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Opposition continues to crumble: Now National Conference severs ties with Congress

OpIndia Staff
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Opposition continues to crumble: Now National Conference severs ties with Congress

The recently concluded Lok Sabha election results have cost the opposition parties dearly.

Congress, which was the most affected party in these elections, was somehow reconciling from the meltdown it faced after being reduced to mere 52 seats in the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. However, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) added insult to injury by announcing to sever ties with Congress.

This development comes after Congress accused National Conference for their defeat in Jammu and Kashmir in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections by alleging that Farooq and Omar Abdullah did not campaign for the party in Jammu.

As per reports, Abdullah on Tuesday announced that his party will contest the next assembly elections alone, stating his party was confident of achieving a massive mandate on its own. “We won’t have an alliance with any party,” he said in an address to his party workers this afternoon. He further added that a stable, strong and people friendly government is the answer to problems facing Jammu and Kashmir.

Ravinder Sharma, Congress chief spokesperson in Jammu and Kashmir, while speaking to India today lashed out at NC. He said its leaders didn’t campaign for the Congress candidates. The NC, however, brushed off these allegations and hitting back at Congress, their leader Anil Dhar stated that Rahul Gandhi-led party is itself responsible for their Lok Sabha rout.

Warning the Congress against blaming the NC for its poll debacle, Dhar blamed the Congress high command and their state leaders for their debacle.

The Congress and other parties suffered a crushing defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In first back-to-back majority in the Lok Sabha polls for a single party in over three decades, the Modi-led BJP won 303 seats out of 542, reducing Congress to an embarrassing number of 52 seats.

Congress had fielded 421 candidates across the country but only 52 of them got elected from 18 states and union territories. The party won the maximum number of 15 seats in Kerala followed by eight in Punjab and Tamil Nadu each. In 17 states and union territories, it could not even open its account. Meanwhile, the SP-BSP alliance despite its tall claims had barely secured 15 seats out of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh during these elections.

Interestingly, in Uttar Pradesh Congress fielded 67 candidates. However, 63 of these lost their security deposits causing major embarrassment to the party in the state.

On similar lines, the SP-BSP Mahagathbandhan alliance today hinted of a possible break up. Earlier, BSP supremo Mayawati held Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav responsible for SP-BSP Mahagathbandhan’s disastrous performance in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls. She suggested that her party would contest the assembly by-polls solo. Yadav too has admitted the possibility of going into the by-polls alone if the coalition stands broken.

Srinagar: Two burqa clad women attack shopkeeper with chemical spray, loot jewellery

OpIndia Staff
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Srinagar: Two burqa clad women attack shopkeeper with chemical spray, loot jewellery

In a shocking incident, two Burqa-clad women used chemical spray to attack the shop owner and loot the jewellery in Srinagar. According to the reports, the video captured by the CCTV of the shop confirms that two women covering themselves with Burqa, pretending to be customers, entered Marhaba Jewellers.


However, as soon as the shopkeeper turned to the other side, one of the two ladies stood near the entrance while the other attacked the shopkeeper from with a chemical spray. As he fell to the ground, they were left with enough time to loot the shop.

Following the attack, the shopkeeper addressed the media and said, “When I turned towards the safety locker, one of the women attacked me from the back with a wet chemical cloth, which made me unconscious. I was shocked and fell on the ground as I was unable to understand the situation.”

He added that he did not realize he was conned until he regained his consciousness in the hospital. He divulged further and said the thieves took away a small box, which contained less expensive items. He is, however, yet to ascertain the amount of loss he has incurred following the incident.

We had reported earlier about how terrorists were using burqas to execute terror activities Kashmir. Veiled terror is indeed a threat and worry!

Read here: The list of discrepancies in Robert Vadra’s answers to the questions asked by ED

OpIndia Staff
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Read here: The list of discrepancies in Robert Vadra’s answers to the questions asked by ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has resumed questioning Robert Vadra in a Money Laundering case filed against him. Earlier in February and March this year, Vadra had appeared for several rounds of questioning by ED. Not satisfied with his replies, ED has also been seeking custodial interrogation of Robert Vadra, but courts have not allowed the same far, and his bail is getting extended regularly.

ED has found several discrepancies in the responses of Vadra, as his replies do not match with the replies given by his associates who are also being questioned in the case. The list of such questions and replies to the questions given by Vadra and his associates show that they are contradicting each other. ED also have compiled a list queries, which Vadra has either denied or said he does not remember them. OpIndia has accessed the list of such questions and their responses from reliable sources, which are given below.

 

Q1. Whether Robert Vadra knows Pooja Chadha?

On February 7th Robert Vadra said he cannot categorically state.

On March 8th he said does not know Pooja Chadha.

 

Q2. Whether Robert Vadra knows Summit Chadha?

Ans: On February 7th, Vadra told ED that he has not met Summit Chadha.

But on 14th January 2019, an associate of Vadra told ED that Robert Vadra knows Summit Chadha through Sanjay Bhandari.

 

Q3. How Robert Vadra knows CC Thampi?

Ans: On February sixth, 2019 Robert Vadra told ED that he met CC Thampi onboard an Emirates flight.

On April 6th 2017, CC Thampi has stated that he met Robert Vadra through Madhavan, PA of Sonia Gandhi.

 

Q4. Whether Robert Vadra has knowledge about Bryanston Square in London.

On February 7, Vadra said that he never stayed at that address.

But on 6th April 2017, CC Thampi has said that Robert Vadra had stayed at 12, Bryanston Square.

 

Q5. Emails to Robert Vadra from Summit Chadha and Pooja Chadha.

Ans: On sixth February Vadra, had agreed that [email protected] is his email id.

However next day ie on February seventh he denied that the concerned emails were written to him.

On January 16th, his associate Manoj Arrora stated that emails appears to have been sent by Summit Chadha on the email id of Robert Vadra and Robert Vadra can explain the contents of email as these are addressed to him.

 

Q6. Whether Robert Vadra knows Vipul Beriwala and Sanjeev Varma (London based businessmen).

Ans: On February 7th he said he does not know Vipul Beriwala.

On January 14th and 31st January Manoj Arora has stated he does not know Vipul Beriwala. However, if he has sought appointment with Robert Vadra, his number must be in his mobile phone contacts. His mobile has contact of Vipul Beriwala.

 

Q7. Whether Robert Vadra knows Sanveev Verma.

On 8th Marth Robert Vadra said he does not know Sanjeev Varma.

But Manoj Arora has stated if he has sought appointment with Robert Vadra, his number must be in his mobile phone contacts. His mobile has contact of Verma.

 

Q8: Whether RV stands for Robert Vadra in emails.

Ans: On February 7th Vadra said that he is not known as RV and people don’t refer to him as RV.

On 31st January Manoj Arora has stated MRV in his mobile phone contacts refers to Mr Robert Vadra.

 

Q9. Whether Robert Vadra knows Jagdish Sharma?

Ans: On 6th February 2019, Vadra told ED that Jagdish Sharma hovers around him, follows him and tries to associate with him and has never worked for him.

On 8th December 2018, Jagdish Sharma stated that he is close to Gandhi family but he is closest to Robert Vadra. He said that he does political profiling of Robert Vadra and also advices him on matters.

 

Q10. Whether Robert Vadra is known as sahab?

Ans: On February 7th, Vadra told that his subordinates refer him to as “boss”. But on 8th March he had said he is not referred to as “Robert Sahab”.

On 10th December 2018, Jagdish Sharma has stated that Sahab in his statements refers to Robert Vadra.

On 8th December 2018, Anuj Nautiyal in his statement had stated that Jagdish Sharma has told him that his “boss” had invested in foreign properties in question. Also, Jagdish had referred to Robert Vadra as his “boss”.

On 16th January 2019, Manoj Arora stated that Robert Vadra is also addressed as Robert sahab and RV.

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Apart from these, Rober Vadra was either evasive or didn’t answer several questions posed by ED. Robert Vadra denied having assets outside India, knowing or meeting Sumit Chadha, Vipul Beriwala, stay at Bryanston Square, ownership of London properties. He also denied the email exchanges with Sumit Chadha, Puja Chadha, Sanjay Bhandari and Bishal Bajpai. Robert Vadra denied knowing Sanjay Dhir and Sajeev Verma, and also the ownership of Columbyne Management Ltd.

On the other hand, he said that he can’t recollect meeting Sanjay Bhandari and Sumit Chadha, and he was not sure about email interaction with Sumit and travel with Sanjay Bhandari to France. He also said that he does not remember the emails between Vishal Bajpai and Sanjay Bhandari regarding expenses incurred for Robert Vadra in London.

List of 10 most wanted terrorists in the Kashmir valley released by security forces

OpIndia Staff
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List of 10 most wanted terrorists in the Kashmir valley released by security forces

A list of 10 most wanted terrorists has been released by the security agencies in the Kashmir valley. The list has been prepared as part of the effort of the security forces to establish peace in the region by neutralising terror activities.

Riyaz Naiku alias Mohammad Bin Qasim who has been marked as an A++ category terrorist is in the top spot in the list followed by Wasim Ahmed alias Osama, the District Commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba.


The other most wanted terrorists in the list are Mohammad Ashraf Khan alias Ashraf Maulvi (Hizbul Mujahideen), Mehrazuddin (District Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Baramulla), Dr. Saifullah alias Saifullah Mir alias Dr. Saif, Ashraf ul Haq (District Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Pulwama, belongs to A++ category), Hafiz Omar (Operational Commander of JeM), Zaheed Sheikh alias Omar Afghani (JeM), Javed Mattoo alias Faisal alias Shakib alias Musab (Divisional Commander of Al Badar in North Kashmir) and Ezaz Ahmad Malik (District Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kupwara).

According to General Officer-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, 86 terrorists have been neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir this year. “During this year, we have been to neutralise 86 terrorists so far. Twenty terrorists were also apprehended. Our operations against terrorists will continue. A number of ultras have been brought back to the mainstream with the help of the parents, teachers and senior citizens” said Lt Gen Singh.

Recently, wanted terrorist Zakir Musa was killed by the security forces in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir during an encounter.

Union home minister Amit Shah had conducted a high-level meeting today discussing the various issues regarding Jammu and Kashmir.

The ‘liberals’ are not introspecting, just angry and upset that their propaganda is failing

Rahul Roushan
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The ‘liberals’ are not introspecting, just angry and upset that their propaganda is failing

I try my best to always put the word “liberal” within inverted commas while referring to a set of people who shout the most about being liberal and who can’t stop worrying how liberal values are under threat in a new India led by Narendra Modi. Such folks want to save India from Modi, and thus they are always in a saviour mode.

In order to be a saviour or a superhero, you need a villain from whom you’ll save the city or the humanity. If you notice, in most superhero movies, the villain is on the prowl all the time. Most of the scenes in such movies would show death and destruction caused by the villain, and then in the climax scenes, the superhero will defeat the villain.

But in our ‘liberal’ fantasy land, it is the superheroes who are on prowl all the time, churning out op-eds after op-eds round the clock causing massive destruction (in their own view) in the enemy camp, but in the climax scene (when votes are counted), the villain Narendra Modi comes and defeats them.

This has happened twice now on the national level, and earlier thrice in Gujarat.

Of late, it appears that the ‘liberals’ have realised that maybe they are wrong. As they say – “one is chance, twice is coincidence, and thrice is a pattern” – so have the self-declared liberals discovered the pattern? Have they accepted that maybe the only villains from which they need to save someone – and that someone is they themselves – is their own warped worldview?

After hearing and reading some recent statements from likes of Shekhar Gupta, Yogendra Yadav, or Karan Thapar, one might be tempted to believe that there is some semblance of introspection being indulged in, but when seen in wider context one realises that there is no introspection at all.

None of them are really saying that their beliefs were based on some wrong or outdated principles that need to be discarded. If you read or hear their full statements, you find that they are still supremely confident that their ideas about how people should live their lives are the ideal ones. The only thing they are lamenting is that they couldn’t convince the common voters that they were the saviours while Modi was the villain. They are indulging in some self-pity, and then immediately proceed to feel pity for the citizens who got a Prime Minister they think doesn’t deserve to be there.

Ingrained in this lament is a belief that they know better than the common voters. Ingrained in this pity is a contempt for the common voter who is seen incapable of having the same sagacious sense like them. They are busy psychoanalysing the voter, that how the hell the ‘idiot’ was not convinced by all their grand talk and instead chose to believe a scheming Modi.

Introspection is when you psychoanalyse yourself. When you psychoanalyse others, you are not introspecting, you are judging.

If you read between the lines, you will find that all such articles or talks that appear like introspection are essentially a lament by the respective folks that their ilk failed at propaganda. That they failed to understand an average voter’s point of view and thus failed to come up with rightly targeted messaging to make them see the ‘truth’. And of course, their ilk is the only one to know what is the ultimate truth.

None of them have really accepted that what they have been believing and professing could be untrue or invalid. That while they shout “lynchistan” and paint every Muslim living in fear, on ground the situation could be just the opposite with pockets of Hindus living in genuine fear as Muslims go on rampage in the neighbourhood. That when they believe that a ‘real’ Dalit can only be someone who is anti-Brahmin, they are being stuck at a JNU dhaba and are unwilling to see the Paswan and Pandey from Bihar, working as security guards at a housing society in Mumbai, striking a common chord. That when they link every ill of the society to some Hindu festival or Manusmriti while giving ‘context’ to Muslim practices and controversial verses of Quran, they appear hypocritical bunch of spineless schmucks.

Nope. Virtually no one has admitted that they were wrong in their beliefs. So where is the introspection and course correction really? None. There is just a conclusion that they need to preach more effectively. It’s more like a bunch of colonisers discussing why they failed at the “civilising mission”. That is neither introspective nor liberal.

You are not a liberal if you have a set of dogmas to stick with and are unwilling to change your stance or beliefs in wake of changing surroundings. The RSS, which they try to project as antithesis of everything liberal, is actually more liberal than these folks. Sangh has often shown willingness to change their views and beliefs; from giving up the hardened stand on swadeshi to changing their stand on homosexuality, the ‘fascists’ have been more liberal than the ‘liberals’.

And which is why the inverted comma on the word “liberal” still deserves a mandatory place.

Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint distorts history: Claims Mughals introduced grapes to India, social media schools the author

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint distorts history: Claims Mughals introduced grapes to India, social media schools the author

The Indian ‘liberal-secular’ historian circuit, which has a great love for Muslim invaders and their alternate history never ceases to amaze readers. The ‘secular’ intellectuals have time and again resorted to false narratives and facts to put Mughal invaders on a high pedestal.

In a similar attempt to glorify the Mughals, ThePrint, run by Editor’s Guild Chief Shekhar Gupta has indulged in writing fictions and fantasies to glorify the Mughals despite the fact that Muslim invaders had nothing to do with that accomplishment.

An article written by Salma Yusuf Hussain, who proclaims to be a food historian, has gone a great length to charm the readers by displaying her intellect regarding the culinary culture of the Mughal era. But, in her attempt to display her intellect, the author has resorted to extreme fawning towards the Mughals, by being flexible with the facts.

In her piece, Salma Hussain writes that it were the Mughals who gave India a variety of fruits like cherries, apricots, grapes and melons. Salma in her attempt to eulogise Mughals for introducing exotic food culture in India not only peddles distorted facts but also discredits the true Indian past which had a role in introducing food system and varieties in the country.

Contrary to Salma’s claims, the grapes were not introduced by the Mughals in India rather it was known to the country predating the Mughals. Twitter user Hamsanandi has also provided the excerpts of an old Kannada scripture titled “Lokopakara”, a Kannada work written in 1025 CE during the times of Western Chalukyas of Kalyani. The book ‘Lokopakara’, which means “for the benefit of common people”, is a handbook of everyday life for commoners and describes various topics such as astrology, portents, vastu (architecture), water-divining, vrikshayurveda (the science of plant life), perfumery, cookery, veterinary medicine, etc.

In this book, there is a reference in Old Kannada language, a precursor to the modern Kannada literature, which suggests that fruits like grapes and palms were indeed used as ingredients implying that the introduction of grapes in the country is much more earlier than claimed by the author.


It is not very surprising to see that some sections of secular liberals and self-proclaimed historians fantasising the Muslim invaders like Mughals. The Mughal Fixation Syndrome pushed by the liberals of this country to credit every bit of accomplishment to the invaders who destroyed the long-held culture and traditions of this country is nauseating.

Porn clip plays in the midst of Food and Civil Supply department meeting in Rajasthan, leaves everyone embarrassed

OpIndia Staff
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Porn clip plays in the midst of Food and Civil Supply department meeting in Rajasthan, leaves everyone embarrassed

The officials of the Food and Civil Supply Department in Rajasthan were left red-faced after a porn clip suddenly played while the meeting was underway in the NIC room of the secretariat in Jaipur on Monday.

The meeting was being held through video conference and was presided over by departmental secretary Mugdha Sinha to review various schemes and programs. While district supply officers of 33 districts were participating in the meeting, an obscene clip suddenly started playing on the screen leaving everyone embarrassed. The clip played for about 2 minutes until the technical team managed to stop it. Around 10 people including department officials and NIC representatives were present in the room.

Sinha however, immediately called the NIC Director and ordered an investigation. “In the middle of the video conference, an obscene clip started playing on the screen. I immediately called the NIC Director and asked him to probe the matter and give a report on this,” Sinha updated the media.

She further added that decision regarding the action to be taken against the guilty personnel will be taken on the basis of the report submitted.

Rajasthan is in news for various reasons these days including. We had done a report earlier where MLA and former Director General of Police (DGP), Harish Meena, launched an indefinite hunger strike against his own government in the state.

Did you know why India is playing its first game so late?

OpIndia Staff
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Did you know why India is playing its first game so late?

On Wednesday, June 5, India will play their first match of World Cup 2019. On the other hand, South Africa will be playing their third match of the World Cup on the same day. For Indian fans, such kind of schedule is beyond logic, but both ICC and BCCI have their reasoning behind it.

The most marketable team in the cricket arena is playing a match after six days from the day tournament started. Well, this is due to a technical issue that ICC kept in mind before releasing the World Cup schedule.

As per the Lodha committee (appointed by the Supreme Court of India, to analyze and recommend actions for improving the BCCI after the IPL betting scandal came into the picture), India has to maintain a 15-day gap between IPL final and international match.

The IPL final, in general, is mostly played around 18th or 19th May every year, so a 15-day gap means India can’t play a match before June 4.

“The 2019 IPL will be played between March 29 and May 19. But we need to maintain a 15-day gap, and World Cup starts on May 30. Therefore as per the 15-day gap, we could have only played on June 5. Earlier, we were scheduled to start on June 2, but we couldn’t have played on that day,” a senior BCCI official said.

Interestingly, the IPL Final of 2019 was held on May 12, but the World Cup schedule was released way back in 2018.

“South Africa are our first opponents. The CEC agreed, and the matter has been referred to the ICC board,” the BCCI official added.

The campaign against Akshaya Patra: Fuelled more by morbid bigotry and vested interests than concerns for children welfare?

K Bhattacharjee
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The campaign against Akshaya Patra: Fuelled more by morbid bigotry and vested interests than concerns for children welfare?

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) is under attack again from motivated activists for its mid-day meals. Recently, ‘Experts’ wrote an open letter to the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) demanding that they withdraw the compliance certificate that was awarded to the APF after their technical opinion on the matter was sought by the Karnataka government.

About three weeks after the open letter, a report was published on The Hindu by Archana Nathan where the argument was made that children are not eating the food provided by the APF because it was too bland. It also relied on a report by the Karnataka State Food Commission (KSFC) which claimed that children were not eating as much as they should because they did not find it tasty enough.

How the KSFC came to that conclusion is not said, nor is it said if the KSFC conducted or pitched the idea for any comparative study to ascertain the level of food consumption by children in mid-day meals across the country. Before the APF is dragged through the mud, due diligence ought to have been observed to produce some manner of evidence to suggest that schools, where mid-day meals were not provided by the APF, performed better in this regard.

No evidence appears to have been provided either to suggest that children in schools were APF provides food suffer disproportionately from malnutrition. It is not clear if they suffer from malnutrition at all. Therefore, under such circumstances, the stubborn insistence to serve food that goes against the ethics of APF seems rather mystifying and bewildering.

One person on which The Hindu relied on for its report is Dr. Sylvia Karpagam, an activist associated with the Right to Food campaign, which has numerous foreign funded NGOs working under its banner as well. “They don’t like the food,” she said. “You can bring bowlfuls of something I’ve never eaten in my life and tell me it is really healthy for me, but I’m not going to eat it. It is human behaviour. You need to like the smell, the taste, you need to want to eat it. What’s happening is that because they’re so hungry, the children are eating a bit, but definitely not to a full stomach. Isn’t the entire objective of the mid-day meal scheme then just lost?”

The only problem with Karpagam’s claims is that she makes vast generalizations that appear true on the surface but does not stand the test of scrutiny. She makes the claim that children are being forced to eat because they are hungry and they never eat to a full stomach as the food is bland but any parent can confirm, children would hardly ever finish their food if left to their own devices.

Perhaps, a greater responsibility ought to be placed on school authorities to ensure that children finish the content on their plate. In real life situations, multiple factors are at play, to singularly blame the lack of onions and garlic alone for children not finishing their food, and even that has not been conclusively proven yet, will take an extraordinary deal of evidence even the minutest portion of which hasn’t been produced thus far yet.

Karpagam, herself, got some deeply problematic opinions and it’s unclear the extent to which her opinions are being influenced by her thinly-veiled bigotry. Her tweets and the kind of tweets she retweets are enough evidence of her inherent bigotry.


In the past, Karpagam has also written an article where she claimed that Brahmins obstruct India’s development. In the article, she wrote, “Brahmin doctors mislead patients about nutrition, promoting vegetarianism in spite of all scientific knowledge and medical guidelines pointing to the contrary.”

Karpagam also states that Brahmins have created “havoc” in the field of nutrition. She says that Brahmin nutritionists drink cow urine. Apart from Brahmin doctors and nutritionists, Karpagam has problems with Brahmins in bureaucracy, education and academia, research, feminism, literature, media, judiciary, civil society, banking, economics, politics, industry, basically in every field under the sun. The entire article is a virulent spectacle of anti-Brahmin bigotry and resembles the kind of propaganda that was run against Jews in Nazi Germany.

That the opinions of such bigots are treated so respectably in mainstream media is a grave cause for concern. It appears quite obvious that Karpagam’s tirade against Akshaya Patra is motivated by a virulent hatred for the Brahmin community and a desire to uproot ‘Brahmin hegemony’. In her mind, APF is a Brahminical organization despite the fact that it is an arm of ISKCON which is a Vaishnavite sect. Therefore, the mid-day meals must be opposed at all costs.

The campaign she is associated with, too, appears to have vested interests. The campaign against APF has been engineered by the Right to Food Campaign which represents a very specific section of ‘civil society’. This section receives funding from Christian organizations abroad, from George Soros’ Open Society Institute which has a very controversial record and has intimate links to ‘Urban Naxals’ and separatists.

An organization in the steering group of RFC receives huge funds from the same organizations that donated huge sums of money to another organization that published a report demonizing the Amarnath Yatra. Under such circumstances. the attack on Akshaya Patra appears to be part of the nefarious agenda of these ‘civil society’ organizations.

The opinions of Umashankar S.R., principal secretary of education in Karnataka, comes as a breath of fresh air in the otherwise motivated The Hindu report. He is quoted as saying, “NIN has said that APF meets the nutrition standards, so why should we cancel the contract with APF? Except for this one small reason (the refusal to use onion and garlic), there are a lot of advantages for the government to continue its contract with ISKCON. They provide hygienic meals and cater to a large group of children in the state as well as in the country. We aren’t delving into philosophical and religious issues. And we cannot punish them unnecessarily for somebody’s objections.”

“Who is going to serve such a huge number of children if we cancel this contract?” he said. “There are logistical issues; overnight, we cannot build kitchens and hire cooks. The administration cannot function on the basis of philosophical arguments. I’ve told these activists directly — they have their heads in the clouds. I live on earth.”

On one hand, we have activists motivated by vested interests and quite blatant bigotry. On the other hand, we have an institution which runs a very efficient mid-day meal scheme serving lakhs of children. On one hand, we have logistical issues that are very efficiently handled by APF, on the other hand, we have objections which are quite ostensibly motivated by bigotry. The question at the heart of the matter is, are we going to risk the future of our children by scrapping an extremely successful service that benefits a great many children without any solid evidence merely because of some objections fueled by bigotry and vested interests?

We will not allow Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi, AAP will give free healthcare for all: Satyendra Jain

OpIndia Staff
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We will not allow Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi, AAP will give free healthcare for all: Satyendra Jain

Satyendra Jain, Health Minister in the Delhi government, has stated that the Aam Aadmi Party will not implement the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in the national capital. Instead, what the party is promising is free healthcare for all.


Speaking to media during his visit to the GTB hospital, the Delhi Minister told ANI, “First central government needs to provide to the benefits of Ayushman Bharat Yojana in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Around 70% of patients are coming here from Uttar Pradesh. Modi ji did nothing there. We will not differentiate between rich and poor. We will not allow this yojana as government hospital and medical check-ups are for all.”

“They just implement policies on papers, the ground reality is different. If the policy was implemented, people from Uttar Pradesh would have been treated in the state,” Jain said. “Delhi has a population of 2 crores, it will be applicable to 10 lakh people. There is no need to pick and choose. We will treat every patient in Delhi,” he added.

It is further reported that as a consequence of the flippant attitude of the Arvind Kejriwal government, people from other states can get free treatment in many private hospitals in Delhi as the central government has signed MOUs with them but citizens of Delhi cannot as the AAP government has refused to join the scheme.


It appears to be another instance of people suffering due to their elected representatives’ personal vendetta against Narendra Modi. In West Bengal, too, Mamata Banerjee had pulled out of the scheme after accusing Modi of taking credit for the scheme which is funded by the central government.

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