In a shocking incident, three juveniles from the Muslim community made an attempt to rape a 5-year-old girl at Bisawar, Uttar Pradesh. Even more shockingly, the accused juveniles have claimed that they were instigated to commit such a crime by a Maulvi.
The accused had manipulated the victim into accompanying them to a secluded area when she returning from tuition. The victim’s two-year-old brother and four-year-old cousin were also abducted. When relatives realized that the children were missing, they went out in search of them. The little girl was found naked in a field near to a school. The other children were also found. The crowd managed to get hold of one juvenile while two others managed to flee. As per reports, they have been arrested since then.
People have been protesting for the arrest of the Maulvi. The incident has affected them deeply. Businessmen refused to open the market on Wednesday until the Maulvi was arrested. However, after reassurances from the police that the Maulvi will soon be arrested, people in the area consented to open the market on Thursday. However, the situation remained tense.
The police are maintaining a heavy presence in the area. A police team is actively trying to trace the Maulvi’s location. The police are patrolling the area as well.
The Union Cabinet on Friday gave a nod, sanctioning a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for India’s first manned spaceflight program called the Gaganyaan.
The Indian Space research organisation (ISRO) has been working steadfast, with an aim to send three Indians to space by 2022 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech.
“When India celebrates the 75th year of Independence in 2022, and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan’, carrying the National Flag,” the PM had announced from the ramparts of the red fort on the occasion of Independence Day.
The ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan had claimed that “This is most ambitious space programme taken up by ISRO till date and essential as it will give a big boost to the Science and Technology development within the country,” further stating, “The ISRO is committed to honouring the wish of PM. This has also been the dream of thousands of scientists and citizens of the country,” Sivan reiterated.
He had recently claimed that ISRO would try to make Gaganyaan ‘more and more’ indigenous by utilising the facilities available in the country.
Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space flight is expected to send three persons into space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km. GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability. Two unmanned Gaganyaan missions would be undertaken prior to sending humans into space.
In September ISRO had unveiled an orange prototype space suit along with the crew model capsule in which all the three astronauts will travel during the mission.
In July this year, ISRO had demonstrated the pad abort test (PAT), or the crew module ejecting from the rocket in case of a failure.
Though being an extremely complex program, if this mission, which was also the dream project of former Prime Minister, Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, materialises, India will proudly be the fourth nation to send a human being into space, after United States, Russia, and China.
Along with working on this complex mission, ISRO has planned to launch 50 satellites in the next three years. The space agency would launch 22 satellites in 2019, the maximum in any year in the history of ISRO.
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission, will also be launched in the January-March window in 2019, instead of this year, as earlier targetted, as the design was changed to enable it to land on the lunar surface. ISRO has tentatively fixed 3rd January 2019 as the launch date for Chandrayaan-2.
The officials of the CBI and ED investigating the AgustaWestland bribery case are looking for the ‘dog’ who has been provided with a ‘bone’ as mentioned in a note suspected to have been written by Christian Michel. As per a report in the Times of India, Christian Michel allegedly wrote a thanking note to his partner GH (Guido Haschke) for the lunch with the message “hope the dog likes the bone” on February 8, 2008. The note has come under the lens of the investigating authorities probing the case.
The investigation agencies are now decoding the conversation between AgustaWestland’s senior officers Leonardo, Michel, Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, on 8 February 2008. The officials have in their possession notes and documents in which all the AgustaWestland functionaries are talking about bringing the Flight Assessment team for the VVIP helicopters, including the CVC, Defense Secretary, Joint Secretary (Air), Air Force Maintenance Command, on board.
The note which is allegedly been written by Michel begins with the organisation of a lunch party to finalize the VVIP chopper deal. In this note, Mitchell allegedly expresses his gratitude to GH Guido Haschke for the lunch on the previous day, with a hope that the ‘dog would have liked the bone’. The CBI and ED officials suspect that the dog mentioned in the note alludes to an Indian decision-maker involved in this contract.
As reported by the TOI, there is a charge against Haschke that he lobbied for Augusta Westland through Tyagi brothers (brothers of former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi). On the other hand, Michel is accused of lobbying 25 times. According to the agencies, Michel was in direct contact with politicians, officers and defence personnel.
The note also reveals that Michel was aware of a team being sent to evaluate America’s Sikorsky S-92 and AW-101and its due return to Delhi on February 14. Michel has also mentioned in the note that the next two months are going to be very difficult and that this is the last chance for them to nail the contract.
It has also been referred in the note that the Central Vigilance Commission Chief was willing to favour AgustaWestland. The Italian Court has mentioned in their verdict many people including CVC in a bribery case to the tune of 8.4 million euros.
“If we present a strong case and the government is involved, then the CVC, which constitutes the policies of most contracts, will accept us,” the note states.
Michelle further writes in this note that the Maintenance Command of the Air Force is ready to deliberate with us on the technical and maintenance issues, while the Defense Secretary and the Joint Secretary will be brought on board later.
On Wednesday, nearly 200 tribal Christian families that had earlier converted to Christianity have returned to Hinduism in a Hindu Dharma Jagran Sammelan organised at the Biliya-Aslona village of Valsad district, Gujarat, reported Times of India.
Kapil Swami, the organiser of the Hindu Dharma Jagran Sammelan, said that he and his supporters were protecting Hinduism in Adivasi areas of Kaprada. In this sammelan, nearly 700 members belonging to 200 families were made to wear ‘kanthi mala’ around their neck after puja was held.
The event was sponsored by Swaminarayan Gyanpith, a USA-based community, to which the sarpanches of nearly 50 villages around Kaprada and other important people were invited. The Swaminarayan sect provides education and caters to the daily needs of the local people.
“We gave idols of Lord Hanuman to our brothers and sisters so that they can install them in their houses and also build a temple in their village. Around 40,000 Adivasis have become Christians in this area in the last two decades. We work to bring them back to our fold. We get support from some non-resident Indians based in the United States of America for our religious activities,” said Kapil Swami.
Amit Patel, a resident of the US said his community will support this activity and said this initiative to bring back adivasis to Hinduism is a good initiative for the Adivasi community.
The sarpanch of Aslona village, Suresh Kamli, said that of the 6,000-odd population of his village, 100 families are Christians who constructed no less than three churches. “They believe they would not fall ill and be saved from evil spirits if they follow Christianity,” he says.
Nirlap Swami, an ascetic belonging to Swaminarayan sect said that religious conversions are a major problem in Adivasi areas. He further added that they have built Hanuman temples to instil faith among Adivasi community. Swami also said that they are trying to provide them with basic education and also fulfil the needs of adivasis.
However, CR Kharsan, Valsad district collector stated that he was not aware of any such function and that only if someone complains can his office take action.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its winning run in the state of Tripura after it secured victory in 11 out of the 11 municipal councils and four out of four seats in Agartala Municipal corporation. After its victory, the BJP will now control 14 out of 20 municipal bodies in the state.
The by-elections for the 14 municipal bodies of Tripura was held on Thursday amidst the call of re-elections by the Congress and CPI-M over the alleged violence against their candidates. The BJP had already secured 91 seats as opposition parties did not field any candidates in those seats and the elections took place to the remaining 67 seats.
The BJP has secured a clean sweep by winning all the eleven municipal bodies that went to polls including the four wards of the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC). The CPI-M had withdrawn its candidates in 35 seats after it had alleged that BJP workers did not allow people to cast their votes.
Expressing happiness over the clean sweep in the by-polls, BJP national secretary and Tripura in charge Sunil Deodhar congratulated Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb and party workers for the astonishing victory.
Again!
Great news coming from Tripura!
Heartiest Congratulations to @BjpBiplab & Karyakartas of @BJP4Tripura on winning 11 out of 11 Municipal councils & 4 out of 4 seats in Agartala Municipal corporation. @INCIndia & @cpimspeak have lost deposits in almost all seats.@BJP4India
The BJP, which came to power after its extraordinary victory against the CPM in the state elections held this year. The BJP had won 36 seats in the 60-member strong Assembly and ended the 20-year old Manik Sarkar government. The humiliating defeat of CPM in the elections had pulled them down to just 16 seats. Recently, BJP also won 96 per cent of the Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti seats and all the 18 Zila Parishad seats in the state.
Reacting to Congress party’s opposition for the movie The Accidental Prime Minister, Anupam Kher has said that Rahul Gandhi should scold his supporters for opposing the movie. The movie is a biopic on former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, and it is based on a book with the same name by Sanjaya Baru, who was media advisor to the former PM. Anupam Kher plays the role of Dr Manmohan Singh in the movie.
Yesterday, Maharashtra unit of Youth Congress sent a letter to the producers of the movie demanding to censor it, and a threat to not allow its release if their demand is not met. It was also reported that the newly elected Congress government in Madhya Pradesh is planning to ban the movie in the state. After the trailer of the movie was released on Youtube yesterday, several Congress leaders have attacked the movie, saying it distorts the facts.
Reacting to these developments, Anupam Kher has said that the movie is based on a book which was published in 2014, and nobody protested against the book. He said that the movie shows the incidents as described in the book, and facts can’t be changed to satisfy people. Kher said that Rahul Gandhi talks about freedom of expression so often, and he should control his party workers. He added the more protests are done against the movie, more publicity it will get.
He said that if a movie is made on Jallianwala Bagh or The Holocaust or any other historical incident, the facts can’t be changed. And they have done the same thing with the movie. The movie was announced two years ago, filmmakers have obtained the necessary certificate from the censor board for the movie before releasing the trailer, and now just 15 days before the release date, Congress party wants to censor it, he said.
In an interview with Arnab Goswami on Republic TV, Anupam Kher said that the incidents shown in the trailer are based on actual incidents happened in the recent past, and nobody can deny that. He stressed that the book was not written by an outsider, it was written by an insider, the media advisor of the PM, who was very close to Dr Singh.
Screengrab from the trailer of The Accidental Prime Minister
He said, if a movie showed a party vice-president tearing apart on ordinance brought by his own government, people would say this is too much filmi drama as such things can’t happen, but Rahul Gandhi did exactly that, and that is what shown in the movie. Similarly, all the other scenes shown in the movie are based on actual incidents, and Congress party can’t deny them, as they are a matter of public domain.
When asked that whether he was doing a caricature of Manmohan Singh, by showing him as a weak person controlled by party high command, Kher said that this is a known fact, which is also depicted in the book by Baru. Talking about the reference to nuclear treaty shown in the trailer of the movie, Kher reminded that it is a well-known fact that Dr Singh had to fight with his party to get the deal cleared.
Talking about the scene when Manmohan Singh offers to resign, Anupam Kher said that during his research for the role, several persons told him that Dr. Singh did offer to resign, which was reported in media also, apart from being mentioned in the book by Sanjaya Baru. The movie depicts the fight between Manmohan Singh and the party, which may not suit some people, but that is the history, he said.
Addressing to Manmohan Singh, Anupam Kher said that when you see the film, you will be happy with the way you are portrayed in the movie. He said that Manmohan Singh will like the movie so much that he will come and hug Kher, and appreciate his work. He has also tweeted saying that after Dr Singh sees the movie, he will also agree that it is 100% accurate depiction.
I am not going to back off. This is my life’s best performance. #DrManmohanSingh will agree after seeing the film that it is a 100% accurate depiction. Will meet the media at 5.30pm at Actor Prepares, Film Industry Welfare Trust, Santacruz. #TheAccidentalPrimeMinisterpic.twitter.com/WwKJNcyVO7
He said that after the movie is released, Manmohan Singh will become a popular leader. Kher also said that he has worked very hard for the role, to get the mannerism and speech of Dr Manmohan Singh right. He stressed that the movie is an authentic portrayal of the former prime minister, and no facts have been changed as accused by the Congress party. “Dr Manmohan Singh who was not only Congress’ PM, he was the PM of the country and as a citizen of the country I have the right to portray him, keeping it in mind that I have to do it in a delicate and sincere manner,” he added.
Anupam Kher also said that The Accidental Prime Minister should be nominated for the Oscars.
Trailer of the film The Accidental Prime Minister starring Anupam Kher was released yesterday. The film is based on the book of the same title written by Sanjaya Baru, media advisor and chief spokesperson of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh from May 2004 to August 2008.
From the trailer, it appears like a dramatised version of how the PMO operated from 10, Janpath during the ten years of UPA rule, something most people believe. However, the movie has rustled up quite a few people.
While youth Congress and other Congress leaders make noise, Congress wishes to take the high moral ground by not banning the movie. However, friendly media which benefited under the patronage of Sonia Gandhi was more than willing to mock a movie that has not even been released yet simply because it seems to mock their masters.
From writing sensational source-based fiction masquerading as journalism, many of these ‘journalists’ turned film critics overnight.
He is a good actor. But so funny that he is playing Baru. Baru sure has some delusions of grandeur
In the run up to the 2014 elections Sanjay Baru came up with his graceless book. Now close to 2019 elections, the same book is being peddled again through a film. Besides Kher, Baru also deserves some position for his efforts!
While others decided to call it a propaganda film.
Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Indu Sarkar, Parmanu, Accidental PM and Uri coming up too. Wonder why they didn’t get a propaganda film made on GST or Notebandi ?
Abusive troll Swati Chaturvedi also didn’t want to be left out of the jokes. She’s upset with the lack of ‘authentic’ Italian accent by the actor playing UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
I just heard the radio teaser of #AccidentalPM & I CANNOT. Stop. Laughing. Is this supposed to be an Italian accent? @INCIndia the film seems like a accidental joke.
Another journalist-turned-politician was upset at the ‘factual errors’ in the depiction of the fictionalised version of a book based on real-life incidents. Which is amusing, considering most of these people have had no issues with so-called historians distorting history and portraying Mughal emperor Aurangzeb as a messiah of peace, rather even encourage it, but a film dramatising a person’s memoir is mocked at and ridiculed.
Prime Minister’s corner office in South Block has no window and even if if it did it would open towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, not North Block. Can’t take such a shoddily researched film seriously. https://t.co/aVicj3g4CT
It is no surprise that the media received massive patronage from the Congress party. In fact, one would imagine that many people who would not even be employed to write the classified ads of a newspaper are today journalists because of a friendly political regime. These friendly journalists have tried their very best to create an illusion of superiority around the Gandhi family.
They have written several op-eds about the resurgence of Rahul Gandhi and others talking about the ethereal grace of Sonia Gandhi. The Congress scams and improprieties have been pushed under the rug and their lies and hypocrisies are almost never called out.
In case of The Accidental Prime Minister, while Congress leadership is pretending to distance itself, its party men have been left free to rabble-rouse while media loyalists are trashing and mocking the movie because it perhaps goes against the very hands that feed – the Gandhi family.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh yesterday hinted towards a comprehensive farm relief plan envisaged by the centre. PM Modi also took the opportunity to claim that the loan waivers alone cannot completely alleviate the distress among the farmers.
Congress is a master at misleading farmers.
Their fake promises and tokenism will not cut ice with the hardworking farmers of India. pic.twitter.com/VgNupyi3ZE
Mounting a fierce attack on Congress, PM Modi said that the election hack of farm loan waivers was used by Congress to mislead the farmers. Articulating his views on the big election bait, for the first time after the BJP’s defeat in the three recent state elections, PM Modi claimed that Congress had made similar promises of farm loan waivers in 2008 but against total farm loans of 6 lac crores, only 60,000 crores were waived off. He also alleged that 35 lacs of the total beneficiaries then had no farmlands or had no farm-related loans, a bog scam even highlighted by the CAG that did not get media coverage because there were already bigger scams being unearthed in other sectors during the UPA rule.
According to a source quoted by the New Indian Express, Modi held a high-level meeting to create a broad plan that would comprehensively address concerns of farmers. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, BJP chief Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh were present at the meeting. Precedents of successful farm relief models implemented in the past in states like Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand were discussed. The source claimed that a relief plan can be announced as early as the first week of January 2019.
Another source quoted by the TOI claimed that the government is deliberating on implementing direct benefit transfer(DBT). The government is weighing on executing the direct benefit transfer scheme modelled on the Telangana system. The source also claimed that the cost of the implementation of such a scheme might run into tunes of Rs 1.25 lakh crore which might be shared between the centre and the states.
Another option the government might employ is ‘price deficiency payment’ wherein the government pays the farmer if the price of the crop falls below the MSP. The centre is contemplating over replicating ‘Bhavantar scheme’ to pay the difference between the MSP and the market rate. The NITI Ayog has also reportedly suggested such a scheme.
Each farmer will need to register the crop name and acreage sewn in the nearest APMC Mandi and if the prices fall below the MSP linked price, the difference will be provided to the farmer via direct benefit transfer in Aadhar linked bank account.
Rahul Gandhi has always been vocal about the supremacy of freedom of speech and expression. He had repeatedly asserted that Prime Minister Modi doesn’t believe in the tenets of the constitutions and is someone who would muzzle the constitutional rights of freedom of expression at the first given opportunity.
Right before the Punjab elections, in fact, a movie that showed Punjab as a drug-addled cesspool found massive support from Rahul.
Punjab has a crippling drug problem. Censoring #UdtaPunjab will not fix it. The government must accept the reality and find solutions.
Right before the election, Congress party and its lackeys promoted the movie to the hilt. Many believed that the movie exaggerated the problem in Punjab, however, that did not stop Congress from using it to political ends. Surprisingly, there has not been a peep out of Rahul about Punjab’s drug problem after the state was won by the party. It later emerged that the numbers touted at the time about Punjab’s drug problems might have not been completely accurate.
Then, movie Mersel which supposedly spread canards about demonetisation was also upheld as a beacon of freedom of speech by Rahul Gandhi. He asserted that Modi was interfering in the film.
Mr. Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don’t try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal
Now, however, Congress is up in arms about a movie called ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’. The movie is based on Sanjaya Baru’s book and shows how the then Congress government was remotely controlled by Sonia Gandhi.
Youth Congress has demanded that the movie is censored. The trailer of the movie was released on Youtube, and it seems the youth Congress is not happy with the portrayal of various characters movie. They have written that ‘facts have been played with and presented in an incorrect manner’. They also say that the way Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Congress party is shown in the movie is not acceptable to them.
While the Madhya Pradesh government has denied banning the movie, Congress seems to be more than happy to let their party goons threaten, create a ruckus and disrupt movies that go against the party or the “image” of the Family.
Congress had shown its hypocrisy similarly during the release of the movie Indu Sarkar. They had resorted to violence and a distraught Madhur Bhandarkar had called Rahul Gandhi out on his hypocritical stand on freedom of expression.
The film Indu Sarkar was a fiction based on the 19-month long Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1970s. Despite Bhandarkar’s assurances that the film was not a biopic on Gandhi’s life, Congress workers and leaders came down heavily on him. Outraged by this, Madhur Bhandarkar had then taken on Twitter to call out Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy.
Then, miffed at the portrayal of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Netflix series ‘Sacred Games’ as ‘fattu’ (coward), a Congress leader from Kolkata filed a complaint against the makers of the show.
Through it all, Rahul Gandhi had mostly maintained a stoic silence, all the while, supporting the ones who said ‘bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah Inshallah” and more recently, the urban Naxals who had been arrested for their role in Koregaon Bhima violence and their involvement in a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister.
It seems evident that Congress is more than happy to muzzle the voices of those who don’t serve their agenda while glorifying the ones who do even if it means encouraging sedition or Naxalism.
Their most favoured excuse seems to be that the expression that doesn’t suit their agenda somehow “distorts” history. This coming from the very people who distorted history for decades is rather peachy. To the ones who thought that it was alright to glamorize a tyrant like Aurangzeb for the sake of secularism all the while, demonising Hindu greats like Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji, history is what suits their larger narrative. For the Congress party, it has always been evident that any event that can act as an ode to the Gandhi family is deemed to be called “history”, while any event, however accurate, should be trashed as “propaganda” because absolutely nothing should compromise on the illusion of greatness that sympathetic elements created around the Gandhi family.
When the Modi government wanted to convert the Teen Murti Marg as an ode to all Prime Ministers of the country and not just Nehru, Congress cried fascism. They said that BJP wanted to dilute “Heritage”. They talked tall on Heritage while their wily lawyers went to court and denied the existence of Lord Ram.
For the Congress, any fact that interfered with their carefully crafted lie is a “distortion” of History and perhaps, that is the reason why this movie is being opposed vociferously. As for the Congress’ stand on Freedom of Expression, a party that imposed the Emergency and has hundreds of instances of muzzling freedom of speech to their credit, hypocrisy seems like a word that cannot truly encompass their duplicitous stand on the matter.
National Spokesperson for the Indian National Congress, Sanjay Jha, has sent Twitter into a frenzy after he made a cryptic tweet on social media. He tweeted, “Coming in the second half of 2019: The Mental Prime Minister. :-))”.
Via Twitter
After carefully considering all possibilities, we reached the conclusion that the cryptic tweet could mean only one of these three things:
Sanjay Jha believes Rahul Gandhi has psychological issues
Infighting has been extremely common in the Congress party in recent times. There were reports of severe infighting between various factions within Congress during the run-up to the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. Even after results came in and they won, the party took several days to quell the infighting amidst their ranks before announcing their Chief Ministerial appointments for the two states.
Therefore, it could very well be that Sanjay Jha has had some trouble with Gandhi Parivar. Considering the fact that the party is extremely hopeful of its chances in 2019 after winning the three Assembly Elections, Jha may have taken the opportunity to take a dig at his party president.
2. Sanjay Jha has given up on 2019 Lok Sabha Elections
It could also be that Sanjay Jha believes the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections is certain. Therefore, he is mocking Narendra Modi by calling him ‘mental’. But there’s a significant problem with this theory. If Jha was indeed referring to Narendra Modi, one expects to him say ‘coming back’. Also, it does not make sense for him to refer to Narendra Modi in such a manner as he is the Prime Minister even now. Hence, there was no need for him to add the context of Lok Sabha elections.
3. It’s an incoherent rant
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is the most accomplished politician when it comes to saying things that make no sense whatsoever. It could very well be that close proximity to Rahul Gandhi has affected Jha as well. Not that he used to make a lot of sense earlier but the cryptic tweet was definitely deep into ‘Rahul Gandhi territory’ unless it was directed at Rahul Gandhi.
Conclusion
Unless Jha was taking a dig at Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the tweet makes no sense at all. If indeed this is so, then it appears that Jha’s uncanny resemblance to Steve Jobs is limited to facial features alone. Also, it is not the first time that Sanjay Jha has scored a massive self-goal. Earlier, he had implied Karti Chidambaram as a fugitive financial fraudster, same as Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya.
Social Media reactions
As expected, social media was quick to latch on to Jha’s tweet.
Only if Congress wins and Congressi becomes PM. Which incidentally is not happening. https://t.co/DgzCwI4VFn
Regardless of the person it is aimed at, it is extremely shameful for a national spokesperson of a political party to address the Prime Minister of India in such a fashion. The tweet is also hurtful towards those suffering from psychological issues, people who already suffer from a host of debilitating conditions. It is improper and unacceptable that a senior politician is perpetuating stigmas against mental health.
