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A tribute to OpIndia’s fallen star

Nupur J Sharma
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A tribute to OpIndia’s fallen star

I recall vividly, the gloomy Sunday afternoon where I got to the task that I truly hated the most. Internship applications. A dreadful job. Trying to find those few applicants who would fit it from the sea of applications is not something I look forward to. After going through several applications, I read Devanshu Rajput’s email.

Dear Ma’am/Sir,

Greetings of the day!

I saw the advertisement and tweet on OpIndia.com for an internship. To be honest, it arrived as an exhilaration because I envy a career and life which fights against the left-leaning and anti-India ideology, the seeds of which have been sowed deep in our motherland, Bharat, the land of Great River Saraswati – the origin of our lineage.  For years, these people made a mockery of our values, Hindu traditions and nationalist sentiments. But, their end is near, as initiatives such as OpIndia have mustered the courage to voice the dissent against the corrupt practices by those who are infested in our system like pests for years with the ultimate objective to destroy the oldest tradition in the world. I am 19 years old staying in Delhi, with no prior qualification and experience in professional news investigation, fact-finding, journalistic writing and field media work. But, I have contributed to your website OpIndia.com with my articles, in the consolidation of your idea. I am grateful that you published some of my articles on your main website OpIndia.com and people contributed MyVoice – Not So Sacred Saint, Saudi And the Silence, Ambers of Khalistan and United Nations And its Hypocrisy. Therefore, I am kindly applying for the internship at OpIndia.com.

I kindly request you to go through my work and assess its quality and potential and reply if you find me capable to undertake the coveted internship.

Sample of my work and articles in PDF are enclosed attached. Jai Hind

What caught my eye almost immediately was how passionately he wrote and that he was only 19. His articles were measured, for his age anyway. He wrote about how Mother Teresa was one of the greatest frauds to have been unleashed on India, how the world is silent on the atrocities heaped by Saudi Arabia, the hypocrisy of United Nationa and even the shades of Khalistan.

I was still skeptical of hiring him because 19-year-olds generally have a serious issue with commitment and work discipline. But he had messaged me incessantly on Twitter asking for the opportunity to intern. I called him up then and in our brief chat, I asked him why he wanted to formally work with OpIndia and how he planned to manage the workload along with his academic commitments.

He said he had a ‘medical issue’ and was undergoing treatment for it and hence, was on a sabbatical from school. I hired him.

While he worked passionately, Devanshu never led us to believe just how serious his condition was. I remember the day when Devanshu messaged me asking for a prolonged off from work. It was on October 27th 2018 that he sent me the following message:

Hi,

I thought I could keep this to myself, and work with opindia as I had thought while applying for an internship. But, things haven’t gone that smoothly, so I will have to disclose, a personal incident, which made me irregular these days from work, for which I am deeply sorry.

As I told you while applying for an intern, I am 19 from the state of UP. When I reached class 12, a tragedy befalls me, which set my life on the altar of troubles and traumas.

I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a sort of bone cancer, rampant in teenage cancer but rare among overall cancers.

I was advised 12 cycles of dreaded chemotherapy, and surgery. By, the time treatment began, the tumour became more aggressive and doctors planned leg amputation.

In april, after six cycles of chemo, surgery was due. Doctors tried luck, and saved my leg, with the insertion of implant that barred my right leg from folding. Doctors had warned that, the tumour can come back, though chances are few.

Then my chemo began, and this month I completed my 11th chemo. Oncologist said, this is my last cycle. This was the time I joined opindia with the hope that, work will help bail me out of last years’ trauma. But, by end of oct, tumour striked back, this time in my thigh muscles on the same leg.

That day, when I didn’t turn up for work, I had to be rushed to hsptl to do tests of that tumour.

Subsequently, MRI and X Rays were done.

Today, Dr Shah Alam, my surgeon ascertained its tumour and said there is no option than to ampute my right leg, else it can metastate to body and damage even more.

This news has pushed me and my whole family into irreparable trauma. Amputation will happen this week.

If I had known, that tumour will strike back, I would have never applied for intern and become a liability upon your team. I no way, intend to sway you or your team to take responsibility of my ill fate.

I rest upon you the verdict of either keeping me or not, maam. I really want to work for opindia, and I can continue work after procedure, that will I guess span upto 10 days. Even in those 10 days, I can work.

If you can, plz try to call or ask me to call, when you have time.

This is my personel tragedy and no one knows about this other than my immediate family.

I was heartbroken. A young boy, all of 19. His brother, Pritish says, “Osteosarcoma is a doom. The cancer spreads not only to a local region but gets transported to different parts of the body through the lymph nodes and blood vessels, lungs in case of Devanshu. The prognosis was becoming narrower, as Cancer began to evolve in the 4th stage. By the time he had completed the painful 12 cycles of chemotherapy. But, these were not enough to weigh his undying spirit. So, life rendered him with another oncological surgery. This time, it ended up with amputation of his right leg, above the knee (tumour had recurred)”.

After all of this, Devanshu was back to work on 20th November. Happy.

I don’t think I could have gone on. I don’t think I would have been able to deal with the raw hand I was being dealt with. He did. He pulled himself back together and came back to work.

Pritesh, his brother says, “Devanshu was compelled to replace his dreams of becoming a doctor with the art of writing and airing his voice. Thus, he was in constant search of a platform to nurture his love for a better India. Out of the blues, he found OpIndia founder Rahul Roushan and Chief-Editor Nupur Sharma on Twitter and followed over this Microblogging site for a year. Gradually, he got acquainted with a wide political spectrum and falsehood of Mainstream Media. He was recovering from his first surgery (he had not lost his leg), suffering from the pain of chemotherapy, he got an opportunity to apply for the internship in OpIndia. Also, his couples of articles were published on My Voice and Main website during the course of time. At a point of time, he was disappointed over non-reply from OpIndia, but he relentlessly kept on pinging and pushing Nupur Sharma over Twitter to let him know the results. Finally, he was selected as an intern. He continued working amidst the painful sessions of chemotherapy. As he couldn’t sit, out of his weakness and surgery, he used to type over WordPress being lying on the bed and, frequently, checking the Slack Notifications”.

He again fought back, resurrected his fire for writing, although only with one leg this time. After February, the conditions with lungs had worsened. Pleural effusions and multiple tumour sites in both lungs made him bedridden. He was left with no other option to suffer and cough.

Chemotherapy was no more an alternative. He was counting his life in seconds now.

On 13th May 2019, he succumbed to the Cancer. It was to be his birthday yesterday, 24th May.

When we read the email from Devanshu’s brother, Pritesh, we were numbed. None of us really knew what was to be said, or how we should react to life so young being cruelly snatched away too soon.

I wondered then if I had done justice to his time with us. Did I teach him what he wanted to learn? Was his time with us fulfilling? Did he find his voice, something he really wanted to do? I went back in time and I recalled every time I had mercilessly edited his articles and asked him to pay more attention. I wondered if I was ever too harsh on him. Or ignored him when he asked for help.

When someone so young leaves us, with grief comes a tonne of guilt and that guilt cannot be rationalised no matter how hard one tries.

Devanshu was taken away too soon. It was not his time to go. While I pray he is in a better place, looking down on us and writing for the Gods, he will always be a part of the OpIndia family and will be terribly missed.

In our prayers and hearts, he shall rest. Forever.

Congress keeps sinking, but shows no sign of detaching itself from the deadweight of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

Sanghamitra
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Congress keeps sinking, but shows no sign of detaching itself from the deadweight of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

The results of 2019 general elections are out and Congress has emerged as perhaps the biggest loser among political parties. Once the party that basically controlled India, the party that ruled over the country for over half a century has now been reduced to the fringe.

The Congress has managed to get only 52 seats on its own. As if that number was not enough, it has been obliterated in most Indian states. Apart from sporadic one or two seats in Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and other such, the party’s seats have largely been confined to Punjab and Kerala.

However, Congress leaders blame everything and everyone, except their royal family. Even after consecutive losses year after year, they are yet to question and demand accountability from its leadership.


Some of the oldest Congress loyalists in media and the intelligentsia have started questioning the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. There are media debates and discussions happening where even ecosystem players have voiced the issue, But so far, from within the Congress, there has not been a voice that steps up and addresses the elephant in the room that the Congress is perhaps in the need of new leadership, away from the grasp of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Of course, there have been some reports of Rahul Gandhi ‘offering to resign’ but the level of their absurdity can be summarised by this one tweet.


Congress has been sinking, and fast. It had managed to grab power in Karnataka in 2018, but the levels to which they went and the uncertainty looming over the state government, the desperation and mistrust that is sent out for the public to see when they pack off their MLAs inside luxury resorts, may all have been working against them.

Even in terms of vote share, Congress has fared badly. As per reports, its vote share has increased by only 1 crore from 2014, while the BJP votes have increased by over 5 crores.

In terms of overall vote shares, the BJP alone has got 37.4% while NDA has got over 45%, the highest ever national vote share. Congress has managed only 19.5% of the total votes.


Congress holds power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But failed to gain a single Lok Sabha seat in Rajasthan, got only 1 seat in Madhya Pradesh and 2 seats in Chhattisgarh. Even the margin loss has been so high in many of the seats in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh that the party seems to have been completely and utterly rejected by the voters.

In fact, Congress has scored ‘zero’ in 17 Indian states. Many veteran party leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Digvijay Singh, Ashok Chavan, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and Sheila Dixit have lost.


In Uttar Pradesh too, the situation is not much different. In Western UP, 21 of the 22 Congress candidates have lost deposits, meaning they could not even get 1/6th of the total votes polled. Congress stalwarts like Salman Khurshid and Raj Babbar have lost their deposits.

Another stark reality that haunts Congress and highlights the fact that the Nehru-Gandhi family is weighing the Congress down to rock bottom is the failure of Priyanka Gandhi. Hailed by Congress leaders as a rescuer and messiah, incessantly worshipped by media and ecosystem, Priyanka Gandhi has been proven to be just a failure, a damp squib.

Appointed as UP’s general secretary on the day she ‘decided’ to formally join active politics, Priyanka had campaigned in 31 constituencies in UP. Congress lost 30 of them, all except Raebareli. In the other seats where she had campaigned across  India, Congress has lost all of them, except Wayanad.

In Punjab, where Congress has managed to save its face by winning 8 seats, it has lost in Bathinda and Gurdaspur, the two seats where Priyanka had campaigned.

Congress state presidents and regional leaders all over India are offering to resign or have already submitted their resignations. But the party’s compulsive death wish to keep bowing down to the Nehru-Gandhi family is far from healing. Over the decades of its existence, Congress has been identified with or rather integrated itself with the Nehru-Gandhi family. Perhaps the individual identities have been lost in the process, Congress and the dynasty seem hell-bent on dragging each other to oblivion.

The difference lies in what holds BJP and Congress ecosystems together

Abhishek Banerjee
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The difference lies in what holds BJP and Congress ecosystems together

The BJP’s stunning 303 seat tally has left the liberal ecosystem immobilized for the moment. Not even quivering in pain, but knocked out cold. Seriously, how did BJP even achieve this? In the last five years, the BJP has recovered in Uttar Pradesh, captured Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, Tripura and much of the North East. In this election, they have roared into Bengal and Odisha and have delivered the first punch in Telangana. The BJP wave has swept also the southern tip of Karnataka where the party barely even existed five years ago.

How are they doing this? How come BJP has been able to use its five years in power to expand relentlessly? Before that, Congress ruled for ten years. Can anybody name any stretch of the country where the Congress party rebuilt itself during the UPA decade? Or even made a serious effort?

Surely, there is a difference between how the two parties and their supporters think. Let me explain what it is.

Two examples will make this clear.

A few days back, Yogendra Yadav, stung by the exit polls and in a moment of extreme mental agony made the remark that “The Congress must die”.

Untitled.png

Now, we are all familiar with Mr Yogendra Yadav’s political loyalties and his illustrious career within the liberal ecosystem. And yet, so fierce, so vicious and so emotional was the reaction from his friends and well-wishers that he spent the next three days clarifying his words again and again. Above all the fact that he has nothing against the Congress leadership.

Yogendra Yadav  ji, you are an old man with a big ego and many failures in life. I hope your friends forgive you.

Now remember this:

Untitled.png

This happened to BJP’s seniormost leader in (active) politics at the time. To the man whose Rath Yatra built the BJP. At a time when BJP was at one of its lowest ebbs.

Because no matter how badly the BJP’s fate hung in the balance, the ideology mattered more.

Compare that to how the ecosystem is treating an old hand like Yadav for one line of heresy. Yadav was taking an ideological viewpoint, one that I may not agree with, but an ideology nevertheless. In fact, he was talking about the party getting in the way of ideology. But “liberals” couldn’t care less about ideology.

Because modern Indian liberalism is all about following a divinely appointed hereditary monarch, staying invested in that ecosystem and reaping benefits from it.

This is how the word “liberal” became an insult. Because Indian “liberalism” is a cover story, a PR spin on the worst form of cronyism and regressive politics.

What is liberalism supposed to be about? About having an open mind? Well, who wouldn’t approve of that?

Now tell me this: who do you think were the real open-minded ones in this election? They are the ones who dumped their traditional caste-based parties and voted for an idea.

Who is a liberal? Is it really those who vote for Akhilesh Yadav because he is a Yadav or those who vote for Mayawati because she is a Jatav? Or those who vote for Ajit Singh or his son because they are Jats? Do you know that BSP has never so much as released a manifesto in its entire existence as a political party (yes, it’s true!)? Indeed, Mayawati has never promised anything to anyone. Only demanded support from members of her caste group. Are those who answered that call really “liberal”?

In Karnataka, the Congress had called PM Modi a “North Indian import”. Voters rejected those who defined Kannadiga pride as a form of hatred towards people of other states. People of Karnataka wanted to define Kannadiga pride through love, not hate. In Bengal, voters taught a lesson to TMC for their racist rhetoric against “non-Bengalis”. In Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray was smart enough not to contest but his speeches were much sought after by the liberal elite.

Indian “liberals” went to the electorate offering them every form of division: Do you hate Hindi speaking people in Kolkata? Then vote TMC. Are you angry that a Punjabi Khatri has become CM of Haryana instead of a Jat? Then vote Congress. Are you angry that the CM of Gujarat is from the “microscopic” minority of Jains and not the numerically strong Patidars? Then vote Congress.

This is senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, the de facto leader of opposition in the previous Lok Sabha, telling Home Minister Rajnath Singh on his face that he is an “Aryan who came from outside”.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWOi6lHxIJ4?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent]

Yesterday, Mallikarjun Kharge lost from Gulbarga, the first election he has lost in his life.

Lalu Yadav was convicted in a 1000 crore scam. They still thought he would be a big player in Bihar simply because of his last name. The people have spoken. RJD has won a grand total of ZERO seats.

That’s new India.

Let’s take an actual “liberal” value. Like gender equality. Or dignity for homosexuals. Do you think that a voter who defines their entire existence by their XYZ caste identity is more likely to believe in rejecting regressive views on the role of women? Obviously not.

So Indian “liberalism” is all about staying invested in a family and reaping the benefits. They support the family because they know it is the glue which keeps the party together. And they are right about that.

And in the new India, caste identities are getting progressively dismantled. This is what the BJP tapped into. That’s how the BJP managed to get 50%+ of the vote almost everywhere from Karnataka to Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Why not? What could stop them? The other side had no ideas, just caste arithmetic.

What keeps the BJP juggernaut together and drives it? Ideology.

This is not to paint some rosy picture of the BJP. Every party has problems. And when you are as big as the BJP, there are going to be big faults.

What I am saying is that when you come down to the level of an ordinary BJP supporter, you will discover something very different from an ordinary “liberal”.

Ideology, not some narrow caste or regional identity. And new India cares about ideas and not your father’s name.

I’ll give you one more example. Remember how BJP supporters used to dominate social media? That’s when social media was small and most people didn’t realize it had serious PR potential.

Observe that at the time Congress had many many more voters than BJP, but it was the BJP supporters seeking out corners of the web and speaking their mind. Trying to get their ideas on any platform they could find. The comments sections on news websites. On Twitter and Facebook. Before there was Facebook, there used to be Orkut. BJP supporters formed groups on it and tried to spread their ideas. Most of it had little to no impact. But the ideological commitment kept them trying.

Eventually, the other side caught up on social media. When did that happen? After they lost 2014 and realized social media was going to be huge. Then they brought in the big money, founded a string of liberal “news websites”. All with a similar genre of names too, as you would expect from sock puppets. They realized social media was needed to create hawa and so they installed blowers to create that hawa. From standup comedians to “journalists” imported from America, everyone needed to be paid big bucks to blow that hawa. Because where would the liberals find even one self-motivated foot soldier, who without any organization or sponsorship, would freely contribute their time and energy for a cause?

This is not to say that BJP doesn’t have its own PR machines. Of course, it does. Everyone has PR machines. But who has the volunteers? Because people vote. Machines don’t.

But there is this thing about new India. They were swept away with real ideas from real people, not blower ki hawa.

Govt of India bans Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh for its terror activities aimed at establishing Caliphate in the subcontinent

OpIndia Staff
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Govt of India bans Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh for its terror activities aimed at establishing Caliphate in the subcontinent

The government of India has banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 with immediate effect. The terror organisation is also known as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan.

A notice issued by the Home Ministry said that terror organisation was formed with the objective of establishing a Caliphate through Jihad. It says that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and its other formations have committed acts of terrorism, promoted acts of terrorism and has been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youths for terrorist activities in India.

Home ministry notification banning Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh

Involvement of JMB terrorists has been proved by investigation agencies in various terror attacks in India, including Burdwan bomb blast on 2nd October 2014 and Bodh Gaya blast on 19th January 2018. It has also established that JMB is recruiting members and raising funds in India for terror activities and procurement of arms and explosives. The home ministry also mentions that Assam police have found involvement of JMB terrorists in five cases in the state, and 56 members of the organisation have been arrested by Assam police.

According to the home ministry, JMB has also planned for establishing permanent bases within ten kilometres of India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, and it also plans to spread its network in South India with a goal to establish Caliphate in the Indian subcontinent.

In view of these findings, the union government has decided to include Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh in the list of banned organisations.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav dismisses party’s TV panellists, asks media houses not to invite any party leader for debates

OpIndia Staff
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SP chief Akhilesh Yadav dismisses party’s TV panellists, asks media houses not to invite any party leader for debates

In the wake of its disastrous performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party (SP) has dismissed all its panellists for TV channels with immediate effect. The decision taken by party chief Akhilesh Yadav was conveyed through a notice sent to bureau chiefs of electronic media.


SP fought the elections in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, forgoing its bitter rivalry, but was restricted to mere 5 seats. The Mahagathbandhan that was touted to create magic in the state could win only 15 seats together. While Yadav managed to defeat Bhojpuri star and BJP candidate Nirhua Dinesh Yadav from Azamgarh, his wife Dimple had to face defeat in Kannauj.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dr. S.T. Hasan, Azam Khan, Dr. Shafiquer Rehman Barq are other candidates who managed to win from Mainpuri, Moradabad, Rampur, and Sambhal respectively.

The decision to end the tenure of TV panellists has come directly from Yadav who has requested the media houses to refrain from inviting spokespersons from his party to participate in TV debates. The notice has also been sent to the nominated panellists, asking them to not to go to any channel for panel discussions as their nomination as spokespersons have been cancelled.

Shivam Vij is the ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ of ThePrint that gets to bat from both sides

Jinit Jain
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Shivam Vij is the ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ of ThePrint that gets to bat from both sides

In my childhood days, I was quite fond of playing gully cricket. All the kids in our society used to assemble in the nearby lane and divide ourselves into two teams with an equal number of players. If the number was odd, the last player who wasn’t picked by either of the sides was called as ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ who got to bat twice, from both the teams. ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ was looked down upon by others with disdain as he was considered a weakling.

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, I came across an article by Shivam Vij published in the ‘neutral journalist’ Shekhar Gupta’s The Print. In the piece published on March 12, 2019, Vij drew out the inferences from recent developments in the current affairs to claim that Narendra Modi losing 2019 might be a real possibility.

Shivam Vij predicting Modi losing 2019

For 3 excruciating days, I was tormented ipso facto that PM Modi might be losing ground and his invincibility might be severely threatened. But on March 15, I read another article by Vij, asserting that Modi Wave in Uttar Pradesh is as strong as it was in 2014 and 2017.

Shivam Vij predicting Modi winning in 2019

Initially, I was flummoxed, I read both the articles twice. Has Modi turned around things which were looking rather bleak in just 3 days? I was at my wit’s end to decide which analysis to be believed. In the end, I chose to believe the latest one, thinking that Vij might have got it wrong in the earlier one.

For the next thirteen days, I was upbeat that PM Modi would come back to power based on many reports and TV shows. Of course, the detractors painted a gloomy picture for PM Modi’s return but their contentions were consistent and have remained the same since 2014. Then, on March 28, I read another piece in the Print by Shivam Vij arguing that Akhilesh Yadav is a winner even before the elections have begun.

Shivam Vij declaring Akhilesh Yadav a clear winner for 2019

Once again doubts crept into my mind. Has Akhilesh Yadav done something in the last 13 days that has changed the dynamics on the ground? Part of me wanted to believe that the one who couldn’t do anything in 5 years of his government, what is he capable of doing in a mere 13 days with Yogi at the helm in UP to effect such a massive turnaround. I vigorously scoured news websites, searched for any radical measure or promise made by SP-BSP alliance in UP but found nothing worth considering.

In just a matter of 16 days, Shivam Vij completed a sine wave, from the trough predicting Modi’s imminent loss to the peak claiming that the Modi wave in UP is as strong as it was in 2014 and 2017 to trough again asserting that Akhilesh Yadav is winning the Uttar Pradesh even before the elections.

If one has a cursory glance at the articles penned by Shivam Vij, it becomes amply clear that he has often passed prejudiced opinions under the garb of profound analysis only to take a 180 degree turn a few days later. In 2018, Shivam wrote an article on the dubious political operations of Cambridge Analytica in India. A few days later, he wrote an article rubbishing the claims that it was involved in any political work.

Shivam Vij giving inside story on what Cambridge Analytica did in India
Shivam Vij claiming Cambridge Analytica did nothing in India

Yesterday, as the results poured in, I had a keen look at the numbers coming in from Uttar Pradesh. The numbers revealed that it was not just a reinvigorated Modi wave but a full-blown Tsunami that shook the entire country and swept away Kings and their clans.

The result reminded me of the ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ that Shivam Vij is. The only solace for Kachcha Limbu in those good old days was that the batting came in both the innings of the match. If you flunked in one inning, you can make up for that in your next one from the opposite team. However, the ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ always lacked conviction in his efforts, knowing full well that if he failed on one occasion, he has other to capitalise.

Perhaps, Vij appears to operate on that principle. His myriad volte-faces suggest that his opinions are often based on frivolous analyses. But, he can claim consolation in the fact that one of his predictions- Modi wave in 2019 is as strong as it was in 2014 and 2017 eventually turned out true. Shivam Vij’s flagrantly contradictory articles claim all possible outcomes of an event, maybe so he could later claim that he was right in 50% of the instances.

Back in those days, we struck a compromise to accommodate extra players by altering inherent rules and norms governing the game. Sometimes, we did it because the ‘Kachcha Nimbu’ offered us to use his new cricket kit, the other times we did it to avoid hurting someone’s sentiments. In the case of The Print coming up with Shivam Vij’s articles that contradict each other in a matter of days, I am unsure which policy is at work.

Rahul Gandhi should not fire his data analysis chief, but promote him. Here is why

Nirwa Mehta
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Rahul Gandhi should not fire his data analysis chief, but promote him. Here is why

It is introspection time for Congress President Rahul Gandhi who lost his ‘family seat’ of Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani. That the party managed to go from 44 in 2014 to 52 in 2019 is hardly anything to celebrate when the party president had to go for a ‘safe seat’ Wayanad to secure his entry into the Lok Sabha.

And while he reflects over what went wrong, in India or at a secret location abroad, here is a suggestion for him. Even if he does not put down his papers himself, other than firing his social media head, who tweets on Rahul’s behalf like a sixteen-year-old high on SnapChat filters, Rahul Gandhi should promote his data analytics head.

His data, unlike like the dubious database with faulty ‘fact-checker’ where he was a found trustee of, is not quite off the mark.

In January this year, he gave an interview to The Hindu where he had said that the BJP will not win any of the large states it had won in 2014.

Praveen Chakravarty’s prediction in January 2019

In his interview to The Hindu, Chakravarty had predicted that his ‘data’ will spring a surprise in Uttar Pradesh. He had come to this conclusion after looking at every seat in detail and every social combination and analysing the sentiment of voters who had voted for BJP in 2014.

BJP did not just win most of the states it had won in 2014 elections, but it even won more. The BJP and its allies managed to get a bigger victory. In Bihar, the NDA won 39 out of 40 seats, completely wiping out fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD. Even Lalu’s daughter could not win the Pataliputra seat she contested from.

In West Bengal, where the BJP had won 2 seats in 2014, the party managed to secure as many as 18 seats. The TMC is reduced to 22 seats and Congress managed 2, two seats less than previous elections.

Regarding his prophecy in Uttar Pradesh, Chakravarty says they had analysed voters’ sentiments, especially those who voted for the BJP in 2014. No wonder in 2019 the party president had to contest from a ‘safe seat’ of Wayanad because the seat which has been a family bastion for decades appeared difficult to retain. And as results show, he was correct. Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi by over 50,000 votes to BJP’s Smriti Irani.

Chakravarty further stated in January that the BJP victory in 2014 was a ‘black swan’ which could not be repeated. This is also turning out to be true since the BJP not only repeated it but even managed to outdo itself in terms of voter share. The ‘black swan’ managed to get almost 50% vote share, way above the 31% it got in 2014. One out of every two people who voted, voted for Modi. Chakravarty again proven right.

He had further said that Maharashtra was the ‘angriest’ state as per their survey. The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state has won 41 out of the 48 seats in the state, thereby repeating their 2014 performance. However, Congress which got two seats in 2014, could retain only one. On the brighter side, it is only 50% loss.

It wasn’t as bad as Rajasthan, where there is a Congress government in the state, but it could not deliver a single seat in the Lok Sabha. However, it would be a good idea to ask him about the data in his possession which showed that the BJP could not ‘reverse the tide’ in Rajasthan. Because, clearly, the data didn’t work out there. But he is kind of known to have a divine vision where, much like how IndiaSpend works ‘magic’ with numbers for the shady hate tracker.


Like this one time where he decided not to buy a book because he formed his opinion about it based on the author’s interview.

Hence, maybe it is time for the Congress President to promote Chakravarty so that by the time the youth leader becomes a veteran leader, he could suggest how the next generation of Nehru-Gandhi-Vadra family could revive the grand old party.

Why Modi Matters: Sadhvi Pragya and the definitive shift in the Overton Window of the Country

K Bhattacharjee
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Why Modi Matters: Sadhvi Pragya and the definitive shift in the Overton Window of the Country

The results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are historic by any definition of the word. Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi in 1971 to return to power with an even greater mandate than before. In the five years of his rule, we saw a definite shift of the country towards the right. In the next five years, we can be certain that this shift will be further consolidated.

The most significant indication of the shift in the country’s Overton Window came in 2017 when Yogi Adityanath was appointed the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. A saffron-clad monk, the Peethadhish of Gorakhnath Temple, working as the head of the government of the country’s most populous state was the greatest indication of the direction India was heading in.

One would have thought Yogi Adityanath’s appointment as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was as far Narendra Modi and Amit Shah would go towards shifting the country’s Overton Window. But they went a step further when they nominated Sadhvi Pragya from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, a traditionally safe seat for the BJP. The BJP President maintained that it was the saffron party’s ‘Satyagraha’ against the Hindu Terror initiative of the Congress party. With her stellar victory over Digvijay Singh, a close aide of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, that appears to be going quite well.

Narendra Modi’s spectacular victory only confirms what has been known for a while. Hindutva is now the mainstream ideology in the country. The secularism of yore has been relegated to the dustbins of history. The victory also shows that the country will no longer be held hostage by the opinions of the Champagne Socialists. Nor will the Compulsive Contrarians hold any sway over public opinion.

There are numerous reasons why Narendra Modi’s victory is significant. However, the most significant perhaps is his unwavering commitment towards the public celebration of his Hindu faith. After the hectic schedule of campaigning for the elections, one of the first things he did was to trek to Kedarnath to meditate in the snowy caves of the Himalayas. In doing so, he reaffirmed his commitment to the ancient faith of our ancestors.

There are numerous other hallowed narratives that are threatened by Narendra Modi’s continued dominance of electoral politics. The aura surrounding the Nehru-Gandhi Parivar has already been blown to bits. In the years to follow, it will suffer considerably more. And one hopes that by the time his reign is over, the aura surrounding Mahatma Gandhi too is diminished.

While Narendra Modi personally has committed himself firmly towards the ideals of Gandhi, he has interpreted Gandhi quite differently than others. Instead of allowing Gandhian principles to cloud his vision of realpolitik, he has firmly kept them constrained to matters such as Swachh Bharat.

While it appears certain that Narendra Modi will not challenge Gandhi’s legacy himself, as the recent controversy surrounding Sadhvi Pragya shows, his continued dominance in power gives those who will question Gandhi the confidence and the voice to do so. While Sadhvi Pragya was herself criticized for her remarks, it sparked a debate around Gandhi’s own conduct during Independence and his deplorable approach to Hindu-Muslim riots and perverse sexual experiments with women far younger than himself.

Sadhvi Pragya did eventually offer an apology after much public outrage. However, one thing appears certain, the Lok Sabha now has at least has one member who is not as averse to criticising Gandhi and evaluating the real contributions he made to the country. It also reflects the opinions of a significant section of the Indian population who have their own very valid reasons to dislike Gandhi.

Sadhvi Pragya’s victory over Digvijay Singh is particularly symbolic of the cultural shift in the country. Digvijay was the person who had attended the launch of a book that blamed the RSS for the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks. And he was defeated by someone who was a victim of his party’s attempt to create a narrative of Hindu Terror.

All of this is indicative of the fact that the Overton Window of the country has shifted comprehensively. The Prime Minister in his victory speech himself said that the brand of secularism that has been the Holy Grail of Indian Politics has been discarded once and for all by the Indian electorate. Our country will no longer be held hostage to the brand of Secularism that demands its Hindu citizenry to be ashamed of their heritage.

If political parties are to succeed in India, they can no longer afford to embrace the toxic brand of minority appeasement they have latched on to for decades. As others have pointed out, if any political party can hope to stop the Modi-Shah juggernaut, then it’s a Right Wing Hindu Nationalist party. And that is the greatest evidence that the Overton Window of the country has moved firmly towards the Right.

This is exactly why Modi matters. The symbolism of an abashed polytheist heading the world’s largest democracy is not lost on anyone. His victory was even celebrated by certain polytheists from other countries of the world who see in India the hope for the revival of polytheism in their own respective countries.

In the second term, Narendra Modi’s commitment towards the Hindu faith must translate into concrete legislative measures to free the Hindu citizenry of the discriminatory laws against them. That would be the best possible way for Narendra Modi to ensure his own legacy in the annals of Indian history.

Every BJP vote in Bengal is owed to the ground level workers who have given their lifeblood for the saffron surge

Jhankar Mohta
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Every BJP vote in Bengal is owed to the ground level workers who have given their lifeblood for the saffron surge

Ever since pre-colonial times, West Bengal has been the hub of all things cultural, artistic, and musical. It’s the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose and Satyajit Ray. A land of people who are generally known to be gentle, soft-spoken ‘Bhadraloks’ with a special liking for ‘Rosogolla’ and ‘Rabindra Sangeet’.

Though aestheticism has been an integral part of Bengal, the state has as much been a hotbed of political violence. In fact, violence has been such an intrinsic part of Bengal that a subaltern version of the history of Bengal can be written through the kind of violence the people of Bengal have witnessed so far.

Political violence has invariably relapsed in Bengal every two decades but over the last decade, political violence has taken a new shape here. The poll-related violence in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee does not seem to abate.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Bhartiya Janta Party created history in West Bengal. It made successful inroads by securing 18 out of 42 seats in Mamata’s Bengal. This success has, however, not come easily for the party. Innumerable  BJP Karyakarta’s have given their lives to make BJP’s surge possible.

Trinamool Congress goons under Mamata Banerjee’s realm have carried out targeted killings of the ground-level workers, mostly students, teachers, labourers, farmers, agricultural workers and small shopkeepers and this time the brunt of most of the ire was borne by BJP workers in Bengal as they were standing as the biggest threat to Mamata government.

Dozens of BJP workers and leaders have been brutally attacked or killed before and during the election seasons in Bengal. This is an attempt to remember some of the incidents of brutal violence done under an authoritarian regime in Bengal.

During the 6th phase of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, a BJP worker named Raman Singh was found dead in Jhargram. The BJP had alleged he was attacked by Trinamool workers.

In another separate incident, two BJP workers, Ananta Guchait and Ranjit Maity, were shot at in Bhagabanpur of East Medinipur.

Similarly, a BJP worker in Bankura was severely injured with multiple injuries on his head and body after bricks were hurled at him by TMC goons.

Bankura Violence, Courtesy: ANI

A BJP worker named Prashant Sharma was brutally beaten up by some unidentified people in Frasor Road during phase 5 of the Lok Sabha elections.


Similarly, BJP candidate from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, was reportedly attacked by goons associated with the Trinamool Congress. BJP District President in Hooghly, Pranab Mondal Saha, had alleged that he was thrashed by Trinamool goons while he was on his way to meet a fellow member of the party Khokon Biswas.

The 22-year-old BJP Youth Wing worker, son of a BJP member of the local gram panchayat, was killed in West Bengal’s Purulia district. His body was found hanging from a tree at Senabona village in Purulia on April 18, 2019.

Shishu Pal Shahish, Courtesy: My Nation

In the month of March, Patanu Mondal (28), a BJP worker was shot dead inside his house as he was deep in sleep with his wife and eight-month-old daughter when a few men entered the house and opened fire.

In another case of political intolerance, a BJP worker Apurba Chakraborty was brutally beaten up by TMC goons in Islampur, West Bengal. Apurba Chakraborty was returning from a wedding ceremony of his relative in Gulshan area of Islampur ps when he was assaulted by TMC goons assaulted. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition.

BJP worker Apurba Chakraborty, Courtesy: Jansatta

Shaktipada Sardar, a local BJP leader from Mandir Bazar in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal had been brutally hacked to death last year in July. According to reports, the 45-year-old Sardar was attacked with sharp weapons while returning from work and was left bleeding in a critical condition.

In another case of chilling political violence in the state of West Bengal, a 32-year-old BJP worker identified as Dulal Kumar was found hanging from a high tension electric pole. This incident had been reported from Dabha village in the Balrampur region of state’s Purulia district. Following this incident, the Bengal BJP pinned the blame on TMC goons, whom it accused of executing the order of Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

Dulal Kumar, Courtesy: The Statesmen

Similarly, in May last year, a young BJP worker named Trilochan Mahato was found hanging from a tree in the jungle near the village of Balarampur. According to BJP, Mahato was dragged out of his house by masked goons. They had also alleged that he had been murdered because of his active participation in West Bengal Panchayat elections that were marred by rampant violence, rigging, booth capturing, ballot box capturing and intimidation of voters.

Trilochan Mahato, Courtesy: Times Now Hindi

Exactly a month after Dulal Kumar and Trilochan Mahato found dead in West Bengal’s Purulia district, the body of another BJP party worker was found floating in a lake in Murshidabad district. Dharmaraj Hazra, 54 years old, was found dead in a lake with his hands and feet tied with a rope. His body was recovered from the lake in Shaktipur village.

Dharmaraj Hazra, Courtesy: Times Now

Taking acts of savagery to a whole new level, the TMC goons had reportedly raped a pregnant relative of a BJP candidate. In another incident, a BJP supporter was publicly and brutally thrashed by a TMC Minister.

In fact, due to several such incidences of savagery by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, there were reports of BJP leaders fleeing West Bengal. There were reports that the state unit of the BJP in Jharkhand has provided shelter to at least 80 members of the party who were allegedly evicted from their villages by the TMC.

Political violence has been a harsh reality in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal. The Panchayat elections and now the Lok Sabha elections in the state were riddled with extreme violence and numerous cases of murder. The gruesome and blood-curdling savagery carried out by TMC cadres is no less violent than the crimes of a terrorist organisation. While these few incidents like the ones mentioned above have been noticed, there are several other incidents which have not found its place in the media space.

Mamata Banerjee and her goons have tried everything possible to stop BJP making inroads in Bengal. However, the sacrifices made by these ground-level workers, who stood by their leadership like rocks, have paid off as BJP won 18 seats, touching an impressive double figure in Bengal for the first time.

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

Screenshot from Twitter

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

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

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