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Rajdeep Sardesai’s moral compass points away from communal riots in West Bengal

Editorial Desk
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Rajdeep Sardesai’s moral compass points away from communal riots in West Bengal

If you are on Twitter, you already know that Rajdeep Sardesai is a celebrity television journalist, an avid seller of his book on the 2014 elections, the husband of Sagarika Ghose, and the custodian of “moral compass”.

His moral compass is basically an outrage meter that points to the levels of outrage that one must indulge over any news, especially the ones dealing with Hindu-Muslim issues.

This compass mandates that you must outrage like hell and be ashamed as a society when a Muslim man is killed allegedly for eating beef, but should keep quiet and tweet a good night song when a Muslim woman, her unborn kid, and her husband are killed by her brothers, just because the woman had married a Hindu (two instances in two months).

This moral compass is like a totem in the movie Inception – you use it to know the truth (in Rajdeep Sardesai’s dreamworld). People who behave in accordance with this moral compass are secular compassionate humans while those straying away from it are communal bloodthirsty bigots.

These days, Rajdeep Sardesai finds such communal bloodthirsty bigots in anyone who brings up the issue of communal skirmishes in West Bengal, where Hindus are often at the receiving end.

According to various reports, the Islamists in the state have become emboldened due to appeasement policy of the ruling TMC led by Mamata Banejree, and thus they often violently show their might. There have been many cases, such as this one, which was blacked out by the media.

But while this could appear nightmare for those who are suffering, Rajdeep Sardesai’s dreamworld says that these incidents simply don’t exist. His totem – the moral compass – tells him that there is no need to outrage or feel ashamed.

A clip has now emerged on the social media where Rajdeep becomes aggressive and denies any atrocity being meted to Hindus in West Bengal when a caller asks him to report about the same:

Listen to the clip again – Rajdeep Sardesai is following his moral compass. He knows that there is documentary proof – he himself brings up Zee News reports that show violence by Islamists – but he discredits the proofs to push his own agenda.

So here is a celebrity journalist who has decided that there is nothing to outrage over what is happening in West Bengal. He will reject any proof as motivated and false. And he will term those questioning him as people who want riots:


With such a moral compass, which unfortunately is shared by most of the mighty and powerful in the mainstream media, can we ever hope to know the truth of what is happening in West Bengal? We shouldn’t be trusting WhatsApp messages claiming large scale death and destruction blindly, but what options are we left with if the mainstream media is blinded by this “moral compass”?

And Rajdeep Sardesai, if you are so confident that all is well, why don’t you go visit those areas yourself. After all you flew thousands of miles away to Montenegro to interview Lalit Modi. This time you won’t even need a visa, because West Bengal is not Bangladesh, yet.

Assam govt announces a long list of incentives if one transacts digitally

OpIndia Staff
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Assam govt announces a long list of incentives if one transacts digitally

After the Modi Government has made clear its intention to steer the economy towards a digital one, incentives were announced by the Central government in the hope of egging the average Indian consumer to conduct his transactions online.

Central govt’s list of incentives

Inspired by the Central government’s measures the Assam government announced a slew of measures which would compound the benefits of the consumers in Assam if they choose to transact digitally. State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who holds important portfolios like finance, planning and development, health and family welfare, and education, announced these measures in a press conference on Monday.

Here’s a list of them, all the incentives are applicable only for digital transactions which come under the state of Assam:

  1. Apart from the 0.75% discount on Petrol and Diesel, the Assam Government would provide an additional cashback of 1.5%.
  2. A 10% discount on property tax & trade license fee and for any loss incurred for the same, the state government would compensate the Urban local bodies.
  3. FPS would be incentivised: ₹ 10,000 award for 100% digital payment. If there are more than 10 claimants, selection would be done by lottery.
  4. GPSS would be incentivised: ₹ 25,000 award if 100% digital payments done continuously.
  5. CM’s Award for Assam Rural Digital Initiative ’16-17 and ₹ 50,000 for a rural bank branch if 75% users do minimum 2 digital transactions between Jan-Mar 17.
  6. Villages with 100% electronic transactions till Mar 31,’17 to be given ₹ 5 lakh and CM Award for Uttam Panchayat for Digital transactions.
  7. A CM Award plus ₹ 5000 cash would be given to the 1st 10 farmers in each district who conduct all their fertilizers and transactions digitally  from 1st Jan ’17 to 15th July ’17.
  8. ₹ 100 per labourer would be provided as incentive to tea estate for digital payment of wages between Jan-Mar 17.
  9. ₹ 5 per ticket to be given to cinema hall owners for online sale of tickets through digital payment between Jan-March’17.
  10. If govt or private colleges make regular payments/receipts digitally between 1 Jan- 15 July, top 10 colleges would get ₹ 5 lakh each.
  11. If 75% of total land revenue is collected digitally from Jan 1-July 15, top 10 Mauzadars would be given cash award of ₹ 25,000.
  12. Entry tax for POS machines, VSAT Dish antennae, mobile WiFi would be exempted up to 31 March 2017.
  13. A cash incentive of ₹ 5 to in addition to ₹ 10 already announced by Niti Aayog would be provided for citizens who migrate to digital payment mode.
  14. A Digital District Championship Award and ₹ 50,000 for District Collectors who would contribute significantly to capacity building, digital transactions, brand building, sustainability of less cash economy in a district up to 31st March.
  15. 10% off on hospital bills in Government hospitals for amounts exceeding ₹ 500 if paid digitally.

On top of it a directive was issued that all taxes under the Commissionerate of Taxes need to be deposited only digitally if tax amount is ₹ 10,000 or more.

Demonetization and Velocity of Money – something overlooked by many

OpIndia Staff
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Demonetization and Velocity of Money – something overlooked by many

The CA from Gujarat, whose open letter to Kejriwal wherein he tried to explain to the ex-IRS officer and AAP Supremo the logic behind the Government’s introduction of Rs 2000 note, has now attempted to highlight an important impact of Demonetization: Velocity of Money-

The following Video shall reveal some very Interesting stuff about Money and give the readers some delightful food for thought…!

Points to Ponder upon after Watching the above Video…

Money on the move has no fixed abode. From one wallet to another, from one shopper to the next, from one bank account to another, that is the life of money. But curiously, many of us want to cling on to every bit of money that we may have.

It is the greatest myth that Cash is like any other asset. In-fact, Cash was never meant to be kept as a commodity but it was always meant to be used as a “medium of exchange” for goods and services to be received. Have you ever come across of an investment in Cash kept in locker/home grow or provide returns ?

This is because Cash/Money in Bank has a peculiar feature:

A Single Note of Rs. 1000 is worth Rs. 10,00,000/- if it passes through 1000 citizens across the country in a year and is worth only Rs. 1000 if it is kept idle in a locker. This is called the Velocity of money. As the Velocity of money through banking channels increases, so will the tax collections from the said money. All the taxes which were earlier evaded by keeping the trail out of the economy, will now be recovered. And because money keeps travelling, taxes will be collected at each stage, thus giving a ripple effect to one act.

This is not the case for any other asset, lets say Machinery! If a single Machine is transferred through 12 people in a year, it will still give almost the same level of production.

The million dollar question then is “Will demonetisation help to increase the velocity of money ?”

“Velocity of money” is a term used to denote the number of times a unit of money in an economy changes hands during a certain period. By ‘money’, it does not mean the cash that we exchange in day-to-day transactions. Instead it is broad money where you also include bank deposits, post office savings and other bits and pieces of financial savings.

It is true that the economy may surely be benefited if the “Velocity of Money” increases and theoretically the move of demonetization and move towards cashless economy should help to increase the Velocity of Money but it cannot be proved with certainty because we never knew the velocity of money in parallel economy because those transactions were never captured in accounts or public records.

We do not really know the ‘rate of corruption’ in India or how fast corrupt Indians churn cash. Probably a black money holder would be interested in moving cash into consumption quite quickly, in which case this statistic would be higher. Or if black money holders are keener to stuff all their black cash under carpets or lockers and refrain from spending them too frequently, then it will be a smaller number. Thus we just don’t know what the macroeconomic effect of demonetization is going to be. It’s something we’ve just got to wait and see about.

Mathematically, Velocity of money is a derived statistics which can be arrived by dividing the value of GDP with the value of money in circulation. As an analogy, the sudden lowering of GDP due to demonetization can be offset if simultaneously we can increase the velocity of money.

However, the task of the Government as well as citizens is not going to be easy because as I said earlier , Cash leaves no trails. Hence it is in the interest of the Government as well as we common man to adopt to cashless means of doing business and encourage everyone to use banking route as much as possible.

 

This article first appeared here and has been enhanced with extra inputs.

How Kejriwal would have dealt with demonetisation to emerge as a hero

Aditya (reviewero)
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How Kejriwal would have dealt with demonetisation to emerge as a hero

Doing anything carries the grave risk of criticism and failure. This is one reason why “do-nothing” has been the bedrock belief of Indian politics for 70 years. Do-nothing, fail at nothing. But doing nothing needs a cloak.

For 70 years, Indian politicians have perfected that cloak; that cloak is – find someone to blame for doing nothing as the consequence of you doing nothing, but present it as the reason for you doing nothing. From “opposition ki saazish” to “foreign hand“, the template has been perfected by Indian politicians on blaming someone for doing nothing.

Or not perfected, really; send a Lalu Prasad to IIT and the end product is bound make his own contribution to the process no matter how perfect you thought it was.

Enter Kejriwal, from the days of IAC to this day, he has been working tirelessly on the art of blaming to avoid doing anything. It was UPA then, it was Modi later, it was Jung after that, then it was Delhi police, and then bureaucracy.

Modi’s demonetisation has been a let down on the implementation front. Its timing and maybe even the idea itself can be questioned, and Modi is and will be facing tough questions and heat over demonetisation. But surprisingly, instead of the tried and tested “pass the buck and blame someone else” tactic, Modi has chosen to take blame upon himself if demonetisation fails.

It is a ridiculous strategy for me as an avid Kejriwal admirer. First, Modi actually did something, and then to make it worse, he is accepting responsibility for the consequence! With this mammoth change in expected behavior, Modi has brought shame to the art of political blame-game.

To sort this mess, I tried imagining how the post demonetisation scene would look like if Shri Kejriwal ji were our Prime Minister. What would he do once things don’t go the way originally thought? What would neutral-er-than-Helium journalists like Barkha Dutt do?

I hope Mr. Modi reads it and course corrects to standard Indian political tactics before he does permanent damage to our political system by introducing the concepts of accountability and responsibility.

1. This is how Kejriwal ji would react on Twitter when media wakes up to deaths in queues, if it ever does under his regime.

First pass of the buck to subordinates:

2. Sisodia would waste no time in picking the buck and passing it on, even more masterfully to babus:

3. Media would feel a sudden moment of validation; action or not, they will be happy Kejriwal ji read their headline.

The ‘why the deaths happened’, the ‘what action has been taken part’ part will be scheduled to be asked on another day – or life, preferably. Everything will be fine again.

4. But there is Zee News. They will get mischievous and post news articles about cash crunch. In response, AAP and their ace set designers and cinematographers would spring into action and click perfect pics for Finance Minister Sisodia to post on social media, pics that show everything is fine in the world, again.

The good media will lap up the pics with retweets and cross posts screaming “KUDOS for the great work Manish! Congrats!”

5. But no rebuttal will be complete without AAP’s tribute to Goebbels and Photoshop, so this guy, the most hardworking in this do-nothing chain will tweet this:

6. Meanwhile, Kejriwal will dig new escape tunnels in case the others fail. Pointing a problem that can’t be verified and then going with an impossible solution will make sure nothing gets done in the safest way:

7. Ashutosh will distract everyone saying something that will make everyone’s mind numb for weeks. Before they figure what struck them, the whole game is over or we would have found bigger villains to blame:

8. Then it’d be the chance of the babus to catch the buck. First they will be forbidden from talking to media and then lambs would be sacrificed in a sacred ceremony:

9. Impossible to meet requests will be sent to highest authorities that can be undermined. The best part about ridiculous demands is that you’ll know they can’t be met. Then you can do-nothing by blaming someone else in authority:

10. Now that we have established villains (who have no swords to fight back), it’s time to drop your sword (since you know it’s safe as the villains don’t have a sword) and be the victim. The gallery loves a martyr:

11. Almost there, let’s get people involved in the drama. It’s not over till people forget their problem and your problem IS their problem, it’s not over till they say Bhagwan mere Arvind ko salamat rakhna:

12. But then out of nowhere Babus will spring a surprise and flash a toothpick thinking it’s a sword:

13. The climax is coming, in a battle of doing-nothing, the one who does absolutely anything loses and the babus will end up doing something:

14. But there will be a jury, and the jury as unbiased as ever, will invalidate the use of brutal toothpicks against an armed opponent

15. The final battle will begin. Our hero will make the final call to the people, the villain will be surrounded by all sides, it’ll have nowhere to run:

16. And that is when our Queen will step out of her throne, call on our hero after having won the battle against the bad guys, knight him and thank him for saving the kingdom, one more time by doing-nothing.

And that’s how an ugly situation for our hero would turn into a fairy tale. And everyone lives happily ever after. Except that none of the problems actually go way, but that is beside the point, a fairy tale is supposed to distract you, and this one will distract the plebeians just fine.

So the moot question still is, why is Mr. Narendra Modi taking blame for the demonetisation failure, if it happens, on himself when he can easily be a do-nothing and blame someone who can’t defend themselves? Maybe blame your team, and still be the knight in the shining armour?

Is it true that Modi suffers from a disease worse than accountability and responsibility? Something that can inflict even greater damage to our political system? Is he trying to introduce another alien concept in our political system called leadership?

Shocking if true.

Social Media calls out Media’s political correctness in reporting Berlin Attack

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Social Media calls out Media’s political correctness in reporting Berlin Attack

Just as the world was coping with the on camera assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, news broke of another terrorist attack, this time in Berlin where an unknown attacker drove a truck through a busy street in a Christmas market killing 12 pedestrians and injuring 48.  The attacker in this case is being reported as a Pakistani refugee. This attack is eerily similar to what happened this July in Nice, France where a similar ‘truck’ claimed the lives of 87 people. Soon the media started coming out with headlines which implied that the truck caused this incident out of its own will and refrained from giving any inking that it was a terrorist attack let alone try find out if the attack had any links to a particular religion.

Soon social media users noticed how main stream media reports were being framed and took to twitter to call out the highly politically correct position taken by the main stream media.

CNN which had recently faced ire after leaking its questions to Hillary Clinton, looked like getting into another controversy:


When the media dismisses a guilty confession coming out of an under trial’s mouth as falsehood:


If such reporting continues then some lorries might end up going to jail:


Some satirically tried to point out the hypocrisy of the media:


Even while blaming the attack on a vehicle the media was confused if it was a truck or a lorry which carried out the attack. And yes there’s a difference:


BBC was still hoping that it was all an accident:


Maybe from now on there would also be a distinction made between good trucks and bad trucks:


Finally CBS went so politically correct that it called the Christmas market where the attack happened as a ‘holiday market’:

How China played a double game during the liberation of Goa

Hemant Bijapurkar
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How China played a double game during the liberation of Goa

India got independence in 1947 from the British empire but not the entire India – as we know it today – was part of the British empire back then. The state of Goa and the union territories of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu were under Portuguese rule and they continued being so even after 15th August 1947.

Among these, Dadra and Nagar Haveli was the first one to declare independence from Portugal, when in 1954, members of Azad Gomantak Dal, National Movement Liberation Organisation (NMLO), United Front of Goans (UFG) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked police posts and liberated the territory, forming a virtually independent country that later integrated into India in 1961 along with Goa and Daman & Diu.

1961 was the year when India decided to liberate the remaining Portuguese colonies i.e. Goa and Daman & Diu and integrate them into the Indian union. Just like Operation Polo was launched in 1948 to bring the State of Hyderabad under Indian control, Operation Vijay was launched by the Indian Army on 18th December 1961 to finally end the Portuguese occupation of these territories for good.

After the resounding success of the operation, the world’s reaction was diverse. Some saw it as a country breaking itself of the shackles of western imperialism, while others saw it as a country using military force to fulfill its political objectives.

Towing expected lines, the Soviet Union wholeheartedly supported India’s action while the US condemned it. What stood out was China’s reaction. As put out in a paper published at Stanford (pdf link), China sent mixed signals:

The Chinese government stressed its “resolute support” for the struggle of the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America against “imperialist colonialism”. However, the Hong Kong Communist newspaper Ta Kung Pao (regarded as reflecting the views of the Peking Government) described the attack on Goa as “a desperate attempt by Mr. Nehru to regain his sagging prestige among the Afro-Asian nations.”

The Chinese government’s unofficial propaganda newspaper, which was published first, was critical of Operation Vijay wherein it stated that Jawarlal Nehru chose to annex Goa in desperation to recover his sagging prestige. But on the 19th of December 1961, the official statement of the Chinese government praised the move by stating its support for the people against imperialist colonialism.

Such an ambivalent response by China towards the issue was perhaps due to its relations with India that was strained after India welcomed the Dalai Lama into the country after his exile from Tibet in 1959. Plus other disputes like the border disputes in 1960 and India’s forward policy had ensured that all was not well between New Delhi and Peking.

The liberation of Goa has also been dubbed as one of the justifications by China for going to war with India the following year in 1962. After declaring liberation of Goa a struggle against imperialism, the same Chinese government took a u-turn and cited it as an example of expansionist designs of India, against which China had to defend itself!

While China’s u-turn as well as the first “unofficial” criticism can be explained on the basis of strained relationship between the two nations due to border and other disputes, what explains the initial support they offered? A theory suggests that the initial positive response of the Chinese government was just a guile by China to lure India and Pandit Nehru into a sense of security over the Indo-China relations.

IIT-BHU startup creates a water filtration solution that considerably reduces water wastage

Rahul Raj
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IIT-BHU startup creates a water filtration solution that considerably reduces water wastage

We all are aware about the water scarcity problems in metro cities. You may be surprised to know that most of the RO purifiers waste almost 75% of water intake to produce 25% purified output.

The rate at which water requirements are rising and water tables are depleting in metros, the future looks scary. While working for a water purifier company in Delhi, NCR in 2014, this poor water purifying ratio of RO irked Naveen so much that he decided to work and add efficiency to the process.

Naveen Kumar is a B. Tech graduate from IIT BHU. After realizing various shortcomings of modern RO purification systems, Naveen and his batchmate Rohit Kumar Mittal decided to develop a new working model in the space. Naveen told OpIndia.com that the duo decided to focus on:

1. Water Wastages

2. Cost Effectiveness

3. Electricity Consumption

In 2014, the duo presented their first prototype to Malaviya Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE), IIT-BHU.

Aquvio, under the mentor-ship of MCIIE and with the tagline पयो: रित रंतम्| (Water conserve the conservator), has been winning awards since then. Few days back, Zee News covered the work which Aquvio team is working.

As shared by Naveen during our conversation, with limited resources, Aquvio team has been doing better than existing RO players.

Comparison of Aquvio and existing RO players

In July, Aquvio was shortlisted among the top 20 semi-finalists in the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP)-India Chapter. Aquvio also got a startup recognition from Start up India and Stand up India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of India.

However, Naveen also expressed his disappointment for not getting enough support from private bodies as well as from the government. As per Naveen, the rules mandates central government, state governments and the PSUs to procure at least 20% from the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME). When Aquvio team approaches government offices to talk about installation of their system, they get nothing more than another delayed dates. Despite this, Naveen and his team are optimistic about the future.

IT head of AAP maligns Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, in a bid to split Army on political lines

OpIndia Staff
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IT head of AAP maligns Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, in a bid to split Army on political lines

These days, whenever there is a big political fight, Arvind Kejriwal and his minions ensure that by hook or by crook they drag the mess to the lowest level. We had earlier shown how Arvind Kejriwal and AAP lied brazenly repeatedly on various issues. When the Supremo shows the way, how can the minions stay behind?

Ankit Lal, the social media head of AAP and close associate of Kejriwal, is well-known for his deceitful tricks.

Ankit Lal with mentor Kejriwal

As soon as news about the elevation of Lt General Bipin Rawat as India’s next Army Chief broke, Kejriwal along with social media team of AAP jumped to use lies and innuendo to muddle up the situation, as we had exposed here.

But Kejriwal and his supporters didn’t stop with caste and communal flare, they also brought regionalism to worsen the discourse:

Keeping the front of communal mudslinging open, the social-media team of AAP started pushing new sets of vicious rumours. The social media wing of AAP innovated farcical connections between Rawat’s family and BJP, so that political attacks become easy.



Lt. General Bipin Rawat, a highly decorated officer, was born in a family with strong army background. His father L S Rawat retired from the army as a Lt. General. Sadly, Aam Aadmi Party which has often been in limelight for using army for electoral gains, didn’t opt to for a fact-check before targeting the future Army chief.

Of all the MPs who have ever won from BJP, no one looks like grandfather of Lt. General Rawat, at least on the paternal side.

A rational guy doesn’t even need to look at the data. BJP was established in 1980 and Lt. Gen Rawat is already 57 years old. His grandfather winning from BJP was sarcastically countered by the twitterati too.


It is depressing to see the kind of precedents set by AAP. After their anti-Army stand post surgical strikes, the party is toeing communal and political angle against the Army. In its bid to attack the Government and Modi, AAP has not even spared the army and is trying to create all sorts of communal, regional and even political divide amongst the ranks of the army.

AAP, a party which came into existence on the pretexts of clean politics, is not only spreading filth in politics, but misguiding its followers to believe into rumours and lies. Now the onus is on its supporters to either oppose the filth or blindly support the party under the illusion of clean politics.

Congress govt in Uttarakhand gives special break to Muslim employees for Friday prayers

OpIndia Staff
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Congress govt in Uttarakhand gives special break to Muslim employees for Friday prayers

The Uttarakhand government on Saturday announced its decision to provide a 90 minutes break for its Muslim employees, so that they are be able to attend the Friday prayers. This decision was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister and Congress leader Mr Harish Rawat.

Incidentally, the announcement came a few days after the BJP government in Assam had announced that the government run Madrasas would not be allowed to observe Friday as a weekly holiday, as Sunday was the only government recognised weekly holiday.

Since Madarsas are religion specific, the Assam government’s Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a 60 min break would be given for prayers on Friday, but Madarsa teachers won’t be allowed a special holiday on Friday because the government rules have to be the same across sections.

There have been some protests by Madarsas over this, but the Assam government has made it clear that government aided Madarsas won’t be allowed to make rules for themselves superseding government rules.

This is not for the first time that a BJP government is asking Madarsas to fall in line with government rules and regulations. Last year, the Maharashtra government had de-recognized those Madarsas that imparted only religious education and did not teach formal subjects like Maths and Science.

While the BJP governments are taking steps to bring uniformity among government run or aided institutions, the Congress government in contrast has introduced a special rule that does away with uniformity among government employees by providing special treatment based on religion.

Since the state goes to polls next year, the decision by the Congress government in Uttarakhand is being seen as a ploy to garner Muslim votes – something the party thinks can be secured by pandering to religious sentiments alone.

BJP, as expected, termed it an example of appeasement policy of Congress. The party wondered if the state government will allow similar breaks for members of the Hindu community:



While it heated up politics in the state, on Twitter, people got some opportunity to make jokes:

How religion was dragged in after announcement of new Army Chief

OpIndia Staff
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How religion was dragged in after announcement of new Army Chief

Seniority has been the norm when it comes to appointments in the armed forces, though there have been occasions when this norm has been broken.

The most recent case taking place two years back in 2014, when the then UPA government decided to overlook seniority and appointed R K Dhowan as the Navy Chief, superseding Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha. An anguished Sinha had put his papers, presumably as a mark of protest.

In case of the Indian Army, such a precedent is very old and it happened in 1983, when the then Congress government of Indira Gandhi appointed Arun Vaidya as the Army Chief superseding Lt Gen S K Sinha.

There are arguments both in favour and against this norm. As an earlier article on OpIndia.com had argued, overlooking seniority would mean subjective definitions of “merit”, which could further be impacted by politics, while others believe that seniority could be overlooked if the domain expertise is more relevant e.g. someone with counter-insurgency experience could be promoted out of turn if the Army needs such a person at the helm at particular point of time.

Yesterday, the government announced its decision to appoint Lt General Bipin Rawat as the country’s next Army Chief, superseding three officers viz. Lt Generals, Praveen Bakshi and P M Hariz and BS Negi. The decision was soon turned into a political controversy.

Manish Tewari of the Congress party, which broke the norms twice as we saw earlier, was among the first one to protest it without any sense of irony:


But thing turned absurd when assorted people with connections to the Congress and some media houses started giving religious colour to the whole issue because one of the superseded officers was a Muslim. A couple of such tweets are:

When Congress and some journalists are taking the lead, how can Arvind Kejriwal be behind? So he too jumped in with his contribution by spreading the tweet of the journalist who failed to see beyond religion in the army:

This was followed by repetition of the same charge by countless trolls and journalists affiliated to Congress and AAP.

Obviously it didn’t matter to them that facts were not in their favour. And the fact is, that Lt Gen. Hariz was would have retired before Lt Gen. Bakshi even if the seniority norm was followed. So essentially he would not have become the Army Chief anyway:


Indian Armed forces have always guarded themselves against such religious claptrap. They had earlier refused calls to create caste or religion based units or allow religious surveys in their ranks. But it seems that some political parties and journalists won’t rest till Army is dragged in communal politics.

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