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Railway Ministry confirms OpIndia report, hawker arrested for being a repeat offender of illegal hawking, not mocking politicians

OpIndia Staff
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Railway Ministry confirms OpIndia report, hawker arrested for being a repeat offender of illegal hawking, not mocking politicians

A video clip of a hawker selling toys on a train went viral recently where the hawker was making political commentary, which was quite hilarious. Soon after, several media houses like the Indian Express and Times Now reported that the hawker was arrested for mimicking politicians, ‘including Prime Minister Modi’. OpIndia had done a detailed fact-check yesterday where we revealed how the hawker was arrested not for mocking politicians ‘especially PM Modi’, but for illegal hawking and being a repeat offender at that.

Today the Railway Ministry has confirmed the OpIndia report. The ministry took to Twitter to publish a clarification regarding the media reports which suggested that hawker was arrested for mimicking politicians.


The clarification stated that Avdesh Dubey was prosecuted 12 times including this one. Out of this, 4 times he was prosecuted by the Surat Post itself for unauthorised hawking.

The Railways Ministry also confirmed that Dubey himself admitted to the Magistrate that he was hawking illegally since 2005.

OpIndia had reported that Dubey was handed a jail term for the least days among all the accused, further pointing out that he was not singled out for any reason whatsoever. In fact, even this jail term and a fine were due to the fact that he was booked 7 times in the past by different Posts for unauthorized hawking, thus making him a repeat offender that attracted the high quantum of punishment.

Railways officials reiterated that the action against Dubey was routine and it had got nothing to do with his utterances in the viral video.

Chief EVM conspiracy theorist of AAP now has a new conspiracy theory against Election Commission

OpIndia Staff
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Chief EVM conspiracy theorist of AAP now has a new conspiracy theory against Election Commission

After attacking the Election Commission of India over allegations of EVM tampering and deletion of names from the voter list, the Aam Aadmi Party has come up with another charge against the constitutional body. On 31st May, AAP MLA from Greater Kailash Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the EC is planning to dissolve to Delhi Assembly ahead of its tenure and hold the assembly elections in October this year.

The MLA tweeted that there is a strong buzz that EC will hold the Delhi assembly elections along with other states going to poll in October itself. He asked whether EC can curtail the period of an elected assembly. This tweet was retweeted by Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, indicating that the party endorses the allegation. Bharadwaj also claimed that “EC is making such plans in connivance with the BJP”.

Saurabh Bharadwaj’s tweet

Saurabh Bharadwaj is the same AAP MLA who had presented the proof of EVM hacking by demonstrating the same with a toy EVM in the Delhi assembly in May 2017.

BJP has strongly denied the allegations of connivance with EC levelled by AAP. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that Bharadwaj’s statements part of AAP’s “negative politics”.  He said that “Bharadwaj and Arvind Kejriwal should shed the habit of making illogical statements to vent out their political frustration and remain in news. Due to its negative politics, AAP has totally lost its political ground. If AAP does not shed its negativity and start working for people, then in February 2020 AAP may vanish from Delhi’s political arena.”

Coming to Delhi assembly, contrary to the allegations made by Aam Aadmi Party, the Election Commission does not have the authority to curtail the term of an assembly. A state assembly can be dissolved by the Governor on the recommendation of the Chief Minister, or when the assembly fails to elect a government due to no party winning a majority. In case of union territories like Delhi, the assembly is dissolved by the president on the advice of the parliament.

But the EC can hold the elections in advance without curtailing the term of the house. For example, the term of 16th Lok Sabha was scheduled to end on 3rd June, but the elections for the 17th Lok Sabha were held in April and May. This is done to ensure that the house is elected and ready when the term of the outgoing house ends.

According to section 15 of the representation of people’s act, the Election Commission can issue notification for parliament or assembly elections within six months before the term of the current house ends. Therefore, if the poll panel wants, they can actually hold the elections in October, as the elections in Delhi are due in February 2020. But that will not curtail the term of current assembly, the new assembly will come into force on the scheduled date even if the polls are held in advance.

But the fact is EC has not made any such announcement, and there is no proof that BJP is conspiring with EC to prepone the elections in Delhi. This is just one of many conspiracy theories that AAP keep coming out with to malign the election commission. They lost the recent Lok Sabha elections in Delhi very badly, coming third behind BJP and Congress, where BJP won all 7 seats with huge margins. The chance of AAP returning to power in Delhi is slim, and in that backdrop, it is expected that the party will increase its attack on the Election Commission, the entire election process including EVM, and of course BJP.

FIR filed against Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan in land grab case and for obstructing government work

OpIndia Staff
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FIR filed against Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan in land grab case and for obstructing government work

The Rampur district administration has registered another FIR against Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Azam Khan in the land grab case and also for obstructing officials from conducting a survey at the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.

The local administrative officials and revenue department team reached the university after they were ordered to conduct an enquiry by the state government. Authorities say that a part of a river land falls within the university.

Allegedly the staff of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University prevented a team of revenue department officials from entering the campus and had manhandled them. The team visited the campus on May 17 and were prevented from entering the area as there were a gate and an 8 feet wall built to prevent the public from accessing the land.

On the same day, the team came back later along with a police force and conducted the survey. From the survey, it was found that the university has usurped five hectares of land that belongs to the public.

The Rampur district magistrate had said the university was informed in advance about the administration’s move to conduct the survey. However, university officials claimed that they denied entry due to the ongoing examinations of the students.

An FIR was registered at the Azimnagar police station after complaints were received from the officials. The Rampur SP Shiv Hari Meena said that the newly elected Rampur MP and university officials prevented the officials from entering. He said, “Azam Khan, R A Qureishi (Registrar of the university), Aale Hasan (Security officer of the university) have been booked under IPC section 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and Section 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984”.

Azam Khan has however denied the allegations and sought to play the victim card. He claims to have been targeted for running a school for the minority community and Dalit students. He alleged that the local authorities were intentionally trying to harass the students and university officials.

Azam Khan is the Chancellor of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. They were allegations that about Rs 3000 crores government fund was used for the construction of the university. The allegations of having grabbed public land forcibly for the construction of the university has been reported in 2017.

He is also known for his controversial statements in the past including making objectionable statements against Ambedkar and making sexist remarks against Jaya Prada.

YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy says Naidu was not confident of numbers, he was ‘putting up an act’

OpIndia Staff
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YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy says Naidu was not confident of numbers, he was ‘putting up an act’

Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) chief, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy created history by sweeping the recently concluded Vidhan Sabha as well as Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh. In a massive blow, Chandra Babu Naidu’s TDP was reduced to 3 seats out of 25 in the Lok Sabha polls and 23 seats in the 175-member assembly.

Jagan Mohan Reddy who was recently sworn in as Andhra’s chief minister, in a candid interview with Times Now’ Navika Kumar on, Frankly Speaking on May 26, three days after his massive victory was announced, said that Chandra Babu Naidu had been putting up an ‘act’ as he was not confident of the numbers.

Navika Kumar asked Reddy what in his opinion was Chandra Babu doing in Delhi until May 21 meeting several leaders of the opposition claiming he had the numbers.

Asserting that he would make it, not only to the CM’s seat but also to Delhi, the TDP chief ahead of the last phase of Lok Sabha elections had been on a meeting spree with the prospective Prime Ministerial candidates of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ parties.

Naidu had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, and BSP supremo Mayawati. Interestingly, each one of these leaders secretly harboured the desire to lead the country as the next Prime Minister of India.

Meanwhile, Reddy was of the opinion that Naidu saw the landslide coming. It was not possible to overlook the kind of landslide that emerged against his governance. It was because of this fear that Naidu wanted to carve out space for himself, said Reddy. Since he wanted to make some place for himself in the National front he colluded of projecting himself as a friend and a convener to these party heads, maintained the YRSCP chief.

Further, talking about his victory, Reddy said that he was confident of a landslide victory as public’s discontent with Chandra Babu Naidu’s government of evident.

Speaking about the padyatra he undertook that lasted 14 months, covering over 3,600 km as he toured 134 constituencies of Andhra Pradesh, Reddy said that owing to the emergence of huge gatherings in his padayatras the displeasure with Naidu’s government was apparent.

Anybody who would have witnessed that huge gathering would understand that it would be a landslide against Chandra Babu’s governance said, Reddy.

The full interview can be viewed here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4RxCIRLKgY]

Meanwhile, after taking oath as the CM, Reddy in his first address to the newly-elected legislators of his party said that achieving special category status to Andhra Pradesh remained the party’s number one goal.

World Cup: Match 3 – New Zealand v Sri Lanka in Numbers

OpIndia Staff
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World Cup: Match 3 – New Zealand v Sri Lanka in Numbers

Another low scoring game of the World Cup. England is still the only team to cross the magical figure of 300.

The match got over in 45.3 overs when the tournament format is of 50 overs per side. The Kiwis cruised to victory even without losing a wicket. There are only 12 instances in which a team won the match by 10 wickets in the World Cup.

The first team to win a match by 10 wickets was India when they beat East Africa in 1979. In the 12 such instances of the World Cup, New Zealand won it three times (twice in 2011 and now).

Karunaratne became only the 2nd batsman in World Cup history to carry the bat in completed innings. Before him, Ridley Jacobs carried the bat in World Cup 1999.

Karunaratne also became only the 6th batsmen in history to carry the bat in both Test and ODI. The other players are – Grant Flower, Saeed Anwar, Alec Stewart, Javed Omar, and Tom Latham.

Sri Lanka has lost 14 out of 15 last ODI matches against Test-playing nation.

Preview – Match 5: Bangladesh v South Africa – Will the ball dominate the bat again?

OpIndia Staff
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Preview – Match 5: Bangladesh v South Africa – Will the ball dominate the bat again?

When everyone expected to see big scores in the World Cup, teams are struggling to reach 200. For many, this World Cup is becoming boring and one-sided.

South Africa will be playing their second match of the tournament. They have lost the opening game against the hosts, and they can’t take this match lightly. They are a superior team and they are in a must-win situation because a loss here will dampen their chances for the top 4 slots.

Their batting collapsed in the first match which must have disappointed them the most. Only de Kock and van der Dussen were able to score some runs. The bowling unit looked in great touch, and they have to play a bigger part if they want to win this game.

Recently, Bangladesh won the triangular series in Ireland where the other two teams were Ireland and West Indies. In 2007, Bangladesh won the Super Six match against South Africa in the World Cup. They have won 3 matches in each previous edition of the World Cup. They would certainly want to do better than that.

Their batting is quite good, especially Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur who are quite experienced in International cricket. They must be keen to put pressure on South Africa from the very first ball. If they can put a total in excess of 250, then they can easily make the Proteas nervous.

Players to watch out

Imran Tahir, the leg spinner who became the first spinner in World Cup to open the bowling, is in great form. He took two wickets against England and was in solid touch in IPL as well. South Africa must be hoping from him to pick a few early wickets so they can put pressure on Bangladeshi batsman from the beginning.

Tamim Iqbal, the southpaw opener can destroy any bowling line up on his day. His trademark short is his straight drive. If he gives a flying start to his team, Bangladesh will easily cross the score of 250 plus.

Bangladesh v South Africa in ODIs

Overall: Matches 20, Bangladesh Won 3, South Africa Won 17

World Cup: Matches 3, Bangladesh Won 1, South Africa Won 2

Recent Form (most recent first): Bangladesh W W W NR W, South Africa L W W W W

ICC Rankings: Bangladesh (7), South Africa (3)

Upcoming Records

Hashim Amla has scored 7,923 runs and needs 77 more to become the fourth South African player to reach the 8,000 runs milestone.

Dale Steyn has taken 196 wickets and needs four more to become the fifth South African player to reach the 200 wickets milestone.

Squads

Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Abu Jayed, Liton Das (wk), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Mithun (wk), Mohammad Saifuddin, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal.

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Rassie van der Dussen.

Pakistani officials harass, intimidate guests at Iftar party hosted by Indian envoy in Islamabad

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistani officials harass, intimidate guests at Iftar party hosted by Indian envoy in Islamabad

Indian diplomats stationed in Islamabad face harassment yet again while hosting Iftar at Serena Hotel, Islamabad. According to reports, Pakistani officials stopped, harassed and intimidated the guests who were invited at an Iftar party hosted by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan on Saturday.

As per the initial inputs, hundred of guests present at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were manhandled by Pakistani security agencies and were turned away at the entrance of the Serena hotel where the party was being hosted.

Reports suggest that the Pakistani officials virtually laid siege on the hotel on Saturday when the Iftar party was organised.

“Before that, they called invitees from unknown numbers and threatened them with consequences if they attended the Iftar party hosted by the Indian High Commission,” Sources said.


The reports also said that the gates were shut down and many were told that the Iftar party has been cancelled.

While speaking at the event, Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria confirmed the incident and also apologised to those who were subjected to extra scrutiny. He said, “I would like to apologise to all our friends who were subject to extra scrutiny.”


The High Commission of India to Pakistan had organised an Iftar party in Islamabad on June 1 and had also extended an invite to Pakistani leadership including Prime Minister Imran Khan.

However, this is not the first time when Indian diplomats have faced such insults in Pakistan. They continue to be at the receiving end of harassment by Pakistani authorities in Islamabad, even as both countries have agreed to adhere to the Vienna Convention’s rules laid for safeguarding diplomats’ interests.

In fact, India has sent repeated note verbale, an official diplomatic communication, to Foreign Ministry of Pakistan raising strong concerns over the harassment Indian diplomats face in Islamabad time and again.

Last month India had lodged a complaint with the Pakistani authorities regarding the two Indian diplomats who were allegedly locked up and harassed at Gurudwara near Lahore, Pakistan on April 17.

There have been several incidents in the past where Indian diplomats have been harassed while trying to facilitate the travel of Sikh pilgrims to the several gurudwaras in the Punjab province. Pro-Khalistani groups have also reportedly confronted the Indian pilgrims.

India had raised the issue of harassment of its diplomats in March as well. Following the Pulwama attacks and the subsequent Balakot air strikes, at least 6 incidents of harassment of India’s Naval advisor in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, Captain Peter Varghese, was reported by the mission to Pakistan government.

India has also previously complained about the deliberate power cuts during the harsh winters in Pakistan. In November, just a day after India decided to develop and build the Kartarpur corridor, Indian diplomats were blocked from meeting the Sikh pilgrims at Gurudwara Sacha Sauda and Gurudwara Nankana Sahib in Pakistan.

Speculations rife as Congress social media head Divya Spandana deactivates her Twitter account

OpIndia Staff
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Speculations rife as Congress social media head Divya Spandana deactivates her Twitter account

The recent Lok Sabha defeat has cost the Congress dearly. First, the Congress officially announced that none of their members would participate in any kind of discussions or television debates for at least a month and now rumours are doing the rounds that the Congress social media head Divya Spandana is no longer a part of the Congress social media team.

The Kannada actress turned politician, also known by her screen name Ramya, seems to have deactivated her Twitter account. Spandana was handpicked by Rahul Gandhi to handle Congress’ social and digital media.

A SS of Divya Spandan’s Twitter account

If one is to believe reports, Divya Spandan has parted ways and is no longer a part of the Congress social media team. However, there is no official confirmation from either the Indian National Congress party or Spandana herself.

When news agency ANI asked Spandana if she has left the social media team of the Congress, she rejected the claims saying, “Your source is wrong.” On the other hand, the Congress media department declined to respond.

This move comes as a surprise, as the media head had, in fact, taken to Twitter yesterday itself, to take an oblique jibe at the newly inducted Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. In her Tweet, though she applauded Sitaraman for being the second woman in the political history of India to take up the role after Indira Gandhi she took a subtle sweep at the Finance Minister by pointing out at the GDP which has slipped to 5.8 per cent.

Though the Congress enthusiast journalists have written accolades calling her a vintage politician and credited her with singlehandedly reviving Congress’ social media presence, the fact is that the Congress’ Twitter handle has seen series of slip-ups over the time, which made them the butt of all jokes on Twitter.

Congress’ #KnowYourLegacy question backfired, and they got trolled for the #KnowYourLegacy quiz which came back to haunt them about the horrors from the time of Congress misrule. They had also goofed up in dates while paying tributes on the death anniversary of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. They had written the date of death (27th September 1833) before the date of birth (22nd May 1772) which appears as if he was born on 27th September 1833 and passed away on 22nd May 1772 which is just not possible.

They had in the past also got trolled for bringing back Indira Gandhi from the dead for inaugurating a bridge in West Bengal in 1992, 8 years after she was assassinated.

Recently, the IT cell head was called out for using a digitally edited image of German dictator Hitler ‘posing’ like he is pulling a child’s ears to compare him with Prime Minister Modi. This is, however, not the first. In fact, Congress social media team headed by Divya Spandana regularly used morphed images.

A while ago, Congress posted a shocking image which mocked the victims of Pulwama terror attacks and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with a single digitally edited image.

She has also been accused of not taking a stand against teammates accused of sexually predatory behaviour and has also been caught sharing soft porn websites to prove ‘Rafale scam’.

This faux pas of Divya followed by various other misadventures had triggered speculations about Divya being booted out of Congress. In fact, such rumours have been making rounds since October last year over various goof ups by Congress on social media.

Fake news: Majlis Bachao Tehreek leader spreads fake news of a Muslim man being beaten up by BJP/RSS workers for not chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’

OpIndia Staff
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Fake news: Majlis Bachao Tehreek leader spreads fake news of a Muslim man being beaten up by BJP/RSS workers for not chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’

Former AIMIM leader who is now a leader of Majlis Bachao Tehreek and considered the main opponent of AIMIM took to Twitter to share that a Muslim man was beaten up in Karimnagar, Telangana. He alleged that the Muslim man was beaten up for not chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’.


This was also shared by other social media users.


However, Commissioner of Police, Karimnagar, Telangana State, shared a video of the Muslim man where he clarifies that he was beaten up over a personal issue and there was no communal side to it.


He mentions how it took place over a ‘love story’. He was reportedly beaten up for allegedly harassing a teenaged girl over last few days. The police have registered a case against five persons who beat him up under various sections of the IPC.

The man’s father also came on record to confess how it was his son’s fault which led to the incident and even apologised for the same. He too clarified that there was no communal angle to it.


However, alert Twitter users were also quick to point out who were spreading the fake news that there was no communal angle to the incident.


This incident comes close on heels of the Gurugram incident where another Muslim man had claimed that he was beaten up and his skullcap forcefully thrown away. The police investigation had revealed that no such thing had happened and his skullcap fell on its own in the brawl that took place.

Ayodhya: Thief returns idol of Lord Ram after he is rattled by nightmares

OpIndia Staff
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Ayodhya: Thief returns idol of Lord Ram after he is rattled by nightmares

In a rare gesture, a thief turned up at the temple to return the precious ashtdhatu idol of Lord Ram within days of stealing it in Ayodhya. As per reports, the thief named Ajay Shukla surprisingly walked into the temple himself with the same idol that he had robbed on May 27.

Shukla broke open the lock when the priest had left the premises for an afternoon nap. He claimed to have been suffering from severe body ache since he lifted the idol from Shri Yugal Madhuri Kunj temple. He also alleged to be rattled by nightmares, making him lose his peace of mind. Shukla who is a resident of Gonda city confessed from the time of the theft nothing seemed to be going right with him. It is these unexplained intimidations that forced him to return the idol back to the shine within 5 days.

After returning the ashtdhatu idol to the priest, he is said to be relieved of the pain. However, he was not lucky enough to escape the police net and was nabbed.

Shockingly, the idol was stolen from Shri Yugal Madhuri Kunj temple in the high-security yellow zone of Ayodhya city. The theft was a challenge that had perplexed the city police. SP Jogendra Kumar had formed several teams, which were in the lookout for the culprit. That’s when Shukla walked into the temple on his own.

While the devotees and temple management were happy to receive their deity they were bewildered at his story prompting him to take this strange step.

Priest Raj Bahadur confirmed that Shukla walked the idol to the temple himslef. The idol will be placed back in the sanctum sanatorium after due rituals are performed.

On the other side, SP Kumar confirmed that Shukla has been arrested and the legal procedure has been initiated against him.

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