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Left leaning filmmaker says he will like to spit on PV Sindhu

OpIndia Staff
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Left leaning filmmaker says he will like to spit on PV Sindhu

10 days back, had someone told you that PV Sindhu will be awfully hated by leftists of India for becoming the first Indian women to win a silver in Olympics, you would have laughed. Sadly, this nightmare has turned true. Olympic silver to Sindhu brought smiles to faces of many Indians who were waiting to celebrate medals for India, but this patriotic fervor also troubled many leftists.

We already saw how media and left-inclining liberals created a hoax about Indians searching the caste of PV Sindhu. But that was not enough for some people. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is not a random troll. He is an independent filmmaker who was awarded as the Best Director in the Kerala State Film Awards 2014. He is known and widely followed by leftists for his left leaning ideologies.

After Sindhu started getting attention and applause for making India proud, Sanal couldn’t resist his frustration and he wrote this:

The translation roughly means: What is so huge to celebrate here. Why are people celebrating so much. What if I spit on her

Another social media activist Wilson PS was so troubled by the celebrations of Sakshi that he termed it sports fanaticism.

Not only that, he also wrote a disgusting post which he deleted later.  He writes, “In the land without noses, even a person with a crooked or broken nose is a king”. He also writes, “2 crore populated countries have a lot of gold medals and this 130 crore country is celebrating a lot over a bronze medal. What is Olympics to people who worship cows and drink their urine. I am embarrassed to be born in this country”.

Sakshi

The malicious tweets and posts have been acutely criticized by people on social media.


This is not the first time when left-leaning activists have publicly abused women in India for bringing glory to the nation. While the abusive attacks expose the hypocrisy of leftist ecosystem, it also exposes silence of many who choose to remain silent when women are attacked by their fraternity.

Dear CJI, you can’t judge your own case

Prashant
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Dear CJI, you can’t judge your own case

CJI TS Thakur´s recent outburst against Prime Minister Modi´s omission of Indian Judiciary’s condition from his Independence Day speech has evoked mixed reactions. Surprisingly, while some legal luminaries have criticized the CJI for disregarding the institutional sobriety to earn some cheap applause, opposition parties have lapped up this opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the government and media shops, as is their wont, tom-tomed this as yet another instance of government’s failure without presenting any nuanced reason for so concluding.

Earlier in April this year, CJI allegedly broke down during a Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts in Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Modi, driving home the serious strain in the relationship between the two important organs of the State i.e the Judiciary and the Executive.

Though the delicate balance between the independence of the Judiciary and the sovereignty of the parliament has come under a lot of stress in the last decades, but thus far it remained under the surface and came to the fore only in the last months with such public posturing made by the present CJI.

Why the Chief Justice of India is getting so worked up ?

While the immediate cause seems to be delay in filling of vacancies and less than enthusiastic response by the Government to the list of candidates selected by the committee, some chaired by CJI himself, there is more than meets the eye here. In order to appreciate it better, let’s first get a historical perspective.

In the last decades, with the advent of weak coalition governments supported by corrupt political parties who were fearful of the Judiciary in view of a long list of pending cases against them, the Judiciary slowly expanded its power in contravention of the Constitution, at least in the spirit if not in the letter. It started in 1993 with the so called Second Judge case, consequent to which Judiciary assumed an absolute control over the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts of the states by introducing a Collegium system, which effectively eliminated any role of the Executive in such appointments.

Contrast this with pre -1993 situation, where the Executive not only had an important say on such appointments but in fact had the last word on it. Not to be misunderstood, this was very much in the spirit that was espoused by Dr. Ambedkar and other members of the Constituent Assembly. They had steadfastly opposed any veto power to the Chief Justices of India over the Presidential nomination of the judges observing that such would tantamount to granting unbridled power to the Judiciary and in fact, may harm the finely crafted inter-institutional equilibrium. So much so,  that in response to an amendment moved by another draft committee member, Prof. K. T. Shah on the need of an absolute independence of the Judiciary from Executive or the Legislature, majority of the members opined that in a modern state, such an absolute separation is neither feasible nor desirable. Further, it was deemed adequate to have the spirit of the original amendment reflected just in the Directive Principle of the Constitution, which only act as guidelines.

However the vision of founders of our Constitution notwithstanding,  growing timidity of the political class made Judiciary more and more defiant and it began appropriating decision making in areas which rightfully belonged to the Executive and the Legislative. Beginning with deciding on grey or unclear areas, it slowly permeated itself into the making of policy matters, which rightfully only belonged to the Legislative and the Executive. So, from a neutral arbiter on legality of such matters, you had court giving guidelines for its framing and then sitting in judgement of its validity.

Quite rapidly, egged on by an affluent civil society, the Courts began deciding on issues as diverse as natural resource management, transport, economics, education, wildlife, social behaviour, sports bodies etc. No doubt, the initial activism did win public applause in certain cases, such as with the introductions of the PILs which made the courts more accessible to the downtrodden section of the society or the issues where the political class was simply seemed to have developed cold feet due to the fear of popular backlash like ordering all commercial vehicles plying in Delhi to run on CNG or demolition drives on illegal encroachments. But, the question that begets asking is all this judicial activism came at what cost and to what end?

Judiciary instead of trying to mend the gaps as a result of fragmented and weak polity took potshots at it; in some cases even discrediting it and thus, encouraging a perpetual decay of the authority of the other organs of the State (which as a byproduct would have only made the Judiciary more powerful). Absence of a strong defense of its own territory by the Executive and the Legislative, only aggravated the situation.

In a nutshell, the Judiciary just got used to get its way in wake of a declining political authority.

Is Modi Government unfair to the cause of the Judiciary?

The Judiciary imposing its will went on unabated until the Narendra Modi led NDA government took the reign of this country in its hand. Armed with an overwhelming majority, it showed tremendous backbone to take back the control as envisaged by the founding fathers of our Constitution who regarded the doctrine of separation of powers, mooted originally by French scholar Montesquieu, as an important guiding principle of the constitution yet intertwined them with overlapping roles and responsibilities partly to emphasise that in a democratic country, the will of the people is sovereign.

In August 2014, NDA government passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act. In fact, the Manmohan Singh led UPA II had already laid a solid foundation for the bill and the Modi government carried forward this work in progress with even greater determination. The constitutional amendment was passed with an overwhelming majority amidst a rare display of political unity.

The Act provided for the replacement of the present Collegium system with a judicial commission which was to be more representative. In a rapid turn of events marked with unusual alacrity, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court struck down the Act terming it unconstitutional. Without going into the merits of the decision, it does seem odd that an institution will be its own adjudicator and summarily reject any suggestion of introspection and remedy.

As a side note – the Congress cheerleaders supporting this position of the Supreme Court should listen to their numero uno leader and the first PM of India, Nehru, who said, “No Supreme Court, no judiciary, can stand in judgement over the sovereign will of Parliament”.

Eventually, with the government firmly standing its ground on having a say in the appointments,  SC did offer an olive branch to the government, suggesting it to draft a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) which could direct the appointment procedure of the judges. The initial draft, prepared by the government and sent to the Supreme Court for review, is now back with the Law Ministry with SC disagreeing with many of its clauses. According to the reports, as things stand today, both parties are locked in intense battle for one-upmanship on certain clauses of the MoP. Pending its finalization, the filling of the vacancies in higher Courts (that seems to have got CJI’s goat), has come to a grinding halt. It will be wiser for all sides to make a concerted effort to solve the gridlock and evolve a consensus over the MoP in the spirit of our Constitution makers. This is as much a responsibility of the Judiciary as of the government.

Are the unfilled vacancies the only issue facing the Indian Judiciary?

Going by the discourse in the last days in media shops and its lapdogs, it appears that all malaise within the Indian Judiciary is limited to just with these vacancies.

Is it really so?

Any objective analysis will reveal that the rot within the Indian Judiciary is much deeper, ranging from inefficient and corrupt lower Judiciary, lengthy judicial processes delaying judgments perpetually, lack of accountability, blatant nepotism and rampant intimidation in the name of contempt of courts.

By not speaking on these issues and sermonizing the Executive and the Legislative (which by the way has become mainstay of judicial pronouncements in last years), the judiciary has only exposed its hypocrisy.

Unfortunately, we have seen little or no effort from the higher judiciary to address these concerns. The Judiciary is fully independent and competent to act upon such as it deems fit and government can do nothing to stop it. Public at large expects CJI to make demands from the government, but it also hopes that some day it will not have to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend to a court hearing only to discover that the concerned judge has decided to take a day off. That someday precious resources of the Judiciary will not be wasted to get Rakhi-Sawantesque limelight like with the recent prohibitive decision on IPL matches in Maharashtra. That court monitored SITs will not be formed at the drop of the hat with sitting judge at the helm of affairs.

Conclusion.

India is governed today by a man named Narendra Damodardas Modi, who seems not to be the one to get impressed or intimidated by either theatrics or threats. Therefore, CJI will do well if he were to appreciate the fact that a strong political dispensation with equally strong desire to reclaim and reassert the moral authority of the Executive is now running the country and the Judiciary can no longer overrun it.

History has shown that Indians will not tolerate excesses from any organ of the State when it comes to the Constitution and certainly, no sane individual will ever question the need for a fully strengthened and independent Judiciary. Therefore, yes, while CJI’s concerns do find an echo in the public, he must also ponder and introspect whether he really wants to drag his institution into a futile confrontation with the government, representing the sovereign will of the very same people, effectively saying my way or the highway to achieve his goals.

Lest we forget, Montesquieu, who gave the principle of separation of powers, also said absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Documents reveal that Indians wanted to know Armstrong’s caste after moon landing

OpIndia Staff
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Documents reveal that Indians wanted to know Armstrong’s caste after moon landing

In a shocking revelation, 70% of the Indians were searching for caste of Neil Armstrong after his moon landing news broke out. This disgusting story was revealed after many liberal activists requested media houses to declassify surveys done in 1971. After finding that 80% of the Indians were searching caste of Sindhu after his match, many liberal activists of LOL (liberal organization leaders) tried to know reactions of Indians after moon landing story of Neil Armstrong broke out.

One of the leading newspapers of India found a photocopy of postcard which journalist Ravish Rampal had sent PMO asking about the caste of Neil Armstrong. Even after several requests from him, the government didn’t respond. After this apathy from the government, many journalists united to run a physical survey and find awareness of Indians about Neil Armstong’s caste. The survey process mentioned in one of the newspapers states: a sample set of diverse population across India was identified and these journalists visited them to know their awareness about Neil Armstong’s caste.

To know more about the incident, our team approached elderlies across India who worked in LOL during 70s to know about the incident. An ex-LOL activist from Gujarat told us that these days dalits are oppressed in Gujarat. Our correspondent had a tough time bringing the elderly LOL activist back to the survey discussions. He finally agreed that such a survey was done in 1971. It was not made public because 99% of the surveyed people didn’t understand the relevance of question. Our correspondent ask him to explain how the survey team arrived at the 70% number. This is what he explained:

LOL team was looking for a real-time data. Since 99% of the sample population failed to answer us, we decided to take the real time. It was ’71, so the most realistic value was 71. However, the team wanted to remove religious sentiments from the survey. A brilliant atheist journalist from JNU suggested that God is One. To remove religious sentiments, we must subtract 1 from 71, hence 70%.

Another ex-LOL activist from Ujjain told us that they wanted to prove that Armstrong was a dalit. This was very necessary for the dalit empowerment. According to him, the LOL team released a statement claiming that Neil Armstrong was brave enough to put his legs on the Hindu God “Chanda Mama” and thus challenged the brahmanical mindset of Indians.

4 reactions by ‘liberals’ around Kashmir issue, and the narratives being planned

Thought Gun
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4 reactions by ‘liberals’ around Kashmir issue, and the narratives being planned

Of late, “liberals” in India are quite active on the Kashmir issue. It started with supporting ‘bharat tere tukde honge’ slogans at JNU and went on to mourning death of terrorist Burhan Wani, who was killed by security forces in Kashmir.

Currently the same set of people are busy supporting Amnesty over holding an event where ‘azadi’ slogans were shouted and ‘Broken Families’ of Kashmir Pandits were erased from the history. They are also explaining why it is futile to raise the issue of human rights violations in Balochistan, as was done by Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech.

We can reject their statements and deeds by calling them “anti national”, but that will be too simplistic thing to do. They are not issuing those statements or indulging in those activities to troll the nationalists, but because there is a well thought strategy behind that.

The strategy is multi-pronged and is being implemented by various stakeholders. Some are willingly part of it, while some are being tricked into it in the name of liberalism and human rights. Currently it is focused around setting a future narrative where these reactions will fit in perfectly.

Let’s just look at four of these reactions and the kind of narratives they help build:

1. “Let’s not underestimate Pakistan”


Coming from Lalu, this might appear funny, but in the core of it is the strategy to appear well meaning by suggesting India to focus on internal issues and not take unnecessary panga with Pakistan. The plan is to paint Pakistan as a country that has some might that the ‘hypernationalists’ can’t see.

This will be taken forward by articles that will selectively quote from the UN resolution on Kashmir and the Shimla agreement, and caution how India could face international backlash by raising such issues.

Some will argue that this will internationalize the Kashmir issue and put India in a tenuous position internationally and that it will be a great fall from the position achieved during the previous regime.

The narrative will aim to undercut India’s clout and shield Pakistan from any diplomatic aggression that India may try.

 2. “Forget Balochistan, think Kashmir”


This reaction is very simple, efficient and effective. Logically it displays the same spectacular emotional appeal as “Why launch Mangalyaan when there are poor and hungry in India” argument, but it is much more potent than that.

It helps in the narrative that India is doing a hugely apathetic and shoddy job in Kashmir. This is further used to justify the separatist violence, which is shown as natural reaction to this Indian apathy. It completely ignores the role of Pakistan and the Jihadist ideology in instigating the violence.

A part of this reaction is where Kashmir is replaced with other problems of India. The strategy is to help in building a narrative that Balochistan is not a big issue and India is raising it just to be even with Pakistan – music to Pakistani ears.

This again shields Pakistan from any diplomatic aggression by shifting the focus inwards.

3. “Two wrongs don’t make it right”


Although these two tweets presented in continuation and representing a continuous thought look innocuously moralistic and preachy at best, they come from the factory of marshmallows with a bitter gourd candy core. It talks about “a nation that backs terrorism” and one would presume the reference is to Pakistan… or is it?

With the immediate backdrop of India raising human rights violations in Balochistan, the craftily ambiguous message could well be for India. Even if it is for Pakistan, it predicts “the same problem” i.e. “separatism through terrorist violence backed by India”.

Set of people coming up with this reaction are more futuristic in their approach. They are preempting not only any diplomatic offensive, but even an armed offensive against Pakistan. Loud TV debates will be held where entire platoons of sharp shooting “humanist” voices will be aiming at a lone BJP spokesperson, who will be fighting them and then a very bad throat.

Questions like “Do two wrongs make a right” and “Has India lost the moral high ground” will dominate prime time debates.

And when there is next terrorist attack in Pakistan, Hafeez Saeed will pick up clips from these debates and prove how India is already a terrorist state – all because Modi talked about human rights of those living in Balochistan.

4. “The bad army, the good terrorist”

This is the most sinister reaction and it helps in creating a narrative that sets the ground for the second partition of India. It is the most futuristic one, and most pernicious one. It does not paint the state or the Indian army as a single unit of evil, as was the case with “two wrongs don’t make it right” reaction, but seeks to divide it into saffron evil and under-the-command-of-saffron evil.

Since an average Indian still respects the army (despite the best efforts by the ‘secular-liberals’), the strategy is to fool him or her by not appearing to blame the army in entirety, but just focusing on the ‘black sheep’ who give army a bad name.

This bad ‘saffron army’, represented by the likes of Gen VK Singh and Gen Bakshi, will become the new ‘root cause of terrorism’, which was earlier either the Babri mosque demolition or the Gujarat riots. And it makes sense to push this narrative, because those two root causes never applied to Kashmir – the Kashmiri pundits were killed and driven out of valley before Babri mosque was demolished or 2002 Gujarat riots happened.

So if and when Kashmir gets azadi, the resident liberals at Lutyen’s Delhi won’t be under pressure to paint the entire army as villain and risk being hated by the average Indian. In this narrative, the villain will be the black, or the saffron sheep of the army. The Islamists of Kashmir won’t be the villain.

The Lutyens liberals grudgingly have to blame Jinnah for the 1947 partition, despite them wanting to blame only the RSS. They don’t want to blame any Jinnah again. So if and when Kashmir gets azadi, the blame shall rest entirely with the saffron war machine infested with evil Hindutva ideology.

Burhan Wani will be the Bhagat Singh in the history textbooks of Islamic State of Kashmir, and our Lutynes liberals are working towards the first draft of that chapter.

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These are just four types of reactions and consequent narratives that I’ve covered, but many fronts are opening up, many more narratives are in the making. If there is to be strife, it shall have to be dealt with on the ground by the leaders and their forces, and in the intellectual space by free minds who care for each other’s and the nation’s future.

Or maybe the war has already begun.

Catch News journalist caught stoking tension in Kashmir using fake pics

OpIndia Staff
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Catch News journalist caught stoking tension in Kashmir using fake pics

Social media can be used productively as well as destructively. We have seen that again today. While a CatchNews journalist was using social media to spread malicious lies, he was very soon exposed by others users on the social media itself.

This is not new. Recently, we had exposed how an anti-Modi cop Sanjiv Bhatt, was caught spreading tension in Kashmir via social media, when he used a highly misleading picture, which was then used as propaganda by Pakistani users. Today we saw a repeat of the same.

CatchNews.com is a new media portal, owned by Rajasthan Patrika Group. It doesn’t have a penchant for keeping things factual and it appears, they have got this quality from their Editors. CatchNews Associate Editor Aditya Menon tweeted the following picture with the caption that said the picture was taken from Kashmir. It evoked emotional responses from many, and some might have been driven to hate the Indian army. But as social media is accustomed to, the facts of this picture too were dug out. What was claimed to be a picture of Kashmir was found to be an old picture of Syria, from 2012:


The picture used by Aditya Menon is not only old, but it has also been repeatedly used by propaganda agents of Kashmir.

CatchNews

Does an editor of a media house spread untrue pictures by mistake? Or was this a deliberate ploy? Why was the editor stoking emotions which go against India and the Indian Army the plan here? Does the editor not know that a simple reverse search of the image can solve such issues?

Later, the journalist in question deleted the tweet can claimed “he was misled” into spreading it. However, alert social media users again found out that this could be a false claim by the journalist, because he had shared the same picture on his Facebook account, and it was clear that the picture dates back to 2013:


While India was rooting for PV Sindhu, some people were manipulating news to show her caste

Rahul Raj
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While India was rooting for PV Sindhu, some people were manipulating news to show her caste

When India was jubilantly celebrating the Olympic Silver medal won by PV Sindhu after her final match, social media, from somewhere, discovered that people are searching caste of Sindhu. As claimed by some people on twitter, the predictive algorithm of Google search was giving PV Sindhu caste as top keyword for searches on PV Sindhu. The news took no time to spread on different platforms. Soon, the unconditionally joyous mood of many people drifted to a conscience-stricken shamefaced state.


This was shocking to me too. To confirm this, I tried to use both “PV Sindhu” and “P V Sindhu” as keywords. My results didn’t have “PV Sindhu caste” on top of the search results.

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Some of my other friends also tried confirming it and they didn’t find “PV Sindhu caste” coming at the top of predictive search. Some other stated that they can see “PV Sindhu caste” in the predictive search list, but at the lower end


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On 20th August, the news was rife on the national dailies. Media claimed that people were searching Sindhu’s caste when Sindhu was playing her matches.

Sindhu CasteSindhu CasteSindhu Caste

I don’t remember any past instance when I saw people around me searching caste of players during their matches. However, seeing how stories and outrages are getting built around caste and religion of people these days, I was dubious about this whole episode.

In a series of tweet, V Vinay tried to explore the situation. He used Google Trends to investigate the search trend related to “PV Sindhu caste”


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His findings address that the prime allegations put by media was illogical. The volume of searches for “PV Singhu caste” was not even 1% of  searches for “PV Sindhu” which meant that media again generalized and exaggerated the data.

I tried to analyze google trend behind “PV Sindhu Caste” and found similar results. However, you can see that searches for “PV Sindhu” caste is rising. So what explains this? Let me try to give a probable reason.

You can clearly notice that after 19th August, searches for “PV Sindhu caste” increased, dipped and then again increased. On 19th August, some people deliberately started caste and Dalit controversy. With more number of people tweeting similar texts, it would have intrigued more people to check her caste.

Ruby Basu

The controversy picked as soon as the match ended. More and more people would have started checking it. Google pushes more searched keywords towards top of the predictive results. On 20th media started publishing reports around it. This resulted in even more volume of searches for her caste. The artificially created search was presented as the tragedy of Indian society.

Sindhu Caste

It should not amaze us that people are forcibly trying to use caste narratives in all possible spheres of life. However, it is also interesting to see names of those countries where “PV Sindhu caste” has maximum search after India; they all are from the Middle East.

Wish we had ‘cynicism se aazaadi’ – thoughts after 70th Independence Day

Gaurav Sansanwal
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Wish we had ‘cynicism se aazaadi’ – thoughts after 70th Independence Day

August, the fifteenth- should be a moment of great pride, for all of us. Way back in 1947, it was the day, when the soul of our nation, long suppressed, found- to be using Jawaharlal Nehru’s words, ‘utterance’. Hundreds of years of colonial rule, and the preceding thousands of years of authoritarian rule (by invaders), had broken the spirit of one of the world’s oldest civilisations. Its ancient democratic traditions came back to life, as it geared up, to give the dreams and aspirations of its people, a second chance.

Many generations sacrificed themselves, in the hope that one of their own, would witness the moment when the sun finally sets on the British Empire. My own great-grand-father laid down his life in the First World War. As a small child, when I was informed about this sacrifice, I had a confused expression on my face.  It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that he laid down his precious life, for a War, which India gained absolutely nothing out of. I was told his body never came back. We do however have a small declaration by the British government, that acknowledges the loss, and yet does very little to explain why the same was endured. My grandfather too, had colonial masters. This was before his career came to an end, and he took to farming- something that members of my family, continue to engage in. Tilling the soil, instead of serving the white-skin babu, perhaps gave him more happiness. I never met him, so I cannot be sure. But I can surely imagine how beautiful that moment would have been, when the clock struck twelve, and India became an independent country. We all have stories like this (and worse), in our own families. Our immediate forefathers have recited, and written down tales of those tumultuous times. Hearing, and reading about them makes one recall the struggle that our country has gone through.

But these stories do not seem to be inspirational enough, to many from our not-so grateful generation. My newsfeed, this Independence Day, was full of posts that were more in the nature of calls of boycott. India was described as communal, and intolerant. Many talked about ‘freedom’ of Kashmir; others schooled the rest of us, on how it is un-intellectual to be a patriot. So much of cynical analysis was presented on a day reserved for a very simple idea- celebrating the love that you have for your motherland, on a day when it earned political freedom.

That social, and economic freedom was not fully achieved- is a fact that I completely accept. But what some of their proponents do not acknowledge enough, is that political sovereignty and administrative independence becoming a reality is no small feat. The very fact that today we can begin the conversation on society, and economy- speaks for just how important political freedom is.

I used to be a Humanities student. And a pretty decent one; for I clearly made it to one of the country’s ‘best’ colleges. I have, during the course of my under-graduate study, observed some definite patterns that make up the thought processes of people, who feel the urge to replace achievements with criticisms, and hope- with shame, on Independence Day. In Humanities, teachers often claim that you have not ‘read’ enough, when you disagree with their opinions. That is actually a covert call to read, what you must, to get the consequent views, their endorsement. Quite surprisingly, you are not given that response when you nod your head in agreement, with the ideas of a few selective scholars, which are taught over and over again. This starts a peer competition of sorts. Everyone wants to be more critical than the other. The more critical you are, even on an occasion that does not call for ‘wild ’criticism (there is a time and place, for everything), the more appreciation you get. Not being a perennial critic of the present dispensation can mean only two things. You are either intellectually deficient, or intellectually dishonest. I don’t quite know which category am I usually placed in.

This is why, I am forced to believe that our generation has lost, and we have collectively let our country down. In the name of being critical, we have lost sight of our eventual goal. Take, for instance, the example of intolerance. We see so many statuses and taunts, the moment any intolerant act is committed in a country of 126 crore people. But how often do we see these kind souls, look for pragmatic solutions? Police reforms, decentralised command structure, better intelligence networks, holding regional parties responsible for law and order stunts- are things that we do not see being talked about. I have same charge, for those who are busy trending #DalitMuslimUnity hashtags. What is needed is greater social cohesion, not pitting one caste against another. Such a narrative furthers the unfortunate caste divide, and is done by people, just to benefit, politically. While Rohith Vemula’s death is nothing short a tragedy, just how right is it to celebrate someone who commits a suicide? His picture was juxtapositioned with the likes of Gandhi and Ambedkar. Demanding a Rohith Act is good for optics, but are we really this stupid? India has perhaps the world’s toughest anti-discrimination Act, in the name of SC/ST Act. Perhaps a little too tough, some would argue.

Many have said, that India is on the verge of becoming a Hindu Rashtra. Are their beliefs in the values enshrined in our Constitution so weak? Many others are crying that there is no independence anymore, for beef has been banned. Do they not know that beef ban is the prerogative of the state, and nothing has changed after Prime Minister Modi came to power. In more than 22 of India’s states (many with no significant BJP footprint), cow slaughter stands banned. Stop claiming that you are fighting for India. Humanities is supposed to be about understanding social problems, and solving them. Not playing politics over them.

Many spoke against the Prime Minister, for having mentioned Balochistan, in his speech. Liberation of India-controlled Kashmir (as they like calling it), is the stated policy of Government of Pakistan. Their Prime Minister speaks about it in every single UNGA plenary speech. ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ is a national holiday, on 5th February, every year. Meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders is the stated ‘condition’ for any government- to government engagement (back-channels aside). People who are on the ‘wanted’ lists of all major intelligence agencies of the world, speak, and indeed prepare for breaking India into a thousand pieces. From Mumbai to Pathankot, India’s call for prosecuting the offenders, has gone unheard. Then why is it, that some of us are finding it so upsetting that our Prime Minister, has brought to the light of the international community, the struggles of Balochistan? What is so wrong in speaking about PoK, or Gilgit, when their High Commissioner, announced the desire of liberating Kashmir from our own soil, this very Independence Day? Do we have no sense of geopolitics?

Our generation’s intellect is not helping the ‘nation’- so many of us don’t even consider it one; for India is a ‘colonial state’. Forget about the sacrifices of our freedom fighters, we are ignoring the price that the country is paying, to preserve its freedom. Even as these statuses were being written, a certain Pramod Kumar of the 49th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force, lost his life in an attack, minutes after the national flag was unfurled in Srinagar.

America has not stopped believing in American exceptionalism just because it is ‘not great anymore’- which by itself, is a contested statement in America. A nation that does not celebrate its achievements, can never become great. A nation which does not believe in itself, cannot achieve great things. No matter how many problems we may have, the path to solving them, does not begin with fear-mongering, and self-loathing.

जय हिन्द | जय  भारत |

UP Government keeps villagers of Nagla Fatela, general public and Central Government in Dark

OpIndia Staff
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UP Government keeps villagers of Nagla Fatela, general public and Central Government in Dark

There has been much ado over a little known village of Hathras district of Western Uttar Pradesh, Nagla Fatela. The Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech, mentioned it as one of the 10,000 odd villages that have been electrified under the much-celebrated rural electrification drive of the NDA government. Enterprising media outlets made a visit to the village to verify the claims and all hell broke loose since then.

“The village was already electrified”; “the village was not electrified”; “infrastructure was not created”; “only infrastructure was created and power was not provided”; “the scheme is a waste” etc. – these were some of the discussions on social media based on news reports. In this melee, the real villain of the piece – the Samajwadi Party led State Government was conveniently forgotten, both by partisan media outlets looking to break the Modi headwind in Uttar Pradesh and online activists who specialise in trolling political leaders.

The Modi government came to power with the burden of extraordinary expectations. That Power (electricity) is a concurrent subject under the Constitution is another reality check. That the Samajwadi Party cannot even be remotely associated with the loosest definition of governance is another widely accepted fact, given their poor track-record. So any Central Government scheme, must work through the filter of a State’s delivery mechanism and all the baggage associated with it. Add to this the score of 73 MPs of NDA from Uttar Pradesh and there is an atmosphere not exactly conducive for the implementation of Central schemes.

So what happened in Nagla Fatela? Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), through which, the rural electrification drive is being pursued, the Central Government allots funds on the basis of State Government reports. Being a concurrent subject the Centre cannot provide electricity or infrastructure on its own. Nor is it recommended that the Centre try to reach the 6-lakh odd villages of the country. Besides the federal structure argument, it is a recipe for disaster in practical terms of implementation.

As per documents released by the Central Government, the UP State Government added Nagla Fatela village to a list of unelectrified villages on the basis of which, funds would be allocated. A high-power committee comprising not only the State’s senior most electricity department authorities but also the senior most official of Uttar Pradesh, the Chief Secretary, sent this list. They claimed that this list was prepared after field surveys.

UP Govt's own documents
UP Govt’s own documents

Worse, the State Government themselves claimed that this village had zero houses electrified and that the transmission line had zero load. They also proposed the power infrastructure that would be built. Under the terms of DDUGJY, this was a fit case for electrification.

Zero Electrification
Zero Electrification

On the basis of this data, the Central government released funds and work was carried out. On 30th October 2015, the State DISCOM verified that it had completed the work.

The Infrastructure Verification Document provides details of the power infrastructure (transformers, poles, connections etc.). The central government released details of the electrification work of the village on its GARV app to ensure that the public was kept in the loop.

Electrification verified
Electrification verified (Last serial number)

However, V S Gangwar, Chief Engineer at DVVNL’s Aligarh division claimed to the media that the village had been electrified since 1985! So how can DVVNL first say that there, in writing, that the village was not electrified, and later claim that it was electrified since 1985?

The answer is simply this:  Around 150 houses have power since 1985 through the transformer meant for tubewells, via illegal “katia” connections. This has been admitted by the same Mr Gangwar above. So is a DVVNL staffer admitting that people are drawing illegal connections, from tubewell and agricultural pump lines for which, the state government gives subsidised rates? Is this a legal means or did someone in the UP Government benefit from this elaborate facility? Did the Samajwadi Party government turn a blind eye to this? Worse, did they later tell the Central Government in writing that the village had not power, and to add to it, not even bother to provide electricity through the new infrastructure?

From this episode it is clear that the Samajwadi Party has been trying to defeat the very purpose of this scheme. With an eye around elections, the Samajwadi Party has been creating much ruckus in parliament under the vocal leadership of Naresh Agarwal (of ‘a teaseller cannot become a Prime Minister’ fame). It has been demanding additional funds for Uttar Pradesh. The question that needs asking is funds to create ghost infrastructure or non-existent infrastructure.

Clearly, the UP government has much to answer. The NDA government has now used its implementing agency, the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to seek details from the Uttar Pradesh government on this village. It has also uploaded all the relevant documents, many of which have been quoted above, on its website.

As more details come to light, the opposition will realise that in reality they have added credence to BJP claims that the UP government is not co-operating with the Centre. Public opinion is already poor of the State Government. With this it will add weight to the belief that Modi’s intentions are good but the system does not support him. Elections are round the corner and these developments could not have come at a more “August” time for the BJP.

Dear Supreme Court, tell me how to celebrate Hindu festivals

Kansaratva
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Dear Supreme Court, tell me how to celebrate Hindu festivals

Recently the Supreme Court was seen passing decisions on how Dahi Handi, a Hindu festival, should be celebrated. On the pretext that the human pyramids were dangerous, SC went on to prescribe the maximum height of the pyramid, and even proposed a condition which was impossible to ensure compliance with: restricting participation by people below the age of 18.

Considering how wide an ambit today’s Supreme Court has, and being a law abiding citizen, I wish that I worship My Lords in the sky without breaking any laws, hence I make this appeal to My Lords on earth:

A shriphal’s total height,

The lumens in a diya,

Is the kalash alright?

Tell me, oh SC dear!

 

How much pushp should I use?

Which genera and species?

I am extremely obtuse,

Oh SC, tell me please!

 

The greenness of a betel,

And radius of its nut,

How should agarbathi smell?

Oh SC, tell me that!

 

Powderiness of haldi,

And roundness of laddoo,

What viscosity of ghee?

SC, please give a clue!

 

The distance from the murti,

That I can stand and pray!

What Kelvin should be aarti?

Would SC deign to say?

 

If apples are expensive,

Will bananas suffice?

I hope it’s not offensive,

SC, what’s your advice?

 

When enjoying (dry) Holi,

What RGBs to use?

During (silent) Diwali,

What dB is abuse?

 

Those daandiyas, by the way

What is their legal size?

How much, in grams, should they weigh?

Oh SC, make me wise!

 

Without going to and fro,

Let me ask you outright,

As a Hindu can I grow,

To more than 5 feet height?

Comedian uses dark humor to talk about liberal hypocrisy on the Kashmir issue

OpIndia Staff
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Comedian uses dark humor to talk about liberal hypocrisy on the Kashmir issue

Nitin Gupta, who is famous on social media as Rivaldo, has been using different genre of humor to discuss various social and political issues of India. For past few years, Rivaldo is creating many videos around the political scene of India. His video on IPS Durga Nagpal was received very positively.

Recently, Rivaldo has created a video on the Kashmir issue. Unlike his previous videos, this time he has kept his video as a dark-humor genre monologue. The video is a sarcastic suggestion to PM Narendra Modi, asking him to focus on secular balance of the valley for becoming a statesman like Nehru.

Author is a Stand Up comedian. You can follow him on twitter at Rivlado, and on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rivaldo.nitin

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