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RBI Policy: Repo rate cut by 25 bps, GDP projected at 7.4%, EMIs may come down

OpIndia Staff
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RBI Policy: Repo rate cut by 25 bps, GDP projected at 7.4%, EMIs may come down

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, in his maiden RBI Policy, has projected GDP at 7.4% for the financial year 2019-20. The RBI has also brought down the Repo rate by 0.25 basis points bringing it from 6.5% to 6.25% which may bring down the EMI amount paid by individuals. Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks in case of shortfall of funds.


Stating that the inflation will remain contained, Das added the investment activity is currently recovering owing to the public spending on infrastructure.

Das further added that the RBI has decided enhancement of collateral free agriculture loan from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.6 lakhs. This enhancement Rs 60,000 has been taken in view of the overall rise in inflation, marginal agriculture input and benefit to small farmers. He added that the import growth had turned slow in November and had actually turned negative in December 2018 primarily owing to high base effect and weak global demand. The inflation rate is estimated at 3.2% to 3.4% in the first half of 2019-2020 and 3.9% in the third quarter of 2019-2020.

Kerala: University denies permission to North Indian students to perform Saraswati Puja as it is ‘secular campus’

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: University denies permission to North Indian students to perform Saraswati Puja as it is ‘secular campus’

The Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala has declined permission to ‘North Indian students’ to perform Saraswati Puja in the Kuttanad campus of its Engineering college. The reason cited is that its a “secular campus” and therefore, can’t permit the Puja.


The letter from the Joint Registrar of the University states, “It is informed that the request of the North Indian students to conduct Saraswati Pooja has been declined by the Vice Chancellor since ours is a secular campus and as such we cannot permit religious functions/activities of any particular religion inside the campus.”

It is the same college where students had claimed last year that they were misled into eating beef. The Principal was accused of feeding beef to his students to satisfy his ego.

It is also interesting to note that Christmas is regularly celebrated in this same ‘secular campus’.

Christmas celebration at Cochin University, 2017 (source: Facebook)

This move by the university again proves that secularism has a unique definition in India, where Christmas can be permitted by Saraswati puja can’t be.

There has been a concerted attempt by the Secular establishment to denude Indian educational institutions of Hindu cultural influences. Recently, the Supreme Court had sent a plea challenging the mandatory recitation of Sanskrit and Hindi hymns during the morning assembly in Kendriya Vidyalayas to its Constitution bench.

That petition was filed by one Veenayak Shah who is reported to be the father of children who received their education from Kendriya Vidyalaya. In the petition, he claimed that reciting prayers “creates a lot of obstacles in developing a Scientific Temperament” and that it was imparting religious instructions.

All 7 seven accused convicted by court in Kawal double murder case which had triggered the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots

OpIndia Staff
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All 7 seven accused convicted by court in Kawal double murder case which had triggered the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots

A sessions court on Wednesday convicted seven accused in the Kawal double murder case of August 2013, which is said to have triggered the infamous Muzzafarnagar riots, which had left almost 60 people dead and more than 50,000 people were displaced. Five of the convicted are already in prison, while the bail of the other two stands cancelled.

Muzassim, Muzammil, Furquan, Nadeem, Jehangir, Afzaal and Iqbal have been convicted for beating to death Gaurav and Sachin on the day of August 27, 2013. They were convicted by the court after examination of 10 prosecution witnesses and 6 defence witnesses.

According to reports, cousins Gaurav and Sachin had allegedly thrashed and stabbed a boy called Shaanazwa, after it was reported that he had harassed their sister. Following which the seven accused killed both in retaliation.

“Ravindra Singh, Gaurav’s father, had lodged an FIR for murder at Jansath police station against Muzammil, Mujasim, Furqaan, Jehangeer, Nadeem and Shahnawaz. Shahnawaz was killed later in retaliation to the murder of Gaurav and Sachin,” Anil Zindal, the lawyer for the complainant was quoted by Indian Express.

The names of two other accused of Iqbal and Afzal were added later.

A counter FIR was also lodged by the father of Shahnawaz incriminating Sachin and Gaurav for killing his son. But, an SIT in 2015 had given a clean chit to 5 accused in the case, while two other accused Gaurav and Sachin were already dead.

The quantum of sentence for the convicted will be announced on February 8. Gaurav’s father has expressed hope that convicted people will get the maximum amount of sentence, as he has been fighting for justice for his son for a long time now. While Gaurav’s mother wants death sentence for the convicted.

“I have faith in court. We hope justice will be done. Once we get a copy of the sessions court verdict, we will move to high court.” Father of two convicted Muzassim and Muzammil said. He also accused local police of doing investigation unfairly hiding the truth.

Over 6,000 cases were lodged following the 2013 riots and 1,480 accused were arrested for their alleged roles in the riots. A SIT had filed charge sheets in 175 cases.

Karti Chidambaram appears before the ED in connection with INX Media money laundering probe

OpIndia Staff
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Karti Chidambaram appears before the ED in connection with INX Media money laundering probe

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s son, Karti Chidambaram is currently being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in Jamnagar House in Delhi. He is being probed in connection to money laundering case in the INX Media scam. Both father-son duo is facing heat from the CBI as well as ED in the INX media scam.

In January, the CBI had sought the custody of former union minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media. Karti was arrested by CBI in February last in connection with the case, who was released on bail later.

It is alleged that INX Media received FDI in excess of what was allowed and when a probe was launched against the illegal investment, it was manipulated to save the company. P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in the UPA government at that time. The chargesheet filed by CBI in the case said that while the company was granted clearance to receive foreign investment of only ₹4.62 crore, the company violated the norms and raised ₹305 crores as FDI. On the other hand, INX Media had made payments to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Karti Chidambaram through his close associates.

It is alleged that Karti had received ₹3.5 crore from INX Media and used his influence to manipulate the investigation against the company.

INX Media was later known as NewsX, it was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case. Indrani had also alleged that P Chidambaram had asked her to pay a bribe of $1 million to Karti Chidambaram.

CBI had sought custodial interrogation of P Chidambaram in the case earlier also, but it was not granted. The agency has got the government’s permission to prosecute the former union minister in the Aircel-Maxis case also.

Since yesterday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband and Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother in law Robert Vadra is also being grilled by the ED in dubious land deals and in connection with another money laundering case. He is also asked to appear before the ED in Jaipur on February 12.

Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes resolution demanding SC status for ‘Dalit Christians’

OpIndia Staff
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Andhra Pradesh Assembly passes resolution demanding SC status for ‘Dalit Christians’

A resolution has been passed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly appealing to the Central government that ‘Scheduled Caste Christians’ be provided the benefits of reservations despite converting out of the Hindu faith.


The resolution was proposed by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ had been fighting for reservations for decades and that their demand was justifiable. He said that ‘Dalit Christians’ should be treated on par with Dalit converts to Sikhism and Buddhism. The resolution was also supported by BJP MLAs in the Assembly.

The secular establishment has always propagated the idea that the Caste System is exclusive to Hinduism and ‘Eminent Historians’ have peddled the narrative that ‘lower castes’ converted to Abrahamic faiths due to the discrimination faced by them in the Hindu fold. It was also claimed the Abrahamic alternative was egalitarian and free of such discrimination.

Under such circumstances, even the term ‘Dalit Christians’ is an oxymoron as there is no concept of Castes in Christianity. Amusingly enough, even the leaders of the Christian community who target the Hindu faith over the caste system have often demanded reservations for Christians on the basis of their caste.

It appears to be little more than appeasement tactics by one of the new darlings of the ‘Secular establishment’ ahead of the General Elections later this year. The resolution, however, is nonbinding on the Centre.

More troubles for Congress as Vadra asked to appear before ED in Jaipur on February 12

OpIndia Staff
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More troubles for Congress as Vadra asked to appear before ED in Jaipur on February 12

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra, who is accused of being involved in dubious land deals and is also facing probe in money laundering case, has now been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on February 12. Yesterday, Vadra was grilled for hours at the ED office yesterday where his wife, Congress General Secretary had dropped him off.

Today, after reaching the ED office an hour late, as per reports, Vadra was reportedly grilled over his London based properties. According to Republic, he has been asked to give answers to ED’s questions in writing. As per reports, Vadra is currently being questioned by a team led by Joint Director and two Deputy Directors in connection with the money laundering case.

Vadra has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection to the money laundering case and dubious land deal cases. He had applied for anticipatory bail in the court earlier this month after a fresh money laundering case was filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Skylight Hospitality firm owned by Vadra. The case is in relation to alleged financial irregularities in land deals in Gurgaon, Haryana in 2008.

In January, Rajasthan High Court had summoned Robert Vadra and his mother to appear before the ED in connection to the Bikaner land deal case.

The case pertains to a land deal in which Sky Light Hospitality had allegedly purchased a plot in Bikaner, Rajasthan. The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in this matter in 2015, after the state police had filed FIRs based on a complaint by local tehsildar alleging forgery in the deal. It is alleged that Skylight had sold 69.55 hectares of land to Allegeny Finlease at ₹7.41 lakh per hectare, but it had purchased the land at the rate of ₹ 1 lakh per hectare. Mahesh Nagar, an authorised representative of several companies linked to Vadra, had bought and sold land on behalf of Skylight Hospitality.

The amount used by Allegeny Finlease to buy the land came from a loan given by Bhushan Power and Steel company (BSPL). In the same year, BSPL was granted an exemption of ₹500 crore by the Income Tax Settlement Commission (ITSC), a decision which has come under the scanner.

The state government had cancelled the transfer of 374.44 hectares of land sold in various deals after it was found that land allotments were made in the name of fake persons. It is alleged that land meant to expand army’s firing range was grabbed by the land mafia through forged and fabricated documents.

We had reported yesterday that posters featuring Robert Vadra have appeared outside Congress headquarters welcoming his wife and Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra formally in the party. Later, the posters were later removed from AICC headquarters by the NDMC.

However, with Priyanka Gandhi accompanying him to the ED office yesterday sent out a strong message that the Congress is firmly standing shoulder to shoulder with Vadra as he faces probe in the money laundering case.

VHP leader returning from Yogi’s Purulia rally goes missing under mysterious circumstances

OpIndia Staff
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VHP leader returning from Yogi’s Purulia rally goes missing under mysterious circumstances

A Vishwas Hindu Parishad Leader, Kartik Kumar Ghorai went missing, while he was on his way back home from Yogi Adityanath’s rally in Purulia on Tuesday, reported MyNation.

A missing complaint has been filed in Balarampur Police station. Sources said that Kartik after attending Yogi’s rally was returning home on his motorbike when suddenly he went missing midway. His motorbike and mobile phone were recovered in damaged conditions.

The BJP claimed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons are behind his abduction.

The Police have started the investigation but Ghorai, after two days, still remains untraceable.

Despite West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee’s futile efforts of stopping Yogi Adityanath from entering West Bengal, UP CM dodged all the impediments and finally arrived at Purulia, West Bengal on road from Bokaro to address a rally on Tuesday. A sea of a crowd had gathered to listen to Yogi Adityanath who spoke about the pervasive violence in West Bengal and urged the people to vote her out.

However, according to ABP Ananda, Kartik Ghorai, on his way back, had sensed trouble and called up his friend, Subir Ghosh, informing him that two vehicles were following his bike and calling out his name threatening to kill him. Soon after, he went missing, confirmed his friends, who later lodged a missing complaint at Balarampur police station.


Speaking to MyNation, family members of the VHP leader have confirmed the incident. His son, who is barely eight years old, said, “I don’t know where he has gone. He told me he will be back and even promised to take me out this morning to buy books for my school. But so far, he hasn’t returned.”

BJP leader, Chandra Kumar Bose said, “This is serious. People are picked up, they go missing, they are found dead, it’s dangerous. We have spoken to home minister Rajnath Singh about the law and order situation. Leaders may get security cover, but what about our cadres? They feel threatened.

This is not the first time, though, that a BJP worker has been targetted in West Bengal. Previously also, the TMC workers, who remain hostile towards the BJP party, have been responsible for assaulting them.

Acts of savageness due to extreme animosity have become common in West Bengal under the TMC supremacy. BJP workers have in the past few months, succumbed to a string of brutal political murders and political rapes.

Last year, Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar, both BJP workers, were found in two villages of Purulia on May 31 and June 2. While Mahato’s body was hanging from a tree, that of Kumar was hanging from a high tension electric pole. Both Mahato and Dulal Kumar had gone missing from the same Balrampur area and were found murdered later.

BJP had gained considerable support in Purulia during the panchayat elections.

Dharmaraj Hazra, another BJP worker who was murdered in July 2018, with his body found floating in a lake in Murshidabad district was the third such incident in a span of a month.

It was reported last month that a lady had been brutally gang-raped by four men in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district for being the wife of a BJP worker.

Apart from resorting to such heinous crimes, the TMC goons have also been regularly reported attacking BJP worker’s, vandalising BJP offices etc. Recently, in a scuffle which broke out between the TMC cadres and BJP workers, ahead of PM Modi’s rally in West Bengal’s Durgapur on February 2, the TMC goons had reportedly assaulted a BJP worker while replacing PM Modi’s posters with Mamata Banerjee’s posters.

A bad, sexist joke is still fine, Shatrughan Sinha, but you came up with a bad example

OpIndia Staff
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A bad, sexist joke is still fine, Shatrughan Sinha, but you came up with a bad example

Last night, at a book launch, rebel BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha took a jibe at #MeToo movement which took the nation by storm where many men in the powerful position were called out by women for allegedly being sexual predators.


Sinha cracked a sexist joke saying that in the era of ‘#MeToo’, there is no hesitation in saying that behind every successful man’s fall also there is a woman. As if the sexist joke which in a sly manner blames women for calling our their sexual predators which led to ‘downfall of successful men’, Sinha went ahead and added “I think I have been fortunate that despite doing all that I did, my name hasn’t popped up in the #MeToo”

You see, sexist, bad joke in poor taste is not as problematic as the second part of his statement is. What exactly has Sinha done that he is glad that despite doing ‘all that he did’, his name has not popped up in the #MeToo movement? It would be a little strange and weird to say that when the implications of what you say almost make it come across as ‘confessional’. It is like saying ‘I am slimy, but no one has caught me yet, heh heh heh.’

Sinha then followed it up with saying that he was just joking and his comment should be taken with a ‘plain sense of humour’.

Except, it doesn’t really come across as a joke. Earlier, too, Sinha had defended Saroj Khan’s sexist views on casting couch by saying that the concept of ‘you please me, I’ll please you’ has been happening since time immemorial.

Having said that, Sinha’s ‘joke’ however bad and sexist it was, is still fine. But the example he came to explain it was bizarre to say the least. The #MeToo movement has brought down with itself many names in the film and media industry, like Sajid Khan, Vikas Bahl, singer Kailash Kher and journalists like Vinod Dua and union minister MJ Akbar.

Sinha’s ‘joke’ is an example of the old adage which goes like, if you have nothing to say, say nothing at all.

Winner of Nobel Prize in Economics rubbishes ThePrint report about him helping Rahul Gandhi on election promises

OpIndia Staff
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Winner of Nobel Prize in Economics rubbishes ThePrint report about him helping Rahul Gandhi on election promises

Nobel laureate Angus Deaton has denied Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint’s report which claimed that he is helping Congress shape the minimum income scheme.

ThePrint article claiming Angus is helping Congress

On 31st January, ThePrint ran a report by one D. K. Singh who claimed that Angus Deaton, a British economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015 along with French economist Thomas Piketty are advising the Congress on its minimum income guarantee program.

ThePrint states that according to party leaders, the party reached out to the two economists since Rahul Gandhi had “studied their work”. However, when OpIndia reached out to Deaton, he denied being associated with Congress or Rahul Gandhi.

Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton denying helping Congress

In a one-line email, Deaton said that he has had no contact with Congress on this or anything else. The French economist Thomas Piketty, however, did confirm “exchanging with Congress about how much it would cost and how to implement this”. He added that “it is high time to move from the politics of caste conflict to the politics of income and wealth redistribution.”

Thus, Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint ran a story without confirming or verifying independently with the Nobel laureate and based it on what Congress leaders fed the journalist.

Last week, media reports had surfaced which claimed that it was Congress leaders who had ‘planted’ a story of Army coup back in 2011-2012 to defame the Indian Army. The Sunday Guardian quoted an Intelligence Bureau officer saying that no coup attempt was undertaken.

The report states, “The top leadership of the UPA 2 government, in the last few months of 2011 and early 2012, had informally indicated to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to try and establish that the Army, under its then chief, General V.K. Singh, was attempting a coup to topple the government.” When the IB reported that there was no way V.K. Singh would carry out any coup, “this fiction was “leaked” to the media, which carried the story as was narrated to it by the political leadership, which also included a leader who occupied a top Constitutional post later in his career.”

The ‘Army coup’ story in the report was written and published by Shekhar Gupta in the English Daily, Indian Express, when Gupta was the Editor.

Indian Express archived story on the ‘coup’

Planting stories is as old as journalism. However, a senior journalist like Gupta should have known better when such a ‘plant’ involves the Indian Army. OpIndia reached out to Gupta for his comment on the allegations on such ‘leaked’ story on the army coup which he had carried on the front page as an editor of one of India’s leading national daily. Gupta has not replied by the time the report is published.

We shall update the report if and when he responds.

Siddaramaiah issues second notice to the four ‘rebel’ MLAs who skipped the opening day of budget session

OpIndia Staff
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Siddaramaiah issues second notice to the four ‘rebel’ MLAs who skipped the opening day of budget session

Congress leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has issued a fresh notice to the four rebel MLAs seeking an explanation from them. He had earlier served notices to the four MLAs for failing to attend the CLP meeting on January 18.

Four Congress MLAs in Karnataka namely Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kamitalli, Umesh Jadhav and B Nagendra had skipped the Congress Legislative Party meeting on 18 January where the party had asked all its MLAs to be present after reports of poaching and defections to BJP.

The party had decided to move all its MLAs to a resort in the meeting.

Yesterday, the same four MLAs also failed to show up at the assembly on the first day of the budget session defying the party whip.

In his notice, former CM Siddaramaiah has reportedly asked the absconding MLAs to respond before or after the assembly session.

However, Congress is apparently unaffected by the MLAs skipping the opening budget session, at least this is what Congress leader D K Shivakumar portrayed when asked whether Congress is worried about BJP moving a no-confidence motion following the defiance of party’s directives by the four MLAs. “Let them try”, Shivakumar said. Shivakumar, on the contrary, attacked the BJP for boycotting the Governor’s speech earlier in the day.

The BJP had shouted slogans in the Karnataka assembly during Governor Vajubhai Vala’s speech. The party MLAs shouted, “Governor go back” in the assembly. The protesting MLAs alleged that the Congress-JD(S) government does not have a majority in the house.

BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa defended the protests by saying, “No development is going on in the state. There is infighting within the cabinet. That is why we boycotted Governor’s speech.” He even denied that the party was going to move a no-confidence motion in against the Kumaraswamy government. “We are not going to move a no-confidence motion. We are waiting and observing everything”, Yeddyurappa said.

However, Siddramaiah said that there is no problem in the government. “The situation is not like it is being portrayed in the media. Notice has been served to all four MLAs (Ramesh Jarakiholi, Mahesh Kamatihalli, B Nagendra and Umesh Jadhav). There is no problem to the government”, Siddaramaiah said.

He added that three of the four MLAs have responded to his notice and only Umesh  Jadhav is yet to respond.

The Congress has 80 MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka assembly. With the alliance with JDS being always threatened by reports of rift and power struggle, Congress has maintained that they are in control of the situation and the alliance still holds a majority in the assembly.

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