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Desperate Congress floats conspiracy, connects Manohar Parrikar continuing as CM to Rafale ‘secrets’

OpIndia Staff
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Desperate Congress floats conspiracy, connects Manohar Parrikar continuing as CM to Rafale ‘secrets’

Goa Congress yesterday alleged that Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah did not dare seek ailing chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s resignation as “he has crucial information on the Rafale fighter jet deal which he could use to ‘blackmail’ them”. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Girish Chodankar said, “I am sure Manohar Parrikar must be having a lot of information about the Rafale deal as he was the Union Defence Minister at that time.” Parrikar was the defence minister from November 2014 to March 2017 when he stepped down to swear in as the chief minister of Goa.

Chodankar’s statement comes hours after the BJP chief announced that Parrikar will continue as chief minister, ending days of speculation of what direction Goa would head as chief minister Parrikar continues to get his treatment for his pancreatic ailment. Last week, even as Parrikar was undergoing treatment in AIIMS, Delhi, Congress had approached Goa governor to stake claim to form a government.

OpIndia.com had earlier speculated that there was a distinct possibility that the BJP government in Goa might collapse should Manohar Parrikar resign as the Chief Minister since their allies had agreed to support the BJP only on the condition that Parrikar is appointed the CM. However, the Congress is itself a divided house with an uninspiring central leadership although it only needs the support of 5 MLAs to form the government in the state.

Congress, for its part, has continued to maintain that Rafale deal was a scam, despite facts proving otherwise. Manohar Parrikar, as Defence Minister, was also instrumental in bringing to light the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam and said how ‘invisible hand’ was guiding investigation during the UPA government. Recently, the UAE court had favoured extradition of Christian Michel, one of the accused ‘middleman’ who allegedly arranged for bribery in exchange for a 2007 contract for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters to be used by leaders including the President, Prime Minister and former prime ministers. Michel’s interrogation could open a can of worms for the Congress.

In such desperate times, when their allegations on Rafale are falling flat and their hopes of forming a government on Goa are also crashing down, Congress has now resorted to floating conspiracy theories.

After trying to divide India on caste lines, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print resorts to fuelling regional divide

OpIndia Staff
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After trying to divide India on caste lines, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print resorts to fuelling regional divide

The epidemic of caste-based crimes should be a matter of grave concern for the entire country. But for some, most crimes become an excuse to malign the country and divide it further on the basis of caste.

Recently, after the brutal attack on a couple, Madhavi and Sandeep shocked many. Madhavi’s father had attacked her brutally for allegedly marrying a boy from a ‘different caste’. Condemnable as this incident was, another incident came to light where Bengaluru, Bandi Siva Deepthi Reddy married one Murahari Vijay Kumar and allegedly, the girl’s father has issued death threats to the girl for marrying outside her caste.

If anything, these incidents prove that caste-based violence is a pan India problem, which, along with the law enforcement authorities, the Indian society needs to be battle together. While law enforcement plays a vital role, one would imagine that veteran journalists would urge the entire country to unite to fight this menace that claims so many lives.

Instead, veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta had other plans. Shekhar Gupta’s ‘news’ portal, The Print, published an article headlined “Progressive south India is catching up with the north when it comes to honour killings”. Earlier too, Shekhar Gupta and his portal had resorted to fanning caste divide after Lalu Prasad Yadav’s conviction in the fodder scam and had later been called out when he tried to preach to people over caste issues.

In this shameful insinuation ridden article, the author goes on to talk about how it is indeed shocking that the “richer and more educated” south is guilty of this malaise. The author also insinuates that the South is “generally held up as a model for the north”.

In the article, an NGO itself is quoted as saying that while many cases take place in Uttar Pradesh, the South is not better off when it comes to caste-based crimes.

The article read:

Although Uttar Pradesh accounts for the bulk of the cases, Sanjoy Sachdev, a former journalist who runs the NGO ‘Love Commandos’ to help inter-caste lovers, said Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are quite bad too.

“We have been saying this for the last eight years,” he told ThePrint. “Cases don’t get reported, but now we are seeing some cases coming out,” he added.

Sachdev’s NGO, based in Delhi, attends to hundreds of calls every day from young men and women who allege that they are being hounded by their family or society

However, instead of focusing on what ails the society at large, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print chose to deepen the north-south divide by furthering the “south more educated”, “south is richer” platitudes.

The Print, in its article, tries to pretend like the phenomenon of the south dealing with caste base crimes is something new in order to first claim superiority, and then grudgingly concede that perhaps such crimes are equally prevalent in the more “educated” south. The superiority of the south is a classic tactic to divide the country on regionalism.

This agenda didn’t escape readers who took to Twitter to express their displeasure. Prasanna Vishwanathan, the CEO of Swarajya Magazine took to Twitter and listen how the south was no stranger to caste-based violence and lynchings.


This is not the first time that the media has used a tragedy to further their sinister agenda of dividing the country on the basis of north and south.

Recently, we reported how a senior CNN-News18 Editor attempted to fuel the north-south divide by calling north-India a “shithole”. During the devastating Kerala floods too, the media had taken it upon themselves to fuel north-south divide by repeatedly fanning separatist sentiments. Right before the Karnataka elections too, the media had furthered this propaganda by fallaciously asserting that the north was a burden on the south.

Kafeel khan, accused in Gorakhpur children’s death case, arrested for fraud

OpIndia Staff
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Kafeel khan, accused in Gorakhpur children’s death case, arrested for fraud

Dr Kafeel Khan, who was arrested last year in connection with the death of several infants in the Baba Raghav Das medical college and hospital, has been arrested twice in the last couple of days. According to reports, Dr Kafeel Khan was arrested on Saturday for creating a ruckus at the district hospital at Behraich. He was granted bail on the same day, only to be arrested again on Sunday in connection with a 9-year-old fraud case.

According to reports, Khan, a paediatrician, had reached the Bahraich district hospital with two other associates and had started inquiring about the treatment of infants. He reportedly interfered in the work of doctors and other medical staff. Following which, he was called to the chamber of the Hospital’s paediatrician Dr KK Verma and was arrested. He was released on bail later.

A day after his arrest at Bahraich, Dr Khan has been reportedly arrested in Gorakhpur again for his involvement in a  fraud case. According to reports, Kafeel Khan was arrested along with his brother Adeel Khan were arrested by the Gorakhpur police on charges of fraud and forging documents.

Kafeel and his brother Adeel had reportedly used forged documents and signatures to open a bank account in SBI in 2009 and had made transactions of about Rs 2 crores. They were produced before a local court and were sent to judicial custody. A resident of Gorakhpur named Mudassar Alam had filed an FIR in cantonment station earlier this year alleging that Adeel Khan and his associate Faizan had opened a bank account in Faizan’s name using Mudassar Alam’s photographs and documents. Transactions worth Rs 2 crores were done through the account and the bulk of the money was used to pay for Kafeel Khan’s medical education at Manipal University. Faizan was reportedly abroad so could not be arrested. Charges under the section 420(cheating and dishonesty), 467(forgery of valuable security) and 471(using forged documents) have been levelled against the arrested brothers.

It is notable here that Dr Kafeel Khan’s family has reportedly been involved in several property disputes and legal cases. As pointed by journalist Swati Sharma earlier, Kafeel’s brother Qasif Jameel was attacked in June last year by some litigants his family is contending against.


Dr Kafeel Khan was one of the nine accused arrested after the deaths of several infants in the BRD Medical college hospital grabbed nation-wide attention. Khan was arrested after it was revealed that he was involved with taking oxygen cylinders meant for the hospital away for use in his own nursing home. He was charged under sections 120-B(criminal conspiracy), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 409(criminal breach of trust by a public servant). Khan reportedly not only ran a private clinic while serving as a nodal officer of the paediatrics department at the BRD medical college, but he also had other allegations against him too. He was allegedly arrested in 2009 in Delhi on charges impersonating someone in the examination for medical registration. Some reports have also claimed that he was suspended from Manipal University for criminal cases against him.

Church dismisses the nun after she joined the protest demanding the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal

OpIndia Staff
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Church dismisses the nun after she joined the protest demanding the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal

In a shocking disclosure, a nun, belonging to the Syro Malabar Catholic church, who had joined the protest demanding the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, who is accused of raping a nun in May 2014 and exploiting her sexually on several other occasions has been removed from performing church duties related to the church.


The nun who dared to stand up against the church atrocities and spoke in favour of the victim has alleged that the church took revenge for participating in the protest against the Bishop.

While speaking to Times Now, sister Lucy Kalapura revealed that today when she reached the convent the Mother Superior informed her that according to the decision taken by the head priest in the church she had to relieve herself from her duties of holding catechism classes, conducting prayers and other church-related duties.

The nun, disturbed by the church’s decision said that this was the price she was being made to pay for standing by the truth. Criticising the church authorities she said that instead of raising voice against the accused who has been involved in such a colossal sin, the authorities are instead, taking action against people who have dared to support to the victim.

For the first time in the history, the nuns had come together to castigate the Bishop for his abhorrent deed. A group of nuns had defied their vows to protest against Church atrocities and the attempts by the police to hush up the incident. However, the nuns’ agitation in Kochi, under the banner of ‘Save Our Sisters Action Council’, was called off on Saturday, a day after Mulakkal was arrested.

Saddened by the church’s decision, sister Lucy said, “I have done no wrong nor said anything against the church. No reason has been given for the decision.” She added that she would be happy if the church clarified where she had erred.

Indulekha Joseph, one of the leaders of the Kerala Catholic Church Reformation movement, alleged it was an attempt to silence the voices of protest against any form of unjust activities within the church.

This ‘theory’ about Sonia Gandhi’s Russia visits and Rafale ‘controversy’ is catching attention on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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This ‘theory’ about Sonia Gandhi’s Russia visits and Rafale ‘controversy’ is catching attention on Twitter

Yesterday, a Twitter user by the handle, @WrongDoc, in a series of tweets raised questions over former Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s Russia visits.


He cites an April 2018 article which talks about Sonia Gandhi inaugurating Indira exhibition in Moscow, where she did not interact with political figures of Russia since it was her private visit. As per the report, The organisers of the exhibition were the Federal Archival Agency, the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and the Embassy of Russia in India.

On visiting Russian Federal State Archives website, one can find how one of the organisers of the exhibition was Congress’ Siddaramaiah-led Government of Karnataka.


One wonders whether the Congress-led state government was used as a cover for Sonia’s visit to Moscow. Right now, when the Indian political discourse is heated up due to the recent Rafale controversy, Sonia Gandhi is again in Russia to participate in Eurasian Women’s Forum, organised by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Here, Sonia Gandhi was debating on ‘The Positive Energy of Young People’.

There are no other details available on the rest of her schedule in Russia. Sonia Gandhi, owing to her health, seldom travels abroad, but has been to Russia twice in six month period with a visit to an undisclosed location (presumed the US) in May for her health check-up. So, as @WrongDoc says, in April, Siddaramaiah helps arrange Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Moscow, loses elections and has to step aside to let Kumaraswamy become chief minister and in between, the mother-son duo, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, mysteriously go away in the middle of political turmoil in Karnataka to an undisclosed location, thereby delaying formation of Karnataka government.

Sonia Gandhi’s mysterious visits to Russia are not new. In 2005, Sonia took a Reliance jet to fly to Moscow. She was a private guest of President Putin, when she was neither the Prime Minister nor President of India, only the President of the ruling political party, Congress. The official information of foreign trips by Sonia and Rahul under the UPA is, interestingly, not available. A Wikileaks cable from the time speculates that ‘she might use the trip to dig up information on UP Chief Minister Yadav’s 1997 Sukhoi deal and also to ease relations between the Congress and its Communist allies.’ Sonia Gandhi never held any official position in the ministry.

These surprise visits to Russia are not new for the Gandhi family. Back in 1985, Rajiv Gandhi made a surprise visit to Moscow to discuss a Kremlin arms control proposal with then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. A now-declassified December 1985 CIA report said that the Soviets pumped in huge amount of cash to influence Indian politicians, including a large number of Congress MPs during Prime Minister Indira Gandhis government, to influence Indian policies. This even continued in Rajiv Gandhi government. “As many as 40 per cent Congress MPs in (Indira) Gandhi’s last government had received Soviet political contributions,” the report had said.

A Telegraph report states that a book, co-authored by Christopher Andrew, professor of contemporary history with KGB defector ‘The Mitrokhin Archive Volume II’, states 10 Indian newspapers were on KGB payroll. KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union till the dissolution of Soviet state. The book reportedly says how India in the 1970s was one of the countries most successfully penetrated by Soviet intelligence. The book alleges that the Congress coffers during Indira Gandhi’s regime was filled by KGB and the principal fundraiser, Lalit Narayan Mishra knew he was accepting Soviet money.

Within minutes of launching of Ayushman Bharat, patients in Assam get cashless treatment

OpIndia Staff
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Within minutes of launching of Ayushman Bharat, patients in Assam get cashless treatment

Within less than a day of launching the Ayushman Bharat- the mega flagship programme of the Narendra Modi government, the first eligible beneficiaries have already been admitted and availing the benefits of the health scheme in the different hospital across the country.

Himanta Biswa Sharma, Minister of PWD and Health, Assam has tweeted that the within minutes of the launch of the prestigious scheme of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the patients have been admitted in different hospitals in Assam for cashless treatment.


According to his tweet, five patients Renu Barman, Lakhi Rani, Prem Limbu, Asha Sahu, Bhadra Konwar has been admitted in hospitals of Assam for various treatments. The intended beneficiaries will be eligible for cashless insurance treatment in various hospitals across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated the Centre’s flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), which is set to benefit 10 crore families. PM Modi said that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) is a big step towards providing good quality and accessible health care to the poor of India.

Ayushman Bharat will be the world’s largest state-sponsored welfare scheme in the world, with aims to provide health insurance coverage to more than 10 crore poor families in the country. As per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data, 8.03 crore rural households and another 2.33 crore urban households will be covered under this scheme.

The flagship scheme has received accolades across the world, as recently the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat and called it a “great commitment”.

Activists and intellectuals plan to meet PM Modi with a charter of demands for Hindus, here are the salient points

OpIndia Staff
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Activists and intellectuals plan to meet PM Modi with a charter of demands for Hindus, here are the salient points

On 22nd September, a remarkable event was held in Delhi that marks a tectonic shift in the discourse around how Hindus mobilise themselves and assert their political will. A group of about 100 prominent activists and intellectuals, which included spiritual gurus, journalists, industrialists, writers etc got together to brainstorm and decide on a “Charter of Hindu Demands”. A list of demands that the Hindu community has. This list if to ultimately be presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the hopes of the PM taking note.

As per the press release, during the deliberations, it was decided that “as the inheritor, custodian and trustee of the Indic civilization based on the ethos of Sanatana Dharma the Indian State has bounden civilizational responsibility to protect, preserve and promote the Indic civilization”.

The first demand of the Charter was “End of legal and institutionalised discrimination against Hindus by the Indian State, which is against the spirit of the equality of citizens irrespective of religious identity. To this effect, the group demands that Dr Satyapal Singh’s Private Member’s Bill No. 226 of 2016 pending in Lok Sabha for amending Articles 26 to 30 of the Constitution should be passed forthwith in the forthcoming Parliament Session, to ensure equal rights to Hindus on par with others”.

These equal rights were demanded in matters of running educational institutions, removal of government control of Hindu temples and restoring their management to the Hindu society and promoting and preserving Hindu heritage and culture.

The group further urged the Central Government to completely ban all sorts of foreign contributions except those by OCIs in their personal capacity (in recognition of their emotional connect with India) by repealing the existing FCRA and enacting a new Foreign Contributions (Prohibition) Act immediately.

Another demand which was included in the charter was the enactment of the Freedom of Religion Act by the Central Government so the traditional practices of Hinduism, its culture and symbols can be protected from unwarranted interference.

To avoid the genocide of Hindus like that of Kashmiri Pandits, the charter demands the central government the tripartite division of J&K into 3 States of Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu. The charter also demands the abrogation of article 370 along with the repeal of the Constitution (Application to J&K) Order, 1954.

The 100 prominent Hindus who got together also demanded, “The immediate complete ban on export of all types of meat/beef to lower its prices by increasing its availability in the domestic market while reducing the adverse impact on the environment and eliminating social friction and law & order issues”.

The charter, while reminding the Indian State of its civilisational responsibility, urged the Central Govt to immediately establish a Central Public Sector Undertaking to be styled as Haindava Samskruti Jeernoddhaarana Nigam (Hindu Culture Restoration Corporation) with an initial seed capital of not less than Rs. 10,000 crores and an annual grant of a similar amount for undertaking reconstruction and restoration of all damaged, desecrated, abandoned and dilapidated Hindu temples and sacred places; revival, nurturing, patronising and promotion of Veda Pathasalas, various traditional and folk art forms, dance, music, sculpture, architecture, painting etc.

The group urged expediency in granting citizenship to people of Indic faiths who have been persecuted in other countries and flee to India. They demanded

  1. Withdrawal of the pending Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016;
  2. (b)  Amendment of the Constitution by inserting an enabling Article 11-A in the Constitution;
  3. (c) Thereafter amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 by introducing a new Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in the forthcoming session of the current Parliament itself.

Finally, the Charter of Hindu Demands urged the central government to create an equal opportunity environment for all Indic languages, thereby ending the institutionalised discrimination that exists today.

‘In 2019, BJP will again win all 7 seats in Delhi’ BJP President Amit Shah sounds the poll bugle

OpIndia Staff
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‘In 2019, BJP will again win all 7 seats in Delhi’ BJP President Amit Shah sounds the poll bugle

Sounding the poll bugle for the upcoming 2019 general elections, BJP President Amit Shah today while addressing a gathering of Purvanchalis said, “I would like to take this opportunity to let Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal know that in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP will again win all seven seats in Delhi.”

In a scathing attack on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Amit Shah said that Kejriwal has only one mantra: to lie, lie loudly, lie publicly and lie repeatedly.

BJP President Amit Shah even asked Congress President Rahul Gandhi and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal to clear their stand on infiltrators. He accused Kejriwal of readying to shelter illegal Rohingyas and Bangladeshi immigrants.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, while addressing the gathering, said how while the entire country is welcoming the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Delhi is deprived of it because Kejriwal government is afraid that if such a scheme is implemented, poor people of Delhi will be benefited and he does not want that. We had earlier reported how Kejriwal led AAP government in Delhi put Ayushman Bharat in jeopardy over the demand to add party name to the scheme.

West Bengal minister opposes Triple Talaq ordinance, says ‘Quran will prevail over the Constitution’

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal minister opposes Triple Talaq ordinance, says ‘Quran will prevail over the Constitution’

Amplifying the misplaced outrage against the Triple Talaq ordinance which was approved by the Cabinet, making triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat void and illegal, a Minister in West Bengal government who is also the state president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Siddiqullah Chowdhury said that the Constitution is subservient to the Quran.

Siddiqullah Chowdhury, the Minister of Mass Education and Library in the government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pronounced that the Quran will prevail over the Constitution if any constitutional provision or law contradicts the Quran. “For us, our holy scripture, the Quran Sharif, is supreme and if any constitutional provision or any law contradicts the Quran, then our scripture will prevail and not the law or Constitution,” Chowdhury was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

He went on to blame the BJP government for playing the ‘religion card’ and the ‘constitution’ and reiterated that the ordinance will have no effect on the Muslims.

“Whatever tricks BJP may play, they will not be able to influence Hindus or Muslims. In 2019, they are on their way out. The ordinance is just a way of winning Hindu votes, which they will not succeed. Hindus and Muslims will throw them out of power,” the state minister added.

This is not the first time that the controversial minister has lashed out against the triple talaq. In August 2017, the minister has also called the Supreme Court verdict outlawing triple talaq as ‘unconstitutional’.

We had also reported how the little-known TV actor, Ajaz Khan had reiterated the similar belief in January this year, that he will choose Quran over Indian Constitution ‘any day any time’. His controversial statement had got approval from the Aam Admi Party’s Ved Prakash, Congress’ recent ally Hardik Patel and none other less- Pakistan.

The cabinet approving an ordinance which makes triple talaq illegal and a punishable offence though comes as a significant development in ending the regressive practice of instant triple talaq prevalent among the Muslim community in India, it has not been well received by a number of Muslim organisations in the state who are planning protests against the same.

The all India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi too had protested the passing of the Ordinance calling it “unconstitutional”.

Vizag: Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma shot dead by Naxals

OpIndia Staff
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Vizag: Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma shot dead by Naxals

In a shocking event, the left wing Naxal terrorists have killed the TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao today at Araku valley in Visakhapatnam District.


According to ANI, Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former Araku MLA Siveri Soma shot dead by Naxals in Dumbriguda Mandal.

Recently, Sarveswara Rao had defected leader from YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to TDP. He was looking for a ministerial berth in the Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu cabinet.

Araku Valley is a tribal region in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh that shares a border with Odisha. It is believed that the area is known as the operational base of Maoist leader Akkiraju Haragopal, alias RK.

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