Dalit colony in Bhadethi village in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh was engulfed with raging conflagration on June 9 as Muslims in the region launched an attack against the Dalit settlements. At least 35 people, including Samajwadi Party leader Javed Siddiqui, have been arrested in connection with setting ablaze the houses of Dalits in the Dalit Basti in a Jaunpur village.
In the aftermath of the dreadful incident, many Dalit victims have come forward to recount their ordeal and the atrocities meted out by the Muslims against them. A video of one of the victims, Pooja, narrating her tribulations is doing the rounds on the social media.
Giving an account of her suffering, Pooja said, “We were inside the house when the communal clashes broke out. When we locked ourselves in, manic Muslim crowd started pounding the gates to barge in. They hurled brickbats and stones at the gate. Shots were fired outside. As we remained inside the house, the frenzied Muslim mob set the house on fire from all sides.”
#Jaunpur सुनिए इस लड़की की जुवानी कैसे मुसलमानों ने दलितों को जिंदा जलाने की कोशिश की।उनके रुपया,जेवर सब लूट लिया।500से ज्यादा मुसलमानों ने दलितों के ऊपर हमला किया और पूरी बस्ती जला दी
— Nishant Azad/निशांत आज़ाद?? (@azad_nishant) June 13, 2020
Pooja said they were so scared of the rampaging mob that they remained hidden in the burning house until the rabble-rousers left the spot. Soon after the mob departed from the area, she, along with others somehow escaped the blazing house and hightailed it to a nearby village. They spent the night in the neighbouring fearing persecution at the hands of the Muslim mob on return.
She further added, “We are too scared because they were in huge numbers. Approximately 500-1000 of them had attacked us. Initially, they attacked us with batons. After that, stones and brickbats were hurled at us. Then, the bullets were fired. They looted all of us. Shops were ransacked, jewellery was stolen, whatever valuable we had, they took everything away.”
Communal flare-up in Jaunpur
A minor argument among the children turned into a deadly communal clash in a village of Jaunpur, that led the destruction of more than a dozen houses that were owned by Dalits after they were was set blazed. Massive damage was caused to the scheduled caste community. Even the domesticated animals were not spared. Reportedly, three goats and one buffalo were burned alive.
According to the reports, a boy named Shehbaz in the village reportedly had an altercation with the children of Dalit colony regarding grazing of the goats. The altercation led to a ruckus between the members of the two communities. However, as soon as the dusk descended, members of Muslim community launched an attack against the Dalits.
Around 8 pm, some 100 people from the other village raided the Dalit locality again and attacked the locals in which three Dalit men- Ravi, Atul, and Pawan were injured. The assailants started burning the houses. Many people including Nandlal, Nebulal, Rajaram, Jitendra, Sewlal lost their belongings along with their shelters.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath took cognizance of the incident and ordered the police officials to invoke the Gangster Act and slam NSA on the culprits- Noor Alam and Javed Siddiqui. The CM also called for strict action against the SHO of the local police station as he failed to control the situation.
All is not well in the United States of America. Th death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police has unleashed uninhibited anarchy across the country. The looting and rioting appears to have died down largely, however, autonomous zones are coming up across the country, the first among them being CHAZ. The entry to some of these zones declare that those who enter are leaving the USA.
The first one to come up was in Seattle. It called itself the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). Along expected lines, things did not go according to plan. Their food was stolen by the homeless people they invited and a ‘warlord’ took over the place and he enforced his will upon the populace with help from his armed militia.
Now, fights appear to be breaking out among the people who established the autonomous zone. And the protesters do not wish for the fights to be recorded as it might harm the reputation of CHAZ. It’s unclear how the disputes will be settled since the Police is not permitted at the scene. The possibility of unmitigated violence in the are is, thus, very high.
An angry protester demanded we not record fighting incidents. Said if it gets out onto the internet, it might give CHAZ a bad name (@Julio_Rosas11)
This was a mix of protesters trying to keep the peace as others chased a man out after another fight: pic.twitter.com/6DyTxjSyjU
A lot of jokes are also being made by the supposed farm that has been set up by the protesters to grow their own food. From the state of the farms, it is quite evident that none of them have any clue about farming at all. We cannot verify whether these images are authentic or not but they are being circulated widely on social media.
Such autonomous zones are now coming up across the United States. A new zone has come up at the University of Chicago Police Department, as per journalist Andy Ngo. Protesters there are apparently urinating and defecating inside a tent.
Image Credit: Andy Ngo/Twitter
Manuals are also being distributed at autonomous zones, Ngo has reported. The manual provides instructions on the effective use of human shiellds, barricades and how to make weapons using light bulbs.
This manual was given out at the autonomous zone. It provides instruction on how to use human shields, create barricades & make weapons using lightbulbs. “We will take whatever measures are necessary both to destroy this world as quickly as possible & to create the world we want” pic.twitter.com/291aHVcG0s
An autonomous zone is also being set up at Asheville, North Carolina. Attempts are also being made to establish one at Nashville, Tennessee. Graffiti inside CHAZ also reportedly speaks of the goal to ‘End Amrica’ and ‘Kill The Cop’. Seattle Police also maintains that also sorts of violent crimes are occurring in the area but they are unable to reach the victims.
It is unclear how any of this will end. The protesters have the backing of the Democrat political establishment as the latter is too afraid of offending their voters. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has deemed these protesters to be domestic terrorists but the Mayor of Seattle insists that all is well even as protesters have literally established an autonomous zone within the city.
Zoom, one of the most popular video-conferencing apps, has announced in a blog post that they are going to modify the software that will enable them to block or remove participants based on their geographical location. The announcement came after they were criticized for adverse actions they took against human rights activists Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan, and Zhou Fengsuo at the request of mainland China. Though Zoom has said that they are not going to take any more requests from the Chinese government about accounts outside mainland China.
We’ve heard the concerns surrounding Lee Cheuk-yan, Wang Dan, and Zhou Fengsuo’s accounts. We’ve thought a lot about this. Here are the facts and what we’re doing about it: https://t.co/XGzJD5raSX
Zoom had disrupted or disabled the accounts of the activists who are based in the USA and Hong Kong while doing Zoom meetings on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the events in Hong Kong. Following media reports about the disruptions, Zoom had said that it had been contacted by the Chinese government in May and early June about four Zoom meetings to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre that were being publicised on social media.
“The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts,” the company said. Zoom said that it has no ability to block participants from particular countries, so it decided to end three of the meetings and suspended or terminated the associated host accounts. The company said it took no action for one meeting because metadata showed it had no participants from mainland China, however two of the others had a “significant number of mainland China participants”.
The account of Zhou Fengsuo, a Chinese activist based in the US, was shut down days after he hosted a memorial for the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hong Kong based activist Lee Cheuk-Yan’s account was shut down just before hosting an event on the controversial extradition law that has caused mass anti-government protests in the city. A Zoom event on 3rd June organised by Wang Dan to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown was shut down twice by the company.
As Zoom is not banned in China like several other platforms, it is used by activists outside the country to connect with people in the mainland.
The announcement raises questions
First of all, Zoom has accepted that the current policies are impacting users outside mainland China. They were actively taking requests from the Chinese government and removing or blocking participants from hosting or joining meetings. That means, if the Chinese government found any said user against the interest of the ruling government, all they needed to do is request Zoom to block access for that user.
After Zoom faced backlash, they are saying that they will make changes in their policies so that the users outside mainland China will not get affected. However, the new update will allow the governments of any country to remove or block users using the platforms from the respective countries. If your country’s government thinks that you are doing something illegal on Zoom, they will remove you from the platform. Such censoring is against the very nature of Zoom being an open platform. It also defies the purpose of having end-to-end encryption based conversation if the governments have access to the meetings.
Zoom and history of ‘controversies’
This is not the first time video conferencing app Zoom has been caught in controversies. In the past, many governments have blocked the app in their respective countries after Zoom accepted using Chinese servers to route meetings. Though Zoom has its headquarters in San Jose, California, the development and maintenance work takes place in its China-based establishment. When the entire world was under lockdown, Zoom saw an overwhelming increase in the number of users. Many governments were also using this feature-rich app. Later after Zoom accepted using Chinese servers even for meetings taking place in other countries, it faced backlash and governments banned it. In may a Church from San Francisco sued Zoom after a porn clip appeared during online Bible class.
Recently, many users from Hong Kong and the US claimed that their accounts were suspended allegedly based on China’s “request. Zoom has confirmed in the blog post that they indeed blocked one account from Hong Kong SAR and two from the US. Zoom also said in the blog post that they have reinstated the accounts and apologized to users for the inconvenience.
Key takeaways from Zoom’s statement
In May and early June, Zoom received several requests from the Chinese government to block or suspend accounts as those accounts were allegedly involved in illegal activities against China.
Zoom admitted taking action on some of the requests, but they also stated that they did not provide any meeting content to the Chinese government.
Currently, no option can allow Zoom to remove certain users from an ongoing meeting or block someone from joining a meeting. Zoom said that this is the reason they had to end the meetings and terminate associated accounts.
Zoom admitted that instead of blocking users based on their geographical location, they terminated the accounts.
Zoom will not adhere to requests made by the Chinese government to terminate or block accounts outside mainland China.
They will work on upgrading the application to allow governments to request to block, terminate, or suspend accounts from their respective countries.
Zoom will release an updated version of the global policy by 30th June 2020 to improve transparency.
The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in both the Houses of the Parliament unleashed a spree of violence across the whole country. A great deal of propaganda was launched against the government which was intimately laced with anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiments. The protests soon erupted across Universities abroad as well, in an effort to generate diplomatic pressure against India.
One of the initiatives launched abroad to foment unrest in India was the Students Against Hindutva (SAH) which has since rechristened itself Students Against Hindutva Ideology (SAHI). We have published a comprehensive report on the organisation, where we highlighted their intimate links with the Democrat party establishment and their plans for lobbying with the funds they received.
SAHI went to the extent of creating a database which could be used to indoctrinate the citizens of the West against the CAA. Numerous dubious sources of information were listed on its website and the objective was to create an international movement across universities around the world against the act that was passed by the democratically elected parliament of India.
Through this database of theirs, we discovered the role played by one Indian Media Outlet in actively promoting these protests against the Indian State. Unsurprisingly, the founding editor of this particular digital media portal is not even Indian and has a history of peddling false information and indulging in propaganda against Hindutva.
The Azaad India Collective (AIC)
SAHI lists ‘Azaad India Collective’ (AIC) as one of the organisers of the protests against the CAA. Through SAHI, we discovered the website of the AIC where we discovered that AIC had maintained a diligent database of protest material related to the CAA. On their website, AZI maintains an archive of petitions and editorials regarding the CAA and also information regarding protests being carried out across the country.
Through their website, we also came across the Instagram account of the AIC. On their Instagram account, we discovered that they had given a call for people to join these protests as well.
Source: Instagram
We also discovered that the AIC had promoted the ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ protests organised by SAHI against the CAA. It is pertinent to note here that the AIC was quite openly collaborating with organisations abroad which sought to pressurise the Indian Government into refusing to implement an Act passed by the Parliament of India. It is as blatant an effort to undermine Indian Democracy as it gets.
Source: Instagram
In an effort to investigate the antecedents of the AIC further, we discovered that the collective was founded by two students, Zainab Firdausi and Sparsh Agarwal, of the Ashoka University. According to Hyde Park Herald, a weekly newspaper that serves the residents of Chicago, Illinois, their work for the AIC will be housed at the US Library of Congress’ web archives on India.
Through their Twitter account, we learnt that they had endorsed Bernie Sanders ahead of Super Tuesday in the Democratic Primaries of the US Presidential Elections. While their endorsement was utterly irrelevant and Joe Biden thrashed the Democratic Socialist to become the presumptive nominee for his party, it does show the close bonds that AIC shares with the far-Left in the USA.
Tweet by AIC
The most intriguing, however, was the interview Zainab and Sparsh gave to a YouTube channel called The Mesh. In the interview, the two admitted that although they were the face of AIC, there were lots of other individuals who were part of the initiative. Furthermore, they also said that they had attended numerous protests in India against the CAA.
Collaboration Between The Wire and Azaad India Collective
One of the shocking revelations the founders of the AIC made during the interview is that they “collaborated” with The Wire on a particular matter related to the protests. “One of the other important collaborations we did was with the news organisation The Wire. They wanted to create an entire timeline of all the activities that have been taking place from the 12th December, on the day that it was tabled on the Lok Sabha up until the present day,” said Sparsh.
He continued, “The entire research for the timeline for that was done by us, the Azaad India Collective.” In addition to that, he mentioned that there is a host of other ‘Civil Society’ organisations who send them photographs to put up on their website or on instances where they can collaborate with each other.
It is important to understand why the involvement of The Wire with AIC is so problematic. Here we have a media organisation collaborating with an organisation that seeks to undermine a law passed by the democratically elected Parliament of India that has widespread support among the people of India.
Furthermore, the founding editor of The Wire is not even an Indian citizen. He is an American. Thus, we possibly have an American here who seeks to influence the laws of our country by using a media organisation as a propaganda tool to shape public opinion. We cannot even be sure whether Varadarajan is acting of his own accord or under the influence of elements within the US political establishment.
Regardless of whether one is liberal or otherwise, such foreign interference in the internal matters of India ought to be cause for great concern. Thus, with the AIC, we have the founders collaborating with student organisations in the United States to influence Indian laws and thereby, undermine the authority of the Indian Parliament to formulate its own laws. And also, we have The Wire, a media organisation whose founding-editor is an American, collaborating with them on matters related to the protests.
The Antecedents of The Wire
The Wire and its employees have indulged in rabid fear-mongering regarding the CAA. One of its columnists, Sharjeel Imam, went so far as to claim that Muslims should cut off North East India from the rest of the country in order to bring the Indian State to its knees. The Wire columnist is also the mastermind of the Shaheen Bagh protests which culminated with the riots in Delhi during US President Donald Trump’s visit to India. He is currently in prison for his seditious remarks.
The Wire has also been involved in spreading propaganda to whitewash the crimes committed by the radical elements of the Muslim community during the Delhi riots. In the matter of the Rajdhani School incident in Mustafabad, where the said school was used as a base to attack the Hindu community, The Wire whitewashed the incident altogether.
The owner of Rajdhani School has been arrested in connection with the incdient. The charge sheet filed in the matter also documents the manner in which the school was used as a base to attack the Hindu community.
The Wire also spread fake news regarding the investigation into the Delhi Riots. It falsely claimed that Delhi Police was unfairly targeting the Muslim community on the basis of completely farcical information and accused the police of anti-Muslim bias. It was called out for it on social media by Delhi Police.
Siddharth Varadarajan, himself, has spread fake news regarding BJP leaders. An FIR was filed against him recently for spreading fake news about Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Varadarajan has a history of indulging in propaganda that dates as far back to the Gujarat Riots when he tried to bury the reality of the Godhra Massacre.
In addition to all of this, it appears extremely unethical for a media organisation to actively collaborate with protesters. It’s clear now that they are not journalists but anti-government activists who seek to sway public opinion in order to have influence over public policy. The fact that The Wire has an American citizen as its founding-editor adds to the problem further.
Investigation into the Delhi Riots
The investigation into the Delhi Riots has discovered evidence that suggests that there was a deep conspiracy hatched by AAP Councillor in the murder of IB Constable Ankit Sharma. Furthermore, the charge sheet filed in the matter also documents the involvement of JNU ‘scholar’ Umar Khalid and his close aide Khalid Saifi in inciting the riots at Delhi.
The investigation has also revealed the role played by far-left ‘activist’ group Pinjra Tod in the said riots. Two ‘activists’ associated with the group have been arrested in connection with the riots thus far.
The Holi Against Hindutva Initiative
As we have reported earlier, the Holi Against Hindutva initiative was launched by Students Against Hindutva that now calls itself Students Against Hindutva Ideology (SAHI). The group had written a letter, filled with misinformation and falsehood regarding the CAA and NRC, to the United States House of Congress that is currently controlled by the Democrats.
One of the prominent activists associated with the group, Ziad Ahmed, has worked for Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratic politicians in the past. He also founded a marketing agency that helps clients reach out to youngsters. SAHI also coordinates closely with other organisations associated with the Democratic Party.
On Saturday, Amitabh Kant, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog, took to Twitter to share the success story of Bengaluru in controlling the Coronavirus pandemic. When compared to other metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai, Bengaluru fares well in terms of its high recovery rate, fewer fatalities, low number of cases per million people, and the effectiveness of the BJP Government in Karnataka in tracing the contacts of the Coronavirus patients.
As per data shared by Amitabh Kant, Bengaluru has 47.1 cases per million people whereas Delhi has 25 times more cases (1145.1) per million people. Interestingly, both Chennai (2497.3) and Mumbai (2649.1) have reported almost 50 times more cases than Bengaluru per million people. Moreover, the city of Bengaluru has reported a total of 23 Coronavirus-related deaths as compared to 276 in Chennai, 1,085 in Delhi, and 1,954 in Mumbai. The data reveals that Mumbai has reported an astounding 85 times more deaths than Bengaluru.
Bengaluru’s success story: Compared to other metros cases per million in Bengaluru are extremely low. For every confirmed case they traced 47 contacts. In Delhi it is just 2.1. Karnataka has also done large scale testing of patients with influenza like symptoms(SARI & ILI) Gr8! pic.twitter.com/tWtRjXBsNH
When mortality is compared against a scale of 10 lac people, Mumbai tops the list with 95.7 deaths per million of the population. The financial capital of india is followed by Delhi(35.8), Chennai (25.2) and Bengaluru (1.9). The capital of Karnataka, Bengaluru, has also reported the highest recovery rate (51.5%) of Coronavirus patients amongst other metropolitan cities. Chennai has reported 51.4% recovery rate while Mumbai saw 44.8% recovery rate from the deadly virus. Delhi ranks last in the list with a paltry 36.7% recovery rate.
77% cases from Hotspots in Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai
The pandemic of Wuhan coronavirus seems to be on a relentless march across India. India’s coronavirus tally breached the 3 lakh mark on Saturday with a daily spike of 11,458 infections while the fatalities count rose to 8,884 with 386 deaths. According to the study published by Professor Shamika Ravi on Twitter, about 77 percent of the new coronavirus cases in the country can be ascribed to the COVID-19 hotspots in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi. She has asserted that the coronavirus cases in the country continue to rise with a growth rate of 3.1 percent which translates to doubling of cases in a span of 23 days.
Nepal’s lower house of parliament on Saturday passed an amendment to include a new map including Indian areas of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani in the constitution of the country. The bill was supported by all the 258 lawmakers present and voting.
The move came on the heels of the endorsement extended by Nepal’s House of Representatives on June 10 to have a proposal seeking consideration of the constitution amendment bill for change of country’s map following a long discussion.
Nepal had earlier offered India to have diplomatic discussions to resolve the territorial disputes between the two countries. India, in her defence, claimed that it already cleared her position on the matter and it deeply values its civilisational, cultural and friendly relations with Nepal.
Nepal released map laying claim on Indian territories
Last month, Nepal PM KP Oli, presumably at the behest of China, kicked up a storm when he claimed Nepal’s claim on the Indian regions of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani. In his speech in parliament, KP Oli made irredentist claims against India by asserting that Nepal would bring back the aforementioned territories at any cost.
Nepal’s newfound belligerence against India partly stems from Beijing, which considers New Delhi as a threat to its global ambitions. Many attribute Nepal’s bellicosity against India to China who is rapidly expanding its footprint in the communist-ruled Kathmandu.
The proposal for the new map came 10 days after the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a link road on the Kailash Mansarovar route in Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, leading to Lipulekh.
The foreign ministry of Nepal had issued a press release voicing their protest against the move, claiming the link road passed through Nepali territory. However, India rejected the claims, saying “the link road lies completely within the territory of India”.
India claimed that the link road follows the pre-existing road that was used by the pilgrims to visit Kailash Mansarovar. “Under the recent project, the same road has been made more robust for the ease and convenience of the pilgrims,” an official said.
“This unilateral act is not based on historical facts and evidence. It is contrary to the bilateral understanding to resolve the outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue. Such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be accepted by India,” Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has added two new symptoms of coronavirus in order to identify the contagious disease at an earlier stage. The two new symptoms include Anosmia-loss of smell, and Aguesia- Loss of taste. The MoHFW revealed that the symptoms have been observed before the respiratory issues occur in persons with COVID-19.
Loss of smell (anosmia) or loss of taste (ageusia) added to the list of #COVID19 symptoms by the Health Ministry. pic.twitter.com/PM6ZkEkHK4
This was mentioned in the Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19 issued by the health ministry today.
The protocol said that older people and immune-suppressed patients, in particular, may present with atypical symptoms such as fatigue, reduced alertness, reduced mobility, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, delirium, and absence of fever. Children might not have reported fever or cough as frequently as adults.
As per data from Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP)/ Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) portal case investigation forms for COVID 19 (n=15,366), the details on the signs and symptoms reported are (as on 11.06.2020), fever (27%), cough (21%), sore throat (10%), breathlessness (8%), Weakness (7%), running nose (3%) and others 24%.
The protocol states that the persons infected by the novel coronavirus are the main source of infection. Direct person-to-person transmission occurs through close contact, mainly through respiratory droplets that are released when the infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. These droplets may also land on surfaces, where the virus remains viable. Infection can also occur if a person touches an infected surface and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.
Most patients with COVID-19 predominantly have a respiratory tract infection associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, in a small proportion of cases, they can progress to a more severe and systemic disease characterized by the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), sepsis and septic shock, multiorgan failure, including acute kidney injury and cardiac injury.
Definitions of COVID-19 cases
The protocol also defines the suspect, probable and confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Suspect cases include: A. A patient with acute respiratory illness (fever and at least one sign/symptom of respiratory disease, e.g., cough, shortness of breath), AND a history of travel to or residence in a location reporting community transmission of COVID-19 disease during the 14 days prior to symptom onset; OR B. A patient with any acute respiratory illness AND having been in contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case in the last 14 days prior to symptom onset; OR C. A patient with severe acute respiratory illness (fever and at least one sign/symptom of respiratory disease, e.g., cough, shortness of breath; AND requiring hospitalization) AND in the absence of an alternative diagnosis that fully explains the clinical presentation.
The probable cases will be a suspect case for whom testing for the COVID-19 virus is inconclusive, or a suspect case for whom testing could not be performed for any reason.
While the confirmed case will mean a person with laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 infection, irrespective of clinical signs and symptoms.
Age of more than 60 years (increasing with age), and underlying non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disease, chronic lung disease, cerebro-vascular disease, chronic kidney disease, immune-suppression and cancer are listed as the risk factors of the COVID-19.
The health ministry protocol says that Real time or Conventional RT-PCR test is recommended for diagnosis. SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests are not recommended for diagnosis of current infection with COVID-19.
In comparison to the population, the effect of the virus is very low-ICMR Chief
The Chief of Indian Council of Medical Research Dr. Balram Bhargava on Thursday revealed that according to population the effect of the virus in India is very low. He stated that “We had one lab in February and now we have over 850 labs in the country today. A total of 52,13,140 samples have been tested as of date with 1,51,808 samples tested in the past 24 hours. We do have the capacity to test up to 2 lakh cases and will ramp up testing accordingly.”
The ICMR Chief also said at the Centre’s press briefing on COVID-19 situation that India is still not experiencing neither reached the community transmission stage.
Coronavirus situation in India
As per the data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has experienced 3,08,993 cases till so far with a surge of 11458 cases in the last 24 hours. 154330 people have been recovered from the contagious disease while 8884 people succumbed to the epidemic. Fortunately, as per MoHFW, the recovery rate in India has risen to 49 percent.
During the last 24 hours, 7,135 COVID-19 patients have been cured. Thus, so far, 1,54,329 patients have been cured of COVID-19. The recovery rate is 49.95% amongst COVID-19 patients. There are 1,45,779 active cases & all are under active medical supervision: Union Health Ministry pic.twitter.com/bLEsbgnoox
After taking suo moto cognisance of the matter, the Delhi High Court has issued a directive to North DMC to pay salaries of resident doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital which have been pending since March 2020.
The directive was issued to the Central government, Delhi government and North Delhi Municipal Corporation and other respondents by a division bench comprising of Justice DN Patel and Prateek Jalan.
The court had taken suo moto cognisance of the news reports published in various media outlets about the non-payment of salaries to the doctors. The reports claimed that more than 300 doctors in two MCD hospitals, Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba Hospital, were threatening to resign en masse or go on a mass strike on account of not being paid for the last three months.
The North DMC, in its response, stated that the salaries of the resident doctors i.e Junior Residents, Senior Residents and PG Doctors in MCD hospitals since March 2020 because of lack of funds. According to the information provided by the North DMC, the total liability under the head of the salary of residents of all six North DMC hospitals– Hindu Rao Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, Rajendra Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis Hospital, Maharishi Valmiki in Infections Diseases Hospital, Mrs Girdhar Lal Maternity Hospital and Balak Ram Hospital stands at Rs 8 crore per month.
Furthermore, the North DMC cited financial constraints as a reason for non-payment of salaries to various employees, including Safai Karamcharis; Maalis, Drivers etc.
On the other hand, ASG Sanjay Jain contended that the Delhi government has already paid the payable amount to the North DMC in May. However, he added that the government was willing to release additional funds to the North DMC to be paid for the aforesaid doctors by June 18, 2020.
After Delhi Government’s submission, the court ordered North DMC to utilise the amount provided for the payment of pending salaries for April 2020, directing them to not retain the remunerations unnecessarily.
While addressing the Class of 2020 for Hindu students, the 39-year-old US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard had reportedly said that one can find certainty, peace and strength in Bhagavad Gita, amidst the uncertain times. She urged the Hindu students to find solace and strength in Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga as preached by Shri Krishna in the Hindu Holy book.
“As you think about this new chapter in your lives, ask yourself what is my purpose in life? It is a deep question that if you can recognise now that your purpose is to serve God and God’s children, practicing Karma Yoga, then you can lead a truly successful life,” Gabbard was quoted as saying. Her address came at the backdrop of the violent protests that have taken the United States by storm, following the murder of a black man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
Tulsi Gabbard who ran for the post of President, before giving up her election campaign, said that success could not be defined by accomplishments and material benefits but rather by the happiness one derived through service to the society. She was the first Hindu woman to run for the coveted post and had served as an army veteran in Iraq.
The virtual event was organised for the first time by the Hindu Students Council, the largest Hindu youth organisation in North America founded in 1990, on June 7. The event was held amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, which has infected 2.11 million people in the US and caused 116K fatalities. The event was watched live by thousands of viewers on Facebook and Youtube. Hindu graduates from the US, Canada, UK, India, and Australia took part in the event to commemorate their graduation by celebrating the values taught by Hinduism. The students belonged to several premier universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton, and Stanford.
The event primarily focused on timeless themes from Bhagavad Gita, Hindu prayers, symbolic conferral of degrees, besides recitation of graduation message from the Upanishads. The Grand Marshall of the ceremony was Professor Subhash Kak, an Indian-American computer scientist and recipient of the Padma Shri award in 2019. While reading out the names of the graduating students, he said, “I exhort you – the graduating students – to be the leaders of the new world where education is less of the mind of a vessel to be filled with information (usually forgotten after the semester is over), and more of a flame that is lit as envisioned by our Vedic sages.”
In a bizarre incident, an evangelical Church in Argentina reopened as a bar to protest against the implementation of the lockdown of religious places despite the gradual opening of other economic activities.
Federico Picchio, army men from San Lorenzon while tagging the governor of Santa Fe wrote on Twitter, “the religious persecution by the government becomes more and more evident. It is time for you to risk it and rebel against the pressure of the government.”
Así tuvo que abrir la Iglesia Redentor, la persecución religiosa por parte del estado nacional se hace cada vez más evidente.@omarperotti es hora de que te la juegues y te rebeles contra las presiones del gobierno naciónal.#QueAbranLosTemplospic.twitter.com/UCBOSmMfkR
In the pictures he posted it is clearly seen that the bar tables are uniformly placed inside the church and the pastors are dressed as waiters. The pastors were carrying Bible in their trays as a call for the permission for religious services during the lockdown.
Pastor Daniel Cattaneo said, “We are standing here today dressed like this, carrying a tray because it seems this is the only way we can serve the word of God.” The Pastor claimed that he has opened the ‘worship bar’ at the Evangelical Church of Communidad Redentor (Redeemer Community) in San Lorenzo, Santa Fe.
However, the area in which the evangelical church falls has been successful in containing the coronavirus and is gradually opening the offices and bars and other entities. But the churches are barred from allowing more than 10 people at once.
Recently, the bars and restaurants in Santa Fe ave been allowed to open from 7 am to 11 pm with 30 percent capacity and have been told to keep a record of each and every client in case if any of them tested positive later.
Reportedly, Pastor Cattaneo is looking for more alternatives to avoid the ban on religious services. Journalists from Santa Fe tweeted informing about a ‘drive-in worship’ organised by the Redeemer church. Journalist Pablo Gato Gavira took to twitter saying, “This Sunday in San Lorenzo ‘Self-worship’ will be held at Redeemer Church. At 3 pm in the area behind the cemetery, the faithful will gather in their cars to hear the words of Pastor.” This is an arrangement similar to drive-in cinemas which were popular in the past, but instead of movies, the people in the cars will hear the pastor teaching them Christianity.
Este domingo en San Lorenzo se realizará “Auto-culto” en Iglesia Redentor. A las 15 hs en las hectáreas -detrás del cementerio- se reunirán los fieles en autos unicamente, donde podrán escuchar la palabra del Pastor @CattaneoDanipic.twitter.com/nwVXOcGUIO
Cattaneo said, “So, apart from the breaded veal headed for table four, here goes the word of God from the house of the Lord to all nations. We want to exercise our constitutional right to practice our faith.”
Cattaneo further added, “Bars can open, shops can open, why are they discriminating against us?”
Till now 28,764 cases have been recorded so far in Argentina with a surge of 1,391 cases in the last 24 hours. 785 deaths have been reported in the South American country.
