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Is the JD(U) now heading towards an internal war?

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Is the JD(U) now heading towards an internal war?

On 26th July, Bihar CM and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar shocked Lalu’s RJD and the Congress party by walking out of the Mahagathbandhan and announcing that his party would be forming the government with the help of estranged alliance partner BJP.

This was met with a lot of hostility by Lalu and the Congress, who cried betrayal, even though they had welcomed Nitish breaking his alliance with BJP in 2013. However, soon it became clear that the opposition to this political manoeuvre was both external and internal to JD(U).

On the morning of 27th, the first voices of dissent in the form of Bihar JD(U) MP Anwar Ali were heard. Ali was quoted as saying that his conscience does not allow him to support Nitish Kumar’s alliance with the BJP. Later in the day it was reported that former party chief Sharad Yadav had a meeting with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi. Yadav, who had said precariously little about Nitish’s move, finally broke his silence a few days later by openly calling the decision ‘unfortunate’ and further stating that he did not agree with it.

People might have speculated that such disagreements within the party would be soon taken care of, but now it seems that the situation had actually worsened as the days have gone by.

Yesterday we had reported how Sharad Yadav had openly supported the Congress while it was peddling its “biggest scam of the century” theory, which was later busted in minutes by alert Twitter users. But incidents later in the day have now given a glimpse into the true power tussle that might be going on inside the JD(U).

The Rajya Sabha election that saw Ahmed Patel retaining his seat by scraping through had a glimpse of internal fight of JD(U). It was reported that Chhotubhai Vasava, who is the JD(U) MLA from Gujarat, had openly admitted on live TV to have voted for Ahmed Patel even though the JD(U) had issued a whip to the contrary.

It was later reported that as a result of the Gujarat fiasco, the JD(U) sacked its General Secretary Arun Shrivastav, who is considered close to Sharad Yadav not just for anti-party activities and breach of discipline, but also for treachery. Shrivastava supposedly had written to the Returning Officer of the Gujarat Assembly for appointing an election agent even though Nitish Kumar written to the same officer to only authorise party leader KC Tyagi to make such an appointment.

Things have refused to die down in this Rajya Sabha saga as Sharad Yadav has now, apart from congratulating Ahmed Patel, also backed Chhotubhai Vasava who voted for him. The report also claimed that Yadav is considering launching his own party and is going to call a meeting of like minded people on August 17 to ascertain his future course of action.

If all this drama wasn’t enough, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is now trying to insert himself into the scheme of things by alleging that Nitish Kumar has planned an attack on Sharad Yadav. Or did he spill the beans about an attack that might be carried out to generate sympathy?

It remains to be seen whether Janta Dal ‘United’ actually manages to stay united in the coming days.

Indian Express writes misleading headline with Chinese propaganda

Nirwa Mehta
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Indian Express writes misleading headline with Chinese propaganda

Military standoff at Doklam with China has been on since 16th June, ever since China accused India of trespassing and preventing its soldiers from building a road in a territory that China says is its own, but which actually belongs to Bhutan. Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, too has spoken on the issue in Parliament where she said that war was not the solution.

Amidst all this, yesterday The Indian Express published an article, which said that an “official” has claimed that Bhutan acknowledges Doklam as Chinese territory:


So did Bhutan give up claim on its own territory? Does it leave India appear as an aggressor to the rest of the world? Wasn’t it a major and massive development?

Except that there were numerous problems. First, the report itself said that it was ‘stunning but unsubstantiated’ claim:


The article opens with “In a stunning -but unsubstantiated-claim, a senior Chinese official said today that Bhutan has acknowledged that the Doklam area where the Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a standoff does not belong to it.”

Nothing like an atrocious ‘stunning but unsubstantiated’ claim published in a national daily to ensure peace at the border. (PS: my stunning -but unsubstantiated- claim for today is that I glow in the dark)

Pretty soon, Pakistanis on Twitter picked it up and were quick to gloat:


A popular internet forum supporting Pakistan Army too shared the report

Not only that, national Spokesperson for Congress, Sanjay Jha also “liked” this tweet:


This raises eyebrows as recently, after a series of denial, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi had accepted he had met Chinese delegates in secrecy and was even slammed by Sushma Swaraj for the same.

The other problem, apart from it being ‘stunning but unsubstantiated’ claim, was that Indian Express headline made it sound as if some “official” from Bhutan had said it, for it said “Bhutan acknowledges…”.

But the truth was that it was claimed so by a Chinese official, which most probably was a part of their propaganda based on lies or half-truths.

This too was spotted by alert Twitter users, who slammed Indian Express for their headline:


//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFollowing all the outrage and slamming, The Indian Express has finally added the word “Chinese” before official in the article, though it still remains a mystery why they needed to give space to a ‘stunning but unsubstantiated’ claim that furthered a Chinese propaganda.

Amazon India sends a Bible, even though customer never ordered one

OpIndia Staff
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Amazon India sends a Bible, even though customer never ordered one

People on Twitter were shocked and amused earlier today when a user named Yogini Deshpande shared text messages and images that showed that she was sent a Bible by Amazon, even though no such order was placed by her. She instead had ordered a book titled “JNU Mein Ek Ladki Rahti Thi” but was instead sent a “Balsulabh Sachitra Bible”.

She put out various photos in order to prove her case. One of those was the frequent status update messages that Amazon sends a customer:

Package tracking messages sent by Amazon

As one can see in the above screenshot of the text messages received, she had indeed ordered the JNU book, which was confirmed as being in the process of delivery by Amazon. But once the package was delivered, this is what she found inside:

An illustrated Bible in Hindi targeted at young readers

Strangely, the tags on package claimed that it was a book sent by the same publisher — Hindi Sahitya Sadan — but as one can see in the image below, the book (Bible) is published by another publisher named The Bible Society of India having its office in Bangalore:

An entirely different book published by entirely different publisher was delivered

Some people wondered if Yogini might have received the Bible as a complimentary copy with her originally ordered JNU book, but she clarified that she had received only one book — the illustrated Bible in Hindi — and never received her originally ordered book, even though her order was marked as complete by Amazon.

The incident is bizarre and intriguing as the delivered book has no relationship with what was ordered. We went through the storefront of all the books sold by the seller/publisher named Hindi Sahitya Sadan, and found that the Bible in question wasn’t part of their list of items sold.

However, the following picture shared by Yogini shows that the book was dispatched from Delhi, which is where the office of Hindi Sahitya Sadan is located:

The shipping address is of New Delhi

But why would a Delhi based publisher send an unsolicited book by a Bangalore based publisher, with whom they don’t appear to have any relationship? It led people to wonder if some publishers were sharing addresses of Amazon customers with other publishers, or if it was just a ‘technical error’ on part of Amazon, or if there was an angle of religious proselytism.

Incidentally it isn’t the first time people have had messy experiences with e-commerce websites in India. In the past, reports have claimed how people have received mangoes, stones, and soaps instead of electronic goods that they had ordered.

But interestingly, there have also been allegations in the past about people indulging in religious proselytism via e-commerce websites. According to a US based Amazon user who went by the username Jojoleb, he had received, via Amazon, a messianic missionary book aimed at converting Jews to Christianity. He alleged that the author of the book had bought a targeted mailing list to send the books to those with a Jewish sounding last name.

There have been other instances of unsolicited Bibles being sent for conversion purposes. In 2009, there were reports about the US military in Afghanistan confiscating and later disposing off Bibles written in Afghani languages, which were sent by a US Church to allegedly convert the local citizens.

It remains to be seen what caused this unsolicited Bible to reach Yogini. Amazon has promised to look into the case:


Update: On Twitter, we were informed that there were more cases of people claiming to have received a Bible instead of their regular orders placed on Amazon:


Congress supporting troll followed by Kejriwal spreads fake news about BJP

OpIndia Staff
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Congress supporting troll followed by Kejriwal spreads fake news about BJP

A Twitter user named Abhishek Mishra yesterday shared a “news report” that claimed that the BJP was the 4th most corrupt political party in the world according to some CNN survey. He also sarcastically congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this “big achievement”:

Tweet by the abusive troll

This twitter user, who is followed by none other than Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has about 32,000 twitter followers and calls himself an RTI activist and a YouTuber. But he is better known to most people as a Madhya Pradesh based Congress supporting troll, who in the past has posted obscene and abusive messages on Facebook and Twitter profiles of people.

His record in spreading fake news is consistent. During demonetisation, Kejriwal had shared a fake news spread by this troll and never bothered to clarify even when the fake news was busted. Incidentally, the troll Mishra had then deleted the tweet that was shared by Kejriwal after it became clear that he was spreading a lie.

However, this time the troll has become emboldened and has not deleted his tweet (at the time of writing this report), even though the website that carried the fake news — titled Siasat and claiming to focus on ‘Muslim issues’ — deleted its article after they realised that it was fake news.

The brazenness of the troll was so pronounced that when people asked him for proof regarding the claims (even after the article was taken down), he not only very confidently attacked the BJP, but went on to congratulated a fake news website:


Now as it turns out, the whole CNN survey was indeed fake and fictitious, as has been reported by Dainik Bhaskar newspaper. According to the report, this fake CNN survey was actually part of a viral internet message targeting the BJP, which also contained taunting messages congratulating the Bhakts for this ‘achievement’ by their party.

Bhaskar report reveals that the newspaper talked to the CNN team, which flatly denied that they had carried out any such survey about corrupt political parties where BJP featured.

This fake survey is very similar to another fake survey, which was done by a fake news website that Mishra congratulated above. We had then reported how a fake BBC survey had declared the Congress as one of the most corrupt parties. As it turned out, that survey was actually being spread by Pakistani supporters of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan in order to target Nawaz Sharif’s party and Congress was made a collateral damage in the Pakistani propaganda.

So a fake news, inspired from Pakistani propaganda, used to target BJP, made its way into a news website focusing on Muslim affairs, and was further propagated by a Congress supporting troll, completing the circle of misinformation and lies.

Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls – there is hardly anything to celebrate for Congress

Nirwa Mehta
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Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls – there is hardly anything to celebrate for Congress

The Rajya Sabha polls to elect 3 members from Gujarat state to the Upper House of the Parliament was held yesterday. And following the developments of it, which continued post midnight, was no less than watching a Bollywood potboiler.

However, even before the Rajya Sabha elections came into picture, former BJP rebel leader and currently Congress rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela, who was the leader of opposition in Gujarat Assembly, kept the political developments in the state interesting.

He kept everyone in Congress on tenterhooks by skipping party meetings and organising his own show of strength sabhas and giving tongue-in-cheek statements like “Today I am in Congress, tomorrow, who knows?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVN7f0NwG9M

In the 182 seats, Gujarat Congress held 57 seats as on 27th July. Congress heavyweight Ahmed Patel, also adviser to Congress Vice President Sonia Gandhi, was up for re-election in the Rajya Sabha polls. Patel needed 45 votes to stay in Rajya Sabha and with 57 MLAs, it should have been an easy win. Right?

However, things changed on Shankersingh Vaghela’s birthday on 21st July. On his 77th birthday celebrations, Vaghela quit Congress claiming that the leadership had sacked him. He announced he would revolt and said he could not bear to see injustice happening. He had even claimed Congress was on a “suicidal” path and there is no way he could support that.

Vaghela’s firebrand statements were just the beginning. On 27th July, 3 Congress MLAs quit and joined the BJP, bringing the Congress MLA strength to 54. One of the MLAs to quit this day was Balwantsinh Rajput, then Chief Whip of Congress in Assembly. Interestingly, Shankersinh Vaghela’s granddaughter is married to Balwantsinh Rajput’s son. Vaghela’s son Mahendrasinh Vaghela is also a Congress MLA in Gujarat. Rajput was then made the third candidate for Rajya Sabha, along with Amit Shah and Smriti Irani. Very next day, 3 more Congress MLAs quit to join the BJP, bringing down the strength to 51 MLAs.

With a week to Rajya Sabha elections, Congress began to panic. Even with 51 MLAs, this should have been an easy win for Patel. However, Congress was not taking any risk.

Though Gujarat was inundated in one of the worst floods in over a decade, Congress moved 44 of its MLAs to a luxury resort in Bengaluru. There they received lot of flak for abandoning the people who voted for them even as they enjoy luxury in Bengaluru. It drew more criticism as special chef was arranged for to provide Gujarati meals even as the rescue operations in Gujarat were carried out in their constituencies.

Meanwhile, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi decided to make a visit to Gujarat where we saw controversies like stones pelted on his car. Ironically, Rahul Gandhi tried to convince Gujaratis that Congress is with them even as 44 of its MLAs were in a luxury resort in time of crisis.

Day before the voting, they were transported back to Gujarat, but were kept in another resort near Ahmedabad. Congress had put in all muscle and money power to save one Rajya Sabha seat, for which they had no qualms in shattering the faith of Gujaratis.

In a desperate bid to play Congress’ tried and tested divisive caste politics, AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh appealed to Shankersinh Vaghela, as a fellow Rajput, to ‘return the favour’ for all that Congress has done for him. However, Vaghela and his son Mahendrasinh Vaghela, both voted against Ahmed Patel.

The voting on 8th August started at 9 am and concluded at 4 pm. The counting of votes started at 5 pm, but was stalled by Congress after they raised a technical issue claiming two Congress MLAs, Bholabhai Gohil and Raghavji Patel, did not show their vote to Congress polling agent. They demanded their votes be quashed.

Counting was stalled as the returning officer waited for Election Commissions reply. Soon enough, Chhotu Vasava, the lone JD(U) MLA from Gujarat said he has extended his support to Patel and voted for him. Vasava represents the Jhagadia (ST) seat in Bharuch district of south Gujarat. (Patel was born in Bharuch, Gujarat.)

After Congress went knocking on EC’s doors, BJP followed suit. The drama continued till late in the night when EC refused to meet either of the delegations which had come for the third time. At 11:30, EC declared Gohil and Patel’s votes invalid.

This brought down the number of votes required for Patel to win from 45 to 44. Finally, at 1:30 am, almost 10 hours after the voting concluded, counting of votes resumed and with 44 votes, Patel retained his seat. Patel was quick to credit Rahul Gandhi for his victory and said how Congress will reach new heights under Gandhi’s able leadership:


Congress was quick to hail it as a victory of democracy. Irony just kidnapped MLAs, held them hostage, threatened them, created a ruckus in the Assembly, and elected itself to Rajya Sabha.

But is  really something to celebrate for Congress, or it is a sign of things to come? It is clear that the target was not Ahmed Patel, but Sonia Gandhi, whose confidante he is. BJP was going all out to make it sure that the defeat is seen as a ‘blow to Sonia Gandhi’. A revenge for all the “Blow to Modi” headlines that Ahmed Patel is believed to have managed when Congress ruled.

But for the disqualification of those two votes of rebel Congress MLAs — even though the released video clip doesn’t show them showing their votes to Amit Shah (unless there is a longer clip not yet released in public) — Ahmed Patel would have lost. BJP may take it to courts, though there is no such hint as of now.

However one hint is pretty clear — the BJP will go all out against the Gandhis. Incidentally, Smriti Irani, who was one of the winners of the Rajya Sabha poll, is a common thread. She gave Rahul Gandhi a good fight in 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Amethi, and she keeps visiting the constituency making it clear that she will take the fight to the next general elections too. Perhaps not so coincidentally, posters in Amethi declaring Rahul Gandhi ‘missing‘ were put up on the days Gujarat assembly voted to elect Rajya Sabha members.

The going is going to be tough for Gandhis in coming days.

And yes, the immediate challenge for Gandhis and Congress would be the Gujarat assembly elections that take place later this year. While Congress might be celebrating Ahmed Patel’s victory, they know that the reality is that their house is divided, they are facing rebellion, and they have earned massive bad PR due to the Rajya Sabha polls owing to the resort politics.

Not much to celebrate for Congress, right?

Did NDTV conduct a ‘fixed’ interview with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Did NDTV conduct a ‘fixed’ interview with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan?

“For the past few weeks, the political violence in Kerala resulting in killings of RSS workers and also CPM workers has become a major national story … Kerala government has said it is just propaganda, but how do they explain the violence and the fact that even Congress is now protesting in the state? Well, to take all these questions we have with us Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan speaking for the very first time on this issue. Sir, thanks very much for speaking to NDTV”

These are the words of NDTV anchor Sunetra Choudhury on Aug 7, 2017 as she began speaking to the Kerala Chief Minister.

Any reasonable viewer would have assumed that this is a typical exchange between a politician and a journalist.

What happened next is rather comical. As Sunetra Chowdhury poses each “question”, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan waits, then raises his eyebrows, looks down on something before him and then appears to read out prepared responses right on air!

For the convenience of readers, some twitter users have shared  a compilation of glimpses from the video showing the Chief Minister reading out his responses to NDTV’s “questions”:


The first possibility is that NDTV handed prepared questions to CM Vijayan in advance so that he could prepare written responses. In that case, would it not have been fair for Sunetra Choudhury to have made this disclosure to her viewers?

Should the viewer not have been warned that what s/he is witnessing is not an exchange between a politician and a journalist, but rather two actors performing from a prepared script? That NDTV is not broadcasting news but showing “news theater”?

But then, a reasonable viewer would never have expected NDTV to be anything but news theater.

The second possibility is even more distressing. Did the Kerala government or the Communist Party of India (Marxist) prepare the questions and hand them to NDTV to be asked on air? This is especially chilling because of the context of political killings. This kind of act would bring to mind sinister visions of Communist Commissars reading out the “party line” to party mouthpieces regarding the elimination of dissenters.

We would like to know explicitly if NDTV aspires to be (or already is) the Indian version of China’s Global Times “newspaper”. Actually, you know what, don’t answer that!

See how Kerala Leftists are getting back at Arnab and Republic TV

OpIndia Staff
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See how Kerala Leftists are getting back at Arnab and Republic TV

In what seems like a targeted cyber attack to down vote Republic TV’s ratings, social media warriors have rolled up their sleeves and are out and about giving 1 star rating and negative review on Republic TV’s Facebook page. While it is unclear where it originated, but it seems Republic TV has reported something which has offended Kerala Leftists who have come down all guns blazing at Arnab.

This was also shared by various troll groups. One point agenda to down vote Republic TV’s Facebook page.

And after they were done down voting it on Facebook, they turned their attention to Play Store:

This is not the first time cyber warriors have taken to social media to “teach someone a lesson”. Earlier too, some people have taken to social media and down-voting apps when they do not agree to their views.

In 2015, Snapdeal received a lot of flak from angry right wingers when Aamir Khan thought the country is intolerant. It was also accused that this piece of down voting was ‘championed’ by the BJP and was termed as bullying by some eminent media persons:


Similarly, down voting of “journalist” Barkha Dutt’s book The Unquiet Land on Amazon was called misogynist and was also referred to as “trolling” by journalists and politicians, alike:


Sagarika Ghose, too, had her book down voted on Amazon, where she blamed the “idiot troll army” for down rating it:


One wonders what has Republic TV done in past 24 hours to draw so much flak from Keralites? One theory is that Republic TV has been vocal about the killings of the RSS workers allegedly carried out by CPI(M) workers in Kerala, which has pissed many leftists off:


It remains to be seen whether this bullying of Republic TV too results in a similar outrage and whether these negative reviews are dubbed as an “attack on the media”.

Update: This organised attempt to teach Republic TV a ‘lesson’ is now taking both tragic and comic shapes. On one hand, people are now getting abusive towards those who support Republic TV, while on other hand, they are down-rating similar sounding applications on Google playstore:

Republic TV supporters abused
One of the abusive messages left by an ‘activist’


What are you trying to hide when you go abroad? Rajnath Singh asks Rahul Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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What are you trying to hide when you go abroad? Rajnath Singh asks Rahul Gandhi

Earlier today, Home Minister Rajnath Singh was questioned about lack of security provided to Rahul Gandhi when he carried out his disaster tourism in Gujarat after the floods. This was countered by Home Minister by saying that Gandhi was provided bullet proof car, but he refused. And not just in Gujarat, he had violated security protocol on several occasions in India and abroad.

Singh said that out of 121 total planned and unplanned visits the Congress Vice President had undertaken in past two years, he has not used bullet proof car (as provided under protocol) for around a hundred occasions. He further alleged that while travelling abroad, Gandhi sometimes informs the SPG (Special Protection Group) at the last moment, owing to which proper security arrangement cannot be done for him in time.

Singh intensified his attack on Gandhi and said that in last two yeas, Gandhi has been on 6 foreign tours spread over total 72 days where he did not take along his SPG cover.

“Where did he go? He deliberately did not move with the SPG cover. It is violative of the SPG Act enacted by Parliament,” Singh told the Lok Sabha alleging Gandhi neglected his own security.

“What does he want to hide by not taking the SPG along, the nation and the House want to know,” Singh further questioned. He repeated his query later on Twitter too:


Records show that there is indeed no information of Rahul Gandhi’s foreign visits available anywhere and they are almost secretive when it comes to details. In fact, not just Rahul, even Sonia Gandhi’s foreign visits are very mysterious, with no political clearance sought from the Ministry of External Affairs.

According to a book “Journalism Through RTI”, journalist Shyamlal Yadav says that the Lok Sabha Secretariat has informed that both Ms Gandhi and her son were never part of any Parliamentary delegation to foreign countries from 2004 to 2012, therefore political clearance for them was never sought from the Ministry of External Affairs. It is still unclear whether there was any ‘exemption’ for SPG protectees from getting the MEA clearance.

Yadav further elaborates that the information regarding overseas travel by the top Congress leaders “does not form part of records held by the PMO”. However, the PMO had said that between July 14 to 17, 2004, Ms Gandhi had visited Bangkok to attend a conference on AIDS.

As it turns out, even in during 14th and 15th Lok Sabha i.e. under the UPA governments, there was no information available on the foreign trips by Gandhis with the Lok Sabha secretariat. In response to an RTI query filed by media house India Today in 2011, Deputy Secretary of Lok Sabha had stated, “This secretariat attends to work relating to official visits of Indian parliamentary delegations going abroad and maintains record of foreign travel of members of the Lok Sabha in their personal capacity if such travel is intimated by them to the Speaker’s office.” India Today filed another RTI query specifically asking how many intimations/requests the Lok Sabha secretariat received regarding the foreign travels of Sonia and Rahul during the 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas. The response of K. Sona, under secretary, Lok Sabha, on July 4 was: Nil.”

Why so much secrecy for someone who is a representative of people and aspires to be the Prime Minister of India?

Fact-Check: Is Congress right in claiming that demonetisation is a ‘scam’ because BJP printed two sets of Rs 500 notes ‘secretly’?

OpIndia Staff
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Fact-Check: Is Congress right in claiming that demonetisation is a ‘scam’ because BJP printed two sets of Rs 500 notes ‘secretly’?

The Congress party, which is currently fighting for its existence according to their own leader, now seems to be cooking up new controversies to keep themselves relevant. Earlier today, Congress came up with a “sensational expose” which claimed that the Modi government had carried out a “scam of the century”. Naturally, people were intrigued.

The party’s ‘expose’ led by senior leader Kapil Sibal, and supported by the TMC and Sharad Yadav, started with a bang by creating such an uproar in Rajya Sabha that it forced 4 adjournments in the first hour of proceedings in the upper house.

The main point of Congress’s attack was that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) had printed two kinds of Rs 500 notes. Kapil Sibal alleged that these 2 types of notes had different sizes and designs, and questioned as to how it was possible. He also, as a result, claimed to have understood the real reason for the demonetisation.

Then another senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad upped the rhetoric by stating that the nation had never printed two types of notes which meant, one was for the party (BJP) and one was for the government. He also proclaimed that the Modi government had no right to remain in office even for 5 minutes.

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who is these days unhappy as party leader Nitish Kumar became an ally of BJP again, also alleged that no country in the world printed two types of notes, one of which was big and one of which was small.

This attack in itself was odd, but to explain it rationally, the Congress was alleging that the RBI was working at the behest of the ruling party and had printed one set of a currency exclusively for them which were slightly different from the other notes. This as insinuated by the Congress was done secretly and they had uncovered the whole operation.

Now thanks to vigilant Twitter users, this superfluous ‘expose’ by the Congress itself was ‘exposed’. As it turns out, this “two-note theory” was not some kind of clandestine operation undertaken by the government. As we see, there was an explicit RBI notification regarding the same was issued on 8th December 2016:

RBI notification which the Congress clearly wasn’t aware of

This notice by the RBI explicitly mentions that the bank was printing a second kind of Rs 500 note, which didn’t have any Inset letter and a couple other features. Inset letter is watermark kind of capital letter which appears on the corner of the notes which is used for identification purposes by the printing presses. It was also explicitly mentioned that the previous notes would also continue to remain a legal tender.

The notification also stated that the design of the new notes is to be similar in all respects to the new Rs 500 notes, which were issued post demonetisation, but some minor differences which were pointed out by the Congress remained.

In hindsight, the RBI might have had to print these 2 kinds of notes in order to meet the heavy printing volume, which was necessitated post demonetisation. In fact, there the central bank had accepted that there were some variants due to heavy rush and that all variants would continue to be legal tenders.

So essentially, this was known and declared, which is not how “scams” work. Naturally, various aware citizens were amused by the Congress’s self-goal:


This isn’t the only time in recent days that the Congress has tried to rake up unnecessary controversy. We had recently reported how the Congress had created a hullabaloo about the option of NOTA being included in the recent Rajya Sabha elections, which the party insinuated was designed to help the BJP. But it was soon reported how the notification was in practice from 2014 itself.

Now Irfan Pathan is told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is against Islam

OpIndia Staff
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Now Irfan Pathan is told by fundamentalists that Raksha Bandhan is against Islam

Yesterday millions in the nation celebrated the festival of Raksha Bandhan, which celebrates the relationship between a brother and a sister.

While the festival often comes under attack from virtue signalling people, claiming it ‘sexist’, it has also been projected as a symbol of ‘composite culture’ of India as Rani Karnavati is supposed to have sent a Rakhi to Mughal emperor Humayun. But now it has been found ‘communal’ too.

Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan was told about this ‘lesson’, and he learnt it on Facebook, when he posted a photo of himself wearing a Rakhi:

Irfan celebrating Raksha Bandhan

This innocuous photo about celebrating the sacred bond between a brother and sister didn’t go down too well with some Islamist trolls, who told him that it was a Hindu festival and a good Muslim shouldn’t celebrate it:

He says something about Irfan indulging in Haram
He insinuated that Irfan was posting such pictures to try and get into the Indian national team

Unfortunately, Islamic lessons being taught to cricketers on Facebook are becoming too common and frequent. Only last month, Irfan Pathan had to fend off the trolls who has pounced upon his Instagram and Facebook page, after being irked by his photo with his wife who even though was wearing a Burkha, had exposed her hands and was wearing a nail-polish.

His Indian team colleagues too have been similarly targeted. Mohammed Kaif was recently trolled by the Islamists for posting a photo of him playing chess with his son. The trolls justified their attack by claiming that chess was haram in Islam. He was also similarly trolled in December by Muslim fundamentalists for doing Surya Namaskar. 

Mohammed Shami too has had his share of such incidents. In July he was trolled for celebrating the birthday of his daughter. They were offended especially by ‘the way Shami celebrated’ the birthday. He also in the past had to deal with angry comments for the photo of his wife in a gown.

Also it isn’t just Indian cricketers who have been plagued by such incidents. Even English cricketer Moeen Ali was recently trolled on twitter for drawing a picture because he was going against the traditions of Islam.

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