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BIMSTEC leaders invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Read more about them here

OpIndia Staff
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BIMSTEC leaders invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Read more about them here

The swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to be attended by the BIMSTEC (The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) leaders on May 30.

The government of India had sent invitations to the BIMSTEC leaders along with the Presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Mauritius. The BIMSTEC is a regional organisation comprising of seven member countries namely India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The organisation which came into existence on June 6, 1997, under Bangkok Declaration, was originally named as BIST-EC and was renamed as BIMST-EC after inclusion of Myanmar in December 1997. This was followed by Nepal becoming an observer in 1988 and later in 2004 Nepal along with Bhutan became a full member of the organisation.

Here is a look at the leaders of the BIMSTEC countries who have bee invited for the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed –

Sheikh Hasina Wazed is the longest serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh holding the office of Prime Minister since 2009. Her political party is the Bangladesh Awami League. Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was the first President of Bangladesh. She was ranked 26th among the most powerful women in the world in the Forbes’ List of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 2018. She was provided asylum by India when she moved to Delhi from West Germany after her father was assassinated in Bangladesh in 1975. However, she will not be attending the swearing-in ceremony due to her three-nation foreign visit. She was not able to attend the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi after 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Liberation War Affairs Minister of Bangladesh AKM Muzammel Huq will be attending the swearing-in ceremony.

Lotay Tshering –

Lotay Tshering, the third democratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan, is a member of the Druk NyamrupTshogpa party. He has been holding the office of Prime Minister in November 2018. Born into a humble family, Tshering was the only trained Urologist in his country when he returned to his country after completing his degree in Urology from Medical College of Wisconsin, USA. He had joined politics in 2013 after resigning as Urologist from the National Referal Hospital in Bhutan.

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli –

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is the current Prime Minister of Nepal and also the Chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). He is the 38th Prime Minister of Nepal. He assumed his office in February 2018. Oli has previously served as the Prime Minister of Nepal between October 2015 and August 2016.

Ranil Wickremesinghe – 

Ranil Wickremesinghe is the serving Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the leader of United National Party. He has previously held the office of Prime Minister from 1993 to 1994 and 2001 to 2004. Wickremesinghe completed his law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Columbia and took oath as an advocate in 1972. He was appointed as the Prime Minister by the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena after the 2015 election.

Prayut Chan-o-cha –

Prayut Chan-o-cha is the Prime Minister of Thailand and the head of National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO). He assumed the office of Prime Minister in August 2014. He contested for the post of Prime Minister in 2019 Thai elections. He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Army between October 2010 and October 2014. In 2014, Prayut staged a military coup against the government and took over the control of the country as the leader of the NCPO.

Aung San Suu Kyi –

Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the office of State Counsellor of Myanmar, a position similar to Prime Minister, in 2016 and currently holds the post. She is a politician, diplomat, and author. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She did her graduation from the University of Delhi in 1964 and also worked at the United Nations for three years. She was put under house arrest in 1989 after the military refused to hand over the power despite her party National League for Democracy winning 81% of the seats in the election. She remained under house arrest till 2010.

Media baron Raghav Bahl allegedly under ED scanner for undeclared foreign assets, Bahl denies the reports

OpIndia Staff
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Media baron Raghav Bahl allegedly under ED scanner for undeclared foreign assets, Bahl denies the reports

Picking up on the complaint filed by the Income Tax department against the media behemoth Raghav Bahl under Section 50 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act 2015, the Enforcement Directorate has initiated action against him, according to a report by BTVi.


According to the Income Tax department, Raghav Bahl has not disclosed foreign assets, a property bought in London, UK for 31 million pounds. The Enforcement Directorate has sought details from the Income Tax Department regarding the offence allegedly committed by Bahl.

However, in a press release, Raghav Bahl has denied allegations levelled against him. He has asserted that every transaction has been fully disclosed and assessed to tax. He has also claimed that the value of the property is less than 15% of the number given in the email sent by BTVi. The Quint founder further adds that the property has been fully financed through legitimate LRS payments via banking channels, along with permitted mortgage funds overseas.

Bahl says that all the money invested in the property are from income on which taxes have been duly paid and consistently disclosed in the Foreign Asset Schedule of the Income Tax Returns of Raghav Bahl and his wife and children. Bahl was served a Show-Cause notice on May 1, 2019, seeking information about a certain property outside India and the source of funds for an investment made in that property. Bahl claims that Show-Cause was responded with relevant documents on May 2, 2019.

Indian voters are the real opposition: The hidden messages in the humongous mandate of 2019

vigoe
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Indian voters are the real opposition: The hidden messages in the humongous mandate of 2019

Indian citizens have given their mandate and have given it unequivocally. As it turned out, the 2019 elections were not about who will lead India but who would lead the opposition. The mandate was against the opposition, not the ruling dispensation. All those leaders were decimated who had made anti-Modism as the only plank of their politics, be it Arvind Kejriwal, Mayawati, Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, and the head of this family Rahul Gandhi and his sister.

Only a few leaders survived this Tsunamo, they were those who opposed Modi but did not hate Modi like Naveen Patnaik, Stalin, KCR, Jagan Reddy, Omar Abdullah and Captain Amarinder Singh.

This was not a normal election (I don’t know how many times these words have been or will be used for describing elections in India since the arrival of Narendra Modi). This election would go down as a watershed moment, a tectonic shift in Indian politics. Let’s look at some of the aspects to back this assessment.

The End of Left

Left has been a big stakeholder in Indian politics since Independence. ‘Nehruvian Socialism’, which the country followed till 1991, can be defined as ‘violence-less and practical Marxism’. The left ideology was widely accepted and many of the leaders used to come from their ideological backgrounds, be it in any party. Even till 15 years back, the left parties themselves used to have 60 Loksabha seats. Today they stand at 1. Most of their candidates not only failed to win but lost their deposits.

They were out of power in Bengal but now they stand wiped out. In Tripura, where they ruled for 25 years till 2018, they were relegated to a distant third even behind the decimated Congress party in terms of vote share. The last citadel of Left, Kerala gave them a solitary seat. But the story does not end here for them.

In less than 2 years, there are state elections in Kerala, maybe even early. The anger against the state government is palpable. UDF government is set to come back. And Kerala, also being the last state for Congress with mass acceptability, there is every possible chance that BJP emerges as the new political force in Kerala replacing LDF especially given the growing vote share and popularity of their state leaders. If that happens, it would be the political death of left ideology in India.

The rout of Congress

The rout of Congress shows that the 3 state election results were not due to the party but in spite of it. Congress has been reduced to the binary numbers of 0 or 1 in all the states barring Kerala, TN, Punjab, Telangana, Bengal, Assam and Chattisgarh.

Congress won majorly in 3 out of these 7 states – Punjab, Kerala and TN. In Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh runs his local leadership as a private party in stark contrast with Congress party’s politics in the rest of the country. It is not a win for Congress but for Captain Amrinder Singh. Congress piggybacked on DMK to win 8 seats in TN which add to their tally but does not impact their future in politics. In Telangana also, it seems the BJP would emerge as the real opposition to TRS rather than a weakened Congress.

So, effectively the only number which Rahul Gandhi vis-a-vis Congress Party can claim for themselves is 15, which is the number of seats they got in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi himself lost Amethi seat to Smriti Irani. So, 52 might seem like a jump from 44 under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, the fact remains that Rahul Gandhi and his party have been relegated to a status of a single state party, thus making it a bigger loss than in 2014.

Not reading too much into it, if I can add mischievously, the irony is Congress has been confined to the state from where the Islam came into India and houses the first mosque built in India. This might be the bigger justice for their false narrative of ‘Hindu Terror’ rather than Sadhvi Pragya’s win against Digvijay Singh, which they propped up to appease a certain section of Muslim groups.

Performance and Nation above Caste

With the defeat of SP-BSP alliance and complete decimation of RJD-Congress alliance, which both the groups tried to project as Mahagathbandhan or social engineering, there is ample evidence to conclude that this is the end of the era of ‘Indians don’t cast their vote but vote their caste’.

Caste no longer plays a dominant role in politics. This is perhaps the most positive message from this election results. The message is loud and clear from the Indian voters, performance matters and nation comes first. The shackles of the caste system might take a few more decades to be broken completely but this is a huge stride in that direction.

This is where the choice of Yogi Adityanath as CM of UP shows the political vision of the BJP leadership. He is a pan Hindu leader, thus making his caste irrelevant. He is also an able administrator with a clean image as evident by his tenure as the head of the humongous Gorakpur Math and its associated organizations. The social engineering of SP-BSP failed because of the delivery of the government schemes by both the state and the center, and the lack of a caste figure which they could have attacked, like in case of KP Maurya or Dinesh Sharma, by terming them as upper caste leaders and making their alliance a symbol of lower castes against upper castes.

A mature Democracy

The results also show that India is becoming more and more mature as a democracy. Parties would like to believe that Indian citizens don’t understand politics and details of complex political issues but the truth is farther from that. If the 1977 election showed that Indians would not accept any other form of governance other than democracy, this election showed that they have the capability to scrutinize, understand and see through all the minute details of political issues and propaganda.

The opposition led a completely negative campaign which was devoid of any issues and was based on only Modi bashing and Modi abuse. Their conduct in the last 5 years was unbecoming of a constructive opposition which is very much a pillar in any democracy. They lied on every other issue, demeaned the constitutional institutions, used their clout to the hilt and tried to divide the society into Hindu-Muslim or Modi-anti Modi.

Maybe they believed too little in the intelligence levels of the common voter for which they were given a tight slap by the Indian citizens.

End of dynasty politics

Indian politics was reduced to the hegemony of a few families from all over India under the over-arching monarchy of the Nehru-Gandhi family. This election decimated the politics of entitlement once and for all.

Rahul Gandhi lost from Amethi, Jyotirao Scindhia lost from Guna, Vaibhav Gehlot lost from Jodhpur, K Kavitha lost from Nizamabad, Deve Gowda lost from Tumkaru, Nikhil Gowda lost from Mandya, Chautalas lost in Haryana and Yadavs lost in UP and Bihar. Only those dynasts were able to survive who had performance backing them up whether it is Supriya Sule, or Gaurav Gogoi or a few others.

Indian politics will no longer be about entitlement but about performance.

North-South conundrum

BJP swept almost all the areas except South India. Though it swept Karnataka and won a few seats surprisingly in Telangana, it got zero seats in the other 3 big states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This is one nut that BJP is finding tough to crack.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala, over the course of years, became more and more detached from the national politics due to them rejecting Congress very early into Independence era. Kerala gave its first non-Congress government in as early as 1957 (first state to do so) with Tamil Nadu following suit in 1967. Since then, the politics of these two states have always been more dominated by local issues rather than national issues even in General elections.

The general level of good governance and regional pride by the local parties have made it difficult for the national parties to make inroads in these states. However, that has made them irrelevant in national politics despite having almost 60 seats between them. Tamil Nadu has 39 seats, third highest from any state, which can play a huge role in national government formation but till now they have chosen to go against the national tide. This trend has only enhanced with the demonization of Narendra Modi in these parts of the country.

With East being conquered, BJP has set their eyes on South now. They will push much harder and it will be interesting to see what their strategy will be to gain a foothold in these states to become truly a pan-India party.

Rejection of autocracy

The opposition tried to demonize Narendra Modi as some sort of an autocratic ruler bordering on the brutality levels of the Hitler. However, the true face of fascism and autocracy was unmasked in Bengal. The level of political killings, violence, intimidation, death threats, murder attempts – that were seen in Bengal was in complete contrast with the rest of the country.

State institutions have been completely hijacked by Mamata Banerjee. Even constitutional bodies are not allowed to enter the state without her permission. The blatant misuse of police, state election commission and other state government machinery was evident in not just this election but also in the Panchayat elections a few months back.

Freedom of expression, Democratic rights, freedom, in general, were all held hostage by an egoist leader who thought herself as bigger than the people’s will. Despite her every attempt, people dealt her a big blow by reducing her from 34 to 22, and by giving BJP 18 seats in the state. Her defeat in the upcoming state elections is looking imminent. People of India irrespective of the region seem to detest an autocratic ruler and have the sense to judge when the boundaries have been crossed.

The Muslim vote bank

Muslims, by many accounts, voted almost 2-3 times more for BJP in 2019 than in 2014. However, still, more than 80% of Muslim voters voted against BJP. Though BJP has been able to send Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Tribals, and others to the parliament, Muslim MPs are still elusive on a BJP ticket.

This election, a lot of Muslims admitted openly that the policies and schemes of the government have reached to them and there is no apparent bias by any of the BJP government, in centre or states; but they still refused to cast their vote in BJP’s favour. Without able to give any substantial argument, they resorted to the rhetoric of the anti-Muslim party while explaining their position.

There is no denying the fact that the Muslim community has been reduced to a mere vote bank by the ‘Secular’ parties. Congress and its partners forced the Muslim community to vote as a block in their favour by hyping up the imaginary fear of BJP and India becoming a Hindu majority political state. They often used the example of Pakistan to incite fear among Muslims. This narrative was at its peak in these last 5 years.

Despite all this hate and propaganda, BJP managed to win over almost twice as many Muslims as it did in 2014. That’s an achievement but not satisfactory enough for a dynamic leader like Narendra Modi. He has already spelt out that this situation needs to change and if we know anything about him, he achieves what he sets out to more often than not.

With the end of ‘Secular’ politics and the ideological debate settled at least for now, the Muslim community need to break the chokehold that vested Muslim intelligentsia voices have put on their collective thought process. With more empowerment and political will, perhaps this stronghold will be weakened faster and BJP will gain acceptability among the Muslims in the years to come to become an all-inclusive party.

Reality check for alliance managers

There have been many attempts by various tall leaders from different states to stitch together an alliance to become a major leader at the national level completely devoid of any ideological base. India has already seen the drama play out for almost 25 long years by these vested interests and its consequences. They do not want to return to the same era and this has been very clear from some of the surprising results that came out.

Chandrababu Naidu, KCR, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Sharad Pawar had tried to cobble together a similar alliance at various points of time in the last 5 years. Akhilesh Yadav was reduced to 5, Sharad Pawar was reduced to 4, Chandrababu Naidu to 3 and KCR; who seemed to be most active, often at the cost of ignoring his own state and taking the voters for granted; was given a big blow by the very same people who gave him a thumping majority just a few months back. Even her own daughter was defeated. He was reduced to just 9 seats.

Mamata Banerjee, who was harping the dreams of becoming prime minister despite doing little in her own state, despite all the violence and harassment, was reduced to just half of the total seats in the state.

This is a clear message from the voters of India that they do not wish to see politicians betraying their mandate and try to use them to fulfil their political ambitions. KCR must be really worried now because the Telangana which was looking opposition less till a few weeks back, is now beaming with different ideologies and political parties.

Many familiar faces are crying about the lack of opposition at the national level after these results but I think the people of India are the real opposition for any political party, no matter how powerful it might be. It has reduced Congress to a single state which used to rule all over India at one point of time. Indian people know very well when it needs to give a reality check and to whom. I hope all the political parties are listening!

As part of AEOI agreement with India under Modi, Switzerland-based banks notifies 11 Indians to share bank account details

OpIndia Staff
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As part of AEOI agreement with India under Modi, Switzerland-based banks notifies 11 Indians to share bank account details

In a significant move to share financial information with India, the Swiss authorities have shot notices to 11 Indians holding Swiss bank accounts. The notice sent by Swiss authorities to Indian clients of Switzerland-based banks last week notifies that they have been given one last chance to appeal against sharing of their details with India. Since March, 25 individuals have been sent such notices.

In these notices, the individuals or their authorised representatives have been asked to file their appeals, if any, within 30 days. They have to submit necessary documentary proof to support their case against providing ‘administrative assistance’ to India, which broadly means sharing of their banking and other financial details.

After assuming office in 2014, the Modi government had taken various steps to curb black money. As a part of this initiative, Switzerland had in 2017, ratified automatic exchange of financial account information with India which would facilitate immediate sharing of details about suspected black money. Adopting the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) – a global convention on tax matters – the Swiss Federal Council had said that the implementation was planned for 2018 and the first set of data would be exchanged in 2019.

A detailed analysis of the notices issued by the Federal Tax Administration, Switzerland government’s nodal department for sharing of information on foreign clients of Swiss banks, shows that the Swiss government has stepped up its efforts in sharing such details with a number of countries in the recent months, but the surge in India-related cases is noticeable in the past few weeks.

Though the gazette notifications of the Swiss government has redacted full names for several of them while making public only their initials beside the nationality and the dates of birth.

The two Indians whose names have been mentioned in full are Krishna Bhagwan Ramchand (born in May 1949) and Kalpesh Harshad Kinariwala (born in September 1972). However, no further details have been disclosed about them as well.

The Indian nationals with redacted names include Mrs A S B K (born November 24, 1944), Mr A B K I (born July 9, 1944), Mrs P A S (born November 2, 1983), Mrs R A S (born November 22, 1973), Mr A P S (born November 27, 1944), Mrs A D S (born August 14, 1949), Mr M L A (born May 20, 1935), Mr N M A (born February 21, 1968) and Mr M M A (June 27, 1973).

Moreover, in March, Switzerland had issued such notices to Mumbai-based Geodesic Ltd and its three directors (Prashant Sharad Mulekar, Pankajkumar Onkar Srivastava and Kiran Kulkarni), as also to Chennai-based Aadhi Enterprises Pvt Ltd, who are being probed by the Indian authorities for alleged money laundering and other financial irregularities.

Earlier, the Swiss banks were widely known as an alleged safe haven for black money. Since Modi came to power, money parked by Indians in Swiss banks started reducing drastically.

According to data published by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in 2017, the total funds held by Indians with Swiss banks in 2016 stood at a record low of 676 million CHF (Swiss francs), which was about Rs 4,500 crore.

In 2015, the total funds held by Indians with Swiss banks stood at CHF 1,206.71 million. In the year 2014, the total funds held by Indians with Swiss banks stood at CHF 1,814 million. 2017 was the third straight year of substantial decline of funds held by Indians with Swiss banks.

The funds held by Indians with Swiss banks stood at a record high of CHF 6.5 billion (Rs 23,000 crore) at 2006-end. In about a decade it went down to almost one-tenth.

Vivek Doval appears in court for his criminal defamation case against Jairam Ramesh and Caravan magazine

OpIndia Staff
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Vivek Doval appears in court for his criminal defamation case against Jairam Ramesh and Caravan magazine

The defamation suit filed by Vivek Doval, son of National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, The Caravan magazine and journalist Kaushal Shroff was heard today at the Patiala House Court in Delhi. The matter was heard by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal.

Today Vivek Doval presented his arguments after he was administered oath by the court. He began by explaining his current citizenship status, educational qualifications, and his professional standing. He said, “I am a UK citizen and I am a very proud overseas citizen of India”. He had filed the complaint to redress the series of allegations, innuendoes and insinuations which have been used to destroy his family’s hard-earned reputation.

Vivek Doval said that he first heard about the story in the Caravan magazine from his brother who had called him on January 16th. “I was shocked how random facts, incorrect facts, insinuations, innuendoes had been pieced together to give an exceptionally misleading picture about myself and my family”, he said. He also talked about Jairam Ramesh who made similar allegations and that the Indian National Congress website carried the interview and its transcript.


Vivek Doval spoke about when his father had confronted him about the article. “My father (Ajit Doval) is my hero…when I came back to Delhi, I was confronted by my father on the veracity of these utterances. I broke down. I felt helpless”, he said.

The article carried a photograph of him, his brother Shaurya Doval and his father with the title “The D Companies”. The D Company was a reference to Dawood Ibrahim and his gang. The article accused Vivek Doval of having prior knowledge of demonetisation and had said that he registered the hedge fund 13 days after demonetisation.

The article insinuates that Doval and his family were involved in illegal activities such as money laundering, round-tripping of capital, violating financial regulation and connections to foreign royal families. “The article also suggests that Doval and family are involved in untaxed black money and international terrorism”, Doval added.

“It puts a blot on my career and professional standing for years to come. Very sadly, these inferences suggest that someone like my father who has spent his entire life fighting enemies of this country allowed his son to pursue such illegal activities”, said Doval.

Doval said that the Congress press conference was extremely defamatory and that the words of Jairam Ramesh gave more sanctity to The Caravan article. Jairam Ramesh had also accused both Vivek Doval and his brother of illegal activities.

The conference had hinted that GNY Asia Fund was responsible for the massive increase in investment in India from Cayman Islands in the financial year 2017-18. It also suggested that this entire amount of Rs 8,300 crore came through GNY Asia.

Vivek Doval said, “In response to a question at the Conference, Jairam Ramesh answered that what he had presented in the press conference were the facts. In doing so, he removed the distinction between fact, opinion, allegation and fiction”.


Talking about the impact these allegations have made to his career he said, “Integrity of a Fund Manager has to be spotless and as a result of that we have to give regulatory examinations every year of our career. The Caravan article and Press Conference have seriously impacted my career and has perhaps caused years of hard work to become fruitless”.

Vivek Doval then went on to give further details about his professional career and how he had set up the fund at Cayman Islands which has been explained in detail in his complaint. “The Fund was created several weeks later than what we had anticipated. The creation of a fund is a long process involving lawyers, service providers, regulators, investors”, said Doval.

Vivek Doval said, “The Fund was registered in Cayman Islands on November 21, 2016. A vast number of Hedge Funds (60%) in the world are registered in Cayman Islands. It is a very reputable geography for a Hedge Fund. The options that we were considering for registration were Singapore and Cayman Islands. But we thought that Singapore would be more expensive”.

He had a total of seven investors, Vivek Doval (USD 300,000), Amit Sharma (USD 200,000), Mohd Altaf and family (USD 10.1 million), Nick Allan (USD 250,000), Neeraj Kumar (approx USD 150,000) and Syed Ali Abbas (USD 100,000).

Doval continued, “We had a corpus of 11.1 million USD at inception which is all the monies that the Fund has ever received to-date. The approximate corpus of the Funds currently is USD 8 million having been impacted by the US-China trade war in 2018”.

He said that fund was mandated to invest in China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The fund was never launched in India and they had obtained a provisional Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) licence from SEBI via Edelweiss Securities. “Given that it was an FPI licence, it was never planned and the Fund was never marketed to investors in India”, he said.

Further addressing allegations of investment in India he said, “FPI is investment in financial securities as opposed to FDI which is investment in land, factories and infrastructure”.

“The reason why we used Edelweiss Securities is because our prime broker Namoora Securities did not provide custodian services in India. Given Edelweiss Securities was known to me from British Airways days, they were selected as the custodian service provider for GNY Asia Fund in India”, he said. He further added, “After exiting the India market in August 2017, the Fund never invested in India on account of the fact that the Fund could not broad base its investors”.

Clarifying the suspicion on his business dealings with his brother Shaurya Doval he said, “When I started the Fund, I was running on a shoestring budget and would struggle to hire resources in Singapore. So the Fund engaged in a facilities management program with Shaurya Doval’s company Zeus Strategic by which two resources were subcontracted to the GNY Asia Fund along with office space. Besides this arrangement, there is no other business arrangement between Shaurya and myself”.

Vivek Doval had also clarified that his father (Ajit Doval) has no relationship with any of the companies and as far as he knows was never involved in any commercial activity. He also added that the GNY capital in London had 8-10 lakh INR as opposed to the 8,300 crore INR alleged in the press conference.

He finished by explaining the impact that these allegations have made on him, “GNY Asia Fund has had a very challenging time post these allegations. We are seeing uneasiness of existing investors and service providers who themselves think that they have been defamed. Also, our prospective investors have backed off and we are in the process of winding down the Fund”.


The court has been adjourned till July 10 in which Vivek Doval would be cross-examined.

Vivek Doval had filed the criminal defamation after the Caravan Magazine, a left-wing portal had published a report claiming that he had started a hedge fund in Cayman Islands days before demonetisation to launder money. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also did a press conference based on the Caravan article accusing him of tax evasion.

President of CWC Rahul Gandhi insists on resigning as Congress president even as CWC rejects his resignation

OpIndia Staff
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President of CWC Rahul Gandhi insists on resigning as Congress president even as CWC rejects his resignation

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 is hell-bent on resigning from the post even as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) rejected his resignation. Interestingly, the President of the Congress Working Committee is Rahul Gandhi himself.


According to the reports, Rahul Gandhi has even asked the CWC to find a suitable president for the party who can turn the fortunes of the grand old political party. PM Modi-led BJP stormed to power with winning 303 seats while the Congress was reduced to a paltry 52 seats, an insignificant improvement over its previous tally of 44 in 2014.

With speculations about Rahul Gandhi’s resignation abound, Congress leader MS Reddy has postulated an interesting suggestion to arrest the party’s continuous slide.


Citing the CWC resolution of re-structuring of the party at all levels, Reddy called upon all the CWC members and AICC office bearers, especially state in-charges to resign.

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.

63 out of 67 candidates fielded by Congress in Uttar Pradesh lost security deposits in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

OpIndia Staff
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63 out of 67 candidates fielded by Congress in Uttar Pradesh lost security deposits in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

The 17th Lok Sabha elections saw a decisive victory for the Narendra Modi-led NDA alliance, winning 354 seats, with BJP alone victorious on 303 seats. The extent of Modi dominance is evident while analysing the figures pouring in from the Election Commission for the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. In the state, Congress fielded 67 candidates and lost security deposit in 63 of them.

List of candidates fielded by Congress in Uttar Pradesh (Source: Election Commission)

According to the Election Commission set rules and norms, if a candidate fails to get 1/6th of votes (16.67%) of votes polled in a constituency, such candidate stands to lose the security deposit. Based on this rule, only four Congress candidates in UP will get their security deposits back, the deposit for the remaining 63 will not be refunded. The 4 seats where Congress managed to save deposits were Amethi, Rae Bareli, Saharanpur and Kanpur. Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli, the only seat that Congress won in Uttar Pradesh, where the SP-BSP alliance did not field a candidate. Smriti Irani pulled off a splendid victory against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, though the latter managed to get 43.8% votes.

List of candidates fielded by Congress in Uttar Pradesh (Source: Election Commission)
List of candidates fielded by Congress in Uttar Pradesh (Source: Election Commission)

The seat of Saharanpur was won by the BSP candidate Haji Fazlur Rehman with 41.74 per cent. However, the ‘Boti Boti’ fame Imran Masood managed to save his security deposit as he secured 16.81 per cent votes in the Saharanpur constituency. BJP’s Satyadev Pachauri won the Kanpur Lok Sabha seat with an impressive 55.63 per cent voting while the Congress candidate Sriprakash Jaiswal scored 37.13 per cent of voting to save his deposit.

The state of Congress was particularly dismal in the western Uttar Pradesh where it lost deposits on 21 of the 22 seats contested. Raj Babbar lost the deposit after the results declared by the Election Commission showed that Babbar could only manage to poll 16.59 per cent of the total votes, just below the mark needed to get the security back. He was defeated by Rajkumar Chahar of BJP who got 64.32per cent votes. Even the Congress stalwart and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid experienced a mortifying defeat in his constituency Farrukhabad. Salman got a meagre 5.51 per cent of the votes and thus lost his security deposit.

Another motormouth Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam who fought against BJP’s Rajnath Singh from Lucknow constituency lost his deposit as he secured only 16.12 per cent of the votes. Rajnath registered a stunning victory with 56.7 per cent poll percentage. Ajay Rai of Congress, who fought against PM Modi from Varanasi also lost his deposit as he won only 14.38 per cent of the votes. Once Congress stronghold, Congress candidates lost deposits in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Allahabad and Phulpur. Shukla got a paltry 3.59 per cent of votes polled in Allahabad, while Niranjan’s tally stood at a pitiably low of 3.35 per cent in Phulpur.

Source: Election Commission

There were 13 constituencies where Congress didn’t field its candidate. They are- Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Baghpat, Ballia, Bansgaon, Chandauli, Etah, Firozabad, Kannauj, Machhlishahr, Mainpuri, Muzaffarnagar and Pilibhit. In some of these constituencies, Congress backed their alliance partner Jan Adhikar Party (JAP)’s candidates. Congress didn’t field candidates against Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav in Azamgarh and Dimple Yadav in Kannauj.

The state of Uttar Pradesh has been a microcosm of India, in how the people voted for the saffron party and shunned the Congress party. Some of the seats where BJP lost to BSP-SP alliance, the battle was close. However, Congress defeats in most constituencies have been conclusive. Most of the Congress candidates who lost security deposits could manage to get single-digit vote percentage, with very few who could cross the 2-digit mark. Amit Shah’s claim of attaining more than 50 per cent vote share also proved true as most of the winning BJP candidates polled more than 50 per cent of the total votes.

World Cup XI: The ones who never won

Ritesh
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World Cup XI: The ones who never won

To win the World Cup is a dream for every professional player. But cricket is a team game. It never matters how good you are until you have a great team to win a tournament like the World Cup.

There are several legends who just couldn’t win the World Cup in their cricket career. So why not make a dream XI of the cricketing greats who performed well individually but …..

  1. Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa)

The first opener of this XI. Although he is famous for that dropped catch off Steve Waugh in World Cup 1999, Gibbs played a major part through his batting. He scored 1067 runs in 3 World Cups with an average of 56.16. Gibbs’ 2 hundreds came against strong teams like Australia and New Zealand. He also became the first player to hit 6 sixes in an over in International cricket during the World Cup 2007, when he smashed Netherland’s Dan van Bunge out of the park. His fielding is an additional bonus, of course, if you can forget that particular catch.

Now: Coach in Afghanistan Premier League

2. Sourav Ganguly (India)

Indian captain who lead his team to World Cup final in 2003. Ganguly made 97 in his very first World Cup innings against South Africa in 1999. Ganguly’s 1006 runs in 3 World Cups were scored at an average of 55.89. And who can forget his 183 against Sri Lanka in Taunton (still the highest score by an Indian in World Cup). Ganguly has not only the skill of scoring runs but also has the capability of breaking partnerships. The best thing about him is the leadership skill for which he is the vice-captain of the team.

Now: President of Cricket Association of Bengal

3. Brian Lara (West Indies)

The Prince. It was unfortunate that when Brian Lara started his career, the champion team of the 80s, West Indies were on the decline. Richards just retired and Malcolm was playing his last World Cup. Despite 1992 was his first World Cup appearance, he was the highest scorer from his side and scored a fifty in every second match for the team. Lara’s 111 in World Cup 1996 Quarter Finals shattered the dreams of South Africa. That was the highest point of Lara’s World Cup career as West Indies never again reached the Semi-Final of a World Cup. Overall Lara scored 1225 runs with an average of 42.24. He can score quickly and on his days can beat any team single-handedly.

Now: A traveller and Golfer

4. Martin Crowe (New Zealand)

The Captain of the team. If you’re surprised to see his name in the XI then you must have missed the World Cup 1992. Crowe with his innovation and tactics made that particular World Cup exciting to watch. To take the advantage of field restriction in the first 15 overs, Crowe promoted Greatbatch as a pinch hitter and it was quite successful, Greatbatch smashed 313 runs in 7 innings with a strike rate of 87.92.

He opened the bowling with off-spinner Deepak Patel. This was something never happened before. Patel was the most economical bowler of the World Cup 1992. He gave just 3.1 runs per over and didn’t let the opposition to take advantage of field restriction.

His own batting was class apart and both Wasim and Waqar accepted that he was the best batsman against reverse swing. His total tally of 456 runs was the highest of World Cup 1992.

Now: Died of cancer (Lymphoma) in March 2016

5. AB de Villiers (South Africa)

The name is enough. One of the most destructive batsmen of all time, AB de Villiers scored runs in World Cup at a strike rate of 117.30 that is when no other batsman in top 20 scored with 100 plus strike rate. His average (63.53) is also the best among the top 20 batsmen in the World Cup. So was he the most unlucky not to win a World Cup? South Africa as a team was unlucky to win despite reaching 4 semifinals.

Whether AB won a World Cup or not, he is an automatic choice in any limited over World XI. The additional benefit of him is his acrobat fielding.

Now: Playing professional T20 leagues

6. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

The primary wicket-keeper of the team. Sangakkara has most runs (without winning a title). He is the only batsman to score 4 consecutive ODI hundreds. This amazing feat he achieved in his last World Cup (2015).

Not only in batting, but he is also absolutely magnificent behind the stumps. Keeper with most dismissals (54) in World Cup history. Under his captaincy, Sri Lanka reached the Finals of World Cup 2011. Despite playing the two World Cup finals, Sangakkara returned home empty-handed.

Now: Commentator and Head of MCC

7. Lance Klusener (South Africa)

The all-rounder you need who can win matches on their own.

There are only 3 players in World Cup history to win 4 Man of the Match awards in a single edition – Aravinda de Silva (1996), Lance Klusener (1999) and Yuvraj Singh (2011).

A mix up with Allan Donald in the most famous semi-final (1999) against Australia cost him the place in the finals. He won the Man of the Series for his exceptional performance in 1999.

Klusener won matches with both bat and ball. In 2 World Cups, he smashed 372 runs with an astonishing average (124) and strike rate (121). With the ball, he did wonders too, 22 wickets in 100 overs, with an average (22.14) and economy of 4.83. With such kind of record, he can make entry into any World Cup XI.

Now: Head coach of Rajshahi Kings (Bangladesh Premier League)

8. Anil Kumble (India)

India’s leading wicket-taker in Test and ODIs and one of the best spinner of his time along with Warne and Murali. Kumble’s best chance was in the World Cup 1996 when he took 15 wickets in that edition (the most by any).

He was India’s primary spinner in 1996 and 1999, but once Ganguly became the captain, Kumble was more like a traveller in the Indian team. He just played 3 matches in 2003 and 2007 World Cups combined.

Kumble’s batting and never say die attitude are the additional benefits for the team.

Now: Wildlife Photographer

9. Javagal Srinath (India)

Like Sangakkara, Srinath has most wickets (44) without the World Cup title. He made a formidable pace attack with Zaheer and Nehra in World Cup 2003. The trio took 49 wickets in that edition.

His 16 wickets in 2003 were his best performance in single edition but in the same World Cup, his worst performance in the finals shattered the hopes of millions back home. He gave 87 runs in his 10 over in the finals against Australia.

Now: ICC Match Referee

10. Waqar Younis (Pakistan)

The most unlucky among all. Waqar was at his prime in 1992 and got selected for the World Cup squad but he had to return back home because of an injury.

Waqar played 3 World Cups, led the team in World Cup 2003. Overall he took 22 wickets with an extraordinary strike rate of 25.4, the second best by any who took 20 or more wickets in World Cup.

His toe-crushing yorkers can scare any batsman of past and present generations.

Now: Coach of Sylhet Sixer (Bangladesh Premier League)

11. Allan Donald (South Africa)

The white lightning holds the record for most wickets (38) in the World Cup for South Africa. He was part of the South African team which made their World Cup debut in 1992. Took 12 and 15 wickets in 1992 and 1996 World Cups respectively.

His performance in both the editions (1992 & 1996) helped his team to reach the semi-final but he himself to be blamed for that ill-fated result in semis of 1999 when he kept watching the ball instead of listening to his partner’s call. That run out resulted in a tie and Australia’s road to the final.

Despite that, Allan Donald considered as one of the best South African fast bowlers. His supremacy belies with his pace.

Now: Assistant Coach of Kent County

What will be your Dream XI?

Pro-TMC Bengali newspaper owned by Rose Valley abuses tribals and Gorkhas for voting for BJP, calls them ‘Corrupt Hill Dwellers’

OpIndia Staff
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Pro-TMC Bengali newspaper owned by Rose Valley abuses tribals and Gorkhas for voting for BJP, calls them ‘Corrupt Hill Dwellers’

In the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections which were comprehensibly won by NDA and where BJP alone crossed the majority mark, the party also showed remarkable performance in West Bengal. BJP had not much presence in the state earlier and faced massive violent opposition from Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee. Despite all the odds, BJP won 18 out of total 42 seats in West Bengal, and although TMC won 22 seats, it was still considered a setback for the party because BJP went from 2 seats in 2014 to 18 in just 5 years.

The results have rattled the Mamata led TMC, one evidence of which was seen when a pro-TMC newspaper abused the people in North Bengal for voting for BJP. On 26th May, Bengali newspaper Khabar 365 Din, which is known as a TMC mouthpiece, published a report on its front page titled ‘Baiman Paharibasira’, which translates to ‘corrupt hill dwellers’. The report alleged that in 8 years, the tribal boards received Rs 5500 crore from Mamata, and the boards were indulging in corruption. The newspaper said that despite receiving development packages, the tribal boards betrayed Mamata Banerjee and voted for BJP.

Most of BJP’s wins came from North Bengal and the tribal belt known as Junglemahal, and from the Khabar 365 Din report, it was evident that the party was attacking the people living in those areas for voting for BJP. The report stated that the hill people don’t want development, they only want money. And that’s why they forgot developments done by Mamata Banerjee after they took money from BJP.

It may be noted that Khabar 365 Din is owned by the Rose Valley group, which is very close to Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. The company is facing investigations for the Rose Valley chit fund scam, along with the Saradha chit fund scam.

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration chairman Anit Thapa raised strong objections to the language used by the newspaper. In a press release issued today, Thapa said, “I strongly protest against the offensive headline used by a Bengali newspaper, in which they have labelled various Boards as being ‘Baimaan”.

He said that hill people voted for BJP due to support for Gorkhaland demand. He requested the media to stop scolding people for not voting for TMC, saying “I request entire Bengali newspapers to stop name calling the entire hill people, and to stop blaming and scolding them.”

Mamata Banerjee reinstates ex-cop Rajeev Kumar, accused in Saradha scam, and other 10 IPS officers transferred by EC

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata Banerjee reinstates ex-cop Rajeev Kumar, accused in Saradha scam, and other 10 IPS officers transferred by EC

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’ close aide and Kolkata ex-cop, Rajeev Kumar, for whom the TMC chief had gone beyond the rulebook and sat on a 72 dharna in his defence, has once again been reinstated by her as the additional director general of the state Criminal Investigation Department.

The 10 other IPS officers who were transferred by the Election Commission along with Rajeev Kumar have also been brought back.

The state government took the decision immediately after the Model Code of Conduct ceased to operate in the state. It also reinstated Kolkata Commissioner of Police Anuj Sharma to his post. However, Rajesh Kumar, who the poll panel had appointed to replace Sharma, is yet to be assigned a new post.

Rajeev Kumar was transferred from his post of Kolkata Police chief to take up the charge of ADG CID on February 19. On 15 May, the ECI had removed him from his post and had asked him to report to MHA. Following the incidents of violence and vandalism at Amit Shah’s roadshow, the ECI had taken stern action, removing Kumar and Principal Secretary (Home) Atri Bhattacharya from their posts and, for the first time ever, invoked article 324 to curtail election campaigning in the state.

Moreover, Rajeev Kumar skipped a meeting with the CBI officials on Monday despite being summoned by the agency for questioning in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam, officials said. Kumar, however, sent a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), seeking some more time to appear before its officers in connection with the case.

Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued a lookout notice (LoC) against the ex-Kolkata cop. The notice was issued on Sunday in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam case to prevent him from leaving the country.

Rajeev Kumar is accused of shielding some of the accused and destroying evidence in West Bengal’s Saradha Chit Fund scam case. On February 3, a team of CBI officials had arrived at his residence in Kolkata to interrogate him. What followed was an unprecedented political and legal drama. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had jumped to his defence, moving the state machinery against the CBI and alleging that the attempt to interrogate Kumar is a ‘conspiracy’ by the central government against her.

CBI officials were also attacked, heckled and detained by the Kolkata police under Mamata’s orders. Mamata’s Dharna had lasted almost 72 hours where she had kept on claiming that PM Modi and Amit Shah are planning to overthrow her government and the interrogation order against Rajeev Kumar was a plot by NSA Ajit Doval.

The dharna drama had ended after the Supreme Court had ordered the interrogation of Rajeev Kumar at a location outside Bengal following which he was interrogated for days in Meghalaya’s Shillong along with some other accused in the case.

The MHA had also taken a strong objection to the serving IPS officers attending the Bengal CM’s dharna. The ministry had ordered the government of West Bengal to initiate a probe against officers who were seen sharing the stage with the CM.

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