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Congress to move privilege motion against PM Modi on Rafale, even as proof of confidentiality agreement signed by Congress emerges

OpIndia Staff
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Congress to move privilege motion against PM Modi on Rafale, even as proof of confidentiality agreement signed by Congress emerges

The Congress party, which supported the no-trust motion brought in by the opposition which the Modi government won with landslide numbers, is now planning to move a privilege motion against PM Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the Rafale issue.


Rahul Gandhi while speaking during the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi led government accused the Modi government of indulging in a ‘scam’ in the Rafale deal. He said that there was no confidentiality clause which barred the government from discussing the terms and the price of the Rafale jets. Gandhi claimed that when he met the French President Macron in Delhi, Macron told him that there is no secrecy pact between the two countries.

However, defence minister Nirmala Sithraman promptly countered the allegations with supporting documents. Rahul, the Congress chief was further cornered and his baseless allegations put to rest when the French Government issued a statement which proved that Rahul Gandhi lied on the floor of the Parliament.

The Congress’ parties ill-conceived move to bring a privilege motion against the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister has been incidentally reported on a day when NewX has accessed the copy of the Rafale deal papers, dated 25th January 2008, duly signed by the then defense minister A K Anthony under the UPA regime and the French Ministry of Defence. However, for security reasons, only a part of the document is being aired.

The document clearly states the secret clause, which Rahul Gandhi had shamelessly contradicted on the floor of the house.

Clause mentioned in the document states: ‘Desiring to protect classified information and material exchanged between the parties in the field of defence’. When something is signed by the national security advisor then the document becomes confidential and it is not something which can be put out in the public domain.

The “Rafale scam” allegations have been refuted by many defence analysts including Vishnu Som of NDTV. With proof of the confidentiality agreement signed by the Congress party itself emerging, one wonders if the Rahul Gandhi will now concede and stop play with national security by casting aspersions and repeating the same lie multiple times.

Muslim clerics issue fatwa to stone Nida Khan if she doesn’t leave the country within 3 days

OpIndia Staff
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Muslim clerics issue fatwa to stone Nida Khan if she doesn’t leave the country within 3 days

A group of Muslim clerics, All India Faizan-e-Madina Council from Bareilly has reportedly issued a fresh fatwa against the activists Nida Khan and Farhat Naqvi. The clerics have also announced a cash reward of Rs. 11,876 for anybody who chops her hair. She has also said that a fatwa has been issued that if she doesn’t leave the country within 3 days, she will be attacked with stones.

Farhat Naqvi and Nida Khan, along with her associates of the NGO Mera Haq, have been championing the cause against Triple Talaq. The NGO headed by Farhat Naqvi gives moral and legal assistance to Muslim women, who are victims of Triple Talaq and Nikah Halala.


Farhat was divorced by her husband for giving birth to a girl child. Farhat then founded an NGO called ‘Mera Haq’ in 2014 to fight for justice for triple talaq victims and against domestic violence. The Supreme Court judgement banning instant triple talaq brought to an end the 11-year long struggle of Farhat Naqvi against the practice.

Nida Khan said, ”A fatwa has been issued against me, which says whosoever brings chopped hair of Nida Khan will be rewarded with an amount of Rs 11,786”. Nida Khan also said that she has been threatened to leave the country in the next three days or she will be stoned.

Nida Khan, unafraid of these fatwas issued by the clerics, intends to meet Prime Minister Modi and request him to take action against those who issue such fatwas. ”These people issuing such fatwas should be stopped. I will take a proper appointment to meet PM Modi and will appeal to him about it,” she said.

The fresh threat to Nida Khan comes after Bareilly court on Wednesday declared the instant triple talaq given to Nida Khan by her husband Sheeran is invalid. The court had also rejected his petition seeking a stay on the domestic violence case filed against him by Khan.

Nida Khan, sharing her story said that she was forced to sleep, consummate the marriage with her father-in-law and brother-in-law, under the Islamic practice of ‘Nikah Halala’, so that her husband could marry her again.  She grabbed headlines when she went to the Supreme Court to challenge the triple talaq given by her husband.

The campaigning against the evil practices like triple talaq and Nikah halala has not received well by several Muslim clerics. They have now resorted to unconstitutional fatwas to threaten the activists from continuing their work.

Instant triple talaq is better way of getting rid of the wife than murdering her, SP leader argues

OpIndia Staff
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Instant triple talaq is better way of getting rid of the wife than murdering her, SP leader argues

While the central government is trying to ban the inhumane practices of triple talaq and nikah halala, there are certain people who are always coming up with new excuses to defend it. Samajwadi Party leader and former UP cabinet minister Riyaz Ahmed has, according to reports, given a controversial statement to defend the practice of Triple Talaq.


Ahmed has stated that while shariyat states that talaq should be given in three stages, Triple talaq has been kept as an option. In a video shared by Patrika, Ahmed is seen answering a question asked by a reporter on whether there should be a law on Triple talaq.

Riyaz Ahmed, in his reply, is seen stating that the law is already specified in Quran to give talaq in three stages. However, Ahmed adds, the instant triple talaq is kept as an option to spare someone’s life.

In the video, Ahmed then asks the reporter that if he goes home and finds his wife in a compromising position with another man, he will have two options, either to murder her or to give her triple talaq and get rid of her. Hence triple talaq is an option to keep a murder from taking place. Ahmed then adds that people are reacting on the matter without reading the Quran.

Recently, an Islamic Scholar named Mufti Aijaj Arshad Qasmi had gone violent on a live debate on the issue of triple talaq and physically assaulted another panellist. In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, a victim of triple talaq recently died after she was confined and starved by her abusive husband for over a month.

Victims of triple talaq who have dared to pursue legal battles and spoken against the practice have also been facing ostracization and threats by Islamic fundamentalists defending the practice.

EPFO data reveals over 4.4 million jobs created in last nine months till May

OpIndia Staff
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EPFO data reveals over 4.4 million jobs created in last nine months till May

As per the payroll data released by the retirement fund body (EPFO), 4,474,859 jobs were created in the nine-month period between September 2017 to May this year. The EPFO, however, has lowered its earlier estimate of new members enrollment by 9.57 per cent, from 4,126,138 to 3,731,251 for September 2017-April this year.

As reported by Live Mint, data released by the EPFO last month for September to April, as many as 4,126,138 new members were enrolled for its social security schemes to provide benefits, including provident fund, insurance, and pension.

According to the latest data released on Saturday the new member’s enrolment in May is the highest so far in the last eight month standing at 7,43,608. During the month of May alone, the maximum number of enrolment of 2,51,526 were recorded in the age bracket of 18 to 21 years followed by 1,90,090 in 22 to 25 years age group.

The payroll data statement says that the data is provisional as the updating of employees records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months, however, the body stated that the data may include temporary employees, whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year.

The EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organized/semi-organized sectors. It also effectively runs three social security scheme Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme 1952, Employees’ Deposit Linked Scheme 1976 (EDLI) and Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995. The body has been managing the accounts of over six crore members and a corpus of over Rs 10 lakh crore.

Soon after the Opposition, during the debate on the no-trust vote, accused the Modi government of failing to create sufficient jobs, the EPFO updated the payroll data on its official portal and will continue to do so.

Punjab AAP MLA denied entry into Canada owing to serious criminal charges against him

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab AAP MLA denied entry into Canada owing to serious criminal charges against him

An AAP MLA from Punjab was questioned by Canada’s immigration authorities on Sunday following which he was sent back to India from Ottawa airport, India Today has reported.

The MLA in question Amarjeet Singh Sandoa and his fellow MLA Kultar Singh were approached by immigration authorities after they landed in Canada. It is being said that they were travelling there for a holiday.

As per a Times of India report, the reason for the deportation is said to be the charges of molestation, criminal intimidation and assault which were framed against Amarjeet Singh Sandoa by a Ropar court on Friday. The court had allowed Sandoa to travel to Canada after he furnished a Rs 4 lakh bond. He was also asked to be personally present for the next court hearing on 21 August.

It has been reported that the molestation complaint was filed against Sandoa by his former landlady Tarminder Kaur, who had rented him a house in Ropar back in October 2016. She than then registered a complaint against him in July 2017 alleging that he had failed to pay a month’s rent when he vacated the house.

She further alleged that when she asked him to clear the same, he abused, assaulted and intimidated her. Following this, the MLA was booked by the police under sections 354, 294, 506, 509, and 323 of the IPC.

Reports claimed that an unknown individual had emailed the complaint against Sandoa and the relevant court documents to the Canada immigration authorities, warning them about the charges against the AAP MLA, with the plea that he should not be allowed entry into the country.

Thus following his landing he was taken into custody and questioned for about 25 minutes. It has been claimed that his fellow MLA Kultar Singh was allowed entry into Canada but he also chose to return back in Sandoa’s support.

PM has taken Uttar Pradesh into his own hands : Will it work?

Abhishek Banerjee
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PM has taken Uttar Pradesh into his own hands : Will it work?

Ever since Amit Shah arrived in Uttar Pradesh around the Fall of 2013, the state has turned into the biggest enigma of Indian politics. The stunning thing is that the electorate isn’t moving, its politics seems to have become frozen in 2014.

40% for Modi, 50% for SP+BSP+Congress and 10% for ‘others’.

This is what happened in 2014 and this is exactly what was repeated in 2017.

A recent Jan ki Baat survey showed that the ‘favorability’ of the Mahagathbandhan was exactly 50% in Uttar Pradesh, i.e., the combined vote share of SP, BSP and Congress

This means that by far, Modi is the most popular man in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP is by far the most popular party. This is also stunning: not one voter seems to have had second thoughts since 2014 on any side of the aisle. Modi hasn’t lost a single voter since 2014 and neither have people on the other side.

The problem is now that Akhilesh and Mayawati have combined their votes, the BJP has to deal with the fact that not a single voter has been gained since 2014. Let alone the 5% shift required to breach the gap.

Mindful of this, the Prime Minister has started touring Uttar Pradesh with a zeal similar to 2013. This is his 3rd visit in 30 days: began with Noida in the West, then to lay the foundation for Purvanchal Expressway in the East and now to Shahjahanpur in Central UP. The crowds are there, you can see the enthusiasm unabated. It’s like 2013-14 all over again. Look in the eyes of the cheering crowds: Modi might be even more popular in Uttar Pradesh than in Gujarat.

But these are the converted: the ones who already supported Modi in 2014. Where are we going to find 5% more voters who will turn to BJP?

I don’t know and frankly, I think the answer is ‘no’. In Bihar, the BJP could not overcome the arithmetic lead of 5-6%. A gap of 10% seems out of reach.

But then UP and Bihar are different. In 2013, the BJP vote share climbed from 15% to 42% in a matter of months, a rise of 27%. The only comparable jump in BJP vote shares would have been in Tripura, where it rose by some 40%. Just imagine the sheer size and scale of Uttar Pradesh and you see what a miracle Amit Shah pulled off.

There are reasons why this could only have happened in Uttar Pradesh. First, the state has a traditional Ram Leher vote. It had been lying dormant for 15 years, put off by the apathy and lacklustre performance of the state BJP. Second, the state is much more urbanized when compared to Bihar. In Bihar, it is Mandal politics that runs in the veins, while in Uttar Pradesh it is Hindutva politics that has deep roots among the electorate.

With Bihar securely in the bag, it is all about Uttar Pradesh now. The first, low hanging fruit for the BJP is the voter turnout. Every pro-BJP voter has to be tapped and brought out to the voting booths. This is where the PM has to remind his supporters that the 20% will not be lazy on voting day. If you are favourable towards BJP and you don’t go out to vote, it will be on your conscience when the 20% get to trample you for the next 5 years.

Yeah, fear must be made a factor. It has to be.

The other side isn’t even deploying a single worker on the ground. They have long stopped doing rallies or public meetings. They are sitting comfortably in AC rooms and admiring the tap fittings they stole from their government bungalows. They are relaxing, secure in the knowledge that the arithmetic of alliance will do all their work for them.

This is where the Naamdar vs Kaamdar angle must be brought in. There is now enough evidence that ‘Naamdar’ is the new jibe that will replace ‘Shehzada’ from 2014.

Everybody can see Akhilesh’s strategy of playing it cosy now that he has an alliance locked up. Same with Rahul Gandhi who insists these days that Modi won’t even win Varanasi. While their confidence is not misplaced, their arrogance has to be exposed before the people.

Only Modi comes to the people. The others seal alliances in AC rooms.

The third major weapon is to saturate the state of Uttar Pradesh with welfare schemes. On this, the PM has spared no effort. I am no fan of big government socialist welfare schemes. But I am a really big fan of political survival. The BJP can get around to the work of changing the 70-year-old mai-baap Nehruvian mindset of the people some other time. Not in the election year.

The next weapon is to aggressively monetize Yogi’s ‘tough on crime’ image. Everybody remembers the goonda raj of the Akhilesh years. After Yogi arrived, criminals in the state began to fear for their lives for the first time in years.

The final and perhaps most crucial step is to search for the ‘national vote’ in Uttar Pradesh. This is a very interesting phenomenon that seems to exist only in this state. While most states have a ‘regional votebank,’ the state of Uttar Pradesh seems to have a special ‘national votebank.’  This is because the average person in UP is aware of the pre-eminent position of the state in national political consciousness. People of Uttar Pradesh are very secure about their place in the country. They are proud of it. There’s no regional sentiment to tap into. That’s why ‘UP ke ladke’ was such a flop.

Who could have thought that Congress would have got 22 seats from Uttar Pradesh in 2009? Zero organization. Zero cadres. But there was a nationwide pro-Congress mood and the voter went with it, leaving behind caste considerations. Of course, the BJP tapped into a similar national votebank five years later, winning a staggering 73/80!

The UP voter has to be reminded that he/she is the ultimate arbiter of who is going to rule the country. They are not voting for an MP or for a party. They vote for Prime Ministers. It is the UP voter who ushered in Modi sarkar with its 282 seat majority. The UP voter can replace it in 2019 with a tottering government, where parties cooperate on the seat sharing and compete on the looting.

More than anything else, it is karma vs laziness in 2019 in Uttar Pradesh.

Read how Times of India turned godman ‘Asif Noori’ into a Hindu sadhu

OpIndia Staff
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Read how Times of India turned godman ‘Asif Noori’ into a Hindu sadhu

In yet another incident where the media tried to give a ‘Hindu spin’ to a crime perpetrated by a Muslim. The Time of India today reported that in Maharashtra, a ‘godman’ forced his male devotees into ‘unnatural sex’. As per the report, one Asif Noori, a 38-year-old self-styled godman was arrested in Buldhana district in Maharashtra days after video and audio clips of allegedly forcing male devotees into unnatural sex went viral on social media.

As per reports, a preliminary police investigation has revealed that Noori took his victims to a room where he would allegedly drug them on the pretext of performing a ritual and force them to have unnatural sex with them.

However, The Times of India, while tweeted the same report, used a misleading image to report the crime. The image of sketch of a sadhu was used for a crime where the accused is a Muslim.

Image of a Sadhu where the accused is a Muslim ‘self styled godman’

This is not the first time the media has given such ‘Hindu spin’. Earlier, too, words like ‘tantrik’, a practitioner of ‘tantra vidya’ which is mainly associated with Hinduism, were used by media to report on rape where accused was one Rahmat Ali Sheikh.

Times of India report where ‘Swami’ was
Times of India report where ‘Swami’ booked for rape was Akmal Ali.

Many Twitter users pointed out the misleading image used by The Times of India which could tarnish the image of Hindu spiritual leaders.


 

‘Remove Maya, save BSP’: Rebel BSP leader says there is widespread discontent against Mayawati

OpIndia Staff
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‘Remove Maya, save BSP’: Rebel BSP leader says there is widespread discontent against Mayawati

Former Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Kureel has said that Mayawati is killing the ideology of Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram and behaves like she owns the party and treats her subordinates like slaves. The BSP rebel leader is now planning to form a front with other leaders and members of the party who have either been sacked or have lost the trust in the leadership. He accused her of playing politics of deviation and destruction and betraying the Dalit community.

Led by Kureel, ‘National Campaign to Save Bahujan Movement’ met on Sunday to work out the details to take on both, UPA and NDA, as an alternative Bahujan alliance to BSP. He said that people have lost faith in her leadership and hence prior to 2014 elections, many BSP leaders left and joined the BJP while some did before the 2017 state assembly elections.

This is not the first time Kureel has voiced his protest against Mayawati. In August last year, sixteen groups of Dalits, OBC and Muslim leaders met and talked about bringing various outfits under one umbrella ‘National Bahujan Alliance’. They also discussed different points and plans to ‘oust’ Mayawati and dent her Bahujan votebank.

BSP has zero MPs in Lok Sabha and 19 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly but has been chasing the dream of becoming the Prime Minister in 2019. In fact, following the 2017 defeat in UP Assembly polls, she had even mellowed down her extravagant birthday celebration and had asked party members to ‘donate’ funds and fill the party coffers. Recently, Mayawati was asked to vacate her government bungalow based on a Supreme Court order where she devised tricks to save it.

Maharashtra Congress councillor caught dealing in demonetized currency notes

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra Congress councillor caught dealing in demonetized currency notes

In an attempt to curtail the shadow economy and crack down on the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on 8th November 2016, announced the demonetization of all old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 banknotes. In an unscheduled live televised, PM Modi declared that use of all 500 and 1000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series would be invalid past midnight.

Though these notes went immediately out of circulation, in the following months, news of discarded or destroyed black money kept surfacing, what is shocking is that now, almost two years from then, Pune police have arrested five people including a Congress councilor from Ahmednagar, Maharashtra involved in banned currency exchange and has seized the banned currencies worth about 3.5 crores.


The other four, apart from the Congress councillor, arrested are Vijay Shinde, Aditya Ghavan, Navnath Bhandagale and a resident of Satara, named Suraj Jagtap have been taken into custody. According to the Rocks Police Station of Pune, Congress councillors of Sangamner Nagar Parishad were allegedly involved in the exchange of notes and took them into police custody last night.

The arrests occurred during an attempt to exchange swaps of notes that went out of circulation in Peth area on Sunday. This action was taken on the basis of a tip-off received by the police. At present, the police are finding out who they wanted to exchange these notes with.

Pakistan crumbling: Accusing their own army chief of being a ‘terrorist’, asks for India intervention

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan crumbling: Accusing their own army chief of being a ‘terrorist’, asks for India intervention

Pakistan has long been accused by its neighbours India and Afghanistan and western nations like the United States and the United Kingdom of its involvement in terrorist activities in the region and beyond. However, for harbouring terrorists and terrorism for so many years, Pakistan seems to be crumbling under the weight of its own terror-producing organizations.

MyNation on the 17th July accessed a video showing people of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in odds against the Pakistani army against the killing of Haroon Bilour, leader of Awami National Party (ANP), in the run-up to the country’s general elections scheduled this month. News Agency ANI, too, posted a video where anti-ISI slogans were raised outside Pakistan Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi.


A large number of supporters of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif gathered outside the Pakistan Army headquarters and shouted: “ISI Murdabad” and “Yeh jo Deshsad Gardi Hai Uske Peche Wardi Hi” (Army is behind state terrorism) slogans. The protestors alleged that Pakistan’s General Elections to be held on 25th July were rigged by the country’s spy agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).

Zaffar Baloch, president of the Baloch National Movement tweeted,


In an exclusive interview with MyNation, Skardu-born Senge Hasnan Sering, who has been fighting for freedom of Gilgit-Baltistan or Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) in exile from Washington, used this opportunity asking for Indian intervention on behalf of PoK.

In one of his tweets, Sering said: “Defining moment in #Pakistan political landscape as protesters openly call PAK military chief General Bajwa a terrorist & soldiers surrounding them seem completely numb & helpless. The military has turned PAK into a powder keg. Hope generals live long enough to witness the fireworks…Religion: The force that made Pakistan shall unmake it.”

The military in Pakistan has been known for its outrageous control over the law and government of the country. Recently, the military declared that as many as 3,90,000 army personnel will be deployed at various election booths to closely ‘monitor’ the process so as to ensure that polling takes place in a ‘fair’ manner. It is also putting utmost efforts to make Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, the former cricketer, win the upcoming 2018 elections.

However, the Islamabad High Court Judge Justice Shaukat Siddiqui openly bashed the ISI for directly controlling judiciary and media. While speaking at the Rawalpindi Bar Association, he accused ISI of pressuring the Chief Justice and other judges to get favourable verdicts in different cases, including Nawaz Sharif’s corruption case.

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