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Mumbai Metro: Trees can and should be replaced, but what happens to the cost of stalled infrastructure projects?

Anagha Paranjape-Purohit
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Mumbai Metro: Trees can and should be replaced, but what happens to the cost of stalled infrastructure projects?

Lately, it seems like if you have to create a strong enough opposition against a public project, all you have to do is sprinkle a few snippets of information about how the project damages the environment and voila, you have a perfect recipe for a stalled Infrastructure Project.

Cutting a tree has gained such an emotional repulse that just the thought of it sends ripples down the power corridor, threatening to unseat governments. Plus, the cutting of a tree is made out to be such a villainous act that anyone expressing the idea of cutting a tree has become the villain of the century. While protecting trees and forests is a noble thing to do, this one-sided argument while ignoring other aspects of the environment are more dangerous to the environment and to the overall approach of sustainable development.

In the world’s effort to combat climate change, efficient public transport systems that reduce air pollution is a much more valuable environmental service than trees. In fact, trees can be transplanted, compensated and more trees can be planted to combat the negative impacts of forest conversion. Most European countries have showcased that this can be done after the necessary infrastructure is established for the people.

What has triggered my article today is a series of Tweets published by Mumbai Metro, and arguments by Ashwini Bhide, a dynamic woman of the IAS cadre, who leads the Mumbai Metro team very smartly and ably.

Public infrastructure projects have a life cycle that’s long and complex. It’s exceptionally long in India mainly because of the democratic inefficiencies, amongst other things. So, we in India, anyways, sit on a public project far too long. Its either the approvals or the budgets, but we are already late when it comes to building public infrastructure projects. So more often than not, you will have experienced that a new project rarely brings with it the newness – it gets filled up by people the moment it’s built. The reason is that we end up building a project that was planned for 20 years ago but gets executed today when the reality has already exceeded all the projections.

In the past years, what differentiates the BJP government from Congress regimes before is that they have picked up speed when it comes to approving and executing public infrastructure projects. Whether it’s PM Narendra Modi in the Centre or CM Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, the focus is on ensuring long-pending projects are given timely approvals, hurdles are removed and projects get off the ground. Even in doing so, most projects are already late, but at least the governments are fast-tracking the process to ensure that whatever benefits these projects have envisaged for the public will come as fast as possible, hopefully within a tangible span of 3-5 years.

So when most of these public infrastructure projects were actually languishing in the files on Babu’s desks, they caught no attention. The plans were there, the designs were the same. So technically, any objections to the design, alignment, location of sheds could have come earlier when the project life cycle could have accepted changes. This is similar to our vacation plans. So many destinations are feasible when we are planning a vacation, but very few modifications can be made once we take the first flight out.

Today, Metro projects are just like this. Decisions have happened long ago. People have taken objections,  governments and experts have worked on alternatives, presented them in Courts, wherever applicable, made changes wherever possible. Finally, the day has dawned where the project now demands execution and completion. Most public infrastructure life cycles will be similar to the Metro.

As citizens, it’s important to understand this life cycle. Any interference and demands to change the core approach or core design or core alignment of a public infrastructure project is akin to starting a project anew. This will not only put the project on a freeze, but the government and all of us stand to lose huge public money and public benefits of that project, probably forever. Inordinate delays are worse on the environment than the actual impacts of the project on the environment. The actual impacts will see mitigation and management during the course of project implementation. While, when a project is delayed everyone loses interest in the project, while environmental impacts continue to occur due to negligence and apathy. At the same time, the public loses out on the benefits of the project completely, although we have spent money on it.

Citizens have to mature themselves and understand that opposition to public infrastructure projects achieves only one objective – that of delaying project benefits while continuing environmental degradation of environmental resources somewhere else. In case of public transport projects, while trying to save trees, we may end up polluting the air due to private vehicular traffic on the city’s roads.

Below are some salient points from Mumbai Metro which shows the organisation’s passion and commitment to meet project deadlines, provide a better and efficient mobility system to Mumbai, arrest air pollution that is currently caused by private vehicles on the roads. We should be celebrating the Mumbai Metro’s and Ashwini Bhide’s commitment to the city and its infrastructure.

Mumbai Metro is a Green Mobility Project. It will offer a solution to get private vehicles off the roads, reduce congestion, reduce fossil fuels consumption and improve air quality in the city.

Alternative sites for the Metro shed were considered, like Backbay, Dharavi, MPT, Sariput Nagar etc, but these sites we neither at the end of alignment and they have many other technical and environmental issues.

Kanjurmarg land is not available, nor is it feasible.

If the Metro shed doesn’t happen on time, the entire project will be stalled, delayed. Currently invested Rs 11,000 cr will go waste.

Concretisation of land will not lead to flooding if the runoffs are dealt with properly and diverted to the storm waste system, either for recharge or as surface discharge.

Let’s compensate for the trees that need to be cut. As active citizens, help Mumbai Metro plant more trees.

Let not our single-minded approach to environmental conservation become the Death of Important Public Infrastructure projects in India.

Aviation scam: Deepak Talwar’s close aide Yasmin Kapoor arrested in 2017 FCRA violation case

OpIndia Staff
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Aviation scam: Deepak Talwar’s close aide Yasmin Kapoor arrested in 2017 FCRA violation case

The CBI last night arrested Yasmin Kapoor, a close aide of lobbyist Deepak Talwar in the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) violation case. The CBI had registered a case on November 16, 2017 on complaint from the Ministry of Home Affairs against Delhi-based private firms Advantage India, Accordis Healthcare Private Limited, Deepak Talwar, Sunil Khandelwal and Raman Kapoor and other unknown people over allegations of FCRA violations.

The CBI is investigating allegations of criminal conspiracy, forgery, making false statement before authority, use of forged documents and attempt to cheat by the accused. As per reports, Yasmin Kapoor, a close aide of Deepak Talwar, along with three others were taken into custody last night and will be produced before a special CBI court later today. CBI suspects that Kapoor played an active role in diverting funds received by Talwar’s NGO Advantage India. She was also allegedly involved in day-to-day working of companies related to Talwar.

The CBI had arrested Talwar in July this year and he has been in judicial custody since. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier found dubious deposits alleged to be the kickbacks paid by the international airlines into several accounts of extradited Congress era lobbyist Deepak Talwar. The ED had discovered Rs 270 crores deposited in Bank of Singapore by international airlines and another Rs 88 crore received in his NGO to influence some top ministers and bureaucrats in the previous UPA regime.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also alleged that the ‘corporate lobbyist’, Deepak Talwar, who was involved in several aviation deals during the UPA regime, acted as a middleman in negotiations to favour foreign private airlines causing the loss to national carrier Air India. According to ED, Talwar received a huge amount of money in his bank accounts deposited by various airlines for allegedly compromising lucrative routes and flying destinations of India’s national carrier Air India and thus immensely benefitting foreign airlines.

The preliminary investigation by the Enforcement Directorate had revealed that three years after the Indian Airlines inked a deal to buy 43 aircraft from Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer floated a shell company based out of Singapore in partnership with the middleman Deepak Talwar and, another three years later, transferred USD 10.5 million in its accounts in two tranches.

The middleman Deepak Talwar, along with another high-profile fugitive, Rakesh Saxena, was extradited from UAE in the same plane of the government of India on January 30, 2019. Before that, the middleman in VVIP chopper scam Christian Michel was also extradited to India. Michel, in his deposition, had named a certain Italian Lady and ‘Italian Lady’s son R’ in the AgustaWestland scam.

Committed to holding transparent recruitment: Railways rubbishes Ravish Kumar’s claims on RRB Group D exams

Nupur J Sharma
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Committed to holding transparent recruitment: Railways rubbishes Ravish Kumar’s claims on RRB Group D exams

On 10th September 2019, NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar took to Facebook to talk about the rejection of the application in the RRB Group D exams. In the post addressed to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Ravish Kumar claimed that many students have been left behind and have not ben able to fill the forms of RRB Group D exams.

Ravish Kumar’s post on Facebook

Ravish Kumar goes on to say that though several students subsequently got the chance to fill the form, several others have still been left out due to petty reasons like discrepancies in their photographs etc. He goes on to question whether rejecting forms for such petty reasons makes sense, and if it does, the students should be adequately communicated.

In his post addressed to Piyush Goyal, Ravish Kumar attached the photographs of some students who had allegedly reached out to him. He asked the Railway Minister to read the messages to understand how these students were having to shed tears for such petty reasons.

Politicising the issue, Ravish claimed that some of these students were even ‘BJP supporters’, insinuating that perhaps Piyush Goyal would be more predisposed to helping students who were pro-BJP. He said that since they are BJP supporters, Piyush Goyal should pay ‘extra attention’ and ended his message by saying that all students should get the chance to appear for examinations.

OpIndia.com reached out to official sources from the Railway Ministry to understand whether Ravish Kumar’s claims had any merit and why were several students’ applications rejected.

Railway officials in the know said that proper processing of applications has been undertaken and as a special case additional opportunity was given to the candidates for raising objections. These grievances were addressed with due diligence and that the RRBs are committed to holding fair and transparent recruitment.

The officials said that a full month was given to the candidates to understand the instructions and fill out the applications for the RRB Group D exams. Centralized Employment Notice (CEN) No. RRC–01/2019 was published on 23.02.2019 for recruitment to 1,03,769 posts in Level-1 of 7 CPC Pay Matrix. The online registration of application was opened on 12.03.2019 and the closing date for the same was 12.04.2019

96% of the candidates managed to fill the applications properly. OpIndia found that in total, 1.15 crores candidates filled the application and a total of 1.10 crores applications were found to be in order. In fact, as per CEN, the candidates had the opportunity to modify the application till the last date of the application by paying an amount of Rs.100.

Further, responding to the charge of all applications being rejected for “petty reasons” such as a discrepancy in photographs and signatures, the Railway official clarified that out of the rejected applications, only 4.1% applications have been rejected due to discrepancy in photographs and signatures. They also explained that the instructions were clear on how the application is meant to be filled and the photographs and signatures being correctly added are not ‘petty details’ but helps the officials conduct examinations fairly and avoid impersonation at all stages of the selection process.

The official further said, “To ensure that no candidate’s application is rejected on the invalid ground, all rejected applications are subjected to scrutiny by a Committee of Officers, before uploading on the net. The candidates whose applications were rejected were advised through e-mail and SMS were given an opportunity to represent against rejection through a link that was uploaded on websites on all participating RRBs. The link was available to the candidates from 17.08.2019 to 23.08.2019. Total 1,61,435 (which is 1.4% of the total applications) number of representations were received and the same were scrutinized by the three Member Committee and the applications (4482 no.) were found in order and accepted”.

American Indic author says missionaries yelled at her when she questioned them about forced religious conversions in Coimbatore

OpIndia Staff
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American Indic author says missionaries yelled at her when she questioned them about forced religious conversions in Coimbatore

Renee Lynn, an American Indic author, who holds great respect for India and its culture took to Facebook on Wednesday to share her experience regarding the rampant religious conversions by Chrisitan missionaries in Tamil Nadu.

In a video, Lynn said that she visited Tamil Nadu and was overwhelmed to see the rampant conversion that is happening in the state. Lynn, who visits Tamil Nadu twice a year, added that the conversion activities by Christian missionaries are rapidly increasing in the state.

In a video posted on Facebook, she said that she herself experienced a bit of evangelism in a super-market in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu during her recent visit. Noticing a group of 6-7 people belonging to Christian missionaries, Lynn said that she approached them in a supermarket to confront the group as she realised that they were on a mission to convert people.

The group of people, who belonged to a Christian missionary in Canada, said to Lynn that they were on their mission to spread the good news about Jesus Christ.

According to Lynn, she confronted the Chrisitan missionaries and asked them to provide clothes, food, education instead of indulging in bribery to convert Hindus and other poor people to Christianity.

“If you want to help somebody, you can help them clothe them, feed them, educate them, you don’t have to convert them. It just sounds like you are doing bribery. If they want to be Hindus, why not let them remain Hindus? Why convert them with bribery? Just let them be. You don’t have to sit there and force them to be Christian,” she said. To that, the lady missionary lady said how Jesus is the only way. As Lynn questioned the intentions of these Christian missionaries, the members of the group got allegedly offended and began to yell at her and threatened her that they would call the police.

A concerned Renee Lynn has now approached the social media to share her experience regarding the religious conversion that is quietly taking place in interior parts of the country, especially in South India.

Renee Lynn, who runs a project named ‘Voice For India’, has time and again stood up for the cause of India and fights against the inherent media bias and their propaganda against India. Renee Lynn, an Indophile, is based in Jerseyville, New Jersey has written a book named ‘India Stripped: Voice for India’. According to Lynn, she loves to write about India, Hindu Religion, Krishna, and Cows. She says India is her ‘pride, passion, and pleasure’.

Indian forces intercept coded messages in Pakistani anthem being used to communicate with terrorists in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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Indian forces intercept coded messages in Pakistani anthem being used to communicate with terrorists in Kashmir

The Indian security agencies have recently cracked some code words being used by the Pakistani Army and terrorist groups along the other side of LoC to communicate with terrorists active inside Jammu and Kashmir. As per reports, the coded messages are being sent through FM stations installed along the LoC in PoK.

The Pakistan Army is reportedly using Very High Frequency (VHF) radio signals to send out their communications that are being picked up near the LoC. Some of the call signs being used are JeM(66/88), LeT(A3), and Al Badr(A9).

The radio stations along the LoC are reportedly being used to play the Qaumi Tarana or the National Anthem of Pakistan with coded messages. Pakistan Army’s signal corps is behind the radio station installations and the activities have increased in the last 2 weeks, as per reports.

The National Anthem of Pakistan was being played more frequently in the days after August 5. It took Indian agencies some time to realise that the same radio signals are being used by Pakistan Army and terrorist organisations to communicate with terrorists and their handlers inside Jammu and Kashmir.

As per a report in One India, most of the coded messages were location information. Sometimes, plans and strategy were being communicated. It is notable here that Indian agencies have informed about sudden military buildup along the LoC in the immediate aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370.

Security agency sources have stated that the Pakistan Army’s 10 corps’ commander has assigned the Signal Corps with the job, with the primary aim of pushing terrorists into India and sending messages to terrorists to spread unrest and violence in the valley.

There had also been a sudden surge in the instances of ceasefire violation by Pakistan along the LoC at different sectors. A report by the Indian Army has mentioned that since August 5, there had been over 300 instances of ceasefire violation by Pakistan.

Many attempts by Pakistan’s BAT forces and terrorist groups to push infiltrators have also been thwarted by Indian forces.

IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘factchecker’ shuts down its heavily biased and dubious ‘hate crime watch’

OpIndia Staff
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IndiaSpend’s faulty ‘factchecker’ shuts down its heavily biased and dubious ‘hate crime watch’

IndiaSpend’s faulty FactChecker.in, which is known for having a track record of manipulating facts to suit their preconceived notions and agenda has finally decided to shut their propaganda shop ‘Hate Crime Watch’ after being exposed several times for Hinduphobia and bias.

Faulty FactChecker.in, in a series of tweets on Thursday, announced that they are ‘moving’ their propaganda machinery ‘to a new home’ and effective and immediately ending their association with it. They claimed that they had identified a ‘gnawing gap in crime reporting’.


The Factchecker.in further added that they are shutting down their fake propaganda initiative ‘Hate Crime Watch’ as it has outgrown its purpose and merits its own standing. It is unclear what it means by ‘moving to a new home’ which essentially would mean rebirth but the Twitter thread read more like an obituary of a dead propaganda which did not meet the goals it set out to achieve.

With their bigoted agenda and dubious track record, the IndiaSpend Factchecker.in had all along attempted to push Hinduphobic propaganda by selectively reporting crimes in which accused were allegedly Hindus and referred to it as a ‘Hate crime’ while deliberately ignoring those crimes committed in which perpetrators were Muslims and the victims were Hindus.

The ‘Hate Crime Watch’ initiative of the Factchecker.in, which began as a supposed tracking tool of hate crimes across the country, soon began to manifest its true colours by not only limiting its reporting to Hinduphobic content but also whitewashing crimes committed by Muslims against the Hindus. In fact, there have been instances where IndiaSpend’s ‘factchecker’ journalist was caught trying to manipulate a minor Dalit victim from Begusarai who, along with his family, was attacked by local Muslim goons, trying to force them to sell their home to prove that there was no ‘hate crime’.

The ‘Hate Crime Watch’ had gone to the extent of giving a clean chit to Islamic terrorist who was responsible for the Pulwama terror attack. According to the Factchecker.in, the terrorist attack in the Pulwama is not a hate crime as they claim that according to their definition of hate crime, the religious identity of the victim and not the perpetrator forms the basis to add it in their database. As in Pulwama, the terrorist blew up CRPF personnel because of their identity as an Indian, it did not fall within the scope of their definition.

In an attempt to justify their statement of not treating a terror attack – where the terrorist himself declared that it was a religious war against infidels – as a religious hate crime, FactChecker compared the terrorist attack with alleged attacks on Kashmiris in some parts of India after the Pulwama terror attack. They claimed that they have not included such attacks either as ‘hate crime’ as it doesn’t fit into their ‘motivated by religious identity’ criteria, because such attacks appear motivated by regional identities of the victims, not religious.

Swati Goel Sharma, a journalist associated with Swarajya Magazine, too, has relentlessly busted the intended narrative on several occasions. There have been occasions when fact-checker has deliberately twisted the facts of the matter to increase the number of Muslim victims in its database by including cases where the victim and the perpetrator both belonged to the Muslim community.

A conflict of interest had also existed as Praveen Chakravarty, the data analyst head of the Congress party was the founding trustee of IndiaSpend, the faulty database website which housed the dubious ‘hate tracker’. This also questioned the so-called credibility of IndiaSpend. A possibility cannot be ruled out that to ‘appear’ unbiased and neutral, IndiaSpend may come up with another ‘neutral-sounding’ fact-checking machinery to further their Hinduphobic propaganda.

IndiaSpend’s ‘hate tracker’ is not the first to shut shop after being relentlessly called out on their propaganda. We had earlier reported how Hindustan Times had also launched a biased ‘hate tracker’ which had similar biased reporting and factual flaws. However, Hindustan Times also had to shut their propaganda machinery because social media had exposed their glaring bias.

As Narendra Modi’s remarks on Hinduphobia show, liberals must get used to being shown the mirror

K Bhattacharjee
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As Narendra Modi’s remarks on Hinduphobia show, liberals must get used to being shown the mirror

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Mathura remarked upon the blatant Hinduphobia that is rife in the Liberal world. He said, “It is this country’s misfortune that when some people hear the words ‘Om’ and ‘Cow’, they get triggered. They think the country has gone back to the 16th century.”


As expected, liberals are angry with the Prime Minister again for saying the obvious.


Asaduddin Owaisi, too, has chimed in. He says that he ‘hopes’ that Narendra Modi will keep in mind that the Indian Constitution grants right to life and equality to humans and not cows.


Only yesterday, a journalist associated with the National Public Radio used the same rhetoric as the Pulwama Terrorist and claimed that Indians will be better off if they abandon Hinduism as they will then be able to rid themselves of ‘piss drinking’ and ‘dung worshipping’. Such distasteful rhetoric, unfortunately, is extremely popular in the Liberal world.

More so, liberals constantly demean the reverence Hindus have for cows and mock them and insult them for it. It’s quite obvious that Narendra Modi was referring to it in his speech. And as expected, liberals are outraging on it too.

On numerous occasions, the Prime Minister has spoken out on the alleged mob lynchings of cow smugglers. As the leader of this country, it is only natural that he has issued a statement on the thinly veiled bigotry against Hindus that’s extremely pervasive in political discourse in this country.

Liberals had outraged when Narendra Modi condemned the alleged mob lynchings too, claiming that he was not doing enough to curb it. And now, liberals are outraging again when he called them out on their Hinduphobia.

It only shows that liberals want the Prime Minister to say only what they want him to say. They don’t seem to realize that the time when they controlled narratives have long since past. Narendra Modi is known to keep a close eye on the developments in social media platforms. Therefore, he has no doubt noticed the pervasive Hinduphobia that dominates the discourse on the Left.

Narendra Modi’s condemnation of Hinduphobia was timely given the climate we are living in. Hinduphobia has become so normalized in the liberal world that they shake their head in utter disbelief when someone shows them the mirror. However, as the results of the 2019 General Elections demonstrate, its time they get used to it. The voices of the unheard masses shall be silenced no more.

‘Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of India’: Gilgit-Baltistani activist H. Sering adds insult to Pakistan’s injury

OpIndia Staff
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‘Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of India’: Gilgit-Baltistani activist H. Sering adds insult to Pakistan’s injury

Ever since India abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Pakistan has not been at ease. The parody nation, which is the epicenter of terrorism has been running from pillar to post to gather support against India’s decision only to be embarrassed time and again.

In continuity with its embarrassing spree, Senge H Sering, the Gilgit-Baltistan activist Wednesday added insult to Pakistan’s injury by asserting that occupied northern region is a “part of India.”


As per reports, at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Sering went on to suggest that “Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of India.” He urged the members of the United Nations (UN) to realise the role of Pakistan in becoming a big stumbling block for last 70 years.

Sering accused that by abolishing the State Subject Rule in 1984, Pakistan has been invoking ‘demographic changes’ in the region. “You will be surprised that while Pakistan is trying to be the attorney of Kashmiri people, it has changed the demography in a huge manner,” he said.

At present, Gilgit-Baltistan forms a part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and is bordered by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and Jammu and Kashmir to the south. Presently, Gilgit-Baltistan holds a semi-provincial status. It is neither recignised as a region nor a province or a state.

Lauding India’s move to grant Ladakh a Union Territory status he said, “What India has done in Ladakh by giving them autonomy rights, giving them their own union territory is something that we could look towards and hope that one day Gilgit-Baltistan will be able to have that kind of development and political model that India provides to Ladakh.”

Kolkata: Violence erupts at BJYM’s protest over high power tariffs, party worker severely injured by police high-handedness

OpIndia Staff
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Kolkata: Violence erupts at BJYM’s protest over high power tariffs, party worker severely injured by police high-handedness

Violence erupted at a protest rally organized by the youth wing of the BJP on Wednesday in Kolkata over the issue of power tariffs. Demanding a reduction in the existing power tariffs in Kolkata, hundreds of BJP workers marched towards the headquarters of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC). CESC distributes power to Kolkata and adjoining areas.

State Secretary of BJYM in West Bengal, Aroon Shah, shared a video on Twitter which showed a party worker lying unconscious on the ground while the Police were hurling water cannons at protestors. The unconscious karyakarta was identified as Subhankar Dutta Majumdar.


OpIndia.com got in touch with Aroon Shah over the matter. We were told that Majumdar has been taken to a hospital. Initially, he was taken to Lalbazar Police Station after which he was shifted to a hospital as his condition was deemed serious.

Aroon Shah told OpIndia.com, “Majumdar was taken from the protest site and taken to Lalbazar Police Station in the Police Van. He was taken to the hospital from there. Around 90 people have been arrested. Many of our karyakartas have been arrested. I don’t have the exact numbers yet.” The Police used tear gas, water cannons and Lathi Charged the protesting Karyakartas, we were told.

Earlier, in a press release, the BJYM accused the CESC of ‘looting’ the public. It claimed that the CESC was selling electricity at exorbitant rates in Kolkata while the same company sells power at much lower rates in other states. It claimed that CESC was receiving unfair favours due to its close association with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

BJYM Press Release on CESC

The BJYM demanded that tariff rates in Kolkata be made at par with other states of India and also sought an investigation into the CESC for its alleged business malpractice.

Political violence continues to rock West Bengal with BJP cadres facing the ire of the ruling party at the behest of party chief Mamata Banerjee. Most recently, the wife of a murdered BJP Karyakarta alleged that her husband’s deceased body was ‘stolen’ by West Bengal police to prevent her from taking him to the party headquarters in deference to his last wish.

NPR producer Furkan Khan ‘resigns’ after tweets expose her Hinduphobia

OpIndia Staff
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NPR producer Furkan Khan ‘resigns’ after tweets expose her Hinduphobia

NPR producer Furkan Khan, who uses the language used by Pulwama terrorist against Hindus, has ‘resigned’ from NPR. Following her disturbing tweets, one of which she eventually deleted, concerned social media users had written to NPR asking whether the media house endorses such behaviour. In response, NPR replied to them stating that she has resigned from NPR.


The email, sent by Isabel from NPR reads, “NPR regrets the unacceptable tweet by New Delhi producer Furkan Khan. This comment does not reflect the views of NPR journalists and is a violation of our ethical standards. She has publicly apologized for her tweet and has resigned from NPR.”

Last evening, Khan took to Twitter to assert that if Indians give up Hinduism, they will be solving most of their problems ‘what with all the piss drinking and dung worshipping’.

Now deleted tweet by Furhan Khan

Calling Hindus ‘cow piss drinkers’ or ‘dung worshippers’ is a common insult used by Islamists to deride Hinduism. In the video released by the Jaish-e-Muhammad terror outfit following the attack on the CRPF convoy that killed 40 CRPF personnel, expressing his unmitigated hatred for Hindus, Dar had justified their killings by calling them ‘infidels’ and ‘cow piss drinkers‘.

After the outrage against her Hinduphobia, Furkan proceeded to delete her original tweet where she wanted Indians to give up Hinduism and gave a shoddy explanation for it.

When caught on the wrong foot, Furkan first defended herself by chalking up her tweet to ‘sarcasm’ and also said that ‘trolls’ were missing the context. One does wonder what ‘context’ could justify her continued Hinduphobia and her speaking the language of terrorists.

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