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Lack of voters’ faith forces AAP Panaji candidate to sign affidavit swearing not to join BJP or BJP-backed govt if elected

OpIndia Staff
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Lack of voters’ faith forces AAP Panaji candidate to sign affidavit swearing not to join BJP or BJP-backed govt if elected

The Aam Admi Party (AAP), which was founded on the pretext of fighting corruption, now finds itself on slippery terrain. Today, while it is fighting hard to retain its political identity, the party has landed a new challenge- the lack of faith of voters. Unable to convince his voters that he would not switch parties or be part of the BJP if elected, AAP candidate for Panaji bypoll Valmiki Naik, had to take another recourse.

Naik, on Monday, displayed his affidavit to the reporters where he has sworn to not join the BJP-led government or support the current ruling dispensation if elected to power.

“I, the undersigned, if elected as MLA with the blessings of the people of the Panaji constituency in the bypoll of May 19, swear I will not join BJP. I will not support a BJP-led government. I make these two promises on this notarized affidavit,” the affidavit read.

The affidavit duly signed by AAP leader Valmiki Naik

“During my election campaign for the Panaji bypoll, I noticed that people are anxious about the deplorable trend of elected MLAs across party lines joining the BJP. This is why I came up with the affidavit, with the promise that I will not join the BJP or be a part of their government in any way if I am elected as MLA,” Naik said.

The Panaji bypoll was necessitated due to the death of sitting MLA and former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. The BJP has fielded Sidharth Kuncalienkar, a top aide of Parrikar and former MLA from the seat.

Meanwhile, Naik urged rival candidates, Antanasio Monserrate of Congress and Subash Velingkar of Goa Suraksha Manch, also to swear on an affidavit that they would not switch sides if elected. He, however, claimed that they intend to be a part of the BJP post elections.

Naik added further that as an AAP candidate, the question was not just about becoming an MP or MLA but raising the political standard. He said the current standards have taken a beating due to increase in the spate of defections and rampant poaching of MLAs.

AAP is in disarray. The party, which was launched with great fervour and zeal five years ago, has lost its charm. AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is known to repeatedly take U-turns. Corruption charges against party leaders, the lack of performance in Delhi and failing peoples’ expectations has invited an unprecedented backlash for the party.

Recently, Fatehgarh Sahib MP Harinder Singh Khalsa, who was suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2015, joined the BJP in New Delhi. Khalsa, the former IFS officer had called Kejriwal a ‘dictator’ and had accused him of acutely interfering in state affairs. Another suspended MP Dharamvir Gandhi, who was elected from Patiala, has started his own party the Nawan Punjab Party.

One of the MLAs had accused the party of arrogance, sexual exploitation of women and corruption. Several MLAs, including Sukhpal Khaira and HS Phoolka, have quit the party in recent months. A week after senior leader Ashutosh quit the party, another senior leader Ashish Khetan, followed suit. AAP Punjab was also widely criticized for its alleged association with Khalistani elements.

Kejriwal has been literally pleading with Congress to form an alliance in Delhi. Apparently, he is aware that he can not defeat the BJP alone in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Notably, BJP had won all the seven seats in Delhi during the 2014 elections.

Recently, AAP in its last punch to save its relevance went to the extent of publicly admitting that AAP s willing to dissolve and merge with Congress party.

A divided history: Resurgence of Hindutva politics in West Bengal

Ishaan Sengupta
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A divided history: Resurgence of Hindutva politics in West Bengal

British India

In 1946, when the Muslim League proposed and advocated the inclusion of entire Bengal into Pakistan, a safe haven for the Muslims in British India, the Hindu minority of Bengal fearing the subversion of human and constitutional rights, decided to agitate and advocate a separate state which would join India, namely West Bengal. These concerns were justified by a series of events under Chief Minister Suhrawardy’s rule, where a communal agenda was at play. The police in the then, Bengal Province comprised of Punjabi Muslims, concentrated primarily in Calcutta, had been blamed for extrajudicial proceedings including, kidnappings, rape and other excesses on the local Hindu population. (Bandyopadhyay, Sandip (2010), ইতিহাসের দিকে ফিরে: ছেচল্লিশের দাঙ্গা [The Calcutta Riots, 1946] (in Bengali), Kolkata: Radical. p. 73. ISBN 978-81-85459-07-3). On the 16th of August 1946, after a Muslim league address, violence broke out in Calcutta, namely the “Great Calcutta Killings’ termed also as ‘Direct Action Day‘. Hindu shops were looted and the Hindu population was lynched. While the riot inflicted deaths on both sides, various editorials had claimed that it was primarily targeted towards the Hindu population. The riots fell off into Orissa as well. A death toll of 7000-10,000 was realized. (Read here)

Immediately between the riots, The Bengal Provincial Hindu Mahasabha called for a separate Hindu Homeland for the Bengali Hindus, as claimed by Historian Amlendu De. The prospect was supported by Congress. Towards the end of 1946, the Bengal Partition League was formed (Sanyal, Sunanda; Basu, Soumya (2011), The Sickle & the Crescent: Communists, Muslim League and India’s Partition. London: Frontpage Publications. p. 154. ISBN 978-81-908841-6-7) and worked in agreement of the proposal of the Hindu Mahasabha and comprised of fervent Bengali intellectuals like – Dr Shayama Prasad Mukherjee (Who later joined the Hindu Mahasabha and further founded the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Dr. Hemanta Kumar Sarkar (A close associate of Subhash Chandra Bose, Founder of the Labour Swaraj Party with the likes of Kazi Nazrul Islam and Muzaffar Ahmed, A peasant leader who later entered founded the partition league) , Lt. Colonel A.C. Chatterjee ( A member of the INA) and other eminent politicians like Dr. Bidhan Roy Chowdhury who later became the chief minister of West Bengal on a Congress ticket after having contested various elections independently and under the Swaraj Party. The Hindu Mahasabha along with the Indian National Congress conducted a huge number of rallies to rally support for a separate Hindu Homeland for the Bengal Hindus. Support was garnered for the same and a proposal was submitted to the British for consideration after the Muslim League reluctantly agreed.

Current Situation

Mamata Banerjee is an all-pervasive matriarch figure in the West Bengal Political sphere. Her struggle against the left in the left bastion was well acknowledged and with a huge majority in the legislative assembly has made her as powerful as the Central Government is the state. Her strength in using the state instruments to her advantage has been well documented. Her support base in Southern Bengal  remains intact but she is facing a huge backlash as well in various districts for reasons varying between subversion of democratic rights of people especially at the Panchayat and Municipal Corporation level, which is responsible for actualizing various state and central government schemes, as well as her ‘alleged’ involvement in not checking the entry of Bangladeshi immigrants, evident from her fervent ‘warnings’ to the BSF for their ‘excesses’.

In the Northern Districts and Constituencies where there was a strong Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) support, namely Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. It stemmed from the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) government’s alleged implicit solidarity with economic refugees from Bangladesh. This support has increased due to the rampant complaint of ‘Hindus’ being allegedly denied to vote by Muslims. A recent video on ABP Ananda and Times Now shows women who were allegedly being denied a passage to vote and were ‘allegedly’ beaten by ‘goons’ from the TMC. Other than that Darjeeling’s Gorkha population has been traditionally a BJP vote bank.

In Raiganj, the fight is extremely polarised. The Hindu population here again had been allegedly blockaded from voting during panchayat elections. In Malda, the Muslim vote bank has been gravitating towards from Congress which enjoyed a good secular vote bank for years owing the love for Ghani Khan Chowdhury. In response to this polarization, the Hindu vote bank is primarily shifting towards the BJP. However, the support for Mamata Banerjee has been more or less secular further south. Where the Mamata Banerjee government has reduced its popularity is the Hindi speaking populace in constituencies like Asansol (currently a BJP base) and Barrackpore (where a TMC MLA has switched over to the BJP and is likely to defeat Dinesh Trivedi in the 2019 election).

However, a very important constituency is Bangaon where the Matua scheduled caste community which has been a traditional TMC vote bank has seen a split due to the Citizenship Amendment Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. Matua’s are a community which include Hindu refugees from Bangladesh suffering religious persecution. A lot of whom still do not have citizenship in India. And are quite upset about the TMC, Congress and the left not supporting the bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Clearly, the electorate of the state of West Bengal is extremely complicated but what is a fact is that this election will be an extremely polarised election. Polarised on both sides. The portrayal of this battle as propagated by the BJP is primarily a battle for democracy (saving the right to vote) and a protest against preferential treatment of Muslims (citing events of stalling the Durga Visarjan for the recognizing Muharram) whereas the TMC is propagating it as an election to save democracy (a secular democracy which the BJP has allegedly been a threat to).

1984 anti-Sikh riot victims write to Rahul Gandhi, say they will never forgive Rajiv Gandhi for murder of 10,000 Sikhs

OpIndia Staff
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1984 anti-Sikh riot victims write to Rahul Gandhi, say they will never forgive Rajiv Gandhi for murder of 10,000 Sikhs

Even as Congress continues to stay in denial about the party and its leaders’ role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots which took place following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, 1984 riot victims have written to Congress President Rahul Gandhi asserting that they will never be able to forgive Rajiv Gandhi and Congress.

Letter written by 1984 victims to Rahul Gandhi (numbers blanked out to protect individuals’ privacy)

In a letter, the anti-Sikh riot victims condemn the use of the word ‘shaheed’ (martyr) for Rajiv Gandhi. “Rahul ji, the whole country knows Rajiv Gandhi was responsible for the bloodshed that took place in 1984. The Sikh community will never forgive Rajiv Gandhi for the murder of 10,000 Sikhs. Rajiv not only got Sikhs killed but even rewarded the perpetrators of violence Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Kamal Nath by making them ministers and members of the parliament. To call such a man a martyr is an insult to the ones who lay down their lives for the nation,” the letter reads.

When OpIndia contacted one of the signatories, Gurjeet Singh, he said that Sikhs and even non-Sikhs who were victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots will never be able to forgive Rajiv Gandhi and Congress.

The victims further ask Rahul Gandhi to withdraw his words of referring to Rajiv Gandhi as martyr or face opposition from the entire nation for it.

Another scathing letter was also posted by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Manjinder Sirsa where he asked Rahul Gandhi a few pointed questions about his father Rajiv Gandhi’s involvement in 1984 anti-Sikh riots.


In the letter, the victims ask Rahul Gandhi if he is aware that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were carried out on the behest of his father, Rajiv Gandhi, by making use of the Congress party machinery? “Are you unaware that your father then justified the anti-Sikh riots by publicly proclaiming that ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’? The country is a witness that your grandmother Indira Gandhi led an attack on the Akal Takht Sahib and killed many innocent people by sending the army in the Darbar Sahib (during Operation Blue Star). The policy your grandmother adopted to eliminate the Sikh was very well implemented by your father. After your father’s death, your mother also rewarded those in Congress responsible for the slaughter of Sikhs by giving them high posts and making them ministers,” the letter states.

Referring to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as a murderer, the victims write, “Shockingly, when you became the party president, you continued your family policy and made Kamal Nath a chief minister which was nothing short of rubbing salt on the wounds of the Sikhs.”

The victims remind Rahul Gandhi how he has not even condemned, let alone apologised, on behalf of his father and grandmother for destroying the lives of the Sikhs.

The controversy about the actions of Rajiv Gandhi during his tenure as the prime minister started afer Prime Minister Modi, while addressing a rally, referred to him as ‘Bhrashtachari no 1‘ over his involvement in the Bofors scam. That opened a can of worms where other allegations against Rajiv Gandhi were raked up including his involvement in 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Bhopal gas tragedy.

‘Since election is over, matter is resolved’, says Election Commission grievance portal responding to vote rigging complaint in West Bengal

OpIndia Staff
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‘Since election is over, matter is resolved’, says Election Commission grievance portal responding to vote rigging complaint in West Bengal

The Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal have witnessed large scale violence and electoral malpractices. Dozens of videos have emerged on social media which who ruling Trinamool Congress indulging in vote rigging during the elections. In several videos, TMC workers are seen casting votes on behalf of genuine voters, in presence of poll officials and security personnel, including from central forces. Many people also have alleged that when they reached poll booths for voting, they were told that they have already voted.

Election Commission is accused of being a mute spectator to such large-scale vote rigging in West Bengal, and now a bizarre incident has happened where the EC has said that since the polls are over, they will not take action on allegations of rigging.

The Election Commission made this statement responding to a complaint filed online through its National Grievance Service portal. In a screenshot from the EC portal which was posted on Twitter by the complainant, it can be seen that on 6th May, a complaint was registered regarding poll rigging in Bangaon Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. It says that when few women went to cast their votes, they were sent back saying that they have already voted. The Complaint also noted that TMC agents across West Bengal along with polling officials are capturing booths in favour of TMC.

The EC  portal shows the status of the complaint as ‘resolved’, which was forwarded to Bogaon Uttar 95 for necessary action. And in the action taken section, it makes the shocking claim that since the election is over, the issue is resolved. On 6th May evening, the matter was forwarded to Bongaon polling station. And in the afternoon today, the matter has been marked as resolved, with the comment, “since the election is over, it is thus resolved”.

This means according to Election Commission, the poll panel is not liable to take any action on complaints of electoral malpractices after the polls are over.

The complainant had filed another complaint with the EC portal regarding TMC men voting on behalf of elderly women, in the guise of helping the senior citizens. But instead of taking any action on the issue, the EC asked him to contact the concerned ARO.

Go teach abuses to children in Italy: Yogi Adityanath slams Priyanka Gandhi for video where kids abused PM Modi

OpIndia Staff
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Go teach abuses to children in Italy: Yogi Adityanath slams Priyanka Gandhi for video where kids abused PM Modi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken a dig at Congress General secretary for UP East Priyanka Gandhi for her behaviour when children were being encouraged to abuse Prime Minister Modi.

Recently a video of Priyanka Gandhi had gone viral in which she was seen cheering and giggling when a bunch of children were made to make derogatory remarks and shout abusive slogans against Prime Minister Modi.


Yogi Adityanath slammed Gandhi for teaching abuses to innocent children. He said that she should instead teach such abuses in Italy. “Congress has failed, Shehzada (Rahul Gandhi) also failed so they brought in their Shehzadi (Priyanka Gandhi). She was teaching abuses to innocent children in Amethi, please go and teach these abuses in Italy”, said the Chief Minister.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had written to the Election Commission (EC) regarding the video of Priyanka Gandhi and had requested to ensure that children are not involved for election purposes. Later, she was served a notice by the NCPCR regarding the video.

Priyanka’s behaviour at the incident had resulted in widespread condemnation. Union minister Smriti Irani had stated that Priyanka should know that children cannot be used for political activities. She had also added that cultured families should keep their children away from Priyanka.

Kamal Nath concedes that Rahul Gandhi’s promise a mere lie? Says complete loan waiver for farmers not possible in 10 days

OpIndia Staff
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Kamal Nath concedes that Rahul Gandhi’s promise a mere lie? Says complete loan waiver for farmers not possible in 10 days

The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi specifically has been repeatedly promising that farmer loan waivers will be granted to all farmers within 10 days of Congress coming to power. In fact, Rahul Gandhi has touted this as one of his achievements through the campaigning for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, a senior leader of the Congress party has conceded that complete loan waiver for farmers is not possible in 10 days because nobody has a magic wand.


Today, Congress apparently handed over a list of 21 lakh farmers whose loans had been waived off by Congress state governments as BJP, in their ‘aarop patra’ had mentioned non-fulfilment of this promise as one of the accusations against the MP government.

In a press briefing held by Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Nath mentioned that after promising the loan waiver, 21 lakh farmers’ loans had been waived off, however, a complete loan waiver is not possible within 10 days because the government does not have a magic wand.

He said there would be farmers who would say that their loans haven’t been waived off yet, but the fact remains that there would be some who would say that they have got the benefit from the Congress government of loan waiver. He also reiterated that the farmers whose loans have not been waived off would know that eventually, the Congress government would deliver because they can see that some of the farmers are saying that their loans have indeed been waived off.


Essentially, Kamal Nath drew a distinction between the Congress government’s intent to waive off loans of farmers and their intent to waive off loans. However, that is not how Congress or even Rahul Gandhi had projected the promise and its delivery.

Rahul Gandhi has repeated several times that as soon as the Congress government comes to power, all loans taken by all farmers would be waived off.

He has even taken to Twitter several times to claim that the promise has been fulfilled by Congress state governments in its entirety.

On 19th December 2018, Rahul Gandhi had taken to Twitter to say “It’s done! Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh have waived farm loans. We asked for 10 days. We did it in 2.


In 2016, he also “urged the Prime Minister” to waive off farmer loans.


It is evident that Rahul Gandhi had declared in absolute terms that the Congress governments in the states have fulfiled their promise of loan waiver. While everyone knew that farmer loans have not been waived off by the governments in the states, Rahul Gandhi clearly kept lying to assert in absolute terms that Congress has fulfiled its promise. Now, Kamal Nath has conceded that full loan waiver in 10 days in an impossibility.

There have several incidents that prove the failure of the Congress government to deliver on its much-touted promise. In Madhya Pradesh, there have been several farmer suicides due to the failed promise. Several farmers had discovered fake loan waivers being registered in their names. The farmers had threatened to commit ‘mass suicide’ after their names appeared on the state government’s loan waiver list even though they do not have any dues or have loans far smaller than the ones that are listed.

A farmer from MP got a loan waiver of Rs 13 against a loan of Rs. 24,000. Further, many farmers discovered Rs. 25-30 or a few hundred rupees of loan waiver over their substantial loans. In fact, non-existent farmer loan of Rs. 120 crores were “waived off” by the Madhya Pradesh government.

While that would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rahul Gandhi’s promise was a mere “jumla”, one can expect Rahul Gandhi and the Congress to continue spreading this lie further.

All terrorists involved in the Easter Sunday blasts either killed or arrested: Sri Lankan security forces assure their people

OpIndia Staff
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All terrorists involved in the Easter Sunday blasts either killed or arrested: Sri Lankan security forces assure their people

In a joint press conference, the three chief’s of Sri Lanka’s defence forces, along with the country’s police chief, released a statement on Monday, which read that all those Islamic terrorists who were involved in the Easter Sunday blast have either been killed or captured.

The top officials assured that the country is now safe and can get back to normalcy.

The tri-forces chiefs asserted that the security of the country, following the April 21 bombings that left hundreds of people dead and injured, has been ensured with adequate measures and steps have been taken to implement a special security plan.

Moreover, the acting Inspector General of police (IGP), Chandana Wickrematarne stated that all the explosives which were with the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), the terror organisation which claimed responsibility for the attack, have also been seized.

“All explosives possessed by the terrorist group has been seized. Almost everyone identified with the group has been arrested. Two of their bomb experts have died in the clashes. The police can happily announce that everyone with direct links has been either arrested or killed by now,” the police chief said.

Recently, the country had expelled over 600 foreign nationals, which included about 200 Islamic clerics. The Sri Lankan Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena had confirmed that the clerics have been fined and expelled from the country for overstaying their visa.

Meanwhile, the Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera informed that a total of 73 people, including nine women, have been arrested and being interrogated by the CID and the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID).

Army chief Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, urging people not to get mislead by fears spread through social media and unverified reports, said that the military over the days has taken concrete steps to ensure national security under the emergency regulations.

The government has reopened schools on Monday and asked the citizens to return to their day-to-day activities.

Shahid Afridi’s disturbing analogy in Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint: Destroy Indian players almost like ‘a suicide bomber’

Nirwa Mehta
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Shahid Afridi’s disturbing analogy in Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint: Destroy Indian players almost like ‘a suicide bomber’

If you are anti-Modi, chances are your freedom of speech will be freer than an average Indian because you will not only get support from Modi haters but will also get a platform to broadcast your violent tendencies.

Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint recently provided a platform to former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, who very casually mentions that when Pakistani cricketers are facing Indian cricketers on the ground, their orders are clear: “go and destroy them, almost like a suicide bomber does”. As an afterthought and to make light of it, Afridi mentions in brackets that he knows it doesn’t sound politically correct and that nobody ever gave such a direct order but “you know what I mean by that analogy!”.

No, Afridi, I don’t. You see, a 20-something man was trained by terrorists living in your country to blow himself up so that he could kill our soldiers. A bunch of suicide bombers bombed a few churches in our neighbouring country Sri Lanka and killed hundreds of families and left behind devastated families. Oh, and Islamists were celebrating that suicide bombing. So, no, your analogy is very problematic and I am not sure if I know what you mean by that analogy.

The article ThePrint had published was an excerpt from Shahid Afridi’s book, ‘Game Changer’ he co-authored with Wajahat Khan. The headline of the article shouts how Gautam Gambhir, former Indian cricketer and currently BJP’s candidate for East Delhi Lok Sabha seat, “has no personality or great records, just a lot of attitude.” That is how Afridi describes Indian cricketers ‘whom they had orders to destroy almost like a suicide bomber’.

Perhaps Gupta, as Editor of ThePrint, thought that anyone hating on a BJP candidate would be a good bet. So what if the person casually talks about terrorism? I’ll even stick my neck out and say that Gupta finds an element like this far more useful if that person is from Pakistan, a country which harbours and nurtures terrorism like a loving mother. You know what I mean by that analogy.

Afridi says how every game against India was an adventure, ‘a battle’. “Like good soldiers tend to do in combat, we took the lead from our seniors, from guys like Wasim Akram who, like good generals, led from the front and were themselves that much more motivated whenever we played India,” Afridi writes in his book. A friendly reminder, another one of their senior is now their country’s prime minister and is quite fondly called Taliban Khan due to his soft corner for the Taliban. Who is to take guarantee that Afridi’s analogy will not end up being his ideology if ever he decides to take the plunge in politics? After all, he doesn’t want his daughters to take up cricket professionally because of ‘social and religious reasons’. Sounds quite Taliban-esque to me.

Afridi likes to use the army lingo and even this short excerpt is peppered with phrases such as ‘we had a give-it-all and take-no-prisoners approach’ towards India and refers to matches against India as ‘mission’.

Shahid Afridi refers to Indian cricket team as ‘outfit’. I’m sorry, but our men in blue only play the sport, they do not really harbour dreams of blowing themselves up for a game of cricket. Cleverly Afridi refers to this ‘combative’ style as ‘trademark positive aggression’.

The attitude came easily and, no, we didn’t have to be ‘coached’ into beating India. Since we were kids, the whole India versus Pakistan thing had possessed us, all of us. Even if the seniors didn’t prep us with tactics for winning, we knew exactly how to defeat India on the field. The instinct to battle India was something we had internalized on our own.

So since childhood, Pakistanis are ‘possessed’ with the idea of ‘beating India’ in the ‘battle’. Remember, this is a cricket game being discussed, not the Battle of Tiger Hill.

Curiously, Afridi singles out Gautam Gambhir when talking about rivalries.

First is the curious case of Gautam Gambhir. Oh, poor Gautam. He and his attitude problem. He, who has no personality. He, who is barely a character in the great scheme of cricket. He, who has no great records, just a lot of attitude. He, who behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman and James Bond or something. In Karachi, we call guys like him saryal, burnt up.

Gautam Gambhir is the current favourite punching bag of the ‘liberals’ because he joined the BJP and has maintained that he is a nationalist. Being a nationalist itself is a trigger enough to get the Modi-haters to swoop in on you and demonise you. And in such a case if you end up formally joining the political party everyone loves to hate, you cannot escape the fire.

So it is no surprise Gupta and ThePrint published these portions of the excerpt of Afridi’s book. Afridi then clarifies that it was only Gambhir he didn’t like in the Indian cricket team. His relationship with other Indian players ‘has been great’ he says. Right. No wonder he dreams of destroying them like a suicide bomber.

This makes me wonder, what would have happened if one of the Indian players had said something similar. Why just any Indian player? What if Gautam Gambhir had said this? This is a sport, not a battlefield and should be treated as such.

It is shocking, to say the least, that the chief of Editors Guild would give space and legitimacy to such hateful vitriol against an Indian.

India’s addition to UNSC as a permanent member a ‘strategic priority’, says France

OpIndia Staff
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India’s addition to UNSC as a permanent member a ‘strategic priority’, says France

Batting for India’s candidature for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, France’s permanent member to the United Nations said that India is “absolutely needed” as a permanent member of an enhanced Security Council. He said that it is a matter of “strategic priority” for them to get Japan, India, Germany, Brazil and fair representation from Africa on the reformed and enlarged UNSC.

France’s permanent representative to the UN Francois Delattre said, “The enlargement of UNSC is absolutely needed to better reflect the world as it is. Germany, India, Japan, Brazil and fair representation from Africa, in particular, is absolutely needed on the table to achieve a fairer representation of the UNSC.” French envoy was speaking beside the German envoy to the UN Christoph Heusgen at the end of Germany’s Presidency of the Council for April.

India has been at the forefront among nations in the UN pushing for reforms in its Security Council and emphasising the place it rightly deserves at the high-table as a permanent member.

India’s permanent representative to UN ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had earlier said that more than 90 per cent of written submissions in the document are in favour of expansion in both categories of membership specified in the Charter. He had stated in the informal meeting of the Plenary on the Intergovernmental negotiations on the question of fair representation and increase in the permanent membership of UNSC that 113 countries out of 122 have supported expansion.

Akbaruddin has also stated that the expansion of the UN Security Council is a process rather than an event and the impediments to moving forward remain the same.

Considering the crucial role the United Nations plays in acting as a mediator and resolving the issues having far-reaching consequences, the Fench envoy has stated that it only reinforces the need of having a reformed UN Security Council and thus they are of the firm belief of including Germany, India, Japan, Brazil and fair representation of African countries in the enlarged UNSC.

It is notable here that France has also strongly supported India’s bid to list Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN.

PM Narendra Modi becomes the second most followed leader in the world, surpasses US President Donald Trump

OpIndia Staff
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PM Narendra Modi becomes the second most followed leader in the world, surpasses US President Donald Trump

A study by online visibility management and content marketing SaaS platform SEMrush, reveals that PM Narendra Modi has overtaken US President Donald Trump to become the second most popular politician globally.

India’s Prime Minister’ mass appeal, attributed to his classic ability to connect with the common people, has fetched him a social media audience of 110,912,648 on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With over 110 million followers worldwide, Modi has overtaken US President Donald Trump who has 96 million followers globally.

The most sought after politician on social media platforms is the former US President, Barack Obama, who has 182,710,777 followers on his Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

“The popularity of our PM Narendra Modi is immense and the study finding depicting him as the 2nd most followed person globally after former US President Barack Obama is a culmination of this fact,” Fernando Angulo, Head of International Partnership, SEMrush, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Congress President, despite the fact that he keeps his audiences regularly entertained with his gaffes, accumulates 12 million followers from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Amongst all the social media platforms, Twitter serves as the nest of the maximum number of active political audiences, both domestic and global, says the report by SEMrush. On Twitter, Rahul Gandhi has 9.4 million followers.

Rahul Gandhi’s followers on Twitter

which as remarkably low as compared to Narendra Modi who has managed to accumulate 41.1 million followers on Twitter.

Prime Minister Modi’s followers on Twitter

Meanwhile, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has been recognized umpteen number of times on various global platforms. While Russia decorated PM Modi with the highest state honour, South Korea accorded him with the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize.

Last year, PM Modi was honoured with United Nation’s prestigious, 2018 ‘Champions of the Earth Awards’. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates has awarded Prime Minister Modi with the highest civilian honour for boosting the relations between India and the Emirates.

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