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Supreme Court to hear BJP’s contempt of court petition against Rahul Gandhi for misquoting court order on Rafale

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court to hear BJP’s contempt of court petition against Rahul Gandhi for misquoting court order on Rafale

National spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party and a Supreme Court of India lawyer, Meenakshi Lekhi has filed a contempt petition against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over his ‘Chowkidar chor hain’ remarks against PM Modi after the Supreme Court order on Rafale.


The Supreme court has agreed to hear the contempt petition filed by the BJP lawmaker against Rahul Gandhi on April 15. The matter was mentioned in the court by Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi. The Bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna will hear the matter on Monday.


The BJP on Wednesday slammed the Congress president after he claimed that the top court has made it “clear” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “committed a theft”. Rahul Gandhi made the comments referring to the SC nod on the admissibility of “leaked documents” in the  Rafale case.

Addressing a press conference, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his comments hailing the Supreme Court order in the Rafale case. She had said, “the Congress president probably doesn’t read even half a paragraph of the court’s order, but here, by saying that the court has said ‘chowkidaar chor hai’, it is verging on contempt of court.”

The president of a party which has been in power for so many years has shown his frustration bt attributing words to the apex which were not uttered, she said.

Nirmala Sitharaman had clarified that court order was limited to whether it should consider the documents the government said were illegally obtained by petitioner.

The minister, irked by Rahul’s comment, said that he had crossed the norms of decency by misrepresenting the Supreme Court, “His pet line and his pet theory, he says Supreme Court has accepted graft, where was it accepted? A person who is on bail, who has given him the right to mislead, to misinterpret court verdict?”

On Wednesday the apex court allowed the admissibility of three documents as evidence in re-examining the review petitions concerning the Rafale deal. Court had dismissed the union government’s objections on the maintainability of the documents. The documents related to the Rafale deal are from the defence ministry, and the government says that they were illegally obtained by the petitioners and the newspapers that had published them. The Supreme Court had earlier given a clean chit to PM Modi in the Rafale deal, and it is hearing the review petitions on the issue.

The Supreme Court was hearing five Rafale review petitions, mainly on the issues of the admissibility of “stolen” Rafale documents as evidence and the claim of privilege raised on them by the government.

The Union government represented by Attorney-General KK Venugopal had argued that the review petition should be dismissed at the preliminary stage itself because they were based on “stolen” documents published in newspapers like The Hindu.

Rahul Gandhi had distorted the SC order while talking to the media, and said that Supreme Court has accepted that there is some form of corruption in Rafale deal & that “chowkidaar ne chori karwayi hai”.

Responding to the Supreme Court order, the Union government released a press statement in which the Defence Minister reiterated that the petitioners are using the “stolen” documents with an intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of the internal secret deliberations on the matter pertaining to country’s national security and defence.

“The documents presented by the petitioners are failing to bring out how the issues were addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent authorities taken. These are a selective and incomplete presentation of the facts and records by the petitioners,” said Defence Ministry according to ANI.

Rahul Gandhi and his brigade have been using the Rafale issue as a tool to defame the Prime Minister for over a year. He has been shamelessly lying over and over again in the hope that one of them will stick given the fact that he has the support from the ‘pliant media’.

Army veterans deny writing a letter that Congress shared on Twitter as proof of ‘veterans against Modi’

OpIndia Staff
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Army veterans deny writing a letter that Congress shared on Twitter as proof of ‘veterans against Modi’

A letter has been circulating on social media, allegedly written by Army Veterans to the President of India, where the signatories could be seen registering their protest against the ‘politicization of the Armed Forces’.


The signatories of the letter refer to the “unusual and completely unacceptable practice of political leaders taking credit for military operations like cross-border strikes”. The signatories further urge the President to “take all necessary steps to urgently direct all political parties that they must forthwith desist from using the military, military uniforms or symbols and any actions by military formations or personnel, for political purposes or to further their political agendas.”

Interestingly, the person who initiated this ‘letter campaign’, Major Chowdhury, was only among the first people to spread a shameful lie in the past where a photoshopped image of Republic TV flashing the news that 21 Sikh Regiment has refused to fight for India was shared on social media. He had used the fake image with the dangerous lie to say that this is the consequence when Indian Armed Forces are politicised.

Tweet by Major Chowdhury spreading fake news

However, as it turns out, reports are coming in according to which the President has not received any such letter from Army Veterans.


Moreover, signatories of the letter have started coming forward denying that they signed or supported any such letter. Air Marshall Suri has gone on record to say that he never supported any such letter and asserted that he would speak with the rest to verify whether they had actually supported the letter in its current form.


Major Suri told ANI, “This is not Admiral Ramdas’ letter (purported letter written by armed forces veterans to President) & it has been done by some Major Chaudhary. He has written this & it was coming on WhatsApp and emails. To put an end to it, I wrote that armed forces are apolitical and support the politically elected government. And no, my consent has not been taken for any such letter. I don’t agree with whatever has been written in that letter. We have been misquoted”.

General SF Rodrigues, who features as the first signatory in the said letter, has also denied signing it. He went to the extent of calling the entire thing ‘Fake News’.


Former Army Vice Chief Lt General ML Naidu (who is mentioned at 20th in the list of armed forces veterans who purportedly wrote the letter to President) says that his consent was also not taken for the letter and that he has not lent his name to any such letter about politicisation of the Armed forces.


In their hurry to attack the Modi government over the letter, it was shared by the Congress party through their official Twitter handle. The party said, “156 Veterans of the Indian Armed Forces including 8 former Chiefs of Staff write to the President of India urging him to act against Modi for trying to use soldiers for votes.”


The letter was also shared by various ‘neutral’ journalists as well.


The Congress using an apparently ‘fake letter’ to attack Narendra Modi is more of the same as they have been using complete fiction and fake news to target the Modi government during the entire course of their campaign. But more importantly, it reveals the remarkable incompetence, combined with the utter lack of objectivity and just sprinkled with a certain sense of malice, on the part of ‘ neutral’ journalists and political commentators that they did not bother to verify the authenticity of the letter before going to town with it.

At least one signatory, Former Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, however, has confirmed that he did sign the letter and endorsed it.


Under such circumstances, it appears that the letter includes at least some names which should not have been there. At least some names were included without the consent of the individuals and their knowledge. Therefore, it does appear that the letter was concocted by a few politically motivated Veterans in the list who dragged the names of others without their consent.

Update: Major (Retired) Priyadarshi Chowdhury, who led the initiative to send this letter, has now contradicted claims of Gen Rodrigues & ACM Suri that didn’t sign the letter and they do not endorse the content of the letter. He posted a tweet saying that he has proof of their endorsements. But didn’t say anything about Lt General ML Naidu, who also denied signing the letter.


Maj. Chowdhury also contradicted the news saying that Rashtrapati Bhavan has denied receiving the letter. He posted a screenshot of an email, which was apparently sent to the president of India containing the letter. The screenshot shows that the email was sent to the email IDs of the president and other officials in the Rashtrapati Bhavan Secretariate.

SC observes ‘something very serious happening in West Bengal’, issues notice to Mamata govt over harassment of customs officials

OpIndia Staff
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SC observes ‘something very serious happening in West Bengal’, issues notice to Mamata govt over harassment of customs officials

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a notice to Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal government on a plea filed by the customs department alleging interference and intimidation by the local police during a search operation against the wife and sister TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata airport. The legal editor of CNN News 18 tweeted that the SC observed ‘something very serious seems to be happening in the state’.


According to sources, Mamata Banerjee government appears to be in trouble after it has allegedly blocked and harassed the customs officials when they sought to scan baggage of wife of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of the CM Mamata Banerjee. The Supreme Court reportedly remarked in exasperation, “what is going on in West Bengal?”.

The Centre had moved a plea in the Supreme Court last Friday following March 16th incident when Kolkata Police allegedly did not allow customs officials to do their duty. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta claimed that the central agencies were in a perpetual state of fear and were being hounded for performing their duties. “There is constitutional anarchy in West Bengal if I may say it succinctly,” Mehta contended.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that a large contingent of West Bengal Police arrived at the Kolkata airport after customs officials stopped Rujira Naroola and Menaka Gambhir, both Thai passport holders.

Rujira Naroola Banerjee, the wife of the second-in-command of TMC was reportedly caught with 2 kgs of gold. As per the report, the lady flew in on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok at around 1.10 am and were passing through normal screening. They had declined to show their passports and were carrying seven pieces of checked-in baggage, the complaint said.

Despite multiple requests, they refused to put the baggage through the X-Ray scanning machine and eventually did so “after a lot of reluctance”, it added.

The complaint said that on scanning, it was noticed that three of these pieces of baggage contained jewellery and the women were requested to open it, but they “started abusing the officers and threatened them with dire consequences”.

When customs officials questioned her about the gold, which was approximately valued at Rs 68 lakh, she reportedly called up her husband Abhishek Banerjee, who is Lok Sabha MP from Diamond Harbour. Soon, several senior Kolkata Police officers reached the airport and tried to allegedly whisk her away. The Customs officials had confirmed that they were under pressure to release the duo.

Pentagon defends Mission Shakti, says India concerned about threats in space

OpIndia Staff
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Pentagon defends Mission Shakti, says India concerned about threats in space

The Pentagon has defended India’s ASAT test and said the test was carried out as India is concerned about the “threats” it faces in space. Prime Minister Modi had announced the success of Mission Shakti in which a low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space missile was shot down on the 27th of March.

“The first lesson from the Indian ASAT is just the simple question of why did they do that. And the answer should be, I think to all the committee looking at it, is that they did that because they are concerned about threats to their nation from space. And therefore, they feel they have to have a capability to defend themselves in space,” US Strategic Command Commander General John E Hyten told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

NASA had dubbed Mission Shakti a “terrible thing” claiming that the test had produced debris which could endanger the International Space Station (ISS). Hyten advocated for some manner of norms of behaviour in space. “And where those norms of behavior should begin, in my opinion, is with debris, because as the combatant commander responsible for space today, I don’t want more debris,” he said.

Senator Tim Kaine, running mate of Hillary Clinton in 2016, also voiced similar concerns. “What should the rules environment be, and what should we be doing to try to promote rules? India is an ally. We’re not talking about an adversary doing something. We’re talking about them testing some capacity, but then that creates challenges for all kinds of uses of space. How should we be solving problems like that?” Kaine asked.

India had become only the fourth country to acquire ASAT capabilities after the US, Russia, and China. The success of Mission Shakti was hailed as proof of India’s growing prowess.

A village in Uttar Pradesh, a people worried about Congress’ polarisation and what sways their vote: A ground report

Aditi
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A village in Uttar Pradesh, a people worried about Congress’ polarisation and what sways their vote: A ground report

As the polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha election 2019 started yesterday, the enthusiasm of the people in my village was evident from the long queues and smiling faces both young and old shining with hope, at the polling booths since early morning. My village Salawa is one of the 24 villages in the Meerut district collectively known by the name of ‘Thakur Chowbisi’. It is the largest of all the 24 villages both in terms of population and area and therefore has a certain political significance when it comes to elections.

Salawa falls within the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha constituency where the sitting Member of Parliament Dr Sanjeev Balyan is fielded by the BJP for a second time against the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Chief Ajit Singh who has allied with the SP-BSP alliance. Dr Balyan, who holds a doctorate in Veterinary Anatomy and has worked as an Assistant Professor and Veterinary surgeon, had defeated Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Kadir Rana by a margin of around 4 lakh votes during the ‘Modi wave’ in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Though the Thakur Chowbisi has traditionally been a BJP voter base and therefore there are chances of voters leaning towards the BJP again but this time certain other significant factors might play a role in shaping the opinion of the voters. Apart from the factors like the lack of a Prime Ministerial face in the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and the work done by the Modi government specially in rural areas, one important factor that seems to have drifted the voter away from the opposition parties is the 2016 mass exodus of Hindus from Kairana town of Shamli district which has a Muslim majority. The resettlement of around 25,000 members of the Muslim community in Kairana post the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots changed the demography of the region making Hindus a minority in Kairana. Shattered law and order situation post the resettlement and the subsequent mass exodus of Hindu families from Kairana out of fear of the gangsters of the majority Muslim community, left the people of nearby villages worried about the possibility of a similar situation in their own villages if any demographic changes took place. Having a neighbouring village like Kaili which has Muslims in the majority, a similar fear gripped my village as well. This brought back the memories of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the ’90s in the minds of people.

On top of that the cold attitude of the then Samajwadi Party government in the State accompanied by the deafening silence of the mainstream media which blatantly refused to even acknowledge that something like that had happened, created a deep sense of disbelief and insecurity among the Hindus. The situation improved only after the BJP government was formed in Uttar Pradesh under Chief Minister Yogi and as a result, the Hindu families who had fled out of fear started returning to their homes. This gave out a message that Hindus could feel safe under the BJP rule. True or not, this is what the voters feel at least in my village. A feeling of apprehension in the wake of the Kairana Hindu exodus seems to have been at the back of the minds of the voters along with the development work carried out by the Modi government.

I witnessed the faith of voters in the Modi government as I talked to some of them to know their opinions. “I did not see which candidate the BJP fielded in my constituency, I voted for Modi”, said a young voter named Mohit Som who was impressed by the way Modi government has improved India’s relations with other countries. He said the Kairana incident is going to have an influence on the voting pattern.

Another voter named Deepak Som appreciated the work done by Dr Sanjeev Balyan in his constituency during the last five years. He said that the “special effect” of PM Modi has also played a role in his decision to vote for the BJP. On the issue of Kairana, Deepak says that the Kairana incident is going to influence the voters in favour of the BJP as the opposition parties are openly indulging in the polarisation of Muslims for votes.

This appeasement by the opposition parties seems to be having a repulsive effect on the voters particularly in Salawa. “They (opposition parties) indulge in the politics of appeasement”, said  Rahul Som terming the Kairana exodus a big issue. When asked about his opinion on Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Rahul described him as nikamma (good for nothing). “He does not have a single quality to be a leader. It is because of his family background that he enjoys all the perks otherwise no one would keep him even as labour”, said a furious Rahul.

Similar views are held by about Rahul Gandhi by another voter named Kapil Som who was unhappy with the Congress party for having done nothing during its rule. Calling Rahul lafanga, Kapil said, “He is not even good enough to be employed as a sweeper. In fact, if he is given any job, it would be an insult to the job itself”. He praised PM Modi for having reached where he is coming from humble beginnings. Speaking on the issue of Kairana, Kapil said that it was only because of the BJP government that the Hindus could return to their home and that wherever Hindus are in minority they have no choice but to vote for the BJP.

However, another voter named Abhishek Som seemed the disagree with others on whether Kairana is going to impact the votes in this elections. “It has been quite some since that incident took place and it is not a major issue in these elections”, said Abhishek. When asked what was his reason to vote for BJP, he said that he liked the way Modi government has worked on improving the national security.

Vijay Som, a young voter, has his hopes rested on Modi government for creating employment opportunities for the youth. He said that the Modi government worked for everyone regardless of caste or religion.

Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy insults the jawans, says those who cannot afford two meals a day join the armed forces

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy insults the jawans, says those who cannot afford two meals a day join the armed forces

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who has a habit of making slanderous statements against political opponents, has once again created a controversy after he was claimed that only those people who can not afford food to eat join the armed forces.

In a video posted by the BJP Karnataka twitter handle, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy can be heard saying, “People protecting the borders are not the rich people but it is those people who can not afford two meals a day join the Indian Armed forces. PM Modi is playing with their lives.”


Meanwhile, BJP has said that Chief Minister Kumaraswamy should be ashamed for making such disdainful statements against the poor and the soldiers. The BJP further added that the citizens of the country join armed forces to serve the nation and not to seek benefits. The party also challenged the Chief Minister Kumaraswamy to make his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy join the armed forces rather than making him a candidate of the Lok Sabha elections.

Kumaraswamy, however, has claimed that the BJP is using an ‘edited video’ with false interpretation to target him.

Kumaraswamy is often seen uttering controversial statements. Earlier, he had stated that the celebration of Balakot airstrikes in India might cause communal tension.

Will send Modi, Amit Shah and Himanta Biswa Sarma to Bangladesh after elections: AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal

OpIndia Staff
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Will send Modi, Amit Shah and Himanta Biswa Sarma to Bangladesh after elections: AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal

A day after claiming that the Congress is ‘hero’ in Muslim areas but a ‘zero’ in Hindu dominated areas, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal, while addressing a rally in Dhubri, Assam, said that once we win elections, will send Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to Bangladesh.


Addressing his supporters, he said that the BJP wants to make India a Hindu nation and it must be stopped. Earlier he had said that the BJP is ‘our no. 1 enemy and the Congress is their no. 2 enemy’. Last year Ajmal had made headlines after he assaulted a journalist and threatened to smash his head for asking a question.

Restoring 400 ruined temples in 200 years: Pakistan’s new announcement appears to be another PR stunt to cover up the plight of Hindus

OpIndia Staff
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Restoring 400 ruined temples in 200 years: Pakistan’s new announcement appears to be another PR stunt to cover up the plight of Hindus

The Pakistan government has decided to restore Hindu temples across the country in a phased manner, which were hitherto lost to encroachment or occupied and converted to madrassas. The government of Pakistan has identified 400 temples to be gentrified and handed over to the Hindu community in their country.

When partition happened, many Hindu families abandoned their properties and temples in Pakistan and migrated to India. These temples were lost to infringement and illegally occupied by people to run madrassas. Even where the Hindus stayed back, the hostile strongmen forcibly took control of the temples and turned them into either common facility complexes or madrassas.

Pakistan government has declared that every year 2-3 Hindu heritage complexes will be restored, Starting with the two historic shrines in Sialkot and Peshawar. Sialkot already has a functioning Jagannath Temple. Now the 1000-year old Shivalaya Tej Singh temple is set to be restored. It was functional till 1992 but after Babri Mosque demolition, Hindus at Shivalaya Tej Singh temple witnessed a mob attack. A Pakistani court has also declared the Goraknath temple in Peshawar as a heritage site.

However, looking at Pakistan’s track record of treating its minorities and the ever-increasing hold of Islamic hardliners over governance and policy, the declaration seems more like a PR stunt to temporarily appease the Hindus and put the protesting voices to rest after the rampant abductions and forceful conversions of minor Hindu girls got international attention.

In Pakistani media, the only ‘sources’ mentioned for this ‘news’ is an unnamed individual in the Evacuee Trust Property Board.


As expected, the grand declaration of restoring 400 Hindu temples comes with only hollow words and hazy promises. There are no roadmaps proposed, no definite estimates and no announcement of funds or mobilisation so far. Even looking at their current announcement, two temples a year will take 200 years for all the temples (or ruins of them) to become ‘open’. In the entire country, there are just 13 Hindu temples that are functional.

Recently, Pakistan had announced the Sharda Temple Corridor to lure pilgrims from India and abroad. The Sharda Temple, once a revered shrine of Kashmiri Pandits, is now a dilapidated ruin.


The survey conducted by the All-Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement revealed shocking details about the state of temples in Pakistan. There were 428 Hindu temples at the time of Partition and out of which 408 of them were turned into toy stores, restaurants, government offices and madarsas.

Recently, Pakistan has also agreed to build the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate Sikh pilgrims from India to undertake a journey to the birthplace of Guru Nanak. However, the difference in the modalities of the corridor has temporarily put the brakes on the progress. India has highlighted Pakistan’s narrow focus on the issue.

Serious differences in the opinions held by the two countries emerged in their first meeting regarding the project. India had also raised strong objection to Pakistan for including Khalistani elements in their delegation, a concern that has been voiced multiple times by Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh. India has conveyed Pakistan that it won’t tolerate Kartarpur project being used to propagate anti-India and secessionist propaganda.

Congress deletes the tweet after it was caught Photoshopping party flag in place of Indian flag

OpIndia Staff
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Congress deletes the tweet after it was caught Photoshopping party flag in place of Indian flag

Gujarat Youth Congress has deleted the tweet and Facebook post after it was caught sharing a morphed image where the party flag was Photoshopped in place of Indian flag.

To portray itself as a preferred political party for people across religions, Gujarat Youth Congress has resorted to digitally replacing the Indian flag with the party flag. Social Media Hoax Slayer, a website which fact-checks social media hoaxes, reported that Gujarat Youth Congress Twitter handle, had digitally replaced the Indian flag with their own party flag.

Gujarat Youth Congress tweet, now deleted

In the tweet, Congress had said that it is only Congress which could keep Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians together. In the image, five men of different religions are seen walking down the road holding Congress party flags.

However, as reported by SM Hoax Slayer, the image was digitally edited to morph Congress flags in place of Indian flags.

The original image was posted by one Muni Lokesh, a Jain saint, on 26th January 2018, to wish Indians on the 69th Republic Day. Congress took the image and edited the Indian flag with that of the party flag. The men had walked at the India-Pakistan border with the flag to send a message of secularism.

On being called out, Congress deleted the tweet without offering any explanation or apology.

Prior to Congress, Samajwadi Party had also morphed an image from the same event and put up the Samajwadi Party flag in place of the Indian flag.

Samajwadi Party leader, however, has not yet deleted the image.

A tale of two indelible ink removals – TRPs for someone, matter of life for others

OpIndia Staff
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A tale of two indelible ink removals – TRPs for someone, matter of life for others

The first phase of the voting for the Lok Sabha elections concluded today. The voting was largely peaceful, apart from some reports EVM problems which is usual in the large-scale elections that take place in India. Few dozen EVMs among the thousands used in the elections show problems, which are promptly replaced by poll officials. But those reports are used to attack the EVM by anti-EVM lobby, which includes a section of media, activists and some political parties. Now, another issue has emerged in respect of the elections.

Today reports emerged that some people were successful in removing the indelible ink applied on their fingers after voting. This semi-permanent ink is used to prevent multiple voting by the same person. During voting, this ink is applied on the finger of the voter, which lasts for several weeks.

Executive Editor of CNN-News18 Bhupendra Chaube said that he was successful in removing the ink from his finger by using nail polish remover. He also said that using a nail file, he was successful in removing the ink from his finger entirely. He also showed a tweet by Quint CEO Ritu Kapur, who also tried the same experiment, as proof that many other people were tweeting that the ink is removable.


Another woman, Sameeksha Khare also reported that she had removed her indelible ink, and coincidently she also works for the Quint. Soon, many people tried nail polish remover, and reported that the ink was removed.

Some media houses reported this phenomenon by saying that indelible ink was coming off from the fingers of voters, but the fact is it was not coming off automatically, it happened only after rubbing it with nail polish remover.

While for some the ability to remove the indelible ink became a source to gain TRP and attack the current government, for others it became a question of life and death. After casting their votes, voters in Bastar in Chhattisgarh were seen removing the ink from their fingers. They were doing this not to vote again, but to save their own lives. Maoist terrorists have called for boycott of the general elections, and people in Maoist dominated areas fear that the terrorist will target them if they are seen with the mark of voting on their fingers.


Before Chhattisgarh assembly elections last year, Maoists had warned that if anyone is seen with indelible ink on their fingers, that finger will be chopped off. That time also people had removed the ink marks for the same reason.

Naxal terrorists had triggered a powerful IED blast on 9th April, killing five people including BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi. Therefore, the threat of the left-wing terrorists are real, and people were removing the ink as a precautionary measure. This also shows how people in Maoist affected areas are committed to the Indian democracy, despite the campaign against it by both the Maoists and their overground supporters.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has ordered a probe into the reports that the ink is getting removed, and ordered district election officer to furnish a report.

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