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Safoora Zargar celebrates Aaj Tak anchor Rohit Sardana’s death, says ‘maut ka tamasha’ is trailer for ‘Godi Media’

OpIndia Staff
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Safoora Zargar celebrates Aaj Tak anchor Rohit Sardana’s death, says ‘maut ka tamasha’ is trailer for ‘Godi Media’

Popular Aaj Tak anchor Rohit Sardana passed away on Friday after suffering a heart attack. He was ailing from the coronavirus at the time of his death. His untimely death came as a major shock to the country, leaving politicians, journalists and eminent personalities from different spheres of life shocked and heartbroken.

However, for some depraved individuals, the sombre occasion of Rohit’s unfortunate death was a moment of joy and celebrations. Islamists, including Newslaundry journalist Sharjeel Usmani, The Print columnist Zainab Sikander, and many others started rejoicing his death and hurling the worst kind of abuses at him.

Safoora Zargar, one of the accused in the horrifying anti-Hindu riots that convulsed Delhi in February 2020, was also one of the Islamists who could not stop herself from hating on the Aaj Tak journalist. In fact, Zargar went to the extent of foreboding a similar fate to the journalists who did not subscribe to her hate-filled ideology.

“This is a trailor for Godi media. Aapki maut ka bi tamasha bna diya jayega. This is what u have chosen for yourself. You have only yourself to blame,” Zargar tweeted.

Safoora Zargar
Source: Twitter

Zargar also slammed ‘liberals’ whom she accused of aggressively downplaying the hate-mongering in their bid to take ‘moral high ground’.

Zargar’s hateful rant did not end just there. When some Twitter users pointed out that her tweet on Rohit Sardana is disgraceful and against the tenets of ‘basic human decency’, she doubled down on her attack against the Aaj Tak journalist.

She argued that basic human decency applies only to humans, insinuating that Rohit Sardana was not a human being. She further reviled the departed news anchor, terming him a ‘neo-nazist fascist enablers’.

“What is this ‘basic human decency’ everybody is talking about ? Shouldn’t it be applicable for humans only ? Could not find any humanity in hate-filled neo-nazist fascist-enablers . Keep this ‘what is the difference b/w u & them’ analogy to yourself plz. Grow a spine instead,” she tweeted.

Safoora Zargar
Source: Twitter

Safoora Zargar was granted bail by Delhi High Court on ‘humanitarian grounds’

Incidentally, Safoora Zargar is out of jail after the Delhi High court granted her bail on ‘humanitarian grounds’. She had applied for bail to the Delhi High Court after a lower court refused to grant her bail.

“When you choose to play with embers, you cannot blame the wind to have carried the spark a bit too far and spread the fire,” the Delhi court had observed while dismissing the bail plea of Jamia coordination committee media coordinator Safoora Zargar.

Zargar was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for her alleged role in the conspiracy that led to the Delhi Riots in February. The Delhi Police had claimed that she was part of the conspiracy to “destroy, destabilize and disintegrate the Government of India in order to compel to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the alleged National Register of Citizens”.

It is pertinent to note here that Ms Zargar while leading an anti-CAA protest at Jafrabad Metro station on February 22, was well-aware and conscious of the fact that she was pregnant and on her path to motherhood. Yet, she persisted to be involved in the protests that was on the brink of turning violent. Her involvement in the violent protests betrays her apathy to her own pregnancy.

Yet, when all her avenues dried up, Safoora and the left ecosystem cunningly started focusing on her imminent motherhood and pregnancy as grounds for securing bail, instead of laying emphasis on her possible innocence.

Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Ms Zargar is now dissing Rohit Sardana and showing utter disregard for basic human decency after his death.

Ideally, Ms Zargar should have been the last one to rant against ‘basic human decency’, given that she has herself been one of its beneficiaries. However, as has been the case with almost all the left liberals, their hatred for people with opposing views makes them blind to their own hypocrisies.

William Dalrymple: Hate and hubris of the perfumed elite, and the Robert Clive-esque sociopathic display of racism in the face of death

Nupur J Sharma
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William Dalrymple: Hate and hubris of the perfumed elite, and the Robert Clive-esque sociopathic display of racism in the face of death

As COVID-19 rages on, the world, its media and assorted intellectual necrophiles have descended to feast upon the mortal remains of Indians. Despite the world suffering the pandemic, the white man’s complex has made the USA and its media salivate at the thought of the unwashed masses in India being cremated, but the hundreds. It does somehow make them feel better about themselves. William Dalrymple, one such perfumed elite who is apparently a ‘historian’, who has spent his life telling the unwashed masses of India what to think about themselves, how uncivilised they are and just what the truth about their own history is, fled the country and flaunted his opulent life, in the very face of those who he wanted to “civilise”.

With his tail tucked between his legs, William Dalrymple fled to Sri Lanka and posted a picture from there, of tall coconut trees and the ocean in the distance, to tell the unwashed masses that while he enjoyed the smell of their death, he would rather do it from afar.

He called it ‘The Great Escape”. While I would not accord that level of intelligence to Willy, there is an interesting connotation to the usage of that phrase itself. As if, he was a prisoner of war escaping the great dungeons in which the Nazis threw him. As if India has been led to the path of death by the Nazi forces (Hindus, led by Modi, of course) and he, being a prisoner in an India he hardly recognises anymore (Yes, the damn Hindus asserting themselves), has managed to escape the living hell. Coincidentally, a plot depicted by the 1963 namesake movie.

After talking about escaping ‘Nazis’, Willy talks about how he “fled” to Sri Lanka. And at last, he tells the ‘unwashed masses’ that while they have been held captive by the democratically elected government of India, he has ‘fled’ to a far better place.

The very turn of mind to flee a country ravaged by disease and then dangle opulence in their face points towards a rather deranged disposition. But to do so after decades of teaching those very heathens how to live is a particularly Robert Clive-esque phenomenon.

William Dalrymple himself called Clive an ‘unstable sociopath’ and ‘violent, utterly ruthless and intermittently mentally unstable corporate predator.’

“He was mentally unwell. He twice tried to commit suicide in his youth. He was suffering from serious depression throughout his stint in India and even after his return, and he ended up cutting his own wrist. He was a very troubled man,” says William Dalrymple in a telephonic conversation with Indianexpress.com. “He was the kind of person one would never want to have dinner with. He was morose and hardly spoke. He was a depressive guy. None of his letters show any kind of interest in India” he adds.

He further told Indian Express, “But he (Clive) was both a sociopath and a racist. He was a sociopath in the sense that he was not good company. He was a racist in the sense that he regarded Indians and particularly Indian Muslims as racially inferior”.

Shekhar Bandhopadhyay says about Clive, who plundered India en masse, “In modern terms, the amount amassed was around £232 million, out of which £22 million was reserved for Clive. “Between 1757 and 1760, the Company received Rs 22.5 million from Mir Jafar, Clive himself got in 1759 a personal jagir worth £34,567”.

And after looting and plundering the people of India, he turned around and spit in their faces. In one of his letters, he called Indians “The Moors” who are “indolent, ignorant and cowardly beyond all conception”.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said that, “When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you” and Dalrymple perhaps personifies that emotion.

While plundering India, monetarily and culturally, just like Clive, Dalrymple then turns around and tells the heathens that he is far better than then. After justifying the brutal cuff against Bharat by brutes like Aurangzeb, Dalrymple assumes that it is him who can tell us heathens what to feel about our own oppression, while looting our culture blind.

And one can’t really blame Willy. He is from the crop that has been hoping, not-so-secretly, that far more of us die just so they get to tell us that the “civilised world” is far better than us.

Ever since India managed to manage the first wave of the Coronavirus far more effectively than the rest of the world, the west has been pining for blood. They wondered, openly so, how more Indians did not die. They wondered why and how India had managed to not only handle the pandemic as effectively as it could, but also, help the rest of the world in the process. Under Vaccine Maitri, India sent 6.45 crore vaccine doses to 85 countries, earning unprecedented goodwill. That goodwill did come back to help India during this second wave, when the world pulled together to send supplies to India.

But while India was managing the pandemic and saving the world, one dose of vaccine at a time, the western media wondered how India was doing what it was doing. It is often said that the dead cannot fight for justice and therefore, it is the responsibility of the living to do so. But veiled behind the mask of justice being sought, a band of vultures used the dead to further their own agenda.

The British-American media company Getty Images now hosts multiple images depicting multiple Indian funeral pyres lit ablaze on their website. From here, any potential media group around the world can buy these images, in three different sizes, with the largest size priced at about Rs. 23,000. In fact, most of the large versions of the images are priced at Rs. 23,000.

We had recently reported how Reuters had posted 6 articles and 7 pictures of funeral pyres from India in a span of just 2 days, all, on their home page. Photographs of the most horrifying moments of people’s lives being minted for money.

It is quite evident that there are those who are watching the current tragedy unfold with a sadistic glee. The nature of their employment and the civility of public life is preventing some of them from expressing in accurate words the extent of their joy.

But the glee that they feel in their heart watching India suffering a crisis is so abundant that it seeps into their words and actions even when they are unconscious of it. William Dalrymple is only one such person. There are numerous others who are of a similar opinion. They may preach love all they want but their actions betray their vehement proclamations.

‘He was suffering from Modism’, ‘gaumutra drinking sanghi’: Minutes after Rohit Sardana’s death, Islamists vandalise his Wikipedia page

OpIndia Staff
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‘He was suffering from Modism’, ‘gaumutra drinking sanghi’: Minutes after Rohit Sardana’s death, Islamists vandalise his Wikipedia page

Rohit Sardana, popular news anchor at Aaj Tak, passed away earlier today. According to reports, he was infected with Covid-19 and suffered a cardiac arrest before the death.

While the tragic news brought condolences from most people on social media, some activists and social media users were celebrating the death, as Sardana was perceived to be from the right-wing by the left-liberals and Islamists. Several Islamists, including those with verified Twitter handles, were abusing the departed soul.

But such hatred for Rohit Sardana was not limited to social media, it was also seen on the Wikipedia page of the journalist. Sardana’s wiki page was updated at 7:10 AM today to reflect his death, and within minutes, Islamists had started to vandalise the page to abuse him.

Within just 35 minutes of the first edit after his death, someone added in the report, “He was also suffering from modism”, replacing the world Covid-19 with Modism. It was just the start of dozens of such edits, abusing the former journalist.

Edits were made in the Wikipedia page calling Sardana a ‘paltu patrakar’ and ‘chu*tiya’, saying that he had a bachelors degree in ‘dallagiri’ etc. People who made the edits without logging into the crowd-sourced encyclopaedia site added that he was a ‘chaddhi sanghi’, a ‘gaumutra drinking sannghi’, a ‘paid bhakt’ etc.

Some people were more blunt about their hatred for Rohit Sardana, who wrote that it was good that the person died, using abusive words for him.

Rohit Sardana’s short Wikipedia page was edited almost 500 times today, with the editors adding the terms ‘Dallal Journalist’, ‘Bootlicker of BJP’ etc.

While most people edited the body of the article, some also edited the infobox in the page, adding words like ‘dalla’ and ‘BJP ka dalla’ to his name. In one edit, www.pornhub.com was inserted in the website field, and his age was written as 786.

However, not every vandalism was negative and abusive for Sardana. Reacting to the abuses, pro-Sardana editors also resorted to vandalising the page, by inserting praises for him while removing the edits.

He was described as ‘one of the greatest media news anchor personality’ by one editor, while another described him as ‘Nationalist Journalist and Muslims ka baap’. Some editors added that he was known for ‘deflating Muslim propaganda and for teaching Pseudo liberals strict lessons’.

Not all vandalism were negative or positive for Rohit Sardana. Some of the edits can be considered as vandalism because they added useless information that does not meet Wikipedia standard. In such edits, one person added ‘My uncle was his distant cousin’, while another added, ‘my cousin was nephew of his wife’.

Along with from such vandalism, the Wikipedia page also saw a large number of edits following the death of Rohit Sardana. Apart from updating the page with the information related to his death, there were several conflicting edits on the cause of the death. While some editors said he died of a Heart Attack while suffering from Covid-19, some others changed that to say that he died due to Covid-19. As a result, a tag saying the article is being heavily edited has been inserted on the page.

Adani Vidya Mandir school in Ahmedabad will be converted to COVID-19 care centre: Gautam Adani

OpIndia Staff
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Adani Vidya Mandir school in Ahmedabad will be converted to COVID-19 care centre: Gautam Adani

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani announced on April 30 that the Adani Foundation will convert the company’s Adani Vidya Mandir School in Ahmedabad to a COVID-19 Care Centre (CCC).

In a post on Twitter, Adani said, “Our Adani Vidya Mandir school in Ahmedabad will be converted by the @AdaniFoundation into a COVID Care Centre with oxygen support and other medical amenities. This will lighten the ever-increasing patient load on our hospitals. विद्यादान से जीवनदान(from giving education to giving life).”

The decision came in the midst of a rampaging coronavirus outbreak that is putting immense strain on the country’s healthcare infrastructure. Ahmedabad, the largest city of Gujarat, is also facing a raging COVID-19 outbreak as the number of daily new cases are steadily increasing.

As per an ANI report, the facility that will soon be converted to Covid Care Centre aims to reduce the load on the city’s government and private health infrastructure and take care of those isolated from their families. The facility would also play a pivotal role in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

“The government and healthcare institutions are pooling their resources to contain this fast-spreading pandemic. We must support them in every possible way we can,” said the Adani Foundation. It further added that they expect to harness the group’s execution experience in rapidly putting up the infrastructure at the Adani Vidya Mandir.

“We will convert our school’s halls of learning into halls of life – from vidya-daan to jeevan-daan,” the group said.

Adani Foundation will provide beds, nutritious food and medical care

Through this facility, the Foundation will provide patient beds, nutritious food and medical care. The transformation of the school into a health care facility will involve arranging accommodation, setting up resting units for both patients and medical personnel, and establishment of technical facilities to provide medical oxygen, medical supplies and monitoring systems. Besides, the centres will also institute the registration, reporting and security protocols required by the government, the city administration and state health authorities.

“The challenging task of creating a COVID centre in three to four days was taken up by the group during its conversation with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, who asked the group on how could it contribute to this unprecedented situation,” the Adani Foundation said.

“The government of Gujarat has been extremely proactive and helpful in this endeavour,” they added.

The Adani Group is already involved in helping the government in the COVID-19 crisis. It has put to use its global business relations and logistical prowess for sourcing and importing vital essentials like over 40 ISO cryogenic containers for oxygen supply, 20 oxygen plants each capable of supporting over 100 oxygen beds hospital, 120 oxygen concentrators and 5000 oxygen cylinders from Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Dubai.

Furthermore, the group is also assisting the administration by providing oxygen refilling services on a continuous basis at many places. It has also been working with Noida Authority to set up a similar COVID Care Centre in Noida.

‘I don’t want to be another Ayesha’: Muslim woman, tortured for dowry, appeals to PM Modi, CM Yogi to save her from in-laws

OpIndia Staff
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‘I don’t want to be another Ayesha’: Muslim woman, tortured for dowry, appeals to PM Modi, CM Yogi to save her from in-laws

A video has gone viral on the internet where a Muslim woman called Hina Khan is pleading with authorities to save her life alleging that she is being harassed due to dowry. She alleged that her in-laws are subjecting her to violence due to dowry.

Hina Khan says that she has approached the police over the matter but has not received any help. “I don’t want to die,” she says in the video. “I do not want to become another Ayesha,” she says. She is believed to be from Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.

She also appealed to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help her in her time of distress. She says that she has been running from pillar to post for the past six months but has not received any help because she does not have the money to bribe the authorities.

Hina Khan also appealed to journalists to highlight her plight so that she receives justice. She says that her in-laws are threatening her life and says she will be killed.

The Ayesha referred to in her plea is Ayesha Khan from Gujarat who had committed suicide after being harassed by her husband and in-laws for dowry. Ayesha had recorded a video before jumping into the Sabarmati River.

The suicide video triggered a wave of sympathy for the victim following which the husband was arrested by the Police before receiving bail.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal hospitalised, had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal hospitalised, had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20

Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has recently been admitted at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, New Delhi. She had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20.

On April 20, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, following which she isolated herself at home. Kejriwal also claimed to have isolated himself after his wife tested positive, however, days later, he visited an ITBP-run Covid Care Centre when he should have remained in isolation

Kejriwal had a COVID scare last year after being unwell for a while. He went into home isolation after a spasm of fever and throat pain before taking the test which turned out negative.

Delhi is currently in the midst of a rampaging second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, spreading at an alarming rate. Prominent personalities have contracted the virus. On Thursday, the national capital reported 24,235 cases with a positivity rate of 32.82 per cent, and 395 deaths due to coronavirus, the highest since the pandemic began a year ago. This was the eighth day in a row that Delhi has recorded over 300 deaths due to Covid-19.

The city currently has 97,977 active cases.

‘Govt trying to suppress voice of farmers amidst COVID-19 spike’: Rakesh Tikait insists on carrying on his drama amidst deadly pandemic

OpIndia Staff
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‘Govt trying to suppress voice of farmers amidst COVID-19 spike’: Rakesh Tikait insists on carrying on his drama amidst deadly pandemic

Even as the COVID-19 outbreak in Delhi is surging at an alarming rate, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday asserted that the ‘farmers protests will continue and insisted that his drama at the border will continue despite the sharp uptick in the coronavirus caseloads.

Addressing a Kisan maha panchayat in Bhiwani’s Prem Nagar village in Haryana, Tikait said on April 29 that farmers would not leave the protest sites at Delhi borders amid a ferocious second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Government is trying to suppress the voices of farmers amidst the increase in COVID-19 cases. We are ready to hold talks with the government and the same are expected to be held by November and December. Farmers in Gujarat are the worst affected and if the farmers’ issue won’t be resolved, the BJP government will implement this Gujarat model across the country,” Tikait said.

Tikait also added that donations for Ram Mandir should be used for the construction of a new AIIMS instead. “Instead of giving donations for Ram Mandir, a donation drive should be started to build new AIIMS. The Haryana government has failed to build a medical college in Bhiwani even after remaining in power for the last six years,” he said.

Another farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni echoed Tikait’s assertions, stating that the protests will continue even if the government imposes Section 144 of CrPC across the country.

‘Farmers’, majorly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting for the last five months against the newly introduced three farm laws. They have squatted on the highways leading to the national capital, demanding the repeal of the three agriculture bills that were passed by the Modi government in September last year.

The three laws are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance, and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Earlier, it was reported that the ‘farmers’ protest along the Delhi borders and a number of Kisan rallies, meetings conducted in Punjab may have contributed to the alarming rise of COVID-19 cases in Delhi and surrounding states. The UK strain of the coronavirus, which is markedly more virulent, is more prevalent in several northern states, including Punjab, the genome sequencing data from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) revealed. Two scientists from central government labs asserted that large gatherings in Punjab were responsible for the widespread transmission of the variant in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

The national capital is among the worst-hit city due to the coronavirus outbreak. On Thursday, Delhi recorded 395 deaths due to coronavirus, the highest since the pandemic began a year ago, and 24,235 cases with a positivity rate of 32.82 per cent, according to a bulletin issued by the city health department. This was the eighth day in a row that Delhi has recorded over 300 deaths due to Covid-19.

‘Shooter Dadi’ Chandra Tomar passes away in Meerut after testing positive for Covid

OpIndia Staff
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‘Shooter Dadi’ Chandra Tomar passes away in Meerut after testing positive for Covid

‘Shooter Dadi’ Chandro Tomar has passed away after being infected with the novel Coronavirus. She breathed her last at the Anand Hospital in Meerut on Friday.

Tomar was admitted to the hospital on Monday after developing a breathing problem. She gained widespread popularity after she picked up shooting after crossing the age of 60. She also inspired a Bollywood movie and is believed to be the oldest sharp shooter in the world.

One journalist had prematurely tweeted the news of her death in 2019, prompting her to respond, “You’re in a hurry.”

Chandro Tomar, nicknamed ‘Shooter Dadi’, is a sharpshooter from Johri village in Bagpat, Uttar Pradesh. She learnt shooting in 1999 when she was in her 60s and has won over 30 national championships.

Chandro Tomar was 90 years old at the time of her death. People on social media are expressing their sadness and shock over her demise.

Peddling falsehoods during Covid crisis: Here are 3 blatant lies by Arundhati Roy in her Guardian article

Jinit Jain
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Peddling falsehoods during Covid crisis: Here are 3 blatant lies by Arundhati Roy in her Guardian article

As the coronavirus crisis in India deepens, some left-leaning ‘intellectuals’ are revelling in the tragedy porn to attack the Modi government. One such left-leaning ‘intellectual’ and anti-India propagandist is Arundhati Roy, who recently penned an article in British daily ‘The Guardian’ that was replete with lies, misinformation and propaganda.

Exactly a year ago, Arundhati Roy had claimed that the Covid-19 is not even a crisis in India, and the Modi government is only misusing it to kill Muslims.

While being deceitful is second nature to Arundhati Roy and lying her favourite hobby, the extent of lies she peddled in The Guardian at a time when India is grappling with a ferocious second wave of COVID-19 is particularly egregious. Here are the three appalling lies that Arundhati Roy peddled in her recent article in The Guardian:-

Arundhati Roy spreads lies and misinformation about PM Cares Fund

In her article which was published on Thursday, Roy spread lies and misinformation about the PM Cares Fund, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. She alleged that the PM Cares Fund operated like a ‘private trust’ and had no accountability.

Relevant section from The Guardian article

As it turns out, Roy’s assertions about the PM Cares Fund are nothing but plain and unadulterated lies. PM Cares Fund is a relief assistance fund headed by the Prime Minister and its trustees include Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, and Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman in the Government of India.

In addition, the PM Cares Fund is independently audited, and its audited statements are publicly available. But these facts don’t stop Roy from drawing false equivalence between a government relief fund and a private trust.

Interestingly, the likes of Arundhati Roy, who casts aspersions on the PM Cares Fund, have no qualms with foreign based unverified NGOs. They have more trust in unverified and murky foreign NGOs than the PM Cares Fund, and have actively protested against the government’s crackdown against foreign-based unlicensed NGOs.

Besides, Roy’s lies maligning the PM Cares Fund comes at a time when it is being extensively helpful in procuring oxygen concentrators, ventilators, protective gears and other important equipment to find the resurgent wave of the coronavirus outbreak. Moreover, over 80% of the cost of vaccines in the first phase of Covid vaccination was borne by this fund.

Roy’s rhetoric of ‘PM Modi owning shares in air supply’ are hollow and meaningless. They don’t even make sense.

Arundhati Roy lies about India’s vaccination drive and COVID-19 vaccines produced by SII and Bharat Biotech

Another lie that Arundhati Roy peddled in The Guardian article was related to the COVID-19 vaccination. In her article, Roy alleged that Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, two of the organisations underpinning India’s vaccination drive, will make “obscene profits” from the sale of their vaccines. She alleged that both are being allowed to roll out two of the most “expensive vaccines in the world”.

Relevant section from The Guardian article

Roy here conveniently fails to mention that more than 160 million people have been already vaccinated free of cost in India. The central government will continue to give vaccines for free to people who cannot afford them at the government centres. However, in her attempt to criticise the Modi government, she failed to acknowledge it in her article.

Serum Institute of India is charging Rs 300 per dose($4) from states and the Bharat BioTech has kept its prices at Rs 400 per dose($5.5). These prices are among the cheapest in the world. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected to cost around $20 per dose, but Arundhati Roy continued to peddle lies that Indian-made vaccines are the most expensive in the world. Several states in the country have already announced that they will be providing the jabs for free to their citizens, but this again was conveniently not mentioned by Roy in her article.

And to increase the capacity of vaccine production, the organizations have to make profits so that the amount earned can be invested back to increase the production. India, by the dint of its size, needs the SII and Bharat Biotech to expand its manufacturing capabilities multifold. But the leftists like Arundhati Roy, whose understanding of economics can be best described as grotesque, do not want the organizations to earn even modest profits that would help them in upscaling their operations.

Also, India is a free market economy and not a socialist economy as the left-leaning ‘intellectuals’ like Arundhati Roy desire it to be. Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are private entities and they have a right to earn profits unless Arundhati Roy is advocating the Centre to expropriate them just like Yogendra Yadav, Ram Guha and others suggested the government appropriate private properties in the fight against coronavirus.

Arundhati Roy peddles propaganda about the West Bengal elections

In her bid to spite the Modi government, Roy also found a way to push propaganda about the West Bengal elections in her article in The Guardian. According to Roy, the elections in West Bengal is should have completed in a single phase, citing that it is geographically a small state.

Relevant section from The Guardian article

While West Bengal may be geographically a small state, Roy fails to highlight that it has a massive population of more than 100 million. The state has a complex riverine geography and has witnessed extreme political violence in the last few years, not to mention the threat of radical Islamic terrorism from the porous border it shares with Bangladesh. But as expected, these facts were swept under the rug by Roy. They were not mentioned in the article to give readers a context about the decision taken by the Election Commission to organise elections in 8 phases.

2011. 2016 elections in Bengal had 6 phases too

Roy also did not mention that this is not the first time that Bengal is seeing elections in multiple phases. The state has long been a hotbed for political violence. Even the 2011 and 2016 elections were also held through 6 phases, with the first phase divided into two days.

Hundreds of political leaders and workers have been victims of violence in West Bengal. But for Arundhati Roy, those deaths do not warrant a mention because most of the victims belonged to the opposition parties.

In fact, Arundhati Roy also had a problem that BJP campaigned vigorously for the West Bengal elections. As a political party, the BJP is well within its rights to contest in a democratic election anywhere across the country, especially in West Bengal where dissent has been suppressed and hundreds of its workers have been victims of violence perpetrated by TMC goons. Roy pontificating that BJP should not have run a high voltage campaign in West Bengal reveals her underlying fear that the saffron party may well be poised to make major inroads in West Bengal politics and pose a threat to Mamata Banerjee’s political hegemony.

Union Government announces ₹15,000 crore interest-free 50 year loan for states to spend on capital projects

OpIndia Staff
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Union Government announces ₹15,000 crore interest-free 50 year loan for states to spend on capital projects

The Union Finance Ministry has decided to provide an additional amount of upto Rs 15,000 crore to states as interest-free 50-year loans for spending on capital projects. The Department of Expenditure has issued fresh guidelines in this regard on the “Scheme of Financial Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure” for the financial year 2021-22.

Under this Scheme, financial assistance is being provided to the state governments in the form of 50-year interest free loan. Earlier in October last year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced Rs 12,000 crore interest-free 50-year loan to states for capital projects in a bid to boost the economy. The loan was to be spent entirely on new or ongoing capital projects. This was part of the measures announced by the Narendra Modi govt to stimulate the economy following the Covid-19 lockdown.

The finance ministry said that out of Rs 12,000 crore announced last year, Rs.11,830.29 crore was released to the states. This helped to sustain state level capital expenditure in the pandemic year.

The new scheme for special assistance to states for capital expenditure for 2021-22 has three parts. The part 1 is for the North-East and hill states and an amount of Rs 2,600 crore has been earmarked for this part. Out of this, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will get Rs 400 crore each while remaining states in this group have been allocated Rs 200 crore each.

The part 2 is for all the remaining states, and the total amount allocated for them is Rs 7,400 crore. This amount has been allocated amongst these states in proportion to their share of central taxes as per the award of the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2021-22.

The part 3 of the scheme is for providing incentives for monetization/recycling of infrastructure assets and disinvestment of the State Public Sector Enterprises (SPSEs).  An amount of Rs 5,000 crore is allocated for this part of the scheme. Under this part, states will receive interest free 50 years loan ranging from 33% to 100% of the amount realised by them through assets monetization, listing and disinvestment.

The finance ministry has said that the funds provided to the states under the scheme shall be used for new and ongoing capital projects, for long term benefit to the state. The funds may also be used for settling pending bills in ongoing capital projects.

This scheme will help the states in boosting their economy at the time of Covid-19 pandemic by making capital expenditure on creating infrastructure. Capital expenditure creates employment, especially for the poor and unskilled. Moreover, it has a high multiplier effect, as it enhances the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth. Therefore, despite the adverse financial position of the Central Government, it was decided last year to launch a “Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure”, the finance ministry said.

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