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Mamata lied: TMC student leader who was injured by ‘BJP workers’ admits he was actually injured earlier

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata lied: TMC student leader who was injured by ‘BJP workers’ admits he was actually injured earlier

BJP President Amit Shah’s rally was attacked by Trinamool goons in Kolkata on Tuesday. In the clashes that ensued, a statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalized by miscreants in Vidyasagar College in Kolkata. Ever since the incident, Mamata Banerjee has been accusing the BJP of causing violence although it appears it was Trinamool who started it.

A rather interesting incident transpired in the aftermath of the violence. While Mamata was addressing the press, a certain individual appeared by her side with his hand wrapped up in bandages. It was Tirtha Pratim Saha, a student leader of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad. The West Bengal CM claimed, in front of the press, that BJP Karyakartas had injured his arm.

However, BJP leaders had claimed that Saha had in fact been injured a few days prior to Amit Shah’s rally in a separate incident. It was further claimed that Mamata was only creating was using an unrelated incident to peddle her preferred narrative. Some people say that he was injured in a bike accident four days ago.

TMC worker Tirtha Pratim Saha

Now, according to a report on Zee News, Saha has admitted that he was actually injured a few days ago. He made the admission while talking to Zee 24 Ghanata, a Bengali news channel of the Zee group. When asked why was the BJP being dragged into the matter, he said he had reached the venue of violence after receiving news about the chaos that was unleashed. Then, he claims, BJP workers attacked him despite seeing his injured hand.

The TMC has been using Tuesday’s violence to peddle regional chauvinism to counter BJP’s rise in the state. It is being claimed that ‘outsiders’ from North Indian states were brought in to unleash violence attack local people. In this particular instance, a fake victim was created to peddle the premeditated narrative. It remains to be seen whether Trinamool achieves any success through it.

BJP distributes 10 lakh postcards to send ‘Jai Shri Ram’ message to Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

OpIndia Staff
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BJP distributes 10 lakh postcards to send ‘Jai Shri Ram’ message to Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

In an interesting turn of events, Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) has distributed 10 lakh postcards with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ message stamped on it addressed to West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. These postcards were made available at every post office from where people of West Bengal can acquire it and send personalised messages to the Chief Minister.


Recently a video had gone viral on social media where Mamata Banerjee could be seen getting down from her vehicle after hearing chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and confronting the people who shouted the slogan as her vehicle was passing by. Visibly irked Mamata claimed that abuses were hurled at her.

Probably, the chants demonstrating the saffron surge in West Bengal unnerved the Chief Minister. The qualm of losing significance in her state has made Mamata oversensitive. She got down from the car and yelled at the people who raised the slogans. Taking into account the current political scenario in the state the people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans did not expect her to and made a run for it.

Surprisingly for the Chief Minister, who otherwise is trying her best to come across as a pro-Hindu amidst rising polarization in the state, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ was abuse, which was hurled at her.

Despite chanting Mantras during rallies, making donations of Rs 28 crores to Durga Puja committees last year and also struggling hard to play the ‘Soft Hindutva’ card, she could not hide her real self and got irked when she heard the name of Shri Rama.

This was unlikely to go down well with Hindus in the state who have now cleverly picked it up to their advantage. In an attempt to scorn the Chief Minister for her intolerance the Bhartiya Janata Youth Morcha has come up with this brainstorm of sending ‘Jai Shri Ram’ messages to Mamata Banerjee. It would, however, be interesting to wait and watch as to how the peevish Chief Minister of West Bengal reacts to this take-off.

Rahul Gandhi claims ‘Modilie’ is a new English Word, Oxford Dictionaries say ‘Fake News’

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi claims ‘Modilie’ is a new English Word, Oxford Dictionaries say ‘Fake News’

The official Twitter handle of the Oxford Dictionaries has called out Rahul Gandhi’s tweet which claimed that a new word ‘Modilie’ has been added to the dictionaries which, as per Rahul Gandhi, means ‘constantly modifying the truth’.


The tweet says, “We can confirm that the image showing the entry ‘Modilie’ is fake and it does not exist in any of our dictionaries.”

Rahul had tweeted the image yesterday, aimed as a jibe against PM Modi, claiming that the word has been recently added to the English dictionary.

It is not the first time that Rahul has been called out for fake attribution. Recently the Supreme Court had slammed the Congress President for falsely attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ jibe to them. Rahul had to submit an unconditional apology for the same.

Twitter users have reacted hilariously to the Oxford Dictionaries calling out Rahul’s attempt to invent a new word and failing miserably at it.

Congress’ official handle and Rahul Gandhi have been caught numerous times spreading blatant lies and misinformation. After Oxford calling out his recent lie, it remains to be seen how long Congress and its supporters take to claim that it was only a joke and their prince did not really mean it.

‘Bengaliyat’ is a Trojan Horse to destroy West Bengal

Abhishek Banerjee
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‘Bengaliyat’ is a Trojan Horse to destroy West Bengal

In the late 1940s, the British were itching to leave. And their ‘managers’ in India were itching to inherit the country. World War 2 had left Britain devastated, rationing bread, meat and petrol among its citizens. They weren’t willing to pay a paisa more to keep up the Empire in India. In fact, the British insisted that the scheduled date for Indian independence should be advanced to June 1948 from Aug 1947.

The British had taken already everything they could from India. And their managers had served them well, advocating on their behalf for India to pour out its wealth and young men into two World Wars for the British. Did you know that the British Indian Army was the largest military to serve in both World Wars?

The only sticking point was the Hindu-Muslim issue. The managers quickly agreed to carve up and divide the country and signed the dotted line. Everyone who mattered got something. The British were happy. The ‘managers’ on both sides of the new border were happy.

Meanwhile 30 lakh common Indians perished in the riots. And along with that, the managers signed away the lives of lakhs of common Hindus who were caught on the wrong side of the border. Their lives and the lives of their children and their children.

Among the biggest victims of this were the unfortunate Bengali Hindus.

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Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh

As soon as the managers of Indian secularism signed that dotted line, it was only a question of when.

Today’s managers of Indian secularism are no different. As the old secular establishment is tottering on the verge of collapse, the ruling party in West Bengal is propping itself up on Bengaliyat. Their supporters flood the internet with messages dripping with regional hatred, chauvinism and racism. And their Chief Minister leads from the front, getting out of her car to personally direct the arrest of three people for saying “Jai Shri Ram”.

Dividing our gods and our people in one single statement. Only an Indian secularist could be so entitled, so ignorant and so vicious.

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Sagarika Ghose being her bizarre self

The greatest festival in West Bengal is Durga Puja, also known as “Akal Bodhan” (literally “worshiping out of season”) When Ram set out to vanquish Ravan, he needed the blessings of Durga. For this, he had to invoke the goddess “out of season”, whence the origin of the term Akal Bodhan. That’s what Durga Puja celebrates.

Notice how those who talk about Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb are always the most willing to take Hindu society apart strand by strand. Ram and Durga and are woven together through thousands of years of Hindu tradition. Who are you, Sagarika, to tell us to take it all apart?

With what face have India’s elite liberals come to talk about Bengali identity today? Where were you when Bengal was torn apart for the political greed of the managers of Indian ‘secularism’?

It is the Hindu character of West Bengal that makes it Indian. That is why the Hindu identity of West Bengal is so under attack. They want to sever that bridge and cut off our cultural roots.

Remember that India’s elite liberals were the biggest beneficiaries of the first Partition. It allowed them to dominate and strip mine this country for almost seventy years.

That run has come to an end. Unlike the British, India’s liberals have nowhere to flee. So now they want a second partition in the name of Ram and Durga.

Ha! Fool me once.

Behind the propaganda smokescreen of elite liberalism, the Ram vs Durga rhetoric, do we not hear the drumbeat of “Bengaliyat”? You want to cut us Hindu Bengalis off from our fellow Hindus all over India and leave us at the mercy of…?

In 1979, thousands of helpless Bengali Hindus made a mad dash across the border from Bangladesh, seeking refuge in West Bengal. Your secular ‘Bengaliyat’ did not give them a needlepoint of land to stand on.

Desperate, hungry and abandoned, those Bengali Hindus took refuge on the tiny island of Marichjhapi in the Sunderbans. The Communist government of West Bengal sent the police to surround the island and massacre all 10,000 of them in General Dyer style.

So, Indian secularists, please save your concern for Bengali identity. Thank you very much but I reject the Trojan horse of ‘Bengaliyat’. Fool me once.

UGC warns students not to take admissions in institutions in PoK, says they are not recognised by India

OpIndia Staff
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UGC warns students not to take admissions in institutions in PoK, says they are not recognised by India

The University Grants Commission (UGC), in a notification issued on May 8, has warned students not to take admission in unapproved institutions located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). They have said that PoK is an integral part of India that is currently illegally occupied by Pakistan.

“Since Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) is an integral part of Union of India and the educational institutions including universities, medical colleges and technical institutions and other education institutions situated in PoJK are neither established by Government of India nor recognized by statutory authorities such as University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI), etc,” states the notification issued by Secretary Professor Rajnish Jain.

The notification further stated that “Therefore, students are cautioned/ advised against taking admission in any college/ university/ technical institution in any territory under illegal occupation of Pakistan including the so-called AJK and Gilgit Baltistan, which are currently not recognized in India.”

Although the government had only warned students against taking admission from unrecognized institutions, Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is the Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference condemned the notice, alleged that education was being politicised.

In a Facebook post, he had written, “It is unfortunate politicisation of education, which violates the fundamental right of students to seek education anywhere in the globe. It (the UGC notification) has put the career of those studying there in jeopardy and uncertainty.”

The post further read, “Kashmiri students like students worldwide have every right to study anywhere they choose and barring them from seeking admission in educational institutions of Pakistan administered Kashmir which is part of entire J&K of which they are state subjects, makes no sense. After the suspension of cross LoC trade that has greatly affected the traders and those associated with it and the economy, this is another regressive move adversely affecting the students of the state this time.”

Top 10 lies spread by Rahul Gandhi in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections

OpIndia Staff
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Top 10 lies spread by Rahul Gandhi in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections

The road that leads up to 23rd May 2019, when the results of the 2019 elections would be declared has been littered with Congress and its President, Rahul Gandhi’s, lies. Rahul Gandhi has turned lying almost into an art form and a force of habit. He has, despite clarifications even whiplash from the Supreme Court, continued to peddle falsities throughout the election season.

Here are the top 10 lies that Rahul Gandhi spread in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

1. The Rafale Saga

Another issue which Rahul Gandhi has relied on time and again despite the Supreme Court giving the Government a clean chit on the issue is the Rafale Deal. Rahul Gandhi has claimed repeatedly that the UPA government had two conditions for the construction of the jet. Firstly, they had to be manufactured in India and secondly, they will be bought at a price of just over Rs. 500 crores. However, the Congress President fails to mention that his government was unable to reach a deal on the matter despite negotiations and the IAF’s dire need for cutting edge aircraft. Speculations have also been made that one of the reasons Rahul Gandhi is so against the Rafale Deal is because of his intimate links to Eurofighter lobbyists, the competitor to the Rafale.

The Rafale is one issue on which Rahul Gandhi has lied over and over and over again. In the past, various ministers of the Government of India and both Dassault Aviation and Reliance had clarified on the matter and punctured his various lies. Things had reached such a stage that even the French government had to come out and dismiss his frivolous allegations. Even the Supreme court has debunked all the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale deal, reiterating the same points the Indian Government and others have been repeating continuously. But it appears that the Congress President is in no mood to relent.

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that Narendra Modi had insisted that Dassault partner with Reliance as Anil Ambani was ‘his man’. He based his assertion on the claims allegedly made by former French President Hollande whom he wrongly addressed as the current President of France. Hollande’s claims were rubbished by Dassault and despite repeated denials by Dassault of any pressure on it to choose Reliance as one of the numerous offset partners, Rahul Gandhi continues to lie on the matter.

Even the late Manohar Parrikar was not spared by the Congress President. He used the Fake News story of N Ram at the Hindu to claim that the Ministry of Defense officials had registered their complaint with the manner in which the deal was negotiated. The Hindu had published a cropped image of the document and Rahul Gandhi had chosen to run ahead with the fake narrative. However, when the whole document surfaced, it came clear that the then Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar was aware of the negotiations and remarked that both PMO and French President offices were monitoring the government to government deal, and the comments of the secretary is an overreaction.

Since Rafale had been brought up, the Rs. 30,000 crore lie could hardly be far behind. As the price of the aircraft, Rahul Gandhi keeps changing the amount he claims that ‘Modi has gifted to Ambani’. Sometimes he says it is ₹1 lakh crore, while sometimes it goes up to ₹1.30 lakh crore, both the figures substantially more than the total value of the contract for 36 aircraft. Even the ₹30,000 crore is more than the total offset of around ₹29,000 crore in the deal, while the share of Dassault in offset obligations is much lower, as other vendors in the deal – MBDA, Thales and Safran – also have offset obligations against their respective shares in the deal.

Dassault will be investing around €100 million in the joint venture with Reliance as part of offset obligations related to the Rafale deal, which is less than 3% of the total offset obligation. Reliance is not getting US$20 billion or even US$4 billion as Rahul Gandhi seems to believe, the current investment is less than USD$ 120 million.

2. Farm Loan Waiver Lie

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had waived off the loans of farmers in “2 days”. What he did not mention was the complete sham the loan waiver was. A farmer who was under a debt of Rs. 24,000 got a waiver of only Rs 13. Days after the waiver in MP, a farmer had committed suicide as he wasn’t eligible. Farmers went so far as to threaten mass suicides over the loan waiver.

Dubious cases of non-existent farm loans being waived off have been reported in Congress led Rajasthan as well. Scores of names have appeared in the list of beneficiaries for the farm loan waiver scheme who had no loans against their names.

In Karnataka as well, which is another Congress-ruled state, farmers have been complaining against the government after several instances of farmers receiving repayment notices came to light despite Congress’ claims to have waived-off farm loans.

After the Congress-JDS government came in power, for the longest time, the loans of farmers were not waived off. When they were, it then emerged that it was mere lip-service by the coalition government. It emerged that the farmers were still getting recovery notices from banks for the loans they had availed. The government had also admitted that out of the Rs. 44,000 crore farmer loan waiver, only a paltry 800 farmers had benefited.

Recently, Kamal Nath, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh had interestingly admitted that Congress does not have a magic wand and cannot waive loans within 10 days.

3. Kailash Mansarovar yatra lie

In 2018, Congress had alleged that its party President Rahul Gandhi had not received any response from the government of India on his request for special permission to go for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Congress mouthpiece National Herald even grabbed it as an opportunity to criticise Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj citing that she responds promptly to every other request on Twitter.

Ministry of External Affairs then clarified that the ministry had received no such request from Rahul Gandhi. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar clarified that they have not received any request from Rahul Gandhi regarding Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

4. Lie about Modi passing a law to shoot down Tribals

Rahul Gandhi in April 2019 had declared that the Modi government has included a provision in the Adivasi law which will empower the government to shoot down Tribals (Adivasis) without having to face any consequences.

This was not only a blatant lie but also one that toed the line of Naxals.

He received a show cause notice from the Election Commission, and as usual, in his response, he said that he made the statement in the ‘flow of political speech’. 

5. Lie about martyr status to CRPF and BSP jawans

Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a rally at Kangra, Himachal Pradesh claimed that paramilitary forces do not get the status of martyrs. He said that when his government comes to power, he will ensure that whenever someone gets martyred in the line of duty, he will get the status of a martyr.

As it turns out, the Congress President was spreading misinformation once again. According to the official stand of the Government on the matter, the term ‘martyr’ is not an official designation for any of the Armed Forces.

6. Lies on MNREGA

Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Modi government had “destroyed” MNREGA. The truth, however, is tha that the Modi government actually strengthened the scheme.

Here is our detailed fact-check. 

7. Modi is killing youth in North East

Congress President Rahul Gandhi levelled a very serious charge against Narendra Modi when he said that Modi is killing youths in the northeast. There can’t be a bigger lie than this. The region has become almost terror free under the current government, and only separatist terrorists are getting neutralised in encounters with security forces. During previous Congress regimes, the general public had to face severe harassment in operations conducted by security forces, which has become a thing of past now.

Here are some other lies he spread when he was in the North East. 

8. Rahul Gandhi used a case where Anil Ambani was represented by Kapil Sibal to further lies about the Modi govt and Indian armed forces

Rahul Gandhi in February shared a report involving Anil Ambani, which was completely unrelated to the Rafale deal, to claim that the Narendra Modi government had given the businessman the mythical figure of Rs. 30,000 crores that he keeps quoting.

There was a twist, however.

The report that Rahul Gandhi mentioned was talking about the Reliance Telecom-Ericsson case. And ironically, Ambani was represented in the court by Rahul’s close aide and senior Congress leader, Kapil Sibal, himself.

Our full report can be read here. 

9. Lies about loans of big industrialists waived by Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has been showing an anti-corporate mentality for quite some time and advocating loan waiver for farmers like the one stop solution for all problems in the agriculture sector. He has alleged that Modi has waived lakhs of crore of loans of few big industrialists, while refused to waive loans of farmers and students etc.

But Rahul Gandhi is not sure how much amount of corporate loans have been waived by Modi, as he keeps changing the amount. According to the Congress president, Modi government has waived loans of 5.50 lakh crore / 3.50 lakh crore / 3.00 lakh crore / 2.50 lakh crore / 1.50 lakh crore / 1.40 lakh crore / 1.30 lakh crore / 1.10 lakh crore owed by richest industrialists.

The fact is, most of the bad debt owed by the corporate sector are from the UPA era, and the Modi government has brought in revolutionary reforms in resolving NPAs. The government had introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to resolve the issue, and it had already recovered Rs 3 lakh crores in just two years.

As Rahul Gandhi keeps naming Anil Ambani as the top beneficiary of loan waiver by Modi, it is necessary to mention that Anil Ambani’s Reliance Telecommunication was not given any leniency by the government in settling its dues. On the contrary, the government is opposing the asset sale of Reliance Telecommunication to Jio, which would have helped the company in settling the dues. Moreover, Ambani was about to go to jail for failing to pay dues, and he was saved at the last moment by his elder brother Mukesh Ambani, who is endorsing the Congress party in these elections.

On the other hand, fugitive Vijaya Mallya keeps whining that Modi government has confiscated more assets than what is due to banks by him, which shows the extent of efforts put by the current government in recovering corporate debt.

10. Lied that Supreme Court had said Chowkidar chor hai

Rahul Gandhi’s this lie is unique in this list, because he had to formally apologise for it, agreeing that he had lied. That is because the Supreme Court was involved in it, and he was slapped with a Contempt of Court notice. On April 10, Rahul Gandhi had stated that the Supreme Court order says, “Chowkidar Chor Hai” while talking to media in Amethi after filing his nomination. He had made the comment referring to the Supreme Court’s decision to accept stolen documents submitted by petitioners in the review petition against the Rafale deal. He had said that “Supreme Court has said, chowkidar ne chori ki hai”.

As SC had made no such comment, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi had filed a contempt of court case against Rahul Gandhi for the remark. SC had clarified that it never made such a comment, and had issued a notice to him. Initially, Rahul Gandhi had refused to apologise for the same, and only said that he regrets that he had wrongly attributed the comment to the Supreme Court. But this was not acceptable to the apex court, and eventually, Rahul Gandhi had to tender an unconditional apology in the  Supreme Court for “unintentionally and inadvertently” attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chow hai’ jibe against Prime Minister Modi to the court’s order on Rafale Review plea.

Congress starts live streaming of Rahul speech late, Twitterati have a field day with an unintended gaffe

OpIndia Staff
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Congress starts live streaming of Rahul speech late, Twitterati have a field day with an unintended gaffe

Indian politics would indeed have been a dull and grim affair had it not been for Rahul Gandhi. Amidst saddening news of political violence, personal attacks and the ever plunging level of political discourse, the Congress president routinely comes up with some comic relief, bringing laughter and joy into the long series of incessant lies and baseless accusations, most of which, interestingly, also come from himself.

He is also an inspiration to many on Twitter. There is an entire cottage industry that uses his speeches and quotes to spread joy and a few laughs in the stressful election season.

Addressing a rally in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh on May 14, Rahul Gandhi had started his address by referring to the various CMs of Congress-ruled states present in the rally with him. However, the official Twitter handle of the Congress party started live streaming the speech a few seconds after he had started the speech.


In the Twitter live stream, Rahul Gandhi taking the name of Kamal Nath was missing, and it seemed if Rahul Gandhi goofed up names of CMs from his own party.

In the cropped video, one can hear Rahul Gandhi hailing Bhupesh Baghel as the CM of Madhya Pradesh and Hukum Singh Karada as the CM of Chhattisgarh.

Twitter users just could not stop laughing.


Rahul Gandhi’s goof-ups and mix-ups are the stuff of legends. The magnitude of the imaginary scam in Rafale deal, and the amount of money that ‘Ambani and Adani’ have, as per Rahul’s claims, received from PM Modi also keeps on changing. Not only Congress CMs, but Rahul Gandhi is also known to mix up the monthly, annual and total budget of his NYAY scheme too.

Though in the full video, Rahul Gandhi did not mix up the names of the Chief Ministers, that did not stop Twitter from having a hearty laugh on the edited version.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new information. 

Here is a compilation of the lies spread by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale Deal in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

OpIndia Staff
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Here is a compilation of the lies spread by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale Deal in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi found a dead horse to flog in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They managed to concoct a “scam” where there existed none and continued with their canards despite the Supreme Court giving the deal a clean chit. The Rafale deal became Rahul Gandhi’s pet issue in these elections. He repeated lies after lies, canards after canards helped by his friends in the media who never questioned him about his assertions.

Here is a compilation of the Rafale lies that Rahul Gandhi spread in the run-up to elections.

Reliance Industries of Anil Ambani has been given the contract to make the Rafale fighter

The 36 Rafale Fighter jets are being completely made in France by Dassault, no aircraft will be made in India under this deal. Reliance or any other Indian company is not making the Rafale jet in India. So there is no question of Anil Ambani’s Reliance, or any other company in India, making the Rafale jet.

Modi has stolen ₹30,000 crore from HAL and gifted it to Reliance Industries of Anil Ambani.

Reliance getting offset business does not mean they get money from the Rafale deal. Dassault and Reliance have set up a joint venture company, named Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited, where both companies have invested ₹400 crore each. The offset business that DRAL is expected to get around ₹1000 crore, not ₹30,000 crore as claimed by Rahul Gandhi.

The offset deal was snatched from HAL and given to Reliance.

HAL does not do offset business, they do license production of aircraft, and in the current deal, there is no provision for the production of the Rafale fighters in India. In the past, the PSU has never done any offset business, they have been manufacturing aircraft which are made India, like the MiG21 and Sukhoi Su-30MKI jets. The company also does maintenance, upgradation and overhauling of aircraft. Therefore, there is no question of snatching any offset business from HAL.

HAL was supposed to manufacture 108 Rafale jets in India under the previous deal during UPA government, but that deal could not be finalised due to the difference between HAL and Dassault. HAL wanted 2.7 times more man hours to make the jets, which would have increased the price. The CAG report on Rafale had also noted that if 2.7 times manpower cost is added, the Rafale no longer remains the lowest bidder, making the entire deal invalid.

Reliance has no experience in making planes, still, they are given offset deal to make Rafale.

As stated above, Reliance is not making the Rafale. As per offset clause, the offset business need not be related to the item of the deal, the foreign vendor can invest in or buy any product or service from a list given in the DPP. In the current deal, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited is going to get a small part of offset business, which is a joint venture between Dassault and Reliance. As Dassault is one of the JV partners, this means DRAL can tap into the vast experience of Dassault in aircraft manufacturing. It can be noted that DRAL is already making parts for Falcon civilian jet of Dassault.

Dassault was forced to select Reliance as offset partner

Reliance is not an offset partner in the Rafale deal, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd is, a 49:51 JV of Dassault and Reliance. As per the offset clause of India’s Defence Purchase Policy, the foreign vendor is free to select its offset partner. The governments of India and France and Dassault has clarified that there was pressure to select any company as offset partner. Dassault has selected around 100 offset partners, many of them PSU units, and DRAL is just one of them.

Modi government is paying more for the Rafale aircraft compared to previous deal by UPA government

The CAG report on the Rafale deal has thoroughly busted this lie. There were two components of the previous deal, 18 to be made by Rafale, 108 to be made by HAL. The cost of jets that were too be made in India was never finalised as HAL was demanding far more manhour, hence it is a lie to say that UPA deal was cheaper. According to the CAG report, the Modi government’s 2016 Rafale deal is 2.86% cheaper than the UPA’s deal in 2007.

Apart from the offset deal, Reliance has won a “lifecycle contract” worth $16 billion.

Apart from keep repeating the ₹30,000 crore lie, Rahul Gandhi had also said that Reliance was given a Rafale “lifecycle” contract of $16 billion hence the total benefit for the company was $20 billion. The fact is, no such thing as a “lifecycle contract” exists in the Rafale deal. This was just a fertile imagination of Rahul Gandhi.

Reliance Defence was set up just 12 days before signing the Rafale deal. It has no experience in the defence sector.

Reliance Defence was originally Pipavav Shipyard, which was set up in 1997. It is the first Indian private company to be cleared for building warships by Navy. The company was acquired by Reliance in 2015. Other than contracts to build warships for Indian Navy, the company has also won a maintenance contract from US Navy’s 7th fleet worth ₹15,000 crore.

Dassault is facing a financial crisis. That’s why they accepted Reliance as an offset partner to get the Rafale deal.

Dassault is a profit-making company, and its net income in 2017 was $708.95 million. Moreover, earlier the company had let go of the deal for 126, even after winning the bid, because they could not agree with terms of HAL. Therefore, to say that they accepted Reliance as an offset only to win the deal has no logic.

Official documents of Dassault leaked by French media confirmed that the company was forced to select Reliance as offset partner.

No such official document was ever leaked by French media. The documents published by a French portal were not from Dassault company, but they had published some publicly available documents published by trade unions of Dassault, which had talked about the Rafale deal. They were leaflets of two trade unions, CGT and CFDT, and they gave details about a meeting the top management of Dassault Aviation held with the labour unions of the company. As the company was forced to move some of its production to India to comply with the offset clause of Rafale deal, the management was explaining the same to the labour unions. The management talked about being forced to do offset business, which was misinterpreted as being forced to do business with Reliance.

There is no secrecy clause in the Dassault deal, and all details can be made public.

Rahul Gandhi had claimed that French President Macron had told him that there is no secrecy pact in the Rafale deal and the details of it can be made public. But the French government had immediately refuted the same, saying that secrecy pact was signed in 2008 (during UPA regime, AK Antony being the defence minister) which legally bound both the countries to protect classified information. These provisions also apply to the deal of 36 Rafale aircrafts and their weapons, the French statement had clarified.

Narendra Modi took the decision to buy 36 Rafale jets without consulting the Indian Air Force.

IAF was part of the process that selected Rafale among the 6 contenders in the MMRCA bid. That deal was cancelled as there were disagreements between Dassault and HAL over the terms of 108 aircraft to be made in India. Due to the urgent requirement of fighters, govt decided to buy 2 squadrons directly instead of the original one. IAF was part of the negotiations for these 36 jets in all stages.

A ‘management meet note’ of ICICI bank proves that Reliance is getting ₹1,05,000 crore from the deal and Reliance will provide performance based logistics for 50 years.

The ICICI Bank note estimates the ‘Potential Market Size’ for the Rafale offset obligations to be ₹22,000 crore, and total offset obligation in the deal as ₹29,500 crore. Potential market size means the total size of a market available for all the players, it DOES NOT mean a single company is getting all the business in that market. Moreover, there is no mention of ₹1,05,000 crore and 50 year deal in the note.

Manohar Parrikar had told him that he was against the Rafale deal

When Goa CM Manohar Parrikar was critically ill, the Congress president had gone to meet him. After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that Parrikar had told him that Parrikar had “nothing to do with the new Rafale deal orchestrated by Mr Narendra Modi to benefit Anil Ambani”. Rahul Gandhi told these lies when Parrikar was alive, and continued to so after the death of the former defence minister. Parrikar had rebutted the claims of Rahul Gandhi in a strongly worded letter.

PMO was doing ‘parallel negotiations’ on the Rafale deal which was objected by the Defence ministry

This lie was based on a defence ministry note published by the Hindu which showed that one defence ministry official had objected to PMO keeping track of the deal. But the Hindu had cropped a crucial portion of the note, and removed the comment of defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who said that “PMO and French President office are monitoring the progress of the issue which was an outcome of the summit meeting. Para 5 appears to be an over reaction,” referring to the comment of the official, who was not part of the Rafale negotiation committee.

Rahul Gandhi and others against the Rafale deal keep alleging that PMO was interfering in the Rafale deal, they want to imply that Defence ministry is a sovereign independent entity. But the fact is, defence minister reports the prime minister, and the prime minister has the right to oversee every activity undertaken by various departments of the government. Moreover, the deal for 36 Rafale deal is a government to government deal signed by the PM, hence it is natural that PMO will monitor the progress of the deal.

Crucial clauses of the Defence Procurement Procedure were dropped in the Rafale deal

Rahul Gandhi and others keep saying that clauses like sovereign guarantee and anti-corruption clauses were waived in the Rafale deal, which is a violation of Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). But the fact is that the DPP itself provides for such relaxations in case of government to government deal, hence Rafale deal is eligible for such waiver. Moreover, such clauses were waived in earlier government to government deals also, it was not done for the first time in Rafale deal.

It is considered as an achievement to convert a Hindu to Islam: Report of Members of European Parliament on religious minorities in Pakistan

OpIndia Staff
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It is considered as an achievement to convert a Hindu to Islam: Report of Members of European Parliament on religious minorities in Pakistan

A report has been released by the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) on the plight of religious minorities in Pakistan. The report prepared by MEPs Alberto Cirio, Fulvio Martusciello, Ryszard Czarnecki, Indrek Tarand and Heinz K. Becker was released in Brussels on May 13, 2019. It is a fact and figures based report which attempts to throw light on the institutionalised discrimination and the atrocities faced by the religious minorities at the hands of the majority community in Pakistan.

The report claims that the percentage of minorities in Pakistan has reduced drastically from 23% to a minuscule 3.7% of the total population and it cites violence against minorities and forced conversions as possible reasons for this decline. The report states that discrimination towards religious minorities is embodied in the Constitution of Pakistan which declares Islam as the State religion of Pakistan. “Even though the clause goes on to provide that adequate provisions will be made for minorities to practice their religion, it still continues to subject the minorities to the principles of ‘of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam”, says the report.

Cover of the MEP report on religious minorities in Pakistan

It elaborates how the Constitution of Pakistan denies its minorities various rights by reserving them exclusively for the majority community. An example of this discrimination is embodied in Article 41(2) which reserves the right of becoming the President to Muslims only thus depriving the religious minorities the right to hold high positions in the government.

The education imparted in the schools of Pakistan is highly Islamicised and it teaches intolerance towards religious minorities, especially Hindus. The children belonging to the religious minorities are forced to study the Islamic religious texts as the reading of the Quran, the Jihad and the Shahadat path is compulsory in the schools of Pakistan, claims the report. The school curriculum does not make any reference to the contribution of the religious minorities and instead denigrates them.

Another example of institutionalised discrimination against religious minorities is the vague Blasphemy law of the country. Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code criminalises any act, spoken or written which defiles the name of prophet Mohammad. The offense is punishable by death, or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine. The law is misused to settle personal vendetta by leveling false accusations against the members of minority communities. An example of this is the infamous case a Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi who was sentenced to death and had to spend 9 years of his life in jail to be finally acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan due to lack of evidence. The Supreme Court decision was opposed nationwide and 3-day national level protests were held in the country.

The report says that desecration of the places of worship of the religious minorities is also common in the country. In some areas, minorities are made to pay a historically imposed annual tax paid by non-Muslims for residing on Muslims land.

One of the most serious problems that the minority communities face in Pakistan is the abduction, rape and forced conversion of the women of minority communities. Recently two minor Hindu girls were abducted, converted to Islam and married off. Even the court did not come to the rescue of the girls and ordered them to be sent back to their Muslim husbands.

The report claims that around 1000 girls from religious minorities are forcibly converted to Islam every year. The numbers might be higher as many cases are not even reported.  The evidence provided by the cases compiled by Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD), shows how minor Hindu and Christian girls disappear from their homes or workplaces and later resurface as converted and married women.

The report provides a pattern of how such cases are dealt with authorities, how it acts as a deterrence for the minority communities in filing cases. The local police are often biased in favour of the majority community. As soon as the incidents of abduction and rape become public, the abductors tend to marry off the victim in an attempt to clear the suspicion of sexual assault. This is often followed by abductors filing counter-complaints against the victim’s family of harassing the girl and conspiring to convert her back. If a case somehow reaches the court, the victim is required to testify whether she converted and married out of her own free will. Since in most cases, the victim remains in the custody of the abductor during the course of proceedings, she is forced to testify that she converted out of her own free will and the case is closed.

The report throws light on the religious philosophy underlining such incidents of forced conversions. It says that in Islam, it is considered as an achievement to convert a Hindu to Islam and one earns a blessing by doing so. This is the reason that such incidents of forced conversions have the backing of powerful shrines, seminaries, clerics and also local politicians. The money and the housing for the new Muslim converts are controlled by clerics.

Interestingly, the plight of religious minorities in Pakistan is conveniently ignored by the so-called liberals in India and the West alike. The very people who shout their lungs out for the Syrian refugees and the Rohingya Muslims go into hibernation when faced with the question of treatment of religious minorities in Muslim majority countries.

‘Mamata Didi targeting people from UP-Bihar but Mayawati did not condemn it,’ PM criticises BSP chief’s support to TMC

OpIndia Staff
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‘Mamata Didi targeting people from UP-Bihar but Mayawati did not condemn it,’ PM criticises BSP chief’s support to TMC

The Trinamool Congress is playing a dangerous game in West Bengal with the card of regional chauvinism to counter the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. With the Vidyasagar statue having been vandalized at a college in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee and her party claimed that it was committed by outsiders who were brought in to attend Amit Shah’s rally by BJP.

An attempt is underway to demonize the people of North India living in the state and efforts are being made to recreate the brand of toxic Dravidianist politics in Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke out on the matter at a rally in Mau, Uttar Pradesh. He criticized the silence of North India based parties on the matter.

Narendra Modi said, “I had thought the way Mamata didi is targeting people from UP-Bihar, calling them outsiders for her politics, Behen Mayawati will surely condemn it, but this did not happen.”


The Prime Minister also committed himself towards realizing Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s vision and promised to reconstruct a grander statue at the same place where it was vandalized. He accused the TMC of vandalizing the statue in the first place.


Earlier, Mayawati had come out in support of Mamata Banerjee. She had said, “It is clear that PM Modi, Amit Shah and their leaders are targeting Mamata Banerjee. This is planned targeting. This is a very dangerous and unjust trend and one which doesn’t suit the PM of the country.”

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