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Canada: Mass grave of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, discovered at a former Indigenous residential school site

OpIndia Staff
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Canada: Mass grave of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, discovered at a former Indigenous residential school site

On May 27, Rosanne Casimir, Chief of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 confirmed that the remains of 215 children were found at the premises of Kamloops Indian Residential School. A ground-penetrating radar system was used in the premises of the now-defunct school.

In the official statement, Casimir said, “We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths.” He further added that some of the students were as young as three years old when they died. “We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children,” he added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet that the discovery is a painful reminder of the dark and shameful chapter of Canada’s history. He said, “The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart – it is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history. I am thinking about everyone affected by this distressing news. We are here for you.”

John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia, said in an official statement that he was horrified and heartbroken when he learned about the burial site. He said, “Horrified and heartbroken to learn the burial site of 215 children has been confirmed on the grounds of the former Kamloops residential school.”

He added, “Each child has been forever taken from a family and a community that loved them. This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. And it is a stark example of the violence the Canadian residential school system inflicted upon Indigenous peoples and how the consequences of these atrocities continue to this day.”

“I honour Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc as they grapple with this burden from a dark chapter of Canadian history and uphold their commitment to complete this investigation over the coming weeks – bringing to light the full truth of this loss,” said Horgan.

A brief history of Kamloops Indian Residential School

In 1890, the Kamloops Industrial School, now known as the Kamloops Indian Residential School, was established under Roman Catholic administration as a part of the Canadian residential school system. It was established as a part of the government policy of forced absorption of the Indigenous communities that resulted in the oppression of generations of Indigenous children. Between 1874 and 1996, there were over 130 such schools in Canada.

The schools were located on the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people. Hundreds of Secwépemc and other First nations children were forcefully sent to these schools as far away as Penticton, Hope, Mount Currie, Lillooet and outside the province. In the 1950s, the enrolment in these schools peaked at 500.

Reports suggest that the children were forcefully removed from their families to attend these schools. In the 1920s, attending these schools was made mandatory by law for Indigenous children. If refused, the parents would face prison. The students would live in the school premises from September to June and were allowed to meet family members on Christmas and Easter.

In 1969, the federal government took over the administration of the school. By that time, the school had stopped providing any classes. The government operated as a residence for students attending local day schools. In 1978, the residence was closed.

The search for the ‘missing children’

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a large number of indigenous children that attended residential schools never made it back to their home communities. Some children ran away while others died at the schools. These students are now called the “Missing Children”. The Missing Children Project documents and deaths and burial sites of such children who died while attending the residential schools. So far, the project has identified over 4,100 children who died while attending a residential school.

The recently discovered burial site’s work was undertaken by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc language and culture department with the help of ceremonial Knowledge Keepers to ensure that the work was conducted respectfully. The initial work in confirming that there were remains of the children began in the early 2000s. Radar technology helped in confirming the stories.

Casimir said they would continue to use a ground-penetrating radar system to complete the survey at the location where the school premises stand. He said, “Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and beyond. We wish to ensure that our community members, as well as all home communities for the children who attended, are duly informed. This is the beginning, but given the nature of this news, we felt it important to share immediately. At this time, we have more questions than answers. We look forward to providing updates as they become available.”

Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s chief coroner, said in a statement that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc advised the BC Coroners Service about the discovery of the burial site, and they are in the process of gathering more information. She said, “We recognize the tragic, heartbreaking devastation that the Canadian residential school system has inflicted upon so many, and our thoughts are with all of those who are in mourning today.”

In a report published in 2015 after a six-year investigation into the now-defunct system, it was termed as “cultural genocide”. The report documented horrific details of abuse, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by the students who attended the school. As many as 150,000 were known to have attended the school system between the 1840s and 1990s. The recently discovered remains of 215 are believed to be new burial site and not included in the list of over 4,100 students who died at the schools.

In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system.

Uttar Pradesh: 59-year-old patient infected with yellow, black and white fungus dies

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: 59-year-old patient infected with yellow, black and white fungus dies

A Covid-19 patient, who was infected with black, white and yellow fungus, passed away in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

According to the reports, 59-year-old Kunwar Singh was under treatment for Covid-19 at a hospital in the city. He was infected with black fungus, also known as mucormycosis, white fungus and also yellow fungus.

On Friday, Singh passed away due to toxaemia or blood poisoning by toxins, said Dr BP Tyagi. The doctor said Singh, who worked as a lawyer in the city, had approached the doctor recently after he tested positive for Covid.

“The yellow fungus, besides white and black fungus, was detected during endoscopy on May 24,” Tyagi added.

Meanwhile, the doctor added that they are treating another 59-year-old man infected with yellow fungus infections.

“The fungus in Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Muradnagar, was detected near his brain. Half of his jaw has been removed,” he said. The patient also has toxaemia, but the level of infection is lesser than the deceased person, the doctor said.

The district administration has said that 65 cases of fungus in patients have been detected in Ghaziabad, and one of them has passed away. The Uttar Pradesh government has classified black fungus or mucormycosis as a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act.

Black, White and Yellow Fungus

The life-threatening infection – ‘Black Fungus’ known as mucormycosis, has now been detected in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Gujarat among Covid-19 patients. Mucormycosis or Black Fungus is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a killer fungus – Mucor. It is believed that the fungal attacks are generally affecting Covid-19 recovered patients who have other comorbidities like diabetes, kidney or heart failure, cancer. In addition, patients who were administered steroids or have had a transplant are also facing symptoms.

White fungus, also known as candidiasis, is a serious fungal infection. According to the CDC, white fungus or invasive candidiasis will affect the blood, heart, brain, eyes, bones, or other parts of the body. Invasive candidiasis is caused by a yeast called Candida. However, it is not contagious in most cases.

Meanwhile, Yellow fungus is the latest entrant, which causes laziness, loss of appetite, and weight loss in Covid-19 patients. In severe cases, the patient may experience pus leakage, a slow rate of healing of wounds, malnutrition, organ failure, and sunken eyes. The Yellow fungus infection is caused primarily due to poor hygiene.

Mehul Choksi saga: How a chartered flight from Delhi arrived in Dominica, hours before first images of fugitive were released from behind bars

OpIndia Staff
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Mehul Choksi saga: How a chartered flight from Delhi arrived in Dominica, hours before first images of fugitive were released from behind bars

The Indian authorities are closing in on fugitive Mehul Choksi, who has been on the run from the law enforcement authorities. In a major development on Sunday (May 30), journalist Aditya Raj Kaul shared a video on Twitter wherein the Prime Minister of Antigua Gaston Browne conceded that the Indian government has sent a jet to Dominica to prove that Mehul Choksi is a fugitive before the court.

“Yes, I can confirm that there is a jet. My understanding is that the Indian government has sent certain documentation from the courts in India to confirm that Mr Choksi is a fugitive. My understanding is that it will be used before the court on next Wednesday. As you know, the judge in Dominica has actually put a stay on his deportation until the hearing on next Wednesday. So, the Indian government is going all out to ensure that he is repatriated to India and can stand trial there,” Gaston Browne emphasised.

After being criticised by the Opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) for deserting an Antiguan citizen, PM Gaston Browne hit back at his detractors. In a statement, he said, “These loafers, laggards, and charlatans (LLC’s), are scavenging for issues, and yet again, failed to prioritize the national interest over their parochial political interests. After mischievously accusing my administration of habouring Mehul Choksi, who has an Interpol Red Notice, they are now seeking to sanitize this fugitive to get campaign funding. My administration’s revocation of Choksi’s citizenship has been frustrated by a litigation brought against the state.”

Browne further added, “We are determined to revoke Choksi’s citizenship and to concurrently pursue his extradition to India to face criminal charges there. There has been no violation of Choksi’s legal and constitution protections, despite the decision of my administration to revoke his citizenship. We fully respect the jurisdiction of the court over this matter. We live in a globalized world where cooperation among states is required to fight and defeat criminals; to deny criminals the use of the state apparatus for protection and advancement of their criminal conduct.”

“India, Interpol, and the International community are happy with the strident efforts by Antigua & Barbuda to encourage Dominica to deport Choksi to India. That is precisely why we have and continue to encourage the government of Dominica, to make him persona non grata, for illegally entering their country and to deport him to India where he is still a citizen. My request on behalf of Antigua & Barbuda, for Dominica to consider deporting Choksi directly to India, as a form of state cooperation to apprehend a fugitive, is perfectly acceptable. This request for state cooperation could never be construed by any law-abiding entity, of integrity and legitimate purpose to be an “ill-considered utterance,” he further emphasised.

The Antiguan Prime Minister concluded, “Then again, we should expect no better from them. The UPP continues to elevate criminal elements in their organisation, to include a convicted murderer and a rapist. Additionally, the claim that the request undermines the rule of law, or Choksi’s constitutional rights is preposterous. People are deported routinely for entering countries illegally. Ultimately, if he is deported to Antigua, he will continue to enjoy the legal and constitutional protections of citizenship.”

Mehul Choksi got citizenship of Antigua in November 2017, weeks before the PNB scam broke out, by the country’s Citizenship by Investment Programme.

Earlier, pictures of fugitive Mehul Choksi, held behind bars in Dominica, had surfaced on social media. The photographs were shared by Antigua News Room.

The hopes of fugitive Mehul Choksi’s deportation to India strengthened after reports suggested that a private jet (Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft) reached Douglas Charles airport in Dominica from Qatar on Saturday. Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul had tweeted, “Its arrival has raised questions about who it brought to Dominica and who will be leaving Dominica onboard?” Kaul had pointed out how Chartered plane from Delhi has landed in Dominica on Saturday. “A similar aircraft was used to get Christian Michel few years ago from UAE. Is Mehul Choksi on his way out soon? Dominica Court however till now has put a stay on his repatriation,” he had emphasised.

It must be mentioned that the fugitive went missing from Antigua about a week ago and later surfaced in Roseau at the Canefield beach in Dominica. He was arrested while he was disposing of some key documents in the sea. In a press release by the Ministry of National Security and Home Affairs of Dominica, it informed that Choksi was detained by law enforcement for ‘illegal entry’ into the country. Even though Dominica identified Mehul Choksi as a citizen of India, it said that it will make arrangements to repatriate him to Antigua and not India. Following the development, the Indian government has sent a representative, equipped with proper documentation, to Dominica to seek the fugitive’s deportation to India.

Role of Mehul Choksi in the PNB scam

Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is accused of committing bank fraud worth Rs 13,600 crore on Punjab National Bank. The fraud came to light in 2018 and he along with his nephew has been on the run since. While Modi is currently in the UK, Choksi was in Antigua. Recently, a UK court had ruled that his nephew Nirav Modi will be extradited to India from UK to face charges of conspiring to defraud PNB. Choksi faces charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty, including delivery of property, corruption and money laundering.

Fake fundraisers & funeral pyres : How do India’s Covid vultures sleep at night?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Fake fundraisers & funeral pyres : How do India’s Covid vultures sleep at night?

First of all, referring to them as Covid vultures is a misnomer. And that’s not just because it is an insult to the vulture, a noble bird which performs a scavenging role that may seem disgusting to us but nevertheless is crucial for the ecosystem to sustain. It is also because the term limits our understanding of the wide variety of ways in which India’s Covid vultures are monetizing our dead. Calling them vultures is a bit like referring to a Boeing 747 as a “flying auto-rickshaw.” The former is just too versatile for the description to make sense.

Consider all the ways in which the dead and dying can be useful to the vulture journalist. The first and most obvious is old fashioned ambulance chasing. You find a family desperately trying to find a place in hospital for their loved one. You shove cameras in their face and record their cries for help. The more the despair in their eyes, the more compelling the coverage. If you can, you shove something in the face of the one gasping for breath. Then you wait. Because you don’t want to cash out too early. If that person dies, your video footage will be worth more money.

However, the second wave saw this perversion taken to a sick new level. They followed the dead bodies all the way to the crematorium and took pictures of rows of burning funeral pyres. Some of these pictures were taken from a very great height to capture a full panorama view, which I can only suppose is drone footage. After all, I suppose the New York Times had taken out a global tender of some sort and they don’t compromise on quality. So move away, you wretched scavenger birds, because there is a vulture drone flying over the burning ghat.

The pandemic took millions of lives all across the world, but did you see such coverage from anywhere else? In New York, they piled hundreds of bodies into freezer trucks, where they still lie today, over a year later. Entire neighborhoods in Italy and Spain turned into death valley, but the dignity of the departed was not violated like this. Not for the voyeuristic pleasure of others.

You have to understand their compulsions. When the pandemic began, these people must have taken huge advances from Western media, anticipating a collapse of the health system in India. But India went for a swift nationwide lockdown that saved hundreds of thousands of lives. They tried to squeeze out whatever they could from the lockdown misery, but nothing could be as dramatic as scores of funeral pyres. Meanwhile, the West went through a second wave and an even deadlier third wave. In other words, both demand and supply were choked up.

Things were different when the second wave eventually hit India. The West had mostly recovered by then. Or at least, the Americans had come around to the idea that seven hundred deaths per day (equivalent to around 3000 deaths per day in India) means nothing at all. India’s Covid vultures had to make sure they were good for the advances they had taken, plus a year’s interest, denominated in US dollars.

Then, I guess someone had the bright idea to also start selling the pictures online. Indeed, why stick to the traditional mandi system, paying commissions and middlemen, when you can make more by selling on the open market? Something that struck me here was not the high prices they were asking, but their strange choice of numbers, like Rs 17,000, Rs 23,000 and something like that. How did they come up with that price point? Did they do market research to find out how much customers would be willing to pay for pictures of dead bodies from India? We will never know.

I also wonder who bought these pictures. Media organizations for sure. But did individuals also buy them? For what? To use as wallpaper on their desktop? A screensaver perhaps with a series of pictures of burning funeral pyres from various cities… I wonder how the families of the dead would feel about this. Don’t forget that the journalists probably took a series of pictures and then selected the ‘best’ ones. How would you like to know that the funeral pyre of your loved one was judged as ‘not sensational enough’ for the front page of the New York Times?

I might be picking too much on the photojournalists here, who are rather low on the scavenging chain. Real journalists don’t get out of their homes to make money. They write columns. The real money in news is always in writing opinions.

And so they did. They opened their laptops, got out their morning coffee and snuggled themselves into their favorite writing corners in their homes. To show the world the ‘truth’ by means of op-eds. These are like word pictures, except you don’t have to wait in the heat and general unpleasantness of a crematorium to get the perfect shot. The top newspapers abroad often pay their op-ed writers as much as $1 or $2 a word. This means a thousand word essay could sell for as much as one and half lakh rupees, minus some of those pesky forex conversion charges. Everyone hates them, I know…

I wonder about the economics of these deals. During the second wave, did these columnists charge a “surge fee” to foreign newspapers? Or was it that so many people offered to write columns that their wages got depressed? But my guess is that these newspapers follow the celebrity system. A small number of celebrities get the most retweets and so they get to corner the market.

But the top celebrities went a step further. If your columns are going to create a sensation in the West, why not cash in by creating additional revenue streams? Why not plug your article on your Twitter handle, get thousands of likes and retweets and use that reach to solicit donations to your “team” for Covid relief? There are well-meaning people everywhere who would like to help. I should note here that only the truly lazy would forget to register an NGO and start collecting donations into their personal accounts.

Of course, for those willing to put in just a tiny bit of hard work and register the NGO, there are better rewards. Shady foreign interests want to bundle money to you? No problem. If they deposited money in your personal account, you would owe taxes on it, which could be 30% or more. Instead, they make a donation to your “non profit” NGO which buys you — the head of the NGO — say an expensive car or a new home. It’s the same money, just a lot more that it otherwise would have been.

And this is why they created a racket of misinformation around PM Cares. The fund that paid for thousands of ventilators and will now pay for the education of children orphaned by Covid. The more donations went into PM Cares, the less people would give to the vacation fund of Covid vultures.

But there is one thing no foreign money can buy — a good night’s sleep. The traditional wisdom goes that the more ill gotten gains you have stashed away, the more scarce your sleep becomes. So how are these people managing any?

I am guessing this is one of those things where they have truly learned from the vulture. You see vultures have adapted to carry special gut bacteria and chemicals within their system. These allow them to eat rotting flesh safely, without getting sick. India’s Covid vultures might have evolved something similar. Perhaps an over supply of sleep inducing hormones.

“Covid-19 virus is from China and it was intentionally leaked by China’s CCP” says Chinese virologist

OpIndia Staff
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“Covid-19 virus is from China and it was intentionally leaked by China’s CCP” says Chinese virologist

Dr Li-Meng Yan a Chinese Virologist has yet again on record declared that the Covid-19 virus indeed emerged from China and was intentionally leaked by the Chinese Communist Party as a ‘bio-weapon’. In an exclusive interview to the News18 on the USA’s attempt to “redouble” their efforts in investigating the emergence of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Virologist expressed her support for the investigations.

Agreeing to provide scientific evidence and intelligence, the virologist said that a visit to Wuhan will also strengthen the investigations as a lot of secrets have been suppressed and destroyed by the Chinese government. She also urged the investigating teams to visit the labs in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Talking about holding China accountable for the misdeed, Dr Li-Meng Yan revealed that the lab leak was not accidental but let out on purpose to do a small trial on the community which went out of control. What could have been contained locally, was let out across the globe intentionally by the Chinese government, informed the virologist.

Dr Li-Meng Yan while talking about holding China responsible for the pandemic informed that China suppressed vital information and misled the world for months leading to a global pandemic. The country still continues to spread misinformation to hide its misdeeds concluded the Chinese virologist. 

Ending the interaction, Dr Yan informed that China is now bullying nations to buy its cheap vaccines. 

Novel Coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab

A new study published by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen says that the novel Coronavirus was created by Chinese scientists in a lab and then reverse-engineered to give the impression that it evolved naturally from bats.

The authors of the paper said that they have had evidence of reverse-engineering for a year but were ignored by major journals and other academics.

In line with what Dr Yan revealed, Sørensen, a virologist and a chair at Immunor, a pharmaceutical company also informed that the Chinese government in fact indulged in ‘deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data’.

Most scientists in China who spoke out about the bio-weapon have been silenced or disappeared said the report. 

Joe Biden asks to ‘double’ the efforts

US President Joe Biden has ordered the US intelligence agencies to “redouble” their investigative efforts to trace the emergence of the fatal Covid-19 pandemic and furbish a report in 90 days. This comes amid the growing controversy about the virus leak from the Wuhan lab being deliberate. 

Biden said in a statement on Wednesday said, “I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days.”

“I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community’s efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work,” he added. 

Yogi govt comes to rescue of children orphaned due to pandemic

OpIndia Staff
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Yogi govt comes to rescue of children orphaned due to pandemic

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday announced that under the ‘Uttar Pradesh Mukhya Mantri Bal Seva Yojana’, the state government will work as guardian/care taker for children who are orphaned due to the pandemic.

Yogi Adityanath’s office announced that those children who have lost both of their parents or legal guardians due to the pandemic, then they will be included in the said yojana.

Those children who have lost the sole breadwinner of the house will also be included in the yojana.

Under the yojana, the state government will provide Rs 4,000 per month per child through their guardian/caretaker.

Yogi Adityanath’s office informed that children under age 10 years, who do not have guardian/extended family, then state government with the help of government of India will rehabilitate them in children’s home. In UP, there are currently 5 state-run children’s home for the age 0-10 years: Mathura, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Agra and Rampur.

For minor girls, they will be provided education in Indian government run Kasturba Gandhi schools or in one of the 18 Atal residential schools run by state government. The state government will further provide Rs 1,01,000 for marriage of girls who have been orphaned due to the pandemic. Further, the government will provide tablet/laptop to kids studying in schools and colleges.

PM CARES

On Saturday, PM Modi announced an initiative to help children who have lost both their parents or guardians to the coronavirus pandemic. He said such children will be supported under the ‘PM-CARES for Children’ scheme.

The Prime Minister announced that such bereaved children will get a monthly stipend once they turn 18 for the next five years from the PM Cares Fund. Moreover, they will receive a fund of Rs 10 lakh when they turn 23.

Delhi Court issues summon to IMA president Dr John Austin Jayalal for talking about converting Covid-19 patients to Christianity

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi Court issues summon to IMA president Dr John Austin Jayalal for talking about converting Covid-19 patients to Christianity

John Rose Austin Jayalal, the controversial president of the equally controversial organisation Indian Medical Association (IMA), has been issued a summon by a Delhi court for abusing his power and resorting to proselytization during the pandemic. According to reports, Dwarka District Court in Delhi has issued a summon to him, asking him to be present in the court on 31st May.

Legal activist group Legal Rights Observatory tweeted that the summon was issued for his comments emphasizing on converting Covid-19 patients to Christianity.

The court issued the summon after a complaint was lodged against the doctor-cum-activist-cum-evangelist by Legal Right Protection Forum, a legal activism group. The Petition was submitted in court by advocate Sanjeev Uniyal and Dhawal Uniyal.

In its complaint, the LRPF has sought revocation of Medical Practitioner’s License of IMA President John Jayalal, alleging that the controversial doctor has openly declared his intention of splitting human beings into Christians and non-Christians and converting the latter to Christianity using every available opportunity.

The petitioners also asked the government to stop all funds to IMA until John Jayalal is removed from his position as President. Dr Johnrose Austin Jayalal was appointed as the national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for the year 2020-2021 at its 95th annual national conference held in December 2020.

 LRPF has alleged that the president of the IMA is using his position to propagate Christianity. Instead of treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a humanitarian catastrophe, Dr Jayalal and his team of evangelists were rubbing their hands and treating the pandemic as an opportunity to spread the Gospel in new ways to more and more people, the complaint read.

The LRPF has pointed out two interviews given by Jayalal where he had expressed strong views about proselytizing Hindus. The complaint mentions Jaylal’s interview with Haggai International, where he says that the “Hindu Nationalist government” wants to destroy modern medicine. “Please keep this in your international prayers. If everything goes their way, we will not have pure modern medicine courses in India by 2030,” he had said in the interview.

He had also that he is converting Covid-19 patients to Christianity. He had said, “the urgent need of the proclamation of the Gospel to people who are suffering from the virus has allowed us to share the Gospel even in secular institutions.”

In another interview to Christianity Today, Jayalal had said that it was the Church that took care of the poor people, implying that the government did not do anything. He had said that despite the hardships, difficulties, and restrictions that came in the wake of the pandemic, Christianity was growing.

Read how a small revolution to help poor dairy farmers gave birth to the world’s ninth-largest dairy company, Amul

Jhankar Mohta
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Read how a small revolution to help poor dairy farmers gave birth to the world’s ninth-largest dairy company, Amul

The brand Amul, also known as the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), needs no introduction. It is the brand which single-handedly helped India change from being a milk-deficit country to become the world’s largest producer of milk and milk product by doubling the country’s production to some 130 million tons annually over the last two decades. Amul is the ninth-largest dairy company in the world.

Infographic courtesy: Youth Motivator

It is the brand that spearheaded what was called the White Revolution, improving lives of rural families and providing a livelihood for marginal farmers with two milk animals or less, and went on to become India’s largest food brand.

With a daily milk procurement was 215.96 lakh litre per day, the consolidated turnover of the Amul brand of products exceeded Rs 52,000 cr in 2019-20. The milk cooperative, last year, went on to become the first Indian diary brand to make it to Rabobank’s Global Top 20 list.

Last year, during the nationwide lockdown, when India was going through one of the worst economic lows, Amul pumped in Rs 8,000 crore back into the rural economy, that too in a span of 60 days.

But what is the history behind this cooperative which is providing an opportunity to its three million milk producers to lift output and meet the increasing demand for milk and its related items?

How was Amul born?

Amul has a storied history, having been created in 1946 in response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by traders from Polson dairy, which was then the region’s only dairy.

Polson Dairy, a locally-owned dairy in Anand, Gujarat, was procuring milk from farmers at very low rates to sell to the Bombay (now Mumbai) government.

Infograohic courtesy: Youth Motivator

In 1946, Gujarat was in the middle of the nationalist movement. During that time, Polson dairy, which had complete rights to supply milk to Bombay under the Bombay Milk Scheme, was exploiting the Indian dairy farmers by procuring milk from them at very low rates and selling it to the Bombay Government at excessively high rates. While Polson prospered and the middlemen happily made money, it was the poor dairy farmers who suffered.

This continued until Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel started a revolution to help poor dairy farmers and landless labourers. He approached Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel and Murarji Desai, who was then Bombay’s home and revenue minister, to seek their permission to form a cooperative with their own pasteurisation plant. After getting support from the duo, the cooperative – Kaira District Co‑operative Milk Producers’ Union – was formed.

Infographic courtesy: Youth Motivator

Any farmer was free to join the Kaira Union irrespective of his or her caste, religion or financial status.

Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel demanded the Bombay government to procure milk from this cooperative.

The whole of Gujarat was in a rebellious mood and was not contributing milk to the Polson Dairy, by which the Polson Dairy was on the verge of breaking down. The British government initially tried to dread the protesting farmers. They threatened the farmers to quit the movement or face dire consequences, but the farmers refused to buckle under pressure.

They decided to go on a ‘milk strike’ and suspended milk supply to Bombay. The city went without even a drop of milk from Anand for 15 days.

Later, reluctantly the British allowed the farmers to set up their own cooperative, thinking that the cooperative would not last for even a couple of days because most of the farmers were illiterate. And this is how Kaira District Co‑operative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as Amul Dairy today, was born. Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel went on to become the chairman of the Kaira union.

In 1949, Patel sought the help of Dr Verghese Kurien, who was then working at the Government Creamery at Anand, Gujarat, to put the dairy equipment together and run the units. He was also entrusted with the responsibility of marketing and external affairs of the Union.

Patel and Kurien were joined by HM Dalaya. Dalaya looked after the technical and internal aspects of running the dairy. These three went on to become the pillars of the cooperative movement.

Tribhuvandas Patel (M) with Verghese Kurien (L) and HM Dalaya (R) (source: The Hindu Businessline)

New machinery was bought and milk procurement increased from 200 litres in 1948 to 20,000 litres in 1952. However, during this period, the surplus milk found no takers, so farmers had to face the problem of fluctuating milk production. This gave birth to the idea of converting extra milk to milk powder. Kurien’s batchmate from America HM Dalaya invented the process of skimmed milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk instead of cow milk and a dairy was set up in 1955 to process excess milk into milk powder and butter. 

With the commercial success of the modern dairy at Anand, the brand name Amul (from the Sanskrit Amulya or priceless, and also an acronym for Anand Milk Union Ltd) was registered in 1957.

Verghese Kurien’s vision of offering thousands of small dairy farmers centralised marketing and quality control facilities took Amul to great heights. The small Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union, which began with merely two village cooperative societies and 247 litres of milk went on to become the world’s ninth-largest dairy company in the world- Amul Dairy.

The Amul Model of dairy development

In 1964, the then PM of India Lal Bahadur Shastri decided that the same approach should become the basis of the National Dairy Development Policy. Lal Bahadur Shastri understood that the success of Amul Dairy could be attributed to four basic factors. Firstly, the farmers owned the dairy. Secondly, their elected representatives managed the village societies and the district unions. Thirdly, the farmers were the ones who employed professionals to operate the dairy and manage its business, And last but not the least, the cooperative was sensitive towards the needs of farmers and responsive to their demands.

Image credit: amul.com

The next year, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri tasked Kurien to replicate the dairy’s Anand pattern nationwide and this was how the world’s largest dairy development programme known as ‘Operation Flood’ was born. This replicated the success of the ‘Amul Model’ in other parts of the country.

The Amul Model of dairy development is a three-tiered structure with the dairy cooperative societies at the village level federated under a milk union at the district level and a federation of member unions at the state level.

The model has been known to empower thousands of village women, who benefit at the grass-root level by selling milk to Amul. Amul claims that its model helps women gain economic independence.

Image credit: amul.com

This ‘Amul model’ has helped India emerge as the largest producer of milk in the world. More than 16 million milk producers pour in their produce in 185903 dairy cooperatives societies in the country. Their milk is processed in 222 District-Cooperative Milk Unions and marketed by 28 state marketing federation.

Role of technology behind the success of the brand

Technology plays a pivotal role in the success of Amul Dairy. Amul uses Automatic Milk Collection systems, to collect milk from farmers at a swift pace, simultaneously capture details about the farmers and milk, like the lipid content of milk, etc.

On a daily basis, Amul collects around 3.3 million litres of milk from nearly 2.12 million farmers in villages all across India. The farmers get paid instantaneously within a matter of a few seconds.

The milk is examined, grated and transported to many diaries located across the country. The milk delivery trucks deliver milk during the early morning to every nook and corner of the country. And all this occur daily at clock-work precision.

Until today, Amul has a total of 31 plants in India. Gujarat has 13 Amul plants, 4 plants are located in Delhi/NCR region, 2 plants are in UP, 4 plants are located in Maharashtra, Rajasthan has 3 plants and Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand have one Amul plant each.

Who is the owner of the milk cooperative?

In fact, there is no single owner of Amul. Amul is a cooperative society and is jointly owned by 3.6 million milk producers in Gujarat.

Novel Coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab, new study says, authors say major journals and academics ignored evidence for a year

OpIndia Staff
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Novel Coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab, new study says, authors say major journals and academics ignored evidence for a year

A new study published by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen says that the novel Coronavirus was created by Chinese scientists in a lab and then reverse-engineered to give the impression that it evolved naturally from bats, DailyMail has reported.

The authors of the paper claim that they have had evidence of reverse-engineering for a year but were ignored by major journals and other academics. Dalgleish, a professor of oncology at St George’s University, London, is renowned for having developed the first working HIV vaccine that allows diagnosed patients to go off medicines for months.

Sørensen, a virologist, is a chair at Immunor, a pharmaceutical company that developed a Coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. The study accuses Chinese labs of ‘deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data’ and notes that scientists in China who spoke out were silenced and disappeared.

SARS-COV-2 has ‘no credible natural ancestor’

Dalgleish and Sørensen observed ‘unique fingerprints’ in the virus which they say could have only been a consequence of manipulation at a lab. The 22-page paper is set to be published in the scientific journal Quarterly Review.

The study concludes that SARS-Coronavirus-2 has ‘no credible natural ancestor’ and it is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that the virus created through ‘laboratory manipulation’. The scientists say that those working on ‘Gain of Function’ research took a naturally occurring Coronavirus ‘backbone’ found in Chinese cave bats and inserted a new ‘spike’ that turned into the highly contagious virus wreaking havoc around the world.

‘The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row. The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it,’ Dalgleish told DailyMail.com. The study says that of the novel Coronavirus are ‘unique fingerprints’ that are ‘indicative of purposive manipulation’ which indicates that ‘the likelihood of it being the result of natural processes is very small.’

‘A natural virus pandemic would be expected to mutate gradually and become more infectious but less pathogenic which is what many expected with the COVID-19 pandemic but which does not appear to have happened,’ the scientists say.

‘The implication of our historical reconstruction, we posit now beyond reasonable doubt, of the purposively manipulated chimeric virus SARS-CoV-2 makes it imperative to reconsider what types of Gain of Function experiments it is morally acceptable to undertake.’ ‘Because of wide social impact, these decisions cannot be left to research scientists alone.’

The scientists proceeded to add, ‘Strains ‘popped up’ after January 2020 are not credible… For a year we have possessed prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China in early 2020.’ Dalgleish also said that gain of function engineering should have been banned ‘ages ago’.

Lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19 origins was labeled a ‘conspiracy theory’ until recently

The role of academics and major journals will also come into question as the authors argue that they had the evidence for a year and yet, were ignored. Until recently, the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19 was labeled a ‘conspiracy theory’ and censored by social media platforms.

However, in recent weeks, the Biden administration in the United States of America and Anthony Fauci have been forced to concede that the lab-leak hypothesis remains a viable explanation for the origins of Covid-19.

‘Fact-checkers have just one agenda- hate Modi’: Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Twitter over lack of transparency in its fact-checking

OpIndia Staff
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‘Fact-checkers have just one agenda- hate Modi’: Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Twitter over lack of transparency in its fact-checking

In a blistering attack against Twitter, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad raised questions over the identity and the appointment of the so-called fact-checkers that are used by the social media behemoth to regulate the content posted on its platform. Prasad slammed social media websites, most notably Twitter, for employing prejudiced “fact-checkers”, who harboured visceral hatred for PM Modi.

“There are many fact-checkers employed by the company. For example, if someone tweets something, these fact-checkers check whether it is right or wrong. Who are these fact-checkers? Neither are their names made public, nor there is any information on how they have been appointed. These people have the responsibility of regulating what 130 crore Indians can tweet,” Prasad said.

Criticising that the fact-checkers employed by social media organisations are inherently jaundiced against PM Modi, Prasad said some of them are bankrolled by forces that want the country to be dismembered into smaller states.

He said, “These fact checkers have just one agenda: Hate Modi. They don’t want to criticise, they just want to hate Modi. And these people are financially supported by such people who want to see country split into pieces. Is it not our job to monitor this? In a country of 130 crores, can’t you get neutral objective fact-checkers? These questions will be asked and they should be asked,” Prasad said.

The Minister for Electronics and Information Technology also faulted Twitter for the accusations it had levelled against the government of India. Prasad said the company has all the right to operate the way it wants to but the way it operates cannot remain shrouded in secrecy.

“What you do is your job and your right. But how you do it should be made public. That’s why the government had to release an elaborate response yesterday. A US-based for-profit making company is lecturing us on democracy? They are teaching us about the freedom of expression? This is unacceptable,” Prasad emphatically added.

The controversy erupted after Twitter presumptuously added the “manipulated media” label against tweets posted by BJP leaders on the Congress toolkit. A case is going on in the matter, with the Delhi Police claiming that Twitter had been providing evasive, obfuscatory answers to the questions regarding evidence that proved the toolkit to be fake. The controversy also came at a time when the Indian government brought in new digital laws. Most of the social media platforms barring Twitter have complied with the new laws.

Indian government issues a strongly worded response to Twitter over its misleading and obfuscating statements

Prasad’s criticism of Twitter came days after the Indian government responded with a strongly worded rebuttal to Twitter’s misleading and obfuscating statements to media today regarding Indian laws and its so-called policies. The govt has stated that “protecting free speech in India” is the responsibility of the Indian government and not the prerogative of a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter.

Calling Twitter’s statement ‘an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy, the Union ministry fo Electronics and IT stated that through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter is seeking to undermine India’s legal system. The ministry stated that Twitter is refusing to comply with the very regulations in the intermediary guidelines on the basis of which it is claiming a safe harbour protection from any criminal liability in India.

If Twitter is so committed, why it did not set up such a mechanism in India on its own?, the ministry asked, while stating that Twitter India representatives routinely try to evade responsibility by claiming they have no authority and the people of India will have to reach out to Twitter headquarters in the USA. It called Twitter’s claims of ‘commitment to India’ as hollow and self-serving.

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