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Varun Gandhi’s alleged Honey-trap, Karma and the UP elections

OpIndia Staff
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Varun Gandhi’s alleged Honey-trap, Karma and the UP elections

The year is 1978. Jagjivan Ram, the then Defence Minister in the Janata Party government, was a powerful opponent of Indira Gandhi, whose party had just lost the elections. It was said that Ram even had a chance of becoming the first ever Dalit Prime Minister.

On the other side we had Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of Indira, and the editor of a magazine named “Surya”. In a case of political vendetta, explicit pictures of Jagjivan Ram’s son Suresh Ram, in a compromising position with a 21-year-old Delhi University student, were splashed across the centrespread of the magazine.

Cut to the present, Maneka Gandhi must be praying to the heavens hoping that there is no Surya Magazine in present times.

Maneka’s son Varun Gandhi is at the centre of a controversy over allegations that he had leaked defence secrets to controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma. It has been alleged that Verma “blackmailed” Gandhi, who was a member of the defence consultative committee, into sharing sensitive information on crucial military deals.

US-based C Edmonds Allen, an international arms dealer and lawyer, whose earlier complaints had led to investigation of arms dealer Abhishek Verma, has written to the PMO that Varun Gandhi has been “honey trapped and compromised” by Verma. Allen’s letter is said to be accompanied by a compact disc containing hundreds of intimate photos of Gandhi, collected since 2002.

Varun on his part has squarely denied the claims, for lack of any evidence, and has threatened a law-suit for defamation. He claims to have met Abhishek Verma only during his post-graduation days in 2002, and not after that.

Through a public letter to citizens, Varun has further claimed that he “never attended a single meeting of the Defence Consultative Committee” and thus he neither sought nor possessed any information or knowledge of any sensitive information. He also denies meeting Allen ever, and claims that the letter could be a publicity stunt by Allen. He doesn’t mention the pictures or the issue of being honey-trapped in the letter, but calls the claim of him being blackmailed as ludicrous.

As far as the pictures are concerned, they are indeed highly explicit, and we can’t publish them. Allen has claimed that these pictures were authentic and not digitally or otherwise tampered. They do appear authentic, but this should be left to forensic experts, which is why we are not publishing them.

However, we can talk about it for sure. In the pictures accessed by OpIndia.com, Varun Gandhi looks inebriated, to say the least, and in compromising position with a female. In some pictures, his eyes even seem closed. This is crucial since the pictures seem to have been clicked by a third person, using a high resolution camera. Remember, these pictures are from more than 10 years ago, when selfies weren’t a thing nor were sex-tapes to be released online.

So from the photos, some questions arise: Was Gandhi heavily under the influence of some drugs or intoxicants? Does this explain why his eyes seem closed? Does this also explain why he “allowed” a third person to click pictures of him in compromising positions? Was he indeed a victim of blackmailing but chose not to go to police about it?

Whatever the case maybe, Varun is in a soup. What makes matters worse for him is that even BJP has instructed its spokespersons not to defend him. They have either kept mum or have said they wouldn’t like to compromise with national security.

With the Uttar Pradesh elections coming up, this episode can act as a blessing in disguise for BJP. Varun Gandhi has been pushing the BJP to annoint him as the CM candidate of UP. Just a few days before BJP’s national executive meeting in Allahabad in June this year, massive hoardings came up urging BJP to press for Varun as the CM candidate. The posters had Varun’s face juxtaposed with those of Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Varun’s mother Maneka Gandhi too has been engaged in some war-fare with BJP. In a move to back her son for UP CM’s post, Maneka tried is alleged to have moved some pawns to defame Smriti Irani, the other contender in the UP CM race. Coupled with the fact that Maneka tried to team up with an abusive journalist known to do hit-jobs on RSS and BJP, she and her son were losing popular support among core BJP supporters.

How will BJP play this episode is yet to be seen. Will they play the silent game and let things move as per the media narrative? Or will they go for the jugular and severe ties with the other Gandhi parivar? Will we see a situation where a Gandhi searching for another political party, may end up joining a party, desperately searching another Gandhi?

Is someone at JNU planning Rohith Vemula part 2?

OpIndia Staff
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Is someone at JNU planning Rohith Vemula part 2?

Najeeb Ahmad, an MSc student at JNU reportedly got into a scuffle with some fellow students in his hostel room and went missing since October 15. JNUSU and his family members have since blamed ABVP for his “abduction”. JNUSU, continuing with its revolutionary ways, then proceeded to confine the Vice Chancellor of JNU to his admin block as part of their protests.

What everyone in the media and the left wanted to portray as a open and shut case of ABVP assaulting Najeeb Ahmad and the latter disappearing, has now been called out thanks to ex-JNU student and columnist Abhinav Prakash. The alternative narrative came to light when Abhinav Prakash visited the campus to find out more about the affair.

No involvement of ABVP in the Najeeb Ahmad episode

Abhinav’s findings show that ABVP was nowhere in the picture. It was Najeeb who first assaulted three fellow hostel mates, who were campaigning for the hostel election for the post of mess secretary. It is alleged that Najeeb got infuriated when he saw one of the students wearing ‘sacred thread’ and there was no provocation from the campaigning students.

The accusation that Najeeb slapped a student without provocation is corroborated by copies of the minutes of the meeting held between the warden and the students, on the night of the event:

Minutes of the meeting
Minutes of the meeting

The minutes clearly show that Najeeb accepted that he slapped the people who came to his room, without provocation. He made this confession in front of his room-mate Quasim and the hostel President Alimuddin, amongst others including the senior warden.

Two of those assaulted by Najeeb were Dalits, but the hostel warden, himself a Dalit, allegedly prevented the use of Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST act against Najeeb. Najeeb was then asked to vacate his hostel room by the warden. Najeeb admitted his fault and agreed to leave the hostel within a week, and that should have been the end of the story.

There were also reports of Najeeb exhibiting strange behaviour and his roommate Quasim (one of the signatories in the above minutes of the meeting) even asking for a change of room as he feared Najeeb and his behaviour.

Irked by the warden’s stand and the fact that Najeeb had to accept his mistake, the left started putting pressure on hostel president Alimuddin to get the earlier resolution changed. When the president didn’t oblige, some of these students started whipping up communal sentiments by accusing Alimuddin of betraying the ‘Qaum’ (community).

Then Najeeb suddenly disappeared. And the incidents of that night were given a new twist. Students belonging to the left organisations started claiming that Najeeb was virtually “lynched by a mob” that night. Questions remain that if such a serious violence against Najeeb did happen, why did the minutes, signed by the President of JNUSU who belongs to one such organisation, not mention that? Was Najeeb taken so some hospital? Why was no FIR filed? These questions remain unanswered.

Despite circumstantial evidences not backing them, the new narrative was built by these left leaning student organisations, ably assisted by the mainstream media, where Najeeb was painted as a victim and the students who were slapped by him were painted as aggressors. News reports further suggested that Najeeb had been “abducted” by some people, pointing fingers at ABVP.

According to his mother, Najeeb had called her up at 2 AM following that night’s incidents to tell her about the fight he had, which prompted her to rush to JNU from Badaun in Uttar Pradesh. She also talked to him at 11 AM when she reached Anand Vihar in Delhi, and Najeeb confirmed that he was in his hostel room. Later he was not found there when his mother reached JNU at around 12.30 PM. He had left his mobile phone in his hostel room. If left is to be believed, a student was abducted in broad day light around noon.

Apart from the claim of abduction sounding preposterous, eye witnesses state that Najeeb had actually left campus the next day in an auto-rickshaw on his own. A CCTV footage of this incident would have proved or disproved this claim, just as minutes of the meeting prove what happened that night, but JNU has no CCTV cameras installed. When the administration proposed so, whole of JNU had protested against their installation as they didn’t want the ‘state’ monitoring their fiefdom.

Intimidation and threats

The chain of events doesn’t stop here. Now violent elements are threatening students of JNU who are going against the narrative. Ex-Joint Secretary of JNUSU and ABVP activist Saurabh Sharma who posted the copies of the minutes on Facebook to defend his organisation being dragged into the incident, is now getting death threats. A letter from Jahangirpuri sent by some ‘Sahid Khan’ says that “he will find and cut” Sharma into pieces and that “he will burn down the entire ABVP and the other students of JNU”.

Threats
Threats

Even the hostel president Alimuddin took to social media and complained of being harassed by some groups. The hostel where it all happened – Mahi-Mandavi hostel – is being branded a “Sanghi hostel” by the left student groups.

A larger game at play

So why did all this happen? Was Najeeb the sole person responsible for it? Apparently no.

It is feared that many parties to create a Rohith Vemula kind of a situation again, with Najeeb Ahmad as the scapegoat, with someone else pulling the strings. Whether Najeeb became a part of it voluntarily or involuntarily is not known yet.

But whatever may be the case, the controversy has again put JNU in news with a narrative that ‘our campuses are not safe’ blaming a particular ideology. This will continue to grow in days to come, before the truth comes out, if it ever does.

Tolerance vs Mutual respect – How India should treat its immigration policy

Kushal Mehra
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Tolerance vs Mutual respect – How India should treat its immigration policy

The Government of India is considering a few amendments in regards to the Citizenship Act of 1955. The government has already set up a joint committee of parliamentarians who are examining the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which will look into the matter of granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists from our neighbouring countries who have been living in India for a minimum period of six years. You can check The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 here (pdf link).

There have already been a few articles that have discussed this matter. There was an article in the Times of India that was critical of this move by the government. There have been a couple of other pieces in Swarajya magazine – here and here – that have given a slightly more contrarian and nuanced view of the same.

Whom do we let in to stay with us in our country has never been an easy issue to tackle. The 1st issue that we will have to tackle in a secular democratic republic like India would be that the basic premise of the Bill violates the fundamental constitutional principle of treating each individual as a separate entity, as it appears to equate citizenship with specific religions only.

Immigration has been an issue a major portion of the world is struggling with. Whether it’s Europe, USA or India, immigration is an extremely touchy issue. Who do we let in? What can be considered a valid process of granting people asylum in any country? In fact, what should be the larger immigration policy of any country irrespective of whether it is an asylum seeker or an economic migrant?

But does compassion mean one becomes stupid and lets anyone in without any formal process? What should be the basic philosophy or ideology behind an immigration process? How do we go about vetting the people we want to let into our society beyond the economic/education parameters.

I believe immigration policies should be shaped on the principle of “Mutual Respect” which was proposed by Rajiv Malhotra in his book Being Different. Every country/society/group has a grand narrative. In the case of the group of people that live together in the entity named India our grand narrative is a pluralistic value system, which has come out of a wide range of decentralized open Dharmic Darshanas. It is this plural Dharmic value system that has let people of all denominations in from time immemorial.

Now the critics of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 say that this bill is discriminatory. But is that really the case? Take the case of Pakistan for example. Can we say that people who follow a very rigid/exclusivist/expansionist faith system like Salafi Islam merge into a pluralistic secular democratic society like India? We just have to look at the way Hindus, Christians and Sikhs have been treated in Pakistan.

For that matter what has been the trend when it comes to Hindus/Atheists in Bangladesh? A cursory look at the numbers in both these countries clearly indicates that Hindus and other minorities are being persecuted and their numbers have been declining consistently. They are either converted forcefully or murdered. In such a scenario how can anyone in their right mind object to letting in these persecuted minorities in India? Also, how can anyone who is in their senses say that we should let in the butchers of these very people into India along with them because a society cannot be selective in its choice of people it wants to let in?

If we allow people with such rigid mindsets in our society, we just create more fissures in our society. Indian Islam is already under threat from Salafi extremism. Why do we want to self inflict even more pain?

Also, as a Nireshvara (atheist), I feel letting such people in is a direct threat to my existence. Just look at the numbers provided in the Pew polls that cover Pakistan and Bangladesh. A significant chunk of the population in those two countries believes that the punishment for apostasy and blasphemy should be death. A significant majority of citizens in these countries want religious laws to govern every aspect of their life. Are these beliefs compatible with a secular democratic republic like India? How can we use secularism and democracy to let a set of people in who are completely against those very set of values that we value and cherish so much?

Anyone who comes into India should pass the test of “mutual respect”. Mere “tolerance” is not enough anymore. If India’s larger narrative is that all paths are equally valid then anyone coming inside India should be asked what they think about this inherent value system of India. Immigration has to be a tool not just to help the persecuted. It should also see to it that fault lines aren’t created in the society.

Will a practicing Salafi Muslim say that idol worship/atheism are fine? If it isn’t fine, what does he/she think ought to be done about it? Should we let in people who think atheists or idol worshippers ought to be killed? If an immigration policy leads to ghettoisation is that policy sound?

Demography matters. If some people believe that individuals carrying beliefs that are antithetical to ours will suddenly come and change those beliefs, I’m sorry, those people are extremely naive. Maybe they have been listening to John Lenon’s song “Imagine” a little too much.

Systems based on “tolerance” will fail. Western societies are based on tolerance. Just see what’s happening there right now. Every society has to graduate from tolerance to mutual respect. And people who refuse to do that, well, they can stay where they are.

Just because a few left leaning politicians and activists have a death wish it does not mean everyone has to die. Wanting to stay alive is a basic human instinct. Why bring such people over here? What purpose does it solve?

I am not saying that we stop being humanitarian. But one can only be humanitarian if one stays alive! And while no one wants to say, it the fact of the matter is that when a society gets to a point where the quotient of Islamists increase, it leads to a significant increase in violence, terrorism and all sorts of other problems.

Wherever Salafi Islam enters, there are violent clashes. Islam that is practiced in its current form in Pakistan & Bangladesh is incompatible with pluralism of India. Stats don’t lie. If Salafi Islam is plural why are the Hindu numbers in Pakistan and Bangladesh dwindling? Also have we forgotten Kashmir?

Immigration can’t become a tool where you inflict wounds upon yourself. India as a country has to be selective in its immigration policies. It should only let in people who believe in “mutual respect”.

What I am trying to do is to say something that has been discussed in our drawing rooms for many years. I have no intention of stereotyping all Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh. I am sure there are a lot of good folks amongst them. I am not someone who has hatred in his heart. But tell me one simple thing, when you look at the stats in those Pew polls don’t you get worried?

I will end this article by quoting a small excerpt of a speech given by a gentleman called Salim Mansur to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in Canada. You can check the full text of the speech here.

“If the level of immigration in Canada is being maintained and defended on the basis of the need to deal with the problems of Canadian society in terms of aging population, fertility rates among Canadian women, skilled labour requirements, and maintaining a growth level for the population consistent with the growth of the economy, then this policy needs to be re-evaluated. We cannot fix the social problems of Canadian society by an open immigration policy that adds to the numbers at a rate that puts into question the absorptive capacity of the country, not only in economic terms, but also, if not more importantly, in cultural and social terms, and what this does to our political arrangement as a liberal democracy.

The flow of immigration into Canada from around the world, and in particular the flow from Muslim countries, means a pouring in of numbers into a liberal society of people from cultures at best non-liberal. But we know through our studies and observation that the illiberal mix of cultures poses one of the greatest dilemmas and an unprecedented challenge to liberal societies such as ours, when there is no demand placed on immigrants any longer to assimilate into the founding liberal values of the country to which they have immigrated. Instead, a misguided and thoroughly wrong-headed policy of multiculturalism encourages the opposite.”

Goa Elections Part 2: A look at the opposition and the probable outcome

Gaurav
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Goa Elections Part 2: A look at the opposition and the probable outcome

In the first part of analysing the Goa elections, we looked at the BJP’s standing in Goa. But BJP’s future cannot be looked at in isolation, without considering its opponents. This part will cover that aspect and by the end of the post, we would get a birds eye view of the current scenario, and also what one can expect in the upcoming elections:

Coming to the opposition, the Congress continues to be the main opposition party. In many ways, the national political scenario mimics what happens in Goa. Before the current BJP Government came to power, Goa was ruled by the Congress Government, which oversaw the biggest scam Goa has ever seen: The mining scam. The CM was more of a compromise candidate, who allowed his ministers to have a free run. BJP’s 2012 campaign was very person centric, focused around Parrikar. The result was BJP getting an absolute majority for the very first time. The Congress was routed and managed to get just 9 MLAs out of 40. This is very much like what happened in 2014 at the centre. But the Congress is in even bigger trouble in Goa.

1 out of the 9 MLAs is officially with the Congress, but he has been openly batting for BJP, has a post in the current Government, and is lining up for a BJP ticket in the upcoming elections. Another MLA has been expelled for 6 years for anti-party activities. His wife, continues to be in Congress, but since her husband, who is the real influencer is out, she may follow suit. That brings down the effective Congress tally to 6. Factor in 2 more Congress MLAs who are rumoured to be moving to BJP’s alliance partner MGP. All-in-all, a dismal scenario.

One of the major reasons for this downfall of Congress is the severe infighting. There are around half-a-dozen former CMs in the Congress party, who are mostly no longer MLAs, forming the old guard, all of whom would like to revitalise their careers. There is also the younger group, most of whom are MLAs, and are unhappy with the machinations of the old guard.

The public though largely continues to see Congress as a corrupt party which destroyed Goa. Sure, there maybe some who would go back to the Congress having tried BJP last time, but the Congress is overall in pretty bad shape.

Then we have around 5 MLAs who won as independents or as part of a regional party. Micky Pacheco’s Goa Vikas Party (GVP), which fought the last elections with BJP’s support and won 2 seats, has now gone anti-BJP, but Pacheco is having trouble managing his other MLA itself, who may contest with BJP’s support. GVP’s fortunes are on the downfall. 2 more independents have formed another regional party called Goa Forward Party (GFP), with their only ideology being that of occupying the anti-BJP space. The main leader of GFP is an ex-Congressman and is said to still influence the Congress High Command at the centre.

GFP has been hankering for a Mahagathbandhan with Congress and NCP, but Congress has been unyielding to the demands of the likes of GFP. Although they are playing hardball now, one expects, as elections draw closer, at least these 3 parties will have an explicit or implicit alliance. Or else they may all find it very difficult to survive since all of them are vying for broadly the same voter base.

Finally we have AAP which has self-declared itself as the winner of Goa. This was based on a survey done by a little known firm in Goa, which gave AAP 35% of the voteshare, but still managed to show the BJP combine as the single largest entity. The findings of the poll have been disputed as being self-contradictory by many experts, but AAP has cherry-picked the most favourable metric and splashed it all over Goa.

Having said that, AAP is the first party to have gotten into campaign mode, with their door-to-door campaigning. AAP’s stock was sky high a few weeks ago, but has come down considerably after AAP’s implosion at Delhi, and even further after Kejriwal’s comments on surgical strikes. The problem AAP faces is that the people in AAP currently represent an assorted set of individuals with no common ideology. Some come from the background of pro-Marathi lobby, while the party is trying to woo the Christian voters, who will never vote for such people.

This is not to say AAP is completely devoid of leaders. Recently Elvis Gomes, a bureaucrat, quit his Government post to join AAP. Hi enjoys a clean image, and could very well be the CM face. Another tall leader is Dr Oscar Rebello, who has been involved in various civil society movements in the past, although he is unlikely to contest elections. The other leader though are either imports from diverse backgrounds or unknown quantities. AAP’s views on major prickly issues which face Goa are also unknown, the common refrain being “the people will decide”.

The difficulty in analysing AAP is no-one is sure about their real on the ground influence. Their main voter base will obviously be a chunk of the Congress votes, largely Christians, while trying to wean away a portion of the Hindus as well. AAP’s success or failure depends entirely on how many votes can they pull away from the Congress: Will it be a Delhi 2013 repeat where BJP emerged as the largest party as AAP broke into Congress’s votebank? Or will it be a Delhi 2015 scenario where AAP steals almost the entire voter base of Congress leaving the Congress destroyed?

Delhi 2015 will be unlikely because Goa is not Delhi. Goan demographics are skewed with Christians touching almost 85% in some constituencies in the sub-district Salcete, which has 7 constituencies and where on an average Christians make up 54% of the voters. The scene is dramatically opposite in the rest of Goa, where they make up just 26% of the population on an average, falling to 7% in a few seats. Hence even a Delhi 2015 like consolidation of the Christian vote towards AAP will have a bearing only in a few constituencies.

So to sum up: BJP has weakened since 2012, MGP looks to get stronger. Congress is tottering and will need a Mahagathbandan with NCP and GFP to manage to put up a fight. AAP is an unknown quantity. So what will happen? There have been five opinion polls in Goa till now:

The predictions
The predictions

All of them point to the BJP-MGP combine being the leaders. While the numbers are debatable, the fact is this: the opposition to the BJP is utterly fractured. Even if the Mahagathbandhan takes shape, there is the AAP which will eat some of its votes. In fact AAP may eat into the anti-BJP votes and help BJP win a few seats where it came second last time around. But if the voters decisively swerve to AAP, then AAP may wrest these seats.

As of today, certainly BJP has it neck ahead, mainly because of the There-Is-No-Alternative (TINA) factor. Even in other states we have seen that BJP has performed well against Congress but stutters against a strong regional force. The regional parties in Goa have influence in just 3-4 constituencies hence are not a force to reckon with. Only AAP could prove to be a challenger, but for that they need to ensure the utter demolition of the Congress, and to gain any critical mass, they have to spread their influence beyond the Christian belt, which seems unlikely.

While Goa will lose out in national coverage thanks to Uttar Pradesh and the other northern state elections, the temperatures are surely going to soar here.

Good news! Now you can see tweets of a person who has blocked you

OpIndia Staff
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Good news! Now you can see tweets of a person who has blocked you

In one of the last major “enhancements” in user experience, Twitter had made it virtually impossible for logged-in users to read tweets of someone who had blocked them.

While earlier it meant that the person who had blocked you will not receive any notifications from you, the newer enhancement meant that you just could not see his or her timeline or tweet at all.

When you, logged into Twitter, visited the profile of the person who had blocked you, or when you clicked any tweet link shared by someone else, you got the message saying “You are blocked from following @XYZ and viewing @XYZ’s Tweets.”

It became especially irritating and frustrating when a third person quoted the tweet of someone who had blocked you. You could read the comment (the quote) but were left clueless about the original tweet, in response of which the comment was made.

This often led to people saying “screenshot please” to the person who had quoted the tweet of someone who had blocked you. Not everyone was going to oblige with this request for obvious reasons.

But now there is a solution to it. Some people are going to love it and some are going to hate it. But you can’t ignore this solution!

The solution, available in shape of a browser extension, has been developed by Ravi Kiran – an IT professional who calls himself “part-time web developer full time troller” – and is currently available for the Chrome browser.

Ravi had earlier created a Twitter bot @helpunmask. Logged-in users, whether using an app or a browser, needed to tag this bot account and use specific hashtags to see tweet of someone who had blocked them. But now things are far easier when you are on desktop.

All you need is to download and add this extension (please click here if you are currently on a Chrome browser), enable it, and refresh or restart your browser. You should be seeing the Twitter bird flying out of cage on the top of your browser.

Helpunmask - helping you see tweets of people who have blocked you
The sign of freedom!

Viola! You are uncaged. You are unblocked. You are free.

Download and enable the extension, go to the timeline of someone who had blocked you, you can now see all the tweets! You can also see quoted tweets and don’t need to say “screenshot please!”

All good, yeah? But don’t troll! 😉

When Bengal burned, media closed its eyes, apparently to ‘maintain peace’

RpG_89
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When Bengal burned, media closed its eyes, apparently to ‘maintain peace’

About 40 kms from Kolkata lies the town of Naihati – the birthplace of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the author of India’s national song Vande Mataram.

Apart from being famous for being home to eminent Bengalis, Naihati which has been known well known for its Durga Puja, Kali Puja and Chhat Puja, houses a substantial Muslim population along with Hindustanis (second generation Bihari migrants who settled there).

The town has been relatively event free with both the Hindu and the Muslim communities coexisting throughout the years. My two househelps – Bina (Hindu) & Ruksar (Muslim) both hail from there.

I was getting ready for office on Friday last week after the long holidays following Durga Puja and Muharram when I discovered that Bina hadn’t turned up, without notice, and Ruksar who did, seemed visibly shaken. On the previous day, both had not turned up, without notice again, so my mother was angry at the sudden absences.

On inquiring, with great reluctance Ruksar narrated of extreme violence and riot like situation in Naihati – the scale of which was unprecedented in the locality.

As Ruksar narrated, I was dumbstruck. It happened on Wednesday eve the day of Vijaya Dashami, which happened to coincide with Muharram. Procession of Durga Visarjan as well as Muharram Taziya  were parallely taking place on the streets. It started with the Muslims who were partaking in the Taziya procession being irked by the noise surrounding the Durga immersion.

They apparently let their anger known and demanded the noise be lowered, however in the revelry none of the Hindus obliged. Following this, one of the firecrackers being burst by the Hindu procession landed on the Taziya accidentally and led to it being burnt.

What followed was pandemonium with Muslims gathering en mass, taking out swords and not only beheading the Durga idol but pillaging the whole Visarjan procession. Large scale violence broke out allover parts of the town mainly around Hazinagar with clashes between both the communities.

As I listened, I felt numb. The incident of Kaliachak riots in the beginning of this year flashed before my eyes.

More so I was perplexed at how to take the news, for a violence of this scale would surely be covered by the local media which incidentally didn’t.

I looked hard at all the local news outlets I could find but found no such news. On the contrary, in its Sunday edition, Anandabazaar Patrika – the leading Bengali Daily – published a story of  communal harmony in North 24 Parganas district to which Naihati coincidentally belongs. It eulogized how Muslims partook in Durga Visarjan and Hindu ladies would help dressing up Muslim kids for Taziya procession. It couldn’t be farther from the truth which I later found out.

The only news which seemed to corroborate the incidents I found were tweets in the social media from various accounts. Later, both the opposition parties, BJP and CPM – on either ends of the ideological divide – confirmed the violence and mayhem.


So something was wrong, but still, nothing by the media, either local or Delhi based. So I had to rely on social media for news.

The Hindu Samiti let by Mr. Tapan Ghosh let out a series of picture and video evidence of a not only a violence marred Naihati but to my horror a series of communal incidents on similar lines allover Bengal – Kharagpur, Malda, Birbhum, etc. The story was the same. The Hindus bore most of the brunt. So much so, peaceful Hindus were attacked during Lakshmi Puja on Saturday for and while following their customs. Add to that, there were claims that the police was not helping.


I was still skeptical at the veracity of the news. As we have often on social media, news of this extreme kind can turn out to be untrue.

But I wondered what stops media from reporting the truth and thus stop any guesswork and possible mischief in shape of rumormongering?

On Sunday evening a friend who came over incidentally initiated conversation about violence hit Bengal. He’s closely associated with the media so I asked him about this silence by media. He told me how media took “conscious decision” to black out violence “lest riots break out in mass scale” – a statement which perplexed my already befuddled brain. Wouldn’t focusing on an event lead to action and ultimately ensure it stopping?

Perhaps this is what they refer to as “moral compass” – where they manipulate facts and incidents to suit what they think is in public interest. For me, it was not in public interest to keep mum when such atrocities were happening. This is running away from responsibility. This is shoddy journalism. In fact, this is cowardice and helping the criminal – by closing your eyes when a crime is being committed.

My friend further claimed that not only to “maintain peace”, journalists didn’t speak out as many of them feared retribution from the ruling party in West Bengal. I found this explanation a bit more believable than the moral compass argument. Because many non-media professionals too, who did get the news through various outlets like Twitter and WhatsApp, chose to largely remain silent, perhaps under fear of the administration?

Nonetheless, the social media didn’t remain silent, and some outlets, which can’t be considered part of the mainstream media, did publish some reports about violence in other parts of West Bengal. Truth was still elusive.

When a visibly shaken Bina finally turned up three days later on Monday, she narrated how Hindu families were most affected by the violence that peaked during the weekend. Homes were barged in, women and children were raped, houses were ransacked. She was so scared that along with her children, she had moved to town to stay in her parent’s house to only return on Sunday eve.

Amidst this, the Hindus in Naihati having suffered majority of the brunt and suffered the humiliation of their idols being beheaded, had taken calls to take down a local Masjid. This threatened to make things worse, and finally it prompted the local administration, which was watching “helplessly” hitherto, to finally call in the military on Sunday. This led to the violence halting after additional imposition of section 144.

Finally on Monday, corroborating the whole Naihati violence, The Indian Express published a news report. However, to suit their narrative, they changed the accidental firecracker to “low intensity bombs”, hinting that it was deliberately hurled at Taziya to trigger the violence. Nonetheless, the mainstream media was finally reporting about the violence.

The show hosted by Rohit Sardana not only mentioned the news of the scathing observations of Calcutta High Court in its 6th October judgment overruling state government’s imposition of ban on Durga immersion the same days as Muharram (the court called it appeasement) but also investigative reports of widespread violence in Bengal during Durga visarjan compounded by state admin’s apathy. Some of these reports suggested state admin’s direct role in inciting violence. You can watch the entire show here.

So what most right thinking Bengalis fear nowadays, has finally came true – Bengal has become a tinderbox of communal violence, and situation is getting worse with certain sections acting with impunity. They derive this impudence and confidence by the politics of appeasement and because the media prefers to maintain silence when they wield their might.

Instead of reporting the violence which could be otherwise stopped at the earliest due to the focus, the fourth pillar of democracy chose to be a mute spectator. Sometimes I wonder, does the media choose to stay silent because it really feared further violence or they do it so that when they finally report, the truth has been tampered with to suit a particular narrative? Like accidentally strayed firecrackers becoming deliberately hurled bombs.

The real sufferers amidst all these are the people of this great land of Bengal – the land of the likes of Tagore, Vidyasagar, Nazrul, and Vivekananda. Uderneath a mask of secularism is a state going on a road to perdition.

Anurag Kashyap reveals female journo’s mobile number on Facebook, journo gets harassed by trolls

OpIndia Staff
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Anurag Kashyap reveals female journo’s mobile number on Facebook, journo gets harassed by trolls

Maverick Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap just cant set a foot right. Yesterday, in a bizarre attempt to draw publicity to his friend Karan Johar’s movie, he tried to drag Prime Minister Modi into the troubles Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is facing from some film associations. The Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association (COEA) had requested its members to stop screening any movies related to Pakistani artistes. This would obviously hit Johar’s movie. So for some reason, for this internal feud between Bollywood, Kashyap dragged in the Prime Minister, only to get slammed on social media.

Today he has once again landed in a soup, and worse, caused extreme harassment to a female journalist. The story goes like this: a young female journalist with CNN News 18 was trying her best to get Kashyap to talk to her on the controversy. Kashyap in his typical manner rudely rebuffed her. The journalist was in fact trying to allow him make his side clear. But Kashyap claimed he wasn’t at home.

And he wasn’t done with just attacking someone doing their job. In his frustration, he took to Facebook and posted a screenshot of the conversation he had with the woman. While posting a private chat is itself not very correct, he did not even bother to blur or cover sensitive personal information like the personal number of the female journalist:

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Private information blurred by OpIndia.com

No sooner did Kashyap post this information on his Facebook page, which his fans follow, the said journalist’s nightmarish ordeal began. Her colleagues took to Twitter to reveal that ever since Kashyap irresponsibly poster her number on Facebook, the journalist was getting harassed by SMS and calls:


Another colleague made an even more shocking revelation: The harassers were calling from Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Syria!


It is shocking that a celebrity like Kashyap could endanger the safety of a female journalist like this just because he didn’t want to talk to her. Worse, how does he explain harassing calls from places like Pakistan and Syria, when the information was only posted on his page which ideally should be catering to Indian fans. Kashyap later deleted the post.

Talking about the incident Prabal Pratap Singh, Consulting Editor of the national news channel said: “Anurag has deleted the post from his Facebook account, but we still want an apology from his end. My legal team is looking into the matter as to what action we should take.”

Brouhaha over nothing: Why security cover to Arnab is justified

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Brouhaha over nothing: Why security cover to Arnab is justified

The news of Arnab Goswami, editor- in-chief of Times Now and popular anchor of the show The Newshour, getting threat based Y-security cover was received with much brouhaha on the internet; especially from the detractors of Arnab as shown in OpIndia’s article here.

One might feel the questioning to be justified. More so in this era of questioning VVIP treatment for eminent persons – a campaign Arnab himself has often spearheaded.

However, when the treatment comes on the heels of terrorism, every argument gets negated.

The Issue

Arnab Goswami’s show on Times Now has often taken a hawkish stand on Pakistan as opposed to their counterparts. For years media counterparts like NDTV and their journalists like Barkha Dutt have sung the tunes that has found resonance with the Pakistan’s establishment. So much so that Pakistan’s top terror head Hafeez Saeed had even openly endorsed her.

Following the Uri attacks by Pakistan and Surgical strikes by India in response, the nationalist stand of Arnab not only touched a chord with the audience – as reflected by the surge in his viewership – but also made him a target of the Pakistan backed groups. Arnab and his channel have exposed the atrocities in Balochistan by the Pakistani army too, making him a subject of hate.

It should be recalled that Times Now reporters have earlier been attacked in Kashmir, much before the current phase of violence erupted. Arnab is almost synonymous with Times Now, so such physical attacks on him can’t be ruled out.

On the above account, reports that Arnab has threat from Pak based terror outfits should come as no surprise.

On the particular issue of government providing security cover:

Logically speaking

Many would ask if the security cover is justified, and why Arnab himself could not pay for his own private security?

The logical explanation to that will be if a gun wielding terrorist does attack Arnab, a private security personnel with a single bore weapon would not by any means provide adequate protection. Moreover, the threat perception was as per IB inputs. It would be laughable to think  that IB could coordinate with private security over incoming intel. It’s a matter of national security and secrecy.

For this very reason, highly trained government security would be the right choice.

Legally speaking

Now those who’re still not convinced with the argument above, there’s a lesser known legal angle to this.

There exists many levels of security in our country, the highest being SPG (Special Protection Group). Along with the SPG, there are others including Z+, Z, Y etc in decreasing order of threat perception level.

While the SPG security is governed by the Special Protection Group Act, 1988, the rest of the security protocols are decided by the IB, MHA, SSC and the State gogovernments.

As can be seen in the case of Narendra Singh vs The State Of Bihar & Ors on 28 June, 2016, the court stated the following:

In contra, the counsel for the State has submitted that no person can claim as a matter of right a security cover of specified category. Such protection or security cover is provided if the SSC on appraisal of current threat perception finds the person a protected person and makes recommendation. The committee after making such recommendation reviews the cases on periodical basis to analyze the justification for continuing with the security cover provided to the protected person and/or for increase or decrease of the security cover of the protected person.

This shows Arnab didn’t “opt” for security cover, but was assigned by the Government.

The judgment further adds:

Although the protected person is an individual /citizen but the office he holds or the social or political responsibilities he discharges is a relevant consideration in grant of Security Cover to the protected person at the cost of the State.

It has to be noted that there has to be a concrete intelligence – credible and serious – input for the IB to give Arnab this security. Moreover the government is obligated to do so based on Article 21 of our constitution as quoted by the Judgment in J.Jayalalithaa vs The State Of Tamil Nadu on 9 June, 2008.

Article 21 in The Constitution Of India 1949:

Protection of life and personal liberty No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

The court further added:

Therefore, the Security Review Committee ought to assess the grade and scale of security to be provided to a protectee considering the variable factors, as and when found necessary. The quantum and quality of security cannot remain stagnant or stale, and if they do, it cannot match the devilish designs of the disruptive forces, both from within the country and from alien shores. It is a highly disturbing trend worldwide that such evil forces are adept at using ingenious and innovative devices, to trigger large scale catastrophe and havoc, causing untold sorrow and terrible tragedies. In order to match such terrifying terrorism the nations of the world and their Governments have to upgrade their preparedness and firepower to forestall such events in future. No one can rest when such clandestine and cruel minds are at work to destroy peace, harmony and tranquility in our societies.

In tandem with the judgments and Article 21, the government is obligated to serve Arnab based on a concrete threat, and anyone is free to challenge it in court too.

On the point of paying through taxpayer’s money

There still remains the question of paying for additional security cover from the taxpayer’s money. While in earlier cases like that of Z+ security cover provided for Mukesh Ambani, Mr. Ambani paid from his pocket, it is yet to be known if Arnab does the same.

In conclusion

In the lieu of an existent threat, the security cover is justified. If the threat level rises or drops, who knows Arnab may get upgraded to Z security also or get demoted to Y category respectively as had happened in MS Dhoni’s case. Or it could be completely removed as threats are assessed and reviewed periodically on a regular basis.

(This article was written with inputs from @muglikar_ and @delhi_lawyer)

Goa Elections Part 1: Analysing BJP’s prospects

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Goa Elections Part 1: Analysing BJP’s prospects

If you happen to visit Goa, and if you do not see a single poster saying “AAP winning Goa”, then your lifetime’s supply of beer is on me. Jokes and jokers apart, which way will Goa swing in the upcoming elections? A detailed analysis will hopefully give us a picture of the ground reality as it stands.

Lets start with the BJP, which is in power with it’s pre-poll alliance partner of 2012 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). BJP has 21 MLAs giving it the absolute majority in a house of 40, while the MGP has 3 MLAs.

The biggest news surrounding Goa BJP is that Goa is the first state where the RSS split ranks with BJP. The fact though is that only a section of the RSS split and has formed a party called Goa Surakhsa Manch (GSM), with only one stated objective of “protecting Indian languages namely Marathi and Konkani” and in the process hurting BJP as much as possible.

This rebellion itself is a mystery. Publicly the story is this: The erstwhile Congress regime gave Government grants to schools which had English as the Medium of Instruction (MOI), which led to a large number of schools switching over to English. This got the goat of the RSS and Indian language lovers, and they led an agitation back then, called the “Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch” (BBSM). This was backed by Parrikar, the then opposition leader, who promised to scrap this rule if he came to power.

He did come back to power, but instead of scrapping the rule, the BJP Government chose to “freeze” the situation, not allowing any more English medium schools to get grants. The rationale was that any U-Turn would be playing with the future of thousands of children if the policy was altered within just 2-3 years. While BBSM was not fully happy, they remained silent. In fact, the leader of GSM and former RSS chief Subhash Velingkar, who led the revolt, even defended the Government’s position back then. Then what changed in 2015 which lead to an acrimonious split in 2016?

Late 2014, Parrikar moved to the centre as India’s Defence Minister, thereby leaving his bastion Panaji open. Velingkar had hoped that his yes-man from within the RSS would be chosen as the BJP candidate for the by-elections. But BJP selected Parrikar’s protege, Siddharth Kunkolienkar a young engineer and Parrikar’s right hand man as the candidate. The snub, that too in favour of someone roughly half his age was too much for Velingkar’s ego to bear. And from then on the relations began souring, which have finally led to the current scenario. The bitter verbal fight in the open, with Velingkar firing personal barbs at Parrikar are further testament to the fact that this man’s ego has been hurt, and his “principled” pro-Indian languages stand, is a mere facade.

Cutting to the chase, the GSM may eat up a small portion of the BJP’s votes, but it is expected that the proportion would not be significant enough to damage BJP in most of the seats. One also cannot rule out any overt or covert patch-up between the two by the time the elections take place.

The BJP on its part adopted an interesting strategy on this MOI issue. It would have been very easy for them to fulfil their pre-election promise of scrapping the Congress’s policy. They would have appeased their support base, but instead they chose to take the more appropriate stance, given the situation. This stance is also in favour of the Christian population in Goa, who have supported the Congress’s move. One of the reasons for BJP alone getting an absolute majority in 2012 was the backing from the Church and the Christians, and this would seem to be BJP’s way of repaying their faith.

But things couldn’t have gone worse for BJP. The script clearly was to repose the faith of the Christian community which elected an unprecedented 6 Christian BJP MLAs in 2012: A Christian was made the deputy CM in 2012 bypassing current CM Parsekar; The pro-Christian MOI policy; Hosting of events such as the Portuguese version of the Commonwealth Games for Portuguese colonies; and many more such pro-Christian decisions. But today, BJP would be lucky to have even 5% of the Christian population backing them.

The reason is between 2012 and 2017, came a 16 May 2014. Then Goa CM Parrikar, was one of the first BJP leaders to openly back Modi for PM. Ever since, it has been a downfall for BJP’s popularity amongst the Christians. Modi’s demonisation by the media since 2002 is such that the minorities just cannot reconcile to him being the PM, and their wrath is incurred upon anyone seemingly close to Modi, in this case Parrikar and by association, BJP Goa. The intolerance drama and churches under attack false narrative only added to their apprehensions. Hence, come 2017, BJP may as well say goodbye to the Christian vote.

As far as Governance is concerned, BJP has done fairly well. Infrastructure has gotten a major boost with bridges and roads being in the focus. Many of the pre-poll promises such as VAT cut on petrol, Mediclaim scheme, doles to housewives and adult girls, were fulfilled. BJP came riding on the anti-Mining-scam sentiment and as soon as he assumed power, Parrikar banned mining for 6 months, in order to clean up the mess. But the 6 months got extended to almost 3 years as activists stepped in and the Supreme Court extended the ban. During this period, Goa’s economy slumped like never before, and it is to Parrikar’s credit that even in those tough times, the state’s developmental works and schemes functioned smoothly.

The resentment among people towards BJP can be mainly attributed to 2 issues: the culprits of the above mentioned Mining scam are yet to be brought to book and the off-shore Casinos which Congress had brought into river Mandovi, are still there, although BJP had promised to get rid of them. The mining scam is being investigated by the Lokayukta hence the delay, and the Casinos have now become a revenue source for the Government, which cant be axed overnight, but such reasons may not be palatable to the voters. Hence BJP may be hampered by these issues at least marginally in the upcoming elections. Also, a certain amount of anti-incumbency is bound to set in.

Another major drawback for BJP is naturally the loss of Parrikar to the centre. All said and done, he was a cut above all other politicians in Goa. The current CM Parsekar though competent, lacks the appeal and charisma which Parrikar had, which eventually landed him the 21 MLAs in 2012. Sadly for Parsekar, he is also saddled with the baggage of not having a very dashing personality, which often makes him an object of unfair ridicule. With his able performance, he has changed people’s perception about him to an extent, but he can never hope to reach heights of Parrikar’s popularity anytime soon.

BJP’s alliance partner MGP has a very dubious distinction: By the end of this term, the party will have been in power for over 10 years at a stretch in Goa. Till 2012 it was in alliance with the Congress and then once Congress lost, with the BJP. The party thus has established itself as a free-floater in Goan politics with no ideological problems with BJP or Congress. It is basically a fiefdom of the Dhavlikar brothers duo, but of late it has become the vehicle of choice for many MLAs aspiring to be in power. Congress and Independent MLAs who would have problems joining the BJP are eyeing MGP tickets.

The MGP which won a mere 3 seats out of 40 in the last elections, now dreams of winning 8-9 seats, making the party the “king-maker” of Goa. In fact, the party’s leader has even gone on record saying he could be the next CM. The party’s relationship with the BJP is slightly strained as of now, since MGP is looking to expand at the cost of BJP in some seats. BJP has been firm on continuing its alliance with the MGP. Although MGP is playing hard to get right now, one expects BJP and MGP to patch up as elections come closer.

The major reason for this would be to avoid a split of the Hindu votes, which both BJP and MGP need. There is already the GSM which will take a small portion of these Hindu votes, and if BJP and MGP split, then it would be catastrophic for both the parties.

Speaking in terms of general sentiment or “wave”, by and large, the majority Hindu population cant be said to be under any sort of wave, either pro-BJP or anti-BJP. Things are quite different among the minorities though and there is a strong anti-BJP wave among them, unlike in 2012 when a substantial chunk went with BJP.

The 2012 Goa election results were quite similar to the performance BJP managed in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. And the situation BJP Goa is in the upcoming 2017 elections, might as well be what BJP may face nationally in 2019: Many core demands unfulfilled, Congress scamsters roaming free, but a decent development track record. In such a case, its important to see the strength of the opposition, which we will look at in the second part of this analysis.

Trolls and journalists make light of terror threat to Arnab Goswami

OpIndia Staff
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Trolls and journalists make light of terror threat to Arnab Goswami

After news broke of Arnab Goswami being provided a threat based Y-category security by the government, many eminent trolls and journalists united to oppose the security cover provided to him while not sparing any thought about the threat Arnab faces from Pakistani terrorists for his reporting against them and their mother country.

The level of hatred for the editor-in-chief of Times Now was so apparent from their tweets that it almost sounded that they wished some terrorist had actually killed Arnab. Some of them tried to trend #TommyGetsSecurity on Twitter, which was disappointing as Lutyens crowd is expected to think of a more sophisticated dog name.

Here are some tweets by trolls and journalists mocking Arnab Goswam’s security concerns:


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Perhaps speaking from own experience where journalism is all about rewards for loyalty to a political group?


Maybe with security, the journalist can work more fearlessly if he doesn’t have to fear for his life? Maybe?


Own soil means on Twitter? Twitter does have a fine feature called block. Also, apparently this is not “whataboutery”.


Because why let facts come in the way of a good propaganda?


Calling Pakistan a “terrorist state” is now bigotry for trolls.

For the records, government has always provided security to non-political personalities. Tehelka journalist Anirudh Behel was provided security by the Congress government only a couple of years back. So according to the logic of these trolls and journalists, was he being rewarded for planting fake stories against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah?

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