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Murders around the cow – the other killings that need to stop too

OpIndia Staff
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Murders around the cow – the other killings that need to stop too

The recent case of lynching of a man in Alwar has highlighted the problem of grave crimes that takes place in the name of gau raksha (cow protection). The visuals of violence left everybody shocked who demanded action against the culprits. The furore over cow vigilantism reached the Supreme Court too, which on Friday issued notices to six states over a petition that sought to ban cow protection groups.

While the focus on crimes committed in the name of cow protection is required, what is also required is a focus on problems of cow smuggling so that this menace is tackled from both the sides.

One of the reasons illegal slaughterhouses were banned by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was cattle theft and smuggling, unfortunately these reasons were never discussed in the mainstream media, which chose to focus on non-issues like a particular kebab shop in Lucknow being closed for a day.

But just because the mainstream media doesn’t make them headlines or topic of debates, it doesn’t mean that the problem is not grave. Given below are some instances when cattle smugglers not only broke law, but indulged in killings of police officers and common citizens.

This is just an indicative list:

1. What took place: 27-year-old police constable Ashok Kumar Yadav was killed and six policemen were injured as they tried to chase the cattle laden truck, which bulldozed through the barrier at the toll booth and on hit the police vehicle on being intercepted.

When : 1 June, 2013
Where: Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh

2. What took place: Two residents of former UP minister Bhagwat Saran Gangwar ‘s village Ahmedabad under Nawabgunj tehsil were killed by a gang when villagers tried to stop them from taking away the livestock of local residents for illegal slaughtering. While one was identified as Chokey Lal, an elderly person, the body of the second victim whose identity isn’t known was found in a battered condition, leaving the residents fuming and opining that in a place where cattle symbolises power and opulence, cattle smugglers indulge in crime unabashed.

When: 7 February 2014
Where: Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh

3. What took place: A cattle laden vehicle killed two and injured many policemen, attached to Jait police outpost, when they tried to intercept it near Azizpur village in Mathura. The vehicle ran over home guard Ghan Shyam and then collided with the police van resulting into injuries to head Constables Ram Vakil who later succumbed to injuries, Constable Rajeev and Home Guard Bhanu Pratap.

When: 20 February, 2015
Where: Mathura, Uttar Pradesh

4. What took place: Cattle smugglers killed a Police Sub-Inspector. Sub-Inspector Manoj Mishra and a constable tried to nab a gang of cattle smugglers who were taking away 50 to 60 cattle. But the smugglers opened fire and managed to flee injuring the SI, who breath his last on the way to the hospital.

When: 10 September, 2015
Where: Bareily, Uttar Pradesh

5. What took place: Prashant Poojary (29) a flower merchant was brutally murdered in broad daylight by six men atop two motorcycles who attacked him with sharp weapons at a market in Moodbidri, when he was selling flowers as usual. Poojary, believed to be involved with the Bajrang Dal, was actively involved in stopping illegal cow slaughter and transportation.

When: 9 October 2015
Where: Moodbidri, Karnataka

6. What took place: Arun Kumar Mahaur, a Dalit VHP leader, who ran campaigns against cow slaughter was shot dead by five men in Mandola area, in Ghaziabad, by those running illegal slaughter houses.

When: 27 February 2016
Where: Agra, Uttar Pradesh

7. What took place: A minor girl, Nirdesh Singh (16), resident of Ahmadabad village, in Etah district was shot at by unidentified cattle thieves as she spotted them trying to take away her cattle from the barn in the backyard of her house. They fled the spot leaving the young girl lying in a pool of blood. Local villagers and farmers had held massive protests against this, for which they were lathicharged by police.

When: 1 June 2016
Where: Etah District, Uttar Pradesh

8. What took place: 55 year old Data Ram, a chowkidar at Chak Lateef Imamgarh village, who tipped off the Police about cow slaughters and incidents of cruelty toward the animal died after he was attacked by two youngsters with a stone. Ram who was returning home with two stray cows that were handed to him by the police who recovered them in an open field and suspected they were meant for slaughtering, was killed on suspicion of being a police informer.

When: 3 June 2016
Where: Azamgarh, Lucknow

9. What took place: Unidentified bovine smugglers mowed down Dalit man, Dinesh Kumar (35) of Jaatav community and resident of Pilkhatar Jait village to steal his cattle, killing him on the spot.

When: 19 June 2016
Where: Agra, Uttar Pradesh

10. What took place: Police officer crushed to death by cattle smugglers. 56-year-old Triloki Tiwari, a head constable who had just been promoted to the post of sub-inspector , along with two constables was inspecting vehicles and signalled a cattle loaded vehicle coming their way to stop. The smugglers chose to run the van over him and escape.

When: 5 August, 2016
Where: Jaunpur,Uttar Pradesh

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As we can see, those who protect the cow (a crucial asset for many rural families and the rural economy) become the victims of murderous crimes too. This gives rise to a circle of violence and grave crimes, with some groups exploiting the situation to their advantage.

We need to stand up against this violence as strongly as we do against the criminals masquerading as cow protectors. Both feed each other and both have no place in a civilised society.

Why some people support prohibition and why it finds political backing

Amrit Hallan
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Why some people support prohibition and why it finds political backing

Ban is a strong expression. The moment someone throws a “ban” at us, the rebellious teenager inside us begins to oppose, even if it is something we personally may not approve of.

For example, going vegetarian had become fashion of sorts. Cuddly articles on various celebrities embracing vegetarianism appeared with great regularity. Famous people got themselves photographed naked to show how much they love animals.

But the moment you say that meat might be banned (though there is no real threat), even those whose multiple generations have not eaten meat get outraged. And it’s not outlandish, for the basic idea here is personal liberty and freedom of choice.

Similarly, people these days are alarmed at the prospects of liquor being banned. To be honest, unlike the ‘meat-ban’ that is outcome of fake news and exaggerations, this is a banning possibility that is already materialising.

Recently Bihar declared itself a dry state. The sale of liquor is prohibited in Gujarat. Kerala has set a plan in motion that aspires to stop the legal sale of liquor in 10 years (the campaign kicked off in 2014). You cannot legally sell alcoholic beverages in Manipur and Nagaland. The same is the case in Lakshadweep.

The latest state to join the bandwagon is Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh too recently declared that all liquor shops in the state will be phased out, although he hasn’t set a deadline. Add to these, the Supreme Court has ordered that no liquor shop can operate within 500 metres of the National Highway.

If this goes on, barring Punjab (Punjabis cannot survive without liquor), the entire India will be covered under the ominous pall of liquor ban within a span of 10-15 years.

Now this is worth outraging.

One wonders why would a government indulge in this? What makes it further intriguing is the fact that this (prohibition) has been implemented by various governments headed by leaders cutting across political and ideological divides.

According to 2016 figures, the state of Uttar Pradesh makes a revenue of Rs 14,083 crores from the liquor business. Madhya Pradesh, that is heading towards a total prohibition, earns a revenue of Rs 7,926 crore. Why are they willing to let go an important source of revenue?

Then there are arguments about how prohibition creates a ripe ground for smugglers, bootleggers and corrupt cops. The entire underworld of Mumbai has its roots to the days when gold import was banned. The same Mumbai underworld has been involved in not just causing riots but also providing logistic support to terrorists.

Another problem that may arise out of liquor ban within our current democratic constraints is that people would tend to purchase illicit alcohol with greater frequency, needlessly exposing themselves to life-threatening, poisoned liquor, especially those who don’t have access to illicitly procured refined liquor at higher cost.

Do governments or political parties don’t realise it?

Obviously they do, but they also realise that people who would be happy with prohibition perhaps far outnumber those who would be unhappy. In the end, it is the politics that wins, not the economics.

This is where we need to find out what makes people support prohibition. Can we address their concerns while we fight against prohibition? Let us look at the arguments that favour banning alcohol.

Liquor consumption certainly has its social problems. Women from the lower strata are attacking liquor shops because lives and households have been ruined. Women and kids are the biggest victims of alcoholism in many instances. I’ve lost two cousins because of alcoholism in Punjab. Talking of Punjab, the entire State of Punjab is on the verge of ruin – the last time I visited one of its major cities, there was a liquor shop every kilometer, literally.

Yes, you may say that just because some people cause accidents we can’t ban all vehicles and in the same manner just because some people can’t control themselves liquor shouldn’t be made unavailable to everyone, and I totally agree. The same conflict happens in the US where many people believe that the right to own guns should be abolished but the others believe that just because certain people misuse guns doesn’t mean the right to own guns should be taken away from people who use these arms responsibly.

Irrefutably, certainly problems are associated with alcohol consumption. Although alcohol consumption is widespread, it is not as mainstream as, let’s say, drinking tea or coffee. People believe that many civil crimes (I’m not talking about robberies, dacoities and other premeditated crimes) happen when people have had a good share of daaru.

All sorts of shady elements frequent liquor shops and in fact, this is the reason finding a “wine shop” in the neighborhood is not as easy as finding a kirana shop. All liquor shops have a dark aura around them and they normally operate at the peripheries of civilization. You will never find a Christmas tree decoration or a Diwali decoration in front of a liquor shop. People don’t give liquor bottles as gifts during festivals unless they are property dealers, pimps and underworld bhailog. There is a reason why. Gifting alcohol bottles isn’t same as gifting a box of sweets. I have a friend who puts an ilaichi or a spoon of saunf when he leaves after having beer with me because he respects his parents too much to let it be known to them that he has consumed beer (left to my father on the other hand, if it weren’t for my mother and now, for my wife, he would have turned me into an alcoholic for sure).

Hypothetically, whether one agrees with the ban or not, if liquor is banned it will be the proverbial “chaandi” for smugglers, but on the flip side, how many people actually have access to these smugglers and bootleggers? In most of the cases, it won’t be worth the effort to contact a criminal or a shady cop for the evening party. Having alcohol during regular soirees won’t be as casual as it is now. People will actually enjoy each other’s company instead of getting drunk. During marriages and festivals people won’t be able to create a nuisance in the garb of being drunk (“O ji zara zada ho gayi thi, bura mat manna“). No Punjabi marriage is considered complete without a drunken broil!

On a serious note, we have to realise that a large part of the country we live in is not only conservative, but has some serious social problems that they are seeking solutions to. The problem is more severe in rural areas where 45% people indulge in excessive drinking compared to urban areas where just 23% people indulge in excessive drinking (source). 20-30% hospitalization cases are due to alcohol-related problems. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau 15 people die every day due to alcohol consumption and the figures are rapidly rising (source).

Remember Anna Hazare, much before he got on the national television thanks to Kejriwal and company, he was lauded for converting his village Ralegan Siddhi into a “model village”. He got Padma Bhushan award for that way back in 1992 itself. And guess what, prohibition is a part of that model village. Not just that, people consuming liquor have been tied to a tree and flogged!

We have to realise that the rural and suburban India sees alcohol as root of many evils — and they could be mistaken — but their concerns have to be addressed before we teach them about liberty and choice.

In their experience, they have seen alcohol not as a matter of choice, but matter of public safety. They see alcohol when a husband in inebriated state beats up his wife and children, when people crash their cars into other cars and motorbikes when drunk, when people lose control of their senses and end up committing a crime like brawl or molestation. For a large part of the population, alcohol is seen as a right to enter into your private territory and cause damages.

Their fears are real and not imagined. A report says that 70% of all the road accidents that happen in India happen due to drunken driving, with official figures (which basically means actual figures could be much higher) of fatalities being 1.34 lakhs every year. This led to the Supreme Court passing orders of closing down wine shops near national highways.

We need to convince — first ourselves and then these people who support prohibition — whether the social issues are entirely related to alcohol and whether prohibition helps in improving the situation.

For example, many people claim that prohibition makes law and order condition better. I’ve heard — and I could be mistaken because I haven’t experienced this myself — in Gujarat women can safely roam around at midnight. Many claim that lots of credit for this goes to unavailability of liquor. Though, it isn’t confirmed whether the low crime rate against women in Gujarat is because of prohibition or a generally better law and order situation.

Let me again make it clear that I am not in favour of prohibition. No matter what civil or legal problems a particular tendency brings to the table, banning something is always a double-edged sword. It should always be a road less taken, and preferably, a road that should be avoided. When you take the banning route, you can trigger a chain of events that will be difficult to stop. Every other interest group would demand some sort of banning.

With this article, I am just trying to highlight why this particular banning finds resonance and support with many people. We need to address those issues.

Let me end with a little anecdote that I want to share.

I used to have a help from Bihar during Lalu’s infamous jungle raj time. Once he was telling me that in rural areas in Bihar, it wasn’t advisable to go out after 4 in the evening because it wasn’t safe and if you went out after 4, and if something happened to you, it was your fault. He had internalized the concept that the law and order problem and social dynamics are never going to change and he didn’t even consider them as problems. He had accepted them as an existential reality and instead of wanting to change them, he preferred “banning” of movement after 4 pm.

Banning liquor is like that. It’s like deciding to not to go in a dark alley full of criminals instead of lighting up the alley and ridding it of criminals. If we go on avoiding alleys like these, one day, we will have no place to go.

6 sly digs Arnab Goswami took at ‘compromised’ media persons in his latest interview

OpIndia Staff
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6 sly digs Arnab Goswami took at ‘compromised’ media persons in his latest interview

Arnab Goswami’s latest venture “Republic” is due for its launch very soon. In the run up, Arnab gave an interview to the magazine Man’s world, where-in he slayed some of his competitors from the space of media. Here are the best comments from the interview: (you can read the full interview here)

1. When asked to explain Lutyen’s media’s bias:

Not a bias, but I think there are people in Delhi who believe that they’re the custodians of Indian journalism. And, they have been in the past, because the power centre is there and all the political magazines and newspapers are there. Now those people are too much into each other’s hair. They eat together, meet together, socialise together. And, slowly, unknowingly, or maybe knowingly, over the course of the last 30-40 years, they have become co-opted by the political class. If you go to Delhi, you will find that all those people in media who are supposed to be reporting on the politicians are wining and dining with the politicians. I’m not saying they’ve become corrupt — that may be too strong a word, but they have become compromised. They’ve become co-opted. That’s what I mean by the Lutyens’s media. I don’t necessarily mean people who are staying in that three-kilometre zone in Delhi, even though a lot of them do.

I hear stories about ill-gotten wealth. I hear about editors having massive farmhouses worth hundreds of crores in Chhatarpur. You cannot make that kind of money through an honest journalist’s income.

hmm… who are these journalists he is referring to? We won’t hazard a guess as they are known to sue.

2. Further elaborating the above point:

I’m going to continue to question them. Because the Nira Radia tapes episode showed that there was a direct link between some journalists who were acting as mediators for corporate houses and politicians. I think that’s very unfortunate. We can’t live in denial anymore about what’s happening in our own profession.

Is Barkha going to throw a fit again, or will Vir Sanghvi do it now?

3. Not coy anymore, on Barkha Dutt:

I feel Barkha Dutt should check her facts. Barkha Dutt was openly praised by a person called Hafiz Saeed. While I’m nobody to comment on people, if people begin to distract attention from the praise of Hafiz Saeed by imagining that I’ve taken their name — these people should first stop imagining I’ve taken their name. I have made a comment against the media that speaks against the nation. If anyone begins to believe that the reference is against them, then they should ask themselves why they feel that way. I have never taken any names. It’s what you call the guilty conscience of some journalists. That journalist in question must ask themselves, ‘Why is Hafiz Saeed praising me?’ Is it because that Indian journalist has done a lot in lionising another terrorist called Burhan Wani? Hafiz Saeed would love an Indian journalist whose documentary is praising Burhan Wani as some kind of Facebook hero. Why does an Indian journalist lionise Burhan Wani? Why does an Indian journalist serve the purpose of the Lashkar-e-Taiba sitting in India? You have an Indian passport, you’re on an Indian channel, you’re earning in Indian rupees, you’re broadcasting to Indian people. Why are you doing things that will help Lashkar-e-Taiba, which kills thousands of people in our country? Having received that praise from Hafiz Saeed, why then do you want to fight the windmills and imagine that Arnab took your name? Arnab did not take your name. There’s a section of media in India that works against India’s interests. I think it is time for some of us to speak out against them and expose them.

BOOM!

4. When asked to explain his channel’s “India bias”:

I want to know why a section of the Lutyens’s media has a bias against India. It is true. I don’t think they are vested in this country. It is shocking what I’m about to tell you. But, there are some people who don’t even have Indian passports. They are Indian in ethnicity, but have chosen to be American citizens. They are running digital media companies. I want to know where they are receiving their funding from, and what their sources of income are. There is an American citizen running a digital news site in India, inciting students in JNU, speaking openly for Maoists, and questioning Republic. I doubt the intentions of these people. They’re certainly not for India.

Ahem! Sidharth Vardarajan of TheWire.in

5. On “left liberals”:

The problem is that I don’t know what is liberal and what is left-liberal. There are a bunch of people who like to sip the best Scotch in Delhi Gymkhana and call themselves left-liberal. What is left-liberal? If you’re a leftist, you can’t be a liberal. If you’re a liberal, you can’t be a leftist.

Precisely! “Left-liberal” is an oxymoron, but we have to concede that even we have used this term matter-of-factly

6. On the medias coverage of the UP elections:

The media should go into penance for what happened in UP. I mean, it just shows that the Lutyens’s media has no clue about this country. A lot of top editors went to UP and said Akhilesh and Rahul are going to do phenomenally well. They are clueless. All of these people, I strongly suggest, should go into 14 years of vanvas from journalism, and find out why they have lost their touch. They are seeing the reality they want to imagine. Some of these so-called prominent editors, some of whom were also prominent in the Nira Radia tapes, have tweeted their anger at Rahul Gandhi. They are actually upset that Rahul has not performed up to their expectations. Rahul and Akhilesh, it seemed to me, were puppets of a certain section of the pseudosecular media, who wanted to present them as the two saviours.

I spoke to a few reporters and asked, ‘Why did you misread what happened in UP?’ They said, ‘We did not misread. But our bosses and their bosses in Delhi had already made up their minds about what the UP result was going to be.’

Radia again! Take your pick 😉

Update and Editor’s Note (17th April 2017): This article earlier contained 8 sly digs, but now has been shortened to 6 because Times Group found two comments made by Mr. Arnab Goswami defamatory and libelous towards them and their top management. Times Group has served a legal notice to Arnab Goswami, his company, some senior people associated with his company, and to media platforms that carried his statements, including to OpIndia.com and Man’s World magazine. After internal deliberations, we removed the two comments that were objected to by the Times Group. They were not our own editorial comments, only for which we can take responsibility and liability. Even now, this article remains a report about the interview done by a third-party (Man’s World magazine); it is not any endorsement of the interview content or of Arnab Goswami’s views in totality, except his views on the so-called Left-Liberals and his views about Lutyens media bias as is clear from commentary in this article.

No! Modi Govt does not want to fix the portion size of food in restaurants

OpIndia Staff
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No! Modi Govt does not want to fix the portion size of food in restaurants

On the menu for outrage on social media yesterday, was the story titled “Eat what you order: Modi government to fix portions of food served in hotels” in the Hindustan Times. Expectedly, social media users across the political spectrum trashed the proposal and other media houses curated the story too:

This overreach of the Government had disturbed people, especially since it came soon after the (fake) news that thanks to a Government suggestion, petrol pumps would shut down on Sundays.

But is that the truth? If one goes by the statement given by Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan (video below), it appears that the Government has no intention to “fix the portion size of food” served at restaurants:

Instead, this is what Mr Paswan said (emphasis added):

When we go to have food in restaurants, and when we see the wastage of food which takes place, then we feel such wastage is unjustified in a country where the poor remain hungry. Hence we have taken this step in the interest of the consumer, wherein we will ask the industry, whether they are willing to do it voluntarily, or they need a law to mandate it: that when they serve a portion of food to a person, they should mention in writing how much quantity of food would be served in the portion, whether one piece or two piece, whether one chapati or two chapatis, whether on idli or two idlis . We don’t want to control anything. We are doing this in the interest of consumers. Where are we saying that you should keep only so much quantity in one portion, we are only saying you should mention the quantity being served in each portion.

Quite clearly, the proposal seems to be in an early stage where discussions with the industry are going on. And importantly, rather than “fixing portion size”, the idea is to make restaurants declare the size of the portions they are serving. This was made very clear by the minister.

In fact, if one sees the video, one can see the NDTV reporter Sunetra Choudhury trying to force fit words like “uniformity” but the minister sticks to his statement. The move may be in line with the practice of sale of packaged items, where the net weight / quantity etc has to be specified on a product.

Hence, the initial report by Hindustan Times may not be giving a complete picture. In fact later in the day, media reports correctly reported the statement of Mr Paswan:

While the merits of the idea maybe debatable, it is certainly wrong to claim that the Government wants to fix the portion size of food in restaurants, especially since the minister has explicitly ruled it out.

National Conference toeing dangerous separatist line in Kashmir

OpIndia Staff
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National Conference toeing dangerous separatist line in Kashmir

The mainstream political parties of Jammu & Kashmir, especially the National Conference (NC) was supposed to oppose separatist and Jihadi elements and work towards a solution to the Kashmir insurgency, but looks like hunger for political power has blinded the party and its leadership.

Yesterday, the entire nation was shocked when Pakistan decided to award death penalty to Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav for allegedly indulging in espionage activities in Balochistan. Both Indian and international agencies are questioning the lack of evidence and possible lack of procedures during the whole matter. We had also reported how there were glaring contradictions in the alleged confession statement of Jadhav and in the statements of various Pak authorities.

But even after all the reports, National Conference leader and brother of former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, Mustafa Kamal stated that it wasn’t correct for India to point fingers at Pakistan regarding this issue:


Such respect for (Pakistani) laws and procedures was totally missing in Kamal when in 2012 he had questioned the Indian legal system for awarding capital punishment to terrorist Afzal Guru in the Parliament attack case.

What signal is a senior NC leader sending out by questioning judgments of the Supreme Court of India but accepting judgment of a court of Pakistan?

If this was not enough, NC members today openly shouted anti-India slogans in the valley today. What was worse is that they were joined by the members of the Congress party:



The situation in the Kashmir valley has worsened in recent days with only 7% voter turnout and 200 instances of violence reported during the Kashmir by-elections. In view of that, it was decided to defer the elections in the Anantnag parliamentary constituency. But instead of helping the situation, NC decided to stoke the fire.

It raises the question again if the party of Abdullahs have now decided to go rogue. In 2012, when his brother had questioned the hanging of terrorist Afzal Guru, Farooq Abdullah had condemned his statement. But it turns out that after going out of power, the Abdullah father-son duo too seem to have started whipping up separatist and Jihadi sentiments.

In December last year, Senior Abdullah was quoted as extending his party’s full support to the Hurryat to aid their separatist struggle for the Kashmiri Azadi cause while addressing his party workers at the mausoleum of his father and founder of the National Conference, late Sheikh Abdullah. A couple of weeks before that, he had commented on India’s claim over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir by saying ‘Kya ye (POK) tumhare baap ka hai?

Senior Abdullah has continued his separatist juggernaut and on 5th April was quoted as saying that stone pelters were giving up their lives for the resolution of the Kashmiri issue. He also claimed that the stone pelter was pelting stones for his nation. What resolution and what nation is he talking about was something that intrigued everyone.

Even junior Abdullah has been recorded making controversial and extremist statements such as:


Earlier he had also made comments terming hanging of Afzal Guru a ‘political‘ move, thus hinting that it was not a fair judgment.

Whatever political mileage Abdullahs are trying to derive for their party through these utterings, it surely is at the cost of Indian interests.

Poster War grips Delhi ahead of the MCD polls

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Poster War grips Delhi ahead of the MCD polls

Delhi will have elections to elect councillors to MCD on 23rd April, and the political temperature is rising ahead of it. For AAP, it’s a bid to stay relevant in the Indian politics after a crushing defeat in Goa and Punjab. For the BJP, defeating AAP is a huge prestige issue after it was badly hammered in the Delhi Assembly elections, where AAP one 67 out of 70 seats. While for Congress, victory in MCD after winning Punjab will make them believe that the worst phase is over.

With stakes high for every party, the polls are being keenly contested. It has also attracted some controversy after the State Election Commission (SEC) found the AAP govt guilty of using its official position to influence voters and for making promises which many believe it wouldn’t be able to keep.

A new controversy was added to the list when BJP leader Vijender Gupta objected to a poster put up by the Aam Aadmi Party:


Similar posters were put by AAP ahead of 2015 Delhi assembly elections too, where they had pitted Kejriwal against BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, even though he was not the CM candidate of BJP. The party had termed the act of AAP “childish” then, but this time, they decided to act against it:


In his letter [1][2], Gupta began by expressing his disgust at AAP and Kejriwal indulging in bad practices and breaching election rules. He claimed that his distorted picture was shown in the posters and claimed that the party had no permission to use his poster, distorted or otherwise. He asked the MCD to ensure that such posters were immediately removed.

The SEC seems to have addressed Vijender Gupta’s demands and has now sent a notice [1][2] to the AAP pointing out a clause in the model code of conduct, which mentions that parties should refrain from criticism based on a politicians private life, unverified allegations and distortions. The SEC has given AAP 48 hrs to respond to the commission.

In the meantime, BJP has put up its own posters.

In one such poster put up by Delhi BJP’s spokesperson Tajender Bagga, Arvind Kejriwal’s alleged samosa bill of 1 crore is highlighted:

In another poster, real images are used as against a cartoon for Kejriwal. Real images of various AAP leaders accused of various crimes have been highlighted in this poster:

AAP is yet to respond to these posters with new ones.

This isn’t the only time the posters created during elections have drawn widespread attention. Two Congress party workers named Haseeb Ahmad and Shreesh Chandra Dubey from Allahabad have elicited praise for the innovative posters they have been putting out.

Tulsidas wrote Hanuman Chalisa, but do you know who composed its popular music?

Nityanand Misra
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Tulsidas wrote Hanuman Chalisa, but do you know who composed its popular music?

Today is the full-moon day of Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu calendar. Today is Hanuman Jayanti, or the appearance day of Hanuman, as per the Skanda Purana and Ananda Ramayana. Hanuman is the quintessential character without whom the Ramayana is incomplete. He figures prominently in all major versions of Ramayana, starting from the original Ramayana by Valmiki, where he is described as the knower of the three Veda-s and the nine grammars, to the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas, where he is remembered as the ‘kapishvara’ along with the ‘kavishvara’ Valmiki in the epic’s very fourth verse.

Apart from popularizing the Ramayana in the vernacular Awadhi, Tulsidas is also credited with popularizing the independent worship of Hanuman in northern parts of India. He is traditionally believed to be the founder of the Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple in Varanasi and the author of the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’, the celebrated prayer to Hanuman.

The Hanuman Chalisa is written in Awadhi, a language spoken in central Uttar Pradesh by just around three percent of India’s population. And yet, its popularity in India transcends all conceivable boundaries of language and geography. In November 2015, I compiled a mix of forty different renditions of the Chalisa in one video. The performers in the compilation included native speakers of as many as 16 Indian languages and speakers of even Guyanese Creole, Ga/Akan, and English:

While there are many musical renditions of the Chalisa, arguably the most popular one is by the late Hari Om Sharan (1932–2007), fondly known as ‘Dadaji’ to his fans. The ‘original’ rendition by Hari Om Sharan was released in 1974 as an LP recording on vinyl discs by The Gramophone Company of India Ltd (popularly known as HMV, which was later rebranded as Saregama).

This LP had only three songs — the Hanuman Chalisa, the Hanuman-Ashtak (also attributed to Tulsidas), and the Hanuman Aarti. For the Hanuman Chalisa track, the two introductory doha-s and all the forty chaupai-s were sung solo by Hari Om Sharan, while the concluding ‘doha’ was sung by Pradeep Chaterjee, Surinder Kohli, and Amber Kumar. These are the images of this legendary LP release:

Since 1974, this rendition by Hari Om Sharan has been played in millions of homes and thousands of temples from vinyl discs, audio cassettes, CDs, mp3s, and streaming websites. It became the target of countless imitations over the years. It made Hari Om Sharan a ‘rockstar’ wherever he went. I was told by his wife, the Guyana-born Ms Nandini Sharan, that during his tours to the Caribbean in the 1970s and 1980s, stadia would be filled with people of Indian descent cheering Hari Om Sharan and shouting “We want Hanuman Chalisa.”

In 2015, when I was working on the annotated and expanded English translation of the ‘Mahaviri’ commentary by Swami Rambhadracharya on the Hanuman Chalisa, I wanted to include an appendix on musical notation. Going by its popularity, I decided on the version by Hari Om Sharan for engraving using the Western staff notation. Since music as well as any form of graphical musical notation, whether recorded or not, are both copyrighted under the Indian Copyright Act, I had to take the permission of the copyright holder before I could include the notation in my book.

While searching for who owns the copyright, I realized that in addition to the countless imitation releases by street artistes, recordings with the same musical tunes (except for a few changes in a note or two here and there) as the 1974 Hari Om Sharan version were released by major record labels. As an example, although the music composer is credited differently, the music of the following three releases is almost entirely the same:

1) The ‘original’ Hari Om Sharan version: The 1974 LP by The Gramophone Company of India credits the music to Murli Manohar Swaroop, who composed the score for the abridged Ramcharitmanas sung by the Bollywood singer Mukesh. The version can be heard online here (track number 6).

2) The Hariharan version: The 1992 music video featuring Gulshan Kumar was released by Super Cassettes Industries Limited and credited Chander and Lalit Sen as the music composers. The official YouTube video of this version has had more than 37 million views as of today.

3) The ‘new’ Hari Om Sharan version: The 1995 audio CD release by Super Cassettes Industries Limited credited Hari Om Sharan himself as the music composer. Hari Om Sharan later also acted in a music video for the recording. The official YouTube video has had less than half a million views, but an unofficial YouTube upload has amassed more than 2 million views.

To complicate the matters further, I was told by Ms. Nandini Sharan that it was Hari Om Sharan himself who came up with the tunes for the 1974 release, while Murli Manohar Swaroop ‘arranged’ the music and got credited as the composer.

I contacted one of the record labels on the copyrights for the notation, explaining that I needed to include the notation in a book and needed their permission. The officials were reluctant to say anything on the record on the matter. I first got responses like “We have never seen such a request earlier” and “We do not have the notation, there is no practice of recording it”.

When I made further requests over several weeks, I was told off the record by the officials that most likely the tunes are traditional, and since several record labels have released recordings with the same music, they are themselves not sure who owns the copyright.

While it cannot be confirmed, it is likely that the 1974 Hari Om Sharan rendition was based on traditional tunes. I do not know much about Murli Manohar Swaroop’s influences, but Hari Om Sharan was inspired by folk music. Ms. Nandini Sharan once narrated to me that her Lahore-born late husband was separated from his family during the cross-border migration in 1947 and spent several years wandering as a vagabond in the Himalayas, learning music from bards and picking up tunes from folk musicians.

My search for the owner of the copyright had hit a dead end. I finally wrote the 12-page musical notation myself. stating that it was “based on traditional melodies which have been used in three popular renditions.” Rohit Sinha in Mumbai and Chandramouli Rotti in Gandhinagar were kind enough to proofread the notation and suggest some edits. The musical notation can be downloaded from here.

(Nityanand Misra is an IIM-Bangalore graduate who works in the investment banking industry. He has edited six books in Hindi and Sanskrit, and has authored the English book ‘Mahaviri: Hanuman-Chalisa Demystified’, which is an expanded and annotated translation of the Mahaviri commentary on the Hanuman Chalisa. The English version of the book is available here, and the original one in Hindi here.)

Will petrol pumps now be closed every Sunday to realize PM Modi’s vision?

OpIndia Staff
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Will petrol pumps now be closed every Sunday to realize PM Modi’s vision?

Late evening on Monday, the 10th of April, social media was sent into a tizzy by one tweet by newspaper Business Standard:


Many who read this tweet and the accompanying headline, interpreted this move of shutting down petrol pumps on Sundays, to be a move aimed at reducing fuel consumption, which was suggested by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his radio address Mann Ki Baat a couple of weeks back. PM had appealed that people should try to avoid using vehicles for a day in week. Thus, readers assumed that either this (petrol pumps to be closed on Sundays) was a decision by the Government or it was based on a nudge by the Government.

Interestingly, Times of India too, among other media houses, reported this issue in a post titled ”Petrol pumps may take off on Sundays”. But the main reason given here was that the pumps were looking at this option if the Central Government didn’t hike the commission dealers get for fuel purchase. The article quoted a certain Ravi Shinde of the Petrol Dealers’ Association who claimed that the oil marketing companies had assured them of a revision in January but nothing had happened in that regard. It was a short piece and had no mention of Modi’s appeal for lower fuel consumption.

The Times of India post was very short and the complete story was available in the Business Standard report itself. The (original) report claimed that an organization called Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) had asked its members to shut shop. This organisation claims to have an influence on 25,000 petrol pumps in Maharashtra and Southern India. The report also mentioned that the president of All India Petroleum Dealers’ Association Ajay Bansal said that they weren’t in favour of this decision as it might lead to widespread panic. He though reiterated that they had the same demands, i.e. to increase the dealer’s commission.

So where did PM Modi come into this? Business Standard carried a direct quote of the CIPD president A D Sathyanarayan, in which he reportedly had claimed that the move came in light of PM’s appeal. The issue about the demand for additional commission was also mentioned, but the main cause for the Sunday shut-down was given as PM Modi’s call.

Screenshot of original article

But strangely, as of today morning, the Business Standard report was “updated”. The opening paragraph now said this (emphasis added):

A section of petroleum dealers said they would shut their retail outlets every Sunday starting May 14. Many see this as a tactic to pressure government for higher commission.

The tweet and the headline of the original post had linked the move to PM’s appeal, but now the first paragraph itself alluded that this move could be a pressure tactic.

Moving further, the direct quote of CIPD president A D Sathyanarayan, where he had reportedly said the move is linked to the PM’s appeal was missing. Instead, the report now stated that the CIPD had stated the same:

The Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) on Monday asked members to shut shop on Sundays, in line with the prime minister’s vision to reduce fuel consumption.

This raises the question as to why was the direct quote made indirect? Why was the quote, which was initially attributed to a specific person, now attributed to the organisation? Was it not really a direct quote or did the quote have no basis in the 1st place?

It may be noted that the entire basis of linking this shut-down on Sundays to PM Modi was this very quote by Mr A D Sathyanarayan. Incidentally neither TOI nor any other media houses [1][2] which put out a report on the same issue, have any mention of this angle or the quote.

Also according to other reports A D Sathyanarayan hardly appears interested in fulfilling any sort of vision by the PM. Sathyanarayan has been quoted to be concerned about dealers getting some margin money based on a Apurva Chandra Committee report which was overlooked since 2011. The same man was at the helm of an agitation in January against accepting cards at Petrol Pumps as the dealers not the consumers had to bear merchant discount rate first levied by the HDFC.

To summarise, the Business Standard:

  1. Had initially promoted the Sunday shut-down linking it directly to the PM’s appeal, but has now “updated” the piece to now allude that this may be a pressure tactic
  2. Had initially claimed that a direct quote by Mr A D Sathyanarayan was the basis of this angle, has all but deleted the direct quote, and now attributes the same, indirectly, to the organisation rather than the person.

While the quote (which has not been reported by any other media house independently) may or may not be true, it appears even Business Standard agrees that their initial report was misleading, to put it mildly.

Know more about the Indian ‘spy’ Pakistan has decided to execute

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Know more about the Indian ‘spy’ Pakistan has decided to execute

The Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) Pakistan, which is the media wing of the Pakistani Armed Forces, on Monday announced that an Indian national named Kulbushan Sudhir Jadhav had been awarded the death penalty after being tried through the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under Pakistan Army Act (PAA). This death sentence was also confirmed by Pakistani COAS Gen Bajwa.

Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav was tasked by the RAW to plan, coordinate and organize espionage/sabotage activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and Karachi. Pakistan reportedly found him guilty based on their supposed claim that he had confessed before a court and magistrate. Jadhav was arrested on 3rd March 2016 from Mashkel, Balochistan but his arrest was not announced until 24th March.

So moving away from the Pakistani army’s propaganda, let’s try look at the issue via another lens, the response by the Indian establishment to the whole affair. The Indian Govt even though had acknowledged that he was a retired Navy officer, it had categorically denied that he was in any way connected to the govt or on any ‘spying’ mission in Pakistan.

What casts further aspersions over the Pakistan’s ‘trial’ is the fact that the Indian officials were denied access to Jadhav throughout the process. It was reported that the New Delhi had sought consular access to Jadhav by issuing as many as six note verbales (letters of protest) to the Pakistan foreign ministry.

Based on available information, Jadhav was born on 16 April 1970 and joined the NDA in 1987. He was commissioned in the Engineering branch of the Navy in 1991. His family currently resides in the Hiranandani complex in Powai. Jadhav’s father Sudhir Jadhav retired as the ACP in Mumbai.

At the time of his arrest, Jadhav was reportedly carrying a passport with the name Hussein Mubarak Patel, this according to Indian officials meant that he wasn’t a spy, for had he been one he wouldn’t have been carrying an Indian passport.

After Jadhav was arrested, it was reported that Jadhav’s family members had claimed that he had quit the Navy and was engaged in a legitimate business of cargo transportation, ferrying cargo between ports in Iran. The family after hearing of Jadhav’s arrest had flown to Delhi to meet with the MEA officials about a possible course of action.

Reports claimed that Pakistani authorities arrested Jadhav after they caught him talking fluently in Marathi with his family even though he was posing as Husain Mubarak Patel, a Muslim of non-Marathi origin.

Pakistan around that time also released an alleged video of Kulbushan Jadhav where he is seen confessing about him being a RAW agent who was in Balochistan to destabilize the region. Though reports have stated that a forensic examination of the video conducted by the Indian intelligence agencies had found the video to be heavily edited with the audio being spliced up is several places. There were also instances where Jadhav’s facial expression didn’t match the voice over. The three-week gap between the arrest and the announcement also led to the speculation of Pakistanis using coercive measures for extracting the so-called confession statement.

What raised further red flags was the fact that the video was released by the Pakistanis on 29th March last year, which was incidentally the same day a Pakistani team was in Pathankot to investigate the attack on the Indian Air base.

There were also inconsistencies in the statements by the Pakistani officials. The Home Minister of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, Sarfaraz Bugti had first announced that Jadhav was picked up from Chaman but General Asim Bajwa announced that Jadhav was arrested from Saravan. The distance between Chaman and Saravan is about 873 KM. There were also reports which claimed that Jadhav, who had a valid residential permit in the Chabahar Free Trade Zone till June of last year, might have been lured into Pakistan and arrested thereafter.

In response to the Pakistan’s decision to award death penalty, India has responded by calling the proceedings as farcical and stated that if the sentence is indeed carried out, it would amount to premeditated murder. It remains to be seen what would be India’s response be in the coming days and whether there’s any glimmer of hope that Jadhav might return alive to the Indian shores again.

How colour code for app based taxis in Maharashtra was given a communal spin

OpIndia Staff
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How colour code for app based taxis in Maharashtra was given a communal spin

What do you get when an organisation, some in the media, and a political party unite? A heady mix of half-truths and whole lies, which lead to a “surge” in emotions, based completely on un”fare” arguments.

It starts with a report in the tabloid Mid-Day, which screams:

Mumbai: Uber, Ola cabbies don’t want their vehicles painted saffron 

Drivers and owners of Uber and Ola taxis have written to the Shiv Sena chief expressing their displeasure over the transport minister’s decision to get their vehicles painted saffron

Shiv Sena, “saffronisation”, sounds believable. The report further says (emphasis added):

The drivers and owners of Uber and Ola taxis are angry with Cabinet Minister of Transport Diwakar Raote’s out of the blue decision to paint their vehicles bhagwa (saffron), or what the government has coined, daffodil yellow. They have questioned Shiv Sena chief Uddhav about this. In a four-page letter sent to Thackeray on April 6, they have raised their concerns and have threatened to boycott the Sena. The letter sent by Maharashtra Tourist Permit Sanghatana, states how the new Maharashtra City Taxi Rules, 2017, have made life miserable for the drivers operating taxis for app-based operators Uber and Ola………One of the important points highlighted in this letter was the decision to choose ‘bhagwa’ colour for all cabs operating as taxis for Uber and Ola. “Here all religions are equal. Then why has the government selected bhagwa colour, we want to know from minister Raote,” said Praful Shinde, a member of this sanghatana.

Jumping on this, discarded Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha tried to create a storm on Twitter:



So is this true? As always, let’s go to the source of the information and not any other media report.

The order to “saffronize” has to come from the recently passed Maharashtra City Taxi Rules, 2017. A full copy of the notification can be accessed here (pdf link). Skipping to the relevant part, the rules do mandate a colour code for app based taxis:

So this is what “saffronization” looks like: A White and Yellow coloured cab.

The rules even prescribe the code of the shade, and the shade card on a paints site shows that “saffron yellow” is a distinct shade from “daffodil yellow”. So if the attempt was to “saffronize” app based taxis, then the state transport minister has failed woefully on 2 counts: Firstly, only a portion of the car is to be painted “bhagwa” and worse, the colour may not even be the actual “bhagwa” or “saffron”.

Some might argue that these are technicalities and the colour yellow in any variant is close enough to saffron, and thus, the Government’s move to choose yellow is clearly based on “communal” principles. Those people then would have to agree that taxis the world over have been “saffronized”. Yellow cabs are found the world over, right from USA (pre-Trump era) to London (pre-Brexit era).

And there is a scientific reason for taxis to be yellow in colour: John Hertz, founder of the Hertz Rent-a-Car System, read a University of Chicago study that suggested the colour yellow with a bit of red mixed in was the colour most visible from a distance, and so he proceeded to paint all his taxis the colour that would eventually come to be known as ‘taxi yellow’. This may be a grand conspiracy but “yellow with a bit of red mixed in” is almost saffron!

To be fair to Mid-Day, they have quoted a member of the Maharashtra Tourist Permit Sanghatana who has given a communal spin to the colour code for app-based taxis. Provided this quote is genuine, this may be an elaborate plan by the Sanghatana to scuttle the Taxi Rules, which have far more stricter rules for app based taxis, which for the time being have no regulations to bind to. The “communal” bogey can help them get support from “sympathetic” media houses and also the opposition, which is desperate to be “secular”.

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