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Why Prakash Karat’s comments on PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India are ridiculous

Nithesh S
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Why Prakash Karat’s comments on PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India are ridiculous

In a post titled ‘Natanyahu Not Welcome’ , in Peoples Democracy (mouthpiece of CPI -M ), Prakash Karat has made ridiculous comments that can damage India- Israel relationship. In his article he says :

The prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting India from January 14. His official visit is not something which is to be welcomed. The coalition headed by Netanyahu is the most right-wing government that Israel has had. It consists of ultra-right Jewish parties who openly advocate expulsion of the Palestinian people from the occupied territories and treating the Arabs within the borders of Israel as second-class citizens.

First of all, Karat has no right to decide what kind of government can rule in Israel. It is for the people of that country to decide whether right-wing parties or left-wing parties get to rule Israel. Secondly, Karat fails to analyse that the ‘struggle’ of Palestinian people was complicated by Arab nations because of their mortal attack on the newly constituted state of Israel in 1948 and later in 1967. Karat is also selectively blind to the terrorism perpetrated by PLO on Israeli citizens through their Intifada campaigns. Palestinians are no Gandhians to merit Indian support for their ‘struggle’.

He goes on to say that Indian people, unlike the BJP government, stand in solidarity with people of Palestine.

Contrary to the BJP government’s pro-Israeli stance, India and its people have always stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposed Israeli aggression. Netanyahu should know that his aggressive anti-Palestinian policies are opposed by the secular democratic minded people of India.

CPI(M) is party that is irrelevant since 2014. They have no right to speak for all Indians. They might have had some leverage in UPA government. It had some right to influence key policies before it broke off from the UPA alliance over the Indo-US deal. But now, CPI(M) has only 9 seats in Lok Sabha. That is less than 2% of seats in the lower house. How can he paint his party’s opinion as the opinion of entire India? With this article, Karat displays the usual delusion of grandeur that the communists of India seem to harbour even after humiliating electoral defeat.

Mr Karat needs to understand that people of India need no lessons from him and his party on secularism. And more importantly, his opinions are detrimental to the progress of Indo-Israel cooperation, which is crucial for India’s development. However, blocking progress is the typical attitude of communists. India must ensure that these nincompoops never get more than single digit Lok Sabha seats in future elections. Otherwise, they will continue to block India’s progress domestically and internationally.

In fact, we might as well go out on a limb and say that Bibi might just secure more votes in India than the communists who are, after crushing defeat, trying so hard to become the “voice of the Indian population”. Hypothetically of course.

Editor of ANI Live Services slams Janta Ka Reporter for plagiarising ANI content

OpIndia Staff
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Editor of ANI Live Services slams Janta Ka Reporter for plagiarising ANI content

Pro AAP blog, Janta Ka Reporter has always been involved in controversies mainly owing to their lies and misrepresentations. Recently, the Patiala House Court had issued a summons to Rifat Jawaid in a defamation case filed against him by BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga. The blog has also misquoted the Chief Election Officer in a bid to malign EVMs and had also downgraded Moody’s after Moody’s had upgraded India.

And as has become the norm with Janta Ka Reporter, today they have created a controversy by plagiarising content.

On 13th January 2018, Janta Ka Reporter published a report that supposedly showed how the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, Nripendra Misra, was reportedly “snubbed” by CJI Dipak Misra. This article was also tweeted by the Pro AAP Founder of Janta Ka Reporter.

This article also had an embedded video which is the subject of this controversy.

As can be seen, the video embedded in the article has the logo of Janta Ka Reporter and a byline that says the video has been posted by the portal. The fact that the video has the Janta Ka Reporter logo hints to the fact that the video is JKR property and has presumably been captured by their team.

The logo was present throughout the video.

As it turns out, soon the Editor of ANI Live Services tweeted to Rifat Jawaid asking him to do the honourable thing by taking the article down considering the video was ANI property and Janta Ka Reporter had no authority to use that video without permission and specially with their own logo in it.

It remains to be seen whether Rifat Jawaid would, for once, take the ‘honourable route’ and take down the shamelessly plagiarised content with apologies to ANI. At the time of publishing this article, Rifat Jawaid or the Janta Ka Reporter team hadn’t responded to Mr. Ishant Prakash’s allegation or request to retract.

We will update this article as and when (and IF), Mr. Jawaid decides to ‘take the honourable route’ as suggested by Ishaan Prakash.

“No crisis” and “no intervention needed”, say 2 of the ‘rebel judges’ who held the press conference against CJI Misra

OpIndia Staff
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“No crisis” and “no intervention needed”, say 2 of the ‘rebel judges’ who held the press conference against CJI Misra

One day after the Indian judiciary was thrown into a tizzy following a press conference by four Supreme Court judges, Justice Kurian Joseph, one of the four ‘rebel judges’, said there is no need for outside intervention to resolve the matter, whereas Justice Ranjan Gogoi said there is ‘no crisis’.

On Friday, four senior Supreme Court judges namely Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Ranjan Gogoi and Kurian Joseph, calling a press conference to inform the nation of “their failed efforts” to convince the Chief Justice to take steps to protect the institution. When asked whether their act had amounted to a violation of discipline, the SC judge refused to comment, claiming he had a flight to catch to Lucknow.

Such an action was slammed by various legal luminaries like Justice RS Sodhi, former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee and former SC Justice Santosh Hegde, among others.

Justice Joseph said the matter was not brought to the attention of the President of India as he has no constitutional responsibility over the Supreme Court or the judges of the apex court. He further added that there was no constitutional lapse from the part of CJI but convention, practice and procedure has to be followed while carrying out his responsibility.

As per reports, as many as 21 Supreme Court judges appeared to close ranks with chief justice Dipak Misra. The judges have come to a consensus that they shall apprise Misra on Monday ‘of the need to maintain solidarity within the uppermost echelons of judiciary and make earnest attempts to repair the damage caused to the institutional dignity by the allegations levelled by the rebel quartet.’

PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India and the Indo-Israel relationship

Nithesh S
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PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India and the Indo-Israel relationship

Ahead of his visit to India, the official Twitter handle of Israel posted a video filled with warmth and love for India in spite of its negative vote at UNGA. PM Netanyahu has assured that India’s UNGA resolution vote won’t affect the relationship with India.

“Well I would have preferred a different vote to be frank but I don’t think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel.” – Netanyahu to PTI on India’s vote at UNGA


Indo-Israel Relationship : The Journey So Far

Mr Netanyahu will be the second Prime Minister of Israel to visit India. Mr Netanyahu’s visit comes within 6 months of Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Israel. This partnership is going to be one of the most important bilateral partnerships for India.  Israel is a key partner in areas of defence and agriculture. There is huge scope for co-operation in cyber security, water management and tourism as well. Here is a brief summary of major events in the relationship between these India and Isreal so far.

  • September 17, 1950 : India formally recognized Israel.
  • 1992 : India establishes diplomatic relations with India
  • 1997 : Ezer Weizmann , Israeli President visits India.
  • 2003: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visits India.
  • 2016 : Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited India for six days.
  • 2017 : Prime Minister Modi becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel
  • 2018: Benjamin Netanyahu visits India from January 14-19

It is important to note that the relationship between India and Israel has progressed only under Prime Ministers who were not a part of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Minority appeasement in the domain of foreign policy is a perversion that could be imagined only by this brand of politicians. If India had developed relations with Israel long back, we could have secured their help in skill development, agriculture and defence manufacturing.

Recently, Israeli company Rafael defence systems has formed a joint venture with Indian defence manufacturer Kalyani. This kind of synergy will be a win-win situation for both India and Israel. India can get technology and generate jobs at home while Israel can get cheap labor and better access to huge defence sector in India. In addition to this, Israeli defence industries will also be able to do well because of the volume of orders it gets from India. According to some estimates, India accounts for 41% of Israel’s defence exports. These kind of bilateral partnerships in defence manufacturing must be given a further push in future.

Palestine Must Not Become An Irritant

Leftist/liberal/secular foreign policy journalists insist on dragging Palestine into the Indo- Israel partnership even though India is striving to de-hyphenate the relationship between India and these two nations. According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs document, it is quite evident that India has already done way too much for Palestine state through monetary assistance and diplomatic support. The document on India- Palestine relations uploaded in July 2016 says :

  • India provided a budgetary assistance to a tune of US$ 30 million to Palestine in different stages.
  • During the visit of President Abbas to India in the year 2008, India announced a grant of US$ 10 million as budgetary support and this was transferred to Palestinein March 2009.
  • During the visit of President Abbas to India in February 2010, India announced a budgetary support of US$ 10 million and this was transferred in the month of March 2010.
  • Again in 2012, during the visit of President Abbas India announced a grant of US$ 10 million as  budgetary support to Palestine.
  • During the year 2015, India provided a total of $9 million as financial assistance to Palestine; $4 million was provided as project assistance towards the reconstruction of Gaza (on 12 January 2015), and $5million was provided as budgetary assistance (on 12 October 2015).

It is thus high time that India stopped worrying about Palestine and focus on how we can gain mutually from the bilateral relation with Israel. We must remain neutral in all international fora hereafter and leave the Palestine conflict to be dealt by Israel as per its own interests bilaterally with PLO. There is absolutely no need for India to lecture Israel about how it has to handle Palestine issue.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Visit to India

Ahead of the Israel PM’s visit to India, an announcement regarding $68.6 million investment in the area tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of 4 year was put out by Israel’s foreign ministry. Defence cooperation, Bollywood, agriculture, innovation and water management are key issues on the agenda of the official visit. He will also be leading a business delegation of over 100 industry leaders to improve economic ties between the two countries . This press note has been tweeted by Israel’s ambassador to India, Daniel Carmon regarding the Isreal PM’s visit.


There is a bright future for both India and Israel in all domains. Hopefully, this visit will strengthen the ties between two countries. Israel is a good friend and India must treat it better than it has done in the past.

See these amazing bamboo structures from Assam, a part of the Magh Bihu celebrations

Raju Das
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See these amazing bamboo structures from Assam, a part of the Magh Bihu celebrations

For last few days, you may have seen photos of some amazing crafts from Assam, known as Bhela Ghar, in various shapes, from Tajmahal to Parliament to Rhinos to many other things. Now what are these?

The Bhela Ghar is an integral part of Magh Bihu celebration, which is one of the three Bihu festivals in Assam. It is a post-harvest festival where focus is on food. Magh Bihu is also known as Bhogali Bihu, the word Bhogali is derived from Bhog, which refers feast or eating. Various delicacies like Pitha (rice flour cake with coconut, sesame etc fillings), Laru (laddu of grated coconut, sesame etc), Sunga Pitha (rice cake baked inside a bamboo) etc are prepared leading to Bihu.

Before Bihu, people start building two structures in fields which are now vacant after rice is harvested, Meji, and Bhelaghar. Meji is a cone shaped structure, usually several feet tall. It is made from bamboo, straw left in paddy fields, dried banana and beetle nut leaves etc.

Image result for meji assam

Ghar in Bhela Ghar means house, so it is basically a hut made of mainly bamboo and straw. On the night before Makar Sankranti, people gather for a community feast near the Bhela Ghar and Meji, where a bonfire is arranged.

2-3 days before this feast, people go for collective fishing in the nearby lake and collect fish for the feast. Earlier, it was also almost a ritual for boys to steal bamboo fences, firewood and such from village households to be used in bonfire. Some also stole chickens, ducks, potatoes and vegetables from households and fields. But with passage of time, these things have now stopped.

After the feast is over, young boys stay in the Bhela Ghar for the night. And in the next morning, the Meji and the Bhela Ghar is offered to the Agni God by burning it down. Snacks prepared for Bihu are offered to this fire, people offer prayers, and enjoy its heat in the cold January morning. After the fire douses, people take tika from the ashes.

Till around 10 years ago, the Bhela Ghars were simple rectangular huts, hurriedly made in a day or two. But then, people got creative, and they started to convert into a piece of art. It first started when some people started making multi storied huts, after that started different monuments and other shapes, some even conveying some message or reflecting some current affair.

Here are some beautiful works: (sources (1) (2) (3) (4)

As these artistic Bhela Ghars take a lot of time and effort to build, and people keep coming to see them, some of they may not be burnt, instead burning the Meji only. This also happens when the Bhela Ghar is made in shape of a temple or other such architecture associated with sentiment and emotions of people, replica of which being burnt may not be acceptable.

Two Samajwadi Party workers arrested for hurling potatoes in Lucknow

OpIndia Staff
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Two Samajwadi Party workers arrested for hurling potatoes in Lucknow

Lucknow Police has arrested two Samajwadi Party volunteers for allegedly throwing potatoes outside Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Last week, potatoes were hurled at various prominent places to make it appear like a farmer protest. Allegedly, a truck had come with sacks of potatoes and people started throwing potatoes in various parts of the city.

Lucknow District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma had dismissed the act as being carried out by miscreants and not farmers.

Lucknow’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Kumar has said, investigation shows that the potatoes were not thrown by farmers, but by people with political motives. They further claimed that the arrested persons had contested elections for Samajwadi Party in Nagar Panchayat polls and dismissed the role of Kisan Unions in it.

As per reports the two people arrested are close to former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav and this act was carried out to defame Yogi Adityanath government. The police have obtained evidences like CCTV footage.

In a press conference held today, the Police confirmed that there were no farmer unions behind the hurling of potatoes. A total of six people were involved in the incident, 2 of whom have been arrested. Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav has justified the act by asking what is wrong if the people who threw potatoes were from his party. He even tried to snub the Police Officer who solved the case and said that once he’s back in power, he would honour him with Yash Bharti award for his zeal to crack the case.

Himanta Biswa Sarma fulfils a promise made on Twitter to the girl students of Assam

OpIndia Staff
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Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who handles important portfolios in the Assam government like education health and finance, has agreeably become one of the more popular politicians on Twitter.

During the time when Congress President Rahul Gandhi had introduced his dog Pidi to twitter, Sarma had famously tweeted about how Rahul was more busy feeding biscuits to Pidi while he ( Sarma), was urging him to discuss urgent issues facing the state of Assam. This tweet in question, blew up and till date has notched more than 1 lakh retweets.

He further made news on twitter when he helped arrange for the expenses of one of India’s paralympic badminton champion by reaching out to the Badminton Association of India.

Now he has again made news on twitter, by fulfilling a promise he had made with regards to the meritorious girl students of Assam.

In 2015 it was reported that the BJP had made a poll promise in the state of Bihar that they would give scooties to 5000 meritorious girls who pass the X and XII standard examinations.

Following that, a twitter user from Assam asked Sarma whether it would be possible for the Assam government to launch a similar scheme, to which Sarma replied on a positive note:


Now more than two years on, it was reported on Friday that, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal distributed 1000 scooties to the girls who excelled in the XII standard examinations:


Sarma who also spoke during the ceremony announced that, this decision will go a long way to empowering women. He also claimed that the number of scooties awarded would be increased to 5,000 in the future, which is aligned to the request by the twitter user.

This scheme was announced in the last state budget and some might call this episode a testament of the fact that on social media, every voice counts.

With inputs from this tweet by @squintneon 

Times of India Editorial trashing Sushma Swaraj is fact-free, logic-free, muddled and confused

OpIndia Staff
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Times of India Editorial trashing Sushma Swaraj is fact-free, logic-free, muddled and confused

Today, an opinion piece focused on India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, was published in the Times of India. Written by Non Resident Indian columnist of Wall Street Journal Sadanand Dhume, the piece focused on how Sushma Swaraj’s tenure as the MEA, was “largely forgettable”.

Minister Sushma Swaraj took note of the highly critical piece, and responded in her own style. She Tweeted the article from her social media account, with a simple message: “Let Indian taxpayers respond”. The tweet was then pinned to the top of her profile, ensuring that no one would miss it:


While the minister took the bull by its horns, the specific charges in the article were rebutted and torn to shreds, point by point, on social media. R Sriram, Associate Editor, Economic Times, chose to take to twitter to poke holes into Dhume’s commentary. In a thread, he demolished arguments made by Dhume, and by the end had managed to make Dhume’s article seem like a half-baked desperate attempt to attack Swaraj.

In his article, Dhume had bracketed former MEA Jaswant Singh as a great foreign minister, unlike Swaraj. R Sriram analysed this argument:

At one point in the article, Dhume had labelled Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan as “the greatest South Asian foreign minister”.  R Sriram responded to this as well:

Dhume’s next argument was particularly amusing. Over the years, Sushma Swaraj has bailed out so many social media users who have approached her for help using twitter. But Dhume has a problem with her Twitter exploits as well.

Besides the above detailed take-down, many other social media users found glaring flaws in Dhume’s piece:


Talk about being disconnected. We hope Dhume takes the criticism from social media users as well the Minister took criticism from him.

Ahead of polls, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah calls BJP, RSS ‘Hindutva terrorists’

OpIndia Staff
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Ahead of polls, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah calls BJP, RSS ‘Hindutva terrorists’

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday called the BJP and RSS ‘Hindutva terrorists’. Accusing the BJP of having terror links and of harbouring extremists, Siddaramaiah likened the RSS to the violent Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of PFI, and said his government will tolerate anyone who tries to create problem.

Meanwhile, the BJP hit back on Siddaramaiah saying that he is desperately trying to communalise the elections and accused the Congress of being anti-Hindu and playing vote-bank politics.

Demanding an apology, the BJP has called for a ‘jail bharo’ protest in Karnataka starting Friday. State BJP general secretary Shobha Karandlaje said that since they are dangerous people roaming freely on the street, Siddaramaiah should put them all in jail.

Meanwhile, the BJP has decided to file a defamation case against Siddaramaiah for his remarks. The BJP also demands a public apology for their remarks and the ‘jail bharo’ protest to continue till then.

This is not the first time Siddaramaiah has tried to stir up a storm in the state which goes to poll in few months’ time. Recently, their attempt to attack Yogi Adityanath over social media using NCRB date backfired massively, causing a major embarrassment to Congress.

BJP forced to cancel 8 day long bike rally in West Bengal after attacks by alleged TMC workers

OpIndia Staff
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BJP forced to cancel 8 day long bike rally in West Bengal after attacks by alleged TMC workers

The BJP on Friday cancelled its eight day long state wide bike rally, after the party came under attack from alleged TMC workers at Binani Bhawan, Pathuriaghata Street in Kolkata.

Apart from this there were also reports of sloganeering TMC workers pelting stones at the BJP headquarter in Kolkata, which as per party state president Dilip Ghosh resulted in injuries to more than 10 BJP workers. The TMC workers are even reported to have beaten BJP workers using sticks. This incident happened at about 10:30 AM on Friday.

As per Dilip Ghosh, the TMC workers foiled the attempts of BJP workers to take out bike rallies by attacking them at several places, before announcing that the rally as a result stands cancelled. He claimed that the party would carry out a sit-in demonstration near the Gandhi statue in Kolkata to protest against this incident. The BJP leaders also claimed that they would meet Bengal’s Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to inform him of the incident, and demand President’s rule in the state.

The BJP had incidentally managed to take out that bike rally, only after the Calcutta High Court had upheld its single bench’s order to allow permission for this rally. Earlier permission was denied by the police.

There are other instances when the BJP has been targeted by TMC workers in the state.

In January, 2017 the BJP’s Hoogly office was set ablaze by alleged workers of the TMC. Two days prior to that the BJP’s Kolkata headquarter was attacked by members of TMC’s student wing, to protest against TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s arrest for his alleged involvement Rose Valley chit fund scam.

In May 2016, BJP leader Roopa Ganguly’s convoy was attacked by alleged TMC supporters near Diamond Harbour in South 24 parganas while she was returning from visiting a party worker who was believed to have been assaulted by TMC goons. Earlier in 2015 she was attacked by TMC workers in Kolkata’s posh Alipore area which was merely 500 metres away from CM Mamata Banerjee’s home.

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