The exercise of the National Population Register and the first phase of census 2021 has been postponed due to the three-week lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid grave health crisis caused by Wuhan Coronavirus in the country, Home Ministry officials said on Wednesday. The National Population register exercises are normally carried out from April 1 to September 30.
The Home Ministry stated that census 2021 was to be scheduled to be conducted in two phases–house listing and housing census during April-September and population enumeration from February 9 to 28. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, a high alert has been declared by the center as well as the states and union territories. The update of NPR was also supposed to be done beside the phase I of census 2021 in all the states and union territories, except the state of Assam.
The first phase of Census 2021 and updating of NPR, which was supposed to begin on the dates decided by the states and the union territory governments including various related field activities are postponed until further order, said the statement of Home Ministry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown across the country from Tuesday night due to the epidemic of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus that has infected nearly 600 people in the country and has claimed 11 lives so far. Officials asserted that the Census and NPR exercise requires the enumerators to visit every household and meet people, such kind of exercise is not possible to carry out due to the prevailing situation. That’s why it has been postponed by the government.
Certain states like Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and Bihar are constantly opposing the National Population Register and some of them even adopted a resolution against NPR.
The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive database of every usual resident in the country.
In the wake of the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country, PM Modi yesterday announced a complete lockdown of India for 21 days to blunt the spread of the contagion that has so far affected hundreds. With lockdown in place, everyone is expected to stay at their homes and exercise strict social distancing to arrest the ominous spread of the disease. However, this luxury is not extended to police officials who are putting their lives on the line to ensure law and order is maintained in the country and the spread of the contagion is contained.
While most of the people remain homebound abiding by the lockdown restrictions, police officials have to venture out and discharge their duty so as to ensure the lockdown is followed in letter and spirit. This has left the family of police officials in great anxiety and distress owing to the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus.
A heartrending video of a bawling toddler trying to cling to his policeman father as he leaves for work. In the video, the child inconsolably wails as his father readies himself to leave the house for his police duty. The child tries to dissuade his father from going out saying “There is Corona outside”.
“Father, there is corona outside. There is corona outside,” the child laments. His father then tries to console him saying, “I am only going to be out for 2 minutes”. The video which is approximately half a minute long shows the child desperately begging his father to not leave the house.
The video poignantly highlights the emotional hardships faced and sacrifices made by police officials for the greater good of the society despite the palpable threat of the novel coronavirus to their lives. Similarly, doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, bankers and all others involved in indispensable services are too fighting on the frontline against the coronavirus to contain its spread and minimise the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Earlier in the day, armed terrorists and suicide bombers attacked a Gurudwara in Shor Bazar area in Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving 27 dead and at least 15 injured. According to the latest reports, the Islamic State (ISIS) has now claimed the responsibility for the attack.
Sources said that while one suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance, three ISIS terrorists stormed the shrine in the Shorbazar area Wednesday morning (25 March). Around 150 people were worshipping in the Gurudwara at the time of the attack.
The Afghan security forces rescued around 80 worshippers from the Gurudwara and killed all three terrorists in a day-long gun-battle after which NATO soldiers helped with the clearance operation.
India strongly condemned the terror attack. In an official statement, the government said, “India stands ready to extend all possible assistance to the affected families of the Hindu and Sikh community of Afghanistan.”
“Such cowardly attacks on the places of religious worship of the minority community, especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic, is reflective of the diabolical mindset of the perpetrators and their backers.
“We commend the brave Afghan security forces for their valourous response to the attack and their exemplary courage and dedication to protecting the Afghan people and secure the country. India stands in solidarity with the people, the government and the security forces of Afghanistan in their efforts for bringing peace and security to the country.”
The Shor Bazar area of Kabul was once home to several gurdwaras but they were destroyed during the fighting in the 1980s. Kabul is still home to several thousand Hindus and Sikhs, who because of being the minority community in Afghanistan, have been facing severe discrimination. This has forced many Hindus and Sikhs living in the area to migrate to other countries.
Last year too, ISIS had claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing occurred in August 2019 at a wedding hall in western Kabul, killing at least 63 people and injuring 182 people.
The Coronavirus pandemic has effected people physically as well as mentally all across the globe. While India battles the deadly virus head-on by putting the entire country under 21-day lockdown, some positive effects of minimal human interference could already be felt in many parts of the country, especially Delhi, during the earlier one-day ‘Janta Curfew’ lockdown on Sunday.
In India, several cities otherwise known to record high pollution levels have recorded an improvement in air quality on March 22 (Sunday). Delhi especially, which tops the world in air pollution, recorded the average AQI between March 13 and 22 as 161.4 compared to 190.5 last year. Data from SAFAR suggested that the overall AQI score of Delhi on March 25 stood at a satisfactory level. This year Delhi has had only moderate air quality days during the period but last year there were 4 poor air days.
According to SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research), AQI between the range of 51 and 100 is considered as ‘satisfactory’ or ‘very good‘, 101-200 is ‘moderate‘, 201-300 falls under the category of ‘poor‘. While 300-400 is considered as ‘very poor‘, levels between 401-500 fall under the ‘hazardous‘ category. Delhiites have survived hazardous and very poor category many times in the recent past when pollution hit the city too hard.
It is believed that strict travel restrictions and shutting down of all the non-essential services have brought an enormous decline in the levels of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant emitted generally by motor vehicles, in the city.
Netizens couldn’t stop talking about this development as it is very rare when we see Delhi’s air in the satisfactory range.
China, which is being held responsible for the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak throughout the world is reportedly not allowing the global issue to be discussed in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Many countries want to pass a proposal on the global issue but China is constantly putting obstructions.
While Coronavirus has already claimed thousands of human life across the world, the United Nations have been failing in discussing the epidemic yet because of veto by China. The pandemic that broke out in Wuhan province of China has infected more than 4.3 lakh people around the globe. But the intergovernmental body United nations hasn’t started discussions over this serious problem. Neither the United Nations General Assembly of 193 members, nor the 15 member UN Security Council has discussed the matter yet.
Why hasn’t @UN taken up a discussion on #Coronavirus?Because the UNSC Chair for March is China.The monthly Chair decides the agenda. @ChinaAmbUN says,”there’s no reason to panic at the moment & plan to monitor the situation..COVID-19 currently not on the agenda” @sidhant@WIONews
When Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun was asked questions related to the discussion on COVID-19, he said that it is not on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations Security Council is alleged to be divided on its proposal on the pandemic. China has also objections regarding the terminology of the proposal.
According to reports, China and some other countries are blocking a draft to discuss the pandemic at the UNSC. The draft proposal prepared by Estonia highlights “growing concern about the unprecedented extent of the COVID-19 outbreak in the world, which may constitute a threat to international peace and security.” The draft also calls for “full transparency” over the outbreak, which clearly refers to growing criticism that China is hiding vital details about origin about the Virus, making China uncomfortable over the terminology of the draft. None other US president Donald Trump has been alleging that China is misleading the world on the issue. Non-permanent member South Africa opposed the draft first, and later China and Russia also blocked it, reports say.
Another important aspect here is that China is the President of the UN Security Council for March. The President decides what issues will be discussed in the UNSC. Although the term of President changes every month, as a permanent member China has veto power so it can continue to block the issue to be taken up by UNSC.
The workings of the United Nations, headquartered at New York, has also virtually come to a halt, as the city is worst hit by Wuhan Coronavirus in the US. The meetings of the United Nations are also being conducted through video conferencing.
The G20 countries will be discussing the epidemic on Thursday with a common strategy. After the meeting of SAARC countries through video conferencing, Prime Minister Modi has also suggested the video conference meeting for G20 countries.
Prime Minister Modi announced a 21-day nation-wide lockdown on the 24th of March to halt the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. All the states are strictly complying with the lockdown orders. Police in all states have been asked to be strict with the curfew violators.
Amidst all this, a video has surfaced from the streets of Kolkata in West Bengal where a young girl is seen yelling and abusing a policeman as he tries to prevent cars from plying on the road during the lockdown.
A Twitter user named ‘Mikku’ going by the handle @effucktivehumor had shared a video where a couple of policemen are seen standing on the road intercepting cars passing by, flouting the lockdown orders. Suddenly a girl comes charging at a policeman and spits on his shirt. She yells at him, claiming that she is unwell, and she needs to go to fetch some medicines.
The policeman, initially in a gentle tone tries to explain to her that he wasn’t even talking to her and that he was only questioning the driver of the car. The girl, however, refuses to listen to the cop and raises her voice at him. She addresses the policeman disrespectfully, which, in turn, compels the cop to raise his voice at her. He, in a stern voice, asks her to go back, pointing his finger at her. This further agitates the girl who shouts and tells the cop not to raise fingers at her. “Ungli mat dikhana”, (don’t point fingers at me), said the girl in a high pitched tone.
Here, another boy intervenes and asks the girl to keep calm. He says: “tum patient ho na tum gaadi mein baitho” (aren’t you the patient? sit in the car), but the girl refuses to budge.
Throughout the conversation, the girl keeps referring to the cop as ‘tu’. (While ‘Aap’ in the Hindi language is a more formal word for ‘you’, generally used for elders or strangers, ‘tu’ is a very informal term, often considered derogatory if used for elders or strangers.)
In the video, at so many occasions, the policeman is heard asking the girl to go back, but the girl does not listen. She continues to yell and abuse the cop. She tells him that he does not deserve to wear the police uniform… in turn, the cop tells her that she doesn’t deserve to be a citizen of the country. The bickering continues, until a man intervenes and yells at the girl and asks her to leave.
In the video, other people are seen trying to pacify the girl, saying that the cop is merely performing his duty for the public safety, but the girl refuses to stop and continues the verbal abuse.
India has been put under a 21-day lockdown amidst the coronavirus outbreak. PM Modi in his address yesterday requested every citizen of the country with folded hands to stay where they are. The Prime Minister said that according to health experts, 21 days are essential to break the cycle of transmission of the Coronavirus.
Narendra Modi said that a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ has been drawn at their doorstep and everyone should stay at home for the duration of the lockdown.
So India is officially on lockdown in an attempt to arrest the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. Twenty one days. For what it’s worth, India was already locking down anyway. The Indian Railways had come to a halt. All international flights had been stopped. A day later, all domestic flights were stopped. Inter-state travel was banned. Then, the lockdown was announced in 75 districts. A day before the PM’s announcement, Maharashtra had gone into a complete curfew already.
The Prime Minister has now formalized what was happening. As far as the economic cost goes, the 75 districts locked down the previous day would represent most of the GDP of the country anyway. After all, one interesting feature of the Wuhan Corona virus pandemic is that it is going from the “rich” to the “poor.”
Will the lockdown really be worth it? Honestly, this is impossible to answer. What we do know is that the rate of infection and the death tolls in Western countries were frankly terrifying.
Yesterday, 150 people died in the US. Almost 250 people dead in France. So bad is the situation that the tragedy in places like US and France isn’t even being reported a whole lot. The headlines belong to Italy and Spain, were 600-700 people are dying daily. This may not even be the full death toll. The Spanish Army, now out on the streets, is finding bodies of old people who had been left around to die.
Article from Independent
The worst in humanity has begun to surface. The fear of imminent death is looming and people are doing savage things. In India, we hear that landlords are beginning to turn doctors away from renting homes! There was the video of the poor Indigo employee whose family is being ostracized by her neighborhood. In panic like this, the animal instinct is now baring itself.
In India, while we have seen few deaths so far, the number of infections is beginning to climb at a scary pace. Ten days ago, we would see 10-20 infections a day. Within no time, it rose to 30-50 a day. Now, we are lucky if we can keep it under 100 infections a day. What if this exploded to 1000 a day? Or 10,000 a day? The US is now reporting several thousand cases a day. The same could happen in India.
Luckily, the death toll has stayed very much under control so far. But who knows for how long? After seeing the way the number of infections began increasing, do we really have the appetite to run the experiment and find out?
One thing that we can say for certain is this : Every country which tried to take it easy and thought the crisis would blow over, has paid a terrible price.
Here is the President of France on March 9.
Article from Euronews
And here is the President of France on March 16.
Article from BBC
Well, that escalated quickly.
The British initially said they had a plan. They wanted to go on with their lives, as usual, chasing something called ‘herd immunity.’ This is where they are now.
Article from CNN
In the United States, President Trump initially compared the Wuhan Corona virus to the flu, which kills 37000 Americans every year. But he appears to have changed his mind again.
One thing seems clear. The virus does not spare anyone. It does not care about anyone. If we under-react, the virus could extract a terrible toll. It seems everybody eventually comes around and undertakes extreme measures. The only question is when.
India has gone into lockdown with only 500 or so cases. That makes us one of the nations earliest on the curve, to implement extreme measures. But waiting another week could have been catastrophic.
Of course, the lockdown brought out the usual caravan of Modi haters and their narrow-minded taunts, now all over social media. Why isn’t everything better planned? Why couldn’t India have tested all 1.3 billion people already? Did you hear that Iceland has tested its entire population, all ten of them? Well, maybe not, but you get the picture anyway. And now that 1.3 billion people are under lockdown, where is the plan for doorstep delivery of supplies to hundreds of millions of households.
There are two possible explanations for this. Maybe they are our sincerest well-wishers. Maybe they have sky high expectations from India, now expected to succeed at something where all of Europe and the United States have failed miserably.
Or maybe they are just impatient to see India fail and by extension, Modi. There has been a real thirst and a real curiosity in the West about India. For Indian liberals and their sponsors in the West, it seems catastrophe in India can’t come soon enough. With the lockdown, there is now genuine fear in these liberal circles that India won’t hit the per day 1000+ death toll they have been promising their editors in the West. For backup, they search for opportunity in the terrible economic toll that this lockdown will take. Either way, the more the misery of India, the more they make merry.
We really are on our own here. It does look like nobody wants us to succeed. Which is a disheartening thought, considering that Indian people have never wished harm upon any other nation. But India’s growing might has opened up deep seated insecurities and prejudices both about skin color and non-Abrahamic faiths.
The good news is that our fate is in our own hands now. If the lockdown succeeds, we will make history. Let’s make it happen.
Describing the call by PM Modi for nationwide lockdown as a ‘watershed moment’ in the country’s fight against coronavirus, the scam accused senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has urged people to be ‘foot soldiers’ of PM Modi, whom he described as the ‘commander’ of the fight.
“We should put behind us the debates that took place before March 24 and look upon the nationwide lockdown as the beginning of a new battle in which the people are the foot soldiers and the PM is the Commander. We owe a duty to extend our full support to the Prime Minister and the central and the state governments,” Chidambaram said in a two-page statement.
The former finance minister released his statement on his Twitter account along with providing a 10-point cash transfer plan for people to cope up with the economic crisis that has emerged because of the lockdown. Chidambaram also emphasised the imperative for the government to think and plan not just for 21 days but for some weeks beyond the lockdown period to provide people with money and items of daily needs.
Chidambaram asked the government to double the amount payable/paid under PM-Kisan Yojna to Rs 12000 and transfer the amount in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries immediately to allay concerns of cashlessness among the farmers. He also exhorted the government to include the tenant farmers under the purview of PM-Kisan Yojana and transfer the Rs 12000 amount to them as well.
“Take the lists of registered MGNREGA workers and transfer a sum of Rs 3000 into the bank account of each beneficiary. There will be some duplication despite the de-duplication efforts made by seeding Aadhaar in these accounts. There will be cases where a beneficiary received double payment. There will be some mistakes. Doesn’t matter. Even for allowing 15 per cent of ‘wrong payments’, it is worth doing these cash transfers,” the UPA-era finance minister said.
Furthermore, for the urban poor, he proposed that the government transfer ₹6,000 to Jan Dhan accounts including the no-frills or zero balance accounts opened before Jan Dhan accounts and offer 10 kg of free rice or wheat through public distribution shops to every ration cardholder.
Chidamabaram also suggested the government to ask registered employers to maintain current levels of employment and wages while granting a guarantee to the employers that the government will reimburse the amount paid to the employers within 30 days.
“Open a register in every ward or block and invite persons who have not received payment under any of the categories listed above to register their name, address and Aadhaar. Street people and destitute will fall under this category. After minimal verification, open a bank account in each name [if there is not already one], seed it with Aadhaar and transfer Rs. 3000 into each bank account,” he said.
In addition to these suggestions, Chidambaram proposed asking banks to defer payment of EMIs until June 30, extend the deadline to pay taxes until June 30 and reduce goods and services tax (GST) on essential commodities.
“Cut GST rates by 5 per cent on all wage goods, essential goods and services, and all goods of mass consumption for the period 1 April to 30 June 2020,” he said.
On the 12th of March, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the Wuhan Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, has a pandemic. The outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China has claimed 18,910 lives and has infected a total of 4,23,493 people worldwide. While the WHO and China were complicit in hiding the severity of this pandemic for well over two months as the virus spread in the entire world, India has managed to mostly contain the spread of Covid-19 with strict measures. Only yesterday, on the 24th of March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a total country-wide lockdown in a bid to control the spread of the virus. While countries across the globe are trying their best to contain the spread, India, with a population of 1.3 Billion, has been relatively successful so far with 512 active cases, 9 deaths, and 40 people cured and discharged.
The pertinent point to note here is that the Wuhan Coronavirus was thrust upon the world and the preparation to deal with this in terms of testing kits, quarantine facilities and what medicines are to be administered are being developed and figured as the world moves forward. In that fight too, India has done remarkably well with relatively limited resources. India became the fifth country in the world to successfully isolate the Covid-19 virus strain that will help in developing vaccines, cures and testing kits. The response time in containment was also lauded by WHO.
As India prepares to fight the long battle against the Wuhan Coronavirus, there are elements that have continued to play petty politics and spread fake news. Recently, a rumour was spread that a Gujarat based firm had become the first and only firm to get the license to develop testing kits for Covid-19. The rumour led to the usual politicking with vested interests alleging that the Gujarat firm was given preferential treatment because the management of the company is “close to politicians”. However, the facts, when seen without the lens of unbridled propaganda, tell a very different tale.
Saket Gokhale, a less-known individual who fancies himself as an activist tweeted a thread where he alleged that he had found evidence of “corruption and favouritism in a pandemic”.
Saket Gokhale alleged that on the 20th March, 18 firms got permission from the government of India to get their testing kits validated by National Institute of Virology. He then says that “Gujarat-based firm CoSara had already received an approval to start manufacturing Covid-19 test kits. This firm is a collaboration between a US-based company & an Ahmedabad-based firm”. In the same tweet, he admits that Co Sara has FDA approval.
Meanwhile, a day earlier on 19th, Gujarat-based firm CoSara had already received an approval to start manufacturing Covid-19 test kits. This firm is a collaboration between a US-based company & an Ahmedabad-based firm.
Gokhale said that some of the 18 firms that were waiting for their kits to get validated said that their kits would be sold for Rs 400 – Rs 500, which would be cheaper than imported ones. It is after these tweets that the ill-informed allegations began.
Gokhale said that “Suddenly, on 21st March, the Health Ministry issued guidelines allowing private labs to conduct Covid-19 tests. The cost of these is capped at a whopping 4500 rupees. These guidelines have one caveat – ONLY testing kits approved by US FDA/European CE can be used. That means ONLY kits manufactured by Ahmedabad-based CoSara can be used for Covid-19 testing. So after allowing 18 firms to test their kits for production, the Modi govt. suddenly changed guidelines to favor ONLY 1 Ahmedabad company (whose testing kit cost is unknown)”.
He ended his allegations by saying “Why is a Gujarat-based firm being provided monopoly on Covid-19 testing kits by suddenly tweaking guidelines overnight? Why are 18 firms who can produce testing kits for very cheap prices being blocked by these sudden new guidelines? I’ve filed an RTI to get more info”.
Essentially, what Gokhale alleged was that on the 20th of March, the Government of India asked Indian companies to get their kits validated which would be cheaper than imported kits. However, on the 21st, the Guidelines issued by ICMR specifically said that only FDA approved kits could be used while on 19th, the Govt had already issued approval to CoSara to ‘start manufacturing Covid-19 test kits’, a company, which is politically connected and has FDA approval. He then alleged that because of these guidelines, ONLY Co-Sara kits would be used and essentially, the Modi government changed the guidelines AFTER giving permission to 18 firms for manufacturing only to favour one company, which Co-Sara.
It is important to note that Saket Gokhale made these allegations on the 23rd of March. The importance of the date will be apparent when we move forward with facts.
As is the nature of activism, the thread focussed on CoSara while ignoring several other developments that had taken place between the 18th of March and 24th of March. It also ignored several established norms that the ICMR will have to follow in the face of Coronavirus pandemic, which the world is dealing with as we go along.
Gokhale’s lie is rather crafty as he has not only lied, but completely missed certain vital facts as well.
On 20th March, 18 firms for permission to get their kits validated?
This is a lie. On the 20th of March 2020, 14 firms got permission to get their test kits validated, not 18. The 14 firms, in fact, included Roche Diagnostics, which is a Swiss firm, along with Indian firms. At least this was reported by the media on the 20th. On the 19th of March, CoSara published a press release that claimed that it had become the “first and only Indian company to receive a license from the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) to manufacture RT-PCR COVID-19 test kits”. In reality, CoSara did not get any special license that they made it out to be. Actually they already have a Coronavirus test kit which is approved FDA in USA, and that’s why their kit does not need any additional validation in India, and can start production right away. They didn’t need any NIV approval, and they were not issued any specific approval.
In fact, ICMR had also responded to Gokhale’s tweet clarifying that “Cosara falls under the US-FDA approved category. Therefore, no special approval was given”.
Indian Kits, those evaluated & giving 100% concordance have been recommended. List is available at ICMR website. In addition, US-FDA & EU CE certified kits are also allowed for COVID-19 testing. Cosara falls under US-FDA approved category. Therefore, no special approval was given
Roche, which was one of the companies that got the permission to test their kits and it was reported by the media that it got the ‘license’ on the 18th, is on record saying, “The test licence accorded to Roche Diagnostics India allows us to import select quantities of the Cobas SARS Cov-2 diagnostic test kits for product performance evaluation. Following successful completion of the evaluation, a decision from the authorities will enable us to commercialise the kits in India”.
Essentially, it is here itself that Gokhale’s entire lie comes crashing down, however, there are certain other truths that should be explained.
So where did the number 18 come from?
We could not find any media which says that 18 firms were waiting for results of their kits, all media reports said there were 14 firms. 18 was the number of private lab chains that got permission to conduct the Covid-19 tests as on 21st March. That some of them were developing their kits individually is a separate matter. Essentially, these 18 labs were given permission to conduct tests and send their results to the government. That some of these 18 firms were waiting for approval to make their kits available commercially, becomes a separate matter altogether.
By now the number of private laboratory chains approved for Wuhan Coronavirus has gone up to 22.
For example, Trivitron Healthcare is the first Indian private diagnostic firm to receive approval to conduct Covid-19 tests.
The chairman and managing director said the kits which will be manufactured indigenously will have a turnaround time (period between the test being conducted and receiving the report) of four to six hours.
“Depending on the PCR platform (the gold- standard testing platform for viruses), a lab can turn around 100 tests to 1,000 tests per day. We have a production capacity to conduct 5,00,000 to 7,00,000 tests per day in our Chennai facility if we operate in three shifts,” added Velu.
The kit validation is happening at NIV Pune.
The kits developed by the firms are planned to be sold to private diagnostic chains such as Dr Lal Path Labs, SRL Diagnostics and Metropolis Healthcare, among others. This was reported by News 18 on the 21st of March 2020.
Explanation
Essentially, India has been giving license to molecular diagnostic companies to simply get their Covid-19 test kits validated from the NIV (National Institute of Virology). First, the company has to show that its test kits work with no variance, then they receive approval for those tests. It is only after that they receive a license to sell their test kits to diagnostic laboratories.
21st March – Here is why ICMR said only FDA approved test kits could be used
On the 21st March, the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) issued a notice where one of the clauses read that Commercial kits for real-time PCR based diagnosis for Covid-19 should be US FDA approved or European CE certified.
ICMR notification about Covid-19
This circular was turned into a “scam” by Gokhale. But the fact is that, as on 21st March, the ICMR had insisted on USA FDA or European CE certification test kits for the 16 approved labs because till then, the Indian kits had not been validated and the validation results were not out. Contrary to what Gokhale might think, the validation process for PCR tests kits takes substantial time. As there were no kits validated by ICMR NIV, the only option was to start with manufacturing kits which were already validated by FDA or European CE, as these standards are considered reliable worldwide due to their stringent validation tests.
That Saket Gokhale completely lied and said that the 21st March circular would make ONLY CoSara eligible is again a lie. Any company with kits American or European validations can make kits. Either way, ICMR mentioned that their guidelines continue to change and it is evident that this requirement was imposed because Indian test kits had not gone through the process of validation yet and the results were awaited.
The 23rd of March – When Gokhale tweeted his lies, India approved two Indian test kits
If one recalls, the article had mentioned earlier that the fact that Gokhale had spread his lies on the 23rd of March should be kept in mind. Interestingly, it is on the 23rd of March 2020 that the ICMR released the validation results of 9 testing kits for Covid-19. Of the 9 test kits that were sent for the process of validation, 2 kits were approved for use in Government and Private labs because these kits were found to have 100% concordance among true positive and true negative samples.
In a press conference on 23rd March, Director General of ICMR, Balram Bhargava had categorically said that FDA or CE approval is not mandatory for test kits, and kits approved by ICMR NIV will also be allowed. He had also informed that the validation process of kits by NIV was being fast-tracked. This makes it clear that the condition of requiring FDA/CE validation for kits mentioned in the notification dated 21 was modified and now kits validated by NIV also can be produced.
The names of the two companies whose kits were approved were:
Altono Diagnostics (German)
My Lab (Indian)
Other than these two, other FDA / Euro CE approved kits could also be used.
On the 23rd, it was also reported that India had waived off the need for Drug Controller General of India’s approval for COVID-19 testing kits that are developed locally. The two companies whose diagnostic test kits had been validated by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s National Institute of Virology began supplies on 23rd, government officials had informed at the press conference.
24th March – One more kit gets approved
On the 24th March, ICMR released a list of 14 kits that were tested for commercial use. It said that test kits with 100% concordance among true positive and true negative samples will be approved for commercial use in India
Other than Altono Diagnostics and My Lab that were approved on the 23rd, another kit, made by Seegene, was found to have 100% concordance and was thus approved by ICMR for commercial use.
The other companies whose test kits were tested were BGI, Krishgen Bio System, ABI, HIMEDIA, Huwel, IIT Delhi, Kilpest, Genesig and Roche. 3 kits of Roche were tested, but none of them produced 100% concordance.
This means that these three companies can now supply their kits. And as CoSara already has US FDA approval, they can manufacture the kits under that certification as per ICMR rules, but no specific permission was issued to the company as claimed by the company and others on social media. It means that any company having kits validated by FDA and EU CE can make kits in India without needing any separate approval, apart from companies which have kits validated by ICMR NIV.
In conclusion, as there were no company with kits validated by ICMR, only kits certified by American and European authorities were allowed to make their kits in India. But once the results of Indian validation tests started coming out, the kits that showed 100% concordance also got permission for manufacture.
It is thus evident that while Saket Gokhale gets ample traction on Social Media from folks who either don’t understand or don’t follow the developments closely, his assertions are based on selective facts and whole lies. It is evident from the chronology of events that there was no favouritism or corruption in the process. Perhaps it would bode well for people to remember that in the time of pandemic, spreading fake news can land one in jail for up to 6 months.
‘Tat Tvam Asi Swayamsevaka’ Translation: That thou art, Swayamasevak
These are the words of P.P Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar or our beloved Doctorji had said and these are the words that guide me daily. Everybody who has been a part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) believes the same. We are all wholly and purely a Swayamsevak. That is what defines and guides us in everything that we do. That is what defines our whole existence.
According to the Hindu calendar, today is the Janmatithi of P.P. Doctorji, the creator of the RSS way back in 1925. It all started with a small idea. He just wanted the neighbourhood boys to come together every day for an hour in a uniform. He just asked them to sing patriotic songs, do some physical exercises and play kabaddi. There was no membership or attendance. He did not even have any infrastructure, just an open playground. He felt that this will instil patriotism in the boys who would then be able to lead the country in all sectors. People laughed at his idea then. But these young guys networked among each other and then branched out to spread this mission far and wide. Today, RSS is the largest voluntary organization in the world and all its members are still committed to serving the country in whichever way possible.
What amazes me today is how well he understood the nuances of the problems that plague our society and how simple were his solutions to tackle these problems. The problem of caste had torn apart our community for ages. He knew that the only way he could unite the Hindus was if he could eradicate caste from it. No, he did not go about preaching against caste. He came up with a very simple solution. Everybody who attends Shakha should wear the same uniform and do everything in the Shakha together. Through the uniforms, the bands and the drills he instilled a feeling of equality and unity in the youth. This made them realize that only if they are together in this can they overcome any challenges that come their way.
There
is an incident about Doctorji I was told at the Sangh that I still remember
vividly. Once Dr. Ambedkar has said that he was born a Hindu, but he won’t die
a Hindu. Doctorji did not ridicule or rebuke him because he understood the
ordeal Dr. Ambedkar went through to say those words. So, he invited him over to
the Sangh to address the members. When Dr. Ambedkar visited, he asked Doctorji
where the scheduled caste people were. Doctorji replied that in a Shakha, there
are no touchables or untouchables, there are only Hindus! Dr. Ambedkar then
realized that the Shakha was an absolutely equal place with no caste
consciousness. That was the brilliance of Doctorji!
There
is another incident that was told to me about Doctorji which requires a special
mention in today’s times. Once when he came across an area, he saw a colony
named “Hindu Colony”. He then remarked that why do Hindus have a colony named
after them when this entire nation belongs to them? He helped us see the Hindus
beyond a community and as a nation. So, whenever we make petty demands for
immediate gratification, we all need to take a step back and understand that we
need to build a nation together. We cannot just remain happy with small gifts
and tokens. The journey that was started by Doctorji has still a long way to go
and we shouldn’t stop till it is finished.
The
small idea of Doctorji has now spread across many organizations like Vigyan
Bharathi, Seva Bharathi, Vidya Bharathi, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad,
and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. They are now one of the biggest organizations
in their respective fields. India, to date, has just two non-Congress Prime
Ministers who lasted full terms, and both of them had started their journey as
Swayamsevaks. This is all a result of Doctorji’s vision. Today, on his
Janmatithi, I pay my humble respects to this brilliant leader and visionary
whose writings and stories have made me what I am today.
