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BSP chief Mayawati has to pay back the public money spent on statues: Supreme Court

OpIndia Staff
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BSP chief Mayawati has to pay back the public money spent on statues: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday observed that prima facie the BSP chief has to pay back all the public money she used to erect status of herself and the BSP symbol, the elephant, in Noida and Lucknow when she was the Chief Minister.


Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has said that the court would hear the plea on 2nd April.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by an advocate who had contended that public money cannot be used for creating own statues and for propagating political ideologies. Mayawati, during her tenure as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, built the statues, parks and memorials at a cost of over Rs 2,600 crore in Noida, Lucknow and a few other places.

Supreme Court rejects Tejashwi Yadav’s Bungalow plea, imposes a fine of Rs. 50000

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court rejects Tejashwi Yadav’s Bungalow plea, imposes a fine of Rs. 50000

The saga of Tejashwi Yadav’s bungalow began in December last year when authorities reached the place in Patna to carry out an eviction order. Then, the RJD leader and his supporters claimed that the matter was still sub-judice and therefore, no action should be taken before a verdict is delivered.

Then, in the first week of January, a two-judge bench of the Patna High Court rejected the fodder scam convict’s son challenging the government’s order to vacate the government allotted bungalow in Dashrath Marg, one of the poshest localities in Patna. It was after a single-judge bench had already rejected his appeal.

Today, the Supreme Court too has dismissed the plea of the Mahagathbandhan leader. In addition, the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi with Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna also imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on Yadav.


The Bungalow was allotted to Tejashwi when he was the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar during the Mahagathbandhan government. After Nitish Kumar severed ties with the RJD and formed a new alliance with the BJP, Yadav was ordered to vacate the government allotted bungalow as he no longer held that position. Yadav has been trying to retain the bungalow ever since.

Contrary to Tejeswi, who did not want to let go of the government bungalow, his elder brother and former health minister of Bihar, Tej Pratap Yadav had vacated the government allocated bungalow after claiming that Nitish Kumar had unleashed ghosts there to haunt him.

Rajdeep Sardesai gets schooled on what ‘Benami’ property means as he tries to imply Vadra’s ‘innocence’

OpIndia Staff
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Rajdeep Sardesai gets schooled on what ‘Benami’ property means as he tries to imply Vadra’s ‘innocence’

The ED has been questioning Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra over allegations of money laundering. The ED had alleged that Vadra owns a 1.9 million pounds property in London through a benami.

The ED had submitted in court that 12, Bryanstone Square in London has been purchased through Vadra’s close aide Manoj Arora. The probing agency also alleges that the property has been purchased through money laundered through Dubai and in violation of the Black Money Act.

As per reports, the ED’s probe on Vadra’s links with arms dealer Bhandari and benami properties in London were unearthed when Bhandari was raided by Income Tax officials back in 2016 and email trails related to the renovation and payments for the London house, allegedly between Vadra, Bhandari and Manoj Arora were found.

Arora too has been under ED’s scanner and he has been interrogated along with several other associates of Vadra by the agency.

Back in 2016, when the London property links first came to news, it was alleged that the property at 12, Bryanston square was bought through a Sharjah-based firm.

As Vadra was interrogated by the ED over two days on the allegations and suspected links with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, the London properties were being constantly discussed in the media.

Rajdeep Sardesai ran a show in India Today TV yesterday claiming that the concerned properties in London are not registered in the name of Robert Vadra.


The fact that not being registered in the name of the actual owner is the whole point of a ‘Benami’ property was carefully ignored.

The careful omission of the basic detail and the assertion that Vadra’s name is not mentioned in the property documents, so the ED’s case might be wrongly targeted, was not missed by many on social media.


Rajdeep Sardesai screams repeatedly in the news video that the property details show the name of a couple and not Robert Vadra’s name does not feature anywhere.


As per reports, Bhandari had even admitted back in 2016, that the emails between him, Vadra and Manoj Arora were regarding the renovation and finalising the interiors of the London property.

In the last few days, the mainstream media has been going gaga over Vadra’s wife, Priyanka Vadra dropping him and picking him up from the ED office in Delhi. However, the deliberate omission of facts and attempts at steering away the public attention from crucial details were nailed by social media.

Read why the Parliament is right to summon Twitter India

Piyush Kulshreshtha
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Read why the Parliament is right to summon Twitter India

Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, headed by MP Anurag Thakur has summoned Twitter India officials to hear the views of Ministry of Electronics & IT and Twitter to understand how the fundamental rights of citizens of India could be safeguarded on social media platforms.

Twitter has an official policy of shadow-banning. And if the falling performance of twitter accounts of Prime Minister’s office (Of India) and PM Narendra Modi are any signs, even these accounts are right now shadow-banned.

International menace

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg & Sundar Pichai have been called, in recent past, by House and Senate Committees in US to testify against generally agreed accusation of “politically biased” management of their businesses. Facebook has been called by many Parliamentary bodies across the world after its dirty secret regarding Cambridge Analytica was whistleblown.

These large-scale, first-generation social media giants are accused of manipulating public perception unfairly to effect democratic elections in the US and other countries are rightly worried that if these American companies dared to interfere in the elections in their own country, nothing stops them from doing the same or worse in other countries.

Arrogance of petty men running giant social media platforms

Social media turned out to be a weapon of mass propaganda too quickly and unexpectedly. Technology has moved too fast, since the explosion of internet and arrival of big data. Even the regular users of such social media products hardly understand the technology, propaganda or intent behind a lot of stuff they come across. In that scenario, most of the lawmakers across the world are more worried and less equipped to deal with this sudden crisis. They are so ill-equipped that even in US, when the Congressmen and Senators ask questions to the head-honchos of these large SM Platforms, they usually ask meaningless and often ridiculous questions. Because they don’t even know what they should be asking these SM platform bosses, for most questions, all three – Jack, Mark & Sundar – have conveniently promised to answer the question raised “later” separately.

These men are technology giants, no doubt, but they are petty men when it comes to understanding the responsibilities they have to the human societies worldwide. They have found a weapon to “push” the entire world in a direction that they have a personal bias for. And they are doing so with impunity, hiding behind technicalities, shying away from any moral responsibilities and lawmakers are unable to do anything about this new phenomenon.

India Question

China foresaw the flaws in letting a social media platform run by foreign companies operate deeply into their country. India, its neighbour and an aspiring super-power, with the responsibility of conducting world’s largest free & fair general elections in April 2019, failed to identify this problem early on and now has to deal with a menace it hardly understands. While political parties used these SM platforms for campaigning over the last 5-6 years, they are just beginning to discover the dangers of having foreign platforms run so deep into the country. In the Second World War, enemies would print pamphlets with crafty messages and airdrop them to run propaganda, in this new world, they can suppress voices of one side and play up the other side with a clock of few buttons.

Legal Question

Both Twitter & FB are accused internationally of projecting & enforcing their promoters’ bias on democratic process of countries they operate in. And they do so with impunity. Like millions of users worldwide, all that India has is scores of users who can “experientially” tell that their voice is being suppressed. But without access to the algorithms, any deposition by the representatives of Twitter or Facebook will be their word against the words of complainants or the lawmakers. Mark Zuckerberg himself proposed a “Full Audit” to understand what Cambridge Analytica was upto, when he was faced with a question from Senator Amy Klobuchar. Here is the video of Mark’s response:

Also, India has to ascertain the laws under which it expects course correction from these SM giants. Unless they can prove that a law has been broken, all the screaming and shouting & Parliamentary hearings will make no difference. Further, necessary and unambiguous regulations that do not become an entry barrier for new entrants, while they regulate the existing players reasonably, may also be acutely necessary.

Violation of Article 19, by way of suppression of voices of one set of people by mainstream media houses is a difficult thing to prove because essentially whatever is said on mainstream media is said by reporters. However, on social media platforms, it is the common people who express their opinions directly, and suppression of their voices is clearly the violation of rights under Article 19. At the same time, interfering with rights under Article 19, has to be understood in the light of the “purpose”. Govt also bans free speech at times, but the purpose is protection of certain national interests, like social peace, territorial integrity, national security and such. But when the “purpose” behind violation of “free” speech is interference with the democratic process of the country, to shape it on the basis of biases, which may be natural or commercial, then the whole action becomes far too serious and has to be dealt with the kind of severity that any other person waging the war on the nation would suffer.

We have to remember, this is not the first time these social media giants have faced these allegations. They are repeat offenders who have till now gone free because the governments worldwide are ill-equipped to deal with this menace.

What should MEIT demand?

In order to investigate and empirically prove that the experiences of thousands or lakhs of people with respect to biased behaviour on Twitter and Facebook, Ministry of Electronics and IT must demand access to algorithms that are at work in Twitter and Facebook. Both will refuse. But government must push for it, going to the extent of threatening discontinuity of their services till government has access to the algorithms at play.

Government must also review various suppressive action taken by Twitter & FB, based on user complaints. They should find out if the reasons given for suspending certain accounts had any substance at all.

Data Colonisation

At the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani flagged increasing data colonisation by global corporations. The attack on democratic processes is on of the first signs of how data colonisation affects us. I would like to leave the readers with this statement made by Mark Zuckerberg in the US Senate. When Dan Sullivan asked Mark, if Facebook is too powerful, Mark said, “A vast majority of these users were outside US…and that’s the real competitive and strategic threat that American Technology Policy should be thinking about.” I leave it to the readers to judge the severity of the situation.

 

Even though six years have passed, guilty should be brought to book: Gen VK Singh on ‘Army Coup’ story

OpIndia Staff
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Even though six years have passed, guilty should be brought to book: Gen VK Singh on ‘Army Coup’ story

General V. K. Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, on Wednesday took to Facebook to react on the ‘coup’ story from 2011-2012, which according to media reports, was ‘leaked and planted’ in the media by senior Congress leaders. General V K Singh was the Chief of Army Staff from 2010 to 2012.

His blog, first published on Facebook, is reproduced below:

When Mr Coupta was recruited by the powers-behind-the-scenes to cleverly imply I was planning a coup, their objective was to not only spook the good Doctor and his Italian handler, it was also the time honoured tactic that had been in vogue to set Nehru versus Thimayya, Shastri versus Chaudhuri, or Indira Gandhi versus Manekshaw. However, earlier these were usually just whispers… which was damaging enough.

However, in Mr Coupta’s case, by splashing it across banner headlines, this was nothing short of treason, for the gentleman was willing to openly destroy the institution of the army to achieve personal objectives. With those in power backing Couptaji then, virtually all institutional platforms of redress were not available to me, even though I was the serving Chief of the Army and the fact that even the RM, Shri AK Antony, had rubbished the coup report in the Rajya Sabha.

Despite knowing no action would be taken, the few people who knew what was going on and who understood the terrible implications of what was happening, helped me file a step by step complaint with the Home Ministry which not only categorically asked for an enquiry, it also spelt out the damage being done to other institutions like the TSD that was subsequently hounded and crucified. The Home Ministry ignored the complaint, so did the Press Council who right from the start privately said they could not turn against their own. Irony is that Mr Coupta went on to head that illustrious body!

Time is a funny thing… many of us have forgotten the crippling level of corruption that had brought India to its knees. The same people, who for generations have treated our country’s coffers as their private jagir, are today again trying to derail the new systems which are now desperately trying to redress and undo the years of crippling damage, repeatedly saying things which are not true. So long as this continues, we as a people will continue to pay a terrible price.

Even today, though six years have passed, there should be a detailed enquiry and the guilty brought to book. The age old saying that truth must always prevail is timeless. It’s a shame so many people who played games and falsified news, are even today not accountable. In the interest of our country’s future where fake news is such a major threat, it is imperative to take action at the very root of this evil especially when all the evidence is there in the public domain.
#UnholyNexus #NationalDisgrace #GenerallySaying

‘Army Coup’ story from April 2012

Bihar: Faiz Alam, Abdul Mannan, Kalu, Kasim, Kaiser and Ansar accused of raping 19-year-old girl in front of her father

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar: Faiz Alam, Abdul Mannan, Kalu, Kasim, Kaiser and Ansar accused of raping 19-year-old girl in front of her father

In a horrific incident, six men belonging to Kishanganj district of Bihar allegedly raped a 19-year old girl in front of her father. The perpetrators allegedly tied up the victim’s father with rope to a tree and raped his daughter in front of him.

According to reports, the incident occurred when six men of village Pathargatti, 350 km from Patna, knocked on victim’s door on Monday night asking for water and then forcibly entered the house to drag her outside. The rape accused then allegedly took the victim and her father to a deserted field near her house and gang-raped her in front of her father.

The father of the victim told that all the accused resides in the same village and are identified as Faiz Alam, Abdul Mannan, Kalu, Kasim, Kaiser, and Ansar. Addition to this, the victim has also stated that the rape accused had threatened them to not to go to the police to register any complaint.

Kumar Ashish, Kishanganj Superintendent of Police, speaking to the media said, “The victim has named six persons, the police are conducting raids to nab them as they are absconding. He said he was personally monitoring the case and the accused will be arrested soon.

The police said the villagers initially tried to hush up the incident. They asked the girl and her father to agree to a “settlement” through the village panchayat. But the two decided to lodge an FIR.

Does the Bareilly “Nikah-Halala” not shock your conscience? Union Minister Arun Jaitley lashes out on Congress

OpIndia Staff
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Does the Bareilly “Nikah-Halala” not shock your conscience? Union Minister Arun Jaitley lashes out on Congress

Union Minister Arun Jaitley took to Facebook today to write a blog, criticising Congress’ stand to scrap the Triple Talaq Bill brought in by Modi Government, if Congress is voted to power.

His blog, titled “Does the Bareilly “Nikah-Halala” not shock your conscience?” is reproduced below:

Some incidents are so unconscionable and repulsive that they shake the conscience of the society and compel it to take remedial measures. Injustice perpetuated by personal laws is a glaring example of this.

Many communities, over the last several decades, have brought incremental but significant changes in their personal laws. The object and direction of these changes has been that gender equality is ensured, rights of women and children are protected and the right to live with dignity is ensured. Some practices which survived for centuries were so obnoxious (as Sati and Untouchability) are now considered as unconstitutional.

A recent case from Bareilly has shocked my conscience. It relates to the obnoxious practice of Nikah-halala in Islamic personal law. A lady who is married in 2009 was twice divorced by her husband through Triple Talaq, once in 2011 and subsequently in 2017. The family prevailed upon the husband to accept her back. On both occasions, she was sedated and asked to undergo, Nikah-halala, on the first occasion with her father-in-law and on the subsequent occasion with her brother-in-law. They both raped her. Almost a similar case was reported by the PTI on September 2nd, 2018 as having taken place in the Sambhal District of Uttar Pradesh. That in the 21st Century there could be such gross violation of the dignity of women in the world’s largest democracy should make every head hang in shame. After raping this lady, both the father-in-law and brother-in-law used the weapon of Triple Talaq to divorce the victim so that she could be accepted by her husband.

If Triple Talaq had not been a permitted mode of divorce in India, would this incident emanating from a no fault – impulsive divorce have taken place. The Supreme Court has already declared instant talaq as unconstitutional and yet in the absence of a deterrent it can at best amount to a civil wrong with no penal consequences. A number of Muslim men and conservatives are choosing to even ignore the Supreme Court judgment.

Unfortunately, when human conscience should have been repelled while reading this news in the morning Newspapers. The AICC President Rahul Gandhi and his coterie, while addressing a minority convention promised to withdraw the Bill pending in the Parliament, penalising Triple Talaq. History has repeated itself, neither as a satire nor as a tragedy. It has repeated itself with a mindset of cruelty. The late Rajiv Gandhi committed a monumental mistake in legislatively overturning the Shah Bano judgment of the Supreme Court which guaranteed maintenance to all muslim women. He allowed deserted women to be driven to poverty and destitution. Thirty-two years later his son has taken another retrograde step to drive them not merely into destitution but also to live a life which is an antithesis of human existence. The Muslim woman in Bareilly has been forced into animal existence.

Votes are important, so is fairness. Political opportunists only look at the next day’s Headlines. Nation-builders look at the next Century.

OpIndia Evening Dispatch: Thursday, 7th February, 2019

OpIndia Staff
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OpIndia Evening Dispatch: Thursday, 7th February, 2019

In the hustle and bustle of the day, it is only natural to miss some of the biggest developments that impact the nation. The OpIndia Evening Dispatch will catch you up on the day’s event even if you have been busy thus far.

1. Congress spreads fake news by saying India is global number 1 in fake news

Today the Congress party posted a tweet from its official Twitter handle saying that India has become the number 1 country in the world for fake news. Quoting a report by dubious website newscentral24x7, the party mocked the Modi government for this ‘achievement’.

But when we checked the original survey report by Microsoft, we have found that there is no truth in the claim that India is number 1 in fake news. According to the report, Argentina tops the list of fake news, followed by Columbia and Hungary.

2. Bihar: Worshipping Bharat is against our belief, said Afzal Hussain, a school teacher as he refused to sing Vande Mataram

A scuffle broke out in Katiyar, Bihar, on 26th January when Afzal Hussain, a school teacher refused to sing Vande Mataram on Republic Day.

As per reports, for the Republic Day function in school when everyone was to sing Vande Mataram, Hussain refused to join in. Those present at the venue were surprised and asked Hussain to get up from his seat and participate in singing. But he refused to get up. He said, “I only worship Allah. And it is not written in the Constitution that I need to participate in singing Vande Mataram.”

3. Winner of Nobel Prize in Economics rubbishes ThePrint report about him helping Rahul Gandhi on election promises

Nobel laureate Angus Deaton has denied Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint’s report which claimed that he is helping Congress shape the minimum income scheme.

On 31st January, ThePrint ran a report by one D. K. Singh who claimed that Angus Deaton, a British economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015 along with French economist Thomas Piketty are advising the Congress on its minimum income guarantee program.

However, when OpIndia reached out to Deaton, he denied being associated with Congress or Rahul Gandhi. In a one-line email, Deaton said that he has had no contact with Congress on this or anything else.

4. A bad, sexist joke is still fine, Shatrughan Sinha, but you came up with a bad example

Last night, at a book launch, rebel BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha took a jibe at #MeToo movement which took the nation by storm where many men in the powerful position were called out by women for allegedly being sexual predators.

Sinha cracked a sexist joke saying that in the era of ‘#MeToo’, there is no hesitation in saying that behind every successful man’s fall also there is a woman. As if the sexist joke which in a sly manner blames women for calling our their sexual predators which led to ‘downfall of successful men’, Sinha went ahead and added “I think I have been fortunate that despite doing all that I did, my name hasn’t popped up in the #MeToo”.

5. More troubles for Congress as Vadra asked to appear before ED in Jaipur on February 12

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra, who is accused of being involved in dubious land deals and is also facing probe in money laundering case, has now been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on February 12. Yesterday, Vadra was grilled for hours at the ED office yesterday where his wife, Congress General Secretary had dropped him off.

6. Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes resolution demanding SC status for ‘Dalit Christians’

A resolution has been passed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly appealing to the Central government that ‘Scheduled Caste Christians’ be provided the benefits of reservations despite converting out of the Hindu faith.

The resolution was proposed by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ had been fighting for reservations for decades and that their demand was justifiable. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ should be treated on par with Dalit converts to Sikhism and Buddhism. The resolution was also supported by BJP MLAs in the Assembly.

7. All 7 seven accused convicted by court in Kawal double murder case which had triggered the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots

A sessions court on Wednesday convicted seven accused in the Kawal double murder case of August 2013, which is said to have triggered the infamous Muzzafarnagar riots, which had left almost 60 people dead and more than 50,000 people were displaced. Five of the convicted are already in prison, while the bail of the other two stands cancelled.

Muzassim, Muzammil, Furquan, Nadeem, Jehangir, Afzaal and Iqbal have been convicted for beating to death Gaurav and Sachin on the day of August 27, 2013. They were convicted by the court after examination of 10 prosecution witnesses and 6 defence witnesses.

8. Kerala: University denies permission to north Indian students to perform Saraswati Puja as it is ‘secular campus’

The Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala has declined permission to ‘North Indian students’ to perform Saraswati Puja in the Kuttanad campus of its Engineering college. The reason cited is that its a “secular campus” and therefore, can’t permit the Puja.

It is the same college where students had claimed last year that they were misled into eating beef. The Principal was accused of feeding beef to his students to satisfy his ego.

It is also interesting to note that Christmas is regularly celebrated in this same ‘secular campus’.

9. In Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, family of 8-year old gang rape survivor asked to vacate house

The Indore Development Authority (IDA) has told the family of an 8-year old gang-rape survivor from Mandsaur who were allotted a house and a shop in the city by the previous BJP government, to vacate their home. The officials claimed that no official order was issued by the previous BJP government.

The child was abducted, gang-raped and had her throat cut by the perpetrators last year. She had to struggle for her life for five months in a hospital.

10. Congress promises to scrap anti Triple Talaq law if voted to power

Addressing All India Congress Committee’s meet, Congress leader Sushmita Dev said that if Congress comes to power, then Congress will scrap the Triple Talaq Bill, which was brought in by the Modi Government making triple talaq an offence.

“Through Triple Talaq Bill, Narendra Modi has given a reason to Muslim women to fight with Muslim men and send them to jail,” Dev said to a cheering audience. Congress, ironically, wants to bring about the women reservation bill even as they promise to allow triple talaq.

11. Vijay Mallya has links with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar: ED before court

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed before the Patiala House Court in Delhi during the hearing of the AgustaWestland case that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya has links with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar. ED said that Talwar and Mallya are linked in a money laundering case related to negotiations favouring foreign private airlines and causing loss to national carrier Air India.

Vijay Mallya has links with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar: ED before court

OpIndia Staff
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Vijay Mallya has links with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar: ED before court

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed before the Patiala House Court in Delhi during the hearing of the AgustaWestland case that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya has links with corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar.


ED said that Talwar and Mallya are linked in a money laundering case related to negotiations favouring foreign private airlines and causing loss to national carrier Air India. During the term of UPA government, Air India had withdrawn from lucrative and profit earning routes connecting foreign destinations, and also changed timings of flights. Subsequently, those routes and timings were taken over by foreign private airlines. The merger of Air India and Indian Airlines had also caused Indian Airlines to give its international routes where Air India was also operating.

According to ED, Deepak Talwar had helped few foreign airlines in getting the routes vacated by Air India, and he received kickbacks from them disguised as consultation fee. ED has named Qatar Airways, AirAsia, Emirates, Air Arabia and Airbus as the companies that paid bribes to Talwar. The UPA government had decided to purchase 111 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing although the airline needed on 67 aircraft. Talwar is alleged to be involved in this deal also.

It is known whether Vijay Mallya’s now defunct Kingfisher Airlines was also helped by Talwar in getting lucrative routes vacated by the state carrier.

“Investigation is going on over the link between Talwar and Mallya”, the agency said.

Mallya is wanted in India by the investigation agencies for various cases like fraud, money laundering and violation of FEMA etc. The hope for Mallya’s extradition to India was revived after UK Home Secretary signed the order on February 3 to extradite him to India. Earlier, a UK court had given go-ahead for the extradition of Mallya to India.

Talwar was extradited by the Dubai authorities to India on January 30 along with Rajeev Saxena, who is an accused in the VVIP chopper scam. The court has extended the custody of Talwar till February 12. The court had earlier granted ED seven days custody of Talwar to interrogate him in relation to the AgustaWestland scam.

Congress weakened defence forces, ‘Mahagathbandhan is MahaMilavat’: Key Takeaways from Modi’s scathing attack on Congress in Lok Sabha

OpIndia Staff
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Congress weakened defence forces, ‘Mahagathbandhan is MahaMilavat’: Key Takeaways from Modi’s scathing attack on Congress in Lok Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in the Lok Sabha today on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.

During his speech, he took plenty of potshots at the Congress party. He said that, for the Congress party ‘BC’ implies ‘Before Congress’ and ‘AD’ means ‘After Dynasty’. He also elucidated the various achievements of his government and rued that the Congress party often ends up defaming India in their efforts to criticise him. He said that the Congress was doing press conferences in London and demeaning country there.


Highlighting the NDA government’s achievements, he said, “In the past four and a half years, India has become the 6th largest economy from its 11th position. When we reached 11th position, then people, who cannot even be seen in opposition now, praised themselves. They felt proud on reaching the 11th place, why are they saddened when we have reached 6th?”


The Prime Minister said that the country is now progressing in leaps and bounds in every sector.


Mocking the Congress party further, Modi said that the party has lost its ability to hear the truth. “Ulta Chor Chowkidaar ko daatey,” the Prime Minister remarked referring to the allegations made by the Opposition that his government was destroying institutions. He elaborated on the Congress’ long history of undermining the institutions of the state.

Prime Minister Modi also referred to The Sunday Guardian report which claimed that the Congress party planted fake news in the media of the Indian Army planning coup. He said it was shameful that the party was defaming the country’s Army.

The Opposition has often spread the ‘Faulty-EVMs’ narrative. Narendra Modi also targeted the Congress for their attacks against the Election Commission. He also said that the party was threatening the Judiciary. He also spoke about the Congress party’s long tradition of dismissing state governments on a whim. Targeting Rahul Gandhi, Modi referred to the time when the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty tore apart an ordinance approved by Manmohan Singh’s cabinet.

Modi also remarked that the Congress party could not digest the fact that a person from a humble background was sitting on a seat which they believe is the right of a particular family. During the entire speech, Prime Minister Modi constantly harped on the fact that the Congress party is scared. “Why are you so scared?”

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge had to bear the brunt of Narendra Modi’s sharp wit. “Khargeji is a decent person,” he remarked, “but on every issue he has dissent. What is the compulsion?”

Targeting the Mahagathbandhan, Modi called it a ‘MahaMilavat’ coalition. He stated that “these people meet at Kolkata but won’t be able to see each other’s faces in Kerala.” He said the citizens of India will never elect this ‘MahaMilavat’ coalition.


Vijay Mallya also found a special mention in Modi’s speech. He said, “Those who have fled the country are now crying that ‘I had run off with only Rs. 9,000 crore, but Modi has seized property of Rs 13,000 crore’. You allowed them to loot, we framed laws and made them pay.”

The Congress party undermined India’s defence preparedness, Narendra Modi said. “You committed criminal negligence and the nation will never forget you for it.” In a scathing attack, Modi said that the Congress party doesn’t want Indian Armed Forces to be strong. He said, “I want to say it on the floor of the Parliament that the Indian National Congress does not want our armed forces to be strong. They do not want our security apparatus to be strong. Which companies are they bidding for that they are acting so shamefully?”


Earlier, Arun Jaitley had hinted that Congress was opposing the Rafale deal on the behest of Eurofighter, while replying to Congress allegations over the Rafale deal in Lok Sabha.

Narendra Modi further alleged that not a single defence deal has gone through in Independent India where a middleman wasn’t involved.

In an interesting development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attacked FCRA NGOs and said that the Congress party did not do enough to tackle these institutions who were undermining India’s interests after receiving foreign money. He further asserted that his government has cancelled the registrations of 20,000 such NGO’s and “the number could very well increase in the future.”


Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, Modi said that he was only trying to fulfil Gandhi’s vision of a ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. He was referring to Mahatma Gandhi’s proposal for dissolution of the Congress party after the independence of India. Invoking Ambedkar, he said the Dalit leader was “a visionary when he asserted that joining Congress was like committing suicide.”


Prime Minister Modi also attacked the Congress over the issue of price rise. “Price rise and Congress are a team. The NDA government has worked to keep prices under check. Today 99 items are below the 18 per cent GST slab. Education loans have also become cheaper,” he said.

On the accusations of job crisis against his government, Modi said that 6.35 lakh professionals had emerged over the past 4 years and they were helping provide employment to others as well.


In a further attack, Narendra Modi said, “Arrogance got them down to 44 from 400. Commitment to the nation and our hardwork got us from two to 282.” In his concluding remark, he said that those who have looted the country, they have to be scared. “Darna Zaroori Hai.”

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