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No AltNews, Zakir Musa was not a ‘separatist’, he was a terrorist who wanted to establish an Islamic Caliphate in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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No AltNews, Zakir Musa was not a ‘separatist’, he was a terrorist who wanted to establish an Islamic Caliphate in Kashmir

Pratik Sinha, the founder of dubious ‘fact-checking’ website AltNews, was found whitewashing the crimes of a dreaded Jihadi terror leader by labelling him as a mere separatist on Twitter. On 23rd May, Jihadi Terrorist Zakir Musa was killed by Indian security forces yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir. Musa was the head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a cell of terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda.

Although the news of neutralisation of a most wanted terrorist was welcomed by most people, some people, including left-liberal journalists, could not digest the news. One such journalist was Arfa Khanum Sherwani, senior editor of propaganda website The Wire. When BTVI editor Aditya Raj Kaul shared the news with a comment that it is a win for Indian Democracy, Arfa could not tolerate that and said that it is tough to differentiate between RW trolls and RW journalists now. She suggested that only right-wing trolls want deadly terrorists dead.


After her tweet, News 24 editor Manak Gupta posted a light-hearted tweet in Hindi responding to one of Arfa’s Hindi tweet containing the word ‘Musa’, which was posted on 22nd May. He had written that he (Musa) will not come now, and if anyone wishes to meet him, will go away from this earth. In the same tweet, he had clarified in brackets that Arfa was not talking about Zakir Musa, and included an emoji to indicate that it was a joke.


But for Pratik Sinha, who these days do fact-check on memes and photo manipulations done as jokes, this was not enough. He accused that Manak Gupta had invited a troll army to the Wire journalist because her tweet contained the word Musa.

Along with that, most shockingly, Sinha also referred to Zakir Mura as a separatist, not as a terrorist. Although the matter may look trivial on the surface, it is not. Separatist means a person who supports the separation of a region from a larger region it is part of. Separatists can use various methods to place their demand, and some of such methods may not be against the law. For example, there are separatists who use only non-violent methods.

Screenshot from Twitter

On the other hand, Terrorists create terror through the use of violence. They target both civilians and armed forces. More importantly, Islamic terrorists like Zakir Musa create terror in order to establish Islamic rule. The jihadis operating in Kashmir are specifically motivated by the goal of creating an Islamic Caliphate in the region, which can’t be defined as simple separatism.

Therefore, calling a terrorist leader a separatist leader is not only misleading, but it also whitewashes the crimes against humanity done by the terrorists.

The Left has lost its deposit. It is time for the Right to fight Modi

Anand Ranganathan
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The Left has lost its deposit. It is time for the Right to fight Modi

With great power comes great responsibility; a responsibility not so much of the all-powerful leader but, rather, of his followers.

The Left has lost its deposit. It is time for the Right to fight Modi.

Over these past five years, not a day has gone by when the Left – that holds a monopoly on the media narrative in India – principally through inbreeding and entrenched mediocrity and a collectivised belief in loony tomes – not a day has gone by when the Left hasn’t indulged in wanton propaganda, selectivism, scare-mongering, gangrenous puffery, Hinduphobia, shameless hypocrisy, and the institutionalisation of false-equivalence. From spreading misinformation and fake-news, to pillorying institutions like the Supreme Court and the Armed Forces, nothing was left to chance.

Like the proverbial Proustian cup-cake, these so-called Mothers of History and Fathers of Geography reminisced over past comforts, given them by their favourite dynasty, and how they yearned for it. They remembered the untold rewards through fellowships and committee memberships. They remembered the wah-wahs and the requests for encores at fixed television debates on nationalised television channels. They remembered PMO entourages and business-class trips to places they had never previously seen. They remembered the dinner parties and the book launches and the giggles and the nibbles. They remembered the life they had led, but not the life they had written about. They remembered a cocoon. And slowly, over the years, they remembered wrapping the cocoon with their silky threads over and over and over again till it became tighter and tighter. This they remembered. But life under wraps only stifled the pupa, preventing it from transforming into something that could take wings.

The cocoon got unwrapped in the last five years, leaving only a withered mass of putrefying gunge; hanging from a branch; dripping slime; about to detach. But still, they hoped for wings to sprout.

It only got worse in the last few months. These masked and bibbed writers jabbed and parried, jabbed and parried, rattling their sabres in a vigorous bout of eleventh-hour fencing. It was almost as though these Achtung Journalists and fly-by-night intellectuals took it upon themselves to save the Idea of India from the talons of Fascism and Totalitarianism. They dreamt of swastikas and toothbrush moustaches, they heard the approaching rumble of goose steps, they watched their beloved India turn into a Pakistan, but they refused to wake up to reality. They were the new Buffalo Soldiers – stolen from Communism, brought to Secularism; Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

In response, the Right wrote thousands of rebuttals, filled with logical counter-points and rationale, at times rife with anger, even retribution. But as the Navajo saying goes, you can’t wake a person pretending to be asleep. These rebuttals helped little. That is until one single, solitary rebuttal brought the rotten, decaying cocoon crashing down. It was a rebuttal that could not be read, only heard; could not be watched, only felt. It arrived yesterday. Modi wrote it.

No other rebuttal is now necessary. The Right has no enemy left. Fools are those who do not get weary from battling an idiotic adversary. Ignore and withdraw. Your battles now lie elsewhere.

Modi 2.0 heralds a new beginning for India and her people. It must not be allowed to cultivate the habits of Modi 1.0. It must not be allowed to rest its head on the cushion of nepotism and fawning and servitude and social Darwinism. It must be taken to task when it fails on its promises. The criticism by the Left cannot be trusted or believed in. Who else but the Right to help the government keep to the straight and narrow?

Doubtless, this would be difficult. The Right has not criticised Modi except on rare occasions, and worse, it has charged on galloping horses and spears drawn at those who are neither Left nor Right (call them non-Left) when they have criticised Modi. To be sure, it is the Left and not the Right that cannot take criticism from among its own. The Right works on Darwinian principles and fighting for supremacy of ideas come naturally – a fundamental and glorious reason why there can never be a Right-wing ecosystem.

To build a Right-wing Ecosystem would be to replicate a Left-wing ecosystem. Nothing could be more tragic. Ecosystems are tribes; sooner or later they demand their pound of flesh. Slowly, they sow ideas of brotherhood and dependence in an intellectual who has just joined them and then begins the slide. If India is to encourage the growth of intellectualism, it must understand that ecosystems, as we know them, are to be discouraged. It must understand the role of a patron. You can support a musician by organising a concert for him, but you can’t ask him to perform your mediocre creation. And this is what all ecosystems do. They turn into herds, and their members into little lambs, afraid to speak their minds, fearful of the consequences, scared that the flow of cash or kind might ebb. Ecosystems ensconce and guard mediocrity, then promote and help it prosper. Instead, the Right must now cultivate nonconformists and dissenters among its own fold.

There is a reason why this author is writing these words for Opindia. No one but no one has worked more to demolish the perfidy of the Left in recent past, than Opindia and its motley gang of the founder, editor, and gifted writers – all of whom are true Liberals. It was vital if not a crucial task and one that has been accomplished satisfactorily. It must now walk away from the scarred battlefield and reinvent itself. There is a need for Opindia 2.0. For every article that lauds the actions of Modi 2.0, let there be one written by someone from the Right that is critical of that same action. The space that was erstwhile occupied in rebutting the dissenting Left and its perfidious ideas must now be handed over to the dissenting Right.

So, warriors of the Right: arise, drop your swords and pick up your pens and celebrate true dissent as much as you celebrate true democracy. There is a job to do, and you are needed like never before. Withdraw the middle- and lift the forefinger. And point it at Modi when needed.

***

Author’s note: Few lines on the machinations of the Left Ecosystem have been taken from the author’s essays published earlier.

No bilateral talks with Pakistan till it keeps supporting terrorism: India’s envoy to the USA

OpIndia Staff
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No bilateral talks with Pakistan till it keeps supporting terrorism: India’s envoy to the USA

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, India’s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla told a group of American reporters that India will not hold talks with Pakistan until it gives up its state policy of supporting terrorism.

Mr Shringla said that the onus is on Pakistan to change its state policy of terrorism in order to improve the relations between the two countries. The envoy said that as long as supporting terrorism is a state policy of Pakistan, no Indian government will get a mandate from the people to reach out to that country.

The reporters enquired about the future of India-Pakistan relations to which Mr Shringla said the day Pakistan adjourns terrorism as a means of achieving its end, “I think the government will be within its mandate” to start a better relationship with its western neighbour.

“I think it is the desire of every Indian to have good relations with Pakistan. You see our relations with Bangladesh, you see our relations with Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan. We have excellent relationships,” he said.

He also added that PM Modi’s inclusive policy of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is meant for the development of all, including India’s neighbours.

“We have committed USD27 billion to the development of our neighbourhood and Pakistan is welcome to join. But it cannot be pursuing a policy of supporting terrorism on the one hand and then trying to talk of peace on the other. That double handed policy is not something that we can deal with anymore,” said Shringla.

Yesterday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated PM Modi’s victory in the Lok Sabha election. Although he wrote about working together for peace in the region he makes no mention of the terrorism that still emanates from the country.


India had suspended bilateral talks with Pakistan after the URI attacks. Pakistan’s new PM Imran Khan had initially tried to make grandiose statements regarding bilateral talks but India has been firm on its stand that no bilateral talks will happen till Pakistan continues to sponsor terrorism on Indian soil.

On Wednesday, Pakistan media had reported a ‘meeting’ between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi saying the two sat beside each other while attending the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). However, the MEA has clarified there was only an exchange of pleasantries and no formal meeting took place between the two leaders.

MEA has also said that the report of both the leaders sitting together was “factually incorrect and misleading”. “The seating arrangement at SCO follows the Russian alphabet system which does not put India and Pakistan together. This is standard practice at SCO meetings,” they added.

The story of BJP’s rise and rise in West Bengal: The story starts not in 2019 but 2017 Ram Navami

K Bhattacharjee
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The story of BJP’s rise and rise in West Bengal: The story starts not in 2019 but 2017 Ram Navami

The Bharatiya Janata Party has secured 18 seats from West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. They made a gain of 16 seats from its 2014 tally. The BJP’s rise in Bengal has been nothing short of spectacular. To truly be able to gauge the magnitude of a saffron surge in the state, one needs only take a look at the Assembly Election results in 2016.

The 2016 Assembly Elections

In the last state elections, BJP contested in a total of 291 seats, managing to win only 3 with a vote-share of 10.16%. It was a distant third in a three-way battle between the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Congress and itself.

And no one could have doubted that the dismal result was exactly what the BJP deserved at that point. The state unit was in disarray, there was no visible organizational strength and more importantly, it didn’t appear as if the BJP itself believed they had a chance.

It is important to appreciate the massive organizational strength that the BJP developed in an extremely short period of time. Until the end of the Assembly Elections, saffron was virtually nonexistent in the state as a viable alternative. There were no college campuses or universities where ABVP or BJYM could be perceived to be a force of strength. Even among the youth, support was nonexistent and almost every youngster treated the saffron alternative with derision.

It was only after the Assembly Elections were over that the BJP started working on developing its organizational infrastructure in the state massively. And it happened pretty quickly. BJP Karyakartas started becoming a lot more visible around college campuses and universities, supporters started getting a lot more vocal than they previously were, foot-soldiers of the party became really active on the ground and by the end of 2016, it appeared certain that the BJP was going to become a very potent force in the state and sooner rather than later.

The Watershed Moment for Bengal Politics

The watershed moment for Bengal politics, of course, was the Ram Navami of 2017. The 5th of April, 2017, was the day when the future of West Bengal politics was changed forever. I still remember the day quite clearly. I remember wondering, “How the hell did the BJP manage to get so many people on the streets?!”

Contrary to the narrative peddled by certain people that the BJP had brought people from other parts of the country to participate in the rallies in Bengal, at least in Kolkata, in the various parts of it I was witness to, it was quite clear to me that the people were overwhelmingly Bengalis. There were people from other regions, too, but the overwhelming majority of people, at least in Kolkata, were Bengalis.

That day, the whole of Kolkata was decked up in Saffron, as if the entire city awaited the arrival of the King of Ayodhya Himself. The events that transpired then and the week that followed made it amply career that Mamata Banerjee’s primary opposition in the state will no longer be cloaked in red. They will be wearing saffron.

The massive Ram Navami rallies, apart from being a great show of strength, also had a deep psychological impact on everyone. It made it clear to every single citizen in the state that the BJP was now a viable alternative. The Left was thrashed by Trinamool Congress in consecutive state elections, Congress was never really a credible alternative. Thus, for those who were sick and tired of Mamata’s Sultanate, there remained only one viable alternative, the same one which was on a rise nationally and had as its face a leader with great personal credibility. From that point on, the BJP never looked back.

The Panchayat Elections of 2018

Thus, by Ram Navami, 2018, it became abundantly clear once and for all that Trinamool’s primary opposition was the Bharatiya Janata Party. Things reached a point that even Mamata Banerjee’s men started their own Ram Navami processions and some among them thought it was a good idea to pit Hanuman against Rama. Panchayat Elections were around the corner and the atmosphere was electric.

The 2018 Panchayat Elections saw Trinamool embracing tactics that were the hallmark of the Left regime. Extreme violence and voter intimidation became the norm. Numerous BJP Karyakartas were murdered or thrashed. Even candidates were not spared. The state police were accused of colluding with the government in suppressing the BJP in the state through threats and other means. Despite all of that, the BJP managed to improve greatly upon its 2013 performance.

The Trinamool Congress won an unprecedented number of seats uncontested as well, which was further indicative of the violent nature of Mamata’s regime. While even Trinamool managed to improve upon its earlier performance, the Left and Congress were utterly decimated. Thus, it became clear once and for all that Trinamool’s primary opposition going forward would be the BJP.

The Saffron Surge in 2019

By 2019, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ had transformed into Bengal’s ‘Bidrohor Chitkar’ (cry of protest) against the oppressive rule of Mamata Banerjee. After years of tyranny, first by the Left, them by Trinamool, Bengali Hindus found refuge at the feet of Rama. There were attempts made to portray Rama as an ‘outsider God’ who had no connection with Bengal, however, Hindus know that’s not the case. Therefore, such attempts never worked. As more and more attempts were made to pit Hindus of varied ethnicity against each other, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ only became more and more of a unifying factor.

The Youth was no longer overwhelmingly averse towards the BJP as well. In fact, on social media and elsewhere, it was the youth of Bengal which campaigned greatly for the success of the party. It is a testament of the cultural change that Narendra Modi has brought about in the country that even in Bengal, ‘Mandir Wahi Banayengey’ became an extremely relevant slogan among its youth.

It’s important to understand that the BJP could never have gained ground in Bengal if they did not speak of issues which hold great significance for Hindus of Bengal. Illegal immigration, minority appeasement, communal violence, all these issues are of significant importance to the Bengal electorate. Unfortunately, however, there’s only one party on the horizon which voices these concerns and promises to address them. Therefore, it is important to remember that valid concerns of the Bengal electorate was not addressed by any other party and the BJP rose to prominence in the state riding on the promise to address them.

Prominent Leaders of the State Unit

While every victory is a team effort, some leaders of the state unit deserve special credit. The president of the BJP’s state unit, Dilip Ghosh, who won his seat from Medinipur, has worked contributed immensely towards the BJP’s rise. While he can be eccentric at times, he was at the forefront of numerous rallies and including the Ram Navami celebrations in 2017.

Locket Chatterjee, BJP’s winning candidate from the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency, too, deserves a lot of credit for her stellar campaign. Her personal security was threatened when goons allegedly associated with the TMC vandalized a house she was lodged at during campaigning. Yet, she emerged victoriously.

Roopa Ganguly, who can be accused of being overly dramatic at times and more theatrical than necessary, she too contributed in her own meaningful way. She was a victim of physical violence herself and yet, she did not quit.

While it is true that the state unit of the BJP still needs some work to be capable enough to win the 2021 Assembly Elections, it is very much on the right track and much much stronger than it was earlier. Along the way, quite a few Trinamool strongmen have jumped ship which has further augmented BJP’s standing in the state. Going forward, it appears Trinamool will suffer even more defections which will weaken its ground even more.

A New Dawn

As of today, the BJP is the political party that is on the rise and Trinamool appears to be on its way down in West Bengal. Whether Mamata Banerjee will be able to stem the BJP’s growth in her home turf remains to be seen. She has failed spectacularly. With her unabashed minority appeasement, it is a fact that she has alienated large sections of the Hindu community. And these disgruntled sections of the Hindu community, which grows in strength every day, is responsible for the BJP’s rise in the state. Henceforth, Bengal politics will not be polarized along the lines of political ideology as it was earlier. The fates of parties will be decided by the extent of religious polarization among the electorate.

The Dawn of this new era of Religious Polarization in West Bengal is further indicated by the utter collapse of the Left. It is a fact that traditional voters of the Left have crossed over to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and this crossover has largely been motivated by concerns that revolve around their Hindu identity. While certain intellectuals might blame the BJP for this polarization, the fact of the matter is, while the saffron party’s rise is fueled by it, it’s not responsible for it in any manner whatsoever.

While great credit must go to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and the respective leaders of the state unit for BJP’s stellar victory in Bengal, the victory overwhelmingly belongs to the cadres on the ground who sacrificed their lives and risked physical violence but ensured BJP’s victory at great personal cost. The top echelons of the party might come up with all its grand plans but at the end of the day, it’s the simple Karyakarta with his resolute belief who implements it.

People have severely underestimated the extent to which Bengal is fertile for the politics of Hindutva. It is the land of Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Hindutva could be kept away from Bengal for long but not forever. After Tripura, another state dominated by Bengalis, voted in a BJP government, it was only a matter of time before West Bengal started showing a similar trend.

Hindutva only needed a face with great personal credibility and an aura of authority around him to succeed in Bengal. And when Narendra Modi became its face, it was only a matter of time. Because Bengal politics, at the end of the day, has always been dominated by personalities and their individual credibility has always been enough to earn their parties the victories.

BJP’s great victory in Bengal shows that Bengali Hindus have no tolerance for the attempts to pit them against Hindus of other regions. It was a great slap on the face of people who wanted to replicate the Dravidianist model in Bengal.

History may remember the 23rd of May, 2019 as the day when the future of Bengal Politics changed forever. However, it was on the 5th of April, 2017, on the auspicious day of Ram Navami that the seeds of it were sown.

2019 Elections: Which exit polls pollster predicted the election result best?

Aditya (reviewero)
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2019 Elections: Which exit polls pollster predicted the election result best?

If you are as curious about which pollster predicted the election tally best among all the gazillion pollsters who conducted exit polls then this is the post for you.

Let’s jump in straight to numbers:

NDAUPAOthersNDA 2014UPA 2014Others 2014
Final Declared Seats354969233658149
Republic-CVoter Exit287128127---
Republic-JankiBaat Exit305124113---
TimesNow-VMR Exit306132104249148146
News18-IPSOS Exit3368212427697148
IndiaToday-Axis Exit3479397272115156
NewsX Neta Exit242164137---
News24 Exit350959734070133
IndiaTV CNX Exit300120122289101148
VDP Associates Exit33311594---
ABP-Nielsen Exit27713013527497165
News Nation Exit286122134---

Interpretations could well vary but if I read this correct, News 24 Chanakya poll is the clear winner. But that’s not all, News 24 Chanakya did the best even in 2014 Elections as the data shows.

So as it turns out, not only has the reigning King of the Elections hasn’t changed since 2014, neither has the reigning king of Exit poll pollsters.

Based on this, we crown News 24 Chanakya The PollStar of all Pollsters. Well done guys.

Supreme Court dismisses plea filed by former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in Sharada Chit Fund scam

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court dismisses plea filed by former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar in Sharada Chit Fund scam

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition filed by the former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar, appealing for protection from arrest by CBI till the jurisdictional court decides his anticipatory bail plea in the Sharada Chit Fund scam case.


Rejecting Kumar’s petition, the Supreme Court asked him to approach Calcutta High Court or other trial courts that are functional in West Bengal. “There are no vacations there. Seek appropriate remedy,” the apex court said.

Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s protection from arrest in the Sharada Chit Fund scam ends on May 24. Kumar has urged in the new petition to extend the period of protection. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, had withdrawn its February 5 order of not arresting Rajeev Kumar in its order on 17th May.

Last week, the Election Commission had relieved Rajeev Kumar from the post of Additional Director General, CID, in West Bengal for allegedly failing to control the incidents of violence in the state. The IPS officer asked to report at the MHA in Delhi. The action from the EC came a day after BJP president Amit Shah’s rally witnessed extensive violence due to an altercation between TMC and BJP supporters.

Rajeev Kumar is the same officer who was at the centre of a high voltage drama a few months back in Kolkata. He is accused of shielding some of the accused and destroying evidence in West Bengal’s Sharada Chit Fund scam case. On February 3, a team of CBI officials had arrived at his residence in Kolkata for interrogation. The ensuing spectacle that followed was nothing short of an unprecedented political and legal drama. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had jumped to his defence, moving the state machinery against the CBI and alleging that the attempt to interrogate Kumar is a ‘conspiracy’ by the central government against her.

CBI officials were also attacked, heckled and held up by the Kolkata police under Mamata’s orders. After that Mamata Banerjee had sat on a Dharna that lasted for almost 72 hours where she had insisted that PM Modi and Amit Shah are machinating to dethrone her and the interrogation order against Rajeev Kumar was a plot by NSA Ajit Doval. Rajeev Kumar was seen sitting along with the WB CM during the dharna.

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

Congress’ Amethi District Committee President steps down taking responsibility even as Rahul Gandhi continues to be party president

OpIndia Staff
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Congress’ Amethi District Committee President steps down taking responsibility even as Rahul Gandhi continues to be party president

After the embarrassing defeat by Congress party in the Lok Sabha elections, where the party was wiped out even in states where it formed state governments in December last year, state party chiefs have offered to step down and many have resigned.

Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik taking responsibility for the loss has resigned from the post. Karnataka Congress chief has also stepped down and so has Amethi District Congress Committee President who took the responsibility of the party president’s defeat from what has essentially been Gandhi family bastion.


In a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi, Yogendra Mishra, Amethi District Congress Committee President has said that taking moral responsibility of the defeat, he has resigned from the party post.

In the election results which were declared yesterday, Congress President who was an MP from Amethi for three consecutive terms, lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani by a margin of over 50,000 votes. While Rahul Gandhi won by a huge margin from the ‘safe seat’ Wayanad in Kerala, the Amethi loss is a major blow to the party since as many as four family members of the Nehru-Gandhi family represented the seat for over three decades.

Even as the pressure has mount on Rahul Gandhi to quit as the party president, he continues to remain so.

Not every Hindu hero ends up like Prithviraj Chauhan

Abhishek Banerjee
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Not every Hindu hero ends up like Prithviraj Chauhan

It took 15 years. But in the minds of BJP supporters, that ghost of 2004 was alive and kicking and screaming till the very end.

I had structured my day somewhat like this, anticipating a win but absolutely terrified of celebrating too early.

8:00 – 12:00: Try to hide somewhere with the phone turned off.

12:00 Provisional celebrations (watch Republic)

13:00 Official celebrations (watch NDTV)

Obviously, the first item turned out to be harder than expected. While I did manage to avoid looking at trends for ten to fifteen minutes at a time, I did keep returning to my phone at least once every half hour. By 10:30 or so, the evidence was so clear and so overwhelming that I advanced the formal celebrations scheduled for 13:00 by two full hours.

There are so many things to say right now that I am bound to forget at least a few of them.

First of all, I wish Atalji was alive to see this moment.

Untitled.png

This nation made a mistake in 2004. In the process, we ended up electing the most corrupt government in the world.

But now, on May 23, 2019, we have buried the ghost of 2004. It’s a pity that Atalji is not here to see this.  He has become immortal.

There is a lot to learn today. The most important being that when you dedicate yourself to a cause and refuse to give up despite what “conventional wisdom” says, you might just make history.

And that is what BJP has done here: made history. In the process, they have shuttered the shops of those who were running factories of casteism and regionalism. I heard one ABP news anchor ask an “expert” something like this: “Is there a new votebank now? The more people try to talk about Yadav and Jatav and Jat, etc, the more the Hindus unite?”

Dear ABP news, give that man a cookie! He’s stumbled into the biggest idea of the election.

“They,” said that a lot of things were impossible. They said that when you add the Jatavs with Mayawati to the Yadavs with Akhilesh and the Muslims who will go with anyone to defeat BJP, you have a combination that is unbeatable.

I remember Amit Shah said that the BJP is doing the “politics of 50%” in Uttar Pradesh. As of now, the BJP is leading 60 seats in UP and their vote share is 52%!

Modi spoke of 300 seats. BJP leading 303 right now. I guess we have become so used to politicians putting out empty boasts that we don’t recognize the real stuff when it stares us in the face.

There are many jokers in this election, but Akhilesh Yadav is arguably the biggest of them. Rather than focus on squeezing out the BSP and turn Uttar Pradesh into a bipolar state (BJP vs SP), he ended up reviving them. As of now, BSP is leading 11 seats and SP is leading 5. Remember that SP won 5 seats (or more specifically, the extended Yadav family won 5 seats) even in 2014. So what was achieved with this Mahagathbandhan? A net negative, now that Mayawati is back in the reckoning.

We cannot move on from Uttar Pradesh without mentioning Smriti Irani’s triumph in Amethi. I was very certain the saffron tigress would win … but had a few second thoughts when Modi didn’t hold a rally in Amethi to support her campaign. Turns out it wasn’t needed.

Smriti Irani tried to enter the Lok Sabha in 2004. It didn’t work. In 2014, she tried again, taking on a formidable opponent. She lost again but kept fighting, kept nurturing the constituency. And now she will be entering both the Lok Sabha and the history books.

What a contrast between Smriti Irani and her spoiled dynastic opponent. In 2014, Priyanka Vadra had referred to her as “Smriti, who?”

Who’s laughing now? Life gives many humbling lessons, but hard work and patience can get you very very far. Smriti Irani is a glowing example. A lot to learn from her.

The next thing I must talk about is two champion CM picks by Modi early in his tenure who have both delivered big time. One is Khattar and the other is Fadnavis. At the moment, BJP is leading 9/10 in Haryana and at one point it was even leading in Rohtak, the stronghold of Bhupinder Hooda which his son was contesting.

Then there is Fadnavis (my favourite among all BJP CMs). What a performance… 41/48 at this moment. The man has been tested in every possible way: he didn’t even enjoy a clear majority in the Assembly. And having an ally like Sena is in many ways worse than having an enemy.  Remember that Fadnavis found himself in charge of the state BJP all of a sudden, owing to the sad loss of Gopinath Munde in a car accident. The Munde sisters and the other big senior leader from Maharashtra… indeed from Vidarbha (who I will not name) couldn’t possibly have been happy about it.

But Fadnavis negotiated all this skillfully and emerged a champion. What do we learn? Always be prepared for the opportunity and when you get it, grab it with both hands.

We should also say something for Amit Shah here, for eating a bit of humble pie and cutting deals with egoistic allies in Bihar and Maharashtra. Those deals effectively shut out the Congress from both of these large states. 38/40 in Bihar and 41/48 in Maharashtra. Super.

Well, we all knew it would be 100% in Rajasthan and Gujarat, barring some anomalous seat here and there. No surprises.

It’s funny actually how Congress bungled up two big states they won in December: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In Rajasthan, they played for little, with CM Ashok Gehlot looking sort of selfish in spending so much energy on saving Jodhpur for his son. It didn’t work and the party lost miserably all across the state. Another lesson not to be narrow minded in victory.

Perhaps the same could be said for Scindia, who I heard flew away to the US, with much of UP and MP still left to vote. I can guess he wanted to be CM and probably felt hard done by when he was passed over for Kamal Nath. Maybe he didn’t feel like giving his 100% to the party cause? Ok, but see the results now. He’s lost everything, including his stronghold of Guna.

Some hard decisions have to be taken in every party. And there are many who might legitimately feel hard done by. Remember the big leader from Maharashtra who I did not name? Would you not feel insulted if you were in his place? But despite all that, they cooperated for a common cause and see the results in Maharashtra. And see what happened to Scindia and Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Lesson: Don’t be petty. If you are narrow-minded to each other, you will all lose.

Just one word before I come to Bengal (finally!). Yesterday, I lavished praise on Sunil Deodhar, who may not be as well known to BJP supporters. I mentioned he had been sent to handle BJP in Telangana after delivering a historic victory in Tripura. In Telangana today, the BJP is picking up 4 seats out of 17! Who would have thought this possible?

This man Sunil Deodhar is a miracle worker. He is turning the BJP into main opposition in Telangana. Watch out for his career graph.

At one point, even Owaisi was trailing from his seat. As an aside, I must say a gleaming modern metropolis like Hyderabad deserves better than Owaisi. I understand that he will always control the part called “Old City”, but I really hope people who don’t live in the Old City will come up with a way to rescue the place from him.

Please… Hyderabad deserves better.

Oh Bengal.

What to even say? There is so much emotion here.  A huge salute to the people for coming out against the dictatorship of the Trinamool in massive numbers and delivering a knockout punch.

Folks, it’s over for Mamata Didi. She might as well start drafting her resignation letter dated May 2021. The wave is here. She will be hard pressed to win 50-60 of the 294 Assembly seats in Bengal.

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That map tells a story. The BJP wave came from the tribal regions bordering Jharkhand and the neglected areas of North Bengal.

In other words, the wave came from those parts of the state where the “subalterns” live. The Bengali “Bhadralok”  sitting in Kolkata wanted to impose their notion of “Bengaliyat” on them. The tribals of Medinipur and Purulia. And even the Bengali language on parts of North Bengal. Yes, there are many communities in Bengal that don’t speak Bangla. The racist Bengali elite in Kolkata see these people as “undesirables”. You should listen to how the racist Bengali elite talks about the Santhals in the eastern part of the state and the Gorkhas in the northern part. Their attitude is arguably worse than white supremacists in the 1950s trying to enforce a White Australia.

This is why I am not such a big fan of intellectuals. As a class, “intellectuals” are generally sold out to the establishment. In Bengal, they used to support the CPIM before Mamata Banerjee bought them over. It’s not a phenomenon limited to Bengal… the Indian elite used to support the British and then switched over to Nehru.

Two years ago, when BJP won Uttar Pradesh, I wrote a post explaining that intellectuals have an idiotic myth that the resistance to “nationalism” would come from empowering the oppressed communities. Ha! How could that be? It is the elite who swore loyalty to the British crown and to Nehru. Do you think a youth from an underprivileged community in eastern Uttar Pradesh shares your kind of nostalgia for the Pakistani noblemen whose kids were your classmates at Oxford?

Something similar happened in Bengal. Mamata had the elites under her control, preaching her version of Bengaliyat. Everyone else rebelled.

But then, every single politician who ran on casteism and regionalism has seen their dukaan closed in this election.

PM Modi has fought like a lion. Above all, he has shown that not every Hindu leader needs to end up like Prithviraj Chauhan.

UP Congress Chief Raj Babbar sends his resignation to Rahul Gandhi after the disastrous Lok Sabha performance

OpIndia Staff
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UP Congress Chief Raj Babbar sends his resignation to Rahul Gandhi after the disastrous Lok Sabha performance

The high octane and much hyped Lok Sabha elections are finally over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to a stunning and historic victory in the Lok Sabha battle with the ruling party alone securing over 300 seats while Congress faces a major embarrassment as it secures a total of 52 seats.

Results for Uttar Pradesh, the state with the largest number of constituencies in India was no different. While BJP bagged 62 out of the total of 80 seats, Congress managed a secure just one seat. Despite making tall claims, the SP-BSP mahagathbandan could also not make a mark as it together managed merely 14 seats out of the eighty.

Taking moral responsibility for the debacle, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar last night sent in his resignation to party President Rahul Gandhi. He lost the Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha constituency to Rajkumar Chahar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a huge margin of 4,95,065 votes.


However, this is not the first time Raj Babbar has taken such a step. After Congress’ defeat in Uttar Pradesh local body elections in 2017, Raj Babbar had offered to quit owning up for the party’s electoral rout. Though Rahul Gandhi, then the Vice-president had moved to stem the offer of resignation.

Similarly, last year after Congress’ performance in Lok Sabha bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur, there had been speculations that the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar would quit the party. But this again had proved to be just speculations.

However, this time too, going by his tendency, Raj Babbar once again taking full responsibility of the disconcerting performance of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh tendered his resignation to the party chief. Now we are left to see, whether Rahul Gandhi will accept the resignation or reject the same, or realising that he too is equally responsible for the party’s predicaments, lead his party by example.

The decimation of dynasties: The Modi tsunami has swept away kings and their clans

Sanghamitra
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The decimation of dynasties: The Modi tsunami has swept away kings and their clans

सब से विराट जनतंत्र जगत का आ पहुंचा,
तैंतीस कोटि-हित सिंहासन तय करो
अभिषेक आज राजा का नहीं,प्रजा का है,
तैंतीस कोटि जनता के सिर पर मुकुट धरो।

फावड़े और हल राजदण्ड बनने को हैं,
धूसरता सोने से श्रृंगार सजाती है;
दो राह,समय के रथ का घर्घर-नाद सुनो,
सिंहासन खाली करो कि जनता आती है।

These are a few lines from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s legendary poem hailing the power of democracy. The poem’s lines mark how kings are dethroned when the people come to claim the right over governance.

India has chosen. The grand, massive festival of democracy where 900 million voters decided the fate of thousands of candidates in a selection process that lasted almost two months have finally ended and Narendra Modi was chosen by the people of India as the next prime minister. An overwhelming majority of over 350 seats to NDA means a strong, stable government for the next five years and the country has been rejoicing.

One of the most defining aspects of the public mandate this time has been the public’s overwhelming response against dynasty politics. India has been a democratic republic since 1950 but the democracy was also shrouded by political dynasties. The grand old families of politicians who passed on their political legacies and power, along with ‘seats’ to their children and family members. Son took father’s seat, the wife took husband’s position and so on. For decades, year after year and election after election, dynasty politics has been the bane of India’s voters. In 2019, the people of India have finally said, enough is enough.

Indian politics over the decades has seen the stagnation and corruption that dynasty politics brings to a nation. Congress’ Nehru-Gandhi dynasty kept ruling India under the garb of democracy for over half a century. Like a corrupt king’s rule spawning a number of corrupt feudal lords, Nehru-Gandhi dynasty also helped other dynasties take root and serve in their respective fiefdoms. The idea that a son/daughter inherits all the power, allegiance and positions the father held, the very antithesis of the idea of democracy, has been eating India from inside out.

When a husband is charged with corruption, the wife becomes CM. When a husband dies, his widow is brought forth to claim his throne. When the father becomes too old, he uses the last of his powers to settle his children into key positions so they can continue the legacy. This has been the sad truth of India’s politics over the decades. The results of the 2019 elections have broken the wheel.

HD Devegowda’s family have been holding on to power since long in Karnataka. The families hunger for power was on display when JDS negotiated with Congress for a post-poll alliance after the assembly elections and grabbed the CM’s seat for HD Kumaraswamy. The elder son, HD Revanna became a minister too, but the hunger was far from being satiated. JD-S had managed to wrestle out 8 seats from Congress for the Lok Sabha. 3 of those seats were for the Devegowda family. In a blatant display of sheer political greed and nepotism, JDS had fielded HD Devegowda from Tumkur, HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Mandya and HD Ravenna’s son Prajwal Revanna from Hasan.


The voters have rejected the JDS patriarch and Nikhil Kumaraswamy. Prajwal is the sole owner from JDS and as per latest reports, he is to vacate his seat so his grandfather can seek re-election from Hasan.

Guna was another royal throne that the Scindia dynasty have been holding on to since decades. Jyotiraditya Scindia had ‘inherited’ it after his father, former Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia’s death and has been winning since decades from there. 2019 has come as a shocker when Jyotiraditya Scindia, Madhya Pradesh’s deputy CM and Congress general secretary for UP, lost the throne. The public discarded their feudal lord and chose BJP’s KP Singh by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes.


In Maharashtra, second-generation Congress leaders Milind Deora and Priya Dutt have lost their ‘family bastion’ seats too. The state has also rejected Ashok Chavan and Sharad Pawar’s nephew Parth Pawar. Parth faced a crushing defeat by over 2.5 lakh votes.


Incumbent Andhra Pradesh CM’s son Nara Lokesh Naidu, Andhra’s IT minister has lost from the Mangalagiri constituency. Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda has lost the Rohtak seat at saffron surge overwhelmed Haryana sweeping all 10 of its Lok Sabha seats. K Chandrasekhara Rao’s daughter K Kavitha has lost from Nizamabad to BJP’s first-time candidate Dharmapuri Arvind. Lalu Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti has lost in Pataliputra.


As far as decimating the politics of dynasties is concerned, nothing has been as powerful and monumental as Smriti Irani finally crushing Rahul Gandhi in his ‘ancestral seat’ of Amethi. Amethi has been the proverbial ‘family bastion’ since decades. Rahul Gandhi’s family has been winning from the seat in election after election, never bothering to worry about Amethi or its people. The region remained poor, deprived and devoid of infrastructure despite electing the country’s most powerful family to power repeatedly. This time, the people of the constituency have decided to break the charm. They have discarded the false promises, the gimmick of cotton sarees and white Kurtas, and the justification of facial resemblance as a reason to vote.

The victory of the hard-working, dedicated and committed Smriti Irani, who never abandoned Amethi’s people even after losing in 2014, is hugely symbolic in India’s politics. It signifies what was once termed as the unthinkable, negating the power-clutch of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. In choosing Irani, Amethi has thrown away the mental shackles that held them prisoner to the false charms and deprived them of development.


There are still a lot of ‘political families’ in India. The BJP has many of them too. There are no laws against the son or daughter of a politician joining politics and seeking election. But the nepotism and feudal power play, the repugnant elitism and entitlement that makes the same son and daughter assume that they are above scrutiny and accountability has to go.

The idea that the dynasts can escape ground level connect and can win elections by granting the voters the favour of seeing their overlords waving at them once in five years, the sheer audacity of dynasts clutching at the powerful positions and denying hard working party workers their due just because of their surname has to be crushed. And the mandate in 2019 has established the foundation of just that.

India still has a long way to go to be free from the thought process that being someone’s son or daughter does not make a person entitled to public offices or power corridors. The position has to be earned. When Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014, he gave a billion Indians the hope that it is possible for a poor boy selling tea in railway stations to become the most powerful man in the country if he works for it and earns it.

Modi’s win in 2014 had opened the doors of possibilities for Indians, it has planted the seed that they hold power and they can decide who rules them. 2019 has shown that seed has now spread its roots and sprouted little branches all over the country. All over India, thrones are being melted, wheels are being smashed and chains are being broken. India is rising and learning to stand tall. Dinkar’s prophetic lines are coming true, “Singhasan Khali Karo Ki Janta Aati Hai”.

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