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An Agusta character pops up in Panama Leaks, but has ED been informed?

Ashutosh Muglikar
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An Agusta character pops up in Panama Leaks, but has ED been informed?

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a worldwide network of journalists who are into investigative reporting. This network boasts of 190 members from 65 Countries who collaborate while doing in depth stories. Their most famous works include the Swiss Leaks and more recently the #PanamaPapers leaks. From India, The Indian Express is the only Member of ICIJ as on today

A designated team of journalists was responsible for studying the data received from ICIJ for 8 long months, before the worldwide publication of the news on April 15 2016. Based on documents accessed through ICIJ, they wrote an extensive series on the Panama Papers Leaks.  Their articles covered vast offshore companies linked to IPL franchisees, industrialists  and bollywood stars. These articles were based on 11 Million files leaked from a data base of a law firm named Mossack Fonseca.

The details mentioned in these articles are of extremely confidential nature. Shocked at the nature and volume of these cases, the Supreme Court decided to hear a plea for a CBI Probe into these revelations. Further, these revelations also led to Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister announcing issuance of tax notices to all those named in those papers.

Cut to the other big scam narrative in India: The AgustaWestland Scam. Allegations and counter allegations were being hurled day in and day out on this topic. What stood out in all this was the fact that the prime accused had allegedly routed the kickbacks through a web of Companies which was highlighted in this article. #AgustaScam had all the ingredients against which the ICIJ members are supposedly fighting, namely

  • Cross-border crime that is in between Italy, UK and India.
  • Corruption: involving kickbacks
  • Accountability of power: allegedly the bribes were paid to high ranking defense officials and powerful politicians.

One common link eventually did emerge from Panama Leaks and AgustaWestland case: Gautam Khaitan. Khaitan has been linked to middlemen in the Agusta Deal and his name pops up in Panama Leaks too.

In an article which was published by the Indian Express a good two weeks after the first Panama Leaks piece, it was revealed that Khaitan, provided a reference letter in favour of Navin Mehra, who was a director in two offshore entities registered by Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. But the piece stops here and doesn’t provide any more information.

The above in itself maybe a small or unimportant piece of information, and it appears Indian Express missed reporting is this: an entity named ‘Windsor Group Holdings Limited’ allegedly owned by Gautam Khaitan.

Gautam Khaitan in Panama Leaks
Gautam Khaitan in Panama Leaks

On 9th May the ICIJ team made public names of the 2,14,000 entities from the Panama leaks, and the details of this Windsor Group Holdings Limited was mentioned in the same.

The question now arises, how did the crack team of Indian Express miss this offshore company opened by an accused in the AgustaWestland scam. One would expect this information to be released in the first few tranches of the Panama Leak publications, but somehow the team at Indian Express never saw the linkage between Windsor Holding and Khaitan.

Before this, it was reported that Windsor was registered in Singapore. However Panama Papers revealed that there may be yet another Windsor Group Holdings Ltd, which is registered in British Virgin Islands and in which Gautam Khaitan is allegedly a Director and a Shareholder.

At this juncture one hopes that the Enforcement Directorate has been either tipped off by the Indian Express, which was studying the Panama documents for 8 months, or has itself realized that Khaitan may as well have 2 companies by the name Windsor, or worse yet, the Singapore entity many not even exist.

HCU student leader quits SFI, blames leftists for using Rohith Vemula’s death for political gains

OpIndia Staff
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HCU student leader quits SFI, blames leftists for using Rohith Vemula’s death for political gains

Hyderabad Central University (HCU) student Rohith Vemula’s unfortunate suicide had brought this campus into limelight early this year. In his suicide note, Rohith had described his anguish and turmoil, and also his frustration with leftist student organizations. In lines, which were eventually struck off from his suicide letter, presumably by himself, he had said:

“ASA, SFI, anything and everything exist for their own sake. Seldom the interest of a person and this organisation match. To get power, to become famous or to be important in between boundaries and to think we are up to changing the system. Very often we overestimate the acts and find solace in traits.”

Even otherwise, the moving suicide letter was indictment of student politics – of all kinds – and we had written how the leftists were  not willing to read the message. Instead, they made his death all about Smriti Irani and Narendra Modi.

Now one student leader from leftists student organization SFI (Student Federation of India), Raju Kumar Sahu, who was also fighting for ‘Justice to Rohith’ cause, has repeated what Rohith said in his suicide note. Not only that, he has made serious allegations against the leftist student organizations of using Rohith Vemula’s death for opportunistic politics, and of taking orders from CPM and Congress.

Making his allegations public, Raju Kumar Sahu, who is the General Secretary of HCU Students’ Union, has resigned from SFI as a sign of protest. Sahu has asked these student organisations to mend their ways because it were the ordinary students who were suffering the most due to their politics. Sahu was elected to the post in October last year on the SFI-TSF-DSU panel. Like others from SFI, he too was a supporter of Rohith and his fight. But soon he realized that some issues were not in order.

Last evening, Sahu resigned from SFI by putting up his resignation letter on Facebook. He said: “I oppose the radical ideology of SFI and ASA and resign from SFI. I can not bear further it’s opportunistic political agenda and dividing ideology.”

Reading his resignation letter further highlights his feelings about SFI and how he was disillusioned with the entire movement. He too claims to have come from a poor background, like Rohith, and says, that although he was apolitical, he was attracted to SFI due to its ideology of saving the poor from exploitation. But he claims things have become “murky” now:

“The present state of affairs at SFI, HCU unit reflects a murky state. After working for the quite some time in SFI, I realized that the office bearers of the Union cannot express their voice independently. Even the common workers follow the directions from the top brass without questioning. Now, I understand the politics of SFI are not based on principles but opportunistic. The process starts right from the selection of the candidates for union elections, where in caste and communal cards are played heavily. Similarly, region and religion are also major above politics of caste community and religion.”

This is reminiscent of Rohith’s claim in his note:

“The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind.”

Sahu also realizes this similarity and repeats that Rohith too felt disillusioned with SFI:

“As per my understanding, Rohit Vemula was a sensitive person. He is active in SFI since few years ago. He also felt isolated and alienated in SFI and could not tolerate the opportunistic politics played by SFI for sheer political gains. That’s why in his suicide note he mentioned that an individual is reduced to his immediate identity. Probably, SFI did not find any utility with him through he was fully committed to the ideology and was an active worker. He was disillusioned and went to join ASA. It was very unfortunate that he believed in radical methods to achieve justice for the poor. According to me, SFI nurtured the feelings of hatred in him which he was displaying against to all others whom to be his enemies.”

Sahu makes more claims which are even more shocking. He says that his organization routinely “misguided” students with “untrue” tales:

“Common students are misguided through daily stories which are mostly untrue and in the nature of fiction. These stories are imaginary and in the nature of individual tales of alleged discrimination by faculty and students against certain sections. As far as my experience goes these stories including the videos of individual narrations including those of atrocities by police are spread through the media only to generate sympathy and garner undue mileage.

It is also painful to note that students are instigated to indulge in vandalism by the leaders of JAC,SFI & ASA and others to destroy the University which belongs university community.”

He also alleges that most of the actions of SFI are politically motivated:

“SFI top brass works as dictators and they led the entire environment in the wrong directions apparently to serve the selfish interests and interests of their masters from above. After and before the death of Rohit Vemula, I have seen the developments in the University very closely. I don’t feel shame to revel the truth here that some sections of University teachers are responsible for so called developments in the University Just for their Political Gains. As per my understanding, the movement is massively funded by Congress, Left and opportunist forces of the country.

The office bearers of Student Union have no independence and forced to obey the directions of external forces from CPI(M) and Congress.”

He also lays bear the various contradictions of SFI which he had grown to become fed up of. He says that while SFI states that it does not support terrorists like Yakub Memon, SFI also plays “opportunistic politics” by supporting people who organize Namaz -E-Zanaja in memory of Yakub Memon, wherein he is glorified as a martyr.

He says that on the one hand the Joint Action Committee (JAC) demands justice for Rohith Vemula but doesn’t co-operate in the inquiry conducted by judicial commission which is headed by retired High Court Judge, who is an independent person.

Sahu also exposes how certain professors are maliciously targeted by SFI, which has led to a breakdown of student-professor relationships:

“The leaders of JAC & SFI, make serious allegations against certain professors which are actively supported by faculty who have vested interest but not came forward either to prove the allegations or hold discussions to solve the program. Most important, it is very painful for me to see that students don’t show respect to the professors amd call them by names without having any evidence of discrimination for such professors.”

He also raises a very important questions: What is the source of money?

“Daily rent of tent is around five thousand and three months have been passed already. Lavish food is served for more than 10 days to the student’s community for free of cost. Large scale events are organized. Certain individual members of the movement are having daily lavish parties. Rallies are organized periodically and outside leaders are invited. Thousands of color posters are printed & distributed. From where is coming? As a participant of the moment, I confirm that massive funds are flowing and keen to know the source of such funds. Beef & Chickens has been served in the event of 125th birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. What is the source of money?”

He also reveals how these “nefarious activities” have hurt the interests of students:

“The real losers of the entire game are none other than the common students, who have suffered in terms of placements. Reputed companies like Oracle have refused to come for the campus recruitment and, today the image of HCU is tarnished and the genuine student is having fears in mind whether to join university or not. The students union, which was supposed to be the impartial body taking care of welfare of all the students is hijacked by few individuals and organizations for serving their nefarious activities.”

Sahu goes on to say that his mental state is now driving him towards the unfortunate path undertaken by Rohith Vemula. He says his loneliness and alienation are affecting his studies and that he feels that coming into open and getting distanced from the wrong way would be the only way to save him from “doom”.

Not only using Rohith for petty politics, Sahu accuses these leftists organizations of using Babasaheb Ambedkar to further their opportunistic agenda. He reminds the organizations that Dr. Ambedkar was not in favor type of confrontational and no-cooperative methods that these organizations have adopted. He quotes these lines by Dr. Ambedkar that he said in the constituent assembly on 25th November 1949:

“If I wish to maintain democracy, not only in form but also in fact what must we do? The first thing in my mind we must to is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economical objectives. It means that we must abandon the bloody method of revolution. It also means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and Satyagraha.”

He requests the JAC to stop the agitation and adopt constitutional methods for achieving justice for Rohith Vemula. He asks JAC/SFI/ASA to immediately abandon the politics of hatred. He demands that the Student Union be impartial and also seek justice for ABVP leader Susheel Kumar, who was attacked at midnight by a mob of students of ASA.

Towards the end of his resignation letter, Sahu repeats the same lines from Rohith Vemula’s letter, which indicted the SFI and other other leftist student organizations, and which were later struck off. Will the leftists now wake up and introspect?

Uttarakhand – How politics may shape up after Congress’ comeback

Alok Bhatt
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Uttarakhand – How politics may shape up after Congress’ comeback

Reactions of the political parties and their supporters to the news of Harish Rawat winning the trust vote was on the expected lines; certainly a reason enough to not analyze it any further.

As the Uttarakhand political saga continues to unfold, political and legal experts will do a threadbare analysis of the entire drama from every possible angle; of course their own political affiliations will colour this analysis.

Being a resident of the state with a stake in its governance and development, I thought it best to analyse the reasons of the crisis and to find answers to the various questions this turmoil has thrown into the open.

Whether political fallout of the Uttarakhand political crisis will extend into national polity will be known in next few weeks and months; but it is certain that politics of Uttarakhand will now be on the boil through the summers, extending well into the monsoons and winters. Last time Uttarakhand (then part of UP) made it this big in the national media for political reasons was in 1981, when HN Bahuguna took on the might of Indira Gandhi in famous Garhwal LS by-elections

What caused turmoil in Uttarakhand? Congress and way forward

Politics of smaller states is less about goals and more about doles (to cronies and associates). Congress, owing to its long legacy of being the primary ruling party of India has not only mastered this art to perfection but has largely been successful in transferring it from one generation to another, as also from one government to the other.

Harish Rawat, a seasoned Congress leader, was expected to follow the above mentioned unwritten Congress code; but his actions proved otherwise. In his bid to gain control of both the government and the party, he cornered majority of posts for his loyalists and family members. His wife, son and daughter were appointed as officer bearers of PCC, and also Karan Mehra his brother in law. His protégé Kishore Upadhya got the PCC chief post.

Rawat also appointed Ranjit Rawat, his other brother in law, as his Industrial Advisor, a post which was specifically created for him. Ranjit’s clout, became the talk of the town as he was virtually the No 2 in the cabinet. Congress cronies and cadres, so used to their share of the government (not governance) pie helplessly watched a Rawat aide eating into their share. It was this helplessness that led to the Congress rebellion and threw the Harish Rawat government into a turmoil.

Now that Rawat has won the trust vote and rebels are already out, he has more portfolios and positions to distribute to his loyalists. A shrewd politician that Rawat is, will leverage this opportunity to strengthen his grip on the party and government. But his reinstatement would mean that he cannot play the martyr card any more; besides series of stings have already dented his image. Already under CBI enquiry in the sting case, Rawat won’t find his going easy; a divided BJP remains his only hope.

Another distinct hope for Rawat is AAP. I foresee a possibility of Congress facilitating the entry of AAP in Uttarakhand. This move will indirectly help Congress as AAP — known to paint both Congress and BJP as one and same — will stop swing voter from going towards BJP side. Rawat knows that fractured polity (following AAP’s entry) means advantage Congress in an evenly contested battle.

BJP a divided house and road to 2017

BJP in Uttarakhand is a divided house with several factions working at cross purposes with each other. But for the role played by Ramesh Pokhriyal in 2012, BJP would have been the ruling party today. Failure to take action against Pokhriyal for his role in defeat of Khanduri in 2012 has been one of the primary reason for rampant factionalism in the party. So deep is the factionalism that at any given point in time, BJP has close to 7 to 10 contenders for Chief Minister’s post.

Party’s recently appointed President has always been accused of working as a friendly opposition to Harish Rawat, a fact that was ignored completely by the party leadership while appointing him.

In a BJP set up, Organization Secretary plays the most important role. However, Sanjay Gupta, party’s Organisation Secretary for the state is not only incompetent but a compromised personality as well. His name keeps cropping up in one unsavoury controversy or the other. His continuance in a crucial year defies all logic. Induction of Satpal Maharaj has further complicated the ongoing power struggle of the party with the addition of another CM contender.

One of the primary reason for disarray in BJP is that every leader worth some salt wants to operate from Delhi, yet remain a key figure in the state polity. Grassroots connect of such party leaders is limited to meeting and cultivating a coterie. Party has also failed in spelling out a clear vision for the state; thus achieving power seems to be an end and not the means to an end.

It seems that party leadership at Centre saw in Congress rebellion an opportunity to unite its factions together to put up a spirited face in 2017. Whether this political move was worth the political capital expended- only time alone will tell.

With state BJP doing everything to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, road to 2017 is now paved with more stones and thorns. To win 2017, BJP will not only need a complete overhaul of the party, but it also has to spell out its vision for the state and sell it to the voter via a young and an honest face.

Absence of integrated model of development; arbitrary governance and powerful bureaucracy

Polity in Uttarakhand, relatively younger state, is still in its infancy. However, at the same time, current leadership of both the political parties have a legacy in erstwhile Uttar Pradesh. The old guard of both the parties have inherited a work culture peculiar to parent state where babus-neta nexus is an accepted norm. Babus also find it easier to work with leaders soaked in UP work culture.

Besides, lack of opportunities for new and young political leadership means that state still has no integrated vision/model of development. Absence of such integrated model for the state has led to arbitrary governance, a situation that tends to make babudom powerful without any accountability whatsoever. The fact that Uttarakhand throws out the incumbent govt in every election also supports this view.

Another reason for bureaucracy gaining an upper hand over the Uttarakhand polity is the lack of visionary leadership. In the absence of such leadership, bureaucracy tends to become a part of a ruling class and not the agent of change, that politics promises to the citizens.

Hill disconnect of the state

Demand for Uttarakhand had its genesis in the fact that the region’s (today’s Uttarakhand) geographical, linguistic and cultural identity was completely different from Uttar Pradesh. Besides, capital of the state was far from the region and state policy planners had no idea of the hardships faced by the public in the hills. Hence, region was deprived of the fruits of development, not that Uttar Pradesh was a developed state by any means.

If one were to analyze the present situation, nothing much has changed for the hilly regions. What Lucknow was to public during pre-state formation days, Dehradun is today to hills. All the state planners plan for hills while sitting in Dehradun. State of infra — health, road, water, education — in hilly regions is in a complete disarray with the result that migration has become a major problem today.

Last delimitation exercise led to reduction in the representation of hilly districts in the state legislature and will go down further by next delimitation exercise. As mentioned earlier, lack of integrated model of development is one of the biggest reason for underdeveloped state of infra in the hill districts with the result that migration is on the rise. Pauri and Almora are the only two districts in the entire country that have seen negative population growth in the 2001-2011 period and migration is the only cause for the same.

Uttarakhand: key issues for the electorate

1. Uttarakhand, even after 15 years of formation, has no common development agenda. Also, the development template for the hill regions has to be different from one employed for the non-hilly terrain of the state. Any political party promising this will manage to establish an instant connect with the electorate.

2. Continuance of Dehradun as the state capital, a temporary solution at inception, is defeating the purpose for which Uttarakhand was created. It is important that state capital is shifted in the hills, preferably Gairsain. A time bound plan for movement of capital be prepared and executed.

3. Corruption (in higher places), as evident from the series of sting operations following imposition of President’s rule, remains one of the burning issues in Uttarakhand. Anyone promising / taking visible action against corrupt babus / netas of the state would strike a direct chord with the electorate.

4. State should pass a law putting a freeze on any change in the representation between hills and plains post future delimitation.

5.. Water shortage in hills is another issue that needs immediate redressal. It is an irony that the state which feeds the rivers of the Gangetic plain, is home to villages facing acute water shortage.

6. Division of properties with Uttar Pradesh is another long pending issue that require immediate attention. Any promise to solve it would bring electoral dividends.

7. Lack of road, rail, health and education infrastructure in the state remains one of the major pain points for the state population.

8. Lack of employment opportunities in the hills is the single biggest reason for migration out of hills. Promotion of tourism can help deal with the unemployment problem to a great extent. Unfortunately, the state has no integrated tourism policy till date. A potential solution for the state lies in replicating the success of Sikkim and Himachal model.

9. Collapse of agriculture is another problem facing the state. A time bound agriculture promotion policy with emphasis on organic cultivation (on the lines of Sikkim model) is another opportunity waiting to be tapped.

In short, Uttarakhand needs a tectonic shift in its governance model and onus to do that lies with the state polity. Whichever formation will project itself as the “change-agents” for the state and its population, will walk with the coveted trophy – the right to occupy Dehradun’s Circuit House in 2017.

 (The author is the founder of the adventure tourism venture, Nature Connect Outdoors based in Uttarakhand. Alok has a keen interest in politics and economic development.)

When “liberals” targeted my family for cracking jokes on Congress leaders

Rahul Roushan
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When “liberals” targeted my family for cracking jokes on Congress leaders

Recently an interview of filmmaker Shirish Kunder, known for making comedy movies like Tees Maar Khan and Joker, was being shared by a few “liberals” on Twitter. Kunder, who was often target of their ridicule earlier, has suddenly become a role model for them because of his frequent anti-Modi and anti-BJP jokes and tweets.

One paragraph from his interview caught my attention. The same paragraph was shared by the so-called liberals too with much enthusiasm. In his interview, Kunder claims that no one was attacked online for cracking jokes against Congress leaders.

Kunder interview
A claim without any proof

This was unbelievable for me, reason for which I would explain later. But before that, to be sure, I searched for “jokes” that Shirish Kunder claims to have cracked on Congress leaders to see if he really wasn’t attacked at all.

Well, there was no tweet by Kunder that contained the word “Sonia”, so it appears he never cracked any jokes on Sonia Gandhi:

Twitter search
Shirish Kunder had no opinion, let alone a joke, to offer on Sonia Gandhi on Twitter.

On Manmohan Singh, there were six tweets, five of which can be termed as jokes with the remaining one targeted against Modi:

Kunder on MMS
“Jokes” by Shirish Kunder on Manmohan Singh.

He didn’t get many re-tweets for his jokes or tweets back then (going by the limelight he enjoys now, his achchhe din on Twitter are definitely here!), and got even fewer replies. One of the replies to his Manmohan Singh joke was this (which according to Kunder is not abuse?):


And finally jokes on Rahul Gandhi, about which he specifically claims that “All my tweets and jokes against Rahul Gandhi were always live, but no one attacked you online”.

I searched again. There are five tweets that contain the word “Rahul” and none of them are jokes on Rahul Gandhi:

Kunder on Rahul Gandhi
All tweets about “Rahul” by Shirish Kunder till 10th May 2016.

I searched for the term “RaGa” and “Pappu” too as many Rahul Gandhi jokes refer him by those names, and again I got zero results. So at least on Twitter, Kunder didn’t crack a single joke on Rahul Gandhi – when the entire universe was cracking jokes on the poor prince – totally contrary to what he claims in his interview.

In his new avatar, Kunder cracks anti-Modi jokes all day round, and gets abused by Modi fans. That doesn’t justify the abuse, but given his lack of jokes on previous regimes, Kunder is no position to pass a judgement that jokes or tweets against the previous government didn’t attract abuse.

You didn’t crack too many jokes, and you didn’t get too many abuses.

However, not just Kunder, this is an oft-repeated propaganda online that Modi or BJP supporters are abusive while the rest are saints.

I won’t dispute at all that opinions against Modi or BJP indeed attract online abuse, but I won’t let this Goebellian propaganda go uncontested that opinions against the previous government or other leaders were, or are, taken in with all respect and tolerance.

This narrative gets easily propagated because those on the “right” side of this ideological divide don’t speak up about the abuse they receive. We (yes, I have taken sides and I am with the “right” in this battle) like to play brave and don’t like playing victim, whereas the other side is champion in playing victim.

This has to change. It’s not about playing victim but speaking out and setting the records straight.

So here is the story of abuse I got. In fact, no, not me – I have lost count of the abuses I get and I keep on getting them regularly now on Twitter – but this is a sick act that some fan of the previous regime did because I – from my personal Twitter handle as well as from the @fakingnews handle – would target the UPA regime through tweets and articles.

This fan of Congress and a “critic” of Modi was so upset with my tweets that he decided to target my family. He made a Twitter account with display name of my wife started writing obscene things about my wife and tagging me. There were filthy abuses and threats about me, my wife, and other members of my family.

I had tweeted about this experience when it happened:


By this time, I had become accustomed to the abuse I got personally. That had in fact stopped bothering me. I had developed thick skin and in future, I’d start giving them back. But I was not ready for this. This scared me like anything.

My wife still doesn’t know about it. Immediately after seeing these abusive and threatening tweets, I untagged myself from Facebook pictures of all the nice holidays that me and my wife had together. She felt odd. I jokingly told her that I was now a celebrity and I want only my own photos on my timeline. I didn’t want her to get affected by what was going on.

I was trying to remove all private information about her from my Facebook profile, which can be accessed by my haters. These sick guys, who must be strutting around as “liberals” in the society, could have gone to the next step.

Once I hid all the private information, I decided to take it up both with Twitter as well as the Mumbai Police’s cyber cell. Since the tweets were really filthy and abusive and were a textbook case of targeted harassment (my handle tagged in every tweet), I think it didn’t need much time for Twitter support to identify that it was a case of abuse. The handle was suspended within 12 hours.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take screenshots of those tweets that I may later give to the cyber cell to make a police case. Those were so filthy that I didn’t feel like looking at them again, so these legalities didn’t strike my mind then. I had sent emails to the cyber cell and was supposed to submit physical evidences next.

But through my tweet, I made it ample clear that I was pursuing it with the police. I knew that this guy must be tracking me from his other Twitter handle and he’d get scared that a police action was on its way.


Perhaps he read this tweet where I was seeking help for police action.

It worked and an apology mail arrived:

screenshot of email
The apology mail by one of my countless abusers

I knew that the guy was lying, but somehow I thought that maybe he was genuinely sorry. I could have used the html header of this email as a proof to the police, but the proof of original crime – screenshots of his hateful and threatening tweets to my family – was gone as Twitter had suspended his account.

Maybe like a typical “right winger”, this was my Prithviraj Chauhan moment – when you decide to trust your enemy. Somehow I felt I should leave it here and not pursue it. Maybe the guy is really sorry and a police case will spoil his life, I thought. I fancy myself as a ruthless guy, but perhaps I am not. Don’t know if it’s something to be proud of or to get worried about.

Some weeks later, a journalist was writing a story on Twitter trolls. Someone tagged me that I also had received abuse. I confirmed that:


But the journalist didn’t appear too interested in that for some reason and didn’t ask for much details about the abuse per se. Somehow all media stories about trolling and abuse cover abuse by only one type of people and they ignore the other type.

And this is why we need to speak up. The media won’t carry your stories (something on that for some other day), and the propaganda would go uncontested.

As an African proverb goes – until the story of the hunt is told by the Lion, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

So when I read that part of the Kunder’s interview and saw it being shared like gospel truth, I decided to speak up.

Let the stories be known. I know for fact that those on the right, especially the ladies, receive the worst abuses for their opinions. Tell your story. Don’t let them run away with the prey of your hunted dignity.

Editor’s Note: We have often heard about many more people being put into similar situations for their jokes on Gandhis and Congress. We urge them to come forward and let us know their stories too.

HuffPost does it again: This time it’s an ABVP picture for a story on Rocky Yadav

OpIndia Staff
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HuffPost does it again: This time it’s an ABVP picture for a story on Rocky Yadav

We know by now that many media outlets and their employees have serious issues reading and comprehending information, which often results in blatant misrepresentation. Huffington Post India, it seems, has gone one step ahead. They seem to have difficulty in seeing images and understanding what they depict!

It was just a month ago when Huffington Post used the picture of what seems to be a Bajrang Dal protest, along with the caption: “Outstation students at NIT Srinagar allegedly threatened with rape”. Of course the allegations were against local Kashmiris and not anyone remotely associated with Bajrang Dal.

The tweet from April which was later deleted

After getting massively trolled and ridiculed online, Huffington post deleted the tweet and put up a new, better suited image. But they did not apologise or accept the error.

A month has passed and Huffington Post was at it again. Again a similar modus operandi. A crime committed by someone on the ideological polar opposite of ABVP, yet ABVP’s picture being used in the image:

Today’s tweet

Rocky Yadav, the accused in a road-rage murder, and son of a JDU legislator was arrested, but Huffington Post chose to use the image of an ABVP protest with the above news break. The ABVP agitation was in fact in protest of the police inaction in Rocky Yadav’s case.

The explanation given by the author was that “they cant lift copyrighted images and have to use what’s available”. The same piece carried pictures of policemen from Bihar. One wonders whether ABVP picture was indeed the best option available.

Social media users though let Huffington Post have a piece of their mind:





Is Arvind Kejriwal’s PAN card “fake”?

OpIndia Staff
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Is Arvind Kejriwal’s PAN card “fake”?

Yesterday we had written how AAP had used half-truths and whole lies to make baseless allegations to somehow show that copies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degrees released by Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley were fake. We had also shown how these allegations were ranging from the stupid to the deceitful. One such claim, made by Ashutosh and from the official AAP handle is this:


AAP claimed that since there was a discrepancy in the name of Mr Modi, i.e. the word “kumar” was present at some places and missing at some other places, the degree was fake.

We had shown in the yesterday’s article itself how ordinary social media users trashed this claim by citing their own examples where their names had been inconsistent over a plethora of documents over the years.

Now, a social media user has turned the debate on its head. He has produced screenshots of the PAN card details of Arvind Kejriwal and showed that while Kejriwal’s name at all places was just “Arvind Kejriwal”, his name in the PAN database was “Arvind Kumar Kejriwal”:


We verified the charge and found it to be correct. At all places, including the affidavit which Kejriwal has furnished for elections, his name is just “Arvind Kejriwal”:

Kejriwal's name on legal documents
Arvind Kejriwal’s name on legal documents

From the PAN details given by Kejriwal in the same affidavit, one can check his name as per PAN records with the Income Tax, and here, his middle name is mentioned as “Kumar”, which is not mentioned anywhere else!

PAN details
PAN details

So purely going by AAP’s own logic, either Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s PAN is “fake” or all his other documents are “fake” or he legally changed his name from Arvind Kumar Kejriwal to Arvind Kejriwal! Will the real Kejriwal Kumar please stand up?

Here are some desperate lies that AAP tried to peddle to prove Modi’s degree fake

OpIndia Staff
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Here are some desperate lies that AAP tried to peddle to prove Modi’s degree fake

For the past few days, and “coincidentally” just as the Agusta Westland scandal was playing out, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was going all out to show and claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational degrees were fake. He made wild allegations, helped trend hashtags like #12thPassModi, questioned media for not covering his verbal diarrhoea.

The Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that a degree obtained by a namesake of him has been shown as as his own, which Arvind Kejriwal said amounted to outright “cheating”. Kejriwal told a press conference that he can assert with “full responsibility” that Delhi University’s records have no mention of “Narendra Damodardas Modi” and that one “Narendra Kumar Mahavir Prasad Modi” had taken admission in 1975.

Today finally BJP President Amit Shah  and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a joint press conference, to set the record straight and placed in public domain all the documents pertaining t Modi’s degrees, right from marksheets to graduation certificates.

Far from apologising or just letting this embarrassment pass, Aam Aadmi Party went on an aggressive with AAP leader Ashutosh claiming in a press conference that the degrees were fake. Various twisted claims were made which according to AAP and it supporters proved that degrees were fake.

The official handle of the party claimed that since mark-sheet has “Kumar” whereas Degree doesn’t have the same, the degree was fake:


People on social media scoffed at this hilarious claim by citing their own examples:



Different name on degrees
Variations of one’s name on different documents is not that uncommon

Next, some AAP supporters, who are often retweeted by Arvind Kejriwal tried to spread an untruth that the day on which Modi’s degree was issued was a Sunday. To show this, all they had to do was misread and misrepresent “thirtieth” as “thirteenth”


Further, AAP claimed that the marksheet showed the year 1977 but the graduation certificate showed the year 1978:


This too was untrue as revealed by a social media user. AAP cherry picked data from an earlier marksheet while ignoring the latest marksheet:


Further, a few users also noted that Graduation certificates are often given long past the exam date:


Another claim of AAP was that the degree and the marksheet had 2 different roll numbers:


Again, they picked up the wrong marksheet. The latest marksheet from 1978 had the same roll number as the degree:

qq
Roll No. in Marksheet tallies with the Degree

AAP even went on to analyse the marks in the final marksheet. Yes, in the above examples this marksheet was not available to AAP but suddenly they got it. They claimed that the total of marks was not correct:


Again, via deliberate misrepresentation, AAP tried to fool the people. The marks total was correct and AAP had conflated column headings with marks:


Even Congress IT cell joined in with AAP and made another hilarious claim, that why is the certificate titled “Members of the Court of Gujarat University”:


This too had a simple explanation. The Gujarat University Act specifically states that “The Court” is the executive body which shall confer degrees:


And the most hilarious claim came from yet another parody account of journalist late Vinod Mehta, which happens to be one of the most active supporters of AAP on Twitter. This is what this genius had to argue:


As per this genius, fonts were invented only after computers came into being! He was corrected by many about this fact that he had perhaps no idea about.

Not only that, anyone with normal eyesight and normal IQ will see that both the fonts are not the same. Just look at the way “M” has been written in both the images. They are different fonts. Unsurprisingly the blind supporters of AAP couldn’t see that.

Liberals dump Trupti Desai after she tried to enter Haji Ali

Rahul Raj
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Liberals dump Trupti Desai after she tried to enter Haji Ali

Not more than a few weeks back, women’s rights activist Trupti Desai was grabbing hot seats at all prime-time news shows across channels to bash Hindu customs that differentiated between men and women at religious shrines. Those heated debates, which were moderated by “anxious” news anchors and boasted of participation from representatives of academia, religious organizations, media, political corridors and cinema, scrutinized every aspect of socio-religious structure of the Hindu society.

These debates, framed around the Manuwad and Brahmanical structure supposed to be prevalent in the modern Hindu society, drilled down to exclusive discussions on patriarchy and misogyny. Trupti Desai was countered by several arguments, which highlighted the cultural background for such disparities in certain sections of these religious sanctums. However, these arguments were vehemently trashed by many “intellectuals” on media and social media for lending an atrocious support to the patriarchal structure of Hindu society.

On April 1, the Bombay High Court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation challenging women’s entry into the sanctum sanctorum of Maharashtra’s Shani Shingnapur temple, held that it was the fundamental right of women to enter places of worship and the government was duty-bound to protect it.

After scuffles and obstructions, Trupti Desai entered the inner section of Shani Temple that was prohibited for women for more than 400 years. Her entry in the Shani Temple was widely celebrated as the victory of equality – nationally as well as internationally.

Trupti Desai inside Shani Temple
The historic moment when Trupti became an icon

Excited with her victory, Trupti Desai soon announced that she will enter the inner section of Haji Ali – a widely visited mosque as well as a dargah (tomb) located in Mumbai – too, which is off limits for women. She would have certainly expected outrage and threats from the extremists, and she in fact received them too.

AIMIM leader Haji Rafat Husain was reported as saying that entering a graveyard is “haram” (forbidden) in Islam, and his party supporters will not let Desai enter the shrine’s sanctum sanctorum. He further added that he will smear the face of Ms Desai’s face with ink if she tried to enter the dargah’s sanctum sanctorum, even if he has to face arrest. Shiv Sena leader Haji Arafat Shaikh announced that Ms Desai would be hit with slippers if she tried to enter the Dargah.

Despite police and legal support, Trupti couldn’t enter into Haji Ali. She had to go away.

However, Trupti would not have imagined that her step, which was no different from what she did at Hindu temples, will become an inflection point for many supporters of women’s rights and equality, for many opponents of patriarchy and misogyny, for many proponents of progressive and liberal thoughts in India.

Congress Social Media team member, who runs DrunkVinodMehta handle on twitter not only challenged Trupti’s move, but framed her a communal agent funded by BJP. Not long before this, Congress speakers were cheering for Trupti on news channels and social media.



Shoaib Daniyal, who frequently writes acidic articles on casteism in Hinduism for left leaning blog Scroll defended the prohibition of women in Dargah of on the grounds of casteism and elitism in Islam.

Many spearheads who led the “right to pray” discussions during the Shani Temple row suddenly opined that it was a matter of Muslim practice, Hindus should not interfere with it. Suddenly they started seeing it as “us versus them” issue? Isn’t that a “communal” thought?

Not only this lack of support, Trupti received an official complaint filed by a Muslim activist. As reported by DNA, he was reported as saying, “Desai is deliberately and purposely disturbing the religious environment of our country. Her constant interference in our religious matters with a motive to bring about change is evoking anger amongst our community members.”

I was discussing with a friend who actively opposed the prohibition of women in temples. I was condemning the silence of left and left-liberals on the Trupti Desai issue. Unlike her aggressive take on mysogyny in Hindusim, she mildly defended it by saying that Muslim society is evolving and it will take time. Instead of unequivocally supporting Desai, she started comparing differences of prohibition of women in Temples and Dargahs.

When the discussion became intense, she painted me as a male who would never understand problems of women because I belong to the privileged section of a patriarchal structure. Before ending the discussion, her generalizations hopped a step more and she boasted how unlike right-wing thinkers, she was not killing or jailing me for the disagreements. Maybe I should have also thanked her for not cutting off my legs or killing me in cold blood as left-wingers do, but I decided not to stoop to that level.

This is not the first time when my political and social discussions with left-leaning intelligent and educated (that’s what I assume about them) individuals have shaped into “you right-wing privileged section of a male dominated society wouldn’t understand this”. Many of my attempts to talk about lack of equal treatment for the same crime in different societies are conveniently framed as bigotry.

What irks me more is that most of my friends with left-leaning ideologies would never acknowledge the reformations in the Sanatan Dharma. Compare to how we were treating women during independence to now, Hindu societies have visibly evolved a lot. But no, the credit goes to a “secular” society. Then why is that secular society not willing to back Trupti with the same enthusiasm when she tries to enter Haji Ali?

Nonetheless, no one is discussing Trupti Desai, misogyny, and patriarchy after the Haji Ali incident.

Vadra on Congress poster inspires this guy to come up with parody of ‘ambarsariya’ song

OpIndia Staff
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Vadra on Congress poster inspires this guy to come up with parody of ‘ambarsariya’ song

Nobody is quite sure what inspired the Congress party to put controversial businessman Robert Vadra on its posters in a rally that was led by party president Sonia Gandhi to “save democracy”. Robert Vadra is the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi and is accused of reaping unfair benefits in land and business deals owing to his relationship status.

The party has been defending these charges against Vadra arguing that he was just a “private citizen” and not a member of the Congress party. But suddenly on Friday, they released a poster with Robert Vadra flanked by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

That is indeed an unprecedented move to put a private citizen along with the president and vice-president of the party. Usually that place is reserved for Priyanka Gandhi, wife of Robert Vadra, but daamaad was put in place of beti for some reason.

Congress poster with Robert Vadra
The mysterious and “inspiring” poster

While the inspiration behind the poster is unknown, this move has inspired an ode to Robert Vadra in shape of parody version of the ambarsariya song from the Hindi movie Fukrey.

The ode has been written and sung by Ashish Dhar, who describes himself as a “cat in a rat race, refugee in own country, and allergic to political correctness” on his Twitter profile. The song exhorts Robert Vadra to take charge of the Congress party and “save democracy” because he’s the only hope left for Congress.

“As the fascist Modi and his gang of communal thugs like Subramanian Swamy threaten to destroy the idea of India, its democratic fabric, its secular texture and its tolerant hue, the Congress party, with the exception of the first family, is busy discussing, among other things, Rajiv Shukla’s gas problems. There is only one man who can save the day for secular forces. This song is for him.” Ashish says, presenting his ode to Robert Vadra.

Hear it here:

Understanding Arun Shourie’s Modi Riddle

Aditya (reviewero)
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Understanding Arun Shourie’s Modi Riddle

Former cabinet minister (in Vajpayee government) and well-known author Arun Shourie has been throwing punches at Narendra Modi for a while now, and the opposition and Modiphobes in Media have used him and his barbs with much glee.

And why not, as a former top journalist and one of the towering intellectuals the “right” has produced of late, his attacks on Modi carry more weight than the regular dog-chasing-car TV panelist variety. But what turned this right-wing poster boy into someone who regularly appears at convenient interviews to deride PM Modi?

If one digs out every major comment Shourie has made regarding Modi since 2009 to see the trajectory of his opinion of Modi, a pattern begins to reveal itself.

Here goes the timeline:

April 2009 – Arun Shourie wants Narendra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate after L K Advani – Shourie was one of the first BJP leaders to publicly state he wants Modi as PM, even as BJP was campaigning for Advani.

March 2013 – “Narendra Modi only viable PM candidate: Arun Shourie” – He kept the same high opinion of Modi and in yet again announced his preference for Modi as PM candidate, a full 6 months before Modi was declared PM candidate.

August 2013 – “I hope Narendra Modi comes to power, I would certainly endorse him” – Shourie upped the ante on Modi’s candidature one month before BJP officially declared him as PM candidate. This was in an interview to Karan Thapar.

Remember that all this while the same set of “liberals” were going to the town telling Indians and foreigners alike that India would reach a ‘moral point of no return’ if Modi was voted to power. Doomsday was being predicted if Modi won, but Arun Shourie didn’t think any liberties or values will be at risk if Modi won.

May 24, 2014 – “Narendra Modi likely to have smaller cabinet than UPA-2: Arun Shourie”  Shourie’s name as FM is thrown around in media. Two days before swearing in Shourie was still opining on behalf on Modi fairly confidently.

May 26, 2014 – Modi’s swearing in. Shourie missing from cabinet as well as swearing in ceremony

June 2014 – “Expect major agri reforms from Modi govt: Arun Shourie” – Even after the apparent snub he received by not being rewarded with a ministerial berth, Shourie continued to remain positive and hopeful about the Government.

November 2014 – Cabinet expansion. Shourie’s name missing again.

December 2014 – “I don’t want to use harsh words but the  consensus seems to be that when all is said and done, more is said than done. – Arun Shourie”. Shourie, for the first time, turns slightly critical of Modi and the Government. Further, he hinted that he was looking for a bigger role:

Question to Shourie: What is your opinion on age limit for political appointments at the Centre?
Answer: I am past 72 or 73, but I felt this is the wrong criterion even when I was younger. Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi were young men. What did they do? The two biggest reformers in India, Narasimha Rao and Vajpayee, were older men. Look at a person’s capacity to contribute.

Question to Shourie: Would you accept a role in government if offered?
Answer: Nobody offers me, what to do? (Laughs.) Faiz Ahmad Faiz had said, ‘Kuch hum hi ko nahin ehsaan uthane ka dimaag, woh jab aate hain mail-ba-karam aate hain (I did not want to take on another obligation, whenever she came, she came determined to endow her favours on me)’

May 2015 – “Arun Shourie criticises Prime Minister Narendra Modi for poor handling of the Indian economy” – Shourie launches a nuclear attack on Modi:

‘Modi behaves like a chief minister’ and ‘Economic policy directionless, social climate grave’. ‘Investments are just not coming’ he said even as Nomura later said FDI was rising, Foreign fund inflow hit a record high of 2.7 lakh crore and Markets had gained 20% since Modi swearing in.

October 2015 – “BJP leader Arun Shourie attacks Modi, calls him weakest PM ever”, “To run the country you need to take people along, Shourie tells PM Modi” – The attacks on Modi get shriller and shriller.

November 2015 – “Modi keeping silent only to win Bihar elections: Shourie” – Attacks from Shourie are now seen as a tool to help opposition against Modi, clearly siding with opposition.

May 2016 – ‘A one man govt run by a Machiavellian Narcissist, posing great danger to civil liberties & dissent’ – By now Arun Shourie has decided to stop pulling any punches. He has now become Karan Thapar’s favorite guest, popping in every six months, saying pretty much the same. May 2015, November 2015 and now again May 2016.

The time line of Shourie’s Modi riddle could perhaps reveal different things to different people. As far as I am concerned, I came out feeling that Shourie really believed he could contribute and deserved a bigger role, he kept his patience for long enough even as he was ignored one too many times and then eventually gave up.

Shourie was and probably still is a legend for many. I guess this only proves legends are human too and heroes are not infallible. An adaptation of the popular phrase from the Batman movie: You either retire from public life a hero (like Vajpayee), or be active long enough to see your self turn into a villain.

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