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As Congress factions create chaos, Rahul Gandhi quotes Tolstoy and Congress tweets ‘game’ links

OpIndia Staff
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As Congress factions create chaos, Rahul Gandhi quotes Tolstoy and Congress tweets ‘game’ links

The Assembly Elections in three states, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh saw Congress successfully push BJP out of power. The results came as a shock to BJP supporters and a massive sigh of relief for those hoping to see a resurgent Congress and an ever-evolving Rahul Gandhi succeed.

However, the results were marred with Congress factions warring among themselves. Several leaders vying for the Chief Ministerial posts in the states and their supporters were seen indulging in an internal war before the decision was taken by the Congress High Command.

Today, news emerged that even before a decision was reached, a faction of Congress in Madhya Pradesh put up posters hailing Kamal Nath as their Chief Minister, presumably, to pressurise the high command.

As the deliberations were on, which included Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whose husband faces a probe in Rajasthan, reports of violence started trickling in.

It was reported that Congress supporters and workers clashed amongst each other in Chhattisgarh over the selection of Chief Ministers.

Similar reports trickled in from Rajasthan where supporters of Sachin Pilot blocked roads in Karauli over speculations of Chief Minister selection.

While the states simmered because of Congress leaders and workers, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party seemed to be having a merry time.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to quote Leo Tolstoy.


Many speculated that perhaps Rahul Gandhi was sending a message to the young guns that time is on their side and they need to keep patience while the old guard like Kamal Nath, who is also accused in the 1984 Sikh genocide, takes charge.

In the meantime, the official Congress handle displayed its juvenility by tweeting a “game” link called “Catch Corrupt Modi”.


It is indeed tragic that the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi are indulging in frivolous tweeting while the states that gave him a resounding mandate are simmering because of his own workers.

Transported 80 lakh tonnes of material through inland waterway on Ganga, plan to transport 280 lakh tonnes next year: Nitin Gadkari

OpIndia Staff
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Transported 80 lakh tonnes of material through inland waterway on Ganga, plan to transport 280 lakh tonnes next year: Nitin Gadkari

Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari spoke at the India Economic Forum 2018 on Monday. From the work done in his Ministry to absconding businessman Vijay Mallya, the Minister talked about various other things.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJym0gyo_x4]

On the issue of employment, Gadkari said that the investment whether public, private or government, can only be called productive if it helps in employment generation because employment generation, he feels, is the only way to solve the problems of poverty, hunger and unemployment.

Talking about the inland waterway on Ganga, the Minister informed that he is working on creating inland waterways which will bring down the cost of transport significantly. He claimed to have transported 80 lakh tonnes of material through the recently started inland waterway on river Ganga and aims to transport 280 lakh tonnes of material through it next year.

When asked to comment on Vijay Mallya, Gadkari said that Mallya had been paying his dues for the last 40 year, he defaulted only once. Every business has risks, if a mistake is bona fide, the person should be assisted, he added. It is not right to call a person fraud instantly if he commits a mistake. This mentality is not right.

To the allegation on his government of destroying the institutions in reference to the recent developments in the RBI, the Minister replied that institutions are bound to work according to the policy laid down by the federal government. It is the government which is answerable for the economic situation in the country and not the RBI. He added that the RBI is independent but it cannot lay down the policies. Being a part of the government it and is bound by the economic vision laid down by the Finance Ministry.

He expressed hope that BJP will again form the government after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress workers clash in Chhattisgarh over selection of CM candidate reports TV9 Gujarati

OpIndia Staff
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Congress workers clash in Chhattisgarh over selection of CM candidate reports TV9 Gujarati

Even as Congress workers in Rajasthan took to violence to show their support to their leader for the post of the chief minister, reports have poured in that Chhattisgarh Congress workers, too, clashed over CM selection. As reported by TV9 Gujarati, clashes broke out between supporters of Bhupesh Baghel and T. S. Singh Deo amidst demands of Baghel being chosen as the chief minister.


Earlier Congress supporters in Madhya Pradesh had put up posters congratulating ‘chief minister’ Kamal Nath even before any official announcement comes through.

Even as Congress fought the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, it had its own fair share of internal battles. In Madhya Pradesh, swords were drawn between Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia over candidate selection while Scindia and Kamal Nath supporters indulged in poster-wars.

In Rajasthan, too, Congress leaders Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, both frontrunners in the race to the post of chief minister, had their own share of infighting.

Statue of Unity town to get its own world class railway station

Jhankar Mohta
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Statue of Unity town to get its own world class railway station

In its effort to boost tourism, the Indian Railways are now planning to develop a world class railway station in Kevadiya town, which is at a distance just 3.5 km away from the Statue of Unity in Gujarat.

The foundation stone for the same is scheduled to be laid by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on December 15. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Governor Om Prakash Kohli will also be present in the foundation stone laying function, sources claimed.

The Statue of Unity, which stands at 182 meters tall, is the world’s tallest statue, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. It is India’s tribute to India’s first deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contributions. The Statue of Unity was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2018, which also marked the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, the Ironman of India.

This astounding piece of art is located in Gujarat’s Narmada district and to reach it, one has to reach Kevadiya first.

Currently, there is no direct air or train connectivity to Kevadiya. The nearest stations to Kevadiya are Vadodara (71.94 km), Bharuch (75.36 km) and Ankleshwar (77.95 km). A smaller station, Miyagam Karjan is 63.02 km from the town. People travelling by air have to first reach Surat, which is almost 83 km away from Kevadiya town. From the Ahmedabad airport, the Statue is almost 200 Km away.

During the first 10 days of its opening, the monument had already been visited by around 1 lakh tourists. But sources believed that the main issue that plagued the area was the connectivity issue. In order to resolve the same, the Indian Railways have taken up this responsibility to give the town its own world-class railway station.

“This will be a modern railway station and will see huge footfall. Other than a boost in tourism, the project will lead to development in the area, create employment among other things,” a source said.

An officer of the Western Railway said that “the plan to come up with the railway station near the statue is being implemented by the Railway Ministry after the PMO asked it to develop a state-of-the-art station with a view to increase the tourist footfall and boost local trade”. The officer informed that the Railway Board has sanctioned the conversion of 18-km Dabhoi-Chandod narrow gauge into broad gauge line and extension from Chandod to Kevadia Colony by constructing a new 32-km line.

This Statue is being seen as the latest and the biggest tourist attraction in Gujarat and the Government is trying to put in the best of their effort to ensure that this project helps in boosting the tourism sector in Gujarat.

Rajasthan: Sachin Pilot’s supporters block road in Karauli over speculations on chief ministerial appointment

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Sachin Pilot’s supporters block road in Karauli over speculations on chief ministerial appointment

As per reports, supporters of Rajasthan Chief Minister hopeful Sachin Pilot have blocked a road in Karauli, Rajasthan.


Pilot’s supporters also appear to be running amok with visuals where they can be seen huddled around a burning object with heavy smoke billowing from it.


As per CNN News18, Pilot is believed to have the support of over 2/3rd of the elected Congress representatives. Apart from them, 10 independents and a BSP MLA have also lent their support to Pilot. Under such circumstances, his supporters believe their favoured leader deserves to be the Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

Meanwhile, Pilot has appealed to party workers to maintain peace and decorum. He has said that he has full faith in the leadership and will welcome whatever Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi decide. He urged the party workers to uphold the honour of the party.

We have earlier reported on the infighting in the Congress camp even as campaigning was on ahead of the Assembly elections. A similar situation is also being witnessed in Madhya Pradesh between Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath. There has been no official announcement yet from the Congress party regarding their choice of CM for the states they have won. An announcement is expected soon. However, rumours have been flying thick and fast that Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot are the most likely choices.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the severe infighting between different factions in the Congress camp will give Congress President Rahul Gandhi plenty to worry about. For the interests of the party, the Gandhi Parivar will look to end the speculations over their Chief Ministerial appointments as soon as possible.

Congress supporters congratulate ‘chief minister’ Kamal Nath even before official announcement is made

OpIndia Staff
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Congress supporters congratulate ‘chief minister’ Kamal Nath even before official announcement is made

Posters declaring Congress leader Kamal Nath as new chief minister of Madhya Pradesh have emerged outside Congress office in Bhopal ahead of official announcement.


On the other hand, Jyotiraditya Scindia’s supporters have also gathered outside Congress office with posters supporting Scindia as the chief minister.


His supporters were also found performing a ‘havan’ for his appointment as the chief minister.


Even as Congress fought the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, it had its own fair share of internal battles. In Madhya Pradesh, swords were drawn between Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia over candidate selection while Scindia and Kamal Nath supporters indulged in poster-wars.

In Rajasthan, too, Congress leaders Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, both frontrunners in the race to the post of chief minister, had their own share of infighting.

Chief minister hopefuls of both the states have met Congress President Rahul Gandhi and an announcement on the same is expected shortly.

Priyanka Gandhi part of selection process of Congress CM in the state where her husband faces probe

OpIndia Staff
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Priyanka Gandhi part of selection process of Congress CM in the state where her husband faces probe

As per reports, Priyanka Gandhi will be at Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s residence when the decision on the appointment of Chief Ministers in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is made. Priyanka Gandhi is reported to have been present when Rajasthan CM candidates Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot went to Delhi to meet Rahul Gandhi.

Priyanka Gandhi’s involvement in the process raises a shade of inappropriateness as her husband, Robert Vadra, is facing a probe in Rajasthan. Vadra was recently summoned for the third time by the Enforcement Directorate in the Bikaner land deal money laundering case after he missed the first two.

In September 2015, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), alleging that Sky Light Hospitality, owned by Robert Vadra, had bought a piece of land in Kolayat, Bikaner, on the cheap and sold it at an extremely high premium through illegal transactions.

Sky Light is accused of fraudulently acquiring land in Bikaner meant for the rehabilitation of poor villagers. Sky Light has been allegedly involved in similar transactions in Haryana and a probe was recommended earlier by the Justice SN Dhingra commission against Bhupinder Singh Hooda which alleged that the former Haryana CM and some of his government officials had been involved in suspicious land deals with Sky Light Hospitality. Sky Light is also under the scanner of the Income Tax department for alleged irregularities in financial transactions in their land deals in Rajasthan and Haryana.

Mallya carried 300 bags and cargo when he fled: ED demolishes Mallya’s claims that he did not ‘flee’ the country

OpIndia Staff
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Mallya carried 300 bags and cargo when he fled: ED demolishes Mallya’s claims that he did not ‘flee’ the country

The Enforcement Directorate, in a special court on Wednesday, countering the claims made by Vijay Mallya’s lawyer, said: “Who goes to attend a meeting with 300 bags”.

Vijay Mallya’s lawyer, Amit Desai had claimed that the liquor baron had left India in March 2016 only to attend an event in Geneva and did not flee the country.

Amit Desai disputed the ED’s claims on Tuesday in front of the special judge for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases, MS Azmi, by reiterating that his client did not leave the country secretly as claimed by the ED.

“There was no secret departure. He left the country to attend a planned meeting (of World Motor Sport in Geneva, Switzerland),” he said.

However, ED counsel DN Singh countered Desai’s claim by saying that “they don’t have anything to show that he left India to attend a meeting. Who goes to attend a meeting with 300 bags and huge cargo,” he added.

These arguments proceeded as the ED had moved a special court in Mumbai, seeking to declare Vijay Mallya a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA).

Following the December 10 decision by the UK court wherein the court ordered Mallya’s extradition who is wanted in India for a Rs 9000 crore scam, Mallya’s lawyer on Tuesday sought dismissal of ED’s plea to declare him a fugitive, citing that he only left India to attend a meeting.

Desai argued that unlike his client, for anyone to be declared a fugitive he or she has to fall under two criteria’s. Firstly that the person has fled from the country to avoid investigations and secondly that the accused refuses to return.

However, Singh confirmed that Mallya did qualify under both these categories by saying that “despite summons and three NBW warrants issued against him, Mallya refused to join the probe. The extradition process is a proof enough that he was not willing to return,” he said.

Singh further clarified that Mallya had tried to elude citing lame excuses, such as the case being ‘politically motivated’ and also citing the ‘bad conditions of the jails in India’ as a reason for not returning.

The ED also countered Mallya’s lawyers’ claim that the FEOA was “draconian”. Singh clarified that it was just an ‘Act’ to bring back a person to India to join probe and face trial for offenses listed under it.

Singh also pointed out to the court that even after the extradition orders have been meted out by the UK court, there has been no statements from Mallya or his counsel regarding their future course of action, as in “when he is coming or how he is coming,” the ED counsel added.

Vijay Mallya, facing charges of defaulting on loans to the tunes of Rs 9000 crores, ran away to the UK on March 2, 2016. The Indian government along with the CBI and ED are making all possible efforts to bring back the offender back to India.

Loan defaulter Vijay Mallya congratulates Congress on assembly elections victory

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Loan defaulter Vijay Mallya congratulates Congress on assembly elections victory

Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya who fled India after defaulting on loans seems to have found new joy after the victory of Congress party in the recent state elections.

Interestingly, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had initially liked the congratulatory tweet of fugitive Vijay Mallya but later unliked it after it went viral.


Vijay Mallya in his tweet congratulated Rajasthan PCC Chief Sachin Pilot and Madhya Pradesh campaign in-charge Jyothiraditya Scindia after their success in the recent elections. Both Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia are contending for the post of Chief Minister in states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

By liking fugitive Mallya’s tweet, Rahul Gandhi who is himself accused in National Herald case may have created a controversy as Vijay Mallya has been on the run facing investigations from various agencies for defaulting on loans to the tune of Rs 9000 crores.

Recently, Mallya in a series of tweets had come with a settlement offer for repayment of the principal amount he owes to various Public Sector Banks in India. This had come hours after the extradition of the wanted fugitive and middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal, Christian Michel from UAE to India.

Vijay Mallya had also faced his biggest setback after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court had ordered his extradition to India.

Reuters quoted ‘source’ to say Modi govt will waive farmer loans on a day Union Minister said there was no such plan

OpIndia Staff
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Reuters quoted ‘source’ to say Modi govt will waive farmer loans on a day Union Minister said there was no such plan

On 11th December, Reuters published a story citing ‘government sources’ that the  Narendra Modi government is “likely to announce a loan waiver worth billions of dollars to woo millions of farmers ahead of general elections” after the party had “suffered a rural drubbing in state polls”.

The BJP suffered a political rout in three heartland states which are primarily agrarian in nature. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had a BJP government before the Congress wrested the power away recently. The report insinuated that the BJP, in order to get back the lost support in these states may soon start working out a detailed plan to allocate money to “write off farmer loans”.

“The plan could see as much as 4 trillion rupees ($56.5 billion) in loans written off, the government sources and analysts said.” reports Reuters followed by a statement of another anonymous government source who says that the “farm loan waivers would be the biggest help the government has ever provided to farmers.”

Taking a cue from Reuters report, The Wire, which has a questionable track record, published an article citing Reuters’ sources. The Wire article also adds its own speculations that the Centre may reach out to the RBI to help it out with farmer loan waiver.

However, the day Reuters published its report, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Purshottam Rupala had answered an unstarred question in the winter session of the Lok Sabha which said exactly the opposite [pdf].

On 11th December, Rupala, in an answer to a question raised by Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Pundalikrao Gawali Patil, had answered in clear terms that the government is not considering any report regarding farmers loan waiver. To her question on reasons why the Centre would not work on the farm loan waiver schemes, Rupala had answered, “The Union Government at present is not considering any loan waiver Scheme for farmers. Such waivers may impact the credit culture of a State by incentivising the defaulters even if they are in a position to repay the loan and thus create/amplify the moral hazard by discouraging those borrowers who have been regular in repaying their loans. Further, each waiver granted makes it even more difficult to reject any future similar demand.” This has been the government stand even back in July 2018 when a similar question was raised in the Parliament.

Considering Reuters published the report on a day the Union Minister had said the exact opposite, it makes people wonder whether the Shiv Sena MP had asked this question to Union Minister on basis of the Reuters report. OpIndia reached out to the Shiv Sena MP who denied any knowledge of Reuters’ report. “MPs can ask questions to the ministers and not all are answered in the Parliament. This was an unstarred question, hence it was not taken up in Parliament, but the same was answered by the concerned minister,” she said. “We asked the government whether there are any farmer loan waiver planned, the government said no,” she added.

So it appears that Reuters published a story citing anonymous sources, claiming the exact opposite of what the Minister had said. Not only that, but Reuters also uses the phrase ‘waive off’ and ‘write off’ of loans interchangeably in its report, which further raises doubts on their credibility.

While it is not clear why Reuters did such reporting, people on social media were speculating this could be a fake news spread by the Congress-friendly media on behest of Congress to put pressure on Modi government.


One of the theories is that this could be a ‘back up’ for Rahul Gandhi for not being able to deliver the farmer loan waive off promise for Karnataka.


This may not entirely untrue since the Karnataka Government is struggling to make good of the promise as the government is reportedly not able to finalise the list of farmers whose loans could be waived off.

In the 5-state Assembly election results declared on 11th December, the BJP could not retain the 3 states, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, it was in power. The BJP also had a disappointing performance in Telangana and Mizoram.

One of the promises Congress had made in its manifesto was waiving off farmers’ loans within 10 days of coming to power. Congress President Rahul Gandhi, during his campaign rallies, took digs on PM Modi for not waiving off farm loans while writing off (wrongly propagated by Rahul Gandhi as waiving off and as repeated by Reuters above) loans of ’15 close businessmen friends of Modi’.

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