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Manohar Parrikar’s first statement after getting discharged from Lilavati

OpIndia Staff
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Manohar Parrikar’s first statement after getting discharged from Lilavati

Former Defence Minister and current Goa Chief Minister was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai for the past one week. Today, he was discharged from the hospital and reached Goa by a special plane. He then proceeded to the assembly and spoke to his cabinet. After that, he addressed the Goa assembly and made a short speech, while tabling the budget.

The contents of his speech are below:

He mentioned that he was overwhelmed by the wishes of the public and thanked all of them for praying for his speedy recovery. He said that doctors had advised him precautions in the near term and hence his interaction with public would be limited. He however did not specify the nature of his ailment.

He presented the Budget for 2018-19 with a size of Rs 17123 crores, and schemes worth Rs 548 crores were proposed for labour & employment. He also proposed a vote on account for 5 months.

He was expected to brief the media but, as per sources, the same has been cancelled.

Youth Congress leader Mirza Mouzam Baig arrested for stalking and harassing a woman

OpIndia Staff
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Youth Congress leader Mirza Mouzam Baig arrested for stalking and harassing a woman

Mirza Mouzam Baig a Youth Congress leader and advocate from Hyderabad has been arrested by the police on charges of him allegedly stalking and harassing a woman who he had befriended on Facebook.

As per reports, a 33-year-old woman filed a complaint with the Langar Houz Police Station on Sunday alleging that Baig was interfering in her personal life, and sent her vulgar messages on Social Media. This as per the victim was prompted by her refusal to have a sexual relationship with him. This refusal meant that he even started to send vulgar messages to her husband and friends, via his associates Shaik Ahmed Parvez and others.

As a result, a case was lodged against him under Section 354-D and 507 which pertain to stalking and criminal intimidation. He was taken into custody on Monday.

Going by his supposed Facebook profile, Baig calls himself a student leader at the Indian National Congress who worked at Indian Youth Congress:

Biography of accused Congress Youth Leader

A former General Secretary at NSUI he seems to have managed to connect with senior Congress leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh:

 

Mirza Mouzam Baig arrested for stalking in Hyderabad
Accused Youth Congress leader with Sonia Gandhi
Accused Youth Congress leader with Digvijaya Singh

Incidentally, since his arrest, reports have come out which claim that he has now been hospitalised with a stroke and also has multiple abrasions over his body. As per the report, the first hospital where he was admitted stated in its report that there were no obvious external injuries while the second one claimed that there were multiple abrasions over his body and that he suffered a brain stroke.

The family, as a result, has alleged that he was tortured by the police. Baig’s brother claims that a police constable took his brother to the police station at 4:30 PM Sunday, and was taken to the hospital at about 5:00 PM on Monday. He thus claimed that he was beaten up by the police and suffered a brain stroke as a result.

The police though has denied these allegations and inspector M Anjaiah claimed that they received a complaint on Sunday that the woman – an event organiser, used to attend parties with Baig. He later started insisting that she have a physical relationship with him and even issued her death threats.

During the resultant investigation, Baig supposedly didn’t appear at the police station and refused to cooperate saying that he was an advocate. He was finally brought to the police station at 4:30 Monday and formally arrested. There as per the inspector, while giving sureties for his bail application Baig complained of illness and was rushed to Premier Hospital. From there he was shifted to Sai Krishna Super Speciality Hospital by his relatives for better treatment.

The inspector thus insisted the assault charges were baseless and called them as false allegations.

Media selectively quotes Donald Trump Jr. to project him as a hypocrite romanticising poverty in India

OpIndia Staff
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Media selectively quotes Donald Trump Jr. to project him as a hypocrite romanticising poverty in India

In an attempt to malign Donald Trump Jr during his visit to India, Washington Post quoted Donald Trump Jr partially in a headline to project him as someone who romanticises poverty, while enjoying all the wealth in his personal life. Twitter soon found out what Trump Jr had said and criticised the Washington Post journalist who had shared the article titled Donald Trump Jr. says he likes India’s poor people because they ‘smile’.

The actual statement of Donald Trump Jr is below. He had said :

“I don’t mean to be glib about it, but you can see the poorest of the poor and there is still a smile on a face. It’s a different spirit that you don’t see in other parts of the world … and I think there’s something unique about that. I know some of the most successful people in the world, and some of them are the most miserable people in the world.”

Twitter users quoted the above tweet and exposed the bias of Washington Post.


Washington post journalist twisted the statement of Donald Trump Junior and sold it as poverty porn on twitter. The article with a clickbait headline soon found traction among detractors of Trump in India as well.


The actual content of Donald Trump Jr cannot be construed as anti-poor or romanticisation of poverty. It is just an opinion or observation about how some rich people can be miserable while poor manage to be happy in spite of difficulties. Trump felt this trait of Indians to be unique in the developing world, and a trait which he has rarely seen anywhere else in the world. To project it as a hypocritical statement that glorifies poverty is incorrect and misplaced.

If you got your passport issued or renewed in 2018 and have to travel to Germany, there is a little problem

OpIndia Staff
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If you got your passport issued or renewed in 2018 and have to travel to Germany, there is a little problem

Recently, an issue regarding Indian passports being submitted for Visa requirements for travelling to Germany has come to light. It seems that Germany is refusing to accept Indian passports because of the passport number being perforated/punched through on all the pages (from the first page to the last).

When alerted to the issue, OpIndia spoke to ‘Corporate Traveler, the SME arm of FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia’, a global travel agency to get a sense of the issue and they too have confirmed that the visa process is being held up as the new Indian passports were not being accepted.

They confirmed that recently (2018) passport office has started printing passports wherein top of all the pages are perforated/punched-through with the passport number, whereas till last year it was punched only for second half of the passport. This new passport format seems to be creating the problem.

The passports which are being accepted currently are these :

While the VFS Mumbai website hasn’t been updated with this information alerting visa applicants, the travel agency we spoke to says that the issue is a pan India issue and they themselves faced issues in Pune as well.

Some have even raised this concern on Social Media and tagged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.


The notice has been updated on the VFS website for Karnataka. While some websites haven’t updated the notice yet, the issue being faced is not limited to Karnataka or Bangalore.

VFS Bangalore about Visa rules for traveling to Germany
click on the image for larger size

This seems to be an issue that affects every Indian who has been issued a passport in 2018. While passports issued prior to 2018 have faced no issues, this will have to be addressed by the Ministry as soon as possible.

We tried to get in touch with the passport division of the Ministry but couldn’t get a clarification since nobody answered the phone. We will update this article with relevant information.

Update: The issue has been resolved.

Journalists and Congress politicians prematurely comment on Pakistan’s ‘escape’ from FATF sanctions

Nithesh S
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Journalists and Congress politicians prematurely comment on Pakistan’s ‘escape’ from FATF sanctions

Reports had suggested that the USA was considering tough sanctions on Pakistan, through the matter was not specifically mentioned on FATF website. The US State Department spokesperson had confirmed these reports at a press confirmation held on February 15 and said that those deliberations were confidential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onmguOuZulQ

Financial action task force is an intergovernmental organisation that is active in monitoring money laundering, terror financing and any other threat to the global financial system. It is meeting to take decisions at Paris between February 18 and 23. The FATF’s decision-making body, the FATF Plenary, meets three times per year.


As it turns out, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister prematurely claimed that sanctions had been warded off due lack of consensus. This claim was widely reported in Pakistan media in a celebratory mood. Some journalists in India quoted Pak FM’s tweet and circulated the claim.


Journalists in India and Pakistan echoed his claim saying that Pakistan had escaped ‘greylist’.

 

One of the foreign policy journalists in India, Suhasini Haider corrected her earlier Tweets on the same day.

Meanwhile, FATF spokesperson Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel denied the reports of a ‘reprieve’ for Pakistan at FATF. She told Hindustan Times that the outcomes of the plenary session would be published on Friday.

However, some anti – BJP figures are still claiming that it is a diplomatic loss for India. Manish Tewari, the Congress spokesperson went on to criticise the BJP for its diplomatic loss at FATF based on false reports. He also claimed that China, Turkey and Russia had bailed out Pakistan. A similar claim was made by another journalist Mihir Sharma.

It is thus telling that while talks of the sanction had been confirmed, without any confirmation the Indian journalists were quick to echo the unconfirmed, baseless and motivated news reports from Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. It is tragic that Congress was willing to accept on face value, reports placed by Pakistan’s FM, that not only went against the interests of India, but also used it to show the Prime Minister down. In their political hate, it would serve the Congress party well if they didn’t so willingly fall for the propaganda warfare unleashed by Pakistan

Ex Gujarat DGP Pandey discharged by CBI court in Ishrat Jahan encounter case

OpIndia Staff
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Ex Gujarat DGP Pandey discharged by CBI court in Ishrat Jahan encounter case

Gujrat’s ex-police DGP P P Pandey was discharged by a special CBI court on Wednesday in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in 2004.

As per reports, Pandey’s discharge application was allowed by the special CBI court judge P K Pandya on the grounds that there was no evidence against him that proves the allegations of kidnap and killing of Ishrat Jahan and her associates. The court also added that there were no witnesses who accused Pandey of the alleged kidnapping and killing charges put forth by the CBI and the witnesses in the case have given contradictory statements to different investigating agencies.

The CBI had accused Pandey of being involved in the kidnapping and killing of the persons in the encounter in 2013. Pandey was the head of Ahmedabad Crime Branch in 2004 when the encounter happened.

The special court also stated that as Pandey was a serving police officer under the Gujrat state government at that time, as per section 197 of CrPC, due permission to prosecute him should have been taken from the state before filing charges against him, which was not done by the CBI.

The CBI had filed the charge sheet against Pandey and seven other officers of Gujrat police including D G Vanzara and D L Singhal in 2013.

The CBI had also filed a supplementary charge sheet where four officials of IB are named including former Director Rajinder Kumar and officer M S Sinha. The supplementary charge sheet is yet to receive approval from the centre.

DG Vanzara has tweeted about the discharge of his former colleague:


Pandey, who is a 1980 batch IPS officer, was arrested in July 2013 by the CBI. He and almost 19 months in jail. He was granted bail in February 2015, reinstated in the State Police and was promoted to DGP level. He retired an April last year.

In June 2004, Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pilai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by Crime Branch officials in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar had filed a writ petition in Gujrat High Court seeking a CBI inquiry on the encounter and claimed that her daughter has been falsely named as a terrorist. A Pakistani media outlet had quoted Lashkar-e-Taiba as claiming that Ishrat was their operative. LeT had later retracted their statement. In 2016, Terrorist David Headley had picked Ishrat’s name from a list of three names during his testimony, identifying her as a Lashkar operative. Later former home secretary G K Pillai had alleged that former UPA home minister P Chidambaram had edited the testimony to erase any reference to Ishrat as a LeT operative. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had stated in the parliament that UPA had been using the case to falsely target PM Modi.

Trouble for Arvind Kejriwal as BJP and IAS body demand for President’s Rule in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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Trouble for Arvind Kejriwal as BJP and IAS body demand for President’s Rule in Delhi

The AAP government in Delhi has become embroiled in a massive mess with reports claiming that two of its MLAs assaulting Delhi’s Chief Secretary at Kejriwal’s residence while the Chief Minister himself looked on. Since then the AAP government has been further put in the dock with the Chief Secretary’s medical report confirming cut marks and injuries around his face.

Massive outrage and strong protests meant that the police arrested AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal from his Delhi residence, and later the second accused Amanatullah Khan surrendered before the police. The controversial MLA though decided to adorn an Islamic attire in order to possibly play the persecution card.

While this drama was playing on, the Home Ministry began a probe in this matter by examining a report sent by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday. The LG in his report divided the incident into three parts: criminal, administrative and political. Out of this, the criminal aspect will be dealt by the Delhi police and the other two are the responsibility of the Home Ministry.

President Ram Nath Kovind too might get involved in the matter soon with Delhi’s IAS association asking for an appointment with the 1st citizen, to demand action against those involved in the Chief Secretary’s assault.

Now another angle has come to the fray, with the BJP and Madhya Pradesh’s IAS body outright demanding the dismissal of the AAP government.

The BJP as per reports has demanded an imposition of President’s rule after the dismissal of the AAP government and also plans to carry out a massive protest against AAP throughout Delhi. The Madhya Pradesh IAS association too called for a similar move and also demanded that criminal cases be registered against the accused. This was conveyed via a resolution passed by the body.

The AAP though has refused to step back and continues to brazen it out by claiming that there was no proof regarding the Chief Secretary getting assaulted. As per the AAP, this whole affair is BJP’s plan to dethrone their Delhi government.

ED seizes premium cars, freezes investments of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi group

OpIndia Staff
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ED seizes premium cars, freezes investments of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi group

The relentless crackdown in the Nirav Modi – PNB scam case continues. The Enforcement Directorate today reported that it had seized several premium cars belonging to Nirav Modi and his companies. The cars include a Rolls Royce Ghost, Porsche Panamera, 2 Mercedes Benz, 3 Honda, 1 Toyota Fortuner & an Innova, as per the Enforcement Directorate.

It was also declared that shares & mutual funds worth Rs 7.8 Cr of Nirav Modi & Rs 86.72 crore of Mehul Choksi group were frozen by the Enforcement Directorate. All the above was tweeted out by the Enforcement Directorate:


The above move comes on the back of multiple actions taken by various authorities over the past few days. On 16th February, in raids that continued late into the night, the ED seized Rs. 5,100 crores worth of Gold, precious gems and Jewellery. The Enforcement Directorate also tweeted about additional raids being conducted and that diamonds, gold and jewellery worth Rs. 549 crores (book value) have been seized.

Rahul Gandhi becomes inadvertent source of laughter in Sharad Pawar interview

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi becomes inadvertent source of laughter in Sharad Pawar interview

Yesterday, Sharad Pawar was interviewed by MNS chief Raj Thackeray at an event in Mumbai. The unique event was obviously keenly watched by all. In the interview, Pawar mentioned an incident relating to Rahul Gandhi, which inadvertently became a matter of ridicule. Pawar was, in fact, trying to praise Rahul, but Thackeray quickly realised how Rahul had in fact been embarrassed by this.

Thakeray had asked Pawar about his views on PM Modi. Pawar stated that while it was easy to be the CM of a state, it was harder to be the PM, and one needed to have the ability to learn. He claimed that he saw this ability in Rahul Gandhi, and presented an example of the same: (abridged version)

Pawar: I am the chairperson of a sugar institute, which does research on sugarcane and sugar. One day Rahul Gandhi suddenly came to visit me. He spent 2 hours at the institute and asked questions like what is sugarcane, what is its method, (audience laughs) what are the godowns, what is sugar…

Thakeray: He asked, “what is sugarcane”? (audience laughs)

Pawar: He asked about the different types of sugarcane etc. 

(Thakeray narrates an unrelated joke)

Pawar: Currently, Rahul’s thought process is to learn the issues he does not understand, and if he continues on this route, and if the youth back him, then Congress may see good days ahead. 

The video can be seen here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHVAQNuETrk?start=1.35]

Pawar tried his best to praise Rahul Gandhi, but even in that attempt, Rahul Gandhi’s glorious reputation seems to have taken the forefront as the audience as well as Raj Thakeray, listened to the story in amusement.

Raj Thackeray-Sharad Pawar interview brings forth the best conspiracy theory on bullet train

OpIndia Staff
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Raj Thackeray-Sharad Pawar interview brings forth the best conspiracy theory on bullet train

India’s ambitious project, to start its first bullet train, has always been in the eye of controversy, due to the opposition. We have seen numerous attempts to slander and spread half truths about the project. Most famously, Kejriwal once calculated the fare as Rs 75,000. Now, we may have a new theory, which tops that of Kejriwal

In a unique interview, Raj Thackeray from the MNS, interviewed NCP honcho Sharad Pawar, at an event in Mumbai. One of the questions from Thackeray, talked about the bullet train and raised an interesting theory. The abridged version of the relevant part of the interview is as below:

Raj Thakeray: Nitin Gadkari recently announced a Mumbai-Vadodara express highway, for which he will sanction Rs 22,000 crores. PM Modi after the elections, announced Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train costing Rs 1.10 lakh crores. Is this an outcome of the wound which was inflicted on Gujarat when Maharashtra split from Gujarat but Gujarat lost Mumbai? Is this then a conspiracy to distance Mumbai (from Maharashtra). Mumbai does not need a bullet train. Now, we will be able to reach very fast to Ahmedabad in the morning itself, what do we do there? Should we eat dhokla, fafdas? Why isn’t bullet train being brought on long distance routes like Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata etc? So is this an attempt to make Mumbai independent? 

Sharad Pawar: There was lot of discussion on this, and we had objected to this. We had said bullet train should have been from Mumbai to Delhi, or one which goes through various Mumbai towns. No one will go to Ahmadabad via this bullet train, they will all come to Mumbai, crowd of Mumbai will increase. Let anyone do whatever they can, Mumbai cannot be broken away from Maharashtra.

Later Pawar confirmed that such a conspiracy is visible. He then said that he can see boards in Gujarati language in some areas of Mumbai, but he has no problem with the boards per se.

This theory has to be seen in the background of the fact that once upon a time, Maharashtra and Gujarat were united. After independence, for around 13 years, large parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat formed one state, known as “Bombay state”, which was also called “Maha Dwibhashi Rajya”, meaning, “the great bilingual state”. Finally in 1960, after protests, the two were split into Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Thakeray and Pawar were hinting at this event, and the purportedness bitterness amongst Gujaratis, at having lost Mumbai (Bombay) to Maharashtra. Hence, the moves to link Gujarat and Mumbai via expressways and bullet trains, are being painted as a move to split Maharashtra again. The undertone again gains significance since a Gujarati PM is at the helm.

The theory seems laughable for various reasons. Firstly, this is not the first time this kind of conspiracy has been sought to be fanned. Before the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections too, this angle was brought alive, and PM Modi had to categorically state from the stage of a rally, that he had no plans to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra.

Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders are spreading a new lie that Mumbai will be separated from Maharashtra. But I want to assure you that as long as I am in Delhi, no power in the world can split Maharashtra. Can anyone born in this country think of splitting the land of Shivaji?

Secondly, the theory by Thackeray-Pawar fails because although the project of bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was reinvigorated by PM Modi, the base for this project was laid during UPA rule. The project as we see it today, was a result of the joint work of the Gujarat, Maharashtra and the central government.

The then Gujarat CM Modi had first travelled in a bullet train way back in 2007, and the first mention of any such project in India came via the Railway Budget February 2009. Back then a decision was taken for pre-feasibility study for running bullet trains between Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Pune, among other routes.

By 2010, the final report was examined by all stake holders i.e. state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, Central and Western Railways and various Directorates of Ministry of Railways. The UPA government had identified six corridors for conducting pre-feasibility studies :-

  • Mumbai-Ahmedabad
  • Delhi-Amritsar via Chandigarh
  • Delhi-Patna via Lucknow and Varanasi
  • Hyderabad-Chennai via Vijaywada
  • Howrah-Haldia
  • Cheenai-Ernakulam via Bangalore

Out of the above 6 only Mumbai-Ahmedabad passed the feasibility study and rest of them were either rejected or were still in bidding phase for appointment of consultant to prepare a pre-feasibility study report. Finally in 2012 the Railway Minister proposed to undertake a survey of new line for high speed rail corridor (HSRC) and trains between Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad. In 2013 UPA Government appointed Japan International Consultants for Transportation Co.Ltd(JIC) to conduct feasibility study and the findings of the same are here.

In May 2014, CM Modi became PM Modi, and from then on, the move to bring the bullet train to India picked up steam, and soon we saw the signing of the MoU with Japan.

So, will Thackeray-Pawar still stick to their stand that the bullet train and other initiatives to connect Mumbai and parts of Gujarat, are part of a conspiracy to split Mumbai from Maharashtra? If yes, then at least Pawar being part of UPA is equally responsible.

This “conspiracy” then is basically another attempt to split India on the lines of states. To make one state bay for the blood for another. Basically, a sophisticated “bharat tere tukde honge” at play.

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