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Indian Air Force recommends Wing Commander Abhinandan’s name for Vir Chakra medal

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Air Force recommends Wing Commander Abhinandan’s name for Vir Chakra medal

Vir Chakra is the third highest gallantry award in the military during times of war after the Param Vir Chakra and the Maha Vir Chakra. In the past, the Indian Air Force pilots who shot down enemy fighters were all given Vir Chakra medals.

The IAF’s recommendation to award Abhinandan Varthaman with Vir Chakra comes even as the IAF fighter pilot was issued transfer orders out of Srinagar to another base in the western sector along the Pakistan border following threats from terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.

“Security considerations prompted the transfer,” a defence ministry official said and added that Wing Commander Abhinandan’s home base will “be another front-line fighter base.”

Reportedly, Wing Commander Abhinandan’s new base is also a fighter base. If he is cleared for flying, he would be able to continue his flying duties. However, the Indian Air Force has said that the transfer orders to another base were “routine.”

Wing Commander Abhinandan, flying a vintage Russian-made Mig-21 fighter, was part of the Indian Air Force package that took on the Pakistan Air Force warplanes on February 27.

A day prior to this, the Indian Air Force carried out successful ‘non-military pre-emptive strikes’ on Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camp deep inside Pakistan to dismantle the terror apparatus that had inflicted the suicide attack in Pulwama killing more than 40 brave security personnel of the country.

Following the airstrikes, Pakistan had attempted to attack Indian military establishments before Indian airforce intercepted to thwart their attacks. With its strike package comprising of various aircraft, Indian airforce was successful in pushing back Pakistani jets and during the air fight, one MiG-21 Bison flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was hit after it had shot down a more lethal Pakistan’s F-16.

During the aerial engagement, Wing Commander Varthaman’s MiG-21 was hit and he had to eject safely across the Line of Control (LoC). After facing tremendous international pressure, Pakistan government had to release the Indian Air Force pilot.

Madurai: Security breach at Madurai Medical College, official enters EVM room illegally, reported to have taken documents

OpIndia Staff
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Madurai: Security breach at Madurai Medical College, official enters EVM room illegally, reported to have taken documents

A protest erupted in Madurai, Tamil Nadu after reports of a major security breach at the Madurai Medical College campus came in public view. A woman Tehsildar along with three of her aides reportedly entered the counting centre of the Madurai Parliamentary constituency without security clearance to access poll-related documents which were kept in a room.

She allegedly stayed in the room for three and a half hours before allegedly taking out the documents.

The incident came to the forefront when a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate, Su. Venkatesan was alerted that the officers allegedly entered the room illegally and took out documents for photocopying. The room contained voter turnout details and other poll-related documents submitted by Presiding Officers of all polling stations in the Madurai West Assembly segment.

According to sources, technically, the strongroom where the Electronic Voting Machines (EMVs) and Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail units are kept is out of bounds for officials.

However, soon candidates of other political parties, independents and their representatives began gathering in front of the Madurai Medical College and did not disperse unless District Election Officer S. Natarajan reached the spot.

Mr Venkatesan, who reviewed the CCTV footage with a few other candidates, confirmed that the Tahsildar and other officials entered the room around 3.15 pm, “She was accompanied by three male officers. Two of them took documents outside for photocopying and returned later. They were in the room till 6.15 pm,” he said. A lady police officer, who noticed them, detained them in the room for more than 40 minutes as she was unconvinced by their explanation. “Later, officials from the Collectorate arrived and convinced the police to release them,” he said.

He confirmed that out of the six rooms in which documents related to the six Assembly segments were kept, only the one related to Madurai West was unsealed.

K. David Annadurai, the AMMK candidate, said the breach raised serious doubts about the three-tier security mechanism. “The election officials should conduct a detailed inquiry to convince us that they were not favouring the ruling party,” he said.

“What angered opposition candidates and people was the long delay in a response from the collector’s office despite having evidence, including CCTV footage, of the major security breach. The complainants also cited evidence that the officer had taken out some documents from the building and taken photocopies outside. It had taken four hours for the district administration to finally reply,” a senior police officer, who was present there, said.

However, after objections were raised from all major opposition party candidates and cadres gathered outside the compound, the district collector and the officer in charge of elections, S Natarajan, ordered an inquiry and suspended the woman officer, Sambooranam.

Thousands gather for the foundation stone-laying ceremony for Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple

OpIndia Staff
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Thousands gather for the foundation stone-laying ceremony for Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple

Weeks after PM Modi was conferred UAE’s highest civilian honour, the relation between the two countries have reached a new high. Indians in the middle eastern country rejoice at the laying down the foundation stone of Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple.

The ceremony was ordained by Mahant Swami Maharaj, the spiritual guru of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar-Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) which is building the temple.
PM Modi’s statement was read out by the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Navdeep Suri. He quoted “On behalf of 130 crore Indians, it is my privilege to convey our greetings to my dear friend and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. When complete, this temple will symbolise the universal human values and spiritual ethos that form a shared heritage of both India and the UAE”.
The temple would be made of pink sandstone from Rajasthan along with marble, handcrafted by about 2000 craftsmen on a 14-acre piece of land. Reportedly, the seven emirates of the UAE would be represented by the seven towers of the temple. The cultural complex of the temple would have gyms, art galleries, halls and a library.
Swami Brahmavihari, during a conference in Abu Dhabi, said that the temple represents the spiritual harmony that exists within the country. He also said that the temple would be an auspicious location for the community to arrange their marriage ceremonies. The temple would also be a place for people of all faiths to experience the unique culture of the Hindus.
During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the country in 2015, the plan to construct the first Hindu temple was approved by the Abu Dhabi government. The temple is expected to be ready by the next year.

Air Vistara feels honoured to have decorated war vetaran Major Gen G D Bakshi onboard, ‘liberals’ decide to shame them

OpIndia Staff
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Air Vistara feels honoured to have decorated war vetaran Major Gen G D Bakshi onboard, ‘liberals’ decide to shame them

Indian domestic airline, Air Vistara, on April 19 posted a picture on their social media account stating they were honoured to have Major General G D Bakshi (Retd.) onboard and thanked him for his service to the nation.


Major General G D Bakshi (Retd.) is a Kargil War hero and was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for commanding a battalion in the Kargil War. He is the younger brother of Captain Raman Bakshi, who was the first martyr in 1965 India-Pakistan War at the young age of 23 years. A year and a half after his elder brother was martyred, Major General Bakshi joined the National Defence Academy in June 1967. He joined Indian Military Academy on November 14, 1971 and was called into action during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. In 1999, he returned to Military Operations Directorate to plan for Operation Vijay during the Kargil War.

General Bakshi has been on the receiving end of hate from so-called liberals because of his nationalistic views. He had been very vocal about not sparing Pakistan, especially after the ghastly Pulwama terror attack. “Pakistan has started the war, we will end it,” he had said.

Of course, his contribution and achievements are not significant enough for the ‘Twitter liberals’ who thought they’d rather not fly the airline which celebrates a decorated soldier.


Soon enough abusive trolls also joined in in trolling Vistara airlines.


Fake news peddlers and propagandists masquerading as ‘journalists’ too decided to shift loyalties to another airline only because Air Vistara decided to be proud of having a decorated war hero onboard.


Pro-AAP blogger-in-chief who cooks up unbelievable stories about praying onboard when being seated in middle-seat, too decided to no longer fly Air Vistara.


Pretty sure Vistara would miss his prayers 30,000 feet above the ground.

Samajwadi Party friendly ‘journalist’ associated with The Wire caught spreading lies about Yogi Adityanath, deletes tweet after getting called out

OpIndia Staff
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Samajwadi Party friendly ‘journalist’ associated with The Wire caught spreading lies about Yogi Adityanath, deletes tweet after getting called out

Samajwadi Party-friendly ‘journalist’ Rohini Singh who is associated with ultra-left wing propaganda website ‘The Wire‘ has fallen back to her usual modus operandi of spreading half-truths and fake news to attack the ruling BJP and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Rohini Singh, who is notoriously known for fake news and propaganda, along with her colleague Prashant Kanojia, posted a false narrative to target the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In her tweet, Rohini Singh went on to attribute a casteist remark made against Akhilesh Yadav by BSP supremo Mayawati to Yogi Adityanath.

‘Journalist’ Rohini Singh
Image Source: Ankur Singh

Prashant Kanojia, who also claims to be a journalist and also Singh’s colleague at The Wire, displayed his machismo and blazed his guns against UP CM Yogi Adityanath by attributing the same Mayawati’s casteist statement to target him. Calling an elected Chief Minister a ‘Sadak Chaap’, Kanojia went on to target their very own ‘neutral media’ for not questioning Yogi Adityanath for what he referred to as hatred against Bahujan community.

According to The Wire ‘journalists’, Yogi Adityanath had allegedly made a casteist remark saying that if there was no constitution today, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav would be working under a Zamindar by looking after his cattle. However, in reality, CM Yogi Adityanath was referring to an earlier comment made by BSP supremo Mayawati where she had attacked Akhilesh Yadav for disrespecting Ambedkar.


In a video, it can be clearly visible that Mayawati had indeed made those comments against Akhilesh Yaday in one of her speeches back in 2014.


In a hurry to express their hatred towards the BJP, the controversial journalists from the Wire with questionable credibility chose to deliberately indulge in hit jobs. However, The Wire journalist has now deleted their tweet after she was caught spreading fake news.

After caught pants down for spreading fake news, she initially blamed Amar Ujala for misleading them with their headline but accepted that the statements were indeed made by Mayawati and not made by Yogi Adityanath. However, she did not apologise for propagating fake news.

It is not very surprising to see such unethical journalism from people associated with the left-wing anti-India propaganda website ‘The Wire’. Recently, another controversial ‘journalist’ Arfa Khanum Sherwani had stood in support of SP leader Azam Khan after he had made deplorable sexist comments against actress-turned-politician Jaya Prada.

The Wire, being exposed for their selective outrage and hypocrisy. The Wire is known to peddle half-truths and whole lies as a force of habit with a long list to their credit. The Wire, which is being sued for defamation often publish articles that read like Hurriyat press statements. Their article has in the past incited violence. They were recently slammed by the CBEC for peddling fake news.

Watch: Prakash Ambedkar’s workers beat up an elderly man in Amravati for writing against him

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Prakash Ambedkar’s workers beat up an elderly man in Amravati for writing against him

An elderly person, Rajinikanth, was assaulted by Prakash Ambedkar’s activists for allegedly writing posts criticising Prakash Ambedkar on social media.


As per reports, Rajinikanth, a social worker in Akola had put up a message on WhatsApp, which had gone viral.

Prakash Ambedkar is Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s grandson and is the chairperson of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM). Earlier this month a case had been registered against him for threatening the Election Commission under sections 503, 506, and 189 of the IPC for criminal intimidation and threat of injury to a public servant.

Addressing a rally, Ambedkar had said that he would jail the EC officials for two days, for prohibiting discussion about the Pulwama attack, if voted to power. He had furthered that, we are told to not talk about Pulwama but he would like to know why we shouldn’t talk about it when the constitution permits us to say what we want.

In a similar display of animosity, Ambedkar had in October last year, lashed out at Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, claiming that he possessed illegal weapons and also demanded his arrest under the Arms Act.

Ambedkar had also been caught threatening journalist Anand Narasimhan after his channel had exposed the role of Urban Naxals in creating unrest in the country. Agitated by this expose, Prakash Ambedkar had abused the journo and warned him of consequences once the present government loses power.

Lok Sabha polls : Several reports of missing voter names from electoral rolls emerge

OpIndia Staff
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Lok Sabha polls : Several reports of missing voter names from electoral rolls emerge

With the conclusion of the second phase Lok Sabha polls, reports of missing voter names from voter lists have emerged from several parts of the country.

In the Srinagar constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, a section of Kashmiri Pandits found their names missing from the electoral roll. Special polling stations were set up in Jammu for the Kashmiri Pandits. Despite this, they were unable to cast their vote as a result of missing names.

Slogans were raised against the administration and the Election Commission by angry Kashmiri Pandits who were denied their rights.

Radha Krishen Bhat, a migrant Kashmiri Pandit said “We came to the polling station to cast our vote but found our names missing from the electoral roll. It is a denial of our right to vote”. Four members of his family couldn’t vote. He alleges that this is a conspiracy to deny their voting rights.

Rajiv Pandit, a local leader has asked for the EC to automatically transfer the votes of all displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the polling stations set up for them in Jammu, Udhampur, and Delhi.

A few names were missing from the electoral roll as a result of the wrong filling of Form M, admitted Pankaj Anand, Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), Migrants. He said that there were forms where the names didn’t match with the record and some of them didn’t have the name of the polling station. However, he also said that out of 4720 migrant voters, only 2100 persons voted in the elections.

Meanwhile, more reports of missing voter names have emerged from the state of Karnataka in certain parts of Mysuru and Bengaluru. “I voted at the same booth in the 2018 Assembly polls and I stay at the same house. But my name has been deleted,” said Nirmala S, a voter from Vidyaranyapura.

Reports say that the Marwadi and Jain communities of Bengaluru were targeted in this regard, several alleging a conspiracy against the trader community.

Several longtime voters have also found their names to be missing. Nupur, a resident of Bengaluru, had requested for a change in constituency along with her husband. She said “when we checked on the EC website it kept saying that our request was still under process. We decided to give it a shot and went to the booth. My husband’s name was there and mine was not”. Going back to her older constituency, she was shocked to find her name in the list but it was struck down by a deleted stamp.

The EC has shifted the blame on voters for not checking their names on the electoral rolls after having provided with ample time and announcements to verify their names.

A complaint has been filed with the Chief Electoral Officer by the BJP demanding a probe into the issue. About 50,000 to 60,000 have been deleted from each constituencies in Bengaluru, said the former Deputy Chief Minister R. Ashok.

In the state of Tamil Nadu, 250 voters from Villupuram found their names to be missing and again the EC has blamed the voters for not checking the list. Reportedly, the voters had cast their vote for 2016 Assembly elections and were surprised to find their names to be missing.

The Villupuram District Electoral officer L Subramaniam has been quoted saying, “If they claim to have voters identity cards, then I have to verify the issue again. Right now nothing can be done for them since enough time was given for the voters to add their names to the list”.

The EC has constantly resorted to shifting the blame on voters for not checking their names. It’s only the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections and already there are plenty of reports of voters being denied the right to exercise their franchise.

Navjot Singh Sidhu slapped with the EC notice for urging Muslims not to split their votes

OpIndia Staff
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Navjot Singh Sidhu slapped with the EC notice for urging Muslims not to split their votes

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been served a notice by the Election Commission (EC) for urging Muslim voters not to split their vote during a rally in Katihar, Bihar. The EC has sought Sidhu’s response within 24 hours.


Sidhu, while campaigning for Congress candidate Tariq Anwar in Katihar, Bihar, tried to polarise the Muslim voters in the area by openly asking them not to split their vote. Making a veiled reference to the BJP Sidhu had said that attempts were being made to split the Muslim votes by bringing in people like Asaduddin Owaisi. Speaking in cricket jargon Sidhu urged the Muslim voters to score a sixer by voting in solidarity and thus throw PM Modi out of the boundary.

An FIR also has been filed against Sidhu for his comments made in the election rally. District authorities of Katihar filed an FIR under sections 123 (3) and 125 of the of the Representation of the People Act and section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

The former BJP leader is often seen crossing the line in attacking PM Modi and the BJP. Blinded by his hatred for PM Modi, Sidhu had recently made a racist remark against Nepalis. In an attempt to run down PM Modi’s ‘Mai bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, Sidhu had posted a tweet in which he urged people to elect a Prime Minister this time, saying that honest chowkidars can be imported from Nepal.

FIR filed against Sadhvi Pragya by Congress leader for her remarks against Hemant Karkare

OpIndia Staff
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FIR filed against Sadhvi Pragya by Congress leader for her remarks against Hemant Karkare

An FIR has been registered against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur by a Congress leader Devendra Singh in Indore for her remarks about former Mumbai ATS Chief late Hemant Karkare.


Sadhvi Pragya has been in the eye of the storm ever since her candidature was announced by the BJP from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency. Speaking to her party workers, she had shared her ordeal about how she had to go through unimaginable custodial torture for allegations of involvement in the 2008 Malegaon Blast case. Late Hemant Karkare was the Chief of Mumbai ATS when Sadhvi Pragya was taken into custody.

While speaking at a public meeting Sadhvi Pragya had implied that Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists because he tortured a Sadhvi. She later withdrew her statement and apologised for the same saying that she was sharing her personal experience.


Clarifying its position on Hemant Karkare the BJP called Sadhvi Pragya’s remarks about Karkare as her personal view which she might have formed due to years of physical and mental torture.

New Android app launched by Election Commission for live tracking of voter turnout

OpIndia Staff
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New Android app launched by Election Commission for live tracking of voter turnout

The Election Commission of India has launched the beta version of its new Voter Turnout app in Google Play Store. The app would enable users to check the voter turnout in realtime during the elections.

The app can display an estimated voter turnout information at three levels: the state level, the various parliamentary constituencies and at the assembly constituency level. The displayed estimates are calculated from the data gathered by the Returning Officers in real time.

The app would increase the transparency of voter turnout information in public and also ensure that the information would be easily available to the media. The Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said: “once the election is over and polling parties return, the data would be verified and the final figure would be available on the app along with the breakup of male and female voters”.

Users are required to have a smartphone running on Android 4.4 KitKat or above to use the app. The app has been downloaded over 10,000 times till now, and it has earned a rating of 4.3 out of 5, means most early users of the app are satisfied with it.

Screenshot of the app

The app has a simple interface with two buttons on the bottom left and right side. The button on the left is toggle between the voter turnout aggregates of the states and parliamentary constituencies. The button on the right is used to find the estimated turnout for individual states, parliamentary constituencies and assembly constituencies.

The app is in beta stage, and at present, it is showing only the second phase figures, the most recent phase of the elections. There is no option to view data for the first phase of elections or cumulative turnout for all the completed phases. It is expected that subsequent releases of the app will have more options to view voter turnout data.

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