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Why is Indian intelligentsia silent on AAP’s promise to throw non-Delhi students out of Delhi University?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Why is Indian intelligentsia silent on AAP’s promise to throw non-Delhi students out of Delhi University?

On August 16, 1968, a baby boy was born to proud parents Gobind Ram and Gita Devi in Bhiwani district in Haryana. According to Wikipedia, he spent his childhood in towns like Hisar & Sonipat (Haryana) and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). When he finished school, he went to study at IIT Kharagpur located in West Bengal, presumably by clearing the all India entrance exam. After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, he took up a job at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur (then in Bihar, now in Jharkhand). A few years later, this boy who grew up in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, who got a college education in West Bengal and a job in Jharkhand, became an Income Tax officer in Delhi, having cleared the all India civil service exams.

That boy was Arvind Kejriwal. Today he is the Chief Minister of Delhi. And he wants to make sure that kids who are not from Delhi stay out of Delhi University.

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He wants an 80% quota in Delhi University for kids who have done their schooling from Delhi. The stated objective: to make sure that Delhi kids who score a mere 50% in their Board Exams are assured a place in Delhi University.

Such are the ways of politicians.

But why is India’s famously liberal, famously honest and famously vocal intelligentsia silent about a political plan to destroy Delhi University? Do they not care about one of our finest institutions of higher learning?

First of all, let us get the basics right. Delhi University is a Central University. As a Central University, every citizen of India, no matter where they reside, has an equal claim to Delhi University. Asking for a “Delhi quota” in DU simply because the university is located in Delhi would be like asking IIT Delhi or AIIMS to reserve seats for Delhi students because they are based in Delhi too. Or for that matter, like IIT Kharagpur (where Kejriwal studied) having a quota for Bengali students because they are located in West Bengal.

In other words, it would be patently absurd and unfair.

The AAP makes a counter “argument” that is laughable: if other states can reserve seats for their students, why not Delhi? Well, that’s because institutions with names like “Mumbai University” or “Bangalore University” are state government universities, while Delhi University is a Central University. Just like Allahabad University is a Central University and has no quotas for students from Uttar Pradesh. Neither does IIT Mumbai have any quota for students from Maharashtra.

Again, forget the politicians. What happened to our intellectuals who have been so worried in the last five years about the supposed political interference with “institutions”? Will they let the Delhi University community be torn apart by the worst kind of identity politics? Are they willing to sacrifice Delhi University and kickstart similar absurd demands for “reservations for locals” at other central institutions like IITs? These days liberals are aggressively promoting Raj Thackeray. So what is next? A demand for 80% reservation for locals at IIT Mumbai?

So far I have only mentioned the Constitutional/Legal perspective of all Indians having an equal claim on Central Government institutions regardless of where they are situated. But there are many other angles to this. The lifeblood of an institution of higher learning is its ability to attract young minds from the most diverse possible talent pool. Stagnation is decay. If Delhi University were forced to cater to just one city, the campus community would choke, standards would fall and its reputation would be in tatters. The AAP is quite upfront about this, promising that Delhi based students with just 50% in their Board Exams would still make it to DU!

Remember, this does not help any real people, including students from Delhi. Once the reputation of DU collapses, what would you do with a degree from DU anyway? The only folks who might benefit would be AAP politicians, who are counting on people not to realize the fallacy of their promise.

Secondly, think about the social justice angle of this and the hypocrisy of it all. As a thumb rule, it is safe to assume that students in Delhi have vastly more learning opportunities than students in most parts of the country. Now there are people who want the already underprivileged students from Bihar, from Uttar Pradesh, from the North East and the rest of the country to be kicked in the teeth and shut out of Delhi University. All this so that Delhi students with 50% in their Board Exams can get a free pass into DU. Where are our liberals who manage to “intellectualize” even left-wing terrorism in the name of social justice? Can they not see the unfairness of this?

Now compare and contrast this with the “liberal” stance on some other issues. Think about the Assamese who are getting uprooted from large swathes of their home state by the overwhelming onslaught of infiltrators from Bangladesh. The “liberal” condescends on those who express such fears, calls them xenophobic and racist. The liberal wants the North East to make space for Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas from Myanmar. The “liberal” file PILs in the Supreme Court demanding that the Indian state should divert its welfare spending from hundreds of millions of Indian poor to those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

And the same liberal has nothing to say if a DU seat is offered to a Delhi student who scores 50% rather than a student from a deprived district in Bihar who has scored 90%.

Now we know AAP may never get a chance to implement its agenda. But the seed has been sowed. The intellectual fabric of Delhi University has been placed permanently under stress. “Where are you from? What is your race? What is your ethnicity?” are the worst questions that you can ask a scholar in a learning environment. It leads nowhere but darkness.  A learning environment comes alive only when we discuss each other’s ideas and not their race or ethnicity.

Shhh….say no more. Because ‘secularism’. Another of those buzzwords like ‘social justice’ or ‘institutional independence’ that the liberal elite uses as per their convenience to justify bringing in a regime that will keep the wine flowing at their dinner parties in Lutyens Delhi.

Days after joining Congress, Shatrughan sees light, says Jinnah and Rahul Gandhi contributed to independence and development

OpIndia Staff
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Days after joining Congress, Shatrughan sees light, says Jinnah and Rahul Gandhi contributed to independence and development

Soon after joining the Congress, Shatrughan Sinha has started praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the orchestrator of India’s partition and the man responsible for the death of millions of Hindus.

As per a report in ABP News, Sinha had attended an election rally in Sausar, Madhya Pradesh under the Chhindwara constituency where MP CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath is the Congress candidate.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZC6F3lLMag]

Addressing the people gathered in the rally, Sinha stated that the Congress ‘Parivar’ is the party of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Subhash Chandra Bose. They are the persons who have the biggest contribution to India’s development.

Shatrughan Sinha further added that he has come to the Congress party because of these leaders and he will never go to any other party in the future. He also asserted that it is his last party jump.

MP CM Kamal Nath was also sharing the stage with Sinha when he made that statement. With this statement, Sinha has probably joined the ranks of other Congress leaders who find popularity in Pakistan and often mirror Pakistan’s statements.

Sinha has been a constant critic of BJP and PM Modi despite being an MP from BJP. He had been attending opposition rallies and making statements as an opposition leader. He had finally joined Congress after the BJP fielded union minister Ravishankar Prasad as a candidate from Sinha’s Patna Sahib seat.

Earlier, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer had hailed Jinnah as Quaid-e-Azam and praised him as a great freedom fighter. Speaking at an event in Lahore last year, Aiyer had slammed Veer Savarkar and hailed Jinnah as a great leader. Aiyer had also blamed Savarkar for the partition and had praised Pakistan for its ‘tolerance’.

PM Modi says ‘people are creating an impression that Modi has already won so it’s ok if you don’t vote, don’t believe them’

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi says ‘people are creating an impression that Modi has already won so it’s ok if you don’t vote, don’t believe them’

Right after Prime Minister Modi filed his nomination after a massive and quintessential Modi roadshow the day before, speaking to the Media, the Prime Minister had a message for the people about casting their vote in the 2019 elections in large numbers.


Prime Minister Modi, speaking to the Media said that some people are trying to create the impression that ‘Modi has already won’. He said this is being done so people think that since Modi has already won, it’s ok if they don’t turn up to vote in large numbers.

He then urged the people not to believe in what such elements say. Prime Minister Modi said that voting is a right of every citizen and democracy is festival and in this festival, every citizen should come out and cast their vote.

He said that the voters should vote to get a strong government to power and to ensure that the institution of democracy gets strengthened.

Interestingly, the Congress ecosystem has had a turn of heart recently. After Congress chickened out from fielding Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi against Prime Minister Modi, the ecosystem is continually insinuating that the Congress party has given the BJP and the Prime Minister a walkover.

In fact, Indira Jaising, career PIList took to Twitter to say that whoever is the vacation judge in the Supreme Court after 26th May 2019 (Election result day), might have issues of government formation to deal with.


Indira Jaising insinuated that after the Modi government comes back to power, the PIL cottage industry would approach the Supreme Court to challenge the formation of the government.

After the meltdown that the Congress ecosystem suffered and the potential sibling rivalry between Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was exposed in the open, PM Modi seems to believe that the narrative about Congress giving PM Modi and the BJP a walkover and the victory of BJP being obvious is a ploy to ensure voters don’t come out to vote in large numbers.

Rape of tribal girls in Christian institution’s hostel: MoS Hansraj Ahir writes to Maharashtra CM Fadnavis over delay in police probe

OpIndia Staff
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Rape of tribal girls in Christian institution’s hostel: MoS Hansraj Ahir writes to Maharashtra CM Fadnavis over delay in police probe

Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis highlighting numerous rape cases of minor tribal girls in the tribal hostel run by “Infant Jesus Education Society” in Chandrapur.

The MoS accused the police of delay in registering the FIR. He also said that no action was taken for almost a week.


Presently, Ahir is BJP Member Parliament from Chandpur and is contesting from the same seat in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

In his letter to the Maharastra CM, he has alleged that minor girls were allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by the hostel staff. He asserted that people in his constituency were disgruntled with the ongoing probe and there was a growing demand for CBI inquiry.

He has therefore urged CM Fadnavis to “Enquire the delay in registration of FIR in the case”.

According to reports, five minor tribal girls were sexually abused by four officials of the tribal hostel. So far, hostel superintendent Chaban Pachare and deputy superintendent Narendra Virutkar have been arrested for the alleged crime. However, hostel warden Kalpana Thakre and assistant Lata Kanake were held for abetting the ‘rape’ of these minor girls.

The case had reportedly come to light on 6 April, but there was a delay from the police to lodge an FIR and begin investigations. The police FIR was reportedly lodged only after Maharashtra’s finance minister Sudhir Mungtivar took cognisance of the issue and asked the local police to take up the case.

Madras Christian College professors held guilty of sexual misconduct by the Internal Complaints Committee

OpIndia Staff
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Madras Christian College professors held guilty of sexual misconduct by the Internal Complaints Committee

The Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) formed by Madras Christian College (MCC) to inquire about sexual misconduct allegations against zoology professor has concluded.  ICC in its report has charged Professor R Raveen with sexual harassment of female students. His colleague Samuel Tennyson has also been held guilty of encouraging his lewd behaviour.

The case emerged last month when students of the zoology department at MCC alleged Professor Raveen of misbehaving with female students during their ‘department trip’ to Karnataka. The students alleged Raveen of touching them inappropriately, passing lewd comments about their dressing and breaching their privacy. The trip was held in January this year.

After the trip, students collectively but anonymously submitted a complaint of harassment against the accused professor to their Head of Department (HoD). However, anguished at the inaction of the HoD, 36 out of the 50 students who were a part of the Karnataka excursion, filed a formal complaint and added their signatures.

The HoD had invited the students to conduct an informal inquiry about the incident. However, this meeting yielded no results and the HoD let off the two ‘guilty’ professors with just a warning instead of taking strong action against them. He justified his action since ‘no previous complaints had been received against the two,’ according to him.

When the incident ensued, students from the zoology department batch of 1997-2000 came forward to share similar instances of harassment by Professor Raveen during their college excursion.  Back then, the HoD had ‘suspended’ the accused for 15 days. Although there is no documented record of the suspension as this suspension had coincided with their summer holidays.

“When we realized the college department had lied to us, we began to protest. This is when the ICC was set up and a formal inquiry began,” divulged a student on the matter.

The committee comprising external member and lawyer Sheila Jayaprakash held multiple rounds of inquiry. Following this, the committee reserved its findings on the issue before finally releasing the report on April 24. The same day a copy of this report was handed over to the students and the Board of Directors.

The ICC upheld that Raveen and Tennyson’s actions amounted to sexual harassment. “It is the unanimous finding of the committee that the actions of the respondents, Dr. Raveen and Dr. Tennyson did constitute sexual harassment by creating a hostile work/study environment that resulted in gender discrimination against complainants,” said the report, adding that the committee is forwarding it to the principal for appropriate action against the two professors.

The students expressed their happiness over the committee’s report, it’s approach and observations. They said they now look forward to the college principal to take action against the guilty professors as per the findings of this report.

Rahul Gandhi’s outrageous lie, says Modi made a law under which adivasis could be shot down

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi’s outrageous lie, says Modi made a law under which adivasis could be shot down

The Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on his campaign trail for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh’s Shabdol, seems to have shed all semblance of civility as he peddled a pernicious lie about the Adivasi law. He declared that the Modi government has included a provision in the Adivasi law which will empower the government to shoot down Tribals (Adivasis) without having to face any consequences.


While addressing the tribal population of Shabdol, the Congress president resorted to fear-mongering as he lied about the Modi government’s purported intervention in the Adivasi law. Rahul Gandhi said, “The Modi government has legislated a new provision in the Adivasi law which empowers them to snatch away your (tribals) land and resources and shot bullets at you with impunity.”

There is not an iota of truth in Rahul’s assertions. What Rahul Gandhi is alleging about the Modi government with regard to Adivasi law is a figment of his own imagination with no roots in the objective reality. Modi government hasn’t legislated any provision that permits persecution of any communities, let alone Tribals. If this was true, it would have created a huge raucous in the pariament, activists would have bayed for the blood of the government and the Supreme Court would have struck it down immediately.

However, in his attempt to tarnish the Modi government among Tribals, the Gandhi scion is instilling fear among a marginalised community by raising a bugbear of expropriation and persecution at the hands of the present-day government. Perhaps, it is a stratagem employed by Rahul Gandhi to vilify the Modi government among Tribals and secure their patronage for Congress in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

It is also noteworthy to mention that this is the same language that the Naxals use to induce fear among the Tribals against the government. The Naxals have often resorted to distortions, lies and half-truths to incite Tribals into picking up the arms in opposition to the establishment. Rahul Gandhi’s recent utterances will be used as fodder by the Naxals to further provoke the Adivasis into joining their ranks and also help them in justifying their violent methods among their local population.

Congress has always maintained an unholy nexus with all sorts of fundamentalists and extremists forces since time immemorial. In addition to this tradition, Congress had recently joined hands with the Islamists in Kerala with the singular purpose of arresting BJP’s rise in the state. Congress-led UDF joined hands with the Muslim League, which is dominant in the state from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi had filed nomination from the second seat of Wayanad, apart from his nomination from UP’s Amethi.

The desperation among Rahul Gandhi to depose Modi from power is evident. Rahul Gandhi has weaved a web of lies for discrediting PM Modi. From Rafale lies to ‘Chowkidar’ jibe, on each instance, Rahul tried all his might to somehow disrepute the Prime Minister and cast a dent in his acceptability among masses but has spectacularly failed. In order to achieve this end, he has now allied with the Islamists in Kerala as well as started parroting Naxal language.

Worker putting up Rahul Gandhi’s posters while wearing a Modi T-shirt removed from Congress office

OpIndia Staff
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Worker putting up Rahul Gandhi’s posters while wearing a Modi T-shirt removed from Congress office

In an interesting incident that took place at the Jaipur office of the Congress Party, a labourer was removed from the premises of the office today for wearing a T-Shirt which had PM Modi’s name printed on it, as reported by ZeeNews. The worker was helping in organising the venue for a meeting of Overseas Congress Chief Sam Pitroda. The T-shirt that the worker was wearing was actually a part of the items distributed during the inauguration of Barmer Refinery and Petrochemical Complex on January 16, 2018. Along with name of refinery, the name of Prime Minister Modi was printed on the T-shirts that were distributed as he was the chief guest at the event.

In what might have appeared as a political paradox, the worker was putting up Rahul Gandhi posters wearing the T-shirt with PM Modi’ name on it ahead of the event, quite unnoticed by anyone. Later on, his T-shirt grabbed the attention of some people who brought this to the notice of the Congress leaders who were present there. As soon as the Congress leaders came to know about this, they removed the worker from the party office immediately.

The removal of the labourer from the party office for merely wearing a T-shirt with PM Modi’s name written on it exposes the Congress Party claims of being a pro-poor party. This gives out a message that the party is only willing to help those poor who support it.

Mayawati says that stray animal’s entry in SP-BSP-RLD rally in Kannauj was part of a BJP conspiracy

OpIndia Staff
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Mayawati says that stray animal’s entry in SP-BSP-RLD rally in Kannauj was part of a BJP conspiracy

Levelling strange accusations against the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Supremo Mayawati has said that the BJP unleashed stray animals to disrupt her election rally in Kannauj. Yesterday, a stray bull had created ruckus ahead of a joint SP-BSP-RLD election rally in Kannauj. The entry of the bull in the helipad area created panic in the crowd and people started running around.


However, Mayawati blamed the BJP for releasing stray animals in their election rallies. Addressing a public rally at Orai, she said that it seems that the BJP people played a prank by unleashing stray animals in the rally in Kannauj.


“Kal Kannauj mein humari jansabha thi wahan humare aane se pehle BJP ke logon ne aise lagta hai shararat ke tehet wahan par awara janwaron ko bheja” (Yesterday we had a public rally in Kannauj. It seems that BJP people released stray animals in the rally venue there to play a prank.)”, said Mayawati.

Earlier Mayati had targeted PM Modi by accusing him of belonging to a fake backward class.

Islamist terror leader wanted for Sri Lanka bombings was one of the suicide bombers, died in a hotel bombing

ashwin
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Islamist terror leader wanted for Sri Lanka bombings was one of the suicide bombers, died in a hotel bombing

Zahran Hashim, an Islamist extremist wanted for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka was killed during the attack at Hotel Shangri-La. He is confirmed to have led the attack in the Colombo hotel.

President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters, “What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack”.

He also said that a second bomber, identified as “Ilham”, had accompanied Hashim while he was leading the attack. A CCTV footage examined by the military officials had confirmed his involvement in the attack.

Reportedly, Hashim had led the group involved in the attack – the National Thowheeth Jama’ath. Security forces first identified him in the video circulated by Islamic State claiming to be responsible for the attacks. Hashim was seen leading a group of seven men in an oath of allegiance to the IS chief.

Following this, the security forces have been on a desperate hunt for the 40-year-old prime suspect, his location was unclear post the attacks.

Local Muslim leaders say that they have reported him several occasions for his extremist views and behaviour, yet no action had been taken against him. More than 250 people have died during the attacks despite being warned by intelligence agencies. The casualties would have been worse, luckily a fourth church had escaped the attack as it had ended its Easter Sunday mass early

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan under scanner for allegedly using public money for ‘personal’ trips

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan under scanner for allegedly using public money for ‘personal’ trips

According to the writ petition filed by one D Francis, who claims to be a member of an anti-corruption organisation, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan used public funds to book air tickets for his trips to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States of America (US) that were ‘personal’ in nature. Following the petitions, the Kerala High Court has put the Chief Minister under the scanner, according to reports.

The case would be heard by the bench of Justice P Somarajan on April 30. The court has meanwhile asked state government officials for a response to the petition.

The petitioner, in his writ petition, alleged the Vijayan had, for his trips which were ‘personal’ in nature, used funds from the government treasury amounting to Rs 93,295 on his trip to the UAE in December 2016 and similarly Rs 3,82,807 was spent on his US trip in July 2017 from the same source.

“It is not known whether the initial payments related to the above-said journeys were made by himself or somebody else on behalf of him. Even though the petitioner’s advocate repeatedly made requests, the Chief Minister’s Office has not disclosed the source for such spending,” the petition alleged.

“Being a public servant, he is duty bound to disclose the source for all such expenses especially while he is holding the public office. Not only that, by abusing his official position as chief minister, he made pecuniary benefit by way of reimbursements after making his above said personal visits without any public interest,” it added.

Though as per local media reports both these chief minister’s trips were official trips, the writ petition asked for a vigilance investigation into finding the source of the funds spent after which the Kerala High Court sought a reply from the state in this matter.

Last year the same Kerala High Court had slammed the Chief Minister for its high-handedness and brutality in dealing with Hindu devotees present at the Sabarimala shrine.

Soon after that, the Kerala High Court while hearing a petition seeking to restrict the entry of non-Hindus in Sabarimala temple, had expressed its displeasure over the police excesses at the Sabarimala temple. The Kerala High Court while hearing a similar petition in the past had warned the Communist Kerala government led by Pinarayi Vijayan for its undue interference in Sabarimala’s religious affairs and asked the government to restrict itself to providing adequate security to the devotees visiting the shrine.

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