Nasheman News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred the Seoul Peace Prize here on Friday. He dedicated the Prize to the people of India and donated its amount to the Namami Gange Fund.

Expressing his gratitude after receiving the Prize, Modi said, “I believe that this award belongs not to me but to the people of India. It belongs to the success India has achieved in the less than five years powered by the strengths and skills of 1.3 billion Indians and on their behalf, I humbly accept the award and express my gratitude.” 

He said the award was a recognition of the philosophy that gave the world the message of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam (the world is a family)”. “It is for the culture that has given the message of peace even on the battle field. In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna preached the Bhagwad Gita during the battle,” he said. 

The Prime Minister said, “The Seoul Peace Prize is for the land which prays may there be peace everywhere in the sky, in the space, all over planet, in nature. May there be eternal peace. 

“This award is for the people who have always put societal good above individual ambitions. And I am honoured that it is being conferred on me this year, when we celebrate the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.” 

Donating the award money to the Namami Gange fund, Modi said, “I would like to contribute the monetary award of $200,000 i.e. Rs 1 crore 30 lakh to the Namami Gange fund for our efforts to clean river Ganga, which is not just the economic lifeline of millions of people but is also held sacred by us.”

An investigation by Cobrapost website has exposed as many as 36 celebrities from the Indian entertainment industry, who agreed to promote a political party for money by posting favourable messages on their social media accounts to help create a favorable environment in the run-up to 2019 elections.

These celebrities included actors from TV and films, singers, social media celebrities and stand-up comedians. Among actors, some of the notable names are Sunny Leonne, Vivek Oberoi, Jackie Shroff, Tisca Chopra, Shakti Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Shreyas Talpade, Amisha Patel, Mahima Chaudhry, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Pankaj Dheer and his son Nikitin Dheer, Deepshikha Nagpal, Akhilendra Mishra, Rohit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Salim Zaidi, Rakhi Sawant, Aman Verma, Hiten Tejwani and wife Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba and Koena Mitra.

Among other celebrities and singers included Poonam Pandey, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh and Baba Sehgal. Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar were some of the known comedians, who too accepted on camera to promote a political party in exchange of money. Choreographer Ganesh Acharya and former Bigg Boss contestant Sambhavana Seth too were caught on camera accepting the offer of money to help a political party in the election campaign by using their social media accounts.

Cobrapost reporters approached these celebrities by posing as the representatives of a non-existent PR agency and using fake names. They contacted these celebrities with a simple question, “would you be willing to promote a political party discreetly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram?” Almost all celebrities answered in affirmative as long as the fee was right.

Celebrities agreeing to post messages using their social media accounts for a fee wasn’t the only shocking discovery of the Cobrapost expose. Some of the admissions made on camera showed that they had no hesitation to commit what’s essentially a crime in exchange of money. For example, most of them were willing to accept the bulk of their fee in cash, which in other words means black money.

Pornstar-actor Sunny Leonne told Cobrapost journalists that she will support the BJP if the Centre’s Narendra Modi government gave her husband Daniel Weber the status of Overseas Citizen of India.

She said, “Modi Sir ne Daniel ko overseas citizen banaya toh hum zaroor support karenge(We will definitely support provided Modi Sir [the BJP government] grant Daniel overseas citizen status).”

Sunny has in excess of 23 million followers on Facebook, close to 4 million on Twitter and nearly 19 million on Instagram. According to one Cobrapost reporter, who was a part of the investigation, Sunny asked for Rs 5 crore for pushing the BJP’s agenda using her social media pages.

Actor Vivek Oberoi, who will be seen playing the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the biopic made his father Suresh Oberoi, was so eager to close the ‘deal that he was heard saying on the camera, “I would like to tell you to close the formalities before I leave so that I can start it from  September, because after that I would go to Kerala and from there to Azerbaijan. I can tweet from anywhere, but if you close these formalities, I would arrive at an understanding. [Turning to his manager]You can discuss it all with them and also give me a list of issues with facts and figures in the form of a docket. After that, I, you and my social media team will make a phase out [sic] plan; for instance, today we will cover this topic, and the topic to be covered every week, month you will mail me in a chunk, telling me we will be covering these issues in 1, 2, 3 and 4 week, we will talk about this issue).”

Sonu Sood asked for Rs. 20 crore to execute the task offered to him by the Cobrapost journalists. He later demanded Rs. 2.50 crore a month, saying, “Let me tell you directly … Since if I am talking to you … you see I think I shall work seriously. There can be five or seven [posts/tweets]. My messages will be very, very strong and nice. If I say I will do only four not five on a given day … I will repeat something written by somebody else, for example, and I will add my answer to it. Is that okay? I will do all that … but I feel that the price 1.5 crore you have quoted, it should be at least 2.5).”

Former Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, suggested that he would use his mobile phone to make videos for the promotion of the BJP in situations which look natural. He said, “It should look natural. Suppose, I am at a traffic signal and I say something while sitting in my car or sipping tea at a coffee shop … yes [that would look] natural).”

Here too, the former singer did not lose a chance to spew venom against Muslims. Referring to a controversial statement made by one of the BJP legislators from Hyderabad, Bhattacharya observed, “This fellow did the right thing. Raja Singh, the BJP MLA from Hyderabad, visits me. He is Yogi [Adityanath] of Hyderabad. He had said why give Rohingyas any shelter, why not shoot them. This should be the attitude … No, I will say shoot the Rohingyas and shoot those who support them. First kill their supporters and then them).” Bhattacharya was involved in a controversy after he abused a female journalist on Twitter before abusing Janta Ka Reporter’s editor-in-chief Rifat Jawaid on a LIVE TV in 2016. He was later arrested by the Mumbai Police with his Twitter account being disabled by the microblogging site.

Shakti Kapoor had no hesitation in accepting all cash to discreetly push the BJP’s agenda using his social media account as he bragged how he had been a supporter of the saffron party. He said that the BJP had made him its star campaigner for Uttarakhand in 2014, when he and Modi gave public speeches from the same stage.

Singer Mika Singh said, “Why not make a small tweet on NRC in Assam? Mika is willing to help “Sahi baat … Main chahta hoon ki aap mujhe uska content bhej do main usko halka-fulka edit kar doonga”

Courtesy : Cobrapost

A week after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber, Rahul Gandhi resumed his attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a stinging tweet.

“The brave are martyred. Their families struggle. Forty jawans give their lives but are denied the status of “Shaheed (martyr)”. While this man has never given and only taken. He’s gifted 30,000 crore of their money and will live happily ever after. Welcome to Modi’s NEW INDIA,” tweeted the Congress president, sharing the media story on the Supreme Court ordering industrialist Anil Ambani to repay dues to Ericsson or face jail.

After the terror attack, Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference along with former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, had said that he and his party would support the government and not get into any other discussion for the next few days.

“I will support the government and jawans in this difficult time,” said Rahul Gandhi, refusing to respond to questions on political controversies.

But after a week’s hiatus, both the Congress and its chief have picked up from where they left. The renewed attacks signal a change in stance after BJP leaders including party president Amit Shah took digs at the Congress after the Pulwama attack.

Amit Shah said at a rally in Assam that the soldiers’ sacrifice “will not go waste as it is a BJP government in power, not Congress”.

Rahul Gandhi’s tweet today refers to his often-repeated allegation that the government and PM Modi settled for an overpriced deal for 36 Rafale jets from France’s Dassault to help Anil Ambani’s inexperienced defence firm bag an offset contract.

The government, Anil Ambani and Dassault all have denied the allegations.

Agencies

A fire broke out in the City Centre Mall in Mangaluru at around 11:35 am on Thursday morning. Thick plumes of smoke were seen coming from one of the upper floors of the mall which prompted fire officials from nearby fire stations to reach the spot and extinguish the fire.  According to the Fire Department, no casualties have been reported. The fire has been put out, said officials. 

“We received a call around 11.40 am and 20 officials from Kadri and Pandeshwar stations with fire engines rushed to the spot. The fire had broken out in the food court, in one of the chimneys which had blockages due to carbon accumulation and oil. The fire was put out by the mall management but the smoke created panic. We took an hour to clear the smoke with the smoke exhauster and also created cross ventilation by breaking the glass windows. By 12.30 pm smoke was almost cleared,” T N Shivashankara, Chief Fire Officer (Mangalore).

The mall was opened in 2010 and has four floors. However, at the time of its inauguration, reports suggested that it had been opened without clearance, particularly an occupancy certificate (OC). An OC is issued only after a no-objection certificate (NOC) is furnished by the fire department.   

“The mall was opened without an occupancy certificate and for many years it has operated without an OC. We followed up with the then DC and ministers because this was a disaster waiting to happen,” said activist Vidya Dinker. She added that the multiplex on the fourth floor of the building received a fire department clearance, however, the building itself did not receive the required clearances. 

Responding to the question of whether the mall was opened without a no-objection certificate from the fire department, Shivashankara said, “I yet have to study the file. During my visit, I have found that all the necessary precautions to control fire as well as fire alarms, water system were present at the mall. However, I need to inspect the file to check in case there are violations and then decide on the action to be taken.”

The mall was built at a cost of Rs 115 crore and was opened to the public in an event attended by several politicians, reported The Hindu. The Citizens Forum for Mangaluru Development, an NGO based in Mangaluru, had also written to then Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar in 2012 pointing out the fact that the building was allowed to be opened despite lack of clearances and had also accused the district administration of “favouring, parroting and pushing through” the clearances for the building despite proof of the lack of safety of the building.

Agencies