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Coronavirus fight: Modi govt sets up 20 control rooms to address wage issues, amidst nationwide lockdown extension

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus fight: Modi govt sets up 20 control rooms to address wage issues, amidst nationwide lockdown extension

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Labour announced that it had set up 20 control rooms under the Office of Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) to address wage-related issues and other problems that are being faced by daily-wage migrant workers, amidst the nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. On April 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the extension of the lockdown until May 3, 2020.

Role of the Control Rooms set up to address wage-related issues amidst Coronavirus lockdown

Migrant workers who work as daily wage labourers across India are faced with job loss and pay cuts owing to the lockdown. As per reports, 40 crore people working in the informal sector may be affected during this period.

As such, the 20 control rooms set up by the Union Government across India will help in resolving wage-related issues of the workers by coordinating with respective State Governments. The migrant labourers can reach out to these control rooms via Whatsapp, phone and even email. The Ministry of Labour had earlier appealed to private employers to refrain from laying off employees or trimming their wages.

While the overall functioning of these control rooms will be supervised by the Chief Labour Commissioner, these centres would be run and managed by labour enforcement officers, regional labour commissioners, assistant labour commissioners, and deputy chief labour commissioners. All officials have been instructed to treat the workers in a humane manner and provide immediate relief to them.

Disbursement of cash

On April 3, the Department of Financial Services appealed to PMJDY women account holders to check the last digit of their account number and follow the schedule shared below to visit banks or Bank Mitras to maintain social distancing during the nation-wide lockdown.

The Ministry of Rural Development had earlier released the lump sum amount of Rs 500 per woman to the 20.39 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts for April 2020. The women PMJDY account holders having account number with the last digit as 0 or 1 withdrew money from the banks on April 3, 2019.

Similarly, the women PMJDY account holders having account number with the last digit as 2 or 3 withdrew money on April 4. The beneficiaries with an account number ending with 4 or 5 visited banks on April 7. On similar lines, women with bank accounts ending with 6 or 7 visited banks on April 8. Finally, the account holders ending with 8 or 9 withdrew money from their banks on April 9. Banks accordingly phased out the credit to beneficiary accounts.

UP’s Sambhal which had zero coronavirus cases so far, reports eight positive cases in two days, five linked to Tablighi Jamaat

OpIndia Staff
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UP’s Sambhal which had zero coronavirus cases so far, reports eight positive cases in two days, five linked to Tablighi Jamaat

The Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh, which had so far remained untouched by the coronavirus infection has reported 8 positive cases in a span of two days, impelling the authorities to declare the Sarai Tarin locality in Sambhal as a Coronavirus hotspot, thereafter sealing the area. According to reports five of these eight cases had visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation which emerged as the coronavirus hotspot in the country.

Dr Amita Singh, Chief Medical Officer of Sambhal, confirmed that out of the eight, two people have been admitted to a hospital in Moradabad on Monday while the other six cases which were confirmed on Tuesday were admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Lucknow.

This sudden surge has forced local authorities to immediately seal the area declaring it a coronavirus hotspot. Soon the local administration will be sanitising the Sarai Tarin locality. The residents have been ordered not to venture out of their respective houses.

While one person had a travel history to Saudi Arabia, other five had reportedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz. According to officials, a total of 11, including these 5 positive cases, from Sambhal district had visited the Tablighi Jamaat event in the national capital last month.

Novel Coronavirus in India has doubled in the last couple of days crossing the 10,000 mark. The Tablighi Jamaat congregation has prolonged the entire process of containment of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus in the country, compelling the government to extend the nationwide lockdown by another 19 days.

The Uttar Pradesh health department said that 75 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state on April 13 Monday, including 35 related to Tablighi Jamaat. The total number of positive cases in the state stands at 558.

Coronavirus Outbreak: After Bandra, Mumbra in Mumbai sees huge migrant crowds on the streets defying lockdown

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus Outbreak: After Bandra, Mumbra in Mumbai sees huge migrant crowds on the streets defying lockdown

A huge crowd of migrant workers had gathered at the Ahle Sunnat Sunni Raza Jama Masjid near Bandra station in Mumbai demanding to go home. Mumbai Police was forced to resort to lathi-charge the crowd in order to contain it. Now, similar crowds are being reported from Mumbra. The crowd demanded that the state government arrange for transportation to their homes amidst the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic.

As per PTI, Senior inspector Khanya Thorat of the Mumbra police station managed to pacify the migrant crowd and convince them to return to their living quarters after a couple of hours. Meanwhile, it is reported that Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding the outpouring of migrants on to the street.

Maharashtra govt’s mess in coronavirus

Maharashtra has seen the highest number of coronavirus positive cases in the country with as many as 2,337 having reported positive as of 5 PM on April 14. The Maharashtra government, however, despite the PR stunts has not been able to contain the spread of the contagion. Moreover, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the cases in Maharashtra may be under-reported, especially, due to the sheer incompetence of the Maharashtra government. While there are several things that the Maharashtra government has done right, for example, its outreach program to keep its people calm, there are several issues that have clearly come to the fore as well.

Assorted ‘liberals’ quote a 15-day old tweet to allege Cabinet Secretary was unaware of the recent coronavirus lockdown extension

OpIndia Staff
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Assorted ‘liberals’ quote a 15-day old tweet to allege Cabinet Secretary was unaware of the recent coronavirus lockdown extension

In his address to the nation this morning, PM Modi announced that in the view of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the lockdown in the country has been extended by 19 days till May 3. The decision to extend the lockdown was taken after reviewing how the country fared in containing the virus in the last 20 days of lockdown.

PM Modi reasoned that in the absence of a vaccine or an antidote to the novel coronavirus, the nationwide lockdown remains the only efficacious method that drastically reduces the potency of the virus and prevents the country’s public health system from being overrun. PM Modi added that even advanced countries such as Italy, Spain, The US and China, which are in the thrall of the coronavirus, have no option but to enforce stringent restrictions and extensive social distancing measures to blunt the spread of the contagion.

However, even at this critical juncture, so-called liberals managed to find a way to ridicule the Modi government. Blinded by Modi hatred, they quoted a 15-days-old claim made by the Cabinet Secretary regarding the extension of the lockdown to assert that the decision to extend the lockdown was taken unilaterally by the Prime Minister and that the Cabinet Secretary was not kept in the loop before making the announcement.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on March 30 said that he was surprised to see reports of the lockdown being extended doing the rounds in the media. March 30 was barely a week after the three-week nationwide lockdown was announced. Moreover, it was also two-weeks prior to the 3-week deadline. As any logical person would say, it would be too soon to announce an extension of lockdown with 2/3rd of the time period left.

However, after PM Modi declared today that the lockdown will be extended till May 3, liberals deceptively quoted Gauba’s 15-days old statement to contend that he was unaware about the decision made by the PM today.

Alt News co-founder, Mohammed Zubair, known for having a chequered history of sharing fake news and making dubious assertions, quoted the ANI tweet from March 30 and mocked Cabinet Secretary Gauba stating if he is still surprised by the decision to extend the lockdown. It is important to note that here Zubair is alluding that PM Modi took the decision of extending the lockdown on his own without consulting with the cabinet or the healthcare authorities.

AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s tweet

Pro-Congress bot ‘Sonali Ranade’ shared the same old ANI tweet to deride the Cabinet Secreatary. “Our Cabinet Secretary is so well informed,” the bot tweeted.

Sonali Ranade whose actual existence is often questioned

Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill made a stunning fool of himself by sharing the tweet from March 30 where in Cabinet Secretary expressed mild surprise over the reports of lockdown extension. Comparing Cabinet Secretary’s consciousness from March 30 to the decision to extend lockdown made after 15 days, Jaiveer alleged that there is no coordination between different leaders in the Modi government and mocked them for asking people to express their gratitude and solidarity to the healthcare, emergency and police officials involved in battling the coronavirus on the front lines.

Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill

Former student leader associated with Congress, Angellica Aribam, also quoted the same tweet saying one should never place his/her trust in bureaucrats.

Congressis displaying their lack of comprehensive skills

NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan too partook in criticising the Cabinet Secretary for not being clairvoyant enough to have known about the lockdown extension in the foreseeable future. She quoted the old tweet with a maxim- “Never say never”

Nidhi Razdan

Another so-called journalist, Radhakrishnan RK, who could not find as basic a thing as when the tweet was posted, quoted the old tweet to claim Gauba, being the Cabinet Secretary of the Government of India, has no clue about the lockdown extension.

Radhakrishnan’s tweet

Perhaps, according to the ‘liberal’ wisdom, a country’s response to a pandemic should be entirely static, with no dynamic component in it. This explains why they fell over themselves to share an obsolete tweet from the last month to claim that the Cabinet Secretary of the Government of India was completely oblivious of the lockdown extension announced by PM Modi this morning.

The scourge of coronavirus in India, as well as across the world, dictates the governments to remain agile and nimble while confronting the contagion. The coronavirus has a potential to rapidly ravage a country, evident from the catastrophes witnessed in Italy, Spain and currently in the United States. In fact, the danger the virus poses is best illustrated by the alarming rise in the number of cases in India by a ‘Single Source Event’- Tablighi Jamaat congregation which catapulted India almost to the brink of disaster.

When the nemesis is invisible, insidious and incurable, one needs to calibrate his decisions dynamically, based on the ground situation and feedback from the officials involved at the front lines, rather than taking decisions 15-days in advance. However, given the way liberals have targeted Cabinet Secretary and PM Modi, one can scarcely expect them to comprehend the granular details of a country’s response to a pandemic. Perhaps, for liberals, censuring Modi government prevail over the nation’s battle against the coronavirus.

Amit Shah directs police to ensure probe into Delhi anti-Hindu riot is not hindered amidst Coronavirus pandemic: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Amit Shah directs police to ensure probe into Delhi anti-Hindu riot is not hindered amidst Coronavirus pandemic: Report

The probe into the deadly Delhi anti-Hindu riots, which raged on in the last week of February this year by Islamist mobs, leaving at least 50 people dead, including Delhi Police Constable Ratan Lal, and IB staffer Ankit Sharma, had slowed down ever since the Coronavirus Pandemic hit India and the lockdown was announced last month by the Modi government.

However, soon after Amit Shah’s recent intervention ascertaining that the probe is carried on unhindered, the Delhi police have once again fast-tracked its efforts. A little over 800 arrests have already been made pertaining to the Delhi anti-riots. The MHA directive came after some teams of the Crime Branch, following the lockdown orders in view of the coronavirus outbreak, started working from home and stopped visiting Delhi’s riot-hit Northeast district, where they had set up a camp office during the probe. The pace of arrests had hence, slowed down.

According to a highly placed source cited in the Jansatta report, “the situation changed two weeks ago when a meeting was called by senior MHA officials to discuss preparation by the Delhi Police during the lockdown. During the meeting, they were also asked about progress in the riots cases. Police chief S N Shrivastava apprised them of the situation, and MHA insisted that police must continue making arrests under any circumstances.”

A message was conveyed to all investigation teams to resume the probe and make arrests. According to a report by Jagran, 802 arrests have been made so far. The crime branch, probing 42 murder cases, has made 182 arrests, while the Northeast district police have arrested 620 people in connection with the riots. Out of the 182 arrested, 50 were nabbed during the lockdown.

Police said teams have been told to take precautions before making any arrest or carrying out a raid, and that personal protective equipment kits have been provided to them.

“They have been asked to carry temperature guns. After detaining suspects, teams provide them masks and sanitisers. They are then taken for a screening test before being produced before a magistrate,” said an officer.

On the arrests, police sources said: “Earlier, three-four murder cases were registered in one FIR; now, separate FIRs have been registered for every case.

The Crime Branch has also arrested two more persons from Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal in connection with IB staffer Ankit Sharma’s murder for providing shelter to the murder accused.”

Delhi anti-Hindu riots:

On the day of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India, the national capital had witnessed horrific violence. The anti-CAA riots turned communal in Delhi resulting in severe violence on the streets. The anti-Hindu riots that engulfed the streets of Delhi have resulted in deaths of around 47 persons and more than 220 people sustained injuries in the violence that started on Sunday.

Coronavirus: 356 cases detected in the last 24 hours in Delhi, 325 linked to the Tablighi Jamaat

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus: 356 cases detected in the last 24 hours in Delhi, 325 linked to the Tablighi Jamaat

There have been 356 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus reported by the Delhi government in the last 24 hours out of which 325 people are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, either directly or through contact, as per reports.

Total cases

Delhi has reported 1,510 cases in total out of which 1071 cases belong to Tablighi Jamaat members or their contacts. The Markaz event took place last month in which thousands of people gathered violating the guidelines issued by the government. The Jamaat members had travelled through various means all over India leading to a massive jump in the number of Wuhan coronavirus cases within a span of few days.

As per the India Today report, 30 patients have been cured and discharged in National capital territory of Delhi while 28 have succumbed to the disease till date.

People under quarantine

As per the Delhi government’s health department, around 15,000 people are under home quarantine. 2,187 people out of them have a foreign travel history while 12,545 people are contacts of coronavirus patients. 2,456 people are under institutional quarantine across 16 quarantine centres in Delhi.

According to the data of Delhi’s health department, 1,451 coronavirus patients are being treated at 8 state-run hospitals in addition to multiple private hospitals. 49 patients are being treated in the Intensive care unit, and 5 are on the ventilator. The total capacity of these hospitals being monitored by the health authorities is 2,406.

NYT Propaganda: Insiniuates Hindus are behind Tiktok videos urging Muslims to shun social distancing during Coronavirus crisis

K Bhattacharjee
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NYT Propaganda: Insiniuates Hindus are behind Tiktok videos urging Muslims to shun social distancing during Coronavirus crisis

The New York Times (NYT) has again demonstrated its unwillingness to report objectively and peddle fake news even on the face of a looming apocalypse. In a report co-authored by Jeffrey Gettleman, Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj, the NYT claimed that the Wuhan Coronavirus was fanning ‘religious hatred’ across India. In their report, the authors have made horrendously inappropriate and misleading claims that are laughable on the face of it.

The headline of the NYT report that peddled fake news
The headline of the NYT report that peddled fake news

During the course of the report, the authors claim, “Hateful messages have bloomed online. And a wave of apparently fake videos has popped up telling Muslims not to wear masks, not to practice social distancing, not to worry about the virus at all, as if the makers of the videos wanted Muslims to get sick.” A deliberate attempt is made to insinuate that the videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok, where Muslims advocate against social distancing and ask fellow Muslims to place their faith in Namaz and Allah instead, was somehow created by Hindus to make Muslims fall sick. This when there is enough evidence to indicate that the videos were created by Muslims themselves.

The maker of one such video, Sameer Khan, had later tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus. Another Muslim man who had posted a video of himself wiping currency notes on his face and declaring that the virus was Allah’s punishment was later arrested by the Police. Furthermore, Maulana Saad of Markaz Nizamuddin, which has become the largest vector of the coronavirus, had himself offered sermons where he urged his followers to defy government guidelines on social distancing. Under such circumstances, there is absolutely no reason to doubt that the videos of Muslims on TikTok advocating against social distancing and calling the virus “Allah’s NRC” was indeed created by Muslims themselves. The effort by NYT to insinuate otherwise is further evidence of their rabid Hinduphobia.

Apart from the usual accusations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi running a ‘Hindu Nationalist’ government and pursuing ‘majoritarian’ policies, the report engages in victim-mongering in significant measure. The authors managed to conjure some scared Muslims suffering from paranoia and a persecution complex and elicited responses from them that cements their narrative. The report also made a reference to the anti-Hindu Delhi riots in February and gave their readers the impression that it was an anti-Muslim pogrom.

“The government should not have played the blame game,” Khalid Rasheed, the chairman of Islamic Center of India, was quoted as saying. “If you present the cases based on somebody’s religion in your media briefings,’’ he said, “it creates a big divide.” “Coronavirus may die,” he added, “but the virus of communal disharmony will be hard to kill when this is over.” Again, the reporters did not make it a point to mention the fact that mentioning the Tablighi Jamaat cases separately is necessary in order to prevent the masses fro panicking. Instead, NYT allows Rasheed to engage in his own self-serving propaganda.

Past Antecedents of NYT – Fake News Unlimited

The report by NYT is just another instance of its unabashed propaganda against India and the ruling dispensation in the country. The NYT has a history of peddling anti-India narratives, whether it be the events that transpired in the aftermath of the Balakot Airstrikes or Narendra Modi in general. In the past, it has published racist cartoons to denigrate India right after the Mangalyaan Mission. In one article, NYT claimed that as the 2019 general elections were closing in, Modi’s popularity was on a low and the “rejuvenated opposition was landing punch after punch with corruption allegations. But one bombing in Kashmir, and weeks of military brinkmanship with Pakistan afterward, appears to have interrupted Mr. Modi’s slump.”

NYTimes’ former Delhi bureau chief Ellen Barry had also indulged in white-washing the 2002 Godhra carnage where as many as 59 people were burnt alive in a train. She had also spread lies to insult the victims of Godhra carnage in her report on the Gulbarg Society verdict. NYTimes also encourages troll-like behaviour while reporting on democratically elected public representatives by attempting to trivialise the personal lives of female politicians.

Chandigarh: VIP elites in quarantine throw tantrums, demand gourmet bread and ice cream

OpIndia Staff
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Chandigarh: VIP elites in quarantine throw tantrums, demand gourmet bread and ice cream

VIP elites quarantined in Chandigarh demand imported items and gourmet food while throwing tantrums. As per an Indian Express report, the VIPs, instead of making to do with whichever fruits and vegetables are available amidst nationwide lockdown are upset over unavailability of fresh strawberries, gourmet bread and fancy ice cream.

As per reports, the administration has been bombarded with the demands of freshly-baked bread from Nik Bakers, ice-cream from Baskin Robbins, olive oil from Figaro and kiwi fruit. BJP Councillor Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu while speaking to Indian Express said that he has given one pass to three volunteers to help the people to get their basic ration, but he has been dealing with a lot of tantrums now. He said, that one of the VIP threw a temper fit and demanded strawberries instead of making do with whatever was provided. Inder Singh Sidhu deals with the VIP population of the sector 1 to 11.

Sidhu further added that some are also demanding freshly baked bread from specific store only, thereby adding more strain on the already stressed out force. He further added they these VIPs flour the lockdown guidelines and go for walks. Earlier, some residents had that the VIPs don’t follow the guidelines even go for a walk. Earlier, some elites in Chandigarh had even made a list of domestic help who should be given passes so that they could come to their house for cleaning and household work. Not only that, they have also demanded passes for their salon women, barbers and fruit juice vendors.

Read: Did you know that the concept of ‘quarantine’ emerged from Italy? Here is what it means

Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla who deals in another VIP lot in Sectors 27 and 28 said that he receives hundreds of calls from people in his ward demanding only branded stuff including liquor without realizing that liquor isn’t available in lockdown. Babla said also said that the VIPs demand particular brand milk and milk powder and ice cream as well as high-end liquor amidst the lockdown.

The entitled behaviour is not limited to just unreasonable demands. The VIP elites in Chandigarh recently threatened an administration officer with legal consequences for not being able to arrange for the exotic fruits and vegetables.

Despite repeated govt appeal, 6000+ Tablighi Jamaat members still ‘underground’, mobiles phones switched off: Report

OpIndia Staff
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Despite repeated govt appeal, 6000+ Tablighi Jamaat members still ‘underground’, mobiles phones switched off: Report

The Tablighi Jamaat congregation has prolonged the entire process of containment of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus in the country, compelling the government to extend the nationwide lockdown by another 19 days. Despite all the efforts, fears of an uncontrollable outbreak are growing, as many potential carriers of the virus are still untraceable.

According to what has been revealed in the investigation of Crime Branch, more than nine thousand people of Tablighi Jamaat had gathered in Nizamuddin Markaz, out of which only 3193 have been identified. 

Tablighi Jamaat members absconding:

While authorities across India are scrambling to locate, test and isolate thousands of people spread across the country after attending a religious gathering at a mosque in the capital, that has become a hot spot for the virus, India TV reports that almost 6000+ Tablighi Jamaat members are still underground. These absconders have switched off their mobile phones and despite repeated government appeals, they are not willing to come forward.

Till date, the states have been tracing those who attended the event at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. Each infected Jamaatis who has gone underground has the potential to infect 1000s of other people, directly or indirectly.

Dozens of incidents of people who have attended the Tablighi Jamaat hiding in mosques and madrasas have emerged, and many of them have tested positive for coronavirus.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra on Monday also took to Twitter to claim that 6,000 Tablighi Jamaat members, who attended a congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in March, are yet to be traced.

“These people are not coming forward on their own. Their mobile phones are switched off. What is their intention? Who is helping them to hide?,” asked Mishra.

765 out of 3100 Jamaatis test coronavirus positive:

According to the report, out of the 3193 jamaatis identifies, 765 have been reported to be coronavirus positive. The rest are housed in different quarantine centres across states. They are being specially monitored.

A week ago, the authorities had detected 102 people in 13 mosques in the Chandni Mahal area of Delhi. 52 of them have tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus. Furthermore, three of them have died in three days due to the virus. 

Of the Jamaatis holed up in two mosques of Jahangirpuri, 10 were from Bangladesh, 14 from West Bengal and two from Assam. The reports of all these are yet to come. 

Out of the 3000+, Tablighi Jamaat attendees identified, 765 corona positives have been kept in different hospitals. Among these, LNJP Hospital in Delhi has the highest number of 385 patients admitted there. There are 152 patients in AIIMS of Jhajjar, 136 in Delhi’s Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital. Similarly, 84 patients are housed at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. 

The rest of the 2000+ attendees have been shifted to different quarantine facilities. The Quarantine Center in Narela, Delhi has the highest number of 937 members. Likewise, 194 in Sultanpuri, 123 in Bakkarwala, 131 in Dwarka and 157 Jamaatis were isolated in the Quarantine Center in Badarpur. Similarly, there are 143 in Tughlakabad, 307 in Jogbai, 60 in Wazirabad, 94 in the staff quarters of Mandoli Jail in Jamati Quarantine. In Saket, Chhatarpur Temple, Gulab Bagh, Rouse Avenue and Jahangirpuri too, many Jamaatis have been kept in different quarantine facilities. 

The massive jump of cases in India is solely due to the Tablighi Jamaat members who had gathered in the Nizamuddin mosque despite government orders against mass-gatherings. The Jamaat members taking buses and trains to their respective localities all over India has resulted in a massive nation-wide spread within a span of few days. As per government reports, thousands of Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their primary contacts have so far been quarantined.

Ambedkar Jayanti: In 2019, casteism was the only hope of ‘liberals’ to stop Modi

Abhishek Banerjee
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Ambedkar Jayanti: In 2019, casteism was the only hope of ‘liberals’ to stop Modi

What did Dr. Ambedkar want? The title of his most famous book makes it quite clear. The Annihilation of Caste. He was not a man who would mince his words.

Today as the nation remembers Dr. Ambedkar on his 129th birth anniversary, let us go beyond the token tributes and ask the really important questions. Who in contemporary India really stands against casteism? And who stands to gain the most when Hindus are divided on caste lines?

The answer is fairly obvious. In 2019, the opposition to Modi had no clear leader and no coherent agenda. The opposition had only one backup plan: casteism.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BSP and the SP had been poles apart for decades. But the arch rivals decided to fight the 2019 election in a Gathbandhan. Not only the two parties themselves, there was also intense pressure from within the liberal ecosystem for the two parties to come together. Nobody wanted to ask what two regional parties, with a total footprint of around 80 seats, had to offer in terms of a national agenda. Instead they added up the share in population of Yadavs and Dalits and decided that, along with Muslims, this was a winning formula.

In other words, Uttar Pradesh was presented with a clear choice. Modi vs caste.

Incidentally, the Congress stayed out of the alliance, seemingly for strategic reasons. It was expected that the Congress would put up upper caste candidates, thereby cutting into the BJP’s votes. That way, the Congress could be more useful outside the alliance than inside it.

Caste, caste, caste… they had nothing else to offer.

Read: Why are Muslims, including the Tablighi Jamaat indulging in violence and defying lockdown: The answer lies in what Babasaheb Ambedkar said

In Maharashtra, India’s second most populous state, the strategy was quite similar. All through the 2014 to 2019 period, there were a number of attempts to provoke the Marathas against so called ‘Brahmin rule,’ a direct reference to the caste of then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. When that didn’t work, the ultra left set up flash points like Koregaon-Bhima. Memories of a 200 year old war with Maratha soldiers on one side and Dalit soldiers on the other were used to provoke violence in January 2018.

In the caste conflict planned by the left, the winners would neither have been Marathas nor Dalits. The winners would have been Lutyens liberals who had been writhing in pain since losing the 2014 election. Just like the Battle of Koregaon in 1818, where the real winner was the British East India Company.

Like the British, the ‘secular’ opposition bats on the side of a different caste group in each state. In Haryana, they are all about consolidating the Jats against a Chief Minister who happens to be a Khatri from Punjab. But doesn’t the Congress also have huge stakes in Punjab? Who cares? Different states, different demographic combinations, but the same policy of Divide and Rule.

Read: 10 things Ambedkar said that Indian secularists wouldn’t bear to hear

It gets better. Sometimes, the caste strategy of the secular opposition can reverse itself between two successive elections in the same state. In PM Modi’s home state of Gujarat, the strategy was to stop the BJP using Hardik Patel. Incidentally, there are two subgroups among Patels : Kadva Patels and Leuva Patels. Now, Hardik happens to be a Kadva Patel. This means that the Congress 2017 Assembly election strategy was built around courting Kadva Patels, projecting Modi as pro-Leuva Patels. This is ironic, because the 2012 Assembly election strategy of Congress was all about courting Leuva Patels using the newly formed Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) and projecting Modi as pro-Kadva Patels.

This may seem funny, but it really isn’t. Because this is the kind of pathetic politics that has kept India from becoming a superpower.

The creativity of casteist politics does not end here. In Karnataka, the Congress is up against B S Yediyurappa, who happens to be a Lingayat. So in 2014, the ruling Congress in Karnataka decided to bring a bill that would allow them to take over religious mutts, the obvious targets being the Lingayat mutts all across the state. But the bill was met with fierce protests and it fell through.

With Plan A failing, the Congress did a perfect U-turn on caste politics in Karnataka. Plan B was to stop fighting the Lingayats and instead project the party as their savior. Just before the 2018 Assembly elections, the party announced hastily that Lingayats were now a separate religion and thus entitled to benefits of being a minority!

When Plan B didn’t deliver good enough results, the Congress came up with Plan C. Ally with the JDS and secure the votes of the Vokkaliga caste!

If only all this creativity had gone into nation building instead of playing one caste against another.

Read: Babasaheb Ambedkar: A scholar, a Nationalist and a visionary wrongly appropriated by the Left

I could go on and on about other states, how the ‘secular’ opposition plays caste politics in Bihar, in Andhra Pradesh and so on. But you get the point.

Caste is a system of hereditary privilege. When we examine any system of privilege, we have to ask : who benefits?

With all its talk of social justice, the Congress got away with over six decades of submission to a single upper caste family from the Hindi heartland. Incidentally, the Congress did have a Dalit President for a while in Sitaram Kesri. Reportedly, he was locked in the toilet to make way for you know who. By the way, don’t miss the symbolism of the toilet here.

Today, even the most loyal Congress supporter in the world would not bet on Rahul Gandhi, except perhaps to show off his “janeudhari” status. No! The politics of India’s secular opposition runs on casteism.

In 2019, India rejected the politics of caste. That was one step towards fulfilling Dr. Ambedkar’s dream.

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