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Alt News selectively cites coronavirus statistics to criticise PM Modi alleging he used selective data

OpIndia Staff
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Alt News selectively cites coronavirus statistics to criticise PM Modi alleging he used selective data

Leftist online portal ‘Al News’ that proclaims itself to be a “fact-checker” recently published an article criticising PM Modi’s recent speech where he lauded India’s COVID-19 fight as compared to other developed countries. The article accused the PM quoting data selectively, and to prove PM Modi wrong, ironically Alt News itself quoted selective data.

The article titled as “PM Modi quotes selective data to paint a rosy picture of India’s COVID-19 response” on the leftist rag argued that the statistics had a way of hiding the actual reality, accusing PM Modi of “selectively” quoting the favourable numbers that showed India’s fight against coronavirus in a good light.

PM Modi in his recent speech on India’s management of the coronavirus outbreak had cited that India has 5,500 cases per million as against 25,000 cases per million in the US and Brazil. He further added that death rate at per million population in India is 83 as compared to over 600 in the US, UK and Brazil.

However, these glowing statistics that gave a inspiring picture of the country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis did not sit well with Alt News, who appeared hell bent on disparaging the country’s fight against the COVID-19.

Alt News itself indulges in selectively quoting COVID-19 numbers to criticise PM Modi’s assertions

The article proceeded to criticise the Prime Minister for being selective in quoting the numbers to allege that India is faring well above the other countries in its battle against the coronavirus outbreak. While denouncing PM Modi’s proclamations regarding India’s handling of coronavirus crisis as being “selectively” quoted, Alt News did not refrain from doing exactly the very same thing it accused the Prime Minister of.

In its article, Alt News deviously considered only those numbers and statistics that it could use to discredit PM Modi’s assertions about India’s COVID-19 battle and minimised the achievements accomplished by the nation.

Alt News cites dubious numbers of Asian countries to undermine India’s handling of coronavirus outbreak

‘Cases per million’ is one of the key parameters to determine the pervasiveness of the virus in a particular country. Higher the number, greater is the probability of the majority of the population being affected by it. India’s cases per million is 5,544.

Relevant sections from the article published on Alt News

However, just to portray that India is performing worse against other countries, Alt News compared it with the world average of 5,241, which is slightly lower than India’s numbers. Now that there wasn’t much difference between the world average and India’s cases per million, Alt News proceeded to throw in the Asian average of 2,764 to claim that India is struggling in its COVID-19 fight as compared to other countries in the region.

This is a tenuous comparison, given that it has been established by multiple agencies from across the world that China has massively underreported its cases. Besides China, Pakistan, the eternal rental state of Beijing, which is teetering on the edge of a catastrophic financial collapse, has also aped its master, lowballing the number of cases reported in its territory. Only Alt News can expect a country like Pakistan, whose finances are in dire straits, to diligently invest in carrying out coronavirus tests across the country and honestly reporting them.

Similarly, there are some countries in Asia, particularly the dictatorial regimes such as North Korea that have denied the existence of coronavirus outbreak and presented bogus numbers.

In essence, the Asian average of 2,764 is hardly a legitimate figure to attack the Modi government for its handling of the coronavirus crisis as the data from multiple Asian countries are not credible.

Another parameter that was highlighted in the article is ‘Deaths per million’. This again is an important factor that provides details of the lethality of the coronavirus outbreak in a particular country.

Relevant sections from the article published on Alt News

India has deaths per million of 84. Now since this number is drastically lower than the global average of 144 and the deaths per million in the United States, UK and Brazil, Alt News again leaned on the fraudulent numbers reported from the other Asian countries to claim the nations in India’s geographical vicinity have fared better than it.

China’s deceptive numbers of its deaths were revealed by the Chinese citizens themselves who suspected that the Chinese Communist Party of withholding the extent of ravage caused by the raging coronavirus in the Mainland. They have pointed out to the outsize number of urns delivered by the Chinese authorities to claim that Beijing’s official numbers were misleading.

Alt News omits to mention Asian numbers when India fared better than regional countries

India has been the country with the second highest testing numbers in the world, behind the United States. However, to make light of this significant achievement, Alt News changed the goal post, claiming that the absolute numbers of tests give a misleading picture and therefore when comparing with others, we should consider tests per thousands if we are to compare it with others.

Relevant sections from the article published on Alt News

The article then goes on to claim that US and UK have conducted far more tests per thousand than India while Brazil has done lesser tests per thousand as compared to India. As in the previous two cases, Alt News does not mention the Asian numbers here as they have been lower than that of India, even after fudging the data.

The absolute number of tests conducted provides an overall picture of the extent to which a country has gone to protect its citizens from coronavirus. Countries cannot brazenly lie about the absolute test numbers because they would need to be reconciled with other parameters such as ‘deaths per millions’ and ‘tests per million’ which would easily give away their bogus numbers.

Alt News’ excessive reliance on unreliable data points from Asian countries

One of the key themes of this ‘analysis’ by Alt News is the excessive reliance on dubious numbers emanating from China, Pakistan, North Korea and other Asian countries. When the express purpose of the article was to criticise PM Modi and by extension undermine the country’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak, the authenticity of the data hardly matters.

Alt News started the article with a maxim, “Lies, damned lies and statistics”, to convey that numbers and statistics carry a persuasive power to paint a picture as per one’s liking. Perhaps, who would know it better than Alt News, an online rag which has a history of brazenly lying, selectively quoting and distorting statements, numbers and statistics to push its anti-Modi propaganda.

Rahul Gandhi selectively cites GDP projections to assert Pakistan and Afghanistan handled COVID-19 better than India

However, in this case, Alt News can seek solace in the fact that they are not only ones to legitimise faulty data points and use them to compare India’s management of COVID-19 crisis. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also didn’t shy away from selectively quoting data to slam the BJP government on its handling of the coronavirus crisis.

A few days back, Gandhi had shared the IMF projections of GDPs of the countries for the financial year 2020-21 to allege that Pakistan and Afghanistan have handled the COVID-19 crisis better than India.

However, the Gandhi scion was promptly reminded by many that his deduction of Pakistan and Afghanistan being better in handling the COVID-19, solely on the basis of GDP projections, is grossly misplaced.

The management of coronavirus crisis involved both, protecting human lives as well as safeguarding country’s economy. Enforcing tight restrictions usually results in corresponding economic hardships. India had been remarkably successful in preserving its human capital, unlike the United States, UK and several other advanced countries, which despite enforcing lockdown faced enormous human casualties to the coronavirus outbreak.

Pakistan and Afghanistan, on the other hand, did not enforce a strict lockdown, nor they had the requisite means to carry out sufficient COVID-19 testing for its citizens, which the discrepancies in their testing numbers and cases eminently suggest. Even Pakistan’s own minister feared that the number of cases in the country might be higher than those reported.

By claiming that Pakistan and Afghanistan did better in tackling COVOD-19 crisis, Rahul Gandhi is not only disparaging India’s fight against coronavirus but also validating the fake numbers put forth by these countries.

Arvind Kejriwal remains non-committal on making coronavirus vaccine free in Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal remains non-committal on making coronavirus vaccine free in Delhi

Amidst the raging debate about whether the yet-to-be-launched coronavirus vaccine should be made free or not, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has remained non-committal on the issue of providing coronavirus vaccine free for the people of Delhi.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the COVID-19 vaccine should be made available throughout the country for free. However, he himself remained circumspect about providing free vaccines to the people of Delhi saying the government will only make a decision once the vaccine is developed.

“We will see when the vaccine comes, what it’s like and how much it costs,” said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“The whole country should get free COVID-19 vaccine. It is a right of the entire country. All the people are troubled by the coronavirus, so the vaccine should be free for the country,” Kejriwal said after inaugurating two flyovers in northeast Delhi.

The reluctance of Arvind Kejriwal to clearly state the policy of his government with regards to the provision of coronavirus vaccine in Delhi is puzzling. As health is a ‘state’ subject, it is the responsibility of the Delhi government to ensure proper immunisation of the people of Delhi, once the coronavirus vaccine is launched across the country.

However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seems to be non-committal about providing the vaccine for free and attempting to shift the responsibility to the centre. The irresponsible statement by Kejriwal comes amidst the opposition parties attack against the Modi government over the issue of providing free vaccines across the country.

Arvind Kejriwal’s attempt to politicise the vaccine drive

On Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while releasing the BJP manifesto in Bihar for upcoming elections said that the BJP promises free coronavirus vaccines in Bihar, whenever the vaccine is made available. The Union Minister had not explicitly mentioned that only the residents of Bihar will be eligible for receiving the vaccine if and when it will be released, and certainly did not say that other states will not get the vaccine. The party has merely promised free vaccine in the state if they come to power, just like free power and water announced by Kejriwal before Delhi elections.

However, the opposition and its ecosystem had pounced on the BJP to brazenly peddle lies to claim that BJP made such announcement considering the Bihar elections and other states would be denied the same. Several of them claimed that the government’s move of granting free vaccinations to COVID-19 as ‘cruel’ as they tried to create confusion among residents of other states.

In reality, there was no special treatment for Bihar as claimed by the opposition party leaders. Like other immunisation programmes, the centre will provide vaccines to states at a nominal rate. This will include BJP-ruled and non-BJP ruled states. Then it is up to the states to charge for vaccines or not.

Similarly, non-BJP ruled states like Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal can choose to either make vaccines free for all or charge its citizens for the same. However, the opposition parties and the non-BJP state government has now used these opportunity to weave a narrative that these non-BJP ruled states will be denied free corona vaccines.

The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seems to be pulling a similar card to politicise the issue by being non-committal to speak about the vaccination drive in the state and later shift the blame on the centre by claiming that it did not provide the vaccination for free.

Mumbai: Body of missing Coronavirus patient recovered after 14 days from the hospital bathroom

OpIndia Staff
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Mumbai: Body of missing Coronavirus patient recovered after 14 days from the hospital bathroom

In a shocking incident, the corpse of a 27-year-old Coronavirus patient was recovered from the toilet at TB hospital in Sewri, Mumbai.

As per reports, the patient has been identified as one Suryabhan Yadav. He had come to the TB hospital on September 30, after being referred by a doctor in Goregaon. Yadav was kept in the Coronavirus ward on the first floor of the hospital. However, he went missing from the ward on October 4. Besides Coronavirus infection, Yadav was also suffering from tuberculosis.

His was discovered after 14 days from the toilet block, even though they were being used regularly by other patients. When the corpse was found, it had decomposed beyond recognition. Reportedly, the hospital authorities could not initially ascertain the gender of the person. On cross-checking the records, it has found that Yadav had been missing for 14 days. As per the hospital management, no staff member or patient complained of any stinking smell until October 18.

Patient died of natural causes, claims post-mortem

Following the complaint of smell, a ward boy found on 18th October that a locked cubicle in the toilet was stinking badly. On peeing into the cubicle from atop the adjacent one, he found the decomposed body of the patient. The hospital authorities sent the body for post-mortem at KEM hospital and subsequently informed the police. The TB hospital is of the view that Yadav collapsed in the toilet due to breathlessness. As per head of the forensic department of KEM hospital, Dr Harish Pathak, the patient died of ‘natural causes’.

BMC directs inquiry, police investigation commences

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has directed for an inquiry into the matter and issued notice to over 40 hospital staff members, who were working in the particular ward. Meanwhile, senior police inspector (RAK Marg police station) Sunil Sohoni informed, “We will call hospital staffers for questioning to understand how this happened. We initiated an investigation to determine if there is any foul play.” It was also reported that the housekeeping staff refrained from entering the Coronavirus ward or cleaning the bathrooms.

Common for TB patients to go missing, claims Superintendent

While speaking on the development, Superintendent Dr Lalitkumar Anande said that it was common for tuberculosis patients to escape. “We had filed a missing report then. But it is common for TB patients to go absconding from the hospital,” he claimed. “The toilets are cleaned thrice in a day. Sometimes it is occupied by patients so the cleaner goes away. But patients use those toilets regularly and should have smelt the body. We have issued notices to all staffers on duty in the ward,” Anande further informed.

Coronavirus positive woman found dead inside the toilet

Earlier, an 82-year-old Coronavirus positive patient, who was missing for one week from a government hospital in Jalgaon in Maharashtra, was found dead inside a toilet in the hospital. According to the reports, the elderly woman had tested positive for coronavirus on May 27 and was under treatment since then at Jalgaon Civil Hospital. Later, the octogenarian went missing on June 2. The relatives and authorities began to search for the woman, however, she was not found.

According to Akbar Patel, Senior Inspector at the Zillapeth police station, they found some foul smell emanating from one of the toilets in the hospital. The police found the woman’s body in the hospital toilet eight days after she went missing. ‘We have informed the family accordingly’, SI Patel said. The worried family, in a video message, has urged the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to order a probe into the incident and punish those found negligent or guilty.

Wife of UP police DIG who is member of the SIT formed in relation to Hathras case dies by suicide

OpIndia Staff
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Wife of UP police DIG who is member of the SIT formed in relation to Hathras case dies by suicide

In a shocking incident that took place in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh today, the wife of Deputy Inspector General of Police in Uttar Pradesh police reportedly killed herself by hanging. According to reports, Pushpa Prakash, wife of UP police DIG Chandra Prakash hung herself around 11 o’clock in the morning today in Sushant Golf City area.

36-year old Pushpa Prakash was rushed to Lohia Hospital by some people. However, she was declared dead by the doctors there. Her body has been taken in custody by the police. The reason of her suicide is not yet known. No suicide note work was recovered from the scene.

DIG Prakash is a member of Hathras SIT

DIG Chandra Prakash, who is a 2004-batch IPS officer, is currently posted in Unnao. He is member of the three-member SIT headed by UP Home Secretary Bhgwan Swarup which was constituted in relation to the Hathras case. A 19-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly strangled by four men in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. After her condition worsened, she was shifted to Delhi Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. Prior to that, she had accused the four men of raping her.

Following her death, a lot of political mudslinging took place where politicians flocked at Hathras to score political brownie points. Eventually, a CBI inquiry has been put in place to investigate the crime.

Finance ministry issues guidelines for interest waiver scheme during the lockdown period- Read details

OpIndia Staff
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Finance ministry issues guidelines for interest waiver scheme during the lockdown period- Read details

The union finance ministry has issued the detailed guidelines for the waiver of ‘interest on interest’ for loans that was announced earlier this month. The govt had decided to waive the compound interest on loans upto Rs 2 crore for a period of six months, from March to August.

It was announced that this compound interest waiver will be applicable to all borrowers un the approved categories, regardless of whether the moratorium was availed or not, which was announced by the Reserve Bank of India for the lockdown period.

Now according to the guidelines issued by the ministry, the interest waiver will be funded by the government in the form of ex-gratia payment. According to the “Scheme for grant
of ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six
months to borrowers in specified loan accounts (1.3.2020 to 31.8.2020)” issued by the ministry, the following categories of loans will be eligible for this interest waiver, provided that the outstanding loan amount does not exceed Rs 2 crore.

  1. MSME loans
  2. Education loans
  3. Housing loans
  4. Consumer durable loans
  5. Credit card dues
  6. Automobile loans
  7. Personal loans to professionals
  8. Omsumption loans

The terms and conditions of the scheme include:

The guidelines say that any borrower whose aggregate of all facilities with lending institutions is more than Rs. 2 crore (sanctioned limits or outstanding amount) will not be eligible for the waiver under this scheme.

The loan should not have turned into NPA (non-performing asset) as on 29th February 2020.

The loan must be availed from a banking company, a Public Sector Bank, a Co-operative Bank, a Regional Rural Bank, an All India Financial Institution, a Non-Banking Financial Company or a Housing Finance Company. Loans from Micro Finance Institutions are also eligible, provided it is a are member of a Self-Regulatory Organisation (SRO) recognised by RBI.

This scheme is not linked with the EMI moratorium announced by RBI, the ex-gratia payment under the scheme will be made regardless whether the borrower had availed the moratorium facility or not.

For this payment, the difference between compound interest and simple interest on the loan for the period from 1 March to 31 August will be calculated, and the same amount will be credited to the account of the borrowers. The rate of interest as on 29th February will be considered for this calculation.

The amount will be credited to the accounts of eligible borrowers by 5 November 2020.

The respective lending institutions will credit the difference between simple and compound interests to the accounts of eligible borrowers. After the payments are made, the lending institutions will claim reimbursement from the central government. Such claims will have to be submitted with designated officers or cells at State Bank of India. The govt has directed the SBI to assign designated officers or cells for this purpose. These cells will function as the nodal agency under the scheme.

While calculating the interest, the outstanding loan as on 29/02/2020 will be considered, and any payment after that date will be ignored. This will ensure that the scheme will be uniform for all, regardless of whether the moratorium facility was availed or not.

‘Encounter specialist’ cop facing murder charges and reinstated by Param Bir Singh had joined Shiv Sena

OpIndia Staff
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‘Encounter specialist’ cop facing murder charges and reinstated by Param Bir Singh had joined Shiv Sena

Soon after taking up the post of the Mumbai police commissioner in February this year, Param Bir Singh drew flak for reinstating former ‘encounter specialist’, API Sachin Vaze in the Mumbai police force. API Vaze was suspended from the force over 16 years ago. Vaze’s suspension order was revoked by a review committee, headed by Param Bir Singh.

Vaze, facing murder charges in the 2003 custodial death case of Khwaja Yunus, had been suspended on March 3, 2004. He resigned three years later, in November 2007 after his repeated requests for reinstatement were rejected by the government.

Khwaja Yunus custodial death case

Khwaja Yunus, a 27-year-old software engineer was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch-CID on December 25, 2002, under the now-repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). He was arrested along with three others in connection with a blast that took place on December 2, 2002, in Ghatkopar in Mumbai. Yunus had reportedly gone missing on January 7, 2003. The police had claimed that he had escaped from a police jeep near Lonavala while being taken to Aurangabad for investigation. Yunus’s family had moved the high court, which transferred the case to the state criminal investigation department (CID). The CID, after investigating Yunus’s disappearance, concluded it to be a case of custodial death and booked Vaze and three other officers for murder and destruction of evidence.

After Sachin Vaze was re-inducted in the Mumbai Police in June this year, merely 4 months after Param Bir Singh took up the post of the Mumbai CP, Khwaja Yunus’s mother Asiya Begum had reportedly filed contempt pleas in the Bombay High Court against Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and the then additional director general of police (current principal secretary (special) home department) Amitabh Gupta. She accused Param Bir Singh and Gupta of reinstating the police officer guilty of killing her son while in custody.

Former ‘encounter specialists’ Sachin Vaze and Pradeep Sharma joined Shiv Sena

After his resignation, Vaze had joined Shiv Sena. Another officer Pradeep Sharma, who was also a part of the ‘encounter squad’ with Sachin Vaze, also joined the Shiv Sena later. Sharma was posted at the Anti-Extortion Cell of Thane Police by the then Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Sharma’s career had nosedived in August 2008 after the state government dismissed him from service for his alleged links with the underworld mafia Dawood Ibrahim’s D-company. He, however, redeemed himself on May 7, 2009, when the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) ordered his reinstatement, by stating that his dismissal was unsustainable under the law.

Sharma was once again in the dock when was arrested along 21 others on January 8, 2010, in connection with the fake encounter case of gangster Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiyya. On July 5, 2013, Sharma got a new lease of life, as a Mumbai court acquitted him in in that fake encounter case. He was reinstated in the force in September 2017.

After resigning from the force, Sharma had also reportedly joined Shiv Sena and had unsuccessfully contested the state Assembly elections in 2019 on the Shiv Sena ticket from Nallasopara.

In fact, some reports suggest that the proximity these suspended officers shared with Param Bir Singh and with the Shiv Sena has played an instrumental role in reshaping their almost concluded careers.

Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh has recently been bagging the headline due to a series of his inexplicable actions, especially against the Republic Media Network. People have been accusing him for misusing of state-machinery for personal agenda and record-setting.

But being under the spotlight is nothing new for the 1988-batch IPS officer, one of the last from the 1990s ‘encounter specialists’ era who is still in service. Be it the questions raised by the controversial 2019 “clean chit” to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the high-profile irrigation scam that dates back to the Congress-NCP government’s tenure from 1999-2014 or be it accusations of not taking on the terrorists during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, falsely framing the co-owner of Provogue, Salil Chaturvedi, in a drug case in 2005 or torturing Sadhvi Pragya in custody for ‘Hindu terror bogey’, Param Bir Singh has had an extremely controversial past.

US Presidential elections: YouTube overwhelmed with political ads, sees a shortage of advertising space

OpIndia Staff
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US Presidential elections: YouTube overwhelmed with political ads, sees a shortage of advertising space

In the run-up to the 2020 US Presidential elections, video streaming platform YouTube is under shortage of advertising space, reports Bloomberg.

Political parties have invested massively in their YouTube campaign to lure the voters. However, the video streaming platform is struggling to find slots to put the ads before the right target audience. This is despite Youtube’s capacity to host endless videos on its platform. The situation is worse in ‘critical swing states’, where the shortage of advertising space has caused prices to double. Youtube, which is owned by Google, had earlier seen a fall in its revenue but the election season has made business flourish for the video streaming platform.

Media Director of Lockwood Strategy Lab (Democratic political ad firm), Cat Stern remarked, “There’s a crunch. All political advertisers are buying in the same states, to similar audiences.” She compared the commercial competition to that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “The reserves tend to be gobbled up by well-funded campaigns,” stated Reid Vineis, VP at Majority Strategies (Republican political ad firm).

Fierce competition for ad space on Youtube

The brutal competition on Youtube for political ads, coupled with soaring prices, has forced small campaigners to look for other advertising platforms such as Hulu and Roku Inc. Political ad buyers are exploiting the fact that Youtube viewership has shot up amidst the pandemic. They are also using Youtube’s non-skippable ads to their advantage. Besides, Youtube also sells ads in advance that are placed strategically over the most popular videos.

The increased political ads have prompted a “code yellow” on Google’s engineering staff – an internal label that assigns more urgency to certain projects. YouTube has said that it reviews every political ad more closely to meet its policy standards, in a bid to curb misinformation.

Youtube campaign in critical swing states

Reportedly, the Youtube campaign is even more fierce in States such as Iowa that has historically witnessed tight polling. Political ads are often sold out, which in turn has limited the ad campaigns towards the end of the election cycle. While discussing about the ad space crisis, Flex Point Media (Republican political consultancy) co-founder Tim Cameron stated, “A lot of late money that’s coming on board — it’s difficult to find anywhere to put it.” As per reports, Google has sold over $139 million in political ads in September alone. Contrary to conventional norms of funding political campaigns on TV, Youtube has gained prominence as an advertising medium.

Fact Check: Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana alleges government will provide free COVID-19 vaccines only in Bihar. Read the truth here

OpIndia Staff
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Fact Check: Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana alleges government will provide free COVID-19 vaccines only in Bihar. Read the truth here

In an editorial piece on Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, the party brazenly peddled lies to criticise the BJP for its announcement of providing free vaccine of COVID-19 to the residents of Bihar as one of its promises ahead of the state assembly elections. Hitting out at the BJP, the Saamana editorial alleged that the vaccine will be available only for the residents of Bihar and questioned the central government if the rest of the states in the country are in Pakistan for not receiving the vaccine.

Shiv Sena alleges other states in the country won’t be receiving COVID-19 vaccine

“What exactly is the policy of the BJP? The Prime Minister promised that caste, religion, province, politics would not factor in the vaccine distribution. But now the BJP leaders have assumed a strange role ahead of the Bihar assembly elections. They are offering free vaccine to the residents of Bihar. The citizens in the rest of the states do not live in Pakistan,” Shiv Sena said in its scathing Saamana article while noting that the polls will be the first full-fledged elections in the country amidst the ongoing pandemic.

It further asked if the non-BJP ruled states in the country should ask Russian President Vladimir Putin for securing vaccines for their citizens for COVID-19.

Are other states not going to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as alleged in Saamana?

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday while releasing the BJP manifesto in Bihar for upcoming elections said that the BJP promises free coronavirus vaccines in Bihar, whenever the vaccine is made available. The Union Minister did not explicitly mention that only the residents of Bihar will be eligible for receiving the vaccine if and when it will be released, and certainly did not say that other states won’t get the vaccine.

However, trolls and Congress-supporting ‘online activists’ summoned their fertile imagination to attack the BJP and the Union Minister for the announcement of providing the state residents with a vaccine to one of the most contagious infections without charging a dime for it. Several of them deemed the government’s move of granting free vaccinations to COVID-19 as ‘cruel’. Other detractors sowed confusion by wondering if the vaccine will be made available to other states or not.

Rolling along with the insinuations peddled by internet trolls and journalists harbouring pathological hatred for the BJP, Saamana published an article suggesting that the vaccines won’t be available to other states of the country.

All states will be provided with vaccines and it will be there decision to give free vaccines or charge for it

This myth raging around the vaccine being made available only for Bihar was demolished by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, who issued a clarification about the BJP poll promise after half-truths and distortions started doing the rounds on the social media.

He asserted that vaccination is a state subject and explained that like all other immunisation programmes, the Centre will provide vaccines to states at a nominal rate. This will include BJP-ruled and non-BJP ruled states. Then it is up to the states to charge for vaccines or not. Health is a state subject and should BJP come to power in Bihar, they have promised to make the vaccine free. Similarly, non-BJP ruled states like Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal can choose to either make vaccines free for all or charge its citizens for the same.

In essence, it will be the individual state’s remit to provide the vaccination for free to its citizens or charge an amount for it. Bihar is not getting special treatment from Centre ahead of elections. Centre will give the vaccine, whenever it is developed, to all states and the state governments will decide whether to make it free or charge people for the same.

“Not my intention to be culturally insensitive to Indian community”: Writer of bizarre ‘papadum’ song apologises after it goes viral on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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“Not my intention to be culturally insensitive to Indian community”: Writer of bizarre ‘papadum’ song apologises after it goes viral on Twitter

Internet is full of all kinds of outlandish things that keep going viral every other day. This time it is a bizarre song about the Indian flatbread Papadum or papad that has sent the netizens in a frenzy. The video of the song named ‘papadam’ features an Indian woman and four foreigners singing and dancing to the weird song holding papads in their hands. Take a look at the song here:

The song has triggered negative reactions from people on social media who criticised the song. Social media users have accused the song of being insensitive towards Indian culture, racist, and cultural stereotyping. One of the Twitter users condemned the song saying this was not the representation she wanted.

Apart from the bizarre lyrics of the song that had just one word, ‘papadum’, what drew the attention of people was the Indian lady in the video of the song who was not lip-syncing at all and kept grinning all through the video without blinking her eyes.

People wondered whether she was uncomfortable doing the video or the expressions were deliberate to make her look ‘funny’.

The songwriter later clarified that the Indian was woman was indeed not comfortable singing the song. He said that in the intro of the song, lady brings the papadum and then the they all dance.

</script

The song was apparently created in 2014 by an Australian musician named Anthony Donald Joseph Field who is a member of a children’s music group called the Wiggles.

After the backlash from the people on the song, Field apologised saying that he did not intend to be culturally insensitive to the Indian community or add value to ethnic stereotyping. He said that the song was meant as a celebration.

Radio Mirchi RJ finds space with radical preacher Zakir Naik as she waters down terms like ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’

OpIndia Staff
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Radio Mirchi RJ finds space with radical preacher Zakir Naik as she waters down terms like ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’

A video featuring Radio Mirchi RJ Sayema is doing rounds on the internet in which she was seen normalising anti-Hindu bigotry by legitimising the usage of radical Islamic terms as ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’.

In a video, titled ‘Urdu Ki Paathshala’, the self-proclaimed Urdu expert RJ Sayema explains the ‘real meaning’ of Islamic concepts of ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’. According to Sayema, if one googles the word ‘Kafir’, it would throw up a definition which people are normally aware of. However, as per the ‘Urdu expert’ Sayema, Google picks up the ‘most-used’ definition instead of giving a ‘real’ one.

So, according to Sayema, one should pick up a dictionary to understand the real meaning of the word ‘Kafir’. Sayema, interpreting the definition of Kafir from a dictionary, says the word ‘Kafir’ originates from another word ‘Kufr’, which meant ‘to hide/conceal’. However, Sayema conveniently forgets how the Quran, holy book for Muslims, prescribes severe punishment for ‘Kafirs’.

Sayema continues to claim that, according to Islam, the word ‘Kafir’ meant that the person who tries to hide the religious teachings of ‘God’. “Someone who tries to hide the makers of us and the one who hides the truth is a ‘Kafir’,” says Islamist Sayema as she reads out a poem narrating the ‘true meaning’ of ‘Kafir’.

So, any individual who is a ‘non-believer’ and tries to conceal the teachings of the ‘God’ (including Bhagwan, she mentions) is a ‘Kafir’, says Sayema. It should be remembered that as per the Holy Quran, repeated usage of ‘God’ by Sayema in her videos is nothing but Allah. In fact, anyone who worships an idol of gods or goddesses, is a ‘Kafir’. Thereby, by that logic, all Hindus are ‘Kafirs’.

Jihad means ‘struggle’, says Sayema

Next up, Sayema tries to explain the ‘real meaning’ of another Islamic concept of ‘Jihad’. Citing that the Islamic terrorists have demeaned the term ‘Jihad’, Sayema goes on to claim that not even five per cent of humanity knew the real meaning of the word ‘Jihad’. The Urdu expert Sayema then passionately claims that the word ‘Jihad’ never meant a ‘holy war’. As per Sayema, the word ‘Jihad’ means “to struggle”.

In an attempt to normalise the usage of such inciting words, RJ Sayema goes in length to find ways to explain how the term ‘Jihad’ and “Kafir’ never meant any bad to the ‘non-believers’ or non-Muslims.

RJ Sayema, in her video, kept on claiming that ‘Jihad’ never meant ‘terrorism’ but a ‘struggle’. Interestingly, Sayema never cites the sources where such concepts are defined as such, as claimed by Sayema in her video.

Radio Mirchi RJ Sayema finds space with radical preacher Zakir Naik

Interestingly, these misleading videos are now being shared across Islamic channels on YouTube in an attempt to distort the real meanings of Islamic terms. A YouTube channel – The Muslim Guide, which telecast videos of radical Islamic terror sympathisers such as Zakir Naik, has uploaded RJ Sayema’s video on its channel.

The video was first uploaded by RJ Sayema in ‘Urdu ki Pathshala’ series, a show in which she claims to explain the real meaning of Urdu words. The same was uploaded by The Muslim Guide about five months back on their own channel.

RJ Sayema’s videos part of Islamic propaganda on Youtube

In fact, the connotations of ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’ in Islam is completely different from the understanding of RJ Sayema. If one carefully analyses the Islamic scriptures, the usage of ‘Kafir’ can be found in multiple instances.

What is ‘Kafir’ and ‘Jihad’ then ?

According to New Age Islam, an Islamic reformist organization, Quran says, “The word Kufr means to reject faith in God, God’s signs, the prophets, the Holy Scriptures and the Day of Judgment. One who does not have faith in the unity of God and does not have faith also in other sacred signs of God is a Kafir”.

Further, the Quran says, “One who rejects faith in God or does not have faith in God is called a Kafir. A Kafir may also be an idolater who worships gods and goddesses”.

According to the Quran, they are those who have gone astray. There are about 350 verses about Kufr and Kafir. In the majority of the verses, Kufr is non-belief in one God and prophets of God and in Holy Scriptures. Kufr is also the worship of idols and gods and goddesses other than God. In some of the verses, the word Kufr and its variations are used to mean ingratitude for the favours of God. It is natural that if someone does not recognize God or does not have faith in God, he will also not acknowledge God’s favours but will attribute the favours to his gods and goddesses.”

The words Kufr and Kafirun and Kafirin and its other variations are used for non-belief in Allah, the Holy Scriptures of Islam, its messengers and the Day of Judgment. These are variations of the word Kafir. 

We had earlier listed numerous quotes from the Quran so that readers can understand what the word Kafir and its variations mean. Here is a list of verses cited by various Islamic scriptures which defines and helps to understand the real meaning of ‘Kafir’.

In fact, RJ Sayema herself agrees to the point all non-Muslims are ‘Kafirs’ when she points out that anybody who is not willing to accept the teaching of ‘God’ (Allah), he/she is termed as a non-believer or a ‘Kafir’.

With Islam being a ‘monotheistic’ religion, the concepts of ‘Tawheed’ clearly explains how one is a ‘Kafir’ or ‘infidel’ if he does not believe in the concepts of one God ‘Allah’. According to the concept of ‘Tawheed’ in Islam, there is no ‘God’ other than Allah and people who do not accept the concept of ‘Tawheed’ are essentially non-believers or ‘Kafirs’. Hence, all non-Muslims are ‘Kafirs’, as per Islamic principles.

The other term ‘Jihad’ appears in the Quran in different contexts and can include various forms of ‘struggle’, including ‘armed struggle’. Jihad or Islamic holy war is a fundamental foreign policy concept in Islam. In the specific context of Islamic law, ‘Jihad’ generally signifies an armed struggle against ‘non-believers’, meaning ‘Kafirs’.

The Islamic concepts of ‘Jihad’ and “Kafir’, which is being normalised by the likes of Sayema, has been used by several radical Islamic terror groups to wage a ‘holy war’ against the ‘non-believers’. Just a few months ago, it was very much evident in the country when Islamists had descended on the streets of the country during the anti-CAA protestors and had shouted slogans like ‘Kafiron se Azadi‘ (freedom from Kafirs).

If Sayema believes that ‘Kafir’ had no negative connotations, she should also perhaps explain to her viewers on why were anti-CAA protesters were seeking independence from these ‘Kafirs’ and what sort of ‘Azadi’, these mobs led by Muslims wanted ‘freedom’ from so-called ‘Kafirs’.

RJ Sayema’s history of normalising hatred

RJ Sayema, an ardent Aam Aadmi Party supporter, was in the middle of a controversy last year after she had incited a mob to protest outside the Delhi Police headquarters. She incited people on Twitter to gather in large mobs outside the Delhi Police headquarters, which subsequently turned into violent protests.

RJ Sayema’s tweet inciting mob during anti-CAA protests

Delhi Police had to resort to lathi-charge after protestors at Jamia Nagar had set buses on fire and raised communal slogans. She later clarified that the mob needs to gather outside the old headquarters of Delhi Police at the ITO.

Recently, the Delhi High Court had issued a notice to the Union government in connection with the impleadment application seeking FIR against rabble-rousers like RJ Sayema, Swara Bhaskar under appropriate IPCs & IT Act and also issued directions to NIA to conduct an investigation into their alleged role in the anti-Hindu riots that was unleashed by Muslim mobs in Delhi in February.

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