharma and others on behalf of your client Ms Swati Chaturvedi.
In the legal notice, you mention that your client is a ‘journalist of high repute, standing and eminence’. In support of this claim, you have mentioned names of various publications where Swati Chaturvedi has worked in the last 20 years. You have also highlighted the fact that she has not faced any charges throughout her career as an ‘investigative journalist. You also cite the instance of her winning an award in 2018.
Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi
While we are not contesting that her career could be over two decades long – which is quite an achievement for her – but we want to humbly submit that mere instance of winning an award does not make someone of high repute, standing, and eminence. We rely on the thinking of Ms Chaturvedi herself to make this submission. We want to bring to your notice that Ms Chaturvedi has on many occasions, especially on social media, mocked awards like Philip Kotler award to Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Padma Bhushan award to renowned actor Anupam Kher, National Film Award to renowned actress Raveena Tandon, and even awards to fellow journalists, thus signalling that just winning an award is no proof of repute, standing and eminence.
Furthermore, we are assuming that by mentioning that “she has not faced any charges”, you mean that there are no legal cases pending against Ms Chaturvedi in any court of law. However, this is not true. She has been slapped with a defamation case for accusing a man of “being arrested for sexual harassment” when he never was.
If we leave aside legal cases, Ms Chaturvedi actually faces many charges – in general parlance and not in legal terms – of using foul language, of bad journalism, and of bad practices – some of which are mentioned hereafter in the course of replying to your legal notice.
In your notice, you have alluded to a specific article called “Swati Chaturvedi may be delusional: Sources”. You have accused OpIndia.com, saying that we “falsely stated that Swati Chaturvedi works with the Leftist propaganda website, The Wire, with an intention to defame our client”.
Since Swati Chaturvedi has on several occasions written for The Wire, we do not think the assertion that she works with The Wire is a defamatory statement. In fact, your notice itself puts the name of The Wire among the list of publications she has “worked with”.
Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi
However, if Swati Chaturvedi thinks that being associated with The Wire defames her irreparably, we sympathise and apologise for the same.
You have further stated in your legal notice that our article, alleging that she gets accused of plagiarism or gets called out for blatant lies and fabrication is incorrect, and that we had no basis to put that information, and that our intent was to defame your client in the eyes of her peers. You had also mentioned that according to us, your client runs an extortion racket and that is untrue as well.
We would like to contest each of your points separately.
1) Plagiarism
Stanley Pignal a journalist with The Economist, had accused Swati Chaturvedi of plagiarising excerpts of his tweets. Pignal put out a tweet to provide proof for his accusations. You can read the details here. Interestingly, Swati had allegedly plagiarised content in an article that spoke of journalistic integrity. We have merely reported the charges levelled by Stanley Pignal and we did not sit in any judgment. Further, this proves that there was a basis when we wrote that Swati Chaturvedi had been accused of plagiarism.
She has spread lies about a simple speech by Amit Shah, the BJP Party President. She has given credence to fake news, from a dubious website. She earlier spread false claims that Kanhaiyya Kumar attacker was a BJP office-bearer.
Therefore, it indeed is true that she gets accused of blatant lies and fabrication often, however, we are willing to concede that most of the charges against her are not of legal nature because the affected parties never deemed the case or her important enough to send her legal notices.
3) Extortion Racket
The extortion charge was made by a website named PGurus, not by OpIndia. The PGurus article was published in April 2018 and our original report covering this charge was published around the same time. This is not a charge levelled by OpIndia, and we want to reiterate that we have just reported charges made by another portal.
You can read our report here, that cites PGurus. The original PGurus report can be read here (this hasn’t been retracted yet). In fact, several other people including Director Vivek Agnihotri had tweeted the PGurus article and pointed out that Swati Chaturvedi’s name appeared in the list. However, no legal action was taken against any of the parties involved. We will update our article when the original source, namely PGurus, updates theirs.
4) Defame Swati in the eyes of her peers
Some of Swati Chaturvedi’s peers have claimed to us in private that she was fired from Hindustan Times for faking an interview of former Defence Minister George Fernandes. If our intention was to damage her reputation among her peers, we’d have always included this claim while mentioning her in our reports, crediting this claim to “sources” as your client often does in her reportage.
However, we have not done that, because we are not on any mission to damage her reputation. Further, this also suggests that her reputation among her peers was not so great, to begin with, and OpIndia can’t be deemed responsible for any perceived loss of that by your client.
Your notice further refers to one of our articles “The Wire and its ‘star journalist’ peddles another absurd lie about RSS and it’s not the first time” and claims that it was published with definite intentions to defame our client.
Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi
We would like to assert, unequivocally that OpIndia.com stands by this article, and the intention was to critique the article and not defame the author.
In the aforesaid article, your client had written:
“The RSS has been told by Modi and Shah that when the BJP comes back, the constitution will be tweaked to reflect India’s new majoritarian ethos and the secularism which they all hate will be excised.”
Your client provides no proof to back her allegations other than rhetoric and of course, her famed “sources”. Our article is actually far less defamatory if at all one can argue it to be, than the original article by your client, which accuses a very prominent social organisation of working on some grand conspiracy. Our claim that it was lie can be gauged from the fact that one of the first decisions of the new Modi government was about minority welfare, in complete contrast with any majoritarian ethos.
When our article said that “It is not the first time”, that aspect is also true and we stand by it. In 2018, your client had written that with RSS’ second in command Suresh Joshi’s term coming to end in March, he was likely to be replaced by Dattatreya Hosabale who is supposed to be close to PM Modi.
In the resultant analysis, your client claimed that the implications of this change would be “huge” for RSS and the BJP. One such claim made was that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Suresh Joshi share the view that RSS cannot play second fiddle to the BJP, but if Hosabale became the second in command then the balance of power will skew towards PM Modi. The author even alleged that Hosabale has risen meteorically through the ranks after Modi became PM.
As we know, in 2018, Suresh Joshi was re-elected as RSS’ General Secretary or “Sarkaryavah” by the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, which is the organisation’s highest decision-making body.
In your notice, you mention that even in this article of ours, we have reiterated the charges of plagiarism. We reiterate that the charges of plagiarism were levied by another journalist and we only reported that.
Further, you mention that after reading the articles published by OpIndia.com, Swati Chaturvedi was pained to learn that her peers doubted her bonafide and that she has lost readership because of our articles. We would like to thank Swati Chaturvedi yet again for confirming that her peers read and trust OpIndia.com.
Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi
In so far as the amount of Rs. 50,00,000 demanded by your client in way of ‘damages’ for ‘mental agony’ and ‘loss of reputation’ unless we delete our articles, we would like to categorically state that since the allegations against us are not valid, we don’t consider it relevant that any money should be paid to your client.
Part of legal notice sent by Swati Chaturvedi
We are given to believe that Ms Swati Chaturvedi believes in freedom of express, freedom of the press and does not believe that articles written by journalists in criticism can cost anyone their reputation.
Recently, Ms Chaturvedi had slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for arresting a former journalist for making derogatory comments against the UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
We would like to reiterate the famous quote she plugged that read: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.
We surely are guilty of telling your client Swati Chaturvedi and many other journalists things that they do not want to hear. As demonstrated by your client herself, this is liberty and not defamation.
In the end, we’d like to reiterate that we are not running any personal agenda against Swati Chaturvedi, but the same can’t be said with surely about Swati. She has been relentlessly commenting about OpIndia and people connected with OpIndia in a disparaging and abusive way on social media and in her book. We’ve got a list of over a 100 (and counting) links of her social media posts and book that we could produce in a court of law in support of our claims.
In all our articles on OpIndia that feature her, we have only highlighted her hypocrisy (of using abusive language while terming others ‘trolls’) and various issues with her reportage (her reports often turning out to be untrue) and conduct in the virtual world, which are based on publicly available material.
While encouraging all parties to attend the June 19 meeting, PM Modi has stated, “Even parties without a president should attend.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be chairing a meeting of presidents of all parties represented in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha on June 19 to discuss the issue of ‘one nation, one election’.
While PM Modi’s words were viewed by some as a dig at the Congress after Rahul Gandhi’s decision to quit as AICC chief, others felt it was to clarify that outfits like CPI and CPM, which do not have the president post, were also invited.
The fate of the Congress party is still in a state of flux. Uncertainty still looms around the post of its party President. Nearly three and half weeks after the declaration of Lok Sabha results, there is no clarity over whether Rahul Gandhi will continue as Congress President or not. While the CWC has refused Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, Gandhi scion is sticking to his stance and wants the party to choose a new chief.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Parliament session, Congress has maintained that Rahul will continue as the party president. Last week, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said, “He was, is and will remain as the President of the Indian National Congress.”
These remarks were made after the party met, under the leadership of AK Antony to discuss the party’s strategy and preparation for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
Reiterating the same, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi later said, “I will not say anything more than what my party said earlier. Take this as my repetition, adoption, endorsement and reaffirmation of Shri Surjewala’s statement made on Wednesday.”
Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi, who wanted to resign as the party president earlier and had tendered his resignation to the Congress Committee, of which, he is the Chairperson too, was not present at this strategy meeting and neither was his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
For weeks after the Congress failed to stop PM Narendra Modi’s electoral march, Rahul Gandhi had played out an elaborate drama where he had pretended to want to take responsibility for the poll loss. He had tendered his resignation which was rejected. He had then reportedly said that he was steadfast in his decision to resign. However, now it is apparent that the Congress party doesn’t seem to mind sacrificing its electoral relevance as long as a member of the Gandhi Dynasty is spearheading the sinking ship.
In the post-match press conference, Sarfaraz Ahmed looked dull and disappointed but confident of making into the World Cup semis.
Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, was relaxed and his cheeky reply to the Pakistani reporter made everyone laugh.
In the 90s, other than the World Cup, Pakistan won most of the contest against India. The fortunes have now turned in India’s favour. “In the ’90s Pakistan had the upper hand, but definitely at the moment India is a better team than Pakistan that’s why India wins more matches,” said Sarfaraz
On asking if he had also wanted to bat first after seeing the result, Sarfaraz backed his decision of bowling first in overcast condition.
“I think we won a good toss. I think we didn’t capitalize on that; when we saw the pitch, there was a little bit of moisture on the pitch, we (wanted to use) the conditions. I think we didn’t hit the right areas,” said Sarfaraz.
Sarfaraz refused to blame the seniors for the loss against India, “I don’t think you can talk about only the senior players, I think you have to talk about the whole team. I think the whole team is not performing well in all three departments, not fielding, not bowling, and not batting.”
From the Indian side, Rohit Sharma attended the press conference.
Rohit’s cheeky reply upon asking what will he suggest to Pakistani batsman to come out from the present crisis, prompted the whole room to burst into laughter.
“Agar main Pakistan ka coach bana to main bataunga, abhi kya bataunga! (If I become the coach of Pakistan then surely I will tell you. What can I say now!),” he said to everyone’s amusement.
Rohit is the most successful IPL captain; he has won 4 IPL titles, including the one he won in May this year. Rohit gave credit to his newly born daughter for the recent success.
“It’s just the space I’m in right now; having a newly born daughter in my life has put me in a really good space. I am enjoying my cricket coming off from a great IPL campaign. Here we were focussed on starting well, and I think as a team, we are heading in the right direction,” said Rohit.
