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Tripura CM unveils status of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore, the statesman, the visionary and the architect of Tripura

Shashank Bharadwaj
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Tripura CM unveils status of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore, the statesman, the visionary and the architect of Tripura

The great nation of Bharata has produced many heroes who are revered to this day for their valour. Maharaja (Bubagra) Colonel Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Debbarman, a statesman par excellence, is one such National hero who has unfortunately been forgotten by our post-independence state and its intellectuals.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb today unveiled a massive statue of Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya at Dharmanagar under North Tripura district.

The Chief Minister said, “The previous regime never bothered for own state’s culture nor they were bothered about their own country’s tradition. Rather they were busy with foreign figures whereas, 37 lakh citizens of our beloved state are forever indebted to Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, the Architect of Modern Tripura”.

One is thus reminded of the day the Lenin statue fell in Tripura, ushering a new era where our national heroes would be revered over ideological imports like Lenin. Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore is the ‘father of modern architecture of the state of Tripura‘. He is considered to be one of the greatest kings in India’s history who is credited to have built the current state of Tripura by developing institutions and infrastructure and paved the way for its national integration.

Born in 1908 to Birendra Kishore Manikya, Maharaja of Manikya Dynasty of Tripura, Bir Bikram Kishore took the reigns of the state in 1923. The new king, soon after assuming the power necessitated the development by ushering a new era of reforms in the princely state of Tripura. Bir Bikram first started with building the capital of his kingdom, the city of Agartala. He consolidated the state land holdings by bringing land reforms and reserved large tracks of land for his tribal populace, known as Tripuri, which is presently recognised as TTAADC (Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District councils) Areas. Addition to this, the first airport of Tripura was built in 1942 by Bir Bikram at Agartala, which has been renamed by the BJP government at the centre to honour the great king.

Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore was also renowned to be a great educationist. He built numerous schools, college and started Tripura’s first University. This led to the spread of education across the state and acted as the foundation for the Tripura’s high rate of literacy in the coming years. Bir Bikram Manikya played a huge role during the Bengal famine of the 1940s. He came to the rescue of people of Bengal by providing food grains when they were ravaged by severe famine. Along with his son Maharaja Kirit Bikram Kishore, Bir Bikram also provided much-needed help to the Hindu Bengali refugees who fled their homes as they faced persecution by the Muslims of East Bengal during the partition of India.

Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya died at a very young age of 39 in 1947 just before India’s independence. He was the last reigning monarch of the Kingdom of the Tripura. After his death, his son Kirat Bikram Kishore took the reigns and merged it with independent India in 1949. The untimely death of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore limited the development of the state of Tripura.

The Manikyas dynasty of Tripura not only had great rulers but also preserved and promoted Hindu culture and traditions, especially the Bengali language and the culture. The Kingdom of Tripura and the family of Bharat Ratna Rabindranath Tagore had a very close relationship.

The Kings of Tripura is said to have given huge contributions to Rabindranath Tagore and also helped Tagore to build ‘Viswa Bharati’ in Bengal to revive Hindu culture and literature. Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore also provided annual grants to the university throughout his rule from 1923-1947. The Kings of Tripura are also said to have helped to launch a hospital, a library and ‘Sangeet Bhawan’ at Viswa Bharati.

The greatest gift of Tripura Kings to India’s culture is their pledge to revive Manipuri dance form, by contributing to its introduction in Viswa Bharati’s cultural curricula. The contributions from the Tripura Kings helped Rabindranath Tagore and his authorities at Viswa Bharati to depute experts like renowned artist Dhirendra Krishna Debbarman and Manipuri dance expert Buddhimanta Singh to revive Manipuri art form.

The royal family of Tripura has done an exceptional work over years to promote our national cultural heritage and also united many diverse linguistic and ethnic groups to create a modern state of Tripura and successfully merge it with the idea of India. The Government of Tripura’s recent decision to mark respect by raising a statue of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, one of India’s greatest kings is truly remarkable as the contribution of the Kingdom of Tripura in the process of cultural preservation and nation build is irreplaceable.

#MeToo: Journalist accuses senior editor at Catch News of inappropriate behaviour

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo: Journalist accuses senior editor at Catch News of inappropriate behaviour

Even as people debate and argue whether certain behaviour, especially which involves unwanted sexual advances towards women, falls under the workplace sexual harassment ambit, one more journalist has come forward with her #MeToo story where she has accused a senior editor at Catch News of making unwanted advances towards her.


Journalist Shamita Harsh took to Twitter to describe her story. She claims that during her time at Catch News, which was her first job, between June 2016 to April 2017, she was routinely harassed by a senior editor. Without naming him, she says that he would pass comments on her looks and make her feel uncomfortable. She describes that on more than one occasion she was offered drinks at workplace, which she declined since she was not comfortable.

She then says that on 16 January 2017, when the Catch News office shifted from Qutub Institutional Area to Greater Noida, and a lot of people had put in their papers, including her. However, she claims that this senior editor pulled some strings and stopped her transfer to Greater Noida, thereby allowing her to work from Qutub Institutional Area office. As a thank you, she says, he asked for a hug. She claims that she got this preferential treatment even though many of her colleagues who had actually requested for a transfer, were not attended to immediately.

Catch News is digital platform part of Rajasthan Patrika Group. In the course of the last few days, two women came forward and accused The Wire’s co-founder and founding editor Siddharth Bhatia as well as journalist Vinod Dua of sexual harassment. The #MeToo movement on social media has taken the country by a storm with many big industry names like Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor, Varun Grover and comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod being accused of sexual misconduct. Journalists like Prashant Jha and film director Vikas Bahl and many, many more have been named as perpetrators of harassment.

Ahmedabad court summons AAP MP Sanjay Singh over ₹5000 crore defamation suit by Reliance

OpIndia Staff
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Ahmedabad court summons AAP MP Sanjay Singh over ₹5000 crore defamation suit by Reliance

An Ahmedabad city court has issued a summon to AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh over a defamation suit filed by Reliance infrastructure and other Reliance group companies led by Anil Ambani. The Ahmedabad City Civil and Sessions Court has asked the MP to provide a written submission before the court on 20th October in relation to the ₹ 5,000 crores civil defamation suit.


The Reliance Group of companies had filed the suit in February this year, over comments made by Singh in a press conference. While addressing the press on February 13, Sanjay Singh had raised suspicions about the deal to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. He has said that the Rafale deal is ‘the deal of scams’, alleging that Modi government is paying an “astronomical price” for the jets.

The Rajya Sabha MP also had alleged that a contract worth ₹22,000 crore was awarded to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence to manufacture parts of the fighter plane, despite the company lacking any experience in the field. He had said, “this all proves beyond doubt that this deal is the deal of scams and this is going to be the last nail in the coffin of the government”.

In recent months, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other Congress party leaders have been making similar accusations. And Reliance group has sent “cease and desist” notices to several politicians asking them to stop making such statements. Reliance and Dassault Aviation both have clarified that the value Reliance deal with Dassault is much less and there was no government pressure to select Reliance as one of the offset partners.

This is not the only defamation case the AAP leader is facing. Last month, a Delhi court had framed charges against Sanjay Singh following suits filed by Ankit Bhardwaj, a leader of BJP’s youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

In May last year, an AAP volunteer named Ankit Bhardwaj had attacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra when he was sitting in a protest, but many AAP members including Sanjay Singh had claimed that the attacker was BJYM leader Ankit Bhardwaj, which had prompted Bhardwaj to file the suit seeking a compensation of ₹1.

Coimbatore: Govt college suspends student indefinitely for observing Bhagat Singh birth anniversary

OpIndia Staff
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Coimbatore: Govt college suspends student indefinitely for observing Bhagat Singh birth anniversary

A student of the Government art college in Coimbatore was suspended indefinitely for organising a program to mark the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in the college campus on September 28.

The suspension order, dated October 1, stated that S Malathi, a first-year MA (History) student, was denied permission by the principal to conduct the meeting. “The meeting was conducted by the student in a manner that could cause disturbance to the peaceful nature of the campus and was not in line with discipline expected by the college,” read the order.

Malathi, in her defence, said that she had asked the principal for permission. Chitra Mohan, the principal of the college, denied permission and instead told her to seek permission from her Head of the Department (History) and conduct a department-level function. Since the head of the department was on leave, Malathi approached the tutor in her department, who also denied permission. Nevertheless, she went ahead and conducted the meeting as planned originally.

Malathi furthered that her suspension was was against democracy on the college campus. “It was not a huge celebration. Only a few had gathered and we spoke about Bhagat Singh’s achievements and his exemplary work during the freedom struggle. We dispersed in 45 minutes,” she said, wondering whether celebrating Bhagat Singh’s birthday could be considered a crime.

She alleged that the college authorities are now trying to politicise the issue and are clamping down on students who dare to speak up against the management. “The authorities are miffed that we spoke about the lack of facilities in the college. We don’t have proper toilets and the ones that we have are not maintained at all. It is true that they didn’t give us permission but we did not do anything wrong,” she said.

The principal, however refuting the claim said that the college was not against commemorating the birth anniversary of the freedom fighter, but what forced the college authorities to take such an action was that the students organised a meeting without prior permission.

Malathi has been suspended pending an enquiry by a four-member committee led by the Head of the History department on October 22. A copy of the suspension order was sent to the history department, disciplinary committee, the Race Course police station and to Malathi’s parents.

Friend of woman who accused Varun Grover of sexual harassment comes forward, says charges are true

OpIndia Staff
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Friend of woman who accused Varun Grover of sexual harassment comes forward, says charges are true

After comedian Varun Grover was accused of sexually harassing a woman back in 2001, when both of them were students at Benaras Hindu University, Varun had defended himself by providing evidence to counter the allegations.

Now, a friend of the woman who had accused Grover of harassment has come forward and claimed that all allegations levelled against Grover are true and even dared the comedian to take the legal route. One Faiz Rehman, who goes by the name ‘Fez‘ on Twitter and identifies himself as ‘Militant Ambedkarite’ who ‘stopped BJP from winning his Nagar Panchayat’, has claimed that the sexual harassment allegations against Grover are true.

The columnist with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint, who had first posted the anonymous account leveling charges against Grover, also confirmed that it was ‘Fez’ who had shared “his friend’s” story anonymously. Fez then took to Twitter to lend his support and issued a statement which read ‘#IRideForMyHomie’


He said that the ‘survivor’ is his friend and the semantic differences pointed out by Grover will not dilute his support to his friend. Faiz Rehman then reveals how the victim is a ‘Dalit Bahujan survivor’ who has fiercely guarded her privacy and hence does not want to come forward.


‘Fez’ has urged Grover to take a legal recourse if he still contests the claims.


On 9th October, a columnist with Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint had shared screenshots where a girl accused Grover of misbehaving with her when she was a student at BHU and Grover, her senior. Following the allegations, Grover had given his side of the story, pointing out discrepancies in the allegations raised against him.

The story, as narrated by the victim anonymously, dates back to 2001 when Varun Grover was the victim’s senior at Benaras Hindu University. The victim recounted that Varun was the head of the dramatics society and she looked up to him for his skills.

She said that one afternoon, Varun invited her to rehearse for the annual fest and told her that she reminded him of Tillotama, the Apsara. Varun Grover had told her that he was writing a play and she would be the lead role as Tillotama.

They finally met at a music club where he was to give her insights into what role she is to play. He said that she was to play a character which was playful and childlike but also destructive.

She alleged he kept calling himself Vishwakarma, which she at the time thought was a joke. She said that he asked her to walk towards him from a distance with her arms extended, which she thought was part of acting. He then snuck up behind her and grinded against her which made her feel terribly uncomfortable. The victim said that she pushed him away and yet, he held her hand and said he was Vishwakarma and she was Tillotama.

Varun Grover has termed this account fictitious. He has also offered to extend full cooperation in the investigation, while pointing out discrepancies in the account narrated by the anonymous user and the actual situation during his time at IT-BHU.

Grover pointed out that he studied at IT-BHU and not BHU, as the anonymous account said and there was no ‘dramatics society’ as claimed. He clarified that there was no play he wrote or directed which had the characters Vishwakarma and Tillotama and urged people to cross verify it with those in the theatre club and also his other batchmates. He later even called it a hit job on himself.

But now the ‘militant Ambedkarite’ Faiz Rehman has come out in support of the victim, who according to him is a Dalit-Bahujan survivor, and urged Grover to take a legal course.

#MeToo: Twenty journalists pledge to testify against MJ Akbar in court over sexual harassment allegations

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo: Twenty journalists pledge to testify against MJ Akbar in court over sexual harassment allegations

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and former editor of ‘The Telegraph’ and ‘The Asian Age’, MJ Akbar, whose name has surfaced in India’s version of #MeToo movement as an accused, had filed a defamation case in his defence against the prime accuser, journalist, Priya Ramani. She was the first amongst the many to have raised similar charges against the Minister.

According to the latest report, twenty women journalists have stepped forward and pledged to testify against the Union Minister in court.

The journalists who worked with ‘The Asian Age’- MJ Akbar was the editor of the newspaper for 15 years, have put out a joint statement in support of their colleague Priya Ramani, which read, “What Akbar has demonstrated through his legal actions is his refusal to introspect, acknowledge or atone for his actions that have caused immense pain and indeed harm to many women over the years. He himself, in the meanwhile, continues to enjoy enormous power and privilege as a minister and Member of Parliament“. They furthered that Priya Ramani had not only spoken about herself but also exposed the culture of “casual misogyny, entitlement and sexual predation” that Akbar engendered and presided over at The Asian Age.

The journalists have urged the court to hear their testimonies against MJ Akbar, claiming that some of them suffered sexual harassment while others witnessed it.

The journalists who have come in against the Minister are Meenal Baghel, Manisha Pande, Tushita Patel, Kanika Gahlaut, Suparna Sharma, Ramola Talwar Badam, Hoihnu Hauzel, Aisha Khan, Reshma Chakraborty and Kushalrani Gulab. A journalist from Deccan Chronicle, Christina Francis, has also signed the statement.

The journalists reiterated in their statement that ‘Ramani is not alone in her fight‘ against the Minister.

In the #MeToo movement that started in India after the former actor, Tanushree Dutta accused her co-star Nana Patekar of harassment during a film shoot 10 years ago, several brave women have volunteered to share their #MeToo moment on social media outing their sexual predators, accusing men in position of power of abusing it to sexually exploit them.

Since then, multiple women have come forward with their allegations against Union Minister, MJ Akbar.

The minister who arrived from a foreign tour a day before had issued a statement trashing the allegations and commenting: “Accusations without evidence has become a viral fever.”

The editor-turned-minister has ignored calls for his resignation since his arrival and on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint against Priya Ramani, saying she ‘intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated and salacious’ allegations to harm his goodwill and reputation.

Ramani, on the other hand, said she was ready to fight the defamation complaint, that ‘truth and the absolute truth is my only defence‘.

Mizoram: MLA and former minister quits Congress to join BJP ahead of assembly elections

OpIndia Staff
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Mizoram: MLA and former minister quits Congress to join BJP ahead of assembly elections

Former Mizoram Minister Buddha Dhan Chakma has quit the Congress party on Tuesday and is all set to join the BJP ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections. The polls are scheduled to take place on 28 November.

Chakma has resigned from the State legislature and the primary membership of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). His resignation has been accepted by the Speaker Hiphei. Chakma’s resignation came a day before the BJP president Amit Shah is going to start his party’s campaign in the frontier state of Mizoram.

He had resigned as minister of state for fisheries and sericulture in August 2017 to protest against the denial of medical seats to the Chakma tribal students, despite qualifying for MBBS seat under the state quota.

Chakma would be joining BJP and is likely to contest elections from Tuichawng on a BJP ticket, as told by Mizoram BJP unit President John V Hluna. After Chakma’s resignation, the Congress has suffered a major blow as three Congress MLAs have resigned from Congress ahead of assembly elections.

Earlier, former home minister R Lalzirliana and former minister Lalrinliana Sailo had resigned from the ruling Congress party.

Mizoram is the only state in the northeastern region where Congress is in power, and BJP, led by president Amit Shah and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sharma is leaving no stone unturned to make the northeast ‘Congress-mukt’. Defections from other parties have helped BJP in growing and grabbing power in several states in the region, in that context this latest defection from Congress holds considerable importance.

Mumbai: DNA data lab helps arrest Rehan Qureshi, who confessed to 20 cases of rape against minors

OpIndia Staff
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Mumbai: DNA data lab helps arrest Rehan Qureshi, who confessed to 20 cases of rape against minors

Rehan Qureshi, aged 34, has finally confessed his involvement in sexual offences and raping 20 minor girls in Mumbai since 2010. The police have cracked an 8-year-old case of the accused having brutally raped and murdered two minor girls in Navi Mumbai.

Evidence against him was found after a DNA profiling test was conducted with regard to two juvenile girls in Kurla Nehru Nagar, by the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch.

The police revealed that they had been suspicious about his involvement in several other cases of sexual offences that are still unsolved. According to them, the accused had been luring and abducting minor girls as an imposter, pretending to be the girls’ parents or relatives, taking them to isolated areas and then sexually abusing them.

Deputy Commissioner of Navi Mumbai Crime Branch informed the media that Rehan Qureshi was a salesman and had been a resident of Kurla since 2010, wherein he brutally raped and murdered three girls. After he confessed his crimes, samples of the victims had been sent to Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina for testing, depicting positive matches, on Monday.

Around 18 cases against him have been found, between 2010 and 2018. According to police reports, the rapist frequently fled to Saudi Arabia into hiding after committing these crimes, with short visits to Mumbai to perform these terrifying acts.

The officials further informed that Qureshi had been executing all of these crimes single-handedly. According to them, the DNA tests have finally given them a major breakthrough in solving the case, arresting him and ultimately providing justice to the victims’ family.

India improves 5 points to emerge as 58th most competitive economy, largest improvement among G20 nations

OpIndia Staff
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India improves 5 points to emerge as 58th most competitive economy, largest improvement among G20 nations

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest global competitiveness report signals a positive upswing for India. India has ranked as the 58th most competitive economy globally with a marked jump of 5 places in just a year since 2017. This jump is the best among all the G20 nations.

The report states:

India ranks 58th (62.0) and has demonstrated sizeable improvements over the past year. Compared with the 2017 backcast edition, India is up five places, the largest gain among G20 economies. India is a remarkable example of a country that has been able to accelerate on the pathway to innovation (where it now ranks 31st, with a score of 53.8), due, particularly, to the quality of its research institutions. In spite of a high degree of entrepreneurship (61.1, 23rd), business dynamism is hampered by administrative hurdles. While Indian companies can access the 3rd largest market in the world (which translates into a perfect mark of 100.0 on the Market size pillar), the country would benefit from increased trade openness (136th) to drive productivity growth.

India has also ranked 8th in “quality of research institutions.” The Geneva-based WEF highly evaluates the country noting “a remarkable example of a country that has been able to accelerate on the pathway to innovation, due, particularly, to the quality of its research institutions.”

The survey indicated that the ease of doing business in India has also improved. As per the Asian Nikkie Review, the cost of starting a business has come down and the time taken to start a business has shortened over the year. The report expects further improvements in India’s health sector which ranks 108th and skills sector which stands at 96th.

As far as innovation was concerned, the report states, “the top performers in the upper- and lower-middle-income brackets, such as China and India, are catching up with or even outperforming the average among high-income economies. China, for example, is already more advanced when it comes to investing in research and development sub-pillar than the average high-income economy, while India is not far behind and let down only by its less-efficient bureaucracy for business creation and insolvency. The catch-up process is reflected in the emergence of Chinese and Indian companies in technology-intensive sectors”.

Ranked 31st, the report states that India ‘punches significantly above its weight’ in terms of innovation capability and is an ‘outlier in the region’. The second best nation in terms of innovation capability in the region is Pakistan, following far behind at 75th. It also remarks that India remains the region’s main driving force.

The report has observed that if India can maintain its competitiveness performance it will promote higher and sustained levels of income in the future. China ranks 28th overall (score of 72.6), leading the BRICS economies ahead of the Russian Federation (65.6, 43rd), India (62.0, 58th), South Africa (60.8, 67th), and Brazil (59.5, 72nd).

Mahagauri: The eight manifestation of Maa Durga removes all obstacles of devotees

OpIndia Staff
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Mahagauri: The eight manifestation of Maa Durga removes all obstacles of devotees

Maa Mahagauri is extremely fair, beautiful and is usually depicted with four hands holding the Trishool, lotus and drum in each hand while fourth one in Abhayamudra (blessing posture). She wears white clothes and rides a bull.

Maa Mahagauri fulfils desires of her devotees

Legend goes that after Maa Kaalratri destroyed demons in her ferocious avatar, Maa Parvati was ‘teased’ for her complexion. She then prayed to Brahma to get back her fair complexion. Brahma asked her to bathe in Mansarovar river in Himalaya, upon which she regained her complexion. Upon losing Her dark complexion She is known as Mahagauri.

Ashtami is one of the most auspicious days of the nine nights and many people invite young girls to their homes and offer them halwa-puri and chana.

Each day of the Navratri is devoted to one of the nine avatars of Maa Durga. The nine different forms are Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayini, Kaalratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidhatri.

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