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After saying ‘only trees were burnt’, Pakistan says Eastern airspace will remain shut till India promises not to repeat Balakot

OpIndia Staff
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After saying ‘only trees were burnt’, Pakistan says Eastern airspace will remain shut till India promises not to repeat Balakot

Pakistan has asserted that it will open its Eastern airspace for flights to and from New Delhi only if India promises not to repeat a Balakot like operation inside Pakistan’s territory, reported Times of India. Interestingly, while Pakistan wants India to promise that a Balakot like operation won’t be repeated, when the operation, codenamed ‘Operation Bandar’ had happened, Pakistan had lied that India had managed to burn just a few trees.

Post the dastardly Pulwama attack on February 14th 2019, India had conducted a bold operation where Indian Airforce entered deep inside the Pakistan territory and bombed terror camps of Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Pakistan had shut its airspace on 26th February after India had conducted the airstrikes inside Pakistan territory. In fact, the standoff between India and Pakistan lasted many weeks where several people thought that the two countries were at the cusp of war.

Times of India quoted a CAA official who said, on the condition of anonymity that it was surprising that no back-channel talks had been initiated considers the closure of airspace was resulting in losses for Pakistan and India.

Interestingly, Pakistan has been constantly talking about ‘de-escalation’ after insisting that Balakot airstrikes did not do much damage inside Pakistan’s territory. In fact, after repeatedly asserting that not much damage had been caused, for months Pakistan had denied access to the International Media. Hilariously, Pakistan had termed Balakot as ‘Eco-Terrorism’ claiming that the strikes had done serious damage to the environment.

The Indian foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale had said that a very large number of JeM terrorists, commanders, senior leaders have perished in the air strikes carried out by the Indian Air Force. Even the Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa confirmed it in his press conference that his team had indeed hit the terror camps that were intended to be targeted.

Walmart pleads guilty of paying bribes in India and other countries in 2000-2001, to pay $283 million to settle the case

OpIndia Staff
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Walmart pleads guilty of paying bribes in India and other countries in 2000-2001, to pay $283 million to settle the case

Global retail giant Walmart has agreed to pay $283 million to settle a federal investigation into bribes paid the company in several countries. The company has pleaded guilty to paying bribes for its operations in Brazil, China, Mexico and India in the years 2000 and 2001. An order issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that the Walmart subsidiaries in those countries didn’t have sufficient anti-corruption oversight.

According to SEC, the company allowed its subsidiaries to make payments to government officials without ensuring that those payments were not bribes. Moreover, when the company came to know about the bribery, they didn’t investigate the matter sufficiently, the SEC report said. The commission charged Walmart under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies from paying bribes to foreign officials. An official of the SEC said that Walmart gave priority to business growth over the compliance of laws, many of which could have been avoided.

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal had reported that federal investigators had found evidence of bribery in India by Walmart. Although this practice was widespread, it was spread over relatively small payments to huge numbers of local officials.

“The vast majority of the suspicious payments were less than $200 (about Rs 13,000, at the current exchange rate), while some were as low as $5. But when added together, these totalled millions of dollars,” the report had said. Bribes were paid to local level officials of various departments to secure permissions and approvals to open new locations, and also for the movement of goods. The bribers were mostly paid by third parties and middlemen, but the Company turned a blind eye to it despite being aware of the same.

The questionable payments made in India were often recorded on the company’s books with vague descriptions like “professional fees” and “incidental.”

The malpractices in India, Brazil and China were detected when the investigators were probing suspicious payments made to officials in Mexico by Walmart, which was tried to be kept hidden from the top executives of the company.

Wallmart runs 24 Best Price Modern Wholesale branded stores in India at present. These stores operate in cash and carry wholesale format. As foreign companies are not allowed to operate multi-brand retail stores in India yet, they don’t run any retail store in the country.

GST Council approves single return from next year, cuts rate on electric vehicles and chargers

OpIndia Staff
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GST Council approves single return from next year, cuts rate on electric vehicles and chargers

The GST council met today for the first time today after new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took charge. The council decided to extend the deadline for filing returns by two months to August 30. The tenure of the anti-profiteering authority has been extended by two years, and the council also approved a penalty of 10% on entities that do not pass on the benefits of tax cut to consumers within 30 days. After the implementation of GST in June 2017, the government had set up the National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) with a term of two years, which means its term was expiring in this year. Now NAA’s term has been extended till 2021.

Briefing the press after the meeting, Revenue Secretary A B Pandey said that now businesses will be allowed to register with GST network using Aadhaar. Using Aadhaar and an OTP authentication, businesses will be able to register for GST online without the need for multiple documents. He also informed that the new single-form GST return filing system will be applicable from 1st January next year. The GST registration threshold also has been increased to ₹40 lakhs from ₹20 lakhs. Various terms and conditions of the GST were earlier issued as notifications, but now they will been incorporated in the law itself, the secretary said.


The GST council also approved an electronic invoicing system for businesses. GST council is working on a system where the electronic invoice can be generated on a portal, which will act like an e-way bill. And as the invoice will be on a portal, the collection of the invoice will be the return. The council has given in principle approval for this system.

The council has approved an e-ticketing system for the multiplexes in the country, where it will be mandatory for multiplexes to issue electronic tickets. It will be convenient for the consumers, and it will ensure proper revenue for state and central government.

An electric vehicle charging point

On the rate front, the Council has decided to reduce the GST on Electric Vehicles from 12 percent to 5 percent, while the rate of electric vehicle chargers will come down from 18 percent to 12 percent. The proposal for this rate cuts has been sent to the fitment committee, which is aimed at the promotion of electric vehicles in the country. A proposal to reduce the rate on leasing of electric vehicles also have been sent to the committee.

Addressing the media, finance minister Sitharaman said that all the decisions in the meeting were taken unanimously. All the states were represented by respective chief ministers, deputy chief ministers or finance ministers of the states.

Kanpur Maulvi accused of raping minor inside Madrasa hides behind defence of ‘Nikah’, girl’s family faces hostility from community

OpIndia Staff
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Kanpur Maulvi accused of raping minor inside Madrasa hides behind defence of ‘Nikah’, girl’s family faces hostility from community

The Kanpur Madrasa Maulvi Javed who was accused of raping a minor girl inside the Madrasa has now taken the defence that he had performed Nikah with the victim. The victim was allegedly taken by the accused to the Madrasa on the pretext of filling some form. However, there was no other student present in the Madrasa except Javed’s maternal aunt Abda Islam and his daughter Sheeba who taught there. The accused cleric raped the girl there but the two women did not come to help her.

The accused who had gone into hiding was arrested by the police by tracking his phone location. As per a report by Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma, the police told that the accused cleric has confessed to making a sexual relationship with the victim but added that he first performed Nikah with her. However, he did not produce the Nikahnama before the police. He also claimed that the girl was not a minor but was 19 years old. The birth certificate of the victim produced by her family showed her date of birth as March 19, 2004, which makes 15 years old.

The girl’s family is worried because of the rumours of the Nikah of the accused with the victim are being spread in the community. “We are being accused of framing Javed for money. No one is supporting us”, the girl’s father said. Also, the family is facing the hostility of the community. According to Imran, the girl’s cousin, no one accompanied the family to the police station. He said that the accused has the support of the locals.

Victim’s mother said that Abda had offered them money and asked them no to complain to the police. Refuting the cleric’s claims of Nikah, she said that her own husband is 34 years old then why would she marry her minor daughter to a man who is older than her father. “My husband is 34. How can I bring a son-in-law older than him?”, she said.

The girl’s father contended that a valid Nikah requires a Kazi and four witnesses, two from each side and after the Nikah, a copy of Nikahnama is provided to both the parties. But none of it was done in this case.

According to Noorjehan Safia Niaz who is a Muslim women’s rights activist and founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, no standard procedure of Nikah is followed by the community. She said that the Nikahnamas issued by any Madrasa or mosque with merely the institute’s name printed on them and some columns to fill are accepted as valid both by the community and the courts.

Leila: Who would question Prayaag Akbar or Netflix?

Ashish Shukla
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Leila: Who would question Prayaag Akbar or Netflix?

I expect a political storm over Leila, a six-part TV serial on Netflix, the first season of which went on air last week.

The serial which has Huma Qureshi as the central character is Hinduphobic and foresees India becoming a totalitarian regime, priming itself for genocide in the name of purification, a throwback to Adolf Hitler and his “purification” drive of ethnic cleansing which caused World War II. (Even the greeting—Jai Aryavarta—a la “Heil Hitler” is uncannily similar.)

It’s a frontal attack with no punches pulled. The clock is set in 2047, exactly 100 years since India’s independence. India has been replaced by Aryavarta, as “Bharat” was known in holy Hindu texts. It’s a totalitarian, repressive regime: The show begins with the lynching of a Muslim man and poops drop at every stage to establish “love jihad”, “Ghar Wapsi,” “suit-boot” persona of its authoritarian head, the degrading conditions in Doosh (Dalit) camps etc.

The serial, directed by Deepa Mehta, is based on a work of Prayaag Akbar who deserves an introduction of his own. The young writer was once deputy editor of Scroll as well as a writer for Caravan, the two news outlets with the stench of Left. His lineage is even more interesting: Prayaag is the son of MJ Akbar and unlike his father who swung from Congress to BJP with a straight face, the son has ventured too far into the Hinduphobic drain to have any possibility of “purification” in future.

There is no point picking holes in Prayaag’s work. It’s a free world, you have the licence of artistic freedom and the vehicle, Netflix, is free from the local censor. You know exactly your audience as well as your funders, that media outlet and film critics of this ecosystem who would only unsheathe their pens in praise.  You are turned into an icon by this system who can spot a peddler and his potential from a mile. Maybe this was his intention from the outset.

I say so because the serial lacks conviction in every next frame. The script is too convenient: the protagonist could will herself at 3-4 different places in a matter of a night in her quest to be at Commercial Centre in the morning. Surveillance always fails; frisking is always lax, the bosses are dumb idiots as the protagonist waltz from one room to another, one computer to another, her manager an accomplice hidden in plain sight. But how does it matter as long as you could stoke fears of an approaching fascist Hindu nation, overriding logic, reason, decency and all this without looking into a true mirror which reflects your dishonest self?

Let me put a writer-bucket challenge for Prayaag. The year is 2070, exactly 1500 years to Prophet Muhammad’s birth, peace be upon him. The Muslim world constitutes 90 per cent of humanity—not by repression or war but by the message of his piety, love for all. The prophet comes into the dream of every Muslim on earth at a certain hour, minute and second of the night. How would you depict Prophet Muhammad? Would you dare give this role to any human actor?

No, you won’t. You can’t Prayaag. Nobody has dared so in hundreds of centuries: I hope it sobers you down to the orchestrated praise on your courage which is coming your way.  I can even ask you on an easier script: Ever heard of Tughlaq or Aurangzeb; Khilji or Tipu Sultan? How about putting your creative juices at work on these subjects?

Everyone knows that chances of a dystopian Hindu regime in future is lesser than your car running on air.  I mean in a country where you can’t even chant Jai Shri Ram or include “Veer” ahead of Savarkar or even vaguely mention “Hindi” as a link language, forget about Ram Temple, the abolition of 370 and 35A, triple talaq etc, where the Army is independent, how would it come about. Who would burn up the Constitution? And what do you think forces in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China and United States etc, who might have invested in your project and who you might see as your investment in fame and money, would react? Let India be taken up by a totalitarian regime?

In showing India as a dystopian state in the making, Prayaag Akbar has insulted the wisdom and resilience of 1.30 billion people. The fibre of our democracy.  The basic tenet of peace and ahimsa which made “Aryavarta” never seek to invade, rape, kill or usurp countries. If he is looking for such traits, he would find aplenty in Islam and Christianity.  To show a country which has suffered like no other nation in 1000 years as a monster-in-making is sin—and let Prayaag decipher it in whichever religion he follows. As for millions of Hindus, we are still under repression, by tools other than war.  In the liberal world, they call it artistic licence. And a warning to Hindus: You just can’t drop your guard for the enemy is committed.

Balakot airstrikes was codenamed by IAF as ‘Operation Bandar’

OpIndia Staff
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Balakot airstrikes was codenamed by IAF as ‘Operation Bandar’

In the wee hours of February 26, 2019, the Indian Air Force sent a fleet of Mirage 2000s to blow into smithereens pre-determined targets across the border, deep inside Pakistan to avenge the loss of 40 CRPF personnel martyred in a terror attack executed by a JeM cadre on February 14, 2019, near Pulwama in Kashmir.

In response to the brazen attack on the CRPF convoy orchestrated by Jaish-e-Muhammad terror outfit, the IAF devised a reprisal attack, homing in on the JeM assets based in Pakistan. The target finalised was the JeM terror camp in Balakot that trained and sheltered around 200-300 terrorists.

The operation was planned and kept under utter secrecy for the fear of losing the ‘surprise’ factor, critical in the successful completion of such operations. To this end, the operation was code-named as Operation Bandar (Monkey). “In order to maintain secrecy and avoid getting the plans leaked out, the operation was code-named as Operation Bandar,” said defence personnel.

Without enunciating specific reasons for the chosen codename, according to the sources, the Monkey codename was chosen as they hold a special significance in India’s war culture as can be seen in Ramayana in which Lord Hanuman, clandestinely entered Lanka and set it on fire.

The attack was carried out at 3:30 am in the morning when the fleet of Mirage 2000s dropped 5 Spice 2000 bombs, out of which 4 penetrated the roof of the terror camp in Balakot killing hundreds of terrorists and wounding and maiming several others. Soon after, the Indian Air Force aircraft departed from the target location leaving the JeM terror camp smouldering.

After heaping atrocities on Sabarimala devotees, communists in Kerala now ask centre for law to protect Sabarimala traditions

OpIndia Staff
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After heaping atrocities on Sabarimala devotees, communists in Kerala now ask centre for law to protect Sabarimala traditions

Taking a U-turn on the Sabarimala temple issue, the ruling CPM party in Kerala has demanded that the Central government should pass a law to protect the ‘customs and traditions’ of the temple.


State Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran today said that it is not appropriate to drag the devotees on the street and requested the Central government to enact a law to safeguard the customs and traditions of the temple. He said that if enacting a law takes time then the Centre should pass an ordinance based on which the government can proceed further.


Surendran’s statements came after Member of Parliament from Kollam and alliance partner of Congress-led UDF, N K Premachandran announced that he would be presenting a private member bill in Parliament today to overturn the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala.


The CPM which had welcomed the controversial Supreme Court verdict allowing the woman of menstruating age to enter the Ayappa temple has suddenly changed its stand on the issue. In a massive crackdown on Ayappa devotees who were protesting against the entry of women between the age group of 10 to 50 in the Sabarimala temple, the Kerala police had made mass arrests by arresting around 2000 people and filed cased against 450 of them. The police had also lathicharged and pelted stones at the peaceful protestors who were gathered outside the temple.

In reference to the Sabarimala issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that some customs are meant to be violated. On the contrary, the CPM government that tried every dirty trick to make women of menstruating age enter the Sabarimala temple arrested three women belonging to a Hindu outfit for trying to enter the Vavar Mosque which is located on the way to Sabarimala temple and is visited by pilgrims visiting the temple. But like most of the mosques, the Vavar mosque also does not allow the entry of the women.

Rajasthan: Cattle smugglers attack Gaushala in Bharatpur, flee with three cows after thrashing Mahant

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Cattle smugglers attack Gaushala in Bharatpur, flee with three cows after thrashing Mahant

Cattle smugglers have allegedly attacked a Gaushala (cow-shelter), thrashed the Mahant and fled with three cows on Tuesday in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The Police has initiated efforts to nab the accused, however, local residents feel that cattle smugglers have become emboldened due to the laxity of the Police.

“Gaushala caretaker Kanhaiya Lal, also known here as Babaji, filed a complaint that some cattle smugglers had attacked him and fled with cows,” said SHO Vinod Savariya. SP (ASP) Deeg Mahesh Meena told Times of India, “The suspects have not been identified. The caretaker said that the accused had come in a vehicle but he was unable to recall the registration number of that vehicle. The caretaker alleged that he was thrashed by the accused when he confronted them. Our teams are looking into the matter and we have registered an FIR under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal Act.”

Cattle Smuggling has been a huge problem in the area which falls under the Mewat region. It is a hotbed of organized crime, cattle smuggling, illegal Rohingya settlement and mob violence, even against the Police.

Last year too, there have been some incidents in Auraiya, UP, where Sadhus who had worked to prevent cow-slaughter in the area were found brutally murdered inside their dwellings.

In an earlier incident, in the Tijara area of Alwar district, which falls under Mewat as well, police had raided the house of a man named Nishad in the Arandka village and recovered flesh and skin of the cows. The police had found 4-5 suspects in the nearby field sprinting away. When police went there they found about 20-22 kgs of beef lying down and cowhide of 5-6 cows from the well in the nearby field. On Thursday as well, the Police had managed to rescue 18 buffaloes and arrested two culprits.

Five reasons for the decline of the Congress party

mandarsawant
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Five reasons for the decline of the Congress party

The Congress party which was on a high in last December after winning three major heartland states has plunged into a crisis again after the 23rd of May results. Suddenly nothing is going right for the Congress at the national level or in key states. Just eight additional seats as compared to 2014 is certainly not an improvement which the party can tom-tom about. The party is going about looking for scapegoats to blame the 2019 Lok Sabha debacle on.

The prospects in key states like Maharashtra and Haryana where the party was a major force up to 2013, look bleak in the run-up to the assembly elections. The Congress has been reduced to a number four party in Maharashtra and could just win one seat in the Lok Sabha polls. Considering that they had a small base of two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress still managed to suffer a 50% reduction in seats. The solitary seat of Chandrapur was won by an ex-Shiv Sena MLA who joined the party just prior to the polls. The Chandrapur MP Balu Dhanorkar is a liquor baron and probably won due to the anger against prohibition in the district. Top Congress leadership at the centre and state hardly played any role in this win. Two former chief ministers Ashok Chavan and Sushil Kumar Shinde lost the elections, such was the pathetic condition of the Congress. Haryana was much worse with the Congress drawing a blank and even managing to lose Rohtak.

If the reports about the con played by data analytics department head Pravin Chakravarty on the top Congress leadership are true, then it is comical and tragic at the same time. Rahul Gandhi was living in a make-believe world where he was reasonably confident of being the Prime Minister, though the exit polls showed a completely different picture. So where did the Congress go wrong? Will ten years out of power damage the Congress party critically? Many questions have arisen out of the Lok Sabha result. The year which started on a very optimistic note for the Congress seems to have gone horribly wrong and more horrors are expected in the next six months.

The following seem to be the five major reasons for the debacle of the Congress,

Out of step with new age politics of performance

The Congress is still stuck in the mandal era politics of caste mobilisation and religious appeasement. Congress relies upon a loyal vote bank more than administrative performance to win elections. A more recent example is the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh which promised a farm loan waiver to be implemented immediately after coming to power. The promise has not been fulfilled yet. Power cuts are back in MP after a long time. Congress never focusses on basic governance. It seems it has not yet learnt from the success of Modi in delivering basic services and welfare schemes. Congress instead relies on the 15-20% Muslim votebank in various states as their mainstay. Then they look to complement it with the biggest Hindu caste in various states. It could be the Marathas in Maharashtra, Jats in Haryana or the Gujjars in Rajasthan. Congress still attracts a decent number of Dalit voters. But when it comes to looking after their voters, Congress has always fallen short. In fact, Congress seems to believe that keeping the voters poor helps in milking them multiple times. Modi govt has done more for Dalits (along with other Hindu castes and other religions) through schemes like Ujjwala, MUDRA and Saubhagya (electricity connection in any willing household) etc. Congress is yet to realise that we are in the post mandal era and voters of various social groups want delivery of services more than a token representation of ministers from their caste or region.

Preference to seniority and dynasty over talent

Congress has always shown a preference for seniority and dynast over talent. A recent example was the selection of Ashok Gehlot as CM of Rajasthan and Kamal Nath as CM of Madhya Pradesh, over Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia respectively. This is not to say that Pilot and Scindia are not dynasts, but they are much younger than Gehlot and Nath and could have attracted voters with new ideas. Instead, oldies like Gehlot and Kamal Nath who financed the assembly / Lok Sabha election campaign were selected as the chief ministers. Same familiar and worn out faces who have been around for decades and have failed in providing governance have been persisted with by the party. In contrast, Narendra Modi has selected new and younger leaders like Devendra Fadnavis, Yogi Adityanath, Manohar Lal Khattar, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jairam Thakur and Biplab Kumar Deb as chief ministers and central ministers like Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kiren Rijiju and Nirmala Sitharaman etc. The episode that best epitomizes the Congress fallacy is ex Assam CM favouring his son as his successor, over his long-term deputy Himanta Biswa Sarma. Later Rahul Gandhi insulted him by playing with his pet dog while Himanta was putting forth his views. An insulted Himanta vowed to decimate Congress in the North East and accomplished the task in a short duration. Ignoring talent does not pay to be it a business organisation or a political party.

Inability to look beyond the Nehru Gandhis

Congress has become a Nehru-Gandhi incorporated in the last few decades. Leader outside the family cannot be visualized as leading the party. It is possible that a dummy leader like AK Antony or Ashok Gehlot might be selected to be the party president in place of Rahul Gandhi. But in such an arrangement, it would be the family running the party. Most of the leaders in the Congress know that the rot starts at the top, but no one has the guts not the inclination to blame Rahul Gandhi for the same. Hence the attempts to blame the state chief ministers or data analytics head Pravin Chakravarty or social media head Divya Spandana. In Congress, it has become a race to appear dumber than Rahul Gandhi, lest looking intelligent is taken as a slight. A capable man like Pranab Mukherjee was never trusted by Sonia Gandhi. Nor do Rahul or Priyanka look inclined to put a strong-willed leader at the helm. The Congress workers and leaders too don’t seem to be looking beyond Priyanka Gandhi, in case Rahul Gandhi is to be replaced (that is too strong a word for the Congress. Rahul might be made President Emeritus for life and phased out into retirement).

Arrogance towards allies and party workers

Priyanka Gandhi recently blamed the party karyakartas for the failure in Uttar Pradesh. Even a five-year-old kid would have told that the only possible result for Congress in Uttar Pradesh was a disaster. Priyanka Gandhi was touted by the Congress ecosystem as the ultimate saviour of the party and as the mirror image of Indira Gandhi. Indira was arrogant and treated party workers with disdain, but then she had the aura of having won the 1971 war and having owned her place at the top after fighting with the syndicate. Priyanka and Rahul have got their positions on a platter and their only qualification has that been of a “lucky sperm”. Arrogance does not take a leader much ahead in politics unless you have a remarkable track record in governance. The Gandhi siblings have no achievement. This arrogance was the reason that the success in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh was taken as a sign of anti-incumbency having set against the union government. Rahul Gandhi expected the BJP to roll over and die in the Lok Sabha election. Contrast this arrogance of the siblings with the BJP President Amit Shah who sent out personalised letters to key party workers (not necessarily big leaders) thanking them for their efforts during the Lok Sabha campaign and requesting their co-operation for the journey ahead. Modi and Shah have never rested on past laurels and they have already started work on upcoming assembly elections of the next 2-3 years.

Missing connect with the youth

65% of the Indian population is below 35 years of age. This would translate to about 50% of the voters being below the age of 35. This underlines the importance of youth voters in India. Rahul Gandhi being a youth leader (though he is 49 years old) was expected by the Congress party and friendly ecosystem to have a good connect with the youth and sweep them off their feet with his humility. But ironically the person who won over the youth was the 67-year-old Narendra Modi. Lack of jobs is the biggest problem for the youth and Rahul tried to attack the Modi government on that issue. But like always he could not stick to that issue and get pulled in the national security theme raised by Modi. Rahul focussed more on the Rafale non-corruption case and forgot everyday issues. The young voters acknowledged the lack of jobs as a serious issue but they trusted Modi more to solve the issue. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party simply lacked the credibility with the voters to make an impact. Modi displayed a long-term vision that attracts young voters. But it ideas like “Swach Bharat”, “Make in India” or the vision of Modi linked to the 75th year of Indian Independence, the youth connected with this long term vision. The lesson for the Congress is that only negative things do not resonate with the youth.

Time will tell whether the Congress will take any lessons out of this Lok Sabha 2019 debacle. Right now it does not seem that they are doing any course correction. The same old game of trying to put the failure at the doorstep of some random leader rather than the Gandhis is being played. Though we must give one year to see any change in the approach of Congress. Remember that parties don’t disappear overnight and they can come back from the dead. A prominent example is the BJP in 2009 which was expected to fade away but instead returned to capture power in 2014.

For now, it seems that the Congress has started disintegrating in their remaining strongholds like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and the North East states. Congress leadership should act now before it is too late and remember that even Kerala and Tamil Nadu are not safe from the BJP onslaught of 2024.

(This article was originally published on the author’s personal blog)

No lessons learnt: Rahul Gandhi not only mocks International Yoga Day but also Indian Army’s elite Dog Unit

OpIndia Staff
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No lessons learnt: Rahul Gandhi not only mocks International Yoga Day but also Indian Army’s elite Dog Unit

On the day the fifth International Yoga Day was celebrated across the world, Congress President insulted the dog unit of Indian army while trying to mock PM Narendra Modi on his Yoga Day initiative.

The Wayanad MP posted two images, where the dogs of the 2 Army Dog Unit were seen doing Yoga alongside their trainers. Along with the pictures, Mr Gandhi posted just two words, “New India”, which was clearly aimed at taking a potshot at Modi. As he is not known for appreciating anything done by Narendra Modi, it is unlikely that there is any other motive behind the tweet.

The Yoga Day is a brainchild of PM Modi who had suggested in his address to the UN in 2014 that 21 June in every year should be declared as the International Day of Yoga. Following this proposal by PM, India had submitted a draft resolution which was adopted by the United Nations.


Rahul Gandhi’s tweet attracted various kinds of reaction on Twitter. One user noted that BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sharma will perhaps disagree, as it is old India. He was referring to an incident narrated by former Congress leader Sharma when Rahul Gandhi was playing with his dog while discussing the political situation in Assam with Congress leaders from the state, including the CM.


After the revelations by Sharma, Rahul Gandhi had himself introduced his dog Pidi on Twitter. This had prompted social media users to refer to Congress supporters as Pidis. Some users took the opportunity to reiterate that point.


Some Congress supporters were disappointed that Rahul Gandhi chose to mock what was probably the most adorable part of the Yoga Day. They commented it shows how the Congress party is disconnected from the ground.


BJP MP Tejasvi Surya noted that Rahul Gandhi has not learnt his lessons, and he has insulted the Army, the Dog unit, the Yoga tradition and the nation in one tweet.


While there are hundreds of reactions to Rahul Gandhi’s tweet, a few of them are given below.


Many people slammed Rahul Gandhi for his comment, and asked him to delete his tweet and apologise for the same.

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