On Saturday, 24 people were diagnosed with the Wuhan Coronavirus in the Krishna Lanka locality of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh after a ‘bored’ truck driver decided to play cards with his friends and neighbours. The women in the neighbourhood also played tambola by flouting lockdown guidelines.
Similar violation of social distancing guidelines by another ‘bored’ truck driver in Karmika Nagar of Vijayawada resulted in 15 people contracting the deadly infection. This has led to 40 new live cases of the Chinese virus in the city in just 2 days.
While appealing to people to adhere to social distancing norms, Krishna district Collector A Md Imtiaz stated that the cause of Coronavirus infection in 40 individuals in the two localities of Vijayawada was due to the failure in maintaining a physical distance. As of April 25, the Chinese virus has infected 1,016 people and claimed 31 lives in the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Coronavirus Scare in Andhra Pradesh
At least 40 children in the 3-17 years age group have been tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh, as per a report in The Indian Express. The report says that all these children have contracted the disease from infected family members who have been to the Tablighi Jamaat events in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz.
The report in IE quoted health department officials saying, “All the children contracted the virus from family members who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting at Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March. “The jamaat returnees were unaware that they were infected, and inadvertently passed it on to their family members, among them are several children,”
Among the 475 active cases are also 124 women. The officials have stated that in some cases, 1 infected family member who had been to the Nizamuddin Markaz had passed on the virus to all the women in the family, mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and grandmothers.
Irked over the acute shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the country, the Grand Health Alliance of doctors and nurses in Punjab have been protesting against the Pakistani Government since April 16.
Reportedly, 150 medics, including 160 doctors have been diagnosed with the Wuhan Coronavirus in the Islamic Republic. Moreover, the Chinese virus has claimed the life of 3 doctors. The demonstrators have demanded complete isolation of the infected medics in private hospitals, besides compulsory screening at hospitals for 7 days for doctors who are working amidst the pandemic.
Dr. Salman Haseeb who is the Chairman of the Grand Health Alliance that the protest by the doctors would continue until their demands were met. He informed that the protesting doctors would continue their agitation even throughout the month of Ramzan. “The doctors who died of coronavirus in the line of duty should be given the status of Shaheed (martyred) and their families given financial benefit”, Haseeb emphasised.
While Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Punjab Health Minister, has accused the medics of demanding hefty incentives, the Chinese virus has infected more than 12,700 people and has claimed 269 lives.
Doctors beaten and jailed in Balochistan
On April 6, over 50 doctors who were protesting in the city of Quetta in Balochistan, Pakistan against the lack of protective gear for fighting the Wuhan Coronavirus were beaten and arrested by the police. A group of 100 medics and paramedics, demanding basic Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks and goggles, took out a rally near Quetta’s main hospital. They, then, proceeded to demonstrate outside the residence of the Chief Minister.
The cops initially resorted to lathi-charge after a few of the protestors tried to enter the CM’s residence. As such, a scuffle broke out between the health workers and the police. 53 of them were arrested and held up for hours for ‘violating the law.’ They were released only after the Balochistan provincial government stepped in.
Coronavirus in Pakistan
As per worldometers, Pakistan has reported 12,723 coronavirus cases till April 26, 2020. Of these, 2,866 have recovered while 269 have lost their lives.
As the rumours about death of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un after a possible botched up heart surgery gains momentum on social media, netizens flooded the Internet with memes and jokes over his sister Kim Yo Jong as possible new Supreme Leader of North Korea.
The lady in question in Ri Chun-hee, news presenter in North Korea who has an extremely dramatic way of presenting news. Here she is speaking on nuclear tests carried out by North Korea.
She had cried when she presented death of Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong II.
Kim Jong Un death rumours
There have been reports about rumours about death of Kim Jong Un after a surgery gone bad. Kim Jong Un had recently missed the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday on 15 April. This raised speculations and rumours about his health conditions as, reportedly, only three days prior to the event, Kim Jong Un, underwent heart surgery. It is one of the biggest events of the year as it marks the birth of the nation’s founder, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim II-Sung.
Kim Jong-un has never missed the event, and it seemed very unlikely that he would simply choose not to turn up. Inevitably, his absence prompted speculation and rumours, none of which is easy to substantiate.
North Korea’s state media reported on April 11 that Kim attended a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and reported the next day that Kim “inspected a pursuit assault plane group”, however the state daily had not revealed the date of that visit.
The first report of illness
An anonymous source told the Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers information from informants inside the isolated nation, that they understood he had been struggling with cardiovascular problems since last August. However, his health reportedly “worsened after repeated visits to Mount Paektu”. This was, reportedly, because of excessive smoking, obesity and overwork. This led to a chain of reporting by international media on a single-sourced story.
Later some reports emerged that intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were monitoring the claim. Post this news, rumours started brewing as US media reported that Kim Jong Un was “gravely ill” post-surgery.
North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un:
North Korea tightly controls any information surrounding its leader, who is treated almost like a deity there, and gathering intelligence out of the country is hardly possible.
Kim, believed to be 36-year-old, took power upon his father’s death in December 2011 and is the third generation of his family to rule the country.
Known to be a heavy smoker, Kim has been shown in state media in recent months appearing at military drills and riding a white horse on the country’s revered Mt. Paektu, where state propaganda says his grandfather used as a guerrilla base to fight Japanese colonial occupiers.
In 2014, Kim Jong Un disappeared for 40 days from early September, which had also sparked a torrent of speculation then, including that he had been ousted in a coup by other political grandees. Then he re-appeared, pictured with a cane. State media at the time admitted he was suffering from an “uncomfortable physical condition”, but did not address rumours that he was suffering from gout.
In Surtadhar, debut author Ratul Chakraborty writes about two topics that fascinate him the most, history and people. A video game developer for years, Chakraborty says that he is an entertainer. “I have realized the critical importance of entertainment in transmitting, validating and normalizing even radical, counter-intuitive ideas to the masses,” he says while speaking to OpIndia. Sutradhar is a historical fiction which tries to tell a story on an insider’s perspective, and do it in a way that it is considered to be a cultural artefact with strong memetic potential.
Elaborating on his inspiration, Chakraborty said, “I had only one objective behind writing Sutradhar. Can I write something that has such a strong emotional core that it would make the reader endorse an Indic world view that would appear radical in the context of the existing left-lib zeitgeist? I strongly believe that the Indian audience is craving for world class entertainment that universalizes essential Indic values as something lofty and aspirational.”
Chakraborty states that quite too often Indian audience is subjected to a worldview that is by design antithetical to the idea of our Indic roots. On choosing historical fiction as a genre, Chakraborty said, “History gives us perspective to understand our present and plan our future, and fiction because I believe in the power of mass culture to disseminate ideas at a grassroots level. I do not aim for a retelling of history, rather I am interested in spreading certain ideas using the canvas of the past that should hopefully nudge the reader to look at the world around him/her through a fresh lens.”
Chakraborty took almost a decade to write Sutradhar. “Writing this book has been a long journey full of painful self doubt and lengthy bouts of inactivity interspersed in between. Yet, it has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” he says. Last year, he finally took a break from his full-time corporate job to focus on writing before going back into corporate world. “I must thank Hari Kiran Sir and the Indic Academy who has given me such incredible support, and without whom this publication would not have been possible. A great reward for me is coming in contact with the brilliant minds who are a part of the Indic Academy, and experience first hand the intellectual heft that is serving the Indic cause,” Chakraborty says.
About Sutradhar by Ratul Chakraborty
Sutradhar is a collection of stories set across the arc of Indian history. Each of these tales is a dramatized reinterpretation of events, myths and legends associated with individual time periods. The stories are written from an authentic emic perspective, exploring various worldviews, sociological schemas and philosophical approaches within the context of the narrative. The seven accounts that form the collection span multiple genres, from historical fantasy to cosmic horror, and are often tinged with dark, sometimes absurdist undertones.
Newton’s First, set in the Sarasvati Civilization time period, deals with issues like the impact of loss of faith and civilizational responses to habitat changes. The second story, The Law, is about a faceoff between Alexander and Chanakya, and deals with topics like MatsyaNyaya and the price of power. In The Lament we meet an old Ashoka, and accompany him on his last journey. The longest story of the collection is A Mirror for the Ants, a story that starts out with an Asterix trope but in which a rabid Aurangzeb gets a payback in a manner that can only be called Indic-Cosmic-Horror. A One Penny Tune is a story set in the devastated rural Bengal during the Great Famine, and primarily deals with the question of arrival of modernity. The shortest story in the collection is The Offering, which is set in the British era, and is all about the power of seeking refuge in faith. The final story, The Path of a Coward plays out in the violent hellscape of the partition era, and is a personal exploration of responses to Jihad.
Dr. Manmohan Singh is back and he has some advice. And it appears that he would like to be taken seriously. This time, he has a problem with the fact that the Central Government has frozen Dearness Allowances (DA) for employees until late next year.
I sincerely believe it is not necessary at this stage to impose hardships on government servants and also on the armed forces people: Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh on Centre freezing Dearness Allowance & Dearness Relief hike till July 2021 (Source – AICC) pic.twitter.com/JK2MmF5Nj4
So how much is the usual hike in Dearness Allowance? About 4% of Basic Pay. Meanwhile, here is the Government of Maharashtra, in which the Congress has managed to become a ruling partner, despite finishing fourth in the elections.
Maharashtra government to pay 40% of March salary
Anywhere between 25-50% of salary frozen and deferred for state government employees. According to calculations by several expert economists, 4% is a lot less than 50%. Also bear in mind that dearness allowance is merely a compensation for inflation. With the economy at a standstill, right now the risk is one of deflation and not inflation. So, with the dearness allowance frozen and no inflation, the purchasing power of a Central Government employee would remain the same.
This is hardly the case with Maharashtra state government employees, who could see 50% of their salary deferred. You can easily imagine how this would wreak havoc on household budgets.
Why does it appear as if nobody listens to Dr. Manmohan Singh?
Anyway, among the demands made by the Congress, a call to scrap the Bullet Train project and the Central Vista redevelopment project in Delhi.
Congress on bullet train and Central Vista redevelopment plans
Why does it feel like scrapping the Bullet Train and Central Vista have become a Congress Party obsession? They seem to be a couple of weeks away from saying that one of Rajiv Gandhi’s dreams was that India would never have a Bullet Train?
Now, if Dr. Singh took himself seriously as an economist, he would know that in times of recession, it is for the government to spend money on large public projects.
Indeed, when the Great Depression hit the United States in 1929, the government put people to work as part of a massive public works program. This came to be known as the “New Deal.” Under the formidable Franklin D Roosevelt, the US government created the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933. The PWA completed some of the most iconic infrastructure projects in the US, including the legendary Hoover Dam. The infrastructure that the US created in that decade laid the foundation of the post WW2 boom when the US began a 70 year reign as the world’s pre-eminent economic, military and industrial power.
In fact, the economic crisis triggered by the Wuhan Coronavirus could be the moment for India to launch its own “New Deal.” This is the time to build those bullet trains, dams and super highways that could last us for several generations.
And considering that the bullet train is financed with a near interest free loan from Japan, it’s a no brainer.
Along with the PWA, President Roosevelt also created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as part of his New Deal. The role of the WPA was to fund the construction of public buildings, museums, theaters, libraries all across the United States. If Dr. Manmohan Singh had been around, he would probably have called them vanity projects.
It is not difficult to imagine why the Congress is so obsessed with scrapping the Bullet Train and Central Vista. They are probably worried that India might end up with landmarks on which they won’t be able to stick the names of their one great dynasty. With no workers, no organization skills and no ideology, the Congress is just a brand name. Without everything being called “Jawahar this” or “Indira that” or “Rajiv Gandhi XYZ,” the Congress would have to shut down.
It’s bad enough that the Congress is being taunted for spending its decades in power allocating Bharat Ratnas rather than building toilets. What if tomorrow India has a bullet train and nobody gives credit to Rajiv Gandhi for dreaming it up? What would the Congress do then?
Hence the Congress obsession with stopping the project at all cost.
Incidentally, I have some advice for Dr. Manmohan Singh. More like a request.
Respected Sir, in the final days of the UPA government, your government gave you a parting gift that you would never have to pay for water and power again. In view of the economic crisis due to Wuhan Coronavirus, how about giving up that subsidy? Why not pay your own power and water bill? I am sure the nation would appreciate the gesture. Thanks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday claimed that the novel coronavirus entered his city from Europe, not China. He also added that travel bans enacted by US President Donald Trump were too late to contain to spread of the epidemic.
According to the reports, Cuomo mentioned research from Northeastern University, which estimated that more than 10,000 New Yorkers may have contracted the disease by the time the state had its first confirmed case on March 1. He claimed Italy as the likely source of the coronavirus.
President Trump acted late on travel ban
The New York governor noted that Trump ordered a ban on travel from China only February 2, which was more than a month after the coronavirus outbreak had already emerged from the city of Wuhan. President Trump decided to restrict travel from Europe the following month, but, by that time, the virus had spread widely in the United States, he said.
“We closed the front door with the China travel ban, which was right,” Cuomo said to the media. “But we left the back door open because the virus had left China by the time we did the China travel ban,” he added.
Cuomo’s comments have now stoked new controversy over the origin and transmission of the virus into the United States and whether the administration could have saved more lives if they had acted sooner.
New York reacted much faster against the coronavirus
Defending his own actions, Cuomo pointed out that the 19 days between New York’s first confirmed case and his lockdown order, arguing that he had moved faster than any other state. He also said Trump, who last week halted US contributions to the World Health Organization after accusing it of promoting China’s “disinformation” about the outbreak, was right to question whether the WHO responded properly to the crisis.
Cuomo attacked for what he referred to as “slow reaction” by the United States, even as increasingly disturbing reports emerged out of China in January and February about the faster transmission of the virus.
Cuomo said as many as 2.2 million people took flights from Europe to New York and New Jersey airports in those two months, many of them likely carrying the coronavirus.
“We acted two months after the China outbreak. When you look back, does anyone think the virus was still in China waiting for us to act two months later?” Cuomo added. “The horse had already left the barn by the time we moved,” he added.
Cuomo cautioned that it was important that the country learns from the mistakes that were made because the virus could surge again in autumn or a new virus could emerge. “It will happen again. Bank on it. Let’s not put our head in the sand,” he said. He said it was too early to reopen his state, which is in lockdown until at least May 15.
On a positive note, he said hospitalizations for coronavirus stood at 14,258 on Thursday, declining for the tenth straight day. He reported 422 additional deaths, the lowest daily total since March 31.
Coronavirus in New York
The United States has recorded 2,494 more coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours. The country now has an overall death toll of 53,511, with 936,293 confirmed infections, according to figures reported Saturday night by Johns Hopkins University. New York has been worst affected in the US which as reported over 2.86 lakh coronavirus cases.
Arun Govil, the man who played the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan which aired for the first time on Doordarshan in the 80s on Saturday lamented that despite his contribution to Indian television, neither any of the state nor central governments over the years has recognised his contribution and given him an award.
चाहे कोई राज्य सरकार हो या केंद्र सरकार, मुझे आज तक किसी सरकार ने कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया है. मैं उत्तर प्रदेश से हूँ, लेकिन उस सरकार ने भी मुझे आज तक कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया. और यहाँ तक कि मैं पचास साल से मुंबई में हूँ, लेकिन महाराष्ट्र की सरकार ने भी कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया. #रामायणhttps://t.co/C91yuJClMr
Responding to a Filmfare journalist, Govil said that even though he is from Uttar Pradesh, none of the UP governments have recognised his contribution in cinema. “I have been in Maharashtra since 50 years now but even that state government has not given me any award,” he said. Till 2017, Samajwadi Party leader and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav had started a ‘pension’ programme of Rs 50,000 per month for all Yash Bharati and Padma awardees from Uttar Pradesh. Bollywood entertainers like Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Congress leader and former actor Raj Babbar were amongst the 172 awardees getting the ‘pension’. It was stopped by June 2017 by Yogi Adityanath government.
Congress and Lord Ram
Some netizens pointed out that perhaps Govil was not given any award because he later on campaigned for Congress, a party which has questioned the existence of Lord Ram, the role which made Govil a household name.
However, years before Congress denied existence of Lord Ram in the apex court, there was a time when Congress sought votes in Lord Ram’s name, with none other than Arun Govil from Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan.
In the 1980s, the Congress party did not shy away from exploiting the huge popularity of Ramayana and its stars among the Indians. In an interview in 1988, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad stated that they had enlisted TV actor Arun Govil, popular for playing the character of Lord Ram in the serial, in the Allahabad by-polls elections against VP Singh, who had just resigned from the Congress party over the government’s reluctance to investigate alleged kickbacks in defence contracts such as Bofors deal.
“We were trying to get Arun Govil on our side because VP Singh was trying to get him on his side. However, only after VP Singh said that Arun is not Ram but Raavan, did Govil agree to campaign for the Congress party to oppose this statement by VP Singh,” Azad said. Ahead of 2019 general elections, too, there were reports that Congress might field Govil from Indore.
Ramayan on Doordarshan
Amid the nationwide lockdown announced in a bid to curb the spread of Chinese coronavirus, the public broadcaster Doordarshan brought back Hindu epics, Ramayan and Mahabharat back on the small screen. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabharat along with other serials from the 80s and 90s made a comeback on Doordarshan as Indians stayed at home to fight coronavirus.
In yet another incident of abduction and forced conversion of girls belonging to the minority community in Pakistan, two Hindu girls, Suthi and Shama were forcibly abducted from Chundiko town of Sindh.
It has been alleged that two minor Hindu girls have been abducted by the brother of an influential local politician in Sindh province, and the family of the girls have alleged that they are facing constant threats. In a video, the victims’ family said that their minor daughters Suthi and Shama were forcibly abducted by the brother of Pir Faisal Shah Jeelani, a member of the National Assembly.
A family member said that Hindu minorities continue to face persecution in Sindh and they fear that girls will be converted to Islam. He said: “Minorities here are facing persecution. They have abducted our daughters. We are not getting justice and are continuously facing atrocities. The brother of a Member of National Assembly (MNA) Pir Fasil Shah Jeelani threatens more abduction if we complain about it. Hindu minorities are facing threats. We can’t face this torture and would like to move out of Sindh”.
The family also said that police are not helping the victims but deliberately not taking any action due to the influence of the politician.
The family said that when they went to court in connection with the case, Suthi was in the vehicle of Pir Faisal Shah Jeelani, and they didn’t let them meet the girl. They said that the girl was crying, and they don’t even know where the other girl Shama is. The family also alleged that the police is taking the side of the abductors, and have refused to file any FIR.
“They are forcefully converting our daughters and are threatening us to not voice up or else the consequences will cost more Hindu daughters. We demand the state to protect us or throw us out of Pakistan because we can’t afford our more daughters, we just can’t take this pain anymore. Police is also with them. SHO Thari Mir is also supporting them. He didn’t collaborate with us. They blackmailed us and took us to Khairpur court with two police cars and 2-3 cars of Pirs, but our daughter wasn’t there then they took us to Gambhat court where they didn’t let us meet our daughter and said now you leave this place as soon as possible even when the girl was crying. Our daughter wasn’t in Police custody. She was with Pir Shah, and we don’t even know where our other daughter Shama is. SHO isn’t lodging FIR. He is misbehaving and misguiding us” said Suthi’s father.
“I went to court. My daughter was helplessly crying outside the court in the custody of Pir Hussain. They didn’t let us meet with her…,” Suthi’s mother said before she started crying in the video.
“Our two daughters are taken by Dhareja. Police are also with them. They are fully supporting them. We are poor. We don’t have money to raise our voice. We are being threatened. Our one daughter was brought to the court where they didn’t let us meet our daughter while she was crying and we have no clue of our other daughter. Throw us out of Pakistan but please don’t do such atrocity,” an uncle of the girls said.
The World Sindhi Congress has condemned the abduction and forceful conversion of two Hindu minor girls in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Rubina Greenwood, the Chairperson of World Sindhi Congress said that it is heart-wrenching to see the brutalities especially on the minorities of Pakistan. Rubina informed, “Whereabouts of Shama are unknown and the local police have refused to register the complaint. Fourteen-year-old Suthi was produced in the court and was declared Muslim and married to a 40-year old man.”
She added, “The parents of the minor were crying and when the girl was produced in the court, she was also crying. They said that everyone, police, judiciary, politicians are supporting the perpetrators. They are simply helpless. They requested to allow them to migrate to save their daughters.”
Although the WSC has been raising the issue on the several international platforms consistently for the last many years, the situation on the ground has worsened. No mercy has been shown to the minority section of the theocratic nation.
Rubina Greenwood said that it is a matter of international attention and calls for international pressure on the Pakistani government to provide protection to vulnerable Sindhi Hindus and their family. She repeated that we genuinely believe that this is a systematic policy of the state to victimize Sindhi Hindus forcing them to leave their motherland and tear down the secular and civil fabric of Sindhi society.
Rubina demanded the Pakistan government that the policies to persecute Sindhi Hindus should be halted, the women from minority community should be allowed to live according to their choices without any force, fear and perpetrators should be prosecuted.
Concluding her statement she said that she will continue to raise the issue on relevant international platforms to force Pakistan to stop persecution against the minorities.
In a very exceptional yet fantastic move, Debiprasad Mangaraj, a Bhuvaneshwar based numismatist has decided to auction 2 lacs antique coins for the purpose of donation in the central and state funds to help fight country combat against the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic. Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins.
Odisha:Debiprasad Mangaraj,a numismatist from Bhubaneswar has decided to auction 2 lakh old coins which he claims are worth crores, says,”I’ve decided to donate the money to state¢ral govt funds to help fight #COVID19.My collection includes coins from ancient to present eras” pic.twitter.com/HNGYGdanh2
He claims that the coins can be worth 2 crores. While speaking to ANI, he said, “I’ve decided to donate the money to state and central government funds to help fight Coronavirus.”
He further added that his collection includes coins from ancient to present eras.
In the face of the Wuhan Coronavirus, Prime Minister Modi launched PM CARES Fund where he invited public contribution to fight the pandemic. The PM CARES Fund is an emergency fund that was set up to provide relief to those affected by the Wuhan Coronavirus.
The PM CARES, or the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund have been set up as a public charitable trust. The Prime Minister is the chairman of this trust and its members include Defence Minister, Home Minister, And Finance Minister.
It is notable here that with open-hearted donations from the public, corporates, and celebrities, the PM-CARES fund had collected more than Rs 6500 crores with a few days of its launch.
A group of Hindu fruit sellers in Jamshedpur were booked by the city police today for writing ‘Hindu’ on their shops. The fruit-sellers had written “Vishwa Hindu Parishad ki anumodit Hindu fal Dukan” which translates to “Hindu fruit shop approved by Vishwa Hindu Parishad”.
In addition, the banners of the shop also carried the photos of Hindus deities- Lord Shiva and Lord Rama along with the phone numbers of the shop owners.
However, wearing one’s identity on their sleeves did not sit well with the Jamshedpur police which acted on a complaint raised by one Twitter user, Ahsan Razi, about the overt manifestation of religion by the shop owners. The police reached the spot and got the banners removed.
मामले का तत्काल संज्ञान लेते हुए संबंधित फल दुकानों से पोस्टर हटवा दिया गया है तथा संबंधित दुकानदारों के विरुद्ध कदमा थाना द्वारा धारा – 107 द0प्र0स0 के तहत निरोधात्मक कार्रवाई की जा रही है। pic.twitter.com/AXGXNmaPWW
The Jamshedpur Police took to Twitter to inform about the developments made in the case. Taking cognisance of objection raised by a Twitter user, Jamshedpur police removed the banners put up by the fruit-sellers and has initiated punitive action against them. The concerned fruit-sellers have been charged under Section 107D of the Indian Penal Code. This section deals with action against persons who are “likely to commit a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity or to do any wrongful act that may probably occasion a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity”.
According to a report published in Swarajya Magazine, the police officials came to their stall at 11 am in the morning and were enquiring about where did the fruit-sellers get the banners from. They also threatened them to lodge a case against them and lock them up in jail. However, they subsequently cooled down and asked the shopkeepers from not repeating the mistake again, the report said.
However, soon after Jamshedpur police posted on Twitter that the banners were removed and action has been initiated against the fruit-sellers, several Twitter users shared photos of Muslim shops and establishments that proudly boasted about their religion, seeking action against them. Some of the netizens even questioned as to under which law the posters were removed from the aforesaid Hindu fruit-stalls.
One Twitter user, shared a picture of one ‘Noushad Muslim hotel’ in Jharkhand, asking the Jamshedpur police to act in the same manner as they did against the fruit seller. He also added that there are 2 hotels named ‘Kolkata Muslim hotel’ against whom police action should be taken by the same token.
महोदय “इरबा”झारखण्ड में एक नौशाद मुस्लिम होटल है, कलकत्ता मुस्लिम होटल नाम से दो होटल है , आशा करता हु उनके ऊपर कार्यवाही हो और लोगो को अवगत कराया जाये..
Others too shared pictures of restaurants and hotels that had conspicuously reveled in providing “Muslim” or “Islamic” food on its banners and posters.
Many users also pointed out how there has been no action taken against organisations that manufacture and sell food items with a halal certificate. Halal is an explicit religiously discriminatory practice, akin to untouchability, which certifies that a product has been produced as per producers and using ingredients allowed under Islam.
Arun Pudur, one of the young Indian entrepreneurs, highlighted how it is a matter of shame that hatred for Hindus in India is increasing. Sharing a picture of the halal certificate that is often printed on food edibles and drinking water, he questioned why authorities have not taken action against the organisations that force the buyers to conform to Islamic dietary decree.
It’s a matter of great shame to our state that we are going up in such Hindu hatred.
Now instead of Jharkhand Govt. or state authorities these people will give permission to businesses.
I see this sticker in my food packets, restaurants even in water bottles. Take action pic.twitter.com/6xRBCTw5N2
Advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari tweeted that if the fruit sellers want legal help, they can send the Jharkhand Police notice to him, and he will legally reply to it. He asserted that the shop owner didn’t violate any law.
If the shop owners want, they can send me Jharkhand Police Notice.
— Ishkaran Singh Bhandari (@ishkarnBHANDARI) April 25, 2020
As many Twitter users have pointed out, there are many shops, mainly eateries, which mention names of religions. In every city and town in the country such shops can be seen. There are many eateries saying they are Muslim Hotel, Jain Hotel etc, and nobody objects to such nomenclature. But it is a surprise the Jharkhand police had a problem with the word Hindu at a shop. Such labels help in customers find shops compatible to their faith. Such names also people in avoiding shops, such as Hindus generally avoid shops indicating that they are for Muslims, as such eateries may serve beef.
