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The New York Times and the Farrago of lies and misrepresentation

sudharshan80
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The New York Times and the Farrago of lies and misrepresentation

The New York Times, or the “failing NYT” as their president Donald Trump prefers to call them, published an op-ed about India that was centered around the CBI raids at the residences of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the founder promoters of NDTV. The editorial was titled ‘India’s Battered Free Press’. Reading it is a textbook case of how media outlets lie and distort the truth.

Let us have this case study.

They start out by providing a gist of the issue so far, but of course, it is not simple or an unbiased reporting of the situation. This is how they start:

“Press freedom in India suffered a fresh blow on Monday when the country’s main investigative agency raided homes and offices connected to the founders of NDTV, India’s oldest television news station. The raids mark an alarming new level of intimidation of India’s news media under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

The only thing that is alarming in the above para is the alarmist language. But then journalism today is all about exaggerating and shouting. So let us ignore that. Let us come to facts, for which the op-ed will need to come to facts.

This is what they write touching some ‘facts’:

“The Central Bureau of Investigation says it conducted the raids because of a complaint that NDTV’s founders had caused “an alleged loss” to ICICI, a private bank, related to repayment of a loan. In 2009, ICICI said the note had been paid in full. Not really, the investigators said: A reduction in the interest rate had saddled the bank with a loss — hence the raid..”

Nope.

The probe is not about causing loss to the private bank. The investigators, aka the CBI, explicitly say that this is NOT about debt repayment, but possible collusion between Roys and some unknown officials at the private bank, which not only violates banking laws but also hint at a criminal conspiracy.

This is what the CBI says:

It is alleged in the complaint that the promoters of NDTV —Dr. Prannoy Roy, Smt Radhika Roy and M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd, acting in criminal conspiracy with unknown officials of ICICI bank, violated section 19(2) of the Banking Regulation Act, the Master Circular DBOD No. Dir B90/13.07.05/98-99 dated 28.08.1998 of the Reserve Bank of India and in furtherance of the conspiracy, ICICI bank took the entire shareholding of the promoters in NDTV (nearly 61 %) as collateral and then accepted prepayment of the loan by reducing the interest rate from 19 % p.a to nearly 9.5 % p.a and as a consequence thereof, causing a wrongful loss of ₹48 crore to ICICI bank and a corresponding wrongful gain to the promoters of NDTV — Dr. Prannoy Roy, Smt Radhika Roy and M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd.

This is not an attack on NDTV, it is free to telecast, publish and write whatever it wants, this is an raid on its promoters. Individuals and the corporate entity they run are separate, yet NYT (and other “liberal” champions) are guilty of conflating the two. By this logic, Mukesh Ambani should never face any government probe as he owns news media outlet Network18 and has substantial direct and indirect stake in other media companies too, including NDTV.

Coming back to NYT op-ed, the investigators never said that it is about causing a loss to a private bank. CBI’s press release and clarification was issued before NYT published it. Yet, it chooses to attribute wrong statements to the CBI. This exposes more about NYT’s editorial standards and journalistic ethics than press freedom in India.

But that’s not all. This is what the op-ed claims next, after wrongly claiming that CBI raids was about causing loss to a bank or defaulting on a loan payment:

“That doesn’t wash. India’s large corporations regularly default on debt with nary a peep from authorities.”

After successfully establishing a straw-man (debt vs criminal collusion), NYT furiously attacks the straw-man:

“Mr. Modi’s government has hesitated to go after big defaulters. But suddenly we have dramatic raids against the founders of an influential media company.”

Well, even though this is a straw man argument, the truth is that the Modi government has raided many just the past 6 odd months.

An indicative list:

  • 100s of raids were conducted during the demonetization period, resulting in 4,000 crores of seizures. These included raids against big shots like Janardhan Reddy and even entertainment professionals like the producer of the mega hit Baahubali.
  • IAS babus (here and here) have been raided and so have been powerful regional politicians (apart from Reddy).
  • IT officials said that December saw some of the biggest IT raids the country has ever seen.
  • The ED raided 18 IAS officials in April this year, just weeks before raids on Roys, even after the demonetisation period.
  • 34 Chartered Accountants in Delhi alone were raided the same month.
  • In April this year, premises of the Central Bank of India (a PSU) were raided by the CBI.
  • In January this year, offices of the multi billion dollar conglomerate, ETA were raided by IT officials.
  • June 2016 saw a raid on the GMR group and a big corporate lobbyist.
  • Early on in his term, the Modi government raided Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which owns more media than Roys. Does NYT think that Ambani is small fish?
  • Just last month, the CBI raided the offices of Essar and arrested an Essar group MD and a tax commissioner. Essar is no small fish either.

This list goes on endlessly, Mallya, Axis Bank and a whole host of others have been the target of CBI, ED or IT raids. So it is a bald faced lie to say that the government has not been taking action (so far as raids are concerned) but somehow exclusively targeting only the Roys.

Let us go back to the op-ed again, after attacking the straw-man with lies, the articles claims that the raids were carried out “years after a loan was settled to a private bank’s satisfaction”.

The lie that it is about a loan settlement is repeated, a third time.

Next it says,

“Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, journalists have faced increasing pressures. They risk their careers — or lives — to report news that is critical of the government or delves into matters that powerful politicians and business interests do not want exposed.”

I don’t even know what to say here, this is like something some internet troll on some forum might say. Where are the facts behind such a loose and irresponsible comment? We can however do some fact checking as we have higher standards than the NYT right?

So here it is, some data from a single source, which is left-leaning and hence should be acceptable to the NYT and NDTV fans, for they hate watchdogs like OpIndia.com:

  • In 2012, 5 journalists were killed and 39 attacks reported
  • In 2013, 8 journalists were killed and 19 physical attack on journalists in India
  • In 2014, zero journalists were killed and 8 physical attacks recorded by the same watchdog.
  • In 2015, 8 journalists killed and 30 instances of physical attacks against them reported.
  • 2016 to Apr 2017 saw 50 attacks and zero deaths.

So In 2012 and 2013, 13 journalists were killed and 58 attacks recorded. From 2015 to 2017, 8 journalists were killed and 80 attacks recorded. Can you find a sudden spike in post-Modi era?

Similar trend can be seen from data of an international organisation called Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The attacks against journalists were much higher in 2013, the pre-Modi era.

If you take the Press Freedom Index, India had a rank of 80 in 2002 and by 2014, when Modi era began, it was at 140. The 2017 ranking is 136. A sudden change in post-Modi era?

Now you can disagree or agree with these indices and rankings and even one attack is too many, the fact remains that, with objective data we have on hand, the NYT’s (and other “seculiberals”) blanket assertions that the situation has become worse after May 2014 is just another big bald faced lie.

Let us read more of the NYT brilliance:

“Praveen Swami, a reporter for The Indian Express newspaper, warned on Twitter that Monday’s raids were “a defining moment,” adding: “The last time this sort of thing happened was during the Emergency,” a reference to the strict censorship of 1975-77 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency and ruled as an autocrat.”

To an uninitiated American reading this, it sounds like  these two are of an equal gravity, they won’t know (but I expected the NYT editorial staff to know better), but during the Emergency, Indira government had censors sitting in the offices of newspapers, editing on the spot content, to ensure only what was approved by censors was printed.

Editors and journalists were outright arrested (the Roys are still out free, and not in jail) for going against the government. The control over the press was so tight that even a massacre in the heart of Delhi (Turkman gate massacre) was not reported by the Indian media. To equate raids for alleged criminal collusion and the draconian censorship and controlled during the emergency is not just false, it is downright dangerous.

In all this, the article does not say a word about the financial dealings (possibly illegal) of the Roys, nor does it mention the FEMA violations by the Roys, nor does it say a word about how NDTV and the Roys steadfastly refused to declare their investor details during the UPA era. Is it not journalistic propriety to cover all angles to a story?

But what would we know, we are not the great NYT.

NDTV under I-T scanner for concealing Rs 1600 crore income

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV under I-T scanner for concealing Rs 1600 crore income

The Income Tax Department is looking into undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 1600 crore relating to New Delhi Television. According to a DNA report, inquires in this regard were initiated by Income Tax authorities back in UPA days.

The report, quoting sources, suggest that the assessment of the concealed income of Rs 642.5 crore by NDTV Group and related companies was done in February, 2014. Re-assessment proceedings for concealment of income of Rs 403.85 crore was initiated against M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd owned by Prannoy and Radhika Roy.

In addition, the Reserve Bank of India has reportedly detected violation and contravention of several provisions of FEMA when the ND TV raised money to the tune of Rs 2030 crore. The Enforcement Directorate has issued a show cause notice to this effect.

It could be noted that NDTV had raised funds by floating a galaxy of shell companies. S Gurumurthy, in a cogent article in New Indian Express, had written that between 2006 and 2010, NDTV India had floated 20 wholly-owned subsidiaries in different parts of the world. While seven were based out of Mauritius, eight subsidiary companies were based in India, two were located in Netherlands, one each in London, UAE, and Sweden. Sources in the investigating agencies suggest that these companies had no real business, no employees and even no business premises.

These “letter-box companies”, which were wholly resting on the valuation of NDTV Ltd, together had raised $417 million. Of the $417 million, $267 million was invested by GE Corporation directly or indirectly. $310 million was raised through NDTV Network PLC UK and $117 million were raised via the sale of NDTV Imagine to GE Corporation.

The CBI, on June 9, raided the residence of NDTV promoters Mr and Mrs Prannoy Roy.

The CBI case against NDTV is related to a Rs 375 crore loan from ICICI Bank and a corresponding wrongful loss of Rs 46 crore to the bank that is alleged to have been a result of collusion between Roys and the ICICI officials. But behind this, there is also a chain of borrow, repay and borrow when Roys took a series of loans in 2008 as they sought to buy back a large chunk of NDTV shares from the market.

In December 2007, Roys had bought 7.73 per cent of NDTV shares from General Atlantic. Minority shareholders of NDTV were made an open offer to sell shares. To fund the purchase of shares that the minority shareholders wanted to sell, Roys created a company called RRPR Holdings Private Limited. RRPR borrowed Rs 501 crore from India Bulls Ltd.

To repay part of the India Bulls loan, RRPR borrowed Rs 375 crore from ICICI Bank in October 2008. In August 2009, RRPR found another lender called Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) to repay the ICICI loan. VCPL agreed to pay Rs 350 crore to RRPR in July, 2009.

RRPR’s balance sheets – filed before the Registrar of Companies in March, 2009 – however, showed that it had a loan of Rs 349,26,14,485 from ICICI Bank and an interest of Rs 17,21,80,697 on that loan. Between 31 March and 7 August, 2009 — when RRPR repaid ICICI after receiving the money from VCPL — an additional interest was accumulated and the bank therefore suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 48 crore.

Is BJD’s Jay Panda joining BJP just a matter of time now?

Saswat Panigrahi
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Is BJD’s Jay Panda joining BJP just a matter of time now?

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Lok Sabha MP from Kendrapara, Baijayant Panda is apparently set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to Republic TV, Panda, whose differences with Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik have widened in the recent past, may soon join the BJD.


Currently Panda is on UK tour where he is an international election observer on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Mission. However back home, the news of Panda’s possible joining the BJP has heat up the political temperature of Odisha.

Amid speculation that Panda is planning to join the BJP, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the saffron party welcomes all good people to its fold. “All good people are always welcome to the party with open arms. If they believe in the Prime Minister and the party’s national president Amit Shah’s leadership and support party ideology, they are welcome,” Pradhan told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

It could be noted that Baijayant Panda is a vocal supporter of PM Modi’s policies. Rising above the party line, Panda has showered praises at Modi on various occasions. In the recent times, Panda praised the Modi government for its demonetisation drive. Panda had praised the BJP recently after Uttar Pradesh election results too.

“As for BJP, despite being hard hit by anti-incumbency in Goa and Punjab its success in Uttar Pradesh was resounding, with a whopping 40% vote share. What distinguished its campaign was a resolute return to 2014’s development mantra,” Panda wrote in his monthly column in Times of India.

Panda, however, had defended his stand on BJP under Modi saying that he praises anyone who served the national interest and interests of Odisha.

At the same time, the Kendrapara Lok Sabha MP was open about his displeasure against his own party – the BJD. Following BJP’s unexpected rise and BJD’s downfall in the last Panchayat elections in Odisha, Panda had written an Op-Ed in leading daily ‘Samaj’ asking his party to do the soul searching.

“Key positions in the party are no longer held by those who struggle for the party and may have given honest feedback, but rather opportunist from various fields, including those who had worked against the BJD,” Panda had written.

That did not go down well with the BJD leadership. Months after the Op-Ed and his subsequent comments on social media over the need for course correction in the party, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik sacked him from the BJD Parliamentary Party spokesperson post without even citing any reason.

Recently, supporters of Odisha Health Minister Pratap Jena – who is known as Panda’s detractor – had hurled eggs, chhapals and stones at the Lok Sabha MP while he was launching a water tank project for 5.2 million litres of drinking water in his Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency.

Fissures are growing in the BJD over Baijyanta Panda. Panda has a strong clout in the party. If he switches side, many others will follow the suit. That is precisely the reason Naveen Patnaik was not able to take direct action against Panda.

At a time when the BJD sources maintain that Baijayant Panda’s camp is feeding the national media with feelers, Panda is yet to spell out his intent in as many as words. But this goes without saying that neither the BJD nor him are now comfortable with each other.

Given the context, Panda is best fitted into BJP’s scheme of things. But it is not conclusive when exactly he is switching sides. At a time the BJP looks to win the 2019 Assembly elections in Odisha, Baijayant Panda’s joining will certainly give the saffron party an edge.

But 2019 elections are full two years away. If Panda joins the BJP, he will lose his Lok Sabha membership and there would be a by-poll for the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat within six months of his possible resignation. Only after six months, Panda could be re-elected as a Lok Sabha MP from a BJP ticket.

Panda could be a minister in Narendra Modi Cabinet. Given his understanding on economic policies, he will certainly be an asset to the Modi government.

In politics, timing is always important. It remains to be seen when Panda is switching to the BJP.

Power fight between Telugu states intensifies – Telangana snaps power supply to Andhra

OpIndia Staff
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Power fight between Telugu states intensifies – Telangana snaps power supply to Andhra

The row over sale and purchase of electricity between the two Telugu states – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh – intensified with Telangana snapping power supply to Andhra Pradesh over Rs 1676. 46 crore of pending dues.

Chairman and managing director of Telangana Transco D Prabhakar Rao in a letter to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart stated that the power supply to Andhra Pradesh will be restored only after payment of the dues.

“We have requested for permanent and amicable settlement of dues between the two states and release Rs 1676.46 crore after netting off AP Genco dues against the amounts receivable by Telangana power utilities. Once the payments are made, supply of power to AP Discoms will be restored”, Rao said.

The move, which came just a day after Andhra Pradesh stopped power supply to Telangana over dues of around 4,440 crore rupees, is seen as a tit for tat. Telangana gets over 400 mw power from Andhra Pradesh on a daily basis.

“Telangana power utilities are also constrained to regulate power supply to AP Discoms from TS Genco stations due to the failure on the part of AP power utilities to pay the rightful dues to TS power utilities,” Rao said.

“Adverting to power regulation notice issued by AP and regarding power regulation to TS Discoms immediately, this is to inform you that on several occasions TS power utilities had requested AP power utilities to settle the issues affably by adjusting the AP Genco power bill against the dues payable by them to TS power utilities and release the net amount. But, the requests were unheeded by AP power officials and AP chose to isolate the claims of TS Dicoms and insist on payments only to AP Genco,” he added.

The dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over sharing electric power dates back the time when Telangana was carved out as a separate state from Pradesh in 2014. Power utilities of the two states –AP Genco and TS Discoms  – have pending dues against each other.

Telangana has been alleging that the electricity being offered by Andhra Pradesh is costlier and that is in violation of the AP Reorganisation Act. Andhra Pradesh, however, maintains that the tariff is in tune with the Act.

In a bid to resolve the power imbroglio, the Centre had earlier offered to play the mediator between the two states.

Andhra Pradesh has become power-surplus with the commissioning of 1,600MW Sri Damo-daram Sanjeevaiah supercritical thermal power project and 2,640MW project promoted by SembCorp Gayatri. Telangana is still a power deficit state.

It could be noted that even before the division of Andhra Pradesh, there were serious imbalances in the consumption and generation of power between Seemandhra  and Telangana regions. Telangana region, including the state capital of Hyderabad, reportedly consumed more power than the Seemandhra region, but was lagging in power generation.

Prannoy Roy blocks Malini Parthasarathy on Twitter for calling out ‘press freedom’ drama

OpIndia Staff
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Prannoy Roy blocks Malini Parthasarathy on Twitter for calling out ‘press freedom’ drama

Barely a couple of days after Malini Parthasarathy, the former Editor of left-leaning newspaper The Hindu expressed her opinion that NDTV was trying to ‘hide behind the shield of press freedom’ in wake of charges of financial wrongdoings against its promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, she has discovered that Prannoy Roy has blocked her on Twitter.


Blocking is an action on Twitter where you let a user know that you have no time or respect for his or her views, and your life is better without the user around. The other option is to ‘mute’ a Twitter user, which has somewhat similar effects, but blocking makes sure that the blocked user is not able to read your tweets and thus offer counter commentary to your views.

Malini Parthasarathy, who is also a Director in the company that publishes The Hindu, discovered that she was not welcome in Prannoy’s party a day after the NDTV founder had got together a group of ‘eminent’ people and journalists in Delhi to support NDTV and call for ‘unity’ among the journalists.

With Prannoy deciding to let Malini know in clear terms that her dissenting views were not agreeable to him, Malini also decided to let the world know that Prannoy’s call for unity and solidarity among the journalistic community had no credibility.

“If we as a journalistic fraternity, take umbrage at dissent within our group, what credibility is there for calls for solidarity?” Malini quipped with obvious reference to NDTV’s attempt of drumming up support by parading ‘eminent’ people and journalists.

She reiterated that NDTV crying ‘press freedom’ and ‘attack on democracy’ was not justified, and such attempts of blocking probe into news channel promoters’ financial dealings will actually lower the credibility of the press and journalists.


It is not for the first time when NDTV has ‘blocked’ journalists for daring to express opinions contrary to their own beliefs and positions. Former Editor of Outlook magazine Vinod Mehta had claimed that he was ‘banned’ from appearing on NDTV because his magazine carried the Radia tapes.

“Previously, I used to appear at least twice a week on NDTV. But since the Radia tapes story, I have never been invited. And frankly, I don’t miss it,” Mehta had revealed a few months before he passed away in March 2015.

Radia tapes not only contained conversation with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and the then NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt, but one of the tapes also had Radia telling another journalist that “we need to support Prannoy”.

Records suggest that within two weeks of this conversation that is supposed to have taken place in July 2009, NDTV received 350 crore rupees from a company that was owned by Reliance Industries Limited.

Interestingly, Prannoy Roy had decided to leave Twitter after Radia tapes came into public knowledge in November 2010. He tweeted more than 3 years later, and now he is so active on Twitter that he has blocked Malini Parthasarathy.

Apart from Vinod Mehta, Aditya Raj Kaul, currently a journalist with television news channel Republic TV, too had claimed that his views were ‘blocked’ by NDTV. Aditya holds anti-separatist views on Kashmir issue had been an activist in the ‘Justice for Priyadarshini Mattoo’ campaign before he became a full-time journalist.

“I was muted for the views on Kashmir which didn’t match the separatist-tilt of the editor,” Aditya had written in 2015, further adding a line that sums up the situation prevalent currently – “Irony just dies a little when those who ban important voices in a debate, narrative or any discourse, suddenly protest demanding ‘freedom of expression’.”

NIA moves to revoke Zakir Naik’s passport

OpIndia Staff
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NIA moves to revoke Zakir Naik’s passport

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is reportedly in the process of revoking the Indian passport issued to controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik who has been waging jihad through his poisonous lectures and speeches.

According to the Indian Express report, Naik holds Passport No -Z2200757 that was issued in Mumbai on May 13, 2011. His passport was renewed on 20 January, 2016 in Mumbai and a new passport was issued in his name bearing the number Z3606623 with a validity of 10 years.

NIA sources suggest that it was in September, 2012 that Zakir Naik obtained a status of Non-Resident Indian. He left India on 13 May this year and has not returned since then. Naik, who believed to be having permanent residence status in Malaysia, has reportedly applied for Malaysian citizenship. Intelligence sources suggest that Government of India is planning to use its diplomatic channels to block Zakir Naik’s attempts to get citizenship in any country. Malaysian authorities are aware about terror cases pending against Naik.

The NIA had approached the Interpol for issuance of a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Naik and sent the requisite documents to National Central Bureau (Interpol) NCB on May 11, 2017.

During the investigation, the NIA found that 37 properties owned by Naik and companies run by him are estimated to be worth more than Rs 100 crore. The Enforcement Directorate had attached properties of Zakir Naik-led Islamic Research Foundation worth Rs. 18.37 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Naik is found to have huge investments in various properties across Mumbai and Pune. The NIA has also reportedly traced a web of at least 11 companies incorporated by Naik with his family members and close aides as directors. NIA has also tracked the trail of financial transactions running into many crores through these companies and the bank accounts of his sister Nailah Noorani and his father Late Abdul Karim Naik. All these transactions took place in the last few years.

The NIA has registered a criminal case against Naik under Sections 153A of Indian Penal Code and Sections 10, 13 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The special NIA Court at Mumbai has issued a non-bailable warrant against Naik.

Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) has already been declared as an Unlawful Association by Government of India as per a notification dated November 17, 2016.

NIA sources suggest that Abu Anas, who has been chargesheeted in the “ISIS conspiracy case” registered by the NIA in 2015, had received a scholarship from Naik’s IRF for three consecutive years – from 2013 to 2015. Hyderabad-based Anas was allegedly part of a conspiracy linked to Junood-ul-Khalifa-fil-Hind, an ISIS-affiliated group.

Man files a Re 1 defamation suit against Kejriwal for making false accusations against him

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Man files a Re 1 defamation suit against Kejriwal for making false accusations against him

Ankit Bhardwaj, a BJP youth wing member has decided to file a civil defamation case against AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh for sharing his pictures online and claiming that he was the person who had slapped rebel AAP leader Kapil Mishra on 10th May, thus claiming that BJP acted to bring bad name to AAP.

In reality, another person named Ankit Bhardwaj had walked over to Kapil Mishra while the latter was on a hunger strike and started hitting him before Mishra’s supporters caught hold of him. The attacker was also shouting threats like, “Kapil Mishra has betrayed the party. He doesn’t deserve to live”. 

He was initially identified as an AAP volunteer in media reports, but the AAP leadership soon started circulating ‘evidence’ that claimed that Ankit Bhardwaj was actually a BJP worker out there to defame the party.

This was tweeted by AAP’s Social Media head Ankit Lal, and Kejriwal too re-tweeted a similar claim:

screenshots
Screenshot via India Samvad

Even AAP’s official page decided to peddle this version using Sanjay Singh’s ‘expose’:

This whole orchestra of the AAP though soon fell apart however.

The attacker Ankit Bhardwaj who had assaulted Mishra was soon taken into police custody. While he was in custody, the Ankit Bhardwaj associated with the BJP came in front of the media and blasted AAP for defaming him. Media reports claimed that both the attacker Ankit Bhardwaj and his father had confessed to the police that he had been working for AAP since the last 2 years.

The BJP’s Ankit Bhardwaj wasn’t taking things lightly and sent a legal notice on 12th May to Kejriwal and Sanjay Singh asking them to apologize and state the truth on social media plus in a press conference within two days.

Kejriwal and co were in no mood to comply and this initially prompted Ankit to file a criminal defamation case on 26th May. He has now followed it up with a civil defamation suit worth only Re 1, which he filed at a Delhi court.

Ankit had reportedly assessed the total damages incurred by him to be Rs 1 crore but he reportedly had no knowledge of either Kejriwal or Sanjay Singh having any valuable assets, hence he decided to limit his claim to only a symbolic Re 1.

Kejriwal is already reeling under a criminal defamation suit worth Rs 10 crores which was filed by BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Kejriwal then had hired noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani to fight his case but the latter’s defense ended up heaping another defamation case on him.

Find out what happened when Pakistani envoy to US said Pak was ‘no safe haven for terrorists’

OpIndia Staff
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Find out what happened when Pakistani envoy to US said Pak was ‘no safe haven for terrorists’

Pakistan ambassador to the US Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry made a fantastical claim at a Washington DC audience by insisting that there were no safe sanctuaries for terrorists in Pakistan. Chaudhry was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Regional perspectives on the US strategy in Afghanistan’ at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, Washington DC on Wednesday.

“Terrorism under any pretext is not acceptable to us (Pakistan),” Chaudhry said.

Though diplomacy is all about keeping a poker face even when such claims are being made, the other panelists and the audience could not hold themselves and burst into laughter on his claims.

A visibly irritated Chaudhry reportedly said, “What is so funny about this?”

“What sanctuaries you are talking about? If you want to live in the past, you cannot solve the present. Haqqani and the Taliban are not our friends. They are not our proxies. What Quetta Shura you are talking about? What Peshawar Shura?” the Pakistani ambassador desperately tried to justify his claims.

He went on to say that Pakistan wishes to see a peaceful, stable, prosperous, and sovereign Afghanistan. He added that that Mullah Omar – who died in a hospital in Karachi – never left Afghanistan.

The audience continued to be amused.

Reactions were not limited to amusement and laughter though. The former US diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who had served as his country’s ambassador to Afghanistan, tore into Chaudhry’s claims in a point by point rebuttal.

“We have very firm evidence of his (Mullah Omar) presence in Pakistan, where he went, lived, hospitalized,” Khalilzad said, adding that for a long time there was the idea that Osama bin Laden never left Afghanistan.

Former Indian minister Manish Tewari and top American think-tank expert Ashley Tellis too joined Khalilzad saying that terrorist safe havens continue to exist in Pakistan and there is sizable support from Pakistani establishment to run the terror factory.

Tewari said it is time that Pakistan should introspect as to why the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who went to Rawalpindi to meet the Pakistan Army Chief has turned against Pakistan. Tellis said while the safe havens continue to exist in Pakistan and there is no denying that the Taliban leadership are based in Pakistan.

Afghan diplomat, Muhammad Asad, and Afghan woman journalist Nazira Karimi also challenged Chaudhry’s claim about terrorist safe haven.

“Our allegation is evidence based,” Asad said adding that it is time for the US to look the other way around. Karimi referred to the allegations of US lawmakers about continued terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.

It is not known if the Pakistani envoy later locked himself in the hotel room to either laugh or cry.

How media created fake controversy about BJP calling for a ‘ban on Momos’

Hemant Bijapurkar
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How media created fake controversy about BJP calling for a ‘ban on Momos’

News had broken in various media outlets yesterday about BJP legislator Ramesh Arora of Jammu and Kashmir calling for a ban on Momos due to the health hazards associated with them. Arora has reportedly been demanding a ban on Momos in J&K for about 5 months.

A section of journalists soon latched on to the news reports and proclaimed this demand to be in line with their accusation that the BJP wishes to regulate the food habits of Indians.

A couple of them also attributed the demand of a single BJP legislator as the view of the whole party:


A few media outlets too decided to go hyperbolic and wrote reports titled:

The poison is not in the Momo but BJP’s food politics

Going by the reactions it looked as if the BJP legislator Ramesh Arora had some personal grudge against the Chinese, and thus ‘their food’, and had based his demand on some loony logic. But by just reading the whole article, people would have come to know that the legislator’s demands were backed via a strong scientific logic.

As it turn out, the BJP legislator has since long been a strong advocate against all Chinese food available on Indian streets which use the unhealthy mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) or Ajinomoto as an ingredient. According to the legislator, the MSG’s regular consumption was known to cause serious diseases including cancer and was deadlier than psychotropic drugs.

The news report also cemented Arora’s claims by stating that the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Institute in a 2007 study had concluded that MSG caused cancer and the WHO too had declared it unsafe. The report also had made it clear that Arora was not against Chinese food and was all in favor of their consumption, provided they were cooked safely.

Even though the BJP was being ridiculed for wanting a ‘ban’, the critics had failed to mention that the Congress too had called for a ban on Chinese street food containing MSG in 2015 and had pressurized the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to ban the sale of Chinese food outside Mumbai schools.

According to distinguished scientist Anand Ranganathan who brought the whole episode to outraging people’s attention, the ban on MSG containing Chinese food won’t be logical as the Indian Food and Drug Administration has not yet banned MSG but all the food items which make use of this ingredient should have a disclosure regarding them using this ingredient.

He also commented on how even though the FDA hadn’t yet banned the ingredient, the Congress still got Chinese food banned in Mumbai using its pretext.

On a lighter and healthier note, amidst this all outrage created by a headline-and-BJP-hunting media, one guy summed up the media reporting:


Congress leader who threatened to kill Modi warns of ‘joint action’ by Dalits and Muslims

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader who threatened to kill Modi warns of ‘joint action’ by Dalits and Muslims

Imran Masood, the Congress leader from Western Uttar Pradesh, who had threatened to chop off Narendra Modi into pieces, has now threatened of forceful agitations by Dalits and Muslims against Yogi Adityanath government.

Masood issued this warning while reacting to the arrest of Chandrashekhar, chief of the militant outfit Bhim Army, which was one of the parties to the recent caste clashes between Thakurs and Dalits in Saharanpur, which left a Thakur dead and houses of dozens of Dalits burnt.

Sniffing an opportunity to widen the caste conflict and exploit the social fault-lines – which incidentally is the declared official policy of Pakistan with respect to its internecine war against India – Masood announced support for Bhim Army. It should be noted that Mayawati’s BSP, which openly indulges in Dalit politics, had distanced itself from Bhim Army after Saharanpur violence.

But it looks like Congress has now decided to align itself with the outfit, with Masood warning the local administration and Yogi government of ‘dire consequences’ if Chandrashekhar was ‘denied justice’. Masood openly communalised the issue and declared that the issue was now about Muslims being with the Dalits.

Masood is reported to have warned that if Chandrasekhar was ‘mistreated’ by police, there would be serious and unpleasant consequences. It should be noted that Masood has been booked for rioting and attempts to murder in various cases earlier.

Congress too has supported Masood’s stand on the issue. “Imran is our leader and we support the stand that he has taken locally,” Uttar Pradesh Congress President Raj Babbar is reported to have said.

It is worth recalling that Masood was given an important role in the Congress party ahead of the last assembly elections despite his controversial past and Islamist streak. It appears that now he has been given the responsibility of being the architect of ‘Dalit-Muslim unity’.

The proverbial Dalit-Muslim unity to defeat ‘caste Hindus’ has been one of the longest running project of anti-Hindu ecosystem. This was tried during the independence struggle as well with some Dalit leaders supporting creation of Pakistan thinking Dalits will be better off with Muslims.

However, the reality of this ‘unity’ was soon exposed after Dalit leader Jogendra Nath Mandal, an associate of Bhim Rao Ambedkar and the first Law Minister of Pakistan, resigned from his post and migrated to India as he discovered that the only way an Islamist can live in peace with a non-Muslim is if the latter converts to Islam.

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