The Chhattisgarh police have given a clean chit to DU professor Nandini Sunder, JNU professor Archana Prasad and five other persons in the 2016 murder case of a Sukma resident.
As per a report in the Hindustan Times, the CG police filed a charge sheet in a local court on Monday which claimed that no evidence was found against Sunder, Archana Prasad, Joshi Adhikari Sansthan’s Vineet Tiwari, CPM leader Sanjay Parata, a local Sarpanch Manju Kawasi and Mangla Ram Verma in the case of the murder of Shamnath Baghel, a resident of the Nama Village in Sukma district.
Jitendra Shukla, SP, Sukma, was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that the police have found no evidence against the above-mentioned people in the murder case registered in Tongpal police station. The charge sheet also says that the statement by the villagers has clarified that Sunder and others were not present during the murder.
Sunder, Prasad, Tiwari and the others were booked in November 2016 over the allegations by Baghel’s wife. The former IG (Bastar Range) SRP Kalluri has stated that Sunder and the others were booked under the charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy, and murder.
It was alleged that Sunder had traveled to Sukma once in May 2016 and once later under an alias Richa Keshav with Prasad, Tiwari, and the others and had held a meeting with the locals in the Nama village. 2 days later, a local tribal man, Shamnath Baghel had reported to the police that Sunder and the others were instigating the villagers not to cooperate with the police and support the Naxals instead.
Baghel had also claimed in his complaint that has been threatened for going against the Naxals and if he were to be killed Sunder and the others will be responsible. Baghel was murdered on 4 November 2016.
It is notable here that SRP Kalluri was soon transferred out of the Bastar range after the FIR was registered and is currently heading the Anti-Corruption Branch in Chhattisgarh.
In May 2017, Podium Pandu alias Pandya, a surrendered Maoist leader had named Sunder, Bela Bhatia, and several others as Urban Naxals who were in regular touch with Naxal commanders in the state. He had also claimed that he used to help Sunder and others in arranging meetings with Naxal commanders like Hidma.
In a big boost to country’s inland shipping sector, the world’s largest container shipping company Maersk is all set to move 16 containers of cargo on river Ganga along the National Waterway-1 from Varanasi to Kolkata tomorrow, reports PIB.
Reportedly, Maersk will be moving containers on river Ganga after the successful transportation of cargo from other firms like PepsiCo, Emami Agrotech, IFFCO Fertilizers, Dabur India. With the entry of Maersk, the cargo movement across the hinterland will be much easier as they move directly to and from Bangladesh and the rest of the world through the Bay of Bengal.
Maersk, a Danish business conglomerate, is the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world and moves nearly 12 million containers yearly across the globe. The firm is now all set to enter the Indian market to transport cargo across inland waterways for the first time.
On November 12, 2018, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had dedicated India’s first riverine multimodal terminal on river Ganga across National Waterway-1 at Varanasi to the nation. On the same day, he had also received the country’s first container cargo that travelled on National Waterway-1 from Kolkata to Varanasi. The twin events are considered to be the watershed moments in the development of Inland Water Transport (IWT) in India.
The MMTs are being developed as a part of the government’s Jal Marg Vikas project (JMVP) that intends to develop the stretch between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1500-2000 tonnes.
The World Bank has been funding the JMVP with technical assistance and investment support of Rs. 5,369 crores. The Multi-Model Terminal project in Varanasi is built at a cost of Rs 206 crores. The MMT project in Varanasi is expected to produce 500 direct employment and will create additional 2000 indirect employment opportunities in the surrounding areas of the project.
Recently, for the first time in India’s history, a container vessel was used for logistics transportation on the National Waterways-1 along the River Ganga. A container cargo belonging to PepsiCo (India) transported 16 containers of food and beverages from Kolkata to Varanasi.
India has a vast network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 km, out of which about 5,200 km of river and 4,000 km of canals can be used by mechanized crafts. National waterways provide a logistically efficient, cost-effective and environment-friendly mode of transport, whose development as an additional mode will bring down the load-stress and traffic from over-congested roads and railways.
Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT had summoned the Twitter officials today to know their views on ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/online news media platforms. Accordingly, Twitter India had sent a team led by Mahima Kaul, Director, Policy for South Asia. But the Committee refused to hear the representatives, and re-summoned Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey on February 25, giving 15-day advance notice for the same.
Jack Dorsey had earlier evaded the summon citing “short notice of the hearing” as the reason, despite being given 10 days to travel.
The committee meeting was scheduled for February 7 but was later postponed to February 11 to allow the Twitter CEO and senior officials more time to make themselves available.
Despite this, the Twitter CEO did not appear today. Fearing action from the parliamentary committee, the micro-blogging site sent a team led by Mahima Kaul.
However, at its meeting today, the panel refused to meet Twitter representatives who had come and demanded that the firm’s chief executive appear for such a serious issue.
Meanwhile, there has been no word from Twitter yet if its chief executive, or his deputy, can meet the new timeline.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had summoned Twitter officials on February 11, along with the officials of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to present their views regarding the issue of bias against right-wing twitter accounts.
The panel has 21 Lok Sabha members and 10 Rajya Sabha members. Thakur has also sought views and suggestions from the general public which could be emailed on ([email protected].)
On February 10, several Twitter users led a silent protest in Delhi against Twitter’s left-wing bias and deliberate silencing of opposite ideology.
The mysterious behaviour of Twitter which is often found censoring social media users for disagreeing to left-wing and ultra left-wing ideology at the time of crucial general elections has angered several users. With opposition parties and Lutyens media ecosystem backed by the Congress party indulging in false narratives and propaganda, right-wing users have expressed fear that more fake news may emerge in the social media platforms.
It is also accused that several prominent right-wing accounts are shadow-banned by Twitter. This means while the account is not blocked or suspended, the Tweets posted by that account do not appear on the timeline of the followers of that accounts. Tweets from such ‘shadow-banned’ accounts do not appear in search results also, effectively meaning that tweets of such persons remain invisible to users unless they visit the Twitter account page of such persons.
Priyanka Gandhi held her first roadshow today after she officially entered the political scene a short while ago. There was considerable excitement within the Congress and ‘pliant media’ camp as the sister of the Congress President made her foray into politics.
National spokesperson of the Congress party, Priyanka Chaturvedi, tweeted images from today’s roadshow in Lucknow with the caption “This is quite a welcome, Lucknow!” She has since then deleted the tweet.
The second image Chaturvedi had included in the tweet, which she had claimed was from the Lucknow roadshow, was actually a political rally in Gajwel, Telangana.
The picture appears to be from December 2018 and was posted by the handle @Kkdtalkies on the social media platform.
Congress Spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi tried to create a fake hype about Flop #PriyankaUPRoadshow, by tweeting pictures from Telangana & showed them as if they’re of Lucknow.
After I blew the gig off & called out her lie, she promptly deleted her tweet. pic.twitter.com/q1vluosU70
This photo is not from Lucknow. It’s fake.
1. The road does not belong to any place between Kanpur Road & Hazratganj.
2. The language resembles Kannada or Telugu. pic.twitter.com/ORlXARkPU9
Second picture has Telugu written on the walls. Good to see, Lucknow people paint their walls in Telugu in their admiration of Priyanka Vadra pic.twitter.com/ykZYmlnhCL
The Congress party has been working overtime to project the arrival of Priyanka Gandhi as the second coming of Indira Gandhi. In their desperation, it appears they are tweeting images without bothering to care where it came from.
Air Marshal SBP Sinha, who headed the negotiation team for the Rafale deal, today said that the Indian negotiating team had forwarded its final report signed by all the members without any dissent. In an apparent reference to the Hindu’s latest article on the Rafale deal, Sinha has alleged that some notes are being selectively shared to prove a point.
Air Marshal SBP Sinha,who headed Rafale negotiations from Indian side:Some notes being selectively picked up to prove a point.Fact is none of them are linked to Indian negotiating team. Indian negotiating team has forwarded its final report signed by all 7 members without dissent pic.twitter.com/OkynTx2355
Coming on the heels of another dubious claim made by the Hindu report claiming that the anti-corruption clauses were removed from the Rafale deal, Sinha remarked that such notes are being selectively shared to push forward a vile agenda. Demolishing the claim contended by the Hindu, the head of the Indian negotiating team asserted that until now, India had signed ‘govt to govt’ contracts with America and Russia and no such clause was included in those deals. Following the precedence of earlier ‘govt to govt’ contracts, it wasn’t included in the deal with France as well, he said.
Air Marshal SBP Sinha,who headed Rafale negotiations from Indian side,on anti-corruption clause in govt to govt contract:Till now,we had ‘govt to govt’ contract with America&Russia. It’s the 3rd ‘govt to govt’ contract, which is with France. Such clause isn’t there in any of them pic.twitter.com/0BKnCZLYpP
Sinha had earlier too dismissed a controversial note leaked a few days back, claiming interference by the Prime Minister’s Office(PMO) as mischievous malice intended to malign the contract. Air Marshal SBP Sinha also said that SK Sharma, Deputy Secretary (Air-II), who wrote the dissent note, was not part of the Indian negotiation team. ‘On whose behest he initiated this note?’, the head of IMT had then asked. He also added that among the dissent notes being leaker by the media, none of the persons who raised the dissents was part of the negotiation team.
Air Marshal Sinha had further added that he never saw the note and it had got nothing to do with the Indian negotiating team. “It was, at best, an internal deliberation in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which was settled there,” he said, expressing surprise that such a document has been used to malign the contract.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Vrindavan today on the occasion of serving the 3 billionth meal by Akshaya Patra Foundation at Vrindavan Mandir premises. The PM also unveiled a ceremonial plaque to mark the occasion of serving the 3 billionth meal by Akshaya Patra. Speaking on the occasion, Modi read out a shloka in Sanskrit from Shrimadbhagvad Gita which if translated to Hindi would read, “जो दान कर्तव्य समझकर बिना किसी उपकार की भावना से, उचित स्थान से, उचित समय पर योग्य व्यक्ति को दिया जाता है, उसे सात्विक दान कहते हैं”.
Modi praised the Akshaya Patra for serving food to underprivileged children for the last 18 years. He recalled that the first meal of Akshaya Patra was served during the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Encouraging the people associated with Akhshaya Patra Modi said that everyone in this organisation ranging from a cook to those serving the food are doing a service to nation. “Just like a strong foundation is required for strong building to stand over it, similarly for a new empowered India the children need to me healthy and well-fed,” said Modi stressing the need of providing nutrition to children.
जिस प्रकार मजबूत इमारत के लिए नींव का ठोस होना जरूरी है, उसी प्रकार शक्तिशाली नए भारत के लिए पोषित और स्वस्थ बचपन जरूरी है: पीएम नरेन्द्र मोदी https://t.co/46qmHSTebv
Modi spoke about various schemes started by the government over the last 55 months in the direction of ensuring health of every mother and child.Talking about the success of Mission Indradhanush Modi said, “Mission Indradhanush has been included among twelve best practice by a popular medical journal”. Laying emphasis on the role of cleanliness, Modi referred to an international report which, as claimed by him, estimated that the Swachchh Bharat Campaign and the use of toilets can save the lives of up to 3 lakh people.
मिशन इंद्रधनुष को आज दुनियाभर में सराहा जा रहा है।
हाल में ही एक मशहूर मेडिकल जर्नल ने इस कार्यक्रम को दुनिया की 12 Best Practices में चुना है: पीएम @narendramodi
He also pointed out that the Kumbh Mela, which until was now known for Naga sadhus, has this time sent out a message of cleanliness to the world. He mentioned that the New York Times has published a report on cleanliness in the Kumbh Mela.
इस बार कुम्भ के मेले ने देश को स्वच्छता का संदेश देने में सफलता पाई है। आम तौर पर कुम्भ में नागा बाबाओं की चर्चा होती है, पहली बार न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स ने कुम्भ की स्वच्छता को लेकर रिपोर्ट की है: पीएम @narendramodi
Speaking on cows, Modi said that cow has been an important part of our culture and tradition and it has been crucial for the economy of our villages. He pointed out that Mathura has had a rich tradition of service of cows. Modi said that his government has decided to expand the Rashtriya Gokul Mission stared by it earlier. And under the recent budget, the government has also envisaged a Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog and has made provision of 500 crore rupees for it. To support cattle rearing, banks will now provide a loan of up to Rs 3 lakh through Kisan Credit Card.
पशुपालकों की मदद के लिए अब बैंकों के दरवाजे खोल दिए गए हैं। अब बैंकों से 3 लाख रुपये तक का ऋण मिल सकता है। इससे हमारे तमाम पशुपालकों को लाभ मिलने वाला है: पीएम श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी
Modi highlighted that the benefits set out in the budget for small farmers will mostly benefit the farmers in Uttar Pradesh as most farmers here are small farmers. He concluded by lauding the efforts of Akshaya Patra calling it the best example of collective efforts.
A team of custom department and police in Purnia, Bihar seized a huge cache of live cartridges and the spare parts of the Myanmar Army’s three AK-47 rifles and two under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) after breaking the doors, dashboard, roof, seats and footsteps of a Tata Safari car, which was seized from Baisi district in Purnia on February 7.
The vehicle was intercepted in Baisi district by the police patrolling team suspecting illegal liquor smuggling on Thursday.
According to the Additional Director General of Police (headquarters), Kundan Krishnan, during the routine checking, the police officials initially found 600 live cartridges in the vehicle. On the basis of which they arrested three arms smugglers- V R Kahornagam, Clearson Kavo (both from Ukhrul in Manipur) and Suraj Prasad from Pipra Basant in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
Following the State police headquarters instruction, thorough checking of the vehicle was initiated after which the police further recovered various parts of unassembled AK-47 and UBGLs and 1000 additional cartridges which were hidden in specially built boxes inside the vehicle.
Image of one of the 1600 live cartridges recovered, courtesy: Aaj Tak
It is being suspected that these weapons were to be used to carry out violent acts before the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
During interrogation, the three arrested persons confessed that they used to supply arms and weapons to Mukesh Singh of Patna and Santosh Singh of Bhojpur, Kundan Krishnan (ADGP) said.
The police raided Mukesh Singh’s house in Patna on Saturday and seized 50 cartridges, he said. Mukesh has been absconding since then, Kundan confirmed.
Unassembled parts of arms belonging to Myanmar Army, courtesy: Aaj Tak
Bihar police are also contemplating of handing over the case to the Central agency as arms had the ‘MA’ mark engraved which shows that the arms belonged to the Myanmar Army and have been smuggled into India, the ADGP added.
Hitherto known to be a hub of illegal arms manufacturing, Bihar police had in October last year busted a large scale arms smuggling racket in Bihar, and had recovered several AK-47 rifles and hundreds of spare parts stashed away in wells, river beds and abandoned houses across the state. The rifles were smuggled to Bihar’s Munger district.
Meanwhile, Munger district in Bihar which has infamously emerged as the centre of such illegal manufacturing of high-quality advanced arms and ammunition for the last several decades had been in news for yet another huge arms smuggling racket involving smuggling of weapons condemned by the Army in December last year.
Munger is infamous for its illegal arms factories. Munger police have earlier busted one such racket involving a nexus between officers of Jabalpur’s Central Ordnance Depot and local arms dealers.
After publishing a cropped note from the defence ministry to show that the ministry was against the Rafale deal, today The Hindu has come with another story in an attempt to derail the purchase of much-needed fighter jets by Indian Air Force.
In a story titled Government waived anti-corruption clauses in Rafale deal, veteran journalist N Ram alleges that Modi government bypassed standard procedures in inking the Rafale deal. It has come up with another note from the defence ministry, where the Financial Advisor (DS) was opposing the waiver of sovereign/bank guarantee in the deal signed with France. The not also says that in the absence of sovereign/bank guarantee, the French government should be involved in the deal, and the payments should be made to an Escrow account controlled by the French government, from where the payments should be released to the vendors as per terms and conditions.
N Ram writes that Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, met in September 2016, and ratified and approved eight changes in the IGA, supply protocols, offset contracts and offset schedules. This goes against the ongoing narrative that defence ministry was kept out of the loop in the deal and everything was handled by PMO. He says that change of these terms is a violation of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), 2013, under which the deal was signed.
The article also says that provisions for anti-corruption penalties and making payments through an escrow account.
But it seems N Ram missed the section in DPP 2013 which is crucial for this deal. The Rafale deal is an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) between the governments of India and France, and the section about the IGA in the DPP has been completely ignored in the Hindu report.
Section 71 of the DPP states that:
There may be occasions when procurements would have to be done from friendly foreign countries which may be necessitated due to geo-strategic advantages that are likely to accrue to our country. Such procurements would not classically follow the Standard Procurement Procedure and the Standard Contract Document but would be based on mutually agreed provisions by the Governments of both the countries. Such procurements will be done based on an Inter Governmental Agreement after clearance from CFA.
Section 71 of DPP 2013
The DPP 2013, which was prepared during the UPA government, clearly states that in case of Inter-Governmental Agreements, Standard Procurement Procedure and Standard Contract Document will not apply and such deals will be done on mutually agreed terms of both the countries. Therefore, the government to government deal of the Rafale jet also involved changes in certain provisions of DPP, which was duly approved by the Defence Acquisition Council, the highest body supervising defence acquisitions in the country.
Section 72 of the DPP 2013 says that when an Inter Government Agreement is signed with a foreign nation, this agreement will safeguard the interests of the Govt of India. This implies that a separate sovereign/bank guarantee may not be required in the case of an IGA.
Section 75 of DPP 2013
Section 75 of the DPP 2013 says that “any deviation from the prescribed procedure will be put up to DAC through DPB for approval”. This means in the interest of a particular deal, the deviation from the standard procedure is possible, provided it approved by the DAC. The Hindu article itself says that the deviations from the standard procedure was duly approved, so this means provisions of DPP 2013 was followed in signing the Rafale deal.
N Ram says that “the DPP stating explicitly that the Standard Contract Document would be the guideline for all acquisitions”, but the fact is that the same DPP allows diversion from Standard Contract Document in case of Inter Governmental Agreements in section 71, which makes the Rafale deal eligible for such diversion.
Now let’s come to the specific note The Hindu has published this time. At the first it must be noted that like the earlier note, this dissent note is also written by someone who was not part of the Indian Negotiation Team (INT) for the Rafale deal. Therefore, the officer may not be aware of the all details about the deals. Second, only the note without what was the response to it means nothing. This is same as N Ram publishing the earlier cropping the vital response of Defence minister.
When negotiations and discussions take place, lots of ideas are exchanged. Many points are raised, many of them are rejected by some, and ultimately a final decision is taken. After a final decision is taken with the consensus of all, the disagreements during the discussion phase cease to matter. Many of such disagreements or doubts may have been resolved or clarified already. Therefore, such dissent notes during the discussion phase of the Rafale deal does not mean that there was some major scam in the deal. It just means that healthy democratic discussion process took place while finalising the deal.
Air Marshal SBP Sinha,who headed Rafale negotiations from Indian side:Some notes being selectively picked up to prove a point.Fact is none of them are linked to Indian negotiating team. Indian negotiating team has forwarded its final report signed by all 7 members without dissent pic.twitter.com/OkynTx2355
Air Marshal SBP Sinha headed the INT for the Rafale deal, and he has already clarified that the final report was submitted by the team with signature of all the seven members, without any dissent. He has also pointed out that the notes being selectively published are from such persons who were not part of the negotiation team.
Coming to the anti-corruption clause, that is applicable for a direct deal with private companies only, where there are possibilities of bribes and middleman. In Inter Governmental Agreements, such clauses are waived as per the provisions of DPP, and hence there are no illegalities in that as N Ram wants to suggest.
Rafale is not the first Inter Governmental Agreement India has signed, before this such deals were signed with Russia and USA. And similar waivers were granted in those agreements too. The deal for Sukhoi jet that India signed with Russia had also waived the bank guarantee and anti-corruption clause, which was signed by Congress government.
Air Marshal SBP Sinha,who headed Rafale negotiations from Indian side,on anti-corruption clause in govt to govt contract:Till now,we had ‘govt to govt’ contract with America&Russia. It’s the 3rd ‘govt to govt’ contract, which is with France. Such clause isn’t there in any of them pic.twitter.com/0BKnCZLYpP
Air Marshal SBP Sinha has further clarified that anti-corruption clause was not there in any of the Inter Governmental Agreements that India had signed earlier, and Rafale is not the first deal to have such an exemption. To claim that such routine exemption for a government to government is nothing by a lie to derail the Rafale deal.
Coming to the allegation that Modi government discarded suggestion for payment to an Escrow account managed by France government and is making payments directly to Dassault, this completely wrong. The Indian government has signed the deal with the French government, and hence the payments are also being made to the French government only. In December last year, the government of India had announced that it was making a payment of 25% of the deal value to the government of France.
According to reports, the French government has set up a treasury account in their national bank to receive proceeds from India, and payments will be released to vendors only after verification of the progress of the deal. There is no direct payment to Dassault or MBDA, and all payments are made to French government-controlled bank account only. This means that the allegations that the government of India is making payments directly to vendors are incorrect. It also shows that the official raising the objection was perhaps not aware of the detail of the deal.
Fearing action from the parliamentary committee, the micro-blogging site Twitter has sent its Director, Policy for South Asia, Mahima Kaul to represent the organisation in the committee hearing as they were summoned over the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights on social media platforms.
The Parliamentary Committee on IT headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur had summoned Twitter officials on 11th February along with the officials of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to present their views regarding the issue of bias towards the right-wing twitter accounts.
Initially, the micro-blogging site officials displayed their arrogance by refusing to appear before the Parliamentary Committee citing “short notice of the hearing”. It seems that Twitter has obliged to appear before the committee after BJP MP Anurag Thakur, head of the committee had issued a statement saying that appropriate action will be taken against them for failing to respect summons issued by the parliamentary committee.
Twitter will be represented by its South Asia Director Mahima Kaul (@misskaul) and other officials. Mahima Kaul, who has been appointed to head the policy division of Twitter, has been known for her anti-Modi and pro-Rahul inclinations which has been indicated by her tweets in the past further proving the left-leaning bias of the platform.
The mysterious behavior of Twitter which is often found censoring social media users for disagreeing to left-wing and ultra left-wing ideology at the time of crucial general elections has angered several users. With opposition parties and Lutyens media ecosystem backed by the Congress party indulging in false narratives and propaganda, right-wing users have expressed fear that more fake news may emerge in the social media platforms.
It is also accused that several prominent right-wing accounts are shadow-banned by Twitter. This means while the account is not blocked or suspended, the Tweets posted by that account do not appear on the timeline of the followers of that accounts. Tweets from such ‘shadow-banned’ accounts do not appear in search results also, effectively meaning that tweets of such persons remain invisible to users unless they visit the Twitter account page of such persons.
Former Uttar Pradesh MLA from the Congress party, Imran Masood, who had allegedly threatened to “chop Narendra Modi into pieces” ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was part of Priyanka Gandhi’s first roadshow in Lucknow, Indian Express has reported.
Imran Masood who had threatened to “chop Narendra Modi into pieces” joins Priyanka Gandhi’s roadshowhttps://t.co/Kif4EWlNNH
The report stated that Masood was in the luxury bus with Priyanka, Rahul, Jyotiraditya Scindia, PL Poonia and others. He was the Congress candidate from Saharanpur in 2014 when he had declared in a public rally that he will “chop Narendra Modi into pieces”.
The Congress party and its allies have a long history of making deplorable personal attacks against the Prime Minister and getting away without any punishment from the higher-ups in the party.
Only this morning, TDP workers put up posters at their chief Naidu’s protest against Modi which read “Jiske Haath Mein Chai ka Jhoota cup Dena Tha, Uske Haath Mein Janata Ne Desh De Diya”, that translates to ‘the person who should have been given a used teacup, has been given the country by the people”.
The campaign for the Assembly Elections in 2018 saw another string of abuses from Opposition leaders. Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief Raj Babbar used the devaluing rupee to mock the PM’s mother. Babbar had said, “He (Modi) used to say that the Indian rupee has fallen so much against the Dollar that it was nearing the age of the then prime minister (Manmohan Singh). Today, the rupee’s valuation has dropped so low, that it is inching closer to your beloved mother’s age”.
Earlier, senior Congress leader C.P. Joshi had hurled casteist slurs at Narendra Modi. In a video that went viral, Joshi could be heard saying that only Brahmins had the right and knowledge to speak about Hinduism. And since Prime Minister Modi belongs to a lower caste, he cannot talk about Hinduism.
In Rajasthan, Congress MLA Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya had abused PM Narendra Modi in the filthiest of language. The abuses were hurled when the Congress politician was speaking at a public rally.
Prior to the Assembly elections in Gujarat, Mani Shankar Aiyer had called him ‘Neech’. Sonia Gandhi during her tenure as President of the Congress party had once called Modi ‘Maut ka Saudagar’ (the merchant of death).
Despite Congress President Rahul Gandhi spinning tales of the ‘politics of love’ that he envisions, he has shown remarkable tolerance for those who make extremely distasteful remarks against the Prime Minister of India. Imran Masood’s presence at Priyanka Gandhi’s rally only shows that the more things change with the Congress party, the more they remain the same.
