According to a report published in Amar Ujala, a team of Christian missionaries recently visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s estranged wife Jashodaben.
Brother Peter Paul, who was one of the visitors, said, “I have heard about her prayers and her loneliness. Her soul-touching story affected me. I heard through newspaper that she is in Mumbai. I searched for her whereabouts and went to meet her with my colleagues.”
“I have worked with Mother Teresa for 10 years. I saw a glimpse of Mother Teresa in Jashodaben,” Paul emphasized. He also added that Jashodaben has same positive aura as Mother Teresa had around her.
Jashodaben with a group of Christian missionaries
Peter and his team also invited Jashodaben to join their mission. The report further states that Jashodaben showed her willingness about joining the team. She appreciated the invite and said that she would like to work for the mission. However, she also added that the final decision will be taken by her family.
Peter stressed that he was not advertising religious conversions, but he wanted Jashodaben to help lots of destitute and helpless Hindus by teaching Geeta and Ramayan to them. He believes that it will also help Jashodaben to get liberation from the lifestyle she is living.
It is interesting to note that while Hindu groups are maligning their names by getting involved in redundant regressive proceedings like Valentine’s Day diktats, Christian missionaries are smartly spreading their messages and reaching out to all kinds of people. If Hindu groups keep prioritizing trivial issues over important issues like women upliftment, they will surely be sidelined by all the communities over a period of time.
If you read some of the tweets by some members of our media and other spin doctors, it would appear to you US President Barack Obama has strongly rebuked PM Modi for his attitude towards Hindutva forces and resultant growing intolerance. Here are a few of such tweets:
India as a whole, BJPGovt in particular, must take #Obama‘s lament seriously:”Acts of religious intolerance wud have shocked #MahatmaGandhi” — Sudheendra Kulkarni (@SudheenKulkarni) February 6, 2015
Of course, as always, the truth is quite different from the fiction produced above. We reproduce the relevant portion from Obama’s speech below:
Michelle and I returned from India — an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity — but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs — acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.
So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.
Two clear points emerge from the above:
1. Obama refers to acts of religious intolerance in the “past years“. Even the most conservative estimate of “past years” will be construed as 2 years, while Modi has been in the driver’s seat for barely 8 months. Thus a majority of this period belongs to the Secular rule of Sonia Gandhi via her able puppet Manmohan Singh. If at all Obama wanted to attack Modi, he could have used “past months” or a reference to the present.
2. Secondly, Obama mentions “religious faiths of all types”. This is in stark contrast to the oft-repeated pseudo secular liberal narrative of Minorities are being persecuted by Majority i.e. Hindus, and via correlation by Modi, who is touted as the poster boy of Hindutva. Obama very adeptly steers clear of this probably because he wishes to condemn religious extremists from all religions including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc.
The best example of stellar reporting comes from veteran “journalist” Sagarika Ghose:
Religious intolerance in India today would have shocked Gandhi, says POTUS
Either, Sagarika’s English comprehension skills are extremely poor OR she is wilfully distorting a statement to make it suitable to her agenda. Nothing else explains how “past years” can be turned into “in India today”, because the “today” reference aims at deflecting all the blame on the current regime.
We hope Rajdeep Sardesai comes forth to apologise for his wife’s disservice to the PM of India, especially because Rajdeep is so willing to apologise on public platforms for alleged misdemeanours of his co-workers to even unelected members of AAP.
On a side note, we would like to ask Obama for his help in reducing such acts of religious intolerance in India. Firstly, we request him to stop funding the Military establishments of failed states like Pakistan which openly sponsor religious terrorism. Secondly we also urge him to curb US funding to Missionary groups who not only add to the religious tensions with their Evangelical activities but also support extremism in North East regions of India.
In India’s Lok Sabha elections last year, social media played an important part. There were campaigns and debates held on different platforms. Twitter and Facebook came up with different options for the first time so users can track election. I covered some of the aspects here.
After the success of the Indian elections, technological organizations headed towards different destinations to implement and improve on what they had achieved. In Brazil, Twitter encouraged leaders to use Twitter and Vine.
Facebook rolled out the “I am a voter” option in different countries. Google had dedicated portals for public information and trends. For UK election, Twitter has a new feature where parties can post ads according to the postcode of the tweets from different users.
If we head back home, for Delhi elections, Narendra Modi is installing Selfie booths at various places. This allows the users with an app in the booth to get a picture clicked with Narendra Modi.
Everyone knows that Modi is a social media buff, so he is riding on the jubilance of his “Chai Pe Charcha” campaign in 2014 and has rolled out the same model for the Delhi elections. Various leaders of BJP are connecting to people through Google hangouts.
Meanwhile, AAP is strongly campaigning on Twitter. And in December, Arvind Kejriwal joined WhatsApp in December. He asked people to connect with him and share the issues and opinions they are facing.
All the parties and leaders have their dedicated Facebook pages. On which they post important updates and pictures of their proceedings. Apart from that, various videos are made and released on Facebook and YouTube as a part of the campaign.
Targeted ads are new means to reach people. Parties are rolling out automated banner ads in different games on the mobile platform. Also, they are sending out SMSes and automated calls using web services.
Apps are another way to track the elections or get some information. Electoral office of Delhi has released their official app. AAP has their dedicated app called The Mango App.
News channels have been tracking the mood of the Delhi state’s public with social media analytics. Opinion Polls are held through the internet. There is one Android app called Delhi Election 15 which allows you to mock vote. OPIndia also has a vote predictor contest.
Election information and campaigning methods are switching from traditional to internet slowly. And Social media is creating a big impact on the results as well. It will be interesting to see the results and implication of technology on politics
On 5 February 2015, the Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami was sacked for allegedly trying to stall the arrest of Saradha scam accused and former Minister Matang Sinh.
Media confirmed that CBI recorded a conversation between Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami and Matang Sinh, an accused in the Saradha scam and a former Union Minister. The Hindu also stated that “During his meeting with the Home Minister, Mr. Goswami confirmed that he had made the calls.”
Anil Goswami has admitted to calling up CBI officials dealing with the Saradha case. Source: PTI
The final decision was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh met and discussed the issue. Before this, when CBI officials went to arrest Matang Sinh, he talked about his “high-level contacts.” Later, the CBI recorded a conversation between him and Goswami.
Goswami’s removal came after he was summoned by the Home Minister today to explain the conversation with Matang Sinh. That meeting lasted about an hour. He was also called by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) later in the day. Singh is reported to have briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue and also met CBI chief Anil Sinha.
Goswami was sacked four months before his tenure was due to end in June. He will be replaced by L C Goyal, a Kerala cadre IAS officer of the 1979 batch.
On 29 Jan 2015, a day after President Barack Obama’s visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi fired India’s highest-ranking diplomat Sujatha Singh who served as India’s Foreign Secretary from August 2013 to January 2015.
Former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh
While Congress criticized it as a political move, Sujata Singh accepted it as a general repercussion after change of governments by expressing her displeasure with the government, BJP hinted inefficiency and inability as the prime reason for her removal. Singh was replaced by Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Even former PM Manmohan Singh was reportedly keen on appointing Jaishankar as the foreign secretary.
On 14 Jan 2015, the government removed the chief of India’s top defence research organization, Avinash Chander, 15 months before his contract was to end. In August 2013, PM Narendra Modi had already expressed his dissatisfaction with DRDO, saying, “The biggest challenge for DRDO is how to work before time. The world will not wait for us.” He communicated his displeasure with the “Chalta Hai” attitude of DRDO.
Avinash Chander, ex-Director General Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
Even though DRDO claims that under Dr Avinash Chander’s leadership, “The organisation carried out extensive research and indigenously developed the critical technologies”, many of DRDO’s projects such as the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Nag missile, long-range surface-to-air missile project and the Airborne Early Warning and Control System have been delayed by many years and seen several cost overruns.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, in a meeting with reporters, said, “I recommended this. We need someone young and didn’t want somebody on contract to be in such a senior post.”
At his first direct interaction with secretaries who lead in various ministries, Modi gave a loud and clear and loud message to all: Top officers must take their leadership role seriously and be decisive to make things happen quickly and improve governance.
Looking at the speed at which actions are taken against corrupt and incapable top-guns, many corrupt, dormant and complacent bureaucrats would be having sleepless nights. It is a very optimistic sign to see that Modi, as expected, doesn’t hesitate to remove substandard babus irrespective of their positions or date of retirement.
By now it has become standard practice for Kejriwal and AAP in general to dub anyone against them as corrupt, while anyone who speaks in favour of them automatically gets certificate of honesty. This virtue is exemplified by Arvind Kejriwal’s diverse reactions regarding Opinion Polls.
The same Kejriwal who asked for “raw data” of Opinion Polls when they were not being charitable to him, is now glorifying Opinion Polls only because they show AAP in good light.
Here are some tweets of Kejriwal where he cast aspersions on Opinion Polls in the run up to the Delhi Assembly elections 2014 and Lok Sabha elections of 2014:
Is it a coincidence that 5 channels show opinion polls by 2 agencies on same day? Ever happened earlier.
This same Arvind Kejriwal, is today sending Whatsapp forwards to people claiming that Opinion Polls are gospel truth:
We wonder whether Arvind Kejriwal has checked the “raw data” of all these opinion polls, or do they don’t need to declare raw data since they have been given certificate of honesty.
It is also quite ironic that the same Arun Puri who was hated by Kejriwal back then, today the same Arun is using an Agency like CICERO, which also does work for AAP, to conduct his opinion polls.
“You will find no rest for the long years of Eternity
For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting”
This is considered to be the first śloka in Sanskrit literature. It is stated that Valmiki, on a fine morning, saw a Crane (bird) couple mating. He was pleased to see birds around him, when a hunter hit the male bird by an arrow and the male bird died on the spot. In rage and grief, his uttered these words which became the first śloka in Sanskrit literature. Later Valmiki composed the entire Ramayana the same meter that issued forth from him as the śloka. Valmiki is revered as the first poet – Adi Kavi, and the Ramayana – the first kavya.
The first śloka, widely cited in our cultural texts, was written by Valmiki when he felt the grief of two lovers separating from each other
Strange obsession with a day that has done less damage to Hindus than such protests
Expression of love, moral policing against expression of love, and consequential social struggle to elevate against such moral policing – in combination – has been one of the strongest mechanisms of social evolution. However, the mid-agent of this sequence i.e. the moral police group remains the biggest barrier and threat to social evolution.
In most of the cases, moral policing is used as a tool, by groups or individuals, to drag society into some fixed structures –structures, in which these groups or individuals have grown, mushroomed, prospered – but they lose their identity outside the structure. Moral policing, in most of the cases, arises from personal and social insecurities of people.
Couples found celebrating the “foreign festival” in public will face a variety of punishments. While a prompt Arya Samaj wedding will be forced on Hindu couples, inter-faith partners will have to sit through a “shuddhikaran” (purification) ritual.
Chandra Prakash Kaushik, the Hindu Mahasabha President, said, “India is a country where all 365 days are days for love, why then must couples observe only February 14 as Valentine’s Day?”
It is not the first time that we are hearing such statements. In India, sex is usually treated as something which is much more than corporeal desires, and love is depicted as something more sacred than any other cosmic interference. The justifications given by these regressive goons revolve around cultural boundaries of the society – a boundary conveniently defined by goons who have nothing else to brag about in their life, or a cultural boundary defined by people who are so insecure about “ethos” of their spoon-fed next generations that they fear any kind of exposure breaking these boundaries.
One weird concern often raised is – “Would you like to walk with your kids and parents in a park where couples are getting too intimate with each other?” Seriously? Who defines the boundaries of intimacy? If a scene of couples holding hands, gifting roses, and kissing can have such a long-lasting “bad” impact on kids, the scene of goons beating up couples will have a worse impact. It will change the DNA of kids by forcing them to consider love nothing but a taboo, which suddenly becomes a blessing when they are married. Do we want to go back to the medieval ages? Is Saudi Arabia the ideal state for Hindu Mahasabha?
The other concern raised is – “Why must couples observe only February 14 as Valentine’s Day?” Do we observe Raksha Bandhan daily? Do we observe birthdays daily? If not, by the same logic, either we don’t love our sisters or we don’t care to acknowledge our existence daily.
It is sad to see that The Hindu Mahasabha which was established in 1914 for the education and economic development of Hindus have gone into the hands of people who are misusing it in the name of cultural structures.
It is shameful to see that the organization which was started by prominent educationist like Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (founder of Benaras Hindu University) has degraded as a political framework to define morality of the society.
During early 1900s, when women exploitation was a socially accepted behaviour, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya stood for social upliftment of women, supported widow remarriage, and opposed child marriage both for boys and girls. In his speeches and writings, he always talked about the equality of men and women in our society.
It is painful to see that an organization started by Pandit ji is becoming a disgraceful barrier against gender equality, spiritual enrichment, and moral evolution.
What should we expect next from The Hindu Mahasabha? Would they prescribe locations for honeymoon? Would they define a physical distance that a boy must keep with girls? Would they propose angle at which boys should make an eye contact with a girl?
I have just one request to the Hindu Mahasabha: if you respect your founder and care for Hindus, either change your ways or change your name. They are more offensive in my eyes than Valentine’s Day is in your eyes.
In a startling revelation, Twitter user @India_Progress has revealed that CICERO, the agency which has been hired by Aaj Tak India Today group for conduction Opinion Poll surveys in Delhi, has AAP on its list of clients. A visit to CICERO’s site, shows that they proudly claim that both Aaj Tak and AAP are their clients. In fact Aaj Tak and AAP are the first names on their clients list.
In such a situation, one must wonder whether such a conflict of interest played any role in any of the Aaj Tak Opinion Polls for Delhi elections. Also there are reports of an internal survey by AAP. Did CICERO conduct this survey for AAP? The data from the Opinion Polls done by CICERO is as follows:
Date of Opinion Poll
Vote Share AAP %
Vote Share BJP %
Vote Share INC %
Vote Share Others %
Seats AAP
Seats BJP
Seats INC
Seats Others
18/12/2014
36
39
16
NA
28
37
4
1
12/01/2015
36
40
16
8
28
37
4
1
03/02/2015
43.5
35.5
13
NA
41
22
5
2
If we compare the above surveys with other surveys, as per our compilation chart, we can see that CICERO is the ONLY agency which is giving AAP more than 40 seats. Can these projections be relied upon?
It has also been revealed that CICERO is in fact run by a Congress leader. As per this report dated November 2013, CICERO has two directors, Sunit Kumar Madhur and Dhananjai Joshi as per information available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website. On the current site however, only Mr Joshi’s name is visible. The report further says that, Mr Sunit Kumar Madhur was a secretary in the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), as per information available on the Congress website.
Can an Agency run by a Congress leader conduct truly unbiased Opinion Polls?
Can an Agency which has AAP as a client, and has done surveys for AAP, conduct truly unbiased Opinion Polls?
Should Aaj Tak have revealed these Conflicts of Interest while publishing their Opinion Polls?
All India Bakchod took down their AIB Knockout video yesterday night. They didn’t give any reasons for the same but the Usual Suspects were quick to jump to their own conclusions. Finally, AIB has put out the official version on Facebook. We try to bring to you the key takeaways from the entire incident:
1. AIB wasn’t arm-twisted by anyone to take the video down.
Disappointing a whole lot of “Liberals”, AIB reveal that they took the video down on their own. They say, “no one person or force forced us to take this video down. This is not something that’s happened because of a 3 am a phone call or a morcha at our front door or a gunman on a grassy knoll. Under the circumstances, this is us being pragmatic“. Some major disappointment for people who tried to drag Modi into this.
2. We will continue having people giving fodder to fear-mongers
Censor Board member Ashoke Pandit’s response to the AIB knockout was trashed by most people. It was broadly in line with the general Internet Hindu brigade, but it was disappointing to see someone in his position to say it. And because of such responses, fear-mongers will always have a market:
Scared to speak your mind anymore? Remember, you voted for this.
3. Engineering hostel culture has the potential of becoming the hip culture and creates a new society
This might be too far in the future, but in cities, this could definitely be on much sooner. AIB has put up the stats of likes and views, which indicate that the people who liked it was more than who disliked it. They say, “the videos got over 8 million views. Far more importantly, on the video page, the people who liked them outnumbered the people who disliked them by ten times to one”. Of course, as we said, this could be more an Urban view.
4. Divided by Ideology, United by AIB’s right to Free Speech
AIB mention that irrespective of who liked their Roast, they received support from “all quarters“, which surprised even them. They say, “people in power who we have made fun of in the past, including people from both the so-called right-wing and left-wing, went out of their way to convey support to us.” Even the Media was in the same boat, “Friends in the media have told us to stay our course, pledging their support for our right to say anything, no matter how ridiculous.” It’s heartening to see sections who are usually at loggerheads with each other, come together to support Freedom of Speech.
5. The “Authorities” are still probing AIB
AIB mention that they ” are also cooperating with the authorities and hope to resume normal service soon“. While Maharashtra CM and Culture Minister have made statements which indicate that AIB won’t be victimized, we hope it does translate into some action on the ground. AIB though hasn’t mentioned anything about the court cases which they may have to face, which we hope they do face, so the court can set the record straight once and for all.
It was well within her rights of Freedom of Expression to question Modi on such grave crimes committed by him and it is also welcome that people who thrived on Filmfare magazines and Zoom TV “news bulletins” for ages have now become serious about the real News in our country. But we felt the need to address some basic factual inaccuracies in her tweet, with this tweet, the text of which we reproduce below:
1. Shirin Dalvi, has gone into hiding because of the opposition and criticism she faced for publishing Charlie Hebdo cartoons. This opposition is not from Narendra Modi or his bigotted army, as Rega implies, but is from journalists like Zubair Azmi who heads heads Urdu Markaz, an organisation that promotes the cause of Urdu literature and Izhar Ahmed, president of the Urdu Patrakar Sangh who considers himself a “Muslim first, a journalist second”. They have used the current Indian law, to file case and seek lawful punishment. We cannot verify whether Azmi and Ahmed are “BJP or Modi Agents” nor can we comment whether Dalvi should be afraid of fighting her case in the courts.
2. The only “threat” AIB is under as of now is having to drive through menacing traffic of Mumbai to go to a court to defend the FIRs filed by some people, again seeking lawful recourse to their grievances. We do hope they go to court and teach the idiots who filed FIRs a lesson. Also it is important to note what Modi’s representatives in Maharashtra have said: The CM has said he will act only if AIB has violated any laws, and Culture Minister Vinod Tawde has said he wont indulge in Moral Policing. Much Threats Very Scary.
3. “Bombay” was bleeped out by the Censor Board which Modi disbanded, so Modi has already answered Ms Jha. If only she had read our piece on this, she would have been better informed.
4. Blurring of cleavage on TV is a standard practice (however idiotic it may be) and has been in force for a long time. Way back in 2012, Vidya Balan’s cleavage was censored on TV and in May 2014, days before Modi took over, the same censor board which Modi fired, took a decision to ban cleavages in movies.
In response to our tweet, in which we pointed out logical fallacies in Ms Jha’s views, she posted this tweet:
LOL at the irony of getting trolled and threatened by Modi supporters for implying that Modi’s India isn’t ideal for freedom of expression.
When we last checked we were well within our Right to Freedom of Expression, to express our amazement at Ms Jha not knowing some basic facts. We checked some replies to her, and found no “threats”, and knowing what “threats” mean to her, we will leave it at that. Isn’t it Ironical that a tweet which was supposed to show some “Irony” is actually Ironic itself because she doesn’t respect the Right to Freedom of Expression of people who have opposing views?
The biggest Irony in our opinion is that Ms Rega Jha regularly features spoofs, satires and jokes on Modi like this, this and this and doesn’t find the need to ever go into “hiding”, never gets “threatened” to take them down and never has to “bleep” or “blur” stuff, and yet has the gall to claim that “Modi’s India isn’t ideal for Freedom of Expression”. Also to be clear, we have no issues with Ms Jha’s jokes on Modi, because it is well within her Freedom of Expression. We just hope she realises that other people too enjoy the same Freedom.
We have collated and compiled every Opinion Poll for Delhi Assembly Elections 2015, right from the first one in November 2014 till the one yesterday. On public demand, we also updated the Vote Share and Sample size details, making it the most comprehensive collection of Opinion Polls. But all this data can be confusing. I will try to simplify the same.
First I take a simple average of all polls, monthwise. That is, we see what was the average prediction for each month:
Vote Share AAP %
Vote Share BJP %
Vote Share INC %
Vote Share Others %
Seats AAP
Seats BJP
Seats INC
Seats Others
November 2014
33
41
11
NA
23
42
4
1
December 2014
34
41
20
11
27
38
4
1
January 2015
37
40
15
8.5
30
35
5
0
February 2015
42
37
13
8
38
28
4
0
From the above table, if you see the Vote Share column, there is a steady minor fall in BJP’s vote share which goes to 37% from 41% in November 2014, while AAP makes much bigger gains by reaching 42% in February from starting point of 33%. In a way one can say BJP has marginally lost vote share, but AAP has gained much more. Now comes the tricky part, projecting the seats.
BJP, which had 42 seats in November with 41% of vote share, drops to just 28 in February thanks to a mere 4% fall in vote share. On the other hand, AAP’s vote share increases by 9% and seats jump to 38 from 23 in November. Does just a 4% loss in vote share mean a loss of 13 seats for BJP, only because AAP has gained 9%?
Also, most of these polls usually come with a margin of error of 1% to 5%. Assuming a 3% error margin, the entire game changes, with BJP getting 40% vote share and AAP on 39%, point being, in such a tight finish, its hard to be accurate, especially when you are converting Vote shares in Seat predictions
Another interesting point is the Congress Vote share. We can ignore the vote share for November which maybe low because of incomplete data, but from December to February, Congress vote share has dropped 7% from 20% to 13%. BUT projected seats of Congress have remained near 4 throughout. Does this mean Congress is losing votes only in certain constituencies? Could it mean Congress is holding its own in pockets where it ash high vote share (and where it is winning) but is losing votes from places where it would have anyway come third? Have the pollsters made their predictions in such detailed manner?
Also let me pull up the Opinion Polls predictions for Delhi, during Lok Sabha 2014, the most recent elections Delhi has faced:
AAP seats
BJP Seats
INC Seats
Aaj Tak / India Today
January 2014
5
2
0
CNN IBN
January 2014
5
2
0
ABP News
February 2014
6
1
0
NDTV
March 2014
4
2
1
The final results were of course a clean sweep of 7 out of 7 seats to BJP. From the above, one thing is clear, Pollsters haven’t got Delhi correct most often. Is it because it is “Delhi”, or did they under-estimate the Modi wave, or is it because Delhi based media gets too swept away in the AAP media frenzy? Whatever might be the reasons, we have enough reasons to cast aspersions of Delhi Opinion Polls atleast.
And finally, we have the Satta Bazaar, India’s illegal betting market. Although not a scientific “Opinion Poll”, it is an “Opinion” and one which was one of the closest to the right answer for Lok Sabha 2014. Punters had then bet that Modi will become PM and NDA will reach 272. The actual result was far better with BJP on its own crossing 272 seats. Even today, the BJP is the favourite of the betting market, in sharp contradiction to all latest Opinion Polls. Do the people whose money is riding on something know better than psephologists? Only time will tell. Till then, you tell us what you think will be the outcome: Take part in our Contest for predicting the Delhi Assembly results and win Flipkart vouchers and @amreekandesi‘s latest book!
