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Even as Priyanka does a u-turn, Rahul Gandhi confirms her initial statement of Congress acting as a vote cutter

OpIndia Staff
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Even as Priyanka does a u-turn, Rahul Gandhi confirms her initial statement of Congress acting as a vote cutter

Finally overcoming the ghost of the interview with Arnab Goswami in 2014, which had disastrous political consequences for Rahul Gandhi, the Congress president gave an interview to a media channel known for harbouring sympathies for Congress.

In an interview with NDTV, Rahul Gandhi reiterated his sister’s earlier stance that Congress has put up candidates across Uttar Pradesh with the singular aim of cutting into BJP votes.


When asked why the Congress party has fielded candidates across the state of Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi said, “Our aim is defeat the BJP. The BJP and PM Modi are not coming to power again. Wherever we have strong candidates in UP, we’ll fight for our space. Places where we have weaker candidates, we’ll ensure that the BJP candidate doesn’t win and a secular candidate is elected.”

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi had earlier stated that Congress has fielded candidates across Uttar Pradesh to cut into BJP votes. However, she quickly backtracked on her statement saying Congress candidates are fielded to defeat BJP.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alluded in the interview that Congress’ aim is to defeat BJP candidates in UP, even if it meant supporting SP-BSP alliance candidates in places where Congress candidates won’t fare better. This essentially means that Congress would readily volunteer to get into a post-poll alliance with the Mahagathbandhan to ensure that BJP is defeated in the elections.

In the interview, Rahul Gandhi’s assertions confirmed that his sister’s earlier comment that Congress’ sole purpose of fielding candidates across Uttar Pradesh is to weaken the prospect of BJP in the state.

Apart from this, Rahul Gandhi also ‘guaranteed’ to the NDTV scribe that PM Narendra Modi will not be becoming the Prime Minister once again. He stated that according to the Congress party sources BJP is not forming the government at the centre.

The ever changing number of surgical strikes Congress leaders claim UPA had conducted

OpIndia Staff
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The ever changing number of surgical strikes Congress leaders claim UPA had conducted

Congress’ response to the Surgical Strikes conducted by the Narendra Modi government has been rather comical. After initially questioning the strikes itself and then demanding evidence for it, the party went on to claim that it was not a big deal as the UPA had conducted similar military operations during its regime as well.

On Thursday, Rajiv Shukla claimed that the UPA government had conducted not one or two but half a dozen surgical strikes during its time.


The claim is quite comical as the number, like many other figures touted by the Congress party, keeps changing at a remarkable frequency. Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for instance, had claimed that the UPA had conducted 3 surgical strikes. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had quoted the same figure in a 2016 press conference. Former Union Defense Minister A.K. Antony, too, quoted the same figure.


In March, earlier this year, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, had claimed the UPA had conducted 15 Surgical Strikes. Yes, 15.


Mani Shankar Aiyar, who has acquired a legendary status owing to his flamboyant comments that have played a great role in getting Narendra Modi elected and helping the BJP electorally, claimed in 2016 right after the Surgical Strikes that the UPA had conducted 4 of them.


The most hilarious, perhaps, was Kamal Nath, now the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who claimed that he wasn’t aware of how many Surgical Strikes the UPA had conducted but was very sure that the biggest did take place under the UPA.


It might seem sensible enough to gather everyone around a table and decide upon the details of a particular fictional story before ordering everyone to peddle the same false narrative. But, of course, as we are well aware, Congress President Rahul Gandhi isn’t particularly famous for his great intellect. Therefore, such goof-ups appear par for the course. It’s no wonder then that it has become a joke on social media that the UPA government conducted surgical and air strikes without informing the Army or the Air Force themselves.

The Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) in its reply to an RTI application during May, last year, had stated that there is no proof of any surgical strikes before September 29, 2016, responding to a specific question about whether surgical strikes had been carried out between 2004 and 2014.

India to ask for Pakistan to be blacklisted by terror finance watchdog FATF

OpIndia Staff
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India to ask for Pakistan to be blacklisted by terror finance watchdog FATF

India will ask the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to put Pakistan on a blacklist of countries that fail to meet international standards in stopping financial crime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

FATF is a global money laundering and terror finance watchdog. It already has placed Pakistan in its grey list for failing to curb money laundering and terror financing.

Jaitley told reporters, “We want Pakistan downgraded on the FATF list”. India would make the request when the FATF meets in mid-May.

This comes after India had a major diplomatic victory with Masood Azhar be declared as a global terrorist in the United Nations Sanctions List. Masood Azhar is the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) which had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attacks. Before this, China had repeatedly blocked efforts to sanction Azhar.

“A step in the right direction to demonstrate the international community’s resolve to fight against terrorism and its enablers,” said the foreign ministry welcoming the sanction of Azhar.

Jaitley said that the core issue is that Azhar has been declared as an international terrorist for which he and his country would have to face the ramifications of that.

In February, the FATF had decided to keep Pakistan in the greylist for now and has given time until October to avoid getting blacklisted. FATF had said that Pakistan “does not demonstrate a proper understanding” of terrorism financing risks posed by militant groups, including the JeM.

Two months ago, Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar had requested FATF to remove India from its Asia-Pacific co-chair for the well-known “animosity between two countries” and “unbiased review process”.

If Pakistan is placed in FATF blacklist, it will be a big blow to Pakistan’s economy, as it will be harder for foreign investors and companies to do business in the country. FATF calls for enhanced due diligence and countermeasures in dealing with blacklisted countries, which increases the cost of doing business with such a counrty.

AAP uses Pakistani propaganda to target Hans Raj Hans, repeats the long debunked lie of him converting to Islam

OpIndia Staff
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AAP uses Pakistani propaganda to target Hans Raj Hans, repeats the long debunked lie of him converting to Islam

On April 24th 2019, BJP fielded popular Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans from the North-West Delhi seat for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Since Delhi is being bitterly fought between AAP and BJP, AAP was bound to lash out at the candidate. However, one did not expect AAP to resort to quoting Pakistan media to target Hans Raj Hans. Today, AAP has claimed that Hans Raj Hans’ nomination from the reserved seat should be cancelled since he had in 2014, converted to Islam.


“As per the guidelines of the Election Commission, North West Delhi is a reserved seat. But BJP’s candidate Hans Raj Hans does not come from the reserved category as he converted to Islam on February 20, 2014. He deliberately concealed this information from the EC. This is a complete violation of EC rules,” AAP said.

Even the irrelevant Twitter Chief Minister of Delhi chimed in.


To make this claim, AAP asserted that several media houses had covered the news of Hans Raj Hans converting to Islam back in 2014.

The fact is, that in 2014, several Pakistani news portals ‘Pakistan Affairs’, ‘U News TV’ and Pakistan leaning Indian-in-name portals like Caravan had claimed that Hans, who had been studying Islamic literature for many days, developed faith in the values of Islam in the process and adopted the religion.

The reports added that Hans has also changed his name to Mohammad Yusuf. However, he would keep working under the original name in the music industry.

These reports were, however, proven false. Yuvraj Hans, son of Hans Raj Hans had denied the reports from Pakistan of his father converting to Islam and called these speculations just a rumour.

Hindustan Times quoted Yuvraj as saying, “Our family was completely disturbed after we came to know of the report by online news Pakistani portal and a TV channel that my father had converted his religion in Lahore. I was shooting at that time. I called up my father and he, too, was stunned at the news. We did not know how the footage got spread and who is behind this.”

He added that the family was going to investigate the matter and his father would fix a meeting with the Pakistani media house soon.

It is rather unfortunate that AAP has resorted to peddling Pakistani propaganda to belittle the singer turned politician. However, this shouldn’t come as surprise considering Arvind Kejriwal has often become the star of Pakistan because his utterances help their propaganda.

Arvind Kejriwal has received massive support from Pakistan after the surgical strikes when he had toed the Pakistan propaganda line. In fact, #IStandWithKejriwal had trended in Pakistan. Perhaps after the warm support that Kejriwal got from Pakistan, when AAP says “media” it by default means the Pakistani media and not the Indian media.

Pepsi withdraws lawsuit against potato farmers alleging patent infringement

OpIndia Staff
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Pepsi withdraws lawsuit against potato farmers alleging patent infringement

Global food and beverage major PapsiCo has withdrawn the lawsuit that the company had filed against potato farmers in India alleging infringement of patent.


Last month, PepsiCo had sued several potato farmers in India for cultivating a potato variety that is exclusively developed and grown for the company’s popular Lay’s potato chips. The company grows the FL-2027 variety of potato needed for its chips through contract farming, which is also known as FC5. Pepsi India had said that they had contracted with several hundred farmers to grow the special potato, but the particular farmers they were suing were not under the contract farmer agreement with the company.

Immediately after the news was published, it had become a PR disaster for the company, as it was seen as an example of a multinational company interfering in the rights of small farmers to grow a crop.  Farmer organisations and activists had launched massive protests against the company. After that, the company had offered to drop the cases against the farmers, provided they join the contract farming program or grow some other variety of potato.

“After discussions with the government, the company has agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers,” a PepsiCo spokesperson said today in Delhi.

Frito Lays, the subsidiary of PepsiCo, is the global leader in the potato chips market, and it enjoys a leadership position in India too.

AAP’s Amanatullah Khan’s alleged MCC violation: Delhi CEO writes to EC over distribution of cheques to Imams

OpIndia Staff
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AAP’s Amanatullah Khan’s alleged MCC violation: Delhi CEO writes to EC over distribution of cheques to Imams

The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi has written to the Election Commission seeking action against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan for distributing salaries among Imams in New Delhi. The CEO has held the distribution of salaries among Imams as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.


The Delhi CEO in its written letter to the Election Commission has reportedly asked for strict action to be taken against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan. Khan was seen in the pictures handing out salary cheques to the Imams and their helpers. In its defense, the AAP has said that those cheques were scheduled to be distributed in January but due to the problems created by the government functionaries, the distribution got delayed.


Contending that no enhancement or financial grants can be made once the MCC has kicked in, the CEO Delhi in his letter acknowledges the violation committed by AAP leader Amanatullah Khan who is also the chairman of Delhi Waqf Board. The CEO also revealed that despite being aware of the violation of the MCC, the Delhi Waqf Board chairman Amanatullah Khan went ahead with the disbursement of honorarium to the Imams and Muezzins.

It is notable here that AAP had announced a significant salary hike for imams and mosque helpers in January. However, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan was seen distributing ‘salary cheques’ to Imams when the MCC was already in place.

ASI finds evidence of 4000 years old civilisation at ‘Mahabharat era’ excavation site, different from Indus Valley Civilisation

OpIndia Staff
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ASI finds evidence of 4000 years old civilisation at ‘Mahabharat era’ excavation site, different from Indus Valley Civilisation

Sinauli village in Uttar Pradesh has become an archaeological hotspot for excavations. In a first, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has unearthed two decorated ‘legged coffins’ during an excavation process in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. Officials claim that this is the first of a kind discovery in the Indian subcontinent.


This excavation is a continuation of the work started in 2018, at Sanauli, this being carried out under the direction of SK Manjul, Director, Institute of Archaeology of ASI to understand the extension of the burial site and habitation area in context with earlier findings. The site’s proximity to Hastinapur, and its time period had raised the possibility that the site may be related to Mahabharat era.

According to SK Manjul, these artefacts do not belong to the Harappan or Indus Valley civilisation. He hints that there might have been a parallel civilisation then, which India is still unaware of. He also confirmed that pieces of burnt wood found near with the legged coffin boxes hint that the people dwelling then, gave a bath to the deceased before carrying out their last rituals.

Previously, the Archeological Survey of India had discovered the ‘First Ever’ physical evidence of chariots being used in a near 2000 BC period which was considered the bronze age. As per reports, the excavation that had turned up royal burial sites with sophisticated weaponry, ornaments, pottery and other materials suggested that a highly sophisticated ‘warrior class’ civilisation existed in that region.

Image of chariot wheels excavated in Sanauli last year

Meanwhile, sacred chambers along with furnaces, ‘legged coffins’ with skeletons were amongst the things discovered by the team of ASI personnel. It is being believed that all the artefacts discovered are more than 4000 years old.

“This is for the first time such discoveries were made in the Indian subcontinent, which is different from Harappan culture. It existed in upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab region. All these articles such as weapons, chariots, and shields have never been found in the sub-continent. The new findings give a new idea and dimension to Indian archaeology for understanding ancient literature and Vedic literature,” said Manjul.

The excavation, which restarted in January, is being done at two different locations. “In the first area, two burial pits and a sacred chamber of burnt brick were discovered along with burial goods. One wooden ‘legged coffin’ decorated with steatite inlays having extended skeleton of a female was excavated. This burial pit contains evidence of decomposed bow, bone points, armlet of semiprecious stones, gold bead and pottery systematically arranged towards north and eastern sides of the coffin,” said an ASI statement.

In one of the burials, the ASI recovered copper mirror, hairpin, channel, beads, painted vanity and pottery with a female skeleton.

Two big pots are placed under the coffin which could have contained food and other organic remains associated with rituals,” said an official.

At the second location, the ASI unearthed remains of four furnaces with three associated working levels. “The furnaces yielded slags, potsherds, and few charred bones. Stone weights, anvils, animal figurines, etc are a part of the antiquities recovered from this area. The overall ceramic assemblage has late Harappan characters,” said the ASI furthering that “The nature of burial pottery, coffins, antiquities suggest a complex of late Harappan period. Sanauli is important in not only giving new evidence of copper decorated chariots and coffins, shields in the subcontinent first time but also in the understanding of the cultural scenario of the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab.”

Meanwhile, the excavation process is still underway, the experts state that these findings suggest that the civilisation was theologically advanced and also culturally, aesthetically sophisticated.

When Narendra Modi said ‘this is just the beginning’ on his fight against terrorism, he meant business

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When Narendra Modi said ‘this is just the beginning’ on his fight against terrorism, he meant business

Usually it is said that one should not take politicians seriously. Especially at the time of elections when they are speaking at an election rally. But Narendra Modi has been an exception, like in most of the things associated with politics. He has been largely truthful to the words he has spoken.

So one should at least analyse when he says (42 mins onwards) “Ye to bas shuruat hai. Aage aage dekhiye hota kya hai (This is just the beginning. Wait for future to see what else happens)” while speaking on Masood Azhar, JeM chief, being designated as World Terrorist by UNSC today.

I also would not have given it much of a thought if not for some of the big developments that have taken place in last few days.

In the last few days, there was a big terrorist attack in Sri Lanka causing over 300 deaths for which ISIS has taken responsibility, China has removed Bangladesh-Myanmar-India-China Economic corridor (BMICER) from the umbrella of its ambitious Belt-Road-Initiative (BRI), and now China has removed its technical hold in UNSC over Masood Azhar. All these are big developments specially when seen in the context of the larger world politics of the time points towards the winds of the change.

It is known for sometime how China is facing ethnic conflict in its Xinjiang province and how it is handling them. But whatever be the criticism of the ways in which China is handling the issue, one thing is clear – the ISIS ideology and Islamist terror have reached to the doorstep of China and is making it very nervous. Doing a lip-service with the other world leaders at world forums and having to deal with the problem in its own backyard are two different things altogether and is bound to change the way you look at certain things.

Earlier, China used to see the terrorist attacks happening in India from the prism of conflict between India and Pakistan. Attacks in the western world were too far to matter to them. And Middle East and Africa were conflict regions where everyday violence is the new normal. But the recent attacks in Myanmar, Bangladesh and now in Sri Lanka are enough to send stress signals to someone as transactional as China in its approach towards other nations.

What is even more alarming is the fact that the recent attacks occurred in Sri Lanka where there is not much hatred or grievances against the Muslim minority. On top of that, the ISIS claimed responsibility by saying that this is the answer to Christchurch Killings.

Just understand the gravity of the situation here. A single attacker who may or may not have been motivated by any specific ideology, definitely not a part of any big organization such as ISIS or Al Qaeda or Taliban or many others, goes out and kills innocent Muslims in an otherwise peaceful country of New Zealand. All world leaders condemned the attacks and the citizens all over the world expressed their solidarity with the victims. But ISIS plans and executes a dastardly attack on innocent Christians in a part of the world which is far away from the original place of shootings. This deadly force which is threatening the world order transcends the national boundaries and this time the fire was too close to China for it to ignore.

BRI would not mean anything if this force operates with impunity in the very neighborhood from where the highways would pass keeping the entire trade route as hostage. China has invested way too much money in this for it to let it go to waste. It has lost many of its citizens as well while working in this hostile region. China finally seems to be coming to terms with these realities with its wisdom accentuated by the battle in its own backyard.

Also the news of how the polls are faring in India must have reached to China where it is looking more and more likely that Narendra Modi would return to power with even a bigger majority than before. That means China would have to work with him for at least another five years, long enough to make or break its plans on BRI.

India and China have exponentially increased their collaboration and talks since last year after the mammoth one-on-one talks between the two heads of the states. This was after the beginning of the trade war between China and USA which seems to be cooling down in last few months. I would not be surprised if India had a role to play to get the two parties on the table for talks and suspending this bitter war which was not helping anyone. If that is the case, the trust between China and India must be at an all time high, which is becoming evident because of these recent developments.

Excluding the BMICER from BRI umbrella is a big signal from China to India and the world. China seems to be signalling the acceptance of India as the leader of South East Asia through this move. This is a massive change in China’s foreign policy which usually does not change easily for anyone. Removing the technical hold on Masood Azhar signals that China has lost the confidence in a turbulent Pakistan and is no longer ready to place all its bets on a failed state.

So given this current state of world politics, what did Narendra Modi meant when he said “Ye to bas shuruat hai (This is just the beginning)”? Who knows! But something certainly seems to be brewing in the high corridors of the most powerful. Can Pakistan army and ISI finally fall in line when chided by their Chinese masters? Is there a plan to address Indian concerns related to territorial integrity on BRI with the road passing from POK? Is there a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem on the horizon? Can Pakistan, which sponsors bulk of the terror around the world, be cut to its size?

Again, Who knows. Only one thing is for sure, if Narendra Modi gets a clear majority again in 2019, the world will not be the same in 2024.

NIA conducts raids at PFI office in connection with murder of Ramalingam who resisted religious conversions

OpIndia Staff
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NIA conducts raids at PFI office in connection with murder of Ramalingam who resisted religious conversions

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today conducted raids at the office of Popular Front of India (PFI) in Palakarai, Tiruchirappalli in connection to the murder of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) member Ramalingam in the month of February 6, 2019.


42-year old Ramalingam was found brutally murdered with his hands chopped off by a group of people belonging to the minority community for opposing religious conversions. He has been protesting against the religious conversion of Hindus which possibly irked some radical religious outfit.

The police had arrested five people including a member of the Islamic radical organisation PFI in relation to the murder earlier. The arrestees were identified as S Nijam Ali, Sarbudeen, Rizwan, Mohamed Azarudeen and Mohamed Raiyaz. Eleven accused have been arrested so far out of which eight are from the PFI.

PFI which is active in the States like  Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar. It was banned by the Jharkhand government in February this year under section 16 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act for allegedly indulging in anti-national activities in the State and having links with terror groups like the ISIS. The government had also urged the other States to take similar action. It was alleged by BJP leader Vinay Singh that the organisation was also involved in PM Modi’s assassination plot.

The organisation was also actively involved in Hadiya’s case. It had claimed to have spent Rs 1 crore in pursuing the case in Supreme Court.

Popular Twitter account True Indology warns people against imposters

OpIndia Staff
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Popular Twitter account True Indology warns people against imposters

Popular Twitter account True Indology who was suspended by Twitter recently has shared on Facebook that he has not created any alternate or backup account on Twitter and every other account created on his name is fake.

True Indology’s Facebook post

See also: Trueindology account blocked again by Twitter

In his post, he further said that those fake accounts are created by those who conspired to get his account suspended in the first place. He added that he is trying all he could to get his account reinstated.

Comment on True Indology’s Facebook page

A Twitter account ‘TrueIndology_’ was created today at 12 pm with the bio which read ‘Trueindology hindi version’ and had garnered as many as 2422 followers at the time of publishing this report.

Fake Twitter account claiming to be True Indology

In his pinned tweet the imposter has said that he is here to tell the truth, but now he will tweet only in Hindi. However, as True Indology clarified, it is a fake account.

True Indology is a popular Twitter account and is very meticulous with facts, and often corrects wrong and false claims made about history mostly by left liberals. This has rubbed a few people the wrong way who have tried to get his account suspended by what seems like an abuse of power.

This is not the first time the popular Twitter account was suspended by Twitter for relentless attack by those who are inconvenienced by his fact checks. His account is regularly attacked with mass reporting by an organised gang of left-liberals, which causes the account to be suspended or locked. The fact that Twitter has a self-confessed left-leaning bias, contributes to fast suspension of right-wing accounts by the social media site.

In January this year, True Indology’s Twitter was locked after the account had exposed a false narrative circulated by NDTV. Before this, the account was suspended several times, to be restored later after reviewing the decision.

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