My Opinion

The Income Tax department has attached 12 ‘benami’ properties belonging to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s wife Rabri Devi, daughter Misa Bharati and son Tejaswi Yadav in connection with the Rs 1,000-crore benami properties and tax evasion cases. The department had issued summons to Misa Bharati and her husband Shailesh twice for interrogation, but they failed to appear citing security risks. The department has now given them fresh date in the month of July, but has not disclosed it for security reasons.

Son Tejaswi Yadav on Tuesday denied that he and his kin owned these properties and described these actions as “political vendetta”, but the fact is, if family members of Lalu Prasad admit that these benami properties belong to them, the task to prosecute would become easier for the Income Tax department. The onus is now on the Income Tax department to prove that the real owners of the benami properties are family members of the RJD supremo.

On Tuesday, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi disclosed more ‘benami’ properties, which he alleged, belonged to Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi. Since these are serious allegations pertaining to Bihar’s most famous political family, a detailed investigation and prosecution is the need of the hour.

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Hurriyat Conference chief Mir Waiz Omer Farooq on Sunday congratulated Pakistan on winning the Champions Trophy final. There were celebrations with firecrackers over Pakistan’s victory in Kashmir valley. Teams do win or lose in sports. Congratulating a team on its win in sportsman’s spirit is alright, but to celebrate India’s defeat while being an Indian national is shameful.

Mir Waiz should know: Had he been a Pakistani national, staying in Pakistan, and had he celebrated India’s victory then, what could have been the consequences? He could have been thrown into prison. He should know that a Pakistani young man is still languishing in prison for praising Virat Kohli in public.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to appoint a Muslim minister, Firhad Hakim, as the chairman of Tarakeshwar Development Authority has raised the hackles of BJP and other Hindu outfits. These groups say that a Muslim cannot be appointed the head of a body that will look after the affairs of one of the most venerated Hindu temples in West Bengal. Mamata’s argument is that the authority will only look after the development of the area around Tarakeshwar temple. Mamata Banerjee is an experienced politician, and she fully understands the implications of her decisions. The decision to appoint a Muslim minister as the head of a temple area development authority was a calculated one, and this is bound to ignite passions in the minds of Hindu voters. Mamata’s government had earlier prohibited immersion of Durga idols in a particular district. She then slapped a ban on Hanuman Jayanti processions. Mamata Banerjee is trying to send out a message through these decisions. Hindu voters in West Bengal are very much agitated over these decisions. Mamata is, after all, a shrewd politician, and she always takes decisions in a calculated manner, with an eye on vote bank.

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The picturesque hills of Darjeeling are witnessing violence for the last one week, and the West Bengal Police, under orders from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is trying to crush the voice of the people in the hills. There is not an iota of doubt that most of the people in Darjeeling hills are with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha led by Bimal Gurung.

On Thursday, police raided the house of Gurung and seized bows and arrows, axes and spears. It is plain common sense that no outfit can launch a rebellion with the help of these weapons. The only way out of the present crisis is through talks. Bimal Gurung must also ensure that his supporters refrain from violence, otherwise, this will not help anybody.

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The Uttar Pradesh government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is currently busy preparing the list of land mafias, who have grabbed government and private land in the past ten years. Names of several politicians have figured in the list. The state cabinet, at its meeting on April 25^th, had set up a task force to identify and take action against the culprits. A two-month deadline was issued, which is going to lapse on June 25^th.

During the UP assembly election, land grabbing was a major issue, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had openly promised to put land grabbers behind the bars. Thousands of plots were forcibly acquired by land mafias, and buildings were built on them. We will see shortly, what action the state government has taken to free such plots from the land grabbers.

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This is the story of 13-year-old Arif Dar from a village in Pulwama, who was a bright cricketer studying in 8^th standard. Arif, who had never ever thrown a stone, one day left home with Rs 70 and joined the terrorists. Arif Dar is today the right-hand man of the militant commander, Abu Dujana.

Dar was brainwashed by the militants to join their gang. Contrast this with the stellar work being done by the Indian Army, which provided 11-month coaching to 35 Kashmiri youths under the Super 40 scheme to crack IIT-JEE. Out of them, 28 students cleared JEE Mains, and nine of them qualified further to pass JEE Advanced exam and are now set to join IITs. The rest are eligible to join the NITs.

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat, on Tuesday, personally met each of these Kashmiri youths and lauded them for their efforts. In one stroke, the Army Chief has replied to those politicians who had labelled him as ‘Sadak ka goonda’. The Army has shown how a constructive approach can change the lives of Kashmiri youths. These young minds need opportunities, support and a little bit of love. None of the parents in the Kashmir Valley want their sons to become terrorists, but the hard fact is that the separatists indoctrinate these gullible youths by showing them jihadi videos of hate speeches and acts. The youths then take up the gun, and by the time, they find out the truth, it becomes too late for them to retrace their steps. The need of the hour is to keep the path of conciliation open for such misguided youths.

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The sordid state of affairs in Bihar exposed by Operation Bhavani, showed killers walking out of jails, posing as juvenile delinquents, with the help of fake school certificates. This is indeed unnerving. INDIA TV’s team of reporters met families of victims, painstakingly compiled details of killers who came out of jails to again commit murders, obtained audio recordings of stings carried out on a principal, and found to their dismay, that in more than 150 cases of heinous offences, killers procured fake age certificates from a rogue principal by paying fixed bribes. This exposé should act as an eye-opener and should serve as a warning to the legal system, where the police and courts are being conned.  This should be taken up as a big challenge by lawmakers. A senior police officer from Bihar had once told me that one could easily prove in courts that a snake was indeed a rope, and vice-versa. It seems that his words have come true.

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Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken a brave decision to sit on fast at Dussehra ground in Bhopal to meet the representatives of farmers. In one stroke, he will be trying to achieve two objectives: one, to wean away farmer leaders from falling into the trap of violence, and two, he will now be interacting with farmer leaders directly. It has now been conclusively proved that local Congress leaders took a major part in instigating mobs to carry out stoning, arson and loot, in the guise of farmers. There are videos that clearly show local Congress leaders including a woman MLA, asking mobs to set fire to a police station. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh were prevented from visiting violent-hit areas by police on

It has now been conclusively proved that local Congress leaders took a major part in instigating mobs to carry out stoning, arson and loot, in the guise of farmers. There are videos that clearly show local Congress leaders including a woman MLA, asking mobs to set fire to a police station. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh were prevented from visiting violent-hit areas by police on Thursday because there was a possibility of the situation turning for the worse. Digvijaya Singh may claim that he had gone there to appeal for peace, but it does not match with the actions of local Congress leaders.

On Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spent almost the entire day playing hide-and-seek with police on the Rajasthan-MP border. Rahul has the democratic right to register his protest over police firing in which five farmers were killed. He also has the right to meet the families of those killed. But I feel, it would have been better if Rahul Gandhi had issued an appeal to farmers to maintain peace and shun violence. But what did he do? He rode a motorbike with the local MLA, who a day earlier had tried to instigate farmers in Mandsaur. This fuelled doubts that the Congress leader was trying to reap political advantage. Police too had to intervene. Now supporting anti-social elements who stoned a bus full of passengers in Devas, with women and children ducking under their seats and crying for relief, is out of the question. Police must take stringent action against such anti-social elements.

Coming to Maharashtra, nearly Rs. 740 crore worth fruits, vegetables and milk were thrown on the roads. This turned out to be sheer wastage and as a result, thousands of farmers and vendors had to suffer losses. Farmers, under these circumstances, are worried about vegetables, fruits and flowers rotting in their fields, and if the agitation is not called off soon, they will have to bear the full brunt of losses. The leaders representing these farmers should understand this. They have the right to agitate, boycott programmes of state ministers to keep up the pressure on the government, but they should at least allow farmers to send their fruits and vegetables to markets so that they can feed their families.

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On Wednesday, a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Danish Ahmed surrendered to police and Rashtriya Rifles in Handwara, Kashmir and expressed his desire to return to the mainstream. Only a few days ago, he was seen holding a grenade and shouting slogans at the funeral of Sabzar Bhat, the Hizbul commander, killed in an encounter with security forces. Danish was a third-year student of an agriculture science and technology college in Dehradun. He was attracted towards militancy after coming into contact with terrorists through social media. He left studies, started throwing stones at police, was let off after warning, and he then took up the gun. At the time of his surrender, Danish revealed how terrorists in South Kashmir were mainly indulging in extortion and loot, and money was flowing freely into the Valley from Pakistan for militancy. He said, he has realised the futility of joining militant ranks. He will now be given all assistance from the state under the Surrendered Militants Rehabilitation Policy.

The Director General of Police, Jammu and Kashmir has promised that surrendered militants will not be troubled any more by police. The state police is taking the help of parents in bringing militants back to the mainstream. Several of these militants have now realised that returning to the mainstream will be beneficial both for them and the people of Kashmir, who want an early return to normalcy.

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Whenever farmers come out to protest on the streets, it becomes an emotional issue. People of India revere farmers as “annadata”(providers of food). They know that farmers toil from morning till night, raise crops and feed themselves and the nation. That is the reason why no government, of whichever political persuasion, ever thinks of collecting income tax from agriculture.

In Madhya Pradesh, the state government has gone to the extent of giving an interest-free loan. If a farmer takes Rs 100 worth loan, he has to repay only Rs 90. But the problems with farmers is not the loan. They want remunerative prices for their produce. The irony is that if there is a bumper harvest, prices of produce fall. There arises the need to hike support prices. But farmer leaders must understand: violence is not the way out, they should find out solutions through talks.

On a media website, a historian has published an article comparing Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat with the infamous Brig Gen Reginald Dyer of British Raj, known as the Butcher of Amritsar, the man whose troops fired 1,650 rounds on an unarmed crowd of some 20,000 people gathered in Jallianwala Bagh.

Such writers forget that Brig Gen Dyer had ordered troops to fire on those people who were shouting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. These brave people were our freedom fighters, those who gave away their today for a better tomorrow for us and our future generations.

On the other hand, the jawans of Indian army fire on those who kill and maim innocent Indians, who behead our soldiers, who use children as human shields to attack our troops.

There must be no mercy for such brutal terrorists, because they do not have a shred of sensibility left in their hearts. To speak about the “human rights” of such attackers is meaningless. Those who compare Gen Rawat with Brig Gen Dyer must feel ashamed.