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Infiltration down, more terrorists killed in the Kashmir Valley than last year

OpIndia Staff
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Infiltration down, more terrorists killed in the Kashmir Valley than last year

Counter terror operation in Kashmir Valley is gaining momentum. According to reports, as many as 92 terrorists were killed till 2 July this year. This is against 79 in the corresponding period of 2016.Of the 92 terrorists killed till 2 July, most of the targets were big and prominent terror operatives.

Similarly, there is an increase in the number of terrorists killed in counter-insurgency operations during the BJP-led NDA rule at the Centre in comparison to the Congress-led UPA rule. While 72 and 67 terrorists were killed in anti-terror operations in Kashmir Valley during the UPA’s tenure of 2012 and 2013 respectively, the number rose to 110 in 2014, 108 in 2015 and 150 in 2016 during the NDA’s tenure.

Number of incidents of infiltration has also shown a marked decline. While 124 infiltration incidents have been reported till May-end this year, 371 incidents were reported in 2016.

Further, incidents of stone-pelting witnessed a dip. While 142 stone-pelting incidents have been reported till June this year, there were as many as 820 stone-pelting incidents in July last year alone following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

The improvement of the figures is largely to do with Indian Amry’s strategy to actively engage with the terrorists and other anti-India forces in a seamless coordination with para-military forces, intelligence agencies and state police with a full backing of the Central government.

“The forces have been given a free hand to track and intercept the terrorists holed up in the valley, before launching intelligence-based operations with due mapping of the target and how to neutralise terrorists with minimum collateral damage,” a senior Home Ministry official was quoted as saying.

The government has given a free hand to the Army to take stern actions against those who are spreading terror and vitiating the atmosphere in the Valley. The Army has launched Operation Clean Up to flush South Kashmir of terrorists. At the same time, the Army has been carrying out “punitive fire assaults” against Pakistani posts along the Line of Control (LoC).

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had expressed satisfaction over the “aggressive domination” and “readiness” of the troops along the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir. “The aggressive domination and readiness of troops for befitting response to any misadventure by enemy is very satisfying,” Jaitley had said.

The intelligence agencies are simultaneously taking steps to choke terror funding in Kashmir. In a first, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided Kashmiri separatist leaders in connection to the funding they reportedly received from Pakistan to spread terror in the Valley. The amount received by the Kashmiri separatists from Pakistan in last one year, to keep the turmoil in Kashmir active, could run into several hundred crores. The funds are used for attacking security forces by carrying stone pelting, burning schools and other government buildings.

Janta Ka Reporter, in a legal offence, reveals identity of the minor whose FB post led Jihadis to riot in Basirhat

OpIndia Staff
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Janta Ka Reporter, in a legal offence, reveals identity of the minor whose FB post led Jihadis to riot in Basirhat

AAP leaning propaganda blog Janta Ka Reporter, notorious for spreading unverified information, looked like sinking to a new low on Wednesday, after it revealed the name and photo of the minor, whose allegedly offensive Facebook post triggered the riot by Jihadi mobs in West Bengal’s Basirhat.

The Basirhat region in West Bengal has been on the boil since Monday, after Jihadi mobs decided to go on rampage, burning and looting Hindu establishments, assaulting villagers, and burning vehicles as a form of protest against the Facebook post, which allegedly denigrated their religion.

While a few media houses were reporting things as it is and other were trying to water down things, Janta Ka Reporter (JKR) decided to take things to a whole different level.

They published an article (still live on their website; we are not linking it back as it can compromise the safety of the minor) titled “What really happened in Bengal and how it was designed to cause riots”, which began with mentioning the full name of the boy. The article also removed all the ambiguity about him being a minor by introducing him as a 17 years old, and proceeded to share his picture:

The name, age and picture have been revealed by JKR. We at OpIndia.com have blacked out those information as it is against law.

In the rest of the article, it tried to insinuate that it was actually the RSS and the BJP, which decided to use the boy as a pawn in order to instigate riots in the region. While the article not even once condemned the Muslim mobs for their rampage and painted them as ‘poor from a very backward area’, it decided to cast aspersions on the integrity of the West Bengal governor by calling him abusive and a BJP block President.

Coming back to the issue of disclosing the identify of the minor student who has been arrested, JKR is clearly violating the section 74(1) of the Juvenile Justice Act by ‘revealing the identity of the minor’.

As per the section 74(1) of the JUVENILE JUSTICE (CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN) ACT, 2015 [PDF]:

Section 74 which JKR is violating

The section explicitly mentions that no media publication shall disclose information that may lead to the identification of the minor in conflict with the law. The JKR has clearly violated it by openly publishing the name and picture of the accused.

The act specifies that such an action can only be undertaken after proper permission is given, provided such a disclosure is in the interest of the minor, which clearly isn’t the case here. In fact, the safety of the minor has been compromised by revealing his identify, who could now be attacked by some overzealous Islamist after being released from jail and after the matter has subsided.

The section specifies that anyone violating the section 74(1) shall be punished with an imprisonment for a term stretching up to 6 months or a fine which may extend to Rs 2 lakh or more.

It remains to be seen if the Ministry of Women and Child development would take adequate action against the publication.

JKR had added a disclaimer in the end of the article that it didn’t endorse the views of some ‘award winning author’ who is supposed to have written it. But that can hardly be an excuse for carrying out a legal offence. They could have blackened the name and face of the accused while republishing that article, especially when they knew that the boy was under 18 years of age as per that article itself.

(with inputs from Srikanth and Ananth)

Syama Prasad Mookerjee – The maker of modern India whom we shouldn’t forget

Saswat Panigrahi
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Syama Prasad Mookerjee – The maker of modern India whom we shouldn’t forget

“We must live and die for India and her liberty. This is an article of faith with us and it admits of no compromise.”

These words of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee speak volumes about what he really stood for. Today, India is celebrating the birth anniversary of its leading nationalist leader.

In the annals of Indian history, the historiographers deliberately suppressed the rightful place that Syama Prasad deserves in the making of modern India. A selfless patriot, Mookerjee’s commitment to the democratic spirit of India was unparalleled. He left his mark not only on the history of India, but also on the future of the nation. Mookerjee’s grand vision for India’s national progress could be read in his own words:

“Nations live or die according to the character of the people. Wealth, arms, munitions, disciplined armies and navies and air forces are of splendid service but the character of the people, the character in to which the youth is growing, determines the life or death of the nation.”

Rarely India saw such a leader of Mookerjee’s stature who had left imprints on a galaxy of fields – politics, policy, national interest, education and cultural nationalism. Those who carefully read his life and times could agree with the fact that Syama Prasad had a significant contribution in shaping the modern India.

As the President of Hindu Mahasabha, Mookerjee united the Hindu voices and protected Hindus against the divisive agenda of the Muslim League. However, he did not want the Hindu Mahasabha to be restricted to Hindus alone, so he used it as a platform to render service to the masses.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who was initially a strong opponent of partition of India, had supported the partition following the widespread communal riots of 1946 in Punjab and Bengal. Mookerjee foiled Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s plan of Greater Pakistan which proposed to include the entire West Bengal.

When India got its independence, Syama Prasad joined the interim central government, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, on an invitation from Mahatma Gandhi. He was made Union Minister for Industry and Supply. As the Industry Minister, Mookerjee sowed the first seeds of India’s industrialisation. He laid the foundation for India’s Industrial Policy and prepared the ground for the nation’s industrial development in the years to come. It was during Mookerjee’s tenure as the Union Industry Minister, All-India Handicrafts Board, All-India Handloom Board, Central Silk Board and Khadi and Village Industries Board, Textile Research Institute and Industrial Finance Corporation were set up.

It was the year 1949. The Hindu minorities were brutalised in Pakistan, resulting in flooding of millions of Hindu refugees to India. To address the issue, Nehru invited then Pakistani Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan for talks in New Delhi, which led to the signing of Delhi Pact in 1950. The joint pact, which claimed to ‘alleviate the fears of the religious minorities on both sides’ stated to establish Minority Commissions and guarantee minority rights in both India and Pakistan. But Mookerjee, who was firmly against the invitation to the then Pakistani PM, had strongly objected to the policy of Indian Government towards Pakistan as stated in Nehru-Liaqat Pact and resigned from Union Cabinet.

Along with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Mookerjee is considered as the godfather of modern Hindutva. He saw Hindutva as an instrument to awake the national spirit. For him, it was a source to India’s rich civilisation and its sacred culture, which carries the message of universal brotherhood. It was Mookerjee who took the first step in applying Hindutva in India politics by forming Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) in 1951 which later became Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Hindutva, cultural nationalism and free-market economy were the edifices on which Bharatiya Jan Sangh stood.

“Political independence becomes meaningful only if it is accompanied by realisation of the National Self.”

This was what the first manifesto of the BJS observed. Through Jan Sangh, Mookerjee created an alternate political narrative in India. BJS was the first real opposition to the Congress. In the first general election in 1951, Jan Sangh managed to send only three members, including Syama Prasad Mookerjee to the first Lok Sabha. Jan Sangh, together with other small parties, formed the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Parliament and Mookerjee was unanimously elected as its leader. His role in the Lok Sabha as an Opposition leader earned him the title of ‘Lion of the Parliament’.

Mookerjee will always be remembered for integrating Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India. He scripted an uprising with his famous slogan — Ek desh mein do Pradhan, do Vidhan, do Nishan nahi chalenge, nahi chalenge. (The country will never accept a system which allows two Prime Ministers, two Constitutions and two National flags).

To protest against the dubious ‘permit raj’ in Jammu & Kashmir, Mookerjee went to Kashmir in 1953 as an Indian citizen without seeking any permission from the State Government. The idea was to prove the point that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and thus there is no need for an ‘entry permit’ for an Indian citizen. But, while crossing the border into Kashmir at Lakhaanpur, Mookerjee was arrested by the then Jammu & Kashmir Government and jailed in a dilapidated house. A month after his arrest, his health worsened and the patriot died while in custody paying price for his effort to integrate India.

Mookerjee’s mysterious death in custody raised resentment and suspicion. There were demands for independent enquiry, including earnest appeals from his aged mother Jogmaya Devi to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. But unfortunately no inquiry commission was set by the Nehru government. The event became yet another chapter in history of mysterious political deaths in India.

But Mookerjee’s martyrdom compelled the Nehru government to remove the ‘permit raj’, the post of Wazir-e-Azam (Prime Minister) and Sadr-e-Riyasat (President) in Jammu & Kashmir. His sacrifice forced the Indian government to bring Jammu & Kashmir under the ambit of Indian Constitution, Union Parliament, Supreme Court of India and the Election Commission of India. Till 1953, these institutions did not have any role there.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s services were lost to the country at a time when they were required the most. However, his legacy will stay on to guide the nation, nationalism and nationhood. It will inspire the lives and times for generations to come.

Mookerjee was a nationalist to the core. ‘Country comes first’ was his watchword and ‘Live and let live’ was the motto of his life. He lived and died for the cause of the nation.

As a progressive political thinker, Mookerjee will always be remembered for his forward-looking views on education and women’s rights. As a leader with a vision, his opinion on nuclear energy was much ahead of his times. As a philosopher-statesman, Mookerjee had his own vision of establishing strong bilateral ties with the neighboring countries.

Here are some highlights of his speeches on a range of issues. Though the speeches are old, but its content and message are still invigorating and relevant.

  • On education

“Indian universities must play a role in rebuilding a new India. Indian varsities must not regard themselves as exclusive institutions which exist apart from the currents of the country’s life. They must saturate their alumni with the lessons of India’s history and civilisation and instill into them the essence of unity, strength and dauntlessness, and inspire them with skill and knowledge and teach them to apply themselves for the service of the nation.”

  • On foreign relations

“Indians have lived peacefully side by side with her neighbouring peoples and races for millenniums together. When Indian nationals visited foreign lands, they carried with them not arms, not ammunitions, but messages of peace and goodwill.”

  • On Nuclear energy

“India cannot remain a mere spectator, particularly when she has all the raw materials in plenty for the development of atomic energy. Within our own lifetime, we may find the results of atomic energy research affecting all the phases of human life.”

“Nuclear power can create paradise on earth and relieve mankind of much of the drudgery. Atomic energy could be a source of power, limitless in quantity, transportable to every region of the world and usable for every need of mankind.”

***

References:

The life and times of Syama Prasad (By Tathagata Ray)
The Lion of Parliament (By Dr Anita Arya)
Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Indian politics (By Prashanto Kumar Chatterji)
Portrait of a Martyr: Biography of Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerji (By Bal Raj Madhok)

Azam Khan’s Private University constructed using govt funds worth Rs 3000 crores

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Azam Khan’s Private University constructed using govt funds worth Rs 3000 crores

Azam Khan, the senior leader of Samajwadi Party, seems to be landing in a new controversy on a daily basis. Just recently he had invited the wrath of the public after he had virtually termed the Indian army personnel as rapists. This had invited a complaint from the wife of a serving army officer, who termed the whole statement as derogatory.

Now even as the ink on the last complaint is barely dry, Azam Khan might be in for another after it was reported that government funds worth Rs 3000 crores were spent on his private university.

According to the report, an inquiry carried out by the State Minority Department has found that the Rs 3000 crores were spent on Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh of which Azam Khan is the Chancellor.

The MLA from Rampur and MOS of the Minority Welfare department, Baldev Singh Aulakh has now demanded a CBI probe into what he calls, “usage of public money for private welfare”.

Aulakh has claimed that government agencies have actually constructed parts of the Private University. He claims the PWD department had invested Rs 20 crores in the construction of the University buildings, which was then handed over to the Jauhar Trust at a token price of just Rs 100 per year.

Aulakh also claims that the PWD used a whopping Rs 236 crores to build a luxurious Guest House inside the campus and Rs 1310 crores to build a road outside the campus. He also pointed out that crores were spent by the power department in constructing a sub-station, by Jal Nigam in constructing a water tank, and by the culture department for building a pandal for the University.

Aulakh has also made clear his intention to recommend to Yogi Adityanath that the Jauhar University be changed into a government institution.

Not only this, there have also been allegations of the University having been built on illegally acquired land. In 2013, there were reports of Azam Khan grabbing 450 bighas worth of Waqf land for the part construction of the University.

Reports also claimed that most of the University land initially belonged to the Waqf board and various government agencies, which was then forcibly acquired using political clout. The report mentioned an alleged instance were the Rs 30 crore research centre of the University, was actually built on land initially owned by a jail.

Dear Madhur Bhandarkar, this is why you are wrong

Nupur J Sharma
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Dear Madhur Bhandarkar, this is why you are wrong

Greetings Mr. Bhandarkar,

I have recently seen on television your utter confusion in trying to decipher what it is about your upcoming movie that has got the Congress party in knots. You repeatedly assert that you, as a film maker, are known to take up inconvenient plot lines in your attempt to educate the society of national issues through your cinema.

I write this letter as an attempt in explaining their predicament.

I admit, the ones that question you today, haven’t watched the movie. But you must understand that they do expect you to cater to their delusions of grandeur and endure their insufferable insecurities because they consider their claim on this country, her citizens and its narrative, absolute and indisputable.

You must be wondering why they must feel insecure about a movie when they have gone to town beating their chest about Freedom of Expression?

You see, it is difficult for dynasts to wrap their head around the fact that the Country has changed and is moving beyond the hollow rhetoric that they have furthered for so long. They can’t imagine, for example, the citizenry asking for measures of poverty alleviation and not trusting their “Gareebi hatao” slogans blindly. It is difficult for them to understand that a population as young as India’s is far more astute in sniffing the facts.

Your research might have led you to a certain “State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Raj Narain” case which was fought in the High Court. The research might have said that after Indira Gandhi’s 1971 electoral win, Narain filed a petition alleging that Indira Gandhi has used bribery, government machinery and other resources to gain an unfair advantage in the elections.

Owing to this petition, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice, declared Indira ji’s win from Rae Bareilly null and void and having found our leader guilty of gross malpractice, barred her from contesting elections for 6 years. At that time, the court gave Congress 20 days to replace Indira Gandhi. Indira ji then got a stay order on 24th June 1975.

What you fail to understand is that between 24th June (when Indira ji got the stay order) and 25th June (when the Emergency was declared), the Economy had plummeted to abysmal lows. The dark shroud of economic distress had gripped the Nation in those sinister 24 hours. It is in these 24 hours, that their great leader realised how terribly the Country had been plummeted after the 1971 war. She realized we were dealing with widespread drought and oil crisis as an aftermath of the 1971 war.

You might wonder why it took Indira ji so long to realize all that ails our economy, considering 4 years had passed after the war? Don’t be fooled. The Gandhi family has a long history of concentrating on issues and making informed decisions that take time. It’s in their genes. Why else do you think Rahul Gandhi ji takes these long vacations?

Perhaps you think Indira Gandhi ji imposed the emergency a day after she got the stay order in order to postpone impending elections and pass a bill that amended the law under the provisions of which she was held guilty by Justice Jagmohanlal? This couldn’t possibly be further from the truth.

You must research the benevolence of Indira ji and her suputra, Sanjay Gandhi ji. The two luminaries, after imposing the Emergency, came up with a 20 point program to help the Economy fight poverty and illiteracy. For example, illiteracy was fought with a long term vision. Sanjay ji rationalized that the reason there was such widespread illiteracy is because the unwashed Indians were reproducing like bunnies. So he decided to catch hold of all unsuspecting plebeians and forcefully perform vasectomy on them. Na rahega baas, na bajegi bansuri.

And to shoot two birds with the same policy arrow, they also distributed Ghee to the poor people after they had enforced, nay, endowed nasbandi on them. It is both horrifying and upsetting for them, that you would misunderstand such visionary steps taken during this revolutionary period to rid the country of it’s problems.

The bhagwadhari liars spread many lies. One such is how the country had been going through a terrible economic crisis even before the 1971 war, right from the early 1970s. They talk about widespread discontent among the people about rising prices. corruption, fall in supply of essential commodities and unemployment. In fact, such is their lies that they just created an entire movement that never happened, and pompously called it the “JP Movement”. They even concocted an “All India Railway strike of 1974”. Tell me Mr. Bhandarkar, how can any strike or protest be “all India” when their leader and her followers firmly believed that Indira was India and India was Indira?

The Emergency was imposed because pesky little Jay Prakash Narayan wouldn’t listen. He thought it is acceptable for him to ask Indira ji to resign simply because she was accused of electoral malpractice. He thought it was his right to ask accountability for widespread corruption and economic distress. And also, because the judiciary had to be shown its true place when it tried to assume they had the right to dictate what the Gandhi’s could or couldn’t do. What else was Indira ji suppose to do at the face of such insubordination, Mr. Bhandarkar?

It is only a matter of coincidence that Indira ji and her trusted senanis had originally met to hatch a plan to arrest pesky JP Narayan and mere fiction that S.S.Ray had suggested that she could impose internal emergency. It is also mere coincidence that the first people to be arrested after the imposition of the Emergency (imposed to rectify the failing economy) were Raj Narain, JP Narayan, followed by Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. Yes. It was only economics and nothing else.

It is almost gruesome that you choose to focus on the declared internal Emergency of 1975 and not the undeclared one we are going through right now. In Congress’ reign, nobody could think of even writing the letter I am writing today, let alone make a movie about politicians. The Congress was sensitive about what the country needs to know, and doesn’t. They ensured that the country never knew the harsh facts about our first family and their vote-bank. To that end, they generously and astutely banned the books that could shatter the citizenry’s dreams. From the “Rangeela Rasool” to “Red Saree”.

Today, books by Barkha and Sagarika are being given bad reviews, which is worse than books being banned. Sanghis like you are free to research and make movies and Sanghis like me are free to write articles, giving the crass unwashed masses a chance to vitiate the atmosphere with their opinions.

It is shocking that you are not interested in making a movie about how Press freedom is being curbed today by unleashing IT sleuths on owners of news channels accused of tax frauds, but you rather focus on how all news articles had to be cleared by the government in 1975 and how the electricity supply had been cut off to newspaper printers.

Your motives stink of bias, when you ignore protests like #NotInMyName (however one sided), and focus on the imposition of Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) by which all sorts of dharnas and protests were banned during the Emergency.

It is depressing to watch you talk about arbitrary arrests during the Emergency and focus on reports like that of Amnesty International that says over 140000 people were arrested without trial and how due to lack of jail capacity, some were just tied to poles and pillars. It is depressing because you ignore today’s undeclared emergency where if one criticises the Modi government, people are trolled on Twitter.

It is indeed disconcerting that you have not focused on how today, fundamental right to eat cow is in danger, but instead choose to focus on 24th amendment of 1971, where it was expressly provided that the parliament could change any part of the constitution including that of Fundamental Rights.

You forget how people are brainwashed to support PM Modi today, and focus on 39th Amendment (26th September 1975) that made the election of the Prime Minister exempt from Judicial scrutiny.

Yes, Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar, you deserve to be hounded and abused. You deserve it because you have dared to break the code of silence. Breach to honour among thieves. Shatter the Omerta.

You have dared to assume that you have a voice. That the story of India lies beyond what we have been fed so far. You have the temerity to presuppose that you, as a movie maker, can move beyond cliched love stories.

You, Mr. Bhandarkar, have committed a sin. Your sin is to consider yourself a citizen of this country who has the right to speak of dark chapters of our existence. You have committed the sin of being a voter who has made his political choice known and the “liberals” must impose punitive measures till you fall in line.

You chose wrong. You made the mistake of going against the first family. And now, the ones who call the current political dispensation fascist, will hound you till you break. Till they silence you and beat you into submission.

They will if you let them, sir. Stand firm and steady your heart. The “liberals” are yet to show you how “liberal” they really are. Stick to your fascism. Stick to your convictions. Keep the faith.

People slam media’s attitude as Jihadi mobs go on a rampage in Bengal’s Basirhat

OpIndia Staff
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People slam media’s attitude as Jihadi mobs go on a rampage in Bengal’s Basirhat

West Bengal is again witnessing horrific communal violence being perpetrated by Jihadi mobs as a form of “protest against a Facebook Post”, which allegedly made offensive and disparaging comments on a shrine.

Numerous houses and shops belonging to local Hindus have reportedly been looted and burnt, vehicles have been set on fire, roads have have blocked and a large number of villagers have been assaulted and molested.

The trigger was a Facebook post by a boy in his teens, who was soon arrested by the police. This failed to assuage the mob, who demanded that he be handed over to them so that they could stone him to death as per Sharia. A similar incident had taken place in Mumbai earlier this year when a Muslim mob wanted to provide justice themselves to a ‘blasphemer‘ even though police had acted in the case.

The mob in Basirhat has since also disrupted the final Rath Yatra procession of Lord Jagannath and even destroyed and desecrated some Raths according to reports. Even as the situation continues to be very tense, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is reportedly still refusing help from the centre, maintaining that all is well.

Even now situation continues to be tense with the train services in the region remaining disrupted for 4.5 hours due to obstruction by agitators.

All this while some media outfits didn’t mince their words and reported things as it is, but there was a large section of the media which chose to maintain utter silence or reported a watered down version of the whole incident, as we had witnessed earlier too.

This caught the attention of various netizens who reacted aplenty:


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A also journalist went ahead to claim that there was no Communal Violence in Basirhat:


People didn’t take this assertion too kindly:


There was some acknowledgement of the troubles later in the day after Mamata Banerjee chose to attack the West Bengal governor and the center demanded a report from the state.

Basirhat communal riots: Centre seeks report from Mamata government

OpIndia Staff
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Basirhat communal riots: Centre seeks report from Mamata government

The Union Home Ministry has directed the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal to submit a report on the communal clashes in Baduria town of North 24 Parganas district in the state, which comes under the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.

On Tuesday, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi spoke to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over telephone and apprised him about the situation in North 24 Parganas district.

The communal clashes broke out after a teenager, a Class X student, allegedly made offensive remarks in Facebook on a Muslim shrine. Even though the police arrested the teenager, the situation remains tense as the arrest has failed to assuage the Islamists, who want him handed over – a disturbing trend that we had earlier seen in the Kamlesh Tiwari episode and in a few other cases.

According reports, several shops and houses – belonging to Hindus – were ransacked and police vehicles were torched by violent mobs, which also put up road blockades at several places.

Section 144 has been imposed in the violence-hit Basirhat. The Centre, meanwhile, has rushed three companies of paramilitary forces to the region for assisting the state police in containing the situation following an appeal from the Mamata government.

The BJP alleged that the state police has failed to bring the situation under control. The party has urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is in-charge of party affairs in West Bengal, alleged that over 2,000 Muslims attacked Hindu families in Baduria.

“Bombs went off at many places and information of Hindu sisters and daughters being raped have been received,” he alleged.

Baduria/Basirhat communal clash has sparked war of words between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, which unfortunately is attracting more media interest than the riots themselves.

 

People react as Narendra Modi becomes the first ever Indian PM to visit Israel

OpIndia Staff
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People react as Narendra Modi becomes the first ever Indian PM to visit Israel

On Tuesday, India notched a diplomatic milestone after Narendra Modi became the first ever Indian Prime Minister to pay a official visit to Israel.

His Israeli counterparts tried to make this occasion as special as possible, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with his whole cabinet were in attendance to receive him at the airport. This special gesture is usually reserved for the US President and the Pope.

PM Netanyahu also decided to give things a personal touch:


PM Modi also made a symbolic gesture by referring to the martyrdom of PM Netanyahu’s brother during the Operation Entebbe 41 years ago on 4th on July 1976. This operation was carried out by Israeli forces to rescue 106 hostages from Entebbe airport in Uganda after their flight was hijacked by terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations and the German Revolutionary Cells.

The historically significant visit comes 25 years after both the countries established diplomatic relations. This understandably resulted in a lot of excitement on Social Media and ensued a lot of positive reactions:


People also praised the PM for embarking on a new foreign policy by not adding Palestine to the itinerary:


While most were looking forward to the new era of Indian foreign policy, a journalist decided to add a needless spin to the whole affair:

Soon people responded to his tweet regarding Sonia Gandhi and the late Palestinian leader’s funeral:

India becomes the 11th country to be extended the expedited entry facility by the US

Hemant Bijapurkar
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India becomes the 11th country to be extended the expedited entry facility by the US

Indian travellers to the US have a reason to cheer as the United States of America has decided to start extending its Global Entry Programme to Indian nationals, which allows an expedited entry into the US for pre-approved low-risk travellers.

With this announcement, India becomes the 11th country to be provided this facility. The Indian Ambassador the US, Navtej Sarna became the first Indian national to enroll into this program.

Under this program, the eligible Indian travellers won’t have to stand in long queues to get themselves approved by an immigration officer but can just take the help of an automated kiosk. At the Global Entry Kiosk, the travellers would then need to insert their passport or permanent residency card plus their fingerprints for a successful clearance.

The added condition of ‘low-risk’ though entails the Indian nationals to go through a rigorous background check along with an in-person interview before the enrollment.

Currently there are 53 American airports and 15 pre-clearance locations with this facility. The persons eligible for the program are US citizens, Green Card holders and citizens of Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and now India.

Recently the Indian government too had decided to make things easier for the Indian citizens going out of the country by discontinuing the practice of them having to fill up departure cards, which contained information like name, date of birth, passport number, address in India, flight number and date of boarding.

This facility though was only extended to air travellers, and those travelling by land, sea, rail would still have to fill an embarkation card. Last year too the Indian Customs department had decided to do away with the declaration form, which an Indian citizen had to fill even if they weren’t carrying any goods eligible for custom duty.

TMC and Congress legislators from Tripura set to support Ram Nath Kovind

OpIndia Staff
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TMC and Congress legislators from Tripura set to support Ram Nath Kovind

On Sunday, it was reported that the Trinamool Congress had been hit by a rebellion of sorts in its Tripura unit after its party leader in the state were quoted as stating that 6 of their MLAs were likely to cast their vote in favour of NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, even though Mamata Banerjee had announced her party’s support for the opposition backed candidate Meira Kumar.

It should be noted that anti-defection laws don’t apply in the presidential elections, and thus an MLA or MP is free to vote going against the party’s choice.

According to the Tripura TMC President Ashish Saha, they took this decision in a meeting on Saturday night. They decided to oppose Meira Kumar as she is being backed by the CPM. According to Saha, it was decided that none of them will cast their vote in favour of a nominee who has been backed by the Marxist party.

The report also claimed that it was likely that all the 6 TMC legislators would also join the BJP sometime in July. This stance of the TMC legislators from Tripura is somewhat true to the initial ideology of the party, which grew in response and opposition to the Communist and Marxist establishment in the West Bengal.

Even the Mamata Banerjee of 2011 might have taken the same stance of boycotting any candidate supported by the CPM, as back then, she used to even claim that Marxists and Maoists were planning to kill her.

But TMC is not the only one to disappoint Meira Kumar in the state. Two more MLAs, this time from Congress, her own party, are reportedly set to vote for Kovind.

Kovind is scheduled to tour the North-East states on 6-7 July, and media reports claim that during this time, his support could further swell. Kovind reportedly enjoys the support of the National People’s Party of Conrad Sangma and also from the 15 Independent MLAs of Meghalaya.

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