Bahujan Samaj Party leader and meat baron Haji Yakub Qureshi will be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Meerut-Hapur seat against BJP’s sitting Member of Parliament Rajendra Agrawal.
Qureshi, who is a four-time Mayor from Meerut, had made headlines after he announced a bounty of Rs 51 crore for beheading the cartoonists of France based publication Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. Qureshi later announced to give the said amount to the terrorists who had barged into the office of Charlie Hebdo armed with lethal weapons and killed 12 people including 8 journalists. Qureshi was also reportedly involved in attacking environment activists who had started a movement for banning the meat plants to save the environment.
Qureshi is the owner of meat company Al Fahim Meatex Private Limited which is said to be one of the largest buffalo meat exporters in India. His meat company has recently been under the scanner of law enforcement authorities regarding certain illegalities. In the month of February this year, some parts of his meat factory were sealed by the authorities for not having the required sanction for the map of the factory. Meerut’s environment has been affected due to a large number of meat factories in the region. Addressing the problem of illegal meat factories, CM Yogi Adityanath had ordered the closing down of the illegal slaughterhouses in State soon after he became the CM in 2017.
Along with Qureshi, his children also do not seem to have any fear of the law. His son Haji Imran Qureshi was reportedly involved in grabbing the land of farmers and also giving death threats to the owners of the land. Qureshi’s daughter had also made headlines back in 2017 when she reportedly beat up the teachers and students with a hunter in Meerut Public School where her daughter was studying. The video of the incident had gone viral in which she is seen carrying a hunter with her in the school premises.
With a considerably large Muslim population in the Meerut area, Qureshi stands good chances of winning the current Lok Sabha election if he is able to consolidate the Muslim vote in his favour.
In a shocking incident, Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi was caught defending rape convict RJD leader Rajballabh Yadav while campaigning for his wife, who is contesting from the Nawada Lok Sabha seat in the Lok Sabha elections, as per reports.
According to reports, Rabri Devi addressing a rally in Nawada said Rajballabh Yadav was wrongly convicted in the case and went on to ask people to vote for rape convict’s wife Vibha Devi. Rajballabh Yadav is convicted for raping a minor girl and was subsequently disqualified from contesting polls.
“The way Rajballabh ji has been convicted and he has been set up by those who wanted to spoil his name, thus Vibha Devi (Raj Ballabh’s wife) is the candidate and we have to help her win. We have to make her win,” said Rabri Devi told people in Nawada on Thursday.
Ironically, Rabri Devi defended the rape convict Rajballabh Yadav while speaking on the issue of lack of women safety in Bihar. “They talk about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao but, what is happening in Bihar? Girls have been kidnapped and raped. Nobody’s safe in Bihar. The state government in to blame,” said Rabri Devi.
She further went on to claim that her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav was also a victim of political vendetta while accusing Nitish Kumar government of failing to provide security for women in the state.
Raj Ballabh Yadav, who is Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA from Nawada, was named in a case of rape of a minor girl at his residence in Bihar Sharif on February 6, 2016.
In December last year, a Patna court had convicted Rajballabh Yadav and four others in connection with the rape of a minor in 2016. He was convicted under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and 4, 8, 17 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
A 15-year old girl, a resident of Bihar Sharif was reportedly abducted by a woman, Sulekha Devi to a location 15 KM from the district headquarters. According to reports, the woman and Yadav consumed alcohol and forced the minor girl to watch pornographic videos. Yadav then allegedly directed the girl to imitate the lewd acts. When the girl resisted, she was raped and confined the entire night.
We already know that the Gandhis are divine, they are not from this world, we mere mortals, that too, brown heathen mortals, do not deserve them. Yet, they continue to shower their divine grace on us. They wave at us, smile at us, they even talk to us, and ask us to call them by their name like we are their equals.
As if all that smiling and waving was not enough to purge us of our sins and fill our hearts with happiness, they sometimes even climb down from their vehicles to walk among us and behave like us, like mere humans. Isn’t that another sign of their greatness, that such divine angels even walk among dirty, smelly people and try to blend in the crowd, oblivious to the three dozen cameras following them?
Just days ago, we saw a glimpse of how kind, graceful and loving Rahul Gandhi is. When a journalist named Rajender Vyas was allegedly hit by a motorcycle just at the precise moment when Rahul’s cavalcade was passing through the general area, by pure coincidence, of course. Rahul was kind enough to spot that journalist from his bulletproof vehicle and stop. Or so we are told.
Journalist Rajender Vyas met with an accident. Congress President stop his cavalcade and took him to Aiims. pic.twitter.com/p7q1Vk1fFO
In the videos of that incident that surfaced later, ungrateful souls pointed out that the journalist was probably faking it, as there was no injury on him. In videos shared on social media, the journo was seen asking Rahul to wipe his forehead again, so he can ‘put the footage to use’. Heathen, non-believers tried to spread the canards as if the entire episode was fake. Sheer blasphemy. Faithlessness.
This is what the angels of heaven have to endure on earth when they attempt to teach non-believers the true faith. The tainted non-believers fail to notice that it was not a physical injury that Rahul was trying to heal. They are here to clean our tainted souls. The amount of kindness we get from the Gandhi siblings and their mother can easily outweigh all the 12 AgustaWestland choppers and is worth much more than all the plots sold in Haryana and Rajasthan.
Leftists have been screaming their lungs out since May 26, 2014, that democracy is in danger and media is under attack. Looking at the frequency of ‘journalists’ falling ill or meeting with accidents just when the Gandhis are in the vicinity, it becomes slowly clear what the leftists have been going on about all these months.
Yesterday in Wayanad, another poor ‘journalist’ allegedly was in danger. Sorry, as some reports say, an entire media bus was put under danger in Modi’s India. It was another divine coincidence that the media bus met with an accident precisely in the area where Rahul and his sister Priyanka were present.
The media bus met with an accident at the end of @RahulGandhi‘s roadshow in Wayanad. Few journalists were hurt.
But as luck would have it, even if the accident happened in Modi’s India, the location was Rahul’s Wayanad. So then, both siblings hurried to help the poor soul with their divine presence.
Not paying the slightest attention to the dozens of cameras positioned around them, the Gandhi siblings unleashed their grace all over the place. While Rahul tried to carry the stretcher by standing on its way and touching the handles, Priyanka carried the man’s shoes in her own hands. Such kindness, such simplicity, and genuine compassion are absolutely rare in an age of media props and PR stunts.
As it happens always, the faithless have again started casting doubts over the incidents. Too many ‘injured’ journalists in too precise locations in too short a timespan they say, with all the impunity of their heathen souls.
The real question is why is it journalists & others have conveniently timed mishaps around the Gandhi’s? they trip, sprain an ankle, faint or get hit, on a weekly basis in close physical proximity to the Gandhi’s https://t.co/uYjSRpcV5x
This is the 2nd time in 1 week that a journo was involved in an accident with RahulG around the corner.
What is happening in our country? Where is the chowkidar? Kya yahi hain achche din?https://t.co/9S5oDuATBD
Such lack of faith is unfortunately rampant in Modi’s India. Even when disciples of God heal ailments and thwart Lucifer’s sinister attacks with the mere power of their touch and prayer, the devils of Modi’s India still disbelieve them and cast doubts. They claim their healing powers as fake and call it all a PR stunt. Similar allegations are being made on the incidents of ‘injured’ journalists too.
Non-believers will always doubt. Modi’s India has so many of them. But as we gear up for an election season in the middle of summer, more and more politicians will campaign. Hundreds of journalists and camerapersons will tail them. Let us hope that the Gandhi siblings are present in the vicinity whenever any journalist, god forbid, faints or feels weak. Maybe that is the reason Rahul has chosen Wayanad after all. Why should the blessings of the Gandhi family be limited to Raebareli and Amethi? Kerala should get it too. It is now Gandhis’ own country.
Soon after actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha had, after being shunned by the BJP, showed his keenness to join the Congress, there have been reports that his wife, Poonam Sinha, will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Lucknow parliamentary constituency.
Poonam Sinha will reportedly contest on the Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket with the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) support and plans to take on BJP’ bigwig and the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.
Since the Congress has decided not to field a candidate from Lucknow and support the candidature of Sinha from the Uttar Pradesh capital, Poonam Sinha and Rajnath Singh are set to take on each other one-on-one.
A Congress functionary confirmed that “Jitin Prasada was keen to contest from Lucknow and he had to be persuaded to opt for his constituency Dhaurhara. Decks have now been cleared and Lucknow will be one of the seven seats that the Congress has said that it would leave for the SP-BSP alliance.”
The decision to field Poonam Sinha as the joint opposition candidate against Rajnath Singh is an attempt by the Samajwadi Party to keep the Home Minister confined to his constituency, said party sources who furthered that the party has already completed its homework and was all set to field Poonam Sinha from the Capital city of Uttar Pradesh.
“There are four lakh Kayastha voters and 1.3 lakh Sindhi voters in Lucknow, apart from 3.5 lakh Muslims. (Poonam Sinha is a Sindhi while her husband Shatrughan Sinha is a Kayastha). This will give a major push to her candidature,” said an SP leader.
BJP General Secretary Vijay Pathak, however, dismissed the issue and said, “Lucknow has always been a BJP bastion and continues to be one. Rajnath Singh has ensured a lot of development of the state capital and has a rapport with the people. An imported candidate will not cut much ice with the voters.”
Sources confirmed that it was Poonam Sinha’s appointment that had led to the postponement of Shatrughan Sinha’s joining the Congress. He is now slated to join the Congress in Delhi on April 6 and will be the party candidate from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
In fact, the actor-turned-politician, who was known to be acrimonious towards his own party, was particularly irked as BJP had earlier decided to field Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib seat, from where he is a sitting MP.
The BJP, sick and tired of the rebel within their party had shown Shatrughan the red flag at the beginning of the year, asking him to quit the party if he so wanted.
The rebel leader, who has been openly speaking against BJP and taking part in opposition rallies for quite some time now, had recently met the Congress President, and had shared a picture with him on Twitter hailing the Gandhis as “the family of Nation builders”.
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has recently thanked Congress Party for accepting their ‘problem’. According to reports, Jaitley said, “Some eminent former BJP men have been accepted by the Congress as a gift. We thank Congress. Our problem is now yours. Good luck!”
Interestingly, Rajnath Singh had won the Lucknow seat in 2014 garnering 55.7 percent of the total 10,06,483 votes polled. He had won in all the five assembly segments of the constituency.
There has been substantial talk over how Rahul Gandhi makes his money considering his only legitimate income is that of an MP’s salary. Rahul Gandhi has never held a job, at least one that people know of and has no professional vocation, unlike some other politicians who have been businessmen, lawyers etc before they took the plunge into full-time politics.
Later it was found that apart from salary as MP, Rahul Gandhi was also earning through land deals and rental income from acquired properties, though it remains unclear how did he first acquire enough resources to get into such deals and acquire such assets.
Rahul Gandhi’s assets per his election affidavits went up from Rs 55,38,123 in 2004, to over Rs. 2 crores in 2009 and finally, over Rs 9 crores in 2014. It must also be remembered here that in 2011-12, there are allegations that Rahul Gandhi had escaped incomes of Rs. 155 crores through AJL for which, the IT department has slapped a Rs. 100 crores tax notice on Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi has now filed his election affidavit while filing his nomination from Wayanad, Kerala which is meant to be his safe seat.
According to his latest affidavit, his assets have grown from 9.35 crores to 15.88 crores in 5 years.
Essentially, while the Congress government was in power, from 2004 to 2014, Rahul Gandhi’s assets grew from Rs 55 Lacs to 9.35 crores and while the Modi government was in power from 2014 to 2019, Rahul Gandhi’s assets grew from 9.35 crores to 15.88 crores.
Rahul Gandhi’s income according to his 2019 election affidavit stands at Rs. 1.11 crores. In 2012-2013, his income stood at Rs 92.47 lac.
Source: Rahul Gandhi’s election affidavits
Rahul Gandhi’s lowest declared income was in the year 2015-2016 where his declared income was 86.56 lacs. Interestingly, it is evident from the chart that Rahul Gandhi income started declining in the financial year Modi government came to power. Interestingly, recently his income started increasing again, a period following the demonetisation year when the Modi government had declared that high-value notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 were no longer a legal tender.
In his 2019 affidavit, Rahul Gandhi has taken a personal loan of Rs 5 lakh from his mother Sonia Gandhi and has a liability of Rs 72,01,904.
In our previous reports, we had tried to elaborate on how Rahul Gandhi earns his money, considering his only legitimate income is that of an MP’s salary. We had reported how his seemingly clandestine deals have panned out over the years.
Rahul Gandhi jointly owns a farmhouse with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra which earned rental income from scam accused who were under investigation by the Congress government. Rahul Gandhi had rented the Indira Gandhi farmhouse to scam accused FTIL and earned rental income that far exceeded the valuation of the farmhouse.
In 2013, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka, rented their 4.69 acre farmhouse in Delhi to Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. (FTIL), merely 10 months after a show cause notice was served to National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), a company promoted by FTIL, for alleged norm violations. In fact, The Congress government had exempted the NSEL from complying with the provisions of the Forwards Contracts Regulations Act through a notification dated June 5, 2007. Later, it was discovered that the NSEL traded in contracts which were in violation of the conditions under which it was granted the exemption.
FTIL had signed an 11-month lease agreement to rent Indira Gandhi Farm House in Mehrauli at a monthly rent of Rs 6.7 lakh. FTIL also paid an interest-free deposit of Rs 40.20 lakh vide two separate cheques of Rs 20.10 lakh each respectively to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. Interestingly, while Rahul Gandhi was earning a rental income of 6.7 lac per month, the farmhouse which was rented was only valued at a little over Rs. 9 lac according to his election affidavit.
While the NSEL scam broke out in June 2013, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra rented their farmhouse to FTIL from January 2013 to October 2013. This goes to show that while the multi-crore scam broke out, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were profiting from FTIL.
His other clandestine deals, Rahul had bought 2 properties from Unitech, accused in the 2G scam in 2010. While he had paid a little over 4 crores for these properties, he had also allegedly earned interest on deposit from Unitech while they were under the scanner for their involvement in the 2G scam.
Now, with Rahul Gandhi’s assets growing by 1600% under UPA and but ‘just’ by 70% under the Modi government, one certainly wonders which aspect of his earning capacity has changed with the change in government from one run by his mother, Sonia Gandhi and the other run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Modi in his interview to ABP News said that there is a pro-incumbency wave in the country.
In a frontal attack on the Congress party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the party which has divided India, broke Andhra Pradesh into two states for its own political gains, is speaking about bridging the north-south divide. PM Modi, in his interview to ABP News, was referring to the excuse Congress has given for party president Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad and Amethi.
“Chunav woh kahan se lade kahan se na lade woh unka vishay hai. Lekin jis tarike se jaana pada hai. Media ne bola hai amethi unke liye mushkil hai. Unko jo kehna hai woh keh sakte hai. Where he fights elections that is their subject. But the way he had to go to Wayanad is what we are pointing at. Media only is saying that winning Amethi may be difficult this time. They can give whichever excuse they want to, ” PM Modi said.
Congress has claimed that Rahul Gandhi will fight from Wayanad as well to try and bridge the ‘divide’ the five years of Modi government has brought between North and South. However, a Congress leader had said the party has chosen Wayanad as Hindus are in a minority in that constituency and hence it may be a ‘safe seat’, lest Gandhi loses Amethi.
Adding that Congress manifesto echoes the language of Pakistan and separatists, PM Modi said, “We want an India where AFSPA is not even required. But for that, we need an atmosphere where such a situation is possible. Congress manifesto stinks of Pakistani language. It is the language of the separatists. Congress has insulted army by bringing in accusations like rape.”
Stressing the importance of sedition law, Prime Minister Modi said that he has full faith in the judiciary to differentiate between ‘Rashtradroh’ and ‘Rajdroh’ (criticism of the government and trying to bring hate and contempt towards the government). “When people were protesting against the nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, Congress had arrested 6,000 people under sedition laws. The same Congress now wants to abolish the sedition law to stand by the ones who want to break India into pieces. They want them to go free?” PM Modi said.
Speaking on the relationship with Pakistan and the conflict, PM Modi said, “It is unclear who runs the government in Pakistan: the elected government, the army, the ISI or the Pakistanis residing abroad who are running it from afar? Pakistan should stop exporting terrorism to India. We have differences with China, but we are not going to let them get converted into dispute.”
On the controversial topic of proofs of airstrikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot carried out after the Pulwama terror attack, PM Modi said, “Pakistan tweeted it themselves. We had not made any claims. Those who want to debate how many were killed can continue to do so. Pakistan would have badmouthed us if we had attacked civilians and army installations. Our target was only terrorists. We carried out research and was carried out successfully. Pakistan cannot accept it because that will mean they will have to accept that terrorist activities were happening on their land. It is a matter of worry that Indians are speaking the language Pakistan would like.”
Prime Minister Modi often takes a dig at the Opposition alliance, referring to it as ‘mahamilavat’. “I don’t call it Mahathagbandhan, I call it ‘Mahamilavat. NDA is also an alliance. In Jammu and Kashmir when we forged an alliance with PDP, we had come close, but we were not together. The mandate was such that we had to walk together. However, today NDA alliance is not contradictory. Like Shiromani Akali Dal, we are together in good times and bad. Unlike in UPA. Two years back during Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, two guys wore jackets and came on TV as if shooting a film. Today they are standing as opposition themselves.”
He further added that the UPA has no unity. “Omar abdullah says there should be 2 PMs in the country. Congress should answer what is their stand on 2-PM theory. You are forging alliance who says they will abuse India a 100 times if anyone abuses Pakistan. Congress must come clear on their stand on the statements issued by their alliance partner.”
The media in the country has always shared an intriguing relationship with the government of the day. From involving in the allocation of cabinet berths to availing freebies, the Indian media fraternity has been part of an echo chamber but unfortunately, it was never part of public debate.
Now, an interesting video has gone viral, in which senior journalist Ashok Shrivastav can be heard describing anecdotes, which explain the murkier relationship between the media and the past government. Ashok Shrivastav narrated his experience regarding how Indian journalists were gifted with freebies, including expensive alcoholic beverages whenever they travelled with the Indian delegation to foreign countries led by the past Prime Ministers. He said that over 150 journalists would travel officially during the Congress regime.
He further revealed how the previous governments spent lavishly to treat the Indian media establishment during the official trips. Narrating an incident, Shrivastav said that courtesy of the external affairs ministry during the Congress government, journalists were allowed to order expensive cuisine, alcohol while they were part of the Indian media delegation. Srivastav said that after journalists were wined and dined during the flight when they reached their hotel room an expensive alcohol bottle of Black Label would be waiting for them. He also said that many journalists had brought back expensive alcohol back to the country as it would be sponsored by the external affairs ministry apart from the free air tickets and hotel accommodation.
Interestingly, Shrivastav explained how everything changed when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. Post-2014, no media organisations or journalists are being allowed to fly with the official Indian delegation. The media organisations should cover their expenses if they intend to report on Prime Minister Modi’s official foreign trips. He also added how the Modi government cut unnecessary expenses on journalists by not allowing public money to spent on local trips, that used to be sponsored by the previous governments in the past.
The Indian journalists’ fraternity has in the past lamented against the present government for not following the established ‘etiquettes’. It is also believed that resentment against the Narendra Modi government also comes from the fact that there are no such freebies available to them today contrary to the past when ’eminent’ journalists were co-opted by the government for reciprocity of being soft on them.
It is rather worrying to see that the Indian media, dominated by the left-leaning Lutyens cabal, often speaking in a condescending tone targetting the self-made journalists of being co-opted and a mouthpiece to the present Narendra Modi government despite the fact that they themselves have questionable integrity and journalistic ethics in the past.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned businessman Ratul Puri, nephew of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath in connection with the Rs 3600 crore AgustaWestland scam.
As the Enforcement Directorate penetrates deeper into the AgustaWestland case, more and more skeletons seem to be falling out of the closet. After a few startling revelations made by Michel about one ‘Mrs Gandhi’, ‘Italian Lady’s son, R’ and the inside information he could gather from sources like the PMO and the investigative agencies, the ED tracked down the money trail of kickbacks received by Christian Michel and it has led them to Moser Baer which is owned by Deepak Puri, who is senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s brother-in-law.
In fact, in his 2014 election affidavit, Kamal Nath had declared that he too held 6450 shares in Moser Baer of Rs 10 market value each.
Moreover, in 2017, Moser Baer had shut its plan and laid off over 2000 employees, allegedly, without clearing their dues. A portal called ‘Ten News’ had spoken to the staff of the plan who had directly named Puri and Kamal Nath. One had alleged that Kamal Nath, during UPA 1 had favoured Deepak Puri and the company now going under is the result of that.
In fact, Moser Baer Solar Limited had incurred a huge debt most of it while Kamal Nath was the commerce minister.
Meanwhile, according to reports, the name of Ratul Puri, chairman of the board of directors of Hindustan Powerprojects, cropped up during the questioning of Rajiv Saxena, who has turned approver in the case. Saxena was arrested by ED after being deported from Dubai.
“I am cooperating with the investigation and will continue to cooperate. I have no connection with defence (deals) and no business dealings with my relatives, I run an independent business. I will cooperate fully with ED and any other government authority that seeks any information from me or asks me for any clarifications. I have no connection with AgustaWestland or defence,” Ratul Puri said.
Michel was extradited to India on 4 December from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Recently it was also unearthed that, Christian Michel’s involvement was not only restricted to AgustaWestland scam. He had also lobbied against France-based Rafale in order to enable Eurofighter, its rival, to grab the MMRCA deal. On 5th January, the Patiala House Court had extended Michel’s judicial custody till February 26.
Christian Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, who was extradited from Dubai, has been spilling the beans and his correspondence from the time when this deal was in consideration has made some stunning revelations. Earlier, it was reported how Michel had access to Cabinet Meetings, Cabinet Committee on Security meetings and the then PMO under Manmohan Singh. It has now emerged that he also had access to investigative agencies, reported Economic Times.
Social Media giants have been infected with the virus of political correctness for some time now. In recent times, platforms such as Twitter have incorporated social justice dogma into their community guidelines. These measures have led to a great assault on people’s right to freedom of expression.
There have been numerous instances where videos have been either demonetized or deleted from YouTube for violating its policies which attempt to stifle criticism of some regressive Islamic practices and Leftist dogma.
Abdullah Sameer, who shares videos on YouTube, recently tweeted that he was served with a strike by Youtube for a video titled ‘The Strange Story of the Cow in the Quran by Hassan Radwan’. According to the screenshot he shared of the mail he received, the video was removed for violating YouTube’s hate speech policies.
Talking to OpIndia.com, Sharma said, “I uploaded a video on my YouTube channel today, titled “Celebrating The Hijab Insults Millions Of Women Around The World”, where I talked about how the hijab is not some symbol of freedom and empowerment. And YouTube just deleted the video, saying it violates their hate speech policies. I didn’t even call for a ban on the hijab because I believe that people should have the freedom to wear whatever they want. I also received a couple of hateful emails from anonymous accounts after the Hasan Minhaj video about reporting my account and getting it shut down, so that may explain it as well.”
He added, “It’s incredible that there are people who constantly label and abuse others as “Bhakts, zombies, IT Cell”, and their videos show up in everyone’s recommendations and have millions of views. There are race baiters like Molyneux and genuine religious bigots like Zakir Naik with close to a million followers each and a verified tick, and YouTube feels the need to target a tiny channel like mine, delete my video and threaten to shut my channel down.” Sharma further stated that he has appealed the deletion but does not expect anything good to come of it.
There has been a deliberate attempt at censoring dissent against leftist dogma on social media platforms. Numerous allegations have been made against the social media giant Twitter for stifling political speech that is not consistent with the beliefs of the Left. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had even admitted the left-leaning bias of its employees.
There have been numerous cases of right-leaning accounts getting suspended on Twitter. Many accounts associated with ABVP, the students’ arm of RSS, were mass suspended, only to be reinstated after protests. Similarly, in 2016 many Twitter accounts were suspended after posting anti-AAP tweets.
Various Classical Liberals in the US have alleged that YouTube has been engaging in a concerted effort to silence dissenting voices. Jordan Peterson, a renowned clinical psychologist who gained almost instant popularity across the world for resisting social justice dogma, has faced similar issues on YouTube as well along with numerous other people.
The Congress party released its 2019 Lok Sabha Election Manifesto with much fanfare on Tuesday, the 2nd of April 2019. The manifesto had several rather dangerous aspects to it. Apart from accusing the Indian Army of sexual violence and torture in Kashmir, the Congress promised to dilute AFSPA, curtail the power of the Media and make the NSA accountable to all politicians, thereby running the risk of making public sensitive national security concerns.
Heading the Manifesto committee was senior Congress leader P Chidambaram. Interestingly, according to a report in the Times of India, the following were the “policy wonks” who helped formulate the Congress manifesto.
Source: Times of India
An interesting name that is included in the list, is that of Mr Mahesh Vyas, CEO of CMIE. Multiple sources have reiterated that around 15 million jobs were created in India by the Modi government per year. However, CMIE decided to present shoddy data to claim that unemployment was at its highest.
Interestingly, the CEO is CMIE, it has now been revealed, was helping Congress build their manifesto.
CMIE has a long and interesting history and is closely linked with Congress minister P Chidambaram who was the head of the Manifesto committee in which Mahesh Vyas was also involved.
CMIE, that brings out periodic Job Survey, is wholly owned by Mr Ajay Shah (and his family), the same person who also happens to be one of the main accused in a mega scam commonly known as ‘NSE Co-location’ scam.
Mr Shah has been accused of accessing data from NSE on a preferential basis in connivance with the authorities and sharing this data with certain stockbrokers for use in High-Frequency Trading. The scam is being investigated by SEBI, CBI as well as by Income Tax authorities.
The current MD of CMIE is Mr Mahesh Vyas, who happens to be the brother-in-law of Mr Ajay Shah. The timing of the commencement of this Job Survey raises suspicion on the motivation as well as the credibility of the data. The co-location scam came to public light in late 2015, and the first Job Survey was out in April 2016.
Several of the newsarticles (as well as Wikipedia entry on NSE Co-location scam at the time of writing this article) mentions that Mr Ajay Shah is a very close confidante of Mr P. Chidambaram. Given this information and the ownership pattern of CMIE, any ‘Job Survey’ from CMIE should be taken with a pinch (or a tonne) of salt, as one would take it from a Congress IT cell.
The entire story of the close association between CMIE and P Chidambaram and also the improprieties attached its key players can be read here.
The information at hand begs a few important questions:
1. Since the owners of CMIE are accused of impropriety, was it appropriate to get Mahesh Vyas involved in the Manifesto committee?
2. That Mahesh Vyas and CMIE are connected to P Chidambaram is a known fact. Vyas’ involvement in the Manifesto committee has only reinforced it. Was the CMIE data that was milked by the Congress party reliable and uninfluenced by this association?
