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Samajwadi Party leader seen abusing and thrashing women with sticks, expelled from the Party after video went viral

OpIndia Staff
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Samajwadi Party leader seen abusing and thrashing women with sticks, expelled from the Party after video went viral

A deeply disturbing video, which is reported to be that of Samajwadi Party leader Deepchand Sonkar, brother of Samajwadi Party MLA and former Minister Jagdish Sonkar, has emerged in which his goons are seen brutally thrashing some women with a stick. The video reportedly relates to an incident that took place on Dec 14 in the Sarai Khwaja police station area of Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh. In the video, Sonkar can be seen abusing the women while one person is beating them with a stick.


The police had initially registered a Non-Cognizable Report (NCR) in the matter before the video went viral. It was only after the video went public that an FIR was lodged by the police against Karanja Kala Block Pramukh Deepchand Sonkar and five others. As per reports, the matter relates to a land dispute, in which the people of Dalit Basti were demanding a passage through an area. When Sonkar went to the place for some block related work, the women started a protest demanding a passage. They said that they will not let the work proceed unless their demand is met. After this, the Block Head ordered his men to chase them away, and one of his henchmen beat them with a stick. The condition of one of the victims is reported to be critical.

After the video of the incident went viral, the Samajwadi Party took action against its leader almost after a week after the incident. The Party posted a tweet informing that all the people involved in the incident including Deepchnad Sonkar have been expelled from the Party.


Samajwadi Party can be seen putting blame on the State government alleging the support of government officials in the shameful incident. Deepchand Sonkar and three others are absconding while Shamsher Singh, one of the accused, has been arrested in the case as told by Station Officer.

Officer who played crucial role in a surgical strike dismissed from service on sexual harassment charges

OpIndia Staff
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Officer who played crucial role in a surgical strike dismissed from service on sexual harassment charges

Army Court Martial has recommended dismissal of a Major General who played a crucial role in one of the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on sexual harassment charges.


The alleged incident took place two years back and he has been charged under section 354A of the IPC and Army Act 45 which is related to unbecoming conduct of officers in the force. The lawyer of the officer said they will be appealing against the order.

The officer was posted in the Northeast when the alleged incident took place in 2016. In the plea filed before the Armed Forces Tribunal, the officer has claimed he is a victim of factionalism within the Army which has allegedly arisen due to the appointment of the new Army Chief that year.

Why would Taslima Nasreen live in India if there was environment of fear in the country: Author Balendu Dwivedi on Naseeruddin Shah’s remarks

OpIndia Staff
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Why would Taslima Nasreen live in India if there was environment of fear in the country: Author Balendu Dwivedi on Naseeruddin Shah’s remarks

As reported in Jagran, author Balendu Dwivedi, reacting actor Naseeruddin Shah’s ‘rising intolerance‘ remarks, said that he does not agree with Naseeruddin’s statements. He said that if there was an environment of fear in the country why would Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen choose to live in India of all the countries in the world.

“I am not aware of the context in which Naseeruddin Shah, who is one of the best actors, made the statements about the atmosphere of fear in the country. But I keep travelling across the country for various programmes. And based on my experience I can claim that there is no atmosphere of fear among the people. Therefore, it is not possible for me to agree with Naseer Saheb’s statement,” he said.

While speaking at Indore Literature Festival Dwivedi said, “India is the only country which provides complete freedom to intellectuals. Otherwise, why would Taslima Nasreen choose to live in India of all the world”.

Naseeruddin Shah had recently stirred controversy when in a TV interview in reference to the Bulandsheher incident he said that the death of a cow was being given more importance than the death of a police officer. He had later clarified that he made the statements as a ‘worried Indian’. “I have said this before too, but I don’t know why this time I am being labelled as a traitor. It is very strange”, he had said.

BJP President Amit Shah announces the NDA alliance in Bihar: 17 seats each for JD(U) and BJP, 6 for LJP

OpIndia Staff
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BJP President Amit Shah announces the NDA alliance in Bihar: 17 seats each for JD(U) and BJP, 6 for LJP

After many speculations on the NDA alliance in Bihar, BJP President Amit Shah finally announced the seat sharing of allies in Bihar for upcoming Lok-Sabha elections. During the announcement, CM Nitish Kumar, RLD leaders Ram Vilas Paswan and his son Chirag Paswan were also present.


CM Nitish Kumar’s JDU which re-joined NDA this year will fight on 17 seats out of 40. Lok Jansjkati Party (LJP) headed by Ram Vilas Paswan, will fight on 6 seats and also reportedly get one seat in Rajya Sabha. BJP will contest only on 17 seats, while it had won 22 seats in Bihar out of 30 they contested in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However, it has not been decided what seats will go to which party.


All eyes were set on LJP’s seat-share, as the party had expressed discontent towards NDA over the past few days. Party had demanded more share of seats after Rashtriya Lok Samata Party leader (RLSP) joined UPA alliance in Bihar along with RJD. However, after the announcement, he said that all the discontent and disagreement have been resolved and thanked Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for resolving them.

The NDA alliance announcement in Bihar, was a response to the UPA alliance, made by Congress, RJD and Jitan Ram Manji’s Hindustan Ava Party, and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP who has recently defected from NDA.

The debt-trap diplomacy of China with Pakistan through Belt and Road initiative takes a military turn

OpIndia Staff
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The debt-trap diplomacy of China with Pakistan through Belt and Road initiative takes a military turn

According to a report by the New York Times, the economic corridor between China and Pakistan is turning into more of a military corridor, as both countries are jointly preparing aircraft and weapons in a confidential manner.

According to the report, just weeks after President Donald Trump announced the suspension of billions of dollars of security aid to Pakistan, the Pakistani and Chinese officials are putting the final touches on a confidential deal to expand Pakistan’s building of Chinese military jets, weaponry and other hardware.

Beijing is currently aiming at manufacturing JF-17 Thunder jets with Pakistan, which will reach completion soon. The Jets are getting manufactured at Pakistan’s military-run Kamra Aeronautical Complex in Punjab Province. In addition to this, China is also working on the Beidou Satellite Navigation System with Islamabad. It is an alternate navigation system that China is developing to replace America’s Global Positioning System or GPS. Beidou can be used for civilian and also for military navigation. It can tactically aid Pakistan in launching missiles and aircraft with precision.

Chinese Language in road signs in Pakistan, a sign of things to come

This way, according to Ney York Times Report, China is also transforming Pakistan into a military showcase to woo other Muslim countries into buying Chinese technology replacing USA ones.

“In Pakistan, China has found an amenable ally with much to recommend it: shared borders and a long history of cooperation; a hedge in South Asia against India; a large market for arms sales and trade with potential for growth; a wealth of natural resources,”  the report said.

The report also directs attention to the Gwadar port, which can be harnessed by China to counter USA and India’s presence in the Arabian Sea.

“Military analysts predict that China could use Gwadar to expand the naval footprint of its attack submarines, after agreeing in 2015 to sell eight submarines to Pakistan in a deal worth up to $6 billion. China could use the equipment it sells to the South Asian country to refuel its own submarines, extending its navy’s global reach.”

The report adds that Gwadar Port also grants Beijing a strategic position to counter against India and the United States to the point of naval blockades, if anytime tensions at sea escalate.

Time and again, USA has warned countries like Pakistan of China’s dept-trap diplomacy. Vice-President Mike Pence had said that China’s seizure of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port is a strategic development in expanding China’s naval out-reach.

Sri Lanka had to hand-over its strategic port of Hambantota on a 99-year lease to China after it found it difficult to repay loans taken under the former PM Rajapaksa. This also raised concerns for India, as Hambantota can be used by China to eye Southern Parts of our country.

“Just ask Sri Lanka, which took on massive debt to let Chinese state companies build a port of questionable commercial value, it may soon become a forward military base for China’s growing blue-water navy.” Pence had said.

All the military projects undertaken by China and Pakistan are designated as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is a  $1 trillion chain of infrastructure development programs stretching across some 70 countries. China is investing $62 billion in developing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The US and other economic watchdogs have also warned countries getting involved with China’s BRI, as being a China’s aim of spreading its neo-colonial tentacles. A similar fate was witnessed by Greece after it handed one of their busiest Port Piraeus to China.

China has vehemently rejected the allegations of New York Times and reiterated that OBOR initiative is purely for economic intent.

IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘hate tracker’ tries to show they are ‘neutral’, exposes their anti-Hindu bias further

OpIndia Staff
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IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘hate tracker’ tries to show they are ‘neutral’, exposes their anti-Hindu bias further

On 31st October, Washington Post (WaPo) had published a report titled ‘Rising Hate in India’ based on shockingly biased and faulty data compiled by IndiaSpend.com. Many pointed out how WaPo was furthering a partisan agenda.

Swati Goel Sharma, a journalist associated with Swarajya magazine, called out the selective data on communal violence in India, used by IndiaSpend. She demonstrated, with painstaking detail, how the data used by IndiaSpend was full of bias and cherrypicked to suit a particular narrative.

When Swati called out Washington Post on Twitter, she was referred to as a ‘troll’.


After prevaricating for days, IndiaSpend tried to explain their bias and responded to the acts of omissions and commissions Swati had pointed out. However, this attempt ended up exposing IndiaSpend further.

Swati, on Twitter, gave a point-by-point rebuttal of IndiaSpend’s attempted explanation, which showed how this supposed data-driven journalism attempt was nothing but a propagandist approach to further a communal agenda.


Swati points out that in April 2018, when 38-year old Dalit man Vidharam Katheria was bludgeoned to death by a group of Muslim men over a family dispute, it was not included in IndiaSpend’s ‘hate tracker’ because there was no ‘evidence’ the crime was motivated due to victim’s religion. However, in September 2018 when one Azhar Khan was beaten up for fishing near a temple, it gets included as a hate crime even though the motive were nowhere religious. Additionally, as per IndiaSpend’s data, the perpetrators of the crime was unknown.

In January 2018, the severed head of one Palakuri Ramesh Goud was found on a flagpost near a mosque, in an area thickly populated by Muslims. His body was traced about a kilometre away. This does not get included in the ‘hate tracker’ because ‘police did not find any communal angle to crime’. However, when Junaid was killed over seat dispute in train, it gets included in ‘hate crime’ despite the fact that the court had given a verdict that it was not a hate crime.

In August this year, one Babu Khan was beaten up in a mosque for participating in the Kanwar Yatra. But it was not included in ‘hate tracker’ because the religion of victim as well as perpetrators is Muslim. However, when a Dalit man was allegedly slapped and harassed for converting to Islam by Hindus, it is still a hate crime.

These are just three examples. Swati’s entire thread gives a point-to-point rebuttal exposing IndiaSpend’s anti-Hindu bias which it camouflages under the veil of neutrality.

This is not the only time propaganda websites have shown their anti-Hindu bias in their supposed objective analysis. We had earlier reported how Hindustan Times had also launched a biased ‘hate tracker’ which had similar biased reporting and factual flaws. IndiaSpend’s ‘fact-checker’ website also launched a ‘tracker’ which tried to track ‘cow-related’ crimes‘. That data was also equally flawed and biased.

Abhishek Banerjee, a columnist with OpIndia, had written about how IndiaSpend have regularly indulged in peddling this narrative. They had earlier filed a report how 87 people had died in cow-related violence since 2010, of which 97% of the crimes happened after Modi came to power. The above ‘interactive fact-check’ map is an extension of the same report’. As can be seen even then that their ‘research’ was based on ‘Google search’ with particular keywords.

Molestation accused Vinod Dua maliciously edits video clip of Nitin Gadkari to claim Gadkari spoke against Modi govt

OpIndia Staff
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Molestation accused Vinod Dua maliciously edits video clip of Nitin Gadkari to claim Gadkari spoke against Modi govt

Vinod Dua, a left-wing propagandist accused of sexually harassing a filmmaker has come back with another set of fake news to pursue propaganda against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the NDA by doctoring one of Gadkari’s interviews.

On December 21, HW News, where Vinod Dua joined recently, published an exclusive interview with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. In the interview, Gadkari talked about how hundreds of projects were stalled when he took over the charge of the ministry, and how he revived the projects with various measures.

Vinod Dua used Gadkari’s comments in the interview in episode 7 of his video blog titled The Vinod Dua Show to suggest that Gadkari was blaming his own government for stalled projects. Dua’s show contains a clip of the interview where Gadkari is blaming the government, but does not say which government. Dua goes on to say that this proves growing dissent in the BJP, and suggests after Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha etc, now people from RSS like Nitin Gadkari are also speaking against the government.

According to Dua, Gadkari, who is now Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, stated that there were 403 stalled projects concerning the department and 75% of those projects were stalled due to the policies of the government.

But now it has emerged that Dua used a carefully edited portion of Gadkari’s interview to create an impression of a rift in BJP. Dua carefully edits the video to claim that the ‘government’ which Gadkari referred to was the present NDA government led by Narendra Modi.

Responding to Vinod Dua’s comments, Nitin Gadkari’s office posted the full video of that portion of the interview, where it is clearly seen that Nitin Gadkari was indeed talking about mismanagement during UPA government. The original clip exposes Vinod Dua’s propaganda as Gadkari in his interview goes on to say that it was UPA government’s policy paralysis which had affected the completion of the projects. Gadkari in his interview clearly states that the UPA government had not issued any environmental clearances to various infrastructure projects. In the interview, Gadkari also added that how he addressed the issue of stalled projects and reduced NPAs after taking charge of the department contrary to Dua’s claims of increase of stalled projects during NDA government.

After the rebuttal by Nitin Gadkari, episode 7 of Nitin Gadkari has been removed from both HW news website and Youtube where the show is hosted. The link to the page on the website returns a 404 error.

Google search shows the link to the now deleted episode 7 of Vinod Dua’s show

The full interview of Gadkari is still there on the HW News website, which clearly shows that he was blaming UPA government. Despite that, Vinod Dua chose to use an edited portion of the interview to build a fake narrative about a fictitious rift in the party.

Vinod Dua’s attempt to discredit the NDA government led by Prime Minister Modi by using a doctored video is not surprising as Dua has a track record of resorting to this sort of unethical and shoddy journalism to target the BJP. Vinod Dua, who was earlier associated with another left-wing propaganda news website The Wire had successfully managed to peddle their false narratives without being held accountable.

Vinod Dua has also been accused of sexually harassing and molesting a filmmaker Nishtha Jain. After Nishitha Jain accused Dua, another lady filmmaker Sunita Thakur had come forward and accused Dua of inappropriate behaviour.

Despite these allegations, Dua had continued to publish videos for propaganda website The Wire and Dua had described the allegations of sexual harassment on himself as ‘keechad‘ (mud) virtually claiming that women coming out with their accounts of sexual harassment were indulging in mudslinging.

Andhra Pradesh CM calls upon his arch nemesis Telangana CM KCR to form an anti-Modi alliance

OpIndia Staff
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Andhra Pradesh CM calls upon his arch nemesis Telangana CM KCR to form an anti-Modi alliance

The upcoming Lok Sabha elections of 2019, is bringing many arch-nemesis together to counter Modi wave. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has invited Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, who recently returned to the throne with a thumping majority, to form an anti-Modi alliance together.

Speaking at an India-Today conclave, CM Naidu said, “He (KCR) is welcome, to form a government, any such alliance of regional parties will have to take support either from Congress or BJP or give support to either of the two national parties. KCR has to make a choice.”

In recently concluded assembly elections, CM Naidu’s TDP had allied with Congress to fight against K Chandrashekar Rao’s TRS in Telangana. However, Rao returned to his throne with a thumping majority, giving a jolt to Congress-TDP alliance. Following which, K Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha had expressed the party’s decision to form a ‘federal front’, that is free of either Congress and BJP.

“A federal front is being floated. We believe that a neutral platform should be established which is free of both BJP and Congress. Our agenda is to address the people of this nation. There have been various political groupings in the country which failed while few succeeded.” K Kavitha had said.

Responding to which, CM Naidu had said this move of forming a federal front by K Rao will result in splitting of votes and ultimately favouring BJP.

At the conclave, Naidu reiterated his stand and said that regional forces, can only choose between Congress and BJP, and there is no way around. He asked K Rao to make a choice and become part of Congress alliance.

“Who is KCR? He was part of TDP, a minister in my government. He parted ways. He can always come back.” Naidu said referring to the fact that K Rao was once a part of TDP, which he joined under the leadership of founder NT Rama Rao. KC Rao had left TDP in 2001, and formed his own party to bolster demand of separate state of Telangana.

CM Naidu, who is trying to engineer an alliance, has remained non-committal on the PM face for it. At the conclave, he discarded Tamil Nadu DMK chief Stalin’s proposal of making Rahul Gandhi the PM face for the alliance in 2019.

“I made it very clear, we should not announce a candidate today. My stand is, post-election we will decide”, he added calling Stalin’s remark “his party’s stand” and not that of the opposition.

CM Naidu, who broke from BJP-led NDA this year, criticised Modi government of neglecting the aspirations of Andhra Pradesh’s people.

Naidu said that the BJP does not respect the democratic institutions. He accused PM Modi of misusing the government agencies like CBI and ED against his MPs, MLAs and other functionaries. When told by the journalist that according to Centre his MPs are allegedly involved in corruption, therefore, they are being raided, Naidu taunted, “Their MPs (BJP MPs) have not come from heaven. How many cases are there against Amit Shah”, he questioned.

Protestors block 11 women out of the 50-member group women from an NGO who tried to trek the Sabarimala shrine

OpIndia Staff
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Protestors block 11 women out of the 50-member group women from an NGO who tried to trek the Sabarimala shrine

Protests have erupted once again at Pamba, the foothills of the Sabarimala temple, on Sunday as 11 women all below the age 50 years tried to trek the hilltop shrine. The women were escorted to Pamba by police teams. Out of the 11 women who arrived at Pamba reportedly around 3:30 in the morning, only 6 plan to visit the shrine while other 5 have accompanied them to show solidarity.

The women belong to Manithi, a Chennai based outfit that reportedly works for women empowerment, which had announced that 50 women from their NGO would be visiting the Lord Ayyappa Temple. The group has women from different states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala who are planning to enter the shrine which bars the entry of women between the age of 10-50 years.

The women were blocked on the way by the devotees who started the Namajapa protests as the women tried to trek through the traditional forest path about five kilometers from the shrine. The women are holding a protest at the Pamba Ganapathi temple. The coordinator of Manithi, Selvi, claimed that women are real devotees and were following the Sabarimala rituals. “Since we are a larger group, we hope we would be able to enter Sabarimala. Most of us are between 20 and 30 years old. A few women believe what’s the guarantee we would live to above 50 to worship here later? Swamy Ayyappa will protect us,” she said.

One of the women said, “We are strategically moving. There are many Dalit women also who are reaching Sabarimala for darshan today. The state and the police have to show enough will to ensure that we can have our rights. We all have taken the required fast (for the darshan)”.

Thilakavathi, another woman from the group, said, “Priests of the local temple at Pamba did not cooperate with us and declined to get our ‘irumudikettu’ (sacred offering to the God) ready as per custom. So we did it on our own”.

On September 28, the Supreme Court had passed a verdict allowing the entry of women of all age groups into the temple. So far, no women between the age group of 10-50 years been able to visit the shrine due to continuous protests by the devotees who want to save the temple traditions.

Mother of all ironies: Pakistan PM Imran Khan wants to ‘teach’ Modi government how to treat minorities

Editorial Desk
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Mother of all ironies: Pakistan PM Imran Khan wants to ‘teach’ Modi government how to treat minorities

Actor Naseeruddin Shah’s statement that he is scared for his children’s lives in India now has resonated with the not-so-friendly-neighbour across the border. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken it upon himself to show the Modi government ‘how to treat minorities’. Referring to Shah’s statement, Khan said, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had ‘understood’ this and because of this very ‘intolerance’, Pakistan was formed.

A bit rich from the person who is widely known as a terrorist sympathiser. More so from a country where anyone who is not a Muslim is looked down upon as non-believer or a kafir. And not just Hindus or Sikhs, but there has been a regular purging against Muslims of the Ahmadiya faith. In September this year, the Pakistan government dismissed economist because of his Ahmadiya faith.

The minorities in Pakistan have reduced from 23% in 1947 to a mere 3-4% of the population now after militant groups were created to target Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians. On the other hand, in India, the population of Muslims in India has gone from 9.8% in 1951 census to 14.23% in 2011.

In Pakistan, Christians and Ahmadis have been displaced within the country and have had to either flee the country or seek asylum elsewhere due to lack of protection and constant threat of the draconian blasphemy laws in Pakistan. In fact, historians in Pakistan itself say how declaring itself as ‘Muslim state’ the country sowed the seeds of intolerance by alienating other religions.

And while religious minorities are escaping from Pakistan, the minorities from Bangladesh and Myanmar are illegally migrating to India and want to settle here.

This haughtiness of Imran Khan is not new. Earlier, too, Khan had taken a dig on India’s stand of calling off talks after kidnapping and killing of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir. Perhaps introspecting and fixing things in their own country first before trying to teach India lessons would do Khan good.

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