Opinions have been divided over the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor ever since the demolition drive began. While most people have come around to believing it’s a great initiative, after scores of ancient Temples were rediscovered in the process, certain people like Ravish Kumar and members of the Muslim community still don’t approve.
While Muslims are nervous that the corridor could pave the way for the demolition of the Gyanvapi, Ravish Kumar is worried about the loss of ‘heritage’. In an interview with The Quint, Ravish claimed that Varanasi doesn’t feel like Varanasi anymore.
Ravish said, “I was arguing with some people, they were telling me it doesn’t matter that 200-250 houses were demolished for the corridor.” He seemed rather offended by that as he embarked upon a mission to claim that cultural heritage was being destroyed, ignoring entirely the scores of ancient Temples that have been recovered.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fG22kOC5g]
Throughout the interview, Ravish maintained that the corridor project was misguided. At one point, he went to the extent of saying that even if the people whose houses were demolished, for which they received adequate compensation, say that the corridor is for the betterment of Varanasi, he won’t agree that it was a good thing.
He said, “The 250 people would have taken their compensation and walked away. They could have been paid more but the wisdom that could be gained through that argument, could you buy that? I am telling you what’s happening is not right. You listen to me, you don’t, it’s up to you but I am telling you it’s not okay.”
“Every place has its own traditions, suddenly you demolish everything and build a 4-lane highway across the Mandir, then what can I say? I will say even then that it’s not correct. You can drive your car through this 4-lane highway at 180 km/hr if you have bought one but this place had a life of its own,” he added.
Ravish Kumar appears to have made it a point to disagree with the popular public perception regardless of the matter in question. When asked about the cleanliness of the Ganga, he answered with a question of his own, “Do you think the Ganga is getting cleaner?” When it was pointed out that people agreed that the Ganga was indeed getting cleaner, his response was, “So what if people say?”
That the hygiene of the Ganga has improved is generally not considered a matter of debate. When millions of devotees arrived at Kumbh and did the Ganga Snan, including high profile politicians, it was considered enough evidence that the hygiene of the sacred river had indeed improved since not too long ago, foreign dignitaries could not so due to the poor quality of the water. However, Ravish the Compulsive Contrarian chooses to disagree with observable facts.
His primary grouse appears to be with something else entirely. According to Ravish, people used to vote for Congress and BJP earlier as well but it’s only that politics has really become an issue. His opinions stem from an incident where people saw him at Kashi and called him Modi’s opponent. “I went to the Hotel and someone said, ‘Look. Modi-virodhi has come’. This is not Varanasi.” He appeared quite bitter while saying that.
Looking at his track record, it’s easy to see why people may consider him Modi’s opposition. Recently, he was seen on the stage of an SP-BSP rally in Uttar Pradesh. Although Ravish claimed he was only covering their campaign when questioned about it in the interview. Last year at an event moderated by Kumar, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav had said that he regretted not killing a journalist who had criticized him.
In the past, he has also insinuated that the BJP was trying to divide the Army along religious lines while showering praises on a media portal that attempted to sow discord within the Army on the basis of caste. He also spread fake news about martyr status to CRPF Jawans to malign the NDA government.
With over a lakh South Indian voters who call the national capital their home, the BJP has come up with a unique voter outreach as the national capital gears up to vote on May 12. While the voter percentage of Purvanchalis is far greater than that of the South Indians, BJP has taken its campaign a step further to be all inclusive in voter outreach.
BJP Karnataka MLA Arvind Limbavali was made the election in-charge for the campaign of reaching out to Kannadigas in the national capital. “Since the Kannadigas are away from their native state we wanted them to know that as a party we would stand by them at any point of time. Kannadigas have always been the front runners in the nation’s progress. Hence it is important to make them feel included in our run to achieve new India,” Limbavali said.
Limbavali reached out to the people across the national capital and presented the agenda. “Since the core ideology of BJP is to be inclusive while moving towards development the party decided to address this while the other parties like Congress haven’t taken any initiatives nor JDS has its presence here,” he added.
Limbavali visited the Raghavendra Swamy Mutt in RK Puram area of Delhi and the Adichunchanagiri Shakha Mutt in Noida where he reached out to influential Kannadiga voters to gather support for PM Modi. There are about 15,000 Kannadigas in Delhi and about 4,000 in Gurugram. In spite of the fact that the voter base is not that significant in the city which has over 1.3 crore voters the BJP has reached out to the voters which show that for the BJP, Delhi is more than just the Purvanchalis and the Punjabis.
About 40 per cent of the population in West, North West, North East and South Delhi is from Purvanchal, which comprises of the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh and western part of Bihar. Aam Aadmi Party, in its desperation to garner some votes had resorted to fear-mongering where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the BJP has been driving the ‘purvanchalis’ out of Delhi as they have done in Mumbai. Similarly, Punjabis, too, form a significant voter base, comprising of over 35% of the voter base.
Even as Congress struggles to stay relevant in the political landscape, the Aam Aadmi Party has driven the political discourse to a new low with its shameful antics. From indulging in fear-mongering by obtaining phone numbers of Delhi residents and calling them to ‘inform’ them that their names have been removed from the voters list by the BJP on behest of Narendra Modi, to accusing opponents of publishing and distributing obscene and derogatory pamphlets about their own candidate, AAP has reached a new low in politics.
As the campaigning ends for the sixth phase of elections, adrenaline has started flowing for the 23rd May when India gets the leader it deserves.
On 8th May 2019, a short video clip went viral on Social Media where a man was seen taking a selfie with actress Swara Bhaskar. In the clip, while taking a selfie, the man, with a cocky smile says to Swara Bhaskar, ‘par ma’am aayega to Modi hi’.
The viral video became a rage among netizens with several memes of the video cropping up. While Modi supporters were extremely supportive of the video and couldn’t get enough if it, Swara Bhaskar lashed out and said that when a guy asked her for a selfie at the airport, she obliged “because she doesn’t discriminate people who want selfies based on their politics”. She said he “sneakily shot a video”. In her iniminable spiteful and hateful style, she said underhand and tacky tactics are the trademarks of ‘bhakts’.
A guy asks for a selfie @ airport; I oblige ‘coz I don’t discriminate people who want selfies based on their politics. He sneakily shoots a video. Tacky & underhand tactics r trademarks of bhakts. I’m unsurprised. But always glad 2 make bhakts feel like their lives are worthwhile https://t.co/bKyFEOKZQh
OpIndia decided to reach out to the man in the video, who was identified as V Ranjha, a Punjabi singer to understand what his version of the entire event was.
V Ranjha said that he had asked Swara Bhaskar for a snap story which has audio and video both. He lashed out at Swara saying that if she didn’t like it, she should have asked him to delete it right then and there. He said he wouldn’t want to impugn motives to Swara and maybe she didn’t hear him properly over all the Airport noise when he asked her for a snap story.
He said after he said ‘aayega to Modi hi’, Swara Bhaskar simply said that ‘we shall see on 23rd May’ and walked away. If she had a problem with the snap story, she should have demanded that he delete it instead of retweeting it and ensuring that it reaches more people.
In fact, V Ranjha said that he was a fan of Swara Bhaskar as an actress, though as a politician, he would like to see Prime Minister Modi return to power since there is truly no other leader of his calibre in the country right now.
When asked why he took exception to Swara Bhaskar’s political views, he said that he, or anybody for that matter, did not have an issue with her politics but her stand on issues when it comes to the Indian army and Pakistan. He said he took exception to her tweet about Major Leetul Gogoi who had tied a stone pelter to his jeep to ensure the safe passage of poll officials who were stuck amidst a stone pelting mob.
When asked which statement regarding Maj Gogoi he took exception to, he said he wouldn’t want to repeat the abusive word used by Swara Bhaskar but its there on record. When we looked, we presumed he was talking about the following tweet that has raised a severe backlash on Twitter.
I dont agree with Sadhguru. Liberals are more than Fanatics. They are Anti National. They are Anti Army.
Here I fixed your tweet. pic.twitter.com/U8o14gmyV1
Eventhough Swara had claimed that she was talking about the Una incident, nobody believed her because she had criticised Major Leetul Gogoi’s last ditch effort to save officials extensively.
Swara Bhaskar’s leanings towards Pakistan are also quite apparent and have been spoken about extensively from time to time. In a video, she had praised Pakistan extensively while saying that she wanted to use ‘decent words’ since she was in Pakistan.
She had also credited Taliban Khan with the release of Wing Commander Abhinandan recently, when clearly, the events had pointed towards severe pressure put on Pakistan by the Modi government that led to her release. In fact, Abhinandan was mentally and physically assaulted when he was in Pakistan.
Pakistan has done the right thing in releasing Wing Cmdr #Abhinandan We welcome this move by @ImranKhanPTI Delighted this brave dignified son of India, our hero will return home soon. India has done the right thing in sending Pak a message that terror will no longer be tolerated
When asked about what he thought of Swara Bhaskar campaigning for Kanhaiya Kumar, V Ranjha said that if she wants to campaign for someone who wants ‘tukde tukde’ of the country, then that’s her choice.
Ranjha also said that he did what he did because he wanted to share it with some of his friends and had no idea it would go this viral. He didn’t want “publicity” as he already has worked with T-Series and has a song with over 3 million views on YouTube.
After a lady journalist took the interview of Swara Bhaskar, she posted on her Facebook page saying thought she had a great time interviewing her, but ‘aayega to Modi hi’.
In response to a show cause notice by the Election Commission for the claim he made while addressing an election rally in Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh last month, Rahul Gandhi has said that he didn’t violate the poll code and claimed that his remarks are part of the current political rhetoric.
Rahul Gandhi had previously lied that the Modi government had included a provision in the Adivasi law which will empower the government to shoot down Tribals (Adivasis) without having to face any consequences.
Subsequently, the EC served him a show cause notice on May 1 highlighting a provision of the Model Code of Conduct that barred “unverified” allegations against political opponents.
In his 11 page reply to the EC, he had asked them to be ‘fair and non-discriminatory’ in dealing with complaints of poll code breach. He claimed that the Congress was being targeted unfairly and that the various poll violations of the BJP haven’t been acted upon.
Rahul Gandhi has claimed that the comments on the tribal law were made in an attempt to summarise a proposed amendment to the Indian Forest Act in a simple language. Rahul Gandhi further claimed that he didn’t have any intention of “misleading, misrepresenting or stating false and non-existent facts”.
He said that his remarks were made in Hindi in a “free flow of a political speech”. He further said that his remarks are a part of the current political rhetoric confined to the BJP’s policies and asked for the complaint against him to be dismissed.
The Congress leader insisted that he didn’t violate the MCC as his remarks were limited to the policies and work of the Modi government. He further said that the BJP had filed the complaint in an attempt to distract him from his campaigning work as he is a party leader and a star campaigner.
Rahul Gandhi had previously threatened the EC with “consequences” in the future for being biased. He said that “anyone who colludes with the Modi government is committing a crime”.
This isn’t the first time that Rahul Gandhi had given the excuse of political speech for lying blatantly. The SC had sent a notice to him for attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chow Hai’ to the court. Following which he said that the remarks were made in the ‘heat of campaigning’. He was later forced to give an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court.
The Wikipedia page of AAP leader Manish Sisodia has now been locked after consistent vandalism of the page since the morning of 11th May 2019.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s Wikipedia page has been vandalised by miscreants. In his introduction, the words “most handsome and virgin man of Asia region” have been added. The Wikipedia page now also reads that he was “voted sexiest politician alive”.
Manish Sisodia’s Wikipedia page vandalised
The vandalism of the page has been consistent since the morning of 11th May 2019.
In fact, when one typed “who is Manish Sisodia” on Google, the search engine started throwing up answers like handsome, virgin, etc and hence, the Wikipedia page has not been locked.
The initial edit added the words “is a very handsome politician” to his Wikipedia introduction, as evidenced by the Edit History of the Wikipedia page.
ln the next edit, the word “Handsome” was changed to “beautiful”.
In a subsequent edit, the vandal included that Manish Sisodia is one “who failed Tom Cruise in his looks”.
Subsequently, the vandal added, “Manish Sisodia is the most handsome Indian politician who failed Tom cruise in his looks, even Shahrukh Khan has been his disciple for looking handsome. He has been”. In another edit, he was defined as “cute, handsome and lovely”.
Vandalism of a public figures Wikipedia page is indeed shameful as its the primary page most people land on to get more information on the public figure.
Social Media has been mocking Manish Sisodia for being “handsome” ever since the abusive pamphlet against AAP candidate from East Delhi, Atishi Marlena came to the fore. In the pamphlet, Atishi Marlena’s character was assassinated and in fact, Manish Sisodia was also called “handsome”.
AAP had accused BJP East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir of getting these abusive pamphlets printed and distributed. However, Gambhir had categorically denied the charges and asserted that it was AAP that was pulling these stunts for votes.
Later, Gautam Gambhir had sent a defamation notice to Atishi Marlena, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal for alleging that these pamphlets were printed and distributed by Gautam Gambhir. Several eminent cricketers had also come out in support of Gautam Gambhir against the allegations hurled by AAP.
Sam Pitroda has been 2019’s Mani Shankar Iyer when it comes to remarks and statements that expose Congress’ mentality. A long-time loyalist of the Gandhis and one of the closest advisers of Rahul Gandhi, Pitroda has been actively engaging with the media and giving statements regarding his party’s policies and political vision.
Recently, Sam Pitroda had triggered a huge controversy for dismissing the 1984 Sikh genocide as “Hua Toh Hua” (it happened, so what?). Pitroda’s comments come amidst the Sikh community’s protests and demand for justice in the 1984 massacre cases. Congress leaders have been accused of direct involvement in the massacre and Pitroda’s statement had given away just how much Congress cares for the victims and justice.
#WATCH Sam Pitroda: Ab kya hai ’84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. ’84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya? You were voted to create jobs. You were voted to create 200 smart cities. Aapne wo bhi nahi kiya. Aapne kuch nahi kiya isliye aap yahan wahan gup lagate hain. pic.twitter.com/9SMMUW5Hll
Soon, Congress and its president jumped into an apology mode. Pitroda too had first tried to brazen it out by claiming that BJP is ‘twisting three words’, but soon seemed to realise that “Hua Toh Hua” is something that cannot be twisted by anyone and the damage has been done. He then started expressing ‘regrets’ for the 1984 riots and posted images for his visits to the Golden Temple.
In a span of over a day, Sam Pitroda has travelled from “BJP is twisting three words” to “My Hindi is not very good”, in trying to explain his “Hua Toh Hua” remark. In the latest, Pitroda has been insisting that 1984 was terrible but it is in the past and everyone should move on.
However, Pitroda’s ‘motormouth’ has been a cause of a greater worry in Congress’ supportive ecosystem of ‘neutral journalists’ than it seems to be for Congress itself. Journalists and influencers, who claim to be ‘neutral’ and secular day in and day out, have been expressing their concern over Pitroda’s statements. They seem to be less concerned for the gravity of the apathy and disregard to the pains of the Sikh community but more concerned about how Pitroda’s statements can harm the Congress.
Now that he has advised Pitroda to apologise, he should also tell all members of the Congress “self-goal team” to stay away from cameras for a week! https://t.co/LSC3Nk5vI6
The ecosystem which was already busy defending Rajiv Gandhi for his corruption scandals and holiday trip using INS Viraat as a taxi seems exasperated on Pitroda’s remarks and just wishes Pitroda shuts up.
Pitroda had stated earlier that Congress’ NYAY scheme will mean higher taxes on the middle class, something other Congress leaders have been vehemently denying. He had also tried to shame the middle class for being selfish and had urged them to pay higher taxes to the poor can receive money from Congress.
Pitroda had also questioned the Balakot airstrikes and had asked for proof of the Indian air strikes. He had also stated that it is wrong to hold Pakistan accountable for the terrorist incidents for the crimes of a few terrorists. Another of his famous statements was, “Indians with mobile phones are like monkeys with a new toy”.
The founder of the alleged fact-checking website, AltNews took to Twitter today to mislead people about BJP’s 2014 poll promise of sending guilty MPs and MLAs to jail within a year of coming to power. Pratik Sinha, the founder of AltNews was responding to Abhijit Mazumdar, the Editor-in-Chief of MyNation. Majumdar had tweeted a news report that spoke of PM Modi’s promise of sending those who looted India to jail.
PM Modi drops a bomb: ‘Give me 5 years, those who looted India will be in jail’ — @MyNation
Biggest poll promise this season? https://t.co/avKYmznfIO
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) May 10, 2019
Responding to Majumdar, Sinha attached a screenshot of BJP’s 2014 poll promise of sending guilty MPs and MLAs to jail within a year of coming to power with a sarcastic remark. He said, “Yes, totally believable since in 2014 he said this”, indicating, that since PM Modi had not delivered on his 2014 poll promise, he wouldn’t deliver on this one either.
However, Pratik Sinha has been economical with the facts, which is not surprising, but unfortunate considering he likes to call himself a fact-checker. Firstly, any promise of ‘sending some to jail’ has to be about the legal process because executive can’t send someone to jail as it would be undemocratic. Hence, any such ‘promise’ has to be seen in the juxtaposition of how the judiciary functions and behaves. The promise by a PM Modi would have to be seen in the context of how he and his government tried to ensure a speedy judicial process.
In that context, the truth is that the Modi government had presented a proposal to the Supreme Court that cases against sitting MPs and MLAs should be heard in fast-track courts and disposed of quickly, however, it was the Supreme Court that had rejected the proposal.
SC rejected Modi govt’s proposal in 2014. But govt persisted. In 2017, SC approved setting up of fast track courts for cases against MPs & MLAs. By June 2018, 791 cases were transferred to fast track courts. But Fact Faker @free_thinker won’t tell you this. pic.twitter.com/p7f6Csfumx
— Chowkidar Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) May 11, 2019
On July 24th 2014, the Modi government had asked Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to draw up a roadmap on how these can be fast-tracked after expressing concern over the increasing criminality in the political space. The law panel had said that for charges framed against sitting MPs or MLAs, the trial must be expedited and concluded within a one-year period. “If trial is not concluded within one year then (either) the MP/MLA may be disqualified at the expiry of the one-year period or the MP/MLAs’ right to vote in the House as a member, remuneration shall be suspended at the expiry of the one-year period,” the report had said.
On August 1st 2014, the Supreme Court had told the centre that cases against MPs and MLAs cannot be fast-tracked because MPs and MLAs are not special. The court had said that the government should come up with a system to expedite the entire justice system and not just cases against legislators.
The Modi government, however, persisted on its promise. In 2017, the Centre against submitted an affidavit in court with a proposal to set up 12 fast-track courts to hear cases against MPs and MLAs to try a total of 1,581 criminal cases pending against legislators across the country.
In an affidavit, the centre said that Rs 65 lakh would be required for setting up each of these courts, bringing the total up to Rs7.8 crore. These would be set up for a period of one year to fast track disposal of cases against legislators.
“The scheme envisages setting up for 12 special courts for a period of one year to dispose of cases against political persons at an expenditure of Rs7.8 crore. On 8 December, the Department of expenditure, ministry of finance has given in-principle approval for the same,” said the 14-page affidavit.
The Supreme Court had thereafter given the central government permission to set up 12 fast-track courts and ordered that the courts be functional by March 2018. The Centre then asked states and union territories to set up 12 fast-track courts that would hear 3,816 criminal cases against 1,765 MPs and MLAs.
In June 2018, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad briefed the media that 12 fast-track courts had been set up in 11 states and union territories. He told the media that 791 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs had already been transferred to these special courts.
By this time, the government has set up a total of 727 fast-track courts which included courts to expedite trials of cases against women, SC/STs, children and senior citizens. The number of fast-track courts had increased from 281 from 2015 to 727 in 2018. The fast-track courts for MPs/MLAs are in Delhi, Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Bihar and West Bengal.
In fact, by September 2018, the Central government told the Supreme Court that in the 12 fast-track courts, 1,233 cases had been transferred, 136 disposed of and 1,097 cases were pending in these special courts.
It is thus evident that Pratik Sinha, the founder of AltNews and self-proclaimed fact-checker misled people by not providing full details of the entire journey of how fast-track courts were set up. He insinuated that Prime Minister Modi had not kept his promise to send guilty MLAs and MPs to jail, however, the delay in the setting up of fast-track courts was because of the judicial process and not because the Modi government simply did not want to deliver on its promise. Only weeks after coming to power, the Modi government had worked on a proposal for the setting up of fast-track courts, in accordance with its poll promise before coming to power in 2014. In fact, had the Supreme Court given the central government permission to set up fast-track courts to hear cases against MPs and MLAs in July 2014 itself, the Modi government had no reason to not fulfil its poll promise of sending the guilty to jail within a year of coming to power.
This is not the first time that AltNews founders have misrepresented facts and lied.
AltNews sought to ‘fact-check’ a ‘clipped’ video of journalist Barkha Dutt but interestingly, left out the quotes where she was actually giving a context to the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley. Altnews ‘fact-checked’ a retired major from the Army, but willy-nilly refused to respond to his side of the story. Altnews fact-checked a fake image in circulation without bothering to name the ones using that fake image. The reason was rather simple. The ones sharing that image were their ideological comrades which included Swati Chaturvedi, a source BBC has relied upon. One of their co-founders happily furthers genocidal accounts wishing for death upon anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the leftist cult. The co-founder of Altnews spread lies about ease of doing business rankings. He shared a fake image of BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa right before the Karnataka elections.
In a bizarre incident, the Indore police have lodged an FIR against BJP candidate Shankar Lalwani and the priest of the famous Khajrana Ganesh Temple because, as per the district election commission, a cloth that Lalwani offered to the deity in the temple was ‘political’.
इंदौर से BJP प्रत्याशी@iShankarLalwani जी और प्राचीनतम खजराना गणेश मंदिर के पुजारी श्री अशोक भट्ट के खिलाफ पुलिस ने आचार संहिता के उल्लंघन का मामला दर्ज किया है. @ECISVEEP के मुताबिक उनका अपराध ये है कि उन्होंने वैदिक परंपरा के अनुरूप भगवान गणेश को चोला चढ़ाकर उनकी पूजा की थी।
#2 pic.twitter.com/gIwOV91tfL
— Chowkidar Ramesh Mendola, MLA, Indore (@Ramesh_Mendola) May 10, 2019
As per reports, BJP candidate Shankar Lalwani had gone to worship at the Khajrana Ganesh temple of Indore on April 29 where he had offered a cloth of saffron and green colour with lotus flowers.
As BJP’s party flag is of saffron and green colour and its party symbol is Lotus, Congress had complained to the election commission that the Puja done by Lalwani is a gross violation of the model code of conduct.
The district election commission has received the complaint and had reportedly instructed Indore police to lodge an FIR against Lalwani and the priest of the temple.
As per reports, Khajrana SHO Preetam Singh Thakur has stated that an FIR has been lodged against BJP candidate Shankar Lalwani and priest Ashok Bhatt under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and Religious Institutions (prevention of misuse) Act, 1988, on Wednesday, 8th May.
The police have informed that the case was registered as per instructions of district election officer Lokesh Kumar Jatav.
BJP’s MLA Ramesh Mendola has reacted to the FIR stating that saffron and green colours are a vital part of Hindu ritualistic traditions as saffron kumkum and green ‘Durba’ grass is an integral part of any Hindu puja. Saffron and green clothes are offered by devotees to deities as a symbol of these two items. He has also stated that the Lotus flower is another Hindu symbol that has always been used for worshipping deities since ancient times as mentioned in Hindu texts and scriptures.
Mendola has also stated that not only on April 29 but even the latest images of the temple show that the deity was adorned with clothes of saffron and green colour and lotus flowers. He has also asserted that MP candidate Lalwani was not campaigning when he went to the temple and neither any of his associates had indulged in any campaigning activity while inside the temple premises.
Mendola has also asked whether the police will also consider lodging an FIR against Lord Ganesha too as he has been adorned with BJP colours and symbol.
BJP Indore has asked whether Hindus will have to ask for a NOC from the election commission each time they pray to their gods as per traditional rituals.
Supporters of Aam Admi Party (AAP) including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are perpetually boasting that a revolution has taken place in the field of education in Delhi. They are never tired of saying that Delhi’s government schools have turned world class. After spending crores of rupees, they would show photos of a gym and a swimming pool constructed in one out of a thousand schools and say what a fantastic job has been done by Kejriwal.
Another lie being circulated in the market these days is that government schools have surpassed private schools. People are seen saying this in the context of 12th board results. But when you talk about the results of 10th class, everyone goes mum. Then no one will tell you why the result of Delhi schools has fallen below 77.12% which was the result in 2006-07. In fact, since 2006-07, Delhi schools had only shown an upward trend except for the last two years when it broke several records of poor results.
Let us understand the story of government schools of Delhi-
Lets first talk about the 12th class:
1) It feels good to hear that government schools are giving better results than private schools. But is it happening for the first time in the case of Delhi?
You will find out that’s not true.
Difference between government and private schools class 12 results, 2015
Government schools of Delhi have outshone the private schools earlier as well. In 2009 and 2010, the performance of government schools in terms of 12th results was better than the private schools. Take a look at the statistics on the 12th class results of the government and the private schools, shared by the Delhi government through Result Analysis after the result was declared.
Therefore it is wrong to declare it as a historical event.
2) To say that all the betterment in exam results were delivered as your government came to power is a bit too much. Numbers tell that the gap between the exam results of government and private schools has reduced drastically.
Difference between government schools and public schools
You can see that the government schools that were lagging behind private schools by 13% have not only come at par with private schools but in fact, exceeded them. In the last three years, the same thing is being repeated by the fact is that the gap between the government and the private schools is not too much unlike past decades.
3) As far as the performance of the students of Delhi is concerned, it has always been good.
The abovementioned figures suggest that the exam result of the students studying in the government schools of Delhi never dropped below 85% between 2008-2015. If there has been a minor improvement in the past 3 years, then the result of private schools has also improved proportionately. This year i.e. during 2018-19 private schools were 90% as against 94% figure of government schools.
4) It also to be seen that while the number of students is decreasing in government schools, it increased in private schools every year.
Here is the report of Economic Survey of Delhi (2018-19)-
Excerpt of Economic Survey of Delhi
5) The number of admissions is decreasing in government schools while the total share of admissions in private schools is rising.
The numbers in the Economic Survey report issued by the government prove this. According to the report, while the share of private schools was at 31% during 2014-15, it rose above 45.5% during 2017-18.
Change in enrolment of students in private schools
6) Decreasing number of students appearing for board exams
What is extremely shocking here is that regardless of the quality of result the number of students appearing in the exams has always been rising until the Aam Admi Party government came to power. Ever since the AAP government came the number of students has been decreasing.
Students appeared for class 12 exams and pass percentage (2009-2018)
It is evident that ever since the AAP government came to power the number of students appearing in 12th board exams has been reducing rapidly.
7) Only ‘good’ students appearing for board exams
The most important thing is that every year a large number of students are being failed in the 9th and 11th exam results so that only ‘good’ students appear for 12th class exams. The decreasing numbers are proof that around 50% of students are being failed every year in 9th class. (See figures)
Class 11 results of Delhi government schools
28-29% of students were failed in 11th standard as per this Indian Express report.
Indian Express report on how the class 11 students have fared over the years
Despite all this, the partial rise in the result is being projected as an achievement.
The moment the result of 10th standard is out, all the claims educational revolution of the Kejriwal government go up in the air
Their supporters who can’t stop praising the government for 12th exam results suddenly become tight-lipped as soon as 10th standard results come out.
Let’s see some facts,
1) This year in 2018-19, government schools were behind private schools by 21%. While the collective percentage of the government schools in Delhi was 71.58%, the collective percentage of private schools was 93.12%.
2) During the last session in 2017-18 when the results for the 10th standard were declared 69.32% of the students studying in government schools had passed as compared to 89.45% of those studying in private schools. This means that there was a gap of 20% of the percentage of students passed.
In the past years, the national average of the 10th exam result was extremely poor but no one is coming forward to take responsibility.
3) The condition of 10th standard results in the government schools in Delhi was not the same a decade ago. The ‘credit’ for this also goes to the AAP government and it is because this government that Delhi’s record has hit its lowest breaking all the past records.
Class 10 CBSE result for Delhi schools
4) Delhi government should own the damage it has done to the initiatives that were taken to bridge the gap between the government and the private schools. The gap of 45% between private and government schools was brought down by the previous governments. However, AAP government has again brought up the same difference to 21%.
Gap between government and private schools in Delhi
5) This is the situation when around 42% of students had failed in 9th standard last year which meant that only ‘good’ students were promoted to the next class.
As is discussed above, the performance of the students of the government schools of Delhi studying in 10th standard was better than those studying in private schools in 2013 as compared to the poor 10th standard results over past 2 years.
6) Delhi government did not allow the who had failed in exams, to take re-admission. The percentage of such students was 66%.
Read here an excerpt from the petition of Delhi High Court Advocate Ashok Aggarwal:
Excerpt of the petition filed in Delhi High Court
Delhi government should answer some important questions instead of demanding praise for manipulated achievement for 12th standard results:
1) Why are such results coming out despite tall claims of increasing learning outcome along with “Mission Chunauti” and “Mission Buniyaad”?
2) Why are students being deliberately failed in the name of improving results?
3) Why are students who have failed, are not being allowed to take re-admission?
4) Why is the government not focusing on studies and is instead renovating a few schools seeking appreciation?
The head of the Delhi government should keep in mind that he may earn applause by manipulating numbers, distract the media by spending crores on infrastructure but he is indulging in national crime by depriving the poor students of school education.
Sam Pitroda is trying extremely hard to outwit Mani Shankar Aiyar, the King of shameful comments. Earlier, Pitroda had said with regards to the 1984 organised Sikh genocide that the BJP must “move on” from this issue and “jo hua wo hua” (what happened, happened). Rahul Gandhi took to Facebook to offer an apology for Pitroda’s comments and to say that he doesn’t endorse what his mentor said. However, even while apologising, Rahul Gandhi could not stop himself from toning down and whitewashing the 1984 Sikh genocide.
Rahul Gandhi’s post on Facebook
Rahul Gandhi said that what Sam Pitroda said what completely out of line and he should apologise for it. He said that justice needed to be done and the people responsible for 1984 “tragedy” have to be punished. He also said that former PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had apologised for the “terrible tragedy” and that 1984 was a “needless tragedy”.
The keywords used by Rahul Gandhi give an indication as to how, even while apologising, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t shy away from shamelessly whitewashing the organised massacre of Sikhs in 1984.
The truth is that a devastating earthquake can be called a tragedy, Cyclone Fani that left Odisha ravaged can be called a tragedy but the organised massacre of Sikhs cannot be called one. If one is being honest about the events that led up to the massacre of thousands of Sikhs, one can only call it a massacre, driven by revenge against a community, organised by Congress, fuelled by Rajiv Gandhi.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, one recalls the infamous speech of Rajiv Gandhi when he said that after Indira Gandhi was killed, for a few days people thought that India was shaking. He followed it up with ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’.
The speech justified and fuelled the anti-Sikh hatred that was being fanned by Congress at the time. The organised genocide of 1984 claimed the lives of more than 10,00 Sikhs with the active involvement of Congress leaders. Recently, victims of the Sikh genocide had written to Rahul Gandhi saying that they will never forgive Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party for the massacre.
While Rahul Gandhi says that justice must be served and those responsible must be punished, Congress itself has rewarded leaders accused of violence/role in 1984 riots. Jagdish Tytler, was elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 and served as Union Minister of State for Surface Transport and was re-elected to Lok Sabha in 2004. He was dropped only in 2009 due to the controversy over his roles in 1984 riots.
Similarly, Sajjan Kumar was reelected in 1991 Lok Sabha and then again in 2004. In 2004 he won by the largest number of votes ever in India, 855,543, representing Congress in outer Delhi. He then served as Member, Committee on Urban Development and Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme. Tytler and Kumar are both accused of leading a murderous mob and engineering the anti-Sikh riots.
Recently, Sajjan Kumar was convicted by the Delhi High Court for murdering five Sikhs in the Delhi Cantonment area during the 1984 Sikh genocide. The court, while awarding him a life sentence and had also asked to pay Rs 5 lakh as fine.
One can also not gloss over the fact that while several people have accused Kamal Nath of playing an active role in the 1984 genocide, the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi has made him the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
The statement by Rahul Gandhi that purportedly apologises for Sam Pitroda’s comment is just as bad as his, if not worse. While he pretends to apologise for the comments, he ended up whitewashing the genocide as much as Pitroda by calling the organised genocide a ‘needless tragedy’ instead of facing and owning up to the truth of the organised massacre.
