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‘Intolerance gang’ is now officially terrified of dissent of the ‘amateurs’

Abhishek Banerjee
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‘Intolerance gang’ is now officially terrified of dissent of the ‘amateurs’
First they ignore you...
The mainstream media vs the social media?

This quote from the Mahatma is forever so relevant that the only way it could have been more awesome is if Gandhiji had actually said it.

Think back to the golden days of UPA 1. The ecosystem was thriving (well, it still is, barring minor inconveniences). Intellectuals, filmmakers, journalists, academics, etc. all flocked to the fountainhead in Lutyens Delhi. Money, fame, awards and deals for everyone!

Amid the glitz, the glamour and the glare, the intoxicated party animals did not notice that the ground beneath their feet was shifting.

India was changing. Small isolated voices of dissent were springing up over this new thing called the internet. These voices belonged to regular people who were itching for an outlet for their views. These people wanted to challenge the dominant discourse.

But each of these voices was very small, with not enough influence to justify a buyout from Lutyens’ Delhi. The UPA classes had all the power and all the privileges; they had their Padma decorated soldiers posted at every checkpoint on the information highway, from media to universities. What could possibly go wrong?

Could a handful of angry voices really hurt a dominant ecosystem? As a “technology demonstrator”, a prominent TV anchor once sued a poor blogger for exposing her shoddy reporting. The helpless blogger had to retreat immediately. The UPA classes were happy. No threat. These people could be shut down at will.

Meanwhile, the potential of the internet was still unfolding. The once solitary voices were all seeking out and finding each other, interacting and multiplying in strength. What used to be a dull buzz had become a clamor.

The bosses observed these developments with some irritation, but they were still not sure if they needed to go for an attack. They had all the power and all the money and it was easy to laugh off the new guys.



It was easy to ridicule the new guys as some kind of curious but ultimately dumb zoo animals, a few steps below rational humanity in the evolutionary ladder.

Ram Gua's tirade against the independent internet voices
Those who were sitting on the UPA’s gravy train were wondering : who is milking this cow? Who indeed?

Then came the fateful nine months between September 2013 and May 2014. The unimaginable unfolded before their very eyes. For the entrenched classes, this was SPARTA! They knew they had to fight. The “Right Wing Troll” was now Lutyens’ Enemy Number One!

From a variety of newly established and well funded online platforms, the war on the online right wing began. The same scroll of liberal talking points was wired across all platforms to be printed everywhere on the internet.

The aim was to make sure that daily opinions of liberals would be the first to be posted on social media. Keyboard journalism entered a golden phase as all liberal hands were summoned to deck.

Except it simply isn’t working. A bunch of amateurs volunteering their free time is beating the professional liberals hands down. It’s unfair to even refer to the online RW as part-timers, they are probably best described as “hobbyists”.

Let me repeat this: professional liberals are working full time fighting some amateurs and hobbyists for a living. And they are still losing. Says something truly pitiable about intellectuals and journalists, no?

For the lutyen’s liberals, it was not just all hands on deck. They had to go lower. Shoddy pamphlets on right wing social media “trolls” were printed by the Dirty Tricks Department. Can you believe that “revelations” contained in these pamphlets were debated on prime-time television when they came out?

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The nadir was reached yesterday when Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien presented what he considered his “best speech”. No really:

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In this Rajya Sabha speech, Derek O’ Brien made 3 specific claims about twitter handles @bhak_sala and @MahaveerM_  (among other accusations of making rape threats and communal threats against unnamed pro-RW twitter handles):

  1. They have been suspended by Twitter.
  2. These are paid handles.
  3. They have been invited to the Prime Minister’s residence.

You know, we in India have a tendency to outrage against the “VIP culture”. By “VIP culture”, we generally mean stuff like red beacon cars and security exemptions at the airport and so on and so forth. Granted that these things suck and give us a sense of unfairness.

But what is much worse is the parliamentary privilege that allows politicians like Derek O’ Brien to make any allegation they want without providing evidence. We the people enjoy no such protection. When we ordinary people say anything, we are stepping into a maze of defamation laws, laws against hurting religious sentiments, laws against insulting women, laws against divisive speech and so on.

Any one of these can be invoked conveniently to silence us. As one blogger famously found out, you will get sued. You will be crushed.

Nevertheless, I see Derek’s speech as a victory for the online Right Wing. The professional left is officially terrified of the speech of amateurs. They said “feedback welcome”. Hopefully, they meant it.

TMC MP defames Twitter users in parliament, Twitterati demand apology

OpIndia Staff
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TMC MP defames Twitter users in parliament, Twitterati demand apology

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, who some years ago was in the business of asking questions and demanding answers from school kids, yesterday made childish accusations against some Twitter users, including against OpIndia co-founder Rahul Raj, accusing them of issuing criminal threats to other people while being followed by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

Lowering down the dignity of the house, Derek quoted a propaganda material written by an abusive troll that ironically terms some Twitter users as trolls. This is akin to an MP quoting a pamphlet printed by ISIS to claim that Barack Obama was a terrorist. What next? An MP quoting a WhatsApp forward to make a point?

Unfortunately, while the politicians defend their own ilk and insist on quoting cogent materials in the house when one of their own is targeted, Derek was able to get away after quoting unreliable propaganda material to target private citizens. However, outside the house, on Twitter, he was nailed for his lies.

Among the first one to confront him was Rahul Raj himself, who exposed the lies of Derek:



It was a clear case of intimidation of voices that don’t agree with the politics of likes of Derek. People could see the agenda of this “ecosystem” that is powerful as ever.


What made matters worse, was that the issue was raised in the parliament where those accused were not present to defend themselves. The constitution virtually allows the MPs the freedom to malign ordinary citizens as they can not be dragged to courts for their deeds and statements issued on the floor of the house.


Shocked at this behaviour of an unelected member of the parliament, people demanded that he should tender an apology for his defamatory remarks.


Over 1400 people had already signed the petition demanding an apology from Derek O’Brien at the time this report was published.

And as it happens on Twitter, other users took to sarcasm and humour to drill some sense in thick head of the TMC MP, who had earlier thought that PM Modi was planning an army coup in West Bengal, and others supporting his lies:

Why the Union Budget 2017 did not have any big bang announcements

Gaurav
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Why the Union Budget 2017 did not have any big bang announcements

We saw the first Union Budget which was preponed by a month to February 1. It was also the first budget after the demonetisation exercise, which caused hardship to the common man, killed a large portion of the black currency economy. Further, it was the budget just before 5 states went to elections, most notably being Uttar Pradesh, which had virtually single-handedly ensured that BJP would get an absolute majority in 2014, by giving BJP more than 70 MPs. Understandably expectations were high.

By now PM Narendra Modi and his Government have earned the reputation of being capable of doing the unthinkable. The surgical strikes on Pakistan and the massive demonetisation exercise have lead people to believe that this Government can take daring decisions. Such feelings made people believe in ridiculous rumours during demonetisation, including that the Rs 2000 note had a chip in it, and that bank lockers would be targeted next. Such a reputation also gives rise to massive expectations, especially from the Union Budget.

In the exercise of building expectations, the media too plays its part. The Economic Times had published what they thought would be the tax rates. The Indian Express confidently reported that Service Tax would be hiked to 16-18%. Bloomberg Quint claimed that “The Tax Changes In Budget 2017 Are An Open Secret”. The Economic Times also mooted the idea that the Universal Basic Income Scheme has gained currency.

Eventually Budget 2017 did not bring in any of the above changes, some of which were quite radical.

In fact, as our columnist Aashish Chandorkar rightly pointed out, the budget belied expectations:

The Union Budget 2017-18 was primed to be explosive – income tax cuts, banking transaction tax, securities transactions tax, long term capital gains tax, universal basic income, demonetization windfall – there was a whole bunch of things discussed, proposed, and speculated. And now, eventually all junked.

The nation – supporters of the government and the detractors alike – waited with a bated breath assuming Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will deliver a Dabangg budget – a Salman Khan at his caring, scheming, and edgy best. Instead, Mr. Jaitley has delivered a safe, defensive, conservative, and a wait and watch budget which gives a Hum Saath Saath Hain feel – a mild, please most, annoy least Salman Khan of the Rajashree Productions version.

One of the reasons, why the Finance Minister may have opted for an almost muted, incremental budget could be the fact that this budget is uniquely placed in between 2 storms which the Indian economy has faced/will face.

The first storm is over. Demonetisation impacted practically all businesses and even the common man. While the impact has not been as negative as expected in some sectors, certain other sectors may have still seen some pain, and may even still be recovering from the shock. It is not good logic to give more shocks to a person recovering from a major one. The Union Budget 2017 ensured that.

The second storm is yet to come. Goods and Services Tax, which will replace a host of indirect taxes and bring a totally new regime of taxation in India, is primed to be introduced in the coming months. It may get delayed by a few months but it is certain to come within the next 6 months or so. If you thought demonetisation was bad for the informal or cash economy, then GST will be worse.

Even the regulated sector will have to redraw their entire business plan due to GST. Entire supply chains will have to be reworked. Past business decisions will no longer seem to be right. It will be a major disruptor, the impact of which could be felt for 6 months to even a year.

It is possible that the Finance Minister has sensed this and has decided to step of the pedal for Budget 2017, which saw some high level tinkering, some incremental reforms, so small adjustments in the direction which the budget has already been given, and no major big bang moves.

If the stock markets are to be considered to be an indicator, in spite of this “low-key” budget, the markets reacted positively to this budget, with the Sensex shooting up by 486 point on the budget day. One major reason for this spurt is certainly the fact that the budget did have much shocks i.e. many of the fears floating around did not materialise e.g. levies on capital gains did not occur, no tax exemption withdrawals for indirect capital gains of foreign portfolio investors, service tax was not increased to 18%. Sure there were many positives too, but the lack of any radical game-altering negatives also played a part.

Political analysts would see the budget as a missed opportunity to shower poll bound states with goodies, but it appears the people in the Government have decided to not take the populist route, instead focus on fiscal discipline and step-by-step reform. To quote Aashish Chandorkar once again, “Mr. Jaitley batted through the 30thto 35th over milking the opposition”.

This only makes us wonder, will the next budget be one of the slog overs?

Media baron Subhash Chandra drops a bombshell about Arvind Kejriwal

OpIndia Staff
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Media baron Subhash Chandra drops a bombshell about Arvind Kejriwal

Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Subhash Chandra, who is also the Chairman of Essel Group that owns and operates various businesses in the media sector as Zee Group, yesterday revealed a few unknown things about AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Dr. Chandra was interacting with some students at Kanya Maha Vidyalaya in Jalandhar, Punjab.

When asked about his views on the government led by Kejriwal, he went on to reveal his old association with the Delhi Chief Minister. He started by talking about how Kejriwal was once his prodigy and how he extended all possible help, including financial, to Kejriwal from around 2004 to 2014. Dr. Chandra said that he was instrumental in bringing people like Soli Sorabjee and Aamir Khan to Kejriwal.

He also talked about Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal’s aide and Deputy CM of Delhi, who once worked as Zee News reporter before getting into activism. According to Dr. Chandra, Kejriwal requested him (Subhash Chandra) in 2002 to allow Sisodia to work for him for a few years and Chandra agreed. Sisodia wasn’t sure about his future in politics and had conveyed to Dr. Chandra that he wanted to return to his media job if things didn’t turn out right.

Sisodia came for full and final settlement with Zee News only in 2013, Dr. Chandra revealed, i.e. when AAP had been formed and was receiving support from various sections of the public and the mainstream media. AAP went on to form government in Delhi subsequently, twice.

After asserting how closely he was associated with Kejriwal and his team, he dropped his bombshell:

He said that they (Kejriwal and Sisodia) cannot be trusted, neither in case of women (the program he was addressing was about the role of women in nation building) or poor people and that they were the biggest liars he had come across in his 66 years of life.



He asked the people of Punjab not to trust the Aam Aadmi Party or Arvind Kejriwal in the upcoming assembly elections, where AAP is hopeful of forming the government.

Dr. Chandra, however, conceded that people of Punjab had tough choice as even the ruling BJP-SAD government had failed to protect the people of Punjab from the drug menace. While stating that the incumbent govt isn’t responsible for the drug problem, he put it on record that they did nothing to stop or rectify the problem.

Muslim groups stop school from celebrating Saraswati Puja in West Bengal

OpIndia Staff
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Muslim groups stop school from celebrating Saraswati Puja in West Bengal

Just a month back we had reported about communal tensions that Tehatta High School in Uluberia, West Bengal had witnessed after some students and outsiders had forcibly entered the school premises and celebrated Nabi Diwas (Birthday of Prophet Mohammed). They had also proceeded to vandalize the school property.

Their chief point of protest was that ‘if Saraswati Puja could be celebrated in the school, why not Nabi Diwas?’ The other side contended that Saraswati Puja was an age old tradition where goddess of learning is worshiped in educational institutes. It was more of a cultural celebration than religious (any other Hindu festival isn’t celebrated in govt schools). In our report, we had wondered if:

Now this could open up a Pandora’s Box with Islamic groups all over the state, especially in the areas with considerable Muslim population, demanding such religious celebrations on government school campuses. Not just that, other religious groups may also demand similar provisions to celebrate their festivals on school premises. Or will it lead to Saraswati Puja being banned from government schools to preserve communal harmony?

Well the last line seems to have come true as Saraswati Puja reportedly couldn’t be celebrated in the Tehatta High School.

The school has been forced to close after Muslim groups kept demanding that Nabi Diwas be celebrated officially. After violent protests, the school had earlier agreed to celebrate Prophet’s Birthday, but the permission was denied after state education department directed the school not to hold it. As per reports quoting school officials, almost 10000 people had turned up, set up a stage and made religious speeches in the school premises. This ensued further escalations and the school was indefinitely shut after 29th December.

As the date of Saraswati Puja neared, some students backed by local Muslim leaders demanded to celebrate Nabi Diwas again on 28th Jan. The new headmaster or teacher-in-charge (the last one resigned owing to all the pressure and controversy) begged the Uluberia police to take some preventive steps as the school could see another forcible gathering and protests.

Bengal school sees Hindu-Muslim tussle
Plea by headmaster on 27th January

Following this action by the headmaster, the school property was allegedly vandalized leading to section 144 being imposed in the area.

The district inspector of schools, on 29th Jan, ordered the school to remain shut until further notice, thereby ensuring that the 65 years old tradition of Saraswati Puja celebrations stand cancelled.

Saraswati Puja cancelled in West Bengal school
The “solution” provided by the administration

This prompted the Hindu students and their parents to take to the streets along with a small Saraswati idol. They proceeded to block NH 6 as a protest against the lockdown which would prevent them from celebrating Saraswati puja. The protest though wasn’t without its cost and students got grievously hurt after being allegedly lathi-charged by the police.



With communal tensions rising, the school could remain closed for coming days, which has worried the Class X students as board exams are approaching.

Highlights of the Union Budget, and what’s there for you

Ashutosh Muglikar
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Highlights of the Union Budget, and what’s there for you

Under the UPA regime, we had seen discretionary spending, favouritism, crony capitalism based system that nearly ruined our economy. It was a challenge to pull the economy back after Modi government took charge in 2014, with the government requiring to keep the long term as well as short term needs in mind while budgeting.

This year’s Budget was in itself very unique. Firstly, it was preponed by a month so as to better plan the expenditure in line with monsoon cycle. Secondly, it removed the Plan and Non-Plan expenditure bifurcation. Thirdly, it was a merged budget encompassing the railways as well.

This year the Current Account deficit declined to 0.3% of the GDP from about 1%, the monsoons were good, crop sowing data showed excellent numbers, Foreign Direct Investment grew by about 36% in First half of 2016.

After the “war on black money” aka demonetisation, public was expecting a lot from this budget. So here is how the Finance Minister addressed each sector:

The budget was focused on 10 key aspects which are:

  • Farmers: Government committed to double the income in 5 years;
  • Rural Population: providing employment & basic infrastructure;
  • Youth: energising them through education, skills and jobs;
  • The Poor and the Underprivileged; strengthening the systems of social security, health care and affordable housing;
  • Infrastructure: for efficiency, productivity and quality of life;
  • Financial Sector: growth & stability by stronger institutions;
  • Digital Economy: for speed, accountability and transparency;
  • Public Service: effective governance and efficient service delivery through people’s participation;
  • Prudent Fiscal Management: to ensure optimal deployment of resources and preserve fiscal stability;
  • Tax Administration: honouring the honest.

In this article, we shall cover Farmers, Rural populace, youth and personal Income tax under the budget.

For Farmers

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has targeted agricultural credit in 2017-18 at 10 lakh crores. The Budget also provides for increased coverage under Fasal Bima Yojana scheme from 30% of cropped area in 2016-17 to 40% in 2017-18 and 50% in 2018-19; budgeted 9000 crore for the same.

The FM proposed setting up of new mini labs in Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and ensured 100% coverage of all 648 KVKs in the country for soil sample testing. The long term irrigation fund already set up by NABARD is proposed to be augmented by 100% to take the total corpus of this Fund to 40,000 crores.

The biggest move was setting up of Dedicated Micro Irrigation Fund in NABARD to achieve ‘per drop more crop’ with an initial corpus of 5,000 crores. Coverage of National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) to be expanded from 250 markets to 585 APMCs. This will ensure the farmers have an option to decide when and at what price they can sell their produce.

With a move to formalize agriculture sector and address the problem of “small farms”, the FM proposed a model law on contract farming to be prepared by the Centre and circulated among the States for adoption.

For Rural Folks

The FM set the agenda that the aim of the Government was to bring 1 crore people out of poverty. Probably taking cue from the success of Jal Yukt Shivar scheme in Maharashtra, the budget proposed building 5 lakh farm ponds by March 2018.

The FM allocated 48000 Crores to MNREGA, which is the highest ever till date, and together with the states contribution allocated 27000 crores to rural roads in this budget.

Allocation for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana–Gramin was increased from 15,000 crores in to 23,000 crores in 2017-18 with a target and set a target to complete 1 crore houses by 2019 for the houseless and those living in kutcha houses. Allocation for Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program and Credit Support Schemes was increased three-fold and Narendra Modi’s pet scheme the “Swachchha Bharat Abhiyan” too received considerable attention in this Budget.

This took the total allocation for Rural, Agriculture and Allied sectors is to 187223 crores.

For Youth

Proposal was moved for introducing a system of measuring annual learning outcomes in our schools, however the fine print on this is important. To spur innovation and grass root technology, an Innovation Fund for Secondary Education is proposed to encourage local innovation for ensuring universal access, gender parity and quality improvement in 3479 educationally backward districts of our country.

In a radical move, the FM suggested setting up of National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.

Building on the Skill India scheme, the FM proposed setting up of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras in more than 600 districts across the country and establishment of 100 India International Skills Centres across the country.

To bridge the Demand for skills and supply a Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion programme (SANKALP) is be launched at a cost of 4000 crores. It is estimated that SANKALP will provide market relevant training to 3.5 crore youth and the next phase of Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) will also be launched at a cost of 2,200 crores.

Other sectors for jobs were leather, footwear, textiles and tourism.

For the Poor and the underprivileged

FM proposed setting up of Mahila Shakti Kendra with an allocation of 500 crores in 14 lakh Anganwadi Centres. Government has taken up fighting diseases like Measles, TB, Leprosy etc.

Affordable housing has been given infrastructure status which should technically enable them to tax breaks etc.

With the bulk of our labour in rural areas the government has taken up the task of legislative reforms to simplify, rationalise and amalgamate the existing labour laws into 4 Codes on (i) wages, (ii) industrial relations, (iii) social security and welfare, and (iv) safety and working conditions. This will surely benefit the Employers and employees.

For Personal Income Tax

The existing rate of taxation for individual assesses between income of 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs was reduced to 5% from the present rate of 10%.

To compensate the loss of revenue to the state the FM proposed a Surcharge of 10% of tax payable on categories of individuals whose annual taxable income is between 50 lakhs and 1 crore.

This effectively means that INR 12,500 relief was provided to those earning more than INR 5 lacs. Post demonetization the honest tax payers were expecting much more than this from the Government.

To rationalize the tax filing procedure the FM introduced Simple one-page form to be filed as Income Tax Return for the category of individuals having taxable income up to 5 lakhs other than business income.

Budget 2017: Nation waited for Dabangg, Jaitley said Hum Saath Saath Hain

Aashish Chandorkar
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Budget 2017: Nation waited for Dabangg, Jaitley said Hum Saath Saath Hain

The Union Budget 2017-18 was primed to be explosive – income tax cuts, banking transaction tax, securities transactions tax, long term capital gains tax, universal basic income, demonetization windfall – there was a whole bunch of things discussed, proposed, and speculated. And now, eventually all junked.

The nation – supporters of the government and the detractors alike – waited with a bated breath assuming Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will deliver a Dabangg budget – a Salman Khan at his caring, scheming, and edgy best. Instead, Mr. Jaitley has delivered a safe, defensive, conservative, and a wait and watch budget which gives a Hum Saath Saath Hain feel – a mild, please most, annoy least Salman Khan of the Rajashree Productions version.

What’s negative or unimaginative is the obvious. There is nothing much for the poll-bound states. That’s already a budget made for poor politics – good judgment has little space in governance anyway! The announcements of December 31st and the income tax cuts likely to benefit the lower middle class income tax payers are the only arsenal the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to take to the voters.

There is no demonetisation linked new stimulus, though a lot of the extra capex and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will be targeted as a counter. But the political space on the issue was ceded by not creating labels and buckets with direct links.

Also, the government decided to play it completely safe. Perhaps waiting for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) disruption, the government stuck to making top level announcements, creating few new schemes and presented an incremental view to consolidate. If this was a one day international game, Mr. Jaitley batted through the 30th to 35th over milking the opposition – to use a Ravi Shastri analogy.

On the macro-economic front, the government decided to continue on the path of fiscal consolidation. Fiscal deficit of 3.2% next year, revenue deficit of 1.9% and future promise of achieving 3% fiscal deficit should please the India focused economists from Mumbai. The Foreign Portfolio Investors got their clarity on the taxation on securities traded outside India – this should minimize the op-ed noise which was very loud in December. The allocations for the states will further go up this year, a welcome step.

The thrust on rural and agricultural spending is the big story. The MGNREGA allocation will be a record 48,000 cr. The emphasis will be on specific assets and not just on wage payments. This is a huge commitment, and it is quite possible MGNREGA morphs into a universal basic income (UBI) over the next few years, where universe implies rural universe.

Increased allocations for rural roads and affordable housing with relaxed norms for what constitutes affordable outside is aimed at boosting construction activity in the hinterland. There were announcements around making drinking water safer, linking upgrade in rural drinking water infrastructure to sanitation and creating a gram panchayat level tracking and monitoring index. The actual policy and implementation should make for interesting reading in this space.

Boost for jobs specifically was limited to announcements around packages in textiles and leather and footwear industries. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras will be extended to 600 districts and this should see more private participation for skilling youth.  There were some announcements on a National Testing Agency, new medical seats and investments in digital platforms for learning.

The indication on treating transportation as one big subject was a positive. The 2.41L cr allocation across railways, roads, inland waterways and civil aviation was perhaps stated for the first time as an integrated number. If this leads to more coordination and lesser bureaucracy over the next few years, it will be a great move.

There were no fancy announcements on railways or metro trains and no cut down of expenditure on roads – the focus continues to be on creating new infrastructure, boosting core sectors and chasing the revival of the illusive investment cycle. Creating a fund for railway safety is a good idea. Focus on BharatNet with a more realistic target of connecting 150,000 gram panchayats on the broadband network should be welcome – this target can well be achieved realistically given the resources and expertise available.

The government stressed on the probity plank via a new mechanism to fund political funding. Electoral bonds with anonymous investments will be launched and cash donations for political parties over Rs 2,000 will be deemed illegal. The intent to act against issuers of bounced cheques is a good statement to make. Not allowing cash transactions over Rs 3,00,000 is a good idea, though that limit needs to progressively come down.

There are a few new thoughts – targeted spend to counter deadly diseases, a new pilot for Aadhar linked health record for senior citizens, abolishing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), land monetization to develop smaller airports, low noise divestment through Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) exchange traded funds (ETFs), two new strategic crude reserves, enhanced defense spending, forward markets in agriculture integrating the Electronic National Agriculture Market, listing Railways CPSEs and doubling MUDRA covered lending.

The direct tax changes are obviously helpful but only a small step. Small firms paying less tax and earners less than Rs 5,00,000 annual income paying less tax are both great steps. Offsetting the tax revenue loss through penalizing those earning more than Rs 50,00,000 is a terrible idea, but then with hardly a million or two tax filers in that category, there is almost no political impact of such bad decisions. Perhaps before the next election, the government may want to co-opt the rich, but given how moneymaking is treated in India, no one should bet anything on it!

Structurally, killing the railway budget, the plan and the non plan classification, and allowing the budget allocations to be used before the monsoon onset by bringing the budget presentation forward are good themes. Hopefully another government will not undo any of these.

The TV channels hunting TRPs, newspapers waiting for streamers, and opposition waiting to label government as profligate and big-talking will be disappointed. Those looking at the budget as a vehicle to genuinely overhaul social problems – healthcare and education and to name two – will be disappointed as well.

This is an apolitical, conservative and a defensive budget. It reduces the importance of budget in the general policy making which in itself is not a bad thing as long as legislative action continues. Will it?

Rajdeep Sardesai tries to create sensation before budget, falls hopelessly

Rahul Raj
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Rajdeep Sardesai tries to create sensation before budget, falls hopelessly

Union Budget 2017 got into controversies much before it was presented. The government had advanced the session by a month citing that the move will make the process efficient. The objective was to move the Budget exercise early so that all ministries, government-owned entities, and others concerned get their sanctioned amount before April 1. Coincidentally, during the initials months of the year, the nation will also witness elections in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. This has led to resentment in opposition parties which have been arguing that budget may give unfair advantage to BJP in all these states. The opposition wrote to President and Chief Election Commissioner, however, the dates remained unchanged.

Today, while the date controversy was still into the air, E. Ahamed, an IUML parliamentarian from Kerala passed away.  Mr. Ahamed suffered a cardiac arrest during the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament on On 31 January 2017. This created buzz in media to start discussions on possibilities of delay and adjournment of the budget session. However, like always, Rajdeep Sardesai surpassed people’s expectation,

At 7:21 in the morning, Rajdeep was ready with his narrative.


Within some time, he also broke the news that union budget will be postponed by a day.

People have tasted this kind of sensational journalism by Rajdeep in the past.  Rajdeep is not a journalist who carry a great reputation among his peers. When senior journalists started questioning his hurried conclusions, he deleted this tweet.


Meanwhile Rajdeep was doing more interesting things on Television. When I switched to India Today, I saw Rajdeep asking his panelists, ‘An MP has passed away. Will it not be insensitive to present the budget today?’ Within next 30 minutes I heard him using the word insensitive more than 10-15 times. By 10, Rajdeep had a fair idea that Budget is not going to be postponed. Scared to face public humiliation, he started playing with words. ‘If the budget is not postponed by a day, it will certainly be postponed by a few hours,’ asked the clueless Rajdeep.

After seeing that he is still on a slippery wicket, Rajdeep changed his gears to anti-BJP stance. He called a BJP spokesperson and asked him to agree that government is under pressure. Then he called a NCP leader to ask whether the budget session should be delayed by a day or not. During the same time, he was smartly digressing from the core discussion by questioning the intent to have an early budget during an election season. The panelists on his show looked perplexed because Rajdeep was mixing incoherent arguments to create illogical narratives. When the panelists told him that never before the date of budget is shifted, the clueless Rajdeep started talking about possibility of setting new tradition. During the same time, he also talked about ire of opposition which BJP will have to face due to insensitivity.

I couldn’t tolerate it more, so I changed the channel. Later when I checked twitter, Sardesai was preaching opposition and trolls.

ISIS slogans warning of attacks on Nepal and Modi found in Army area in Himachal

OpIndia Staff
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ISIS slogans warning of attacks on Nepal and Modi found in Army area in Himachal

Local administration and police in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh are investigating the case of ISIS slogans being written at various places in an army cantonment area. These slogans warn that ISIS will carry out blasts in Nepal as well as locally in India.

The slogans were discovered by local residents living around the cantonment area in Subathu, Dharampur, where earlier this month a Hindu temple was defaced with similar slogans about the terrorist group.

Unlike in the case of temple defacement, when stencils were used to print the slogans, this time slogans on walls and posters are handwritten. The slogans have been written in Hindi, English and Urdu.

The slogans warn that from Subathu to Nepal – which is at around 700 kilometres away – 3 blasts will be carried out. The language used in the posters is patchy, and it appears to be warning that electronic items like TV, computer, washing machine will be used to carry out these attacks:

ISIS poster in Himachal
Handwritten poster warning about ISIS attacks in Nepal and India

Along with the posters warning such attacks, the slogans on walls also hint that Prime Minister Modi will be another target of the attacks by the ISIS:

ISIS targets Modi
Narendra Modi too have been mentioned in the ISIS supporting slogans

Reports suggest that such posters and slogans have been put up at various places in the area including post office, local shops, at a park, and a toll barrier – all of which are in the vicinity of the cantonment area. An ISIS flag too is reported to have been recovered.

The development has once again alerted the local administration and police, which is still to crack the temple defacement case. With the latest incident happening in an army area, army too has decided to increase patrolling and install cameras for monitoring the situation.

An ISIS agent was arrested from Himachal last month, and now these two incidents of ‘ISIS coming soon’ slogans appearing in the same month in the same district has made people wonder if the terror organisation has created a network in the state that is increasingly becoming emboldened.

The Tax Department’s squeeze after Demonetisation is here: Watch out

OpIndia Staff
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The Tax Department’s squeeze after Demonetisation is here: Watch out

In early December 2016, we had published this report titled “THIS is why so many money launderers are getting caught. And it will only get worse”. An excerpt from there is as below:

We are right now in a dynamic situation since the window till 30th December to deposit old notes is still open. Banks are still accepting old notes and data is being generated even as we speak. Come January or February, all this data will be frozen and will be a gold-mine for analysts.

Any dormant account suddenly being triggered (egs: shell or dormant companies being used to launder cash) or any account which usually has lower volumes, or any newly opened accounts showing sudden increase, or any accounts showing a deposit and an instant transfer or withdrawal, all these anomalies will be crystal clear from the data of the banks. It would be only a matter of time before sleuths begin identifying and investigating the parties concerned.

And finally, that time has come. If the number of raids during the demonetisation period shocked you, the number of people under the net now will astound you. The Finance Ministry today announced that they had launched Operation Clean Money (Swacch Dhan Abhiyan).

The Ministry further stated that they are only in the “initial phase of the operation”, which basically involves e-verification of large cash deposits made during 9th Nov to 30th Dec 2016. The Ministry explained that data analytics has been used for comparing the demonetisation data with information in Income Tax Department (ITD) databases. This basically means comparing the deposits in banks with the general profile of that specific person, to ascertain whether the volume of cash deposits is commensurate with the person’s profile.

The Ministry further informed that in only the “first batch”, about 18 lakh persons have been identified in whose case, cash transactions don’t appear to be in line with the tax payer’s profile. This means as of now, 18 lakh persons have been picked up for preliminary enquiry based on the first batch of analysis.

This may give rise to fears of tax terrorism, but the Ministry further informed that the Income Tax Department has enabled online verification of these transactions to reduce compliance cost for the taxpayers while optimising its resources. The taxpayer will be able to submit online explanation without any need to visit Income Tax office.

Email and SMS will also be sent to the taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing portal. A detailed user guide and quick reference guide is also available on the portal. Data analytics will be used to select cases for verification, based on approved risk criteria.  If the case is selected for verification, request for additional information and its response will also be communicated electronically. The information on the online portal will be dynamic getting updated on receipt of new information, response and data analytics.

Such a mechanism is already in place in the Income Tax Department’s site, where people are traced on the basis of TDS filings, and online responses are sought. In most of the cases the matter gets cleared up without any personal interaction with the person. If this new mechanism is based on similar principles then it would be a welcome relief to the honest tax payers who have been inadvertently picked up for checking in the above pool of 18 lakh assessees.

All said and done, this is just the beginning, as is indicated by the Finance Ministry. There are many more checks and balances left to be explored which can bring even more suspected crooks under the spotlight.

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