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An open letter to Shekhar Gupta by a man whose efforts were maligned by ThePrint

Anuraag Saxena
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An open letter to Shekhar Gupta by a man whose efforts were maligned by ThePrint

Dear Shekhar Gupta ji,

I fondly remember reading about your boss/mentor Nihal Singh ji, and his sage advice to a younger you, to verify facts and re-verify them again before publishing them. Those were the days, editors preferred journalistic ethics over sensationalism.

I also fondly remember reading about your 2012 Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture, where you said “Who has the patience to verify facts…” in the context of where the media industry was headed. Little did I know this was a pre-emptive disclaimer about ThePrint’s editorial standards.

Let me explain where I am coming from, as I was the subject of unsubstantiated insinuations on your news site.

On July 14, 2017, ThePrint published a piece called “Under PM Modi, India got back more stolen antiquities in 3 years than the UPA government in 10 years” (available here). For most part, the piece is fairly well researched in describing the success of the Modi government’s diplomatic effort. The piece also mentions me by name and describes our effort, India Pride Project (IPP), where we are bringing the cause of heritage recovery to the fore. So far so good.

However, towards the end, your reporter decides IPP needs a communal spin. She quotes an ‘anonymous’ art curator describing us as, “the group is ideologically driven and only investigates Hindu-antiquities”.

My, my Mr. Gupta! Only Hindu-antiquities? That’s a strong insinuation to our motivations, don’t you think? Not that facts matter to you, but I’m taking the liberty to set some out for you, anyway.

  1. I have presented IPP’s work, a dozen times in India and abroad, and always start with six examples. In EACH AND EVERY talk, four of those six investigations are Christian, Islamic, Jain and Buddhist artifacts respectively. Screenshots are attached below, and were also sent to you on Twitter, where you have still not responded. Wonder why.
The ‘non-Hindu’ artifacts investigated by the India Pride Project (click on the image for larger resolution)

For your information, these public sessions I mentioned, are free of charge, so ‘news media start-ups’ like yours can afford to attend.

  1. My introductory video on IPP has been viewed a few thousand times online. I specifically focus on the destruction of not just Hindu, but Islamic and Jewish heritage. Video here:
  1. A cursory look at my interviews or writing published elsewhere, will show you tons of examples/citations of our “secular” leanings. For example, my Sunday Guardian article from October 2016, where I talk about Jewish, Buddhist and Islamic heritage, and NOT ONCE about Hindu heritage.

However, your reporter chose to paint us saffron, based on an ‘anonymous’ source; who is either:

  1. Ignorant about our very public stance & work (benefit-of-doubt scenario); or
  2. Is part of a disinformation campaign and is wilfully provocative (more likely the case).

If it’s the former, you should have questioned this “expert’s” competence. If the latter, his intent.

Instead, your editorial team probably said, “Let’s not waste 5 minutes fact-checking on Google. Also, we’ve had Anuraag’s email ID and phone number for weeks, but let’s not seek a clarification either. We’ll just go with an unsubstantiated opinion from an unnamed person”. Any of this fact-checking could have been easily done; from the very comfort of your ivory-tower.

But not just your editorial team refused to indulge in some cross-checking, your esteemed publication even refused to carry my unedited response/rebuttal once I registered my protest over the way our efforts were maligned by an unknown ‘source’ (I am happy to send you screenshots of the exchange). So much for Freedom Of Expression!

The reason you guys denied me the rebuttal was, “This is a report and not an opinion piece…”

So let me get this right Gupta ji. An unsubstantiated claim, from an anonymous source, not verified by the editor, without seeking a comment/clarification; is a “report” by your standards? Dhanya ho prabhu!

Now don’t get me wrong Gupta ji. At a personal level, I am proud of my heritage and origins. On identifying as a Hindu, as I’m guessing you do as well (well, at least I hope you do). But you see, that’s just incidental, and has nothing to do with our rozi-roti or causes that we support. It takes a very different kind of journalism to reach conclusions like “I’m sure Reliance Jio makes phones for only Hindus, because the Ambanis are Hindu.” Sounds stupid right? Yeah, exactly my point!

No wonder you had so much trouble in Goa, defending your industry against Vivek Agnihotri and Shefali Vaidya. The wisdom of the crowds (on social media), trumps the questionable ethics of Lutyens‘ media.

Shekhar babu. You have friends and connections in the Lutyens ecosystem. I don’t. Aapke paas bangla hai, gaadi hai, bank balance hai. Mere paas, facts hain. This might not mean much in your world, but it does to ordinary Indians like us; that are agitated at the misinformation machinery your ilk runs. It‘s almost like your industry is facing a coup; and a real one at that.

Chhota muh badi baat, but there’s a bigger question you should ask yourself Shekhar babu. Can a startup media-platform afford to communalise issues; especially when facts to the contrary are so widely and easily available to readers? If this is what all you intended to do, why did you need a new brand name at all? is there absolutely no way you guys can improve? Just keep launching new platforms with new names but the same old frustrating spin and propaganda.

Any objective that is larger than one’s self takes a whole lot of dedication, Shekhar ji. Researchers like Dr. Mankoti & Vijay have made it their life’s work, to investigate stolen heritage. Volunteers like Aashish and Rahul run IPP’s technology and social media presence over and above their day-jobs. A group of Jain traders in Chennai (Ajith, Umesh, Naresh, etc) run the advocacy program for Tamil Nadu. A bunch of 20-somethings in Delhi support us with awareness campaigns. I myself have travelled across the world, creating a climate for specific artifacts to be returned to India. Hundreds of volunteers offer us help whenever we need it.

None of us is paid for our effort. The project is self-funded from our own meagre pockets (no donations, no government funding, no charity receipts, nothing). IPP is a true example of how great objectives can be achieved, when people with the right intent come together.

Foreign Governments & agencies have acknowledged our work. Universities and Institutions across the world are excited about IPP, and invite us over to speak. Heck, even UNESCO chose to honour our work. But somehow, your reporter ignored these fine institutions, and their opinion. Or maybe an ‘anonymous art curator’ is more credible as per your journalistic standards?

However… all that matters now is that IPP is a ‘saffron’ effort. Why? Because an unnamed, self-proclaimed expert said so. Thank you!

As my wise, old, bua used to say, “Aankhon se keechad nikalo, duniya apne aap saaf dikhegi.”

Just to clarify. Unlike your publication (that declined to publish my point of view), I’m not against your sources’ freedom of expression; however intelligent or otherwise, those opinions might be. Just because I live by the mantra “Try being informed instead of just opinionated”, doesn’t mean your sources, or your team should too. So again; I have nothing against the opinion of this ‘art curator’.

I can only wish though… either the reporter, or the editor (any ONE of them) could have either fact-checked, or given us the chance to comment (any ONE of the actions) before going to print. But as you had yourself predicted in 2012, “Who has the patience to verify facts…”.

Heck! Why should you ‘Walk-the-Talk’, when you can ‘Mock-and-Shock’.

Unfortunately, editorial integrity is a pipe-dream. Especially when we don’t live in times, where stalwarts like Nihal Singh run the news.

Yours factually,
Anuraag Saxena.

(Anuraag Saxena is a Singapore-based CA & MBA. He is passionate about Indian heritage and culinary-history, and runs India Pride Project (www.ipp.org.in). He tweets at @anuraag_saxena)

Case filed against youth for posting ‘objectionable comments’ against Rahul Gandhi on Facebook

OpIndia Staff
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Case filed against youth for posting ‘objectionable comments’ against Rahul Gandhi on Facebook

A complaint has been lodged by a local Youth Congress worker against a youth in Ambala Cantt Police Station of Haryana for making “objectionable comments” against Congress vice president in Facebbok. The complaint has been registered under the IT Act. The police is currently investigating the matter.

The accused has been identified as one Kapil Malhotra, a resident of New Model Colony in Ambala Cantt city, though he has not been arrested.

According to local media reports, the police complaint was launched by a Youth Congress worker called Sidharth Gulati, who is a resident of Ambala city. On Monday evening, Gulati and his fellow Youth Congress workers and supporters gathered at the local Congress office situated at Nicholson Road and held a march towards Ambala Cantt Police Station. The march was led by Youth Congress secretary Atul Mahajan. They lodged a complaint with the Station House Officer (SHO).

Reports indicate that Gulati had asked the accused to delete the comment which was left on a picture of Rahul Gandhi with his niece, but he refused to comply, following which he decided to take the matter to police. Though the exact nature of the complaint is not known, it seems that the Youth Congress workers were additionally angered by the use of the word “Pappu” for Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

It could be noted that Vinay Pradhan, the Meerut district president of Congress was sacked from the party post for sarcastically using “Pappu” for Rahul Gandhi, albeit in a positive context. Pradhan had used the word in a WhatsApp message, which he shared in a group of Congress leaders and supporters.

UPA didn’t celebrate Kargil Vijay Divas from 2004-09 apparently because it was ‘BJP’s war’

OpIndia Staff
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UPA didn’t celebrate Kargil Vijay Divas from 2004-09 apparently because it was ‘BJP’s war’

On 26th July 1999, India came out victorious in the Kargil conflict by recapturing all the Indian posts in Kargil sector, which had been illegally occupied by the Pakistani army. This was considered a major victory for the Indian Army and since then 26th July has been annually celebrated as the Kargil Vijay Diwas.

But as it turns out, the erstwhile UPA government was not very enthused by the victory and as claimed by Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the government did not officially celebrate it from 2004-2009 i.e. during the UPA-1 tenure.

Incidentally in 2009, the Congress party’s MP Rashid Alvi was quoted as saying that he saw no reason to celebrate the Kargil victory. According to the report, Alvi stated that Kargil wasn’t a thing to be celebrated as the war was fought on our own territory. He further stated that it was the NDA which may only celebrate it (the war was fought when NDA was in power).

The government might have continued not celebrating it, had it not been for the efforts of MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar. On 21st July 2009, he had written to the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha to seek permission of the Chairman for mentioning the Kargil Vijay Diwas as a matter of public importance in the Upper House on 23rd July.

In the accompanying text he drew the attention of the Honourable Members to the 10th anniversary of the Kargil victory. He stated that the day represented not just the victory of the country, it also represented the inspirational sense of duty and sacrifice by the thousands of men and women of the armed forces.

He then appealed to the Ministry of Defence and the Government of India to memorialise the day and celebrate it every year. He also appealed to his colleagues to stop making a mockery of it by opposing it on the grounds of it being a ‘BJP war or something’.

His efforts bore fruits when in 2010 he received a letter from the then Defence Minister AK Antony, who in view of the precedence and to honour the martyrs, stated that a homage ceremony would also be organised that year at the Amar Jawan Jyoti:

Two days after today, Mr. Chandrashekhar will introduce a resolution in Parliament seeking Parliament’s support to declare Pakistan a terror state, which he believes will be a homage to the soliders who sacrificed their lives for the nation.

You are a poor performer, not martyr – fellow journalist exposes claims of Nikhil Wagle

OpIndia Staff
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You are a poor performer, not martyr – fellow journalist exposes claims of Nikhil Wagle

Last week, television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had tweeted that a ‘highest viewed’ TV news show in Marathi, hosted by another journalist named Nikhil Wagle, had been stopped ‘overnight’ by Marathi news channel TV9:


This was acknowledged by Wagle himself, who termed the development “illegal” (though he has now deleted his tweet):

In the next couple of days, he acknowledged all messages that congratulated him for ‘fighting against political pressure’ and being a beacon of hope. He further made it no secret that he was blaming it all on Narendra Modi:


He also happily shared various news reports that were compiled based on his tweets and retweets, which claimed that his ‘popular show’ was dropped due to ‘political pressure’:

This alleged ‘censorship’ and ‘silencing’ of Nikhil Wagle was hyphenated with another alleged censorship and silencing of another journalist named Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who had to step down as the Editor of the magazine Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) allegedly for writing against businessman Adani.

It was later found out that Thakurta was not only economical with the truth, he had even acted irresponsibly as an Editor, due to which the EPW trust asked him step down.

Now the claims made by Nikhil Wagle too are falling apart. A Facebook post by Vinod Kapri, a journalist turned filmmaker, has blasted the claims of both Rajdeep Sardesai and Nikhil Wagle and revealed the real reason why Wagle lost his prime-time TV show.

According to Kapri, Wagle’s show was garnering poor TRPs (television rating points) and this was the primary reason behind his troubles, though Wagle was making himself a ‘martyr’ by wrongly claiming censorship. Kapri claimed to be privy to the whole development as the CEO of TV9 group, Ravi Prakash happens to be known to him. The CEO had apparently asked Kapri to help him analyse why their Marathi new channel was not doing well, and this is when Kapri discovered the poor TRPs of Wagle’s show, which was termed as “highest viewed” by Rajdeep Sardesai.

Vinod Kapri revealed that after analysis of the Fixed Programming Chart (FPC), it was suggested that Wagle’s show should be moved from the 9-10 PM slot to the evening’s 5-6 PM slot. There were other suggestions too, which included a new FPC beginning 21st June, that helped the channel climb up to the third place from fourth place within 2 weeks, but Wagle’s show was not moved as he was a senior journalist and he was given more time to improve the ratings (TRP).

However, even after a month, it was found that ratings of Wagle’s show had not improved. In fact, it had slumped further. Things were so bad that his show hadn’t even featured in the top 100 in the 5 out of last 8 weeks. Wagle was then again reminded that his show’s timings would have to be changed, but he resisted the move. And next he was making claims on Twitter about his show being arbitrarily stopped and generally being concerned about journalism and freedom in Modi’s India.

To back his claims, Vinod Kapri even uploaded a screenshot of the email sent by the channel to Nikhil Wagle, which informed him that his show timings were being changed due to poor TRPs. So technically, the show was not stopped, but just shifted to a different time slot:

Screenshot of the email uploaded by Vinod Kapri

After Rajdeep Sardesai got cornered in the aftermath of these revelations, he came out with a completely new definition of TRP to justify his misleading tweet:


On the other hand, Wagle came up with an ad hominem attack on Vinod Kapri, terming him as Bhakt, though Kapri has rarely tweeted in support of Narendra Modi. In fact, Kapri has often tweeted against Modi.

Nikhil Wagle insisted – without any proof – that his show had good TRPs. This was countered by Vinod Kapri on Twitter, who in a series of 8 tweets, shared the data showing abysmal ratings of Wagle’s show:


Vinod Kapri also revealed that the TV channel had issued a legal notice to Nikhil Walge for misleading, maligning, and spreading lies.

Jethmalani calls Kejriwal a liar, quits as his counsel in the defamation case filed by Jaitley

OpIndia Staff
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Jethmalani calls Kejriwal a liar, quits as his counsel in the defamation case filed by Jaitley

In an interesting twist to the tale Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders filed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani has quit as the counsel of the Delhi Chief Minister.

Jethmalani has also asked Kejriwal to settle his pending legal fees, which amounts over Rs 2 crore as per media estimates. In February the Delhi government, on behalf of the Chief Minister and the five other AAP leaders, had cleared a bill of Rs 3.5 crore to Jethmalani by burdening the exchequer.

The development came in the wake of the AAP supremo’s blatant denial of having instructed his lawyer Jethmalani to use “derogatory language” against Jaitley. During the court proceedings on 17 May, Jethmalani had openly called Jaitley a “crook”. This resulted in the High Court expressing its shock and called the comment “scandalous”. Jaitley had asked Jethmalani whether he was authorised to use the derogatory word in behalf of his client Kejriwal to which Jethmalani had replied in the affirmative. Following this, Jaitley had slapped another Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Kejriwal.

Stung by the fresh defamation case, a worried Kejriwal had filed an affidavit in Delhi high Court stating that it was “inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words”.

“Neither the defendant (Kejriwal) nor the counsel (Anupam Srivastava) briefing the senior counsel (Jethmalani) gave instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words on May 17, 2017,” Kejriwal had said in the affidavit.

The AAP chief had reportedly written to Jethmalani saying that he had not used any derogatory word against Jaitley, nor did he give any instruction for use of such word. Jethmalani wrote back to Kejriwal saying that he the Delhi Chief Minister had used even even “more derogatory language” against Jaitley during the private discussions with him on this case.

Now Jethmalani claims that Kejriwal is lying:


Jaitley had filed a defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal and 5 AAP leaders in December 2015 stating that they had made “defaming statements” against him regarding his tenure as the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) president from December 1999 to December 2013. The five AAP leaders who are named in the defamation suit, apart from Kejriwal, are Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.

News18 uses photoshopped pic of Chennai gay parade as TCS workers’ protest in Lucknow

OpIndia Staff
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News18 uses photoshopped pic of Chennai gay parade as TCS workers’ protest in Lucknow

News18 – the TV news channel and website that is part of the Network18 media group – used a fabricated photoshopped image while carrying a story about the protests by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) workers and their families at UP’s capital city after the company’s announcement to close its Lucknow Center.

TCS in a statement had said it was shutting its Lucknow centre as part of the “consolidation process” and has asked its over 1,000-odd employees to either shift to Noida or Indore centre.

Referring to the above, the News18 report filed by a reporter named Qazi Faraz Ahmad on Monday, carried the following image:

Photoshopped image
The archived page can be seen here in case News18 deletes or corrects its report

No caption was provided for the above picture nor was any source cited for it, but it was used alongside another picture, which was genuine, of a silent march in Lucknow. As one can clearly see that the text on the placard carried by the old man — which asks Chief Minister Yogi to let his son reamin with him in Lucknow — appears edited.

Also, a rainbow flag being carried by a woman in the picture suggests that it could be about LGBT issues, rather than about TCS. An OpIndia.com reader Rajdendra Singh Chhabra investigated this and discovered that this photograph is originally from a gay parade at Chennai held in 2012. Here is the original photograph published in Huffington Post which had given credit to social sharing site Reddit:

The original image

Whether it was a case of a reporter being fooled by a photoshopped image, or the reporter himself photoshopping an image is not clear, but what is clear is that News18 did a shoddy job in reporting.

Why SC’s refusal to probe the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits is a travesty of justice

Saswat Panigrahi
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Why SC’s refusal to probe the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits is a travesty of justice

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea seeking probe and subsequent prosecution in the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits which took place during 1989-90.

The plea sought probe and prosecution of various persons, including terrorist turned ‘leaders’ Yasin Malik and Bitta Karate, for the heart-wrenching crimes committed against the Pandits.

A bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud held that almost 27 years have passed since the event took place, hence it would be “very difficult” to gather evidences in the cases of murder, arson and looting which led to the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.

It was in 1989-90 when Islamic terrorism raised its head in Kashmir. The Islamists systematically targeted the Kashmiri Pandits and lynched at-least 700 of them. Scores of Pandit women were raped, their houses were looted and burnt down. Many Hindu temples were desecrated. And finally Kashmiri Pandits were forced to flee the Valley, which they fondly used to call home.

This macabre event underlined a clear breakdown of law and order. It was an abysmal failure of democracy. Open threats were given to the minorities (Hindus), hit lists were made and innocent Hindus murdered in broad daylight. The state administration failed to protect the Kashmiri Hindus, control the carnage against them and prevent their subsequent departure from the Valley.

Senior journalist and author Rahul Pandita in his book Our Moon has Blood Clots, has chronicled some of the most brutal murders of Pandits at the hands of the Islamists. He has recounted how the Kashmiri Pandits became “nobody’s people” when the genocide took place. He writes:

“Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits were tortured and killed, and about 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and spend the rest of their lives in exile in their own country.”

While the official figure of Jammu & Kashmir government pegged the casualty of Kashmiri Pandits at just 219, estimations suggest point to a figure close to 700. After the dust settled down on one of the worst human exoduses the country has ever seen, the Kashmiri Pundits started to hope that justice would be delivered to them one day.

To ensure that, as many as 215 FIRs were filed. None of them reached a logical conclusion. Not even a single person has till date been convicted for the gruesome crime.

It is also a known fact that the Kashmiri Pandits who are living in exile, could not properly join the investigation process as their homeland was not even suitable for a brief visit. In such a case investigations should have reached out to them, but that never happened. Till date the investigation reports by the local police continue to be available. The police could have launched the proceeding to prosecute the accused. The state government, the Centre, the judiciary could have done the needful, but unfortunately that never happened.

The Supreme Court, the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, could have looked into all aspects of the cases. But by refusing to entertain a plea seeking probe and prosecution of the guilty, the Supreme Court like many before it, has simply shut the door on the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits.

I decided to reach out to the Pandits themselves to hear their reactions:

If you have a Ram Mandir-Babri case for 150 years, an anti-Sikh riot case for 34 years and if you can reopen the Gujarat riot cases suo motto then in Kashmiri Pandits’ genocide case when both the accused and the witnesses are still available, how can the Supreme Court say that the evidences won’t be found? It is the job of the investigative agencies and the prosecutions to tell the court that the evidences can’t be found. But the Supreme Court can’t presume so.

–  Amit Raina, who represents Roots of Kashmir, the organisation that filed the appeal in the Supreme Court

 “amazing” and “shocking,” Such an Order is unheard of in any place where genocide has taken place in such a large scale. We are hugely disappointed and are trying to grapple with it.

– Dr Ajay Chrungoo, Chairman of Panun Kashmir

It is very unfortunate. Kashmiri Pandits who have been persecuted and killed 27 years ago are yet to get justice from the law of the land and at the same time the separatists continue to have a field day.

– Sanjay Ganjoo, president of Jammu Kashmir Vichar Manch.

The Supreme Court has made a huge error of judgement. This is a clear case of miscarriage of justice. We are going to fight it.

– Sushil Pandit, founder of Roots in Kashmir

Finally, if the Bangladeshi judiciary can grant death sentences to Islamists for the 1971 genocide more than four decades after the event, then why aren’t we doing the same for our people?

Former colleagues Barkha Dutt and Nidhi Razdan fight on twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Former colleagues Barkha Dutt and Nidhi Razdan fight on twitter

On Sunday we had reported how Barkha Dutt who had officially quit NDTV in Jaunary 2017 had completely distanced herself from the tax woes, her previous employers are currently embroiled in. We detailed how all was not well between her and NDTV and that the parting was not as amicable as people once though it was.

Barkha Dutt had not just not defended the NDTV against the allegations, she had actually retweeted many tweets which exposed the channel’s sorry state of affairs. When social media users wondered whether her account was hacked, she just replied with a beguiling smiley face.

The uneasiness between her and the NDTV was further exposed today when she and Nidhi Razdan had an open war of words on Twitter.

The Outlook magazine today carried a news report about NDTV sacking 70 employees with the explanation given that, the company was shifting to #MoJo. In the article it was detailed that MoJo stood for Mobile Journalism and that NDTV had started to shift to this format using high end phones in the last 5-6 months.


Barkha Dutt took exception to the phrase #MoJo as it apparently was similar to the brand she claims to have created after she quit NDTV:


She tried to claim ownership of the brand and also pointed out that she had carried out various town halls featuring celebrities like Karan Johar and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar under that name. She also stated that all the social media accounts of her venture were registered under that banner:


She also claimed that NDTV had started a show called MoJo:


She then argued that:


This incidentally elicited a response from her ex-colleague Nidhi Razdan:


She then indirectly accused Barkha herself of not coming up with an original idea:


Mobile Journalism or MoJo is incidentally a way to create content on Mobile which includes shooting clips on phone. This is a lot cheaper than the equipment which is used to create content in the conventional way. Nidhi argues that the term MoJo has been in prevalence for a long time before Barkha started using it as her brand name. And its true, articles from September 2016 and even as as old as 2009  contain the use of this term. The phrase is so prevalent that even a MojoCon is held every year.

But even though Barkha hasn’t yet responded directly to Nidhi, she did tweet this before Nidhi had come up with her argument:


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Kejriwal openly contradicts his own lawyer in the ongoing defamation case against him

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Kejriwal openly contradicts his own lawyer in the ongoing defamation case against him

BJP leader Arun Jaitley in December 2015 had filed a defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal and 5 others for what he claimed were false allegations regarding his alleged role in certain irregularities in the DDCA (Delhi & District Cricket Association). Jaitley sought compensation of 10 crore rupees due to damages caused by alleged defamatory statements by Kejriwal.

Recently we had reported how at a one of the hearings of this case on 17th May, Jethmalani had openly called Jaitley a crook. This resulted in the High Court expressing its shock and called the comments as scandalous. A visibly agitated Jaitley asked Jethmalani whether he was authorised to use that term by Kejriwal. Jethmalani then stated that his client(Kejriwal) had indeed done so.

Jaitley then claimed that if Kejriwal had indeed authorised the comments, then he(Jaitley) would seek aggravated damages. Jaitley then came true on his promise and slapped another Rs 10 crore in damages for the “crook” comment made against him. This case would then have run separately from the current one.

Now interestingly there’s a twist in the tale. On Monday Kejriwal told the Delhi High Court that he had never authorised his lawyer Ram Jethmalani to make any such objectionable remark against Arun Jaitley.

In the affidavit submitted before justice Manmohan, the AAP supremo has claimed that he had also written a letter to Jethmalani after the hearing to refute his(Jethmalani’s) claims that permission was provided for the words used. According to Kejriwal, it was “inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words”. The affidavit also claims that Kejriwal has instructed his counsel on record Mr Anupam Srivastava to remind Jethmalani that no such approval was given in the meeting between the client and the lawyer.

Because of the incident on 17th May, the proceedings of the initial Rs 10 crore lawsuit was adjourned to 28th July. Jaitley in the past has accused Kejriwal and the defendants of wilfully delaying the conclusion of recording of evidence by asking insulting and annoying questions.

It remains to be seen as to what the response of Jethmalani is to this new development and whether this too is a fixed match to cause further confusion in the case.

Pakistani ministers spread fake news about a Muslim body builder getting lynched by Hindus in India

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistani ministers spread fake news about a Muslim body builder getting lynched by Hindus in India

Danyal Gilani is the Director of the I&B Ministry of Pakistan and was the Former Press Secretary to the Pakistani PM. On Monday he tweeted a newspaper clipping and alleged that a Muslim was brutally murdered by Hindu hooligans in broad daylight:


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Khawaja M. Asif is Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Water, Power & Defence. He shared an alleged video of the body builder Naveed getting killed:


Even former Pakistani Ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman reacted:


A Journalist based in UAE too decided to fuel this narrative:


First of all there are two separate incidents which have been mixed up both by Pakistani papers and the propaganda video makers.

The incident involving bodybuilder Naveed happened in Amravati, Maharashtra. On 18th July Naveed was present near a petrol pump on Walgaon road. There he was brutally attacked by 4-5 people carrying sharp object which resulted in his death. The reports recounting the incident claimed that the murder stemmed from a dispute about running a gym in that area.

Newer reports further clarified the matter. As reported, the police had arrested the accused named Raheem Khan and Mohseen Khan in connection with the murder. According to the report, Raheem himself was a body builder and used to run a gym of his own. The now deceased Naveed used to initially frequent his gym for practice, hence Naveed and Raheem were friends for a while. The gym reportedly had been acquired by Raheem on a rental basis.

Naveed later  wanted to in turn take control of this gym and run it himself. For doing that he had completed all the formalities and was going to take control of it from August 2017. This loss of revenue had irked Raheem, which resulted in him and Naveed having an altercation on 18th July. This was followed by Raheem and 3 others allegedly murdering him.

So clearly not just was the incident not perpetrated by Hindus, it was a result of a professional dispute without any communal angle. Which is a far cry from the “brutal murder of Muslims by Hindu hooligans” narrative which was perpetrated by the Pakistanis.

Secondly coming to the video which was shared by Khawaja M. Asif. This is in no way related to Naveed. This incident happened in Dhule, Maharashtra and as per news reports, the murder was a result of an ongoing gang war. The victim named Rafiquddin Shaikh alias Guddya was recently released from Jail and was then hacked to death by rival gang members on 18th July.

According to the report, Shaikh was the leader of his own gang which constantly indulged in a fight for supremacy with his rival. On 18th about 11-12 people from his rival gang attacked him. He was soon declared dead. One of the accused named Sagar Sahebrao Pawar was recently arrested from Pune and his interrogation has resulted in the police getting important leads. The police has also identified 5 of the accused all of who are history-sheeters. So this incident clearly was a case of a gang warfare and was in no way was related to “ethnic cleansing” as implied by the Pakistanis.

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