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PM Modi orders audit of ventilators given by central Govt after reports emerge that ventilators lying unused, leased to private hospitals

OpIndia Staff
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PM Modi orders audit of ventilators given by central Govt after reports emerge that ventilators lying unused, leased to private hospitals

Amidst reports of ventilators procured through PM Cares Fund were lying unused or leased out to private firms in several states, Prime Minister Modi has asked for an immediate audit of the installation, operation of ventilators provided by the central government.

According to a press release by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Modi asked for an immediate audit of the ventilators given to the state governments at a high-level meeting on Saturday.

“The Prime Minister took serious note of some reports about ventilators lying unutilized in storage in some states and directed that an immediate audit of installation and operation of ventilators provided by the Central Government should be carried out” the official statement said. The PM also added that refresher training for properly operating ventilators should be provided to healthcare workers if necessary.

The prime minister gave the directives during a high-level meeting held today to discuss the Covid-19 and vaccination related situation in the country.

During the meeting, the PM said that localised containment strategies are the need of the hour specially for states where positivity rate in districts is high. The Prime Minister instructed that testing needs to be scaled up further, with use of both RT PCR and Rapid Tests, especially in areas with high test positivity rates. PM Modi said that states should be encouraged to report their numbers transparently without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts.

The PM also asked for augmentation of healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door to door testing & surveillance. He also spoke about empowering ASHA & Anganwadi workers with all necessary tools. He asked for guidelines to be made available in easy language along with illustrations for home isolation and treatment in rural areas.

The Prime Minister directed that a distribution plan for ensuring oxygen supply in rural areas should be worked out, including through provision of Oxygen Concentrators. The Prime Minister added that necessary training should be provided to health workers in the operation of such equipment, and power supply should be ensured for smooth operation of such medical devices.

1500 ventilators lying unused in Rajasthan, state government leasing out ventilators to private hospital to earn hefty profits

PM Modi’s directives to carry out an immediate audit of ventilators given by the Centre came in the wake of news reports from Rajasthan where a state-run hospital had leased out 20 of its ventilators to a private hospital, citing ‘abundance or non-usage. Not only this, the report mentioned that the unused ventilators were being rented out for exorbitant rates, the burden of which was inevitably carried by the unsuspecting and desperate patients.

As per reports, Bharatpur’s Rai Bahadur Hospital had leased out 20 of its ventilators provided by the PM Cares Fund to Jindal private hospital, citing ‘non-usage of the machine. The report comes at a time when the coronavirus outbreak is galloping across the country, leading to rising demand for life-support machines. The development exposes Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government that allowed renting out ventilators that were procured from PM Cares Fund to the private hospitals.

Disgruntled by the state government’s move to lease out ventilators when the cases have been on the rise, one of the aggrieved kin while speaking to Republic TV said: “About 40 ventilators were given to the state by the PM-CARES fund. I have been asking the hospital administration for the last 2 months as to where have they installed the ventilators, but they have no answers to my questions. Jindal Hospital, which has always been in controversy, was given 10 ventilators by the hospital administration. The collector justified the decision by saying that the ventilators were faulty, but they were not. Jindal hospital has been charging Rs 35,000-40,000 for these ventilators.”

On the other hand, Rai Bahadur Hospital administrator unabashedly defended the institute’s move to lease out ventilators to the Jindal Hospital. He said, “We had earmarked 20 ventilators for non-COVID ICU wards, while the other 20 were kept for COVID ICU wards. According to our oxygen point availability and caseload, we were not utilising 20 ventilators. Therefore, we took a conscious decision of renting it out a private hospital.”

Not just the hospital administration, but even the Rajasthan state government has brazened out its stand on shamelessly leasing the ventilators procured from the Central government fund. State transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas defended the move saying, In Bharatpur, they have rented the ventilators. They have rented them not given them for free. They had extra ventilators which they rented as private hospitals are also treating the patients of COVID-19.”

Earlier this month, a report published in Dainik Bhaskar stated that 1500 ventilators received by the Rajasthan State government from the Centre have been lying unused and unopened for the last 10 months, while 230 of them were found to be faulty. Even though the state was hit by a ferocious second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, the state had inexplicably decided to not make use of the ventilators that were in its possession.

Reports of ventilators provided under PMCares lying unused had emerged from several other states also, including UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhatissgarh etc states. In Punjab, 251 ventilators purchased under PM Cares Fund have remained uninstalled.

Most affected people in Bengal post-poll violence are from Scheduled Caste, says NCSC chief

OpIndia Staff
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Most affected people in Bengal post-poll violence are from Scheduled Caste, says NCSC chief

On Friday (May 15), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) informed that people belonging to the Scheduled Castes are being murdered and raped in West Bengal after the assembly election results were declared. The development comes in the aftermath of the post-poll violence committed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons on members of BJP and other opposition parties.

While speaking to the media, NCSC chief Vijay Sampla said, “The way incidents have happened here after May 2 is worrisome. For the first time since 1947, rapes, murders are happening with no state protection. The most affected have been people from Scheduled Castes.” He informed that around 1,627 cases have been reported, which includes 10-12 cases of rape, 15-20 murder cases of violence against the SCs. Furthermore, he said that about 627 new cases have been reported.

“I have told ADGP to probe against SHO. Rehabilitation (of villagers) should be borne by State,” Vijay Sampla directed. He said that during his visit to Nabagram in the Purba Bardhaman district, the police misled him into believing that the culprits who perpetrated atrocities against the Scheduled caste community were also SCs.

However, when the NCSC chief inquired about the matter, he learnt that several culprits were from the ‘general category’ as well. “And the ones (from SC) who visited the police station to file a complaint are attacked, their houses are looted,” he informed.

VHP seeks action from the Judiciary over the persecution of Hindus in West Bengal

In a press release by National Spokesperson of VHP, Vinod Bansal, he stated, “The Central Secretary General of Vishva Hindu Parishad, Sri Milind Parande today said that unfortunately, the Hindu society has been at the receiving end of the brutal and gruesome political violence that started in West Bengal on May 02.” The press release emphasised, “More than 3500 villages and over 40-thousand Hindus, including our SC & ST brethren in great numbers, are badly affected by the violence.”

The VHP said, “The footprints and signatures of Islamic Jihadists are overly obvious in all these incidents and patterns. The attitudes of the state government and the administration on these gruesome and brutal violence that have been going on for so many days, appear to be completely indifferent and despicable. There is an atmosphere of fear in the society. Due to this fear & non-co-operation of the local police, victim’s complaints/Cases are not being registered.”

NCPCR seeks action against Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam for violating the Juvenile Justice Act

OpIndia Staff
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NCPCR seeks action against Delhi minister Rajendra Pal Gautam for violating the Juvenile Justice Act

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi seeking action against AAP leader and Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam for disclosing the identity of children staying in a child care institution situated in Delhi. The Commission has also asked for an action taken report to be submitted in a week’s time.

In its letter, the Child Rights body said that it received a complaint against a video uploaded by Gautam on his Twitter handle. In the video, the AAP minister was seen inspecting a child care institution in Delhi, disclosing the identity of the children, along with the name of the institution. In the video, the Social Welfare Minister also mentioned that the children living in the CCI were orphans.

The NCPCR has deemed the video showing the children along with the name of the institution where they are living a prima facie violation of Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and a serious offence against children. Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, prohibits the disclosure of the identity of children such as their name, address, age, school name etc. on any media platform which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with the law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter.

Additionally, the details of such children are prohibited from being made public so that the confidentiality of the children is maintained and these vulnerable children are not made susceptible to trafficking, abuse, cruelty, illegal adoption etc. Furthermore, it said Section 74(3) of the JJ Act, 2015, provides that any person violating this provision shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or a fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or both.

“Therefore, given the violations of provisions given under the JJ Act, 2015, an inquiry in this matter must be conducted and action, as deemed fit, may be taken. It is requested that a report informing about the action taken in the matter may be sent to the Commission within a week,” the letter read.

The Hindu quietly changes headline after columnist calls Tejasvi Surya a virus: Here are her previous problematic comments

OpIndia Staff
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The Hindu quietly changes headline after columnist calls Tejasvi Surya a virus: Here are her previous problematic comments

The Hindu published an opinion-editorial on Friday where it called BJP MP Tejasvi Surya a virus. The article, authored by one Vaishna Roy, was littered with the usual bile that has come to dominate the pages of the mainstream media.

Vaishna Roy begins her article with the words, “As the number of cases pile up and deaths mount, one imagines that things couldn’t get worse. But one is wrong. Because, of course, one has forgotten the existence of Tejasvi Surya, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MP from Bengaluru South.” It only gets worse then on.

The Hindu appears to have realised that calling a human being a “virus” is not appropriate and has since then changed its headline.

Source: The Hindu

The headline of the article, which earlier read “Another Virus”, has been changed to “A battle on another front”. We accessed the web page with the initial headline on Google Cache.

Source: The Hindu

As it turns out, Vaishna Roy has a proven track record of airing morbid opinions on the internet. After the Beirut Blast in Lebanon last year, she wished for something of a similar sort to happen in India.

Source: Twitter

Later, she had retracted the tweet and issued a ‘clarification’ over the matter. “I was lamenting the reluctance of those in office to own similar moral responsibility for administrative failures,” she said.

Source: Twitter

Roy had also wholeheartedly agreed to Rana Ayyub when the latter made her “What is left for a virus to kill in a morally corrupt nation” comment.

Source: Twitter

Vaishna Roy had gone to the extent of condemning those who found Ayyub’s comment reprehensible.

Source: Twitter

Vaishna Roy had also called former NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan a ‘fascism enabler’ for inviting a BJP MP to her show. She said she was “beyond shocked”.

Source: Twitter

On a separate occasion, Roy had quote tweeted a tweet by Tejasvi Surya and said, “Now we young Indians can proclaim our cultural identity by loudly shouting Jai Shri Ram and lynching Muslims. Egged on by proud young Indians like this man and by our proud new TV channels.”

Source: Twitter

Vaishna Roy also opined that Narendra Modi had a “sad trivial obsession with the comfortable middle class”. Like her liberal counterparts, she is clearly not fond of the middle class.

Source: Twitter

In April, 2019, Roy had dubbed Tejasvi Surya a “younger Narendra Modi”.

Source: The Hindu

Thus, quite clearly, Vaishna Roy has on numerous occasions in the past has aired extremely problematic opinions. Despite that, she continues to receive a platform in the mainstream media. Given her previous lamentations, it is not surprise that she has gone to the extent of calling an elected representative, another human being, a “virus”.

Punjab: After Modi Govt implements direct benefit transfer, agencies procure record wheat quantity, 9 lac farmers receive Rs 23,000 cr

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab: After Modi Govt implements direct benefit transfer, agencies procure record wheat quantity, 9 lac farmers receive Rs 23,000 cr

Amidst the ongoing anti-farm law agitation, the government agencies have procured a record-breaking quantity of wheat from the farmers in Punjab

As per reports, a total of 132.08 lac metric tonnes of wheat was purchased by the government authorities in Punjab. As such, about 9 lac farmers received ₹23000 crores directly into their bank accounts. The record purchase of wheat was almost 2 lac metric tonnes higher than the target set by the State. The amount was directly credited to the farmers’ account without the need for intermediaries/middlemen/arhtiyas. According to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), around 9 lac farmers visited mandis with their crops this year.

The figure was 8.8 lacs last year i.e. an increase of over 20,000 farmers. However, the procurement of wheat has been lower in the Malwa region, where the anti-farm law protests are concentrated. These areas include Sangrur, Muktsar Sahib, Barnala, Moga, Mansa, Fazilka, Faridkot, and Bathinda. Interestingly, an increase in procurement in Doaba and Majha helped to compensate for the low procurement in the Malwa region. It must be mentioned that the procurement was higher this time, despite the low yield.

Due to warm temperature in March, only 49 quintals per hectare of wheat was produced as compared to 50.04 quintals per hectare last year. While speaking about the record procurement, Ravi Bhagat said, “The government has registered farmers on the Anaj Kharid portal and the money was credited into their accounts, not those of arhtiyas… Punjab has also become the first state where the J form that carries the details about the crop a farmer sells to the government is included in the Digilocker. He is not dependent on a middleman for getting the J form”. Bhagat is the Director of Punjab Food Supply and Consumer Affairs.

A farmer named Gurdip Singh from Chak Kalan village said, “I am very happy with this system with money coming directly. I sold my entire crop to government agencies as the MSP was also better this time.” He had sold 400 quintals of wheat for ₹8 lacs. Around 35 hectares in Punjab are dedicated to the cultivation of wheat. About 17-18 million tonnes of wheat are procured annually, and around 75% of it is brought to the Mandis by farmers.

Madhya Pradesh govt transfers ₹1500 crore to 75 lakh farmers 

On May 7, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh transferred ₹1500 crore to the bank accounts of 75 lakh farmers in the State. The amount was disbursed under the Mukhyamantri Kisan Kalyan Yojana.

As per reports, Singh informed that there are 78 lakh farmers in Madhya Pradesh. He added that only around 24 lakh farmers among them can benefit from the Minimum Support Price scheme. Madhya Pradesh CM emphasised that under the Pradhan Mantri Yojana, farmers with half an acre of land will receive ₹6000 per annum from the Union government. He added that about 77 lakh farmers have received ₹8,465 crores so far.

The government has procured more than 1 lakh metric tonnes of gram and 80 lac metric tonnes of wheat from the farmers. The Madhya Pradesh government has also extended the last date of procurement of food grains from May 5 to May 25. The date for the Indore division has been extended only up to May 15. The last date for loan repayment for the farmers of the State have also been extended.

Legendary Australian cricketer slams world media for ‘vulture’ journalism, says Incredible India deserves respect: Here is what he said

OpIndia Staff
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Legendary Australian cricketer slams world media for ‘vulture’ journalism, says Incredible India deserves respect: Here is what he said

As India battles the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the western media outlets have unleashed a massive wave of propaganda to humiliate and discredit the country in the global media. India, which has so far put up a brave fight against the Chinese pandemic, is also coping with a massive misinformation war initiated by the global left-liberal establishment.

Amidst all these, India is also receiving a lot of warmth from across the world, who have come to the country’s rescue by not only providing material resources but also extending their moral support to the country. The latest to join the global efforts to help India in its fight against the Chinese pandemic is Australian cricketing legend – Mathew Hayden.

In a recent post, the former cricketer has expressed his overwhelming support for India and slammed international media for criticizing the Indian government over its handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a detailed post, Mathew Hayden, perhaps frustrated by the global propaganda on India by the western media, shared his “perspective” on the pandemic saying, it is “not available to those sitting thousands of miles away.”

Hayden, who was in India to participate in the IPL tournament, penned a letter, saying, “India is in the middle of the pandemic second wave’s battering, as never seen before. As it battles the alarming spread of the virus, the world media has spared no time in lambasting a country of a whopping 1.4 billion where the sheer numbers make the implementation and success of any public scheme a challenge.”

Calling Tamil Nadu his ‘spiritual home’, the former Australian opener said, “I have been visiting India for over a decade now and have travelled all over the country, especially Tamil Nadu which I consider my “spiritual home”. I have always had the highest respect for the leaders and public officials who are entrusted with the task of running such a diverse and vast country”.

“Wherever I went, the people greeted me with love and affection, for which I remain in their debt. I can proudly claim that I have seen India up close over the years and that is why my heart bleeds to see it not only in agony at the moment, but also for the bad press that has been hurled at it by those who I am not sure to spend any time here to understand India, its people, and their myriad challenges,” he wrote in a column for the Institute for Australia India Engagement, a think-tank based in Australia.

Further, sharing his opinion on the biased media coverage against India, Mathew Hayden wrote, “As a cricketer and lover of the game, I have maintained my association with the sport which has allowed me to come to India to cover the Indian Premier League (IPL). Many of my fellow countrymen have also been playing in the IPL for years. In this context, at a time when the world has been shutting doors on India and lambasting the Government, I thought of sharing my thoughts while in India, to give a perspective not available to those sitting thousands of miles away”.

India appreciates Mathew Hayden’s gesture

Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group took notice of Hayden’s emotional post for India and expressed his adulation to the former cricketer.

He wrote on Twitter, “Extracts from a heartfelt blog on India by @HaydosTweets. A cricketer whose heart is even bigger than his towering physical stature. Thank you for the empathy and your affection…”

Uday Mahurkar, country’s Information Commissioner also praised Mathew Hayden for his moving article on India.

Another social user opined that Mathew Hayden is more Indian than most Indians.

After u-turns on vaccine, Akhilesh Yadav now peddles half-baked data to prove that India is far behind in the vaccination process

OpIndia Staff
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After u-turns on vaccine, Akhilesh Yadav now peddles half-baked data to prove that India is far behind in the vaccination process

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took to Twitter to give sermons to the Union government regarding its vaccination policy, however, he ended up peddling misinformation regarding the country’s vaccination drive.

Sharing an infographic pertaining to Covid-19 vaccinations across the world, Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the nation needs to begin a national vaccination drive now, which must be robust, comprehensive, and immediate. “There is no greater priority for a nation than to protect its citizens health,” the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.

In a hurry to target the Union government, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister put out half-baked information and selectively quoted data to paint a dismal picture of the country’s vaccination drive.

According to the infographic shared by Akhilesh Yadav, which cites data published by organizations such as ‘Our World in Data,’ WHO, and others, India is one of the least vaccinated countries in terms of the ‘share of people vaccinated’ as against the total population. As per this data, Israel, with a population of around 90 lakh, has vaccinated around 60 percent of its population, followed by Chile, Bahrain, the US, and the UK.

The data suggests that India has only vaccinated 10 percent of its total population through its national vaccination drive, which according to Akhilesh Yadav, is the lowest. Sharing the above data, Akhilesh Yadav insinuated that the Modi government lagged in the vaccination program.

Here is the data cited by Akhilesh Yadav to put out misleading claims on India’s vaccination drive.

India stands lowest in vaccination drive as per dubious ‘share of total population’ methodology/ Image Source: Our World in Data

However, the claims put out by Akhilesh Yadav is entirely misleading as the data put out by him only depicts half the story.

To buttress his claims that the Modi government was lagging behind the Covid-19 vaccination program, Akhilesh Yadav cites a dubious methodology to assess the total number of vaccination in the country. The methodology of using ‘share of people vaccinated against the total population’ to analyze the success of a country’s vaccination is flawed as the countries analyzed in the data set do not fall in the same category as each of them varies in size of its population and its governance standards.

For example, Israel has just a population of 90 lakhs, and as per the data, Israel has vaccinated 60 percent of its total population that amounts to less than 55 lakh people vaccinated. Similarly, Chile has a population of about 1.9 crore people, out of which only 35 percent of the population, i.e, around 65 lakh people, have been vaccinated. Amusingly, Akhilesh Yadav cites data of Bahrain, whose population is just around 16.4 lakh, which is almost one-third of his parliamentary constituency Azamgarh in terms of population.

Apart from the UK and the US, which have relatively better medical and governance structures, the rest of the countries that feature in the list are small countries with low population. In the case of India, the 10 percent figure quoted in the data amounts to nearly 13 crore vaccinations, which itself is a huge number when compared to the absolute number of vaccinations carried out by other countries.

To put in a large perspective, Akhilesh Yadav’s own state – Uttar Pradesh, has administered more than 1.37 Crore doses, including 13.6 lacs dozes in the 18+ category in the state.

In fact, the objective of any nation, especially during the Covid-19 vaccination drive, is to vaccinate its entire population and every nation will eventually vaccinate most of its population in a specified time. Hence, the methodology of citing of share of the vaccinated population against the total population is not a rationale one to judge a country’s vaccination program.

Akhilesh Yadav selectively cites data to peddle misinformation

Interestingly, Our World in Data, the organization cited by Akhilesh Yadav, has put out another set of data, which the Samajwadi party leader has deliberately ignored to mention.

According to data published by Our World in Data, India stands second in terms of the total number of people vaccinated against Covid-19 across the world with administering more than 140 million doses to its population. As per the data, India is second to the United States of America, which has inoculated around 160 million doses, around 20 million more than India.

The data of total no. of vaccinated in each country put out by ‘Our World in Data’

In fact, if one goes by the official data, India is the fastest country globally to reach the landmark of administering 17 crore doses just in 114 days. In addition to that, India is among a handful of countries in the world that have developed their own vaccines and running the world’s largest vaccination drive.

However, Akhilesh Yadav selectively uses data from the vaccination surveys that suits his political narrative. It is also amusing that people like Akhilesh Yadav are questioning the government on its vaccination drive after carrying all sorts of false propaganda against the Indian-made vaccines. In fact, Akhilesh Yadav had waged war against the two Indian-made vaccines saying that he did not trust the vaccines as it was ‘BJP vaccine.’

It is also important to mention that the likes of Akhilesh Yadav had fear-mongered against Indian-made vaccines to further their political propaganda, thus creating a wave of vaccine hesitancy in the minds of the people. Despite several challenges, the Modi government has successfully administered more than 17 crore vaccines across the country, making it the fastest country to do so. In addition, the Modi government intends to complete the vaccination drive across the country by year-end, making it the first country in the world to vaccinate all its population.

5 years ago, The Week published an article insulting, mocking, lying about Veer Savarkar, today they apologise: Read full details

Dibakar Dutta
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5 years ago, The Week published an article insulting, mocking, lying about Veer Savarkar, today they apologise: Read full details

On Friday (May 14), The Week magazine apologised for a defamatory article they had earlier published about freedom fighter Veer Savarkar. The contentious article in question was published by the Kerala-based magazine on January 24, 2016, and written by ‘journalist’ Niranjan Takle.

Titled ‘A lamb, lionised’, the article gave a false impression to the readers that Veer Savarkar was a ‘meek’ lamb whose reputation had been somehow uplifted to match the prowess of a lion by the BJP government at the Centre. It must be mentioned that Veer Savarkar was handed two life sentences of 25 years each for his revolutionary activities. When he had walked into the Cellular Jail at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he was just 28 years old.

Despite being incarcerated at such a young age for his freedom struggle against the British, Nirajan Takle quoted one historian Shamsul Islam to suggest that the time spent in Cellular Jail ended his ‘anti-imperialistic inclinations’. He further claimed that no freedom fighter other than Veer Savarkar ‘surrendered or submitted to the British’. The author had also claimed that the Father of Hindutva was a marginal political figure who was mainstreamed by BJP in 2003. The article also insinuated that Veer Savarkar was involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Screengrab of the article in The Week magazine

The series of baseless allegations levelled against the Indian freedom fighter

The freedom fighter was initially subjected to 6 months of solitary confinement. He was subjected to one month of confinement for writing letters without permission and standing handcuffs for a period of 7 days for possession of a letter written to another inmate. He was also subjected to neck shackles, cross-bar iron fetters, and forced to do hard labour. Instead of being empathetic to the torture endured by Veer Savarkar, a repetitive mention of his mercy petitions was made to triviliase his struggle.

The author further attempted to hold the freedom fighter responsible for conversions, Hindu nationalism and accused him of justifying Hindu separatism. He also blamed Veer Savarkar for being the first proponent of the Two-nation Theory, a move he claimed led to the adoption of the same by Muhammed Ali Jinnah. Citing historian Shamsul Islam, the article further alleged that Veer Savarkar betrayed India and sided with the British during the Quit India movement of 1942.

Niranjan Takle alleged in The Week that Savarkar was responsible for the militarisation of Hindus, as a part of the British plan to foil ‘the advances’ of Subhas Chandra Bose. He also claimed that Savarkar was not an advocate of ‘Akhand Bharat (united India)’ but instead ‘welcomed the possibility of a separate Sikhistan’ and independence of princely States. Further quoting Mani Shankar Aiyar, he said, “Savarkar was one of the accused in the conspiracy to kill Gandhiji and was acquitted for lack of corroborative evidence. But he was later indicted by the Justice Kapur commission as the main conspirator.”

The Week apologises to readers for contentious article on Veer Savarkar

Following social media backlash and a lawsuit by the freedom fighter’s grand nephew Ranjit Savarkar, the magazine was forced to tender an apology on 14th May. In its apology note, The Week magazine said, “An article concerning Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, which was published in The Week dated January 24, 2016, under the title ‘Lamb, lionised and mentioned in the contents page as “Hero to Zero’, is misunderstood and giving rise to misinterpretation of the high stature of Veer Savarkar.”

Screengrab from The Week website

“We hold Veer Savarkar in high esteem. If this article has caused any personal hurt to any individual, we the management express our regret and apologise for such publication,” it concluded.

Gujarat Home Minister rebuts allegations of undercounting Covid-19 deaths, says death certificates cannot be basis for such calculations

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat Home Minister rebuts allegations of undercounting Covid-19 deaths, says death certificates cannot be basis for such calculations

Gujarat Home Minister Pradipsinh Jadeja has refuted allegations that official Covid-19 related deaths in the state are lower than actual deaths. He said that it is incorrect to speculate Covid-19 deaths in the state on the basis of death certificates issued.

Pradipsinh Jadeja said that death registration and certificates have gone online in Gujarat. When a person dies, the death certificate is required for insurance, bank and related reasons and hence, some people register it online. Since the system is still being developed, the possibility of multiple deaths certificates for the same person cannot be ruled out.

In such a case, there would be a discrepancy between death certificates issued and total deaths. He also mentioned that the data was compared to a 71-day period of 2020 when India was under a nationwide lockdown and hence death certificates and registration were allowed to be filed late up to 31st July 2020.

Earlier, it was reported in the media that Gujarat had issued 1.23 lakh death certificates between March 1-May 10 period this year, compared to 58 thousand certificates issued during the same period last year.

The data indicated that Gujarat issued 65 thousand more death certificates this year compared to the same period last year. It was reported earlier that Gujarat had recorded 11% less deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year.

Times of India had reported that the state had recorded 3.74 lakh deaths in 2020 between January and November, at an average of 1,134 deaths daily, which was 10.8% less than all deaths in 2019. In 2019, 1,271 occurred every day on an average.

During the 71-day period mentioned this year, 1.23 lakh died which amounts to an average of roughly 1732 deaths every day, an increase of 36% from the average daily death figure of 2019 for the entire year. However, this is not a month wise calculation based on 2019 figures and that average may fall by the end of 2021. Furthermore, the increase in population will have to factored in apart from other factors as well.

Raebareli officials clarify no corpse found buried in sand at Gegaso ghat, 2015 image of corpses floating in Ganga shared as recent

OpIndia Staff
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Raebareli officials clarify no corpse found buried in sand at Gegaso ghat, 2015 image of corpses floating in Ganga shared as recent

Following reports of decomposed bodies being found in the Ganga over a couple of days, reports emerged that several bodies were found buried in sand at two locations along the Ganga river in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. Visuals of the site were widely shared on social media.

Many mainstream media houses like NDTV, Hindustan Times, India TV, DNA and Zee News also reported the same.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Capture-13-1024x402.jpg

Rae Bareli ADM calls viral video showing bodies buried in the sand ‘misleading’

However, the administration in Rae Bareli district in Uttar Pradesh has confirmed that the viral videos showing bodies buried in the sand at Gegaso ghat is indeed “misleading and false”. ANI quoted Raebareli ADM (E) Ram Abhilash saying that ADM (Lalganj) along with CEO, local police and SHO inspected the ghat but didn’t find anything as such.

“Misinformation is being spread”, said Ram Abhilash, debunking the viral video that showed multiple bodies buried in sand.

Old pictures of corpses floating in the water passed off as current

Similarly, after reports of 100 unidentified and decomposed bodies found floating in the Ganga emerged, two separate images showing corpses floating in the river Ganga started doing the round on social media. One of the images showed dogs scavenging on several decomposed bodies floating in the water.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sushil Kumar Gupta shared the photo on his Facebook page. The archive of the post can be viewed here.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Capture-14.jpg
AAP Party leader’s deleted Facebook post

Another image which did the rounds with a similar claim showed vultures and crows flying over floating dead bodies.

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These two images went viral on social media with many users sharing them as that of the recent incident. However, these two images being passed off as current are actually from 2015.

A reverse image search of the first image found that the image was uploaded on the stock photo website Getty Images on 14 January 2015.

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The second photo of vultures and crows flying around near the river is also from the same incident. This photo on Getty Images also states that it was taken on January 14, 2015, in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh at the Pariyar ghat.

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In 2015, ANI had also Tweeted the same image with a caption: “Scores of dead bodies float in river Ganga and its bank in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district”.

On searching, it was found that many media houses like The Indian Express and NDTV had reported this incident on January 14, 2015.

Malayalam language news channel Asianet News Network, which also shared one of the images, apologised after learning that the image was that from 2015.

Though dead bodies were found in Ganga, these viral visuals doing the round on social media are not recent

So it is sufficiently clear now, that though several dead bodies have been recovered from Ganga in the past week, these viral images of scavenger dogs and crows gathering around the bodies in the river are from 2015 and according to the Rae Bareli administration, the viral video showing many bodies buried in the sand at Gegaso ghat is also misleading and false.

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