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BJP’s eastern irony : not rising fast enough, making enemies faster

Abhishek Banerjee
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BJP’s eastern irony : not rising fast enough, making enemies faster

Here are the results declared yesterday for the by-poll in Bijepur Assembly constituency of Odisha

BJD (Winner) : 1,02,871 votes

BJP (Runner-up) : 60,938 votes

Cong (Lost deposit): 10,274 votes

While describing election results, one usually names only the winning party followed by the nearest rival. But in the case of Bijepur, the Congress losing deposit and finishing in a humiliating 3rd position is extremely significant. Because Bijepur is not some seat in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu where the Congress has been insignificant for decades.

In fact, Bijepur in Odisha was a sitting Congress seat. Not only a sitting Congress seat but a seat that the Congress had won 3 times in a row. It’s a seat that should be considered a Congress stronghold. In yesterday’s results, the Congress could not even save its deposit.

But for BJP supporters, the result from Bijepur is steeped in irony. Because, at least in the short term, the decimation of Congress in Odisha is actually bad news for the BJP. Let’s look at the result again:

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Even a 20% swing in its favour could not deliver the seat to BJP! And it is only seats that matter in the final count, not votes.

The same story repeated only last month in byelections for Noapara Assembly Constituency in West Bengal. Here are the results:

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Again, the Congress is simply nowhere in the game, polling just 10,000 or so votes, losing its deposit and finishing at a humiliating fourth position.

Now, would you believe if I told you that Noapara was also a sitting Congress seat?

Again, the bitter irony for BJP is that the wipeout of Congress is only helping the Congress. Here are three common features that are easily observable in a number of eastern states:

(1) Deeply entrenched Chief Ministers (Manik Sarkar, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and K Chandrasekhar Rao)

(2) Near defunct Congress as opposition.

(3) BJP graph rising steeply.

In all of these states, the BJP is rising steeply, making huge strides in vote share. But the problem is that the rise is nowhere near fast enough to make it across the finish line and actually win seats. As we saw in Odisha, even a 20% positive swing could not deliver the seat to BJP.

The only happy exception seems to be Tripura, which was a small state that the BJP could cover well with its huge resources.

To start winning seats against the entrenched Chief Ministers of the East, one needs a 40% vote share at the bare minimum. To win a state, closer to 45%. But the BJP is starting from almost nothing in most of these states, with vote shares as low as 1-2% and an insignificant number of seats. The historic swings of almost 35% or more needed to win seats appear like a mountain too high to climb in one electoral cycle.

On the contrary, this is good news for Congress, at least in the short run. It had been the near-defunct, yet technically the “main” opposition in these states for a long time. Now, the BJP is flooding into these states, occupying the opposition space and putting the Congress out of its misery.

For Rahul Gandhi, the upside is that this opens up several new possibilities for an alliance. The Congress wasn’t winning seats in the East anyway. But as long as it continued to be the main opposition, at least technically, the Chief Ministers of these states would need to maintain some distance from the Congress. But now with BJP occupying the opposition space, the Congress can finally sit down and directly do business with these entrenched Chief Ministers.

The entrenched parties in the East now have reason to fear the BJP much more than they have to worry about the Congress. And everyone knows that the enemy of an enemy is always a friend.

If you look at it from the point of view of the ruling parties in the East, it makes perfect sense. Naveen babu, for instance, may have wanted to keep an equal distance from both Congress and BJP, but the equations on the ground are forcing his hand. For him, it is now BJP which is the threat, not Congress. Perhaps the BJD will still win in Odisha in 2019, but if Modi gets another term, a  supercharged BJP might well unseat him the next time. The risks for Naveen babu increase significantly if Modi gets another term in power. On the other hand, what does he have to lose if Rahul Gandhi becomes Prime Minister?

(I should record here that I got some blowback from Odia Twitter users for suggesting that Naveen Patnaik could ally with Congress).

If not a poll alliance, there are still lots of possibilities. Outside support, supporting or participating in a third front propped up by Congress, or just abstaining.

What applies to Odisha applies just as much to Bengal. If you really think about it, you will remember that the intense TMC vs BJP hostility is an extremely recent phenomenon. It was not there even in early 2014. Here is Narendra Modi speaking at his Feb 2014 Kolkata rally:

“Brothers and sisters I asked you to elect BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha – Mamata ji will work for your betterment and so will I and Pranab da is your own and he shall too – your gains will be threefold.”

By April-May 2014, Modi’s tone had changed and so had Mamata’s. She called him “donkey”, “Danga babu” and promised to drag him to jail with a rope around his waist. On his part, Modi told the crowds that Mamata didi wants to overrun Bengal with illegals from Bangladesh.

In other words, as the Modi wave picked up in early 2014, both BJP and TMC realized they were going to be main rivals in the years to come. The intense TMC-BJP hostility that we see today was dictated by shifting votes on the ground. Ideology does play its role, but ultimately politics is about votes.

What happened in Bengal can easily happen in other eastern states. Hence, the BJP’s eastern irony.

We all know two things clearly by now

(1) Any government that is not led by BJP is essentially a Congress government.

(2) When it comes to stopping Modi, no alliance is “impossible.”

Accordingly, the danger is of BJP falling between two stools in 2019.  On one hand, BJP’s steep rise is making the eastern satraps very very angry and turning them into implacable foes. On the other hand, the BJP is falling short of the votes needed to actually beat these satraps in terms of seats.

Dear Mumbai Police, I am surprised by your response

Nupur J Sharma
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Dear Mumbai Police, I am surprised by your response

Dear Sirs,

I write to you today as the Editor of Opindia.com. Before I start, let me put on record how much we as a team appreciate the work done by you. It is not easy to keep a city safe from elements who threaten peaceful existence, from the enemy that lurks in the dark, waiting to harm the citizens. The task before you is daunting, and the work you do is commendable. We appreciate you.

The police aren’t traditionally known to be social media friendly. And the alacrity with which Mumbai Police responds on Social Media has been a breath of fresh air. In fact, we at OpIndia covered a few such instances too. For example, when the Mumbai Police Twitter handle responded to Varun Dhawan’s selfie stunt. On the other hand, a response by your good selves today has left me a little stunned and disappointed.


Your tweet was in response to an article that was published in OpIndia that spoke about an abusive actor, Ajaz Khan, being invited as a Chief Guest in an event organised by Mumbai Police and BMC. Firstly, the background of this article, if you had read, was this man abusing a lady on Twitter with the worst sexual innuendos. In fact, Mumbai Police had even responded to the said girl on Twitter and asked her for details.

But, your point of contention was different. You accused the portal of poor general knowledge and research skills. You claimed that the event was not organised by Mumbai Police, in a rather condescending tweet, if I might add.

The fact remains, that OpIndia had simply reported a tweet that was posted by the actor Ajaz Khan himself.


Now, some pertinent questions that come to mind.

Firstly, If this indeed wasn’t an event which was organised by Mumbai Police, why didn’t Mumbai Police correct Ajaz immediately? Considering Mumbai Police is extremely active on Social Media and Ajaz had tagged the Mumbai Police handle in his tweet as well.

Secondly, was the language of the tweet necessary when correcting a portal that simply reported an assertion made by an actor? An assertion that wasn’t refuted by your good selves in the first place?

To your credit, right after you responded to OpIndia in an extremely terse manner, you did, very humbly, ask Ajaz to check his facts as well.


Other than the world of difference between the language of the two tweets, the fact that Ajaz’ tweet was dated 11th February 2018 can’t be discounted. The only reason we reported that tweet was because this actor is in the habit of getting abusive to women. Perhaps, it is not our research skill that is poor, but your comprehension and communication skills that might need some work.

We appreciate the fact that you posted a clarification even if it was vague. We also appreciate the fact that after you corrected our report in language that doesn’t befit the Mumbai Police, you corrected the abusive actor in a far more polite manner. Maybe you could also act upon the individual who loves to make communally charged statements and openly says that he would opt for his religious text over the Constitution of India. I thank you.

Dear Mr Jaitley, instead of blaming the CAs just do one thing to prevent Bank Frauds

RAJEEV GUPTA
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Dear Mr Jaitley, instead of blaming the CAs just do one thing to prevent Bank Frauds

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has blamed CAs and Auditors along with the Bank Management for the multi-crore PNB Fraud. Speaking for the second time within a week at the Economic Times Global Business Summit, Jaitley was harsh on auditors and bank management. He said if a fraud is taking place in multiple branches of the banking system and not a single employee raises the red flag, that is worrisome for the country as a whole. He also said that the fraud happened despite there being multiple layers of auditing in the system.

However, the Chartered Accountants fraternity does not agree with the observations made by the Finance Minister and the statement by Mr Jaitley blaming the CAs is being seen as nothing more than an exercise to protect the real culprits responsible for the fraud at the cost of the reputation and image of the CA professionals.

Let us first understand, what are the multiple layers of auditing, which Mr Jaitley is referring to repeatedly. There are three types of Audit in the Bank, which have been discussed below :

1. Internal Audit

Internal Audit of the Bank is conducted by the full-time employees of the Bank and most of the time, the Bank Employees responsible for conducting the Internal Audit are not qualified Chartered Accountants. Even if the Internal Audit is conducted by the Chartered Accountants employed by the Bank, the big question is, how we can expect that the internal auditor who himself is an employee of the Bank, to detect and report the fraud committed by his or her colleague. When we talk about “Audit”, then it has to be an “Independent Audit”. How can we expect the Employee Auditor to report against the irregularities or fraud committed by his Senior Officers or Colleague in the Bank? 

2. Concurrent Audit

The next layer of Audit is Concurrent Audit. Concurrent Auditors, again are appointed by the Bank Management from the panel of Chartered Accountants. The only difference between the Internal Auditors and Concurrent Auditors is that while the Internal Auditors are full-time employees of the Bank, the Concurrent Auditors are the Part-Time contractual employees of the Bank. The scope and authority of the Concurrent Auditors is decided by the appointing authority. How do you expect any Concurrent Auditor to report against you if you yourself are the appointing authority?

3. Statutory Audit or External Audit

This is the last layer of Bank Audits. Every year a Panel of Independent Chartered Accountants is prepared by the RBI in consultation with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Unfortunately, after the Panel is made, the same is handed over to the management of the respective Banks, who have the full discretion in the allotment of Bank Audit to any of the Chartered Accountant of their choice, subject to certain conditions. The same question of “Independence” comes here also. When the person whose affairs are to be audited, himself has the authority to appoint the auditor, how you can expect that Auditor will be able to discharge his duties independently?

It can be seen from above, that the independence of the Auditors has been completely compromised, in all the three cases. For any audit assignment, the independence of auditors is of paramount importance. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has dedicated a Complete Guidance Note on the Independence of Auditors. Several representations have been made by the ICAI in this regard to the various Governments in the past to streamline the system of appointment of auditors, in order to ensure the independence of the auditors, but nothing has been done so far, for the reasons best known to the Governments at that time.

 Solution :

There is a very simple solution to all these problems. Reserve Bank of India is already making the Panel of Independent Chartered Accountants every year in consultation with the ICAI. After this Panel is finalised, the same should be handed over to any Third Party (other than Bank Management). It could be either ICAI or RBI. This Third Party (and not the Bank Management) should appoint the Auditors from the Panel already finalised by the ICAI and RBI jointly.

Apart from this, the Internal Auditors and Concurrent Auditors should also be appointed from this Panel only in a similar manner. The objective of the whole exercise should be that the Bank Management itself, should not be placed in the position of Appointing Authority of the Auditors. It is also amazing as to why Banks are keeping in-house Internal Audit Departments? Banks must focus on the Banking Business, which is their core strength area and leave the Auditing to the Independent Chartered Accountants, who have the expertise in Auditing.

If our Finance Minister is inclined to carry out the aforesaid minor change to ensure the “Independence of the Auditors”, then only he can rightfully blame the Chartered Accountants or Auditors for any banking scam, fraud or any other irregularity. Unless, this is done, there is no point in blaming the auditors and the frauds, scams and financial irregularities, will continue to happen in the banking system, as these are always deliberate and are executed with the complete knowledge and connivance  of the bank managements.

Semengate: was it semen in those balloons thrown at those Delhi University girls?

OpIndia Staff
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Semengate: was it semen in those balloons thrown at those Delhi University girls?

It is indeed unfortunate that during Holi, the festival of colours which signifies the onset of spring has been muddled in controversies with news of eve teasing harassment women have to face under the pretext of ‘fun’. This year, we heard of harassment reaching newer low when two girls of Lady Sri Ram (LSR) College, Delhi, claimed that they were targeted by semen filled balloons.


As per reports, one girl was hit by ‘semen’ filled balloons at Amar Colony locality in Delhi. The LSR college student took to social media to let her horrific story known.

She claimed that the balloon which was thrown at her when she was in an autorickshaw. The content of the balloon dried white on her kurta, and the smell indicated it wasn’t water. However, she concluded it was semen. As per reports, at least 3 girls were hit by ‘semen filled balloons’. While the girl who wrote the Instagram post has not specified the gender of the person who threw the balloon at her, presumably another victim claimed the semen filled balloon was thrown at her by a girl and they have taken a written apology from the said girl.


Not trying to undermine the harassment many, many people go through on Holi, many people raised doubts over the content of those balloons being semen.


Keeping the obvious question on how did the girl who threw semen filled balloon at other girl got hold of so much semen (in absence of her own capability of generating semen herself), how does so much semen get collected at one place? As per Men’s Health magazine, an average man ejaculates 3.7 ml of semen, which is roughly 3/4th of a teaspoon. The volume of the balloon could be anything between 250 to 4,000 ml. Which means, roughly 68 to 1080 men would have to collect their semen to fill one balloon. Wonder if the girl went on a semen collection drive to collect so much semen. A balloon filled partially with air and semen also seems like a highly improbable idea.

Not refuting her claims that the women were probably harassed by hurling balloons at them, but the content being semen seems little farfetched at this time.

Perhaps the gooey white substance with foreign smell was egg whites?

Setback to Congress: four suspended Bihar Congress leaders join JDU

OpIndia Staff
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Setback to Congress: four suspended Bihar Congress leaders join JDU

In a major setback to Congress, four suspended Bihar Congress leaders have today bid goodbye to the Congress and joined Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United).


Ashok Choudhary, former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee President, who was sacked from his post last September, had claimed his expulsion as an insult to Dalits. This whole expulsion episode was seen to be a result of allegations against him and the leaders of his faction, that they made an unsuccessful bid to split the party, after Nitish Kumar walked out of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.

Choudhary, who was reported to be leading the rebel faction, was appointed to the post on March 30, 2013 and was the longest serving president of the state Congress before being sacked last year.

Shocking: Indrani Mukherjea of INX Media names P Chidambaram, claims meeting him at North Block

OpIndia Staff
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Shocking: Indrani Mukherjea of INX Media names P Chidambaram, claims meeting him at North Block

Skeletons are tumbling out of the closet as Karti Chidambaram was arrested this morning in alleged scam in INX Group, which was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, over alleged Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) violations. Karti Chidambaram is accused of receiving kickbacks in 2007 to clear foreign investment worth around Rs. 300 crore in INX Media, using the influence of his father, P Chidambaram, the then Union Finance Minister.

As per documents accessed by Times Now, Indrani Mukherjee has claimed that she had met P Chidambaram at North Block in Central Secretariat.


Indrani, who is facing jail for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, accused Chidambaram of trying to use his influence to get Indrani to pay bribe to Karti to the tune of 1 million dollars.


Karti has been flown from Chennai to Delhi by the CBI and Delhi’s Patiala House Court has sent him for 1 day police custody. Meanwhile, P Chidambaram has canceled his lecture at Oxford and is on his way back to India from London. You can read the FIR filed by CBI against Karti here.

Shia Board chief to AIMPLB: Mosques built after demolishing temples should be handed over to Hindus

OpIndia Staff
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Shia Board chief to AIMPLB: Mosques built after demolishing temples should be handed over to Hindus

The Chief of Shia Wakf Board Wasim Rizvi has written to the AIMPLB president asking them to return all the Masjids which were built on destroyed temples, back to Hindus. The letter was posted on Twitter by journalist Rohit Sardana:


Rizvi in the letter told the AIMPLB that everyone is aware of the temples that were destroyed during Mughal rule. He also highlighted that worship of Allah in mosques built over destroyed temples is not permissible.

He, as a result, seems to have made a list monuments which were either affected or were a result of the plundering by erstwhile Islamic rulers.

This is the list by Rizvi:

  1. Ram Temple, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
  2. Keshav Dev Mandir, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
  3. Atala Dev Mandir, Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh
  4. Kashi Vishwanath Mandir, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
  5. Rudra Mahalaya Mandir, Jila Batna, Gujarat
  6. Bhadrakali Mandir, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
  7. Adeena Masjid, Pandua, West Bengal
  8. Vijaya Mandir, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
  9. Masjid Quwwatul Islam, Qutub Minar Delhi

Mr Rizvi also asked the Sunni board to take a decision regarding the proposal of Shia board. He remarked that if the Muslims of India returned these places to Hindus, it would also show the world about the true objectives and the true values of Islam. He asserted that he was writing to them because every Maulvi was a member of their organisation and they are all well aware of the principles of Islam.

In a parting potshot, Rizvi in the letter referred to the AIMPLB as an NGO and alleged that it was dominated by people with an extremist mentality.

He finally said that they were free to take any decision on the proposals of Central Shia board, but pleaded them to answer his question listed at the end of his letter.

Do principles of Islam allow a king to snatch the places of worship of another religion and build Mosques via force?

Full letter written by Wasim Rizvi can be read below :

Wasim Rizvi letter to AIMPLB Page 1

 

Wasim Rizvi letter to AIMPLB Page 2

 

Wasim Rizvi letter to AIMPLB Page 3

It remains to be seen whether AIMPLB responds to Rizvi’s letter.

VIDEO: ‘The OpIndia Recap’ with Sham Sharma : Tripura elections and the Left’s unbridled violence

OpIndia Staff
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VIDEO: ‘The OpIndia Recap’ with Sham Sharma : Tripura elections and the Left’s unbridled violence

After the past episodes, we are back with another smashing episode of ‘The Opindia Recap’ by Sham Sharma, an MBA student at the Roosevelt University, Chicago and a sales professional.

Elections in Tripura have concluded recently and the run-up to those elections have been marred by the quintessential left violence. With results due on 3rd March, we take a look back at the violence that was unleashed in the state of Tripura by the Left government led by Manik Sarkar.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhYQzYOxWdM]

You can also watch the video on YouTube.

We thank Sham for this collaboration!

Hindu exodus in Jammu village : Villagers flee alleging torture and harassment of their children by JK police

OpIndia Staff
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Hindu exodus in Jammu village : Villagers flee alleging torture and harassment of their children by JK police

15 Hindu families from Rassana village in Jammu’s Kathua district decided to flee their homes on Tuesday, over allegations that the Jammu and Kashmir police’s crime department was harassing and torturing their children. The case pertains to an unfortunate rape of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua. The body of the poor girl was recovered from the forests near the Rassana village on 17th January.

As per the villagers, they were under constant fear of random detention of their children under the pretext of questioning. The local villagers weren’t alone in this plight of theirs and were joined in solidarity by hundreds of people from adjoining villages.

As per local reports, the families after leaving their village took refuge under a Peepal tree near Koota’s government Higher Secondary School. As a result, they also violated section 144 which was imposed by the district administration some days back. Later the Hindu Ekta Manch, with the help of locals arranged shelter for the fear-stricken villagers and urged the administration to restore the confidence of the hapless individuals.

As per Vijay Sharma, the Hindu Ekta Manch’s president, the accused were never supported by them and a fair investigation needed to be carried out restore the people’s faith in the administration. He alleged that the crime branch was only interested to hear one viewpoint and was also implicating youths in false cases. He thus alleged that these developments were part of a bigger communal game.

The villagers allege that the police and the administration are working under political pressure. As per them, a class XI student was called for questioning twice, besides that, an elderly father and his son were allegedly pressurised to record their statements based on directives by the crime branch.

A class XII girl too alleged that she and others were being harassed on a daily basis, due to which their studies were badly affected. Incidentally, this comes at a time when X and XII standard board exams have already begun. She alleged that CM Mehbooba Mufti was politicising the matter for vote bank politics.

Besides this, it has also been alleged that the villagers were even receiving threats from unscrupulous elements.

In light of this development, the BJP’s state establishment has demanded a CBI probe in this matter. As per BJP’s state general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul, locals had raised doubts over the crime branch’s investigation, hence the government needed to order a CBI probe. The BJP though is also one of the parties blamed for the plight of the villagers.

The police, on the other hand, has played down this matter, with Alok Puri the Additional DGP Crime Branch stating that calling people for questioning is a part of the investigation. He claimed that only three people were arrested and no others were detained.

CBI registers case against Kolkata’s RP Infosystems for Rs 515.15 crore loan fraud

OpIndia Staff
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CBI registers case against Kolkata’s RP Infosystems for Rs 515.15 crore loan fraud

In another bank fraud case after the PNB scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation today lodged a case against Kolkata based RP Infosystems and three of its directors for an alleged Bank Fraud of Rs 515.15 crores. The company was known for producing the ‘Chirag’ brand of personal computers.


Republic TV has reported that the CBI has also brought charges against a consortium of 17 leading PSU Banks including SBI, PNB, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Canara Bank. According to reports, the case has been registered under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. The charges also include criminal misconduct by a public servant.

The accused, as per reports, procured the 515.15 crore loans from Canara Bank on the basis of forged documents and fake debtor’s stock papers and later willfully defaulted on the loan by diverting the funds. Letters of Credit were issued by different members of the PSU banks consortium since 2012.

The names of the three directors of the RP Infosystems are Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna. It is notable here that the accused directors of RP Infosystems have another CBI case against them pertaining to loan fraud complaint by IDBI bank. The bank had alleged then that the three directors had availed loan on the basis of forged papers and caused a loss of 180 crores to the bank.

In June 2015, CBI had conducted raids on six properties including offices and residences of the accused. One of the accused Shivaji Panja has alleged links with Trinamool Congress. In February 2015, Panja was detained at Dumdum airport by the police while returning from Dhaka as part of the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s entourage. That time too, Panja had been arrested on charges of obtaining an 18 crore financial assistance from IFCI Factors Ltd, a government-run finance institution on the basis of forged documents.

Panja allegedly had very close links with Mamata Banerjee. He was appointed a member of a task force by the Department of Information and Culture by the TMC government. He was also made a member of the tele-academy set up by the CM. He was also convenor of the Kolkata International Film Festival and was in-charge of the CM’s painting exhibitions.

Though Mamata Banerjee and TMC leaders had denied any links with Panja, further investigations are expected to reveal more details.

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