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Rana Ayyub, William Dalrymple share old picture of curfew defaulters being punished as that of migrant labourers

OpIndia Staff
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Rana Ayyub, William Dalrymple share old picture of curfew defaulters being punished as that of migrant labourers

As India fights Wuhan coronavirus, propagandists masquerading as ‘journalists’ and ‘historians’ seem to have taken upon themselves to spread misinformation. ‘Journalist’ Rana Ayyub today took to Twitter to share an image of some men made to squat and hold their ears as punishment. The men were standing on side of a road in a line.

Rana Ayyub’s now-deleted tweet

In a now-deleted tweet, Ayyub claimed that the labourers were being punished for leaving the lockdown. However, the image is not of labourers being punished but is of those who broke the curfew last week. As pointed out by Twitter user @AttomeyBharti, the image is from 24th March, 2020 from Kanpur.

24th March, 2020 image shared by Rana Ayyub as recent

As per ABP News, the above men were punished by the Kanpur Police for flouting lockdown guidelines in wake of coronavirus pandemic on 24th March, 2020, Tuesday.

The same image was also shared by ‘historian’ and author William Dalrymple with similar claims.

Now deleted tweet of William Dalrymple.

Dalrymple, too, has now deleted the tweet.

However, even before Rana Ayyub and William Dalrymple tweeted the misleading image, it was shared by Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union’s official Twitter account.

JNUSU tweet

The JNUSU tweet is still not deleted, though. An archived version of the same can be accessed here.

Nirbhaya and the Nation get closure, but the Death Penalty debate still rages on

Stuti S.
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Nirbhaya and the Nation get closure, but the Death Penalty debate still rages on

The deliberations on death penalty gained significance in public discourse the day Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi and her father Badrinath Singh began proceeding from one court to another in search of justice for their daughter, who India named Nirbhaya. 

“Today, you have received justice,” Asha Devi told her daughter’s picture, as she hugged it on the morning of March 20, 2020. 

5:30 am, at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, her daughter’s brutal killers had finally hung to death. The day commenced with full-day news coverage and people on the road holding banners, chanting slogans in celebration. 

But for Nirbhaya’s parents, this morning arrived after a prolonged night of seven years and three months. Like many, they were let down by the system on various occasions. 

The convicts’ counsels applied all delay tactics while exploiting legal loopholes to hold back this morning from Nirbhaya’s parents and the nation. A few women’s right organisations wrote letters to the president to stay the execution. Not far from the hanging, lawyer and activist Indira Jaising even “urged” Asha Devi to forgive her daughter’s criminals and emulate Sonia Gandhi, who forgave her husband’s assassins.

Asha Devi was disgusted at Jaising’s request and responded with allegations that it was because of people like her that rapists could manipulate the system. She accused human rights activists of snubbing the rights of victims to fund their business beneath the guise of activism. “I am no saint. I am a mother of a daughter, who has lost her life. I want justice. Even if God were to ask me to forgive them, I will not.” Asha Devi had stated.

The brutality of that wintery night sent a chill down the nation’s spine, stirring massive public outrage and demonstrations against a lack of security for women and the demand for capital punishment to Nirbhaya’s sadistic killers. Her case redefined India’s rape laws.  

The details are graphic, not nearly as horrific as what transpired that night, but a starting point in understanding why Asha Devi cannot forgive her daughter’s predators as some have suggested. 

On an ordinary night in New Delhi’s December, when Nirbhaya and her friend couldn’t get a single auto rickshaw to drop them home after a movie, they had to settle for a private bus with less than ten passengers. The bus with tinted glasses drove only a little ahead when someone switched off the lights. 

Six barbarians beat Nirbhaya’s friend with iron rods and dragged her to the rear of the bus raping her brutally in turns. She was bitten all over the body and subjected to unnatural sex. They did unspeakable things to her, but fatal was the iron rod which they forced inside her private organs till her intestines tore and came out. For an hour and over 30 kilometres, they ignored her calls for mercy.

Reduced to an object, Nirbhaya passed out. Assuming her dead, the six discarded her and her friend naked from the bus and onto the road, attempting to crush them to death. But Nirbhaya’s friend pulled them away in time. With a stroke of delayed luck, the two survived long enough to be discovered and driven to Safdarjung Hospital. Nirbhaya entered the hospital with her lips split, cuts and bruises over her body, drenched in blood with barely five per cent intestines left inside her. 

After surgery, she longed for even a drop of water which her critical condition did not allow, till whatever remained of her life. According to Asha Devi, she would always regret not fulfilling her daughter’s wish. 

The doctors had exhausted everything that could have saved her. She was flown to Singapore for multiple surgeries but was declared dead from sepsis and multiple organ failure on December 29, 2012. The doctors claimed Nirbhaya only lived this long when she should have died on the road that night because of her strong-will to survive. 

Justice was delayed but served, and the country shared collective relief. However, not everyone shared the sigh. UN secretary-general’s spokesperson–Stéphane Dujarric–reiterated UN’s stand against death sentences after the hanging, while Amnesty International India went as far as to call it a ‘dark stain‘ on India’s human rights record. 

Portals published articles singing justice from the perspectives of convicts and their kin. But it must not be assumed that since their criminals have hung, stories of Nirbhaya and the many victims should disappear. She was a victim. And death to her killers should mean neither the last word on the torture she endured nor spell for her parents, further misery.

Those against capital punishment in India share broadly these concerns: that the death penalty is state-sponsored murder and vengeance, making the state a criminal. It violates rights to equality and life even as no data supports its deterrence effect. It is an irreversible punishment pronounced by a fallible system. The social and psychiatric circumstances of criminals or the influencers behind their behaviour such as illiteracy, poverty etc. are overlooked. 

One of Nirbhaya’s rapists who allegedly committed suicide inside his cell became more aggressive after Nirbhaya bit him to protect herself. He was the one who inspired the juvenile with “Let’s go have some fun.” Their conspiracy stretched to the aftermath of the crime when they destroyed evidence to live the lives of innocents, dividing the loot from that hellish night among themselves, displaying no transgression. They pleaded not guilty. 

Asha Devi observed the convicts were unapologetic and even cracked jokesduring trials. A few years ago awaiting justice for Nirbhaya, she described her family passing each day in agony, dying a slow death. The banned documentary–India’s Daughter, which released three years after the horrific gang-rape, exposed how one convict remained unrepentant. He held Nirbhaya accountable for the “accident”, calling the night a lesson for her. 

Abolitionists insist we are obligated to reform and rehabilitate all criminals and analyse poverty as a foundation of that reasoning that leads to rape. But surely one can’t presume them all within the scope of recovery? Moreover, do the wealthy and high-profile never rape or kill? Nirbhaya’s rapists were poor. But so was she. A limit in extending reform is not unrealistic; neither is it to accept that some may be past it. 

Apropos deterrence, not the severity of the death sentence but its promptness and certainty(something lacking in our system) drives deterrence. A couple of months ago when asked if death penalties were a solution despite nothing changing in seven years, Asha Devi replied, “I want to ask you, has even one convict been executed for rape, in seven years even Nirbhaya’s rapists didn’t hang, how can we hope to examine if it brought about change or not?” 

So is data on capital punishment as an inefficient deterrent the closing word upon it? R Basant, Senior Advocate, arguesthat reliable empirical data on deterrence may never be found. How can one find the number of crimes notcommitted from fear of the death penalty? How do you record crimes that didn’t occur? He recommends comparing data from periods with and without a death penalty to expect fair results. 

But India has always had capital punishments since independence, and an escalation in capital offences could be from numerous unobservable and subjective factors influencing crime rates, hence such data may be an inaccurate indication on its own. 

Advocate Basant also shared a thought that Indira Gandhi would have been murdered much earlier if her bodyguards didn’t think they’d be killed for their crime, asserting that deterrence is perceptible subjectively, but difficult to determine empirically.

As J Sai Deepak, Advocate, putsit, it is a terrible logic to say hanging doesn’t reduce crimes as that approach questions the very existence of concepts of law and punishment and their utility as deterrents.

Obstacles in keeping reform open to allinclude repeat offenders and risks associated with granting bails, amidst recurring instances of out-on-bail criminals assaulting their victims and other citizens. Last year in Kota, a 36-year-old rape survivor along with her husband, was stabbed by a rapist. In Jharkhand, a gang-rape victim’s father was murdered by five accused men. This year two men accused of raping a minor were arrested for killingher mother. In February, a man from Gujarat raped and killed his 6-year-old niece. All of them were out on bail.

Activists rightly pinpoint that about 100 countries abolished capital punishment. Yet it is also true that South African citizens are demanding the death penalty back. A petition is up with more than 6 lakh signatures, demanding capital punishment for crimes against women. 

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte expressed a similar view for return of the death penalty for drug traffickers. The USA recently restored the penalty for federal inmates. Russia, with a moratorium, has more people asking for a death sentence for hardened criminals in 2019 than two years before, with half the population now favouringno moratorium.

As per a YouGov poll, 58% Britons approved the death sentence for murders in terrorist acts, 57% for multiple murderers, 53% for the murders of children and 47% for murders of police officers. 

India is one of the retentionist countries keeping a death penalty, first constitutionally upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, in Jagmohan vs State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1973 SC 947.

A constitutional bench in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab,AIR 1980 SC 898,provided the doctrine of”rarest of rare” to be applied when alternatives are dismissed indubitably, i.e. onlywhen a murder is committed in an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community.

In the Machhi Singh vs State of Punjab, AIR 1983 SC 957case, the supreme court ruled the criteria for cases to fall in “rarest of rare” ambit. These covered “manner of commission of murder, motive for commission for murder, socially abhorrent nature of the crime, magnitude of the crime and personality of victim of murder.” 

With these guidelines,inter alia, it is to be assessed whether something unusual about the crime makes life imprisonment insufficient and whether the death penalty is unavoidable despite due consideration to mitigating circumstances in the offender’s favour. 

The Indian judicial system further provides the accused with adequate opportunities through a hierarchy of courts from trial and conviction to curative and mercy petitions for them to commute their sentence and be spared gallows. As per National Crime Records Bureau, from 2328 convicts awarded capital punishment between 2001 to 2018, only four convicts faced execution. No rulings are furnished hurriedly. Besides, as seen in Nirbhaya’s case, the delay only serves the convicts. 

This inordinate delay in receiving justice, some contend, is why the public applauds encounters. The supreme court has recently agreed to examine the centre’s plea for ‘victim and society-centric’ directions in death penalty cases to confront this matter.

The UN condemns capital punishment. Nonetheless, as per Article 6(2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, countries which retain capital punishment are instructed to use it solely for grave crimes following the law in force after a competent court announces a judgement.As noted above, India strictly obeys the same, awarding capital punishment onlyas an exception in extreme cases while life imprisonment remains the rule. 

Responding to one of centre’s requests for an opinion on abolishing the death penalty, from 14 States and 5 Union Territories, 90% favoured to retain it. In 2018, the Punjab Government under Captain Amrinder Singh suggested the centre to consider the death penalty for drug smuggling. According to Singh, drug menace ruined generations in Punjab requiring exemplary punishment.

Defending the death penalty neither rejects the necessity of reforms in policing and vigilance nor supports indiscriminate use of the state’s monopoly on violence. Crimes must be fitted with proportionate punishments. And that is not an ‘eye for an eye’.

Crime and punishment morally differ; they are not one of the “two wrongs” which don’t make a right. To call the death penalty murder and violation of life is to call a jail-term kidnap and violation of personal liberty. Both rights are subject to the procedure established by law. Killings are not morally equitable either. You can’t equate Nirbhaya’s killing/murder with the killing/punishment sentenced to her murderers. 

Justice is impartial, rational and provides closure. It is detached and restricted with limits. Revenge is emotional, personal and retaliatory. No one in India is granted capital punishment without a thorough and fair trial first. Further, all improvements wanted in the legal system can be worked upon even with the penalty in force. 

One of the surgeons treating Nirbhaya said he had never witnessed a patient like her with cruel and incurable injuries inflicted by a human, in almost 40 years of his practice. If the gory, gut-wrenching details of how Nirbhaya was subjected to fatal gang-rape do not ace the tests of rarest of the rare, inviting the maximum punishment of death penalty, what will? 

COVID-19 Lockdown: How IIT-D students’ initiative to help on-campus rickshaw-pullers inspired the Institute to set up the ‘Benevolent Fund’

OpIndia Staff
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COVID-19 Lockdown: How IIT-D students’ initiative to help on-campus rickshaw-pullers inspired the Institute to set up the ‘Benevolent Fund’

Days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an extended nationwide lockdown, the Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi, realising the gravity of the situation amidst the coronavirus outbreak had already announced a 16-days suspension of the college starting March 15. The institute authorities had sent an email to the students on March 13, asking them to go home and informing them about the suspension of the classes till March 31 due to the threat posed by the novel covid-19.

The impact of the closure had a profound impact on the daily earnings of the rickshaw-pullers operating inside the campus. From earning Rs 500- Rs 600 per day, their daily incomes had drastically reduced to Rs 20-Rs 30, owing to the discontinuation of the classes. Alarmed by the fact that the temporary closure of the institute has dramatically affected the livelihood of rickshaw-pullers inside the campus, some enterprising students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi took it upon themselves to provide financial assistance to the rickshaw pullers.

Spearheaded by Adarsh Kumar, a fourth-year Civil engineering student at the campus, an initiative to provide monetary aid to the rickshaw-pullers was launched under the aegis of An Initiative for National Advancement(AINA), a social service group of volunteers from IIT-D, working towards making a better India. Kumar, the overall-coordinator at AINA, along with other members such as Divyanshu Saxena from Computer Science branch took to Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms to crowdsource money for the hapless rickshaw-pullers and alleviate their financial woes for the time being.

While talking to OpIndia, Kumar said that their initiative of pooling money for the rickshaw-pullers struck a chord with the faculty members as well the Institute’s Director V. Ramgopal Rao who also made monetary contributions towards the fund raised by AINA.

“After the suspension was announced by the college authorities, we saw that the rickshaw-pullers were really struggling to earn their daily livelihood. Their daily earning had staggeringly dropped from Rs500/700 to a paltry Rs 20 per day. It is then that we envisaged an idea of crowdsourcing funds to help the rickshaw-pullers tide over this difficult phase. Through AINA, we reached out to everyone willing to contribute to this cause. Faculty members also joined in. Our venerable Director V Rao Sir also made a contribution of Rs 5000 in this fund,” Kumar said.

Stressing the importance of transparency in such initiatives, Kumar said that whatever amount they had collected was disbursed to the rickshaw-pullers and the payment and contact details were uploaded on Google Drive link for anyone to verify to it. On March 26, Kumar uploaded a post on his Facebook page, announcing that they have almost reached their target amount and disbursed money to 17 rickshaw-pullers.

IIT-D student Adarsh Kumar’s post on Facebook informing about the disbursement of money to rickshaw-pullers

“There are 17 rickshaw-pullers in the Institute campus. Through our sustained efforts, we were able to pool Rs 120,000. We then dispersed Rs 7000 each to the rickshaw-pullers,” said Divyanshu Saxena, a fourth-year Computer Science student, who was also actively involved with Kumar in the initiative to provide financial support to the rickshaw-pullers.

Divyanshu mentions that their initiative kindled the College administration to institutionalise a “Benevolent Fund” to be better equipped in helping the underprivileged and daily-wage workers who depend upon the institution for their livelihood. Divyanshu was also a member of the committee along with various deans, faculty members and the Institute Director that created the “Benevolent Fund”.

The IIT-D Director V Ramgopal Rao sent an email to students, faculties, alumni and staff members to inform about the voluntary initiative taken up by the college students to provide living allowance to the rickshaw-pullers on the campus. He also added that the administration has decided to expand on the initiative and to “carry it beyond the present crisis” and a ‘Benevolent Fund’ has been established which would receive voluntary contributions from the donors in a formal and transparent manner for meeting the needs of the campus community members belonging to the lower rung of the economic ladder.

“A committee chaired by me would oversee the fund collection, disbursement and transparency of its operation. Prof. M.R Ravi of Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is vice-chairperson of the committee, would oversee the activities of the committee,” the mail sent by Director Rao read.

“It is the matter of honour and pride that your institution recognises your efforts and expands it to cover other underprivileged members of the community on campus. There are at least 1000 people on campus who would stand to benefit from this Benevolent Fund,” Adarsh said.

Ai Fen, doctor in Wuhan, who was first to raise alarm over Wuhan Coronavirus, disappears in China after criticizing authorities

OpIndia Staff
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Ai Fen, doctor in Wuhan, who was first to raise alarm over Wuhan Coronavirus, disappears in China after criticizing authorities

Ai Fen, director of the emergency at Wuhan Central hospital, has disappeared after criticizing Chinese authorities over their handling of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. She was the first person to raise the alarm over the virus. Her whereabouts remain unknown. She had alerted her superiors and colleagues of a SARS-like virus seen in patients in December, however, she was reprimanded. Eventually, after seeing so many people die, she criticized the authorities for suppressing early warnings of the outbreak in an interview. The Chinese government has subsequently been trying hard to get the interview off the internet.

It was only two weeks ago that Ai Fen had gone public with her story and spoken to a Chinese magazine, Renwu.

“If I had known what was to happen, I would not have cared about the reprimand. I would have fucking talked about it to whoever, where ever I could,” she said in the interview, as reported by The Guardian. On the 30th of December, Ai had received the lab test results of a patient suffering from flu-like symptoms and resistant to the usual treatment methods. It said ‘SARS Coronavirus’. She took a picture of the results and sent it to a former medical school classmate. By evening, the photo had spread across medical circles in Wuhan.

Read: As the world grapples with Wuhan Coronavirus, China engages in daylight robbery, theft and increased military activity: Read how

The same night, Ai Fen received a message from the authorities at her hospital saying that information about this new disease should not be released arbitrarily in order to avoid causing panic. Two days later, after being summoned by the head of the hospital’s disciplinary inspection committee, she was reprimanded for “spreading rumours” and “harming stability”. Subsequently, the staff was forbidden from passing messages or images related to the virus.

“We watched more and more patients come in as the radius of the spread of infection became larger,” Ai Fen said as the doctors began seeing patients with no connection to the epicentre of the pandemic in Wuhan, its wet market. “I knew there must be human to human transmission,” she said. Her observation was eventually confirmed by the Chinese authorities on the 21st of January when cases had already increased exponentially.

After this interview went public two weeks ago, President Xi ordered her interview erased from the internet. Dr Ai Fen herself has disappeared now, whereabouts unknown.

Read: WHO chief who shielded China in the wake of Wuhan Coronavirus had covered up other epidemics in the past: Here are the details

Ai Fen, however, denied that she is a whistleblower. “I am the one who provided the whistle,” she insisted. Nevertheless she has disappeared now, as so many dissidents in China often do, and her whereabouts are unknown. Dr Li Wenliang, the doctor who had tried to warn others about a SARS-like epidemic in Wuhan, had died on February 7, after days of treating coronavirus infected patients at a hospital in Wuhan. He was also one of the doctors who were warned by Wuhan authorities not to ‘spread rumours’. The Chinese authorities issued an apology to the family of the deceased doctor for the manner in which he was treated when he was alive.

Congress MP from Kerala’s Kasaragod, hotspot of coronavirus outbreak, moves Supreme Court seeking opening of Karnataka-Kerala border to ambulances, essential items

OpIndia Staff
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Congress MP from Kerala’s Kasaragod, hotspot of coronavirus outbreak, moves Supreme Court seeking opening of Karnataka-Kerala border to ambulances, essential items

The Congress Member of Parliament from Kasaragod, Kerala, which is one of the hot-spots of the coronavirus outbreak in the country has approached the apex court seeking directions to the Karnataka government to open Karnataka-Kerala border for the movement of ambulances, other emergency vehicles and for the transport of other essential and non-essential items to Kerala.

The petition filed by Unnithan sought directions to Karnataka to allow the movement of ambulances, emergency vehicles, trucks and other vehicles carrying essential and non-essential items to Kerala. It also sought to put a stay on the blockade imposed by Karnataka with its border states. The petition said that the enforcement of a blockade at a critical time like this when the supply of commodities is scarce and when a medical emergency has plagued the entire country is a clear violation of Articles 21 and 19(d) of the Constitution.

“This blockade has also resulted in cutting off the essential lifeline of National Highways and State Highways and Major District Roads leading to the State of Kerala which has resulted in the shortage of supply of essential and non-essential items to the State of Kerala leading to shortage supply of food and medical supplies,” the plea said while seeking a stay on the blockade from the Supreme Court for the movement of ambulances and essential items between Kerala and Karnataka.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country is on a steady rise with Kerala being the worst-hit by the contagion and alone contributing 194 to the nationwide tally of 1071. Most of the cases registered in Kerala have a travel history to middle-east countries, particularly to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

It is noteworthy to mention that Kasaragod has emerged as one of the hotbeds of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. A couple of days back, 34 news cases of COVID-19 were registered in the town in a single day, surpassing the previous high of 28 cases, raising alarms for the state administration.

With the coronavirus cases soaring, state governments across the nation have mandated state-wide lockdown of cities, towns and villages, along with state borders, to curb the insidious spread of the deadly contagion that has so far affected 721,000 people globally and rendered about 25000 dead.

On similar lines, Karnataka has sealed its borders as the tally of coronavirus patients increases. Reacting to the alarming surge in the number of the cases of the enigmatic contagion in the neighbouring state of Kerala, Karnataka has fortified all the entry/exit points between Manguluru and Kasaragod, to prevent any influx of people from Kerala and stave off a crisis as faced by the Uttar Pradesh government after migrant workers in Delhi congregated at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.

Street war in Kolkata during lockdown: Councillors Shams Iqbal and Rahmat Alam Ansari booked as their supporters throw bombs at each other

OpIndia Staff
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Street war in Kolkata during lockdown: Councillors Shams Iqbal and Rahmat Alam Ansari booked as their supporters throw bombs at each other

While the entire nation is under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic around the world, police personnel and health care professionals are burdened with not only keeping the disease at bay but are also struggling to prevent healthier people from violating curfew and create law and order situations.

In Kolkata late on Sunday night, a vicious street war had reportedly broken out in Ward No 134 and 137, allegedly between two rival Councillors and their supporters. As per a report in India Today, the street battle went on throughout the night, and locals were forced to inform the police.

The street-war occurred in the Kachhi Sadak area on Sunday night. Even police personnel were allegedly assaulted in the fight.

The report states that Kolkata police have informed that FIRs have been registered against the Councillors of the two Wards, namely Shams Iqbal and Rahmat Alam Ansari, for violating lockdown orders and rioting.

Locals have reportedly informed that supporters of the two Councillors were hurling bombs and abuses at each other. As per reports, 7 persons in total have so far been arrested by the police. The area is reportedly a minority-dominated locality which often sees violence, especially in the time of elections.

RSS comes to the rescue of Pakistani Hindus amidst Coronavirus lockdown: Here are some pictures

OpIndia Staff
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RSS comes to the rescue of Pakistani Hindus amidst Coronavirus lockdown: Here are some pictures

The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) has always been the frontrunners at times of natural calamities or disasters. The attitude of selfless service and nation above individual interests motivate the volunteers to step in and help local communities. Their endeavour has remained unchanged even in the wake of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak.

At a time when migrant workers are fleeing home with no jobs, the Pakistani Hindus living in squalor in Adarsh Nagar has found a new light of hope. It is important to remember how these persecuted and marginalised group was ostracised by the left-liberal jamaat during the Anti-CAA agitation. Nonetheless, The RSS volunteers met those living as destitute in India and provided them ration.

RSS member handing out ration
Ration
Coronavirus: RSS distributes rice, wheat and essential items to Pak Hindus
Queue to collect ration
Coronavirus: RSS distributes rice, wheat and essential items to Pak Hindus
RSS member handing out ration
Coronavirus: RSS distributes rice, wheat and essential items to Pak Hindus
RSS member handing out ration

In Odisha and Karnataka, RSS Swayamsevaks have distributed masks and have conducted awareness drives. In Madhya Pradesh, they have sanitised an entire village while in Kerala, Swayamsevaks and Seva Bharti volunteers have been assisting police and fire services in cleaning and disinfection works.

Earlier, in a viral video, RSS workers are seen cleaning hospital beds and brooming floors in a bid to help the hospital authorities. Senior functionaries have revealed that around 70,000 daily shakhas of RSS and its affiliate organisations have been asked to prioritise the fight against COVID-19. Meanwhile, the top brass of the organisation is closely monitoring the situation on the ground.

UP: TOI journalist fear-mongers, insinuates that disinfectant spray is ‘chemical solution’ to kill humans

OpIndia Staff
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UP: TOI journalist fear-mongers, insinuates that disinfectant spray is ‘chemical solution’ to kill humans

While the world struggles to combat the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, it was expected that the mainstream media at least now would set aside their political partisanship and strive hard to cover the events objectively. However, that hasn’t been the case yet and it appears that things are unlikely to improve anytime soon. Even as Wuhan Coronavirus poses a severe threat to the safety and security of the country, journalists continue to engage in fearmongering and rumour-mongering to undermine the efforts being made by the central and state governments.

On Monday, Kanwardeep Singh, a journalist with Times of India, shared a video of Uttar Pradesh Police spraying people with disinfectants in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. He suggested that the people were being showered with toxic chemical substances that could potentially kill them. He said, “Who r u trying to kill, Corona or humans? Migrant labourers and their families were forced to take bath in chemical solution upon their entry in Bareilly.”

Via Twitter

In the video, it could be seen that people wearing hazmat suits were spraying disinfectant on the migrant labourers who had returned to Uttar Pradesh from elsewhere. The objective of the disinfectants is to kill the virus if it were present in the clothes of the individuals. The disinfectant does not harm people as such. However, the journalist with Times of India gave the impression that the authorities were jeopardizing the health of the migrant labourers.

A casual glimpse through the internet provides numerous pictures from abroad where authorities use a similar procedure for people arriving from elsewhere. One such photo shared in a Reuters report from the 2nd of February shows medical officers spray Indonesian nationals arriving from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the pandemic, with the antiseptic spray.

Source: Reuters

China has constructed ‘disinfectant tunnels‘ for people to walk through which supposedly kills 99% of the viruses. It’s part of China’s wide-ranged efforts towards combating the crisis within its own territory. The tunnels apparently sanitize people within 2 seconds. The tunnels are equipped with infrared detectors that activate the spray when a person walks in.

Source: Reuters

There are also other images available on the internet from other countries such as Philippines where antiseptic solution is sprayed on crowded places with people present in order to disinfect the environment. These solutions, quite obviously, pose no threat to the health of people.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – MARCH 11: A disinfection worker sprays anti-septic solution against COVID-19 aboard a firetruck along a street on March 11, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday declared a state of public health emergency as the number of people infected with COVID-19 in the country rose to 33 from just 3 cases last week. With over 115,000 confirmed cases around the world, the coronavirus has so far claimed over 4,000 lives. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

In fact, closer home in India, too, disinfectants were sprayed on people.

The tweet by the Times of India journalist is quite clearly directed towards inducing panic among people and inspire in them a distrust towards the authorities. In times of a pandemic, it is essential that citizens do not start doubting necessary tasks being carried out by the authorities. However, the journalist in his infinite wisdom appears to believe that now is a good time to engage in rumour-mongering and thereby, jeopardize the safety and security of millions of people.

After the video went viral on social media, Bareilly District Magistrate took to Twitter to clarify that the administration was asked to disinfect buses but ended up using the same on passengers as well.

An ‘action’ against those responsible has been ordered by the DM. It is still not clear if the ‘action’ has been ordered by DM due to apparent ‘demeaning’ step of making them squat on ground, or whether the chemicals were inappropriate, because that doesn’t appear to be the case. He further clarified that such mass disinfecting method is being used worldwide.

“However, while carrying it out, we should have taken care of safety and made sure people are not inconvenienced,” he tweeted.

Coronavirus lockdown: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan allows sale of liquor as ‘lack of alcohol may cause social problems’

OpIndia Staff
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Coronavirus lockdown: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan allows sale of liquor as ‘lack of alcohol may cause social problems’

The Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, on Monday announced that the state government will allow sale of alcohol amidst coronavirus lockdown to those with “valid doctor’s prescription”. He said that the sudden unavailability of alcohol may lead to social problems. Hence, the state government has asked the Excise Department to provide liquor to those with a valid doctor’s prescription. Moreover, the Department has been tasked to treat alcoholics exhibiting withdrawal symptoms in de-addiction centres in the State. The Kerala Government is also planning to start the online sale of liquors.

The decision of the Communist party government in Kerala has drawn the ire of both the Indian Medical Association and Kerala Medical Association. Dr Abraham Varghese, IMA State President, reportedly said that such a move cannot be accepted on scientific grounds. “Doctors have no legal liability to give a prescription to get them liquor,” he added stating that handing out such prescriptions may lead to cancellation of a doctor’s licence.

Even though Kerala accounted for only 1 death due to Coronavirus infection, around 9 people have died due to the unavailability of alcohol. 7 out of 9 had reportedly committed suicide. However, Kerala has the highest number (194) of coronavirus positive cases in the country as of 30th March 2020.

On Friday, a 38-year-old man had allegedly committed suicide at Thavanur near Kunnamkulam, Kerala after he failed to get liquor during the countrywide lockdown. The deceased had been identified as Sanoj. The relatives of the deceased said that he was upset for the past two days following the non-availability of alcohol. Sanoj, who worked as a painting worker was found hanging in his room in his house on Friday morning.

Arunachal Pradesh: 21-year-old Indian youth abducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army, says memorandum to Governor

OpIndia Staff
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Arunachal Pradesh: 21-year-old Indian youth abducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army, says memorandum to Governor

The Tagin Cultural Society (TCS) in Arunachal Pradesh has alleged in a memorandum to the governor that a 21-year old youth was abducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army from Asapila sector near the McMahon line in the state’s Upper Subansiri district. Togley Singkam and his friends, Gamshi Chadar and Ronya Nade, had gone to collect traditional herbs from the land belonging to the Naa clan of the Tagin community and also for fishing.

“On the fateful morning of 19th March, the three friends were busy fishing when the Chinese security personnel ambushed them. While other two friends could successfully escape, Tongle Sinkam was abducted at the gunpoint by the Chinese security personnel,” the TCS said in the memorandum to the governor. “He did not cross the LAC or any international border. On the contrary the Chinese security personnel who picked him up in inhuman way had rather transgressed into Indian territory thereby violating international norms/law that guides such matters,” it said.

The McMahon Line separates Tibet from Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the northeastern state of India as its own like it claims a lot of other territories that do not belong to it as its own. The friends of the abducted youth informed the TCS upon their return and Singkam’s family filed a complaint at the Nacho police station on the 23rd of March, the memorandum said. Upper Subansiri’s superintendent of police Taru Gusar told PTI that the Nacho police station’s officer-in-charge has been sent to the spot for a detailed inquiry. The governor’s office has confirmed that the memorandum has been received. Officials at the Army’s Eastern Command headquarters in Kolkata said they are checking the details with its personnel posted in the area.

The TCS has urged the governor to take up the matter with the Center and secure Singkam’s release. It was further said that the Tagin community lives in the border areas and such incidents make their lives miserable. The alleged abduction comes at a time when the world is struggling to grapple with the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic unleashed by China into the world. While the world’s attention remains focused on the pandemic, China has been selling faulty equipment and has upped its ante on the military front.

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