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India Today publishes misleading report about the S-400 missile deal inked between India and Russia

OpIndia Staff
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India Today publishes misleading report about the S-400 missile deal inked between India and Russia

During Russian President Vladamir Putin’s visit to India, India signed a deal with Russia to purchase 5 squadrons of S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile. During the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India, the deal was signed to purchase the missile system for $5.20 billion (₹40,000 crore). It is one of the biggest defence deals that India has ever made.

The missile system is set to be a big boost for India’s defence, as both Pakistan and China have acquired significant air power. Pakistan has F-16 jets from the USA and JF-17 Thunder from China. China has a huge collection of advanced military aircraft, which includes Chinese made planes and planes imported from Russia. China has also ordered for six S-400 missile systems from Russia.

News portal India Today, however, published a story today that spoke about how in 2015, Anil Ambani’s Reliance was chosen to be the offset partner for this Russian deal.


The article said:

In 2015, ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Moscow, Anil Ambani‘s Reliance Defence had signed a manufacturing and maintenance deal potentially worth USD 6 billion with Russia’s Almaz-Antey, the subsidiary of Rosoboronexport and key manufacturer of the S-400 air defence system.

On December 24, 2015, Reliance Infrastructure Limited, in a press release captioned ‘DAC approval for acquisition of S-400 air defence missile systems creates business opportunity of about $6 billion (rs.40,000 crore)’ said, “India’s Reliance Defence Limited and Russia’s Leading Developer and Manufacturer of Air Defence Missile Systems ‘AlmazAntey’, have decided to work jointly on the entire range of AD Missile and Radar Systems that are required for Indian Defence Forces.”

After detailing what the Reliance press note said back in 2015, the article goes on to detail the agreements inked and pacts signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladamir Putin in this trip.

To an average reader, it may seem like the offset agreement is still in force when the deal between Russia and India were signed.

However, this is far from the truth.

In July itself there was news that the Indian government might forego the offset clause in the agreement with Russia to speed up deliveries. A Russian official had told Manu Pubby from Economic Times, “As far as I have heard, there is no offset package for the programme. It is a strategic project and is very important for the two countries,” said Viktor N Kladov, director of international cooperation at Rostec, the Russian state-owned company that controls sales of the S 400 system. “It should not be played around with some offset packages.”

The journalist who reported the India Today story about the offset agreement with Reliance tweeted later clarifying that this was only a 2015 agreement, however, no offset agreement exists today.


This begs the question as to why the India Today article itself did not mention that the offset agreement that was announced by Reliance in 2015 no longer exists as, the journalist herself admits, the offset clause was struck off by the Indian government.

Bihar: 18-year-old Muslim girl tied to the tree and thrashed for falling in love with a Hindu man

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar: 18-year-old Muslim girl tied to the tree and thrashed for falling in love with a Hindu man

In a horrific incident in Bihar, an 18-year old Muslim girl was tied to a tree and thrashed mercilessly for five hours, reportedly on the orders of the local panchayat in Jogiya Maran village of Bihar’s Nawada district. The incident happened on Friday, and the ‘crime’ of the girl was that she had ‘run away’ with a Hindu man she loved.

According to India today, the 18-year old girl, daughter of Mohammad Farid Ansari of Jogiya Maran village under Rajauli police station fell in love and had run away with her boyfriend Rupesh Kumar on September 30. The girl had left the village and was living with the boy.


Reportedly, the villagers caught and brought her to back to her village, where the village panchayat directed the family to tie the girl to a tree and thrash her for dishonouring the village. The villagers looked on to the girl being thrashed, while the girl fainted multiple times after she was purportedly thrashed for nearly five hours. Shockingly, the parents of the girl supported the thrashing of the girl. They also stood with other villagers and watched her being thrashed. The incident was shot and became viral in the social media instantly.

The media reports, however, were conflicting. While ANI and other media outlets said that the incident occurred because of ‘inter-caste’ affair, India Today reported that the incident occurred because of a Muslim girl falling in love with a Hindu man. While in local, colloquial matter of speech, ‘jaati’ could refer to religion as well.

However, since there were contradictory media reports on whether the girl was punished for inter-caste or inter-faith love affair, OpIndia had reached out to the concerned police station and the SHO while speaking to Opindia, refuted media reports concerning Panchayat’s order to thrash the Muslim girl.

He said, “The girl was tied to the tree by her brother and other members of the family. The family members of the girl just tied her to the tree and did not thrash her. The village panchayat has no role in this incident”. He further said that Rupesh Kumar is on the run and they are yet to register an FIR relating to the case.

The victim gave a statement to the media later saying that she had her run away with that man, a resident of Balia on her own will. However, the girl’s father Mohammad Farid Ansari said that the punishment being given to his daughter’s ‘crime’ was justified.

Interpol chief Meng Hongwei missing for a week after visit to China

OpIndia Staff
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Interpol chief Meng Hongwei missing for a week after visit to China

Interpol chief Meng Hongwei is missing for one week after he left for China from France. According to reports, he has become untraceable since he departed on September 29. Mr Meng is a Chinese citizen, and he with his family lives in French city of Lyon, where Interpol headquarters are located.

His wife has filed a complaint with French police, saying she has not heard from him since his departure to China. French police have launched an investigation into the matter. They have confirmed that Mr Meng has not disappeared from France, but he has gone missing in China. It has not been revealed whether he was on official visit or personal visit.

The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, is an international organisation that facilitates international police cooperation. The organisation functions as an administrative liaison among the law enforcement agencies of the member countries, providing communications and database assistance.

Mr Meng, who is also China’s deputy minister of public security, was elected as Interpol president in November 2016. His term is due to end in 2020.

In a statement, Interpol said it was aware of reports of the “alleged disappearance”, adding that “this is a matter for the relevant authorities in both France and China”. They have also informed that Secretary-General is in charge of the day-to-day operations of Interpol, not the President.


 

Chinese media has a different version of the incident. South China Morning Post reports that Meng Hongwei was “taken away” for questioning by discipline authorities “as soon as he landed in China” last week. The report states that it is not yet clear why Meng is being investigated by Chinese authorities or exactly where he is being held.

Although Meng is still listed as a vice-minister in Public Security ministry, he has lost his seat on the Communist Party Committee, which is the real decision-making body.

Rumours have already started about the possible reason for the disappearance. According to some speculations, the Chinese government took him way because he was getting too close with agencies of other countries.


 

Meng Hongwei is the first Chinese official to become Interpol president. His appointment had caused concern among human rights activists, who feared that he would abuse Interpol’s power to forcibly repatriate Chinese dissidents and fugitives.

 

People demand Amazon and YouTube remove AIB content after sexual harassment allegations against comedian

OpIndia Staff
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People demand Amazon and YouTube remove AIB content after sexual harassment allegations against comedian

Social media has been abuzz after shocking details of rampant sexual harassment by comedians was made public. Victims outed one Utsav Chakraborty who used to work with All India Bakchod (AIB), sexually harassed several women by sending unsolicited obscene pictures. In a domino effect, other victims recounted their harrowing experiences too, not just with Utsav both other comedians and journalists too.

With the rightful outrage that these revelations created, while most of the leftists maintained a stoic silence, many are now demanding that Amazon and YouTube remove content from AIB. This demand peaked after AIB released a statement apologising for ‘messing up’. They admitted that they came to know of Utsav’s transgressions after he quit AIB but even after knowing, they continued to work with Utsav on a freelance basis.

Many on Twitter demanded that Amazon remove AIB content from their Amazon Prime platform and terminate them from ‘Comicstaan’ which is a talent hunt nine-episode series that includes seven Indian comedians in search of a fresh and talented Indian stand-up comedian. The panel of judges includes Tanmay Bhatt, one of the founders of AIB and the one who admitted that he knew of Utsav’s sexual harassment of women.


Others said that the AIB apology was a hogwash and an attempt to shift blame. That Amazon on YouTube should take a stand against such predatory behaviour.


Some pointed out that Netflix took a similar stand after revelations of sexual harassment against Kevin Spacey. They wondered if Amazon and YouTube would follow suit after the allegations against Utsav Chakraborty.


It remains to be seen how Amazon or YouTube react. As the anger mounts, it might become difficult for the companies to maintain silence.

Camel smuggling racket busted in Rajasthan, 52 camels rescued

OpIndia Staff
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Camel smuggling racket busted in Rajasthan, 52 camels rescued

The Chittorgarh, Rajasthan police on a tip-off received from an animal activist, Neha Patel, have rescued 52 camels while they were being illegally transported for slaughter.

While the police seized two trucks with 18 camels each as the trucks stopped to pay toll tax at the toll plaza, they discovered that another had just passed from there a while back. One camel was found dead in the vehicle which was caught. The bypass was then barricaded by the police and the third truck was also intercepted. 16 camels were found crammed in it.

The police arrested six men, namely, Shakeel, Shakir, Zakar, Zakir and Wasim, all residents of Uttar Pradesh and Mewat region in connection to the same.

Neha Patel, while speaking to Swarajya said that she came to know about the illegal smuggling from her ‘informers’. She learnt that the camels were smuggled from a fair at Rajasthan’s Didwana and were being taken to Madhya Pradesh’s Indore for slaughter. Once slaughtered in Indore, their meat would have been distributed in other areas.

Patel furthered that since camel’s meat is high in demand, particularly in cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore and even in Kerala and Aurangabad, camel smuggling is gaining prominence.

In a report published in February this year, senior board official of Animal Welfare Board of India, Sudarshan Kaushik was quoted saying, “in the past few years, camels have been smuggled out of their natural desert habitat in Rajasthan, in and across the country for their meat“.

Kaushik had specified that in the past one year, more than 700 camels have been saved from being illegally slaughtered in far-off southern and eastern states of the country such as Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Assam, transported back and rehabilitated to their natural habitat in Rajasthan.

Speaking to the media, Kaushik said the flourishing smuggling business generates crores of black money every year and funds cross-border terrorism, posing a threat to national security.

Even as the incidents of camel smuggling rise in Rajasthan, the Animal Welfare Board of India said that despite the strict legal provisions, the state government is not being able to curb the camel smuggling, which is posing a further major challenge as camels have been declared as an endangered species by the Rajasthan government.

Last year it was reported that sixteen camels stuffed in a truck were rescued at Sedwa village in Barmer district of Rajasthan, just a few kilometres away from the Pakistan border. The camels were purchased locally by the butchers in ones and twos, and assembled in Sedwa village. Similarly in February this year, West Bengal had foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 camels from North India to Bangladesh.

Days after Rajnath Singh hinted on surgical strike 2.0, reports suggest BSF jawan’s mutilation avenged by Indian forces

OpIndia Staff
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Days after Rajnath Singh hinted on surgical strike 2.0, reports suggest BSF jawan’s mutilation avenged by Indian forces

Last week, rumours were rife that the Indian Army may have conducted a second ‘surgical strike’ against Pakistan occupied Kashmir. In fact, on 29th September, Home Minister Rajnath Singh himself had said ‘something big has happened 2-3 days back’, refusing to disclose details at that point. “Trust me, something big has happened two-three days ago. And you will also see what happens in future,” Rajnath said referring to the killing of Narendra Singh, the BSF Jawan who was brutally murdered by Pakistan a few days ago.

Now, as reported by Daily Pioneer, as many as 14 Pakistani Rangers have been killed by the BSF and destroyed six bunkers on the intervening night of 25th and 26th September along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). As per reports, a ‘fitting’ reply was given to the mutilation of Singh by inflicting injuries on at least two Pakistani Rangers. K K Sharma, the outgoing BSF DG had also said that sufficient action has been taken to avenge Narendra Singh’s murder.

Indian government has been working to strengthen the armed forces. Recently, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had inaugurated two pilot projects for ‘smart’ border fencing built under the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS). The two stretches, 5.5 kms each, will now have first of its kind high tech surveillance system that would create an invisible electronic barrier on air, water and land to help the BSF foil the infiltration attempts.

This will also help in handling the increased infiltration and cross-border firing along with the international border which have been on the rise in last one year. As per reports, this figure has increased four times in last one year, highest in five years. As many as 498 incidents of cross-firing have taken place taking the casualties figure to 12 and 40 injured.

Kolse Patil, Ex- Judge, ‘Hindu terror’ theory fan & Elgaar Parishad organizer accused of sexual harassment

OpIndia Staff
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Kolse Patil, Ex- Judge, ‘Hindu terror’ theory fan & Elgaar Parishad organizer accused of sexual harassment

After the comedy group, All India Bakchod was exposed to indulging a colleague who was making uninvited sexual advances and harassment, more and more women are coming forward with their own stories about sexual harassment from high and mighty. And this has started a cascading effect when one woman narrates her story, others reply to her with their own stories, many of them preferring to remain anonymous and taking the Direct Message route to tell their story.

Exactly this has happened after writer and journalist Sandhya Menon narrated her encounter with three senior journalists in three different organisations, other women started replying to her with similar incidents that had happened with them.

One of such incidents involves a very high profile person, a retired High Court judge. According to one anonymous woman who narrated her story to Sandhya Menon, once she faced such behaviour from justice Kolse Patil, a retired judge of Bombay High Court. The lady in question had gone to Patil’s house to record an interview with him. The interview was recorded inside the house as there were lots of noise outside. At the end of the interview, he asked the woman why the top button of her kurta is open and said that he thought they can be ‘friends’.


It can be noted that justice Patil was one of the organisers of Elgar Parishad which was held in Maharashtra last year, which led to the Bhima Koregaon riots. Commenting on the arrest of ‘urban naxals’ by Pune police in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence and plot to kill PM, he has said that the allegations are false and arrests were made to stifle dissent.

Justice Patil is also known for his anti-Hindu and casteist speeches. In one such speech in 2016, he has alleged that RSS is spreading Hindu terror. In another speech he had said that ‘RSS is the biggest enemy of India, we need to defeat the poisonous ideology of RSS on the ideological level’. He also had mentioned that ‘Hindutva is nothing but deluding name of Brahmanism and the real enemy of India are Brahmanism and Capitalism’. He also has a problem with the word Hindustan, as according to him it refers to Hindus only and all Indians are not Hindus.

He has even made an outrageous allegation that RSS has taken money from Pakistan’s ISI. Attending an event of Islamist fundamentalist Popular Front of India (PFI), he had insinuated that RSS chief la Mohan Bhagwat received ₹24 lakh to destabilise India, saying that ‘Brahmin-wadi’ people are dividing Hinduism.

Rahul Gandhi comments on fuel prices while being silent on non-reduction of VAT by Congress ruled states

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi comments on fuel prices while being silent on non-reduction of VAT by Congress ruled states

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been very active on social media attacking Modi government for soaring petrol prices for the last three months. He has been raising demands to bring petrol and diesel prices, under the ambit of GST.

आदरणीय श्री मोदीजी, आम जनता पेट्रोल-डीजल के आसमान छूते दामों से बहुत ज्यादा परेशान है.

आप कृपया पेट्रोल-डीजल को GST के दायरे में ले आइए।

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 5, 2018

He tweet has come after the centre announced cut on petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2.50 per litre yesterday. This was followed by 12 BJP states, who lowering their VAT on petrol to give an effective reduction of Rs 5 per litre to the public. The centre has also asked oil marketing companies to reduce prices.

If we have a look, of the structure of prices borne by the consumer, it can be seen that both the central and State governments levy excise and VAT, respectively. This is exclusive of the commissions set by oil merchants.

Congress ruled Karnataka and Punjab have not responded to centre’s request to lower the state VAT. Punjab levies 35.12 % tax on petrol and 16.74% on diesel while Karnataka levies 30.28% on petrol and 20.23% on diesel. Previous month states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan had reduced VAT on petrol, but still, Karnataka and Punjab had refused.

Rahul Gandhi should pay heed to Congress-ruled states, who are not taking interest in providing respite to the general public. State VAT makes a large chunk of prices paid by the public for petrol and diesel and therefore, the state governments can easily give relief to the public like BJP ruled states have done.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has made clear in past that bringing petrol and diesel under GST can be done if all the state governments cooperate and the process of making consensus in GST council on it is underway.

Pakistan refuses to open Kartarpur Sahib corridor, asks India to resume talks

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan refuses to open Kartarpur Sahib corridor, asks India to resume talks

Foreign Office spokesperson of Pakistan, refused to talk about Kartarpur Sahib corridor and stated that it will not happen until India engages in talks. According to reports, the spokesperson has stated that dialogues are the only way forward for the two countries to resolve issues.

India had severed planned talks with Pakistan in New York after three policemen were abducted and killed brutally in Kashmir’s Shopian. A meeting was to happen between of External affairs Ministers of India and Pakistan at the sidelines of UNGA summit at New York. India had accused Pakistan backed Hizbul Mujahideen of being complicit in killings.

Pakistan had aggravated tensions after it released postage stamps eulogising terrorist Burhan Wani. India had raised these issues in recent UNGA summit. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had made it clear that no talks could be held amidst these terrorist attacks and glorification for terrorists by Pakistan.

Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan is located on the banks of river Ravi, about four kilometres from India’s Gurdaspur Dera Baba Nanak temple. There have been demands from the Sikh community to open a visa-free corridor joining two shrines before the 550th anniversary of Guru Nanak, to be observed in 2019.

India has always been sceptical about the corridor, as it can be used by Pakistan to promote separatist agendas in Punjab.

Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had brought the topic of the Corridor back after he visited Islamabad to attend Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony. Upon rising heat and backlash from BJP and Akali Dal over Sidhu’s hug to Pakistan Army Chief Bajwa, Sidhu had assured that relations between two countries will improve. He falsely claimed in a conference, that his ‘bonhomie’ with Imran Khan had given Sikh community access to the corridor.

However, claims were refuted subsequently by EAM of India that there was no official protocol initiated from Pakistan to discuss corridor and Sidhu had also received criticism from EAM Sushma Swaraj for ‘messing’ things up regarding the opening of the Corridor.

Sidhu was also accused of ‘hurting Sikh sentiments’ by Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur for making false claims regarding Corridor.

Bangalore: Minister D K Shivakumar, accused in ‘hawala’ operations, serves breakfast to Congress leaders in Silver utensils

OpIndia Staff
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Bangalore: Minister D K Shivakumar, accused in ‘hawala’ operations, serves breakfast to Congress leaders in Silver utensils

In what appears to be a show of grandeur, some Congress leaders and members of the Karnataka Cabinet were found having breakfast in silver wares at the residence of Congress leader D K Shivakumar on Thursday morning.

According to reports, in a show extravagance, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Eshwar Khandre, senior Congress leader R V Deshpande and other leaders were present at the Crescent road residence of D K Shivakumar and enjoyed their breakfast in silverware.

U T Khader, Housing and Development Minister in Karnataka has tweeted about the meeting in which it can be seen that Congress leaders are being served breakfast in Silver plates including bowls and tumblers.


 

The Karnataka Water resource minister had organised a breakfast meeting at his residence ahead of the second round cabinet expansion which is scheduled to happen on October 15. Interestingly, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was in news recently for engaging in a power-battle with D K Shivakumar were absent from the meeting, raising suspicion of internal rifts within the party.

D K Shivakumar spoke to the media, said that he is not sidelining Siddaramaiah. “Siddaramaiah cannot be invited for all meetings. He will be invited when it is required. But this doesn’t mean that he is being sidelined. Today’s breakfast meeting was organised as per his advice”, said Shivakumar.

D K Shivakumar, one of the strongest leaders of the state has been facing investigations by ED for his alleged involvement in money laundering through hawala networks. He is alleged to have involved in the transportation of illegal funds from Chandni Chowk to the Congress headquarters at Akbar Road in New Delhi. He was in news earlier for hosting Congress MLAs in the Eagleton resort which he reportedly owns. He is considered one of the richest politicians in the state. Before the assembly elections, he had declared assets worth Rs 800 crores.

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