In the hustle and bustle of the day, it is only natural to miss some of the biggest developments that impact the nation. The OpIndia Evening Dispatch will catch you up on the day’s event even if you have been busy thus far.
Here are the articles from today:
1. Christian Michel had access to Enforcement Directorate
After the stunning revelations of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, has shed light on the deep rooted corruption that existed during the Congress regime yet again. A 2009 correspondence has revealed that Michel not only had access to the Cabinet Meetings, Cabinet Committee for Security and the PMO under Manmohan Singh but also investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Read details here.
2. Congress discovers a new low, attacks Atal Bihar Vajpayee
The Congress party and its functionaries have developed a penchant for dishing our crude insults and belittling anyone they don’t agree with. This time, they chose to insult former PM of India, Late Atal Bihar Vajpayee by alleging that he apologised to the British. Read details here.
3. Congress government in Chhattisgarh opts out of PM Modi’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme
The Congress government in Chhattisgarh is discontinuing the central government’s Ayushman Bharat scheme which has till now benefited lakhs of patients with free treatment. As per reports, the Congress-led Chhattisgarh government will now start a state-sponsored scheme. Read the details here.
4. Why the JNU sedition chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others took over 3 years
The reason for the filing of chargesheet taking so long is that the sleuths had to conduct multiple interviews, travel to Kashmir multiple times and even conduct undercover operations. Read details here.
5. Kumbh Mela 2019
The Festival of Sanatan Dharma, the Kumbh Mela 2019 is off to a colourful and pious start. Our coverage today offers three articles to read:
The spectacular images from the first Shani Snan.
How the Kinnar Akhada joined the Juna Akhada and took part in the Shani Snan for the first time.
How the English Mainstream Media just doesn’t care about the Kumbh Mela 2019.
6. Kerala : A scam brewing
A scam is brewing in Kerala where the Communist government of Kerala has been accused of misusing the funds meant for flood relief. The lokayukta has accepted the complaint of misuse of funds. Read details here.
7. Trouble mounts for Congress-JDS government in Karnataka
Even as a senior Congress MLA quit to join BJD in Odisha, today two independant MLAs withdrew support from the Congress-JDS government and reportedly, Amit Shah is set to meet his Karnataka MLAs. ‘Operation Lotus’ seems to be under way and Congress is worried. Read more here and here.
8. Sabarimala
It was reported that Kanakdurga, one of the women who managed to desecrate the Sabarimala temple was beaten up by her mother-in-law, who is a staunch Ayyappa devotee. However, an activist have claimed that in reality, it was Kanakdurga who had beaten up the mother-in-law per a conspiracy hatched by her and the local communist leaders. Read more here.
OpIndia fact-checks: Read before you believe:
We don’t want you to fall for fake news, and hence, we carefully fact-checked these fake news for you.
1. No, hundreds or thousands of trees were not felled to make a temporary helipad for PM Modi
The Media had alleged that alleged that hundreds (some said thousands) of trees had been felled to make a temporary helipad for the Prime Minister ahead of his Odisha visit on Tuesday. This was patently false. Only a few shrubs were cleared. Read our fact-check here.
2. Another Rafale lie created by the Media
Adding yet another angle to the long list of fictional allegations against the Rafale deal, some people have circulated a news today that France has ordered 28 Rafale aircraft from Dassault Aviation for €2 billion. According to them, these aircraft will be of next-generation F4 Standard, and the per unit price of this deal is almost half of what India is paying for the 36 Rafale jets of F3R standard.
This was fake news. The truth is that France government has awarded a €2 billion contract to Dassault for development of F4 standard of Rafale. Read our fact-check here.
3. Scroll and Newslaundry go the BBC way in spreading fake news using “research”
Leftist propaganda website Scroll has used ‘research’ to claim that the BJP and Prime Minister Modi’s spectacular success in electoral politics in recent times are due to the supposed assistance media has provided.
The “research” actually did not say anything that the Scroll had claimed. Read our fact-check here.
