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NSA Ajit Doval gave the go-ahead for ASAT test after PM Modi’s approval, says DRDO chief

OpIndia Staff
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NSA Ajit Doval gave the go-ahead for ASAT test after PM Modi’s approval, says DRDO chief

PM Narendra Modi had yesterday made an announcement that India has entered the elite group of nations that have the power to target and destroy enemy satellites in space. With the successful completion of Mission Shakti, the DRDO developed ASAT claimed the rare feat.

However, as it happens in India, soon after the announcement, there was a collective effort from the opposition and Congress supporting media persons to first downplay then attempt to shift the credit of the significant achievement made by Indian scientists and the political will needed to execute it.

Congress and its supporters in the mainstream media went into a rant claiming that the feat was achieved in 2012 itself. However, it was soon clear that even if the DRDO and associated organisations had stated that they have the capabilities in place for developing such a weapons system, the then government did not proceed with it. Former DRDO chief VK Saraswat gave PM Modi the credit for achieving the feat.

Reports citing government sources and statements from the former DRDO chief stated that the go-ahead was given in 2016. He had added that if the then UPA government had given the go-ahead, India would have achieved the success in 2014 itself.

Embarrassing the Congress further, former defence minister AK Antony stated that he had no idea about the program, making it clear that the then government never gave it much thought.

G Sateesh Reddy, the current chairman of DRDO has stated to ANI in an interview that the DRDO reports to NSA Ajit Doval on strategic matters and he had given the go-ahead for the tests with concurrence from PM Modi.


He stated that the development had started a few years back, but the DRDO entered into mission mode in the last six months. He also added that in the last 6 months, about 100 scientists had worked round the clock to achieve the launch date target.

the DRDO chief also stated that the ASAT developed by them has the capabilities to target and destroy any satellite in the entire Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), that is up to a 1000 km.


India’s ASAT is a monumental achievement not only because it boosts our strategic capabilities and puts India in an elite group of nations which, till yesterday, had only USA, Russia and China as members, it gives us a major advantage in defence preparedness because, with this technology in hand, India can now knock out communications satellites of an enemy nation in case of conflict.

Imran Khan refuses to condemn China’s abuse of Uighur Muslims, says he knows nothing about the issue

OpIndia Staff
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Imran Khan refuses to condemn China’s abuse of Uighur Muslims, says he knows nothing about the issue

Fearful of action by their masters, Imran ‘Taliban’ Khan, the civilian face of terror state of Pakistan who is also referred to as ‘Prime Minister’ in Pakistan, has chosen to be tight-lipped about the persecution of Uighur Muslims by China at a time when the whole world is taking a serious note of the issue.

In an interview to Financial Times, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke extensively on several issues concerning Pakistan, however, evaded responding to Chinese atrocities against its own citizens- the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province of China. Reacting to the journalist question, Imran Khan said that he did not know much about the issue.


Despite claiming that the Muslim world was experiencing tough times, Imran Khan deliberately chose not to condemn the Chinese treatment of Muslims as Pakistan fears that condemning China on the issue of Uighur atrocities will be a death knell to them as China has been economically and politically supporting Pakistan.

Pakistan, a ‘rented’ state of China, seems to be in a tough spot as it can neither condemn nor be decisive about the growing concerns about human rights abuse by China against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province of China. Pakistan’s deliberate overlooking of Chinese human rights abuse comes despite the fact that their own citizens have been protesting against the Chinese for taking away their wives to detain them in education camps.

In March 2018, the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA), a local administrative unit in the region controlled by Pakistan, had even passed a resolution demanding the federal government in Pakistan to take steps to release over 50 women allegedly detained in China. It seems that Imran Khan is either ignorant regarding the detainment of its own people or he has simply chosen to remain silent fearing blowback from the Chinese establishment.

Imran Khan’s refusal to comment on Chinese atrocities does not come as a surprise as Pakistan itself perpetrates terror in the region and it is also accused of killing its own citizens in Pakistan which amounts to the grave human rights violation.

Interestingly, Pakistan often claims to be at the forefront of taking up the cause for Islam and Muslims whenever Muslim grievances are raised in any part of the world. From the West Bank conflict between Israel and Palestine to the more recent ones caused by cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, Pakistan has been vehement in denouncing the injustices, real and imagined, meted out to the Muslims world over. However, they have willfully turned a deliberately blind eye to this tyranny by China.

Uighurs are a Turkish-Muslims ethnic group living in Xinjiang, the largest and most western of China’s administrative regions surrounded by Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The Xinjiang autonomous region in China has had a long history of discord between the authorities and the indigenous ethnic Uighur population.

The indigenous Muslim Uighurs have a complicated relationship with China which is fuelled with growing discontent among Uighur people over ethnic, religious and cultural factors. However, the discontent of the Uighurs had turned to a form of extremism, which China intended to control by curtailing their commercial and cultural activities and by putting restrictions on Islam, strict control over religious schools.

Additionally, China has detained more than one million Uighurs in so-called “reeducation centres” and has forced them to undergo psychological indoctrination programs — like studying communist propaganda and giving thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese government claims that the camps are simply vocational and training centres intended to combat extremism and to teach detainees some useful and valuable skills.

But, China has been sharply criticized for its human rights violation over mass detention of members of the Muslim Uighur community at a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting recently. Western governments, including those in Europe, the United States, and Canada had taken a serious stand against China for its human rights abuse in Xinjiang province.

Recently, on February 9, even the Turkish government issued a stern statement condemning China for violating the fundamental human rights of Uighur Turks and other Muslim communities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has issued strong statements over detaining of Uighur Muslims by the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang province. Pompeo further added that the United States stands with the Uighur Muslims and their family members while putting pressure on China to release all those arbitrarily detained and called for an end its repression.

“The world cannot afford China’s shameful hypocrisy toward Muslims. On one hand, China abuses more than a million Muslims at home, but on the other, it protects violent Islamic terrorist groups from sanctions at the UN,” said Pompeo.

‘Congress ko aane do, phir batayenge tum logo ko’, placard activist threatened for ‘Modi Once More’ sticker on car

OpIndia Staff
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‘Congress ko aane do, phir batayenge tum logo ko’, placard activist threatened for ‘Modi Once More’ sticker on car

Sharing a shocking incident showcasing violent hatred against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his supporters, a Twitter user named Madhur has claimed that he was attacked and threatened by some unidentified men at a traffic signal in Delhi on Wednesday.

Narrating the incident on Twitter, Madhur said that he was driving through Daryaganj area of Old Delhi in his car which had a “Modi Once More” sticker on it. As he stopped at the Daryaganj traffic light that had turned red, around 3-4 people came and started banging the widows of his car and hurled abuses.

These people threatened him saying, “Congress ko ane do **, phir batayenge tum logo ko” in Hindi, which means “let Congress come to power, we will teach you folks a lesson”.


Fortunately the signal turned green and Madhur was able to escape without harm.


Later talking to OpIndia, Madhur said that he could not identify the people and fled the place as soon as the signal turned green as it was a Muslim dominated area and he did not want things to get worse, given how Modi supporters are branded “anti-Muslim”. He feared that had he protested their behaviour, the men could have vandalised his car or attacked him with knives.

“I knew that is a ‘sensitive’ area that’s why I stayed calm and didn’t react or try to record any video of the men”, he said, “It happened in the region where earlier there was a ‘lohe ka pul’. I had stopped at red signal as per traffic rules, and suddenly I heard a bang.”

“I heard them abusing me, they used ugly abuses, and then they abused Modi and his mother”, he added.

Later Madhur also posted a video of his car which showed that the vehicle was scratched by the miscreants at the traffic signal.


Madhur said that he was scared as being a placard activist his identity is not unknown. He said that he has received a lot of online threats for his placard activism. Once he requested people, through placards, to donate money to Kerala flood victims instead of spending those on buying animals to sacrifice them, and he received threats from people ranging from Kerala to Kashmir.

He suspected that such incidents (threatening people by surrounding them) were common in the area which, according to him, was evident from the fact that other people waiting at the traffic signal were silent watchers to what was happening.

“I couldn’t have gone to the local police station and risked being followed and attacked on my way. I’m lucky I could escape on time,” he said.

Why India’s ASAT weapon is such a big deal

Abhishek Banerjee
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Why India’s ASAT weapon is such a big deal

In 2007, there were shivers around the world as the Chinese military shot down one of their old weather satellites in space.

And yesterday, India has joined the list of countries with this proven capability, a club that now consists of the United States, Russia, China and India.

The three big superpowers that will dominate the world by 2030 are in that list (Sorry, Russia).

Let me draw a picture of what next generation warfare would look like. Imagine if every Indian woke up to find that all of their money sitting in Indian banks had been digitally wiped out. There would be riots in the streets immediately and the country would become uncontrollable in a matter of hours.

The news of this banking catastrophe would spread across the globe. All over the world, from New York to Tokyo, confidence in the security of the banking system would immediately collapse. There would be a run on the banks by desperate people demanding their money in cash. The world would plunge into chaos which no government would be able to control.

Scary. But that is probably what the next war is going to be like. The Cold War generation grew up worried that the world would be destroyed by nuclear bombs. But now the concept of ‘mass destruction’ has moved to the sphere of communications, to servers that store our data, to undersea cables through which the internet flows and to space.

We Indians would never want to militarize space, but when others have already done so, it leaves us with no choice.

So what was the hurry? Why test this ASAT weapon now? Here’s why:

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Arms in outer space!

Because 25 countries are meeting right now in Geneva to create a legally binding international treaty to regulate the militarization of space.

We know exactly how these things work. It means that the treaty will create two classes of countries: the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Countries that already have this ability will never give it up. So the legally binding international treaties will allow them to keep their weapons, and any new country seeking to acquire this capability will be accused of ‘proliferation’, of war mongering and be inflicted with economic sanctions.

This is the underlying hypocrisy of international treaties. Perhaps there is no better model, but I would rather have India join the global space regulatory regime as a ‘have’ rather than a ‘have-not’. Wouldn’t you?

Remember that once these international treaties are written in stone, it is nearly impossible to change them. And the effects could last one hundred years.

Think about the UN Security Council. If Nehru had not turned down the offer of a permanent seat for India, things would have been radically different for India over the last 70 years. Only the other day, we complained rather helplessly about China supporting Masood Azhar at the UN. China knows they can do this with impunity and without consequences because India cannot retaliate by blocking their interests at the Security Council.

Everyone knows that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council no longer represent the five most powerful nations in the world, that the Security Council no longer makes sense without Germany or India or Brazil, but nobody has come up with a way to change it. India probably has the best case of all, but why would the existing powers want to share? And so the world power system of 1945 endures to this day at the Security Council. And although it is hopelessly unfair, it is here to stay. That’s just reality.

Think about the global nuclear regime.

The Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in the late 1960s and it also created “nuclear haves” and “nuclear have-nots” among nations. The existing powers could keep their weapons and no new country could add itself to the list! How unfair is that?

Maybe unfair, but that’s how it went down.

And because India stayed out of the NPT, we became subject to a global boycott. Think of the crushing sanctions that were inflicted on us after the 1998 Pokhran test. Think of all the pain and effort that it took for Atalji’s Government (the Jaswant Singh – Strobe Talbot talks) and later Manmohan Singh’s government (the ‘waiver’ from Nuclear Suppliers Group) to slowly lift the sanctions and create a backdoor for India to “legalize” its nuclear program. The work is still not fully complete. But if only India had a chance to become a nuclear power before 1968, a half-century of victimization would have been avoided.

There’s no way India, as an aspiring superpower, should let this happen with space. We’re not going to get locked out of military technology in space. We are going to sit at the high table this time.

History would not have waited around for the General Election 2019 to be over.

As we came to know yesterday, India could have achieved this feat a long time ago. Both ex-ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and ex-DRDO chief V K Saraswat confirmed this yesterday.

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Ex-DRDO chief said UPA government delayed ASAT programme
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UPA’s lack of political will to conduct ASAT testing

We always knew that we had the ability but were lacking in political will. We just didn’t know how badly the lack of political will was hurting us.

Author of novel critical of WB CM Mamata Banerjee alleges harassment during book launch at Kolkata

OpIndia Staff
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Author of novel critical of WB CM Mamata Banerjee alleges harassment during book launch at Kolkata

Tina Biswas, a UK-based novelist, who authored a book based on the Dhakuria AMRI Hospital fire in Kolkata, has alleged harassment by the ruling Trinamool Congress when she recently went to the city to launch her book.

Speaking to India Today, the author of ‘The Antagonists’, Tina Biswas said, “She (Mamata Banerjee) sent two men to my event at the Oxford Bookstore in Park Street, Kolkata. There were these two men standing throughout the event at the book store, who were constantly staring at me and looking suspicious. They looked shifty.”

Author Tina Biswas

Tina Biswas said that she felt unsafe as those two men who didn’t have anything to do with the event, kept staring at her throughout. Neither did they ask her anything during the launch or after it, confirmed Biswas.

At the Oxford Bookstore event on March 20, when Biswas inquired about the two men from her associates on whether they were part of the store or the PR agency, she was told they were Trinamool goons who were sent to watch her.

Intimidated by this, Biswas recalled another incident in Kolkata which made her feel equally insecure. The novelist said she was addressing a press conference at the Kolkata Press Club when even before the interaction could start, a man came up to her and verbally abused her for writing against Mamata Banerjee.

‘The Antagonists’ is a fictional book based on the devastating fire incident at the AMRI Hospital in Kolkata’s Dhakuria area which happened in the year 2011. The story is about Devi, the chief minister of West Bengal, and Sachin Lohia, owner of a hospital that was gutted in a fire that also killed over 100 patients.

Speaking to IndiaToday, Tina Biswas said, “The incident was politicised and judgment was passed against the owner of the hospital even before there was an investigation. The whole tragedy was politicised to suit the purpose of one person.”

The book and its author are presumably in Mamata’s radar as the book is critical of the Mamata Banerjee government’s handling of the crisis.

Mamata Banerjee usually can’t handle criticisms too well. There have been several incidences where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has tried to stifle dissenting voices.

Recently, a Bengali movie, Bhobishyoter Bhoot (Ghost of the Future), directed by Anik Dutta, which took a dig at Mamata Banerjee’s style of functioning, was pulled off theatres. It was only after a public outcry that theatres in Kolkata have started screening the film again.

Similarly, a revising committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had refused to clear movie named Kangal Malsat for screening, after claiming it “insulted” Mamata Banerjee. Likewise, Teen Kanya’s screening was stopped by Mamata since it resembled the Park Street rape case of 2012.

Last year a man hailing from Tripura’s Dhalai district was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a social media post.

As per reports, one Arunachal Dutta Choudhary, an employee of West Bengal Health Service was suspended over a Facebook post, which described the adverse condition in his hospital which has been facing a wave of dengue patients in the year 2017 as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holds the health portfolio in the state government.

Mamata had also banned books by 1981 batch IPS officer Nazrul Islam which were critical of Mamata government not delivering what was promised.

The list of bans is long but perhaps the most absurd was the incident where Mamata’s police arrested a businessman for ranting about traffic conditions on Facebook and not apologizing about it.

AAP MLA Somnath Bharti issued summon in criminal defamation case filed by woman journalist

OpIndia Staff
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AAP MLA Somnath Bharti issued summon in criminal defamation case filed by woman journalist

Aam Admi Party MLA Somnath Bharti has been summoned by a Delhi court in a criminal defamation complaint filed by a woman journalist, Ranjana Dwivedi, last year. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued the summon to Bharti to appear on April 10 for allegedly calling journalist Dwivedi with objectionable names and hurling abuses at her during a television debate show.

Bharti, who was invited to speak on the incident of throwing Red Chilli powder on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, had insulted the journalist by saying bh*dwagiri’ karna band karo’ and ‘dh*ndhe pe baith jao‘. He had also repeatedly accused the journalist of doing dalali for BJP.  Unfortunately, instead of condemning Bharti’s comments, the Delhi CM came out in his defence by dragging PM Modi’s name in it.
The FIR was lodged in the matter on November 21, 2018 for insulting and outraging the modesty of a woman.

As Rahul Gandhi wishes Modi on World Theatre Day, his own video of ‘acting’ to help a journalist surfaces

OpIndia Staff
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As Rahul Gandhi wishes Modi on World Theatre Day, his own video of ‘acting’ to help a journalist surfaces

On a day when Rahul Gandhi wished Narendra Modi for World Theatre Day, implying that whatever the PM does is drama, a video has emerged which show excellent acting skills of the Congress president himself.

Today several media houses reported that Rahul Gandhi helped an injured journalist by taking him to hospital. According to reports, Rajasthan based journalist Rajender Vyas had met with an accident when a motorcycle hit him on Humayun Road in Delhi. At that time, Rahul Gandhi’s cavalcade was passing through that place. When Rahul Gandhi spotted the injured journalist, he stopped his car, got him seated with him and took him to AIIMS.


The report was accompanied by a video which shows Rahul Gandhi helping Vyas inside the car. The video shows Rahul Gandhi wiping sweat from forehead of the journalist, which show no visible sign of any injury. Rajender Vyas thinks for a moment while looking at the camera, and after that asks Rahul Gandhi to repeat the act, saying he will send the footage to his TV channel. The journalist says, ‘I am a journalist, I will make use of this, I will send it to my TV channel’. Listening to this, Rahul Gandhi laughs and obliges by repeating the act of wiping the forehead of Vyas for the camera. Rahul Gandhi also asks the journalist to turn his head so the action is properly captured by the camera which is being held by someone sitting on the front passenger seat of the vehicle.

The video was originally posted by Congress workers on Twitter to show the empathy of Rahul Gandhi, how he took an injured journalist to the hospital in his vehicle, which was picked up by media houses. But they seem to have missed the fact that Rahul Gandhi and Rajender Vyas were acting it for cameras so that the footage can be shown on TV, which is evident in the video itself.

“Only one satellite was destroyed, that wasn’t necessary” says Mamata Banerjee targeting PM after ‘Mission Shakti’ address

OpIndia Staff
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“Only one satellite was destroyed, that wasn’t necessary” says Mamata Banerjee targeting PM after ‘Mission Shakti’ address

The Indian political ecosystem has become such that the opposition gets all juiced up the moment PM Modi discloses any sort of information. Going by their impulse the opposition today launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his announcement about the testing of an anti-satellite missile or A-SAT.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo took to Twitter to attack Modi in a series of tweets, saying it was “yet another limitless drama” by a “government past its expiry date”. She said that the announcement was nothing but a publicity stunt by the Prime Minister ahead of Lok Sabha elections.


Banerjee pursuing her aggression said that only one satellite was destroyed in the mission, which she says was unnecessary as it was lying there since long and there was no urgency as such to conduct the mission.


She maintained that BJP has used this mission as “desperate oxygen to save the imminent sinking of the BJP boat”.


Mamata Banerjee added that she would file a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that this is a gross violation of the Model Code of Conduct for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Meanwhile, in what could, unfortunately, unsettle the West Bengal chief minister, sources in the Election Commission has said that the government does not need any permission to announce matters related to national security even when the Model Code of Conduct is in place.

Mamata Banerjee is not the only one who has been thrown off balance since PM Modi announced that India had successfully tested its indigenously developed ASAT missiles.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was first off the block with his tweet.


Meanwhile, several leftists also kept the ball rolling to downplay the monumental magnitude of the announcement along expected lines. Congress loyalists took a step ahead to credit Jawaharlal Nehru instead of the scientists and the current political establishment for the spectacular achievement. Even the Congress President Rahul Gandhi chose to deride Prime Minister Modi while congratulating DRDO.

However, while the Congress politicians and Durbaris have attempted to downplay the entire achievement and claim credit for themselves, the former DRDO chief during the UPA regime has credited Narendra Modi for the success.

He stated, “But there were elements of technology in those days which were missing. And in the last four years, I would like to give the credit to Honourable Prime Minister Modi for giving DRDO scientists the clearance to build those building blocks which were missing and realize the ASAT system. Because of that kind of clearance and push, the DRDO scientists have been able to integrate today a very potent ASAT missile which is in a position to intercept a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite with high precision.”

It is indeed a huge achievement by DRDO and ISRO and a big statement. It is reflective of India’s growing stature in global politics under the current government that it could even dare to attempt such a thing.

Our scientists have been saying since 2010 that we have the requisite capabilities for developing ASAT missiles but clearly, it was the political will that was lacking.

With today’s successfull test if anti-satellite missile, India proudly becomes the 4th country after the USA, Russia and China to acquire the capability to take down satellites in space.

Delhi Crime on Netflix: Nirbhaya and our sentiments revisited

nandini
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Delhi Crime on Netflix: Nirbhaya and our sentiments revisited

It took some deliberation to decide whether to watch Delhi Crime on Netflix, or not.

Within fifteen minutes of the first episode itself, the 7-part series draws you in with its taut, gripping cinematography and well etched characters. Where the city of Delhi, gritty, shorn of gloss, in all its ugliness and the sub-Saharan villages of neighboring states add their own pathos to the grim imagery.

So, did I want to pick at a scab not quite dry and crusty? Was I prepared to revisit a gruesome violation of a young woman out on an evening of mundane, everyday entertainment with a friend that ended in a spine-chilling crime changing the way forever, we looked at our city, our laws, our leaders, our media and our own personal safety?

We are so unused to cinema that captures a recent, life turning event that was I willing to risk latent emotions rise back and overwhelm?

On and off, our unreal films have come up with the occasional gem where we’ve had a glimpse of the reality of other lives and a slice of it raw and ungarnished. But these stories of men, women, children in an existence not wished on anyone, amidst squalor, crumbling shanties, garbage, stray dogs and cattle have been few and far between.

Delhi Crime also brought up close the state of our policing. More so, the serving men and women who deliver, despite the shameful budget constraints, in terribly shabby working & living conditions in metropolises teaming with millions or the back of beyond of nowhere.

Validated, of course, by our own personal, nearly always, nerve-racking experiences, in falling apart police stations, among charpoys, drying uniforms & underwear… God forbid having to get an FIR for nothing more than lost documents or a stolen wallet.

A marathon seven hours later (with a break for lunch and walk) not surprisingly brought up emotional exhaustion that one had thought was long cast aside or suppressed too deeply. There had been, after all, violent rapes before this one. In a country of a billion people, a horror story is always around the corner.

The most recent one before Nirbhaya, in fact, was of a girl gang raped with a broken beer bottle, who had naturally not survived the ordeal. So why did we then not react the way we did to this one?

I would think we were at that moment in December 2012 when a cauldron of rage was on a slow simmer for much beyond its time and the brutal rape of Jyoti Singh only helped it bubble over. It was as if we had been violated too and the scream that we had pushed down for too long in the pit of our stomach had found its way out and they couldn’t be contained.

It was yet again another instance when we as citizens of this country, already beaten and battered by open, in your face corruption, strutting, inept politicians, an obviously & shamefully weak Prime Minister denying culpability but nevertheless enabling rampant dacoity – were subjected to a violence brought into our homes via the media and that made us fearful for our children and ourselves.

Our media stars had recently been exposed to be manipulative and dirty when the Radia tapes had exploded in our face and left us gasping. For a country that had seen everything shamefully possible, there was even a Cabinet Minister scavenging a few lakhs here and there on wheelchairs.

You only had to be among a few people sitting in a well-anointed drawing room or on a dusty, noisy construction site and the talk almost always veered to terror attacks, corruption and scams of the government in office. It was a deplorable, depressing time indeed, where our collective pride and dignity was at its lowest.

With Nirbhaya every bit of information, every rumour was dissected and discussed. We were glued to our TVs, poring over newspapers as her story became ours and personal.

Subsequently, Jyoti Singh being suddenly airlifted in the middle of the night for Singapore and then her return in death in the early hours of the morning to an almost clandestine cremation was the final straw of this saga.

Not one national leader spoke on the matter. Not one thought our feelings worth assuring.

From then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s memoir, Citizen Delhi:

While people of all ages took to the streets and held candlelight vigils, their anger and anguish palpable in their eyes, our government appeared non-responsive. Even as I quietly reached out to Nirbhaya’s family to extend them every possible help, my statement that law and order did not fall within our government’s jurisdiction was viewed as being an insensitive attempt at passing the buck

What should have been a moment for me to take charge of the situation was reduced to a moment of extreme frustration for the simple reason that law and order in Delhi was the Centre’s responsibility.

The Centre’s unresponsive stance immediately after the incident seemed deliberate as it shifted the focus entirely on the Delhi government.

At that juncture, like many other issues, this tragedy, too, was politicised for leverage and many a tear were shed over the plight of the women. However, that empathy for women has never found a corresponding echo in political parties when it comes to the underrepresentation of women in Parliament.

In an interview to ThePrint given later, the then CM had this to say-

I knew that the people who came to my house did so because they saw me
as the face of Delhi. What should have been a moment for me to take charge of the situation was reduced to a moment of extreme frustration for the simple reason that law and order in Delhi was the Centre’s responsibility. Had the Union Home Ministry responded with urgency and addressed the Delhi police, the people would have realised whose call it was to initiate action and would have seen the concern expressed by the government. The Centre’s unresponsive stance immediately after the incident seemed deliberate as it shifted the focus entirely on the Delhi government.

Further, in that interview, she says,

On 29 December, Nirbhaya lost the battle for her life. For the family the loss of a dear one is irreparable. Our government extended its sympathy in the way it could, by providing financial support and helping her brother realise his ambition to be a pilot. I continue to be in touch with them.

In November 2017 this gesture of help was appropriated by Rahul Gandhi.

After watching Delhi Crime, three questions were triggered by revisiting Nirbhaya –

-Were there any ‘This is not my India’ articles, posts and tweets in December 2012?

-Was there a baying and clamour for Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or the youth icon Rahul Gandhi to speak on a matter that had shaken our collective conscience? And did they pay heed?

-Was Manmohan Singh asked to step down or for that matter, the Home Minister?

When you go out to vote in the next few weeks do remember that time and place and thank Delhi Crime for jolting our feeble memories.

PS: It is indeed intriguing that in a crime-drama based on police files and on very recent true events, the protagonist of the Delhi CM is played by a male actor. Though Nirbhaya was definitely not Sheila Dikshit’s shining moment she was very much in the chair then.
So why this one odd, very obvious ‘creative’ liberty and why the innuendo on her offspring?

Pakistan PM Imran Khan fears further hostilities with India, claims terror infrastructure dismantled like never before

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan PM Imran Khan fears further hostilities with India, claims terror infrastructure dismantled like never before

The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has said in an interview that he fears hostilities between the two neighbours might scale up before India goes to polls this summer. Khan also insisted that the ‘New Pakistan’ has no place for terrorists.

In a candid admission, Pakistan PM Imran Khan acknowledged that his country can no longer allow the terror elements to operate on its soil with impunity. Imran mouthed off platitudes claiming his country has come down hard against terrorists using its land.  “We are dismantling terror networks on a level that has never happened before.  We cannot afford to be held responsible for terror activities like Pulwama. Armed groups within Pakistan cannot be supported any further,” Khan said.

Khan alluded that he knew something might happen as the elections were nearing in India. In what appears as giving a free pass to the terrorists who conducted the ghastly attack in Pulwama, Khan said, “We knew PM Modi would create war hysteria over some incident that may happen considering India’s elections were approaching.”

Last month, on February 14, Pakistan based Jaish-e-Muhammad trained terrorist had attacked a CRPF convoy using a car bomb killing 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama. Since then, India had launched an all-encompassing offence to corner and marginalise Pakistan internationally and diplomatically. India also stripped Pakistan of the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status.

The hostilities between the two warring nations grew as India conducted airstrikes deep inside Pakistan targetting terror camps in the country. In response to this, Pakistan had sent its fleet of F-16s to attack Indian Army’s military assets but was successfully thwarted by Indian Air Force. Pakistan had then captured an Indian pilot but sensing India’s mounting diplomatic pressure, it had to promptly release him within 48 hours of his capture.

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