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Indo-Pak border to get “smart fence” but border with Bangladesh remains neglected

OpIndia Staff
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Indo-Pak border to get “smart fence” but border with Bangladesh remains neglected

The India-Pakistan border, sometimes termed the most dangerous border in world, is a regular witness to terrorist infiltration into India and numerous ceasefire violations, which are perpetrated by the Pakistani Army.

In order to put a stop to that, the Indo-Pak border has long been suggested to be sealed completely. Now we have got a date by which it could be done. The Director General of the BSF, K K Sharma on Wednesday stated that it was an immediate priority for the security agency to completely seal the Indo-Pak border in the Jammu sector by March, 2018.

Further, the BSF would be installing a “smart fence” along the length of the border. Smart Fence means that the security forces would be aided by surveillance radars, which would blip once it detects any form activity near the border.

Other smart fence equipment that would aid the security forces are satellite imagery, thermal gadgets, and laser walls. The biggest advantage of such a border fence is that security forces won’t need to patrol it 24×7 and can only respond once a threat is intercepted. An advanced version of such a fence has been implemented by Israel along the Gaza Strip border.

This sealing would be a part of the comprehensive integrated border management (CBIM) plan which the BSF is implementing.

Even though the BSF’s commitment to protecting the Pakistani border is appreciable, it has been surprisingly lukewarm when it comes to the Bangladeshi border. According to the Sharma, the project to seal the Indo-Bangla border using smart fencing had not even started yet. This is mostly due to the reason that the Bangladesh government is not hostile as Pakistan when it comes to relationship with India.

However, the Indo-Bangla border requires fencing too. Even though our border with Bangladesh isn’t plagued with terrorist infiltration, there are other serious issues like illegal immigration and illegal cattle smuggling which are rampant.

Recently we had reported how BSF Jawans are regularly attacked by cattle smugglers along the border, which over the years has also resulted in the death and serious injuries to Jawans. Official figures also suggest that there are about 2 crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants some of whom have also been reported to be indulging in serious crimes.

In December last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had claimed that the government was committed to sealing the 223.7 Km Bangladesh border along Assam. He had also assured that it would be done by Mid 2018. Also in January this year, reports had claimed that a similar smart border would also be installed along the Indo-Bangla international border in West Bengal. The time frame then given to start the project was a “few months”. But as per the latest report, the BSF doesn’t appear to be treating it at priority.

Communal tensions in Uttarakhand town after a Muslim man ‘rapes’ a calf

OpIndia Staff
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Communal tensions in Uttarakhand town after a Muslim man ‘rapes’ a calf

Satpuli town of the Pauri Garwal district of Uttarakhand witnessed communal tensions and protests by local residents after a man from the Muslim community was caught indulged in unnatural sex with a calf (young cow).

According to local reports, 23-year-old Shah Alam, who has a local carpentry shop and lives in the same area with his parents and three siblings in a rented house, was caught in the indecent act by the owner of a local gaushala (cow shelter) Baleshwar Chaudhari at around 9.30 in the morning.

Baleshwar caught Shah Alam and raised an alarm, causing locals to assemble there. The locals then proceeded to beat up Shah Alam and also targeted a couple of shops, including the carpentry shop of Alam. Protesters also reportedly called for a bandh in the market.

Police soon arrived at the market and Shah Alam was arrested, but locals insisted that police should be proactive and kick out such elements from the area. Shah Alam reportedly has been living in the area for around 8 years.

The incident has left the locality tense due to communal nature of the crime. “We have deployed additional police force in the town to keep the situation remains under control in the town,” Pauri Superintendent of Police Jagatram Joshi was quoted as saying.

The accused Shah Alam has been booked under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises unnatural sex, and will be produced at a local court in Lansdowne later today.

This is the second incident of communal tensions in Satpuli town in around a month. Last month a Muslim vendor had made objectionable comments about Hindus and Kedarnath on Facebook, which also resulted in communal tensions and similar protests by local residents in the area.

Congress tries an innovative protest, appears like an innovative scam

Nirwa Mehta
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Congress tries an innovative protest, appears like an innovative scam

Sonia Gandhi led the grand old political party of India, Indian National Congress does not seem to be getting anything right.

First the party introduced a “Professionals’ Congress” and stuffed it with dynasts:


This was followed with the party launching a protest against rising prices of tomatoes, and this time the party did something “innovative” (discounting the possibility that parading dynasts as professionals was also innovative).

Congress opened a “State Bank of Tamatar” (State Bank of Tomatoes) in a bid to launch a unique protest against rising prices of tomatoes.

Here is a closer look at the “offers” of the “bank”:

  1. In six months, get 5 times the quantity of tomatoes deposited today.
  2. Facility of “tomatoes locker” available.
  3. 80% loan facility available for tomatoes.
  4. Attractive rates for poor people to buy tomatoes.

Well, technically it is against the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, to randomly call anything as “Bank”:

Well, we are sure that Congress has learnt its lessons from the National Herald case and knows that it can’t undertake any business while being a political party, let alone launching a bank. So yes, we will assume that it was a symbolic protest and a symbolic bank; the BJP government doesn’t need to raid them for violation of any rules!

However, it would have been better if Congress had kept it entirely symbolic, say their own workers being the bank managers and customers as well. But as per media reports, their “State Bank of Tamatar” even got a “customer” (who was not identified as any Congress worker).

Here is one such customer availing the services of the “bank”:


But this is cheating!

Go back to the terms of the bank. The “bank” had promised 5 times returns in 6 months, so 103 years old Srikrishna Verma should have got 2.5 kg tomatoes after 6 months, but the poor senior citizen will get only 1 kg tomatoes after 6 months.

Alert Twitter users were able to spot this “scam” by Congress. Apart from this going back on declared promises of the bank, Congress was also supposed to be conning the citizens by taking tomatoes when prices are higher (now) and selling them back when prices are lower (December/January).


A symbolic protest has ironically become a symbol of how scams are carried out and how poor citizens are conned by making them believe in false promises.

Tough luck Congress.

Amit Shah ‘praises’ Rahul Gandhi for doing what Mahatma Gandhi wanted

OpIndia Staff
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Amit Shah ‘praises’ Rahul Gandhi for doing what Mahatma Gandhi wanted

BJP national president Amit Shah is on a three day visit to Haryana starting today. Taking a jibe at the Congress party while addressing a massive gathering at Rohtak, Shah said, “Gandhi ji ne kaha tha azadi ke turant baad Congress ko bikhed dena chahiye… khair wo Gandhi ne nahi kiya ab koi Gandhi kar raha hai“. (Gandhiji had said that right after attaining independence, Congress party should be disbanded. What that Gandhi couldn’t do, another Gandhi is is doing.)

Obviously, he was referring to Rahul Gandhi, the current Vice President of Congress.

After taking jibes at the vice president, Shah trained his guns at the party, saying, “Jab Congress ki sarkar aati hai desh ka growth rate neeche jaata hai, BJP ki sarkar aati hai growth rate upar jaata hai.” (Whenever Congress comes to power, the growth rate of India declines, and whenever BJP comes to power, growth rate goes up.)

Asserting that the BJP is determined to ensure eradication of dynasty politics and caste based politics, Shah hailed the saffron party for development across the country.

Eyeing the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah is on a 110-day nationwide tour which began from Jammu in April this year. The focus of this tour is to increase the BJP’s footprints in the North-East and coastal regions of India where BJP does not have a stronghold. His Odisha tour was also in news.

Shah, who is also an MLA from Naranpura constituency of Gujarat will be contesting the Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat which are slated to be held on August 8, 2017.

How the Communists have turned Kerala into killing fields

Saswat Panigrahi
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How the Communists have turned Kerala into killing fields

After a brief lull, political murders have returned to Kerala. A RSS swayamsevak was hacked to death by suspected CPM supporters in Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram.

34-year-old RSS worker Rajesh Edavakode was brutally attacked by 15 sword-wielding assailants on last Saturday (29 July) night. The attackers chopped up his left hand and he suffered serious injuries in his face, hands and legs. Edavakode succumbed to his injuries in a private hospital later.

In Kerala, the list of political violence perpetrated by the communists is long. In last 13 months, 14 RSS workers have been killed by the communists. Out of these, 4 were Dalits and one woman member. A few of these killings that made to national news were:

  • 5 September, 2016: 25-year-old RSS worker Mavila Vineesh was hacked to death allegedly by CPM activists in Kannur.
  • 16 February, 2016: 27-year-old RSS worker PV Sujith was lynched in front of his aged parents at his house in Kannur allegedly by CPM workers. The assailants struck him with a pipe, broke his skull and bones and hacked him to death.
  • 12 October, 2016: 26 year old RSS worker Remith was hacked to death allegedly by CPM workers near a petrol pump when he was returning home. Remith met his fate 14 years after his father Uthaman – a RSS worker – was brutally killed allegedly by CPM workers.

When rebel Marxist leader was killed

The violence perpetrated by the communists is not limited to only the RSS and the BJP. TP Chandrasekharan, a rebel Marxist leader, was lynched by CPM workers on 4 May, 2012. Chandrasekharan, a former CPM leader, had floated a political outfit called Revolutionary Marxist Party and dared to question the CPM Czar. In January 2014, a Special Additional Sessions court convicted three CPM leaders, among 12, for murdering Chandrasekharan.

Why Marxist violence is on the rise against RSS-BJP?

The BJP was never a force in Kerala despite the strong presence of the RSS in the state. In the 2014 general election, the saffron party won 11 per cent vote share. BJP candidate O Rajagopal gave high profile Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor a run for his money in Thiruanthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, where the CPM candidate stood third.

In the 2015 local body polls, the party has improved its performance with its vote share rose to 16 per cent.

In the 2016 Assembly elections when UDF and LDF rotate power in the state, the BJP won 10.6 per cent of the popular votes and together with its ally Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), the party won around 15 per cent vote share. For the first time, the lotus bloomed in Kerala Assembly. BJP candidate O Rajgopal won Nemam Assembly constituency defeating his CPM rival.

At a time the BJP is eying unconquered territories, Kerala features prominently in the party’s scheme of things. At the same time, the RSS has expanded its footprints further in the state. It could be noted that there has been a huge exodus of cadre from the CPM to the BJP.

All these developments have angered the CPM and hence the party is perpetrating violence against the RSS and the BJP workers.

For CPM, violence is as “political instrument”

Not just Kerala, even West Bengal had witnessed political killings while being under communist rule for long. The Marxist party is believed to maintain a “scoreboard” of how many political rivals have been eliminated. “Bengal model” and “Kannur model” are something the party is proud of. Kannur often evokes the images of bloodshed as the highest number of Marxist violence took place in this north Kerala district.

AP Abdullakutty, a former CPM MP from Kannur had revealed that the then CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, in a party meeting on 5 March, 2008, had asked CPM leaders in Kerala to implement the CPM’ “Bengal model of political killing” in Kerala. Abdullakutty said he along with top CPM leaders of Kerala attended the meeting where Vijayan made these shocking comments. Abdullakutty had claimed:

“Pinarayi Vijayan told us we should learn the art of political killing from Bengal CPM. They do it without shedding even a drop of blood. They kidnap people, bury their bodies in deep pit along with a sack of salt. The world never comes to know about the blood, photographs or the news about such killings.

I was shocked by Pinaray’s comments. My tongue had dried up…I left the party office in a disturbed state of mind. Later, when we were at Parliament, I enquired about this to West Bengal MP Anil Basu. Basu told me that what Pinarayi told was right. He said that Kerala line of killing is barbaric and in Bengal they don’t even shed a drop of blood and bury the enemies alive. He said that the outside world won’t even see a piece of bone.”

Postscript: Incidentally, Pinarayi Vijayan is now the Chief Minister who holds the crucial Home Ministry. It is the duty and the responsibility of the Chief Minister/ Home Minister to maintain the law and order.

Kerala Muslims being mobilised to become lawyers for fighting against “Islamophobic” judiciary

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala Muslims being mobilised to become lawyers for fighting against “Islamophobic” judiciary

In June, an Islamic organisation by the name of Muslim Ekopana Samithi had carried out a protest march against a ruling of the Kerala High Court, which had annulled the conversion and subsequent marriage of a 24 year old Hindu girl.

The organisation had conveyed to the police that about 500 people would be participating in a protest, which was to be held in Kerala’s Ernakulum district, but about 5000 people turned up instead. The mob, which alleged that the verdict was unconstitutional and violated fundamental rights, soon turned violent. It overturned barricades and even started rushing towards the police, who then had to fire tear gas and water cannons to control them.

With a physical confrontation with judiciary not helping, things are being taken to the next level in Kerala as has been revealed in a exclusive investigative report by the Kochi Post.

According to that report, WhatsApp messages are being sent in “Muslim groups” which profess the need to have more lawyers from their community in order to fight against the injustice meted out to various Muslim youths by the Indian judiciary.

The message was translated by Kochi Post from Malayalam and was reportedly first sent in April. The message categorically asked the recipients to share it only in groups having Muslim members.

It alleged that most of the cases with Muslim defendants either resulted in their conviction or a compromise. It further claimed that there was a dearth of Muslim lawyers and Judges in India and gave some numbers of religion wise break up of Supreme Court strength. Then it claimed that the situation was the same in High Courts, District courts and Lower courts.

The message then tried to inflame the passions of the Muslim readers by claiming that thousands of youths were languishing in jails just because they had a Muslim name and that there weren’t enough lawyers to free them. It warned that if the Muslim community continued to turn its face away from the profession, it would worsen things.

The Kochi Post report also claimed that such messages were a clear violation of the section 153A of the IPC, which deals with the enmity being promoted between different groups on the basis of religion.

Such an urgency shown by the minority groups does make some sense, as legal activism has been one of the main cornerstone of the so-called pro-minority groups. The other focus are has been media activism, with “favourable” journalists and reporters covering incidents that “matter” to the community.

For example, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, who is also a lawyer, has in the past offered legal aid to 5 terror suspects belonging to an ISIS module. Recently, a former NDTV journalist who is now an AIMIM MLA from Maharashtra, was involved in sending back Taslima Nasreen, showing how law and media has always been focus areas of ‘Muslim activism’. There have also been allegations of presence of a whopping Rs. 100 crore fund, which is used to defend people who are suspected to have been ‘wrongly accused’ of terror charges based on their religion.

Website that exposed NDTV’s misdeeds claims to be under cyber attack

OpIndia Staff
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Website that exposed NDTV’s misdeeds claims to be under cyber attack

PGurus.com is a news and opinions website which is run by individuals who are based in California. The website which is predominantly “Right leaning” and has been well known for continually exposing the misdeeds of NDTV and its promoters, much before CBI or ED carried out raids.

To name a few, in December last year, it had reported how NDTV’s promoter Prannoy Roy had cheated the investors of NDTV and also siphoned off about 53 crores to his personal account. In March this year, PGurus had reported further alleged lies and fraud perpetrated by the media house.

The impact of its articles was such that the NDTV was forced to respond to the allegations. But rather than be dignified, the NDTV decided to resort to cheap name calling by terming PGurus as “PhoneyGurus” and in another case, responded to the allegations by terming the editorial team as, “Gurumurthy And His Fake-News Gang Of Four”.

Now it seems that this website has made more than its share of enemies. Today the official twitter account of the website claimed that it was a victim of a targeted cyber attack:


The website later in order to drive home its point shared a snapshot of the total threats it had encountered:


This isn’t the only time, those subscribing to the Right Wing ideology have been targeted by cyber bullies. We had earlier seen how various Right leaning twitter users had witnessed attempts to hack their accounts. Even OpIndia too had faced such issues last year.

Note: The problem with PGurus now appears to have been resolved as the website was running smoothly when we last checked.

Former Trinamool worker’s house destroyed after 200 bombs kept by him explode

OpIndia Staff
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Former Trinamool worker’s house destroyed after 200 bombs kept by him explode

Police in Birbhum district of West Bengal are looking to catch a man whose house was found to be hoarding around 200 crude bombs. Police came to know about presence of these bombs after they accidentally exploded and destroyed the house as a result.

The incident took place at Demutita area of Lokpur village, which is about 50 Kms from Santiniketan at around 9.30 AM on Tuesday. Demutita residents claim that the house owner had been manufacturing and storing crude bombs in his house for the last two years.

The house owner is reported to be a man named Sheikh Samirchand, who was earlier a worker of Trinamool Congress, the party that is ruling West Bengal.

“The man who stored bombs in a house is a notorious criminal and backed by a Trinamool’s faction,” a police officer was quoted as saying by The Telegraph newspaper, tough Trinamool Congress is denying any connection with Sheikh or his activities.

But the villagers insist that the man was associated with the ruling party.

“Samirchand built this building three years ago and used it to manufacture and store bombs. He was involved in extortion and other criminal activities since he joined the Trinamool Congress. So, he was expelled from the party a year ago,” said a villager.

This is not the first time though that a house full of crude bombs has been linked with Trinamool Congress in the region.

Last year two men named Hafizul and Tarik Hussain, who were brothers of a Trinamool leader, were killed in Birbhum when the bombs they were reportedly making to attack a rival group exploded accidentally. In April this year, 8 people were killed similarly, again in Birbhum, while making bombs in a house allegedly belonging to a Trinamool worker . In May, around 70 live bombs were recovered in Chandipur village of the Birbhum district, causing panic in the area.

Huge cash recovered after Income Tax raids on Congress leader whose resort is housing Gujarat MLAs

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Huge cash recovered after Income Tax raids on Congress leader whose resort is housing Gujarat MLAs

Recently things have been pretty eventful for the Gujarat Congress. First its veteran leader Shankarsinh Vaghela quit the party, then it was soon hit by a mutiny of sorts after its MLAs started crossing over to the BJP.

This put the Congress party in a perilous spot, because if 7 more MLAs had resigned from the party, it would have meant that Ahmed Patel, the political adviser to Sonia Gandhi, would have lost his Rajya Sabha seat. In order to avoid this major embarrassment, the party decided to fly out and keep its remaining MLAs holed up in a Bangalore resort to prevent them from resigning.

This wasn’t a very popular move as the MLAs were flown to the resort at a time when Gujarat has been battered with massive rains. This gave out impression to the general public that “MLAs are enjoying when people are drowning”.

Now these group of MLAs are again in the news as the Bangalore resort, where they are ‘holidaying’, was raided by Income Tax officials who searched the premises belonging to Congress leader and Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar:


Although the government maintained that the raids were on properties owned by the Karnataka minister and not on Gujarat MLAs, Congress claimed it as a witch-hunt:


DK Shivakumar has been accused of involved in illegal mining and land scams earlier, and his inclusion in the ministry had raised eyebrows back in 2014.

Reportedly 39 locations linked to him were raided all throughout the country, which included cities like Delhi, Kanpur, Bengaluru & Doddanala. By the time this report was written, he was reportedly being questioned by the IT officials in their Bangalore office.

The raids also seem to have been successful to a certain extent as the officials have recovered Rs 5 crore in cash from his Delhi residence:


Another 2.5 crores rupees were also reported to have been recovered from his Karnataka residence.

Some reports suggest that the Congress leader tried to tear up some papers to hide those from the officials:


Gujarat or Rajya Sabha seat? Congress chose the latter

Nirwa Mehta
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Gujarat or Rajya Sabha seat? Congress chose the latter

When Sasikala Natarajan “kidnapped” supporting MLAs and kept them hostage in a resort during the power struggle in Tamil Nadu following chief minister J. Jayalalitha’s demise, the then leader of opposition of Gujarat, Shankersinh Vaghela must have smirked and said “yeh pehle ho chuka hai” in his head.

In 1995, for the first time the BJP got majority and formed the government in Gujarat. Narendra Modi, who was then the National General Secretary of the BJP, favoured Keshubhai Patel over Shankersinh Vaghela, who had been an active RSS member and was even jailed during the Emergency.

Vaghela felt sidelined and within months he lead a coup and toppled his own party’s government. He flew out 45 supporting BJP MLAs to Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh (where Digvijaya Singh of the Congress was the Chief Minister) and a middle ground was reached where neither Patel nor Vaghela would be the chief minister.

Suresh Mehta swore in as the chief minister in October, 1995 and his government lasted for 11 months before President’s Rule was brought in. In the election which followed, Vaghela fought through his own political outfit “Rashtriya Janta Party” and he swore in as the twelfth chief minister of Gujarat through outside support of Congress. Eventually, his political outfit merged into Congress.

However, in the next elections held in 1998, the BJP won again and since then, Gujarat has been a BJP stronghold. Of these twenty years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has served as Gujarat’s Chief Minister for almost twelve years.

Now the upcoming 2017 Legislative Assembly elections in Gujarat are interesting for more reasons than one.

The BJP is facing twenty years’ anti incumbency. In these twenty years, Gujarat has seen an earthquake, riots and alleged fake encounters. But then, Gujarat has also witnessed rise in foreign investment, construction of Narmada canal spider network and better power and water connectivity.

But the most interesting thing is that just months before the Assembly elections, 3 Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat are up for reelection. Of these, one seat is of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel. Ahmed Patel is a 7 time MP from Gujarat (3 times Lok Sabha and 4 times Rajya Sabha) and also the political adviser to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Congress is a sinking ship. As many as 6 MLAs have resigned from the party and joined the BJP in Gujarat. Gujarat Congress has 51 MLAs (original 57, of which 6 resigned) and Patel needs 45 votes to retain his seat.

Last Friday, when Gujarat was inundated with floods, worst in a decade, Gujarat Congress flew 44 of the remaining MLAs to a resort in Bangalore to keep them from crossing over to the BJP. Banaskantha’s Dhanera was one of the worst affected areas in the floods. Their Congress MLA, Joitabhai Patel, was one of the 44 MLAs vacationing in Bangalore. When the citizens needed their elected leader in time of natural calamity, their leaders were not reachable because their phones were switched off.

To save ONE Rajya Sabha seat, Gujarat Congress gambled the entire state of Gujarat which goes to election later this year.

But as an observer of Indian politics for a few years now, I, honestly am not surprised.

Congress has historically gambled the entire nation to ensure the Family stays in power. Gujarat is no big deal.

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