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West Bengal: TMC leaders accused of stealing 5000 eggs and serving children only rice and salt for mid-day meals

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: TMC leaders accused of stealing 5000 eggs and serving children only rice and salt for mid-day meals

BJP MP from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee, paid a surprise visit to the Chinsurah Balika Bani Mandir high school in the district on Monday where she discovered that children were being fed only rice and salt in mid-day meals. She alleged that the funds allocated for the scheme were being misappropriated by local Trinamool leaders.


Chatterjee said, “I had been informed about the corruption at the school by the managing committee before the Lok Sabha polls. Today, I conducted a surprise visit to the school and found out that girls are having just boiled rice and salt for midday meals. I have reports of malpractices at the school. I have come to know that 5,000 eggs were bought with Rs 25,000 earlier but the students have been given only rice and salt.” She also added, “About 257kg of rice that was stocked at the school disappeared. I want to know which leader or minister grabbed it”.

Commenting on the incident, West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee, who was recently summoned by the CBI in connection with the Saradha Chit Fund Scam, stated, “The government will never tolerate this. Those responsible for serving this kind of food to children will face action. We will conduct a probe. Issues like these remain above politics. I request the MP to ensure that the Centre clears midday meal funds on time.”

The Mid-Day Meal scandal is the latest charge of corruption to hit the Trinamool Congress. Recently, the West Bengal government was hit by the ‘Cut Money’ scandal after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accepted that party leaders were charging a commission from the public to implement government schemes.

Chandrayaan 2: ISRO crosses a major landmark, successfully injects the spacecraft into the lunar orbit

OpIndia Staff
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Chandrayaan 2: ISRO crosses a major landmark, successfully injects the spacecraft into the lunar orbit

India moves closer to the moon after Chandrayaan-2, successfully enters the orbit of the moon in the early hours of August 20, Tuesday, after completing 30 days of the journey in space.


Isro has officially confirmed in a statement that: “Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuvre was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019) at 0902 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of maneuvre was 1738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.”


On Monday, ISRO chairman, K Sivan had called this step “challenging”. This was one of the trickiest operations in the mission because this particular step needed extreme precision. If the satellite would have approached the moon as a higher-than-expected velocity it would have bounced off it and got lost in deep space. Meanwhile, if it would have approached at a slow velocity, the moon’s gravity would pull the Chandrayaan-2 and it would have crashed into the surface.

Lander will separate on 2nd September, which will be the next major event in Chandrayaan 2’s journey. The moon landing is expected on 7th September at 4 AM.

Chandrayaan-2, since its launch on July 22 by GSLV MkIII-M1 vehicle, had been in the orbit of the Earth. There were a series of orbit-raising, the spacecraft progressed five times on the orbit from July 23 to August 6 before it left the Earth’s orbit this week when the final orbit-raising was done. In fact, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had earlier this month released the first set of images of Earth captured by Chandrayaan-2.


It had entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory on August 14 after final orbit raising maneuvre of the spacecraft was successfully carried out.

The next Lunar bound orbital maneuvre, otherwise known as a burn, is scheduled tomorrow for August 21, 2019, between 1230-13:30 hrs IST. There will be four more burns, which will take the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into its final orbit of the Moon. This process of maneuvring in the lunar orbit will be taking place from August 21 to September 1.

After the last maneuver on September 1, Chandrayaan-2 is likely to be in a 114 kmX 128km orbit. After reaching the desired orbit around Moon, the Vikram Lander will separate from the orbiter on September 02. Two orbit maneuvres will be performed on the lander before the initiation of powered descent to make a soft landing on the surface of the moon on September 7.

Once the Vikram lander has successfully landed on the surface, the Pragyan rover will do the exploration. This is a six-wheeled, AI-powered vehicle, which will collect data from the Moon’s surface. The rover has two primary instruments. The Lander and Rover are designed to work for 14 days, which is one lunar day.

Isro had already put a satellite around Moon in 2008 (Chandrayaan-1) therefore the more crucial part of Chandrayaan-2 would be to land Vikram, it’s lander on Moon. The Vikram lander will be landing on the southern pole of the Moon which has so far been unexplored.

If the mission turns out to be successful India would be the fourth country to land on the moon. Previously the US, the former Soviet Union and China were the ones to have successfully accomplished the moon landing.

In a major feat, the Chandrayaan 2 mission, which has cost India Rs 978 crores, is actually cheaper than Hollywood blockbusters like Avengers Infinity Wars and Bandra Worli Sea Link.

A new low even by Pakistani standards: Former diplomats want the world to legitimise terrorism, endorse proxy war in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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A new low even by Pakistani standards: Former diplomats want the world to legitimise terrorism, endorse proxy war in Kashmir

Sidelined and pushed into a corner for its habit of using terrorism as a state policy, Pakistan is now openly endorsing terrorism and violence in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.

In a shocking revelation, former Pakistan diplomats speaking on a TV show on Monday said that the international community must support armed resistance against India in Jammu and Kashmir because it is ‘legitimate’ under international laws.

The former diplomats, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Abdul Basit, and Shahid Malik were speaking on a TV talk show hosted by Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir. In the show, all three diplomats were seen calling for armed struggle in Kashmir and international support for Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0VARNBTQ7U?start=147]

Qazi, a former Pakistani High Commissioner to India and Ambassador to the US, said armed resistance in Jammu and Kashmir is “legitimate”. He added that India is a powerful country and diplomacy alone will not yield results for Pakistan.

“It is legitimate for people of Jammu and Kashmir to take to armed resistance or guns. If they demand help from other countries for their legitimate jihad, that too is legitimate. If Pakistanis help them in their struggle, that is a legitimate resistance” said Qazi.

It will be shameful of us if we do not stand by the people of Kashmir in their armed struggle against India, said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi.

Former Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit echoed the same sentiments expressed by Qazi, said that there is a limit to diplomacy in the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. “If Kashmiris are laying their life, there will be a stage when we have to take decisive actions. Under international law it is the responsibility of other nations to help Kashmiris in their struggle against the occupation of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Basit, former Pakistani envoy to India.

“There is an international law, in which Kashmiris can seek the help of any country to raise an armed struggle for their cause. We (Pakistan) need to do a course correction on the issue of Kashmir’s armed struggle,” said Shahid Malik.

Following India’s historic move to strip Article Article 370, which granted a special status to Jammu and Kashmir state and a subsequent bill aimed to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, Pakistani establishment seems to have lost their mental balance as they attempted to push Kashmiri Muslims to resort to committing genocide against Hindus.

Earlier, an ‘intellectual’ from Pakistan has endorsed genocide against Hindus in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. A video had gone viral in which self-proclaimed Pakistani intellectual Tariq Pirzada was seen instigating Kashmiri Muslims to resort to genocide against Hindus if they settle in Kashmir. He further added that Indians have illegally ‘occupied’ Kashmir just like Jews occupied Palestine.

A large number of Pakistanis resorted to hate-mongering and exposed their genocidal tendencies in social media after the Indian government decided to abrogate of Article 370.

More shockingly, the Pakistani establishment is also hopeful of garnering support from certain Indian political class and intelligentsia to destabilise Kashmir further as a reaction to the abrogation of Article 370.

Mushahid Hussain, a Pakistani politician, journalist and geo-strategist, appearing in a debate on Pakistani news channel Geo TV revealed that people like writer Arundhati Roy, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and political parties like the Congress were “sympathisers” of Pakistan, who can be helpful for the cause of Pakistan.

Earlier, in an interview, former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit had revealed that he had managed to influence Shobhaa De into writing an article in 2016 where she had advocated a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was shot dead.

The Zomato controversy: Their business plan, the dispute and a dark tale of greed, exploitation and fear

Guest Author
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The Zomato controversy: Their business plan, the dispute and a dark tale of greed, exploitation and fear

The last few days have seen some very interesting turmoil in one of the largest Food Aggregators and Delivery Networks in India. Though the turmoil is just a few days old, the rumblings could be felt in the last few months. Deep discounting, favouritism, monopolistic trade practices amongst others, have created a rift between the delivery platforms and Restaurateurs.

Business Plan

Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd. (Zomato) started off as an online listing service for Restaurants. A yellow pages of sorts with an option for the users to review and rate their dining experience. With changing market scenario and emergence of new players, Zomato diversified into food deliveries and on 3rd November 2018, changed their app to a full-fledged delivery platform first, with listings on the side.

Zomato charges restaurants anywhere between 18% to 25% of the net invoice value as commission for their delivery services. At the same time, customers have to pay a nominal delivery fee which changes depending on various factors.

Zomato also offers various advertising options, primarily “Clicks Per View” (CPV) to prominently display a restaurant more favourably on its online platforms. These CPVs have to be purchased in bulk in advance for a minimum period of 3 months. The Clicks are expended pro-rata during the promotion period. The regions where the clicks will be displayed is predefined. The clicks usually have a conversion rate of between 10-30%.

Another product that Zomato offers is “Zomato Gold”. Zomato Gold is a “Buy One Get One Free” offers exclusively available to registered “Gold” users on Food and/or Beverages at “Select” participating Restaurants. Zomato collects a onetime registration fee from restaurants. The fee varies greatly and depends on factors such as the restaurant’s popularity, bargaining skills, location, etc. Zomato charges its users a fixed annual fee in advance at the time of registration.

The Zomato Gold onboarding agreement with restaurants clearly states “Zomato Gold is only valid on dine-in…” Another condition applicable to “Gold” users is that a minimum of 2 patrons have to be present at the restaurant to avail the discount, including the registered user.

Restaurants that chose to offer Zomato Gold do so to increase footfall. They usually would upsell one or two additional products to the Customers. Hence the order would usually be more than just the initial two dishes covered under the offer.

Dark Kitchen

Zomato and Swiggy, are delivery platforms. They accept orders on behalf of the restaurants, on their respective platforms, pick the food up from the restaurant, and deliver the food to the customers. The aggregators collect payments from the customer and transfer it to the restaurant weekly.

It is pertinent to note that the transaction is between the restaurant and its customer with Zomato and Swiggy playing the role of facilitator between the two. Even the Tax Invoice is issued by the restaurant to the customer. The data that is collected thus belongs to the Restaurant alone.

Both Zomato and Swiggy, have collated this data, analysed it and have unfairly used it to start their own dark kitchens across the country. The dark kitchens started by the aggregators is a breach of trust, privacy and good faith and is also a conflict of interest between both parties.

(While we have broached this potential dispute briefly, the present disagreement doesn’t involve this issue. A former member of Parliament, Baijayant “Jay” Panda has tabled the Data (Privacy and Protection) Bill, 2017 in the Lok Sabha, proposing the right to privacy as a fundamental right for Indian citizens. This Bill might ensure that such blatant misuse of personal data by online portals is made a criminal offence in the future. The authors, to maintain brevity, shall not discuss this pertinent issue in this piece.)

The present dispute

Over the last few months, Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats and FoodPanda have indulged in an all-out war to increase the orders placed on their platforms. They have offered heavy discounts, some of which they have partially funded, to induce customers to use their platform.

These platforms offered schemes to select restaurants and not all the players in the business. Hence, they have been accused of favouritism on more occasions than one by the industry. Also, deep discounting drove the customer away from visiting the restaurants, affecting both their top and bottom lines.

In January 2019 a few hundred small and middle-sized restaurants even lodged a complaint of unfair and restrictive trade practices with the Competition Commissioner of India and the Prime Ministers Office.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) summoned officials from these platforms and Restaurateurs for preliminary discussions on July 2019.

A few days after this meeting, Zomato got in touch with its “Gold” affiliated restaurants and informed them that all current offers from Zomato will end on 14th August 2019 and that Zomato Gold, which was erstwhile only for dine-in, would now be offered to Zomato Gold members for their online orders. The new product was ostentatiously named “Zomato Gold O2 (Online Ordering)”.

Under the O2 scheme, the restaurant would have to offer a free item of the customers choosing, while playing for a higher-priced item; as well as pay 18-25% commission on the net order value. Effectively, a restaurant would realise only about 38-42% of the gross invoice value. Zomato was unwilling to bear any part of the discount or reduce its commission.

The business logic of “Zomato Gold”, as explained earlier, was based on the ability of the restaurant to upsell a few extra items to its patrons and cover the cost of the complimentary item offered. In the case of O2, there was no incentive left for the restaurant, as there is no potential for upselling and recovering the cost of the complimentary item in an online transaction.

At this juncture, the Restaurant industry associations decided to step in, and city by city, chapter by chapter, started endorsing #Logout campaign against Zomato Gold. Zomato responded by sending a legal notice to restaurants threatening them with legal consequences as they are “Contractually Obligated” to serve a 45 day notice period.

Present Situation

After receiving the notice from Zomato, Restaurateurs further intensified their agitation and boycott of Zomato Gold.

Zomato Gold is now trying to underplay the crisis and is offering a dialogue with the Restaurateurs and their association.

In the meanwhile, Zomato Founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal, has tweeted from his handle, offering to resolve the issue. He has, unfortunately, also offered unsolicited advice to Restaurateurs on how to better manage their business and reduce costs, which obviously has not gone down well.

Zomato: A story of Greed & Fear

Zomato and the other delivery platforms, targeting higher valuations for their next round of funding, have inflicted irreparable losses to the F&B sector. While Deepinder Goyal is not interested in earning a profit; valuation being his sole intent, the Restaurateurs are collateral damage in this war.

Restaurateurs are by and large, small to medium-size enterprises, with fixed costs that they have to recover from their customers. Deepinder Goyal might be a successful raider, but has not created value for the society at large at the scale that the Mom & Pop restaurants have done, some since many generations.

The Contract Act in India is inherently equitable in nature. Zomato has unilaterally changed their policies and contracts, to suit their agenda, and now has the audacity to threaten Restaurateurs with legal action on account of lapses of “Contractual Obligations”.

Deepinder Goyal now has to answer for his recklessness to Zomato Gold Members as well as Restaurants, having taken money from both, for a service that he had no control over and unilaterally changing terms of a contract for his own benefit, and which may cease to exist soon.

(This article has been written by Ankur Pandey and Chandrabhushan Joshi)

Akali Dal leader Manjinder Sirsa accuses filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of deliberately disrespecting Sikhs in season 2 of Netflix’s Sacred Games

OpIndia Staff
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Akali Dal leader Manjinder Sirsa accuses filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of deliberately disrespecting Sikhs in season 2 of Netflix’s Sacred Games

Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Delhi MLA Manjinder Sirsa has accused controversial filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of hurting the sentiments of Sikhs by deliberately disrespecting their religious symbols.

In a tweet, Sirsa has accused Anurag Kashyap, one of the directors of the show, of deliberately adding a scene in his new series Sacred Games 2, where actor Saif Ali Khan, who plays the role of a Sikh cop throws his Kara (Iron bracelet) into the sea.


According to Sirsa, Kara or Kada represents the pride of Sikhs and blessing of Guru Govind Singh and not an ordinary ornament. Sirsa accuses the Bollywood and Anurag Kashyap of continuously disrespecting religious symbols.

Kada or Kara is one of the Panj Kakars or Five Ks to be worn by a Sikh at all times. The other four are Kesh (uncut hair), Kangha (a wooden comb for the hair), Kachera (a cotton tie-able undergarment) and Kirpan (an iron dagger large enough to defend oneself).

The tradition of Panj Kakars was started by the tenth Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh, who had commanded Khalsa Sikhs to wear at all times in 1699. The Sikh community believes that the Five Ks are not just symbols, but articles of faith that collectively form the external identity and the Khalsa devotee’s commitment to the Sikh rehni “Sikh way of life”.

Anurag Kashyap and the makers of the Sacred Games have been part of the controversy for pushing Hindu-phobic content in their show. Along with other shows, Netflix has become a platform for abusive, incendiary content, which has often targetted the cultural value system of Indians, especially Hindus.

Recently, mysteriously two days ahead of the release of the second season of Sacred Games on Netflix, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap had quit Twitter by deactivating his Twitter account. Many social media users suspected Anurag Kashyap of playing his victim card to market his new season ahead of its launch.

Anurag Kashyap, the newfound cultural hero of the ultra-left wing, has a long history of abusing people and resorting to fake news on social media.  Anurag Kashyap, a member of ‘liberal-secular’ outrage factory, and regularly likes to make false anti-Modi statements on social media.

Zakir Naik banned from giving speeches in Malaysia, grilled by Malaysian police for over 10 hours

OpIndia Staff
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Zakir Naik banned from giving speeches in Malaysia, grilled by Malaysian police for over 10 hours

Malaysian authorities have imposed a nation-wide ban on radical Islamist preacher Zakir Naik from giving speeches. He was under investigation for his hate speech against non-Muslims in the country.


Zakir Naik has been under interrogation after his racially discriminative speeches against Hindus and Chinese Malaysians caused controversy in Malaysia.

Naik has been under investigation for his racist statements in Malaysia. His interrogation that was interrupted for the weekend continued at the Bukit Aman police headquarters yesterday. As per reports, Naik was grilled for over ten hours by the Royal Malaysian Police.

Naik was questioned under section 504 of the Malaysian Penal Code for ‘intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace’. Over 100 police cases were lodged against him after he made anti-Hindu and anti-Chinese remarks directed against Malaysian citizens recently.

After the intense grilling, Naik has issued a statement where he claims that he is not racist because racism is evil and his statements have been taken out of context.

It is notable here that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has stated recently that Naik has been attempting to create a racial divide in the country. On Sunday, PM Mahathir Mohamad stated that Naik has overstepped a line when he spoke against Malaysian Hindus and Chinese Malaysians. He stated that Naik’s statements were incendiary.

At a talk delivered at Kelantan a while ago, Naik had stated that Hindu Malaysians are not loyal to Malaysia but towards India’s PM Narendra Modi.

As per the latest reports from Malaysian media portals, Malaysian police have imposed a nation-wide ban on Zakir Naik from giving speeches or talks anywhere. Malaysian authorities have stated that the ban has been imposed in the interest of national security.

The Malaysian state of Sarawak has banned Naik from even entering the state.

Political leaders and authorities in many Malaysian provinces have been uniting against the Islamist preacher who is a wanted in India over cases of money laundering. Naik had managed to obtain permanent resident status in Malaysia after fleeing from India. So far, Malaysia has been hesitant to extradite Naik but Naik has been under a lot of criticism from all political parties and citizen groups for his hate speech against non-Muslims.

Zakir Naik is wanted in India in cases involving money laundering. The government of India had taken his channel, Peace TV, off the air and banned his NGO for peddling hate propaganda.

Ratul Puri, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath’s nephew arrested by the ED in connection with Rs 354 crore bank fraud case

OpIndia Staff
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Ratul Puri, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath’s nephew arrested by the ED in connection with Rs 354 crore bank fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested Ratul Puri, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s nephew, from Delhi in connection with a Rs 354 crore bank fraud case.

According to the reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday booked Puri, the then former executive director of Moser Baer, Deepak Puri, Nita Puri and others for defrauding the Central Bank of India to the tune of Rs 354.51 crore.

Moser Baer has released a statement and called the arrest of Puri ‘unfortunate’. “Moser Baer had operated in accordance with all legal compliances and this case now, when Moser Baer is in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), is motivated,” the company said in its statement.

According to the FIR, a case of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy has been lodged against Moser Baer India Limited, then executive director Ratul Puri, managing director Deepak Puri, full-time director Nita Puri, director Sanjay Jain, director Vineet Sharma, unknown public servants and unknown persons.

Ratul Puri had resigned from the post of executive director in 2012, while his parents continue to be on the board, the bank said in a statement.

Moser Baer was involved in the manufacture of optical storage media like compact discs, DVDs, solid-state storage devices.

The company had taken loans from various banks since 2009 and went for debt restructuring a number of times, the bank has alleged in the complaint which is now part of the CBI FIR. When the company was unable to pay the debt, a forensic audit was done and the account was declared as “fraud” by the Central Bank of India on April 20, 2019, it has alleged.

“The MBIL has committed fraud and cheated the complainant bank thereby making a wrongful gain to themselves and a wrongful loss to the lender bank which is a custodian of public money,” the complaint to the CBI said.

On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also began to tighten the noose for Ratul Puri after the agency told a court in New Delhi that Ratul Puri was evading probe in the AgustaWestland chopper scam-related money laundering case.

The VVIP chopper case pertains to alleged irregularities in the purchase of 12 VVIP choppers from Italy-based Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary, AgustaWestland. According to the ED, the proceeds of the crime have been deposited in the accounts of different companies owned by Ratul Puri.

Note: We have updated the story with the latest information. 

Viral video showing Pakistanis slaughtering cow on Indian flag is real, but it is old

OpIndia Staff
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Viral video showing Pakistanis slaughtering cow on Indian flag is real, but it is old

As the anti-India sentiment in Pakistan has reached an all-time high following abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A by India, social media has seen lots of action in this regard. While many Pakistanis, including federal ministers, are sharing old videos from different places claiming to be latest videos from Jammu and Kashmir, an old video from Pakistan has emerged which is being spread on social media saying it is from 15th August this year.

The very disturbing video shows a group of men slaughtering a cow on a large Indian flag. They are also seen holding a flag of Pakistan, and the men celebrate after the Indian flag is desecrated by the spilt blood of the slaughtered animal. Social media posts circulating the video clips claims that it happened on India’s Independent day, presumably protesting against abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A by the Indian government.


We tried to found out whether the video is indeed from Pakistan, and whether it happened actually last week. Doing an online search for the video, it was found that although it is a real incident which happened in Pakistan, it didn’t happen on 15th August. The cow was slaughtered on an India flag earlier this year, probably in the month of February. Images of the same incident can be seen on a Pakistani website where they were uploaded on 1st March this year.

The captions with the photographs say that members of Pakistan Sunni Tehreek slaughtered the cow as part of their protest against India, alleging Indian aggression in Kashmir and challenging the sovereignty of Pakistan. The protest was held at Hyderabad in Pakistan.

Although we could not locate the video at an earlier date, the comparison between the video and images establish that they are from the same incident. The persons involved in the ghastly act, the flags of both the countries, the cow, all of them are the same in both the video and the photos.

Therefore, it can be concluded that although a cow was indeed slaughtered on a large India flag, it didn’t happen last week after India’s decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir into India, but it had happened earlier this year. Although the exact date of the incident is not mentioned in the Pakistani website, probably it happened on 4th February, during the protests by Pakistan Sunni Tehreek on the eve of Kashmir day. Photographs published by Associated Press of Pakistan shows the protesters of the burning a similar flex printed Indian flag with the exact red cross on it. They had printed multiple copies of the flag, therefore it can be presumed that one of them was used for the slaughter of the cow, while others were burned.

Meet General Bajwa: The Pakistani Army Chief who awarded himself a three-year extension at his job

OpIndia Staff
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Meet General Bajwa: The Pakistani Army Chief who awarded himself a three-year extension at his job

Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa received a three-year extension over concerns regarding ‘regional security’. The decision comes after the Indian government abrogated Articles 370 and 35A, and integrated Jammu & Kashmir completely with the Indian Union. Considering the political realities of Pakistan, it won’t be far-fetched to say that he gave himself an extension.

“General Qamar Javed Bajwa is appointed Chief of Army Staff for another term of three years from the date of completion of current tenure. The decision has been taken in view of regional security environment,” said a notification issued by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s office.


The decision comes days after the Army Chief committed his support towards Kashmiris. “Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared, and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations…,” he had said to his commanders.

Bajwa has extensive experience handling Kashmir. As Major General, he led the Force Command Northern Areas, head-quartered at Gilgit-Baltistan. It is the Northernmost territory currently held by Pakistan. He has also commanded the 10 Corps, responsible for the areas along the Line of Control (LoC).

The Pakistani Army Chief also has the experience of serving under a former Indian Army Chief. General Bajwa had served as a brigade commander during the UN peace-keeping operations in Congo in 2007 under General Bikram Singh. General Singh had described Bajwa’s conduct as “totally professional and outstanding” during the UN peace-keeping operations.

Despite earlier speculations that he was selected the Army Chief by Sharif due to his ‘pro-democracy’ stance superseding two generals superior to him, allegations have been made that he was in bed with the Jihadists who hijacked Islamabad in 2017. He had proposed mediation with the Jihadists for which he was criticized. However, it shouldn’t surprise anyone as it is an open secret that in Pakistan, the Army controls the government.

It was also reported that Bajwa considers religious extremism as a bigger threat to Pakistan than India. However, as his handling of the Jihadi protests shows, he has no qualms with siding with the Jihadists over the elected government. The conduct of the Pakistani Army post his elevation also demonstrates that all such talk is merely fluff. There has been no change in Pakistani policy since his elevation, it continues to be a terrorist state.

Brig (retired) Feroz Hassan Khan, who was Bajwa’s commanding officer on the LoC, claims that Bajwa doesn’t have a “visceral hatred” against Indians. “There is an assumption that every Pakistani military officer who rises has some sort of a visceral hatred towards India, as if it’s a default. This is not the case with (Bajwa) and I can tell you he has studied India so much,” Khan told Hindustan Times in 2016.

According to Khan, Bajwa “understands India (and) reads a lot of what India writes and knows a lot about what India thinks”. He added, “There’s hardly any senior officer of his level who reads a lot of what is published in India and he studies, he reflects and he remembers.”

Bajwa is also responsible for the destruction of at least one Indian politician’s career. In 2018, he was hugged by senior Congress leader and then a Minister in the Punjab cabinet, Navjot Singh Sidhu. That loving embrace cost Sidhu a lot and he was slammed even by the Punjab Chief Minister. The hug might have cost his party significantly as well.

Jharkhand BJP leader denies media reports that his son committed suicide due to fear of losing job, says it was family matter

OpIndia Staff
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Jharkhand BJP leader denies media reports that his son committed suicide due to fear of losing job, says it was family matter

A BJP leader in Jharkhand has said that the media reports saying his son committed suicide due to fear of losing his job is fake. Kumar Ashish, son of BJP leader Kumar Bishwajit, had killed himself on Friday last week in Jamshedpur.

BBC Hindi had reported the incident with a headline asking whether the son of BJP committed suicide due to fear of losing his job. Although the report said that police had speculated that job security can be one of the many possible reasons for the suicide, but BBC had distorted it to claim that it was the reason. The report mentions that he went to his office till the last day, and it will take time to ascertain the actual reason. The same claim was made by several other Hindi language media houses.

The letter written by Kumar Biswajit denying media reports

Kumar Ashish worked as a computer operator in a company which works for Tata Motors. The reports mention that due to the slowdown in the auto sector, Tata Motors was likely to terminate its contract with the company, which would have caused job losses in the company. Ashish took his life by hanging from the ceiling fan in his room.

But now his father Kumar Bishwajit has said that the media reports speculating on the reason for his son’s suicide are wrong. In a letter written to the Police Chief in Jamshedpur, he has said that he denies the media reports. The BJP leader also has written that the actual reason for his son’s suicide is tensions over family responsibilities and household problems. He has categorically denied the rumours that losing job was the reason.

Kumar Ashish was still going to his work, his company was still working for Tata Motors. Although there may be rumours that the company will lose contract causing job loses, it seems very unlikely that someone will take his life only based on rumours that he may lose his job.

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