Home Blog Page 6973

‘Journalist’ Saba Naqvi gets invited to talk about ‘ethics in journalism’ and we can’t stop laughing

OpIndia Staff
-
0
‘Journalist’ Saba Naqvi gets invited to talk about ‘ethics in journalism’ and we can’t stop laughing

Journalism as a profession has been on a downward spiral for quite some time. The west has long known the pitfalls of the media industry, however, for the realisation to reach India, it took a little longer than expected. In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, most people realised that the partisan media that masquerade as neutral flagbearers of the truth cannot be trusted blindly.

Even though after the 2014 elections were won by Narendra Modi led BJP, the media seems to have lost all semblance of truth, some journalists continue walking around as paragons of virtue. They have been called out for their lies multiple times, and yet, their facade seems to remain intact, at least for the gang of elites.

This is the very reason that when “journalist” Saba Naqvi declared that she had been invited to talk on ‘ethics in journalism’, we at OpIndia.com just couldn’t stop laughing.


Saba Naqvi has been invited by the philosophy forum of Hindu college for a talk in ‘ethics in journalism’. The poster also brands her as ‘one of the most important political analysts’. However, Naqvi’s relationship with the truth has been sketchy, to say the least.

In one of Arnab Goswami’s Sunday Debates, the conversation revolved around the hypocrisy of the ‘Lutyens Media’. Saba valiantly tried to defend her cosy coterie. When called out about how the Lutyens media outrages when a Muslim is killed but turns a blind eye and refuses to outrage when Hindus or RSS/BJP workers are killed in Kerala, political analyst MR Venkatesh says that her response was “Why should I, it is not my job”.

After the Uttar Pradesh landslide win for BJP, Saba Naqvi in one of her columns admits that at least one pollster who works for Akhilesh Yadav conceded a BJP landslide. Yet, when Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati went on a tirade against EVMs and how BJP won a landslide because of tampering, nobody heard Saba raise a stink and question the dangerous lie being furthered by Yadav.

Saba Naqvi is the kind of ‘exceptional political commentator’ who almost writes love ballads for Aam Aadmi Party without disclosing her conflict of interest. While almost campaigning for AAP all the while masking it as political commentary, Saba fails to disclose that she was appointed by AAP to Delhi University governing body.

She had recently shared an old fake news from 2015 where she alleged that a Dalit man was murdered for entering a temple in Uttar Pradesh. The news, firstly, was from 2015 when Akhilesh Yadav was Chief Minister. Secondly, the man was murdered by a drunk and not because he entered the temple. These pesky facts escaped Saba.

She had also shared a craftily clicked image of PM Modi’s visit to Dawoodi Bohra community to allege that no women were present at the meeting. She was called out by many including OpIndia.com.

The ‘independent journalist’ who once used to be a cheer girl for AAP, had celebrated the return of Sonia Gandhi and has also used rape analogies in the past with utmost insensitivity, also doesn’t shy away from defending Arvind Kejriwal’s clone, Rahul Gandhi. When Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had reprimanded Rahul Gandhi for his unprofessional and inappropriate hug-and-wink behaviour in the parliament, Saba had promptly joined others in slandering the speaker.

It should not surprise anyone that the AAP/Congress cheer girl would harbour sweeping disdain for BJP. However, the ‘independent political analyst’ Saba Naqvi’s disdain was so deep, that she even made an issue out of her pilot during a flight being named Amit Shah. We, of course, couldn’t find a pilot by that name. We found a first officer by the name of Amit Shah. However, it is amusing to note how “journalists” who are now being touted as the best political analysts ever have not only cheered for specific political parties but also expressed sweeping hate for names that are shared by the political parties she doesn’t like.

Saba Naqvi is, in fact, so independent that she doesn’t even mind indulging in whataboutery when people die. During the Ram Rahim verdict, when riots erupted, Saba was busy equating it to Kashmir to score political points instead of unequivocally talking about the violence then. This whataboutery seems to be a habit with Saba Naqvi considering in the wake-up Orlando killings, instead of talking about Islamist terror, she was busy talking about why America is not legislating on gun control.

The shenanigans listed by us here are, of course, only the tip of the iceberg. A lot remains to be said about how “independent” a “journalist” Saba Naqvi really is. It is surprising, however, the reputed college like Hindu would invite such openly biased and often-caught-lying “journalists” for a talk on, ironically, “ethics in journalism”.

AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal convicted for threatening and intimidating a woman

OpIndia Staff
-
0
AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal convicted for threatening and intimidating a woman

The sessions court of Delhi on Monday convicted Aam Aadmi Party MLA  from Deoli, Prakash Jarwal, under IPC section 352(assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 354(Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and section 506(1) (criminal intimidation).

AAP MLA had allegedly forcefully entered victim’s house along with his other supporters and assaulted her along with her husband with an intent to outrage her modesty.

The victim had subsequently lodged an FIR at Sangam Vihar police station on July 14 last year, leading to MLA’s conviction.

The court will hear the case again, so as to decide the quantum of punishment for MLA, which by law can be of a maximum of two years.

MLA Jarwal has been in the accused of molestation earlier too. In June 2016, a woman had accused him of harassing her and touching inappropriately at Delhi Jal Board office of Greater Kailash. Though he was acquitted later. Jarwal is also accused of assaulting the chief secretary of Delhi at the CM residence along with fellow party leader Amanatullah Khan.

This is also not the first time that an AAP MLA has been convicted of criminal behavior.

On August 1 of this year, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate convicted another AAP MLA from Tughlakabad of IPC section 324(Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 341(wrongful restraint.) and 37(Co-operation by doing one of several acts constituting an offense.) for assaulting a youth.

AAP MLAs in past has also been booked for various criminal cases. Amanatullah Khan has a number of cases pending against him.

Recently, Delhi witnessed a bureaucratic breakdown after Delhi Chief Secretary alleged that CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia along with, two other party MLAs beat him at CM”s residence at midnight. The two other MLA’s were Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

#MeToo: Mumbai Film Festival drops AIB’s first film ‘Chintu Ka Birthday’ and Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Kadakh’ from the line up

OpIndia Staff
-
0
#MeToo: Mumbai Film Festival drops AIB’s first film ‘Chintu Ka Birthday’ and Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Kadakh’ from the line up

In the light of the allegations of sexual misconduct against the co-founders as well as collaborators of comedy platform All India Bakchod (AIB) and film director Rajat Kapoor, Mumbai Film Festival has decided to drop their films from the line up.


In a statement released late last night, MAMI (Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image) said, that they strongly support the #MeToo movement and in the light of the recent allegations levelled against AIB and Rajat kapoor, they have decided to drop their films, “Chintu Ka Birthday” and “Kadakh” from their line up. “We want to take this opportunity to open up the conversation, and find solutions to harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace,” they said in the statement.

Last night, video streaming platform Hotstar cancelled AIB show ‘On Air with AIB’ with immediate effect. Twitter users have also been asking Amazon and YouTube to remove the content of All India Bakchod from their platforms. The panel of judges in the Amazon Prime show ‘Comistan’ includes Tanmay Bhatt, one of the founders of AIB and the one who admitted that he knew of Utsav’s sexual harassment of women.

Veteran actor Alok Nath accused of sexual assault by former colleague

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Veteran actor Alok Nath accused of sexual assault by former colleague

After the various film and media personalities, including stand up comics, being outed by women on the accusation of sexual harassment, veteran film actor Alok Nath has now been accused of sexual assault by a former colleague, writer-producer Vinta Nanda who wrote the hit tv show Tara. In a Facebook post on Monday, without naming Alok Nath, she recounted the incident from 90s when she was working on the show Tara. She had given ample hints in her post and later confirmed to IANS that she was indeed talking about Alok Nath.

In her post, she talks about how her assaulter was the husband of her best friend and they were regularly going to each other’s homes, socially. While she was producing Tara, he (Alok Nath) was allegedly after her lead girl, who was not interested in him. She accuses him of being an alcoholic and displaying obnoxious behaviour, but the same was overlooked because he was one of the most popular actors. She accused him of harassing the lead actress, and even tried to molest her on the set. Alok Nath was later kicked out of the show but soon after the show went off air.

Nanda adds in her post that later her friends tried to patch up between her and Alok Nath. After Tara went off air, Nanda had moved on in her life and was at a happy place. However, she says, things went worse then. Alok Nath, she claims, invited her to a party at his place, when his wife was out of town. It was quite usual for the group of theatre friends to meet, she says, and hence there was nothing strange about the invite. She says that as the evening went further, her drinks were mixed and she started feeling strange. So at around 2 am, she decided to walk home as she didn’t feel right to stay back. Midway, she says, Alok Nath was driving past and asked her to sit in his car so he could drop her home. She said she trusted him and sat in his car, but following it, she has very vague recollection after that. She remembers more alcohol being poured in her mouth and being violated, endlessly. She says she woke up the next day in her house in a lot of pain. “I hadn’t just been raped, I was taken to my own house and had been brutalised. I couldn’t get up for my bed. I told some of my friends but everybody advised me to forget about it and move on,” she says in her Facebook post.

She says her company was shut down, and he created an environment for her where she felt threatened. She then further narrates an incident which shattered her completely, and also the reason which took her so long to come out.

While I was working on this new series, he asked me to come to his house again and I went to allow him to violate me.

I needed the job and didn’t want to leave it as I needed the money. It was after this that I quit. I was completely shattered by then. It was a nervous breakdown I was going through, but I was trying to be brave. I tried to pick up the threads of my life but channels and networks and sets and rehearsals started to freak me out. I continued to write, but the couple of times that I pushed myself and found the courage to pitch for shows, I would break down during meetings.

Finally I gave up.

She says that now after twenty years, she has recovered and is in a better state, mentally, but still afraid of speaking to an audience. She says that the only reason she is talking about it now is that she does not want any girl to hold back the truth.

What followed because of my silence was even worse.

I became easy prey because the message had been put out that I was afraid and so I would not open my mouth. The couple of times that I wrote about what I had gone through created more complications because I stopped getting work.

To deal with all the fear and shame I drank myself silly almost every evening and even flirted with drugs.

She says the trust friends and people have in her have emboldened her to bounce back. She urges other women who have faced such situation to speak up and not hold back.

At the time of this report, Alok Nath has not responded to the allegations. His last response on Twitter (except for retweets for blood requirements) was in April this year.

#MeToo: Hotstar cancels All India Bakchod show, ‘On Air with AIB’ with immediate effect

OpIndia Staff
-
0
#MeToo: Hotstar cancels All India Bakchod show, ‘On Air with AIB’ with immediate effect

Online streaming platform Hotstar, in a statement released today, said that in wake of the allegations of sexual harassment raised against the co-founders and collaborators of comedy platform All India Bakchod, have cancelled production of the second season of their show ‘On Air with AIB’.


Earlier in the day, AIB had also asked Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of AIB to step away indefinitely till things are clearer.

Twitter users have also been asking Amazon and YouTube to remove the content of All India Bakchod from their platforms. The panel of judges in the Amazon Prime show ‘Comistan’ includes Tanmay Bhatt, one of the founders of AIB and the one who admitted that he knew of Utsav’s sexual harassment of women.

Remember journalists sharing old news of Dalit killed for entering temple? It was fake news

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Remember journalists sharing old news of Dalit killed for entering temple? It was fake news

It is said that the news cycle is endless. It appears that for Indian media, the fake news cycle is also endless that continues in a loop with fake news being recycled over and over again.

After the election dates for 5 states were announced, the media seemed to have gone in overdrive trying to discredit the government in power. Today, many prominent handles including journalists shared an old ‘news’ from 2015 where it was alleged that a 90-year-old Dalit man was murdered for entering a temple in Uttar Pradesh.


Paronjoy Guha Thakurta who is an “independent” journalist too shared the same “news” on Twitter.

Thakurta later deleted his tweet after someone pointed out to him that it was a 2015 article. However, he continued to lament the state of our nation without realising that the news itself was fake.


In 2015 itself, OpIndia.com had covered how the story of the Dalit man being murdered for entering a temple was a lie. It turns out that the old man was murdered by a drunkard and not because he entered the temple. It was also reported that the Dalit man was going to the temple when he was asked for money by a drunkard. When he refused, the drunkard hit him with an axe, and later burnt his body. This was also confirmed by the District Magistrate.

The then Uttar Pradesh government’s Twitter handle, under Akhilesh Yadav, had tweeted a clarification too:

Perhaps the media persons have lost track of the number of lies that have been peddled or run out of creative lies which is why old lies are now being recycled. Either way, it is interesting that these lies have surfaced after the election dates have been announced by the Election Commission.

Suspected ISI spy arrested from Nagpur’s Brahmos Missile Unit

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Suspected ISI spy arrested from Nagpur’s Brahmos Missile Unit

In a shocking security breach, the Uttar Pradesh Police and Maharashtra’s Anti-Terror Squad have arrested one person named Nishant Agarwal working at Brahmos Aerospace unit in Nagpur in a joint operation, on the accusation of sharing technical details with Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency ISI and other US agencies. He has been booked under the Officials Secret Act.

Nagpur Brahmos Unit is a Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility which makes propellents, or fuel, for the Brahmos missile. The BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or land. It is the fastest cruise missile in the world.

Accused Nishant Agarwal was working at this facility from last 4 years. Police claim that Agarwal had access to sensitive information about India’s missile systems. The accused has been alleged to have been passing this sensitive and classified information to Pakistan as well as the US agencies. A team had been monitoring his moves since Saturday night and the suspect was finally arrested on Monday, said sources. The local police were unaware of the presence of the suspect in the region and the ATS carried out their operation without taking them into confidence, fearing sabotage. ATS is now investigating the extent of information leaked and the involvement of other groups in routing the procured information to the ISI and other agencies.

Nishant Aggarwal. source: Facebook

IG of ATS Aseem Arun said, “Very sensitive information was found on his personal computer. We also found evidence of him chatting on Facebook with Pakistan-based operators.”

Last month, a similar case of espionage was outed by the Uttar Pradesh ATS squad. The suspect was a BSF jawan and was accused of sharing crucial information with his ISI handlers. Achutanand Misra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, was “honey-trapped” by a woman claiming to be a journalist into sharing information about unit operational details, police academy and training centre. Earlier this year, Ramesh, who worked as a cook at an Indian diplomat’s house was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir military Intelligence Unit and the Uttar Pradesh police from Pithoragarh for bugging the house and passing off the information to the ISI. In March 2017, Aftab Ali was arrested for being involved in running an espionage racket in Uttar Pradesh. The report also stated that he had received training in Pakistan from ISI and was in regular touch with the Pakistan High Commision officials.

Anonymous account deletes MeToo allegations against singer

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Anonymous account deletes MeToo allegations against singer

All India Bakchod, the comedy group, who have in the past pretended to be ‘feminists’ several times, have had a slew of allegations of sexual misconduct made against them in a wave of the #MeToo movement.

Earlier, we had reported how Utsav Chakraborty, a comedian who used to work with AIB was accused of sexual harassment. Thereafter, it was revealed that Tanmay Bhat, who is one of the founders of AIB knew about this harassment and didn’t do anything about. As time passed, allegations of misconduct surfaced against Tanmay Bhat and Gursimat Khamba too, the two founders of AIB.

Eventually, Tanmay Bhat and Khamba were asked to step away from the day to day running of AIB.

Now it turns out, that another AIB collaborator has been accused of grievous charges of sexual harassment and abuse.

However, the woman who anonymously narrated her tale and shared horror details about the singer deleted her allegations later.

This article, which earlier detailed the ordeal as posted by the anonymous account, has been updated to remove the name of the singer and the specifics of the allegation since the said account deleted the allegations.

Gujarat Minister urges migrant workers, who were forced to leave amidst clashes, to return, assures situation under control

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Gujarat Minister urges migrant workers, who were forced to leave amidst clashes, to return, assures situation under control

Gujarat Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja reportedly appealed to the migrant workers, who left the state following widespread violence across five district’s including  Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Patan, and Ahmedabad in the last one week, to come back.

Large-scale violence had erupted at several places in Gujarat, where the non-Gujarati migrants, people mostly from UP and Bihar were targeted following the alleged rape of a minor girl in the state by a migrant worker. These attacks were instigated by hate messages against people from UP and Bihar being circulated on social media.

Following the attack (which the police later confirmed was instigated by a Congress leader) hordes of people from the two north Indian states have been leaving the state via buses and trains.

Gujarat Home Minister, Pradeepsinh Jadeja confirming that more than 450 arrests of people responsible for the attacks on the migrants have been made so far said, “It is our responsibility to provide security to those who come to Gujarat for employment from other states. We are very serious about resuming the law and order in the state. We have filed 35 FIRs (First Information Reports) in this case.”

The Gujarat police have brought the situation in control by tightening security in the disturbed areas with regular patrolling and by pushing in more personnel.

The appeal to the migrants came after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar approached his Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani to punish the people who have been targetting the migrant population.

“I would like to appeal that please don’t punish the rest of the people for the crime. Please punish those guilty but don’t spread the hatred against others,” said Nitish Kumar to Gujarat CM.

Gujarat had been clinched in large-scale violence as reports emerged that a person from Bihar has allegedly raped a Gujarati Thakor minor girl in a Thakor dominant village. It was reported that Kshatriya Thakor Sena instigated revenge violence against people from Bihar and UP working in the state, in various industries as well as people working as street vendors.

Later evidence came up which proved that it was the members of the Kshatriya Thakor Sena, headed by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor, who had started the violence against non-Gujaratis.

Police later recovered a video footage where a man was seen threatening non-Gujaratis. Police then identified the person and confirmed that he was MV Thakore, a local leader of the Congress party and elected Taluka Panchayat member, who was seen threatening non-Gujarati people of massive violence if they don’t leave the state.

Evidence has emerged, however, which appear to confirm the role of the Thakor Sena in the said attacks. Meanwhile, Congress MLA and Sena leader Alpesh Thakor have announced that he will sit on an indefinite ‘Sadbhavna fast’ from the 11th of October demanding the withdrawal of ‘false cases’ against the members of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena (GKTS) following the instances of violence in the state.

#MeToo: Hindustan Times Bureau Chief and Politics Editor asked to step down following sexual harassment allegations

OpIndia Staff
-
0
#MeToo: Hindustan Times Bureau Chief and Politics Editor asked to step down following sexual harassment allegations

After a Twitter user outed comedian Utsav Chakraborty’s sexual harassment on several girls, a floodgate of sorts has opened about similar revelations in the last week. Women have come forward with their stories about how they were harassed by people in powerful positions, many of them in various media organisations.

Following the barrage of allegations, now concerned organisations have been forced to take action against such persons in senior positions. After AIB asked its co-founder and CEO Tanmay Bhat to step down and placed Gursimran Khamba on a temporary leave following allegations against them, now reports have come that Political Editor and Bureau Chief of Hindustan Times Prashant Jha has been asked to step down from both his roles. According to reports, Editor in Chief of Hindustan Times R. Sukumar informed this development in an email sent to the staff.

Prashant Jha was accused of predatory behaviour by a young lawyer and journalist Avantika Mehta. In a series of tweets and screenshots of text messages posted on Twitter, she narrates how Jha continued his attempt at ‘hitting at her’, despite being married, and despite Avantika saying him no each time.

She further explained how the power equation worked in the Delhi media circle where such predatory behaviour is hard to point out.

She even posted screenshots of her conversation which she claims is to be with Jha.

The screenshots show how Jha would contently say that he is attracted to Avantika, and every time she would turn him down politely. Avantika notes that she had to say no in such a way that it does not offend him. Because he was in a powerful position and if he is offended there may be adverse repercussions on her career or she may be affected other ways. Even after realising that he is married and he has been said no by the girl, and saying that he would “back off”, he continues his effort to start an affair with the girl, the screenshots show.

After the departure of Jha, HT Editor Sukumar Ranganathan will take over charge of the bureau in the meantime.

With organisations starting to take action against people accused of sexual harassment against women, it remains to be seen how many more heads will roll.

1...6,9726,9736,974...7,677Page 6,973 of 7,677