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Farmers’ protest or show of strength by the opposition? How politicians hijacked the farmers’ cause for election pitch

Nirwa Mehta
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Farmers’ protest or show of strength by the opposition? How politicians hijacked the farmers’ cause for election pitch

As the 2019 general election draws closer, the Opposition parties have scrambled together to put up a united front to beat the BJP, by hook or by crook. This includes hijacking the farmers’ cause and using it as a platform to further their agenda, all the while, pretending to care for their plight.

Congress leaders taking the stage during farmers’ protest

We had already reported that the farmers’ march to the national capital demanding a minimum support price for their crops and freedom from debt was led by the front with affiliation with various communist and leftist parties.

The march, organised by All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a rather spontaneous front which has  Jai Kisan Andolan (JKA) and former AAP politician Yogendra Yadav’s Swaraj Abhiyan as its members. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), another communist frontal organization affiliated to attached to communist political parties, All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM), All India Khet Mazdoor Kisan Sabha (AIKMKS), AIKS (Canning Street) which are Left organizations – all constitute the AIKSCC. So needless to say that the farmers’ march appeared as politically motivated as the ‘Kisan Long March‘ held earlier this year in March.

Considering the entire march was spearheaded by Communists and supported by Rahul Gandhi, who in Karnataka, in alliance with Kumaraswamy has failed to keep their promise to the farmers’, for them to pretend to care for the farmers’ and gift wrapping this political rally as a spontaneous farmers’ rally is disingenuous, to say the least.

Farmers’ cause used as a political pitch

Today, when the march, organised by communists leaders reached Jantar Mantar in Delhi, politicians across party lines got together and held hands on stage to show their strength. Congress President Rahul Gandhi, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal joined hands and tried to score their political points.

Rahul Gandhi repeated his usual lie that loan of industrialists are waived off (while in reality they are written off, there is a difference) and hence the farmers’ loans should also be waived off. Rahul was joined on stage by CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, both of whom pitched for the upcoming 2019 elections. Farooq Abdullah, too, used the platform to make a nationalist pitch by asking the crowd to chant ‘Jai Hind’.

There certainly must have been farmers in that rally, but the organisation and spearheading of it by politicians desperate to hold on to, or regain power was a well-crafted rhetoric. The most tragic part of the entire affair was two-fold. One, the media refused to acknowledge that this was a Communist organised political rally and second, the farmers cause got lost in political lies and rhetoric.

Oh, the irony

The politics behind the ‘solidarity with farmers’ was not lost on twitterati, who were quick to call out the facade.


Some even pointed out the high profile ‘farmers’ who were missing from the frame.


And some rightly pointed out the irony.


This just goes out to show that the said march was nothing bit a political gimmick. That while there might be real farmers in the march, it was more of a tool for the opposition parties to show their strength against Modi.

With general elections just a few months away the political landscape is all set to get murkier. We had earlier seen how the same set of politicians had come together and made merry while ‘protesting’ against the Bihar rape cases. In August this year, fodder scam convict Lalu Yadav’s MLA son Tejashwi Yadav had called for a protest against the rapes for ‘dignity of Bharat Mata’s daughters’ at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

Sharing a stage there, AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal was caught smiling and sharing a joke with Tejashwi as well as student leaders.

Kejriwal smiling during Bihar shelter house rape case ‘protests’

This just goes out to show that the ‘Game of Throne’ has just begun. Winter is coming.

Swami Vivekananda statue across Nehru’s in JNU – students’ union, teachers’ association question funding

OpIndia Staff
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Swami Vivekananda statue across Nehru’s in JNU – students’ union, teachers’ association question funding

The Executive Council of Jawaharlal Nehru University has decided to install a life-sized statue of Swami Vivekananda. The statue is proposed to be set up across Jawaharlal Nehru’s statue on the right side of the administration block. The move, however, has not gone down quite well with the students’ and teachers’ unions.

JNU Students Union (JNUSU) and JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) have both questioned the source of funds for the construction of the statue. They have claimed that if the university does not have money for library funds and for disbursal of merit-cum-mean scholarship to students, how does it have the funds for constructing the statue.

The Executive Council had given its approval for the statue last year in July. A committee was formed after that. “For a more pleasing look, it has been decided by the competent authority that a statue of suitable height and size of a historically important person like Swami Vivekananda — whose contribution to the nation building is universally acknowledged — may be erected with proper elevated platform, stone pathways, benches, lights and interconnected works, including public utilities, etc,” the EC had said in July last year.

The Vivekananda statue reflects a change in the air at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Earlier this year, reputed Hindu ideologue Rajiv Malhotra was appointed as a visiting professor at the university which has long been considered a left bastion.

SC grants clearance for RCom’s spectrum sale to Jio, Rcom to furnish Rs 1400 crore corporate guarantee

OpIndia Staff
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SC grants clearance for RCom’s spectrum sale to Jio, Rcom to furnish Rs 1400 crore corporate guarantee

Clearing the path for sale of Reliance Communications Limited’s spectrum to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the Supreme Court on Friday asked Reliance Communications to furnish a corporate guarantee of ₹1,400 crore within two days to get the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the government.

The corporate guarantee will be issued by Reliance Realty Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RCom. Once the corporate guarantee is furnished by RCom, the government is bound to give its NOC for the spectrum sale within a week. The court also directed the government to issue the NOC after it receives the corporate guarantee.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had challenged the Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal’s (TDSAT) on October 1 for permission given by the later to debt-ridden RCom to sell its spectrum to Reliance Jio.

The SC order came in wake of the petition submitted by DoT, challenging TDSAT’s decision. In its petition before the top court, the DoT on Monday reiterates its demand of ₹2,940 crore in bank guarantees from Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) for its payment liabilities on the spectrum, before clearing the Anil Ambani-led telecom firm’s proposed asset sale to elder brother Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

As part of debt reductions efforts, RCom had signed a ₹250-billion deal with Reliance Jio in December 2017. The deal included the sale of assets mortgaged with different banks to avoid insolvency proceedings.

In response to the Centre’s plea, RCom’s counsel and Congress leader, Kapil Sibal said the company was not in a position to make the payment as it was undergoing insolvency proceedings. “I can’t give a bank guarantee. If this deal is not allowed to go through, a lot of entities will suffer. Banks who are secured creditors will be in jeopardy and the deal falls through.”

Before this, the apex court had granted Rcom some respite, by extending the repayment time of the dues Anil Ambani led Reliance Communication owes to Ericsson.

A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and S Abdul Nazeer passed the order after hearing Senior Advocates Dushyant Dave who was representing Ericsson and Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal who appeared for Reliance Communications. It is interesting to note that while Congress president Rahul Gandhi is attacking Anil Ambani and his Reliance group on a daily basis for last several months, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal is representing the same Anil Ambani in court against the government.

On August 3, the Supreme Court had ordered Reliance to pay Rs. 550 crore to Ericsson to settle the 1,500 crores owed by Reliance. The court had directed Reliance to pay this amount by 30th September.

Ericsson had approached the Supreme Court after Reliance had failed to comply with the order. The Apex Court after hearing Ericsson and Reliance ordered that the amount due can be cleared by Reliance by 15th December. In case of default, a penalty at 12% will have to be paid, which will kick off from the original due date of September 30.

The besieged telecom operator, which had been struggling with a mountain of debt and a failed merger with Aircel, finally decided to wind up its wireless business in December 2017. Back then, it had said that Rcom will essentially become a business-to-business (B2B) entity instead of a business-to-consumer (B2C) company.

Missionary killed in Andaman made notes about Sentinelese people

OpIndia Staff
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Missionary killed in Andaman made notes about Sentinelese people

John Allen Chau, the missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese people, kept detail notes about the Sentinelese people that he observed during his brief encounter with them. Chau went to the North Sentinal Island in an attempt to convert the Sentinelese people to Christianity. While some detail of his notes had emerged earlier, now Hindustan Times has published a detailed account of his journals. The note left by Chau contains several details about the lifestyle of the tribal people.

The note titled as “Observations” estimates the number Sentinelese people to be around 250, which is more than previously estimated population. Chau writes in the note that he arrived on the island on November 15. There he met one man who had a white crown made of flowers and appeared to be the tribe’s leader.

About the body language of the tribal man, Chau says that the man “took a leadership stance. … climbed on a rock, and yelled at me”. The note also has details about the language the tribal people speak. Chau writes that they make high pitched sounds such as the letters b, p, l and s. He writes that he tried to speak some words used by the Jarawas, a tribe from South and Middle Andaman, but the Sentinelese didn’t seem to understand them. From the sounds made by the Sentinelese people, Chau guessed that they exchanged a lot of insults.

Chau also wrote about the topography of the island. He observes that the sand is white but coarse and the seabed leading up to the beach has a very clear bottom but most of the coral is dead. “There is an amazing surf beach at the entrance of the south part of the cove. Saw three perfect sets of 4-6 feet high swells ….,” he writes.

Chau has also written about the houses of the Sentinelese people. He writes that some of the huts housed around 10 Sentinelese each, including juveniles; and some could have had around 50. He saw no elderly people and guessed that they lived separately on another part of the island.

He further notes that the women booed on seeing him and a juvenile, around 10 years old, shot an arrow at him but it hit the waterproof Bible he was carrying, and the arrow didn’t pass beyond page 933. The arrow-tip was metal, but very thin and sharp.

Chau also notes some gestures of the Sentinelese people. “Arms in the air meant unarmed and friendly, pointing with hand/finger meant pointing a location, arrows in bow meant ready to shoot you,” he wrote.

After Chau’s Bible was hit by the arrow, he had come back to the boat of the fishermen who helped him to reach the island. He had to swim the distance as his kayak was captured by the people on the island. On the boat, he wrote his journal and handed them to the fishermen before his making final journey to the island the next day.

Congress cannot distance itself from Sidhu’s shenanigans after he said Rahul Gandhi wanted him to visit Pakistan

Jinit Jain
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Congress cannot distance itself from Sidhu’s shenanigans after he said Rahul Gandhi wanted him to visit Pakistan

Amidst under severe fire from all quarters, Congress minister Sidhu appeared to brazen it out his decision of visiting Pakistan. We had earlier reported how Sidhu was heard talking about the special plane that was arranged by Rahul Gandhi for him, days before he left for Pakistan. Now, speaking to ANI, Sidhu has reiterated that he was granted the nod of approval to visit Pakistan from the Congress central leadership.

Sidhu said this in response to questions about Punjab Chief Minister saying that Sidhu should have refrained from going to Pakistan.


However, this comes in sharp contrast to the Congress party’s claim that Siddhu went to attend Kartarpur Corridor’s groundbreaking ceremony on the basis of his personal friendship with Pak PM Imran Khan. Congress had earlier claimed that Sidhu had gone to Pakistan in his ‘personal capacity’.

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh had already expressed his displeasure on Siddhu’s visit to the ceremony. CM Amarinder Singh said, “ I asked him to reconsider his decision to visit Pakistan but yet he went.”

Blaming Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India, CM Singh said, “I will not allow terrorism to grow in Punjab. For the first time, there were some terrorists from Kashmir trying to establish logistics base in Punjab. Pakistan is using these terrorists to execute their nefarious plans, but we won’t permit it.” CM Amarinder Singh rejected the invite citing continuous occurrence of terror activities sponsored by Pakistan in India.

Facing flak for being snapped with a known Khalistani terrorist Gopal Singh Chawla, Siddhu appeared in a defensive mode to justify his visit. He said, “ thousands of photos were clicked in Pakistan, I don’t know who is a Khalistani terrorist and who is not.”

On one hand, Congress ministers claim that Sidhu went in the Kartarpur corridor ceremony in his personal capacity. On the other hand, Sidhu was heard claiming that Rahul Gandhi had sent him a personal plane to aid his visit to Pakistan. Amid such contrasting claims, it’s hard to interpret Congress’ true stance and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Congress and Rahul Gandhi to maintain that Sidhu’s visit to Pakistan and his shenanigans while in Pakistan did not have the sanction of the highest leadership of Congress including Rahul Gandhi.

Professor Tajuddin of Jammu University calls Bhagat Singh a terrorist, suspended

OpIndia Staff
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Professor Tajuddin of Jammu University calls Bhagat Singh a terrorist, suspended

Professor Mohammad Tajuddin of Jammu University has been suspended by the University administration after he referred to Bhagat Singh as a “terrorist” during a lecture.

A clip of the lecture went viral leading to students’ outrage. The students of the university wrote a letter to Vice-Chancellor Manoj Dhar, demanding an action against Tajuddin. The university ordered a probe into the incident also ordered Tajuddin’s suspension and said he could not take classes till the probe was over.


Bhagat Singh’s nephew Abhay Singh Sandhu condemned the incident. “Even the Britishers did not call him terrorist, they called him a true revolutionary. The HoD of Political Science Professor is calling a Martyr, who lost his life at an early age, a terrorist. This is a blunder by the Professor, it is condemnable and he should apologize,” he said.

Professor Tajudding clarified his statements and said that he considers Bhagat Singh as a revolutionary.


He said that his words were taken out of context.


The university’s vice-chancellor, Manoj K Dhar, had constituted a six-member high-level committee headed by the senior-most professor of the university, to look into the complaint.

Facts, No Fiction: What the rupee does (not) tell us

Karan
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Facts, No Fiction: What the rupee does (not) tell us

Every discussion on rupee is driven by political rhetoric (and opportunism) which makes the discussion lose its objectivity in terms of looking at the economic implications of rupee as a currency. For all practical purposes, much of the discussion on the rupee is governed in terms of how people view it as an indicator of the economic situation within India- just as they do with the stock markets.

Here’s an important economic fact that’s worth stating; neither the rupee (domestic currency) nor the stock market help us make a definitive conclusion regarding the economic health of India (or any other country).

Therefore, what the “Rupee” does not tell us is the situation of the domestic economy and it in no way reflects the growth prospects of the economy. The question, does arise then, why is a falling rupee bad for India? The answer is that India is a net importer of goods and services so with a weaker rupee we may have to pay more rupees to get the same dollar worth of goods. This also means that our exporters would benefit from a weaker rupee as their goods become competitive in the international market. So, does rupee serve as the sole indicator of the competitiveness of domestic goods? Not really, but it is definitely one of the important indicators that determine the competitiveness of domestic goods on the external front.

USD to Rupee: (Inverted Scale)

Politics aside, why is the rupee all of a sudden strengthening? The answer to this has a lot to do with the crude oil prices. A reduction in the price of oil is largely driving the rally of the rupee. In fact, it is this factor that has also resulted in most analysts predicting a moderation of the current account deficit signalling that the short-term downside risks to Indian Economy have largely been mitigated. Thus, there is a considerable long-term relationship that exists between Oil Prices, Rupee’s value and Current Account Deficit for obvious reasons. This relationship comes from as much of economic literature as it does from empirical evidence and it suggests that Oil Prices tend to cause an effect on the value of rupee and both these factors collectively determine the current account deficit.

Current Account Deficit as a percentage of GDP

With these well-established facts, can we take rupee to be an indicator of the economic health? Absolutely not as the government has no control over the international crude oil prices that tend to have a disproportionate impact on the value of rupee. Besides oil prices, another important factor that determines the value of rupee is capital mobility and capital movements have two aspects, the “hot-money” that is invested in highly liquid assets as against foreign direct investments that tend to be more long-term in nature.

Capital Movements in the economy has been fairly decent over the last couple of months despite increasing returns and the strong growth being registered in the American Economy. What this tells us is that there is an optimism around the prospects of the Indian Economy and this was confirmed even by RBI as it found through one of its surveys that Indians had a more positive outlook for the economy for the next year.

In an earlier article, I had categorically stated that the recent slide in rupee is not a cause of concern for me and one of the reasons why I made that assertion was that India had a manageable current account deficit, a narrowing fiscal deficit, low inflation (despite high crude prices) and healthy forex reserves. These healthy parameters ensured that despite the slide in the value of rupee there was a healthy confidence in the economy due to the strong macroeconomic fundamentals. This was in contrast with the previous slide in the rupee (Tapper Tantrum, 2013) that came with high inflation, high current account deficit, high fiscal deficit and a slowing growth: the stagflation era. Back then, despite interventions from the RBI, the rupee’s slide continued and a major reason behind this was the loss of confidence amongst investors and a very bleak outlook on the future economic prospects.

Thus, the key takeaway from this article is that rupee does not signal the health of the Indian Economy, however, it is an important indicator as far as the external sector is concerned. While international oil prices have a significant impact on the value of rupee, the strong macroeconomic fundamentals are key to mitigate any such downside risks to growth prospects of the economy.

Luckily, India has a very strong set of macroeconomic fundamentals and with the moderation of Oil Prices, strengthening of the rupee and moderation of India’s Current Account Deficit, the downside risks to our short and medium-term growth has significantly reduced.

Pathankot: Four suspects dressed in Army uniforms arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Pathankot: Four suspects dressed in Army uniforms arrested

The police have arrested four suspects in Pathankot, dressed in Army uniform. They were apprehended on the Pathankot-Jalandhar highway earlier today. As per reports, locals informed the police about the suspects, after which they came into action and cordoned off the entire area and started a search campaign.

Nothing suspicious was found after the search. The police took custody of all the four suspects. At present, the preliminary inquiry is under progress. In the primary investigation, they are deemed as highway robbers. The police have dismissed terror angle as of now. The police arrested them when they were trying to break the toll check in a Scorpio registered in Himachal Pradesh.

It is noteworthy that in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Nirankari Bhawan in Amritsar of Punjab, multiple reports of suspects being identified in many places in the state have resurfaced. Earlier, four youths had hijacked a car from the Jammu-Punjab border, whose investigation is still underway. Police are on high alert as the robbers took away the car from Madhopur. In another case, a farmer claimed to have seen six suspects in Shaheedpur village of Pathankot. To locate the suspects, the police had initiated a massive search operation.

On the same day, after the terrorist attack in Amritsar, Punjab Police and BSF were on high alert. Police and BSF jawans were deployed on the blockades across Punjab. Every visitor is being scrutinised. Rigorous security arrangements have been put in place and strict arrangements have been made.

In addition, it is pertinent to note that before the attack on Pathankot airbase, some suspects were arrested as well. At that time, four suspects had hijacked a car and carried out the terrorist attack. Apart from these, police had foiled many suspicious activities.

Massive ABVP rally in Kolkata to demand implementation of NRC and CBI probe against alleged Police brutality

OpIndia Staff
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Massive ABVP rally in Kolkata to demand implementation of NRC and CBI probe against alleged Police brutality

The ABVP has taken to the streets of Kolkata on Friday to demand the implementation of NRC in West Bengal and demand a CBI probe into the death of two ABVP karyakartas at the hands of the Police.


Earlier in September, the Police had opened fire on students protesting against the appointment of Urdu teachers at Dwaribhit High School in North Dinajpur district’s Islampur. Rajesh Sarkar and Taposh Barman had died as a result.

Media-in-charge of ABVP Mumbai, Varada Marathe, has said on Twitter that the ABVP won’t take the ‘human right violation’ by the West Bengal government lying down.


ABVP karyakartas from all over the country have been flowing into Kolkata for the ‘Kolkata Chalo’ rally. Talking to OpIndia.com, Prosenjit Biswas, President of Kolkata ABVP, said that Friday’s rally was attended by about 18,000 karyakartas. The rally was also attended by Rajesh Sarkar and Taposh Barman’s family members, he said. “We have been demanding from the very beginning that the perpetrators of the incidents have to be arrested. And until another post-mortem is conducted on the victims’ bodies, our protests would continue.” Biswas also claimed that no compensation has been awarded to the family of the victims and no action has been taken against the Police responsible for the deaths.

A saffron surge has been witnessed in the state in recent times. It has given Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee plenty to worry about. BJP President Amit Shah has claimed that the party will win 22 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019. The rally organized on Friday is the latest demonstration of a saffron surge in the state.

Arunachal Pradesh: Governor Brig. BD Mishra saves pregnant woman’s life, flies her in his own chopper to hospital

OpIndia Staff
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Arunachal Pradesh: Governor Brig. BD Mishra saves pregnant woman’s life, flies her in his own chopper to hospital

In an exemplary gesture, Arunachal Pradesh Governor, Brig (Retd) BD Mishra saved a pregnant woman’s life, who was in urgent need of medical attention, by taking her in his personal chopper from Tawang to a hospital in Itanagar, sources from the Raj Bhavan said on Thursday, November 30.

The chopper, however, developed a snag after refuelling at Tezpur. Not wanting to waste time, Governor Mishra requested an Air Force helicopter and let the woman and her husband leave first for the capital city. He returned later in another aircraft.

Governor Mishra also arranged for an ambulance with a lady gynaecologist at the Raj Bhawan helipad at Itanagar to take the pregnant patient to the hospital safely.

The patient underwent a successful emergency caesarean delivery at the Heema Hospital in Itanagar.

The distance between Itanagar and Tawang is over 200 km. Due to the high-altitude terrain, it takes an estimated 15 hours by road and an estimated two hours by air.

As per reports, Governor Mishra heard about the critical condition of the woman when the local MLA was narrating the situation to CM Pema Khandu, showing concern that no helicopter service was available for the next three days. Upon hearing this, the Governor reportedly offered to let two of his own accompanying officers to stay behind so that the patient and her husband can be accommodated in his chopper.

After the woman’s successful surgery, Brig Mishra also conveyed best wishes to the woman and her child.

Brig (Retd) BD Mishra is a veteran of 1962 Sino-Indian War, 1965 Indo-Pak War, and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. He was sworn in as Arunachal Pradesh Governor on 3rd October 2017.

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