Five former chiefs of the armed forces and other military veterans joined eminent personalities and civil society activists to write to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the menace of hate speeches, like the ones recently delivered in Haridwar and Delhi, which allegedly called for "genocide of Muslims".
WHAT IS AGUSTAWESTLAND VVIP CHOPPER SCAM? AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper Scam The AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam is a corruption case where it has been alleged that bribes were paid to “middlemen”, perhaps even politicians, when India agreed to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters built by Italian defence manufacturing giant Finmeccanica at an estimated cost of Rs 3,600 crore. It has been alleged that several parameters the height of the cabin of the helicopter, the operating ceiling, and the maximum altitude the helicopter could fly to, for instance- were tweaked to help AgustaWestland. In February 2010, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of the time signed a contract to purchase 12 AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters at Rs 3,600 crore. These helicopters were supposed to be used for ferrying the President of India, the Prime Minister, and other such very, very important people.