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Woman who challenged nikah-halala and polygamy accused of orchestrating acid attack on herself

OpIndia Staff
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Woman who challenged nikah-halala and polygamy accused of orchestrating acid attack on herself

Dr Sameena Begum, who had challenged practices like triple talaq and nikah-halala before the Supreme Court, has been accused of orchestrating an acid attack on herself to frame her ex-husband.

On Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh Police had received the information of an acid attack on Sameena Begum after which she was admitted to the district hospital. Sameena had told the Police that two people on a bike threw acid on her. During the investigation, the Police examined the CCTV footage and found out that the attack was staged.

Superintendent of Police Praveen Ranjan Singh said, “She had filed an acid attack case against her husband on 14th October. However, since the case looked suspicious, a police team reached the spot to investigate the matter. After checking the CCTV footage, it was found that Begum along with her accomplices, Narendra Paliwal and DC Verma, had created the entire scene – which can easily be seen in the CCTV footage.”

The Police have arrested both her accomplices. According to the Police Sameena Begum was also involved in the plotting of two other acid attacks.

“We have found out that she has been involved in fake acid attack cases in past too. One was from Bulandsheher, involving Shabnam – in which even the Supreme Court had intervened for medical treatment and security, and also that of Raziya Khatoon in Sambhal. We are in the process of finding evidence against Sameena Begum. Once that is in place, a case will be filed against her too,” Singh said.

Sameena Begum has alleged a police conspiracy and accused them of trying to frame her.

Nitish Kumar appoints poll strategist Prashant Kishor as national vice president of JD(U)

OpIndia Staff
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Nitish Kumar appoints poll strategist Prashant Kishor as national vice president of JD(U)

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who had joined JD(U) last month, has been appointed as national vice president of the JD(U) by Nitish Kumar.


He had joined the JD(U) in September and amidst speculations that he would be contesting the 2019 general assembly elections. Kishor is credited with delivering key election win for BJP in 2014 and also for Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Bihar elections.

Prashant Kishor shot to fame in 2014, when Kishor’s Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) helped BJP with the historic 2014 elections. The innovative ‘Chai pe Charcha’, which became an extremely effective campaigning instrument for BJP was the idea of Kishor. He later worked with the Mahagathbandan in Bihar and is credited to have brought all the opposition parties together in Bihar to script a massive victory of JD(U), RJD and Congress combine in 2015.

Interestingly, Kishor’s election consultancy I-PAC has been working for YSR Congress party’s YS Jaganmohan Reddy from the last two years. Recently, he had hinted of leaving campaignings and had said regarding his interests to “work with the grassroots”. “In 2019, you would not see Prashant Kishore campaigning for anyone in the manner and form in which I have been campaigning in last 4-5 years”, Kishor had said in an interaction with students recently.

Mobility projects in Delhi stuck due to non-cooperation of Delhi government, says Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

OpIndia Staff
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Mobility projects in Delhi stuck due to non-cooperation of Delhi government, says Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

A day after being accused of ‘hijacking the work of an elected government’ by Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri today took to Twitter to slam the Delhi government for delaying the mobility projects in the capital by not cooperating with the union government. In a series of tweets, Puri said, that owing to the lack of support from Delhi government, in October 2017 it was decided that the remaining 20% of the funding for the skywalk would be provided by the DDA (Delhi Development Authority, which is under the central government).


He added that the state PWD (public works department) would execute the job and then raise a bill to DDA. This way, while the money will show as an expenditure in the state government’s books, the Delhi government would actually be claiming it all back from DDA. Such reimbursement will not take place in cases where the state PWD is not the executing body. Puri then brought out other projects which have hit a roadblock owing to the Delhi government.


The skywalk, fully funded by the Centre at the cost of Rs. 54.85 crore, was inaugurated on Monday. On a review undertaken in October 2017 in the Ministry in view of the slow progress in these projects, it was decided that the projects where balance funding of 20% of the project cost was not forthcoming from the Delhi government, the same may be funded by the DDA/ITPO i.e., 100% funding by the Central Government.

While no one from the Delhi government was invited, many current and former PWD workers were present at the ceremony.

Take the Quiz : Find out if you might be a ‘Bad Hindu’

Abhishek Banerjee
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Take the Quiz : Find out if you might be a ‘Bad Hindu’

Shashi Tharoor is rumoured to be good at just one thing and that’s expressing himself in English. Well, that and …

And yet, Tharoor finds himself in a soup every other day, issuing apologies and/or clarifications about what he said and what he really meant. I am starting to think that Tharoor is not even that good at English. Where does that leave him?

Well, he will always have …

Anyways, I digress.

While Tharoor’s words might have failed him, his initiative to start certifying “good Hindus” and “bad Hindus” appears to be a high-minded one and I intend to take it further. Finding myself a little short on English prose and its many abstractions, I have devised a brief quiz to try and bring some objectivity to the certification process. Score yourself and find out if you might be a “bad Hindu”.

(A) As a Hindu, which of these do you prefer most?

(1) A mosque only at Ram Janmabhoomi (0 points)

(2) A mosque and a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi (5 points)

(3) A temple only at Ram Janmabhoomi (10 points)

(B) According to you, a good Muslim would support

(1) A mosque only at Ram Janmabhoomi (0 points)

(2) A mosque and a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi (5 points)

(3) A temple only at Ram Janmabhoomi (10 points)

(C) How do you feel about Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar?

(1) Integral to India (0 points)

(2) Can live here temporarily (5 points)

(3) Should be sent back immediately (10 points)

(D) How do you feel about Aryans in India?

(1) Foreign invaders! (0 points)

(2) Outsiders in India but sort of OK nowadays (5 points)

(3) Integral to India (10 points)

(E) According to you, Aligarh Muslim University should be:

(1) Government-funded Muslim institution (0 points)

(2) Either govt funded secular institution or private Muslim institution, but not both (5 points)

(3) A secular institution funded by the government (10 points).

(F) According to you, Sabarimala Temple should be:

(1) Funded by Hindus but owned by the government (0 points)

(2) Funded and owned by the government (5 points)

(3) Funded and owned by Hindus (10 points)

(G) What’s the first thought that comes to your mind when you hear about Diwali and Holi?

(1) Sexual harassment (0 points)

(2) Environmental Pollution (5 points)

(3) Fun and festivity (10 points)

(H) How do you feel when you hear Azaan on loudspeakers?

(1) Spiritually uplifted (0 points)

(2) Calm and peaceful (5 points)

(3) They should stop Azaan on loudspeaker (10 points)

(I) According to you,  Internet Hindus must be:

(1) Thrown in jail (0 points)

(2) Suspended by Twitter/Facebook (5 points)

(3) Allowed to speak (10 points)

(J) According to you, students who raise Azaadi slogans should be

(1) Given scholarship on public money (0 points)

(2) Allowed to have their say (5 points)

(3) Thrown in jail (10 points)

(K) How many days should Kerala govt have waited before arresting Bishop Franco Mulakkal?

(1) He should not have been arrested (0 points)

(2) At least 80-100 days (5 points)

(3) He should have been arrested immediately (10 points)

(L) How many years should Narendra Modi serve in jail for tweets by people he follows on Twitter?

(1) At least a life sentence (0 points)

(2) 2-5 years (5 points)

(3) Modi is not responsible for tweets of other people (10 points)

(M) Suppose that in Varanasi, a man called Ahmed gets hit by a car. The name of the driver is Ramnath Pandey. How should this story be reported?

(1) In temple town, upper caste Hindu hits Muslim man (0 points)

(2) Accident happens in temple town (5 points)

(3) Pedestrian gets hurt in Varanasi accident (10 points)

(N) Four men sitting in jail on charges of being SIMI terrorists try to escape. Madhya Pradesh police shoot them dead. How should this be reported?

(1) Four Muslims murdered by Madhya Pradesh police (0 points)

(2) Four alleged SIMI terrorists killed in police encounter (5 points)

(3) Madhya Pradesh police kill 4 SIMI terrorists (10 points)

(O) An eminent journalist is accused of sexual harassment; slobbering all over the face of an intern several decades ago. How should this story be reported?

(1) RW trolls target eminent journalist’s family over sexual harassment charges (0 points)

(2) This should not be reported (5 points)

(3) Eminent journalist accused of sexual harassment (10 points)

All done? Awesome! Let’s find out how you did.

100-150: Bad Hindu! You are undoubtedly among the very worst. You are communal, racist, sexist and bigoted, a blot on society. You care neither for the environment nor for oppressed Muslims everywhere. Try spending 6 months in a Muslim majority country of your choice to learn some tolerance and improve your life.

50-100: You have some evil tendencies, but all is not lost. Yet. You should take an intensive course on Shashi Tharoor’s book to learn how to become a good Hindu.

5-50: Good Hindu! You are a gift of God to this earth. And to the Congress Party. Like all human beings, you have some failings, but you are clearly trying to be the very best. You are well and truly on the path to becoming a real Janeudhari Shiv Bhakt.

0: Thank you for playing Rahul ji. It was my honour.

Centre asks Telangana to return 190 crores given under PMAY as it has shown no data of houses built: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Centre asks Telangana to return 190 crores given under PMAY as it has shown no data of houses built: Report

The Central government has asked the Telangana state government to return the 190 crores given in 2016-17 for building rural houses for the economically backward under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) as reported by the Economic Times.

This move from the Centre came after the State refused to update the Centre about its progress on implementing the scheme. Telangana was given a target of building 70,674 houses in 2016-17 and the first instalment of Rs 190.78 crore was provided to the state.

As per the minutes of the Empowered Committee meeting held on Oct 13, it was decided that the target of 70,674 houses allotted to Telangana would now be given ‘to other well-performing/needy states’ so as to enable the ministry to complete the target of constructing one crore houses under PMAY-G countrywide by 2018-19. Despite a lapse of two years, the Telangana state is still to adopt the transparent criteria of PMAY-Grameen for allotment of houses and has not made any progress on AwaasSoft (an online portal where the progress has to be updated), as told by the Secretary, Rural Development.

Telangana also did not seek the second instalment of PMAY-Grameen funds for 2016-17 till date. As per the ministry’s portal, Telangana has not made a single house under PMAY-Grameen. About 52 lakh houses have been completed across India under PMAY-Grameen so far.

According to a senior Ministry official, the Telangana government was, in fact, pushing its own state housing scheme that promises 2-bedroom houses to all the homeless poor. The scheme employs a contractor system with a higher financial package for the house than the PM Awas Yojana, where the beneficiary himself builds the house. It was possible that the category of people eligible for the PM Awas Yojana, the rural poor who do not have a concrete house of their own, may have been covered by the state scheme, but the state needed to inform the Centre of the same.

The Empowered Committee has decided that Telangana should first complete the gram sabha resolution process, as envisaged in the framework for implementation of PMAY-G, identify beneficiaries as per provisions of the scheme, and then upload their names on the AwaasSoft portal. The ministry accepts the progress of PMAY-Grameen as uploaded only on the portal.

The official, however, reportedly informed that if the state provided the necessary data, the situation can be retrieved.

Watch: Ashish Pandey, son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, caught brandishing gun outside a hotel in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: Ashish Pandey, son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, caught brandishing gun outside a hotel in Delhi

In a shocking incident, Ashish Pandey, son of former Bahujan Samaj Party MP Rakesh Pandey, was seen wielding gun and threatening people in full public view outside a five star hotel in Delhi.

The video was shared by one Shefali Gandhi on social media, where she claimed that the incident took place in Hyatt Delhi on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.

The man with threatening people with a gun has been identified as Ashish Pandey, son of ex-BSP MP Rakesh Pandey while his brother is reportedly an MLA representing the BSP. In the video, the man and women accompanying him, can be heard using abusive language and even threatening the couple.

It is believed that before he brought out his gun, he was involved in a minor scuffle at the hotel. The Delhi police has taken cognisance of the incident and registered a case against him at RK Puram Police station under the Arms Act. The police is reportedly on its way to arrest him.

Rakesh Pandey was an MP from Akbarpur and has criminal cases of criminal intimidation, ransom and others registered against him. His brother is an MLA from Jalalpur in Ambedkarnagar.

Former NDTV journalist and advisor to Manmohan Singh lies about India’s rank in Hunger Index

OpIndia Staff
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Former NDTV journalist and advisor to Manmohan Singh lies about India’s rank in Hunger Index

On October 14, GoNews24x7 tweeted that India’s hunger index is extremely alarming with a rank of 103 among 119 nations. It also posted an infographic which shows that India’s rank has declined substantially in the last five years, from a rank of 55 in 2014. GoNews24x7 is founded by Pankaj Pachauri, who was a journalist with NDTV and then became media advisor of former PM Manmohan Singh.


The same was tweeted by Pankaj Pachauri also, highlighting the rankings for 2014 and 2018, and also mentioning the publicity spend of government in those two years. Thereby insinuating that India’s performance in hunger has declined sharply while the government is more focused on publicity.


Although the current rank of India in the global hunger index is correct, what is depicted by the year wise ranking data is misleading. The annual ranks mentioned creates the impression that India’s ranking was much better earlier and it is on a rapid decline since the Modi government came to power.

But that is not true. The steep decline is the result of a change in methodology adopted by IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), the organisation that calculates the index. Till the year 2014, the institute did not include any country with low hunger levels in the report, and in 2014 there were 44 such countries. All these 44 countries were ranked above India. And if these countries were included in the rankings, India’s 2014 ranking would have been 99, instead of 55. This means that India’s index has remained largely the same over the last five years, with minor variations.


The same allegation that India’s rank has declined steeply was made last year also, and responding to queries, IFPRI had informed via email that change in ranking is due to change in method as now all countries are ranked, including those which were excluded earlier.

The email had also informed that Despite low rankings, India has done well in reducing hunger, and since 2000 the country had reduced its hunger index by 20%. IFPRI had noted that although India has a lot to do to reduce its hunger levels, claiming that its index has fallen by such huge extent is misleading and not true.

Although the Global Hunger Index is an important parameter in measuring the progress of a nation, it is not without some inherent flaws. The index is calculated based on four parameters, percentage of the undernourished population, the percentage of children who die before the age of five, percentage children under five with a low weight-for-height ratio, percentage children under five with a low height-for-age ratio.

While the first two parameters can’t be questioned, the same can’t be said about the other two. As economist Arvind Panagariya has noted, the methodology clubs height and weight of all children in the world together and that is taken as a basis for the index. But that is the wrong approach. The reason for low height or low weight for a child may not be malnutrition, but it may be heredity or genetics also.

People in different places in the world have different average height and weight, so what is under-weight in one region may be perfectly healthy in another. Panagariya has argued that if appropriate corrections are applied to the index, India will rank much ahead of sub-Saharan countries, which are currently ranked ahead of India. Because average height and weight are higher in those countries, even when other parameters like infant mortality and maternal mortality are much worse than India for them.

Bengaluru braces itself to celebrate grand Navaratri with Golu and Dandiya

hansika09
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Bengaluru braces itself to celebrate grand Navaratri with Golu and Dandiya

The festival of Navaratri has Bengaluru absolutely dazzled this year, more than ever before. Amidst pompous displays of ‘Golu‘ (dolls), dandiya nights have stolen the thunder, with celebrations in the glory of three goddesses – Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Being one of the greatest festivals in India, Navaratri (nine nights) symbolizes the triumph of good over evil, following which, the final day of victory – Dussehra, is celebrated.

Over the years, with thousands of people from other states of India migrating into the city of Bengaluru, old, canonical traditions have warmly accommodated various other traditions into them. One of them being dandiya raas (a Gujarati and Rajasthani folk dance) that has literally whirled and twirled its way into the streets of Bengaluru.

Sanjay Bhattacharjee, the organizer of one of the biggest dandiya events in the city this year says, “Bengaluru has myriad of cultures coming together. There was a huge demand for dandiya to be organised this year and the tickets have almost been sold out!” Interestingly, he also mentioned that many of his north-Indian friends have arranged ‘Golu‘ dolls in their homes, as well. “Navaratri in Bengaluru is breaking all religious barriers this time and is bringing everyone together!”, he adds.

Echoing similar thoughts, another event organizer Vikas Chaudhary affirms, “Requests for dandiya nights began in Bengaluru just this year. We finally decided to organize it and the response has been so great! With enchanting Golu displays in the mornings, people want to liven up their evenings as well, and what’s better than dandiya to add to the charm of this festival?”, he says. On a more serious note, recalling mishaps of New Years Eve 2018 in the city last year, Vikas also pointed out the need for safe, enclosed spaces, especially for girls to feel secure and have fun without a worry. “We have all the facilities provided in our large halls, with full security so that there’s hassle-free fun.”

Looping back to “Bombe Habba” or “Golu” dolls, Thulsi Rammohan, a resident of Bengaluru has been setting up the most admired display of dolls since almost 25 years now. “Some of these dolls are almost 40 years old. Every set of dolls tell a story and that’s how I’ve patiently arranged each and every one of them.” Thulsi has a display of around 1000 dolls, including story settings of the Ramayana, Shirdi Sai Baba, Puri Jagannath, and a mountain of steps or ‘padikettu‘ with dolls of all the powerful goddesses, including Durga, Saraswati, Meenakshi and even Mother Mary. “I hold all female goddesses as one, and when they all come together, all evil will perish, including religious barriers.”

City-based homemaker Padma Sriganesh adds, “While enjoying displays of Golu, gifts and sweets are exchanged amongst family and friends, along with chit-chatting and singing devotional songs. This year, we have also arranged dandiya and garba in our society every evening during Navaratri. It’s truly the most awaited festival of the year for me.”

Clearly enough, dandiya has spun its magic over the city, making the festival of Navaratri even more grand.

Chattisgarh: Congress tweets Indian map with parts of Kashmir missing, BJP lodges complaint

OpIndia Staff
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Chattisgarh: Congress tweets Indian map with parts of Kashmir missing, BJP lodges complaint

The Congress party has landed itself in a controversy after its Chhattisgarh state unit tweeted a wrong picture of India’s map with part of Kashmir being absent from it. The Bharat Janata Party (BJP) workers slammed the Congress and lodged a complaint against the Congress for posting wrong pictures.

According to the reports, the tweet was posted from the official handle of Chhattisgarh Congress Pradesh Committee on Sunday. The tweet which was intended to criticize the incumbent BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh over deteriorating law and order situation and women safety in the state, but ended up in offending the citizens of the country.


 

The police officials of the Civil Line police station confirmed about the BJP’s complaint against the Congress for sharing a wrong map of the country. After the incident, BJP attacked the Congress dubbing it, ‘Pakistan Congress Committee’.

“A case has been registered under certain sections of cybercrime. An investigation has been initiated in the matter,” said SHO Yadumani Sidar of the Civil Lines police station where the case was registered.

The BJP workers accused the Congress, said such incidents proves the mentality of the Congress and their intention to break the unity of India.

Jayavardhan Birsa of Chhattisgarh Congress reacted to his party’s blunder, said, “There was a printing mistake in the picture that happened while it was being compressed. An apology was rendered and the picture was immediately removed because the Congress stands for the integrity of the nation.”

The Elections to the state of Chattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and 20, counting will be done on December 11. Both Congress and the BJP are fighting to secure victory in these state elections ahead of the crucial 2019 general elections. The BJP, under the leadership of Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, is eyeing for a fourth term in the state.

Shastra Puja along India-Pakistan border: Rajnath Singh to spend Dussehra in Bikaner with BSF

OpIndia Staff
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Shastra Puja along India-Pakistan border: Rajnath Singh to spend Dussehra in Bikaner with BSF

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh plans to celebrate Dussehra festival with the jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) in his two-day visit to Bikaner. He is going to hold ‘Shashtra Pooja’ along the sensitive Indo-Pak border in Rajasthan’s Bikaner on October 19.

Shashtra Pooja or worship of weapons is a tradition concomitant to the celebrations of Dussehra which is celebrated to mark the victory of Lord Ram over the evil Ravana. This will be perhaps the first time a senior Government of India minister will hold ‘Shashtra Pooja’ along the vexatious Indo-Pak border. Though, the border in Rajasthan has been relatively peaceful, the Border guarding forces of the two nations routinely engage in deadly skirmishes along the Jammu and Kashmir border. Pakistani forces, on multiple occasions, have resorted to inhumanity and unspeakable brutality with our BSF jawans. Last month, Pak forces slit the throat of a BSF jawan after shooting him along the International Border in Jammu.

Last year, the home minister had celebrated Dussehra at Joshimath in Uttarakhand along the Sino-Indian border with ITBP jawans.

On his two-day visit to Rajasthan, Singh is expected to arrive in Bikaner on October 18 and spend a night on the border outpost, followed by celebrating the festival with Jawans on October 19, as per a report. He will attend a ‘Bada Khana’ (feast with the jawans) and address the security personnel.

Singh is also expected to review the situation on the border and assess the progress in various infrastructure projects. Under Rajnath Singh, ‘smart fence‘ project was initiated to seal the border along Pakistan, rendering it impregnable for the enemies. The fortification process of the border is almost complete, with the exception of some areas with difficult terrain. Once the fortification process of India-Pakistan border is finished, the same will be implemented along the Bangladesh border to curb a large number of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from entering India illegally.

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