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Here is why India needs to start fact-checking its election ‘experts’

Abhishek Banerjee
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Here is why India needs to start fact-checking its election ‘experts’

Elections are in full swing and everybody wants to know what is going to happen, especially in Uttar Pradesh. This leads to a great demand for ‘experts’, mostly senior journalists who are supposed to have feedback from the ground and possibly contacts and sources within political parties.

So somebody sent me a link to watch a typical debate over the political situation in Uttar Pradesh. Typical TV debate panel with senior journalists posing as ‘experts’, presenting their analysis and predictions. Tired and/or retired leftists talking about the supposed rural distress and supposed jobs crisis. Data-free. Anecdote and ‘mahaul’ based conclusions. In other words, pretty standard fare.

Take, for example, this snippet that I cut out of the video where ‘senior journalist’ Shesh Narayan Singh explains why BJP is in trouble in UP this time (you can see the full video here).


He claims that his analysis is credible because he had correctly predicted the last time that there is a Modi wave in Uttar Pradesh.

This bothered me. Because I happened to remember Shesh Narayan Singh’s name and his face from 2014 shows. And I remember that he did not seem optimistic at all about BJP’s prospects at the time. So all I did was a Youtube search for his name and for 2014 elections. And guess what?

I found this other snippet of him speaking on Rajya Sabha TV (full video here) in 2014, explaining that there is no wave for Modi! And that nobody is sure if BJP will be able to win even 3 out of the 32 seats in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

In a delicious bit of irony, both videos I found were from Apr 29: one from Apr 29, 2014 and the other from April 29, 2019. Same man. Exactly five years apart. Claiming the exact opposite of what he said five years ago.

And getting away with it.

This is not about Shesh Narayan Singh in particular. This is not about an individual. I suspect you can find numerous similar examples of ‘senior patrakars’ doing such stuff and getting away with it on a routine basis.

This is about a larger problem of a certain caravan of ‘election astrologers’ : journalists posing as ‘experts’, speaking with little regard for the truth and getting away with it. No competence and no professionalism necessary. And certainly zero accountability.

This would be funny if such analysis by ‘experts’ did not have the potential to influence public opinion. The Election Commission has repeatedly expressed concerns about ‘fake news’ in the election season. Well, nonsensical narratives spread by alleged experts peddling their anecdotes from channel to channel are doing just as much damage, if not more.

Additionally, we should note that sometimes these ‘experts’ make their way to platforms such as Rajya Sabha TV. I do not have information about any specific individuals, but we know that many such ‘experts’ get paid for sharing their ‘expertise’. In case of Rajya Sabha TV, that would be public money. The public has a right to know what makes certain people into election experts and channels such as RSTV and LSTV are duty bound to clarify.

Everybody wants to know the future and nobody actually does. When public curiosity peaks before an election, news channels fill the vacuum with alleged experts and opinion polls. There is a lot of money for a lot of people in this. A veritable industry of bullsh*tters has come up around this. And accountability is practically non-existent.

These are the actual seat predictions for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab by CSDS in Jan 2017, barely more than a month before the election.

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CSDS finds BJP in 2nd place in UP with just 129-139 seats. Miraculously, CSDS also finds SAD+BJP alliance at first place in Punjab and Congress at 2nd place. This is supposed to be from a real agency, one of the most respected in fact. The BJP’s vote share is estimated at just 33%, about 9% short of the correct number of 42%! Most surveys have a 3% margin of error. How does a survey get a voting percentage number wrong by 9%?

The shocking thing seems to be that despite embarrassing failures over and over again, the caravan of election astrologers : experts and pollsters, carries on with their business as if nothing has happened at all. The same faces with the same agendas surface on our TV screens before every election. No ethical standards and no professional consequences for past failures.

We the people have the power to disband this circus. To put these ‘experts’ out of a job. By becoming informed consumers of the news. Ironically, the “news” was supposed to inform people, but that changed a long time ago, didn’t it?

ISIS terrorist from Kasargod module case arrested by NIA, admits to planning Sri Lanka style suicide blasts in Kerala

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS terrorist from Kasargod module case arrested by NIA, admits to planning Sri Lanka style suicide blasts in Kerala

The National Investigation Agency launched a probe against the ISIS module active in Kerala following the Sri Lankan Easter blast. As a part of the probe in connection with the Kasargod IS module case, the NIA arrested a Palakkad native on Monday, who was planning Sri Lanka style suicide attack in Kerala.

The 2016 Kasargod IS module case relates to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused persons from Kasaragod district of Kerala and their associates since Ramadan, 2015, with the intention of joining and furthering the objectives of ISIS Daish.

As part of the conspiracy, 14 accused from Kasaragod district had left India or their workplaces in Middle-East Asia between mid-May and early July 2016, before travelling to Afghanistan or Syria, where they joined the ISIS (Daish).

Meanwhile, the arrested terrorist, Riyaz Aboobacker, alias Abu Dujanan 28, of Kollengode, Palakkad, during his interrogation, revealed that he was planning to conduct a suicide bomb blast in Kerala, similar to the Sri Lankan blast.

An official statement by NIA said that the accused admitted of following speeches and videos of Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka for more than a year and had also followed the speeches of Zakir Naik, the radical Islamist preacher against who India has requested the Interpol to issue a red corner notice.

Zahran Hashim is the Islamic extremist who was the mastermind behind the dastardly Sri Lankan Easter Sunday bomb blast which killed more than 250 people leaving more than 500 injured.

He also admitted that he was in contact with absconding terrorist, also accused in the Kasargod IS module case, Abdul Rashid Abdulla alias Abu Isa for a long time online. He had been following his audio clips, including the byte which Abu Isa had circulated on various social media platforms, which instigated others to carry out terror attacks in India.

Aboobacker further disclosed that he has also been chatting online with Abdul Khayoom alias Abu Khalid (the accused in the Valapattanam ISIS case) who was believed to be in Syria.

However, the NIA believed that the group led by Aboobacker was in touch with Abdul Rashid, Ashfaq Majeed and Abdul Khayoom, who had already migrated to Afghanistan and Syria.

Aboobacker will be produced before the NIA Court in Kochi on Tuesday.

Prior to this, the NIA arrested three youths in Kerala in connection with the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka. The arrests were made during a raid on an Islamic State (IS) module in Kasaragod, Kerala. Likewise, these arrested youths were also reportedly in contact with terror leader Zahran Hashim and were said to have been inspired by his ideologies.

‘Journalists’ fail to understand the difference between ‘MLA’ and ‘MP’, twist PM Modi’s statement to spread lies

OpIndia Staff
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‘Journalists’ fail to understand the difference between ‘MLA’ and ‘MP’, twist PM Modi’s statement to spread lies

PM Modi during his election rally speech in Serampore, West Bengal had dropped a bombshell, warning Mamata Banerjee that 40 MLA belonging to Trinamool Congress (TMC) were in touch with him. PM Modi while asserting that Lotus will bloom in West Bengal Bengal after May 23, had said that her MLAs will desert her.


The upsurge in the popularity of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in West Bengal seems to have unnerved not only Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) but also some of his baiters, who are now resorting to false propaganda by twisting Prime Minister Modi’s statements.

Kallol Bhattacharjee, a journalist at The Hindu, just like his employers indulged in propaganda by attributing misleading statements to Prime Minister Modi. Kallol Bhattacharjee, who claims to be an author and a journalist, unfortunately, willfully or otherwise, could not understand the difference between MLAs and MPs.


Kallol Bhattacharjee seems to have deliberately misrepresented the facts to take a dig at PM Modi. As it is evident in the video, PM Modi was referring to 40 MLAs of the TMC, while the Hindu ‘journalist’ claimed that PM Modi was referring to the 40 MPs and asked on how was he referring to 40 MPs as TMC has just 33 members in the parliament.

The lie was not just limited to Kallol Bhattacharjee alone. Another self-proclaimed journalist Saba Naqvi, one of the beneficiaries of the Aam Aadmi Party also attempted to twist PM Modi’s statements but only to be schooled by social media users. Naqvi claimed that PM Modi statements meant that he will be needing Trinamool MPs post election results on May 23. While twisting PM Modi’s statements, she hinted that BJP would be seeking an alliance with TMC because BJP would perhaps fall short of a majority.


Salil Tripathi too made some condescending remarks against PM Modi stating that he had skipped Maths classes while pursuing a master degree.


Some of their minions followed these ‘intellectuals’ to target PM Modi for asserting his power in the West Bengal by challenging Mamata Banerjee in her fortress.


Even though the false narrative pushed by the anti-Modi brigade may be trivial in nature but it points towards a much larger agenda of attempts to discredit Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

MHA issues notice to Rahul Gandhi, cites British company documents to seek response within 15 days over citizenship

OpIndia Staff
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MHA issues notice to Rahul Gandhi, cites British company documents to seek response within 15 days over citizenship

Home Ministry has reportedly issued a notice to Congress President Rahul Gandhi over the citizenship controversy that erupted a few weeks ago. The Home Ministry has cited documents of the British company BackOps where Rahul Gandhi filed returns are a British citizen and sought a response from him within 10 days, reported Republic TV.

The Home Ministry in its notice has asked Rahul Gandhi to ‘intimate the factual position in the matter to the Ministry within a fortnight of the receipt of the notice’.

Notice sent by MHA to Rahul Gandhi

The notice is based on a representation by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in which he has brought out that a company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in the year 2003. The notice says that Rahul Gandhi was the Director and Secretary of the said company.

The notice also says that in the Company Annual Returns filed on 10th October 2005 and 31st October 2009, Rahul Gandhi had mentioned his nationality as British.

The matter of citizenship had also arisen when representation was made to the Election Commission about Rahul Gandhi’s election affidavit from Amethi. That complaint was however disposed off saying that this is the domain of the Home Ministry and not of the Election Commission.

ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in a new propaganda video, seeks revenge for killing and imprisonment of its ‘fighters’

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in a new propaganda video, seeks revenge for killing and imprisonment of its ‘fighters’

The Islamic terror organisation ISIS has released its latest propaganda film in which their chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi makes an appearance for the first time in as many as five years.

In the video, al-Baghdadi says that the group will seek revenge for the killing and imprisonment of its fighters. While it is unclear when the video was shot, al-Baghdadi refers to Baghouz, the last bastion of ISIS which fell last month after a long battle, in the past tense. He reportedly says that the battle of Baghouz may be over, but there is more yet to come.

Wearing black robe and a beige jacket with an assault rifle next to him, al-Baghdadi could be seen addressing three men, faces of whom have been blurred. Al-Baghdadi also refers to the Sri Lanka bombings from last Sunday which was one of the deadliest terror attacks in Sri Lanka in recent times.

Last time al-Baghdadi appeared in a video was in 2014 when he delivered a sermon at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq. Following Mosul, ISIS took over Syrian city Raqqa and made it its de facto capital.

In the video, al-Baghdadi also talks about the pledges of allegiance from militants in Burkina Faso and Mali. Adding that ‘jihad’ is the only solution to “tyrants”, al-Baghdadi also talks about Sudan and Algeria.

Born in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, Baghdadi, he has been a specially designated global terrorist and with a bounty of USD 25 million on his head, al-Baghdadi is the world’s most wanted man. Despite rumours of his death surfacing every few months, his whereabouts continue to remain a mystery.

Indian Army spots the elusive, mysterious ‘Yeti footprints’ while on an expedition near Makalu Base Camp

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Army spots the elusive, mysterious ‘Yeti footprints’ while on an expedition near Makalu Base Camp

The Indian Army seems to have spotted the elusive and mysterious ‘Yeti’ footprints in the Himalayas. The Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Indian Army last night posted pictures of the Indian Army’s Mountaineering Expedition Team which spotted 32×15 inches ‘footprints’ close to the Makalu Base Camp on April 9.


The Indian Army further claimed that the elusive ‘snowman’ has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past.

The tweet has garnered reaction of all sort from Twitterati. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether one is serious or joking.


And some times it is really hard to keep the politics out of jokes.


And how can Tintin references be far behind?


In the Nepal folktales, Yeti is an ape-like creature, taller than humans which inhabit the Himalayas, Serbia, Central Asia and East Asia. Owing to the lack of evidence of their existence, Yetis are generally believed to be legends. However, one of the possible explanation could be the Tibetan Blue Bear or the Himalayan Brown Bear (or Himalayan Red Bear) which could have been mistaken for the ‘Yeti’.

Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath left red-faced as power supply tripped when he went to cast his vote

Aditi
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Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath left red-faced as power supply tripped when he went to cast his vote

Causing huge embarrassment to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath who had formed the government in the State last year, the power supply tripped during the early hours today when he reached the polling booth to cast his vote. Nath had turned up with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law at a polling booth in Shikhapur area at around 8 am.

As the CM arrived at the booth the power supply tripped leaving the leader red-faced. He was inside the polling booth when the power supply was interrupted. Later Nath and his family had to cast his vote in the flashlight of the cameras of the media persons. It took around half an hour to restore the power supply. When questioned about the tripping of the power supply, Nath said that the matter will be looked into.

Nath is accused in the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. Prior to the Assembly elections in the State, a video of Nath was going viral on social media wherein he was advising the Muslim community to be patient till the assembly elections and saying “we will deal with them later” probably referring to the Hindus.

Recently during the Income-Tax Department raids at 50 locations connected with the Chief Minister a huge cache of currency notes was found stuffed in suitcases. Along with other things recovered in the rais, the I-T Department had found a diary belonging the Nath’s brother-in-law and the chairman of the Moser Baer group, Deepak Puri which revealed that Moser Baer group had involved in converting Rs. 242 crore of money to dollars by raising bogus bills.

“Earlier our country was slave of the British, Mughals and Italian government” : Kangana Ranaut

OpIndia Staff
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“Earlier our country was slave of the British, Mughals and Italian government” : Kangana Ranaut

The ‘Queen’ of Bollywood Kangana Ranaut was in her typical best yet again. She spoke to the media in her unapologetic yet candid style soon after casting her vote in Mumbai today. While launching a scathing attack on the previous Congress governments, she urged the people to exercise their vote rights. She asserted that voting is once in a five-year opportunity and should be utilized.

In a veiled onslaught, she referred to the previous Congress government as the “Italian government” and said it is now that the country is independent in true sense. “I think India is getting its independence now in the true sense of the word because earlier we were slaves of either the British, the Mughals or the Italian government. Please use your right of self-governance here today (at the polling booth). Jai Hind.”

Taking a dig at the politicians, she further added that earlier we were slaves because our politicians used to chill abroad while the country continued to suffer from issues like poverty, pollution, etc.

She was her fiery self and did not mince any words to point out that the country was in its worse phase during the tenure of the Congress government. “Our country was in its worst phase during the Congress rule. It could not get worse,” she said and added now was our time for “Swaraj” and “Swadharm.”

Kangana is known for speaking out her heart. Her straightforwardness often makes her a soft target of her own ‘film’ fraternity.

Popular Twitter account TrueIndology suspended again after suspended bureaucrat threatened to use his ‘contacts’ to block it

OpIndia Staff
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Popular Twitter account TrueIndology suspended again after suspended bureaucrat threatened to use his ‘contacts’ to block it

A day after suspended bureaucrat Ashish Joshi threatened Twitter historian True Indology of blocking his account, the popular Twitter account was suspended by Twitter.

TrueIndology is very meticulous with facts, and the handle often corrects wrong and false claims made about history mostly by left liberals. He did the same yesterday when he exposed the ignorance of Joshi, who was suspended for using his official position for personal agenda. After True Indology proved that Ashish Joshi made false claims about Sherwan & Sherwani, the suspended officer threatened that he will get the account blocked. He said that last time he had only got the account suspended, but this time he will go step ahead and get it blocked.

Joshi had also threatened to dox True Indology by saying that he will use his connections with IPS officers to know the identity of people behind the anonymous handle.

Among the many lies exposed by True Indology, one recent lie to be busted was the claim that land for the Garakhnath temple was donated by a Muslim ruler. This claim was proved to be false by the Twitter historian using various documents.

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.

After the account was suspended, Twitter users started demanding that the suspension should be revoked. Uses of the social media site are tweeting with the hashtag #BringBackTrueIndology demanding the restoration of the Twitter account.

Congress leader plays caste and religion card in illegal Rohingya affected Mewat region in Rajasthan

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader plays caste and religion card in illegal Rohingya affected Mewat region in Rajasthan

A Congress leader, Zahida Khan, while asking for Rohingya affected Mewat region in Rajasthan, urged the Gujjars and the Muslims to come together to vote especially if they could ‘come together to rob’.

The controversial statement was given in Kaman, Rajasthan where Khan said, “If Mewat backs a candidate, then 36 communities back that candidate. The way I have been welcomed here I am hopeful that if God willing, Abhijit will become the MP here. But do give him more votes than you’d give me. For five years you supported but when it came to casting vote, you displayed your Gujjar identity. This time I request with folded hands to not repeat this mistake.” She then added, “if Gujjars and Muslims could come together to rob, why can’t they come together to vote?” Khan was urging to the Meo community of Muslims from Mewat region

She added that her family, especially her father Chaudhary Taiyab Hussain has always supported the Gujjars.

After the video went viral, a complaint was also registered against her with the Election Commission. Khan had given this controversial speech in Kaman region of Bharatpur district in Rajasthan which falls in the Mewat region. Mewat is a region which cuts across Rajasthan and Haryana and is highly influenced by illegal Rohingya population and cow smugglers.

However, Khan has dismissed the video and called it doctored. She said that the video is a conspiracy of her political rivals who are bothered by the kind of support she and Congress candidate Abhijeet Jatav is getting from the people.

Zahida Khan’s husband Jalish Khan was the prime accused in the infamous Bharatpur gangrape case where a Dalit girl was allegedly raped by some men for about 15 days. Zahida Khan, who is a law graduate from the University of Delhi, had written a letter to the then Rajasthan Chief Minister of Rajasthan denying the allegations of rape against her husband. The rape survivor had also alleged that she was being threatened of dire consequences if she did not withdraw the case. She was also allegedly offered Rs 1 crore to ‘settle’ the case.

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