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Government doesn’t choose films to be sent to Oscar, but journalists whine on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Government doesn’t choose films to be sent to Oscar, but journalists whine on Twitter

Oscar, or Academy Awards, is a prestigious award related to movies. Oscar is a private event, like Golden Globes, or back home Filmfare Awards. It is organized by Academy of Motion Picture Arts (AMPAS) and Sciences – a private society based in US.

It sounded absurd to us at OpIndia.com when some people on Twitter claimed that BJP government was appointing its own man – a BJP MLA and Gujarati actor Naresh Kanodia – as head of the committee that would select India’s official entry to Oscar.

It sounded absurd because we wondered why was the government involved in something that was essentially a private event – the Oscar awards.

And why just Oscars; why does the government not send an official entry to Golden Globes, or for that matter any other prestigious movie awards functions?

And our doubts were right. The Government of India indeed has no role to play in selection of movie that becomes India’s “official” entry to Oscars. This was a public knowledge earlier this year when filmmaker Hansal Mehta got this reply from the government to an RTI query he had put:


India’s official entry to Oscar is selected by a committee chosen by the Film Federation of India (FFI), which is a private body of Indian film producers, distributors, exhibitors, and studio owners. FFI has been authorized by AMPAS to select Indian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at Oscar.

So it is a deal between two private and professional organizations, and the government has got nothing to do with it. Yet, it created outrage and controversy.

Here is a Senior Associate Editor working at the Outlook magazine, who blamed the government without checking facts:


There were numerous others who blamed the government and equated this appointment with appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the FTII Chairman. It is worth mentioning here that Outlook has put the FTII issue on their magazine cover for the latest issue, so maybe their journalist was looking for more ‘masala’ to add there.

Thanks to such comments by journalists, the issue was soon latched up by AAP and Congress supporters on Twitter, who made fun of Naresh Kanodia – without knowing a thing about his work – and cried “Saffronization” and “Emergency”.

This morning, it was reported that not Naresh Kanodia, but veteran actor Amol Palekar, whose credentials are beyond question, was the one who would head the committee to choose India’s official entry to Oscars.

So the entire controversy was based on a lie and spin about government’s involvement.

The most unfortunate aspect of this outrage and controversy was that it was choreographed by many who are part of Bollywood and perhaps knew that the government had got nothing to do with the appointment. Many of them are friends and associates of Hansal Mehta. But even Mr. Mehta didn’t bother to correct his colleagues.

Why let facts come into the way of a good outrage? eh?

Finally, some from inside the Bollywood spoke up against it, and conceded that it was part of a larger agenda:


Tracking the Indo-Pak NSA talks and how Indian MSM seemed bent towards Pakistan

Gaurav
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Tracking the Indo-Pak NSA talks and how Indian MSM seemed bent towards Pakistan

In a debate on NDTV on the topic of Indo-Pak NSA level talks, BJP spokesperson Sambit Swaraj mentioned that everybody else on the panel (Nidhi Razdan, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shekhar Gupta and former diplomat KC Singh) is speaking a language which matches that of Pakistan. Razdan immediately took strong objection to this and repeatedly tried to make him apologise for his statement. But was there any truth to his observation?

For this we need to roll-back a bit:

On July 10 2015 where the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India met on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Ufa, the foreign secretaries of both the countries, jointly issued a statement. The very first point in this joint statement was:

A meeting in New Delhi between the two NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terrorism.

Further, there was no mention of Kashmir in the entire statement and this seemed to signal a diplomatic win for both the countries to start the process to end terrorism in the sub-continent.

But Pakistan went back on its words. On July 13 2015, Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz made a statement:

No dialogue will take place unless Kashmir is on agenda

This was a massive U-Turn from the joint statement which agreed to talk on Terrorism without raking any other issue.

It appeared that Pakistan was trying its best to wriggle out of this talk on terror since it would be exposed, and its further steps made it amply clear:

1. Unprovoked firing at LoC – Till August 16, 6 people were killed by Pakistani firing, including 5 civilians and at least 20 others were injured.

2. Not extending invitation to J & K speaker – Pakistan, the host of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, did not invite J & K speaker, while inviting all others.

3. Two terror attacks – The attack at Gurdaspur and the one in which a Pakistani national Naved was captured alive also happened after the joint statement and before the NSA level meeting.

4. Invitation to Hurriyat before NSA talks – Knowing that the last time Pakistan spoke to Hurriyat before talks (in defiance of India’s warning), India cancelled the talks, Pakistan tried this trick yet again.

But this time, India decided to act differently. In spite of all these provocations, India held that NSA talks should go on, but, on the terms & conditions and on the agenda i.e. Terrorism that were agreed on. Maybe India did not want to look like the one cancelled the talks and wanted Pakistan to blink first.

In reply to this, Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz held a press conference trying to deflect blame of cancellation of talks (if any) to India and standing by Pakistan’s U-Turn of talking about Kashmir. India too wasted no time and replied back in the same manner, via a press conference by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj where she clearly set the ground rules that for the talks to take place, Pakistan must give an assurance that talks will be only on Terror, and that they will not meet the Hurriyat.

And finally Pakistan blinked! Pakistan cancelled the NSA talks in spite of their best efforts to get India to cancel it. In an attempt to save face, Pakistan gave the reason that India had unilaterally decided the terms of engagement, specifically the two conditions regarding Kashmir and Hurriyat. Fact is, at Ufa, it was joint statement which agreed to talk only on terrorism and not on Kashmir, and the side-lining of Hurriyat was in line with the Simla Agreement, which stated all issues must be resolved bilaterally, without third-parties.

In all this, it would be plain and simple that India has taken the tough route with Pakistan and should have been applauded for the same but some in Indian MSM were thinking otherwise. The NDTV debate in which Patra was present, presented the view that for some reason India is confused. Fact is India has been constantly forcing Pakistan into a corner. Even PM Modi’s speech in UAE was littered with direct as well as indirect digs at Pakistan. He made it seem Pakistan would be isolated by India if it continued to sponsor terror.

Indian MSM also did more than its fair share of abject misreporting in this entire episode. Because the J & K speaker was not invited to conference in Pakistan, India threatened to boycott the conference. Eventually the conference was cancelled. On this, most media outlets carried a story which tried to claim Pakistan has cancelled the conference and was “hardening its stance”. This was based on a report filed by a Pakistani reporter for Reuters, based on statements of Pakistani officials! Why were Indian MSM outlets toying Pakistan’s line?

And as it turns out, Pakistan did not cancel the conference. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) issued a statement that the Executive Committee cancelled the meet because Pakistan did not invite the J & K speaker! This was another victory for India’s stand. And another gaffe for Indian MSM.

Even when India issued its tough statement to Pakistan, PTI rose to the occasion and misreported it saying India had cancelled NSA level talks. This confusion, added to the spectre of “confusion” already invented by MSM.

And then we had “journalists” tweeting utter nonsense. While Sagarika Ghose and Rajdeep Sardesai called the entire process a “public tamasha“, a “farce” and a “kabaddi match“, the most hilarious comments were from Rana Ayyub. In a forced attempt at creating some sort of equivalence, she tweeted this, only to be trolled for her stupidity, which made her delete her tweet.

Untitled

Rana Ayyub further went on to ask whether “Sushma Swaraj can be allowed to lead the front on Pakistan”! Maybe Rana Ayyub needs to be reminded that Sushma Swaraj is the External Affairs Minister, and Indian MSM needs to be reminded that they should stop becoming India haters in their pursuit of being Modi haters.

The Reason behind why Vadra is still on ‘No-frisking list’ & why he may lose the status soon

Guest Author
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The Reason behind why Vadra is still on ‘No-frisking list’ & why he may lose the status soon

There has been much brouhaha over the issue of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi being exempted from getting frisked at the airports since way back in 2012 when the reports first surfaced in response to a RTI query being filed.

Since May 2014, when a new NDA Govt. came in media reports surfaced that Robert Vadra’s ‘No-frisking’ privileges would be finally revoked. Further, “media reports” of January this year suggested Vadra’s name has already been revoked from the list at airports. Last week however, TheNewsMinute broke an exclusive (read here) how a response to a RTI query filed by the TNM revealed that Vadra’s name on contrary was still on the ‘No-frisking’ list at the airports. Although there is a reason why it is so, this really outraged and angered a lot of people. We shall further discuss the reasons but first a short history regarding this case.

When the first reports regarding this case surfaced, inspite of much public outrage over the issue of why a private citizen should be extended such privileges, the then UPA govt. brazenly defended this move citing Vadra’s case to be “special” in lieu with his association to his wife – a SPG protectee – Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

According an RTI reply given to a group called RTI Anonymous in March this year, P Chidambaram’s ministry gave Vadra this exemption because he is a “special case”

The reply had this to say: “Shri Robert Vadra has been granted exemption from pre-embarkation security checks at all civil airports in the country on the recommendation of this ministry as a special case as he is married to a SPG protectee, i.e. Smt Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in consultation with central security agencies.”

But after this cryptic note, the ministry gives no further details, citing exemptions from disclosure. “The details in this regard are exempted from disclosure under Section 24(1) of the RTI Act 2005. Shri Vadra has been exempted from pre-embarkation security checks at all civil airports only while travelling with SPG protectee,” the reply further stated.

The No-frisking at airports is usually extended to limited VVIPs such as Heads of States- Prime Minister, Presidents, Governors, among others, so they can board planes without going through multilayered clearance. However, under the UPA this privilege was extended to 33 categories from the President to    Special Protection Group protectees.

Moreover, the SPG protection which was formed after the assignation of Indira Gandhi mostly for the protection of the Prime Minister and their immediate families; this has been further expanded to cover important dignitaries such as Presidents, the Speaker, The Dalai Lama and in this controversial case, to Mr.Vadra by his association to Priyanka Gandhi who aforementioned is an SPG Protectee.

It is important to Note that although in the original SPG Act, the protection cover to earstwhile Prime Ministers and their immediate families were of 5 years, the law was amended multiple times by Congress led governments to accommodate the Nehru-Gandhi family under this Act.

The Congress then demanded an amendment in the SPG Act to give security to Sonia Gandhi and her children. The Act was further amended by the Narasimha Rao government in 1991 to give SPG protection to all former Prime Ministers and their immediate family members for a period of 10 years from the date on which the former Prime Minister ceased to hold office. SPG cover for any period beyond this is based on an assessment to see if the level of threat justifies the continued provision of proximate security. Members of the Gandhi-Nehru family are the exception to that general rule. The Act has since been amended four times.

This really means that an Act (SPG), which has been amended four times in 17 years, can’t be amended one more time.

When the new BJP led NDA Govt., acting upon a complaint letter filed by a non-profit body, The Air Passenger’s association of India(APAI), urging to look into the special privileges enjoyed by such persons as Vadra of being exempted from frisking, the Civil Aviation Ministry decided to look into the matter.

It is to be noted that to remove a person from the ‘no-frisking list ‘, a due process has to be followed whereby the Civil Aviation Ministry consults with the Ministry of Home Affairs reviewing the threat perception to the person finally reaching the conclusion to whether keep or revoke the no-frisking privilege.

This brings us to the crux of the matter of why Vadra or any other VVIP categories other than the Prime Minister, President or Speaker might still be on the airprort ‘no-frisking’ list.

While most argue and urge for immediate revocation, it is forgetten that whether we one likes it or not a due process has to be followed.
The Civil Aviation Ministry acting upon the APAI’s complaint had written to the MHA between September – December last year for removing the privileges which exempted Mr.Vadra from being frisked however, the MHA was in dilemma since it had to look into a couple of issues.

After not having responded to the first letter, the Home Ministry now says that it is looking into the matter and an order would be issued soon. The aviation ministry in its two letters had told the home ministry that since Vadra does not hold any Constitutional post he cannot be given the privilege of not being frisked.

The home ministry before withdrawing this privilege has a couple of issues to look into. Since he belongs to the family of a former Prime Minister he was awarded security by the Delhi police commando security.

Finally, according to today’s Economic Times report (read here), a Civil Aviation Ministry official is quoted to have finally received clearance from the MHA which does not consider threat to Robert Vadra to be “grave enough to warrant inclusion in ‘no-frisk’ list”. The clearance from the Home Ministry came during the second week of June and the review is likely to be started soon whereby Robert Vadra and many other VVIPs would be likely to lose the ‘no-frisking’ at the airports privilege very soon.

–  @RpG_89

(Special thanks to @ArmchairPseph for proofreading)

7 totally random and funny maps of India some Pakistanis love to dream about

OpIndia Staff
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7 totally random and funny maps of India some Pakistanis love to dream about

Ever since India changed the map of Pakistan in 1971, Pakistan has been dying to do the same to India. Here are seven such maps some Pakistanis fantasize about:

1. Real India is only Gujarat and Bihar. Rest all are potential independent nations:

crazy map of India by Pakistan
Some Pakistanis believe that not just Kashmir, there are these many separatists movement going on in India.

2. Gujarat is no longer India, but Pakistan. But a large part of India is now back to being India:

This is perhaps what they think is more "realistic". Khalistan has been given a sapce.
This is perhaps what they think is more “realistic”. Khalistan has been given a space.

3. Some maps had expiry date. For example, this map was supposed to get realized by 2012. Too bad didn’t happen:

New capital of Pakistan has shifted from Islamabad to Muslimabad, and it seems it's near Mumbai.
New capital of Pakistan has shifted from Islamabad to Muslimabad, and it seems it’s near Mumbai.

4. 2012 target could not be achieved, but there is one waiting to be realized in 2020:

crazy map of India by Pakistan
Did you notice? Kashmir is no longer a disputed territory, but entire South India is.

5. “PakNationalists” have one more map that they think India can be broken into:

crazy Indian map by Pakistan
Only Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have got some reason to stay together. Everyone else has left. And Andamans and Nicobar islands have been gifted to Bangladesh.

6. Pakistan all over India, except in 5 places:

crazy Indian map by Pakistan.
Raj Thackeray will be happy. He gets his own nation, and so does Rajasthan. Tamil Nadu will have to adjust with Karnataka. Khalistanis have again been given a consolation prize.

7. Somehow, they don’t want Goa. Perhaps those beaches are too hot for them:

crazy map of Pakistan
Indian Ocean has been renamed to Chinese Ocean. Pakistanis know how to keep their masters happy.

Are Caravan’s claims that Firstpost is shielding 3 top BJP leaders true?

OpIndia Staff
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Are Caravan’s claims that Firstpost is shielding 3 top BJP leaders true?

In a recent post, the online portal Caravan raised a serious question on the editorial freedom in Firstpost, a Network 18 owned online portal. The Network 18 group, in turn, is owned by Reliance Industries, and thus by Mukesh Ambani, who is claimed to be close to PM Modi by opposition parties.

The point which triggered this story is the mysterious disappearance of an opinion piece written by R Jagannathan, the editor-in-chief of Firstpost. The piece was titled “GST, Land Bill on Hold: Modi May Have to Rethink Jaitley as Finance Minister” and was initially published on 21st July 2015, but was taken down within 3- days without any explanations being given. It can still be accessed at R Jagannathan’s personal blog.

Now comes the interesting part. Caravan talked to the former executive editor of Firspost Lakshmi Chaudhry (who had resigned a few days after the opinion piece was taken down). According to Caravan, “Three or four days after the article first went live, Jagannathan had a meeting with some of the board members of Network18.” Further, according to Lakshmi Chaudhry “a diktat was issued in that meeting that from now on there will be no criticism of certain political leaders. The decision to pull the piece on Jaitley was a part of the same conversation.”

Caravan also quotes an unnamed source who told them that a “directive stated that the website could not carry any criticism of “the big three” in the BJP”. The story further says that when Chaudhry resigned, she told her staff that she was leaving because of “editorial pushback.”

So in short, it would appear that at least from July 21 odd, the owners of Firstpost have laid down an unwritten rule that “3 top leaders” from BJP are exempted from critical posts. Caravan does not name them, but it is pretty clear these leaders would be PM Modi, his trusted aide Amit Shah and of course Arun Jaitley.

So does this allegation of interference and censorship hold ground? Not in totality. Lets first look at some anti-Modi stories posted on Firstpost:

21 August 2015: Sacking of Sanjiv Bhatt part of Gujarat Vendetta Politics

19 August 2015: Modi ignored the real problems of Indian labourers in UAE

19 August 2015: Why PM Modi should stop chasing UN Security Council mirage

16 August 2015: Some things which Modi got wrong in his I-Day speech

16 August 2015: The speech Narendra Modi should have made this Independence Day – by R Jagannathan 

14 August 2015: Modi govt should walk the talk

6 anti-Modi opinion pieces in last 7 days. Almost 1 every day. And these are beside the regular posts which directly report anti-Modi statements by various opposition leaders. So if indeed there is a “don’t criticize Modi” policy, it seems to be hardly effective.

If we analyze posts on Amit Shah, there are just 3 posts tagged with”Amit Shah” in the past 7 days, 2 of which could be said to be anti-Amit Shah (although 1 is not an opinion piece). It must be noted that by and large, media doesn’t carry too many regular posts on Amit Shah because he is finally only the Party President, and not part of the Government so he is not actively involved in its functioning.

As for Arun Jaitley, there are 25 posts tagged with his name in the last 7 days. But most of them do not talk about him, he is only tagged by virtue of being the Finance Minister and gets a passing mention in many of the posts. However, we could not find any “anti-Jaitley” post per se.

So does this point out to any trend? It would not be unreasonable to say that:

1. Posts critical of Modi do appear frequently on Firstpost

2. There is insufficient data to arrive at any conclusion on Amit Shah

3. Arun Jaitley seems to get lesser brickbats

In fact, from our past experience with Firstpost, we can say not only is it critical of Modi on many occasions, sometimes it has relied on pure lies to defame Modi. In this post from April 2015, Firstpost decided to use an NGO’s proposal to rename Delhi, to slander Modi by calling what they claimed was “his actions”, reminiscent of “Stalinist-era revisionism“. So not only has Firstpost been open about skewering Modi, it has done this without being truthful too.

So is the directive issued by Firstpost board only Arun Jaitley specific? And is this “don’t criticize Arun Jaitley policy” only Firstpost specific? What separates Jaitley from Shah and Modi is while Shah and Modi are rank outsiders to the Lutyens world and have been the Media’s favourite punching bags for a decade now, Jaitley is considered to be one of Lutyens’ own. Social Media has been filled with rumours and displeasure about Jaitley’s alleged closeness to many media outlets and personalities, who have been known to be anti-BJP or anti-Modi. So is a no-attack-on-Jaitley policy being old as something else?

Arvind Kejriwal explains why Delhi is best suited for FTII

Gaurav
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Arvind Kejriwal explains why Delhi is best suited for FTII

After Arvind Kejriwal’s open offer to relocate FTII to Delhi, we caught up with him to learn more about this proposal.

OpIndia.com: Sir, how did this idea come to you?

Kejriwal: Isse sab ka bhala hoga. Aap tokiyega mat. Main ek film premi hoon. Aapne mere movie reviews to dekhe honge twitter pe. Plus, mein ek protestor bhi hoon. Humne bhaut saare dharne kiye hain. Jaise unhone apne Director ko room ke andar lock kar waya, main bhi Modi ke agent officers ko office ke bahar lock kar deta hoon. Isliye main inka dard samajh sakta hoon.

OpIndia.com: But that is only about you, what does AAP have do with films?

Kejriwal: Aap ne dekha nahi? Humaare har election mein kitne Bollywood ke log humein direct aur indirect support dete hain? Vishal Dadlani ko dekh lijiye, full time AAP mein hi hain. Shruti Seth ko dekh lijiye, officially AAP mein nahi hain par woh humari virtual pravakta hain. Aise aur kitne saare Bollywood ke celebs hain jo humein hamesha indirect support dete hain but openly “neutral” bane ghoomte hain.

OpIndia.com: How will it be good for Delhi and FTII?

Kejriwal: Hum FTII ko Dilli main pura support denge. Aap tokiyega mat. Har tarah ki equipment denge. Isse sab ka bhala hoga. Woh film ke techniques seekhenge, humaare volunteers bhi drama karne mein aur mahir ho jaayenge.

OpIndia.com: But how will Delhi Government fund all this?

Kejriwal: Aap ko to malum hai, Dilli ka Ad budget 500 crore ke upar hai. Yeh paisa kahin to kharch karna padega na? FTII ko de denge. Aap tokiyega mat. Unko film banani hai, humein ads banani hai. Dono saath saath chalega. Aap tokiyega mat. Unki jo film hogi wohi hamari ad hogi. Isse sab ka vikaas hoga. Woh bhi film banana seekh paayenge, humari ads bhi behtar quality ki banengi. Aap ne dekha hoga humari picchli ad kaafi ghatiya thi.

Yahi nahi, par hum unhe protest kaise karte hain yeh bhi sikhayenge. Aap tokiyega mat. Actually mera maan na hai, kuch FTII students mujhse bhi senior honge, to protest ke baare mein kuch cheezein woh humko sikhayenge, kuch cheezein hum unko sikhaayenge. Dono saath saath hoga.

OpIndia.com: But sir it has been reported that the FTII students consume drugs and alcohol on campus. How will you combat this?

Kejriwal: Dekhiye, mujhe kuch officers ne bataya hai private mein, ki yeh Modiji ki chaal hai. Woh FTII students ko muft mein drugs baant rahe hain taaki woh films banana band kar dein aur main films dekhna aur review karna chhod doon. Aap tokiyega mat. Yeh baat hum dilli ki janta ko bhi batane wale hain. Humara agla poster dekhiye:

Untitled

OpIndia.com: But the main issue is how will you curb the illegal use of drugs?

Kejriwal: Yeh kaam bhi ho jaayega. Maine pehle hi kaha tha, sab ka bhala hoga. Hamare Somnath Bharti ji bahut dinon se khali baithe hain. Aap tokiyega mat. Ek do midnight raids kar denge to sab theek ho jaayega.

OpIndia.com: But sir Somnath Bharti has no power to do so….

Kejriwal: Aage ka interview aap mere sahyogi se kijiye, mujhe movie dekhne jaana hai, KRK se pehle review daalna hai, janta intezaar kar rahi hogi.

(Ankit Lol enters)

Ankit Lol: See FTII has one more use for Delhi and AAP which His Highness forgot to mention. We have become experts at photoshopping images, but audio and video photoshop is something we are not good at. Audio and video editing will be taught to all Delhi citizens free of cost under a program called “Photoshop for Aam Aadmi People (PAAP)”. With this we will be able to edit audio and video also, thus next time any sting tape comes out of His Highness or Alka Lamba, we will edit it and show Lokpal approved version to Delhi people.On an unrelated note, please come next week to Janta Mantar where we will be releasing sting tape on Modi where he is seen discussing with World leaders how to destroy His Highness Kejriwal. Ok Interview khatam. Also on another unrelated note, please sign this petition to make His Highness the next FTII chairman.

(We also asked Prime Minister Modi for his views on this step by Kejriwal. Unfortunately he did not answer our question and his secretary told us he will reply either via a speech in a Bihar election rally or while addressing NRIs in the next country he visits.)

Don’t rejoice so soon Gandhis, contrary to MSM reports, the National Herald case is still on

Gaurav
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Don’t rejoice so soon Gandhis, contrary to MSM reports, the National Herald case is still on

The National Herald scam is one of the few scams in which Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are directly involved. In the scam, Subramanian Swamy had accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and others of cheating & misappropriating funds.

The Gandhis are accused of forming a sham company called “Young Indian” for acquiring control over Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) which had assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore. AJL was a company owned by the Congress Party. AJL also owed over Rs 90 Cr to the Congress party, but this debt was excused by Congress party, as soon as Gandhi owned Young India acquired AJL.

This case was filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property) and section 420 (cheating).

In the past couple of days, national media has been carrying various “source” based news reports on this  scam. Various news portals are reporting that a “huge relief” has been afforded to the Gandhis in this scam. Some of the reportage:

1. Firstpost (based on an IANS report)

In a huge relief to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to close the National Herald case. The ED has decided to close the case due to lack of substantial evidences against both Congress leaders, sources said on Monday.

2. CNN IBN

In a big relief for Congress, Enforcement Directorate has decided to close the National Herald case, said sources. The ED decided to close the case citing technical reasons.

3. India Today

In a huge relief to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to close the National Herald case against the two. Sources told India Today that ED is likely to close the inquiry in the case against the Congress leaders due to the lack of substantial evidence against them.

4. Zee News (With PTI inputs)

In major relief for the Congress party, the Enforcement Directorate may close the National Herald case, as per media reports on Monday. Reports cited sources as saying that the ED had decided to close the case of now-defunct English daily due to technical reasons

Anyone reading the above reports and other similar ones would draw the following conclusion:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was investigating a case against the Gandhis in the National Herald scam. ED has now decided to “close” this case against them citing “technical reasons or due to the lack of substantial evidence”. This would be a “huge relief” for the Gandhis.

And most people did interpret it this way. There was widespread dismay among BJP supporters for going soft on Gandhis by closing a case which was running. The few remaining Congress supporters rejoiced and AAP fans jumped in glee trying to embarass BJP supporters. But as usual, the truth is not what the media reported.

The truth in this matter is revealed from the main person involved in nailing the Gandhis: Subramanian Swamy. He wrote 2 letters to the Prime Minister regarding the ED and the National Herald case, and also tweeted some facts about the same.

In his letter, Swamy makes it crystal clear that in July 2014, based on a summons issued to the Gandhis, Swamy had “approached the ED and sought to register a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) case of money laundering against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi“. According to Swamy, in May 2015, the ED responded saying “there was no case made out for registering a PMLA case“.

From reading the above letters, many facts come up:

1. Contrary to media reports no case of National Herald was running with the ED hence the question of “closing a case” does not even arise. (This has been confirmed by Swamy on Twitter multiple times.)

2. The only “relief” given to Gandhis, is the fact that ED has refused to file a PMLA case, which as per Swamy is “temporary”.

3. The refusal to file a PMLA case by the ED, was reportedly on “technical grounds” and not “due to the lack of substantial evidence” as reported by media. Swamy has also said the ED held it too early to register a case. This is substantiated by the Swamy’s letter and could also explain why Swamy says ED not registering a PMLA case is “temporary”

4. This incident has no impact on the on going case in the courts on National Herald, in which the Gandhis have been summoned. This again has been confirmed by Swamy multiple times.

Further buttressing the above arguments is the fact that Arun Jaitley who also heads the ED by virtue of being Finance Minister, has said categorically that:

A. There is no truth to media reports of an Enforcement Directorate inquiry in the National Herald Case.

B. The National Herald (probably referring to the IPC case) case is prima facie a very strong case.

In short, media has grossly misreported this entire incident, by not understanding nor highlighting the difference between:

1. The existing case in Courts vs the Enforcement Directorate case

2. A case under IPC (which is running and has not been affected) vs a case under PMLA

3. Refusal on technical grounds vs “Huge relief”

Another aspect of this entire episode is while the ED is giving technical reasons (which Swamy feels are “bogus”), Swamy is alleging ulterior motives. He claims that the present ED Director, a UPA appointee serving his 2nd extension, “is a close relative of Digvijay Singh” and hence “seems to have no interest in pursuing any matter connected with Congress party”.

In summary, it is fair to say the Media has been dishonest with us (again), no existing cases against Gandhis have been dropped, they may have got a “temporary” reprieve under PMLA, and it must be ensured that once the “technical” grounds are cleared, a PMLA case (if applicable) is registered by the ED.

Will this issue be the next OROP for BJP?

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Will this issue be the next OROP for BJP?

The erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh used to share the third place with West Bengal, in terms of number of MPs per state in the Lok Sabha. However, when compared to the extent of influence in National media or in actual representation in the Central cabinet, it had always lagged behind. Even during the times of UPA-1 and 2, it had seldom been assigned any of the important ministries. Yet, none of the local politicians from AP ever quibbled with the Centre.

However, things are bound to change in the next few months courtesy two mistakes. Both these arise from the uncertainty created by UPA-2 during the bifurcation of the state.

Hyderabad is to AP what Mumbai is to Maharashtra or Delhi is to India. The city has high income levels, higher exposure to the world, but, what matters most is that it has the highest concentration of industries in the state. So much that out of the total revenues of the united state, nearly half comes out of the Hyderabad district alone. The revenue surplus of Telangana (including Hyderabad) calculates to around Rs. 4000 crore, while the revenue deficit of the remaining AP stood at a staggering Rs. 7000 crore.

This fiscal imbalance was never understood properly by the representatives in Delhi and so, they initially thought they could win over the people of AP by bridging this gap with funds in the form of grants or loans. This did not appease the masses of AP as they understood that they couldn’t survive on the basis of funds. If there are no industries in the state, where would the jobs come from? Sadly, the UPA government lacked this basic understanding until the day the bill came up in Parliament.

After “consultations” with the opposition and under pressure from his own party men, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the floor of the House gave the following assurances:

1. To help aid the state’s finances, Special Category Status will be extended to the successor state of AP

2. Tax incentives would be provided to promote industrialization and boost economic growth

3. Special development package for the backward regions of the successor state of AP, and so on.

Of all these assurances, the most contentious ones were those of the issue of special category and tax incentives. However, none of these assurances have been incorporated in the AP Reorganization Act.

The “Report of the working group on state’s financial resources for the 12th five year plan2” by the Planning Commission, gives an idea of the basic difference between an ordinary and a special category state.

“For the general category states, assistance was 30 percent grant and 70 percent loan. For the special category states, 90 percent of assistance was given as grant and 10 percent as loan.”

A special category status is generally given to a state which satisfies certain criteria like having a hilly terrain, strategic location, etc. It also contains a provision of providing the status if the state’s finances are of non-viable nature. The successor state of AP, though of poor financial situation, does not come under any of these criteria. That is the reason why arguments for special category for Odisha or Bihar were struck down.

Also, in its summary the report says, “the special category states had been given unduly high shares and this has had high opportunity cost while it has also resulted in considerable debt for special category states even while their economies had made little progress.” So, it had been established that grants are not the only means of achieving economic growth.

However, the case of AP is different from the rest. For instance, when it was bifurcated, it was left with neither a capital nor any major industry. So, grants and loans from the Centre to raise infrastructure and building a capital would certainly help recover the lost sheen and start something from the scratch.  The second major issue is the proposed tax benefits to industries which set up their units in AP. This has so far been a nonstarter.

In the General elections of 2014, the people of AP voted for the BJP-TDP coalition and taught the UPA a lesson. The ruling Congress party had not won a single MLA seat in the state. 13 months later, the situation has changed. The people of AP are frustrated with the sluggish pace of the Centre in implementing the promises it made during the election. Rallies are being held in several parts and strikes are organized to force the elected representatives to understand that they are not impressed with them. The argument that Planning Commission had been rechristened and so, the entire issue had to be studied in a different perspective does not seem to hold much merit.

Meanwhile it is ironic to note that the Congress party is starting to blame the Government for not implementing what they had promised a year ago. This is in line with the Congress stand vis-a-vis OROP, a demand which they themselves sat on for decades, and are now trying to blame BJP for. Had they incorporated the assurances made to Andhra Pradesh, into the bill in the first place, there would not have been a problem at all. Their logic appears simple – Make a mistake and blame others for not cleaning it up.

At the end of the day, it is for the NDA government to decide whether it wants to follow the steps of its predecessor or remain loyal to its citizens. If it continues to drag this issue till the next election, people might not have the patience to wait till then. Already, dissatisfied students and disillusioned youth are starting to look at other options. Their last hope is that the Prime Minister, who is supposed to arrive in AP for the inauguration of the work for building capital on October 22, would bring good news with him. Will they get their rightful share?

written by Naga Sai Viswanath B
Engineer, and a Civil Services Aspirant

How media reacted when AAP put up Kejriwal’s name during Independence Day

OpIndia Staff
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How media reacted when AAP put up Kejriwal’s name during Independence Day

Narendra Modi was called narcissist by the media when he wore a gifted suit showing his own name, but what happened when Kejriwal displayed his own name in the stadium where Independence Day celebrations were going on?

This is what they felt like saying and publishing, but did not.

OpIndia.com takes a journey into their minds and hearts (as they often do to others) and brings to you their feelings that they couldn’t express due to a fascist government:

(click on the pictures to see them in the original size, if some text is not clearly visible)

Independent and unbiased journalist Rajdeep Sardesai could decipher the message.
Independent and unbiased journalist Rajdeep Sardesai could decipher the message.
As always, unbiased Ravish Kumar got literary and philosophical and remember Shakespeare's "What's in a name?" quote
As always, totally unbiased NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar got literary and philosophical and remembered Shakespeare’s “What’s in a name?” quote, which appeared the most relevant to the situation in his opinion.
Extremely unbiased website popularly known as Troll.in could find the merits like no one else did
Extremely unbiased website popularly known as Troll.in could find the merits in the move like no one else did
Firstpost had an opinion, as always.
Firstpost had an opinion, as always.
BuzzFeed too joined in. There were no kittens though.
BuzzFeed too joined in. There were no kittens though.
Times of India did what it is best known for
Times of India did what it is best known for
Stung by criticism, AAP decided to strike back by means best suited to it style.
Stung by criticism, AAP decided to strike back by means best suited to its style.

Three women, three incidents, one message – sexist attacks are not exclusive to any group

Rahul Raj
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Three women, three incidents, one message – sexist attacks are not exclusive to any group

The past couple of months, seen from the eyes of an Indian woman, would be quite intriguing. Three different stories of three different women have pushed us back to the same old question – is our society deeply sexist and even misogynist on occasions?

While the question is old, and so is the answer, often in affirmative, what sticks out this time is that even those who are loudest to cry “sexism” and “misogyny” are no different from those whom they are accusing.

The first story revolves around a woman celebrity who was bullied for her political opinions; the second story is about a Godwoman who decided to wear skimpy clothes; and the third is about an ordinary girl who chose to live some moments of intimate privacy in a hotel room.

What remained common, but most disturbing, in all these stories was the character assassination of the women, complimented by vulgar attacks on all these women – some by moral police, some by trolls, and some by people who, under the masks of intellect, ridiculed trolls and moral police for attacking women while doing the same in other case.

A few weeks back, Shruti Seth was bullied by Twitterati after she intentionally tried to attack PM Modi’s ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign by linking unrelated events as Yoga day and water-logging in Mumbai. The initial criticism of this needless attack on PM’s campaign soon turned into massive mud-slinging and absurd vulgar attacks. As stated by her, she was attacked for her ‘Muslim’ husband, her 11 month-old-daughter, and her non-existent, dwindling, no-good career as an actor. Besides this, she was also tagged and assaulted with jokes loaded with sexual innuendos.

Such attacks are not new or exclusive to fan base of any particular party or political ideology. With the advent of social media, every political camp has created many lowly trolls who exploit his/her influential capabilities to launch such vulgar attacks. For example, this tweet by an AAP troll created lots of filth in the past:


The story of Shruti Seth is more appealing because she had some valid concerns, and still she was incongruently attacked on the lines of religion, sex and choices. A respite in this whole episode was that she got good support, not only from the media, but also from the social media. People stood for her, spoke for her and fought for her.

The next story didn’t attract such support. On the surface, it may appear that a fraud background would have been the primary reason for the lack of agitation against attacks on Radhe Maa, but the undercurrents would deny this simplistic reason.

Had the fundamental frameworks of equality, dignity and liberty remained same for Sukhvinder Kaur (Radhe Maa) and Shruti Seth, social media, media and Op-ed writers would have raised similar protests, not mild discussions, against the attacks on Sukhvinder Kaur for her costumes and sexuality.

Social Media was full of Radhe Maal jokes, but unlike the case of Shruti Seth, none of the newspapers covered this female objectification in a patriarchal society. Hardly any “intellectual” defended her rights to choose her clothes or proximity with some political camp (they said Shruti Seth is free to back a party she supports). In fact, she was made a tool into the ongoing political battle.


Sukhvinder Kaur (Radhe Maa) may be a fraud, but the selective moral pedestal taken by intelligentsia raises doubts on their arguments. She was attacked only after pictures of her wearing skimpy clothes were shared on social media. It was plain and simple voyeurism, not any activism or rationalism.

The third and the most unfortunate story is about the girl who neither intended to participate in political or social discourses nor tried to cheat anyone. The girl who was detained, humiliated and questioned by Mumbai police during a hotel raid initiated against complaints of “public indecency” was a victim of cumulative social nonsense.

While the world is liberating individuals from social shackles, we are stuck in moral policing and outdated laws that can be easily manipulated. Forget Tier-2 or Tier-3 cities, even the hotels and societies in cities like Delhi and Mumbai are clung around moral sermons. Sadly, instead of finding solutions, people are busy pointing fingers at each other, taking moral high grounds.

I may not have the exact solutions, but I would also not deny solutions are not possible. Sail back to the 90’s when girls were not allowed to wear jeans or drive bikes, when girls consuming cigarettes or alcohol were seen with disdain, and when wives spent all their lives waiting for approvals of their husbands. We have certainly evolved. However, we need to evolve faster than the current rate, and for that we need to grow awareness.

The horrific gang-rape incidence in Delhi pushed people to avoid making rape jokes. People, at least the sane ones, have stopped using words like rape and gang-rape in normal public discussions in casual manners.

These three incidents have showed that in the process of getting even with our political or ideological opponents, we indulge in sexist and misogynistic behavior. Similar to the “eye for eye logic”, we can at least pledge to refrain from “sexual verbal attacks for sexual verbal attacks” and help ourselves into evolving better.

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