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AAP’s Mohalla Clinic another scam in the making?

OpIndia Staff
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AAP’s Mohalla Clinic another scam in the making?

AAP had started Mohalla Clinics in order to provide Delhi citizens with a near the home cure for simple aliments. On paper it was a good scheme as people were supposed to get healthcare at affordable prices.

Currently there are a about 110 mohalla clinics operational, a far cry from a 1000 that were supposed to be built by 2016. There are a total 106 doctors manning these clinics that operate from 9 AM to 1 PM.

Now these clinics have come under the Vigilance Department’s scanner after they received complaints that the Mohalla Clinics’ doctors were seeing a very high number of patients during their stipulated clinic hours, which was practically not possible.

It is reported that if one goes by records, the doctors were treating as many as 533 patients in 4 hours, which turns out to be about 27 seconds per patient. Rightfully questions would be raised over the quality of the treatment provided if each patient lasts just 27 seconds in front of a doctor.

There are allegations that the doctors were making up false patients as their earning depends on the number of patients they treat. They reportedly earn about Rs 30 per patient. Its also alleged that the doctors are deliberately giving useless medicines that might ensure repeat visits from the patient, thus further pushing up their earnings.

The Vigilance Department has started the probe and sent letters to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Chief Medical District Officer (CDMO) seeking replies. These letters reportedly contain the word ‘scam’ while referring to the clinics.

This isn’t the first time these Mohalla Clinics are in the news for the wrong reasons. In July of last year it was reported to Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain’s daughter was the one heading these clinics, sparking allegations of nepotism. She was forced to step down after the outrage. Just last month these clinics were again under scanner for employing unqualified staff for treating patients and dispensing medicines.

Why the Indian ‘Right Wing’ can never become the mirror image of the ‘Left Wing’

A Gourav
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Why the Indian ‘Right Wing’ can never become the mirror image of the ‘Left Wing’

An article was published in OpIndia.com titled The ‘right wing’ faces the danger of becoming the mirror image of the ‘left wing’.

It’s too soon to make such a judgement. The basic premise of the article is “Free Speech”, whether on left or right. While I completely agree with the author on this fundamental right for every citizen of this country, there is a very different issue that everyone is missing.

Any intellectual discourse or discussion is supposed to happen on level playing field of free speech, which has been traditionally denied to the ‘right’.

A JNU leftist has the privilege to shout “bharat tere tukde honge” and then become a celebrity panelist/speaker, while Kamlesh Tiwari is rotting in jail and just because he said something against a religion’s prophet. Here obviously I’m assuming that for left, “religion” is not above the “country”. If it is, what do we call them, alt-left?

Point of my argument is, as referred by the author of aforementioned article, left have gone beyond the point of no return. And this has been enabled as they enjoy unchallenged support from our academia, judiciary, media and entertainment industry.

Right finds it hard to even create an ecosystem to support itself. There is no unity among the right wing. Most prominent Right leaning personalities on Social Media want only to be lone wolf or just surrounded by certain like minded group of people.

With both the players as well as the fields being widely different for the Right, there is no chance of it becoming a mirror image of the Left, for there are no similar circumstances or enabling factors at all.

There is another reason why Right is never going to become mirror image of the Left. Historical facts support this.

Left doesn’t stop only at local brawl or protests or even at manhandling. It  goes further on by completely obliterating the opposition. This happened in Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia and many more places. Millions of innocent died for nothing. Back home in India, evidences of left brutality can be almost seen on daily basis in Kerala and West Bengal.

The Left knows this, and to relieve themselves of the guilt, they accuse the Right of being violently intolerant and “fascist”. Only major example of fascism that comes to mind is Hitler’s Nazi Germany, which the Left paints as ‘Right’. Only that Nazi word itself has “socialist” in it.

Now, for the recent incident of Delhi University, first of all I will never go by the media claims and the leftist narrative. Since it’s a proven fact that left is great at manipulating emotions and playing victim, and with the Indian media being complicit in their machinations, I will not treat that as an example of Right turning into a mirror image of Left.

Secondly, I don’t support violence so I can’t be supporting ABVP indulging in it. Yes, I will not support it even though it was in response to the leftist violence, as latest reports suggest. But then what are the choices before the right? Scream their lungs out that no one hears? A media that is silent when right wing students are massacred in Kerala is supposed to give voice to the same? Or let someone like Umar Khalid spew venom against the Indian state?

Anyway, I have always had this question on my mind; what does being ‘right’ mean in India? A silent victim to onslaughts by the Left or just an outrage machine? How should Right assert itself when the Left is bringing only vacuous hatred and violent opposition in name of ideology? And all this while our elite intellectuals and liberals and the media paint the right wing as ISIS!

While supposedly big names on the Right take the neutral righteous course by not aligning with any party, and even deride fellow right-wingers as cheerleaders, trendveers, blind Bhakts, etc., Left brings in joint opposition from not just within India but from abroad as well.

For me, there is no way the Right can become mirror image of the Left as there are so many things that are fundamentally different. They are different DNAs.

With due respect to the author, I don’t think we can win this battle of ideologies only being righteous punching bags. Sometimes one has to beat their adversaries by employing their own tactics against them. This tactical maneuvering can’t be seen as being mirror image of the adversary.

How a media project to ‘secularize’ the Shiv Sena was on in full swing

Abhishek Banerjee
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How a media project to ‘secularize’ the Shiv Sena was on in full swing

Whether you are “communal” or “secular” should ideally depend upon what views you hold and whether your actions and speeches tally with those. However, in India, it is dependent on your equations with the BJP. It’s not about ideology, but it’s about electoral politics – plain and simple.

Shiv Sena was “communal” as it has been in over 20-years-old alliance with the BJP. But the alliance broke before the assembly elections of 2014 (only to re-appear as post-poll alliance) and again before the municipal polls of Maharashtra in 2017. Thumb rule meant that Shiv Sena had to be deemed “secular” thereafter.

And the project to “secularize” Shiv Sena was on in full swing (as we will see in this article), but alas, the target of secularism fell short by 30 odd seats in the BMC elections.

Now let’s rewind to the time when these results were not known, and let’s look at what the Indian mainstream media was telling its readers:

A couple of days before Mumbai voted in the BMC elections, an article about the “resurgent Sena” appeared in The Indian Express. For a while now, the mainstream media has made a habit of adding the term “resurgent” before the name of any party or political leader left licking wounds after the NaMo tsunami of 2014. It is possibly an automatic feature that has been incorporated into the word processing software used by media houses to accommodate their wishful thinking.

Nonetheless, coming back to the article, it talked about lesser known aspects of Uddhav Thackeray, who currently leads the Sena. From talking about Uddhav donating proceeds from his photography exhibitions to describing his new found sense of matrutva (exact words) towards his humble party workers, the article had it all:

The Indian Express article on Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena

Not to mention that the use of the phrase “coming of age” suggests  the possibility that this article was churned out from a draft circulated by media houses for a different dynast. Was it? Just kidding…

Coming of age: Uddhav was all set to “mature” as a “secular” leader?

The Indian Express article can hardly be seen in isolation. The same media sentiment surrounding Uddhav Thackeray is also amply visible in this Hindustan Times article published on the day Mumbai voted:

Uddhav was supposed to have done something even Bal Thackeray could not achieve.

More admiration for Uddhav “overcoming the barrier” and “succeeding with second generation leaders”. And that one comes directly from the desk of Sujata Anandan, who has been the political editor of the Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times. A few months ago, Ms. Anandan wrote much similarly about another naturally mild mannered dynast who has been getting smartly aggressive.

From Rahul Gandhi to Uddhav Thackeray

We are not sure whether to laugh or to cry at these efforts. Of course, when the first few results of the BMC started rolling out on Feb 23 and it seemed for a while that the Sena would end up with a huge win, the same theme appeared in this now much mocked tweet of “journalist” Barkha Dutt.

Not so reluctant to openly support any one against BJP?

Soft spoken, passionate about photography… we have all the essentials here. As I said, we are not sure whether to laugh or to cry at these efforts.

It is not hard to imagine what would have happened if the Shiv Sena had managed a big win in Mumbai. The Sena almost certainly would have gone through a process of “secularization” in the elite media. In fact, mild mannered photography lover Uddhav Thackeray appeared to be well prepared for this prospect when he stepped out in the media glare yesterday for what had been planned as his coming of age party:

Almost on the cue, just what the media ordered.

As we can see, evolution by means of natural selection is a slow process, but in desperate times, there are ways to speed it up significantly. Someone posted this photo on twitter of Uddhav from not so long ago:

Oops.. but the media can make you forget what they don’t want you to remember.

Meanwhile, as the mainstream media puts the onus of Indian secularism on the shoulders of the Shiv Sena, we can only assume that the “idea of India” shall remain on ventilator support.

Journalist claims he was assaulted and threatened to be killed for filing case against Kejriwal

OpIndia Staff
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Journalist claims he was assaulted and threatened to be killed for filing case against Kejriwal

We had reported last month how an NGO, which had filed a complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his brother-in-law Surender Kumar Bansal, was getting threats from various anonymous numbers. The NGO had registered a complaint about alleged irregularities in the contracts given to Bansal by the PWD. It was also alleged that in 2015-16, Bansal failed to complete certain contracts but got the whole payment due to the pressure exerted by Kejriwal.

A journalist named Viplava Awasthi working for Samachar Plus, has also claimed to have filed a corruption case against Kejriwal, his brother-in-law and others. And he too has complained about receiving threats. In fact, things took a serious turn in his case when he was assaulted and his car battered by unknown assailants, who threatened him not to appear in court on 25th February when the case comes up for hearing. They also threatened to kill him if he pursued the matter further.

Journalist’s car smashed by assailants

The incident occurred in Noida near Delhi at around 8 PM on 22nd February, when Viplava Awasthi was returning home from work. A dark silver colored Swift car carrying three passengers overtook his car and two of them stepped out and made him stop his car. One started to vandalize his car while the other grabbed him by his throat and threatened to kill him if he attended the court proceedings against the Delhi Chief Minister and his brother-in-law on 25th February, Awasthi claims.

After the incident, the journalist proceeded to file an FIR against the unknown assailants. The FIR mentions that he was abused, assaulted, and threatened to be killed if he appeared in the court for the corruption case against Arvind Kejriwal:

Kejriwal supporters threatening people?
Copy of the FIR filed

Journalist’s claims were also supported by a Delhi based advocate:

While only police investigations will reveal who were the assailants and if they were working on someone’s orders, this does raise the question as to why those who talk about corruption related to Arvind Kejriwal receive threats from certain quarters.

Mega celebrations lined up for Mahashivratri and here’s where you can watch them

OpIndia Staff
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Mega celebrations lined up for Mahashivratri and here’s where you can watch them

Maha Shivratri is celebrated in the honour of Lord Shiva, with devotees observing day-long fasts. The term Maha Shivratri is derived from the three words – Maha, Shiva, Ratri. As the name suggests, this auspicious event is celebrated at the night, and not in the day. This year too, mega events have been planned for a grand celebration of this grand night.

This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a 112-ft tall face of Adiyogi — the Source of Yoga, designed and consecrated by Sadhguru, founder, Isha Foundation, on Mahashivratri on February 24 at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The statue weighs 500 tonnes and is made of steel. It took 2.5 years for the team to design the statue and it was built in about eight months. The statue is 112-feet tall as Adiyogi opened up 112 possibilities for human beings to reach their ultimate potential. The Isha Foundation also claims that there is a scientific significance as there are 112 chakras in the human system, with which one can work to explore 112 dimensions of life.

A livestream of the event will be available at the below link from 6pm onwards:

Besides the Isha Foundation, there is also a grand event by the Art Of Living foundation. Lakhs of devotees from about a 100 countries are expected to arrive at the Art of Living International Center, Bangalore, in presence of, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The Maha Rudra Puja is expected to start at 8pm today, followed by Satsang and Prasadam, and the celebrations will continue into the wee hours of the morning on 25th February.

A livestream of the celebrations will be available below from 7.30pm onwards:

How the Media tried to hide the Left’s violence in the Ramjas College incident

OpIndia Staff
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How the Media tried to hide the Left’s violence in the Ramjas College incident

On 22nd February, the students of Ramjas College, protested and forced the College in DU to withdraw its invitation to Umar Khalid who has been accused of shouting anti-national slogans at JNU last February. Also to cement his supposed anti-national credentials, after the death of terrorist Burhan Wani; Khalid had put out a Facebook post openly supporting him.

This invitation episode though wasn’t without incident and violence seemed to have erupted between the leftist AISA (All India student’s association) and RSS affiliated ABVP. While the AISA version is now public, here is the ABVP’s version of the events. The media though almost predictably was quick to paint the ABVP as the main barbaric aggressor and the Left as the unfortunate victims.

But now thanks to Social Media, details have started to emerge of how the media conveniently ignored the various acts of violence the Left committed. BJP leader Nupur Sharma claimed to have received images from a DU professor which supposedly depicted atrocities committed by the Leftists on ABVP members.


A leftist twitter user was posting moving accounts of how ABVP heaped atrocities on them and in one tweet also claimed they (Left) took a moral high ground and chose not to retaliate. Maybe taking a break from playing the victim card the user then gleefully replied to a murderous troll about how an ABVP activist was thrice beaten by the leftist students and claimed that they (Leftists) outnumbered the ABVP guys by a whopping 10:1 ratio. This was reported in this tweet.

Also to make matters worse, The Hindu decided to continue its legacy of publishing fake news and depicted the SFI activist in the above picture who was assaulting students as a ABVP member.


And here’s another proof that he is an SFI activist.

And if the media could completely disregard the violence perpetrated by the Left they could certainly disregard the opportunity used by these students to shout anti-national slogans:


How media lies have created a villain out of Patanjali for its tax-exempt status

OpIndia Staff
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How media lies have created a villain out of Patanjali for its tax-exempt status

When the media reports news which is completely fabricated or untrue, it is easy to call out their bluff. But when a news report has even a grain of truth in it, wrapped by a series of lies, it becomes harder to determine whether the news report is true or false.

The recent news report of Baba Ramdev’s “Patanjali” winning tax exempt status is a similar case. A few days back, media had reported that the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) had given tax exempt status to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth (a public charitable trust). The ITAT is a quasi judicial institution and is free from any political or governmental control.

Headlines of many news reports though only mentioned that “Patanjali” (not including “Yogpeeth”) had gained tax exempt status. The difference between “Patanjali Yogpeeth” and any other name involving “Patanjali” is that Patanjali Yogpeeth is a charitable trust. While a charitable trust is not restricted from conducting business, the business has to be incidental to its charitable cause and there are other conditions which need to be met in order to claim exemption.

In the current case, the exemption was given to Patanjali Yogpeeth, which is involved in providing medical relief and imparting education by propagating yoga. However, due to misleading headlines, there was confusion whether the exemption was given to the Yogpeeth, or the FMCG companies that have “Patanjali” in their names, most notably “Patanjali Ayurved limited”.

In fact, 2 articles on DailyO (a publishing platform by India Today that publishes anything and everything), with extremely shoddy research, assumed that the FMCG arm had gotten the exemption, and proceeded to link this with BJP and Modi (even though the ITAT is quasi judicial):

While the mainstream media continued to spread this concoction of misinformation and lies, an officer from the Indian Revenue Service clarified on Twitter that the exemption was not given to the FMCG company:



In fact, a quick scan on the list of companies with which Baba Ramdev’s aide Acharya Balakrishna is associated reveals that the FMCG businesses are being operated under various companies, many of which have “Patanjali” in their names, but a media person should be educated enough to realise that it’s not the same as “Patanjali Yogpeeth”:

Public database of companies where Acharya Balkrishna is listed as a Director

OpIndia.com also talked to Acharya Balkrishna, who confirmed that Patanjali Ayurved limited, which is the flagship company for the FMCG business, did not have any tax-exempt status either in the past or currently, nor is there any plan to seek such status in future.

“We pay taxes like any other for-profit company after properly maintaining our business records as required by the law,” Acharya Balkrishna told us on phone from Haridwar, where Patanjali Ayurved limited is headquartered.

“There is no tax-exempt status for our FMCG business, and such reports are either malicious or born out of lack of information,” he added, “We are among the highest tax payers from Uttarakhand, and we are proud to contribute to nation-building.”

He further clarified that Patanjali Yogpeeth trust had no commercial relationship with Patanjali Ayurved limited and there was no question of using the trust to save taxes for the FMCG company.

“On the contrary, a part of the profit of Patanjali Ayurved is donated to the trust so that we can carry out our charitable works like education, relief operations, research, medical services, spiritual activities, langar, and other things. If we are declaring profits, obviously we are paying taxes on them!” he said.

Sheila Dikshit’s U Turn: Rahul moves from mature to not yet mature in a few months

OpIndia Staff
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Sheila Dikshit’s U Turn: Rahul moves from mature to not yet mature in a few months

Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit might have been relegated to behind the scenes action now, but she keeps popping into the news. The latest reason for her name to come up, is her comment on Rahul Gandhi in a recent interview. Sheila Dikshit was asked why the Congress is sinking in spite of Rahul Gandhi campaigning vigorously. In her answer, she said:

….And please remember Rahul is still not mature, his age does not allow him to be mature. He is what… in his forties. Please give him time.

So Sheila Dikshit feels 46-year-old Rahul Gandhi is still not mature, although there have been many efforts by media to declare that Rahul has “come of age“. On the other hand, we have Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is just a month older than Rahul Gandhi, but has matured much faster, enabling him to lead BJP to a resounding success in the recently concluded Maharashtra Civic elections.

But Sheila Dikshit’s realisation that Rahul Gandhi has not matured is actually quite a recent development. Her opinion on Rahul Gandhi was quite different a few months ago. On 7th November 2016, in another interview, Dikshit had remarked that Rahul Gandhi had “emerged as a mature leader”:

Suddenly he has emerged as a mature leader, somebody who takes up issues which belong to the common people….. his thinking is very very good.

Of course the above statement came when Sheila Dikshit was still the Congress’s CM candidate in Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently, once Congress allied with the Samajwadi Party, she was dropped like a hot potato.

Also, this statement of Rahul being a mature leader, was before this same mature leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue of the Sahara Birla diaries, alleging corruption on BJP. Rahul had not realised that the diaries, if considered as gospel truth (which the courts did not), also implicated his own UP CM face Sheila Dikshit, as she was also mentioned in the diaries. Dikshit had then junked the diaries as “hear-say” but the Congress left her to fight on her own.

Thus, as of today, in Sheila Dikshit’s books, Rahul Gandhi is a person who has not matured. Finally she seems to agree with what BJP leaders have been saying for so long. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this in 2015:

In early 2016, even the Prime Minister of India had realised that some people do not mature even as they grow older:

Now that Sheila Dikshit has gained enlightenment on the status of Rahul Gandhi’s maturity, one has to see if she gains any more enlightenment about the Congress as a whole.

Maharashtra Civic Elections Results: The writing on the wall

Amit Kelkar
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Maharashtra Civic Elections Results: The writing on the wall

The results of the hotly contested Maharashtra civic elections are pouring in as we speak, even as most results have firmed up. The results include those of some key cities like the financial capital of India, Mumbai, RSS bastion Nagpur and also of Pune, among other local bodies. Further, these elections saw a split in the ranks of the saffron forces, with Shiv Sena openly baying for BJP’s blood and vice versa.

According to psephology company CVoter, the final results for BMC i.e the Corporation which runs Mumbai, look like this:

Minor variations aside, this seems to be the final picture and it is clear that the city has rejected Congress and NCP. Shiv Sena, which had more than double the seats which BJP had in 2012, now has a slender lead of just 3-odd seats, thanks to a paltry growth of 9 seats, which is less than 10%. BJP on the other hand has zoomed to 81 from 31 seats, an increase of more than 250%.

BMC result throws an Odisha like picture, where the incumbent Sena has held its own, BJP has grown, and the opposition consisting of Congress and NCP among others has been blown away to smithereens. The Congress Mukt Bharat dream of BJP seems to be materialising.

Uddhav Thakeray has at least settled one debate: He can today claim that he is truly the rightful heir of Balasaheb Thakeray, since his cousin Raj Thakeray’s party has been left down in the dumps. This is the first BMC election led by Uddhav without the guidance of his father and he seems to have done a good job of rallying the cadre around him, ensuring that the Sena doesn’t wilt.

But if he looks beyond Mumbai, then the situation is bleak. The BJP has emerged out of the shadows of Big Brother Sena, and now is increasingly looking like the Big Brother itself. Come next assembly elections, the Sena will have yet another tough time in handling BJP’s seat demands, and we may end up seeing a repeat of the last elections.

Maharashtra CM Fadnavis can take heart from the fact that he has managed to increase BJP’s tally substantially in a city famed for its loyal Shiv Sena cadre. It must also be noted that because BMC elections clashed with the much bigger Uttar Pradesh elections, Fadnavis had to battle it out alone without much help from either BJP’s star campaigner PM Narendra Modi, or BJP’s master strategist Amit Shah. Fadnavis has emerged as the tallest leader in Maharashtra, and indeed western India. The favourable performance will add to his weight and will give him the confidence to deal with Shiv Sena with a tougher hand.

But there is more to Maharashtra than just Mumbai. The BJP has emerged victorious with a simple majority or just close to simple majority in places such as Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Nashik and Nagpur. The only setback for BJP can be considered to be the results in Beed, the constituency of Women and Child welfare Development Minister for Maharashtra, Pankaja Munde.

The dynamics of Sena-BJP both at centre and at the state will be interesting now. The Sena would overall be dejected that the BJP has trumped then in most locations and has managed to rise to unimaginable strengths in BMC. Before the elections, Shiv Sena had offered BJP a mere 60 seats, if they went in together for the polls. Now it appears neither of them can take control of BMC unless they ally together, or with the likes of Congress, or engineer a majority by horse-trading.

As for the rest, Congress needs to do some soul-searching for its disastrous performance. State after state it is being routed and is ceding ground to other parties especially BJP. There needs to be a bottom up rethinking of all the processes, the political positions it takes and the campaign strategies to ensure that they learn from this debacle

Media’s initial euphoria about Shiv Sena winning at expense of the BJP gets cut short

OpIndia Staff
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Media’s initial euphoria about Shiv Sena winning at expense of the BJP gets cut short

BMC elections votes were counted today and initial trends, though incomplete, suggested that Shiv Sena could win the elections with BJP finishing at the second place. Though both the parties are branded “saffron” and “communal” by the so-called left-liberal commentators and journalists, somehow they appeared to be supporting Shiv Sena over the BJP today.

This liberal love for the Shiv Sena came to the fore on Twitter as many in the Media ended up showering praises on the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray.

Now that the BJP has done almost as good as Shiv Sena in the BMC polls, following comments betray how these journalists lose objectivity in their enthusiasm to show BJP down:



Shekhar Gupta happily forgot that BJP had performed stunningly well against BJD in Odisha earlier this week.

Shiv Sena became a “secular” choice!
Shiv Sena was not to “secular” for the same people some time back (screenshots thanks to this tweet)

Researchers discovered new qualities in Shiv Sena:


Suddnely, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was “reluctantly” fundamentalist:


As if almost on cue after controversial journalist Barkha Dutt put out her tweet, Shiv Sena’s lead started diminishing and BJP began gaining ground in Mumbai. At the time of publishing of this report, BJP was just 3 seats behind while claiming support of 4 independent winners.


And obviously the people “thanked” Barkha Dutt for this!


And the hurt reportedly started showing on some Journalist’s faces:


So the Moral of the story is: Never jump the gun.

And as they say, even a broken clock shows the right time twice a day and today was Rana Ayyub’s day:

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