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Will the selectors be brave enough to drop MS Dhoni from the ODI side?

Sandeep Singh
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Will the selectors be brave enough to drop MS Dhoni from the ODI side?

Everyone knows MS Dhoni is hanging around for a fairy tale finish to his career at the 2019 World Cup. In a career full of highlights, Dhoni’s greatest moment remains the six over long on off Kulasekara to seal the 2011 World Cup triumph and he wants to do it all over again, but is he now good enough to do it again on the biggest stage?

Dhoni’s batting form has been sliding for the past three years and the slump was in evidence again during the recently concluded Asia Cup. In 2016, Dhoni averaged 27.80 at a strike rate of 80.11, far below his career numbers of 50.61 and 87.85 (it was above 90 before 2016). In 2017, the average did go up to 68 thanks to a good series in Sri Lanka where he remained unbeaten throughout, but the strike rate of 84 was still below his usual best.

2018 has been the worst of the lot though, he is averaging only 28.12 at a strike rate of 67.36 and has frequently struggled to get going in the middle. His form during the IPL suggested a return of the vintage Dhoni but it proved to be a false dawn, as seen in England and Dubai.

He is still an incredibly fit athlete and his performance behind the stumps is as good as ever, but in an already fragile middle order, Dhoni’s loss of form is creating a big headache for India. If the Top 3 has an off day, India can no longer rely on a rescue act from a man who used to perform them regularly during his hay days.

Dhoni always took some time to settle in before delivering the big hits later on but these days, the settling in period is growing longer and longer, and there haven’t been enough big hits later on to make up for the balls consumed.

If the selectors do show the bravery to drop him, who can fill his sizeable boots is the big question. Dinesh Karthik has been around longer than Dhoni but has failed to nail down a spot in the middle order. He had a great opportunity in Dubai to push his case for the World Cup, but failed to see his side home in the two games where middle order was needed to score.

Rishabh Pant has already impressed with his batting in Test Cricket, but his keeping skills leave a lot to be desired. He wasn’t helped by some wayward bowling but the number of byes he conceded in England will be at the back of selectors’ mind. Add the catches he dropped of Buttler, someone who can turn an ODI around in half a dozen overs if you give him that chance.

There is also a case for KL Rahul to keep wickets and India playing another batsman, similar to what was done in 2003 World Cup but Rahul’s own performances with the bat in 50 overs cricket (albeit in few opportunities) haven’t been that impressive.

There are also some impressive keeper-batsmen in domestic cricket, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson to name a few but the World Cup may come too soon for some of these guys.

MS Dhoni does bring with him tonnes of experience and cricket knowledge which the other options don’t, he still remains one of the cleverest minds in world cricket, but if we are taking him to England for that alone, then he can provide that from the side-lines, as a mentor or whatever fancy designation BCCI can think of.

Indian players have often hung around a bit longer than they should have in search for personal milestones, Kapil Dev played a couple more years than he should have as he waited to overhaul Hadlee, Tendulkar hung around for the last couple of years to get his 100th 100, and now Dhoni is staying longer than he should as he waits for the 2019 World Cup.

In this case, will the selectors be bold enough to drop him and get someone younger and a bit more dynamic in the side? The Australian tour will let us know as any replacement has to start featuring in the XI by then to get some experience under the belt ahead of the big event in England.

Fact check: Did govt ‘force’ employees in Jammu and Kashmir to buy health insurance from Reliance

OpIndia Staff
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Fact check: Did govt ‘force’ employees in Jammu and Kashmir to buy health insurance from Reliance

Amidst the hollow claims by Congress and its leaders over the Rafale fighter jets deal, there is a certain tendency in media and political groups to cry ‘scam’ whenever the name Reliance is mentioned. The attempts to ‘create’ the idea of scams in the public discourse saw another claim recently when some groups alleged that the central government is ‘forcing’ the state government employees in Jammu and Kashmir to buy group health insurance from Reliance.

On September 27, a news portal called The News Central 24×7 published a report claiming the same.

The headline in News Central 24×7

The article also stated that the central government is favouring the Reliance company over state-owned LIC for providing group health insurance to employees. The article also had a Tweet by Congress leader Salman Nizami that there was no bidding and the ‘Modi government’ chose Reliance over LIC.


Another news portal named The Kashmir Monitor has also made similar claims that the government is making it mandatory for state government employees to buy insurance from Reliance.

The news report had quoted an article in Daily Excelsior on the same date that said the Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) of state government employees in Jammu and Kashmir has held a meeting to discuss a recent government circular regarding health insurance for government employees. The meeting had objected to the state government fixing the same amount as a premium for all categories of employees.

The EJAC had reportedly also stated that ICICI was providing the same health insurance coverage for a lower premium. However, there was no mention of LIC in the article.

However, the claims that there was no bidding process and Reliance was chosen over LIC was found to be completely false as the Jammu and Kashmir finance department had issued a notice inviting tenders on June 1, 2018, from all general insurance companies for the group medical insurance. So the claims of ‘no bidding process’ and ‘LIC being sidelined’ were totally false because when there was a tender process, naturally the contract would go to the lowest bidder with the best proposal.

JKfinance.nic.in

It was found that the government of Jammu and Kashmir had issued similar tender notices in 2017 too.

Also, the twisting of words by these portals and individuals that insinuated that the government is making it mandatory for employees to buy insurance from Reliance is misleading in itself because the chief minister’s group medical insurance policy was made at the wake of government employees and pensioners facing hassles to settle their medical bills and claim insurance. Hence all employees of government bodies and PSUs, including pensioners were brought under a single umbrella of the above-mentioned insurance policy.

It is clear that the propaganda of ‘Reliance over LIC’ was being intentionally created for controversy and media attention at the wake of similar claims by Congress over the Rafale deal which have been proved baseless already.

It is also notable here that there is no rule of insurance policies of government employees being provided by LIC only. LIC is a PSU and it has to compete with other insurance companies when there is a tender process. This claim of ‘Reliance being chosen over LIC’ was hence just another false propaganda.

Also, the claim by News Central 24×7, Salman Nizami and others that the central government ‘made it mandatory’ to buy insurance from Reliance is based on misinformation as there has been a bidding process to select the best bidder.

Media professional says Vivek Tiwari’s wife deserved her husband murdered because she voted for Yogi

OpIndia Staff
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Media professional says Vivek Tiwari’s wife deserved her husband murdered because she voted for Yogi

Recently, Lucknow resident Vivek Tiwari was killed by a bullet injury, fired by Uttar Pradesh Police on the intervening night of 28th and 29th September. The rightful outrage flooded social media with people demanding justice of Vivek and the wife he left behind. UP Police filed a case of murder (under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) against the two policemen who shot Vivek Tiwari, who later succumbed to injuries.

However, there was no dearth of people playing vulture politics of the unfortunate death of Vivek Tiwari. Arvind Kejriwal, supposedly giving condolence said, “UP Police had filed a case of murder (under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) against the two policemen who shot Vivek Tiwari, who later succumbed to injuries”.

Vivek Tiwari’s grieving wife took strong exception to Kejriwal viewing this from a religion based prism and said he shouldn’t link everything to with religion.

A similar amount of hate was displayed by one Facebook user called Danish Khan. Khan took to Facebook to assert that Vivek Tiwari’s wife deserved her husband being murdered because she had voted for Yogi Adityanath.

When one looks at Danish Khan’s profile, one realises that he has worked for several media organisations and is currently working with Arnab Goswami led Republic TV.

Danish’s profile says that he was a former graphic designer at Network 18, a former senior assistant producer at TimesNow and is currently working as a senior producer at Republic TV.

OpIndia.com reached out to Republic and were told that Danish Khan was pulled up for his comment and given a stern warning against posting such content. Following this, Khan deleted his Facebook post.

Republic TV also said that over 70% is non-editorial, just like Danish Khan and it is impossible to be held responsible for all their views. But we are told that the channel has taken this up strictly and asked the employee to refrain from posting hateful content.

This is not the first time that posts celebrating the death of people who voted for the BJP have surfaced.

A Facebook user named Deepak Sankaranarayanan was slapped with a non-bailable case by the Kerala police, for a post where he called for the murder of all Indians who voted for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Deepak who was believed to be an employee of HP based in Bengaluru wrote a Facebook post in Malayalam with reference to the Kathua rape case. In the post, he wrote that “Justice should prevail, even if it involves shooting to death that 31 per cent, which is seven times the casualty of World War II, that objects to justice.”

It is intriguing that while Facebook’s strict community standards deemed necessary to remove a simple post that said “Har Har Mahadev” because “it didn’t follow community standards” doesn’t take action against accounts who post such bigoted and hateful tweets celebrating the murder of a man, simply because they don’t agree with him politically.

Watch: TMC goons caught on camera while beating up a woman

OpIndia Staff
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Watch: TMC goons caught on camera while beating up a woman

In a shocking video that has emerged from the 12 hour Bengal Bandh called by the BJP on 26th September, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool goons are caught kicking and beating up a woman BJP supporter.

In two separate incidents, the woman is being beaten up by TMC leaders. The first time, the woman, who is identified as Nilima De Sarkar, is seen getting beaten up and thrown to the ground by TMC leaders. She is attacked by sticks and kicked by the TMC leaders. In what appears a mobile phone recording by a witness, Sarkar is seen being attacked by men as a policeman steps forward to help her.

In a second video that has emerged, the same woman can be seen being beaten up again by people later identified as TMC supporters while she is talking to a Zee News journalist.


In the second video shared by Keya Ghosh, IT & Social Media in-charge of Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha, West Bengal, it can be seen that while the woman is trying to talk to a journalist, she is again beaten up by a man with a stick. Trinamool supporters led by the local panchayat chief, Arshaduzzaman, are believed to be in the video who beat up the woman.

The shaky Grand Alliance: Now SP wants a share of the pie from Congress in other states too

OpIndia Staff
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The shaky Grand Alliance: Now SP wants a share of the pie from Congress in other states too

The idea of the Grand Alliance seems to be glooming gradually as the Samajwadi Party (SP) has now come up with a new set of conditions to Congress in order to be a part of alliance ahead of 2019 general elections, reported Hindustan Times.

According to HT, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has plans of spreading its wings across three to four states and has put new conditions on the Congress Party. The senior SP leaders have sought to expand the party in the poll-bound states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as the upcoming elections could provide them with an opening for the upcoming general elections.

Reportedly, SP is pushing Congress for this pact ahead of state elections in exchange for a pact in UP, where it has already tie-up with Mayawati’s BSP. “After fighting against each other in these states, an alliance only for UP would look absurd,” said SP general secretary Kiranmay Nanda.

According to Samajwadi party leaders, their party has a strong foothold in some areas of the poll-bound states and the party should contest along with Congress. “If you (Congress) want unity, it has to be other states too where we want to have a share in the alliance. Unity can’t be a one-way traffic that will happen on in UP at the convenience of the Congress,” said Nanda.

The opposition parties are facing extreme pressure from the BJP and some parties like SP and BSP are fighting for the survival ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The SP-BSP has already formed a tactical alliance and has also demanded Congress for a pan-India pact rather than just in Uttar Pradesh. Both SP and BSP are indeed looking for a fair share of seats in Uttar Pradesh and intend that Congress should play a supporting role, as it is not a serious player in Uttar Pradesh.

Recently, senior leaders from both the parties had met to discuss the modalities of the alliance but reportedly, the talks have not yielded any results, as Samajwadi Party seems to “wary about the caste equations and distribution of seats”. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had put the onus of the formation of a coalition on the Congress and had said that it was the responsibility of the Congress to bring people of similar ideology together.

The idea of the Grand Alliance is unstable, as recently BSP supremo Mayawati had joined hands with Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh over the Congress in Chhattisgarh, and had also announced candidates for 22 seats in Madhya Pradesh. As prospects for BSP and SP looks bleak in the upcoming General elections, both the parties are trying out new strategies and seem to be moving away from Congress.

The BJP is playing a waiting game, as there are too many contradictions in the upcoming Grand Alliance. The Congress is being rejected by many regional parties and also being pushed to play a role of a junior party to strong regional parties. The parties like NCP, Trinamool Congress, BJD, DMK, SP, BSP are yet to accept Congress and Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the Opposition parties. The BJP is likely to have a divided opposition and the current trend suggests that BJP will have a sigh of relief ahead of the upcoming state elections.

Bishop Franco case: Catholic Church escapes scrutiny, again

Abhishek Banerjee
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Bishop Franco case: Catholic Church escapes scrutiny, again

In the end, it took 87 full days. Nearly three months. From the nun filing a rape complaint in Kerala to the powerful Bishop Franco Mulakkal being arrested from Punjab. It took more than 70 days of delay from the Kerala Police, sustained protests by Catholic nuns on the streets and indefinite fasts for the Bishop Franco story to rise to ‘national importance.’

And with a few days of outrage, the story quickly faded away. One celebrated TV anchor, who did her first and possibly only show on the Bishop Franco case after ignoring it for over 70 days, began her coverage by launching into a tirade against … “people on Twitter.” She seemed more angry with them than with Bishop Franco.

This was a characteristic feature of the coverage of the rape case against Bishop Franco by several media outlets. There was no sustained questioning of the murky role of the Catholic Church, the blatantly partisan attitude of the Communist government of Kerala and the way in which the victim had her character assassinated by powerful members of the political and Christian establishment.

In fact, several media outlets chose to refer to the Bishop simply as Franco Mulakkal, implicitly exonerating the Catholic Church as an institution from all responsibility in the matter.

Which is a surprising choice, considering the sheer magnitude and global scale of the allegations of systemic sexual exploitation within the Church.

Only last month, a grand jury in the United States uncovered over 1000 cases of child abuse by members of the Church. It is alleged that as many as 300 Catholic priests could be involved. All this. In just *one* little state of Pennsylvania.

So deep is the rot and so systemic the sexual abuse that the Church is estimated to have paid nearly $4 billion to settle cases worldwide. These are just the cases that came to light. One wonders how much bigger the number of actual victims could be in places such as India, where a lot of the abused women and children could be from the weakest sections of society.

And yet, in what could only be described as a public relations miracle, the Catholic Church manages to evade scrutiny. Especially in India.

Like I said, several media outlets did not even use the word ‘Bishop’ for Franco Mulakkal.

Never has an institution been accused of sex crimes by so many people on such a scale across the world and come out so unscathed.

Historically, the Catholic Church has been just as lucky. The role of the Church in propping up Nazism has generally been overlooked in popular memory of the Second World War. Specifically, the Catholic Church threw all its weight behind Fascist Benito Mussolini in return for money and control of Vatican City, but history never blamed the Church for it. The only other people who got just as lucky were the Communists, who started World War 2 when they invaded Poland jointly with Hitler. The two biggest collaborators of the Nazis: the Communist Party and the Catholic Church have both been largely forgiven by history.

But at least that was a long time ago. The shocking thing is that the Church still scores over all of us, handing out diktats like a supranational government, bossing overall but accountable to none.

In India, the Church operates with impunity, with its officers openly meddling in our domestic political affairs through public appeals and even letters written on their institutional letterhead. No government, whether of the Congress or the BJP, calls them on it. Any officer of a foreign government, whether we have good relations with them or not, would face massive diplomatic blowback if they tried such a thing. But the Vatican, which is as much a sovereign foreign state as America or Pakistan, gets away with meddling in our affairs all the time.

Yes, the Vatican maintains an Embassy in India, just as much as any other foreign country does. As Head of a sovereign state, the Pope enjoys the same privileges, including diplomatic immunity, as the President of the United States or the Queen of England. That’s why Joseph Ratzinger, the previous Pope, still lives on the sovereign territory of Vatican City: courts and police in no other country of the world can press charges against him for helping cover up for cases of child abuse.

In the case of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, the man who was in the dock was a member of a minority religious institution. The state government responsible for investigating and prosecuting the crime was the CPI(M) government in Kerala. The state where Bishop Franco was residing was Punjab, one of the handful of states ruled by Congress.

In other words, Bishop Franco Mulakkal was wearing three levels of magic armour. It took a legendary 87 days for the Indian legal system to pierce that armour and arrest the Bishop. While I cannot comment on how the case will pan out in court, the one thing that’s certain is that the elites of Indian media, academia and intelligentsia will remain in the dock. The Catholic Church gets off scot-free, like always.

Huge number of Rohingyas travelling to Southern states, Railways alert RPF

OpIndia Staff
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Huge number of Rohingyas travelling to Southern states, Railways alert RPF

The intelligence officials have sent a confidential letter to the Railway Divisional Security commissioners in Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad informing them about the mass movement of Rohingya immigrants from northeast states of the country to southern states through several long-distance trains.

According to the reports, the Railway boards after receiving the letter has directed RPF units across all the divisions to watch out for any movements of Rohingyas towards the southern states. The RPF officers have been instructed to find the Rohingya immigrants and hand over them to the local police, as they are considered to be a security risk.

The confidential report has listed the details of 14 trains travelling from the Eastern and North-East regions like West Bengal and Assam to the southern states. Reportedly, all these trains run on popularly routes also known as the migrant corridor where a lot of migrant labourers from like eastern states travel to the southern state in search of work.

“All Rohingyas are travelling in groups along with their families. Officers and staff under your control may be sensitized about their movement. If they are found in trains, they may be handed over to the police having jurisdiction for further action. Action taken report may be sent to this office at the earliest for the perusal of the PCSC,” the letter, signed by P Sethu Madhavan from the office of the Principal Chief Security Commissioner of the RPF said.

RPF letter regarding Rohingya refugees
Image Source: Indiarailinfo

Rohingyas are an ethnic Muslim minority people living in the Rakhine province of Myanmar. It has been reported that several Rohingyas have been entered inside the country after an alleged onslaught by the Myanmar Army.

According to the Central government, the Rohingyas could pose a security threat. It has said that the Rohingyas are easily vulnerable to radicalization and may also involve in the illegal activities in the country. There are more than 40,000 illegal Rohingyas settled across India from Jammu to Bengal.

Recently, we had also reported that how few Rohingya immigrants had been arrested in Hyderabad for obtaining Aadhaar cards, passports, PAN cards, drivers’ license, voter ID and opening bank accounts claiming to be Indian nationals.

Kalpana Tiwari, on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal, we are sorry

Nirwa Mehta
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Kalpana Tiwari, on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal, we are sorry

In a shocking display of insensitivity, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tried to give a religious twist while politicising the death of Vivek Tiwari by claiming that the BJP does not protect the ‘interests of Hindus’.


He then later had a telephonic conversation with the widow of Vivek Tiwari. Kalpana Tiwari, while addressing media lashed out on Kejriwal for trying to bring in caste and religious angle in the unfortunate death of her husband by the hands of UP policemen.


While interacting with media, Kalpana Tiwari was asked what did Kejriwal talk to her about. She said Kejriwal extended support to her. When she was questioned about Kejriwal’s communal tweets, she expressed her disbelief and said how can someone who is as sincere as Kejriwal bring a casteism angle in this. She added that right now she needs comfort and support and the killing of her husband has no caste angle to it.

“You shouldn’t add caste angle to everything. Because Modi government has never encouraged casteism and people from every community are extended help and support,” she added.

However, despite being called out by Vivek Tiwari’s widow, Arvind Kejriwal brazened it out on Twitter and tweeted again at 12:09 pm that “an innocent Hindu was killed in broad daylight.”


He added that the killers then held a press conference in the police, while your minister calls him a criminal. But when we ask for justice, we are accused of having a lowly thought?

Vivek Tiwari was killed on the intervening night of 28th and 29th September by a bullet injury, fired by Uttar Pradesh policemen, following which a case of murder (under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) was filed against the two policemen. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) had also been formed under the SP Crime of UP Police for a magisterial inquiry into the incident. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also condemned the incident and said that if needed, a CBI probe will be ordered into it. Despite that, Arvind Kejriwal chose to focus on the religion of Tiwari instead of the fact that this is a law and order issue which needs to be tackled.

Kejriwal entered politics on the plank of non-corruption and hopes of being a politician who would be different from the existing ones. He had promised a clean government, devoid of politics based on divisive politics based on caste and religions. However, Kejriwal has, over the time, set lower bars of politics in India. So much that he makes the existing lot of politicians, many of whom have criminal cases behind them, appear saner.

Kalpana Tiwari has just lost her husband. Even before she could come to terms of losing a loved one, Arvind Kejriwal has descended upon the death of her husband to gain a political mileage by mudslinging the BJP ruled government in the state. That her husband died of bullet injury fired upon by UP cops, who were perhaps not aware of his religion, caste or even name, is shoved aside as Kejriwal insists that Hindus are not safe because BJP government killed a ‘Hindu’. No, an innocent man died, leaving behind a grieving wife and a family which will take years, if not months, to come to terms with his untimely demise. Please do not tarnish it and use a death of an innocent to further your politics.

But Kejriwal’s tweet shouldn’t really come as a surprise to us. He got away scot-free when an AAP volunteer, Soni, committed suicide after she claimed that when she was sexually assaulted by a fellow AAP worker, but when she complained to Kejriwal, he asked her to ‘compromise‘. At a time when the nation was still coming to terms with the heinous Kathua rape case, Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders including Alka Lamba had spread the fake news about the rape of a girl in Surat claiming involvement of BJP/ABVP leader in the crime.

When dozens of girls were rescued from the house of horrors in the shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Kejriwal was caught smiling and making merry and sharing a joke with Shehla Rashid.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and JNU freelance protestor Shehla Rashid share a joke

Unfortunately, it is not just Kejriwal who has displayed lack of sensitivity. Following the arrest of Kejriwal’s nephew Vinay Bansal in connection with the PWD scam, the AAP chief’s wife Sunita Kejriwal took to Twitter to put out a veiled threat to Delhi LG Anil Baijal to ‘stop harassing’ her widow sister and the AAP government.


She had told Baijal to be careful since he would know what happened to former LG Najeeb Jung, who is now ‘suffering from severe illness’ and he ‘regrets what he did with AAP government,’ insinuating that Jung was suffering from ‘severe illness’ as a ‘karma’ of what he ‘did with AAP’ and hence, to save himself from such ‘karma’ Baijal should not ‘harass AAP government and her widowed sister’. The crass language used by his wife was even worse than Kejriwal who usually does not leave any stone unturned to lower the bar of decency.

I am shocked and ashamed at the brazenness displayed by the chief minister of a state.

As a responsible voter of India, I am disgusted and ashamed to have Arvind Kejriwal represent me.

NDTV becomes a Pay channel, usual suspects call it attack on freedom of expression by Modi govt

Shashank Bharadwaj
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NDTV becomes a Pay channel, usual suspects call it attack on freedom of expression by Modi govt

NDTV, a controversial channel which is not only under severe challenges of stable revenue generation and credible journalism but is also facing an existential crisis. The promoters of the channel, Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have been alleged to have indulged in massive fraud and are being investigated by the present government. After these facts came to the fore, many usual suspects from the media started to malign the NDA government by resorting to fake news.

NDTV, once a hot shot during the previous regime seems to have been rejected by the people as there are several instances of them being caught for not only spreading fake news but also sometimes alleged to have revealed sensitive details.

Incidentally, with dwindling credibility and with the mounting losses, the promoters had decided to reconvert the left-leaning channel from a free to air (FTA) channel to a pay channel with effect from 15 September. In 2016, the group had converted its Hindi news channel NDTV India into an FTA channel but has now reportedly decided to make all the four channels of the group as pay channels

NDTV to be a paid channel
Image Source: Rightlog.in

However, the usual suspects decided to blame the Modi government. According to Kavita Krishnan, another comrade, NDTV’s decision to be a pay channel from an FTA channel has been done to muzzle the freedom of expression of the press. She has yet again resorted to peddling fake news on social media despite NDTV’s self-proclamation of the entering into the subscription revenue model.


Another leader who claims to be the founder of AIMIM went on to blame the BJP for NDTV’s decision to convert its channel into a paid subscription.


Social media users reacted to the usual propaganda and schooled the usual rumour mongers. Some users called the NDTV’s move as a desperation to earn some revenues, as NDTV is facing severe losses.


When the facts are convenient, the usual suspects tend to ignore what’s right in front of them in order to further a motivated agenda. It was indeed NDTV’s independent decision to shift to a new revenue model by turning their channels into paid subscriptions. Blaming the Modi government for ‘muzzling free speech’ is unfathomable and certainly does reeks of either ignorance or a (un)hidden agenda.

Questions about what Rahul Gandhi was doing in Germany and if it was related to Rafale gathers steam

OpIndia Staff
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Questions about what Rahul Gandhi was doing in Germany and if it was related to Rafale gathers steam

The Rahul Gandhi led Congress party has gone hammer and tongs against the Modi government alleging a scam in the Rafale deal. While several experts from all quarters have explained why there is no scam in the inter-governmental deal between India and France, the allegations don’t seem to stop. Rahul had even claimed that he had a one to one conversation with French President Macron and in the conversation, he was informed that India is free to divulge information regarding the price of the jets. The French government had immediately issued a clarification saying that no such meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Macron had taken place at all.

Recently, Former French President’s Hollande’s statement that the Indian government had suggested the name of Anil Ambani’s Reliance as one of the offset partners had struck a massive row. However, soon, news surfaced that Hollande had partially made contradictory statements saying that he was aware of no pressure to choose Reliance. Rahul Gandhi had immediately lashed out and called the Prime Minister a thief alleging quid-pro-quo.

In the meantime, links between Sanjay Bhandari, a close friend of Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, Robert Vadra had also emerged in the Rafale deal. It was revealed that from 2012 to 2015, Sanjay Bhandari was lobbying to become the offset partner in the Rafale deal and Dassault had refused to indulge him.

After these links emerged, speculations gripped the nation. Many wondered whether Rahul Gandhi and the Congress were trying to sabotage the Rafale deal because Sanjay Bhandari did not the offset deal. Amidst such speculations, another theory was floated on social networking website, Twitter.

Vikas Bhaduria, a journalist with ABP News alleged that recently, Sales Director of a big company of fighter aircraft’s met five senior leaders of two different parties to raise the Rafale issue as a scam so that both the company/weapons dealer and political party benefits.


He then said that the first meeting took place in Germany in the last week of August this year.


Veteran journalist Kanchan Gupta also weighed in on the theory. He said that the buzz indicates that the meeting was set up by some steel tycoon between representatives of the European defence MNC and Indian politicians.


On 1st September 2018, MyNation had also reported that top Congress leaders had met US arms company before the Rafale storm arrived. Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi himself was in Germany towards the end of August 2018. Rahul had tweeted about his Germany trip on 23rd August 2018.


The theory, though unconfirmed also gathers steam because when the bids were accepted by the Indian government, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Rafale by Dassault were the only two contenders that met the specific requirements. While the Indian government decided to go with Rafale, it is reported that Eurofighter also lobbied rather aggressively to get selected.

The Eurofighter Typhoon was designed originally as an air superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH formed in 1986.

Interestingly, Sanjay Bhandari who is reported to be a close associate of Robert Vadra and had lobbied to become the offset partner of Dassault from 2012 to 2015 was reportedly an agent for Airbus. After a whistleblower had alleged graft in chopper deal and leak of sensitive documents in 2012, India’s relationship with Airbus had hit rocky waters.

It was reported that Airbus Group has informed the Defence Ministry of an internal investigation into the allegations of the whistleblower over the tender for 14 twin-engine EC725 helicopters for the Indian Coast Guard. The deal was estimated to be worth over Rs. 2,000 crores.

To quote from a 2012 report (emphasis ours):

It is now being speculated that the whistleblower’s allegation and the leak of documents, which first surfaced in December last year, may have been the reason for the non- extension of its commercial bid for the chopper deal.

According to the ET report, the anonymous letter sent to the Defence Ministry alleged that “benchmarking norms were changed and spare engine price calculations were hidden to favour Airbus and named three top coast guard officers as beneficiaries”.

The report also alleged that “fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and former business consultant Deepak Talwar, both of whom left the country after cases were registered against them by investigating agencies, acted as agents for Airbus”.

Sanjay Bhandari is a notorious arms dealer who is allegedly connected to Robert Vadra. The second man mentioned in the 2012 report, Deepak Talwar was also a notorious lobbyist.

In 2017, reportedly, Income Tax Department chargesheet against Talwar, a self-proclaimed corporate consultant (a fancy name for a lobbyist), accusing him of receiving massive kickbacks worth Rs. 1000 crore between 2008 and 2011 for influencing aviation policies of the UPA government to favour his ‘clients’. During the investigation, Praful Patel and Digvijay Singh’s names had also emerged in connection with Deepak Talwar. In 2018, Deepak Talwar was also booked by CBI along with Tony Fernandes of Air Asia for alleged violation of norms in obtaining international flying licenses.

Though these speculations are only in the realm of possibility and no proof of these speculations have yet surfaced, some facts do warrant a further probe.

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