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After Congress’ grandstanding, HAL employees’ union distances itself from Rahul Gandhi’s event

OpIndia Staff
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After Congress’ grandstanding, HAL employees’ union distances itself from Rahul Gandhi’s event

Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to hold an interaction event with employees and former employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited today at Cubbon Park. But the HAL employees association has reportedly officially distanced itself from the meeting.

According to a report in the News Minute, Suryadevara Chandra Sekhar, the general secretary of HAL’s employee’s union, stated that the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had approached the HAL employees union and had formally requested them to be present at the event. But as HAL is a government organisation, they cannot attend a political party’s event. However, if some employees and retired personnel want to attend the event in their individual capacity, they cannot be stopped.

Sekhar, however, has added that the employees union will write to PM Modi highlighting HAL’s contribution to India’s defence capabilities and request him to make sure the PSU is kept at its functional best by getting it more orders from the Indian Air Force.

The HAL had yesterday issued a circular for its employees reminding them of the employees’ code of conduct and asking them not to attend political events. Suryadeva confirmed that the HAL employees union will not be sharing the stage with Rahul Gandhi at the Cubbon Park event.

As per reports, the Bengaluru police has allowed the party to hold a meeting for 90 minutes near the Minsk Square outside HAL corporate office, from 3.30 pm onwards.

A report in Times of India states that Congres has cut down the events’ programs after learning of the employees union decision and is now planning to hold only one ‘interaction with mostly retired and some serving employees’.

Congress party and Rahul Gandhi had aimed the event to launch fresh attacks at the government over their claim that the government has ‘cheated’ HAL in the Rafale deal and ‘gifted it to Anil Ambani’.


After yesterday’s developments, Congress seems to have mellowed down on its claims. The KPCC vice president has reportedly stated, “It is not about Rahul Gandhi coming to meet HAL employees. It is about HAL’s contribution to India and there will be a discussion about it. Anyone can participate, former or present employees and even interested people.”

The Times of India report also states that Congress had initially planned a ‘padayatra’ from Congress Bhavan in Bengaluru to HAL Headquarters, but that event has been cancelled too.

The central government, the French Government, Dassault Aviation and many defence experts have refuted the allegations of Congress claiming ‘Reliance being favoured over HAL’. However, there has been repeated attempts by Congress leadership and a certain section of media to spread misinformation about the deal. With most of HAL employees staying away from the political event, Congress’ plans of pulling the PSU for political mud-slinging seems to have gone astray.

Gujarat: After Alpesh Thakor, another Congress MLA caught on video spreading violence

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat: After Alpesh Thakor, another Congress MLA caught on video spreading violence

As reported earlier, several districts of Gujarat had been facing widespread violence against non‑Gujaratis, mostly against people from Bihar and UP. The violence followed rape of a minor girl in a Thakor dominant village, after which a labourer from Bihar was arrested by police accusing him of the crime.

It was also reported how members of the Kshatriya Thakor Sena, led by Congress MLA, Alpesh Thakor, instigated revenge violence against people from Bihar and UP working in the state. Video’s surfaced where Congress MLA, Alpesh Thakor, himself is giving a hate speech against non-Gujaratis and instigating the mob to take to violence.

Now, while Alpesh Thakor is busy cleansing his image by sitting on a ‘Sadbhavna Upvas’, to establish “peace and harmony”, another video surfaced which shows yet another Congress MLA from Vav constituency in Banaskantha and incidentally a close aide of Alpesh Thakor, Geniben Thakor, instigating violence in Gujarat. A video of Geniben Thakor purportedly saying that a rape accused should be burnt alive instead of being handed over to police went viral on Thursday.


“The Indian laws should be followed but at the time of the incident … 500, 100, 50 or 150 people are there… they should have used petrol and set them (rapists) on fire, nothing would have happened. They (rapists) should not have been handed over to police and should have been finished instead,” Geniben is heard saying in the video. At the end of the video, some of the other women are also heard saying that the rapists should have been killed.

Geniben, however, later came up with a clarification saying that she had given such statement to pacify the women who had come to meet her.

At a time when migrants are being forced to leave the states because of the violence instigated by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, these statements would perhaps only to add fuel to fire.

This is, however, not the first time, the Congress MLA has made violent statements. Recently, while addressing farmers’ gathering in June 2018, she said that she is pained by the plight of the farmers and if it were up to her, she would kill them (BJP leaders) and go to jail if it were to come to that.

With members of the Congress party, one after the other, seen instigating violence in Gujarat, and moreover with the video’s as prove to surface, it is only appalling to see their party supremo, Rahul Gandhi brazening it out by blaming ‘unemployment’ for the violence. While, on one hand, Congress defends Alpesh Thakor for his act, Rahul goes on record and uses the spate of violence to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

‘You want to change the map of India by talking to Pakistan’: Gautam Gambhir lashes out at Omar Abdullah

OpIndia Staff
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‘You want to change the map of India by talking to Pakistan’: Gautam Gambhir lashes out at Omar Abdullah

Yesterday security forces in Kashmir had gunned down dreaded Hizbul terrorist Mannan Wani. According to reports, in an anti-terrorist operation by security forces, two Hizbul terrorists were gunned down in Handwara in Jammu and Kashmir. One of the slain terrorists was identified as Mannan Wani, the former PhD scholar from Aligarh Muslim University who had joined Hizbul Mujahideen.

Gautam Gambhir, Indian cricketer took to Twitter to express his angst against politicians. He tweeted that we managed to kill a terrorist but lost a ‘radicalised talent’. He then tagged all parties and politicians who have been governing the state of Kashmir. He said that Mehbooba Mufli, Omar Abdullah, the Congress and the BJP should be ashamed of themselves that they allowed a man to turn from books to guns.


To this, Omar Abdullah lashed out at Gambhir with a bizarre rhetoric. He said that Gambhir wouldn’t be able to find Mannan Wani’s home district on a map. He said that Gambhir ‘presuming to know’ what drives young men to pick up the weapon in Kashmir is like Omar talking about cricket.


Gambhir then said that it is Omar Abdullah who is hell-bent on changing the map of Kashmir and that he should explain what he and his fellow politicians have done to engage the youth of Kashmir.


Omar Abdullah proceeded to toe the usual line and talk about how he doesn’t need a ‘lecture in nationalism’. To which, Gautam Gambhir too retorted sharply.


In this bizarre exchange of words between Gautam Gambhir and Omar Abdullah, the glaring fact is that Gambhir, just as any citizen asked a legitimate question as to what the politicians were doing when young men seem to turn themselves into terrorists. In Omar’s bizarre reaction, he didn’t engage with Gambhir on facts but brought in the usual “don’t teach us nationalism” rhetoric.

One only hopes that there will come a time when politicians respond to questions with facts, and not rhetoric.

Kushmanda: The fourth from of Maa Durga credited with creating the world with Her smile

OpIndia Staff
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Kushmanda: The fourth from of Maa Durga credited with creating the world with Her smile

After Maa Shailadatri, Maa Brahmacharini and Maa Chandraghanta, Maa Kushmanda is worshipped on the fourth day of the Navratri.

Appearing with eight hands, Maa Kashmanda is believed to have created the universe by her divine smile. It is believed that when there was nothing in the universe, and it was a dark, black hole, Maa Kashmanda smiled and brought light, with the power She is believed to have derived from the Sun.

Kushmanda: The 4th avatar of Maa Durga who is believed to have created the universe by her smile.

She rides a tiger and in her eight arms, holds, lotus, bow, arrow, kamandal (water pot), Chakra, Gada (mace), japa maala and pot of Amrit. It is believed that because of Her smile only there is light in the universe. She resides in the Suryalok, in the core of the Sun. It is believed She has so much power that only She could reside there.

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.

Prakash Ambedkar claims RSS Chief has ‘Deadly weapons’, demands his arrest

OpIndia Staff
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Prakash Ambedkar claims RSS Chief has ‘Deadly weapons’, demands his arrest

Prakash Ambedkar, the chief of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh claims that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat possesses illegally weapons and also demanded his arrest under the Arms Act, reported India Today,

In a protest rally against the RSS in Mumbai, Ambedkar speaking to the party workers said, along with its chief Bhagwat, the organisation should also be booked for possessing such weapons.

“We have an Arms Act in the country which prevents anyone from possessing weapons. The RSS people are found possessing weapons. Photographs of Bhagwat and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi with weapons like AK 47, multi-firing guns, shoulder to fire rockets etc have been published. I have asked the government to explain why no action is being taken against him”, said Ambedkar.

Prakash Ambedkar went on to demand Maharastra government to charge Bhagwat under the MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act), for possessing illegal weapons and asked the government to confiscate weapons from the RSS.

“They say the weapons are being worshipped on the auspicious day of Dussehra. If I want to worship a tank or a combat aircraft on such occasion would the government permit me to do that? If an action can be taken against a common man for possessing even the country-made crude weapons, similar action needs to be taken against Bhagwat”, said Ambedkar as per reports.

According to Prakash Ambedkar, RSS, headed by Mohan Bhagawat may have been raising a parallel Army. He warned if Maharastra government does not take initiate any action in the near future against the RSS, they would launch protests and block all kind of transportation in the state. He further said that if the government fails to act on Bhagwat, he would move to the court.

The RSS spokesperson in Mumbai reacted to Ambedkar and said the charges are ‘laughable’. He said, “We worship the models of weapons. It is a symbolic gesture that is a part of the ‘Shakti Upasana’ (worshipping of the strength). Dr Bhagwat does not possess any weapon. Ambedkar has developed a black sense of humour these days”.

Prakash, the grandson of BR Ambedkar, heads a Dalit political outfit called Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh in Maharastra and intends to contest in the upcoming elections to be held in the state. Ambedkar, a controversial man has been caught live threatening a TimesNow journalist, Anand Narasimhan after his channel had exposed the role of Urban Naxals in creating unrest in the country. Agitated by this expose, Prakash Ambedkar had abused the journo and warned him of consequences once the present government loses power.

Sharad Pawar led NCP decides to contest 200 seats in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls

OpIndia Staff
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Sharad Pawar led NCP decides to contest 200 seats in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls

Sharad Pawar led the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday declared to contest the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, which is scheduled for November 28, from over 200 seats.

Senior party leader and Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) member Rajendra Jain and the party’s Gujarat unit spokesperson Nakul Singh said, “We are trying to have a coalition with like-minded parties in the state. We will contest more than 200 seats out of the total 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh”.

As the NCP’s preparedness for the forthcoming MP elections gathered momentum, the party also seems to be gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Keeping an eye on the same, the NCP supremo on Friday, called for a meeting of senior leaders of the party’s Maharashtra unit as “he is keen to finalise or at least shortlist the candidates as early as possible so that preparations for the polls can start,” a party leader said.

“Seat-sharing talks with the Congress are likely to be concluded soon. Except for three or four seats which might be contentious, both parties know which seats they will contest,” the leader furthered.

In the NCP-Congress alliance, the NCP demanded to contest an equal number of seats in Maharashtra this time, unlike in 2014, when NCP had contested 21 seats in the state, winning four, while the Congress contested 27 and won two seats.

While the Congress and other opposition parties are trying hard to project a united front ahead of 2019 general elections, the fact is they are yet to figure out their agenda to fight the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections. While all the parties of the so-called ‘mahagatbandhan’ are internally strategizing their moves, Sharad Pawar is keen on the idea of forging alliances of political parties at the state level and said the prime ministerial candidate could be decided after the election results.

Even as the Congress tries to put up a brave face projecting Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate, NCP supremo had lately brushed aside the idea and expressed happiness over the fact that Rahul Gandhi will be not the face of the Grand Alliance ahead of 2019 general elections.

Uttar Pradesh: Married Woman burns Genitals of a 13-year old boy for refusing sexual advances

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Married Woman burns Genitals of a 13-year old boy for refusing sexual advances

In a shocking incident, a married woman has been booked by the police officials for holding a 13-year-old boy captive and allegedly burning his genitals for resisting her sexual advances.

According to the reports, the incident has taken place in Chapraula village on the outskirts of New Delhi. The police officials have said that the woman is on run since the incident.

The mother of the 13-year old boy said that the woman has lured her son to her house and has tried to make sexual advances towards her son. According to the boy’s mother, the woman, despite married had allegedly tried several times in the past to involve her son in sexual acts.

“The married woman, apparently in her late 20s, had lured the boy to her house in the afternoon last Friday (October 5) when she was alone there”, quoted PTI.

The police have registered the complaint against the woman under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (causing hurt with a weapon), 342 (wrongful confinement), 363 (kidnapping) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The accused woman has also been booked under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“The police are investigating the matter from all angles. The delay in approaching the police in the matter leaves several questions unanswered,” the official said.

#MeToo hits Judiciary: Former judge claims she was forced to resign due to sexual harassment by senior judge

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo hits Judiciary: Former judge claims she was forced to resign due to sexual harassment by senior judge

The #MeToo movement which has created a storm during the course of the past week has finally hit the Indian Judiciary. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the registrar general of the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking a reply within six weeks on a plea seeking a woman’s reinstatement who had quit as an additional district and sessions judge in July 2014 following alleged harassment by a senior judge.

As per reports, the woman alleges that the judge, who was her supervisor at the time, harassed her sexually from December 2013 till after her resignation on July 17, 2014. The former judicial officer, who was transferred from Gwalior to Sidhi, resigned as an additional district and sessions judge on the aforementioned date. The High Court judge against whom the woman has levelled allegations is now retired.

The woman has urged the Court to treat her resignation as “constructive termination” and claimed it was “neither voluntary nor conscious”. She has also reportedly written a letter to the Chief Justice of India explaining the reasons that forced her to resign.

Meanwhile, a Bombay High Court judge has also come out in support of the #MeToo movement. Justice Gautam Patel said, “I fully support women who are coming out and have the courage to speak because it takes a lot of courage to speak at any time.” He went on to add, “Why women have not come forward is a very serious problem and the reason is that because our world is so patriarchal and so biased that it does not allow our women to speak freely at times when they should or they could. We now need to have a discussion on how we are going to get rid of this completely damaged, mocked system that we have of judging this cause and come up with complete gender neutrality…taking #MeToo accusation and testing it while preserving the dignity, self-respect of the woman making those accusations”

It is pertinent to mention that Kolse Patil, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, has also been accused of sexual harassment. As per the allegation, at the end of an interview with the alleged victim, he asked the woman why the top button of her kurta is open and said that he thought they can be ‘friends’.

How long can we tolerate the intolerant

Kushal Mehra
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How long can we tolerate the intolerant

A long time ago there was a town called “Innocence”. It was a small town with a very well knit and cohesive community. The citizens of Innocence believed in “live and let live”. If someone fell sick each member of the community would gather together and help the sickly member out. Innocence had a thriving economy which would attract visitors from far and wide to come and visit them. Many would visit and go back, but over the years some of the visitors started staying back. They fell in love with the place. They fell in love with the values of the town and assimilated with the other citizens like sugar in a bowl of milk.

Then, one fine day a group of visitors called “Chaos” came to the town of Innocence. This group was different. At first, they obeyed the rules of the town. Yes, there were minor skirmishes, but it was nothing that could not be handled or digested by the town. But then there were some visible differences between the members of the group “Chaos” in comparison with the other members of Innocence.

One was for dialogue while the other was not, one believed in free speech, while the other did not. And eventually, over a century the members of the group “Chaos” out-reproduced the other members of the society. At 1st there were some riots in which members of “Chaos” destroyed public property. Then many of their members started joining the police force and became members of the local municipal council.

The rules started changing, they first removed the right to speak freely. One was not allowed to criticise the tenets of the religion of the members of “Chaos” as it would hurt their sentiments. Eventually, by sheer weight of numbers in the council, a law was passed which changed the basic structure of the constitution of Innocence. They were no longer a democracy, a universal dress code was decided for all the men and women in the town. Some food items were banned. The old places of worship which had been there for centuries in the town were broken down and new centres of the religion of the members of “Chaos” were built on them instead. Today 98% of the citizens of the town of Innocence are from the community of “Chaos”. The memories of its past are like that dirty little museum piece that is kept in some corner to remind the current members of the town to never commit that mistake again.

Does this story ring a bell? Was there a town called Innocence in reality? The answer is an obvious no. Were there some visitors called “Chaos”? The answer is again an obvious no. But in spite of the above story being a fiction does this little narration ring a bell somewhere in your head?

The question one needs to ask after analysing the above-mentioned scenario is very simple, should we tolerate the intolerant? When does one say enough is enough? When does unbearable become truly unbearable?

The Vienna born philosopher Karl Popper analyses this very peculiar and sensitive issue in his famous book ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies’, where he says, “Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should, therefore, claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”

Now Popper has always had his fair share of critiques. For example in 1971 the philosopher John Rawls in his book “A Theory of Justice” says “While an intolerant sect does not itself have title to complain of intolerance, its freedom should be restricted only when the tolerant sincerely and with reason believe that their own security and that of the institutions of liberty are in danger.”

Modern Indian society is a work in progress. After a massive struggle where our society struggled and toiled hard, we eventually managed to break the shackles of the tyrannical British empire and managed to establish ourselves as a Plural, Secular and the Democratic Republic. The next 70 years post our independence have been a mixed bag. But if one were to look at it dispassionately we can safely conclude that in spite of some major bumps here and there we have still successfully managed to remain a Democracy. But can we take this status quo for granted? Can we say with relative confidence that India can remain a Plural and the Democratic Republic no matter what?

As of today, Indian society is by and large populated by people who believe in the principles of mutual respect and reciprocity. India is a relatively peaceful nation in spite of the multiple problems that it has. But, there is a multitude of bad ideas that hover around us as we manage to deal with them with the limited toolkits at our disposal. Bad ideas are digestible and liveable only until their adherents remain a minority in the society and the country has sufficient freedom of expression to criticise those bad ideas and a functioning law and order to crush the dissenters if they commit violent acts to force their will upon the larger population around them.

Demography is destiny. India remains tolerant until the people who believe in those ideals remain the larger percentage of the population. So let us ask ourselves some tough questions. Should we tolerate bad ideas? If yes, to what degree should they be tolerated? Should we tolerate the stone pelters in Kashmir? Should we tolerate the hooligans at Azad Maidan who desecrated the Amar Jawan Jyoti? Should we tolerate the Islamic clerics who preach violence in the name of Religion? Should we tolerate the ones who want the balkanization of India? Should we tolerate the ones who kill someone because they ate something that he/she did not like? Should we tolerate the ones who discriminate against someone because of him being from a supposed “lower caste”? Should we tolerate evangelist hate mongers who want to convert you to their religion with all means possible? Should we tolerate the ones who want to jail you because you criticised their religion?

The list of questions can go on forever. There is a fine line between peace and anarchy. And a society stays peaceful until the majority remains in that zone of peace. But the seekers of anarchy are challenging us on a daily basis. They keep on pushing our limits because they know we are tolerant. And we should remain tolerant. But, for us to remain tolerant we have to make sure that the Indian State draws some tangible boundaries.

For any system of governance to remain secular, liberal, plural and democratic it has to satisfy some basic prerequisite conditions. Those are

  1. Law and order: Law and order is a joke in India. All we need to do is just pick up a newspaper and see some news about one group or another taking the law into their hands on a daily basis. “According to the World Bank’s global governance indicators, India fell by eight positions on rule of law (to 100 from 92) over the decade leading up to 2016. This report is released once every two years beginning in the year 1996 and every year since 2003.”
  2. Judiciary: Justice delayed is justice denied. As per this news report, “There are 2,67,73,356 cases pending in various courts of India, according to National Judicial Data Grid statistics, and are rising with each passing day. The minimum average period to complete any trial in India is six years, which tends to increase if the case is dragged to the Supreme Court. Ideally, the accused gets punished after years of trial and by that time either the victim or the accused dies, or so much time passes that the punishment pronounced serves no purpose. “
  3. Free speech: One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know the state of free speech in India. Governments come and go but the state of free speech remains the same. Some ideas are beyond questioning. Some religious texts are allowed to spew hate towards the disbeliever and the heathen, but, if one was to question the same religious texts they will end up in jail. As if the current laws were not enough a few weeks ago The Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a Bill which proposes life imprisonment for the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib, Gita, Quran and Bible.

India today is neither like the town “Innocence” nor is it in the state which the members of “Chaos” desired. We are at a cusp, somewhere in between. But, for India to move towards the direction of “Innocence” it has to make sure it keeps the members of “Chaos” at bay and under control with all the legal means possible.

It does not matter which religion, caste, creed and political outfit one belongs to. If you want India to become something similar to what the members of “Chaos” desired you are not welcome. Beyond a limit, a society cannot afford to tolerate the intolerant. Have we reached that limit? I do not think so, but it is time someone raised some alarm bells. Our forefathers fought long and hard to give us the gift of democracy. Let us cherish that privilege and make sure that it remains the same. Let us all join hands in this journey towards “Innocence” as we reject those members of “Chaos”.

#MeToo : Pritish Nandy’s son Kushan Nandy accused of harassment by actor Chitrangada Singh

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo : Pritish Nandy’s son Kushan Nandy accused of harassment by actor Chitrangada Singh

As the #MeToo fire rages on, actor-producer Chitrangadha Singh has levelled charges of harassment against Kushan Nandy, director of her movie Baabumoshai Bandookbaaz, who also happens to be the son of eminent filmmaker Pritish Nandy.

Describing her ordeal, Chitrangadha said that she left the movie in 2016 because the director was forcing her to shoot an intimate scene with the film’s male lead, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. She alleged that the director said, “Apna peticoat uthao aur ragdo apne aap ko.” Horrified with this inappropriate attitude of the director, she chose to abandon the project. Casting her ire on Nawazuddin Siddiqui, she said he was witnessing the ensuing drama but didn’t bother to intervene and take a stand against the director’s behaviour.

Director Kushan Nandy has denied the allegations stating that the intimate scene was not the reason for her walking out of the film. He said that she had already shot the intimate scenes but was unhappy with the script and wanted specific changes in it. It was her decision to not do the film. There has been a stoic silence from Pritish Nandy against the allegations insinuated against his son by actor Chitrangadha Singh as well as on the ordeal of other #MeToo victims.

More skeletons are tumbling out every day as the storm stirred by #MeToo campaign grips the nation. Victims recounting their horrifying encounters have come forward against eminent personalities from Bollywood, journalism, TV and corporate. Recently, veteran TV actor Alok Nath was accused of rape and molestation. Yesterday, comedian turned film-director, Sajid Khan was accused of sexual harassment by his female colleagues, leading to his ouster from Housefull 4 movie.

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