A few days back, I got a chance to attend a function organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Delhi state. I have attended many events organized by BJP, but I never attended any RSS event before this event. The event was organised in an open ground, a part of which was covered with tents for the event.
The swayamsewaks performed activities which they learnt in their 20 days long training Camp. It was to be followed by a speech by Shri Rameshwar, a Senior official of the RSS. When Shri Rameshwar stood to speak, a strong wind started blowing. The tent was tied to iron pillars from all sides, but due to pressure of the wind, it started shaking like leaves of a tree. All the pillars attached to the stage were also shaking. This all happened very fast. Even trained event managers couldn’t handle it easily and most of these swayamsewaks there were all untrained youngsters! The scene, for once, scared me so much that I thought of running away from the pandal.
The stage from which the main speaker was speaking was shaking like anything due to strong winds. I was pretty sure that the speaker will abort his speech and move from the venue. Who would want to stake his life for an event? What happened in next few seconds, changed my views for RSS forever. When the wind became strong, swayamsevaks quickly took positions. Those sitting beside poles, grabbed them strongly. They also untied all the tents from poles so that the wind pressure is minimized. Around 20-25 swayamsewaks ran towards the stage and grabbed each pole strongly to ensure that the stage doesn’t shake anymore. 6-7 swayamsewaks were holding each pole attached to the stage and made sure the events runs smoothly. Though the tent must have been of some tent-wallah, but his men were nowhere in sight. Swayamsewaks were holding each pillar of the widespread tent and ensured smooth functioning of the event. This everything happened within a couple of minutes.
But I must admit that the most astonishing thing that amazed me was the behavior of the speaker. The stage was shaking like a boat in a river, even one of the pillars of stage’s roof came out, which could even have caused his death, but he was as calm as if nothing had happened. Neither here was no sign of any fear on his face nor his words suggested so. He spoke for full 40 minutes as he was scheduled to, that too without even once mentioning the strong storm blowing there. The way by which these young swayamsewaks managed everything and ensured smooth concluding of the event, it was absolutely breath-taking. 2-3 swayamsewaks were tied to each of the pillar. Some even climbed on the pillars to ensure that they didn’t move any further. One senior swayamsewak, who was standing behind the main speaker on stage, was continuously looking towards the roof to ensure that the speaker isn’t harmed in case the iron pillar of the roof falls. He was on the stage which in itself was shaking badly due to strong winds and was held by 20-25 swayamsewaks who were holding the pillars of stage. Speaker put his faith on the karyakartas behind him while that karyakarta put his faith on the young swayamsenaks holding stage. What a bold statement of mutual trust it was!
While there was lots of turbulence, the main speaker stated that Sangh is an organisation which builds humans. I had heard this line many times but that day I actually realized what type of individuals Sangh creates. Speaker was a big RSS official. I am sure he won’t be knowing many of those who were holding the stage personally but he posed his full trust on their shoulders without even thinking twice. It was like putting his life in their hands.
May be this is the character-building that I have heard many RSS guys talking about. I shared here what I felt. These small things, in my opinion, make this organisation such a great one. We should attend RSS programs before forming opinions about the organization. I am sure you will like their dedication.
My best wishes to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.
The civil aviation policy was cleared by the cabinet yesterday. There was a presentation on the policy by civil aviation ministry in front of media followed by a question answer session. Although this new policy includes many path-breaking changes, which can be referred to as so called ‘big bang reforms’, there was one single point that got the most attention on both news media and social media. This point is, the Government has capped the price of air tickets at the rate of ₹2,500/- per hour of air travel.
Here are some of the media articles that mention that air fare has been capped at ₹ 2,500/- per hour:
There was some outrage also on this, as how can government fix price of air ticket which is such a communist measure and against the principle of ease of doing business.
But has the Government of India really capped the price of air tickets? If you were paying attention to the presentation of ministry and the subsequent press conference, you will find that the reality is far from it. The fact is, there is no such cap on existing routes on which airlines are operating at present. This cap is applicable only on connecting to some new airports that will come up under Regional Connectivity Scheme introduced in the civil aviation policy today.
Let’s see some detail regarding this.
The central government has realised that India has one of the lowest domestic air connectivity for its size. India needs many more airports to improve this situation and provide connectivity to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. But building new airports in those places will be hugely expensive and time consuming. Incidentally, there are around 350 airstrips scattered across the country which are presently not used. Many of those were built during WW-II, some were built later but were abandoned as the demand was not enough to sustain air operations to those places. Now government has decided to convert some of these airstrips into functioning airports at investment of around ₹100 crore per airport. These airports will come under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). This scheme will require support and participation of state governments which want such airports in their states.
Now, even after these airports are developed, air connectivity to these places will not be economically viable as demand is less in these sectors compared to metros and tier 1 cities. Because there are not enough people in those places who will buy air tickets at current prices. This is the reason some of the existing airports in such places are non-operational at present. Hence government has decided to cap air fare ONLY on these routes at ₹2,500/- per hour of flying, on pro-rata basis. Means for 2 hours of flight it will be ₹5,000/- and so on.
This cap will not be applicable on flights between two existing functional airports, it will be applicable only on flights between an existing airport and a new RCS airport, or between two RCS airports.
And, the Government is not forcing airlines to sell ticket at low price, but it is helping in bringing the price to such level, by taking following steps:
• Service Tax will be charged on only 10% of the ticket price. Means if a ticket costs ₹2,000/-, service tax will be applicable only on ₹200/-, making the tax amount only one-tenth of normal amount.
• The state government will be required to charge only 2% VAT on aviation turbine fuel purchased at these airports.
• The airports will not charge any kind of charge from the airlines for use of the airports.
• State governments will have to provide police and fire services free of cost.
• For any loss that airlines have to bear due to the cap in ticket price, Government of India will fund them through Viability Gap Funding, which will be collected through a cess applied on ticket prices of non-RCS routes.
So, the Government is implementing this cap by reducing its share in the ticket price, which is substantial, and also by providing Viability Gap Funding. Hope this clears the confusion created by usual misleading news by mainstream media.
Arvind Kejriwal announced the formation of a political party called Aam Aadmi Party with the promise of a new brand of politics. He promised India that AAP would bring in clean politics, focused around their anti-corruption platform. A new level of public discourse centered around transparency. Sure there were the boisterous sometimes outrageous press-conferences by Kejriwal where he fired his salvos on the people his court deemed corrupt. But there always seemed to be a certain level of dignity maintained.
As far as the promise of clean politics goes, AAP cannot claim to have fulfilled expectations. 1 minister sacked dramatically on allegations of corruption. Another minister forced to resign after being arrested in a cheating case. Allegations of corruption against another ministry, the minister of which was oddly relieved of only that portfolio, citing “health reasons”. That is 3 out of the 7 cabinet ministers. Not a very healthy score.
Add to this the fact that in the recent past, Arvind Kejriwal seems to have had a meltdown. A meltdown of epic proportions. The language, tone and tenor have gone from tolerable to cheap, coarse and crass. One cannot fathom that Kejriwal is actually a Chief Minister, that too of the National Capital Territory, because his behaviour comes across as one of those conceited college activists who find it cool to abuse people in places of authority.
Here is an elected representative, a Chief Minister at that, with an enormous majority abusing the Prime Minister of a country. And it is not even election season. Elections often bring out the worst among politicians and it is par for course for barbs to be exchanged. But the trigger for this extremely abusive tweet was the fact the CBI raided the office of a bureaucrat in the Delhi Government. Here is an anti-corruption messiah absolutely losing his cool just because some bureaucrat in his Government was probed for corruption.
Not only is the Prime Minister attacked, who one can argue is a political opponent, Kejriwal has now gone on to abuse and deride even the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung. Two letters written by Kejriwal, from his office as the Chief Minister of Delhi, addressed to Najeeb Jung have now leaked on social media and they show the depths that Arvind Kejriwal has sunk to.
In the first letter he literally challenges or rather sardonically requests the LG and PM to raid his minister “for the crime of completing a medical college in record time”:
Kejriwal’s letter
In the same letter he goes on to deride the LG again saying that irrespective of the “illegal, anti people, anti constitutional acts” he does on the directions of the PM, Modi will never make him Vice-President:
Kejriwal’s letter
In his second letter within two weeks, he once again goes on the aggressive. This time at least there is a reason: The Anti Corruption Bureau is questioning his Transport Ministry which has been riddled with allegations of multiple scams.
Much like his previous letter, he once again baits the LG and PM to send a CBI raid party, to raid his minister Satyendra Jain for the “crime of drafting a fantastic solar policy”:
Kejriwal’s letter
In another line, which reveals the absolutely twisted mindset of Kejriwal, he alludes that Modi is very happy with the LG for doing his bidding.
These letters, these cheap jibes are no accident. These are not slip-ups or on the spur of the moment remarks. These reveal a design of a demented mind. This man is only on the look-out for a fight. If you see his tenure as CM, almost every month there is some new issue with which he has claimed victim-hood and started a fresh fight. His constantly antagonistic approach is the only way he seems to feel he can be relevant. And in bad times, such stances can be used to cover up own deficiencies.
Under his brand of politics, which was supposed to be clean, he has abused and insulted the two most important people in the matters of a State Government: the Prime Minister, with whom he needs to work in close coordination to get many works done, and the LG, who again has many powers, especially in a territory like Delhi, which is not a full-fledged state.
It is not something unique to find that a CM has to deal with a PM who is a political opponent. Countless CMs in India, have dealt with opposition party PMs, but it is only AAP’s Kejriwal who always find some or the other grouse with the PM. In fact even recently when the President rejected AAP’s bill, he dragged in the PM. This reveals either mental imbalance of utter dishonesty.
Many states have also had Governors who were earlier in active politics and from the opposing party. Often Governors are appointed only to make sure the CM has a tough time. Najeeb Jung is not affiliated to any political party, and instead is a former bureaucrat, just like Kejriwal. Further, he is not a Modi appointee. Yet, it is only this petulant Delhi CM who has such a severe problem with his Governor.
Forget the position, both the LG and the PM are very senior people, men of considerable age, who have spent far more time in their respective fields than Kejriwal who is just a political upstart. Basic culture and decency demands that one must respect their seniority, if not position. A CM can have genuine grievances but there are ways and means in which they can be conveyed, means which do not cross the line of public propriety.
What is even worse is the utter silence from eminent people who support AAP and also the media. There have been almost no debates or discussions highlighting how Kejriwal has made it a habit to bait, troll and abuse people in positions which demand respect. A constantly at war CM combined with the Rs 526 crore advertisement war-chest maybe spelling out “acche din” for TV channels, which could perhaps explain the silence. But it is certainly not “acche din” for political discourse in India.
In the latest saga engulfing controversy’s favourite child Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, AAP in Delhi might see 21 of its MLAs disqualified. The reason is simple: the Delhi Government appointed these 21 MLAs as “parliamentary secretaries” which was not permitted as per law since they were considered to be holding an “office of profit”. This matter has earlier claimed big names such as Jaya Bachchan and even Congress President Sonia Gandhi. While Bachchan lost her Rajya Sabha seat via disqualification, Sonia Gandhi had to resign from all her posts which could have been considered as falling under “office of profit”.
Arvind Kejriwal though tried another method, by passing a bill which had retrospective impact, trying to bless his 21 MLAs with legal sanctity. Unfortunately the bill was rejected by the President of India and ever since a new saga of victim-hood has played out. Kejriwal has cried foul that Modi is behind all the happenings.
The truth however is that all this started with a relatively unknown face: Advocate Prashant Patel. He filed a petition before the President to disqualify the 21 MLAs on 19th June, 2015. Now that the matter has become hot again, Ankit Jain spoke to Advocate Patel to get a clear understanding of the controversy:
Q. The President has just declined to give assent to the Delhi Government’s bill to exclude the post of parliamentary secretary from the office of profit. Why do you think he has done so?
Adv Patel: On 26th December, 2015 I had submitted my reply to Election Commission and a copy to Hon’ble President that the Delhi Government did not observe and follow the mandatory legal and constitutional requirements before introducing and passing this Bill in the Legislative Assembly, hence the impugned Bill cannot and must not be given the shape of a valid law. So Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji being the defender and upholder of the constitution, must therefore withhold his assent to this Bill. I submitted this after the submission of my Petition seeking disqualification of MLAs holding Office of Profit. Delhi Government tried to present fait accompli to Hon’ble Rashtrapati Ji and brought a bill in Assembly.
Q. Kejriwal has alleged that the President is working on orders of PM Modi and MHA. As per the legal processes, is it fair to make such a conclusion granted that the President has declined NDA’s bills as well?
Adv Patel: Article 102 and 192 read with Section 15 of the NCT Act say that, in the matter of questions as to disqualification of Members, President shall obtain the opinion of Election Commission before taking any decision and decision of President shall be final. The file related to “Office of Profit” doesn’t go to PM, Cabinet or Government.
Q. Kejriwal claims that there are no benefits accruing to these parliamentary secretaries hence it is not an “office of profit”. The official circular says they may use vehicles and space for official purposes. How is this an office of “profit”?
Adv Patel: ‘Profit’ normally connotes any advantages, benefit or useful consequences. Generally, it is interpreted to mean monetary gain but benefits other than monetary gain may also come within its meaning. “Office of profit” is one to which some power to patronage is attached or in which the holder is entitled to exercise the executive functions, or which carries dignity, prestige or honour to the incumbent thereof.
The position of Parliamentary Secretary in Delhi squarely falls in the aforesaid category. MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries are certainly in a more advantageous or beneficial position in comparison to the other Members. By accepting the position of Parliamentary Secretary which certainly has some position, prestige or patronage attached to it, these legislators have become an inseparable and an integral part of the Executive and the dividing line between Legislature and the Government has been completely obliterated
Advocate Prashant Patel
Q. Why did the Delhi Government frame such a bill in the first place?
Adv Patel: The appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries was made on 13 March 2015, and the Bill with malafide and malicious intent , was passed on 24 June 2015. It was given retrospective effect by stating that “It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 14th day of February 2015” only because I had filed a petition before the President to disqualify 21 MLAs on 19th June, 2015.
Q. Kejriwal says that many states have such parliamentary secretaries who also get paid and Modi is singling out Delhi. Is it true?
Adv Patel: First of all I want to clear that Delhi is not a state but Union Territory. Delhi comes under Chapter 8 of the Constitution and States Comes under chapter 3 of the Constitution. In Delhi, if You want to make any rule or want pass a Bill, you have take permission first from Central government via LG, which was never taken. In other states they have made parliamentary secretaries after passing the Bills in their Assemblies.
Q. In all the attacks of Kejriwal, he claims Modi is after him, whereas the entire issue started with your petition to EC. Are you in anyway connected to BJP or Modi?
Adv Patel: I do not belong to any political party and have no political affiliations either. As a vigilant law abiding citizen, I simply want the majesty of the Indian Constitution and the law of the land to prevail.
Q. Some media reports suggest that the 21 MLAs now will be disqualified, but some other reports say that there is still time to go as EC has to hold hearings and take a decision. When will this issue be settled?
Adv Patel: EC is conducting all these proceedings according to directions of the President. EC may give chance to 21 AAP MLAs for Personal hearing. I have also requested to EC in my Rejoinder that the intention of MLAs seems to be malafide and to delay the process. However In the interest of speedy disposal of the matter, the hearing of all MLAs may be completed on a single day itself. The matter is on its final stage and EC may soon give opinion to the President and the President will take a decision and his decision shall be final which can’t be challenged to any court.
Q. Are there any legal remedies available to AAP to solve this issue without getting 21 MLAs disqualified?
Adv Patel: According to the Constitution, there is no legal remedy available to these MLAs, since appointment of 21 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries is the worst kind of political corruption.
After Jitender Singh Tomar and Asim Ahmed Khan , AAP Minister Gopal Rai became the next minister of the Delhi Government to resign, but with a difference.
The controversial Tomar was embroiled in a fake degree scam in which Kejriwal backed him to the hilt. Kejriwal tried to defend Tomar till the very last moment, but when multiple investigations and proofs began coming out in public, Tomar was finally forced to resign, after he was arrested on charges of fraud and cheating by the Delhi Police
In the case of Khan, he was sacked by AAP supremo Kejriwal allegedly over graft charges, although Khan himself blamed “AAP’s internal politics”. The minister wasn’t given any notice of this move and was sacked in a dramatic fashion, in an apparent bid to show-case a zero-tolerance-to-corruption attitude.
In that sense AAP Minister Gopal Rai’s case is mighty different. Firstly, he has been relieved only of one portfolio and continues to be minister for 5 other portfolios:
From Delhi Government Portal
The public reason given is that Gopal Rai resigned “citing poor health”. It is odd that a minister feels unhealthy only running the transport portfolio and is fine to run 5 other ministries. Rai though, did undergo a surgery in early May 2016, to remove a bullet lodged in his neck for the past 17 years. The bullet was removed without complications and his condition was said to be stable. This still does not explain why he felt he needed to be relieved only from the Transport department.
But if one goes back a bit to the developments of the past 2 weeks, then a different story emerges. On 18th May, came the story by a site called FountainInk, which exposed the dark secrets and corrupt practices of AAP:
Although this story was published on 18th May, it made news on social media only on 1st June, when some journalists shared the story and AAP leader Aashish Khetan threatened them with dire consequences. One of the parts of the story talked about Gopal Rai and his transport ministry:
The (transport) department was caught renewing licences of autorickshaws for people it favoured .While there were close to 17,000 vehicles on the road only 10,000 were to be allowed back as per the government’s decision. The department had been provided with a list of dealers to be favoured. But the scam was exposed and there were large-scale protests on the city’s roads.
In order to control the surge in negative publicity, Rai immediately suspended three officials based on recommendations from party workers. A senior official of the department says, “They were actually against the directions and had decided to work in a fair manner. They just became scapegoats in a political battle.”
Another potential scam which hit the transport ministry was the one regarding the sale of more than 1 lakh CNG stickers to non-CNG cars. 2 protesters of the Aam Aadmi Sena, a dissident faction of former workers of Aam Aadmi Party, claimed that they had a CD containing a sting operation, which exposed alleged sale of fake CNG stickers in Delhi ahead of the Odd-Even vehicular scheme. Even journalist Rahul Kanwal independently hinted at the possibility of such a scam.
And most recently, the news of an alleged “premium bus scam” broke out in Delhi. Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the AAP government’s bus aggregator scheme, and summoned Transport Commissioner Sanjay Kumar, who notified it.
With 3 allegations of scams on Delhi’s Transport ministry, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted the following on 10th June:
Kejriwal’s tweet
This was a marked departure from Kejriwal’s stance with Khan, whom he sacked as soon as he got the news that there were allegations of corruption against him. This time Kejriwal tried to pre-empt action by ACB and tried to give it a political colour. And within hours of this tweet by Delhi CM, it was revealed that Gopal Rai may resign as transport minister due to “health concerns”:
“Health Concerns”
The entire sequence of events is this: Minister Gopal Rai has a surgery for an old complication. In the meanwhile allegations fly thick and fast about his transport ministry being involved in scams. ACB starts probing one of the matters. Delhi CM pre-empts ACB action on Rai and gives it a political colour. Finally Rai cites “health reasons” to resign, but only from the controversial transport portfolio and not his 5 other ministries.
The truth will be out only when investigations are over but in the past we have seen many politicians take the “chest-pain” route to avoid the long hand of the law. To make matters worse for him, communist Kavita Krishnan, had this to say about Gopal Rai, much before he became a minister and any of the alleged scams emerged:
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is a self-proclaimed anarchist. He has done various stunts in the past, right from sleeping on roads to abusing the PM. Now there have been some news reports that he has promised a new stunt.
A screenshot of a tweet by Aaj Tak has gone viral on social media. The tweet says that Arvind Kejriwal has declared that he will jail Sheila within two months or else he will shave his moustache off:
Arvind Kejriwal has been under fire for not acting on former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit inspite of claiming in the run up to the Delhi elections that he had voluminous documents against her. Considering this, Kejriwal’s promise to shave his moustache off seems far fetched. What added to the mystery further was that soon after Aaj Tak tweeted this, the tweet was deleted.
So did he really say this? Seems not. If one sees this video footage from the Delhi assembly, it is clear that Aaj Tak has grossly misreported the statement:
विपक्ष के नेता केजरीवाल दिल्ली के CM विजेंदर गुप्ता से शीला को जेल नहीं भेज पाने पर मूंछे मुंडवाने को कहते हुए pic.twitter.com/Pbk1Z9jVQ4
In the video Kejriwal says that Vijender Gupta, the BJP leader, is a man of his word. He further says that on behalf of Vijender, he i.e. Arvind Kejriwal assures the house that if Sheila Dikshit doesn’t go to jail within two months, then Vijender will shave his moustache off.
This is basically the Delhi CM trolling the BJP MLA, and nowhere does Kejriwal say he will shave his own moustache. Yet Aaj Tak does a complete hash of the reporting, and to add to the problem, social media has already started spreading the incorrect screenshot of Aaj Tak’s tweet.
As thing stands, if you are discussing the horrific terror attack in Orlando which claimed the lives of 50 LGBT individuals, you must first ask yourself: Am I in anyway responsible for this attack? Because if you listen to some so called “liberals”, the blame could very well lie at the doors of everyone except the main cause of this act and many other terror attacks: ISIS
This much we know: A CNN report says, Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, the son of Afghan immigrants, called 911 during the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS, mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers and started shooting in an LGBT club, killing 50 people and wounding at least 53. With this it becomes the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting, with the terror group’s news organisation, Aamaq Agency, saying the attack was “carried out by an Islamic State fighter”. Mateen’s father claimed that his son became enraged recently when he saw two men kissing.
So much for the facts. There are many issues which arise from this gruesome incident: Homophobia, Gun Control, and of course Islamic Terrorism, for which ISIS is the flag-bearer.
There have been some commentators who have argued that Homophobia is at the core of this. The arguments of these lot have wound down from Orlando, Florida to India, asking PM Modi to get rid of Section 377 which is anti LGBT community. The tenuous arguments being: we must show empathy by rolling back this law or that India too is open to such mass shootings thanks to its homophobic laws.
That Section 377 is regressive and must at the very least be modified is a given, but dragging it into an incident that occurred on the other side of the globe is disingenuous. The shooting happened inspite of USA having very pro-LGBT laws, so the question of homophobic laws doesn’t arise. Florida has even legalised same-sex marriages. The real reason is that ISIS preaches gays should be killed, in fact even throwing gays off buildings only because of their sexual orientation. Even more worrying is the fact that a Shia Imam recently proclaimed in Orlando itself that gays must die:
At last check, no group wielding any kind of influence has asked for LGBTs to be killed in India, and certainly just a change in the law will not deter such a twisted mind. Whoever heard of a deranged soul being afraid of doing something just because of the law? At the cost of repetition, this does not take away from the fact that Sec 377 needs a major relook at the very least.
So when lying journalists like Barkha Dutt try to spin this around to “Onus on India” we know exactly what they are doing:
EXACTLY. And dont forget, also about anti-gay bigotry. Cue to India. As we mourn, we must change our awful law https://t.co/Hey52y5Rwx
In fact Barkha Dutt even attempted to distance ISIS from the killer, albeit in an extremely confused fashion. She initially retweeted a tweet which said ISIS had claimed responsibility. And within hours claimed that FBI had “ruled out ISIS angle”:
@dhume Sure, but why has FBI ruled out ISIS angle? , and it may not only be about guns, but it is ALSO about guns
When we asked Barkha for clarifications, she backtracked and claimed that she had “read a comment by FbI that said he was self-radicalized, not ISIS organised“. We couldn’t find any mention of any FBI official claiming this, but till the time of writing this, inspite of repeated requests, Barkha has not been able to provide any proof.
Now we come to this new defence of being “self -radicalised”. The argument by many is he wasn’t trained or actively radicalised by ISIS, but rather converted into a terrorist on his own, probably under the influence of some social media propaganda material from ISIS. This technicality can be used by some to distance him from ISIS. The obvious logical fallacy is the material spread by ISIS is targetted exactly to create such events, where so-called “lone-wolfs” carry out terror attacks in the name of ISIS, without their direct involvement! In fact ISIS has released videos and even a 64 page guide explaining how such attacks must be carried out. In fact, such so called “self radicalisation” is an even graver threat than regular ISIS activities because this means just about anyone anywhere who can be brainwashed by social media content of ISIS can turn into a terrorist.
The other issue which some apologists keep harping on is gun control. Case in point, AAP cheerleader Saba Naqvi, who twists and turns to avoid mentioning ISIS or Islamic terror but is quick to blame gun control:
Again it is not a completely invalid argument, US probably needs stricter gun-control rules to prevent the frequently occurring shootings. But not everybody with a gun is likely to go on a rampage. Guns don’t kill people, nut-jobs with guns do. And can religious terrorists ever been stopped by such gun-control laws? The Boston bombers, who were referred to by Mateen and who also cited extremist Islamic beliefs as their motive, used pressure-cooker bombs, not guns. The point being once you get into the deranged zone of being a bigoted terrorist, laws such as gun-control may make it a bit harder, but eventually you will find a way through, either by improvisation or by getting illegal supply of guns. To then place the entire blame of this act on a fringe topic such as gun control is again being an apologist for terror.
The worst arguments have been put forth by some, who are still stuck in the terror-has-no-religion bit:
There isn’t a religion on earth that preaches violence. There isn’t a terrorist on earth that is religious.
The ignorance or the deliberate misinformation is frankly unbelievable. Here is an attacker who pledges support to a terror organisation which claims to be religious for all purposes but here we have some individuals with blinkers on who want to say that even though an attacker thinks he is doing it for religious reasons, he is in fact just a “crazy person” who cannot be religious!
The solution to all of this is to make some very rational arguments: ISIS has been finding reasons to shoot people and homophobia is just the latest one. Also, gun control can only help you to an extent because as terrorists have shown, they can kill without guns too (bazinga!). Further, this does not mean that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or that Islam is beyond redemption. If only we all could say the terrorism in the name of Islam is the key issue here, we could at least move towards solving this issue which seems to be the single biggest threat to the world. Let us not live in a world where we cannot even call out ISIS sponsored or inspired terrorism.
It isn’t a mere social media mock when one hears about Indian Communists opening their umbrellas when there is rain in Moscow or China. Indian Comrades still look up to their foreign mentors as much as they accuse BJP of looking up to Nagpur for ideological inspiration.
It’s only natural to emulate one’s mentors. With the Chinese government imposing a ban on fasting during Ramzan, I was curiously watching which way Indian Communists will go. Going by their penchant for things Chinese, one would have expected them to make some noise about Indian Muslims keeping fast! After all, as Karl Marx said, ‘religion is the opium of people’ and Ramzan represents one of the most overt displays of masses getting high on that ‘opium’!
Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect them to barter their ideological cap for a skull cap so easily! But then in the days of vote-bank politics, who cares for ideological sincerity. Though Indian Comrades work overtime to show how they are against religion, they often give in to the lure of its political dividends.
They always find cheap ways to be seen as pro-Muslim while pretending to be anti-religion. Take the curious case of what happened when West Bengal CPM stalwart Abdur Rezzak Mollah wanted to go to Haj pilgrimage a few years ago. All ideological resistance evaporated when Mollah threatened to tell his constituency (read Muslim voters) of the ideological opposition of the party to Haj. He was allowed to go after a not-so pious manipulation of making it look like a fun-trip to Mecca rather than a pilgrimage.
The harsh fact is that Mollah not only performed Haj, but also openly proclaimed that his devotion to the faith he was born into and the almighty is always hundred per cent.
Does it signal a readiness to smoke the opium pipe? Or is it just another case of speaking in many voices for political expediency? Unfortunately, the later was the case. The keenness to relax the ‘no religion in the cadres’ norm seems to be driven by pure vote-bank politics. The intellectual hypocrisy was further exposed when a party senior from the same state was reprimanded for being seen around the Tirupati shrine!
Last year when the Left parties debated whether they should attend Sonia Gandhi’s iftar party, the contention was less over whether Comrades are ideologically allowed to be pro-religion and attend iftar parties, but more over whether they should seen as pro-Congress! Pro-Congress, they already are. Pro-religion, they don’t have the courage. Nor are they ready to pay the price of denouncing it totally. That explains why they are seen swinging between crying foul about Yoga Day or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s spiritual Olympics and putting on a skull cap for the next iftar party.
It will be foolish to expect CPM boss Sitaram Yachury’s much talked-about pragmatism to go much beyond ignoring the Beijing diktat for the sake of appeasing Indian Muslims. The chances of him daring to talk against the Chinese ban look as remote as him embracing Bharatiyata by turning up for Yoga Day or chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. Looks like India Comrades take Leon Trotsky seriously, albeit with a twist. The end may justify the means as long as there is something to gain politically.
Last night Twitter discovered the hidden poets among many. It all started with Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal placing his own couplet on record. The “shayari” was addressed to PM Modi and was in reference to the movie Udta Punjab and the censorship issue around it. Earlier, Kejriwal had tried to circumvent the question by many as to what was an AAP member and communication team adviser Sameer Nair doing as a producer of Udta Punjab. Kejriwal’s couplet was as follows:
Twitter erupted after this tweet from Kejriwal, and many parody couplets surfaced along with a hashtag #KejriwalShayaris. Here are some of the funniest:
We had a separate report on this. Even after the ministry had clarified in multiple ways and had shown proof that chanting of Om or Vedic hymns was not mandatory, NDTV continued to carry the opposite news, that Om was indeed mandatory, on their TV shows.
We had a separate story on this. NDTV’s report initially claimed that Maneka Gandhi had said the above. But the video of the interview proved that she had said no such thing. In fact she never even used the word trolling. Once they were questioned, NDTV changed the headlines repeatedly in order to salvage something out of the controversy, but could never prove that Gandhi had said the above.
We had a separate story on this. Based on a PTI story, media houses like NDTV and Economic Times had reported the above in their headline. But the body of the story had the complete truth. Central Railway’s General Manager had clarified that the amount was not being charged to Latur and the bill was sent on their request:
“We have sent the bill to the Latur district collector as per the administration’s request, It is up to the district administration whether to pay us or seek waiver of the amount, through proper channels. We sent the water transport bill as per their request.”
The Ministry of Railways too tweeted the above and clarified that the amount was not being charged but the bill was sent purely on the request of Latur authorities.
In a very cunning and shrewd move, Business standard used the above headline, by dropping just one word of what Modi said, so that the meaning changes entirely. Seeing the body of the above article itself it is clear that Modi said the following:
“In any developing country in the world, both the public and private sector have a very important role to play. You can’t suddenly get rid of the public sector, nor should you,”
But Business Standard dropped the word “suddenly” from Modi’s sentence and made it the headline, giving the impression that Modi was not at all in favour of getting rid of public sector companies, when he was actually pressing for a gradual transformation
In the bizarre world of Indian media, the tweet-storm in which Rishi Kapoor hit out at the naming of buildings and structures after the Gandhi family, was reported as if Kapoor had attacked General V K Singh.
Multiple media houses reported this story on 5th May claiming that IRCTC’s site was hacked and personal data of around 1 crore users was feared to be robbed. IRCTC though clarified on the same day with a detailed press release explaining how they had checked their systems and found no evidence of any hacking whatsoever. Further, the Ministry from its Twitter handle explained that such news was common for the past 2-3 years and was most probably based on some people selling 1 crore email ids and phone numbers, claiming that they have obtained the same from IRCTC.
In the above tweet which was later deleted, AIR news claimed that the Government had favoured reservations in Private Sector. The truth however was that the Government had only favoured reservation in promotion for Government employees, provided the right “atmosphere” was created. This also was in response to the demand for reservation in promotion raised by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge during a debate on demands of grants for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
In the last week of May, this news was spread by many media portals that the CBFC i.e. the Censor Board had put a complete blanket ban on the movie Udta Punjab. The facts were tweeted by co-producer Anurag Kashyap much after the controversy erupted, where he clarified that there was no ban, and it was only being referred to the Revising committee, following due processes.
In the above report, Aaj Tak claimed that in the recent past, many cases of vandalism in the name of cow protection were noticed in Punjab. To prove this Aaj Tak showed many videos of such cases. But as was found out later, at least 2 of such videos were in fact of 2013 and could in no way be presented as “recent past”.
In a case of selective reporting, ET Now cut elements from Jaitley’s speech and claimed he said the above. At the same time, other media houses like Bloomberg had reported the correct news:
In this poorly spun headline, IndiaSamwad picked up 2 different answers by Kangana Ranaut and put them together to get a sensational headline. On the issue of her now being a big star, she said:
“Now I get a lot of offers to work with the Khans. I’m my own hero on the sets, why should I work with other heroes? The Khans did not want to work with me when I started, why should I work with them now?”
And later, to a question on witchcraft and her religious practices, she said:
“I am a very proud Hindu. The foundation of my personality is laid on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda or Sanatan Dharm or the Gita. And if my religious practices or anybody’s religious practices are given any kind of sadistic name, it instills fear about other person’s religious practices,”
There is absolutely no connection between the “I am a proud Hindu” part and the “I wont work with Khans” part, but IndiaSamwad chose to twist the interview.
Although CID bomb disposal squad was brought into action to diffuse these bombs, Times of India played down this incident by using an innocuous picture of fire-cracker “bombs”. Were they trying to suggest that in the midst of elections, in West Bengal which has been in the news far too often for crude bombs, 3 people died while making fire-crackers? The Times of India report also failed to mention the fact that Bomb Disposal squad was used, hence further confusing the reader.
Based on syndicated reports some media houses reported that UAE is about to build a rainmaking man-made mountain. The fact is however that no UAE official or agency has confirmed the existence of any concrete plan to geo-engineer a mountain. The closest thing to this news is the fact that National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the US agency is doing preliminary research on the feasibility of the idea and is downplaying the idea of actually building a mountain, noting it is too early to speculate on any concrete outcomes for such a geo-engineering project.
5. ANI News: LOP raised the issue of absence of Law Minister Sadananda Gowda in LS
Initially ANI News had tweeted the above that the Leader of the Opposition had raised the issue of absence of the Law Minister. Later ANI seems to have deleted the tweet but the Minister was well aware of the situation and countered ANI:
@ANI_news The tweet stating that LOP raised the issue of my absence in LS deleted by you. What is the truth? say so if that was incorrect.
In the above story reporting about the violent behaviour of Leftists students at the University, Economic Times claimed that “Finally, the film was screened using a giant screen inside the university premises”. The film was indeed screened but not at the auditorium. Instead a make-shift screen was erected using bed-sheets. It was certainly not a “Giant screen” and neither did Economic Times explain the nature of this “screen”
The Indian Express got the above headline wrong when they claimed the Defence Minister had set the target at only $2 Million. As the body of their own report, and other media reports confirmed, the target was in fact $2 Billion and not $2 Million.
Media houses like Firstpost, NDTV and India Today reported initially that the air ambulance had crashed in Najafgarh. The fact however was it was an emergency crash-landing done by the pilot and a major disaster was averted, as both the engines of the aircraft failed.
Although the above was said by Vinod Bansal, he is not a part of BJP but instead is a VHP leader. Still, Aaj Tak reported him as a BJP leader and later deleted the tweets once the error was pointed out.
In their above story, News X claimed that Ram Madhav had called Singhvi a liar, but if one sees the video it is clear that Madhav had called Singhvi a lawyer, and not liar. This was even tweeted by Madhav, but News X did not correct their story.
Modi had actually wished Nawaz Sharif, who was undergoing a heart surgery. Although The Hindu got this right in the main story, they tweeted out the wrong version that Modi has wished Maryam Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s daughter.
12. The Economic Times report on Tanmay Bhat and others
The above report had far too many errors to be taken seriously. Firstly some other user’s twitter handle was claimed to be that of Tanmay Bhat. The amount quoted as monthly earnings was also grossly overstated. The report also claimed that the AIB channel had 143.23 mn views, whereas on the day of publication, the channel had more than 150 mm views. Overall it was a shoddy piece of work.
Multiple media houses like Zee News, India Today and Times of India reported the above. This story was seemingly based only a speculative story in a bollywood site which claimed that because Sunny Leone had not been seen kissing any of her co-stars in her movie till date, it seemed odd. Daniel Weber, Sunny’s husband and manager trashed the reports and claimed there was no such clause.
News X clearly doesn’t get sarcasm. After his video insulting Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar went viral and became the latest outrage, Tanmay Bhat sarcastically tweeted that Snapchat should pay him for the free publicity. News X managed to believe this was an honest tweet and made a news story out of it.
