The pandemic "is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country" but the government "has no plan to defeat it. PM is silent. He has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic," Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
(A worker pours water on newly planted flowers at a burial site for Covid-19 victims at Keputih cemetery in Surabaya, East Java, Photo: Juni Kriswanto/AFP) ..as published in UCAN
The Covid-19 pandemic turned into a multidimensional crisis for India when it began to add nearly 40,000 cases daily by mid-July.
The crisis has forced its 1.3 billion people to face the challenges of malnutrition, limitations in the healthcare system, political infighting, irrational decisions, joblessness and economic depression.
According to official figures, India reported 45,700 new cases on July 23, its highest daily spike. Of some 1.2 million people infected, some 30,000 have died and more than 800,000 have recovered. But with thousands of new cases being added daily, the situation is turning grave.
The pandemic poses a threat to the future of 600 million children in South Asia, and the crisis could push an additional 120 million children in the region — the bulk of them from India — into poverty, according to a UNICEF report.
Infections have spread across Indian villages with hardly any modern medical equipment, and health experts are predicting the death rates to spike in the weeks and months to come.
India now holds the third-highest number of cases after the US and Brazil, but India has had relatively low death rates, giving some consolation to the government.
While deaths per million are 445 in the US and 396 in Brazil, the figure is only 22 in India. Globally, the death rate is 87 per million, according to data site worldometers.info
India's Health Ministry said "the recovery rates have crossed 63 percent spread across 19 states and provinces."
However, panic is spreading to several states and cities, with governments considering plans to introduce total or partial lockdowns to help save lives.
In northeast India, Manipur state announced a total lockdown for 14 days from July 23. Several southern states where cases are multiplying have hundreds of containment zones that are entirely under lockdown.
India's commercial capital Mumbai, where more than 10,000 new cases began to be added daily in mid-July, is facing a near-collapse of its administrative and healthcare systems.
Patients complain of lack of space in hospitals and the non-availability of ambulances or vehicles to transport critical patients in the city. Health staff complain of overwork and lack of rest, protection kits and adequate compensation.
Lack of organization results in dead bodies getting mixed up, while relatives complain of missing bodies of their dear ones.
The situation is not much different in cities like New Delhi and Chennai.
In the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, rainwater flooded inside a hospital treating Covid-19 patients. Water flowed under beds as patients lay in helpless conditions.
India's economy was already in the doldrums when the pandemic began to bite. And the economic disruption because of the nationwide lockdown nearly devastated industry and the job market.
A study by the State Bank of India estimated a contraction of over 40 percent in GDP in the April-June quarter. The overall recession during the Covid-19 pandemic has been the worst since Indian independence in 1947, studies show.
Since India began its lockdown on March 25, at least 140 million people have lost their jobs. More than 45 percent of households across India reported an income drop as India began the "unlocking" process on June 1.
Although the lockdown was lifted, restrictions continue in all public activities. Indians have practically no social life as gatherings and eating out in restaurants have been banned across the country for almost four months.
Some social observers like Assam-based Geeta Borah wonder why a populous democratic country like India has struggled when smaller autocratic nations such as Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam have fared better.
"Covid19 needs studies on several fronts," she said. "Coronavirus has hit hard in countries with temperate climates where malaria is practically non-existent. But in Southeast Asia and subtropical regions where malaria is endemic, the impact was less."
In rural India and at a global level, societies or states with a strong government apparatus and effective political and social leadership have been impressive in tackling the pandemic, she noted
She could not see any fixed pattern. In some cases, democracies have done well with people's participation. But in other instances, autocracies have done well, she said.
As India struggles, the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim the country has successfully fought the war against Covid-19.
"The world is seeing that if a successful battle has been fought anywhere across the globe against the coronavirus, it is India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said Home
Minister Amit Shah, a close confidant of Modi.
He said given India's large population of more than a billion, "many had feared how a large country like India would face this challenge … but we have proved the prophets of doom wrong," he said.
Not many opposition leaders will agree.
Last month Congress leader Rahul Gandhi flayed Modi and said: "The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance."
The pandemic "is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country" but the government "has no plan to defeat it. PM is silent. He has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic," Gandhi tweeted.
Modi pushes controversial temple to center stage of Indian politics
....faces criticism for promoting construction of a Ram temple amid a pandemic and falling economy
(July 22, 2020)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to visit a controversial temple site in a move that could boost his party's idea of making India a Hindu-only nation.
Modi, known for his hardline politics, is expected to participate in the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the temple in northern India's Ayodhya town, considered the birthplace of Hindu lord Ram.
A centuries-old dispute over a temple-mosque structure in Ayodhya was aggravated in 1992 when Hindu zealots demolished the structure. It triggered nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots, killing at least 2,000 people.
Modi's pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to the political mainstream by demanding demolition of the 16th-century mosque built by Muslim ruler Babur. They claimed Muslims built the mosque after demolishing a temple and campaigned to destroy it and build a new Hindu temple at the site.
The temple construction was part of the BJP's election promises but was delayed because of court cases over land ownership. In November 2019, India's Supreme Court ruled in favour of a Ram temple.
The judges upheld Hindu petitioners' claims to the ownership of the land of less than three acres. It also ordered the land to be owned by a trust overseen by the federal government.
Modi is all set to join the foundation stone-laying ceremony at 12.15pm on Aug. 5 to start the temple construction, according to senior Hindu priest Mahant Kamal Nayan Das of the Temple Trust.
"Timings for the foundation-laying ceremony for the prime minister have been decided according to the Hindu calendar and the most auspicious time," he said.
On Aug. 5 last year, the Modi government abolished a clause in the Indian constitution, taking away the semi-autonomous status given to Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, neighboring Pakistan.
The action was also part of the BJP's poll pledges just like the temple in Ayodhya — the two top agendas of the BJP since its inception in 1980.
Hindu groups, led by their fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have been making these demands since India's independence after a bloody partition that led to the division of India as Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Modi's proposed visit to the stone-laying ceremony of the Ram temple has explicit political ramifications and is opposed by the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Maharashtra-based Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Sharad Pawar, NCP chief and a former defense minister, triggered a row when he said that "the government needs to pay attention to the economy" in an effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic rather than temple construction. He said the Modi government needs to decide what needs to be given attention and importance.
Communist leader D. Raja opposed Modi's plan on the ethics of governance. "Our constitution clarifies that the prime minister and the government should be neutral towards all religions. PM Modi's visit to Ayodhya is an ill-advised move. He cannot identify himself with a particular religion," Raja said.
The scheduled visit will be Modi's first visit to the temple site in the six years after he assumed charge of governance on May 26, 2014.
However, Congress and other opposition parties have so far remained silent on the temple construction itself. They know that opposing the temple after a favorable judgment from the Supreme Court would be problematic.
The principal opposition Congress party — led by Italy-born Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi — has also been silent on the proposed construction of a Ram temple and Modi's visit to the spot.
Congress is facing a dilemma after often being described as an "anti-Hindu party." Hindu groups accuse it of projecting a secular image by largely depending on Hindu votes and appeasing Muslims.
Congress leaders deny this, but the party has suffered a drubbing in consecutive national polls in 2014 and 2019.
"We are not anti-Hindu. The BJP and their spin masters have tried to push a line, and they seem to have taken custody of Lord Ram. Frankly speaking, Ram belongs to the entire country and Indian civilization as a moral guide," said Ilyas Quereshi, a Congress leader in Ahmedabad.
"The Indian economy is in the doldrums. The country is in a war with China over boundary disputes. The Covid-19 figures have jumped to over one million. More than 27,497 people are dead, but this government's priorities are different."
BJP leaders say that opposing the temple construction on the pretext of the economy and pandemic amounts to insulting Hindus.
"Stop treating Hindus as second-rate citizens," BJP spokesman Gaurav Bhatia said, directing his anguish towards opposition parties.Another BJP leader, Subramanian Swamy, has said that the battle against the coronavirus and temple construction should not be mixed.
"It is a ridiculous argument ... you cannot compare two alternatives which are not equal. We can have both; we can fight Covid-19 as well as inaugurate the Ram temple," he said.
But those who study Indian political history know that the BJP's politics remain intertwined with the Ayodhya temple and its pro-Hindu ideology.
"Today's elections require two things: a popular face and emotive issues. Ideologies may not matter much. The BJP has Narendra Modi, and pursuing temple politics actually attracts millions of Hindu voters," Tushar Bhadra, a political observer based in Modi's constituency of Varanasi, told UCA News.
"On the other hand, the Congress party and other opposition parties are stuck in the 1970s with no plans and issues at hand."
Politically, Modi's temple move should be seen as a long-term strategy for national elections due in 2024.
Muslims clerics arrested for violating lockdown can leave India
(July 17, 2020)
Plea bargain sees court let Muslim conference attendees return home after being blamed for spreading Covid-19 in the country
A New Delhi court has allowed an unspecified number of overseas Muslim clerics to go home, four months after they were arrested on charges of violating the Covis-19 lockdown rules and attending the controversial Tablighi meet in the Indian capital.
Police arrested some 2,000 visitors, including citizens of Djibouti, Mali, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, holding them responsible for the spread of coronavirus in the country.
"The Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate has fined a number of Tablibghis and asked them to leave the country," Anurag Srivastava, a spokesperson of India's External Affairs Ministry, told reporters on July 16.
He said that "a number of foreign nationals" who were arrested for "indulging in Tablighi activities on tourist visas had filed applications for a plea bargain and the courts have considered their cases.
They can now walk free on payment of a fine of 5,000 Indian rupees (some US$70), he said.
Thousands of Muslims — anywhere between 2,000 and 8,000 from 21 foreign countries — attended the March 13-15 annual conference of Tablighi Jamaat, a noted missionary group.
It was alleged that the foreigners participated in the religious congregation in violation of Indian laws after they arrived in India on tourist visas.
The Muslim congregation also allegedly contributed in the spread of coronavirus in Delhi, and various parts of the country moved around without following any Covid-19 protocols or other necessary precautions.
At least 10 people linked with the gathering died of Covid-19 within the first few days of the Muslim conference beginning. One of them was from the Philippines.
Over the past three days, the court granted bail to some people, mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia.
However, several foreign nationals will still be tried.
A Delhi court on July 16 also allowed 22 Nepali citizens to walk free on payment of the fine after they pled guilty under the plea bargain process.
The opposition Congress party has criticized government actions. It accused the government-run by pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of acting with "malafide intention" to present Muslims in a "poor light."
"It was dirty politics. The BJP used even the pandemic and a global challenge to humanity to push their anti-Muslim line," lamented Ahmedabad-based congress leader Ilyas Quereshi.
The Delhi Police submitted a charge sheet on 47 points against the Tablighi Jamaat members for violating the rules in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, sources said.
Under the plea bargaining process, the accused have admitted the charges in exchange for a less severe punishment.
On March 26, there were still some 1,200 people camped in a building called the Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz where authorities suspected the disease may have been spread.
Tablighi leaders justified the cramped community living by saying the Covid-19 lockdown, started on March 24 night, had left them with no choice as there was no transport available for them to leave.
Last month India blacklisted 2,500 foreign nationals for violating visa norms and attending the controversial Tablighi Jamaat conference. They are from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and France.
EU wants Indian court to tackle discriminative law
Bloc reiterates concern over 'discriminatory' act but leaves issue to country's Supreme Court to rule on
(July 16, 2020)
The European Union has once again expressed concerns over a controversial citizenship law in India that allegedly discriminates against Muslims, but said it had faith the country's top court would address them.
At a virtual summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 15, European Union leaders expressed concern that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed last December "contradicted" India’s own Constitution, which guarantees the right to equality for every person.
"I would like to say that we trust Indian institutions. We understand the Supreme Court will have a role to play to assess this legislation,” said Charles Michel, president of the European Council, at a virtual press briefing (from Brussels) after the India-EU Virtual Summit 2020.
"You know that in the European Parliament this was an important topic, and we raised this issue in our talks,” he said referring to the new law.
The controversial law passed in a parliament dominated by Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), triggered nationwide protests and also sharp criticism from government detractors.
The law aims to provide citizenship to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before Dec. 31, 2014. But it restricts eligibility to people belonging to six religious groups — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — and excludes Muslims.
An official of India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that the issue was brought up by the EU during the virtual summit.
Indian authorities feel the EU leaders are also attempting to strike a balance on the issue by "expressing their faith" in Indian institutions (the Supreme Court in this case) to address the grievances.
However, the Indian government has insisted the citizenship law is not discriminatory.
BJP leaders and government officials maintain that the aim of the CAA is to ensure that citizenship is granted to "persecuted religious minorities, including Christians and Hindus" coming from the three neighboring countries.
Socialist leader Dharmendra Yadav agreed with the EU criticism.
"The European Union has done its homework, the law not only discriminates against Muslims from the three countries, it specifically excludes Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar,” he told UCA News.
Such a law violates international norms as Amnesty International and the United Nations have described Rohingyas as the world’s most persecuted minority, he said.
Critics say the law shows the BJP’s historical animosity toward Muslims and their support for the ideology of making India a Hindu-only nation. The law has prompted detractors of the BJP both in India and abroad to speak out.
Shishir Adhikari, Trinamool Congress party leader in West Bengal says the purpose of the law was to “provide legitimacy to the idea of religious persecution” in neighboring nations and help religious minorities.
“But whether its a goof-up or deliberate, the term religious persecution is not included in the final text of the bill. Why?" he asked.
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| Blogger at Guwahati Airport |
The scandal of India’s Covid-19 crisis
Dead bodies getting mixed up, relatives running from pillar to post and racial discrimination plague handling of the coronavirus
July 13
India's handling of the coronavirus crisis is scandalous in more ways than one. So are the woes of the common people, Covid-19 patients and their relatives.
The premier All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) based in Delhi recently mixed up two bodies — sending the body of a Muslim woman to a Hindu family and vice versa.
As the blunder sparked an uproar, AIIMS has sacked one staff at the mortuary and suspended another.
In Hyderabad, the family of a nurse had to run from pillar to post to find a burial space after she succumbed due to the contagion.
Scores of others in cities like Mumbai and national capital New Delhi could not ensure the dignity that is reserved for a deceased person.
Congress leader and former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar wrote a letter to the Chief Justice in June that the right to die with dignity is a "fundamental right" for citizens in the world's largest democracy and that should also cover the right to a decent burial and cremation.
He referred to a number of cases in which patients were ill-treated during their last days and once they breathed their last, family members were subjected all kinds of indignity, bureaucratic hassles and were compelled to run from one end of the city to the other either to get bodies or permission to perform the last rites of their nearest and dearest.
According to social worker Maring George, the situation is even worse if the victims are Muslims or tribal people from Northeast with Mongoloid features.
"How much the Chinese are responsible for Covid-19 is yet to be established but just because some of us look like them with Mongoloid faces and small eyes, our people are facing the worst kind of discrimination," said George, who was tending to patients and their relatives from the Northeast in a Delhi hospital.
Similar to these cases, he cited the instance of a major goof-up in Thane near Mumbai where the body of a 73-year-old coronavirus victim was handed over to another family whose patient was ironically treated for coronavirus in the newly set up Global Hub Corona Hospital in Thane.
Another relative of a Muslim victim of Covid-19 in Delhi blamed both the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the city government run by the Aam Aadmi Party led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
"The common people are the worst victims in the present set up. At one point we presumed the government neglected the poor and planned nothing for migrant workers during the lockdown. But it seems the authorities did not do anything in general for Covid-19 patients and their relatives," complained Afroz Ali.
Ali lost his uncle to the virus last month and faced many obstacles getting the body and permission for last rites. "Thankfully, someone in our family knew a politician and thus we could get things done. Delhi remains an indifferent city as it is always regardless of Covid-19," he says.
Many have provided video footage and displayed their anguish on social network.
"Delhi is a city of discrimination and indifference. We have seen videos from Delhi government-run LNJP hospital and also from the federal government-run hospitals, the scenario is the same," says Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.
Social workers and Congress leaders have also said that quite a few Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals have also gone missing. Worse still, often the bodies could not be accounted for and sometimes videos go viral showing bodies lying on hospital floors.
Both in Delhi and Mumbai and cities like Kolkata and Hyderabad, it has been reported that grieving families have had to wait for hours in long queues in hospitals and later outside crematoriums. In some cases, they are also asked to return later.
"There is an essential cultural problem vis-a-vis religious rites. For Hindus once a soul is gone, the body needs to be disposed of respectfully by family members. But for those who are losing their near and dear ones, now that last journey is a nightmare," complained Shirish Kumar, who lost his father to the contagion and what he terms the "gross failure and negligence" of the health system.
In Mumbai, the wait to dispose off bodies has been pretty long, say social workers and relatives of ill-fated patients.
On average eight to 10 bodies wait outside Shivaji Park electric crematorium, considered a good facility in Mumbai with two furnaces. The problem here is the authorities allow the disposal of only 20-24 bodies a day, 10-12 per furnace. But the number of dead bodies in the city has been always more.
There have been reports of about 70 deaths in Mumbai on July 9 evening. However, officials seem to draw satisfaction in the numbers. The fatality rate in Mumbai stood at 4.19 percent on July 9 with a recovery rate of 55 percent, they say.
Similarly in capital Delhi, the situation looks grim.
Delhi on July 9 recorded 2,187 fresh coronavirus cases with 3,258 deaths. But the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients living in home isolation in the capital has also increased, reports say.
On July 12, India reported the highest single-day spike of 28,600 with 23,174 deaths
It is not that authorities who can make all the difference are not seized of the matter. Last month during a hearing in the Supreme Court, the bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan remarked: “Covid-19 patients are treated worse than animals. In one case, a dead body was found in garbage."
But has something substantial moved since then is the question.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has hinted that the "real reasons" for casualties of Covid-19 patients ought to be found at the earliest.
The first Covid-19 death was reported in Delhi on March 14 – long before the national lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Modi. But within a month, the total number of fatalities in Delhi had increased to 1,000.
The figures jumped to 2,000 in next eight days and the total death toll stood at 2,035 on June 19. By July 8, the death toll due to the pandemic in Delhi was 3,165.
Are some of these deaths happening due to negligence and indifference at hospitals?
As of now, officials are tight lipped and thus a proper examination of the factors those led to deaths in Delhi has been ordered.
In July alone Delhi has seen 397 people succumbing to Covid-19 and there were over 800 coronavirus fatalities within the last fortnight.
(Young fans hold a poster of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan while a Hindu priest (unseen) performs special rituals and prayers for his recovery as he tested positive for Covid-19, at a Hindu temple in Kolkata on July 12. AFP/UCAN)
Modi government's TikTok with anti-China feeling in India
Banning Chinese mobile phone apps will strengthen the populist PM's strongman image
July 2, 2020
The continuing India-China border face-off took a strange and unprecedented turn this week when India banned 59 Chinese social media and web applications, some having millions of Indian users.
India, engaged in a bitter border row with its neighbor in the Himalayan ranges, said the applications were "prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order."
The June 29 knee-jerk reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration came after India lost 20 soldiers in a border clash on June 15. The government was under pressure to act swiftly and show its grit in the face of China's aggression.
Banning popular applications among the people can quickly and fluently tell millions that the government acted firmly. It adds to Modi's "strong leader" image and can garner popular support for him.
Most banned applications are those used by ordinary people. One of them, for example, is TikTok, an app with some two billion users worldwide. Some 30 percent of its users — 600 million — are in India. Other platforms such as Bigo Live and Helo are also popular.
The ban on TikTok alone has helped reach more than half of adult Indians, who, in their sacrifice, could feel part of a national action against China's military assault. That was a novel way for India's government to brandish its well-known muscular and populist characteristics.
Social activist Bishnu Bhattacharya says PM Modi knows only too well the art of staying populist and understanding the general sentiment of the common people on the streets.
"The calls to boycott Chinese products have been trending on social media platforms since June 16, once the news broke that 20 Indian soldiers were killed on the border," he told UCA News.
"The new ban order is not only sweeping. It is an indirect push against China, giving it a broad warning, and sends ominous signals for Chinese business houses doing business in India ... It's a good pressure tactic on China."
His views were echoed by a spokesman for an influential small business traders' body. Avinash Gupta, a member of the Confederation of All India Traders, a lobby of 70 million traders, said it has decided to step up its nationwide movement against the boycott of Chinese goods.
The government has announced that the decision was taken after receiving "many complaints from various sources" about apps that were "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorized manner."
The allegation that Chinese apps were stealing data was also made by opposition leaders like Shashi Tharoor of the Congress party in the past. In fact, TikTok was banned by Madras High Court last year but allowed to function again after the order was lifted.
Meanwhile, TikTok India has denied that it violated any national law. "Tik Tok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information of our users," TikTok India head Nikhil Gandhi said in a statement on June 30.
Gandhi said the application "democratised the internet by making it available in 14 Indian languages" with hundreds of millions of users, artists, storytellers and educators "depending on TikTok for their livelihood."
The Indian market used to be flooded with Chinese products and doing business with these items made economic sense. They also provided jobs to thousands of Indians across various ranges. In fact, the government order naming as many as 59 apps shows the popularity of China-supported origin web platforms in India.
"Hundreds of Indians were dependent on these applications as their only source of income. These have Indian creators, while many of these platforms have offices and employees in India. What happens to them and how they respond remains to be seen?" said an opposition socialist leader who did not want to be named.
Other opposition leaders, including from the principal opposition Congress party, have welcomed the government move.
"We welcome the decision to ban Chinese apps. In light of the grave intrusion on our territory and the unprovoked attack on our armed forces by the Chinese army, we expect our government to take more substantial and effective measures," senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted.
However, the Indian government says it is giving a befitting reply to the Chinese at the border.
The government's decision to ban as many as 59 apps with opposition parties' support is significant in Indian politics.
In recent weeks, several contracts given to Chinese companies have been canceled even at state level. The Bihar government took one such decision in eastern India. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a coalition partner in Bihar.
Indian Railways announced the termination of a contract given to Chinese firms worth some US$67 million.
But India has been silent about major and not so apparent Chinese investments in Indian industry that are subject to international trade rules and part of agreements involving multinational trade.
For example, as per the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chinese have already invested in about 40 percent of India’s automobile industry and in other sectors like metallurgy and power.
In the mobile phone industry, media reports suggest Chinese brand Xiaomi captured about 30 percent of the Indian smartphone market in 2020. The Chinese have reportedly also invested in at least one third of India’s unicorn companies.
In other words, Chinese investments continue to have a good presence in India, although the companies have Indian ownership and addresses.
But when the flavor of the season in India is nationalism, and jingoism to an extent, the federal government wants to present itself as standing firm against China and denying it business opportunities in India.
