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BMC slammed for mercilessly destroying plants during its Kamala Mills demolition drive

OpIndia Staff
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BMC slammed for mercilessly destroying plants during its Kamala Mills demolition drive

On Friday, two upscale restrobars in Kamala Mills, Mumbai were ravaged by a fire which resulted in the death of 14 persons. As a result of the tragedy, the Shiv Sena led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, decided to buckle up and order the safety audit of pubs and restaurants in the city. The civic body also started to demolish illegal structures in six parts of the city.

An illegal demolition drive also started in the Kamala mills area but the BMC officials soon came under the scanner for their unusual demolition choices:


During any demolition drive, the structures usually demolished are illegal building constructions, hazardous electric wiring among others. But these BMC demolishes in Kamala Mills decided that, potted plants too came under the purview of an illegal construction and ruthlessly decided to demolish them:


People as a result weren’t happy with the BMC and decided to react:


It wasn’t clear as to why the BMC officials couldn’t simply relocate these plants to a safe area, in a day an age when green spaces are fast disappearing from Mumbai. It also raises the question as to what laws were the plants violating by being present there, and whether they would come under the purview of ‘license raj’ in the future.

Gujarat Political Turbulence: Nitin Patel sulks over portfolio allocation, finally gets his way

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat Political Turbulence: Nitin Patel sulks over portfolio allocation, finally gets his way

After photofinishing Gujarat Assembly elections held earlier this month with a seat tally in double digit figure of 99, as against 115 in 2012, the Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel will finally take charge of his office after sulking for few days over portfolio allocation.

Patel, who was earlier brooding over stripped of key portfolios of finance and urban development, had refused to take charge of office till his ‘prestige is restored’. Patel had even threatened to resign if the party leadership didn’t bring a solution to his concerns.

On Sunday, however, he finally assumed office as deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat after discussing with party leadership who agreed to give him ‘suitable departments’.


Patel had met RSS leaders and held talks with BJP President Amit Shah, who agreed that the process for allocation of his portfolios is on.


Meanwhile, other political parties and politicians came out to support Nitin Patel in breaking away from the BJP. Hardik Patel, who spearheaded the Patidar agitation two years back, and had explicit support of Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal before he joined hands with Congress, even offered to ‘talk to Congress’ to get Patel a ‘good position’.


However, following assurances by Shah, Nitin Patel has ended his 3-day political drama and assumed office.

Mediacrook Twitter Suspension: Is Twitter India again targeting popular Right Wing accounts?

OpIndia Staff
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Mediacrook Twitter Suspension: Is Twitter India again targeting popular Right Wing accounts?

Mediacrooks and other popular twitter account suspended

During the end of 2016, reports had started to emerge that predominantly Right Wing accounts in India were soon getting suspended after criticising the Aam Aadmi Party.

This was also noted a few months after the aforementioned report, when a popular Right Wing user was suspended allegedly for questioning Kejriwal and anti-nationals. Things became slightly more brazen when it was seen that, a total of 7 ABVP accounts were suspended by Twitter. They were reinstated only after a heavy protest.

A few months down the line, Right Wing accounts were seen experiencing a new form of ‘apartheid’ when twitter started to deverify them citing ‘new guidelines’. One of this new policy’s first victim was Tommy Robinson from England.

Coming back to the present, judging by the events that transpired yesterday, this allegation of, “Twitter India targeting Right Wing accounts” might again start gaining traction.

As noticed by various twitter user, popular Right Wing accounts like @mediacrooks and @SZaidHamid were suspended on Saturday:

Of these two, @mediacrooks was also known for running a popular “Media watchdog” blog. @MediaCrooks is widely considered to be a trendsetter in building the ‘anti main stream media’ narrative. At a time when the Indian ‘right’ was at its nascent stage on Social Media, MediaCrooks fought the lies and propaganda that was continuously and maliciously spewed by the usual suspects through his incisive blogposts with razor sharp wit.

@SZaidHamid was popular parody account which used to crack jokes like this:

It isn’t yet clear as to what, ‘Twitter rules’ these twitter accounts were violating, which ‘warranted’ such a suspension and what exactly prompted the Twitter authorities to take such an extreme step.

Many twitter users were predictably miffed and decided to react:


It doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure out what might be going on here. Both accounts that have been suspended today were offensive. But the last time we checked, being offensive was a part of free speech, as argued by the very liberals who seems to celebrate these suspensions today. The very liberals who wanted ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ to be covered under free speech and protested against the account suspension of a leftist bigoted troll who even celebrated the death of CRPF jawans, are today rejoicing as “abusive Mediacrooks” has been suspended. The ones who proudly stood for free speech absolutism, are today happy that limits have been set. Lines have been drawn. Boundaries declared. Which is, to say the least, amusing.

While it is true that @MediaCrooks was prone to being abusive at times, what one wonders if why the many celebrity handles, political and otherwise, who are regularly abusive have not been suspended yet, if this in fact, is Twitter’s policy? From Sanjay Rajoura, who calls himself a comedian, politicians like Digvijay Singh and Manish Tewari to abusive trolls like Swati Chaturvedi masquerading as journalists have used the choicest abuses on Social Media without facing consequences.

MediaCrooks almost weaponised words in a way very few have managed to do. He weaponised his words to hurt the liberals, the Lutyens elite, the pens for hire, the propagandists masquerading as journalists, and the ones who hid their hypocrisy behind the carefully crafted veil of neutrality. One may agree with him or not. One may like or dislike him. Fact remains, more than the offended right, he tore through the leftist and Islamist charade. As did the @SZaidHamid parody account that got suspended.

Biting sarcasm, razor sharp wit and a penchant for delivering the most brutal truth with a hint of humour is what these two handles stood for. The naked, unadulterated, bitter truth.

One recalls the immortal lines from the movie “A Few Good Men” :

Col Jessep: I’ll answer the question. You want answers?

LTJG Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to them.

Col Jessep: You want answers?!

LTJG Kaffee: I want the truth!

Col Jessep: You can’t handle the truth! You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties.

The liberals of the world don’t want the truth because deep down in places, they don’t talk about the truth at parties. We use words like “honor,” “code,” “loyalty.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. They use them as a punch line. And thus, it would bode well if these self proclaimed free speech absolutists drop the charade. Their activism is hollow and self-serving. Perhaps, it would bode well, if their declared their ideological preference, the one that they fight for ever so quietly. Perhaps it’s time they accept what they truly stand for : Convenient speech. Not free speech.

2017 must be remembered for this life changing reform which impacts real Bharat

Vighnaraj Kuloor
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2017 must be remembered for this life changing reform which impacts real Bharat

The above tweet from Dr. Dinesh Arora, Founder Head of Rural Electrification Mission, which shows 7 people carrying an electricity pole and a 7-8 year old kid running with them, somewhere in the hills of Assam caught my imagination. I was that boy, back in 1982-83 in my remote village in Kerala – Karnataka border, running with the villagers as they carried electricity poles, dug pits to erect them and pulled the power lines from pole to pole. We kids used to look at KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) linemen, overseers and engineers as people who had descended from heaven to bless us with light!

It is not easy for most city dwellers and elitists of today to understand what transformation having access to electricity can bring to village houses and farms. I still remember me and my 3 elder siblings sitting next to the kerosene lamp reading and doing our homework. After one hour, our entire body would smell of kerosene smoke and inside the nostrils, you could easily notice a thick black layer of soot. You bend a little more while you read, purr… the tip of our hair would touch the flame and give out dirty keratin burning smell. Come rainy season, thousands of flies and insects would descend around the lamp and make our lives hell.

It is a shame that what I went through as a child 35 years back is the story crores of households even today, thanks to the family that ruled the nation for most of the last 70 years. The apathy of these rulers towards the real “gareeb” of this nation is abominable. They had schemes for everything under the sun but in reality, nothing happened on the ground.

This is why out of all the work that is being done by Narendra Modi government, the one that has caught my imagination is Grameen Vidyutikaran Mission under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grama Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). Anyone with little exposure the rural areas, especially the far-flung villages would know that the real task is to get the poles, power lines & transformers in and have the first few houses electrified. Once that is done, it is not a herculean task to electrify other houses in the village if the intent is there.

As on April 1, 2015, nearly 68 years after India’s independence, 18,452 villages, i.e. about 3% of all villages in this country had no access electricity, a basic amenity. Modi and his Power Minister in 2015, Piyush Goyal, seem to have taken this situation as a challenge. I have been tracking the progress under DDUGJY from the day the Garv App and the website www.garv.gov.in were launched and the progress made has been commendable.

The first thing that power ministry seemed to have done was to collect actual data on the current situation. Once the current situation was understood, the ministry seemed to have worked closely with different state governments (of different political parties) on rolling out the plan. There was complete data transparency up to the village level. Names and contact numbers of Grameen Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs, who played a key role in rollout) were accessible to everyone. The central government also successfully kept the motivation levels of the GVAs high.

The outcome is there for everyone to see. As I write this article, Bihar has just announced that all of its 2747 unelectrified villages have been electrified today. The race to zero that started from 18,452 has now reached 1,635 (as on December 27, 2017). The table below gives the progress made so far.

Well begun is half done. Next challenge for Modi government would be to provide access electricity to every rural household under Saubhagya scheme by 2019. As on October 11, 2017, of the 18.02 crore rural households, a shocking 4.13 crore (23%) have no access to electricity. Can the success of the step 1 be replicated in step 2?

One may love or hate Narendra Modi for his own reason, you have to give him the credit for changing the status quo when it comes to changing lives of crores of “gareeb” people of this country. He and his Government may be credited with various reforms, such as GST or Insolvency Code or other actions, but in my view, this one scheme trumps them all. While other schemes may improve the situation for people who already have it easy, rural electrification is one scheme which simplifies life for those, who are suffering the most.

They are the ones who do not have any lobbying bodies. They are the ones who do not get called on prime time debates. They are the ones who are living decades behind their counterparts in cities. They are the real India, they are Bharat. For every village that gets connected today, 100s of kids will get an opportunity to give a fair shot at life, like me. To me, this is “Antyodaya” in the real sense.

Woman demands jail for husband who gave her triple talaq just a day after Lok Sabha passed bill criminalizing it

OpIndia Staff
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Woman demands jail for husband who gave her triple talaq just a day after Lok Sabha passed bill criminalizing it

Within a day of Lok Sabha passing the bill that criminalized the practice of pronouncing triple talaq in one go (talaq-e-biddat), report of a person pronouncing the same to his wife has appeared from the Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh. The wife now wants the husband jailed for making her undergo this humiliating and traumatic experience.

According to media reports, a woman Ayesha Khatun has approached local police station after her husband Kasif pronounced triple talaq in one go upon her and abandoned her.

Kasif was already staying away from her in Delhi for over two months and returned to the Kheda Tanda village of Rampur district on Friday night. Ayesha reportedly become quite happy and excited to learn that her husband had returned, but as soon as she opened the door, Kasif said ‘talaq talaq talaq’ to her and went back to Delhi. Ayesha was shocked at this behavior and she reportedly even lost her consciousness due to the trauma.

Ayesha and Kasif were married a little more than two years ago, but Kasif apparently wanted to marry some girl belonging to a rich family. Kasif apparently used to repeatedly taunt Ayesha for being poor and had even talked about divorcing her earlier, but Ayesha used to think that he was being facetious and joking.

Now Ayesha wants Kasif jailed for his deeds. She has complained to the police, who have registered a case against Kasif, his mother, and two others. Police station in-charge has been quoted as saying that the accused will be arrested soon. Incidentally, another Muslim woman a given triple talaq in the same district earlier this week, just because she woke up late.

Although some media reports are saying that this is the first incident of a police case after ‘triple talaq was criminalized’, in all probabilities the police case has been registered under some other sections, for criminalization of triple talaq is yet to become a law (Rajya Sabha needs to pass it, following which President has to approve). Media reports have not specified what sections were invoked by the police.

However, the incident does show that the victims of triple talaq do feel the need for police intervention – something many ‘liberal’ activists don’t seem to realize.

Here are the top 10 most read articles on OpIndia in the year 2017

Editorial Desk
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Here are the top 10 most read articles on OpIndia in the year 2017

2017 has been an extremely fruitful year for us at OpIndia. It has been a year of growth and prospects. It has been a year where we bettered our own performance and continued to get undying support from the ones who matter : our readers. While we continue to work with limited resources, we managed to publish many excellent articles, which were extremely well received and appreciated.

These are the top 10 articles that you helped go viral and made them the most read this year. You can click on the preview images or the link below the images to read the respective articles:

1. I’m a woman and a kebab lover, and this is what I think about Yogi’s decisions

When Yogi Adityanath was made the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, it almost felt like the colour had been drained from liberal faces. We heard incessant cries of how BJP was trying to saffronize the country. We also heard how Prime Minister Modi was trying to “polarise the country” by elevating a “hate monger” such as Yogi Adityanath to the post of CM. And of course, to convert hollow rhetoric into plausible outrage, they latched on the Yogi Adityanath’s decision to shut sown illegal slaughterhouses. This article by @JogaKhichudi decimating the hysteria propagated by leftists, became our most read article of 2017.

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2. The truth about BJP losing ‘all 36 seats’ in Gujarat Panchayat elections

Congress has been trying very hard to win elections in the state of Gujarat that has seen a BJP government for over 2 decades. They failed, as BJP won the Assembly Elections held in December 2017. But way back in January 2017, Congress, AAP and certain ‘independent thinkers’ had tried to claim false victory in panchayat elections which weren’t only held in 2015, but also one where BJP had not fielded any candidates. This article written by @bwoyblunder and Dhaval is the second most read article of 2017.

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3. When UPA sent Deputy CM to raid an aeroplane to stop BJP from forming Government

“Murder of Democracy” is Congress’ favourite line when they are losing. The same reasoning was used by Congress when BJP formed government in Goa even though it won lesser number of seats compared to Congress. This article by Chaiwallah, as he calls himself, reminded Congress of a time when UPA send Deputy CM to raid an aeroplane to stop BJP from forming government in Jharkhand. People in glass houses don’t throw stone on others?

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4. Why does a particular class of people dislike Modi and Yogi?

It has intrigued many, as to why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are hated so passionately by some people. The people who hate them, are the usual suspects. Coterie of media persons, societal elites, and the self proclaimed intelligentsia. Amrit Hallan in this article analysed why that is.

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5. Remember Gurmehar Kaur? She’s now accused of threatening young boys for making memes

Gurmehar Kaur was one of the liberal stars of 2017. She shot to fame when she appeared in a video, where she asserted that it was not Pakistan that killed her father, but war did. The champion of free speech, soon turned intolerant when she realised that a bunch of kids were using her publicly available photographs to make some hilarious memes. She threatened them and ensured that their Facebook page was taken down. Our staff report on this was the 5th most read article of 2017.

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6. The god of false things : How Arundhati Roy creates fake news and gets away with it

Another Liberal hero is Arundhati Roy. A woman writer who seldom writes, and when she does, tries extremely hard to disregard facts. Of course, when she isn’t writing she tends to deliver talks. And lies, when written become a matter of record, when spoken, however horrifying, can be resigned to the past without leaving an imprint. ‘Chaiwallah’ wrote an interesting piece titled “God of false things : How Arundhati Roy creates fake news and gets away with it”. This article is the 6th most read article of 2017.

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7. Former colleague claims Siddharth Varadarajan suppressed Vadra scam expose for 7 months

‘The Wire’ and its editor, Siddharth Varadarajan have been in the eye of the storm many times this year. One such time was when UnSubtleDesi spoke to journalist Shalini Singh and discovered that when Varadarajan was editor of the Hindu, he had shelved the Vadra Land Scam expose done by Shalini Singh for 7 long months. Nupur also reached out to Siddharth for his response, which were rhetorical to say the least. This was our 7th most read article of 2017.

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8. A short and concise ‘Manifesto for a Liberal Hindu’

Sagarika Ghose is an ’eminent journalist’ according to some not-so-well-informed folks. But what she truly is, is a propagandist masquerading as a journalist. Back in April 2017, she had written an article asking ‘liberal hindus’ to write their own manifesto. In response to her ridiculous article, Shefali Vaidya had written a rather interesting manifesto signed by a ‘liberal hindu’. This is our 8th most read article of 2017.

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9. Six ‘awesome arguments’ Kapil Sibal has made in the triple talaq case

The Congress party pretends to be a liberal voice fighting the fascist powers represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But when it came to liberating Muslim women from the shackles of patriarchal practices like that of Triple Talaq, Congress, as it has historically, developed cold feet. It went hammer and tongs defending the practice as BJP and the Government in power led by PM Modi fought to get it abolished. Our staff report on the 6 most awesomely ridiculous arguments made by Congress leader Kapil Sibal in the triple talaq case, is the 9th most read article on 2017.

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10. Cow vs Kaaba – the missing spine of ‘liberals’ when it comes to Islam

Concluding our top 10 list, is an article by Rahul Roushan that held up a mirror to the liberal class. The article titled “Cow vs Kaaba – The missing spine of ‘liberals’ when it comes to Islam” is our 10th most read article of 2017.

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And with that, Team Opindia wishes you all a happy, prosperous, opinionated and media-lies-free (sorry for the joke) 2018! We hope you enjoyed reading our articles as much as enjoyed publishing these gems for you!

Javed Akhtar should learn from his talk on the ‘Gift of words’

Editorial Desk
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Javed Akhtar should learn from his talk on the ‘Gift of words’

Social media is a great leveler. Many childhood heroes of lakhs of Indians, have turned out to be utter failures today. Former quiz master turned full-time sycophant of Mamata Bannerjee Derek O’Brien is one prime example. Unfortunately, there are more such luminaries.

Famous scriptwriter and poet, Javed Akhtar recently spoke at a Ted talks event, on the topic: The Gift of Words. It seemed apt that a man whose beautiful lyrics and slam-dunk scripts have enthralled generations would speak on this topic. He does have a command and mastery over words.

He made many profound statements in his speech at the aforesaid event:

“A man is known by the company he keeps, and similarly words”

“The more words you have, the more clearly you can think”

“Words reflect your culture, traditions, inheritance”

All his statements make perfect sense. But then you read tweets by a verified Twitter account by the name of Javed Akhtar. You see the words being used from that account and you wonder: Is this the same man who expounds the importance of words, and how they truly reflect what kind of person one is?

Earlier this year, the master of words Javed Akhtar had called Gold medal winning athletes as “hardly literate” persons. Just because they seemingly differed from his world view on an issue.  The same Javed Akhtar has been slammed on social media time and again for his blatant shows of hypocrisy (1)(2). More recently he was exposed on social media, as he tried to defend Triple Talaq by bringing in false equivalence.

Today, one got to see even more wisdom from the same account:

An average social media user, expressed his disappointment at Javed Akhtar’s aforesaid unraveling via social media. And in return he got more of what had disappointed him. A vile attack by the man who extols the power of words. Is this how a public personality ought to react to criticism? Is this how a responsible celebrity should treat an ordinary citizen?

Not only was the language crude, but it also smacked of arrogance and over-confidence. A certain swagger, of a successful personality, looking down upon the petty masses, the same petty masses, who through their love and adulation, have made the star what he is today.

Not much needs to be said to Javed Akhtar at this point, just that he should practice what he preaches. Learn to use words more judiciously, because words have great power and because, what you said is true, and applies to all of us, including you:

“A man is known by the company he keeps, and similarly words”

“The more words you have, the more clearly you can think”

“Words reflect your culture, traditions, inheritance”

If the Indian Constitution was framed today, it would have been called ‘communal’

Editorial Desk
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If the Indian Constitution was framed today, it would have been called ‘communal’

Minister of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, made a very interesting comment in a video which has gone viral. Speaking at a function, Prasad spoke about how he dawned upon the hidden beauty of the Indian Constitution, in the year 2000, when India was celebrating 50 years of its constitution. Incidentally, we at OpIndia.com had covered this aspect in 2016.

Besides having the founding principles of our country, the lawmakers at the time, thought it necessary that the Constitution should be illustrated with appropriate graphics. Thus, the original constitution was adorned with drawings by two artists: Nandalal Bose and Beohar Rammanohar Sinha. The most interesting aspect of this was, the choice of drawings:

1. The page on citizenship, exhibited India’s vedic civilization

2. The section on Fundamental rights, was adorned with an image of Ram, Sita and Laxman

3. The Directive Principles of State Policy portion, had Krishna

Other religious and historical characters in the Constitution included Buddha, Mahavira, Hanuman, Nataraja, Akbar, Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh etc. This Constitution, with all the above images and more, was signed off by the founding fathers of the country, including Jawahar lal Nehru, the most revered leader for the Congress party. This was the Idea of India back then.

Today, the Idea of India has changed. Talking about Hindu Gods or leaders is blasphemous. Rajputs are called cowards. Shivaji is called an over-glorified local chieftain. Aurangzeb (who was not considered worthy of place in the constitution, unlike Akbar), is called a fair and just king. History as we know it, is being re-written. Indian cultural heritage, is being denied.

Minister Prasad spoke of the above motifs in the Constitution, and raised a very pertinent question: If, the above constitution was framed today: would it be accepted? Or would it be labelled communal?

It is a valid question. Would today’s left liberals masquerading as intellectuals, self proclaimed judges in the media, social commentators, approve of this sort of imagery? Would this be then called “rise of Hindu nationalism”? Would some “comedian” then link this to the rise of Modi and the rise of Fascism? Would some left liberal rag write a piece of how the Constitution itself is trampling all over minorities?

The answers to the above, are well known, and are unfortunate. We live in a time, where expressing ‘Indianness’ has become a crime. A newly wed actress wearing sindoor is mocked for being “patriarchal”. This is new the Idea of India. And sadly, this is the Idea of India, of those very people, who swear to live by the Constitution. The very constitution, which accepts Indian heritage, ethos, and philosophy, is used by our new heroes, to shout that India should be torn to pieces.

These self proclaimed ‘thekedaars of the constitution’ are unaware that perhaps our Constitution embraced the idea of pluralism far more than that of secularism. While many other nations start and end with their political boundaries, India is one where cultural heritage far predates political doctrines or boundaries. It was only by the 42nd amendment to the constitution in 1976, that the word ‘secular’ was inserted in the preamble of our constitution. It is hence safe to assume, that secularism as a concept is one that wasn’t envisaged by our political founding fathers, but an afterthought. A tool, to be exploited for decades to come. A weapon, in the face of vote bank politics.

Our constitution believed in pluralism, the very foundation of dharma. Not secularism, that alienates India’s cultural heritage from its political identity.

Minister Prasad attributed this “hijacking of Indian heritage” to “people who enjoyed state power, came with collusive research, designed to weaken the morale of India”. While the power of such people is slowing fading away, we still have a long way to go. And Mr Hegde, if you do wish to amend the Constitution today, forget about it. If what was written 67 years ago can run the risk of being called communal today, then what you may do today will surely be called communal.

Is Mamata Banerjee adopting soft Hindutva approach by praying at Hindu saint’s ashram in Gangasagar?

OpIndia Staff
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During a buildup to the Gujarat elections, it was noticed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi was touting a soft Hindutva line by visiting scores of temples in the state.

This included visiting the famous Somnath Temple where his name was allegedly registered in the non-Hindu register, and visiting the Shree Ranchhodji Temple in Kheda, where he was greeted with “Modi Modi” chants.

Many felt that a pro-Hindu tilt was ironical to say the least, considering the UPA government was instrumental in coining the term “Saffron terror” and has been accused of trying to frame top Hindu leaders to possibly further this narrative.

Another political figure who has ‘cultivated’ an anti-Hindu image in the eyes of the people, is West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. She has managed that by passing orders which many felt were detrimental to the Hindu community like imposing restrictions on Durga Puja idol immersions owing to Muharram.

Now it seems that she too has started to play the soft Hindutva card, if reports are to be believed.

It has been reported that during her 26th December visit to Ganagsagar, Mamata spent about an hour at the KapilMuni ashram, in presence of chief priest Gyandasji. This visit came ahead of Makar Sankranti on 14th January when Gangasagar is visited by countless devotees, wanting to take a holy dip at the confluence of the Ganga and the Bay of Bengal.

After visiting, Mamata also stated that she would come back to the place again.

This isn’t the only ‘pro-Hindu’ stand which she or her party has indulged in. In recent days, reports have emerged claiming that TMC would be organising a massive “Brahmin Sammelan” in the state’s Birbhum district on 8th January. This is scheduled to be the first “Brahmin Sammelan” in the state and about 15,000 Brahmins are expected to attend.

Here Brahmins would be given a copy of Bhagwat Gita, a religious shawl and photos of Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Saradha Maa. The prime organiser of this event is Anubrata Mondal, TMC’s Birbhum district president.

Such ‘majority appeasement’ of Mamata, it seems, comes a few days after the results of Sabang by-poll, an assembly constituency in Paschim Mednipur district, were announced. Even though the TMC won the election by a comfortable margin of 49,167 votes, a close analysis brought forth a “tell a tale of a major shift in voting pattern”.

Here it was noted that the TMC witnessed a low upswing in vote, and BJP made massive inroads by winning 18.4% of votes compared to a paltry 2.6% a year later.

It remains to be seen whether a growing threat of the BJP, or a realisation of possible Hindu disenchantment, is driving Mamata and the TMC to undertake such measures. And whether she and her party would be successful in completing this ‘image makeover’, and get the desired results in the future polls.

Supreme Court lawyer says criminalization of triple talaq goes against freedom of speech

Nithesh S
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Supreme Court lawyer says criminalization of triple talaq goes against freedom of speech

The liberal brigade has clearly lost its mind over the passage of the Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill 2017, also known as the Triple Talaq Bill. The main arguments against the bill during the Lok Sabha discussion can be summarized as below.

  • The law will not act as a deterrence just like the dowry prohibition act failed to stop dowry
  • Imprisonment will make reconciliation between the husband and wife more difficult
  • The person who is imprisoned may not be able to pay the subsistence allowance
  • Proving that the instant triple talaq has been delivered in a court of law will be difficult for women.
  • The bill has not taken into consideration the opinions of Muslim women and AIPMLB

Though all these arguments make an attempt to derail the bill, they have a semblance of logic or common sense that can be understood and appreciated to some extent. Someone who is liberal and compassionate can understand the merit of the arguments made above. One can at least give it a second thought.

But, I heard something on the Bloomberg TV’s show that was so ridiculous in its merit, that it would be tragic, if it wasn’t so amusing. A Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nandy said that criminalizing instant Triple Talaq is against free speech.

Between 2:10 to 2:30  in the video, the lawyer says this :

Saying Talaq Talaq Talaq is same as saying – Mein apko divorce de raha hoon.  In such a situation, are you going to criminalize that?  How can that be criminal? Isn’t that against free speech ?

Well, if it was as simple as that, then there would be no need for court battles and legislative action from the Parliament. The Supreme court has outlawed the practice of instant Triple Talaq, but has not provided any means to prevent and punish those who are violating its order. Hence, the police were not able to do anything even after receiving complaints from Muslim women.

Instant Triple Talaq is not same as saying – I want to divorce you , as per Karuna Nandy’s claim. It is finalization of divorce in an instant. If there is no punishment for a crime, then there will be no need for people to desist from committing a crime. That is the basic logic for framing a law against any crime in the first place.

If one goes by Ms. Nandy’s logic, should one conclude that since marriage is valid only when adults are involved, and since that makes child marriages void ab initio, that child marriages shouldn’t be criminalized? The Supreme Court has said that Triple Talaq won’t be valid in the eyes of the law. But how many times can a regressive practice be stopped just by making it invalid and not making it punishable.

What Ms. Nandy is saying, holds water technically. Once the Supreme Court deems the phrase “Talaq Talaq Talaq” invalid, it becomes just another three words without any consequences and hence, does fall into FoE. But she naively and criminally ignores the realities on ground. “Talaq talaq talaq” isn’t just something said in rage which can be taken back and the matter reconciled. And that Karuna Nundy ignores this fact, points either towards ignorance, or maliciously misleading people.

The lawyer goes on to say that the government is not at all concerned about Hindu women as it is not taking action on marital rape. Though it is an important issue, that must not be a reason to not punish the practice of instant Triple Talaq. Also, one has to wonder if Ms. Nandy has some specific knowledge which can prove that Marital Rape is a “hindu woman” problem and that Muslim and Christian women don’t suffer from it? It is shameless of an advocate to turn a problem like Marital Rape, into a religion specific one, just so it can used while defending triple talaq. She then goes on to talk about the controversial comments of a minister on the constitution. It is quite evident that she has almost lost her mind after the bill was passed in Lok Sabha.

As MJ Akbar said in his speech during the discussion, the impact of instant triple talaq is not just momentary but a lifelong threat used by Muslim men to subjugate and threaten women. It is sad to see self-proclaimed feminists trying to deny justice to Muslim women , just because the law is being passed by a political party they have visceral hatred for.

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