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Pakistan sentences Shia man to death for alleged blasphemy on Facebook

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan sentences Shia man to death for alleged blasphemy on Facebook

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Pakistan has sentenced a 30-year-old man, belonging to the minority Shia community, to death for allegedly posting blasphemous content on Facebook.

The sentence is the harshest among cyber-crime related sentences handed down so far in Pakistan. This is perhaps the first ever case in the world when a social media user was sentenced to death by the court of law.

ATC Judge Shabbir Ahmed announced the sentence for 30-year-old Taimoor Raza on 10 June in Bahawapur jail of eastern Punjab province. The trial was conducted amid tight security.

Raza hails from Okara, situated at a distance of 200 km from Lahore. He was convicted for allegedly making derogatory remarks against about Sunni religious figures, Prophet Mohammad, his wives and companions.

According to reports, Raza was arrested in April last year after a debate about Islam on Facebook with a man who turned out to be a counter-terrorism agent. He was arrested by a counter-terrorism officer following a complaint that he was showing onlookers “objectionable material” on his cell phone at a bus terminal in Bahawapur.

It is rare for a counter-terrorism court to hear a blasphemy case. But the sections under which Raza has been charged included counter-terrorism offences linked to hate speech. Raza was charged under section 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code (use of derogatory remarks, etc in respect of the Holy Prophet) and Section 9 and 11w of the Anti-Terrorism Act (which deal with whipping up sectarian hatred).

“Raza had been charged with two unrelated sections of the law to ensure the maximum penalty,” Raza’s defence attorney Fida Hussain Rana was quoted as saying.

It could be noted that Pakistan, which is a predominantly a Sunni Muslim country, remains indifferent to the Shias and other religious minorities.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, anyone accused of “insulting” Islam can be sentenced to death. Dozens are sitting on death row in the country for alleged blasphemy.

According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country last year had arrested 15 people – 10 Muslims and five non-Muslims – on blasphemy charges. Several other violent incidents linked to alleged blasphemy have alarmed human rights groups in the recent times.

Figures obtained from independent records suggest that there have been at least 67 murders in Pakistan over unproven allegations since 1990.

In April this year, a stick-wielding mob in Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan beat up a student named Mashal Khan to death following a dorm debate about religion.

In January 2011, a provincial governor was shot dead by his police guard who accused him of blasphemy after he criticised the law and defended a Christian woman sentenced to death.

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was convicted in 2010 for alleged blasphemy. Bibi is still in solitary confinement.

According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, four people were sentenced to death for blasphemy last year.

Pakistan, last year, had passed a controversial cyber crime bill called Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 that proposed strict punishment for cyber crime offences. Recently, the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan detained dozens of social media users under the act.

Pakistani Authorities have asked Twitter and Facebook to help identify users sharing “blasphemous content”. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had threatened to block these social-networking websites in the country if they failed to cooperate.

Jagendra Singh : the journalist who was burnt alive but failed to shake Lutyens

Abhishek Banerjee
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Jagendra Singh : the journalist who was burnt alive but failed to shake Lutyens

These days the discourse in the Indian media is high on “freedom”. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious and cultural freedoms, academic and intellectual freedoms. I can open any English language newspaper today and read about how Modi has wrecked press freedom. I can hear them shouting from the rooftops that their voices have been stifled.

Whatever virtues the Indian media might have, irony is clearly not their strong suit.

The voices have recently grown louder with the CBI raid on Prannoy Roy. In a clear violation of press immunity, the CBI raided residence of NDTV founder-promoter Prannoy Roy in connection with an alleged financial fraud.

Oops! Did I say “press immunity”? I meant “press freedom”. I always struggle with these concepts of having immunity vs having freedom. Anyway…

But there is one voice that I cannot hear. A voice that is gone forever. All that we have left is a few screams on tape.

Jagendra Singh
Somehow this was not ‘attack on press’

That’s the job of a journalist. Asking questions. And Jagendra Singh wanted to ask why “they” had to burn him alive? On his death bed, the helpless man wanted to ask why the “minister and his goondas” – which included police officers – could not have given him a lesser punishment, such as beating him up.

Who is Jagendra Singh?

Well, there are journalists who are burnt alive and have to beg for the more merciful “punishment” of being beaten up. And then there are journalists who have to be rushed to TV studios and Thinkfests  with severe third degree injuries from getting trolled on Twitter.

Jagendra Singh belonged to the former category. His journalism was a no-frills operation, for he ran a mere Facebook page called “Shahjahanpur Samachar” – basically he did not even have a proper job, but he had a passion for journalism.

For those who don’t know, Shahjahanpur is one of those sleepy little towns in Uttar Pradesh that never make the news. Shahjahanpur is definitely a bigger town than Dadri, though, but I digress.

On the Facebook page of Shahjahanpur Samachar, this man Jagendra Singh ended up writing extensively about alleged corruption of one Ram Murti Singh Verma, a minister in the then Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh.

So, a journalist accuses a minister of corruption. The next thing, the journalist is burnt alive and leaves behind a dying declaration (caught on video, no less) accusing people in power of burning him. (the video contains strong words and visuals, discretion advised).

Jagendra Singh was taken to a hospital. Apparently a police officer told the doctors not to tend to Singh and just let him die. The doctors did not listen to this ‘advice’ and transferred the grievously injured o Lucknow hospital, but Jagendra died of his burns a week later, back in June 2015.

What happens next? Does the Press Club hold an emergency meeting to begin a nationwide movement for justice to this journalist? Do intellectuals start returning heaps of awards to stir the national conscience?

No, of course not! The minister in question was secular, a member of the Samajwadi Party. The state of Uttar Pradesh was ruled at the time by the “Achche Ladke” team headed by Akhilesh Yadav.

Lutyens crowd was more interested in discussing Gajendra (Chauhan) than Jagendra.

So, nothing happens. Intellectuals keep their awards. Journalists keep raising awareness against the scourge of internet trolls. And activists demand FTII be saved.

Nothing to see in Shahjahanpur. A few months later, Dadri would go on to happen in “Modi’s India”. That’s when the cameras came, crying aloud for freedom.

Meanwhile the family of Jagendra tries to fight back, alone. They don’t get prime time television slot that may shake the conscience of the nation.

Accusation
Details that have been forgotten and not fit for prime time debate?

But the law had to take the case to its logical conclusion. Something had to be done about the complaint lodged by Jagendra Singh’s son.

Pressure
No one could smell any ‘pressure’?

Oh thank god! Jagendra Singh’s sons had earlier lodged a complaint against the minister. That was before they had a chat with their mother and discovered that his father had planned to threaten self-immolation all along. So nice of these two upright young sons to come forward and actually “demand a clean chit” for the minister.

Lest I am accused of not acknowledging good work by the Akhilesh government, let me also tell you that earlier the then state government announced 30 lakh rupees as compensation and two government jobs for the believed family. All of these just a day before media reports suggested a suicide angle. Kaam bolta hai, you see.

Who says that “ghor kaliyug” has come? It is moments like these that restore our faith in humanity.

pressure
A u-turn that didn’t raise any eyebrows

Fortunately, the alleged sole eyewitness in the alleged murder of the alleged journalist (hope I have used “alleged” sufficiently many times) also remembered just in time that it was actually a self-immolation. What an awful  misunderstanding that could have hurt the image of one very upright individual minister in the secular government of Akhilesh Yadav.

Here ends the story of Jagendra Singh. You won’t hear him telling his wild stories ever again. His Facebook page has not been updated since then.

His voice was not silenced. His freedom was not curbed. He did not need a press conference at the Press Club of India in Lutyens’ Delhi.

People amused as NDTV journalists tweet against Fake News

Hemant Bijapurkar
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People amused as NDTV journalists tweet against Fake News

Twitter users had a reason to be amused today after two NDTV journalists, Vikram Chandra and Nidhi Razdan decided to tweet against the practice of spreading Fake News:


Such a stance was perplexing for many as there there have been numerous occasions where NDTV itself has been caught spreading fake news. One of the more recent incidents was when the NDTV decided to report the slaughtered cow by the Congress Kerala workers, first as a slaughtered buffalo and then finally as a slaughtered ox.

Undoubtedly people were ready with reactions:


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Nidhi Razdan didn’t stop at that and decided to give a full-toss to her critics:


And people did what was asked:

Now allegations of unexplained land acquisition against Lalu’s daughter and wife

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Now allegations of unexplained land acquisition against Lalu’s daughter and wife

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has reportedly made serious allegations of unexplained land acquisition against Hema Yadav, the 5th daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav. According to Modi, in February 2014 Hema had received land worth Rs 62 lakh from a man named Lallan Choudhary.

The BJP leader has further claimed that this same Lallan Choudhary was involved in gifting a house worth Rs 30 lakh to Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi just 19 days before his transaction with Hema. Apparently even though Choudhary had given such high profile ‘gifts’ to Lalu’s family, his name still featured in the BPL category.

Sushil Modi also asked questions as to how Choudhary, who worked at Lalu’s farmhouse feeding animals was able to acquired property worth Rs 1 crore. He urged the Lalu family to clear all the doubts or else people would start to perceive that Lallan Choudhary was used in order to buy Benami property.

In recent days there have been various land related allegations against the family of Lalu Prasad Yadav. We had reported how Lalu’s son Tej Pratap – the incumbent minister for Health, Minor Water Resources, Environment and Forest in Bihar – had allegedly secured a petrol pump from the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) by falsely claiming ownership of the land. According to a complaint, the land actually belonged to a company called M/S AK Infosystems.

There have also been other troubles for Lalu. The Income Tax officials have recently raided the associates of Lalu in Delhi-NCR over allegations that they were involved in Rs 1000 crores worth land deals. It was alleged that Lalu Yadav, his daughter Misa Bharti and her husband had acquired luxury properties under suspicious circumstances.

There have also been allegations of a Zoo scam where the Lalu’s son Tej Pratap had given a Rs 90 lakh contract by Patna Zoo to a company in which he, his mother and siblings were shareholders.

Sushil Modi had also made allegations regarding the zoo scam. He had alleged that this Rs 90 lakh contract was used to just buy soil which was extracted from a mall construction site in Patna. The land from which the soil was extracted was also registered under a shell company allegedly owned by Lalu and his family.

Now it might be difficult for Kejriwal to make wild allegations against the Election Commission

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Now it might be difficult for Kejriwal to make wild allegations against the Election Commission

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal hasn’t had the best electoral fortunes in recent times after his party came a disappointing 2nd in Punjab assembly elections and lost deposits in 38 out of 39 seats in Goa. The party too has not been fairing well on the home front after it lost both the MCD elections and the Rajouri Garden by-poll in Delhi.

Rather than introspecting about the possible flaws of the party or pondering upon the reasons for voter disillusionment, Kejriwal and co decided to embark upon a campaign to blame the EVMs and the Election Commission for their woes.

In the process of doing so, Kejriwal has spread a blatant lie about EVM tampering, made a false claim that 25% of AAP’s votes during the Punjab polls were shifted to other parties due to faulty EVMs and has even hacked a fake machine by labeling it as an EVM.

Kejriwal has unfortunately not restricted his defamatory tactics only to the EVMs and has also dragged in the Election Commission into the mess. In February Kejriwal had made a shocking allegation that the Election Commission had completely surrendered before PM Modi and at the same time had called the organisation spineless and shameless.

Kejriwal didn’t stop at that and in April had alleged that two out of three election commissioners were close to the Modi government. The basis of his allegation was that one of them was a Chief secretary of Gujarat under PM Modi and the other had come from Madhya Pradesh and as Kejriwal alleged was close to Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Kejriwal in the same month had also alleged that it appeared as if the only aim of the Election Commission was to bring the BJP to power.

Now the Election Commission seems to have had enough of all the allegations and has reportedly written to the law ministry to ask for powers which would allow it to act against those who question the organization’s credibility via baseless allegations. In the letter the Election Commission has reportedly asked for a modification in the 1971 Contempt of Courts Act in order to bestow it with the required powers.

Under the current act the party if found guilty can be imprisoned for a duration of 6 months. This letter to the law ministry was reportedly written a month ago and is currently being considered by the authorities.

If this demand is indeed fulfilled, politicians like Kejriwal might have to think twice before making unsubstantiated claims against the Election Commission and would have to back their statements with solid proof.

GST Council slashes rates on 66 items – know what will get cheaper

OpIndia Staff
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GST Council slashes rates on 66 items – know what will get cheaper

In a huge relief for the consumers and small businesses, the GST Council has slashed rates for as many as 66 of the 133 items on which representations had been received.

The decision was taken at the 16th meeting of the GST Council – chaired by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and attended by state finance ministers – held on Sunday with barely two weeks to go for the goods and services tax (GST) roll-out.

“The 133 representations received were considered at length and the officers’ committee made their recommendations… the council has reduced tax in 66 out of the 133 cases,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters.

“The objective (of earlier rates) was to maintain equivalence to the existing taxes, and in some other cases the fitment had breached this equivalence principle. In others, the reduction is required because of the changing nature of the economy and changes that have occurred in consumer preference,” he said.

The Finance Minister said reducing the tax rate meant a revenue impact for the government, but lower tax incidence could help improve tax buoyancy and keep inflation low.

Kitchen use items like pickles, mustard sauce and morabba will attract 12 per cent GST, as against 18 per cent proposed earlier. Also, tax rates on cashew nuts have been cut to 5 per cent from 12 per cent.

GST on insulin and agarbatti has also been lowered to 5 per cent, while school bags will attract tax of 18 per cent. Sanitary napkins have been classified under the 12% bracket.

The GST Council lowered GST rates on children’s drawing books to nil from 12 per cent. Computer printers will attract 18 per cent tax as against 28 per cent earlier. Tax rate on kajal has been lowered to 18 per cent from 28 per cent.

The council also relaxed the Rs 50 lakh per annum turnover ceiling to Rs 75 lakh for businesses to take part in the GST Composition Scheme.

Movie tickets costing Rs 100 and below will now attract 18 per cent tax, as against 28 per cent proposed earlier, while those above Rs 100 will continue to attract 28 per cent GST.

Based on industry demand, the GST Council also lowered the levy on jobwork for textiles, gems and jewellery, printing and leather from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.

Apart from the changes in rates, the GST Council also decided that traders, manufacturers and restaurant owners with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can opt for a composition scheme and pay taxes at the rate of 1, 2, and 5 per cent respectively.

Small traders within the prescribed turnover will be able to opt for the scheme by paying 1 per cent tax while manufacturers are allowed to pay 2 per cent and restaurants 5 per cent. Those opting for the composition scheme do not need to file invoices electronically or complete the three-stage filing process every month.

Over the last three weeks, the GST Council had decided the rates for 1,211 goods and around 500 services. All goods and services have been put into four tax slabs –5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Several mass-consumption items will attract zero tax.

The next meeting of the GST Council is scheduled for June 18 when it will take up lottery taxes and e-way bill.

Turn Kashmir into an Islamic caliphate: ISIS blueprint

OpIndia Staff
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Turn Kashmir into an Islamic caliphate: ISIS blueprint

An already volatile Kashmir valley, which has been battered and brushed by the connivance of separatists, home grown militants, terrorists from across the boarder and Pakistani ISI is staring at a new challenge – Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

According to an India Today TV report, ISIS is pursuing a nefarious game-plan to turn Kashmir valley into a caliphate based on eighth-century Islam and Sharia law. A blueprint has already been prepared by the dreaded terror outfit to this effect. The blueprint has been documented in an Islamic State publication.

In a spiteful article published in the ISIS publication, the terror outfit calls for carnage in the Himalayan region.

“Infidels have captured Kashmir for a long time, but Kashmiris have never been silent against infidels. They have always sought freedom. But unfortunately, they were not initiated in the right direction. Political parties and organisations took advantage of their sacrifices,” the eight-page article reads.

The ISIS article orders its terrorists to fight against Indian Army and instigates a dangerous guerrilla warfare against the Army in bid to create Kashmir “caliphate”. In this article, ISIS also asked its terrorists to kill the idol worshippers.

The ISIS article called upon potential terrorists to mount terror attacks. “The heads of these snakes must be crushed. Sharia must be dominant. Allah will help those who follow him. We pray to Allah to show Kashmiris the right direction. Islam must reside in their hearts. We pray to Allah to dispel their obstacles. That is how the path for a caliphate will be made,” the article said.

The article has revealed that the dreaded terror outfit also plans to “eliminate” the traces of liberal Islam, moderate Sufi roots from the Valley. “Kill bad clerics who are only rumour mongers. Commit yourself into massacring them,” the article said.

The write-up glorified Islamic State and called it as the only representative of true Islam. “The Islamic caliphate witnessed a renaissance, which diminished the influence of political parties and organisations. The Islamic caliphate provided the right direction and led Muslims to true faith. Just like the rest of the world, the people of Kashmir will witness the rise of the Islamic caliphate,” the venomous article reads.

It could be recalled that much before the ISIS was born, Kashmir had its own version of ISIS. In the year 1989, when militancy raised its head in Kashmir, the Valley witnessed number of gruesome killings of innocent Kashmiris by the Islamic terrorists. Those killings have a striking resemblance with the killings being done by ISIS.

Decades before the ISIS beheaded Western journalists, Hizbul Mujahideen had assassinated Lassi Koul, the then station director of public broadcaster Doordarshan in Kashmir. Mohammed Shaban Vakil, Editor of the Urdu daily Al-Safa, was also brutally lynched for his fearless writings against terrorists. Sarla Ganju, a lady teacher, was brutally raped and cut into two in a saw mill. Many Hindu temples in Kashmir were desecrated. Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of the Valley.

The New York Times and the Farrago of lies and misrepresentation

sudharshan80
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The New York Times and the Farrago of lies and misrepresentation

The New York Times, or the “failing NYT” as their president Donald Trump prefers to call them, published an op-ed about India that was centered around the CBI raids at the residences of Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, the founder promoters of NDTV. The editorial was titled ‘India’s Battered Free Press’. Reading it is a textbook case of how media outlets lie and distort the truth.

Let us have this case study.

They start out by providing a gist of the issue so far, but of course, it is not simple or an unbiased reporting of the situation. This is how they start:

“Press freedom in India suffered a fresh blow on Monday when the country’s main investigative agency raided homes and offices connected to the founders of NDTV, India’s oldest television news station. The raids mark an alarming new level of intimidation of India’s news media under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

The only thing that is alarming in the above para is the alarmist language. But then journalism today is all about exaggerating and shouting. So let us ignore that. Let us come to facts, for which the op-ed will need to come to facts.

This is what they write touching some ‘facts’:

“The Central Bureau of Investigation says it conducted the raids because of a complaint that NDTV’s founders had caused “an alleged loss” to ICICI, a private bank, related to repayment of a loan. In 2009, ICICI said the note had been paid in full. Not really, the investigators said: A reduction in the interest rate had saddled the bank with a loss — hence the raid..”

Nope.

The probe is not about causing loss to the private bank. The investigators, aka the CBI, explicitly say that this is NOT about debt repayment, but possible collusion between Roys and some unknown officials at the private bank, which not only violates banking laws but also hint at a criminal conspiracy.

This is what the CBI says:

It is alleged in the complaint that the promoters of NDTV —Dr. Prannoy Roy, Smt Radhika Roy and M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd, acting in criminal conspiracy with unknown officials of ICICI bank, violated section 19(2) of the Banking Regulation Act, the Master Circular DBOD No. Dir B90/13.07.05/98-99 dated 28.08.1998 of the Reserve Bank of India and in furtherance of the conspiracy, ICICI bank took the entire shareholding of the promoters in NDTV (nearly 61 %) as collateral and then accepted prepayment of the loan by reducing the interest rate from 19 % p.a to nearly 9.5 % p.a and as a consequence thereof, causing a wrongful loss of ₹48 crore to ICICI bank and a corresponding wrongful gain to the promoters of NDTV — Dr. Prannoy Roy, Smt Radhika Roy and M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd.

This is not an attack on NDTV, it is free to telecast, publish and write whatever it wants, this is an raid on its promoters. Individuals and the corporate entity they run are separate, yet NYT (and other “liberal” champions) are guilty of conflating the two. By this logic, Mukesh Ambani should never face any government probe as he owns news media outlet Network18 and has substantial direct and indirect stake in other media companies too, including NDTV.

Coming back to NYT op-ed, the investigators never said that it is about causing a loss to a private bank. CBI’s press release and clarification was issued before NYT published it. Yet, it chooses to attribute wrong statements to the CBI. This exposes more about NYT’s editorial standards and journalistic ethics than press freedom in India.

But that’s not all. This is what the op-ed claims next, after wrongly claiming that CBI raids was about causing loss to a bank or defaulting on a loan payment:

“That doesn’t wash. India’s large corporations regularly default on debt with nary a peep from authorities.”

After successfully establishing a straw-man (debt vs criminal collusion), NYT furiously attacks the straw-man:

“Mr. Modi’s government has hesitated to go after big defaulters. But suddenly we have dramatic raids against the founders of an influential media company.”

Well, even though this is a straw man argument, the truth is that the Modi government has raided many just the past 6 odd months.

An indicative list:

  • 100s of raids were conducted during the demonetization period, resulting in 4,000 crores of seizures. These included raids against big shots like Janardhan Reddy and even entertainment professionals like the producer of the mega hit Baahubali.
  • IAS babus (here and here) have been raided and so have been powerful regional politicians (apart from Reddy).
  • IT officials said that December saw some of the biggest IT raids the country has ever seen.
  • The ED raided 18 IAS officials in April this year, just weeks before raids on Roys, even after the demonetisation period.
  • 34 Chartered Accountants in Delhi alone were raided the same month.
  • In April this year, premises of the Central Bank of India (a PSU) were raided by the CBI.
  • In January this year, offices of the multi billion dollar conglomerate, ETA were raided by IT officials.
  • June 2016 saw a raid on the GMR group and a big corporate lobbyist.
  • Early on in his term, the Modi government raided Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which owns more media than Roys. Does NYT think that Ambani is small fish?
  • Just last month, the CBI raided the offices of Essar and arrested an Essar group MD and a tax commissioner. Essar is no small fish either.

This list goes on endlessly, Mallya, Axis Bank and a whole host of others have been the target of CBI, ED or IT raids. So it is a bald faced lie to say that the government has not been taking action (so far as raids are concerned) but somehow exclusively targeting only the Roys.

Let us go back to the op-ed again, after attacking the straw-man with lies, the articles claims that the raids were carried out “years after a loan was settled to a private bank’s satisfaction”.

The lie that it is about a loan settlement is repeated, a third time.

Next it says,

“Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, journalists have faced increasing pressures. They risk their careers — or lives — to report news that is critical of the government or delves into matters that powerful politicians and business interests do not want exposed.”

I don’t even know what to say here, this is like something some internet troll on some forum might say. Where are the facts behind such a loose and irresponsible comment? We can however do some fact checking as we have higher standards than the NYT right?

So here it is, some data from a single source, which is left-leaning and hence should be acceptable to the NYT and NDTV fans, for they hate watchdogs like OpIndia.com:

  • In 2012, 5 journalists were killed and 39 attacks reported
  • In 2013, 8 journalists were killed and 19 physical attack on journalists in India
  • In 2014, zero journalists were killed and 8 physical attacks recorded by the same watchdog.
  • In 2015, 8 journalists killed and 30 instances of physical attacks against them reported.
  • 2016 to Apr 2017 saw 50 attacks and zero deaths.

So In 2012 and 2013, 13 journalists were killed and 58 attacks recorded. From 2015 to 2017, 8 journalists were killed and 80 attacks recorded. Can you find a sudden spike in post-Modi era?

Similar trend can be seen from data of an international organisation called Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The attacks against journalists were much higher in 2013, the pre-Modi era.

If you take the Press Freedom Index, India had a rank of 80 in 2002 and by 2014, when Modi era began, it was at 140. The 2017 ranking is 136. A sudden change in post-Modi era?

Now you can disagree or agree with these indices and rankings and even one attack is too many, the fact remains that, with objective data we have on hand, the NYT’s (and other “seculiberals”) blanket assertions that the situation has become worse after May 2014 is just another big bald faced lie.

Let us read more of the NYT brilliance:

“Praveen Swami, a reporter for The Indian Express newspaper, warned on Twitter that Monday’s raids were “a defining moment,” adding: “The last time this sort of thing happened was during the Emergency,” a reference to the strict censorship of 1975-77 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency and ruled as an autocrat.”

To an uninitiated American reading this, it sounds like  these two are of an equal gravity, they won’t know (but I expected the NYT editorial staff to know better), but during the Emergency, Indira government had censors sitting in the offices of newspapers, editing on the spot content, to ensure only what was approved by censors was printed.

Editors and journalists were outright arrested (the Roys are still out free, and not in jail) for going against the government. The control over the press was so tight that even a massacre in the heart of Delhi (Turkman gate massacre) was not reported by the Indian media. To equate raids for alleged criminal collusion and the draconian censorship and controlled during the emergency is not just false, it is downright dangerous.

In all this, the article does not say a word about the financial dealings (possibly illegal) of the Roys, nor does it mention the FEMA violations by the Roys, nor does it say a word about how NDTV and the Roys steadfastly refused to declare their investor details during the UPA era. Is it not journalistic propriety to cover all angles to a story?

But what would we know, we are not the great NYT.

NDTV under I-T scanner for concealing Rs 1600 crore income

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV under I-T scanner for concealing Rs 1600 crore income

The Income Tax Department is looking into undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 1600 crore relating to New Delhi Television. According to a DNA report, inquires in this regard were initiated by Income Tax authorities back in UPA days.

The report, quoting sources, suggest that the assessment of the concealed income of Rs 642.5 crore by NDTV Group and related companies was done in February, 2014. Re-assessment proceedings for concealment of income of Rs 403.85 crore was initiated against M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd owned by Prannoy and Radhika Roy.

In addition, the Reserve Bank of India has reportedly detected violation and contravention of several provisions of FEMA when the ND TV raised money to the tune of Rs 2030 crore. The Enforcement Directorate has issued a show cause notice to this effect.

It could be noted that NDTV had raised funds by floating a galaxy of shell companies. S Gurumurthy, in a cogent article in New Indian Express, had written that between 2006 and 2010, NDTV India had floated 20 wholly-owned subsidiaries in different parts of the world. While seven were based out of Mauritius, eight subsidiary companies were based in India, two were located in Netherlands, one each in London, UAE, and Sweden. Sources in the investigating agencies suggest that these companies had no real business, no employees and even no business premises.

These “letter-box companies”, which were wholly resting on the valuation of NDTV Ltd, together had raised $417 million. Of the $417 million, $267 million was invested by GE Corporation directly or indirectly. $310 million was raised through NDTV Network PLC UK and $117 million were raised via the sale of NDTV Imagine to GE Corporation.

The CBI, on June 9, raided the residence of NDTV promoters Mr and Mrs Prannoy Roy.

The CBI case against NDTV is related to a Rs 375 crore loan from ICICI Bank and a corresponding wrongful loss of Rs 46 crore to the bank that is alleged to have been a result of collusion between Roys and the ICICI officials. But behind this, there is also a chain of borrow, repay and borrow when Roys took a series of loans in 2008 as they sought to buy back a large chunk of NDTV shares from the market.

In December 2007, Roys had bought 7.73 per cent of NDTV shares from General Atlantic. Minority shareholders of NDTV were made an open offer to sell shares. To fund the purchase of shares that the minority shareholders wanted to sell, Roys created a company called RRPR Holdings Private Limited. RRPR borrowed Rs 501 crore from India Bulls Ltd.

To repay part of the India Bulls loan, RRPR borrowed Rs 375 crore from ICICI Bank in October 2008. In August 2009, RRPR found another lender called Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) to repay the ICICI loan. VCPL agreed to pay Rs 350 crore to RRPR in July, 2009.

RRPR’s balance sheets – filed before the Registrar of Companies in March, 2009 – however, showed that it had a loan of Rs 349,26,14,485 from ICICI Bank and an interest of Rs 17,21,80,697 on that loan. Between 31 March and 7 August, 2009 — when RRPR repaid ICICI after receiving the money from VCPL — an additional interest was accumulated and the bank therefore suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 48 crore.

Is BJD’s Jay Panda joining BJP just a matter of time now?

Saswat Panigrahi
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Is BJD’s Jay Panda joining BJP just a matter of time now?

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Lok Sabha MP from Kendrapara, Baijayant Panda is apparently set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to Republic TV, Panda, whose differences with Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik have widened in the recent past, may soon join the BJD.


Currently Panda is on UK tour where he is an international election observer on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Mission. However back home, the news of Panda’s possible joining the BJP has heat up the political temperature of Odisha.

Amid speculation that Panda is planning to join the BJP, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the saffron party welcomes all good people to its fold. “All good people are always welcome to the party with open arms. If they believe in the Prime Minister and the party’s national president Amit Shah’s leadership and support party ideology, they are welcome,” Pradhan told reporters in Bhubaneswar.

It could be noted that Baijayant Panda is a vocal supporter of PM Modi’s policies. Rising above the party line, Panda has showered praises at Modi on various occasions. In the recent times, Panda praised the Modi government for its demonetisation drive. Panda had praised the BJP recently after Uttar Pradesh election results too.

“As for BJP, despite being hard hit by anti-incumbency in Goa and Punjab its success in Uttar Pradesh was resounding, with a whopping 40% vote share. What distinguished its campaign was a resolute return to 2014’s development mantra,” Panda wrote in his monthly column in Times of India.

Panda, however, had defended his stand on BJP under Modi saying that he praises anyone who served the national interest and interests of Odisha.

At the same time, the Kendrapara Lok Sabha MP was open about his displeasure against his own party – the BJD. Following BJP’s unexpected rise and BJD’s downfall in the last Panchayat elections in Odisha, Panda had written an Op-Ed in leading daily ‘Samaj’ asking his party to do the soul searching.

“Key positions in the party are no longer held by those who struggle for the party and may have given honest feedback, but rather opportunist from various fields, including those who had worked against the BJD,” Panda had written.

That did not go down well with the BJD leadership. Months after the Op-Ed and his subsequent comments on social media over the need for course correction in the party, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik sacked him from the BJD Parliamentary Party spokesperson post without even citing any reason.

Recently, supporters of Odisha Health Minister Pratap Jena – who is known as Panda’s detractor – had hurled eggs, chhapals and stones at the Lok Sabha MP while he was launching a water tank project for 5.2 million litres of drinking water in his Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency.

Fissures are growing in the BJD over Baijyanta Panda. Panda has a strong clout in the party. If he switches side, many others will follow the suit. That is precisely the reason Naveen Patnaik was not able to take direct action against Panda.

At a time when the BJD sources maintain that Baijayant Panda’s camp is feeding the national media with feelers, Panda is yet to spell out his intent in as many as words. But this goes without saying that neither the BJD nor him are now comfortable with each other.

Given the context, Panda is best fitted into BJP’s scheme of things. But it is not conclusive when exactly he is switching sides. At a time the BJP looks to win the 2019 Assembly elections in Odisha, Baijayant Panda’s joining will certainly give the saffron party an edge.

But 2019 elections are full two years away. If Panda joins the BJP, he will lose his Lok Sabha membership and there would be a by-poll for the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat within six months of his possible resignation. Only after six months, Panda could be re-elected as a Lok Sabha MP from a BJP ticket.

Panda could be a minister in Narendra Modi Cabinet. Given his understanding on economic policies, he will certainly be an asset to the Modi government.

In politics, timing is always important. It remains to be seen when Panda is switching to the BJP.

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