Within an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of free food grains for poor till November, given the surging coronavirus situation in the country, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in what appears as an attempt to outsmart PM Modi, declared that she will provide free ration for another 12 months, till June 2021.
I am extending free ration for poor till June 2021: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee pic.twitter.com/voJlqfwUuc
PM Modi announces free ration to poor till November 2020
Earlier today, PM Modi, in his address to the nation, announced that the centre’s key central scheme—PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) will be extended till the end of November in which free ration will be provided to the poor. The scheme is set to cost Rs 90,000 crore to the government, PM Modi said.
While highlighting the work done by the central government to alleviate the concerns of poor adversely affected by the coronavirus induced lockdown, PM Modi said that the scheme to provide free ration to the poor will continue for an additional five months, adding that 80 crore people will get the benefit from the scheme.
Eye on the West Bengal state elections?
It is worth noting that the measure by the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal comes at a time when she is facing tough headwinds from the BJP in the state, which was also reflected in the General elections held in 2019 where the saffron party won an unprecedented 18 Lok Sabha seats. The state of West Bengal is scheduled to go to polls in 2021 and it is all but impossible to view Mamata Banerjee’s push for pro-poor policies independent of the forthcoming state elections in 2021.
Dubai is again back in the news but for the wrong reasons. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Dubai is staring at a recession with experts forecasting Dubai’s economy is going to shrink by 5.5% in 2020. Dubai faces about $10 billion in debt maturities this year with revenues expected to drop in line with the pattern of the 2009 crisis. Bank of America estimates that Dubai’s fiscal deficit could widen to $4.4 billion, or 3.9% of GDP, and could be as high as 5.3% if interest payments on a loan from Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest lender, are included.
The pandemic and the associated lockdowns have hit Dubai’s economy which relies majorly on retail sales, travel, tourism and real estate sectors really hard. One survey expected, 70 per cent of Dubai companies to go out of business within six months due to the pandemic. Amid the current uncertainty, businesses in UAE’s seven emirates, as elsewhere across the world, are slashing salaries, putting employees on unpaid leave, and reducing staffing levels and Dubai is no exception.
The state-owned airline, Emirates recently fired 600 pilots including a few Indians with what is being seen as one of the largest layoffs in the aviation industry. The airline has also announced 50 per cent salary cuts for employees in all grades 4 and above until September. Dubai’s property developers are cutting salaries by as much as half as the pandemic hits Dubai’s property developers and mall owners. Joyalukkas, is closing its “weak performing” outlets, while Malabar Gold & Diamonds, with more than 100 outlets in the GCC states, has decided to delay opening all its stores until there is clarity on rent reductions from its landlords. Similarly, it’s likely more retail stores will face closure leading to job losses.
The topic of these articles though is actually not on the short term pain faced by Dubai. Almost any nation today is facing the same acute economic crisis due to the pandemic and Dubai is definitely no exception. You can pick any country in Europe, the Americas or the Asia Pacific and you will be to gather enough headlines about business closures, job losses, defaults and recessions. The point that I want to stress is the long term decline of Dubai and its slow death. Let me elucidate the same
Setting the context for the decline of long term decline of Dubai, one has to understand the most critical factor and that is oil and the petrodollar economy associated with it.
Decline in Oil prices: Coronavirus just laid bare the real strength of petrodollar economies. It has heralded the long term decline of Oil and the purchasing power associated with it. The focus on renewable energy and electrification of transportation has reached a tipping point. Read what the latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance had to say about this – There are over 500,000 e-buses, ~400,000 electric delivery vans and trucks, and 184 million electric mopeds, scooters and motorcycles on the road globally today as we speak. EVs’ share of global car sales is around 3 per cent in 2020 and is expected to rise to 10 per cent by 2025 and 58 per cent in 2040.
Some 30 per cent of global 2- and 3-wheeler sales & 20 per cent of the existing fleet are already electric. Sales of internal combustion passenger vehicles peaked in 2017 and are in permanent decline. EVs across all segments are already displacing 1 Mn barrels of oil demand per day. Oil demand from passenger cars is hit hard by Covid-19 and will never recover to 2019 levels. But growth in commercial vehicles keeps overall road oil demand growing until 2031 when it starts to decline. With long term structural decline in demand, the oil will see more periods of a low price point than high price points.
Global share and oil demand
Of course, the counter-argument that is thrown around is that Dubai is the least dependent on Oil revenues among gulf economies and hence the long term structural decline in oil prices shouldn’t impact it. Dubai’s diversification is going to ensure that not only does it survive but also prosper in this new world bereft of petrodollars. I do agree that Dubai on the surface looks well-diversified and that Dubai has a negligible contribution from direct production and export of oil.
However one tends to miss the forest for the trees and while Dubai does truly have a well-diversified economy across multiple non-petroleum sectors, it, however, is intrinsically linked to the larger oil-based economies powering the Gulf countries and its neighbours. Dubai has negligible energy resources, but its role as a petrodollar recycling hub means its fortunes have long swung in tandem with its larger oil-exporting neighbours. Let me elaborate on how that’s the case, today the major sectors contributing to Dubai’s economy are listed below
The three major pillars supporting Dubai’s economy are. – Trade (physical and financial), Retail (Wholesale incl) and Real Estate (Construction incl).
Let us start with trade, Foreign trade is a very important contributor to the economy. Foreign trade value is nearly 321 per cent the value of the GDP. Dubai is an important financial and trading hub for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Dubai imports commodities, manufactured goods and re-exports the same to these markets. However, Dubai’s role as a key trading hub is built on weak foundations. Re-export of imported items account for nearly 75 per cent by value of total Dubai’s exports with only 25 per cent of Dubai’s export-driven by domestic production. Hence the trade is not powered by a strong domestic industry, unlike China or Singapore. Domestic exports account for nearly 50 per cent in the case of Singapore.
Singapore is a manufacturing powerhouse with 20 per cent contribution to overall GDP as compared to 10 per cent for Dubai. Additionally, an even more important point to note is that other the Middle East and Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman account for nearly 45 per cent of Dubai’s exports. Even though Dubai itself is not directly dependent on oil, its major trading partners accounting to nearly half of its trade are heavily dependent on the fortunes of oil. Hence long term decline in purchasing power of oil economies means a direct hit on the trade and economies of Dubai’s partner countries.
The decline in trade will impact in more than one ways as loss of significant share results in loss of scale which originally helped Dubai achieve competitive advantage to emerge as the trading hub of choice. Re-export to South Asia will eventually move to Mumbai or Gujarat with the ongoing up-gradation of infrastructure and East African ports can one day replace Dubai’s as the key trading hub for Africa.
This also reflects in services. Take for example the Tourism industry, nearly 27 per cent (1 in 4) tourists coming to Dubai are from GCC or the Middle East and Arab countries. The drop in oil price will reduce the disposable income available with an average Saudi or Kuwaiti reducing their spend in Dubai. This will have a chain reaction with impact retail sales, hospitality and allied sectors. With most Middle Eastern oil-producing nations drawing down their reserves due to low oil prices, there will be less scope for investments and recycling of petrodollars in the days to come. This will impact the financial, consulting and export of other services to the wider Middle East. Hence decline in oil prices will not only result in lower trade of physical goods but also in lesser trade in services.
The next important sector we will look at is the real estate and construction sector. Real estate and construction collectively accounts for 13-15 per cent of GDP. But the real estate sector in Dubai is in a big mess. It all started with the tremendous growth of Dubai’s real estate market leading up to 2014 correlate with the spike in oil prices. That spike created a glut in supply which is yet to be cleared after 6 years. And with Pandemic, the supply overhang might never get fully cleared in the coming years. The real fact is that Dubai’s real estate market is not purely driven by domestic considerations.
Given the lax or lightly regulated nature of Dubai, a significant share of money from outside investors is parked in Dubai’s real estate. Dubai is an attractive destination for parking of illicit, corrupt or black money. Domestic investment in real estate by Emiratis account for only 20 per cent of total investment.
To elaborate on the impact of illicit money flow into Dubai’s real estate, let us look at India which accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all investments into Dubai real estate. While there are no accurate estimates on how much of the above is illicit or black money. The bulk of purchases are made by wealthy Indians to escape political strife and taxes. According to industry sources in Dubai, close to $100 million moves from India to Dubai every single day!
This money uses the ‘hawala’ route, an informal money transfer system, where rupee gets converted to a dollar at a premium to market exchange rates. In the process, Indian black money is invested in Dubai property. And since Dubai charges no tax on rental income or any capital gains for the purchased property, cash-rich Indians know their investments are safe. The modus operandi is also used by money launderers, smugglers, underworld gangsters and drug traffickers to make payments to propel working for them. Take for example, recently in Jan 2020, ED conducted searches at the residence of a former chief engineer of BMC. ED, in a statement, said incriminating documents with regard to illegal acquisition of a property held in Dubai was recovered during the search operation. The property was in Dubai at ‘Park Island, Bonaire Marsa, Dubai’ measuring 89 square metres purchased for Rs 70 lakh in 2012.
This flow of illicit money into Dubai’s real estate is one of the major causes for the subsequent crisis that we are seeing today. The emirate’s decision in 2002 to allow foreign ownership of so-called “freehold” properties drew a rapid construction boom that attracted developers from across the world. Money quickly flowed in from all corners of the world from Pakistan, India to Mexico and Russia. This flow of money resulted in real estate boom where people could easily flip luxury properties for a quick profit. Speculators made a fast buck by selling off-plan properties for a large profit within weeks of their initial investment – with no intention of ever living there. This caught the attention of the Dubai government who wanted to get into the action.
The result was government today controls some of the emirate’s biggest developers. The state-linked firms, created to speed up construction, used cheap and often free land to compete for buyers. Some paid upfront without waiting for homes to be completed by depositing only 5 per cent of the value. And excessively optimistic projections of growth in Dubai’s population, which consists largely of foreigners, only fed the building boom leading up to 2014 when the bubble finally burst with the collapse of oil prices. Much of today’s property glut is of the government’s own making with land sales remaining an important source of state revenue.
This chronic oversupply resulted in the reversal in property value and rental yields in Dubai. Dubai’s property value has seen consistent decline in prices since 2014. Residential property prices have fallen 16 per cent from 2014 to 2018. Rental yields have followed suite dropping similarly by 16 per cent in the same period. The falling prices makes Dubai real estate a bad investment destination today irrespective of advantages with regards to hiding from regulators and tax authorities.
And the Real Estate prices and rental yield will continue to drop for two reasons. Supply overhang – With a massive guaranteed oversupply of properties and top developers taking losses in 2019, S&P Global ratings said for 2020, it could see another a potential decline of 5 to 10 percent. And this estimate was before Covid-19 stuck the world. The market is already struggling, and 2020 is expected to be a year of the very high delivery cycle. There are still launches with small deposits and long-term payment plans. The oversupply situation is so bad that Dubai is even considering committee to control Dubai’s housing supply.
This brings to the next important factor for the decline of the real estate sector and that is ex-pat population. In fact, one can argue that Dubai is highly dependent on one commodity which defines its success and that is the ex-pat population. Dubai is one of those few countries along with its fellow GCC members where ex-pats outnumber locals. Only 15 per cent of Dubai’s population is local Emirati with ex-pats accounting for 85 per cent of the total population. It is estimated that an average ex-pat contributes to 30,000 to 40,000 USD to Dubai’s economy. At an estimated population of 2.8 Million, Ex-pats are estimated to contribute 85 Billion dollars accounting for nearly 20 per cent of Dubai’s economy. However, the continued slump post-oil crash in 2014 and now the coronavirus pandemic is resulting in a drastic outflow of the ex-pat population.
Oxford Economics estimates the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, could lose 900,000 jobs — eye-watering for a country of 9.6 million — and see 10 per cent of its residents uproot. The coronavirus is the trigger that is going to start an ex-pat exodus resulting in a death spiral. As ex-pats move out, sectors that relied on those professionals and their families for business such as restaurants, luxury goods, schools and clinics will all suffer. This will create more job losses in these sectors which will trigger further exodus resulting in a self-fulfilling cycle.
Ex-pat exodus cycle
With no formal route to citizenship or permanent residency and no benefits to bridge the hard times, it’s a precarious existence for most ex-pats. Education is emerging as a deciding factor for families, Dubai has the region’s highest median school cost last year at $11,402, according to the International Schools Database. With falling revenues, the Dubai government might decide to introduce Income tax, destroying the main attractive factor for wealthy and educate the ex-pat population.
Hence more and more ex-pats are reconsidering their choice to stay in Dubai. And as more ex-pats decide to leave, more business will be impacted by the reduced spending which will result in more job losses triggering the next wave of the exodus. This will put sharp pressure on Dubai’s real estate sector. Already suffering from the overhang of excess supply and with new property launches planned till 2022, the ex-pat exodus will trigger a further sharp fall in real estate prices and rental yields. With property prices already seeing up to 25 per cent reduction in prices, any further drop would exacerbate the capital loss for the investors. The continued fall in property prices will deter any investors including those with ill-gotten wealth who will now think twice before in investing in Dubai.
The final important sector that we will look at is the wholesale and retail trade. It is the largest employer accounting to nearly 20 per cent of the total employees. The drivers of demand in the wholesale and retail trade are mainly domestic population growth and tourism. I have already elaborated how low oil prices are going to impact Tourism. Additionally, the main attractiveness of Dubai is the presence of major brands which results in tourists purchasing items not available in domestic markets.
However as Brands continue to go global, the retail attractiveness for tourists will decline. Add to this the fact, globally retail is moving online and Dubai cannot be immune to such changes, the retail industry will definitely be impacted. E-commerce already accounts for nearly 10 per cent of retail sales in Dubai in 2018. This will put further pressure on the offline retail industry. On top of all of these is the ex-pat exodus elaborated previously which will bear immense damage to this sector. With ex-pats accounting for 85 per cent of the population, any drop in the ex-pat population will have a direct and proportional impact on retail sales. So while retail and wholesale sector accounts for the largest share of GDP (25 per cent), they are the most sensitive to global macroeconomic factors.
Thus Dubai’s economy while seemingly diversified from the vagaries of oil production is actually built on weak foundations and indirectly rely on two commodities – Petrodollars via spending by other gulf countries and ex-pat population. These trends were well on their way even before Covid-19 stuck Dubai. This FT article illustrates some of the above problems that Dubai was already facing in 2019 much before Covid-19 pandemic appeared on the scene. From clothing to cars, retailers saw sales slump by 50 per cent since the slowdown began with the collapse in oil prices in 2014. Hoteliers were slashing room rates as tourism growth was slowing, hampered by the strong dollar-linked currency and a surfeit of new rooms.
Restaurants were shutting their doors as wealthy expatriates were replaced by less experienced ones, who were being paid less and were saving more because of job insecurity. PepsiCo had made redundancies at its Dubai headquarters and moved about 30 per cent of roles into larger markets such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The growth in tourist numbers had slowed since 2017, despite waves of Chinese and Russian nationals arriving, falling short of the relentless pace of hotel construction. So Covid-19 pandemic is not the trigger of the long term crisis Dubai is facing but a catalyst expediting the pace of its decline.
So are we going to see Dubai’s death in 2020, is this the end of it. The answer is no, while the above factors are going to impact Dubai, some of these take a longer-term to play out. It will take another decade or so for Dubai to see the full implications of these factors. Additionally, the above scenario doesn’t take into account any black swan geopolitical events such as the potential crisis in Oman and chaos associated with it or a new Saudi – Iran war with Dubai being one of the centres of such hostilities.
Any such black swan event will expedite the above decline triggering a bigger exodus and further collapse of its economy. The Best case scenario for Dubai today is its rulers take continued measures to slow down the rate of decline and provide a smooth landing. Dubai and all its glitz and glamour with its towering skyscrapers and island villas will disappear into the sunset just like the glitzy gold rush towns of the previous century.
Not all ideas come to fruition but given appropriate stimuli, the political, financial, and media support, there is a high probability of some ideas becoming a reality. Sharia law in Minneapolis- is it just an idea and why? It is because, Minneapolis experienced the tragic death of George Floyd, a death which was avoidable, unwarranted, and undoubtedly a sign of racial prejudice by a White policeman against a Black man.
While the prejudice has been part of us as human beings for time immemorial, by the privileged toward underprivileged, Floyd’s death led to climatic conditions with the unprecedented and sinister idea as dire as the city governed under Sharia law.
What is troubling is how the tragedy associated with Floyd’s death is being politicized as (a) a case of police brutality, which it is, (b) a call for disbanding and/or defunding the police department but to what end, and (c) the revival and sustained movement of “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” as we approach Presidential elections in the U.S.
The intent of this write up is to further analyze the ill-gotten idea by the opportunists to govern Minnesota under Sharia law. Could it be a microcosm of Islamization around the globe and a threat to other religions that have otherwise co-existed for centuries?
Following Floyd’s death, the street protests, arson, and looting for weeks in Minneapolis and the cities around the world, shook the human conscience to the core. This included the leadership in Minneapolis city council, who, on June 7, pledged to “disband” the city’s police department and replace it with a new system of public safety. A resolution was passed with a veto-proof majority to “dismantle” and “abolish” the embattled police agency responsible for Floyd’s death.
Ever since the debate and discussions have followed about what do disband, dismantle, defund, and abolish mean; all added to the mix? Are these synonyms? The Mayor of Minneapolis is in favor of a long-overdue major overhaul of the police department but not let it disappear and risk public safety. The city council President herself appears conflicted although she led the way. I characterize the current stalemate as a state of confusion among the citizens and city leadership.
While that cloud of confusion hangs over Minneapolis, the headline, “Antifa and Muslim Groups Plan to ‘Police Minneapolis Under Muslim Rule’” heightens the cause of concern. It matters because a lawmaker raised the issue and asserted that Antifa and Muslim organizations plan to “police Minneapolis under Muslim rule.” Reportedly, the residents of Somali descent in Minneapolis in 2016 verbalized that they preferred Sharia law over American laws. I live in this community but had never known or heard that anyone would have such a preference. As an immigrant myself, I embraced the U.S. as the land of opportunity with the freedom of expression and protection under the law.
The article by Robert Spencer, a noted author (21 books) and expert on Jihad Watchgoes on to suggest that the Sharia patrols have been in Germany, Britain, and even New York City, where the Muslim Community Patrol (MCP) is decked out in uniforms that strongly resemble New York Police Department (NYPD) uniforms. The MCP drives cars carefully designed to look like NYPD cars, to enforce “fundamentals of the Sharia.”
Should this ill-gotten idea gain further momentum in Minneapolis, there is no telling where it goes and how fast it spreads like the wildfire. The political winds during the months leading to the Presidential elections may add fuel to this fire beyond Minneapolis and reach global destinations due to our interconnectedness on social media and the Internet.
I had hardly ever heard of Antifa nor cared about it prior to Trump’s tweet to declare, “ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” during the protests in Minneapolis. Since then, Antifa has unexpectedly become headline narrative with possible real-world consequences. First, what is Antifa? By all accounts, it is not an organization but a loosely structured group of likeminded people with antifascist (Antifa in short) ideology.
Arguably, the Minneapolis protests and similar protests elsewhere may have been incited and/or aided by Antifa believers but there is no documented evidence yet. It is important to underscore a recent Washington Post report according to which 437 articles, posted between May 25 and June 4, featured the term “antifa” using “organization” or “movement” interchangeably, and using the vague term “group” most often.
Furthermore, “Often, the articles described antifa as rioters, criminals, terrorists, and the like; implying that if antifa members are rioters, then acts of rioting might also make you antifa.” The Black Lives Matter movement was mentioned alongside antifa or presented as also involved in violent actions.
Recently, Trump has not hesitated to accuse BLM leader guilty of “treason,” a very serious charge indeed. Trump, as the President, perhaps knows something about Antifa and BLM we don’t but it is significant to cause an alarm about Antifa as an ideology.
Equally significant is the association of certain influential persons mentioned in the report, “The term antifa was also used to characterize specific individuals like Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general who criminally charged the four police officers involved in George Floyd’s killing; George Soros, the financier, and philanthropist often demonized by the right-wing; left-leaning Democratic politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.); as well as actors and media personalities or Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whose company recently began flagging some of the president’s tweets as false or inciting violence.” The U.S. Attorney General Barr, on the contrary, blamed the Antifa group for inciting violence and sowing discord which is still under investigation.
No matter what Antifa stands for, it has gained unprecedented notoriety to have the potential for real-world consequences. The alleged association with elite politicians, financiers, and media leaders provides Antifa their eyes, ears, and mouth (advocacy) as well as the resources and power of media to practice and promote the ideology unabated with no geographical boundaries.
What must be feared most is the perceived or real association between the militant Muslim faithful and Antifa believers. Why? There have been numerous terrorist activities that were linked to Muslim Jihadis, Mujahidin, ISIS, or similar groups operating in an Islamic country or allegedly receiving financial backing from those countries.
The most gruesome example of terrorism is the 9-11 in New York City, funded and masterminded by Bin Laden and executed by the nationals of Saudi Arabia. How ironic it is that Pakistan continued to accept the U.S. funds to help U.S. hunt Bin Laden while hiding him in Pakistan for many years? Is not it an extreme example of the United States rewarding a perpetrator with no consequences even after Bin Laden’s death?
The Washington Post research directly describes antifa as a terrorist entity or explicitly agreed with Trump’s tweet. Most often, the right-wing websites mention antifa’s “violence;” usually accusing antifa of violently destroying property, rioting or looting (perhaps Minneapolis is an example), or less often attacking “police” or “journalists.” Often, when mentioning antifa’s “violence,” these sites accused antifa of “hijacking” or exploiting protests after traveling across state lines.
Extrapolating the travel from across state-lines to across countries, the brotherhood between Muslim jihadis and Antifa believers is a real threat to non-Muslim nations and societies. For example, India with the Hindu majority was occupied by Muslim rulers over many centuries. They forcibly converted Hindus to the Muslim faith and committed heinous atrocities such as sexual exploitation of Hindu girls and women, demolition of Hindu temples and building mosques there, job discrimination against Hindus, etc.
That religious acrimony has never stopped even after the partition of India with an exclusive Muslim nation (Pakistan). Unfortunately, India has witnessed constant threats by Muslim militants both within and beyond who have so much accumulated hatred to seek the annihilation of Hinduism and openly labeling Hindus as “Kafirs,” the common insulting term for all non‐ Muslims.
There are many radical Muslims around everywhere who, if given the power, would have no hesitation forcing non-Muslim to accept conversion to Islam and become the believers. It was not too long ago that the European countries graciously accepted Muslim refugees and they are now being threatened by Sharia law at the peril of their century’s old faith and traditions.
It is ironic that Floyd’s tragic death occurred in Minneapolis making the city a hotbed for the violence-ridden protests which otherwise has been known for Minnesota Nice. Did the city deserve such notoriety? Today, the city council leadership is discussing police department reforms, the right thing to do. But the idea of police enforcing Sharia law is frightening which is coming from a lawmaker who should know more than the average citizen.
I was dumbfounded that the select city residents, welcomed by Minnesotans not too long ago, preferred Sharia law. I have seen the images of live protests and feel threatened not knowing if Antifa was/continues to be active in any part of local protests and politics. I wonder if the choice of Sharia law among Minnesotans has been further investigated and questions asked why? How deep-rooted is the influence of the Antifa group and/or ideology in this community and beyond? How well Minnesota and global politicians, policymakers, and people know about Antifa and the conspiracy of Sharia law and agree with the research offered by the Washington Post?
As difficult as it is to disregard the politics of Left versus Right, we must be wary of Sharia law in Minneapolis, the United States, and all other non-Muslim nations and communities. While I attempted to connect a few dots, I remain baffled and confused at best with the idea of an American city under Sharia law. However, remaining silent, not trying to get familiar with Antifa, short for antifascists, and not fighting Sharia ideology head-on are not the options for any responsible citizen globally.
Note for Readers: The use of “antifa” is the choice of the author of the Washington Post article which I did not change but I used Antifa as a noun.
It is rightly said “old habits die hard”. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, was once again seen frothing at India’s Jammu and Kashmir domicile law. While members of Gorkha community, Valmiki Samaj and West Pakistan refugees feel that the domicile certificate has restored their dignity and honour, Imran Khan, probably taking a cue from our Indian liberals and Kashmir centric parties, expressed panic and concern over the “change in the demography structure”.
Taking to Twitter the Pakistani PM claimed that the domicile certificate issued in the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir is ‘illegal’ and ‘in violation of UNSC resolutions & international law’.
I have approached UN Secretary General and am reaching out to other world leaders. India must be stopped from this unacceptable path that further usurps the legal & internationally guaranteed rights of the Kashmiri people & seriously imperils peace and security in South Asia.
Khan claimed that he has written to the UN Secretary General and will also reach out to world leaders to ‘stop India’ from the ‘unacceptable path’. A friendly reminder: the world leaders have stood by India and even during abrogation of Article 370 they refused to comment on the internal matter of India. Even UN snubbed Pakistan saying Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
Imran Khan started his nonsensical rants on Twitter comes days after the Kashmiri separatists and ‘liberals’ in India expressed their fear and anger against the domicile certificates.
Soon after it was reported that almost 25,000 people, including people from Dalit and Gorkha community, have been provided domicile certificates of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) along with the Pakistani-sponsored Hurriyat Conference on Friday condemned the issuance of domicile certificates.
They claimed that issuance of domicile certificates to non-locals is the first major step towards changing the demography of the Muslim-majority region. They also accused the RSS of hatching the conspiracy of trying to change the demography of Muslim-majority state. The PDP alleged that the Modi government was attempting to change the J&K’s Muslim majority character, target its unique identity and facilitate loot of its resources.
Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who leads the Pakistan-sponsored Hurriyat conference said that while initiating the implementation of a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir, the government is simultaneously exploiting its natural wealth and resources and rendering local people jobless, taking advantage of the situation as people are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse effects on their daily lives and livelihood.
Moreover, Sr. Advocate of Supreme Court, Prof. Bhim Singh and his political outfit party, National Panthers Party on Monday strongly condemned the issuance of Domicile Certificate to outsiders in Jammu and Kashmir and urged the President of India, Ramnath Kovind to immediately intervene into the matter in order to save the history, integrity and the fundamental rights of Permanent Residents of the state.
Shekhar Gupta and ThePrint joins the bandwagon
Besides, the so-called liberals also took to Twitter to express thier displeasure with Modi government’s decision to issue domicile certificates to non-locals in Jammu and Kashmir.
As expected the ‘liberal-secular journalist’ Shekhar Gupta, was also quick to join the bandwagon. Sharing an article from his leftist propaganda portal ThePrint, Shekhar Gupta insinuated that the domicile certificate issued to an IAS officer Navin Kumar Choudhary, a senior J&K-cadre officer from Bihar who has been posted in the region since the 1990s has triggered panic amongst the Kashmiris who now fear a demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shekhar Gupta’s tweet on ‘fear of demographic change’
The fears for ‘change in demography’ have been sown long back. Congress mouthpiece National Herald in an article in April had claimed that the issuance of domicile would be an attempt to ‘do a Palestine’ in the Union Territory. It likened settlement of Indian citizens within Indian boundaries as to Jewish settlement by Israel. “There is little doubt that the BJP will like to aggressively resume the implementation of its Hindutva agenda once the menace from Coronavirus subsides,” The Congress mouthpiece had claimed.
Similarly, leftist propaganda website The Wire in an article in May had also drawn parallels between India and Israel. The Wire had also indulged in fearmongering that if domicile certificates are issued to non-Kashmiri people, the Kashmiris may be rendered shelterless themselves. “All these initiatives have sparked fears of demographic change, militarised settlements, dispossession and alienation of land in Kashmir,” The Wire claimed.
Such fears were picked up by other international media outlets and shared by Indians who like to identify themselves as ‘liberals’.
And now, taking cue from the Indian ‘liberals’, Pakistan, too, has started parroting the same.
Meanwhile, over 30,000 people have till now received domicile certificates online in Jammu and Kashmir after the Indian government changed laws to grant residency to different categories of non-residents in the Union territory. As per the new domicile law, non-permanent residents who have residency proof of at least 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir are entitled to get domicile certificates.
The Mumbai police have deployed additional forces outside the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel at Colaba and Taj Lands End at Bandra (West) in South Mumbai following a threat call from Karachi. The caller identified himself as an operative of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Reportedly, two separate calls were made to the hotels at the moment after four security personnel of Pakistan Stock exchange in Karachi was attacked by the BLA militants. The call was made around 12.30 am on Tuesday.
Security tightened outside Taj Hotel & nearby areas after a threat call was received yesterday from Karachi, Pakistan to blow up the hotel with bombs: Mumbai Police pic.twitter.com/mu5Uf6qzCf
A Mumbai police official revealed that the hotel authorities received the threat calls and the security has been intensified at the respective locations. Quick Reaction Teams(QRT), counter-terrorism units have been deployed at the hotels.
The Police have stated that the first threat call was made at 12:30 am on Tuesday to the famous Taj Hotel at Colaba and was attended by an employee of the hotel. The caller threatened to blow up the hotel in ’26 November 2008 style’ in which 9 terrorists had attacked the Taj hotel and the struggle had gone on for over 60 hours.
Two separate threat calls were made
A similar call was made later to the Taj Lands End in Bandra west. Reportedly, both the calls were made from the single number which is being investigated by the cyber cell.
Meanwhile, both luxury hotels are observing a shut down due to novel coronavirus pandemic. A tight security cover has been provided to both hotels following the call, said the Mumbai police official.
Mumbai police have laid vigilance across the major spots of Mumbai and patrolling across the city to chase down any suspicious activity following the threat calls.
The First Amendment in the United States of America protects constitutionally the right to freedom of speech and expression of its citizens. Under no circumstances can governments in the United States prosecute an individual for an opinion. Ironically, the First Amendment in India had exactly the polar opposite effect. It was brought in to curb the free speech rights of its citizens.
The first Prime Minister of India, who is again ironically hailed as a beacon of liberalism, was insistent on curbing the freedom of the press. According to a report published by The New York Times on the 17th of May, 1951, Nehru was steadfast in his commitment towards curbing free speech.
Nehru claimed that the First Amendment was necessitated by the “vulgarity, indecency and falsehood” that the press was supposedly indulging in. In his view, it was, therefore, necessary to empower the State to crack down on newspapers to ensure that the “main purposes of the Constitution are not defeated”.
Source: The New York Times
Jawaharlal Nehru said, “It has become a matter of the deepest distress to me to see the way in which the less responsible news sheets are being conducted… not injuring me on this House much, but poisoning the minds of the younger generation and degrading their mental integrity and moral standards.”
“It is not for me a political problem but a moral problem,” Nehru said before opining that it had become “impossible to distinguish what is true and what is false.” Here we see the Indian Prime Minister anointing himself as the moral arbiter of the country. Of course, the problem for him was entirely political as he and his party were coming under intense criticism but since it would not be feasible to curb free speech rights of citizens on the basis of his personal predicament, he externalised the issue and presented it as a grave moral crisis.
It is known that at the time the Prime Minister himself and his coterie of ministers were facing intense criticism from the media as well as his political opponents in the form of both communists and the Hindu Mahasabha. Therefore, he decided to use the state machinery to crackdown on his political opponents in order to ensure that his power remains unchallenged.
Stalwarts such as Shyama Prasad Mookerjee said that nothing had occurred thus far that justified the curbing of the freedom of the press. But Jawaharlal Nehru would have none of it. He proceeded with his measures and ensured the enactment of the amendment of the First Amendment that would severely restrict the freedom of the press.
The Indian Government lists in its statement of object and reasons section regarding the enactment of the amendment, “The citizen’s right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by article 19(1)(a) has been held by some courts to be so comprehensive as not to render a person culpable even if he advocates murder and other crimes of violence. In other countries with written constitutions, freedom of speech and of the press is not regarded as debarring the State from punishing or preventing abuse of this freedom. The citizen’s right to practise any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business conferred by article 19(1)(g) is subject to reasonable restrictions which the laws of the State may impose “in the interests of general public”.”
Source: Indian Government
The First Amendment with regards to the freedom of speech and expression of an individual “imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”
The enactment of the First Amendment, predictably, led to the persecution of those critical of Jawaharlal Nehru. Poet and lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested and spent a year in prison for a poem that was critical of the first Prime Minister of India. He also allegedly got a Timjes of India column discontinued because it was too critical of him.
Since then, the Congress party has regularly curbed the freedom of speech and expression of citizens and the press in order to maintain its hegemonic control over India. The most notable of it was, of course, the Emergency of 1975 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, however, there have been numerous other occasion on which the party has arrested editors and journalists simply because they were too critical of the party.
The desire of the Congress party to control the the press is still very much alive to this day, even at a time when they have lost all relevance at the national level. For instance, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said recently that the press is not entitled to free speech rights and implored the Judiciary to regulate the media and social media. The reasons provided were the same that Nehru gave all those years ago, that they are apparently responsible for sowing the seeds of division within the country.
The Congress party in its election manifesto for the 2019 General Elections had also promised to regulate social media. It appears that they were promising the return of section 66A, an extremely unpopular move during the UPA regime. Like Nehru, the Congress party also claims that all of this is to preserve the ‘moral integrity’ of the country but in reality, it is only an attempt to shield themselves from criticism and preserve their power.
There is no denying the fact that the doctors, medical staff, police, CISF personnel, armed forces, energy sector, oil and gas industry professionals and sanitation workers are the ones fighting at the frontline in the battle of Covid19 and are rightly acknowledged as being the ‘Corona Warriors’. At the same time, one must also acknowledge and applaud the role played by the civil society organisations, philanthropists and individual volunteers who worked round the clock and hand-in-hand with local governments, feeding crores of people and ensuring they don’t starve during the lockdown. As the social sector now gears itself up to play its role in the Atmanirbhar Bharat, it seeks urgent intervention of the government on some of its pressing challenges.
I have already highlighted how problems of funding are now being rightly identified and acted upon by the government in one of my earlier articles. Also, some important work in this direction is already visible. A SEBI committee, which was entrusted to give a structure to the Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman’s vision on Social Sector Exchange (SSE), has already released the first draft of its report with elaborate recommendations. But the government’s well thought out and elaborately planned SSE initiative may also turn out to be inadequate or ineffective if few fundamental and urgent social sector issues are not addressed on priority.
The following four issues along with suggestions can be considered by NITI Ayog to revitalize India’s NGOs Sector:
The Central Government and the NITI Aayog through the Darpan Portal are dealing with and have details of only 3% of the total NGOs present in the country
The first ever exercise conducted by CBI, at the behest of the Supreme Court of India, to assess and compile the number of NGOs working in the country, startled everyone when it came out that the number of NGOs present in the country are 31 Lac. Almost double the number of schools we have. Since the thought of counting the NGOs came in 2015 only, it is obvious and understood that the thought of formalization of the NGO sector never occurred to our lawmakers all these years.
In November 2016, the first step of formalization was taken by the Narendra Modi government by appealing to NGOs to register them on the Darpan portal hosted by NITI Aayog. Darpan registration was made mandatory for NGOs willing to get funds or projects from the government. A year later, the Home Ministry also issued a notification and made Darpan registration mandatory for NGOs willing to receive foreign funding under FCRA.
While the government may have achieved its objective of a) ending funding duplication and b) tracking organizations receiving foreign funds; a wider objective of formalization was missed. The DARPAN-registration communication by NITI appealed to only those NGOs which wanted government funding.
A number of large grassroots NGOs which were not dependent on government or foreign funding didn’t apply. Many large and well-known NGOs with decades of experience may not be found on the Darpan list for the same reason. Today, four years after the Darpan portal was launched, it has less than 3% of the country’s total NGOs registered on it. In the last 42 months, only 10,000 new NGOs have been added. *
The SEBI’s sector stock exchange report relies on the presence of ‘Information Repository(ies)’ of NGOs and it cites Darpan as one. A portal with 3% representation would never be able to become a credible base for a successful exchange.
NITI Aayog (with the help of Ministry of Planning and Statistics) should re-undertake the exercise of collating the NGO numbers by reaching out to the registrar of societies, Trusts and MCA (for Section 8 company records). A campaign focused on this new database should then be launched to register NGOs in Darpan. There is an urgent need to make this Darpan list more inclusive by launching a fresh campaign appealing to NGOs to register while at the same time providing them with the requisite technical handholding and support.
Financial Inclusion and Capacity Building
No doubt that the Jan Dhan- Aadhar- Mobile i.e. JAM trinity was an immensely successful scheme of the central government. But opening a bank account is only the first step towards financial inclusion. NGOs are often asked to produce the last three years of balance sheet and other documents like annual reports while applying for any project or funding. Due to the lack of proper documentation, not only NGOs fail to get project funding but many times they fail to comply with even the minimum legal and statutory requirements, inadvertently even ending up at the wrong side of the law, at times.
As per the 2015 CBI data, less than 10% of NGOs comply with the mandatory account filing with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) detailing their receipt and spending of funds.
There is an urgent need to sensitize the NGOs about the importance of documentation, record-keeping and filing of accounts. It would not be possible without a concerted effort towards their capacity building in this space.
Sensitizing NGOs towards their Localised SDG Goals
After the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) succeeded Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) as the new universal goals in 2015, they were readily adopted by the countries across the globe. These SDGs comprising 17 goals and 169 targets include and integrate economic, social as well as environmental dimensions.
Out of this, for India, NITI Aayog has identified 16 priority Goals and has mapped them with 63 indicators. While the NITI takes it upon itself to work with the state governments for the localization of goals and to monitor its progress, in case of NGOs it has been left to them to adopt and contribute towards achieving these goals.
If the NGO data available on Darpan portal is mapped SDG-wise & District-wise followed by a campaign sensitizing them towards their district-level SDG goals & indicators, then only we will be able to give NGOs their due as development partners. It will go a long way in aligning NGO efforts towards the national priorities.
Each country is expected to present its progress report in attaining SDGs annually at the United Nations during the High-Level Political Forum. NITI which does this for the country often doesn’t have collated contribution of NGOs to be able to cite it during HLPF. And hence such a large and thriving sector’s contribution is often left unmentioned.
Convergence for Atmanirbhar Bharat
Once the NGOs are registered on Darpan, duly trained on documentation, basic accounting and about meeting statutory requirements, sensitized about their district-level SDG goals, they would be ready to work closely with the existing development partners. Several agencies like NABARD, Kisan Vigyan Kendra, Khadi and Village Industry Commission have district level officers who have a mandate to engage with NGOs and partner them in implementing government schemes.
If NITI’s Darpan could provide these officers, a district-level interface wherein they could search NGOs based on their field of work, it will be easier for them to engage them regularly and more closely. While NABARD and KVKs would want to engage with agriculture-based organizations, KVIC would look for NGOs working towards employment generation and entrepreneurship. A number of such government agencies could then structurally engage with the NGOs at the district level.
It would, of course, need developing Darpan further as a technologically robust and secure platform with the user-friendly interface but if that’s done it could pave way for integrating the sector truly as a development partner not just in words and speeches but on the ground, in action.
The success of initiatives like Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan or GiveItUp LPG subsidy campaign was secured through mindset and behavioural change in people. No amount of government expenditure can alone achieve that without the help and support of grassroots community organizations. NGOs have already readied themselves to spread the message of Vocal for Local to realize the dream of Atmanirbhar Bharat. By implementing the above suggestions, NITI could well unleash the first set of long-pending reforms to overhaul the sector.
*As shared by the Union Minister of State for Planning Shri Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Lok Sabha, as on November 24 2016, a total of 81,353 NGOs had registered on the DARPAN portal. As of today (June 26,2020 12.19 AM) the number of NGOs on the Darpan portal is 93927.
On Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu government has reportedly transferred the Superintendent of Police (Tuticorin) IPS Arun Balagopalan out of the district and put him under ‘compulsory wait’ at the office of the Director-General of Police, in light of the custodial death of P Jayaraj and his son J Benicks. Balagopalan has now been Villupuram SP S Jeyakumar as the Superintendent of Police of Tuticorin.
The district administration of Tuticorin on Tuesday has also directed deputed officials from the Revenue Department to assume charge of Sathankulam police station, following the directives issued by the Madras High Court. As per the report, a Tahsildar and a deputy Tahsildar has been charged to take control of the police station by the district collector, Sandeep Nanduri.
The Madras High Court has asked the deputed officials to preserve ‘clue materials’ in connection to the murder of the father-son duo. Moreover, a forensic team from Madurai was appointed to collect evidence from the station. Following a nationwide outrage over the incident, five policemen have been suspended including an inspector and two sub-inspectors.
Madras High Court summons three cops
The Madras High Court has summoned two police officers and a constable in Tamil Nadu in the Jayaraj and Benicks custodial death case. The court has also asked the state to transfer the three cops, Deputy Superintendent of Police C Prathapan, Additional Deputy Superintendent of Police D Kumar, and police constable Maharajan at Santhankulam in Tuticorin, in order to conduct a free and fair inquiry into the case. The development came after the Judicial Magistrate accused the cops of trying to obstruct him. According to the magistrate’s report to the court, the constable had allegedly told the magistrate that no one could harm them.
The Custodial death of Father-Son duo
The death of a father and son-duo in police custody in Tuticorin has generated a huge outrage in Tamil Nadu. P Jayaraj and his son J Benicks reportedly died after they were picked up by the Police for opening their mobile accessories shop open on June 19 when the lockdown was still in force in the state. It is alleged that they were tortured in custody, which led to their death. Chennai based news website The Federal has quoted eyewitnesses who claim that the duo were subjected to sexual torture while in jail. Benicks passed away at the Kovilpatti General Hospital on June 22 and his father passed in the morning the next day.
The Indian Government on Monday banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, over concerns that these apps were engaging in activities that threatened national security, defence of India, sovereignty and integrity of India.
Among the apps that were banned by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT are ByteDance’s TikTok- which considers India as its biggest market, Community and Video Call apps from Xiaomi- the top smartphone vendor in India, UC Browser and UC News from Alibaba Group, Shareit, CM Browser, Club Factory and several others.
However, the central government’s decision to place a ban on 59 Chinese apps under Section 69A of Information Technology Act for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order” did not sit well with a host of left-leaning liberals, who promptly expressed their outrage against the Centre for enforcing a ban on Chinese app TikTok which had recently donated Rs 30 crore to PM Cares Fund to assist the nation in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Liberals say we cannot ban TikTok, because it had donated Rs 30 crores
Scores of perturbed liberals, possibly distraught by the ban on Chinese apps in the country, took to Twitter to wonder if the government will return the donation of Rs 30 crores it received from TikTok in the PMCARES fund as if the government was obligated to return the sum it received by the company that operated and profited in India for outlawing its operations in the country on the grounds of impinging upon the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.
There are three crucial aspects to the assertions made by the liberals in calling for the government to return the contribution made by TikTok India following its ban by the central government. Firstly, the Chinese apps are banned by the Centre because they were engaging in subversive activities that threatened the sovereignty and integrity of the country. Contrary to what liberals allude, the move to debar the apps from operating in India was not a part of the government’s revanchist policy to pressurise the Chinese PLA army along the border in Eastern Ladakh to retreat.
In fact, if the government heeds the calls made by the liberal intelligentsia of returning the donations made by the Chinese companies, China can easily term Indian government’s measure as ‘revenge’ and make a case for unfair trade practices against India. This could possibly wage a trade war against New Delhi. Since Indian liberals would rather see Indian economy take a dive, it is no wonder that they want matters to be escalated. Hence, they are suggesting the Indian government to return Rs 30 crore to TikTok after placing a ban on it. This is what is called adding fuel to the metaphorical fire.
Secondly, by asking the government to remit the sum back to TikTok, are liberals suggesting that companies who donate money to the government’s funds can escape from adverse action initiated by the government against companies who infringe upon privacy rights and pose a threat to the national security? Does it mean that the government should overlook the grave violations committed by companies in future just because they had earlier made a charitable donation? Should the government keep reimbursing money to the organisations because they were found violating the norms?
For Indian ‘Liberals’ Aadhar is a privacy threat, but TikTok should never be banned
The answers to these questions, from a liberal point of view, are pretty straightforward, provided if one looks in the right direction. Liberals, who could not stop themselves from expressing their paranoia over the perceived privacy violations by Aadhaar, a technology indigenously built in India, are more concerned about the donations made by Chinese apps, notwithstanding their global reputation of indulging in surveillance activities. Millions of rupees were funded in building and implementing Aadhaar platform so that the robust database helps to remove corruption and middlemen in monetary schemes, but the liberals had no qualms in running a smear campaign against it, alleging it to be a tool employed by the central government to infringe upon people’s privacy.
The liberals were then actively seeking to sabotage the implementation of Aadhaar, which the apex court said did not violate the right to privacy, but they are now willing to barter the ban on TikTok by asking the government to pay Rs 30 crore it received from the organisation for battling the spread of coronavirus, a pandemic which incidentally had its roots in China. The liberals are afflicted with a pathological aversion to PM Modi and the BJP and it is because of this malady that they are prepared to overlook the security and privacy implications posed by the Chinese apps and are ready to trade the ban at a sum of Rs 30 crore.
A donation to charitable cause is not a ‘security deposit’
Furthermore, the funds received by the government from companies and organisations are not an amount meant as a security against any harsh action initiated by the government for the violations committed by those organisations. It does not offer the companies a free pass to act as per their will without facing the consequences for violating the law of the land.
Thirdly, liberals’ demand to return the donations made by the Chinese companies betrays their notion that money is always paid, even as donations, for striking a quid pro quo deal with the government. Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan reacted on the ban on TikTok by posting a tweet, alleging the government to be ungrateful towards TikTok which had donated Rs 30 crore. In fact, Bhushan refers to PM Cares Fund as “Chaiwala’s Fund”, ignoring the fact that it is not a private fund like Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
The donation made by TikTok was to a national fund, not to a private entity as alleged by Bhushan. Notwithstanding his jibes at PM Modi, it is profoundly disturbing that a Supreme Court lawyer such as Prashant Bhushan is alluding that the government should be “grateful” to the Chinese company TikTok because they made a humble contribution of Rs 30 crores to the PM Cares Fund.
Tik Tok’s humble contribution of 30 Crores to humble Chaiwala’s fund! So ungrateful! https://t.co/Ht5t22oJEI
Is this why the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation kept on taking money from the Chinese?
This brings us to the murky donations received by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation from the government of China. Sonia Gandhi headed Rajiv Gandhi Foundation had received close to Rs 1 crore in three years from the government of China during the UPA tenure. Congress and its supporters should first come clean on what were the modalities agreed between the political party and a foreign government to have received such donations.
Since the ‘liberals’ on Twitter are passionately arguing that there should be a sense of reciprocity, and ‘gratefulness’ even against the companies who are found to have violated the security and privacy norms, is this the reason why Congress has traditionally been soft on its approach against China? Is this why the Chinese government paid donations to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for the Congress to comply with their furtive territorial advances? Did the Congress party trade loyalty towards India in lieu of generous contributions from the Chinese government?
Before asking the central government to return donations received from the Chinese companies, the liberals must ask these uncomfortable questions to their masters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation today said that the Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana will be extended up to November this year where as many as 80 crore Indians will get free ration. With this, the total amount set aside for the scheme will be over Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
In his address to the nation, PM Modi said that despite the number of rising coronavirus cases, India is still in a very stable situation due to timely interventions by the government. However, he also said that ever since Unlock 1.0 started in the country, negligence in personal and social behaviour has been increasing.
“Since Unlock 1.0, we have seen an increase in irresponsible behaviour. We used to be careful about wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distancing. But now when we need to be more careful, many are being irresponsible,” PM Modi said.
PM Modi urged the governments, local body entities, citizens of the country to show the same vigilance once again that they had displayed when the country was under the lockdown to tame the spread of coronavirus.
PM Modi asked the citizens to exercise extra caution to ward off the threat of coronavirus, given that the country is entering the season where cases of cold, cough, fever and other diseases register a sharp uptick.
Speaking about the government’s efforts to help the poor and the needy ones adversely affected by the coronavirus induced lockdown, PM Modi said that about 30 crore poor people with Jan Dhan Accounts have been given Rs 31 thousand crores in the last 3 months. He added more than 9 crore farmers have received Rs 18 thousand crores as financial aid from the central government. About 80 crore Indians got free ration, PM Modi said.
Furthermore, keeping in view the upcoming festivities, the government has decided to extend the PM Gareeb Kayan Anna Yojana till the end of November, said PM Modi adding that Rs 90,000 crore have been earmarked by the government to provide free ration to the poor. This is in addition to the amount already spent, taking total figure to Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
