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Bihar: Village tense after ‘prohibited’ animal carcass found in the backyard of an Urdu school, villagers demand action against Aziz Ansari and four others

Communal tension prevailed in Bihar’s Hathmara, Pokhara in Kuju OP area after fresh bones and hair of a ‘prohibited’ animal was found in the backyard of a government Urdu primary school Wednesday. As per a report in Jagran, people of a community got together and expressed anger over the incident.

As per reports, a calf of one Umesh Yadav, a resident of the village Pokhara, had gone missing on Tuesday. The villagers learnt on Wednesday that some fresh, bones and hair of a ‘prohibited’ animal was seen lying in the backyard of the Urdu school. Suspecting that the carcass found in the backyard of the school was that of the calf belonging to Umesh Yadav, the villagers got angry. They demanded legal action against Muslim Tola residents, Aziz Ansari, Mohammad Yunus Ansari, Mohammad Ansari, Jibril Ansari and Gulamuddin Ansari for trading in banned meat in the locality.

Later the calf was found, but the villages continued with their demand for action against trade in prohibited meats, and inquiry on the meat found behind the Urdu school.

When the police got the information about a possible communal flareup, Kuju OP in-charge, Bharat Paswan Sadal Bal rushed to the spot with his team and requested the people of both the communities to either settle the dispute amicably by 4 ‘o’clock in the evening or face legal consequences.

When the five accused, along with other members of their community did not appear until evening, the villagers along with Umesh Yadav demanded legal action against the culprits.

Article 48 of the Indian constitution states that state shall preserve the breed and prohibit cow slaughter including caves, milch and other drought cattle. 20 out of 28 states in India currently have various laws regulating the act of slaughtered cow, prohibiting the slaughter or sale of cows. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal are the states where there are no complete restrictions on cow slaughter.

UP govt to start online classes for secondary and higher education courses amid nationwide lockdown

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday has directed state officials to start online classes in all educational institutions. The online classes will also be held for secondary and higher education courses while the nation remains under lockdown due to the Wuhan coronavirus.

According to the reports, the decision to start online classes in the state came as all the educational institutions across the country have remained closed for at least three weeks in view of the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking to the media, Awanish Awasthi, the Additional Chief Secretary of the state, said that the Chief Minister has directed officials to start online education in primary, secondary, higher, technical, professional, medical, nursing and other institutions. He also added that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to make permanent the model for online studies by preparing e-content and taking other initiatives.

Awasthi added that online classes have already started in higher education institutions and nearly 80,000 students participated in these on Tuesday.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who is also the education minister, said directions were being issued to start online classes for students from class 9 to 12.

“Classes will be held through WhatsApp and other e-learning tools. For classes 6 to 9, we are drawing up an action plan. Education will also be given through the Diksha portal. We are also mulling the proposal of education through Doordarshan,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lucknow University has also decided to start online classes for students. The professors said around 80-90 per cent of the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate courses has been completed and 45-50 per cent of the remaining part was done in online classes during lockdown.

Governor Anandiben Patel, the Chancellor of all state universities, has constituted a seven-member committee to give recommendations on holding online classes and examinations in the 2020-21 academic calendar in view of the disruption of studies and exams due to lockdown. The committee is headed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University vice-chancellor Professor Vinay Pathak.

The Lucknow University has also formed a similar panel to know whether the university has the logistics to conduct online examinations or will it have to wait for the lockdown to be lifted. Even, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has already started preparations to conduct online examinations, particularly for final year students.

TV channel claims Modi govt is going to rain money from the sky, netizens outrage, clarification issued by PIB

On Wednesday, Kannada news broadcaster Public TV had run a special episode on its network claiming Narendra Modi-led Union government has come up with an initiative of ‘Helicopter Money’, by which money will be airdropped from helicopters to every village to combat the economic slowdown in the country due to corona pandemic.

In its show, Public TV claimed that the Modi government has plans to airdrop currency notes from choppers into every village in India as part of “Helicopter Money” initiative.

“Not a loan. No interest. Currency notes will be airdropped to every village by helicopters,” said a ticker on the Public TV.

Similar reports were also shared on the network claiming that PM Modi will be distributing money to people due to boost spending which has been at a low due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What is ‘Helicopter Money’?

Helicopter Money is an alternative to quantitative easing. This is an unconventional monetary policy tool aimed at bringing a slowing economy back on track. It involves printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public.

American economist Milton Friedman coined the concept of ‘Helicopter Money’, whose literal meaning denotes a helicopter dropping money from the sky.

However, in reality, Friedman used the term to signify “unexpectedly dumping money onto a struggling economy with the intention to shock it out of a deep slump”. Under such a policy, a central bank directly increases the money supply by giving money to the government, who then distributes the new cash to the population with the aim of boosting demand.

The concept of ‘Helicopter Money’ is in the news currently as the country’s economy is at an unprecedented low due to the coronavirus pandemic. Telangana chief minister KC Rao had offered his suggestion that said the centre should use ‘Helicopter money’ to help out states at such difficult times.

However, the reporters at Public TV perhaps took the literal meaning of the macroeconomic concept and produced a TV show out of it to fool the public at these challenging times.

Outrage against Public TV for making false claims

Social media users are enraged against the irresponsible reporting of Public TV after its report appeared to be falsifying the concept of ‘Helicopter Money’. Netizens urged the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to act against Public TV.

The netizens also attacked Public TV for fooling gullible people at a time when people of this country are facing difficulties to sustain their lives. The users also raised their complaint DIPR Karnataka to fact check the claims made by the Public TV.

Clarification by the government

Following the complaint, the PIB also had to clarify that the claim of the government dropping money from helicopters in every town was false and stated that the government was doing no such thing.

Daily Telegraph stops publishing long-running propaganda section funded by China

Amid growing criticism of how China has been using English-language newspapers, aimed at western audiences, to spread global propaganda positioning itself as a leader in fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Daily Telegraph has stopped publishing paid-for propaganda on behalf of Chinese state media, both in its online version and print supplements. According to reports, at least 16 articles were taken down by the publication on Wednesday.

Articles deleted by the Daily Telegraph had headlines such as: “Why are some framing China’s heroic efforts to stop coronavirus as inhumane?”, “Traditional Chinese medicine ‘helps fight coronavirus’” and “Coronavirus outbreak is not an opportunity to score points against China”.

The Daily Telegraph had been publishing the ‘China Watch’ section funded by the state-controlled China Daily news outlet for more than a decade now. According to one report, the Daily Telegraph received £750,000 annually to carry the supplement called China Watch from Chinese state-run newspaper China Daily. The contents in this section are written by Chinese state journalists with an aim to influence public opinion overseas in order to nudge foreign governments into making policies favourable towards China’s Communist Party.

The Telegraph is one of dozens of newspapers around the world that have struck deals with China in recent years.

Online archives show that the People’s Daily Online had begun running stories about the coronavirus in February, shortly after China’s President Xi Jinping “called upon Chinese media to publish stories casting China’s response in a positive light.” Since then, it had run more than 50 paid articles in the Telegraph praising the Chinese government and attacking its foreign adversaries.

However, in recent days the dedicated content was wiped from the Telegraph’s website along with another section that reproduced material from China’s People’s Daily Online. People’s Daily is the official newspaper and mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China.

The removal of the paid-for sections comes as China aims to improve its standing with western audiences amid the pandemic, with substantial investment in its CGTN rolling news channel and the growing role of vocal English-language diplomats who use Twitter to forcibly make their arguments. In return, the country is facing an increasingly hostile reception from parts of the British media.

Sarah Cook, a senior research analyst at Freedom House and expert on Chinese media, said that exploiting foreign media to reach a mainstream audience is a common strategy of China.

China is trying to reshape the global information environment with massive infusions of money – funding paid-for advertorials, sponsored journalistic coverage and heavily massaged positive messages from boosters. While within China the press is increasingly tightly controlled, abroad, Beijing has sought to exploit the vulnerabilities of the free press to its advantage.

Rahul Gandhi misleads his fans on imagined recognition by health ministry for containing Coronavirus in Wayanad. Here are the facts

On Wednesday, the members of the Congress IT cell took to social media to congratulate Gandhi-scion and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi by claiming that the Health Ministry had recognised Wayanad for ‘excellent results in tackling coronavirus’.

Rahul Gandhi’s fans on social media went on to applaud the ever youth icon for his so-called achievements of tackling coronavirus in Wayanad. Several social media posts were shared across platforms claiming that Wayanad had successfully tackled the coronavirus crisis under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

The Rahul Gandhi fanboys cheered their youth leader, claimed that it was Wayanad MP who made preparations which led to Wayand being recognised for its efforts.

Perhaps, the followers of Rahul Gandhi seems to have got inspired by their leader as they shared misleading reports on Wayanad tackling coronavirus effectively.

On Wednesday, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to compliment himself by claiming that the Health Ministry has recognised his parliamentary constituency – Wayanad for the ‘excellent results in tackling coronavirus’. The official Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi’s office said that not a single case has been reported in the past 16 days from the district in Kerala.

In fact, it is Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi who misled his fanboys regarding the alleged Health Ministry’s recognition of Wayanad. Rahul Gandhi, in a hurry to get free publicity, made claims without backing up with any evidence to prove his assertions.

The Rahul Gandhi’s supporter, just like his master, did not care to check with facts before congratulation and cheering the Gandhi-scion for an ‘achievement’, for which he was not really part of.

Wayanad – Hotspot District with Cluster

Despite all the exaggeration, the reality is much different from what Rahul Gandhi claims on the achievements of Wayanad district in terms of handling the corona crisis.

The union health ministry has not recognised Wayanad for its achievement in containing Coronavirus as being claimed by Rahul Gandhi and his minions. On the contrary, the ministry has identified the district as one of the hotspots of Coronavirus in the country. According to the Health Ministry, Wayanad is one of the seven districts in Kerala considered to coronavirus hotspots. The ministry has also drafted the district in the ‘Hotspot Districts with Cluster’, which is a category below the full Hotspot district, which means that although the entire district is not hotspot, it has hotspot clusters for coronavirus. Out of 7 districts in Kerala, 6 are classified as full hotspots, while Wayanad has been classified as a district with cluster.

Contrary to the claims of Rahul Gandhi that Health Ministry has recognised Wayanad for its efforts to tackle the Chinese pandemic, the fact is that the union ministry has still kept the district in the red zone, and has not moved to the next lower category, the white zone.

Although Wayanad has reported only 3 Coronavirus cases so far, and two of them have recovered, the district is still listed as red zone clustered hotspot by the union govt, therefore the claim that union ministry has acknowledged the district for containing Coronavirus is not correct.

What are Red Zone hotspots?

According to the criteria of the health ministry, highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases in India or highest caseload districts contributing to more than 80 per cent of cases for each state of India or districts with doubling rate less than four days are classified into Red Zone category by the Health Ministry. Mumbai, South Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kasaragod are the top five districts in Red Zone category.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday delineated 170 districts in 25 states as coronavirus hotspots. Out of the 170 districts, 123 districts have been identified as ‘Hotspots Red Zone Districts’, while remaining 47 districts are classified as ‘Hotspot Districts with Cluster’, which includes Wayanad.

These Red Zone districts can be turned to Orange Zone if no cases are reported in 14 days. Then these zones will be turned to Green Zone when no positive cases are reported in the next 14 days. Other than 170 districts, 207 non-hotspot districts with clusters and non-infected districts have been classified as Green Zone.

Twitter suspends account of Kangana Ranaut’s sister for angrily tweeting against ‘mullahs’ attacking doctors and cops

Twitter account of Kangana Ranaut’s sister, Rangoli Chandel was suspended by the microblogging website after she tweeted an angry tweet against ‘Mullahs’ who have been attacking the doctors, nurses and policemen amidst coronavirus outbreak.

Rangoli Chandel’s tweet

On 15th April, Chandel had tweeted that after one Jamaati had died of coronavirus, the family members attaked the police and doctors who had gone to check with their families. Angered by the treatment meted out to healthcare workers and police, Chandel said that these ‘Mullahs’ and ‘secular media’ should be made to stand in line and shot dead. However, soon after her tweet, she was accused of ‘giving an open call for genocide’.

While it is not clear which incident Rangoli was referring to, but earlier this week, in Moradabad, a Muslim mob attacked doctors and healthcare workers and pelted stones as they went to check upon coronavirus suspects. When the police went to rescue them, they, too, were attacked. On Wednesday, over 25 people including 13 women were arrested.

Attack on doctors, nurses and police

Days after Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz where an Islamic evangelical event Tablighi Jamaat was held emerged as a coronavirus hotspot, there have been multiple reports where the attendees have harassed the nurses, attacked doctors and even policemen. An FIR was registered after two Tablighi Jamaat attendees had defecated in a corridor in quarantine centre in Delhi.

And while Chandel’s account is suspended, many, many radical fundamentalists who have called for violence against ‘Upper caste Hindus’ get away scot free.

Andhra Pradesh: 40 children among coronavirus positive patients, all contracted disease from infected Tablighi Jamaat members in the family, says report

At least 40 children in the 3-17 years age group have been tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh, as per a report in the Indian Express. The report says that all these children have contracted the disease from infected family members who have been to the Tablighi Jamaat events in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.

As on April 15, the state of Andra Pradesh has recorded 475 active cases of coronavirus infection. All these active cases are under treatment in specified COVID-19 hospitals across the state.

Role of Tablighi Jamaat behind coronavirus cases in Andhra

The report in IE quoted health department officials saying, “All the children contracted the virus from family members who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March. “The jamaat returnees were unaware that they were infected, and inadvertently passed it on to their family members, among them are several children,”

Among the 475 active cases are also 124 women. The officials have stated that in some cases, 1 infected family member who had been to the Nizamuddin Markaz had passed on the virus to all the women in the family, mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and grandmothers.

36 of the active cases are persons above 60. Senior citizens are particularly susceptible to infection by the deadly virus. However, the report mentions that none of the children is serious. Most of them have mild symptoms and are expected to make full recovery soon.

Recently, Andhra’s deputy CM K Narayanaswamy had stated that but for the Tablighi Jamaat, Andhra would have had only a few cases of coronavirus. Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender had said that the State would have been free from the Chinese virus, in the absence of the Jaamatis.

It was reported earlier that the Tablighi Jamaat has been behind the 250 coronavirus hotspots in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh combined.

Coronavirus situation in Andhra Pradesh

The report states that on Wednesday alone, the state reported 19 fresh cases of the coronavirus. The state has now decided to double the current testing capacity to 4000 tests, using TrueNat TB testing equipment.

The government has also declared assistance of Rs 2000 to poor families returning from quarantine centres.

As on April 16, 22 fresh cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state by 8 am in the morning, taking the state total to 525. Of the total number of cases, 20 have made recovery and 14 others have died so far.

Kurnool district has the highest number of cases at 75, followed by the Guntur and Nellore districts with 51 and 48 cases respectively.

Criticism for the Indian Express report

Indian Express had received wide criticism yesterday after it published a report claiming that the coronavirus patients and suspected cases have been segregated into separate wards on the basis of their religion at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. 

The report was also picked up by usual propagandists, and eventually by USCIRF, a US federal commission, to create the false narrative of religious bias in India’s fight against coronavirus. However, the claims were soon busted when the Gujarat government claimed that no such segregation has been ordered.

Today’s report in the Indian Express regarding the 40 coronavirus positive children in Andhra Pradesh was also criticised by many on social media due to a seemingly deliberate attempt to dissociate any relation with the Tablighi Jamaat.

The report, in its body, mentioned clearly that all the children have contracted the disease from family members who had been to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, India’s super-spreader. However, the featured image used by Indian Express for the report showed a Hindu couple being screened.

Author Shefali Vaidya slammed the publication for deliberately trying to mislead readers about the link of Tablighi Jamaat with the increasing number of coronavirus infections.

TMC Troll Garga Chatterjee spreads hate against non-Bengalis, gives thinly veiled threat of violence against non-Bengalis living in West Bengal

Trinamool Congress troll Garga Chatterjee, consistent with his track record, has been spreading hate on social media even during the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, he issued thinly veiled threats against non-Bengalis living in West Bengal. He has, for some time, been fanning the flames of linguistic chauvinism in the state. He wishes to recreate the brand of insensitive and incendiary linguistic politics that is observed within some circles in the southern states of India.

Earlier, Garga Chatterjee had suggested that all of India’s problems could be solved if Biharis, people from Uttar Pradesh, Marwaris and Gujaratis were restricted to their own states for their livelihood. It was the latest in a long tirade of hate speech he has made against people of other communities living in West Bengal.

Garga Chatterjee has also demonstrated an unhealthy obsession with Gutkha, much more than is warranted from a person who does not appear to consume it himself. His obsession is such that his twitter feed can be considered an unpaid advertisement for Gutkha companies. His unhealthy brand of politics can be perfectly described metaphorically as the ‘Gutkha Pill‘, along the lines of the ‘Red Pill’ and ‘Saffron Pill’.

He also carries forward the thinking of some Bengalis in 19th century who believed that Assamese is not an independent language and it is just a dialect of Bengali, as he believes that Assam is a Bengali language majority state. He says Assam has been a Bengali majority state ever since the state existed on the face of this earth. Garga also claims that people in Assam falsely report their mother tongue as Assamese during census because Hiren Gohain (a communist intellectual) or Paresh Barua (chief of banned ULFA) want them to do so.

Garga Chatterjee has, in the past, behaved in a manner where he has gotten himself embarrassed due to his obsession with linguistic politics. On one occasion, he appeared on a debate show knowing full well that it was to be conducted in Hindi and then started speaking in Bangla to make his point. Despite his crass behaviour, mainstream media continues to promote him as an ‘intellectual’, allowing his a platform to further spread his hatred.

Pizza delivery boy in Delhi tests positive for coronavirus, 72 houses put under quarantine

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A pizza delivery boy in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar has been found positive for the Wuhan coronavirus. Right after the detection, the South Delhi authorities have home quarantined 72 families and 17 delivery boys who came in contact with the patient recently, says Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain.

According to South Delhi District Magistrate BM Mishra, the delivery boys have been sent to a quarantine facility in Chattarpur.

72 families put under quarantine

BM Mishra said, “He tested positive for COVID-19. In the last 15 days, he delivered pizza at 72 locations. We have placed all the people in-home quarantine. There are 17 people who used to work with him and they all have been taken to the institutional quarantine facility at Chattarpur”

He added that the delivery boy had symptoms like cough and flu. He was shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital after he didn’t show any sign of recovery.

The delivery boy who worked at a popular pizza outlet is now undergoing treatment at a hospital. Other delivery boys have been instructed to follow the safety norms such as wearing masks and gloves and maintain social distancing while delivering.

Till Thursday morning, the national capital had noted 1,578 Chinese coronavirus cases and 32 deaths due to infection as per the Union Health Ministry website.

Delhi Anti-Hindu riots: Police sends notice to several members of Jamia Coordination Committee, Congress’ NSUI and Pinjra Tod

Delhi Police special cell has issued notice to 50 members of the Jamia coordination committee for their alleged connection with rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to anti-Hindu riots in north-east Delhi that had claimed the lives of 53 people and had left, over 400 injured, reports The New Indian Express.

Most of the people, who have been served notice are students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, former office bearers of Congress’ students union, National Student Union of India (NSUI), members of Left parties, far left ‘activist’ group Pinjra Tod and also students of the open school of Delhi university.

Some of the people who have now been sent notices by the special cell to appear before it were earlier issued notice in March by Special Investigation Team (SIT) of crime branch.

The notice served by Delhi police special cell

The notice read: “You are hereby directed through the notice that you have to join investigation in the above mentioned before the undersigned at the office of NDR/special cell Lodi Colony, New Delhi on March 20, failing which legal action will be taken against you.” Moreover according to the notice served, an FIR was registered against the accused on March 6 under various sections of IPC for homicide, attempt to murder and murder.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Neeraj Thakur said, “So far, we have issued notice to some of them in relation with northeast Delhi riots and not Jamia incident.” He, however, refused to reveal the number of persons (Jamia and JCC) who have been issued notice. “We are investigating the case and people are being asked to co-operate,” he added.

Earlier arrests in Delhi anti-Hindu riots:

Recently, Delhi Police issued notice to six persons (all of them member of the JCC), in connection with northeast Delhi riots and CAA protest and Jamia incidents took place in December 2019.

Out of these six, the police had arrested two student leaders of Jamia Millia Islamia University in connection with protests and subsequent violence. While the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) core member and media coordinator Safoora Zargar, was arrested on April 11 for her role in the Delhi anti-Hindu riots another member of the Jamia Coordination Committee, Meeran Haider was arrested on the 2nd of April in connection with rioting and criminal conspiracy pertaining to anti-Hindu riots in north-east Delhi.

The other students who has been issued notice recently are Ishrat Jahan, Khalid Saifi, Imran Chaudhary, member of NSUI and Areeb. 

“Instead of using the entire police force for ensuring proper enforcement of the lockdown, the government is busy playing politics with students. The police are doing this now as they know that it is not possible for students to unite or help their colleagues and arrange legal help,” said Lokesh Chugh, National Media-in-charge of NSUI.

Home Ministry’s intervention to expedite investigation:

Home Minister Amit Shah had recently directed police to ensure probe into Delhi anti-Hindu riot is not hindered amidst Coronavirus pandemic.

A message was conveyed to all investigation teams to resume the probe and make arrests. According to a report by Jagran, 802 arrests have been made so far. The crime branch, probing 42 murder cases, has made 182 arrests, while the Northeast district police have arrested 620 people in connection with the riots. Out of the 182 arrested, 50 were nabbed during the lockdown.

Police said teams have been told to take precautions before making any arrest or carrying out a raid, and that personal protective equipment kits have been provided to them.

Delhi anti-Hindu riots:

On the day of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India, the national capital had witnessed horrific violence. The anti-CAA riots turned communal in Delhi resulting in severe violence on the streets. The anti-Hindu riots that engulfed the streets of Delhi have resulted in deaths of around 47 persons and more than 220 people sustained injuries in the violence that started on Sunday.