Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Home Blog Page 5899

Smriti Irani says Congress has vindicated OpIndia expose on Rahul-Bhandari link

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Smriti Irani says Congress has vindicated OpIndia expose on Rahul-Bhandari link

Continuing her attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the expose done by OpIndia yesterday, BJP leader Smriti Irani said that Congress has accepted that the expose is correct the party has said that the land deal did happen. Talking to Republic Bharat, she said the Congress party has agreed that Rahul Gandhi has financial links with H L Pahwa, the man linked with fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.


Talking to Republic Bharat, the union minister said that till now only Robert Vadra was known for questionable land deals, but now it seems his brother in law Rahul Gandhi also loves such land deals. She also mentioned that C C Thampi had got petroleum deals during the UPA government. According to the OpIndia expose, Thampi had financed Pahwa to buy back land at four times the price he had originally sold to Priyanka Gandhi. Smriti Irani said that Robert Vadra was just a mask but the real offender is Rahul Gandhi.

The Gandhi-Vadra family has defined family scam, Rahul Gandhi’s contender in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Amethi said. What is the relation of Rahul Gandhi with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari who is facing investigations, asked Smriti Irani. She said that Rahul Gandhi should explain his relations with H L Pahwa, C C Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari.

Talking about using the OpIndia expose to attack Rahul Gandhi, she said that when independent media brings up such facts, she has every right to raise questions on the matter and demand a probe. By accepting that Rahul Gandhi did buy land from H L Pahwa, Congress has vindicated the OpIndia report, she added.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi opposing the Rafale deal, Smriti Irani said it is very sad that Rahul Gandhi was prepared to compromise on the security of the nation only because he had personal interest in the brokerage of defence deals, only for few crumbs. I am both sad and outraged due to this, she added.

Rahul Gandhi failing to keep his flock together as senior Maharashtra Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar set to join BJP

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Rahul Gandhi failing to keep his flock together as senior Maharashtra Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar set to join BJP

In yet another major embarrassment for Congress president Rahul Gandhi, a day after reports of Congress Leader of Opposition in Maharastra assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s son Sujay Vikhe Patil, joining the BJP surfaced, there have been reports that a senior 7-time  MLA, Kalidas Kolambkar, has now decided to ditch Congress and join BJP.

Party MLA Kalidas Kolambkar who currently represents Wadala constituency in Mumbai, had made his stands clear on joining the ruling party in the state. This comes as a major jolt to the Congress who is yet to recover from yesterday’s shock in which its own leader’s son joint its biggest opponent.

Maharashtra Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s son Sujay Vikhe Patil joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai, in the presence of CM Devendra Fadnavis. Addressing the media, Vikhe Patil had thanked PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for giving him a chance to serve BJP and lauded Fadnavis’ leadership.

With senior Congress leaders and their relatives abandoning the party and joining the opposition, panic has set among Congress loyalists and questions are being asked of Congress on their preparedness to take on the mighty BJP.

Meanwhile, Kolambkar, who has been 7-time legislator from Maharashtra, was quoted as saying, “I worked in the Congress party for 10 years. But they stopped a lot of development work in my constituency. I support those who work.” Kolambkar was in Shiv Sena previously and had joined Congress in 2005.

It what could be seen as a considerable humiliation of the Congress party, Kolambkar has reportedly replaced the Congress signboard outside his office and has put up Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis portrait there.

“After Devendra Fadnavis took over as Chief Minister, I told him about the work needed to be done in my area and he completed those works. Then, whose photo should I put? Those who work or those who don’t,” he asked.

Similarly, speculations are rife that former Congress minister of Assam, Gautam Roy and ex-Congress MP Kirip Chaliha are expected to join the BJP today. The departure of these two senior leaders in Assam is expected to impact the Congress as they wield considerable influence among their voters.

Intensifying Rahul Gandhi’s predicaments, Congress MLA Vallabh Dharaviya from Gujarat, had quit Congress and joined BJP on March 11. Prior to him, Congress MLAs from Manvadar, Unjha and Halvad Dhrangadhra had resigned and joined the BJP. In Telangana, 4 Congress MLAs have defected to join TRS.

Nevertheless, if the similar situation persists, it would become difficult for the Congress supremo to keep his flock cinched before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Look at the world not from your position, but look at the world from your position: Rahul Gandhi does an Ashutosh

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Look at the world not from your position, but look at the world from your position: Rahul Gandhi does an Ashutosh

As elections come closer, politicians have started getting more and more philosophical. Congress President Rahul Gandhi, while addressing women in Stella Maris Women’s College in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, gave a cryptic philosophical message.

At around 16:20 in the above video, a student asks Rahul Gandhi what is that special quality that he has imbibed from his mother. After thinking a while and reconfirming whether she wants to know what he has learnt from his mother, he says he has learnt ‘humility’ from his mother. He says that no matter how powerful a person is or how weak a person is, regardless of who the person is, they always have an opinion and one must respect that opinion.

He perhaps meant tolerance but said humility instead because his description of ‘humility’ is not what humility actually means.

Moving on, he then tells the young lady, “When you are speaking to a person, look at the world not from your position but look at the world from your position, right?”

Reminds us the journalist-turned-politician-uturned-journalist Ashutosh, who is busy providing comic relief in tense situations.

Priyanka Gandhi meets Bhim Army chief who was arrested for allegedly violating model code of conduct by taking out a rally

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Priyanka Gandhi meets Bhim Army chief who was arrested for allegedly violating model code of conduct by taking out a rally

Congress General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh (East) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today met Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad who is admitted in a hospital in Meerut. The self-proclaimed Dalit leader was arrested by Deoband police for allegedly violating the model code of conduct by taking out the Bahujan Hunkar rally. He was admitted to a hospital in Meerut after he fell sick.


Bhim Army’s Hunkar rally was flagged off on March 11 and was supposed to culminate in Delhi at Jantar Mantar on March 15. Chandrashekhar was expected to mobilise the rally in Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday but he was detained by the police in Deoband. It is rumoured that Priyanka offered a Lok Sabha ticket to Chandrashekhar to contest from Nagina constituency.

Police have ordered action against Bhim Army workers and officials for taking out the rally despite the model code of conduct being in place. Police said that no rally or march could be taken out without prior permission as the model code of conduct was in force. Police is checking the CCTV footage to find where the rally actually started from so that the jurisdiction can be ascertained and a case can be filed. A report has been filed for the time being in Deoband police station against Chandrashekhar and others.

Bhim Army which claims to fight for Dalit rights said that it was not a political party but a social organisation and neither Chandrashekhar Azad was contesting any election, therefore the rally did not violate the model code of conduct. It questioned the authority of the police to grant permission for holding the rally and said that since the model code of conduct was in place, Magistrate was the only competent authority to grant the permission.

Chandrashekhar had announced a few days ago that his organisation would be supporting candidates who would be contesting against PM Modi and Union Minister Smriti Irani. He had also reportedly claimed that he would make sure that PM modi lost the election from Varanasi and that he would himself contest against the PM if the SP-BSP failed to field a strong candidate against him.

Chandrashekhar Azad along with other Bhim Army workers started shouting slogans of “vote hamara, raj tumhara nahi chalega nahi chalega” and jammed the Saharanpur-Muzaffarnagar highway as the police took him into custody. He even used derogatory language against PM Modi.

“They want us to sit quietly. But we are not slaves. We are free and will fight for our rights. Let them take us to jail or anywhere else. We will carry our fight ahead and on March 15, a sea of blue (the colour of the Bhim Army flag) will flood Delhi.” Chandrashekhar said.

Delhi police starts probe on AAP’s phone calls to people lying about voter list deletion, Kejriwal alleges harassment

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Delhi police starts probe on AAP’s phone calls to people lying about voter list deletion, Kejriwal alleges harassment

The Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal today accused the BJP President Amit Shah of harassing its call centre employees after the Delhi Police commenced the action on the Election Commission of India’s request to take “requisite action” against those making ‘misleading’ phone calls to people about Delhi’s electoral roll.

Delhi CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal held Amit Shah responsible for the action initiated by the Delhi Police against the call centres employed by AAP. The Delhi Police had lodged an FIR on February 10 after several residents of Delhi complained of receiving misleading calls telling them that their names have been struck off the electoral list.


In a series of tweets, AAP leader Raghav Chadha lashed out at the BJP, accusing it of deleting 30 lakh voters in Delhi. He asserted that AAP went door to door and found large-scale deletions of voter names in the list. Chadha further insinuated that since BJP’s manoeuvres have been exposed they are harassing call centre employees with the help of Delhi Police. Senior AAP leaders Atishi and Chadha yesterday met Delhi Police to register their protest against ‘unwarranted’ harassment of their call centre workers.

However, a senior police official has claimed that they were simply acting on the FIR lodged by the Election Commission and had questioned the call centre employees regarding the nature of calls allegedly made by them to the Delhi votaries. As reported earlier, AAP call centre has been making phone calls to people in Delhi the telling them that BJP has deleted their names from the voter list, and Arvind Kejriwal was restoring their names. Several people have reported receiving such calls, and some of them posted recordings of the calls on social media also.

After people raised objections on the misleading calls they received, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi had requested the Delhi police to investigate the phone calls that many people in Delhi have been receiving telling that their name has been struck off from the voter list. In a letter written to the Delhi Police Commissioner on February 2, Election Officer Manoj Kumar said that they have various written complaints in this regard, and prima facie it appears that the matter needs to be thoroughly investigated.

Many people who were registered in voter list of different states also received the calls alleging that their names have been deleted in Delhi’s electoral list. Some of the citizens who received the calls verified the claims made and found that their names still exist on the voter list and therefore the phone calls were false. The callers who made these ‘misleading’ calls had identified themselves as being associated with the AAP party.

Rahul land deals: Arun Jaitely cites OpIndia expose´ to slam Gandhi-Vadra family

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Rahul land deals: Arun Jaitely cites OpIndia expose´ to slam Gandhi-Vadra family

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has today shared a blog post titled “Agenda 2019 – Part – 3: Is Prime Minister Modi’s First Five Year Tenure a Turning Point on Corruption?”

In the blog post, Jaitley has discussed how political parties that had been in power in the past had crippled the country’s economy by indulging in crafty tactics of ‘phone banking’, corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering. He states that years of corruption had taken India’s credibility to rock bottom.

“From the Bofors gun deal to the HDW Submarine purchases, the Airbus transaction, the Augusta Westland deal, the fertilizer scam, the footprints of the Indian National Congress and its leaders were everywhere”, writes the Finance minister.

Jaitley discusses in his blog about how the ‘middlemen’ who acted as the tools of corruption to enrich their political masters have vanished from the corridors of power after PM Modi assumed office. He states that the corridors of North Block and Udyog Bhawan, once flooded with middlemen, are now vacant. Many of them had either been rendered jobless or have left the country in fear of prosecution.

After discussing the financial reforms and policy changes that have all but removed the scope of middlemen working to steal from the poor and enrich corrupt politicians, Jaitley discusses the latest OpIndia expose´on Rahul Gandhi’s dubious deals that trace back to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari in the final section of his blog.

blog post by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Jaitley highlights the issue of politicians and their ‘extended family’ living well without working. He states that instead of directly indulging in corruption through bribery, wheeler-dealers or fly-by-night operators are being used by corrupt politicians to get ‘sweetheart deals’. He asserts that not only these politicians use their power to influence decisions, the usage of middlemen also gives them an escape route from being directly held accountable. He ends his post by saying if the Congress party’s first family is subjected to a forensic audit, the facts will speak for themselves.

Earlier, Textile minister Smriti Irani had held a press conference where she had cited the OpIndia expose´to slam the Gandhi-Vadra family as a “Family package of corruption”. I&T minister Rajyavardhan Rathore has also cited OpIndia expose´on Rahul Gandhi’s deals linking him to arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari to slam the Congress president.

In a Tweet, Rathore has asked Rahul Gandhi whether his links with Bhandari and meetings with Eurofighter officials was the reason he has been opposing the Rafale deal.


It is notable here that Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale jets, had refused to indulge Bhandari as an offset partner. After that Bhandari had allegedly tried to lobby for Eurofighter.

Arvind Kejriwal’s desperation doesn’t let him take Congress’ no for an answer, displays obsessive, stalkerly behaviour

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Arvind Kejriwal’s desperation doesn’t let him take Congress’ no for an answer, displays obsessive, stalkerly behaviour

Like the stereotypical ‘Delhi boy’ AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seems to be having troubles taking no for an answer. Despite being humiliated by Congress which has rejected his proposal for an alliance in Delhi and Punjab for the upcoming general elections, Kejriwal has made another offer.

Maybe third time is the charm, but now Kejriwal has again appealed to the Congress to consider an alliance in Haryana.


In a tweet today, Kejriwal said that at a time when people of the country want to defeat Modi and Shah, if in Haryana, JJP, AAP and Congress can come together, then the BJP will lose on all the ten seats. He then appealed Congress President Rahul Gandhi to think over it. In the same breath, he said that in Delhi AAP will win all the seats without Congress and hence people need not worry about it.

Kejriwal’s inability to take no for an answer shows his desperation that he has now moved beyond expressing his affection and appealing to the Congress and started pestering Congress, begging it to agree to form an alliance.

His desperation triggered a slew of jokes and memes on the Delhi Chief Minister which left Twitter users in splits.


Users mocked Kejriwal for his antics at getting Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s attention.


People even dug up his 2013 tweet where he had promised that there will be no alliance with either BJP or Congress ‘under any circumstances’.


Former close aides also could not help but take a dig on Kejriwal who has strayed way too far from the promises he had made.


Whether Rahul Gandhi will give in this time or not, only time will tell. In the meantime, we hope Kejriwal understands how consent works and no means no.

Congress admits to Rahul Gandhi’s land deals, but keeps mum on HL Pahwa and Sanjay Bhandari link

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Congress admits to Rahul Gandhi’s land deals, but keeps mum on HL Pahwa and Sanjay Bhandari link

After the BJP press conference held by Minister Smriti Irani, Congress party has now come forward and accepted the land deal by Rahul Gandhi. However, they have chosen to keep mum on the seller, HL Pahwa and the Sanjay Bhandari link, as exposed by OpIndia.com.


According to Republic TV, Congress has circulated an unofficial response where Congress had admitted that Rahul Gandhi did indeed but the land as reported by OpIndia.com. The unofficial note also alleges that Rahul Gandhi had later gifted the land to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

According to this unofficial note, After Rahul Gandhi bought the land in 2008, in 2012, Rahul Gandhi gifted the land to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It must be kept in mind here, that throughout the 2008 to 2012 period, Sanjay Bhandari was actively getting kickbacks under the Congress government and in fact, was actively trying to become to an off-set partner of Dassault. Dassault had rejected Sanjay Bhandari’s proposal to become the off-set partner.

While admitting the land deal, Congress has however kept mum on HL Pahwa, the seller of the land to Rahul Gandhi. HL Pahwa had also sold land to Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. We had reported how this land was later sold back to HL Pahwa by Robert and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at an inflated price. HL Pahwa, in fact, did not have the cash reserves to make good on the payment and had borrowed money from CC Thampi, who has several financial dealings with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

Incidentally, this shoddy response by the Congress has made Rahul Gandhi even more complicit in this circularity of transactions. While trying to “explain” these transactions, Rahul Gandhi has made the role of the Family and Pahwa even more explicit. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also bought land from Pahwa and had sold it back to him at an inflated rate and so had Robert Vadra. Now, Congress had admitted that the land was purchased by Rahul Gandhi from HL Pahwa and was gifted to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

In this entire fiasco, the point of contention of Rahul Gandhi’s links to HL Pahwa, CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari have still not been addressed. Another question that arises is how Rahul Gandhi is funding these land deals.

Corruption comes in a family package : Smriti Irani cites OpIndia report to attack Gandhi-Vadra Parivar

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Corruption comes in a family package : Smriti Irani cites OpIndia report to attack Gandhi-Vadra Parivar

After startling revelations by OpIndia regarding the Congress President’s involvement with Sanjay Bhandari, Union Minister Smriti Irani addressed the media in New Delhi on Wednesday. The minister launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi for compromising defence preparedness of the country only to help his alleged friend Sanjay Bandhari.

Addressing mediapersons in the press conference, Union Minister Smriti Irani launched a scathing attack on Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his family members for involving in dubious land deals while trying to influence deals for the benefit of the family, said that the ethos of the Congress party has all along been to institutionalise corruption in the party.

Citing the OpIndia exclusive expose on Rahul Gandhi’s links with Arms dealer Sanjay Bandhari and others, Smriti Irani accused Congress party of involving in “family package corruption’. “In the past 24 hours, the facts that have come out in news indicates how the Gandhi-Vadra family has made corruption a family business.

She further targetted Rahul Gandhi by citing the OpIndia reports, which had revealed his link with Sanjay Bhandari, stating that Bhandari was also under investigation for defence deals and was party to the ill-gotten fruits of corruption during UPA regime.

“The new facts which have come to the fore clearly establish a relationship between Rahul Gandhi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. Rahul Gandhi, apart from his political interests to scuttle defence deals, also had commercial and personal interests,” accused Smriti Irani.

“Rahul Gandhi attempted to compromise the defence preparedness of the country as his friend Sanjay Bhandari did not get the Rafale deal,” alleged Smriti Irani. Rahul Gandhi has also been alleged of carrying out talks with Eurofighter representatives, which had lost in the MMRCA deal against Dassault Aviation.

Smriti Irani alleged that Rahul Gandhi’s alleged association with the Eurofighter and Sanjay Bhandari losing out on Rafale deal are the main reason behind his attempts to malign the whole Rafale Deal. She further said Rahul Gandhi should also answer regarding his special relationship with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, CC Thampi and  HL Pahwa, with whom Rahul Gandhi has had dubious land dealings.

“The nation has come to a conclusion, that Rahul Gandhi’s intervention in the defence preparedness of our country stems from his pursuit not only of individual politics but his personal commercial, as well as family interests,” said Smriti Irani.

The OpIndia exposé on Rahul Gandhi dubious land dealings had revealed that Rahul had purchased land from a person named HL Pahwa. Pahwa had also sold land to Robert Vadra thought his aide Mahesh Nagar. Even Priyanka Vadra was involved in buying land and later selling the same land to the same HL Pahwa at an inflated price. It has been revealed that HL Pahwa was receiving money from CC Thampi, a man under investigation for dealings with Vadra and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

Link between Rahul Gandhi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari

Sanjay Bhandari is the infamous arms dealer being investigated by ED. From 2012 to 2015, Sanjay Bhandari was lobbying to become the offset partner in the Rafale deal and Dassault had refused to indulge him. There were also allegations that Bhandari was lobbying for Eurofighter after the Dassault refused to indulge him. Sanjay Bhandari is also said to have received kickbacks in defence and petroleum deals during the Congress regime.

On the expectation of PM Modi’s re-election in 2019, Rupee hits two-and-a-half-month high

OpIndia Staff
-
0
On the expectation of PM Modi’s re-election in 2019, Rupee hits two-and-a-half-month high

Encouraged by the strong foreign influx into the equities market on the expectation of PM Narendra Modi’s re-election in May, Indian currency Rupee rose to its highest yesterday in several weeks, reports Reuters.

Notably, the appreciation in the value of rupee in the forex market was also aided by the absence of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) intervention.

In its most robust performance since 2nd January 2019, the rupee rose to its highest level of 69.56 per US dollar. India’s national currency was also more stable by 0.47 per cent than the previous day closing price of 69.89.

According to reports, it’s the Modi appeal and the prospect of him coming back to power for a second term in the coming general elections which has resulted in an upward trend in the foreign inflows into Indian stock markets.

Though typically, most exporters bring back their dollars to India towards the end of the fiscal year to settle their annual accounts and repayment of debts which increases inflows, this time the increased popularity of the PM following India’s military strike on Pakistan in retaliation for the Pulwama attack has also acted as a catalyst.

“Typically, the rupee rises in March due to seasonal factors. But this time the Modi factor is also getting quite a bit of inflow,” said a forex dealer at a state-run bank.

It was earlier reported that as per the latest tracker poll conducted by Times Now and VMR, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity among the electorate jumped seven per cent in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.

Meanwhile, the surging popularity of Modi led NDA government could also be seen as three opinion polls, published on March 11th, rejecting all previous predictions of a hung parliament, envisioned a clear majority of the NDA in the upcoming general elections.

India TV-CNX opinion poll predicts 285 seats for NDA, with 238 seats for BJP, while the Congress-led UPA is projected to win 126 seats and other opposition parties may get 132 seats.

Two other opinion polls, ABP News- C Voter and Zee 24 Taas predicts 264 seats for NDA, while is falls marginally short of the majority mark 273. UPA and others are predicted to win 141 and 138 in the ABP News survey, and 165 and 114 seats in the Zee 24 survey. The C Voter survey also predicts that if there are no mahagathbandhan of opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh, the NDA tally will go up to 307.

Moreover, because the election results have a direct impact on share market performances in India, since the opinion polls have shown increased prospect of NDA coming back to power, the Stock market has also been seeing a continuous upsurge.

1...5,8985,8995,900...6,968Page 5,899 of 6,968

Contact: [email protected]

About us

News and opinion website that brings you reports and narrative from a perspective often ignored or suppressed by the mainstream media of India.

Follow us

© OpIndia.com